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The Babylon Bee’s List Of Updated Terms For Journalists, Now That Biden Is President

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/the-babylon-bees-list-of-updated-terms-for-journalists-now-that-biden-is-president

The nightmare is over! Now that the evil racist dictator Trump has been removed from office by the power of democracy and a 30,000-man standing army, journalists can now resume their normal routines of napping on the job and writing about ice cream. 

But the last 4 years have taken their toll. Journalists have been using over-the-top hyperbole to heroically remove the president for a long time now. We here at The Babylon Bee want to remind journalists to STOP using the terms you have been using for 4 years, now that a compassionate and wise leader like President Biden is in office!

As a handy guide, here is a list of terms you have likely been using, and what you should replace them with now that our President Biden is here to make everything ok.

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The Digital Police State Is Being Institutionalized Throughout the Western World – PaulCraigRoberts.org

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

Use Cash! No Plastic!

It covers all that is known about an individual citizen, now up to 200 points of in formation and possibly more as time goes on, from your bank account to your shopping habits, health records (vaccination records, of course), your political inclinations, and probably even your dating habits and other entries into your private sphere.

Agenda ID2020 was designed by Bill Gates as part of the “vaccination package”. It is backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, Accenture, the WEF and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, now simply called the Vaccine Alliance), also a Gates creation (2001), with HQ in Geneva, Switzerland.

GAVI is located next door to the WHO. GAVI is called a public private partnership.

The public part being WHO, plus a number of developing countries.

The private partners are, of course a series of pharmaceutical companies, i. e. Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co. … and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/02/04/the-digital-police-state-is-being-institutionalized-throughout-the-western-world/

he Digital Police State Is Being Institutionalized Throughout the Western World 

This report sounds like science fiction, but it comes from a credentialed source and is posted on a respected website.  If correct, the only possible conclusion is that a police state is being institutionalized throughout the Western world and perhaps all of the world.  If correct, the report certainly validates my conclusion that the digital revolution is the worst disaster ever to befall humanity, and it validates my conclusion that no Western government represents the people. PCR

Implanted “Vaccine Package” ID: Germany’s Parliament Has Ratified GAVI’s Digital “Agenda ID2020”

By Peter Koenig, Global Research

Implanted “Vaccine Package” ID: Germany’s Parliament Has Ratified GAVI’s Digital “Agenda ID2020”

Introduction and background by Global Research:

Alarming News. In Germany the Parliament (Bundestag) ratified on 29 January 2021, the implementation of Agenda ID2020.

This is a centralized general electronic data collection of every citizen to which every government agency, police – and possibly also the private sector would have access.

It covers all that is known about an individual citizen, now up to 200 points of in formation and possibly more as time goes on, from your bank account to your shopping habits, health records (vaccination records, of course), your political inclinations, and probably even your dating habits and other entries into your private sphere.

Agenda ID2020 was designed by Bill Gates as part of the “vaccination package”. It is backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, Accenture, the WEF and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, now simply called the Vaccine Alliance), also a Gates creation (2001), with HQ in Geneva, Switzerland.

GAVI is located next door to the WHO. GAVI is called a public private partnership.

The public part being WHO, plus a number of developing countries.

The private partners are, of course a series of pharmaceutical companies, i. e. Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co. … and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The German extra-governmental Corona Commission, consisting of hundreds of medical doctors, virologists, immunologists, university professors – and lawyers, including Dr. Reiner Füllmich, co-founder of the Commission, has special concerns that the current Corona-Vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna), may include nano-particles that could be accessible to electro-magnetic radiation, i. e. 5G and the subsequent 6G.

This is precisely what was foreseen in the design of Agenda ID2020, in which Bill Gates and GAVI had a major role, and in which case the ID2020 might be vaccine-implanted and be remote-accessible by EM-geared computers, robots or algorithms (see, in German “Wirkungsweise und Gefahren der aktuellen Corona-Impfungen in Deutschland mittels mit Nanopartikeln umhüllter mRNA-Impfstoffe – Corona Ausschuss Germany 37th Conference” (31 January 2021). 

The adoption of Agenda ID2020 still has to be approved by the German Federal Council, but there is little chance the Council will reject it.

Agenda 2020 in Switzerland

Similarly, in Switzerland, Agenda ID2020 – an all-electronic ID – linking everything to everything of each individual citizen will come to a popular vote on 7 March 2021.

And that’s not all, the Swiss government wants to outsource management of Agenda ID 2020 to the private sector — unbelievable!!! – You imagine a bank or insurance company dealing (and selling) your data!!!! — Just imagine what will happen with your personal information – unthinkable.

In the longer-run – who knows how long – as foreseen by Bill Gates, the properties for an electronic ID – i. e. an electromagnetic field (EMF) – will be implanted in your body, either along with a vaccine – maybe it’s already happening with the covid jabs, or separately in the form of injectable nano-chips.

Early trials were carried out mid-last year in school classes of remote villages in Bangladesh.

With the complacent Swiss being what they are, it is very possible if not likely that the government’s proposal will be accepted on 7 March. Then what?

Is this the beginning of adopting the all-digitized Agenda ID2020 throughout Europe, the world?

Or – maybe other EU countries have already quietly and secretly – no questions asked – envisaged inserting the Agenda ID2020 in their Constitution.

For more details of Agenda ID 2020 – see below.

The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”

By Peter Koenig, April 26, 2020

The Coronavirus Vaccine: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”. Vaccination as a Platform for “Digital Identity”

Once every citizen on the planet – according to Bill Gates – about 7 billion-plus will be ID-chipped, the control of a small globalist elite will be close to total.

With an electromagnetic field and with 5G / 6G EM-waves allowing inputs and access of data in your body – the control of each individual is almost complete. The “almost” refers to the planned access to your brainwaves.

This is supposed to be happening through a Brain Computer Interface (BCI), called Neurolink(https://neuralink.com/) – developed by Elon Musk. (see video)

It presents an interface of electronic waves with the human brain which, by then, will have been converted into an electromagnetic field (EMF), so that it can receive digital commands that will influence our behavior, or can be turned off – RIP – as may be is most convenient for the Global Cabal.

Let’s not let this happen.

Read article: https://www.globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-causes-effects-real-danger-agenda-id2020/5706153 

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he has worked for over 30 years on water and environment around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes:From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

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Historical Lessons in Prosperity vs. Poverty – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

By 1350, Kublai Khan had been dead for decades. But the Yuan dynasty’s economic overseers were still printing paper money like crazy. And it was causing severe hyperinflation across China.

People’s lives were turned upside down by the government’s fiscal irresponsibility, and rebellions broke out across the country.

By 1368, the Yuan dynasty had completely collapsed, and a destitute peasant farmer-turned-monk named Zhu Yuanzhang rose up to become Emperor and found the new Ming Dynasty.

To stimulate the economy ravaged by inflation, the Ming dynasty created an unprecedented level of economic freedom.

Markets and industries were deregulated; the government abandoned its monopoly on salt production, for example, and merchants were encouraged to allow market competition to set prices.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/02/simon-black/historical-lessons-in-prosperity-vs-poverty/

By Simon Black

Sovereign Man

As the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan had a lot to prove.

So he set his eyes on the biggest prize in the known world at the time: southern China.

Kublai Khan completed his conquest of China in 1279, forging a new empire and creating the Yuan dynasty.

The Mongols were known for their expensive habits— they liked war and women especially. So when the money started to run out, administrators in the Yuan dynasty started printing paper money.

Yuan officials weren’t the first to come up with this idea; the government from the prior Song dynasty had also printed paper money. But there was a huge difference—

Paper currency from the Song dynasty, known as guanzi, was backed by copper, silver, and gold coins.

The Yuan currency, however, was backed by nothing. So whenever the government started to run out of money, they simply printed more.

By 1350, Kublai Khan had been dead for decades. But the Yuan dynasty’s economic overseers were still printing paper money like crazy. And it was causing severe hyperinflation across China.

People’s lives were turned upside down by the government’s fiscal irresponsibility, and rebellions broke out across the country.

By 1368, the Yuan dynasty had completely collapsed, and a destitute peasant farmer-turned-monk named Zhu Yuanzhang rose up to become Emperor and found the new Ming Dynasty.

To stimulate the economy ravaged by inflation, the Ming dynasty created an unprecedented level of economic freedom.

Markets and industries were deregulated; the government abandoned its monopoly on salt production, for example, and merchants were encouraged to allow market competition to set prices.

In time, the government stabilized the currency and reintroduced metallic coins. And by the 1500s Ming officials even allowed foreign currencies like the Spanish Silver Dollar to circulate in China.

This proved a much more stable medium of exchange than fiat currency, and the Chinese economy blossomed as a result.

Wealth rose dramatically. China was able to build canals, bridges, expand and fortify the Great Wall into the brick and stone mammoth we know today, and complete numerous other public works projects.

(Incidentally, as we discussed recently, taxing the rich was not the main method of funding this infrastructure. Instead, merchants were praised, and held in high esteem, for their voluntary contributions to the public good.)

And overall China had become one of the wealthiest, most powerful countries in the world.

It’s not hard to see why. Economic freedom. Deregulation. Stable currency. Responsible spending.
We’ve seen these elements over and over again throughout history.

In the 10th century, the city-state of Venice followed a similar model of economic freedom.

At a time when Medieval Europe was choking on the feudal system, Venice was one of the few places where even peasants could strike it rich.

The Venetian government established limited partnerships, enshrined the rule of law, and eventually established the Venetian Gold ducat– a gold coin that quickly became widely accepted around the world for international trade due to its purity and stability.

As a result of such policies, tiny Venice became one of the wealthiest and most powerful economies in Europe.

Centuries later, the Netherlands advanced this model even further, becoming the most capitalist country the world had ever seen up to that point.

The Dutch established the first stock exchange, the first publicly-traded companies (like the Dutch East India Company), and countless other financial innovations ranging from mutual funds to stock options.

The government stepped out of the way and allowed the private sector to flourish. They kept taxes reasonable and the currency stable; in fact the Dutch guilder– a silver coin– became the reserve currency of Europe during the 1700s.

History is full of more examples that show how economic prosperity is actually a pretty simple formula.

All it takes is economic freedom, fiscal responsibility, and a stable currency. This is also how the United States became the wealthiest country in the world.

But the direction that the US and most of the West are taking now is the opposite.

They demonstrate a complete lack of fiscal responsibility. They spend trillions of dollars now like it’s no big deal. $30 trillion in debt– 50% larger than the size of the entire economy– is nothing to them.

The central banks also keep debasing the currency; they ‘printed’ so much money last year that the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet nearly doubled in the span of a few months.

And there are plenty of examples of that throughout history as well.

The Western Roman Empire collapsed as a result of its never-ending corruption, fiscal irresponsibility, and currency debasement.
The French Bourbon Monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire— they all ended as corrupt, bloated, highly-regulated bureaucracies with enormous debts.

Sometimes it helps to just step back and look at the big picture— 5,000 years of human history makes it pretty obvious what elements create prosperity versus poverty.

So when you see your government actively embracing extreme deficits, money printing, nationalization of industries, debilitating taxes, and other Marxist principles, ask yourself– are these the principles of prosperity or poverty?

Again, history is quite instructive.

Remember, though, we’re talking about trends here– the bottom won’t fall out tomorrow morning.

But that makes it even more important to think about the future (and your family’s future). Because your government certainly isn’t thinking about it.

You can’t control what politicians and central bankers are going to do. You can’t control the national outcome. But you can control your own outcome… and your own future prosperity.

If they raise taxes, for example, you can be prepared to take legal steps to reduce what you owe.

If devalue the currency, you can preserve your savings in alternative assets.

If they excessively regulate business, you may consider restructuring in a more advantageous jurisdiction.

This is what a Plan B is all about– ensuring that whatever happens or doesn’t happen next, you’ll always be in a position of strength.

On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years.

Reprinted with permission from Sovereign Man.

The Best of Simon Black Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur, and founder of Sovereign Man. His free daily e-letter Notes from the Field is about using the experiences from his life and travels to help you achieve more freedom, make more money, keep more of it, and protect it all from bankrupt governments.

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How a Secret Obama Directive Brought Chaos to Our World – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

The Top Secret PSD-11 report that the Task Force drew up was partially revealed in a series of legal Freedom of Information Act requests to the State Department. Released official documents revealed that the NSC Task Force had concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood was a “viable movement” for the US Government to support throughout North Africa and the Middle East. A resulting Presidential directive ordered American diplomats to make contacts with top Muslim Brotherhood leaders and gave active support to the organization’s drive for power in key nations like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria, at the 2011 outset of the “Arab Spring.” 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/02/no_author/how-a-secret-obama-directive-brought-chaos-to-our-world-psd11/

By F. William Engdahl
WilliamEngdahl.com

Obama’s PSD-11 and the Muslim Brotherhood

In 2010 the US Administration under President Barack Obama had developed a top secret blueprint for the most ambitious and far-ranging series of US-backed regime change across the Islamic Middle East since World War I and the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot agreement. It was to set off a wave of wars and chaos, of failed states and floods of war refugees unimaginable to the most cynical veteran diplomat, and beyond the belief of most lay persons in the world.

In August, 2010, six months before Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution was launched by the Washington NGOs including the NED, the Soros Foundations, Freedom House and others, President Obama signed Presidential Study Directive-11 (PDS-11), ordering Washington government agencies to prepare for “change.”  The change was to be a radical policy calling for Washington’s backing for the secret fundamentalist Islamic Muslim Brotherhood sect across the Middle East Muslim world, and with it, the unleashing of a reign of terror that would change the entire world.

According to US Congressional testimony of Peter Hoekstra, former Chairman of the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Obama Administration PSD-11 directive–as of March 2017 still classified Top Secret–“ordered a government-wide reassessment of prospects for political reform in the Middle East and of the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in the process. ” [1]

A Grandiose Task Force

To draft the contents of PSD-11, a top secret task force was established within the Obama National Security Council (NSC), headed by Dennis Ross, Samantha Power, Gayle Smith, Ben Rhodes and Michael McFaul. [2]

The PSD-11 Task Force members were remarkable in many regards. Samantha Power, who would go on to become Obama’s UN Ambassador and lead the demonizing of Russia after the CIA’s Ukraine Color Revolution coup in 2014, was to play an instrumental role in convincing President Obama that Libya’s Mohammar Qaddafi must be militarily removed for what she called  “humanitarian reasons.” [3] Dennis Ross, accused by Palestinian opponents of being “more pro-Israeli than the Israelis,” co-founded the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-sponsored Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). He was Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director at the NSC for the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia when he was part of the PSD-11 task force. [4]

Gayle Smith would later go on in 2015 to head the USAID, the CIA-linked State Department agency that funneled US taxpayer millions to finance the NGOs of the Arab Spring and other Color Revolution regime changes.[5] Michael McFaul, who once described himself as a “specialist on democracy, anti-dictator movements, revolutions,” was later named Obama’s Ambassador to Moscow where he coordinated opposition protests against Putin. [6]

Perhaps the most influential of the PSD-11 Task Force members who formulated the top secret Obama Administration radical policy change to back Muslim Brotherhood regime transitions through the Arab Spring, was the one least qualified to make United States Government policy on the Middle East in terms of professional background. His name was Ben Rhodes.

Rhodes’ official title was invented by the Obama White House just for him–Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting. He would write all major Obama foreign policy speeches for seven years, until January, 2017 when Obama left office. He was a mere 32 years old when he joined the fateful PSD-11 NSC Task Force, with academic study that had included a major in English literature and a Masters degree in “creative writing-” Rhodes had no prior diplomatic nor academic experience with the Middle East. Rhodes, who as speechwriter met with President Obama sometimes up to three hours daily, was instrumental among other things in convincing Obama to withdraw support from Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, becoming a key adviser during the 2011 Arab Spring, and then joining with Samantha Power, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others, convincing the President to use military force to topple Libya’s Qaddafi.[7]

The Top Secret PSD-11 report that the Task Force drew up was partially revealed in a series of legal Freedom of Information Act requests to the State Department. Released official documents revealed that the NSC Task Force had concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood was a “viable movement” for the US Government to support throughout North Africa and the Middle East. A resulting Presidential directive ordered American diplomats to make contacts with top Muslim Brotherhood leaders and gave active support to the organization’s drive for power in key nations like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria, at the 2011 outset of the “Arab Spring.” The PDS-11 secret paper came to the bizarre conclusion that the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of political Islam, combined with its fervent nationalism, could lead to “reform and stability.” It was a lie, a lie well known to the Obama PSD-11 Task Force members. [8]

The True Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood or Ikhwan–Arabic for The Brotherhood–is a secret masonic-like organization with a covert  or underground terrorist arm and a public facade of “peaceful doing of charity.” It was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna who developed the cult’s guiding motto. The credo of his Society of Muslim Brothers was incorporated into a chant of six short phrases:

Allah is our goal; The Prophet is our Leader; The Qur’an is our Constitution; Jihad is our Way; Death in the service of Allah is the loftiest of our wishes; Allah is Great, Allah is Great. [9]

Al-Banna created a secret or hidden arm of the Ikhwan in Egypt and later worldwide, known as the Special Section (al-nizam al-khass), or, as it was referred to by the British in Egypt, the Secret Apparatus (al-jihaz al-sirri). That was the military wing of the Brotherhood, in effect, the “assassination bureau.” Al-Banna taught his recruits, exclusively male, that “Jihad is an obligation of every Muslim.” He preached the nobility of “Death in the Service of Allah,” and wrote, Allah grants a “noble life to that nation which knows how to die a noble death.” He preached a death cult in which “Victory can only come with the mastery of the ‘Art of Death.’” For the Brotherhood that “mastery” was perfected in the killing of “infidels” in Jihad or Holy War in the name of Allah. The infidels could be other Muslims such as Shi’ite or Sufi who did not follow Al-Banna’s strict Sunni practice, or Christians. [10]

Hasan Al-Banna called for adoption of the very strict Islamic Shari’a law, the complete segregation of male and female students, with a separate curriculum for girls, a prohibition of dancing, and a call for Islamic states to eventually unify in a Caliphate. [11]

During World War II, leading Muslim Brotherhood figures spent exile from British-controlled Egypt by fleeing to Berlin where, among others, Al Banna’s close Muslim brotherhood ally, Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, worked intimately with the SS and Heinrich Himmler to create special Muslim Brotherhood terror units of the SS, so-called Handschar SS, to kill Soviet soldiers and Jews. In the 1950’s the CIA discovered the Nazi Muslim Brotherhood recruits in exile in postwar Munich and decided they could be “useful.” [12]

Virtually every major Jihadist terrorist organization and leader came out of the Muslim Brotherhood. Osama bin Laden, who worked for the CIA in Pakistan recruiting Jihadist Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, was a Muslim Brotherhood member who was recruited by the CIA and Saudi Intelligence head Prince Turki al-Faisal, to create what came to be called Al Qaeda. Other known terrorist members of the Ikhwan were Al Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and the blind Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman who recently died in a US prison serving time for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Sheikh Omar was accused of conspiring to assassinate Egypt’s Mubarak and masterminding the Muslim Brotherhood assassination of Anwar Sadat in addition to the bombing of the World Trade Center. [13]

The members of the Obama Administration National Security Council PSD-11 Task Force that recommended a US Government embrace of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood in Islamic countries of the Arab Middle East, knew very well who they were dealing with. Since the 1950’s the CIA had worked with the Ikhwan around the world. Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda in Iraq and in Syria, al Nusra Front in Syria, as well as the so-called Islamic State or ISIS all were created out of Muslim Brotherhood networks, changing names as a chameleon lizard changes color to suit its surroundings.

The seeds of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria and later of ISIS or IS, the murderous wars and chaos sweeping across the Arab Middle East and into Western Europe since 2010, could all be directly traced back to those Washington policies, their so-called Arab Spring, coming from that August 2010 PSD-11 Presidential Task Force directive. Now the Obama Administration was to apply their Muslim Brotherhood project in Tunisia in a Color Revolution led by its fake democracy NGO’s.

[1] Peter Hoekstra, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY, September 22, 2016, http://docs.house.gov/meetings/HM/HM09/20160922/105384/HHRG-114-HM09-Wstate-HoekstraP-20160922.pdf.

[2] MEB, The Case of Egypt (2): Six Months of Insider Emails from Obama Administration Show Groundwork for Muslim Brotherhood Power Grabs, Middle East Briefing, June 30, 2014, http://mebriefing.com/?p=84

[3] Wikipedia, Samantha Power, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Power

[4] Wikipedia, Dennis Ross, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ross

[5] Wikipedia, Gayle Smith, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_Smith

[6] Wikipedia, Michael McFaul, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McFaul

[7] Wikipedia, Ben Rhodes,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rhodes_(White_House_staffer); Mark Landler,Worldly at 35, and Shaping Obama’s Voice, The New York Times, March 15, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/world/middleeast/benjamin-rhodes-obamas-voice-helps-shape-policy.html.

[8] MEB, The Case of Egypt (2)…, op. cit.

[9] F. William Engdahl, The Lost Hegemon, mineBooks, Wiesbaden, 2016, pp. 67-71.

[10] Richard P. Miller, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, Oxford University Press, New York, 1969, p. 206-207.

[11] Wikipedia, Muslim Brotherhood, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood#cite_note-Women-38

[12] F. William Engdahl, The Lost Hegemon…, op. cit., pp. 75-85.

[13] Leo Hohmann, Georgetown prof.: ‘Muslim Brotherhood does not exist in US,’ March 5, 2017, http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/georgetown-prof-muslim-brotherhood-does-not-exist-in-u-s/

This originally appeared on  F. William Engdahl Newsletter.

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CDC Sleight of Hand Revealed in Covid-19 Death Rates – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/02/no_author/cdc-sleight-of-hand-revealed-in-covid-19-death-rates/

By Bill Sardi

On March 24, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control fooled all Americans there were more deaths from COVID-19 coronavirus infection by changing the guidelines for determination of co-morbid conditions that contributed to death.

According to a breaking report at GreenMedInfo, this led to a 16.7-fold increase in deaths attributed to COVID-19, or ~425,000 COVID-19 related deaths on January 29, 2021 or 13 deaths over 10,000 Americans.

See the rest here

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Erie Times E-Edition Article-Put the state in the PFAS driver’s seat

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

Two items of which we should take note as we are unlikely to see them again soon:

A left wing publication advocating state’s rights

A hint at who generates much of the nation’s pollution.

https://erietimes-pa-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=1443fb9e3

On the last day of the Donald Trump’s presidency, his Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would create drinking water limits for PFOS and PFOA, two of the toxic PFAS chemicals that have been linked to high cholesterol, immunodeficiencies, ulcerative colitis, reproductive issues and some cancers.

We hope this means that sometime during the Biden years we’ll finally see legal drinking water limits for these harmful substances.

At another time in our nation’s history, this news might have caused quite a stir. But on Jan. 19, 2021, it was mostly overlooked. Much of the nation was reeling from a Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building, preparing to inaugurate President Joe Biden, hoping to finally move past voter fraud lawsuits, and following rollout of a game-changing COVID-19 vaccine.

That the focus was elsewhere on Jan. 19 is emblematic of efforts to address PFAS contamination over the last 12 months, particularly here in Pennsylvania, where it seems like the commonwealth accomplished little worth celebrating in 2020.

And while this news out of Washington seems promising, the last thing Pennsylvania ought to do now is sit back and say ‘Biden’s got this’. We don’t know what the EPA will come up with and these processes have a way of getting dragged out considerably or curtailed altogether.

Instead, we challenge Governor Tom Wolf, his PFAS Action Team and his Department of Environmental Protection to make it clear that it’s PA — and not the EPA — that’s taking the wheel, putting 2020 in the rearview, and driving the conversation on an issue that’s vitally important to tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

These so-called ‘forever chemicals’ were once used widely in non-stick pans, stain-resistant clothing, food packaging, and, importantly, in firefighting foams and in a number of industrial processes. The DEP’s list of PFAS-impacted areas includes the water supplies near Letterkenny Army Depot, Franklin County; Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County; and Tobyhanna Army Depot, Monroe County.

But perhaps the commonwealth’s largest concentration of contaminated groundwater is along the border of Bucks and Montgomery counties, where PFOA and PFOS were detected in the drinking water of what ultimately turned out to be more than 70,000 residents near the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove, the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster and the Horsham Air National Guard Station.

In late 2018, Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order creating a PFAS Action Team which, among other goals, is working to establish a Maximum Contaminant Level for PFAS.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had previously set a ‘health advisory level’ of 70 parts per trillion for both PFOA and PFOS, the substances are still considered unregulated. The advisory is only a guidance and one that’s been criticized as not stringent enough.

The establishment of a drinking water standard would help protect residents and provide leverage to those whose water supplies exceed the limit and are seeking compensation or remediation.

According to the PFAS Action Team, a statewide sampling program is a ‘key component for the development of enforceable regulatory drinking water standards for PFAS.’

Yet that component stalled in 2020. At the outset, the team’s plan was to gather data from at least 360 public water systems located near potential PFAS hotspots. Collection began in June 2019 and the team said it planned to release test results to the public every three months until sampling wrapped up, probably in June 2020. But the team hasn’t published any results since December 2019, and that Dec. 5, 2019 press release is still the most recent item listed in the ‘What’s New’ section of the ‘

PFAS in Pennsylvania ‘ page of the DEP’s website.

‘The COVID-19 pandemic did set back sampling of sites temporarily but we are again collecting and analyzing samples,’ DEP community relations coordinator Virginia Cain said this week in an email.

Cain also noted that the DEP has contracted with Drexel University to study the toxicological impacts on human health.

‘The data will be used to move forward with proposing a Maximum Contaminant Level rulemaking,’ Cain said. ‘DEP is also finalizing cleanup standards for soil contaminated with PFAS chemicals.’

Here’s hoping that Pennsylvania finally gives impacted residents something to raise a glass to by the end of 2021.

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Incitement Is Not a Real Crime | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on February 5, 2021

The first reason is that the impeachment proceedings aren’t a criminal trial, so even conviction wouldn’t establish guilt the way an actual criminal court might. Contrary to what much of the public thinks, and what the media is happy to imply, impeachment is properly understood as strictly a political process that does nothing more than remove a person from office.

In practice, laws against incitement and defamation are very dangerous to basic human rights, and both place nonviolent people in legal jeopardy merely for the “crime” of expressing opinions. These laws are direct attacks on the right to free speech. In the case of Trump and “incitement,” he expressed an opinion about the election and encouraged people to “fight like hell” in a vague, nonspecific way. If this sort of thing is “criminal” then anyone who expresses an opinion that people should “resist” or “fight” against the regime—or even suggest that the regime is illegitimate or worthy of contempt—is likely to find himself on trial any time one of his social media “friends” decides to deface a government building or throw a rock at a cop. 

https://mises.org/wire/incitement-not-real-crime

Ryan McMaken

Former president Donald Trump has been impeached for “incitement to insurrection.” The House Democrats’ claim is that Trump made an inflammatory speech which—a week later—led to the Capitol riot of January 6.

The Senate is now considering whether or not to convict Trump of this “crime.”

I put “crime” in scare quotes for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that the impeachment proceedings aren’t a criminal trial, so even conviction wouldn’t establish guilt the way an actual criminal court might. Contrary to what much of the public thinks, and what the media is happy to imply, impeachment is properly understood as strictly a political process that does nothing more than remove a person from office. 

Moreover, it’s already clear that if Trump were being tried in an actual criminal court, it is extremely unlikely a prosecutor could get a conviction. Trump’s alleged incitement doesn’t meet the legal requirements for such a charge as set out by the US Supreme Court back in 1969. An incitement conviction would require prosecutors to show there was an imminent threat of violence from the inflammatory remarks. Clearly, the Capitol riot, occurring a week later, was not “imminent,” and in a criminal case, it would be nearly impossible to prove this was directly connected to a political speech made days earlier.

The second reason “crime” needs to be in scare quotes is because incitement isn’t a real crime at all. It assumes that the person committing the “incitement” is simply passing down orders to blank-slate automatons who then turn around and do whatever their “leader” says.

In fact, the only people guilty of rioting are the rioters.

Rothbard spelled this out several times.

For instance, in an essay written for a small newspaper in the late 1960s, Rothbard explains the problem with claiming incitement is a real crime:

Suppose that Mr. A tells Mr. B: “Go out and shoot the mayor.” Suppose, then, that Mr. B, pondering this suggestion, decides it’s a darn good idea and goes out and shoots the mayor. Now obviously B is responsible for the shooting. But in what sense can A be held responsible? A did not do the shooting, and didn’t take part, we will assume, in any of the planning or executing of the act itself. The very fact that he made that suggestion cannot really mean that A should be held responsible. For does not B have free will? Is he not a free agent? And if he is, then B and B alone is responsible for the shooting.

If we attribute any responsibility at all to A, we have fallen into the trap of determinism. We are then assuming that B has no will of his own, that he is then only a tool in some way manipulated by A.

Now, if Person A participated in the planning of a riot or a murder, then Person A is guilty of conspiracy, not incitement. But Person A is not guilty of anything for have merely suggested to Person B that he shoot the mayor. Person B, after all, is responsible for his own actions.

Rothbard continues:

[I]f the will is free, then no man is determined by another; then just because somebody shouts “burn, baby, burn,” no one hearing this advice is thereby compelled or determined to go and carry the suggestion out. Anybody who does carry out the advice is responsible for his own actions, and solely responsible. Therefore, the “inciter” cannot be held in any way responsible. In the nature of man and morality, there is no such crime as “incitement to riot,” and therefore the very concept of such a “crime” should be stricken from the statute books.

Finally, Rothbard notes that incitement laws are also damaging because they are a direct attack on the natural right to free speech:

Cracking down on “incitement to riot,” then, is simply and purely cracking down on one’s natural and crucial right to freedom of speech. Speech is not a crime. And hence the injustice, not only of the crime of incitement, but also of such other “crimes” as “criminal sedition” (sharp criticism of the government), or “conspiracy to advocate overthrow of the government”—in other words, planning someday to exercise one’s basic and natural right to freedom of speech and advocacy.

A decade later, Rothbard emphasized the importance of rejecting the notion of incitement as a crime in his book For a New Liberty. Under the section titled “Freedom of Speech,” he writes:

What, for example, of “incitement to riot,” in which the speaker is held guilty of a crime for whipping up a mob, which then riots and commits various actions and crimes against person and property? In our view, “incitement” can only be considered a crime if we deny every man’s freedom of will and of choice, and assume that if A tells B and C: “You and him go ahead and riot!” that somehow B and C are then helplessly determined to proceed and commit the wrongful act. But the libertarian, who believes in freedom of the will, must insist that while it might be immoral or unfortunate for A to advocate a riot, that this is strictly in the realm of advocacy and should not be subject to legal penalty.

Later, in his book The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard again makes very similar remarks:

Suppose that Green exhorts a crowd: “Go! Burn! Loot! Kill!” and the mob proceeds to do just that, with Green having nothing further to do with these criminal activities. Since every man is free to adopt or not adopt any course of action he wishes, we cannot say that in some way Green determined the members of the mob to their criminal activities; we cannot make him, because of his exhortation, at all responsible for their crimes. “Inciting to riot,” therefore, is a pure exercise of a man’s right to speak without being thereby implicated in crime. On the other hand, it is obvious that if Green happened to be involved in a plan or conspiracy with others to commit various crimes, and that then Green told them to proceed, he would then be just as implicated in the crimes as are the others—more so, if he were the mastermind who headed the criminal gang. This is a seemingly subtle distinction which in practice is clearcut—there is a world of difference between the head of a criminal gang and a soap-box orator during a riot; the former is not, properly, to be charged simply with “incitement.”

This problem is related to a similar problem: making noncrimes like slander (i.e., defamation) into prosecutable offenses. A “slanderer” can say all sorts of things. And, indeed, a respect for freedom of speech dictates that we allow him to do so. After all, the people who hear what he has to say remain completely free to come to their own conclusions about what to do with that information. Just because some person says “your sister is a whore,” doesn’t mean we are required to believe him or act on those words in any particular way. 

[Read More: “The Dangers of Defamation Laws” by Ryan McMaken]

In practice, laws against incitement and defamation are very dangerous to basic human rights, and both place nonviolent people in legal jeopardy merely for the “crime” of expressing opinions. These laws are direct attacks on the right to free speech. In the case of Trump and “incitement,” he expressed an opinion about the election and encouraged people to “fight like hell” in a vague, nonspecific way. If this sort of thing is “criminal” then anyone who expresses an opinion that people should “resist” or “fight” against the regime—or even suggest that the regime is illegitimate or worthy of contempt—is likely to find himself on trial any time one of his social media “friends” decides to deface a government building or throw a rock at a cop.  Author:

Contact Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken (@ryanmcmaken) is a senior editor at the Mises Institute. Send him your article submissions for the Mises Wire and The Austrian, but read article guidelines first. Ryan has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado and was a housing economist for the State of Colorado. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre.

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Fauci: ‘No Super Bowl Parties!’

Posted by M. C. on February 4, 2021

Shocking!

Top Biden Administration Covid advisor Tony Fauci is back to warn Americans that “now is not the time” to get together with friends to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. He said the same about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. He warned of a “dark winter” if people didn’t do as he told them. They did not, but meanwhile new Covid cases in the US continue to plummet. Also today: new CDC director says teachers do not need to be forced to take the vaccine for schools to open. Congress votes to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. And AOC feels the heat after questions arise about her dramatic “insurrection” story.

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Helpful Psaki Gives Reporters A List Of Questions To Ask Her

Posted by M. C. on February 4, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/helpful-psaki-gives-reporters-questions-to-ask-her

WASHINGTON D.C.—Many of the White House correspondents are finding White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to be much more accommodating than the previous administration’s press secretary. She’s so accommodating that she saves the reporters work by coming up with the questions they’re allowed to ask her.

“Here are some good questions for you,” Psaki told the reporters ahead of the latest press conference. “Make sure to ask this one about how good we are at the vaccine rollout.”

“Wow! This saves us so much work!” said the reporters. “Thank you so much!”

“Oh, I did have a question about Hunter Biden, but that isn’t on here,” said a Washington Post reporter.

Psaki rolled up a paper and hit the reporter on the head. “No! Bad! No!”

“I’m sorry!” the reporter whimpered. “Please love me!”

Hearing how helpful Psaki is, CNN’s Brian Stelter remarked, “How refreshing!” — though Stelter was not allowed to ask any questions himself, as Psaki said he is “too creepy.”

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Jon Ossoff Victory Proves That the Israel Lobby Still Has an Iron Grip on Democrats

Posted by M. C. on February 4, 2021

Israel has an iron grip on the entire congress and Washington in general.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/jon-ossoff-victory-proves-israel-lobby-still-has-iron-grip-democrats/275042/

by Jessica Buxbaum

Jerusalem — Jon Ossoff’s historic win was presented as defying America’s far-right. His election to office helped flip the Senate blue and after six long years, changed Mitch McConnell’s title from majority to minority leader. He defeated Donald Trump ally Sen. David Perdue by teaming up with a Black reverend associated with the late civil rights icon, Rep. John Lewis. And he was the first Jew to win a Georgia Senate seat while a racist, anti-Semitic mob raided the U.S. Capitol.

Despite these progressive feats, Ossoff’s political experience and campaign donations reveal he’s more aligned with the Democratic establishment than meets the eye.

Ossoff’s undeniable love affair with the Israel lobby

Ossoff was one of the pro-Israel lobby’s top donation recipients for the 2019-2020 campaign cycle, ranking at number four with a total of $607,915. J Street, the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), New Israel Fund, and the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) all funded his campaign. Out of the Israel lobbying groups, JACPAC handed Ossoff the most money with a sum of $12,250. Pro-Israel groups J Street, DMFI, and the Jewish Democratic Council for America endorsed him as well.

Before becoming a senator, Ossoff didn’t have many political credentials to his name. According to The Forward, he handled foreign policy issues as a congressional aide for Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson. In the role, he “work[ed] on legislation improving military funding for Israel and mandating tougher inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.”

While he supports the Iran Deal and opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank, the senator has openly embraced Zionist views. He is opposed to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has supported Israeli attacks on Gaza, commended Israel’s normalization agreements with Arab countries, and supports a two-state solution. A two-state solution is a longtime Democratic Party position, but progressive public support for it is diminishing with the growing momentum for the One Democratic State Campaign.

Foreign policy wasn’t a large section of Ossoff’s campaign platform. As a state senate hopeful upholding a “Black-Jewish alliance,” he focused more on domestic race relations than geopolitics. However, Ossoff’s campaign did publish a document outlining his stance on Israel. In it, he pledged unwavering support for the state, specifically lauding his commitment to Israel’s security and his opposition to BDS as well as any legislation permitting the U.S. to divest from Israel.

Ossoff promised to “vigorously” defend Israel from peaceful boycotts

“Israel’s security requires the Israel Defense Forces to maintain a Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in the region. U.S. foreign assistance ensures that Israel has the military and intelligence capabilities necessary to maintain that QME, to defend itself against missile and rocket threats, and to prevent terrorist attacks within Israel,” the statement read.

“In the Senate, I will push for strong, mutually beneficial, and mutually respectful U.S.-Israel relations, whose strength can sustain Congressional support for the appropriation of U.S. foreign assistance vital to Israel’s security,” Ossoff said.

This excerpt suggests Ossoff supports continuing U.S. military aid to Israel—an issue that received nationwide condemnation after Congress voted to give $600 to Americans amid a pandemic-spurred recession yet handed $500 million in aid to Israel.

In addition to the pro-Israel endorsements Ossoff snagged, he often touts his connections to pro-Israel politicians. His June, 2020 position paper cited his relationship to Michael Oren, the far-right Israeli ambassador he studied under at Georgetown University. Ossoff also credits his historic rise in politics to Rep. Lewis. While Lewis is remembered as a prominent civil rights activist, he was also staunchly pro-Israel. Like Ossoff, he opposed the BDS movement and was considered a friend to Israel.

The Democratic Party toeing the line with pro-Israel funds

Along with Ossoff being the first Jew elected to Georgia’s senate, Rev. Raphael Warnock also made history as the first African-American elected to Georgia’s senate. Together the Democratic pair attributed their success to having fostered a strong Black-Jewish alliance.

Despite his win, Warnock’s campaign was marred with controversy prior to the state’s highly-publicized runoff election in January. Warnock’s Republican opponent, Kelly Loeffler, targeted the reverend’s past criticism of Israel in an attack ad. Warnock signed a letter in 2019 comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa. He also criticized Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and slammed Israel for shooting Gazan protesters.

Loeffler’s smears worked. His campaign was losing public support and funding was drying up. Two days after Loeffler’s attacks, Rev. Warnock immediately backtracked and released a statement “condemning” the BDS movement and declaring his support for Israel. His quick reversal earned him an endorsement from the Israel lobby group DMFI. Similar to Ossoff, Warnock was also part of the Israel lobby’s top 10 campaign donation recipients, securing funding from J Street, DMFI, and the New Israel Fund. Warnock may not have been as successful with fundraising if he had maintained his previous position on Israel.

Sut Jhally, documentary filmmaker and communications professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, was surprised at how easily Warnock caved to pro-Israel pressure.

“He was persuaded by the mainstream Democrats to win the Georgia election, so he had to make this horrible statement about Israel and BDS,” Jhally told MintPress News.

Warnock and Ossoff ran for Senate on a civil-rights-branded agenda. But for Jhally, you can’t call yourself a progressive if you ignore Palestine.

“The test of whether you’re a true progressive is your position on Israel,” Jhally said. “Because you can’t be progressive about everything else and espouse human rights for everyone else and not espouse human rights for the Palestinians.”

Warnock’s swift 180 on Palestine-Israel demonstrates just how strong of a grip the Israel lobby has on the Democratic Party. While the Trump administration’s policies favorited Israel, the Democratic Party is largely kept in check with pro-Israel funding.

An analysis by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs shows the pro-Israel lobby contributes significantly more money to Democrats than Republicans. And those campaign funds appear to be doing their job in scratching both the Democrats’ and the lobby’s backs. The top recipient of Israel lobby donations in 2020, President Joe Biden, has made it clear he’s willing to reverse every Trump-era policy except those related to Israel.

Keeping with the status quo

Criticism of Israel is growing louder in the Democratic Party with remarks from more progressive politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. And while Professor Jhally agrees there’s an unprecedented divide emerging in the party over Israel, that will only generate discussion and not substantial policy reform.

“The Israel lobby is still very powerful within both the Republican and Democratic parties and their role right now is to make sure policy does not change,” Jhally said. “And that is about putting pressure on progressives and making sure BDS becomes delegitimized.”

With BDS—arguably the best international strategy available to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine—still seen as a dirty word in American politics, Democrats will likely adhere to the Israel lobby’s agenda rather than risk losing money or being perceived as anti-Israel. And that means sticking with the status quo in the Democratic establishment: condemning BDS, promising U.S. aid to Israel, and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against “terrorists.” Just like the self-proclaimed progressive Ossoff did in cementing his election win.

Feature photo | Artist Brandon Litman holds up a U.S. Senator-elect Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., campaign poster on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021, in Atlanta. Brynn Anderson | AP

Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine, Israel, and Syria. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The New Arab, and Gulf News. Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

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