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Resistance is Fertile! The Borg is Using Covid-19 to Test Our Defenses

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:19 UTC
Resistance is Fertile
© Corbett Report
Whether you're a die-hard Trekkie or someone who would never be caught dead watching one of those silly sci-fi shows, if you were around in the '90s you will remember the Borg catchphrase:

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."

For those not in the know, the phrase "resistance is futile" was introduced to popular culture via "Q Who," a 1989 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the crew of the Enterprise encounter the Borg, a collective of cyborgs connected to a hive mind via cybernetic implants. The Borg went on to become one of the most iconic antagonists of the Star Trek universe, but it wasn't their fiery passion or their over-the-top villainry that made them so chilling. Quite the contrary. It was their cold, calculating, machine-like intelligence and their singular aim of assimilating all new species into their collective that made the Borg so creepy.

The Borg weren't out to kill humanity, only to "add [humanity's] biological and technological distinctiveness to [the Borg's] own."

Now, you might not think this has much to do with our present predicament, and up until a week ago I would have agreed with you. But then I found myself reading a Trekker's earnest reddit post on why "Resistance is Futile was always a lie." In this surprisingly thoughtful post, reddit user "67thou" notes that the Borg's iconic boast that "resistance is futile" was really just a bluff:
"The Borg know full well that not only are their targets able to put up resistance, and in some cases even pose a threat to the Borg directly (Species 8472); the Borg know that resistance jeopardizes their true goal: Assimilation.

"The fact that the Borg track 'Resistance Quotients' suggests they have a scale at which they measure a species willingness and ability to resist assimilation. Not their ability to fight back per se, but rather their ability to change the cost/benefit for the Borg in the effort to assimilate.

"The Borg are clearly powerful and able to destroy entire worlds on a whim. But that is not what they want. When they target a species for assimilation their goal is just that, assimilation. If they are forced to destroy enemy ships/fleets and their 'individuals,' then the Borg are losing out on the very resources they wish to collect in the first place. Sure they 'could' just destroy every ship and planet they encounter, but then what would they gain? Their tactics are more strategic in getting intact technology and intact individuals."
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Black Magic

Three Weeks for the Lockdown ... But They Were All of Them Deceived

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:07 UTC
bojo lockdown
I have never been quite sure why so many people thought that lockdown would be implemented for three weeks — a time apparently necessary to "flatten the curve". I knew at the time that this was never going to be the case, for reasons explained below, and furthermore I knew it was a gross deception waged on the British people, as I hope to show.

Let's just begin with looking at where the claim originally came from. It was made by the Prime Minister, in the speech he made to the nation on 23rd March, just hours before the country went into lockdown. Here is what he said:
"I can assure you that we will keep these restrictions under constant review. We will look again in three weeks, and relax them if the evidence shows we are able to."
It is well known that the decision by the Government to implement lockdown was based to a large degree on the model produced by Imperial College. This model, also known as the Neil Ferguson model, was published in their "Report 9: Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand", which you can find here.
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No Entry

Another one bites the dust: US-led coalition leaves another Iraqi base amid constant rocket attacks

Ilya Tsukanov
Sputnik
Sun, 23 Aug 2020 17:59 UTC
taji base
© Twitter / @OIRSpox
Iraq's parliament ordered US forces to withdraw from the country in January, following the drone strike assassination of a senior Iranian commander in Baghdad. On Thursday, in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, US President Donald Trump promised that US forces would be leaving the country "shortly."

US forces in Iraq have formally handed the Coalition-occupied area of Camp Taji, central Iraq back to Iraqi security forces, with the handover ceremony signed Sunday, the Coalition has said in a statement.

Describing the withdrawal from the facility as a move which allows the anti-Daesh Coalition to "shift its focus and role," the Coalition said that "the movement of...military personnel is part of a long-range plan coordinated with the Government of Iraq."

"This is truly a historic day," Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve deputy commander Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said of the move. "For the past six years, Camp Taji has served as a primary installation for Coalition partners to train the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Air Force, and the Qwat al-Khasah. The Coalition's efforts have enabled the Iraqis to train themselves. From this day forward, [the Iraqi Security Forces] will take full responsibilities for the facilities and programs at Taji and continue to use the site to lead and conduct training as part of the mission to defeat Daesh remnants."

The withdrawal includes the exit of 300 US troops and contractors, and the handover of $347 million in structures and equipment to the Iraqi side, including over 90 million rounds of ammunition.
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Star of David

Israeli Cabinet meeting canceled for second time as budget deadline looms - fourth election coming?


Jewish News Syndicate
Sun, 23 Aug 2020 17:51 UTC
Knesset
© CC BY 2.0 / James Emery
Knesset
Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting was called off for the second time in three weeks on Sunday. The cancelations are due to an ongoing dispute between the two major partners in the government coalition: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White faction.

At the center of the dispute is the state budget bill. Citing a need for flexibility due to the coronavirus emergency, Netanyahu has been insisting on passing a budget that covers only the remainder of 2020. Gantz counters that the Likud agreed as part of the coalition agreement to draft a bill that would also include 2021.

Israel has been without a 2020 budget until now due to a protracted political stalemate which resulted in three parliamentary elections within a 12-month period, the most recent on March 2.

After the Netanyahu-Gantz government was inaugurated on May 17, legislation was passed stipulating that the government would fall and another parliamentary election called if the budget bill was not passed by midnight on Aug. 24.

Comment: The government has until Monday to reach a compromise, otherwise elections will need to be held - again - unless the Knesset approves another extension.

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Attention

Were holiday-wrecking quarantines worth it? Even the British government haven't a clue!

Peter Hitchens
Mail on Sunday
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 17:29 UTC
tourists britain covid quarantine
© Press Association
Passengers are pictured arriving at Heathrow from Dubronvik, Croatia.
As the Government wrecks another few thousand holidays with sudden quarantine, you might assume that it takes this sort of thing seriously, and keeps close track of it.

After all, you don't force people to abandon holidays they have saved up for all year, and stampede them into dashing for the nearest port or airport, or expect them to spend money they haven't got on cruelly inflated ticket prices so they can meet a 4am deadline, just on a whim, do you?

You don't lightly demand that, if they miss that deadline, they remain under house arrest for 14 days, unable to go to work, do you?

Surely you do those things because you genuinely believe that there is a grave danger if people remain in the affected countries, which must be severely contained? I thought so too. But is it so?
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Bad Guys

From Lockdown to Police State: The 'Great Reset' Rolls Out

Ellen Brown
Web of Debt
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 16:21 UTC
Melbourne lockdown

A man is detained after refusing to move on during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne last weekend
Mayhem in Melbourne

On August 2, lockdown measures were implemented in Melbourne, Australia, that were so draconian that Australian news commentator Alan Jones said on Sky News: "People are entitled to think there is an 'agenda to destroy western society.'"

The gist of an August 13th article on the Melbourne lockdown is captured in the title: "Australian Police Go FULL NAZI, Smashing in Windows of Civilian Cars Just Because Passengers Wouldn't Give Details About Where They Were Going."

Another article with an arresting title was by Guy Burchell in the August 7th Australian National Review: "Melbourne Cops May Now Enter Homes Without a Warrant, After 11 People Die of COVID — Australia, This Is Madness, Not Democracy." Burchell wrote that only 147 people had lost their lives to coronavirus in Victoria (the Australian state of which Melbourne is the capital), a very low death rate compared to other countries. The ramped up lockdown measures were triggered by an uptick in cases due to ramped up testing and 11 additional deaths, all of them in nursing homes (where lockdown measures would actually have little effect). The new rules include a six week curfew from 8 PM to 5 AM, with residents allowed to leave home outside those curfew hours only to shop for food and essential items (one household member only), and for caregiving, work and exercise (limited to one hour).

Comment:

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Bad Guys

Lukashenko asks public to forgive heavy-handed Belarusian cops, opposition plans to meet with US officials in Lithuania


RT
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:33 UTC
Lukashenko
© Sputnik / Viktor Tolochko
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks at a rally organized in support of him on Independence square in Minsk.
At a rally in the western city of Grodno on Saturday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko asked protesters to forgive police "if they made a mistake" and ordered striking factories to be shut down.

Speaking before a gathering of his supporters, Lukashenko also claimed that most images showing injuries caused by law enforcement officers are fake. "60 percent of pictures showing bruising are staged photos," he said in his speech.

Belarus is currently in the midst of a political crisis caused by mass unrest following August 9's disputed presidential election. According to the official vote tally, Lukashenko won 80 percent of the vote, with leading opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya being awarded just 10 percent. But the opposition says the ballot was rigged and Tikhanovskaya was the real winner.

Comment: See also:

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Wall Street

The real reason why giant Wall Street firm Blackstone is courting the Pentagon

Whitney Webb
The Last American Vagabond
Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Blackstone
The sudden push by Wall Street's largest private equity firm to heavily lobby the Pentagon and State Department for largely unspecified reasons is part of an increasingly visible conflict within the U.S. establishment regarding how to handle the Artificial Intelligence "arms race."

One of Wall Street's largest private equity firms, the Blackstone Group, has been making a series of moves that have left mainstream analysts puzzled, with the most recent being Blackstone's hire of David Urban, a Washington lobbyist with close ties to the Trump administration.

Blackstone's courting of a Trump ally was not surprising given that the firm's CEO, Steven Schwarzman, recently donated $3 million to Trump's re-election efforts and had previously chaired the President's now-defunct Strategic and Policy Forum of "business leaders" and advisors. The close ties that have developed between Schwarzman and Trump following the latter's election in late 2016 have led mainstream media to describe Schwarzman as a confidant of the President.

However, what was odd about Blackstone's hiring of David Urban was its murky reason for doing so, as the firm plans to task Urban with lobbying the Pentagon and State Department on "issues related to military preparedness and training." This is odd, as CNBC noted, because Blackstone "doesn't have any publicly listed government contracts, and its known investments don't appear to have direct links to the defense industry." However, Urban has extensive experience in dealing with both Departments in addition to his close ties to the current administration and the fundraising apparatus of the Republican Party.
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Mr. Potato

Puppet Biden says he would shut US down amid pandemic if scientists said it was needed

Tal Axelrod
The Hill
Fri, 21 Aug 2020 22:33 UTC
Biden
© Getty
Former Vice President Joe Biden, fresh off of formally accepting the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination, said he would shut down the U.S. to blunt the spread of the coronavirus if scientific advisers said such a move was necessary.

"I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus," Biden told ABC News's David Muir in an interview that will air in full Sunday.

"That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus," Biden said.

"I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists," he added.


Comment: So keep the country running by shutting everything down. Got it.



Comment: Its a veritable guarantee that this very dangerous nincompoop would put the already divided and declining US on the fast-track to hell if he should become president. He is so obviously a puppet for the worst most totalitarian interests in the US, we're still kind of shocked that the Dems couldn't find anyone a little more convincing or credible in any regard.

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Snakes in Suits

Irish ministers resign after violating coronavirus rules at golf dinner - day after signing lockdown legislation

Peter Beaumont
The Guardian
Fri, 21 Aug 2020 17:53 UTC
Calleary
© Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images
Dara Calleary was among more than 80 guests at a hotel event hosted by the Irish parliament’s golf society.
Irish politics has been plunged into crisis after a parliamentary golf club dinner held in violation of the country's coronavirus social distancing rules forced the resignation of a minister and a senator.

As the Irish police announced an investigation into what has inevitably been labelled "Golf Gate", the agriculture minister, Dara Calleary, and Jerry Buttimer, the deputy chairperson of the Irish upper house, the Seanad, announced their resignations on Friday.

Under Ireland's Covid-19 regulations - in force since late June and updated on Tuesday - it is an offence to hold any event with more than 50 people in attendance.

Comment: Evidently the coronavirus isn't the threat it's made out to be; why else would they think it safe to attend such a frivolous event?

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