Welcome to Sott.net
Sat, 16 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Microscope 2

Bats, gene editing and bioweapons: Recent DARPA experiments raise concerns amid coronavirus outbreak

darpa gene editing
DARPA recently spent millions on research involving bats and coronaviruses, as well as gene editing "bioweapons" prior to the recent coronavirus outbreak. Now, "strategic allies" of the agency have been chosen to develop a genetic material-based vaccine to halt the potential epidemic.

In recent weeks, concern over the emergence of a novel coronavirus in China has grown exponentially as media, experts and government officials around the world have openly worried that this new disease has the potential to develop into a global pandemic.

As concerns about the future of the ongoing outbreak have grown, so too have the number of theories speculating about the outbreak's origin, many of which blame a variety of state actors and/or controversial billionaires. This has inevitably led to efforts to clamp down on "misinformation" related to the coronavirus outbreak from both mainstream media outlets and major social media platforms.

Beaker

CIA director warns that gene editing can be used to create bioweapons

CIA Director John Brennan
© AP Photo/ J. Scott Applewhite
CIA Director John Brennan claims that advances in genome editing pose a threat to national security and may be used to create biological weapons.
Advances in genome editing pose a threat to national security and may be used to create biological weapons, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.

"Nowhere are the stakes higher for our national security than in the field of biotechnology," Brennan stated. "Recent advances in genome editing that offer great potential for breakthroughs in public health are also a cause for concern because the same methods can be used to create genetically engineered biological warfare agents."

In April, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Health Affairs Acting Director Aaron Firoved testified in Congress that synthetic biology and gene editing offer terrorist organizations potential to modify organisms for malicious purposes such as manmade pathogens that can rapidly cause disease outbreaks.

Comment: Start at home, Mr. Brennen. The top funder for gene drive technology is the Pentagon! How few compunctions would it have in wielding such a weapon?

See the following article on what the Pentagon has been up to: Pentagon Biological Weapons Program Never Ended: US Bio-labs Around The World


Corona

'Free tests for everyone': Pelosi announces Democrats reached deal with White House on coronavirus relief

pelosi
© REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that she has struck a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over a coronavirus relief plan that President Donald Trump has previously opposed as overreach.

"We are proud to have reached an agreement with the Administration to resolve outstanding challenges, and now will soon pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act," Pelosi (D-California) said in a letter to House Democrats, made public early Friday evening.

"This legislation is about testing, testing, testing," she wrote, saying it seeks to make coronavirus tests available for free to anyone who needs them, whether they have insurance or not.

Corona

US Intel Agencies Played Unsettling Role in Classified and "9/11-like" Coronavirus Response Plan

coronavirus
© AP
A Medical University of South Carolina public safety officer walks by the hospital's drive-through tent for patients who are being tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Citadel Mall parking lot, March 13, 2020, in Charleston, S.C. Mic Smith
As the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis comes to dominate headlines, little media attention has been given to the federal government's decision to classify top-level meetings on domestic coronavirus response and lean heavily "behind the scenes" on U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon in planning for an allegedly imminent explosion of cases.

The classification of coronavirus planning meetings was first covered by Reuters, which noted that the decision to classify was "an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government's response to the contagion." Reuters further noted that the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar, and his chief of staff had "resisted" the classification order, which was made in mid-January by the National Security Council (NSC), led by Robert O'Brien — a longtime friend and colleague of his predecessor John Bolton.

Ambulance

Trump declares national emergency over coronavirus pandemic, unlocking $50bn in funding

trump
© REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump on Friday announced a new series of measures to combat the coronavirus and treat those who are affected, while pushing back on criticism that his administration was unprepared to confront the pandemic.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump declared a national emergency that could free up $50 billion to help fight the pandemic and said that he was empowering the secretary of Health and Human Services to waive certain laws and regulations to ensure the virus can be contained and patients treated.

"To unleash the full power of the federal government ... I am officially declaring a national emergency," Trump said.

"Two very big words," he added.

Comment: Trump has also taken advantage of the drop in oil prices by stocking up on crude oil reserves"
"Based on the prices of oil, I've also instructed the secretary of energy to purchase, at a very good price, large quantities of crude oil for storage in the US strategic reserve," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We're going to fill it right up to the top."
Ironically, Trump's announcement sent oil prices upward.


Propaganda

Daily Mail front pages show drastic 24-hour escalation in UK coronavirus stance: A tale of two headlines

daily mail headlines coronavirus england ireland
© The Daily Mail
No tailored propaganda here . . . .
Life comes at you fast, especially in the midst of a global pandemic, and nowhere was this more evident than the front pages of the Daily Mail newspaper, which displayed a neck-breaking 180 in mood in less than 24 hours.

Thursday's front page was devoted to extolling the virtues of "New Tory star" Chancellor Rishi Sunak aka "Dr Feelgood" and his £30 billion cash economic stimulus package, dubbed a 'vaccination,' which would stave off the worst economic effects of the coronavirus.

"Cash for sick workers" and "Shops' taxes slashed" were the breathless (pardon the pun) yet genius solutions to the coronavirus threat to the economy thanks to the "biggest budget splurge in 30 years." A regrettable choice of words perhaps, given the scenes of panic-buying from across the world, as the global citizenry struggles to come to terms with the new reality in post-corona capitalism.

Comment: Johnson, not one to let an opportunity go wasted, has postponed London's mayoral election in which liberal immigration advocate and political irritant Sadiq Khan, was up for re-election:
Voters in England were scheduled to go to the polls on May 7 — including for the London Mayoral contest — but just hours after the PM's spokesperson said they were "working to facilitate" the elections, they have now been taken off the 2020 political calendar.

Responding to the move, London Mayor - who was up for re-election - has taken to Twitter to insist that he "will continue to work with the Government and experts to help London manage coronavirus over the weeks and months ahead."

While Independent candidate for London Mayor Rory Stewart claimed that was the "right decision," adding that the government should be moving more quickly to "close gatherings and schools."
Johnson came in for some Twitter mocking when he invoked the image of Dunkirk at a meeting of tech companies asking for help.
The meeting on Wednesday night in Downing Street saw around 30 different big tech firms in attendance, including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon. Johnson reportedly used his speech - described as Churchillian by one guest - to try to encourage the tech industry in the UK to provide useful resources to contain the outbreak.

The description of Johnson's summit as a "digital Dunkirk" riled many on Twitter, who took issue with yet another war analogy to characterize the prime minister's approach to a major issue.


There were also sarcastic takes on the attendee evoking the War.


Other critics of the PM's meeting also took a swipe at reports that Dominic Cummings - Johnson's chief adviser - asked tech bosses what they could commit to in the fight against the deadly virus. "Have they tried all paying their taxes?"another cheekily asked.

It comes after Johnson emerged from a COBRA meeting to tell reporters assembled at No 10 on Wednesday afternoon that the Covid-19 pandemic is "the worst public health crisis for a generation" and warned Britain that the worst of the crisis is still weeks away.



Binoculars

Election monitors requested as elitist Joe Biden advances

BidenSanders
© Getty Images/AP
Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders
Former vice president Joe Biden has just had another good night in the Democratic Party primary race. It looks increasingly likely that he will take the nomination to face Donald Trump in November rather than progressive challenger Bernie Sanders. But one group of activists has pointed out that the process itself might not have been as 'free and fair' as it's being presented.

Disappointing 'Super Tuesday II'?

On 10 March, Democratic voters went to the polls in 'Super Tuesday II'. Although Sanders won North Dakota and seems the likely winner in Washington state, Biden stayed ahead by winning Mississippi, Missouri and, crucially, Michigan - the largest state by population holding a contest that night. The Sanders campaign hoped to win the large midwestern state in order to launch a comeback after a disappointing performance on 'Super Tuesday' the previous week. Sanders won the state in 2016, and analysts see it as a crucial battleground because Trump became the first Republican to win there since George H. W. Bush in 1988.

Not so fast...

Comment: See also:


Snakes in Suits

Sen. Chuck Schumer hit with ethics complaints for threatening SCOTUS justices in verbal tirade

Schumer
© AP/Susan Walsh
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faces multiple ethics complaints for threatening Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch on the steps of the high court.

Schumer declared at a Center for Reproductive Rights rally last Wednesday that the two conservative judges will "pay the price" if they vote against pro-choice advocates in a case regarding a Louisiana abortion law.
"Over the last three years, women's reproductive rights have come under attack in a way we haven't seen in modern history. From Louisiana, to Missouri, to Texas, Republican legislatures are waging a war on women, all women, and they're taking away fundamental rights. I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions."
Following blowback from Republicans, the New York Democrat offered a non-apology, saying he "shouldn't have used the words I did" while claiming conservatives were "manufacturing outrage" over the statement.

On Friday, the National Legal Policy Center filed complaints against Schumer with both the Senate Ethics Committee and New York bar. The NLPC's complaint reads:
"It strains credulity to believe that, regardless of his Brooklyn pedigree, Sen. Schumer, who is a Harvard-educated lawyer, Senator minority leader, and vocal opponent of both Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, did not intend to choose the exact words he spoke as he turned and pointed to the Supreme Court behind him to further emphasize his point. In short, his non-apology is a lame excuse for inexcusable conduct."

Comment: Schumer's behavior is symptomatic of a congressional leadership that operates as a reactionary vehicle instead of a stewardship guarding our Constitution and Bill of Rights from infringement and erosion. Using his elected power to vent vehement dissatisfaction and sling threats aimed to intimidate Supreme Court judges sets a new low bar.


Arrow Down

US and British envoys summoned after Baghdad condemns airstrikes as 'violation of sovereignty'

Iraqi soldier
© AFP/Mohammed Sawaf
Iraqi soldiers stand guard at a Karbala airport, which was hit by US strikes, March 13, 2020.
Iraq's military has denounced American airstrikes on several targets inside the country that allegedly killed 3 Iraqi soldiers. Baghdad has also summoned US and British envoys to answer for the attacks.

The Iraqi foreign ministry said Friday that it had demanded an audience with the US and British ambassadors over the incident, which Iraq says killed six people and wounded twelve.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command said in a statement issued on the same day that the strikes had been carried out using a "false pretext" and would lead to "escalation" rather than helping to bring stability to the war-torn country. "This action is against the will of the Iraqi state and a violation of its sovereignty, it strengthens outlaws."

The strongly-worded statement added that no party has the right to "substitute itself for the state."

Comment: Iran tells Washington: Quit finger-pointing and 'grow up'
"The US cannot place the consequences of its illegal presence in Iraq and the reaction of Iraqi people to the assassination and killing of their commanders on others," Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said on Friday, as quoted by state media.

The Foreign Ministry official suggested that instead of engaging in "risky actions and baseless accusations," US President Donald Trump should "thoroughly review the presence and behavior of his troops in the region." He urged Washington to take responsibility for its foreign policy decision, and "avoid projection and accusations to justify irrational behavior."
Iraqi airport damaged in US strikes
Photos have emerged online showing the Karbala International Airport, expected to be Iraq's largest airport once completed, having been crippled by the US airstrike on Thursday night. The strike shattered windows in what appears to be one of the airport's main buildings, and debris could be seen scattered on the ground.

An airport official confirmed to Reuters that the facility sustained a direct hit from US forces.





Pistol

Galloway: Chelsea Manning's persecution is medieval punishment, cutting out tongues, murdering truth

C Manning
© Getty Images/The Washington Post/Jahi Chikwendiu.
Chelsea Manning leaves the Albert V. Bryan US District Courthouse, March 5, 2019
The US government's efforts to punish truth-tellers like Chelsea Manning is in part vengeance, but the ultimate goal is to terrify, to ensure there will never be another Manning or Julian Assange.

The woman who, as Bradley Manning, revealed some of the stark truths about the high crimes and misdemeanours of the US government which now persecutes her, has attempted to end her life.

Her leaked information to WikiLeaks provided the basis of the War Logs which in turn are the basis of the US government's persecution of the publisher Julian Assange.

Manning has already paid the price for the crime of leaking true information about war crimes, serving seven years of her 35-year sentence in a Kansas prison before being released after President Obama commuted her sentence - effectively placing her on parole for life. She was not pardoned but nonetheless her subsequent arrest and imprisonment is effectively Double Jeopardy, and runs contrary to the prohibition of being punished twice for the same crime.

Comment: See also: