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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Opening the CIA's monstrous can of worms

Robert Kennedy JR
"The CIA and the media are part of the same criminal conspiracy," wrote Douglas Valentine in his important book, The CIA As Organized Crime.

This is true. The corporate mainstream media are stenographers for the national security state's ongoing psychological operations aimed at the American people, just as they have done the same for an international audience.

We have long been subjected to this "information warfare," whose purpose is to win the hearts and minds of the American people and pacify them into victims of their own complicity, just as it was practiced long ago by the CIA in Vietnam and by The New York Times, CBS, etc. on the American people then and over the years as the American warfare state waged endless wars, coups, false flag operations, and assassinations at home and abroad.

Another way of putting this is to say for all practical purposes when it comes to matters that bear on important foreign and domestic matters, the CIA and the corporate mainstream media cannot be distinguished.

For those who read and study history, it has long been known that the CIA has placed their operatives throughout every agency of the U.S. government, as explained by Fletcher Prouty in The Secret Team; that CIA officers Cord Myer and Frank Wisner operated secret programs to get some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom among intellectuals, journalists, and writers to be their voices for unfreedom and censorship, as explained by Frances Stonor Saunders in The Cultural Cold War and Joel Whitney in Finks, among others; that Cord Myer was especially focused on and successful in "courting the Compatible Left" since right wingers were already in the Agency's pocket.

Comment: Few films show how much of this works as does Evidence of Revision: The Assassination of America.


Radar

Pentagon will offer US President Biden several options to respond to Iraq attack

Pentagon
© AFP
Photo taken on October 30, 2018 the Pentagon is seen from an airplane over Washington, DC
The Pentagon will provide US President Joe Biden and his administration several options to respond to the rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq's Erbil, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

According to the US-led coalition, a barrage of 14 rockets was fired at the US base. Three hit the base, killing one civilian contractor and nine others were injured, the coalition said.

The civilian contractor was not a US citizen, something which the Pentagon was quick to note.

"It's necessary to take into account that the person who was killed was not a US citizen and the previous formula that an American killed would require a response," was not the case in Monday's attack, the official told Al Arabiya.

Comment: Many in Iraq have been clamoring for the US to withdraw its military. Was this recent attack a "reminder" of that sentiment, or was it manufactured to help "justify" some further US involvement there?

See also:


Mail

New Comey email raises additional questions about his use and defense of The Steele Dossier

Comey hearing
There is a new and intriguing document related to the Russian investigation out this week. Justthenews has released a previously undisclosed email from former FBI Director James Comey that raises additional questions about his role in using the now discredited Steele dossier as part of the FBI Russian investigation. The email on Jan. 12, 2017 email to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper falsely claims that Christopher Steele was found to be "reliable" but then states that the FBI could not "sufficiently corroborate the reporting."

The email went out the same day that Comey signed a FISA surveillance warrant application declaring that content from Christopher Steele's dossier had been "verified." We are still waiting for the results of the John Durham investigation but this email raised additional questions about Comey's role. Comey has testified that he would not have approved such surveillance if he knew then what he knew now about the Steele dossier.

Comment: See also:


Syringe

Third shot may be needed to combat coronavirus variants, says Bill Gates

Bill Gates
© Getty Images
A third dose of coronavirus vaccine may be needed to prevent serious cases of new variants of the disease, Bill Gates said Tuesday. The billionaire's comments come amid to the growing concern that current vaccines are less effective against the South African and Brazilian variants.

"The discussion now is do we just need to get a super high coverage of the current vaccine, or do we need a third dose that's just the same, or do we need a modified vaccine?" Gates told "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell.

"All five of the companies that have U.S. vaccines are looking at making that modification and adding that in so that people who've already had two shots might need to get a third shot," he said. "I think it's reasonably likely that we will have a tuned vaccine just to make absolutely sure that as these variants hit the U.S. that they're not escaping from vaccine protection."

Attention

Facebook bans Australian users and publishers from sharing or viewing any news articles

facebook
Facebook has made a stunning move to ban publishers and users in Australia from sharing or viewing any news articles on its platform in response to the Morrison government's proposed media bargaining laws.

The bargaining code, which passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday night, will require social media companies to pay media outlets for using their content. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and become law as early as next week.

In a blog post on Thursday (AEDT) Facebook said that it had carried through on the threat made in September after being unable to find a solution in discussions with the Australian government.

Content on Facebook pages from news websites such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, News Corp newspapers such as The Australian and The Herald Sun and all ABC content were made unavailable to users from early Thursday. Articles published by online youth publication Junkee Media and satirical news websites The Betoota Advocate and The Chaser were also removed. Some Facebook groups run by news outlets have no articles on them.

Comment: Oh look, the information overlords are fighting again. Seems like this time they're really at it!


Arrow Down

Biden says during CNN town hall 'we didn't have' a coronavirus vaccine when he took office

joe biden CNN town hall
President Biden was slammed by conservatives on social media after saying, "We didn't have a vaccine," when he came into office on Jan. 20.

"It's one thing to have the vaccine," Biden told CNN's Anderson Cooper during a town hall event on Tuesday night. "Which we didn't have when we came into office. But a vaccinator, how do you get the vaccine into someone's arm."

Conservatives, including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, quickly took issue with Biden's comment.

"Biden says there was no vaccine when he came into office," McEnany tweeted. "That is abjectly FALSE. President Trump brought about the fastest vaccine for a novel pathogen in history. How does Joe get away with this?"


Comment: From Political Ponerology by Andrew Lobaczewski:
"Reverse Blockade: emphatically insisting upon something which is the opposite of the truth blocks the average person's mind from perceiving the truth. In accordance with the dictates of healthy common sense, he starts searching for meaning in the "golden mean" between truth and its opposite, winding up with some satisfactory counterfeit. People who think like this do not realize that this effect is precisely the intent of the person who subjects them to this method."
We're so far down the rabbit hole that pseudo-realities have become stacked upon pseudo-realities.

During the same town hall Biden suggested we'll be living in 'very different circumstances by Christmas. We very well may, but probably not in the way he predicts.
Biden waxed optimistic about the ongoing viral outbreak during a CNN town hall event on Tuesday, declaring that "by next Christmas, I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today." He said the improvement would be further helped along if an inoculation developed by Johnson & Johnson receives FDA approval, as it is expected to sometime this month.

"A year from now, I think that there'll be significantly fewer people having to be socially distanced, have to wear masks, etc.," the president went on, adding, however, "But we don't know. So I don't want to over-promise anything here. I told you when I ran and when I got elected, I will always level with you."



Bad Guys

Google to pay News Corp to distribute content in global deal

News Corporation
© Getty Images
The News Corp media conglomerate said Wednesday it has reached a deal for Google to pay for news content of its newspapers shared on the search giant's News Showcase.

The three-year agreement with News Corp includes the development of a subscription platform, the sharing of ad revenue through Google's ad technology services, and "meaningful investments" in video journalism by YouTube.

News Corp's announcement did not share the financial details of the agreement, and a spokesperson for Google declined to share the details when asked.

Comment: Information and knowledge are the greatest influences of our reality and minds. Some accept 'filtered' information as all there is. Those who want to know, understand that knowledge and truth have to be worked for. The age of information contains an immense about of noise, but the efforts to find the signal can develop capacities well beyond the reach of even the most powerful tech behemoths.


Putin

Putin slams 'caveman nationalism' as detrimental to Russia, says every ethnicity should feel respected & at home in the country

putin
© Sputnik / Aleksej Nikolskii
President Vladimir Putin has warned against using nationalist slogans like "Russia is just for Russians," stating his belief that members of each relevant ethnic group should feel at home in the country.

The president was speaking to leaders of Russia's parliamentary parties in a video conference on Wednesday. "Caveman nationalism, with the slogan 'Russia is only for Russians,' only harms Russians, only harms Russia," he said. "We shouldn't allow this to happen. Of course, we must make sure that the culture of every nation, its history, and roots of every nation is respected and honored in our country."

Russia is a multiethnic society, made up of not just Slavic people but also Central Asian indigenous groups, such as Tatars and Bashkirs. The country also has a large number of migrants from foreign countries, most of which were formerly part of the Soviet Union, like Armenia, Georgia and Tajikistan.

Bad Guys

Germany's Saxony state says masked drivers BANNED from wearing sunglasses & hats

german bus driver mask
© Ralph Orlowski / Reuters
A bus driver wears a mask in Germany, 2020.
Drivers must still be identifiable by traffic cameras, even when they follow existing health protocols and wear masks, a new rule in Germany's eastern region says.

According to the Bild newspaper, Saxony became the first region in Germany to ban hats and sunglasses on masked drivers.

"Wearing a hat and sunglasses in addition to a mask that covers the face and mouth makes [the driver] unrecognizable. So that's not allowed," Saxony's Interior Minister Roland Woller said.

Woller explained that "general facial features" of the driver must still be visible to the road safety cameras. He added that officials responsible for handing out fines to drivers were advised to handle the new rule on a case-by-case basis.

Starting from Monday, people are required to wear masks in vehicles in Saxony if members of more than two households are traveling together.

Last month, Germans were mandated to wear medical-grade respirator-type masks on public transport and when going to supermarkets. Simple cloth or homemade masks are not allowed in such cases.

Comment: Will there be a backlash against the Saxony province at tightening an already stringent policy? Past history would seem to indicate it's possible:


Bad Guys

US state dept claims to want strategic stability with Russia, begins by making a variety of unfounded allegations

missile
© US Department of Defense//Scott HoweWorld
Moscow's deputy foreign minister for non-proliferation and arms control, Sergei Ryabkov, recently said Russia may be able to return to some of the many treaties shredded by the Trump administration - but not all of them.

"We'll look at other ways to advance strategic stability with Russia, even as we're very clear about the actions that they're taking ... But we have to be able to work on both fronts," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told US National Public Radio in a Tuesday interview.
Just weeks ago, the administration of US President Joe Biden reached an agreement with Moscow to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by five years. The nuclear weapons-limiting agreement was set to expire on February 5, 2021, and the outgoing Trump administration showed essentially no interest in saving it.

Comment: See also: