Puppet MastersS


Stop

When that ol' mojo stops workin'

mojocuffs
© Unknown/KJN
What you're actually seeing, in the rhetorical hoo-ha over the January Sixth capitol riot, is the main cattle-prod driving mob madness — fear of Covid-19 — losing its power to terrorize the public. The Party-of-Chaos put on a grand opera of lamentation Thursday to celebrate its unity in victim-hood — we wuz so traumatized by the riot! — but in the background, they can see their dearer dream of total vaccination — and total control of the population — fade in the winter mists.

This is the crisis of a managerial class that has lost its ability to manage anything, including all of us. Thus, the hysteria in the blue precincts of America, where they are concentrated. And, as I've averred before, the madness probably has its roots in the slow-motion train wreck of our techno-industrial economy. The managerial class can surely sense it and see it coming, but they don't have a clue what to do about it. So, in desperate need of some signifying ritual, they're left performing a grand-scale Chinese fire drill like drunken sophomores of yore — a flurry of pointless, attention-seeking activity.

You see, this total vaccination fantasy is meant to compensate for that inability to govern in a time of epic turbulence. It provides an illusion of control. But the obvious insanity of it stands out in the demonstrable facts that the vaccinations don't work, and that they are racking up an impressive record of harming people. These two facts must be ignored by the vax-happy Blue Team, even as the immunizing and pretty harmless Omicron variant spreads speedily across the land conferring superior natural immunity on those who survive it — which is, functionally, everyone.

Green Light

NATO 'never promised' not to expand, US claims

Blinken
© AP/Andrew HarnikUS State Secretary Antony Blinken
NATO has never promised not to admit new members, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Friday, labelling Russia's demands of the bloc inadmissible. However, long-declassified Western documents suggest otherwise.

"NATO never promised not to admit new members," The top American diplomat told journalists during Friday's press briefing, as he commented on Moscow's proposals to the bloc on security guarantees, ahead of upcoming NATO-Russia meetings next week.

"It could not and would not - the 'open door policy' was a core provision of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty that founded NATO," Blinken added. He then pointed to the fact that both Mikhail Gorbachev - the Soviet leader who'd allegedly received the guarantees of non-expansion from the Western leaders - and the former US Secretary of State James Baker, who allegedly provided them, among others - denied anything like that ever happened.

"There was no promise that NATO wouldn't expand," Blinken concluded, adding that, instead, Moscow had itself recognized every European nation's right to choose its own path in the field of security by joining the Istanbul Charter for European Security in 1999.

Comment: Bets are off on any breakthroughs coming from the Biden-Putin meetings. No surprise.
"I don't think we're gonna see any, any breakthroughs in the coming, in the coming week," Blinken told co-anchor Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."

"We're going to be able to put things on the table, the Russians will do the same, both directly with us at NATO at the [Organization for Security and Cooperation] and we'll see if they're grounds for moving forward," he added.

Blinken on Sunday reiterated that the U.S. pulling some troops out of Eastern Europe and ruling out expanding NATO to include Ukraine are both off the negotiating table.

Asked by Tapper if the U.S. has ruled out moving heavy U.S. weaponry out of Poland and moving it further west, moving missiles or limiting the scope of U.S. military exercises, Blinken did not directly respond. The secretary of state did, however, assert that there will be "confrontation and massive consequences for Russia" if it renews aggression against Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov earlier on Sunday said it is possible that the talks between the U.S. and Russia break down quickly. He specifically said conversations could end after the first meeting.
While Blinken is evasive, at least assessments by Ryabkov are pragmatic.


Bullseye

US military leaders sanctioned

Milley
© Getty Images/Patrick SemanskyUS General Mark Milley
Iran has sanctioned 51 Americans, including some of the US' top military officials, that it blames for the killing of Qassem Soleimani two years ago. The sanctions come amid simmering nuclear tension between Tehran and the West.

The sanctions were announced by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, less than a week after the second anniversary of the killing of General Soleimani, the prominent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander killed by the US in a drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq.
The ministry said:
"The individuals on the list of sanctions participated in the decision-making, planning, organisation, financing, and support, as well as in the leadership or implementation of the terrorist act against Soleimani and his companions."
First on the list of sanctioned military officials is General Mark Milley, commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Central Command commander Kenneth McKenzie, former National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, and Robert Greenway, a National Security Council official responsible for the Trump administration's sanctions policy on Iran, were also named.

Comment: The US would rather hold the world hostage than accept a compromise that benefits millions and harms none. There is only so much power a clenched fist can hold. (An open hand, however...)


Eye 2

How US state media rebrands Nazi collaborators as freedom fighters

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists  OUN ne nazi bandaras
© Sputnik / StringerActivists of Ukrainian nationalist parties take part in a rally to mark the 112th anniversary of the birth of Stepan Bandera, one of the founders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), in Kiev, Ukraine.
In an effort to redefine the roots of Ukrainian statehood, Stepan Bandera's war crimes are being whitewashed

The Ukrainian language channel of US state-run broadcaster RFERL is making a concerted effort to rehabilitate the life and legacy of WWII-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, widely held by historians to have been a war criminal.

A video posted by the broadcaster, registered as a "foreign agent" in Russia, earlier this month argued that Ukrainians are deeply divided about whether the wartime leader was a hero or a villain - while leaning heavily in favour of the hero narrative. RFE/RL is part of the US Agency for Global Media, a government controlled organisation, with an annual budget of over $800 billion, which is charter bound to promote the "foreign policy objectives of the United States."

Comment: Neo-nazi Ukraine nationalists were also settled in Canada, where they have captured the foreign policy department of that country.


Light Sabers

Russia says it will not make concessions to deescalation proposal under pressure from US

Ryabkov
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov
Russia harbors no illusions and does not expect "swift progress" from this week's security talks with the US and NATO, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said, adding that the collective West does not understand Moscow.

"We have realistic expectations," he told Interfax, on Sunday, adding that it would be "naïve" to believe the negotiations would lead to visible - not to mention "swift" - progress.

"There is a good chance that ... we will face the US and NATO's unwillingness to understand what we really need," Ryabkov replied to a another question from RIA Novosti. He also called "signals" coming from Western capitals ahead of the encounters "disappointing."

Comment: It seems that the US is hellbent on goading Russia in the hopes that it can illicit a response that can be used to justify the complete isolation of Russia, whilst at the same time, amidst the increased chaos, blame it for the enforcement of further restrictions at home:


Yoda

Rand Paul: The arrogance of Anthony Fauci

fauci
© AP Photo/Andrew HarnikDr. Anthony Fauci listens during a meeting with the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the latest developments related to the Omicron variant White House Campus in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022.
On my very first day in medical school, the dean gave a lecture on serendipity and scientific discovery, highlighting Penicillin as the most famous example of a scientist stumbling upon a discovery he hadn't originally intended to make.

Serendipity requires an environment with the freedom to think outside the box and to innovate without excessive central control. When science is made rigidly uniform by placing power in 'omniscient men,' the fortuitous finds of individual scientists may be left undiscovered.

The classical liberal economist Friedrich Hayek foresaw this debate when he wrote:
"Most scientists realize that we cannot plan the advance of knowledge, that in the voyage into the unknown — which is what research is — we are in great measure dependent on the vagaries of individual genius and of circumstance, and that scientific advance, like a new idea that will spring up in a single mind, will be the result of a combination of conceptions, habits, and circumstances brought to one person by society, the result as much of lucky accidents as of systematic effort."

Gear

Petition to have Tony Blair stripped of his knighthood gathers pace - UPDATE: Petition gathers more than 1M signatures and counting

Tony Blair
Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair was awarded a knighthood in the New Year's honours list.
A petition to have Tony Blair stripped of his knighthood is rapidly gathering support.

The former Labour prime minister was given the highest ranking of knighthood in the New Year's honours list by the Queen.

The announcement has seen fierce backlash, with Green MSP Ross Greer saying Blair "deserves a trial at the Hague rather than a knighthood".

Comment: Update 3 January 2022: It's now over 400K signatures...

See also: UPDATE 08/01/2022: Sky News reports:
More than one million people have signed a petition calling for Sir Tony Blair to have his knighthood removed.

The former Labour prime minister, who was in office between 1997 and 2007, was appointed a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the New Year Honours list.

However, there has been opposition to the appointment due to Sir Tony's record while in 10 Downing Street, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the petition on the Change.org website, which was started by 55-year-old Angus Scott from Norfolk, it is stated that Sir Tony "caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society".
blair petition knighthood
© Angus ScottMore than one million people have signed the petition calling for Sir Tony Blair to be stripped of his knighthood
"He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts," the petition adds.

"For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.

"Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.

"We petition the prime minister to petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed."
As of Friday night, almost 1,019,000 people had so far signed the online petition.

Mr Scott previously told supporters that for the petition "to have any chance of having an effect, we must all unite to push it over one million signatures".



Arrow Down

A Pandemic of Bureaucracy

Brazil the Movie
© Off-Guardian
Some compare corona times to the novel 1984, but I thought that perhaps Terry Gilliam's Brazil could be an even more apt comparison.

In that movie, the totalitarian nightmare is coordinated by bumbling and incompetent bureaucrats, who nevertheless never give up in their indefatigable pursuit of more paperwork.

If there was one thing that this damn pandemic sure increased was bureaucracy. To travel, to meet people, or even to have a cup of coffee somewhere, anywhere, now you need to show your "papers" — or, at any rate, a QR-code in your smartphone.

I traveled to Italy during the "first wave" of the pandemic — or was it already the second? It's hard to recall, there were so many. At the time, the bureaucrats had invented some kind of contact tracing form that everyone needed to fill before boarding a plane, however there were four or five different forms available, and confusion reigned.

People weren't sure which form to fill or how to fill it, and in the end, no one at the airport even checked the forms.

The procedure has been streamlined, and now they certainly check all forms and digital passes, but the confusion has only increased.

Italians initially had a "Green Pass", then a "Super Green Pass"; now they seem to be inventing some kind of "Booster Green Pass", and yet, predictably, none of it is reducing cases. It appears, go figure, that viruses and diseases are immune to paperwork.

Bizarro Earth

Saudi Princess Basmah & daughter freed after three years in jail without charge or trial

Basmah
© AFP/File photoSaudi Princess Basmah Bint Saud speaks during a discussion on the role of women in the Middle East at the Middle East Institute in Washington on 12 April 2017
Saudi authorities have released Princess Basmah bint Saud, 57, and her daughter who had been held without charge for nearly three years in the capital, a human rights group said on Saturday.

Alqst for Human Rights, in a post to Twitter on Saturday, said Princess Basmah "and her daughter Suhoud... have been released".

Princess Basmah is a member of the Saudi royal family long seen as a proponent of women's rights and a constitutional monarchy. She had been detained since March 2019.

Denied medical care

In April 2020, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were implored to release her on health grounds.

Comment: The case bears a number of similarities to the kidnap, detention and drugging of two other princesses who were critical of their 'evil' father, the ruler of Dubai.

See also:


Attention

Despite Sotomayor's absurd lack of Covid-19 knowledge, USSC seems skeptical of Biden vaccine mandates

Protesters
© UnknownProtesting OSHA Vaccine Mandate, the public speaks out.
Update (1446ET): Aside from the utter lack of basic knowledge of Covid-19 exhibited by some of the USSC Justices (see below), the court seemed skeptical of the Biden administration's claim that it has the authority to force vaccine mandates on over 84 million private sector employees. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) vs. the Department of Labor, in the Court's first hearing, argued:
"OSHA's sweeping regulatory dictate," will "irreparably injure the very businesses that Americans have counted on to widely distribute COVID-19 vaccines and protective equipment to save lives — and to keep them fed, clothed, and sustained during this now two-year-long pandemic.

The mandate will "convert hundreds of thousands of businesses into de facto public health agencies for two-thirds of America's private employees."
In the second case, Biden v. Missouri, the federal government is attempting to lift lower court stays which have blocked the enforcement of a Nov. 4, 2021 emergency regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Epoch Times reports.

Comment: Feedback is heavily critical of a certain justice's acumen and knowledge of the issues at hand:
The absurdity and ignorance of Sotomayor's remarks cannot be lost on the rest of the court. If so, pound the gavel and clear the bench!