Puppet MastersS


Target

Privatized authoritarianism

Orban
© NewsBeezer.comHungarian PM Viktor Orban
Censorship, media bias, and the inability to speak one's mind openly for fear of professional retribution are all considered givens in the life of an American conservative. Yet, none of these things are imposed by the state. Rather, corporate oligarchs have taken up the mantle of commissar, arbitrating what constitutes an acceptable opinion.

Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Hungary, a nation that has established itself as a bulwark of national populism and Christian traditionalism on the European continent, has sparked debate in conservative circles regarding the degree of authoritarianism present in Hungary and whether the United States is any better.

Critics characterize Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government as one of state-sanctioned repression, intent on snuffing out ideological diversity in the press and otherwise silencing political opposition. David Frum, a staff writer at the Atlantic and a former Bush administration official, even claimed that people in Hungary "[turn] their heads to check who [is] listening before they [lean] forward to whisper what they [have] to say" for fear of losing their jobs should they say something to offend the dominant ideology of the regime.

On the other hand, Americans experience all this to some degree without the coercive power of the state needing to be involved. To Frum's point on Hungarians being afraid to speak freely in public (an observation that some people living in Hungary dispute), a sizable majority of Americans also self-censor when talking to others. Given that an offhand comment can cost you your job in the U.S., we shouldn't be so quick to place ourselves above Hungary.


Briefcase

'Bad faith' US prosecutors misled Canada in Huawei case, court hears in final arguments

Meng Wanzhou escorted
© Reuters/Jennifer GauthierHuawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves a court hearing
Vancouver, BC Canada • August 4, 2021
Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou say American prosecutors acted in "bad faith" and abused the Canadian justice system when they pursued the Huawei chief financial officer, in final arguments of the telecoms executive's closely watched extradition proceedings.

In a Vancouver courtroom on Wednesday, Meng's legal team argued that American prosecutors misled the Canadian justice system in their legal summary of the allegations against Meng. Her team says this abuse of process obliges the judge overseeing the case to toss out the extradition request against Meng and set her free.

The long-shot argument is part of a strategy to free the telecoms executive, whose detention has been at the centre of an ongoing feud between the United States and China - with Canada caught in the middle.

American prosecutors allege that Meng misled bankers at HSBC about Huawei's relationship with SkyCom, putting HSBC at risk of violating American sanctions against Iran. Both she and Huawei have denied the charges. She was detained by Canadian officials at Vancouver's main airport December 2018.

Meng's lawyers have previously claimed her rights were breached by comments made by then president Donald Trump, collusion between the two countries to share protected information, and a lack of international jurisdiction.

To be successful in their latest strategy, Meng's lawyers must convince a British Columbia judge that American prosecutors misled the Canadian justice system to the extent that it "shocks the conscience" of the country - a legal test stemming from a famous 1987 extradition case.

Comment: See also:


Broom

NIH director backtracks on call for parents to mask up around kids AT HOME after backlash

Francis Collins
© Reuters / Pool
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has hastily walked back a call for parents of unvaccinated kids to wear masks even at home after massive backlash on social media demanding evidence for the practice.

After Collins' Tuesday morning appearance on CNN's New Day was widely shredded on social media, the NIH director took to Twitter to issue a clarification.

He wasn't claiming parents needed to wear masks around their offspring at home, he insisted - but "vaccinated parents who live in communities with high Covid transmission rates" should wear masks in "public indoor settings" in order to "minimize risks to their unvaccinated kids."


Comment: The revised guidance is still ludicrous because even children with multiple comorbidities are at no risk from the coronavirus.


Comment: See also:


Attention

'Authorities are viewing their own people as an enemy' says UN special rapporteur on torture

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer responded to police brutality dished out to anti-lockdown protesters in Germany last weekend by warning, "Authorities are increasingly viewing their own people as an enemy."
Protesters and Police
© Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
As we highlighted earlier in the week, Melzer, a professor of international law, made a request for eyewitnesses after footage emerged of numerous examples of people being manhandled and beaten by police in Berlin merely for expressing their right to assemble.

One clip showed a female anti-lockdown protester in Berlin being grabbed by the throat and brutally thrown to the ground by riot police, while another showed a young boy being struck in the face as he tried to come to the aid of his mother.

The response to Melzer's request was overwhelming, with over a hundred reports of violence flooding in, leaving him with the task of "calling for clarification as well as punishment and reparation for rule violations," reports Berliner Zeitung.

The professor says there is clearly enough evidence "for an official intervention on my part with the federal government."

Light Sabers

India deploys warships in South China Sea as part of 'Act East' policy

china navy
© REUTERS/Jason Lee/File PhotoChinese navy personnel moor the Indian Navy warship INS Kolkata at Qingdao Port for the 70th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), in Qingdao, China, April 21, 2019.
India is sending a naval task force to the South China Sea this month to expand security ties with friendly countries, officials said on Wednesday, signalling its intent to play a bigger role in regional efforts to counter China.

The Indian military has been traditionally wary of antagonising China but the mood has hardened following clashes between troops on the disputed land border last year. The government has since drawn closer to the United States in efforts to push back against China.

Four ships including a guided missile destroyer and a missile frigate will be deployed for a two-month period to southeast Asia, the South China Sea and the western Pacific, the navy said in a statement.

Comment: See also:


Newspaper

Scientific journal paper suggests making it a 'federal hate crime' to criticize Fauci

Anthony Fauci
A scientific journal article authored by Professor Peter Hotez, a frequent guest on corporate media networks, called to "extend federal hate-crime protections" for scientists facing criticism from alleged "far-right extremists," including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Hotez, who himself has been funded by Anthony Fauci's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1993, offered the robust defense of scientists including Fauci and EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak in a recent paper: "Mounting Antiscience Aggression In The United States."

"There is a troubling new expansion of antiscience aggression in the United States. It's arising from far-right extremism," the paper, published in the peer-reviewed Public Library of Science (PLOS) Biology journal, begins.

Comment: EcoHealth Alliance and its President Peter Daszak are trying to mask the real origin of the virus. Google funded Peter Daszak to force the theory that the Covid-19 was a bat virus, and censored the "lab leak" theory.

One of the policy advisors to the EcoHealth Alliance is David Franz. Franz is a former commander of Fort Detrick, which is the principal U.S. government biowarfare/biodefense facility. There is much evidence that this man-made virus, and Fort Detrick may have had something to do with it.

See also:


Star of David

Iran urges UN to be wary of Israeli 'false flag operations' in wake of Mercer Street tanker incident

attack israel oil tanker gulf oman
© Twitter / OrHellerUnconfirmed image of the Mercer Street tanker provided by Or Heller, correspondent for Israel's Channel 10 News
Tensions in the Persian Gulf region escalated to levels unseen since 2019 over a suspected fatal attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker and an alleged attempt to hijack an asphalt carrier in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli and Western officials and media blamed Iran. Tehran denied any responsibility and has accused the West of "psychological warfare".

Tehran is demanding an immediate halt to the propagation of "artificial maritime 'incidents'" in the Persian Gulf region and wants the United Nations to condemn Israel for its threats to use force, Zahra Ershadi, Iran's deputy ambassador to the international body, has indicated.

In a letter to the UN Security Council president on Wednesday, Ershadi rejected what she said were "unfounded" allegations by the UK, Liberia and Romania accusing Iran of responsibility for the 29 July attack on the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Singapore-owned, UK-operated and Israeli-managed oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.

Comment: Gantz takes up Bibi's mantle:
Netanyahu Bomb Iran



Yoda

Ron DeSantis challenges Biden's attack on Florida: 'I'm standing in your way'

DeSantis
© FileFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday dismantled the criticism from President Joe Biden he received earlier in the week about the rise of Chinese coronavirus cases in the Sunshine state.

"Biden has taken to himself to try and single out Florida over COVID [Chinese coronavirus]," Desantis explained.

However, he quickly followed up by saying Joe Biden ran for president on a platform of "He was going to shut down the virus." Instead, Biden "has imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border."

Comment: Florida is shining as a beacon of America-that-was:


Snakes in Suits

Arkansas' Republican Gov backtracks saying he REGRETS law banning mask mandates in state

Hutchinson
© REUTERS/Gary CameronArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the National Press Club in Washington DC
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) says he regrets signing a ban on mask mandates in schools as he asks the state legislature to reverse the decision.

"Well, I signed it at the time because our cases were at a very low point. I knew it'd be overridden by the legislature if I didn't sign it ... I already eliminated our statewide mask mandate," Hutchinson said in a press conference on Tuesday.

"I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point. Everything has changed now. And yes, in hindsight I wish that had not become law," he added.


Comment: 'Cases' have been fluctuating from the very beginning and there was every chance that they'd rise again, so the reasoning is weak and it appears he's backtracking, embarrassing himself and jeopardizing his position with his constituents in the process. Just what is going on behind the scenes that would cause the Governor to so abruptly change his mind?


The governor last week began calling for the state legislature to overturn the part of the law that says schools can't decide if they want a mask mandate.

Comment: Just The News reports that Biden is turning up the pressure by reprimanding the Republican governors:
President Joe Biden on Tuesday reprimanded GOP governors for banning mask mandates, as he told them to let "businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it."


People who choose to wear masks are still free to do so.


"We need leadership from everyone and if some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it," Biden said at the White House on Tuesday, according to The Hill.

"I say to these governors, please help. If you aren't going to help, at least get out of the way of people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives," he added.

Biden was asked about Florida and Texas, where governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, respectively, have signed executive orders prohibiting mask mandates.

"I believe the results of their decisions are not good for their constituents, and it's clear to me and to most of the medical experts that the decisions being made like not allowing mask mandates in schools and the like are bad health policy," Biden said during the press conference.

When asked why he doesn't tell DeSantis this message directly over a phone call, Biden said, "He knows the message. We had a little discussion while we were down there," apparently referring to his trip to Surfside, Fla., in July, following the condominum collapse.

Arizona, Iowa, South Carolina, and Vermont have also banned schools from implementing mask mandates.
RT provides some more details:
Questioned about his ban on local officials enacting mask mandates in April at a press conference on Tuesday, Hutchinson was surprisingly open about his change in position.

"Everything has changed now," the governor said. "And yes in hindsight, I wish that had not become law. But it is the law. And the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the court to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation."


Hutchinson is one of multiple Republican governors to sign bills into law that push back against potential vaccine passports or mask mandates.


Note that it's not just mask mandates that are up for grabs, there's the threat of vaccine passports too:



Arkansas is seeing its highest Covid-19 cases since January. Less than half of adults in the state are fully vaccinated, and the state has the third lowest vaccination rate in the country.


It's telling that in countries across much of the planet, even in those where the experimental injections are widely available, less than half of people have chosen to be vaccinated.


Hutchinson's criticism of a law he signed led to heavy mockery online from liberal critics.



Hutchinson is now calling for a special state legislative session to reevaluate the ban, which the governor argued he signed into law when Covid-19 cases were dropping.

The Republican governor did not go as far as some Democrats have in recent weeks by calling for an actual mask mandate across the state, but did appear open to mask mandates dictated by school districts.

The state's health secretary, Jose Romero, added that coronavirus cases among young people have been rising dramatically in recent months. Cases among those under 18, the health secretary said, rose by 500% from the month of April to July. Hospitalizations for people under 18, meanwhile, have reportedly increased by over 200%.



Pirates

SOTT Focus: Covid, Climate Change And The Great Reset: A Cover And "Solution" To The West's Failing Financial System

Bank for International Settlements
Bank for International Settlements
The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Great Reset has been sold to the public as an opportunity to build a sustainable, carbon neutral future. The ubiquitous sound bite of build back better, or "build back greener," as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently rephrased it, suggests that recovery from the economic devastation, following the alleged pandemic, is a chance for the world to "reset."

Sustainable Development Goal 11 (b) of UN Agenda 2030 states:
By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards.. adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, written in 2015, states:
The recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, which needs to be prepared ahead of a disaster, is a critical opportunity to Build Back Better.
With the 2020 emergence of the alleged global pandemic, human settlements have certainly been implementing plans. Fitting in perfectly with Agenda 2030, our leaders efforts to build back better are focused upon a recovery which appears to have been planned long before anyone had even heard of SARS-CoV-2.