Puppet MastersS


Vader

Best of the Web: The Kafkaesque imprisonment of Julian Assange reveals the US mythology about 'freedom' and 'tyranny'

Glenn Greenwald
greenwald.substack.com
Fri, 01 Jan 2021 20:25 UTC
assange billboard
© David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesA billboard van calling for an end to extradition proceedings against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange waits at traffic lights in Parliament Square in London, England, on September 14, 2020.
The real measure of how free is a society is not how its mainstream, well-behaved ruling class servants are treated, but the fate of its actual dissidents.

Persecution is not typically doled out to those who recite mainstream pieties, or refrain from posing meaningful threats to those who wield institutional power, or obediently stay within the lines of permissible speech and activism imposed by the ruling class.

Those who render themselves acquiescent and harmless that way will — in every society, including the most repressive — usually be free of reprisals. They will not be censored or jailed. They will be permitted to live their lives largely unmolested by authorities, while many will be well-rewarded for this servitude. Such individuals will see themselves as free because, in a sense, they are: they are free to submit, conform and acquiesce. And if they do so, they will not even realize, or at least not care, and may even regard as justifiable, that those who refuse this Orwellian bargain they have embraced ("freedom" in exchange for submission) are crushed with unlimited force.
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Bulb

Donald Trump has been the most illuminating president in decades

Rachel Bovard
The Federalist
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00 UTC
Donald/Melania
© White House/Andrea Hanks/Flickr,US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania
In all Trump gave us — the good, the bad, the hilarious, and the unsettling — his administration brought much-needed clarity to the GOP and the country.

At the end of his second term, amid the early retrospectives about his presidency, George W. Bush reportedly remarked, "the true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now." It was a wise reminder that the passage of time generally yields a more honest, dispassionate analysis of events than is often allowed by the heated political present.

While we are left to wonder how history will judge the last four years of President Trump, it will hopefully be with more fairness than the often-unhinged levels of coverage he's received to date. Yet as the nation's self-appointed purveyors of truth dutifully tap out their think pieces about how Trump brought fascism to America, it's worth reflecting on what changes Trump did bring to Washington.
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Fire

The year in which comforting American myths were ravaged

James Bovard
AIER
Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00 UTC
barn burning
© jcalveraThe barn burns
Thanks in large part to Covid lockdowns, this year has left vast wreckage in its wake, with ten million jobs lost, more than 100,000 businesses and dozens of national chains bankrupted or closed. Up to 40 million people could face eviction in the coming months for failing to pay rent, and Americans report that their mental health is at record low levels. But the casualty list for 2020 must also include many of the political myths that shape Americans' lives.

Perhaps the biggest myth to die this year was that Americans' constitutional rights are safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. After the Covid-19 pandemic began, governors in state-after-state effectively placed scores of millions of citizens under house arrest - dictates that former Attorney General Bill Barr aptly compared to "the greatest intrusion on civil liberties" since the end of slavery. Politicians and government officials merely had to issue decrees, which were endlessly amended, in order to destroy citizens' freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of choice in daily life. Los Angeles earlier this month banned almost all walking and bicycling in the city, ordering four million people to "to remain in their homes" in a futile effort to banish a virus.

Comment: Are we a nation of boiling frogs? 'Twould seem so by all the above markers and recent events.

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Russian Flag

Stephen F. Cohen on Russia's democratization and how US meddling undermines it

Aaron Maté
The Gray Zone
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00 UTC
Stephen Cohen
© RT
Pushback rounds out 2020 by airing an unpublished interview with Stephen F. Cohen, the eminent Russia historian and scholar who passed away in September at the age of 81.

In an interview recorded one year before his death, Stephen F. Cohen discusses local elections and protests in Russia; opposition leader Alexei Navalny; as well as the state of Russia's post-Soviet democratization and how US meddling undermines it.

Guest: Stephen F. Cohen. Professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, contributing editor at The Nation, and author of books including War with Russia: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate. This interview was recorded in September 2019, one year before his death.


TRANSCRIPT
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Newspaper

All major Western media outlets take 'private dinners', 'sponsored trips' from Chinese communist propaganda front

Natalie Winters
The National Pulse
Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00 UTC
Chinese flag/Media logos
© PBANN/KJN
A host of corporate media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC have participated in private dinners and sponsored trips with the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Chinese Communist Party-funded group seeking to garner "favorable coverage" and "disseminate positive messages" regarding China, The National Pulse can reveal.

Other outlets involved in the propaganda operation include Forbes, Financial Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC News, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, AFP, TIME magazine, LA Times, The Hill, BBC, and The Atlantic.

The relationship is revealed in the Department of Justice's Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings, which reveal a relationship spanning over a decade between establishment media outlets and the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
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Boat

US pulls warship from Mideast amid Iran tensions


MEMO
Fri, 01 Jan 2021 12:44 UTC
US boat
© US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel BarkerUS guided-missile destroyer
The US announced Thursday is recalling the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier from the Middle East after a nearly 10-month deployment amid tensions with Iran, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Nimitz will return to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, according to the Pentagon. Spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement:
"The Nimitz team provided persistent air cover during the troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and conducted operations and exercises that strengthened enduring partnerships and alliances in the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command areas of responsibility.

"They conducted themselves admirably throughout the deployment despite the many challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic."
The move comes one day after the US flew two B-52 bombers over the Middle East in a warning sign likely intended for Iran.
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Briefcase

McConnell signals House $2,000 stimulus checks bill won't pass Senate

Jordain Carney
The Hill
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:16 UTC
mitch mcconnell
© Cheriss May/Getty ImagesSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks in Washington on Dec. 21, 2020.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday ripped a House-passed proposal to increase the amount of stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, signaling that it won't pass the Senate.

McConnell's remarks underscore that Congress is unlikely to get a proposal to increase the stimulus checks to President Trump's desk by noon Sunday, the start of the 117th Congress.

The House passed a bill Monday to increase the amount of the stimulus checks included in a recent $2.3 trillion package, but McConnell said Wednesday that the Senate would not pass a stand-alone bill on checks.

"The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to address two of them. The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats rich friends who don't need the help," McConnell said from the Senate floor.

McConnell argued that the House-passed bill "does not align with what President Trump has suggested" and "has no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate."

McConnell and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) blocked the House bill on the Senate floor on Wednesday. McConnell also blocked it twice on Tuesday.

Comment: Bernie came out in rare support for Trump:



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USA

Best of the Web: Dozens of Republican congressman planning to challenge fraudulent electoral college results - UPDATE: Make that 140+

Zachary Stieber
The Epoch Times
Thu, 31 Dec 2020 21:14 UTC

Comment: The titanic struggle for the highest office on Earth continues...


Matt Gaetz
© Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesRep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks to reporters in Washington on April 21, 2020. Gaetz is one of dozens of Republcian lawmakers who plan on contesting electoral votes during the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress.
At least 25 Republicans plan on challenging electoral votes during next month's joint session of Congress, according to a tally by The Epoch Times.

Twenty-four representatives and representatives-elect, who will enter office several days before the session, plan on filing objections. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is the only member or member-elect of the upper chamber to commit to an objection.

"You've got 74 million Americans who feel disenfranchised, who feel like their vote doesn't matter. And this is the one opportunity that I have as a United States senator, this process right here, my one opportunity to stand up and say something, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," Hawley said on Wednesday.


Comment: Hawley isn't backing down:
"Josh Hawley's latest: he's all in on overthrowing our democratic elections. Another pointless and dangerous attempt to undermine the will of the people," Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said in a statement.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on CNN that Hawley's actions are undermining the democratic process, calling the planned objection a "reckless stunt."

Hawley responded to the claims during an appearance on Fox.

"First of all, I don't recall hearing the Democrats make any such outrageous claims when they were the ones who were objecting during the Electoral College certification in 2004 and 2016," he said.

"Democrats have done this for years in order to raise concerns about election integrity. Now, when Republicans — 74 million Americans — have concerns about election integrity, we're supposed to just sit down and shut up? I mean, somebody has to stand up here. You've got 74 million Americans who feel disenfranchised, who feel like their vote doesn't matter. And this is the one opportunity that I have as a United States senator, this process right here, my one opportunity to stand up and say something, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."
...
Hawley said he plans to object to make the point that "we had states like Pennsylvania that did not follow their own laws, their own state law, in the election process." He also hopes to draw attention to how technology companies like Twitter came out in favor of Biden by censoring Trump in recent months. "I'm going to try to force a debate about all of these points," Hawley said.

Objections are filed in writing and must have support from at least one member of each chamber. If they do, they trigger a two-hour debate and a vote by the House of Representatives and the Senate. A simple majority in each chamber is required to uphold the challenge.

Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told The Epoch Times that the group plans to file objections against the votes from six states, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. They're mulling an objection to votes from New Mexico.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was the first to announce plans to file an objection.

Comment:



UPDATE: GOP reps believe the number will be at least 140.

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Display

Best of the Web: Jack Dorsey, the CIA and Twitter censorship in the age of Covid-19

Vanessa Beeley
Unlimited Hangout
Thu, 10 Dec 2020 18:11 UTC
Global Climate Initiative
© Robert CohenOpening session of the Clinton Global Initiative at Washington University.
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, has embedded himself in some of the most powerful global influencer complexes. His techno-mining of African potential and the increasing use of Twitter as a surveillance tool for the corporatocracy have generated the opportunity for Dorsey to play an increasingly pivotal role in the roll-out of the World Economic Forum's Great Reset
In Part 1 of this series on the emergence of the "celebrity humanitarianism" complex of the 21st century and its role in the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, I covered the evolution of Hollywood actor Sean Penn from anti-Iraq-war activist to establishment narrative endorser and advocate for the predator class factions dominated by the Clinton family cabal and globalism.

Penn was one of the three men together on a beach holiday that was featured in a Daily Mail article in November 2020. Another of the three global influencers strolling on the beach with Penn was "technology entrepreneur" and the CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Dorsey's meteoric rise to fame as a leading innovator in the world of data technology began to falter in 2016/17 when 247 Wall Street listed Dorsey among the twenty worst CEOs in America.

In this article, I will investigate Dorsey's involvement in the narrative management of Covid-19 and his potential contribution to the roll out of the World Economic Forum's Great Reset that has been accelerated by the Coronavirus "pandemic" exercise.
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Briefcase

Trump sues, asking US Supreme Court to overturn Wisconsin election outcome


RT
Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:17 UTC
Trumps
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstPresident Donald Trump and First Lady Melania
Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to declare the outcome of the presidential election in the state of Wisconsin void and order its legislature to assign a new group of electors, his campaign has announced.

The lawsuit, filed by the outgoing president in his capacity as an election candidate, argues that the outcome of the election in Wisconsin remains unknown due to uncertainty about the validity of tens of thousands of absentee ballots, Trump's campaign said. It's the latest of many legal steps Trump has taken in Wisconsin and elsewhere to challenge his rival Joe Biden's November 3 victory.

Comment: See also:

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