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Trump says fear-mongering about new COVID variants a 'lunatic' ploy to rig 2024 election

Tom Ozimek
The Epoch Times
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:01 UTC
donald trump tarmac
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after being booked at the Fulton County jail on 13 charges related to the 2020 election, in Atlanta, Ga. on Aug. 24, 2023.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused "left-wing lunatics" of fear-mongering about new COVID-19 variants in order to justify the reintroduction of their left-wing lockdown and mandate policies, which included the use of drop boxes and mail-in ballots in 2020, in a bid to rig the 2024 election.

President Trump made the remarks in a video posted on Aug. 30 on Truth Social, saying that his message should serve as a warning to every COVID-19 "tyrant" who not only wants to "take away our freedom" but who would be playing into the hands of those wanting to exploit COVID-19 restrictions to interfere in next year's election.

"The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming," President Trump said in the video.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Secretive Covid disinformation unit worked with security services

Investigations team
The Telegraph
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 18:00 UTC
phone
A government unit accused of seeking to suppress free speech during the pandemic worked with Britain's intelligence agencies, senior civil servants have confirmed.

Documents submitted to the Covid inquiry and marked "official sensitive" reveal that the "UK intelligence community" has been involved in the Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) since it was founded in 2019.

The unit was set up by ministers to tackle disinformation - false information that is deliberately spread - and initially focused on foreign interference in the European elections.

Comment: From the Times article Disinformation unit 'tried to stifle Covid lockdown critics':
The Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) leads the government's response to "disinformation threats" online and collects personal data to help to explain online disinformation narratives. But a report says that it was used to curb critics of lockdown and the mass vaccination of children.

Documents revealed under freedom of information and data protection requests showed that the activities of prominent critics of Covid policies were secretly monitored, The Daily Telegraph said.

The Rapid Response Unit in the Cabinet Office actively looked for content online it considered to be misinformation. It passed monitoring reports to the CDU and has admitted it made requests for social media posts to be taken down, according to Big Brother Watch.

...

Requests for content to be removed are fast-tracked at social media companies. One of Kingsley's tweets from December 2020, in which she said it would be "unforgivable to close schools", was said to have been passed to the CDU. Ministers denied asking for posts by the three to be removed.

The government also ran a Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum attended by civil servants and large technology companies such as Facebook and Google to discuss how to limit the spread of disinformation. The BBC reportedly attended, but in an observer capacity.

...

A government spokesperson said: "The unit's purpose is to track narratives and trends using publicly available information online to protect public health and national security.

"It has never tracked the activity of individuals and has a blanket ban on referring journalists and MPs to social media platforms. None of the people named in this report were ever referred to social media platforms by the government and any claim otherwise is objectively false."


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Eye 2

Best of the Web: US returning nukes to UK base reveals desperation behind NATO's standoff strategy - Retired US Air Force Lt. Col


Sputnik
Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:48 UTC
F-35A US jet
© F-35 Joint Program OfficeAn F-35A releases ordnance during a dual capable aircraft (DCA) test flight in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California, on February 6, 2020.
The US deployment of F-35s and nuclear weapons to the UK is being cast as a response to tensions with Russia, but is in fact a consequence of long-established US plans to revive a Cold War-era strategy of nuclear standoff as a way to assert US power, a former Pentagon analyst and US Air Force commander told Sputnik.

A US newspaper has revealed the Pentagon's plans to return US-owned nuclear bombs to the United Kingdom after a 15-year absence, with $50 million set aside for new support facilities at RAF Lakenheath north of London. The switch will parallel the replacement of aging F-16 Falcon aircraft with newer F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, stealthy jets cleared to carry B61-12 variable-yield nuclear bombs.

According to a Congressional budget request for next year, the funds will help build a 144-bed dormitory that will "house the increase in enlisted personnel as the result of the potential surety mission" - a Pentagon jargon term for the handling of nuclear weapons, according to experts.

Comment: A growing number of retired Western officials are speaking out against the growing desperation of the West and how it threatens to destablise the world:


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Bad Guys

Ukrainian troops dying due to poor quality medical supplies - media


RT
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 06:57 UTC
Doctors operate in a Military Hospital in Kiev District
© Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
Medics are being provided with "fake" tourniquets that often fail to reduce patients' bleeding, the Globe and Mail has reported.

Medical equipment shortages and poor-quality supplies are causing extra deaths among injured Ukrainian soldiers, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday, citing local volunteers.

According to several battlefield medics and charity leaders, Ukrainian authorities are "failing to provide adequate medical care to soldiers on the front lines," potentially endangering the lives of more than a million personnel.

The issue largely stems from the fact that the Ukrainian army lacks a well-established quality control system, the report said. Valentina Varava, head of the Initiative E+ charity, told the Globe and Mail that her organization had amassed a stockpile of tourniquets, although many of them are "fake" and fail to meet international standards.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Kremlin says Prigozhin plane may have been downed on purpose

Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Wed, 30 Aug 2023 11:03 UTC
Prigozhin
© akelicious.netYevgeny Prigozhin
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane carrying mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose, the first explicit acknowledgement that he may have been assassinated.

"It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version - you know what we are talking about - let's say, a deliberate atrocity," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the investigation.

Asked if the International Civil Aviation Organization would investigate the crash, Peskov said that the circumstances made it different, though he cautioned that investigators had made no formal conclusions yet about what exactly took place.

"Let's wait for the results of our Russian investigation," Peskov said.

The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg from Moscow crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on Aug. 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin's four bodyguards and a crew of three.

The cause is still unclear, but villagers near the scene told Reuters they heard a bang and then saw the jet plummet to the ground.
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Green Light

France ready to support ECOWAS military action in Niger - Macron


RT
Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:48 UTC
BazoumMac
© Chesnot/Getty ImagesNiger's President Mohamed Bazoum • French President Emmanuel Macron
Paris will continue condemning the coup and supporting Bazoum, who remains Niamey's legitimate ruler, the French president insists...

Paris will back any military action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Niger to restore the rule of ousted leader Mohamed Bazoum, French President Emmanuel Macron has said. He made the comment in response to the expulsion of French Ambassador Sylvain Itte from Niamey by the new military government that seized power in a coup last month.

The Nigerien Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the envoy had 48 hours to leave the country for refusing to meet with the new military rulers and for "other actions of the French Government contrary to the interests of Niger."

Speaking to diplomats in Paris about French foreign policy on Monday, Macron stated that, despite the coup leaders' order, the ambassador would remain in Niger.
"France and its diplomats have faced particularly difficult situations in some countries in recent months, from Sudan, where France has been exemplary, to Niger at this very moment, and I applaud your colleague and your colleagues who are listening from their posts."
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Bullseye

We the targeted: How the government weaponizes surveillance to silence its critics

John and Nisha Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Tue, 29 Aug 2023 00:00 UTC
crowd
© Freedom HouseSurveillance 21st-Century Style
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
— President Harry S. Truman
Ever since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his groundbreaking "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, the Deep State has been hard at work turning King's dream into a living nightmare.

The end result of the government's efforts over the past 60 years is a country where nothing ever really changes, and everyone lives in fear.
Race wars are still being stoked by both the Right and the Left; the military-industrial complex is still waging profit-driven wars at taxpayer expense; the oligarchy is still calling the shots in the seats of government power; and the government is still weaponizing surveillance in order to muzzle anti-government sentiment, harass activists, and terrorize Americans into compliance.This last point is particularly disturbing.

Starting in the 1950s, the government relied on COINTELPRO, its domestic intelligence program, to neutralize domestic political dissidents. Those targeted by the FBI under COINTELPRO for its intimidation, surveillance and smear campaigns included: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, the Black Panther Party, John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Emma Goldman, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Felix Frankfurter, and hundreds more.

Comment: This comment is being monitored.

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Attention

No respite for France as a 'New Africa' rises

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 18:30 UTC
Like dominos, African states are one by one falling outside the shackles of neocolonialism. Chad, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and now Gabon are saying 'non' to France's longtime domination of African financial, political, economic, and security affairs.
Niger
© The Cradle
By adding two new African member-states to its roster, last week's summit in Johannesburg heralding the expanded BRICS 11 showed once again that Eurasian integration is inextricably linked to the integration of Afro-Eurasia.

Belarus is now proposing to hold a joint summit between BRICS 11, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). President Aleksandr Lukashenko's vision for the convergence of these multilateral organizations may, in due time, lead to the Mother of All Multipolarity Summits.

But Afro-Eurasia is a much more complicated proposition. Africa still lags far behind its Eurasian cousins on the road toward breaking the shackles of neocolonialism.

The continent today faces horrendous odds in its fight against the deeply entrenched financial and political institutions of colonization, especially when it comes to smashing French monetary hegemony in the form of the Franc CFA - or the Communauté Financière Africaine (African Financial Community).

Still, one domino is falling after another - Chad, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and now Gabon. This process has already turned Burkina Faso's President Captain Ibrahim Traoré, into a new hero of the multipolar world - as a dazed and confused collective west can't even begin to comprehend the blowback represented by its 8 coups in West and Central Africa in less than 3 years.
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Newspaper

US and China military officials convene in Fiji, follows nearly a year of Beijing declining invitations from US officials


Voice of America
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:46 UTC
China USA
© AP Photo / Andy WongIn a unique display of direct interaction, military officials from the US and China met during a defense chiefs conference held in Fiji earlier this month.
US Indo-Pacific Command leader, Admiral John Aquilino, encountered a top Chinese representative at this gathering, which took place from Aug. 14-16, as reported by the Pentagon. On Thursday, Wu Qian, the Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson, informed the media in Beijing that General Xu Qiling, who is the deputy joint chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, had discussions with the US delegates. The nature and content of these discussions remain undisclosed by both parties.

Interestingly, Admiral Aquilino had mentioned just a month prior to the conference that China hadn't responded to the US's invitation for participation. Despite this, the conference witnessed representatives from 27 different nations. It is essential to note that China had cut off military interactions after Nancy Pelosi, then the House Speaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022.

This hiatus in ties was further extended when the US identified and subsequently intercepted an alleged Chinese spy balloon traversing US territory in February.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

US stocks vulnerable to severe economic downturn, Bank of America warns


Voice of America
Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:47 UTC
Nasdaq
© Michael Nagle—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesStock market information at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, on June 9, 2023. Even with the Federal Reserve potentially halting rate hikes, US stocks remain under the shadow of a severe economic downturn, says a recent analysis by strategists at Bank of America Corp.
Michael Hartnett, a strategist with the bank, points to emerging signs of a slowdown in the labor market as a crucial indicator prompting the Fed's pause in rate increments. Hartnett believes that a forthcoming "benign" report on job data might complete the "Goldilocks jigsaw", referring to a situation that's not too hot or cold, just right. Yet, he anticipates increasing evidence of a 'hard landing' for the economy from September onwards.


Comment: And this is bearing in mind that a number of analysts have shown how the labor market numbers were basically showing how those who lost their jobs during the lockdowns, eventually found other employment, it also includes those who were taking two or three jobs on top of their main one. Often, what's notably absent from these statistics is the number of unemployed, working age people who have stopped looking for work entirely.


Despite having accurately forecasted the dip in US stocks the previous year, Hartnett's stance has remained pessimistic throughout 2023, even as the S&P 500 enjoyed a 17% surge. Investors' recent optimism is partly driven by hopes that a dwindling US economy would lead the Fed to adopt a more dovish stance. The S&P 500 showed an upward trend in the past fortnight but concluded August with its inaugural monthly drop since February. Anticipation now hinges on the Labor Department's impending non-farm payrolls report, which many expect to reveal the weakest job addition numbers since the conclusion of 2020.

Comment: It's pretty clear that a crash is on the cards, particularly for economies in the West, the question is whether the deep state market manipulators will be able to conjure up enough financial trickery to keep their zombie economies going for long enough that they can manipulate the situation to their advantage, or whether control will finally slip out of their hands: 'Crash coming this year', Big Short investor who called 2008 crisis

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