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Win-Win vs Lose-Lose: The time has come for the world to choose

SK FM. US M Pompeo, Japan FM
© kr.usembassy.gov
S. Korea FM Kang Kyung-wha • US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo • Japan FM Toshimitsu Motegi
It is a tragedy of our age that society has been locked in a zero-sum operating system for so long that many people living in the west cannot even imagine a world order designed in any other way... even if that zero sum system can ultimately do nothing but kill everyone holding onto it.

Is this statement too cynical?

It is a provable fact that if one chooses to organize their society around the concept that all players of a "great game" must exist in a finite world of tension as all zero-sum systems presume, then we find ourselves in a relatively deterministic trajectory to hell.

You see, this world of tension which game masters require in today's world is generated by increasing rates of scarcity (food, fuel, resources, space, etc). As this scarcity increases due to population increases tied to heavy doses of arson, it naturally follows that war, famine, and other conflict will rise across all categories of divisions (ethnic, religious, linguistic, gender, racial etc). Showcasing this ugly misanthropic philosophy during a December 21, 1981 People Magazine Interview, Prince Philip described the necessity of reducing the world population stating:
"We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed - not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they'll consume, the more pollution they'll create, the more fighting they will do. We have no option. If it isn't controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation, and war."

Propaganda

NPR tells readers the Hunter Biden story is a 'waste' of time and a 'pure distraction,' so they're not reporting on it

Biden
© Lisa Hornak EPA
Former VP and presidential candidate Joe Biden
Translation: They'd rather not report on a story that could be damaging to their preferred candidate!

NPR managing editor Terence Samuels acknowledged Thursday that the news outlet has not been reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story because the editorial staff there doesn't want to "waste" readers' time on what they consider "pure distractions."

What are the details?

On Thursday, NPR's Samuels explained to readers that the Hunter Biden laptop story is a waste of their time and they don't need to look into it.
"We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that's where we ended up, this was ... a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way."

Comment: Ah, yes, 'Russia did it'. How do we un-prove something that has not been done? By making the accusers prove it has.


Video

Trump releases behind the scenes 60 Minutes video, claims CBS is full of 'bias' and 'hatred'

TrumpStahl
© CBS 60 Minutes
Trump interview with Lesley Stahl
President Donald Trump released footage from the CBS 60 Minutes interview after White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Stahl was acting "more like an opinion journalist."

"Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS," said the president on social media. "Tonight's anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse! #MAGA"

The video starts with Trump saying he's looking for "fairness" during the interview, as anchor Leslie Stahl preps the president by saying she was going to ask "tough questions." "You don't ask Biden tough questions," said the president. "It's terrible, you know that."

Stahl told the president that the revelations regarding Joe and Hunter Biden from Hunter's laptop "can't be verified."

Trump then responded by asking why not. Stahl replied: "Because it can't be verified." (The contents of the laptop have been verified by law enforcement officials, Fox News and the New York Post.)


Comment: Here is the full 37 minutes of raw footage:




X

Trump and advisors consider firing FBI director after election

Wray
© Unknown
FBI Director Christopher Wray
President Trump has reportedly talked with his advisers about the possibility of firing FBI Director Christopher Wray after Election Day due to the president's frustration that federal law enforcement officials have not delivered information that would help him politically in the final weeks before the election, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

According to the sources, discussions between the president and his senior aides have resulted from criticisms that Wray and Attorney General William Barr have not fulfilled Trump's wish for an official investigation to be launched into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

The sources, who the Post said spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to freely disclose internal discussions, said Trump has indicated he wants actions similar to those made ahead of the 2016 election by FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress he had reopened an investigation into then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.

Comment: There is a conflation of Trump's legitimate concerns as to the legalities and actions of the Bidens that affects the entire country (if allegations according to current information are proven correct and Joe Biden wins the election) as well as a personal stake for the president. Does Trump also have a wishlist for his campaign? Of course. Will he sacrifice one for the other...not likely. But in this case, both implications are tied at the hip as both are significant to the election - a double bullseye on Biden. As far as anonymous admissions from faceless individuals? We know how that goes.


Dollar

Biden pledges funding transparency, yet seemingly cheats on own vows as many of his campaign donors are kept secret

TrumpBiden
© Chill Report
US President Donald Trump • Former VP Joe Biden
As the sums received by Biden's campaign have grown, his interactions with big donors have become more opaque, an NYT report shows, as part of a broader trend to 'out' the candidate's non-commitment to his 'transparency' vows.

In May 2019, one week after launching his third presidential bid, Biden's campaign vowed it would allow media access to all his fundraising events, saying it was reflective of his "longstanding commitment to transparency."

The news was reported by Politico with some fanfare. The outlet explained it came in response to Democratic voters' "increasing discomfort with the role of big-money donors in politics," and allegations that Biden was "too cozy with corporate donors."

Target

Lebanon: Hariri again tasked with forming new government

Hariri
© AFP
Former Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri
One year after being turfed out of office by mass popular protests, Saad Hariri has been tasked with forming a Lebanese government for a fourth time.

Hariri ran as the sole candidate during consultations between MPs and President Michel Aoun, and was able to gain 65 votes out a possible 120, despite opposition from some key political parties.

The Future Movement leader is now tasked with forming a reformist government that will win the support of the international community and help salvage Lebanon's moribund economy.

In a brief statement to the press, the former prime minister promised his next government would be made up of "non-partisan experts" that would prioritize implementing necessary economic reforms to revitalize the country and reconstruction following the Beirut port explosion.

"I will get to forming a government quickly," Hariri said. "Because time is running out and this opportunity for our beloved country is the only one left."

Attention

Biden will create court reform commission, options go 'well beyond' court packing!

Biden
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
"It will look like this, folks..."
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced in a video clip released Thursday morning that he will create a national commission tasked with reforming the court system.

Biden's statement comes as he has repeatedly refused to say whether he supports far-left efforts to add judges to the Supreme Court in order to tilt the balance of power of America's judicial system toward the Democratic Party. Biden told CBS News:
"If elected, what I will do is I'll put together a national commission of bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative. And I will ask them to over 180 days come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it's getting out of whack, the way in which it's being handled. And it's not about court packing. There's a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I'd look to see what recommendations that commission might make."

Comment: See also:


Star of David

Israel operated a secret embassy in Bahrain for over a decade before 2020 Peace Accord

Manama
© AFP/Marwan Naamani
Capital of Bahrain, Manama
Israel has actually been operating a secret diplomatic office in Bahrain for more than a decade before the two nations penned a peace deal that normalized relations last month, according to a new Axios report.

Axios has revealed that since 2009, a front company called The Center for International Development has provided a secret window into Manama and enabled hundreds of Israeli business deals, the brainchild of then-Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and then-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. However, according to the outlet, the center changed its name somewhere along the way, and the new name is classified.

According to the outlet, the facility was staffed exclusively by Israeli diplomats with dual citizenship, many of whom went on to other posts in the Israeli Foreign Ministry once they left "employment" in Bahrain. They all had elaborate backstories that included fake work histories on CV hosting and networking site LinkedIn.

Axios notes only a small group of Bahraini officials knew about the facility's existence, but were constantly afraid of the news getting out.

Arrow Down

By backing censorship of Hunter Biden story, mainstream media only hurt their own cause

trump supporter
© Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Trump supporter holds photo of Hunter Biden before campaign event.
Erie, Pennsylvania • October 20, 2020
On a recent BBC show, CNN's Brian Stelter and Axios' Sara Fischer defended the social media suppression of the New York Post's Hunter Biden story. It's not a clever tactic in a hyperpartisan world where no one believes each other.

To say that the New York Post story on Hunter Biden's emails was big news would be an understatement. The same can be said about social media outlets clamping down on the story, seemingly trying to bury it as soon as possible. In the aftermath, there have been odd defenses of the methods used to try and squash the bombshell.

On a BBC panel called The Media Show, Stelter and Fischer explained why they thought censoring the article about Joe Biden's son was okay. In familiar terms, Stelter tried to dismiss the story as "old news" and accused "the right" of massive disinformation.

Fischer praised the "defensive systems" that were used to suppress the story. She went on to claim that Hunter Biden's emails were "hacked," even though there is no evidence that such a thing happened.

If a lack of consideration for freedom of the press is a defensive system, it's not a healthy system at all.

Comment: To answer the author, MSM does apply consistent logic when it is glued to a particular scenario and outcome. In service to this sacred cow, consistency is the key, false as that may be.


Putin

President Putin's 2020 Valdai Club speech articulates his vision of populist statism

putin valdai 2020
© kremlin.ru
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the plenary session of the 17th annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club via a video conference on Oct. 22, 2020.
President Putin's keynote speech at the Valdai Club's 17th annual meeting devoted a significant amount of time to articulating his vision of what can be described as "Populist Statism", or the emerging hybrid model of a strong state system driven by civil society, which represents an exciting new governance model that's perfectly suited for helping Russia adapt to the "Age of Complexity".

A Significant Speech

The Valdai International Discussion Club is globally regarded as one of Russia's top think tanks alongside the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), and it's become a tradition for President Putin to speak at its annual meeting. This year was no different, except that the Russian leader addressed his audience via videoconference instead of in person like he usually does, but his speech was still equally insightful in revealing how the person who many regard as the planet's most powerful man views the current state of the world. It's for that reason why readers are strongly encouraged to read his speech in full on the official Kremlin website, but for those who don't have the time, then the author's analysis of what he regards as its important points should hopefully suffice.