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Fri, 15 Oct 2021
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Attention

Daily Mail uses FOI rules to obtain emails on secretive covid origins teleconference, receives almost completely blacked-out documents

Ian Birrell
Daily Mail
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 22:00 UTC
uk government johnson
The Government has been condemned after refusing to release details of key email conversations involving leading scientists over the origins of Covid-19.

This newspaper used Freedom of Information rules to obtain a cache of 32 emails about a secretive teleconference between British and American health officials held early in the pandemic.

But officials blacked out almost every word before releasing the crucial documents.

Comment: See also:

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Cult

Ex-NSC official, Fiona Hill, admits it's 'unlikely' Russia had blackmail info on Trump

Samuel Chamberlain
New York Post
Tue, 05 Oct 2021 17:51 UTC
Fiona Hill
© REUTERS/Erin Scott
Former National Security Council Fiona Hill said Russia likely didn't have blackmail info on former President Donald Trump.
A former National Security Council (NSC) official who testified that then-President Donald Trump attempted to use the Ukrainian government for a "domestic political errand" has dismissed the theory the Kremlin had damaging information about the 45th president it used to extract concessions from him.

"What Putin had on Trump is what everybody else had — recognition of his extreme vulnerability to manipulation," Fiona Hill told The Daily Beast in an interview published Monday.

The idea that Trump was uniquely vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow took root even before his inauguration, when BuzzFeed News published the now-infamous dossier compiled by ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele. Among the dossier's many salacious claims: that Russian intelligence had a video of Trump paying prostitutes to urinate on the bed in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow.

Comment: More on Ms. Hill, and none of it pretty. She did her bit though, in obstructing Trump's policies and was rewarded with a book deal, as is custom.

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Attention

Google demonetizes climate skeptics and bans 'denier' ads

Joanne Nova
JoNova
Sat, 09 Oct 2021 18:12 UTC
The only people worth silencing are those who are right.

Goolag
© Hacktivist Parody Google
Hacktivist Parody Google
Google is waging a war against skeptics because skeptics have the truth on their side and they win debates too easily. How do we know? There are plenty of wrong people on the internet, and acres of misinformation, but Google is happy to feed those creators. The Flat Earthers are not spreading fast on Youtube, they're not attracting millions of views. But no one needs to cut off their money supply because their arguments aren't persuasive. To stop those ideas from running amok, the world only needs free speech.
Google announces: ...a new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators that will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.

Google demonetizes content creators who deny climate change

by Ian Miles Cheong, Rebel News
Arrogance knows no bounds:
The tech giant claims it will be able to differentiate between content "that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim."
Who needs scientists anyhow - just Google the truth instead of doing all those experiments?

It's time for skeptics to hone their skills in satire and parody. Let's screw those algorithms!

For content creators who were relying on Youtube adverts, losing the monetization could kill the business, it's a cruel blow. Google's behaviour is grossly unfair and deceptive. It sold itself as a "platform" deceived people into watching and sharing their creative talents, and on November 1 could wipe them out. But good talent can still find a way — not only are there other, better video homes, but it's so much better to get a business model that doesn't feed or rely on Google. My advice would be to connect with your audience, set up a blog or a website, and ask for help and donations. Use Youtube while you still can, to set up a list.
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Eye 1

Macron calls for worldwide end to death penalty on 40th anniversary of French abolition


France 24
Sat, 09 Oct 2021 11:51 UTC
macron
© AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in France at the Pantheon on Saturday, vowing to "relaunch the fight for the universal abolition" of capital punishment.

Describing the death penalty as an "abomination", the French president said he would convene a summit next year to press for capital punishment to be abolished worldwide.

"As part of the French presidency of the European Union (in the first half of 2022), we will organise, with the NGO Ensemble contre la peine de mort (Together against the death penalty), a meeting in Paris at the highest level, bringing together civil societies from countries that still apply the death penalty [...], in order to convince their leaders of the importance and urgency of abolishing it," he said.

Comment: The irony of Macron lecturing the rest of the world about human rights is astounding given his blatant disregard for them when he OK'd vaccine mandates for healthcare workers. Not to mention the bill introduced by the French Senate to mandate Covid vaccines for EVERYONE beginning January 1, 2022.

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Eye 1

French Senate introduces bill to mandate Covid vaccines for EVERYONE beginning January 1 2022

blueapples
ZeroHedge
Tue, 05 Oct 2021 14:26 UTC
france vaccine mandate

Translated document. Original can be found on: https://www.senat.fr/amendements/commissions/2020-2021/811/Amdt_COM-1.html
Following in the footsteps of much of Europe, France has introduced several stringent vaccine mandates that have irrevocably changed the landscape of life in the nation. The city of lights has been illuminated with the allegorical ambiance of pitchforks and torches as massive protests have taken to the streets of Paris since President Emmanuel Macron announced measures on July 12th that require proof of vaccination to enter cafés, restaurants, and even hospitals. The forewarning of the outcries of those protesters has now reached its apotheosis as the Social Affairs Committee of the French Senate has introduced a bill that will require mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19 for all citizens beginning on January 1st, 2022.

The proposed vaccine mandate was introduced by Senator Bernard Jomier on October 4th. Jomier, the Senator of Paris who introduced the law proposition, sits as the Vice-Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee. He is also a member of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, Social Security Assessment and Control Mission, and Socialist, Ecologist and Republican Group within the French government. Jomier, a member of the Socialist Party, continues to work as a physician as he had preceding his initial term as a Senator which began in 2017. He and his fellow senators Marie-Pierre La Gontrie, Monique Lubin -- among others -- had initially introduced the premise of a nation-wide vaccine mandate to the French Senate on August 31st but have since crafted the premise of the bill in a much more actionable manner at its first reading before the Social Affairs Committee.

Comment: Meanwhile Sweden, Denmark and Finland have moved to ban the Moderna mRNA injection for the under 30's considering the threat to health too great; how long before the truth about the harms posed by the other injections are admitted by governments? And how much harm will France's mandate have caused by that point? Moderna vaccine suspended by Sweden, Denmark for under 30's amidst surge in reports of serious side effects - UPDATE: Finland follows suit

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Dollars

The postpandemic world is one of induced widespread dependence on government

Per Bylund
Austrian Economic Center
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 00:00 UTC
Widespread Dependence on Government
The state strives for power, and what grants power is fear and dependence. The state is making people dependent on it, both as means for control and as an outcome of many policies intended to provide relief.

We have seen a lot of fear and dependence in this pandemic. Fear has been the message that has propelled types of repressive policies that were not possible before. Had anyone suggested only over a year ago that whole countries, democratic European countries, would close down and quarantine people in their homes most of us would have thought him crazy. But it happened. Because fear was drummed up, many populations went along with it. Even though they later protested and resisted, it was too late. Much of the damage was already done. And of course, many feared not only the virus but also the police, which sometimes with enormous brutality cracked down on those seeking a breath of fresh air after weeks stuck in their homes.

It is possible to roll back these policies. However, many of them will need to be rolled back for society to function again. To be clear, it is not possible for the state to keep everybody locked in their homes for long. This is an overreach and points to the limit of the state's power. When the people rise in opposition, as we've seen in this pandemic, the state has no power.

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Dominoes

Turkey's existential choice: BRI or bust

Matthew Ehret
The Cradle
Mon, 04 Oct 2021 00:00 UTC
Zipper China Turkey
© The Cradle
Two destinies are pulling on West Asia from two opposing visions of the future.

As devotees of the rules-based order laid out by Zbigniew Brzezinski 40 years ago strive to uphold their dystopic model of dividing populations to feed endless wars, a more optimistic program of cooperation is being ushered in by China's ever-evolving Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

While many nations have jumped on board this new paradigm with enthusiastic support, others have found themselves precariously straddling both worlds.

Turkey plays footsie with great powers

Chief among those indecisive nations is the Republic of Turkey, whose leader was given a harsh wake up call on 15 July, 2016. It was on this date that Russian intelligence provided Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the edge needed to narrowly avoid a coup launched by followers of exiled Islamist leader Fetullah Gulen.

The timing of the coup has been subject to much speculation, but the fact that it occurred just two weeks after Erdogan's letter of apology to Putin went public was likely not a coincidence. The apology in question referred to Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet flying in Syrian airspace in November 2015, killing a soldier and very nearly activating NATO's collective security pact.
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Display

Durham probes Pentagon computer contractors in anti-Trump conspiracy

Paul Sperry
RealClearInvestigations
Thu, 07 Oct 2021 00:00 UTC
JoffeeSussmannDurhamTyrrellAntonakakis
© blog.executivebiz/perkinscoie.com/AP/weil.com/gatech.edu/KJN
Rodney Joffe • Michael Sussmann • John Durham • Steve Tyrrell • Manos Antonakakis
Cybersecurity experts who held lucrative Pentagon and homeland security contracts and high-level security clearances are under investigation for potentially abusing their government privileges to aid a 2016 Clinton campaign plot to falsely link Donald Trump to Russia and trigger an FBI investigation of him and his campaign, according to several sources familiar with the work of Special Counsel John Durham.

Durham is investigating whether they were involved in a scheme to misuse sensitive, nonpublic Internet data, which they had access to through their government contracts, to dredge up derogatory information on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016 and again in 2017, sources say — political dirt that sent FBI investigators on a wild goose chase. Prosecutors are also investigating whether some of the data presented to the FBI was faked or forged.

These sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement matter, said Durham's investigators have subpoenaed the contractors to turn over documents and testify before a federal grand jury hearing the case. The investigators are exploring potential criminal charges including giving false information to federal agents and defrauding the government, the sources said.

The campaign plot was outlined by Durham last month in a 27-page indictment charging former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann with making a false report to the FBI. The document cites eight individuals who allegedly conspired with Sussmann, but does not identify them by name.
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Propaganda

Washington Post's 'conspiracy theory' quiz declares existence of 'deep state' fake news, contradicting its own reporting


RT
Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:49 UTC
deepstate
© CanadaFreePress/KJN
If you believe in a "Deep State" embedded in the US government, then you're falling down the conspiracy "rabbit hole," the Washington Post claims. Yet the Post believes this theory too. It just doesn't call it a 'Deep State'.

Nine in 10 Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory, researchers found earlier this summer. Yet conspiracy theories run the gamut from 'Bigfoot exists' to 'the Holocaust never happened', and the Washington Post published a quiz this week to remind its readers which ones to believe and which to discard. The answers tell a story in themselves.

In a series of multiple-choice questions, the statement "There is a 'deep state' embedded in the government that operates in secret and without oversight" is marked as false.

"For much of the past four years, Republicans have speculated that a 'deep state' was working to undermine President Donald Trump," the Post explained, adding: "While the FBI and CIA do conduct covert operations, there's little evidence for a separate Deep State."

Yet this is untrue, according to the Washington Post's own reporting.

Comment: Obviously there is less-than-scant evidence for a real 'deep state'. It wouldn't be deep if there was. The described machinations to thwart Donald Trump were a clandestine mosaic of conspiracies to sew doubt and cripple the presidency.

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Stop

US nuclear submarine hits underwater 'object' in South China Sea


South China Morning Post
Fri, 08 Oct 2021 05:28 UTC
Submarine
© File/US Navy.jpg
The USS Connecticut nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine
A US Navy attack submarine "struck an object while submerged" in international waters in the South China Sea, officials said on Thursday. They said there were no life-threatening injuries and the sub was still fully operational.

In a brief statement providing few details of an incident that happened on the afternoon of October 2, US Pacific Fleet said the USS Connecticut remained in a "safe and stable condition". Seawolf-class submarine's nuclear propulsion plant was not affected, it added. "The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed," the statement said, adding that the incident will be investigated.

The statement did not specify the location of the incident, but two US Navy officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not announced publicly, said it happened in the South China Sea while the Connecticut was conducting routine operations.

The officials said the sub then headed toward port at Guam. The incident was not announced before Thursday to maintain operational security.

Comment: Beijing has a question or two on this incident:
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has expressed its concern about an incident in the South China Sea. Speaking on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called on the US to clarify details concerning the USS Connecticut, a nuclear-powered Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine, which struck an unidentified object while submerged in the South China Sea on October 2.

Zhao requested that the US confirm the specific location of the accident, the vessel's intentions and more details about the collision itself, including whether it caused a leak of nuclear material. The spokesman also asked if the submarine had damaged the local marine environment.

He said China and its neighbors had a right to question Washington over the incident and seek the truth.
"The United States deliberately delayed and concealed details of the accident, demonstrating irresponsibility and a lack of transparency."
Zhao said the root cause of the incident was the US' insistence on sailing through the Beijing-claimed South China Sea under the banner of freedom of navigation.


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