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Fri, 15 Oct 2021
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Big corporations now deploying woke ideology the way intelligence agencies do: As a disguise

air jordan customers
© VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Customers wait in line in an attempt to purchase limited-edition Air Jordan 1 'Light Smoke Grey' outside a Nike store on July 25, 2019, in Yichang, Hubei Province of China.
The British spy agency GCHQ is so aggressive, extreme and unconstrained by law or ethics that the NSA — not exactly world renowned for its restraint — often farms out spying activities too scandalous or illegal for the NSA to their eager British counterparts. There is, as the Snowden reporting demonstrated, virtually nothing too deceitful or invasive for the GCHQ. They spy on entire populations, deliberately disseminate fake news, exploit psychological research to control behavior and manipulate public perception, and destroy the reputations, including through the use of sex traps, of anyone deemed adversarial to the British government.

But they want you to know that they absolutely adore gay people. In fact, they love the cause of LGBT equality so very much that, beginning on May 17, 2015 — International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia — they started draping their creepy, UFO-style headquarters in the colors of the rainbow flag. The prior year, in 2014, they had merely raised the rainbow flag in front of their headquarters, but in 2015, they announced, "we wanted to make a bold statement to show the nation we serve how strongly we believe in this."

GCHQ

Official publication of the British surveillance agency GCHQ, May 17, 2015
Who could possibly be opposed to an institution that offers such noble gestures and works behind such a pretty facade? How bad could the GCHQ really be if they are so deeply committed to the rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people? Sure, maybe they go a little overboard with the spying sometimes, and maybe some of their surveillance and disinformation programs are a bit questionable, and they do not necessarily have the highest regard for law, privacy and truth. But we know that, deep down, these are fundamentally good people working within a fundamentally benign institution. Just look at their flamboyant support for this virtuous cause of social justice.

Comment: See also:


X

Mission accomplished: The Corbett Report removed from YouTube

youtube banned
I posted Episode 398 of The Corbett Report podcast, "Science Says," around 10 PM Japanese Standard Time on Friday, April 9th, 2021, and then went to bed. Sometime shortly after midnight, the main Corbett Report channel was removed from YouTube.

And, just like that, 14 years of work — some 1700+ videos, 569,000+ subscribers and 90 million+ video views — was erased from the digital ether. . . . Well, the GooTube portion of that digital ether, anyway.

Given that I've been promoting YouTube alternatives since at least 2009, and given that I have made video after video after video after video after video warning my audience that I would be banned from GooTube, and given that I even delivered a presentation last year noting that The Library of Alexandria is on Fire, it's safe to say that this news did not catch me off guard. Learning about the banning after waking up on Saturday morning, my only thought was, "Well, that took longer than I expected."

Indeed, it was not surprising in any sense that this was the report that led to GooTube purging my main channel. When you release a video on an account that already has two strikes for information that "contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities' medical information about COVID-19" and that video itself contains information calling those very authorities' pronouncements into question, you better believe the thought that this might be your last YouTube upload crosses your mind when you push that publish button. Heck, the "offending" podcast even centers around an op-ed comparing COVID skeptics to terrorists and calling for the UN to mount a "counteroffensive" against them. Of course this video was going to be censored.

Comment: See also:


Eye 1

200 police descend on church to stop worshipers attending Sunday service in Alberta, Canada

canada police church
Around 400 protestors reportedly gathered outside GraceLife Church in Alberta, Canada on Sunday after it was closed last week for violating local COVID-19 health orders.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said it "physically closed" the building and will be preventing access to it until GraceLife "can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health's restrictions."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers barred congregants' access to the church Sunday.

Comment: Notably, back in September, 700 UK church leaders declared that they would refuse to abide by more lockdowns, despite this more lockdowns were enforced, and with little to no (publicized) defiance from the majority of those leaders. However, if recent raids and arrests on clergy and churches - from the UK, to France, and Canada - are anything to go by, a resistance by the faithful seems to be building: This kind of tyrannical behaviour is nothing new; for an idea of how people of faith managed before, check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: Interview with Rod Dreher: How to Survive the Coming Soft Totalitarianism


Star of David

An old green colonial trick: Israel masking land grabs as environmental conservation

Palestinian on balcony
© Mussa Qawasma/Reuters
A Palestinian man cut off from his family by the Israeli wall, looks out of his house at the Jewish settlement of Gilo, in Al-Walaja. February 18, 2020.
For decades, a Palestinian village on the southern tip of Jerusalem has lived on and cultivated the land. But a series of recent efforts by Israel is not only threatening their way of life but potentially displacing them from their homes.

On January 25, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee rejected the residents of Palestinian village al-Walaja's plan to legalize their homes and further develop the community. Instead, the committee declared their land an ancient agricultural area in need of environmental conservation that should be transformed into a national park.

The notion of environmental integrity struck Amy Cohen, director of international relations and advocacy at Israeli non-profit Ir Amim, as contradictory.
"The planning committee and the [Israel] Civil Administration within the West Bank [have] been promoting and advancing plans within the same area for Jewish settlers. It shows massive discrimination in how [Israel] treats Palestinian areas in order to suppress the residential development."
The committee's decision paves the way for the lifting of the demolition freeze on 38 al-Walaja homes. On April 26, Israel's Supreme Court will convene for a hearing on al-Walaja's 2018 petition over its resident-initiated outline plan.

Pumpkin 2

Monty Python star John Cleese mocked Hank Azaria's Apu guilt with 'apology' to 'English people'... but some didn't get the joke

john cleese apu Simpsons hank azaria
© Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP; 20th Century Fox Television, Gracie Films; Amy Sussman / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
(L) John Cleese (C) 'The Simpsons' Apu (R) Hank Azaria
British actor John Cleese has been both cheered and chastised for ridiculing voice actor Hank Azaria over his apology to "every single Indian person" for his portrayal of Simpsons character Apu.

Azaria drew a mixed response this week when he said sorry for his portrayal of the long-running cartoon's Indian shopkeeper Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, whose stereotypical identity, the actor said, had helped maintain "structural racism."

Cleese issued his own humorous take on the political correctness row after many Simpsons fans said Azaria's comedy did not require him to apologize and accused the actor of trying to be "woke."

Comment:


Yoda

James O'Keefe: Project Veritas suing CNN for defamation, new video will expose network's 'fraud' related to Covid-19

CNN logo street
© REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe has announced that he intends to take CNN to court for making false statements about his conservative media organization. He says more sensational revelations about the network are to come.

O'Keefe made the provocative statements while speaking to Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday, following Veritas' release of an undercover video showing CNN technical director Charlie Chester explaining how the broadcaster allegedly used "propaganda" to help oust Donald Trump from the White House.

"CNN considers themselves the most trusted name in news, but here they are admitting that they are trying to help certain political candidates and they're trying to hide that," he told the Fox host.

Comment:


Arrow Down

University of Virginia med student suspended from campus after he questioned microagression panel

University of Virginia
© Mark Lagola
Kieran Bhattacharya is a student at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine. On October 25, 2018, he attended a panel discussion on the subject of microaggressions. Dissatisfied with the definition of a microaggression offered by the presenter — Beverly Cowell Adams, an assistant dean — Bhattacharya raised his hand.

Within a few weeks, as a result of the fallout from Bhattacharya's question about microagressions, the administration had branded him a threat to the university and banned him from campus. He is now suing UVA for violating his First Amendment rights, and a judge recently ruled that his suit should proceed.

Dollars

Patrisse Cullors, 'trained Marxist', pulled in $20k a month as chair of prison 'reform group' while building real estate empire on BLM grift

patrisse cullors blm
© Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of BLM
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-founder and executive director Patrisse Cullors, a self-identified "trained Marxist," raked in upwards of $20,000 a month serving as the chairwoman of a Los Angeles jail reform group in 2019, according to campaign finance records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Reform LA Jails disbursed a total of $191,000 to Cullors in 2019 through her consulting firm, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, according to financial records submitted to the California Fair Political Practices Commission. The description for each of the seven reported payments to the Cullors' firm that year read: "P. Cullors, Principal Officer, Business Owner."

It's unclear when exactly Reform LA Jails began paying Cullors through her firm, which is named after the BLM co-founder and her spouse, Janaya Khan. The first payment of $51,000 occurred between January 2019 and the end of June 2019, according to an FPPC report covering that timeframe. The exact date of the payment isn't disclosed in the report.

Comment: From The New York Post:
As protests broke out across the country in the name of Black Lives Matter, the group's co-founder went on a real estate buying binge, snagging four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone, according to property records.

Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, also eyed property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes, The Post has learned. Luxury apartments and townhouses at the beachfront Albany resort outside Nassau are priced between $5 million and $20 million, according to a local agent.

The self-described Marxist last month purchased a $1.4 million home on a secluded road a short drive from Malibu in Los Angeles, according to a report. The 2,370-square-foot property features "soaring ceilings, skylights and plenty of windows" with canyon views. The Topanga Canyon homestead, which includes two houses on a quarter-acre, is just one of three homes Khan-Cullors owns in the Los Angeles area, public records show.

Some fellow activists were taken aback by the real estate revelations.

Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, which is not affiliated with Khan-Cullors' Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, called for "an independent investigation" to find out how the global network spends its money.

"If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes," he said. "It's really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it's the people that carry this movement."

Last year, Khan-Cullors and spouse Janaya Khan ventured to Georgia to acquire a fourth home — a "custom ranch" on 3.2 rural acres in Conyers featuring a private airplane hangar with a studio apartment above it, and the use of a 2,500-foot "paved/grass" community runway that can accommodate small airplanes.

The three-bedroom, two-bath house, about 30 minutes from Atlanta, has an indoor swimming pool and a separate "RV shop" that can accommodate the repair of a mobile home or small aircraft, according to the real estate listing.

The Peach State retreat was purchased in January 2020 for $415,000, two years after the publication of Khan-Cullors' best-selling memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist.

In October, the activist signed "a multi-platform" deal with Warner Bros. Television Group to help produce content for "black voices who have been historically marginalized," she said in a statement.

It is not known how much Khan-Cullors received in compensation in either deal.

Khan-Cullors began her buying spree in LA in 2016, a few years after the civil rights movement she started from a hashtag — #blacklivesmatter — with fellow activists Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi began to gain traction around the world.

That year, she bought a three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home in Inglewood for $510,000. It is now worth nearly $800,000. Khan-Cullors added her wife, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter in Canada, to the deed in a family trust last year. The couple married in 2016.

Two years later, in 2018, Khan-Cullors purchased a four-bedroom home in South Los Angeles, a multi-ethnic neighborhood. Khan-Cullors paid $590,000 for the 1,725-square-foot home, although the price has since climbed to $720,000, according to public records.

Three of the homes were bought in Khan-Cullors' name, and the Topanga Canyon property was purchased under a limited liability company that she controls, according to public records cited by "Dirt," the real estate blog that first reported the March 30 purchase.

Last year, Khan-Cullors and Khan were spotted in the Bahamas looking for a unit at the Albany, a real estate source who did not want to be identified told The Post. The elite enclave is laid out on "600 oceanside acres" and features a private marina and designer golf course. Current homes for sale include a nearly 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom townhouse with a media room and marina views. The price is only available upon request, according to the resort's website.

"People who buy at the Albany are buying their fourth or fifth home," said a resort worker who did not want to be identified. "This is not a second-home residence. It's extremely high-end, and people are coming here for complete and total privacy."

While it's not clear if Khan-Cullors purchased a property at the island retreat for the super-rich, her mere interest shows just how far she has come from the hardscrabble Van Nuys neighborhood in LA where she spent her childhood with two brothers and a younger sister.

In her memoir, Khan-Cullors describes growing up in a housing project less than a mile from the affluent and largely white neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, a community of wide lawns and pools where "there is nothing that does not appear beautiful and well kept." The four kids were mostly raised by her single mother, who worked 16 hours a day to support the family, she writes.

Growing up, Khan-Cullors lived in "a two-story, tan-colored building where the paint is peeling and where there is a gate that does not close properly and an intercom system that never works," she writes. "The only place in my hood to buy groceries is a 7-Eleven."

Khan-Cullors embraced activism and Marxism at a young age. "It started the year I turned twelve," she writes. "That was the year that I learned that being black and poor defined me more than being bright and hopeful and ready."

But she didn't rise to national prominence until 2013, when she and two other activists protested the not-guilty verdict against George Zimmerman, who shot dead Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Florida.

Black Lives Matter protests erupted again in 2020 after the May killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck during his arrest.

Donations and pledges from corporations and individuals poured into the movement at that point. In February, the BLM nonprofit co-founded by Khan-Cullors told the AP that they took in $90 million in 2020, with $21.7 million committed to grant funding and helping 30 black-led groups across the country.

Black Lives Matter leaders would not specify how much money they took in from prominent donors, according to the AP report.

It's also not clear how much Khan-Cullors makes in salary as one of the leaders of the movement, since its finances are split among both nonprofit and for-profit entities and difficult to trace.

Founded by Khan-Cullors and another activist, Kailee Scales, the nonprofit Oakland, Calif.-based BLM Global Network Foundation was incorporated in 2017 and claims to have chapters throughout the US, the UK and Canada, and a mission "to eradicate White supremacy and build power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities." The group does not have a federal tax exemption and donations are filtered through ActBlue Charities and Thousand Currents, two nonprofits that manage the cash.

At the same time Khan-Cullors incorporated the nonprofit, she also set up the similarly named BLM Global Network, a for-profit that is not required to disclose how much it spends or pays its executives.

Some have criticized the lack of transparency.

Newsome of NYC's BLM said, "We need black firms and black accountants to go in there and find out where the money is going." He added that his group does not receive any financial support from the BLM Global Network.
RT highlights the history of activist grift:
BLM New York wants an investigation into 'trained Marxist' Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors buying four new homes, but given the movement's history of hypocrisy and grift, why is anyone even remotely surprised?

It would be nice to have a pleasant surprise when it comes to politics. Maybe have some good news to share, but sadly today is not that day. Though I imagine there are members of Black Lives Matter who are having a worse day than I am. Especially given the revelation that their co-founder spent $3.2 million on real estate, and the head of their New York branch is calling for an investigation following her home purchases.

Now, while I'm certainly no fan of BLM's Marxist messaging, I can sympathize that it must be upsetting to learn that there is a monumental grifter within the movement. But, on the other hand, shouldn't Black Lives Matter have a much better grasp of when there are grifters within their movement? Especially considering their history?

Take Shaun King, for example. Since he began within the movement, there have been many questions raised about the money that he is raising for families and other such causes. Goldie Taylor of the Daily Beast wrote an article about these issues all the way back in 2015. Questions were also raised by Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post about money raised for Tamir Rice's family. As events unfolded, there were often stories cropping up that the difficulties were caused by incompetence on King's part. Then there was the failed launch of the North Star, where an attempt to relaunch Frederick Douglass' abolitionist newspaper as a media network fell flat on its face. On top of all of this, King actually being a black man has been called into question by his birth certificate and prior police reports.

Another figure to look at would be DeRay Mckesson. To his credit, Mckesson has largely kept to protesting and activism. However, he did attempt to use his position within Black Lives Matter to get into an actual elected position when he tried to run for mayor of Baltimore in 2016. His attempt was an utter failure. He only finished with 3,445 votes, placing 6th in the Democratic primary.

It goes without saying that whenever a movement like Black Lives Matter comes up, there will be people who don't look at it like any sort of movement for actual change. If you expect there to be true believers, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be people who don't really care, or only care to a certain degree. So when you hear about Patrisse Cullors spending all of that money on real estate, it's rather obvious where their true motivations lie. The self-described "trained Marxist" certainly saw the light of capitalism once she realized she could have a lot more zeros in her bank account.

If time has taught America anything, it's that the self-sacrificing leaders of civil rights movements simply don't exist anymore. All that people see is outrage, and opportunity to make some dough. In the case of Black Lives Matter, it's no different. If there is one irony to all of this, it's that the co-founder of the movement decided to invest in real estate. You know, the thing that Donald Trump got rich on.



Attention

Not Covid: Official figures show bug was not primary cause in one quarter of UK deaths

covid deaths UK dropping

Office for National Statistics data shows that almost one in four deaths with Covid on the certificate in the week ending April 2 "involved" Covid, meaning Covid was not the primary cause of death
Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths were not caused by the virus, new official figures reveal.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows 23 per cent of coronavirus fatalities are now people who have died "with" the virus rather than from an infection.

This means the disease was not the primary cause of death recorded on death certificates, despite the person who died testing positive for Covid.

Other data also shows an increasingly positive picture of the state of the pandemic in Britain.

Gold Seal

Project Veritas busts CNN again: 'We were creating a story -- our focus was to get Trump out', admits deliberately targeting Matt Gaetz

veritas trump cnn
© Getty Images; Project Veritas (inset)
Charlie Chester, a technical Director at CNN, claims "if it wasn't for CNN, I don't know that Trump would have got voted out," during a series of fake Tinder dates filmed by Project Veritas.
A technical director for CNN made the grave error of sitting down with a (probably hot) undercover female journalist from Project Veritas, to whom he admitted that the network "got Trump out" with their coverage, and that he "100% believe(s) that if it wasn't for CNN, I don't know that Trump would have got voted out."

"I came to CNN because I wanted to be part of that," added the director, Charlie Chester.

Hethen explained how the network engaged in propaganda to 'create a story' about Trump vs. Biden.

Comment: More from the New York Post:
Charlie Chester, a technical Director at the cable network, was filmed by Project Veritas during a series of fake Tinder dates as he explained how they "got Trump out" of office.

....

A source close to CNN said Project Veritas targeted Chester through the dating app Tinder because his profile mentioned he worked at CNN, according to Mediaite.

The Project Veritas employee, who was not identified and claimed to be a nurse, went on five dates wearing a wire, including the final one at a coffee shop in Chester's neighborhood. It's unclear when the dates took place.

Chester told his "date" he would be fine with it if Biden died, because he thought Vice President Kamala Harris is "f — ing real."

"I had so many arguments about, like — my dad would be like, 'You're, you know, you're voting in Kamala Harris because he's going to die in the presidency," Chester told the woman. "And I'm like, 'He's not going to f — ing die.' But I'm OK with that. I'm OK with that. She probably could be a b — h in, like, a board meeting, and you'd hate her as a boss, but she's f — ing real, and better than what we got regardless."

Chester was asked if CNN covered Biden tripping as he walked up the stairs.

"But you talk about that briefly. You don't make that a huge story," he said.

CNN did not respond to requests for comment by The Post.
Project Veritas also brought to light the concerted smear campaign against Matt Gaetz, because "it would be great for the Democrat Party" . The Daily Wire reports:
James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released explosive video on Tuesday that appeared to show CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester admitting that the network has aggressively covered allegations that have been made against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) "to keep hurting him" because it would be "great" for the Democrat Party.

"If the agenda say, is to like get, like Matt Gaetz right now, he's like this Republican," Chester said.
"He's a problem for the Democratic Party because he's so conservative and he can cause a lot of hiccups in passing of laws and what not."

"So, it would be great for the Democratic Party to get him out. So, we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him and make it so that it can't be buried and like just settled outside of court and just like, you know, if we keep pushing that, it's helping us," he added. "That's propaganda because it's helping us in some way."
WATCH: