Friday funnies

Simon Black  October 30, 2020  Santiago, Chile

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

School Threatens to Arrest 12 Year Old Over Three Missed Zoom Classes

A California school sent a letter threatening to arrest and prosecute a 12 year old boy who missed 90 minutes of online virtual classes.

The letter says the middle-schooler is considered truant if he misses more than a half hour of any given class.

When the boy’s father complained about the threat to his son (who happens to be an excellent student and makes straight A’s), the school principal said his hands were tied.

California’s laws regarding truancy force schools to send the warning letter, and funnel kids into the state’s prison pipeline.

Click here to read the full story.

Mother Faces Prison for Keeping Kids Home From School

A mother of two in the UK has a great reason to keep her kids home from school.

She is especially at risk of complications if she contracts COVID-19 due to diabetes, asthma, and an underactive thyroid. According to these conditions, the UK’s socialized health system, the NHS, classifies her as clinically vulnerable.

But that doesn’t matter to the local education welfare officer, who sent a letter to the mom demanding her children return to school, or she will face up to three months in prison and a £2,500 fine.

So first the government forces everyone to close their businesses and stay home. Now they want to force a vulnerable person into contact with others.

Isn’t it fun having the government control your life?

Click here to read the full story.

UK Allows Migrant Posing as Child into School

When an asylum-seeker arrives in the United Kingdom without a passport or birth certificate, the policy is to give him the benefit of the doubt.

That’s how a balding man from Gambia who looks about 40 years old ended up in a UK high school.

The man claims to be 15 years old, which qualifies him for extra government support as an unaccompanied minor. Naturally, he is not required to prove his claim of being 15. The government merely accepts his word, even though he clearly looks MUCH older.

When one schoolgirl shared pictures of the man on social media, questioning his age, the school called her a bully.

Click here to read the full story.

Tampax Competes for Wokest Corporation

If you thought Tampax was a women’s hygiene product brand, you were wrong.

The company recently sent a Tweet that read:

“Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let’s celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed!”

Now it’s somehow controversial to say that one set of sexual organs requires Tampax’s products, and the other does not.

In order to be more inclusive, we have to deny basic scientific facts of life, like the biological differences between males and females.

Of course, like J.K. Rowling, you will get in trouble these days for thinking like that.

The Harry Potter author was recently “canceled” for Tweeting, “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

Click here to see the Twitter thread.

The Only Cop Arrested Was The Whistleblower

Six months ago, a man died after two police officers arrested him in a drug sting.

The Police Department in the city of Joliet, Illinois (about 30 miles from Chicago) refused to release video footage from the patrol car that night showing how the man died.

But another officer was so disgusted by his colleagues’ misconduct that he leaked the video to the public.

The video shows the officers swearing at the detainee, slapping him, shoving a police baton down his throat, and holding his nose shut to try to make him spit something out, presumably drugs.

The suspect died a short time later.

But the only arrest that resulted from this incident was the whistleblower– the third officer who leaked the video footage.

He’s now charged with official misconduct for unauthorized access to the video evidence and faces five years in prison.

Click here to read the full story.

BREAKING: FBI running active criminal investigation into money laundering operations of the Biden family … total media blackout continues

Thursday, October 29, 2020 by: Mike Adams

(Natural News) The DOJ has confirmed to Breitbart News that the FBI is running an active money laundering investigation into the Biden family. Joe Biden and his family members have been hit with numerous allegations of money laundering, fraud, bribery, corruption and racketeering over the last week as damning evidence has emerged, detailing the family’s financial ties to communist China, Russia and other nations.

As Breitbart News reports:

A Department of Justice (DOJ) official confirmed Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and his associates in 2019, focused on allegations of money-laundering, and that it remains “open and active,” according to Sinclair investigative reporter James Rosen.

As recently reported by Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak, Hunter Biden had allegedly acted as the personal attorney for the chair of a major Chinese energy firm in a deal to buy 14 percent stake in a Russian state oil company Rosneft, which would allow Rosneft to evade U.S. sanctions. The deal ultimately fell through, as the Chinese energy firm came under investigation by China and other countries as well.

The accusation was exposed by Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, during an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday evening.

Bobulinski also said that $5 million from the Chinese company that was meant to fund his own company went to an account controlled by Hunter Biden, instead. He cited a recent Senate report that described Hunter Biden’s diversion of that money for to his own firm, for “consulting fees.”

Bobulinski told Rosen that he was recently interviewed by the FBI in Washington, D.C., on October 23, 2020, for about five hours with up to six agents, and expects to be interviewed by the FBI again.

Another one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, Bevan Cooney, sits in jail over a bond scheme involving Native Americans that allegedly involved Hunter Biden. Another associate, Devin Archer, has also been charged.

https://www.brighteon.com/embed/f395225f-5d2c-47eb-bb25-feef9e08ad98

U.S. Senate investigation finds shocking history of Biden family receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes

The U.S. Senate has also posted a detailed investigations document that reveals a stunning array of what appear to be financial crimes by the Biden family. That document, entitled, “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns” is found here:

A backup of the PDF has been archived at the Natural News servers:
https://www.naturalnews.com/files/HSGAC-Finance-Joint-Report-on-Hunter-Biden.pdf

That document describes a long-running financial corruption and kickback scheme involving the Biden family. Among the findings:

  • In addition to the over $4 million paid by Burisma for Hunter Biden’s and Archer’s board memberships, Hunter Biden, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds.
  • Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
  • Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden.
  • Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.
  • Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”

The Biden family’s former business partner Bobulinski has gone public, detailing the corruption and fraud

From Natural News:

Speaking to Tucker Carlson during a recent bombshell interview, former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski spilled all about his past meetings with Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, whom Bobulinski says knew full well what his son Hunter and other family members were up to in their dealings with China and other foreign entities.

According to Bobulinski, Joe used his political power to secure deals not only in China but also in Romania, Luxembourg and Oman, all for his children and other family members who had absolutely no experience or knowledge as to what they were doing.

https://www.brighteon.com/embed/8573ae14-0fad-47c7-863b-6fd6d55c0d5d

Entire corporate media complex continues to censor this bombshell story

Meanwhile, the entire corporate media complex continues to completely blacklist this entire story in order to protect their preferred candidate, Joe Biden. This instantly exposes the corruption and fraud of the media — along with the Bidens — and proves that when it comes to critical information that could drastically alter the public’s choice of candidates in a democratic election, the media will always cover up the crimes of Democrats, no matter how dangerous they may be.

This is why President Trump needs to not only call for the arrest of Joe and Hunter Biden, but also criminally charge the complicit fake news “journalists” who are actively collaborating with communist China to protect their puppet candidate in America: Joe Biden.

Treason is treason, and it’s time to identify those who are committing it and remove them from society.

America can start the process of draining the swamp by re-electing Trump on Nov. 3rd, then calling for Trump to fire Bill Barr, Christopher Wray and Gina Haspel, replacing them with Rudy Giuliani, Tom Fitton and Ted Cruz.

Why Media Isn’t Covering Hunter Biden?

By Glenn Greenwald

October 29, 2020 “Information Clearing House” – Glenn Greenwald explains why he thinks most American media will not cover the Hunter Biden scandal.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been disgusted with my colleagues in my profession as I have been in the last three weeks because of this story,”… “In general, journalists do not care about where material comes from if it’s A, authentic, and B, newsworthy.”

https://embed.air.tv/v1/iframe/qFIY8gT2RaeGtpbWRx24jA?organization=BRyp3pWoTIuOv7fx1fHxYg

“Sometimes you get great documents from sources who have terrible motives,” He continued. “Like Deep Throat leaked about the Nixon administration to The Washington Post, not because he was a Snowden, not because he was noble, but because he was resentful that Nixon passed him over to be the director of the FBI.”

He claimed the argument that the revelations from Hunter Biden’s laptop “might have come from Russia” was a “complete corruption of the journalistic function.” Greenwald added the real reason most news outlets won’t cover the story is because “they’re all desperate for Trump to lose.”

‘That’s the reality. They all want Biden to win,” he told Rogan. “They don’t want to be scorned in their social circles. And so they’re willing to abdicate their journalistic function, which is reporting on one of the most powerful people in the world, and Joe Biden in part because they want to manipulate and tinker with the election using journalism, but a much bigger part because they’re scared of being yelled at on Twitter.

“It’s f*cking pathetic,” he concluded. “And it’s going to ruin people’s faith in journalism for a long time, even more so than it already is ruined for good reason.”

Trump/Biden: two bombshell breaking stories

I don’t necessarily agree with this author, but interesting perspective….

by Jon Rappoport

ONE: Tucker Carlson announced, on his highly popular FOX broadcast, that a trove of Biden documents implicating Biden in illegal business relationships with China, the Ukraine, and other countries has gone missing.
The documents were shipped through a major commercial courier, from Manhattan to Carlson by FOX staff, and somewhere along the route, the envelope was found open by courier employees—and the contents were gone.
The courier did an extensive investigation of the route and found no evidence to indicate how this happened.
Questions: Did no one at FOX make a copy of these documents? There was only one set? The docs couldn’t have been sent to Tucker electronically? Tucker should consider the possibility that someone at FOX was the culprit.
TWO: “Executive Order on Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service.” Sounds meaningless, right? It’s not.
President Trump has just released a new executive order which gives him the power to fire a wide range of bureaucratic federal employees who resist implementing White House policies.
The executive order strips these bureaucrats of all sorts of built-in job protections.
It’s no secret that, since taking office, Trump has been receiving huge pushback from federal agencies, all of which are part of the Federal Branch, under his command.
If Trump wins the election, his order will stay intact. If Biden wins, he’ll cancel the order and go back to federal business as usual.
For decades, these alphabet agencies have been exceeding their legal powers by essentially making law. They do this by taking newly passed Congressional legislation and fashioning enforcement-regulations that “fit” the legislation.
Except, in practice, the agencies interpret the laws to their liking. They pervert the meaning of laws.
The American Thinker quotes the Washington Post: “The directive [executive order], issued late Wednesday, strips long-held civil service protections from employees whose work involves policymaking, allowing them to be dismissed with little cause or recourse, much like the political appointees who come and go with each administration.”
“Federal scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts and many others in senior roles would lose rights to due process and in some cases, union representation, at agencies across the government. The White House declined to say how many jobs would be swept into a class of employees with fewer civil service rights, but civil service experts and union leaders estimated anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in a workforce of 2.1 million.”
There is major upside and downside to this executive order.
On the one hand, the president can fire bureaucrats who resist his policies because they want to undermine him. He can also fire bureaucrats who fashion regulations that pervert Congressional legislation.
On the other hand, the president can also fire bureaucrats who are simply doing an honest job which happens to get in the way of the president’s corrupt practices.
For example, the president wants a new class of dangerous pesticides green-lighted by the EPA. The EPA refuses to knuckle under. But under threats of being fired, EPA executives “reconsider.”
Of course, big-time corporations and other actors already exert corrupt influence over these federal agencies.
On the plus side, Trump might be able to fire Tony Fauci from his long-held throne at the National Institutes of Health.
Here are two backgrounders…
ONE: Why Trump must win.
For people who want to live free lives, who know what freedom is, it’s time to acknowledge that we’re living in a new age of tyranny.
It’s not coming, it’s already here.
Developments over the past nine months have shown this. On the back of a false pandemic, states have been locked down; over a million businesses have been closed; thus, millions of lives have been destroyed or taken to the brink of destruction; large cities have been decimated.
If that isn’t tyranny, I don’t know what is.
And it’s not over. Not by a long shot. At the drop of a hat, new lockdowns can be imposed.
But understand—-human society does pass through these episodes and periods of tyranny. We are in one now. We are not immune.
So at this point, there are questions about what to do, and these questions are strategic. They are asked from the basis of realizing what we are IN and UNDER. Rule by force. Rule through deception.
The last nine months were presided over by Donald Trump. There is no escaping that fact. He gave in. He stood aside. He was grievously and criminally derelict in his duty to freedom and liberty and the Constitution. He failed to keep America open.
He will never admit it, and neither will his most ardent supporters, who weave tales of imminent Trump-rescue by “citing” his unparalleled genius and his brilliant secret plans.
Popular leaders always have legions of true believers. This is nothing new. Don’t you think, in centuries past, when kings claimed to rule by Divine Right, that their followers concocted and believed extraordinary myths justifying their kings’ monumental acts of oppression?
But from where we stand now, and the questions of STRATEGY we are facing, in this new age of tyranny, we’re looking at two men who are vying for the presidency.
Who would be worse, Trump or Biden?
Trump passively gave in. He opened the door to a coup and then stood aside.
Biden is a complete puppet of the coup. He wants to take the tyranny to a whole new level, as his masters have commanded.
Biden doesn’t require his followers to make excuses for his criminal acts—as in the case of Trump. Biden’s followers WANT those criminal acts. They want more lockdowns. They want national mask mandates. They want forced tracing, testing, and vaccination, ORDERED FROM THE FEDERAL LEVEL, wiping out any resistance from brave governors, however few they may be.
Biden’s followers want climate change to move to the top tier of the federal agenda, in the form of reduced energy-output quotas for all companies. More destruction.
Biden’s followers want more riots in cities, and widespread defunding of the police. They truly believe “social justice” movements will effect beneficial change—when, in fact, these movements are funded by the super-wealthy, on behalf of socialism, which IS an illusion of share-and-care, a covert operation leading to even greater government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. Because treacherous billionaires will end up owning all the means of production. If you need an education along these lines, start with Gary Allen’s 1971 classic, None Dare Call It Conspiracy.
For those who think Trump is an inveterate liar through and through, Biden is easily his equal.
Periods of tyranny come from the Right and they come from the Left. This one is coming mainly from the Left with its delusional Marxist utopian fantasies. But when all is said and done, all tyrannies, no matter their disguise, no matter their brand of rhetoric, come from power at the top. And power at the top has no political ideology. Ideology is merely a tool for propaganda and mind control.
Liberty and freedom are not ideological, either. They are the outcome of thousands of years of struggle. Their adherents know individual responsibility is a key corollary. The individual is free to live his life in any way he wants to, as long as he doesn’t encroach on another’s freedom.
Trump, even in his addled and manic state, understands some part of this. Biden has given up any pretense of understanding. He now comes from the school of, “Since we know what is best for you, we’ll impose it.” And that’s assuming Biden is mentally coherent, even on his best day.
On the medical front, Trump has shown some willingness to challenge the dictates of Fauci and the CDC. Biden is solidly in the camp of, “I’ll consult the experts and follow their advice.” That is a lethal position. For example, expect him, if elected, to push for a FEDERAL mandate to impose a toxic COVID vaccine.
If enough of the public demands freedom from lockdowns and masks and distancing, Trump will go along, at least part of the way. Biden will try to crack down.
Before his brain aneurysm and pulmonary thrombosis, in 1988, Biden was a highly intelligent political operator. His brand of globalism was similar to Bill Clinton’s, but without Clinton’s self-confident flair and big bullshit front. Since 1988, Biden has gradually deteriorated. If elected, there is every chance he won’t be able to finish his term, and the dangerously corrupt hatchet woman, Kamala Harris, would take over the Oval Office.
Trump modulates his failures by maintaining a relentlessly upbeat attitude. He covers his COVID betrayal (refusing to keep the economy open) with this super-salesman’s con and shuck and jive.
All in all, we are looking at a choice of opponents in the war for freedom. Trump and Biden. Strategically speaking, the choice is clear.
Trump is the lesser foe. With a large enough outpouring of public sentiment and demand on behalf of freedom, he could become, in certain but not all respects, an ally. Don’t trust him. Try to force his hand.
In a new age of tyranny, that’s enough for now.
Presidents are not messiahs.
BACKGROUNDER TWO: The Biden agenda.
I wrote this article several years ago. It spells out one of the central ruses of our time, and it is a ruse the puppet Biden prefers, because the men who control his strings prefer it…
There are “people’s” groups all over the world who advocate the overthrow of the Oligarchs who control nations.
These people’s groups want to install socialism as the answer to Oligarchy.
That’s preposterous.
The Oligarchs—bankers, mega-corporate CEOs, financiers, government leaders, intelligence agencies—collude to cut out competition so they can stand alone at the summit of the mountain. And they call this arrangement SOCIALISM. They PROMOTE socialism. They’ve staked out OWNERSHIP of socialism worldwide.
In other words, the “people’s” groups, who claim to be battling for a better world, are doing the Oligarchs’ bidding. Unconsciously, or on purpose.
Useful idiots.
Socialism has never been about toppling power-hungry leaders. Its pretension of equality and share-and-care is a cover for totalitarianism by the few, for the few.
Karl Marx, while predicting a coming utopia on Earth, expressed the absolute need for a “transition” phase called the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
Of course, that was a partial misnomer. The “dictatorship” part was correct, but the proletariat would never run it. They would labor for it. They would look up from ground level at the leaders who were supposedly their friends and guardians—and soon realize they’d been taken in by a long con. There was no transition government. There was just the same old Oligarchy under another name, that’s all.
From Gary Allen’s classic, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, published 50 years ago:
“We are being socialized in America and everybody knows it. If we had a chance to sit down and have a cup of coffee with the man in the street…he might say: ‘You know, the one thing I can never figure out is why all these very, very wealthy people like the Kennedys, the Fords, the Rockefellers and others are for socialism. Why are the super-rich for socialism? Don’t they have the most to lose…?’ In reality, there is a vast difference between what the promoters define as socialism and what it is in actual practice. The idea that socialism is a share-the-wealth program is strictly a confidence game to get the people to surrender their freedom to an all-powerful collectivist government. While the insiders [Oligarchs] tell us we are building a paradise on earth, we are actually constructing a jail for ourselves.”
When a mega-corporate CEO, whose company is in deep financial trouble, magically secures a giant loan through a crony, and when that corporation continues to pollute the land and destroy lives, and while the government agency that should be hauling off the CEO to prison sits on its hands, that’s socialism in practice. That’s the real thing.
The government may not officially own such corporations, as in the classical definition of socialism, but at the top, the government and the biggest corporations are cooperating, as one. It’s a distinction without a difference.
Why don’t more people understand all this?
Because their minds are clouded with propaganda and feel-good New Age oatmeal. Because they’re convinced that believing in something that sounds good on the surface (“a better and more just world for all”) is enough, is a pinnacle of achievement for them. And since they’re told this belief is socialism, they’re for it.
They will fall for any program on that basis. If pernicious medical experts assure them that mandated mass vaccination will protect the planet from disease, they will snap up that vision in a minute. “A healthy Earth for everyone.” It must be true. It feels right.
Here is an astonishing statement from the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio: “What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too…Look, if I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed. And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents. That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level. They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”
The control of private property, from above, is of course one of the tenets of socialism.
Oligarchs, who promote their brand of socialism, who are also Globalists (no nations; no borders; global governance), want to sweeten their pot through floods of immigrants. No, they’re not thinking about “doing good.” They have propaganda operatives who spout that line.
They’re thinking about how they can blur and erase all sorts of distinctions surrounding private ownership of private property—and instead, disruptively resettle immigrants, make them dependent on the State, sink property values, and induce more and more citizens to accept the idea that “everything belongs to everybody.”
This gibberish phrase actually means: the Oligarchs own it all.
This is their premise and their goal.
They mean business, literally and figuratively.
On a much lower level, scratch the surface of any self-proclaimed socialist who happens own a home, and watch what happens when you demand he turn that home over to “the people.” He suddenly becomes a raw naked capitalist. He rails against the State…
The State—to whom, when the pressure is off, he claims every citizen should swear allegiance, so that money and property and services and goods and energy and every necessity and luxury of life can be managed, for the benefit of all.
This article illustrates the Biden agenda, stripped of pretense.
Echoing across 50 years, here is another excerpt from Gary Allen’s, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”:
“What we are witnessing is the Communist tactic of pressure from above and pressure from below, described by Communist historian Jan Kozak as the device used by the Reds to capture control of Czecho-Slovakia. The pressure from above comes from secret, ostensibly respectable Comrades in the government and Establishment, forming, with the radicalized mobs in the streets below, a giant pincer around middle-class society. The street rioters are pawns, shills, puppets, and dupes for an oligarchy of elitist conspirators working above to turn America’s limited government into an unlimited government with total control over our lives and property.”
“The American middle class is being squeezed to death by a vise…In the streets we have avowed revolutionary groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society (which was started by the League for Industrial Democracy, a group with strong C.F.R. ties), the Black Panthers, the Yippies, the Young Socialist Alliance. These groups chant that if we don’t ‘change’ America, we will lose it. ‘Change’ is a word we hear over and over. By ‘change’ these groups mean Socialism. Virtually all members of these groups sincerely believe that they are fighting the Establishment. In reality they are an indispensable ally of the Establishment in fastening Socialism on all of us. The naive radicals think that under Socialism the ‘people’ will run everything. Actually, it will be a clique of Insiders in total control, consolidating and controlling all wealth. That is why these schoolboy Lenins and teenage Trotskys are allowed to roam free and are practically never arrested or prosecuted. They are protected. If the Establishment wanted the revolutionaries stopped, how long do you think they would be tolerated?”
“Instead, we find that most of these radicals are the recipients of largesse from major foundations or are receiving money from the government through the War on Poverty. The Rothschild-Rockefeller-C.F.R. [Council on Foreign Relations] Insiders at the top ‘surrender to the demands’ for Socialism from the mobs below. The radicals are doing the work of those whom they hate the most.”
Does that excerpt from “None Dare Call It Conspiracy,” written in 1971, sound familiar today? Of course it does. It reflects the same old strategy of pressure applied from both the top and bottom. The squeeze play.
The super-rich monopolists pretend to “bow to the socialist wishes” of the underclass and the protestors and the rioters.
It’s a straight con.
Don’t get caught in the word game which confuses Communism, Socialism, the Corporate State, Fascism, and Crony Capitalism.
When you put all these terms through the wash, they come out looking the same. They mean power at the top, disguised to appear as popular movements.
This is what lies beneath the “I have a plan” statements of Joe Biden.
(The link to this article posted on my blog is here — with sources.)

Russia’s Threat… Of Peace

By Finian Cunningham

October 27, 2020 “Information Clearing House” – Here we go again. Joe Biden is whipping up Russophobia by claiming that Russia is the “biggest threat” to American security.

 In a media interview at the weekend, the Democrat politician said: “I think the biggest threat to America right now in terms of breaking up our – our security and our alliances is Russia.”

That a presidential candidate can come out with such outlandish Cold War-style Red Scare nonsense in 2020 – 30 years after the Soviet Union broke up – is an amazing feat of brainwashing.

It’s not just Biden, though. Last week in their TV debate, Donald Trump, the incumbent Republican president, accused Russia of meddling in US affairs by sponsoring Biden.

So, apparently, Russia is the bad guy, as far as both parties in the US are concerned. Trying to smear your opponents? Then label them as treasonous puppets for Russia.

However, there’s no doubt the Democrats and the US intelligence agencies, as well as prominent media conduits like the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN, are foremost in the Russophobia stakes. They have been accusing Trump for the past four years of being a Kremlin stooge as a way to delegitimize his 2016 election and his bid for re-election on November 3. A Washington Post oped in recent days claimed that US turmoil under Trump has been a “gift” for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Or Biden to openly declare Russia as being the biggest threat is an astoundingly reckless gambit for ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear superpowers. One can only shudder at the danger of confrontation if Biden is elected to the White House.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov deplored Biden’s rhetorical belligerence. “We can only regret the fact that this is how total hatred for the Russian Federation is being promoted, that our country is portrayed as an enemy. This is not true,” he said.

Paradoxically, Russia does present a “threat” to US power. That’s because as a strong, independent nation with a formidable military, Russia is an obstacle to American ambitions of global dominance. The European NATO allies are mere vassals. But Russia – as well as China – are independent powers. From the point of view of Washington’s imperial objectives that poses an intolerable strategic problem.

Rod Ridenour explains this American dilemma in his excellent book, The Russian Peace Threat.

The Russian “problem” emerged with the 1917 revolution. America and its Western satraps sent soldiers to fight in support of counter-revolutionaries during Russia’s civil war. Failing that attempt to control Russia, the US and other Western capitalists sought to build up Nazi Germany as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. That led to World War Two – the greatest conflagration in history during which up to 30 million Soviet citizens perished.

The Cold War was the next phase of US-led Western antagonism against Moscow. For nearly five decades, the world lived under the shadow of nuclear annihilation as American politicians and media constantly spewed Russophobia and “Red Baiting”.

This ideological disease persists to this day in the US and among its minions in Europe, despite the Soviet Union having disappeared 30 years ago. The basic problem remains: Russia is strong, independent and a militarily well-defended country. As the largest territory on Earth, its prodigious natural resources, primarily energy, are an added prize for American imperialists.

Russia must therefore be demonized as an enemy because it poses a threat to US global power ambitions of total dominance. American capitalist power relies on having total dominance over the planet. Russia, and China, are not willing to capitulate to American diktats, and in that way, they must be presented as adversaries, malign powers and enemies.

There is no evidence to back up American accusations of Russia or China as a malign threat. For nearly a century, American scaremongering and warmongering against Russia is based on delusion, paranoia and deception. It is the utterances from brainwashed minds.

This keeps the profits flowing for the all-powerful military-industrial complex which props up American capitalism.

It permits a cover for American militarism around the world with over 800 overseas bases and missiles pointed at Russia and China.

It keeps the world in a state of alert for war between nuclear powers, thereby preventing peaceful and properly prosperous international relations.

While Biden accuses Russia of being a threat to security and “our alliances” (read US empire), Russian President Putin has been trying to extend the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons, as well as offering an agreement to prevent missiles being reintroduced in Europe after the US walked away from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty last year.

Russia is a “threat” only in the sense that it “threatens” the US with peace. Because with peace and the absence of war, American power would cease to exist.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

10 Ways to Call Something Russian Disinformation Without Evidence

The principles of American Newspeak

By Matt Taibbi

October 28, 2020 “Information Clearing House” – How do you call something “Russian disinformation” when you don’t have evidence it is? Let’s count the ways.

We don’t know a whole lot about how the New York Post story about Hunter Biden got into print. There are some reasons to think the material is genuine (including its cache of graphic photos and some apparent limited confirmation from people on the email chains), but in terms of sourcing, anything is possible. This material could have been hacked by any number of actors, and shopped for millions (as Time has reported), and all sorts of insidious characters – including notorious Russian partisans like Andrei Derkach – could have been behind it.

None of these details are known, however, which hasn’t stopped media companies from saying otherwise. Most major outlets began denouncing the story as foreign propaganda right away and haven’t stopped. A quick list of the creative methods seen lately of saying, “We don’t know, but we know!”:

  1. Our spooks say it looks like the work of their spooks.A group of 50 “former senior intelligence officials” wrote a letter as soon as the Post story came out. Their most-quoted line was that the Post story has “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.” Note they said information operationnot disinformation operation — humorously, even people with records of lying to congress like James Clapper and John Brennan have been more careful with language than members of the news media.Emphasizing that they didn’t know if the emails “are genuine,” these ex-heads of agencies like the CIA added “our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” noting that it appeared to be an operation “consistent with Russian objectives.” Politicothe Boston Globethe Washington Post, the Daily Beastand many other outlets ran the spook testimonial.
  2. It was prophesied.The Washington Post needed four reporters — Shane Harris, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and Josh Dawsey — to tell us that “four former officials familiar with the matter” spoke of a long-ago report that the would-be source of the Post emails, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, had been “interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence” in Ukraine. As such, any information he “brought back” from there “should should be considered contaminated by Russia.” Therefore, by the transitive property of whatever, the New York Post story should be dismissed as part of an “influence” operation.
  3. Authorities are investigating if it might be Russian disinformation.“The FBI is probing a possible disinformation campaign,” announced USA Today, citing the omnipresent “person familiar with the matter.” Officially, of course, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” to which FBI spokesperson Jill C. Tyson officially said the bureau had “nothing to add at this time.”Many of the outlets who covered this sequence of events described the F.B.I. statement as “carefully worded,” inviting us to read in things left unsaid. Thomas Rid in the Post went so far as to say Tyson was “hinting that actionable intelligence might yet be developed,” which is technically true but also technically meaningless.Another neat trick was to discuss the Post story and in the same sentence refer to a present-tense description of an apparently confirmed operation to discredit Joe Biden. CNN’s construction was like this: “The FBI is investigating whether the recently published emails that purport to detail the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son in Ukraine and China are connected to an ongoing Russian disinformation effort targeting the former vice president’s campaign.”That “ongoing Russian disinformation effort” is a story again sourced, as so many stories of the last four years have been, to assessments of intelligence officials. Thus the essence of these new headlines comes down to, “Intelligence officials are checking to see if the new story can be connected to prior claims of intelligence officials.”
  4. Even if it isn’t a Russian influence operation, we should act like it is.Johns Hopkins “Professor of Strategic Studies” Thomas Rid came up with the most elegant construction in a Washington Post editorial, stating bluntly: “We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.” Err on the side of caution, as it were. As the bosses in Casino put it, why take a chance?
  5. The Biden campaign says it’s Russian disinformation (even though they can’t say for sure it’s disinformation at all).The press has elicited from the Biden campaign a few limited, often contradictory comments about what is and isn’t true in the New York Post story. For instance, the campaign’s chief communications officer Andrew Bates said about allegations Joe Biden met with Burisma executive Vadym Pozharski, “We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”In the same article, reporters noted, “Biden’s campaign would not rule out the possibility that the former VP had some kind of informal interaction with Pozharskyi.” So no meeting took place (although we’re not saying no meeting took place).The campaign continues to not take a concrete position about the veracity of the emails, but allows people like “senior Biden advisor” and former Assistant Secretary of State Michael Carpenter to say things like, “This is a Russian disinformation operation… I’m very comfortable saying that.”The natural follow-up question there should have been, “If it’s disinformation, are you saying the emails aren’t real?” But we haven’t seen many questions of that sort, probably because no one wants to be the member of the White House pool six months from now wearing the scars of interactions like this:

6 Accuse anyone who asks questions about the story of being in league with Russia.

Reporters who merely retweeted the story or even just defended its right to not be censored, like Maggie Haberman of the New York Times or Marc Caputo from Politico, were instantly blasted as accomplices to foreign disinformation plots. As a result, many backed away from asking even basic questions about the piece (including to question seeming inconsistencies in the Post report).

The poor fellow who asked Biden about the story on the tarmac in the above clip, Bo Erickson of CBS, got raked over the coals by the most aggressive Heathers in the giant high school that is America, fellow media members.

Remember that the press consistently cheered as brave defenders of truth professional gesticulators like CNN’s Jim Acosta when they hit Trump with “tough” questions, but Erickson was reamed by colleagues for his mild query of Biden.

Matthew Dowd of ABC snapped, “Lordy, you ask someone about an article that has already been proven false and having Russia propaganda as its basis? I would suggest taking a look in the mirror.” Ben Rhodes, former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser and MSNBC contributor — a member of the growing spook-to-on-air-personality club — made the accusation more explicit: 

7 Adam Schiff says it is!

For the last four years, whenever the Democratic Party has sought to make unsupportable claims, it’s usually combined anonymous leaks to legacy outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post with public statements by a party spokesperson willing to say things on record without evidence. That person has often been California congressman Adam Schiff. Sometimes hinting that he’s seen intelligence he can’t speak of publicly, Schiff has repeatedly made statements that later proved false.

In March of 2017, he told Chuck Todd, “I can’t get into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now” that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 election. He would continue making statements like this for nearly two years, until information was declassified showing that Schiff early on had been told in secret testimony, by people like the aforementioned Clapper, “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.”

In January of 2018, Schiff dismissed claims of FBI malfeasance in obtaining secret surveillance authority on Trump aide Carter Page: “FBI and DOJ officials did not ‘abuse’ the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.” He was later proved incorrect on all of these points by a report by Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

As Glenn Greenwald pointed out, Schiff “fabricates accusations… the way that other people change underwear.”

Of course, no one ever brings up Schiff’s record of wrongness. He gets a clean slate each time, and is rarely asked to substantiate anything he says, as was the case in this exchange last week with Wolf Blitzer, when he used the word “Kremlin” 14 times in one segment:

SCHIFF: The origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin, and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help and try to amplify it.

BLITZER: It’s not like Rudy Giuliani is peddling this information in a vacuum, Congressman. Take a look at this picture of the president in the Oval Office holding up a copy of the New York Post touting this conspiracy theory. It’s made its way all the way to the commander in chief with a big smile on his face.

SCHIFF: Yes. Well, look, I think we know who the driving force behind this smear has been all along and it’s been the president and the Kremlin.

8 This reminds us of that other time!

One of the first reactions by press was to note how the release of the Burisma emails reminded them of 2016, when “Russian hackers and WikiLeaks injected stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign into the closing weeks of the presidential race.”

The New York Times went so far as to say it had spoken with “U.S. intelligence analysts” who “contacted several people with knowledge of the Burisma hack,” claiming they’d heard “chatter” that stolen Burisma emails would be released as part of an “October surprise.”

These people, the Times wrote, expressed concern that the Burisma material “would be leaked alongside forged materials… a slight twist on Russia’s 2016 playbook when they siphoned leaked D.N.C. emails through fake personas on Twitter and WikiLeaks.”

Politico, meanwhile, said the Post story “drew immediate comparisons to 2016, when Russian hackers dumped troves of emails from Democrats onto the internet — producing few damaging revelations but fueling accusations of corruption by Trump.” (Actually a lot of the accusations of corruption came from supporters of Bernie Sanders, but who’s counting?).

9 Just say it!

One of the beautiful things about the post-evidence era in media is that pundits can simply say things willy-nilly, provided it’s the right thing. David Corn and Mother Jones, who this time four years ago were publishing some of the first pebbles from the towering Matterhorn of bullshit that was the Steele dossier, ran a headline proclaiming, “Giuliani and the New York Post are pushing Russian disinformation.” Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer declared the Post story “reads as if it came straight from Russian propaganda playbook 101.” Ken Dilanian of NBC employed a creative double-negative, noting that Ratcliffe’s statement “didn’t say the FBI has ruled out the possibility of foreign involvement.”

My favorite, however, was probably former lead impeachment counsel Daniel Goldman, who noted that while the laptop might not be foreign disinformation, it was “part” of foreign disinformation, which feels like the Twitter version of a Magritte painting:

  1. Everyone quote everyone else!Donald Trump has taken a lot of grief — deservedly — for his “a lot of people are saying” method of backing up public statements. The response to the New York Post story has been the same kind of informational merry-go-round. Each of the above methods has often been backed up by others on the list, using A=A=A style rhetorical constructions.The “50 former senior intelligence officials” letter cited “media reports” that “say that the FBI has now opened an investigation into Russian involvement.” They cited the USA Today story that cited the “person familiar with the matter” in making that claim, adding that, “according to the Washington Post, citing four sources, U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation.”The Washington Post in the person of professor Rid then turned around and cited the 50 former intelligence officials, while David Corn cited Rid in warning the whole story was “highly suspicious behavior,” especially against the “backdrop of 2016,” and so on.In other words, this is a story about media commentators citing intelligence sources who in turn are citing media commentators citing intelligence sources.Of course it’s possible there’s a foreign element to the Post expose. But there’s nothing concrete to go on there, which has forced the press to levitate the claims through such propaganda spin-cycles. It’s amazing how quickly these machines get built now…

Matt Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. He is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, author of several books, co-host of Useful Idiots, and publisher of a newsletter on Substack. – Source –  

© 2020 Matt Taibbi

US Politics Isn’t ‘Polarized’ It’s In Almost Universal Agreement

By Caitlin Johnstone

October 24, 2020 “Information Clearing House” –  When you look at US politics, it appears as though there are two mainstream political factions that very strongly disagree with one another. “Divided” is a word that comes up a lot. “Polarized” is another.

It is of course true that a whole lot of emotion flows between these two factions, and most of it is indeed negative. The hot topics of any given news cycle in America will typically involve more than one story pertaining to the vitriolic enmity between them.

But beneath all the hurled insults and heated debates, these two factions are actually furiously agreeing with one another. They’re agreeing the entire time.

They agree that the US government should remain the center of a globe-spanning empire; they just angrily quibble over a few of the details of how that empire should be run, like whether or not the Saudi crown prince should have received some small consequence for dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw.

They agree that the US should remain the earth’s unipolar hegemon at all cost; they just loudly bicker over some of the specifics in how it should look, like whether there should be the names of Confederate generals on its military bases.

They agree that there should be a massive US military presence around the world; they just furiously dispute small particulars like whether a few thousand of those troops should remain in Germany or be moved to Poland.

They agree that there must be endless mass military violence to uphold the US-centralized empire; they just make a big show of debating whether that military violence should be more focused on Syria or Iran.

They agree that it is necessary to menace the entire planet with nuclear weapons while ramping up aggressions against other nuclear powers; they just rage back and forth about whose finger should be on the button.

They agree that it is necessary to control the world economy with an iron fist; they just squabble about its features, like how and when to roll out a trade war with China.

They agree that the environment should continue to be destroyed; they just fight about the minutia, like whether or not there should be some accommodations made for the profit margins of green energy corporations.

They agree that income and wealth inequality should persist in the US; they just passionately disagree about how it should persist, like whether or not Americans should receive another paltry $1200 stimulus payment this year.

They agree that plutocracy should continue to rule America; they just spar over the minor features, like whether or not those plutocrats should pay a tiny bit more in taxes.

They agree that Americans should remain aggressively propagandized; they just argue about whether it should be by Fox News or MSNBC.

They agree Americans should be closely surveilled and their speech tightly controlled; they just debate the details, like whether or not right-wing pundits are being disproportionately censored on social media.

On all issues that most severely affect real people on mass scale, these two political factions are in emphatic agreement. They just pour a whole lot of sound and fury into the tiny one percent of the spectrum wherein they have some disagreement.

They do not allow for any mainstream discussion of if the oligarchic empire should continue to exist; all their issues, arguments and histrionics revolve around how it should exist.

This is what they are designed to do. They are designed to keep the American populace from clearly seeing what the real debate is, which is why anyone who relies on a worldview which favors either of these mainstream factions will inevitably suffer confusion and misperception. They are perceptual filters designed to hide the only real debate in US politics.

The real debate in US politics is not between the two mainstream factions which agree with one another on virtually everything that matters to every extent that matters. The real debate is those two factions together against those who understand that the entire American status quo needs to be flushed down the toilet.

The real political debate in America is between (A) those who understand that the US empire is the single most destructive force on this planet and is corrupt from root to flower, and (B) those who subscribe to mainstream partisan narratives which by design support the US empire.

If politics were real in America, this would be the debate everyone sees. Not between two murderous septuagenarians yelling over each other about who hates socialism more, but between the side which opposes the oligarchic empire and the side which promotes and protects it.

But politics isn’t real in America. It’s a show. A two-handed sock puppet show to distract the audience while pickpockets rob them blind.

If you want to see things clearly, ignore the fake drama of the sock puppet show altogether and focus on advancing the real debate: that the US-centralized oligarchic empire is corrupt beyond redemption and should be completely dismantled.

+20

prairiedog54095p· 3 days agoDidn’t want to waste my vote voting for the ONE PARTY CORPORATE MILLIONAIRE ZIONIST CONTROLLED DICTATORSHIP, so I voted Green Party.
Got to stop this dog and pony show call the presidential debates since it’s always the ONE PARTY, doing the debating.
We need proportional representation where every political party with ballot access has a seat at the table.

+10

tjrich2018104p· 3 days agoBravo prairiedog 540. Don’t be mean vote green!! 

SPECIAL REPORT: Inside Joe Biden’s corruption scandal and the social media cover-up

Sky News Australia

A special senate investigation has detailed how the son of presidential hopeful Joe Biden may have used his father’s position in the White House to amass wealth and power. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs published the report titled ‘Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on US Government Policy and Related Concerns’. Sky News Australia breaks down this 87-page document which examines possible conflicts of interest in foreign business while Joe Biden was vice president in Barack Obama’s administration. The report found that the Obama administration knew Hunter Biden’s presence on the board of the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma was “problematic” and “interfered” in the “execution of policy” with Ukraine. The allegations are extraordinary – so much so that social media giants Facebook and Twitter sought to censor the story to stop it reaching voters in a manner Republicans have labelled brazen “election interference”.

The “Big Guy” is Joe Biden and he used his son’s business deals to profit off Chinese businesses looking to influence the US government

Sunday, October 25, 2020 by: Lance D Johnson

The “Big Guy” is Joe Biden and he used his son’s business deals to profit off Chinese businesses looking to influence the US government

Image: The “Big Guy” is Joe Biden and he used his son’s business deals to profit off Chinese businesses looking to influence the US government

(Natural News) The Biden family is in a world of misery after Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner, Tony Bobulinski, came forward to federal authorities about the Bidens corrupt high-level business deals with the Chinese. Bobulinski has damning evidence on the Bidens, detailing how the Biden family used the power and authority of the federal government to make large sums of money from high-level Chinese businesses. The Biden family and their business partners allegedly created a revolving door, granting the Chinese access and influence over the federal government in exchange for equity, cash and the expansion of each other’s business ventures. Hunter leveraged the Biden name in business deals with communist China, locking in kickbacks for his father along the way.

“The big guy” reaped 10 percent stakes, cash and equity from Hunter’s foreign business deals

Tony Bobulinski confirmed that the New York Post bombshell is genuine, that the “Big Guy” mentioned in the emails is in fact, Joe Biden.

Bobulinski said the former Vice President lied about never discussing his business dealings with his son. Not only did he lie about the discussions, but he actually profited from the deals. Bobulinski said equity positions, cash sums, and 10 percent stakes were reserved for “the big guy” – Mr. Joe Biden himself. Bobulinski was even chastised for daring to mention Biden in the communications.

“My name is Tony Bobulinski. The facts set forth below are true and accurate; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post, which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine,” he said, bringing forth devices that contain all the evidence.

Crooked Biden family dealings come to light

Bobulinski is turning all evidence over to the FBI. He admits to meeting with the “Big Guy” – Hunter Biden’s father – by cutting deals with his son Hunter. According to Bobulinski, Joe Biden met with him and discussed the family’s business plans with the Chinese. Bobulinski was a guest at the final Presidential debate.

“Tomorrow, I will be meeting with Senate committee members concerning this matter & I will be providing to the FBI the devices which contain the evidence corroborating what I have said here tonight,” said Bobulinski, speaking to the media on October 22nd.

According to Bobulinski, the Chinese wanted to gain “influence” in the US, and knew how to get it by going through Hunter. “I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment, Bobulinski testified. “Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening.”

Bobulinski and another one of Hunter’s business partners, James Gilliar, expressed concern that Hunter might “blow up his dad’s campaign” as far back as May 2017. Tony Bobulinski texted business associate James Gilliar about Hunter: “U need to stress to H, does he want to be the reason or factor that blows up his dad’s campaign, things need to be done right and protective of that fact.”

Two months later, a top Chinese official offered a $5 million interest-free loan proposal to the Biden family. The email record was obtained by the Federalist. Two weeks after the proposal, the Chinese wired $5 million from a Chinese state CEFC-affiliated investment firm to a Delaware LLC. According to a Senate investigation, that money was slowly funneled directly to Hunter Biden’s firm over the next year.

Stay up on the Biden scandal at Corruption.news.

https://www.brighteon.com/da8d7fb3-dd03-438a-9cf5-1f677f445772