We start with the home front. And it turns out that the home front—the info-manipulation of the American public—has to a significant extent been out sourced to a foreign power’s intel service: MI6. Say what you will about the shortcomings of the British military—the UK media has recently featured stories that maintain that their armed forces have about a 1 day (one day) supply of munitions in the event of Russia responding to the UK war on Russia—but funding for their intel services seems to have access to a never ending flow. Not only do they have nearly total control of the UK media within the UK, but they even have the time and personnel to target the US media. I assume that this effort is largely funded by the US government:
It does seem somewhat ironic—y’know, 1776 and all that jazz. A republic if you can keep it. Whatever.
Anyway, you might be interested to learn how to avoid disinformation—or information. It’s one of those points of view things:
US State Department Funding Secret 'Disinformation' Crusade To Blacklist Conservative Media
The US Department of State has been funding a "disinformation" tracking group through its Global Engagement Center (GEC), which reportedly works at demonetizing sites it accuses of disseminating "disinformation," - which are overwhelmingly conservative news outlets, the Washington Examiner reports.
The Global Disinformation Index, a British organization with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups, is feeding blacklists to ad companies with the intent of defunding and shutting down websites peddling alleged "disinformation," the Washington Examiner reported. This same "disinformation" group has received $330,000 from two State Department-backed entities linked to the highest levels of government, raising concerns from First Amendment lawyers and members of Congress.
GDI through its website maintains a "dynamic exclusion list" of the worst offenders of disinformation online, which it then distributes to ad tech companies - such as Microsoft's Xandr - in order to try and "defund and downrank these worst offenders," and deprive said sites of ad revenue.
…
One State Department-funded group which supports GDI is the [euphemistically named] nonprofit National Endowment for Democracy, which receives nearly 100% of its funding from congressional appropriations ($300 million in 2021), which critics have argued is essentially giving money to a government grantmaking body despite its status as a private entity.
In 2020, $230,000 went from the NED to the AN foundation, a GDI group that also goes by the Disinformation Index Foundation. …
The Global Engagement Center notably appeared in the Twitter Files reported by @mtaibbi https://t.co/M3LM3PkkrX
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) February 10, 2023
Now, there are two video interviews/discussions that I’d like to draw attention to. The first can be found at Larry Johnson’s site:
ON CROSS TALK WITH PETER LAVELLE, GILBERT DOCTOROW AND RAY MCGOVERN
Each of the participants is generally quite lucid—even McGovern, although he has at least one of his weird moments. The entire session lasts only about a half an hour. Here are what I regard as the highlights.
The participants all agree that Russia is very unlikely to ever agree to any sort of ceasefire. Simply put, Russia has no reason to trust the US or its vassals in the collective West—not after the 2014 Maidan coup, not after Merkel and Zelensky have proudly claimed that the Minsk talks were no more than a disingenuous ploy, not the arming of Ukraine, not after Zhou’s lies to Putin in Geneva, not after the US sabotage of Nordstream 2—an act of war against Russia. The list could go on.
A major factor that the West doesn’t seem to get, is that “China has Russia’s back.” I would add that this means that Russia will also likely have China’s back in the event that the Neocons try to do a deal with Russia and then launch a war on China. Russia and China know that they will need to stand together. The idea that the US can somehow divide and conquer them separately is daft. However, the fact that the idea has been publicly floated recently may rest on the third highlight.
Gilbert Doctorow brought this third point up. He pointed out that Western “strategists” appear to think that Russia’s only option if Ukraine is able—with US/UK aid—to escalate by targeting Crimea or the Russian heartland elsewhere, is to go nuclear. Doctorow and McGovern view this notion as actually reflecting the corner into which the West has painted itself (Johnson’s metaphor). The West has shot its wad, and has nothing left but nukes—a position which offers very little room for maneuver from an offensive standpoint. What I think may be behind this thinking, is the idea that this type of strategy could draw Russia into open nuclear brinkmanship and thus into a ceasefire—and an off ramp for the US that maintains the possibility of a rump NATO Ukraine. Doctorow pointed out the flaw in this thinking (without getting into the nuclear question): Such escalations would not cause Russia to go nuclear; they would, however, very likely lead Russia to retaliate with conventional warhead hypersonic missile attacks on targets in Europe west of Russia—US and vassal state bases. Doctorow stated that, from our limited exposure to these types of missiles, we already know that they are capable of destruction on a scale well beyond ordinary attacks.
All these considerations lead to the conclusion that Russia is in control of the scale and pace of this conflict. The Neocons thought they would be in control—but that was just another Neocon pipedream. Indeed, the Russians may actually have been taken by surprise to learn just how inadequate the Western industrial base is for prosecuting a conventional war. As a result, the war will continue on the scale and at the pace that Russia dictates.
The second video is an interview with Douglas Macgregor. I’m frankly at a loss to understand the title, which doesn’t reflect the content of the 34 minutes interview:
The interview begins with the question: “Who is it that wants this war between NATO and Vladimir Putin?” Macgregor’s response covers the dynamics of American politics, beginning with the observation that I’ve made many times—that, for Americans, wars are something that happen somewhere far away from home and don’t affect us. Macgregor continues in this vein for the first 15 minutes, which is the reason I recommend the video.
The goal of this war, he states, is not simply “regime change.” It’s the dismemberment of Russia, followed by the plunder of the trillions of dollars worth of natural resources currently controlled by Russia. His basic idea is: “Follow the money.” While he states that the people behind this war are the same people who have been behind all of the US wars since 1989, beginning in the Balkans—he means the Neocons—he makes a pointed reference to the international banking community “run out of New York.” Tom Luongo might want to draw some distinctions at that point, but Macgregor’s larger point is that the US political process has for several decades—at least—been controlled by Big Money interests. Inside the beltway antics are exactly that: Mostly antics.
It’s an uncompromising presentation, and an indictment of the “ruling political elite that embraces both political parties.” He goes through how big money is made through these wars. The problem, as he sees it, is that the “elites” miscalculated badly in the case of Russia, and now finds itself in a bind. He goes on to fill out his indictment of our political elite, engaging in theater, when they should be held accountable for their “incalculable mendacity and incompetence.” The only solution he sees is for the “American people to become engaged.” What a concept! Instead, the American people go chasing after whatever shiny object is placed before them, rather than the real threats to this country, which are largely self inflicted.
I’ll close with this evidence that the ruling class is not about to give up its war on Americans—yeah, this is all related in the last analysis:
It's Official: CDC Adds Three-Dose COVID Jab To Childhood Vax List
MRC TV ^ | FEBRUARY 10, 2023 | BRITTANY M. HUGHESThe CDC has officially taken the recommendation of its vaccine panel and added a triple dose of the COVID shot to its list of recommended vaccinations for American kids, toddlers, and babies - a list used by many public school systems to determine which shots a child must have in order to start school.
Per the updated guidelines, healthy kids 6 months old and up should receive a two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech monovalent COVID-19 vaccine followed by a bivalent vaccine or booster.
While the agency’s list of recommended jabs doesn’t actually require anyone to get all - or even any - of the shots on it, the update is concerning for many parents worried that their local school district will start requiring the COVID vaccine for their preschoolers to be enrolled in public schools, which oftentimes use the CDC's recommended shot list as their own default requirements. In some districts, those vaccine requirements even extend to private schools, further limiting the options for families who decline.
And with some locales seeking to end religious or personal exemptions for parents who want to decline certain vaccines for their kids, that worry is only worsening.
Mississippi just did this—refused to extend religious exemptions.
According to this, as of last fall, less than 4% of U.S. kids ages 6 months to 4 years and only about a third of those 5-11 had gotten even a single dose of the COVID jabs, reflecting an across-the-board hesitancy in parents to immunize their kids against a virus that largely doesn’t threaten children and appears to carry significant health risks, including potentially fatal heart problems, for some young people. Most parents who've been polled said they were worried about adverse reactions in a shot series that is still relatively new - valid concerns the CDC apparently doesn't care much about.
Only time will tell if school systems do.
Macgregor is right. Americans need to wake up.
"he makes a pointed reference to the international banking community “run out of New York.”"
That makes this link somewhat interesting:
https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/the-federal-reserve-cartel-eight
Cheers
I've read the 35 comments on this post (to date). There seems to be overwhelming sentiment that there is no way to change course...that we are stuck with the government we've got. The voters are ill-informed and hopeless. I can't really disagree. I would only add one additional thought, and that is:
Who, in fact, are the deep pockets who are paying for the government we are stuck with? Who, exactly, are they? What are their names and how much do they spend? We know it takes an enormous amount of money to elect a President, a Senator, and a Representative. Where does it come from? I'd like to know who exactly are the lobbyists who seem to own nominal Republicans Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and who do they represent? Where does Adam Schiff get his money and why don't his donors care that he lies? Who put up the money to elect John Fetterman? Who donates to the PACs and SuperPacs and where do these PACs spend their money? It seems incontrovertible that the defense industry is coining money supplying weapons and machines to our support of Ukraine. Which politicians has the industry supported and with how much? And how do they funnel the money to the politicians who support them? It is preposterous to think that Joe Biden actually received 81 million votes. Where exactly did Joe Biden get the money to fund the various operations which resulted in his receiving 81 million votes? Surely it was not from most of the 81 million who allegedly voted for him. We know that Biden, Harris, Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Swalwell, Shumer, Jeffries, Blumenthal, Maxine Waters, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tlaib, AOC, Omar, etc, etc, lie regularly and repeatedly. Not to mention the late great John McCain. And Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn and Lindsay Graham. Who funds these guys? What are their names and who do they represent? What exactly are they paying for with their donations?
I suppose it is just as unlikely that we will ever find out the answers to these questions as it is that we will ever have a truly informed electorate. Perhaps its really all the same question.