Jul 162021
 
 July 16, 2021  Posted by at 8:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Bridge in the rain (after Hiroshige) 1887

 

Biden Admin ‘Flagging Problematic Social Media Posts’ (PM)
Question Everything (Ballan)
Spain’s Top Court Rules Lockdown Unconstitutional (BBC)
Long Covid Has Over 200 Symptoms And Leaves 1 In 5 Unable To Work
Huge Study Supporting Ivermectin For Covid Withdrawn Over Ethical Concerns (G.)
Top General Feared Trump Would Attempt A Coup After Losing The Election (DM)
Kremlin Papers Appear To Show Putin’s Plot To Put Trump In White House (G.)
Kremlin Says Guardian Claims Are ‘Fundamentally Untrue’ (RT)
Russia Accuses US Of ‘Staging’ Anti-Government Protests In Cuba (RT)
Illinois Becomes First State To Prohibit Police From Lying To Kids (JTN)
59 of 96 Phones Assigned To Mueller Probe Missing (JTN)
Bill Clinton Took Two More Trips On The Lolita Express (DM)
Capitol Police To Use Army Surveillance Gear To Monitor Americans (AMN)

 

 

Which country will recover faster?

 

 

Why am I getting the idea that we no longer comprehend just how bizarre this is? That our minds have become so blunted by censorship we do not recognize it as such any longer?

Biden Admin ‘Flagging Problematic Social Media Posts’ (PM)

After Biden administration Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory urging big tech companies to “impose clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki used it to call for big tech companies to crack down harder on social media users with “fact-checks” on “misinformation.” A reporter requested that Psaki expand a bit more on “the request for tech companies to be more aggressive” as regards “misinformation. Has the administration been in touch with any of these companies and are there any actions that the federal government can take to ensure their cooperation, because we’ve seen from the start there’s not a lot of action on some of these platforms.”

“Sure, well first, we are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team. Given as, Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue of misinformation specifically on the pandemic,” Psaki said. “In terms of actions… that we have taken or are working to take from the federal government. We’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General’s office. We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect two connected medical experts who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content.

“So we’re helping get trusted content out there. We also created the COVID Community Corps to get factual information into the hands of local messengers. And we’re also investing in the President’s, the Vice President’s and Dr. Fauci’s time in meeting with influencers who also have large reaches to a lot of these target audiences who can spread and share accurate information. “We saw an example of that yesterday, I believe that video will be out Friday,” Psaki said. “There are also proposed changes that we have made to social media platforms including Facebook, and those specifically four key steps:

“1) That they measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform. Facebook should provide publicly and transparently data on the reach of COVID-19, COVID vaccine misinformation. Not just engagement, but the reach of the misinformation and the audience that it’s reaching. That will make sure we’re getting accurate information to people. This should be provided not just to researchers but to the public so that public knows and understands what is accurate and inaccurate.
“2) We have recommended, proposed, that they create a robust and enforcement strategy that bridges their properties and provides transparency about the rules. So… there’s about 12 people who are producing 65 percent of anti-vaccination misinformation on social media platforms. All of them remain active on Facebook despite some even being banned on other platforms, including ones that Facebook owns.
“3) It’s important to take faster action against harmful posts. As you all know, information travels quite quickly on social media platforms. Sometimes it’s not accurate, and Facebook needs to move more quickly to remove harmful, violative posts, posts that are within their policies for removal often remain up for days. That’s too long. The information spreads to quickly.

“Finally,” Psaki said, “we have proposed they promote quality information sources in their feed algorithm. Facebook has repeatedly shown that they have the leverage to promote quality information, we’ve seen them effectively do this in their algorithm over low-quality information and they’ve chosen not to use it in this case. That’s certainly an area where we have an impact.” She said that Facebook “certainly understands what our asks are.”

Psaki
https://twitter.com/i/status/1415728046930268160

Read more …

“Fear is not good for us. It’s not good for our immunity, our health or our ability to think rationally. To calm the fear, we need to know that cases are meaningless, deaths are overestimated and immunity – whether natural or vaccine-induced – is long-lasting and can protect us from future variants.”

Question Everything (Ballan)

The WHO flip-flopped on the definition of herd immunity, which is the point at which an infectious disease stops being a cause for concern because most of the population is immune to it. They removed natural immunity from the definition and limited herd immunity to that reached via vaccination only. After this meddling caused an uproar, they went back again and included both forms of immunity as contributing to herd immunity. Furthermore, they changed their recommendations about the PCR test, first allowing very high cycle thresholds of 45 (which is the number of times the genetic material of the virus is multiplied until it is detected) and recommending that cases are diagnosed based on a positive PCR test, regardless of symptoms – previously unheard of in medicine.

Patients are usually diagnosed with a disease if they are sick. Later the WHO rectified their stance, clarifying that the diagnosis of cases requires clinical symptoms and that high cycle thresholds lead to false positives. Why did the WHO make recommendations contrary to established medical practice for infectious diseases? The PCR test was not designed to diagnose infectiousness. It merely detects viral genetic material, dead or alive. Studies indicate that 25 cycles are enough to detect an infectious virus. How much have the false positive results affected the number of cases and in turn the number of deaths? How many deaths were wrongly attributed to COVID instead of other diseases?

Science doesn’t flip-flop like that. Politics does. Science has become politicized. We need to decouple science from politics. It is being manipulated to serve corporate and political agendas. Anyone criticizing ‘The Science’ is silenced harshly. People are smart and if given accurate information they can make the right decisions for themselves and their communities. Unfortunately, people are being misinformed and fear-mongered with non-stop death reports, apparently vanishing immunity and the threat of new variants. Fear is not good for us. It’s not good for our immunity, our health or our ability to think rationally. To calm the fear, we need to know that cases are meaningless, deaths are overestimated and immunity – whether natural or vaccine-induced – is long-lasting and can protect us from future variants.

Variants are not unique to COVID. All respiratory viruses mutate. The variants are so minutely different from each other that our immune system will recognize them and protect us. It’s like your friend wearing a cap. Can you still recognize him? In the same way, your immune system also recognizes the variants. How much longer should we let those variants haunt us?

Read more …

After the flood.

Spain’s Top Court Rules Lockdown Unconstitutional (BBC)

Spain’s top court has ruled that last year’s strict coronavirus lockdown was unconstitutional. The ruling leaves the door open for people who were fined for breaking the rules to reclaim the money they paid. But the court said it would not accept lawsuits from people and businesses who want to sue the government because they lost money due to the lockdown. The government declared a state of emergency on 14 March 2020 to curb the first wave of Covid-19 infections. At the time, coronavirus cases and deaths were rising and hospitals were quickly becoming overwhelmed. Since then, more than 81,000 people in Spain have died with coronavirus.


Spain has three levels of emergency: state of emergency, state of exception, and the highest level, state of siege. Under the emergency rules almost all people in the country were ordered to stay at home, and were only permitted to leave for essential reasons. All but essential businesses were closed. The laws were in place until June 2020, though some restrictions were reinstated later in the year when the country faced a second wave. But Spain’s Constitutional Court said in a statement that it had voted, by a slim majority of six to five, to find that the state of emergency was not enough to give the restrictions constitutional backing. This is because the rules were equivalent to a suppression of fundamental rights, it said.

Read more …

There’s a stiff competition between long covid and vaccines for the number of symptoms.

Long Covid Has Over 200 Symptoms And Leaves 1 In 5 Unable To Work

There are more than 200 symptoms associated with long Covid spanning 10 organ systems—including memory loss, hallucinations, tremors and fatigue—according to a new study published Thursday, providing one of the most comprehensive insights yet into the lingering and debilitating illness that can affect patients for months or years after infection. Covid long haulers reported a total of 203 different symptoms in the seven months between Dec. 2019 and May 2020, ranging from rashes, peeling skin and digestive issues to muscle spasms, hearing loss and tinnitus, according to research published in the Lancet’s E Clinical Medicine journal.


The study, based on surveys from nearly 4,000 people from 56 countries, identified fatigue, brain fog and post-exertional malaise (where symptoms worsen after physical or mental effort) as the most common symptoms. On average, patients suffered from 56 different symptoms and those still suffering after six months—nearly two-thirds of participants taking the survey—were still experiencing an average of 14 symptoms. Almost half (45%) of the study’s participants reported needing a reduced work schedule on account of their illness and around one-fifth (22%) were unable to work at all. Dr. Athena Akrami, a neuroscientist at University College London and senior author of the study, said it highlights “a clear need to widen medical guidelines” to assess a wider range of symptoms than respiratory and cardiovascular issues for long Covid.”

Read more …

They take one study and use it to discredit 80 others. The Guardian for you.

Huge Study Supporting Ivermectin For Covid Withdrawn Over Ethical Concerns (G.)

The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”. The preprint study on the efficacy and safety of ivermectin – a drug used against parasites such as worms and headlice – in treating Covid-19, led by Dr Ahmed Elgazzar from Benha University in Egypt, was published on the Research Square website in November. It claimed to be a randomised control trial, a type of study crucial in medicine because it is considered to provide the most reliable evidence on the effectiveness of interventions due to the minimal risk of confounding factors influencing the results. Elgazzar is listed as chief editor of the Benha Medical Journal, and is an editorial board member.

The study found that patients with Covid-19 treated in hospital who “received ivermectin early reported substantial recovery” and that there was “a substantial improvement and reduction in mortality rate in ivermectin treated groups” by 90%. But the drug’s promise as a treatment for the virus is in serious doubt after the Elgazzar study was pulled from the Research Square website on Thursday “due to ethical concerns”. Research Square did not outline what those concerns were. A medical student in London, Jack Lawrence, was among the first to identify serious concerns about the paper, leading to the retraction. He first became aware of the Elgazzar preprint when it was assigned to him by one of his lecturers for an assignment that formed part of his master’s degree. He found the introduction section of the paper appeared to have been almost entirely plagiarised.

It appeared that the authors had run entire paragraphs from press releases and websites about ivermectin and Covid-19 through a thesaurus to change key words. “Humorously, this led to them changing ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome’ to ‘extreme intense respiratory syndrome’ on one occasion,” Lawrence said. The data also looked suspicious to Lawrence, with the raw data apparently contradicting the study protocol on several occasions.

Read more …

Not sure what Trump did this time, but they want him again. Is it his lawsuit vs Big Tech?

Top General Feared Trump Would Attempt A Coup After Losing The Election (DM)

The country’s top military officer was so convinced that then-President Donald Trump would attempt a coup after his election loss to Joe Biden that he and other senior generals made plans to stop him, according to a new book. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his deputies reportedly pledged to resign en masse if they were given an order by Trump that was illegal or unconstitutional. ‘They may try, but they’re not going to f***ing succeed,’ Milley told his deputies. ‘You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. ‘We’re the guys with the guns.’ The dramatic quote excerpted by CNN was revealed in a new book authored by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year. The book is scheduled for release next week.

Days before the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, Milley warned confidantes of a ‘Reichstag moment’ facing the country. According to the book, his concern stemmed from the fact that Trump was preaching ‘the gospel of the Führer.’ Milly referred to Trump supporters at a march to protest the election as ‘brownshirts in the streets.’ In 1933, after Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany, the Nazis used a fire at the Reichstag building, home to Germany’s parliament, as a pretext to suspend civil liberties and consolidate power by claiming the country was under threat from communists. The brownshirts were Nazi paramilitaries who helped Hitler rise to power. ‘Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military,’ Rucker and Leonnig write.

The joint chiefs chairman was especially worried by the fact that Trump purged the Defense Department of those who raised objections to his ideas and replaced them with loyalists after the November election. Days after the election, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher Miller. Other deputies to Esper were also fired and replaced with those who shared the then-president’s views. In December, Attorney General William Barr resigned after he refused to endorse Trump’s claims of rampant voter fraud. The departures of Barr and Esper left Milley concerned, according to the book. Milley reportedly told friends that he felt he needed to be ‘on guard’ in anticipation of what might happen.

Read more …

Luke Harding was one of the people at the Guardian working with Julian Assange on releases of WikiLeaks files back in 2009/10. He wanted to write Assange’s biography, but Julian declined. Then the revenge started. First, Harding and David Leigh published a secret password in a book, then a preposterous lying story of Paul Manafort visiting the Ecuador embassy multiple times followed, which conveniently combined anti-Assange with anti-Trump, and now there’s more hollow filth.

Kremlin Papers Appear To Show Putin’s Plot To Put Trump In White House (G.)

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.


Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature. By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican party’s nomination race. A report prepared by Putin’s expert department recommended Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory. Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin. The Guardian has shown the documents to independent experts who say they appear to be genuine. Incidental details come across as accurate. The overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.

Read more …

Why on earth react?

Kremlin Says Guardian Claims Are ‘Fundamentally Untrue’ (RT)

Moscow has reacted furiously to a series of claims, backed up with anonymous and unverifiable sources, that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his security officials to support Donald Trump’s campaign to become US president. In comments made exclusively to RT on Thursday evening, Putin’s spokesman slammed the report, published in the UK’s Guardian newspaper earlier that day. “This is total fiction,” Dmitry Peskov remarked. “Strictly speaking, it is complete nonsense. Of course, this is the hallmark of an absolutely low-quality publication. Either the newspaper is trying to somehow increase its popularity or is sticking to a rabidly Russophobic line.”

The article, authored by British journalist Luke Harding and two other staffers at the outlet, claimed that Putin had “Personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, during a closed session of Russia’s national security council.” The bombshell revelations were purportedly based on “what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.” Harding has a history of publishing false stories related to the so-called “Russiagate” conspiracy theory, which became popular after Trump was elected to America’s highest office. In 2018, for instance, he published a completely fake tale about dissident publisher Julian Assange and the American lobbyist Paul Manafort supposedly having met in London.

The article was also based on anonymous ‘sources.’ Although the allegation has been thoroughly debunked, the Guardian has refused to correct the record. While working in Moscow in 2007, Harding was accused of plagiarism by The Exile, a small, independent and now defunct magazine. His employer issued an apology at the time.

Read more …

Duh!

Russia Accuses US Of ‘Staging’ Anti-Government Protests In Cuba (RT)

Wide-scale protests and rioting that have rocked the Caribbean nation of Cuba are, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, part of an orchestrated campaign by American officials to oust the country’s socialist government. In a statement issued on Thursday, one of Moscow’s top diplomatic representatives, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, blasted American “impudence” for suggesting that the demonstrations were a result of the Cuban government’s own mistakes. Instead, she described the approach a part of “yet another political staging.” “Washington’s cynicism is shown by the fact that throughout the entire period of the existence of revolutionary Cuba, it purposefully pursued a strategy of strangling the country, discriminating against its people and destroying the economy,” she went on.

“Their thinking here is simple – it has already been repeatedly deployed by Washington in different situations. But in every case, there is the same goal – sparking ‘color revolutions’ in response to unwanted regimes.” The approach, the official added, hinges on applying sanctions and provoking tensions by worsening the socio-economic situation in the country. Zakharova said that the idea authorities in Havana alone were to blame for fomenting discontent was patently false. “Despite all the measures taken by the central Cuban authorities to support the country’s economy and provide assistance to the population, it is they who are accused by Washington of the current crisis situation,” she said. “At the same time, the Americans, as always, keep silent about their own subversive actions and opportunistic aspirations.”

She went on to compare the incident to scenes in Washington in January, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump forced their way into the seat of government in protest of his election defeat. “Where were their concerns about humanitarian values, political pluralism and democratic freedoms,” she asked, “when those who stormed the Capitol… were detained across America, accused of ‘domestic terrorism’ and are now facing criminal charges?” Earlier this week, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the circumstances that led to tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets were down to the “actions and inactions, mismanagement, corruption of the Cuban regime” and not because of “anything the United States has done.” “We are always considering options available to us that would allow us to support the Cuban people, to support their humanitarian needs, which are indeed profound,” Price told reporters.

Read more …

How about adults?

Illinois Becomes First State To Prohibit Police From Lying To Kids (JTN)

Illinois has become the first state to ban law enforcement officers from lying to juveniles during interrogations. The law was part of a package of criminal justice reform measures put forth by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Thursday. Senate Bill 2122, which prohibits the use of deceptive tactics by all law enforcement when interrogating a minor, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022. “It is time that we move towards a new era of public safety,” said state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Public safety for all, public safety by the people, public safety that belongs to us.” Also attending the bill signing was Terrell Swift, one of the so-called “Englewood Four.” Swift served 15 years in prison for rape and murder before he was released in 2012 after it was ruled that his confession as a 17-year-old was coerced by Chicago police.

That confession led to his conviction despite no evidence tying him to the crime, and the city eventually paid Swift $7 million in a settlement after his release. “This bill, I truly believe, could have saved my life,” Swift said. Along with SB 2122, Pritzker signed three other bills: Senate Bill 64, which encourages the use of restorative justice practices by making statements during these practices privileged.Senate Bill 2129, which allows the State’s Attorney of a county in which a defendant was sentenced to petition for re-sentencing of the offender if the original sentence no long advances the interests of justice. Senate Bill 3587, which creates the Re-sentencing Task Force Act to study ways to reduce the state’s prison population through re-sentencing motions.

In February, Pritzker signed a criminal justice reform plan which eliminates cash bail within two years, makes it easier to decertify police officers by eliminating signed affidavits of complaint, and mandates the use of police body cameras for all officers by 2025. Law enforcement officials statewide condemned the reform plan as hindering police from preventing crime, ultimately emboldening criminals and threatening police officers.

Read more …

“..not all the phones were subject to record preservation.”

59 of 96 Phones Assigned To Mueller Probe Missing (JTN)

Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa sent a letter to the Justice Department Wednesday asking for more information regarding missing phones used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during the Russian collusion investigation. The senators sent the letter after finding out the Justice Department “could not locate 59 of the 96 phones used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team,” according to Grassley’s website. The two senators wrote to the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General in September 2020 regarding allegations that cell phones assigned to “multiple people on then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team were ‘wiped’ for various reasons during [the Russia investigation].”

In a response on May 11, 2021, the OIG reported that 59 of the 96 phones assigned the Special Counsel’s Office were unaccounted for. That report showed that in June 2019, the DOJ took possession of 79 of 96 phones that belonged to members of Muller’s team to be reviewed for official records. The records included notes and text messages, which were then sent to DOJ or FBI email systems for preservation. However, not all the phones were subject to record preservation. The two lawmakers are now following up with requests for further information including:

• the names of SCO employees whose cell phones were not reviewed for official records
• what, if any, actions are being taken by the DOJ to recover the 59 phones the department has been unable to locate
• whether the DOJ reviewed the phones to ascertain “whether they were used to leak sensitive or classified information.”

Read more …

Oh, how lovely.

Bill Clinton Took Two More Trips On The Lolita Express (DM)

Bill Clinton took two trips with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein – including one on the pedophile’s private jet – that have not been previously disclosed. A new podcast reveals that the former President flew on Epstein’s jet, which was dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’, in February 2005 while visiting Japan, Taiwan and China. Clinton also flew on a private jet owned by billionaire Ron Burkle with Maxwell as a passenger during a trip to India in November 2003. That visit was part of Clinton’s work with the Clinton Foundation, his philanthropic initiative, to lower the cost of AIDS drugs. According to journalist Vicky Ward, Maxwell was part of the official Clinton party and even stayed at the same hotel as him. Ward reveals the details in her new podcast ‘Chasing Ghislaine’, which is available from Thursday on Audible Originals.

The podcast claims that Maxwell used Clinton for her ‘escape’ from Epstein in the 2000s when her relationship with the financier was cooling. Maxwell was considered by Clinton’s personal staff to be ‘just as important’ as Epstein for raising money for the Clinton Foundation and was the ‘go-to person’ when it came to asking for donations from the pedophile. The claims put new focus on the friendship between the former President and Epstein, who hanged himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Flight logs showed that Clinton took at least 26 trips aboard the ‘Lolita Express’ — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights between 2001 and 2003. The period where Epstein and Clinton were closest – the early 2000s – coincides with the period that Epstein was charged with running a sex trafficking ring.

Clinton has always denied any involvement in any criminality and has claimed that has never visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean as some reports have suggested. But the connections between the two appear to have been strong and there were financial as well as social links lasting many years. Maxwell is currently awaiting a November trial for allegedly procuring and trafficking underage girls for Epstein, charges she denies. Ward has reported on the Epstein case for nearly two decades, first for Vanity Fair and now in her role as a CNN journalist. She wrote a profile of Epstein for Vanity Fair in 2003 but the details of his alleged abuse of two young sisters was left out after Epstein contacted her editor, Graydon Carter, she claims.

According to ‘Chasing Ghislaine’, during the 2000s Maxwell was trying to escape the ‘sick partnership’ she had built with Epstein, who she dated during the early 1990s and allegedly abused underage girls with. In the podcast, Ward says: ‘Ghislaine used former President Bill Clinton for her escape. ‘Remember, Clinton’s post-presidency was an exciting, very attractive place to be. He and an entourage went on fascinating trips to Europe, to Asia, to Africa and he met with extremely interesting people. ‘Now, records I’ve seen recently show that in 2003, Ghislaine visited the Taj Mahal with Bill Clinton and a group of around 20 others. This trip has not previously been reported. Jeffrey wasn’t on it. And that was key in cementing Ghislaine’s rise as a VIP in her own right in Clinton World, according to sources close to Bill Clinton’.

Read more …

J6 has turned them into a national force. But why exactly?

Capitol Police To Use Army Surveillance Gear To Monitor Americans (AMN)

U.S. Capitol Police will start using Army surveillance equipment to monitor Americans as part of a larger effort to improve security and turn the force into “an intelligence-based protective agency” in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Last week, the USCP took possession of eight Persistent Surveillance Systems Ground – Medium (PSSG-M) units, fulfilling a request that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved on June 2. The units capture high-definition video and include night vision, but do not feature facial recognition capabilities. “This technology will be integrated with existing USCP camera infrastructure, providing greater high definition surveillance capacity to meet steady-state mission requirements and help identify emerging threats,” the Pentagon said.

The same technology was used by troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to observe large areas day and night. The Army will install the units and train Capitol Police on how to operate the systems, the Pentagon said. In a statement last week, the USCP called the technology “state-of-the-art campus surveillance technology, which will enhance the ability to detect and monitor threat activity.” The Capitol Police did not provide further details regarding how or where the surveillance equipment would be used, and didn’t provide information on whether data collected would be stored or distributed. These latest efforts by the Capitol Police have raised some concerns relating to Americans’ privacy rights.

Last month, a federal appeals court found similar surveillance technology used by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) violated the constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. A New York University School of Law independent audit of the systems used by the BPD found the technology allowed the department to track individuals for multiple days. William Owen, a member of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said the Capitol Police’s new technology is cause for concern. “These so-called improvements that the Capitol Police have implemented after the insurrection represent an expansion of police power and surveillance that STOP cautioned against in January,” he said, according to The Washington Times.

Read more …

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 16 2021

Viewing 26 posts - 41 through 66 (of 66 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #79959
    a kullervo
    Participant
    #79960
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @kullervo: ” …we left the crooks and other scum of the Earth take over the positions of power ..”

    I keep reading this everywhere these days. But absolutely no one explains just exactly how …

    we allowed this!
    we allowed this!
    we allowed this!

    How exactly is it “we” peons allowed this? None of us voted? None signed petitions? None protested? None talked directly to politicians? None submitted opinion pieces to newspapers? None launched a website to raise the alarm?

    What was our option? Should we have had an “Annie get your guns” moment and, what, stormed the, um, the local political offices?

    I’m tired of the finger pointing. The corporations and lobbyists have owned DC for decades. There are literally studies proving this.

    If you have a solid argument for how exactly “we” could have prevented this, I’m all ears.

    #79961
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    And, by the way, people are TRYING. They’ve lost their jobs and their incomes. They’ve had their reputations ground into muck. They’ve alienated family and friends. They’ve been isolated and castigated. They’ve taken to the streets.

    My god, what more can people do?

    #79962
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    I am dumbstruck. CNN headline: “White House turns up heat on Big Tech’s Covid disinformation dozen”. Facebook was told to censor 12 people who nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) called “super-spreaders of anti-vaccine misinformation”. The ruling class are intentionally denying Americans information that counters the official narrative that mRNA vaccines are “safe and effective”. The USA is seven months into the injection campaign and it is absolutely clear that this statement is false.

    It is not just that the propaganda is completely divorced from reality as it was in the 1000-year Reich and Soviet Union. A reason these Empires fell in the 20th century. It is that America’s rulers believe their propaganda to be true.

    It cannot be mere coincidence that mRNA coronavirus vaccines were developed and ready to be jabbed when SARS-CoV-2 appeared in Wuhan China. These messy sorts of things that go against the public/private portrayal must remain hidden. The COVID death toll is starting to rise again in the USA. Unvaccinated deplorables will be blamed and hated; not the 50-state public health system and the corrupt incompetent federal government that failed the people.

    #79963
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    @upstateNYer “My god, what more can people do? ”

    I suppose there’s the French option :

    Already previously posted, but apparently the methodology sometimes works.
    Messy though.
    Don’t recommend it as a general rule

    #79964
    Bill7
    Participant

    Thanks for those recent comments, upstate. The notion that we little peeps have any say in how things
    are run is.. interesting.

    > I’m tired of the finger pointing. The corporations and lobbyists have owned DC for decades. There are literally studies proving this. <

    Agreed, and Gilens and Pages’ 2014 study is a fine example:

    Gilens and Page: Average citizens have little impact on public policy

    “Simulated Democracy”, CJ Hopkins call it..

    #79965
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I’m with you too upstateNYer, not that I’m taking sides I like to hear other opinions but the debt money system and enclosures act means there has not been options for a significant counter culture to evolve – and the ones that existed (aboriginal australia) were simply torn apart or murdered.
    I have planted countless trees, put in chicken and orchard systems and made a living in permaculture and related activities including building. Doesn’t mean much in the face of the belt and road and globo-cap. It is why I keep coming back to the spiritual. Those who want only the world will always want more of it and they will take it with murder. This is behind Orlov’s piece re the Pashtuns. They want to be left alone. So do the Irish. Difference is the Pashtuns have the incredible advantage of geography. Cannot be underestimated. Mountains and caves baby.

    #79966
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “How exactly is it “we” peons allowed this? None of us voted? None signed petitions? None protested? None talked directly to politicians? None submitted opinion pieces to newspapers? None launched a website to raise the alarm?”

    Nonetheless, it happened. No one’s saying no one did anything. Just that what we did obviously produced unsatisfactory results. ONe doesn’t succeed by good intentions; one succeeds by success.

    And, fwiw, we’re the most spoiled useless buncha people the world ever saw, and what most people do as civic engagement wouldn’t lift up a flea on a teeter-totter.

    “I’m tired of the finger pointing. The corporations and lobbyists have owned DC for decades. There are literally studies proving this.”

    But we could’ve owned them in a heartbeat if we really made the effort. We didn’t. We watched reruns of Happy Days and voted the party line most of the time. C’mon, get serious and accept responsibility for being alive. Yeah, I said that. It’s true of me too, as well as a kullervo, that lousy asshole. 😉

    btw, the way you stop murderers is by murdering them. Instead, we vote for them. Obama won reelection even after he increased the bombing of innocent foreigners abroad. We, by the way, means ‘we’. You know, all ofus. The sum collective total of our actions produced the situation in which “The corporations and lobbyists have owned DC for decades.” If a member of a de3mocratic plebiscite can’t point the finger at his fellow plebians for allowing their elected leaders to break every other promise and throw shit in our sandlot, who can we blame?

    Maybe Russia?

    #79967
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “Thanks for those recent comments, upstate. The notion that we little peeps have any say in how things
    are run is.. interesting.”

    Then why the fuck are we talking about this stuff? Oh, I know: to whine and commiserate. Ah, to quote my favorite Lord Buckley line: “Pass me that rather small boy over there, please.”

    The Bad-Rapping of the Marquis de Sade.

    #79968
    oxymoron
    Participant

    So according to either me, Madamski, upstateNYer, Dr D and just about anyone on here we are powerless and ineffective or we are active and powerful and have had effect – all leading to the now of where we are. Well I feel that is a little like saying the slaves asked for it. Or the Aborigines deserved it by their lack of technological advance or precision murder campaign. Being a Martyr aint cool but nor is murdering for what one desires to be. So I guess walking into the fire eyes wide open will have to do.
    or…
    lesson no. 11
    My Meaningless Thoughts Are Showing Me A Meaningless World.
    This is the first idea we have had that is related to a major phase of the correction process; the reversal of the thinking of the world. It seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today’s idea introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see. Be glad indeed to practice the idea in its initial form, for in this idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it.

    #79969
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    So according to either me, Madamski, upstateNYer, Dr D and just about anyone on here we are powerless and ineffective…

    Back in the 90s there were scores of AMERICANS across the fruited plains that thought if We engaged in a spiritual campaign to enlighten & educate borderline Sheeple that the Republic was in grave danger, explaining the bullet points & the solution, perhaps a movement would start to restore Our Democratic Republic under Natural Law…

    For the uninitiated, the U$ofA became a banking/.mil empire officially when FDR signed in Emergency Powers in MAR 1933:

    Senate Report 93-549 (1973-1975) Emergency powers statutes ~ Provisions of federal law now in effect delegating to the executive extraordinary authority in time of national emergency report of the special committee on the termination of the national emergency:

    Senate Report 93-549

    It was a pathetically failed endeavor as the Sheeple were happy to graze on pastures of ignorant bliss.

    Following that nauseating experience I no longer care, I jut prepare…

    Dr. Eugene Schroder explains it better than I care to any longer:

    FWFS

    #79970
    zerosum
    Participant

    “My god, what more can people do?”

    “How exactly is it “we” peons allowed this?”

    ” I jut prepare…”

    “Know thyself”

    “I would leave and go … but someone is already there”

    Becoming an expat is not my thing

    #79971
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * Where We’re At
    – The Universe is a vacuum but it’s clogged and badly needs its bag emptied
    – Ordinary man can’t resist evil, can’t get forgiveness of debts and can’t get their daily bread because of the kingdom and the power
    – All congressmen and government officials are on the take
    – Big neighbor is watching you; Friends don’t let friends question authority
    – Wikipedia = Foundation and Empire
    – Let’s link to Tucker as hell freezes over
    – Color revolutions are wrecking supply chains
    – The self-righteous scum let the wicked scum takeover
    – Step away from your computer once in a while

    * Cyber pandemic will require cyber distance, cyber hand washing and cyber vaccination ending with cyber thrombosis brought on by cyber spike proteins

    * Covid 19 News
    – NIH paid to bad mouth ivermectin
    – Long Covid has 200 symptoms that look like old age
    – Vitamin D, Zinc and aspirin mitigate long covid
    – Biden and Fauci desperate to get 70% vaccinated
    – One bad Ivermectin study spoils the whole bunch
    – Pandemic of the unvaccinated coming
    – Covid => Isolation => Depression => Fentanyl => Death

    * The Covid 19 Results
    – Enrich the rich
    – Require digital ubiquity
    – Censor the inconvenient
    – Demonize the non-compliant
    – Cull the herd
    – Totalitarianize the government

    * Arbeit Macht Frei
    – Wenn luegen luegen luegen luegen luegen nach

    * If that’s all there is my friend, then let’s keep dancing, let’s break out the booze and have a ball

    #79972
    Archie
    Participant

    And yet here we all are, together. And willing to condescend to each other as well.

    #79973
    Antidote
    Participant

    A cosmic joke

    Big Brain does the math

    Big brains heart is sad

    Big brain hopes for the children

    Big brain does not believe the children can

    Big brain has big ego

    Big brain does not see the beauty in …………..surrender

    #79974
    Bill7
    Participant

    “we” ?

    heh

    #79975
    WES
    Participant

    Biden needs 70% of Americans vaxxed. Trudeau needs 3/4 of Canadians vaxxed before he will open the US/Canada border to fully vaxxed travelers.

    Well I just completed a big study that found over 70% of Americans are fully vaxxed! I also just completed a big study on Canadians and found over 3/4s of Canadians are fully vaxxed!

    Now joe and justin have no more excuses! Their goals have been fully met! Bbee.

    #79976
    absolute galore
    Participant

    “Then why the fuck are we talking about this stuff? Oh, I know: to whine and commiserate.”

    Well, yeah, kinda. We’re in a system, the biggest human system ever. Not everybody gets to throw the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl or be a douche that goes to Harvard and gets on the fast track to Masters of the Universe. Do you really want to be a possum’s A-hole like Adam Schiff or a shiftless industrial grifter like “Joe Biden?” Or a narcissistic vulgarian living the unexamined life a la Mr. Trump? How about a chinless punk like Zuckerberg? That’s what it takes to get to the top these days. It ain’t pretty, folks.

    Sorry, those positions have been filled. Anyway, there has to be a hapless hoi polloi, that teeming, unruly cast of extras. And how many of us want to be tossed to the lions? More fun to be a sanctimonious whiner, no?

    I mostly blame the vast quantities of energy available that we used so foolishly. And even there, we seem to have this biological imperative to consume. In any case, even if you’d prefer to flame out, we’re pretty much trapped at this stage of the game. Good luck fighting for a seat on the life boat.

    I don’t like the term “sheeple.” That’s wearing your sanctity on your sleeve. I’m (sometimes) just thankful that my eyes have opened to the degree they have opened, and I hope others will receive some grace. It certainly does not make life easier, but it does make it more interesting. As others have said here in various ways over the last few months, I do believe a more rigorous spiritual path is definitely called for in these times of ours. Which who knows where that will lead. But I imagine it’s the best bet right about now. Although fuck ’em all in the meantime!;^)

    #79977
    WES
    Participant

    Yesterday I was taking a little siestas on a lawn chair in my daughter’s Dutch Drawf rabbit’s cage.

    (For those a little worried about how I managed to put a lawn chair and myself into a little 2 pound rabbit’s cage, the cage is 8′ wide x 6′ high x 20′ long! Her favorite hobby is digging new tunnels in the pure sand! She has dug so many tunnels that she has raised the entire cage’s floor by at least 4 inches!)(Strangely she has never dug a tunnel to escape. The one time that her tunnel surfaced outside the cage, she plugged it by backfilling the tunnel!) If I knew how to take a picture of the cage of less than 512K
    ( and put it in my post I would, but I don’t.

    Then I notice Moki stand upright on her hind legs. That means she has spotted something of interest! I suspected her friend the deer, but I didn’t see the deer. After I left the cage, my wife said the deer had walked right past her, not 20 feet away, on the other side of the rabbit cage! It had never dawned on me to look behind me for the deer! Delights of being at the cottage!

    #79978
    WES
    Participant

    BLS released second quarter 2021 labor statistics today. Labor wages fell 1.2% from second quarter 2020. Add in your favorite inflation figure and you arrive at a much greater lost of purchasing power for workers.

    Particularly hard hit were women. All of this is by design. That means housing prices have likely peaked.

    The 3rd quarter will likely be even worst followed by an even worse 4th quarter. Are more free money checks on the way to boost inflation even more? Sadly anything is possible in our upside down world!

    #79979
    zerosum
    Participant

    porridge recipes not working
    Energy

    Too much heat burning living life
    Too much heat evaporating the water needed for life
    Too much water drowning life
    Too much wind destroying life

    Help needed for the circle of life

    #79980
    a kullervo
    Participant

    @upstateNYer

    A little more courage, a lot less shiny toys/restaurant chains/shopping malls, perhaps?

    #79998
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Not sure. Yes, “We” did it, but no, “we” were lied to and engineered in every way Science and Bernays could find possible with 5,000 years of technology. I’m not letting them off.

    I just look at things they KNOW are bad, widely agreed to be bad things, like too much shopping, waste, packaging, pollution, urban sprawl, viruses, Facebook surveillance, all kinds of things. And then? Every morning getting up, they go out, pay for, pave, build, waste, and throw away, buy anyone who’s know evil, lied, double-crossed them, took their power, trashed their friendship and global citizenship.

    So…THAT part I have to say is us. Like (as Phoenix will know) is it really THAT hard to get a used computer and use Linux? That’s free, secure, cooperative? To get off Facebook and see your friends so they remain real friends and not abstractions? As you hate packaging, to fund the products that have less of it and make your whole short life better?

    And I say this. Aaaaand people agree with me, save nothing, change nothing, do nothing. It all comes apart, from yard to pantry to family just like people like me told them for 80 years. It’s the version of
    “They know they’re lying, we know they’re lying, and we know they know that we know that they know…”

    …And yet they — we — still do it. And because of it, because we play along and don’t refuse and use responsible products, Glenn Greenwald can’t be heard on safe, non-biased media, coke is using GMO HFCS, and Toyota is paying the Fed to bailouts. People still are all-in for Chase, HSBC, Fargo credit cards and accounts. GM took all money, defaulted on all stock and unions, install all high-priced, non-working panopticon OnStar and sell briskly.

    This is what I’m saying. Is it so hard to buy a better toothpaste? NOT sign up and boycott Facebook? So, so tiny, the tiniest sacrifices ever, which would bring them to heel in a minute. Like we see with Coke and ESPN. We didn’t. Even the tiniest sacrifice ever was too much.

    So yes, I’ll arrest them all and hold them fully responsible. But my opinion of the masses is not as victims, but that they are are main engine of their — our — own destruction.

    #79999
    Dr. D
    Participant

    …And maybe, more to the point: mine. And all the trees, cows, and topsoil on planet earth.

    #80012
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    I didn’t say you’d win the race or war or whatever we’re doing as a species. I’m just saying that WE did it. WE bought the shit TPTB sold us. You can blame psycho/socio-pathic narcissists all day long but in the end, your life rests on your shoulders alone.

    Yeah, it’s awful. Yeah, there are bad people who do bad things, including us. The fact is that pathetic is pathetic, and pathetic is as pathetic does.

    You’re (a collective some of yous) telling me we’re pathetic. I’m saying that maybe you are but I’m not. Bill Gates et al rule nothing but our unwillingness to rule ourselves.

    #80013
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “This is what I’m saying. Is it so hard to buy a better toothpaste? NOT sign up and boycott Facebook? So, so tiny, the tiniest sacrifices ever, which would bring them to heel in a minute. Like we see with Coke and ESPN. We didn’t. Even the tiniest sacrifice ever was too much.

    “So yes, I’ll arrest them all and hold them fully responsible. But my opinion of the masses is not as victims, but that they are are main engine of their — our — own destruction.”

    We see here why I adore Dr. D. so much even as I often hold him to severe account.

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