THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY erected a dozen spy bases in Ukraine to wage a shadow war against Russia, according to a report published by The New York Times on Sunday. The project began in or around 2014, and evidently, C.I.A. Director John Brennan was caught in the middle of it. This wasn’t so much great investigative reporting on the part of The Times, it was an admission by the U.S.—something that rarely happens. Naturally, The Times or The Washington Post would be the government’s first and second choice to publish it. Another primary source was a top intelligence commander, Gen. Serhii Dvoretskiy.
This means U.S. intelligence has been surreptitiously involved, and even instrumental, in Ukraine’s decision-making vis-a-vis Russia by having financing and establishing high-tech command-and-control spy centers. That fact isn’t particularly surprising, but the fact it was happening, not only prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago, but back before the Trump administration.
In interpreting the story, Zero Hedge said the decade-long “closely guarded secret” has effectively made the world a major step closer to WWIII because the C.I.A. can be credited with the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks, including direct drone strikes in vital oil refineries and other energy infrastructure. The former head of the SBU (Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency), Ivan Bakanov, “Without [the CIA and elite commandoes it’s trained], there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians, or to beat them.” (Brackets added.)
It seems that after a U.S.-sponsored coup took out Ukraine’s then democratically elected government, Brennan made a visit to Kyiv in April of 2014. Shortly after his visit, the new Ukrainian government began an ‘anti-terror operation’ against its Russian-peaking citizen in Eastern Ukraine. For the following eight years, Ukraine, with the help of the C.I.A., bombed Eastern Ukraine relentlessly and millions of innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire.
It’s also true the U.S. had biolabs in Ukraine, too. In fact, they’ve been there until quite recently, but then-Sen. Mitt Romney (RINO-Utah) kept accusing former Rep. Tulso Gabbard (D-Ha.) of “treasonous lies” for suggesting the U.S. funded them. Gabbard told Fox News, based on testimony of Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in Eurasia, Victoria Nuland, back then:
“There are 25+ U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release and spread deadly pathogens to U.S./world. We must take action now to prevent disaster. U.S./Russia/Ukraine/NATO/U.N./E.U. must implement a ceasefire now around these labs until they’re secured and pathogens destroyed.”
Nuland had admitted the biolabs’ existence to the U.S. Senate. It was no surprise the White House denied it within 24 hours, calling it fake news propagated by Russia! The Pentagon later had to publicly admit there were 46! More details here.
WHY ON EARTH Elon Musk ever bought Twitter is beyond me. That he failed to have safeguards in his purchase and sale agreement to allow him to get out of it at points in his due diligence investigation was not too smart. Elon may be a visionary, but that doesn’t make him brilliant. (Musk’s expression of the foolish notion, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” is probably Exhibit B of evidence to that effect; Exhibit A being the purchase itself.) Nonetheless, some good has come out of Musk’s foolhardy move.
One is that we now know even more conclusively that the Democrats used the platform to significantly manipulate the 2020 election, most notably by repressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, originally broken by reporter Miranda Devine at The New York Post, which held strong evidence that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was likely compromised by foreign governments. With that, the story added the unqualified statement by Joe Biden claiming that he never had any involvement in Hunter’s overseas business dealings, a claim which has long since become provably untrue. This has all been known for a long time, and the emails ‘leaked’ in the Twitter Files simply confirm it all.
Another bit of good coming from Musk’s release is that those who censored for the Dems at Twitter were rewarded handsomely for their loyalty. Yet a third is that the U.S. government isn’t the only entity that has used Twitter to do its dirty work and limit peoples’ rights to free speech.
In a response to @Reuters last week, Musk tweeted “…Twitter has failed in trust& safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections…” We’ve actually known this for quite some time, though. Back in March of 2021, at a congressional hearing, then-Twitter owner, Jack Dorsey, admitted that suppressing the Hunter Biden story was a mistake.
What is being called the Twitter Files were released by Musk to independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday night(the first installment) in response to a call for him to “make public all internal discussions about the decision to censor the @NYPost’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 Election in the interest of Transparency.” Agreeing it was necessary “to restore public trust,” Musk obliged. He has also fired some employees responsible for content censorship and restored all banned accounts, like Trump’s, as long as they hadn’t broken the law or spammed. Of interest is Taibbi’s assertion that Dorsey was apparently unaware of the censorship, even though the decision was made at “the highest levels of the company.” (Really?)
We know Twitter (and other social media) staff were regularly and routinely asked by the Dems to clean up the platform to their benefit, especially in killing the laptop story. In fact, they often had direct portals connecting the government to the backdoors of the networks. They enthusiastically complied with take-down requests. Twitter staff would simply reply “handled” once something damaging to Dems was censored. They’d remove links, post warnings a link was “unsafe,” and even block the transmission via direct message, which had previously only been used in extreme cases of, say, child porn.
An F.B.I. Supervisory Special Agent named Elvis Chan testified in a deposition for a lawsuit by two state A.G.s that alleges collusion between the feds and social media to censor competing views. The Bureau had weekly meetings with Big Tech ahead of the 2020 elections to discuss such so-called disinformation on social media platforms, including Twitter. That deposition and other discovery has indicated to the A.G.s that there was a massive ‘censorship enterprise’ going on.
Apparently, it all wasn’t enough for the Democrats. They wanted Twitter to censor more. They believed the companies were incompetent and allowed conservatives “to muddy the water and make Biden campaign look corrupt,” just like they did with Hillary Clinton’s emails. They maintained the First Amendment “isn’t absolute.” Not for conservative or libertarian voices, anyway.
Not surprisingly, the censorship wasn’t limited to the laptop from hell story. It involves the imbroglio that is the Arizona electoral system, too. Democrat Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs colluded with Big Tech, too. Email leaks reveal she was in regular communication with Twitter, telling them who to censor, meaning the AZ state government was also complicit in violating the First Amendment rights of conservatives.
Forty-fifth President Donald Trump said in his typically grandiose style:
“I am glad that everyone is now seeing the light on what I have been saying loud and clear for the last two years, that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged and stolen by a combination of Democrats, Big Tech, ‘law enforcement,’ and other bad actors. Sadly, we have become a corrupt Country, perhaps one of the most corrupt anywhere in the world. We MUST right this horrible wrong, and take our Country back!”
He is unquestionably correct, but he needs to be careful to not fall into the trap of campaigning on the past rather than on the future.
Oh, and by the way, don’t listen to mediaite. It published a ridiculously biased piece titled, “Trump Calls For TERMINATION of the United States Constitution After Elon Musk’s Hunter Biden Drop — As One Does.” It quoted more of the president’s response to the Twitter FILES:
“…So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
The quotation is typical Trump and uses the English language in an unusual syntax. I think what he meant is that those who committed the fraud believed the ends justified the means, rather than how mediaite interpreted it. It may be in the ears of the beholder. In any event, Trump has every basis to be pissed as all hell.
So anyway, on Friday, a leading Republican on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), wasted no time in calling for testimony from Twitter staff about the suppression of the ‘laptop from hell’ story prior to the 2020 elections. It promises to be an interesting and illuminating hearing.
The Twitter Files may also breathe new life into a lawsuit, Changizi, et al, v. HHS, et al., brought by non-profit New Civil Liberties Alliance, that had been dismissed by a federal district court. The case, now before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, asks that government-directed social media censorship, in violation of the First Amendment, be enjoined. Twitter users had been suspended and de-platformed over what they considered to be reasoned views on Covid restrictions, but which Twitter deemed “misinformation.”
While the lawsuit doesn’t directly relate to the laptop from hell that is at the crux of the Twitter Files, it is clearly relevant inasmuch as it claims the powerful grasp of government’s hands on social media platforms like Twitter can stifle controversial speech as if it were doing so itself. (Read lawsuit here.)
As noted, for those who played along with the Dems, there were rewards. One was former Twitter Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety executive, Vijaya Gadde. He had played a key role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story a year before being made an advisor to Biden’s Department of Homeland Security in 2021. In fact, she was placed on an advisory role that shaped the DHS’s “misinformation and disinformation” work that had to be shut down because it so obviously ran afoul of the First Amendment.
Finally, it seems the U.S. government isn’t the only player in the olympian game of suppressing free expression throughout the world. The European Union, for one, likes censorship as it was under Twitter 1.0. It has threatened to ban the platform unless it agrees to abide by strict content censorship. To Brussels, that means “aggressive” censorship of “misinformation.” It further requires Twitter to submit to an extensive “independent audit,” lest it be banned in the 27-member states or be forced to pay fines of as much as six percent of its ‘global turnover,’ whatever that means. Musk would be wise to tell them “In je reet!” with an appropriate hand gesture, or “Hoch in den Arsch!,” in the much preferable German.
If the E.U. isn’t a big enough bully, there’s always the United Nations, which demands that human rights are fully respected at Twitter, micromanaging the world’s richest man’s newest business with 6 steps. Naturally, this involves the cancellation of speculative and subjective ‘harmful disinformation’ and ‘hate speech.’
There will more forthcoming from the Twitter Files. Like The Washington Post, expect that the mainstream media won’t like it and will ignore or downplay the story because they are complicit in the cover-ups themselves. Meanwhile, Musk may be having his food tested. In aTwitter Space Q&A with more than 100,000 listeners on Saturday, Musk said he was not suicidal and if he turned up dead somewhere, it wasn’t him.
AS IF THE COVID-19 SHUTDOWN all over the world wasn’t enough, Europe now faces an energy crisis that could make the 1970s look quaint. Funny thing is, 45th President Donald Trump warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005-2021) that it would be coming. At the time, he says, world leaders scoffed at him, but he didn’t think it was terribly difficult to imagine the day when relying on Russian natural gas through the Nord Stream I pipeline would be folly. He likes to talk about his prescience in his rallies to this day. Meanwhile, Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, and all of Europe weeps, for as goes Deutschland, so goes Europe. Scholz is on his third inflation-fighting plan since taking office.
Germany was probably the only strong economy on the continent, most countries having fallen into socialist abysses with a lack of leadership. This necessarily means Germany’s economical deterioration will be felt all over, including in the United States. Scholz’s coalition has put together a relief plan of about 65 billion euros, which for the first time in some time, has fallen to parity with the U.S. dollar. The plan, announced on Sept. 4th, is meant to help millions of households pay for fuel to heat their homes this winter at a time when energy prices have skyrocketed. Also included in his plan is a cap on profits by energy companies and even a redistribution of those profits as well as a delay in “carbon emission prices.” Additional measures include government payments to pensioners, students, parents, and the unemployed as well as further subsidies for rents, welfare, and public transportation. And unlike Joey Biden, Scholz can legitimately blame Vladimir Putin for the inflationary spiral in energy costs after Gazprom shut down the pipeline for alleged “maintenance.”Also under consideration is rolling back at least some of its aggressive “green” energy policies. This includes putting some nuclear power plants back online as well as reopening some coal power plants. Interesting, unlike the U.S., Germany has a constitutional limit on public borrowing, which sounds like an idea we should borrow.
The problem is this does little to help industry. With high fuel prices, goods won’t be manufactured, employees won’t be needed, trade won’t occur, and taxes won’t get paid to fund the welfare programs. A similar fate awaits Britain. One can expect worldwide societal unrest as basic needs aren’t met. Electricity prices have more than quadrupled in Germany over the past 12 months. Scholz should probably blame Joey, because Putin never would’ve invaded Ukraine under Trump.
MANY years later, the United Kingdom has finalized its “Brexit” from the European Union. A wonderful Christmas present for the British that was too long in coming, though why they ever abrogated their sovereignty in the first instance is wholly mystifying. They risked a “No Deal” Brexit in seven days had they been unable to iron out details at the last minute.
It was a big deal. The deal preserves Britain’s zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the European bloc’s single market comprising some 450 million consumers. It supports the peace in Northern Ireland. Some details will have to be hammered out over time, such as the services industries, including banking, a major issue for London. A token, symbolic issue involving fishing was eventually settled.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson seemed relieved. The deal still needs to be approved by European Parliament and the E.U.’s 27 -member states. The process begins on Christmas Day. British parliament is set to debate and vote on the deal on December 30th.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage wasn’t altogether keen on the deal, believing the U.K. would be too closely aligned with the E.U. Still, the E.U. stands to lose its principle military and intelligence powers, along with 15 percent of G.D.P. and London, and one of the world’s two top financial capitals.
The Bank of England forecasts some pain, even with the agreement. G.D.P. is projected to decline by a point in the first quarter of 2021. The economy is set to decline by four percent over fifteen years without the E.U. membership.
The U.K. voted yea on the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016. Terms for Brexit remained elusive for Downing Street, however. The U.K. formally left the E.U. on January 31st, and has been in a transition period since. The rules on trade, travel, and business remained unchanged in the interim. Still, neither the U.K. nor E.U. wanted the situation in stasis indefinitely.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson not only got sucker-punched by the Wuhan coronavirus this year, he’s getting clobbered by European Union negotiators intent on not letting the U.K. out of Brexit easily. It’s been over three-and-a-half years since the British narrowly voted out of the now 27-nation E.U. after a four-decade membership.
Officially, the U.K. cut its formal political ties on January 31st and is slated to complete an economic severance on December 31st when it leaves the E.U.’s single market and customs union. The U.K. and E.U. are now attempting to negotiate how it will deal with tariffs and economic relations after that.
It doesn’t look hopeful, and Boris is now threatening to walk away from talks “within weeks” and leave with a so-called “no-deal” Brexit. Ample time is needed for parliamentary approval for any negotiated settlement prior to the deadline. The E.U. demands a deal must be struck before November; the U.K. says the deadline is October 15th. Talks are set to continue in earnest on Tuesday.
One area of contention is European boating rights in U.K.’s fishing waters as well as state aid to industries. The E.U. wants a “level playing field” to not undermine its environmental or workplace rules. It also doesn’t want the U.K. aiding industries, giving them a perceived unfair advantage. British negotiators point out the E.U. doesn’t make such demands on other countries it trades with.
In other words, the E.U. demands the same things from the U.K. that motivated them to leave the union in the first place. In other words, good riddance.
This is a creepy story reported by The Intercept about a virtual policeman called the Silent Talker which subjects travelers to a lie detector test before being permitted to pass through customs in the European Union.
In an unprecedented lawsuit in Austria, social media companies are now mandated to control what Austrians, and people from every other nation in the world, including the United States, can read or write on their platforms without being censored.
sua sponte 