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20 Years of Government-Sponsored Tyranny: The Rise of the Security-Industrial Complex from 9/11 to COVID-19

John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead Sep 9, 2021

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What a strange and harrowing road we’ve walked since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties. We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade a freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state.
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Can the Media Survive Without Half of the Population? A New Poll Raises Questions About the New Media

Jonathan Turley Sep 8, 2021

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We have often discussed the increasing bias and advocacy in major media in the United States. While cable networks have long catered to political audiences on the left or right, mainstream newspapers and networks now openly frame news to fit a political narrative. With the exception of Fox and a couple of other smaller news outlets, that slant is heavily to the left. What is most striking about this universal shift toward advocacy journalism (including at journalism schools) is that there is no evidence that it is a sustainable approach for the media as an industry. While outfits like NPR allow reporters to actually participate in protests and the New York Times sheds conservative opinions, the new poll shows a sharp and worrisome division in trust in the media. 

Not surprisingly given the heavy slant of American media, Democrats are largely happy with and trusting of the media. Conversely, Republicans and independents are not. The question is whether the mainstream media can survive and flourish by writing off over half of the country.

The new study from the non-partisan Pew Research Center shows a massive decline in trust among Republicans. Five years ago, 70 percent of Republicans said they had at least some trust in national news organizations. In 2021, that trust is down to just 35 percent.

Conversely, and not surprisingly, 78 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they have “a lot” or “some” trust in the media. When you just ask liberal Democrats, it jumps to 83 percent.
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The ACLU, Prior to COVID, Denounced Mandates and Coercive Measures to Fight Pandemics

Glenn Greenwald Sep 9, 2021

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) surprised even many of its harshest critics this week when it strongly defended coercive programs and other mandates from the state in the name of fighting COVID. “Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties,” its Twitter account announced, adding that “vaccine requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure to the public."

If you were surprised to see the ACLU heralding the civil liberties imperatives of "vaccine mandates” and "vaccine requirements” — whereby the government coerces adults to inject medicine into their own bodies that they do not want — the New York Times op-ed which the group promoted, written by two of its senior lawyers, was even more extreme. The article begins with this rhetorical question: “Do vaccine mandates violate civil liberties?” Noting that "some who have refused vaccination claim as much,” the ACLU lawyers say: “we disagree.” The op-ed then examines various civil liberties objections to mandates and state coercion — little things like, you know, bodily autonomy and freedom to choose — and the ACLU officials then invoke one authoritarian cliche after the next (“these rights are not absolute") to sweep aside such civil liberties concerns...
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ACLU Flips! Vaccine Passport Obsession Accelerates

Sept 10 - Prior to Covid, the American Civil Liberties Union denounced mandates and coercive measures to fight pandemics. One should expect nothing less, of course. But recently, in a bizarre statement, the ACLU flipped and stated “Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties.” They couldn't be more wrong. Don't miss today's Liberty Report:



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Apparent Delusional Talk from Cop Who Says He Shot Ashli Babbitt: ‘I Know That Day I Saved Countless Lives’
“I know that day I saved countless lives,” United States Capitol Police cop Michael Byrd is quoted in a Thursday NBC News article as saying in regard to his actions on January 6 in resisting people who entered the Capitol, including Ashli Babbitt who Byrd says he shot through a doorway.
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Ron Paul Talks In-depth about the Afghanistan War
A new interview with Ron Paul starts with a video clip of Paul speaking on the United States House of Representatives floor in March of 2011 when Paul was a Republican member of the House from Texas. In the clip, Paul says that, if US troops were not withdrawn that year from Afghanistan where they had already been fighting for approaching ten years, they would remain there for another ten.
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Reason Senior Editor: Government Schools Should Require Teachers to Take Experimental Coronavirus Vaccines
A few people over at Reason have been head over heels for the experimental coronavirus vaccines, some of which are not even vaccines under the normal meaning of the term, being pushed incessantly by many people working in politics and media.
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Preposterous Coronavirus Vaccine Hype: White House Press Secretary Claims the Shots Have Saved ‘Tens of Millions of People’s Lives’
Last week President Joe Biden told the coronavirus vaccines propaganda whopper that about 350 million Americans had taken shots of the experimental coronavirus vaccines.
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UFC: a Sanctuary from Coronavirus Vaccine Pressure in Professional Sports
While other professional sports organizations are imposing much pressure on competitors to take experimental coronavirus vaccine shots, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White is taking a refreshingly different and pro-freedom approach to the matter.
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