Friday September 22, 2023
We previously discussed the defunct Disinformation Governance Board and its controversial head Nina Jankowicz. After the outcry over the program, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas finally relented and disbanded the board while insisting that it was never about censoring opposing views. Jankowicz has sued over the portrayal of her views. Now, Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) has exposed just how broad the scope of the censorship efforts were under the board in combatting “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM). This range of authority in what the agency called the “MDM space,” included targeting views on racial justice and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
New documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the agency could regulate speech related to “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of US support to Ukraine” as well as “irregular immigration.”
Those subjects stretch across much of the “space” used for political speech in the last few years.
Notably, within DHS, Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, extended her agency’s mandate over critical infrastructure to include “our cognitive infrastructure.” The resulting censorship efforts included combating “malinformation” – described as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” I testified earlier on this effort.
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Friday September 22, 2023
We are seeing the classic signs of the growing discontent within some key sectors of the military and intelligence bureaucracy over the Biden policy towards Ukraine (I will touch on those in a minute), but the Biden national security team continues to stridently insist insist it will back Ukraine to the bitter end. However, despite the tough talk, Biden continues to balk on sending some weapon systems that could transform the Special Military Operation into a full blown war with Russia.
I am posting the video of Jake Sullivan’s press conference today on Biden’s meeting with Zelensky to illustrate this point. It lasts about 30 minutes and is worth listening to both for what is said and what is not.
Let me start by explaining what I meant by “classic signs” that there no longer is consensus within the US national security agencies about what to do in Ukraine. Last week I wrote about the briefing DIA’s Director of Analysis provided to some key media outlets. He presented the Administration line dressed up as “DIA intelligence.” Today we have Sy Hersh’s latest report — Zelensky’s Bad Moment — that reveals there are important contrarian voices in the ranks of the CIA...
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Friday September 22, 2023
Allegations of sexual impropriety and abuse by comedian and podcaster Russell Brand by the British media prompted YouTube to demonetize the star’s popular channel on September 20. The Grayzone can now reveal that YouTube’s financial censorship of Brand is the result of an effort waged by a former British government minister who was responsible for London’s crackdown on dissent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Thursday September 21, 2023
Forget evidence, trials, or the presumption of innocence: for the UK Parliament It's "sentence first—verdict afterwards." Culture Committee Chair Caroline Dinenage sent letters to every platform commentator Russell Brand has appeared on to demand that he not be allowed to earn money from his work. Even though he has not been charged, much less convicted of a crime! Also today: Jan 6th "insurgents" were crawling with Feds. Finally: NATO dam cracks with Poland saying "hasta la vista" to Ukraine. Today on the Liberty Report...
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Thursday September 21, 2023
No sooner did the beggar Zelenskyy trek to New York to lecture the United Nations did the so-called Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces suspend Sarah (Michael) Ashton-Carillo.
You may recall Ashton-Carillo’s video a while back. In the video, the American trans in a bad blonde wig and a military green polo shirt threatened to unleash Nazi assassins against all who criticize USG involvement in the Ukraine war.
From Zerohedge today: "The controversial American transgender spokesperson for Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born Michael Cirillo) has been suspended indefinitely by the Ukrainian military, also pending an investigation. According to an official Ukrainian military statement, Ashton-Cirillo's recent statements regarding "hunting down" dissidents and "propagandists" were not approved."
This is a public relations skit. Nazis, past and present, have long humiliated, attacked, tortured, and murdered political opponents. The problem with Ashton-Carillo is not his menacing threat. It’s a problem with timing. The Nazis not only want to kill men, women, and children in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Crimea, and Russia, but also those of us opposed to USG and NATO efforts to collapse Russia and, in the process, start a nuclear war.
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Thursday September 21, 2023
Jacinda Ardern may no longer be Prime Minister of New Zealand, but she was back at the United Nations continuing her call for international censorship. Ardern is now one of the leading anti-free speech figures in the world and continues to draw support from political and academic establishments. In her latest attack on free speech, Ardean declared free speech as a virtual weapon of war. She is demanding that the world join her in battling free speech as part of its own war against “misinformation” and “disinformation.” Her views, of course, were not only enthusiastically embraced by authoritarian countries, but the government and academic elite.
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Wednesday September 20, 2023
Santayana is credited with saying "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." New York City is considering sending a good chunk of US history down the "memory hole" by destroying statues of George Washington. Also today: Sen. Rand Paul says "no way" to more Ukraine aid; vows to block any fast-track. Meanwhile Ukraine is holding a US citizen Gonzao Lira in prison for having a different opinion about the war and Ukraine's spokesperson threatens to "hunt down" others like Lira. Today on the Liberty Report...
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Wednesday September 20, 2023
“War is good for business.”
So reads a quote from an arms industry executive in a recent Reuters article titled “At London arms fair, global war fears are good for business” about Europe’s biggest arms show, the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International. You will probably be unsurprised to learn that Reuters does not name the war profiteer whose quote inspired their headline.
The article describes the way the war in Ukraine and brinkmanship in Taiwan is leading to surging profits for the military industrial complex, with the UK doubling its arms exports in 2022 and worldwide military spending expected to continue to rise by four percent each year for the next five years. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, European military spending rose 13 percent in 2022 alone, bringing total global spending to an all-time high of $2.24 trillion.
“We are extremely busy,” an exaltant head of sales at an armored steel company tells Reuters.
War is good for business, and it’s expected to get even better. The world’s largest military contractor Lockheed Martin saw its stock rise by a whopping 37 percent last year — helped along by taxpayer-sponsored stock buybacks — and in a report titled “Lockheed Martin: Huge Growth Ahead”, an investment analyst for AlmaStreet Capital predicted last month that Lockheed’s massive profits will only continue to climb.
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Wednesday September 20, 2023
Each morning I do a quick scan of the headlines coming over the wire services, clear my emails and Facebook entries, and then take a closer look at The New York Times online, paying particular attention to the opinion pages. I usually am not disappointed in my belief that the President Joe Biden Administration as well as ex-President Donald Trump, have been and continue to be collectively destroying what was once an admirable nation, something like flushing us repeatedly down the toilets of their ambition and greed.
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Tuesday September 19, 2023
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is seeing another open revolt from his conservative and populist flank among House Republicans, with firebrands Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) stomping their feet at the "compromise" 30 day stop-gap. Ron Paul has a solution to the dust-up, so watch the show! Also today: ammo is getting very expensive and NATO promises to Ukraine may suffer. Finally...Ron Paul discusses his new book, The Great Surreptitious Coup and tells you how you can get your own copy! Watch today's Liberty Report...
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