Tag: news

Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

One of the fascinating phenomena in the JFK assassination is the fear of some Americans to consider the possibility that the assassination was actually a regime-change operation carried out by the U.S. national-security establishment rather than simply a murder carried out by a supposed lone-nut assassin.

The mountain of evidence that has surfaced, especially since the 1990s, when the JFK Records Act mandated the release of top-secret assassination-related records within the national-security establishment, has been in the nature of circumstantial evidence, as compared to direct evidence. Thus, I can understand that someone who places little faith in the power of circumstantial evidence might study and review that evidence and decide to embrace the “lone-nut theory” of the case.

But many of the people who have embraced the lone-nut theory have never spent any time studying the evidence in the case and yet have embraced the lone-nut theory. Why? My hunch is that the reason is that they have a deep fear of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist,” which is the term the CIA many years ago advised its assets in the mainstream press to employ to discredit those who were questioning the official narrative in the case.

Like many others, I have studied the evidence in the case. After doing that, I concluded that the circumstantial evidence pointing toward a regime-change operation has reached critical mass. Based on that evidence, for me the Kennedy assassination is not a conspiracy theory but rather the fact of a national-security state regime-change operation, no different in principle than other regime-change operations, including through assassination, carried out by the U.S. national-security establishment, especially through the CIA.

Interestingly, there are those who have shown no reluctance to study the facts and circumstances surrounding foreign regime-change operations carried out by the CIA and the Pentagon. But when it comes to the Kennedy assassination, they run for the hills, exclaiming that they don’t want to be pulled down the “rabbit hole,” meaning that they don’t want to take any chances of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist.”

For those who have never delved into the Kennedy assassination but have interest in the matter, let me set forth just a few of the reasons that the circumstantial evidence points to a U.S. national-security state regime-change operation. Then, at the end of this article, I’ll point out some books and videos for those who wish to explore the matter more deeply.

I start out with a basic thesis: Lee Harvey Oswald was an intelligence agent for the U.S. deep state. Now, that thesis undoubtedly shocks people who have always believed in the lone-nut theory of the assassination. They just cannot imagine that Oswald could have really been working for the U.S. government at the time of the assassination.

Yet, when one examines the evidence in the case objectively, the lone-theory doesn’t make any sense. The only thesis that is consistent with the evidence and, well, common sense, is that Oswald was an intelligence agent.

Ask yourself: How many communist Marines have you ever encountered or even heard of? My hunch is none. Not one single communist Marine. Why would a communist join the Marines? Communists hate the U.S. Marine Corps. In fact, the U.S. Marine Corps hates communists. It kills communists. It tortures them. It invades communist countries. It bombs them. It destroys them.

What are the chances that the Marine Corps would permit an openly avowed communist to serve in its ranks? None! There is no such chance. And yet, here was Oswald, whose Marine friends were calling “Oswaldovitch,” being assigned to the Atsugi naval base in Japan, where the U.S. Air Force was basing its top-secret U-2 spy plane, one that it was using to secretly fly over the Soviet Union. Why would the Navy and the Air Force permit a self-avowed communist even near the U-2? Does that make any sense?

While Oswald was serving in the Marine Corps, he became fluent in the Russian language. How is that possible? How many people have you known who have become fluent in a foreign langue all on their own, especially when they have a full-time job? Even if they are able to study a foreign language from books, they have to practice conversing with people in that language to become proficient in speaking it. How did Oswald do that? There is but one reasonable possibility: Language lessons provided by U.S. military-suppled tutors.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union, walked into the U.S. embassy, renounced his citizenship, and stated that he intended to give any secrets he learned while serving in the military to the Soviet Union. Later, when he stated his desire to return to the United States, with a wife with family connections to Soviet intelligence, Oswald was given the red-carpet treatment on his return. No grand jury summons. No grand-jury indictment. No FBI interrogation. No congressional summons to testify.

Remember: This was at the height of the Cold War, when the U.S. national-security establishment was telling Americans that there was a worldwide communist conspiracy based in Moscow that was hell-bent on taking over the United States and the rest of the world. The U.S. had gone to war in Korea because of the supposed communist threat. They would do the same in Vietnam. They would target Cuba and Fidel Castro with invasion and assassination. They would pull off regime-change operations on both sides of the Kennedy assassination: Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Cuba (1960s), Congo (1963), and Chile (1973).

During the 1950s, they were targeting any American who had had any connections to communism. They were subpoenaing people to testify before Congress as to whether they had ever been members of the Communist Party. They were destroying people’s reputations and costing them their jobs. Remember the case of Dalton Trumbo and other Hollywood writers who were criminally prosecuted and incarcerated. Recall the Hollywood blacklist. Recall the Rosenbergs, who they executed for giving national-security state secrets to the Soviets. Think about Jane Fonda.

Indeed, if you want a modern-day version of how the U.S. national-security state treats suspected traitors and betrayers of its secrets, reflect on Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning. That’s how we expect national-security state officials to behave toward those they consider traitors and betrayers of U.S. secrets.

Not so with Oswald. With him, we have what amounts to two separate parallel universes. One universe involves all the Cold War hoopla against communists. Another one is the one in which Oswald is sauntering across the world stage as one of America’s biggest self-proclaimed communists — a U.S. Marine communist — who isn’t touched by some congressional investigative committee, some federal grand jury, or some FBI agent. How is that possible?

Later, when Oswald ended up in Dallas, his friends were right-wingers, not left-wingers. He even got job at a photographic facility that developed top-secret photographs for the U.S. government. How is that possible? Later, when he ended up in New Orleans, he got hired by a private company that was owned by a fierce anti-communist right-winger. Why would he hire a supposed communist who supposedly had betrayed America by supposedly joining up with America’s avowed communist enemy, the Soviet Union, and to whom he had supposedly given U.S. national-security state secrets, just like Julian and Ethel Rosenberg had?

The decline of the American empire has been outlined to readers over the years. 

A new report shows the US has stumbled into the new decade, losing a competitive economic edge that it had firmly retained in the post–World War II economic expansion. 

For the second consecutive year, the US has been dethroned as the world’s most competitive economy, thanks partially to President Trump’s trade war. The US now ranks 10th (3rd in 2019), according to the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) new report on the ranking of most competitive world economies. 

“Trade wars have damaged both China and the USA’s economies, reversing their positive growth trajectories. China this year dropped to 20th position from 14th last year,” IMD said. 

The annual rankings, now in their 32nd year, show Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong as the top five most competitive economies. 

While observing data on economies’ competitiveness – IMD noticed the strength of smaller ones.

“The benefit of small economies in the current crisis comes from their ability to fight a pandemic and from their economic competitiveness. In part, these may be fed by the fact it is easy to find social consensus,” said Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

Singapore held the top spot for the second consecutive year, due mostly because of its strong trade and investment, and high emphasis on expanding education and technology infrastructure. 

The report noted Denmark, ranked 2nd, was recognized for its robust economy, labor market, and health and education systems. It was said the Scandinavian country topped Europe in business efficiency.

Video: IMD’s breakdown of the results 

Switzerland ranked third for its robust international trade that fuels its strong economic performance. The Central European country has increased investments in scientific infrastructure and health and education systems. 

The UK ranked 19th on the list, which IMD said was mostly due to BREXIT turmoil.  Canada ranked higher than the US, coming in 8th for its economic competitiveness. 

Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East were ranked mostly lower on the list. 

As for the US – what made it so competitive over the years was booming trade with China – now gross Sino-US trade flows have plunged since the start of the trade war – America’s competitive economic edge is in collapse mode, lining up with IMD’s findings. 

Slumping gross Sino-US trade flows and waning competitive economic edge is a recipe for lower US stocks. 

America’s competitive economic edge will continue to slump as trade wars, pandemic, and social unrest have paralyzed the empire.

Twitter has permanently suspended one of the most significant figures in political satire; Logan Cook, otherwise known as CarpeDonktum.

Cook makes memes – short clips which typically poke fun at Democrats, the MSM or the establishment, which President Trump has tweeted to his audience of 82 million followers on a regular basis.

On Tuesday, Twitter banned Cook – who said in a blog post that it was over a ‘the Toddler video that President Trump tweeted last week.” Cook received a DCMA takedown order, followed by a letter of suspension hours later.

“Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,” Twitter told the Daily Beast. “The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of this policy.”

Cook explained on his blog:

“I have ALWAYS complied with DMCA takedown rules, and I have submitted counterclaims when necessary, but I have NEVER uploaded content that has been removed.

I have abided by the community guidlines, and followed the rules. It doesn’t matter.

I have been banned for being effective and they won’t even look me in the eye as they do it.”

Master meme-maker Carpe Donktum has an update over at Parler about Twitter’s non-transparent actions taken against him. https://t.co/QXteAYoCJP pic.twitter.com/Dc3FkehwSr

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) June 24, 2020

The impact of Cook’s suspenion did not go unnoticed by The Federalist‘s Mollie Hemmingway, who considers it election interference.

Twitter ramps up 2020 election interference by banning masterful meme maker Carpe Donktum https://t.co/O8UbUEjj3e

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) June 24, 2020

Why? Because Cook’s memes are hilarious, widely shared, and fire up conservatives.

The power of memes (a.k.a. ‘meme magic’)

Not only are memes funny, they invoke emotional responses without having to focus much of one’s attention – leaving them particularly effective when it comes to influencing people, particularly voters.

Memes, a term first used by Richard Dawkins in 1976 to mean easily transmissible cultural units, are essentially viral internet images containing short humorous text. Much like their animated brother, the GIF (graphic interchange format), memes are intended to be created quickly, shared widely, and received humorously.

…

When considering their hyper-popularity (a verified ‘Memes’ Facebook page has 15 million online likers), it is perhaps no surprise that researchers have noted a psychological, emotional facet to meme appeal. For example, Guadagno et al. (2013) found that online content which provokes strong affective responses was more likely to be shared. Therefore, it may be argued that there are much deeper psychosocial mechanisms underpinning our relationship with this seemingly benign media form.

…

Burroughs (2013) states, in a discussion of meme usage in American politics, that memes can ‘serve to heighten spectacle’. In this sense, memes are culturally performative and therefore important psychological artefacts. –The Psychologist

Last Thursday Twitter added a “manipulated media” label to the ‘toddler video’ – which mocks CNN by humorously suggesting they would incite racial division by editing a video of a black toddler and a white toddler hugging, into a chase scene in which the white child is chasing the black one.

Watch it while you still can:

The latest study of how COVID-19 manifests in schoolchildren suggests that children don’t play a major role in spreading the virus, according to a Bloomberg report.

Ever since a mysterious inflammatory syndrome first emerged in children infected by SARS-CoV-2, researchers around the world, but especially in the US and Europe (where the syndrome was most widely found), have been working to determine the nature of the connection between this syndrome and the virus.

Of course, there’s an important economic factor at play here as well: Before adults can be expected to return to work en masse, provisions must be made for schoolchildren, since childcare is prohibitively expensive for most families. Many colleges across the US have decided to resume classroom-based learning in the fall, even if students will abide by new COVID-19-sensitive social distancing guidelines. And while most expect elementary, middle and high school students to return to the classroom, most states have yet to make a formal decision.

Scientists at Institut Pasteur, a massive French research institute named after the scientist who invented the pasteurization process for milk, studied 1,340 people in Crepy-en-Valois, a town northeast of Paris that suffered an outbreak in February and March. The study included 510 students from six primary schools.

Among these students, researchers found three students who had contracted the virus. But in each example, it appears the kids didn’t pass the virus on to their parents, or teachers.

Scientists at Institut Pasteur studied 1,340 people in Crepy-en-Valois, a town northeast of Paris that suffered an outbreak in February and March, including 510 students from six primary schools. They found three probable cases among kids that didn’t lead to more infections among other pupils or teachers.

The study confirms that children appear to show fewer telltale symptoms than adults and be less contagious, providing a justification for school reopenings in countries from Denmark to Switzerland. The researchers found that 61% of the parents of infected kids had the coronavirus, compared with about 7% of parents of healthy ones, suggesting it was the parents who had infected their offspring rather than the other way around.

This small study is one of several suggesting that young children do not often spread the coronavirus. Though there has been at least one study showing the opposite.

But because of this small number of students studied, scientist believe they must study more schools like this one. So far, though, it appears a staggering 41% of the children who contracted the virus didn’t show any symptoms…

Understanding the pandemic and the new virus’s transmission patterns is key to determining which parts of society can reopen – or should be shuttered again in the event of a resurgence — and mitigate the outbreak’s impact on the economy. The data on kids has been contradictory so far, with some reports corroborating the Pasteur findings and at least one pointing the other way.

Epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet and colleagues said more studies on schools were needed because of the small number of cases they were able to study. They found that an estimated 41% of the children infected showed no symptoms, compared with about 10% of adults.

…that compares to just 10% for adults.

Authored by Gordon Watts via The Asia Times,

Tech revolution threatens an unemployment crisis in China and developed world after gathering pace during pandemic

They have been compared to quantum leaps in humanity’s historic journey. But they are more like Grand Canyon-style jumps in our evolution.

During the past 200 years, technological revolutions have expanded the borders of globalization and have dragged millions of people out of poverty. Yet they have come at a price.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be no different.

Already the landscape is changing dramatically with China at the forefront of this brave, new world for some and a nightmare for others.

“China is using automation on a scale like no other country. From AI news anchors on [state-run television] to one-minute [health] clinics to robot-run factories, China is using artificial intelligence and robots to take over the entire spectrum of human capabilities,” Abishur Prakash, a geopolitical futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future, a strategy consulting firm, told Asia Times.

“This could transform politics in the country. It was city-jobs that drove urbanization in China. Now, however, if the blue-collar and white-collar jobs are both being automated, reverse urbanization may follow. This will create a new kind of economy for China, which in turn could change domestic politics, trade deals and foreign policy,” he said.

The “sheer scale” of Beijing’s ambitions are immense. Investment in science and technology research in the world’s second-largest economy was US$355.4 billion last year or 2.5% of GDP, official data revealed.

Only the United States spent more as China edged past Japan.

Moveover, funding looks certain to accelerate in 2020 with 3 trillion yuan, or $423 billion, earmarked for major projects in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Up to 17.5 trillion yuan, or $2.47 trillion, will be pumped into ramping up infrastructure spending in the high-tech sector during the next six years, the Shanghai Securities News reported in May.

Priority funding in the next 12 months will go to 5G base stations, EV charging outlets, big data centers, AI and the industrial internet, such as robotics.

Also, unlike previous rounds of traditional infrastructure investment on roads, bridges and high-speed rail networks, private companies will be heavily involved in the mix.

Still, the pace of change will generate a different set of problems, including the specter of unemployment.

“China has dealt with large-scale layoffs or economic downturns by creating a massive state-run construction force. But, now, the people that may lose their jobs to automation may be the educated, skilled class in cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai. What’s China’s plan for them?,” Prakash, the author of The Age of Killer Robots, said.

Since 2014, the nation’s automation industry has expanded by 28% with 650,000 robots going online in 2018.

Yet this has generated a backlash from the Chinese public. A study released to the media by Spanish university IE showed a rise in “robophobia” during the coronavirus crisis.

Before the pandemic infected more than nine million people worldwide, only 27% supported limited automation in China. That number has more than doubled to 59%, with the Chinese just behind the French as the most hostile to automation.

“The changing nature of work is generating fears about mass unemployment. These trends are straining the relationships among citizens, firms and governments across the globe,” the World Bank stated in a report, entitled the Changing Nature of Work, last year.

Even so, the benefits of the controversial Made in China 2025 digital program proved vital during the Covid-19 crisis.

Artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and 5G “effectively improved the efficiency of the country’s efforts” in tackling the epidemic.

“It [was crucial] to monitoring virus tracking, prevention, control and treatment, [as well as] resource allocation,“ Qi Xiaoxia, the director-general of the Cyberspace Administration of China’s Bureau of International Cooperation, said in a commentary published on the World Economic Forum website in April.

Even basic models of service robots appeared to play their role in delivering meals and cleaning hospital corridors.

“Admittedly, the acceleration of automation may reduce certain jobs on an individual basis. Some people may suffer, which is the inevitable cost of technological transition and advancement … still, new jobs will be created to replace those that have been lost,” Jon Yuan Jiang, an assistant researcher at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, told Asia Times.

But concerns persist. In developed and developing economies, the fallout from the coronavirus catastrophe threatens to trigger economic pandemonium and ballooning unemployment across the globe.

The urban jobless numbers in China have been on the rise since the start of the year. For the upper echelons of the ruling Communist Party, unemployment is a notoriously sensitive subject.

Indeed, the Fourth Industrial Revolution risks adding to the upheaval.

“Already, it’s projected that 51 million jobs in Europe could disappear because of automation [with Covid-19 being a factor]. The point is, the appetite for automation is rising and it’s no longer limited to just entry-level jobs,” Prakash, of the Center for Innovating the Future, said.

“It’s no longer just about janitors or truck drivers or factory workers. Everyone could be on the chopping block because the pandemic has fundamentally changed how businesses operate. There are now huge geopolitical risks as automation takes off,” he added.

Possibly, a revolution against a revolution?