Are Sparse Autoencoders Useful? A Case Study in Sparse Probing
Paper
•
2502.16681
•
Published
prompt
string | label
int32 |
|---|---|
Kathy Griffin & Hillary Clinton Are Losers, Not Victims
21st Century Wire says Those on the left need to start taking responsibility for their actions.Kathy Griffin, an alleged comedian, has received immense backlash for a stunt she pulled earlier in the week. Griffin apparently thought it would be a great idea to pose with a blood soaked effigy of President Donal Trump s decapitated head.Now, after making the incendiary, and some may say threatening, photograph, she is attempting to turn the narrative around claiming to be a victim of bullying .Similarly, Hillary Clinton is blaming a conspiracy of 1000 Russian agents working against her, fake news, Twitter bots, and misogyny for her election loss. She makes no mention of the fact that it was clear the Democratic voters wanted Bernie Sanders, not her, and that simply not being Donald Trump was not a good enough reason to vote for her.The massive problem with this scapegoating and more is discussed in the following video report: READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. condemns Russia veto of probe into Syria chemical weapons use
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is “very disappointed” that Russia on Tuesday cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council against renewing a mandate to continue an investigation into who was responsible for the use of chemical weapons during Syria’s civil war. “We are disappointed, we are very disappointed that Russia put what it considered to be political considerations over the Syrian people who were so brutally murdered,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a regular briefing.
| 1
|
Plastic Persona: Behind the Scenes of the Ted Cruz Media Machine
21st Century Wire says Most people accept that a certain amount of political campaigning is staged, and even a little contrived at times.For the most part, the public is fairly unaware of just how fabricated the political images they see on TV really are.Earlier, 21WIRE showed the abysmal scene from GOP candidate Jeb Bush s recent staged town hall meeting. As bad as that Jeb moment was, it almost pales in comparison to what s on offer here After their narrow Iowa GOP caucus victory this week, the Cruz campaign took a cheeky swipe at rival Donald Trump. Cruz communications director Rick Tyler remarked to CNN after the final results were announced, Reality hit the realty TV star in Iowa, so nobody is talking about him now, so he s trying to regain some attention on Twitter. After watching the following behind-the-scenes video out-takes from the Rafael Edward, or Ted Cruz campaign machine, one could easily make the argument that it s Cruz who is putting up the dramatic TV facade, and even using his own family members as political props. Watch
| 0
|
U.S. attorney general escalates pressure on 'sanctuary' cities
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to cut off U.S. Justice Department grants to cities that fail to assist federal immigration authorities, moving the Trump administration closer to a potential clash with leaders of America’s largest urban centers. Sessions’ statements were aimed at a dozens of cities and other local governments, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, that have joined a growing “sanctuary” movement aimed at shielding illegal immigrants from stepped-up deportation efforts. Police agencies in those jurisdictions have barred their officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or traffic stops. And they have refused to lock up individuals longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them. Trump administration officials says the deportation crackdown is focused on illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes. They insist public safety is jeopardized when police refuse to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of plans to release such a person from local custody. “Failure to deport aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk, especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators,” Sessions said at a White House news briefing. His threat to withhold grants as punishment drew swift condemnation from California and New York officials. California Senate leader Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, called Sessions’ threat “nothing short of blackmail,” accusing of “race-based scapegoating” in its crackdown on immigrants. Critics also argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities’ trust in local police, particularly among Latinos. And they question whether the administration is really targeting dangerous criminals. President Donald Trump, who made tougher immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, directed the government to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions in a Jan. 25 executive order. That order has yet to be put into effect, but Sessions’ announcement seemed to be the first step in doing so. The Justice Department grants typically are used to help police improve crime-fighting techniques, buy new equipment and assist victims of crime. Sessions may find his ability to sway local decision-making through the Justice Department’s purse is limited, because only a fraction of its grant dollars flow directly to city and county governments. Federal records show the Justice Department doled out $1 billion to state governments and $430 million to nonprofits, but only $136 million directly to cities and counties last year. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office would continue helping local governments “have the tools they need to protect their immigrant communities.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose city is home to one of the largest U.S. immigrant communities, also denounced Sessions’ threat to use funding as a form of coercion. “L.A.’s values are not for sale,” Garcetti said. “Slashing funds for first responders, for our port and airport, for counterterrorism, crime-fighting and community-building serves no one.” So far no state has adopted policies barring cooperation with immigration authorities, though Maryland’s Democratic-controlled House of Delegates approved such legislation last week. The state’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has said he would veto the bill. California’s De Leon is backing a bill that would essentially make all of the most populous U.S. state a sanctuary, but he does not currently have the votes to pass it. Sessions sought to frame the debate as a public-safety issue, citing the case of a woman shot to death in San Francisco two years ago by illegal immigrant who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions. San Francisco may not be affected by the new restrictions, as the city and county received no funding from the department in the most recent fiscal year. However, Sessions’ order could impact other jurisdictions. New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City - all singled out as possibly noncompliant by an inspector general’s report last year - collectively received $15 million in Justice Department grants. According to Trump’s executive order, Sessions would have to wait until the Homeland Security Department determines what constitutes a “sanctuary city” before funding is restricted. DHS last week reported roughly 120 cities and counties that it deems uncooperative, though the agency has not finalized the list. Sal Tinajero, council member of the California sanctuary city of Santa Ana, questioned whether Sessions even had the authority to make good on his threat. “How do you take money away that Congress has already voted to allocate? You can’t. Congress has to take another vote,” he said.
| 1
|
Episode #149 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘Part II: Another Road to Damascus’ with guests Vanessa Beeley, Ghoufran Derawan
Episode #149 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this Sunday August 21, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen broadcasts 3 HOURS of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:SUNDAYS 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)This week s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from London on the banks of the Thames. This week host Patrick Henningsen resumes the helm, covering some of the top US and international news stories this week. In the first hour we re joined by special guest LIVE from Syria, 21WIRE special contributor, Vanessa Beeley, to discuss the latest developments there and her recent incredible interview with the President of Syria s Political Advisor, as well as new revelations of a NATO-backed shadow state in Syria. In the second hour, we ll connect with another LIVE Middle East guest, a Syrian independent producer and filmmaker, Ghoufran Derawan, to talk about her own tragic story and to breakdown the truth about the Syrian Conflict. Finally, in the final segment over overdrive, we ll try to connect with and special guest from Syrian TV to discuss the Battle for Aleppo.HAVE YOUR SHOUT! VOTE & COMMENT: Has Obama-Clinton Foreign Policy Created ISIS? Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Direct Download the Most Recent Episode// <![CDATA[ broadstreet.zone(46707); // ]]>Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives
| 0
|
Russia-WikiLeaks Conspiracy Theory: “Clinton claim ridiculous, based on lazy US Twitter culture”
21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported previously, since this past summer Washington and its media surrogates have been seeding the news cycle with the talking point that Russia was responsible for the DC Leaks and WikiLeaks document dumps, and that Russia is somehow trying to hack the US elections. Here s what the Clinton campaign claimed:Once again, Russian propaganda network RT shows collusion w/ @wikileaks by promoting new email dump before even WL does. Glen Caplin (@GlenCaplin1) October 17, 2016Of course, they were completely wrong.21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen spoke to RT International about the Hillary Clinton campaign s ridiculous accusation that somehow RT News had the latest batch of emails before WikiLeaks did, and how the US media and political establishment can t comprehend a reality beyond their transient Twitter feeds. Watch: SUPPORT OUT WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
‘Classified’ Emails from Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin found on Anthony Weiner’s Laptop
Looking back on the 2016 Presidential election, there was a non-stop chorus on denials by Hillary Clinton, her campaign surrogates, and the mainstream media that had not allowed any classified emails to float around her home-brew server, or onto the family of her close aids.As it turns out, Hillary Clinton was lying. A new batch of emails released by the US State Department clearly show that Anthony Weiner, convicted sex criminal and husband of Clinton s chief aid Huma Abedin, had kept classified emails pertaining to official US State Department business during Hillary Clinton s tenure as Secretary of State kept on the same laptop which Weiner used to target an underage girl and where he also kept child pornography.Among the released emails were exchanges which clearly show Hillary Clinton conspiracy with authoritarian Saudi Arabia to stop Wikileaks. The reopening of this old Clinton gaping wound is another devastating blow for the mainstream media and the Democratic Party s resistance movement, whose mission is to remove Donald Trump for office.RT International reports At least five of the 2,800 emails stored on a laptop belonging to former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner were marked confidential and involved delicate talks with Middle Eastern leaders and Hillary Clinton s top aide.On Friday, the State Department released a batch of around 2,800 work-related documents from the email account of Huma Abedin, who served as the deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.At least five of the emails found on Abedin s ex-husband s laptop were heavily redacted and marked classified and at confidential level, the third more sensitive class the US government uses below secret and top secret. The State Department applies the confidential classification level to information that the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, according to the Government Publishing Office.While the documents were not marked as classified before they were released, some of the information recovered in the emails was considered classified. It is illegal for civilians to posses or read classified documents without a security clearance.The confidential emails, which date from 2010 to 2012, concern discussions with Middle Eastern leaders.Dishonest: despite being caught multiple times, Hillary Clinton is still in denial about mishandling classified material.One of the emails has the subject Egyptian MFA on Hamas-PLO talks, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The email is mostly redacted, only mentioning that it is a further update on Hamas-PA talks, referring to the Palestinian Authority.Another four-page email contains a completely redacted call sheet to prepare Clinton for an upcoming call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.A call sheet in another 2010 email includes notes to guide Clinton through a call she would make to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. The purpose of the call was to inform Saud about an impending WikiLeaks disclosure. This appears to be the result of an illegal act in which a fully cleared intelligence officer stole information and gave it to a website. The person responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, the call sheet instructed Clinton to say.Clinton was warning the Saudis the leak could contain information related to private conversations with your government on Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, and asked the Saudi s to help the US prevent WikiLeaks from undermining our mutual interests. During a congressional hearing in 2016, former FBI Director James Comey said Abedin regularly forwarded emails to Weiner for him to print out for her so she could deliver them to the secretary of state. The emails were released in response to a 2015 lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch against the State Department after it failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request (FOIA) seeking: All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non- state.gov email address. In a statement issued Friday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the release a major victory, adding that it was no surprise there were classified documents on Weiner s computer. It will be in keeping with our past experience that Abedin s emails on Weiner s laptop will include classified and other sensitive materials, Fitton said in a statement. That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton s and Huma Abedin s obvious violations of law. The emails were discovered on Weiner s laptop during an FBI investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexting with a 15-year-old girl. In September, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to sending obscene material to a minor.The discovery of the emails led Comey to announce that the FBI was reopening an investigation into Clinton s use of a private email server 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. Clinton said the announcement contributed to her loss to Donald Trump See more at RTLast year, in effort to shore-up Clinton s crumbling reputation for being truthful to the public, her campaign published a bizarre 4,000-word fact sheet on the Clinton campaign website.As it turned out, Clinton s fact sheet was riddled with numerous false statements and other half-truths, including a lie that the FBI was conducting a security review when it was in fact conducting an investigation, and that she never sent or received classified information on her email account.This latest Weiner revelation is just another devastating blow to an already damaged political brand.Could Clinton mount a 2020 run?It s highly unlikely.READ MORE HILLARY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Clinton FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
New Survey Shows No.1 Fear of US Citizens is Government NOT Terrorism
Americans have lost the plot when it comes to evaluating the true nature of the terrorist threat (Image Source: Wikicommons)By Matt AgoristAn extensive survey of hundreds of adults across the United States has just revealed that the thing most Americans fear more than anything else is their own government. In fact, according to the survey, no other fear even comes close to the percentage of Americans who worry about their corrupt government officials.The survey was conducted by Chapman University and it serves to back up the point that while Americans claim to live in the Land of the Free, deep down, they realize they are living in a corrupt oligarchy. The Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 4 (2017) provides an in-depth examination into the fears of average Americans. In May of 2017, a random sample of 1,207 adults from across the United States were asked their level of fear about eighty different fears across a huge variety of topics ranging from crime, the government, the environment, disasters, personal anxieties, technology and many others. As Statista s Niall McCarthy notes, like last year, corruption of government officials came top in 2017, with 74.5 percent of U.S. adults saying it makes them afraid or very afraid. Despite the constant fear mongering from the mainstream media and government on bogeymen terrorists plotting to steal our freedom, the public, according to this survey, is not buying it.In fact, the threat of terrorism isn t even in the top 20 fears. Terrorism comes in at twenty-two below credit card fraud and identity theft.While this survey is certainly promising, in the idea that people are waking up to government corruption, it is also a telling sign of America s ability to hold two entirely contradictory ideas as self-evident.This ability, or perhaps better defined as disability, to hold two opposing ideas, such as the spreading of freedom through war, as being logically sound, is called cognitive dissonance. When one is in a state of dissonance, they may sometimes feel disequilibrium : frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.In order for cognitive dissonance to work, society must remain just ignorant enough to support and to believe the lies fed to them from the establishment as reality; even though this reality is a complete contradiction.Once we step back and observe society with this in mind, the reason for this contradictory mental state becomes quite obvious. It is much easier to remain delusional and in a state of suspended disbelief than it is to deal with the opposing ideas held inside one s head. How can one chant USA is number #1! while at the same time fearing the rulers of that USA?( ) If this survey shows us anything, it is that Americans would do well to entertain the uncomfortable idea that this country they hold so high up on a pedestal has actually long been on a path to become the dystopian nightmare written about in books like 1984.Americans would do well to remember the words by John Basil Barnhill in 1914 when he said, Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty. This article first appeared the Free Thought Project.READ MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire War on Terror FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. taps ex-envoy to NATO to resolve Ukraine crisis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday he had chosen an envoy to lead U.S. diplomacy on the Ukraine crisis, adding that he had moved to fill the position at the urging of Russia’s leader. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker, a longtime diplomat, will be responsible for advancing U.S. interests as set out in the 2015 Minsk agreement to curb the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region. He will accompany Tillerson to Kiev on Sunday, the State Department said. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, and Kiev accuses it of backing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, an allegation the Kremlin denies. The Minsk agreement called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy. “At the request of President (Vladimir) Putin, the United States has appointed ... a special representative for Ukraine, Ambassador Kurt Volker,” Tillerson told reporters after a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the choice, writing in a message on Twitter that it would help end what he called Russian aggression and restore Crimea to Ukraine. “Important & timely move in the interests of ending Russian aggression and restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including Crimea,” Poroshenko tweeted. Volker was a career diplomat who served as permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization under Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama. He is currently a foreign policy and national security expert at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. “Kurt’s wealth of experience makes him uniquely qualified to move this conflict in the direction of peace,” Tillerson said in a statement. “The United States remains fully committed to the objectives of the Minsk agreements, and I have complete confidence in Kurt to continue our efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine.” Julie Smith, a former Pentagon official who worked on European and NATO policy during the Obama administration, praised the choice of Volker as Ukraine envoy, but said she was puzzled at Tillerson’s statement that he filled the position at Putin’s request. “So Ukraine didn’t matter enough to this administration to have them appoint a special envoy in the first place?” said Smith, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “It was a bizarre word choice.”
| 1
|
PHILIPPINES: 2016 Washington’s Fury as Philippine’s Elections Threaten US Anti-China Policy
Duterte takes clear lead in Philippine elections. (Photo: IBT)Andrew Korybko The DuranMay 2016: As Filipinos choose their next President on Monday, prospect of election of anti-establishment candidate threatens the geopolitical viability of the US s Pivot to Asia.The Philippines votes for its next President on Monday. Whilst the rest of the world pays little attention, strategists in Washington are worried.The electoral frontrunner is Rodrigo Duterte, an eccentric, no-nonsense former mayor from the southern island of Mindanao who commands a Trump-like popularity and an equally loyal following. He has shaken Philippine politics to its core over the past couple of months, defying establishment pundits who just as they did with Trump wrongly predicted that his campaign would fizzle out over the course of each passing week.Having totally underestimated just how dissatisfied most Filipinos are with the status quo, Duterte s rivals missed the chance to outshine him by his anti-system rhetoric. With the race in its final days that is now too late. Instead also paralleling what happened with Trump there are desperate calls for coalitions and deals to stop him.Should these fail and should Duterte win on Monday, he promises a geopolitical revolution unlike anything the Philippines has ever seen in its history. Pivoting To Asia Through The PhilippinesThe US s Pivot to Asia was announced by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2011 with the unstated but obvious goal of containing China. Key to this strategy is the rebalancing as the Pentagon calls it of an estimated 60% of its overseas forces to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Such a major deployment requires many more bases than the US currently has in the region. The US has therefore sought the help of the loyal leader of its former Philippines colony, Benigno Aquino III, to find a way to re-open its bases in the Philippines which under popular pressure were closed in the 1990s.Using the China threat as the plausibly justifiable reason for doing so, but aware that the Philippines people still resent their former coloniser and are proud of having forced the US to close its Philippines bases at the end of the Cold War, the US has devised what it calls an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allows for the rotational presence of American troops in at least five separate bases, one of which is located on the strategic island of Palawan that abuts the South China Sea.Although not legally permanent or officially controlled by the US, this wink-and-a-nod arrangement would in reality allow the US to redeploy its forces to the Philippines, returning the Philippines archipelago to the role of the US s second unsinkable aircraft carrier (alongside Japan) which it had during the Cold War.The China Containment Coalition The Pentagon plans to use the Philippines as the maritime lynch of its China Containment Coalition (CCC), gathering all of its allies navies together and deploying them within provocative striking range of China s claimed islands.The other three members of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue Japan, India, and Australia would find their own way to rotate their military units throughout the Philippines islands as well, thereby forming the core of the CCC.To add a regional element to this mix, the plan is for the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which contest some of China s maritime claims, to intensify their strategic cooperation to the point of a mutual defence treaty. This would draw Vietnam into the network of the anti-China coalition being built up by Washington by using the defence ties between Vietnam and the Philippines to making the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue de facto allies of Vietnam.Altogether, the Pentagon plan is to produce a critical mass of hostile states near China s southern maritime border which backed by the US could quickly counter any moves by Beijing thereby containing it to the East Asian mainland.Duterte s RevolutionEverything was proceeding according to plan until Duterte began to question the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement . While his running mate has said Duterte would honour the agreement, he added that he would do so from a position of strength .Back in October 2014, Duterte went on record to say the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement should be scrapped if it allowed US servicemen in the Philippines to avoid justice for any crimes they committed.This pinpoints an issue very sensitive for Filipinos who have vivid memories of how US troops were able to escape punishment for acts of gross misbehaviour whilst the US military occupied its bases in the Philippines. Public anger over this issue was one of the key factors in mobilising local opposition to the bases and explains why many Filipinos oppose their return.Since it is impossible to imagine such an incident not arising at some point, it is all but inevitable that a situation will occur which will fulfil Duterte s criterion for scrapping the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement Taken together with Duterte s assertion that he intends to deal with the US from a position of strength it is easy to see how this might trigger the process of revoking the agreement.No Filipino politician has previously spoken about the US in this way. Moreover other things he has said also suggest an intention to send a strongly independent line.Not surprisingly the Pentagon-affiliated publication Starts and Stripes , which writes for US servicemen servicemen and their families, published a scathing critique of Duterte just last week. Here are some excerpts: With Filipinos set to choose among five candidates on May 9, Duterte, the incumbent mayor of Davao City who has said the U.S. should not meddle in our affairs, holds a strong lead, according to the most recent poll released Sunday.Duterte is very popular now because people are sick and tired of the same old, same old, said Virginia Bacay Watson, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. He s kind of a fresh face, fresh perspective, compared to the other elites who are running. Duterte has presented himself to voters as a straight-talker who is not part of the Manila elite someone who can get things done even if he needs to bend the rules to do so. That includes the country s foreign affairs. He feels that American influence is too strong, that we re too dependent on U.S. intervention in anything we do, said Babe Romualdez, an opinion columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper who has interviewed the candidates one-on-one about their platforms on the U.S. military and relations with China. He was an activist when he was a student and young lawyer, Romualdez said. I get a sense that he s saying the same things that most of the militants say. In Romualdez s interview with the front-runner, the candidate said we really don t need the Americans to deal with the Chinese because the Chinese want to talk to us alone. If I become president I m going to reach out to the Chinese and talk to them alone without American intervention, he said.Duterte publically opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. of which the EDCA was an amendment and claimed in 2013 that he had rejected a request by the U.S. to establish Davao as a base of operations for drones.Earlier this year, he was quoted saying that although the country was now bound by the EDCA, he had reservations about the presence of foreign troops. He added, We will not allow the building of structures. Clearly, Duterte is not the sort of leader the Pentagon envisaged for the Philippines. If he becomes Philippine President there will inevitably be concern in Washington that its elaborate plans for an anti-Chinese coalition in the region could be scuttled.The New Silk Road Pays A Pit Stop To The PhilippinesWorse still for the US Duterte is saying the Philippines and China could have peaceful and pragmatic relations with each other, engaging in bilateral dialogue over their disputes without the meddling interference of the US.What that would mean for the US is that the Philippines might become a tacit Chinese ally, which would completely upend the regional strategic balance.That is not what Duterte is actually calling for, but he did say is that he not only would be open to talking to Beijing, but would even further and engage in joint exploration in the South China Sea. Further, in seeking to develop the decades-neglected infrastructure of one of the most promising economies of Asia, Duterte has suggested that he would be open to inviting China to build a railroad and other types of connective projects that Beijing has become globally renowned for. This would of course mean replacing US contractors traditionally heavily entrenched in the Philippines with cheaper and possibly more efficient Chinese ones potentially causing US companies to lose out from billions of dollars of construction deals.Joint maritime exploration and infrastructure cooperation between the Philippines and China has the potential to turn the entire Philippines archipelago into the latest pit stop for China s New Silk Road, presenting the US with its biggest geopolitical setback since the reunification of Crimea with Russia.Concluding ThoughtsThe entire future of the US s Pivot to Asia hangs in the balance as Filipinos go to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most pivotal election in their country s history.While the US and its allied politicians are preaching a campaign of anti-Chinese fear mongering and war, Rodrigo Duterte is bucking the system and preaching the benefits the Philippines could reap from more pragmatic policies.By questioning the need for the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement and subtly threatening to subvert it, Duterte has made himself the US s enemy number one amongst politicians from the Asia-Pacific. No other individual is speaking out in this way and unlike others who have come before him, he seems to command a high level of genuine people support.If Duterte succeeds in winning the Presidency, it could represent a paradigm shift in Philippine history and the region s geopolitics, resulting in the US losing its second unsinkable aircraft carrier and having its Pivot to Asia ie. its plan to contain China fail before it has even properly got underway.***READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT 21ST CENTURY WIRE S: PHILIPPINES FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
2017 NDAA: Obama Signs “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act”
21st Century Wire says In typical NDAA signing fashion, Obama signed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) quietly and with little fan fare as Americans are distracted by the mholiday festivities. What dirty tricks can we expect to see in the 2017 NDAA? Coming from the policy makers that struck down the Smith Mundt Act and legalized indefinite detention of Americans in past iterations, we re sure it can t be benign this year. The Hypocrisy of legalizing propaganda (overturning the Smith Mundt Act) then creating an act to counter propaganda: What are we to make of this new Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act included in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act? The politicians and the mainstream media outlets have shown their cards yet again with a massive contradiction in policy. In one iteration of the NDAA policy makers overturn Smith Mundt thereby legalizing state sponsored propaganda to be used on the citizens of the United States and in the latest iteration we see the NDAA include an act to counter disinformation and propaganda. We can easily make the connection that in the wake of the Fake News hash tag war that has been unleashed upon independent media, with FaceBook partnering with government sponsored Fact Checking sites and algorithms being put in place to remove so-called Fake News from social media feeds, that this latest addition to the NDAA does not bode well for independent media and has massive potential to be abused for political purposes. Tyler Durden Zero HedgeLate on Friday, with the US population embracing the upcoming holidays and oblivious of most news emerging from the administration, Obama quietly signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017.In a statement, Obama said that:Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe. It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Much of the balance of Obama s statement blamed the GOP for Guantanamo s continued operation and warned that unless the Congress changes course, it will be judged harshly by history, Obama said. Obama also said Congress failed to use the bill to reduce wasteful overhead (like perhaps massive F-35 cost overruns?) or modernize military health care, which he said would exacerbate budget pressures facing the military in the years ahead.But while the passage of the NDAA and the funding of the US military was hardly a surprise, the biggest news is what was buried deep inside the provisions of the Defense Authortization Act.Recall that as we reported in early June, a bill to implement the U.S. very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions to counter foreign disinformation and manipulation, which they believe threaten the world s security and stability. Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman, the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles. These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations, Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT. Surprisingly, Portman continued, there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. Long before the fake news meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response, which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and in true dystopic manner develop and disseminate fact-based narratives to counter effrontery propaganda.In short, long before fake news became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label fake news. * * *Fast forward to December 8, when the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act passed in the Senate, quietly inserted inside the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report.And now, following Friday s Obama signing of the NDAA on Friday evening, the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is now law.* * *Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the singing into law of a bill that further chips away at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of disinformation and propaganda and is shut down by the government.President Signs Portman-Murphy Counter-Propaganda Bill into LawPortman-Murphy Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & OthersU.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations has been signed into law as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from our enemies by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower our allies overseas to defend themselves from foreign manipulation. It will also help foster a free and vibrant press and civil society overseas, which is critical to ensuring our allies have access to truthful information and inoculating people against foreign propaganda campaigns. Our enemies are using foreign propaganda and disinformation against us and our allies, and so far the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel, Portman said. But today, the United States has taken a critical step towards confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us by our enemies overseas. With this bill now law, we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on. I am confident that, with the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against us, our allies, and our interests will fail. The use of propaganda to undermine democracy has hit a new low. But now we are finally in a position to confront this threat head on and get out the truth. By building up independent, objective journalism in places like eastern Europe, we can start to fight back by exposing these fake narratives and empowering local communities to protect themselves, said Murphy. I m proud that our bill was signed into law, and I look forward to working with Senator Portman to make sure these tools and new resources are effectively used to get out the truth. NOTE: The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of combatting the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation from our enemies Continue this report at Zero HedgeREAD MORE MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Watch Files
| 0
|
It’s Official: Trump is POTUS 45
Today Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. The new president gave a resounding speech that was a major break from tradition clearly an anti-establishment and anti-Washington speech, resuming his campaign stance of characterizing Washington DC as a corrupt, elitist cadre of career-minded, self-serving politicians. Oligharchs in attendance looked noticeably uncomfortable with Trump s words.Trump also went into full populist mode, casting aside globalism in favor of the national interest: From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land, Trump said soon after Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. From this day forward, it s going to only be America first, America first. Expect a wild first 100 days READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Al Gore says Trump driving, not weakening, climate change momentum
LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate change agreement was fueling, rather than weakening, momentum among environmental activists. Gore, whose follow-up to his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” is showing in movie theaters worldwide this month, said governments and companies had stepped up since Trump’s decision in June to withdraw from the 2015 global pact. “The entire world the next day re-doubled their commitments to the Paris agreement and in the U.S, the governors of our largest states and hundreds of mayors, thousands of business leaders all stood up to fill the gap and said ‘We are still in the Paris agreement,’” Gore told Reuters Television. “I do think that the reaction to Donald Trump is actually driving much more momentum in the climate movement,” he added. Gore’s new documentary, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” argues that fighting climate change is a moral battle, on a par with the civil rights movement in the United States or the fight for gay rights. Shot mostly before Trump’s election, it also shows the Republican on the 2016 campaign trail promising to abolish environmental regulations and boost the coal and oil industries. “An Inconvenient Truth” is credited with bringing climate change into mainstream political discourse in the United States a decade ago. It won the best documentary Oscar in 2007 and helped propel Gore to a Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
| 1
|
House committee postpones hearing on Puerto Rico
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, with oversight of Puerto Rico, on Thursday postponed until further notice a hearing on the island’s recovery from Hurricane Maria and the role of a federally appointed oversight board. The spokesman for the committee said the hearing that had been planned for Oct. 24 would be rescheduled due to scheduling conflicts with witnesses. Earlier on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would work with Congress to approve grants and loans to help rebuild Puerto Rico after last month’s devastating hurricane.
| 1
|
Moscow in talks with U.S. to create cyber working group: RIA report
MOSCOW/LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are in talks to create a joint cyber security working group, Russia’s RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cyber security. “The talks are underway ... different proposals are being exchanged, nobody denies the necessity of holding the talks and of having such contacts,” Krutskikh said, according to RIA. Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official who was at the recent G20 summit of global leaders in Hamburg, said earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to discuss cyber security questions, either via the United Nations or as part of a working group. However, U.S. and European intelligence and security officials told Reuters on Thursday they were not participating in the talks, which they said were confined to mid-level political officials. One of the officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said cooperation on cyber security was a “pipe dream” while Russia continues to deny that it hacked last year’s U.S. presidential election, as three U.S. intelligence agencies concluded publicly in January. On an Air Force One flight home from Europe last weekend, Thomas Bossert, Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, told reporters it would be premature to suggest the United States would be talking to Russia about a possible cyber security “partnership.” “A partnership suggests that you’ve reached a place where you believe that you have a trusted relationship and you’ve come to some common agreement on ideals and goals and behaviors,” he said. “I don’t believe that the United States and Russia have come to that point yet in cyberspace,” Bossert said. “And until we do, we wouldn’t have the conversation about partnership. But we had to have a dialogue, and that’s where we’ll start.” Trump said earlier this month he had discussed the idea of creating such a group with Putin at the Hamburg summit. Senior U.S. Republicans greeted the idea with incredulity, saying Moscow could not be trusted, and Trump later appeared to back away, saying in a post on Twitter: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t.” Widespread concern and confusion about the possible cyber working group reflects the Trump administration’s struggles to articulate a clear approach to international cyber security issues amid inconsistent statements by the president and ongoing personnel changes. Chris Painter, a widely respected bureaucrat who led the U.S State Department’s international engagement on cyber security, is leaving his post at the end of the month amid media reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to shutter Painter’s entire office. Painter is scheduled to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee next week about cyber diplomacy. White House cyber coordinator Rob Joyce told reporters on Wednesday that no final decision had been made about Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, but said the State Department would continue to play a prominent role in developing cyber norms and brokering international agreements. “I am confident that Secretary Tillerson is not going to impair cyber security,” Joyce said.
| 1
|
Boiler Room – #UniteTheRight Coverage with Hesher, Andy Nowicki, Patrick Henningsen, FunkS0ul & Randy J
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR host Hesher and along side Andy Nowicki (the Alt Right Novelist) reporting LIVE from the #UniteTheRight rally in VA, Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire and FunkSoul & Randy J (21WIRE & ACR contributors), for this special broadcast of BOILER ROOM.Today on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is having an emergency meeting to cover Andy Nowicki s experience at the Unite The Right rally in VA. Hesher, FunkSoul, Randy J and Patrick Henningsen were also covering the live updates of the news scene at the very same rally, where several cars were involved in a hit and run style event that ended with multiple injuries and fatalities reported.Direct Download Episode #121Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research:
| 0
|
Lake Oroville Dam Spillway Damage Results in Evacuation Orders to 188,000 People
21st Century Wire says The Oroville dam in Northern California has sustained sink hole damage in the main spillway and over 188,000 residents of the local area have been told to evacuate. Helicopters are dropping rocks into areas of erosion to try to prevent ground from eroding further downstream of the primary and the never before used secondary, passive spillways at the dam.ABC10 noted late last week that the amount of water in the Oroville dam is challenging the design of the dam (due to the sink hole having formed in the spillway which required the outflow to be slowed) with 185,000 cubic feet of water per second are coming into the dam and only 41,000 going out.There is a passive spillway that has now been forced into use as the water levels rise and more rain is expected later this week, but its unknown what the down stream effects will be as this auxiliary spillway has never been used before. It has the potential of causing a lot of damage spilling downstream into the Feather River and towards residential areas. Reports indicate they have increased the outgoing water from the main spillway to lessen the potential damage of the use of the passive spillway.Join ABC10 below for live updates and ongoing reports on this developing situation at the Oroville Dam ABC 10At least 188,000 people living downstream of California s Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.Evacuation orders still in place. We will work to keep updating everyone. Be safe. https://t.co/xjYGk6B8VF Yuba County (@YubaCounty) February 13, 2017Crews are hard at work reinforcing the integrity of the levee adjacent to Tyler Island. Stay tuned to our social media for continued updates pic.twitter.com/6UIgIbCjWm SacramentoOES (@SacramentoOES) February 13, 2017The Paradise Alliance Church is not longer accepting new evacuees. If seeking shelter visit https://t.co/zmTLivT9tA for updated list. Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Butte County offices in the Oroville area will remain CLOSED tomorrow due to the #OrovilleSpillway evacuations. @ButteSheriff @CA_DWR Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Continue this developing story with live updates at ABC10READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Trump Faces Off With CNN’s Jake Tapper Over Event Fistacuffs
21st Century Wire says After last Friday night s clash between Democratic Party students and Republican Trump supporters in Chicago, mainstream media outlets, Republican and Democratic candidates are all taking aim at Donald Trump going into the pivotal Super Tuesday primary contest.Watch as CNN s Jake Tapper and Donald Trump tossel on-air, as the CNN presenter accuses the Republican front runner of causing violence at his rallies
| 0
|
PHILIPPINES: 2016 Washington’s Fury as Philippine’s Elections Threaten US Anti-China Policy
Duterte takes clear lead in Philippine elections. (Photo: IBT)Andrew Korybko The DuranMay 2016: As Filipinos choose their next President on Monday, prospect of election of anti-establishment candidate threatens the geopolitical viability of the US s Pivot to Asia.The Philippines votes for its next President on Monday. Whilst the rest of the world pays little attention, strategists in Washington are worried.The electoral frontrunner is Rodrigo Duterte, an eccentric, no-nonsense former mayor from the southern island of Mindanao who commands a Trump-like popularity and an equally loyal following. He has shaken Philippine politics to its core over the past couple of months, defying establishment pundits who just as they did with Trump wrongly predicted that his campaign would fizzle out over the course of each passing week.Having totally underestimated just how dissatisfied most Filipinos are with the status quo, Duterte s rivals missed the chance to outshine him by his anti-system rhetoric. With the race in its final days that is now too late. Instead also paralleling what happened with Trump there are desperate calls for coalitions and deals to stop him.Should these fail and should Duterte win on Monday, he promises a geopolitical revolution unlike anything the Philippines has ever seen in its history. Pivoting To Asia Through The PhilippinesThe US s Pivot to Asia was announced by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2011 with the unstated but obvious goal of containing China. Key to this strategy is the rebalancing as the Pentagon calls it of an estimated 60% of its overseas forces to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Such a major deployment requires many more bases than the US currently has in the region. The US has therefore sought the help of the loyal leader of its former Philippines colony, Benigno Aquino III, to find a way to re-open its bases in the Philippines which under popular pressure were closed in the 1990s.Using the China threat as the plausibly justifiable reason for doing so, but aware that the Philippines people still resent their former coloniser and are proud of having forced the US to close its Philippines bases at the end of the Cold War, the US has devised what it calls an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allows for the rotational presence of American troops in at least five separate bases, one of which is located on the strategic island of Palawan that abuts the South China Sea.Although not legally permanent or officially controlled by the US, this wink-and-a-nod arrangement would in reality allow the US to redeploy its forces to the Philippines, returning the Philippines archipelago to the role of the US s second unsinkable aircraft carrier (alongside Japan) which it had during the Cold War.The China Containment Coalition The Pentagon plans to use the Philippines as the maritime lynch of its China Containment Coalition (CCC), gathering all of its allies navies together and deploying them within provocative striking range of China s claimed islands.The other three members of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue Japan, India, and Australia would find their own way to rotate their military units throughout the Philippines islands as well, thereby forming the core of the CCC.To add a regional element to this mix, the plan is for the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which contest some of China s maritime claims, to intensify their strategic cooperation to the point of a mutual defence treaty. This would draw Vietnam into the network of the anti-China coalition being built up by Washington by using the defence ties between Vietnam and the Philippines to making the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue de facto allies of Vietnam.Altogether, the Pentagon plan is to produce a critical mass of hostile states near China s southern maritime border which backed by the US could quickly counter any moves by Beijing thereby containing it to the East Asian mainland.Duterte s RevolutionEverything was proceeding according to plan until Duterte began to question the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement . While his running mate has said Duterte would honour the agreement, he added that he would do so from a position of strength .Back in October 2014, Duterte went on record to say the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement should be scrapped if it allowed US servicemen in the Philippines to avoid justice for any crimes they committed.This pinpoints an issue very sensitive for Filipinos who have vivid memories of how US troops were able to escape punishment for acts of gross misbehaviour whilst the US military occupied its bases in the Philippines. Public anger over this issue was one of the key factors in mobilising local opposition to the bases and explains why many Filipinos oppose their return.Since it is impossible to imagine such an incident not arising at some point, it is all but inevitable that a situation will occur which will fulfil Duterte s criterion for scrapping the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement Taken together with Duterte s assertion that he intends to deal with the US from a position of strength it is easy to see how this might trigger the process of revoking the agreement.No Filipino politician has previously spoken about the US in this way. Moreover other things he has said also suggest an intention to send a strongly independent line.Not surprisingly the Pentagon-affiliated publication Starts and Stripes , which writes for US servicemen servicemen and their families, published a scathing critique of Duterte just last week. Here are some excerpts: With Filipinos set to choose among five candidates on May 9, Duterte, the incumbent mayor of Davao City who has said the U.S. should not meddle in our affairs, holds a strong lead, according to the most recent poll released Sunday.Duterte is very popular now because people are sick and tired of the same old, same old, said Virginia Bacay Watson, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. He s kind of a fresh face, fresh perspective, compared to the other elites who are running. Duterte has presented himself to voters as a straight-talker who is not part of the Manila elite someone who can get things done even if he needs to bend the rules to do so. That includes the country s foreign affairs. He feels that American influence is too strong, that we re too dependent on U.S. intervention in anything we do, said Babe Romualdez, an opinion columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper who has interviewed the candidates one-on-one about their platforms on the U.S. military and relations with China. He was an activist when he was a student and young lawyer, Romualdez said. I get a sense that he s saying the same things that most of the militants say. In Romualdez s interview with the front-runner, the candidate said we really don t need the Americans to deal with the Chinese because the Chinese want to talk to us alone. If I become president I m going to reach out to the Chinese and talk to them alone without American intervention, he said.Duterte publically opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. of which the EDCA was an amendment and claimed in 2013 that he had rejected a request by the U.S. to establish Davao as a base of operations for drones.Earlier this year, he was quoted saying that although the country was now bound by the EDCA, he had reservations about the presence of foreign troops. He added, We will not allow the building of structures. Clearly, Duterte is not the sort of leader the Pentagon envisaged for the Philippines. If he becomes Philippine President there will inevitably be concern in Washington that its elaborate plans for an anti-Chinese coalition in the region could be scuttled.The New Silk Road Pays A Pit Stop To The PhilippinesWorse still for the US Duterte is saying the Philippines and China could have peaceful and pragmatic relations with each other, engaging in bilateral dialogue over their disputes without the meddling interference of the US.What that would mean for the US is that the Philippines might become a tacit Chinese ally, which would completely upend the regional strategic balance.That is not what Duterte is actually calling for, but he did say is that he not only would be open to talking to Beijing, but would even further and engage in joint exploration in the South China Sea. Further, in seeking to develop the decades-neglected infrastructure of one of the most promising economies of Asia, Duterte has suggested that he would be open to inviting China to build a railroad and other types of connective projects that Beijing has become globally renowned for. This would of course mean replacing US contractors traditionally heavily entrenched in the Philippines with cheaper and possibly more efficient Chinese ones potentially causing US companies to lose out from billions of dollars of construction deals.Joint maritime exploration and infrastructure cooperation between the Philippines and China has the potential to turn the entire Philippines archipelago into the latest pit stop for China s New Silk Road, presenting the US with its biggest geopolitical setback since the reunification of Crimea with Russia.Concluding ThoughtsThe entire future of the US s Pivot to Asia hangs in the balance as Filipinos go to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most pivotal election in their country s history.While the US and its allied politicians are preaching a campaign of anti-Chinese fear mongering and war, Rodrigo Duterte is bucking the system and preaching the benefits the Philippines could reap from more pragmatic policies.By questioning the need for the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement and subtly threatening to subvert it, Duterte has made himself the US s enemy number one amongst politicians from the Asia-Pacific. No other individual is speaking out in this way and unlike others who have come before him, he seems to command a high level of genuine people support.If Duterte succeeds in winning the Presidency, it could represent a paradigm shift in Philippine history and the region s geopolitics, resulting in the US losing its second unsinkable aircraft carrier and having its Pivot to Asia ie. its plan to contain China fail before it has even properly got underway.***READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT 21ST CENTURY WIRE S: PHILIPPINES FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
THOUGHT POLICE: US Border Control Wants to Study Your Facebook, Twitter Accounts
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireIf this latest proposal from the US becomes policy, it could be a major watershed point for the globalized police state, allowing governments to not only to profile you, but also to target and even exclude individuals based on their online speech and activity. This week we learned that US border control have been running a shadow test program behind the scenes, where travelers into the US are asked to declare their online presence , including any social media accounts and associated blogs.The US Federal Register states, Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide Department of Homeland Security (DHS) greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case. In the hive mind of the state, the term nefarious is proven to be a flexible one, and could encompass persons of any political or intellectual persuasion who travel internationally. Where does it end?So who are these arbiters of political thought and social discourse?According to this recent report by The Guardian, the deciders are likely to be hourly wage earners working for the TSA, or contractors working under the banner of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Initially, these workers would be tasked with analyzing your online presence : US Customs and Border Protection s proposed change would add a line on both the online and paper forms of the visa application form that visitors to the US must fill out if they do not have a visa and are planning on staying for up to 90 days.The following question would be added to both the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) and I-94W forms: Please enter information associated with your online presence Provider/Platform Social media identifier. Thus far, the DHS claim they are only running a limited pilot program , one which the agency is keeping confidential and out of the public eye. Officials claim that the secrecy surrounding this controversial program is because they don t want to reveal their methods for identifying a potential terror threat. Millions of visitors disembark in US each week (Photo: Flickr user Tom May via Fast Company)In practical terms, with 10 million visa applications and over 77 million visitors annually what we are really seeing here is a giant big data capturing exercise that will quickly generate an additional column on your personal database sitting alongside your standard personal, facial recognition and other biometric ID information, as well as your travel history, and anchored by the RFID chip already embedded in most international passports.How the DHS expects its border control staff to properly vet and verify the information in question before a traveler passes through border security is hard to ascertain. The potential for misinformation is ever present.Eventually, processing this amount of data will probably be farmed out to high speed intelligent, or A.I. computer systems. Similar high-end, algorithm-based analytical surveillance programs like PRISM is already being used by US and UK government agencies to trawl through masses of public online activity, so it only stands to reason that A.I. will eventually perform the job of flagging-up any undesirables.If you went by the US media rhetoric you d think that Facebook and Twitter were the number one causes of global terrorism. No surprise then, that the battle cry for this latest DHS program has to be last December s apparent ISIS-inspired terrorist event in San Bernardino, and the subsequent controversy over the FBI s ability access to one of the suspect s encrypted iPhone 5C.What s more likely to be driving this grand security directive is not necessarily some effective plan to keep people safe , but rather, highly lucrative commercial interests.CIA is investing in firms that specialize in sifting through social media postshttps://t.co/nDVBvKt0bz pic.twitter.com/jiWZgQhYDX RT America (@RT_America) April 15, 2016No Private SpacesPerhaps the most troubling aspect of this story has to do with assessing the relationship between the individual and the government and the expectation of privacy in a so-called democratic or free society.In this instance, the government is adopting a blanket policy of judging a person as guilty until proven innocent. By ceding this expectation to the government, an individual consenting to this arrangement by forgoing his or her right to privacy and due process. As history shows us time and time again, once you give this away, it s very difficult to get back.In a BBC interview this week, Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Centre for Democracy and Technology points out one of the fundamental flaws in the government s new regime, as he explains: It s very hard to see travellers not filling out this item even though it s optional as they may fear not getting entry into the country. Democracy in general requires having spaces free from government scrutiny and increasingly social life happens online. We would have a poor society if people were chilled from participating in social activity online so I really hope they rethink this. Now many Americans might look at this story and think, This doesn t affect me, it s only for foreigners. While that may seem true on the surface, the reality is that this DHS system is designed for Americans too. Consider it phase one. Besides this, do not be surprised if whatever rights you deny your neighbor, will eventually be denied of you too.This is what technocracy looks like it s brutal, unforgiving, and ultimately unresponsive to common sense and reason. Worst of all, it pretends to be driven by a perceived public interest in safety and security, but in reality the only security that s ever achieved through such measures are secure profits for a select number of corporate firms fortunate enough to win corporate contracts in the ever-expanding security theatre that is Homeland Security. Author Patrick Henningsen is also founder and editor at 21st Century Wire, and an independent foreign and political affairs analyst for RT News International. He is also the host of the SUNDAY WIRE talk radio program which airs live every Sunday on the Alternate Current Radio Network. Support our work and Become a Member at 21WIRE.TVREAD MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire War on Terror Files
| 0
|
Boiler Room EP #127 – The Oppression Commiseration (And Similar Topics)
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki the Nameless One & Randy J for the hundred and twenty seventh episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is back with another meeting of the Social Reject Club in the No Friends Left Zone and the gang is discussing Morgan Freeman promoting the #TrumpRussia psyop, the most expensive cities in the US, Jim Carrey s odd behavior captured recently on camera, the general degeneracy of Hollywood, Evergreen State College settling $500,000 claim by professors who were told to leave campus for being white, the upcoming Free Speech Week at Berkeley and much more.Direct Download Episode #127Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research:
| 0
|
Trump Swings Back at Author of Fake Dossier: ‘Failed Spy’ Might Face Libel Action
21st Century Wire says In a Tweet, Donald Trump hints at libel action in response to the Trump dossier which was allegedly compiled by former MI6 officer, Christopher Steele.Is the Donald going to take the next logical step in battling fake news in the mainstream media, pushed by his political opponents and take one of their intelligence thugs to court? Keep an eye on this developing story. Alexander Mercouris The DuranDonald Trump has lashed out at Christopher Steele, the former British MI6 officer who compiled the Trump Dossier.Steele worked in Russia for MI6 in the 1990s and at one time headed MI6 s Russian desk. It turns out that he was also the case officer of Andrey Litvinenko, the FSB defector the British authorities accuse the Russians of murdering with polonium. It seems that Steele has however not actually travelled to Russia for twenty years, making it unclear how he contacted the various Russian insiders who he says provided him with the information he used to compile the Trump Dossier.In any event, Trump in a tweet has now called Steele a failed spy It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued . . . Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans FAKE NEWS!The reference to Steele being a failed spy afraid of being sued suggests that Trump is considering bringing a libel action against him. If so then Steele will have to explain the contents of the Trump Dossier before a British court. Given that despite certain recent changes British libel laws are amongst the most rigorous in the world, that would make for a very interesting court case Continue this report at The DuranRead More Election News at: 21st Century Wire Election CoverageSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
PROPAGANDA: Star Trek Beyond – Social Justice Warriors in Space
Jay Dyer 21st Century WireThe last Star Trek reboot saw Benedict Cumberbatch as Kahn, the berserk super soldier who was angry about the Federation doing some such nefarious thing to his people group. This installment included curious references to false flags which I detailed here.Before that, in the initial reboot, there was an angry alien who attacked the Federation over his tribal group being shat upon (or, Shatnered upon!). So, for the third time in a row, we have roughly the same plot of dispossessed discontent tribalists and unique people groups who become terrorists when their way of life is encroached upon by the United Nations, er, NATO, er, New World Order, er Federation.We have seen this pattern often in the Star Trek, but in the recent installment, it s even more pronounced as we discover the character Sulu is gay. Indeed, trans-specism and the destruction of people groups under liberal tyranny has always been the worldview of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry was a rabidly atheistic globalist (or, as an even darker possibility, was Roddenberry a member of an occultic group known as The Nine, ?).There is some interesting evidence connecting Roddenberry (connected to the Esalen Institute which I covered here) to esoteric groups, mind control and the Rand Corporation. This would explain the many gnostic, scientistic, platonic and at times interestingly philosophical episodes, in the original series and its Next Generation successor.Secret Sun blog explains: So if you were hawking a sci-fi religion, who better to approach than the creator of the sci-fi sensation of the early/mid 70s? From 2008:In early 1975, a broke and depressed Roddenberry was approached by a British former race car driver named Sir John Whitmore, who was associated with a strange organization called Lab-9. Though unknown to the public, Lab-9 were ostensibly a sort of an independent version of the X-Files, dedicated to the research of paranormal phenomena. However, Lab-9 had another, more complex agenda- they later claimed to be in contact with a group of extraterrestrials called the Council of Nine Lab-9 had wanted to hire Roddenberry to write a screenplay based on the Council of Nine s imminent return .Lab-9 flew him out to their headquarters, located on a large estate in Ossining, NY. There, Roddenberry met and interviewed several psychics, and prepared the groundwork for his script.Roddenberry wrote a script called The Nine, in which he fictionalized his experiences at Lab-9 and the message for humanity that the Council of Nine wished to convey Beam me up, RAND!(T)his was no ragtag bunch of hippie phreaks that Roddenberry was dealing with Roddenberry biographer Joel Engel noted that Whitmore introduced Roddenberry to several key figures in the British Broadcasting Corp. as well. In regard to the connection to RAND, Opsecnews states:According to the TrekPlace website Harvey P. Lynn, Jr. (?-1987), a member of the prestigious RAND Corporation, provided Star Trek original series creator Gene Roddenberry with scientific and technical advice during preproduction of the series.On the Rand Corporation s website the question is asked whether a RAND researcher designed the initial bridge of the Enterprise. The answer given is, A Rand researcher, Harvey Lynn, was consulted, but as a private citizen, not as part of a RAND project. However in an interview from 1965 Jeffrey Hunter, who played captain Christopher Pike in the Star Trek pilot The Cage and preceded William Shatner as first captain of the Enterprise stated, The things that intrigues me the most is that it is actually based on the Rand Corporation s projection of things to come. Except for the fictional characters, it will be like getting a look into the future and some of the predictions will surely come true in our lifetime. The inherent contradiction that Star Trek continually demonstrates is the contradiction of the liberal philosophy and I mean in this in the classically liberal sense, that radical egalitarianism and atomistic individualism creates a horrid collective gathered around nothing more than liberalism itself. In this way, liberalism and its epistemic and cultural relativism can only allow for itself, and must destroy and exclude all other options, including even non-liberal democracy.In numerous Star Trek episodes, we even see the Prime Directive of the Federation s commitment to not violating an existing culture violated under the pretended facade of liberal rights and values. Western NGOs and foundations fulfill this very role today, with a cover of aiding the downtrodden, while secretly working for western political ends, as we see in the Soros-funded White Helmets scam. (If anyone doubts RAND connections to Hollywood, let s not forget the 2014 faux scandal of The Interview). Ironically, the new film demonstrates this toxic cultural imperialism explicitly. GlobalResearch explains: Aside from not addressing the darker side of US foreign policy, Hollywood movies like Forrest Gump carry subliminal messages. In the words of the US culture and entertainment magazine Rolling Stone: The message of Forrest Gump was that if you think about the hard stuff too much, you ll either get AIDS or lose your legs. Meanwhile, the hero is the idiot who just shrugs and says Whatever! whenever his country asks him to do something crazy. What Rolling Stone is saying that listen to what you are commanded to do.Then there are movies like American Sniper that collapse US foreign policy into the simplistic notion of individual characters. What this does is collapse the event and the soldiers into one, which means that if ones criticize a US war that you are attacking the soldiers and their convictions. This is hiding behind the soldiers and detracting from the real issue of an illegal invasion and occupation. Nor is there any mention of Abu Ghraib or the false weapons of mass destruction lies. Rolling Stone had this to say about American Sniper: Sniper is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism. The only thing that forces us to take it seriously is the extraordinary fact that an almost exactly similar worldview consumed the walnut-sized mind of the president who got us into the war in question. It s the fact that the movie is popular, and actually makes sense to so many people, that s the problem, it also adds. In fact, as a result of the movie there was an increase in hate crimes in the US and negative feelings towards Arabs and Muslims. I was tempted to draw up an elaborate analysis of symbols and deeper meanings, but depth was absent in this film. Other than an odd similarity between the terrorist character as a former soldier who went mad from radicalism (traditionalism!) being similar to the D.C. sniper event, Admiral Krall is merely a representation of any cultures or people groups who want a more traditional, organic existence and reject the Federation s globalism. As such, they are terrorists who are impelled by their fury and insanity to bomb the glorious, multi-cultural megalopolis space city Yorktown. In other words, all groups that aren t on board with globalism and liberal, inverted monoculture are terrists destined to attack New York.Krall thus represents the life-extension inherent in the damned traditionalism that will not die in the face of globalism. Krall is a grotesque icon of the film s view of patriarchal, honor-based societies as a perpetual reptilian madness that humans must evolve beyond. If you don t accept homo-mono-globo-liberalism, you are a terrorist that will unleash bioweapons in New York.The Holy United Nations and the space brothers have told the Pentagon humanity must evolve beyond distinctions and borders, and Gene and the pope are is its prophets. By the way if the citizens of the multi cultural Yorktown space station can beam about at will, why didn t they just beam Admiral Krall into space when he had the bio weapon?Oops! #StarCuck #captainJamesTKuckREAD MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood FilesTo hear Jay s full podcasts, see more information and learn how you can become a subscriber to JaysAnalysis.Jay Dyer is the author of the forthcoming title, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film from Trine Day. Focusing on film, philosophy, geopolitics and all things esoteric, JaysAnalysis and his podcast, Esoteric Hollywood, investigates the deeper meanings between the headlines, exploring the hidden aspects of our sinister synthetic mass media matrix.
| 0
|
Trump says he'll urge Muslim leaders to fight extremism during Mideast trip
NEW LONDON, Conn. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would use his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia to challenge the leaders of Muslim countries to “fight hatred and extremism” while pursuing a peaceful future for their faith. Speaking to the graduating class of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Trump said he would seek new partners in the region because “we have to stop radical Islamic terrorism.”
| 1
|
Trump tells China's Xi he believes there is solution to North Korea
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he believes, like Xi, that there is a solution to the North Korea issue. It was too bad that past U.S. administrations let trade get out of kilter but we will make it fair to both sides, Trump also told Xi as they begun formal talks at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
| 1
|
MSM Fake News: How Washington Post Sexed-up its ‘Facebook Russian Bot’ Conspiracy
This is a story about how once trusted mainstream media outlets like Washington Post and the New York Times have used their vast platforms to distort reality and spread disinformation en masse to both the American and global public. It s also a story about a new excuse industry which has sprung up to medicate Hillary Clinton s tragic defeat.The article below, written by award-winning journalist Robert Parry, reveals the shocking extent to which the establishment is willing to go to achieve both domestic political, and international geopolitical outcomes.In September, we were told by multiple US mainstream media that suspected Russian operators used Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread anti-Clinton messages which somehow affected the electoral outcome in 2016. This was followed by a dramatic announcement by Facebook officials that they had responded to the crisis by shutting down several hundred accounts (approx. 470) suspected to have been created by a firm linked to the Kremlin who used Russian bot accounts to purchase $100,000 worth of Facebook post ads 3,000 ads in total over a 3 year period (that s only $33,000 per year) which we re told were pushing divisive issues during and after the American election campaign (so said the New York Times).As it turns out, the story was not only wildly exaggerated, it provided a convenient smoke screen to cover-up another case of real collusion.The scale of American propaganda is simply breathtaking.In this single passage taken from the recent New York Times scoop on the alleged Facebook Russian Bot phenomenon, you can see the full compliment of packaged lies which has become a set piece in US mainstream discourse now: The Russian information attack on the election did not stop with the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails or the fire hose of stories, true, false and in between, that battered Mrs. Clinton on Russian outlets like RT and Sputnik. Far less splashy, and far more difficult to trace, was Russia s experimentation on Facebook and Twitter, the American companies that essentially invented the tools of social media and, in this case, did not stop them from being turned into engines of deception and propaganda. It gets worse though. What the Washington Post and others like the New York Times have obscured from the American people through this massive propaganda exercise is the Obama Administration and partisan Democrats own role in helping to generate this contrived conspiracy, or fake news. In the absence of any actual evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia what we have now is a case of Silicon Valley giant Facebook, actually colluding with the White House and the Federal government officials in order to help fabricate a highly politicized false conviction. Here are some of the main points in the article below: Powerful politicians pressured Facebook executives to come up with any evidence to support the Democratic Party s theory of Russian meddling. The Washington Post and others tried to convince a naive portion of the public to believe that somehow $100,000 in transient Facebook ad impacted the tens of billions of dollars spent during U.S. political spending for the 2016 election cycle. With all of the hype about Russian operatives, the mainstream media has not produced evidence to show who bought the ads.As journalistic hoaxes go, this is one of the biggest we ve seen.Perhaps an even bigger fraud in all of this however, is how a corporate mainstream media outlet like the Washington Post can use it s unlimited resources and media might to push out a blatantly fake narrative, intentionally distorted to deceive the public in order to achieve some partisan political objective and then site on the board of the establishment s First Draft project which they claim is leading the fight against fake news . How can a major purveyor of fake news be left to lead the fight to tackle fake news ? This is the danger of allowing an establishment cartel comprising of the corporate media, Facebook, Google and other tech monopolies to devise their own information policing regime.More on this incredible story from award-winning Consortium News here . . By Robert ParrySome people are calling the anti-Russian hysteria being whipped up across the U.S. mainstream news media a new golden age of American journalism, although it looks to me more like a new age of yellow journalism, prepping the people for more military spending, more information warfare and more actual war.Yes, without doubt, President Trump is a boorish and dangerous demagogue, now highlighted by his reckless speech before the United Nations last week, his schoolyard Tweet taunts toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and his ugly denunciation of black athletes for protesting against police killings of often unarmed African-Americans.And, yes, I know that some people feel that the evidence-lite and/or false allegations about Russian meddling are the golden ticket to Trump s impeachment. But the unprofessional behavior of The New York Times, The Washington Post and pretty much the entire mainstream media regarding Russia-gate cannot be properly justified by the goal of removing Trump from office.Ethically in journalism, the ends however much you might wish them to succeed cannot justify the means, if those means involve violating rules of evidence and principles of fairness. Journalism should be a place where all sides get a fair shake, not where some get a bum s rush.But the U.S. mainstream media has clearly joined the anti-Trump Resistance and hates Russian President Vladimir Putin, too. So, we are given such travesties of journalism as appeared as a banner headline across the front page of Monday s Washington Post, another screed about how Russia supposedly used Facebook ads to flip last November s election for Trump.The article purports to give the inside story of how Facebook belatedly came to grips with how the company s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, but actually it is a story about how powerful politicians bullied Facebook into coming up with something anything to support the narrative of Russian meddling, including direct interventions by President Obama and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and a key legislator regarding regulation of high-tech industries.Finding the Evidence In other words, Facebook was sent back again and again to find what Obama and Warner wanted the social media company to find. Eventually, Facebook turned up $100,000 in ads from 2015 into 2017 that supposedly were traced somehow to Russia. These ads apparently addressed political issues in America although Facebook has said most did not pertain directly to the presidential election and some ads were purchased after the election.Left out of the Post s latest opus is what a very small pebble these ads were even assuming that Russians did toss the $100,000 or so in ad buys into the very large lake of billions of dollars in U.S. political spending for the 2016 election cycle. It also amounts to a miniscule fraction of Facebook s $27 billion in annual revenue.So the assertion that this alleged meddling and we ve yet to see any evidence connecting these ads to the Russian government played a key role in the U.S. election is both silly and outrageous, especially given the risks involved in stoking animosities between nuclear-armed Russia and nuclear-armed America.Facebook: Colluding with government.Even the Post s alarmist article briefly acknowledges that it is still unclear who bought the ads, referring to the purchasers as suspected Russian operatives. In other words, we don t even know that the $100,000 in ads over three years came from Russians seeking to influence the U.S. election. (By comparison, many Facebook advertisers even some small businesses spend $100,000 per day on their ads, not $100,000 over three years.)But this diminutive effort by suspected Russian operatives doesn t stop the Post from going on and on about fake news and disinformation, albeit again without offering evidence or specifics of any Russian fake news or disinformation. It has simply become Official Washington s new groupthink to say that everything linked to Russia or its international TV network RT is fake news or disinformation even though examples are lacking or often turn out to be false accusations themselves.For instance, there is nothing in the Post s article acknowledging that nothing from the various Democratic email disclosures, which have been blamed on Russia (again without real evidence), has been identified as untrue. So, how can truthful information, whether you like how it was obtained or not, be fake news or disinformation ?Falsehood as FactBut Monday s Post expos simply asserts the claim as flat fact. Or as the article asserts: what Russian operatives posted on Facebook was, for the most part, indistinguishable from legitimate political speech. The difference was the accounts that were set up to spread the misinformation and hate were illegitimate. In responsible journalism, such an accusation would be followed by a for-instance, giving an example of the misinformation and hate that the Russian operatives note how they have been magically transformed from suspected Russian operatives to simply Russian operatives were disseminating.But there is no example of the Russian misinformation and hate, a classic violation of the reporting principle of show, don t tell. In this story, it s all tell and no show.Indeed, what is shown in the article is often contradictory to the story s conclusion. The article says, for instance, A review by the company found that most of the groups behind the problematic pages had clear financial motives, which suggested that they weren t working for a foreign government. But amid the mass of data the company was analyzing, the security team did not find clear evidence of Russian disinformation or ad purchases by Russian-linked accounts. So, Facebook initially after extensive searching did not find evidence of a Russian operation. Then, after continued pressure from high-level Democrats, Facebook continued to scour its system and again found nothing, or as the Post article acknowledged, Facebook had searched extensively for evidence of foreign purchases of political advertising but had come up short. That prompted Warner to fly out to Silicon Valley to personally press Facebook executives to come up with the evidence to support the Democrats theory about Russia paying for carefully targeted anti-Clinton ads in key districts.The Post s article reported that Finally, [Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex] Stamos appealed to Warner for help: If U.S. intelligence agencies had any information about the Russian operation or the troll farms it used to disseminate misinformation, they should share it with Facebook. The company is still waiting, people involved in the matter said. Under PressureStill, faced with extraordinary pressure from senior Democrats, Facebook finally delivered the desired results, or as the Post reported, By early August, Facebook had identified more than 3,000 ads addressing social and political issues that ran in the United States between 2015 and 2017 and that appear to have come from accounts associated with the [St. Petersburg, Russia-based] Internet Research Agency. So, the ads covering three years, including post-election 2017, only appear to be associated with some private Russian operation that only allegedly has ties to the Kremlin. And the total sums of the ad buys are infinitesimal compared to what it actually takes to have any real impact on Facebook or in a U.S. presidential election.If the context of this story were changed slightly say, it was about the U.S. government trying to influence public opinion in another country (which actually does happen quite a bit) the Post would be among the first news outlets to laugh off such allegations or dismiss the vague accusations as a conspiracy theory, but since these allegations fit with the prejudices of the Post s editors, an entirely different set of journalistic standards is applied.What the article also ignores is the extraordinary degree of coercion that such high-level political pressure can put on a company that recognizes its vulnerability to government regulation.As Facebook has acknowledged in corporate filings, Action by governments to restrict access to Facebook in their countries could substantially harm our business and financial results. It is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on Facebook in their country, restrict access to Facebook from their country entirely, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of Facebook in their country for an extended period of time or indefinitely. In the event that access to Facebook is restricted, in whole or in part, in one or more countries or our competitors are able to successfully penetrate geographic markets that we cannot access, our ability to retain or increase our user base and user engagement may be adversely affected, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated, and our financial results could be adversely affected. Avoiding RealityIn other words, another way to have framed this story is that powerful politicians who could severely harm Facebook s business model were getting in the face of Facebook executives and essentially demanding that they come up with something to support the Democratic Party s theory of Russian meddling. The Democratic leaders wanted this finding as an explanation for Hillary Clinton s (image, left) stunning defeat, rather than going through the painful process of examining why the party has steadily lost ground in white working-class areas across the country.What is missed in these Russia-bashing articles is that the Democratic brand has been sinking for years, including massive losses in statehouses across the country as well as in Congress. The party s decline was not a one-off event with Donald Trump suddenly snaking away with significant parts of the white working class because the Russians bought some Facebook ads.However, instead of looking in the mirror, national Democrats demanded that Facebook executives ferret out whatever tiny or imaginary information there might be about some Russians buying Facebook ads and then allow those coerced findings to be fed into the excuse industry for why Hillary Clinton lost.And, what about the Post s repeated accusations about Russia engaging in disinformation and fake news without offering a single example? Apparently, these assertions have become such articles of faith in the U.S. mainstream media that they don t require any proof.However, honest journalism demands examples and evidence, not just vague accusations. The reality is that the U.S. government has stumbled again and again when seeking to paint RT as a disinformation outlet or a vehicle for undermining American democracy.For instance, the Jan. 6 report on alleged Russian cyber operations, released by Obama s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, included a lengthy appendix, dated from 2012, which decried RT for such offenses as allowing a debate among third-party presidential candidates who had been excluded from the Republican-Democratic debates; covering the Occupy Wall Street protests; and citing the environmental dangers from fracking. The idea that American democracy is threatened by allowing third-party candidates or other American dissidents to have a voice is at best an upside-down understanding of democracy and, more likely, an exercise in hypocritical propaganda.False AccusationsAnother misfired attempt to discredit RT came from Obama s Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel, who issued a Dipnote in April 2014, which helped establish the narrative of RT as a source of Russian disinformation.For instance, Stengel claimed that RT reported a ludicrous assertion that the United States had spent $5 billion to produce Ukraine s regime change in February 2014.But what Stengel, a former managing editor of Time magazine, apparently failed to understand was that RT was referring to a public speech by Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland to U.S. and Ukrainian business leaders on Dec. 13, 2013, in which she told them that we have invested more than $5 billion in what was needed for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. In other words, the RT report wasn t ludicrous at all.Nuland also was a leading proponent of regime change in Ukraine who personally cheered on the Maidan demonstrators, even passing out cookies. In an intercepted pre-coup phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland discussed who should run the new government and pondered with Pyatt how to glue or midwife this thing. So, Stengel was the one disseminating false information, not RT.Similarly, senior U.S. politicians, including Hillary Clinton, and the U.S. mainstream media have falsely asserted that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies signed off on the Russia-did-it hacking claims.For months, that canard was used to silence skepticism. After all, how could you question something that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed to be true?But it turned out that as DNI Clapper, himself a hardline Russia-basher, belatedly acknowledged the Jan. 6 report on the alleged Russian hacking was the work of hand-picked analysts from only three agencies, the CIA, FBI and NSA, and the assessment itself admitted that it was not asserting the Russian conclusion as fact, only the analysts opinion.The New York Times finally retracted its use of the fake claim about all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies in late June 2017 although it wouldn t let the lie lie, so instead the Times made misleading references to a consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies without using the number Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russiagate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
ORLANDO ‘KNOWN WOLF’ Watched by FBI, Worked with DHS, Amid Crisis Actors, Drills & CI’s
Shawn Helton 21st Century WireOrlando s Pulse nightclub shooting is said to be the largest mass shooting in American history and in less than 24 hours, investigators already determined the incident to be an ISIS-related attack prior to a full forensic analysis.In this report we will attempt to answer a number of questions about a number of anomalies and unlikely coincidences surrounding this global media event.We re told that this tragic attack was carried out by an international security firm employee turned radicalized gunman but is there more to the story? SELFIE OBSESSED SHOOTER Omar Mateen is the alleged Orlando nightclub shooter (Image Source: nbcnews)QUESTION: Is this is another, in a long line of Daily Shooter events designed to evoke an emotive, polarized and highly politicized response, rather than a rational and reasoned one?The Orlando ShootingIn the early hours of Sunday, June 12th, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, also listed as Omar Mateen by media outlets, was said to have killed 49 people, wounding some 53 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in what is being described as the deadliest mass shooting in America.According reports, Mateen is also said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS via a 911 call while carrying out the apparent large scale mass shooting and hostage situation, having been utterly cool and calm as suggested by some larger media outlets upon finishing his rampage.RELATED: (VIDEO) Active Shooter and Terror Drills: The Truth WILL Shock YouAdditionally, Mateen, was first stated to have used an AR-15 rifle, along with a small handgun (legally obtained through two security licenses). However, reports later changed and updated the alleged shooter s weapons of choice to the Sig Sauer MCX .223 caliber rifle and a Glock 17 9mm semi-auto pistol.The following is an extensive Rand Corporation evaluation of the NYPD and it reveals the following statistics as they relate to firearm accuracy: According to a 2008 Rand Corporation study evaluating the New York Police Department s firearm training, between 1998 and 2006, the average hit rate during gunfights was just 18 percent . When suspects did not return fire, police officers hit their targets 30 percent of the time.21WIRE, was able to track down an individual trained in all types of firearm training, who also questioned the alleged shooter s ability to to be so accurate, confirming the study above.Continuing the Orlando shooting timeline We were then told Mateen, took club goers hostage while carrying out the alleged terror related shooting around 2am.The shooting occurred at Pulse nightclub a popular LGTB venue, was thought to have had some 300 people inside of the club during the time of the shooting. We ve also been told that authorities were unable to stop the gunman for until 3 hours after the initial attack.The Washington Post reported: Three hours after Mateen first began shooting, they breached the building detonating an explosion on an exterior wall and ramming it with an armored vehicle. Traumatized club-goers escaped into the night, and then the gunman appeared in the opening, heavily armed and seemingly ready for what is known in law enforcement as suicide by cop. While some 30 lives have said to have been saved, how many were injured due to the explosive charge set of by police during the breach?According to a timeline of events, police were able to notify 24 of the victims families just two hours after the shooting at 7:30 am. This appears to be a significant detail when you consider the meticulous nature of crime scene investigation, as detectives are tasked with the time consuming and often difficult process of properly identifying individuals.In the Orlando shooting case, there would have (particularly in this scenario) been great bodily harm and perhaps unrecognizable victims who may or may not have had proper ID (fake ID s) on their person during the shooting.There appears to be a lack of footage surrounding the shooting itself, rescue operations performed or bodies at the stated crime scene extremely strange in the age of social media. SHOW OF FORCE A full-scale militarized response to the Pulse crime scene shooting. Did club goers become victims of friendly fire or was something else at play? (Image Source: radaronline)The Times Union stated the following after the Pulse nightclub shooting: Orlando police Chief John Mina says an extra officer was working at the Pulse nightclub in full uniform. The officer engaged with the shooter near an entrance. Additional officers entered, and engaged the suspect in another gunbattle. The shooter retreated to the bathroom.Mina says, At that time we were able to save and rescue dozens and dozens of people and get them out of the club. Officers then secured everything, and the SWAT team was brought in. Mina says officers then set up for an explosive breach on the bathroom wall. Mina says he made the decision to breach the wall, which created a hole through which dozens of clubgoers were rescued. Then the suspect exited through the same hole, and engaged in another gunbattle with officers. Shooter Omar Mateen was then killed. Why do early reports state that police engaged with the suspect, prior to the gunman shooting anyone or reportedly calling 911 this appears to directly contradict the main media narrative?Additionally, by police Chief John Mina s admission, a fully uniformed officer was working at Pulse nightclub. While it is not that unusual for police be at or sometimes moonlight at clubs as security, the details of how and exactly when the shooting occurred remain partially obscured in mainstream media reports.While ISIS media arms and social media accounts reportedly praised the attack, there has been wide scale condemnation of the shooting the world over including the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation who discussed this horrible act, but warned of political campaigning and self-serving agendas, following the tragic events.Continuing the article stated the following:Saudi Arabia s Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press in a text message Monday that Mateen first visited Saudi Arabia for 10 days in March 2011 and again a year later in March 2012 for eight days. Not since the San Bernardino shooting last December, has the public s perception been so arrested by a media-driven wave of hyperreality following what appears to be another confusing heavily coordinated incident, with an uncanny police and emergency response.Crime Scene Questions, Multiple Shooters WitnessedThough the Orlando shooting attack was officially stated to have been carried out around 2am, The Daily Mail published Facebook posts from people apparently inside the club that contradict the main timeline, suggesting the shooting happened much earlier.Here are the Facebook comments featured in the Daily Mail for review If these time stamps are correct and the posts have not been doctored in any way, then these posts present a pretty major crack in the official timeline of events at Pulse nightclub.Here s the animated YouTube personality Peekay Truth outlining the Daily Mail time discrepancy associated with the Orlando shooting . The UK s Independent published an article displaying an eyewitness account that directly contradicts the lone gunman theory pushed by all major media outlets in the aftermath of the shooting: Police did not immediately name the gunman or provide a possible motive for the attack but officials have classified the rampage as a domestic terrorism incident , Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. Javer Antonetti, 53, told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper he was near the back of the dance club when he heard gunfire. There were so many (shots), at least 40, he said. I saw two guys and it was constant, like pow, pow, pow, . From a logistical stand point Mateen s ability to carry out the shooting by himself seems to be another questionable aspect to an increasingly troubled case.Another club eyewitness Jon Alamo, heard 20, 40, 50 shots, and then The music stopped. While the stress of the incident could account for some differences, forensically it s hard to believe Mateen would have been able to have the ability to shoot over hundred people with only 50 some shots.According to multiple eyewitness accounts people inside the club mentioned that there was possibly as many as four shooters in around the area. The witness seen in the image below described the following: Then he[Mateen] called someone he knew and he mentioned that he was the fourth shooter, and there were three others. The witness also stated that the alleged shooter may have called police or a news agency stating that America should stop their bombing campaign on ISIS. Security Background & Alleged AbuseThe 29-year old Mateen, an Afghani-American was located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, about 120 miles outside of Orlando. In 2013, Mateen was placed under a terror watch list for 10 months (interviewed two to three times by the FBI 2013-14) and had worked for one of the largest security firms in the US since 2007, G4S Secure Solutions, headquartered in Jupiter, Florida and formerly part of a CIA-linked government contractor and security firm, Wackenhut Corporation.G4S, as it turns out, was the very first designated and certified Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contractor and recently secured a $234 million dollar contract with the federal cabinet department. In addition to apparently providing security solutions for 90 percent of U.S. nuclear facilities, G4S, according to border patrol sources has also been tasked with the transportation and release of illegal immigrants inside the interior of the United States.At least one of Mateen s roles with G4S, was to transport and provide security for prisoner youths in Florida. In 2012, G4S congratulated Mateen for five years of service according to a company newsletter.Zero Hedge reported the following concerning G4S: And this is where the Mateen-G4S link emerges: as JW reported previously, a security company contracted by the U.S. government is driving the OTMs from the Border Patrol s Tucson Sector where they were in custody to Phoenix, sources said. The firm is the abovementioned G4S, the world s leading security solutions group with operations in more than 100 countries and 610,000 employees. G4S has more than 50,000 employees in the U.S. and its domestic headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida. Mateen remained on staff to guard prisoners despite media reports that he harassed a co-worker and expressed hateful views in the workplace and was the subject of a federal investigation for terrorism between 2013-14 for some 10 months. According to reports, the FBI dropped the investigation after Mateen admitted to the work place harassment, adding that he was responding to harassment from others over his beliefs.Mateen is also stated to have previously worked at Martin Correctional Institution from 2006-07, prior to being featured in a short interview (as an actor?) in a major Hollywood designer documentary called The Big Fix in 2012, discussing the BP oil spill at Deep Water Horizon.Here you can see Mateen at the 36 minute mark, taking what appears to be a quasi-albeit scripted activist-type stance, even though he works for the world s largest security contractor. Clearly, Mateen was acting in this real documentary.. What is the public to make of Mateen s own acting and film background as it relates to America s largest mass shooting are we again seeing a clear link between Hollywood and military/security services?Indeed, Mateen has been featured in another documentary from 2013, called Love City Jalalabad, a feature supposedly depicting progressive Afghani youth and a quest for social change.Also According to Times Union: The security company that employed the Orlando nightclub gunman says it has no record of a co-worker s complaints that the shooter was angry, profane and threatened violence.The company, G4S, says in a statement Monday that it has no record of any complaint by Daniel Gilroy against Omar Mateen. Mateen died in a gun battle with police after a mass shooting that left 49 people. However, Gilroy has maintained that Mateen began harassing him, sending as many as 20 or 30 text messages a day and more than a dozen phone messages. Gilroy said his employer, G4S, did not intervene. After Gilroy left G4S, according to the security firm: Gilroy told company officials in June 2015, shortly after he left the firm, that his co-workers were good men and women that put in an honest day s work and genuinely like to work as a team and contribute. Further adding to confusion surrounding Mateen s character, Mateen s ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy, has publicly stated that she was abused during their brief marriage. (Photo Illustration by Shawn Helton @21WIRE)Return of the Daily ShooterDuring most of 2015 if you remember, there was a barrage of active shooter crimes seen domestically within the US as well as parts of Europe, with many of the apparent shooters already known to authorities.21WIRE dubbed 2015 The Year of the Daily Shooter, as string of unreal shooting events rippled across America, many of which took place over the summertime, bleeding over into the chill of fall.While the public was still trying to comprehend the shocking and questionable Charlie Hebdo Attacks in early January of 2015, things began heating up in early May, when it was reported that two Islamic gunmen allegedly opened fire outside of a cartoon art exhibition and alleged free speech contest featuring provocative images of the Prophet Muhammad in Garland, Texas.While the incident was quickly labeled a terror attack, along with the vague and forensically undefined ISIS inspired tag for dramatic effect, reports stated that a pair of shooters, Elton Simpson (shadowed by a paid FBI informant) and Nadir Hamid Soofi, targeted a bizarre Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest that was organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by anti-Islamic Israeli lobbyist, Pamela Geller.It was a staged event that clearly echoed the Charlie Hebdo story line, with the usual trial by social media tweets suggesting guilt before all evidence was in.Within a short period of time following the suspicious events in Garland, it was revealed that Simpson, one of the alleged suspects in the Garland shooting, had been under the watchful eye of the FBI for nearly a decade and was in close contact with an undercover informant during that time, similarly outlining the intelligence-linked Kouachi Brothers who were implicated in the Charlie Hebdo incident.And just as the dust was settling after high profile shootings in the spring, we learned there was even more Trouble in the Homeland with yet another alleged terror inspired individual named Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. As bizarre and conflicting reports emerged regarding a shooting on July 16th at a US Marine Corps strip mall recruitment center and a secure Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the focus of media coverage gave the false perception that people were shot within the mall area out in the open. However, only 48 hours later, it was revealed that victims of the shooting event were actually shot and killed inside of a secure Navy Reserve Training facility. By then the national media narrative had already been disseminated and set into the minds of the public.As we ve said before, whether it s the grafting of an overseas terror based story line or the concept of a rogue patriot-like lone wolf persona, we see a psychic assault on the masses, one that could potentially convince the public into giving up their civil liberties. CANDID CAMERA Omar Mateen s father s(Seddique Mateen) media presence and Congressional/CIA company has caused quite a stir concerning the background of the Orlando shooter. Seddique posted Facebook pictures from last year featuring political connections and Reps. Charles Rangel, Dana Rohrabacher, and Ed Royce. (Image Source: buzzfeed) Similarly, during the aftermath of 2014 s Canadian Parliament shooting, here at 21WIRE, we outlined many of the primary markers used in certain terror related events and mass shootings.The incident like other events such as the Boston Bombing, Sandy Hook and other bizarre attacks in recent years, have often distorted public opinion, pushing the populace towards new security measures in the wake of heavily coordinated and stylized events.(Left Image: therightscoop) The suspected Parliament Hill and National War Memorial shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, had the perfect modus operandi and r sum to be an informant for either a law enforcement or intelligence agency.Historically, government operators have often made use of low-life criminals, and mentally disturbed individuals as part of a larger agenda domestically and abroad: According to the Globe and Mail, Zehaf-Bibeau was already designated as a high risk traveller by the Canadian government s security services who had also seized his passport. Could this be the reason why the shooter had snapped? Was he being targeted or being pressured into becoming an informant? Much was made of Zehaf-Bibeau s recent conversion to Islam, especially from the reactionary neoconservative tribe on Fox News, while those on the left called for tighter gun restrictions.We should make note of the formulaic scripting often seen following these kinds of events: Alleged connections to terror or terror networks, as with security links Suspect recently radicalized views on religion. Sensational media projections bring in additional storylines for dramatic effect. An unknown motive for the crime said to be committed followed quickly by a presumed motive without evidence. Politicians, law enforcement and media call the incident a terror attack before all evidence is reviewed.Time and time again, we ve seen this same choreographed narrative pushed by mass media and authorities only to be exposed at a later date.Readers should refer to the informant game we outlined in 2014 here at 21WIRE, which provided historical context about the FBI s confidential informant past, as it relates to the Orlando shooting: Human Rights Watch explains, The 214-page report, Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions, examines 27 federal terrorism cases from initiation of the investigations to sentencing and post-conviction conditions of confinement. It documents the significant human cost of certain counter-terrorism practices, such as overly aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement. The list of terror informants and puppets is as long as it is colorful, starting with the infamous Underwear Bomber , who was allowed to travel to the US without a passport and was accompanied by an intelligence agent on his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.Who can forget the FBI s ill-fated 1993 World Trade Center bombing attempt, where FBI handlers trained the driver and gave them explosives and worst of all stood by and watched as their sting subjects went ahead and detonated their concoction underneath the world s tallest building in New York City. Incidentally, after the 1993 attack, the FBI was said to have tried to lure Emad A. Salem, (played role in 1993 WTC bombing) a former Egyptian army officer who was a prized undercover operative back into a role as a confidential informant, with agents suggesting he should go into the Witness Protection Program. (Graphic: UK Column)Other recent FBI terror stooge/informant nightmares include:Tamerlan Tsarnaev (see his informant story here) Buford Rogers (see his informant story here) Jerad Miller (see his informant story here) Naji Mansour (see his informant story here) Quazi Mohammad Nafis (see his informant story here) Mohamed Osman Mohamud (see his informant story here) Timothy McVeigh (see his informant story here) Elton Simpson (see his informant story here)But how does this relate to the Orlando club shooting?Drills & Informants Shortly after the Pulse shooting attack it was revealed that Mateen had been attending services at a Mosque, meeting with a known FBI informant named Marcus Dwayne Robertson (image, left who also played role in 1993 WTC bombing), a former US Marine turned bank robber turned radical imam. Here s this passage from Fox News describing Robertson s role: It is no coincidence that this happened in Orlando, said a law enforcement source familiar with Robertson s history of recruiting terrorists and inciting violence. Mateen was enrolled in [Robertson s online] Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary.Robertson and several associates were rounded up for questioning early Sunday, according to law enforcement sources, a development his attorney refused to confirm or deny. Another intriguing part of the Orlando shooter case was the fact that Orlando s Orange County had been running a number of mass casualty drills in recent years.For those unfamiliar, these Emergency response drills often take place prior to a real-life active-shooter scenario. The Orlando Sentinel reported in October 2nd, 2015, one day after the Oregon shooting, which also saw drills prior to the campus shooting at Umpqua Community College: During the Emergency Nurses Association s annual meeting on Friday, a mock shooter blew himself up, killing and injuring 100 local volunteer actors.There was blood, screams and moans, wounds and dead people all fake to create a realistic training environment for more than 40 nurses who had signed up for the exercise.They quickly began tending to patients, assessing the extent of their injuries.The nurses association had worked with several Orlando-based companies for nearly a year to set up the drill on at the Orange County Convention Center, which by coincidence took place a day after the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, where 10 people died and seven were wounded. Branding Crisis(Left side) HASHTAG FRENZY Another huge hashtag campaign in less than 24 hours after a major attack. (Image Scource: heavy)While the apparent Orlando shooting attack on the surface appears to be another tragedy in America, one should take note at the breakneck speed at which media marketing campaigns have been rolled out globally since the violent incident, including ready-made hashtag slogans as reported by CBS news: Immediately after reports of the incident surfaced online, alarmed social media users began posting concerns and condolences under the hashtags #PrayForOrlando, #PrayersForOrlando, and #PulseShooting. Within hours of the Orlando shooting, many celebrities took to twitter to politicize and polarize the event before all the evidence had been properly reviewed.Media Hoaxing, Crisis Actors & Other AnomaliesThere have been many methods used to shutdown critical thinking in the aftermath of a crisis, as media organizations, politicians and celebrities are often used to misdirect the public s attention to detail.In an article entitled, Where Have All the Crisis Actors Gone? , written by Dr. James Tracy, we see a clear connection between forms of social media and law enforcement when a coordinated an active-shooter event is about to go live. Here s an excerpt below: Yet there may be much more to the Visionbox Crisis Actors project reverberating through the flurry of alleged shooting incidents taking place since the early 2010s. For example, Visionbox is proficient in using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to broadcast a catastrophic event to both participant actors and the public at large. In addition, the theatric entourage/ is also knowledgeable at crowdsourcing, or monitoring how an event is relayed and interpreted through the body politic via Facebook, Twitter, and so on. In December 2012 Visionbox Crisis Actors produced a detailed 73-page syllabus, Social Media in Emergency Management, an instructional class foregrounding the central role of social media to coordinate and convey a catastrophic event. The YouTube channel Stranger than Fiction News displays media interview with an eyewitness Janiel Gonzales, who stated that there was another person preventing people from leaving Pulse nighclub.Additionally, the YouTube video montages another interview with a professional actor and model named Luis Burbano admitting he was blocking an exit at the time of the shooting . Here s another YouTube video from End Times Headline News, which raises important questions concerning the crime scene The Politics of Mass Shootings Like other mass shooting events, there appears to be deliberate attempt to radically manipulate public opinion following each major incident, the Orlando shooting is no exception. We ve already seen the Orlando shooting attack send political rivals Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton into campaign overdrive.This type of subliminal propaganda has become a doorway for all hot button socio-political issues including gun control/reform and for those concerned over mental illness background checks and security.Once again, the media plays a crucial role not in informing and educating the public, or even investigating a crime, or questioning the state s methods and motives in any high-profile event.In 2015, The Washington Post published an article listing the apparent number of mass shootings in America. According to the Mass Shooting Tracker the definition of a mass-shooting event has been changed to include a larger number of shootings.However, perhaps the most glaring and obvious grandstanding seemed to occur in Obama s 2015 legacy interview, as he expressed his inability to change gun laws during the course of his presidency. Here is an excerpt from the BBC interview: You mentioned the issue of guns, that is an area where if you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I ve been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. FRAMING REALITY Mateen s wife, Noor Salman and their young child. Reports suggest that Disneyland may have also been a target. (Image Scource: foxnews)Family DesignsUntil recently in media, there was almost no discussion of Mateen s current wife Noor Salman In 2013 Omar Mateen married Noor Zahi Salman and they reportedly have a 3-year-old son together.According to public records, Noor Zahi Salman, age 30, has scrubbed her social media history: Omar Mateen lived in St. Lucie County, Florida, with his second wife, Noor Zahi Salman, but it is not clear if they were together or separated at the time of the shooting. Mateen sold his sister, Mariam Seddique, the house in April 16 for $10 (Quit Claim Deed). The Telegraph stated that, Salman lived in a suburb of Chicago before moving to Fort Pierce with Mateen in November 2012. In December 2015 she is believed to have left Florida and moved in with relatives in Rodeo, California. She has not spoken publicly and has scrubbed her social media accounts since the attack. Early indications suggest the Orlando shooter s back story could shape up like the San Bernardino shooting, involving multiple arrests, with international backgrounds that could shine a light on other clandestine activities linking both terror and security.San Bernardino, along with staged-managed events like the sensational Garland Shooting in April 2015, and the highly engineered Paris Attacks (January & November of 2015) and many other shootings in year s past have conveniently opened the door for sweeping national security changes, while at the same time reigniting the old War on Terror meme, rebranded as the War on Radical Islam , for new audiences to be politically seduced by from western media and politicians alike. IDENTITY CRISIS Mateen frequented gay night clubs according to those who knew him. (Image Source: abcnews)The UK s Telegraph reported the following: The man who murdered 49 people at a gay club in Orlando was a closet homosexual who used gay dating apps and frequented gay bars, according to friends and locals in the city.On Tuesday police were considering pressing charges against Omar Mateen s second wife, Nour Salman, 30, who told the FBI she went with him to scope out possible targets, and that she had tried to stop him from carrying out the attack. Wouldn t this drastically alter the main narrative of the alleged shooter s hate crime motive?Big Questions RemainAll too often we see the persona of any alleged killer being touted as hard evidence, despite the fact that even strong circumstantial evidence of any apparent crime would likely result in many hours of analysis, debate and procedural, potentially without a definitive conclusion, even if the evidence eventually reached a court room setting.Here s a recent report at 21WIRE, discussing Mateen s father s government ties and the rapidly failing Orlando shooting narrative: For the media, and every other political leader in the US, this was now classified as a hate crime , and so case closed. In other words, a simple story line with real traction was now baked firmly into this event about a homophobic, ISIS-inspired, crazed lone gunman who went postal in a Orlando gay nightclub, and coincidentally, on the eve of an international Gay Pride celebration day. Just 24 hours later, we learn from a report in the Orlando Sentinel that the alleged shooter Omar Mateen was in fact a frequent visitor for years at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. It was definitely him. He d come in for years, and people knew him, one customer said. Another Pulse customer, Kevin West, even stated on record that he had been talking with Mateen for up to one year on a gay-chat mobile app. So, based on this updated information, this could not have been a hate crime because Omar Mateen was most likely gay himself, albeit in the closet.Likewise, this change in the story would also nullify much of the identity politics rhetoric currently being spun around this incident like this statement released by Hillary Clinton within hours of the main event :REDUX: Media Spoils the Crime SceneIncredibly, we re told on Wednesday that, once again, the media has ransacked another alleged shooter s home on live TV (also recall the Virginia live TV shooting). Just like the scripted aftermath of San Bernardino this past December, any chance to recover any new forensic information is now lost, as the media taints another crime scene in a large-scale terror related investigation.During the San Bernardino media ransacking exercise, a scrum of reporters tore through the alleged shooters apartment. In Orlando, the affair was paired down to only one media crew at a time. Here is MSNBC-UNIVSION reporter pretending to discover the ID of the shooter and family:MEDIA ALLOWED INSIDE TERRORIST HOUSEAttempts to dilute this obvious media operation were aired by networks like CBS, who ran the headline: Possible Burglary at Orlando Shooter s Home : The Orlando shooting attack appears like many other phantom shooting events, with a hybrid of real implications and unreal aspects, uncanny twists and turns linking Hollywood and security services, the FBI, near a backdrop of resorts, golf professionals, retirees and of course, Disneyland.Surreal is an understatement.Here s 21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen with Brian Gerrish and Alex Thompson discussing the nature of these security linked and terror events on the UK Column END OF PART ONEStay tuned for more Orlando shooting updates READ MORE ORLANDO SHOOTING NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Orlando FilesHelp support us by becoming a 21WIRE Member at: 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. energy head: Nuclear power rescue helps national security
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. energy secretary defended his plan to reward nuclear plants with incentives against criticism it would manipulate markets by telling a congressional hearing on Thursday that a strong domestic nuclear industry boosted national security. Rick Perry pushed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 29 to issue a rule within 60 days that would reward aging nuclear and coal-fired power plants that store 90 days of fuel on site. He has said those plants should be supported for their ability to boost the reliability of the U.S. power grid. Many U.S. representatives at the hearing, including Democrat Frank Pallone, said the plan favored aging industries, killed free markets and would saddle consumers with higher power bills. One lawmaker pointed to a study by ICF Consulting that said power bills could rise $800 million to $3.2 billion annually if FERC issued Perry’s plan. But Perry said the federal government had disregarded nuclear power for decades at a risk to national security. “If we lose our supply chain, if we lose our intellectual chain of supply of bright scientists because we basically pushed the nuclear industry back, then we’re going to lose our role as a leader when it comes to nuclear energy in the world,” Perry said. That in turn could hurt the country’s ability to address nuclear nonproliferation, Perry said. The United States has more nuclear power reactors than any other country. But Russia, China and other countries are rapidly building nuclear plants and some in the industry worry those countries could become the world’s top nuclear innovators. Perry’s plan has divided the energy industry, with coal and nuclear interests squaring off against natural gas drillers, solar and wind power, and consumer groups. It is unclear what FERC will decide on the plan. The agency, an independent arm of the Energy Department, declined a request to lengthen a comment period on Perry’s plan. Republican Representative Pete Olson suggested that Perry was more in favor of free energy markets when he was governor of Texas. But Perry said the notion that energy markets were free and without subsidies was a “fallacy.” Pallone said a study that Perry had directed Energy Department staff to conduct concluded the grid was already reliable and that most recent grid outages were caused by problems in energy transmission, not by power plants. Several coal plants were forced to shut by recent hurricanes because their mounds of coal supply were soaked by heavy rains. Perry said his plan was a directive for FERC, but he added that he initiated it to start a conversation about protecting people from outages during extreme storms.
| 1
|
Boiler Room EP #68 – 4 Non-Binary Blondes & Social Justice Triggly Convulsions
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki of Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com, Jamie Hanshaw (author of Weird Stuff: Hollywood Mind Control) Randy J, and hopefully Daniel Spaulding. Tonight the Boiler Gang is talking about Birlfriends and Bothfriends , Spore takes Red Hot Chilli Pepper s Flea to task for his SJW oriented remarks against Clint Eastwood, Daniel Spaulding brings a clip of former CIA Director, Michael Morell, saying that We need to Kill Russians and Iranians to a smug Charlie Rose, the absurdity of the main stream media and left wing establishment kettle calling pot black with regards to Trumps supposed connections to Russia and much more on this August 11th edition of Boiler Room.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links:
| 0
|
Exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the “Russia Hacking” hoax
Sunday Wire host Patrick Henningsen delivers another blow to the Resistance exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the Russia Hacking hoax and explains why Hillary Rodham Clinton might have very well been one of the worse presidential candidates in US history as well as why it s wrong for US federal government to brand RT America as a foreign agent. Enjoy the rant READ MORE RUSSIA-GATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russia-Gate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
'Get off of Twitter': As Trump nears Day 100, some stirrings of discontent
CLEARWATER, Fla. (Reuters) - Some of his supporters fret that President Donald Trump is backing himself into a corner with promises that can’t be kept. Others lament he is not pulling America from international conflicts as he vowed – or say he should “get off of Twitter.” Those grumbles are early warning signs for Trump as he marks his 100th day in office on Saturday. They were heard in Reuters interviews with Trump supporters in “swing” counties that went for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year – a slice of the electorate dominated by white voters that is crucial to the Republican’s re-election hopes and that Democrats want to win back. Reuters visited the same four places - Pinellas County in Florida, Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, Macomb County outside of Detroit, Michigan, and Gates County in rural North Carolina - right after the Nov. 8 election. What reporters found this time in more than two dozen interviews is that Trump voters are largely standing with their man but with signs of restlessness, mainly over foreign policy, concerns over getting legislation through Congress and some skepticism that he won’t be able to follow through with promises – from building a wall along the Mexican border to repealing Obama’s signature healthcare law. But rather than bash Trump, many largely blamed Democrats and Republicans alike, a fractured Congress, the federal judiciary, and what they see as a hostile news media. They showed a willingness to trust the president almost implicitly, saw him as a tireless worker, and appreciated his efforts to secure the border and curb immigration. They had little interest in the in-fighting between his senior aides in the White House. “Maybe sometimes I question what’s going on,” said Karen Mayer, 47, an attorney in Clearwater, a west coast Florida city in Pinellas County, where the majority of its 500,000 voters went for Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year. He prevailed over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton by slightly more than 1 percent of the vote there. “But at the same time, I have faith that he has a strong team,” Mayer said. In a statement touting Trump’s record in the first 100 days, the White House highlighted, among other things, his attempts to streamline government by proposing a lean budget, and his aggressiveness in foreign affairs, particularly with regard to challenging Russia and Iran. If Trump has reason to worry about his re-election prospects, it should be because of supporters like Brian McCann, 48, who owns a real estate firm in Northampton, Pennsylvania. “I think he’s finding out that he can’t follow through on all his talk,” he said. “Internationally, I think he’s creating more tensions than solutions.” That was the main reason that Holly Peseski, 46, a legal assistant in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, graded Trump’s tenure as a “B-minus” so far. “I don’t like the recent bombings he’s done,” Peseski said, referring to U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airfield and a huge bomb dropped on a militant hideout in Afghanistan. “He was a little too quick to act.” Peseski had another complaint about Trump: “I wish he’d get off of Twitter.” The counties Reuters visited reflect the rural, suburban and largely white coalition that carried Trump to the White House. Trump was able to flip these counties and dozens more like them powered by an enthusiastic voter base that included many people who had not cast ballots in years, as well as some Democrats who crossed over largely because of their dislike of Clinton. An analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows slippage in Trump's approval ratings, with lower enthusiasm among white men without a college degree, the core of his political base. In comparing Trump’s approval rating in the first 20 days of his tenure to a 20-day period in April, Reuters also found a rise in disapproval among independents, college-educated adults, people with below-average incomes, white women and white Millennials. Those women voters were important to Trump’s victory. He beat Clinton 53 percent to 43 percent among white women, who comprise 37 percent of the electorate. In Pinellas County, for instance, white women are by far the largest demographic among its more than 275,000 registered voters. Trump beat Clinton there by a little more than 5,000 votes. David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who lost his Pinellas-based seat in November in part, he said, because of his criticism of Trump, has seen few signs that the president’s support is fading, but at the same time, “he’s not picking up new supporters.” Trump’s overall approval rating in Reuters/Ipsos polling has declined steadily over the past two weeks and is now at its lowest level since he took office, with 40 percent of Americans now approving of his performance in office. Some voters interviewed in the swing counties identified the struggling effort to replace Obama’s healthcare law as an early worry about Trump. Walter Watson, 62, a retired art teacher in Gatesville, a town of about 320 people in rural Gates County, North Carolina, said he did not like the way Trump and Republicans tried to rush through a new healthcare plan without giving it what he thought was proper consideration. “You got to be careful, because this is a life and death issue for a lot of people,” Watson said. His sparsely populated county backed Obama with 52 percent of the vote in 2012, but Trump won it with 53 percent in 2016. Congress is the biggest hindrance to Trump’s success, many of those interviewed said. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to do even half of what he claimed,” said Bob White, 71, a retired finance worker in Clinton Township in Michigan. “I don’t think Congress is going to go along with him.” But even as they express skepticism that Trump can achieve all of his campaign promises, his supporters are sticking with him for now. “I think he’s trying,” said Watson. “But he probably overstated what he could do, because even a president has limits.”
| 1
|
Trump presses China on North Korea ahead of Xi talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump held out the possibility on Sunday of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation against North Korea and suggested Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs on its own if need be. The comments, in an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, appeared designed to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week. “China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to an edited transcript published by the newspaper. Asked what incentive the United States had to offer China, Trump replied: “Trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.” Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” in which China pressured Pyongyang in return for a guarantee the United States would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula, the newspaper quoted Trump as saying: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.” It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across their border. It is also unclear what the United States might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads. Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs that includes economic and military measures but leans more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor, a U.S. official said. Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritizes less-risky steps and “de-emphasizes direct military action,” the official added, saying it was not immediately known if the National Security Council recommendations had made their way to Trump. The White House declined comment on the recommendations. Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, when they meet on Thursday and Friday. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Sunday with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi’s visit “and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday about the call that Yang had described the meeting between Xi and Trump as being of “great significance” for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. Tillerson told Yang that the United States would do its utmost to ensure that the meeting had “positive results,” the ministry said. Trump’s deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, said there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s four-year term, the Financial Times reported. McFarland’s estimate appeared more pessimistic than those of many experts. “The typical estimates are that it will take five years or so,” said Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and a leading expert on North Korea’s nuclear program. Such estimates are notoriously hard to make both because of the scarcity of intelligence about North Korea and uncertainty about how high a success rate Pyongyang might want for such missiles. John Schilling, a contributor to the “38 North” North Korea monitoring project, said Pyongyang might have missiles capable of limited strikes on the U.S. mainland by the end of Trump’s term, but “it will most likely be a bit later than that.” “I doubt that any missile they could put into service by the end of 2020 will be very reliable, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be - one or two successes out of six launches against the U.S. would be a political game-changer to say the least,” Schilling said.
| 1
|
Kerry’s Lunacy: ‘US Would Be Justified Shooting Down Unarmed Russian Jets’
21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported yesterday, imperial bureaucrats in Washington and their court scribes in the mainstream media propaganda industry continue the charade of the Roman mindset, believing that the US has eminent domain over the entire planet and all must kneel in the presence of old glory.It s statements like this that indicate how with each passing day, NATO is fast becoming a defunct organization.As he hopelessly clings to his outdated Cold War script, Bonesman and US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to be completely detached from reality Jason Ditz Antiwar.comUS officials are still on about yesterday s incident, in which a pair of unarmed Russian jets flew within 30 feet of a US destroyer in the Baltic Sea, something US officials described as a simulated attack that proved Russia s unprofessional nature.Today, Secretary of State John Kerry declared the flights provocative and insisted the USS Donald Cook would ve been well within its rights to shoot down the planes under the rules of engagement they are placed under.Which is a stunning claim, since the USS Donald Cook is deployed in the peaceful Baltic, off the coast of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and the US and Russia are not at war. That they have rules of engagement allowing them to unilaterally attack Russian aircraft at all seems unwise.Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov says he is baffled by the US reaction, saying the Russian jets were operating well within their safety guidelines, and that the US freedom of navigation near a Russian naval base does not at all cancel the principle of freedom of flight for Russian aircraft. READ MORE NATO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NATO Files
| 0
|
Trump warns Democrats Obamacare will die without cash infusion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Democrats on Sunday that Obamacare was in trouble and would die without government funding, apparently referring to the possibility of ending federal subsidies to help lower-income people buy health insurance. “Obamacare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going - otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought,” Trump said in a Twitter post. Republicans want to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act but have not agreed on a replacement.
| 1
|
FLASHBACK: ‘The Syrian War: What You’re Not Being Told’ (About Chemical Weapons)
21st Century Wire says Back in August 2013, United Nations investigators led by Carla Del Ponte found evidence that alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian military were actually staged by US, Saudi and Qatari-backed jihadist rebels. By definition, this was a false flag attack. Regardless of the facts, western media and political leaders still decided to blame Damascus for the incident. The object of this game was simple: to engineer a virtual violation of Obama s famous Red Line, providing the legal pretext, however spurious, for the use of Western military force against the nation state of Syria under the guise of the great 21st century western military intervention tactic known as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This video was uploaded by Storm Clouds Gathering on Sept 3, 2013, and it demonstrated how when the entire mainstream media is going one way pushing a fraudulent event for the purposes of generating a new war alternative media outlets were reporting the truth. History is on the side of alternative media, not for the likes of CNN, ABC, NBC, BBC and Al Jazeera. That was the week when everyone in the west thought that the US-led military action against Syria was a fait accompli. Thanks to a brief wave of sanity which swept through the British Parliament, the US could not proceed forward without appearing Hilteresque themselves. Despite all the hype and all the mainstream media fake news, Washington and London s official conspiracy theory was that Assad crossed a red line by using sarin gas against his own people. Here is a timely analysis, one with a wider geopolitical scope, delivered by Aaron Hawkins founder of Storm Clouds Gathering. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. loan to Puerto Rico a start, but more aid to come: official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government is working on a long-term plan to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria tore up the island territory’s power grid and other infrastructure three weeks ago, an administration official said on Wednesday. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Thursday on a disaster relief bill that includes a $4.9 billion loan for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of a $36.5 billion package to help Americans recover from hurricanes and wildfires. But the loan is intended to be a short-term measure to help the cash-strapped island territory pay urgent bills, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The Community Disaster Loan cannot and does not address the recovery, rebuilding and future of Puerto Rico, which the administration intends to address with a more long-term solution in concert with the Puerto Rican government, oversight board, court and Congress,” the official said. The broader package set for the House vote includes $576.6 million for wildfire efforts, $16 billion for the National Flood Insurance program and a provision enabling low-income Puerto Ricans to receive emergency nutrition assistance. House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to travel to Puerto Rico on Friday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to see the hurricane damage, a spokesman said. The White House last week asked government agencies to begin estimating how much money is needed to help hurricane-hit states and territories recover and rebuild. Puerto Rico, home to 3.4 million American citizens, is in a particular bind, already grappling with nearly $72 billion in debt before Hurricane Maria - the worst storm in almost a century - hit its shores. Estimates of the cost to its economy range as high as $95 billion. Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello has asked for $4.6 billion as a “down payment on hurricane recovery efforts,” including $3.2 billion in block grants. The oversight board charged with resolving Puerto Rico’s debt crisis told the U.S. Treasury Department that the island’s government would run out of money at the end of the month without help. The loan is earmarked for payroll and pensions, but cannot be used for debt service.
| 1
|
Lake Oroville Dam Spillway Damage Results in Evacuation Orders to 188,000 People
21st Century Wire says The Oroville dam in Northern California has sustained sink hole damage in the main spillway and over 188,000 residents of the local area have been told to evacuate. Helicopters are dropping rocks into areas of erosion to try to prevent ground from eroding further downstream of the primary and the never before used secondary, passive spillways at the dam.ABC10 noted late last week that the amount of water in the Oroville dam is challenging the design of the dam (due to the sink hole having formed in the spillway which required the outflow to be slowed) with 185,000 cubic feet of water per second are coming into the dam and only 41,000 going out.There is a passive spillway that has now been forced into use as the water levels rise and more rain is expected later this week, but its unknown what the down stream effects will be as this auxiliary spillway has never been used before. It has the potential of causing a lot of damage spilling downstream into the Feather River and towards residential areas. Reports indicate they have increased the outgoing water from the main spillway to lessen the potential damage of the use of the passive spillway.Join ABC10 below for live updates and ongoing reports on this developing situation at the Oroville Dam ABC 10At least 188,000 people living downstream of California s Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.Evacuation orders still in place. We will work to keep updating everyone. Be safe. https://t.co/xjYGk6B8VF Yuba County (@YubaCounty) February 13, 2017Crews are hard at work reinforcing the integrity of the levee adjacent to Tyler Island. Stay tuned to our social media for continued updates pic.twitter.com/6UIgIbCjWm SacramentoOES (@SacramentoOES) February 13, 2017The Paradise Alliance Church is not longer accepting new evacuees. If seeking shelter visit https://t.co/zmTLivT9tA for updated list. Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Butte County offices in the Oroville area will remain CLOSED tomorrow due to the #OrovilleSpillway evacuations. @ButteSheriff @CA_DWR Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Continue this developing story with live updates at ABC10READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
White House intruder was on grounds for 16 minutes before arrest: Secret Service
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man who jumped over the White House fence last week was on the grounds for 16 minutes before he was apprehended, the U.S. Secret Service said in a statement on Friday. “The Secret Service can confirm that at no time did the individual gain entry into the White House,” the statement said.
| 1
|
BOILER ROOM – EP #45 – Horror Hotel, Trump Gatecrash & Cynical Ploys
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis & ACR contributor Randy J and Boiler Room Presidential Candidate select: Stewart Howe. In this broadcast listeners will be hearing us go around the BOILER ROOM on a veritable feast of topics including Donald Trump steamrolling the GOP and gatecrashing Glenn Beck s Cruz Caucus event, some esoteric analysis with Jay Dyer in the realms of serial killers, Dune and more, the Clinton Epstein connections and the usual conversational holes the Boiler crew somehow seems to dig themselves in and out of. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE!
| 0
|
‘Journalistic Malpractice’: CNN Slammed for ‘Biased’ Coverage in Favour of Hillary
21st Century Wire says This definitely needed to be said.Host of popular internet news shows The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, has slammed the mainstream media for journalistic malpractice after they fraudulently announced that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee prior to the result of the California primary.Here at 21WIRE, we informed our readers last week that such big politik dirty tricks would be played.Uygur appeared on CNN saying: Brian, you guys, and I mean all of the establishment press, totally tilted the playing field here from day one by counting those superdelegates, Superdelegates do switch their votes all the time, they switched it in 2008. Hillary Clinton had a 100-superdelegate lead which completely vanished in 2008, But if you count them in the official tally, when you know they can, and often do switch their votes, and have not voted yet, that is simply incorrect, that s not journalism. From day one, which was absolutely incorrect, it was in fact journalistic malpractice which indicates an establishment bias. Watch the full interview here: EVERYTHING ON ELECTION 2016: 21st Century Wire Election Files
| 0
|
Why Not A Probe of ‘Israel-Gate’
21st Century Wire says Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s.As the mainstream media in the United States continues to double down on Russia-Gate , Parry begs the question, why not probe an Israel-Gate.Robert Parry is a past guest of Patrick Henningsen Live on 1100KFNX and Alternate Current Radio and his last interview can be found hereMore on this article from Consortium News (Image by Brendan Smialowski AFP) Robert Parry Consortium NewsThe other day, I asked a longtime Democratic Party insider who is working on the Russia-gate investigation which country interfered more in U.S. politics, Russia or Israel. Without a moment s hesitation, he replied, Israel, of course. Which underscores my concern about the hysteria raging across Official Washington about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign: There is no proportionality applied to the question of foreign interference in U.S. politics. If there were, we would have a far more substantive investigation of Israel-gate.The problem is that if anyone mentions the truth about Israel s clout, the person is immediately smeared as anti-Semitic and targeted by Israel s extraordinarily sophisticated lobby and its many media/political allies for vilification and marginalization.So, the open secret of Israeli influence is studiously ignored, even as presidential candidates prostrate themselves before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both appeared before AIPAC in 2016, with Clinton promising to take the U.S.-Israeli relationship to the next level whatever that meant and Trump vowing not to pander and then pandering like crazy.Congress is no different. It has given Israel s controversial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a record-tying three invitations to address joint sessions of Congress (matching the number of times British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared). We then witnessed the Republicans and Democrats competing to see how often their members could bounce up and down and who could cheer Netanyahu the loudest, even when the Israeli prime minister was instructing the Congress to follow his position on Iran rather than President Obama s.Israeli officials and AIPAC also coordinate their strategies to maximize political influence, which is derived in large part by who gets the lobby s largesse and who doesn t. On the rare occasion when members of Congress step out of line and take a stand that offends Israeli leaders they can expect a well-funded opponent in their next race, a tactic that dates back decades.Well-respected members, such as Rep. Paul Findley and Sen. Charles Percy (both Republicans from Illinois), were early victims of the Israeli lobby s wrath when they opened channels of communication with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the cause of seeking peace. Findley was targeted and defeated in 1982; Percy in 1984.Findley recounted his experience in a 1985 book, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel s Lobby, in which Findley called the lobby the 700-pound gorilla in Washington. The book was harshly criticized in a New York Times review by Adam Clymer, who called it an angry, one-sided book that seems often to be little more than a stringing together of stray incidents. Enforced SilenceSince then, there have been fewer and fewer members of Congress or other American politicians who have dared to speak out, judging that when it comes to the Israeli lobby discretion is the better part of valor. Today, many U.S. pols grovel before the Israeli government seeking a sign of favor from Prime Minister Netanyahu, almost like Medieval kings courting the blessings of the Pope at the Vatican.During the 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama, whom Netanyahu viewed with suspicion, traveled to Israel to demonstrate sympathy for Israelis within rocket-range of Gaza while steering clear of showing much empathy for the Palestinians.In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney tried to exploit the tense Obama-Netanyahu relationship by stopping in Israel to win a tacit endorsement from Netanyahu. The 2016 campaign was no exception with both Clinton and Trump stressing their love of Israel in their appearances before AIPAC.Money, of course, has become the lifeblood of American politics and American supporters of Israel have been particularly strategic in how they have exploited that reality.One of Israel s most devoted advocates, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has poured millions of dollars in dark money into political candidates and groups that support Israel s interests. Adelson, who has advocated dropping a nuclear bomb inside Iran to coerce its government, is a Trump favorite having donated a record $5 million to Trump s inaugural celebration.Of course, many Israel-connected political donations are much smaller but no less influential. A quarter century ago, I was told how an aide to a Democratic foreign policy chairman, who faced a surprisingly tough race after redistricting, turned to the head of AIPAC for help and, almost overnight, donations were pouring in from all over the country. The chairman was most thankful.The October Surprise MysteryIsrael s involvement in U.S. politics also can be covert. For instance, the evidence is now overwhelming that the Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister Menachem Begin played a key role in helping Ronald Reagan s campaign in 1980 strike a deal with Iran to frustrate President Jimmy Carter s efforts to free 52 American hostages before Election Day.Begin despised Carter for the Camp David Accords that forced Israel to give back the Sinai to Egypt. Begin also believed that Carter was too sympathetic to the Palestinians and if he won a second term would conspire with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to impose a two-state solution on Israel.Begin s contempt for Carter was not even a secret. In a 1991 book, The Last Option, senior Israeli intelligence and foreign policy official David Kimche explained Begin s motive for dreading Carter s re-election. Kimche said Israeli officials had gotten wind of collusion between Carter and Sadat to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Kimche continued, This plan prepared behind Israel s back and without her knowledge must rank as a unique attempt in United States s diplomatic history of short-changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation. But Begin recognized that the scheme required Carter winning a second term in 1980 when, Kimche wrote, he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby. In a 1992 memoir, Profits of War, former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe also noted that Begin and other Likud leaders held Carter in contempt. Begin loathed Carter for the peace agreement forced upon him at Camp David, Ben-Menashe wrote. As Begin saw it, the agreement took away Sinai from Israel, did not create a comprehensive peace, and left the Palestinian issue hanging on Israel s back. So, in order to buy time for Israel to change the facts on the ground by moving Jewish settlers into the West Bank, Begin felt Carter s reelection had to be prevented. A different president also presumably would give Israel a freer hand to deal with problems on its northern border with Lebanon.Ben-Menashe was among a couple of dozen government officials and intelligence operatives who described how Reagan s campaign, mostly through future CIA Director William Casey and past CIA Director George H.W. Bush, struck a deal in 1980 with senior Iranians who got promises of arms via Israel in exchange for keeping the hostages through the election and thus humiliating Carter. (The hostages were finally released on Jan. 20, 1981, after Reagan was sworn in as President )Continue this article at Consortium NewsREAD MORE MIDDLE EAST NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire MIDDLE EAST FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Hollywood Suffers Meltdown Over Trump’s Withdraw from Paris Climate Deal
Hollywood is having kittens over US President Trump s recent snub of the Paris Climate Agreement. Especially upset are the elite cadre of multi-millionaire celebrities, along with various and sundry billionaires like Elon Musk, who still believe the earth is heating up because of anthropogenic global warming, aka man-made Co2. Already, the EU has rejected Donald Trump s offer to renegotiate the Paris Agreement, opting instead to bypass Washington DC by working with US CEOs, city mayors and state governors to implement the climate accords.What Hollywood, Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders and the rest, will not tell you is that the earth is already entering a global cooling phase which could lead to a mini ice age. Unlike trace warming over a 500 year period, a cooling phase can radical alter the viability of normal life in the Northern Hemisphere, including frosts that will lead to the failure of large parts of the agriculture sector which can lead to severe food shortages which can make food scarce and much more expensive.More on this report from Lifezette .Leonardo DiCaprio on his private yacht, incredibly worried about global warming.Todd Barnes LifezettePresident Trump s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord has sparked widespread hysteria in juice bars and luxury spas across Hollywood.As a candidate, Trump vowed to cancel the Paris climate deal slamming what he called draconian climate rules. The Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States, the president told a gathering Thursday in the Rose Garden.House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the president s decision and thanked him for withdrawing from this bad deal. The Paris climate agreement was simply a raw deal for America, Ryan said. Signed by President Obama without Senate ratification, it would have driven up the cost of energy, hitting middle-class and low-income Americans the hardest. But some of Hollywood s most esteemed scientists fear the president s decision will put the nation on a slippery slope to the hothouse an apocalyptic future with melting igloos and polar bears unable to put their Coca-Colas on ice. If this is true he will have the death of whole nations on his hands, warned scientist-actor Mark Ruffalo. People will be looking to the USA for retribution for what they loose [sic]. I wonder which nation will be the first to spontaneously combust Iceland? Liechtenstein? Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad took a break from playing make-believe to ponder our fate. Our children & our grandchildren have all just been handed a dark future because of a man who tweets at 3:00 AM & doesn t trust science, Gad tweeted.Cher, who apparently has some sort of graduate level degree in climatology, posted a bizarre rant, suggesting the nation has been held hostage by Insane DICTATOR. Don Cheadle, known for his esteemed role as a Juicy Burger s employee in the 1985 film Moving Violations, decided to bring Trump s little boy into the debate. Today, our planet suffered, declared Leo DeCaprio on Twitter. If you care about your kids maybe reconsider your #ParisAgreement decision. Barron will thank you when he sees you, whenever that is, Cheadle tweeted.Leonardo DeCaprio, who became a famous Hollywood star because of an iceberg, was devastated by the news. Today, our planet suffered, he declared on Twitter.Do you feel his pain, America? I suspect he will evacuate to some far-flung, exotic island in a private jet to mend his wounded psyche Continue this story at LifezetteREAD MORE CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Climate Change FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
House clears way for debate on Trump-backed healthcare bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday cleared the way for a contentious debate on legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a more limited federal healthcare insurance program. By a vote of 230-194, the House approved rules for debating the Republican legislation that Democrats oppose. It was not yet clear whether House Speaker Paul Ryan has enough Republican support to pass the bill that has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
| 1
|
Moscow in talks with U.S. to create cyber working group: RIA report
MOSCOW/LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are in talks to create a joint cyber security working group, Russia’s RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cyber security. “The talks are underway ... different proposals are being exchanged, nobody denies the necessity of holding the talks and of having such contacts,” Krutskikh said, according to RIA. Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official who was at the recent G20 summit of global leaders in Hamburg, said earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to discuss cyber security questions, either via the United Nations or as part of a working group. However, U.S. and European intelligence and security officials told Reuters on Thursday they were not participating in the talks, which they said were confined to mid-level political officials. One of the officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said cooperation on cyber security was a “pipe dream” while Russia continues to deny that it hacked last year’s U.S. presidential election, as three U.S. intelligence agencies concluded publicly in January. On an Air Force One flight home from Europe last weekend, Thomas Bossert, Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, told reporters it would be premature to suggest the United States would be talking to Russia about a possible cyber security “partnership.” “A partnership suggests that you’ve reached a place where you believe that you have a trusted relationship and you’ve come to some common agreement on ideals and goals and behaviors,” he said. “I don’t believe that the United States and Russia have come to that point yet in cyberspace,” Bossert said. “And until we do, we wouldn’t have the conversation about partnership. But we had to have a dialogue, and that’s where we’ll start.” Trump said earlier this month he had discussed the idea of creating such a group with Putin at the Hamburg summit. Senior U.S. Republicans greeted the idea with incredulity, saying Moscow could not be trusted, and Trump later appeared to back away, saying in a post on Twitter: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t.” Widespread concern and confusion about the possible cyber working group reflects the Trump administration’s struggles to articulate a clear approach to international cyber security issues amid inconsistent statements by the president and ongoing personnel changes. Chris Painter, a widely respected bureaucrat who led the U.S State Department’s international engagement on cyber security, is leaving his post at the end of the month amid media reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to shutter Painter’s entire office. Painter is scheduled to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee next week about cyber diplomacy. White House cyber coordinator Rob Joyce told reporters on Wednesday that no final decision had been made about Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, but said the State Department would continue to play a prominent role in developing cyber norms and brokering international agreements. “I am confident that Secretary Tillerson is not going to impair cyber security,” Joyce said.
| 1
|
U.S. State Dept. Spox: ‘Everybody wants Assad out five years ago’
21st Century Wire says At Tuesday s U.S. State Department briefing, spokesperson Heather Nauert, once again, displayed her servitude to Washington s geopolitical agenda in Syria.Watch as Nauert, in an overly assuming and flippant style, proclaims how everybody in this room and in this building wants Assad out five years ago in her exchange with NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. The sheer audacity begins at the 39 minute mark. This is all just more scripted servitude from U.S. State Department talking heads on the topic of Syria as Washington s war plan there continues to crumble. READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SYRIA FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
(Don’t Hold The Press) Jeb Bush Endorses Ted Cruz For President
21st Century Wire says OK. As political endorsements go, this one is about as sexy as a box of Wheaties.This exciting development comes just hours after Cruz was declared the winner in Utah s GOP primary contest.Now if it was Barbara giving the honors, then we might be intrigued Of course, we should be so lucky Huff PostFormer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for president, Politico reported. Bush, who dropped out of the race last month, confirmed the endorsement on Wednesday in an email from the Cruz campaign. Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests, including yesterday s Utah caucus, Bush said on Facebook.The statement also went out in an email to supporters from the Cruz campaign, the New York Times said. Jeeebbbbbbbb. For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama s failed policies, Bush said Continue this story at Huff PostREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
| 0
|
SYRIA, NORTH KOREA: Trump’s “Axis of Evil” is Bigger and Better than the George Bush Version
Whitney Webb Mint PressBush s Axis of Evil speech in 2002 was precursor to disastrous invasion and regime change. Now once again, under Trump, that narrative has re-emerged this time linking Syria with North Korea, based on allegations by unidentified parties regarding chemical weapons shipments.On Monday, Reuters published a widely circulated story based on a confidential United Nations report on North Korean sanctions violations. According to the report, which is not available to the general public, two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country s chemical weapons program had been intercepted.The report, according to Reuters, was authored by a panel of independent UN experts and investigates alleged dealings between a North Korean company and Syria s Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), a government agency that oversaw the nation s chemical weapons program before the internationally-recognized destruction of that program took place in 2013.Notably, the 37-page document at no point gives details on when or where the interdictions occurred or details regarding what the shipments actually contained.The report further states that its account of the incident s occurrence is dependent on the testimony of two unidentified member states, which interdicted shipments destined for Syria and had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria. KOMID is the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, a Pyongyang-based company the UN had previously cited in 2009, when the UN Security Council had it blacklisted for its role in supporting North Korea s ballistic missile program as a primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. North Korea is caught sending 'chemical weapons' to Syria amid concerns Kim Jong-Un and Assad are working together https://t.co/ectIj2JwN9 Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) August 22, 2017North Korea chemical weapons said intercepted en route to Syria https://t.co/wdjZOlgg8k via @timesofisrael #northkorea #syria Gregory Smith (@GsmittySmith) August 22, 2017With their identities concealed, there is no way of knowing if these member states are among the countries that have actively been pushing for the removal of Syria s democratically-elected president Bashar al-Assad since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. In addition, another member state a nation not involved in the seizure of the shipments had informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria. It appears that the statement made by this member state s representative was given, by this ostensibly independent panel, the same weight normally reserved for concrete evidence.It also remains unclear how the SSRC was determined to be the recipient of the intercepted shipments, as the report simply states that the consignees were Syrian entities designated by the European Union and the United States as front companies for the SSRC. With only Reuters permitted access to this confidential report, there is no way to know who or what these entities are, as Reuters left them unnamed in its article.Furthermore, the composition of the UN panel itself is also unknown. Though Reuters stated that the panel was composed of independent experts, Reuters has also previously claimed that organizations such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) were objective in the Syrian conflict, even though the sole person behind the group is rabidly anti-Assad, pro-Western intervention, and reporting on Syria from Britain. Shielding the names of these independent experts from the public does little to lend credibility to the findings of this UN report.The North Korea-Syria arms connection narrativeThe North Korea-Syria arms trade connection is not new. This narrative first emerged earlier this year in April, when the Syrian government stood accused of using chemical weapons against civilians in Idlib an event that was later roundly debunked by independent experts, including Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and former scientist with the U.S. Department of Defense, Theodore Postol.At the time, several U.S. publications, including USA Today and Defense One, backed up their claims of sinister cooperation between the Syrian and North Korean governments by citing Professor Bruce Bechtol of Angelo State University, Texas. Both outlets described Bechtol as a North Korea expert. But Bechtol s evidence cited in these reports such as when he asserts that I would be stunned, I would be surprised, if the nerve agent allegedly used by the Assad regime on April 4 in the Idlib province was not supplied by North Korea amounts to conjecture. Bechtol, who once worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and has long-standing links to the Pentagon, had previously authored a 2015 research paperon the North Korea and Syrian partnership, in which he drew heavily on the CIA for his sweeping assertions regarding the two nations alleged long history of collaboration in the production and development of chemical weapons.Bechtol s conclusions are undermined by data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) a recognized authority on the global weapons trade shows that Syria has ordered weapons from North Korea only three times since 1990, twice in 1990 and once in 1996. In other words, Syria according to SIPRI has not made any purchases from North Korea in over 20 years.Given that arms deals with North Korea s government were legal until 2006 and deals with KOMID were legal until 2009, if the partnership was really so longstanding and prolific, why were there so few transactions between them in the years prior? The established facts hardly fit the picture of a supposedly booming North Korea-Syria arms trade.Creating the new Axis of Evil Ultimately, the attempts to link North Korea to Syria s defunct chemical weapons program are meant to create a new axis of evil by associating one evil dictator with another. The axis of evil narrative, first coined by George W. Bush in 2002, has been central to the U.S. demonization of rogue governments that fail to submit to the U.S.-dominated global order, of which the United Nations is part. This narrative has often been followed by the evil dictator label, as it was with Iraq and Libya two of the countries comprising the original axis of evil. Under Trump, the axis of evil is having a resurgence, a development that even mainstream media outlets like CNN have noted. With Iraq and Libya having been dealt with, Syria has joined the list and a concerted effort is now being made to link the remaining evil dictators to each other. By connecting North Korea to Syria s thoroughly demonized (though non-existent) chemical weapons program, the U.S. is building the momentum and the justification for the preventative invasions of these rogue states it has long sought to achieve all the more determinedly now that its superpower status is being threatened as never before.***SEE MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Amerika: ‘Tolerant’ University Educators Exile Trump Voters from American Campuses
21st Century Wire says Since the late 1960 s, it s become accepted as a fact of political life that the faculty and administrations of America s universities have a heavily ingrained liberal bias, but to see them now actively working to cleanse their campuses of any pro-Trump and conservative voices demonstrates that their progressive values have progressed far beyond what used to be considered as liberal and into the realm of political fascism and Marxist-style identity politics. The liberal reaction to the US Election result not only marks a low ebb of American culture, but it also proves beyond any doubt that the US university system is failing to teach life s basics Last week s US Presidential Election result has accentuated this phenomenon, bringing many hardcore radical campus political ideologies out of their academic shells, and into the open, in all of their ugliness. Some university heads around the country have called for safe spaces on their campuses where traumatized Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders student supporters can go to retreat from any mention of Donald Trump, and to protect them from hearing any speech in support of President Elect Trump. Quite rightly, because of frequent incidents like this, many are now viewing American academia as one giant institutionalized brainwashing mill where political correctness is not only encouraged, it s also being legislated.RELATED: DePaul University Threatens to ARREST Conservative editor Ben Shapiro if He Stepped on CampusThis is the danger of a liberal America which appears to desire not only a single party state, but also a sanitized monoculture where speech and expression are heavily regulated and also self-policed by progressive mobs. This leftist culture of extreme intolerance to any opposing views where students will demand protection from the state and administrative bodies from even hearing any opposing opinions in public is heading dangerously close to Mao s Amerika Glenn Reynolds USA TodayOne of the more amusing bits of fallout from last week s election has been the safe-space response of many colleges and universities to the election of the wrong candidate. But on closer examination, this response isn t really amusing. In fact, it s downright mean.Donald Trump s substantial victory, when most progressives expected a Hillary Clinton landslide, came as a shock to many. That shock seems to have been multiplied in academia, where few people seem to know any Trump supporters or, at least, any Trump supporters who ll admit to it.The response to the shock has been to turn campuses into kindergarten. The University of Michigan Law School announced a post-election self-care event with food and play, including coloring sheets, play dough (sic), positive card-making, Legos and bubbles with your fellow law students. (Embarrassed by the attention, UM Law scrubbed the announcement from its website, perhaps concerned that people would wonder whether its graduates would require Legos and bubbles in the event of stressful litigation.) IN NEED OF SAFE SPACES : Hillary Clinton supporters struggling to cope with the reality of democracy (Image Source: Fellowship of the Minds)Stanford emailed its students and faculty that psychological counseling was available for those experiencing uncertainty, anger, anxiety and/or fear following the election. So did the University of Michigan s Flint campus.Meanwhile, even the Ivy League wasn t immune, with the University of Pennsylvania (Trump s alma mater) creating a post-election safe space with puppies and coloring books:Student Daniel Tancredi reported that the people who attended were fearful about the results of the election. For the most part, students just hung out and ate snacks and made small talk, Tancredi told The College Fix. Of course, that was in addition to coloring and playing with the animals. Yale had a group scream. At Tufts, the university offered arts and crafts, while the University of Kansas reminded students that there were plenty of therapy dogs available. At other schools, exams were canceled and professors expressed their sympathy to traumatized students.It s easy to mock this as juvenile silliness because, well, it is juvenile silliness of the sort documented in Frank Furedi s What s Happened To The University? But that s not all it is. It s also exactly what these schools purport to abhor: an effort to marginalize and silence part of the university community.In an email to students, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel wrote: Our responsibility is to remain committed to education, discovery and intellectual honesty and to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are at our best when we come together to engage respectfully across our ideological differences; to support all who feel marginalized, threatened or unwelcome; and to pursue knowledge and understanding. But when you treat an election in which the wrong candidate wins as a traumatic event on a par with the 9/11 attacks, calling for counseling and safe spaces, you re implicitly saying that everyone who supported that wrong candidate is, well, unsafe. Despite the talk about diversity and inclusion, this is really sending the signal that people who supported Trump and Trump is leading the state of Michigan, so there are probably quite a few on campus aren t really included in acceptable campus culture. It s not promoting diversity; it s enforcing uniformity. It s not promoting inclusion; it s practicing exclusion Continue this story at USA TodayREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
Sparse Probing Datasets
155 binary classification tasks for probing language model representations.
From: "Are Sparse Autoencoders Useful? A Case Study in Sparse Probing" (arXiv:2502.16681)
Source: EleutherAI/sae-probes
Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
# Load a specific dataset
ds = load_dataset("serteal/sparse-probing", "87_glue_cola")
# List available configurations
from datasets import get_dataset_config_names
configs = get_dataset_config_names("serteal/sparse-probing")
print(f"Available: {len(configs)} datasets")
Dataset Categories
| Category | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| knowledge | 53 | Historical figures, geography, wikidata |
| reasoning | 27 | Science, ethics, commonsense, temporal |
| science | 30 | Domain concepts, medical, biology |
| moderation | 15 | Toxicity, spam, fake news, hate speech |
| glue | 10 | GLUE benchmark tasks |
| sentiment | 8 | Emotion, reviews |
| other | 9 | IT tickets, sports |
| code | 3 | Programming language detection |
Available Datasets
Knowledge
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
2_hist_fig_birthyear |
Birth year of historical figures |
3_hist_fig_deathyear |
Death year of historical figures |
4_hist_fig_age |
Age of historical figures |
5_hist_fig_ismale |
Gender classification of historical figures |
6_hist_fig_isamerican |
American nationality of historical figures |
7_hist_fig_ispolitician |
Politician occupation of historical figures |
8_nyc_lat |
NYC latitude classification |
9_nyc_long |
NYC longitude classification |
10_nyc_borough |
NYC borough classification |
11_us_lat |
US latitude classification |
12_us_long |
US longitude classification |
13_us_state |
US state classification |
14_us_timezone |
US timezone classification |
15_us_population |
US population classification |
16_us_density |
US density classification |
17_world_country |
World country classification |
18_world_latitude |
World latitude classification |
19_world_longitude |
World longitude classification |
20_world_pageviews |
World entity pageviews classification |
21_headline_istrump |
Headlines mentioning Trump |
22_headline_isobama |
Headlines mentioning Obama |
23_headline_ischina |
Headlines mentioning China |
24_headline_isiran |
Headlines mentioning Iran |
25_headline_year |
Headline year classification |
26_headline_isfrontpage |
Front page headline classification |
27_art_type |
Art type classification (book/song/movie) |
28_art_year |
Art year classification |
29_art_pageviews |
Art pageviews classification |
30_book_length |
Book length classification |
56_wikidatasex_or_gender |
Wikidata gender classification |
57_wikidatais_alive |
Wikidata alive status |
58_wikidatapolitical_party |
Wikidata political party |
59_wikidata_occupation_isjournalist |
Wikidata journalist occupation |
60_wikidata_occupation_isathlete |
Wikidata athlete occupation |
61_wikidata_occupation_isactor |
Wikidata actor occupation |
62_wikidata_occupation_ispolitician |
Wikidata politician occupation |
63_wikidata_occupation_issinger |
Wikidata singer occupation |
64_wikidata_occupation_isresearcher |
Wikidata researcher occupation |
114_nyc_borough_Manhattan |
NYC Manhattan borough |
115_nyc_borough_Brooklyn |
NYC Brooklyn borough |
116_nyc_borough_Bronx |
NYC Bronx borough |
117_us_state_FL |
US Florida state |
118_us_state_CA |
US California state |
119_us_state_TX |
US Texas state |
120_us_timezone_Chicago |
US Chicago timezone |
121_us_timezone_New_York |
US New York timezone |
122_us_timezone_Los_Angeles |
US Los Angeles timezone |
123_world_country_United_Kingdom |
World United Kingdom |
124_world_country_United_States |
World United States |
125_world_country_Italy |
World Italy |
126_art_type_book |
Art type book classification |
127_art_type_song |
Art type song classification |
128_art_type_movie |
Art type movie classification |
Reasoning
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
36_sciq_tf |
Science questions true/false |
37_arith_mc |
Arithmetic multiple choice |
38_arith_difficulty |
Arithmetic difficulty classification |
39_arith_infix |
Arithmetic infix notation |
40_arith_rpn |
Arithmetic reverse polish notation |
41_truthqa_tf |
TruthfulQA true/false |
42_temp_sense |
Temporal sense classification |
43_temp_cat |
Temporal category classification |
44_phys_tf |
Physical reasoning true/false |
45_context_ans |
Contextual answer classification |
46_context_type |
Context type classification |
47_reasoning_tf |
Commonsense reasoning true/false |
48_cm_correct |
Common morality correctness |
49_cm_isshort |
Common morality statement brevity |
50_deon_isvalid |
Deontological validity classification |
51_just_is |
Justice classification |
52_virtue_is |
Virtue ethics classification |
54_cs_tf |
Commonsense true/false |
55_open_qa |
Open-domain QA classification |
86_social_iqa |
Social intelligence QA |
129_arith_mc_A |
Arithmetic multiple choice A |
130_temp_cat_Frequency |
Temporal category frequency |
131_temp_cat_Typical Time |
Temporal category typical time |
132_temp_cat_Event Ordering |
Temporal category event ordering |
133_context_type_Causality |
Context type causality |
134_context_type_Belief_states |
Context type belief states |
135_context_type_Event_duration |
Context type event duration |
Science
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
65_high-school |
High school concept recognition |
66_living-room |
Living room concept recognition |
67_social-security |
Social security concept recognition |
68_credit-card |
Credit card concept recognition |
69_blood-pressure |
Blood pressure concept recognition |
70_prime-factors |
Prime factors concept recognition |
71_social-media |
Social media concept recognition |
72_gene-expression |
Gene expression concept recognition |
73_control-group |
Control group concept recognition |
74_magnetic-field |
Magnetic field concept recognition |
75_cell-lines |
Cell lines concept recognition |
76_trial-court |
Trial court concept recognition |
77_second-derivative |
Second derivative concept recognition |
78_north-america |
North America concept recognition |
79_human-rights |
Human rights concept recognition |
80_side-effects |
Side effects concept recognition |
81_public-health |
Public health concept recognition |
82_federal-government |
Federal government concept recognition |
83_third-party |
Third party concept recognition |
84_clinical-trials |
Clinical trials concept recognition |
85_mental-health |
Mental health concept recognition |
98_cancer_cat |
Cancer category classification |
99_sci_cat |
Science category classification |
101_disease_class |
Disease classification |
142_cancer_cat_Thyroid_Cancer |
Thyroid cancer classification |
143_cancer_cat_Lung_Cancer |
Lung cancer classification |
144_cancer_cat_Colon_Cancer |
Colon cancer classification |
145_disease_class_digestive system diseases |
Digestive system diseases |
146_disease_class_cardiovascular diseases |
Cardiovascular diseases |
147_disease_class_nervous system diseases |
Nervous system diseases |
Moderation
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
94_ai_gen |
AI-generated text detection |
95_toxic_is |
Toxicity detection |
96_spam_is |
Spam detection |
97_news_class |
News category classification |
100_news_fake |
Fake news detection |
105_click_bait |
Clickbait detection |
106_hate_hate |
Hate speech detection |
107_hate_offensive |
Offensive language detection |
110_aimade_humangpt3 |
Human vs GPT-3 text detection |
139_news_class_Politics |
News politics classification |
140_news_class_Technology |
News technology classification |
141_news_class_Entertainment |
News entertainment classification |
161_agnews_0 |
AG News category 0 |
162_agnews_1 |
AG News category 1 |
163_agnews_2 |
AG News category 2 |
Glue
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
87_glue_cola |
GLUE CoLA linguistic acceptability |
88_glue_mnli |
GLUE MNLI natural language inference |
89_glue_mrpc |
GLUE MRPC paraphrase detection |
90_glue_qnli |
GLUE QNLI question answering NLI |
91_glue_qqp |
GLUE QQP Quora question pairs |
92_glue_sst2 |
GLUE SST2 sentiment analysis |
93_glue_stsb |
GLUE STSB semantic similarity |
136_glue_mnli_entailment |
GLUE MNLI entailment |
137_glue_mnli_neutral |
GLUE MNLI neutral |
138_glue_mnli_contradiction |
GLUE MNLI contradiction |
Sentiment
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
102_twt_emotion |
Tweet emotion classification |
111_yelp_data |
Yelp review sentiment |
112_amzn_rev |
Amazon review sentiment |
113_movie_sent |
Movie review sentiment |
148_twt_emotion_worry |
Tweet emotion worry |
149_twt_emotion_happiness |
Tweet emotion happiness |
150_twt_emotion_sadness |
Tweet emotion sadness |
157_amazon_5star |
Amazon 5-star rating classification |
Other
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
103_it_tick |
IT ticket classification |
108_athlete_sport |
Athlete sport classification |
109_ball_ws |
Basketball win shares classification |
151_it_tick_HR Support |
IT ticket HR support |
152_it_tick_Hardware |
IT ticket hardware |
153_it_tick_Administrative rights |
IT ticket administrative rights |
154_athlete_sport_football |
Athlete football classification |
155_athlete_sport_basketball |
Athlete basketball classification |
156_athlete_sport_baseball |
Athlete baseball classification |
Code
| Config Name | Description |
|---|---|
158_code_C |
C code detection |
159_code_Python |
Python code detection |
160_code_HTML |
HTML code detection |
Schema
Each dataset contains:
prompt(string): The input textlabel(int): Binary label (0 or 1)
Citation
@article{makelov2025sparse,
title={Are Sparse Autoencoders Useful? A Case Study in Sparse Probing},
author={Makelov, Aleksandar and others},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.16681},
year={2025}
}
License
Apache 2.0
- Downloads last month
- 26
Size of downloaded dataset files:
190 MB
Size of the auto-converted Parquet files:
190 MB
Number of rows:
523,867