Craig Peterson Jr.'s Blog, page 5

Biden’s Economic Terrorism Against Russians and Profit for Raytheon

As Russia has captured the city of Kherson, bombarded Kharkiv, dropped cluster bombs in residential areas (according to Amnesty International), terrified the innocent population of Ukraine, and participated in operations that have resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties (200 to 2,000 deaths and at least 500 wounded); most of the world has stood in unity with the Ukrainian people and begun policies of economic terrorism against the Russians. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is appalling and should be condemned, as should the American invasion of Iraq and other countries, the economic sanctions imposed on Russia will likely not deter the aggressive move, with harsh conditions being created for the average person. Historically, sanctions have failed to curb the intended action, but will this time be different? Either way, the defense contractors will be swimming in dollar bills, y’all.

President Joe Biden’s executive orders (outside of the legislative process) targeting elites and oligarchs and major financial institutions in Russia, as well as its overall banking and economic system, are a tit-for-tat act of war that may end up dragging the United States directly into the fray. By cutting off seven Russian banks’ ability to access the “global messaging system that enables bank transactions” through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), the United States and the European Union (EU) have the ability to slow international transactions from institutions that are connected to the Kremlin (other methods can be utilized, including China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, but they are much less efficient). The SWIFT actions did not include the “nuclear” option of prohibiting Russia completely from the system, and for fear that European oil would be interrupted and debts would not be paid, the EU decided to refrain from the removal of Russian banks dealing in oil transactions (why not act on your aggressive principles of isolating Russia, instead of taking the cowardly course of action?). As the Russian invasion continues, you can bet that further punitive measures will be taken.

Putin’s actions in Ukraine will likely not be deterred, and yet, the Russian people will suffer. Perhaps this is the goal, and it is not out of the realm of possibility for the United States to want to make life dismal in Russia so that the people oust Putin from Moscow. This would be a tall order, being that Putin is a powerful and self-interested authoritarian, bent on remaining the president of Russia for as long as possible. The Russian leader has enough wealth to resist pressure, and therefore, any attempt by the West to wage economic warfare against Putin will negatively impact the people of Russia without affecting him. The United States has a long history of economic terrorism utilized in order to make life so miserable for the average joe that they will cooperate with the American interests of regime change. In this case, the idea might be less about overthrowing the current Kremlin’s make up and more about forcing an end to the hostilities, but either way, the cost is human life.

As a result of the sanctions, many Russians are rushing to the banks in order to withdraw what they can in foreign currency, as the ruble’s value sharply declines. People are struggling to pay their bills and for necessary supplies because the decreased value has increased costs (including for medical supplies); and Apple Pay, Google Pay, Mastercard, and Visa have been discontinued in Russia (Russians have been delayed in or unable to access metro stations in Moscow because payment services are no longer available), making life even more difficult. No doubt Russians will suffer greatly in the coming days, and international calls for boycotts against Russian products will isolate the people further. Even within the United States, universities have begun terminating contracts with Russia, which will result in students being required to withdraw from classes and faculty to be fired. Ideas to expel Russian citizens studying in the United States from the country have been floated, but let us hope this one stays off the books. We should also hope that Biden does not follow the precedent set by Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) and his unconstitutional and inhuman executive order to detain Japanese Americans.

The other unfortunate part of all of this is the blood-for-profit concept that is a result of the military-industrial complex. Raytheon (at which Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was on the board of directors), Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Boeing are anticipating record profits (even bragging about it), and the companies have been attempting to persuade Washington, D.C. to get more involved in Ukraine for months. Defense contractors in the United States pay roughly 700 lobbyists annually to convince the federal government to intervene in foreign countries. This sick and twisted game of government-corporate fascism, which plays chess with people’s lives, means that Austin’s former firm gets to laugh its way to the bank, while Ukrainians die. The federal government will continue to manufacture weapons and technology to support Ukraine (it already has for years) and prepare the United States for a possible upcoming war, but the Pentagon also wants these companies to develop hypersonic weapons to advance to the capability of Russia and China (you know, in preparation of a world war).

As the world calls for the “freedom fries” tactic against Russia and bans against athletes in international sporting competitions (those having no say in politics but get punished nonetheless), let us consider that economic sanctions could have lasting effects on even Americans’ cost of living, especially since Russia exports roughly 10% of the world’s oil. We should consider that just like the world is attempting to isolate Russia from the global financial system today, FDR sanctioned Japan and cut off its global oil supply, leading to the Pearl Harbor attack. Hopefully cooler and less emotional heads will prevail and World War III will be averted, but remember that Putin has threatened the West with nuclear weapons, if it should militarily intervene in Ukraine. Although this may be a bluff, the nationalism and entangling alliances currently being displayed are concerning. Regardless of the outcome, the only people being harmed from Putin’s invasion and bombings, the United States’ provocations (including the 2014 coup in Ukraine and NATO expansion), and the world’s unified sanctions are the average people in Russia and Ukraine. It is sad to see the bloodshed and difficulties of both groups of people, and hopefully this war will end soon.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.

The Origins of the Russo-Ukrainian War: My Observations on What Led to the War

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not bluffing when he said that he would invade Ukraine if there were no guarantee that Ukraine would not be annexed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Russo-Ukrainian War officially began on February 24th, 2022. Most analysts, who were not hypnotized by the United States government’s officials or the corporate media that constantly lies about foreign policy and takes any Russian action as aggression, were puzzled by the news of the shelling near Ukrainian cities and the air and ground movements throughout the country. The sight of bombs going off on military targets outside of major cities was reminiscent of the American “shock and awe” campaign against Baghdad, which of course, was acceptable to most Americans at the time. As people change their social media profile pictures to stand with Ukraine, perhaps we should not be so eager to hop on down the war path, given our long list of invasions and coups against many of the world’s nations and the hypocrisy that this represents.

After Russia moved into the Donbass region, presumably to protect the newly recognized Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, it started to bomb military sites outside of Kharkiv (where a large portion of the fighting has occurred), Odessa, Dnipro, Mariupol, Kherson, Lviv, Kiev (or now, Kyiv), and others; and then ground forces captured Chernobyl and have made unsuccessful attempts at sacking major cities across the country and achieving air superiority. Armed Ukrainian citizens (something American liberals that want to ban firearms in the United States could learn a thing or two about) helped keep Russian troops at bay. Peace talks along the border of Belarus, which may now send troops to aid Russia, failed, meaning that the war will continue for some time. President Biden has reassured the United States that American troops will not join in the fighting, but we will see about that one.

Although Putin’s invasion should be condemned, as should any offensive campaign that creates casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, we should not rush to war. The Russian leader has stated that any military deployments by the West to halt the operations in Ukraine, as well as continued economic sanctions, might be enough to raise the nuclear weapons issue, as he has put his nuclear forces on “high alert.” A World War III or nuclear war would not be favorable towards anyone, even if were to stop New Hitler’s rebuilding of the Soviet Union (a highly unlikely scenario). However, our leaders under the Biden administration, which is itching for another war to feed the military-industrial complex and may have been able to avoid the invasion if it had only pledged to withdraw Ukraine’s application for NATO membership, may make a grave mistake in the upcoming days that could cause a series of events leading to a Russo-American war. Plus, let us not forget that President Franklin Roosevelt’s sanctioning and cutting off of oil supplies to Japan is what led to the Pearl Harbor attack, and the United States and its puppets in Europe have attempted a similar move by cutting off Russia’s access to the global economy and the financial system that Russia and the rest of the world are reliant upon for modern living. Nuclear war is certainly not inevitable, but in order to avoid it, we must have cooler heads prevail.

So, how did we get to where we are today? What is the background of the fighting in Ukraine? Below is a chronological history of the current conflict.

At the tail end of 2013, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych suspended a trade deal with the European Union for fears that it would be detrimental to the economic and financial interests of the country and prevent trade with Russia (which opposed the deal), and although the president was considering revisiting the treaty down the road, protests erupted across Ukraine. The Maidan Revolution of 2014 (Revolution of Dignity) that resulted saw the illegal ouster of Yanukovych, who was forced to flee to Russia, and the formation of a new government led by interim and unelected President Olexander Turchynov (this is not the first time that Yanukovych was deprived of the presidency, as the 2004 Orange Revolution forced a re-election that put in Viktor Yushchenko instead).

But wait, it gets better. The Obama administration supported and helped orchestrate the coup (oh no, not another coup) to bring about a government more friendly to American and European interests. We know that the United States government was involved because we have a leaked phone call between Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt that discussed who was and was not permitted to participate in the newly formed government (Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who became the prime minister after the coup, was one such person discussed as acceptable). In addition, billions of American taxpayer dollars were funneled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and others over the course of several years to shape Ukraine’s democracy (some of which would have been used to determine the results of the Maidan Revolution).

With the situation spiraling out of control and the Russian-friendly government gone, Putin sent in troops to secure key sites throughout Crimea, and days later, with a roughly four-fifths voter turnout in a referendum, the people of Crimea overwhelmingly voted (to the tune of 97%) in the affirmative for secession from Ukraine and subsequent cession of the territory to Russia. Crimea made a formal declaration of independence and everything, and the results led to Russia solidifying power on the peninsula to keep the Ukrainian government out. The United States and the West condemned the move as an illegal occupation and a violation of international law and territorial sovereignty, but if the people decided that the government of Ukraine no longer had their interests at heart (Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence set the precedent for the right of the people to alter, abolish, or leave an undesirable government), was it really an invasion? Did France invade Great Britain during the American Revolution because it aided the colonists in their efforts to secede from the British Empire?

Do not forget that Crimea was part of Russia until 1954 when Nikita Khrushchev gifted the land to Ukraine, that almost two-thirds of the peninsula is ethnically Russian (Russian is the primary language), and that Crimeans secured decentralization under Ukraine’s unitary government to create the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (special status under Ukrainian law). Plus, from a geopolitical position, Russia was able to regain the all-year-round port at Sevastopol (Russia did not have a warm water port prior to this).

Later on in 2014, the eastern oblasts (provinces) of Donetsk and Luhansk (the majority of the people there speak Russian too, and a little under half of the people are ethnically Russian) followed in Crimea’s footsteps with a referendum that overwhelmingly voted in favor of declaring independence from Kiev, forming new governments under the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic (they briefly formed a confederation called Novorossiya, or New Russia, but abandoned the idea). Russia covertly sent in troops, supplies, and weapons, but, under international pressure, it was unable to recognize either oblast as independent.

The Donbass republics were ready to do their own thing, outside of the pressure of the unitary government in Kiev, but it was not long before the Ukrainian military, with the aid of financial backing from the United States, moved in to quell the “rebellion” and force the separatists back into the union. The Ukrainian campaign was brutal, and there have accounts from people living in the Donbass that the government and neo-Nazi vigilantes and militias (yes, Nazis worked with law enforcement and security forces, though the West disputes how widespread and how much of a problem it really was) indiscriminately killed protesters and civilians (a café bombing set by Ukrainian troops in 2018 led to the death of Donetsk’s leader Alexander Zakharchenko), amounting to possible genocide (this could be exaggerated).

Although, it is difficult to verify these accounts, outside of propaganda from both sides, the will of the people should matter (and only does to the U.S. government when it is convenient). The fighting continued on and off for several years (both sides blamed the other of initiating violence and violating human rights), resulting in thousands of casualties. The Minsk Accords (I and II) largely failed at keeping a ceasefire in place and did not grant the requested federation status to Donetsk and Luhansk (similar to the special status granted to Crimea years earlier), though the agreements did likely prevent some deaths. Over the course of the last eight years, the United States has provided billions of dollars in aid, supplies, and weapons to the presidencies of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky to combat the Russian-backed separatists.

In 2021, Russia began building up its forces along the Ukraine border, and by February 2022, sources claimed that 190,000 troops were getting ready for an imminent invasion. Russia condemned the United States’ NATO exercise, while it participated in its own in Belarus. A transfer of weapons and troops into the neighboring country sparked concerns in the West, since Russia then had Ukraine largely surrounded, and the United States began to ready its forces and deploy more troops to NATO countries. Putin put forth a proposal that would guarantee that NATO would not expand any further (particularly Ukraine, which was always considered a red line) and that troops in countries bordering on Russia would be moved elsewhere. Of course, the Biden administration flat out rejected the proposal as a non-starter and demanded that Putin withdraw his troops, accept that Ukraine would eventually become part of NATO, and that troops would remain in place, or grow even stronger in Russia’s backyard.

A flashback to the early 1990’s will reveal that the United States led Russia to believe that it would not move NATO (an alliance meant to combat the Soviet Union that was no longer relevant after the Cold War) any further to the east, but the United States forgot the promise when it annexed Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria (all former Soviet or satellite states). Then in 2008, President George W. Bush pushed for Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance, leading to hostilities that caused the Russo-Georgian War (Russia recognized the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and defended them from the Georgian military).

In addition to the expansion of NATO, the United States has put Tomahawk missiles (which could be nuclear-converted) in Romania and Poland (another Cuban missile crisis?). Putin is nervous about having American forces near its borders, and since the United States has consistently overthrown unfavorable governments, including Ukraine’s, why would he not be (this is not to say that his invasion is justified, or that he is anything but a power-hungry and self-interested politician, but we can still condemn his actions and understand his concerns at the same time)?

It is easy for Americans to dismiss Putin’s fears, but if Russia created an alliance with Central American countries and staged a coup against Mexico to bring it into its sphere and potentially deploy troops there, the United States would probably not be too happy and may want to put troops in Texas or California as deterrents and to secure the borders (maybe even invade parts of Mexico). Diplomacy requires hearing others’ concerns and compromising in order to avoid war, and the Biden administration does not seem to understand that, as this conflict may have been avoided if Russia’s proposal was considered.

Just before Russia recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic on February 21st, 2022 and the upper house of the Russian legislature approved Putin’s ability to use military force in Ukraine, skirmishes broke out between the Ukrainian military, which had been amassing on the militarized border (possibly to wage another brutal campaign against the separatists), and forces in the two breakaway oblasts. When Putin moved into the Donbass, it was not too unexpected, but what came next, was a mystery. Did he move into Ukraine in order to purge Nazis, destroy chemical and biological laboratories, prevent genocide, break up corruption and global money-laundering, halt NATO expansion, cause his own genocide against Ukrainians, or prove to the West that Russia is now a superpower not worth fighting? It is difficult to know at this point, but as the events of the war in Ukraine wage on, the world will be watching to see if Putin and Biden can work out their differences.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.

Will the Authoritarianism of Canada Follow the Freedom Convoy South of the Border?

The Freedom Convoy has made a scene across Canada, as downtown Ottawa and the Ambassador Bridge between Michigan and Ontario were temporarily shut down. Thousands of truckers sprawled out across the land, cheered on by large crowds, to peacefully protest vaccine mandates (initially those requiring drivers coming back into Canada from the United States to be vaccinated, with the unrealistic alternative being quarantines). Even millions of dollars were raised to support this “fringe” group of people, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who immediately went into hiding (I mean, caught “COVID-19”), called them. The actions taken by the federal and local authorities in Canada are human rights violations and something that should be condemned in a free society, but, of course, governments labelled the truckers, who were fighting for the freedom of all Canadians (and to a larger extent, the freedom of the people of the world), as domestic terrorists and disturbers of the peace that needed to be halted from their unlawful assemblies.

The American corporate media hardly touched the story, as thousands of trucks descended on Ottawa, and the Canadian state-run propaganda centers quickly condemned the protestors as far-right white supremacists and fascists. When the American media did cover the story, it locked in on a few instigators that carried swastikas and not-related-to-Canada Confederate flags (it is not like Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 did not have some people taking advantage of the situation or burning down buildings, or anything), which was way out of touch with the entirety of the protests and what the demonstrators were attempting to accomplish. Liberal podcasters and commentators also jumped in on the bandwagon and made connections between the protests and President Trump (again, Trump has nothing to do with Canada), in an attempt to claim that far-right movements are spreading across the globe, in a concerted effort, to end global democracy. Although these critics had no clue what they were talking about and the protests were largely peaceful, most Americans remained ignorant of the events north of the border, and what they did know was influenced by biased media that shed the truckers in negative light (no serious or critical analysis was done by those condemning them).

Probably under pressure from the Ottawa officials (the move was quickly praised by the mayor and others), GoFundMe violated contracts with donors of the convoy by preventing the funds from reaching the truckers and distributing the money to places of the company’s choosing (this amounted to theft). The Ottawa police force was unable to break up the protests, and they resorted to confiscating firewood, in order to freeze out the protesters in the cold Canadian winter; diesel fuel; and food, in order to starve them (people were arrested for providing food). An Ontario judge even issued a ten-day order prohibiting the truckers from honking their horns.

The inability of the local police to suppress the freedom of expression was most likely the reason for Trudeau’s decision to invoke the never-before-utilized Emergencies Act, which gave him the power to send in the military for domestic law enforcement, if needed, and suspend the rights to assemble and freely travel. It also gave the federal and local governments in Canada, through financial institutions, the ability to release individual banking data, halt pending transactions, which amounted to C$3.8 million, and freeze personal bank accounts of anyone who donated to the cause, which resulted in C$7.8 million (US$6.1 million) in frozen assets; and this power was done without court orders or warrants. Because arrests and frozen bank accounts disallowed protesters from caring for their animals, the government threatened to confiscate truckers’ pets for eight days, after which point, the animals could forever be under the “care” of the government (and perhaps euthanized). Roughly 200 protesters were arrested and deprived of freedom for exercising their right to assemble, and 57 trucks were towed (some forcibly removed, with tow companies ordered to do so). The Ottawa police utilized pepper spray and stun grenades to clear out the remaining protesters, and there have been accounts of unwarranted violence by law enforcement, as well as police forcefully pushing their way through crowds. The police also issued warnings that they would hunt down anyone who took part in the protests and prosecute them.

All in all, the convoy was largely a success, in that the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario announced that they would be lifting vaccine mandates, including their passport systems (the claim was, of course, that the mandates were lifted because the virus was on the decline, but the timing is too peculiar for that to be the case). Government officials were unable to disperse the crowds, and they were forced to admit defeat, until the authoritarian Trudeau marched in to save the day. In doing so, the hypocrisy of the prime minister, among others, was on full display, and it was revealed to the world that when push comes to shove, politicians will do whatever they need to do to remain in power. Justin Trudeau is no exception, and his authoritarian side and iron fist were witnessed by the masses. In addition, similar protests (though none so far have been to the same magnitude) have been reproduced in the United States, France, Australia, and New Zealand.

Are the citizens of the world waking up? In the United States, the mimic convoy has taken off from California and is scheduled to reach Washington, D.C. by next week (perhaps in time for the State of the Union address). What will be the response by the Biden administration or governors in states effected? The Pentagon has already authorized a National Guard deployment of 700 troops to be ready to quell what is planned to be a peaceful protest. The Department of Homeland Security, which recently issued a bulletin suggesting that those opposing pandemic measures are domestic terrorists, along with the White House, is carefully monitoring the situation in case it needs to “protect” Americans from another “insurrection” of far-right extremists (who, again, plan on protesting peacefully). In anticipation of violence, the government is having fencing installed around the Capitol (the government would not take this measure if it were BLM protestors, some of which trespassed on federal courthouse grounds and burned down buildings).

What should make patriots nervous is that this convoy will be painted, just like with the Canadian one, as racist, radical, and unjustified, and as a result, it may initially ruin the reputation of the freedom movement. As Americans, many of us were subjected to restrictions of travel, prohibitions against assembly at churches and small businesses, muzzling and forced facial attire, loss of jobs and entry to restaurants for making a decision over our bodies for two years with massive physical, social, and economic consequences, and yet, these pro-lockdown and pro-mandate people are unapologetic. They still do not understand why these protests are occurring, nor do they value freedom. In fact, many of them would be content sending the unvaccinated to quarantine camps. If we easily accepted pandemic measures during this perceived emergency, what will happen when the next crisis occurs? Americans have been conditioned to accept blind faith in government, authoritarian measures, and potential concentration camps, all the while accepting executive edicts, outside of the legislative process, being issued by the president and governors in direct violation of the separation of powers concept.

When the American convoy reaches our capital, will the federal government freeze the bank accounts of those who support the protests, issue martial law against the citizens, and use heavy-handed militarized tactics to suppress the freedom of peaceful protestors who will be classified as terrorists by authorities? Being that almost everyone is dependent on the banking system, the unconstitutional seizing of personal accounts would have negative impacts on those who still value freedom. In addition to the militarized response, this will likely further the surveillance state and give those on the Right or identifying with liberty movements a place on terrorist watchlists or in prison. Freedom of expression is not genuinely cherished by governments (or progressives or those on the Left, apparently). These are dark times, but the path of Canada’s Freedom Convoy should not be forgotten.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.

Did the Biden Administration Get the War That It Had Hoped For?

The Biden administration has been beating the war drums for weeks, and it now appears that it has gotten its wish of a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as possibly 190,000 Russian troops surround Ukrainian territory. Russia has formally recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic (as of February 21, 2022), after years of refraining from it to avoid condemnation by the United States and others; deployed troops into eastern Ukraine on a “peacekeeping” mission; and authorized, through the Federal Council (upper house of the legislature, or the Federal Assembly), President Vladimir Putin’s ability to use military force for the purpose of waging war to defend the breakaway republics or combat the West. War seems more likely now than at any point during the conflict, as the Biden administration seems intent on putting Russia in its place and utilizing American resources (including weapons transfers) in a conflict thousands of miles away. This war, of course, would not benefit the American people and could have devastating impacts (especially if nuclear war erupts), but hey, why not raise the tensions for the sake of pride?

Before the “invasion” occurred, skirmishes erupted between the Ukrainian government and the separatist forces (the Minsk Protocol kept the conflict fairly quiet for a few years, but failed overall), and Russia alleged that the Ukrainian military initiated the hostilities, while Ukraine, and of course the United States, accused separatists in Luhansk of bombing a school. The separatists claimed that it was actually the Ukrainian military that was responsible, and the Donetsk People’s Republic also indicted Ukraine for attacking local highways, while the United States issued statements suggesting that Russia is simply utilizing such claims as justification to intervene (or preparing for false flag operations). The leaders of the breakaway republics have since mobilized their forces in case of more violence committed by the Ukrainian government, as well as evacuated civilians to Russia. It is difficult to know which side is telling the truth (or perhaps they are both instigating), being that public and global sentiments are at stake in a conflict where the line between good guys and bad guys have not been fully drawn. Either way, the United States has no business getting involved or supporting a unitary government that wishes to quell the rebellion of a people that no longer wishes to be included in a greater Ukraine, and the fact that the Biden administration does not take the will of the people in the Donbass seriously shows just how hypocritical the federal government really is.

After his February 16th confident prediction came and went without incident and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had to calm the American commander-in-chief down a notch about how imminent an attack actually was, President Biden insisted that Putin’s invasion was still on schedule, by stating that we have excellent intelligence on the matter (you mean like the intelligence promising Americans that Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons?). The intelligence was, of course, not articulated or transparent, as should be the case when Americans may have to be dragged into armed conflict, but the Biden administration, in conjunction with the corporate media, continued the fearmongering in order to rally Americans around the anti-Russia nationalistic position.

The president acknowledged on his Friday, February 18 press conference that he does not know exactly what is in Putin’s mind, but then he went on to say that the Russian leader was certainly going to attack Ukraine (and move straight into Kiev) without any doubt whatsoever. Besides the obvious logical flaw in his statements, even at that point, the Ukrainian presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podoliak, was uncertain about whether an invasion was imminent, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin opined that Russia would not send troops as far as Kiev to take control of the entire country. It almost seems like President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were welcoming a war, while pretending to want to avoid one, with the constant rhetoric that served to condition the American people to the inevitable conflict that would ensue. Then, the “order” from Putin to commanders on the ground to ready for an invasion came, and the “peacekeeping” force moved into the Donbass the next day.

Ukrainian officials appeared more level-headed than American ones, even though it was their country on the line, and Biden, despite saying that diplomacy was always on the table, constantly ramped up the propaganda in favor of confrontation with Russia. If diplomacy were really on the table, the United States government would, at the very least, consider halting NATO’s expansion and troop build-ups into Russia’s backyard. Diplomacy means compromising and actually hearing the concerns of others, so the fact that the Biden administration flat out rejected Russia’s proposal without hesitation suggests that peace is not something that it is interested in achieving. Biden’s diplomacy is more like: send your troops home immediately, forget your national security concerns and the will of the people of the Donbass, and deal with us moving troops and missiles closer to your borders over the next several years, or else, face the consequences.

The immediate condemnation from the Biden administration was followed by prohibitions against Americans conducting business with separatists in Ukraine, potential economic sanctions by the Department of Treasury against anyone in Donetsk or Luhansk (for any reason), a severance of Western finance to Russia, direct targeting and freezing of assets against Russian oligarchs and two large banks (VEB and Promsvyazbank, which both finance Russia’s defense capabilities), and an attack against Russia’s “sovereign debt.” All of these actions were taken through executive edict and outside of the legislative process, but as we have become conditioned to accept as Americans, the concept of separation of powers is merely a suggestion in today’s “democracy.”

More sanctions and actions are on the table with any further Russian aggression. From the perspective of American citizens, what could go wrong? President Franklin Roosevelt only cut off Japan’s oil supply prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. Iraq was sanctioned heavily before the invasion there. The Biden administration is itching for a war, and he may just get it. He just has to convince the American people that it is our patriotic duty to hate Russia and intervene in a non-NATO country. Most Americans will fall for just about anything, so this will not be a difficult feat.

Although an invasion of Ukraine is still not likely, a miscalculated move by either the United States or Russia, like what was seen with Russian jets intercepting American aircraft and a Russian warship chasing an American submarine that breached Russian territorial waters, can escalate a fragile situation into a conventional or nuclear war between two superpowers. Neither is beneficial to the American, Russian, or Ukrainian people, but remember that American officials, members of the corporate media, and the military-industrial complex do not have the average person’s best interests at heart. Domination and profit are strong motivators.

As we grip for what comes next in the Ukraine crisis, let us be mindful that war is not inevitable, and cooler heads can prevail. However, in order for war to be avoided, American officials need to take diplomacy seriously and actually attempt to negotiate with Russia and not bully and corner the bear. The United States already convinced its puppet state of Germany to abandon (perhaps only temporarily) its Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal with Russia because it would mean European reliance on Russian oil and peaceful business transactions with an American enemy, and that is something that is not acceptable. The German and European people be damned in favor of furthering the American elites’ interests.

The corporate media has been pumping out the anti-Russia propaganda, in accordance with Biden’s interests, and there has been no consideration for how the Obama administration’s 2014 coup against the democratically-elected government of Ukraine, the referendum of overwhelming support among Crimeans to join Russia, and negative treatment by the Ukrainian government towards the people of Donetsk and Luhansk, who would prefer a less centralized government that can better address their concerns. Since most of the people of both breakaway republics are either ethnic Russians or Russian-speaking, the will of the people should be considered, but it is not. Therefore, Putin will defend his allies and continue to press the importance of Ukraine not being annexed by NATO. The ball is now in Biden’s court. How will he respond?

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website for more information on the Ukraine crisis and American conflict with Russia.

The Government Creating a Narrative and Utilizing Private Companies Still Violate the First Amendment

The founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab, wants a more integrated world where businesses, political leaders, and individuals cooperate under the Great Reset and “The Great Narrative.” This sounds great! Who would not want a world where everyone is forced to get along and believes the same spoon-fed perspective? It sounds like a wonderful, robotic dream, but what about the people who do not comply with the totalitarian utopia? We can only speculate, based on history, as to what would occur, but the framework of censorship and a fascist narrative are already in the works. Look no further than the extreme nationalism that was attempted during the Covid pandemic, and although Democratic governors and officials must now (after getting away with it for two years) abandon their authoritarian tendencies as the 2022 midterm elections approach and opposition to pandemic measures grows, let us never forget the hell that these politicians put us through, so that we can prevent this from happening again.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently put out yet another domestic terrorism bulletin that targets those who oppose COVID-19 measures or believe that Donald Trump had the 2020 election stolen from him. Aside from the fact that Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters were not met with the same hostilities, consider that DHS is creating a narrative and singling out certain Americans based on their political beliefs. The bulletin essentially says that some people are spreading mis-, dis-, and mal-information and causing lack of confidence in our institutions, if they do not adhere to whatever the consensus on the Covid narrative is at any given time (this is key in that scientific information changes, and the “false” narratives can actually be proven correct).

The Bill of Rights that I have read several times does not have any clause suggesting that speech that causes distrust in institutions or spreads unpopular information about a certain vaccine is not permitted. No, in fact the opposite is true. The Biden administration is actively abridging speech and violating the First Amendment by creating a nationalistic narrative and partnering with private businesses to “identify and evaluate” whatever information is deemed as false by the government. The implication that those who adhere to conspiracy theories or other arbitrarily-defined false narratives are domestic terrorists also violates the First Amendment (and possibly any number of other rights, depending on the actions taken). You should not have to fear being targeted for your political views, nor should you have to be indoctrinated by the state or coerced into believing the official narrative. The First Amendment exists for a reason, but too many continue to be apathetic to the actions taken by the government.

It is not just DHS that threatens our liberties, and a fascistic collusion between the federal government and the private sector helped to shape many of the naïve public’s mind. Although most liberals and the prideful Covid authoritarians that will never admit that they were wrong continue to ignore FOIA-released emails implicating Dr. Anthony Fauci and Mark Zuckerberg in a plot to sway the pandemic narrative in the “acceptable” direction (for science and the good of the collective, of course), we now have information that Facebook created data reports and an information hub to assist the federal government in getting the public on board with its monopolistic efforts to deal with the virus. Some of these emails remain redacted (a great way to add to the public’s trust), but what has been released so far is enough to make it clear that control of the narrative, and not the truth, was the aim of public officials and partnering members of Big Tech.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki openly stated that the Biden administration is identifying and targeting certain positions on the vaccine issue as “problematic,” and it is pressuring companies like Facebook to remove such content (government censorship done through private companies). Similarly, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has pressured tech companies and journalists to censor information that goes against the government’s narrative. With all of this, the common argument from liberals is that these are private companies and can remove any content that they please, and therefore, this does not qualify as censorship. However, they fail to see the nuance of the argument and the fact that these companies are partners with the government. If private companies are being utilized as wings of the government itself through these partnerships, the companies that now take on agency status are required by the Bill of Rights to abide by the First Amendment. You do not lose your right to free speech because the government pressures companies to act on its behalf. If the argument was based solely on private companies making their own policies outside of government interference, liberals’ arguments would hold water (plus, with applying their “companies can do whatever they want” logic, would that not mean that they could also discriminate against people based on race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, since that is the choice of the company to decide?).

Dr. Fauci and Former Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Francis Collins were caught discussing how they could have a “quick and devastating published takedown” of the Great Barrington Declaration and its tailored approach to the pandemic that was created by “three fringe epidemiologists” from the Universities of Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford. Then, of course, Nicki Minaj was scolded by the “good doctor” and the White House about how she should not spread vaccine misinformation. We cannot afford to have people think for themselves. That is how science works, according to bureaucrats. We need to eliminate open and honest debate and silence those who do not adhere to the dogma of the authority’s consensus. The email exchange between two public health officials, as well as the immediate attempt by the government to make Minaj look like an idiot, sounds like something out of a fascist country and not something that you would hear in a place that values free expression and the exchange of ideas.

Joe Rogan got in hot water over his interviews with Peter McCullough and Robert Malone (both medical experts, and the latter contributed towards the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines) because the two heretics were not approved by the Covid authoritarians. The ultra-nationalistic society in which we find ourselves tried to cancel Rogan, but instead, musicians Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and India Arie ended up making themselves look foolish when Spotify ignored their requests to remove the famous podcaster. Spotify did, however, remove some of Rogan’s content, and the podcaster felt compelled to partially apologize for potentially spreading false information. Overall, the powers that be were unsuccessful in their attempts to take down a giant that offers the opportunity for free thought, critical thinking, and varied viewpoints. However, the fact that there were so many calls for his cancellation proves that a fascist society is in the works in this country.

Although the federal government is not overtly censoring information (that we know of), when it does so through covert methods, violations of the First Amendment still exist. It is astounding that most Americans just go about their lives without taking any of this into consideration or thinking of how this could become worse down the road (comparing this to Nazi Germany in order to raise awareness to prevent it from actually getting to that point is condemned and considered foolish by the brainwashed public). The Great Narrative, as Klaus Schwab would call it, can be combined with the mass surveillance state to create a Big Brother on an epic scale. In fact, it has just been revealed that the CIA has two spy programs (one that was just declassified and one that the government refuses to declassify) that conducts warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection, despite the fact that the intelligence agency is not permitted to surveil domestically and that the Fourth Amendment explicitly outlaws such activity. With the government spying on Americans and creating a proper narrative for them to believe, the Bill of Rights is in the process of being reduced to a useless piece of paper.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website to see more information on how the government violates the Bill of Rights.

The Russians Are Invading Ukraine Next Week, The Russians Are Invading Ukraine…. Freak Out

In the midst of exercises in Belarus that are hosting tens of thousands of Russian troops and the Russian deployment of over 100,000 of its forces near the border with Ukraine, the cries from the establishment seem to be that war in Europe is inevitable and that it is all the big, bad Putinites’ fault. Russia is invading Ukraine! Russia is invading Ukraine! Prepare the troops and ready the guns. The corporate media is excited for another pointless conflict.

Now, war is certainly not inevitable here, and as I have said previously, Russia will not invade Ukraine without provocation. However, what has become concerning is that in addition to the Biden administration’s calls for Americans to leave Ukraine immediately, it has also pulled its staff working for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The OSCE monitors the events in Ukraine, as the Ukrainian government has been engaging in a violent attempt to quell the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, and the organization has been the one responsible for reporting violations of the largely failed Minsk Protocol (Minsk I and Minsk II). The United States intelligence community has magically; and without telling us the specifics of how it came upon this information, the content of that information, and how it is so confident that the information is credible (perhaps another pre-Iraq intelligence fiasco?); produced a report suggesting that Russia is planning a false flag to blame the Ukrainian government for committing genocide against ethnic Russians in the Donbass region. If the OSCE no longer has eyes on the situation in eastern Ukraine to gain context of what is happening on the ground, the Ukrainian government might have cover to bomb separatist targets, provoking Russia and saying, “see, Russia made the first move.” Since there will be no clarity on the incidents, we will not know exactly what transpired for some time, and therefore, both sides will blame the other. The American corporate media will, of course, condemn Russia and side with Ukraine, regardless of who started it. The ensuing confusion may trigger a war that will then, despite President Biden’s assurances that Americans will not be committed to the cause, drag NATO forces into the fold.

A military strategy game has been underway for weeks, and we have already seen 8,500 American troops readied for deployment. An additional 5,000 troops (this was originally 2,000, but it was just increased) have been or are in the process of being sent to Germany and Poland (Poland also received F-15 fighter jets), and 1,000 troops were sent to Romania. Russia is now moving MiG-31 missiles armed with Kinzal hypersonic missiles to Kaliningrad (a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania) to combat the American Aegis Ashore missile sites in Poland and Romania (these are anti-ballistic missiles systems that can potentially be converted to have Tomahawk-offensive capabilities). Both the United States and Russia are participating in war games in or near the Black Sea and across Europe. What could go wrong?

Ukraine is preparing for war by adding an additional 100,000 troops to the army, and even if war with Russia does not come, the government there may be signaling that it wants to completely end the resistance in Donetsk and Luhansk with whatever force is necessary to do that. We have already seen excessive force utilized during its initial campaigns from Kiev to Donbass, which have been condemned by Russia. The majority of the people living in this region of Ukraine are either ethnically Russian or Russian speakers, and there is much political will to either leave Ukraine or have the unitary government decentralize power to the culturally distinct eastern parts. The will of the people does not fit into Washington’s agenda, though, as this is all about putting Russia in its place and bullying rival nations into compliance.

It is easy for the West to look at this conflict and point fingers at Russia, but think about this from a different perspective. Ukraine is the line in the sand for Russia when it comes to NATO expansion, and aside from what should be obvious with the comparison of Americans not being comfortable with Russians forming an anti-American alliance in Central America that would hope to annex Mexico after a Putin-backed coup against a democratically-elected government in Mexico City, the United States government, and particularly President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, had, around 1990, led Russia to believe that NATO would move “not one inch eastward.” Now, NATO has annexed Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria (all former Soviet or satellite states), and it eyes Ukraine and Georgia, as promised by President George W. Bush in 2008. This is the problem when we have arrogant politicians who think that they can ignore the national security interests, whether perceived or real, of their enemies and still expect us to consider them serious diplomats.

The United States government knows that it cannot consume Ukraine into NATO without starting a war, but it will play hardball in order to not look weak to its adversaries, and it looks like this time, Russia is not backing down from its requirement that the former Soviet state never join the alliance. Of course, NATO should no longer exist, since it was an alliance to counter an empire that is non-existent, and all the alliance is doing is creating another cold war that could lead to something far worse and non-beneficial to the American people. Either way, we can be sure that the military-industrial complex (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, and others were invited to meetings by former Raytheon board member and current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to develop new technology for this and other potential conflicts) is enjoying the show and the prospective profit from yet another conflict (whether an engagement occurs or not).

The war hawks in the United States and the hardliners in Russia may keep this standoff going for weeks to come, and if a misunderstanding causes one side or the other to react into what may erupt into a domino effect of violent conflict, we should not be surprised that our wonderful politicians did this to us, aided by the corporate media’s fearmongering. Enjoy the Super Bowl, knowing that our politicians are beating the war drums and trying to scare you into thinking that the Russians are coming next week. Do not be like Eminem’s “toy soldiers” and blindly support the media and government as it destroys our country, but “be humble” like Kedrick Lamar and understand that there are things going on in the world that may be difficult to accept.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website for more information on NATO expansion and the conflict in Ukraine.

Civil Asset Forfeiture Is Not Conducive to a Free Country

On a chilly day (at least relatively speaking) in Nevada in February 2021, Marine veteran Stephen Lara was robbed and told to exit his vehicle and hand over the $86,900 (his life savings meant for his kids) that he had sitting in his car. The thief was not an ordinary criminal. No, he was an armed agent of the state, acting on behalf of the Nevada Highway Patrol, doing a routine stop to scold the driver for being too close to a truck. What was Lara’s alleged crime? It was nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a money-hungry officer of the law was babysitting the road. In fact, the victim was not charged with a crime, nor did the officers find any drugs or weapons in his vehicle. The canine-alert test that was administered with the approval of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was bogus (many dollar bills can be traced to drugs in some way), but that did not prevent the theft of the money.

The officers clearly knew that they had no evidence of wrong-doing, but seizing innocent victims’ money and property is a profitable business for cash-strapped law enforcement agencies across the country. This is especially true with the War on Drugs, as many have had their lives devastated for an action that did not produce any victims. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with a prison population larger than even the much more populous and totalitarian China (2 million in the U.S. compared to 1.7 million in China). Turning people who would not otherwise be inclined to commit crimes into criminals is a human rights catastrophe in the supposed land of the free (there are also way too many laws that need to be stricken from the record).

In 2020 and in the state of Nevada alone, police departments seized $8.6 million, and studies conducted in Texas have suggested that departments there actually rely on civil asset forfeiture as part of their operating budgets (40% of the agencies said that this type of theft was a make-or-break policy for them). In South Carolina, officers stole $17 million of cash and property over three years from individuals, 40% of which were never convicted of a crime (20% were not even charged). In Texas, the seizures amounted to $50 million in 2017. Nationwide, roughly $60 billion was stolen from 2001 to 2014, and this increased to about $68.8 billion by 2020.

Although some states do not report their data and the real figures are probably much higher, it is outrageous to have to fear being stopped by police if you decide to carry cash around (Stephen Lara did not trust banks, which is really none of the government’s business). In many of these cases, the government seized the cash without charging the individuals with a crime, which is a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (it is justified for federal law enforcement based on Title 18 § 981 of the U.S. Code, and unfortunately, it has been upheld by the Supreme Court). Everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty and be free from having their life or property seized without due process of law or without a detail-specific warrant. In addition, many people who have cash seized are poor and lack the financial capability to sue for their possessions, and for Robert Coache, not only did he have his money confiscated, but he was also forced to spend sixteen months behind bars before getting his case closed for lack of evidence.

Most victims of this legalized robbery do not get their money back, but Stephen Lara, who has initiated a lawsuit against the Nevada Highway Patrol, may end up winning damages from the state, in addition to his life savings that were eventually returned (another man, Tan Nguyen, received his $50,000 in lottery winnings back). The devastation that many Americans must face (including litigation and settlements in their personal accounts) is something that needs to cease because a police state is not conducive to a free country.

Thank you for reading, and if you are interested in learning more about the growing police state in the United States, please check out my book, The Global Bully, and blog.

The Great Strategic Boardgame Being Played Over Ukraine

After President Biden announced that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “imminent,” the president rescinded those comments in favor of a less confident remark of, “I don't even think his people know for certain what he will do.” He has since followed up by assuring the country that he does not currently plan to send American troops inside of Ukraine to fight alongside Kiev, even if Russia were to invade. This is positive, but will he keep his word? Russia will certainly not, and has reiterated the point several times, invade Ukraine unprovoked, however, a manipulation or misunderstanding caused by the United States or Ukraine could create an environment where Russia responds (for instance, the Ukrainian government could send troops into Donetsk Oblast in the hopes that separatist fighters will fire the first shot, thus giving the Ukrainian government justification to quell the rebellion, with the Russian government then moving in to defend the pro-Russian separatists). President Vladimir Putin is certainly testing Biden’s resolve and challenging American imperialism in Eastern Europe, but it is unlikely that a large-scale military conflict will ensue.

Aside from the roughly 100,000 troops that Russia has deployed close to the Ukraine border, Russia will be conducting exercises in conjunction with Belarus to test the readiness to defend against attacks that may come from abroad. The Ukrainian government, which has the most to benefit from being shielded by the American military, has claimed that Russia is utilizing mercenaries in the country and supplying separatist forces with fuel, tanks, and artillery, as well as moving Iskander short-range ballistic missiles into Belarus for the scheduled exercises.

Of course, the United States would never perform exercises near Russia to threaten it with intimidation. Oh wait, this just in…the American military has sent in the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group to the Mediterranean Sea for the planned Neptune Strike 22 exercises to show NATO’s strength and maritime capabilities.

The Biden administration got nervous and put 8,500 American troops “on a heightened preparedness to deploy” and ordered the families of diplomats working in Ukraine to leave the country. This comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement suggesting that the United States would respond harshly if Putin did pull the trigger, perhaps with crushing economic sanctions, and the United States has sent two shipments of roughly 280,000 pounds of ammunition and weapons to supply the government of Ukraine in the event of an attack. This excluded Mi-17 transport helicopters that were utilized in Afghanistan and are now headed to the country. In addition, the United Kingdom supplied Kiev with 2,000 anti-tank rocket launchers and 30 troops for training purposes, and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania supported their neighbor with additional anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

This has turned into a serious strategic boardgame in Europe, and all it takes for war to break out is one wrong move. What will the Biden administration decide to do? Will it manipulate Russia into making the first move in order to justify a war on behalf of the military-industrial complex? Will Americans be duped into yet another foreign war? Or, will diplomacy prevail and NATO expansion be halted, as the Russians insist? Russia will not invade Ukraine, but it may be provoked into defending ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in Donetsk and Luhansk that would prefer to no longer be part of Ukraine. Do not expect the Biden administration to respect the wishes of the people there, though. The concept of the will of the people only applies when it is a group that is friendly to American interests. As the exercises by Russia and NATO occur simultaneously, we can only hope that neither event will accidentally or intentionally cause a war and that tensions will deescalate over the next few weeks.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website for more information on the crisis in Ukraine and NATO expansion.

Is the Covid Narrative Falling Apart?

Almost two weeks ago, CNN released a report suggesting that despite the vaccines and boosters, Omicron will “find just about everybody.” This comes just a short time after the federal and state governments and the corporate media tried to constantly beat into our heads that this was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and yet, the propaganda has shifted into a more realistic narrative and view that the COVID-19 vaccines do not halt the spread of the virus, including the boosters (an Israeli study of the Pfizer vaccine in a country that is currently on its fourth dose and still experiencing similar spikes to the rest of the world and a separate report out of Scotland suggesting that those with two doses of the vaccine were hospitalized at a higher rate than the unvaccinated have been telling). The three constituent governments on the island of Great Britain have declared an end to mask mandates and vaccine passports, as they get ready to live with this now endemic virus. The new Czech government has abandoned the previous mandatory vaccination policies, and Spain is considering allowing individuals to go back to normal. Is the Covid narrative falling apart for the benefit of society?

In the United States, President Biden’s executive edict on forcing businesses with over 100 employees to require everyone to receive the vaccine or have weekly testing was terminated (at least for now) by the Supreme Court, however, the mandate requiring all medical facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare to require their staff to be vaccinated was upheld. Despite the poor ruling on the latter, the decision on the former, in effect, ruled that the bureaucracy, outside of the legislature, cannot regulate all dangers that people face in everyday life simply because they must work and be at a place of employment (not to mention that the vaccine is permanent and cannot be turned off at home, and damage, regardless of how rare, cannot be undone). The Supreme Court has lost touch with the Constitution, but at least the Biden administration was not allowed to steal even more of our rights (the right to free association and to freely contract with anyone and in a manner of our pleasing).

The CDC has released some interesting narrative switches in recent weeks, as Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that 75% of those that died from the virus had four or more comorbidities (this was, of course, watered down to suggest that she was only saying that 75% of vaccinated individuals that died had at least four comorbidities, but even if that was the case, it is still pretty telling of the nature of the virus and its lack of lethality among most individuals in society). The agency also released a study showing that natural immunity was six times stronger than vaccination, and yet, all of this time, this type of thinking was considered misinformation spewed only by unscientific hicks. It is comforting to see that the official narrative is now catching up with “right-wing conspiracy theorists”.

Even New York Governor Kathy Hochul is starting to turn around, as she recently issued an order requiring hospitals to separate individuals that were hospitalized because of Covid and those that were in the hospital for something else but also happened to have the virus (where was this idea during the height of the pandemic when fear and an agenda were being pushed?). The governor lost some luck after a New York State Supreme Court (not the highest court in the state) judge in Nassau County struck down her mask mandates for schools and public places because the legislature did not pass a law and she no longer has emergency powers. It has also been admitted that cloth masks are unsuccessful mitigation measures (as worn in a manner that most people wear them) and are far inferior to N95 and KN95 masks, but many ignored the news because mask mandates remain on the unwritten books.

Another positive that has resulted from the changing narrative is that trust in Dr. Anthony Fauci has decreased from about 60% in April 2020 to about 44% in January 2022. The self-proclaimed representative of The Science has taken some hits as of late, especially from Senator Rand Paul. In the most recent of several exchanges, Paul attempted to get an answer from the “good doctor” about the email from former NIH Director Francis Collins and their conversation about creating a “quick and devastating published takedown” of three epidemiologists (Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University, and Martin Kulldorph of Harvard University) because they disagreed with the state-sponsored gospel that lockdowns were the answer to our prayers. The fact that bureaucratic scientists with that much power and the ability to make or break those seeking funding for studies were conspiring to bring down high-level scientists that refused to toe the line is telling of the authoritarian experience that Americans were forced to face, and although Dr. Fauci kept playing the victim of personal attacks instead of answering Senator Paul’s questions substantively, it is become increasingly clear that America’s top scientist is on the defensive and losing credibility.

Dr. Science also seemingly conspired with Collins to ignore, and perhaps cover up, the idea that the virus originated in the laboratory in Wuhan and may have been engineered, even though it was a plausible theory. Aside from Facebook and the corporate media initially censoring any mention of the lab leak theory, it does appear from the FOIA email dump that Fauci and Collins did originally believe that the virus likely came from the lab, but that they changed their views on this and attempted to make it look like a conspiracy theory after sources showing credibility were starting to be taken seriously. Since Fauci and Collins may have directed funding to the lab through EcoHealth Alliance, it would make sense that they would want to silence this theory and attempt to be relieved of their responsibility in creating the pandemic (DARPA refused to take on the project of altering these bat coronaviruses because it was too risky, but the NIH sure did not care about the potential consequences). SARS-COV-2 is a virus that was primed from the beginning to be receptive to human cells (and the proteolytic cleavage site that interacts with human furin was the subject of the 2018 proposal for DARPA and later for the Wuhan lab, perhaps at the behest of the same EcoHealth Alliance that received funding for gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses from the NIH), which may suggest that it was indeed engineered and accidentally or intentionally released.

The constant fearmongering in the media and by government officials have caused some to go mad, and even support draconian measures strictly for the unvaccinated, as a Rasmussen poll showed that 59% of Democrats supported forcing the unvaccinated to remain in their homes at all times, 48% of Democrats supported fines or imprisonment for the unvaccinated, 45% of Democrats supported relocating the unvaccinated to designated facilities, and 29% of Democrats supported the forced-removal of children from parents that refused to get vaccinated. Although some Republicans and Independents supported these policies as well, albeit to a much smaller proportion, this is terrifying. Some of our fellow Americans would prefer to make the lives of those who make a choice over their bodies miserable, or even send them to concentration camps, for a vaccine that clearly does not prevent communal spread. This is exactly how Hitler and other leaders throughout history have commanded and conditioned compliance from the vast majority of the population: scapegoat and convince them that committing horrendous acts were in the best interest of the collective.

Will those that held tight to the Covid narrative and were addicted to living under the spell of the government and the media for so long and became conditioned to the sense of duty and patriotism that gave meaning to their lives be able to handle the end of the crisis? Will they have a sense of hopelessness after this is all over? What kind of mental illness and harm has the fear and response from the virus caused? After all, a mother in Texas was charged for locking her Covid-positive son in the trunk because she was afraid to contract the virus, and another woman isolated herself in an airplane bathroom for hours when her rapid test came back positive mid-flight.

Aside from the obvious financial difficulties, lack of cancer screenings, drug overdoses, deterioration of our children’s learning and socialization skills, the psychotic donning of face masks in cars while driving alone or walking in remote areas with nobody in sight for miles, and the destruction of people’s lives and businesses; we will have to learn how to love and help each other as we rebuild our lives. The most diehard advocates of the Covid religion and the ones that fell for the narrative will have the most difficult time with this, and so these are the people that we need to reach, as it has become abundantly clear that most of the measures that they supported were put in place for nothing. Out of pride and to reconcile with their embarrassment for policy failures, will some of the Covid authoritarians within politics double down and take a more aggressive approach to “piss off” the unvaccinated, as French President Emmanuel Macron put it? Either way, we may soon see the downfall of the Covid narrative.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.

From Russia’s "False Flag" to Invade Ukraine to the WEF’s Cyber Polygon

While the United States government pretends that is seeking a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis by outright rejecting Russia’s proposal to halt NATO and troop expansions into the former Soviet Union, it is also setting up the narrative that Russia is about to send covert operatives into Ukraine to create a false flag that is then used to justify an invasion. Of course, American officials will not reveal what the false flag allegations are or how this information was obtained, and therefore, the credibility of these statements should be called into question.

As I have suggested previously, if Russia had troops in Central America and fomented a coup in Mexico, to Americans, deploying the United States military to Texas or Arizona would be seen as a rational move and one that most would think necessary for security purposes. However, when the United States, which has troops stationed in former Warsaw Pact nations and missile systems in Poland and Romania, participates in a coup against a democratically-elected government in Ukraine (under the Obama administration), Russia is the aggressor when it sends troops to the border, with the United States just being the innocent bystander. Although this is clearly propaganda created by the war hawks, the fact that we are in this state of cold war and under a bullying perspective is nevertheless astounding. But wait! It has now been reported that Russia has not ruled out the possibility of deploying troops in America’s backyard in Cuba and Venezuela, so maybe the United States will have to put its foot in Russia’s shoe after all.

Aside from the usual fearmongering by government officials and the corporate media, the Ukrainian government, which has much to gain from the United States taking out its enemy for it (the Biden administration is currently sending weapons and covert operatives to support the Ukrainian government, and U.S. Senators have recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to prove that the United States is committed to the Ukrainian cause), has been the largest cheerleader of an American intervention and has blamed Russia for the recent cyber-attack against government websites.

The United States, which has never committed cyber warfare against any other country on Earth, has blamed Russia for the recent cyber-attacks against it. These hacks include those on the Colonial Pipeline, the JBS meat processing plant and the Kaseya software company (the company that I work for may have been affected by this hack too), and SolarWinds (along with Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco) by DarkSide, REvil, and Nobelium, respectively. Although these groups are not directly linked to Russia, intelligence (again, the proof of this is not provided) suggests that they are “shielded and often employed by the Russian government.” No definitive proof is necessary, though, because we need to just blindly trust that the American intelligence community would never lie to us or do anything that is not in the best interest of the people.

Could 2022 be the year of massive cyber strikes by various forces around the planet (whether done by governments, criminals, or something else)? In 2021, the World Economic Forum (the group that hosted the virus exercise, Event 201, just months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) collaborated with 200 organizations and 48 countries to practice an attack on the global supply chain and business infrastructure in what was deemed "Cyber Polygon". More similar events are planned for 2022, so, is this telling of what is to come within the next year or two? Will there be false flags blamed on enemy countries in order to justify counterattacks and more authoritarian takeovers of our individual rights, like with the pandemic? Will the Biden administration get involved in a war with Russia over Ukraine? Or, will 2022 pass quietly, as officials attempt to crush a virus that is already endemic?

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.