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US abandons all semblance of rule of law to go after Assange
US abandons all semblance of rule of law to go after Assange
The US government can’t simply charge the man behind Wikileaks, Julian Assange, with rebel journalism.
So they charged him with computer crimes, because he published classified evidence of US war crimes.
But before the US could punish him, they had to get their hands on him.Sovereignman.com explained how they did that:
Ecuador recently expelled Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, from its embassy in London.
He had been living there with asylum since 2012, fearing extradition to the United States.
Assange helped leaked top secret information exposing US war crimes in the middle east. And last year it was revealed that the US indeed filed a sealed indictment against him.
Now he will be extradited to the Land of the Free to face charges related to computer hacking.
But the timing of Ecuador’s revocation of his asylum raises some suspicions.
Less than two months before Ecuador expelled Julian Assange from its embassy, it secured a $4.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The last time the IMF gave a loan to Ecuador was 2016. That was only $364 million, and it was to help them rebuild after a devastating earthquake.
The USA is the largest shareholder in the IMF (and is known to use cash to exert international pressure).
The timing seems a little too perfect to be a coincidence.
But now the USA has to actually prosecute Assange.
And to bolster the case, they wanted his accomplice to testify against him.
Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) was the Army Intelligence Analyst who leaked the classified documents to Assange. Manning served seven years of a 35-year sentence before Obama commuted her sentence.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
RED FLAG: Homeland Security Hiring “Media Monitoring Services” to Compile Journalist and Media Influencer Database
RED FLAG: Homeland Security Hiring “Media Monitoring Services” to Compile Journalist and Media Influencer Database
On April 3rd the Department of Homeland Security posted an ad to FedBizOpps.gov (Federal Business Opportunities). That is the government’s website where they post contractor work.
DHS is looking for “Media Monitoring Services.”
They want a database with built-in search and alert features. The DHS is looking for something that they can search to see which publications, journalists, and social media influencers are talking about the DHS, and what they are saying.
0.2 SCOPE
The contractor shall provide NPPD/OUS with traditional and social media monitoring and communications solutions.
0.3 OBJECTIVE
Services shall enable NPPD/OUS to monitor traditional news sources as well as social media, identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event. Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers.
The DHS wants the ultimate surveillance dashboard where they can know real time anything anyone is saying about them around the world.
Ability to track global online sources for coverage relevant to Washington and the six media hubs:
- Ability to track > 290,000 global news sources
- Ability to track online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications, local sources, national/international outlets, traditional news sources, and social media
They want to monitor worldwide media that has any mention of the Department of Homeland Security, or any specific event that they are interested in.
They make repeated mention of social media. This is not just journalists the DHS will monitor, it is any conversation on social media which mentions the DHS.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How China’s Social Credit Score Will Shape the “Perfect” Citizen
How China’s Social Credit Score Will Shape the “Perfect” Citizen
If you have too much debt and bad credit, it may be tough to get credit cards and loans. The idea is that people less likely to pay pack lenders get less credit.
Well imagine if there was a social credit system. But it was the government that used it to decide who could travel, or live in certain apartments. Imagine if your social credit was too low to send your kids to a private school, or get a better job.
But what kind of behavior would warrant such a score?
China is about to answer all our questions.
The country has a pilot program for a social credit system. The government will rate citizens based on how loyal they are to the state. Already almost 10 million Chinese citizens have been blacklisted.
The Chinese government has ultimate control over their citizens’ lives because almost everything requires the national ID card. And the number assigned to citizens can simply be restricted for whatever the government wants to take away.
The Chinese media refers to those on the list as deadbeats.
Chinese citizens will be rated on their real life and online behavior for things like patriotism, hard work, and avoiding materialism. The system will aggregate all available data, taking into account what books citizens read, what they buy, and how long they spend playing video games.
Bad social credit would eliminate the possibility of starting a business, staying in luxury hotels, and buying or renting property.
Not only will big data be used to rate the citizens, China will also rely on peer ratings. It is the ultimate social governance; making citizens police their neighbors.
By 2020, adults will all have an assigned social credit score in addition to their identity card.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How to Recognize and Leave Behind Your Social Conditioning
How to Recognize and Leave Behind Your Social Conditioning
Every decision humans make is colored by their past. Despite vast progress, we are still prey to the oldest tool of learning: social conditioning and the pressure of the group.
What was once a key to survival follows us into the modern age. It shapes our decisions, the careers we choose, and at times even forces us to act against our better judgment.
But we can break free and shape our own decisions. That is the gift of self-awareness. It begins with recognizing something most of us would rather discount; the effects of social conditioning.
Recognizing the prevalence of social conditioning within society and ourselves…
Real freedom from social conditioning begins with accepting and recognizing that we are influenced by social pressure.
A famous experiment into the effects of social pressure and conformity is the Asch experiment.
Solomon Asch, a social psychologist in the mid 20th century, set out to create an experiment that would test humanity’s propensity to conform to the group.
The experiment itself was carried out by selecting 50 individuals and subjecting them to a small vision test among a group of their peers.
All the participants had to do was simply look at two cards, one with a single line drawn on it and another with three lines drawn. Then participants chose which line on the second card was the same length as the single line on the first card.
The entire test was crafted to be as unambiguous as possible with an obviously correct answer in each experiment. All the participants had to do was say the obvious answer out loud after each of their peers had given their answer.
Unbeknownst to the participants, this was the true experiment. The group of “peers” taking the vision test alongside them were in on the experiment. Their mission was to unanimously give the wrong answer.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Survey Find Americans’ Views on Free Speech is a Whole Bunch of Crazy
Survey Find Americans’ Views on Free Speech is a Whole Bunch of Crazy
The biggest thing this survey proves is that Orwellian double-speak is working.
If you are unfamiliar, doublespeak is a term from the novel 1984. It is speech intentionally meant to confuse, or obscure reality.
What does free speech mean? What is hate speech? And what laws currently or should exist in regards to speaking freely?
The answers from Americans prove just how successful the media and politicians have been in making Americans less grounded than a satellite.
The powers that be have successfully confused and obscured any hint of rationality in beliefs. There seems to be little method and all madness. People simply make up their minds emotionally, instead of thinking critically. And that is how those in power like it.
When people behave emotionally, they are more easy to control. A rational belief would be something along the lines of Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
An irrational belief would be that anything that offends you should not be called free speech.
Those who believe the latter fail to understand that practically anything can be considered offensive to someone. Under those circumstances, politicians could limit any kind of critical speech, claiming it promotes violence, offends, or is hate speech.
Holding Two Contradictory beliefs
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that “it would be hard to ban hate speech because people can’t agree what speech is hateful,” …
Yet a majority of Americans and a supermajority of African Americans believe that “society can prohibit hate speech and still protect free speech.” (To complicate matters, a quarter of Americans, 38 percent of African Americans, and 45 percent of Latinos erroneously believe it is already illegal to make a racist statement in public.)
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Upcoming British Legislation Could Jail Journos for 14 Years
Business Arrow Policy Planned Espionage Act could jail journos and whistleblowers as spies … Proposals in the UK for a swingeing new Espionage Act that could jail journalists as spies have been developed in haste by legal advisors, The Register has learned. The proposed law update is an attempt to ban reporting of future big data leaks. The British government has received recommendations for a “future-proofed” new Espionage Act that would put leaking and whistleblowing in the same category as spying for foreign powers. That threatens leakers and journalists with the same extended jail sentences as foreign agents. Sentences would apply even if – like Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning – the leaker was not British, or in Britain, or was intent on acting in the public interest. – The Register
Britain is doing what one of the things it does best, which is thinking of how to punish people. Now it’s figuring out ways to throw more people in jail for longer periods of time for exposing various kinds of government crimes.
That’s right. It’s not thinking about lessening those crimes, only covering them up.
The British government has received an updated Espionage Act that is a good deal stronger than the act on the books. It puts journalitsts in the same boat as foreign agents when it comes to spying and also does not differentiate between those who are citizens of other countries and those who come from Britain.
More:
The proposals have been slammed by journalists who faced down British and US government threats after publishing Edward Snowden’s sensational revelations in 2013. The UK Law Commission’s recommendations are contained in a 326-page consultation paper titled Protection of Official Data [PDF].
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Unprecedented Mainstream Media Criticism of Central Banking Bodes Ill for the Larger Economy
DoubleLine’s Gundlach says ‘central banks are losing control’ … Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday investors are dropping risky assets and turning to safer securities including Treasuries and gold because they are losing faith in central banks. –Reuters
There is definitely considerable negativity about central banking in the mainstream media these days.
This is surprising, on the one hand, because central banking provides the foundation of the current economic system, worldwide.
On the other hand, such negativity may be signaling far worse.
Our theory, for years has been that the central banking system is presented as something that is economically positive when, in fact, it is quite negative and responsible for the gradual collapse of Western prosperity.
The mainstream media makes no real reference to the state of the West – or the world – when it comes to the larger economy.
China is collapsing. The European Union is half-bankrupt. The US is in a kind of depression.
But until recently the system that has created this mayhem has been treated as a kind of eternal or natural constant, like the sky or the moon or the sun.
Now however, with half the West running on negative interest rates, the cracks cannot be papered over.
The recent Bilderberg meetings apparently focused in large part on the economy.
Disaster was predicted and preparations were made.
In fact, this is how economies and economic systems “evolve.”
Out of “chaos,” order.
And to ensure that the responsibility for the chaos is not blamed on the bankers who run the central banking system behind the scenes, the central banking system itself is beginning to be blamed.
This is quite unusual. In past times, investment banking was blamed. Wall Street was blamed. Commercial banks were blamed. Now central banks are blamed.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Central Bank Soap Opera Hides Financial Globalization
Central Bank Soap Opera Hides Financial Globalization
Stock markets suspect Federal Reserve has interest rate jitters … Hints that the Fed won’t raise interest rates in March are proving to be good news for miners and oil producers’ share prices The Federal Reserve’s William Dudley said further strengthening in the dollar could have ‘significant consequences’ for the health of the US economy. – UK Guardian
Blame it on the dollar!
The Federal Reserve hiked a tiny bit and markets around the world plunged. This is the big story that implies the further loss of Fed credibility.
But there is an even bigger one that we’ll discuss at the end of this article.
Let’s continue with this Guardian analysis. The reporting is along the lines we would expect: We learn that market players have come to the logical conclusion that the Fed is not going to raise interest rates again any time soon.
Or even if they do “raise” them, they’ll have a negligible impact on real rates.
On Thursday, large stocks moved up and reports circulated that Fed officials were continuing to have “second thoughts” about a series of rate hikes. Here, more from the Guardian:
William Dudley, a top Fed official, said on Wednesday that monetary conditions had tightened since December’s quarter-point rise and rate setters would have to take note. Further strengthening in the dollar, added Dudley, could have “significant consequences” for the health of the US economy. Translation: the Fed probably won’t raise in March.
The dollar then sold off yesterday, while commodity prices rose, especially the share prices of miners and oil and gas producers. It was quite a clever statement, helping move the dollar down and the market up.
Even more importantly, it began the process of Fed damage control. The Fed hike had not merely bashed stocks, it had buttressed the dollar.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
