Mar 29

Nine arrested in Thailand for publishing news about election irregularities

Governments everywhere control the ballot box and seek to control what is said about elections and politics.

In the U.S., government officials get to hold free public press conferences daily during election season while subjecting challengers to police scrutiny under the guise of campaign finance regulations.

Recently, in Thailand, nine people were arrested for sharing news on Facebook claiming two election commissioners had been sacked and that 600,000 illegitimate ballots were mixed into the vote count.

They were charged “for sharing or onpassing false information”, said Siriwat Deephor, a spokesman for the Computer Crime Suppression Division Police. The accused face up to five years in jail and a $3,100 fine.

The recent Thai election was very close and contentious, and now both candidates for Thailand President are claiming victory. (But the challenger doesn’t get to arrest people who spread the incumbent’s messages.) See here.

Mar 20

Secret thought police patrol campus of Portland State U., reporting those who make jokes

The instant you walk onto a government-supported college campus, you become less free.

At Portland State University, students are advised to think twice before making a joke–about anything.

Did your joke invoke a mental condition? (“You’re schizophrenic,” “Are you crazy?”). Might your joke express latent or subtle class or age hierarchy? Or even hint at an ethnic or racial stereotype? (“That is so ghetto.” “Close the door; were you raised in a barn?”).

Just walk calmly and avoid facial expressions. Get in line. Look straight ahead. Don’t make eye contact with anyone. Don’t act out of place.

At Portland State, “bias response teams” patrol campus, accepting anonymous reports about students which can subject those students to discipline.

“Students and faculty are afraid to have honest conversations—or even joke around with each other—out of fear of being reported for a faux pas,” said one observer.

Mar 19

Russia enacts law punishing reporters who cast government into disrepute

IT’S BEEN DONE SO MANY TIMES BEFORE.

Days after the largest censorship event in human history (the global ban on possession of non-government-approved video from the supposed mosque shooting in New Zealand) the government of Russia has enacted a law designed to fine and imprison people who publish news which disrespects the government, or is otherwise designated by the government as “fake news” See here.

“The law on disrespecting authorities backs punishment for “offending state symbols” and stipulates hefty fines and jail terms of 15 days for repeat offenders.”

“Websites that fail to comply would be blocked.”

Mar 18

Two days after alleged New Zealand Mosque Shooting, authorities team with tech sector to massively ban images

LARGEST CENSORSHIP EVENT IN WORLD HISTORY

On March 15, a Muslim-hating gunman supposedly livestreamed his mass murder spree at a Christchurch, New Zealand mosque.

But a day later, governments around the world–in virtual total collusion with “private sector” companies such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter–have banned all postings of any video or any portions of it other than government-approved imagery. New Zealand authorities threatened citizens that they face up to 10 years in prison for “knowingly” possessing a copy of the New Zealand mosque shooting video – and up to 14 years in prison for sharing it. Corporations (such as web hosts) face an additional $200,000 ($137,000 US) fine under the same law. See here.

Many people who saw the “live stream” video taken by the alleged gunman report that the video appears laughably fake and staged.

Perhaps consequently, almost all imagery attached to news content about the story consists of nothing but images of police response as of March 18.

The Daily Mail ran a story entitled “Face of utter despair: Blood-soaked Christchurch worshipper embodies grief of a nation as he wanders from scene of mosque massacre that left 50 dead on New Zealand’s darkest day,” showing a picture with the caption “The survivor wandered aimlessly from the mosque on Linwood Avenue with blood covering his chest, arms and legs after the terrorist slaughtered 50 people on Friday”

Many commentators report that the ‘bloody guy walking around’ is reminiscent of the children walking around in circles for the cameras during the 2012 Sandy Hook event.

New Zealand government officials immediately announced more gun control for the people of New Zealand.

Mar 14

Congo president releases 700 prisoners arrested by predecessor as “national security threats”

Congo, like many African countries, has experienced years of political turmoil and violent uprisings.

In December the voters of Congo elected a new president, Felix Tshisekedi. Tshisekedi has signed a decree pardoning about 700 political prisoners.

The political prisoners were arrested and prosecuted by predecessors as “terrorists” and threats to “national security.”

Mar 14

Governments seek to secretly spread climate hysteria through religion

The promotion of climate change hysteria is estimated to be a $2 trillion-per-year industry. Governments spend billions pushing global-warming ‘research’ grants on university professors. Government ‘data’ agencies invest additional billions adjusting data to match the theory behind the scheme. Environmentalist groups spend additional millions to promote the message.

Now, a subcommittee of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change appears to be preparing to launch efforts to embed climate change hysteria messaging into mainstream religious doctrines. See here.

Mar 11

Americans increasingly detest their government; but it keeps getting bigger and more powerful

Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine has documented the increasing anti-government opinions of Americans.

“In 1964, according to Pew Research, 77 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that they “can trust the government in Washington always or most of the time.” By 2015, that figure stood at just 19 percent.”

A Gallup poll, conducted regularly since the ’60s, asks respondents whether “big government,” “big business,” or “big labor” is the “biggest threat to the country in the future.” “Big government” has always been the top response, but the margin of fear has grown far wider over time. In 1969, the fraction picking government was around 30 percent. By 2016, it had leaped to 67 percent.

Trust in Congress has steadily declined, from 42 percent in 1973, to 11 percent in 2018. The last time that number cracked 20 percent was in 2005. Confidence in the presidency has dropped from 52 percent in 1975—just a year after Watergate—to the low to mid-30s in recent years. “Imagine: More Americans trusted the presidency a year after Watergate than do now.”

Confidence in public schools has declined from 62 percent in the 1970s to the low 30s today.

And yet cynicism about government hasn’t diminished government. Over the last few decades, Washington’s size, scope, and spending have metastasized. . . . Over the last 50 years, federal spending on a per-capita basis nearly tripled, reaching about $12,000 in 2018. In 1970, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product was 18 percent. Since 2008, it has never sunk below 20 percent, a level typically reserved for periods of major wars. . . . The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over the next decade, federal outlays will average 22.4 percent of GDP annually.

Thus, according to Gillespie, critics of government are winning the battle but losing the war. Gillispie wonders if the decreasing trust in government has actually backfired: “A respectable and growing body of research shows that as societies move from relatively high to lower levels of trust, citizens counterintuitively call for greater and greater levels of government involvement in their lives. “Individuals in low-trust countries want more government intervention even though they know the government is corrupt,” summarize the authors of a 2010 Quarterly Journal of Economics paper.

Mar 09

U.S. Military Glorifies Deaths of Servicemen but Unceremoniously Dumps their Bodies in Landfills by the Hundreds

The Pentagon publicly celebrates sacrifice and promotes a message of honor and tribute to military veterans and service members. Declassified documents show the Pentagon has secretly spent millions of dollars to promote pageantry surrounding the sacrifices of the troops.

Americans proudly stand in silence at NFL games and honor the troops with moments of silence at graduation ceremonies and other public events. (It has repeatedly been shown that many such flag-waving ceremonies are bought and paid for by secret payments of tax dollars.)

Now Business Insider has found that the U.S. Air Force simply dumps its dead service members in landfills by the hundreds.

Mar 05

Google promised to stop working on its pro-government ‘Internet 2’; insiders say the company is still working on it

For years, Google secretly spent millions on efforts to build a second internet–mostly for the Chinese government. The project–called “Dragonfly” was kept secret even within the halls of Google headquarters.

Google’s second internet was designed to be totally pro-government. It was designed to censor out forbidden topics or any content which is critical of government.

But insiders within Google kept blowing the whistle on the secret project. Human rights advocates inside the company said that the Dragonfly project was being designed so that the Chinese government could identify internet users who typed in forbidden questions. This would allow cops or death squads to round up, imprison or kill such users.

In response to rising human rights concerns, Google executives announced months ago that they were ending the project.

But now insiders say there are indications the company is secretly moving forward with the project.

Strands of code associating with the Dragonfly system continue to be modified and changed. See here.

Feb 27

60 percent of Americans suspect journalists are paid by their sources; they may be right

A new survey by the Columbia Journalism Review in partnership with Reuters/Ipsos has found that the public’s trust in mainstream news media is lower than the public’s trust in any other institution, including even Congress.

“For decades, we’ve known that Americans don’t trust the press. What we haven’t known is how people view the makings of journalism, from the use of fact checkers and anonymous sources to the question of whether money skews journalistic decision-making. This new national poll for CJR answers those questions, and points to how big the trust gap remains.”

60 percent of respondents are under the impression that sources pay for stories. Their belief is supported by mountains of evidence that high-level mainstream reporters are secretly paid by government entities such as the CIA and FBI. Even those who are not paid are rewarded by government officials with scoops and leaks.

Congressional investigations and declassified documents have revealed that government agencies have secretly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on mainstream news reporters.

In practice, many government officials cultivate reporters who will report almost anything the government wants–whether true or false.

And since almost all mainstream journalists are Democrats who inherently look to expansive government as a benevolent source of warmth and comfort, their role as stenographers for the government may come easy.

Significantly, the new poll found that only a minority, 42 percent, of Democrats believe the media isn’t biased. (Just 10 percent of Republicans said the same.)