Plan Columbia

President Joe Biden has proclaimed himself the architect of Plan Colombia. A plan that transformed Colombia into a hyper-militarized bastion of right-wing rule, enhancing the power and presence of the notoriously brutal armed forces while failing miserably in its anti-narcotic and reformist objectives.

According to Robert White, the former number two at the US embassy in Bogota. The original Plan Colombia, was written in Spanish and had no mention of military action against the FARC rebels. However, in the translated Biden/Washington English version, almost 80 percent of the $7.5 billion plan went to the Colombian military. Five hundred US military personnel were promptly dispatched to Bogota to train Columbian military personnel.

On July 5, 2019, CNN interview Biden explained his Plan Columbia. “We went down and said, okay, and I was one of the architects of Plan Colombia,” Biden continued. “I said, here’s the deal. If you have all these crooked cops, all these federal police, we’re sending our FBI down, you let us put them through a lie detector test, let us tell you who you should fire, and tell you the kind of people you should hire. They did and began to change. We can do so much if we’re committed.”

Six years into the Bill Clinton/Biden Plan Colombia, US drug czar John Walters admitted that the price of cocaine in the US had declined, the flow of the drug into the US had risen, and its purity had increased. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime has reported that in 2018 coca cultivation reached record levels in Colombia.

In the first four months of 2019, more than 50 human rights defenders were killed. While the US remains in control, Colombian coca production has reached record levels. It has been a failed anti-drug policy with billions of wasted dollars and has produced a society in turmoil. Why does Biden remain boastful of his Plan Columbia?

Plan Northern Triangle 

After 15 years of human misery and billions of dollars squandered in Colombia, Biden set out on a personal mission to export his pet program to Central America crime and corruption-ravaged Northern Triangle.

Biden has bragged of imposing Washington policies on the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. His brainchild channeled $750 million through a right-wing government installed by a US-orchestrated military coup to spur mega-development projects and privatize social services.

At that time, the government of Honduras had no capacity or will to resist the Biden plan. Honduras had democratically elected president Juan Manuel Zelaya. In 2009, a coup orchestrated by the United States removed him from office.

Zelaya told Anya Parampil, “the Obama administration was infuriated by his participation in ALBA, a regional economic development program put forward by Venezuela’s then-President Hugo Chavez that provided an alternative to neoliberal formulas like the so-called “Biden Plan.”

Following the military coup, the FBI sent personnel to Honduras to oversee the training of FUSINA, the main operational arm of the Honduran army and the base of the Military Police for Public Order (PMOP) that patrols cities like an occupation force. Then the US embassy created a special forces unit known as the Tigres. Besides arresting activists, they reportedly helped a drug kingpin escape a US investigation.

After the coup, poverty, violent crime, and unemployment surged. The unstable post-coup Honduras was particularly harsh on LGTBI (Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex) Hondurans. Since 2009, more than three hundred in their community were killed.

By 2014, the blowback of the Obama administration initiated coup had caused a national emergency. Thousands of Hondurans were being confined in detention camps run by the US Department of Homeland Security. Many of the detainees were not even 16 years old. 

That summer, Obama went to Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to increase border militarization. Deportation of unaccompanied Central American minors was made possible. 

Plan Biden

Biden used that opportunity to rustle up an additional billion dollars, exploiting the crisis to fund a massive neoliberal project that saw Honduras as a base for international financial opportunity. Congress quickly ratified, and the first phase of the Alliance for Prosperity began. The role that Vice President Biden was so central it was known as “Plan Biden.”

Dana Frank, a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of the book, The Long Honduran Night stated; “In reality, the Plan would further enrich and strengthen the political power of the very same elites whose green, deliberate subversion of the rule of law, and destruction of natural resources and of Indigenous and Campesino land rights, were responsible for the dire conditions the proposal ostensibly addressed.”

The Alliance for Progress provided the backdrop for the assassination of the renowned Honduran environmentalist and feminist organizer Berta Cáceres. Cáceres was leading the fight against a local dam project overseen by DESA, a powerful Honduran energy company backed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and run by former military officers. 

A representative from DESA, Sergio Rodríguez, was accused of the masterminding of Cáceres’ murder. In March 2018, the Honduran police arrested DESA’s executive president, Roberto David Castillo Mejía, for “providing logistics and other resources to one of the material authors” of the assassination. 

Plan Democracy?

By 2017, a movement in Honduras against the US and its orchestrated 2009 coup saw an opportunity for political transformation at the ballot box. President Hernández was running for re-election, violating a constitutional provision on term limits. His opponent, Salvador Nasrallah, a popular broadcast personality, provided a consensus choice for those opposed to the coup regime.

When voting ended on November 26, Nasrallah appeared the victor. The exit polls were showing him comfortably ahead by several points. But suddenly, the government announced that a power outage required the suspension of vote counting. Days later, Hernández was declared the victor by about 1 percent.

The fraud was so transparent that the Organization of American States (OAS), an arm of US interests in Latin America, declared “errors, irregularities, and systemic problems,” as well as “extreme statistical improbability,” rendered the election invalid. But the United States recognized the results, leaving Hondurans with protest as their only recourse.

Plan Failure!

Karen Spring, of the Honduras Solidarity Network, explained, “Hondurans wanted to use their votes to change the country and now they’re voting with their feet,” she continued. “So if Biden’s plan really addressed the root causes of the migrant crisis, why aren’t people asking why migration is getting worse? Hondurans are voting on the Biden plan by fleeing and saying your plan didn’t work and it made our situation worse by fleeing to the border.”

Adrienne Pine, professor of anthropology at American University and leading researcher of the social crisis in Honduras, has explained. “Biden’s policies are driving more people out of Central America and making human rights defenders lives more precarious by defending entities that have no interest in human rights.” Pine added, “Biden is taking credit for doing something constructive to stop the migration crisis and blaming the concentration camps [on the US-Mexico border] on Trump. But it’s Biden.” 

As the social chaos continues to crippled the Northern Triangle, migration to the US-Mexico border has surged to catastrophic levels. Unable to make ends meet, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans send their children alone to the US border, hoping for protection or refugee status.

Mr President these people are dying to hear the details of the next Plan.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-turbulent-northern-triangle

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/28/biden-privatization-plan-colombia-honduras-migration/

The (not so) Great Reset 

The Great Reset is the brainchildren of the political and corporate Oligarchic elites. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has a global vision that includes socioeconomic planners and corporate stakeholders at the helm. These planners would be responsible for a substantial group of people living under an economic stasis of reduced expectations, with individuality curtailed.

The spiel that now is time to discard selfish individualism and get on board with sustainable development is how they sell it. In The Club of Rome, pioneers in globalization, 1991 book, The First Global Revolution, argued that policies could gain popular support if the masses linked them with an existential fight against a common enemy. The First Global Revolution contains a passage entitled The Common Enemy of Humanity is Man, states the following:

“In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine, and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions, these phenomena do constitute a common threat that must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.”

The Club of Rome and the World Economic Forum have frequently argued that population control methods are essential to protecting the environment. The Great Reset would similarly use the climate and environment to market otherwise unpopular policies.

The Great Reset presupposes that all stakeholders, as in the whole planet, must toe the line. Otherwise, we will have more polarization, nationalism, racism, increased social unrest, and conflicts. Could this be the return of the “with us or against us” ultimatum? What an eerily reminiscent of the post 9/11 world. 

Enter Klaus Schwab

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), defines Neo-liberalism as “a corpus of ideas and policies loosely defined as favoring competition over solidarity, creative destruction over government intervention and economic growth over social welfare.” Schwab uses Neo-liberalism as a straw man to blame for world economic woes.

Schwab claims that the Great Reset will peacefully establish nations that dutifully obey the new guidelines designed by their appointed Republic sages. Schwab calls for every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed.

The oligarchic elite experts and their partners will own all means of production. This command economic system has oligarchic party elites dictate who, when, where, and what cost production occurs. They decide who gets what and when from the production output. 

To enforce the constraints of the Great Reset, an expansion of government corporatism would have to follow. The government would favor selected industries and players. These corporate stakeholders would vest as much control over production and distribution, eliminate producers that do not follow the globalist vision of a fairer and greener future. 

The Free Market?

The Great Reset plan is to replace what little is left of the free market system and install a command economic system. The WEF goal is to limit the possibilities for individual activity and choice. In this New World, private property may be allowed. However, the central authority, the power elite, will ultimately determine property usage. 

They promise to provide a user-friendly transition into global socialism. The problem is that socialism has many skeletons in its closet. Historically, it has proven that socialism is a recipe for disaster. It leads to chaos, impoverishment, and loss of individual freedom.

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

Klaus Schwab writes that the covid crisis is an “opportunity [that can be] seized to make the kind of institutional changes and policy choices that will put economies on the path toward a fairer, greener future.” It is funny that crisis always seems to be lurking in the shadows when an opportunity to expand authority appears. Whether the Covid, window of opportunity, presented itself as a mere coincidence or by design has become a conspiracy theory for us tin-foil-hatters to banter.

The number of small businesses has been nearly cut in half by the covid lockdowns and Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots as corporate giants consolidated their grip on their industry and economy. These same giants have consolidated their power over individual expression on the internet and beyond. Thus, it would appear that the covid lockdowns, shutdowns, partial closings, as well as riots are just what the Great Reset may need for a catalyst. 

The covid lockdowns, and riots, have moved us closer to corporate socialism. With the lockdowns issued by governors/mayors and the destruction caused by the summer rioters, the corporate socialist work is has commenced. In addition to destabilizing the nation-state, these policies and politics have destroyed many small businesses, thus eliminating competitors.

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) points out, the lockdowns and riots have knocked out millions of small businesses. FEE reports that 7.5 million small businesses in America are at risk of closing their doors for good. Federal loans have not helped. Many small business owners will have to shut down for good. The toll has already been severe. In New York alone, stay-at-home orders have forced the permanent closure of more than 100,000 small businesses.

Amazon has thrived like never before as small businesses get crushed by these corporate giants. The tech giants like; Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, have prospered. While the riots of this past summer have cost $1-$2 billion in property damage, Amazon reported quarterly profits of $5.2 billion and a sales increase of 40 percent in the three months ending in June of 2020.

As reported by TechCrunch, Facebook, its WhatsApp, and Instagram platforms saw a 15 percent rise in users, which brought revenues to a total of $17.74 billion in the first quarter. Users of Facebook climbed to 3 billion in March, two-thirds of the internet users. Apple revenues soared during the same period, with quarterly earnings rising 11 percent year-on-year to $59.7 billion. The Washington Post reported that in the first quarter of 2020, Walmart’s profits rose 4 percent, to $3.99 billion. 

Visualizing The Great Reset

Michael Rectenwald, a critic of the Great Reset, has studied the Great Reset in depth. He scoffs at the Schwab rhetoric of economic equality, fairness, inclusion, and a shared destiny. He says these phrases represent collectivist, socialist, political, and ideological components of corporate socialism. 

Rectenwald claims the Great Reset will be a monopolistic control of production via the elimination of non-compliant producers. He claims that the results would be a centralized socialist planning regime where the elites would determine consumer needs by limiting production to acceptable goods and services by the chosen few. 

In a recent publication, Michael Rectenwald described the Great Reset as the convergence of economic, monetary, technological, medical, genomic, environmental, military, and governance systems. 

In terms of economics and monetary policy, the Great Reset would involve the issuance of universal basic income (UBI) with digital currency deposited into a centralized bank. Surveillance of bank accounts, overspending, and debt would be continuous. 

In technology, the Great Reset entails the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a trans-humanism, genomics, nanotechnology, and robotics and their penetration into human bodies and brains. The fourth Industrial Revolution involves the redundancy of human labor in increasing sectors, replaced by automation, robot structures that use nanotechnology and brain scans to predict and preempt human behavior.

In medical, medical passports, digitized, and transparency of medical records inclusive of medical history, genetic makeup, and disease states. The possibilities of implanting microchips that would read and report on genetic makeup; brain scans to assess security risks; medical passports and vaccine data to cross national borders.

In government, the Great Reset would mean an increasingly centralized, coordinated, expanded governmental bureaucracy. There would be a convergence of corporations and state, and the digitalization of governmental functions. They would use 5G and predictive algorithms, real-time tracking and surveillance of bodies in space, or the anticipatory governance of human and systems behavior.

Push Back – The Great Resist

Today, the progressives have endorsed the state to promote egalitarianism and purge society of poverty, racism, oppression, and patriarchal institutions. The Great Society failed miserably. But now they are promising to make good with the Great Reset. 

“Wokeism” has desecrated classical liberalism to the point of extinction. They dismiss those who value conventional gender relations, documented history, and free speech when their beliefs are “counter-woke.” Discourse to explain liberty is silenced by the cancel culture and anti-free speech forces. 

The covid crisis has eliminated many small and medium-sized businesses making the hold-outs more compliant to authority. A spirit of entrepreneurialism must be re-established to help the hold-outs keep their doors open. The public must support and promote the smaller-scale producers, distributors, and, mom and pop businesses. 

Those businesses that survive need to band together and defy the state and demand a full reopening of the economy. Local business associations and merchants must collaborate and become more proactive. Friendly legislation, regulations, and limited production will only drive midsized and small producers out of business. 

The Great Reset is Globalism. It would only benefit a select group of stakeholders who will preserve their common interest, purpose, and action. Globalism is not the answer. The answer is our local community, our neighbors, and our family.

Think Local – Buy Local – Live Local!

President Joe Biden ends many of his speeches with his heartfelt line: “May God protect our troops.” The newest con-man has arrived in Washington, not unlike those of the past. They set the bait, throw the hook, and catch the fish, a simple and effective plan.

A tool used to sniff out a veteran scammer is critical analysis. However, the ability to think critically has been so depleted we cannot distinguish between severe seasonal flu and the bubonic plague. The Department of Education does not have any critical thought courses included in the indoctrination curriculum. Cancel culture has destroyed discourse, and woke-ism now defined allowable commentary.

Do you remember the mainstream media? The purveyor of information; the source for commentary on proceedings and operations within Washington; the means to expose views from alternate policies; the access for the opposition to demand that decision-makers defend their stance; forget it, they are AWOL. They either omitted or de-platform most of the disserting criticism.

The Executive sets the bait with some cute little one-liner, “May God protect our troops.” The media casts the hook across their captive audience, and the game is on. The viewers get the full Hollywood version of reality; great visuals, intense sound with just the right touch of American Exceptionalism. The media completes this imperial scam with their carefully crafted culture of pageantry patriotism.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, the analytics on Washington policy may have gone belly up, but it is entertaining. My fellow Americans are the victims of this old and terrible ruse. Tragically, this scam has worked like a charm ever since Washington entered into the Imperialism game, “Remember the Maine?”

The critical question generated by Biden’s obligatory verbiage is: protect them from what?
Answer: from being put in harm’s way.

What harm? The harm created by having military personnel in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq; eight hundred-plus overseas bases; special operations forces in dozens of countries to combat threats of international terrorism; armed drones flying over at least nine countries; covert operations ongoing on at least three continents; cruel sanctions on people and states all over the World.

Most of the World believes that America is the greatest threat to their futures. Yes, these are the actions that our President is asking God to sanction.

The next logical question is who is responsible for putting the troops in harm’s way?
Answer: the President of the United States. Yes, President Joe Biden, you have the power to stop these endless stupid wars and the other associated violence.

Joe, maybe you should append your tag to “May God protect our troops on their journey back home to the States.”

Rest assured, the Establishment Mob survived. There was a 4-year hiccup, but those days are over. The Washington elites are back on track and hungry to continue their mission. Over the past several months, the Biden Administration has proven to be a very serious protector of the empire. It leaves little doubt that Washington will continue down its power politics road toward domestic and international supremacy.

Recently, Biden threatened Putin with a “pay a price” card. Not your run-of-the-mill Teddy Roosevelt advice to speak softly and carry a big stick. Biden’s nasty warning based upon an intelligence report claiming that it has evidence that indicated the Russian government “likely” ordered attempts to influence the 2020 elections. Naturally, the public cannot see this “rock solid” proof of Russiagate #2 evidence. Who knows they may even dust off the old gang of; Mueller, Comey, Brennan, and Clapper to substantiate the evidence.

Candidate Biden promised his administration would dedicate their efforts to restoring dignity and decorum in U.S. foreign relations. However, Biden has shown little regard for his promise. When he described President Putin as a “killer” and having “no soul,” he quite frankly tarnished any integrity he has left.

These statements are willful actions that will worsen relations with Russia. Our leaders: the President, Secretary of State, and National Security Council have reignited conflict with Russia, ramped up aggression with China, ignored a peace treaty in Afghanistan, refused to re-enter into the JCPOA treaty, and have continued to pursue regime change policies in Syria, Iran, and Venezuela.

The Washington game plan marches on; the Bush’s, the Clinton’s, Obama, Trump or Biden it is contiguous. Even with our 4-years, democratic, built-in regime change pageant, the beast does not stop. Biden’s threatening language, continued sanctions, and displays of military readiness hasten the pace toward confrontational actions. The current administration seems to be very comfortable being the new bully in town.

I prefer the average Joe, cowering in his basement, masked candidate Biden, to my drunk Uncle Joe ranting at the holiday table.

On Thursday, a bipartisan majority of the House Homeland Security Committee endorsed the idea of domestic terror laws. US lawmakers heard from the “experts” who claimed that another “domestic terrorist attack” would occur soon.

I’m “pretty sure” this is their Superbowl commercial to rally the audience for more Government protection!

I am “certain” the US lawmakers will take care of all domestic terrorist threats! How did the Patriot Act work out? I am “pretty sure” it didn’t.

The Oregon Truce

In  February, and Oregon ballot measure that decriminalized drugs took effect. Adults can no longer be arrested for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs. https://apnews.com/article/oregon-decriminalize-drug-possession-6843f93c3d55212e0ffbdd8b93be9196

Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. The addiction recovery centers will be funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon’s legalized marijuana industry.  Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the United States.

Brief History

In 1930, at age 38, Harry Anslinger was appointed the founding commissioner of the Treasury’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The bureau was not set up to target drug users or the “social evils” of drugs, it was instituted to chase untaxed revenue. But after, Prohibition, the 18th Amendment was repealed, out of self-interest and due to the obsolescence of the Department of Prohibition, Anslinger campaigned for a new prohibition against marijuana use. That was the unofficial start of the War on Drugs. In 1972, Richard Nixon formalized and nationalized it.

The Arguments

De-criminalization of drugs will create more violence. It’s the illegal, high risk, high reward environment that attract a unique cliental. People more prone to violence are amongst this demographic. The drug trade, because it is illegal, has no real criminal justice system. Justice is administrated by the violent participants that enforce their own system of justice. This results in violent gang turf wars and cartel rivalries. Cities and communities are torn apart, often times with innocents getting caught in the crossfire.

De-criminalization of substances will enrich the drug cartels. Just as alcohol prohibition gave rise to gangsters in the 1920’s, such as the notorious and deadly Al Capone, the war against drugs has given rise to violent drug cartels, making multi-billionaires out of drug kingpins like El Chapo. Prohibition places a high premium on the commodity due to it being illegal. Cash and power is the reward and violences the price.

In actuality prohibition of substances cost are huge. “The amount of money used to enforce prohibition started at $6.3 million in 1921 and rose to $13.4 million in 1930, almost double the original amount”. A 2015 study estimated that the repeal of Prohibition had a net social benefit of “$432 million per annum in 1934–1937, about 0.33% of gross domestic product.” This was primarily due to the increased consumer and producer surplus, tax revenues, and reduced criminal violence costs.

De-criminalization of substances will increase addiction. Current drug overdose is another issue that is fueled by the fact that the sanctity of the product is always suspect. Illegal drugs are readily available in most areas. Legalizing drugs would provide a higher level of confidence in the ingredients of the drugs being sold. Companies selling drugs could be held liable if they sell tainted drugs that poison their customers, an option not available under the current system.

Portugal took a proactive step to decriminalize drugs in 2000. Prior to 2000, they had the highest percentage of addicts in Europe. According to the AP article, “Portugal’s 2000 decriminalization brought no surge in drug use. Drug deaths fell while the number of people treated for drug addiction in the country rose 20% from 2001 to 2008 then stabilized.” 

Collateral Damage

The War on Drugs tears families apart, it jails people (mostly black men) for using or possessing a chemical that the government deemed illegal. Millions of children have had to grow up with a parent stuck behind bars for non-criminal acts. The Constitution limits the government to protecting citizens against others violating their rights. Government is not to protect us against our own judgment and actions as long as they do not harm others. Incarceration harms individuals, families and communities. 

The Drug War is destructive and it creates criminals. I prefer to call them victims, not criminals. Like every war the innocent are usually the “collateral damage.” This war destroys people’s lives, this war imprisons non-violent people because they choose to use or hold a substance, this war puts a permanent stain on peoples criminal record, this war makes it virtually impossible to join the job market, this war makes it difficult to obtain housing.

“The War is Over?” 

“Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen, setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which spearheaded the Oregon ballot initiative.

“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy,” Mr. Biden wrote in a September op-ed for CNN. “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal (JCPOA), the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.” Biden’s “credible path back to diplomacy” appears to have a few strings attached.

The Obama, I’m sorry, the Biden foreign policy experts are back in town. They are in charge with the handling of the JCPOA “re-negotiations”. Their negotiating tactic includes what Gareth Porter refers to it as good ole American “coercive diplomacy.” But the experts may have a flawed logic stream. 

Selective memory sometimes infects the Washington diplomatic corps. It’s perplexing that, “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal” is the basis for returning to the JCPOA agreement. Did they “forget” that the US violated the deal first and Iran had observed all of the JCPOA’s provisions for about two years after the Trump administration withdrew from the agreement. 

My memory tells me that it was not until the Trump administration reintroduced old sanctions (outlawed by the agreement) and the introduction of new sanctions aimed at preventing Iran from exporting oil did Iran breach its responsibilities of the nuclear deal. 

In reality, the US entered into an JCPOA agreement and then it broke a promise with a partner. By quitting the JCPOA promise, the US divorced itself from the relationship. But now wants Iran, the spurned partner, to make the first move toward reconciliation. Washington may even be looking for Iran to sweeten the deal by insisting on more concessions that were not part of the original deal.

Iran is holding firm on the original JCPOA agreement. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif recently explained, “The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited.” Zarif goes on to say, “The United States has a limited window of opportunity … The United States has to accept what we agreed upon.”

Washington’s propaganda continues to misrepresent the order of events and their motive. “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.” 

By declaring that Iran needs to “return to strict compliance” just to establish a “starting point for follow-on negotiations” is disingenuous. This is Washington double-talk for, “the hell with the agreement we signed,” let’s “right” the “wrongs” of the 2015 JCPOA agreement. 

The “rights” and “wrongs” of the 2015 JCPOA agreement may be solidified later this month. Israeli newspapers have reported that Israeli Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and his team will present the Biden administration with, “information gathered by Israel on the progress of Iran’s rogue nuclear program”.  

Cohen appears to be Israel’s messenger. Israeli news reports indicate that Cohen will instruct Biden of Benjamin Netanyahu’s (Prime Minister of Israel) demand “that Iran must halt the enriching of uranium; stop producing advanced centrifuges; cease supporting terror groups, foremost Lebanon’s Hezbollah; end its military presence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen; stop terror activity against Israeli targets overseas; and grant full access to the IAEA on all aspects of its nuclear program.” This would be a radical overhaul of the 2015 deal with far more nuclear stringent commitments with new intrusive dictates. 

Why coercive diplomacy? Have the experts fallen in love the Trump sanctions? It’s always nice to have your boot on the neck of the Iranian economy. Maybe it’s just Biden’s turn to grovel to the wishes of Israel? After all, Team Washington always follows the “next guy up” and “do your job” tradition. 

Q: Have you ever read Orwell’s 1984? A: Why? I’m living it.

I‘ve started 1984 several times but I have never completed the novel, I find it too depressing. However, I have actually experienced much of the vocabulary that I came across. I recognize terms like: newspeak, Big Brother, thought police, unperson and doublethink. 

1984 is a novel about language and how governments uses it to subjugate and obfuscate. Orwell was not a prophet, he just identified a crucial ingredient needed for any successful authoritarian government. He made it clear that threaten death, imprisonment or torture is not enough to control its citizens effectively. Orwell exposes the fact that the modern authoritarian state needs to be more subtle. It needs the public’s consciousness. 

Orwell points out that, with the destruction of language, independent thoughts become impossible. Confusing the meaning of words by introducing a new gibberish-language neutralizes logic reasoning. Doublethink, the ability to holds one’s mind with two contradictory beliefs at the same time, renders citizens extremely susceptible to propaganda. 

When U.S. government officials use terms such as “enhanced interrogation,” “alternative facts,” “collateral damage,” or “extremists,” some will understand that what they’re describing is actually torture, lies, innocent civilian deaths, and political dissidents.

In 1984, The Party destroys the human mind and heart by using constant propaganda that eliminates the truth by altering historical records to conform to the ever-changing Party Line. With no History, all truth flowed from The Party. 

In 1984 The Party required an unquestioning obedience and blind hatred of any person or group The Party proclaims as its enemy. Today we hear talk of sending the “deplorable” to “re‐education” camps. I picture brutal indoctrination sites, with inmates forced to recite “woke” propaganda and renounce MAGA.

1984’s Winston Smith’s asked “Why?” The Party leader explained;  “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others were cowards and hypocrites. They never had the courage to recognize their motives. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. How does one man assert his power over another? By making him suffer. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. In our world, there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement—a world of fear and treachery and torment. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.” 

Today, political dishonesty is rampant; the experts are abundant; the public is in fear; treachery abounds; and we are surrounded by rage. Is totalitarianism just a lockdown away? Will there be a large enough citizens resistance movement to counter the states attempt to dominate the consciousness of the people?

The Democrat Party rejected, maybe cancelled is a better word, Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 presidential campaign. Why would the Democrat Party reject a candidate that fits their demographic criteria? She is attractive, photogenic, well spoken, ethnically brown and liberal. Could it be that her character is intolerable to The Party’s cause; ethical, honest, with a belief in the US Constitution and outspoken against military intervention.

After the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 was introduced in the House earlier this week, (to prevent future coups?) Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic representative from Hawaii, expressed her concerns about the proposed legislation. The following text, taken from a recent interview, reveals one of her obvious Democrat Party flaws.

“This is an issue that all Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians should be extremely concerned about, especially because we don’t have to guess about where this goes or how this ends,” Gabbard said.

She continued: “When you have people like former CIA Director John Brennan openly talking about how he’s spoken with or heard from appointees and nominees in the Biden administration who are already starting to look across our country for these types of movements similar to the insurgencies they’ve seen overseas, that in his words, he says make up this unholy alliance of religious extremists, racists, bigots, he lists a few others and at the end, even libertarians.”

She said her concern lies in how officials will define the characteristics they are searching for in potential threats. “What characteristics are we looking for as we are building this profile of a potential extremist, what are we talking about? Religious extremists, are we talking about Christians, evangelical Christians, what is a religious extremist? Is it somebody who is pro-life? Where do you take this?” Gabbard said.

She said the proposed legislation could create “a very dangerous undermining of our civil liberties, our freedoms in our Constitution, and a targeting of almost half of the country.”

“You start looking at obviously, have to be a white person, obviously likely male, libertarians, anyone who loves freedom, liberty, maybe has an American flag outside their house, or people who, you know, attended a Trump rally,” Gabbard said.

In December 2020, then Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii), introduced the “Protect Women’s Sports Act” into the U.S. House of Representatives, (the Oklahoma Republican, Representative Markwayne Mullin, is a co-sponsor). Gabbard’s proposed legislation attracted some interesting responses from LGBTQ advocates, with claims of exposing, “her right-wing credentials with attacks on transgender student athletes”. Some have pigeonholed her as, “opportunistic people, like Rep. Gabbard who, under false pretense, claim to be protecting girl’s sports to justify discrimination.”

Gabbard says that her “Act” is to protect the intent of the 1972 Title IX amendment, that prohibited “discrimination on the basis of sex.” When Title IX was applied to the funding of athletic programs it increased the athletic opportunities for millions of female athletes. Today the definition of “Sex” is under scrutiny. This bill attempts to define “Sex” requirement for female sports.

The Supreme Court’s decision in, Bostock v. Clayton County, demonstrated, the logic of discrimination “on the basis of sex” can be defined in various ways. In Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC (the transgender case in the Bostock package), the majority of the Court was convinced that “gender identity” is an offshoot of sex and that, in the context of employment, distinctions between the sexes can amount to discrimination.

When applied to Title IX, “gender identity” males will be permitted to compete against females when they claim transgender or a male gender identity status. This could end women’s sports as we know it.

In education, the collapsing of sex-based distinctions began in 2016 under the Obama administration’s “guidance” to schools and colleges, telling them to expand the definition of sex to include “gender identity.” The Equality Act, which Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have promised to pass within 100 days of office, would overwrite sex with “gender identity” in federal anti-discrimination law.

In a statement, Gabbard said that the Protect Women’s Sports Act actually “protects Title IX’s original intent which was based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex.” The Bill would preserve an “equal opportunity for women and girls in high school and college sports,” as well as holding to account those “states who are misinterpreting Title IX, creating uncertainty, undue hardship and lost opportunities for female athletes” by allowing males to dominate and displace them.

Male elevated testosterone levels and androgenized bodies make them generally stronger and faster than females; research indicates 10 to 30 percent performance gap in elite sports. This advantage holds true in non-elite sports where male athletes can dominate the female field. In Connecticut two high-school-aged males (mediocre athletes in comparison with their male peers) deprived female competitors of 15 state championship titles and more than 85 opportunities to participate. https://4w.pub/three-connecticut-girls-sue-to-protect-womens-sports/

“And I ain’t no Communist and I ain’t no Capitalist
And I ain’t no Socialist and I ain’t no Imperialist
And I ain’t no Democrat so I ain’t no Republican
I only know one party and it is freedom I am, I am, I am
I am a patriot and I love my country
Because my county is all I know” Jackson Browne

The Kid “Comes of Age”

Congress has, for a long time, acted in collaboration with the media. This relationship started with the print media, that gave way to TV and Hollywood. Now there is another passing of the baton. The new kid on the block has flexed its muscles. Social media has arrived! 

The social media generation has come of age. A generation that defines the words “friend” and “like” differently than I do. Today’s “friend” is someone you can tolerate or anyone that does not troll you. The meaning of “like” is a bit more convoluted. It means that you actually want to be “liked” for “liking”. “Like” does not even indicate that you like the material posted. No,“like” is a declaration of membership into the tribe that the “liked” belongs.  

This is the generation that has been weened on social media.  A generation in search of “safe spaces” will pander for that warm and fuzzy feeling of being liked or friended. A generation that craves approval (“like”) and will sell their soul to avoid being not liked. (is thumbs down even an option?) This phenomena is contagious, many “cool adults” have discovered they too crave “friends” and “likes.” Hell, in the Covid lockdown you’re never alone when surrounded by “friends” that “like” you.

Social media is an environment of group-think. In this venue, the users will avoid or tolerate outrageous spewing as long as it is not directed at them. The spectators on social media realize that it’s a lot easier and safer to avoid and appease rather than resist. This is fertile ground for bullying and today’s social media bullies ostracize to destroy reputations, businesses and lives. 

Social media can be harsh, it brings out both the best and the worst in its users but the users “agreed” to this. As toxic as this environment may be the social media oligarchs make it worse. They have put their thumb on the scale of fairness. When they are allowed to choose the winners and silence the losers we all lose. The removal of social media platform Parler from the internet was driven by these dynamics. 

Congress “Likes” Social Media  

The relationship between Congress and the media has always been delicate. Sometimes it’s difficult to determine who’s the dog and who’s the tail. The conservative media works with their guys and the liberal media works with theirs. The social media oligarchs made a huge advance on the orders that they received from their Democrat “friends”. https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/democrats-use-big-tech-hearings-to-demand-more-censorship/

“Social media is one of the most powerful generators of group-think ever invented in human history, enabling a small number of people to make decision-makers feel besieged with scorn and threatened with ostracization if they do not obey mob demands. The other is that the liberal-left has gained cultural hegemony in the most significant institutions – from academia and journalism to entertainment, sports, music and art — and this weapon, which they most certainly did not invent, is now vested squarely in their hands,” says Glenn Greenwald. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-moronic-firing-of-will-wilkinson

The oligarchs of social media are not idiots. Greenwald says, “It is inconceivable that Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and Google executives believe that Parler is some neo-Nazi site that played anywhere near the role in planning and advocating for the Capitol riot as Facebook and YouTube did.” 

Was deplatforming Parler a simple business decision? The oligarchs had a clear choice between taking a 1st Amendment approach to expression or two, censorship, wiping out the voices that they disapprove. If they choose the freedom of speech approach they would have suffered retaliatory assaults from their users. By traveling the censorship path, de-platforming Parler, they would satisfy their “liberal”tribe of uses, appease their Congressional collaborator, console the Trump Derangement Victims and it would silence the #1 app downloaded (at that time) and its 10 million users. No brainer, destroy Parler!

Whether it’s: banning Donald Trump’s and his followers from social media; or Antifa accounts for organizing anti-Biden marches; or Palestinian journalists; or canceling any reports of the Hunter Biden illegal behavior uncovered on his laptop; or pro BDS support; or anti-Covid virus claims; these bullies will find “dangerous” expression and silence it. 

The Social Media Mob is alive and well.