A Free And Open Internet Is An Existential Threat To The Establishment

Last week, a video clip of Francis Fukuyama went viral. In the clip, the political scientist called freedom of speech and a marketplace of ideas “18th century notions that really have been belied (or shown to be false) by a lot of what’s happened in recent decades.”

Fukuyama then reflects on how a censorship regime could be enacted in the United States.

But the question then becomes, how do you actually regulate content that you think is noxious, harmful, and the like—and do it in a way that’s consistent with the First Amendment? Now, I think you can push the boundaries a bit because the First Amendment does not allow you to say anything you want. But among liberal democracies, our First Amendment law is among the most expansive of any developed democracy.

And you could imagine a future world in which we kind of pull that back and we say no, we’re going to have a law closer to that of Germany where we can designate - the government can designate something as hate speech and then prevent the dissemination of that. But the question then is, politically, how are you going to get there?

Putting aside the fact that the censorship regime Fukuyama is talking about is already here, it’s important to consider the admission behind his words.

Francis Fukuyama is often associated with the neoconservative movement. And that’s for good reason. He was active in the neoconservative Project for a New American Century and helped lead the push for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But he later turned against the war and renounced neoconservatism, so he can perhaps better be understood as an intellectual proxy for the Washington establishment.

Fukuyama is best known for his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man. The book argues that liberal democracy represents the endpoint of humanity’s ideological evolution and the final form of government because of its defeat of fascism and socialism and its supposed lack of inner contradictions.

If there was ever a time when this idea would resonate, it was 1992. The Soviet Union was gone, and the US government, fresh off its sound defeat of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, was the most powerful single entity in history.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/free-and-open-internet-existential-threat-establishment

Russia confirms ‘massive barrage’ on targets in Ukraine

An overnight operation added to 50 group strikes conducted throughout the week, the Defense Ministry reported

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that its forces launched a series of air attacks against multiple targets in Ukraine in the last week. A statement from the ministry on Friday detailed 50 “group” strikes and a single “massive” barrage using precision missiles and drones.

The ministry described the intended targets as “defense industry sites, military airfield infrastructure and depots for the storage of artillery munitions, naval drones, arms and fuel for military vehicles,” as well as troop positions. All of them were successfully hit, the statement added.

Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, reported earlier in the day that at least 158 separate launches were detected by Kiev’s troops on Thursday evening and Friday morning. He claimed that of the total, 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles were intercepted.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ignat said in a televised statement that “we have never seen so many targets on our monitors simultaneously.”

Officials in various parts of the country claimed damage to several warehouses and a metro station in Kiev, among other locations.

https://www.rt.com/russia/589869-moscow-massive-attack-ukraine/

Iran's IRGC Suffers Single Deadliest Day In Syria As Israel Strikes Damascus Airport

In the late night hours of Thursday, Israel launched a series of new airstrikes on the Syrian capital, especially with heavy strikes targeting Damascus International Airport, which had already been hit several times in the last few months.

"Around 11:05 p.m. Thursday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the southern region," a source was cited in Syrian state media as saying. By Friday it emerged there had been a delegation of high-ranking Iranian officers set to arrive at the airport. Syria said it intercepted only some of the inbound projectiles.

Gulf news outlet Al-Arabiya is now reporting that the Thursday overnight attack "killed 11 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)" according to its sources.

"The targeted IRGC members, responsible for overseeing Iran-backed forces in eastern Syria, were present at the airport to welcome a senior delegation, the sources said," the report added.

And Fox News, citing Israeli media, said that among the dead is Nur Rashid, who is eastern Syria's commander of the Revolutionary Guards. Syria has increasingly become ground zero for Israeli waging war against Iranian military and intelligence commanders, and it looks like this fast escalating.

Crucially, less than a week ago Israel took out a general described as Iran's top commander in Syria. Gen. Razi Mousavi was also a close associate of slain IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani. On Friday, Gen. Mousavi was laid to rest in the Iranian capital, as the Associated Press describes:

Iran held a funeral Thursday for a high-ranking general of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who was killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria.

Hundreds of mourners accompanied the flag-draped casket of Gen. Razi Mousavi from a central square of Tehran to a shrine in the north of the city where he was buried.

The airport attack constitutes one of the single deadliest days for the IRGC in Syria over the past decade of war there…

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/irans-irgc-suffers-single-deadliest-day-syria-israel-strikes-damascus-airport

Argentina opts out of BRICS – media

Newly elected President Javier Milei had previously expressed his reluctance to join the bloc

Argentina has formally rejected an invitation to become a member of the BRICS group of nations, several news media outlets reported on Friday, citing an official letter they have seen which has been sent to the leaders of Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. While President Javier Milei had previously voiced his opposition to joining the alliance before being elected, the move represents a complete U-turn from the policy of his predecessor, Alberto Fernandez.

Fernandez had accepted the invitation to join the five-nation group in August, holding that such a move would offer the Latin American nation a “new scenario” for its development. Milei, who won the presidency in November, said at that time that he would not “push for deals with communists because they don’t respect the basic parameters of free trade, freedom, and democracy.”

One of Buenos Aires’ letters was published by media on Friday and apparently addressed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It said that the policy of the new Argentinian government would “differ in many cases from that of the previous government” and that some of its decisions, including “active participation in BRICS,” would be “reviewed”. None of the BRICS nations so far has officially confirmed receiving the letter.

Argentina’s foreign minister Diana Mondino, who previously served as Milei’s senior economic adviser, also said that her government did not “see any advantage” in becoming a member of the group and would thus “not join BRICS.”

The letter stated at the same time that Milei’s government plans to “intensify” bilateral ties with BRICS members, particularly in the fields of trade and investments. Earlier, the president said that, although he was not going to “align with the communists,” his government would still not prevent the Argentinian private sector from doing business with “whoever it wants.”

The South American nation is currently struggling with its worst economic crisis in decades. Inflation has surged 160% over the past year alone. The severely devalued peso forced the country to refinance its $44-billion debt to the IMF. Milei’s government is also facing massive protests over its radical deregulation and austerity-based reform program.

In total, more than 40 countries have so far expressed interest in joining BRICS, according to current group chair South Africa. Starting January 1, the association will be joined by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Russia will hold the presidency of BRICS in 2024. The nation’s priorities during its chairmanship would include further expansion of the “circle of BRICS friends” to include Latin America countries, as well as an increase in trade settlements using national currencies, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in October.

https://www.rt.com/news/589904-argentina-opt-out-brics-media/

Zionists Launch ‘Massive Coordinated Attack’ on Christians in Jerusalem

Israelis even used 'nerve agents' in their attack against Christian faith leaders and community members.

Armed Zionist terrorists launched a “massive and coordinated physical attack” against Christian clergymen and other Christian community members in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, where violent Zionists backed by Israeli law enforcement and members of the Israeli government have been attempting an ethnic cleansing to clear the way for Jewish “settlers” and business interests. Ironically, the Israeli attempts to expel or murder the Christians of Jerusalem come as the nation continues to claim it’s in the middle of fending off a holocaust at the hands of Hamas insurgents.

An “URGENT COMMUNIQUE” issued by the Chancellery of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that “A MASSIVE AND COORDINATED PHYSICAL ATTACK WAS LAUNCHED ON BISHOPS, PRIESTS, DEACONS, SEMINARIANS, AND OTHER ARMENIAN COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN JERUSALEM,” on December 28th.

The release from the Armenian Patriarchate went on to say that numerous clergymen and others were seriously injured in the Zionist attack, which comes as Israeli “settlers,” as well as banking and business interests, attempt to take over Jerusalem’s historic Armenian Quarter, home to thousands of Orthodox Christians.

“Over 30 armed provocateurs in ski-masks and with lethal and less-than-lethal weaponry including powerful nerve-agents that have incapacitated dozens of our clergy broke into the grounds of the Cow’s Garden and began their vicious assault,” the release explained, recounting the latest anti-Christian, Zionist attack on the ethnic Armenian, Christian community of Jerusalem’s Old City.

“ARMENIAN CLERICS IN JERUSALEM ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AGAINST IMPUNE PROVOCATEURS,” the release went on, stressing the widespread support among Israeli authorities for the Jewish “settlers” who aim to seize lands from Christians – the same practice they’ve long employed against Muslims.

In the same urgent release, the Armenian Patriarchate explained that the December 28th attack on the Armenian Quarter came less than 24 hours after the Patriarchate filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Jerusalem for the Cow’s Garden, seeking to block the construction of a luxury hotel in the Armenian Quarter by an Australian-Israeli businessman named Danny Rothman, and his partner George Warwar.

“We are calling on authorities around the world and the International Media to help us save the Armenian Quarter from a violent demise that is being locally supported by unnamed entities,” the Armenian Patriarchate’s release went on, before calling on the Israeli government to put a stop to the attacks, “which seem to have no end in sight.”

https://nationalfile.com/zionists-launch-massive-coordinated-attack-on-christians-in-jerusalem/

‘Russian Missile’ Entered NATO Airspace, Says Poland: Combat Readiness Increased

Poland says a Russian missile participating in this morning’s massive air strike on Ukraine spent three minutes in Polish, and hence NATO, airspace.

A missile entered NATO airspace on Friday morning at around 0700 (0000 EST), the Polish military says. While initially said to have been a missile of unknown origin and a search for a downed aircraft was launched, Poland now says it has confirmed with its own observations and data from allied militaries that the object was, in fact, a Russian missile.

Polsat reports the remarks of General Wiesław Kukuła who said Ukraine had suffered “a difficult night” of a saturation attack by Russian forces against its air defences, attempting to overwhelm them with drones before pressing on with a missile followup. Polish air defences tracked these attacks over Ukraine, he said, and “One of these rockets crossed the Polish border and then left it.”

Pictures: Russia Launches Biggest Air Raid of the Year With 122 Missiles and 36 Drones, Says Ukraine https://t.co/kBB0FSj0bH

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 29, 2023

Combat aircraft were scrambled to protect Polish airspace, he said, and Major General Maciej Klisz further remarked that Poland’s operational command had experienced “a busy nice… a busy night for all elements of Poland’s air defence.”

Poland says the missile crossed into its territory east of Zamosc, near Lublin, and spent three minutes in Polish airspace, crossing 40 kilometres (25 miles), an indicated airspeed of 500 miles per hour. It is possible a missile launched from Belarus around the ancient city of Brest towards Lviv in Ukraine (Lwów) would pass through Poland in the area described, for the distance described as the Polish border continues slightly further east in this area.

Lviv was one of the Ukrainian cities struck this morning, as noted by Ukrainian state media.

Polish armed forces’ Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski said “to ensure the safety of our airspace… the combat readiness of our air defence assets, as well as the [on-duty] pair of jet fighters have been increased”, it was reported.

The intrusion of a Russian missile into NATO airspace has caused concern in Poland, which is already well aware of its proximity to the conflict. Other missiles from the conflict have already landed in Poland, apparently by mistake, including a Russian missile and a lost Ukrainian anti-air missile.

Romania, which also borders Ukraine and a NATO member, has also experienced overspill from Russia’s strikes, with Romanian soldiers stationed on the Vistula river so close to Russian raids they were able to record falling bombs exploding hundreds of yards away on their cell phones. There have been several incidents of debris from drones falling on Romanian territory, and several border villages have had bomb shelters installed by the Romanian military this year to protect residents in case of further intrusions.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/12/29/russian-missile-entered-nato-airspace-says-poland-combat-readiness-increased/