The Arab-Israeli alliance is fueling conflicts in the Middle East

The world is split between 2 spheres of influence, with the US and EU on 1 side, and Russia and China on the other.

There are 2 camps in the Middle East: those countries which work with ‘Israel’, and those who do not. The countries which have established relationships with ‘Israel’ are Turkey; United Arab Emirates (UAE); Saudi Arabia; Qatar; Bahrain; Oman; Jordan; Egypt. This group of countries is backed up by the US and the EU.

The countries which do not have a relationship with Israel are Syria; Lebanon; Iraq; Iran; Occupied Palestinian; Yemen; Algeria. This group of countries has established a very good relationship with Russia and China.

The world is split between 2 spheres of influence, with the US and EU on 1 side, and Russia and China on the other. This situation is very similar to the ‘Cold War’ years when the world was split between the Soviet Union and the US.

The Arab Gulf role in the Middle East conflicts

In Syria, since 2011 the Arab Gulf countries, allied with Turkey and ‘Israel’, have sent and trained terrorists, who are following the political ideology of Radical Islam, which is not a religion, or a sect. These countries have bowed to the pressure of the US sanctions on Syria, and have refused to do business with Syria, even on humanitarian items. They have also waged political war on Syria, by accepting the removal of Syria from the Arab League, which was proposed by Qatar at the beginning of the conflict.

In Libya, the Arab-Gulf countries have been funding both sides of a civil war, while stealing petroleum resources there. While Turkey and Qatar are funding and supporting the forces of Prime Minister Sarraj, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are funding and supporting the opposing forces of Field Marshall Haftar. Recently, it was revealed that the UAE bought Israeli military weapons and sent them to Haftar. Beginning in 2011, these countries participated in the ‘regime change’ project which saw Colonel Qaddafi removed from power, and murdered.

The chaos that exists in Iraq today began with the US military intervention in Iraq, which included 2 wars. The Arab Gulf countries, with their ally Israel, have funded and supported the Iraqi Kurdish separatists, who have been successful in dividing Iraq. It was the Arab Gulf countries that nurtured and gave birth to the political ideology we know as Radical Islam. The various terrorist groups, such as ISIS, Jibhat al Nusra, Al Qaeda, and others are all the creation of the Arab Gulf countries. The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 saw the stealing of petroleum resources, gold bullion from the Central Bank, and antiquities from the National Museum in Baghdad. This looting of Iraqi resources is continuing. The Arab Gulf countries have funded and supported differing Muslim sects to ensure the various groups will continue to fight, thus keeping Iraq weak and divided.

https://theduran.com/the-arab-israeli-alliance-is-fueling-conflicts-in-the-middle-east/

From 9-Eyes to 14-Eyes: the Afghanistan SIGINT Coalition (AFSC)

It was a mystery for over five years: the 9-Eyes intelligence cooperation, which was first revealed by The Guardian in November 2013. It was only an extensive new piece on the website The Intercept from last May that made clear that the 9-Eyes is actually the Afghanistan SIGINT Coalition (AFSC).

The main purpose of the AFSC was to collect GSM metadata using DRT interception devices and feeding them into the NSA's huge data analysis platform for Afghanistan operations called the Real Time Regional Gateway (RT-RG).

The AFSC started in 2009 with nine members but eventually grew to the same 14 countries that already cooperated in another intelligence exchange group called SIGINT Seniors Europe (SSEUR). The AFSC existed at least until the end of 2014.

Intelligence sharing coalitions

The existance of the 9-Eyes group was first revealed by the British newspaper The Guardian on November 2, 2013:

"The NSA operates in close co-operation with four other English-speaking countries - the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - sharing raw intelligence, funding, technical systems and personnel. Their top level collective is known as the '5-Eyes'.

Beyond that, the NSA has other coalitions, although intelligence-sharing is more restricted for the additional partners: the 9-Eyes, which adds Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Norway; the 14-Eyes, including Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Sweden; and 41-Eyes, adding in others in the allied coalition in Afghanistan."

This revelation caused some embarrassment, as especially France and The Netherlands had clearly expressed their anger about the NSA's alleged eavesdropping operations against their citizens (see below), but now it turned out they were also engaged in some close alliances with the Americans.

Other 9-Eyes: CFBLNet

The Guardian's revelation started speculation about the differences between these groups and their specific purposes. From open sources, a range of similar "Eyes" for sharing military and intelligence information were identified on this weblog in November 2013 in a posting titled Five Eyes, 9-Eyes and many more.

It turned out that the term 9-Eyes was already used since 2008 for exchanging classified information among the Five Eyes and nine NATO members of the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network (CFBLNet). This is a multilateral network for research, development and testing on C4ISR systems.

However, the members of the CFBLNet 9-Eyes were not fully identical with those in the Guardian article, so it seemed not likely that this was the mysterious 9-Eyes group mentioned in the Snowden documents.

https://www.electrospaces.net/2019/09/from-9-eyes-to-14-eyes-afghanistan.html

Part 1

>>8791137

RT-RG started as a project called RT-10, which was first deployed in Baghdad in 2007. An internal NSA newsletter says that in order to provide a comprehensive real-time view of the telephone and internet communications in Baghdad (with roughly 4 to 5 million residents), the RT-10 system had to be able to ingest each day:

- 100 million telephone metadata records

- 1 million pieces of telephone content

- 100 million internet metadata records

The success of the RT-RG system lay in the fact that these massive amounts of data were stored locally: in 2009, a large RT-RG data center was built at Area 82 of Bagram Airport north of Kabul. It was right next to the Afghanistan Regional Operations Cryptologic Center (A-ROCC), where analysts from the 9-Eyes countries worked side-by-side.

Previously, war-fighters in the field had to retrieve their intelligence from central databases at NSA headquarters. This costed time and bandwith, but it also meant that only data related to known targets was sent back and stored. But with storing the full-take collection in a regional repository, all data could be subjected to analytic algorithms in order to find new targets for the so-called Find, Fix, Finish operations.

In 2011, the Afghanistan RT-RG had a database of 27 terabytes, which could only store approximately one month of regional data (90% of the user queries were within a one-week timeframe though). A planned move to NSA's new cloud architecture would increase the storage space to up to 125 TB and would allow larger-scale analytics to be conducted.

BOUNDLESSINFORMANT

How many GSM metadata the countries from the Afghanistan SIGINT Coalition collected can be seen in charts from the NSA's data visualization tool BOUNDLESSINFORMANT. The available charts show that the following numbers were acquired through the DRTBOX system during a one month period between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013:

- France: 62 million metadata records

- Spain: 60 million metadata records

- Italy: 45 million metadata records

- Sweden: 33 million metadata records

- Norway: 33 million metadata records

- Denmark: 22 million metadata records

(The chart for the Netherlands shows the CERF CALL method through which cellphone metadata from Somalia were collected. DRTBOX is not mentioned, maybe because Dutch troops had left Afghanistan already by August 2010)

These numbers are very small compared to what NSA and American military units collected. They also, once again, show that "mass surveillance" of entire populations would require the collection of billions of metadata records rather than the millions that showed up in these particular charts (60 million would roughly be the number of metadata generated by 20.000 handsets).

In the second half of 2013, these charts were published in various major European newspapers saying that they proved that NSA monitored millions of phone calls in those countries. Soon it turned out this interpretation was completely wrong, something which co-author Glenn Greenwald only admitted in The Intercept's article from last May.

> See also: Dutch government tried to hide the truth about metadata collection

Part 2

End

Bill Gates: Lies About Event 201, Rockefeller Connections and Lock Step Simulation

Derrick Broze breaks down recent lies from Bill Gates, his involvement with Event 201, his relationship to the Rockefellers, the Lock Step Simulation, and more.

Show Notes:

Bill Gates: Few countries will get ‘A-grade’ for coronavirus response

Event 201

Bill Gates’s Charity Paradox

Family Relationship of Bill Gates

The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls”

Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development (LockStep pg 18)

https://youtu.be/omPksuFvsaM

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/04/bill-gates-lies-about-event-201-rockefeller-connections-and-lock-step-simulation.html

Documents Reveal Feds Are Excited To Create A Mass A.I. Surveillance Network

A FOIA request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center revealed how excited the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) is about using CCTV cameras to create a national surveillance network.

An NSCAI presentation titled “Chinese Tech Landscape Overview” discusses China’s facial recognition CCTV camera network in glowing terms.

When we talk about data resources, really the largest data source is the government.

The presentation discusses how the Chinese government profits from encouraging companies to use facial recognition on visitors and employees.

Now that these companies are operating at scale they are building a host of other services (e.g. facial recognition for office buildings, augmented reality).

In America things are not all that different.

In the United States, the Feds encourage private companies like Clearview AI, Amazon Ring and Flock Safety to use facial recognition and automatic license plate readers to identify everyone.

Under the section “State Datasets: Surveillance = Smart Cities” the presentation extols China’s smart city surveillance saying, “it turns out that having streets carpeted with cameras is good infrastructure for smart cities as well.”

Americans do not need more government surveillance and we certainly do not need our smart cities carpeted with government surveillance devices.

The NSCAI says, “mass surveillance is a killer application for deep learning.

As our government applies AI deep learning to things like CCTV cameras, cellphone locations, and license plate readers, a person’s entire life can be predicted.

Artificial intelligence will use deep learning to accurately guess where you work, eat, shop, sleep, worship and vacation. Basically, mass surveillance is a killer application for knowing all there is to know about everyone.

Last week MLlive, revealed that a startup AI company co-founded by the University of Michigan is helping governments use CCTV cameras to monitor people for social distancing as indicated by a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan (UM):

Two weeks ago, Corso said he and his team began tracking physical distancing at locations like Times Square in New York, Miami Beach, Abbey Road in London and the Ruthven Museums Building at UM.

Police in New York City use CCTV cameras to fine people up to $1,000 for not social distancing. While police in Florida set up checkpoints on highways and police in the United Kingdom use CCTV cameras to enforce stay-at-home orders.

Voxel51 uses their “physical distancing index” to track social distancing in major cities around the globe.

https://epic.org/foia/epic-v-ai-commission/EPIC-19-09-11-NSCAI-FOIA-20200331-3rd-Production-pt9.pdf

https://news.umich.edu/advancing-ai-for-video-startup-launches-powerful-video-processing-platform/

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/04/ann-arbor-startup-tracks-social-distancing-efforts-around-the-world-using-street-camera-footage.html

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/04/documents-reveal-feds-are-excited-to-create-a-mass-surveillance-network.html

A short timeline of Goldman’s bullsh*t

The S&P 500 sees 18% growth over the previous 12 months; one of the best years on record

December 31 2019: Goldman declares US economy is recession-proof

The S&P500 hits 2700; officially a bear market

March 11 2020: Goldman predicts bottom at 2,450 by mid-2020

The S&P500 hits 2380; blows out Goldman’s previous prediction of a bottom

March 15 2020 (4 days later lol): Goldman predicts bottom at 2,000 by mid-2020, Source 2

March 17 2020: Goldman declares global recession is underway

The S&PP500 rebounds to 2750; one of the strongest bear market rebounds on record

April 13 2020: Goldman says bear market is over. They were just kidding about those mid-2020 bottoming predictions

It’s abundantly clear that Goldman is making their “predictions” after the market has made its move. They know nothing, or in my opinion, they are playing the taxpayers and fed as fools by overstating the dangers (fed, give us tons of money we need it NOW) and then overstating the recovery (look you fixed the economy by giving us tons of money, thx fed).

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/a-short-timeline-of-goldmans-bullsht/

Israeli Companies Urged to 'Cash In' On $2 Trillion Coronavirus Bailout

Most Americans still haven't gotten their one-time $1,200 checks but Israeli companies appear to already be cashing in on $10 million grants.

The $2 trillion coronavirus bailout bill featured a carve-out for foreign-owned businesses to take billions of dollars from struggling American citizens to line their coffers.

The news was reported with glee on Monday by Israeli Tech and Startup News site CTech.

From CTech, "Israeli Companies Can Cash In On $10 Million Check from Trump":

Israeli companies hit by the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis are eligible for loans and grants not only from local programs but also from the U.S. businesses aid program. Any company that has operations in the U.S. and employs workers there can apply under the $2 trillion CARES Business Assistance Program that was passed at the end of March. The company does not have to be registered as an American company but only has to have a U.S. subsidiary that pays salaries to U.S. employees.

The most relevant clause for Israeli companies, and especially startups, is the eligibility for loans, some of which may transform into grants under the 7a section of the Small Business Administration plan. Under this section, a company that employs fewer than 500 employees can receive a loan of up to two and a half times the cost of wages paid to its employees up to a ceiling of $10 million. The loans, given at 1% interest rate and based on government collateral, are repayable within two years, with a six month grace period before payments are due. To top things off, the loan may turn into a grant if the company proves that the money received was used to pay salaries and prevented cutting salaries or terminating employees.

Under the auspices of the plan, $350 billion were earmarked for loans and grants to small businesses. Bank of America reported that as soon as the plan went into effect last Monday 177,000 businesses had applied for $32.6 billion in aid. JPMorgan said on Tuesday that it had received 375,000 requests for a cumulative $40 billion. Both these figures already make up a fifth of the program's budget.

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=61377

Walmart To Open 20 More COVID-19 Test Sites

Walmart (WMT) is the latest retailer to expand the number of coronavirus testing locations it will have operating in its parking lots.

The retail giant will open more than 20 test sites in at least 10 states by the end of April after opening two locations in the Chicago area in March, according to Business Insider. As of April 3, Walmart had completed nearly 3,000 tests at the two sites in Illinois, which were providing COVID-19 tests to first responders initially.

Walmart was one of several retailers that committed to opening COVID-19 drive-thru test sites at its stores as part of the federal government response to the virus. Other companies called upon to open test sites included CVS, Target, and Walgreens.

Walmart is reportedly working with Quest Diagnostics and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set up the locations, which will be serviced by volunteer Walmart pharmacists and HHS workers.

“We currently have three sites open, and we have plans to expand testing to multiple sites next week with the goal of having more than 20 sites in more than 10 states by the end of the month,” a Walmart spokesperson told the news outlet.

“We have been learning a lot from our initial sites so that we can get the model right and are working hard to help expand testing in areas of need as quickly as possible.”

It was unclear at the time of writing exactly where the 20 COVID-19 testing sites would be located.

https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-news-walmart-open-20-more-covid-19-test-sites-2958337

McDonald's in China Apologizes For Banning Black People From Entering Restaurant

The Chinese industrial city of Guangzhou has become unsafe for black people. Visitors and workers from Africa were recently kicked out of their hotels and apartments because of the rumors that the coronavirus was sweeping through the black community. There have also been several racial incidents in the city as African nations and blacks in America have sounded an alarm about the racism.

It's not a very well kept secret that Chinese society is racist. They are equal opportunity haters, seeing all races – white, black, brown, red – as inferior. They're usually much too polite and courteous to make it obvious, but the coronavirus has apparently swept away the pretenses and exposed them for who they truly are.

In Guangzhou, one of the local McDonald's restaurants politely posted the following notice in English on its doors:

“We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health, consciously notify the local police for medical isolation. Please understand the inconvenience caused."

Not too many people understood anything about it.

BBC:

The Guangdong provincial government has responded to concerns about discrimination by calling China and Africa good friends, partners and brothers.

It said it attached "great importance to some African countries' concerns and is working promptly to improve" its way of operating.

McDonald's also responded, saying the ban on black people was “not representative of our inclusive values”.

“Immediately upon learning of an unauthorised communication to our guests at a restaurant in Guangzhou, we immediately removed the communication and temporarily closed the restaurant.”

The restaurant added that it had conducted “diversity and inclusion” training in the branch.

You could blame the racism on the coronavirus pandemic, except the city, once a hub of China-Africa trade with hundreds of thousands of African visitors and merchants, has gradually been reducing the presence of black Africans.

The African community in Guangzhou has been dwindling in recent years. There were once thought to be hundreds of thousands from the continent conducting business in the city, but today the number has fallen to just thousands.

Many feel that their communities have been the target of discriminatory measures. Restrictions to visas have made many I have spoken to feel less welcome. Some feel that the coronavirus is being used as an excuse to target businessmen who overstay their visas.

Cultural superiority felt by the Chinese people may not be as prevalent (or obvious) as it was in the 19th century, and as China has opened up, that superiority has been tempered by the knowledge of other peoples.

But Chinese hate for Japan is real and it goes beyond the atrocities committed by imperial Japan against China in World War II. And there is a lingering condescension among the Chinese for western peoples that many businessmen comment on and find maddening.

If China expects to become more than a regional player in world affairs, they're going to have to address these issues.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/mcdonalds-in-china-apologizes-for-banning-black-people-from-entering-restaurant/

Mike Stone - Corona Crazy California

Never in my life have I felt such disdain for the stupidity of my fellow human beings.

Cowering behind closed doors, hiding behind medical masks, afraid to stand within six feet of another human being.

Welcome to L.A. Never in my life have I felt such disdain for the stupidity of my fellow human beings.

I'm talking about anyone age 15 or so and older who actually believes all the bullshit they're being fed about this #scamdemic.

I'm talking about people that are willfully ignorant. Do you watch the television news? Do you believe what they're telling you? If so, you're a f-ing idiot. Sorry for the harsh language, but you are. And it's about time somebody called you out on it.

You're being conned, bamboozled, hoodwinked. They're playing you like a fiddle and you're so stupid you don't even know it. And of all the stupid people in all the stupid states in this country, clueless California has the stupidest.

The governor seems intent on inflicting as much economic and emotional pain on the citizens of California as possible. He was one of the first to order a statewide lockdown. Citizens were ordered to stay at home and "non-essential" businesses ordered to close.

https://www.henrymakow.com/2020/04/mike-stone-corona-crazy-california.html

Kudlow Says Americans Can Expect Information On Reopening Economy In ‘Next Day Or Two’

White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business “Varney and Co.” Tuesday that a plan for re-opening the American economy could be coming “in the next day or two.”

“The President has suggested a kind of rolling re-entry here but I don’t want to front-run his views, I don’t want to pre-announce anything this morning…It’s a question of health, it’s a question of safety and it’s a question of well-being so we can get the (middle class) back to work as soon as we safely can. I believe the country is ready to go back to work,” Kudlow told Varney.

He also acknowledged that the Chinese communist government must face consequences in covering up the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, which led to the global pandemic.

“China needs to be held accountable on a number of measures,” Kudlow said. “Over a period of time they will be held accountable, no question about that. Having said that, the President is engaging with China. He’s speaking with President Xi, their relationship remains very positive so we are working with them.”

Kudlow mentioned that the administration would like to bring supply chains back to the U.S. in response to what has happened since the start of the pandemic.

“We would like to bring them home, just as a matter of policy across the board…100% expensing, whether it’s structures, plants, equipment, renovations, intellectual property, that would essentially pay the moving expenses for companies to come back to America…and by the way it would also help America to recover even more rapidly from the pandemic,” he said.

https://saraacarter.com/kudlow-says-americans-can-expect-information-on-reopening-economy-in-next-day-or-two/

NYT Discovered Who’s Behind U.S.’ COVID-19 Panic: It’s Vladimir Putin

In an April 13th report, the New York Times discovered that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-term was turning into reality with the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S.

“As the pandemic has swept the globe, it has been accompanied by a dangerous surge of false information — an “infodemic,” according to the World Health Organization. Analysts say that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has played a principal role in the spread of false information as part of his wider effort to discredit the West and destroy his enemies from within.”

It all began on February 3rd, when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, and “an obscure Twitter account in Moscow began retweeting an American blog. It said the pathogen was a germ weapon designed to incapacitate and kill.”

And it did that despite numerous scientists establishing that it was natural, and not man-made.

And, usually, Putin and his lackeys meddle in elections and so on, thus US officials have disregarded the disruptive work the “evil overlord” could have been carrying out against American science.

“His agents have repeatedly planted and spread the idea that viral epidemics — including flu outbreaks, Ebola and now the coronavirus — were sown by American scientists. The disinformers have also sought to undermine faith in the safety of vaccines, a triumph of public health that Mr. Putin himself promotes at home.”

As such, Putin is apparently also to blame for the popularity of anti-vaxxers.

In his quest to destroy America, Putin uses open media, “secretive trolls” and “shadowy blogs” that present US health officials as “patronizing frauds.”

“Of late, new stealth and sophistication have made his handiwork harder to see, track and fight.”

The YouTube videos of RT, Russia’s global television network, average one million views per day, “the highest among news outlets,” according to a U.S. intelligence report. Since the founding of the Russian network in 2005, its videos have received more than four billion views, analysts recently concluded.

And Putin uses RT to spread his propaganda.

The NYT cited Sandra C. Quinn, a professor of public health at the University of Maryland who has followed “Putin’s vaccine scares for more than a half-decade, said the Russian president was drawing on an old playbook. “

“The difference now is the speed with which it spreads, and the denigration of the institutions that we rely on to understand the truth,” she said in an interview. “I think we’re in dangerous territory.”

All of this is proved by the fact that when he was young Putin served in the KGB.

“The K.G.B. campaign — which cast the deadly virus that causes AIDS as a racial weapon developed by the American military to kill black citizens — was wildly successful. By 1987, fake news stories had run in 25 languages and 80 countries, undermining American diplomacy, especially in Africa. After the Cold War, in 1992, the Russians admitted that the alarms were fraudulent.”

After in 2008, Russia Today was rebranded to RT, to “hide its Russian origins,” the disinformation began.

During the global swine flu pandemic, it cited Wayne Madsen who claimed that the virus was engineered, by the US and not natural.

In 2010, RT America was founded, and its headquarters is near the White House.

In 2012 Mr. Putin added the military to his informational arsenal.

“His newly appointed head of the Russian Army, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, laid out a new doctrine of war that stressed public messaging as a means of stirring foreign dissent. That same year, a shadowy group of trolls in St. Petersburg began using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to fire salvos of junk information at millions of Americans.”

https://southfront.org/nyt-discovered-whos-behind-u-s-covid-19-panic-its-vladimir-putin/

The Coronavirus Could Crush American Small Businesses

The novel coronavirus and concurrent nationwide lockdown could see the closure of as many as two in three of America's small businesses, a new survey finds.

Four in 10 small businesses have already temporarily closed due to coronavirus, the survey finds, with many expecting permanent closures in the coming months if the states' lockdowns drag on. Restaurants and entertainment venues expect to be particularly hard hit, with most deeply pessimistic about their ability to come back from a shutdown of more than a few months.

These results are just the latest grim news for an economy battered by SARS-CoV-2, including unemployment at levels unseen since the Great Depression. The particularly dark outlook for small businesses, however, heralds a bigger shift, as their collapse may allow larger firms to further consolidate economic influence.

The survey, conducted by a group of academic economists, covered over 5,800 small businesses—those with 500 or fewer employees—across the United States. Many of those firms have already closed or are shedding workers, with respondents reporting a 40 percent average reduction in payroll as compared with Jan. 31.

That shedding is likely to continue at least through the duration of the crisis, as small business owners report major concerns with both lessened demand and fears for the health of their employees. Many also do not have adequate cash reserves to weather a crisis: One in four do not have enough cash on hand to cover one month's expenses, while one in two could only cover one to two months.

"These limited levels of cash on hand readily explain why layoffs and shutdowns have been so prevalent," the paper notes. "Absent these actions, it is hard to understand how these firms could have met payroll. Moreover, it is hard to imagine how the firms that are still open are going to survive without laying off their existing workers, at least without an infusion of more credit."

Business owners' optimism about the future depends a great deal on how long they expect to be shut down. Seventy percent said they could remain open if the crisis lasted only a month, but that figure drops to 38 percent if the crisis stretches on for six months. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has advised President Donald Trump on the nation's coronavirus response, said Sunday he expected some partial reopenings in May.

https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/the-coronavirus-could-crush-american-small-businesses/

>>8791367

McDonald's is not Chinese

The Illegal United States and Allied Invasion of Iraq & Syria Reaches Crisis Point

The onset of the coronavirus has had a number of consequences in the health and livelihoods of millions of people. There has however, been another consequence that is little remarked upon, and that is the almost total disappearance from the news cycle of the ongoing wars in Syria and Iraq.

The western media have long ignored their presumed obligation to report fairly and accurately on matters of significant importance. This is nowhere more obvious than in the ongoing Middle East conflicts.

In 2003, fresh from the illegal invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 (now a war in its 20th year and still the subject of sustained misinformation and outright lying) the United States and its allies manufactured a crisis regarding Iraq. This time it was Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” that allegedly threatened the lives and safety of all of the democracy loving west.

Iraq was invaded by the United States, supported inter alia, by its loyal Australian acolyte who has never seen an example of United States aggression, invasions and sanctions since 1945 of which it disapproved.

Iraq of course had no “weapons of mass destruction”. That should have been the occasion for heartfelt apologies, reparation for the death and destruction caused, and a rapid withdrawal. In a different world perhaps.

Five years ago the United States and its allies decided that President Assad of Syria’s time was up and yet another invasion of a sovereign nation was undertaken. This time the pretext was varied. Assad had “lost control of his country”, was “incapable of defeating the terrorists” ravaging his country, and “killing his own citizens”.

The pretext here was a little known and highly dubious legal concept of “right to protect”. It was to be invoked, solely by western nations, to protect the citizens of countries where their own governments were allegedly incapable of doing so.

That the terrorists concerned were armed and financed by the same western powers (together with their hangers on like Saudi Arabia and Israel) was not to be mentioned in polite company. Five years later the Syrian terrorists are on the verge of defeat, thanks in no small part to the intervention of Syria’s real friends, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah from the Lebanon.

The Americans initially set up a number of military bases in Syria (as they had done in Iraq) and militarily opposed any attempts by the legitimate Syrian government to exercise any form of control over these bases. Such was the utter contempt shown by the western forces under United States control for Syria’s sovereignty they did not even bother to try and justify their intervention in legal terms. Such a justification would in any case have no foundation in law.

Also of significance was the fact that one of the areas of Syria that the United States forces controlled was Syria’s oil producing region. United States actions went beyond mere control and exclusion of the rightful sovereign government. They produced oil from those oilfields and exported it, retaining the income thereby produced.

There could be few examples of more blatant and illegal theft of a country’s resources. If there is one good thing to emerge from this fiasco it is that we are no longer inflicted with the claim that this is all done in the name of a “duty to protect”.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/illegal-united-states-allied-invasion-iraq-syria-reaches-crisis-point/5709595

DOJ Declines to Prosecute Senior FBI Intel Analyst Who Was Fired Over Child Porn Possession

The Justice Department declined to prosecute a senior FBI intel analyst who was fired for knowingly possessing child pornography.

The identity of the fired FBI official was not released.

The senior analyst admitted to FBI investigators that he had viewed and downloaded child pornography many years ago.

Forensic examination of the SIA’s personal and FBI issued devices “identified pornographic images, however, none of the images were determined to be evidence of child pornography,” the OIG said in a report.

The FBI “summarily dismissed” the senior intel analyst who “knowingly possessed child pornography” in the past, “in violation of federal law and FBI policy.”

“Prosecution of the SIA was declined” the OIG concluded.

The same DOJ that prosecutes Trump officials for non-crimes, refuses to prosecute an FBI official who actually violated the law.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/doj-declines-prosecute-senior-fbi-intel-analyst-fired-child-porn-possession/

CNN Pushes Propaganda From Chinese Military About How Much Better China is Handling the Virus Than the US

CNN has published a report from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) about how much better the Chinese military is handling the coronavirus pandemic than the Americans are.

The network sourced a report from China’s English PLA website in their article that claimed “Chinese naval flotilla headed into the Pacific over the weekend, evidence that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has done a much better job controlling coronavirus than the US Navy.”

The Daily Caller noted that major portions of CNN’s uncritical report are nearly identical to the propaganda in the PLA press release.

“The report said that the Chinese carrier was carrying out this operation while four US Navy aircraft carriers — the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Nimitz — have reported cases of coronavirus, crimping their operations,” CNN wrote, mirroring the PLA release.

CNN even quoted the PLA discussing how great of a job they are doing.

“‘Through the voyage, the Liaoning showed that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has done a great job in the epidemic prevention and control work and COVID-19 epidemic has not had an impact on its deployment and operations,’” the story says, citing Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association,” CNN wrote. “‘It showed that the PLA can dispatch troops stationed anywhere at any time, with the troops always maintaining vigorous combat capabilities. The Chinese people can always count on them,’ Xu is quoted as saying.”

When contacted for comment by the Daily Caller, CNN dismissed their concerns about the network peddling Chinese propaganda, saying that the post on the site is simply a “single update from our international site’s 24-7 Live Story.”

Alarmingly, the regurgitated propaganda also got top billing on Facebook’s news tab.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/cnn-pushes-propaganda-chinese-military-much-better-china-handling-virus-us/

Sen. Hawley Announces Bill To Strip China Of Sovereign Immunity; Would Allow Private Lawsuits Over COVID-19

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is introducing a bill which would "hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responsible for causing the COVID-19 global pandemic," Hawley announced on Tuesday.

The Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Act would strip China of its immunity in US courts, allowing private parties to sue the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its handling of the disease, which originated in Wuhan, China. The legislation would also create a Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Task Force within the US State Department which would investigate Beijing's handling of the outbreak, as well as secure compensation from the CCP.

"There is overwhelming evidence that the Chinese Communist Party’s lies, deceit, and incompetence caused COVID-19 to transform from a local disease outbreak into a global pandemic," said Hawley in a statement, adding: "We need an international investigation to learn the full extent of the damage the CCP has inflicted on the world and then we need to empower Americans and other victims around the world to recover damages. The CCP unleashed this pandemic. They must be held accountable to their victims."

According to Hawley's press release:

The Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Act will:

Make the Chinese government liable for civil claims in U.S. courts by:

Creating a private right of action against the Chinese government for any reckless action it took that caused the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, such as its decisions to withhold information and to gag doctors;

Stripping the Chinese government of sovereign immunity for these actions so that plaintiffs can sue; and

Allowing courts to freeze Chinese government assets so victims can enforce their claims;

Establish the Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Task Force at the State Department to:

Lead an international investigation to determine how Beijing’s decisions to distort and conceal information about the COVID-19 outbreak—including by using the World Health Organization to parrot its lies—caused this global pandemic; and

Lead an international effort to secure compensation from the Chinese government, including by preparing options to compel Beijing to provide restitution, if at first it resists international demands for the same.

In a March Op-Ed at Fox News, Hawley called for an investigation into "Beijing's disastrous handling of the coronavirus," writing: "The Chinese Communist Party is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic – and it knows it. That’s why Beijing has gone on a propaganda offensive to try to deflect blame anywhere it can, including right here at the United States."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sen-hawley-announces-bill-strip-china-sovereign-immunity-would-allow-private-lawsuits

Amazon Fires Three More Employees For Criticizing Working Conditions

Amazon has fired three employees that publicly criticized working conditions at the company for violations of company policy. The company confirmed that it had fired Emily Cunningham, Bashir Mohamed and Maren Costa after several of the employees took to Twitter to voice concerns about how employees were being treated during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon commented: “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.” With regard to Mohamed's firing, the company stated: "This individual was terminated as a result of progressive disciplinary action for inappropriate language, behavior and violating social distancing guidelines."

That… or perhaps Amazon - whose market cap just hit a new all time high - just found their lack of faith in the Jeff Bezos' best intentions disturbing.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-fires-three-more-employees-criticizing-working-conditions

Coast Guard Crew From California Seizes 1,700 Pounds Of Cocaine From Fishing Boat Off Costa Rica

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The U.S. Coast Guard and Costa Rican authorities seized approximately 1,700 pounds of cocaine Thursday with an estimated value of more than $29 million from a fishing boat in international waters of the Pacific Ocean off Central America.

While on patrol, a Coast Guard cutter’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew identified a fishing boat suspected of smuggling narcotics early last week and requested the assistance of a Costa Rican Air Surveillance Service (Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea) maritime patrol aircraft.

The Coast Guard cutter’s small boat arrived on scene with the fishing vessel, Amanda M, homeported in Costa Rica, with four suspected smugglers and received authorization to board the vessel.

Coast Guard members discovered several false compartments throughout the fishing boat, where they were able to uncover 1,700 pounds of cocaine by Thursday morning.

“This interdiction is a great example of what we can accomplish with strong international partners,” said Rear Adm. Peter Gautier, the 11th Coast Guard District commander. “Our Coast Guard crews performed an exhaustive boarding and search of Amanda M, recovering $29 million worth of cocaine. Our Costa Rican partners played a major role in the success of this operation which will disrupt criminal networks in the region during this major surge.”

The Coast Guard transferred the four suspected smugglers to Costa Rican authorities for further legal actions.

On April 1, U.S. Southern Command began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to disrupt the flow of drugs in support of Presidential National Security Objectives. Numerous U.S. agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security cooperated in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, play a role in counter-drug operations.

https://breaking911.com/coast-guard-crew-from-california-seizes-1700-pounds-of-cocaine-from-fishing-boat-off-costa-rica/

Australian police fine couple $1,060 after they posted old vacation photos

Jaz and Garry Mott of Victoria, Australia thought it would be nice to share photos of their 2019 vacation with their Facebook friends. Unfortunately, eagle-eyed police officers spotted the photos and assumed that they’d been taken during mandatory stay-at-home orders. According to The Independent the couple was met at their door by police and "were handed fines of AU$1,652 (£840.70) each for 'failure to comply with a direction given to a person in the exercise of a power under an authorisation given under section 199.'"

The Motts had trouble convincing the police that they were in error, which is unusual because police are well-know for quickly admitting errors when presented with the facts. In this case however, the police didn’t revoke the fine until the story made the local news, after which they quietly returned the money.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/76752/australian-police-fine-couple-1060-after-they-posted-old-vacation.html

Microsoft Releases (and Deletes) an Ad With Elite Occultist Marina Abramovic

On Good Friday, Microsoft released a video promoting its association with the elite’s favorite artist: Marina Abramovic. After massive backlash, the video was set to “private” and all traces of the campaign were scrubbed from Microsoft’s official website. Here’s what this fiasco was all about.

To promote its mixed reality device Hololens 2, Microsoft teamed up with prominent occultist Marina Abramovic to create an art project named The Life. In a promotional video posted on Microsoft’s official YouTube account, Abramovic is described as the “most legendary performance artist working now”.

The art project consists of people wearing the Holohens device to witness a ghostly version of Abramovic appearing out of nowhere while walking around while wearing a symbolic red dress.

In the video, which was released on Good Friday, Marina says that the project allows her to attain a form of immortality.

“The Life is dealing with what is going to stay after I’m not there anymore, and I can face myself, and this frightening experience. Really like you’re facing your own ghost, but it is always this greater idea of immortality. Once you die the work could never die because the work of art can continue. In performance, the piece is only in the memory of the audience and nowhere else. Here I am kept forever.”

The video was not well received at all. After a flood of negative comments and about 90% thumbs down, Microsoft set the video to “private”. Since nothing can be truly deleted from the internet, the video was re-uploaded by other sources.

Microsoft also removed all traces of the campaign from its official website – although it still appears in Google search results.

Microsoft Releases (and Deletes) an Ad With Elite Occultist Marina Abramovic

This search result now leads to an error message. We still see that Microsoft describes Abramovic as “arguably the world’s most acclaimed performance artist”.

The fact that powerful entities such as Microsoft keep showering Abramovic with infinite praise is quite telling. Because it doesn’t take much in-depth research to understand what she is truly about.

Marina Abramovic

Mainstream sources describe Marina Abramovic as a performance artist who is known for “confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body”. More importantly, there’s a powerful element the permeates all of her works: Occult ritual.

https://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/microsoft-releases-and-deletes-an-ad-with-elite-occultist-marina-abramovic/

>>8791512

And a picture of the constitution in the window

Ric Grenell on Coronavirus Lockdowns: The Constitution Is ‘Signed Permission Slip to Leave Your House

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/ric-grenell-coronavirus-lockdowns-constitution-signed-permission-slip-leave-house/

Comedian Ricky Gervais Slams Celebrities Complaining About Living In Mansions During Quarantine

Comedian Ricky Gervais slammed celebrities complaining during the coronavirus quarantine.

Gervais does not believe celebrities have anything to whine about during the isolation, according to an interview published Monday by The Sun.

“After this is over I never want to hear people moaning about the welfare state again, I never want to hear people moaning about nurses again. Or porters,” Gervais told the outlet.

“These people are doing 14-hour shifts and not complaining,” he added. “Wearing masks, and being left with sores, after risking their own health and their families’ health selflessly.”

“But then I see someone complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool,” he noted. “And, you know, honestly, I just don’t want to hear it.”

The comments come after Ellen DeGeneres received backlash for comparing isolation in her California home to “being in jail.” (RELATED: Ellen DeGeneres Facing Backlash Over Quarantine Joke About It ‘Being Like Jail’)

“One thing that I’ve learned from being in quarantine is that people — this is like being in jail, is what it is,” she said. “It’s mostly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone in here is gay.”

Other celebrities have also been hit with criticism over their takes on the virus. Actress Vanessa Hudgens received backlash after she called social distancing until July “bullshit.”

https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/14/ricky-gervais-celebrities-complaining-mansions-quarantine/

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