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Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 June 2019

70 Years Later, It's Still '1984'


 In October 1947 Eric Blair, known today by his pen name George Orwell, wrote a letter to the co-owner of the Secker & Warburg publishing house. In that letter, Orwell noted that he was in the “last lap” of the rough draft of a novel, describing it as “a most dreadful mess.” 

Orwell had sequestered himself on the Scottish island of Jura in order to finish the novel. He completed it the following year, having transformed his “most dreadful mess” into “1984,” one of the 20th century’s most important novels. Published in 1949, the novel turns 70 this year. The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the novel’s significance and its most valuable but sometimes overlooked lesson.

The main lesson of “1984” is not “Persistent Surveillance is Bad” or “Authoritarian Governments Are Dangerous.” These are true statements, but not the most important message. “1984” is at its core a novel about language; how it can be used by governments to subjugate and obfuscate and by citizens to resist oppression.

Orwell was a master of the English language and his legacy lives on through some of the words he created. Even those who haven’t read “1984” know some of its “Newspeak.” “1984” provides English speakers with a vocabulary to discuss surveillance, police states and authoritarianism, which includes terms such as “Big Brother,” “Thought Police,” “Unperson” and “Doublethink,” to name a few.

The authoritarian government of Orwell’s Oceania doesn’t merely severely punish dissent — it seeks to make even thinking about dissent impossible. When Inner Party member O’Brien tortures “1984’s” protagonist, Winston Smith, he holds up his hand with four fingers extended and asks Smith how many fingers he sees. When Smith replies, “Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!” O’Brien inflicts excruciating pain. After Smith finally claims to see five fingers, O’Brien emphasizes that saying “Five” is not enough; “’No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four.”

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Direct Democracy Is the Future of Human Governance – Part 1

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means.

– Lord Acton

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

– Buckminster Fuller

If you’ve read anything I’ve written over the past several years, you’ll be acutely aware of my belief that human civilization is currently in a major transition period between two great paradigms of world history. The old world we all grew up in no longer works for most people, yet is being relentlessly propped up by the powerful and their minions who benefit from its parasitic and destructive nature. Despite their best efforts, a system so poisonous, decrepit and corrupt cannot and will not last. At this stage, it’s little more than a Potemkin village fraud barely kept standing courtesy of increasingly intense deception, manipulation and the sheer will of those who profit handsomely from it.

By stating we’re in the transition period, I want to make it clear I believe things are very much already being disrupted and altered beneath the hood of a world which appears indistinguishable from what it was a decade ago on a superficial level. Specifically, I think there are two core aspects of human existence that will be completely transformed in the years to come. First, within the monetary and financial systems that define how commerce, savings and entrepreneurship function. The emergence and continued momentum of Bitcoin offers evidence that disruption in this realm is already very much underway, albeit still in its infancy. The second realm I expect will experience massive transformational change relates to forms of human governance. We’ve barely scratched the surface on this one, but nascent signs have started to appear, and I suspect a push towards political systems more defined by direct democracy will become increasingly common in the years ahead. I’ve spent many hours writing about the financial and monetary system, so today’s piece will focus on what appears to be coming with regard to human political evolution.

Direct democracy is something that’s been tried before, so there’s some history to it. Once you start exploring the concept you’ll be immediately confronted with a plethora of terms such as eDemocracy, liquid democracy, referendum, initiative, and recall to name just a few. The purpose of this post isn’t to dig into all of that, although it’s certainly a useful exercise and I’ll provide some helpful links at the end. The purpose of this post is to distinguish direct democracy from the most common form of democratic government functioning on earth today, representative democracy.

Read more

Sunday, 7 April 2019

When Government Lies to You

No Frakking Consensus


Carbon dioxide is not pollution. Our planet would be a wasteland without it. 


click to enlarge

Fake news is everywhere, and governments can be a rich source. For example, a flyer distributed in the mail last week by Canada’s Revenue Agency – aka the taxman – tells us a pack of lies.

Against the will of elected leaders in four provinces, our federal government has just imposed a carbon tax. The price of gasoline has jumped at the pumps. Home heating costs have risen. This is just stage one, since the tax bite will increase every year.
The flyer begins by declaring:
Pollution has a cost. It impacts the air we breathe, our children’s health, and our economy. That’s why the Government of Canada has put a price on carbon pollution.
What nonsense. Carbon taxes are supposed to discourage people from burning fossil fuels not because of dirty black soot (sophisticated, anti-pollution technologies already exist), but because an invisible, odourless gas gets emitted whenever fossil fuels are used.

The entire climate scare rests on the idea that humanity is adding too much carbon dioxide – CO2 – to the atmosphere, and that this will hypothetically destabilize the climate.

Now is a good time to point out that the Canadian government admits this country is responsible for a mere 1.6 percent of global CO2 emissions. Between them, China (26 percent), America (14 percent), and India (6.4) are responsible for nearly half of all human-produced CO2 (46 percent).

It’s also a good time to remember that, over the past 50 years, experts have predicted one environmental catastrophe after another, none of which materialized. Even smart scientists with powerful computers are terrible at forecasting the future.

Read more

Sunday, 10 February 2019

Facebook: The Government’s Propaganda Arm?

Jeff Charles via Liberty Nation



The social media giant has a disturbing number of former Obama officials in key positions of authority over content...

Imagine for a moment what it would look like if the federal government launched its own social media network. Every day, Americans could freely use the platform to express their views on everything from economic theory to the best tips for baking peanut butter cookies. They could even discuss their political views and debate the important issues of the day.

But what if the government were empowered to determine which political views are appropriate and which are too obscene for the American public? Well, it looks like this is already happening. Of course, the state has not created a social media network; they didn’t have to. It appears the government is using Facebook – the world’s largest social media company – to sway public opinion.

Read more


Tuesday, 21 February 2017

The police state and the illusion of freedom

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security... This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."—Historian Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
Brace yourself.

There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn't bode well for the future of this country.

Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by the antics of the political ruling class that they are oblivious to all else, you'd better beware. Anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you'd better beware. And anytime you have a government so far removed from its people as to ensure that they are never seen, heard or heeded by those elected to represent them, you'd better beware.

The world has been down this road before.

As historian Milton Mayer recounts in his seminal book on Hitler's rise to power, They Thought They Were Free, "Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people‑—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies', without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us."

We are at our most vulnerable right now. 


Read more

Sunday, 7 June 2015

Your Facebook, Twitter and blog are about to be monitored for references to the Government

Comment: More erosion of our freedoms in plain sight and under the cover of looking for "terrusts". So transparent.


--------------------------

Metro UK

If you’re one of those people that gets a bit vocal about politics, you’ll be interested to know that your Facebook, Twitter and personal blog are about to begin being monitored for references to the Government.

Ministers announced yesterday that the Government had awarded a contract to five companies who will monitor what people tweet, post to Facebook or blog about the Government and provide updates to Whitehall in real time.

Officials and ministers will provide a list of keywords and topics to the companies so that they know what to monitor.

‘We monitor digital, social and traditional media so we understand what people are saying, identify their concerns and shape policies accordingly,’ a Cabinet Office spokeswoman told the Independent.

‘Departments have always monitored social media but this agreement means they can find the most appropriate way of doing this at the best price, ensuring good value for money for the taxpayer.’

Comment: That's rich! Adopting Big Brother surveillance against the public which is then rationalised by saying that same public is getting value for their money! You couldn't make it up. 

While the Government has at times monitored digital news for a number of years, this is the first time that the Government has awarded a contract specifically for that purpose, and the first time that its surveillance specifically includes social media.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

How officials spent £100m on taxis, first class rail travel and business class flights

The Telegraph 

Whitehall officials have spent more than £100million on taxis, business class flights and first class rail travel over the past four years, according to official figures.

Government departments have spent £60million on business class flights, £26million on taxis and £13million on first class rail travel.

In 2011 George Osborne barred civil servants from using first class rail travel unless there were exceptional circumstances.

David Cameron subsequently said that all ministers and civil servants should take economy class flights in an attempt to enhance his Green credentials.

However, despite the bans several government departments are still spending tens of millions of pounds on luxury travel. 

Read more

Thursday, 22 January 2015

How do you spend £3.7bn in just 8 weeks?

The Telegraph

Answer: ask the Department for International Development (Dfid), which has turned sensible spending plans on their head 

How do you spend £3.7 billion in just eight weeks? In a Government supposedly wracked by austerity, this was the unusual problem faced by officials at the Department for International Development (Dfid) in 2013.

All around, their Whitehall colleagues were finding ways of imposing cuts, but in Dfid’s imposing new headquarters off Trafalgar Square, the big worry was how to shovel money out of the door.

This is the central message of the latest report on Dfid from the National Audit Office. The most powerful objection to the Government’s promise to devote 0.7 per cent of national income to overseas aid was that spending money would then become an end in itself.

The rational way to run anything – whether a Whitehall department or a fish and chip shop – is to decide what you want to achieve and then spend as little as you can get away with. Once you subordinate everything to hitting a spending target, you turn the rules of rational management on their head.

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Thursday, 31 July 2014

DARPA Wants New Technology to Predict “Societal Unrest”

Fbo.gov

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals of interest to the Information Innovation Office (I2O). I2O explores game-changing technologies in the fields of information science and technology to anticipate and create rapid shifts in the complex national security landscape. Conflict can occur in traditional domains such as land, sea, air, and space, and in emerging domains such as cyber and other types of irregular warfare. I2O's research portfolio is focused on anticipating new modes of warfare in these emerging areas and developing the concepts and tools necessary to provide a decisive information advantage for the U.S. and its allies.


As much of the world-wide economy has moved into cyberspace, protecting and assuring information flows over these networks has become a priority. Most networks today rely on the successive discovery of vulnerabilities and deployment of patches to maintain security. Even after patching, new vulnerabilities are often introduced in successive releases, and may even be introduced by the patches themselves. The I2O defensive cyber portfolio is largely focused on changing this paradigm through a variety of methods such as heterogeneity, formal methods proofs, secure code generation, and automation. Exploration of offensive methods is essential to expand and inform defensive work. The I2O portfolio covers a broad space, investigating enterprise networks, secure communications, industrial systems, and purpose-built military systems.

Read more
 

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Governments from Around the World – Including Western, Islamic, Asian and African Nations – ADMIT They Carry Out False Flag Terror

Washington's Blog

Governments from Around the World Admit They Carry Out False Flag Terror

 

Governments from around the world admit they carry out false flag terror:

  • A major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that – under orders from the chief of the Gestapo – he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland. Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson

  • Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in writing that the Soviet Union’s Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila in 1939, and declared that the fire originated from Finland as a basis launching the Winter War four days later

  • Israel admits that an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind “evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this)

  • The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950′s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister

  • The British Prime Minister admitted to his defense secretary that he and American president Dwight Eisenhower approved a plan in 1957 to carry out false flag attacks in Syria and blame it on the Syrian government as a way to effect regime change


  • As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in the 1960′s, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

  • 2 years before, American Senator George Smathers had suggested that the U.S. make “a false attack made on Guantanamo Bay which would give us the excuse of actually fomenting a fight which would then give us the excuse to go in and [overthrow Castro]“.

  • And Official State Department documents show that – only nine months before the Joint Chiefs of Staff plan was proposed – the head of the Joint Chiefs and other high-level officials discussed blowing up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an invasion of that country. The 3 plans were not carried out, but they were all discussed as serious proposals

  • A U.S. Congressional committee admitted that – as part of its “Cointelpro” campaign – the FBI had used many provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and falsely blame them on political activists

  • The South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that, in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him “to participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating officer into the murder incident”, thus framing the ANC for the bombing

  • An Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admit that, in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author)

  • Senior Russian Senior military and intelligence officers admit that the KGB blew up Russian apartment buildings and falsely blamed it on Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya (and see this report and this discussion)

  • According to the Washington Post, Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.

  • The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombings

  • As reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press, Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the “war on terror”.


  • Similarly, the U.S. falsely blamed Iraq for playing a role in the 9/11 attacks – as shown by a memo from the defense secretary – as one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq war.  Even after the 9/11 Commission debunked any connection, Dick Cheney said that the evidence is “overwhelming” that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime, that Cheney “probably” had information unavailable to the Commission, and that the media was not ‘doing their homework’ in reporting such ties.   Top U.S. government officials now admit that the Iraq war was really launched for oil … not 9/11 or weapons of mass destruction  (U.S. government officials have now admitted that 9/11 was state-sponsored terror; but Iraq was not the state which backed the hijackers)

  • Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having “our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to question the validity of communications.”

  • United Press International reported in June 2005:

U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.

  • Undercover Israeli soldiers admitted in 2005 to throwing stones at other Israeli soldiers so they could blame it on Palestinians, as an excuse to crack down on peaceful protests by the Palestinians

  • Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers (and see this)

  • At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violence

  • A Colombian army colonel has admitted that his unit murdered 57 civilians, then dressed them in uniforms and claimed they were rebels killed in combat

  • U.S. soldiers have admitted that if they kill innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, they then “drop” automatic weapons near their body so they can pretend they were militants

  • The highly-respected writer for the Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that the head of Saudi intelligence – Prince Bandar – recently admitted that the Saudi government controls “Chechen” terrorists

  • High-level American sources admitted that the Turkish government – a fellow Nato country – carried out the chemical weapons attacks blamed on the Syrian government; and high-ranking Turkish government admitted on tape plans to carry out false flag attacks and blame it on the Syrian government

So Common … There’s a Name for It

 

This tactic is so common that it was given a name for hundreds of years ago.
“False flag terrorism” is defined as a government attacking its own people, then blaming others in order to justify going to war against the people it blames. Or as Wikipedia defines it:

False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy’s strategy of tension.
The term comes from the old days of wooden ships, when one ship would hang the flag of its enemy before attacking another ship in its own navy. Because the enemy’s flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a “false flag” attack.
Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks.

Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False Flags

 

Leaders throughout history have acknowledged the danger of false flags:

“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.”
- Plato

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
- U.S. President James Madison

“A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the people! “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”.
- Adolph Hitler

“Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.

“The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened”.
- Josef Stalin

People Are Waking Up to False Flags

 

People are slowly waking up to this whole con job by governments who want to justify war.

More people are talking about the phrase “false flag” than ever before. 



Sunday, 22 June 2014

How Government and the Media Equate Political Dissent with “Conspiracy Theories” and “Home Grown Terrorism”

Joachim Hagopian

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Nazi Propagandist Joseph Goebbels

In this age of propaganda and disinformation when mainstream media outlets act as presstitutes for the corporatized federal government, there has been an overt movement in recent years to label dissenters, patriots, government critics and even returning US soldiers from the warfronts as potential homegrown terrorists. For decades the government and co-opted mainstream media’s onetime favorite tactic heavy-handedly used to customarily dismiss their critics was to simply label those exposing government deception as “conspiracy theorists.” However, with distrust mounting amongst Americans toward both their leaders (86% distrust government) and the media (over 60% little or no trust toward media), this strategy is no longer working because so many conspiracies have been proven to be real. With a fascist state worried that its authority is fast slipping away amongst its populace, today the stakes have never been higher. Slander, character assassination and guilt by association are increasingly utilized nowadays as favorite tools to systematically destroy, discredit and demonize those citizens courageous enough to speak the truth exposing government lies, deception, theft and destruction. 

Raising the stakes from the relative benign label “conspiracy theorist” to “homegrown terrorist” reflects a parallel process the US government has historically employed in manufacturing convenient enemies as needed – Russia and China’s expanding Communism from the 1950’s cold war through the 1980’s, to al Qaeda’s expanding terrorism in the twenty-first century and now back to Russia and China’s expanding imperialism all over again. The vicious cycle locked by design in a forever do-loop as the same subversive strategy remains unchanged throughout the years, only the names and dates change as the government self-servingly sees fit. As long as there are enemy targets to conveniently blame designed to induce fear and elicit support from a dumbed down, brainwashed and powerless American public, war and the military security complex will continue to flourish on a perpetual permanency basis, of course at the expense of humanity both domestically and globally.


 

Thursday, 8 May 2014

The Six Principles of the New Populism (and the Establishment’s Nightmare)

Robert Reich

More Americans than ever believe the economy is rigged in favor of Wall Street and big business and their enablers in Washington. We’re five years into a so-called recovery that’s been a bonanza for the rich but a bust for the middle class. “The game is rigged and the American people know that. They get it right down to their toes,” says Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Which is fueling a new populism on both the left and the right. While still far apart, neo-populists on both sides are bending toward one another and against the establishment.

Who made the following comments? (Hint: Not Warren, and not Bernie Sanders.)

A. We “cannot be the party of fat cats, rich people, and Wall Street.”

B. “The rich and powerful, those who walk the corridors of power, are getting fat and happy…”

C. “If you come to Washington and serve in Congress, there should be a lifetime ban on lobbying.”

D. “Washington promoted moral hazard by protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which privatized profits and socialized losses.”

E. “When you had the chance to stand up for Americans’ privacy, did you?”

F. “The people who wake up at night thinking of which new country they want to bomb, which new country they want to be involved in, they don’t like restraint. They don’t like reluctance to go to war.”

(Answers: A. Rand Paul, B. Ted Cruz, C. Ted Cruz, D. House Republican Joe Hensarling, E. House Republican Justin Amash, F. Rand Paul )

You might doubt the sincerity behind some of these statements, but they wouldn’t have been uttered if the crowds didn’t respond enthusiastically – and that’s the point. Republican populism is growing, as is the Democratic version, because the public wants it.

And it’s not only the rhetoric that’s converging. Populists on the right and left are also coming together around six principles:

Read more
 

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Revealed: Big Pharma's hidden links to NHS policy, with senior MPs saying medical industry uses ‘wealth to influence government’

Comment: Hands up those who were shocked...

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The Independent

NHS bosses allowed a lobbying company working for some of the world’s biggest drugs and medical equipment firms to write a draft report which could help shape future health policy. NHS England commissioned a group called the Specialised Healthcare Alliance (SHCA) to consult with patients’ groups, charities and health organisations and produce a report feeding into its future five-year strategy for commissioning £12bn of services.

But the SHCA has confirmed to The Independent that it is entirely funded by commercial “members”. Its director, John Murray, is also a lobbyist whose company lists some of the world’s biggest drug and medical device firms as clients.

Mr Murray put his name on a foreword to the NHS England document along with James Palmer, the clinical director of specialised services at NHS England, with whom he admits he has had “many meetings [on] a wide range of organisations and interests”.

The findings raise significant questions about links between the lobbying industry and NHS England – a quango set up to run the NHS under the Government’s health reforms.

Unlike other government departments NHS England does not register its meetings with lobbyists. It also does not routinely publicly disclose all potential conflicts of interest of those who do work for it. While the report itself makes no specific spending recommendations, it does suggest that NHS England should set out a “clear commitment” to “disinvest in interventions that have lower impact for patients” in favour of “new services or innovations”.

See also: Big Pharma lobbyists exploit patients and doctors 

Read more


Saturday, 30 November 2013

New Filings Shed Light on Hundreds of Millions in Dark Money Spending




It's been more than a year since voters went to the polls, after months of constant, targeted and often negative TV ads and mailers in what would be the most expensive election ever.

There are still unanswered questions, though, about how a significant portion of that barrage was paid for, with some of the answers just starting to trickle in. 

Politically active nonprofits reported spending a record $336 million in 2012 -- not including many millions more they spent in the form of issue ads that weren't required to be reported to the Federal Election Commission. Dark money groups -- 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) groups that don't, and aren't required to, disclose their donors to the public -- accounted for the vast majority of the spending. 
 
Though their donors will likely never be made public, these groups do file critical financial information with the IRS that gives the public a sense of how the groups financed and coordinated their political activities in 2012 -- long after the fact. Last Friday, Nov. 15, many of the most prominent and well financed dark money groups active in 2012 submitted their annual 990 tax forms to the IRS.

The Center for Responsive Politics is collecting those as quickly as we can and reporting on newsworthy findings in OpenSecrets Blog. 

In addition, as the filings come in, we're manually inputting the data for display in our political nonprofits section. We play a unique role here, because even though the documents are public, the IRS does not provide them in a searchable database, nor does it process the information they contain and provide it in a machine-readable form.

The data we input in the coming weeks will add to the more than 16,000 records CRP has already entered, cataloging more than $400 million in grants to political nonprofits since 2008.

Visualized context

Using data that we've already input, we're also unveiling a new, dynamic visualization that shows how a large and growing amount of anonymous money has flowed through an expanding network of nonprofits and into elections around the country.  

The visualization -- produced with the help of designer and data journalist Anna Flagg -- can be found on the grants over time page of the political nonprofits section. Though this data was drawn from filings submitted to both the IRS and the FEC, it was largely created by CRP and does not exist anywhere else, including the agencies charged with overseeing the activities of politically active nonprofits.  

Darkmoney sankey1.JPG
The visualization focuses on the top 10 most politicized nonprofits, tracking the churn of money into and out of each group as it moves from anonymous donors to its ultimate destination as spending reported to the FEC. (Keep in mind it does not yet include any of the 2012 data that has been coming in over the last week.)

The vertical bars in the middle represent different groups, some of which act only as donors while others wear multiple hats as donors, recipients and political spenders. The height of the bar represents the amount of money flowing into the group that ultimately would be spent on politics, either directly by the group or by the group's grant recipients.  

Users can click on any of the vertical bars, and then use the slider at the top to see the group's evolution as its receipts, grants and political spending fluctuate from election to election. The FEC and IRS data are matched up by the start date and end date of the donor group's IRS filings. The dates in the slider signify a date that will be found within the start date and end date of all of the filings represented below.  

This visualization is only the beginning. Along with adding in new 2012 data as it comes in, we'll also be posting new, complementary charts and links to the display to direct users to sections of the site with relevant information.  

Reporting the 2012 filings

OpenSecrets Blog has been reporting on the most interesting aspects of the new filings as they come in.  Over the next few weeks, we will update this post to link to our stories, and highlight reports elsewhere that use documents and data from CRP.  

Our recent Shadow Money Trail posts thus far:

  • Priorities USA Relied on Handful of Donors: The dark money group founded by former Obama aides spent more than half of its money on grants to other politically active nonprofits, including one mysterious group run by very well-connected Democratic operatives. 

Elsewhere, stories have used documents obtained by CRP or expanded on reports by CRP. 

  • The Huffington Post cited CRP's grant data pertaining to the liberal Patriot Majority USA in a report about labor money given to the organization. In two other posts on Crossroads GPS, the Huffington Post cited our reports on Crossroads receipts from trade associations and its large grant to Americans for Tax Reform. 

Sunday, 19 June 2011

The Politics of Entrapment Part IV


“Politics have no relation to morals.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

Let Them Eat Porn

The existence of Child Pornography is without question. The extent to which it can be used as a tool for creeping fascism is less well understood.

The notorious Attorney General Ed Meese back in the late 70s early 80s may have been the first to be given the mission to heighten and stimulate an increase in the existence of child porn in society. One scenario for this was to create a climate of law breakers, to foster fear and retribution and to further lead America into a state of already terminal decline. Commensurate with Kinseyian and Freudian programming, this was ensuring that society became even more decadent than it really was. In effect, could it be that the US government became the mainstay of child pornography itself? It filled a role of both purveyor and habitual user which could be continuing to this day, much the same as narcotics and arms. Sting operations were initiated to turn around the possible fall in child pornography crime, where the would-be purchasers were actively solicited and eventually prosecuted under the new laws. Writer Jim Peron:
First, the age limit was raised from 16 to 18 placing the United States outside the Western mainstream. An entire class of publications, which previously had been legal, were now illegal. Publications which were purchased legally in the United States became illegal overnight without the bulk of owners being aware of the change.

Second, Congress dropped the requirement that something be "obscene" before being classified as child pornography. Now the law was so broadly written that family snapshots of a nude child playing in the bath, could be prosecuted—and were!

Third, it was no longer necessary to produce or distribute the newly banned material. Mere possession was now illegal.1

Peron goes on to describe how the government created dozens of phoney companies and began soliciting people to purchase the material. Government agencies would send brochures under a fake company name to the individual they targeted and in most cases, proceed to relentlessly pester the individual until a sale was made. The police would place adverts in adult publications pretending, for example, to be a woman with a young daughter. This “woman” would then solicit correspondence from men until the men finally decided to buy the material. Prosecutions soared and the moral majority were exulted. However, the problem was, as Attorney Lawrence Stanley pointed out:

“…the line between law enforcement and inducing law-breaking has become highly blurred, as undercover "friends" encourage the forbidden fantasies of their targets and sell or send them child pornography after a great deal of prodding. In some cases, the forbidden fantasies are those of the investigating agent.” 2

Government sting operations included setting up shop as bonified pornography outlets which were actively peddling child porn and other hardcore images sourced from the belief that the US was under attack from a veritable legion of pimps and paedophiles. According to Peron, John O’Mally a customs agent created a company called Produit Outaouais which offered photos and videos:

 The government officials would reproduce photos of young children and mail them to individuals they targeted. Newsweek reported: ‘Together with similar stings run by the US Postal Service over the past few years, federal agents have become major traffickers in kiddie porn.’ In this one sting operation alone two individuals who were entrapped by O’Malley committed suicide; one a 25-year-old student and the other an attorney.4

We have already established the harassment of citizens where artists, parents and ordinary family members taking nude pictures of their children under entirely natural and loving circumstances was turned into something sordid and degrading in the minds of the prosecutors. This also resulted in untold trauma for all those targeted. Under the guise of “protection” these laws give further credence to the looming shadow of a very real police state in the United States, also manifesting in the UK. 
 
However, the author of the above, has been less than candid about his background in commenting on such matters. Jim Peron was caught out it seems, in March 2005 when The Society For The Promotion of Community Standards Inc. triumphantly outed Peron’s agenda in publishing the article. According to the society which upholds censorship issues, Peron an Auckland, New Zealand, book seller sold a journal called Unbound (Vol. 1 No. 4) at his Free Forum Books in San Francisco in 1985. The Society, seeking a classification, further stated that the journal was: “readily available to the public in Mr Peron’s bookshop along with the ‘pro-paedophile journal’ NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association).”5 The previous owner of the bookshop, Eric Garris, apparently confronted Peron about his “pro-paedophilia” material recounting that “Mr Peron confirmed that Free Forum Books published it.” Detailed within the journal were the objections against a police raid subsequently carried out on Peron’s bookshop where copies of Unbound and other pro-paedophilia publications were seized “in the course of an on-going investigation into David Simons (a part-time employee of Mr Peron’s, who was later arrested, convicted and jailed for 16 years for committing sex-offences against children).”6
 
Peron rather unconvincingly denies anything untoward though admitting he wrote an article “Abused: One Boy’s Story” which he said was used without his permission, defending his piece in lieu of the fact that there was no explicit sexual content while denying that he was referring to paedophiles when using the term “boy-lover”. He also further denied involvement with the Journal claiming that: “Unbound was published by another person who rented a back office from his former book store.” # In the Society’s view and many others, Peron was in fact the editor-in-Chief of Unbound and was trying to wriggle out of the spotlight.
 
It becomes a little more disturbing when we know that Peron’s source was previously mentioned Attorney Lawrence Stanley who specialized in defending those accused of child pornography was arrested in Brazil and charged with child exploitation. Infiltrating the law was not his only speciality. Stanley had “built an international business photographing Brazilian girls and selling their photos through the Internet.” One of these sites “featured photos of girls ages 8 to 14 in what police Officer Rui Gomes described to the Associated Press as ‘sensual poses.’ Police said Stanley paid the girls $20 to $40 for each photo session. An official of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for information on Stanley's case.” 7

It is the greatest irony - yet so typical of an emerging Pathocracy - to allow those questioning tactics and statistics regarding child porn to be those that benefit from a greater relaxation of the laws. It amounts to the same ruse when white supremacists cry foul against the discrepancies of Zionist deceptions thereby cancelling out any veracity of the original authorship and research. 
 
More disturbingly, we might also say that we are now faced with the possibility that governments themselves, after seeking to stem a seemingly gargantuan tide of child porn became its greatest purveyors and sellers due to factional objectives, the most important perhaps being the protection of an Elite who do indeed prey on children and young adults as a way of life; systemized and institutionalized by political expediency and blackmail. It then becomes yet another example of the Hegelian dialectic, a problem-reaction-solution scenario: a classic case of reverse psychology. Shout loud enough and hard enough with inflated figures and dubious data and the core subject matter becomes discredited. We can surmise from other prominent factors such as the “War on Terror,” that the purpose may be to contribute to the initiation of increasing controls where even censors try to ban material in which no real child is used as a model, but to also create the ultimate justification for the death of internet freedoms. The threat of child pornography and those affiliated with "terrorist groups” become the package by which greater freedoms are lost for the “greater good.”
 
Taking this hypothesis further, we might conjecture that if those factions within governments are in control not only of narcotics, arms, human trafficking, but also the pornography industry - albeit in most cases indirectly - we can see black-mail would play an increasingly decisive role in forcing certain people into taking top positions within the Elite machinery such as NBC, NASA, Harvard, the military, the FBI, and FEMA. Perhaps there are many such commercial porn sites directly serving this purpose as recruiters for a new generation of emotionally and mentally damaged men.

The Pathocracy needs positions to be filled in key positions to facilitate a greater ease of ponerogenic qualities that is then disseminated into the everyday lives of the populace enhancing their suggestibility towards specific pre-designed objectives. Those that “fit” in the core network of psychopathic and characteropathic groupings can then be relied upon to carry out their naturally allotted tasks. Disinformation artists in radio, television and the internet may have been given immunity from prosecution by federal authorities in return for defending the government. Sexual politics cannot be separated from the standard political pantomime we see flickering on our T.V. screens 24 hours a day.
 

Notes

1 “The Claptrap Over Child Porn” by Jim Peron, The Laissez Faire Electronic Times: Part 2: The US Government Enters the Child Porn Business’,vol. 2, no. 19, May 12, 1987/2003.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.

4 Classify "Pro-Paedophilia Journal" "Unbound" Thursday, 31 March 2005, Press Release: Society For Promotion Of Community Standards Inc. New Zealand.

5 Ibid.

6Ibid.

7 Lawyer arrested in Brazil charged with child exploitation’ By Robert Stacy McCain The Washington Times, July 24, 2002.


 
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