Stop Asking the Federal Government to Label Groups You Dislike ‘Terrorists’

This past weekend, my brother and his girlfriend came out to visit and it once again reminded me of what really matters in life. I’ve noticed that having friends and family in town forces someone like me to disconnect from the 24/7 news cycle more than usual, which I always find to be extraordinarily healthy.

On the few occasions that I checked in with Twitter, it seemed as if half the stream was yelling hysterically about antifa and the other half was fear-mongering about neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Both groups seemed utterly deranged and intent on fostering the very destructive environment they claim to be fighting. As I’ve made clear since I started writing many years ago, I’m completely against violent solutions to our problems. It doesn’t make a difference to me whether that violence comes from insecure white dudes with swastika tattoos, or cowardly “anti-facsists” dressed up like video game ninja characters assaulting people. Why does it seems so difficult for people to just condemn both groups for the unconscious goons they are without picking a side.

One especially concerning thing I’ve noticed recently, is a push by many of those who would self-identify on the “right” end of the political spectrum for the government to identify antifa as a terrorist group. I couldn’t think of a more idiotic strategy if I tried — unless your goal is to give Trump, or whoever comes next, an excuse to further entrench and institutionalize our already existing and unconstitutional surveillance state. As I noted on Twitter:

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If Senseless Violence Continues, America Will Be a Total Police State in No Time

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As soon as I saw the video of the Alton Sterling shooting on Wednesday, I had a very, very bad feeling about where this was all headed. In fact, I became so concerned I wrote a post titled, A Period of Major Civil Unrest is Coming – How to Win an Inevitable Confrontation with the Status Quo. Here are a few of the key warnings and suggestions I provided:

Increasingly, the general public is coming to the very unpleasant realization that they live in a corporate oligarchy in which they are subjects rather than citizens. The more they are pushed into a corner, the sooner they will lash out in all sorts of ways.

The generational level revolts I anticipate have been a long time coming and will emanate from both rural, largely white America, as well from inner city communities populated mostly by minorities. The key thing we must all bear in mind going into the turbulent times ahead is that we are all in this together. 

The other key variable as to whether the forthcoming rebellions result in any positive change will revolve around what form they take. When I say civil unrest, I am well aware that this likely means some degree of violence and looting; however, such expressions of frustration will do far more harm than good. We must recognize that as it stands the status quo has no actual legitimacy, and therefore can only succeed if it’s able to portray the abused public as the bad guys, and sell us on the idea that the U.S. government is the only thing standing between us and violent mobs.

If you want to win this battle, you need to be smart. Winning the hearts and minds of the general public is absolutely critical, and shouldn’t be difficult in an environment in which the establishment discredits itself on a daily basis.

While we don’t know who the police murderers in Dallas were, or their motivations, we do know one thing. Their actions will unquestionably have several very counterproductive and dangerous outcomes.

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Meet Ability Inc – The Israeli Company That Wants to Hack Your Cellphone

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When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. So there’s this friction, this emerging contest between the obligations and values that the government asks you to uphold, and the actual activities that you’re asked to participate in.

By preying on the modern necessity to stay connected, governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals, the primary difference being that we paid for the tags and they’re in our pockets. It sounds like fantasist paranoia, but on the technical level it’s so trivial to implement that I cannot imagine a future in which it won’t be attempted. It will be limited to the war zones at first, in accordance with our customs, but surveillance technology has a tendency to follow us home.

– From the post: A Whistleblower Manifesto by Edward Snowden

Yesterday, Forbes published an interesting and disturbing article profiling a company called Ability Inc in the post: For $20M, These Israeli Hackers Will Spy On Any Phone On The Planet.

First, the good news. As the article notes, the company has been struggling as of late with lawsuits and it seems obvious to me that the reason Ability agreed to talk to Forbes is for some free advertising. If the company was performing particularly well, there’d be no need to agree to this interview and executives would try to keep their business practices as clandestine as possible. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that a global “industry” like this exists in the first place. While virtually all countries in the world have harsh penalties for individuals who decide to do drugs on their own time and to their own bodies, governments appear to have no problem with corporations that exist solely to violate people’s privacy. Probably because these same governments as the main clients of such companies. The fact that we put up with this and pretend it’s a legitimate business practice is an embarrassment to us as a species.

Now, without further ado, here are some excerpts from the Forbes piece:

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New UK Government Website Lists Normal Teenage Behavior as “Warning Signs of Radicalization”

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The UK is at it again. Proving that no other people are capable of coming up with more mindless responses to the exaggerated threat of terrorism than the British.

The latest spectacle revolves around the completely idiotic website just launched by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, titled “educate against hate.” In reality, the only people who need educating are the clowns who put this this monstrosity together and thought it was a good idea.

First a little background from the BBC:

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Epic Foreign Policy Fail – Most Iraqis Think the U.S. Government Supports ISIS

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My belief is, we will, in fact be greeted as liberators.

– Dick Cheney on NBC’s Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

The fighters there insist there have been no strikes by the Americans at all. “We’d be better off without them,” said 1st Lt. Murtada Fadl, who is serving with the Iraqi elite forces in Baiji. He said that the only air support had come from the Iraqi air force and that he wishes the government would ask the Russians to replace the Americans.

“The image of the U.S. was damaged in the region, so they created Daesh in order to fight them and restore their image,” said Mohammed Abdul Khaleq, a journalist for a local TV station who was drinking coffee in a cafe favored by writers, most of whom said they agreed.

– From the Washington Post article: Iraqis Think the U.S. is in Cahoots With the Islamic State, and it is Hurting the War  

The Iraq War will go down as the single greatest foreign policy blunder in U.S. history. It is simply the unmitigated disaster that keeps on giving.

To recap, the people who the U.S. government supposedly “liberated,” now hate Americans so much that most of them are convinced the U.S. is in cahoots with ISIS. Not that you could blame them for coming to this conclusion, considering the indisputable role the U.S. government played in the creation of ISIS.

From the post: Additional Details Emerge on How U.S. Government Policy Created, Armed, Supported and Funded ISIS

Telling Hasan that he had read the document himself, Flynn said that it was among a range of intelligence being circulated throughout the US intelligence community that had led him to attempt to dissuade the White House from supporting these groups, albeit without success.

Despite this, Flynn’s account shows that the US commitment to supporting the Syrian insurgency against Bashir al-Assad led the US to deliberately support the very al-Qaeda affiliated forces it had previously fought in Iraq.

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So Who Are the Syrian Moderates Anyway? (Hint: Al Qaeda)

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You don’t need me to tell you how disastrous the Obama Administration’s Syria “strategy” has been. After all, he pretty much admitted as much by announcing a pullback earlier today.

While the retreat in itself is garnering all the headlines, with people superficially focused on how “Putin outmaneuvered Obama,” the truth is far more disturbing. Putin didn’t so much outmaneuver Obama, as much as he called bullshit on the entire operation. Putin basically said that Russia would begin bombing terrorists in Syria, but the problem is that the U.S. is supporting terrorists in Syria. This is undoubtably true, which is the real reason Obama is pulling back. He needs to get out now before Putin proves to the whole world that the CIA is fighting with al-Qaeda in Syria.

For a dose of hard-hitting truth, I once again turn to one of the best sources out there, investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed.

Here is some of what he published at Middle East Eye:

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California Mayor Forced to Hand Over Electronics and Passwords at Airport – Compares U.S. to Nazi Germany

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“I think the American people should be extremely concerned about their personal rights and privacy. As I was being searched at the airport, there was a Latino couple to my left, and an Asian couple to my right also being aggressively searched. I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free.

– Anthony Silva, Mayor of Stockton, California

Just in case you’re still under the infantile illusion that you reside in a free country.

From ArsTechnica:

Stockton, California Mayor Anthony R. Silva attended a recent mayor’s conference in China, but his return trip took a bit longer than usual. At the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this week, agents with the Department of Homeland Security detained Silva and confiscated his personal cell phone among other electronics. According to comments from the mayor, that may not even be the most alarming part.

“Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property,” Silva told SFGate. “In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices.”

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HBO and Snapchat are Actively Working with the U.S. Government to Create Propaganda

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In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.

Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters.

The history of the CIA’s involvement with the American press continues to be shrouded by an official policy of obfuscation and deception.

– From Carl Bernstein’s 1977 article: The CIA and the Media

What is art, when the artist is working with the host government to promote a particular message?

It is propaganda, and just because it’s your government doing it with the help of your friends and neighbors, doesn’t make it any less so. Even if you agree with the message, it is still propaganda. No wonder so many movies suck.

Today, we learn that both HBO and Snapchat are actively working with the U.S. State Department to push an anti-ISIS message. Again, even if the message is a good one, make no mistake about it, it is still propaganda. This is a very slippery slope, and something that Americans shouldn’t tolerate.

The National Journal reports:

The State De­part­ment is seek­ing a counter-nar­rat­ive to the pro­pa­ganda be­ing spread by IS­IS, and it is re­portedly turn­ing to some of Amer­ica’s pree­m­in­ent storytellers for help. Ac­cord­ing to The Daily Beast, ex­ec­ut­ives from both HBO and Snapchat are part of a team of film­makers and so­cial me­dia spe­cial­ists that’s brain­storm­ing how to hamper the ef­fect­ive­ness of ISIL’s mes­saging.

Notice that when ISIS does it, it’s propaganda, but when the U.S. government does it, it’s a “counter-narrative.”

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The Australian Government Proclaims – Environmentalism and Alternative Music Are Signs of Terrorism

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Earlier this year, I highlighted how the UK government was cheerfully stretching the boundary of terrorist fear-mongering when it made it policy for registered childminders to “report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists.”

No, that’s not a joke. Here’s an excerpt from the post, The War on Toddler Terrorists – Britain Wants to Force Nursery School Teachers to Identify “Extremist” Children:

Nursery school staff and registered childminders must report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists, under counter-terrorism measures proposed by the Government.

The directive is contained in a 39-page consultation document issued by the Home Office in a bid to bolster its Prevent anti-terrorism plan.

But concern was raised over the practicalities of making it a legal requirement for staff to inform on toddlers.

Clearly not wanting to be outdone when it comes to bureaucratic buffoonery, the Commonwealth of Australia is fighting back. We learn from ABC Online:

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KKR Employee and Former CIA Head, General David Petraeus, Suggests Supporting al-Qaeda Against ISIS

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Members of al Qaeda’s branch in Syria have a surprising advocate in the corridors of American power: Retired Army general and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has been quietly urging U.S. officials to consider using so-called moderate members of al Qaeda’s Nusra Front to fight ISIS in Syria, four sources familiar with the conversations, including one person who spoke to Petraeus directly, told The Daily Beast.

– From the Daily Beast article: Petraeus: Use Al Qaeda Fighters to Beat ISIS

No, unfortunately, this is not a headline from The Onion.

In a world in which U.S. foreign policy looks more like a tragic comedy than a projection of strength and democracy, things continue to get more and more surreal. I suppose this is what happens when an inept status quo fails to step aside (or be imprisoned), despite decades of gross mismanagement and monumental failure.

We see the negative outcomes all around us. Whether it’s the destruction of the American middle class and a solidification of an untouchable oligarchy following the forced taxpayer bailout of the financial status quo, or the humanitarian disasters and chaos across the Middle East that resulted from a zero accountability policy for military-industrial-intelligence complex “leaders.” When those in positions of power face zero repercussions for their failed actions, this is exactly what you get.

As such, the nation continues to be led right off a cliff by greedy, incompetent, unethical “elites” who still can’t recognize what an enormous mess they’ve created. With each new crisis (created by them in the first place), these clowns bail themselves out and maneuver to firmly maintain the reins of powers. This is the primary reason the middle class has died, and why America has become a glorified Banana Republic.

Which brings us to David Petraeus. One of the best representations of the dangers of “elite” privilege. Not only was he given a pass for passing along classified government information to his mistress, but he then went ahead and took a cushy, and no doubt lucrative, job with private equity giant KKR. Apparently, that’s not enough for the good general. He is now suggesting the U.S. government align with al-Qaeda in Syria in order to fight ISIS.

Yes, you read that right. American citizens are now supposed to ally with the very group our nation was conned into relinquishing our civil liberties to battle.

Why are we molested at the airport before getting on a plane?  al-Qaeda.

Why have we given up our digital privacy to a surveillance state panopticon? Because al-Qaeda.

Why do governments now want to ban cash? Because al-Qaeda.

Why is free speech under attack around the world? Because al-Qaeda.

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