Thank You and Welcome New Readers – A Liberty Blitzkrieg Mission Statement

Being included in the now infamous, and laughably shoddy, PropOrNot hit list of so-called “Russian Propaganda” websites directly led to the most rewarding professional day I’ve had since I started blogging nearly five years ago. As soon as I saw the transparently ridiculous list and noticed that The Washington Post was giving legitimacy to it, I wasn’t outraged at all. Rather, I saw it for the blessing in disguise that it was. Being in the trenches for so many years, I have a reasonable sense of the public pulse, and I knew that thinking people would immediately see right through this pathetic mainstream media slander. I immediately assumed it would drive traffic to my site and boost my followers. However, what transpired exceeded even my wildest expectations (see: Liberty Blitzkrieg Included on Washington Post Highlighted Hit List of “Russian Propaganda” Websites).

My Twitter follower count exploded in a way I’ve never seen before, soaring by around 1,200 people in 24 hours. For some perspective, it typically takes me about six months on average to gain that many new followers. All these new people suddenly became interested in what I had to say, because I was falsely slandered by some cowardly collection of anonymous status quo hitmen.

Considering I have so many new readers in the mix, I figure this is an ideal time to rehash what I am trying to accomplish on this website. I think I have a unique perspective that can be of value to people trying to make sense of the increasingly chaotic world around them. First, a little background (for more, see: My 20 Minute Talk at the Liberty Mastermind Conference).

I had a privileged upbringing in New York City, amongst many of the world’s wealthiest citizens. I had all the advantages you might assume such an upbringing would afford, and since I was strong academically, I ended up at Duke University and then straight onto the fastest of fast tracks on Wall Street.

My career was at its pinnacle when I left it all behind. The extraordinarily unethical Wall Street bailouts and subsequent refusal of the Department of Justice to prosecute any bank executives changed my life forever. Indeed, it has been the seminal experience of my entire life. I simply couldn’t be in that environment anymore, making gross amounts of money doing nothing of value for society while millions upon millions of my fellow citizens were being screwed over by their own government. So I left, not knowing exactly what the future would hold. More than half a decade later, here I am writing to a rapidly increasing audience about the need to sweep aside the status quo and usher in paradigm level change regarding all of the most important aspects of society: government, rule of law, ethics, the financial system, military intervention, currency, etc, etc. 

I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I do not consider myself a libertarian, progressive, socialist, anarchist, conservative, neoconservative or neoliberal. I’m just a 38 year old guy trying to figure it all out. Naturally, this doesn’t imply that there aren’t things which I hold dear. I have a strong belief system based on key principles. It’s just that I don’t think it makes sense for me to self-label and become part of a tribe. The moment you self-label, is the moment you stop thinking for yourself. It’s also the moment you stop listening. When you think you have all the answers, anyone who doesn’t think exactly as you do on all topics is either stupid or “paid opposition.”  I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking.

I will never agree with anyone on everything and that’s how it should be. I don’t want or expect you to agree with me on everything either. I’m going to get stuff wrong, sometimes as a result of natural human error, and sometimes as a result of being uninformed on a particular topic. No one can be an expert on everything. If nothing else, I want you to come away from this website with an open mind and an open heart. I want you to accept that you can listen to and learn certain things from some really smart people, while still disagreeing with them vehemently on other topics. Learning isn’t an all or nothing thing, nor should it be tribal. You should always run away from any person who claims to have all the answers. The truth is, none of us do. We’re just here doing our best to get by, live a decent life and help turn this world into a better place than the one we found. At least, that’s what I hope most of my readers want to do.

Unlike the fake news mainstream media, I promise readers that I will always do my best to be honest about how I see the world irrespective of the consequences. I don’t strive for celebrity, and I won’t pander to get it. I’ll say what’s on my mind whether I have 5 followers or 1 million. Integrity doesn’t care about popularity. Popularity is not my goal and never has been.

In the nearly five years since I’ve been writing at Liberty Blitzkrieg I’ve witnessed an incredible societal transformation. While the alternative media was alive and functioning with incredible vigor and incisive analysis even back then, the public hadn’t fully come around to appreciating the incredible betrayal and lies that is the business model of oligarch-owned mainstream media. This is despite the fact that “papers of record” such as The New York Times and The Washington Post aggressively pumped the humanitarian disaster known as the Iraq War to no end. Considering The Washington Post in particular spread the fake propaganda from PropOrNot, let’s revisit some highlights from an article published in 2014 at The Nation titled, Eleven Years On: How ‘The Washington Post’ Helped Give Us the Iraq War:

A subject I’ve been writing about for, oh, the past decade or so—the media’s sad, tragic performance during the run-up to the US attack on Iraq—never gets old, at least for me. It provides such a revealing glimpse of, and warning about, how leading media outlets usually cave to the “official narrative” from the “serious” policymakers and pundits. Howard Kurtz, now at Fox, calls it, aptly, the media’s “biggest failure of modern times.”

The New York Times and Judith Miller get much of the blame for the media failures in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, so let me shine a light here on the Washington Post. My book So Wrong for So Long reviews the article Kurtz wrote for the Post in 2004, taking the newspaper to task for some of its misconduct (the paper itself did not assign is own probe).

By the Post’s own admission, in the months before the war, it ran more than 140 stories on its front page promoting the war, while contrary information “got lost,” as one Post staffer told Kurtz. So allow me to pursue a few points. First, two quotes from Post staffers that speak for themselves:

• “There was an attitude among editors: Look, we’re going to war, why do we even worry about all the contrary stuff?”   —Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks.

• “We are inevitably the mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power.“   —Reporter Karen DeYoung.

• Liz Spayd, assistant managing editor for news, offered another weak defense in explaining why a key article questioning the existence of WMD by thirty-two-year Postveteran Walter Pincus was finally published on Page A17. Pincus’s stories are “difficult to edit,” as she put it. Matthew Vita, then national security editor and now deputy assistant managing editor, offered another defense for the Pincus miscue: “We were dealing with an awful lot of stories, and that was one of the ones that slipped through the cracks.”

• That rationale also applied to another sad case. In the days before the war, Dana Priest and Karen DeYoung finished a piece that said CIA officials had communicated significant doubts to the administration about evidence linking Iraq to an attempted uranium purchase. The story was held until March 22, three days after the war began. “Editors blamed a flood of copy about the impending invasion,” Kurtz explained.

The paper that cheerleaded the nation into a nightmarish war which destroyed the Middle East for generations, is now warning the public about “fake news” because Hillary Clinton lost an election. Think about how clownish and unprofessional that is.

If anything, the mainstream media has gotten worse since the Iraq War. Fortunately, people are increasingly aware of this, which is precisely why I received such tremendous support after being slandered on the “black list.” Part of that support came in the form of increased financial support via donations, which is the highest honor a reader can bestow upon a writer. For this gesture, I offer my sincerest and deepest thanks to all of you who contributed in recent days.

Never forget that mainstream media is largely owned by oligarchs with a political agenda and endless resources. If you want alternative media to be here in 5 or 10 years, readers absolutely must financially support their favorite writers and websites. Here at Liberty Blitzkrieg we make it very simple.

1. Send cash or check (check payable to Liberty Blitzkrieg, LLC) to:

Michael Krieger
P.O. Box 21146
Boulder, CO 80308

2. Donate Via PayPal

3. Donate via Bitcoin

A heartfelt thank you to all my longtime readers, and a hearty welcome to all the new ones.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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