Liberty Links 12/11/16

Must Reads Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence (Read this and share, The Intercept) Senate Quietly Passes The “Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act” (We are officially the USSA, Zerohedge) Site Behind Washington Post’s McCarthyite Blacklist Appears To Be Linked to Ukrainian Fascists and CIA Spies (Wild stuff in … Read more

The Mainstream Media is Asking for a Government Bailout Via Censorship

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The current controversy is different. Many people in Washington are irate over Wikileaks — not because the email were untrue but because they proved what many had long suspected . . . that Washington is a highly corrupt place full of truly despicable people. For people who make their living on controlling media and information, it was akin to the barbarians breaching the walls of Rome. So the answer is to call for government regulation to combat what will be declared “fake” news or propaganda. It is only the latest effort to convince people to surrender their rights and actually embrace censorship. 

– From Jonathan Turley’s: Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story

Watching Hillary Clinton attack “fake news” and calling for legislative action against free speech she doesn’t like got me thinking. Why is she doing this? Yes, it’s obviously related to her notorious personality trait of never taking responsibility for anything and attaching herself to an invented controversy in order to deflect blame for her monumentally embarrassing loss to Donald Trump. But there’s more going on here. A lot more.

To set the stage, we need to examine the types of people who are most jumping on the “fake news” meme. What you’ll find is that it’s a who’s who of the most contemptible and corrupt people in America. As Glenn Greenwald so accurately noted in his piece published earlier today:

Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.

But the problem here goes way beyond mere hypocrisy. Complaints about Fake News are typically accompanied by calls for “solutions” that involve censorship and suppression, either by the government or tech giants such as Facebook. But until there is a clear definition of “Fake News,” and until it’s recognized that Fake News is being aggressively spread by the very people most loudly complaining about it, the dangers posed by these solutions will be at least as great as the problem itself.

Just in case you think the above is an exaggeration, is there an individual in America more distrusted and more widely viewed as a compulsive liar than Hillary Clinton? The list of her outright lies is nearly endless (see: Video of the Day – Watch Hillary Clinton Lie for 13 Minutes Straight). Not only that, but Hillary Clinton was more than happy to promote obvious fake news stories one week before the election. Here’s the most egregious example:

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‘Then We Will Fight in the Shade’ – A Guide to Winning the Media Wars

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Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

– Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The ongoing battle between independent, alternative media and legacy corporate-government sponsored propaganda media is in full swing following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. While I’m no big fan of Trump, his win has so emotionally damaged the U.S. status quo they have begun to lash out in a hysterical and careless manner against those they feel prevented Her Highness, Hillary Clinton, from ascending to the throne.

The escalation of this fight, which I have referred to as “The Media Wars” since the summer, was easy to foresee. As I noted in the post, Questioning Hillary’s Health is Not Conspiracy Theory:

As I look at the landscape in 2016 to-date, I observe emergent signs that alternative media is finally beginning to take over from the legacy mainstream media when it comes to impact and influence. The mainstream media (unlike with John McCain in 2008), had decided that Hillary Clinton’s health was not an issue and chose not to pursue it. Many in the alternative media world took a different position, and due to mainstream media’s failure to inform the American public for decades, the alternative media drove that issue to the top of the news cycle. That’s power.

This is an incredibly big deal, and the mainstream media intuitively knows what it means. It means a total loss of legitimately, prestige and power. All of which is well deserved of course.

So here’s the bottom line. 2016 represents the true beginning of what I would call the Media Wars. Alternative media is now capable of driving the news cycle. Mainstream media now has no choice but to fight back, and fight back it will. It will fight back dirty. This is going to get very ugly, but by the time the dust has settled, I think much of the mainstream media will be left as a shell of its former self.

2016 was the year when alternative, independent media went from being merely influential, to affecting the outcome of a Presidential election. As was widely reported, basically every single newspaper in the nation endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. The fact she lost anyway represented the greatest middle finger to the media (and the status quo generally) doled out by the American public in at least a generation.

While genuinely fake Macedonia-based news sites certainly garnered a lot of clicks (and revenue) by inventing ridiculous stories, anyone who really thinks this is what led to Hillary’s defeat is simply in denial. We all know that independent websites taking Hillary to task on her very real and very deplorable track record of being a compulsive liar is what was truly decisive. The mainstream media knows this, which is why they haven’t actually been focusing on censoring provably fake news sites, but rather have been promoting an agenda to lump any non-establishment perspectives within the umbrella of “fake news” in order to destroy their competition and regain an upper hand in the national narrative. If those of us who value independent media want to thwart this nefarious plan, we need to fully understand what these cretins are up to.

To that end, I want to turn your attention to one of the best articles I’ve read on the topic. Published at Counterpunch and titled, Manufacturing Normality, here are a few excerpts (definitely make sure to read the entire thing):

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Video of the Day – Congressman Calls Tucker Carlson a Russian Agent on Prime Time Television

This is a remarkable, must watch interview between Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and California Congressman Adam Schiff.

More than anything else, the primary takeaway is the completely clownish and pathetic manner in which Mr. Schiff represents himself and his office. The only reply he has to Carlson, which he uses on at least three occasions, is to blurt out “party of Reagan” in a childish attempt at guilting Tucker into a mutual embrace of neo-Cold War jingoism.

Great job by Tucker Carlson getting Schiff to expose his true colors. This is exactly how journalists should treat all political figures whenever they mislead and deceive, which most of them do 24/7.

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Interview with The Corbett Report – Trump Fills the Swamp With Steven Mnuchin

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Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to once again sit down with the always excellent James Corbett of the Corbett Report. We discussed the disturbing proliferation of swamp creatures within Donald Trump’s administration, with a particular focus on ex-Goldman Sachs partner and foreclosure king, Steven Mnuchin.

You’ll really enjoy this conversation.

For my prior interview with James, see:

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If Trump’s Really a Populist, He’ll Fight Against the Destructive AT&T-Time Warner Merger

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Dangerous consolidation of the media is a trend that has been discussed by many people on many occasions, and many of us by now have heard the stat that in the U.S. just six media giants control 90% of all TV, news, radio and film. Now that Comcast is set to buy Time Warner, the situation is about to get that much worse.

Many people write about the struggle between “liberty” and “tyranny,” including myself, but these may not be the most effective terms to use in order to explain the troubling situation we face to a wider audience. Unfortunately, when people hear the words “liberty” the knee-jerk reaction for many is to associate it with right-wing “conspiracy theorists.” Of course, it is “conspiracy fact” that a small handful of corporations and the executives that run them control more and more of our daily lives. In other words, the forces of “tyranny” use “centralization” as their primary weapon of choice in order to control us. Those of us who long for “freedom” and “liberty” must use “decentralization” as our primary tool to fight back and win.

– From the 2014 post: The Comcast/Time Warner Merger and the War Between Centralization and Decentralization

Forget the Carrier deal, and forget the infamous tweet recently directed at Boeing. If Trump is serious about protecting the American public and being the populist leader he claimed he would be, he will aggressively push back against the proposed AT&T-Time Warner mega merger.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump appeared to take a strong stance against a deal that would further consolidate an already grotesquely consolidated media and telecom environment, but concerns have arisen as of late that point to a contradictory position.

As Fortune recently reported:

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Additional Thoughts on “Fake News,” The Washington Post, and the Absence of Real Journalism

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The European Commission looked into whether the tech giants were meeting a pledge to remove hate speech within 24 hours of it being reported.

Only 40% of reports of hate speech are being removed within a day, it found. 

The pledge was made in May when the firms signed up to a “code of conduct” brokered by the Commission.

“The last weeks and months have shown that social media companies need to live up to their important role and take up their share of responsibility when it comes to phenomena like online radicalisation, illegal hate speech or fake news,” said Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova in a statement.

– From today’s BBC article: EU Criticizes Tech Firms for Slow Action on Hate Speech

On November 25, 2016, for the first time in my life, I became a part of the news as opposed to reporting on it. Of course, what I am referring to is the slanderous and amateurishly researched article published in The Washington Post claiming Russia used “fake news” websites to promote government propaganda during the U.S. Presidential election. The article was appropriately savaged by several of America’s leading political thinkers and writers, including Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept and Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone.

To his credit, Glenn has been particularly relentless in his criticism, focusing on the mind-boggling fact that the paper refuses to publicly address any of the myriad concerns raised regarding this defamatory hit-piece. Here are just a few examples:

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Meet Chinese Education Companies – How U.S. Colleges Sell Enrollment to the Highest Bidders

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This past Friday, Reuters published one of the most important articles I’ve read in a while relative to the attention being paid to the issue. It details a streamlined practice through which Chinese “education” companies essentially bribe college admissions officers at top U.S. universities to accept tuition paying Chinese students. It’d be bad enough if these students were actually qualified, but in many cases these companies complete the entirety of the applications for the students, including writing their essays. It’s not uncommon for these student-clients to never see their own applications.

Naturally, these companies couldn’t pull off their sleazy scam without willing American partners. Enter Thomas Benson and Stephen Gessner, two eager-beaver members of our nation’s celebrated — earn as much money as possible however possible without regard to the negative consequences to your fellow Americans — class. The entire story will make you sick, and it’s just further proof of how cronyism, bribery and a complete lack of ethics has fully penetrated into virtually every single facet of American life. It’s symptomatic of the debased, crooked Banana Republic economy we have become.

Without further ado, here are some excerpts from the must read article, How Top U.S. Colleges Hooked Up With Controversial Chinese Companies:

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Liberty Links 12/4/16

On December 16th, 1961 the world turned upside down and inside out, and I was born screaming in America. I was told when I grew up I could be anything I wanted a fireman, a policeman, a doctor, even president it seemed. But like many kids growing up on a steady diet of westerns I always … Read more

Buyers Remorse – Trump Supporter Was Foreclosed on by Treasury Pick Steve Mnuchin

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Two days after Donald Trump’s election victory, I expressed the following sentiment in a post titled, Draining the Swamp? Wall Street is Already Loving Donald Trump:

To conclude, this article is primarily written for all my readers who are either Trump supporters, or who reluctantly voted for him. My message to you is that we need to hold this man’s feet to the fire. The election is over, and you got your desired outcome. Now is not the time to be a cheerleader. Now is not the time to behave exactly like Obama zombies did after he became an obvious betrayal. What allowed Obama to do all the bad things he did, was the fact that his supporters made endless excuses for him. Don’t make excuses for Trump. If you do, your life will get a lot worse and this country will decay far more into an authoritarian oligarchy than it already has. It is up to you to make sure he doesn’t become the Wall Street puppet I always feared he would be.

This message has become increasingly important with each passing day, and with every new cabinet disappointment. Mnuchin is not the only one. Trump picked the sister of Blackwater’s Erik Prince for Education Secretary (for more on Prince, see: America’s Top Rogue Mercenary – Blackwater’s Erik Prince is Under Federal Investigation) and Mitch McConnell’s wife for Transportation Secretary (see: Trump Fills the Swamp with Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell’s Wife, for Transportation Secretary). The swamp is being filled rapidly, and the sooner we admit it, the better.

Those who recognize Trump’s betrayal most quickly will be average Americans who have been preyed upon by some of his cabinet picks. One of these people is Teena Colebrook.

The AP reports:

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