Former US State official on censorship — “What I’m describing is military rule”

Data, City, Big Brother. AI.

By Jo Nova

One of the most extraordinary interviews I’ve ever heard. Take everything you thought you knew …

Tucker Carlson talks to Mike Benz who worked in the cyber portfolio at the US State Department.  He calmly lays out the dark power of the US intelligence network. This is the inside story of how and why the military industrial censorship complex grew in the last thirty years.

It’s obviously hard to confirm what he says, but we already know Twitter and Facebook were effectively acting as arms of the US government. We’ve got the emails showing they were colluding with US state agencies and the legacy media on a daily basis to cover up government failures and corruption, and to censor Americans. We know the CIA withheld a report on China because it might have helped Donald Trump, and we know the CIA has been feeding the media “misinformation” for 50 years because another insider told us so.

Mike Benz seems to be able to explain so many details on the forces that shaped history.

At first the agencies liked free speech

In 1991 the apparatus of the US State thought the internet and free speech was a great tool. It made it easier to fuel revolutions in foreign countries and overturn inconvenient governments. And so the CIA worked out that if they controlled the social media and legacy media in “problem” countries they could put sympathetic governments into place. It was cheaper than sending in tanks. Thus a giant specialist program of expertise in censorship grew in order to control elections.

Given that this foreign interference was unprincipled, being undemocratic and anti-free speech, it is no surprise that a generation later the same expertise would morph into a malignant agency (or two) used against “Americans who threatened democracy”.

Then they started to fear the rise of the populist right

By 2016 the internet was vastly more mature and influential. Instead of being a tool of the intel agencies it was a tool of the masses, and they were voting the wrong way. The spooks could not “pull a story” by leaning on one editor, or asking friends at Facebook to de-amplify a meme.

Then Brexit lit a fire in the intelligence world — they feared France, Spain and Italy would also leave, the whole EU would disintegrate and worst of all, NATO and the “rules based international order would collapse” (which is another way of saying these meddling people would lose their jobs, their grants and their power). Then of course, months later, Mr Trump was unexpectedly elected, and the world teetered on the edge of functional democracy. A disaster…

There is a transcript which is 29 pages for people who don’t like to watch — but Benz is an exceptional speaker — cutting to the point, without wasting time. It makes a great podcast converted into mp3.

Notice here, in his list of the great fears of the intelligence agencies — the point of NATO is to be the army, essentially, of the global bankers.

  • Brexit would give rise to “Frexit” in France with Marine Le Pen, to “Spexit” in Spain with a Vox party, to “Italexit” in Italy, to “Grexit” in Germany, to “Grexit” in Greece.
  • The EU would come apart so NATO would be killed without a single bullet being fired.
  • And then, not only that, now that NATO is gone, now there’s no enforcement arm for the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, or the world Bank.
  • So now, the financial stakeholders who depend on the battering ram of the national security state would basically be helpless against governments around the world.

They have redefined democracy

Instead of the “will of the voters” — they are trying to define democracy as the infrastructure and the institutions of democracy. So anything that threatens “trust” in the institutions is a threat to democracy. See how this works?  If you criticize mail-in-voting you are undermining elections. If you criticize your rulers you are a cybercriminal, a terrorist.

Mike Benz runs an organisation now called  Foundation for Freedom Online

h/t David E. also Ed Dowd, and Richard C (NZ)

Art by Mohammed Hassan

 

 

 

9.6 out of 10 based on 116 ratings

112 comments to Former US State official on censorship — “What I’m describing is military rule”

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    UK intelligence somehow identified this chap who made a silly private joke.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68099669

    180

    • #
      GlenM

      When you look like one and then pronounce an act of sabotage,you don’t need a slap on the hand. Should have been jailed.

      112

      • #
        James Murphy

        He didn’t stand up and shout it, he wrote it in a messaging app, ostensibly to a “private” group, who, presumably, knew he was not serious, even if it wasn’t the smartest thing to say (but then, I’m sure we have all said things that could be misinterpreted if heard outside a group of friends).
        It does show that these “free” messaging services are not really secure, and they cant be trusted.
        It also shows the level to which surveillance is conducted – “for our own safety”, of course. To me, this is the part that should be of concern, not whether he should face gaol.

        101

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          On its website, in a section titled “How We Work with Law Enforcement Authorities”, Snapchat reportedly says “We also work to proactively escalate to law enforcement any content appearing to involve imminent threats to life, such as school shooting threats, bomb threats and missing persons cases, …”.
          I think that’s fair enough – imagine the criticism Snapchat would face if a terrorist act with many deaths was planned on Snapchat.
          The guy was an idiot. Criminal idiot? The Spanish court said no.

          20

    • #
      Geoff

      Most things that government do end up badly as there is little planning or thinking about the consequences. Rarely is greed entered into any planning. Greed creates obvious outcomes.

      The other major problem is the redistribution of capital into non-essential inputs. Offer grants for investigating toad warts and you will get a vast array of pursuit of warts by academics, everywhere.

      The grant industry created by the US ability to print “money” and the Manhattan Project’s extended bureaucracy with no purpose, has been fatal for essential pursuits like housing, energy, food and peace.

      Everyone looks to the government for money, not themselves.

      The Climate Change fiasco is a direct result of individual greed. Government promotes the idea of “free” money while increasing the tax rate to pay for the marketing of “free” money. Stupid ideas grow. Good ideas with risk of execution are unfunded.

      Write something on the collectives brain 21 times and what was a poorly thought out policy becomes the norm. It is not possible for a group of people to generally disagree with a policy if no other policy is marketed to the group. They simply have nothing to fetch from memory for processing. The policy can be ridiculously wrong. It does not matter.

      The internet has allowed input from ever more sources. We now have confirmation that our masters are very ordinary people. We already knew they were ordinary. We hoped not very ordinary. The problem remains. How do we get very ordinary leaders to do extraordinary things rather than the norm, enriching themselves?

      70

  • #
    Wilco

    Hi all,
    Not a bad idea to ditch the just instated European digital services act.
    Which censors the social media from february 18th.

    300

  • #
    David Maddison

    It gets far worse than that.

    Goolag has released a new fully woke and anti-white racist AI model called Gemini that doesn’t even recognise the existence of white people. When asked to depict National Socialists it showed pictures of “racially diverse” people in National Socialist uniform, for example. It changes the reality that there were no black or brown people as well as other groups in the despicable National Socialist regime.

    No doubt its failure to recognise white people is just a small part of it. It will promote socialist ideology in general, and anthropogenic global warming fraud, the Official Narrative on covid etc..

    Of course, the reason for the release of Gemini now is to prevent Trump bring re-elected because the totalitarians at Goolag are still upset that they failed to prevent him being elected the first time, although their biased search results helped prevent it the second time as well as helped prevent any legitimate challenge to the election results.

    The Gemini AI model will be or already is built into all Goolag products. Its manipulation of truth and reality is extremely dangerous. It is truly Orwellian.

    Video by Matt Walsh: https://youtu.be/v8H4Cn-k3Q8

    An article:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/23/google-gemini-ai-images-wrong-woke/

    From Black (National Socialists) to female Popes and American Indian Vikings: How AI went ‘woke’

    420

    • #
      John+in+NZ

      They have temporarily shut down Gemini’s creation of images of people.

      I asked for an image of a white family and was told “I cannot generate an image of a family based solely on the characteristic of race. It is against Google’s AI Principles to return content that reinforces stereotypes or biases. I can, however, generate an image of a family that does not depict any specific race or ethnicity. Would you like me to try that?”

      I asked for an image of a black family and got “We are working to improve Gemini’s ability to generate images of people. We expect this feature to return soon and will notify you in release updates when it does.”

      They have got the message that people have noticed their bias.

      310

    • #
      CO2 Lover

      doesn’t even recognise the existence of white people.

      Sounds like the Albanese Government

      330

    • #
      Tel

      It changes the reality that there were no black or brown people as well as other groups in the despicable National Socialist regime.

      You never noticed that Spanish and Italians tend to have better than average sun tans?

      There were also ideologically similar groups among the Arab Nationalists very willing to cooperate with the Axis powers..Even to some extent, East Africans (e.g. Ethiopians) willing to sign on with the Italians, although not in large numbers. Unless you somehow only count Germans as both Nationalist and Socialists, which I would believe to be a rather strange position.

      There are still proud National Socialists in Syria today. No prize for guessing where they got their flag ideas from.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagles_of_the_Whirlwind

      On the matter of the uniforms, each group had their differences, and even then different uniforms were issued depending on climate, role, and circumstantial issues such as material shortages. Getting the correct ethnicity matching up with suitable uniform might be a little bit trickier … but the search engine has access to huge photo databases so the job wouldn’t be impossible.

      70

    • #
      David Maddison

      Actually, it’s even worse.

      Matt Walsh just released another video 4 hrs ago.

      It has been proven by a technical expert that the AI internally alters your search query without your knowledge to give you the results it wants you to see, not the ones you are looking for.

      https://youtu.be/RGOtLLEVKEM

      110

  • #
    Lawrie

    I subscribe to Tucker’s show and it is cheaper than any newspaper and much more interesting. No wonder the powers that be denigrate him in the way they do. His conversation with Putin was lambasted as if he were speaking with the devil himself. To many Putin is the devil but at least he is a Russian and proud of it. His fellow Russians, for the majority, seem to support him. Lets face it, if we want to make a comparison; Albo can hardly manage to say Happy Australia Day and none of his minister can either. Patriots get a bad name these days because they threaten the rich and powerful. I particularly like the hypocrisy of the Leftists who were horrified by the Sudden Death Syndrome suffered by Putin’s rival while they were busy locking up Biden’s main rival.

    572

    • #
      Simon

      What Putin wants most of all is the dissolution of NATO. So, he gets his useful idiot to do a story on it.

      044

      • #
        TdeF

        Why? NATO is an antique. Tank warfare is antique.

        It is a nuclear age. Only France and the UK are nuclear armed. And the US is even closer. And China is a neighbour along a very long border, especially if you count Mongolia. You cannot win. But small plutonium suitcase bombs and ballistic shells are something else, not yet seen on the battlefield and held by both sides.

        The world’s biggest country Russia is permanently under siege from France, Germany, the UK, China, Iran, Afghanistan and the US and Japan. It has been that way since 1805. Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam, Syria, Ukraine are just proxy wars. Nibbling away at the edges, trying to corner the bear.

        I did find it ironic that Putin’s temporary replacement as President was Dmitry Medvedev, still Deputy Chaiman of the Security Council of the Russia Federation. His name in Russian means bear.

        200

        • #
          Simon

          Because NATO commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state, in the areas defined by Article 6, to be an armed attack against them all.

          020

          • #
            TdeF

            That completely ignores the reality of conflict in a nuclear armed world. Even Pakistan has atom bombs. And North Korea. What constitutes an armed attack is no longer a land invasion by soldiers on foot, as in every war in history.

            80

      • #
        Tel

        You have mind reading power!

        That’s even more impressive than you climatology.

        100

      • #
        Leo G

        What Putin wants most of all is the dissolution of NATO

        Why does he want the dissolution of an alliance which he asked to join?

        120

        • #
          Anton

          He wants to neutralise it. Ther are two ways: (1) join it and subvert it fron inside; (2) dissolve it.

          50

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          Maybe we should have let Russia join NATO. From where I am looking at things, that is, not as far from China as some other places, maybe just maybe the world would be a little bit safer. And maybe then Ukraine could have joined too.

          10

      • #
        John Galt III

        Simple Simon

        20

      • #

        NATO was created as a defensive organization against the USSR, now since Russia agreed to drop the Warsaw Pact and free countries back in the mid 1990’s there was no longer a need for NATO to exist anymore.

        Now we see an aggressive NATO postering in the last 25 years against a nation that did their part to stabilize eastern Europe moving closer to the Russia border being surrounded by nearly all sides forcing Russia to realize the West has obvious hostile intent against them in the future.

        How come you fail so badly on this?

        40

    • #
      TdeF

      And the very public death of Navalny is not what Putin would want. How would Putin benefit? But it is what the Ukranians and Putin’s enemies would want.

      Like the Nord stream pipeline. It is ridiculous that Putin blew up his own pipeline. The culprit is 99% likely to be Ukraine/Biden. And the Swedes found no culprit. Just like the WHO/UN could not find the laboratory where the Wuhan Flu was made. Really?

      We used to joke about the left press, Pravda. Now all the world press is Pravda, except a few. And the Qataris are trying to buy the Telegraph and the Spectator. Soon there will be nowhere to go for the truth, so you have to read between the lines.

      Tucker was shut down by ex speaker Paul Ryan, now a director of formerly conservative Murdoch, the one tasked with stopping Trump’s direction for the two years when Republicans had both houses and the Presidency. And he handed over to Pelosi who was behind hiding the Wuhan Flu and the entire episode of the 6th July.

      271

      • #
        Rob Moore

        These thoughts crossed my mind too re Navaldy
        Given the content of this post- it should be obvious that the devious power at all costs of the so called “free” world schemers is all they care about.
        The domestic unwashed from all countries are on a slippery slope unless Musk can endure and maybe become president some day.

        20

      • #
        Annie

        I thought it was the UAE trying to buy the UK Telegraph and the Spectator.

        10

  • #
    David Maddison

    France is proposing a censorship bill that would effectively outlaw criticism of any medical treatment such as, for example, experimental covid “vaccines”.

    Of course, the Left are downplaying the signifi8of this but it’s obvious what the real intention behind the bill is.

    Specifically dedicated to therapeutic-type excesses, this Article 4 creates a new crime aimed at punishing “the provocation to abandon or refrain from following medical-therapeutic or prophylactic treatment“, as well as “the provocation to adopt practices presented as having a therapeutic or prophylactic purpose“, when these incentives may be “particularly serious” for physical or mental health.

    470

  • #
    ianl

    One of the issues, in my view the main issue, in taking Benz at his rambling word is the organisation’s name that he is now involved with:

    “Foundation For Freedom Online”

    Perhaps quite sound and well placed, but the US internet area is absolutely chockers with similarly named groups. This makes it so much easier for Benz to be dismissed with the “Conspiracy Theory” putdown – as we see already. So many tin foil hats out there, you see.

    If the response is that Benz was one of the authoritarians, so he knows what he’s talking about, the defence is then that he’s just a disgruntled ex-employee.

    My point is that he will not be believed by most people. In fact, he won’t even be heard by most people. That he’s telling the truth is of no consequence whatever.

    200

    • #
      GlenM

      True. Nevertheless the encroachment of Fascism is underway. A collusion of Communist, environmental and other élites conspire to control the lives of others. Russia stands against this supranational takeover, the main reason it is vilified by West. The authorities want you to comply to Climate change,, COVID VAX and Russia and disinformation will not be tolerated.

      280

  • #
    David Maddison

    The Australian Government is also still desperate to impose its censorship legislation of what the Left call “misinformation” and “disinformation” (first introduced by the fake conservative Liberal Party) despite 23,000 submissions why that they shouldn’t.

    420

    • #
      Penguinite

      Definitely an international conspiracy!
      In the meantime, Trudeau and the French gnome have started a “fly united club”

      100

    • #
      DOC

      We saw Roxon and Conroy try this years ago, against the Australian, where they wanted government to have some control over the editorials. A little push back and they dropped it.
      Albo and his lot don’t have the strength of that government. Albo is more about survival of his government, said to be looking down the barrel of retaining government after the next election only by doing so with the Greens. Some pushback against this censorship measure will probably have the matter dropped like a hot rock, just as the WA Premier dropped his heritage plans asap after the loss of the Voice.
      An independent media could kill the entire thing overnight. Even now it would have to be considering the effects on its sales if it has to block 50% of its current bloggers attending its blogs. Rowlands is being very slow in bringing the legislation forward, so there must be a lot of wavering in the ranks. If it was to pass and people got to see just how badly their freedom of speech has been removed by the legislation, the matter could really see the demise of Labor for a very long time. They could never be trusted again, especially as lack of trust of Albanese is currently running red hot.

      160

      • #
        James Murphy

        Don’t discount the sheer number of people who think it’s perfectly ok to impose censorship on anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.

        The hypocrisy surrounding Putin and Navalny is a case in point. People simultaneously think that Putin locking up his rivals is bad, while cheering on measures in their own countries that will be (or indeed are already) used to restrict political opponents by the government of the day.

        If Pauling Hanson wasn’t a political threat to both Labor and the LNP, then those parties wouldn’t have fought to hard to send her to gaol. Times have changed, but the stakes in the game haven’t.

        160

  • #
    TdeF

    “The EU would come apart so NATO would be killed without a single bullet being fired.”

    Now that’s wrong.

    NATO “The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. ”

    And at that time many current members were occupied, generally active participants with Germany in the devastation of WWII. Germany itself was occupied by three countries.

    Before that you had the very successful Common Market
    “The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957

    The Community’s initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including a common market and customs union, among its six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

    Then “The ‘European Union’ was officially created by the treaty, which enters into force on 1 November 1993.” This is after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which no longer existed.

    The idea that NATO is dependent on the existence of the now huge EU is to argue that the existence of the EU is to fight Russia. That is deliberately provocative and wrong.

    The EU in fact may collapse. A common currency may vanish in this electronic age. And people may want freedom from their former oppressors, the French and the Germans, the Italians and even the Spanish.

    That doesn’t mean they cannot align against any perceived threat. And it does not mean they cannot enjoy free travel and free duty free goods, the idea of the Hanoverian cities and the original Common Market. And it does not mean they cannot align against a new common enemy, even if the idea that Russia was necessarily the only enemy is wrong. Not after the Wuhan Flu.

    320

    • #
      TdeF

      And they still have multiple parliaments in three cities at enormous expense.

      There is the European Council, European Parliament and European Commission. Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg (1958).

      Strasbourg. Seat of the European Parliament.
      Luxembourg. Home of the European Institutions.
      Bruxelles. Where most of the work is actually done.

      It is a complete mess trying to please everyone and pretend to be anything more than a non democratic bureaucratic monster. And the insane impositions on farmers at present, the cause of major disturbances in ten countries shows that they are completely out of control.

      The segue to NATO falling apart because the EU is ungovernable and a major oppressor is absurd. It is completely independent.

      311

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        The more I read about what the EUcrats are doing or planning, the more I realise that the Brits were brilliant to vote for Brexit. Their Tory prime ministers since then have been, um, less than brilliant.

        80

        • #

          “Their Tory prime ministers since then have been, um, less than brilliant.”
          Certainly true.
          Although they were/are considerably constrained by ‘The Blob’.
          The Blob – Civil Serpents, journalists, ‘academics’, not a few pollies, a lot of the wider mee-jah, many financiers and bankers, many in ‘charities’ and lobbying organisations [often the same], and some of the more ‘correct’ amongst the professions, including law and medicine – feel their privileged lifestyle is threatened by withdrawal from the [reasonably corrupt] EU, with moves to better align government policies with what is good for the UK and its people.
          That’s why they unleashed an all-out attempt to neuter the UK’s exit – not without assistance from within the EU, nor without success.
          More competent, confident governments may have considered such behaviour treasonous.

          Auto

          50

    • #

      Germany itself was occupied by three countries.
      Wrong, by 4 countries, as Russia occupied the eastern part of Germany.

      140

      • #
        CO2 Lover

        Angela Merkel was East Germany’s gift to a unified Germany.

        Germany has never recovered.

        260

      • #
        TdeF

        Picky. West Germany from 1945 to 1994. The Americans only left in 1994.
        Russia occupied or dominated the rest of Eastern Europe. They only left Poland in 1993.

        40

        • #

          The key sentences are not about the EU or Russia — the point of NATO is to be the army for the global bankers:

        • — And then, not only that, now that NATO is gone, now there’s no enforcement arm for the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, or the world Bank.
        • — So now, the financial stakeholders who depend on the battering ram of the national security state would basically be helpless against governments around the world.
        • 140

          • #
            TdeF

            The idea of NATO in the Cold War was a collaborative Western European defence union. And the enemies included many of those countries who are now members!

            And it is a reactive force, not one to attack Russia or anyone else. But without its own army, the EU will try to use NATO in this way. I would expect it is outside the NATO charter. At the same time the EU often suggests it should have its own army. NATO is a committee. And nothing is impossible, until sent to a committee.

            40

    • #
      Lawrie

      I am not sure that Russia is the main problem these days. NATO was formed when the USSR was an extremely powerful union and when folk like Stalin wanted to subjugate the rest of Europe, he already had much of it. I do understand that Putin may want to include the ethnic Russians living in current Ukraine back in the Russian fold. I also understand that NATO could be seen as a direct threat and therefore would not be welcome as a next door neighbour. Russia already has a dangerous neighbour next door called China. In earlier times Ukraine was the breadbasket of the USSR hence Stalin’s efforts to kill UKrainians to release food for Russians. It seems to me that real statesmen, including Trump who knows how to deal without the politics, could come to a beneficial arrangement between the two countries. Russia holds vast amounts of natural resources including gas and oil enough it seems to power Europe for decades. Is the current war designed to prevent Russia from supplying fuel or to prevent Europeans from burning it?

      160

      • #
        DOC

        Putin has as litle interest in the Russians in Ukraine as hamas has for the ‘Palestinians’. Maybe Putin is more at war to remove Ukraine from having any control over Crimea and the Black Sea coast. That gives him a lot of control over Ukrainian exports to Africa, Turkey and others. It becomes a stranglehold over many regions of the world which he currently doesn’t have.

        11

  • #
    TdeF

    Actually I find the Wikipedia et al. version of history very confusing as the history has been twisted to claim the EU has been around for ever. The gnomes of Brussels have been very busy on the internet.

    The Common Market was a trade agreement. And half of Europe was still occupied after WWII, especially East Germany and Poland.

    The European Council brought in free travel and a common currency in what was prior to 1992 Western Europe. In the pre electronic age, a single currency was a boon, but it undercut national sovereignty, as was intended.

    The European Union is much later drive for a political union, a single government. The argument for this political union is the same as the argument for Napoleon’s Europe or Germany’s Europe. And there is the occasional demand for an EU army? With nuclear contributions from France and the UK. Sound familiar?

    History has been totally blurred as the EU actively rewrites the story of Europe and signs up all the former Soviet occupied countries as the enemies of Russia.

    And now by trying to sign up Finland, Ukraine and even Georgia in the Caucuses, they are really provoking the Russians who with their former commonwealth allies won the terrible war against the NAZIS and lost 30 million people in the process. And if America had not dropped the bombs, they had 6 million troops ready to invade Japan.

    And for that matter Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and more. These later occupied countries were on the surface at least enthusiastic partners of the Third Reich. There were even volunteers from across Europe. Now they are all the innocent victims oppressed by Russia? When Germany surrendered, Hungary was still fighting huge tank battles with the Soviets and Northern Italy was still occupied.

    No one mentions China or Iran or North Korea or Islam. The only enemy now it seems is Russia.

    As so many protests are showing, the EU is not a benign democratic government and nothing at all to do with NATO.
    I believe the EU is planning to be a world government and has become the mortal enemy of Europeans. The member states could all leave and Europe would be free again.

    340

  • #
    David Maddison

    Here is a video by an Australian about how the prophetic portrayals of totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty Four have mostly come true.

    https://youtu.be/lb5r3eYy7V0

    110

  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s sad that most people believe that the search results you get with Google are honest and reliable, when in fact they are only the results the social engineers want you to see, not the truth.

    Recall that Google abandoned its corporate motto of “don’t be evil” in 2015. Now the propagation of evil and the manipulation of truth is one of their core functions.

    340

    • #
      John+in+NZ

      If I wanted my company to do evil, as in actual evil, I would go for the motto “Do No Evil”.

      If I was an honest person who did not want to encourage evil I would go for something less virtuous.

      If I were Google, I would have gone for “Veritatem indagare”. “To investigate truth”. It’s always nice and pretentious to have a Latin motto.

      50

  • #
    David Maddison

    Have you noticed how conservatives and fellow rational thinkers always get banned from Leftist-oriented sites but Leftists are generally free to speak on conservative-oriented sites, including this one?

    270

    • #
      Dave in the States

      But I appreciate Jo and some others holding fast to principle. Unless everyone has free speech, nobody does.

      150

    • #
      DOC

      It’s as it has to be with free speech.
      The fact the left does as it does simply shows it has always been totalitarian, and always will be. It’s the same old story. When the left preach principles they are telling you what they are attacking. Those principles are the power, strength and appeal of centre-right conservativism in the Judeo-Christian system. It’s like Albanese attacking Dutton for being totally negative. That’s a declaration that Albanese and his troops know most of their legislation passed is a depradation on the country. Most of what it has and is doing with Mining, Agriculture, Energy -and even the environment – is economically destructive and with no other point than the political takedown of our governing systems. Albanese fears to have the people wake up, having lived the hardships he imposes. Albanese’s attacks on Dutton are camouflage used for the same reason that it is essential for Albanese that opinion science unquestionably supersedes traditional science. Opinion science is the basis
      for all the failures and destruction we see from laws based on climate. It is time to resume the fight against that opinion science. Expose it for what it has allowed politically malignant Western governments of both major persuasions to do to Western freedoms and prosperity.

      60

  • #
    CO2 Lover

    Moking the State will be Punished in Germany {Albo and Labor will be paying attention}

    Legal speech would be punishable

    German Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) said that with the new “Democracy Security Act”, they would also pursue even online hate speech that falls “below the threshold of criminal liability”. That means that even if the “hate” speech does not meet the criminal standard, the German police forces could still come knocking on your door!

    Mocking the state will be punishable

    Meanwhile Germany’s Minister of the Internal Security, Nancy Faeser, Socialist party, said that citizens must no longer be allowed to even mock the government, once a cornerstone of democracy and free speech.

    She told at a press conference: “Now we urgently need the Democracy Security Act, that’s what I’m calling for. We have to strengthen the civil institutions with their work against extremism. In my view, the German Parliament must pass this act. Those who mock the state must have to deal with a powerful state.”

    https://notrickszone.com/

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    • #

      Wouldn’t happen at the moment, as in Gouvernement are opposite voices.

      40

    • #
      David Maddison

      Meanwhile Germany’s Minister of the Internal Security, Nancy Faeser, Socialist party, said that citizens must no longer be allowed to even mock the government, once a cornerstone of democracy and free speech.

      Its tragic watching Germany gradually return to its National Socialist roots where mocking or criticising the state was also banned and punishable by imprisonment, slave labour or death.

      240

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      No mocking, no moking, no poking fun at the F******s? What’s life without a little poking & moking! What are these people, the Fun Police? Away with them NOW!

      150

      • #
        CO2 Lover

        Must be boring now in Kiwiland without the Red Princess to moke.

        110

        • #
          Greg in NZ

          The fanged Fishmonger’s Wyfe? She’s still lurking in the underworld somewhere: with comrades like Trudeau, Macron, Blair, and Gates, she’s still got her finger on Klaus’s insipid pulse.

          Our present PM, with his 3-way handshake and corporate-speak forked tongue, is as much a caricature of ‘democracy’ as his predecessor: I have no faith in any of them.

          However, I do love a great moke 😃

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    Old Goat

    I have noticed recently how much “news” is being increasingly ignored by the MSM while Taylor Swifts love life is front page news. The internet is rapidly catching up and soon will be under total control . Everything is now under surveillance by AI and anonymity requires workarounds to avoid this . The uniparties are fully onboard and we are on the radar…count on it.

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    Curious George

    “In 2014, after the coup in Ukraine, there was an unexpected counter-coup where Crimea and the Donbas broke away”. Sure, a counter-coup with “Big Green Men”, armed soldiers without insignia, but speaking fluent Russian. What an interview!

    “Mike Benz is, we can say with some confidence, THE expert in the world on how this happens.” Pfui. I like Tucker Carlson, but can’t trust him.

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      CO2 Lover

      The 2014 coup

      Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the 2014 popular uprising that saw former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich forced from office was the result of a “coup” orchestrated by the United States and supported by Washington’s European allies and appealed for greater cooperation on the continent.

      Writing an op-ed in German newspaper Die Zeit (2021) to mark the 80th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, Putin on Tuesday described the toppling of Yanukovich as an “anti-constitutional armed coup”.

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      Graeme No.3

      Curious G:
      I have a saved map of Ukraine with the election results. Yanukovich won mostly 70% in the East and south as far as (and beyond) Odessa. Don’t know how to show you, but John Mearsheimer (2015) was where it came from. May still be on Youtube. Incidentally he was saying then that war would occur.
      Crimea was the base for the Russian Black Sea fleet and supposedly after the coup would go to Ukraine. Putin would have regarded that as unacceptable nor would the Crimean population.

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        GlenM

        Imagine the Crimean ports like Sebastopol in US or NATO leasehold thanksp to Ukraine.One- sided reporting in Western press aimed at demonising Russia. How would US go with Cuba inviting a Russian missile base. Hypocrites of the ” rulesp based international order”.

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          GlenM

          I gave myself a green thumb.. ooops.

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          el+gordo

          ‘Imagine the Crimean ports like Sebastopol in US or NATO leasehold …’

          Ukraine won’t join NATO because it would be tantamount to starting WW3., anyway I have it on good authority that Donald will withdraw financial support so the organisation will collapse.

          Imagine the Russian people revolting against totalitarianism and demanding a real democracy. A lot of educated young Russian men are living abroad to avoid the draft, so its only a matter of time before the tyrant and his lackeys are brought down.

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            GlenM

            I have friends in Rostov on Don who I contact regularly. I told them that I can’t buy a tin of beetroot from both of my local supermarkets for over a month. Many otheritems are sparse or non existent. They indicated that there is copious amounts of consumer goods on display. We are going south in this country unless something is done.

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            TdeF

            Russia is much more than one man. The US is much more than Joe Biden. This picture of one man operating alone is ridiculous.

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            TdeF

            As for Donald withdrawing US support in what has been for fifteen years a civil war of secession, as in Kosovo, the only common element is that the US and EU are anti Russian. Even when most of the Ukraine is Russian or half Russian and speaks Russian including Zelensky. People should be asking what the EU and the US are doing in Ukraine, even before this intervention. Besides, who cares about 500,000 people dead? As in WWII, the popular view is that half are evil Russians and the other half are worthless Ukranians. Just keep sending 150mm howitzer shells to kill more and more.

            Donald would end it by diplomacy. And that’s how all such wars end. The mass murder must stop. It makes the deaths in Gaza look completely trivial.

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              Curious George

              “People should be asking what the EU and the US are doing in Ukraine, even before this intervention.” For example, Paul Manafort, a good friend of Donald Trump, successfully helped to elect Mr. Yanukovich, a very pro-Russian guy, the President of Ukraine. A great job, the election is still considered fair. Mr. Manafort cashed some $12M from Mr. Yanukovich’s party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych

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    CO2 Lover

    Who put up that video mocking Mr Klaus Schwab the other day?

    Could go for a re-run.

    Here is one mocking Bill Gates

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzG_D2dHqyA&ab_channel=Flashgitz

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    Ross

    I am at the point, even in Australia, where I now don’t trust any actions or information coming from any form of government. Whether that’s local council, state or federal. At the moment the world seems in an inversion state and nothing is being done for the right reasons. Well done again to Tucker Carlson who is now doing real journalism.

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      Ross

      Also noticed this morning that TC’s podcasts are now on Spotify.

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      DOC

      There are a few strong people in our Parliament, maybe even a few in the right of Labor. Generally they are the ones much of the media tries to belittle, shred, or ignore hoping they will go away. Maybe soon they will start putting their heads together about putting a bar in the spokes of the ascendant left extremes. Principle and love of country overcoming Party demands. Put nation first and rebutt the international activists with their scheming and seeking a concentration of power to themselves over the people of the West. Civil wars come of these things. I think the USA is much closer to that than we. If Biden’s Bureaucracies push much harder and make the mistake of interfering patently with the coming elections, anything could happen in the land of the guns.

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    Fookes

    Jo & David – presumably this puts you, and others who write independent blogs, right in the crosshairs of these agencies not just at the blog level put presumably on a personal level too…..

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      Ross

      Yep, and anyone contributing will have been put on a watch list. Be wary of nondescript vans parked in your street with blackened windows. 🙂

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    Bozotheclown

    Many of us have a sense of what is going on even if we are distant from any real way to defend against it. Truly, it feels like so many horror film scripts read.

    The train we ride is rushing head-long towards the missing bridge.

    Please council me on what to do?

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      MP

      Don’t get on the Train!

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        Adellad

        Great advice bar one pesky problem; we are all on that train, even you.

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          MP

          No, I think not. When the boarding was mandated, I refused to board. I refused all calls to board, I am not reliant on the government for anything, the very few services I receive I pay for.
          My danger is getting dragged over by the slipstream from your train.

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            MP — the truth of it though is that we want to live in a world which has the occasional doctor, nurse, teacher, and fireman, and all these people were forced to get the vax, or give up their job.

            Bozo asks a fair question. The answer Bozo is that everything you can do to spread the message, to share the forbidden info is a step in the right direction.

            If ultimately most of the doctors and nurses had just said “No” the government wouldn’t have got away with it. And if more patients had said “No”
            to doctors, more doctors would have thought harder about it.

            We must shore up our lives of communication. AI control of the internet is growing.

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              MP

              I was forced to get the vax or give up my work, I chose the latter, I refused to board the train and many I know also made that choice. Some of these people have only got back to work in the last 12 months, they also had no handouts from the government, they said no. We all had a choice.
              I have done a 180 on my opinion of the willingly vaxxinated and blame them fully for the unwillingly vaxxinated, they were also the people who demanded I be locked out of society.

              95% vaxxination rate, the train is packed.

              Bozo’s question is the most unanswered question on this blog.

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                John Connor II

                Bozo’s question is the most unanswered question on this blog.

                There are answers but people aren’t ready for them.
                Imagine if you went back to 2019 and vocalised all that we now know as true was coming our way.
                You’d be classed a tinfoil hat nutjob.
                And if someone were to lay it all out, what would you do?
                Take it as gospel and change your life immediately or call it BS and continue to live in denial?
                WHO would you trust implicitly in order to make you make those changes and prepare? THAT is the question you need to ask.
                You want answers but wouldn’t accept them or act if you got them.
                In time, yes (translation: wakeup when the SHTF and not before, as is the human way) but not now.

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                MP

                There are answers but people aren’t ready for them. So why are they asking?
                Imagine if you went back to 2019 and vocalised all that we now know as true was coming our way.
                You’d be classed a tinfoil hat nutjob. Already am.
                And if someone were to lay it all out, what would you do? Lay what out, do you think your saying something, when you are saying nothing?
                Take it as gospel and change your life immediately or call it BS and continue to live in denial? The gospel according to an atheist or medical advice according to Billy Gates. Denial of what, you have said nothing, again.
                WHO would you trust implicitly in order to make you make those changes and prepare? THAT is the question you need to ask. I don’t need to ask anything and I will not take advice from someone waving their hands in the air, screaming “it’s coming”.
                You want answers but wouldn’t accept them or act if you got them. Bozo wanted answers, not I. And you along with every commenter has avoided answering, though most ignore the question, including you, they at least avoid putting their foot in it.
                In time, yes (translation: wakeup when the SHTF and not before, as is the human way) but not now. Great, a translation of… nothing. You have spent a lot of time saying nothing, when you should have just said nothing, like everybody else.

                If, as Jo stated, the solution is spreading the message, what message are you trying to put forward. Your Nostradamus shite is meaningless.

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      Kalm Keith

      I wish I could counsel you on that but after watching our local and state and ferral governments over the last ten years it’s obvious that democratic process has been totally subverted.

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        Sceptical+Sam

        If so, then what are the “undemocratic” processes that you’d recommend Keith?

        Stay calm and carry on?

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          Kalm Keith

          The removal of basic democracy has been on the go incrementally, bit by bit, for the last fifty years.

          All of the basics of society that saw a wonderful rebound after WW2 were slowly rubbished and replaced with the current theory based on victimhood and the right to a free lunch forever.

          Society is stuffed and can only be fixed by returning to the post WW2 arrangement where you worked or got subsistence payments, not the current lifestyle arrangements.

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    John Galt III

    I was in ASA back in the 1960’s – the US Army’s division of NSA. I went overseas in 1967 and came back in 1971. Back then our mission was spying on the Communists especially the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies. That is what I did.

    Today NSA spies on Americans. I will cheer and drink myself drunk if an alien spacecraft nuked or otherwise completely destroyed Washington DC and then left. Dear God, that would be funny. That is a city of evil traitors and scum. I hate them all with maybe Rand Paul, Thomas Massie and a few dozen others as exceptions so those guys are on vacation.

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      Kalm Keith

      It’s deeply embedded

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      Rob Moore

      Why don’t you contact Mike Benz- networking , supporting, sharing info, is the practical way to bust these slimey traitors at the heart of all our govt these days!
      There are many leaders like Tucker C and Joe Rogan and Elon Musk that must get all our support on the internet before they pick us off one by one – country by country.
      The Bible belt have many people who are informed but due to professional jealousy and a lack of spine in their hierachies- they only come out with muted confused positions that just destined them to a sub 10 percent of the popular vote in the west

      Imo- it is time to unite on the core issues behind the existing, quality hero sites like this and All- share share share- while we can to all that we know!

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    Leo G

    So anything that threatens “trust” in the institutions is a threat to democracy.

    That would mean the “new democracy” a fascist-corporatist utopia, where capitalists may keep their wealth provided they support the corporatist institutions which control government.

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    David Maddison

    Net zero by 2050 is interesting.

    Why?

    “I think there’s a remarkable coincidence between China having its eyes on 2049, the 100-year anniversary of the CCP takeover, as the date at which they want to solidify their position as the sole global superpower, and the rest of the world having embraced this notion of net-zero by 2050,” Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University of Guelph, told The Epoch Times.

    In other words the West will have destroyed itself by 2050 through lack of an energy supply and social decay and China will be the sole major world power.

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      TdeF

      The idea that emissions control C02 levels is science nonsense. It is the core controlling concept. There is no evidence at all that humans have any impact on CO2 levels.

      If emissions mattered, why is the C02 level over China the same as over Australia?

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      TdeF

      Yes, that’s the obvious plan. It’s not rocket surgery.

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    TdeF

    As for the intelligence agencies metastasizing and taking control of all information, that is likely in the monoculture which is the EU/UN/Washington. 98% of the people in Washington D.C. voted for Hilary Clinton. That is scary. I assume they are hunting down the 2%.

    What that means is that the Clintons, Obamas, Bidens can do no wrong. The DOJ/FBI/CIA have their backs. And all the intelligence agencies do what they can to frustrate a GOP government. It makes you wonder about the 6 Jan so called riot, where the rioters prayed in the Congress. And none were armed. So far about 1,000 people have been sentenced for protesting. And this process of incarceration and punishment of GOP voters is fully supported by both the judiciary and the government. And clearly in New York, most of the people on juries, which explains the $1Million punitive fine against Mark Steyn for a $1 defamation. And $85 Million against Trump for an impossible alleged non rape, decades ago without any evidence. Or $450Million for a case where no one at all had a problem, but a judge alone and without evidence decided guilt.

    Consider those hundreds of billions of dollars to help Ukraine? Aren’t they just paying for munitions to kill more Russians? Consider each deadly 155mm howitzer shell (and they have run out) costs 3,300 EU/$A5,500. Now that’s printing money. And that money does not go anywhere near Ukraine.

    War is a money machine. And Trump would end this. But he would also end the franchise of security agencies who have targeted him and his family for a decade. The amazing thing is that he is still alive.

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      Honk R Smith

      It might be illuminating to the think of the DC/Northern Virginia/Southern Maryland area as a Medici* style city state.
      With new powerful allies California and New York.

      DC was once Constitutionally isolated, but that has become functionally neutralized.
      (Silly Constitution.)
      Georgia is trying to get into the club, but fail to understand that they will never be accepted due to being Southern.

      *(Remember the Medici demanded the banks and airlines provide lists of every citizen that had the temerity to even enter the City State around January 6.)

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    Honk R Smith

    Us poor Boomers.
    We remember the good old days when complaining about the the CIA was was “LEFT wing conspiracy theory”.

    Now, it’s ‘RIGHT wing conspiracy theory’.

    Gotta hand it to ’em.
    They turned left into right.
    Up to down might be next.

    If only Scotty were around to find out Captain Kirk CAN change the laws of physics.
    Anybody got any ruby slippers?
    I might be mixing metaphors again.
    I think we’re gonna need a bigger, meaner dog.

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    anon

    Please don’t go too far with this JoNova, there are subtleties there and catch 22’s. You are so superb at exposing the Green dodge baloney, gently prefer you’d steer clear of other quagmires.

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    Ed Zuiderwijk

    The only countries running a war economy now are Russia and North Korea. International Bankers? The ones obsessed with ESG? Hm. Sounds like the old ‘it’s the Rothschilds’ chestnut.

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    Dave in the States

    They have redefined democracy
    Instead of the “will of the voters” — they are trying to define democracy as the infrastructure and the institutions of democracy. So anything that threatens “trust” in the institutions is a threat to democracy.

    In other words “our democracy” is the Swamp and its agendas.

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    Kim

    A ground breaking article Jo – Many Thanks!!! Basically what has happened over the last 8 years is that the default attitude of the western populaces towards their swamps has gone from one of largely of trust to one of almost total distrust. In the USSA that has largely been because of all their blatant and obvious lies – ‘Russiagate’ – the persecution of Trump etc. All we see is this massive pile of dirt that they are piling up as they dig the massive hole that they are in. It is uniting and energising the people against the swamp.

    Further we see all the fake science and associated totalitarianism – climate, Wu Flu actions etc. And their wokism. All obviously questionable and that just makes us even more negative.

    The wokies, the swamp, have a smell to them. They don’t even need to open their mouths to be noticed and isolated and quarantined.

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    Faye

    I think the blood thirsty humans who hate us and want us to be their slaves, are easier to ‘fix’ than the overwhelming infinite mass-control experiment/s of AI and 5G etc!! which are about to be used on what’s left of the citizens of the world. We need President(WON 2020)Trump to fight and sought out this danger.

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    Mark Smith

    A bizarre of EU and NATO If EU ended then NATO would strengthened since they would have EU links to provide defence support. Thw proposed EU reaction military is not likely to work so well if few countries are in the EU.

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    […] Former US State official on censorship — “What I’m describing is military rule&#82… […]

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