Gov Corruption

[GURPS]

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! — Sir Walter Scott, 1808. While the Supreme Court was wrestling with the limits of the government’s good faith efforts to combat online “misinformation,” Reuters quietly ran an explosive story bearing all the hallmarks of being ghost-written by the deep-state under the unlikely headline, “Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines.”



Make more room on the 2024 bingo card. I bet all you anti-vaxxers never saw that headline coming.

In a wide-ranging article supported only by dozens more anonymous government sources, Reuters’ story confirmed yet another conspiracy theory about the breadth of U.S. psychological operations. Here’s the nut graf, the real disclosure, tucked away amidst the limited hangout:





Bribed influencers. False front groups. Fake social media accounts. Deceitful digital ads. Lies, dissembling, and deceit.

Sounds legit.

It’s not just that, at very the same time it was censoring Americans who criticized U.S. vaccines, the government was simultaneously spreading anti-vaxx misinformation about competing Chinese vaccines. More importantly, the program is much bigger than that.

In its penultimate paragraph, Reuters conceded that deceitful disinformation is now an official U.S. policy. Despite generalized attempts to blame President Trump for a Pentagon program established in 2010, Reuters conceded the military is not only still doing it, but it is doing it even more:





That paragraph referred to a de-classified Pentagon strategy paper from February 2023, which described nothing less than forever war with anyone and everyone opposing U.S. policy. And that’s just the part they’ve declassified.

Look, dummies. I don’t blame you for being confused, since you always thought disinformation was a bad thing. But it’s good when the government is doing it.

In secret. Reuters also reported that in 2019, the Secretary of Defense signed a secret order — more secrets! — essentially declaring war on the entire world. It authorized the Pentagon to use military-grade psyops on any “other countries,” even if they aren’t engaged in any active hostilities towards the US, or even if they’re an alleged ally, like the Philippines:





I’m not sure what “elevated the competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat” means, but it doesn’t sound good. Does that mean the Pentagon secretly declared war on Russia and China without a Congressional declaration?

Does “active combat” mean they can kill folks who post a meme they don’t like?

To limit the hangout, and to distract readers from the article’s terrible significance, Reuters’ narrative was framed around a single egregious example of Pentagon disinformation in the Philippines. But, and this is critical, neither Reuters nor its invisible sources claimed that was the only example. And despite repeatedly highlighting Russia and China as examples, it never said the Pentagon isn’t using psyops against allies, neutral countries, or even Americans.

This official strategy of lying explains why China and Russia have developed their own social media platforms. It also explains why the U.S. is so hell-bent on neutralizing Chinese TikTok — the only platform it doesn’t occupy like termites.

Turning now to Reuter’s lone, unalarming example, safely far away in the far-off Philippines. Reuters’ anonymous government sources described the Pentagon’s 2021 psyop designed to undermine the safety and efficacy of China’s non-mRNA vaccines:





To be clear, it was not just the Philippines. Headlines from around the world also show the telltale signs of the Pentagon’s deceitful fingerprints, like this 2021 headline from the South China Morning Post:





Protestors — get this — demanded Thailand buy Pfizer and Moderna shots instead of China’s traditional vaccine. I’m guessing they were totally fake astroturf protestors. But even if not, how did protestors get the idea China’s vaccine was so terrible they had to go on the march?

However, Reuters (or whoever wrote the article for Reuters) only reported the Philippino example. Still, Reuters conceded that all other vaccines were collateral damage of the Pentagon’s anti-vaxx campaign: “When individuals develop skepticism toward a single vaccine, those doubts often lead to uncertainty about other inoculations.”

So at the same time they were deleting your Facebook account for posting a meme of Dr. Fauci with a Hitler mustache, the Pentagon was busily fueling anti-vaxx theories from their non-suspended accounts.

Far beyond the Missouri v. Biden argument over whether Biden officials illegally threatened social media to stop Americans from spreading vaccine misinformation, the U.S. government was doing that very same thing on purpose. It was spreading anti-vaxx conspiracy theories for national security.

And it’s not sorry. Military News, June 14th:





This is a colossal self-own. In trying to undermine our strategic adversaries, the Pentagon has undermined us.

When accused of disinformation, our adversaries can effectively point out U.S. psyops, invoking a “whataboutism” defense. Relationships with allies built over years of patient diplomacy are now likely damaged, potentially pushing those countries toward U.S. rivals. And it massively fuels American citizens’ distrust of the government, military, public health infrastructure, and the media, which destabilizes our government.



This is how stupid all of this is: Reuters’ own story describes a sophisticated government psy-operation that includes planting fake news stories. Why shouldn’t we conclude this anonymously-sourced story is just part of a Pentagon operation?

They’re literally telling us they are doing it while they are doing it. You can’t make this stuff up.

The government’s flexible, amoral ethics, which green-lit official lying as policy, have created a profound epistemological crisis. Who knows what to believe? We citizens used to have some kind of social compact with the government, but I think one of the generals spilled coffee on it while pulling on his pantyhose.

What a tangled web the government has woven while it practiced deceit! It is difficult to overestimate the rank stupidity of our top (but diverse!) generals, who are ever fretful about the optics of their racial and gender composition. But they seem inexplicably unconcerned about things they (should have) learned in Kindergarten. Like the story of the boy who cried wolf.

So, pay attention. Don’t be distracted. It’s all coming out.

Finally, I’m sorry about how the Missouri v. Biden decision turned out. I was hoping for a better decision. But you know what they say: when life gives you lemons, stick them up the nearest vaccine bus’s tailpipe. Or Dr. Fauci’s. You choose.

☕️ WEBS AND TANGLES ☙ Thursday, June 27, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

The Supremes disappoint in Missouri, but we scrape up the silver lining and connect it to a truly mind-blowing story of epic 2024 proportions. Wait till you grasp the DOD's newest limited hangout.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

This term delivered a trifecta of swamp-draining decisions. Let’s recap. In Jarkezy, the Court deleted Executive Agencies’ ability to prosecute citizens for crimes; that must now happen in a real court with a real jury. In Loper Bright, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron, stripping Executive Agencies’ right to interpret laws by themselves and restoring that power to the courts.



Yesterday, the Supreme Court quietly published Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, and squared the deep-state-demolishing circle. Corner Post deleted the current 6-year statute of limitations for challenging Executive Agency rules under the Administrative Procedure Act. Now, citizen plaintiffs can challenge long-standing Agency regulations within 6 years of being affected by them.

The Loper Bright decision made it easier to overturn bad Agency decisions going forwards. And Corner Post just opened the door to retroactive challenges to decades-old regulations. It’s a gold rush for new, re-envigorated litigation against the Regulatory State. Virtually everything is now up for grabs. And I’m not the only one who noticed:



Liberal Justice Jackson, dissenting in Corner Post, also noticed how revolutionary this decision was. Jackson wrote, “At the end of a momentous Term, this much is clear: The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the Court's holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government.”

They’re going to need a bigger courthouse. Do it! Devastate the functioning of the Federal Government!



Ironically, Justice Jackson was right, in one sense. A tsunami is a natural event, like the flood waters crashing through a broken dam. Something unnatural (a dam) held the waters back. It’s time for the river to flow through its proper channel again.

Collectively, the new three-part immunity test plus the three-decision trifecta of administrative agency cases drastically pruned presidential authority, about which conservatives and liberals alike (depending on who the sitting president was), have long and bitterly complained.

The “power of the pen” might no longer be as powerful as advertised. Today the Presidential pen is looking more like a cheap Chinese knock-off.

It is difficult to overestimate how much this Supreme Court just historically and permanently altered the landscape of federal government overreach. I’m tempted to invoke again my overused ‘2024’ canard. But actually, I believe this unimaginable improvement in our national prospects was the inevitable result of the Supreme Court observing the government’s wild and painful overreach during the pandemic.

In other words: vaccine mandates.

We’ve longed for a lone decision saying HHS and OSHA can’t just arbitrarily order people to take experimental medical treatments they don’t want. We didn’t get that. But what we did get is arguably and breathtakingly much, much better. The Supreme Court took the long view. They’ve changed everything —including but not only medical freedom— for the better.

We had no right to expect this revolutionary Supreme Court session. What a great day to be alive.

There was also so much more good news yesterday, including massive vaccine injury wins and Epstein document drops. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for those.

☕️ DEVASTATING ☙ Tuesday, July 2, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Special Edition: the best news day since the Pandemic. All the hot takes and headlines are wrong about yesterday's Supreme Court decision. It's all so much bigger and better than anyone imagines.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[stgislander]

There is a Fed employee subreddit where someone posted how, with the Chevron ruling, will they (Exec branch employees) be able to continue to do their jobs and will they leave the Fed govt in droves.

 

[Ken King]

There is a Fed employee subreddit where someone posted how, with the Chevron ruling, will they (Exec branch employees) be able to continue to do their jobs and will they leave the Fed govt in droves.

Not if there job was to create the most draconian and restrictive regulations possible.

 

[stgislander]

Not if there job was to create the most draconian and restrictive regulations possible.

Yeah, I think the poster was an EPA employee.

 

[GURPS]

Yes, the Deep State Is Real, and That’s a Good Thing!​

 

[Kyle]

 

[GURPS]

Adopt Deterrence: US Waning Support for Ukraine, Israel and the Philippines Is a Threat to the Free World​

• The US neglect of vital security issues, from waning support for Ukraine and Israel, to its refusal to acknowledge the threat posed by Iran's nuclear programme, is inflicting serious damage to America's status as a global superpower.
• America's alarming non-confrontational policy towards the mullahs -- even asking Europe not to censure Iran for its growing nuclear weapons program -- has been a mainstay of both the Biden and Obama administrations. Their encouragement of Iran to acquire nuclear bombs has led the mullahs and their proxies to expand their malign activities throughout the region. Biden's impotence has effectively invited Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia that controls most of Lebanon, to escalate its attacks against Israel with the aim of opening a new front on Israel's northern border...
• Another area where Washington's incompetent handling of key security issues is the Pacific, where apparent US aversion to upsetting the Communist dictatorship headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently led to an increase in aggressive Chinese military conduct towards the Philippines as part of Beijing's efforts to expand its control over the South China Sea.
• Washington's persistent dithering on China, as well as other vital issues of global security such as Ukraine, Iran, and failing wholly to back Israel fighting not only for its own existence but protecting freedom in the West from aggressive autocracies, will certainly lend encouragement to Putin and other dictatorial regimes in Beijing and Tehran that the US will not present a serious challenge to their efforts to expand their global influence.
• If the current administration allows terrorists and aggressors to win, what message does that send to all terrorists and aggressors?
• The only way for the US to reclaim its global stature as the leader of the free world, after having tried everything else, is finally to adopt deterrence: warn every US adversary that if it provokes Washington, the response to each of them and their regimes will be a cost they do not wish to contemplate.

 

[GURPS]

Furrowed Brow Speaks About Need to Replace Biden on Behalf of the State Dept Who are Worried About Losing Ukraine Money if Trump Wins​

The U.S. Department of State (DoS), the umbrella agency for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), outlines their policy toward the American public through CNN. This truthful perspective is why all foreign governments regard CNN and CNNi as “state run” media.

In essence, everyone around the world -except the American public- know that CNN is the State Dept. From that perspective, the viewpoints of CNN then begin to take on an accurate context.

Now, having said that, keep in mind CNN is not necessarily always in alignment with the executive branch, even though the DoS is a silo within the executive branch of government. The hierarchy within the State Dept consider themselves as more important than the USA executive branch, and the 7th floor of foggy bottom is filled with self-entitled progressive globalists who attend fancy cocktail parties and carry multiple passports. They’re all professional snobs.

The State Dept operates for the private and foreign interests of the USA elites who hold power around the world and in various consulate offices. The indulgencies are quite remarkable and selling USA influence is big business, really big business. The DoS as an institution operates on a private quasi-international caste system of power and money. This creates the baseline to understand the priorities of the State Dept.

The State Department is very worried that another Trump administration will put them in a financial “dry spell” again because President Trump’s foreign policy is against the interests of the people within it. President Trump controls the foreign policy of the executive branch by using economic relationships to control national security issues. This means the Dept of State cannot sell foreign policy when President Trump controls the executive branch. I hope that makes sense.

 

[GURPS]

The Case for Draining the Swamp Is Stronger Than Ever​

The latest official employment report finds once again that the federal government and state-local hiring spree is still in full gear. Over the past year, health care and government hiring has outpaced every private sector industry. It isn't just the IRS bringing on thousands of new workers. The bloat is everywhere.


So even though there are a lot more government workers, good luck finding them or getting them on the phone.

This is because so few of them are actually physically on the job.

What's happening in the federal government ("Club Fed") these days borders on the absurd -- or should I say the obscene. A recent Federal News Network survey of federal workers finds only 6% are working full time in the office. Thirty percent are full-time remote. Washington office buildings have become city block-long zombies. Especially on Fridays.

While exact comparisons between public and private employees are tricky and inexact, best estimates are that in 2023 roughly 30% of private workers were working from home or remotely either some or all the time. In the private sector, the percentage of employees working from home has actually declined from about 50% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This means that, according to FNN, federal employees are THREE TIMES more likely to be working remotely either some or all the time.

Full-Time Remote

-- Federal Government: 30%
-- Private Workers: 12%

Full-Time or Hybrid Remote

-- Federal Government: 94%
-- Private Workers: 30%

I'm all for employees working remotely a few days a week. I do it myself, and it's likely to become more common in the information and digital age.

 

[GURPS]

Lance was so worried for his 'wonderful, kind' daughter's safety that he attended the preliminary hearing to warn a Davidson County judge that Rivers would 'finish the job' if he ever got out of jail.

To his astonishment, Judge Cheryl Blackburn, a longtime Democrat jurist, later decided to lower the alleged attacker's bond from $250,000 to $150,000, paving the way for his June 24 release.

Just nine days after he posted bond and walked free, Lauren was found beaten to death in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Rivers was arrested on suspicion of murdering her.

[clip]

A day later police traced Lauren's Chevy to an isolated cemetery outside Gulfport where they located her body in the back, wrapped in sheets and trash bags.

Rivers fled into the woods but the shaven-haired brute – who claims to be a US Marine Corps veteran on social media - was tracked down at 11:30pm after an almost nine-hour manhunt.

'We realized early on that the subject still had his cell phone on him,' Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley said.

'So undercover officers were able to, through text message, have Rivers believe that he was corresponding with a friend, and we were able to lure him out of the woods.'

Rivers was booked into the Harrison County jail at 1am Thursday, where he remains on a $1million bond, charged with murder.

'It all came to a head because of this new court date,' Lance told DailyMail.com.

'He knew they were going to throw him back in jail for violating the order and he wouldn't get out for the next 20 years. He had nothing to lose so he came for her.'

PICTURED: Slain nursing student's gruesome injuries by ex-boyfriend

These are the gruesome injuries inflicted on nursing student Lauren Johansen by the 'psychopath' ex who would go on to allegedly kidnap and murder her after a judge lowered his bond.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[GURPS]

History of the Open Fields Doctrine​

Hester v. United States​

One of the first casualties to our Fourth Amendment rights was our land. During Prohibition, government agents started prowling around for illicit alcohol and stills, including on private lands. In Hester v. United States, revenue agents hid on someone’s land to see if they were selling alcohol and gave chase when they saw his son hand someone a bottle. Despite the grave constitutional stakes, the Supreme Court breezily held in a two-paragraph opinion that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to private land because “the special protection accorded by the Fourth Amendment to the people in their ‘persons, houses, papers, and effects,’ is not extended to the open fields.” In one fell stroke, the Court categorically eliminated all Fourth Amendment protections for most privately owned land in the United States.

Hester’s narrow view of the Fourth Amendment eviscerated Americans’ constitutional rights. Worse, it was based on a false premise: that the “distinction between [open fields] and the house is as old as the common law,” a distinction that was about when private individuals could be charged with burglary, not about when government officers could intrude on private property. Still, the damage was done.

Open Fields Doctrine DOA

Landowners Win in Fight Against Warrantless Searches

 

[GURPS]

GOP Reps BETRAY Rule Of Law, Vote To PROTECT Garland And Biden, Withhold EVIDENCE Of Biden CRIME​

 

[GURPS]

This Reuters headline was already remarkable but it still managed to bury the lede:





I will now repost the entire Reuters article about this massive scandal that should, in sane world, rock the federal government to its core. You ready? Here it is, the whole thing:





That’s it! That’s the entire article. Not a single reaction quote from anybody. Nor any details, nothing about who said what, not even a snarky comment saying reporters tried to get a comment from anyone.

This is what passes for journalism in the age of corporate media.

The headline should have been something more like, “Secret Service LIED About Denying Trump More Protection.” Instead, the crack journalists at Reuters deployed the gentle euphemism, “this is a reversal from earlier statements by the agency.”

A reversal? A ‘reversal’ is when, under withering emotional manipulation, you give in and let the kids get toppings on their ice cream. It’s not a ‘reversal’ when you find seven crumpled candy wrappers under your teenager’s bed right after they loudly protested having no idea who cleaned out the pantry.

In technical terms, psychologists call that getting caught lying.

The New York Times’s article was a bit better. The Times, at least, reported the previous strong denials that, in Secretary Mayorkas’s own words, were “irresponsible” and “unequivocally false:”




But yesterday, under pressure, Secret Service Spokesman Guglielmi admitted that the “baseless” claims were not, after all, quite so baseless, nor were they exactly “irresponsible.” As it happens, President Trump has requested more security the entire time he’s been out of office:





Finally, to its credit, the Times article recapped the three biggest unanswered questions hanging over the rally field:






So many questions! And so few answers.

Yesterday, video emerged of President Trump asking a delicate question of his own in an interview with Fox’s Jesse Waters: why didn’t the Secret Service simply ask him to hold off starting the rally for a few minutes until they could find Thomas Crooks?


CLIP: Trump begins asking questions (0:40).

“Nobody said there was a problem,” the President explained, “and I would've waited for 15 minutes, 20 minutes. I think that was a mistake.”

Great question.

☕️ BREAKING THROUGH ☙ Sunday, July 21, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Sunday bonus post! More leaders back Trump; Zelensky call update; Secret Service caught lying; elite Times suggest truth breakthrough; Biden covid update; anti-Cabbage coalitions; more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

Treasury warns that anti-woke banking laws like Florida’s are a national security risk​

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter sent Thursday to lawmakers. The letter singled out a law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May that says it would be an “unsafe and unsound practice” for banks to consider non-financial factors when doing business. The letter concludes that “such laws create uncertainty and may inhibit” national security efforts.

Conservative Republicans such as DeSantis have sought to block environmental and socially conscious standards for investing, saying that such initiatives can lead to unfair discrimination based on political beliefs and harm legitimate businesses. They say that considering environmental, social and corporate-governance issues, or ESG, before deciding whether to invest is woke behavior gone amok.

Tennessee recently enacted a similar law, although it was not mentioned in the Treasury letter. State legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota also have measures along these same lines under consideration.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Biden’s Supreme Court Reforms Are Unconstitutional​

On Monday, President Biden proposed two reforms to the Supreme Court—term limits for justices and a binding ethics code—along with a constitutional amendment to its recent presidential-immunity decision. Making his case in a Washington Post op-ed, the president claimed broad support and specifically thanked “the bipartisan Presidential Commission on the [SCOTUS] for its insightful analysis, which informed some of these proposals.”

But there’s a problem with Biden trying to use the commission to give his proposals legitimacy. Adam White, who served as a member of that commission, tells The Free Press that “nothing in our report actually recommended anything” that the president is now proposing.

Imposing term limits by statute would be unconstitutional, says White, a legal scholar for the American Enterprise Institute who was one of 34 experts who delivered a report on Supreme Court reforms to Biden in 2021.

“The Constitution explicitly guarantees that justices hold their office in good behavior, which means until impeachment or death or retirement, that’s always been understood as life tenure,” he explains.

Trying to get around this by “slicing and dicing the Supreme Court into subgroups”—granting justices 18 years of “active service,” after which they no longer participate in their ordinary duties—“opens the door to Congress playing total mischief with the court,” warns White. Biden is yet to explain the details of his proposals, but any legislation he brings to Congress is likely to be dead on arrival. In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson said as much yesterday.

Schumer’s ‘No Kings Act’ Allows Congress, Not SCOTUS, to Determine ‘Whom Federal Criminal Laws May be Applied’​

Senate Majority Leader Chuckie Schumer introduced his No Kings Act to eliminate immunity for presidents and vice presidents.

Who cares about the Constitution?

The Democrats used the Exceptions Clause under Article III to justify its actions.

The Democrats hate the Constitution. They hate the Supreme Court. SCOTUS ticked them off when they ruled that Trump was entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.

The No Kings Act puts everything in the hands of Congress and the notorious left-leaning United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The Democrats wrote (emphasis mine): “No President or Vice President (former or sitting) would be entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for actions that violate the criminal laws of the United States. The bill would clarify that Congress, not the Supreme Court, determines to whom federal criminal laws may be applied.”

Oh. My. God. That’s not how this works.

Congress writes and passes laws.

The judicial branch determines whether laws are constitutional and how they are applied. It also interprets the actions of the legislative and executive branches.

The judicial branch keeps the two branches in check and ensures they don’t overstep their authority.

The No Kings Act allows only the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to handle any charges against a president and vice president.

The bill “would also create a presumption of constitutionality for the No Kings Act unless a party establishes its unconstitutionality with clear and convincing evidence.”

Chuckie didn’t read the SCOTUS ruling. SCOTUS did not give presidents and vice presidents blanket immunity.

The ruling had a specific and narrow ruling. The immunity only applies to official acts and when carrying out “core constitutional powers.” Emphasis mine:

We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity. At the current stage of proceedings in this case, however, we need not and do not decide whether that immunity must be absolute, or instead whether a presumptive immunity is sufficient….

SCOTUS even said the president is not above the law (emphasis mine):

It is these enduring principles that guide our decision in this case. The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution.

The ruling is also important because the bill says the D.C. Court “correctly concluded in United States v. Trump that former presidents:

• do not possess absolute federal criminal immunity for any acts committed while in office
• may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office
• four-year service as Commander in Chief [does] not bestow on [a President] the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens

It also shows another reason why Schumer picked the D.C. Court. But one could call that ruling a blanket case because it eliminates pretty much everything.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]