I Don't Know Jack

Not In Kansas,

  Craig Murray, Snowden and Texeira: Ten Years of Disaster

​  ​Ten years ago Edward Snowden was helped to escape by Wikileaks and to publish his revelations by The Intercept, Guardian, New York Times and others.
  I​n 2023 Jack Texeira is tracked down by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help him escape or help him publish or tell people his motives, but to help the state arrest him.
​  ​Those outlets have accessed a cache of at least 300 additional secret documents in doing so – and have kept them secret, with the exception of a couple of snippets that forward the official state narrative.
​  ​That contrast with ten years ago tells a very real and glaring truth. The idea that the legacy media in any way serves the truth or the public interest is now completely buried. The legacy media serves the state, and the state serves the billionaires.​..

​..These attacks were particularly important as the message that came over clearly from these Texeira leaks was precisely the same as that which came over from Daniel Ellsberg’s original Pentagon Papers leak 50 years ago – that the public is being lied to about how the war is going.
(It is worth reflecting that in today’s world the NYT and Washington Post would have condemned Ellsberg and emphasised those bits of the Pentagon Papers which reflect badly on the VietCong).​..

​..There remains the mystery that the sources of these documents seem particularly diverse – in particular some being apparently internal CIA – for an intelligence officer in the Air National Guard to access, but it is not impossible...

​..​Jack Texeira is at the centre of this puzzle but remains the missing piece. We have heard nothing from him. A rather unconvincing interview with a suspiciously fluent, pixeled out acquaintance grassing him up to the Washington Post stated that he was a right wing patriot.
​  ​Texeira has been portrayed both as some kind of rampant Trump supporter incensed at the state, and as an inadequate jock revealing documents just to boast to fellow gaming nerds. We should remain suspicious of attempts to characterise him: I am acutely aware of media portrayals of Julian Assange which are entirely untrue. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/04/snowden-and-texeira-ten-years-of-disaster/

  There has been much speculation about how a 21 year old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, on active duty for 2 years, in an intelligence unit, came to have so much classified information from both military and CIA sources , and came to reveal it at a time when there is a schism in the halls of power with how to deal with the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine, now that "winning" it seems to not be a realistic option. What is the exit-strategy?

  Teixeira was quiet in high school, a military history buff, wore camo, and was not popular. He has been Air National Guard active-duty since being called-up shortly after high school graduation. He was still living at home with his family doing the same job his stepdad had done, with the same Unit. He moderated about 20 high school geeks on an invitation-only chat site where he was the senior guy.  He seems to have been markedly idealistic and disappointed with the misuse of American power, particularly against the interests of the American people.

  This is the sort of young man who could be fed information without strict safeguards, and who could be expected to share it with his geek-patriot-confidant friends. The level at which such a plan was decided would never be apparent, and plausible deniability of any intention would always be maintained.

Guardian UK, Jack Teixeira’s arrest has exposed a system weakened by the legacy of 9/11 and caught off guard by an enemy that is increasingly within

​  ​His family history is the epitome of conservative patriotism. His stepfather served in the same unit, the 102nd intelligence wing of the Massachusetts air national guard, and his mother, who worked for years for veterans’ charities, celebrated the fact that her son was following the same path. The young recruit was an observant Catholic, who would pray with other members of his online chat group.
​  ​But Teixeira’s outlook had taken the same dramatic turn as much of American conservatism, becoming conspiratorial and distrustful of the very institutions earlier generations revered. Friends quoted in the Washington Post said he had come to regret joining up, as his view of the military dimmed.
​  ​His motive for allegedly sharing hundreds of top secret documents among the 20 or so young men and teenage boys on the Discord gaming server he moderated, at least as he explained it to them, was to alert them to shadowy forces driving world events. He reportedly posted the documents, photographed unfolded and laid on his family’s kitchen counter alongside glue and nail clippers, without commentary or any apparent underlying logic.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/15/pentagon-leaks-matter-of-time-jack-teixeira-9-11

Zombie War: Plan B for Ukraine ​ Voices on all sides—U.S., Ukraine, Russia—assure us that a major break in the military situation in Ukraine is imminent. Even as the Russian forces (RF) advance steadily in the area of Bakhmut and Avdivka, the Ukraine army (UA) is said to be poised for a last-ditch major offensive, driving toward Crimea on the southern front, which it must launch and must win.
​  ​It’s impossible to know what’s true and what’s feint about all this, and one can never be certain of the outcome once armies start blowing each other up, but I feel comfortable saying that: 1) There will be a Ukrainian offensive. The Ukrainians will throw everything they have into it and will make immediate territorial advances. 2) It is very unlikely that Ukraine will advance far enough to seriously threaten to re-take Crimea, and impossible that it will drive Russia to capitulate. 3) It is likely that the UA will exhaust itself, that enormous, irreplaceable, quantities of its manpower and materiel will be destroyed, and that the massive Russian force that has been held back until now will begin its own offensive that will be able to advance at will. It will be evident and undeniable that there is no longer any military impediment to the RF moving as far west in Ukraine as it wants.
​  ​I understand that surprises can come from many directions—incompetence of key commanders, political pressure from citizens in various countries, immediate NATO intervention, etc.—but I think it’s important to address the predicament that last outcome—a decisive military defeat of Ukraine—will create. That outcome will be an urgent crisis for the US/NATO/Kiev, requiring immediate decision and action. It’s also the outcome they expect and fear, and for which they are already considering their choices...

​..​Sometime this year, probably before the end of summer, the Ukrainian army will be decisively defeated, Russia will establish full control of the four oblasts (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia) and there will be no Ukrainian force left capable of reversing that or of stopping a Russian advance to Kiev.
​  ​At that point, in order to avoid either accepting a world-changing defeat or entering into direct war with Russia, all the U.S./Western voices who have been adamantly excluding the possibility of a ceasefire, Antony Blinken included, will suddenly start calling for one. They will be joined, they hope, by other global actors (by China, they especially hope) and antiwar voices, who will, without strong objection from the West’s Blinkens, see this as a welcome concession to those antiwar activists’ sincere and long-standing demands to stop the killing.

[​The author goes on to explain that neither Russia nor the US/NATO can really deal with a Nazi rump-Ukraine in the long term, so Russia will have to take all of Ukraine and de-Nazify it. I am not so sure of that at all. Russia's first interest is the avoidance of massive damage to Russia, like nuclear war. Russia does not want to "trigger" NATO. Russia can declare victory  in Novorussia and rebuild​, while fighting against Ukrainian and Polish guerilla attacks. NATO can sit and stew.] http://www.thepolemicist.net/2023/04/zombie-war-plan-b-for-ukraine.html

​  ​Economics and Empires 4​, ​Strategic Considerations about Developments in Asia​ , Aleks , Black Mountain Analysis Thanks Christine.

​  This analysis by ​Serbian analyst, Aleks​​ is part of a series, which awaits 2 more installments. Here he analyzes the power dynamics between the US, Russia, China, and other national and supranational "players", including "the owners", who remain unseen, client countries, and countries like Iran, Venezuela and Syria which maintain resistance to neo-colonization.​
  Russia fights for Russian existence, has a strong hand, is well prepared, with the most national self-sufficiency of any country, and the most vast and advanced military production industry. Russia is in a superior position to China. Russia is currently defeating the common-enemy for China, and for the other nations which would not be colonies. China will help in any way that it can, because if Russia falls, then China falls next. They currently have a symbiosis due to imperial threat.

  Both Russia and China want to move incrementally, to avoid triggering nuclear attack by the slowly degrading empire.

  All other countries are trying to assess the rapidly changing global power context, and what it means for their national interests. Israel is particularly wondering about this, as the rest of the Mideast moves towards Arab-unity and support for the Palestinian cause. The imperial foment of war between oil-producing countries, and the sales of weapons to them, will not continue to be a tool to suppress oil prices, and to destroy moves to independence (Iraq, Libya).

  The decisive battlefield is Ukraine, not Taiwan. China does not want to invade Taiwan. China wants Taiwan to decide to rejoin China peacefully in their common interests.    China, Russia and the rest of the world see the decay of "American" imperial power, which is exercised through the deep, broad and well-developed $US global financial system. It has no peer for investors, but it is extractive of value, and used as a bludgeon, as against Iran, Venezuela, and recently Russia. Their are structural problems with this financial system which assure another financial crisis soon. The other arm of control is the US/NATO/AUKU/etc. military might, which is waning. The US Navy can project power against countries that do not have hypersonic carrier-killer missiles, but not realistically against Russia and China, now.   The military enforces $US dominance, as does Saudi Arabia demanding payment n $US, and the rest of the world following suit. All of this is in gradual decay. Saudi Arabia and France are making deals with China in Yuan/Renminbi. Mexico is declaring non-colonial status. Brazil is declaring that a non-$US trade currency should be employed by South America.

  The United States of America may have a good future as an independent nation if the American Empire does not initiate nuclear war.

Economics and Empires 4

​ ​Slovakia has destroyed a 1,500-ton shipment ​of Ukrainian grain ​contaminated with a banned pesticide
​  ​Slovak authorities have banned the processing and sale of Ukrainian grain after discovering a dangerous pesticide in a shipment, the country’s Agriculture Ministry announced on its website on Thursday.
​  ​According to the statement, the ban will cover all grain of Ukrainian origin and flour made from it that is currently stored in the country.​  ​Earlier this week, ​​Slovak authorities discovered a 1,500-ton shipment of Ukrainian grain to be contaminated with chlorpyrifos, a pesticide subject to an EU-wide ban.
​  ​“The presence of a pesticide, which is not authorized in the EU and has a negative impact on human health, was confirmed in the controlled sample,” the ministry said. The country’s Agriculture Minister, Samuel Vlcan, said earlier on Thursday that the entire shipment would be destroyed.​ [This provides a potential tool against global multinational agribusiness corporations which have bought up Ukrainian farms.] https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/eu-nation-bans-ukrainian-grain/

​  ​“There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar,” Yellen said on CNN.
​  ​“Of course, it does create a desire on the part of China, of Russia, of Iran to find an alternative,” she told the network’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview. “But the dollar is used as a global currency for reasons that are not easy for other countries to find an alternative with the same properties.”
​  ​The robust US capital markets and rule of law “are essential in a currency that is going to be used globally for transactions,” she added. “And we haven’t seen any other country that has the basic… institutional infrastructure that would enable its currency to serve the world like this.”​ [Straw-man argument that there must be a national currency that meets these requirements. Gold could work, as could a BRICS currency.]
​  ​Yellen noted that sanctions are an “extremely important tool,” all the more so when used by the United States and its allies as “a coalition of partners acting together to impose these sanctions.”​  [Financial shunning requires critical mass to assure success. Those days may be ending.]​ https://insiderpaper.com/yellen-says-sanctions-may-risk-hegemony-of-us-dollar/

  Expatriate Limey deplatformed journalist, John Ward, has a view from afar of the Robert Kennedy Jr. candidacy for the US presidency:

​  ​A simple trawl of Microsoft, Google, NY Times, Wapo and Twitter-troll references to the RFKJr bid for the White House is enough to spell out in a 128pt Arial Black typeface that the “idea” is is obviously to condemn him as a marginal looney anti-vaxxer which he very obviously isn’t: he told Tucker Carlson in a recent Fox interview, “I am not against vaccination, I believe simply that these products need far more strict safety checks and questioning of data validity as issued by Pharma companies”.
​  ​Again: is there anyone out there who seriously disagrees with that as an objective? Both Moderna and Pfizer have a lamentable history of honesty about ‘safety’ on every imaginable level.
​  ​Ignoring the risibly captive “mainstream” media, what other amplified “considerations” are likely to rain down upon Kennedy’s head?
​  ​It’s going to be a game of two halves overall. If RFK jr really is out to make sweeping and radical changes, then the first and biggest uphill climb he faces is getting his Party’s nomination. Even Bobby waited to see what LBJ would do in ’68 in order to assuage feelings of disloyalty: Biden has made it clear he will run, and the people around him will do everything in their power to smear, frame and altogether crucify Kennedy before he even starts to build any credibility in the Primaries.
​  ​On this subject alone, the polls could not be more difficult to read. Four days ago, the polling site Morning Consult said seventy per cent of democrats were for Biden, only ten per cent for Kennedy. Disaster? Not necessarily: just 24 hours later a Rasmussen Reports Survey gave Kennedy the lead among Democrat voters, recording that his candidacy is supported by 52% of Democrats, just 32% are opposed, and 16% aren’t sure. I haven’t seen the questionnaire, but I suspect the specific ask was about Kennedy’s right to run against the President – ie, that it’s a good thing to challenge the Biden Gang’s record. (A later question had 62% saying that Biden should run again – but an equal 62% said other Democrats should challenge him). https://therealslog.com/2023/04/16/analysis-is-the-us-about-to-produce-a-real-challenge-to-more-of-the-same/

​  ​Maternal Death Rates in U.S. Rose Sharply in 2021 — CDC Should Make It a Priority to Find Out Why​, Peter McCullough MD​

​  ​While lockdowns, reduced access to prenatal care and a variety of factors could be related to maternal outcomes, the CDC report is willfully blind to major exposures:
​  ​Acute COVID-19, which could have played a role in 2020.
COVID-19 vaccination, which was prevalent in 65% of mothers in 2021.
​  ​The CDC must open up all data on COVID-19 cases and vaccination to researchers for urgent epidemiologic evaluation of these disturbing trends. Death among pregnant women should be a top priority for public health researchers.
​  ​Women of childbearing age and pregnant women should refrain from COVID-19 vaccination given its pregnancy category X status and the absence of any assurances on short or long-term safety. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/united-states-maternal-death-rates-cdc/

Biden to Spend $5 Billion on New Coronavirus Vaccine Initiative Supported by Gates, Fauci and Republican Lawmakers

Project NextGen, a successor to Operation Warp Speed, has bipartisan support and will receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/united-states-government-covid-vaccine-spending/

​  ​Nanoparticles Found in Many Foods Could Wreak Havoc With Your Gut Microbiome
​  ​A Cornell University study published in Antioxidants provided more evidence that titanium, silicon, zinc and iron nanoparticles present in many foods and supplements may cause serious disturbances to intestinal health and function, and to the gut microbiome.​..​

​  ​Titanium dioxide — the bad egg in the basket
​  ​Concerns over the safety of titanium dioxide have been gathering over recent years, with the EU and Northern Ireland imposing a ban on the compound effective as of Feb. 7, 2022​...​
​..​The safety concerns have been greatest with respect to inhalation risks of titanium dioxide, especially following its classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a potential human carcinogen. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/nanoparticles-gut-microbiome/

​Mr. Natural (pictured with first handful of green beans)​