Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Meet Toka, the Most Dangerous Israeli Spyware Firm You’ve Never Heard Of

This past Sunday, an investigation into the global abuse of spyware developed by veterans of Israeli intelligence Unit 8200 gained widespread attention, as it was revealed that the software – sold to democratic and authoritarian governments alike – had been used to illegally spy on an estimated 50,000 individuals. Among those who had their communications and devices spied on by the software, known as Pegasus, were journalists, human rights activists, business executives, academics and prominent political leaders. Among those targeted political leaders, per reports, were the current leaders of France, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq.

The abuse of Pegasus software in this very way has been known for several years, though these latest revelations appear to have gained such traction in the mainstream owing to the high number of civilians who have reportedly been surveilled through its use. The continuation of the now-years-long scandal surrounding the abuse of Pegasus has also brought considerable controversy and notoriety to the Israeli company that developed it, the NSO Group.

While the NSO Group has become infamous, other Israeli companies with even deeper ties to Israel’s intelligence apparatus have been selling software that not only provides the exact same services to governments and intelligence agencies but purports to go even farther.

Originally founded by former Israeli Prime Minister and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ehud Barak, one of these companies’ wares are being used by countries around the world, including in developing countries with the direct facilitation of global financial institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank. In addition, the software is only made available to governments that are “trusted” by Israel’s government, which “works closely” with the company.

Despite the fact that this firm has been around since 2018 and was covered in detail by this author for MintPress News in January 2020, no mainstream outlet – including those that have extensively covered the NSO Group – has bothered to examine the implications of this story.

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New Study Finds Mask Mandate Failed to Reduce COVID Deaths, Hospitalizations, or Cases

A new study published in the The Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) found that a county-wide mask order in Bexar County, Texas, did not lead to a reduction in COVID-19 hospitalization rates or deaths.

The study, which was peer reviewed, analyzed data before and after mandates were imposed at both the state level (July 3, 2020) and in Bexar County (July 5, 2020), Texas’s fourth largest county.

“We defined the control period as June 2 to July 2 and the postmask order period as July 8, 2020–August 12, 2020, with a 5-day gap to account for the median incubation period for cases; longer periods of 7 and 10 days were used for hospitalization and ICU admission/death, respectively,” the study authors wrote. “Data were reported on a per-100,000 population basis using respective US Census Bureau–reported populations.”

Authors of the study, which was reviewed by the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, analyzed the daily average number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, ICU visits, patients on ventilators, and deaths, and concluded the policy did not reduce any of these metrics.

“All of the measured outcomes were higher on average in the postmask period as were covariables included in the adjusted model,” the researchers said. “There was no reduction in per-population daily mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator occupancy of COVID-19-positive patients attributable to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate.”

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Where are All the Americans Returning Home from Afghanistan?

President Joe Biden and his team of military, intelligence, and diplomatic advisors oversaw America’s most epic surrender, on the world stage, under the lights and cameras of international media recording it for posterity, spinning the news to mitigate American failure.

One of many failures was the abrupt departure of American military and security forces, necessary to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghan allies who placed themselves and their families at great risk by helping the Great Satan against the Taliban, the latter being the new boss, replacing the old boss.

How many Americans were left behind? Official government numbers are all over the map. The military, tasked with evacuating stranded Americans, was vague on the exact number.

US defense officials in charge of evacuating Americans from Kabul claimed on Tuesday morning they would fly 5,000 a day out despite only managing to rescue 1,400 in the three days since the city fell, while as many as 40,000 may remain stranded – some in remote parts of the country.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday morning that between 5,000 and 10,000 are in Kabul, but earlier admitted he had no idea how many there were or where they were. George W. Bush’s former Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Charles, says there are between 15,000 and 40,000 ‘scattered’ across all of Afghanistan. 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that there were at least 11,000, including American journalists, translators, contractors, aid workers, NGO and government workers.

In other words, the U.S. government has no idea how many Americans remain in Afghanistan. The same government had no trouble rounding up hundreds of “insurrectionists” strolling the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but in a country occupied by American forces for the past two decades, they have no idea how many Americans are in that country, most being paid in some form by the U.S. government, who they are and where they are.

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Study Finds Teenage Boys Six Times More Likely to Suffer Heart Problems From Vaccine Than be Hospitalized by COVID

Research conducted by the University of California has found that teenage boys are six times more likely to suffer from heart problems caused by the COVID-19 vaccine than to be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 itself.

Wow.

“A team led by Dr Tracy Hoeg at the University of California investigated the rate of cardiac myocarditis – heart inflammation – and chest pain in children aged 12-17 following their second dose of the vaccine,” reports the Telegraph.

“They then compared this with the likelihood of children needing hospital treatment owing to Covid-19, at times of low, moderate and high rates of hospitalisation.”

“Researchers found that the risk of heart complications for boys aged 12-15 following the vaccine was 162.2 per million, which was the highest out of all the groups they looked at.”

This compares to the risk of a healthy boy being hospitalized as a result of a COVID infection, which is around 26.7 per million, meaning the risk they face from the vaccine is 6.1 times higher.

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Human Rights Champion Reggie Littlejohn Slams Joe Biden over Vaccine Mandates

Reggie Littlejohn, Founder and President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has censured President Joe Biden for attempting to coerce Americans into receiving a coronavirus vaccine against their will.

Littlejohn, China expert and human rights activist, issued a public response Friday to Biden’s use of “vaccine shaming” and military language to pressure Americans into getting the jab.

“I found Biden’s six-point Covid 19 address to be highly concerning,” Littlejohn writes in a clearly articulated six-point rebuttal.

In the first place, Biden “completely ignores the science” showing that the natural immunity gained by recovery from the coronavirus is far superior to that provided by the vaccines. “How many of the 80 million unvaccinated Americans have already recovered from Covid?” she asks.

Littlejohn also points out the logical fallacies in Biden’s argument. Noting that Biden contends we need to “protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated,” she asks: “If the vaccine works, if it provides protection, then why do the vaccinated need to be protected from the unvaccinated?”

Biden’s disdain for those who do not wish to be vaccinated is also unworthy of his office, Littlejohn asserts, as is his employment of “vaccine shaming.”

Biden’s rhetoric — “I am frustrated with the 80 million Americans who refuse to be vaccinated . . . those blocking public health . . . We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin . . .” is deeply disturbing, she declares, noting that many people “have valid reasons not to be vaccinated and do not deserve to be demonized in this way.”

Littlejohn also finds Biden’s use of military language, such as the deployment of “Surge Response Teams” made up of defense “experts” while doubling the number of “Military Health Teams” highly problematic.

“I thought ‘surge’ strategies were supposed to be deployed by our military against our enemies, not against Americans who have chosen not to be vaccinated,” she declares. “Why does the Defense Department and the military have to be deployed on U.S. soil to ‘help’ people with a virus?”

These expressions “remind me of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘Strike Hard’ campaigns and ‘Family Planning Police,’” writes Littlejohn, a relentless critic of Beijing’s totalitarian control over its citizens.

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