Hunter S. Thompson on the police state…
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The CIA Once Considered Using Lightning to Assassinate People
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once considered the idea of using lightning as a weapon system. In the late 1960s, an unknown scientist proposed the service use lightning strikes as a weapon that would leave behind “little or no evidence,” making it difficult to identify the U.S. government as the perpetrator. The CIA, despite always being interested in covert weapons, never developed the idea. Probably.
The pitch, which Forbes discovered in declassified CIA files, involved using “artificial leaders” of thin metal wires to “cause discharges to occur where and when we desire them.” The wires, a few thousands of an inch in diameter, would unfurl from aircraft or rockets launched into the atmosphere.
Then, once lightning occurred, it would be drawn to the metal wire and strike the ground where the wire terminated. The idea seems to be that the wire would be close enough to fry whomever the CIA wanted to assassinate with 300 million volts of electricity.
There were some interesting upsides to the weapon unique to using natural weather phenomena. For one, it was cheap, since lightning is practically free. Second, it left behind no traces like bullet casings, missile fuselages, or other telltale signs of state-sponsored assassination. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the chances of being struck by lightning are only 1 in 500,000, and an observer would likely believe the target was simply a victim of bad luck.
Arkansas Judge Found Dead in Lake After He Went Missing on a Family Trip
An Arkansas judge was found dead at the bottom of a lake Sunday after he went missing during a trip with family and friends over the weekend, authorities said.
Arkansas County Northern District Judge Jeremiah Bueker, 48, was in Jefferson County for “recreational travel” with his loved ones, but at some point during the trip he “ventured off alone” and was not seen alive again, according to a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office news release. His death is being investigated as an accidental drowning, the office said.
Bueker was last seen near Mud Lake, where his body was later found, the sheriff’s office reported.
“After time had passed and no one had seen or heard from Bueker, worry began to set in,” the release said. “A search for Bueker by family and friends began.”
After the sun set, the family had still not found Bueker, so they called 911, the release said. An extensive ground and water search was conducted late into the night and early morning by the sheriff’s office and wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Eventually, the search had to be paused due to low visibility, the sheriff’s office said.
On Sunday morning, the search resumed as authorities scoured the lake using boats with side-scan sonar, which allowed them to get “a birds-eye view of the water,” Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said in the release.
“At approximately 9:16 a.m., the side-scan sonar revealed a body on the bottom of the lake,” and deputies pulled the body from the water, the sheriff’s office said.
The family helped authorities identify the recovered body as Bueker’s and an autopsy will be performed by the State Medical Examiner, the sheriff’s office said.
There’s a neat trick to this…
“Russian Propaganda” Just Means Disobedience
You can always tell how important narrative control is by watching the way people react when their control of the narrative is jeopardized.
Empire apologists are raging at Amnesty International for pausing its aggressive facilitation of western imperialism to issue one brief criticism of the way Ukrainian forces have been endangering civilian lives with their warfare tactics against the Russian military.
Amnesty is far from the first to highlight this extensively documented issue; that Ukrainian forces have been deliberately positioning themselves in civilian populations without taking proper measures to protect noncombatants is a concern that has been voiced repeatedly since the war began and reported on by both mainstream western news outlets and the United Nations.
Nevertheless, Amnesty’s claim that “Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals” has drawn fire from Ukrainian officials, from mass media pundits, from the brainwashed rank-and-file on social media, and from President Zelensky himself.
A common criticism circulating among the outrage is that Amnesty is facilitating Russian propaganda, has been influenced by Russian propaganda, or has itself become an instrument of Russian propaganda.
The head of Amnesty International’s Ukrainian branch resigned as a result of the report, saying that “the organization created material that sounded like support for Russian narratives” and that in an effort to protect civilians, “this study became a tool of Russian propaganda.”
“It is a shame that the organization like Amnesty is participating in this disinformation and propaganda campaign,” tweeted Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak.
“Amnesty International can go to hell for this garbage,” tweeted Human Rights Foundation Chairman Garry Kasparov. “Or go to Ukraine, which Putin’s war is trying to turn into hell. As with their actions on Navalny, it reeks of Russian influence turning Kremlin propaganda into Amnesty statements.”
The Daily Mail called the Amnesty report “a coup for Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine.”
“The organization gives a huge assist to Russian propaganda,” tweeted Oleksiy Sorokin, chief operating officer of the NATO propaganda outlet Kyiv Independent.
“Shameful victim-blaming. Russia invaded Ukraine and is committing unspeakable war crimes there. Please do not amplify Russian lies,” tweeted Paul Massaro of the US government’s Helsinki Commission.
The underlying premise behind these complaints, of course, is that it is Amnesty International’s job to help Ukraine win a propaganda campaign against Russia. Which is odd, because Amnesty’s reporting on the war has actually been overwhelmingly biased in favor of Ukraine this entire time.
“Anger directed at Amnesty is surprising given that it is the first critical piece the group has written on Ukraine since the war began,” reports Unherd. “Over the last six months, Amnesty has published 40 articles on Ukraine, nearly all of which condemn Russia’s invasion, with only one exception — its latest — that could be conceivably described as critical of Ukraine.”
Even the Amnesty report currently sparking all the outrage contains repeated condemnations of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, citing “indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces” and “war crimes” Amnesty has found Russia guilty of committing, as well as decrying the use of “inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally banned cluster munitions.”
But even ninety-nine percent loyalty to the official line is not enough for imperial spinmeisters and the empire’s useful idiots. Anything short of 100 percent compliance counts as Russian propaganda.
The TWA 800 Whistleblower Is Legit
In the past few weeks, I have received numerous inquiries about ten-year Navy veteran William Henry Teele III. After years of quietly providing information to me and other investigators into the July 1996 destruction of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, Teele has gone public and is naming names.
I shared some of Teele’s information in my 2016 book, TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy. Teele did not claim to be on the ship that fired the missile. He was on the USS Carr, a guided missile frigate that was one of the “combatants” in the battle group that destroyed the unfortunate 747 and killed the 230 souls on board. Everything that I could verify about Teele’s account back then checked out.
In the six years since, Teele has reached out to many of his fellow sailors and fleshed out his account. Although he has appeared on several podcasts in recent weeks, his uninterrupted narrative on the Duke Report is the most compelling. I would welcome those with relevant experience to contact me through my website, cashill.com, to offer your assessment of Teele’s account or to provide additional information. My research suggests Teele is the real deal but I remain open, as all journalists should, to contrary information.
In the way of background, Teele joined the Navy in 1994. In 1996, according to his Navy transcript, he was serving as a “seaman apprentice” receiving advanced training in “specialized Navy occupations.” Teele’s training went well enough that in 1998 he was made an “operations specialist,” one who, “operates radar and associated equipment; identifies and maintains a display (plot) of the movement of ships, aircraft, missiles, and natural objects detected by observing a radar.” In 1999, he was made an instructor.
As to the USS Carr, after undergoing major upgrades in 1995, the ship began a Combat Systems Ship Qualification Test, the goal of which was to certify her newly installed Mk 92 Mod 6 Fire Control System. In early 1996, according to a Navy history site, this testing “ultimately led to two highly successful dual missile firing exercises in the North Puerto Rican Operations area.” On July 12, 1996, just five days before disaster, Commander Keith L. Wray took control of the ship. The Carr history then skips from July 12 to November 25, 1996, when the Carr “got underway from Norfolk, Va., with the Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group.” The real story is what happened between those dates.
On the evening of July 17, 1996, as Teele relates, the Carr was trying out new AN/SPY-1 Alpha radar as well as new AN/SPS 49 radar. For this simulated air attack, the target was to be a drone pulled by a military aircraft using a thousand-or-so foot chain. Teele was among the personnel monitoring this activity from within the ship’s combat information center (CIC).
In its November 1997 summary the FBI acknowledged that three submarines — the USS Normandy, the USS Trepang, and the USS Albuquerque — were in the “immediate vicinity of the crash site.” So too, said the FBI, were the USS Normandy, an Aegis cruiser, and a US Navy P-3 Orion. The P-3, in fact, just happened to be flying about seven thousand feet above TWA 800 when the plane was blown out of the sky.
Teele puts the USS Carr in this group as well. Although he has not said so publicly, Teele strongly believes that the USS Leyte Gulf, another Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, was involved. With Teele conforming there was a drone in the mix, the U.S. Navy had all the “combatants” needed for a Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) missile test.
Former Nickelodeon star Jenette McCurdy says children’s cable network offered $300,000 in ‘hush money’ not to reveal offers of unwanted massages and underage alcohol
Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy claimed that the children’s cable TV network offered her $300,000 in “hush money” so that she would not go public with damning accusations.
McCurdy was a Nickelodeon standout actress from 2007 until 2014 – when she was the star of the massively successful “iCarly” TV show and then “Sam & Cat.” During that time, McCurdy said that she was the victim of an alleged abuser that she only refers to as “The Creator.”
McCurdy asserted that “The Creator” pressured her to drink alcohol when she was only 18 years old.
In her upcoming memoir, McCurdy wrote that “The Creator” was “mean-spirited, controlling, and terrifying” and prone to make “grown men and women cry with his insults and degradation,” according to Deadline.
McCurdy accused “The Creator” of giving unsolicited and inappropriate shoulder massages.
“My shoulders do have a lot of knots in them, but I don’t want The Creator to be the one rubbing them out,” she wrote. “I want to say something, to tell him to stop, but I’m so scared of offending him.”
She also claimed that she was “photographed in a bikini during a wardrobe fitting.”
The childhood actress accused Nickelodeon of offering her $300,000 in “hush money.”
When “Sam & Cat” was canceled, her agent informed her that Nickelodeon was “offering [her] $300,000, which she should “think of it like a thank-you gift.”
She said one of her managers told her, “They’re giving you $300,000 and the only thing they want you to do is never talk publicly about your experience at Nickelodeon.”
McCurdy claimed that the “hush money” was “specifically related to The Creator.”
Western Propaganda Continues to promote the Meme that Russia Is Toast
The aphorism penned by the English poet Thomas Gray 275 years ago is still relevant and resonates:
No more; where Ignorance is Bliss,
’Tis Folly to be wise.
The ecstatic callowness of the media is jaw-droppingly stupid when it comes to opining on Russia in general and Putin in particular. Consider first these headlines from the Washington Post’s opinion page.
The will of Ukrainian volunteers shows how we will prevail over Russia by Iuliia Mendel
Even from prison I can see opposition to Putin’s war growing by Vladimir Kara-Murza
Putin is doing his best to out-fascist Mussolini by George Will
‘Realists’ have it wrong: Putin, not Zelensky, is the one who can end the war. by Michael McFaul
Note that the Post is making sure that no dissenting opinions appear. When you are running a propaganda op you must ensure that disquieting facts that challenge the party line are blocked. George Will, apparently mentally slipping in his dotage, does not appreciate the irony of labeling Putin a fascist while he–George Will–eagerly peddles the party line in order to please corporate and government masters. Ignorance is bliss, George. Ditto for Iuliia, Vladmir and McFaul.
But the most egregious example of ignorance presented as “news” comes courtesy of Yvonne Lau writing at Fortune. Did you know that Russia is on the ropes and headed for the dustbin of history?
‘There’s no path out of economic oblivion for Russia’: New report reveals how corporate exodus has already wiped out decades of post–Cold War growth.
The Western sanctions and widespread corporate exodus from Russia since Feb. 24 have ravaged the Russian economy—and its future prospects look even bleaker, according to a new report from Yale University researchers and economists led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management professor and senior associate dean for leadership studies. It’s now become clear that the Kremlin’s “finances are in much, much more dire straits than conventionally understood” and that the large-scale “business retreats and sanctions are catastrophically crippling the Russian economy,” the researchers wrote.
As of Aug. 4, over 1,000 companies, including U.S. firms like Nike, IBM, and Bain consulting, have curtailed their operations in Russia. Though some businesses have stayed, the mass corporate exodus represents 40% of Russia’s GDP and reverses 30 years’ worth of foreign investment, says the Yale report.
The international retreat is morphing into a larger crisis for the country: a collapse in foreign imports and investments.
Russia has descended into a technological crisis as a result of its isolation from the global economy. It’s having trouble securing critical technology and parts.
Oh my God. How will Russia live without the NIKE’s made by slaves in China and the wisdom dispensed by Mitt Romney’s old consulting firm, BAIN. I can see Vladimir Putin now. He is curled up in a fetal position under his bed. Barefoot. Bereft of the latest pair of Air Jordan’s. Even more terrifying, he now realizes he is deprived of Mitt Romney’s pearls of wisdom. How can Putin and Russia survive without that titan of capitalism in his corner? Poor little Vladimir is sobbing inconsolably.
Okay. Back to reality. The claim that 1000 plus companies allegedly bailed on Russia is a total misrepresentation ( I think the scholarly term is “bullshit”). The total number listed in the Yale study is 1382. Over 400 companies are still operating in Russia. Another 500 are listed as “keeping their options open” for returning to work in Russia. Only 311 companies have made a “clean break”. For the math challenged among you, that is a measly 23%.
Ohio Man Executes 4 Neighbors Over ‘Mind Control’ – Posts Insane Facebook Rant Claiming They Used ‘Telepathy’ to Control Him
A convicted burglar was arrested late Saturday night after he executed four of his neighbors over ‘mind control.’
Stephen Marlow, 39, fatally shot four of his neighbors in Butler Township, Ohio before fleeing to Kansas where he was arrested by the FBI.
It is unclear if Marlow knew his victims personally.
Marlow posted a Facebook rant before the murders and accused his victims of using telepathy to control his mind.
“I will be launching the first counter-attack against mind control in human history,” Marlow said in a video message addressed to his family.
“I want to be very clear, this will not be an active shooter event. I will be executing some of the people responsible for activating active shooters,” he said. “If I happen to survive, please visit me in prison, only to see the same man you’ve almost known. I will gladly die to expose this.”
“If I can help another targeted individual fight back against telepathy, then the sacrifice will be worth it,’ he added.
Head Of The Lancet’s COVID-19 Investigation Is ‘Convinced’ It Came Out Of A Lab
The head of the preeminent scientific journal The Lancet’s COVID-19 origins Commission is ‘convinced’ that the virus came out of a lab and says that a real investigation is being blocked.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs told Current Affairs that he is “pretty convinced [COVID-19] came out of US lab biotechnology” and has warned that ongoing research could lead to another pandemic outbreak.
Sachs notes that scientists who dismissed the lab leak theory did so “before they had done any research at all,” adding “they’re creating a narrative. And they’re denying the alternative hypothesis without looking closely at it.”
Sachs points to the ‘gain of function’ research and the genetic markers found in the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus that indicate it was manipulated to be more deadly.
“What’s interesting, and concerning if I may say so, is that the research that was underway very actively and being promoted, was to insert furin cleavage sites into SARS-like viruses to see what would happen. Oops!” Sachs states.
“They’re not looking,” Sachs says of scientists who dismiss the lab leak, adding “They just keep telling us, ‘Look at the market, look at the market, look at the market!’ But they don’t address this alternative. They don’t even look at the data. They don’t even ask questions. And the truth is from the beginning, they haven’t asked the real questions.”
Sachs further labels the efforts to distract from the lab research as “misdirection” and “sleight of hand”.
“There is a huge amount of reason to believe that that research was underway. Because there are published papers on this. There are interviews on this. There are research proposals. But NIH isn’t talking. It’s not asking. And these scientists have never asked either,” Sachs further asserts.
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