Breakfast For The Brain Weekend Edition

Have a nice weekend Deplorables or at least as nice as you can under house arrest so here’s a generous helping of food for thought to get you through.

Wars Visible and Invisible, Part II

Via Front Page Magazine

Trump’s task in leading the country’s defense against the coronavirus pandemic has been made immeasurably more difficult by the Democrats’ disloyal attempts to undermine its commander-in-chief at every turn. These attacks are summed up in the absurd caricature Democrats have created of the president as a “pathological liar,” a “narcissist uninterested in anything but himself,” and “out of control,” “incompetent,” “bigoted,” “anti-scientific,” and of course an anti-immigrant racist. And, therefore, a threat to national security rather than its guardian. These attacks have been carried to such extremes that perfectly sensible measures adopted by governments all over the world, such as closing borders, are characterized as “racist” when enacted by him – and carried out in a particularly advantageous fashion, such as his ban on travel from China within days of the virus being designated a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Since Trump is a leader who relies on his instincts, a bold risk taker who is willing to buck opposition from all sides if he feels his instincts are right, but is also ready to correct course if his instincts prove wrong, he is an exceptionally easy target for hostile critics. He is particularly vulnerable in the midst of a crisis which calls for alarm and calm simultaneously – for a realistic assessment of the threat but also for a leader who can convincingly provide a basis for optimism to those dependent on him lest they succumb to panic and despair.

This balancing act is made far more difficult in an environment where basic facts are still unknown because of the failures of the CDC and previous administrations to prepare for such a pandemic. Trump’s antagonists have exploited these fault lines to maximum advantage in their campaign to destroy him, seizing on one element to the exclusion of others. When judgments are driven by irrational hatreds any outcome is possible. The victims of the malodorous judgments that follow from these hatreds are all Americans who are dependent on him, since he is and remains the duly elected leader of the country.

Thus, if Trump touts an untested anti-viral drug cocktail like hydroxychloroquine and zythromax, as a possible solution to the crisis, his detractors will find a scientific skeptic whose doubts can serve as a basis to accuse Trump of medical malpractice, or incompetence or dangerous confusion – even though the jury is still out on whether such a cocktail will actually work. Similarly, when Trump raises the possibility of lifting the cloud of the virus on a certain date, like Easter, to avoid an economic collapse and provide hope anew, his antagonists attack him as acting from self-serving motives on behalf of Wall Street and giant corporations which have become – verbally at least – the new enemies of a Marxified Democrat Party.

The treacherous lengths to which leaders of the Democrat Party have gone to demonize and defame Trump are exemplified in Hillary Clinton’s crusade to tar him as a “racist” for referring to the infection as a “Chinese virus.” Clinton denounced Trump in a tweet, saying, “The president is turning to racist rhetoric,” for using that descriptor. His purpose, Clinton explained was “to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available, and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis.” Clinton’s attack was framed in the language that had become the creed of the Democrat Party. Calling the term “China virus” a racist epithet was an absurdity to anyone not sharing the ideological assumptions of Identity Politics and Cultural Marxism. The names of other troublesome diseases like “German measles,” “Lyme Disease and “Spanish flu” were also derived from their geographical points of origin. Not only had the virus originated in China, but by concealing its appearance and allowing millions of Wuhan citizens to leave the infected city and travel to unsuspecting countries abroad, the Chinese Communist dictatorship had cynically exposed the global population to its deadly effects.

Read the entire article HERE.

Question Everything

Via Liberty Blitzkrieg

Big macro crises in any form are scary, massively disruptive, and in some cases, literally deadly. This is why governments and entrenched institutions always see such events as opportunities to further consolidate wealth and power.

The current global pandemic is no exception, as I detailed in last week’s piece: Power Grab. While it’s necessary to be aware of this reality — and to push back against it wherever possible — it’s equally important to recognize there’s a silver lining to all of this.

The paradigm we live under depends on us not thinking too hard about how power functions. It relies on us being so busy with the basics of survival, or distracted by superficial consumerism and endless entertainment, to contemplate how the system actually works. This method of social control has been wildly successful throughout my lifetime, but what’s interesting about moments of global crises is the mask is forced off for a period. In a desperate scramble to marshal all of the corporate-imperial state’s resources to save the interests of the oligarchy, we’re shown in full color who really matters and who doesn’t.

Aside from the grotesque spectacle of the U.S. government funneling all of its resources toward propping up Wall Street and large corporations, this crisis has exposed the rot and disfunction in another meaningful way. Our health experts, ostensibly there to help the public navigate exactly this sort of event, have failed us in spectacular fashion.

This is what political actors masquerading as experts do in a crisis. They either give bad advice, or intentionally mislead the public to hide the fact the U.S. simply doesn’t have adequate mask supply and sent its manufacturing capacity overseas. Which brings up an important topic worthy of further discussion: the crucial distinction between experts and expertise.

An “expert” in our society is someone with expertise in a particular field who’s been propped up by either the media, government or both as an authoritative source to listen to on a particular topic. This individual’s elevated stature is artificially created by an external source that’s selected this particular person as someone you should listen to. It tends to be a political appointment. This person has been chosen, not only because he or she has expertise (many others also do), but due to other attributes that appeal to those who’ve decided to prop them up. Anyone who’s worked in corporate America knows full well that many of those promoted to middle management, or higher, often end up there not because they’re particularly skilled, but because they’re good at playing politics and know the right ass to kiss. The same is true in all large organizations, and government is no exception.

Read the entire article HERE.

All Roads Lead To Dark Winter

Via The Last American Vagabond

THE LEADERS OF TWO CONTROVERSIAL PANDEMIC SIMULATIONS THAT TOOK PLACE JUST MONTHS BEFORE THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS – EVENT 201 AND CRIMSON CONTAGION – SHARE A COMMON HISTORY, THE 2001 BIOWARFARE SIMULATION DARK WINTER. DARK WINTER NOT ONLY PREDICTED THE 2001 ANTHRAX ATTACKS, BUT SOME OF ITS PARTICIPANTS HAD CLEAR FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THOSE ATTACKS.

During the presidency of George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, something disturbing unfolded at the U.S.’ top biological warfare research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Specimens of highly contagious and deadly pathogens – anthrax and ebola among them – had disappeared from the lab, at a time when lab workers and rival scientists had been accused of targeted sexual and ethnic harassment and several disgruntled researchers had left as a result.

In addition to missing samples of anthrax, ebola, hanta virus and a variant of AIDS, two of the missing specimens had been labeled “unknown” – “an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret,” according to reports. The vast majority of the specimens lost were never found and an Army spokesperson would later claim that it was “likely some were simply thrown out with the trash.”

An internal Army inquiry in 1992 would reveal that one employee, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, had been caught on camera secretly entering the lab to conduct “unauthorized research, apparently involving anthrax,” the Hartford Courant would later report. Despite this, Zack would continue to do infectious disease research for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and would collaborate with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) throughout the 1990s.

The Courant had also noted that: “A numerical counter on a piece of lab equipment had been rolled back to hide work done by the mystery researcher [later revealed to be Zack], who left the misspelled label ‘antrax’ in the machine’s electronic memory.” The Courant’s report further detailed the extremely lax security controls and chaotic disorganization that then characterized the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) lab in Fort Detrick.

This same lab would, a decade later, be officially labeled as the source of the anthrax spores responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks, attacks which are also officially said to have been the work of a “deranged” USAMRIID researcher, despite initially having been blamed on Saddam Hussein and Iraq by top government officials and mainstream media. Those attacks killed 5 Americans and sickened 17.

Yet, as the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks unfolded, accusations from major U.S. newspapers soon emerged that the FBI was deliberately sabotaging the probe to protect the Anthrax attacker and that the CIA and U.S. military intelligence had refused to cooperate with the investigation. The FBI did not officially close their investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, nicknamed “Amerithrax,” until 2010 and aspects of that investigation still remain classified.

More recently, this past July, the same Fort Detrick lab would be shut down by the CDC, after it was found that researchers “did not maintain an accurate or current inventory” for toxins and “failed to safeguard against unauthorized access to select agents.” The closure of the lab for its numerous breaches of biosafety protocols would be hidden from Congress and the facility would controversially be partially reopened last November before all of the identified biosafety issues were resolved.

The same day that the lab was controversially allowed to partially reopen, which was the result of heavy lobbying from the Pentagon, local news outlets reported that the lab had suffered “two breaches of containment” last year, though the nature of those breaches and the pathogens involved were redacted in the inspection findings report obtained by the Frederick News Post. Notably, USAMRIID has, since the 1980s, worked closely with virologists and virology labs in Wuhan, China, where the first epicenter of the current novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases emerged. The Chinese government has since alleged that the virus had been brought to China by members of the U.S. military, members of which attended the World Military Games in the country last October.

Such similarities among these Fort Detrick lab breaches, from the early 1990s to 2001 to the present, may be nothing more than unfortunate coincidences that are the result of a stubborn federal government and military that have repeatedly refused to enforce the necessary stringent safety precautions on the nation’s top biological warfare laboratory.

Yet, upon examining not only these biosafety incidents at Fort Detrick, but the 2001 Anthrax attacks and the current Covid-19 outbreak, another odd commonality stands out — high-level war games exercise took place in June 2001 that eerily predicted not only the Anthrax attacks, but also the initial government narrative of those attacks and much, much more.

That June 2001 exercise, known as “Dark Winter,” also predicted many aspects of government pandemic response that would later re-emerge in last October’s simulation “Event 201,” which predicted a global pandemic caused by a novel Coronavirus just months before the Covid-19 outbreak. In addition, the U.S. government would lead its own multi-part series of pandemic simulations, called “Crimson Contagion,” that would also predict aspects of the Covid-19 outbreak and government response.

Upon further investigation, key leaders of both Event 201 and Crimson Contagion, not only have deep and longstanding ties to U.S. Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Defense, they were all previously involved in that same June 2001 exercise, Dark Winter. Some of these same individuals would also play a role in the FBI’s “sabotaged” investigation into the subsequent Anthrax attacks and are now handling major aspects of the U.S. government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis. One of those individuals, Robert Kadlec, was recently put in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entire Covid-19 response efforts, despite the fact that he was recently and directly responsible for actions that needlessly infected Americans with Covid-19.

Other major players in Dark Winter are now key drivers behind the “biodefense” mass surveillance programs currently being promoted as a technological solution to Covid-19’s spread, despite evidence that such programs actually worsen pandemic outbreaks. 

Read the entire article HERE.

Walmart to limit number of customers, creates in-store social distancing measures

Via The Hill

Walmart to limit number of customers, creates in-store social distancing measures
© Getty Images
Walmart announced on Friday that it would begin implementing new social distancing measures this weekend as it seeks to protect shoppers and employees from the spread of coronavirus.

Starting Saturday, the major retailer will begin limiting customers allowed into its store to no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet of store space. Customers will then be admitted on a “1-out-1-in” basis when the store is full.

“While many of our customers have been following the advice of the medical community regarding social distancing and safety, we have been concerned to still see some behaviors in our stores that put undue risk on our people,” Walmart’s Executive Vice President and COO Dacona Smith said in a press release.

“We want to encourage customers to bring the fewest number of people per family necessary to shop, allow for space with other customers while shopping, and practice social distancing while waiting in lines,” Smith wrote.

Walmart said that other measures are being taken inside the store to encourage social distancing. One of those measures is the creation of one-way aisles, which will be guided through arrows on the floor.

“We expect this to help more customers avoid coming into close contact with others as they shop,” the press release reads. “We’ll continue to put signage inside our stores to remind customers of the need to maintain social distancing – especially in lines. And once customers check out, they will be directed to exit through a different door than they entered, which should help lessen the instances of people closely passing each other.”

Read the entire article HERE.

‘A perfect storm’: US facing hunger crisis as demand for food banks soars

Via The Guardian

Food banks are reporting unprecedented demand across the US as millions lose jobs, investigation shows.

An unprecedented number of Americans have resorted to food banks for emergency supplies since the coronavirus pandemic triggered widespread layoffs.

The demand for food aid has increased as much as eightfold in some areas, according to an investigation by the Guardian, which gives a nationwide snapshot of the hunger crisis facing the US as millions become unemployed.

About one in three people seeking groceries at not-for-profit pantries last month have never previously needed emergency food aid, according to interviews with a dozen providers across the country.

The national guard has been deployed to help food banks cope with rising demand in cities including Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Phoenix amid growing concerns that supplies may run low as the crisis evolves. Overstretched food pantries are switching to drive-thrus and home deliveries to minimize the spread of Covid-19 as almost 300 million Americans are urged to stay at home.

“I’ve been in this business over 30 years, and nothing compares to what we’re seeing now. Not even when the steel mills closed down did we see increased demand like this,” said Sheila Christopher, director of Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, which represents 18 food banks across 67 counties.

Last year, 4.3bn meals were distributed to more than 40 million Americans through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 pantries, schools, soup kitchens and shelters, according to Feeding America, the national food bank network. The working poor, elderly and disabled and infirm accounted for the vast majority of food bank users.

Read the entire article HERE.

Fauci and Birx BOTH Have Big-Money Bill Gates Conflicts of Interest

Via The National File

President Donald Trump is fighting to find a medical solution for Coronavirus in the short term, expressing hope that the anti-malaria drug Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine can help patients suffering from the Chinese virus.

The truth is that President Donald Trump is locked in an intense power struggle with Bill Gates, who is pushing his vaccines, which may not be available to the public until after November’s election. Gates has a lot of pull in the medical world, he has a multi-million dollar relationship with Dr. Fauci, and Fauci originally took the Gates line supporting vaccines and casting doubt on Chloroquine. Coronavirus response team member Dr. Deborah Birx, appointed by former president Obama to serve as United States Global AIDS Coordinator, also sits on the board of a group that has received billions from Gates’ foundation, and Birx reportedly used a disputed Bill Gates-funded model for the White Houses’ Coronavirus effort. Gates is a big proponent for a population lockdown scenario for the Coronavirus outbreak.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID, a division of National Institutes of Health, NIH) director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is represented by the Aurumn Speakers Bureau, initially criticized Trump’s hopeful assessment of Chloroquine, saying in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that “There’s no magic drug for coronavirus right now,” and lectured, “Let me put it into perspective for the viewers .. there has been anecdotal non-proven data that it [chloroquine] works… but when you have an uncontrolled trial you can never definitely say that it works.”

But now Fauci has changed his tune and launched a public relations campaign huddling closer to Trump. Fauci said that he would definitely prescribe Chloroquine for patients. “Yeah, of course, particularly if people have no other option. These drugs are approved drugs for other reasons. They’re anti-malaria drugs, and they’re drugs against certain autoimmune diseases like lupus. Physicians throughout the country can prescribe that in an off-label way. Which means they can write it for something it was not approved for.”

But Fauci’s apparent hostility toward Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine remains clear:

The true behind-the-scenes story is coming to light:

Bill Gates Cast Doubt on Chloroquine And Said He Is Running A Study On It

Here is what Gates said regarding Chloroquine in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session:

“There are a lot of therapeutic drugs being examined. This is one of many but it is not proven. If it works we will need to make sure the finite supplies are held for the patients who need it most. We have a study going on to figure this out. We also have a screening effort to look at all the ideas for Therapeutics because the number being proposed is very large and only the most promising should be tried in patients. China was testing some things but now they have so few cases that that testing needs to move to other locations,” Gates said.

Gates Is Funding Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates That Would Compete With Chloroquine, And Dr. Fauci’s Agency Is Co-Partnering On The Project

Read the entire article HERE.

P For Pandemic—Populist Rage

By Jim Quinn

In Part One of this article I detailed the criminal enterprise that constitutes the leadership of this country. The facts are clear. We’ve been screwed over by those who were supposed to represent us. Now it is time to look in the mirror and decide whether we will continue to bow down before our keepers or step up and be accounted for in this coming fight.

Corporate executives who recklessly loaded their companies with debt, while utilizing the proceeds to buy back their own stock, in order to boost their stock price and outrageous compensation packages, left their companies vulnerable to an entirely predictable downturn. After frittering trillions away on their overvalued stock, they now demand bailouts from the taxpayer, and their spineless captured congress lapdogs have obeyed their corporate masters. The 96 – 0 vote in the Senate is truly a disgusting example of the corporate fascist One Party system that reigns in the swamp. Corporate socialism is alive and well.

As this incomprehensible national shutdown extends into April, tens of thousands of small businesses will be forced to close their doors for good. Local restaurants, hair salons, delis, hardware stores, and thousands of other small businesses will be involuntarily shuttered for good.

The national chains will collect their government largess, produce PR campaigns to pat themselves on the back, and abscond with the profits of the now deceased small businesses. The corporate fascists will become ever more powerful. Why are we letting this happen? As V described in his speech to London, there were a myriad of reasons, but we need to look in the mirror to find the true culprit.

“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

War, terror and now disease. Sound familiar? As we remain trapped in our homes due to this invisible phantom menace and the mainstream media hysterically reports the running totals, interviewing self-proclaimed medical experts, and trying to boost ratings through creating fear and panic, the economy continues to implode, heading for the largest decrease in GDP in history, with unemployment headed to 20%. All perspective and context have been abandoned.

I can’t help but ponder the parallels and messages from the film version of V for Vendetta versus what is happening now during the most perilous episode of this ongoing Fourth Turning. The 2005 film version was adapted from Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel V for Vendetta, published between 1982 and 1985. Moore wrote it at the outset of the Third Turning Unraveling period, with a fascist versus anarchist theme.

The filmmakers had previously created the Matrix series and chose to change the plot and theme to match the post 9/11 mood, reflecting a more Fourth Turning view of our dystopian world. Moore disassociated himself from the film version. The story is set in a dystopian London in 2032. The country is ruled by a totalitarian fascist party where the people are surveilled, subjugated and oppressed by their government. We aren’t there yet, but unless we come to our senses quickly, that will be our fate.

I find it fascinating the plot of the movie centers around a secret bio-weapons program at Larkhill utilized by power hungry fascists (Sutler) to achieve their goal of convincing the masses to vote for their own enslavement. They released the virus into St. Mary’s school, the London tube and a water treatment plant, ultimately killing 100,000, blaming phantom terrorists, spreading panic and fear, and scaring the public into elevating Sutler to High Chancellor.

As a cherry on top, the conspirators reaped vast amounts of wealth by owning the company that developed the “cure” to the virus. It just so happens there is a bio-weapons lab in Wuhan. Canadian and Harvard scientists were arrested for doing something illegal with viruses. Only a mad conspiracy theorist would wonder whether this Chinese virus was released purposefully to achieve the goal of globalists for the ultimate power grab. Authoritarians only seek one thing.

Read the entire article HERE.

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