mintpressnews--2020-05-05--Technofascism: The Censorship of David Icke is Digital Book Burning in a Totalitarian Age

CHARLOTTESVILLE ( Rutherford ) ––We are fast becoming a nation—nay , a world—of book burners.While on paper , we are technically free to speak—at least according to the U.S. Constitution—in reality , however , we are only as free to speak as the government and its corporate partners such as Facebook , Google or YouTube may allow .
That ’ s not a whole lot of freedom .
Especially if you ’ re inclined to voice opinions that may be construed as conspiratorial or dangerous .
Take David Icke , for example .
Icke , a popular commentator and author @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detractors , recently had his Facebook page and YouTube channel ( owned by Google ) deleted for violating site policies by “ spreading coronavirus disinformation.
” The Centre for Countering Digital Hate , which has been vocal about calling for Icke ’ s de-platforming , is also pushing for the removal of all other sites and individuals who promote Icke ’ s content in an effort to supposedly “ save lives.
” Translation : the CCDH evidently believes the public is too dumb to think for itself and must be protected from dangerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State trying to protect us from ourselves .
In the long run , this “ safety ” control ( the censorship and shadowbanning of anyone who challenges a mainstream narrative ) will be far worse than merely allowing people to think for themselves .
Journalist Matt Taibbi gets it : “ The people who want to add a censorship regime to a health crisis are more dangerous and more stupid by leaps and bounds than a president who tells people to inject disinfectant.
” These internet censors are not acting in our best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disinformation campaigns about COVID-19 , a virus whose source and behavior continue to elude medical officials .
They ’ re laying the groundwork now , with Icke as an easy target , to preempt any “ dangerous ” ideas that might challenge the power elite ’ s stranglehold over our lives .
This is how freedom dies .
It doesn ’ t matter what disinformation Icke may or may not have been spreading about COVID-19 .
That ’ s not the issue .
As commentator Caitlin Johnstone recognizes , the censorship of David @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing to do with Icke : “ What matters is that we ’ re seeing a consistent and accelerating pattern of powerful plutocratic institutions collaborating with the US-centralized empire to control what ideas people around the world are permitted to share with each other , and it ’ s a very unsafe trajectory.
” Welcome to the age of technofascism .
Technofascism , clothed in tyrannical self-righteousness , is powered by technological behemoths ( both corporate and governmental ) working in tandem .
As journalist Chet Bowers explains , “ Technofascism ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easily lead to repressive systems that will not tolerate dissent.
” The internet , hailed as a super-information highway , is increasingly becoming the police state ’ s secret weapon .
This “ policing of the mind : is exactly the danger author Jim Keith warned about when he predicted that “ information and communication sources are gradually being linked together into a single computerized network , providing an opportunity for unheralded control of hat will be broadcast , what will be said , and ultimately what will be thought.
” Eventually , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth will become a revolutionary act .
We ’ re almost at that point now .
What you are witnessing is the modern-day equivalent of book burning which involves doing away with dangerous ideas—legitimate or not—and the people who espouse them .
Today , the forces of political correctness , working in conjunction with corporate and government agencies , have managed to replace actual book burning with intellectual book burning .
“ Free speech for me but not for thee ” is how my good friend and free speech purist Nat Hentoff used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is about much more than free speech , however .
This is about repression and control .
With every passing day , we ’ re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship , violence , corruption , hypocrisy and intolerance , all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security , tolerance and so-called “ government speech.
” The reasons for such censorship vary widely from political correctness , safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the “ principal pillar of a free government.
” The upshot of all of this editing , parsing , banning and silencing is the emergence of a new language , what George Orwell referred to as Newspeak , which places the power to control language in the hands of the totalitarian state .
Under such a system , language becomes a weapon to change the way people think by changing the words they use .
In totalitarian regimes—a.k.a .
police states—where conformity and compliance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loaded gun , the government dictates what words can and can not be used .
In countries where the police state hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance , the citizens censor themselves , policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind lest they find themselves ostracized or placed under surveillance .
Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism , condemning violence , denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably , the end result is the same : intolerance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s political correctness disguised as tolerance , civility and love , but what it really amounts to is the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite .
The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own censorship , spying and policing : this is how you turn a nation of free people into extensions of the omniscient , omnipotent , omnipresent police state , and in the process turn a citizenry against each other .
Tread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which depicts the ominous rise of ubiquitous technology , fascism and totalitarianism , has become an operation manual for the omnipresent , modern-day surveillance state .
1984 portrays a global society of total control in which people are not allowed to have thoughts that in any way disagree with the corporate state .
There is no personal freedom , and advanced technology has become the driving force behind a surveillance-driven society .
Snitches and cameras are everywhere .
People are subject to the Thought Police , who deal with anyone guilty of thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Party , ” is headed by Big Brother who appears on posters everywhere with the words : “ Big Brother is watching you.
” We have arrived , way ahead of schedule , into the dystopian future dreamed up by not only Orwell but also such fiction writers as Aldous Huxley , Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick .
Much like Orwell ’ s Big Brother in 1984 , the government and its corporate spies now watch our every move .
Much like Huxley ’ s A Brave New World , we are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ have their liberties taken away from them , but … rather enjoy it , because they [ are ] distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing.
” Much like Atwood ’ s The Handmaid ’ s Tale , the populace is now taught to “ know their place and their duties , to understand that they have no real rights but will be protected up to a point if they conform , and to think so poorly of themselves that they will accept their assigned fate and not rebel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Philip K. Dick ’ s darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state—which became the basis for Steven Spielberg ’ s futuristic thriller Minority Report—we are now trapped in a world in which the government is all-seeing , all-knowing and all-powerful , and if you dare to step out of line , dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control .
What once seemed futuristic no longer occupies the realm of science fiction .
Incredibly , as the various nascent technologies employed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alike—facial recognition , iris scanners , massive databases , behavior prediction software , and so on—are incorporated into a complex , interwoven cyber network aimed at tracking our movements , predicting our thoughts and controlling our behavior , the dystopian visions of past writers is fast becoming our reality .
In fact , our world is characterized by widespread surveillance , behavior prediction technologies , data mining , fusion centers , driverless cars , voice-controlled homes , facial recognition systems , cybugs and drones , and predictive policing ( pre-crime ) aimed at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any damage .
Surveillance cameras are everywhere .
Government agents listen in on our telephone calls and read our emails .
And privacy and bodily integrity have been utterly eviscerated .
We are increasingly ruled by multi-corporations wedded to the police state .
What many fail to realize is that the government is not operating alone .
It can not .
Thus , the increasingly complex security needs of the massive federal government , especially in the areas of defense , surveillance and data management , have been met within the corporate sector @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a powerful ally that both depends on and feeds the growth of governmental overreach .
In fact , Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother , and we are now ruled by the Corporate Elite whose tentacles have spread worldwide .
The government now has at its disposal technological arsenals so sophisticated and invasive as to render any constitutional protections null and void .
Spearheaded by the NSA , which has shown itself to care little to nothing for constitutional limits or privacy , the “ security/industrial complex ” —a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interests aimed at keeping Americans under constant surveillance—has come to dominate the government and our lives .
There is no shortage of motives fueling the convergence of mega-corporations and government .
But who is paying the price ?
“ We the people , ” of course .
Not just we Americans , but people the world over .
We have entered into a global state of tyranny .
Where we stand now is at the juncture of OldSpeak ( where words have meanings , and ideas can be dangerous ) and Newspeak ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and “ accepted ” by the majority is permitted ) .
The power elite has made their intentions clear : they will pursue and prosecute any and all words , thoughts and expressions that challenge their authority .
This is the final link in the police state chain .
Americans have been conditioned to accept routine incursions on their privacy rights .
In fact , the addiction to screen devices—especially cell phones—has created a hive effect where the populace not only watched but is controlled by AI bots .
However , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total surveillance state tracking one ’ s every move would have been abhorrent to most Americans .
That all changed with the 9/11 attacks .
As professor Jeffrey Rosen observes , “ Before Sept. 11 , the idea that Americans would voluntarily agree to live their lives under the gaze of a network of biometric surveillance cameras , peering at them in government buildings , shopping malls , subways and stadiums , would have seemed unthinkable , a dystopian fantasy of a society that had surrendered privacy and anonymity.
” Having been reduced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of elected officials who refuse to represent us , helpless in the face of police brutality , powerless in the face of militarized tactics and technology that treat us like enemy combatants on a battlefield , and naked in the face of government surveillance that sees and hears all—we have nowhere left to go .
We have , so to speak , gone from being a nation where privacy is king to one where nothing is safe from the prying eyes of government .
In search of so-called terrorists and extremists hiding amongst @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” as one official termed it—the Corporate State has taken to monitoring all aspects of our lives , from cell phone calls and emails to Internet activity and credit card transactions .
This data is being fed through fusion centers across the country , which work with the Department of Homeland Security to make threat assessments on every citizen , including school children .
Wherever you go and whatever you do , you are now being watched , especially if you leave behind an electronic footprint .
When you use your cell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when the call was placed , who you called , how long it lasted and even where you were at the time .
When you use your ATM card , you leave a record of where and when you used the card .
There is even a video camera at most locations equipped with facial recognition software .
When you use a cell phone or drive a car enabled with GPS , you can be tracked by satellite .
Such information is shared with government agents , including local police .
And all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ habits , your whereabouts and your activities is now being fed to the U.S. government .
The government has nearly inexhaustible resources when it comes to tracking our movements , from electronic wiretapping devices , traffic cameras and biometrics to radio-frequency identification cards , satellites and Internet surveillance .
Speech recognition technology now makes it possible for the government to carry out massive eavesdropping by way of sophisticated computer systems .
Phone calls can be monitored , the audio converted to text files and stored in computer databases indefinitely .
And if any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how inane or silly—the record can be flagged and assigned to a government agent for further investigation .
Federal and state governments , again working with private corporations , monitor your Internet content .
Users are profiled and tracked in order to identify , target and even prosecute them .
In such a climate , everyone is a suspect .
And you ’ re guilty until you can prove yourself innocent .
Here ’ s what a lot of people fail to understand , however : it ’ s not just what you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but how you think that is being tracked and targeted .
We ’ ve already seen this play out on the state and federal level with hate crime legislation that cracks down on so-called “ hateful ” thoughts and expression , encourages self-censoring and reduces free debate on various subject matter .
Say hello to the new Thought Police .
Total Internet surveillance by the Corporate State , as omnipresent as God , is used by the government to predict and , more importantly , control the populace , and it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think .
For example , the NSA has designed an artificial intelligence system that can anticipate your every move .
In a nutshell , the NSA feeds vast amounts of the information it collects to a computer system known as Aquaint ( the acronym stands for Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence ) , which the computer then uses to detect patterns and predict behavior .
No information is sacred or spared .
Everything from cell phone recordings and logs , to emails , to text messages , to personal information posted on social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to library circulation records , to credit card histories , etc.
, is collected by the NSA and shared freely with its agents .
Thus , what we are witnessing , in the so-called name of security and efficiency , is the creation of a new class system comprised of the watched ( average Americans such as you and me ) and the watchers ( government bureaucrats , technicians and private corporations ) .
Clearly , the age of privacy is at an end .
So where does that leave us ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ position of being monitored , managed and controlled by our technology , which answers not to us but to our government and corporate rulers .
This is the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction lesson that is being pounded into us on a daily basis .
It won ’ t be long before we find ourselves looking back on the past with longing , back to an age where we could speak to whom we wanted , buy what we wanted , think what we wanted without those thoughts , words and activities being tracked , processed and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sold to government agencies such as the NSA and CIA , and used against us by militarized police with their army of futuristic technologies .
To be an individual today , to not conform , to have even a shred of privacy , and to live beyond the reach of the government ’ s roaming eyes and technological spies , one must not only be a rebel but rebel .
Even when you rebel and take your stand , there is rarely a happy ending awaiting you .
You are rendered an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this global surveillance state ?
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America : The War on the American People , we ’ re running out of options .
We ’ ll soon have to choose between self-indulgence ( the bread-and-circus distractions offered up by the news media , politicians , sports conglomerates , entertainment industry , etc . )
and self-preservation in the form of renewed vigilance about threats to our freedoms and active engagement in self-governance .
Yet as Aldous Huxley acknowledged in Brave New World Revisited : “ Only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and only those who are constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures .
A society , most of whose members spend a great part of their time , not on the spot , not here and now and in their calculable future , but somewhere else , in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera , of mythology and metaphysical fantasy , will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those would manipulate and control it.
” Which brings me back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ David Icke and all those like him who dare to voice ideas that diverge from what the government and its corporate controllers deem to be acceptable .
The problem as I see it is that we ’ ve allowed ourselves to be persuaded that we need someone else to think and speak for us .
And we ’ ve allowed ourselves to become so timid in the face of offensive words and ideas that we ’ ve bought into the idea that we need the government to shield us from that which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result is a society in which we ’ ve stopped debating among ourselves , stopped thinking for ourselves , and stopped believing that we can fix our own problems and resolve our own differences .
In short , we have reduced ourselves to a largely silent , passive , polarized populace incapable of working through our own problems and reliant on the government to protect us from our fears .
In this way , we have become our worst enemy .
You want to reclaim some of the ground we ’ re fast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thinking for yourself .
If that means reading the “ dangerous ” ideas being floated out there by the David Ickes of the world—or the John Whiteheads for that matter—and then deciding for yourself what is true , so be it .
As Orwell concluded , “ Freedom is the right to say two plus two make four.
” John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute .
His new book Battlefield America : The War on the American People ( SelectBooks , 2015 ) is available online at www.amazon.com @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rutherford.org .

CHARLOTTESVILLE (Rutherford) ––We are fast becoming a nation—nay, a world—of book burners.While on paper, we are technically free to speak—at least according to the U.S. Constitution—in reality, however, we are only as free to speak as the government and its corporate partners such as Facebook, Google or YouTube may allow.
That’s not a whole lot of freedom. Especially if you’re inclined to voice opinions that may be construed as conspiratorial or dangerous.
Take David Icke, for example.
Icke, a popular commentator and author often labeled a conspiracy theorist by his detractors, recently had his Facebook page and YouTube channel (owned by Google) deleted for violating site policies by “spreading coronavirus disinformation.”
The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which has been vocal about calling for Icke’s de-platforming, is also pushing for the removal of all other sites and individuals who promote Icke’s content in an effort to supposedly “save lives.”
Translation: the CCDH evidently believes the public is too dumb to think for itself and must be protected from dangerous ideas.
This is the goosestepping Nanny State trying to protect us from ourselves.
In the long run, this “safety” control (the censorship and shadowbanning of anyone who challenges a mainstream narrative) will be far worse than merely allowing people to think for themselves.
Journalist Matt Taibbi gets it: “The people who want to add a censorship regime to a health crisis are more dangerous and more stupid by leaps and bounds than a president who tells people to inject disinfectant.”
Don’t fall for the propaganda.
These internet censors are not acting in our best interests to protect us from dangerous, disinformation campaigns about COVID-19, a virus whose source and behavior continue to elude medical officials. They’re laying the groundwork now, with Icke as an easy target, to preempt any “dangerous” ideas that might challenge the power elite’s stranglehold over our lives.
This is how freedom dies.
It doesn’t matter what disinformation Icke may or may not have been spreading about COVID-19. That’s not the issue.
As commentator Caitlin Johnstone recognizes, the censorship of David Icke by these internet media giants has nothing to do with Icke: “What matters is that we’re seeing a consistent and accelerating pattern of powerful plutocratic institutions collaborating with the US-centralized empire to control what ideas people around the world are permitted to share with each other, and it’s a very unsafe trajectory.”
Welcome to the age of technofascism.
Technofascism, clothed in tyrannical self-righteousness, is powered by technological behemoths (both corporate and governmental) working in tandem. As journalist Chet Bowers explains, “Technofascism’s level of efficiency and totalitarian potential can easily lead to repressive systems that will not tolerate dissent.”
The internet, hailed as a super-information highway, is increasingly becoming the police state’s secret weapon. This “policing of the mind: is exactly the danger author Jim Keith warned about when he predicted that “information and communication sources are gradually being linked together into a single computerized network, providing an opportunity for unheralded control of hat will be broadcast, what will be said, and ultimately what will be thought.”
It’s a slippery slope from censoring so-called illegitimate ideas to silencing truth.
Eventually, as George Orwell predicted, telling the truth will become a revolutionary act.
We’re almost at that point now.
What you are witnessing is the modern-day equivalent of book burning which involves doing away with dangerous ideas—legitimate or not—and the people who espouse them.
Today, the forces of political correctness, working in conjunction with corporate and government agencies, have managed to replace actual book burning with intellectual book burning.
“Free speech for me but not for thee” is how my good friend and free speech purist Nat Hentoff used to sum up this double standard.
This is about much more than free speech, however. This is about repression and control.
With every passing day, we’re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy and intolerance, all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security, tolerance and so-called “government speech.”
The reasons for such censorship vary widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remains the same: the complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the “principal pillar of a free government.”
The upshot of all of this editing, parsing, banning and silencing is the emergence of a new language, what George Orwell referred to as Newspeak, which places the power to control language in the hands of the totalitarian state.
Under such a system, language becomes a weapon to change the way people think by changing the words they use.
The end result is control.
In totalitarian regimes—a.k.a. police states—where conformity and compliance are enforced at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and cannot be used.
In countries where the police state hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the citizens censor themselves, policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind lest they find themselves ostracized or placed under surveillance.
Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the end result is the same: intolerance, indoctrination and infantilism.
It’s political correctness disguised as tolerance, civility and love, but what it really amounts to is the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.
The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own censorship, spying and policing: this is how you turn a nation of free people into extensions of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent police state, and in the process turn a citizenry against each other.
Tread cautiously: Orwell’s 1984, which depicts the ominous rise of ubiquitous technology, fascism and totalitarianism, has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state.
1984 portrays a global society of total control in which people are not allowed to have thoughts that in any way disagree with the corporate state. There is no personal freedom, and advanced technology has become the driving force behind a surveillance-driven society. Snitches and cameras are everywhere. People are subject to the Thought Police, who deal with anyone guilty of thought crimes. The government, or “Party,” is headed by Big Brother who appears on posters everywhere with the words: “Big Brother is watching you.”
We have arrived, way ahead of schedule, into the dystopian future dreamed up by not only Orwell but also such fiction writers as Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick.
Much like Orwell’s Big Brother in 1984, the government and its corporate spies now watch our every move. Much like Huxley’s A Brave New World, we are churning out a society of watchers who “have their liberties taken away from them, but … rather enjoy it, because they [are] distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing.” Much like Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the populace is now taught to “know their place and their duties, to understand that they have no real rights but will be protected up to a point if they conform, and to think so poorly of themselves that they will accept their assigned fate and not rebel or run away.”
And in keeping with Philip K. Dick’s darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state—which became the basis for Steven Spielberg’s futuristic thriller Minority Report—we are now trapped in a world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control.
What once seemed futuristic no longer occupies the realm of science fiction.
Incredibly, as the various nascent technologies employed and shared by the government and corporations alike—facial recognition, iris scanners, massive databases, behavior prediction software, and so on—are incorporated into a complex, interwoven cyber network aimed at tracking our movements, predicting our thoughts and controlling our behavior, the dystopian visions of past writers is fast becoming our reality.
In fact, our world is characterized by widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, fusion centers, driverless cars, voice-controlled homes, facial recognition systems, cybugs and drones, and predictive policing (pre-crime) aimed at capturing would-be criminals before they can do any damage. Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Government agents listen in on our telephone calls and read our emails. And privacy and bodily integrity have been utterly eviscerated.
We are increasingly ruled by multi-corporations wedded to the police state.
What many fail to realize is that the government is not operating alone. It cannot.
The government requires an accomplice.
Thus, the increasingly complex security needs of the massive federal government, especially in the areas of defense, surveillance and data management, have been met within the corporate sector, which has shown itself to be a powerful ally that both depends on and feeds the growth of governmental overreach.
In fact, Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother, and we are now ruled by the Corporate Elite whose tentacles have spread worldwide.
The government now has at its disposal technological arsenals so sophisticated and invasive as to render any constitutional protections null and void. Spearheaded by the NSA, which has shown itself to care little to nothing for constitutional limits or privacy, the “security/industrial complex”—a marriage of government, military and corporate interests aimed at keeping Americans under constant surveillance—has come to dominate the government and our lives.
Money, power, control.
There is no shortage of motives fueling the convergence of mega-corporations and government. But who is paying the price?
“We the people,” of course. Not just we Americans, but people the world over.
We have entered into a global state of tyranny.
Where we stand now is at the juncture of OldSpeak (where words have meanings, and ideas can be dangerous) and Newspeak (where only that which is “safe” and “accepted” by the majority is permitted). The power elite has made their intentions clear: they will pursue and prosecute any and all words, thoughts and expressions that challenge their authority.
This is the final link in the police state chain.
Americans have been conditioned to accept routine incursions on their privacy rights. In fact, the addiction to screen devices—especially cell phones—has created a hive effect where the populace not only watched but is controlled by AI bots. However, at one time, the idea of a total surveillance state tracking one’s every move would have been abhorrent to most Americans. That all changed with the 9/11 attacks. As professor Jeffrey Rosen observes, “Before Sept. 11, the idea that Americans would voluntarily agree to live their lives under the gaze of a network of biometric surveillance cameras, peering at them in government buildings, shopping malls, subways and stadiums, would have seemed unthinkable, a dystopian fantasy of a society that had surrendered privacy and anonymity.”
Having been reduced to a cowering citizenry—mute in the face of elected officials who refuse to represent us, helpless in the face of police brutality, powerless in the face of militarized tactics and technology that treat us like enemy combatants on a battlefield, and naked in the face of government surveillance that sees and hears all—we have nowhere left to go.
We have, so to speak, gone from being a nation where privacy is king to one where nothing is safe from the prying eyes of government.
In search of so-called terrorists and extremists hiding amongst us—the proverbial “needle in a haystack,” as one official termed it—the Corporate State has taken to monitoring all aspects of our lives, from cell phone calls and emails to Internet activity and credit card transactions. This data is being fed through fusion centers across the country, which work with the Department of Homeland Security to make threat assessments on every citizen, including school children.
Wherever you go and whatever you do, you are now being watched, especially if you leave behind an electronic footprint.
When you use your cell phone, you leave a record of when the call was placed, who you called, how long it lasted and even where you were at the time. When you use your ATM card, you leave a record of where and when you used the card. There is even a video camera at most locations equipped with facial recognition software. When you use a cell phone or drive a car enabled with GPS, you can be tracked by satellite. Such information is shared with government agents, including local police. And all of this once-private information about your consumer habits, your whereabouts and your activities is now being fed to the U.S. government.
The government has nearly inexhaustible resources when it comes to tracking our movements, from electronic wiretapping devices, traffic cameras and biometrics to radio-frequency identification cards, satellites and Internet surveillance.
Speech recognition technology now makes it possible for the government to carry out massive eavesdropping by way of sophisticated computer systems. Phone calls can be monitored, the audio converted to text files and stored in computer databases indefinitely. And if any “threatening” words are detected—no matter how inane or silly—the record can be flagged and assigned to a government agent for further investigation. Federal and state governments, again working with private corporations, monitor your Internet content. Users are profiled and tracked in order to identify, target and even prosecute them.
In such a climate, everyone is a suspect. And you’re guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.
Here’s what a lot of people fail to understand, however: it’s not just what you say or do that is being monitored, but how you think that is being tracked and targeted.
We’ve already seen this play out on the state and federal level with hate crime legislation that cracks down on so-called “hateful” thoughts and expression, encourages self-censoring and reduces free debate on various subject matter.
Say hello to the new Thought Police.
Total Internet surveillance by the Corporate State, as omnipresent as God, is used by the government to predict and, more importantly, control the populace, and it’s not as far-fetched as you might think. For example, the NSA has designed an artificial intelligence system that can anticipate your every move. In a nutshell, the NSA feeds vast amounts of the information it collects to a computer system known as Aquaint (the acronym stands for Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence), which the computer then uses to detect patterns and predict behavior.
No information is sacred or spared.
Everything from cell phone recordings and logs, to emails, to text messages, to personal information posted on social networking sites, to credit card statements, to library circulation records, to credit card histories, etc., is collected by the NSA and shared freely with its agents.
Thus, what we are witnessing, in the so-called name of security and efficiency, is the creation of a new class system comprised of the watched (average Americans such as you and me) and the watchers (government bureaucrats, technicians and private corporations).
Clearly, the age of privacy is at an end.
So where does that leave us?
We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology, which answers not to us but to our government and corporate rulers. This is the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction lesson that is being pounded into us on a daily basis.
It won’t be long before we find ourselves looking back on the past with longing, back to an age where we could speak to whom we wanted, buy what we wanted, think what we wanted without those thoughts, words and activities being tracked, processed and stored by corporate giants such as Google, sold to government agencies such as the NSA and CIA, and used against us by militarized police with their army of futuristic technologies.
To be an individual today, to not conform, to have even a shred of privacy, and to live beyond the reach of the government’s roaming eyes and technological spies, one must not only be a rebel but rebel.
Even when you rebel and take your stand, there is rarely a happy ending awaiting you. You are rendered an outlaw.
So how do you survive this global surveillance state?
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we’re running out of options.
We’ll soon have to choose between self-indulgence (the bread-and-circus distractions offered up by the news media, politicians, sports conglomerates, entertainment industry, etc.) and self-preservation in the form of renewed vigilance about threats to our freedoms and active engagement in self-governance.
Yet as Aldous Huxley acknowledged in Brave New World Revisited: “Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who are constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures. A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in their calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those would manipulate and control it.”
Which brings me back to this technofascist tyranny being meted out on David Icke and all those like him who dare to voice ideas that diverge from what the government and its corporate controllers deem to be acceptable.
The problem as I see it is that we’ve allowed ourselves to be persuaded that we need someone else to think and speak for us. And we’ve allowed ourselves to become so timid in the face of offensive words and ideas that we’ve bought into the idea that we need the government to shield us from that which is ugly or upsetting or mean.
The result is a society in which we’ve stopped debating among ourselves, stopped thinking for ourselves, and stopped believing that we can fix our own problems and resolve our own differences.
In short, we have reduced ourselves to a largely silent, passive, polarized populace incapable of working through our own problems and reliant on the government to protect us from our fears.
In this way, we have become our worst enemy.
You want to reclaim some of the ground we’re fast losing to the techno-tyrants?
Start by thinking for yourself. If that means reading the “dangerous” ideas being floated out there by the David Ickes of the world—or the John Whiteheads for that matter—and then deciding for yourself what is true, so be it.
As Orwell concluded, “Freedom is the right to say two plus two make four.”
Feature photo | David Icke | Photo | Tyler Merbler
John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].


mintpressnews--2020-05-06--Cuomo Announces Partnership with Bill Gates to “Revolutionize” NY Schools in Wake of Coronavirus

Taking time off from mismanaging a pandemic and turning lifesaving masks sent from all over the country into an art installation , New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared yesterday that he would use the deadly COVID-19 virus as an opportunity to “ revolutionize ” the state ’ s school system , inviting Microsoft founder Bill Gates to implement his controversial ideas about education statewide .
Cuomo did not divulge many details of what his imagined education revolution would look like but did mention virtual education and remote learning .
However , Gates is best known for one thing in education @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a visionary in many ways and his ideas and thoughts on technology and education he ’ s spoken about for years but I now think we have a moment in history where we can incorporate and advance those ideas , ” Cuomo said .
“ When does change come to a society ?
… [ when ] we get moments in history ” he added , “ I think this is one of those moments.
” One of only two centibillionaires in history , Gates is the world ’ s most popular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enjoying a 54 percent positive and only nine percent negative opinion rating .
Nevertheless , Cuomo ’ s announcement was met with consternation by many .
“ Right-wing Wall Street puppet Cuomo is going to work with billionaire capitalist Bill Gates , one of the richest human beings in history , to privatize public education .
“ Philanthropy ” is a scam .
The Gates Foundation ’ s goal is to privatize everything so billionaires can profit , ” wrote journalist Ben Norton .
Gates is one of the most important driving forces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education system through the promotion of charter schools .
Charter schools effectively privatize the public school system , where the public continues to foot the bill for the school , but has no influence or say in how it is run .
While very popular with both the private sector and the religious right , the large majority of unionized public school teachers oppose them .
Thus , Cuomo ’ s attempt to push through what he promises to be a massive overhaul of the state ’ s entire education network is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called “ disaster capitalism.
” In her seminal book , “ The Shock Doctrine ” , Klein describes how regressive forces wait until the collective panic of a disaster to force through legislation that the population would never accept and would fight back against in normal times .
During Hurricane Katrina , the New Orleans school system was privatized in an instant .
Before the disaster , the school board ran 123 public schools , afterward , it ran only four .
Meanwhile , the number of charter schools quickly rose from seven @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all immediately fired , with some rehired at reduced salaries and virtually no benefits .
As a result , the racially diverse city has effectively been privatized and remodeled to exclude much of its poor black population .
As Klein wrote : While maintaining an affable public facade , behind the scenes Gates appears obsessed with the discredited pseudoscience of eugenics and has made it a priority to reduce the population of Africa especially .
He also has funded programs to circumcise millions of men and boys across the developing world .
Another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of tattooing the entire human race with a so-called “ microdot ” once they have been vaccinated .
And , as Whitney Webb cataloged for MintPress , Gates is a close associate of infamous sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein , finding a 2001 article noting that Epstein had made his fortune out of his close ties to the Microsoft co-founder .
“ His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing ” Gates said of Epstein in a leaked 2011 email , three years after he was convicted of sex crimes with children .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic as a wonderful opportunity to reorganize New York ’ s flagging school system , it is far from clear whether the public should embrace his ideas and the supposed generosity of the world ’ s second-richest man .
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York surpassed 330,000 today .
The state has more confirmed cases than any foreign country in the world .
At least 25,436 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 , although local officials accept this is certainly an undercount .
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

Taking time off from mismanaging a pandemic and turning lifesaving masks sent from all over the country into an art installation, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared yesterday that he would use the deadly COVID-19 virus as an opportunity to “revolutionize” the state’s school system, inviting Microsoft founder Bill Gates to implement his controversial ideas about education statewide. Cuomo did not divulge many details of what his imagined education revolution would look like but did mention virtual education and remote learning. However, Gates is best known for one thing in education: charter schools.
“Bill Gates is a visionary in many ways and his ideas and thoughts on technology and education he’s spoken about for years but I now think we have a moment in history where we can incorporate and advance those ideas,” Cuomo said. “When does change come to a society?…[when] we get moments in history” he added, “I think this is one of those moments.”
One of only two centibillionaires in history, Gates is the world’s most popular businessman according to polling company YouGov, enjoying a 54 percent positive and only nine percent negative opinion rating. Nevertheless, Cuomo’s announcement was met with consternation by many. “Right-wing Wall Street puppet Cuomo is going to work with billionaire capitalist Bill Gates, one of the richest human beings in history, to privatize public education. “Philanthropy” is a scam. The Gates Foundation’s goal is to privatize everything so billionaires can profit,” wrote journalist Ben Norton.
Gates is one of the most important driving forces leading the assault on the American public education system through the promotion of charter schools. Charter schools effectively privatize the public school system, where the public continues to foot the bill for the school, but has no influence or say in how it is run. While very popular with both the private sector and the religious right, the large majority of unionized public school teachers oppose them.
Thus, Cuomo’s attempt to push through what he promises to be a massive overhaul of the state’s entire education network is a perfect example of what writer Naomi Klein called “disaster capitalism.” In her seminal book, “The Shock Doctrine”, Klein describes how regressive forces wait until the collective panic of a disaster to force through legislation that the population would never accept and would fight back against in normal times.
During Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans school system was privatized in an instant. Before the disaster, the school board ran 123 public schools, afterward, it ran only four. Meanwhile, the number of charter schools quickly rose from seven to 31. Unionized school teachers were all immediately fired, with some rehired at reduced salaries and virtually no benefits. As a result, the racially diverse city has effectively been privatized and remodeled to exclude much of its poor black population. As Klein wrote:
The auctioning off of New Orleans’ school system took place with military speed and precision. Within nineteen months, with most of the city’s poor residents still in exile, New Orleans’ public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools.
While maintaining an affable public facade, behind the scenes Gates appears obsessed with the discredited pseudoscience of eugenics and has made it a priority to reduce the population of Africa especially. He also has funded programs to circumcise millions of men and boys across the developing world. Another of his more questionable ideas is that of tattooing the entire human race with a so-called “microdot” once they have been vaccinated. And, as Whitney Webb cataloged for MintPress, Gates is a close associate of infamous sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, finding a 2001 article noting that Epstein had made his fortune out of his close ties to the Microsoft co-founder. “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing” Gates said of Epstein in a leaked 2011 email, three years after he was convicted of sex crimes with children.
Therefore, while Governor Cuomo sees the pandemic as a wonderful opportunity to reorganize New York’s flagging school system, it is far from clear whether the public should embrace his ideas and the supposed generosity of the world’s second-richest man.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York surpassed 330,000 today. The state has more confirmed cases than any foreign country in the world. At least 25,436 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19, although local officials accept this is certainly an undercount.
Feature photo | Bill Gates speaks at a Toilet Expo in Beijing, Nov. 6, 2018. Mark Schiefelbein | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-05-06--Trump-Linked Mercenaries Implicate Themselves in Failed Venezuela Coup

In what has been labeled a new “ Keystone Kops Bay of Pigs , ” the latest attempt to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro failed spectacularly , as both American and Venezuelan paramilitaries were immediately overwhelmed when they came into contact with the navy , or even with armed local fishermen ’ s collectives .
Last Wednesday , Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that his plans for “ restoring democracy ” in Venezuela were “ gaining momentum ” and that he had already made plans to reopen the American embassy in Caracas .
The next day , Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cryptically announced that “ morning is coming to Venezuela again ” soon .
By Sunday , the coup plotters were lying face down on the concrete , zip-tied , some appearing to have wet themselves in terror when coming into contact with the employees of the “ house of socialist fisherman ” in the sleepy coastal village of Chuao .
The Trump administration immediately denied all involvement , “ it has nothing to do with our government , ” the president said yesterday .
But as the dust settled , the mercenaries immediately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S .
Asked why there were two “ gringos ” with him , one detainee responded that they were the “ security chiefs of the president of the United States ; of Donald Trump.
” The “ gringos ” were later confirmed as former Special Forces operators Luke Denman and Aaron Berry , who helpfully brought their passports and even their VA discount cards to the insurrection .
The mastermind behind the plan , John Goudreau , also confirmed their identities .
Goudreau is a former Green Beret who founded private Florida-based mercenary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Instagram page even featured now-deleted posts showing Goudreau and his men posing with MAGA hats and running private security for Trump at campaign events .
C-SPAN footage of a Trump rally in October 2018 does indeed show them close to the president , patrolling the event .
The company ’ s ( since deleted ) twitter account was even live-tweeting their secret mission , tagging Trump in a post .
Apparently unaware he was confessing to a capital offense , Goudreau appeared on a Venezuelan show from his home in Florida , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ongoing , absolutely , ” even as his employees were being overpowered by disgruntled lobstermen .
“ These guys want to fight !
” he added .
Goudreau also shared an eight-page document signed by Juan Guaidó , where the self-declared “ interim president ” promised to pay him $ 212 million to overthrow Maduro , seemingly oblivious to how bad it made them both look .
He claims that Guaidó , notorious for fraud , had refused to pay even the $ 1.5 million retainer fee .
“ I ’ m out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the bottom line is a lot of us came together to do this .
I ’ ve been a freedom fighter my whole life , ” he said , as an explanation as to why he continued with the plan .
Silvercorp describes itself as “ providing governments and corporations with realistic and timely solutions to irregular problems.
” Apart from coup services , they also offer school shooting seminars ( $ 2,499 for six hours ) , “ motivation and mindset ” talks ( $ 3,999 for six hours ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they call “ advanced urban sniper tactics , ” Goudrau claiming that he has “ hunted the most dangerous game my entire adult life .
I ’ m going to teach you the tools of the trade.
” Thus , Silvercorp promises to teach anyone with enough money how to survive – or commit – mass shootings .
A February poll found that American actions are highly unpopular inside Venezuela , with 83 percent of respondents opposed to an invasion and over 80 percent against the current sanctions .
Why , then , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overthrow the entire country with 300 poorly trained volunteers ?
One reason could be the decades of pop culture propaganda aimed at the country .
Parks and Recreation presented the country as a joke dictatorship where virtually anything results in an arrest , the plot of The Expendables revolves around a crack team of mercenaries easily taking out a corrupt South American dictator , while a whole series of Jack Ryan follows the CIA agent helping to bring democracy to Venezuela .
Unfortunately for Washington , reality bit and Goudreau was less Jack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Social media has also played its part , deleting hundreds of accounts belonging to or supporting the Venezuelan left .
Indeed , Twitter deleted the accounts of Venezuela ’ s state-owned electricity company just before an attack on the power grid on Monday .
In the midst of a global pandemic , Washington is prioritizing punishing its enemies and pursuing regime change around the world , at the expense of saving its own citizens ’ lives .
However , due to the enormous power imbalance and the long history of demonizing Venezuela @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be serious consequences for the administration for overseeing a second Bay of Pigs fiasco .
Feature photo | Employees of Silvercorp are arrested by Venezuelan authorities after a failed coup attempt .
Photo | Twitter Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

In what has been labeled a new “Keystone Kops Bay of Pigs,” the latest attempt to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro failed spectacularly, as both American and Venezuelan paramilitaries were immediately overwhelmed when they came into contact with the navy, or even with armed local fishermen’s collectives. Last Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that his plans for “restoring democracy” in Venezuela were “gaining momentum” and that he had already made plans to reopen the American embassy in Caracas. The next day, Washington’s regime change specialist John Bolton cryptically announced that “morning is coming to Venezuela again” soon.
By Sunday, the coup plotters were lying face down on the concrete, zip-tied, some appearing to have wet themselves in terror when coming into contact with the employees of the “house of socialist fisherman” in the sleepy coastal village of Chuao. The Trump administration immediately denied all involvement, “it has nothing to do with our government,” the president said yesterday. But as the dust settled, the mercenaries immediately began implicating each other – and the U.S.
Asked why there were two “gringos” with him, one detainee responded that they were the “security chiefs of the president of the United States; of Donald Trump.” The “gringos” were later confirmed as former Special Forces operators Luke Denman and Aaron Berry, who helpfully brought their passports and even their VA discount cards to the insurrection. The mastermind behind the plan, John Goudreau, also confirmed their identities. Goudreau is a former Green Beret who founded private Florida-based mercenary force Silvercorp in 2018. Silvercorp’s Instagram page even featured now-deleted posts showing Goudreau and his men posing with MAGA hats and running private security for Trump at campaign events. C-SPAN footage of a Trump rally in October 2018 does indeed show them close to the president, patrolling the event. The company’s (since deleted) twitter account was even live-tweeting their secret mission, tagging Trump in a post.
The mastermind of the foiled coup invasion of #Venezuela just so happens to work security for Trump. https://t.co/Ep8TGbDKwY — Jeb Sprague (@JebSprague) May 5, 2020
Apparently unaware he was confessing to a capital offense, Goudreau appeared on a Venezuelan show from his home in Florida, insisting that the mission was “still ongoing, absolutely,” even as his employees were being overpowered by disgruntled lobstermen. “These guys want to fight!” he added. Goudreau also shared an eight-page document signed by Juan Guaidó, where the self-declared “interim president” promised to pay him $212 million to overthrow Maduro, seemingly oblivious to how bad it made them both look. He claims that Guaidó, notorious for fraud, had refused to pay even the $1.5 million retainer fee. “I’m out a lot of money. A LOT. But the bottom line is a lot of us came together to do this. I’ve been a freedom fighter my whole life,” he said, as an explanation as to why he continued with the plan.
Silvercorp describes itself as “providing governments and corporations with realistic and timely solutions to irregular problems.” Apart from coup services, they also offer school shooting seminars ($2,499 for six hours), “motivation and mindset” talks ($3,999 for six hours) and a $4,999 course on what they call “advanced urban sniper tactics,” Goudrau claiming that he has “hunted the most dangerous game my entire adult life. I’m going to teach you the tools of the trade.” Thus, Silvercorp promises to teach anyone with enough money how to survive – or commit – mass shootings.
A February poll found that American actions are highly unpopular inside Venezuela, with 83 percent of respondents opposed to an invasion and over 80 percent against the current sanctions. Why, then, did Silvercorp and others believe it could overthrow the entire country with 300 poorly trained volunteers? One reason could be the decades of pop culture propaganda aimed at the country. Parks and Recreation presented the country as a joke dictatorship where virtually anything results in an arrest, the plot of The Expendables revolves around a crack team of mercenaries easily taking out a corrupt South American dictator, while a whole series of Jack Ryan follows the CIA agent helping to bring democracy to Venezuela. Unfortunately for Washington, reality bit and Goudreau was less Jack Ryan and more Jim from The Office.
Social media has also played its part, deleting hundreds of accounts belonging to or supporting the Venezuelan left. Indeed, Twitter deleted the accounts of Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company just before an attack on the power grid on Monday.
In the midst of a global pandemic, Washington is prioritizing punishing its enemies and pursuing regime change around the world, at the expense of saving its own citizens’ lives. However, due to the enormous power imbalance and the long history of demonizing Venezuela, it is unlikely that there will be serious consequences for the administration for overseeing a second Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Feature photo | Employees of Silvercorp are arrested by Venezuelan authorities after a failed coup attempt. Photo | Twitter
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-05-06--100 Years of Shame: The Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo

One hundred years ago , representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo , a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera .
Together , they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I .
It was on April 25 , 1920 , that the San Remo Conference Resolution was passed by the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council .
Western Mandates were established over Palestine , Syria and ‘ Mesopotamia ’ – Iraq .
The latter two were theoretically designated for provisional independence , while Palestine was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Jewish homeland there .
“ The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the ( Balfour ) declaration originally made on November 8 , 1917 , by the British Government , and adopted by the other Allied Powers , in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people , ” the Resolution read .
The Resolution gave greater international recognition to Britain ’ s unilateral decision , three years earlier , to grant Palestine to the Zionist Federation for the purpose of establishing a Jewish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Britain during the Great War .
And , like Britain ’ s Balfour Declaration , a cursory mention was made of the unfortunate inhabitants of Palestine , whose historic homeland was being unfairly confiscated and handed over to colonial settlers .
The establishment of that Jewish State , according to San Remo , hinged on some vague ‘ understanding ’ that “ nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.
” The above addition merely served as a poor attempt at appearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforcement mechanism was ever put in place to ensure that the ‘ understanding ’ was ever respected or implemented .
In fact , one could argue that the West ’ s long engagement in the question of Israel and Palestine has followed the same San Remo prototype : where the Zionist movement ( and eventually Israel ) is granted its political objectives based on unenforceable conditions that are never respected or implemented .
Notice how the vast majority of United Nations Resolution pertaining to Palestinian rights are historically passed by the General Assembly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where the US is one of five veto-wielding powers , always ready to strike down any attempt at enforcing international law .
It is this historical dichotomy that led to the current political deadlock .
Palestinian leaderships , one after the other , have miserably failed at changing the stifling paradigm .
Decades before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority , countless delegations , comprised those claiming to represent the Palestinian people , traveled to Europe , appealing to one government or another , pleading the Palestinian case and demanding fairness .
What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 , the Donald Trump administration issued its own version of the Balfour Declaration , termed the ‘ Deal of the Century ’ .
The American decision which , again , flouted international law , paves the way for further Israeli colonial annexations of occupied Palestine .
It brazenly threatens Palestinians that , if they do not cooperate , they will be punished severely .
In fact , they already have been , when Washington cut all funding to the Palestinian Authority and to international institutions that provide critical aid to the Palestinians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Balfour Declaration , and numerous other documents , Israel was asked , ever so politely but without any plans to enforce such demands , to grant Palestinians some symbolic gestures of freedom and independence .
Some may argue , and rightly so , that the ‘ Deal of the Century ’ and the San Remo Conference Resolution are not identical in the sense that Trump ’ s decision was a unilateral one , while San Remo was the outcome of political consensus among various countries – Britain , France , Italy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two important points must be taken into account : firstly , the Balfour Declaration was also a unilateral decision .
It took Britain ’ s allies three years to embrace and validate the illegal decision made by London to grant Palestine to the Zionists .
The question now is , how long will it take for Europe to claim the ‘ Deal of the Century ’ as its own ?
Secondly , the spirit of all of these declarations , promises , resolutions , and ‘ deals ’ is the same , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ massive influence to rearrange the historical rights of nations .
In some way , the colonialism of old has never truly died .
The Palestinian Authority , like previous Palestinian leaderships , is presented with the proverbial carrot and stick .
Last March , US President Donald Trump ’ s son-in-law , Jared Kushner , told Palestinians that if they did not return to the ( non-existent ) negotiations with Israel , the US would support Israel ’ s annexation of the West Bank .
For nearly three decades now and , certainly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Accords in September 1993 , the PA has chosen the carrot .
Now that the US has decided to change the rules of the game altogether , Mahmoud Abbas ’ Authority is facing its most serious existential threat yet : bowing down to Kushner or insisting on returning to a dead political paradigm that was constructed , then abandoned , by Washington .
The crisis within the Palestinian leadership is met with utter clarity on the part of Israel .
The new Israeli coalition government , consisting of previous rivals Israeli Prime Minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have tentatively agreed that annexing large parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley is just a matter of time .
They are merely waiting for the American nod .
They are unlikely to wait for long , as Secretary of State , Mike Pompeo , said on April 22 that annexing Palestinian territories is “ an Israeli decision.
” Frankly , it matters little .
The 21st century Balfour Declaration has already been made ; it is only a matter of making it the new uncontested reality .
Perhaps , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand that groveling at the feet of those who have inherited the San Remo Resolution , constructing and sustaining colonial Israel , is never and has never been the answer .
Perhaps , it is time for some serious rethink .
Feature photo | Signatories of the San Remo Conference pose for a photo after its signing in 1920 .
Photo | Public Domain Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle .
He is the author of five books .
His latest is “ These Chains Will Be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defiance in Israeli Prisons ” ( Clarity Press , Atlanta ) .
Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs ( CIGA ) , Istanbul Zaim University ( IZU ) .
His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I.
It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was passed by the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. Western Mandates were established over Palestine, Syria and ‘Mesopotamia’ – Iraq. The latter two were theoretically designated for provisional independence, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland there.
“The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the (Balfour) declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” the Resolution read.
The Resolution gave greater international recognition to Britain’s unilateral decision, three years earlier, to grant Palestine to the Zionist Federation for the purpose of establishing a Jewish homeland, in exchange for Zionist support of Britain during the Great War.
And, like Britain’s Balfour Declaration, a cursory mention was made of the unfortunate inhabitants of Palestine, whose historic homeland was being unfairly confiscated and handed over to colonial settlers.
The establishment of that Jewish State, according to San Remo, hinged on some vague ‘understanding’ that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
The above addition merely served as a poor attempt at appearing politically balanced, while in reality no enforcement mechanism was ever put in place to ensure that the ‘understanding’ was ever respected or implemented.
In fact, one could argue that the West’s long engagement in the question of Israel and Palestine has followed the same San Remo prototype: where the Zionist movement (and eventually Israel) is granted its political objectives based on unenforceable conditions that are never respected or implemented.
Notice how the vast majority of United Nations Resolution pertaining to Palestinian rights are historically passed by the General Assembly, not by the Security Council, where the US is one of five veto-wielding powers, always ready to strike down any attempt at enforcing international law.
It is this historical dichotomy that led to the current political deadlock.
Palestinian leaderships, one after the other, have miserably failed at changing the stifling paradigm. Decades before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, countless delegations, comprised those claiming to represent the Palestinian people, traveled to Europe, appealing to one government or another, pleading the Palestinian case and demanding fairness.
What has changed since then?
On February 20, the Donald Trump administration issued its own version of the Balfour Declaration, termed the ‘Deal of the Century’.
The American decision which, again, flouted international law, paves the way for further Israeli colonial annexations of occupied Palestine. It brazenly threatens Palestinians that, if they do not cooperate, they will be punished severely. In fact, they already have been, when Washington cut all funding to the Palestinian Authority and to international institutions that provide critical aid to the Palestinians.
Like in the San Remo Conference, the Balfour Declaration, and numerous other documents, Israel was asked, ever so politely but without any plans to enforce such demands, to grant Palestinians some symbolic gestures of freedom and independence.
Some may argue, and rightly so, that the ‘Deal of the Century’ and the San Remo Conference Resolution are not identical in the sense that Trump’s decision was a unilateral one, while San Remo was the outcome of political consensus among various countries – Britain, France, Italy, and others.
True, but two important points must be taken into account: firstly, the Balfour Declaration was also a unilateral decision. It took Britain’s allies three years to embrace and validate the illegal decision made by London to grant Palestine to the Zionists. The question now is, how long will it take for Europe to claim the ‘Deal of the Century’ as its own?
Secondly, the spirit of all of these declarations, promises, resolutions, and ‘deals’ is the same, where superpowers decide by virtue of their own massive influence to rearrange the historical rights of nations. In some way, the colonialism of old has never truly died.
The Palestinian Authority, like previous Palestinian leaderships, is presented with the proverbial carrot and stick. Last March, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, told Palestinians that if they did not return to the (non-existent) negotiations with Israel, the US would support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.
For nearly three decades now and, certainly, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, the PA has chosen the carrot. Now that the US has decided to change the rules of the game altogether, Mahmoud Abbas’ Authority is facing its most serious existential threat yet: bowing down to Kushner or insisting on returning to a dead political paradigm that was constructed, then abandoned, by Washington.
The crisis within the Palestinian leadership is met with utter clarity on the part of Israel. The new Israeli coalition government, consisting of previous rivals Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, have tentatively agreed that annexing large parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley is just a matter of time. They are merely waiting for the American nod.
They are unlikely to wait for long, as Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said on April 22 that annexing Palestinian territories is “an Israeli decision.”
Frankly, it matters little. The 21st century Balfour Declaration has already been made; it is only a matter of making it the new uncontested reality.
Perhaps, it is time for the Palestinian leadership to understand that groveling at the feet of those who have inherited the San Remo Resolution, constructing and sustaining colonial Israel, is never and has never been the answer.
Perhaps, it is time for some serious rethink.
Feature photo | Signatories of the San Remo Conference pose for a photo after its signing in 1920. Photo | Public Domain
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net