lewrockwell--2020-03-26--Iraq’s Resistance Reveals How US Troops Will Be Removed From Its Country

Yesterday the U.S. attacked five sites in Iraq and killed 3 Iraqi soldiers of the 19th Division , two policeman and a civilian .
The strikes came after some 10+ rockets , fired by unknown people , had hit the joint base Camp Tali and had killed 2 U.S. and one British soldiers .
Today the U.S. received the revenge for its strikes .
The U.S. Central Command had argued that the “ defensive precision strike ” against the five sites created deterrence i.e .
they would prevent other attacks : Even hawkish analysts find that the argument is nonsense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kataib Hezbollah , part of the Popular Mobilization Forces ( PMF ) and under command of the Iraqi government , fired the missiles .
But the positions the U.S. hit were not Kataib Hezbollah positions .
U.S. intelligence in Iraq is not up to date with regards to where Kataib Hezbollah units or those of the other 20+ PMU groups are stationed .
Fiasco : The American M ... Ricks , Thomas E. Best Price : $ 1.11 Buy New $ 6.37 British forces were supposed to join yesterday ’ s U.S. strike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Brits were called back by their government because the attribution of the original rockets strike to Kataib Hezbollah was shady and because there was no legal justification for the strikes .
The Iraqi government announced that it would protest at the United Nation about the U.S. breach of its sovereignty .
Ayatollah Sistani condemned the U.S. attack and even the Iraq Joint Operational Command , which includes coordinating U.S. officers , protested against the strikes .
The Iraqi parliament and government have told the U.S. to leave Iraq .
The Trump administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In consequence more U.S. soldiers will have to die in Iraq .
That the “ deterrence ” strikes did not deter anything was proven today when another rocket salvo was fired at Camp Taji in broad daylight : The U.S. in Iraq is not fighting some “ Iran backed ” groups but is an occupation force and therefore a legitimate target for Iraqi government forces : “ We can ’ t forget that the PMF is a recognized entity within the Iraqi security forces ; they aren ’ t isolated from the security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same bases or use the same facilities , ” said Sajad Jiyad , a researcher and former managing director of the Bayan Center , a Baghdad-based think tank.
“ Now the ( Iran-backed ) groups who supported the initial strike in Taji , who were the most outspoken , feel obliged , authorized , maybe even legitimized to respond , ostensibly to protect Iraqi sovereignty but really to keep the pressure up on Americans , ” he added .
“ There are no red lines anymore , ” Jiyad said .
The Iraqi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today ’ s rocket volley was fired .
Its pictures tell a lot about how this fight will go on until the U.S. occupation forces leave Iraq .
This is a fixed camouflaged position under a roof .
It was probably built months if not years ago .
The launcher cases were dug into the ground of some shed .
They were already adjusted to the planned strike direction .
To launch the rockets one had simply to clear the top of camouflage , pull up the rocket launcher from the front and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One man could do that within a few minutes .
The electrical launch command would then come from remote by a wire or cellphone .
Homemade Hand Sanitize ... Smith , Rebecca Buy New $ 8.99 The setup of the position reminds one of similar positions the Lebanese Hizbullah has built in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza .
The people who set up this launch position in Iraq seem to have received some training from experienced staff .
If there is one well prepared positions aimed at Camp Taji how many others are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Or even a thousand ?
How many exist around other sites in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed ?
Previous strikes had come from mobile platforms .
That the resistance in Iraq now revealed one of its fixed camouflaged launch sites is intentional .
It is a warning to the U.S. to ponder about the above questions and potential consequences .
These secret launch sites are a real deterrence .
In 2006 Israel attacked Hizbullah in Lebanon with the intention to disarm the group .
But Hizbullah ’ s defenses were stubborn and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Israeli positions .
Israeli bombers then tried to find the launch sites but those where hidden and not detectable from the air .
In the end it was Israel which had to file for peace .
Since then its forces have not dared to again enter Lebanon .
The U.S. in Iraq has no way to protect its troops from such unpredictable rocket volleys .
It has no way deter or even win against the forces that are now working to evict it from Iraq as well as other places in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that and leave .
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama .

Yesterday the U.S. attacked five sites in Iraq and killed 3 Iraqi soldiers of the 19th Division, two policeman and a civilian. The strikes came after some 10+ rockets, fired by unknown people, had hit the joint base Camp Tali and had killed 2 U.S. and one British soldiers.
Today the U.S. received the revenge for its strikes.
The U.S. Central Command had argued that the “defensive precision strike” against the five sites created deterrence i.e. they would prevent other attacks:
We believe that this is going to have an effect on deterring — on deterring future strikes of this nature. We’ve seen in the past what happens when you don’t respond. Now people know that we’re not going to — we’re not going to tolerate these direct attacks on American or coalition service members, and we’re willing and able to respond.
Even hawkish analysts find that the argument is nonsense.
The U.S. claims that the group Kataib Hezbollah, part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and under command of the Iraqi government, fired the missiles. But the positions the U.S. hit were not Kataib Hezbollah positions. U.S. intelligence in Iraq is not up to date with regards to where Kataib Hezbollah units or those of the other 20+ PMU groups are stationed. Fiasco: The American M... Ricks, Thomas E. Best Price: $1.11 Buy New $6.37 (as of 01:45 UTC - Details)
TØM CΛT – 12:05 UTC · Mar 14, 2020After asking a military source in 19th Commando Division about the Al-Atheer facility and presence of “Iranian missiles”, the response I got was that KH withdrew from the site 7+ days ago and the unit took their place.
So yeah, the Mussayib site was under Iraq Army.
British forces were supposed to join yesterday’s U.S. strike but the Wall Street Journal reports that the Brits were called back by their government because the attribution of the original rockets strike to Kataib Hezbollah was shady and because there was no legal justification for the strikes.
The Iraqi government announced that it would protest at the United Nation about the U.S. breach of its sovereignty. Ayatollah Sistani condemned the U.S. attack and even the Iraq Joint Operational Command, which includes coordinating U.S. officers, protested against the strikes.
The Iraqi parliament and government have told the U.S. to leave Iraq. The Trump administration is not willing to do that. In consequence more U.S. soldiers will have to die in Iraq.
That the “deterrence” strikes did not deter anything was proven today when another rocket salvo was fired at Camp Taji in broad daylight:
A hail of rockets landed on a military base housing U.S. and other coalition troops north of Baghdad Saturday morning, wounding three coalition soldiers and two Iraqi soldiers.The same base, Camp Taji, was the target of a rocket attack on Wednesday which killed three servicemen, including two Americans and one British.
The U.S. in Iraq is not fighting some “Iran backed” groups but is an occupation force and therefore a legitimate target for Iraqi government forces:
“We can’t forget that the PMF is a recognized entity within the Iraqi security forces; they aren’t isolated from the security forces and often are co-located on the same bases or use the same facilities,” said Sajad Jiyad, a researcher and former managing director of the Bayan Center, a Baghdad-based think tank.“Now the (Iran-backed) groups who supported the initial strike in Taji, who were the most outspoken, feel obliged, authorized, maybe even legitimized to respond, ostensibly to protect Iraqi sovereignty but really to keep the pressure up on Americans,” he added. “There are no red lines anymore,” Jiyad said.
(I bet $10 that the “(Iran backed)” in that quote is not from Sajad Jiyad but was added by the NBC/AP writer or editor. Sajad Jihad often stresses that these groups do have motive and means to act on their own.)
(Added: Sajad Jihad has now confirmed to me that the politicizing words in the parenthesis are not from him but were added by the NBC/AP writers.)
The Iraqi police found the launch site from where today’s rocket volley was fired. Its pictures tell a lot about how this fight will go on until the U.S. occupation forces leave Iraq.
Source – bigger
Source – bigger
This is a fixed camouflaged position under a roof. It was probably built months if not years ago. The launcher cases were dug into the ground of some shed. They were already adjusted to the planned strike direction. To launch the rockets one had simply to clear the top of camouflage, pull up the rocket launcher from the front and set the height adjusting stick up. One man could do that within a few minutes. The electrical launch command would then come from remote by a wire or cellphone. Homemade Hand Sanitize... Smith, Rebecca Buy New $8.99 (as of 09:37 UTC - Details)
The setup of the position reminds one of similar positions the Lebanese Hizbullah has built in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The people who set up this launch position in Iraq seem to have received some training from experienced staff.
If there is one well prepared positions aimed at Camp Taji how many others are there? Ten? One hundred? Or even a thousand? How many exist around other sites in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed?
Previous strikes had come from mobile platforms. That the resistance in Iraq now revealed one of its fixed camouflaged launch sites is intentional. It is a warning to the U.S. to ponder about the above questions and potential consequences.
These secret launch sites are a real deterrence. In 2006 Israel attacked Hizbullah in Lebanon with the intention to disarm the group. But Hizbullah’s defenses were stubborn and hundreds of rockets were fired each day against Israeli positions. Israeli bombers then tried to find the launch sites but those where hidden and not detectable from the air. In the end it was Israel which had to file for peace. Since then its forces have not dared to again enter Lebanon.
The U.S. in Iraq has no way to protect its troops from such unpredictable rocket volleys. It has no way deter or even win against the forces that are now working to evict it from Iraq as well as other places in the Middle East.
It should finally recognize that and leave.
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.


lewrockwell--2020-03-26--Why Is Crowdstrike Confused on Eleven Key Details About The DNC Hack?

Here is the bottom-line—despite being hired in late April ( or early May ) of 2016 to stop an unauthorized intrusion into the DNC , CrowdStrike , the cyber firm hired by the DNC ’ s law firm to solve the problem , failed abysmally .
More than 30,000 emails were taken from the DNC server between 22 and 25 May 2016 and given to Wikileaks .
Crowdstrike blamed Russia for the intrusion but claimed that only two files were taken .
And CrowdStrike inexplicably waited until 10 June 2016 to reboot the DNC network .
CrowdStrike , a cyber-security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retained by the DNC , provided the narrative to the American public of the alledged hack of the DNC , But the Crowdstrike explanation is inconsistent , contradictory and implausible .
Despite glaring oddities in the CrowdStrike account of that event , CrowdStrike subsequently traded on its fame in the investigation of the so-called Russian hack of the DNC and became a publicly traded company .
Was CrowdStrike ’ s fame for “ discovering ” the alleged Russian hack of the DNC a critical factor in its subsequent launch as a publicly traded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hack is very flawed .
There are 11 contradictions , inconsistencies or oddities in the public narrative about CrowdStrike ’ s role in uncovering and allegedly mitigating a Russian intrusion ( note–the underlying facts for these conclusions are found in Ellen Nakashima ’ s Washington Post story , Vicki Ward ’ s Esquire story , the Mueller Report and the blog of Crowdstrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch ) : War with Russia ?
: From ... Cohen , Stephen F. Best Price : $ 8.99 Buy New $ 8.50 • Two different dates—30 April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ward respectively as the date CrowdStrike was hired to investigate an intrusion into the DNC computer network .
• There are on the record contradictions about who hired Crowdstrike .
Nakashima reports that the DNC called Michael Sussman of the law firm , Perkins Coie , who in turn contacted Crowdtrike ’ s CEO Shawn Henry .
Crowdstrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch tells Nakashima a different story , stating our “ Incident Response group , was called by the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) .
• CrowdStrike claims it discovered within 24 hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ intrusion ” into the DNC network .
• CrowdStrike ’ s installation of Falcon ( its proprietary software to stop breaches ) on the DNC on the 1st of May or the 6th of May would have alerted to intruders that they had been detected .
• CrowdStrike officials told the Washington Post ’ s Ellen Nakashima that they were , “ not sure how the hackers got in ” and didn ’ t “ have hard evidence.
” • In a blog posting by CrowdStrike ’ s founder , Dmitri @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nakashima ’ s article was published in the Washington Post , wrote that the intrusion into the DNC was done by two separate Russian intelligence organizations using malware identified as Fancy Bear ( APT28 ) and Cozy Bear ( APT29 ) .
• But , Alperovitch admits his team found no evidence the two Russian organizations were coordinating their “ attack ” or even knew of each other ’ s presence on the DNC network .
• There is great confusion over what the “ hackers ” obtained .
DNC sources claim the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump .
DNC sources and CrowdStrike claimed the intruders , “ read all email and chat traffic.
” Yet , DNC officials insisted , “ that no financial , donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken.
” However , CrowdStrike states , “ The hackers stole two files.
” • Crowdstrike ’ s Alperovitch , in his blog posting , does not specify whether it was Cozy Bear or Fancy Bear that took the files .
• Wikileaks published DNC emails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ message taken from the DNC was dated 25 May 2016 .
This was much more than “ two files.
” • CrowdStrike , in complete disregard to basic security practice when confronted with an intrusion , waited five weeks to disconnect the DNC computers from the network and sanitize them .
Let us start with the very contradictory public accounts attributed to Crowdstrke ’ s founder , Dmitri Alperovitch .
The 14 June 2016 story by Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post and the October 2016 piece by Vicki Ward in Esquire magazine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the investigation : When did the DNC learn of the “ intrusion ” ?
Ellen Nakashima claims it was the end of April : Ward ’ s timeline , citing Alperovitch , reports the alert came later , on 6 May 2016 : This is a significant and troubling discrepancy because it marks the point in time when CrowdStrike installed its Falcon software on the DNC server .
It is one thing to confuse the 30th of April with the 1st of May .
But Alperovitch gave two different reporters two different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” take from the DNC ?
Ellen Nakashima ’ s reporting is contradictory and wrong .
Initially , she is told that the hackers got access to the entire Donald Trump database and that all emails and chats could be read .
But then she is assured that only two files were taken .
This was based on Crowdstrike ’ s CEO ’ s assurance , which was proven subsequently to be spectacularly wrong when Wikileaks published 35,813 DNC emails .
How did Crowdstrike miss that critical detail ?
Here is Nakashima ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump , according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach .
The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC ’ s system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic , said DNC officials and the security experts .
.
.
.
The DNC said that no financial , donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken , suggesting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the work of criminal hackers .
One group , which CrowdStrike had dubbed Cozy Bear , had gained access last summer ( 2015 ) and was monitoring the DNC ’ s email and chat communications , Alperovitch said .
The other , which the firm had named Fancy Bear , broke into the network in late April and targeted the opposition research files .
It was this breach that set off the alarm .
The hackers stole two files , Henry said .
And they had access to the computers of the entire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several dozen on any given day .
.
.
.
CrowdStrike is continuing the forensic investigation , said Sussmann , the DNC lawyer .
“ But at this time , it appears that no financial information or sensitive employee , donor or voter information was accessed by the Russian attackers , ” he said .
The DNC emails that are posted on the Wikileaks website and the metadata shows that these emails were removed from the DNC server starting the late on the 22nd of May and continuing thru the 23rd of May @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the morning ( Washington , DC time ) of the 25th of May 2016 .
Crowdstrike ’ s CEO , Shawn Henry , insisted on the 14th of June 2016 that “ ONLY TWO FILES ” had been taken .
This is demonstrably not true .
Besides the failure of Crowdstrike to detect the removal of more than 35,000 emails , there is another important and unanswered question—why did Crowdstrike wait until the 10th of June 2016 to start disconnecting the DNC server when they allegedly knew on the 6th of May that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Crowdstrike accused Russia of the DNC breach but lacked concrete proof .
Ellen Nakashima ’ s report reveals that Crowdstrike relied exclusively on circumstantial evidence for its claim that the Russian Government hacked the DNC server .
According to Nakashima : There is a word in English for the phrases , “ Not sure ” and “ No hard evidence ” –that word is , “ assumption.
” Assuming that the Russians did it is not the same as proving , based on evidence , that the Russians were culpable .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The so-called “ proof ” of the Russian intrusions is the presence of Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear ?
At first glance , Dmitri Alperovitch ’ s blog posting describing the Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear “ intrusions ” appears quite substantive .
But cyber security professionals quickly identified a variety of shortcomings with the Alperovitch account .
For example , this malware is not unique nor proprietary to Russia .
Other countries and hackers have access to APT28 and have used it .
Skip Folden offers one of the best comprehensive analyses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : APT28 , aka Fancy Bear , Sofacy , Strontium , Pawn Storm , Sednit , etc.
, and APT29 , aka Cozy Bear , Cozy Duke , Monkeys , CozyCar , The Dukes , etc.
, are used as ‘ proof ’ of Russia ‘ hacking ’ by Russian Intelligence agencies GRU and FSB respectively .
There is no basis whatsoever to attribute the use of known intrusion elements to Russia , not even if they were once reverse routed to Russia , which claim has never been made by NSA or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ June 15 , 2016 Dmitri Alperovitch himself , in an Atlantic Council article , gave only “ medium-level of confidence that Fancy Bear is GRU ” and “ low-level of confidence that Cozy Bear is FSB.
” These assessments , from the main source himself , that either APT is Russian intelligence , averages 37 % -38 % [ ( 50 + 25 ) / 2 ] .
None of the technical indicators , e.g.
, intrusion tools ( such as X-Agent , X-Tunnel ) , facilities , tactics , techniques , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 29 APTs can be uniquely attributed to Russia , even if one or more had ever been trace routed to Russia .
Once an element of a set of intrusion tools is used in the public domain it can be reverse-engineered and used by other groups which precludes the assumption of exclusivity in future use .
The proof that any of these tools have never been reverse engineered and used by others is left to the student – or prosecutor .
Also , targets have been used as basis for attributing intrusions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nonsense .
Both many state and non-state players have deep interests in the same targets and have the technical expertise to launch intrusions .
In Grizzly Steppe , page 2 , second paragraph , beginning with , “ Both groups have historically targeted … , ” is there anything in that paragraph which can be claimed as unique to Russia or which excludes all other major state players in the world or any of the non-state organizations ?
No .
On the subject of naming specific GRU officers initiating specific actions on GRU @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , other than via implanted ID chips under the finger tips of these named GRU officers , the logical assumption would be by installed key logger capabilities , physical or malware , on one or more GRU Russian computers .
The GRU is a highly advanced Russian intelligence unit .
It would be very surprising were the GRU open to any method used to install key logger capabilities .
It would be even more surprising , if not beyond comprehension that the GRU did not scan all systems upon start-up and in real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anomalies of performance degradation and data transmissions .
Other option would be via a foreign intelligence unit source with local GRU access .
Any such would be quite anti-Russian and be another nail in the coffin of any chain of evidence / custody validity at Russian site .
Homemade Hand Sanitize ... Smith , Rebecca Buy New $ 8.99 Stated simply , Dmitri Alperovitch ’ s conclusion that “ the Russians did it ” are not supported by the forensic evidence .
Instead , he relies on the assumption that the presence of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covert hand .
What is even more striking is that the FBI accepted this explanation without demanding forensic evidence .
Former FBI Director James Comey and former NSA Director Mike Rogers testified under oath before Congress that neither agency ever received access to the DNC server .
All information the FBI used in its investigation was supplied by CrowdStrike .
The Hill reported : The foregoing facts raise major questions about the validity of the Crowdstrike methodology and conclusions with respect to what happened on the DNC network .
This is not a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of facts that , as of today , have no satisfactory explanation .
The American public deserve answers .

Here is the bottom-line—despite being hired in late April (or early May) of 2016 to stop an unauthorized intrusion into the DNC, CrowdStrike, the cyber firm hired by the DNC’s law firm to solve the problem, failed abysmally. More than 30,000 emails were taken from the DNC server between 22 and 25 May 2016 and given to Wikileaks. Crowdstrike blamed Russia for the intrusion but claimed that only two files were taken. And CrowdStrike inexplicably waited until 10 June 2016 to reboot the DNC network.
CrowdStrike, a cyber-security company hired by a Perkins Coie lawyer retained by the DNC, provided the narrative to the American public of the alledged hack of the DNC, But the Crowdstrike explanation is inconsistent, contradictory and implausible. Despite glaring oddities in the CrowdStrike account of that event, CrowdStrike subsequently traded on its fame in the investigation of the so-called Russian hack of the DNC and became a publicly traded company. Was CrowdStrike’s fame for “discovering” the alleged Russian hack of the DNC a critical factor in its subsequent launch as a publicly traded company?
The Crowdstrike account of the hack is very flawed. There are 11 contradictions, inconsistencies or oddities in the public narrative about CrowdStrike’s role in uncovering and allegedly mitigating a Russian intrusion (note–the underlying facts for these conclusions are found in Ellen Nakashima’s Washington Post story, Vicki Ward’s Esquire story, the Mueller Report and the blog of Crowdstrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch): War with Russia?: From... Cohen, Stephen F. Best Price: $8.99 Buy New $8.50 (as of 02:15 UTC - Details)
Two different dates—30 April or 6 May—are reported by Nakashima and Ward respectively as the date CrowdStrike was hired to investigate an intrusion into the DNC computer network. There are on the record contradictions about who hired Crowdstrike. Nakashima reports that the DNC called Michael Sussman of the law firm, Perkins Coie, who in turn contacted Crowdtrike’s CEO Shawn Henry. Crowdstrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch tells Nakashima a different story, stating our “Incident Response group, was called by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). CrowdStrike claims it discovered within 24 hours the “Russians” were responsible for the “intrusion” into the DNC network. CrowdStrike’s installation of Falcon (its proprietary software to stop breaches) on the DNC on the 1st of May or the 6th of May would have alerted to intruders that they had been detected. CrowdStrike officials told the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima that they were, “not sure how the hackers got in” and didn’t “have hard evidence.” In a blog posting by CrowdStrike’s founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, on the same day that Nakashima’s article was published in the Washington Post, wrote that the intrusion into the DNC was done by two separate Russian intelligence organizations using malware identified as Fancy Bear (APT28) and Cozy Bear (APT29). But, Alperovitch admits his team found no evidence the two Russian organizations were coordinating their “attack” or even knew of each other’s presence on the DNC network. There is great confusion over what the “hackers” obtained. DNC sources claim the hackers gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. DNC sources and CrowdStrike claimed the intruders, “read all email and chat traffic.” Yet, DNC officials insisted, “that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken.” However, CrowdStrike states, “The hackers stole two files.” Crowdstrike’s Alperovitch, in his blog posting, does not specify whether it was Cozy Bear or Fancy Bear that took the files. Wikileaks published DNC emails in July 2016 that show the last message taken from the DNC was dated 25 May 2016. This was much more than “two files.” CrowdStrike, in complete disregard to basic security practice when confronted with an intrusion, waited five weeks to disconnect the DNC computers from the network and sanitize them.
Let us start with the very contradictory public accounts attributed to Crowdstrke’s founder, Dmitri Alperovitch. The 14 June 2016 story by Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post and the October 2016 piece by Vicki Ward in Esquire magazine offer two different dates for the start of the investigation:
When did the DNC learn of the “intrusion”?
Ellen Nakashima claims it was the end of April:
“DNC leaders were tipped to the hack in late April. Chief executive Amy Dacey got a call from her operations chief saying that their information technology team had noticed some unusual network activity. . . . That evening, she spoke with Michael Sussmann, a DNC lawyer who is a partner with Perkins Coie in Washington. Soon after, Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor who handled computer crime cases, called Henry, whom he has known for many years. Within 24 hours, CrowdStrike had installed software on the DNC’s computers so that it could analyze data that could indicate who had gained access, when and how.
Ward’s timeline, citing Alperovitch, reports the alert came later, on 6 May 2016:
At six o’clock on the morning of May 6, Dmitri Alperovitch woke up in a Los Angeles hotel to an alarming email. . . . late the previous night, his company had been asked by the Democratic National Committee to investigate a possible breach of its network. A CrowdStrike security expert had sent the DNC a proprietary software package, called Falcon, that monitors the networks of its clients in real time. Falcon “lit up,” the email said, within ten seconds of being installed at the DNC: Russia was in the network.
This is a significant and troubling discrepancy because it marks the point in time when CrowdStrike installed its Falcon software on the DNC server. It is one thing to confuse the 30th of April with the 1st of May. But Alperovitch gave two different reporters two different dates.
What did the “hackers” take from the DNC?
Ellen Nakashima’s reporting is contradictory and wrong. Initially, she is told that the hackers got access to the entire Donald Trump database and that all emails and chats could be read. But then she is assured that only two files were taken. This was based on Crowdstrike’s CEO’s assurance, which was proven subsequently to be spectacularly wrong when Wikileaks published 35,813 DNC emails. How did Crowdstrike miss that critical detail? Here is Nakashima’s reporting:
Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach. The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts. . . . The DNC said that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken, suggesting that the breach was traditional espionage, not the work of criminal hackers. One group, which CrowdStrike had dubbed Cozy Bear, had gained access last summer (2015) and was monitoring the DNC’s email and chat communications, Alperovitch said. The other, which the firm had named Fancy Bear, broke into the network in late April and targeted the opposition research files. It was this breach that set off the alarm. The hackers stole two files, Henry said. And they had access to the computers of the entire research staff — an average of about several dozen on any given day. . . . CrowdStrike is continuing the forensic investigation, said Sussmann, the DNC lawyer. “But at this time, it appears that no financial information or sensitive employee, donor or voter information was accessed by the Russian attackers,” he said.
The DNC emails that are posted on the Wikileaks website and the metadata shows that these emails were removed from the DNC server starting the late on the 22nd of May and continuing thru the 23rd of May. The last tranche occurred late in the morning (Washington, DC time) of the 25th of May 2016. Crowdstrike’s CEO, Shawn Henry, insisted on the 14th of June 2016 that “ONLY TWO FILES” had been taken. This is demonstrably not true. Besides the failure of Crowdstrike to detect the removal of more than 35,000 emails, there is another important and unanswered question—why did Crowdstrike wait until the 10th of June 2016 to start disconnecting the DNC server when they allegedly knew on the 6th of May that the Russians had entered the DNC network?
Crowdstrike accused Russia of the DNC breach but lacked concrete proof.
Ellen Nakashima’s report reveals that Crowdstrike relied exclusively on circumstantial evidence for its claim that the Russian Government hacked the DNC server. According to Nakashima:
CrowdStrike is not sure how the hackers got in. The firm suspects they may have targeted DNC employees with “spearphishing” emails. These are communications that appear legitimate — often made to look like they came from a colleague or someone trusted — but that contain links or attachments that when clicked on deploy malicious software that enables a hacker to gain access to a computer. “But we don’t have hard evidence,” Alperovitch said.
There is a word in English for the phrases, “Not sure” and “No hard evidence”–that word is, “assumption.” Assuming that the Russians did it is not the same as proving, based on evidence, that the Russians were culpable. But that is exactly what CrowdStrike did.
The so-called “proof” of the Russian intrusions is the presence of Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear?
At first glance, Dmitri Alperovitch’s blog posting describing the Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear “intrusions” appears quite substantive. But cyber security professionals quickly identified a variety of shortcomings with the Alperovitch account. For example, this malware is not unique nor proprietary to Russia. Other countries and hackers have access to APT28 and have used it.
Skip Folden offers one of the best comprehensive analyses of the problems with the Alperovitch explanation:
No basis whatsoever: APT28, aka Fancy Bear, Sofacy, Strontium, Pawn Storm, Sednit, etc., and APT29, aka Cozy Bear, Cozy Duke, Monkeys, CozyCar,The Dukes, etc., are used as ‘proof’ of Russia ‘hacking’ by Russian Intelligence agencies GRU and FSB respectively. There is no basis whatsoever to attribute the use of known intrusion elements to Russia, not even if they were once reverse routed to Russia, which claim has never been made by NSA or any other of our IC. On June 15, 2016 Dmitri Alperovitch himself, in an Atlantic Council article, gave only “medium-level of confidence that Fancy Bear is GRU” and “low-level of confidence that Cozy Bear is FSB.” These assessments, from the main source himself, that either APT is Russian intelligence, averages 37%-38% [(50 + 25) / 2]. Exclusivity: None of the technical indicators, e.g., intrusion tools (such as X-Agent, X-Tunnel), facilities, tactics, techniques, or procedures, etc., of the 28 and 29 APTs can be uniquely attributed to Russia, even if one or more had ever been trace routed to Russia. Once an element of a set of intrusion tools is used in the public domain it can be reverse-engineered and used by other groups which precludes the assumption of exclusivity in future use. The proof that any of these tools have never been reverse engineered and used by others is left to the student – or prosecutor. Using targets: Also, targets have been used as basis for attributing intrusions to Russia, and that is pure nonsense. Both many state and non-state players have deep interests in the same targets and have the technical expertise to launch intrusions. In Grizzly Steppe, page 2, second paragraph, beginning with, “Both groups have historically targeted …,” is there anything in that paragraph which can be claimed as unique to Russia or which excludes all other major state players in the world or any of the non-state organizations? No. Key Logger Consideration: On the subject of naming specific GRU officers initiating specific actions on GRU Russian facilities on certain dates / times, other than via implanted ID chips under the finger tips of these named GRU officers, the logical assumption would be by installed key logger capabilities, physical or malware, on one or more GRU Russian computers. The GRU is a highly advanced Russian intelligence unit. It would be very surprising were the GRU open to any method used to install key logger capabilities. It would be even more surprising, if not beyond comprehension that the GRU did not scan all systems upon start-up and in real time, including key logger protection and anomalies of performance degradation and data transmissions. Foreign intelligence source: Other option would be via a foreign intelligence unit source with local GRU access. Any such would be quite anti-Russian and be another nail in the coffin of any chain of evidence / custody validity at Russian site.
Homemade Hand Sanitize... Smith, Rebecca Buy New $8.99 (as of 09:37 UTC - Details) Stated simply, Dmitri Alperovitch’s conclusion that “the Russians did it” are not supported by the forensic evidence. Instead, he relies on the assumption that the presence of APT28 and APT29 prove Moscow’s covert hand. What is even more striking is that the FBI accepted this explanation without demanding forensic evidence.
Former FBI Director James Comey and former NSA Director Mike Rogers testified under oath before Congress that neither agency ever received access to the DNC server. All information the FBI used in its investigation was supplied by CrowdStrike. The Hill reported:
The FBI requested direct access to the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) hacked computer servers but was denied, Director James Comey told lawmakers on Tuesday. The bureau made “multiple requests at different levels,” according to Comey, but ultimately struck an agreement with the DNC that a “highly respected private company” would get access and share what it found with investigators.
The foregoing facts raise major questions about the validity of the Crowdstrike methodology and conclusions with respect to what happened on the DNC network. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a set of facts that, as of today, have no satisfactory explanation. The American public deserve answers.
This originally appeared on Sic Semper Tyrannis.


lewrockwell--2020-03-26--‘Travel Papers’ and the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0

Did you ever think we ’ d reach the point in the United States where you had to have papers to freely travel from one place to another ?
It appears we ’ re at the point .
The MTA issued “ travel papers ” to their workers On March 17th , a few days before New York issued a shelter in place order , the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued “ travel papers ” to their employees to prepare for a potential coronavirus curfew .
The NY Daily News reports : If non-emergency travel is restricted , workers can show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re stopped on the way to work .
“ This letter along with current New York CIty Transit identification identifies this individual as an essential employee who is required to travel during the curfew imposed due to the Coronavirus emergency , ” states the letter , which is signed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ’ s Police Department ’ s acting chief Joseph McGrann .
“ Please give this individual due consideration during this crisis.
” MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said the letter was distributed on Monday to a “ limited number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jersey ” because the state ’ s Gov .
Murphy suggested imposing a statewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. ( source ) HS-ZGC 50-Piece Indust ... Buy New $ 20.99 ( $ 10.50 / Count ) Clearly , the wheels have been in motion for several days .
And it ’ s not just the MTA .
For everyone who thought the article about the Lockdown of America was a “ hysterical overstatement ” and that they could still do whatever they wanted because it wasn ’ t really being enforced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ travel papers ” are being handed out ?
To me , this sounds like the lockdowns I wrote of yesterday were just the first incremental step toward a society that nobody hopes to see .
Yesterday , readers sent me photos of “ travel papers ” provided to them by employers so they could get to and from work .
These are employees who work in industries like healthcare , pharmacies , and foodservice , as well as those who work in the production , transport , and sales of essential supplies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were told to show these if we got stopped on the way to or from work and that if the authorities gave us any trouble , to not argue and just go back home.
” Here are some of the papers that people sent .
Identifying information has been redacted .
Papers that people sent were from Pennsylvania , New York , Arizona , Michigan , North Carolina , Kansas , New Jersey , West Virginia , Virginia , Oregon , Florida , Louisiana , and Ohio .
Industries mentioned in the papers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clinics , hospitals , nursing homes , city transit workers , railroads , food production plants , pharmacies , gas stations , stores like Target and Walmart , and automotive repair facilities .
Most people were given their papers on Friday or Saturday and told they ’ d need them to get to and from work starting the week ahead .
I wonder who ’ s going to be checking your “ travel papers.
” Will it be the local PD ?
The National Guard ?
The military ?
Maybe it ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ currently out of work but already accustomed to molesting innocent travelers .
What does this mean for those told they ’ d be able to go to the store ?
We ’ ve been repeatedly told during task force press conferences that nobody needs to worry about buying extra supplies because the stores will remain open .
We were chastised about stocking up and “ hoarding ” supplies .
But if you need travel papers just to get to work , how will a person get to the store when they need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ papers only be required during certain hours ?
It ’ s easy to prove you just went to the store when you have a bag of groceries in hand , but how do you prove you are going to the store ?
Will they just begin distributing the food to us as opposed to allowing people to shop for their own food ?
20pcs Face Mouth Cover ... Buy New $ 6.00 ( $ 0.30 / Ounce ) A little clarity and less subterfuge would go a lot further toward preventing concern that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wuhan here in America .
If I didn ’ t have supplies already , I would head to the store today and get enough for a couple of extra weeks at the very least .
Here are some ideas for finding supplies amidst the picked-over inventory that remains .
So , what happens if you get caught without your papers ?
I ’ m glad you asked .
It seems like the DoJ is itching to suspend the Constitution .
At this point , the “ Department of Justice ” sounds like one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to mean the complete opposite .
Like the “ Patriot Act ” which is as far from patriotic as it gets .
And speaking of the Patriot Act , the government is now introducing what I ’ d like to dub the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0 .
The DoJ has secretly asked Congress to draft legislation allowing them to indefinitely detain people without due process during the coronavirus pandemic .
Because who doesn ’ t want to add a little spice to our economic crisis with the added threat of indefinite detention ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics , including the statute of limitations , asylum and the way court hearings are conducted .
POLITICO also reviewed and previously reported on documents seeking the authority to extend deadlines on merger reviews and prosecutions… …In one of the documents , the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “ whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster , civil disobedience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies .
It would apply to “ any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest , post-arrest , pre-trial , trial , and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings , ” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress .
In making the case for the change , the DOJ document wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies , but that their proposal would make sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handle emergencies “ in a consistent manner.
” ( source ) What the heck are “ pre-arrest ” procedures , anyway ?
Is that the part where government investigators go and set someone up to commit a crime like all those “ bombing plots ” the FBI keeps saving us from ?
Gloves Latex Free , Glo ... Buy New $ 14.89 ( $ 14.89 / Count ) I wouldn ’ t be surprised to see another 300-page legislation like the original Patriot Act that was rolled out just weeks after 911 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and all sorts of other dystopian nonsense .
Never let a serious crisis go to waste .
In the infamous words of Rahm Emmanuel , the former mayor of Chicago , “ You never let a serious crisis go to waste .
And what I mean by that it ’ s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
” It looks like the government is taking those words to heart with travel papers and new draconian laws .
Since I wrote the article about America locking down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Now New York , California , Illinois , Connecticut , and New Jersey are all under restriction .
Is your state coming soon ?
Are these lockdowns being rolled out incrementally , starting out gently ( sure you can walk your dog ! )
and then moving on to the point where you can ’ t leave your house without “ travel papers ?
” So far , 2020 has brought us an out-of-control deadly pandemic , an economic collapse , statewide lockdowns , and now travel papers and a potential new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I hesitate to ask what ’ s next .
Reprinted with permission from The Organic Prepper .
The Best of Daisy Luther

Did you ever think we’d reach the point in the United States where you had to have papers to freely travel from one place to another? It appears we’re at the point.
The MTA issued “travel papers” to their workers
On March 17th, a few days before New York issued a shelter in place order, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued “travel papers” to their employees to prepare for a potential coronavirus curfew. The NY Daily News reports:
If non-emergency travel is restricted, workers can show law enforcement officials the letter if they’re stopped on the way to work. “This letter along with current New York CIty Transit identification identifies this individual as an essential employee who is required to travel during the curfew imposed due to the Coronavirus emergency,” states the letter, which is signed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Police Department’s acting chief Joseph McGrann. “Please give this individual due consideration during this crisis.” MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said the letter was distributed on Monday to a “limited number of NYCT bus employees living in New Jersey” because the state’s Gov. Murphy suggested imposing a statewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. (source) HS-ZGC 50-Piece Indust... Buy New $20.99 ($10.50 / Count) (as of 05:02 UTC - Details)
Clearly, the wheels have been in motion for several days. And it’s not just the MTA.
Your papers, please.
For everyone who thought the article about the Lockdown of America was a “hysterical overstatement” and that they could still do whatever they wanted because it wasn’t really being enforced, what are you thinking now that “travel papers” are being handed out? To me, this sounds like the lockdowns I wrote of yesterday were just the first incremental step toward a society that nobody hopes to see.
Yesterday, readers sent me photos of “travel papers” provided to them by employers so they could get to and from work. These are employees who work in industries like healthcare, pharmacies, and foodservice, as well as those who work in the production, transport, and sales of essential supplies.
One reader wrote, “We were told to show these if we got stopped on the way to or from work and that if the authorities gave us any trouble, to not argue and just go back home.”
Here are some of the papers that people sent. Identifying information has been redacted.
Papers that people sent were from Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Kansas, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Oregon, Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio. Industries mentioned in the papers were trucking, grocery stores, medical clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, city transit workers, railroads, food production plants, pharmacies, gas stations, stores like Target and Walmart, and automotive repair facilities.
Most people were given their papers on Friday or Saturday and told they’d need them to get to and from work starting the week ahead.
I wonder who’s going to be checking your “travel papers.” Will it be the local PD? The National Guard? The military? Maybe it’ll be all those TSA agents who are currently out of work but already accustomed to molesting innocent travelers.
What does this mean for those told they’d be able to go to the store?
We’ve been repeatedly told during task force press conferences that nobody needs to worry about buying extra supplies because the stores will remain open. We were chastised about stocking up and “hoarding” supplies. But if you need travel papers just to get to work, how will a person get to the store when they need to pick up some groceries? Will these papers only be required during certain hours?
It’s easy to prove you just went to the store when you have a bag of groceries in hand, but how do you prove you are going to the store? Will they just begin distributing the food to us as opposed to allowing people to shop for their own food? 20pcs Face Mouth Cover... Buy New $6.00 ($0.30 / Ounce) (as of 09:33 UTC - Details)
A little clarity and less subterfuge would go a lot further toward preventing concern that we’re about to go full Wuhan here in America.
If I didn’t have supplies already, I would head to the store today and get enough for a couple of extra weeks at the very least. Here are some ideas for finding supplies amidst the picked-over inventory that remains.
So, what happens if you get caught without your papers? I’m glad you asked.
It seems like the DoJ is itching to suspend the Constitution.
At this point, the “Department of Justice” sounds like one of those other phrases the government uses to mean the complete opposite. Like the “Patriot Act” which is as far from patriotic as it gets.
And speaking of the Patriot Act, the government is now introducing what I’d like to dub the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0.
The DoJ has secretly asked Congress to draft legislation allowing them to indefinitely detain people without due process during the coronavirus pandemic. Because who doesn’t want to add a little spice to our economic crisis with the added threat of indefinite detention?
Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted. POLITICO also reviewed and previously reported on documents seeking the authority to extend deadlines on merger reviews and prosecutions… …In one of the documents, the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.” The proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies. It would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings,” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress. In making the case for the change, the DOJ document wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies, but that their proposal would make sure all judges in any particular district could handle emergencies “in a consistent manner.” (source)
What the heck are “pre-arrest” procedures, anyway? Is that the part where government investigators go and set someone up to commit a crime like all those “bombing plots” the FBI keeps saving us from? Gloves Latex Free, Glo... Buy New $14.89 ($14.89 / Count) (as of 11:56 UTC - Details)
I wouldn’t be surprised to see another 300-page legislation like the original Patriot Act that was rolled out just weeks after 911, giving us the TSA, indefinite detention, and all sorts of other dystopian nonsense.
Never let a serious crisis go to waste.
In the infamous words of Rahm Emmanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
It looks like the government is taking those words to heart with travel papers and new draconian laws.
Since I wrote the article about America locking down yesterday, more states have joined in. Now New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey are all under restriction.
Is your state coming soon? Are these lockdowns being rolled out incrementally, starting out gently (sure you can walk your dog!) and then moving on to the point where you can’t leave your house without “travel papers?”
So far, 2020 has brought us an out-of-control deadly pandemic, an economic collapse, statewide lockdowns, and now travel papers and a potential new law to eradicate the Fifth Amendment.
I hesitate to ask what’s next.
Reprinted with permission from The Organic Prepper.
The Best of Daisy Luther


Hungry?

Did you know there ’ s a “ USA Rice President ?
” Neither did I .
But I bet she ’ s not nearly as noxious as the USA Vice Presidents .
At any rate , Rice President Betsy Ward advises , “ If you see depleted rice shelves in your local grocery store , it is not a supply problem ; it is a signifier of changing logistics in the retail market… ” I have no idea what that means .
But like many of you , I love food .
Indeed , I ’ d go so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indispensable , given that eating is among my favorite pastimes .
I ’ d miss an appointment with Gabriel himself sooner than I would a meal .
That ’ s why the Rice President ’ s jargon raised my hackles .
So do the shenanigans at grocery stores , where empty shelves replace the former abundance and obstructions block entrances , herding us into lines for admittance .
Sodium Bicarbonate : Na ... Mark Sircus Best Price : $ 7.25 Buy New $ 10.32 Equally distressing , supermarkets ’ personnel have degenerated into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in patronizing and bossing us .
To cite one instance among many , Giant Eagle ’ s Laura Shapira Karet warns that she ’ s “ [ s ] tressing to all Team Members and guests the importance of taking preventative measures outlined by the CDC ” —that bastion of sparkling advice and pure motives— ” particularly the need for anyone not feeling well to avoid visiting our supermarkets and GetGo locations.
” Pssst , Laura : that ’ s no way to treat guests .
Your job is to keep the boxes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overhead ; I ’ ll decide whether I ’ m up to the increasingly arduous task of shopping .
Worse , Laura ’ s “ limiting the number of customers in a store at one time to ensure proper social distancing measures are taken .
The new maximum occupancy will be posted near all supermarket and GetGo entrances.
” The first time Laura compels me to stand in line to spend my hard-earned bucks in her emporium will be the last time I visit Giant Eagle .
As if these horrors aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ne-way directional signage will be added on the floor in each aisle of our supermarkets to indicate the flow of traffic and help guests maintain social distance.
” Here ’ s hoping all “ guests ” go up the down aisle .
Why is Laura wasting time on such nonsense ?
Shouldn ’ t she be busy ensuring an adequate amount of TP ?
I still marvel at the run on this necessity .
As I scurried from market to bodega to convenience store in quest of a roll , I empathized with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those empty shelves and all those hours wasted on securing a basic item .
Meanwhile , if the world ’ s ending , why hoard TP ?
Chocolate , a good hunk of Parmesan , boxes of pasta , fresh garlic—I ’ d have understood shortages of these .
But TP ?
Mustn ’ t we eat before we need said paper ?
Still , that scarcity sparked fears that such essentials as butter , chocolate chips , heavy cream , and shrimp might suffer the same fate .
And so I focused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ferreted out the numbers of folks carrying C-virus worldwide ( about 2 million as I write ) as well as the world ’ s population ( ca .
7.8 billion ) to determine that , with a mere .00026 % of humanity infected , this “ pandemic ” is the biggest hoax going—on the supply chain .
How Not To Die With Tr ... Henriques , Tiago Best Price : $ 18.23 Buy New $ 17.97 Turns out that research involved more cooking than usual : a dear friend I ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about then , asking if we ’ d like him and his truck to visit us for Easter .
Ergo , I plied Jack with a home-cooked meal ( after all , we couldn ’ t very well take him to a restaurant ) in exchange for the inside scoop on his profession and my obsession : food .
Jack is an independent trucker who owns and drives a refrigerated tractor-trailer .
He works with a “ load finder ” to locate manufacturers and farmers with product to ship , whether to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That ’ s taught him about farms , slaughterhouses , manufacturers , and warehouses ; Jack understands the steps that take a head of cauliflower or a heifer from field to supermarket .
Savvy , autonomous and self-reliant , Jack admires capitalism .
He also ridicules this ginned-up “ pandemic ” as someone who survived his bout with smallpox–sorry , coronavirus .
We had previously corresponded about 6 or 8 weeks ago , after his “ self-quarantine ” on the road ended : “ … it ’ s a bad flu .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ couple of nights struggling to breathe !
I was taking short breaths with a tight chest feeling .
My sinuses were running crazy .
I took Nyquil , which I don ’ t like , but I figured I ’ d do anything to sleep .
The third night brought the fever… [ , which ] broke … late that night .
The next afternoon , it returned .
By late that night I broke the 2nd fever .
After that I spent a couple more nights just resting , and staying in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a bad flu , especially for anyone with respiratory issues.
” The worst symptom of all ?
“ I think I was down to just a bowl of soup each day… I just didn ’ t feel like eating.
” Dear Lord , preserve us from this plague !
Over Easter dinner , I asked Jack if his sufferings from coronavirus justified Our Rulers ’ totalitarianism .
He nigh shouted , “ NO !
” He also described the lunacy the State has inspired with its hysteria over C-virus : “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their employees ’ bathroom.They ’ ve substituted porta-potties instead that are never cleaned .
But coronavirus supposedly lives on plastic.
” He shrugged eloquently .
I then sprang the question tormenting me .
“ Are we likely to go hungry ?
These dearths in the supermarkets : will they worsen ?
” The Healing Nutrients ... Eric R. Braverman Best Price : $ 2.00 Buy New $ 1.99 I wish I could say he smiled .
Rather , Jack expatiated on the magnificent system that keeps shelves fully stocked and second helpings on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that whether provender comes from the farm or the manufacturer to market , the “ foodchain ” is so meticulously timed and so speedy that it can ’ t tolerate any monkey wrenches .
Grocers rely on inventory-based computer software that orders replacements when stockpiles plunge .
Because this process is so tightly calibrated , shippers and freight brokers impatiently push drivers like Jack to transport their goods ASAP .
Jack cited chicken-processing plants as an example : live chickens enter at one end of the building while he ’ s parked on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his trailer .
Obviously , any fluctuations in the number of workers affect this complex coordination .
And slowing the race to “ flatten the curve ” could destroy it .
Jack deplores the “ shelter-in-place ” orders and other edicts because of their effect on individuals and organizations in the foodchain .
For manufacturers , farmers , or anyone employing more than 10 workers to maintain “ social distance ” on the job is often logistically impossible : those chicken-processing plants , for example , normally station workers shoulder-to-shoulder .
And contrary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cold , ruthless managers , Jack worries that those he knows are so concerned about their workforce that they ’ ll close to protect it from coronavirus .
Yet the delicate foodchain can ’ t sustain either delays or outright shut-downs .
If hunger does hit the US , Jack wonders whether the problem will be national since the states differ in their enforcement of “ social distancing.
” He speculates that some companies and farmers will shut down in terror of the virus while others will cease producing because of governmental threats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close is formidable on manufacturers.
” The Micronutrient Mira ... Calton CN , Mira Best Price : $ 5.13 Buy New $ 12.95 Shortages could also afflict us haphazardly because of the nature of various products .
Ergo , we have plenty of chicken now but not blueberries : farmers need workers—usually migrants and the vilified “ illegals ” —to pick fruit .
But not only has the United States partially closed its borders , the immigrants ’ home countries have as well , leaving American crops to rot in the fields .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , transportation , is the stablest part of the equation .
That ’ s because some of the larger companies ( Sysco , US Foods , UNFI , and PFG ) formerly delivered to restaurants .
But with those customers gone , they ’ ve shifted to distributing groceries .
Which crowds independent truckers like Jack , who ’ ve never made much money , out of the industry .
By now , we ’ d reached dessert .
As we feasted on chocolate cake , I doubted that a bountiful table will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the sociopaths in office have already starved us spiritually ; why not physically as well ?
The only question is whether they ’ ll do so through incompetence , ignorance—or outright malevolence .
The Best of Becky Akers

Did you know there’s a “USA Rice President?” Neither did I. But I bet she’s not nearly as noxious as the USA Vice Presidents.
At any rate, Rice President Betsy Ward advises, “If you see depleted rice shelves in your local grocery store, it is not a supply problem; it is a signifier of changing logistics in the retail market…”
I have no idea what that means. But like many of you, I love food. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say it’s indispensable, given that eating is among my favorite pastimes. I’d miss an appointment with Gabriel himself sooner than I would a meal.
That’s why the Rice President’s jargon raised my hackles. So do the shenanigans at grocery stores, where empty shelves replace the former abundance and obstructions block entrances, herding us into lines for admittance.
Sodium Bicarbonate: Na... Mark Sircus Best Price: $7.25 Buy New $10.32 (as of 10:37 UTC - Details) Equally distressing, supermarkets’ personnel have degenerated into Nazi Nannies who vie with Our Rulers in patronizing and bossing us. To cite one instance among many, Giant Eagle’s Laura Shapira Karet warns that she’s “[s]tressing to all Team Members and guests the importance of taking preventative measures outlined by the CDC”—that bastion of sparkling advice and pure motives—”particularly the need for anyone not feeling well to avoid visiting our supermarkets and GetGo locations.” Pssst, Laura: that’s no way to treat guests. Your job is to keep the boxes of cornflakes and mounds of oranges towering overhead; I’ll decide whether I’m up to the increasingly arduous task of shopping.
Worse, Laura’s “limiting the number of customers in a store at one time to ensure proper social distancing measures are taken. The new maximum occupancy will be posted near all supermarket and GetGo entrances.” The first time Laura compels me to stand in line to spend my hard-earned bucks in her emporium will be the last time I visit Giant Eagle.
As if these horrors aren’t enough, “[o]ne-way directional signage will be added on the floor in each aisle of our supermarkets to indicate the flow of traffic and help guests maintain social distance.” Here’s hoping all “guests” go up the down aisle.
Why is Laura wasting time on such nonsense? Shouldn’t she be busy ensuring an adequate amount of TP? I still marvel at the run on this necessity. As I scurried from market to bodega to convenience store in quest of a roll, I empathized with the victims of communist countries: all those empty shelves and all those hours wasted on securing a basic item. Meanwhile, if the world’s ending, why hoard TP? Chocolate, a good hunk of Parmesan, boxes of pasta, fresh garlic—I’d have understood shortages of these. But TP? Mustn’t we eat before we need said paper?
Still, that scarcity sparked fears that such essentials as butter, chocolate chips, heavy cream, and shrimp might suffer the same fate. And so I focused my redoubtable skills at research—the same skills that ferreted out the numbers of folks carrying C-virus worldwide (about 2 million as I write) as well as the world’s population (ca. 7.8 billion) to determine that, with a mere .00026% of humanity infected, this “pandemic” is the biggest hoax going—on the supply chain. How Not To Die With Tr... Henriques, Tiago Best Price: $18.23 Buy New $17.97 (as of 08:00 UTC - Details)
Turns out that research involved more cooking than usual: a dear friend I’ll call “Jack” happened to email about then, asking if we’d like him and his truck to visit us for Easter. Ergo, I plied Jack with a home-cooked meal (after all, we couldn’t very well take him to a restaurant) in exchange for the inside scoop on his profession and my obsession: food.
Jack is an independent trucker who owns and drives a refrigerated tractor-trailer. He works with a “load finder” to locate manufacturers and farmers with product to ship, whether to a processing plant or from there to customers. That’s taught him about farms, slaughterhouses, manufacturers, and warehouses; Jack understands the steps that take a head of cauliflower or a heifer from field to supermarket.
Savvy, autonomous and self-reliant, Jack admires capitalism. He also ridicules this ginned-up “pandemic” as someone who survived his bout with smallpox–sorry, coronavirus. We had previously corresponded about 6 or 8 weeks ago, after his “self-quarantine” on the road ended: “… it’s a bad flu. It is kind of disconcerting the first couple of nights struggling to breathe! I was taking short breaths with a tight chest feeling. My sinuses were running crazy. I took Nyquil, which I don’t like, but I figured I’d do anything to sleep. The third night brought the fever…[, which] broke … late that night. The next afternoon, it returned. By late that night I broke the 2nd fever. After that I spent a couple more nights just resting, and staying in bed. All in all, it’s a bad flu, especially for anyone with respiratory issues.” The worst symptom of all? “I think I was down to just a bowl of soup each day… I just didn’t feel like eating.” Dear Lord, preserve us from this plague!
Over Easter dinner, I asked Jack if his sufferings from coronavirus justified Our Rulers’ totalitarianism. He nigh shouted, “NO!”
He also described the lunacy the State has inspired with its hysteria over C-virus: “Warehouses no longer allow truckers to use their employees’ bathroom.They’ve substituted porta-potties instead that are never cleaned. But coronavirus supposedly lives on plastic.” He shrugged eloquently.
I then sprang the question tormenting me. “Are we likely to go hungry? These dearths in the supermarkets: will they worsen?” The Healing Nutrients ... Eric R. Braverman Best Price: $2.00 Buy New $1.99 (as of 04:25 UTC - Details)
I wish I could say he smiled. Rather, Jack expatiated on the magnificent system that keeps shelves fully stocked and second helpings on our plates—despite Our Rulers.
Jack emphasized that whether provender comes from the farm or the manufacturer to market, the “foodchain” is so meticulously timed and so speedy that it can’t tolerate any monkey wrenches. Grocers rely on inventory-based computer software that orders replacements when stockpiles plunge. Because this process is so tightly calibrated, shippers and freight brokers impatiently push drivers like Jack to transport their goods ASAP. Jack cited chicken-processing plants as an example: live chickens enter at one end of the building while he’s parked on the other, loading packaged meat into his trailer.
Obviously, any fluctuations in the number of workers affect this complex coordination. And slowing the race to “flatten the curve” could destroy it.
Jack deplores the “shelter-in-place” orders and other edicts because of their effect on individuals and organizations in the foodchain. For manufacturers, farmers, or anyone employing more than 10 workers to maintain “social distance” on the job is often logistically impossible: those chicken-processing plants, for example, normally station workers shoulder-to-shoulder. And contrary to popular culture’s hatred of cold, ruthless managers, Jack worries that those he knows are so concerned about their workforce that they’ll close to protect it from coronavirus. Yet the delicate foodchain can’t sustain either delays or outright shut-downs.
If hunger does hit the US, Jack wonders whether the problem will be national since the states differ in their enforcement of “social distancing.” He speculates that some companies and farmers will shut down in terror of the virus while others will cease producing because of governmental threats. “Plus, social pressure to close is formidable on manufacturers.”
The Micronutrient Mira... Calton CN, Mira Best Price: $5.13 Buy New $12.95 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details) Shortages could also afflict us haphazardly because of the nature of various products. Ergo, we have plenty of chicken now but not blueberries: farmers need workers—usually migrants and the vilified “illegals”—to pick fruit. But not only has the United States partially closed its borders, the immigrants’ home countries have as well, leaving American crops to rot in the fields.
Jack noted that his end of things, transportation, is the stablest part of the equation. That’s because some of the larger companies (Sysco, US Foods, UNFI, and PFG) formerly delivered to restaurants. But with those customers gone, they’ve shifted to distributing groceries. Which crowds independent truckers like Jack, who’ve never made much money, out of the industry.
By now, we’d reached dessert. As we feasted on chocolate cake, I doubted that a bountiful table will bless us next Easter. After all, the sociopaths in office have already starved us spiritually; why not physically as well?
The only question is whether they’ll do so through incompetence, ignorance—or outright malevolence.
The Best of Becky Akers


lewrockwell--2020-04-17--Catacomb Churches in America?

Catacomb Churches in America?

Michael Snyder recently posted an article on his “ End of the American Dream ” website titled “ Have You Noticed How Much Delight They Are Taking In Shutting Down Churches All Over The United States ?
” in which he noted : “ Did you think that you would ever see the day when police in America would be patrolling church parking lots on Sunday morning in order to keep people away ?
And did you think that you would ever see the day when Christians would be threatened with having their license plates recorded if they did attend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has become clear that in many areas of the country churches and other Christian gatherings are specifically being singled out , and in some cases authorities have seemed to take quite a bit of glee in cracking down on Christians .
This sort of tyranny was never part of the bargain , and believers all over America are rightly pushing back against it.
” On April 16th , 2020 , The Gateway Pundit featured this story , “ Dozens of Cops in Tactical Gear ‘ Aggressively ’ Show Up At California Church on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Up To Six Months in Jail.
” The Merced County Sheriff claims that they were tipped off about dozens of worshippers violating the state ’ s stay-at-home order and attending Easter services at Iglesia De Jesus Cristo Palabra Miel on Weaver Avenue .
The Hope of Glory : Ref ... Meacham , Jon Best Price : $ 15.22 Buy New $ 14.30 During services , law enforcement said that congregants parked out of view and the doors to the church were locked .
Pastor Fernando Aguas claims that they had simply parked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We weren ’ t hiding , ” Pastor Aguas said .
“ There were kids running around everywhere .
We just had people park in back because we didn ’ t want problems.
” Though people in the church were social distancing and keeping space between them , Pastor Aguas admits that some were not wearing masks .
Pastor Aguas said that the sheriff ’ s deputies were “ aggressive ” in handling the situation and believes that their freedom to assemble has been violated .
The pastor said that he believed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not a requirement .
While the COVID-19 shutdown may end up being a temporary affair , I suspect that the oligarchs are engaging in an experiment and will seek more and more control , now that precedent has been set ; certainly the have open hostility to traditional Christians , who are most likely to resist their efforts of control and recognize—implicitly—a higher power .
Yet I am troubled that so many churches accepted the government fiats , for surely they could have done some research and concluded , as many have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been a quarantine or “ medical martial law ” to control the “ pandemic , ” than the ones who should have been quarantined should have been the most vulnerable , with support given to them .
Unfortunately , the lockdown has affected most of the population of America and the churches didn ’ t fight the edicts .
Easter services this past Sunday were mostly via streaming ; this will be true this weekend of Orthodox services as well .
As in this article on the arrest of Serbian Bishop Naum , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the worldly authorities : These events remind me that it is possible that those of faith will in due time experience something like the Russian faithful did under Soviet rule : having to worship in secret , away from the eyes of the hostile state .
As from this article , “ Notes on the Catacomb Church in the USSR ” by Ivan Andreev : As far back as 1928 separate , secret services began to be held in houses throughout Petrograd .
After 1930 , the number of these secret services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we can consider the Catacomb Church to have been fully formed .
In the rest of Russia ( especially in Siberia ) , catacomb churches had been formed somewhat earlier .
There were not enough catacomb services in Moscow , and many Muscovites sought nourishment in Petrograd .
The catacomb churches did not have an administrative centre or clear hierarchy .
Metropolitans Kirill and Joseph were seen as the church ’ s spiritual leaders .
Piotr Krutitsky was recognised as the rightful locum tenens of the patriarchy , and this title switched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s death .
From 1929 to 1930 secret consecrations were held in the Solovetsky concentration camp , where several “ Josephite ” bishops were held ( Maksim of Serpukhov , Viktor vicar of Vyatka , Hilarion vicar of Smolensk , and Nectarius of Trezvinsk ) [ 3 ] .
Secret bishops and an immense number of hidden priests appeared .
I personally know only of the Petrograd region and secret catacomb services that were held in it between 1937 and 1941 .
Later , between 1942 to 1945 I was to meet participants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Russia ) : I have no information after 1945 .
My plea is that Americans do not become complacent in these times ; in the future , as the oppressive power of the state grows ( and paradoxically pushes the “ Empire ” to collapse ) , traditional worship will be attacked .
But as those devout Christians not so long ago showed us , if our faith is strong , we can continue to meet , most likely in secret , but not without risk to our lives .
It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives are secondary to our faith and obligation to God .
From The Remnant , CORONAMANIA : False Science v. True Faith , the author reaches out to Catholics but also makes the point that true understanding of the nature of the world and our place in it comes from Jesus Christ , and I think this is truly what the elder faiths believe : War , Christianity , and ... Laurence M. Vance Best Price : $ 8.95 Buy New $ 9.95 Coronamania has swept over the land like some mysterious zephyr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cranny of human thought—a concocted highly-imaginative fantasy absorbing both waking and non-waking hours , rendering contemplation , reflection and any other higher order cognitive activity helplessly vapid and bereft of any hoped-for , tension-relieving conclusionary cessation .
Like some type of creeping mentally-acidic fluid , the CV phenomenon is slowly eroding every semblance of coherent cognition , leading politicos—governmental , entrepreneurial , and ecclesiastical—to equally outrageous and preposterous courses of action , which , taken individually and in isolation , seemingly border on the most despicable varieties of insidious autocratic and despotic imperatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sake of false “ scientistic ” faith .
How come the “ gods of science ” have not produced that instantaneous “ miraculous cure ” which everyone seems to be waiting for ?
Where is that longed for panacean vaccine for this dreaded malady ?
Why are there continual reassessments—a year , six months or perhaps less ?
Why has there never been in the long history of almighty biological science a cure for that other coronal virus , the common cold ?
Yes , friends , this is a “ crisis of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ false scientistic faith and their unrelenting mantra that science will find a “ cure for anything and everything.
” Are these purveyors perhaps simply being confronted with the dire and ominous prospect that there , just possibly , might be , in the long run of human biological science history , a limit to human biological science knowledge acquisition , that we can not simply “ know it all ” —at least not at the double click of a mouse button or the swipe of a smart phone ?
Of course , America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followers of the faith appear to me to be a minority of the population ; people are more concerned with their economic well-being , since none of the protests revealed any push-back against church closures , yet it ’ s better than nothing , because under totalitarian police states spiritual death is likely—Judge Napolitano has written eloquently on the implications regarding the Constitution .
Yet with stories like this , Is Bill Gates the Dark Lord ?
and Bill Gates Calls for a “ Digital Certificate ” to Identify Who Received COVID-19 Vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very dark indeed .
But it has always been so , as these quotations from scripture reveal : The Global War on Chri ... Allen Jr. , John L. Best Price : $ 7.03 Buy New $ 10.62 John 15:19 “ The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it , but you are no longer part of the world .
I chose you to come out of the world , so it hates you.
” 1 Peter 2:9 “ But you are a chosen people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
” James 4:4 “ You adulterers !
Don ’ t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God ?
So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.
” John 15 : 18 “ If the world hates you , remember that it hated me first.
” Romans 1:29-30 “ Their lives became full of every kind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hate , envy , murder , quarreling , deception , malicious behavior , and gossip .
They are backstabbers , haters of God , insolent , proud , and boastful .
They invent new ways of sinning , and they disobey their parents .
They refuse to understand , break their promises , are heartless , and have no mercy.
” John 15:21 “ They will treat you this way because of my name , for they do not know the one who sent me.
” John 15:25 “ This fulfills what is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me without cause.
” John 3:19-21 “ This is the verdict : Light has come into the world , but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil .
Everyone who does evil hates the light , and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed .
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light , so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
” Matthew 5:14-15 “ You are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a hilltop that can not be hidden .
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket .
Instead , a lamp is placed on a stand , where it gives light to everyone in the house .
In the same way , let your good deeds shine out for all to see , so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
” Will Catacomb churches come into being in America ?
I suspect it ’ s only a matter of time… To the Orthodox Christian readers of LewRockwell.com @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their response to the attacks on living their faith and obedience to Jesus Christ , I want to wish them a blessed Pascha .
The Best of Yvonne Lorenzo

Michael Snyder recently posted an article on his “End of the American Dream” website titled “Have You Noticed How Much Delight They Are Taking In Shutting Down Churches All Over The United States?” in which he noted:
“Did you think that you would ever see the day when police in America would be patrolling church parking lots on Sunday morning in order to keep people away? And did you think that you would ever see the day when Christians would be threatened with having their license plates recorded if they did attend church?…But in recent days it has become clear that in many areas of the country churches and other Christian gatherings are specifically being singled out, and in some cases authorities have seemed to take quite a bit of glee in cracking down on Christians. This sort of tyranny was never part of the bargain, and believers all over America are rightly pushing back against it.”
On April 16th, 2020, The Gateway Pundit featured this story, “Dozens of Cops in Tactical Gear ‘Aggressively’ Show Up At California Church on Easter, Pastor Now Facing Fine or Up To Six Months in Jail.”
The Merced County Sheriff claims that they were tipped off about dozens of worshippers violating the state’s stay-at-home order and attending Easter services at Iglesia De Jesus Cristo Palabra Miel on Weaver Avenue. The Hope of Glory: Ref... Meacham, Jon Best Price: $15.22 Buy New $14.30 (as of 02:43 UTC - Details) During services, law enforcement said that congregants parked out of view and the doors to the church were locked. Pastor Fernando Aguas claims that they had simply parked in the back to avoid problems. “We weren’t hiding,” Pastor Aguas said. “There were kids running around everywhere. We just had people park in back because we didn’t want problems.” Though people in the church were social distancing and keeping space between them, Pastor Aguas admits that some were not wearing masks. Pastor Aguas said that the sheriff’s deputies were “aggressive” in handling the situation and believes that their freedom to assemble has been violated. The pastor said that he believed the social distancing order to be a recommendation, not a requirement.
While the COVID-19 shutdown may end up being a temporary affair, I suspect that the oligarchs are engaging in an experiment and will seek more and more control, now that precedent has been set; certainly the have open hostility to traditional Christians, who are most likely to resist their efforts of control and recognize—implicitly—a higher power. Yet I am troubled that so many churches accepted the government fiats, for surely they could have done some research and concluded, as many have, that if there was to have been a quarantine or “medical martial law” to control the “pandemic,” than the ones who should have been quarantined should have been the most vulnerable, with support given to them. Unfortunately, the lockdown has affected most of the population of America and the churches didn’t fight the edicts. Easter services this past Sunday were mostly via streaming; this will be true this weekend of Orthodox services as well. As in this article on the arrest of Serbian Bishop Naum, the church hierarchy “meekly submitted” to the worldly authorities:
Unlike the official church hierarchy, which meekly submitted to the regime’s demand that worship activities be conducted at home on an individual basis (the Soviet refrain that “religion is a private affair,” to be hidden from public view, is readily recalled), Bishop Naum – who is in communion with Bishop Artemije who was removed from his see in Kosovo in 2010 at the insistence of NATO embassies in Belgrade – refused to limit collective liturgical celebrations and to impiously adapt traditional communion practice to conform to regime demands. Battlefield America: T... Whitehead, John W. Buy New $9.99 (as of 12:10 UTC - Details)
These events remind me that it is possible that those of faith will in due time experience something like the Russian faithful did under Soviet rule: having to worship in secret, away from the eyes of the hostile state. As from this article, “Notes on the Catacomb Church in the USSR” by Ivan Andreev:
As far back as 1928 separate, secret services began to be held in houses throughout Petrograd. After 1930, the number of these secret services significantly rose. And from 1937 onward, we can consider the Catacomb Church to have been fully formed. In the rest of Russia (especially in Siberia), catacomb churches had been formed somewhat earlier. There were not enough catacomb services in Moscow, and many Muscovites sought nourishment in Petrograd. The catacomb churches did not have an administrative centre or clear hierarchy. Metropolitans Kirill and Joseph were seen as the church’s spiritual leaders. Piotr Krutitsky was recognised as the rightful locum tenens of the patriarchy, and this title switched to metropolitan Joseph after the former’s death. From 1929 to 1930 secret consecrations were held in the Solovetsky concentration camp, where several “Josephite” bishops were held (Maksim of Serpukhov, Viktor vicar of Vyatka, Hilarion vicar of Smolensk, and Nectarius of Trezvinsk) [3]. Secret bishops and an immense number of hidden priests appeared. I personally know only of the Petrograd region and secret catacomb services that were held in it between 1937 and 1941. Later, between 1942 to 1945 I was to meet participants of catacomb services (from different places in Russia): I have no information after 1945.
My plea is that Americans do not become complacent in these times; in the future, as the oppressive power of the state grows (and paradoxically pushes the “Empire” to collapse), traditional worship will be attacked. But as those devout Christians not so long ago showed us, if our faith is strong, we can continue to meet, most likely in secret, but not without risk to our lives. It is only that those who follow Christ realize lives are secondary to our faith and obligation to God.
From The Remnant, CORONAMANIA: False Science v. True Faith, the author reaches out to Catholics but also makes the point that true understanding of the nature of the world and our place in it comes from Jesus Christ, and I think this is truly what the elder faiths believe: War, Christianity, and... Laurence M. Vance Best Price: $8.95 Buy New $9.95 (as of 09:10 UTC - Details)
Coronamania has swept over the land like some mysterious zephyr subtly and noiselessly permeating every nook and cranny of human thought—a concocted highly-imaginative fantasy absorbing both waking and non-waking hours, rendering contemplation, reflection and any other higher order cognitive activity helplessly vapid and bereft of any hoped-for, tension-relieving conclusionary cessation. Like some type of creeping mentally-acidic fluid, the CV phenomenon is slowly eroding every semblance of coherent cognition, leading politicos—governmental, entrepreneurial, and ecclesiastical—to equally outrageous and preposterous courses of action, which, taken individually and in isolation, seemingly border on the most despicable varieties of insidious autocratic and despotic imperatives. All of this is for the sake of false “scientistic” faith. How come the “gods of science” have not produced that instantaneous “miraculous cure” which everyone seems to be waiting for? Where is that longed for panacean vaccine for this dreaded malady? Why are there continual reassessments—a year, six months or perhaps less? Why has there never been in the long history of almighty biological science a cure for that other coronal virus, the common cold? Yes, friends, this is a “crisis of faith “for those rabid purveyors of false scientistic faith and their unrelenting mantra that science will find a “cure for anything and everything.” Are these purveyors perhaps simply being confronted with the dire and ominous prospect that there, just possibly, might be, in the long run of human biological science history, a limit to human biological science knowledge acquisition, that we cannot simply “know it all”—at least not at the double click of a mouse button or the swipe of a smart phone?
Of course, America is truly “post-Christian” and true followers of the faith appear to me to be a minority of the population; people are more concerned with their economic well-being, since none of the protests revealed any push-back against church closures, yet it’s better than nothing, because under totalitarian police states spiritual death is likely—Judge Napolitano has written eloquently on the implications regarding the Constitution. Yet with stories like this, Is Bill Gates the Dark Lord? and Bill Gates Calls for a “Digital Certificate” to Identify Who Received COVID-19 Vaccine” it is apparent that times are very dark indeed. But it has always been so, as these quotations from scripture reveal: The Global War on Chri... Allen Jr., John L. Best Price: $7.03 Buy New $10.62 (as of 04:57 UTC - Details)
John 15:19 “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
James 4:4 “You adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.”
John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.”
Romans 1:29-30 “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
John 15:21 “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.”
John 15:25 “This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: They hated me without cause.”
John 3:19-21 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
Matthew 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world–like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Will Catacomb churches come into being in America? I suspect it’s only a matter of time…
To the Orthodox Christian readers of LewRockwell.com, some of whom have been heroic in their response to the attacks on living their faith and obedience to Jesus Christ, I want to wish them a blessed Pascha.
The Best of Yvonne Lorenzo


lewrockwell--2020-04-17--A Hopeful Message From the Past

A Hopeful Message From the Past

At the moment I am reading “ The Identity of France ” by Fernand Braudel .
This is a wonderful book about all that makes France French , if that makes any sense .
Braudel brings together not only history , but also geography , geology , economics , etc .
to bring understanding to this incredibly diverse country .
I hope to write more about this book in the future but I am compelled to report on one passage that I read today .
According to a report of 1721 , in the whole of Provence [ ravaged by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there were only ten villages that the sickness had not yet reached ; but .
.
.
their inhabitants were languishing from hunger and other hardships , being unable to obtain the provisions they needed from anywhere , since all the routes were guarded [ by soldiers ] to prevent anyone entering or leaving on pain of death .
handling MR. HYDE : que ... Katz , Ira Best Price : $ 17.20 Buy New $ 12.98 And yet the galloping advance of what was to be the last outbreak of plague on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same summer , from Provence into Dauphiné and Languedoc .
The entire French army was on virtually permanent alert to combat this implacable and stealthy enemy .
The only defence against it was to establish road-blocks and cordon off the disease .
As a result , the normal life of towns , villages and entire regions were threatened .
The same summer of 1721 found the Dauphiné complaining bitterly : the cordon sanitaire had cut off its communications with the outside world , literally bringing ruin.A few months later , when the maréchal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to establish a cordon cutting off upper from lower Languedoc , there was a similar panic : the estates of Languedoc intervened , brandishing the spectre of ‘ inevitable ’ famine for both regions , and managed to have the order revoked .
I found this passage so appropriate for today in lockdown , our own cordon sanitaire that is bringing economic disaster .
The hopeful message is perhaps that we can get this order revoked sooner rather than later as the estates of Languedoc succeeded in 1721 .
We might also take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sun .
The Identity of France ... Fernand Braudel Best Price : $ 3.25 Buy New $ 21.72 The Best of Ira Katz

At the moment I am reading “The Identity of France” by Fernand Braudel. This is a wonderful book about all that makes France French, if that makes any sense. Braudel brings together not only history, but also geography, geology, economics,etc. to bring understanding to this incredibly diverse country. I hope to write more about this book in the future but I am compelled to report on one passage that I read today.
Braudel quotes from Jean Buvat, Journal de la Régence, 1865
According to a report of 1721, in the whole of Provence [ravaged by plague which had spread from Marseille] there were only ten villages that the sickness had not yet reached; but . . . their inhabitants were languishing from hunger and other hardships, being unable to obtain the provisions they needed from anywhere, since all the routes were guarded [by soldiers] to prevent anyone entering or leaving on pain of death. handling MR. HYDE: que... Katz, Ira Best Price: $17.20 Buy New $12.98 (as of 04:58 UTC - Details) And yet the galloping advance of what was to be the last outbreak of plague on French soil saw it spread, that same summer, from Provence into Dauphiné and Languedoc. The entire French army was on virtually permanent alert to combat this implacable and stealthy enemy. The only defence against it was to establish road-blocks and cordon off the disease. As a result, the normal life of towns, villages and entire regions were threatened. The same summer of 1721 found the Dauphiné complaining bitterly: the cordon sanitaire had cut off its communications with the outside world, literally bringing ruin.A few months later, when the maréchal duc de Berwick received orders from Court to establish a cordon cutting off upper from lower Languedoc, there was a similar panic: the estates of Languedoc intervened, brandishing the spectre of ‘inevitable’ famine for both regions, and managed to have the order revoked.
I found this passage so appropriate for today in lockdown, our own cordon sanitaire that is bringing economic disaster. The hopeful message is perhaps that we can get this order revoked sooner rather than later as the estates of Languedoc succeeded in 1721.
We might also take note that there is nothing new under the sun.
The Identity of France... Fernand Braudel Best Price: $3.25 Buy New $21.72 (as of 11:27 UTC - Details)
The Best of Ira Katz