lewrockwell--2020-02-29--The 4 Laws of Muscle

The 4 Laws of Muscle

While many tend to think about strength training as a form of vanity — developing a six-pack and a bulging “ muscle-man ” look and whatnot — building and maintaining muscle is actually a lifesaving strategy , and an imperative for a long and healthy life .
Anytime you ’ re sick or hospitalized , having reserve muscle mass will improve your chances of survival,1 and as I ’ ll discuss below , you can lose significant amounts of muscle in a single week of bedrest .
Muscle is lost far more easily and quicker than it ’ s built @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and maintain your muscle mass is really crucial , especially as you get older .
So , just how do you do that ?
This topic was addressed in a 2017 article2 by Alex Hutchinson in which he interviews Luc van Loon , a professor of exercise and nutrition at Maastricht University in the Netherlands .
Elderly Need More Protein to Build Muscle Mass In 2012 , van Loon published research3 showing elderly subjects ( ranging in age from 77 to 79 ) could tack on 2.9 pounds of muscle in just six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twice-daily protein supplement ( 15 grams per serving for a total of 30 grams per day ) .
EMF*D : 5G , Wi-Fi & Cel ... Dr. Joseph Mercola Buy New $ 22.49 Participants that trained but didn ’ t take extra protein saw no improvement in lean body mass , even though they did get stronger .
In conclusion , van Loon and colleagues noted that:4 You Lose Muscle MUCH Faster Than You Build It Shortly thereafter , one of van Loon ’ s students completed a study5 showing otherwise healthy young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of muscle mass in a single week of bedrest .
As noted in this study : Other studies have come to similar conclusions .
For example , a 2015 review6 in Extreme Physiology & Medicine notes research showing you can lose 2.5 % of your muscle mass in the first two weeks of bedrest .
By day 23 , you can have lost up to 10 % of your quadriceps muscle mass .
As explained in this review:7 As noted by van Loon in the interview , “ you can mess up a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can improve in six months of training.
” 8 He now believes that understanding how we lose muscle is just as important as understanding how to build it .
In 2017 , van Loon presented several “ key lessons ” learned for how to build and prevent the loss of muscle mass , which included the following:9 • “ You are what you just ate ” — Research10 looking at post-prandial protein handling and amino acid absorption shows 55.3 % of the dietary protein of a given meal is in circulation within five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ muscle protein synthesis .
In other words , “ you are what you just ate.
” As noted by the authors : KetoFast : Rejuvenate Y ... Dr. Joseph Mercola Best Price : $ 7.13 Buy New $ 9.64 In his article , Hutchinson writes , “ Overall , van Loon points out , we break down and rebuild 1 to 2 percent of our muscle each day , meaning that you completely rebuild yourself every two to three months.
” The take-home message here is that protein is an essential dietary component @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to protein signaling — While protein-derived amino acids are building blocks for muscle , they also act as signaling molecules that trigger muscle growth .
Leucine is a particularly potent signaling agent , although all of the amino acids are required to actually build the muscle .
Research11 suggests healthy young adult men “ max out the protein synthesis signal from a given meal ” at a dose of 0.24 grams of protein per kilogram of total bodyweight , or 0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass , Hutchinson notes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allowance is 0.8 g/kg/d ( 0,36/grams/pound/day ) .
Healthy older adults may require a greater dietary protein intake much higher than their younger peers or ~1.20 g/kg/d or .55 grams/pound/day .
According to this study : Importantly , additional research described in Hutchinson ’ s article12 demonstrated that exercising before you eat boosts your muscles ’ sensitivity to protein signals so , in essence , “ if you exercise first , you ’ re more of what you just ate.
” •Inactivity desensitizes protein signaling — On the flipside , your muscles lose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It is not just about pushing more protein .
That is a nearly worthless strategy for muscle building if you fail to integrate the exercise element .
I believe the best exercise strategy is one that activates the microvascular component of muscle stem cells that tends to become depleted with age .
That is why I strongly recommend blood flow restriction training .
What ’ s more , you don ’ t lose muscle at a steady rate ; rather , most of it is lost during short periods of significant inactivity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or illness .
Hutchinson writes:13 In cases where the patient is completely immobile , research14 shows the twice-daily application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation can reduce muscle loss by 3.5 % .
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation can also be used on comatose patients to limit muscle atrophy.15 •Properly chew your food to boost protein absorption — Research has also shown ground beef protein absorbs more rapidly and readily than steak , with 61 % of the protein from ground beef going into circulation within six hours of ingestion , compared to 49 % of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems to be that breaking up the meat by thoroughly chewing it before swallowing might be helpful .
In my February 2020 interview with Ben Greenfield , author of “ Boundless : Upgrade Your Brain , Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging , ” we discuss the importance of strength training and getting the appropriate amount of protein to build and maintain your muscle mass and optimize mitochondrial density and biogenesis .
Fat for Fuel : A Revolu ... Dr. Joseph Mercola Best Price : $ 7.40 Buy New $ 11.89 In summary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes the following types of exercise in order to target the main pathways involved in health and aging : •High-intensity interval training once a week to boost mitochondrial density and biogenesis — Brief spurts of exercise followed by longer rest periods .
Greenfield recommends a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 rest-to-work ratio .
•Muscle endurance training two to three times a week to improve lactic acid tolerance — An example is the classic Tabata set , which has a 2-to-1 work-to-rest ratio .
•Longer training sessions twice a week to improve your VO2 max — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , you ’ ll want your training sessions to be longer , about four to six minutes in duration with four to six minutes of recovery in between , for a 1-to-1 work-to-rest ratio .
Examples include The New York Times ’ seven-minute workout16 and bodyweight training done in a fast explosive manner or with a very light medicine ball , sandbag or kettle bells .
•Long walk once a week to improve your stamina — Greenfield recommends taking a 1.5- to three hour-long walk , bike ride or paddle session — anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repetitive motion for a long period of time — preferably in a fasted state .
Alternatively , do 20 to 30 minutes of fasted cardio followed by a cold shower .
•Super-slow weight training once or twice a week to improve muscle strength — Alternatives include elastic band training systems and blood flow restriction ( BFR ) training , which is my personal favorite .
You can also combine BFR with super-slow training .
The Best of Joseph Mercola

While many tend to think about strength training as a form of vanity — developing a six-pack and a bulging “muscle-man” look and whatnot — building and maintaining muscle is actually a lifesaving strategy, and an imperative for a long and healthy life.
Anytime you’re sick or hospitalized, having reserve muscle mass will improve your chances of survival,1 and as I’ll discuss below, you can lose significant amounts of muscle in a single week of bedrest.
Muscle is lost far more easily and quicker than it’s built, so finding ways to continuously promote and maintain your muscle mass is really crucial, especially as you get older.
So, just how do you do that? This topic was addressed in a 2017 article2 by Alex Hutchinson in which he interviews Luc van Loon, a professor of exercise and nutrition at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Elderly Need More Protein to Build Muscle Mass
In 2012, van Loon published research3 showing elderly subjects (ranging in age from 77 to 79) could tack on 2.9 pounds of muscle in just six months by strength training and taking a twice-daily protein supplement (15 grams per serving for a total of 30 grams per day). EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cel... Dr. Joseph Mercola Buy New $22.49 (as of 09:53 UTC - Details)
Participants that trained but didn’t take extra protein saw no improvement in lean body mass, even though they did get stronger. In conclusion, van Loon and colleagues noted that:4
“Prolonged resistance-type exercise training represents an effective strategy to improve strength and physical performance in frail elderly people. Dietary protein supplementation is required to allow muscle mass gain during exercise training in frail elderly people.”
You Lose Muscle MUCH Faster Than You Build It
Shortly thereafter, one of van Loon’s students completed a study5 showing otherwise healthy young subjects in their 20s lost 3.1 pounds of muscle mass in a single week of bedrest. As noted in this study:
“Short (<10 days) periods of muscle disuse, often necessary for recovery from illness or injury, lead to various negative health consequences … Ten healthy, young males (age: 23 ± 1 years …) were subjected to 1 week of strict bed rest …
Bed rest resulted in 1.4 ± 0.2 kg lean tissue loss and a 3.2 ± 0.9% decline in quadriceps CSA [cross-sectional area]. VO2peak and one-repetition maximum declined by 6.4 ± 2.3 and 6.9 ± 1.4% respectively.
Bed rest induced a 29 ± 5% decrease in whole-body insulin sensitivity. This was accompanied by a decline in muscle oxidative capacity, without alterations in skeletal muscle lipid content or saturation level, markers of oxidative stress, or capillary density. In conclusion, 1 week of bed rest substantially reduces skeletal muscle mass and lowers whole-body insulin sensitivity …”
Other studies have come to similar conclusions. For example, a 2015 review6 in Extreme Physiology & Medicine notes research showing you can lose 2.5% of your muscle mass in the first two weeks of bedrest. By day 23, you can have lost up to 10% of your quadriceps muscle mass. As explained in this review:7
“Skeletal muscle mass is regulated by a balance between MPS [muscle protein synthesis] and MPB [muscle protein breakdown]. In a 70-kg human, approximately 280 g of protein is synthesized and degraded each day. The two processes are linked … as facilitative or adaptive processes, whereby MPS facilitates (allows modulation of muscle mass) and MPB adapts (limiting said modulation).
When exposed to an anabolic stimulus, MPS rises. MPB rises too, but to a lesser amount, resulting in a net synthetic balance. In response to an anti-anabolic stimulus, MPS decreases and MPB decreases to a lesser degree, resulting in a net breakdown.
The interaction between critical illness and bed rest may result in greater muscle loss compared to bed rest alone. The musculoskeletal system is a highly plastic and adaptive system, responding quickly to changing demands. Relatively short periods of immobilization decrease MPS, with no effect on MPB.
Furthermore, this altered balance is relatively resistant to high dose amino acid delivery … Immobilization has significant effects on peripheral muscle aerobic capacity, contractility, insulin resistance and architecture.
Microvascular dysfunction occurring in severe sepsis is associated with immobilization and may have an additive effect on reducing MPS. In critically ill patients, MPS is reduced even with nutritional delivery, with increased MPB seen, leading to a net catabolic state and thus muscle wasting.”
Key Lessons
As noted by van Loon in the interview, “you can mess up a lot more in one week than you can improve in six months of training.”8 He now believes that understanding how we lose muscle is just as important as understanding how to build it. In 2017, van Loon presented several “key lessons” learned for how to build and prevent the loss of muscle mass, which included the following:9
•“You are what you just ate” — Research10 looking at post-prandial protein handling and amino acid absorption shows 55.3% of the dietary protein of a given meal is in circulation within five hours after eating, which significantly increases muscle protein synthesis. In other words, “you are what you just ate.” As noted by the authors: KetoFast: Rejuvenate Y... Mercola, Dr. Joseph Check Amazon for Pricing.
“Ingestion of a single meal-like amount of protein allows ~55% of the protein derived amino acids to become available in the circulation, thereby improving whole-body and leg protein balance.
About 20% of the dietary protein derived amino acids released in the circulation are taken up in skeletal muscle tissue following protein ingestion, thereby stimulating muscle protein synthesis rates and providing precursors for de novo muscle protein synthesis.”
In his article, Hutchinson writes, “Overall, van Loon points out, we break down and rebuild 1 to 2 percent of our muscle each day, meaning that you completely rebuild yourself every two to three months.” The take-home message here is that protein is an essential dietary component for building muscle.
•Exercise boosts sensitivity to protein signaling — While protein-derived amino acids are building blocks for muscle, they also act as signaling molecules that trigger muscle growth. Leucine is a particularly potent signaling agent, although all of the amino acids are required to actually build the muscle.
Research11 suggests healthy young adult men “max out the protein synthesis signal from a given meal” at a dose of 0.24 grams of protein per kilogram of total bodyweight, or 0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass, Hutchinson notes.
The current U.S.-Canadian recommended dietary protein allowance is 0.8 g/kg/d (0,36/grams/pound/day). Healthy older adults may require a greater dietary protein intake much higher than their younger peers or ~1.20 g/kg/d or .55 grams/pound/day. According to this study:
“Our data suggest that healthy older men are less sensitive to low protein intakes and require a greater relative protein intake, in a single meal, than young men to maximally stimulate postprandial rates of MPS [myofibrillar protein synthesis].
These results should be considered when developing nutritional solutions to maximize MPS for the maintenance or enhancement of muscle mass with advancing age.”
Importantly, additional research described in Hutchinson’s article12 demonstrated that exercising before you eat boosts your muscles’ sensitivity to protein signals so, in essence, “if you exercise first, you’re more of what you just ate.”
•Inactivity desensitizes protein signaling — On the flipside, your muscles lose their sensitivity to protein signaling from inactivity. It is not just about pushing more protein. That is a nearly worthless strategy for muscle building if you fail to integrate the exercise element.
I believe the best exercise strategy is one that activates the microvascular component of muscle stem cells that tends to become depleted with age. That is why I strongly recommend blood flow restriction training.
What’s more, you don’t lose muscle at a steady rate; rather, most of it is lost during short periods of significant inactivity, such as bedrest after an injury or illness. Hutchinson writes:13
“Van Loon advocates some simple fixes — like never, ever feed someone in a hospital bed unless it’s absolutely necessary. Make them get up, and ideally make them shuffle down the hallway to get food. Same for watching TV.
Even this tiny amount of muscle contraction, he says, will enhance muscle synthesis when the patient eats. Similarly, since you don’t eat as much when you’re in bed, the proportion of protein in the meal should be higher to ensure sufficient muscle synthesis signals.”
In cases where the patient is completely immobile, research14 shows the twice-daily application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation can reduce muscle loss by 3.5%. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation can also be used on comatose patients to limit muscle atrophy.15
•Properly chew your food to boost protein absorption — Research has also shown ground beef protein absorbs more rapidly and readily than steak, with 61% of the protein from ground beef going into circulation within six hours of ingestion, compared to 49% of the protein from steak. The take-home message seems to be that breaking up the meat by thoroughly chewing it before swallowing might be helpful.
Defy Aging by Improving Your Muscle Mass
In my February 2020 interview with Ben Greenfield, author of “Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging,” we discuss the importance of strength training and getting the appropriate amount of protein to build and maintain your muscle mass and optimize mitochondrial density and biogenesis. Fat for Fuel: A Revolu... Dr. Joseph Mercola Best Price: $7.40 Buy New $11.89 (as of 10:20 UTC - Details)
In summary, Greenfield recommends a fitness program that includes the following types of exercise in order to target the main pathways involved in health and aging:
•High-intensity interval training once a week to boost mitochondrial density and biogenesis — Brief spurts of exercise followed by longer rest periods. Greenfield recommends a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 rest-to-work ratio.
•Muscle endurance training two to three times a week to improve lactic acid tolerance — An example is the classic Tabata set, which has a 2-to-1 work-to-rest ratio.
•Longer training sessions twice a week to improve your VO2 max — To target and improve your VO2 max, you’ll want your training sessions to be longer, about four to six minutes in duration with four to six minutes of recovery in between, for a 1-to-1 work-to-rest ratio.
Examples include The New York Times’ seven-minute workout16 and bodyweight training done in a fast explosive manner or with a very light medicine ball, sandbag or kettle bells.
•Long walk once a week to improve your stamina — Greenfield recommends taking a 1.5- to three hour-long walk, bike ride or paddle session — anything where your body is engaged in chronic repetitive motion for a long period of time — preferably in a fasted state. Alternatively, do 20 to 30 minutes of fasted cardio followed by a cold shower.
•Super-slow weight training once or twice a week to improve muscle strength — Alternatives include elastic band training systems and blood flow restriction (BFR) training, which is my personal favorite. You can also combine BFR with super-slow training.
Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola


lewrockwell--2020-03-02--Love Is Lovelier the Third Time Around, Isn’t It?

I sure as hell hope so .
I ’ ve been going through a rough patch these last few years .
My search for true love has been disastrous .
I suppose this is not unusual , but for it to be concentrated in just a few years has made me quite desperate .
I am thinking about embarking on my third serious relationship in three years , including one marriage and a divorce .
But I am hopeful now since … well , let me first give you the sad background of how I got to this point , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your advice , which I imagine is based on deep experience and good luck .
I ’ ve never written to Miss Lonelyhearts , but I am really desperate and don ’ t want to enter into another dreadful relationship , one that could compromise me in more ways than one .
I ’ d never recover .
And I know the world is full of serious issues that make my story seem so trivial , and I guess it is , but I ’ m feeling so down I just have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when I woke up one morning and looked in the mirror , I said to my image , “ Man , you are a pathetic sad sack.
” Hearing that , one of us thought there must be a way to get okay with his self , all things being equal and everything being relative .
I remembered seeing a book in a used book store with the title , I ’ m OK – You ’ re OK , and thinking I wasn ’ t really OK , I was depressed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything except my face in the mirror and the sorry state of my life .
All the men I knew seemed so down too , so waddya call it , so fucked up or so fucked down .
I never could understand which is the right way to say it .
Is there a right way or can you say it any way you want ?
Up down – just fucked , or maybe not .
These other guys were dragging too , but I needed to focus on little old me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Left : A Ro ... Llewellyn H Rockwell Jr Best Price : $ 13.57 Buy New $ 8.00 So I got in my truck and cruised around , listening to some stupid news show on the radio when I heard a report that startled me and gave me a great idea .
I drove to the Dollar Store to get a wedding card to send to myself .
This report I heard said the latest cool thing was to marry yourself – they called it sologamy , I think the guy said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
OK , I think the guy said .
They interviewed this woman who had just married herself and boy was she flying high and enthusing about the great feeling it gave her .
She said she had realized she had fallen out of love with herself and marrying herself was like the second time around .
It really stirred my blood and got me thinking what I could do for myself .
I started humming that old song , you know , “ Love is lovelier , the second time around.… ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the guys I saw around seemed so down , in the bar they sat over their beers with their shoulders slumped and in the supermarkets I saw the old guys looking so hangdog as they pushed those shopping carts after the women who had notes in hand and little calculators as they took charge of the food buying .
Those women seemed OK at least .
The men always seemed to be one or two steps back and the women talking and smiling all the time .
I even noticed that when I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out in those yoga outfits looking so OK and up for things but the guys I knew who went to the gym looked all tied in knots after heaving the weights like they were performing some grim duty that would keep them above water for a while .
The women seemed like they had gotten religion and were saved .
Then I stopped in the local coffee shop to get a pick up and think about this marrying myself thing .
That ’ s when I lucked out for sure .
Or is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , these sayings confuse me , I never know what ’ s correct or not , out or in , up or down .
Are there some rules to all this or can you just wing it ?
I get really confused .
Anyway , there was a bunch of newspapers lying around and I glanced at a New York Times on the table .
There was this weird article that jumped out at me about transracialism and transgenderism and this big debate about these big words and a philosopher who claims if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or is it gender , I can never get them straight , you should also be able to self-identify as a different race .
It was a long article with a lot of people arguing back and forth and I couldn ’ t concentrate on it all but I got the gist of the professor ’ s point and thought this might be for me , it might help me get OK , which was my goal .
As I said , I saw all those women up and smiling all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dogged and I always noticed that Magic Johnson the hoops star of old is always smiling on the tube and I ’ ve always wondered why that was .
So to get to my point , I made a decision then and there .
I gave it a shot and married myself on June 9th since they say June is the best marrying month , and I decided to follow the philosopher ’ s suggestion and self-identify as a black woman as well .
I figured it couldn ’ t hurt and might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after all , and aren ’ t philosophers supposed to know a lot ?
That woman part was just for the day of course , and I planned on going back to being me a man the next day , me married to I. I was just hoping the woman switch would be a happy trick , and the day after , when I looked in the mirror , I ’ d hear that smiling face say , “ Man , You ’ re OK , I ’ m OK. ” Of course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wedding , for I knew they ’ d understand how intimate the ceremony was .
That was two years ago .
The relationship didn ’ t work out , actually it was a disaster , and so I eventually filed for a divorce .
It was no one ’ s fault really , but we were emotionally devastated nevertheless .
At least we had no children .
Sologamy didn ’ t seem to suit us .
We had acted impetuously .
As I said , I had gotten the idea after hearing an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fell in love with herself and said that after she tied the knot , she had never been happier .
I was an American and felt happiness was my right , too .
The world was getting me down at the time with all the political news about the Russians coming and insinuating themselves between me and you and all good Americans who had just wanted to elect Hillary Clinton and be happy .
And as I was thinking about this happy married couple – the woman and herself , not Bill and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York Times article in the coffee shop that convinced me to take the plunge .
So I self-identified as I and me , a couple , and we said I do and I do too , in a private ceremony .
I had really wanted to be happy like that woman and to forget all the stuff about Trump being in bed with the Russians , and the Russians trying to get into our heads and voting booths , maybe even our beds where they would whisper lies about capitalism being immoral and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about our identities and what was right and wrong .
I had figured going to bed with myself might help me forget .
But it didn ’ t work out as we expected .
Six months into the marriage , on New Year ’ s Eve , we had a little party and had a few anime hologram friends over .
As usual , we had talked about the past year and old times and old friends and sang a few lines of Auld Lang Syne as we toasted left hand to right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since we heard that was the drink all the smart set used to celebrate their clever happiness .
But then we got to arguing , and between you and me , it wasn ’ t pretty .
Our hologram friends were mortified .
It was a scene straight out of Who ’ s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?
The Prosecco had gone to our head , so we didn ’ t remember all the scathing interchanges , but I do know our anime friends said not a word and that I said to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ echo Martha and George ’ s from the play .
Truth or Illusion , George ; you don ’ t know the difference .
No , but we must carry on as if we did .
So then , on the day after , we carried on “ as if.
” Amen , indeed !
And though our head hurt a bit , we talked over coffee and decided to split up , amicably of course .
It was a new year , and like most people , we wanted to make a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best and knew me reciprocated .
We went separate ways but it was very lonely .
Facebook friends helped somewhat , but they were no substitute for the intimacy of our time together .
I didn ’ t know who would then help me make it through the night ?
And what about poor I ?
Forgive me , but I was so confused and had a hell of a headache .
Although I wanted 2019 to be a happy year , I knew 2019 would be a long night from hell politically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and our Russian enemies infiltrating our minds at every turn with backstopping and sheep dipping their spies throughout the media and academia .
I was so lonely trying to make sense of it all .
Without my me-spouse , I knew it could only get worse .
Even CNN ’ s Anderson Cooper ’ s New Year ’ s Eve words of comfort to the lonely from Times Square didn ’ t help much .
Like Fox News ’ s “ Fox and Friends , ” Anderson is always there with a helping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were arguing , I could always go to my true friends in the media for a dose of truth and sustenance .
They knew all about the Russian threat .
But while I was grateful for their comfort in those confusing times , I needed more .
With apologies to Kris Kristofferson , I thought loving me would be easier that anything I ’ d ever do again .
I needed easy , real easy , easier even than when I would say something and me would disagree but we would let it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It was easier that way .
But our relationship was probably doomed from the start .
But thank God for technology and CNN that had alerted me to a new technological possibility with a report about a Japanese man , Akihito Kondo , a school administrator , who fell in love years ago with Miku , a cyber-celebrity hologram .
He had finally taken the plunge and married Miku in a lovely ceremony in front of thirty-nine people .
Kondo seemed radiantly happy and not at all confused .
Such a possibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all along : my anime hologram friends who watched me and I get drunk that New Year ’ s Eve .
One of them – Meto – was cute as a button and was always looking to snuggle and comfort others .
So , after divorcing myself , I proposed to her and after a dignified waiting period , maybe an hour or so , she said yes .
But we didn ’ t get officially married , just lived together , since I was scarred from the ordeal of being married to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I carried on as if loving her was easier than anything I ’ d ever done before .
Boy , was I wrong .
It wasn ’ t that she got headaches or said she was very stressed and overworked whenever I was in a loving mood .
She was always willing but never really there , if you know what I mean .
I ’ m a Bud Light guy , but Meto ’ s lightness just didn ’ t cut it .
At least when I and me were married we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are in late February 2020 and I am thinking of risking all for love once more .
If I do , and this doesn ’ t work out , I ’ m going to fold my cards and walk away , but a friend who is big into technology and who has tried this method assures me it is foolproof .
I trust her , even though she is a little way-out-there with her electronic obsessions , always buying the latest cell phone and other gadgets that she says make her life so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tattooed everywhere and thinks of herself as a free spirit .
I don ’ t get it .
I ’ m more old-school , although I did fall for Meto in one of my weaker moments .
I use little technology : don ’ t use a smart phone , don ’ t text , listen to music on CDs , never listened to a book on tape , etc .
– I essentially live in an alternative reality from so many people in this digital age .
But I have become a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ old Toyota pickup truck and sometimes think I am that guy from The Bridges of Madison County who had luck with the farmer ’ s wife , except I ’ ve had no luck .
Amazon.com Gift Card i ... Buy New $ 10.00 Truth or illusion ?
Let us carry on as if we knew .
I have no idea .
I know there are very few farms around here anymore , and those that exist are run by rich people for rich people and for expensive restaurants that advertise farm-to-table food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that makes the wealthy diners feel OK and think they will live forever .
I don ’ t feel OK .
I feel forlorn , fucked-up , even though I ’ m not sure if that is the right way to put it .
Forlorn ?
What ’ s that ?
I understand fucked-up , don ’ t you ?
But forlorn ?
Anyway , here ’ s what I ’ m thinking .
My friend told me I should look into a sexbot .
That ’ s a robot that you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these days .
She says they are increasingly life-like , far realer than a hologram .
She said she felt one and it felt just like a human body .
And now that they are powered by very sophisticated artificial intelligence ( AI ) , you can get one that is far more than a sex doll but has real feelings and emotions and you can have a genuine relationship with .
I told her I ’ ve seen them , but she misunderstood .
I meant the entertainment/media/Hollywood industry that is full @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lookalikes parading across screens everywhere .
She laughed and said , “ But the sexbots are intelligent , and if you want to feel OK , don ’ t you want an intelligent woman ?
” I saw her point , and said I did , but not too intelligent since I ’ m not very smart myself and most of my relationships , including with myself and Meto , didn ’ t work out because I didn ’ t understand a lot of what they said to me .
As I told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regular Joe , driving my pickup truck , drinking Bud Light , and looking to feel OK .
I just feel like crap and have to do something .
She got this article on her phone to show me where a professor of robotics at a college in Iowa said that “ Because they would be programmable , sexbots would meet each individual user ’ s needs.
” He ’ s a professor , she said , he must know .
What could I say ?
I had a lot of unmet needs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ position to question this professor who is an expert on robots .
What do you think ?
Should I take the plunge ?
I just want to feel OK for once .
To make matter worse , just this morning I saw headlines that Russia is at it again , meddling to fix the 2020 election for Trump .
Or is it Sanders ?
I guess those Russians are really good at the cyberwarfare stuff and have many experts in artificial intelligence , but what about human intelligence – make up your mind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sanders ?
I had this really scary thought .
What if I get a sex robot and she is named Svetlana , made in Moscow ?
I ’ ll really be screwed then .
I need somebody , not just anybody .
Help me if you can , I ’ m feeling down .
The Best of Edward Curtin

I sure as hell hope so. I’ve been going through a rough patch these last few years. My search for true love has been disastrous. I suppose this is not unusual, but for it to be concentrated in just a few years has made me quite desperate. I am thinking about embarking on my third serious relationship in three years, including one marriage and a divorce. But I am hopeful now since … well, let me first give you the sad background of how I got to this point, and then maybe you can give me your advice, which I imagine is based on deep experience and good luck.
I’ve never written to Miss Lonelyhearts, but I am really desperate and don’t want to enter into another dreadful relationship, one that could compromise me in more ways than one. I’d never recover.
And I know the world is full of serious issues that make my story seem so trivial, and I guess it is, but I’m feeling so down I just have to tell somebody.
A few years ago, when I woke up one morning and looked in the mirror, I said to my image, “Man, you are a pathetic sad sack.” Hearing that, one of us thought there must be a way to get okay with his self, all things being equal and everything being relative. I remembered seeing a book in a used book store with the title, I’m OK – You’re OK, and thinking I wasn’t really OK, I was depressed and had a hard time concentrating on anything except my face in the mirror and the sorry state of my life. All the men I knew seemed so down too, so waddya call it, so fucked up or so fucked down. I never could understand which is the right way to say it. Is there a right way or can you say it any way you want? Up down – just fucked, or maybe not. These other guys were dragging too, but I needed to focus on little old me. I was definitely not OK. Against the Left: A Ro... Rockwell Jr, Llewellyn H Best Price: $2.85 Buy New $8.00 (as of 07:59 UTC - Details)
So I got in my truck and cruised around, listening to some stupid news show on the radio when I heard a report that startled me and gave me a great idea. I drove to the Dollar Store to get a wedding card to send to myself. This report I heard said the latest cool thing was to marry yourself – they called it sologamy, I think the guy said. It made you feel good about yourself. OK, I think the guy said. They interviewed this woman who had just married herself and boy was she flying high and enthusing about the great feeling it gave her. She said she had realized she had fallen out of love with herself and marrying herself was like the second time around. It really stirred my blood and got me thinking what I could do for myself. I started humming that old song, you know, “Love is lovelier, the second time around.…”
Like I said, so many of the guys I saw around seemed so down, in the bar they sat over their beers with their shoulders slumped and in the supermarkets I saw the old guys looking so hangdog as they pushed those shopping carts after the women who had notes in hand and little calculators as they took charge of the food buying. Those women seemed OK at least. The men always seemed to be one or two steps back and the women talking and smiling all the time. I even noticed that when I passed an exercise studio the women came out in those yoga outfits looking so OK and up for things but the guys I knew who went to the gym looked all tied in knots after heaving the weights like they were performing some grim duty that would keep them above water for a while. The women seemed like they had gotten religion and were saved.
Then I stopped in the local coffee shop to get a pick up and think about this marrying myself thing. That’s when I lucked out for sure. Or is it lucked in? Like I said, these sayings confuse me, I never know what’s correct or not, out or in, up or down. Are there some rules to all this or can you just wing it? I get really confused. Anyway, there was a bunch of newspapers lying around and I glanced at a New York Times on the table. There was this weird article that jumped out at me about transracialism and transgenderism and this big debate about these big words and a philosopher who claims if you can self-identify as a different sex, or is it gender, I can never get them straight, you should also be able to self-identify as a different race. It was a long article with a lot of people arguing back and forth and I couldn’t concentrate on it all but I got the gist of the professor’s point and thought this might be for me, it might help me get OK, which was my goal. As I said, I saw all those women up and smiling all the time and the guys down and hang dogged and I always noticed that Magic Johnson the hoops star of old is always smiling on the tube and I’ve always wondered why that was.
So to get to my point, I made a decision then and there. I gave it a shot and married myself on June 9th since they say June is the best marrying month, and I decided to follow the philosopher’s suggestion and self-identify as a black woman as well. I figured it couldn’t hurt and might help. The guy was a philosopher after all, and aren’t philosophers supposed to know a lot? That woman part was just for the day of course, and I planned on going back to being me a man the next day, me married to I. I was just hoping the woman switch would be a happy trick, and the day after, when I looked in the mirror, I’d hear that smiling face say, “Man, You’re OK, I’m OK.”
Of course, I invited no one to the wedding, for I knew they’d understand how intimate the ceremony was.
That was two years ago.
The relationship didn’t work out, actually it was a disaster, and so I eventually filed for a divorce. It was no one’s fault really, but we were emotionally devastated nevertheless. At least we had no children. Sologamy didn’t seem to suit us. We had acted impetuously. As I said, I had gotten the idea after hearing an NPR radio report about a woman who fell in love with herself and said that after she tied the knot, she had never been happier. I was an American and felt happiness was my right, too.
The world was getting me down at the time with all the political news about the Russians coming and insinuating themselves between me and you and all good Americans who had just wanted to elect Hillary Clinton and be happy. And as I was thinking about this happy married couple – the woman and herself, not Bill and Hillary – I chanced upon that New York Times article in the coffee shop that convinced me to take the plunge. So I self-identified as I and me, a couple, and we said I do and I do too, in a private ceremony. I had really wanted to be happy like that woman and to forget all the stuff about Trump being in bed with the Russians, and the Russians trying to get into our heads and voting booths, maybe even our beds where they would whisper lies about capitalism being immoral and other sweet nothings meant to confuse us about our identities and what was right and wrong. I had figured going to bed with myself might help me forget.
But it didn’t work out as we expected. Six months into the marriage, on New Year’s Eve, we had a little party and had a few anime hologram friends over. As usual, we had talked about the past year and old times and old friends and sang a few lines of Auld Lang Syne as we toasted left hand to right with some nice Prosecco with pomegranate juice since we heard that was the drink all the smart set used to celebrate their clever happiness. But then we got to arguing, and between you and me, it wasn’t pretty. Our hologram friends were mortified. It was a scene straight out of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Prosecco had gone to our head, so we didn’t remember all the scathing interchanges, but I do know our anime friends said not a word and that I said to me at one-point words that seemed to echo Martha and George’s from the play.
Martha:
Truth or Illusion, George; you don’t know the difference.
George:
No, but we must carry on as if we did.
Martha:
Amen.
So then, on the day after, we carried on “as if.” Amen, indeed! And though our head hurt a bit, we talked over coffee and decided to split up, amicably of course. It was a new year, and like most people, we wanted to make a fresh start. I wished me the best and knew me reciprocated. We went separate ways but it was very lonely. Facebook friends helped somewhat, but they were no substitute for the intimacy of our time together. I didn’t know who would then help me make it through the night? And what about poor I? Forgive me, but I was so confused and had a hell of a headache.
Although I wanted 2019 to be a happy year, I knew 2019 would be a long night from hell politically and culturally, with fake news everywhere and our Russian enemies infiltrating our minds at every turn with backstopping and sheep dipping their spies throughout the media and academia. I was so lonely trying to make sense of it all. Without my me-spouse, I knew it could only get worse. Even CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s New Year’s Eve words of comfort to the lonely from Times Square didn’t help much. Like Fox News’s “Fox and Friends,” Anderson is always there with a helping hand, and when I and me were arguing, I could always go to my true friends in the media for a dose of truth and sustenance. They knew all about the Russian threat.
But while I was grateful for their comfort in those confusing times, I needed more. With apologies to Kris Kristofferson, I thought loving me would be easier that anything I’d ever do again. I needed easy, real easy, easier even than when I would say something and me would disagree but we would let it slide for the sake of our relationship. It was easier that way. But our relationship was probably doomed from the start.
But thank God for technology and CNN that had alerted me to a new technological possibility with a report about a Japanese man, Akihito Kondo, a school administrator, who fell in love years ago with Miku, a cyber-celebrity hologram. He had finally taken the plunge and married Miku in a lovely ceremony in front of thirty-nine people. Kondo seemed radiantly happy and not at all confused.
Such a possibility was right in front of my nose all along: my anime hologram friends who watched me and I get drunk that New Year’s Eve. One of them – Meto – was cute as a button and was always looking to snuggle and comfort others. So, after divorcing myself, I proposed to her and after a dignified waiting period, maybe an hour or so, she said yes. But we didn’t get officially married, just lived together, since I was scarred from the ordeal of being married to me.
For this past year, I carried on as if loving her was easier than anything I’d ever done before. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn’t that she got headaches or said she was very stressed and overworked whenever I was in a loving mood. She was always willing but never really there, if you know what I mean. I’m a Bud Light guy, but Meto’s lightness just didn’t cut it. At least when I and me were married we had a body.
So here we are in late February 2020 and I am thinking of risking all for love once more. If I do, and this doesn’t work out, I’m going to fold my cards and walk away, but a friend who is big into technology and who has tried this method assures me it is foolproof. I trust her, even though she is a little way-out-there with her electronic obsessions, always buying the latest cell phone and other gadgets that she says make her life so much better, even though she is tattooed everywhere and thinks of herself as a free spirit. I don’t get it.
I’m more old-school, although I did fall for Meto in one of my weaker moments. I use little technology: don’t use a smart phone, don’t text, listen to music on CDs, never listened to a book on tape, etc. – I essentially live in an alternative reality from so many people in this digital age. But I have become a desperado for love. I drive an old Toyota pickup truck and sometimes think I am that guy from The Bridges of Madison County who had luck with the farmer’s wife, except I’ve had no luck. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:25 UTC - Details)
Truth or illusion? Let us carry on as if we knew. I have no idea. I know there are very few farms around here anymore, and those that exist are run by rich people for rich people and for expensive restaurants that advertise farm-to-table food and locally raised organic meat and everything that makes the wealthy diners feel OK and think they will live forever. I don’t feel OK. I feel forlorn, fucked-up, even though I’m not sure if that is the right way to put it. Forlorn? What’s that? I understand fucked-up, don’t you? But forlorn?
Anyway, here’s what I’m thinking. My friend told me I should look into a sexbot. That’s a robot that you can have sex with and people are marrying these days. She says they are increasingly life-like, far realer than a hologram. She said she felt one and it felt just like a human body. And now that they are powered by very sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI), you can get one that is far more than a sex doll but has real feelings and emotions and you can have a genuine relationship with. I told her I’ve seen them, but she misunderstood. I meant the entertainment/media/Hollywood industry that is full of them, Barbies and Kens, lookalikes parading across screens everywhere. She laughed and said, “But the sexbots are intelligent, and if you want to feel OK, don’t you want an intelligent woman?”
I saw her point, and said I did, but not too intelligent since I’m not very smart myself and most of my relationships, including with myself and Meto, didn’t work out because I didn’t understand a lot of what they said to me. As I told you, I’m just a regular Joe, driving my pickup truck, drinking Bud Light, and looking to feel OK. I just feel like crap and have to do something. She got this article on her phone to show me where a professor of robotics at a college in Iowa said that “Because they would be programmable, sexbots would meet each individual user’s needs.” He’s a professor, she said, he must know. What could I say? I had a lot of unmet needs, and I’m in no position to question this professor who is an expert on robots.
What do you think? Should I take the plunge? I just want to feel OK for once.
To make matter worse, just this morning I saw headlines that Russia is at it again, meddling to fix the 2020 election for Trump. Or is it Sanders? I guess those Russians are really good at the cyberwarfare stuff and have many experts in artificial intelligence, but what about human intelligence – make up your mind, Russians, is it Trump or Sanders?
I had this really scary thought. What if I get a sex robot and she is named Svetlana, made in Moscow?
I’ll really be screwed then.
Help!
I need somebody, not just anybody.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down.
The Best of Edward Curtin


lewrockwell--2020-03-02--The Media’s Deafening Silence on Mike Bloomberg’s Ties to Epstein and Other Criminals

After his late jump into the Democratic primary and , as critics argue , purchasing his way into the primary debates , former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has received mixed coverage from corporate media , with many negative critiques of the current presidential contender ’ s history , conduct and connections .
Yet , despite efforts by other campaigns and more progressive-leaning media outlets to dampen Bloomberg ’ s chances at the nomination , one clear weakness of Bloomberg ’ s has thus far evaded meaningful media coverage : his ties to key players in the Epstein @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maxwell and even Jeffrey Epstein himself .
Silence among outlets that largely oppose Bloomberg ’ s candidacy regarding his connections to Epstein and those in his close social orbit is odd , especially when reporting on an individual ’ s connections to the intelligence-linked pedophile are a sure-fire way to generate considerable negative attention and fodder for rival campaigns .
This is particularly striking given that the numerous accusations that Bloomberg has long stoked a toxic culture of sexual harassment at his company , resulting in no small number of non-disclosure agreements over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention .
Yet , the fact that many of Bloomberg ’ s close friends have been accused of far , far worse has received hardly any coverage by comparison .
For instance , when it was announced last week that the controlling stake in the Leslie Wexner-owned lingerie company Victoria ’ s Secret would be sold to a private equity firm called Sycamore Partners , only one media outlet — The Intercept — revealed that Bloomberg has at least $ 136 million of his money in that firm .
The Intercept noted in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most of Jeffrey Epstein ’ s supposed fortune , his close collaborator for decades and alleged rapist of many of his victims — had been pressured to step down following the scandal , which also hit Wexner-owned companies hard and had forced the Ohio-based billionaire to seek a buyer for his lingerie brand and its tarnished reputation .
Yet , the outlet did not make the direct connection that Sycamore Partners-backer Bloomberg is a friend of Wexner ’ s and has attended Wexner ’ s personal social parties for years prior to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well before this recent opportunity to point out Bloomberg ’ s ties to Leslie Wexner , there have been plenty of opportunities for the media to question Bloomberg about his now-infamous picture with Ghislaine Maxwell , daughter of Mossad-connected Robert Maxwell and Epstein ’ s alleged madam and co-conspirator .
That picture , taken in 2013 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York , has not been mentioned by mainstream media following the launch of Bloomberg ’ s candidacy late last November .
Similarly , mainstream media have failed to question Bloomberg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telephone numbers for him appear in Jeffrey Epstein ’ s infamous list of contacts often referred to as his “ little black book.
” Against the Left : A Ro ... Llewellyn H Rockwell Jr Best Price : $ 13.57 Buy New $ 8.00 The extent of the Maxwell-Bloomberg relationship is unknown , though Bloomberg ’ s deep ties to his former employer Salomon Brothers is a possible link , given that that firm served as one of the Maxwell family ’ s main investment bankers in the years prior to and following @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1991 .
Similarly , Epstein had close ties to prominent figures on Wall Street , some dating back to his time at Bear Stearns , who are also close to Bloomberg .
Bloomberg and Epstein also shared close friendships with some of the same New York media executives like Mort Zuckerman .
Media outlets have described Zuckerman , a former business partner of Epstein ’ s , as Bloomberg ’ s “ long-time enabler.
” In another example , Epstein ’ s former publicist Howard Rubenstein is a long-time supporter of Bloomberg and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind Bloomberg ’ s controversial push to run around mayoral term limits and pursue a third term as Mayor of New York .
Another mutual Epstein-Bloomberg associate is disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein .
Weinstein was part of an investment group with Epstein that sought to purchase New York magazine in 2003 .
Another member of that investment group was frequent MSNBC commentator Donny Deutsch , who has recently fervently backed Bloomberg ’ s candidacy .
Weinstein was recently convicted of rape and has dozens of accusers , whose decision to come forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent years helped spark the “ Me Too ” movement .
Weinstein also has ties to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak , who was a close friend and business associate of Epstein ’ s , and it was Barak who personally introduced Weinstein to former Mossad spies that Weinstein hired to intimidate his accusers .
In addition to being Prime Minister , Barak is also the former head of Israeli military intelligence , the foreign intelligence agency that sponsored Epstein ’ s sexual blackmail operation involving underage girls in the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be strongly challenged over his ties to Weinstein , which are considerable .
For instance , Weinstein was a major backer of Bloomberg ’ s mayoral campaigns and even recorded robocalls on Bloomberg ’ s behalf to boost his election chances .
Bloomberg , in turn , appointed Weinstein to a charity board and Weinstein later praised Bloomberg for aiding his film company .
While Bloomberg ’ s ties to Wexner , Epstein and Maxwell have gotten the silent treatment , some outlets ( mostly right-leaning ) have covered the Bloomberg-Weinstein ties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Bloomberg from mainstream media to address those ties directly .
Another close Bloomberg associate who recently has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment is hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt .
Steinhardt is a long-time fixture in Bloomberg ’ s social circle and has long appeared at Bloomberg ’ s dinner parties .
Steinhardt is also connected to Leslie Wexner through his membership in the so-called “ Mega Group ” — an exclusive group of organized-crime-linked “ mega ” donors to pro-Israel causes that Wexner co-founded in 1991 .
Steinhardt also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ founder of Glencore , the Mossad-linked Marc Rich , and Steinhardt — along with top Israeli politicians and spies — aggressively lobbied former President Bill Clinton to controversially pardon Rich before leaving office .
“ Show me your friends and I ’ ll tell you who you are ” The oft-quoted saying “ Show me your friends and I ’ ll tell you who you are , ” seems to hold true for Bloomberg .
For instance , his eponymous media conglomerate has received no small number of lawsuits over the years alleging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of female workers , much of its allegedly egged on by Bloomberg ’ s long history of comments that have been derided as sexist .
Many of those lawsuits ended in female accusers being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements ( NDAs ) .
More recently , The Nation reported that Bloomberg ’ s 2020 presidential campaign is making use of NDAs in such a way “ that could prevent staffers from reporting workplace abuse.
” In addition , a 1999 profile of Bloomberg in Wired magazine quoted Bloomberg as saying “ My daughter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We went to China together .
And what ’ s a 16-year-old going to do on a business trip ?
So , I got her dates in every city in China.
” Bloomberg , not unlike Epstein and Wexner , also has a history of cozy ties to the CIA .
For instance , during his tenure as Mayor of New York , Bloomberg actively promoted a controversial post-9/11 program that saw the CIA work directly with the NYPD to spy on the city ’ s Muslim communities .
Even though the CIA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not linked to criminal activity , one of the CIA officers working as part of the Bloomberg-backed program said he had “ no limitations ” on what he could do .
Bloomberg has long defended this program and its merging of the CIA with local police .
Legacy of Ashes : The H ... Tim Weiner Best Price : $ 2.13 Buy New $ 8.95 In the case of Epstein and Wexner , as MintPress News reported in its viral series on the Epstein scandal last year , Epstein once claimed to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Epstein and Wexner were the key players behind the relocation of CIA front company Southern Air Transport to Ohio , where Wexner ’ s business interests have long been based .
In addition , Bloomberg was also a key player in a controversial initiative regarding Israel ’ s intelligence-linked technology sector .
For instance , Bloomberg created a $ 2 billion project that involved opening a Manhattan campus called “ Cornell Tech ” that brought together Cornell University and Israel ’ s Technion , which has close ties to Israel ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bloomberg personally gave over $ 100 million to facilitate completion of that project .
That campus is now a partner in the recent creation of two Israeli-run “ cybersecurity ” centers in New York City that are tied to Israeli intelligence and were recently reported on by MintPress .
Jeffrey Epstein was also involved with Israeli military intelligence-linked technology companies and , as previously mentioned , Israeli military intelligence was also the sponsor of Epstein ’ s sexual blackmail operation that targeted mostly U.S. politicians and public figures for the benefit of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receives $ 3.8 billion per year from U.S. taxpayers .
While these aspects of Bloomberg ’ s past have received considerable media attention as of late , these same outlets have failed to note that Bloomberg ’ s inner circle boasts many individuals accused of harassment , rape or worse .
With his clear ties to the “ Epstein network , ” the fact that mainstream media has declined to even question Bloomberg about his social appearances with Ghislaine Maxwell or Leslie Wexner and having five different telephone numbers of his in Epstein @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a damning indictment of the current landscape of both American media and American politics .

After his late jump into the Democratic primary and, as critics argue, purchasing his way into the primary debates, former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has received mixed coverage from corporate media, with many negative critiques of the current presidential contender’s history, conduct and connections.
Yet, despite efforts by other campaigns and more progressive-leaning media outlets to dampen Bloomberg’s chances at the nomination, one clear weakness of Bloomberg’s has thus far evaded meaningful media coverage: his ties to key players in the Epstein scandal, including Leslie Wexner, Ghislaine Maxwell and even Jeffrey Epstein himself.
Silence among outlets that largely oppose Bloomberg’s candidacy regarding his connections to Epstein and those in his close social orbit is odd, especially when reporting on an individual’s connections to the intelligence-linked pedophile are a sure-fire way to generate considerable negative attention and fodder for rival campaigns. This is particularly striking given that the numerous accusations that Bloomberg has long stoked a toxic culture of sexual harassment at his company, resulting in no small number of non-disclosure agreements over the years, have received some media attention. Yet, the fact that many of Bloomberg’s close friends have been accused of far, far worse has received hardly any coverage by comparison.
For instance, when it was announced last week that the controlling stake in the Leslie Wexner-owned lingerie company Victoria’s Secret would be sold to a private equity firm called Sycamore Partners, only one media outlet — The Intercept — revealed that Bloomberg has at least $136 million of his money in that firm. The Intercept noted in passing that Wexner — the source of most of Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed fortune, his close collaborator for decades and alleged rapist of many of his victims — had been pressured to step down following the scandal, which also hit Wexner-owned companies hard and had forced the Ohio-based billionaire to seek a buyer for his lingerie brand and its tarnished reputation. Yet, the outlet did not make the direct connection that Sycamore Partners-backer Bloomberg is a friend of Wexner’s and has attended Wexner’s personal social parties for years prior to the most recent scandal.
https://twitter.com/wash_cloth/status/1229438126831153155
Yet, even well before this recent opportunity to point out Bloomberg’s ties to Leslie Wexner, there have been plenty of opportunities for the media to question Bloomberg about his now-infamous picture with Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of Mossad-connected Robert Maxwell and Epstein’s alleged madam and co-conspirator.
That picture, taken in 2013 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, has not been mentioned by mainstream media following the launch of Bloomberg’s candidacy late last November. Similarly, mainstream media have failed to question Bloomberg regarding why his name and five different telephone numbers for him appear in Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous list of contacts often referred to as his “little black book.” Against the Left: A Ro... Rockwell Jr, Llewellyn H Best Price: $2.85 Buy New $8.00 (as of 07:59 UTC - Details)
Bloomberg and the Manhattan Swamp
The extent of the Maxwell-Bloomberg relationship is unknown, though Bloomberg’s deep ties to his former employer Salomon Brothers is a possible link, given that that firm served as one of the Maxwell family’s main investment bankers in the years prior to and following Robert Maxwell’s mysterious death in 1991. Similarly, Epstein had close ties to prominent figures on Wall Street, some dating back to his time at Bear Stearns, who are also close to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg and Epstein also shared close friendships with some of the same New York media executives like Mort Zuckerman. Media outlets have described Zuckerman, a former business partner of Epstein’s, as Bloomberg’s “long-time enabler.” In another example, Epstein’s former publicist Howard Rubenstein is a long-time supporter of Bloomberg and was reported to be the driving force behind Bloomberg’s controversial push to run around mayoral term limits and pursue a third term as Mayor of New York.
Another mutual Epstein-Bloomberg associate is disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein was part of an investment group with Epstein that sought to purchase New York magazine in 2003. Another member of that investment group was frequent MSNBC commentator Donny Deutsch, who has recently fervently backed Bloomberg’s candidacy.
Weinstein was recently convicted of rape and has dozens of accusers, whose decision to come forward about Weinstein’s sex crimes in recent years helped spark the “Me Too” movement. Weinstein also has ties to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was a close friend and business associate of Epstein’s, and it was Barak who personally introduced Weinstein to former Mossad spies that Weinstein hired to intimidate his accusers. In addition to being Prime Minister, Barak is also the former head of Israeli military intelligence, the foreign intelligence agency that sponsored Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation involving underage girls in the United States.
Bloomberg’s candidacy has yet to be strongly challenged over his ties to Weinstein, which are considerable. For instance, Weinstein was a major backer of Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns and even recorded robocalls on Bloomberg’s behalf to boost his election chances. Bloomberg, in turn, appointed Weinstein to a charity board and Weinstein later praised Bloomberg for aiding his film company. While Bloomberg’s ties to Wexner, Epstein and Maxwell have gotten the silent treatment, some outlets (mostly right-leaning) have covered the Bloomberg-Weinstein ties, but there has been little pressure on Bloomberg from mainstream media to address those ties directly.
Another close Bloomberg associate who recently has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment is hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt. Steinhardt is a long-time fixture in Bloomberg’s social circle and has long appeared at Bloomberg’s dinner parties. Steinhardt is also connected to Leslie Wexner through his membership in the so-called “Mega Group” — an exclusive group of organized-crime-linked “mega” donors to pro-Israel causes that Wexner co-founded in 1991. Steinhardt also boasts close ties to the now deceased founder of Glencore, the Mossad-linked Marc Rich, and Steinhardt — along with top Israeli politicians and spies — aggressively lobbied former President Bill Clinton to controversially pardon Rich before leaving office.
“Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are”
The oft-quoted saying “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are,” seems to hold true for Bloomberg. For instance, his eponymous media conglomerate has received no small number of lawsuits over the years alleging rampant sexual harassment and even the rape of female workers, much of its allegedly egged on by Bloomberg’s long history of comments that have been derided as sexist. Many of those lawsuits ended in female accusers being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). More recently, The Nation reported that Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign is making use of NDAs in such a way “that could prevent staffers from reporting workplace abuse.”
In addition, a 1999 profile of Bloomberg in Wired magazine quoted Bloomberg as saying “My daughter is tall and busty and blonde. We went to China together. And what’s a 16-year-old going to do on a business trip? So, I got her dates in every city in China.”
Bloomberg, not unlike Epstein and Wexner, also has a history of cozy ties to the CIA. For instance, during his tenure as Mayor of New York, Bloomberg actively promoted a controversial post-9/11 program that saw the CIA work directly with the NYPD to spy on the city’s Muslim communities. Even though the CIA is technically prohibited from spying on Americans not linked to criminal activity, one of the CIA officers working as part of the Bloomberg-backed program said he had “no limitations” on what he could do. Bloomberg has long defended this program and its merging of the CIA with local police. Legacy of Ashes: The H... Tim Weiner Best Price: $2.13 Buy New $8.95 (as of 06:40 UTC - Details)
In the case of Epstein and Wexner, as MintPress News reported in its viral series on the Epstein scandal last year, Epstein once claimed to have worked for the CIA during the 1980s and Epstein and Wexner were the key players behind the relocation of CIA front company Southern Air Transport to Ohio, where Wexner’s business interests have long been based.
In addition, Bloomberg was also a key player in a controversial initiative regarding Israel’s intelligence-linked technology sector. For instance, Bloomberg created a $2 billion project that involved opening a Manhattan campus called “Cornell Tech” that brought together Cornell University and Israel’s Technion, which has close ties to Israel’s national security state and military-industrial complex. Bloomberg personally gave over $100 million to facilitate completion of that project. That campus is now a partner in the recent creation of two Israeli-run “cybersecurity” centers in New York City that are tied to Israeli intelligence and were recently reported on by MintPress.
Jeffrey Epstein was also involved with Israeli military intelligence-linked technology companies and, as previously mentioned, Israeli military intelligence was also the sponsor of Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation that targeted mostly U.S. politicians and public figures for the benefit of the state of Israel, whose military currently receives $3.8 billion per year from U.S. taxpayers.
While these aspects of Bloomberg’s past have received considerable media attention as of late, these same outlets have failed to note that Bloomberg’s inner circle boasts many individuals accused of harassment, rape or worse. With his clear ties to the “Epstein network,” the fact that mainstream media has declined to even question Bloomberg about his social appearances with Ghislaine Maxwell or Leslie Wexner and having five different telephone numbers of his in Epstein’s list of high-profile contacts is a damning indictment of the current landscape of both American media and American politics.


lewrockwell--2020-03-02--Seth Rich, Julian Assange. and Dana Rohrabacher – Will We Ever Know the Truth About the Stolen DNC F

Seth Rich, Julian Assange. and Dana Rohrabacher – Will We Ever Know the Truth About the Stolen DNC Files?

The media is doing its best to make the Seth Rich story go away , but it seems to have a life of its own , possibly due to the fact that the accepted narrative about how Rich died makes no sense .
In its Iatest manifestation , it provides an alternative explanation for just how the information from the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) computer somehow made its way to Wikileaks .
If you believe that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and that he was just a nasty pedophile rather than an Israeli intelligence agent , read no farther @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rich .
But if you appreciate that it was unlikely that the Russians were behind the stealing of the DNC information you will begin to understand that other interested players must have been at work .
For those who are not familiar with it , the backstory to the murder of apparently disgruntled Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich , who some days before may have been the leaker of that organization ’ s confidential emails to Wikileaks , suggests that a possibly motiveless crime might have been anything but .
The Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be an attempted robbery gone bad but that theory fails to explain why Rich ’ s money , credit cards , cell phone and watch were not taken .
Wikileaks has never confirmed that Rich was their source in the theft of the proprietary emails that had hitherto been blamed on Russia but it subsequently offered a $ 20,000 reward for information leading to resolution of the case and Julian Assange , perhaps tellingly , has never publicly clarified whether Rich was or was not one of his contacts , though there is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the relationship during a private meeting .
Answers to the question who exactly stole the files from the DNC server and the emails from John Podesta have led to what has been called Russiagate , a tale that has been embroidered upon and which continues to resonate in American politics .
At this point , all that is clearly known is that in the Summer of 2016 files and emails pertaining to the election were copied and then made their way to WikiLeaks , which published some of them at a time that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those who are blaming Russia believe that there was a hack of the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) server and also of John Podesta ’ s emails that was carried out by a Russian surrogate or directly by Moscow ’ s military intelligence arm .
They base their conclusion on a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security on October 7 , 2016 , and on a longer assessment prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on January 6 , 2017 .
Both government appraisals implied that there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there was a Russian hack , though they provided little in the way of actual evidence that that was the case and , in particular , failed to demonstrate how the information was obtained and what the chain of custody was as it moved from that point to the office of WikiLeaks .
The January report was particularly criticized as unconvincing , rightly so , because the most important one of its three key contributors , the National Security Agency , had only moderate confidence in its conclusions , suggesting that whatever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An alternative view that has been circulating for several years suggests that it was not a hack at all , that it was a deliberate whistleblower-style leak of information carried out by an as yet unknown party , possibly Rich , that may have been provided to WikiLeaks for possible political reasons , i.e .
to express disgust with the DNC manipulation of the nominating process to damage Bernie Sanders and favor Hillary Clinton .
There are , of course , still other equally non-mainstream explanations for how the bundle of information got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including that the intrusion into the DNC server was carried out by the CIA which then made it look like it had been the Russians as perpetrators .
And then there is the hybrid point of view , which is essentially that the Russians or a surrogate did indeed intrude into the DNC computers but it was all part of normal intelligence agency probing and did not lead to anything .
Meanwhile and independently , someone else who had access to the server was downloading the information , which in some fashion made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Both the hack vs. leak viewpoints have marshaled considerable technical analysis in the media to bolster their arguments , but the analysis suffers from the decidedly strange fact that the FBI never even examined the DNC servers that may have been involved .
The hack school of thought has stressed that Russia had both the ability and motive to interfere in the election by exposing the stolen material while the leakers have recently asserted that the sheer volume of material downloaded indicates that something like a higher speed thumb drive was used , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by someone with actual physical direct access to the DNC system .
Someone like Seth Rich .
What the many commentators on the DNC server issue choose to conclude is frequently shaped by their own broader political views , producing a result that favors one approach over another depending on how one feels about Trump or Clinton .
Or the Russians .
Perhaps it would be clarifying to regard the information obtained and transferred as a theft rather than either a hack or a leak since the two expressions have taken on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russiagate context .
With all the posturing going on , the bottom line is that the American people and government have no idea who actually stole the material in question , though the Obama Administration was extraordinarily careless in its investigation and Russian President Vladimir Putin has generally speaking been blamed for what took place .
The currently bouncing around the media concerns an offer allegedly made in 2017 by former Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange .
According to Assange ’ s lawyers , Rohrabacher offered a pardon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide information that would attribute the theft or hack of the Democratic National Committee emails to someone other than the Russians .
He was presumably referring to Seth Rich .
Assange did not accept the offer , but it should be noted that he has repeatedly stated in any event that he did not obtain the material from a Russian or Russian-linked source .
In reality , he might not know the original source of the information .
Since Rohrabacher ’ s original statement , both he and Trump have denied any suggestion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a quid pro quo for Assange .
Trump claims to hardly know Rohrabacher and also asserts that he has never had a one-on-one meeting with him .
The U.S. media ’ s coverage of the story has emphasized that Assange ’ s cooperation would have helped to absolve Russia from the charge of having interfered decisively in the U.S. election , but the possible motive for doing so remains unclear .
Russian-American relations are at their lowest point since the Cold War and that has largely been due to policies embraced by Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ START and medium range missile agreements .
Trump has also approved NATO military maneuvers and exercises right up to the Russian border and has provided lethal weapons to Ukraine , something that his predecessor Barack Obama balked at .
He has also openly confronted the Russians in Syria .
Given all of that back story , it would be odd to find Trump making an offer that focuses only on one issue and does not actually refute the broader claims of Russian interference , which are based on a number of pieces of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Clinton and Podesta emails .
Which brings the tale back to Seth Rich .
If Rich was indeed responsible for the theft of the information and was possibly killed for his treachery , it most materially impacts on the Democratic Party as it reminds everyone of what the Clintons and their allies are capable of .
It will also serve as a warning of what might be coming at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in July as the party establishment uses fair means or foul to stop Bernie Sanders .
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s guess , but many of those who pause to observe the process will be thinking of Seth Rich .
Reprinted with permission from The Unz Review .
The Best of Philip Giraldi

The media is doing its best to make the Seth Rich story go away, but it seems to have a life of its own, possibly due to the fact that the accepted narrative about how Rich died makes no sense. In its Iatest manifestation, it provides an alternative explanation for just how the information from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer somehow made its way to Wikileaks. If you believe that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and that he was just a nasty pedophile rather than an Israeli intelligence agent, read no farther because you will not be interested in Rich. But if you appreciate that it was unlikely that the Russians were behind the stealing of the DNC information you will begin to understand that other interested players must have been at work.
For those who are not familiar with it, the backstory to the murder of apparently disgruntled Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who some days before may have been the leaker of that organization’s confidential emails to Wikileaks, suggests that a possibly motiveless crime might have been anything but. The Washington D.C. police investigated what they believed to be an attempted robbery gone bad but that theory fails to explain why Rich’s money, credit cards, cell phone and watch were not taken. Wikileaks has never confirmed that Rich was their source in the theft of the proprietary emails that had hitherto been blamed on Russia but it subsequently offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to resolution of the case and Julian Assange, perhaps tellingly, has never publicly clarified whether Rich was or was not one of his contacts, though there is at least one report that he confirmed the relationship during a private meeting.
When Google Met WikiLeaks Assange, Julian Buy New $8.69 (as of 11:50 UTC - Details) Answers to the question who exactly stole the files from the DNC server and the emails from John Podesta have led to what has been called Russiagate, a tale that has been embroidered upon and which continues to resonate in American politics. At this point, all that is clearly known is that in the Summer of 2016 files and emails pertaining to the election were copied and then made their way to WikiLeaks, which published some of them at a time that was damaging to the Clinton campaign. Those who are blaming Russia believe that there was a hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server and also of John Podesta’s emails that was carried out by a Russian surrogate or directly by Moscow’s military intelligence arm. They base their conclusion on a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security on October 7, 2016, and on a longer assessment prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on January 6, 2017. Both government appraisals implied that there was a U.S. government intelligence agency consensus that there was a Russian hack, though they provided little in the way of actual evidence that that was the case and, in particular, failed to demonstrate how the information was obtained and what the chain of custody was as it moved from that point to the office of WikiLeaks. The January report was particularly criticized as unconvincing, rightly so, because the most important one of its three key contributors, the National Security Agency, had only moderate confidence in its conclusions, suggesting that whatever evidence existed was far from solid.
An alternative view that has been circulating for several years suggests that it was not a hack at all, that it was a deliberate whistleblower-style leak of information carried out by an as yet unknown party, possibly Rich, that may have been provided to WikiLeaks for possible political reasons, i.e. to express disgust with the DNC manipulation of the nominating process to damage Bernie Sanders and favor Hillary Clinton.
There are, of course, still other equally non-mainstream explanations for how the bundle of information got from point A to point B, including that the intrusion into the DNC server was carried out by the CIA which then made it look like it had been the Russians as perpetrators. And then there is the hybrid point of view, which is essentially that the Russians or a surrogate did indeed intrude into the DNC computers but it was all part of normal intelligence agency probing and did not lead to anything. Meanwhile and independently, someone else who had access to the server was downloading the information, which in some fashion made its way from there to WikiLeaks.
Both the hack vs. leak viewpoints have marshaled considerable technical analysis in the media to bolster their arguments, but the analysis suffers from the decidedly strange fact that the FBI never even examined the DNC servers that may have been involved. The hack school of thought has stressed that Russia had both the ability and motive to interfere in the election by exposing the stolen material while the leakers have recently asserted that the sheer volume of material downloaded indicates that something like a higher speed thumb drive was used, meaning that it had to be done by someone with actual physical direct access to the DNC system. Someone like Seth Rich.
What the many commentators on the DNC server issue choose to conclude is frequently shaped by their own broader political views, producing a result that favors one approach over another depending on how one feels about Trump or Clinton. Or the Russians. Perhaps it would be clarifying to regard the information obtained and transferred as a theft rather than either a hack or a leak since the two expressions have taken on a political meaning of their own in the Russiagate context. With all the posturing going on, the bottom line is that the American people and government have no idea who actually stole the material in question, though the Obama Administration was extraordinarily careless in its investigation and Russian President Vladimir Putin has generally speaking been blamed for what took place.
The currently bouncing around the media concerns an offer allegedly made in 2017 by former Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. According to Assange’s lawyers, Rohrabacher offered a pardon from President Trump if Assange were to provide information that would attribute the theft or hack of the Democratic National Committee emails to someone other than the Russians. He was presumably referring to Seth Rich. Cypherpunks: Freedom a... Assange, Julian Buy New $8.54 (as of 11:50 UTC - Details)
Assange did not accept the offer, but it should be noted that he has repeatedly stated in any event that he did not obtain the material from a Russian or Russian-linked source. In reality, he might not know the original source of the information. Since Rohrabacher’s original statement, both he and Trump have denied any suggestion that there was a firm offer with a quid pro quo for Assange. Trump claims to hardly know Rohrabacher and also asserts that he has never had a one-on-one meeting with him.
The U.S. media’s coverage of the story has emphasized that Assange’s cooperation would have helped to absolve Russia from the charge of having interfered decisively in the U.S. election, but the possible motive for doing so remains unclear. Russian-American relations are at their lowest point since the Cold War and that has largely been due to policies embraced by Donald Trump, to include the cancellation of START and medium range missile agreements. Trump has also approved NATO military maneuvers and exercises right up to the Russian border and has provided lethal weapons to Ukraine, something that his predecessor Barack Obama balked at. He has also openly confronted the Russians in Syria.
Given all of that back story, it would be odd to find Trump making an offer that focuses only on one issue and does not actually refute the broader claims of Russian interference, which are based on a number of pieces of admittedly often dubious evidence, not just the Clinton and Podesta emails. Which brings the tale back to Seth Rich. If Rich was indeed responsible for the theft of the information and was possibly killed for his treachery, it most materially impacts on the Democratic Party as it reminds everyone of what the Clintons and their allies are capable of. It will also serve as a warning of what might be coming at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in July as the party establishment uses fair means or foul to stop Bernie Sanders. How this will all play out is anyone’s guess, but many of those who pause to observe the process will be thinking of Seth Rich.
Reprinted with permission from The Unz Review.
The Best of Philip Giraldi


lewrockwell--2020-03-02--Today, I’m Publishing the Document That Could Save Us From War

Long ago , a wise teacher told me to remember these words : ‘ Truth is the Daughter of Time , not of Authority.
’ I had no idea how important they were .
Now , after many years of experiencing official dishonesty , they are my motto .
One day , a lot of other people , in the media and politics , will accept that in the past few months they have failed in their duty to the truth , by staying silent or – worse – joining in a braying attempt to suppress crucial facts .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the peoples of the Western world will have been whipped into a warlike frenzy by false information , just as happened in the Iraq disaster 17 years ago .
Because if nothing is done about the scandal I have been writing about , such an outcome is highly possible , even likely .
A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria .
Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the scientific evidence .
Amazon.com Gift Card i ... Buy New $ 10.00 This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own , France ’ s and the USA , all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true .
All three are members of the UN Security Council , and are supposed to uphold international law with special care .
But the facts suggested they had all violated that law .
I did not much welcome the knowledge .
It was frightening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if I published it , I would face trouble .
But I had to .
And I duly did .
I was immediately smeared on social media as a ‘ war crimes denier ’ , an absurd accusation .
I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad regime in Syria , despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years .
I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government , which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vicious slanderers who attacked me paid no attention to my rebuttals , and repeated the smears , from behind false names .
Their purpose was to scare others away from the story .

Long ago, a wise teacher told me to remember these words: ‘Truth is the Daughter of Time, not of Authority.’ I had no idea how important they were. Now, after many years of experiencing official dishonesty, they are my motto.
One day, a lot of other people, in the media and politics, will accept that in the past few months they have failed in their duty to the truth, by staying silent or – worse – joining in a braying attempt to suppress crucial facts.
But by then it is quite possible that the peoples of the Western world will have been whipped into a warlike frenzy by false information, just as happened in the Iraq disaster 17 years ago. Because if nothing is done about the scandal I have been writing about, such an outcome is highly possible, even likely.
A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria. Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the scientific evidence.
This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA, all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true.
A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria. Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the scientific evidence. (This image released early on April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following the alleged poison gas attack)
This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA, all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true. (Pictured, an RAF Tornado over Damascus during the coalition attack)
All three are members of the UN Security Council, and are supposed to uphold international law with special care. But the facts suggested they had all violated that law.
I did not much welcome the knowledge. It was frightening to possess it. I knew that if I published it, I would face trouble. But I had to.
And I duly did. I was immediately smeared on social media as a ‘war crimes denier’, an absurd accusation. I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years.
I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace.
The vicious slanderers who attacked me paid no attention to my rebuttals, and repeated the smears, from behind false names. Their purpose was to scare others away from the story.
I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad (pictured last November) regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years. I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace
I suspect there have been, and will be, other consequences. I have annoyed some powerful people. But I was a minor victim of this spiteful rage.
The brave dissenters who had protested against the hiding of the truth are very serious men, totally unpolitical scientists who simply could not abide the suppression of the evidence they had gathered and examined. They have been hosed down with slime by their former employers.
They have also been attacked by a slippery operation known as Bellingcat, which far too many journalists and politicians treat with wide-eyed indulgence, as if it was a brave independent enterprise.
Why do they never mention that it is partly funded by the US government, through its front organisation the National Endowment for Democracy? Could it be that it would not be quite such a convincing source if it was known to be subsidised by Donald Trump? I imagine so.
The two scientists remain absolutely confident that their doubts are justified.
But their reward was to be severely, publicly attacked by their former employers, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Again, a lot of people lazily or weakly accepted this official attack on powerless individuals as true. They did not notice, or did not care, that the two men had been given no opportunity to defend themselves, that the resulting indictment was completely one-sided.
Well, it is now my privilege to publish their defence in detail.
It is on the Peter Hitchens Blog at hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/02/a-and-b-respond-to-the-opcws-attacks-on-them-the-full-rebuttal.html
I hope it will stand as a vital resource for anyone seriously interested in the truth about what I regard as the biggest scandal of its kind since the dodgy dossiers and non-existent WMD that were used to hurry us into invading Iraq.
I, and others who have read it, have found it impressive and powerful. I do not think that anyone could read it without seeing that something has gone seriously wrong. Let us hope that we have enough time, before the next war, for the truth to prevail.
Coogan's Greed is bang on the money
When Steve Coogan is right about something, you know you’re in trouble. The world isn’t in general much like his simple-minded Left-wing picture of it. But sometimes it is.
His attack on bandit capitalism in his new film Greed is mostly a cartoon in human form. But the heart of it is horribly true.
The film brilliantly and concisely explains practices that tear the core out of established businesses and allow the pirates who do this to walk away with the cash, destroying the job security and futures of thousands.
Steve Coogan's attack on bandit capitalism in his new film Greed is mostly a cartoon in human form. But the heart of it is horribly true
It also shows what global free trade, which we are all supposed to love so much, does to those at the bottom of the pile.
How long, you wonder, before the working conditions of Bangladesh arrive in Britain, if they have not already done so?
I do often suspect that the public posing of the open-necked, funky, modern rich – on global warming, foreign aid and the rest – actually helps them behave more cruelly in their commercial lives.
Old-fashioned, stuffy, buttoned-up businesses had obligations to employees, suppliers and customers that grow rarer by the day.
Just because liberals and softies are attacking Home Secretary Priti Patel, it doesn’t mean she is any good
Don't be duped by 'tough' Priti
Look, just because liberals and softies are attacking Home Secretary Priti Patel, it doesn’t mean she is any good.
I have listened to Tory Home Secretaries proclaim their toughness over and over again.
Yet nothing ever happens. The Tories have been in office for 32 of the 55-odd years since Labour’s Roy Jenkins disembowelled our criminal justice system.
And they haven’t turned the clock back by ten seconds.
But, my goodness, they have emitted a lot of noisy speeches saying they would. Not the same thing.
Big Brother would adore this drugs drivel
On rereading Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (as we all should, very often), I was struck by a passage on what he called Crimestop, a barrier in the mind which makes people instinctively stop short of thinking dangerously, or committing Thought Crime.
This involves failing to understand the simplest arguments, if they are hostile to conventional wisdom.
An example of this is the futile ‘report’ on drugs produced last week by Dame Carol Black. It blames drug abuse on deprivation through ‘huge geographical and socioeconomic inequalities’.
It treats drug-taking as a voluntary crime, as a disease to be dealt with by ‘treatment’, a formula insulting to the truly sick. Disease is compulsory. How the sick wish they could give up having cancer.
It completely fails to notice that illegal drug abuse in this country has soared because the police and courts have simply stopped bothering to enforce the laws against drug possession.
In Japan and South Korea, where they have not made this foolish mistake, the problem is much smaller. Why has our establishment been so completely brainwashed by the arguments of the drug lobbies? What will it take to open their closed minds?
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