Quote:By Kit Knightly

In my previous article, Why you should never believe your eyes, we discussed new technologies that make the creation of literal “fake news” more possible than ever. In this follow up we’re going to discuss the potential benefits of faking the news vs creating the news.

A false flag operation is generally defined as ”an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party”

The phrase originates in naval warfare, when ships would literally fly a flag of another nation’s navy.

Historically speaking, they are covert military operations carried out with the aim of creating a cassus belli, either initiating, justifying or perpetuating a war.

The attack is very real, only the flag is false.

But recent years have seen the rise of a new idea – the false false flag.  That is to say – entirely fake “events” with only the barest relationship to objective reality. Blanks and crisis actors, fake victims and fake shooters.

This concept has been the subject of discussion recently, with the civil suit against Alex Jones for calling Sandy Hook a “hoax” and the on-going trial of journalist Richard D Hall in the UK for suggesting the Manchester Arena bombing was fake. Similar suggestions have been raised about the Boston bombing of 2013 as well. Others, including Riley Waggaman, have raised questions about the recent “terrorist attack” in Moscow too.

Now, I’m not definitively claiming any or all of those events were faked – though of course they may have been. What I’m pointing up is the shift in discussion.

But then, we don’t need to look far for the greatest provably “fake event” in recent times: “Covid”, which was purely a construction of media hype and corrupt science creating an entirely fake pandemic.


Once you’ve absorbed all the facts of the case, that’s the only interpretation that stands up to scrutiny.

In fact it was such a vast infestation of fakery it spawned mini-fakes. It wasn’t so much a fake event as a flock of fakes of varying sizes.

Covid alone proves that the powers-that-be certainly do engage in staged or faked events. And, as highlighted in the first part of this series, it’s been known for decades that news reports are regularly faked, on both the small and large scale.

Yet, still, the question that gets asked whenever the possibility of fakery is invoked is “why?”

Why would a state apparatus with the power to really do something, opt to only pretend to do it?

This is a standard argument made against the idea of state-sponsored fakery, and although it is logically flawed as being purely an argument from incredulity, it is a question we can and probably should endeavour to answer.

So – why would the state, or powerful actors within the state, choose to fake something rather than simply do it?

Clearly we can rule out moral or ethical considerations. That shouldn’t require further explanation. The state has no objection to causing suffering, that has been demonstrated over and over again. It wouldn’t shrink from sponsoring a real terror event just because real people would end up dead.

Indeed, a “fake event” doesn’t even necessarily preclude real death – as (again) “covid” has shown us.

The “pandemic” was entirely fake but those allowed to die through inaction or directly killed by DNRs, denial of care or ventilator-abuse were real.

As was the very real and often very fatal fallout of lockdown and other “anti-Covid” measures.

But, if not a moral objection to inflicting real death and/or suffering, then why would a fake event be perceived as a better option? What benefits does fake have over real?

Well, here are some possibilities for consideration:

1. You can’t prove a negative. A fake event, in an odd way, is harder to disprove than a real one. It is quite easy to show the official explanation for a real event is false (think 9/11). But if there is no real event, only a story, then there will be no inconvenient facts  to challenge you. And of course it’s virtually impossible to prove a negative – an absence of existence.
   
2. Lack of physical evidence. An extension of point 1, but a fake event cannot be forensically traced back to real culprits. Real gunpowder and explosives are traceable and leave real chemical residue. Fake events have none of this baggage.
   
3. Keeps your options open. A real event is bound by the physical realities of the situation. Your story must try to fit those facts. A fake event is open ended and can fluidly change as the needs of the story changes. Again, we saw this with Covid.
   
4. No real victims. A real shooting or bombing creates real victims and leaves real grieving families who might demand investigations and ask awakward questions (see the 9/11 victims’ families). A fake event has only fake victims who are on your payroll, not only will they never ask awkward questions they are incentivized to conceal the truth.
   
5. Less guilt or regret. Institutions and agencies don’t have consciences, but individuals do. It is generally easier to persuade “foot soldiers” (literal and metaphorical) to pretend to hurt people than to actually hurt them. It’s an extension of the single blank in the firing squad.
   
6. Easier to control. An entirely staged event is easier to control than a real event. For example, a real pandemic disease might fade away too quickly or not be deadly enough. Worse still, it might kill the wrong people – you or your family. A fake disease kills exactly who you say it killed and no one else, and can go away or come back as your need dictates.
   

Those are all just practical considerations, of course. We haven’t even got into the more unknowable world, the potential psycho-social motivations of what we call the global deep state.

What might be the victory conditions of this psychological war  “the Elite” are waging against the people of the world?

As I noted in my article The Perfidious Unreality of the New Normal, observation would suggest a deliberate agenda of undermining the very idea of objective reality. A move by our controllers to insert themselves as a filter between every person on the planet and the world they experience.

The final aim being that everything – everything – the entire fabric of our shared reality – is made up?

Because that is the ultimate demonstration of total control?

Here we come to the point where we should address the key difference between a staged event and real one – the target.

If you need a President dead, you can’t pretend to shoot him. If you need to claim terrorist insurance, you can’t pretend the buildings fell down.

A fake event can only be a  preferred possibility when your aim is purely optics.

In other words, the real target of a fake event is always the audience.

It’s always a psychological attack aimed at our perception of the world or of certain groups of humans, or certain alleged dangers.

With the advent of AI generative technology, deep fakes, voice synthesizers and the like, the fact of the matter is we can likely expect a great flood of “fake news” sold to us as real – because why not? Why wouldn’t this option be utilised at least sometimes?

The questions moving forward  are – how far has it already gone or will it go? And are we prepared enough psychologically to be able to tell the difference?

yes it is a long video but it does contain some good info on how the deep state actually works... Most of us knew the Taliban was started and financed (remember the nice new Toyota pickups ?) by the CIA.

Quote:I sat down with former State Department officer, Trump speechwriter and censorship whistleblower Mike Benz. He tells me the truth about the deep state - how it operates, why does it operates. What’s really going on in the so-called “Blob”, the CIA and State Department. What is the real history of US foreign policy that they’re not telling us? We look at the Ukraine war and the role the US played in the 2014 Maidan Coup. Are we on the verge of World War 3? What are the establishment doing to snuff out the populist movement which threatens it? All this and much more…

Quote:The oldest argument against democracy is that it is essentially mob rule, which means it is susceptible to the terrible dynamics of the mob. Something excites the mob and the members of the mob compete with one another to show they are more excited than anyone else inside the mob. In his Lyceum Address, Lincoln warned that the mob is the antitheses of the rule of law, because inevitably the mob comes to see the law as a barrier between itself and its goal.

It is why ruling classes have always feared mobs. Mobs are fickle and once they get going it is not clear where or how they end. It is a sign of our decline that the Cloud People caught the democracy bug and they have been chanting the phrase “our democracy” as if they have a strange form of Tourette’s syndrome. Everything they do is in defense of “our democracy” while even the slightest push back is called a threat to “our democracy” which is always a signal to the mob.

The promiscuous use of mobs has been the main tool of the regime going back to at least the Obama years. The entirely fake antiwar movement in the Bush years might be the first use of an official mob. It was, however, in the Obama years that the official mob was perfected. The rape on campus nonsense set mobs of internet feminists upon the remaining white boys in college. Then we got the BLM mob, which unleashed a one-sided race war on the white middle class.

Cancel culture is another form of official mob. First, they unleashed the “me too” nonsense, which set mobs of digital lunatics on men who were accused of being too normal around the ladies. That moved to digital kooks chasing after imaginary fascists and racists online. Antifa can probably be viewed as the first digital mob to break into the analog world or maybe it is the other way around. Either way, like the antiwar mobs, it was a creature of the regime.

The thing about the digital mobs is they took what existed in the analog space, the media frenzy, and then democratized it. Instead of a gaggle of credentialed press people chasing a guy down the street shouting questions, the digital mob is internet characters filling up the timeline of the victim with accusations. The dynamics are the same, except now one does not need a credential. You just have to possess a weak mind and access to social media.

It is what makes the present crisis around Joe Biden amusing. The people who have profited from the mob are now being eaten by the mob. The great and the good are taking turns telling their favorite media actor that Biden is too old, too feeble or too narcissistic to be president. The same people who brought us the Russian collusion hoax and the Covid panic are now hammering away at Biden. It would take a heart of stone not to see the humor in this.

This has always been the problem with mobs. Once the mob forms up it keeps going until it either burns itself out or is snuffed out. The former only happens after they have tasted the blood of their victim. The latter happens when they taste enough of their own blood that being a mob is no longer fun. Since the White House is not going to start shooting media toadies, which would be a welcomed result, it means this mob ends with the head of Joe Biden on a pike.

This brings up the other problem with mobs. The mob exists purely in the moment, which means anyone in contact with the mob exists in the moment. The reason Kyle Rittenhouse killed two men and wounded a third is no one in the mob, including himself, could even think, much less act outside the moment. If Rittenhouse could have saw one step ahead before the mob set upon him, no one outside his family would have reason to know his name.

The mob chasing Biden is not thinking about what comes next. They can only think about the joy they will feel when Biden steps aside. The chaos that will erupt in the regime when suddenly they do not have a body to parade around as the official nominee is outside the event horizon of the mob. What if the mob forms up in favor of someone that turns out to be worse than Biden? What if the mob splits into warring tribes organized around the various parts of the regime?

No one can think about that right now. All that matters for the members of the mob is creating some new way to yell “get him” at Joe Biden. They sense that time is running short, so they have to put everything into it, or Biden will escape. Realistically they have until the end of next week to drag his corpse from the ticket. After that, the mob will run out of steam and the regime will run out of time to stage a fake process to name a replacement, so they will be stuck with Biden.

From the Dirt People perspective, this is all to the good. The more intense and grinding this mob fury is over Biden, the deeper the anger between factions of the regime after the frenzy is over. One of the ironies of the mob is the longer it goes, the more destructive it becomes of its own ends. That means the nastier this fight gets, the more the regime damages its own interests. With any luck the Democratic convention is an even more chaotic replay of 1968.

Of course, this is the lesson of democracy. Of democracy, John Adams wrote, “I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious, on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy, but while it lasts it is more bloody than either.” Maybe that is what this mob chasing Biden signals. The democracy fever that set in after the Cold War is now reaching its natural end point.

Quote:The National Security Council declined to comment on the existence of the Russian plot and the US warning to Germany. But, NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement, “Russia’s intensifying campaign of subversion is something that we are taking extremely seriously and have been intently focused on over the past few months.

“The United States has been discussing this issue with our NATO Allies, and we are actively working together to expose and disrupt these activities,” she said. “We have also been clear that Russia’s actions will not deter Allies from continuing to support Ukraine.”

The Germany Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

CNN has also asked the Russian embassy in Washington for comment.

A spokesman for Rheinmetall, Oliver Hoffman, declined to comment.

“The necessary measures are always taken in regular consultation with the security authorities,” Hoffman said.

NATO members seeking to strengthen intel sharing

Russia’s sabotage campaign has been a major point of discussion among NATO officials gathered in Washington for the bloc’s 75th anniversary summit. NATO has sought to improve intelligence sharing across the alliance so that the nations will be able to connect the dots between what otherwise might appear to be disparate criminal activities unique to their own country.

But the campaign — and in particular Russia’s willingness to take lethal action against European citizens on foreign soil — has raised difficult questions about how the alliance should respond. In theory under Article 5, an armed attack on a NATO member state is an attack on all.

Russia’s sabotage campaign has, at times, smacked of a shotgun approach carried out by amateurs. Some of the crimes linked to the campaign have not had obvious links to the conflict in Ukraine; Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk publicly suggested that a fire at an IKEA in Lithuania could have been the work of Russia, for example. In Poland, CNN has reported, a Ukrainian man was recruited over Telegram by a Russian handler he never met in person and was paid just $7 to spray anti-war graffiti. Later, he was asked to plant surveillance cameras and burn down the fence of a Ukrainian-owned transportation company.

Some analysts have referred to the effort as a “hybrid” campaign, one that uses non-military tools like propaganda, deception and sabotage. But US and European officials are gradually hardening against defining Russia’s sabotage efforts that way.

“I fundamentally reject the idea that what we’re seeing is a hybrid campaign from Russia. There are hybrid elements of it. When I think of ‘hybrid’, I think of … defacing monuments,” the senior NATO official said. “Things that meet that traditional definition of ‘below the threshold of armed conflict.’”

Because Russia is recruiting operatives to carry out arson and plotting assassinations — lethal action — “I’m not as confident that those all fall below this threshold that ‘hybrid’ implies,” the official said.

It was not clear whether the intelligence related to Rheinmetall suggested Russia intended to kill Papperger directly or hire a local proxy.

Other Russian efforts have been far more serious than spraying a little graffiti or vandalizing a diplomat’s car: US military bases across Europe were placed on a heightened state of alert last week for the first time in a decade after the US received intelligence that Russian-backed actors were considering carrying out sabotage attacks against US military personnel and facilities, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

In April, two German-Russian nationals were arrested for allegedly plotting bomb and arson attacks on targets including US military facilities on behalf of Russia.

In London in March, several men were charged with working with Russian intelligence services to set fire to a Ukrainian-linked warehouse. Poland is investigating whether an arson attack that destroyed Warsaw’s largest mall in May was connected to Russia and has arrested nine people in connection with Russia-linked acts of sabotage, the prime minister said in May. And French authorities last month detained a Russian-Ukrainian man who was allegedly building bombs as part of a sabotage campaign orchestrated by Moscow.

“They’re doing it now because they believe that as there are a number of elections happening throughout the west, that this is a prime opportunity to try to undermine public support for Ukraine,” the senior NATO official said.

The official also said that Russia sees a window of opportunity before additional weapons and ammunition promised by the west arrive on the battlefield in Ukraine.

For Russia, this “is a prime time to target the west in these types of operations to try to undermine support and prevent the flow of weapons there.”

Exclusive: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer

Quote:A Rheinmetall spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO that the company had been informed by the authorities about the foiled threat. He stressed that there had been no concrete attempt to murder Papperger but rather a "plot."

Politico Europe

A long article so see link for the rest

https://www.activistpost.com/2024/07/the...-them.html

Quote:By AIER
Since the start of 2024, numerous well-known restaurant chains have announced sizable closures and incrementally more drastic restructuring efforts. TGI Fridays has closed numerous locations across the US and sold eight corporate-owned locations to strengthen their franchise model and close underperforming stores. Denny’s shut down 57 restaurants in 2023 and announced additional closures for 2024 due to inflationary pressures. Boston Market drastically reduced its number of restaurants from around 300 to just 27 by March 2024, driven by landlord evictions, unpaid bills, and state shutdowns due to unpaid sales taxes. Mod Pizza abruptly closed 27 locations across the US, including five in California, just before the new minimum wage law took effect. Also suddenly, Coco’s Bakery and Carrows chains closed 75 locations, leading to a federal lawsuit by former employees due to the lack of notice provided for the layoffs. PDQ, a regional restaurant chain, closed eight restaurants across North and South Carolina in February 2024 due to market conditions. Outback Steakhouse’s parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, announced the shuttering of 41 locations of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Bonefish Grill in February 2024 as part of a major financial restructuring. Subway has been undergoing a massive drawdown, closing over 400 underperforming locations since last year alone. And Applebee’s has been selectively closing locations since the start of 2024, focusing on optimizing its restaurant portfolio by shutting down low-revenue stores.
In 2024, Buffalo Wild Wing will eliminate sixty locations in the United States. IHOP (International House of Pancakes) will wind down 100 locations. Other firms eliminating locations include Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Hooters, and Chili’s. A handful of others may close down entirely.

COVID lockdowns significantly weakened chain restaurants by drastically reducing their customer base and revenue streams. This disruption made it difficult for many restaurants to sustain operations, some of which took on more debt in the face of depleted financial reserves. At the start of 2024, FSR (Full Service Restaurant) Magazine summarized:

Quote:Another after-shock of COVID was the debt pile. Going back to August 2020, the James Beard Foundation released survey data that suggested only 66 percent of independent bars and restaurants expected to survive the fall season without direct aid. Frothing to the top of this fear was the fact that close to 75 percent reported taking on new debt obligations north of $50,000. Moreso, 12 percent tagged the number at $500,000 and above. Growing debt, and the deterioration in operating performance required to service it, forced heightened levels of investor and debt-holder concern and oversight[.] … This increased debt between 2019 and the last 12 months 2020 by 8.1 percent for limited-service units and 15.7 percent for full-serves. The former, by the fall, sat at more than four times as much debt, while full service was at nearly 50 percent more than 2008 levels … [In] the current environment … 68 percent of full-service restaurants reported carrying some amount of debt. On average, it was $51,863.20 — a number that could creep up as interest rates continue to rise.

FSR continues:

Quote:“If debt is a piece of the profit puzzle, food costs are another. In fact, they appear to be an even bigger, more widespread concern … than the year before. This year, 58 percent of operators in the survey said rising inventory costs was their No. 1 source of financial strain, up from 54 percent in 2022.”

The total and annual percentage changes in the index prices of six key ingredients of restaurant and diner menu items, from 2010 to 2020 and then from 2021 to the present, are shown below; in most cases, over the last three years prices have risen at multiples of their annual increases over the prior decade.

Since January 2021, core CPI has risen just over 17 percent, while food-away-from-home prices have risen over 22 percent.
Core CPI (blue) vs. CPI Food Away From Home (black), 2014 – 2024

Quote:By Michael Snyder
We continue to get numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is steamrolling in the wrong direction as we approach the most chaotic election season in our history.  Needless to say, the performance of the economy is going to play a major role in the outcome of the election, because millions upon millions of Americans are really suffering right now.  Homelessness has been growing at the fastest pace ever recorded, hunger and poverty are exploding, and we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis that doesn’t seem to have any end in sight.  Unfortunately, there are signs that things will soon get even worse.  For example, we experienced a “historic surge” of corporate bankruptcies during the first half of this year that was worse than anything we have witnessed since the first half of 2010…

Quote:There is a “historic surge” of corporate bankruptcies underway in the U.S., as debt-saddled companies struggle to adjust to the new era of high interest rates.
New figures published by S&P Global Intelligence show that 75 companies filed for bankruptcy in June, the highest number recorded in a single month since early 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That pushed this year’s total number of bankruptcies so far to 346, which is notably higher than comparable levels seen in the past 13 years.
Before this, the highest half-year figure recorded was in 2010, with 437 companies filing for bankruptcy from January through June.

During the first half of 2010, we were just coming out of the Great Recession.

Do you remember how painful things were in those days?
Sadly, I believe that what is ahead of us will be even more painful.
The unprecedented measures that our leaders took to prop up the economy worked for a while, but now cracks are starting to show all over the place.
And a lot more big businesses will go belly up during the months ahead.
Earlier today, I was quite saddened to learn that Big Lots is on the verge of bankruptcy…

Quote:Discount retail chain Big Lots said it will close up to 40 stores this year and may declare bankruptcy.
The Columbus, Ohio-based company wrote in a quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing it expected further operating losses and has “substantial doubt” it can continue as a functioning business.
Big Lots last month reported a net loss of $205 million in the quarter ending May 4, 2024.

When I lived in Virginia many years ago, I would shop at Big Lots quite a bit.
And it always seemed to be doing fairly well.
But now times have changed.
Today, most Americans have very little discretionary income.  In fact, surveys have shown that the vast majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck at this point…

Quote:A 2023 survey conducted by Payroll.org highlighted that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a 6% increase from the previous year. In other words, more than three-quarters of Americans struggle to save or invest after paying for their monthly expenses.
Similarly, a 2023 Forbes Advisor survey revealed that nearly 70% of respondents either identified as living paycheck to paycheck (40%) or—even more concerning—reported that their income doesn’t even cover their standard expenses (29%).

There is no way to spin those numbers in a positive manner.
Any way that you look at them, they are absolutely horrible.
The middle class is being ripped to shreds, and those that are running the system seem to be all out of answers.

Quote:A young man met a beautiful girl and agreed to spend the night with her for $500.

So they did.

Before he left, he told her that he did not have any cash with him, but that he would have his secretary write a check and mail it to her, calling the payment "RENT FOR APARTMENT."

On the way to his office he regretted what he had promised, deciding that the whole event was not worth the price.

So, he had his secretary send a check for $250 and enclosed the following note:

Dear Madam,

Enclosed find check in the amount of $250 for rent of your apartment.

I am not sending the amount agreed upon because when I rented the apartment I was under the impression that:

• 1) it had never been occupied
  
• 2) that there was plenty of heat
  
• 3) that it was small enough to make me cozy and feel at home.
  

Last night, however, I found it had been previously occupied, that there was no heat, and it was entirely too large.

Upon receipt of the note, the girl immediately returned the check for $250 with the following note:

1. Dear Sir, first of all, I cannot understand how you expect a beautiful apartment to remain unoccupied indefinitely.
   
2. As for the heat, there is heat if you know how to turn it on.
   
3. Regarding the space, the apartment is, indeed, of regular size, but if you don’t have enough furniture to fill it, please don’t blame the landlady!
   

https://lists.theepochtimes.com/links/ZS...wDFCnDR90k

Quote:Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an emergency disaster declaration in his state over an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu in northeastern Weld County as officials recently reported that 1.8 million chickens were impacted by the virus.
The governor “verbally” declared a disaster after “an avian flu outbreak in a commercial poultry facility in Weld County,” according to a news release from his office issued on Monday. Mr. Polis’s office did not name the facility that was impacted by the outbreak.
The declaration means that Colorado can use its emergency powers to “take all necessary and appropriate state actions to assist with response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.”
In an update issued on July 8, the Colorado Department of Agriculture confirmed that 1.78 million chickens were impacted by highly pathogenic avian influenza.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a statement on July 3 that a dairy farm worker in northeastern Colorado was infected with the H5N1 bird flu and had direct exposure to cattle infected with the virus. His only symptom was conjunctivitis, colloquially known as pink eye, which was described by the agency as mild.
“He has recovered. This case is an employee at a dairy farm in northeast Colorado who had direct exposure to dairy cattle infected with avian flu. To protect patient privacy, additional details are not being provided,” the agency said last week in a news release.

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