This Easter in the New Normal
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Jacinda Ardern rewards
A little insight into the quid pro quo nature of politics to kick us off.
This week it was announced that freshly-retired Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern will be given not one but TWO cushy new roles. firstly she will be “consulting” with national governments, international bodies and social media companies about “tackling online extremism”. Secondly, she…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/10/this-easter-in-the-new-normal/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Jacinda Ardern rewards
A little insight into the quid pro quo nature of politics to kick us off.
This week it was announced that freshly-retired Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern will be given not one but TWO cushy new roles. firstly she will be “consulting” with national governments, international bodies and social media companies about “tackling online extremism”. Secondly, she…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/10/this-easter-in-the-new-normal/
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WATCH: Operation Choke Point 2.0
The spectre of Operation Choke Point 2.0 has just been raised in a recent House Financial Services Committee meeting. But what was Operation Choke Point 1.0? And why should we be concerned about this latest attempt to debank “disfavoured individuals,” anyway?
Find out all the details in this edition of The Corbett Report podcast.
Links, sources and show notes – as well as download and audio-only options – are available through the Corbett Report website....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/10/watch-operation-choke-point-2-0/
The spectre of Operation Choke Point 2.0 has just been raised in a recent House Financial Services Committee meeting. But what was Operation Choke Point 1.0? And why should we be concerned about this latest attempt to debank “disfavoured individuals,” anyway?
Find out all the details in this edition of The Corbett Report podcast.
Links, sources and show notes – as well as download and audio-only options – are available through the Corbett Report website....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/10/watch-operation-choke-point-2-0/
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Russia is still complicit in the Great Reset
Riley Waggaman
Sber’s “Little Palms” biometric payment system for school meals.
Twelve months ago (plus a few days) we participated in a roundtable discussion moderated by Whitney Webb and Kit Knightly, “Russia & the Great Reset – Resistance or Complicity?”
A short summary of our position (“Yes, Russia is complicit in the Great Reset”; April 3, 2022) quickly became the second most-read article on this blog.
In July we revisited this hot-button issue (Resetting Without Schwab: Russia & the Fourth Industrial Revolution), using Klaus Schwab’s Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2018)…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/11/russia-is-still-complicit-in-the-great-reset/
Riley Waggaman
Sber’s “Little Palms” biometric payment system for school meals.
Twelve months ago (plus a few days) we participated in a roundtable discussion moderated by Whitney Webb and Kit Knightly, “Russia & the Great Reset – Resistance or Complicity?”
A short summary of our position (“Yes, Russia is complicit in the Great Reset”; April 3, 2022) quickly became the second most-read article on this blog.
In July we revisited this hot-button issue (Resetting Without Schwab: Russia & the Fourth Industrial Revolution), using Klaus Schwab’s Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2018)…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/11/russia-is-still-complicit-in-the-great-reset/
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WATCH: Beyond the Reset
This excellent short film is a darkly humorous journey into one possible near-future. We all hope it never happens this way, but of course the best way to guard against it is to be aware of the danger.
I hope you all watch and share – especially with any fence-sitters or ostriches of your acquaintance....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/12/watch-beyond-the-reset/
This excellent short film is a darkly humorous journey into one possible near-future. We all hope it never happens this way, but of course the best way to guard against it is to be aware of the danger.
I hope you all watch and share – especially with any fence-sitters or ostriches of your acquaintance....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/12/watch-beyond-the-reset/
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DISCUSS: Arcturus – The latest “Covid variant”
Late last night, the world was rocked – ROCKED – by the announcement of yet another variant of “covid”.
XBB.1.16 – codenamed Arcturus for as yet obscure reasons – is actually just a sub-variant of Omicron, and is “fuelling a rise of infections in India” amid concerns it:
it could be one 1.2 times more infectious than the last major sub-variant.
The supposed “surge” of cases has already meant mask mandates are returning in certain parts of India.
You’ll notice it’s only ever sub-variants of Omicron these days, never full variants. This is doubtless for very…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/13/discuss-arcturus-the-latest-covid-variant/
Late last night, the world was rocked – ROCKED – by the announcement of yet another variant of “covid”.
XBB.1.16 – codenamed Arcturus for as yet obscure reasons – is actually just a sub-variant of Omicron, and is “fuelling a rise of infections in India” amid concerns it:
it could be one 1.2 times more infectious than the last major sub-variant.
The supposed “surge” of cases has already meant mask mandates are returning in certain parts of India.
You’ll notice it’s only ever sub-variants of Omicron these days, never full variants. This is doubtless for very…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/13/discuss-arcturus-the-latest-covid-variant/
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Mother Goose Stepping
Sylvia Shawcross
Here in the northern hemisphere winter mourns its way to spring with tears that sometimes freeze on the ground and crystallize on the white snow still high In the fields and along the roads. It has been a long winter—and do we welcome the longer days when every day seems long enough for us all?
Perhaps such later sunsets are earnestly celebrated now for those who live in the “other” narrative where life is beautiful mostly. The rest hardly notice. It is a place where children should be living—that beautiful place. It used to be that way.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/14/mother-goose-stepping/
Sylvia Shawcross
Here in the northern hemisphere winter mourns its way to spring with tears that sometimes freeze on the ground and crystallize on the white snow still high In the fields and along the roads. It has been a long winter—and do we welcome the longer days when every day seems long enough for us all?
Perhaps such later sunsets are earnestly celebrated now for those who live in the “other” narrative where life is beautiful mostly. The rest hardly notice. It is a place where children should be living—that beautiful place. It used to be that way.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/14/mother-goose-stepping/
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A Twitter Files Requiem
CJ Hopkins
And so the “Twitter Files” Limited Hangout has come to its inevitable, ignominious end. It is over. The Twitter-Files story is dead. It isn’t pining for the fjords. It is deceased, cadaverous, bereft of life. It has bought the farm and gone to meet its maker. It is Humpty Dumpty. It has fallen off the wall. Nothing can put it back together again.
I have to tip my hat to Elon Musk. It was quite an impressive limited hangout. The way Musk took the potential story of a global network of Intelligence agencies, corporations, NGOs, and assorted…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/14/a-twitter-files-requiem/
CJ Hopkins
And so the “Twitter Files” Limited Hangout has come to its inevitable, ignominious end. It is over. The Twitter-Files story is dead. It isn’t pining for the fjords. It is deceased, cadaverous, bereft of life. It has bought the farm and gone to meet its maker. It is Humpty Dumpty. It has fallen off the wall. Nothing can put it back together again.
I have to tip my hat to Elon Musk. It was quite an impressive limited hangout. The way Musk took the potential story of a global network of Intelligence agencies, corporations, NGOs, and assorted…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/14/a-twitter-files-requiem/
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They Must Have a Good Reason
Todd Hayen
There is a strange idea hovering about that if you don’t know something then it doesn’t exist. Kind of like the image of the proverbial ostrich with his head in the sand. But it goes beyond denial. Ignorance is when you don’t know something at all, denial is when you know it, but you ignore it.
What I am talking about here is when you know something and do not deny it, but simply rationalize it away with a statement like “they must have a good reason for doing that,” or similarly, “maybe we…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/15/they-must-have-a-good-reason/
Todd Hayen
There is a strange idea hovering about that if you don’t know something then it doesn’t exist. Kind of like the image of the proverbial ostrich with his head in the sand. But it goes beyond denial. Ignorance is when you don’t know something at all, denial is when you know it, but you ignore it.
What I am talking about here is when you know something and do not deny it, but simply rationalize it away with a statement like “they must have a good reason for doing that,” or similarly, “maybe we…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/15/they-must-have-a-good-reason/
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OffG’s Quick Take: The Pentagon “leaks”
The news the last few days so has been about the “leaked” Pentagon documents concerning the “special military operation” in Ukraine, and the apparent arrest of the young man responsible.
As our editor tweeted, the leaked documents were so covert, and their contents so damaging that they were covered in detail on the frontpage of the BBC or the subject ofexplainer videos from Sky News:
The arrest of the young man supposedly responsible was such a closely guarded state secret it was headline news all over the world…
…there were multiples videos released ofhis…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/15/offgs-quick-take-the-pentagon-leaks/
The news the last few days so has been about the “leaked” Pentagon documents concerning the “special military operation” in Ukraine, and the apparent arrest of the young man responsible.
As our editor tweeted, the leaked documents were so covert, and their contents so damaging that they were covered in detail on the frontpage of the BBC or the subject ofexplainer videos from Sky News:
The arrest of the young man supposedly responsible was such a closely guarded state secret it was headline news all over the world…
…there were multiples videos released ofhis…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/15/offgs-quick-take-the-pentagon-leaks/
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Fiscal Insanity: The Government Borrows $6 Billion a Day, and We’re Stuck with the Bill
John whitehead
We’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare. The US government is funding its existence with a credit card.
The government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones being forced to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity.
According to the number crunchers with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the government is borrowing roughly billion a day.
As the Editorial Board for the Washington Post warns:
“The nation has reached a hazardous…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/16/fiscal-insanity-the-government-borrows-6-billion-a-day-and-were-stuck-with-the-bill/
John whitehead
We’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare. The US government is funding its existence with a credit card.
The government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones being forced to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity.
According to the number crunchers with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the government is borrowing roughly billion a day.
As the Editorial Board for the Washington Post warns:
“The nation has reached a hazardous…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/16/fiscal-insanity-the-government-borrows-6-billion-a-day-and-were-stuck-with-the-bill/
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WATCH: Meeting People is Easy – #SolutionsWatch
Previously on #SolutionsWatch James Corbett has looked at Building Community as a key part of the solution to the issues that we face . . . but how do you find that community in the first place?
On the most recent episode of the de-program James goes through just a few of the many, many, many different ways you can start finding, meeting and connecting with like-minded people in your area and around the world.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options – can be found here. Previous episodes of #SolutionsWatch…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/16/watch-meeting-people-is-easy-solutionswatch/
Previously on #SolutionsWatch James Corbett has looked at Building Community as a key part of the solution to the issues that we face . . . but how do you find that community in the first place?
On the most recent episode of the de-program James goes through just a few of the many, many, many different ways you can start finding, meeting and connecting with like-minded people in your area and around the world.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options – can be found here. Previous episodes of #SolutionsWatch…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/16/watch-meeting-people-is-easy-solutionswatch/
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Pentagon “Leaks”: 5 ways to tell REAL from FAKE
Kit Knightly
We promised a longer take on the Pentagon “leaks”, and here it goes. Regular readers will probably be familiar with my view on leaked documents in general, but if you’re not allow me to quote my own 2019 article on the (absurd) “Afghanistan papers”:
An awful lot of modern “leaks” are no such thing. They are Orwellian exercises in controlling the conversation […] carefully making sure the “establishment” and the “alternative” are joined in the middle, controlled from the same source.
That’s not to say ALL “leaks” are automatically and ubiquitously narrative control exercises, clearly some…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/17/pentagon-leaks-5-ways-to-tell-real-from-fake/
Kit Knightly
We promised a longer take on the Pentagon “leaks”, and here it goes. Regular readers will probably be familiar with my view on leaked documents in general, but if you’re not allow me to quote my own 2019 article on the (absurd) “Afghanistan papers”:
An awful lot of modern “leaks” are no such thing. They are Orwellian exercises in controlling the conversation […] carefully making sure the “establishment” and the “alternative” are joined in the middle, controlled from the same source.
That’s not to say ALL “leaks” are automatically and ubiquitously narrative control exercises, clearly some…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/17/pentagon-leaks-5-ways-to-tell-real-from-fake/
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: To Heal the Great Divide
Edward Curtin
It has been fifty-five years since Senator Robert F. Kennedy stepped onto the presidential nominating stage to try to mend the massive breach that had opened in American society. The country was torn asunder by the Vietnam War, racism, poverty, the assassination of President Kennedy and the soon-to-be killing of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chaos reigned as Lyndon Johnson lied and Richard Nixon matched him in verbal and actual treachery.
A war between Middle America and the elites running the government was breaking out across the country. A great divide between whites and blacks, rich and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/18/robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-heal-the-great-divide/
Edward Curtin
It has been fifty-five years since Senator Robert F. Kennedy stepped onto the presidential nominating stage to try to mend the massive breach that had opened in American society. The country was torn asunder by the Vietnam War, racism, poverty, the assassination of President Kennedy and the soon-to-be killing of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chaos reigned as Lyndon Johnson lied and Richard Nixon matched him in verbal and actual treachery.
A war between Middle America and the elites running the government was breaking out across the country. A great divide between whites and blacks, rich and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/18/robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-heal-the-great-divide/
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Hunger Profiteers, Granny Killers and Skin-Deep Morality
Colin Todhunter
Today, a fifth (278 million) of the African population are undernourished, and 55 million of that continent’s children under the age of five are stunted due to severe malnutrition.
In 2021, an Oxfam review of IMF COVID-19 loans showed that 33 African countries were encouraged to pursue austerity policies. Oxfam and Development Finance International also revealed that 43 out of 55 African Union member states face public expenditure cuts totalling 3 billion over the next few years.
As a result, almost three-quarters of Africa’s governments have reduced their agricultural budgets since 2019, and more than 20…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/20/hunger-profiteers-granny-killers-and-skin-deep-morality/
Colin Todhunter
Today, a fifth (278 million) of the African population are undernourished, and 55 million of that continent’s children under the age of five are stunted due to severe malnutrition.
In 2021, an Oxfam review of IMF COVID-19 loans showed that 33 African countries were encouraged to pursue austerity policies. Oxfam and Development Finance International also revealed that 43 out of 55 African Union member states face public expenditure cuts totalling 3 billion over the next few years.
As a result, almost three-quarters of Africa’s governments have reduced their agricultural budgets since 2019, and more than 20…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/20/hunger-profiteers-granny-killers-and-skin-deep-morality/
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Putin still "playing along" with the West's scamdemic?
When is he finally going to do the long-awaited big reveal?
I mean - isn't it getting just a little silly? ⬇️
When is he finally going to do the long-awaited big reveal?
I mean - isn't it getting just a little silly? ⬇️
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Site Announcement: recent DDoS attacks
Hi all – You may have noticed our site has been slower than usual, and occasionally our servers have been offline. This is because OffGuardian is being targeted by repeated DDoS attacks, our server management team have confirmed.
These DDoS attacks are designed to create a bottleneck in our servers, which can slow the site down and sometimes take it offline entirely.
We’ve been experiencing small attacks like this for weeks, but since midweek they have become much worse. Consequently we’ve had to switch on our Cloudflare security shields.
This is why you’re being asked if you’re human atm!…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/22/site-announcement-recent-ddos-attacks/
Hi all – You may have noticed our site has been slower than usual, and occasionally our servers have been offline. This is because OffGuardian is being targeted by repeated DDoS attacks, our server management team have confirmed.
These DDoS attacks are designed to create a bottleneck in our servers, which can slow the site down and sometimes take it offline entirely.
We’ve been experiencing small attacks like this for weeks, but since midweek they have become much worse. Consequently we’ve had to switch on our Cloudflare security shields.
This is why you’re being asked if you’re human atm!…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/22/site-announcement-recent-ddos-attacks/
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Speak Your Truth: Don’t Let the Government Criminalize Free Speech
John & Nisha Whitehead
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington
What the police state wants is a silent, compliant, oblivious citizenry. What the First Amendment affirms is an engaged citizenry that speaks truth to power using whatever peaceful means are available to us.
Speaking one’s truth doesn’t have to be the same for each person, and that truth doesn’t have to be palatable or pleasant or even factual.
We can be loud.
We can be obnoxious.
We can be politically incorrect.
We can…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/23/speak-your-truth-dont-let-the-government-criminalize-free-speech/
John & Nisha Whitehead
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington
What the police state wants is a silent, compliant, oblivious citizenry. What the First Amendment affirms is an engaged citizenry that speaks truth to power using whatever peaceful means are available to us.
Speaking one’s truth doesn’t have to be the same for each person, and that truth doesn’t have to be palatable or pleasant or even factual.
We can be loud.
We can be obnoxious.
We can be politically incorrect.
We can…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/23/speak-your-truth-dont-let-the-government-criminalize-free-speech/
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This Week in the New Normal #61
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. You will go nowhere and be happy
The age of “cheap flights” is over, Bloomberg reported this week. They go on to say that the cost of flying to Europe from the UK has already increased by over 30%, and that’s not just a temporary bounce thanks to the “pandemic”.
Tellingly, the article does not in any way consider this a bad thing…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/23/this-week-in-the-new-normal-61/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. You will go nowhere and be happy
The age of “cheap flights” is over, Bloomberg reported this week. They go on to say that the cost of flying to Europe from the UK has already increased by over 30%, and that’s not just a temporary bounce thanks to the “pandemic”.
Tellingly, the article does not in any way consider this a bad thing…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/23/this-week-in-the-new-normal-61/
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No, Saudi Arabia did NOT do 9/11
Kit Knightly
The bombshell 911 news this past week, is that a freshly-published court filing from Jul 2021, has revealed at least two of the 19 alleged “hijackers” may have been recruited by the CIA.
Now this isn’t exactly “news”, after all it has long since been established that the CIA, FBI and/or any other US alphabet agencies simply must have been involved. It couldn’t have happened without their involvement.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the new release doesn’t go that far. Instead, the testimony from Donald C Canestraro Declaration – former lead investigator for the Office of Military Commissions…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/24/no-saudi-arabia-did-not-do-9-11/
Kit Knightly
The bombshell 911 news this past week, is that a freshly-published court filing from Jul 2021, has revealed at least two of the 19 alleged “hijackers” may have been recruited by the CIA.
Now this isn’t exactly “news”, after all it has long since been established that the CIA, FBI and/or any other US alphabet agencies simply must have been involved. It couldn’t have happened without their involvement.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the new release doesn’t go that far. Instead, the testimony from Donald C Canestraro Declaration – former lead investigator for the Office of Military Commissions…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/24/no-saudi-arabia-did-not-do-9-11/
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