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Saturday, June 29, 2019

Liberty Suppressed



Justin Smith tackles the assault on American Liberty and a Free Market Economy. The threat: Left-Wing lies as truth and the slow criminalizing of what has made America Great.

They say sex without consent is rape. Then what is government by coercion and force upon those who do not consent to its authority over them?” ~ Neal Ross

JRH 6/29/19
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Liberty Suppressed
Freedom and Liberty Are At Risk

By Justin O. Smith
Sent: 6/28/2019 9:18 PM

Independence Day is a now a day that has no real meaning for far too many Americans today, as nearly half the nation works tirelessly to destroy our republic and the principles it was founded upon, and the rest of us can barely believe that some who want to lead the nation, Democrat communists and Republican globalists (RINOs), hold a vision, that would reduce us all to serfs serving the government rather than the government serving the will of the people; and a good portion of both sides simply want a barbecue and a good time.  America's domestic enemies see state power as paramount over individual liberty, and unless America's youth starts standing up and remembering how much blood was shed for their freedom and the rights they so casually abuse as they trash America in so many ways, from their anti-American speeches to their attempts to destroy the basis of America and our Judeo-Christian principles, everyone, my children and grandchildren and yours too, face dangerous times ahead. 

Anyone who listened to Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren share her horror over states making gains in halting abortion understand that true liberty and individual rights, even states' rights, mean nothing to the Democrats. Warren called for a federal law that codifies Roe v Wade, with the certain knowledge that the federal government treasury would be used to coerce states to fall in line, as has been done regarding so many other federal laws. 

Even at the local city and county governments, citizens witness elected officials, claiming to be "conservatives"  -- who think they know better than the people -- go against the will of the people, just as the city council in Murfreesboro, TN and  also Rutherford County council did recently when they voted a thirty-five percent and six percent tax increase respectively to pay for services and pay raises and to preserve a government "savings account". 

Our republic uses democratic mechanisms to govern, while certain checks and balances and the Bill of Rights were also put in place to protect the individual's rights. The principle of good governance as set forth by Thomas Jefferson and many of the Founding Fathers acknowledges that the rights of the individual are paramount over anything else one might consider in any government.

Read the unredacted parchment drafted by Thomas Jefferson. It presents an important distinction, in that it reads the "Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America", not the "Declaration of the United States of America. 




These were thirteen independent states, on that hot summer day in 1776, not a "United" States in the singular, a State to be held together at gunpoint or through coercion, and these sovereign states were comprised of sovereign individuals who gave their consent to be governed, not ruled. However, today a stark contrast exists between the single State governed by the central authority of the federal government and the once sovereign states that have become nothing more than administrative districts. 

 Since 1865, "consent of the governed" has become a heretical phrase and must not be spoken of due to its implications. No one now living consented to such an all-powerful centralized government, and if consent is a moral prerequisite to legitimate government, the government of the United States -- the singular behemoth, the Leviathan -- is illegitimate on the face of it. And we have allowed ourselves to become subjects, not citizens, speaking holistically, since some of Us have fought government intrusions on individual liberty and states' rights all our adult lives. 

Think You're "free"? Try not paying excessive taxes, as we recall that the War of Independence was fought, in part due to the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Tea Act of 1773 and three pennies added to the cost of a pound of tea. 

The fact that government can levy an excessive tax against Us today and take any amount of our money it arbitrarily determines is "fair" belies the notion we are free. Whatever of our own finances we retain is only by sufferance and not by right. 

Even though you are an adult, who is responsible for your own choices concerning your safety, try not fastening your seat-belt as you cruise down the highway on a sunny Saturday drive. 

One never really owns their property either. No matter how much one paid for it or how many years it has been paid off in full, one is forced to continue paying money to a government whose exactions and existence were never consented to by him. 

And for many Americans, such as President Trump and even myself, who have often stated, "America will never be a socialist country", America is already well on its way to being just that, if not an authoritarian fascist state, noted by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to be "corporatism" and the "merger of corporate and state power". Think of "too big to fail", Bear Stearns and American International Group and the 2008 economic collapse and today's Big Tech subsidies. 

America began a major slide into fascism around 1913, and from that point on, when America enacted many of the ideas enumerated in Marx's 'Communist Manifesto',  like a progressive income tax, a national centralized bank,  government ownership of land, government ownership and control of communications and transportation, government schools, regulation of installment buying, price controls and farm subsidies (corporate farms), government housing, social security and "free" education, and several other items. This has essentially resulted from a convergence of capitalism and socialism, a bit at a time, and not only has it slowly destroyed our economy (note that the current economic "boom" won't last) education and the nation's moral compass, it gave rise to the utter corruption of our political system and the Deep State. 

By contrast, in a true capitalist system an actual free-market exists that is unfettered by government interference, finding its own level as the market demands at any given time. Supply and demand are self-regulating, and government controls are unnecessary limitations on economic freedom. 

Today, far too many Americans have come to see government as their "rescuer" in their longing to have every need met by someone else. They expect government to solve all their problems, and that's a real problem, since everything the government "gives" us exacts a price from our individual liberty, not to mention that D.C. draws sociopaths to it like a pile of cow manure draws flies. 

Just as in Venezuela, our Deep State actors, in cooperation with billionaire socialist George Soros, have been most thorough in representing the current economy as a "capitalist economy", even though America has not had a truly free-market capitalist system in over a hundred years, and they have facilitated full socialism into the political realm. And, when our economy finally does collapse under the weight of the current out-of-control spending and the ever growing fascism and socialism, these anti-American, anti-freedom authoritarians will attempt to fool Americans that capitalism is the problem and socialism is the cure, laying the blame at the feet of capitalism.

The socialist Presidential candidates, such as Bernie Sanders, who wants to forgive all university tuition debt and make healthcare "FREE" also, argue that "capitalism" has failed, and while it is true that the gap between the rich and poor is greater today than it has ever been in modern times, and that the middle class is shrinking and the elite oligarchy of the upper class is growing wealthier, it is due to the insertion of socialist policies into the economy. Pointing to capitalism as the problem is based on more falsehoods and fallacies than I can list; such claims are undeniably false.

Capitalism has not failed, but rest assured that the socialists' dream of making education and healthcare -- the two largest rackets in America -- "free" only further ensures that Americans will be turned into debt slaves and bankrupts; and, to date, socialism has always failed in the basic mission to prepare young minds for life's reality and to "first do no harm." 

All of the socialists' policies in education and healthcare would still do nothing to reform the patent idiocies of the gender studies departments and the current misinterpretation and application of Title IX that infringes on heterosexual rights. Those policies also cannot rescue the "victims" of self-inflicted obesity and diabetes from their toxic consumption of Big Macs, Frosty dairy desserts and fries, since these dynamics rest on the wheels of futility, often depression and self-loathing, for which there is no happy ending outside of drastic changes in behavior.

One must also fully understand governments, especially under Obama and even under President Trump, always move in a direction of more control; just look the politicization of the IRS, FBI and the DOJ and the passage of the FISA Reauthorization, bump stock regulation and various new bill proposals. Given enough time, governments always create a state of despotism, and historically, governments never voluntarily reverse their level of control and introduce greater liberty. 

Although the number is disputed by some, even President Ronald Reagan once noted that there are roughly 20,000 laws regarding gun control alone, and that's just the federal illegitimate "laws". So many other "laws" exist that it's been estimated the average American commits approximately three felonies each day, and this makes the authorities' task very simple, if for any reason they wish to victimize you. Just ask the Bundy Family, Hammond father & son, LaVoy Finicum's Family, Lt. General Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen and a few others. 

Thomas Jefferson once stated: "Even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." 

God help America if the Democrats take the majority in the Congress and the Oval Office anytime in the near future and implement a more stringent and authoritarian form of the morally corrupt, economy destroying and de-civilizing ideology of socialism and the sick social system it embodies. Their system must be exposed for all the obnoxious, abhorrent and hellacious ideas it represents.

Too large a segment of America no longer cares for individualism, free markets, personal freedom and free minds, and in fact, they now mock the very virtues America was founded upon. They may have some ill-formed, nebulous notion on ethics that they borrowed from the Boy Scouts, but they basically assert that socialism and communism are as equally good as capitalism, while their reigning philosophy is a mixture of Marxism, identity politics, anti-male feminism and anti-white racism. 

The institutional damage along the way has been epic, and the scene today is a debris field of broken ideas, that strayed far and away from the Founding Principles and the Original Intent of the U.S. Constitution. The far left still advocates the failed Marxist vision as having national support and purpose, as they rush to implement and organize a chaotic demolition of pretty rigorous American values and traditions and even historic monuments and paintings, in their insane desire to eradicate our republic, a country that still may be the "home of the brave" but is now barely recognizable as the "land of the free".

America is the only country in the history of mankind that was founded on the principles of individualism and personal freedom, that manifested in the early rugged American independent nature of America's people. America is still special, still unique and still that Oh So Exceptional nation that has millions across the globe rushing towards Her shores, even if it's becoming harder to see the fact and the light of liberty shining from Lady Liberty's torch is growing dimmer each day.

As the Founders' spin in their graves, America is now rapidly nearing the point of the ultimate inversion, where the government is free to do anything it pleases and our individual liberty is suppressed and we must bow to the altar of the state and beg permission to act. And this is the stage of the darkest times of human history, the stage of total dominance and rule by violence and brute force.  

Is it too late to restore and save our beloved America? Nothing is ever too late if it serves a righteous cause, and I defy anyone to name any better causes for Us to firmly stand together and defend than our God Given Rights, the Bill of Rights and individual liberty in America, even if it takes us into the streets of our nation in armed conflict and civil war. 

A certain chapter in American history is closing and the future of America and freedom is at risk. Those of Us who love freedom and liberty and America must grab hold of the moment to seize the 21st century for our children's children and their children and generations beyond to ensure their economic prosperity and liberty and a 21st century that becomes all the Founders envisioned, full of an appreciation for life and all America originally represented, God's glory and grace. 

By Justin O. Smith
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Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced by brackets and source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith


BREAKING: CLINTON LAWYER CAUGHT OUT!


It is my humble opinion – sure to anger some – that info from anonymous sources with the appellation “QAnon,” “Vendetta” or the such tend to deliver a message that spurs embellished excitement rather than integrity based data. HOWEVER, I just ran into a video from The Vincent Vendetta Channel that is using a source of integrity in Judicial Watch. If you are a fan of those anonymous sourced outlets you definitely trust this particular video post (which also provides a bitchute link in case Youtube goes censorship crazy).

JRH 6/29/19
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Published on Jun 29, 2019

BREAKING: CLINTON LAWYER CAUGHT OUT! TO WATCH 'VINCENT' ON 'BITCHUTE': CLICK ON THE LINK. https://www.bitchute.com/video/JnIgJErXuvse/

Friday, June 28, 2019

I’m With Wilders Pertaining to Faux-Palestinians

John R. Houk
© June 28, 2019


I have long believed that as long as Arabs reside in Israel’s Judea-Samaria hollering for Israel’s destruction and death to Jews, Islamic terrorism would plague Israel. I discovered today from Israpundit (which is blog cross posted from Arutz Sheva [INN]) that Geert Wilders of the Netherlands is publicly advocating something he broached in 2010. Namely, that is the transfer of Jew-hating Arabs calling themselves Palestinians to Jordan.

After all when Israel proclaimed its Independence in 1948, at least six invading attempted to destroy the restored nation of Israel of which Jordan was one. The invaders’ goal: Destroy Israel, drive Jews into the sea (i.e. genocide) and divvy up the land between the invaders. NO INDEPENDENT ARAB STATE was envisioned by the invaders. Many Arabs fled their homes in the new Israel fearing reprisals from Jews due to past mistreatment and atrocities perpetrated by Arabs. ALSO the fleeing Arabs were convinced they could escape the ravages of war and return after the invaders’ bloody victory.

Victory did not work out for the invaders and the only nation to gain land via invasion was Jordan with the actual help of British Army Officers securing Judea-Samaria. The Arab Legion rank and file began expelling, killing and desecrating Jews in the process. THEN annexing Judea-Samaria west of the Jordan River (area renamed West Bank) and officially renaming Transjordan into Jordan in a 1949-1950 process of events.


Of Interest:




THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NAKBA; By Robert Werdine; Think-Israel; 5/15/12

JRH 6/28/19
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Wilders: ‘Transfer all of the Palestinians to Jordan’

Right-wing Dutch lawmaker pushes alternative to Trump’s Mideast peace plan, calling for transferring Arabs from Judea & Samaria to Jordan.

June 28, 2019


A right-wing Dutch parliamentarian is calling for the transfer of Palestinian Authority residents from Judea and Samaria to Jordan, offering the plan as an alternative to the US-backed ‘Deal of the Century’ Middle East peace plan.

Geert Wilders, chairman of the rightist Party for Freedom (PVV), said Thursday in response to this week’s US-backed economic summit in Bahrain that President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan was part of a futile effort to maintain the Palestinian Authority, which he called a “bottomless” well the international community has been “throwing money into in vain”.


Speaking with Dutch reported Ernst Lissauer Thursday, Wilders offered his own plan, first unveiled in 2010, as an alternative to the US plan.

“A fifty-billion dollar plan for the Palestinians was presented to the world by the US this week in oil state Bahrain,” Wilders said.

“For more than two years, work has been done on a Middle East peace plan that should end, among other things, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The financial part of the plan was presented to the world in Bahrain this week. A ‘Marshall plan’ that should put an end to the bottomless Palestinian well into which the UN has been depositing money in vain for sixty years.”

But, Wilders continued, there seems to be little support for the plan in the European Union, with the money being “coughed up mainly by rich Arab states.”

“In The Hague there is hardly any interest in this Trump project. My plan, the Wilders plan, is a better plan; all Palestinians back to Jordan.”

In 2010, Wilders proposed renaming the Kingdom of Jordan as ‘Palestine’, and turning the country into a homeland for residents of the Palestinian Authority.

“Jordan is Palestine. Changing its name to Palestine will end the conflict in the Middle East and provide the Palestinians with an alternate homeland.”

The PVV, which is now the second largest faction in the Dutch House of Representatives, came under fire by the Jordanian government for the proposal, which Jordan described as “delusional”.
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I’m With Wilders Pertaining to Faux-Palestinians
John R. Houk
© June 28, 2019
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Wilders: ‘Transfer all of the Palestinians to Jordan’

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© Arutz Sheva, All Rights Reserved

Thursday, June 27, 2019

We Need Truth, Justice and the American Way Again

John R. Houk
© June 27, 2019

Superman actors- (top) Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, John Haymes Newton, Gerard Christopher. (bottom) Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and Tyler Hoechlin

When I was kid wayyyy back in the early 1960s I was a huge comic book fan. I read all kinds from Marvel, Key, Harvey and those are only the one I can remember off the top of mind. BUT my favorite comics came from DC Comics. I was pretty committed to all the superheroes but my favorite was DC Comics star attraction – Superman.

The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves – Defending Truth, Justice and the American Way

As you should expect my comic addiction meant I consumed television cartoons and early the early days of TV live action superheroes. My favorite as a child was The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves which aired from 1952-58. I was 2 years when the series ended, so my viewing experience was in the form of syndicated reruns in the 1960s (and I confess, I still watch them if I catch those reruns on today’s cable TV).

Superman landing through a window gif

From childhood through my (gasp) senior citizen days I still can’t resist watching a DC Comic based television or big screen characterization of those superheroes (although admittedly I’m beginning to detest the modern revisionism or storylines and characters). I’m still a Truth, Justice and the American Way aficionado. That is a line nearly if not completely eliminated in revisionist characterization. I am guessing “the American Way” is not the Leftist Way.

On the subject of disappointment, the news that one of the key characters of TV’s Smallville has gotten herself embroiled in one of history’s most infamous sex-trafficking, human bondage and more scandals of the century. Allison Mack portrayed Chloe Sullivan on Smallville. Mack was in the top echelon of those who operated criminally scandalized NXIVM (I think pronounced nix-Ä­-um or nix-Ä“-um).

Smallville Promotional Poster

I found some sordid details on the Conspiracy website Collective Evolution founded by Canadian raised Joe Martino. Reading the article saddened me as spurred good memories of DC Comic Book reading days. I’ll let you the reader measure CE’s accuracy due to the Conspiracy reputation.

JRH 6/27/19 (Hat Tip: NWO Report)

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More Details Emerge From NXIVM ‘Sex Cult’ Implicating Hollywood & The International Financial Elite


June 24, 2019

NXIVM branding scars and Allison Mack [Blog Editor: Due my blog platform’s Potential squeamishness about carved NXIVM branding into the flesh, I blurred the branding. If you wish to view the photo in its original form click the embedded photo link.]

IN BRIEF

Ø The Facts: More news has emerged shedding light on how victims of the NXIVM 'sex cult' which involved the trafficking of women and children, child pornography and more used bribery and promises of fame.

Ø Reflect On: How high does this go? Why do these types of things always happen among elitist powerful groups?

Just a few years ago, talking about the connection between sex cults, the trafficking of women and children, and some very prominent people in positions of power would have people telling you to ‘go put on your tinfoil hat.’ That’s not the case today, and a lot of this stuff has leaked out into the mainstream in several different ways. One of the latest examples  comes from March of last year,  when Smallville actress Allison Mack was ‘outed’ for being a member of a sex cult and working in a management capacity. Apparently, Mack’s job was to lure women into the program under the false pretence of female empowerment and self-help workshops. They were then convinced to sign up for a more “advanced program” called Dominus Obsequious Sororium, which required these women to basically turn their lives over to the leader, Keith Raniere. Dominus Obsequious Sororium is a quasi-Latin phrase that roughly translates to “Master Over The Slave Women.”

Raniere owns a company called NXIVM, which supposedly offers executive success programs, but clearly, that’s not the case. Raniere was also arrested, along with Mack, in March 2018 in Mexico on charges of sex trafficking. He stands accused of raping girls as young as 12 years old, imprisoning a woman for 18 months, child pornography, and more. He has been kept in federal custody in New York.

Participants within this program were also required to hand over sensitive information, nude photos, and other compromising information in case they ‘got out of line,’ in which case the information was used for bribery and blackmail.

According to PageSix, Mack’s place in the DC TV world may have played a role in one former member’s recruitment. A woman known as ‘Nicole’ recently testified in a Brooklyn federal court and revealed that Mack “took her under her wing” when she was on the brink of suicide in February of 2016, ultimately recruiting her into the group. As Nicole revealed, part of what convinced her to join the group was Mack, who played Chloe Sullivan on Smallville, promising that it would lead to an eventual gig playing the DC Comics heroine Wonder Woman.

In her testimony, Nicole recounted a time when she was tied up and sexually assaulted within the group, as well as instances where Mack convinced her to turn over blackmail material for the group. This included providing a sex tape and false letters of information about her family and an ex-boyfriend, who had become a prominent actor.

Is this how people get big roles in Hollywood?

This case also highlights some very powerful connections that are involved in this ‘sex cult.’ Billionaire Clare Bronfman was indicted on racketeering charges. These charges were connected to her role as “Operations Director” for NXIVM. Clare Bronfman is the daughter of Charles Bronfman, a Canadian/American businessman and philanthropist. The Bronfman family has been referred to as the “The Rothschilds of the New World” by author Peter C. Newman, a well-known Canadian journalist and writer. The Bronfman family has also been in business with the Rothschild family for quite some time. One of many examples is their wealth management company, Bronfman Rothschild, which began in 1997 as Virchow Krause Wealth Management.

Bronfman’s brother, Stephen, was one of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s biggest funders. Trudeau was also very close to Peter Danglish, a high-ranking UN sex offender mentioned below. I mention this because I came across more strange ties to the Trudeau family, like the Pierre Elliott Trudeau foundation symbol, as you can see, is the same symbol used by pedophiles to identify sexual preference.

No, this doesn’t mean Mr. Trudeau is involved in something like this, I am just saying that coming across this type of thing is strange to say the least.

But this shouldn’t really come as a surprise, just look at Jeffrey Epstein, a sex offender with deep connections to the royal family, Prince Andrew, and Bill & Hillary Clinton.

We even have whistleblowers when it comes to this field, like Steve Pieczenik, a former United States Department of State official and a Harvard trained psychiatrist with a doctorate in international relations from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He’s been openly talking about this type of thing in elitist circles. You can view an example of him talking about the Clintons here.  Here’s another one of him implicating Bush Sr.

There are ‘high-ranking’ officials being arrested all of the time. An Associated Press investigation into the United Nations (UN) has revealed that over the past 12 years, there have been approximately 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers and other employees around the world. The latest example to come out of the UN would be from the ex-chief advisor for the United Nation’s Child Labour Program, Peter Dalglish, who was recently arrested for pedophilia.

Stories like this corroborate with whistleblower testimonies, like Ex-Nebraska policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac, who served as a UN peacekeeper and worked under DynCorp, a military contractor, where she learned about elite level sex trafficking involving the UN, the State Department, and the Military. You can read more about her testimony here.

This could be connected to the time when former U.S. representative Cynthia McKinney announced she was well aware of the corruption that was going on within DynCorp, addressing it in 2005. She grilled former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the government’s involvement and compliance with military contractor DynCorp’s child trafficking business of selling women and children.

This further corroborates with the story of General James Grazioplene, who worked in the Pentagon and as the Vice President of DynCorp, who is currently facing charges for raping minors as well as incest. (source)

I could go on and on…

When you do research into this topic for a number of years, it’s not hard to believe that high-ranking politicians, financial elite, and ‘famous’ people are all involved in this type of thing, and it goes all the way to the top–to the Vatican and beyond.

We’re talking about ritualistic sexual abuse and the trafficking and murder of women and children. But these topics still have yet to hit the mainstream.

Our Interview With A Survivor of Child Sex Trafficking

Anneke Lucas is an author, speaker, advocate for child sex trafficking victims, founder of the non-profit organization Liberation Prison Yoga, and creator of the Unconditional Model.

Her work is based off her 30-year journey to restore her mental and physical wellbeing after surviving some of the worst atrocities known to humankind before the age of 12. Sold as a young child into a murderous pedophile network by her family, she was rescued after nearly six years of abuse and torture.

We recently conducted an interview with her. Below is a clip from the four part series, as it was a very long and detailed interview. You can access the full interview HERE on CETV, a platform we created to help combat internet censorship and allow us to continue to do our work.


[Posted by Collective Evolution
          Published on Jan 13, 2019]

The Takeaway

If you watch the Anneke interview, you will see how there is a very positive and uplifting message that comes out of all of this. Human trafficking and child abuse represent the most untold stories of our generation, as they millions of souls every year, many of them being children. The International Tribunal For Natural Justice (ITFNJ) is one of many organizations to bring awareness to child sex trafficking. You can read more about that here, especially if you are feeling hopeless about this issue.

We are slowly coming to terms with the fact that this happens at elite levels, done by some of the most ‘prominent’ and powerful people. It’s time to talk about it, and it’s time to ask more questions. Let’s keep disclosure coming.
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We Need Truth, Justice and the American Way Again
John R. Houk
© June 27, 2019
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More Details Emerge From NXIVM ‘Sex Cult’ Implicating Hollywood & The International Financial Elite

Copyright © 2018 Collective Evolution. Cutting Edge Conscious Media

About Collective Evolution

Collective Evolution is a conscious media and education company dedicated to helping humanity address the real challenges we face and bring solutions to the forefront. We do this through two key avenues:

News Media – reporting on world events through a truly neutral lens, and exploring the role these events play in the evolution of human consciousness.

Personal Transformation – Providing viewers with the solutions and tools necessary to build self-awareness, step out of old paradigms, connect with self and be an integral part of changing our world. Of course, this means Collective Evolution and our content is not slanted to either political side.

Founded by Joe Martino 2009, CE has grown to become one of the world’s most popular conscious media outlets.

CE brings light to the corruption of the powerful through even-handed journalism. All of our work inspires personal transformation as a core to creating changes in society. CE’s in-depth investigations, podcasts and videos focus on uncovering the hidden truths about politics, disclosure, shadow governments, corruption, the environment, media, and consciousness. Collective Evolution’s journalists focus on solutions, rather the just information, inspiring READ THE REST

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

If There Is a Neocon Warning – Pay Attention


John R. Houk
© June 26, 2019


The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in conjunction with the Think Tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has put together a report measuring Russia’s potential threat to American interests today.

In the Bush II Presidential years the AEI had a Neoconservative reputation in its policy advocacy. In this day and age Neocons are pretty much castigated by the American Left and American Right.

On a personal level I have been an admirer of Neoconservatism’s American Exceptionalism and a Foreign Policy based on military strength. Traditional Conservatives (sometimes called Paleocons) view this kind of aggressive Foreign Policy as a Big Government budget destroyer. There are those the American Left would label as the racist Right who castigate Neocons as ex-Communist Jews that can’t be trusted.

There is a large amount of truth to the “ex-Communist” association since a large number of early Neocon proponents were indeed Communists or at least Marxist sympathizers, BUT these rebels against Communism woke up to the ideological failures. Socialism (and yes this includes National Socialism aka Nazism) and varieties of Marxism have led to much of history’s oppressive regimes and the genocide of huge groups of human beings.

However, to label a “Communist” a “Jew” is a bit of an oxymoron. Communists are anti-religion atheists by nature and a good Jew practices the religious faith of Judaism. It is true there are people of a Jewish heritage that have repudiated the religious tenets of Judaism and embraced Marxist-Communist ideology. If one embraces Communism one rejects religion. That would make a Jew who became a Communist an ex-Jew. Incidentally, a person of Christian heritage, Islamic heritage, Buddhist heritage or any religious heritage who embraces Communism have rejected their religious heritage and have become an ex-whatever heritage.

Condemning all Jews because a few rejected their religious heritage should logically lead to the same condemnation of other people rejecting their religious heritage. I doubt Jew-haters follow that logic since one rarely hears the label that all Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. are evil because a few accept atheistic One World Government Communism. Hence the hypocrisy of hating Jews because of Communism is just plain racism. (Muslims hate Jews because their revered writings tell them to hate Jews [Percentages]. That’s a whole different kind of racism. One sees that kind of racism among idiot Christians who believe all Jews are responsible for killing Jesus when it was a secret night tribunal of Jewish leaders fearing a rebellion would displace status among their Roman overlords. Human fear and jealousy got Jesus Crucified. God’s love Resurrected the Son of God which offers Saving Redemption to ALL who Believe in the Risen Savior – to the Jew first then to the non-Jew.)

The American Left deride the Neocons’ American Exceptionalism as nationalistic anti-globalist rejectors of Socialism/Marxism.

Have Neocons made mistakes? DEFINITELY! The principle of nation-building based on American Republic Representative-Democracy only works in cultures amenable to the Western heritage. This unfortunate discovery became evident in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those cultures have been brainwashed into Islamic thought for too long for the populace to understand let alone accept Western Representative Democracy.

When Neocons have a warning about Russia in relation to American National Interests and National Security the benefit of the USA is what is in mind.

JRH 6/26/19
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CONFRONTING THE RUSSIAN CHALLENGE

Russian Soldier

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (PDF)
[Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute]
June 2019

Russia poses a significant threat to the United States and its allies for which the West is not ready.  The West must act urgently to meet this threat without exaggerating it.  Russia today does not have the military strength of the Soviet Union. It is a poor state with an economy roughly the size of Canada’s, a population less than half that of the U.S., and demographic trends indicating that it will lose strength over time.  It is not a conventional military near-peer nor will it become so.  Its unconventional warfare and information operations pose daunting but not insuperable challenges.  The U.S. and its allies must develop a coherent global approach to meeting and transcending the Russian challenge.

[Download the full report here and the Executive Summary here.]

The Russian Threat

President Vladimir Putin has invaded two of his neighbors, Georgia and Ukraine, partly to stop them from aligning with NATO and the West.  He has also illegally annexed territory from both those states. He has established a military base in the eastern Mediterranean that he uses to interfere with, shape, and restrict the operations of the U.S. and the anti-ISIS coalition.  He has given cover to Bashar al Assad’s use of chemical weapons, and Russian agents have used military-grade chemical weapons in assassination attempts in Great Britain.  Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons, even in regional and local conflicts. And Moscow has interfered in elections and domestic political discourse in the U.S. and Europe.

The Russian threat’s effectiveness results mainly from the West’s weaknesses.  NATO’s European members are not meeting their full commitments to the alliance to maintain the fighting power needed to deter and defeat the emerging challenge from Moscow. Increasing political polarization and the erosion of trust by Western peoples in their governments creates vulnerabilities that the Kremlin has adroitly exploited.

Moscow’s success in manipulating Western perceptions of and reactions to its activities has fueled the development of an approach to warfare that the West finds difficult to understand, let alone counter.  Shaping the information space is the primary effort to which Russian military operations, even conventional military operations, are frequently subordinated in this way of war.  Russia obfuscates its activities and confuses the discussion so that many people throw up their hands and say simply, “Who knows if the Russians really did that?  Who knows if it was legal?”—thus paralyzing the West’s responses.

Putin’s Program

Putin is not simply an opportunistic predator.  Putin and the major institutions of the Russian Federation have a program as coherent as that of any Western leader.  Putin enunciates his objectives in major speeches, and his ministers generate detailed formal expositions of Russia’s military and diplomatic aims and its efforts and the methods and resources it uses to pursue them.  These statements cohere with the actions of Russian officials and military units on the ground.  The common perception that he is opportunistic arises from the way that the Kremlin sets conditions to achieve these objectives in advance. Putin closely monitors the domestic and international situation and decides to execute plans when and if conditions require and favor the Kremlin. The aims of Russian policy can be distilled into the following:

Domestic Objectives

Putin is an autocrat who seeks to retain control of his state and the succession.  He seeks to keep his power circle content, maintain his own popularity, suppress domestic political opposition in the name of blocking a “color revolution” he falsely accuses the West of preparing, and expand the Russian economy.

Putin has not fixed the economy, which remains corrupt, inefficient, and dependent on petrochemical and mineral exports.  He has focused instead on ending the international sanctions regime to obtain the cash, expertise, and technology he needs.  Information operations and hybrid warfare undertakings in Europe are heavily aimed at this objective.

External Objectives

Putin’s foreign policy aims are clear: end American dominance and the “unipolar” world order, restore “multipolarity,” and reestablish Russia as a global power and broker.  He identifies NATO as an adversary and a threat and seeks to negate it.  He aims to break Western unity, establish Russian suzerainty over the former Soviet States, and regain a global footprint.

Putin works to break Western unity by invalidating the collective defense provision of the North Atlantic Treaty (Article 5), weakening the European Union, and destroying the faith of Western societies in their governments.

He is reestablishing a global military footprint similar in extent the Soviet Union’s, but with different aims. He is neither advancing an ideology, nor establishing bases from which to project conventional military power on a large scale.  He aims rather to constrain and shape America’s actions using small numbers of troops and agents along with advanced anti-air and anti-shipping systems.

Recommendations

A sound U.S. grand strategic approach to Russia:

·       Aims to achieve core American national security objectives positively rather than to react defensively to Russian actions;

·       Holistically addresses all U.S. interests globally as they relate to Russia rather than considering them theater-by-theater;

·       Does not trade core American national security interests in one theater for those in another, or sacrifice one vital interest for another;

·       Achieves American objectives by means short of war if at all possible;

·       Deters nuclear war, the use of any nuclear weapons, and other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD);

·       Accepts the risk of conventional conflict with Russia while seeking to avoid it and to control escalation, while also ensuring that American forces will prevail at any escalation level;

·       Contests Russian information operations and hybrid warfare undertakings; and

·       Extends American protection and deterrence to U.S. allies in NATO and outside of NATO.

Such an approach involves four principal lines of effort.

Constrain Putin’s Resources.  Russia uses hybrid warfare approaches because of its relative poverty and inability to field large and modern military systems that could challenge the U.S. and NATO symmetrically.  Lifting or reducing the current sanctions regime or otherwise facilitating Russia’s access to wealth and technology could give Putin the resources he needs to mount a much more significant conventional threat—an aim he had been pursuing in the early 2000s when high oil prices and no sanctions made it seem possible.

Disrupt Hybrid Operations.  Identifying, exposing, and disrupting hybrid operations is a feasible, if difficult, undertaking.  New structures in the U.S. military, State Department, and possibly National Security Council Staff are likely needed to:

1.   Coordinate efforts to identify and understand hybrid operations in preparation and underway;

2.  Develop recommendations for action against hybrid operations that the U.S. government has identified but are not yet publicly known;

3.  Respond to the unexpected third-party exposure of hybrid operations whether the U.S. government knew about the operations or not;

4.  Identify in advance the specific campaign and strategic objectives that should be pursued when the U.S. government deliberately exposes a particular hybrid operation or when third parties expose hybrid operations of a certain type in a certain area;

5.  Shape the U.S. government response, particularly in the information space, to drive the blowback effects of the exposure of a particular hybrid operation toward achieving those identified objectives; and

6.  Learn lessons from past and current counter-hybrid operations undertakings, improve techniques, and prepare for future evolutions of Russian approaches in coordination with allies and partners.

The U.S. should also develop a counter-information operations approach that uses only truth against Russian narratives aimed at sowing discord within the West and at undermining the legitimacy of Western governments.

Delegitimize Putin as a Mediator and Convener.  Recognition as one of the poles of a multipolar world order is vital to Putin.  It is part of the greatness he promises the Russian people in return for taking their liberty.  Getting a “seat at the table” of Western-led endeavors is insufficient for him because he seeks to transform the international system fundamentally.  He finds the very language of being offered a seat at the West’s table patronizing.

He has gained much more legitimacy as an international partner in Syria and Ukraine than his behavior warrants.  He benefits from the continuous desire of Western leaders to believe that Moscow will help them out of their own problems if only it is approached in the right way.

The U.S. and its allies must instead recognize that Putin is a self-declared adversary who seeks to weaken, divide, and harm them—never to strengthen or help them.  He has made clear in word and deed that his interests are antithetical to the West’s.  The West should therefore stop treating him as a potential partner, but instead require him to demonstrate that he can and will act to advance rather than damage the West’s interests before engaging with him at high levels.

The West must not trade interests in one region for Putin’s help in another, even if there is reason to believe that he would actually be helpful.  Those working on American policy in Syria and the Levant must recognize that the U.S. cannot afford to subordinate its global Russia policy to pursue limited interests, however important, within the Middle East.  Recognizing Putin as a mediator or convener in Syria—to constrain Iran’s activities in the south of that country, for example—is too high a price tag to pay for undermining a coherent global approach to the Russian threat.  Granting him credibility in that role there enhances his credibility in his self-proclaimed role as a mediator rather than belligerent in Ukraine.  The tradeoff of interests is unacceptable.

Nor should the U.S. engage with Putin about Ukraine until he has committed publicly in word and deed to what should be the minimum non-negotiable Western demand—the recognition of the full sovereignty of all the former Soviet states, specifically including Ukraine, in their borders as of the dates of their admission as independent countries to the United Nations, and the formal renunciation (including the repealing of relevant Russian legislation) of any right to interfere in the internal affairs of those states.

Defend NATO.  The increased Russian threat requires increased efforts to defend NATO against both conventional and hybrid threats.  All NATO members must meet their commitments to defense spending targets—and should be prepared to go beyond those commitments to field the forces necessary to defend themselves and other alliance members.  The Russian base in Syria poses a threat to Western operations in the Middle East that are essential to protecting our own citizens and security against terrorist threats and Iran.  Neither the U.S. nor NATO is postured to protect the Mediterranean or fight for access to the Middle East through the eastern Mediterranean. NATO must now prepare to field and deploy additional forces to ensure that it can win that fight.

The West should also remove as much ambiguity as possible from the NATO commitment to defend member states threatened by hybrid warfare.  The 2018 Brussels Declaration affirming the alliance’s intention to defend member states attacked by hybrid warfare was a good start.  The U.S. and other NATO states with stronger militaries should go further by declaring that they will come to the aid of a member state attacked by conventional or hybrid means regardless of whether Article 5 is formally activated, creating a pre-emptive coalition of the willing to deter Russian aggression.

Bilateral Negotiations.  Recognizing that Russia is a self-defined adversary and threat does not preclude direct negotiations.  The U.S. negotiated several arms control treaties with the Soviet Union and has negotiated with other self-defined enemies as well.  It should retain open channels of communication and a willingness to work together with Russia on bilateral areas in which real and verifiable agreement is possible, even while refusing to grant legitimacy to Russian intervention in conflicts beyond its borders.  Such areas could include strategic nuclear weapons, cyber operations, interference in elections, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty, and other matters related to direct Russo-American tensions and concerns.  There is little likelihood of any negotiation yielding fruit at this point, but there is no need to refuse to talk with Russia on these and similar issues in hopes of laying the groundwork for more successful discussions in the future.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.
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If There Is a Neocon Warning – Pay Attention
John R. Houk
© June 26, 2019
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CONFRONTING THE RUSSIAN CHALLENGE

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