Global trucker Convoy Protests Vaccine Mandates

 https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/02/10/trucker-convoys-protest-mandates.aspx?ui=  Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• The Canadian “Freedom Convoy” started pulling into Ottawa January 29, 2022, gathering in front of the Parliament building. They have vowed to stay put until the Canadian government agrees to roll back all federal mandates, including the vaccine mandate and the vaccine passport
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to downplay the protest, referring to it as a “small fringe minority” of people “who hold unacceptable views” and don’t represent the views of Canadians
• As the convoy descended on Ottawa, Trudeau moved out of his residence and then claimed to have contracted COVID and that he would remain in isolation for a week
• Inspired and encouraged by the Canadian trucker movement, truckers in other countries are now organizing their own Freedom Convoys. In Europe, a European Freedom Convoy will meet up in Brussels, February 14, 2022, and remain there “until vaccination passports and associated restrictions are abolished” across the European Union
• Australia also organized a Freedom Convoy to gather outside the Parliament House in Canberra, starting January 31, 2022, and in the U.S., American truckers are planning a DC Freedom Convoy

Did you know there's a massive trucker convoy protesting COVID jab mandates in Ottawa, Canada? You're forgiven if you missed it, because this gigantic movement received very minimal coverage in the conventional press for the first week or so. Ditto for similar trucker protests forming in other countries, such as Australia and Germany.

The Canadian Freedom Convoy

The Canadian "Freedom Convoy" started pulling into Ottawa January 29, 2022, gathering in front of the Parliament building. According to The New York Times:1

"The convoy was organized in response to a regulation, implemented this month, that requires truckers returning from the United States to show proof of vaccination. But it recent days, it has broadened to include Canadians critical of pandemic restrictions in general, and of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ...

Private cars and pickup trucks greatly outnumbered the heavy trucks that made up the convoy in its first days. Throughout Saturday, the vehicles clogged the streets in and around Parliament, most of them bearing flags or signs denouncing public health measures related to the pandemic.

Thousands of protesters on foot, many carrying handmade signs on hockey sticks, wandered through the parked vehicles and the slow-moving traffic or gathered on the lawn in front of Parliament ... Few people appeared to be following Ontario's rules requiring social distancing and masks at crowded, outdoor gatherings ...

Several Canadian news outlets reported that Mr. Trudeau and his family had been moved out of their official residence by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a precaution."

Trudeau Shows His True Colors

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially tried to downplay the protest, referring to it as a "small fringe minority" of people "who hold unacceptable views" and don't represent the views of Canadians. It boggles the mind to think how rapidly our countries have spiraled into authoritarianism where the very idea of freedom is now "unacceptable."

We can't be surprised, however. It's no secret that the World Economic Forum, which is leading the technocratic takeover of the whole world, has penetrated the cabinet of Trudeau and many other countries. WEF head and founder Klaus Schwab admitted it in 2017.2

Once this "fringe minority" descended on Ottawa, however, Trudeau ran. Not only was he escorted out of his official residence, as reported by The New York Times, he's also said to have tested positive for COVID and will be in isolation for a week.3

Countless videos illustrate just how out of touch Trudeau's comments are, and that's putting it kindly. Along highways and overpasses, in the city and outside of it, Canadians have gathered in astounding numbers to cheer the truckers on, everywhere thanking them for taking up this peaceful fight for freedom.

While the actual number of trucks involved is still unknown, it seems reasonable to assume it's in the thousands. According to Local 12 News,4 the convoy could be a "world-record setter" in terms of its size — an estimated 70 kilometers or some 43.5 miles.

The truckers have vowed to stay put until the Canadian government agrees to roll back all federal mandates, including the vaccine mandate and the vaccine passport.5

Covert Surveillance Is Here

In the video above, Jimmy Dore plays an interview with Benjamin Dichter, one of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, who describes how Canada has already rolled out previously unknown technology that scans and reads a trucker's passport and vaccine status on approach, without them actually having to show any papers or display their vaccine QR code on their phone.

Their cell phones pop up automatically on the border agent's screen as they approach the station, and the cell phone is automatically linked to the driver's passport and vaccine card, which are also displayed automatically.

So much for right to medical privacy! The secret surveillance and tracking we've been warning about is here, or at the least at the Canadian border. The question is, where else it might be deployed without our knowledge?

Google Runs Is Part and Parcel of the Surveillance State

For years, I've warned people about the creeping surveillance state, of which Google is a significant part. If you still haven't ditched Google products from your life (which include Android), now's a good time to start. In early 2020, I interviewed Robert Epstein, Ph.D., who for the last decade has helped expose Google's manipulative and deceptive practices. As noted by Epstein, Google's powers pose three very specific threats to society:

1.They're a surveillance agency with significant yet hidden surveillance powers — The Google search engine, Google Wallet, Google Docs, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Chrome browser, YouTube, Android phones, Google home devices like Nest and Google wearables like Fitbit are all surveillance platforms that work together.

Android cell phones, for example, which are a Google-owned operating system, can track you even when you're not connected to the internet, whether you have geo tracking enabled or not, and even if your phone is turned off.

As soon as you reconnect to the internet, all that information stored in your phone is sent to Google. So, even though you may think you've just spent the day incognito, the moment you reconnect, every step you've made is shared (provided you had your phone with you).

Google is also tracking your movements online even if you're not using their products, because most websites use Google Analytics, which tracks everything you do on a website. And, you have no way of knowing whether a website uses Google Analytics or not. The only way to protect yourself against this would be to use a VPN.

2.They're a censoring agency — Google has a unique ability to restrict or block access to websites across the internet, thus deciding what people can and cannot see. They even have the ability to block access to entire countries and the internet as a whole.

The most crushing problem with this kind of internet censorship is that you don't know what you don't know. If a certain type of information is removed from your search, and you don't know it should exist somewhere, you'll never go looking for it. And, when searching for information online, how would you know that certain websites or pages have been removed from the search results in the first place? The answer is, you don't.

For example, Google has been investing in DNA repositories for quite a long time, and are adding DNA information to our profiles. According to Epstein, Google has taken over the national DNA repository, but articles about that — which he has cited in his own writings — have all vanished.

3.They have the power to manipulate public opinion through search rankings and other means — In so doing, they have the ability to shape the opinions, beliefs, thoughts, attitudes, purchases, behavior and votes of billions of people, all without anyone realizing they're being manipulated. They don't even leave a paper trail for authorities to trace. As noted by Epstein:

"They're using new techniques of manipulation that have never existed before in human history and they are for the most part, subliminal … but they don't produce tiny shifts. They produce enormous shifts in people's thinking, very rapidly. Some of the techniques I've discovered are among the largest behavioral effects ever discovered in the behavioral sciences."

In his article6 "Seven Simple Steps Toward Online Privacy," Epstein outlines his recommendations for protecting your privacy while surfing the web, most of which don't cost anything.

Vaxxed or Unvaxxed — People Want Freedom

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Jimmy Dore as we both grew up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago and I love his humor. But for the record, while Dore tells his audience that the COVID jab will protect you from severe illness and death, I disagree. Mounting evidence suggests it might actually destroy your natural immune function, especially after the third dose.

Be that as it may, Dore rightfully states that being against mandates and vaccine passports isn't a cause restricted to the unvaccinated. He, Dichter and countless others who have received the jab did so because they wanted to protect themselves, but they're not willing to give up their freedoms and live in a totalitarian state.

A Political Tsunami

The good news is that, for whatever reason, the Canadian Freedom Convoy has captured the attention and hearts of the global population — even with mainstream media ignoring and/or minimizing it for days. As noted by Ron Paul in the Liberty Report above, it's turning into "a political tsunami."

Truck driver is one of the most common jobs in North America, and perhaps around the world, which might explain the wide appeal of this movement, and how news of it spread so rapidly and organically despite media blackouts and social media censorship. Another reason is probably because people recognize the leverage truckers as a group have.

For example, nearly 70% of all goods freight transported annually in the U.S. are delivered by truck.7 In Canada, that percentage is closer to 90%.8 When thousands of truck drivers stop delivering goods and instead honk their air horns outside a government building, the effects are bound to rapidly become noticeable in the form of empty shelves.

Anyone tired of living in Orwellian dystopia recognizes that this kind of leverage over the political class is far more significant than people marching in the streets with signs — which is what Europeans have been doing every weekend for months on end, to no avail.

The Rise of Global Freedom Convoys

Inspired and encouraged by the Canadian trucker movement, truckers in other countries are now organizing their own Freedom Convoys.9 In Europe, a European Freedom Convoy will meet up in Brussels, February 14, 2022, and remain there "until vaccination passports and associated restrictions are abolished" across the European Union.10,11

Australia also rapidly started organizing a Freedom Convoy to gather outside the Parliament House in Canberra, starting January 31, 2022.12,13 Within days, the Official Convoy to Canberra Facebook page had gathered 170,400 members.14 Facebook has now removed the group.

The government needs to really take a look at what the American people want. And they don't want mandates. ~ Jeremy Johnson, DC Freedom Convoy Coordinator

In the U.S., American truckers are planning a DC Freedom Convoy. Facebook was quick in deleting their page, though — a move its organizers blasted as "Censorship at its finest." As reported by Fox News:15

"The group, titled 'Convoy to D.C. 2022,' acted as a place for truckers to plan and coordinate their trek from California to Washington, D.C. Jeremy Johnson, who set up the Facebook group, said his personal account was also removed, prompting him to contact a civil rights attorney to discuss the next steps ...

[Mike] Landis, a trucker involved in the freedom convoy, told host Carley Shimkus that this movement is 'a long time coming.' He said Americans are tired of the 'government overreach' and criticized politicians for, as he believes, not following the Constitution.

'The presence of that amount of people that show that they are unhappy with what's going on is a good way to hopefully get their attention,' he said. Johnson and Brase anticipate a wide range of Americans, not only truckers, will come out to support their cause.

'This crosses all genders, all races, all sexual orientations, all occupations,' Brase said. 'Truckers might be standing up, but it's not about the truckers. It's about America.' The group's goal is to end vaccine mandates through peaceful protests. 'The government needs to really take a look at what the American people want,' Johnson said. 'And they don't want mandates.'"

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How Fact Checking Is Controlled and Fake

 https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/02/09/fact-checking-controlled-and-faked.aspx?ui  Sorry I can't find the link on Rumble to post the link to the podcast on Epoch News American Thought Leaders

Dr. Fauci with Bill Gates Jr (deceased and father of Bill Gates of Microsoft), George Soros, David Rockefeller (deceased and hidden behind woman in red standing), and Cable Television magnet Ted Turner with the widows of some of the richest men in the world when they were alive. All in favour of a One World Government. Fauci was groomed by Rockefeller to help bring about the One World Government, the pharmeceutical industry brought into existence by the Rockefellers and other rich European capitalists during the early 20th century.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Fact-checking is one part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality
• Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains how virtually everything you see and hear online has been co-opted, or taken over to serve a greater agenda
• Instead of real journalists and reporters, the media is infiltrated with propagandists who dictate what’s “fake news” and what’s not
• The public is being manipulated to want their information censored by third-party “fact”-checkers, which were introduced as a tool to confuse and control the public further
• “Conspiracy theory”, “debunked”, “quackery” and “antivaccine” are examples of terms that are being used as propaganda tools; if you hear them, it should make you dig deeper for the truth
• Those who rely solely on the internet for their information are at serious risk of being controlled; you can fight back by doing your own research, trusting your cognitive dissonance and using your common sense

Prior to 2015 or 2016, you could still read what you wanted online without much interference. This has since changed, as propagandists have infiltrated the media and, along with other major players, like Big Tech and government, set out to control information. Fact-checking — a once-obscure term that’s since gone mainstream — is one part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality — but it’s all a ruse.

Speaking with Jan Jekielek, The Epoch Times senior editor and host of the show “American Thought Leaders,” investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains how virtually everything you see and hear online has been co-opted, or taken over to serve a greater agenda:1

“One has to understand that nearly every mode of information has been co-opted, if it can be co-opted by some group. Fact checks are no different either, they’ve been coopted in many instances or created for the purpose of distributing narratives and propaganda.

And your common sense is accurate when it tells you that the way they chose this fact check and how they decided to word it so they could say this thing is not true when at its heart it really is true, but the message they’re trying to send is that you shouldn’t believe it, your common sense is right.

That’s been created as part of a propaganda effort by somebody, somewhere, as part of a narrative to distribute to the public so virtually every piece of information that can be co-opted has been.”

The Information Landscape Is Being Controlled

Attkisson calls out several common online sources that are heavily manipulated — Wikipedia, Snopes and most “fact” checkers to name a few, along with HealthFeedback.org, which is a fake science group used by Facebook and other Big Tech companies to debunk science that is actually true.

Fact checkers are often referred to as scientists, but this, too, is “part of a very well-funded, well-organized landscape that dictates and slants the information they want us to have.” While there have always been efforts to shape the information being given out by the media, it used to be that news reporters would push back against organizations to ensure the public had the other side of the story.

Beginning in the early 2000s, Attkisson noted a shift from efforts to simply shape information to those that attempt to keep certain information from being reported at all. This was particularly true among the pharmaceutical companies she was covering at that time. Attkisson described “efforts by these large global PR firms that have been hired by the pharmaceutical industry, by government partners that work with the pharmaceutical industry, to keep the story from being reported at all.”2

Now, suppressing and censoring information that those in charge don’t want to be heard is really common. Attkisson believes the practice really took off in 2015 to 2016, “with Donald Trump proving to be a unique danger perceived by both Democrats and Republicans, and by that I mean by the interests that support and pay for them to be in office and make certain decisions.”3

With a wild card in office, a campaign was organized that exploited a media that was already conflicted and less apt to report what was actually going on. “This all dovetailed together to create this crazy information landscape we have today,” she said. Instead of journalists seeking to uncover the truth, we have “writers seeking to spread whatever establishment scientists or politicians want them to say, uncritically and at the expense, oftentimes, of accuracy.”

Now, instead of real journalists and reporters, the media is infiltrated with propagandists who dictate what’s “fake news” and what’s not. Many believe that fake news is a product of Trump, but Big Tech was brought into the campaign early on. A lobby campaign by behind-the-scenes propagandists met with Facebook and said you’ve got to start censoring and “fact” checking information, Attkisson said.

The term “fake news” was popularized after Trump was elected, but it actually got its start before that — it was an invention of political activist website First Draft News, which is partially funded by Google.4

Inviting Propagandists Into the Newsroom

We’re in the midst of an information war where it’s difficult to tell truth from fiction or lies. Journalists are no longer the watchdogs; instead, they take information from obviously conflicted sources and then try to convince the public to believe that particular viewpoint. Other information that’s in conflict is censored or “debunked.”

It’s an unusual time in history where efforts are even underway to manipulate the public to want their information censored and appreciate third-party “fact”-checkers, which were introduced as a tool to confuse and manipulate the public further.5

Yet, when you only hear one side of the story, and you can’t access other information to the contrary, it’s nearly impossible to uncover the truth — and that’s precisely the point. Is this all just a matter of reporters not knowing how to think critically and ask the right questions, or believing that they’re doing the right thing?

Attkisson states that it goes much deeper. A lot of propagandists have become part of the media, and while there used to be a firewall between reporters and the people they reported on, “that’s long gone.” She says:6

“We’ve not just invited them to influence what we report, but we’ve hired them, not just as pundits and analysts but they are reporters. They are editorial presences within our newsrooms. Now we are one and the same.

It’s hard to say that there’s a distinctive difference in many instances between the people trying to get out a message and the messengers in the media who should be doing a more independent job of reporting accurately.”

The COVID Misinformation Campaign

In early 2020, as the pandemic first started brewing, Attkisson talked to everyone she could, including scientists with the government and outside the government. “Pretty quickly, I could see that certain things that were being said publicly were bearing out as not true, and certain things that other scientists were telling me privately rang true, and in hindsight have actually been proven to be true.”7

Early on, quite a few scientists she talked to were questioning the advice being given by government scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and lead spokesperson for the president’s COVID response. She asked them if they should say something and speak out about their concerns, but they all came back with the same response:8

“They said they dared not speak out for fear of being controversialized and for fear of being called coronavirus deniers, because that phrase was starting to be used in the media. And secondly, they feared contradicting Dr. Fauci, who they said had been kind of lionized or canonized in the press for reasons that they couldn’t understand, because they really didn’t think that his guidance that he was giving publicly was the right guidance.”

Certainly, those scientists’ opinions deserved to be heard, but the fear of speaking out silenced them. They feared losing their grants, as most grants for research are funded by the government. If the government doesn’t like what you say or do, you can get fired or never get a grant again, ending your career and threatening your very livelihood.

“That started to strike me as, this is a really dangerous environment, when esteemed scientists who have valuable information and opinions are afraid to give them, and instead we’re hearing a party line that many of them disagree with but won’t say so,” Attkisson said.9

She mentioned the controversial U.S. government funding of gain-of-function research in China, and the notion that SARS-CoV-2 could have come from a Chinese laboratory — both were glaring issues that no one would talk about.

“These are the kinds of things early on that were sort of a red flag to me that says somebody’s trying to shape the information,” she continued. “They’re using reporters to do it. Public health figures are involved in some instances and that makes me want to know what’s really behind it.”10

‘Conspiracy Theory’ Was Devised by the CIA

The term “conspiracy theory” is now used to dismiss narratives that go against the grain. According to Attkisson, this is intentional, as the term itself was devised by the CIA as a response to theories about the assassination of JFK.

“It was shown in documents that there was a suggestion that agents go out and talk to reporters about these things as conspiracy theories — and again, common sense should tell you, as it does me, I’m married to a former law enforcement official who has said to me many times, you know the conspiracy theory phrase in its use doesn’t make sense. Nearly everything is a conspiracy.”11

Anything that involves two or more people is technically a conspiracy, but now when people hear the term, they’re conditioned to think it’s false. “That’s designed to pluck this little part of your brain that says, ‘well that thing’s not true.’” When Attkisson hears the term, however, she thinks that information may well be true. “If somebody’s trying to debunk it, it usually means a powerful interest is behind it and it makes me want to go search for more information on that thing.”

The term “conspiracy theory” has lost meaning now because it’s used so much. “Debunked”, “quackery” and “antivaccine” are all terms that are similarly being used as propaganda tools. “There’s a whole cast of propaganda phrases that I’ve outlined that are cues. When you hear them, they should make you think, ‘I need to find out more about it,’” Attkisson says.

Fact Checkers Pounce on Accurate BMJ Investigation

In another example of the lengths that fact-checkers will go to discredit a story — even if it’s true — take an article published in the BMJ, titled, “COVID-19: Researchers blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial.”12 Written by investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker, it details a series of problems with laboratory management and quality control checks by Pfizer subcontractor Ventavia Research Group, which was testing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a regional director formerly employed by Ventavia, she witnessed falsified data, unblinded patients, inadequately trained vaccinators and lack of proper follow-up on adverse events that were reported. After notifying Ventavia about her concerns, repeatedly, she made a complaint to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — and was fired the same day.13

Soon after Thacker’s investigative piece was published in BMJ, it was “fact checked” by a group called Lead Stories, which referred to the investigation as a “hoax alert” in the related URL. Along with “correcting” statements that Thacker did not make, Lead Stories disparaged the investigation for “missing context,” but as investigative reporter Matt Taibbi explained, “‘Missing context’ has become a term to disparage reporting that is true but inconvenient.”14

Lead Stories took further issue with the BMJ investigation because it was shared by people such as Dr. Robert Malone and Robert F. Kennedy, who themselves have been targeted by fake fact checkers. Taibbi added:15

“The real issue with Thacker’s piece is that it went viral and was retweeted by the wrong people. As Lead Stories noted with marked disapproval, some of those sharers included the likes of Dr. Robert Malone and Robert F. Kennedy. To them, this clearly showed that the article was bad somehow, but the problem was, there was nothing to say the story was untrue.”

Thacker also called the “fact check” against his BMJ investigation “insane,” telling Taibbi:16

“Here’s what they do. They’re not fact checking facts. What they’re doing is checking narratives. They can’t say that your facts are wrong, so it’s like, ‘Aha, there’s no context.’ Or, ‘It’s misleading.’ But that’s not a fact check. You just don’t like the story.”

Reality Is Being Altered in Real Time

As it stands, information is being changed in real time to meet the common agenda. This includes definitions in dictionaries and on official government websites. Examples of definitions that have been changed recently include those for pandemic, herd immunity, vaccines and anti-vaxxer. Attkisson reiterates:17

“Virtually every form of information and sourcing that can be co-opted has been. That includes the dictionary definitions; that includes everything because these are important ways to influence thought. Language is very powerful. People don’t want to be affiliated with certain names and labels.

It reminds me of ‘1984,’ the George Orwell story about the futuristic society, under which history was being rewritten in real time to jive with the version that the government wanted or the party wanted it to be. Definitions now are being rewritten and changed in real time to fit with the vision that the establishment wants people to think.”

For now, you can still use the Internet Archive, commonly known as Archive.org and IA, as a historical archive. In addition to digitally hosting more than 1.4 million books and other documents, Archive.org acts as a historical vault for the Internet, preserving cached versions of websites that are no longer accessible to the public.18

Archive.org’s Wayback machine preserves digital information that has been removed or deleted, whether intentionally or for other reasons, but it, too, could one day disappear. Attkisson says:19

“It’s been a fascinating way to prove the effort to change our perception of how things are and the reality and what we thought we remembered from the other day, because all we really have now is the electronic record, by and large, and if that can be manipulated, there could be a time when — if they get rid of the Wayback machine, for example — that we can’t ever prove that anything was any different.”

Attkisson is maintaining a running list of things the media or public policy got wrong during the pandemic, which can still be verified using the Wayback machine, but which were not acknowledged for being wrong or corrected by the press. They include:20

Claims that the lab theory about the release of coronavirus had been debunked, when it                               had  not been debunked Public health officials saying masks don’t work, and then saying masks do work Fauci testifying to congress that the death rate for coronavirus was 10 times worse                                      than the flu, yet Attkisson found a published article by Fauci where he said the                                    opposite, that “the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately                                               be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza”21 It was wrong to send infected people from hospitals to nursing homes It was wrong to isolate at home and close down parks and beaches; early data from New                            York City showed the vast majority of people hospitalized with coronavirus had been                             isolated at home, while people outside were not getting sick It was wrong to tell people to wash their groceries off to prevent COVID-19 It was wrong to say COVID-19 shots prevented infection and transmission, and that                                      the shots prevented 100% of hospitalizations and deaths It was wrong to not focus more on therapeutics prior to shots and also post-shots

You Can Be Controlled if You Live Inside the Box

Attkisson references a whole generation of people who live inside the box, meaning the internet. Those who rely solely on the internet for their information are at serious risk of being controlled. She explains:22

“They didn’t know a time when information was to be gathered elsewhere by looking around and seeing what you hear, and seeing what you saw, and talking to people around you and looking at books and research and so on.

And the people that want to control the information understand that if they can only control really a few basic sources — we’re talking about Google, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia — they’ve got a lock on information, because we’ve all been funneled to those few sources, and that’s been the goal.

So if you think of it that way, there’s a whole lot of people that get pretty much everything they know through the internet. And the goal of the people trying to make the narrative is to make people live online and to think that’s reality.”

The danger of this is that the internet paints a picture that’s different from reality. You may read something that doesn’t sound quite right, or that you don’t agree with, but the internet makes you feel like you’re in the minority — even if you’re really not.

“Understand that you may actually be in the majority,” Attkisson says, “… but the goal of what they do online is to make you think you’re an outlier when you’re not, to make you afraid to talk about your viewpoint or what you think, because you may actually be the majority opinion but they want to control that and make you think you’re the one who’s crazy.” The solution? Live outside the box:23

“You can be made to believe that — if you live in the box. So, I’m constantly telling people live outside the box. Yes, you can get information there and do what you do online, but certainly trust your cognitive dissonance, talk to the people around you. If you travel, talk to the people in the places you go. You’ll get a whole different picture, as I do, of what’s really happening out here than if you look online.”

The Truth Finds a Way To Be Told

While there are powerful forces at play to control information, all is not lost. Attkisson is aware of three entities that are actively working on a solution, which include:

1. Investors who want to invest in independent news organizations
2. Technical people trying to invent platforms that can’t be controlled and deplatformed by Big Tech
3. Journalists who want to work or contribute to these efforts

Outlets like Substack newsletters and the video platforms Rumble, Bitchute and Odysee, which don’t censor videos for ideological reasons, are actively getting around the censorship of Big Tech, and Attkisson believes that these efforts will accelerate in the next couple of years.

Further, she says, “The propagandists may have overplayed their hand by being so heavy-handed and obvious about the control of information and the censorship. It’s no longer deniable. Even people who want their information curated, they can’t always be happy with the notion that they’re not going to be able to get the full story, or that they’re only getting one side of something.”24

Ultimately, she adds, “I think the truth finds a way to be told … it may take some time and there may be a lot of people that don’t want the truth out, but we inherently as humans seek it.”25 On a personal level, you can go a long way toward finding the truth by following your own common sense and reason, and Attkisson agrees.

“I always say, do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself. Trust your cognitive dissonance, use your common sense. You’re going to be right more often than you think, but open up your mind, read a lot, think a lot and don’t buy into the prevailing narrative at face value.”26

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Some Trucks ‘Rerouted’ Due to Freedom Convoy Protests: White House

 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a briefing in Washington on Feb. 7, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

AMERICAS

By Zachary Stieber

 

February 8, 2022 Updated: February 8, 2022

biggersmaller 

Print

Trucks carrying goods across the U.S.–Canada border have had to shift their routes because of the protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Canada, the White House said Feb. 7.

While there have been zero impacts to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations, “some shipments were rerouted by our law enforcement partners to other points of entry due to road closures,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during a briefing in Washington.

“Some shippers have had to reroute. But CBP has been in communication throughout to ensure shipments can be cleared and onto the normal routes,” she added.

CBP, which has more than 60,000 employees, handles border security.

Later Monday, Ambassador Bridge, which connects Michigan to Ontario, was closed because of protests against mandates.

Psaki was responding after a reporter with Reuters asked if the U.S. government was investigating “right-wing forces” that the reporter claimed have been supporting the protesters.

“Is there any, kind of, you know, involvement of U.S. authorities in looking at those money flows going to these truckers? And are you concerned about it?” the reporter wondered.

After speaking about the rerouting, Psaki added, “In terms of an assessment of any other engagement from here, we don’t really have any update on that or any investigation to read out at this point in time.”

Truckers have gathered in multiple cities in Canada, including Ottawa and Winnipeg, to protest against the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for all truck drivers crossing the Canada–U.S. border. The movement started on Jan. 29.

Trucks and other vehicles drive through Ottawa as part of the trucker convoy protesting COVID-19 restrictions and mandates on Jan. 29, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

Similar protests have since spread around the world, including to New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Authorities in Canada have reacted against the protesters, including seizing fuel from protesters in Ottawa and threatening to revoke the licenses of truckers.

The fundraising website GoFundMe also seized funds from the convoy but backtracked on a plan to donate the funds to charities of their choosing after several U.S. officials said they would probe the move.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he won’t meet with the truckers and Ottawa’s mayor on Feb. 7 said federal ministers should appoint a mediator to try to resolve the situation.

Many protesters have said they won’t stop protesting until the border mandate and similar restrictions are lifted.

Andrew Chen, Limin Zhou, and Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.

 

Zachary Stieber

REPORTER

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Zachary Stieber covers U.S. news and stories relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is based in Maryland.

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Dominant superpowers don’t accumulate $30 trillion in debt

 

February 7, 2022 The year 238 AD began with Maximinus I as Emperor of Rome-- a former peasant who had worked his way up through the ranks of the military before being chosen as Emperor by his troops. By August of that year, Maximinus was dead, and five other men had briefly held the title of Emperor. Only one (Gordian III) was still alive by the end of 238 AD. This is known in Roman history as the ‘Year of the Six Emperors’, and it was an obvious watershed moment in the decline of the empire. It’s not like Rome hadn’t seen plenty of turmoil before-- There had been full-blown civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great nearly three centuries prior in 49 BC. Caligula managed to engineer a major supply chain crisis during his reign in the early 1st century AD. Much of the city of Rome burned to the ground under Emperor Nero in 64 AD. Caracalla heavily debased the currency and caused widespread inflation in the early 200s. And more than a dozen emperors had been assassinated up to that point in Roman history. People were used to crisis and chaos. But the Year of the Six Emperors felt different. It was as if Romans suddenly realized they were no longer the dominant superpower. The next few decades, in fact, are known as the “Crisis of the Third Century”, with more than two dozen emperors seizing the throne in a power struggle, murdering their political enemies, and then being assassinated themselves. Some emperors, like Silbannacus, Quintillus, and Saloninus, literally sat on the throne for a matter of days before being killed. The government was extremely unstable, and notoriously corrupt. They rigged elections. They sent Praetorian guards to harass and intimidate their opponents. And they sewed social conflict so that Romans turned on one another. In the meantime, the Roman economy was collapsing. Inflation became so rampant that Diocletian infamously had to implement extreme price controls, and then threaten to kill anyone who didn’t follow them. They also lost control of their borders, as countless barbarian tribes poured into the empire and squatted on Roman lands. The barbarian migration eventually turned into full-blown invasions and military conflict, and the Roman military lost a number of major battles. In 251 AD, for example, Rome suffered a crushing defeat by the invading Goths at the Battle of Abritus. The Goths decimated three Roman legions, killed the emperor, and stole TONS of gold. Even the lowest peasant was able to figure it out: dominant superpowers don’t lose battles. They maintain secure borders. They have strong currencies. They don’t blow through six leaders in a single year. They aren’t in a constant state of social revolution. And they aren’t bankrupt. We could easily apply the same logic today. And this is especially true after last week’s watershed moment in which the US national debt reached $30 trillion for the first time. It’s hardly controversial to assert that dominate superpowers don’t accumulate $30 trillion in debt (which, by the way, is 25% larger than the entire US economy). But it’s not just the debt. It’s so much more. Dominant superpowers don’t surrender tens of billions of dollars of military equipment to their sworn enemy, and then fly away with local civilians clinging to the side of their aircraft. Dominant superpowers don’t abandon their own citizens abroad. Dominant superpowers don’t engineer historically high inflation… and then ignore it. Nor do they embrace socialism, i.e. the literal opposite of the capitalist economic system that created so much wealth and power to begin with. Dominant superpowers don’t send their government agents to harass innocent citizens, or tell parents they have no say in the education of their children. Dominant superpowers don’t suspend their Constitutions because of a virus. They don’t give people incentives to NOT work. They don’t constantly make it difficult for small businesses to succeed. Dominant superpowers don’t deliberately reduce their military’s physical fitness standards in the name of diversity and inclusion. They don’t prioritize “equity” over national security. And they certainly don’t fire experienced intelligence operatives because of individual medical decisions. Dominant superpowers don’t placate their adversaries and bow to their demands. They aren’t afraid to offend their rivals. Dominant superpowers don’t create incentives for countless people to illegally cross the border and go live under a bridge. And above all else, dominant superpowers are able to deal with challenges. Yes, there’s always been conflict and disagreement. But dominant superpowers have stable, effective governments who can do what is necessary to solve problems. And they have societies whose people can coexist peacefully without being at each others’ throats all the time. It might not be pleasant to think about, but these are all true statements about the United States. And like Rome, they are all obvious signs of decline. Simply put, the US is no longer the dominant superpower. This doesn’t mean the world is coming to an end, or that some horrible cataclysm is about to take place. But it should be reason enough to have a Plan B. To your freedom,

Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

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