Episode 12: Religion and the Early Revolution

Living the French Revolution and Age of Napoleon

Dr Suzanne M Desan

Film Review

The Catholic church was the second most powerful institute, after the monarchy, In pre-revolutionary France. Prior to the revolution, all births, marriages and deaths were tracked, not by local government, but by the local parish. Often the priest was the only villager who could read and write, which made him an essential link to the outside world. In many instances, peasants who worked church lands had church officials as their feudal lords.

During the 18th century Enlightenment, the number of priests, monks and nuns, as well as attendance at Easter mass, steadily declined as Enlightenment philosophers questioned the wealth and power of the church.

As the revolution progressed, the National Assembly began (against strong right wing opposition) nationalizing and selling off church lands to help pay the national debt. Six to seven percent of church land changed hands before strong popular opposition stalled the reforms.

In addition to selling off land, the National Assembly became very critical of monks and nuns, especially those from contemplative orders. Bolstered by a scandal involving clergy and monks who patronized brothels, in February 1790 monastic vows were abolished (except for orders that taught or cared for the sick and poor). Some monks, pressured into vows of celibacy, readily agreed with these changes, especially as it was fairly easy for men to find jobs outside the monastery.

The National Assembly also created a Civil Constitution of the Clergy, in which the clergy became government employees and received government salaries. This was great for clergy, who got a pay rise, but not for bishops, who pay was reduced. This mandate also provided for the electoral assemblies of each department to elect their priests and bishops.

In 1791, the National Assembly passed their most controversial religious reform, which required all clergy to take a loyalty oath to the nation, law and king. Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to it. When the Pope condemned it, there was a flurry of retractions. Eventually roughly half the 83 new departments accepted the loyalty oath. Only seven bishops agreed to it.

Rural women began to lead protests opposing it (and the revolution). New priests had to be found in parishes where the priest refused to take the oath – some parishes had two priests (one “juring”* and one non-juring)

By 1792, many outlawed priests were secretly performing masses.

*From the French word jurer “to swear.”

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/149323/149347

Kyle Becker

Trending Politics

In January 2017, an “all-hands” National Security Council staff meeting  was convened for the explicit purpose of scheming to “get rid” of then-President Trump.

Donald Trump, the duly elected president, was already in the midst of a Russia collusion hoax accusing him of high treason, which was orchestrated by defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.

Trump’s political opponents weaponized the false accusation of Russian collusion using Russian disinformation in the Steele dossier. This had led to 2016 Trump campaign surveillance and the undermining of his first presidential term with the ensuing Mueller investigation. It was the consummate act of “election interference.”

This 2017 NSC meeting involved a figure that Americans would come to learn more about during the first impeachment imbroglio, based on hearsay that Donald Trump was attempting to procure “dirt” on future president Joe Biden from the Ukrainian president.

His name? The accused “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella.

A 2020 Real Clear Investigations sets the scene:

Barely two weeks after Donald Trump took office, Eric Ciaramella – the CIA analyst whose name was recently linked in a tweet by the president and mentioned by lawmakers as the anonymous “whistleblower” who touched off Trump’s impeachment – was overheard in the White House discussing with another staffer how to remove the newly elected president from office, according to former colleagues.

Sources told RealClearInvestigations the staffer with whom Ciaramella was speaking was Sean Misko. Both were Obama administration holdovers working in the Trump White House on foreign policy and national security issues. And both expressed anger over Trump’s new “America First” foreign policy, a sea change from President Obama’s approach to international affairs.

“Just days after he was sworn in they were already talking about trying to get rid of him,” said a former White House official who overheard their conversation.

“They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the former official added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

It is important to note here that both Ciaramella and Misko were implicated in the plot to remove Donald Trump in the first impeachment hearing.

Misko left the White House last summer to join House impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s committee, where sources say he offered “guidance” to the whistleblower, who has been officially identified only as an intelligence officer in a complaint against Trump filed under whistleblower laws. Misko then helped run the impeachment inquiry based on that complaint as a top investigator for congressional Democrats. […]

The coordination between the official believed to be the whistleblower and a key Democratic staffer, details of which are disclosed here for the first time, undercuts the narrative that impeachment developed spontaneously out of what Trump’s Democratic antagonists call the “patriotism” of an “apolitical civil servant.”

Two former co-workers said they overheard Ciaramella and Misko, close friends and Democrats, discussing how to “take out,” or remove, the new president from office within days of Trump’s inauguration. These co-workers said the president’s controversial Ukraine phone call in July 2019 provided the pretext they and their Democratic allies had been looking for.

“They didn’t like his policies,” another former White House official said. “They had a political vendetta against him from Day One.”

Furthermore, the documentation that shows how Rep. Adam Schiff’s office was contacted by the “whistleblower” was reported as being “Secret.”

The investigators say that details about how the whistleblower consulted with Schiff’s staff and perhaps misled Atkinson about those interactions are contained in the transcript of a closed-door briefing Atkinson gave to the House Intelligence Committee last October. However, Schiff has sealed the transcript from public view. It is the only impeachment witness transcript out of 18 that he has not released.

Schiff has classified the document “Secret,” preventing Republicans who attended the Atkinson briefing from quoting from it. Even impeachment investigators cannot view it outside a highly secured room, known as a “SCIF,” in the basement of the Capitol. Members must first get permission from Schiff, and they are forbidden from bringing phones into the SCIF or from taking notes from the document.

But a new Judicial Watch lawsuit seeks to uncover the documentation of the NSC meeting

“Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for reports submitted by a military officer to his superiors regarding an alleged conversation around January 2017 between CIA analysts Eric Ciaramella and Sean Misko about trying to “get rid” of then-President Trump (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:24-cv-00068)),” the legal watchdog announced.

Judicial Watch “sued after the Defense Department failed to respond to a January 14, 2022, FOIA request for”:

• Any and all reports submitted by a US military officer assigned to the National Security Council to his superiors relating to a conversation he overheard circa January 2017 at an “all-hands” NSC staff meeting between CIA analysts Eric Ciaramella and Sean Misko regarding trying to “get rid” of then-President Trump, as discussed in a January 22, 2020 Real Clear Investigations article available at this link.
• Any and all records relating to any investigations conducted by the Department of Defense and/or its sub-agencies and departments into the alleged conversation between Misko and Ciaramella referenced above, including but not limited to investigative reports and witness statements.
• All emails and communications sent to and from members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding the alleged conversation between Misko and Ciaramella and any related investigations.

At a meeting of the NSC staffers two weeks into the Trump administration, an anonymous military staffer sat directly in front of Ciaramella and Misko and verified hearing them discuss deposing Trump.

“After Flynn briefed [the staff] about what ‘America First’ foreign policy means, Ciaramella turned to Misko and commented, ‘We need to take him out,’ ” the staffer recalled. “And Misko replied, ‘Yeah, we need to do everything we can to take out the president.’”

According to the military detailee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “By ‘taking him out,’ they meant removing him from office by any means necessary. They were triggered by Trump’s and Flynn’s vision for the world. This was the first ‘all hands’ [staff meeting] where they got to see Trump’s national security team, and they were huffing and puffing throughout the briefing any time Flynn said something they didn’t like about ‘America First.’”

He said he also overheard Ciaramella telling Misko, in reference to Trump, “We can’t let him enact this foreign policy.”

The military worker was alarmed by their chat and promptly reported what he had heard to his superiors.

“It was so shocking that they were so blatant and outspoken about their opinion,” he recalled. “They weren’t shouting it, but they didn’t seem to feel the need to hide it.”

“The intelligence community targeted Trump for removal for daring to question Biden family corruption and election interference tied to Ukraine and Burisma,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The Biden Defense Department’s sitting for over a year on a simple FOIA request on the Deep State targeting of Trump is a cover-up plain and simple.”

“Judicial Watch previously sued for information about Ciaramella,” the report added. “In November 2019 Judicial Watch reported that among those visiting Ciaramella at the White House were several officers in leftist George Soros organizations.”

In December 2019, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the DOJ and the CIA over contacts between Ciaramella and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI Attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and/or the Special Counsel’s Office. In both instances, the government declined to provide records, “refusing to confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of responsive records” because “confirming or denying the existence or non-existence of responsive records would reveal information protected by the CIA Act, namely the existence or non-existence of an employment relationship between the Agency and Mr. Ciaramella.” And, would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

The NSC staff meeting, as described, would be evidence of high treason against a sitting President of the United States. It would be a true “insurrection” to topple the Commander-in-Chief, and would typically be prosecuted in a court of law, leading to arrest or court martial. The secret documents are thus critical to exposing a reported CIA and NSC plot to remove Donald Trump as President of the United States “by any means possible.”

[…]

Via https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/cia-officials-implicated-knab/

Scott Armstrong

Now is the time to build and strengthen high-trust communities to help ensure that we can withstand anything that they throw at us in the years to come.

The Lockdown Era

The Lockdown Era that began in 2020 was one of the most damaging times in human history. The weight of the fear and uncertainty led many people into despair. Whether we are talking addiction, suicide, starvation in third world countries or the effects on children, so much harm was done to the world population. Many are still suffering from the fallout.

But many of us refused to cave in to the fear and took action. We were forced to find other like-minded people in a veritable ocean of masked faces and closed businesses. We had to figure out a way to exist when everything we took for granted was stripped away. For many of us, this was the most empowering time of our lives.

In 2020, I was living in Oregon, a state that imposed some of the most tyrannical lockdown measures in the world. It was frightening to see what was possible from a power-hungry state government, seething with a desire to thrust its will on the populace. But out of that, many of us found each other and we did some amazing things.

Strength In Numbers

When the Lockdowns began and I had a different view on the situation than most of the people in my life. I faced a lot of ostracism and criticism. I’m sure you can relate. Many of the people that I had been friends with for years, and considered family, turned their back on me and made it very clear that they thought I was a horrible person for my beliefs. Members of my actual family did the same. My first instinct was to find the people out there that felt the same way I did.

I heard about the Freedom Cell movement (FreedomCells.org) and attended a meetup in Portland, about two hours north of us. We were so inspired by that first meetup that myself and a couple of friends started our own Freedom Cell in Eugene. People came out of the woodwork and we started hosting gatherings, first in the park and then at a local coffee shop that stood up to the lockdown measures and remained open the entire time called Along Came Trudy in Springfield, Oregon. Big shoutout to Trudy and the team there.

As we continued to gather, host potlucks, conduct skill sharing clinics and more, we began building friendships and trust. I still hold onto many of those relationships to this day, despite having since moved to Nashville, TN. In the summer of 2020, we even put on an entire Freedom Festival outside of Portland called ManiFEST, complete with guest speakers (including Dr. Paul Thomas, filmmaker and activist Matt Landman [Frankenskies] and Medical Freedom Attorney Bob Sneed), live music and even the burning of an effigy of the Oregon State Governor at the time, Kate Brown. It was a blast.

Through all of this, we were not only fearless, but empowered, strengthened and confident that as a community, we could endure. Not only did we endure, but we thrived. Out of this, we began building a network, a parallel system/society that encouraged in-group preference when doing business, sharing each other’s work and accomplishments and helping each other in times of need. This marked a turning point for me and I realized that community was the answer.Now Is The Time

Unjected was born out of the need for people who were struggling with social shame and broken relationships to find each other. We are proud to know for a fact that many people have found love, friendships and community through our platform. We are now hearing of decentralized “Unjected Meetups” that are springing up around the world.

We want you all to gather in real life and find the joy that we have found when groups of like-minded people congregate together. You never know what will be born out of it! We want to provide you with the resources that you need to have successful in-person Unjected gatherings! Don’t wait for other people to do it, do it yourself! If you build it they will come.could only join once they came to a meetup in person, an “inner circle” group, if you will.create it! There are so many people that get the impulse to find like-minded people nearby, have difficulty finding them, and then stop short. Imagine if each one of those people took the additional step of creating a space for others to find each other, then our whole society would be comprised of nodes and pockets of freedom and commerce.

[…]

Now is the time. Go out there and find your Unjected Family! You will not regret it.

Here are some additional resources you can utilize for finding and building community as well:

• Unjected: Unjected.com
  • The world’s first and largest platform specifically for the Unvaccinated. Find love, friendships and community with many incredible upgrades coming soon to help us find each other!
• The Freedom Cell Movement FreedomCells.org
  • Decentralized, agorist community of people who have the attitude of “Exit and Build”
• Make Americans Free Again: MakeAmericansFreeAgain.com
  • Founded by Dr. Pam Popper, MAFA encourages people to meet in-person to build resilient parallel societies. From their website: “Once a parallel society is established, its members are no longer in the same danger as when they relied on the structures and institutions that are part of the tyrannical state (examples include education and medicine). It provides protection for when establishment structures collapse and serves the authentic needs and wants of people rather than political class.”
• The Beartaria Times App: app.BeartariaTimes.com
  • A social media app, similar to Instagram, that only allows “The good, the true and the beautiful,” no truther talk or politics, just people showing off their accomplishments, their families, their gardens and building businesses. You can meet people by state or country with a strong emphasis on in-person meetups. ($15/year)

[…]

Via https://unjected.substack.com/p/community-our-greatest-weapon-against?r=83qir

Photo Credit: The Cradle

The Cradle

The gathering was not spontaneous, as children quickly began holding signs reading “Open the crossing.” Their plea was directed towards international organizations across the border in Egypt, conveyed through the signs as aid trucks stacked up, awaiting Egyptian permission to cross.

As the kids roamed around the border fence, lunch was provided to EU observers and civil society staff, who gave up their meals to the children of Rafah. Now here’s the rub. Those placards were not addressed to Egypt. The crossing was not Rafah, but Gaza’s north-eastern Karni border point with Israel. And the incident took place in 2006, not in 2024. 

Agreements to ensure control

In 2006, Israel’s punishment to Palestinians for voting in Hamas during free and fair elections was starvation. This is Tel Aviv’s silent war, a siege that slowly claims its victims, depriving Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians of nourishment and medical relief. 

Since the Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the Strip found itself under a tight blockade, transforming it into a massive open-air prison surrounded by wires and checkpoints. 

Eight crossings were controlled – six of these by Israel – connecting Gaza to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948. Four of these crossings remained completely closed, and two were opened intermittently: “Beit Hanoun” and “Kerem Shalom.”

Since Israel’s military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv has had a singular goal: to establish total hegemony over Gaza by land, air, and sea. To achieve its aims, three agreements were signed to regulate movement at the crossings: the Crossings Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (2005), the Palestinian-European-Israeli border control agreement, and the Philadelphi Protocol between Egypt and Israel. 

The latter deal established a 14 km buffer strip along the Egypt-Gaza border and required Israeli–Egyptian security coordination, the presence of Egyptian border guards along the Philadelphi corridor, and security patrols from both sides.

Rafah as the sole lifeline for Gazans 

The Rafah crossing was restricted to Palestinian ID card holders, with exceptions requiring prior notice to the Israeli government and approval from the highest PA authorities. 

The General Authority for Crossings in Gaza, under the PA, handled approvals and objections, with strict timelines set by the crossings agreement. However, tensions rose when Hamas took control of the crossing in 2007, leading to shifts in operations and closures based on the evolving relations between Egypt and Hamas. 

The dynamic changed in 2017 when rivals Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement, aiming to end the persistent internal division. However Israel’s complete blockade on the Gaza Strip after the 7 October Hamas-led resistance operation elevated the significance of the Strip’s border crossings with Egypt. 

Just a year earlier, the Rafah crossing had been open for 245 days and facilitated the passage of over 140,000 people and numerous essential goods such as diesel, cooking gas, and construction materials.

Alongside its brutal, unprecedented, military assault on Gaza, Tel Aviv has instituted a draconian siege on Palestinians in the Strip, cutting off access to water, electricity, and communications – and the essential crossings – for over 100 days now. 

The Rafah crossing has become the sole lifeline for civilians seeking refuge from shelling, or receiving medical treatment or even a meal. While International organizations have flocked to provide aid through the crossing, mass displacement caused by indiscriminate Israeli bombardment – and Egyptian opposition to a resettlement plan in Sinai – have worsened the situation, leading to the emergence of a class of beneficiaries.

Three ways out of Gaza 

Before the war, there were three routes for exiting the Gaza Strip. The official route involved submitting lists of names for approval from the Israeli side, a process often taking several months. Accepted individuals faced additional obstacles on the Egyptian side, including inspections and transport to Cairo airport in a “deportation caravan.” 

The unofficial track, managed by brokerage offices, offered faster passage for fees ranging from $300 to $500 or even up to $10,000. 

The third track, linked to the Egyptian intelligence services is exclusively run by travel company Hala, which a source tells The Cradle is connected to notorious Sinai businessman and warlord Ibrahim al-Arjani. 

This “VIP” route, established in 2021, allows for swift transit, exemption from inspections, and the option for travelers to stay in Egypt before heading to the airport, with costs ranging from $500 to $700 per person.

Egypt’s profit from Palestinian pain 

Amid the latest Israeli atrocities, the occupation state has permanently barred the exit of individuals not on approved lists, with the exception of dual nationals following foreign embassy interventions. However, some Egyptian officers at the crossing have exploited a loophole known as “security exclusion.” This involves refusing exit for reasons related to the traveler’s perceived association with Hamas, leading to negotiations for substantial sums for exit. 

Despite Gaza’s military and humanitarian devastation and urgent demands by global NGOs to allow aid to enter the Strip, Israel turns a deaf ear. In the International Court of Justice (ICJ) defense argument, Israeli lawyer Christopher Stacker has pointed the finger of blame elsewhere, saying bluntly that “access to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing is controlled by Egypt.”

It was a feeble attempt to absolve Israel from its international law obligations: the Egyptian government promptly denied the allegations, with the head of the State Information Service (SIS), Diaa Rashwan, dismissing them as “lies.”

Cairo not only denied Israel’s claims but also submitted a comment to the ICJ, clarifying that Egypt did not close the Rafah crossing. While Egypt controls the crossing by land, it is Israel that maintains control from the air. It was Israeli airstrikes at the Rafah crossing and in the nearby town of Khan Yunis where at least 49 people were killed late last year.

The threat looms large. If approval from Israel is not received for the passage of a “deportation convoy” or aid truck, Tel Aviv may revert with further bombings of Rafah. 

But Cairo is not off the hook either. Even if Egypt is held blameless for the primary blockade of Gaza, it unquestionably benefits from it too.

[…]

Via https://new.thecradle.co/articles/starving-gaza-egypt-and-israels-rafah-weapon

Jim Holt

Gateway Pundit

On Friday, in a Federal Court In Atlanta, Georgia, University of Michigan Professor of Computer Science and Engineering J. Alex Halderman testified in front of Judge Amy Totenberg’s courtroom about the Dominion voting machines used in the Georgia elections since 2020.

As reported earlier, during his testimony, Halderman was able to HACK A DOMINION VOTING MACHINE and change the tabulation in front of U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in the courtroom!

Halderman USED ONLY A PEN TO CHANGE VOTE TOTALS!

His testimony was part of a long-running lawsuit by election integrity activists set as a bench trial.

The plaintiffs seek to remove what they say are insecure voting machines in Georgia in favor of secure paper ballots.

Following The Gateway Pundit’s explosive report on Saturday night, we spoke with Georgia reporter Amber Connor, who has been sitting in the courtroom during the trial for the past two weeks.

Amber confirmed what was reported earlier about Halderman’s demonstration live on how to hack a Dominion voting machine and change the totals using only a pen. In fact Halderman borrowed a pen from the defense attorneys for his demonstration.

The mainstream legacy news media has decided to ignore this historic case taking place in Georgia for some reason. Why is that?

[…]

But that’s not all. Halderman also demonstrated how to fix the results and rig the count during an election.

[…]

Here is background on the Halderman Report and the Curling vs. State of Georgia case.

In June 2023, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia unsealed the 96-page Halderman Report – the Security Analysis of Georgia’s ImageCast X Ballot Marking Devices.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had been hiding this report from the public for two years.

University of Michigan Professor of Computer Science and Engineering J. Alex Halderman and Security Researcher and Assistant Professor at Auburn University Drew Sringall collaborated on the report where they discovered many exploitable vulnerabilities in the Dominion Voting Systems’ ImageCast X system.

Far-left Judge Amy Totenberg sealed and covered up the results of the investigation of Dominion voting machines in Georgia and sat on the report until this week.

The report confirmed that votes can be altered in the Dominion voting machines.  In fact, the report revealed that the Dominion software is vulnerable and can be hacked.

Following its release, VoterGA founder Garland Favorito joined Steve Bannon on The War Room to discuss the findings from the explosive report.

Trump-hating Secretary of State Raffensperger hid this information from the public until 2023.  Why was that?

Here is a copy of the Halderman Report released in June.

Halderman Report on Georgi… by Jim Hoft

Professor Halderman wrote about his findings in a blog post on Wednesday.

Back in September 2020, the Court granted the Curling Plaintiffs access to one of Georgia’s touchscreen ballot marking devices (BMDs) so that they could assess its security. Drew and I extensively tested the machine, and we discovered vulnerabilities in nearly every part of the system that is exposed to potential attackers. The most critical problem we found is an arbitrary-code-execution vulnerability that can be exploited to spread malware from a county’s central election management system (EMS) to every BMD in the jurisdiction. This makes it possible to attack the BMDs at scale, over a wide area, without needing physical access to any of them.

Our report explains how attackers could exploit the flaws we found to change votes or potentially even affect election outcomes in Georgia, including how they could defeat the technical and procedural protections the state has in place. While we are not aware of any evidence that the vulnerabilities have been exploited to change votes in past elections, without more precautions and mitigations, there is a serious risk that they will be exploited in the future.

After the report’s release, Professor Halderman tweeted that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger would not install Dominion’s security patches before the 2024 election.

Now this… on Friday, in a Federal Court In Atlanta, Georgia, J. Alex Halderman was able to HACK A DOMINION VOTING TABULATOR In Front Of U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in the courtroom!

Halderman USED ONLY A PEN TO CHANGE VOTE TOTALS!

This is part of a long-running lawsuit by election integrity activists set as a bench trial.

The plaintiffs seek to remove what they say are insecure voting machines in Georgia in favor of secure paper ballots.

[…]

Via https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/gig-is-up-exclusive-local-reporter-describes-election/

Dmitry Orlov

This war is a world war and it will only be completed once the United States, along with its allies, is completely exhausted and no longer poses a risk to anyone. Only then will the demon that causes men to fight wars for profit finally be exorcised.

Numerous analysts have pointed out that Russia’s military strategy in the former Ukraine swiftly shifted from offense in the initial phases, leading up to the İstanbul peace agreement, negotiated and provisionally agreed to in March of 2022, to defense once the Kiev regime (or, rather, its American and British masters) reneged on the deal.

This was an obvious and, as far as it went, accurate observation: prior to that change in strategy, the Russian forces seized control of some 100.000km2 of territory; past that point, they erected fortifications along a relatively straight 1000km line, which they have held ever since, making scant efforts to occupy new territory except to move Ukrainian artillery farther away from the thickly settled Donetsk in an effort to save the lives of civilians. But there is more to it than just offense and defense.

Russian military science defines two paths to victory and neither mindless offense nor mindless defense happens to be either one of them.Although one of Russia’s greatest generals, Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800), titled his book “The Science of Winning,” there is far too much chance to war to make military science a true hard science. Nevertheless, military men always try to generalize the experience of various campaigns in order to formulate simple laws, which they then attempt to apply in campaigns that follow.

A crowning achievement along these lines is the book “Strategy” by general Alexander Svechín (1878-1938), who is often quoted by general Valery Gerasimov — who is someone whose name you should definitely remember when thinking about current Russian military strategy. Gerasimov is Chief of the General Staff, First Deputy Minister of Defense, member of the Security Council, decorated Hero of the Russian Federation.

[…]

A war between equal forces is, according to Svechín, always won by the method of exhaustion: the destruction of the enemy’s key forces, not through a chain of defeats, but by a consistent arithmetic advantage in the ratio of losses such that the enemy cannot win. The much better than 10:1 kill ratio between the Russian and the Ukrainian forces, quite copacetic according to Russian military doctrine, never gave the Ukrainian side any chance of victory — ever, at all.

In a battle of equal forces, or against a superior force attempting to employ the strategy of devastation, the strategy of exhaustion inevitably wins: the attacking army is ground down and melts away; its morale and its armaments deteriorate; its material and technical supplies dwindle. Meanwhile, its adversary, which initially set course for exhausting the enemy, spends its energies on calmly and methodically conserving and building up its strength.The aforementioned general Gerasimov has quoted general Svechín numerous times during his policy speeches and the distinction between the strategy of devastation and the strategy of exhaustion fully explains the course of Russia’s Special Military Operation in the former Ukraine. Let us count the ways:

• Bridges across the Dnieper were left intact but military factories and warehouses were attacked using precision rocket strikes. The key was not to destroy the armaments or to hinder their delivery to the front but to prevent their replacement once they are destroyed.

• There was a partial mobilization, very selective, with a strong emphasis on the very successful effort of recruiting volunteers. Only trained, experienced fighters were chosen to be retrained using the latest equipment and methods and sent to the front.

• There was a complete absence of attempts to organize a decisive battle in what was initially heralded as a campaign of liberation; however, the Ukraine’s planned devastating attack on Donetsk and Lugansk was successfully thwarted at a minimal cost in lives.

• As far as attacks on Ukrainian lines, all that happened was that a certain disreputable character (Yevgeny Prigozhin, now dead) and his private military company (Wagner PMC, now disbanded) were given a carte blanche to recruit, train and send into battle a large number of other disreputable characters — convicts who had been cluttering up Russia’s jails. This mission was a success, since Bakhmut/Artyomovsk is now under Russian control and the ability of the Ukrainian forces to swiftly relocate and regroup along the front has been destroyed.

• There was a concerted effort to pull the Ukrainian Armed Forces in all directions at once, not allowing them to concentrate forces at any given point of the front. They were prevented from carrying out a single decisive attack, but forced to continuously shore up their defenses everywhere at once.

• Priority was constantly given to minimizing losses over advancing. The soldiers at the front are highly motivated to achieve decisive victory and are sometimes enraged by what they see as excessive caution and deliberate slowness of the General Staff.

• Specific, though generous, amounts have been included in the three-year budget plan for the continuation of the Special Military Operation. The Russians took the American pledge of support of “as long as it takes” at face value and have planned accordingly.

• The Kremlin has consistently refused to alter the command of the General Staff and the Defense Ministry, constantly confirming that they are faithfully and successfully carrying out the original plan in spite of a barrage of criticisms as to the speed of advance and the lack of decisive battlefield victories.

• The negotiating stance vis-à-vis NATO has been as follows: “Here are our security requirements; we are always ready to negotiate — of course, in recognition of the facts on the ground and the non-negotiable conditions of denazification, demilitarization and neutrality of the Ukraine, rollback of NATO to 1997 lines, etc.” If US/NATO aren’t agreeable yet, then that’s because they are not properly devastated yet and the Special Military Operation must continue until they are.

• The internal development policies: Russia refused to militarize its economy and instead did everything possible to make itself financially and economically independent from the West — with considerable success. After suffering a slight downturn in 2022, it returned to solid economic growth in 2023, a balanced budget, moderate inflation and some income growth. Severing ties with the West has been a positive boon for Russia — but that’s a subject for another article.This is the most detestable, least honorable war in all of Russian history.

• If is being fought against an enemy that has no valor, no honor, not even shame, does not care about its reputation and is driven only by an unslakable thirst for wartime profits. It fights until a war stops being profitable and then runs away — as it did from Korea, Vietnam… Afghanistan… as it will from the Ukraine.

• It exercises a fair amount of control over global finances, international legal structures, technological supply chains and world trade. Luckily, Russia has found ways to circumvent these controls and even to make this process profitable.

• It is constitutionally incapable of honoring its own word. As Henry Kissenger pointed out, it is safer to be its enemy than its friend. Deals negotiated with it are worth less than the paper on which they are written.

• It is armed to the teeth and, hiding behind two oceans, is unreachable for land warfare. Luckily, Russia has a variety of weapons, both conventional and nuclear, to dissuade it from ever considering entering into a direct military conflict with Russia.

But it has some key weaknesses as well.

• It has a weak, obsolete industrial base that simply cannot keep up with wartime production.

• It has a corrupt and degenerate political class and a disunited, badly educated and undisciplined population.• Its arms industry is organized for profit rather than victory.• Its military is manned by the lowest of the low who enlist only because they are given no better options.

• And it has severe structural economic problems, such as runaway debt, that are growing progressively worse.

Thus, a winning strategy against it is simply to wait for it to collapse on its own, fighting off or frustrating its attacks as needed.

Against such an adversary, the only successful strategy is the strategy of exhaustion. In the former Ukraine, the adversary bet on the strategy of devastation and was very slow to realize that it is a prescription for disaster. It took the loss of over 383.000 Ukrainian soldiers, 14.000 pieces of armor, 553 aircraft, 259 helicopters and 8.500 artillery pieces, coupled with the realization that in spite of these disproportionately heavy losses the Ukrainian forces were unable to penetrate even the first tier of Russian defenses for the adversary to start to suspect that something might be amiss.

Even then, it took months of internal politicking to convince the various internal stakeholders that the Ukrainian operation is no longer going to be a profit center for them and to shift their focus to Israel/Gaza and to Yemen.The Ukraine is already a victory, and not just for Russia but for the whole world. By now the entire world outside the West has been shown the correct strategy of prevailing against this adversary: it is general Svechín’s strategy of exhaustion.

The former Ukraine is but the current battlefield in this war — a piece of Russian territory that has temporarily fallen into enemy hands, as has happened several times in Russian history. As has happened every single time before, it will be restored to Russia and rebuilt, complete with new monuments to new fallen heroes.

But this war is about much more than that. It is a world war and it will only be completed once the United States, along with its allies, is completely exhausted and no longer poses a risk to anyone. Only then will the demon that causes men to fight wars for profit finally be exorcised.
[…]
Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/d0359694-dfbd-4b65-b711-5140b6c45e67

Tony Perkins (C), president of the Family Research Council (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Faith leaders and religious liberty advocates are up in arms over news that the federal government encouraged banks and other financial institutions to search customers’ private accounts using the search term “religious texts.”

The “religious texts” search term was among those federal officials asked financial institutions to use following the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, a congressional source with direct knowledge confirmed to The Epoch Times on Jan. 18.

Other terms that were asked to use in the searches included “MAGA” and “Trump,” according to the House Judiciary Committee. Federal officials at the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department sought the data from such searches as part of their investigation of the events of Jan. 6, 2021.m.

[…]

‘Mockery of Our Laws’

Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel for the Plano, Texas-based First Liberty Institute, told The Epoch Times the searches exposed by the House panel represent a threat to religious freedom.

“It’s outrageous and frankly chilling that the federal government may be urging banks to monitor Americans for exercising their religious freedom by simply purchasing a Bible or other religious text,” Mr. Shackelford said.

[…]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a Jan. 17 statement that the searches were sought by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in conjunction with the FBI.

Mr. Jordan wrote a Jan. 17 letter to Noah Bishoff, the former FinCEN director who is now the anti-money laundering officer for Plaid Inc., a San Francisco digital financial platform developer and marketer.

“According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of ‘extremism’ indicators that include ‘transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel areas with no apparent purpose,’ or ‘the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views,’” Mr. Jordan wrote.

“In other words, FinCEN used large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression.”

Officials’ Testimony Sought

Mr. Bishoff was asked to provide testimony to the House Judiciary panel about the searches, as was Peter Sullivan, senior private sector partner for outreach in the Strategic Partner Engagement Section of the FBI.

[…]

In a Jan. 17 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Mr. Jordan explained that Mr. Sullivan’s testimony “will help to inform the [House Judiciary] Committee and Select Subcommittee [on the Weaponization of the Federal Government] about the FBI’s mass accumulation and use of Americans’ private information without legal process; the FBI’s protocols, if any, to safeguard Americans’ privacy and constitutional rights in the receipt and use of such information; and the FBI’s general engagement with the private sector on law-enforcement matters.”

[…]

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) also commented.

“The Biden administration is bringing back ‘Operation Chokepoint’ from the Obama-Biden era to weaponize our financial system against their political opponents. House Republicans, under the leadership of Chairman Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee, will not tolerate this un-American abuse of power.” Mr. Emmer said.

He was referring to a Department of Justice investigation in 2013 of firearms dealers, payday lenders, and other businesses thought to be vulnerable to money laundering.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times that “digging through American citizens’ private financial transactions, based on political phrases, is a clear weaponization of the federal government and those responsible must be held responsible.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the searches “outrageous” and claimed “the Biden administration is using federal law enforcement to engage in financial surveillance of Americans. … Shockingly, the government is even monitoring people for purchasing religious texts like the Bible. This is an Orwellian invasion of privacy, and it should have never happened in the United States. Biden’s bureaucrats running this horrendous financial surveillance system must be held accountable.”

Similarly, Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) told The Epoch Times: “This is yet another example of the federal government being weaponized against Joe Biden’s political opposition, as well as people of faith. This sort of activity is highly concerning and warrants further investigation. I applaud the House Judiciary Committee for digging into this issue and I look forward to investigators exposing and rooting out this misconduct.”

[…]

Via https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2024/01/21/banks-credit-card-and-financial-firms-are-searching-your-purchases

The Free Thought Project

US government documents suggest prison officials colluded to blame the sex predator financier for his own death before an official autopsy had concluded. The revelations have been met with general silence from mainstream media.

Internal US Bureau of Prison (BOP) documents obtained by The GrayZone under Freedom of Information laws raise extremely serious questions about whether Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged first suicide attempt on July 23, 2019 in fact happened, and suggest the Bureau distorted evidence to attribute his death to suicide before his autopsy had even been completed. This meant the narrative of suicide was pushed on the public – to the exclusion of all other explanations – before basic facts were ascertained.

The release in January of previously sealed court documents detailing official investigations and civil lawsuits leveled against Epstein has reignited public interest in the late sex offender. Yet establishment journalists have poured cold water on the disclosures, assuring readers they do not offer anything new or of any import, while strongly implying they many shocking accusations they contain are bogus. References to Epstein’s apparent death are largely absent from mainstream reporting.

Officially, Epstein was found to have died in his cell at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019, with a medical examiner ruling at the time that he had taken his own life by hanging. The ruling was aggressively contested by Epstein’s associates and widely disbelieved by the public, with one poll suggesting just 16% of Americans think he committed suicide.

There was good reason for their skepticism. Epstein’s legal team publicly declared available evidence on his death was “far more consistent” with murder. Dr. Michael Baden, a leading forensic pathologist who monitored the autopsy, also claimed its findings “did not support suicide.” Moreover, knowledgeable sources revealed broken bones in Epstein’s neck were “more common in victims of homicide by strangulation.”

When a long-awaited Justice Department report on Epstein’s “custody, care, and supervision” by the BOP while briefly incarcerated was released in June 2023, it too was greeted with near-complete indifference by legacy media. Now, The Grayzone has secured the internal Bureau documents which indicate that efforts to cover up Epstein’s suspicious death were more extensive than previously known, and included prison staff.

‘Lacerated’ or not?

The official inquiry by the Department of Justice Inspector General states that on July 23, 2019, nearly three weeks before his death, Epstein was found injured and semi-conscious in his cell, with marks of an unspecified nature around his neck. Per the report, he subsequently claimed to know nothing about the incident, which took place just two-and-half-weeks following his imprisonment on charges of child sex trafficking. Epstein’s cellmate, former New York police officer Nicholas Tartaglione, also pleaded ignorance. (Tartaglione previously shared legal representation with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner and ‘madam.’ He was convicted in April 2023 of killing four men, shooting three and strangling one to death.)

Within minutes of Epstein’s alleged discovery by prison guards, BOP officials formally logged the inmate’s attempted suicide via “hanging/asphyxiation” in internal records. Sections of the report describing what precisely occurred are redacted, as is the author’s name. The prisoner’s account of how he sustained his purported injuries, provided in a medical examination five hours later, is also concealed from public view in the now-released files.

The records show that the following day, Epstein was removed from suicide watch and charged with violating prison code 228, which covers “tattooing or self-mutilation.” It is unclear why this took place. In internal communications, one BOP official openly pondered whether Epstein was “mentally capable of proceeding with the disciplinary process.” Another incongruously said of the disciplinary hearing: “I would feel really uncomfortable doing this.”

Curiously, on July 30, the official incident report was updated to include “self-mutilation” as the cause of Epstein’s failed suicide, citing indeterminate “lacerations.” However, an examination by prison doctors just hours after he allegedly tried to take his life mentioned zero lacerations. A subsequent memo by a prison psychologist noted that “Epstein had a poor attitude” in interviews and refused to discuss the matter, but concluded that the amended incident report was “accurate,” and allegation of attempted suicide “warranted.”

A memo issued after the incident eerily notes that Epstein’s “self-mutilation” was “expunged” from official records. Just five days after Epstein’s death, a BOP representative remarked it was “unclear why it had been expunged and whether Mr. Epstein knew this.” Mainstream media has not acknowledged this peculiar episode since the memo appeared. It has also ignored the critical question of whether the alleged incident ever took place at all – or whether it was fabricated to bolster the case for suicide.

Epstein placed on suicide watch despite having “denied…suicidal or self-harm thoughts”

The BOP records show Epstein complained frequently to authorities about the conditions of his incarceration. His cell toilet lacked sufficient paper, and flushed continuously for extended periods, he said, and his cellmate apparently yammered on incessantly, especially at night. But there is nothing in the files to suggest that Epstein ever felt threatened or depressed. In fact, several psychological assessments conducted at the jail indicate he was optimistic about his prospects. One evaluation noted that he explicitly denied “suicidal ideation, planning, and intent,” and was “[committed] to life and safety.”

“[Epstein] exhibited a neutral affect with appropriate range,” the evaluation observed. “Eye contact and hygiene were appropriate… His thoughts were organized and coherent, with no loosening of associations or tangential, circumstantial, or irrelevant content… There was no evidence of perceptual disturbance, delusional ideation, or a formal thought disorder. He did not engage in any bizarre or inappropriate behavior.”

Another appraisal detailed “protective factors” Epstein enjoyed, citing conversations in which he “denied current suicidal or self-harm thoughts,” or “feeling hopeless.” He also “denied fearing for his safety,” and outlined “plans to finish this case and to go back to his normal life.”

He praised his “emotionally supportive” friends and lawyers and said that, as a practicing Jew, he abhorred suicide, the report noted. Given that the “overall acute suicide risk for this inmate” was “low” and the “overall chronic suicide risk for this inmate” was “absent” entirely, the BOP concluded: “suicide watch is not warranted at this time.”