patrick.net

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/expensive-things-friday-august-9

Brian Berletic, who lives in Thailand, is a heterodox geopolitical commenter whose thoughts frequently challenge conventional narratives. He provides alternative perspectives on global events, especially related to U.S. foreign policy, international conflicts, and the roles of various countries in global affairs. He has been a Proxy War critic from the jump.

Berletic’s article (linked below) and his companion YouTube video (linked above) are both titled, “Who Really Controls US Foreign Policy? While he focused on foreign policy, it is all true for U.S. domestic policy as well. The gist is that over 1,000 NGO ‘think tanks,’ like the RAND Corporation and a dizzying array of Soros-funded groups with banal, helpful-sounding names, constantly lobby Congress, which winds up rubber stamping spoon-fed legislation, often without Congressmen even reading the bills they happily sponsor.

It’s not clear at this point whether any meaningful legislation was actually drafted by Congress, as opposed to non-transparent, unelected, billionaire-financed elites infesting DC think-tank groups.

To be clear, I do not agree with all Berletic’s opinions. But this article is a great start in understanding the precise mechanism of how leftwing oligarchs and captured corporations (Disney) pull the levers of power in Washington. Helpfully, Berletic also offered some suggestions for what to do about it.

https://journal-neo.su/2024/08/07/who-really-controls-us-foreign-policy/

From the ongoing US involvement in Ukraine, to an enduring US military presence in the Middle East, and growing US-Chinese tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, regardless of who controls the US Congress and regardless of who sits in the White House, these conflicts continue forward – often with a Democratic president setting the stage for his Republican successor, and vice versa.

Why, no matter who Americans vote into power, US foreign policy, and even domestic policy, seems to steamroll forward regardless?

Contrary to popular belief, US foreign and domestic policy is not determined by the US Congress or even by the White House, but instead by a powerful combine of unelected corporate-financier interests who fund a vast network of policy institutions known as “think tanks.”

These think tanks create a consensus among the various corporate-financier interests funding their activities as well as sitting upon their boards of directors, boards of trustees, or serving as advisors to these institutions.

This consensus manifests itself in the various policy papers these think tanks publish every year, which are then crafted into bills by teams of lawyers and legislative specialists. The bills are proposed to Congress and the White House by lobbyists, who then vote on or sign off on these bills, often without even reading their contents.

Because the center of American power rests with these interests rather than either Congress or the White House, efforts to influence, challenge, or change US policy must focus on these interests based primarily on Wall Street rather than on politicians in Washington D.C.

What Are Think Tanks?

Far from a “conspiracy theory,” the central role corporate-financier funded think tanks play in driving US foreign and domestic policy was explained by none other than US government-funded media outlet Voice of America in a 2018 article titled, “What’s Behind the ‘Think Tanks’ That Influence US Policy?”

The article would note:

Out of more than 1800 think tanks in the United States, nearly 400 are based in Washington. Previous administrations have relied on the research and ideas generated by such organizations to formulate policy. Such institutions have been criticized in the past for their outsized influence on U.S. policy formulation.

The article would also admit that many of those in American media and politics began within the halls of these corporate-financier funded institutions.

The article says:

In addition to influencing public policy, such institutions are often a training ground for those wishing to gain a foothold in media or the corridors of power.

The same article admitted, “think tanks are also a revolving door for talent,” pointing out that,

“in the George W. Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, all came from Washington think tanks.”

Only toward the very bottom of the article was any mention made of the corporate-financier interests actually funding such think tanks.

The article claims:

But policies and ideas are often developed through the prism of political bias so knowing who’s paying for those ideas is important.

“I think the important thing for the public to know is that, when think tanks issue a report, it is important for those who are reading the report to try to understand if it was influenced by the funder or not,” says Rom of Georgetown University. “And good think tanks are open and transparent in the kind of research they do so that those who read that research can judge its independence.”

Few Americans are even aware of, let alone understand the central role of think tanks in US policymaking. Fewer still are aware of the monumental conflict of interest that exists between the corporations and financial institutions funding these think tanks, the policies these think tanks propose, and the bills and policies that are eventually passed and implemented by Washington.

Because of this lack of understanding, many Americans believe the future of US policy is determined in Washington through elections. In reality, the future of US policy is determined by unelected corporate-financier interests who advance their desired policies regardless of who controls Congress or who currently sits in the White House.

How Bills are (Really) Made

CBS News, in a 2017 article titled, “Who Actually Writes The Bills In Congress?,” would admit that “attorneys” who are knowledgeable about the subjects of the bills often write them. The same article admits that bills may originate, “directly from a member, who might receive input from constituents, lobbyists or staff on a particular issue.”

As Voice of America admitted in its article, such “lobbyists” and “attorneys” and even “members” of Congress, are drawn from corporate-financier funded think tanks.

Thus, while many Americans mistakenly believe their elected representatives “represent” them and their interests, it is clear that unelected interests monopolize policymaking, enjoy unwarranted influence over those who sign off on new policies, with Americans only hearing about such policies from the media often long after any practical chance of protesting against or reversing the policy.

As Voice of America also admitted, many in the media informing the American people about new policies, began their careers in the halls of these policy think tanks funded by the same unelected corporate-financier interests proposing these policies in the first place.

USA Today in a 2019 investigative report titled, “You elected them to write new laws. They’re letting corporations do it instead,” spells it out more explicitly:

Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them.

The investigative report also noted how manipulative the titles of bills often are, done to deliberately mislead the public:

The Asbestos Transparency Act didn’t help people exposed to asbestos. It was written by corporations who wanted to make it harder for victims to recoup money. The “HOPE Act,” introduced in nine states, was written by a conservative advocacy group to make it more difficult for people to get food stamps.

The report would lament, “bills promise to protect the public,” but “they actually bolster the corporate bottom line.”

This should come as no surprise, considering these bills originate from think tanks funded by these very corporations.

Congress Rubber Stamps Bills They Don’t Even Read

US News, in an opinion piece titled, “Not So Dirty Little Secret,” would attempt to excuse Congress from having to read the bills they sign off on.

It would admit:

The not-so-dirty little secret of Congress (and, I suspect, most legislative bodies) is that members often vote on legislation without having sat down and literally read it.

The article explains that, instead, “legislative specialists who work in Congress and, in some cases, think tank denizens outside it,” interpret the bills and explain them to legislators who then vote on them.

According to the US White House website, “anyone can write” a bill to be introduced to Congress. In theory, bills should represent the best interests of the people within a Western-style democracy. Legislators who vote on these bills should do so in the interests of the very public who voted them into office in the first place.

In reality, many bills are either written by corporate-financier funded interests themselves or by legislators and their teams who these interests are lobbying. These are bills which Congress admittedly doesn’t understand, and instead depends on specialists working for these same interests to explain to them.

What emerges is policy-driven by unelected interests, simply laundered through elected representatives, creating the illusion of a public mandate. Because politicians can be voted in and out of office, when the public is unsatisfied with US policy, the empty hope of new elections and the prospect of “change” prevents them from ever addressing the underlying factors that prevent that change from ever actually occurring.

Who is Funding These Think Tanks?

Think tanks often list on their websites either who sponsors their work or who sits on their board of directors, board of trustees, or who serves as advisors. Regardless of what information is made publicly available, the same circle of corporate-financier interests are represented.

For example, the American Enterprise Institute does not readily disclose its list of donors, but does publish its list of trustees which includes representatives from private equity firm Carlyle Group, the insurance industry including State Farm, big tech including Dell, and big-finance like UBS.

RAND Corporation, infamous for its 2019 paper, “Extending Russia” formulating a number of military and economic measures meant to draw Russia into protracted war with its neighbors including Ukraine, lists its major clients including IBM, MITRE Corporation, and PhRMA Foundation (which in turn is made up of various pharmaceutical giants).

The Brookings Institution responsible for drawing up policy for war around the globe, including its 2009 paper “Which Path to Persia?” aimed at Iran, lists its corporate and institutional sponsors which include not only the US government, but multiple foreign governments, as well as corporate-financier interests like big-tech including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, big-finance like Blackrock, Mastercard, and UBS, arms manufacturers like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, big-oil like BP and Chevron, as well as consumer goods and services like PepsiCo, Amazon, and Walmart.

How to Check Unelected, Unwarranted Power

As Voice of America pointed out, there are over 1,800 think tanks in the US alone, many of which share the same handful of Fortune 500 corporate-financier sponsors, directors, trustees, and advisors. While Americans can vote in and out of office the many members of Congress who rubber stamp bills handed to them, what can Americans do about the unelected interests handing Congress these bills in the first place?

Often referred to as “voting with one’s wallet,” Americans can compile lists of large corporate-financier interests exercising unwarranted influence over their government, and redirect their monthly income away from them, and instead to local or foreign alternatives.

These special interests did not appear “overnight,” but instead built themselves up over years, sometimes decades, accumulating money, time, attention, and energy from millions of Americans at home and hundreds of millions of people abroad.

By raising awareness of the unwarranted power and abuse exercised by these interests and diverting money, time, attention, and energy away from them and toward a wider variety of alternatives at home and abroad, a better balance of power can be created.

In many ways, the rise of multipolarism represents a successful example of this. The West had maintained a global monopoly over many goods, services, and industries for generations granting the West hegemony worldwide.

With the rise of China, the reemergence of Russia, and newly industrialized nations creating alternatives to what were once Western monopolies, people around the world are now dividing their money, time, attention, and energy among these many options creating a better balance of power. While this process is unfolding globally, Americans can begin a similar process within the United States.

If a better balance of power can be created within the US, redistributing wealth and the power it creates across a wider number of businesses and interests across America, there stands a much better chance of those in Washington representing this wider balance of power rather than the concentrated wealth and power that currently exists on Wall Street.

Brian Berletic is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

"Think Tanks", Har, Har. More like 'Globalist Secret Handshake Elitist Clubs Conspiring Against Populations Both Foreign And Domestic To Make The World Safe For Resource Theft And Geopolitical Corporate Domination'.

These organizations are usually (Rand, SRI) offshoots of Tavistock, which we know and love as the scientific advancers of brainwashing, social control, torture, and devious psychological and drug techniques to confuse, disable, demoralize, and mentally castrate whole populations and inspire revolution and war.

Of course, Tavistock masquerades as a hand waving altruistic organization attempting to help humanity through psychology and understanding. They are anything but human. They are alien anthropologists studying how to husbandry, kill, frustrate, demoralize and exploit the human race.

This one is really true. The Globalists, banksters and henchmen really flexed their muscles on this sweep of fraud and death over society's institutions. It was a make or break it seems for them, because the gig dragged them out of the shadows where they lurked before when they were disguising their manifest centrality. They also used up the credibility of institutions, professionals, government etc. in one sordid roll of the dice. It's like their Satanic forces had been chafing at the bit to manifest in a volcano of terrorism, and they finally just let go.
Patrick says

https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/the-council-who-is-running-the-united

“The Council” and everyone and everything that emanates from them, has controlled the United States for the past fifty years for the purpose of extracting our nation’s wealth. ...

They use the tools of indictments, obstruction, and government agencies they have weaponized to attack their enemies under false color of law. They alone select who will be winners and losers in politics, business, the economy, media, elections, education, and do so with complete amorality.

Exposing them by name, their corruption and means of control, and identifying how to dismantle their illegitimate power is the first step in the restoration of the United States of America as a constitutional republic.

(Current members of “The Council” include; US Inspector General Michael Horowitz, FBI Director Christopher Wray, US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director Office Professional Responsibility (OPR) Jeffrey Ragsdale, Chief Public Integrity Sector (PIN) Corey Amundson, Deputy USAG Lisa Monaco, 1st Principal Deputy USAG Marshall Miller.)

The Council is an “untouchable,” legislatively codified, sui generis[1] organization with tentacles embedded in every government agency and branch of government except for the Supreme Court of the United States.

From their perspective, they own the United States of America. It is “theirs,” and “they” are its self-appointed stewards. Anyone who is “not them” are “useful idiots,” “useful innocents,” or human chattel to be discarded to necro-politics.[2] The rest of us are expendable “carbon units” assigned positive and negative values depending on our relative usefulness to them. This is their language.

(“Emeritus” and pseudo-current members of “The Council”: Former USAG William Barr, former USAG Jeffrey Rosen, former Deputy USAG Richard Donahue, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, former USAG Eric Holder, CIGIE “Special Counsel” Jack Smith) ...

A root cause analysis of the reasons for “why things are the way they are” in the United States of America is that the subject (root) and the ultimate goal of these self-entitled “stewards,” is maintaining “state capture,”[3] and “finishing the job” of self-serving objectives to an elite class, euphemized as “progressive social reconstruction,”[4] to ensure their harvest and wealth extraction machine remains uninterrupted.

To this end, “The Council,” in addition to controlling weaponized government agencies through the seventy-four (74) Inspectors General embedded in government agencies, controls a Political Arm, an Intelligence Arm, an Infiltration Arm, a Business Arm, a Propaganda Arm, and an Entertainment Arm. ...

They are above the system. Over it. Beyond it. Familial and generational. They are the “them” who now bend the American people and our elected representatives to their will, and up to now, it has all been done in the open, wrapped in the US flag, under false color of law and detriment to the American people. ...

For clarification, “The Council” is not a separate branch of “government.” Rather, “The Council” controls the Government for their own personal advantage.

A full listing of US Inspectors General for seventy-four (74) federal agencies can be found at: https://www.ignet.gov/content/inspectors-general-directory and https://cloud.patriot.online/s/T7j5qP9DkApGsJJ

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

Chris Cuomo shits all over the Uniparty rich fucks at the DNC. Wonder if they have kicked him out yet?

Lol, "They are looking down from on high."

Perfect!

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/the-orthodox-express-thursday-september

Weinstein has a broad and more discrete view of what the ‘deep state’ is. He describes it as an alliance of government, academic, and corporate interests that live off the established “rules based order.” Weinstein suggested NAFTA as an example.

However “bad” a deal the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) was for America, government actors and big corporate interests feast off advantages and benefits cleverly buried in the text of the incomprehensibly complicated laws. When someone like Trump comes along, and threatens to toss the whole deal out and replace it with something simpler (and less amenable to exploitation), it threatens to disrupt a carefully balanced ecosystem of benefits and sinecures that elite groups have spent decades building.

Not surprisingly, this coalition of elite interests fights more ferociously than a pack of starving coyotes to preserve their rewarding sinecures.

In other words, Weinstein suggested that the "deep state" isn't an ill-defined, shadowy cabal, but instead is a vast and intricate network of incentives — an alliance between bureaucracy and capital that thrives on complexity. This makes it devilishly difficult to dismantle, because even modest proposals for reform can trigger widespread institutional rebellion.

It’s not super controversial. Over the last four years we have seen that battle violently erupt onto the social and political stage. With that in mind, Weinstein believes this deep state coalition has completely captured an increasingly bizarre and unhinged corporate media, which slavishly serves the interests of its corporate controllers.

https://x.com/Resist_05/status/1831883090710659336

https://slaynews.com/news/government-vaccine-scientist-blows-whistle-covid-shots-planned-20-years/

Martin reveals that Covid mRNA shots didn’t just suddenly appear in response to the pandemic.

According to the vaccine scientist, Covid mRNA shots had, in fact, been in the making for two decades.

While working as a U.S. government contractor, Martin says he witnessed decades of criminal preparations, years before Covid emerged in 2020.

Speaking with Infowars’ Alex Jones, Martin outlines the government’s long-term plot to develop and release the Covid virus.

Martin reveals that globalists had the pandemic planned decades in advance.

The entire exercise over the last four and half years was wilfully misleading the population into taking something through coercion that would not have otherwise ever been accepted.

“Since 2002, there has not been a coronavirus; there has been an engineered pathogen,” Dr. David Martin said.

“Engineered by Ralph Baric at the University of Carolina Chapel Hill where, in 2002, he patented the’ infectious, replication defective, clone of coronavirus’.” ...

Martin goes on to expose who “they” are:

“The masterplan [to vaccinate the world] was done by none other than the Wellcome Trust, NIAID Anthony Fauci, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (specifically Dr. Chris Elias), Dr. Gao from the CDC of the People’s Republic of China and a whole host of others who sit on what is called the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board,” Dr. Martin said.

“To advance the social and commercial interests of sociopaths that wanted to kill human beings for the sake of their agenda, they decided to unleash a lethal respiratory pathogen on the population so the population would be bamboozled into taking an mRNA shot which would permanently, permanently alter their human condition.” ...

“The master plan is simple.” Dr. Martin said.

“Three-quarters of the world’s population are unnecessary and need to be shoved off the planet …

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/safe-and-effective-friday-september

The public explanation of how Moderna got a multi-billion dollar covid contract without any track record is, and this is not a joke, because the technocratic bureaucrats inside Operation Warp Speed were hopelessly infatuated with the idea of the mRNA platform, and because Moderna had an “existing working relationship” with the NIH, particularly with an exotic, termite-like insect called Tony Fauci.

None of Moderna’s other products in development in December 2018 have passed clinical trials. Not one. For some reason. ...

I’ve always thought the mRNA cancer drug was the dumbest and most hilarious potential product in the company’s never-climaxing mRNA pipeline. Darkly hilarious, that is. Here’s the marketing pitch: we’re going to force your cells to make tiny bits of cancer, all over your body, to teach your immune system to target any real cancer if it does come, which it might not.

Good luck selling that one! It would be safer to test experimental flying cars in Mexico than try that mRNA cancer ‘vaccine.’

https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/what-you-dont-know-might-surprise

By now, you’ve probably heard enough debate about The Debate, so I’ll spotlight only a few points everybody else left out. You might know this, but Hollywood plays a larger role in the Kamala campaign than just stuffing the endorsements of celebs such as George Clooney, Taylor Swift, and John Legend into the corporate media tank. In fact, much bigger playas, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, are producing and directing things backstage at Kamala Central, so what gets in the Kamala news plays as a Spielberg movie like The Color Purple. Just so you know. . . .

https://markbisone.substack.com/p/spook-central-part-3

As a civilization and as individuals, we are currently living at or near the Goldilocks Threshold of stochastic resonance. Before the rise of global networks, the signals were too weak for most observers to detect and interpret them in liminal space. But we have now reached a kind of “sweet spot” for the mean observer. Signals that were invisibly weak or encrypted before are now ringing loud and clear for greater and greater masses of observers.

This is also the reason that so much of what we’re seeing now strikes us as hilariously absurd, and what is provoking such extreme and paranoid reactions from the signal designers and their paymasters. It’s the reaction of the Invisible Man, suddenly finding himself nude and fully visible in the public square. If only one person could see him, such an apparition might instead horrify, and cause the witness to question her own sanity. But when a large enough fraction of the population can see through an illusion, an avalanche of comedy may ensue. ...




... But resistance to the presence of hidden or double-meanings can come off as equally pathological, if not more. For example, If I were to explain the sexually explicit signal embedded in the Disney gift card image above to such an obstinate reciever, the reaction might not just be disbelief, but outrage. Their anger might be born of a narcissistic threat-response (e.g. this person is calling me blind, stupid, gullible, etc) or some ego-driven political projection (“That's just a Right Wing talking point!”), or just some meta-game they mistakenly think you’re playing (“You edited this picture to gaslight me!”). And if it’s not anger, it might be concern or fear, because they think they’re in the presence of a maniac.