Propaganda is Alive and Well and Living in Israel

Here is a video showing a recent appearance of Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, on Skynews:

 

Here is a rather blurry screenshot of the "official Al-Qaeda material" that was allegedly found on the body of a Hamas fighter as presented by President Herzog:

 

In fact, thanks to a tip from "X", if you search for Ramzy Youssef, this is what you will find on the Noor-book.com website which I have now archived here in case it should be memory holed in the future:

 

And, since it was available, I took the liberty of downloading the pdf which claims to be a "publication for self-advancing knowledge for mujahids" and contains a selection of photographs of Ramzy Yousef, one of the September 11th, 2001 participants as shown here and :

 

  

Herzog also presents a laminated copy of a page from the book claiming that it shows precise instructions on how to develop chemical weapons.  I have looked through all 30 pages of the booklet and can assure you that there is no graphic that looks anything like the one that he presents as proof of chemical weapons being prepared for use against Israel by Hamas.  You can prove this to yourself by downloading the pdf at this link.

So, basically, given that Israel has one of the world's leading intelligence agencies (the Mossad), this is the best that they could come up with to convince the world that their ongoing military operations against Gaza (and the West Bank for that matter) are fully justified because they are in an existential battle against Al-Qaeda and Hamas.  It took me about ten minutes to find Israel's "terrorist document" once I had the tip from a tweet on "X" which showed a screen capture of the booklet's cover.

 

Ironically, Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist of the National Socialist Party of Germany would be proud of the Israeli government's efforts to propagandize the world.  Unfortunately, the massive pro-Palestinian protests around the world in recent days would suggest that lying to the world about the story is not the way to get support for Israel.

And, just so you know, Sky News is sort of backing down on its coverage of the story, actually admitting that the documents need further scrutiny:

Western Sanctions and Their Impact on Russia's Consumers

Under the rules-based international order, the West (particularly the United States) has used economic sanctions to punish nations that don't fall into line.  This has particularly been the case for Russia since 2014 and even more so since Russia's actions in Ukraine commenced in February 2022.  The Western media and Western politicians would have us believe that Russians are suffering mightily under the weight of their sanctions with stories like this from Canada's National Post trying to convince us that Russia's economy is returning to its dystopic Soviet Union past with shortages of most consumer goods and lineups for the few goods that were available:

 

Here's another one courtesy of the United Kingdoms' Guardian:

Thanks to Sergey Baklykov, a Russian video blogger who has a fascinating and regular series of videos that show what life is like for most Russian citizens, we have a glimpse into what life is really like in the era of sanctions.

 

Let's start with this familiar sight that has appeared in Western grocery stores over the past two years:

 

There have been significant shortages of key grocery items including certain foods, non-prescription pharmaceuticals and personal needs items, often blamed on the military actions that Russia is undertaking in Ukraine.  Walking through a grocery store in North America has turned into a crap shoot given that inventories are very low and the supply of basic needs items is intermittent at best.

  

Now, let's look at a recent video by Sergey Baklykov where he does a lengthly walkthrough at a Russian hypermarket owned by Lenta.  Lenta, a publicly traded company, is one of Russia's leading retailers as shown here:

 

 

Lenta's Q3 2022 financial reports show the following voting that total sales have increased by 7.2 percent on a year-over-year basis and 15.7 percent during 2022 including its purchase of Utkonos, an internet-based food and homeware retail chain based in Moscow:

 

As you can see, the sanctions have had very little impact on sales at one of Russia's largest grocery retailers.

 

Here is the video of the Lenta walk through from January 14, 2023:

 

 

While I certainly don't expect my readers to watch the entire video, if you skip through, you might find some things of interest.  Yes, despite the heavy sanctions environment, this particular Lenta location has what can only be described as amazing selection and inventory, both of which put many of our grocery retailers to shame (not to mention our politicians).  There are almost no empty shelves, shelves are being actively restocked and there seems to be both a very wide selection of items and a significant number of each item on shelves.

 

As well, and even more interesting, is the brands that are available given the current sanctions regime punishing Russians.  Let's list a few of them, keeping in mind that some of them are European brands that may not be familiar to my North American audience along with their parent companies:

 

1.) Laundry detergents - Tide (Proctor & Gamble, Persil (Unilever)

 

2.) Baby formula - this one I found interesting given the shortages of baby formula in Canada and the United States - Similac (Abbott Laboratories), Nan (Nestle), Nutrilon (Danone), Nutrilac 

 

3.) Huggies diapers

 

4.) Rich fruit juice (Coca-Cola HBC)

 

5.) Baked goods - Delisse (French company)

 

6.) Liquor - Martini & Rossi (Italian company)

 

7.) Beer - Miller (Miller Brewing Company), Heineken (Heineken N.V.)

 

8.) Snacks - Cheetos and Doritos (Frito-Lay - PepsiCo)

 

9.) Pet food - Pedigree and Whiskas (Mars Incorporated), Purina ONE (Cargill and Nestle)

 

10.) Chocolate - Milka (Mondelez International (U.S. company), Kinder (Ferrero)

 

We have a special section for the next company that made this announcement after the military actions began in Ukraine in February 2022:

 

 

So basically, Mars continued its business in Russia because it wanted to ensure that it continued to support its 6000 Associates located in the country.  Rest assured, it has nothing to do with profitability or preserving their share of the market since the company claims that profits from its Russian operations will be used for humanitarian causes.  Trust them.  With that in mind, if you skip through the video you'll see the following Mars products (in addition to the aforementioned pet foods:

 

Snickers 

 

Mars Bar

 

M&M

 

Twix

 

Bounty

 

I hope that you now have a better idea of how we are being manipulated into believing that Russian consumers are suffering.  While I'm certain that many Russian grocery retailers are finding certain items difficult to access, from my personal experience grocery shopping in three of Russia's largest cities in 2019 during the 2014 sanctions regime, the shelves in all stores were full and the variety of goods available would have rivalled any store of comparable size in the West.

So, the next time that you enter a grocery store and are greeted with this:

 

....think of the poor Russians who are enduring the agony of both choice and inventory when they enter a grocery store.  It surely must feel like a return to the Soviet era:

 

It's great to be living in the age of no Western-based disinformation, isn't it?

Propaganda - It's Alive and Well and Living in Ukraine

The anti-Russia pro-Ukraine propaganda machine has been working overtime since February 24, 2022.  In this brief posting, we'll look at a prime example of how we are being emotionally blackmailed into believing one side of the narrative.

  

Here is a tweet from Ukrainian Member of Parliament (the Verkhovna Rada)/People's Deputy Lesia Vasylenko on December 26, 2022:

 

Tear-inducing, isn't it?  Poor, sad Marc.

 

Here's what Ms. Vasylenko, a University College London Masters of Law (LLM) graduate, says about herself on her Twitter account:

Unfortunately, Ms. Vasylenko has been caught red-handed.  Here is the actual source of the photograph that she used to manipulate the world:

 

 

The Spanish version of Christina McKenna's  2008 novel "The Misremembered Man" has an identical photograph of a young boy on the cover who, apparently, hasn't aged at all since the photo was taken and is now living in Ukraine and the tragic recipient of a Russian artillery attack.

 

While I realize that both sides in this conflict are seeking to manipulate public opinion, it is interesting to see a prime example of how propaganda is being used.  How Ms. Vasylenko would think that she would not be caught is beyond me.  While the offending tweet has been removed from her Twitter feed, thanks to Archive and a simple Google search, it is still alive and well and living on the internet.

Nudging the Serfs Toward Climate Compliance

There is little doubt that the global ruling class is using/abusing its powers over the elected class and their mainstream media lapdogs to convince the serf class that global climate change is an existential threat which, without substantial sacrifice on our collective parts, will usher in an era of unprecedented pain.  In this posting, you will see a prime example of how the rulers are using their powers to control our behaviours.

 

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) also known as The Nudge Unit was founded in 2010 as a 7-person unit within the United Kingdom government.  Here is what BIT has to say about itself in video form:

 

 

...and in text form:

 

https://www.bi.team/about-us-2/

 

"We exist to improve people’s lives and communities. We work in partnership with national, regional and local governments, businesses, foundations and charities, to tackle major policy problems. Often through testing and implementing simple yet powerful changes.

 

While expanding and being able to help support a growing network of partners around the world, our mission has never changed. We generate and apply behavioural insights to inform policy, improve public services and deliver results for citizens and society.

 

The values that guide us in our work are:

 

Social impact

 

Empiricism and humility ( humility - yeah, right)

 

Fresh thinking and intellectual curiosity

 

Collaboration

 

Lasting partnerships

 

We have a track record of success across a range of policy areas, from healthcare to humanitarian aid, economic growth to early years, social capital to consumers. We also work to scale our successful interventions by sharing lessons and supporting wider adoption and spread of what works."

 

BIT has 254 employees in offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Asia Pacific including Australia and New Zealand as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

  

Here is BIT's Executive Team:

 

 

BIT was terribly busy during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking the lead role in convincing us that we must be vaccinated among other key issues as shown here:

 

Now, let's get to the subject matter of this posting; The Nudge Unit and how it proposes to nudge the organ donor class into climate compliance.  Here is an article that recently appeared on the BIT blog:

 

Here are the opening lines of the posting, keeping in mind that BIT's mandate is to nudge us into "acceptable behaviours":

 

“Imagine you have just paid for a full tank at a petrol station. A message flashes up on your phone screen reading: ‘Did you know this purchase is equivalent to over 200 kg of carbon? You could save over half of that by using more public transport.’ 

 

This is a service that Cogo, a carbon impact platform, provides for some mobile banking apps, such as NatWest, with the aim to help inform – and change – customer thinking and behaviours. And whilst 8 in 10 in Europe are willing to make changes in their lives to help combat climate change, only 2 in 10 actually know how to act on this aspiration."

 

The posting goes on to note that since banks have massive databanks of our most personal information, particularly our spending habits, they are "well placed to provide timely and personalized advice on sustainability of our purchases".  Just what we all need - morality lessons from a bank.

 

For this initiative, BIT has collaborated with Cogo, a company that offers carbon footprint management products as shown here from their website:

 

 

...and here:

 

"Helping banks transition their customers to a low carbon economy.

Our mission is to support hundreds of millions of individuals and businesses across the world to be more conscious of the impact of their spend on people and the planet. Every transaction we make contributes to our carbon footprint. Our products enable businesses and consumers to be able to track their carbon emissions through their banking experience."

 

BIT and Cogo have developed a list of potential offers that banks could use to encourage/nudge/bully their customers into a greener lifestyle as follows:

 

Using Cogo's framework, the carbon footprint information of our expenditures would appear like this on our devices:

 

You can very easily see how this could be linked to a social credit score and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), can't you?

In a recent survey of 2007 United Kingdom mobile banking users, BIT found the following:

 

1.) Almost 9 in 10 consider the environment when making purchases. Further, people consider the environmental impact of their spending most for food, fuel and flight purchases. 

 

2.) 6 in 10 support their bank helping them reduce their environmental impact and 7 in 10 support their bank reducing their own environmental impact. The biggest barriers to accepting advice or support were that it’s not banks’ responsibility (33%), data privacy concerns (25%) and availability of support elsewhere (20%).

 

The survey also found that there are certain behaviours that banks should target:

 

1.) those that have a higher environmental impact

 

2.) those that customers are most willing to do

 

These include switching to an EV, switching to renewable energy and investing in green financial products.  

 

Here are BIT's final recommendations with my bolds:

 

"Banks should nudge customers to take the sustainable actions that people are most willing to take. Our results suggest the initial focus should be on behaviours related to energy, green finance and EVs, using small reward programmes and incentives as a means of encouraging these sustainable behaviours.

 

Banks should try to educate their customers around their ability to help encourage sustainable behaviours. Although only 2 in 10 expect their bank to inform them about sustainable behaviours, 8 in 10 want to know more about the environmental impact of their spending. As a means of boosting their legitimacy as a trusted messenger in this space, banks should lead by example by highlighting their own efforts to reduce their carbon footprint within their own operations and their investment portfolios." 

 

So there you go, all of the climate change propaganda you can possibly digest, right at your fingertips every time you spend a cent/pence.  This begs the question; I wonder if the ruling class (particularly bank executives  will be subjected to the same oversight of their carbon footprint every time they board their private and company jets or massive yachts to gad about the globe?  I would be willing to bet that that won't be happening.

 

Nudging – just a nice word for propagandizing us into compliance.  Joseph Goebbels would be awestruck and perhaps a bit envious as to how easy it is to convince 21st century serfs that obedience  to the powerful is the only path forward.

The Biden Administration's COVID-19 Vaccine Promotion Campaign

Thanks to a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, the Department of Health and Human Services was forced to release documents revealing the Biden Administration's campaign to convince the American public to accept the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.  

 

Here is the Judicial Watch announcement:

 

Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit requested the following:

  

1.) All records regarding the Department of Health and Human Services’ “COVID-19 Community Corps” program, which was announced by the department on April 1, 2021. This request includes the following:

2.) All records depicting the application process and selection criteria for organizations participating in the program.

3.) All records related to the consideration of any organization considered for participation in the program that were not selected.

4.) All records concerning any awarded or proposed related grants or contracts with any organization participating in the program.

5.) All related records of communication between any representative of the Department of Health and Human Services and any representative of any organization participating in the program.

In case you haven't heard of the COVID-19 Community Corps (also known as "We Can Do This"), it was described as following on the HHS COVID Comment Corps website:

 

 

...and here:

 

"The Corps, launched in April 2021, has nearly 17,000 members, including individuals and organizations big and small, in communities all around the country. We’re growing every day as vaccinating as many people as possible becomes even more critical to our nation’s health, communities, and economy."

Members included the following (among others):

 

 

Let's look at one of the more interesting documents that was released by HHS.  This document outlines the roadmap for the Public Education Campaign (PEC) Plan dated: April 19th to May 31, 2021 and the major projects to be undertaken:

 

 

Notice that the campaign involved the following components and players:

 

1.) Share the Mic program with Michelle Obama, Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria

 

2.) Press events on BBC News, iHeartRadio, NPR

 

3.) Late night hosts vaccination video

 

4.) State of the Pandemic YouTube Town Hall

 

5.) Round-table with national radio broadcast - hosted by Kamal Harris including Steve Harvey, DL Hughley, Charlamagne Tha God

 

6.) Oprah OWN Townhall with Dr. Fauci

 

7.) Proposed Share the Mic with President Obama

 

8.) Launch Hollywood Comedy writers video content

 

9.) Create a TikTok #PassTheMic campaign with major influencers to begin the series

 

10.)  Create custom partnerships with social media platforms with algorithms to hit this audience

 

11.) Work with YouTube on an original series about vaccinations targeted to younger people

 

12.) Dr. Biden and Dr. Walensky to host a Kids Blogger Roundtable to answer kids' questions about the pandemic and the vaccine

 

13.) Work with Instagram to produce a series about vaccines for @Instagram.  Feature young creators doing in-depth pieces about young people's questions

 

14.) Request a vaccination special on Christian Broadcast Network featuring Evangelical leaders

 

15.) Request that the major live TV entertainment show feature hosts being vaccinated on air

 

16.) Place a trusted messenger on the Joe Rogan Show and Barstool Sports to promote vaccination (work with outside experts to identify who will be the most effective)

 

17.) Request a co-branded "We Can Do This" effort with Walmart for videos and info sources for in-store screens, point of purchase displays and info in the pharmacies.

 

18.) Work with NFL, NASCAR, MLB and CMA to request that they create content with their talent and release through their broadcast and social channels.

 

19.) Partner with Disneyland Parks for vaccination events when the amusement parks reopen.

 

20.) Work with the Hollywood Guilds (i.e. Writers Guild, Directors Guild) to work vaccination messaging into scripted and reality TV shows.

 

Given this information on how the Biden Administration was proposing to handle its single-minded approach to solving the pandemic, is it any wonder that some of us felt totally overwhelmed with the amount of COVID-19 vaccination information that was inundating every aspect of our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

  

Let's close with this:

  

"1.) Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.

It must issue all the propaganda directives.

It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.

It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences.

 

2.) To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting medium.

3.) Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.

4.) Propaganda must be carefully timed.

5.) The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.

6.) A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment.

7.) A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness.

8.) Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. (think antivaxxers as an example)

They must evoke responses which the audience previously possesses.

They must be capable of being easily learned.

They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations.

They must be boomerang-proof.

All of these are quotes from a diary found after the end of World War II.  The diary happened to have been the property of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Adolph Hitler's Propaganda Minister.