Smith Mundt Act & MSM Fake News, US Israel Hypocrisy, Self-Aware Robot Squids & Looking Past A Gov't Fix (Article)
Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (4/23/18).
As everyone struggles to make sense of all the information flying around today, from the independent media attempts to show you what is actually going on, to the embarrassingly obvious mainstream media attempts to distract you from that truth with fake events, gossip, conjecture and petty political rivalries dressed up as news -- even the false alt-media groups who pretend to have all the answers yet are put there just in case you wake up enough to see through the mainstream lies, grabbing you with promises of inside information and absolute certainty -- we need to remember how different the world felt not a decade ago. To some degree that is because some of this was simply not recognized by as many people at that point; but mostly this all truly changed with the one specific amendment to the NDAA in 2014 which actually legalized the use of propaganda on the American public.
Now despite myself and many other writing about this many times, most are still unaware that prior to this, the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 made the use of propaganda in the US strictly illegal -- although it still happened nonetheless, yet had to be more careful and few and far between. Yet today, the very same manipulative propaganda the US intelligence agencies use overseas is now allowed to be used on you, the American people ... for national security of course.
As I pointed out yesterday, in regard to the War Powers Bill, this amendment to the NDAA in 2014 was sold to the public as an attempt at transparency, yet was the exact opposite. Meaning, that news story you saw last night, that could have been completely fake, and that would be 100% legal in the eyes of the US government. So consider that concept as we move further into this modern US world of countering narratives, accusations of fake news, and battling partisan news outlets telling two diametrically opposite stories on the same event. It is not just coincidence that this all intensified right around that time; this was designed to muddy the waters of information and keep you uncertain of whom to trust. Yet I can make that very easy for, trust none of them, not even me. As I say every show, watch a wide variety of differing perspectives and come to your own conclusions.
Army Building "Self-Aware" Squid-Like Robot That Can Be "3-D Printed" During Combat
The Army Research Laboratory's next robot weapon isn't a new predator drone or even a robot dog like the infamous prototype developed by Boston Labs. Instead, it's a "self-aware" robot built from flexible materials inspired by invertebrates like squid.
In addition to its advance machine-learning capabilities, the material used to build the robots is so lightweight and malleable that soldiers will be able to "print" the robots on the battlefield, then control them with controllers that send electric currents through the materials.
As I said in a tweet when I saw this earlier today, "A "self-aware" military robot that can be mass printed in real time ... sure what could possibly go wrong?"
"Army Building "Self-Aware" Squid-Like Robot That Can Be "3-D Printed" During Combat" A "self-aware" military robot that can be mass printed in real time ... sure what could possibly go wrong? https://t.co/DYp1X163mu— LastAmericanVagabond (@TLAVagabond) April 24, 2018
As Humanitarian Crisis Deepens, US Refuses to Say There Are Civilians in Gaza
This is just a quick one that I want to touch on, and a topic I have covered a lot recently, and that is the extremely brazen human rights violations of Israel, and in this case the hypocritical way in which the acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy skirts all questions which would address that fact in a recent press conference.
Heather Nauert basically deflects question after question on human rights abuses in Gaza and refuses to say that there are civilians dying in the area, despite this being a verifiable fact. This just shows the apparent hypocrisy of the US and its willingness to ignore the very types acts it uses, stages even, to carry out military efforts on its enemies. Willfully ignoring these same atrocities by Saudi Arabia and Israel, simply because they are Allies.
Israel even recently stated that “no one is innocent in Gaza” despite the fact that half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18, many women and young children, Yet I guess in the eyes of Israel and the US, they are all terrorists.
The Guardian Is Committing Journalistic Malpractice By Not Retracting This Claim
The Guardian recently published an article stating as fact that two Twitter accounts were Russian bots. Since the publishing of this article, it has been easily verified that both are clearly human beings. Each of which have since spoken out, done interviews and videos addressing the wildly false and easily disproven claims.
Below is the claim the author of the Guardian article, Heather Stewart, made seemingly without any due diligence whatsoever:
“One bot, @Ian56789, was sending 100 posts a day during a 12-day period from 7 April, and reached 23 million users, before the account was suspended. It focused on claims that the chemical weapons attack on Douma had been falsified, using the hashtag #falseflag. Another, @Partisangirl, reached 61 million users with 2,300 posts over the same 12-day period.”
As of today, which is now days after the Guardian was made aware of its "mistake," there has been neither retraction nor correction of the false claims, and the article remains exactly as published. When confronted with the obvious and undeniable falsehoods in her story, Heather Stewart tweeted, “It’s not my analysis — as the piece makes quite clear — it’s the government’s.”
It's not my analysis - as the piece makes quite clear - it's the government's. https://t.co/50C7Ozhv8m— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) April 20, 2018
As Caitlin Johnstone points out in her article addressing what she appropriately deems journalistic malpractice:
"The fact that mainstream British journalists are now defending the unquestioning advancement of demonstrably false smears by saying that’s what the government told them to say should disturb everyone, and the fact that they’re not even correcting it at all is positively bone-chilling. Even after admitting to being a government stenographer, there should still be a correction after a claim’s demonstrably false nature comes to light. Stewart’s wording explicitly asserts that those accounts are bots as an absolute fact. It doesn’t say “One alleged bot, @Ian56789,” it says “One bot”. It doesn’t say “Another account the British government has labeled a bot, @Partisangirl,” it asserts that the account is a bot.
Did you ever think that perhaps you should talk to me instead of taking your governments word for it? Oh right you don't think, and somehow I'm the one who is the robot?— Partisangirl 🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) April 20, 2018
California Defeats Monsanto In Court To List Glyphosate As Carcinogen
A California Appellate Court sided with the State of California and Center for Food Safety (CFS) on Thursday, affirming that Monsanto’s glyphosate pesticide can be listed as a known carcinogen under Proposition 65.
Proposition 65 requires notification and labeling of all chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and prohibits their discharge into drinking waters of the state. CFS intervened in the case, defending the listing of glyphosate as a carcinogen and the public’s right to know when it is being exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.
A Giant Crowdfunded Machine Is About to Begin Cleaning up the Pacific Garbage Patch
What is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or more common as “Trash Island” is an expanse of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that contains as many as 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and spans 617,763 square miles. And as I understand it, there is now more than one.
Using a device designed by 23-year-old inventor Boyan Slat, who dropped out of an aerospace engineering program in college to focus on developing technology to clean up the world’s oceans, the Ocean Cleanup company will actually employ plastic to suck up much of the waste.
As summarized by the Independent:
“The clean-up contraption consists of 40ft pipes – ironically made of plastic – that will be fitted together to form a long, snaking tube. Filled with air, they will float on the ocean’s surface in an arc, and have nylon screens hanging down below forming a giant floating dustpan to catch the plastic rubbish that gathers together when moved by the currents.”
Whether or not this works as well as he hopes, the point is that he is doing something. And this all began through a crowdfunding campaign where he was able to raise over $2 million from 38,000 people around the world, and subsequently received over $21 million from larger donors in 2017.
The question we should be asking is: "Where is the action of our governments?" This is an international issue of monumental proportions that has already been shown to have far-reaching and very serious effects on many different aspects of both aquatic and land based life. The point being that the governments of the world are too entrenched with the corporations which are the direct cause of this problem -- and fueled by the apathetic view of humanity in regard to such out-of-sight-out-of-mind issues. However, a lot of that apathy is conditioned by those only seeking to profit at the expense of life on this planet.
What this shows us is something that many have been trying to get the people to recognize for a very long time. First, that if we want to actually fix the problems we face today, actually change the world, we need to do it ourselves, and not look to the government to take care of it. They have clearly shown us that their focus is on their individual careers, which rely entirely on the aforementioned corporate entities as donors, and collectively their focus is on war and corporate profiteering therein. Second, that when the people come together, putting differences aside, we can accomplish anything, even the largest problems facing us today -- it really is that simple.
Please take the information discussed in the video below and research for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. As anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant.
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Written by Ryan Cristian
Founder, Editor - The Last American Vagabond
WKUP "The Shift" Radio
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