We must keep our wits about us while the Oversight Committee considers evidence on whether to impeach President Joe Biden, as the cognitive warfare warriors attempt to subvert reality, says Patrick Lawrence.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivering the 2023 State of the Union address. (Executive office of the president of the United States)
By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News
This is the second in Consortium News’ series on the congressional investigation into President Biden’s allegedly corrupt involvement in the business affairs of his son Hunter. The first can be read here.
After a single day’s introductory hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives, it is already evident that the Oversight Committee’s inquiry into President Joe Biden’s potentially criminal involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings will be much more than a formal, constitutionally-mandated legal proceeding.
Viewed in the broadest terms, this is likely to prove a test of the troubled republic’s relationship with reality.
If the hearings to come conclude with a finding that the forty-sixth president is guilty of impeachable crimes, as now appears likely, they will confront Americans with an insidious, many-sided effort to subvert their public institutions and the national discourse altogether in the name of a liberal authoritarian ideology.
Not quite three years ago, NATO published the final draft of a lengthy study it titled Cognitive Warfare. This 45–page document, reported in various independent publications but in mainstream media not at all, outlined what its authors termed “the battle for the human brain.”
The brain, the study reads,
“is unable to distinct [sic] whether information is right or wrong; is led to believe statements or messages it has already heard as true, even though these may be false; accepts statements as true, if backed by evidence, with no regards to [sic] the authenticity of that evidence.”
And then it made this observation:
“At the political and strategic level, it would be wrong to underestimate the impact of emotions…. Emotions —hope, fear, humiliation — shape the world and international relations with the echo-chamber effect of social media.”
Along with others, I read this diabolic document as referring primarily to geopolitical rivalries, strategic competition, great-power maneuvering, and all manner of psyops and covert operations. It has since become clear that cognitive warfare is waged on many fronts, domestic as well as foreign.
Pernicious Campaign
It is, in effect, a malevolent characteristic of our time. America’s legislative and judicial processes are among these fronts. The hearings to determine whether to impeach Joe Biden are best understood as such a cognitive battleground.
The Oversight Committee will, when all evidence is considered and all witnesses heard, arrive at a formal determination as to whether the full House will vote on Articles of Impeachment. And that vote, if there is one, will decide whether to send the Articles to the Senate.
Concurrent with this visible, legal process, we are to witness a viciously pernicious campaign, waged by the nation’s Democratic elite and the media serving them, to manipulate public perceptions such that Joe Biden is, irrespective of any evidence and under any circumstance, understood to be innocent of all allegations leveled against him.
Can incessant repetition of lies and misrepresentations triumph in the American consciousness over perfectly discernible realities? I posed this question in my initial report on the House hearings. I did not then view these proceedings as a front in the wider war power wages for our minds. Nor had I allowed myself fully to consider that the answer to my question may well turn out to be yes.
It behooves those of us following the House hearings to bear these matters in mind, to equip ourselves properly to understand the proceedings, and to resist the efforts of cognitive warriors to subvert our thinking and judgments. This will require certain things of us.
One of these is memory. Even as the cognitive warriors invite us to forget, we will have to remember various events in the past that bear upon what Oversight brings forth by way of evidence against Biden and the other eight family members — yes, eight — involved in the alleged bribery and influence-peddling schemes that are at issue.
We will have to maintain a keen sense of history. We must be able to put the proceedings in the context of an indisputable written record that extends back at least nine years, when Hunter Biden was named to the board of Burisma Holdings, the controversial Ukrainian gas company, and Joe Biden, as vice-president, began intervening directly in Ukraine’s political, economic, and business affairs.
Extensive Catalogue of Evidence
Hunter Biden with his father and stepmother at his father’s presidential inauguration, January 20, 2021. (DOD, Carlos M. Vazquez II)
The cognitive warriors in the press and among agenda-setting Democrats will urge us at every turn to assume there is no written record of events — no valid history.
Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, tried this on in his opening statement on Thursday. There is no evidence against Biden and his son, he asserted, no history to consider — this after his Republican colleagues previewed an extensive catalogue of evidence indicating the president’s guilt.
And finally, there is the not-so-simple matter of paying attention. It has been evident for many decades now that those who generate mis– and disinformation daily in matters of great political consequence depend on the somnambulant inattention and amnesia of most Americans. At this point, paying attention acquires a positive political value.
I mention these matters not to overdramatize our moment but to reflect its gravity. It will take a conscious effort to counter cognitive warfare in the course of these hearings. A single day’s proceedings are warning enough of what is to come.
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Is there a partisan dimension to these proceedings? Let there be no question of this. But Republicans and Democrats stand in very different places as Oversight proceeds. The Republicans who direct the hearings, whatever their political ambitions, are working with hard evidence. Democrats appear to have nothing to counter this other than a domestic version of the cognitive warfare I invoke.
Like it or not, Republicans have the law in their favor, to put this point another way. Democrats are left with subterfuge and media manipulation. The latter present Americans with the greater danger.
Four years ago in September 2019, the transcript of a leaked telephone conversation between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky recorded Trump as he asked the Ukrainian president to help investigate the doings of Joe and Hunter Biden as these related to Burisma, where Hunter had sat lucratively on the board.
Burisma Story Turned Upside Down
Viktor Shokin on YouTube stream of STRC Ukrainian television and radio broadcasting «UTR – TV channel» – PULSE NEWS, (Wikipedia/Creative Commons Attribution)
By this time, it had come to light that Biden père, “the Big Guy,” had intervened to get Ukraine’s chief prosecutor fired amid his investigations into corruption at Burisma. Readers will recall that Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid if the Kiev regime did not dismiss Viktor Shokin. When Shokin got the sack, Biden famously boasted of it during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General [William Barr at this time] would be great,” Trump said over the telephone to Zelensky. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”
Trump was impeached (and subsequently acquitted) for this intervention. The Democratic Party, including Biden himself, the mainstream media, elements of the Deep State, and top officials in the State Department then began a precisely calibrated, highly coordinated campaign to turn the Burisma story plumb upside down, like an hour glass: Suddenly Biden had intervened to get Shokin dismissed because it was Shokin who was corrupt. [State Dept. memos released last year and published by Just the News actually praise Shokin for his anti-corruption work.]
This story still prevails among the elements just named. The press repeats it with no apparent hesitation whenever the topic arises. The postscript is rarely, if ever mentioned: Shokin’s successor as chief prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, made motions to take up the Burisma case — and then dropped it as soon as the Klieg lights were shut off.
And now the House Oversight Committee is investigating Joseph R. Biden, Jr., on the basis of the allegations Trump was condemned for considering. This is the history we must keep with us. These are the facts we must remember.
The account of actual events surrounding Burisma, the Bidens, and Viktor Shokin is now dismissed as a conspiracy theory. This is the work of the cognitive warriors. Against this is a very considerable inventory of evidence — email trails, text messages, witness testimony (including corroborating accounts from multiple sources), bank records — that the Oversight Committee now has in its possession.
The history here is plain — as it is in numerous other cases of the Biden family’s apparent corruption. The record is plain. The evidence appears to be there. Will history prevail against deeply cynical efforts to manipulate public perceptions sufficiently to subvert reality? This is the question. Vigilance against cognitive warfare will do much to determine the answer.
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, lecturer and author, most recently of Journalists and Their Shadows. Other books include Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. His Twitter account, @thefloutist, has been permanently censored.
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Thanks for putting a spotlight on this very important issue.
Another key factor to watch for is the use of skillful con artists, i.e. liars. For example, Rachel Maddow could win an Academy Award for her skill as seeming sincere and trustworthy while she lies brazenly. A key tactic she uses is to not even mention crucial evidence that must be considered in any honest report of a situation. Then she masterfully sneers at conclusions based on that buried evidence. Her sneer is not so over-the-top as to be cartoonish. It is a slight, “polite” sneer, so she appears thoughtful, civil, and reasonable. Finally, she asserts a conclusion for which she has provided no evidence. This is all done behind her veneer of trustworthiness.
I just watched a Hillary interview in which she is similarly skillful. She uses the same techniques, but with a slightly different personal style. Not all the oligarchy’s talking heads, in the press and Congress, are as skillful as these two, but they use the same tactics and aim for the same convincing veneer.
I don’t think anyone should be happy that their side is right and the other side wrong. Both of the major Parties are rotten.
An okay article. Only three years ago was “Cognitive Warfare” written, premised on work of Bernays, what he originated. If the document is so recent, it would be interesting to learn how they learned that stuff. Who did they steal the thinking from? …more recently. Info has come to NATO with that paper, but before that? Other remarks in this article show significant sausage-making, so to speak, is going on currently following on 3-year old “C… W…”; the other documents are links in remarks here. I always wondered why Democrat Party would not be honest with its followers on their reliance on social control this way. I know of this these techniques, “Perception Management”, etc.
If more competition existed in the large-scale broadcast media, then this regime would be far more unlikely to be so confident a tool of control as we see it again done. This is like a following on vaccum created out of wake left by work of Snoden, rising up alongside is more likely reality here. I see now why oligarchy would never do that. To try make this get traction will get a response, but believing on competition is muted while what superlatives are not use to describe U.S. constitution.
But to what petty ends would they use these tools? And what petty ends … to protect that system. If you didn’t have 4th, 5th amendment protections such as when travelling abroad, they could kill you quite indispensingly, which is a different subject. And, what then (about media)? Break it down as in an industry “shock”? (Or) does policy roll back to pre-1996 ownership rules (which limited ownership)? Or what? Intracycle management would have you notice it, they do use it for pretty petty ends.
Little things of this shit I see all the time, the article’s importance of memory. Santos story hit, the was all NYT, they kept that small town paper from getting it out, then (again) up comes Trump, to begin another charade which goes on today (to prop up Trump). Over ten years ago, NBC invested quite a lot with “The Apprentice”. Nine years a show has led to an inelastic nature of his public support which corresponds to what? We have a problem with Trump and inelastic supporters.
And somehow, with not only one entity involved, it was decided this fashion show would happen, a specific outcome designed to specific objective ends. Someone’s confident and highly likely predicable outcome this year is guaranteed to include Trump. So predict this outcome, and have at that. (It is a) big political money matter that will not hardly ever be reported on except solely within a horse-race context, see it, describe all about that system, but not all of it gets disclosed, one idea. Media literacy is not the same as hating the other side’s TV stations media, as we should all know. Fairer to spread the blame around.
The very fact that this is going on, that the politicians and global elites deliberately manipulate the truth and facts, that lying has become normal, acceptable and desirable, that deception is a primary weapon, shows how deeply screwed up and corrupted our governments in the west have become.
Gone are the voices of reason, truth, restraint, debate, consideration, principle, compassion and charity! All that is good and desirable has been demonised, and rebranded as bad and evil. Rather like Orwell’s 1984 where opposite meanings dominate, that is what we now have.
Human life has been reduced in value. The populace is not respected, and is increasingly seen by the elites as either a nuisance, or as a source of bodies to be used as weapons, and for experimentation. There is talk of population reduction, eugenics, totalitarianism as being good for us, and other drastic and draconian measures – mostly in the ‘green’ cause of managing climate change to ‘save’ the world!
We are already in WWIII, even if it is not yet an actual military world war, nuclear or otherwise – it’s the cognitive warfare all around us. The fight in the west is for the global oppression, control and ultimate enslavement of the populace. We may end up being saved by the Global South (Majority) if the west fails to conquer it and collapses.
@ Patrick Lawrence
Re: IMPEACHMENT: Innuendo and Evidence and its earlier revisionisms, Tampering with History – & Impeachment: ‘Cognitive Warfare’ on Capitol Hill
Kudos to your exquisite semantic linguistics as usual good Sir, but it may take me a while to comfortably visualize you sharing an ideological/political bed with the likes of a Jim Jordan and company. Even considering such a quaint association begs the question how such a remarkable seduction could have been accomplished without a large degree of revisionist tampering and said “Cognitive Warfare on Capitol Hill”. In the present political climate neither most of those presently posing as Conservatives or Liberals are honestly representative of either political philosophy; there is no cognitive reasoning present in this modern political iteration. Should we view the disaggregation of citizenship and the end of the unitary model with dismay? Are these developments indicators of the “devaluation” of citizenship, a trend toward “lean citizenship”, insofar as one no longer need be a citizen to have access to some coveted social rights? Or are these developments indicators of a new sense of global justice and harbingers of new modalities of political agency, heralding perhaps cosmopolitan citizenship?
Might it be interesting and even informative if any of these scions of either RED or BLUE political stewardship were publicly confronted with such inquiries; if for no other reason than to be entertained by the puzzled look of mental confusion and incontinence that would likely ensue.
As Usual,
EA
My review of this article, which I find important, can be found at hxxps://open.substack.com/pub/guillermocalvomah/p/reflections-on-patrick-lawrences?r=lwzkv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web, as well as on my blog.
The first big whopping, public lie came from Hillary Clinton. To cover up her use of a private email server that she used to avoid any public review of her nefarious and likely criminal activities under the Freedom of Information Act, Clinton concocted and unleashed the Trump Russia hoax. The Deep State FBI seized the opportunity to spy on Trump, while leaking ever more lies about Trump and those working for him to the corrupt press. Both the FBI and the media kept the various lies alive for several years. Hillary Clinton is still lying about it, and many demoralized Democrats still believe it, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Thus, House speaker Nancy Pelosi discovered that she could lie all of the time and mostly get away with it. The corrupt press adored her and always backed her up. This led to two phony impeachments among other far-reaching crimes.
In the first Trump impeachment case, the big lie in the form of projection was used to blame Trump for crimes Biden actually committed in Ukraine. Biden had forced the firing of a legitimate prosecutor who had Biden in his sights. With Ukraine’s President replacing him with a corrupt hack who took a $5 Million bribe from Burisma to bury the Biden family corruption in Ukraine by simply closing the investigation and case. Trump was then impeached for daring to take Biden’s Ukraine corruption public.
In the second impeachment, the FBI, along with Pelosi staged the 6-Jan demonstration at the Capitol. Planted FBI agents and assorted ‘Confidential Human Sources’ led a group of disgruntled voters into the halls of Congress. Pelosi refused Trumps’ offer of National Guard troops to protect the buildings and ordered the doors opened to entrap the poor saps who entered the building. It was Pelosi’s ‘Fire in the Reichstag.’ 20-30 year prison sentences were meted out to those entrapped.
But Pelolsi’s ultimate opportunity had come about previously with Covid. Pelosi was able to create a wide range of invitations to voter fraud owing to the chaos that Covid created around the world. Mail in ballots became a force in a close election and the voter fraud that resulted was made legitimate by partisan judges and others reluctant to open the can of worms that is a contested election. A widely unpopular and feeble Joe Biden was thus installed as President.
Biden, a habitual, pathological liar has continued and expanded the Psy-Ops throughout the tenure of his regime. The most recent example is Biden’s pure projection that Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine. When the opposite is obviously the truth. It is Biden himself who has already lost that war. We are living in the dystopian, totalitarian twilight zone that was forecast by former CIA Director William Casey back in 1981.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” – William J. Casey, former CIA Director
The question is what, if anything the American people are going to do about it. The Biden impeachment hearings can help by showing that Joe Biden has lied about his involvement in efforts by his son and brother to collect $10’s of millions in corrupt foreign influence bribes. Unless Americans vote in such a landslide in 2024 to turn the Democrats out of the White House, Democrats will have proven that they can fool all of the people, all of the time. If the election is close, there will be nothing stopping the Democrats from cheating again. If they are able to steal another Presidential election in 2024, we will have likely lost the power of our right to vote permanently.
Wake up, Uncle Sam: Is the US military ready to take on Russia and China?
30 years after achieving total dominance, has the Ukraine conflict exposed the limits of American power?
hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes
Democracy Now has a news headline dated 9/29/23 that GOP witnesses admit no evidence yet to support impeaching Biden. They quote Jonathan Turley purportedly to that effect and Bruce Dubinsky somewhat less to that effect. Of course, DN has for some time been a Democratic Party outlet. And I do not believe that we have even gotten to the evidentiary part of the process. We are basically still at opening statements. It will be fascinating to see what Patrick reports. As he has told us, it is a big “if” whether the inquiry even gets out of committee.
Mature, adult and intellectual reporting by PL. If the current house committee succeeds in moving the impeachment process forward, it would mirror the work of the house committee in 1933 which resulted in the Banking Act of 1933. Then as now, congress was hopelessly corrupt. Yet this unexpected effort kept the bankers and predatory capitalists from extinguishing the flickering flame of “we the people.” That flame is flickering again from the pressure of bankers and predatory capitalists. Meanwhile, a corrupt and utterly inept executive branch may yet bring the federal government to its knees. This might not be all bad for it would keep the flame of “we the people” alive but at the state level.
Reading the Crystal Ball:
Trump goes directly to jail and does not pass GO. He dies in prison and no one cares. Biden’s awful dog rushes into the White House and knocks Biden over, and he hits his head so hard that there is no sense left in the man.
Everything starts over and we have no idea yet, of who the next piece of lying awfulness will be.
Let is sing: “My country tis I see, land of hypocrisy—to this we cling.”
I think the answer, Patrick, is no. Just consider Russiagate. You were among those who said it was bullshit as far back as 2016. It refused to die because, in part, everybody is trained to hate Russia and Russians. And also because people are stupid.
In a growing age of Irrationality where the Enlightenment looks like the North Star:
Not quite three years ago, NATO published the final draft of a lengthy study it titled Cognitive Warfare. This 45–page document, reported in various independent publications but in mainstream media not at all, outlined what its authors termed “the battle for the human brain.”
The brain, the study reads,
“is unable to distinct [sic] whether information is right or wrong; is led to believe statements or messages it has already heard as true, even though these may be false; accepts statements as true, if backed by evidence, with no regards to [sic] the authenticity of that evidence.”
And then it made this observation:
“At the political and strategic level, it would be wrong to underestimate the impact of emotions…. Emotions —hope, fear, humiliation — shape the world and international relations with the echo-chamber effect of social media.”
All of this is how the US has governed the global south.
Welcome home.
Americans have no critical thinking skills let alone memory and hate replaces memory in any event.
When the US outsourced its industry it also outsourced its thinking about the world.
Civics classes became episodes of Beevus and Butthead or disappeared altogether in schools.
The rise of neoliberalism and the cult of self only accelerated as technology allowed ‘people’ to swaddle in their own vanity.
The future looks grim. All roads seem to lead to Rome.
the global south is our only real hope.
(D) is for Deceit.
If the Blue Party said that the sun would set in the west tonight, I wouldn’t believe a word of it until I went outside to check. And to check that these fools hadn’t done it by the “Two Suns in the Sunset” method.
All modern politicians lie. But the (D)’s build their entire party on a foundation of lies. In reality, they are the party of Wall Street, and the party of the Pentagon. They give control of the economy to Wall Street, lock stock and barrel. And they are following the war agenda of the Pentagon. But, they lie. They lie and the pretend that they represent ‘the people’…. But there is no doubt at all about who the Blue Party serves with submission and obedience.
(D) is for Deceit. Every word that says they are not completely for the bankers and the generals is a lie. (D) is for Deceit. If there lips are moving, you know they are lying. And they’ve also become pretty good at ventriloquism. Just don’t believe a word of it.
Once, again, Patrick Lawrence, Spark’s IT Up!!! Educating, enlightening, raising the f/bar, “Bringing CONSCIOUSNESS to it, “their” dirty little $ecrets.”
—— “May you always know the truth; and, see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous. Stand upright and be strong; And, may you stay, forever young.” Bob Dylan.
Imo, “cognitive warfare” is f/freaky; and, REAL. Real f/dangerous. It’s lethal. I’m NOT versed in it; but, Mr. Lawrence, is; and, absophknlutely, Spot On!!!
“Cognitive warfare is now with us. The main challenge is that it is essentially invisible; all you see is its impact, and by then … it is often too late.” The Cognitive Warfare Concept. Bernard Claverie1, François du Cluzel2. (Link by “Valerie,” (TY)! It’sstunning! It’s mind blowing!!! hxxps://www.innovationhub-act.org/sites/default/files/2022 02/CW%20article%20Claverie%20du%20Cluzel%20final_0.pdf
“Can incessant repetition of lies and misrepresentations triumph in the American consciousness over perfectly discernible realities?” Patrick Lawrence.
Imo, “cognitive warfare” is the WH, Congress, $tate, DoJ, M.I.C., C.I.A., F.B.I., gett’n their freak on!!!
Hence, Patrick Lawrence’s “after action review,” he “did not then view these proceedings as a front in the wider war power wages for our minds. Nor had [he] allowed [himself] fully to consider that the answer to [his] question may well turn out to be yes.” Own it! Do it! Done!!! Kudos, Mr. Lawrence. You ROCK!
“Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.” Aldous Huxley.
HOWEVER, “Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe.” Aldous Huxley.
The take-away, once, again, “Consciousness & Dysfunction CANNOT Coexist!!!” “[PEOPLE] start “bringing consciousness to it.” [“The only thing that ever leads to positive changes in human behavior is an expansion of [CONSCIOUSNESS].”
“Real REVOLUTION Means Expanding Consciousness, Both Inwardly & Outwardly.”
“Much like a physical law, this is a constant principle of human life in this world.” Caitlin Johnstone @ hxxps://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/07/26/consciousness-and-dysfunction-cannot-coexist/
Onward & Upwards!!! TY, Patrick Lawrence, CN, et. KEEP IT LIT! Ciao.
Scary stuff eh LeoSun. I must admit, some of those papers by Claverie and Cluzel went over my little head. But i got the general idea. OMGodzilla.
Oh, Valerie, it’s beyond scary; and, “my little brain” is bustin’ @ the seams; but, my heart is happy, “We,” know it’s name, “Cognitive Warfare.” IMO, it’s wtf’s, been going on, forever! “They’ve” been exposed! MSMedia has got to report, “the power’s that be “got” their dirty, grubby, bloody tentacles, in every nook & cranny of plant, animal, and human life. Their goal is control, “our” brains, emotions. “They” call it, “Cognitive Warfare.” Cui bono?!?
Valerie, “Keep It Lit!” TY…Ciao
Is Joe Biden a casualty of the cognitive war?
He’s probably the reason Patrick. LOL
The short answer is NO!
Joe Biden is NOT a casualty, a victim, an unwilling tool. Imo, Joey R. Biden, Jr., is the nucleus of “Cognitive Warfare,” i.e., Biden-Harris, a political corpse, posing as POTUS, masquerading as human.
The “l o n g” answer,
Exhibit A-Z: “Code Blue!” The WH, DNC, M.I.C., C.I.A., F.B.I., DoJ, Congress, $tate aka the Center of Democrat Control (CDC) is on track, “manufacturing hate, war, & fascism, masquerading it as democracy.” Plus, totally, intent on having CONTROL of our brains and emotions. Basically, altering the way people REACT to information, i.e.,
1) “Biden-Harris are physically unfit & mentally, bankrupt!” (NOT! B-H “GOT” most votes, ever! Most unemployed/Most jobs, ever, created/Most jobless, homeless, drug addicted, inequitable, indefensible, diverse nationwide war zone, ever/Inherited from Trump & Company, Most in$ured/Most UNin$ured. Lowest wages/Highest wages. Highest inflation in 8 years/Lowest reduction in inflation, in a month, Cancelled CV-19/NOT eradicated it, as promised, etc., etc., etc.),
2) Biden’s brain is f.u.b.a.r. It appears to be a ball of toxic memories, all blended together/Most $electable, POTUS, Biden-Harris/Most “history” makin’ duo, ever!
3) POTUS CANNOT articulate a cognitive, coherent, free thought. The fix, POTUS’ mic is “CUT!” Cue the elevator music. Shut ‘em down. He’s got to go to bed…imo, POTUS is a caged bird w/a hardened mind & a calloused heart; BUT, POTUS is a useful TOOL.
Imo, the “EAGLE” fka “The Big Guy,” is grounded!!! POTUS shuffles wherever he’s/she’s led, dragg’n a$$ w/two (2) right wings, tattered, torn and pissed on. It’s f.u.b.a.r., POTUS feeble, frail & fractured is “running” for Re-$election. Bear in mind, the WH’s #1 priority, “Whatever IT takes,” NO exercising Bidenomics, in public, “Middle Out, Bottom Up!”aka Face-Plant!!! NO worries. The short term fix is in, shorter steps, figuratively and literally, AF1, 2, all staircases & ortho-sneakers. Everybody’s wear’n ‘em. They’re f/g.o.a.t. Sneaks!! WHAT’S missing? Pressers & his walking stick. No doubt, a normal, functioning brain.
Cognitive Warfare is beyond “Alarming;” and, should be the whom, what, when, why Jamaal Bowman(D) pulled the alarm; but, Bowman doesn’t feel what 75% of the Nation does, “For gawd’s sake, this man & woman, CANNOT remain in power!!!”
The moral is “fool me once, shame on you! Fool me, twice…Ya cain’t get fooled, again!” Gee Dubyah Bush
I’m going to send this piece to my liberal friends and relatives who say to me, “Yeah, but Biden isn’t as bad as ORANGE MAN TRUMP!”
Not that it will sink in, because of the aforementioned cognitive dissonance that afflicts them.
The Big Guy is the easiest Democrat in the country to beat. He ought to make deals and get out now. I fully expect him to fall down swinging.
It is a tactical decision for the date when Joe does his “LBJ”. I doubt that like his predecessor, he will wait for a primary loss to someone the party has already decided can not be allowed to win. Instead, I’m expecting a hand-off just at the time when there is enough time to change the ballots in the first primaries, and thus early enough to let the Veep get rolling, but too late for any real opposition to organize and challenge. We are thus Close, but we haven’t quit reached the Bill Clinton Cigar yet.
Only a corrupt fool that thinks they can buy, rig and collude to control the process would continue to run the current LBJ. And, at least officially, Hillary does not have an office in the party. But, I’m not entirely sure that this does not describe the entire leadership layer of the modern Democratic Party, or for that matter, the entirety of America.
Ask them, your liberal friends: how many wars has Biden started/supported vs. Trump? How many (millions) people have died, been maimed or displaced by these Biden-wars vs. by any Trump-wars?
But don’t expect any rational answer because they have no critical thinking ability.
With what crime will Biden be charged?
I have no doubt that Biden — along with nearly all politicians — is corrupt. But is his corruption, or influence-peddling, illegal??
I would think that with so much LEGAL donor money sloshing around Washington D.C., money would be easy to find. So why take the risk of engaging in illegal activities when there’s so much $$$ available in plain ‘ol Pay-to-play politics?
I agree. Citizens United put the icing on the cake. Unlimited political bribery is legal. Money is free speech and corporations are legal persons. We see SCOTUS “justices” accepting bribes as well. It should be clear by now that the late imperial US, is institutionally corrupt – many get lost in the forest for the trees.
In the US “there is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs” (Chris Hedges)
One of the problems with this approach is that you cede to the crooks the entire ability to decide ‘what is legal’. Generations of crooks have written laws that say that their routine corruption is ‘legal’. And, BTW, Biden spent a long time as the Senator from MasterCard in the seat of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee writing the laws. Do you think it is possible that The Big Guy wrote the laws such that The Big Guy would end up quite wealthy by means he defined as ‘legal’?
Interestingly, the Constitutional Convention avoided that trap with their flexible language about ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’.
Cognitive Warrior:
Perhaps you have not been paying attention and remembering.
There is “accepted” influence peddling (basically, lobbying and other forms of baksheesh), and their is the treasonous kind.
The Bidens have been operating as unregistered agents of foreign countries and entities. They are also the beneficiaries of an international money-laundering operation;.
Most egregious: It is like that the Biden Crime Family’s personal fortunes and illegal relationships have been a heavy thumb on the Ukraine War scales. Why are we in Ukraine? So some as yet unknown extent, because of Biden Crime Family interests and also suppression of evidence of their crimes. It is quite possible that Russian intel has information on the Bidens’ romp in Ukraine.
Next question: What did Obama know?
It seems obvious that the original impeachment of Trump (for daring to question the obvious corruption of the Biden family business) was to prepare the way for this moment. There were at least nine different charges against Trump that could easily have been proven as reasons for impeachment that the Democrats refused to follow since they were already guilty of the same malfeasance. Cognitive warfare indeed, Patrick Lawrence. The dream police no longer live inside of our heads, they simply demand we pay the ultimate price for ignoring the images served to us as the only acceptable reality. Like late-stage Romans, why are we fighting over who owns the fields producing grain, when grain is the one thing we won’t be allowed to have unless we agree to the complete collapse of the civil society which, by law, we already own?
Good luck trying to impeach the state.
It can be done. My I draw your attention to the years 1776, 1789, and 1917.
Maybe instead of the years, you might recall some of the slogans?
“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”
“Liberte, Equalite, Fraternete”
“Peace, Bread, Land”
… any of that sound familiar?
Yup. There’s a mountain of hard evidence Biden is corrupt. But as Chris Hedges says, ‘myths are impervious to facts’ & far too many in Congress & elsewhere of consequence are myth believers. Thus nothing will come of this.
What a royal mess we are heading into in the next year. A presidential campaign with the two leading candidates too old, too corrupt and too deranged to be believed. One under indictment, the other on the verge of impeachment while we stand 90 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock thanks to one of these buffoons getting us into a war of choice with the other nuclear armed power. A war we are losing and rightly so. Whom do we have to thank for this horrible situation? Those who have made off with the nation’s and the world’s loot of course.
I truly hope both Biden and Trump wind up in jail before November of next year. I also hope the corporate media which has done all in its power to support this theft of the commons and promoted wars for profit collapses from lack of public support. It’s time to clear the decks of all this dead weight dragging us down to the abyss so that people of integrity can have the opportunity to bring real democracy to the fore. We are nearly at the point where there’s nowhere to go but up.
Just yesterday evening we were having dinner with friends when the husband joked about the Republicans conducting an evidence free investigation of Biden. I commented that I think there is plenty of evidence and he quickly changed the subject, no doubt making a mental note that I must be MAGA. I am afraid, Patrick, that the truth hasn’t a chance in our present circumstance. Biden has the Justice Department, the Intelligence Community and the MSM protecting him. I really am amazed at how unthinking and acquiescent the public is. I was around in the sixties and seventies when a fair share of the public was awake and active. And we had senators, mostly Democrats, like Mike Gravel, Mark Hatfield, Eugene McCarthy, Frank Church, George McGovern, and more, who chose truth over party. We are a far different nation today.
There is no way to get through to the Blue Team voters that listen to the Corporate-Owned-News. They believe everything they read or hear there, without any questions. That is how effective modern cognitive warfare is. There is a huge element of tribalism here, with the two tribes, Blue and Red, having no common ground and filled with animosity toward each other. That is one of the key mechanisms that cognitive warriors use; divide and conquer. Keep the public distracted and angry at the other team, and the cognitive warrior has won half the battle already.
“Can incessant repetition of lies and misrepresentations triumph in the American consciousness over perfectly discernible realities?”
In the politics of a free country you are free to incessantly repeat lies. If the people are unable to discern reality because of this it’s their problem, not yours.
Or perhaps voters are aware of and approve of the lies as the path to a victory for Our Side. Maybe they don’t want to discern reality. Or maybe they can do so but don’t want their neighbors to discern reality. Hard to tell the difference, yes? I’d say some are one way, others the other, and there is no way to tell one from the other.
Both an impeachment and the subsequent trial are purely political acts. They have nothing to do with law. The participants only concern is being re-elected.
Watergate was a freak event, with the President having himself recorded incriminating evidence. Actually I think all those curse words is what got him. That was a very big no-no back then. The public reacted to this emotionally. A freak event could come down again, but in the absence of such almost all Congressmen will follow their respective party lines. And even if such a freak should perpetrate and Biden is a goner, we get Harris as Prez and nothing changes. So who cares?
Third party coming on October 9th. Now there’s a meaningful shakeup, not this futile kerfluffle drama.
I love how you write about this and that you’re giving it such high priority. It’s critical that members of the *true* Left report on this so they can’t just say it’s a right wing conspiracy dictated by Trump.
It doesn’t matter to me how much I hate Trump, this has nothing to do with him. Democrats will be forced to come to terms with this reality soon.
“Will history prevail against deeply cynical efforts to manipulate public perceptions sufficiently to subvert reality?”
I am not sure that public perceptions are directly germane as the public does not contribute meaningfully to any phase of the impeachment process (inquiry, proceedings, trial); that is entirely the province of Congress. Such perceptions are pertinent to the forthcoming presidential election, and to the preceding campaigns — and, perhaps most importantly (!) to the contributions which accompany them.
The concerns of the public are at best secondary to the formal aspect of the (ironically named) Democratic party, aka the DNC. They have in essence anointed Biden as the Dem nominee for 2024, much as they did in 2020, despite rather clear objections from their own rank-and-file voters (with apologies for linking to the compromised Guardian):
hxxps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/07/joe-biden-poll-2024-election-democrats
Given that the Dem “masters” are divorced from the concerns of their subjects, it is inconceivable that they would respond to any pressure from their fellow-party constituents — with the possible of exception of the high wealth/large contribution cohort — to vote to impeach were such a vote to occur. The evidence would have to be so compelling and so incontrovertible that it could not be ignored or transfigured, especially by the corporate press. Furthermore, the Dems, as usual, don’t appear to have a Plan B and have hitched their wagon inexorably to Biden, having already invested so much in him and particularly in their pet project, Ukraine* (aka the stupidest plot in history to take down Russia). If they have any sense, they are scrambling to zero in on a potential replacement nominee who is not the abysmal Kamala Harris — good luck finding anyone courageous (or foolish) enough to step into the field of landmines that lay in store.
* The (admittedly prominent) conspiratorial side of me suspects that Biden was elevated in 2020 because he was compromised with respect to Ukraine, that the Ukraine project was a priority in the event the party’s nominee attained the presidency, and therefore he could be manipulated to that end. Of course, Biden was surely fully on board with it — who wouldn’t want to be remembered as the POTUS who took down Putin! — but the Hunter/Burisma angle might have been seen to provide them with some insurance.
I looked at the “Congnitive Warfare” paper Mr. Lawrence mentions in his article, which led me to this, published last year:
Xxxx://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Cognitive-Warfare-Concept-Claverie-Cluzel/a123d786602f2d205115dd333bc4593009778cb2
You could go insane reading these things. LOL. But it’s no joke.
Interesting sfuff, thanks Valerie. I found this from our good friends at NATO. Psyops and Cognitive warfare, perception management, propaganda model, PR… even Ed Bernays would be impressed.
hxxps://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2021/05/20/countering-cognitive-warfare-awareness-and-resilience/index.html
Well Jonny, amongst us all, we’ve uncovered some interesting information. But i’m not really sure WHO is perpetrating this “cognitive warfare” or more importantly WHY; i mean we have these two French geezers with their “papers and graphics” talking about cognitive stuff, then your NATO link appears to blame all this cognitive stuff on, well, WHO really? I tell you i’m confused Jonny. From the NATO link:
“The Alliance faces a range of challenges in emerging domains of conflict. These domains can arise from the introduction of new and disruptive technologies. The domains of space and cyber, for example, came out of developments in rocket, satellite, computing, telecommunications, and internetworking technologies. The increasingly widespread use of social media, social networking, social messaging, and mobile device technologies is now enabling a new domain: cognitive warfare.”
So, is there some evil entity like in a 007 film who wants to take over the world and holds us all to ransom with “facebook” and X (formerly known as twitter)? What are the challenges they face? (In addition to their ill-fated escapade in Ukraine)
Jonny, i’ve just read this review from Snr. Mahé (see his post above) and as far as i can see, the culprit is the “deep state”. Curiouser and curiouser:
hxxps://open.substack.com/pub/guillermocalvomah/p/reflections-on-patrick-lawrences?r=lwzkv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web, as well as on my blog.
Based on recent events in the USA it seems clear that the attempt to impeach Biden will stall and disappear regardless of evidence. The USA has the best legal system “that money can buy”.
Yeah, ha-ha!
“that money can buy” – who actually coined that term?
I know it from the movies mostly.
Mr. Lawrence´s work on this subject might end up as a book.
thx again!
These past and forthcoming series of articles by Mr. Lawrence are some of the finest and most important stuff on the internet today. Spread them wide and far as they hit your screens over the next few mos.