First and foremost, I want to start off with sending my thoughts and prayers to the folks in Louisiana, Eastern Texas, and Western Mississippi because they have been through hell over the last 24-hours to say the least. A category-four hurricane is nothing to laugh at. If the winds don’t get you the first time, the will get you after the eye passes. If you still stand up after that, you will be flooded. Much of that water could be used over in California where they fires are burning up day and night, thousands and thousands of acres of land, structures, and causing many people being displaced much like what Hurricane Laura has done and what’s left of her is are doing right now. So please, don’t forget those in California either, nor the people who are in the cities with the riots going on. If God was needed in any point of our time, it is right now. Please continue to be positive, pray for our nation, and for our brave heroes, the men and women fighting against absolute evil, protecting the innocent from harm, and helping everyone during this time of need. We ALL NEED help, it’s just in different ways. Hopefully, it will be over soon and life as we knew it will somewhat return. 

 

    Tonight is the last night of the Republican National Convention. I caught the first two, but missed last night because I was monitoring the communications going on for Hurricane Laura before and as she was making her way up the Gulf onto land. Over all, it wasn’t something to write home to mom about because it was the direct opposite of what the Democrats said last week at their convention. Although I did notice that the ratings for last week were lower so far than the Republican Convention this week. Without going into politics, I don’t know exactly / for sure why that is because this week it seems that there was a lot more to watch as people were getting ready for Hurricane Laura to make it’s arrival. Still, people glued their eyes to the Republican Convention and so far, so good for ratings. This is all new for all of us watching the convention done via skype, zoom (a chinese run / owned company by the way), or recorded. Don’t get me wrong, some of it was done live in a close off area. However, the Republicans took it one step farther, they had some live outdoor segments that I thought were a little inspiring and uplifting during this time of COVID-19. However, I wouldn’t be doing any justice if I didn’t bring up the interesting survey that was done over the media leading up the the respected National Conventions.

 

    According to a recent study, Broadcasters Air 150 Times More Negative News on Trump Than Biden (https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2020/08/17/study-150-times-more-negative-news-trump-biden). NewsBusters, a project of watchdog Media Research Center, analyzed ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts from June 1 through July 31. Analysts found that the shows spent 512 minutes of airtime on Trump, nine times more than the 58 minutes they allotted to Biden. But that extra airtime was almost entirely negative toward Trump. Analysts at the center found 634 of 668 evaluative statements about the president were negative, compared to 4 of 12 for Biden. In a typical campaign season, broadcasts would devote time to both candidates. Forty percent, or 23.5 minutes, of the Biden-focused coverage aired Biden’s criticisms of Trump, while just 0.25 percent, or 88 seconds, of Trump-focused coverage consisted of relaying Trump’s criticisms of the presumptive nominee. The study included explicitly evaluative statements about Trump or Biden from reporters, anchors, or nonpartisan sources such as experts or voters. It didn’t include evaluations or comments from partisan sources, or neutral statements. Trump has regularly described many reporters as biased against him. Of course, when asked, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News didn’t respond to requests for comment on the study.

 

     But all this pales in comparison to what we now have going on with the riots. It’s a given that the Mainstream Media News cycles are going to beat the “peaceful protests” over your head because it’s constantly evolving. Although these really aren’t 100% peaceful as the Democratic overlords say they are, a better, more fitting descriptive word would be “Demonstrations” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRKzpp7w58o). That word would go beyond the meaning of protests. Why even call them protests anymore? DO these people even understand or know why they are “protesting”? The answer could be a big NO for a majority of them. Seems like the media puts on and interviews people who claim to be there peacefully, but they can’t answer anything more than the keyword phase, “Racial Injustice”. If you ask me, we’ve seen this sort of thing happen before in third world nations, but we never thought it would come here. However, there is a newer “protest” going on in a town between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. Now the systematic racism war is battling on in Kenosha, Wisconsin. For a little backstory about this area, for more than 100 years, Kenosha was an auto manufacturing center, but it has now largely been transformed into a bedroom community for Milwaukee and Chicago. The city is about 67% white, 11.5% Black and 17.6% Hispanic, according to 2019 Census data. Both the mayor and police chief are white. About 17% of the population lives in poverty.

 

    These are statistics that the Mainstream Media will use in both sides of this situation to determine an outcome that is predicted to, what is called, “get ahead of the storm”. If you want to create the winds of change, you have to get people fired up, molding their wills and strengths into something that can be useful as a tool for tasks in the future. Last week, I mentioned “who controls the media, controls the narrative. So if whoever controls the narrative, they control how people think, react, what they do or feel” (https://thebigjohnshow.com/2020/08/20/no-pardon-for-the-narrative/). I also asked who do you think controls it and more importantly, the universal question “why?” 

 

    Another police shooting happened around 5 p.m. Sunday, August 23rd and this time around, Kenosha police do not have body cameras, but they do have body microphones (https://apnews.com/6435a3f69293c22ace6536e7dad72776?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningwire&pnespid=m_ltraNZGwyN3JHnJn7p__cimicX6sGsHx7RdJBE). However, there was a witness who recorded the situation on video from his house across the street. The man who made the video, said that before the gunfire, he looked out his window and saw six or seven women shouting at each other on the sidewalk. A few moments later, Jacob Blake drove up in his SUV and told his son, who was standing nearby, to get in the vehicle. It was said that Jacob Blake did not say anything to the women. The man filming the video said he left the window for a few minutes, and when he came back, saw three officers wrestling with Jacob. One punched him in the ribs, and another used a stun gun on him. Jacob Blake got free and started walking away as officers yelled about a knife. 

 

     In the footage, Jacob Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of his SUV to his driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed and shout at him (https://youtu.be/gDI8soJzVpk). As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, an officer grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire while he has his back turned. Seven shots can be heard, though it isn’t clear how many struck him or how many officers fired. The shooting left Jacob Blake paralyzed from the waist down, according to his father (https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/8/25/21400481/jacob-blake-kenosha-police-shooting-riots-evanston). As it turned out, Jacob Blake did have a knife on the floorboard of his car when he was shot by police, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which also has identified the officer who shot him as Rusten Sheskey (https://www.foxnews.com/us/blake-had-knife-in-car-when-kenosha-cop-shot-him-wisconsin-doj?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxnews%2Fnational%20%28Internal%20-%20US%20Latest%20-%20Text%29). Civil rights attorney representing Jacob Blake’s family, said that his client was “simply trying to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic incident” (https://apnews.com/0cbc14762c89304f9f052fd33a1f4445?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningwire&pnespid=0.Y1ufFKChyNtHldkdjmMRB8Ss7ZiUFwa__6m9g9).

 

     As a result, it sparked civil unrest in Kenosha, a city of 100,000 people. On the bright side, if there is one to come out of this whole mess, is it also shined a light on Kenosha’s delays in equipping its roughly 200 police officers with body-worn cameras, which has made the city fall behind many of its neighbors and similar-sized towns. What I’m about to say next will most likely upset some people, especially those who are pushing for this to get even more out of control, including those with an agenda. Let me make this very clear: I do not like what the police did with shooting the man. With that said, I do not blame the police for defending themselves either.

 

    If Jacob Blake did what the police asked him to do, which was to comply, this may not have happened. The police was there because they were called to respond to an incident at that address. Part of police training is to assess the situation as soon as they arrive on scene. If there is someone who isn’t going to be cooperative, without violating anyone’s rights, that makes the situation tense. I’m not saying it’s entirely Jacob Blakes fault nor am I saying it’s not the Kenosha Police Officers fault, it is a bad situation all around and without the help of body cams, it’s going to make things a bit murkier and more time consuming to get to the bottom of this terrible situation, but it is NOT, and again I say NOT, the time for destruction, rioting, or demonstrations in the streets. Too many innocent lives have been affected by this horrid situation and my heart goes out to the families of Jacob Blake and the police officers. I’m sure we can all agree how thankful this police shooting didn’t result in another senseless death. Here’s some more history for you about this case unfolding: Blake’s grandfather, Jacob Blake Sr., was a prominent minister and civil rights leader in the Chicago area who helped organize a march and spoke in support of a comprehensive housing law in Evanston, Illinois, days after the 1968 slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

   

    Something else that needs to be noted about Jacob Blake and I have no idea, nor am trying to spread something that may not be true, but online court records indicate Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake on July 6 with sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2020CF000736&countyNo=30&index=0&mode=details). An arrest warrant was issued the following day. The records also show a couple of dates when he had to appear in Kenosha County court for child support in April 2019 (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2019FA000286&countyNo=30&index=0) and October 2018 (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2018FA000807&countyNo=30&index=0). There were also several dates that he had to show up in Racine County court for child support, one in March of 2018 (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2018FA000140&countyNo=51&index=0), then again in August 2018 (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2018FA000875&countyNo=51&index=0). The common thing here is that these court cases all involved the woman / mother of his child who Jacob Blake was picking up the day he was shot. It was unclear whether that case had anything to do with the event that preceded the shooting. 

 

    To make it more interesting, the actions of resisting police isn’t foreign to Jacob Blake either. On Monday, September 21, 2015, Jacob Blake, who would have been 24 at the time and living in Racine, Wisconsin was charged in Racine County Circuit Court with one felony count of resisting arrest causing a soft tissue injury to a police officer and one misdemeanor count each of carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a firearm while intoxicated, endangering safety-use of a dangerous weapon, and disorderly conduct (https://racinecountyeye.com/police-k9-dozer-helps-subdue-man-who-pulled-gun-at-bar/). According to the criminal complaint, Jacob Blake was with two women a tavern called “Brass Monkey” on the night of Saturday, September 19th when he got into an argument with another patron and pulled a handgun, pointing the gun at the other man, and the magazine fell to the floor. The bartender told Jacob Blake to leave, and he did, but then decided to point the gun through the window at patrons inside the bar before walking away on down the road from the Brass Monkey. On a side note, the Beastie Boys would be so proud of that name (https://youtu.be/acY2VSskD80). If you are wanting to look that specific court case up, good luck on that. As odd as it may sound, yesterday the court officials announced that Please note, court officials told the Racine County Eye that “Mr. Blake was not convicted of any of the charges listed in this story. The charges appear to have been dismissed upon Prosecutor’s Motion. The minutes reflect that on 02-20-2018 the prosecutor moved to dismiss the case “due to witness issues and age of the case.” The reason the case is not listed in court records is because of the dismissal they appear to have met the threshold for the cases to automatically be removed from the WCCA website.” I kid you not… The only thing that shows up on his record about that specific case is that he had to pay a fine for “Operate w/o Carrying License” (https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2018CT000482&countyNo=51&index=0&mode=details) which he ended up paying the court $210.80 along with signing a $500.00 bond to get out of jail.

 

     The Police say they encountered a woman walking on the street who was in the bar with him, but she said she didn’t know what happened and that her friends left without her in a silver SUV. A few moments later, officers were advised that a silver SUV was traveling down that same street with a male subject driving who matched his description, so they initiated a traffic stop. Because he had a gun with him, the police conducted a high risk traffic stop and ordered him to put his hands out the window of the vehicle. Instead, he exited the SUV and started walking toward officers and ignored commands to get down on the ground. Officers forced Jacob Blake  to the ground and ordered him to put his hands behind his back, but when he refused to comply, a K9 Dozer was deployed to force the defendant into compliance. At the time he was taken into custody, he was searched and police say he had a holster on his hip but no gun. A search of the SUV turned up a black handgun on the floor behind the driver’s seat. The police also found a box of ammunition and two loaded magazines in his coat pockets. Afterwards, the police took him to the hospital so he could be treated for the wound he obtained from K9 Dozer. Officers say he refused to answer questions, but he did submit to a legal blood draw to determine his level of intoxication which came back at .144 BAC. He was taken and booked into the Racine County Jail on a $5,000 cash bond. 

 

     So no, this isn’t Jacob Blakes first run-in with the law. In fact, it seems as if it’s a repeated pattern of disrespect for the police, or anyone for that matter. That being said though, it’s not an excuse to shoot down anyone who doesn’t comply. Nor is this event a reason to destroy innocent people’s property and other lives. This should not be a call to defund the police either. I STRONGLY URGE that people let the investigation play out BEFORE deciding who’s guilty of what. Now is not the time for knee-jerking reactions to things we don’t fully know or understand. Let the investigators do their job before reaching a breaking point that we can’t walk back from. Let’s not make any decision that can be devastating, as in taking one’s life. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a situation develop where a 17 year old boy will be charged with murder for killing two rioters and wounding another for trying to damage property. The 17-year-old boy, of Antioch, Illinois, (about 15 miles from Kenosha, Wisconsin) was taken into custody yesterday in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide. Two people were shot, but one of them was killed Tuesday night during another night of Black Lives Matter riots in Kenosha. More evidence is coming out that it was more of a self-defence as the two people were chasing down the teenager. One of them had a handgun and was firing it being the teen while running. The other hit the teenager and they fell to the ground. When the assailant kept coming after the teen, the end result was in self defense. This story is still unfolding and the details are trickling out. Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said during a Wednesday press conference he believed the 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse might have been part of a group of armed individuals who asked to be deputized and allowed to patrol the streets of the Wisconsin city ahead of Tuesday night’s protests (https://www.foxnews.com/us/kenosha-county-sheriff-says-shooting-suspect-may-have-been-among-group-that-sought-to-be-deputized-oh-hell-no).

 

     If the demonstrators understood this, they would see this is a direct reason why we should increase funding to the police for technical updates / upgrades like body cams and such. I’m not saying that we need to have a surveillance state, but with all this going violent reactions going on, it’s going to be a very possible end result. Technically, in this day and age, if you own a Cell Phone, use Android or Apple, you are part of the surveillance. Even on your home computer surfing the internet, your ISP and browser are watching you. If you are on social media, public wifi, or where ever a camera is recording you, you are being surveilled already and I don’t feel comfortable with that. Just like that guy who didn’t want to be identified was recording the video of Jacob Blake getting shot by the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he was surveilling the situation from a distance. Sounds creepy, huh? The media is doing it too and it IS recording your response to each and every single public event. These are the days of our lives during this agenda.

 

     In a way it does bother me a little because I really do truly love people. I am not afraid to tell someone I love them. I really don’t think people get that about me on here unless they actually know me in person. I even love those who make it a point to constantly disagree (almost violently) with me because of my personal views, but it doesn’t mean I have to help them when they come asking afterwards. I keep an open mind on everyone’s views and opinion, even those who flat out attack me because I post something they want to argue about. I truly love talking about religion, history, current events in general as long as they are ALL backed by facts.

 

    Conversations is a method of learning about each other and the things around us. If we can’t be truthful about what bothers us, how we see things, how we feel a human being about something, then how are we supposed to evolve? How are we supposed to connect, help, or try to make this who situation better in general if we can’t get along in person, much less on a digital platform? God knows I would LOVE a great conversation with anyone about most anything on my front porch while sitting in a rocking chair and sipping on a cold Pepsi. That’s one of the most important things I miss doing on the radio and it absolutely breaks my heart that I am not able to reach the people like I used to when I worked at KTCS and KICM. I remember having great conversations with folks in between songs. Those conversations turned into great bits and promos.

 

    There is so much wrong in this (BEEP!)ed up situation, but just having a conversation where you hear a voice or seeing a face can make such a major difference from staring at a screen. Conversations make or break any relationship, but it can also create one of the strongest bonds you will ever have in your life with the people you least expect. And we just don’t do it, we don’t let it happen because we are too afraid to talk or listen to what is really bothering us. To top it off, no one seems to care enough to ask how someone is doing anymore. We are all being trained to ask as polite conversation, but we also give a simple response because it’s too personal to tell someone.

 

    I admit, about 90% of what I do say on social media is meant to be the verbal “wrench in your gears”, but honestly, if anyone was serious enough to simply ask me to my face or on the phone to ask me how I was doing? There’s no doubt in my mind that I would absolutely break down. And I am willing to bet there are a few others out there just like me who aren’t saying a word. That’s why it’s important to keep a routine going in a time of Bravo Sierra like we are all going through now. I miss that human connection, that feeling of vibing in a brilliant conversation while playing a board game or cards on a porch. IMHO, we would ALL benefit from doing that. No news, no gossip, just analyzing theories that were brought up by brilliant minds before us still waiting to be proven, even if in quantum physics. Some might read this and think I’m lonely, but really, I think all of us are feeling alone right now.

     Well, it’s business as usual in the mediocrity that we know as Mainstream media for failing to give us what we need to know, what is not a distraction, and what should be in the news. Unless our last name is Biden, Harris, Trump, Pense, or anyone else in government, you and I aren’t important enough to mention. We are neck deep in a political election year and it’s so bad that we are choking on the back-and-forth between the two parties that there isn’t any talk about the other political candidates running for office. There’s an old saying that whoever controls the media, controls the narrative. So if you control the narrative, you control how people think, react, what they do or feel. Needless to say, it seems the Democratic party is in control of about 70% of all the media, including newspaper, digital, broadcasting TV and radio. Within the first three minutes of any news source, you will be able to determine what side they are on, what agenda their pushing, and you will be damned if your opinion is different that theirs.

 

     However, in my social circles, limited as it may be, we are able to make sense and avoid the Bravo Sierra of their agenda / spin on the days current event. Over all, the media does a great job at beating down it’s viewers / listeners with revolving versions over the same topic. It’s just as bad if not worse on social media. Twitter and Facebook, both, will call you out, claim you are promoting fake news, and remove your post, if they don’t block you for a period of time, or eliminate you completely. Recently I tested the response time of Facebook by posting a fake tweet from President Trump. I found a Tweet generator online (https://faketrumptweet.com/). It wasn’t anything that contained profanity (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3776351555715167). Just over two hours after it was posted, I got one of those dark screens covering the post and a link to a story about President Trump saying something that had NOTHING to do with what I posted. It wasn’t a news story at all. It was just a screenshot I took of this fake tweet I created on a website. I didn’t list the website, it was just a picture with no text. Facebook couldn’t handle it and lost their minds. I contacted Facebook and told them what we going on. I didn’t hear anything back from them. However, later on that night, they removed the story that was linked to the “fact check” but left the gray cover over the picture.

 

    Speaking about checking facts, where is the outrage for little 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant (https://www.wral.com/father-of-slain-5-year-old-everybody-loved-cannon-he-lit-up-the-room/19233827/)? Black Lives Matter will burn down a section of town for George Floyd, but what about when a black man goes and needlessly ends the life of a little boy for no reason? Violent Protesters / Rioters will set blockade a part of a city, claim it as their own, and the mayor, not to forget the governor, will stop the federal police from removing them to restore order in the name of racial injustice, but what about when a black male shoots a white 5-year-old child point blank in the head for no reason? Have you heard about this story in the news yet? You probably haven’t and it’s a damn shame too! I guess if the colors were reversed, the media would be all over it like white on rice on a paper plate in the middle of a snow storm on a glacier. For the record, EVERYBODY’s life matters! Mainstream media needs to get off their fourth-point-of-contact and pop their head out of the sand in a hurry.

 

    On Sunday, August 8th, 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant was riding a bike along with his his 8- and 7-year-old sisters outside his father’s home when their 25-year-old next door neighbor walked up to him and shot him in the head, before running back to his own yard, witnesses told police. The boys father said he heard a gunshot as his fiancée walked into the house. He said “The first thing that went through my mind was maybe he just fell off his bike. The closer I got to him, the more I realized it was something far more serious.” The family has lived next door to shooter and his parents for eight years and even had him over for dinner on the Saturday before the shooting, noting that he and Sessoms sat on his porch and drank beer. He said he had never had any confrontations with Sessoms. After Cannon was shot, the father said, he scooped the wounded boy into his arms and like any father or mother would, he screamed “Somebody, please help me save my son! Help me save my son, please!” Another neighbor came over with an EMT bag, adding that he then fell to his knees and prayed aloud. Meanwhile, the neighbor who shot his son was pacing nearby, gun in hand, before driving off. Cannon was taken to Wilson Medical Center, where he died. The following night, about 24 hours after police said he shot and killed a 5-year-old boy, the 25-year-old shooter was apprehended in Goldsbor, North Carolina, by members of the U.S. Marshals Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, Goldsboro police, and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond in the Wilson County jail. 

 

     Speaking of North Carolina, get ready to laugh over this story. A North Carolina woman claiming to be visiting her brothers house was shot with a BB gun over a misunderstanding, and the BB is still lodged in her arm (https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/woman-shot-with-bb-gun-removing-trump-sign-she-thought-was-wrong-yard/4IEHLEQNEJEOZCRLTWT2IOYG64/). The woman said she saw a political sign in what she thought was her brother’s front yard. When she went to remove it, his 76-year-old neighbor shot her with an air gun, striking her near the elbow. She thought the sign was placed in the yard by a prankster, as her brother never talks about politics. What’s more, the sign was placed closer to her brother’s front door than the neighbor’s house, and the exact property lines were unclear to her. The neighbor said he yelled at the woman to stop before he opened fire, although she said she didn’t hear him say anything. When she confronted the man, he encouraged her to call the police. The police showed up and somehow, so did one of the local tv station news crews. During a TV interview on the scene, she said “You can’t shoot people on your property,” she said. “He actually believed he could shoot me if I was on his property, and to me, that’s terrifying.”  Now, for a little side-bar, it is very legal to shoot someone / use of deadly force on your own property in the state of North Carolina under the “Castle Law” (https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-gun-laws/north-carolina/), however it does clarify if anyone can use a BB gun to get someone’s attention to stop stealing political signs or personal property. Now the man, who said he purchased the BB gun to scare away stray cats on his property, faces a misdemeanor assault charge. “You defend your property and you end up getting charged,” he said in response to the charges. The woman said she had no problem with the sign itself, she just didn’t want it on her brother’s property if it wasn’t his. She said she would have put it back if the man had just explained to her that it was his property. The man said he meant to hit the woman in the rear end. He’s also considering filing charges against the woman for attempted theft but has to wait until his assault charge is handled. His court date is set for November.

 

    Now, what I couldn’t figure out was how the local TV news media got there so fast with the police. Doing a little digging around for research, I found the answer I was looking for when I looked on youtube. Turns out the woman was a “former reporter” at WUSA channel 9 out of Washington D.C. and after seeing her video / another news report on youtube, apparently there’s an agenda (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miiExxp1Cfk). If you look up the phrase “Woman shot with BB gun for removing Trump sign from wrong yard” , you can find the video from WUSA that she made. Otherwise, you can visit WSOC TV and look up their videos. It’s obviously politically bias against President Trump and the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment) all while trying to insult any law abiding God-fearing, red-blooded American by playing dumb. Look, I know she is a blond, but come on? Being in the media, she had to know how to milk the media and get a response from the masses. That’s it, plain and simple. If she honestly felt that way, then I don’t think she would want all that attention.
 

     Another thing that gets my agent orange all riled up is the fact that when, both, local and national news media talk about COVID-19, they usually throw in a variation of the phrase, “according to the CDC…” and then plaster a picture of Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci across the page or screen. For the record, Dr. Fauci works with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/), not the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/). He has worked there since 1984 (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/director). The CDC and NIAID are two separate government agencies, each with different leadership and missions but both a part of the Health and Human Services umbrella. While NIAID is concerned with research only, the CDC is intended to be both a research institution and an active reporter and authority on public health and public safety. Therefore, Dr. Fauci doesn’t make these decisions nor should he be looked at as any figure of authority. Anytime he is shown when you reference the CDC, you make the argument null in void.

 

    Now, on the flip side of this whole argument about the media not doing its job, I do have to give credit where credit is due. This past Saturday, August 15th, President Trump was giving his press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. I was watching it live streaming online as he was asked the normal, average-type of questions the press ask during these events. I was thrown off when a member of the press ask a question that I considered “out of the blue”: Would President Trump “consider giving a pardon to Edward Snowden?” What was even more of a surprise is the reply President Trump said after admitting he didn’t know much about the case, but that he would consider pardoning Edward Snowden. For those of you who don’t know or understand the gravity of this possible situation, it’s a real game-changer on so many important levels. This would not only affect our national security, but the way the government monitors internet traffic, in which it already has since the news of the situation broke The Guardian and The Washington Post in June 2013 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance?CMP=twt_gu). Call me a conspiracy nut if you want, but the fact is that Edward Snowden opened up the eyes of a lot of American citizens and those in special committees in congress too, in which got a lot of people doing wrong in trouble. Therefore, if you think President Trump has pissed off “a lot of rich people” in the Pharmaceutical industries recently (https://popculture.com/trending/news/donald-trump-says-may-be-last-time-americans-see-him-amid-enemies-out-there/), wait until you see who comes after him if or when Edward Snowden gets his pardon. 

 

     Recently, President Trump expressed that a lot of people thought Snowden was not being treated fairly by federal law enforcement and was going to look into a pardon for Edward Snowden (https://nypost.com/2020/08/13/trump-a-lot-of-people-think-edward-snowden-not-being-treated-fairly/). For those who don’t know the background of Edward Snowden, it’s a quite intriguing story, to say the least. In June 2013, Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, leaked thousands of top-secret documents, showing the agency’s vast domestic and international surveillance operations. The government agencies weren’t watching just the officials of other countries it deemed threats, but also many of our country’s allies as well as many citizens of our own county. Because he revealed all this information (and then some), he has been labeled as a “Government Whistleblower” and “Traitor” by many. Since the first leak, journalists around the world have released more than 7,000 top-secret documents, but some United States Government Officials think that’s only a fraction of the entire archive, thus making it unclear exactly how many he downloaded, but intelligence officials testified in 2014 that he accessed 1.7 million files (https://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-leaks-timeline-2016-9).

 

     As a result of what many would call a massive leak, then-current President Obama assigned two five-person teams to investigate the nation’s surveillance policy. At the end of the assessment, the issue of transparency was brought forth with several new laws and regulations were enacted to limit issues such as how long U.S. citizens’ data could be held, how data accidentally collected on Americans through the surveillance of foreigners could be used, but many experts still believe the improved surveillance practices did not address the question of invasion of privacy.

 

    In the same month as the leak, Edward Snowden was charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-charges-snowden-with-espionage/2013/06/21/507497d8-dab1-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html). Facing up to 30 years in prison, he left the country, originally traveling to Hong Kong and then to Russia, to avoid being extradited to the United States. In July 2013, a petition was started to have Snowden pardoned, but the government rejected it in 2015. Lisa Monaco, then-President Obama’s Advisor on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said Snowden should return home to be “judged by a jury of his peers—not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime,” and stop “running away from the consequences of his actions” (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/no-pardon-for-nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-says-us-government-10427525.html) In 2017, a Moscow, Russia official announced in a Facebook post that extended his right to asylum until the end of this year while criticizing former CIA acting director Michael Morell for an opinion piece he wrote suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin should consider returning Snowden to the United States as “the perfect inauguration gift” to then President-elect Donald Trump (https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/europe/russia-snowden-asylum-extension/index.html). He released a memoir, “Permanent Record”, in 2019 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250237231).

 

    However, some congress members, including United States Senators from Kentucky, Rand Paul and Thomas Massie (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/14/thomas-massie-urges-trump-to-pardon-nsa-leaker-edw/), have encouraged President Trump to pardon Snowden. In a tweet, Senator Paul said that documents leaked by Edward Snowden showed “[James] Clapper and [James] Comey…were illegally spying on Americans.” In a 2013 tweet, before President Trump even considered running for the Presidency, he tweeted: “Snowden is a spy who should be executed-but if it and he could reveal Obama’s records, I might become a major fan” (https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/395683702757662721). If that should still be the case, then maybe Edward Snowden has that information already and President Trump might grant him that pardon after all. Edward Snowden is currently living in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum. Edward Snowden said he would return to the U.S. if he could be granted a fair trial-by-jury.

 

    On the news of hearing of President Trump possibly pardoning him, Edward Snowden tweeted out “The last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same Attorney General who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA’s unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been ‘a public service’“ (https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1294226668412899328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1294226668412899328%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gizmodo.com.au%2F2020%2F08%2Ftrump-hints-hes-open-to-pardoning-edward-snowden%2F). Many people following and supporting him are taking this a new hope for justice finally about to be served. Even if President Trump doesn’t officially pardon him, but at least gives him what he originally asked for: A fair trial by jury of his peers. That’s all Edward Snowden wanted before he would be willing to return to the United States. The guarantee of all United States citizens to have a fair trial. 

 

    Now, there’s another name I want to bring up that the mainstream news seems to have buried because he’s been doing much better job than they have when it comes to keeping transparency: Julian Assange. You remember him? He’s the WikiLeaks founder who has also for some time had to hide in asylum for his life in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid onward extradition to the US from Sweden for sexual offence allegations dating back to 2010, which he has always denied. In November 2019, Swedish authorities dropped the rape allegations, but he was jailed for 50 weeks last April after breaching his bail conditions when the asylum period granted to him expired. He has released into a maximum security jail since April 2019 and has missed several recent hearings because of “respiratory problems”.  

 

     Julian Assange is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chelsea-Manning) to expose military secrets between January and May 2010. A US grand jury has indicted him on 18 charges (17 of which fall under the Espionage Act) including conspiracy to receive, obtain and disclose classified diplomatic and military documents. This past Friday, August 14th, a day before President Trump confessed the idea of looking into Edward Snowden’s case, the United States government to lodge new charges against him with allegations that he conspired with others to obtain US government information by encouraging computer hacking (https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252487666/US-decision-to-file-new-charges-against-Julian-Assange-astonishing-and-potentially-abusive-court). Basically, he was charged by the United States government for leaking more “secrets” that they didn’t want you to know about and is currently going through a legal process to get him extradited to the United States to face charges.

 

   Julian Assange’s lawyer told the court that the WikiLeaks founder had not seen new material submitted by the US, including a 33-page affidavit and said the new material added a “considerable amount” of narrative background and collateral conduct to the earlier indictment against him. She said the US had served evidence far too late, after the defence had already served its entire case. The US government started assembling its case before December 2017 and was able to deliver an opening note in July 2019 and opened its full case in detail on February 24th of this year. A psychiatric report received by the defense showed that Julian Assange’s condition may have declined over the last few weeks. The judge said that, in principle, the extradition hearing could use live-streaming video for specific individuals outside the jurisdiction who cannot come to court because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Assange’s defense team have until August 21st to decide whether to apply to postpone his extradition hearing that is set for September 7th.

 

     You maybe asking yourself why should all this matter right now? Why should anyone care about what is going on with these two “Traitors” who broke the federal law multiple times? The answer to the first question is because it’s an election year: Anything, and I do mean ANYTHING, can and will happen. The answer to the second question is because these cases have serious consequences if they go either way. In other words, if Eric Snowden does get his pardon or at least a guarantee of a fair trial by jury (that is important here), it will lead to possibly more exposure to what is going on against the American citizens and allies around the world. I’m talking real security concerns and if the people behind the curtains don’t want that exposed, what do you think they will do to prevent it? A very similar situation can be said about Julian Assange’s case as well. However, if the United States are still bringing up charges against him, I don’t see the President doing much to stop it or interfere in the process. However, WikiLeaks is still a very powerful tool against those who don’t want you to know what is going on behind the walls of government. So if the United States government can shut down the founder of WikiLeaks, it too would have very strong consequences to everyone, be it good or bad.

 

    Again, I remind you, who controls the media, controls the narrative. So if whoever controls the narrative, they control how people think, react, what they do or feel. Sit back and ponder for a moment, who do you think controls the media? Just as important, why? Finally ask yourself, what are you going to do about it?