2018

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( 2010s: )     2018
Trump's vaunted tax cuts are another gift to the hyperrich

In 2018, the antics of President Trump dominated commercially-controlled media coverage, "sucking the oxygen" from discussion about more weighty topics such as the rollout of universal surveillance and a police state under the guise of the "war on terror". On 5 November 2018, 'Anonymous' published leaked documents from a hitherto unregarded UK charity named the Integrity Initiative, which was to expose it, and its parent group the Institute for Statecraft as UK deep state run propaganda outfits focussed on promoting Russophobia.

Deep state exposures

The section of the IPA that admits that MI5 operatives can carry out crimes in the UK, as published on March 1st, 2018 by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office after losing a 7 month legal battle

The UK government lost a seven-month legal battle and were forced to admit that MI5 operatives were allowed to participate in crimes. After being legally required to publish the document, they posted a barely legible copy online on 1^st March.

Integrity Initiative leak

Full article: Integrity Initiative/Leak

2018 saw leaks 1, 2 and 3 by 'Anonymous' of material from the Integrity Initiative, followed by another on 5 January 2019, which lead the group to shut its doors. It was exposed as part of the UK Deep state's "fake news" effort - pretending to be exposing Russian propaganda while actually engaging in Russophobic propaganda.

US Citizens' Fears

The Chapman University Survey of American Fears stated that fear is up from 2017, although the top fear (of "corrupt government officials" is down 0.9% from last year

Skripal Affair

Full article: Skripal Affair

The Skripal Affair saw the UK government accuse Russia of using a nerve agent, novichok, against Sergei Skripal. The Institute for Statecraft, while showing no interest in who was responsible for the attack, showed intense interests into public perceptions of culpability. It paid £12,000 for a report by Harod Associates(an IfS member's company) into media coverage and public reactions to the Skripal Affair. The 47 page report aimed "to provide an initial analysis of mainstream and social media reporting as it developed, following the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire on 4th March 2018." It had numerous appendices, including a 74 people analysis of how the event played out on social media in USA.

Yellow vests

The Yellow vests movement started in October 2018 and was subject to increasingly violent repression by the French state authorities.

Continuing trends

2018 was a year of expanded internet censorship and continued mass surveillance, amid talk of "fake news", "hate speech", "hate groups" and the online "radicalisation" of vulnerable people through exposure "extremist" material (including "non-violent extremism").

Universal surveillance

Full article: Universal surveillance

Australia lead the way amongst Western "democracies" in rolling back civil liberties about privacy. In December it passed laws which claim the right to compel both "local and international providers — including overseas communication giants such as Facebook and WhatsApp — to remove electronic protections, conceal covert operations by government agencies, and help with access to devices or services."

Internet Censorship

Full article: Internet censorship

YouTube was increasingly aggressive in closing down channels which breach its guidelines, closing down channels with hundreds of videos at a stroke. KPFA banned Guns And Butter after 15+ years due to "anti-semitism".

Austerity

In UK, the NHS was predicted to delay over 50,000 operations as funding and resources are throttled, in USA trumps budget reduced funding for the EPA while prioritising the MICC and other big businesses.

CPU Design Flaws

Full article: Backdoor

In early January, a range of flaws were revealed, including 2 problems with the design (not the implementation) of both Intel and AMD CPUs going back around 20 years. They reportedly have great potential for exploitation to compromise data security.

 

Events

Event	Start	End	Description
Afghanistan/2001 Invasion	7 October 2001	30 August 2021	The war in Afghanistan, instigated within a month of 9/11, supposedly in retaliation, with the claimed justification - for which no evidence has been presented - that the attacks were planned by Ossama bin Laden, and that he was based in Afghanistan.
Biden–Ukraine corruption scandal	2010	2020	Maybe this scandal would have swung the US/2020 Presidential election the other way if the media had reported on it?
Julian Assange/Imprisonment	19 June 2012	11 April 2019	Julian Assange was de facto imprisoned in the Ecuadorian_Embassy in London from 2012-2019
Elsagate	2014	2019
"2014 Ukraine coup/Anti-Terrorist-Operation"	15 April 2014	24 February 2022	Olexander Turchynov, as acting President of Ukraine, announced the start of "anti-terrorist operation" against Donbas protestors in 2014.
Russiagate	November 2016	2019
Danske Bank money laundering scandal	2017	2018
Presidency of Donald Trump	20 January 2017	20 January 2021	The Donald Trump administration
Brexit	March 2017	31 January 2020	The United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.
Reframing Russia	1 June 2017	31 May 2020	An IfS/II discussed project about "The RT Challenge" which was publicly launched in 2019, not under the II/IfS name.
Project Ireland 2040	2018		The Great Replacement in Ireland?
DEFUSE	2018	2018	A rejected proposal from Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance to weaponise naturally occuring bat coronaviruses, to preempt "zoonotic spillover".
Saratov Airlines Flight 6W703	11 February 2018	11 February 2018
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting	14 February 2018	14 February 2018	A school shooting in Florida in 2018
Toxic Dagger	20 February 2018	12 March 2018	The largest chemical warfare exercise in the UK, coinciding with the Skripal Affair. Held February 2018.
Skripal Affair/Boshirov and Petrov in the UK	2 March 2018	4 March 2018	Overview of what Boshirov and Petrov did in the UK
Skripal Affair	4 March 2018	4 March 2018	A purported chemical weapons attack. The Integrity Initiative carried out extensive research into how to control the narrative of the event.
2018 Gaza Massacre	30 March 2018	15 May 2018	A massacre of at least 135 unarmed protestors including many women and children, and the wounding of many thousands more by Israeli IDF sniper teams, during the Palestinian 'Great March of Return' and the weeks following its end on 15 May 2018
2018 California Fires	3 April 2018	22 November 2018	At the time the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California.
Douma attack	7 April 2018	7 April 2018
2018 Brussels DisinfoLab	11 April 2018 08:30:00	11 April 2018 13:30:00	A 2018 conference set up jointly by the EU Disinfolab and the Atlantic Council
Clade X	15 May 2018	15 May 2018	A pandemic/biowarfare preparation exercise by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Held May 2018.
Bilderberg/2018	7 June 2018	10 June 2018	The 66th Bilderberg Meeting, in Turin, Italy, known for months in advance after an unprecedented leak by the Serbian government.
2018 Riga Stratcom Dialogue	11 June 2018	13 June 2018	Spooky/MICC conference attended by Maria de Goeij whose trip report on it for the Integrity Initiative was leaked.
Cold War Then and Now?	13 October 2018 09:30:00	13 October 2018 16:30:00	A free conference that appears to have been part of a broader campaign by the Institute for Statecraft to promote Cold War 2.0.
Tackling Tools of Malign Influence	1 November 2018	2 November 2018	Integrity Initiative conference about "Russian Propaganda"
Integrity Initiative/Leak	5 November 2018	29 March 2019	A series of 7 leaks, starting on 5 November 2018, of unknown origin and veracity. After some time, the II disputed the authenticity of some of the documents, but was not clear about which.
Integrity Initiative/Leak/1	5 November 2018	5 November 2018	The first of many leaks which exposed covertly organised groups of Russophobic academics, journalists, government officers and deep state operatives who strategised about how to alert to people to a purported Russian "threat".
Yellow vests movement	17 November 2018		A series of mass demonstrations in France which expressed the dissatisfaction with the political process. Subject to increasingly violent repression.
Integrity Initiative/Leak/2	29 November 2018	29 November 2018	The second Integrity Initiative Leak, 24 days after Integrity Initiative Leak 1.
Le Cercle/2018 (Washington)	30 November 2018	2 December 2018	Dates maybe not exact
Integrity Initiative/Leak/3	13 December 2018	13 December 2018	The 3rd tranche of documents released as part of the Integrity Initiative Leak, on 13 December 2018.
Workshop on Identifying and Combating Disinformation in Big Data	13 December 2018 08:00:00	13 December 2018 12:00:00

 

New Groups

Group	Image	Description
National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence
Luminate		Pierre Omidyar's foundation for financing global media and civil society groups. It is unknown how close it aligns to certain US government agencies.
Gannett/Assets		The assets of Gannett, the mass media corporation.
Obama Foundation Fellows		Obama Foundation group that "supports outstanding civic innovators — leaders who are working with their communities to create transformational change and addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems."
Independent Office for Police Conduct
Global Virome Project
Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact
Global Preparedness Monitoring Board
Brood of Holy Wisdom
Byline Times
Center for Countering Digital Hate		Front group to pressure big tech" to "deplatform" and "demonetize" dissidents from YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, Apple, Paypal etc.
Extinction Rebellion		A mass civil disobedience movement
Poynter Institute/List		The Poynter Institute list was a list of 515 websites that it termed "untrustworthy".
Office of National Intelligence (Australia)		Australian intelligence agency responsible for advising the Prime Minister and National Security Committee.

 

New Websites

Event	Image	URL	Description
The Deep State Blog		http://deepstateblog.org
DisinfoPortal		https://disinfoportal.org/	A "one-stop interactive online portal and guide to the Kremlin’s information war" from the Atlantic Council.
Parler		https://www.parler.com
Rogue Media Labs		https://roguemedia.co/	A website which republished all the Integrity Initiative Leak documents

 

Groups that were Wound Up

Group	Image	Description
"Independent Police Complaints Commission"		A group interested in complaints about the UK police
UN/Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force		A part of the UN's "counter-terrorism" project.
The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army		Improbable militia presumably a propaganda exercise to create support for war in the Western liberal opinion.

 

==A Website that Closed==  ==Quotations== 

Deaths

Title	Born	Died	Place of death	Cause of death	Summary	Description
Herman Sandberg	1918	2018			Journalist	Dutch journalist
Philipp Jenninger	10 June 1932	4 January 2018	Germany Stuttgart Baden-Württemberg		Diplomat Spook Politician	Spooky german politician
Peter Preston	23 May 1938	6 January 2018			Author Journalist Propagandist Editor	Editor of the The Guardian for twenty years.
Peter Sutherland	25 April 1946	7 January 2018	Dublin Eire	Infection	Lawyer Deep politician Businessperson	A deep politician who held some key posts including Chairman of Goldman Sachs, WTO head, Attorney General of Ireland ...
Odvar Nordli	3 November 1927	9 January 2018			Politician
Alan Hart	17 February 1942	15 January 2018			Author Journalist	UK journalist supporter of the 9-11/Truth movement.
Luc Beyer de Rycke	9 September 1933	18 January 2018	Paris		Journalist Politician	Cercle visitor.
Franz Lütolf	6 June 1924	18 January 2018			Academic Banker Economist Deep politician	General Manager and Member of the Executive Board of the Swiss Bank Corporation and a member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.
Stansfield Turner	1 December 1923	18 January 2018			Spook
William McDonough	21 April 1934	22 January 2018	New York United States Waccabuc		Deep state operative	CFR, TLC, 7 Bilderbergs, Group of Thirty, NY Fed Chairman..
Robert Parry	24 June 1949	27 January 2018			Journalist	Veteran US investigative reporter
Gene Sharp	21 January 1928	28 January 2018			Scientist	Political scientist credited with writing handbooks for non-violent resistance, which are also used in color revolutions.
John Perry Barlow	3 October 1947	7 February 2018	California San Francisco		Musician Activist Poet
Carlos Robles Piquer	13 October 1925	8 February 2018			Diplomat Politician	Cercle visitor.
Henri de Monpezat	11 June 1934	13 February 2018	Denmark		Royalty	Prince Consort of Denmark. Attended Bilderberg/1969.
Ruud Lubbers	5 July 1939	14 February 2018	Netherlands Rotterdam		Diplomat Politician Deep state operative	Dutch deep state operative and Prime-Minister. Close ties to the SDS as Minister of State.
John Orr	3 September 1945	19 February 2018			Police officer	DCS John Orr led the Lockerbie investigation (1988 to 1990)
Nils Wilhjelm	17 June 1936	5 March 2018	Denmark Nykøbing Falster		Politician Businessperson	Danish Minister of Industry, businessman and multi-Bilderberger
Helmut Maucher	9 December 1927	5 March 2018			Businessperson	Nestle CEO
Adrian Lamo	20 February 1981	14 March 2018		Drug overdose	Hacker	American hacker who committed "suicide" in 2018.
Tankmar Horn	16 August 1924	16 March 2018			Businessperson	Finnish diplomat and businessman. Deep state father.
Ivor Richard	30 May 1932	18 March 2018			Politician	British Labour politician, British Ambassador to the United Nations
Peter Peterson	5 June 1926	20 March 2018			Financier Deep state functionary Businessperson	Long time CFR chair
Robert Forrester	4 May 1953	22 March 2018			Spook
Dagfinn Vårvik	8 June 1924	25 March 2018			Politician Editor-in-chief	Norwegian politician for the Centre Party and editor-in-chief. Attended Bilderberg/1975.
Peter Munk	8 November 1927	28 March 2018			Businessperson	Suspected Canadian deep state operative
Frances Stockdale Symms	1937	28 March 2018
Arthur S. Hulnick	1935	April 2018			Spook Academic
Milagro de Mier		April 2018	Washington DC	Drowning	Activist	An anti-GMO activist who reportedly drowned in 2018.
Efraín Ríos Montt	16 June 1926	1 April 2018			Lawyer	The only head of a nation state to have been found guilty of genocide in his own country.
Winnie Mandela	26 September 1936	2 April 2018	South Africa Johannesburg			Anti-apartheid activist and politician. Sentenced to jail in political trial.
Mete Sozen	22 May 1930	5 April 2018	London UK		Academic Deep state functionary	A professor of Structural Engineering who wrote a series of official government reports after "terrorist" deep events.
Maksim Borodin		15 April 2018	Russia Yekaterinburg	Falling	Journalist	Russian journalist who fell to his death from his apartment in unclear circumstances
Vittorino Chiusano	27 February 1925	17 April 2018	Italy Turin		Politician	Italian politician who promoted a unified Europe. Attended all the Bilderberg meetings from 1963 up to 1967.
Baki Ilkin	3 October 1943	29 April 2018			Diplomat	High-ranking Turkish diplomat
Peter Temple-Morris	12 February 1938	1 May 2018			Politician	Former British Conservative MP
Richard Pipes	11 July 1923	17 May 2018			Historian	Hawkish cold warrior historian
James Eberle	31 May 1927	17 May 2018			Mariner	Chatham House Director in retirement
Bernard Lewis	31 May 1916	19 May 2018	US New Jersey		Soldier Historian	Spooky academic who attended the 1979 and 2002 Bilderbergs, as well as the Washington Conference on International Terrorism.
Richard Goodwin	7 December 1931	20 May 2018			Author	Aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Helped plan 1964 Brazil coup.
Luis Posada Carriles	15 February 1928	23 May 2018			Doctor "Terrorist" Assassin
Joseph Recarey	5 June 1967	25 May 2018			Police officer Epstein Affair/Premature death	A Palm Beach detective who was active in breaking open Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking/sexual blackmail activities. Died, aged 50, "after a brief illness."
Mārtiņš Bunkus		30 May 2018	Latvia Riga	Gunshot	Lawyer	Assassinated lawyer who had worked on suspect financial institutions in Riga
Razan al-Najjar	11 September 1996	1 June 2018	Gaza		Nurse	Palestinian nurse executed by Israeli soldiers.
Frank Carlucci	18 October 1930	3 June 2018	United States Virginia McLean		Spook Deep state actor	A Princeton roommate of his fellow US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
John Thomson	27 April 1927	3 June 2018			Diplomat
Anthony Bourdain	25 June 1956	8 June 2018	Kaysersberg-Vignoble	Hanging	Celebrity Clinton body count Chef	Celebrity chef that was found dead after he became more vocal in the Me Too movement.
Douglas Bennet	23 June 1938	10 June 2018				Attended the 1994 Bilderberg as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
Charles Krauthammer	13 March 1950	21 June 2018		Cancer	Journalist Neoconservatism	Single Bilderberger Washington Conference on International Terrorism visitor
James Denton	5 July 1951	22 June 2018			Spook Propagandist	He designed, developed, and implemented a portfolio of democratization programs that were active in over 30 countries, mostly in the former communist bloc. By a happy coincidence the new governments aligned with US economic and geopolitical interests.
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