not so USELESS RAMBLINGS not so USELESS RAMBLINGS

Smith-Mundt Act

Somewhere in a past article I mentioned the SmithMutton Act of 1948 and now I have to issue a correction. The correct name is the Smith-Mundt Act. The official government name is The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948.

In 1948, following World War II, Representative Karl E. Mundt (South Dakota) and Senator H. Alexander Smith (New Jersey) introduced the Smith-Mundt bill in Congress. This act was passed on January 27, 1948 as The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (IEEA). Quoted from an article I read on this subject...

According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the act established an information agency for the first time in a period of peace with a mission to “promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries, and to increase mutual understanding” between Americans and foreigners. The act recognized the importance of educational and cultural exchanges sponsored by the government and the need to build up a corps of well-informed intellectuals and opinion leaders in the political and social infrastructure. Among the provisions of the IEEA was the creation of an information service to disseminate information about the United State, its people, and policies abroad.

The history of our government should really make you question the statements above. “Sponsored by the government” and “opinion leaders” are two phrases that certainly catch my attention. There were many people that felt the same way when this bill was being written and considered. They believed that the information was propaganda, so they banned the domestic dissemination of such information.

This quote I found during my research speaks volumes… “Individuals lacking access to a plurality of free media are vulnerable to misinformation and propaganda and are potentially more likely to adopt anti-United States views.”

You have to remember that of the myriad media outlets that span the globe, there are only 6 major corporations (entities) that own them all. This is where Project Mockingbird comes into play. I am unsure if that is the official title, but it’s a phrase that will help you in any search engine. Take some time to check it out for yourself; it’s quite thought provoking… and disturbing.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was formed in 1994 with the passing of the International Broadcasting Act. This established a board of 9 members, appointed by the president; all political appointees. The BBG was rebranded in 2018 as the U.S. Agency for Global Media and they claim to be an “independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information.”

The USAGM supervises Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the state funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, the USAGM now only has an “advisory role” and was replaced by a single appointed chief executive officer. One single person now runs it all. What could possibly go wrong in that situation?

H.R. 5736 (112th Congress): Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (SMMA) states that it is “to amend the United States Information and Educational Act of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination of information and material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences.” This basically means that any of the bullshit that the U.S. government would use to propagandize foreign countries could now be broadcast to the American citizen. However, the bill died in congress. It was introduced May 10, 2012, but did not receive a vote.

Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could still become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills). You see where this is headed?

Along comes the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 which was signed into law on July 2nd, 2013 under the leadership of Barack Obama. Arguments can be made that this act is fraught with many concerning issues for the continued freedoms of the American citizen, too many instances of government overreach. But with the signing the NDAA, that included the SMMA text, it is now completely legal for our government to release scripted and orchestrated propaganda, no matter how outrageous it might be, to the American public as factual news.

Politicians are now celebrity oligarchs, who use tax revenues to promote their personal pet projects and advance their personal investment portfolio. The political arena has become dominated with spectacle and theater. They pretend to care about the populace from whom all the money they squander is stolen from while they issue dire warnings about global warming, climate change, pandemics, Russian collusion and “stolen documents.”

Consider Nina Jankowicz, the self-styled “Mary Poppins of Disinformation” that the Biden administration previously selected to head up its Disinformation Governance Board (DGB). The DGB and Mary Poppins were both championed by Biden’s former press secretary, Jen Psaki… Lil Miss Circle-back Jen… who spent her entire tenure lying through her teeth. I will say, she was better at it than the current moron. The very fact that this current administration even considered a government agency to combat disinformation should cause anyone concern. The government deciding what is and is not disinformation FOR the American citizen? Telling you what you can and cannot see?

As Greta Thunberg would say, “How dare you?”

I’m sure we all remember the Russian Collusion claims against President Donald Trump, right? This story sparked a more than two year investigation by Robert Mueller that cost the American taxpayers more than $30 million dollars, thousands of hours of government agency time, and countless other wasted resources. This investigation was nothing more than propaganda because there was evidence that it was all a lie. A lie propagated by one party to destroy their opponent. The American taxpayer was lied to and robbed all for one party’s political gain.

The list of lies grows longer and longer every day. And the two-tiered justice system of the current administration is edging us closer and closer to being the next Chinese Communist Party.

David McCoy

- david@thunderroadsiowa.com

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