I was arrested on Friday on a COMPLETELY FALSE charge manufactured by the Venezuelan opposition related to their siege of the embassy in DC. I spent 2 days in jail, was shackled for extended periods & was denied my right to call a lawyer. Here's the facts: https://t.co/2Nco0OzQ7P — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) October 28, 2019

"This is the continued descent into a fascist state. When the US government is arresting journalists then what else can one call it?" - @LeeCamp doesn't f--k around when discussing @MaxBlumenthal's dramatic detention. Full story I wrote in @MintPressNews https://t.co/R3l1VVtDHm — Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 1, 2019

Assuming there will be an outcry from @nytimes @washingtonpost @pressfreedom about this assault on the free press. https://t.co/3PWFsws8Nd — Andrew Cockburn (@andrewmcockburn) October 29, 2019

We are aware of Blumenthal's arrest and based on the information available it does not meet the threshold for categorization on our site because he was not in the course of reporting when it happened. — U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (@uspresstracker) October 31, 2019

According to the MAGA nationalists, the “deep state” only persecutes “conservatives” while liberals get a free pass.The Gestapo-style raid of liberal journalist Max Blumenthal earlier this week demonstrates quite vividly that the state does indeed attack leftist or left-leaning activists and journalists, not only MAGA supporters and “New Right” nationalists.MAGA has deluded itself into the false belief the deep state is primarily comprised of Democrats on the warpath against “conservative” Republicans and New Right types. In fact, the state is apolitical in regard to national partisan politics. It favors Democrats and Republicans only if they tote the neoliberal and corporate line. If they deviate, they may suffer the fate recently experienced y Max Blumenthal. For now, this fate is reserved for those with high visibility such as Blumenthal.For really serious violations of the neoliberal code and the establishment’s prearranged political construct, the state prefers torture and slow death. It is currently doing this to Julian Assange. For the national security state, it is a cardinal sin and high crime to expose the dirty and murderous secrets of the state.Assange will not be killed outright like the journalists Michael Hastings and Gary Webb. Both Hastings and Webb exposed the crimes of the national security state and paid for it with their lives. Assange, on the other hand, will be slowly and sadistically tortured to death, thus revealing how the state responds when “national security secrets” are exposed and disseminated to millions of people.As should be expected, zero corporate media propaganda conduits have thus far reported on the Blumenthal raid, which is supposedly connected to his behavior at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington.At least one establishment connected organization that claims to protect journalists from government persecution has refused to defend Blumenthal.This is, of course, a technicality. Blumenthal is a journalist. He was reporting on the effort by Juan Guaido’s thugs to starve out and intimidate activists defending the Venezuelan embassy—with the permission of the elected Venezuelan government—although at the time of the purported incident he wasn’t writing or reporting.This should be expected. The US Freedom Tracker has partnered with Poynter , an organization working to circumvent alternative media. It is funded by George Soros’ Open Society and the Omidyar Network. Together both organizations pledged nearly a million and a half dollars to fund a supposed fact-checking network, that is to say identify and eradicate media that strays from permissible parameters established by the state.“Poynter has a longstanding history as an anchor in the journalism business. Its board of trustees includes execs from The New York Times, ESPN, Harvard, Vox, CBS, ABC, and The Washington Post. Poynter is currently working with Facebook and Google for its fact-checking programs,” writes Corinne Weaver MAGA types and conservatives believe the jihad against media freedom by the corporate state is aimed exclusively at them and the perpetrators are largely Democrats and a handful of RINOS. This mindset is an unfortunate result of an ongoing operation to polarize and divide those holding differing political ideologies, a tactic that goes back to Julius Caesar, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Immanuel Kant.Reprinted with permission from KurtNimmo.blog