News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media ... Week ending June 19

Manisha Krishnan at VICE
Canada’s Ridiculous Ruling That Oral Sex with Animals Is Legal Shows Need for New Bestiality Laws
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a person must actually penetrate an animal or vice versa in order for the act to be considered bestiality.

In a judgement released Thursday, Canada's top court ruled in agreement with a lower court that overturned a bestiality conviction.

The graphic ruling explains the case like this: A man, known in the judgment as D.L.W., tried to make his teenage stepdaughter have sex with the family dog, but that proved impossible, so he spread peanut butter on her vagina and made the dog lick it off while he photographed it. Later, he asked her to do it again so he could make a video.

The judge presiding over the man's first trial ruled bestiality "means touching between a person and an animal for a person's sexual purpose," and penetration isn't required. He was convicted of numerous sexual offences, including bestiality. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

But when the man appealed that conviction to the Court of Appeal, he won his case and the bestiality conviction was dropped. The Crown then appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.....

...Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice, which acted as an intervener in the appeal, told VICE the ruling shows the criminal laws for protecting animals are out of date.

"Sexually abusing animals is completely unacceptable, it is contrary to our values. Canadians care deeply about protecting animals from this type of cruelty and sexual abuse," she said, adding "people who abuse animals often sexually abuse children as well, as the accused did in this case."....

Claire Bernish at TheFreeThoughtProject
5 Things the Establishment Slipped By You While Focusing Solely on Orlando Shooting
After any major tragedy, we develop an obsessive need to analyze, debate, and argue every conceivable aspect of what’s taken place — as if time stops. That tragedy dominates mainstream and, often, independent media headlines for days or weeks, exhaustively positing theory after theory until the public begins to lose interest.

But tragedy doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and — though it might feel as if the world pressed pause to allow society to grieve — important, pertinent issues continue to arise while our attention is trained elsewhere.

As collective shock from the massacre in Orlando begins to fade, it’s a good idea to review what happened as the media obsessed over the last few days.

1) A major lawsuit exposing probable electoral fraud in eleven states could effectively alter the landscape of the presidential race....

Nadia Prupis at CommonDreams
US Banks Top Cluster Bomb Investment 'Hall of Shame': Report

Bank of America, JP Morgan among 74 of 158 financial institutions that invest in companies producing internationally banned weapons

Despite the international ban on cluster bombs, more than 150 financial institutions have invested $28 billion in companies that produce them, according to a new report released Thursday.

Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among the 158 banks, pension funds, and other firms listed in the "Hall of Shame" compiled by the Netherlands-based organization PAX, a member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

The report, titled Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions: A Shared Responsibility (pdf), finds that the leading investors come from 14 countries including the U.S., the UK, and Canada. Of the top 10 overall investors, the U.S. is home to eight. Japan and China round out the last two.

Both the UK and Canada—along with France, Germany, and Switzerland, whose institutions are also named on the list—have signed the 2008 Oslo treaty known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning the use of the indiscriminate bombs under international law.

The U.S., which hosts by far the most companies on the list with 74, is not a signatory.

Cluster bombs, which can be launched from the air or ground, operate by ejecting smaller sub-munitions or "bomblets" that can saturate an area of several football fields, according to CMC. They can remain volatile long after a conflict ends....

From SputnikNews
Deadly Spite: Israel Shuts Off Water to West Bank During Ramadan

With heat indices spiking near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and local residents fasting in observance of the Muslim holy month, the latest act by Israel risks loss of life and a fierce response.

The Palestinian-occupied West Bank faces the threat of mass casualties from extreme dehydration and heat stroke as residents face an unseasonably hot start to summer without clean water, during a time when devout Muslims are already fasting in observance of Ramadan.

The Israeli state-owned Mekorot water company cut water supplies to the West Bank more than 40 days ago, forcing locals to rely on untreated groundwater and wastewater to survive. The water shutoff appears to be a premeditated act against the Palestinian people, with Israeli officials saying over one month ago that no technical defects exist on the waterline.
Water shutoffs in the West Bank correspond with Israeli officials boasting about surplus water supplies and plans to export water abroad to improve relations with neighbors. One such deal for exporting Israeli water supplies has already been made with neighboring country Jordan.....

Justin Raimondo at AntiWar
‘Something is Going On’ – And It’s Worse Than You Thought

Trump is right about Orlando – but not in the way you think
I used to wonder why in the heck right-wing commentators on Fox News kept repeating the same mantra over and over again: sitting through the Republican debates, my eyes glazed over when I heard each and every candidate denounce the Obama administration for refusing to say the Sacred Words: “radical Islamic terrorism.” What are these people talking about, I thought to myself: they’re obsessed!

In short, I wrote it off as Fox News boilerplate, until the other day when, in the wake of the Orlando massacre, Donald Trump said the following on Fox: “Something is going on. He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other.” Reiterating this trope later on in the same show, he averred that the President “is not tough, not smart – or he’s got something else in mind.”

The Beltway crowd went ballistic. Lindsey Graham had a hissy fit, and other Republican lawmakers started edging away from the presumptive GOP nominee. The Washington Post ran a story with the headline: “Donald Trump Suggests President Obama Was Involved With Orlando Shooting.” Realizing that this level of bias was a bit too brazen, the editors changed it an hour or so later to: “Donald Trump Seems to Connect President Obama to Orlando Shooting.” Not much better, but then again we’re talking about a newspaper that has a team of thirty or so reporters bent on digging up dirt on Trump.

In any case, Trump responded as he usually does: by doubling down. And he did it, as he usually does, on Twitter, ......

Thousands protest US Military Presence in Japan

From Sott.net  Source: Jay Syrmopoulos,The Free Thought Project
The curious link between banker 'suicides' and the Libor scandal

In 2015 there was a popular "conspiracy theory" floating around the Internet after a rash of mysterious "suicides" by high-profile banking professionals. What once looked like wild speculation is now beginning to resemble a vast criminal conspiracy connected to the Libor, interest-rigging scandal.

Over forty international bankers allegedly killed themselves over a two-year period in the wake of a major international scandal that implicated financial firms across the globe. However, three of these seemingly unrelated suicides seem to share common threads related to their connections to Deutsche Bank. These three banker suicides in New York, London, and Siena, Italy, took place within 17 months of each other in 2013/14 in what investigators labeled as a series of unrelated suicides.....

From TelSurTV
Saudis Fund 20% of Clinton Presidential Campaign:
Top Prince

The Saudi crown prince reportedly said that over the years his country has always financially supported both Republican and Democratic candidates.

Saudi Arabia has paid more than 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for presidential elections, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was quoted as saying Sunday in a news report by the Jordanian Petra News Agency.

According to the Middle East Eye news website, the report was later deleted from the agency’s website. However, a snapshot of the original Arabic version was later republished by the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs.

“Saudi Arabia has always sponsored both Republican and Democratic Parties of America and... the kingdom also provides with full enthusiasm 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the U.S. presidential elections despite the fact that some influential forces within the country don’t have a positive look toward supporting the candidate because she is a woman,” the agency’s report quoted Prince Mohammed as saying. ...

From description at YouTube posting: 
Science is a method to help us answer questions about the physical world…but in this age of military/university partnerships, government grants and industry-funded research, who’s asking the questions? Jerry Day of FreedomTaker.com joins us today to discuss the new technocratic overlords and how the tool of science can be wielded as a weapon of social control....

more here

From TheAntiMedia
Here’s What the FBI Was Doing Instead of Catching the Orlando Shooter

....Out of the 508 terrorism-related cases since September 11, 2001, more often than not, the FBI has had a hand in creating the very terrorist threat they have claimed to be protecting us from. Two-hundred and forty-three of these cases involved an FBI informant. In many instances, the targets of these operations, who are later accused of plotting attacks, are not only almost always Muslim, but they are also often suffering from a mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Moreover, the targets are also vulnerable and easily susceptible to bribery as they are desperate for money – so desperate, it seems, they will help put their own friends behind bars.

This can be seen most clearly in the Newburgh Four case, which saw a combination of mental illness and an urgent need for money. One of the “Four,” James Cromitie, was a former drug addict who repeatedly tried to back out, saying “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” In the words of a U.S. Court Judge, “only the government could have made a “terrorist” out of Mr. Cromitie.”

Another defendant in the Newburgh case, Laguerre Payan, suffered from schizophrenia to the extent he kept bottles of urine in his apartment. David Williams, another of the four, had a brother who needed a liver transplant, and he was prepared to do almost anything for the money to pay for it.....

From Telsur
Mexican State 'Disappears' Leaders of Oaxaca's Striking Teachers Union

Leaders of the CNTE union said the government was resorting to "fascist raids" and "kidnappings" to silence critics.

The CNTE teachers union demanded the immediate return of their leaders, Francisco Manuel Villalobos Ricardez and Ruben Nuñez, whom they said were forcibly disappeared by the governments of President Enrique Peña Nieto and Oaxaca Govenor Gabino Cue.

The federal government said Villalobos, who serves as head of the CNTE in Oaxaca, was detained Saturday on charges of aggravated robbery. The charges stem from the seizure of textbooks by the teachers union in 2015.

His arrest came after nearly 500 protesters were violently evicted from a public square by at least a thousand police officers in the city of Oaxaca. .......

Charlie Skelton at Flaunt
....The traditional means of maintaining your 
position “inside” the circle of power is to protect your boundary at all costs. The same tactic is used by banking cartels, elite policy groups, Chinese politburos, and secret societies: guard the walls.

For example, Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club—a notorious private dining society, depicted on the big screen as The Riot Club, and through whose puke-splashed portals have crawled such eminent individuals as the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and his loyal Chancellor, George Osborne.

Membership requires some very expensive tailoring, but before you’re allowed to don the splendid trousers and spatter them with champagne vomit, you have to be selected and initiated. The rituals of initiation include having to burn a £50 note in front of a beggar, which must be some comfort to the beggar, who can think, “I may be homeless but at least I’m not a giant arse.”

The whole thing has an old-school vibe: the trousers may be splendid, but they’re thoroughly retro. There’s a kind of Cecil Rhodes imperialist air to the proceedings: these are the chosen few, the mighty protectors of Empire, roaring like young lions, before wiping the cocaine stains off their chinless faces with a terrified waitress’s bra, and going out into the world to stake their claim on power.....

Vanessa Beeley at 21CenturyWire
Syria: NATO Troop Build-Up Inside Syria Continues 
as Germany is Accused of Boots on the Ground

The US and NATO are pulling out all stops to turn their Syrian quagmire into something resembling their objectives in Syria. While US and UK troops had been setting up base in the north of Syria ostensibly in order to strike ISIS in Raqqa, the Syrian Arab Army has stolen a march on them with air-cover from the RUAF.

In today’s reports from the Syrian Arab News Agency, we hear that the Syrian Army Air Force destroyed ISIS vehicles to the north of the Zakia crossroads and the south side of Tabqa city in the countryside of Raqqa province.

Meanwhile, SANA claim that French and German forces have invaded north western Syria in the Ain al-Arab [Kobani] and Manbij areas. This brings them into proximity to the hotly contested Aleppo, Al Qaeda/Al Nusra central where 90% of civilians are being targeted daily in the government held western sectors of the city by a variety of US & NATO backed terrorists gangs embedded in the northern and eastern sectors, aided and abetted by their first response team, US and NATO funded Syria White Helmets.....

Ukraine disaster, the handiwork of USA/Canada/EU


Oliver Stone's documentary "Ukraine on Fire" coming soon.

Gareth Porter at InformationClearingHouse
Why the Obama Administration Is Favoring al-Qaeda's Main Syrian Ally
In yet another a dangerous US political-diplomatic move in Syria, the Obama administration is going out of its way to protect the interests of al-Qaeda's closest and most powerful ally in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham.

The administration's decision to shield the Islamist organization from the consequences of collaborating closely with al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, Nusra Front, in threatening what had been a promising "cessation of hostilities," goes much further than the US failure to pressure other armed opposition groups to separate themselves from Nusra Front, as US Secretary of State John Kerry had promised in negotiations with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

Ahrar al-Sham is believed to be the largest military force seeking to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, with at least 15,000 troops. It is not considered by analysts who have followed its evolution to be a "jihadist" organization like Nusra Front, because it has shown no interest in terrorism against Western countries. However, some of its senior leaders have had ties with jihadists, including Osama bin Laden, in the past, and it has worked closely with al-Nusra Front since both organizations entered the Syrian conflict in 2011.

....The Russian response to Ahrar's disruptive behavior was to propose in late April that Ahrar be blacklisted and put outside the cease-fire framework. That would have meant that the United States would not insist that Russia and the Syrian regime avoid targeting Ahrar in airstrikes.....

But the Obama administration rejected that Russian proposal, and in the process it revealed the new status that Ahrar now has in US policy. On May 24, when US State Department spokesman Mark Toner was asked why Ahrar should be given any protection under the "cessation of hostilities" agreement despite its violation of the cease-fire, Toner replied that Ahrar "is part of this vetted group of opposition forces that are part of the HNC, High Negotiating Council." (The actual name of the body is the High Negotiations Committee.) He also said the State Department believed that agreeing with the Russian request "would have a damaging effect on the cessation of hostilities."....

Labour Protests ramping up the ante in France


JamesPerloff at his blog
It’s Only One Percent: Obama’s “Boil the Frog” Approach to Gun Control

They say if you want to boil a frog, you can’t just toss him in boiling water. Instead, you put him in lukewarm water, and gradually turn up the heat. That way, the frog never realizes he’s been boiled. The Powers That Be (PTB) have exercised the “frog” axiom throughout history.

• Take income tax. Though now an accepted way of life, income tax wasn’t always around. The original U.S. Constitution excluded it; in 1895 the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

Therefore the only way the PTB could establish income tax was by legalizing it through a Constitutional Amendment. That Amendment was introduced in Congress by Senator Nelson Aldrich, who also introduced the original legislation which ultimately became the Federal Reserve Act. He was David Rockefeller’s maternal grandfather.....

...The recent ISIS-blamed San Bernardino incident is being used as the most immediate excuse for Obama’s unconstitutional gun measures. For one of many debunkings of this incident, click here, but among the most egregious anomalies were the failure of law enforcement and mainstream media to follow up on eyewitness accounts that three white males in military dress did the shooting, and that Syed Farook, one of the publicly blamed perpetrators (who are dead and cannot speak for themselves) was photographed lying face down, dead, his arms handcuffs behind his back.

This raises the question: Was he handcuffed before or after being shot? If he was handcuffed first, then shot dead while in custody, law enforcers committed murder. But why would you handcuff a man after he was mortally wounded, lying in a pool of blood?

What might make more sense is that Farook and his wife were patsies who were abducted, handcuffed, then shot to death and dumped in the street. However, the black ops carrying out the mission, in their haste, forgot to remove the cuffs.

Whether things played out that way or not, San Bernardino is the event Obama is most exploiting to ramp up gun control. Let’s examine why his actions are illegal.....

From Off-Guardian
History as ghastly repetition – Anna Lindh & Jo Cox

n 2003, just four days before the Swedish referendum on joining the Eurozone, a prominent pro-Euro MP, Anna Lindh, was stabbed to death in a public place. The man later convicted, claimed to have no idea why he had done it, and no political motive was ever suggested for the killing.

Nevertheless many people predicted that the brutal death of a pro-Euro MP, so soon before the vote, would have a massive effect on the results. In the end it did not, and Sweden voted to stay out.

In 2016, just seven days before the UK referendum on leaving the EU, a prominent pro-EU MP, Jo Cox, was shot to death in a public place. The man accused has been described by neighbours as “quiet, bit of a loner, keen gardener”, with no known political opinions, and, according to “records obtained by” the Southern Poverty Law Centre, as a white-supremacist Hitler-supporter with a houseful of Nazi regalia and other incriminating items.

It is too soon to say whether the awful, violent death of Ms Cox will have any bearing ....

John Pilger: "Under Obama nuclear warhead production is greater than any post cold war president" 
Also, talks about how USA+gang is getting ready for war on Russia and China. 

Bob Master at Truth-Out
....But African-American primary voters overwhelmingly 
supported Hillary Clinton. One leading Pennsylvania African-American faith leader explained to me that many black voters, especially older women, viewed their support for Hillary as upholding a "social contract" that was forged in 2008: after they abandoned Hillary for Obama that year, it was understood that eight years later she would have "her turn." Younger activists of color, even some who support Sanders, say they didn't "feel the Bern" because of his initial stumbling response to the challenges of Black Lives Matter protestors. And Michelle Alexander, who eviscerated the Clinton policy legacy in a Nation magazine article entitled "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote," attributed African-Americans' 2016 allegiance to the Clintons to a widely held feeling that Bill Clinton was the first President "who actually treated black folks like they were real people, who could be viewed and treated as human beings...who actually would sit down to eat with them and sing in their church and acted like he enjoyed it, who recognized us as human beings."[2]

Race remains at the core of the American tragedy, and the struggle for Black Lives will not be subsumed in a broader movement. The future potential of a continuing post-Sanders' radical mobilization for economic justice, racial justice, and democracy will only be realized if it integrates....

 AND in Police State France:
From the description at the YouTube posting:
An aid convoy of about 250 vehicles that was held at the port of Dover after being refused entry to France by authorities was travelling to protest outside the French embassy in London on Saturday evening.

Janette Charles at NSNBC
OAS to Review Secretary General  for Actions Against Venezuela
The Organization of American States decided Wednesday to review the legitimacy of Secretary General Luis Almagro’s actions to invoke the Democratic Charter against Venezuela last month. The decision comes after a three day OAS summit in the Dominican Republic and the announcement of diplomatic talks between the United States and the South American nation.
“We want to announce that a historic vote has taken place,” expressed Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Relations Delcy Rodríguez.  “[The OAS] has voted on the issue of citizen Secretary General Almagro and the legality of his actions as mandated by the General Assembly, the highest body within this organization, [he] will be assessed by the Permanent Council per Venezuela’s request,” Rodríguez continued.

The Venezuelan diplomat requested the official review of the OAS head Wednesday which was approved with 19 votes in favor, 12 against, one abstention...

From TheBurningPlatform
God Bless Lily Tang Williams

Lily Tang Williams, a Chinese immigrant, is the state chair of the Colorado Libertarian Party. She posted a photo to Facebook featuring her AR-15 rifle and the American flag with a vow to never again be a “slave.”.......

Michael Krieger at LibertyBlitzkrieg
New York State Senator Introduces  Unconstitutional, Anti-Free Speech Legislation
Perhaps the greatest irony of this past year has been the mind numbing and irrational anti-free speech wave that swept across facets of so-called “liberal” America.

This regressive movement was most readily apparent on college campuses, where hordes of sheltered and emotionally stunted students demanded restrictions on free speech in order to prevent themselves from being offended by an ever expanding list of unhappy thoughts and words. However, what is far more troubling, albeit much less public, are attempts by two fascist academic authoritarians, to convince the American citizenry to relinquish their First Amendment rights in the name of fighting ISIS. One of these men is a close advisor to President Obama....

From BlacklistedNews ...Source: Matt Agorist
Civilians Take Over Oakland Police Dept
After 3rd Chief Ousted During Underage Sex Scandal
In September of last year, Officer Brendan O’Brien killed himself a little more than a year after police say his wife, Irma Huerta-Lopez, also took her life. Although police have not revealed the reason why, immediately after O’Brien’s suicide, an internal affairs probe began looking into whether any current officers committed sexual misconduct with a minor.

Months after the probe was launched, it sent shockwaves through the department and eventually spread to other departments.

The public became aware of the investigation after an 18-year-old sex worker went public claiming to have had sex with dozens of cops in five cities while she worked as a prostitute. Several of these encounters happened when the teen, Celeste Guap, was legally a child.

“It appears to be a cesspool here,” local attorney, John Burris, responsible for a 2003 federal probe into the Oakland police department said. “But you gotta keep working at it to drain the swamps.”

As Oakland scrambles to hold on to what little shred of dignity they think they have left, the embarrassment continues to grow.

On June 9, Chief Sean Whent resigned in the wake of a widening sexual misconduct scandal. He was replaced by Interim Chief Ben Fairow, who, after only six days on the job, was then forced to step down after Mayor Libby Schaaf said she had received information that made her question Fairow’s ability to lead.

As if the city and department didn’t look absurd enough after those two follies, Chief Paul Figueroa, who replaced Fairow, tenured his resignation three days later. Having no one to step up ...