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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Americans and the citizens of the West are duped by the Powers-that-be ....


but they don't know it.  They believe whatever it is the totally controlled and fully compromised talking heads on the MSM tell them.

Caitlin Johnstone at InformationClearingHouse
You Only Hate Assad Because Your TV Told You To

        “What we’ve been undergoing to a large extent is a form of psychological abuse, actually, by very narcissistic, hegemonic governments and officials for a very long time. It’s a form of gas lighting where actually our own faith in our ability to judge a situation, and to some extent even our own identity, has been eroded and damaged to the point where we’re effectively accepting their version of reality.” ~ Vanessa Beeley

The only thing keeping westerners from seeing through the lies that they’ve been told about Syria is the unquestioned assumption that their own government could not possibly be that evil. They have no trouble believing that a foreigner from a Muslim-majority country could be gratuitously using chemical weapons on children at the most strategically disastrous time possible and bombing his own civilians for no discernible reason other than perhaps sheer sexual sadism, but the possibility that their government is making those things up in order to manufacture consent for regime change is ruled out before any critical analysis of the situation even begins.

Despite the evil and unforgivable invasion of Iraq having happened a mere fourteen years ago, sold to the public based on nothing but lies and mass media propaganda, mainstream America is unwilling to consider the possibility that this is happening again. Unwilling to turn and face the implications of what this would mean for their worldview, their self-image, and the entire system they’ve developed for examining and interpreting their experience of their lives up until this point.

Independent investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley has emerged from her latest trip to Syria burning with a new kind of fire. There’s something in her voice and the posture she now takes which conveys a new kind of authority, a sense that she has now seen enough and gathered enough evidence to observe unmasked the full picture of this monster of deceit she’s been fighting.......

Kabul bomb blast reportage from Democracy Now



Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The Pope and Trump


Will we ever know what they talked about? 

Robert Fisk at CounterPunch
Trump Meets the New Leader of the Secular World, Pope Francis

After two days lecturing a collection of head-choppers, dictators, torturers and land thieves, Donald Trump at last met a good guy on Wednesday. Pope Francis didn’t ask for a $100bn (£77.2bn) arms deal for the Vatican. He wouldn’t go to war with Iran. He didn’t take the Sunni Muslim side against the Shia Muslim side in the next Middle East conflict. He didn’t talk about Palestinian “terror”. And he looked, most of the time, grim, unsmiling, even suspicious.

So he should have been. Trump’s broad, inane smile on confronting the Holy Father might have been more appropriate for the first of the Borgias, Alexander VI, whose 15th century womanising, corruption and enthusiasm for war would match Trump’s curriculum vitae rather well. But the poor man’s pope, who last year suggested that Trump wasn’t much of a Christian because he wanted to build walls, didn’t seem to be very happy to see the man who called him “disgraceful” for questioning his faith. “One offers peace through dialogue, the other security of arms,” one of Francis’ advisers said of the visit. Which pretty much sums it up.

It was indeed an odd sight to see the head of the Catholic church – whose anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-violence and pro-environment beliefs must surely now represent the secular world – greeting the present if very temporary leader of the secular world, whose policies are most surely not those of the Western people he would claim to represent. For more and more, the Good Old Pope is coming to represent what the Trumps and Mays will not say: that the West has a moral duty to end its wars in the Middle East, to stop selling weapons to the killers of the Middle East and to treat the people of the Middle East with justice and dignity......

Israel's Rape Culture among the elite and the cops



Tuesday, May 23, 2017

On the Manchester terrorist attack


From ManchesterEveningNews
22 dead, 120 injured in suicide bomber attack at Manchester Arena 
and three victims named - live updates
At least 22 people have been killed and 120 injured after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena.

Thousands of gig-goers were packed into the venue to see American singer Ariana Grande when the explosion shook the arena.

Multiple witnesses reported hearing "huge bangs" at the venue shortly after US singer's gig finished at around 10.30pm on Monday evening....

....Salman Abedi perpetrated the worst outrage Britain has seen in a decade just days after returning from Libya, according to The Press Association.

The 22-year-old’s visit to his family’s native country fuelled concerns he was preparing for Monday’s deadly assault under the guidance of hardened jihadists.

The Times reported the Manchester-born bomber spent three weeks in the war-torn north African nation before the attack on Manchester Arena, in which he was killed.

A friend told the paper: “He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago.” ....

From ITV
Manchester terror attack 'should not be hidden from children'
Leading psychiatrists have advised parents not to hide the news of Monday's terror attack at Manchester Arena from their children.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists said it is best to be honest with youngsters about the incident - taking into consideration the "age and sensitivity" of the child.
They should also reassure children of the rarity of such attacks....

From ITV
What do we know about Manchester attack suspect Salman Abedi?

The suspected Manchester Arena bomber has been confirmed as 22-year-old Salman Abedi by Greater Manchester Police (GMP).
He is believed to be of Libyan descent, but born in Manchester.
Abedi was registered as living at Elsmore Road in the city as recently as last year - that is the location where police earlier raided a red-bricked semi-detached property, ordering nearby residents to remain indoors while they carried out a controlled explosion on the front door.

Neighbours said they remembered an abrasive, tall, skinny young man who was little known in the neighbourhood, but often seen in traditional Islamic clothing.
They said the young man at the property had many visitors, one man dropping by regularly to pick him up in a Toyota Yaris....

Situation in the Muslim autonomous region of the Philippines


Latest update from the army:



Earlier news:


10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories That Became Conspiracy Facts


From ZeroHedge
10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories That Became Conspiracy Facts
Generally speaking, conspiracy theories form where there is a vacuum of verifiable facts associated with a controversial, usually tragic event. The concept has evolved over the years and is a part of our popular culture. There are legions of conspiracy theorists and “truthers” who have devoted their lives to certain theories, and there are legions of skeptics who have devoted their lives to debunking those theories. All the while, conspiracy theories of every stripe and variety festoon the footnotes of history. Even the origin of the phrase itself is subject to conspiracy theory, as some researchers have argued that the CIA invented and promulgated the term in order to marginalize fringe thinkers and neutralize investigations.

The internet has obviously had a profound effect on conspiracy theories, simultaneously helping and hurting the cause. While a world of information is at people’s fingertips, so too are alternate worlds of manufactured propaganda. While the Internet may appear to be a democratized, unfiltered path toward facts and truth, it is easily manipulated. Powerful corporations pay a lot of money to have their dirty laundry buried in the search results underneath contrived puff pieces.

With nearly the entire mainstream media apparatus at their disposal, the government is a maestro at this practice. As we learned from so-called Operation Mockingbird — a conspiracy theory fact discussed in my first post on the subject, “Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to Be True,” — hundreds, if not thousands of news organizations have been conscripted into working with the CIA to support pro-government narratives. That was in the 1960s. One can only imagine how vast the network is now. Not to mention the fact that a single proprietary algorithm owned by Google dictates the vast majority of the population’s exposure to a subject......

More cartoons on the deplorable Trump and the deplorable Saudi Arabia ... birds of a feather






On the Escalation of the Syrian proxy war

 

The lying US prez who duped voters by pretending not to like wars and wanting to end conflicts in the Middle East has now gone deeper and stronger into the bloodshed and regime-change agenda of the warmongering empire.  

Steven Chovanec at ConsortiumNews
Trump Escalates Syrian Proxy War

Back in February, it was quietly reported that the CIA had discontinued its support program to rebels in Syria. A month later, a knowledgeable source from the region disclosed to me that the Trump administration and the Saudi defense minister, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had agreed during their meetings in mid-March for the Gulf states to re-open supply channels to their rebel proxies.

This was done, the source said, to keep the Syrian government’s army and its allied Russian air force occupied so that the U.S. and its Kurdish allies could continue dividing northern Syria, establishing a zone-of-influence throughout the lands they recapture from the Islamic State.

Concurrent with this was a similar effort in the southeast, where U.S. and Jordanian backed forces have been battling ISIS while attempting to establish control over the border with Iraq. The strategy was to use the fight against ISIS as a pretext for establishing a de-facto occupation of Syrian territory, where in the Kurdish-held regions the U.S. has already established multiple military bases and airfields.

A major motivation behind Russia’s push to establish de-escalation zones, now implemented after a deal was reached with Iran and Turkey, was to free up the Syrian army and Russian air force to launch operations eastward against ISIS and counter the US efforts.........

....Under the guise of “defeating ISIS,” both powers are essentially carving out their own spheres of influence throughout the country, dividing it between U.S.- and Russian-backed regions, leading to an inevitable showdown between the two sides over the fate of the country and its territorial integrity......


Jasan Hirthler at DissidentVoice
Orwell, Freud, and the Syrian Ruse
Reality by other means

The adjective ‘Orwellian’ is so overused mostly because it is so incredibly apt on a daily basis. George Orwell’s basic concept reflects a simple tenet of propaganda: the thing you are hiding is often hid behind its exact opposite. Orwell expressed this concept in 1984 with the government slogans, “War is Peace,” “Ignorance is Strength,” and “Freedom is Slavery.” The Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud evidently suggested something similar about human nature: that to discover our true human nature, we need merely to reverse society’s moral maxims: if a commandment forbids adultery, it’s because we want to commit it. In other words, for both Orwell and Freud, we often disguise what we are doing behind claims that we are doing the opposite. We aren’t committing adultery; we’re practicing fidelity. We aren’t precipitating war; we’re pressing for peace. We aren’t seeking our own self-interest; we’re doing it all for others.

When applied to U.S. propaganda, the formula is revealing. To discover what your government is hiding, just reverse the media narrative. If the papers all say Russia is an imperial aggressor, it’s likely because Washington is. If the news networks say that Assad is a murderous monster, it’s likely because the groups we’re backing are. If the mainstream says Communism is a dire threat, it’s likely because capitalism is a dire threat. All of these examples are demonstrably true........

Americans have long forgotten 9/11 and its victims

Now, the deplorables are all OKAY with their prez hugging and dancing with those who funded the worst attack on their land.  This nation deserves what's coming to it and to its population .... a third-world beggary. 
 
Marwa Osman at 21stCenturyWire
Is Saudi Arabia Bombing Its Own Citizens?

Recently, a number of images and footage have emerged of Saudi government forces bombing, shelling, firing and bulldozing houses – not in neighboring Yemen, but in their own eastern province of Qatif in the Awamiyah town, a story which has been erupting on social media over the past week, as reports suggest that the Kingdom continues its crackdown on its own citizens.

Pictures purportedly from the scene circulating on social media showed smoke rising over the area, where bulldozers, excavators and police armored cars were stationed.

For a fourth day in a row starting May 10, the Saudi regime officials have imposed a curfew in the town of Awamiyah with frequent firing of bullets at houses, mosques and hospitals.

According to reports, the aggression escalated further when the Saudi regime forces raided the historic neighborhood of Al-Masoura in Al-Awamiya, and shot dead a two-and-a-half year old child and a young man....

.......With more than 30,000 people living in the town of Awamiyah, the hometown of martyr Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, some activists are now reporting that Saudi regime has totally isolated the town with cement blocks and the situation is worsening as residents are now also suffering from food shortages and are deprived of medical aid. Hygiene management committees were also improvised in the besieged areas as a result of the designated Saudi company suspending its work in the region. ....



Cartoons





The dying empire's Double Standards


Felicity Arbuthnot at DissidentVoice
Trump’s Tomahawks, Double Standards: 


Using Chemical and Radioactive Weapons for Profit?
Although the entirely illegal attack by the US on Syria’s Shayrat Airbase in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government, showed not a thought towards Congressional debate, United Nations mandate or the rule of law, it seems that some thought might have gone into the date.

Not alone was embarking on the action on April 6th – US time – the 100th anniversary of the United States entering World War 1, but in Europe and the Middle East, as the fifty nine Tomahawk Cruise missiles struck on the dawn of April 7th, it was the 61st anniversary of Syria’s independence from France being officially recognized – and of the 2003 fall of Baghdad to the illegal invaders, the US, UK and Poland committing Nuremberg’s “supreme international crime …”

Incidentally, April 7th was also the day Attila the Hun “the scourge of all lands”, sacked the town of Metz and widely slaughtered other cities in Gaul in 451.....

......The “international community” now led by the Presidential “Agent Orange” in the White House is toweringly selective when it comes to accusations of weapons of mass destruction. For example, in 2009, Human Rights Watch, in a shocking, detailed seventy-one page document, reported that:

    Israel’s repeated firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes

    Human Rights Watch researchers in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school. The report also presents ballistics evidence, photographs, and satellite imagery, as well as documents from the Israeli military and government.

No Cruise missiles were fired at Israel, no worldwide condemnation at an apocalyptic assault on a tiny, illegally fragmented part of Palestine with no army, navy or air force. How selective the US and friends are in their murderous, righteous indignation........

........On the following Monday night (April 10th) sabre rattling US Defence Secretary James Mattis, warned the Syrian government it would be: “ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons …”, still without a shred of reliable evidence that Syria was involved.

What there is evidence of is that the US indeed used both chemical and radiological weapons – fifty nine times – in their attack. [Emphasis added] Tomahawk Cruise missiles used in the attack are thought to contain Depleted Uranium. “Toxicity of DU is both chemical and radiological …” states that International Atomic Energy Agency document.

In addition to the fifty nine Tomahawks, the US has been using DU weapons in Iraq since 1991 and eventually admitted to using them in Syria in 2015, though in spite of it being the US weapon of choice no figures for use in Syria in other years have been forthcoming.

US Central Command has acknowledged that DU was fired on two dates – the 18th and 23rd November 2015 … 5,100 rounds of 30 mm DU ammunition were used by A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. This equates to 1,524 kg of DU.1....

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

On the MSM's lullaby for insomniacs


There's nothing like the on and on same repeated nonsense from the totally insane US media to put us all to sleep. If you suffer from Insomnia, read a few paragraphs from the US MSM and you will go Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and fall into a deep sleep.
I did and I am not even an insomniac.










The Despotism of the USA began long before Trump came on the scene


Americans have brought the deteriorating of their great nation on themselves. When the powerful came for the disadvantaged, hardly anyone made a noise.  The ruling elite took that as a sign that they could venture further and further into the abuse of  internal national laws and IMO, that also gave them the encouragement to flaunt their power and might on every nook and corner of planet Earth.

Chris Hedges at TruthDig
Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease 
Forget the firing of James Comey. Forget the paralysis in Congress. Forget the idiocy of a press that covers our descent into tyranny as if it were a sports contest between corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats or a reality show starring our maniacal president and the idiots that surround him. Forget the noise. The crisis we face is not embodied in the public images of the politicians that run our dysfunctional government. The crisis we face is the result of a four-decade-long, slow-motion corporate coup that has rendered the citizen impotent, left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent. This crisis has spawned a corrupt electoral system of legalized bribery and empowered those public figures that master the arts of entertainment and artifice. And if we do not overthrow the neoliberal, corporate forces that have destroyed our democracy we will continue to vomit up more monstrosities as dangerous as Donald Trump. Trump is the symptom, not the disease.

Our descent into despotism began with the pardoning of Richard Nixon, all of whose impeachable crimes are now legal, and the extrajudicial assault, including targeted assassinations and imprisonment, carried out on dissidents and radicals, especially black radicals. It began with the creation of corporate-funded foundations and organizations that took control of the press, the courts, the universities, scientific research and the two major political parties. It began with empowering militarized police to kill unarmed citizens and the spread of our horrendous system of mass incarceration and the death penalty. It began with the stripping away of our most basic constitutional rights—privacy, due process, habeas corpus, fair elections and dissent. It began when big money was employed by political operatives such as Roger Stone, a close Trump adviser, to create negative political advertisements and false narratives to deceive the public, turning political debate into burlesque. On all these fronts we have lost. We are trapped like rats in a cage. A narcissist and imbecile may be turning the electric shocks on and off, but the problem is the corporate state, and unless we dismantle that, we are doomed.

“What’s necessary for the state is the illusion of normality, of regularity,” America’s best-known political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, told me last week by phone from the prison where he is incarcerated in Frackville, Pa. “… In Rome, what the emperors needed was bread and circuses. In America, what we need is ‘Housewives of Atlanta.’ We need sports. The moral stories of good cops and evil people. Because you have that …. there is no critical thinking in America during this period. You have emotion [only]. When I look at someone who is demonized, I can do anything [to him or her]. I can do anything. That’s how the state works, by demonizing people and putting them in places where they’re virtually invisible.” .....



North Korea's nuclear weapons are what's keeping it from being destroyed by the USA


That's the pure and simple truth.  The moment North Korea is beguiled into signing some bullshit agreement like Iran has done, they will become a target just like Iran has become by giving the PTB loopholes in the agreement to say "See, they violated the agreement".   Better to be a pariah and stay alive then be "part of the community of nations" and get destroyed.

From RT   
N. Korea claims latest missile test ‘successful & proves
its capability to carry nuclear warheads’

 Pyongyang has claimed that its medium-range ballistic missile test carried out on Sunday under the supervision of Kim Jong-un has confirmed the “tactical specifications and technical characteristics” of the rocket which North Korea says is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

North Korea has succeeded in launching its new surface-to-surface missile on May 14, Pyongyang’s official Central News Agency announced.
“The test fire was conducted with maximum angle of the projectile’s elevation in consideration of the safety of neighboring countries, with the aim of confirming the tactical specifications and technical characteristics of the new long-range strategic ballistic rockets capable of loading powerful heavy-weight nuclear warheads,” KCNA announced.



According to Pyongyang, the launch has enabled testing in “actual flight conditions” the missile’s “stabilization, structural, pressurization and launch systems,” as well as “reliability of the rocket’s engine” and its integrity “in the harsh reentry environment.”

“The launched rocket flew up to the maximum peak altitude of 2,111.5 kilometers along the scheduled flight orbit and precisely hit the target waters 787-kilometers away,” the communications ministry’s announcement read. The country's leader, Kim Jong-un, led the launch of a new type of rocket, the report noted.

More analysis is needed to verify North Korea's claim that it had successfully test-launched a ballistic missile, South Korea's military said following KCNA's announcement.....

Syrian Refugees' figure reaches 5,052,283


I think the Syrian refugees issue is likely going to be like the Palestinian refugees issue which has been going on now for the last 7 decades.  Turkey has given refuge to the greatest number of Syrian refugees and many are also being given Turkish citizenship.  Expect a civil war there sooner than you think.


From UNHCR
Syrian Refugees as at May 2017:  5,052,283

Demography
Male (51.5%)     Age     (48.5%) Female
7.6%                   0 - 4         7.2%
9.5%                  5 - 11         9.2%
7.4%                  12 - 17        6.6%
25.5%                18 - 59       23.8%
1.5%                   60 +           1.7%

How Kurds Disarmed Assyrian Christians Then Abandoned them to ISIS



Friday, May 12, 2017

Trump and the Deep State


A "must read" as this is pretty intriguing to say the least.

Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup?

President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday reflected a growing concern inside the White House that the long-rumored scheme by “deep state” operatives to overturn the results of the 2016 election may have been more than just rumors.
The fear grew that Comey and other senior officials in the U.S. intelligence community had concluded last year that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump was a suitable future president, albeit for different reasons. I’m told that Clinton was seen as dangerously hawkish and Trump as dangerously unqualified, opinions privately shared by then-President Barack Obama.

So, according to this account, plans were made last summer to damage both Clinton and Trump, with the hope of putting a more stable and less risky person in the Oval Office – with key roles in this scheme played by Comey, CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

When I first heard about this supposed cabal in the middle of last year, I dismissed it as something more fitting a Jason Bourne movie than the real world. But – to my amazement – the U.S. intelligence community then began intervening in the presidential campaign in unprecedented ways.

On July 5, 2016, Director Comey dealt a severe blow to Clinton by holding a press conference to denounce her use of a private email server while Secretary of State as “extremely careless,” yet he announced that no legal action would follow, opening her to a damaging line of attack that she jeopardized national security but that her political status gave her special protection.

Then, on Oct. 28, just ten days before the election, Comey reopened the investigation because of emails found on the laptop of disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the husband of Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin. That move re-injected Clinton’s email controversy into the campaign, along with the unsavory issues surrounding Weiner’s sexting scandal, and reminded voters about the sex-related scandals that have swirled around Bill Clinton for years.

To make matters worse, Comey closed the investigation again just two days before the election, once more putting the Clinton email controversy in front of voters. That also reaffirmed the idea that Clinton got special treatment because of her political clout, arguably the most damaging image possible in an election year dominated by voter anger at “elites.”

Clinton herself has said that if the election had been held on Oct. 27 – the day before Comey reopened the email inquiry – she would have won. In other words, whether Comey’s actions were simply clumsy or possibly calculated, the reality is that he had.....

Dr Ron Paul: "Arming the Kurds - A Dangerous Idea"



Warlord Trump sends other fathers' sons and daughters to die in the deserts of Arabia ...


while his own brood is living it up and busy making millions of more $ss.

Tom O'Connor at Newsweek
Trump in Syria: Jordanians Deny U.S. Invasion As Troops Train at Border

Jordanian commentators, including the military's former deputy chief of staff, have dismissed media speculation of an impending ground invasion of Syria as U.S. and allied troops trained near the nations' mutual border.

About 7,400 soldiers from 20 nations began conducting Sunday annual U.S. and Jordan-led military exercises known as Exercise Eager Lion. This year's drills, reportedly the largest and most complex of their kind, prompted concerns from the governments of neighboring Syria and its ally, Iran, that Washington and its allies were attempting to stage a major intervention to undermine recent gains made by the Syrian military against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). Experts, however, such as retired General Mousa al-Odwan, former Jordanian Special Forces commander and former deputy chief of staff for Jordan's military, have said such a move was unlikely.

"We should not intervene in the Syrian conflict unless there is a clear and present terrorist threat to our national security," Odwan told Al Jazeera in an article published Thursday.....

Let's hope the two Koreas will reconcile


Will the USA let that happen?  Will the new leader of South Korea have the guts to get the USA out of his  country?

Pics below show kids and women of North Korea and are from Andre Vltchek's blog



From  TruthDig (Original by Kim Tong-Hyung at AP
South Korea’s Progressive New President Moon Jae-in Is Open to Talks in Pyongyang About Nukes 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - New South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday he was open to visiting rival North Korea under the right conditions to talk about Pyongyang's aggressive pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles.

Moon's softer stance on North Korea could create friction with Washington, which has swung from threats of military action to hints of dialogue as it seeks to formulate a policy under President Donald Trump.

Moon, speaking during his oath of office as the first liberal leader in a decade, also said he'll "sincerely negotiate" with the United States, Seoul's top ally, and China, South Korea's top trading partner, over the contentious deployment of an advanced U.S. missile-defense system in southern South Korea. The system has angered Beijing, which says its powerful radars allow Washington to spy on its own military operations.

In a speech at the National Assembly hours after being declared the winner of Tuesday's election, Moon pledged to work for peace on the Korean Peninsula amid growing worry over the North's expanding nuclear weapons and missiles program.

"I will quickly move to solve the crisis in national security. I am willing to go anywhere for the peace of the Korean Peninsula - if needed, I will fly immediately to Washington. I will go to Beijing and I will go to Tokyo. If the conditions shape up, I will go to Pyongyang," Moon said.

Moon, whose victory capped one of the most turbulent political stretches in the nation's recent history, assumed presidential duties early in the morning after the National Election Commission finished counting and declared him winner of the special election necessitated by the ousting of conservative Park Geun-hye.

He is also expected to nominate a prime minister, the country's No. 2 job that requires approval from lawmakers, and name his presidential chief of staff later Wednesday.

Moon thanked the millions of people who staged peaceful protests for months calling for the ouster of Park, who was impeached and arrested in March over a corruption scandal. He also offered a message of unity to his political rivals - Moon's Democratic Party has only 120 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly, so he may need broader support while pushing his key policies.

"Politics were turbulent (in the past several months), but our people showed greatness," Moon said.

"In face of the impeachment and arrest of an incumbent president, our people opened the path toward the future for the Republic of Korea," said Moon, referring to South Korea's formal name. To his rivals, Moon said, "We are partners who must lead a new Republic of Korea. We must put the days of fierce competition behind and hold hands marching forward."

Taking up his role as the new commander in chief, Moon began his duties earlier in the day by receiving a call from Army Gen. Lee Sun-jin, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, who briefed him on the military's preparedness against North Korea.

He then left his private residence in an emotional send-off from hundreds of people and visited a national cemetery in Seoul. After bowing to the former presidents, independence fighters and war heroes, Moon wrote in a visitor book: "A country worth being proud of; a strong and reliable president!"

He also visited the offices of opposition parties, seeking support in governing the country split along ideological lines and regional loyalties.

The leaders of China and Japan sent their congratulations. South Korea's relations with Japan are strained by the Japanese military's sexual exploitation of South Korean women during World War II, and relations with China have been irritated over the deployment of the THAAD missile-defense system. Moon made a campaign vow to reconsider THAAD........

What you need for a false "grassroots uprising" produced the American way


Snipers, violent protestors, people burners, murderers, arsonists ... all the dirty nasty tricks that were used in the Ukraine for bringing down the legitimate government of that country, has so far at least, not worked in Syria. Ever wondered why?

Kim Petersen at DissidentVoice
What Was the Trigger for Violence in Syria?

If the base upon which an edifice is arranged is defective, then the edifice will topple when the base crumples. In the case of the violence raging in Syria, western governments inimical to the Syrian government have blamed the violence, through their monopoly media organs, on the Syrian government security apparatus using lethal force to put down unarmed domestic protestors. If this depiction is false, if it is disinformation, then the subsequent killing and the millions of refugees displaced by the violence is a monstrous crime — a crime for which western governments and their media bear criminal culpability.

Given the lethality of the crimes being perpetrated against Syria, it is a must that people of conscience scrutinize monopoly media skeptically (or better still abandon it. Other than being aware of the lies, why willingly subject oneself to disinformation?).1

One must also be aware of imperialist reverberations within purportedly independent media. I wrote of one example of this recently concerning the “independent” Democracy Now!

There are plenty of people who do combat the disinformation and for no pecuniary profit. One of them is Robert Roth, a former assistant attorney-general for New York (1981-1991) and Oregon (1993-2007), who has prepared a booklet What’s really happening in Syria (available for download here) that debunks much of the western corporate/state media disinformation on Syria, beginning with Syrian president Bashar al Assad being a “brutal dictator” who is “killing his own people.” (p 1) One often hears or reads of leftists criticizing the US aggression against Syria, but many feel the need to add that Assad is horrible, brutal, or they don’t support the dictator Assad — all this without providing evidence to support their allegations. It seems very infrequent that similar addenda are voiced by pundits when describing American or other western “leaders.” How is it the master criminals behind the war on Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair, still enjoy the perks of post-political life rather than sit in a prison cell?....

.........In “Part 3: Divide et Impera” of our 7-part series, “The Imperialist Violence in Syria,” BJ Sabri and I wrote:

    The violence in Syria is not an accidental product of uncontrolled events, is not a result of a civil war, is not because the Syrian state is ruled by despotic elites—but it is a result of a combined American-Israeli geopolitical strategy to install a new Syrian regime at the order of Tel Aviv and Washington. Syria, therefore, is not but another link—after Iraq, Libya, and Yemen—in the US and Israeli quest to dismantle the Arab system of nation, and to end the Palestinian Question permanently.

What’s really happening in Syria counters the monopoly media narrative of peaceful, unarmed protests against the Assad government, citing figures such as Father Frans van der Lugt, a Dutch Jesuit priest who was murdered in Homs, Syria in early 2014 who depicted protestors as violent and with negligible support from Syrian people. (p. 5) The author likens this flashpoint to the US-orchestrated destabilization in Ukraine, albeit there are many other recent examples including Venezuela, Honduras, and Haiti........

Friday, May 5, 2017

USA+gang's instigated wars, regime changes, nation splitting = Famines bringing death to millions


A lot of harm is done in the name of "war on terror" on Muslim nations of the world while shamefully their own Muslim brothers cohort with the destroyers of their people and lands and more often than not, like in the case of the Sunni sheikdoms, gleefully join the destroyers in the destruction.  Is it any wonder Muslims who are affected by this mayhem, dream of  revenge either by foolishly going on  a suicidal rampage and killing innocent civilians or those who are smart, bid their time by migrating and conquering the West by sheer numbers?

From TheEconomist
Impending famines in Africa and Yemen have political causes

Millions of people are at risk of starvation in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen

 

IN FEBRUARY the UN declared a state of famine in parts of South Sudan. It is the first time the UN has officially deployed the term since 2011. But, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), which is run by the American government, 70m people worldwide will need food assistance this year.


In Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, FEWS Net states there is a "credible risk of famine". Between them around 20m people are at risk of starvation. The UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator, Stephen O’Brien, has said that “the largest humanitarian crisis” since 1945 is unfolding this year....

Israel's gulag for Palestinian prisoners

Paul Jay of TheRealNewsNetwork talks to Abby Martin on the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.


Wikileaks reveals Archimedes as one of CIA's hacking mechanisms


Wonder how many other thousands of dirty tricks the CIA and others similar organizations have up their sleeves which we won't be privy to, at least for now.

From ZeroHedge
WikiLeaks Reveals "Archimedes": Malware Used To Hack Local Area Networks
In its seventh CIA leak since March 23rd, WikiLeaks has just revealed the user manual of a CIA hacking tool known as ‘Archimedes’ which is purportedly used to attack computers inside a Local Area Network (LAN).  The CIA tool works by redirecting a target's webpage search to a CIA server which serves up a webpage that looks exactly like the original page they were expecting to be served, but which contains malware. It’s only possible to detect the attack by examining the page source.  Per WikiLeaks:


    Today, May 5th 2017, WikiLeaks publishes "Archimedes", a tool used by the CIA to attack a computer inside a Local Area Network (LAN), usually used in offices. It allows the re-directing of traffic from the target computer inside the LAN through a computer infected with this malware and controlled by the CIA. This technique is used by the CIA to redirect the target's computers web browser to an exploitation server while appearing as a normal browsing session....
    
  ...The document illustrates a type of attack within a "protected environment" as the the tool is deployed into an existing local network abusing existing machines to bring targeted computers under control and allowing further exploitation and abuse.

....Archimedes is an update to a tool called ‘Fulcrum’ and it offers several improvements on the previous system, including providing a method of "gracefully shutting down the tool on demand.”........

Swamp Masters with their Puppet


Thursday, May 4, 2017

ex-Congressman wonders whether we are headed towards War or Peace


The below is from one of the few good men still standing ramrod straight in a bent and rotting USA.

Dennis J Kucinich at RonPaulInstitute
War or Peace?
There is a dangerous condition in Washington, DC where people in positions of influence and great power are, at this very moment, pushing this nation and the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.

We did not arrive at crisis overnight but be sure we are at a moment of peril. Unless an enlightened citizenry on campuses, in town halls, in community centers, in places of work, play and worship, is aroused and demands our government step back from the brink, we may find the life of our nation, our own lives, and the lives of our loved ones, irrevocably changed.

I am not an alarmist, but after a long career in politics which began when I was a student here at Cleveland State University, I can tell you, if you pay attention, it is not difficult to see that we are in jeopardy.

As a member of Congress, immediately after 9/11, I went to the floor of the House of Representatives and warned that the US should not lash out.

While we have a right to defend our nation and had a right to strike the Al Queda training camps in Afghanistan, we had no right to invade and occupy that country. We had no right to invade and occupy Iraq. We had no right to attack Libya.

We have no right to attack North Korea, Syria, Iran, Russia, China or any other nation state. International law, the UN charter and numerous other conventions make aggressive war illegal. ....

Swamp land ownership becomes Trump


The Russia-Japan relationship

Many changes in unexpected places are taking place while appearing not to.

From Oriental Review
Japan Seeks to Restore Its National Sovereignty. Japan-Russia Relations
While the new resident of the White House has been acquiring a taste for military adventures overseas, the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, visited Moscow last Thursday for his 17th talk with Vladimir Putin. But of course their normal economic agenda, intended to hammer out the final details of some painful bilateral issues, was powerfully affected by events in North Korea. So what’s the real political equation in the Eurasian Far East these days?

The memorable dinner hosted by Pres. Trump for Chairman Xi and served up with the added flourish of a missile strike on a Syrian air base was hardly a diplomatic success for the new administration. The Chinese leader has apparently turned a deaf ear to the president’s demands to revalue the yuan and thus financially offset the enormous US trade deficit with its biggest economic partner. But one of the few advantages of having a businessman in the Oval Office is that he always has a non-business argument when trapped in any sort of business quagmire. Teasing a limitrophe that is loyal to your adversary is the first-choice option in such cases.

Nearly 63 years after the end of the Korean War, during which the United States Air Force dropped more conventional and napalm bombs onto North Korea than did all the Allies onto Germany during the WWII, Washington is still officially in a state of war with Pyongyang.  And it is precisely this powerful factor of ambiguity that drives the awkward nuclear ambitions of a small and stalemated nation. A safe and manageable bogey-state offers a convenient pretext for the US to stretch a vengeful hand toward the coastline of a key economic “partner” whenever the time is right – which is almost a dream come true for US strategists. So far, this most recent “North Korean escalation” has had a single tangible result – the US THAAD anti-missile systems that monitor eastbound Chinese rockets are being deployed in South Korea and will reportedly “be operational within days.”

The only problem is that this game is not being played in a geopolitical vacuum. A symptomatic WP commentator – periodically venting his spleen against the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea – lets slip one notable point:

    If the crisis deepens, the possibility arises of South Korea and, more importantly, Japan going nuclear themselves....

Year 3 Remembrance Day of the Odessa Massacre

May 2, 2014 is a day many of us humans won't ever forget.  Non-humans already have and even if they do, they remember it with glee. 












Yup, Russia Today (RT) has become a wanna MSM dummy


Sad to see RT going the way of the rest of the MSM that is in the habit of  not doing proper research on any of the items it reports on. 

From LandDestroyer blog
Fact Check: Did Thailand Really Arrest a "Top Human Rights Lawyer?" 
A recent article published by RT titled, "Top Thai human rights lawyer faces 150 years in prison for ‘royal insult’," repeats almost verbatim talking points drawn from US and European media, as well as US-funded organizations posing as "nongovernmental organizations" (NGOs).

The "top Thai human rights lawyer" mentioned in the headline is actually a representative of an armed militant group, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) which killed over 100 and maimed hundreds more in multiple failed attempts aimed at overthrowing the Thai political order spanning form 2006-2014.

The militant group, organized and directed by ousted former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, represents yet another US-backed effort at undermining and overthrowing a political order obstructing its corporate-financier interests both within Thailand itself, and within the Asian region.

Unmasking the "Top Thai Human Rights Lawyer"
Information cited by RT regarding "lawyer" Prawet Prapanukul, comes from faux-NGO Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, created by the US State Department and funded annually by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), working exclusively to defend US-backed agitators as the current Thai government slowly tightens control over foreign-funded subversion.....

Who killed Martin Luther King?


This will stun you.

Dr William Pepper Reveals Who Really Killed MLK

Dr. William Pepper’s remarkable 40 year investigation into the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. is summarized in his equally remarkable book, “The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.” In this conversation we discuss Dr. Pepper’s relationship with Dr. King, the mind-blowing evidence that destroys the official story of the assassination, who really killed MLK, and the complete media blackout that has served to keep this information from the public for half a century.


Monday, May 1, 2017

Turkey tracking for the month of April


Protest held in Turkey against advert implying coup
Protesters gather outside office of major Turkish food company in Istanbul after advertisement allegedly refers to coup
Protesters gathered outside a major Turkish food manufacturer's office in Istanbul early Saturday to protest against an advertisement that allegedly contained pro-coup themes.

The group organized the protest via social media, terming their gathering as part of the "democracy watch" movement that began in Turkey following the July 16, 2016, defeated coup.

The controversial advertisement was released online on March 31, 2017....

21 FETÖ media network suspects held in new probe
Suspects had been ordered released under probe into Fetullah Terrorist Organization, blamed for last July's coup bid...

Turkey: 99 PKK terrorists killed in past week
During the operations, one soldier was martyred and nine others wounded, according to General Staff
Nearly 1,800 opposition fighters and civilians have been sent to Syria's northwestern Idlib city from the Al-Waer district of the western Homs province amid repeated cease-fire violations by the Assad regime and its allies.

The fresh group of evacuees included 358 women and 434 children, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter in the area....

Turkish FM: 50,000 return to areas Ankara controls in Syria
Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians and refugees have returned to an area controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister said Saturday, and US-backed Kurdish-led fighters pressed their offensive in the north near a town held by the Daesh group.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments came three days after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield that began in August had ended after its troops and allied rebels secured territory along the border between Turkey and Syria.
Cavusoglu said some 50,000 people have returned from Turkey to areas that have been captured by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters, adding that security in these areas should eventually be handed to local forces.....

Erdogan Declares Victory In Turkey's Constitutional Referendum
With over 97% of ballots counted, Turkey's president Erdogan and soon, quasi dictator, declared victory in the Turkish referendum and called the leaders of three political parties supporting changes to the constitution to congratulate them on the victory, Anadolu news agency reported, and added rather comically that "many world leaders send congratulatory messages to President Erdogan." One wonders who exactly...

Trump Congratulates Erdogan on Turkey Vote Cementing His Rule
President Trump called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Monday to congratulate him on winning a much-disputed referendum that will cement his autocratic rule over the country and, in the view of many experts, erode Turkey’s democratic institutions.
Those concerns were not mentioned in a brief readout of the phone call that the White House released Monday night. After noting Mr. Trump’s congratulations, the one-paragraph statement pivoted to a recent American missile strike on a Syrian airfield, which it said he and Mr. Erdogan had also discussed....

Turkey's premier warns opposition against street protests
Turkey's opposition parties have the right to file objections to the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers, the prime minister said Wednesday, but he warned that calling for street protests was unacceptable.
Binali Yildirim said the electoral board would rule on the main opposition Republican People's Party's request for the referendum's annulment. Opposition parties have complained of a series of irregularities, particularly an electoral board decision to accept ballots without official stamps, as required by Turkish law.....

Four Turkish soldiers wounded in landmine blast
Explosion in Hakkari province prompts airlift operation
Four soldiers were injured in a landmine blast in southeastern Turkey on Friday, a security source has said.
The four were slightly wounded when a landmine planted by terrorists in the Semdinli district of Hakkari province went off.....

Turkey targets Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria
At least 70 killed in Iraq and Syria, Turkish officials say, in blow against Kurdish forces battling ISIL in the region.
Turkish military jets have carried out air strikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq and northeast Syria, killing at least 70 people, according to a Turkish military statement.
A statement released by Turkey's air force said that it carried out the air strikes against PKK targets located in the Sinjar Mountains region in northern Iraq and in Karachok Mountains in northeastern Syria on Tuesday.
The targets were hit to prevent the PKK from sending "terrorists, arms, ammunition and explosives to Turkey," the statement said, adding that the operation was conducted "within the scope of the international law"....

Turkish security forces neutralize 11 terrorists near SE border
An army post on Turkey's southeastern border province of Sanliurfa was attacked by mortar fire from the nearby PKK/PYD region, the Turkish Armed Forces said on Friday.
No soldiers were killed or wounded in the mortar attack.
The statement said Turkey responded with a heavy artillery bombardment that killed a three-man PKK/PYD mortar team as well as eight terrorists manning a vehicle-fixed heavy machine gun......

Austria calls for new EU relationship with Turkey
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern says Turkey should not be allowed to join the European Union, with membership talks between the EU and Ankara at a standstill.
Kern told reporters in Brussels Saturday that "we have to bring our relations to Turkey into new order."
He said the EU should "create a new relation to Turkey" encompassing economic, security and migration interests..........

Wikipedia blocked in Turkey
The Turkey Blocks monitoring network has verified restrictions affecting the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia in Turkey. A block affecting all language editions of the website detected at 8:00AM local time Saturday 29 April. The loss of availability is consistent with internet filters used to censor content in the country.

Certain subdomains remained partially available on ISP TTNet at the time of writing, while the restriction appears to by fully implemented on Uydunet, Turkcell and other fixed line and mobile service providers.......

Turkey threatens more strikes on U.S.-allied Syrian Kurds
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday his country may take further action against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria and insisted U.S. support for such groups "must come to an end."
The U.S. moved troops and armoured vehicles through several Syrian cities and towns on Friday and Saturday in a show of force apparently intended to dissuade Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces from attacking each other.
Kurdish officials described the U.S. troop movement as a "buffer" between them and Turkey.........

Erdogan Blocks Wikipedia, Bans TV Dating Shows, Purges Another 4,000 Public Officials
Two weeks after winning the Turkish constitutional referendum by a modest but decisive margin, president - or perhaps it is now despot - Erdogan decided to take his newly decreed powers for a spin and overnight in rapid succession surprised foreign observers when Turkey decreed that it would ban TV dating shows, fire an additional 4,000 public officials and also ban Wikipedia.