Joe Biden steamrolled Democrats objecting to Trump’s Electoral College victory, ‘It is over’

Vice President Joe Biden, presiding over the official Electoral College vote tally on the House floor Friday, had three words for Democratic lawmakers attempting to object to the results of the election.
“It is over,” the vice president said, eliciting laughs from House Speaker Paul Ryan, seated behind him, and applause from lawmakers in the chamber.
More than a half-dozen Democratic members of Congress rose to speak at different points, protesting the results. The representatives cited Russian hacking, the legitimacy of the election and electors, alleged voter-suppression laws, and the voting machines themselves as reasons to object the results.
Biden said any objection to the results needed to be in writing and signed by a House member and a senator. The Democratic representatives had not fulfilled both requirements.
“In that case the objection cannot be entertained,” Biden said to one lawmaker …

Mash-up from various sources:

During the joint sitting of the House and Senate, House Democrats objected to the votes from at least 10 states, raising issues of voter suppression as well as American intelligence showing that Russia tried to sway the election in favor of Mr Trump. In each case, their objections were denied because they did not have the support of any senators.
As expected, Mike Pence was elected vice president. Mr Trump and Mr Pence are to be sworn in on January 20.
As the votes were announced for state after state, Democratic members of the House stood up to object. But in each case, no Democratic senator would join them, and Mr Biden cut them off.
“There can be no debate,” Mr Biden said repeatedly.
Under Federal law, if at least one Senator and one House member object to the vote from any state, the House and Senate will meet separately to debate the merits of the objection. This hurdle was not met.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 7 2017 10:11 utc | 104

Followup to 104
FULL VIDEO: Vice President Joe Biden Certifies Donald Trump as 45th President of U.S.
C-Span footage uploaded to Youtube 34Min.
The key, defining moment, of all this theater is from ~29Min30sec …

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 7 2017 10:38 utc | 106

Iraq War Vet Who Was Forced To Kill And Watch Islamic State Videos By The CIA Goes On Rampage At Airport, Killing 5 !

An Iraq war veteran took a gun out of his checked luggage and opened fire in a crowded baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale’s airport on Friday, killing five people, months after he showed up at an FBI office behaving erratically.
[George] Piro, [special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Miami] Piro said that Santiago had turned up at an FBI office in Anchorage in November of last year behaving erratically and was turned over to local police, who took him to a medical facility for a mental evaluation.
A federal law enforcement official told Reuters that Santiago told agents at the Anchorage office in November that his mind was being controlled by a U.S. intelligence agency, which was ordering him to watch Islamic State videos.
Santiago served from 2007 to 2016 in the Puerto Rico National Guard and Alaska National Guard including a deployment to Iraq from 2010 to 2011, according to the Pentagon.
A private first class and combat engineer, he received half a dozen medals before being transferred to the inactive ready reserve in August last year.
An aunt said he came back from his deployment “a different person,” MSNBC reported.

another american made-murderer by the nobel peace prize laureate allows his demons to act out on innocents.
barack obama: liar, murderer, war criminal, assassin. how many lives has he destroyed? millions.
@197 gepay, ‘there were all these white helmet reports about the good things they were doing … Were they there in Aleppo? How did they get out if they were?’
according to vanessa beeley – @9 ojs – they left for Idlib with al Nusra. spewing lies continuously all along the way.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 7 2017 12:11 utc | 108

Egypt (and Russia) are very active is solving the Libyan big problem. Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia depends on it, and they are supported in this effort by the totality of African sub-Saharan countries (no matter how crooked they are, it became something like a high priority which short-sighted technocrats doubled with ambitious greedy narcissists are strictly unable to tackle)
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/254451/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-taking-all-routes-to-end-Libyan-crisis-Forei.aspx
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/254372/World/Region/East-Libya-strongman-says-no-talks-planned-with-ri.aspx
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/254344/World/Region/Libya-deputy-PM-quits,-saying-he-has-failed.aspx

Posted by: Mina | Jan 7 2017 12:36 utc | 110

@105 jfl
Yes, I think it us indeed a better than decent sign Russia potentially getting involved (though, they won’t have to do too much to better western involvement.) Russia’s effort’s in Syria winning hearts and minds.
It’ll be interesting the next time Saif Kaddafi’s name pops up somewhere. He was in custody of the Zintan tribe, but released last July…the son of Muammer could prove to be a crucial figurehead at a political level.
Despite the speculative sounding headline and the hit-n-miss nature of this website, this article just over a week ago shed some light on movement at ground level in Libya.
Don’t Look Now, But Gaddafi’s Political Movement Could Be Making a Comeback in Libya
Excerpt final paragraph: “But Tahar Dehech, a close ally of Qaddafi, suggests that the Green Movement has built up its bases and will rise on its own. When asked about an alliance with Haftar, Dehech was clear, ‘Haftar participated in the destruction of Libya in 2011. He is an American. He has his own agenda. The Green soldiers who joined him may have thought of saving Libya by his side, but that will not be the case.’”

Posted by: MadMax2 | Jan 7 2017 14:42 utc | 112

Not only there should always be an open thread, but even an “open thread free of US news”, imo
full version of the 2 brothers meeting in Damascus countryside, one fighting with FSA and the other with the regular army
https://twitter.com/miladvisor/status/817077672681631744

Posted by: Mina | Jan 7 2017 20:45 utc | 114

@105 jfl.. yes, as you add it up – does look promising…
@112 madmax.. thanks for the additional insights.
@113 curtis.. it really depends on who gets to write history and that is too early to tell.. hillary and obama bear great responsibility on the dynamic in libya and syria, no matter how the msm wants to paint it today – all as i see it here.

Posted by: james | Jan 8 2017 2:43 utc | 116

@113 curtis, @116 james
i think that, regardless the tnc msm’s take – or is it put? – at this point in time, libya will hang as yet-another albatross ’round the necks of the war criminal nobel peace prize laureate obama and his neo-con criminal secretary of state hell-ary rod-him clinton : veni vidi morit.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 3:10 utc | 118

@119 peter au
no, i agree. i think that it is good that russia will work with anyone. if anyone can wean hafter from his cia ways it is probably vladimir putin. old cia agents never die, they just step into the closet, or defect.
on Fathi Al-Mijabri … Move on oil crescent, The Libyan deputy Prime Minister Fathi Al-Majbiri visits EUNAVFOR MED Operational Headquarters. i know nothing about either of those sites.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 3:46 utc | 120

LOL has anyone else spotted this?
The subs at the graun must’ve been down the pub so this article entitled Israeli diplomat caught on camera plotting to ‘take down’ UK MPs isn’t loaded down with equivocation & half – assed excuses for Israel’s typically despicacle/deplorable behaviour – yet
Here is a small sample:

“An Israeli embassy official has been caught on camera in an undercover sting plotting to “take down” MPs regarded as hostile, including foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan, an outspoken supporter of a Palestinian state.
In an extraordinary breach of diplomatic protocol, Shai Masot, who describes himself as an officer in the Israel Defence Forces and is serving as a senior political officer at the London embassy, was recorded by an ­undercover reporter from al-Jazeera’s investigative unit speaking about a number of British MPs. . . .(snip). . .In the footage, Masot agreed that Strizzolo had assisted Halfon and then asked whether she could also achieve the opposite effect. “Can I give you some MPs that I would suggest you would take down?” he asked. He went on to say that she knew which MPs he was referring to.
She asked him to remind her. “The deputy foreign minister,” he said. Strizzolo said: “You still want to go for it?” Masot’s reply is ambiguous but he said Duncan was still causing problems. Strizzolo asked: “I thought we had, you know, neutralised him just a little bit, no?” Masot answered: “No.”
Masot did not elaborate on what he meant by “take down”, but it is normally used as meaning to engineer a downfall, possibly through discrediting them in some way.
The conversation then turned to the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. Strizzolo said he was solid on Israel. Masot agreed, adding that Johnson just did not care. “You know he is an idiot …” Masot said.
Strizzolo returned to the subject of Duncan later in the conversation, suggesting he had had a run-in with Halfon in the past and that Halfon had reported Duncan to the whips. So never say never, she added. Masot replied: “Never say never, yeah, but …” Strizzolo said: “A little scandal, maybe.”
Other prominent Conservatives named during the conversation include Crispin Blunt, chair of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, who is also a vocal supporter of the Palestinians.
Blunt said: “Whilst this apparent activity of a diplomat of a foreign state in the politics of the United Kingdom is formally outrageous and deserving of investigation, the real questions should be for the state of Israel itself. Israel’s future peace and security is not being served by ignoring the substantial peace lobby in both Israel and the world wide Jewish community and working to undermine those foreign politicians who share that perspective”
In another conversation, Masot agreed that Blunt was among MPs that were “strongly pro-Arab rather than pro-Israel”. Strizzolo referred to him being on a “hitlist”.
UK ministers are understood to regard such plot talks as a matter of serious concern, crossing the line beyond normal diplomatic activity. Duncan declined to comment.

Of course the usual will happen the alleged ‘bad apple’ at the apartheid embassy will cop the flick and all sorts of lame ‘excuses’ are being composed as I write this eg Strizzolo a ministerial aide who boasts of working as an agent of a foreign power, will at the worst, be publicly humiliated but keep her job since she is obviously an important bagwoman who secures ‘donations’ from zionists. That means that the creepy israel lovers in the Labour Party such as Hilary Benn will help her stay.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 8 2017 5:33 utc | 122

Followup to 122 & 123
Damn, the related, youtube link i bookmarked without downloading, has been scrubbed/substituted … don’t know how long the graun will keep thier short clip up … the Isareli’s re/acted faaast.

Astonishing undercover video captures diplomat conspiring with rival MP’s aide Jan 7, 2017 (youtube) 1Min11Sec
Further footage shows the Israeli diplomat, intelligence expert(operative ?) Shai Masot, telling senior Labour MP Joan Ryan that he has obtained ‘more than £1 million’ to pay for sympathetic Labour MPs to visit Israel. Mr Masot also mocks ‘crazy’ Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his ‘weirdo’ supporters.

(it’s been replaced by worthless still shots, they even pixelized Shai Masot’s face, hah! … that act/action is solid-gold confirmation he is an undercover Israeli Intelligence operative, under Official Cover(OC), for any uninitiated.
Here’s a longer clip from uploaded from Aljazeera, 3Min38Sec, compared to the ‘edited’ Graun clip of 1Min10Sec:

Astonishing undercover video captures Israel plot to ‘take down’ Tory minister (Youtube)

, if you do follow the link, be sure to click on ‘show more’ … additional details in text post. Shows Israeli intelligence operative Shai Mosat’s Face, voice, mannerisms, CLEARLY 😉
Raw footage is always more insightful/damning than some hacks written article … can’t be so easily edited, slanted, omitted, etc
Ah well, Al-Jazeera apparently has sourced enough footage over months undercover to run a four hour documentary come 15th Jan … if it airs 😉

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 7:25 utc | 124

Followup to 124 & 125
Here’s the accompanying text (raw, unedited) from the second 3Min youtube clip, just in case it get’s scrubbed too. There’s much, much more to this 3min clip alone and the related events than the graun article, with it’s wilfull, knowing omissions. Priceless

Published on Jan 7, 2017
Israel plot to ‘take down’ Tory minister: Astonishing undercover video captures diplomat conspiring with rival MP’s aide to smear Deputy Foreign Secretary
Israeli Embassy made vow to ‘take down’ Foreign Office deputy Sir Alan Duncan
Bombshell footage covertly filmed in restaurant, obtained by Mail on Sunday
Senior diplomat is egged on by a senior aide to another Conservative Minister
The Israeli Embassy made a shocking vow to ‘take down’ Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office deputy, a secret film reveals today.
The bombshell footage, covertly filmed in a London restaurant and obtained by The Mail on Sunday, shows a senior diplomat making the astonishing threat to target Sir Alan Duncan.
Extraordinarily, he is egged on by a senior aide to another Conservative Minister, Robert Halfon.
The video comes in a film claiming to expose the way that the Israeli government has ‘infiltrated’ both the Conservative and Labour parties via its embassy in the UK, using secret cash and covert support.
Further footage shows the Israeli diplomat, intelligence expert Shai Masot, telling senior Labour MP Joan Ryan that he has obtained ‘more than £1 million’ to pay for sympathetic Labour MPs to visit Israel.
Mr Masot also mocks ‘crazy’Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his ‘weirdo’ supporters. Footage shows pro-Israel Labour activists discussing the Jerusalem government’s secret role in backing their activities.
Last night it emerged that Israeli ambassador Mark Regev had made a full apology to Sir Alan for Mr Masot’s ‘completely unacceptable’ comments.
And a spokesman for Boris Johnson said: ‘The Israeli ambassador has apologised and made it clear to us that these comments do not represent the views of the Israeli Embassy or government.’
The revelations follow Tory infighting over the party’s policy on the Israel-Palestine dispute, and repeated claims of anti-Semitism among Labour’s Leftwing ‘Corbynistas’.
Al Jazeera Investigations film Shai Masot while undercover
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Senior Tory MPs have condemned the apparent threat to ‘take down’ Sir Alan – who has been critical of Israel and who is described in the secret footage as causing ‘problems’ – and called for a Downing Street inquiry.
Former Tory Minister Sir Desmond Swayne condemned Mr Masot’s ‘disgraceful’ comments, adding: ‘To talk of “taking down” a British Minister is very sinister.
‘There is anger in the US at Russia’s meddling in its democratic process and no such foreign meddling should be allowed in the UK.’
He was backed by Crispin Blunt, Conservative chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who is also targeted by Masot in the film. He called the alleged comments about Sir Alan ‘outrageous’.
The disclosures are in a film made by the investigative unit of the Qataribased Al Jazeera TV company, which claims to show how the Israeli Government has ‘infiltrated’ the Conservative and Labour parties.
But Lord Stuart Polak, senior director, of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), said last night: ‘It is utter nonsense to assert that any UK political party is taken over by any organisation.
‘The Friends of Israel groups do their job of educating their members about the complicated issues in the Middle East. The Israeli Embassy represents Israel in a professional manner.
‘To suggest they are involved in anything sinister is poppycock.’
One pundit claimed that Britain’s recent support for a UN Security Council vote condemning Jewish settlements on the West Bank undermined the claim that the pro-Israeli lobby dictates UK foreign policy.
However, days after the vote, Theresa May angered Palestinian supporters by attacking US Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim that the current Israeli Government is the ‘most Right-wing in its history’.
An undercover reporter and hidden cameras tracked Mr Masot across Britain as he held secret talks with figures from CFI and its Labour counterpart (LFI).
His apparent threat to ‘take down’ Sir Alan was made a month later at the Aubaine restaurant, directly opposite the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, West London, where Masot is based.
Also present was Maria Strizzolo, senior aide to Education Minister Robert Halfon, former political director of CFI.
After Ms Strizzolo boasts about her role in making Halfon a successful Minister, Mr Masot asks her: ‘That’s obvious, but can you do the opposite stuff as well?
Can I give you some names of MPs that I would suggest you take down?’

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 8:14 utc | 126

Followup to 126
Here’s the most detailed report I’ve found so far, from of all possible media sources, remarkably, the UK tabloid Daily Mail (most famous for fascination with Tits&Ass), running it up from the original Al-Jazeera footage and initial reporting. There’s also an edited transcript of a version of the 3Min clip from above. This article adds many more details and context, plus a lot of desperate political ass-covering and apologia re blatant caught-red-handed espionage and criminal conduct:

Israel plot to ‘take down’ Tory minister: Astonishing undercover video captures diplomat conspiring with rival MP’s aide to smear Deputy Foreign Secretary
Israeli Embassy made vow to ‘take down’ Foreign Office deputy Sir Alan Duncan
Bombshell footage covertly filmed in restaurant, obtained by Mail on Sunday
Senior diplomat is egged on by a senior aide to another Conservative Minister
…
CAUGHT ON FILM AT DINNER
Mario Strizzolo is an aide to Robert Halfon, ex-political director of Conservative Friends of Israel
The target and his ‘idiot’ boss: The Israeli diplomat targeted pro-Palestinian Deputy Foreign Secretary Sir Alan Duncan, not ‘idiot’ Boris Johnson
The Israeli agent provocateur: The diplomat Shai Masot, pictured at the Labour conference with Israeli ambassador Mark Regev, says he ‘takes care of political issues’
The fixer with a score to settle: Mario Strizzolo is an aide to Robert Halfon, ex-political director of Conservative Friends of Israel, who had a bust-up with Alan Duncan
…
‘LOOK HARD ENOUGH AND I’M SURE THERE IS SOMETHING THEY’RE TRYING TO HIDE’
Edited transcript of meeting between Shai Masot (M), senior political officer, Israeli Embassy, London, Maria Strizzolo (S), leading pro-Israel Tory activist and an aide to Conservative Minister Robert Halfon, and an undercover reporter (R).
M: Can I give you names of MPs I suggest you take down?
S: If you look hard enough I’m sure there’s something they’re trying to hide.
M: Yeah. I have some MPs.
S: Let’s talk about it.
R: Yeah.
M: She knows which MPs I want to take down.
S: Yeah, it’s good to remind me.
M: The Deputy Foreign Minister [Duncan].
S: You still want to go for it?
M: …He’s doing a lot of problems.
S: Really?
M: Really. It sounds like a conspiracy.
S: I thought you had neutralised it a little bit?
M: No. Boris. He’s basically good.
S: He’s solid on Israel.
M: Yeah. He just doesn’t care. He is an idiot but has become Minister of Foreign Affairs without any responsibilities. If something real happened it won’t be his fault… it will be Alan Duncan.
Duncan is impossible to rebuff… he has a lot of friends.
S: Years ago, Rob [Halfon] was asking questions in Parliament about terrorist salaries…
M: When he [Duncan] was a DFID minister?
S: Yeah. He [Duncan] told him [Halfon]: if you don’t stop this I’m going to destroy you and all of that s***. Rob told the Whips and they told him to calm down. So never say never.
M: Never say never, yeah but…
S: A little scandal maybe? Don’t tell anyone about this meeting.
M: Who would we tell? Masot and Strizzolo on ‘horrible anti-Israel’ Tory MPs.
M: Crispin Blunt [chairman of Commons Foreign Affairs committee]. Those are people you…
S: …On the hit list? Yeah!
M. I don’t have any problems with them.
S: Some super pro-Arabist [Tory MPs]… I can’t stand [them], They’re horrible people – the two go together.
M: Yeah…

Further:
Not surprisingly, Maria Strizzolo, has deleted her twitter account 😉
Viewing a saved cached copy (too late though). She obviously took her role as an active intelligence agent of a foriegn power while concurrently working as a UK civil Servant (Therefore with at least a minimum SECRET/Top Secret (non-CSI) level security Clearance) given her role/s. How charming. Bet she regrets those ‘Meets’ now.

Maria Strizzolo
Italian geek,adopted UK as my home,driven by curiosity,Conservative. Love politics,cheese&chocolate,Italia&UK,my job,Tolkien.
London, United Kingdom
Joined September 2012
Maria Strizzolo Retweeted
BICOM ?@BritainIsrael 14 Oct 2015
Today’s comment @Telegraph Jews are being killed simply for being Jews by Acting Ambassador Eitan Na’eh @IsraelinUKhttp://www.bicom.org.uk/comment-and-opinion/27179/ …

The above reference has now also been scrubbed …
That’s all that’s left that’s relevant (of retweets), ’cause she has obviously deleted all retweets blanket since 05 May 2016 …
Of her own 1,023 tweets … all deleted, or blocked by twitter(by request ?), how convenient …

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 9:06 utc | 128

Followup to 129:
There must be further footage available that I haven’t been able to source yet, it is referenced in this article by Middle East Eye. Note this story now has its own hashtag. What’s unreported elsewhere so far:

REVEALED: Secret tapes expose Israeli influence over UK Conservative Party
#IsraelEmbassyTapes
Israeli embassy-linked political operators discuss ‘taking down’ foreign minister Alan Duncan and boast of planting parliamentary questions
…
The undercover recording, which exposes how Israeli influence extends to senior levels of the governing Conservative Party, also includes a conversation in which an assistant to another Conservative minister described how she used her position to plant parliamentary questions supportive of Israel.
Shai Masot, Political Officer for the Israeli Embassy (Al Jazeera)
The conversation was filmed by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit at a restaurant in London last year and features Shai Masot, the embassy’s political officer, and Maria Strizzolo, a former parliamentary assistant to Robert Halfon, a junior education minister and former Conservative Party deputy chairman. She also mentions meeting Masot’s bosses at the Ministry of Strategic Affairs several times in Israel.
Speaking to an undercover reporter posing as a pro-Israel political activist, Strizzolo boasted of how she had taken on Halfon, the MP for Harlow in Essex, when he was a backbencher: “And now look at him, he’s a minister, so I’m not too crap!”
…
Machiavellian-inspired operator
Masot, who in an online profile deactivated on Saturday described Niccolo Machiavelli as his “God”, then asked her whether she could do the opposite: “Can I give you some MPs that you can take down?”
…
In response to the revelations, Crispin Blunt told MEE that the “Israelis need to explain what’s going on”.
“While this apparent activity of a representative of a foreign state in the politics of the United Kingdom is formally outrageous and deserving of investigation, the real questions should be for the state of Israel itself,” he said.
“Israel’s future peace and security is not being served by ignoring the substantial peace lobby in both Israel and the worldwide Jewish community and working to undermine those foreign politicians who share that perspective.”
Duncan became a target for Israel in 2014 when he produced a blistering attack on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which he said amounted to a wicked cocktail of occupation and illegality, a system akin to apartheid which brought shame on the Israeli government.
The speech was one of the strongest attacks on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government by a British front-bench politician.
Duncan said: “Settlements are illegal colonies built in someone else’s country. They are an act of theft, and what is more something which is both initiated and supported by the state of Israel.”
BDS is not the only tactic against Israeli occupation, but it is working
The exchange about Duncan is among hours of conversations recorded over a period of months, which reveal how Masot sought to manipulate the political debate over Israel and Palestine within both the Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party.
The Al Jazeera reporter gained Masot’s trust and infiltrated his circle so effectively that he was offered a job by the embassy to help combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Britain.

Much more detail in the above article, recommended read.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 10:10 utc | 130

@ Debsisdead 131 & followup to 130
Yes. That’s pretty much my take too. The Israeli press is blanket reporting nothing other then identical stories saying the Guardian has reported …, so their Censor has obviously issued a directive. The Graun article IMHO wasn’t accidental, it was puporsely drafted to contain & limit the damage, without context, and major omissions, in order to then become the primary source/reference for the rest for the MSM to refer to in order to bury the story (in the current news cycle), especially the edited the clip … that won’t work leading up to and subsequent to Jan 15th when Al-Jazeera’s four hour documentary begins release, including online..
If as the UK Foreign Office has publicly declared on behalf the government, the matter is closed … Outrageous.
Here’s the link to the Al-Jazeera report which is actually very brief, little detail, just for completeness sake … as of this post, can’t find anything else to add.

Israel’s parliamentary plot against UK politicians
Al Jazeera reveals discussions of Israel diplomat and British civil servant to ‘take down’ anti-settlement politicians.

There’s also a different again, brief 2Min41Sec video clip with some minor additional context.
Oh!, something else just occurred to me, isn’t the fifteenth the date for the European hosted International conference on the Israeli-Palestinian Issue that Israel is publicly boycotting … given the UNSC resolution passing recently on Israeli Settlement illegality …
Israel Fears American, French Initiative in Paris Conference Before Obama Leaves Office

Jerusalem concerned that foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris (70 nations), scheduled for January 15, will result in a Security Council vote on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Israel fears that the United States and France want to advance another move on the Israeli-Palestinian issue before the Obama administration wraps up its term.
A senior official in Jerusalem said that during Sunday’s security cabinet meeting, ministers were presented with an assessment that during the international foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled for January 15 in Paris as part of the French peace initiative, a series of decisions on the peace process will be made. These will immediately be brought to the UN Security Council for a vote and will be adopted there before January 20.

There is no such thing as multiple coincidences in these sorts of matters … our vassal in Qatar (owner of Al-Jazeera), may be working as part of a covert co-ordinated campaign … we live in interesting times indeed.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 10:56 utc | 132

@ Outraged It is increasingly difficult to discern the Qatar play I mean of course the emir is busy protecting his own interests, but it feels to me as though he’s begun to realise that his best interests do not always align with amerika KSA & therefore israel.
He is attempting an extremely complex hi- wire act – in particular over Yemen where AJ reports tend to be far more nuanced than they were 12 months ago, this is also beginning to show in some of the Syria coverage.
Of course it all started off when the MB got shafted in Egypt but now it seems as though Qataris have begun to consider that amerika and it’s number 1 arab ally KSA might not be the ones holding the brass ring when the music stops.
My guess is that this stuff has been leaked early so as to provide leverage to Qatar going into some deal or another. It could be over the Palestine talks but it could just as easily be something really banal such as the divvying up of who has to cut which oil supply to whom, where.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 8 2017 11:12 utc | 134

@ Debsisdead | Jan 8, 2017 6:12:48 AM | 134
Qatar is directly attacking the Israel government as much as it is the UK government with this campaign. So who is the Emir attempting to appease or earn favor with … sea previous post.
Definitely agree with your comments re the change in AJ coverage over last twelve months … Qatar would never be permitted to go rogue against the Empire given the crucial military facilities there … it would result in a very prompt coup d’état, IMHO.
Speculative: My hunch is the House of Al-Saud and therefore KSA is going down in the near future … and ultimately the KSA is one of Israel’s strongest covert enablers … Qatar may have been brought in early to assist with events in return for scraps off the table re KSA overthrow … have been observing a foundation campaign building in intensity re KSA & Al-Saud for over 18 months now … NYT has been leading it re the media … how unusual for Pravda(Truth!). A recent article pushed it to the front of my thoughts/concerns Comment: quite likely may well be just my own confirmation bias kicking in along with some wishful thinkin’ 🙂
have made some posts about it over the last four days …

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 12:07 utc | 136

@135 or, ‘Speculative: The Israeli Zionists may be in for a shellacking come the 15th … a new legally binding UNSC resolution, that may specifically enable UNSC sanctions to follow … only a week away … 😉 The new POTUS cannot overturn previous UNSC resolutions …’
pleasant dreams! how sweet that would be!
if your line of reasoning holds any water … these ‘israeli tapes’ should give the uk the cover it needs not to cast a veto.
unless they really want to. and they might well want to. same goes for the us and france. russia is always ready to deal with israel, opaque – to me – relations with a lot of russians there … and china just inked a deal, or is it yet to be inked in february? – for an infusion of 6000 coolies to israel to help them build many more settlements in palestine, in the west bank and jerusalem.
but i’m always ready to be surprised and gratified by sudden, humanitarian moves by us inhumans here on planet earth.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 12:14 utc | 138

from the uk mail link in the middleeasteye link posted by outraged and referred to by mina … Israel plot to ‘take down’ Tory minister: Astonishing undercover video captures diplomat conspiring with rival MP’s aide to smear Deputy Foreign Secretary

Lots of countries try to force their views on others, but what is scandalous in the UK is that instead of resisting it, successive Governments have submitted to it, taken donors’ money, and allowed Israeli influence-peddling to shape policy and even determine the fate of Ministers.
Even now, if I were to reveal who I am, I would be subjected to a relentless barrage of abuse and character assassination.
The CFI is not affiliated to the Conservative Party. It is incorporated in a way that means it is not to transparent about donors. Yet it arranges for the support of MPs and funds regular visits to Israel which distort the truth. Cameron turned a blind eye to Israeli misconduct – if he ever cared about it – because he was persuaded any criticism would reduce Party donations.
It now seems clear people in the Conservative and Labour Parties have been working with the Israeli embassy which has used them to demonise and trash MPs who criticise Israel; an army of Israel’s useful idiots in Parliament.

exactly what happens in the us … and france and germany and italy …. the difference is that the us bankrolls the israeli bagmen to the tune – now, since the nobel peace prize laureate’s raise – of 3.8 billion us/year.

This is politically corrupt, and diplomatically indefensible. The conduct of certain MPs needs to be exposed as the poisonous and deceitful infiltration of our politics by the unwitting agents of another country, which acts in defiance of international law, and whose government Kerry called its most extreme ever.
We need a full inquiry into the Israeli Embassy, the links, access and funding of the CFI and LFI, and an undertaking from all political parties that they welcome the financial and political support of the UK Jewish community, but won’t accept any engagement linked to Israel until it stops building illegally on Palestinian land.
This opaque funding and underhand conduct is a national disgrace and humiliation and must be stamped out.

it would be wonderful if this made that possible, and if it spread across the atlantic to ac/dc and caught fire there, as well.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 12:38 utc | 140

In France BDS has been made illegal by law by former PM Valls, a guy who boast he is a humanist (openly freemason). The UK scandal is made to put pressure on France before the 15th Jan. conference, where you can be sure Fr and Uk were going to be very mild on Israel (speeches and nothing else). Can’t imagine any major newspapers or TV will report the scandal in detail.

Posted by: Mina | Jan 8 2017 12:55 utc | 142

@ 135 Outraged
‘why the campaign against UK ? Why now ?’
IMHO your assumption that this is a one-off (why now?) is a misinterpretation of this expose. While the logic of your speculation in the rest of the post is quite compelling it assumes the US would allow a new legally binding UNSC resolution. This is simply not the case.
from:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-obama-will-veto-any-other-un-resolution-critical-of-israel/
President Barack Obama will not allow any further United Nations measures critical of Israel to pass during the remainder of his term, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes promised on Wednesday.
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if secretary of state John Kerry had indicated in his speech earlier Wednesday that the US would veto any other potential UN resolution that may come forward during the rest of Obama’s presidency, Rhodes said “yes.”
As to the question of ‘ ‘why the campaign against UK ? Why now ?’ – the dialogue between Masot and Strizzolo indicates this is more of a wide-ranging ongoing operation not directly related to specific events. Is it not more feasible to see this in the context of a ‘modus operandi’. After all, has it not become political suicide to be critical of Israeli actions? Remember the smear campaigns against Corbyn, the repeated accusations of anti-Semitism? Or the destruction of any number of American politicians (including presidents) who dared to cross swords with Israel and its lobbyists.
This is, after all, how they roll.

Posted by: pantaraxia | Jan 8 2017 13:59 utc | 144

@ Posted by: pantaraxia | Jan 8, 2017 8:59:42 AM | 144

After all, has it not become political suicide to be critical of Israeli actions? Remember the smear campaigns against Corbyn, the repeated accusations of anti-Semitism? Or the destruction of any number of American politicians (including presidents) who dared to cross swords with Israel and its lobbyists.
This is, after all, how they roll.

No disagreements here re above … yet multiple events & coincidences trouble me greatly … Why has Israel been unable to get the 70 Nation conference in France for the 15th killed then, if France and the US are her utterly beholden puppets ? Or other nations not to attend ? Why did US abstain, justify the abstention, and Kerry give a followup speech considered extremely undiplomatic re the recent UNSC resolution ? troubling, it is…

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 14:11 utc | 146

First meaningful US report from Juan Cole (some have come to suspect is a Neocon or CIA asset/apologist ?):

Though U.S. Media’s Outraged by Russia, It Won’t Even Notice the Israeli Plot on U.K. Parliament – Truthdig
Posted on Jan 8, 2017, By Juan Cole / Informed Comment
Washington is obsessed by the story put out by US intelligence agencies that Russia tried to interfere in the US presidential election. But for reasons of self-preservation, the blockbuster story just hitting the headlines that an Israeli operative was plotting to get up scandals to unseat British members of parliament will sink like a stone. This, even though part of the concern voiced by official Washington is that Putin may target the elections of European democracies allied to the US to push them in a right wing direction. That’s exactly what the right wing Likud government of Israel has been caught planning to do to Britain.
…
I’ve always wondered why American politicians are mostly so timid and intimidated by the Israel lobbies. The US Congress is so out of line with regard to the opinions of the rest of the world about the illegal Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank that it is like something out of a science fiction movie. (Of course, our Congress did also vote resolutions in support of Afrikaner colonial racism in South Africa, which was also bizarre).
It isn’t a matter of the American Jewish community, which is more liberal than Americans as a whole and mostly quite powerless. The Israel lobbies often operate in opposition to the polled opinions of Jewish Americans, and often has no more relationship to ordinary Jews than the ExxonMobil lobby has to Americans who drive gasoline-fueled cars. Lobbies are about power for a minority within a minority.
The usual answer is that the Israel lobbies are well-heeled and give a lot of money to political campaigns (as much as 30% nationally), and few politicians want to risk the possibility that they might throw their funding to the other candidate. The Israel lobbies sometimes lose (they lost the fight on the Iran deal, at least the first round) and don’t by any means control things.
But Israeli intelligence operations against politicians are also a threat, and evidence for how exactly such efforts are pursued has just emerged. It is highly unlikely that the Israeli embassy in Britain was behaving in an unusual way, and I think we may conclude that such conversations are common in the capitals of important democratic countries, including the United States.
But this interference, unlike that of Russia, will provoke no national outrage or even be covered in any serious way by US television news. This silence will not be because the subject is unimportant.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 14:34 utc | 148

@ pantaraxia | Jan 8, 2017 8:59:42 AM | 144

While the logic of your speculation in the rest of the post is quite compelling it assumes the US would allow a new legally binding UNSC resolution. This is simply not the case.

Respectfully, after reviewing your link and footage, it does not appear to me to definitively actually support the above emphatic statements nor those in the Times of Israel article itself. The Deputy Secretary of National Security(DSoNS), is Not the POTUS, nor the Secretary of State, or their deputies, nor the Secretary of National Security … In what IMHO, consider a partisan gotcha interview, the majority of it was the DSoNS strongly and passionately decrying the unsustainable situation of the longstanding and current Israeli Government position … most emphatically … would draw no succor or boundless confidence as you assert from this interview re possible(?)future US government intentions/conduct.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 15:39 utc | 150

seems like the guy Maria worked for is a real sweetheart too.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 8 2017 16:12 utc | 152

141 outraged, ‘Have great difficulty in believing the recent USNC vote was a once off novelty … it did not happen by accident … and just as this long-term covert OP by Qatar/al-Jazeera was never seen comin’ by the Israeli Government, nor was the recent UNSC resolution, which they new nothing of until the very last moment (24hours preceding) … doubt any concern for humanity has anything at all to do with the given the players involved motives …’
144 pants, ‘IMHO your assumption that this is a one-off (why now?) is a misinterpretation of this expose. While the logic of your speculation in the rest of the post is quite compelling it assumes the US would allow a new legally binding UNSC resolution. This is simply not the case.’
148 outraged, ‘First meaningful US report from Juan Cole (some have come to suspect is a Neocon or CIA asset/apologist ?):’
yeah. what’s going on here. can it be that qatar doesn’t buy british mps, and so is not liable to the same sort of attack? what about the ksa? the uae? this was/is a preemptive strike?
obama acted on his own in stilling the veto on unsc 2334? ‘cuz he always wanted to ‘do the right thing’, and could afford to make a too little/too late gesture as he left the white house by the back door with his suitcases full of swag?
kerry’s too little/too late little speech was, similarly, doing ‘the right thing’ in the face of the zionist tide as he slipped beneath the waves?
what’s really going on here? the saudi’s are still immune to unsc resolutions on yemen, and the whole gcc gang+turkey are still immune from unsc resolutions on the support of terrorists that have destroyed libya and syria, aren’t they?
has it come down to the cash? the us government does in fact support its own subornation, and the nobel peace prize laureate still came through where it really counts: keeping the zionist bagmen’s three bags full. especially the one for the little boys who live down k street/j street lane.
the us/eu have been caught pants down of late supporting the terrorism they are supposedly against, and their gcc+turkey droogies are in bad odor with the public in the us/eu. is this an effort to effect a sea change in the ME … it’s us or them, and we have the cash? while ‘they’ are a bottomless sink of funds, with no payback but more, and endless, trouble and strife.
the thing this episode points up is that the israelis are down to the stick, blackmail and character assassination, while the gcc still has some carrots.
the cia is, ultimately, a tool of wall street. maybe their green eyeshades have finally posted a real accounting?
if so, will it spread to the nsa, who likewise have nothing but stick to keep everyone in line? does this have an intramural character as well, cia vs nsa vs pentagon, all in competition for the cash?
lots of questions. no answers.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 21:15 utc | 154

JFL another piece of the jigsaw is Qatar buying into RU Gov owned Rosneftegaz a month or so back.
Rosneftegaz announced it had wrapped up formal procedures to sell a 19.5-percent stake in Rosneft to Swiss trader Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
https://sputniknews.com/business/201701041049263912-rosneft-stake-sale/

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 8 2017 21:33 utc | 156

https://twitter.com/em_bernadin/status/818208485565460480
Turkish PM is asked: when will Turkey leave Iraq?
No answer.

Posted by: David | Jan 8 2017 23:19 utc | 158

149
The Trump Congress of 1000 Years prepares for their moment in history to strut upon the stage, full of sound and fury and lobbyist war bucks.

Posted by: chipnik | Jan 9 2017 0:43 utc | 160

isis blows up the hayyat gas factory in east homs putting millions out of a source of heat, including those dealing with the water problem in damascus and etc… gotta love kerry admitting that he had hoped they could use isis as leverage against assad to remove him.. thanks kerry for showing the world what a messed up country you come from..

Posted by: james | Jan 9 2017 1:06 utc | 162

james 163
Magnier is the best for the various factions in that part of the world and I check his twitter account as part of my daily reading, but I have noticed he is not well up on current Russia (Putins Russia). The only thing I see missing in that article is the reason Russia waited so long in moving back into the middle east.
Russia had to wait until it was militarily capable of facing down the US which it did a month or so back.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 9 2017 3:33 utc | 164

mike [bomb nk] finney,
james [bomb iran] mattis,
pete [death to china] navarro,
donald [death to china] trump,
i heard trump is a retard on international affair , but looks like he already had all the ‘potential hotspots’ covered in selecting his cabinet. !
the more cynical ones would wonder if those ‘potential hotspots’ are exactly where the tptb intend to stoke up fire , that ‘dream team ‘ was assemled and passed on to trump who then went thru the charade of ‘selection’, much like what they did with that ‘election’ farce every four yrs. !
everything about murkka is a farce, the ‘election’, their ‘democracy’, their vaunted ‘rule of law’, its fake ‘free press’, the fake left.
hhhhhh

Posted by: denk | Jan 9 2017 3:40 utc | 166

Followup re #IsraelEmbassyTapes:
Well Murdoch’s (The Morlock) UK press has published their sole account in the UK Sun, and it is the briefest of twisted, opaque, unintelligible TRIPE. Oh, and they managed to avoid any of the priceless Video footage/clips, how quaint. Sterling effort:
Government adviser quits after plotting against foreign minister with Israeli diplomat
Actually, it would be a valuable example re a comparative study of Media manipulation. Same for the sole US MSM article by NYT (Pravda(Truth!)) which also was similarly constructed, and now as I recall also pointedly avoided supplying any footage whatsoever. But, of course, they ‘covered the event‘, barf!
Omissions, rule!

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 9 2017 3:58 utc | 168

James 167
Don’t have to be on twitter. I just bookmark those I want to check on each day.
Link to Magnier’s twitter account
https://twitter.com/EjmAlrai

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 9 2017 4:20 utc | 170

161
Most in that part of the world are now hedging their bets. All roads lead to ro.. er the Kremlin.
The house of Saud is the upholder of wahabbi. They are going down.
Post world war two Saudi was the biggest supplier of oil and the US was the biggest importer.
Now China is the largest importer of oil. US seem to have strategic supplies if not economical oil supplies in fracking, and also a huge amount of oil in oilfields recently mapped around the world.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 9 2017 4:35 utc | 172

[Vanity Press, Hollywood] – Emerald City Director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s publicist affirmed today that Hillary Rodham is in talks for a cameo appearance in ECs second season, with pilot shooting already underway, cast as Queen Mother to Glynda, the White Witch character, so that ‘Glyndas innermost thoughts can be heard through Rodham’s Queen Mother voice-over narration’, the publicist explained, kinda all Shawshank’y.
When asked to comment, Rodham’s press staff said she is “overjoyed at the prospect.
When asked why he chose Rodham for Queen Mum, when there are so many aging sharlots in Hollywood, Dwandar joked, ‘Well, she’s had a lot of practice, …and she’s cheap!’ then he could be heard humming softly Klaus Nomi’s rendition, as the phone line went dead.
11 more days! Can you feel it!! It’s a’ comin’!!

Posted by: chipnik | Jan 9 2017 4:55 utc | 174

chipnik 175
Not yet. Hillary is just one of the baddies that drops off as the plot progresses.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 9 2017 5:14 utc | 176

Outraged 173
Not so much a product of down under. Born in UK, Brit parents. Would’ve been called a pommy in my early school days.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 9 2017 5:19 utc | 178

Here is an update on Syria from China News (total article)
DAMASCUS, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the next stage of the Syria war after the liberation of Aleppo city won’t be easy given the Western continuing support to terrorist groups, state news agency SANA reported.
“The Western powers as well as their tools and agents in the region are carrying on with supporting the terrorist organizations,” Assad said.
He also said recapturing the entire Aleppo city from rebel groups represents an “important station toward the victory in the war imposed in Syria.”
Assad’s remarks came during his meeting with the visiting Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani.
“Syria, with the help from its friends, mainly Iran and Russia, is moving forward in doing whatever it takes to provide the suitable ground to find a solution, through which the Syrians could determine the future of their country without foreign intervention,” he told Shamkhani.
For his part, Shamkhani made it clear that his country will spare no effort to support Syria and frustrate any “terrorist scheme and its backers” since counter-terror is a “decisive issue not only for Syria but the entire regional countries.”
Iran, the main regional ally of the Syrian government, has recently strengthened its diplomatic engagements with Syria, as Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, visited Damascus last week, and Syrian foreign ministry officials visited Tehran in the same period.
The diplomatic shuttling apparently aims at coordinating stances between the two countries ahead of the Russian-Turkish planned Syria peace talks in Astana later this month.
During his latest visit to Syria, Boroujerdi said that Iran supports the upcoming Syria talks in Astana, which were expected to bring, for the first time, representatives from both the Syrian government and the rebels together, as previous failed talks in Geneva were only between the government and the exiled political opposition.
Experts say high expectations are held for the new talks as the United States will not be part of the supervising team, as the Assad government is still deeming the Western support to the rebels as what is behind the ongoing conflict.
On Sunday, Assad also met with a visiting French delegation including a number of French lawmakers and intellectuals.
During the meeting Assad said that France’s current policy is disconnected from the reality about the war in Syria.
He stressed that the policy has helped inflame the situation through support to “terrorist organizations,” which, he said, have become a threat, not only to Syria but the Western countries alike.
The French delegation said what they have learnt about Syria contains a great deal of distortions to the truth.
A day earlier, the French delegation arrived in Aleppo on an airplane, the first civilian plane to land at the Aleppo airport in four years.
The rebels in the countryside of Aleppo fired several rockets on the airport after the delegation deplaned, causing a delay in their flight to Damascus.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 9 2017 6:32 utc | 180

#IsraelEmbassyTapes:
Thank you for the link Anonymous | Jan 9, 2017 1:36:02 AM | 181
As usual, PCM eloquently, and in detail, nails the whole issue to the flagpole … key qoutes …

Why Has Israeli Spy Shai Masot Not Been Expelled?
In passing, allow me to destroy quickly the “we have smoking gun evidence but it’s too secret to show you” argument. Given the Snowden revelations and the whistleblowing of the former NSA Technical Director Bill Binney, for the US government to claim to be hiding the fact that it can tack all electronic traffic in the USA is risible. This is like saying we can’t give you the evidence in case the Russians find out the sky is blue. If there were hacks, the NSA could identify the precise hack transmitting the precise information out of Washington. Everybody knows that. There were no hacks so there is no evidence. End of argument. They are internal leaks.
…
A senior British diplomat cannot just hold a series of meetings with the opposition shadow Defence Secretary and a paid Israeli lobbyist.
All of this underlined the pernicious influence that Israel has in the political class, which is founded on the Israeli lobby’s shameless use of cash for influence – as witnessed in the discussion between Shai Masot and Labour Firends of Israel and his flaunting of a million. Attitudes towards the plight of the Palestinians are an extreme example of the disconnect between public opinion and the views of the political class, and Al Jazeera should be congratulated heartily on giving us a peek into that.
No further evidence is required. There could be no more conclusive evidence of Israel’s undue and pernicious influence than the astonishing fact that Shai Masot has not yet been expelled.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 9 2017 7:13 utc | 182

@ Peter AU 173 m143 # 183,
Lot weird misinformation about our rupe here. Keith Murdoch rupe’s dad was born in Melbourne his parents were just general shitkickers Dad & grandad were Presbyterian preachers, but Keith was a master of the tabloid beat up & he created the scandal over Gallipoli demanded Churchill’s resignation as first sea lord of the admiralty & got it thanks to using the other Murdoch trick of playing pols in this case brit PM Asquith and liberal leader David Lloyd George off against each other while keeping ‘home’ family axquaintance and Oz PM Andrew Fisher informed. Churchill had had him arrested by the pommie red caps when he arrived in england with the goods on the Galipoli fuck up.
After that he managed to trade his way around Australia in the fishwrap game until he owned the Adelaide Advertiser and built that up into a mega pile of bulldust called News Ltd.
Rupe’s mum Lizzie was no ‘four by two’ she was the virginal young daughter of a pseudo pommie Adelaide social climbing family who was 28 years younger than Keith – his trophy wife who is /was a heckava lot smarter than Keith. I ran into her back in the late 90’s and she was sharp as a tack then but surely she must be dead now.
As soon as she jagged Keith she got him to build her a huge country house & set herself up as lady muck. She was super hard on Rupert the only boy made him sleep in a donga out the back of the family mansion summer & winter to toughen him up. When you look at Rupert lizzie is who left the mark on him really screwed him up and she was as mean as a snake but as I said no fourbie. Maybe you’re thinking of Rupert’s sister Anne Kantor who married a fourbie.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 9 2017 13:10 utc | 184

@ Debsisdead | Jan 9, 2017 8:10:41 AM | 184
Thanks for the inside take 🙂
So no jewish lineage, then. He just does what he does, like a runaway locomotive, throughout his life, ’cause he’s, ‘damaged goods’ ?

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 9 2017 13:30 utc | 186

In France the sole news about the UK in Le Monde is that… there’s a tube strike in London. You can’t make this up, some here would say.
oh yes they mentioned it but it is buried somewhere in the international section (published 1 AM, actualized 8 AM, never made the front page)
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2017/01/09/un-officiel-de-l-ambassade-d-israel-a-londres-veut-faire-tomber-des-politiques_5059528_3210.html
and the comments are about the poor guy who was trapped although it was a ver normal private conversation.
Le Figaro has nothing (belongs to arm dealer Dassault, that might explain)
Neither is Le Parisien interested.
Same goes with anything BDS related in the UK, no trace in France. Bad influence.

Posted by: Mina | Jan 9 2017 13:44 utc | 188

| Oh! mice! An Open thread and a New Year!
It should be becoming obvious by now what is being witnessed is a battle to predominate between Casino Capital (Financial Capital) and its father, Rape and Pillage Capital (Industrial and Resource Monopoly Capital), a replay of the ancient Greek cosmology, Zeus replacing Cronus. The political factotums and their respective parties are in their endgames, no respite or quarter will be given, no negotiation will be entertained, no compromise will be offered. When great elephants fight, it is the (public) grass that gets trampled, just as it has always been, and despite the need of great elephants to be nourished by that grass. Of these things, the grass is none the wiser.
The political factotums of these interests are bankrupt of all thought but survival of their champion and wage a war with the puny weapons at their command – oratory, deception, deceit, and the arsenal of marketing and propaganda. It is not for nothing the first victim of war is veracity (and its twin integrity). The only shelter to withstand such turbulence is knowledge, firmly founded in fact. The flags flown by opinion will point towards whatever the direction the fashions of fickle belief are blowing at the time, now one direction, now another.
Be aware and guard with care memory, that memory one develops as one lives as well as those memories inherited from those forbearing one’s world. History is memory. History cannot be a complete memory of what has transpired but is comprised of a summation of those things. History is also a record of conclusions about what has been experienced. History’s conclusions are also interpretations that have been agreed upon. History endures scepticism and is furthered by that scepticism. History does not endure the corrosive effects of the cynic any better than Carthage survived its destruction and the salting of its gardens. The garden of the cynic produces nothing sustainable, only weeds to green its place and robs the productive plant of both nourishment as well as space to prosper. Beware the cynic’s market songs selling their wares, caveat emptor.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jan 9 2017 14:29 utc | 190

191
Those same Israelis are free to arm their Israeli Junta Coup leader buddies in Kiev with $3.8B a year in advanced first-strike weaponry, now that Trump US arms proliferation has begun in earnest: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-08/poland-acquires-first-strike-capability-pose-threat-russia
Would Kiev use it? Would they launch a first strike in Crimea? ‘Operation Russian Hackers’ says yes. What could anyone do to stop JSOC, even if WW3 might break out over the Crimean peninsula? Nothing.
On to Sevastopol for the One Party of Mil.Gov.Fed! It’s a’ comin’! They need to feed the MIC beast. The Pentagram Church of Great Shaitan ‘Life Opposer’ demands it, largest Corporation on the planet, largest public treasury looting offshore private bank vaults ‘bicycling’ operation ‘scheme’ in human history, totally unaccountable, never been audited, 13% YOY metastasis, whose only product is Death.
“It’s just business, get over it!”

Posted by: chipnik | Jan 9 2017 16:00 utc | 192

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/how-one-israeli-border-hospital-is-treating-wounded-syrians-849979971727
NBC ran a story on an Israeli hospital that treats Syrians. They show a child and a woman but admit they treat “rebels.” Which rebels? al Nusra? IS? or the very few FSA who are allied with them?

Posted by: Curtis | Jan 9 2017 16:08 utc | 194

outraged/jfl
It’s sort of surprising al Jazeera went after gulf state/sunni allies operations in UK. Maybe sometimes al Jazeera feels they have to keep up appearances. It would be nice to have such exposes in the US. But they don’t go anywhere. Even an SNL skit showing congressmen willing to go lower and lower to degrade themselves did NOT make it to the show.
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/snl-nixes-skit-mocking-gops-israel-st
But GOP hero Ollie North and NRA use pro-Israel feelings to go after Democraps and attack BDS.
https://www.nratv.com/series/frontlines/episode/frontlines-season-5-episode-1-obamas-shameful-treatment-of-israel

Posted by: Curtis | Jan 9 2017 16:18 utc | 196

@195 This story will get buried pretty fast IMO. Usual excuses…. he was just doing his job, making a mountain out of a molehill, nothing to see here….etc.

Posted by: dh | Jan 9 2017 17:22 utc | 198

b never writes about germany. i get a news letter from a guy named victor [wechsler] grossman, and this one, “THE YANKS ARE COMING!” no. 124 observes …

[S]ome welcome this operation, “Atlantic Resolve”, like smaller ones which preceded it. Although it is not sponsored by the UN, not even by NATO, but only by the outgoing US administration, some political leaders, as in Canada and Britain, now want to have the German Bundeswehr get into the act and send a battalion to Lithuania.

… not sponsored by the un, not even by nato … isn’t it an invasion then? of germany and the baltic states?
the five eyes are all for it.
wechsler also writes …

Peace demonstrations (far too few) point out that Russia has 900,000 armed troops while NATO has 3.5 million, stationed in over a hundred bases in a world-wide ring around Russia.

… far too few. it really does seem to me that we americans are not the only ones supine in the face of the neo-con nobel peace prize laureate’s run amuk. brits, french, germans, americans … all of us on the couch ‘eating popcorn’ as the war crimes in syria intensify and germany and the baltics are invaded by the american wehrmacht.
no problem … donald trump will save us?! it’s ‘over there’, anyway … what about the europeans? the war is going to be fought in your front yards! wars have been known to start by ‘accident’, you’ll remember …

Posted by: jfl | Jan 10 2017 1:48 utc | 200