Jackrabbit @80
“And why did “America First” Trump hire Manafort who had extensive Russian contacts and pro-Russian activities that drew the ire of US officials?”
You’ve been played! 🙂
This essentially (partially) repeats another myth; that there was Russian meddling but that Trump wasn’t involved. That is, the next stage of Russiagate, as it were, which vindicates Trump but still condemns Russia
Manafort was not involved with pro-Russian (Government and/or Putin) contacts or activities. Manafort was entirely concerned with profiting while promoting US interests. The people he was involved with were largely Russian-Ukrainian oligarchs who rose to power because of the western rape of Russia during the nineties, pirates who identified/supported the western model, and did not, in anyway, support Putin’s renewal of a stronger Russian state and reversal (or control) of their exploitation.
But Manafort is definitely not the kind of person a legitimate Presidential candidate would select as their Campaign Chairman, and you wouldn’t want Roger Stone involved in your campaign either, if your campaign was really concerned about change or draining the swamp as both are quintessentially swampy (and might be considered an unnecessary risk to the overall message, particularly as both were useless and past it/out of date and had nothing to offer).

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 11 2019 14:52 utc | 104

From the Saker site:
What’s behind the growing activity of the US and NATO in the Black Sea
The article has a list of the instances of the Trumpies ‘destroying the last fragments of the post-World War 2 international security system.’
Dropping out of the INF treaty, giving the apartheid Jewish state land which belongs to Syria, blatantly intervening in Venezuela. Lots more, but it all shows that another attempt to make a poke at Russia is not unthinkable. That brand new bridge to Crimea might take some major damage. For all I know NATO might have some scheme which could lead to Turkey being forced to allow unlimited passage of ships into the Black Sea – or else.
Crazy speculations of course, but then there are some mighty crazy Trumpies at work these days.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 11 2019 16:31 utc | 106

Headline:
America’s Giant $22 Trillion Dollar Debt Is Not ‘Sustainable Trajectory’ House GOP Leader Says
Of course the solution to this is obvious.

Banks said he believes the national debt can be decreased by reforming programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Not Ford-class carriers and the like. Not F-35s. Not ten trillion dollar bank bailouts. Not endless wars for the apartheid Jewish state.
Nope. It’s all about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 11 2019 17:24 utc | 108

The outline of the plan to ensure the 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate is acceptable to the apartheid Jewish state is emerging.
Packed Primary May Let Superdelegates Screw Progressives Again

California Representative Eric Swalwell announced his candidacy for president on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, bringing the total number of Americans demanding that Eric Swalwell run for president to exactly one. It also brings the total number of candidates officially running for the Democratic Party presidential nomination to a whopping 18.

With every new Candidate, the influence of the Superdelegates increases. We may yet end up with some yahoo who yells “On To Iran” in his acceptance speech at the Convention.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 11 2019 17:38 utc | 110

@Jackrabbit #105:
You clearly know very little about Ukraine. Let me help you.
1. Not everything written in English Wikipedia is true. Especially when the topic is sensitive to the Empire. I’m sure you realize that — yet, when it comes to Ukraine, you somehow forget about it.
2. There were no “pro-Russian Ukrainians” among the elite. There were two groups: 1) Russia-smearing history-rewriting Nazi-collaborators-glorifying pro-EU pro-NATO group, actively sponsored and supported by the Empire and its various political, media, and intelligence branches, and 2) non-Russia-smearing non-history-rewriting Soviet-victory-respecting pro-EU maybe-NATO group, supported by oligarchs from Eastern Ukraine who did not want to join EAEU (then called Customs Union) for fear of being overtaken by Russian business interests. The second group was constantly blackmailing Russia: “If you don’t give us low energy prices and if you don’t choose our low-quality products over your own producers’ high-quality products, the Banderites will win!” So Russia was giving this second group most of what they demanded. Those were great times for the Ukrainian economy. Meanwhile, this second group was doing nothing to stop the Banderites’ rewriting of Ukrainian history and their Russia-smearing campaign. In fact, Yanukovych administration was sponsoring far-right movements, including neo-Nazi Svoboda party. The logic behind that was, again, to scare Russia into giving Ukraine various economic handouts. The Banderites, of course, played along, assuring Yanukovych that they are in his pocket, while secretly plotting his overthrow. By the way, “pro-Russian” Lukashenko is doing the same thing in Belarus now.
3. It was under Yanukovych that the plan to join the EU was developed. Many EU integration projects Poroshenko is boasting of were, in reality, started under Yanukovych.
4. Serhiy (Sergei) Lyovochkin, then-head of Yanukovych presidential administration, was a traitor who conspired with Maidan leaders. It was he who secretly set up the famous “beating of students” which started off the Euromaidan protests. People didn’t come out to the streets after Yanukovych’s postponement of signing of the EU association agreement, as is frequently misreported. People came out to the streets after the “beating of students”. Which never happened in reality. There were, indeed, students camping out in protest on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) that night. To the south of them along the Khreshchatyk street, a group of burly adult men started throwing bricks at the riot police — which for some strange reason appeared there in the middle of the night — for which these men were heavily beaten. Next morning, all oligarch-owned media (including media owned by Lyovochkin) as well as many Western media came out with the headlines about the “brutal beating of young students”. Stories were told of how the police broke the arm of a female student, etc. And that’s when the protests have started. It was Lyovochkin who staged the event.
5. More than half of members of the “pro-Russian” Partiya Regionov (Party of Regions) have immediately switched allegiance to the Maidan side after Yanukovych left Ukraine. Many of them changed allegiance while Yanukovych was is still in Ukraine, in Kharkov, where he was trying to rally his supporters. The rest have formed the Opposition Bloc, which is hardly “pro-Russian” if you actually read what they say.
The only pro-Russian thing Manafort has done was Deripaska-related lobbying. In Ukraine, he was serving the Empire’s interests by pushing Yanukovych to accelerate the movement of Ukraine towards the EU — at the expense of Ukrainians’ own economic well-being.

Posted by: S | Apr 11 2019 18:13 utc | 112

Russ @108–
Yeah, I agree. Great deal of input today, not much of it good. Hard to be optimistic.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 11 2019 19:22 utc | 114

ADKC, S
I understand the limitations of Wikipedia. I use it only for quickness and to illustrate the point I made.
Trump’s hiring of Manafort made little sense except that it furthered the Russiagate hoax that was promoted after the election. Trump did other things that promoted the hoax as well, including: calling on Russia to release Hillary’s emails; praising Wikileaks release of DNC emails (now he says he doesn’t know them!), and praising Putin.
Manafort was either used, complicit, or set up. My guess is set up because he was prosecuted and then the settlement was rescinded. I imagine that he had gone too far when trying to enrich himself thinking that his connections would protect him.
I wonder if Mueller wanted Manafort to testify against Wikileaks. After the settlement was rescinded MSM started reporting about Roger Stone’s connection to Wikileaks. Seems like Stone’s testimony is “Plan B” for a Wikileaks prosecution.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 11 2019 20:01 utc | 116

Jackrabbit @115
But your point, that Manafort is pro-Russian, is just plain wrong and by accepting it you are crashing your own theory. Didn’t you accuse someone else as having blind spot?
Work through the logical implications of Manafort being pro-Russain. Hint: it would mean that there was Russian meddling in the election.
Then do some proper research on Ukraine and Manafort. If after that you really still believe Manafort to be pro-Russian then you’ll have to come back here and admit your theory is baloney.
(Btw: I believe that your theory does have merit but then I don’t believe Manafort was in anyway pro-Russian)

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 11 2019 21:22 utc | 118

Aaron Maté at The Grayzone provides a point-by-point rebuttal of Adam Schiff’s continued promotion of the Russiagate conspiracy theory: Congressman Adam Schiff’s Russiagate Delusions Are Not Okay (vid).

Posted by: S | Apr 11 2019 23:59 utc | 120

Jackrabbit @118
You still assert that Manafort is pro-Russian?!?!?!?
And you still push the idea of Russiagate as if it was valid when it was a fraud.
Let me spell out the logic trap you insist on putting yourself in.
If Manafort was Pro-Russia then he was Putin’s man.
If Trump appointed Manafort and did not know he was Putin’s man then that means Trump can’t have been an agent of the deep state – it would mean that Trump was a genuine candidate or was a dupe (either way your theory’s dead).
If Trump did know that Manafort was Putin’s man then Trump was also Putin’s man – which would mean that Trump was put in place by Russia.
And then the only way your theory can survive is if the entire deep state were also involved in Russiagate, and that Putin runs America or is part of the deep state that runs America – And that is absolute nonsense.
You escape this ignoble end to your theory by just accepting that Manafort was not pro-Russian and that the entire Russiagate fiasco is just a load of bollocks.

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 12 2019 0:29 utc | 122

Schmoe @122
With regard to alternative c. – if the blockade had simply prevented oil from reaching Japan eventually Japan would have surrendered – food imports need not have been restricted.
There was an alternative to the bombs – the dropping of the bombs was a war crime which the west can’t face up to.

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 12 2019 1:12 utc | 124

@123, @124 thanks for the responses. I still would guess that b) would have been a viable option notwithstanding the acts of some fanatics during the surrender process, but it’s over and done with.

Posted by: Schmoe | Apr 12 2019 2:23 utc | 126

@ ADKC #126

And, of course, if the US hadn’t threatened Japan with their warships, trade or else, (by modern standards, another war crime) then Japan would have happily remained isolated from the rest of the world and would never have even thought of building a military or invading another country.

“happily remained isolated”…
In this alternate reality there were no other navies in existence. Japan lucked out with the US bully-boy visits. It was a just-in-time wake-up call to install an efficient centralized government. To send students off in all directions to soak up modern technology. The downside is that the new government was Emperor-centralized, and the religion & associated mythology they created made the lowest Japanese peasant a God himself compared with any other humans in the world. One of the reasons they were so beastly to the Chinese.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 12 2019 2:50 utc | 128

ADKC @121:

You still assert that Manafort is pro-Russian?!?!?!?
And you still push the idea of Russiagate as if it was valid when it was a fraud.

I don’t know how you draw these conclusions from my comment @118.
I DON’T assert that Manafort is pro-Russian and I DON’T see Russiagate as valid at all. I explicitly state that Manafort was likely used to further the Russiagate hoax.
The FBI began investigating Manafort in 2014.
I’ve also proposed a scenario whereby Manafort’s greed (willingness to work for any high-paying client) drew the ire of the Deep State so that he was not just ‘used’ but a target as well (to be made an example of). Working for Ukraine opposition Parties doesn’t mean Manafort is pro-Russian any more than his working for dictators like Marcos or Savimbi meant anything more than a paycheck.
And I’ve speculated that Mueller might’ve hoped to get Manafort to provide false witness against Wikileaks. Perhaps Manafort’s refusal to do so is the real reason why Mueller pulled the settlement deal?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 12 2019 5:08 utc | 130

Sasha 130
To do that in a world still dominated by globalization and multinational corporations, along with berserk military aggressors like the US, would be just another form of divide and conquer and an even more savage race to the bottom.
There’s lots wrong with nation-states, but right now they’re the only possible counter-force against corporate globalization.

Posted by: Russ | Apr 12 2019 11:21 utc | 132

I wrote about the need to propagate messengers on the Assange thread, but have come here to post part of what the message’s content must include:
“Yet today’s mainstream economics treats the normal tendency to polarize between creditors and debtors, the wealthy and the have-nots, as an anomaly. It has been the norm for the last five thousand years, but economics sidesteps actual empirical history as if it is an anomaly in the fictional parallel universe created by the mainstream’s unrealistic assumptions. Instead of being a science, such economics is science fiction. It trains students in cognitive dissonance that distracts them from understanding Classical Antiquity and the driving dynamics of Western civilization.” Hudson Part 4
But there’s far more than just the above. Many understand how universities have been captured in ways similar to Executive branch regulatory agencies, but few are aware those actions represent the third act in the war to bend minds within the USA. Hudson explains this episode in a longer, greater detail than this essential excerpt:
“The Republicans and industrialists saw that America’s prestige colleges had been founded long before the Civil War, basically as religious colleges to train the clergy. They taught British free trade theory, serving the New England commercial and banking interests and Southern plantation owners. But free trade kept the United States dependent on England. My book America’s Protectionist Takeoff describes how the American School of Political Economy, led by Henry Carey and E. Peshine Smith (William Seward’s law partner), developed an alternative to what was being taught in the religious colleges.
“This led to a new view of the history of Western civilization and America’s role in fighting against entrenched privilege. William Draper’s Intellectual Development of Europe, and Andrew Dixon White’s History of the Warfare of Science with Theology saw the United States as breaking free from the feudal aristocracies that were a product of the way in which antiquity collapsed, economically and culturally.”
It’s very tempting to copy/paste the entirety of Hudson’s part-4 as it’s all revelatory in a radical/revolutionary manner. Argh! I can’t help but include this exchange between Simon and Hudson:
“JS: So this is how the Wharton School’s first professor of economics, Simon Patten, one of the founders of American sociology, fits into this anti-rentier tradition! That is such a revelation to me! They developed an analysis of technology’s effects on the economy, of monopoly pricing and economic rent as unearned income that increases the cost of living and cost of production. They explained the benefits of public infrastructure investment. Today that is called “socialism,” but it was industrial capitalists who took the lead in urging such public investment, so as to lower their cost of doing business.
“MH: The first U.S. business schools in the late 19th century described rentiers as unproductive. That is why today’s neoliberals are trying to rewrite the history of Institutionalism in a way that expurgates the Americans who wanted the government to provide public infrastructure to make America a low-cost economy, undersell England and other countries, and evolve into the industrial giant it became by the 1920s.
“JS: That was Simon Patten’s teaching at the Wharton School — government-subsidized public infrastructure as the fourth factor of production.
“MH: Yes. America’s ruling political class tried to make the United States a dominant economy instead of a rentier economy of landlords and financial manipulators.”
Easy to see why the Green New Deal’s being so violently opposed. Also easy to see that a very different version of MAGA would work, but it wouldn’t serve Trump or the Oligarchy so they would oppose it. IMO, USA could compete on even terms with China and Russia, but that isn’t how the Oligarchy wants to feed its greed disease as it’s too hard–it requires actual work. I recall Reagan’s use of the term Welfare Queens and now see it as 100% Projection.
Yes, I act as if Michael Hudson’s a prophet of sorts, when in truth that’s precisely what he is. So, read his works and become enlightened so that you can then begin your role as messenger.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 12 2019 21:50 utc | 134

I’m getting more and suspicious of Buttigieg’s rise in the polls.
Pretends to care about the poor and downtrodden when he’s obviously more of a centrist like Biden. ✔
He’s entitled. ✔
He’s a Zionist sympathizer. ✔
Howard Schultz, centrist Starbucks independent, praises Buttigieg but knocks down Sanders. ✔
He’s MIC oriented. ✔
Conclusion: He’s rookie establishment all the way.
Furthermore, I suspect he’s a spoiler for Sanders and even Biden! Why Biden? Because Biden has the best chances of beating Trump. If Buttigieg becomes the nominee then you can believe he’s an establisment plant in it to give Trump a second term, cause the U.S. will never vote a gay man and an unknown for President.
And one more thing: just in case, Biden or Sanders make it, Schultz is in it as a spoiler as well, cause this time there’s a double-tier spoiler. The Zioelites are taking no chances. Don’t listen to what Schultz says about Trump, very little, listen to what he says about the other side!
Here’s something else I strongly suspect. Biden is on his own. That’s right folks! The establishment don’t want Biden! He’s been taking a beating in the media. They don’t want him in the race! The Zionist Masters want Trump to get a 2nd term NOT Biden to win. But Biden knows he can win and really wants it, and knows it’s now or never and he also wants to fulfill his late son, Beau’s, wish. However Biden has a slight problem with Dems. He authored a bill in the Clinton era that was responsible for the mass incarceration of blacks. So what’s he going to do to remedy this serious weakness? He can’t bring Stacy Abrams on board cause Dems are already knocking it down as exploiting a black woman as a prop. So Biden’s going to turn to someone else who’s not a woman. He’s from the South. He’s from Florida, a state a Democratic primary candidate absolutely must win for the nomination, and Democrats absolutely need to beat Trump. Clue: He lost the governor’s race in a squeaker, and he’s black! It would be like an Obama Biden repeat in reverse. He’s none other than ANDREW GILLUM and he’s very popular in Florida. Biden’s going to make him an offer he can’t refuse! After Gillum’s frustrating squeaker loss for governor, Andrew Gillum won’t turn down a stepping stone to the Presidency! I’m telling you, I really suspect Biden’s gonna pull this out and turn the entire plan to give Trump a 2nd term on its head!
I don’t know why I have this impression. Maybe because it was reported Biden was trying for the early veep strategy and had met with Abrams, but I think Abrams turned it down. So I suspect he’ll make Gillum an offer.
Anyway, I might be wrong. It’s just a feeling I got when I saw Gillum on cablenews today. It’s not anything he said, but more like a lightbulb switched on in my head! Sure, it’s been reported he might enter the race himself, but I don’t buy it unless he enters to buy time and later run with Biden, not sure. But Gillum unlike others, all the women, wouldn’t be giving up a seat in Congress, and Biden would be tarred and feathered if he picks a white guy. So hello–enter Andrew Gillum.

Posted by: Circe | Apr 12 2019 22:36 utc | 136

james @135
I sense that there a bit of game being played here. And that game is this:

> Blame everything on the Jews/Israel/Jewish Zionists;
> Label all resulting criticism as antisemitism.

As it gets more difficult to deny the existence of a Deep State that serves the oligarchy, funneling all criticism to Jews or Russia is a convenient way to avoid any real discussion and shut down discontent.
I’m not denying a Jewish/Zionist agenda but the combination of antisemitism and neo-McCarthyism means that Deep State actors like Bush, Clintons, Brennan, Mueller, McCain, Pence, Pompeo, etc. can remain comfortably hidden.
<> <> <> <> <> <>
Consider: Circe and some others rail against Trump and Israel but then support Sanders who is running as a candidate of a Party that supports Zionism.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 13 2019 0:57 utc | 138

This seems like an important story that is not getting the coverage it deserves:
Ukrainian to US prosecutors: Why don’t you want our evidence on Democrats?
Basically, the article outlines systemic financial rape of Ukraine by Ukrainian/Russian oligarchs*, Ukrainian politicians and Senior US Democratic politicians. It also alleges that this same group were involved in discrediting Trump and interfering in the US election*.
(*To clarify, this does not mean Putin and the Russian Government; there is no evidence of their involvement.)

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 13 2019 1:09 utc | 140

@sasha – share russ’s viewpoint @132..
@138 jackrabbit.. that is a reasonable thought as i see it..the deep state is harder to define…i find it odd circe is okay with sanuders… tulsi gabbard.. does she have any chance of getting anywhere? i figure by the time politicians get close to the usa presidency, they have been bought and paid for.. i can’t see anyone who true intentions to better the life of the people of the or the world for that matter – getting anywhere near close to a chance of being pres of the usa..
@139 desolation row.. thanks! they are depressing, but a good place to understand the thinking and just how whacked it is! cheers!

Posted by: james | Apr 13 2019 1:42 utc | 142

China hand Peter Lee,
THE VICE SQUAD.
http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/2019/02/vice-dick-cheneys-legacy-and-china-war.html
p.s.
Indians have been saturation bombing
Lee’s site for years/

Posted by: denk | Apr 13 2019 3:16 utc | 144

And on the China/Australia front there is this from ZH
“That’s Something China Can’t Tolerate”: Tensions Erupt As China Slams Australia’s “Irresponsible Comments”
The take away quotes
”
Given Australia has the highest level of income dependency on China of any developed nation as 30.6% of all Australian export income came from China last year, equivalent to US$87 billion (twice the trade volume with Japan, Australia’s next biggest trading partner), and Australia’s coal industry is deeply dependent on its exports to China, which account for 3.7% of Australia’s GDP, this prompted much speculation that Beijing is punishing coal companies as retribution for political acts by Canberra, one of Washington’s closest allies.
”
”
“It is baffling how the country concerned could whip up ‘security threats’ posed by other countries or companies … while engaging in acts that endanger cyber security themselves,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, sending a clear message to Australia: if you continue to side with the US on the Huawei – or any other issue – you can keep your coal.
”
There is a blues song that has a line in it…”One monkey don’t stop the show”.
The article writes how China has same quality coal on its way from Columbia at lower price.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 13 2019 3:51 utc | 146

james 135
One ironic thing about these shameless foreign agents is that by any historical measure it’s today’s pro-Zionists who are spewing the core anti-Semitic theme, that all Jews are inherently part of some global conspiracy. Back in the day anti-semites usually conflated Jews with communism. Hitler would’ve been the first to insist that to be anti-Marxist automatically meant one had to be an anti-semite, since those were synonymous. Today an old-style anti-semite would be more likely to say that all Jews are Zionist agents, and that to be anti-Zionist has to mean being anti-Jew.
So we see the company the pro-Zionists are keeping, since they agree 100% with the anti-semites that all Jews are inherently Zionists, and you can’t oppose one without opposing the other.

Posted by: Russ | Apr 13 2019 4:49 utc | 148

Jack Rabbit @ 145:
Paul Manafort did work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and VY’s political party Party of the Regions whose base was in eastern Ukraine among Russian-speaking Ukrainians from 2004 to 2014. Manafort also did some work for Oleg Deripaska (2005 – 2009) and for Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who currently lives in exile in Austria and who has not been in Ukraine since Yanukovych’s overthrow in February 2014. Deripaska is thought to be close to Vladimir Putin (though MoA barflies may have seen that Youtube video where Putin wipes the floor with Deripaska several times over for not paying factory employees what they were due) and Dmytro Firtash is wanted by the US to stand trial on corruption charges.
It is possible that Manafort is being targeted so he can be persuaded or blackmailed into revealing information about Firtash that would enable the US to force Austria into extraditing the Ukrainian businessman.

Posted by: Jen | Apr 13 2019 5:29 utc | 150

Jackrabbit,
You contradicted yourself; on the one hand you say blaming Zionists for everything makes it easier to deny the deep state that serves the oligarchy.
Who do you think that oligarchy is mostly comprised off???
Then you question the necessity of an antisemitism czar? If you believe that blaming Zionists is counter to your own goals exposing the deep state that serves the oligarchs, and the White House equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism to muzzle those blaming Zionists THEN YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED, didn’t you??? So why are you then bitching about the Constitution and wasting tax payer’s money?
Lemme tell you something, if you don’t recognize the power behind this move and their goal to make us all more powerless, then you’re blind as a bat and hopeless. If you don’t admit that only the top, the oligarchs as you put it, have the power to change the rules, by muzzling free speech and ignoring division of church and state by pushing for this unlawful legislation, then you are deceptive. If you don’t admit that consequently if they have the power and want this done then it must benefit them to protect them from EXPOSURE then you’re not interested in the truth.
Ever hear of OWS??? OCCUPY WALL STREET? Why do you think they were shut down? The top 1% were being exposed and feeling threatened and started to smear the movement as antisemitic. And you think I’m contradicting myself for supporting Sanders? It’s better than what you’re doing here protecting the one percent oligarchs with your contradiction, twisted logic and pretending that criticism of Zionism obfuscates the oligarchy controlling the deep state when instead it exposes them and proof is that this attack on free speech and their efforts to shut down OWS make use of the same antisemitism bullshet smear. It’s the same m.o. the one percent used on OWS, iow, the one percent, the oligarchs controlling the deep state are Zio nists! Why else would they they have labelled OWS as antisemitic??? To destroy that movement just like they’re doing with the BDS movement and criticism of Zionism because these represent threats to their power. So in muzzling me for rightly blaming Zionists for their control and abuses of power with your ridicule you are in fact protecting the oligarchs aka the one percent that you pretend so much to want to expose!

Posted by: Circe | Apr 13 2019 5:34 utc | 152

The ultimate in “stealth technology” must be a black hole. Now that it’s possible to “image” a black hole, it really makes me wonder how much longer the US will go on squandering billions on stealth technology:

I’m so excited that we finally get to share what we have been working on for the past year! The image shown today is the combination of images produced by multiple methods. No one algorithm or person made this image, it required the amazing talent of a team of scientists from around the globe and years of hard work to develop the instrument, data processing, imaging methods, and analysis techniques that were necessary to pull off this seemingly impossible feat. It has been truly an honor, and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you all.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 13 2019 9:01 utc | 154

“That was quick!” department…
Pat Lang floated the idea of banishing DISQUS from SST yesterday.
Having received 5 x Yes & 0 x No responses DISQUS is gone…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 13 2019 14:55 utc | 156

Circe
It’s a joint effort. Jewish Zionists have been successful ’cause they allied with powerful interests and helped to further those interests. Your focus on just one group, and on Trump as their agent, warps our understanding of what is really going on.
Furthermore, Jewish/Zionist influence has progressed to the point where the entire establishment is Zionist. No serious Democratic or Republican candidate is against Military spending or Zionism. Voters have no choice.
So it makes no sense to me that you to rail against Trump and Zionism and then support Democratic Party candidate Sanders. Do you really think that Sanders will be anti-Zionist in any possible way? Do you really think that Sanders can be trusted to challenge any of the establishment Democrats in any meaningful way after he caved-in to Hillary?
Sanders is running to split the progressive vote so that an establishment-friendly Democrat can be the nominated to run against Trump. That establishment Democrat will then be a leading contender for 2024.
It’s all part of the duopoly’s gaming of the political system. A game that I refuse to play.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 13 2019 15:48 utc | 158

Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers’ libraries
I suspect there is a program in progress to make printed books as rare as hen’s teeth. The big companies want to make a profit each and every time something gets read. What bothers me is how Public Libraries are buying into this scheme with their eBooks which can be read on a patron’s handheld device. How long until the book shelves start being dismantled?
This grab for profits is going on in all areas. Have you noticed how it’s darned near impossible to purchase a dedicated CD player anymore – unless you want to pay really big bucks for it? Every single player I have was sold for DVDs, and is usable only because it has the extra CD capability. What will I do when every DVD player on the market no longer has that ability?
Big Business made a big mistake with the Compact Discs – they provided almost perfect sound and were nearly eternal unless mishandled. The companies didn’t repeat that mistake with the DVDs – these are extremely flimsy and with the thin glue lines at the center and outer edge are designed to fail. The consumer “copy” media is even worse, for with few exceptions none of the DVD-R or DVD+R media I’ve used is still working after six or seven years. Even the old VHS tapes held up better than that!

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 13 2019 16:25 utc | 160

#159: Not only is it profitable for corporations, but it will allow the Empire to one day flip the switch and “disappear” all ebooks that contain the real history. People who still remember the real history will be called “conspiracy theorists”, and any physical books that still remain will be called “elaborated hoaxes”.

Posted by: S | Apr 13 2019 16:53 utc | 162

@Jackrabbit 157
In what year did they ally? 1950??? For fuchs sake, the powerful interests today ARE ZIONIST!
And your split the vote narrative makes no sense at all cause there’s Warren and others with the same left views as Sanders.
You’re spinning and not being totally honest again. Back to your former self.
James and Russ, a tool would see it that way. But let me ask you: What percentage of Jews are anti-Zionist and do you really believe that Israel would be able to carry on war crimes ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, Apartheid, deprivation and collective punishment IF the majority of Jews, who are extremely politically active, were Anti-Zionist???
I can’t handle your dishonest bullshet any more.

Posted by: Circe | Apr 13 2019 17:01 utc | 164

# S #161
Not only could the eBooks be “disappeared”, but they can also be altered. If electronic copies are the only ones around, who will notice if some subtle alterations got made in every single one of them.
I’m paranoid as hell these days, and avoid even recent hardcopy reprints if I can afford the original books.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Apr 13 2019 17:11 utc | 166

While Russiagate was going vira, few noticed there’s an even more extensive and vicious Chinagate going on.
The Chinagate disinfo is being waged all across the 5liars land and its brazenness make the Russiagate B.S. looks like kindergarten stuffs.
Viz….
*China is gonna take over Oz, NZ , only uncle scam can save them from the yellow peril. [sic]
*China has a vast army of sleepers in Oz, NZ, ready to rise up when the Chinese embassy give the command [[sic]
Coming from these certified global arsonists , this is pure and unadulterated, gawd damned bandits crying robbery’.
*The Pentagon shill in NZ, Anne Marie Brady, even accused China of sabotaging her car, burglarising her home and sending her anon warning letter to boot !
OMFGawd !
Is there no pitch too low that the CIA/MI6 MOFO wouldnt stoop to ?
While officially the Kiwi pm Jacinda Arden play down the accusations as unverified, we all know how this kind of game works,…
the shit sticks.
No matter that its never been substantiated or even after it’s been debunked…
Examples abound, like ‘Mao murdered millions’, ‘TAM massacre’, ‘Tibet oppression’, ‘those oh so scary Chinese hackers’., …
..the latest being that ‘million Uighur gulags’
Just watch how its being parroted in MOA, UNZ…
by supposedly ‘well informed’ pundits [sic]
never mind the MSM. !
Everybody knows the 5liars tptb are irredeemable
psychopaths, but Whats wrong with these 5liars sheeples, something in their water ?

Posted by: denk | Apr 14 2019 1:20 utc | 168

Armageddon
Fires are burning in the hearts of Europeans; heating the melting pots of multiculturalism to the point of boiling. Bubbles of violence are already sporadically spitting out into a polarised citizenry nervously looking on. People are being scalded, buildings burned. Refugee centres in Germany have been torched at night by gangs of skinheads dressed in black. Windows smashed on nights of uncontrolled violence. The very eldest members in that country will remember Krystal Nacht, Crystal Night – the Night of Broken Glass, when the windows of shops and houses owned by Germany’s Jews were smashed in an orgy of organised violence.
Since the Second World War, successive governments of Germany have been careful to rebuild and reshape their society in a manner that took into account the feelings of it’s neighbours to the east and west. Those neighbours, it accepted unconditionally, had been the innocent victims of the terror unleashed upon them by the Third Reich and it’s armies. Germany, at the point of the guns of the victorious allied powers, took the sole responsibility for the destruction of European towns and cities, the deaths of millions of men, women and children and the dislocation of millions more. The lines of refugees, who roamed in a state of trauma along the rubble strewn roads that crisscrossed Europe as they looked for a place to settle and rebuild their broken lives, was a scene that the states of Europe vowed never to witness or experience again.
For the next seventy years, Western European states pulled their sovereignty to create a Common Market, that grew and developed into an Economic Community and finally a European Union. The European Project was believed to be the solution to ending the intermittent outbreaks of political and religious violence that had plagued the continent for two millennia. The sharing of culture and creativity, the standardisation of rules and regulations, would it was thought, control the egotistical endeavours that had pitted nation against nation. States could concentrate their energies on building clean environments in which their well educated citizens would live, work, play and prosper. Workers and their wages would be of a commonly high standard that would eliminate regional jealousies and see an an to the destitution that had wracked the lives of the working men and women. Wildernesses and waterways would be clean and protected. Standards would rise across the continent and this standardisation would bring about an egalitarian, democratic utopia that would make poverty and war obsolete. For the two generations that were born after the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers, all appeared to be well. The Union was so successful that non-members threw off the shackles of the fascist or communist dictatorships that had governed their lives and applied to join the club. Little did they know.
By the time that the third generation had come of age, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, unilaterally opened the borders of her people’s country and one million Africans, Arabs and Subcontinental’s walked in. The citizenry were not consulted, neither were their representatives in the German Parliament, the Bundestag. Nor were the members of her own cabinet and the governing Christian Democrat Party. One person made that decision. There were warnings from all viewpoints, from across the political spectrum, but they were ignored. The relatively poorer, less developed, more traditional, conservative, sincerely believing Christian countries of southern Europe, who had not so long before thrown off the yolk of their dictatorships, with the hope and expectation of finding better lives in the modern, democratic union of European nations, were swamped. To reach their dreamlands of the rich northern and western European countries, myriad streams of economic migrants walked relentlessly north, intermingled with genuine refugees fleeing for their lives from the Syrian civil war, through the impoverished fields of the Balkan states; nations still rebuilding themselves following the end of their own civil wars. Those fields must have been familiar to the immigrants. They had left homelands that were economically no worse off than those of the Greeks and Slavs, through whose fields they were now carelessly trampling and littering with the disposable detritus of desperation.
Onward they marched. This unrequested army of penniless cheap labour, ready to work in any job, for any wages, ready to sleep in any accommodation on offer; ready and willing to take advantage of the rules and regulations that were designed to guarantee a common, high standard of living for European citizens, throughout Europe. Regulations that would protect their human dignity in a way that their own countrymen, governing in their own birthplace, would not care to do. Ironically, they shared with the governing bureaucratic elite of Europe’s nation states, the same ignorance of, and lack of compassion for, the workers of Europe, who would now see their hard won fair wages, terms and conditions being undercut by a workforce who had never had that luxury of stringent labour laws. For those misfortunate native born souls who had crashed through the regulatory safety nets of red tape that had been designed to catch them should they fall and were now sleeping rough on their own streets, could now experience the bitterness of peering through the windows of hostels and apartments that had been allocated to the incoming migrants sitting down to enjoy their evening meals. The system had been smashed. No waiting in queues to be assessed, no questions asked, no paperwork to be shown; wage slips, birth certificates, bank certificates. Nothing. Borders were being crossed with neither passports nor visas, official documentation, accommodation and employment were given whether or not the immigrants could read, write or speak the language. Every rule and regulation that had been passed into law by governments, with the consent of their citizens, on the understanding that it was for the benefit of those citizens and their society as a whole, no longer applied to the foreign born arrivals.
The cherished values we hold so dear like our freedom of speech and expression, that had been fought for over many decades, if not centuries, often against the must tyrannical of regimes and at the cost of countless lives, have been sacrificed upon the secular alter of multiculturalism. All this to accommodate incoming migrants with little or no experience of such fundamental human rights in their homelands, and who it appears have not understood that freedom of speech can often be offensive, unpalatable and contrary to one’s own opinions and beliefs. That is the point of it. It is the contrarian nature of these freedoms that create a diverse public forum. The views of arrivals from Africa and Asia are often unpalatable to the citizens of the societies that they have chosen to migrate to, moreover, their views are often contrary to the cultures and the laws of these countries in which they have made their home, which begs the question; why would they have chosen to emigrate to such a place in the first place? To nations whose popular culture they find to be so repellent. When leaving one’s cultural and linguistic home and moving to a new land that is foreign, surely compatibility comes into the equation. Surely some thought is given to whether the views one holds dearly are compatible with the cultural environment one is joining, otherwise what is the point in going there? The old adage springs to my mind…When in Rome, do as the Romans.
These recent arrivals have no interest in integrating. They have no interest in the culture of the host, indeed many even deny that such a thing exists. A Canadian journalist stood on the sidewalk outside a mosque in London asking attendees and passers by, what British culture meant to them? What was it that made one British? Did Britain have a culture? None of them believed that it had a culture. It was multicultural. Possession of a British passport was all that it took to be British. There was no understanding of the traditions of Britain, no respect for it and no loyalty to it. The blond, blue eyed scribe asked one Muslim gentleman, that were she to go to China, apply for a Chinese passport and be accepted, would that make her Chinese? Of course not, he replied.
Eventually the Imam from the mosque complained to the police about her presence outside the building and two metropolitan officers of Indian origin asked her to move along. Before she did, she asked the Imam what it meant to him to be British. He replied…tolerance. That from the lips of a man who didn’t allow women to enter his religious institution. Incredible.
Policemen with dogs now guard hospitals in Bavaria at the request of the medical staff who have faced repeated assaults from patients, the female doctors and nurses in particular. Stabbings, urine being thrown in the faces of staff, men refusing to be treated by female professionals and mob violence breaking out when the diagnosis is unacceptable to their ears. On a flight in the USA a Muslim lady requested that a guide dog and it’s owner be removed from the cabin because her religious sentiments were offended. An immigrant to Italy who murdered a local man, told the court that he did so because the victim was “white and happy”.
Entire neighbourhoods and boroughs have become enclaves within cities. Some cities are becoming enclaves within countries. Integration has not worked. Not because the societies of the host nations have not tried to accept or integrate them but because the immigrants themselves have no interest in reciprocating. A friend of mine who had left Pakistan for a “better life” in Luton, England, has since left for Canada because over the years incessant immigration from his homeland had meant that Luton had become like the Pakistan he had left behind. No doubt, over time, he will find the same experience will overwhelm him in Toronto too.
There will soon come a tipping point. There will be a spark that ignites the powder keg of national emotion and sentiment that is now out in the open, ignored and undefended by remote governments living out their lives in ivory towers, far removed from the reality of their exasperated electorates. There will be a clash of civilisations and this battle of ideas and values will be fought out on the streets of European towns and cities. The genie is already out of the bottle and it seems to be unwilling to stop playing with it’s matches.

Posted by: Steve Keith | Apr 14 2019 5:47 utc | 170