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The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-009
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-009
Navalny Scam Sells Empty Concrete Shell As ‘Putin’s Luxurious Palace’
In 2010 some minor Russian businessman, Sergei Kolesnikov, who had pissed off people above his pay grade, resettled from Russia to Estonia. To make himself interesting, and likely to get financial support, he made up a story. David Ignatius, the CIA's resident writer at the Washington Post, picked it up:
You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There's a fitness spa, a hideaway "tea house," a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It's still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than $1 billion.
And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was predominantly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come "mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft," charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.
In 2012 BBC Newsnight again picked up the story and made it into a nine minutes long anti-Putin segment.
Putin's palace? A mystery Black Sea mansion fit for a tsar
On a thickly wooded mountainside overlooking Russia's Black Sea coast, an extraordinary building has gradually taken shape. It is alleged to be a palace built for the personal use of Vladimir Putin, with massive and illegal use of state funds.
Originally conceived, it is said, as a modest holiday house with a swimming pool, it now boasts a magnificent columned facade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th Century.
The massive wrought-iron gates into the courtyard are topped with a golden imperial eagle. Outside are formal gardens, a private theatre, a landing pad with bays for three helicopters, and accommodation for security guards.
At the end of 2020 the 'Putin's palace' story was recycled to promote the rightwing Russian nationalist and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny. Navalny was at that time in Germany's Black Forrest area where he recovered from an alleged poisoning. A studio was needed to produce a video about the 'palace'.
A German producer couple who had recently opened a TV-studio received a request. As the German daily Badische Zeitung reported (my translation):
Cont. reading: Navalny Scam Sells Empty Concrete Shell As ‘Putin’s Luxurious Palace’
Syria – The U.S. Controlled Al-Tanf Serves As ‘ISIS’ Base – Truth Or Propaganda?
by Hedwig Kuijpers
Photo of US soldiers training Maghweer al-Thora forces in the al-Tanf pocket (source: Hammurabi news)
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Many questions remain unanswered about the al-Tanf United States base in the Syrian desert, that is called illegal by the Syrian government and Russia. Why is al-Tanf so important to the US? What are the US soldiers still doing there? Who else are hosted in the al-Tanf pocket? Why is ISIS growing again? Is al-Tanf really a launching pad for ISIS attacks in the region?
Why is the al-Tanf base so important to the US?
The al-Tanf base is located in the al-Tanf pocket, at about 20km of the al-Tanf border crossing. It’s 55 km-deconfliction zone is located along the border with Iraq and Jordan, and cuts off the Baghdad-Damascus highway. By controlling this highway, the United States ensures that Iranian deliveries to the Syrian capital Damascus cannot take place by land. This is of high strategic importance to the US, because Iranian shipments and air deliveries are much easier intercepted, and form an easy target to Israeli airstrikes.
The US-led coalition forces use al-Tanf as an entrance point to launch operations into Syria. The base can be easily reached from both Baghdad and Jordan. Both the Syrian government and Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the al-Tanf zone are being used by terrorist groups active in the region, as a safe haven and a foothold to carry out attacks on government-held areas and Iranian proxy-groups in the Bukamal area. This ‘ISIS rear base’ has been actively protected by the forces stationed at al-Tanf, which threaten any deployment of the Syrian Arab Army, Iranian proxy-groups and Russian forces close to the al-Tanf zone. The formal justification given by the US surrounding these actions is that Syrian government troops as well as Iranian-backed forces in Syria pose a threat to US-backed ‘less-radical’ rebel groups and US troops deployed at the garrison.
Oil, Rebels, Iran, Chaos and Leverage
Many allegations exist surrounding the activities of the US soldiers present at al-Tanf, even though the Trump-administration claimed it wanted to pull back troops from Syria and victory had been announced over ISIS.
One of the reasons is the presence of US-backed ‘rebel’ groups such as Maghweer al-Thora. According to an OIR inspector general report released Aug. 4. 2020, OIR officials want to want to double the size of US-proxy forces in Syria and finish training a 2,200-man “oilfield guard” unit there.
Cont. reading: Syria – The U.S. Controlled Al-Tanf Serves As ‘ISIS’ Base – Truth Or Propaganda?
The System Is Rigged – Episode 4537: Game Stop Corp
Early this week a few amateur stock trading nerds decided to promote a stock that was heavily shorted by certain hedge funds. The idea was to raise the stock price of Game Stop Corp., a vendor for computer games, by having lots of small stock traders to buy into it. The hedge fund that shorted the stock, and thereby bet on a dropping stock price, would then make huge losses while the many small buyers would potentially profit.
These people, who had joined up in the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets, were not driven by greed but by rage against the financial machine:
Instead of greed, this latest bout of speculation, and especially the extraordinary excitement at GameStop, has a different emotional driver: anger. The people investing today are driven by righteous anger, about generational injustice, about what they see as the corruption and unfairness of the way banks were bailed out in 2008 without having to pay legal penalties later, and about lacerating poverty and inequality. This makes it unlike any of the speculative rallies and crashes that have preceded it.
The movement was successful. The stock price of Game Stop Corp. rose from some $10 to over $400 within just a few days. The short seller had to take cover under a larger firm:
Hedge fund Melvin Capital closed out its short position in GameStop on Tuesday after taking huge losses as a target of the army of retail investors. Citadel and Point72 have infused close to $3 billion into Gabe Plotkin's hedge fund to shore up its finances.
Then the system hit back.
Discord, the company which hosted the server for the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets suddenly found that there was 'hate-speech' in the threads. It unplugged the server. (Discord had previously unplugged the sub-reddit /r/The_Donald.)
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald – 0:53 UTC · Jan 28, 2021
What an absolutely extraordinary coincidence of timing that Discord happened to decide the r/Wall Streetbets sub-reddit had too much “hate speech” to tolerate on the same day hedge fund billionaires declared them a huge threat for the crime of winning at their expense!
Next the trading app Robinhood, which many of the amateur traders use, blocked further buys into the stock:
Cont. reading: The System Is Rigged – Episode 4537: Game Stop Corp
More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere
Earlier today police in Europe took down the Emotet bot-network:
First discovered as a fairly run-of-the-mill banking trojan back in 2014, Emotet evolved over the years into one of the most professional and resilient cyber crime services in the world, and became a “go-to” solution for cyber criminals.
Its infrastructure acted as a mechanism to gain access to target systems, which was done via an automated spam email process that delivered Emotet malware to its victims via malicious attachments, often shipping notices, invoices and, since last spring, Covid-19 information or offers. If opened, victims would be promoted to enable macros that allowed malicious code to run and instal Emotet.
This done, Emotet’s operators then sold access on to other cyber criminal groups as a means to infiltrate their victims, steal data, and drop malware and ransomware. The operators of TrickBot and Ryuk were among the many users of Emotet.
Up to a quarter of all recent run of the mill cyber-crime was done through the Emotet network. Closing it down is a great success.
Wikipedia falsely claimed that Emotet was based in Russia:
Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation based in Russia.[1] The malware, also known as Geodo and Mealybug, was first detected in 2014[2] and remains active, deemed one of the most prevalent threats of 2019.[3]
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However the Hindu report linked as source to the Russia claim under [1] only says:
The malware is said to be operated from Russia, and its operator is nicknamed Ivan by cyber security researchers.
"Is said to be operated from Russia" is quite a weak formulation and should not be used as source for attribution claims. It is also definitely false.
Cont. reading: More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere
Sorry, No Post Today.
Sorry, no post today.
The heating installation for the block I am living in failed yesterday. It is supposed to be up again only late this evening. It is freezing not only outside and typing with mittens on is just too inconvenient.
Use as open thread …
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-007
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-007
Was This Fakenews An Attempt To Get Khamenei Banned From Twitter?
Yesterday Reuters issued this fake news story:
Top Iran leader posts Trump-like image with drone, vows revenge
DUBAI (Reuters) – The Twitter account of Iran's Supreme Leader on Friday carried the image of a golfer resembling former President Donald Trump apparently being targeted by a drone, vowing revenge over the killing of a top Iranian general in a U.S. drone attack.
The post carried the text of remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in December, in which he said "Revenge is certain", renewing a vow of vengeance ahead of the first anniversary of the killing of top military commander General Qassem Soleimani in the attack in Iraq.
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There was no apparent immediate action by Twitter over the Persian-language tweet on Friday by Khamenei, Iran's highest authority. (https://twitter.com/khamenei_site/status/1352349195114569739?s=24)
The Twitter account @khamenei_site was never Ayatollah Khamenei's Twitter account or associated with him.
Those 886.605 people who follow Khamenei on English Twitter know that his real (English language) account is @khamenei_ir. He has also accounts that post in other languages but those are listed as official ones. @khamenei_site is not one of them.
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One wonders how the Reuters journos in Dubai could make such a 'mistake'. Was the intent to get Khamenei banned from Twitter? Israel has previously tried to achieve that.
Cont. reading: Was This Fakenews An Attempt To Get Khamenei Banned From Twitter?
On Day 1 Joe Biden Destroyed Women’s Sports
On his first day in office President Joe Biden destroyed women's sports.
As one of several executive orders Biden issued the
Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.
It sets out a new policy:
Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love. Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports. Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination. All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
This is librulism gone crazy.
The legal core of the executive order says:
In Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. ___ (2020), the Supreme Court held that Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of . . . sex” covers discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. Under Bostock‘s reasoning, laws that prohibit sex discrimination — including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), the Fair Housing Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), and section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1522), along with their respective implementing regulations — prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, so long as the laws do not contain sufficient indications to the contrary.
Yes, this requires a bit of explaining.
Title VII is the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. BUT title IX also sets out exceptions for a number of specific educational activities including sports.
In the U.S. girl's and women's sport in schools and colleges only took off after Title IX was enacted.
Cont. reading: On Day 1 Joe Biden Destroyed Women’s Sports
The Number Of Uyghurs Has Tripled – The U.S. Calls It A Genocide – Propaganda Fails To Explain It
After being bashed with 24/7 "Trump is bad" news we are now punished with 24/7 of "Biden is great" news.
Actions which were an outrage when taken under Trump are now sold as rational endeavors when argued for by Biden acolytes.
To cover for the turnabout media are getting a bit in a twist and have to make up stupid excuses.
Consider this New York Times piece that now justifies a last minute action the former Secretary of State Mike Pompous took when he falsely declared that the Chinese development of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a 'genocide'.
China’s Oppression of Muslims in Xinjiang, Explained
On the final full day of the Trump presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that China was carrying out a genocide against Uighurs and other Muslim peoples, the toughest condemnation yet of Beijing’s crackdown against its far western region of Xinjiang.
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The incoming Biden administration has indicated its general agreement with the designation. A spokesman for Joseph R. Biden Jr. said during the presidential campaign last year that Beijing’s policies in the region amounted to genocide.
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Here’s a look at the Xinjiang region, China’s crackdown there and what the genocide declaration could mean for the global response.
Uh oh – the 'good Biden' endorses something 'bad Trump' has done. Some mumble is needed to explain that!
Thus follows a number of inaccurate descriptions of the historic and current situation in Xinjiang:
Xinjiang, in the far northwestern region of China, has large numbers of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other mostly Muslim groups. It is culturally, linguistically and religiously more similar to Central Asia than the Chinese interior.
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Uighurs have long bridled at Chinese control of the region, which has seen an influx of ethnic Chinese migrants and an increase in restrictions on local language, culture and religion. Minority groups in Xinjiang say they aren’t given jobs or contracts because of widespread racial discrimination.
The resentment has sometimes boiled over into violence, including attacks on police officers and civilians. In 2009, nearly 200 people, mostly Han Chinese, were killed in riots in Urumqi, the regional capital.
Most of Xinjiang has been under 'Chinese control' for more than 2,000 years. It has always been a mixed region with several ethnic groups including a significant Han population. It has also seen fast population growth caused by high birth rates and migration following strong economic development:
Cont. reading: The Number Of Uyghurs Has Tripled – The U.S. Calls It A Genocide – Propaganda Fails To Explain It
Open Thread 2021-006
Biden Administration’s ‘New’ Foreign Policy Is The ‘More Of The Same’ Old One
Today a new U.S. administration will come in. On foreign policy issues it will be just as disappointing as the leaving one. U.S. foreign policy is dictated by ingrained interests. The mechanisms of policy making in Washington DC guarantee that it is always a continuity and that any changes to it are slow and will only be minor.
Donald Trump and his administration were hated by the woke 'libruls' and the media for their style, not for what they were or were not doing. While Joe Biden, who has been warmongering in the Senate for decades, is now being sold as fresh bread, he is bringing no change to the menu. His foreign policy marketing team will only change the package color of the same old product the Trump team has sold.
The confirmation hearing of Biden's incoming Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and of the incoming Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines give some hints towards these 'new' policies.
The Iranian parliament has ordered the government to end some IAEA inspections and to increase the enrichment level of Uranium starting in mid February unless the Biden administration immediately removes the sanctions on Iran and returns to the nuclear deal.
The Biden administration is likely to ignore this opportunity:
President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, pledged to consult with Israel, Gulf allies and Congress when seeking "a longer and stronger" agreement to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions. During his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Blinken said the incoming administration would “engage on the takeoff, not just the landing” with allies and partners before taking steps to rejoin the landmark nuclear agreement.
"President-elect Biden is committed to the proposition that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Iran with a nuclear weapon or the threshold capacity to build one is an Iran that would act with potentially greater impunity than it already is.”
If Iran returns to strict compliance under the nuclear pact, Biden has said he will reenter the multilateral pact as a starting point for follow-on negotiations to “tighten and lengthen Iran’s nuclear constraints” and address Iran's missile program. Blinken said Tuesday that “we are a long way from there," adding that the administration would need to first ensure Iran is making good on its obligations.
Iran does not want nuclear weapons. It wants its rights and respect. It is the U.S. which has broken the deal. Iran has responded to that by expanding its capabilities beyond some of the limits of the deal. This is reversible but only if the U.S. acts first and at a reasonable speed. Lengthy talks with allies and Congress will prevent that from happening.
The incoming DNI Haines seems to share that analysis:
Republicans questioned Haines on her views about China and Iran, including the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal that Trump pulled back from. Haines said that while the incoming Biden administration has indicated that it would come back to the table with Iran if Tehran came back into compliance, she noted that "frankly, we're a long ways from that."
This summer the people of Iran will elect a new government, likely a conservative one. It will be even less willing to make additional concessions to the U.S. than the current Rouhani government. The conflict will thus fester.
There will also be no policy changes towards Tehran's allies. The Biden administration will not rescind but only 'review' the terrorist designation of the Houthi in Yemen even as it is causing a famine:
Cont. reading: Biden Administration’s ‘New’ Foreign Policy Is The ‘More Of The Same’ Old One
Dystopia
The U.S. seems to have gone completely crazy these day.
Two full divisions worth of soldiers are closing off Washington DC to 'protect' a mostly virtual inauguration from a non-existing threat.
26,000 National Guard members to secure Washington for inauguration
The FBI is investigating the loyalty of those troops as if it were really in doubt.
FBI vetting troops stationed in Washington ahead of Inauguration Day
The leadership of the Democratic Party has gone completely nuts:
QAnon for Democrats? Hillary Clinton & Nancy Pelosi suggest Putin ORDERED Trump to launch Capitol siege in unhinged interview
Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton – 22:38 UTC · Jan 18, 2021
.@SpeakerPelosi and I agree:
Congress needs to establish an investigative body like the 9/11 Commission to determine Trump's ties to Putin so we can repair the damage to our national security and prevent a puppet from occupying the presidency ever again.
They are even more crazy than the outgoing pompous Secretary of State:
Nick Schifrin @nickschifrin – 17:14 UTC · Jan 19, 2021
BREAKING: Huge announcement from @SecPompeo: "I have determined that the PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang."
"I have determined …" Who does the guy think he is?
Meanwhile reality delivered this low blow:
L.A. Suspends Air Quality Rules to Cremate Backlog of Covid-19 Victims
A fail to get a grip on this.
New Leaks Show How British Spies Infiltrate And Undermine Lebanon’s Security Services
A few month ago we reported on documents which revealed secret British 'Strategic Communication' programs in support of the Jihadis who fight against the Syrian people and their government.
In December documents of a different secret program revealed similar British efforts in Lebanon. These were designed to influence certain 'liberal' youth groups in preparation for a 'color revolution' that would overthrow the Lebanese government.
A new set of documents, just recently published, shows British efforts to influence and infiltrate the security forces of Lebanon. These programs are coordinated with Canadian and U.S. efforts to gain influence in the country and to use it on behalf of Israeli interests.
Like usual these programs are sold as white man's burden efforts to 'help' the indigenous people and their governments. But they are in fact undermining the sovereignty of the country and hinder the self determination of its people.
As Professor As`ad AbuKhalil remarked on the previously released batch:
To be sure, the documents seem to be unclassified material related to the operation of the British embassy in Beirut. But it can be easily ascertained that the embassy (at least from these documents, which the British ambassador in Beirut refused to comment on when asked by Lebanese media) was engaged in activities that would close the Lebanese embassy in London if it were engaged in similar activities.
It’s clear Western powers allow their embassies to do things they would never allow developing countries to do from their embassies in the West. After the humiliating defeat of Israel in Lebanon in 2006, there has been a feverish escalation of the propaganda war in Lebanon against all those who declare resistance against Israel.
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These documents help make it clear how the West hasn’t moved on from its colonial legacy. The natives are still regarded as mobs to be controlled and manipulated.
To manipulate and gain control of the 'mobs' it is helpful to manipulate and control the local security services – police, military and border control. The UK set out to do that when it created its 'Lebanon Conflict, Stability and Security Fund' (CSSF).
In April 2019 the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sent invitations to a private supplier event to a few selected private companies. These were invited to bid on two projects:
- Security Programme –Lebanese Armed Forces Project
- Security Programme –Policing Project
The companies were asked to submit Expression of Interests for certain projects under the CSSF. They were send a summary of requirements that describe the aims of the programs and desired qualities needed to achieve these.
The above projects were build on assessments created during previous FCO projects. In 2018 one of such projects was the 'CSSF Lebanon: CT Border Needs Assessment'. Its objective was:
To increase UK understanding of the level of resilience at the Lebanese border to the transit of persons of CT interest. This includes FTFs, returnees and the terrorist displacement from Syria into Lebanon. The movement of goods, such as weapons, and finance these will not be the primary focus though the findings may have impact on these areas.
Note how this objective is in the interest of the UK, not necessarily Lebanon's. While it is framed as counter terrorism project its real aim is more likely to spy on and disrupt the movement of Hizbullah forces between Syria and Lebanon and on weapon supplies from Iran to Lebanon's Hizbullah – weapons which are needed to deter Israel from waging another war on Lebanon.
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The assessment project required collaboration from Lebanese security services:
Cont. reading: New Leaks Show How British Spies Infiltrate And Undermine Lebanon’s Security Services
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-005
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
ANATꙮLY KARLIN @akarlin88 – 16:39 UTC · Jan 16, 2021
A Russian meets up with an American.
"We have freedom of speech," the Russian says. "I can post that Russian elections are falsified on social media."
"What's the big deal?" asks the American. "I too can write that Russian elections are falsified on social media."
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2021-005
Guardian Smears Syria’s President With Implausible Link To Beirut’s Port Blast
On August 4 2020 2.750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehouse of Beirut's harbour, exploded. The blast destroyed large parts of the city.
The dangerous load had come on a defect ship which was impounded by the Lebanese authorities. It had been stored since 2013. Despite urgent warnings, the complicate Lebanese bureaucracy had never found a way to get rid of the dangerous load.
Soon conspiracy theories sprang up about the 'real' ownership and purpose of the load and of who might have had an interest in igniting it. None made much sense. The original explanation of a bureaucratic tussle and pure neglect are still the most plausible cause.
But that does not stop the British Guardian from trying to blame the Syrian government for the incident:
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Here is how the Guardian 'links' the Syrian government with the explosion:
Cont. reading: Guardian Smears Syria’s President With Implausible Link To Beirut’s Port Blast
The Suppression Of Trump Voters Will Not Create Long Term Stability
Someone at CNN was tasked with writing a thrilling story about a brave democratic congressman who did not shy away from confronting the Capitol intruders.
How a swift impeachment was born under siege
Rioters were still ransacking the halls of the US Capitol when two Democrats stuck in lockdown together in the House office buildings across the street started drafting the impeachment resolution that led to the unprecedented second impeachment of President Donald Trump almost exactly one week later.
California Rep. Ted Lieu was forced to evacuate his office in the Cannon Office Building as insurrectionists converged on the Capitol. Grabbing a crowbar in his office, Lieu said he and his chief of staff called the top aide to Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline while wandering the halls and asked if they could hunker down in Cicilline's office in the Rayburn House Office Building. …
Shortly after the story was published someone (a fact checker?, Lieu?) most have notified CNN that a crowbar is an unlikely instrument to be found in a representative's office.
The story was implausible and had to be changed. That done a correction was appended to it.
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The crowbar was replaced with a product placement, a "ProBar energy bar".
That is only one example of the ghastly reporting about the Trump impeachment by the 'librul' media.
They completely miss the point:
Michael Tracey @mtracey – 6:14 UTC · Jan 14, 2021
Virtually none of the corporate media coverage even bothers to remark on the radicalism of what occurred today. "Snap" impeachment with a total of two hours of debate, charging as a "high crime" that the president engaged in political speech.
The anti-Trump campaign, from Russiagate to Ukrainegate to this 'insurrection' nonsense, has likely done more damage to the U.S. than Trump managed to do during his four years in office. The hostility the Democrats have shown will create a huge backlash. Do they really believe that can suppress 74 million Trump voters?
As M.K. Bhadrakumar diagnoses:
For the outside world Trump Impeachment 2.0 can only appear as a kangaroo trial.
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This ongoing project to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time in a little over a year is farcical. …
What happened in Washington, DC, on January 6 was by no means an insurrection. Of course, US citizens were behind the Capitol Building siege. But the parallel ends there. There was no way they could have usurped power in America last Wednesday. In fact, even the vandalism was entirely due to the ineptness of the security personnel deployed there.
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What is the guarantee that another Trump will not arise from outside the cabals that preside over politics in America and reaches out to the people directly? The fact of the matter is that Trump’s support base still remains the envy of any American politician. Seventy million Americans voted for him last November. That massive support base will feel further disenfranchised or disempowered by what the cabals are perpetrating on the Capitol Hill.
The real paradox is that the “mob” who besieged the Capitol building was largely drawn from the American middle classes — the petite bourgeoisie or the ‘transitional class,’ as Karl Marx described them …
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Make no mistake, this class is here to stay in America and if the post-pandemic economic recovery does not go brilliantly well or is mismanaged, its ranks will swell further. That is going to be Biden’s real challenge even if Pelosi were to dispatch Trump into political wilderness.
The backlash from this Trump impeachment will be huge. It may come in rare events of real domestic terrorism. But it is more likely to swell up through smaller acts of civil disobedience. There is a lot that the petite bourgeoisie can sabotage. The CIA has published volumes of advice, meant for people in other countries, on how to do that.
Feisal al-Istrabadi فيصل الاسترابادي @FIstrabadi – 00:03 UTC · 14 Jan 2021
Joy Reid just spoke on MSNBC of the necessity for “de-Baathifying” the Republican Party to rid it of Trumpian influences.
An excellent precedent. It has worked just great in Iraq.
The Democrats aren't stupid. They know that they are provoking more strife. They will use that to roll out authoritarian measure that will serve the powerful.
It is a suppression strategy that has, at times, worked in other countries.
But it does not lead to long term stability.
Open Thread 2021-004
Three Views On The Current Situation In The U.S. Of A.
No post by me for today but three views of interest on the current situation in the U.S. of A.
Pepe Escobar: 9/11 Was the Prelude. 1/6 Is the Holy Grail
So where will 75 million disenfranchised voters – or 88 million Twitter followers – go?
As it stands, we’re deep into Hardcore Class War. The Top of the Scam Gang are in full control. The remains of “Democracy” have gelled into Mediacracy. Ahead, there’s nothing but ruthless purge, protracted crackdown, censorship, blanket surveillance, smashing of civil liberties, a single narrative, overarching cancel (in)culture. It gets worse: next week, this paranoid apparatus merges with the awesome machinery of the United States Government (USG).
Alastair Crooke: America’s Battle Over the Nature and Direction of Change Itself
The next question for 2021 then, concerns that old adage: ‘Beware not to win too much’. It can be a mistake to corner your adversaries to having nothing to lose. The Blue state has ousted Trump; and Blue has taken everything across ‘the board’, and are ready to implement the ‘Re-set’ – the ultimate subjugation of Red by main force, achieved by the preponderance of wealth, ruling institutional leverage, and military power. A social ‘woke’ revolution, as well as a political transformation. The full outcome would likely reconstitute the constitutional order, in ways unrecognizable to most Americans today.
But will Red America succumb from exhaustion, or lack of leadership; or, on the other hand, might it find the energy to revitalise ‘their’ Republic? We shall see – a big question whose ramifications might make the EU élites particularly nervous. Of course Blue now possesses force majeure. But there is another old adage: ‘No passionate, partisan assessment has any value, save to inflame’ – and Big Tech and the MSM’s censorship and accompanying humiliation of Trump may turn him a martyr, and make the spirit of defiance all the stronger.
Diana Johnstone: Biden Exploits His Capitol Gains
From outside the melee, it is easy to define the serious issues that should dominate political debate in the United States. But instead of that, we hear a torrential exchange of insults. The establishment elite cannot stoop to exchange viewpoints with populists denounced as deplorable, racist, misogynist, white supremacist, fascist and now even “terrorist.”
The populists’ unfocused denunciation of the elite describes Wall Street Democrats as “socialists” and veers off into accusations of genocidal vaccination campaigns, occult pedophile rites and Satanism. Instead of anything resembling a clear political division, America is increasingly split by blind, burning mutual hatred.
What American political life needs is not more censorship, but the self-censorship of reason. That is very far away.
Apartheid News
Sheldon Adelson, the casino oligarch who has financed far right causes as well as the political careers of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahoo, has died. In 2013 Adelson had called for nuking Tehran (vid).
Good Riddance.
Unfortunately his money will continue to flow to the far right as his Israeli wife is the one who is now running the show.
In other news B'Tselem, the topmost Israeli human rights organization, finally describes both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single apartheid regime:
B’Tselem rejects the perception of Israel as a democracy (inside the Green Line) that simultaneously upholds a temporary military occupation (beyond it). B’Tselem reached the conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians.
Nothing really new there but it makes it official.
With B'Tselem finally speaking out it is much easier to refute those who falsely denounce the much justified condemnation of Zionism and Israel as anti-semitic.
This comes at a time when Israel is scheming to derail the incoming Biden administration's plan to return to the nuclear deal with Iran:
Israel will start by sending a stream of envoys on visits to Washington, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations. It’s stated publicly that it doesn’t want the U.S. to abandon sanctions on the Islamic Republic without a new deal, and that a tougher stance should be taken toward its nuclear project, ballistic missile program and regional proxy forces.
That strategy runs against the Biden team’s willingness to re-enter the deal, then negotiate an expansion of its terms. It’s conditioned on Iran’s returning to compliance with the accord, whose limits it breached after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018.
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Israel also has a higher-risk card up its sleeve: the potential to upend diplomatic efforts through covert operations against Iran.
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Netanyahu has been open about his intention to thwart renewed U.S. participation. In a rare public split, he rebuked his envoy to Germany for supporting Berlin’s push to expand the deal.
“There should be no return to the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015 — a deal which is flawed to its foundations,” Netanyahu said.
With Biden being an arch-Zionist and with a team of Zionist Jews leading the State Department the chances of a fast return to the deal can be regarded as slim.
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