Auteur: EN-AG

The Great Replacement in Switzerland

Posted by EN-AGon in Great, Replacement
the-great-replacement-in-switzerland

18-01-20 07:56:00,

After the article on the Great Replacement in Belgium, I present you the following translation of an article by Polémia on the situation in Switzerland. The Swiss situation is unique, if only because of the country’s objective excellence and exceptional quality of life, and the extraordinary practice of direct democracy. Thus we have the rather rare situation of citizens actually being allowed to vote on whether and in what conditions new people should be allowed into their country.

Make no mistake: the scale of demographic change is also tremendous in Switzerland, but mainly because of European immigration and even Europeans find it very difficult to accede to Swiss nationality (there is no birthright citizenship). Thus Switzerland provides a model how people might preserve a nice country in the future: a highly-selective, citizenist little republic founded on gentrified democratic localism.

* * *

Switzerland has experienced very significant immigration over the past decades. This immigration is a source of fears or even rejection on the part of a portion of the Swiss people. These fears concern basically two issues: competition on the labor market by Europeans and the challenge to the [Swiss] cultural model posed by non-Europeans; all the more so in that, recently, the integration of the non-European population is failing to be realized.

In the face of this, the Swiss authorities’ responses oscillate between openness and firmness. A firmness which is occasionally demanded by the people in the form of the referenda which are regularly organized in Switzerland. Selective immigration is not an empty slogan in this country, even if a part of the political opposition would like the government to go much further on this issue.

Very significant migration flows

Since the Second World War, Switzerland has experienced two significant waves of immigration. The first coincided with the industrial growth of the 50s and 60s. The second began in 1975 and has continued ever since.

After the Second World War, the Swiss government granted many residence permits to mostly European workers in a context of industrial recovery. Immigration was then suddenly stopped with the repatriation of almost 300,000 foreign workers during the economic crisis caused by the first oil shock of 1973.

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Xenobots are here: Tiny bio-robots inside your veins may heal you & will definitely be weaponized by West to take out ‘bad guys’

Posted by EN-AGon in bio-robots, Xenobots
xenobots-are-here:-tiny-bio-robots-inside-your-veins-may-heal-you-&-will-definitely-be-weaponized-by-west-to-take-out-‘bad-guys’

18-01-20 11:40:00,

Peter Andrews is an Irish science journalist and writer, based in London. He has a background in the life sciences, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Genetics

Xenobots — tiny, biological robots swarms designed by a computer — are upon us. What does the birth of these strange not-quite-alive creatures mean for robotics — and for us?

Real robots are not two-legged steel boxes with a metallic voice

Mankind has been imagining advanced robot technology for a long time  — pop culture is full of Terminators, Cylons, and Droids. But in fact, these humanoid designs show a distinct lack of imagination. Why have we always assumed that robots would be designed to have the same basic form as us: slightly ungainly primates trotting about on two feet, perhaps even toting a gun? The latest models make that particular notion look a bit 1950s.

Also on rt.com
‘Neither robot nor animal’: Scientists develop the ‘Xenobots,’ 1st robots constructed completely from LIVING CELLS (VIDEO)

One such model are the fearsome xenobots unleashed by American scientists a this week. These are biological robots less than a millimetre wide, that can move, release a payload and repair themselves. Grown from stem cells (cells that can turn into any type of body cell) that were cut into specific shapes designed by a supercomputer, they can swim inside the human body for weeks on end, working together to achieve a task.

They can walk and swim, meaning they are just one sport short of a triathlon. On top of all this, they have one more superpower — Wolverine’s healing factor. Well, it may not be ripped from Marvel comics, but they can repair themselves without any help. And when the poor little xenobots reach the end of their short but glorious lives (are they alive?) inside your body, you can rest easy with the thought that since they are entirely organic, they will biodegrade naturally. What could be more comforting than artificial creatures dying inside your veins made of nothing but harmless African clawed frog DNA?

Supercomputer creates sentience

Jokes aside, this is an astonishing leap forward in the game of playing God.

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Going Viral

Posted by EN-AGon in Going, Viral
going-viral

17-01-20 01:02:00,

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=34812

So what does it mean to “go viral” anyway? No, no, no. What does it really mean? Join James for a philosophical exploration of memes, virality and the body politic on this edition of The Corbett Report podcast.

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Vind ik leuk:
Like Laden…

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Arkansas ‘Charity’ Still ‘Testing’ on Little Girls in Idlib

Posted by EN-AGon in 'Charity', Arkansas
arkansas-‘charity’-still-‘testing’-on-little-girls-in-idlib

17-01-20 09:39:00,

The tweet explaining that cosmetology students were tested for skills with make-up and skin care products using very little Syrian girls, in al Qaeda occupied Idlib.

In November, Syria News wrote a piece on an Arkansas ‘charity’ funding a woman-less women’s center in Idlib, whose reputed cosmetology students were tested on their skills in painting little Syrian girls as though putting them on the Epstein market.

The class consisted of two students, completely covered in niqab, one of whom was actually a man, identified by his man hands in one of the photographs. 

We remind our readers that in Idlib — “the largest al Qaeda haven since 9/11 — women are seen only for public executions. This reality makes the claim of a ”women’s center” sadistically obscene.

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In Honor of Martin Luther King: “The Pursuit of Peace” and MLK’s Historic Analysis of “American Militarism” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Honor, Martin
in-honor-of-martin-luther-king:-“the-pursuit-of-peace”-and-mlk’s-historic-analysis-of-“american-militarism”-–-global-research

16-01-20 07:57:00,

Consider some of what the Reverend MLK proclaimed about American militarism:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

“A few years ago there was a shining moment in the struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.”

The assassination of Qassem Soleimani and seven others including a top Iraqi commander was “mad on war.” Soleimani was both an Iranian general and an Iranian diplomat at the highest level, a hero throughout the mid-east for defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Literally millions of Iranians demonstrated in four different Iranian cities in mourning and in solidarity against the U.S.

Soleimani did not pose an “imminent danger,” the only possible way to justify the murders under international law. Just another bold-faced lie to justify American aggression. On Jan. 13, NBC News reported that Trump authorized the killing seven months ago.

The drone attack on Soleimani happened at Baghdad Airport – without notice to, much less permission from the Iraqi government. Two days later, the Iraqi Prime Minister addressed the Iraqi Parliament stating that Soleimani was in Baghdad to meet with him at Trump’s request so as to discuss a Saudi proposal to de-escalate the volatile situation between Saudi Arabia and Iran; in other words, Trump lured Soleimani to Baghdad on a mission of peace.

The Iraqi Parliament thereupon voted to expel all American troops from Iraq. Sec. of State Pompeo’s response? We’re staying anyway. So much for the cause of freedom and democracy.

This illegal, self-defeating, counter-productive, barbaric attack put us right back on the brink of a tit-for-tat escalation with no end in sight.

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Why a Shadowy Tech Firm With Ties to Israeli Intelligence Is Running Doomsday Election Simulations | Light On Conspiracies – Revealing the Agenda

Posted by EN-AGon in Israeli, Shadowy
why-a-shadowy-tech-firm-with-ties-to-israeli-intelligence-is-running-doomsday-election-simulations-|-light-on-conspiracies-–-revealing-the-agenda

16-01-20 11:33:00,

A shadowy tech firm with deep ties to Israeli intelligence and newly inked contracts to protect Pentagon computers is partnering with Lockheed Martin to gain unprecedented access to the heart of America’s democracy.

Election Day 2020: 32 Americans dead, over 200 injured, martial law declared and the election itself is canceled. While this horrific scenario seems more like the plot of a Hollywood film, such was the end result of a recent simulation examining the preparedness of U.S. officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Secret Service against “bad actors” seeking to undermine the upcoming presidential election.

Yet, this simulation was not a government-organized exercise but was instead orchestrated by a private company with deep ties to foreign and domestic intelligence services, a company that is also funded by investors with clear connections to individuals who would stand to benefit if such a catastrophic election outcome were to become reality.

Much of the rhetoric since the last presidential election in 2016 has focused on the issue of foreign meddling by U.S. rival states like Russia, while China has emerged as the new “meddler” of choice in American corporate media as the 2020 election approaches. Though time has revealed that many of the post-2016 election meddling claims were not as significant as initially claimed, the constant media discussion of foreign threats to U.S. democracy and electoral processes – whether real or imagined – has undeniably created a climate of fear.

Those fears have since been preyed upon by neoconservative groups and the U.S. military-industrial complex, both of which are hardly known for their love of demcratic processes, to offer a series of ready-made solutions to these threats that actually undermine key pillars of American democracy, including independent reporting and voting machine software.

However, many of the very same media outlets and groups that frequently fretted about Russia, China or another rival state meddling in U.S. democracy have largely ignored the role of other nation states, such as Israel, in efforts to sway the last U.S. election in 2016 and meddle in numerous elections in Africa, Latin America and Asia in the years since.

As a consequence of this climate of fear,

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Vivian Lee, The Strange Crash of Ukrainian Flight #752 in Iran – James Fetzer

Posted by EN-AGon in Strange, Vivian
vivian-lee,-the-strange-crash-of-ukrainian-flight-#752-in-iran-–-james-fetzer

16-01-20 11:10:00,

Vivian Lee

On the morning of January 8, 2020, a Boeing 737 crashed and left debris scattered over a wide area just minutes after takeoff from the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. The Ukrainian International Airlines jet was en route to Kyiv, scheduled to land at Boryspil International Airport at 8 am local time. “Amateur” videos posted on social media led to the suspicion that the plane had been brought down by a missile over the city of Parand.

The first video, posted on Instagram by The Rich Kids of Tehran, was taken by someone who just happened to be shooting up at the totally dark sky at the very moment the plane appeared and was apparently hit by something, resulting in its crash in a flaming fireball when it hit the ground. This recalls the luck of the Naudet brothers on 9/11. The New York Times obtained a high-resolution copy of the Rich Kids video and “verified” it, whatever that means.

A second video was posted, filmed from a car that was driving in the direction of the crash. A third video showed the plane flying in from the right, proceeding on a downward trajectory, and exploding in a huge fireball upon impact:

A CCTV video turned up, reportedly showing the last moments of the jet, or what remained of it, exploding in a passageway between two walls, raining burning debris and leaving small fires on the ground. Other videos of small fires circulated in the media, suggesting widespread burning and destruction.

There were 176 people on board flight #752 according to Wikipedia, including 9 Ukrainian crew members and two additional Ukrainians. The other passengers included, by nationality, citizens of Iran (82), Canada (63), Sweden (10), Afghanistan (7), and Great Britain (3). According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was outraged by the situation, 138 of the 167 passengers were traveling to Canada. At least one Canadian passport was recovered, miraculously, and it seems likely that there are others. Just like the passports of four of the alleged hijackers on 9/11.

Canadian Passport. Image: Office of the President of Ukraine.

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Russian Government Unexpectedly Resigns On Putin Plans For Drastic Constitutional Changes

Posted by EN-AGon in Government, Russian
russian-government-unexpectedly-resigns-on-putin-plans-for-drastic-constitutional-changes

15-01-20 07:29:00,

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has made a shock and dramatic announcement that he and the entire Russian government is resigning in a statement just after President Vladimir Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation address, state media outlets report. The ruble slipped about 0.5% on the news.

Despite what appears a drastic shake-up afoot, Reuters suggests it’s part of a plan that could result in Putin extending his power despite a constitutional ban currently in effect preventing him from running for more than two consecutive terms. It appears a bid for him to handpick the new government and enact reforms that could weaken his future successor. 

“President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday proposed a nationwide vote on sweeping constitutional changes that would shift power from the presidency to parliament and the prime minister, a move that could allow him to extend his rule after leaving the Kremlin,” Reuters comments.

Medvedev said the government resignation means Putin will decide the new government’s make-up, after which the now former prime minister appears to have been appointed head of the security council.

So despite it appearing that Putin is perhaps actually giving away power, it must be remembered that his presidential term doesn’t expire till 2024.

“In this context, it is obvious that, as the government, we must provide the president with a capability to make all decisions,” Medvedev said of Putin’s proposing several amendments to the constitution. Medvedev later told TASS that Putin’s proposals introduce “substantial changes not only to an entire range of articles of the constitution, but also to the entire balance of power, the power of the executive, the power of the legislature, the power of judiciary.”

The #Russian constitution gives enormous powers to the President allowing #Putin to almost enact whatever he would like. In the past when Putin term came up, he either extended the term limit of the presidency or stepped down and became PM while giving the PM role lots of power

— Strategic Sentinel (@StratSentinel) January 15, 2020

Russia’s RT is reporting the newly resigned ministers will act in a ‘caretaker’ capacity:

Accepting the resignation,

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#CNNIsTrash Trends As Pushback Grows Against Oligarchic Election Meddling

Posted by EN-AGon in CNNIsTrash, Trends
#cnnistrash-trends-as-pushback-grows-against-oligarchic-election-meddling

15-01-20 07:21:00,

The hashtag #CNNIsTrash is the number one trend on Twitter as of this writing due to the network’s appalling treatment of Bernie Sanders in last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.

The joint smear job against Sanders had many arms, including wildly biased questions like Wolf Blitzer deliberately associating Bernie with “Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei” by pointing out that they both want US troops out of the Middle East and demanding to know how he was going to avoid “bankrupting the country” with a healthcare plan used in nations all over the world.

But by far the most glaringly egregious assault on the Vermont Senator’s image was when CNN moderator Abby Phillip took a completely evidence-free sexism smear which defies all logic and presented it to the debate audience as an established and undeniable fact. You can watch the exchange here:

Phillip brought up a transparently ridiculous claim that was “leaked” to the press and confirmed by Warren that in 2018 Sanders had told Warren he did not believe that a woman could win a presidential election. It’s a completely unproven allegation about an unwitnessed private conversation, yet Phillip did not ask Sanders if he had said such a thing, she asked him why he said it, presenting it as a given fact.

Sanders explicitly denied ever saying any such thing. He said there’s Youtube footage people can look up of him saying a woman could become president many decades ago, adding that he only ran for president in 2016 because Warren refused grassroots efforts to persuade her to run (efforts which he’d supported).

“So Senator Sanders, I do want to be clear here, you’re saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election?” asked Phillip.

“That is correct,” Sanders replied.

“Senator Warren,” Phillip then asked without missing a beat. “What did you think when Senator Sanders told you that a woman could not win the election?”

It was such a brazen manipulation that even CNN’s heavily pro-establishment crowd audibly reacted. Warren then cooperated with this manipulation by responding as though the allegation was a proven fact,

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The Pentagon’s and CIA’s Power to Assassinate Americans – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Pentagon, Power
the-pentagon’s-and-cia’s-power-to-assassinate-americans-–-global-research

15-01-20 07:20:00,

Pentagon officials are assuring Americans that the Pentagon’s recent assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani will make Americans safer. There is at least one big problem with that formulation, one that, unfortunately, many Americans still don’t recognize. That problem is this: the power of assassination wielded by the Pentagon and the CIA extends to American citizens.

Why is that a problem?

Because there is no way to reconcile a government’s power to assassinate its own citizens with the principles of a free society. A free society necessarily is one in which the government lacks the power to assassinate its own citizens.

Our American ancestors clearly understood this aspect of a free society. That’s why they demanded the enactment of the Fifth Amendment as a condition for accepting the new limited-government republic that was being proposed by the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment reads in part: “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” That phrase — due process of law, which stretches back to Magna Carta — has come to mean notice and trial, including trial by jury.

Americans had been operating under the Articles of Confederation for some 13 years when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention proposed a limited-government republic type of governmental system. Under the Articles, the federal government hadn’t even been given the power to tax, much less the power to assassinate American citizens. Americans were leery about the proposal for a limited-government republic because they feared that it might evolve into a government with totalitarian-like powers, such as the power to assassinate its own citizens.

Americans finally were persuaded to accept the deal but they demanded the enactment of the Bill of Rights to make sure that federal officials got the point. The Bill of Rights essentially says: “You don’t have the power to destroy our fundamental, God-given rights, and you also lack the power to kill us without following the principles of due process of law.”

The Framers did not bring into existence a government in which federal officials would be entrusted with the power of assassination. Instead, they made certain that the federal government was denied the power of assassination. They understood that freedom isn’t a government in which officials are exercising a power of assassination prudently,

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Reality Versus The Repo Lightening

Posted by EN-AGon in Reality, versus
reality-versus-the-repo-lightening

15-01-20 09:51:00,

Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com,

We’re still only a few days into 2020 but a very reliable trend has already emerged and bears watching. The trend: No matter what happens anywhere in the world or even if markets flush a quick 50 handles in overnight (i.e. on the recent Iran mini crisis) by morning all is well. Why? Because the Fed’s daily liquidity injections are filtering into market behavior every single day and you can see it in the chart action.

Every trading day this year the Fed has unleashed repo operations of varying size in premarket. These are the daily liquidity injections the New York Fed provides in overnight repo markets to keep overnight rates artificially suppressed and to meet rising demand of banks for liquidity. The temporary liquidity crisis has apparently become permanent.

What do you call all this? Some call it a subsidy:

The New York Fed is basically giving big banks a subsidy with its ongoing repo operations because its rate is below the market’s rate: @irajersey of Bloomberg Intelligence on @BloombergRadio

— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) January 14, 2020

I call it a perversion of financial markets. Why? Because it has now become permanent and it distorts everything.

See here’s the thing: Every day is the same. Whether markets open down (up mostly) the ample liquidity appears to make it immediately into markets.

The New York Fed publishes its running repo operations and sizes for each day on their website. You can see the daily operations there every day.

All these operations occur prior to US market open, and then lightning strikes. Spot the trend:

Each market open gets vertically jammed higher. The only obvious exception was the first trading day of the year, also the smallest repo operation of the year. Initial selling came in, but not to fear, the lightning effect took hold after all with a vertical ramp into close.

Correlation does not necessarily equate causation, but we can observe regular, get me in at all cost,

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Illinois Becomes 20th State To Force Taxpayers To Foot Bill For Transgender Surgery

Posted by EN-AGon in Becomes, Illinois
illinois-becomes-20th-state-to-force-taxpayers-to-foot-bill-for-transgender-surgery

15-01-20 09:49:00,

Authored by Tyler O’Neil via PJMedia.com,

Far-left activists don’t just want Americans to approve of transgender ideology and to call people by preferred pronouns unmoored from biological sex – they also want to force taxpayers to foot the bill for dangerous experimental surgeries that leave people infertile and scarred for life.

On December 23, Illinois joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia to explicitly require Medicaid to pay for transgender surgeries. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the state’s primary Medicaid agency, published new administrative rules mandating the coverage of certain “gender-affirming” services. Illinois formerly excluded “transsexual surgery” from the taxpayer-funded program.

“Health care is a right, not a privilege, and I’m committed to ensuring our LGBTQ community and all Illinoisans have access to that right,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) said in a statement in April.

“Expanding Medicaid to cover gender affirming surgeries is cost effective, helps avoid long-term health consequences, and most importantly is the right thing to do. With continued attacks coming from Washington, this administration will always stand with our transgender community and their right to lead safe and healthy lives.”

Almost everything in this statement was dead wrong. Health care should not be considered a “right,” because it involves the hard work of doctors and nurses, who deserved to be compensated for their work. Perhaps most importantly, however, the idea that “gender-affirming” surgeries help “avoid long-term health consquences” is false, as is the idea that covering these surgeries is necessarily “the right thing to do.”

Transgender activists have pushed this narrative based on the idea that the only way to curb the high rate of suicide among people who identify themselves as transgender is to force society to accept transgender identity. Te thinking goes like this: When transgender people have surgery to “affirm” their identity as the opposite sex, they will be less likely to commit suicide. Therefore, transgender surgery is essential to their health, and the government paying for it actually saves money in the long run.

The evidence actually suggests the opposite. While there are few long-term studies on transgender health available, the most thorough follow-up study involving transgender people — extending over 30 years and conducted in Sweden,

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The West Will Try Again to Blow Up Russia From Within – Year Results | The Vineyard of the Saker

Posted by EN-AGon in Again, Russia
the-west-will-try-again-to-blow-up-russia-from-within-–-year-results-|-the-vineyard-of-the-saker

15-01-20 09:39:00,

by Ruslan Ostashko

Translated by Sasha

Captioned by Leo

The home front is the most complicated for Russia if only because it was by sabotage that our implacable partners destroyed the USSR in the previous century. This is why taking stock for 2019 on the home front is the most complicated.

During the holidays our channel (PolitRussia) subscribers were able to see a series of episodes dedicated to the results of the past year. This episode concludes the aforementioned series and I delayed writing this to the very last moment because it is the most complicated one. If 2018 was marked by the unpopular “pretend” pension reform which dropped the government’s popularity ratings, for 2019 it is rather difficult to name a single event which would characterise the entire year. In the meantime, the opinion polls reveal that the shadow of the pension reform disgrace continued to hover over the year 2019.

Take a look at Russian Public Opinion Research Centre poll: 10% of respondents named the pension “under-reform” the event of the year. To compare, only 4% of responders saw the Crimean Bridge as the event of the year. In the meantime, 74% altogether failed to point out an event that would have been the most important in the past year. And this is despite the possibility of choosing more than one event. What does it tell us? That the society is overall calm. There are no over optimistic expectations, nor there is an impression of a some illustrious victory by Russia in 2019, but neither is there any nagging or pessimism. Which is confirmed by the results of another poll.

Answering the question: “What are your feelings about the passing year and the new year?” 42% of our fellow citizens said they were in a rather good mood and felt optimistic. This is less than a half but just as many – 42% – said they do not feel particularly elated but neither they have negative emotions. If to sum up both groups, it will make 84% of positive or balanced people. As for the whiners, who are seeing the 2020 in a bad mood and bad expectations, they are 14%. This is 7% less than in 2018 but it is still quite a lot.

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How The US Runs Iraq

Posted by EN-AGon in Algemeen
how-the-us-runs-iraq

15-01-20 09:36:00,

Authored by Eric Margolis,

What ever happened to Iraq? Is it not an independent country with a democratic government thanks to the 2003 US invasion? So says Washington.

The murder of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani suddenly shone a strobe light on ‘independent’ Iraq, and what we saw was not pretty.

Welcome to the new Imperialism 101.

Iraq’s population is estimated around 39 million. The pre-war Iraq of 2003 was broken into three parts by the US-British invasion: the Shia majority; Kurds in the north; and Sunnis, with scatterings of other ethnicities. Iraq remains fragmented into hostile groups.

Its Shia are confusingly allied to the US and Iran. The killing of Maj. Gen. Soleimani by the Americans has thrown this alliance of convenience into confusion. Iraqi Kurds are close to the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence. The Sunnis are left adrift, without any foreign patrons except for other feeble Arab states.

The US maintains a modest garrison of 5,000 infantry in Iraq and 3-5 air bases, as well as the gigantic fortified US Embassy in Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone which contains one of the world’s largest CIA bases. Angry mobs demonstrating in front of the embassy triggered off the chain of events that led to Trump’s murder of Gen. Soleimani. That an impeached president should be murdering foreign figures is a question that Congress must ask.

Before he was murdered, Osama bin Laden called this monster Baghdad embassy and its twin in Kabul, `crusader fortresses.’ That is indeed their role, and to serve as the nerve center for all Mideast operations by the US. Iraq enjoys some of the world’s largest oil reserves. Where the profit from Iraq’s mammoth oil exports go remains a closely guarded secret.

Combined with Saudi Arabia – also controlled by the US – Iraq gives Washington control of the bulk of Mideast oil. The US no longer relies on oil from the Mideast, being self-sufficient – at least for now. But dominating the Mideast gives the US huge influence over China, Japan, India, and Europe, all of whom import oil from there. This is the main pillar of US world power and the supremacy of the dollar.

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Cooperation between North and South Korea not dependent on US-N. Korea talks – Seoul

Posted by EN-AGon in Cooperation, Korea
cooperation-between-north-and-south-korea-not-dependent-on-us-n.-korea-talks-–-seoul

15-01-20 09:21:00,

Inter-Korean cooperation doesn’t necessarily have to wait for Washington’s denuclearization talks with Pyongyang to progress, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Tuesday.

She made the statement after meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other diplomats in Palo Alto, California. “Our basic stance is that North Korea-US talks and inter-Korean dialogue complement each other in a virtuous cycle,” the minister said.

Kang added that, with US-North Korea talks in stalemate, it is essential to revive “North Korea’s engagement momentum” through inter-Korean talks.

The meeting came after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said inter-Korean cooperation could help ease the way for sanctions to be lifted on North Korea. However, it is unclear whether Pyongyang would welcome the proposed steps, Reuters said.

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Moscow calls for collective security ‘like OSCE for Europe’ to be implemented in Persian Gulf region – Lavrov

Posted by EN-AGon in calls, Moscow
moscow-calls-for-collective-security-‘like-osce-for-europe’-to-be-implemented-in-persian-gulf-region-–-lavrov

15-01-20 09:20:00,

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged Persian Gulf nations to work toward the creation of a joint security mechanism, noting that Moscow was concerned about the tense standoff in the region.

Lavrov said Russia was troubled by tensions in the Persian Gulf, and encouraged regional states to cooperate to ensure regional stability.

“We have been suggesting to the Gulf countries to think about collective security mechanisms, something like OSCE for Europe”, Lavrov told the international Raisina Dialogue conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“It´s not just ‘let´s not fight with each other’”, Lavrov said, adding that the initiative is about transparency and cooperation, and suggesting that more international players should be involved.

Also on rt.com
India seeks to strengthen relationships with Iran and Russia as US-made chaos threatens New Delhi

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Putin’s Orthodox Christmas Visit to Damascus Plays Up Assad’s Syria as Enclave of Peace – While Rest of Middle East Burns – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Orthodox, Putins
putin’s-orthodox-christmas-visit-to-damascus-plays-up-assad’s-syria-as-enclave-of-peace-–-while-rest-of-middle-east-burns-–-global-research

14-01-20 08:25:00,

Russian leader Vladimir Putin made a surprise Christmas visit to Syria, where he met with the country’s president, Bashar Assad. The tranquility of their meeting was in sharp contrast to the hell breaking out in neighboring Iraq.

The unannounced visit to Syria, where Putin also delivered a Christmas address to Russian forces deployed in that nation, was remarkable. Any visit by a national leader to a foreign war zone is, in and of itself, notable, and let there be no doubt – Syria is an active war zone. But Syria is no run of the mill conflict zone. It is at the center of a complex web of violence involving a myriad of state and non-state actors, including two adversarial nuclear powers – the US and Russia.

The conflict also involves separatist Kurds, Syrian rebels, foreign Islamist terrorists, Hezbollah, the Turkish Army, Israeli and Iranian forces, and the Syrian Army. And while the Syrian conflict has entered what most observers believe is the end game, with the Syrian Army, backed up by the Russian Air Force, engaged in a final offensive against the last militant bastion in Idlib Province, the potential for Syria to explode in violence involving some or all of the forces listed above is a real and present danger.

While Putin was on the ground in Syria, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired at least a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles at US bases on Iraqi soil. These attacks were in retaliation for the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a senior IRGC general who was much beloved and respected inside and outside of Iran.

The Iranian government has stated that if the US does not respond to this retaliation, then General Soleimani’s death will have been revenged, and the crisis terminated. If, however, the US were to attack Iran, then Tehran has threatened to attack additional targets in the region, including Israel and the UAE. If this were to transpire, then the situation in the Middle East would devolve into general war that would undoubtedly spread to Israel.

Putin has a record of visiting Russian troops who are deployed in harm’s way. Shortly after taking over the presidency from Boris Yeltsin, Putin made a scheduled trip to Chechnya, where he met with soldiers in Grozny.

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Establishment Pundits Go Nuts Over New Russian Hacking Conspiracy

Posted by EN-AGon in Establishment, Pundits
establishment-pundits-go-nuts-over-new-russian-hacking-conspiracy

14-01-20 09:25:00,

The New York Times reports that GRU operatives launched a successful “phishing attack” on the Ukrainian gas company at the heart of scandalous allegations about Joe Biden, and establishment pundits are falling all over themselves to tweet the hottest take on this exciting new Russia conspiracy.

The story itself fails the smell test on a number of fronts. It falsely claims that allegations of Biden’s corrupt dealings with Ukrainian officials as vice president have been “discredited”, and its only named source is a cybersecurity firm with foundational ties to the NSA and to Crowdstrike, which you may remember as the extremely shady Atlantic Council-tied company at the heart of the plot hole-riddled 2016 Russia hacking narrative (whose founder is now a billionaire).

The article also of course lacks any hard evidence for its claims, and is of course completely silent on any details as to how the security firm knows that the alleged hackers were both (A) Russian and (B) tied to the Russian government. This is par for course with mass media news reporting on anything negative about Russia, where all journalistic standards have gone out the window and nobody suffers any professional consequences for even the most egregious misreporting on that nation.

And, naturally, liberal pundits are guzzling it down like Mike Pompeo left alone at the table with the gravy boat.

Thanks to editor of another establishment “news” organization for being so mindblowingly & transparently corrupt that even I can see through you.

Here our establishment errand boy warns that any true information about Joe & Hunter Biden’s corruption is Russian Disinformation https://t.co/YF3oLnScSd

— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) January 14, 2020

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a man trying to run with an erection, but FYI it’s the most ridiculous-looking thing you can possibly ever witness. And the mad scramble of conservative Democrats to say something viral about this new angle on an entirely exhausted theme puts one in the mind of a whole platoon of men running completely tumescent at full sprint.

“I hope my fellow editors will think hard — really hard,

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With their statehood destroyed by NATO, Libya’s warring sides should come to terms, not fight each other – Lavrov

Posted by EN-AGon in destroyed, statehood
with-their-statehood-destroyed-by-nato,-libya’s-warring-sides-should-come-to-terms,-not-fight-each-other-–-lavrov

14-01-20 09:13:00,

Major world powers are pushing Libya’s warring factions to find a way out of the conflict that has ravaged the country since 2011’s “criminal and illegitimate” NATO bombings annihilated its statehood, Sergey Lavrov has said. 

All nations interested in bringing lasting peace to Libya – among them key European and Middle Eastern powers – “are acting in the same direction and are encouraging all Libyan parties to come to an agreement, rather than continuing to sort things out by force,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

These days, we are working exactly to ensure that all Libyan parties show the same responsibility for the fate of their country.

At the moment “there is no statehood in Libya,” the top diplomat lamented, claiming it was effectively annihilated by NATO back in 2011 and the Libyan people are still bearing the brunt of that “criminal, illegitimate venture.”

“If Libya could become ‘a second Syria’, I believe the Libyan people will benefit from this,” Lavrov said, in an apparent reference to a concerted effort by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to stem hostilities between the Syrian army and rebel forces in various parts of the country.

READ MORE: Moscow talks offer chance for peace in Libya’s post NATO-intervention bloody civil war

The top diplomat spoke shortly after Turkey and Russia enforced a ceasefire between the rebellious Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli. They also brokered a major peace summit in Moscow this week, where it was suggested that hostilities stop without any preconditions.

But General Khalifa Haftar, chief of the LNA, refused to sign an agreement, claiming it didn’t include some of demands put forward by his organization.

Also on rt.com
Libyan General Haftar left Moscow talks without signing truce with Tripoli-based GNA

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Iran Jet Disaster Setup

Posted by EN-AGon in Disaster, Setup
iran-jet-disaster-setup

14-01-20 12:31:00,

The 19-second video published by the New York Times last week showing the moment an Iranian missile hit a passenger jet has prompted much social media skepticism.

Questions arise about the improbable timing and circumstances of recording the precise moment when the plane was hit.

The newspaper ran the splash story on January 9, the day after a Ukrainian airliner was brought down near Tehran. It was headlined: ‘Video Shows Ukrainian Plane Being Hit Over Iran’. All 176 people onboard were killed. Two days later, the Iranian military admitted that one of its air defense units had fired at the plane in the mistaken belief that it was an incoming enemy cruise missile.

“A smoking gun” was how NY Times’ journalist Christiaan Triebert described the video in a tweet. Triebert works in the visual investigations team at the paper. In the same tweet, he thanked – “a very big shout out” – to an Iranian national by the name of Nariman Gharib “who provided it [the video] to the NY Times, and the videographer, who would like to remain anonymous”.

The footage i’ve got from a source – the moment the missile hit the #Flight752. I can’t verify the video yet! but please let me know if you find anything. I’m in contact with the person who send this video to see if I can get a version of video which has a meta data on it pic.twitter.com/HtesW5uecB

— 🤖Nariman (@NarimanGharib) January 9, 2020

​The anonymous videographer is the person who caught the 19-second clip which shows a missile striking Flight PS752 shortly after take-off from Tehran’s Imam Khomenei airport at around 6.15 am. This person, who remains silent during the filming while smoking a cigarette (the smoke briefly wafts over the screen), is standing in the suburb of Parand looking northwest. His location was verified by the NY Times using satellite data. The rapid way the newspaper’s technical resources were marshaled raises a curious question about how a seemingly random video submission was afforded such punctilious attention.

But the big question which many people on social media are asking is: why was this “videographer” standing in a derelict industrial area outside Tehran at around six o’clock in the morning with a mobile phone camera training on a fixed angle to the darkened sky?

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Democratic establishment & MSM panic as Sanders surges into the lead in primary polls. Who’s worse, him or Trump?

Posted by EN-AGon in Democratic, Establishment
democratic-establishment-&-msm-panic-as-sanders-surges-into-the-lead-in-primary-polls.-who’s-worse,-him-or-trump?

13-01-20 06:22:00,

The US political and media establishment is belatedly lashing out at “democratic socialist” presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who has taken the lead in polls by laying into the Democratic Party elite’s bland corporate centrism.

“Democrats had better attack Sanders before it’s too late!” Monday’s Daily Beast headline may be hyperbole, but it accurately expressed the mood of the party’s centrist establishment. Independent Vermont Senator Sanders is running for president as a Democrat, and has promised to back the Democratic nominee should he fail to secure the top prize. But that’s cold comfort to the party elite, who are beginning to worry after a poll published on Monday showed the unabashed leftist in first place in Iowa, with less than a month to go before that state holds its influential caucus. Nor is that the only state Sanders appears poised to win.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren – who has tried to position her campaign as a more moderate, pragmatic version of Sanders’ progressive platform – has charged to the party’s rescue, latching onto a fundraising script allegedly used by the Sanders campaign that described her supporters as “highly educated, more affluent people.” Portraying her constituents thus equates to “trashing her,” she told reporters when confronted with the script on Sunday. Warren then went on to use it as the basis of a fundraising email pleading for “unity.”

Such a dumb controversy. In a new fundraising email, multi-millionaire fmr. Harvard law professor/renowned academic Elizabeth Warren claims her campaign is being smeared by Sanders volunteers noting that her base are generally more affluent and educated than the VT Senator’s. pic.twitter.com/PiKfiQbqPc

— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 13, 2020

While Warren condemned Sanders for injecting “factionalism” into the contest, statistics don’t lie – she is more popular among the “educated and rich,” while Sanders enjoys more support among poorer voters and those without a college education.

Only in the rarefied climate of the Democratic primary would “educated and rich” even be considered an insult – the fundraising email sent by a campaign staffer for Harvard professor Warren even insisted that the phrase “doesn’t describe me or many of the passionate volunteers and organizers I know.” But 2020 is not a normal election,

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Universal Basic Income: A Dream Come True For Despots

Posted by EN-AGon in Basic, Universal
universal-basic-income:-a-dream-come-true-for-despots

13-01-20 09:06:00,

Authored by Antony Sammeroff via The Mises Institute,

I’m sitting in the pub after a Skeptics Society meet up. I don’t go very often, but there was a famous author speaking, and living (as most of us do these days) in something of a social media bubble, this is a rare opportunity for me to actually get a window into what thinking people outside of my circle have to say on some of the issues of the day. A warm chat ensues over a pint with a couple of the other attendees, when miraculously the conversation at my table turns to the universal basic income (UBI). My neighbour gushes with vigour over its merits. He eagerly vows that it will solve innumerable problems facing our civilisation and I get the feeling he has been spreading the gospel at every available turn because this idea is the crucial one. If only he can get enough people to believe it…

I abstain from mentioning my book as I don’t want to prejudice his answers to any of my questions. I politely wait my turn, and then ask a simple question: “What do you think the potential disadvantages of the basic income would be, then?”

He replies, “There aren’t any.”

Trade-Offs Are Inescapable

Despite the heated disagreements between economists on just about every issue under the sun, there is probably one point that they are all actually unanimous on. That is the fact that every policy has winners and losers. Given that human wants are infinite but our means towards attaining those wants are limited, policies, by their nature, advantage some groups at the expense of others.

But the universal basic income seems unaffected. It’s going to cure poverty, eliminate stress, reduce crime, unleash entrepreneurship, emancipate women, save us from AI, and fight climate change. I’m not not exaggerating. I googled, and there are multiple articles claiming that, not only will the UBI save the economy from flatlining due to a lack of consumer demand by increasing consumption, but somehow also put a halt to global warming as well — contradictory as these two aims may seem.

Is the UBI is a flying unicorn that poops rainbows?

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Hedge Fund CIO: Will The Fed Ever Be Held Accountable For Turbocharging Inequality That Poisons America

Posted by EN-AGon in Accountable, Hedge
hedge-fund-cio:-will-the-fed-ever-be-held-accountable-for-turbocharging-inequality-that-poisons-america

13-01-20 09:05:00,

Submitted by Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God,” pledged the 2.7mm young, courageous American soldiers that our Commanders-in-Chief sent to Iraq and Afghanistan Since 2001. Over 6,900 of them died there. Over 52,000 have been wounded. Bush, Obama and Trump spent over $6 trillion. 480,000 Iraqis, Afghanis and Pakistanis died, half civilians. Millions were displaced. Who is accountable? What are the consequences?

 
Overall

“This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys,” wrote one of Boeing’s employees, referring to their 737 Max. “I don’t know how to fix these things… it’s systemic. It’s culture. It’s the fact we have a senior leadership team that understands very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives,” wrote another. “I still haven’t been forgiven by God for the covering up I did last year. Can’t do it one more time, the pearly gates will be closed,” wrote another. Boeing is our mightiest manufacturing exporter. A symbol of American greatness. Boeing’s board held the CEO accountable, fired him. The consequence for the catastrophe of his leadership? He walked away with $61mm in compensation.

Carlos Ghosn held an absurd press conference to clear his name, having fled Japan in box barely big enough to contain his greed and shamelessness. Set against Adam Neumann’s $1.7bln golden parachute, Ghosn perhaps believes Japanese consequences are overly harsh.

You see, accountability and consequences are both relative things. The less we hold ourselves accountable, the less accountable we become. And the lower the consequences we face, the more outraged we come to be when faced with the slightest consequence.

Not a single person was held accountable for the 2008 debacle. Nor for Iraq/Afghanistan. Earth’s sixth mass extinction is underway, Australia is burning, no global leader wants to seriously be held accountable,

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‘I wish I was inside that plane’: Iran’s IRGC chief expresses sorrow over downing of Ukrainian jet

Posted by EN-AGon in Inside, Plane
‘i-wish-i-was-inside-that-plane’:-iran’s-irgc-chief-expresses-sorrow-over-downing-of-ukrainian-jet

13-01-20 09:00:00,

The top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, expressed his deepest condolences, saying he had never felt more ashamed in his life than after the Ukrainian passenger jet tragedy.

Debriefing a session of Iran’s parliament on Sunday, Salami stated that the IRGC has no other purpose or wish “but to be torn into pieces for the sake of the security, welfare and peace of [the Iranian] people.”

I swear on the life of my children… I wish I were inside that plane and fell down and burned along with those loved ones instead of witnessing this tragic incident. 

Also on rt.com
‘I wish I was dead’: Senior IRGC commander accepts responsibility for downing Ukrainian jet, says it was mistaken for missile

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was misidentified as an incoming cruise missile, according to Iran’s military, which was on high alert at the time of the incident following a strike against US assets in Iraq. According to the IRGC, the military never sought to hide the incident and immediately notified the authorities, but this information was not immediately disclosed publicly, pending an internal probe, as due procedure was to be followed.

Among the 176 people who perished in the tragedy, 147 were Iranians – including dozens of students with dual Canadian citizenship. Some of the mass vigils held for the victims across Iran turned into anti-government rallies, while Western officials and establishment figures wasted no time showing how much they admire the ‘courage’ of the Iranians who took to the streets to vent their anger and clash with authorities.

Also on rt.com
‘Regime change is in the air’: US establishment seeks to capitalize on Iranian protests… again

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Declare Your Independence From the New World Order

Posted by EN-AGon in Declare, Independence
declare-your-independence-from-the-new-world-order

13-01-20 08:55:00,

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=34679

Recorded December 18, 2019. James joins Ernest Hancock for his bi-monthly appearance on Declare Your Independence to discuss the New (multipolar) World Order, the false hope of the BRICS, and how to overcome (not weaponize) learned helplessness.

Share this:

Vind ik leuk:
Like Laden…

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Knesset to go forward debating & rejecting Bibi’s immunity request as his allies cry it will be a ‘jungle’

Posted by EN-AGon in forward, Knesset
knesset-to-go-forward-debating-&-rejecting-bibi’s-immunity-request-as-his-allies-cry-it-will-be-a-‘jungle’

12-01-20 09:38:00,

In a blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Knesset was given the green light to debate his immunity from prosecution. The legislative body is likely to deny it, paving the way for his corruption trial to start.

Netanyahu requested immunity after he was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust saying he needs “to continue to lead Israel to great achievements.”
 
On Sunday Eyal Yinon, the Knesset’s legal adviser, issued a ruling that Speaker Yuli Edelstein should allow the formation of a Knesset House Committee that will look into the matter and is expected to reject the request.  
 
Edelstein, who is part of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, warned at a press conference in Jerusalem that “convening the Knesset committee” is a “grave mistake” as it will turn the legal process into a “jungle that will debase the honor of the legislative body.”

Also on rt.com
Bid to keep Netanyahu out of PM’s office after election because he’s facing bribery charges shot down in court

Yinon delivered his opinion shortly before Edelstein’s press conference and said the speaker does not have the authority to block the formation of a committee to debate Netanyahu’s request for immunity. 

When requesting immunity, Netanyahu said it was only “temporary” and that “there is no possibility for anyone to avoid standing trial.”

The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing and said that immunity laws exist to protect “elected officials from political lawsuits.”
 
Israel has been facing political turmoil for quite some time with close election results in April and September last year preventing the formation of a government. A committee can usually only be formed after
the government has been sworn in, but with Yinon’s ruling, this means one will need to be formed anyway. When Netanyahu’s request is rejected, as many expect to happen, then a corruption trial can officially begin. 

And with Israel’s general election set for March 2, Netanyahu may become the first sitting prime minister to enter an election while on trial.

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Genetically Modified Seeds in India: Faking it on the Astroturf – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Genetically, Modified
genetically-modified-seeds-in-india:-faking-it-on-the-astroturf-–-global-research

12-01-20 03:39:00,

According to a recent report in The Hindu Business Line, India’s intelligence agencies are investigating the role of a global investment company and international seed companies in supporting farmers organisation Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) in the distribution of illegally procured genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant (HT) cotton seeds. The planting of such seeds is an offence under the Environment Protection Act and Seeds Act.

In May 2019, SS broke the law and freely distributed these seeds. In early January 2020, it broke the law again by distributing second generation seeds. According to the report, a senior intelligence official had told Business Line that a global investment company, with investments in seeds and agrochemicals companies, has chosen to support the farmers’ organisation.

Business Line reports that the investment company is allegedly putting pressure on the Modi government to ensure that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee fast tracks the clearance of HT seeds, so the seeds could be legally harvested and sold in the country.

In India, five high-level reports have advised against the adoption of GM crops. Appointed by the Supreme Court, the ‘Technical Expert Committee (TEC) Final Report’ (2013) was scathing about the prevailing regulatory system and highlighted its inadequacies and serious inherent conflicts of interest. The TEC recommended a 10-year moratorium on the commercial release of all GM crops.

The reason why Bt cotton – to date, India’s only officially approved GM crop – made it into farmers’ fields in the first place was due to ‘approval by contamination’. Bt cotton was discovered in 2001 growing on thousands of hectares in Gujarat. In March 2002, it was approved for commercial cultivation.

The pro-GMO lobby has again resorted to such tactics. The 2010 moratorium on Bt brinjal was implemented because science won out against a regulatory process that lacked competency, possessed endemic conflicts of interest and demonstrated a lack of expertise in GM risk assessment protocols, including food safety assessment and the assessment of environmental impacts.

As we have seen with the relentless push to get GM mustard commercialised, the problems persist. Now, to justify breaking the law, we are seeing unscientific claims and well-worn industry-inspired soundbites about GM crops: political posturing unsupported by evidence to try to sway the policy agenda in favour of GM.

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Iran, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by EN-AGon in Notes, Other
iran,-and-other-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix

12-01-20 03:33:00,

The greatest asset of the propagandists is your belief that you haven’t been propagandized.

~

Hi my name’s Maga McBootlick. I fight the establishment by cheerleading for the US President, I oppose war by supporting the same Middle East agendas as Dick Cheney, John Bolton and Bill Kristol, and I love the Iranian people so much I want to kill them with starvation sanctions.

~

I can’t believe I’ve spent a week and a half arguing with Republicans who insist that assassinating a nation’s top general is perfectly sane and normal and fine. No, idiots. No.

~

Trump supporters keep telling me how upset they are that I’m dedicating so much time and energy to criticizing his Iran warmongering. The mental irritation you experience when I criticize your president is called cognitive dissonance. It’s what being wrong feels like.

~

Note to the US government: you don’t get to murder civilians with starvation sanctions and then have anyone believe you when you tell them you stand with them. Not a thing.

~

When you target civilians with sanctions with the stated goal of making them so miserable and hungry that they rise up against their government, and then openly urge them to rise up against their government, you are trying to start a civil war. That is the thing you are doing. People should really think hard about exactly what that means.

The US Secretary of State has openly admitted that Iran is being sanctioned not so that its government will change its behavior, but so that the Iranian people will force their government out. This cannot happen without coordinated violence against Tehran, i.e. civil war.

We’ve known for years that the CIA has been ramping up covert operations within Iran. Concerns that the CIA is working to foment violence and disorder in Tehran are not idle speculation. It is most definitely happening. Only question is how and to what extent.

~

Anyone who’s ever escaped from a relationship with a sociopath can see these “We stand with the people of Nation X in rising up against their government” scripts for the imperialist manipulations they are.

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The Fed Protects Gamblers at the Expense of the Economy. “Helicopter Money” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Gamblers, Protects
the-fed-protects-gamblers-at-the-expense-of-the-economy.-“helicopter-money”-–-global-research

11-01-20 09:04:00,

Although the repo market is little known to most people, it is a $1-trillion-a-day credit machine, in which not just banks but hedge funds and other “shadow banks” borrow to finance their trades. Under the Federal Reserve Act, the central bank’s lending window is open only to licensed depository banks; but the Fed is now pouring billions of dollars into the repo (repurchase agreements) market, in effect making risk-free loans to speculators at less than 2%.

This does not serve the real economy, in which products, services and jobs are created. However, the Fed is trapped into this speculative monetary expansion to avoid a cascade of defaults of the sort it was facing with the long-term capital management crisis in 1998 and the Lehman crisis in 2008. The repo market is a fragile house of cards waiting for a strong wind to blow it down, propped up by misguided monetary policies that have forced central banks to underwrite its highly risky ventures.

The Financial Economy Versus the Real Economy

The Fed’s dilemma was graphically illustrated in a Dec. 19 podcast by entrepreneur/investor George Gammon, who explained we actually have two economies – the “real” (productive) economy and the “financialized” economy. “Financialization” is defined at Wikipedia as “a pattern of accumulation in which profits accrue primarily through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production.” Rather than producing things itself, financialization feeds on the profits of others who produce.

The financialized economy – including stocks, corporate bonds and real estate – is now booming. Meanwhile, the bulk of the population struggles to meet daily expenses. The world’s 500 richest people got $12 trillion richer in 2019, while 45% of Americans have no savings, and nearly 70% could not come up with $1,000 in an emergency without borrowing.

Gammon explains that central bank policies intended to boost the real economy have had the effect only of boosting the financial economy. The policies’ stated purpose is to increase spending by increasing lending by banks, which are supposed to be the vehicles for liquidity to flow from the financial to the real economy. But this transmission mechanism isn’t working, because consumers are tapped out. They can’t spend more unless their incomes go up,

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Ten Years Ago in the Aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake: The Militarization of “Emergency Aid”. Was it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion? – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon in Aftermath, Years
ten-years-ago-in-the-aftermath-of-the-haiti-earthquake:-the-militarization-of-“emergency-aid”.-was-it-a-humanitarian-operation-or-an-invasion?-–-global-research

11-01-20 03:06:00,

Ten years ago:

This article was written three days after the January 12, 2010 earthquake which led to the devastation of Haiti.

Was it an Invasion or a Humanitarian Endeavour?  

It was an invasion coupled with economic plunder and destruction supported by the USAID and the United Nations, not to mention the Clinton Foundation.

It was an engineered crime against humanity.

The project consisted in destroying Haiti as a Nation State, transforming a country into a territory, taking over its resources, impoverishing its population.

The weaponization of Humanitarian is not limited to Haiti. 

Michel Chossudovsky, January 1o, 2020

*       *       *

Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti’s national economy and the impoverishment of its population.

The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country’s predicament.

A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.

Haiti’s history, its colonial past have been erased.

The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

The main actors in America’s “humanitarian operation” are the Department of Defense, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (See USAID Speeches: On-The-Record Briefing on the Situation in Haiti, 01/13/10). USAID has also been entrusted in channelling food aid to Haiti, which is distributed by the World Food Program. (See USAID Press Release: USAID to Provide Emergency Food Aid for Haiti Earthquake Victims, January 13, 2010)

The military component of the US mission, however, tends to overshadow the civilian functions of rescuing a desperate and impoverished population. The overall humanitarian operation is not being led by civilian governmental agencies such as FEMA or USAID, but by the Pentagon.

The dominant decision making role has been entrusted to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

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