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Bullseye

Best of the Web: I am a trans woman - but I think this woke world has gone too far

Sophia Narwitz
RT
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:12 UTC
pride parade
© Getty Images / Diego Diaz / Icon Sportswire
Trans people have lost the plot. Every day, an increasing amount of absurdity floods in as they do more harm than good. They scream for acceptance without realizing that the ones damaging their image aren't bigots, but themselves.

From anger directed at celebrities for the rational belief that parents shouldn't decide whether their three-year-old is trans, to a culture of outrage that freaks out at the most minor of offenses, transgender activists have become detrimental to my, and others', very existence.

Not helping matters is the fact that these people are laying bombs within our language in the hope they trigger, so they themselves can become triggered. Saying 'transgendered' instead of 'transgender' can see you labeled as transphobic, as can saying 'transwomen' instead of 'trans (notice the space) women.' This is a linguistic minefield with the sole intent of catching people off guard. And those who are caught in its blast are branded as bigots.

This concept is nonsensical, as it's one thing to correct someone who made a grammatical mistake, but another thing altogether to get outright offended when someone makes a simple error, and that's what is occurring. A turn of events which only pushes people away as no one wants to associate with a group of people who become so easily upset.
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Sheriff

Best of the Web: Die or ask the Syrian government to take them in: The Kurdish militias simply have no other options

Mikhail Khodarenok
RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:12 UTC
Syrian army
© Reuters / SANALocals greet Syrian army soldiers in the town of Ain Issa, Syria.
Tensions in eastern Syria are flaring, after Turkey launched its military operation in the country's north-east. As Turks and their proxies advance, Kurds retreat, defending themselves - possibly right into the arms of Damascus.

The state of play

Turkish forces are targeting two areas, Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad. They have inched forward 10-15 km into Syrian territory towards Ras al-Ayn and are up to 30 km inside Syria on the way to Tel Abyad. They have even set up a foothold mid-way. The Turkish army wants to block the strategic M4 highway along the Turkish border, which links Syria's economic capital Aleppo with its administrative center, Al-Hasakah, in the country's north-east.

Turkey has deployed commandos, special ops forces, tanks and artillery. Its forces on the ground, all part of Operation Peace Spring, include 14,000 troops, 120 tanks, 230 armored combat vehicles and 240 artillery pieces.

Comment: See also:

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Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Spain's suppression of independence movement backfires as Catalan leaders pledge new referendum - Protests rage in Barcelona for second night

James Badcock
The Telegraph
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 20:14 UTC
barcelona protests
Catalans blockade streets by setting dumpsters alight to prevent riot police forces loyal to Madrid from navigating Barcelona and other cities.
Catalan political leaders said on Tuesday that the long prison terms handed to nine politicians for their role in the 2017 independence referendum had strengthened their determination to force the region's secession from Spain.

Quim Torra, the president of Catalonia, said: "We will never give up on the right to self-determination."

"The intention is to prevent us from doing it again, but we will do it again because holding a referendum is not a crime," he declared.

His defiance came as demonstrators blocked a train station and several motorways in Catalonia on Tuesday, a second day of protests over Monday's jailing of nine separatists by the supreme court over their role in the failed secession bid.

Police intervened to remove the protesters, while a rally in central Barcelona closed a main thoroughfare to traffic and pro-independence leaders vowed to keep pushing for a new referendum.

Comment: But when it's Hong Kong on fire, it's very much the EU's business! And when it comes to taxation and anti-austerity measures, it's definitely the EU's business! Useless jobsworths...

As for the 'internal' Spanish govt; what the hell did they think would happen if they jailed the organizers of the 2017 referendum??

The footage coming out of Barcelona this evening is even more intense than yesterday's:







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Fire

Best of the Web: Victory or fire: The plan for Hong Kong

Tom Luongo
Gold Goats 'N Guns
Mon, 14 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
ProtestersHK
© Unknown
It's become quite clear to me that the situation in Hong Kong is now about regime change through economic terrorism. What started as peaceful protests against an extradition law and worry over reunification with China has morphed into an ugly and vicious assault on the city's economic future.

These are being perpetrated by the so-called "Black Bloc," roving bands of mask-wearing, police-tactic defying vandals attacking randomly around the city to disrupt people going to work.

Pepe Escobar has been doing exemplary work in recent months covering the ins and outs of Asian politics. His latest article covers the "Black Bloc," their tactics and who's likely behind them in Hong Kong:
"More likely to be informed is Hong Kong garment and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, billionaire publisher of the pro-democracy Apple Daily, the city's Chinese Communist Party critic-in-chief and highly visible interlocutor of official Washington, DC, notables such as US Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and ex-National Security Council head John Bolton.

"On September 6, before the onset of the deranged vandalism and violence that have defined Hong Kong "pro-democracy protests" over the past several weeks, Lai spoke with Bloomberg TV's Stephen Engle from his Kowloon home.

"He pronounced himself convinced that - if protests turned violent China would have no choice but to send People's Armed Police units from Shenzen into Hong Kong to put down unrest.

"That," he said on Bloomberg TV, "will be a repeat of the Tiananmen Square massacre and that will bring in the whole world against China..... Hong Kong will be done, and ... China will be done, too."
Jimmy Lai is telling you what the strategy is here. The goal is to thoroughly undermine China's standing on the world stage and raise that of the U.S. This is economic warfare, it's a hybrid war tactic. And the soldiers are radicalized kids in uniforms bonking old men on the heads with sticks and taunting cops.
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Propaganda

Best of the Web: NYT has been 'duped by spooks and terrorists' - Russian military corrects flaws in report on hospital bombings


RT
Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:39 UTC
field hospital
© AFP/George DurfalianRebel shelled field hospital in Furqan neighborhood of Aleppo, 2016.
A damning report by the New York Times, which accused Russia of bombing four UN-protected hospitals in Syria, is a product of misinformation by Western intelligence services and jihadists, the Russian military said.

On Sunday, the leading US newspaper said it had irrefutable proof that Russian warplanes had bombed four sites in Syria, which it knew to be locations of civilian hospitals. The accusation stems from analysis of social media, interviews with witnesses, data provided by local plane spotters and records of communications of the Russian military deployed in Syria. The bombings, which happened on May 5 and 6, are just a faction [sic fraction] of attacks on civilian infrastructure, for which Moscow carries responsibility, the newspaper alleged.

Responding to the accusation on Monday, the Russian military said Times report was flawed for several reasons, including failure to explain that Idlib Governorate, where the four alleged bombings took place, lives under rule of brutal jihadists. That detail affects the entire narrative, indicating its flawed sourcing.

Comment: From Sputnik, 14/10/2019: Hospital allegedly 'destroyed' in Syria is well-protected terrorist bunker
The New York Times previously claimed that the Russian Air Forces had bombed several hospitals in Syria back in May. The newspaper said that local journalists had filmed the bombing and proved the incident via a radio recording of a ground controller giving the coordinates of the facility to the pilots.

The Russian Ministry of Defence stated on Monday that the "bomb-destroyed" hospital in Syria mentioned in the NYT reports was actually a terrorist base in a cave, adding that 80 journalists saw it.

The Russian military representative pointed out that "the hospital for civilians" was located in an area far from settlements in an "isolated cave", where medics couldn't have upheld any standards for treating injured people.

According to Gen. Major Igor Konashenkov, the media fell for another disinformation stunt, propagated by the British intelligence services, masked as news from "activists".

He also dismissed claims about "eavesdropped" dialogue between pilots and ground controllers, stressing that the military does not use open radio channels to transmit coordinates.


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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: 'It's an assembly line': De-transitioned man says parents encouraging kids to become transgender are guilty of 'child abuse'


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 18:49 UTC
LGBTQ propaganda kids
© Reuters / Tyrone Siu
A man who lived for eight years as a trans woman before de-transitioning has called out the "child abuse" from adults who encourage transgenderism in kids, saying it's an "abhorrent" interference in their natural development.

Born male, Walt Heyer began transitioning to female at 42 years-old. He lived that way for eight years before realizing he had been a victim of childhood abuse and began the process of returning to his birth-assigned gender.

In an explosive interview with controversial conservative host Candace Owens, Heyer re-told the story of his troubled childhood; how his grandmother sparked gender confusion by encouraging him to wear a purple dress at the age of four - and how he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle as a direct result.

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Pirates

Best of the Web: Two female Islamist terrorists sentenced to 25+ years for Notre Dame 'bombing' attempt in 2016


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 11:59 UTC
notre dame fire
© Getty ImagesIf the cathedral was attacked by Muslim extremists in 2016, was it also attacked by Muslim extremists in 2019?
Two French members of an all-female Islamic terror group linked to ISIS have been sentenced to over 25 years in prison each for their failed attempt to blow up Notre Dame cathedral with a car packed full of gas cylinders.

Inès Madani and Ornella Gilligmann received 30 and 25 years in prison, respectively, on Monday after a French court found them guilty of the September 4, 2016 plot to blow up Notre Dame which prosecutors claimed would have killed at least 60 people if it had been successful.


Comment: Madani is a Muslim name, but Gilligmann is almost certainly Jewish.


Comment: The two hapless 'terroristas' were clearly put up to it, presumably for the purpose of catching them and generating 'terror scare' stories for the media.

Given that Notre Dame was targeted in 2016 - however crudely - and was then subsequently destroyed in a fire at a time when other cathedrals in France were deliberately targeted by mystery arsonists, the obvious questions are:
  • Was Notre Dame deliberately burned down by Muslim extremists in April this year?
  • Who put them up to it?
  • Assuming it was deliberately targeted this year, why are the govt and media covering this up?
See also:

Chief architect of Notre Dame: 'We installed new detection system in 2010, and completely rewired the cathedral, so the fire wasn't caused by electrical short-circuit'

Notre Dame Cathedral worker claims Paris' largest church was DELIBERATELY set on fire

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Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Catalan uproar over jail sentences for independence leaders could seal Spain's fate - Alex Salmond


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 09:37 UTC
barcelona airport protest
The sentences were "antidemocratic, oppressive and totally counterproductive" for the Spanish government, because "now [the pro-independence politicians] will achieve martyrdom," Salmond explained.
This is the day that these Spanish judges actually sealed the fate of the Spanish state. I don't see the Catalan crisis ending now anywhere except in Catalan independence.
The Catalans were found guilty of sedition, but not rebellion, the most serious of the charges they faced over the 2017 declaration of independence. The secession attempt followed a referendum, banned by the Madrid government, that saw 90 percent of Catalans vote for independence despite a heavy-handed crackdown on those 42 percent who turned out to polls.


Comment: As we can see from that result, it was not a clear mandate from Catalonians in favor of secession from Spain. But that doesn't excuse the Spanish state's heavy-handed approach to brutalizing first the referendum proceedings two years ago, and now protesters voicing support for their jailed leaders.



Comment: Yup, Spain is in trouble. Protests have also erupted in cities outside the breakaway Catalonia region.

For the sake of Spanish unity, Madrid has to climb down from this and commute the leaders' sentences, pronto.

While those who are pro-independence tend to be left/liberal, repeatedly beating them over the head risks drawing conservative Catalans to their cause.

More footage coming out of Catalonia:



Whether one supports the secessionists or Spain in this matter, the take-home point of all this is the rank hypocrisy of Western leadership when it comes to so-called freedom and democracy:



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Quenelle - Golden

Best of the Web: 'Equation of power changed': Top Iranian official says Middle East is 'safer place' without US


Sputnik
Mon, 14 Oct 2019 23:29 UTC
Iranian Missile Test
© AP Photo / IRNA/ Mostafa Qotbi
Following the start of the Turkish military operation in northern Syria, the US announced that it would pull out some of its troops from the area, with President Donald Trump criticising the efforts of previous administrations that dragged Washington into wars in the Middle East.

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani has stated that the Middle East would be "a safer place without the US", stating that Washington should withdraw its troops from the region entirely and not just from Syria. He argued that even US officials have acknowledged that getting involved in the region's wars was a mistake, apparently referring to US President Donald Trump's recent criticism of past US administrations' Middle East policies.

Commenting on the recent statement by the POTUS, Shamkhani alleged that his administration has realised that "the equation of power and politics in the Middle East has changed" and that the US can no longer claim the leading position in the region.

Comment: See also:

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Binoculars

Best of the Web: Kurds face stark options after US pullback

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Mon, 14 Oct 2019 21:10 UTC
kurd syria
© AFP / Delil SouleimanSyrian Arabs and Kurdish civilians arrive to Hassakeh city after fleeing bombardment on Syria's northeastern towns along the Turkish border on October 10, 2019 amid fears of a new humanitarian crisis.
In the annals of bombastic Trump tweets, this one is simply astonishing: here we have a President of the United States, on the record, unmasking the whole $8-trillion intervention in the Middle East as an endless war based on a "false premise." No wonder the Pentagon is not amused. Trump's tweet bisects the surreal geopolitical spectacle of Turkey attacking a 120-kilometer-long stretch of Syrian territory east of the Euphrates to essentially expel Syrian Kurds. Even after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cleared with Trump the terms of the Orwellian-named "Operation Peace Spring," Ankara may now face the risk of US economic sanctions.

The predominant Western narrative credits the Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly Kurdish, for fighting and defeating Islamic State, also known as Daesh. The SDF is essentially a collection of mercenaries working for the Pentagon against Damascus. But many Syrian citizens argue that ISIS was in fact defeated by the Syrian Arab Army, Russian aerial and technical expertise plus advisers and special forces from Iran and Hezbollah.

As much as Ankara may regard the YPG Kurds - the "People's protection units" - and the PKK as mere "terrorists" (in the PKK's case aligned with Washington), Operation Peace Spring has in principle nothing to do with a massacre of Kurds.

Comment: See also:

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