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Light Saber

Best of the Web: A measure of vindication for Tulsi Gabbard

Scott Ritter
TruthDig
Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:28 UTC
gabbard debate
© Paul Sancya / Associated PressRep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks in Detroit on July 31, 2019 during the second of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN.
In the aftermath of the second Democratic primary debate on July 31, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard emerged as the most Googled of all candidates, an indication that her performance (which included a stunning takedown of California Sen. Kamala Harris over her criminal justice record) attracted the attention of many viewers. This heightened level of attention produced blowback, both from Harris, who dismissed Gabbard as "an Assad apologist" (a reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad), and from the mainstream media, typified by CNN's Chris Cuomo, who alleged that Gabbard — a major in the Hawaiian National Guard, with two tours of duty in the Middle East under her belt — is taking the side of Assad over the U.S. intelligence community and U.N. inspectors when it comes to assigning blame for chemical weapons attacks against Syrian civilians.

"What you are referring to are [sic] cynicism as skepticism that I have expressed, because I've served in a war that was caused by people who lied to us, who lied to the American people, who presented false evidence that members of Congress and U.S. senators believed and voted for a war that resulted in the loss of lives of over 4,000 of my brothers and sisters in uniform," Gabbard replied to Cuomo. "It's our responsibility as lawmakers and as leaders in this country to make sure that our U.S. military is not being activated and deployed to go to war unless we are certain a) that it serves the best interests of the American people; and b) that that action will actually have a positive impact. The questions I'm raising are based on this experience that I've had."
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Family

Best of the Web: While other 2020 Democrats are busy pandering, Tulsi Gabbard is serving her country

Brad Polumbo
The Washington Examiner
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 22:47 UTC
tulsi gabbard military service
During her service in the military, Gabbard served first in Iraq and later in Kuwait. While in Kuwait, she became the first woman to ever receive an award of appreciation from the Kuwaiti military.
Presidential aspirant Elizabeth Warren wants you to know that she is very, very relatable. Warren, along with many other 2020 candidates, was sure to share photos of her eating corn dogs and other food with common folk at the Iowa State Fair.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris just wished Muslims a happy holiday within hours of tweeting a video of her chomping down on a pork chop. The California Democrat was too busy pandering to notice the irony.

Add this to Cory Booker and Beto O'Rourke's cringe-worthy attempts to speak Spanish on the debate stage, and it's just another reminder that most 2020 Democrats are desperately trying to come across as relatable and in-touch — but coming up empty.

Comment: Gabbard is the first candidate in many a moon to understand what it would be to send the US to war. It forms the foundation of her politics.

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Sherlock

Best of the Web: The conflict in Kashmir

Israel Shamir
UNZ review
Sun, 11 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
Kashmir
Daring Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, has killed a sacred cow, called Article 370 of the Constitution, enshrining the autonomy of Kashmir. The consequences could be dire, including the fourth India-Pakistan war, but not necessarily so. It could also be a successful scheme. Apparently, Narendra Modi had been encouraged by his success in recent elections, by his decent relations with the three powerful men of our age, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu; and by the rearmament and modernisation of India's armed forces. So he decided to go for the root of the age-long Kashmir problem, instead of treating its symptoms, and terminate the special status altogether, giving the people of Kashmir the same rights as all Indian citizens have, not more, neither less.

Kashmir, a chain of pleasant green mountain valleys, was the most cherished patrimony of the Great Mughals, who embellished it with palaces and gardens. Here the Muslims and Hindus have lived together in peace and harmony. A blessed country, if there ever was one, Kashmir could flourish if this peaceful coexistence had survived. Alas, it did not. Frequent riots, separatism and imported Islamic extremism have made life difficult for everybody.

The Hindus were forced to leave Kashmir; many Muslims had left too, rather than having to serve the firebrand insurgents. Their empty, ruined or burned down houses still stick out in Srinagar and elsewhere, though many of the properties were sold for a song during the insurgency.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

Best of the Web: Plummeting stocks at Dow, S&P & NASDAQ, signs of 2008-style crash up ahead?


RT
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:50 UTC
dow drops
© Reuters
Stock fell and demands for bonds rose as the markets interpreted Treasuries rates as a signal preceding a recession. Dow Jones has closed down 800 points, with other stock indexes plunging as well.

US stocks dropped between two and three percent across the board by early Wednesday afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 800 points, NASDAQ down over 240 points, and the S&P 500 dropping 85 points.

The slide was attributed to the "inverted gap" in rates for short- and long-term US Treasury bonds, which was taken as a warning that normally precedes a recession. Goldman Sachs Group led the rout of financial stocks, falling by four percent.

Comment: The system wasn't reformed after the crash a decade ago and so the corruption which benefited the establishment continued, but it seems that reality has finally begun to bite: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #26: Globalization vs Nationalism - The Hidden Causes of The Yellow Vest Protests in France

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Pirates

Best of the Web: Western meddling and subterfuge in Russian affairs and the Moscow Duma election

Riafan
Stalker Zone
Sat, 10 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
protests in Moscow
In the Federation Council an enlarged meeting of the working group of the temporary commission on defending state sovereignty and preventing interference in the internal affairs of Russia took place. The reason for it was the Moscow City Duma election, or rather - unauthorised actions in support of unregistered candidates and the participation of the West in them.

Outside intervention was foreseen in May of this year

Opening the meeting, the chairman of the commission Andrey Klimov reminded that on May 30th of this year the question of the possible interference of the US and its partners in the Russian political system in the run-up to the uniform voting day in Russia on September 8th 2019 was raised in the Federation Council.
"Back then we drew the conclusion that the US and its supporters, with the actual complicity of those who are considered abroad to be stooges for the destabilisation of the Russian political system, will try to take advantage of the next election in our country. At the same time, i.e. two months ago, we named the Moscow City Duma election process as being subject to possible interference. Unfortunately, our conclusions about the expected provocations that will take place with external support were confirmed. I say 'unfortunately' because there was the hope that foreign partners will start to observe, at last, the fundamental principles of the UN, including the principle of non-interference in the affairs of the sovereign states. There was also the hope that certain representatives of the so-called 'non-systemic opposition' will refrain from doubtful cooperation with those who officially in their documents, including in the US federal law, proclaim Russia as the enemy and call to 'contain Russia at any cost' - it is a quote," said senator Klimov, opening the meeting.

Comment: So the next time you hear someone spout something about 'Russian collusion' or such other nonsense - send them this article. The real election meddling (and worse) comes from the US - and is directed to Russia.

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Take 2

Best of the Web: Actor Alec Baldwin, named in Epstein's Little Black Book, reckons 'Russians' killed him

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 20:04 UTC
Alec Baldwin
© REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Alec Baldwin, you are a talented and likeable actor, but why do so many of your political pronouncements sound like you are trying to sabotage your own side?

I mean why in the world would you just tweet, "The Russians killed Epstein. They're in charge of everything now."


Do you know something that we are trying to guess? Or are you a sleuth one step ahead of us?

You did play Detective Bill Ramstead, and Detective McCutcheon in the past two years. You were also a senior NSA official in Mercury Rising, and even the director of the CIA in Mission Impossible.

Comment: What a lunatic.

Curiously enough, Baldwin's deets were in Epstein's Little Black Book:



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Pirates

Flashback Best of the Web: Camp Bucca: The US military internment camp in Iraq where ISIS was born

Maria Podkopaeva
Fort Russ
Wed, 10 Jun 2015 16:37 UTC
Camp Bucca
Camp Bucca
In the past six months reputable publications and news agencies of different countries increasingly engage in a heated discussion about whose project is ISIS. And who is responsible for the emergence and operation of this group. Discussion started late last year in the Western media of this topic can hardly be silenced. Therefore an exchange of blame is inevitable.

The main nerve of the emerging debate is the burning issue about the real relationship between ISIS and the United States. It is not easy to provide an exhaustive answer. However, much begins to make sense.

On the one hand, ISIS is conducting a campaign of threats against the U.S. and American citizens. On the other hand, Americans are already openly perceived as the handlers of ISIS. In mid-April 2015 the Iranian news Agency Fars quoted the statement of chief of General staff of the Iranian armed forces major-general Hassan Firouzabadi, who said:
"We have received reports that American planes have been landing and taking off from ISIS-controlled airports. The United States should not supply weapons, money and food to 'Islamic State', and then apologize about doing that by mistake."
A number of Western media outlets at the same time worked a completely different version of ISIS creation.

Comment: See also this CNN report from late 2014 which lays it all out:



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Bell

Flashback Best of the Web: India And Pakistan Must Reunite For Their Mutual Good

Markandey Katju
The Huffington Post
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 19:46 UTC
India pakistan bangladesh reunification
It's time
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's acclaimed Lahore bus visit and the Lahore Declaration in February 1999 was followed by the Kargil War in May the same year. Similarly, Prime Minister Modi's Lahore visit, with all its bonhomie, hoopla and fanfare was followed by the attack by militants on the Pathankot Air Force base and later on the Indian consulate in Mazhar-e-Sharif.

There are many people who want improvement of relations between India and Pakistan. They say that if France and Germany can live as good neighbours after long years of animosity, why cannot we?

In my opinion such people are living in a fool's paradise, and they forget certain basic facts. The very purpose of creating Pakistan was that there should be no peace but enmity and hostility.

Comment: There's no better time for this to at least begin happening: both countries have anti-establishment, popular, patriotic leaders who genuinely want the best for their people.

The UK would be well-advised to support reunification: over million Pakistanis and almost 1.5 million Indians live there. We can't envisage war between India and Pakistan being confined to South Asia...

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USA

Best of the Web: The persistent myth: Trump opposes war

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump/tank
© UnknownUS President Donald Trump speaking in Lima, Ohio
Whenever I criticize the foreign policy of the current US administration, I always get some pushback from Trump supporters who insist that this president is doing more good than harm by "fighting the Deep State" and, even more commonly, by "keeping us out of wars".

This notion that Donald Trump is some kind of peace president, or even the notion that he puts any more inertia on the US war machine than his predecessor did, is contradicted by all facts and evidence we have available to us. Trump has not ended a single one of the wars his predecessors started, and has added dangerous escalations against Venezuela, Iran, and nuclear-armed Russia.

One of the difficulties in addressing this persistent myth, besides the obvious fact that everyone now lives in tightly cloistered information echo chambers of confirmation bias-feeding validation loops, is that the myth is in some ways bipartisan. Whenever Trump mumbles one of his empty appeals to non-interventionist principles, his supporters lap it up while half of the Democrats start attacking the president for being insufficiently hawkish. Trump's talk about withdrawing from Syria is a perfect example of this; the troops are still there, but Dems attacked him for irresponsible "isolationist" behavior and his supporters got their fairy tale about their president ending wars. Everyone gets what they want, including the military-industrial complex that Trump pretends to oppose.
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Igloo

Best of the Web: Global cooling to replace warming trend that started 4,000 years ago - Chinese scientists

Stephen Chen
South China Morning Post
Sun, 11 Aug 2019 06:30 UTC
China snow
© XinhuaA team of Chinese researchers says a period of global cooling could be on the way, but the consequences will be serious.
A new study has found winters in northern China have been warming since 4,000BC - regardless of human activity - but the mainland scientists behind the research warn there is no room for complacency or inaction on climate change, with the prospect of a sudden global cooling also posing a danger.

The study found that winds from Arctic Siberia have been growing weaker, the conifer tree line has been retreating north, and there has been a steady rise in biodiversity in a general warming trend that continues today. It appears to have little to do with the increase in greenhouse gases which began with the industrial revolution, according to the researchers.

Lead scientist Dr Wu Jing, from the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the study had found no evidence of human influence on northern China's warming winters.

Comment: Other scientists have come to a similar conclusion, and there appear to be a myriad of factors associated with and amplifying the shift to a much cooler climate: Also check out SOTT radio's: And for regular updates on the changes we're witnessing on our planet, watch SOTT's monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - June 2019: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs



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