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Star of David

Best of the Web: Magnier: War no longer an option for Israel after failures in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Sun, 04 Aug 2019 02:28 UTC
lebanon war
During the summer war of 2006, Israel managed to destroy a large number of Hezbollah's rocket and missile stocks. Most Hezbollah missile units were destroyed and, in the suburb of the capital Beirut, over 250 buildings (mainly but not exclusively hosting Hezbollah offices, warehouses and officers' homes) were flattened by Israeli precision bombs targeting Hezbollah (and many civilians) in the suburbs of Beirut. Hundreds of houses were completely destroyed in the south of Lebanon. However, Israel was unable to fulfil its objectives due to the defeat of its infantry which faced harsh resistance and was unable to push deep inland. Moreover, the Kornet anti-tank laser-guided missiles and the "Nour" anti-ship missiles of Hezbollah surprised the enemy, indicating a serious lack of Israeli intelligence and confirming Hezbollah's strong fighting abilities.

Thirteen years later, the failure of US and Israeli policy in the region means it is no longer possible for Israel to contemplate a direct confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US and Israel failed to achieve four main goals: regime change in Syria, the partition of Iraq, the defeat of the Houthis in Yemen, the Palestinian "deal of the century". Added to this, Israeli-US rejection of any fair Palestinian state has strengthened Palestinian resolve against Israel.

Israel has increased its firepower and military capabilities, but Hezbollah also moved from being a tactical local organisation to becoming a strategic player in the Middle East. The group's superior fighting abilities have been enhanced by new military hardware. This has had the effect of rendering war in the Middle East unlikely any time in the near (or medium-term) future.

Comment: That's what one might call a mighty big miscalculation on behalf of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Better yet, a series of miscalculations. Unfortunately, millions have had to die in the process. But if Magnier's analysis and prediction is true, it's at least a small victory. The economic war will continue, however. With any luck, there will be miscalculations on that front, too.

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Blue Planet

Best of the Web: Chinese exceptionalism: Morality, not law, is sacrosanct

George Yeo
South China Morning Post
Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:25 UTC
chinese calligraphy
© ShutterstockTwo thousand years ago, with only loose translations available, it was difficult to employ the rule of law.
The following is an edited excerpt from a speech given by Yeo to a school in Singapore
Rudyard Kipling said in his famous ballad: "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." Whether we like it or not, the twain are meeting again, and creating and opening a new chapter in history. When we read about the trade war and Huawei, and we read about the anti-China - and increasingly anti-Chinese - sentiment in the United States, one recalls Kipling's famous line. But for him the East was not China. For him East was South Asia, where he spent many years of his life.

For my address this morning, I would like to confine the East to the realm of the "chopsticks people". There is a reason for this. There is a coherence to the culture of the chopsticks people.

It is not possible to understand the history of Vietnam, Korea or Japan without reference to the great drama on the Chinese mainland. Japan was the first to peel off from the Asian mainland to address the challenge of Western imperialism. By the time of the second opium war, any Japanese ship landing on the Asian mainland would be inspected by the Europeans, probably a Briton, and Japan knew it was only a matter of time before she would suffer the same humiliation.

Comment: You get a sense of the longevity and cohesiveness of China when you consider that the modern designation of 'Han Chinese' as the dominant ethnic sub-group is in fact a 2,000-year-old political designation. 'Han' is not an ethnicity, just as someone resident in the EU today is not an 'EUan'. 'Han' can refer to any number of the many ethnicities who were united under the Han dynasty - and have substantially remained united ever since.

China is really a two-millennia-old 'United States of East Asia'.

See also:

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Building big brother: Epstein and Israeli intelligence

Zev Shalev, Tracie McElroy
Narativ
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
epstein big brother
© NarrativJeffrey Epstein's investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.
What we found:
  • Jeffrey Epstein is an Israeli spy.
  • He is an investor in a start-up with ties to Israeli Intelligence.
  • Two Putin-linked oligarchs are his partners.
  • The start-up poses a privacy risk.
  • + Ties to Erik Prince, Michael Cohen, George Nader and Peter Thiel.
It's been thirty-two years since the "Pollard Affair" pierced the seemingly impenetrable facade of U.S.-Israeli relations. Now, two suspected Israeli agents are in jail - indicted on separate charges of sex trafficking of minors.

Comment: That's 'Russian oligarchs' as in the 'Kosher Nostra'.

Here's more from the above authors on Epstein's links to the Israelis:


See also:

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NPC

Best of the Web: Cloudflare caves to deep state pressure, boots 8chan forum because someone posted manifesto there claiming to be El Paso shooter

Ryan Mac
BuzzFeed
Sun, 04 Aug 2019 09:38 UTC

Comment: This one comes from BuzzFeed, so hold your nose as we wade through it...


Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince
Wakey, wakey, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, the Matrix has you
Cloudflare, a website security firm used by some of the world's largest companies, announced on Sunday night that it would be ending protections and all network services for 8chan, the anonymous online forum where multiple people have posted messages of their violent intent before carrying out mass shootings in the last year.

Cloudflare's decision to end its relationship with 8chan comes after the site reportedly hosted the racist, hate-filled manifesto of the 21-year-old gunman who killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more in a shooting on Saturday in El Paso, Texas.


Comment: No one knows where it first appeared. We've read reports that it was first posted on Facebook and/or Tumblr.


It also represents a significant u-turn, after the company's general counsel told BuzzFeed News earlier this weekend that ending protections for 8chan would be "very problematic."


Comment: But one mass shooting and a dodgy narrative later, problem solved!


Comment: This is the same plea the social media platforms made during Russiagate: 'Please, US (world) govt, regulate us! We don't know what you want! Just tell us!'

And they did. They're working diligently with the spooks behind the scenes to bleach the internet of all dissent. The 'intelligence community' aka deep state does not want to explicitly mandate rules and laws because then they would have to be held by them. It's so much more effective to outsource to ostensibly 'independent private corporations' the job of intelligence-gathering and the arbitrary extra-legal 'management' of who gets paid how much and who gets to say what where and when.

It's all completely subject to the whims of those who rule from the shadows. 8chan will in the meantime be coerced into some form of compromise and will remain a favorite spot for Feds and informants seeking to 'shape dynamic narratives' (spread lies and hysteria):

Warrant reveals FBI agent's 8chan posts attempting to redirect white supremacist rage against Russia

Judging by our search results across all platforms for content concerning the El Paso massacre, which overwhelmingly reflects the official mainstream narrative, they're enjoying spectacular success at 'locking down' the information sphere.

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Wolf

Best of the Web: There is only one real challenger to Trump: Tulsi Gabbard dominates online ratings after Democratic debates (before Big Tech censors her) - UPDATE


RT
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 19:59 UTC
gabbard harris
© CNNA real leader (left), and a pretender
While presidential challenger Tulsi Gabbard was the most searched for candidate on Google during the second round of Democratic debates, her rankings on Twitter stoked accusations that results were being manipulated.

Ahead of the Wednesday night debate, former VP Joe Biden dominated Google's search rankings. But Tulsi came out the clear winner across all fifty US states after the event started. Directly trailing Tulsi in the search trends was California Senator Kamala Harris at number two, while Biden held onto third place.

By large margins, Gabbard also repeated her victory in separate online polls organized by conservative media outlets, crushing Breitbart News' poll with 50 percent of the vote, and winning out in the Drudge poll at 39 percent.

The dovish Hawaii Congresswoman likely bolstered her search numbers in tangling with her fellow Democrats on stage, drawing wide praise and attention online after confronting Harris on her tough-on-crime record as a criminal prosecutor.


Comment: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey actually supports Gabbard, and he donated $5,600 to her campaign - the maximum individual donation - the day after the first round of debates.

Which goes to show that he, like the Zuck, doesn't really have much control of his organization. They and Google are effectively already functioning as 'utilities' - only they're privately, not publicly, controlled.

If Gabbard is not the Democratic nominee next June, you'll know they rigged it. Again.

At least this time more people than ever have the opportunity to watch them do it in real time.

UPDATE 08/01/2019: Gabbard calls Harris response to attacks 'pathetic'. The Hill reports:
Presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) hit back at Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) after Harris brushed off her criticism following Wednesday's debate in Detroit.

"Honestly, it's pathetic that when confronted with the facts and the truth about her record that she claims to be proud of as a prosecutor, as attorney general of California, all she can do is lob cheap smears," Gabbard told Hill.TV on Thursday in response to Harris's remarks.

The Harris campaign didn't immediately respond to Hill.TV's request for comment.

Following Gabbard's attack of her record as a prosecutor in California, Harris told CNN that she expected to "take hits," calling herself a "top-tier candidate" and noting Gabbard's low standing in recent polling.

The California senator also called out Gabbard for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and declining to call him a war criminal.

In her interview with Hill.TV, Gabbard re-upped her criticism over Harris's prosecutorial record, emphasizing that the senator's campaign is "predicated on being a champion for the people," particularly people of color.

"This is all a lie because when she was in a position to do something about it, when she was in a position to make a difference and truly be a champion for the people she furthered and perpetuated this unfair, unjust system that harmed many black and brown people in the state of California," she told Hill.TV.

Gabbard's comments mark the latest exchange between the two White House contenders after a brutal night of intraparty fighting among Democrats in the second round of Democratic debates.

During the debate, Gabbard said she was "deeply concerned" about Harris's record as a prosecutor, accusing her of locking up scores of of racial minorities for low-level drug offenses. She also accused the senator of hiding evidence that would free an innocent man on death row and keeping people imprisoned for longer sentences to use them as cheap prison labor.

"The people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor, you owe them an apology," Gabbard said.

Harris defended her record, saying she has done more than give "fancy speeches," an apparent dig at the congresswoman.

"I did the work of significantly changing the criminal justice system and I'm proud of that work, to not just give fancy speeches or be in a legislative body and give speeches on the floor but actually doing the work," Harris said on the debate stage.
Tulsi's got a long uphill climb considering that Harris seems to be the Establishment's choice. Notice the difference between these two interviews. Carlson sticks to the facts of the interchange between Harris and Gabbard. Chris Cuomo, instead of doing the same, immediately pivots to the tired canard that Gabbard 'supports a murderous dictator'. The MSM has been beating that dead horse for three years now, probably because that's all they've got to go after a reasonable, intelligent candidate. To Tulsi's credit, she managed to shut Cuomo up long enough make her points.





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Pyramid

Best of the Web: RT America visits Epstein's pedo-elite island


RT
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 22:20 UTC

Comment: Well, CNN was hardly gonna do it...


epstein pedophile island little saint james
An RT investigation of millionaire Jeffrey Epstein's private island in the Caribbean has revealed an extravagant hideaway cut off from the rest of the world, and locals who are glad that the registered sex offender is in jail.

Reporter John Huddy traveled to the US Virgin Islands to learn the truth about Little Saint James, nicknamed 'Pedophile Island,' where the highly-connected financier and his friends allegedly carried out sex crimes against minors.

The island is complete with numerous imported palm trees, lavish buildings, a helipad, statues and even a fake cow grazing on perfectly-manicured grass.


Comment: Little Saint James Island, which Epstein liked to called 'Little Saint Jeffrey Island' (barf), is part of the US Virgin Islands, a 'non-incorporated' territory of the USA, one of a number of 'gray areas' the US has dotted around the world.

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Pirates

Best of the Web: ACTUAL foreign meddling: Secret comms between FBI and MI5 chiefs cast light on British role at outset of 'Russiagate'

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Nick Hopkins
The Guardian
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 17:01 UTC
prince charles jeremy fleming
'I do say, Jeremy, what say we do away with that ghastly man in the White House?'
Two of the most senior intelligence officials in the US and UK privately shared concerns about "our strange situation" as the FBI launched its 2016 investigation into whether Donald Trump's campaign was colluding with Russia, the Guardian has learned.

Text messages between Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI at the time, and Jeremy Fleming, his then counterpart at MI5, now the head of GCHQ, also reveal their mutual surprise at the result of the EU referendum, which some US officials regarded as a "wake-up call", according to a person familiar with the matter.


Comment: McCabe's history now, but notice that Fleming was subsequently PROMOTED up the spook chain...


While Russia had previously been viewed as a country that would seek to interfere in western elections, the Brexit vote was viewed by some within the FBI as a sign that Russian activities had possibly been successful, the person said.


Comment: Which shows just how out of touch these people really are. More to the point, it shows that they were going with 'Russia did it' by the time the Brexit referendum in late June 2016 result stunned them into realizing the Old Order was under threat...


Their exchanges offer new insights into the start of the FBI's Russia investigation, and how British intelligence appears to have played a key role in the early stages.

Comment: Masterful use of English by The Guardian!

Yes, this top spook organized security for the London Olympics... and torture sites, abductions, black propaganda, psy-ops, mass manipulation, 'special executive ops' (assassinations), coups, regime change, etc, etc.

Oh, and, it turns out, attempting a coup against the president of the USA.

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Cult

Best of the Web: Jeffrey Epstein dreamed of seeding 'master-race' with his DNA, planned 'baby factory' at his New Mexico ranch

Bridget Read
The Cut
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 21:07 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein
© Patrick McMullan/Getty ImagesFederal prosecutors announced charges of sex trafficking against wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein on Monday. Epstein is seen here in 2005.
The Jeffrey Epstein story somehow got even more disturbing today. A New York Times report says that the sex offender and billionaire was using his connections to elite scientists and academics in an attempt to help foster his dream of "seed[ing] the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch."


Comment: Epstein's ego was psychopath-sized, apparently. More on his plans for a new human race from Fox:
Among the scientists Epstein consulted were Nobel prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who discovered the quark, Nobel laureate and M.I.T.'s theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, paleontologist and evolutionary neurologist Oliver Sacks, the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, and molecular engineer George M. Church, who has identified genes that could be modified to create superior humans.

He had allegedly revealed his 'superior race' plans to a a wide array of people beginning in the early 2000s.



Despite his 2008 sex-trafficking conviction, Epstein regularly held dinners, lunches, and conferences attended by many of the world's most prominent scientists, including Steven Hawking. Three people told the Times about one particular pursuit Epstein discussed at these events: "On multiple occasions starting in the early 2000s," the Times reports, "Mr. Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies. Mr. Epstein's goal was to have 20 women at a time impregnated at his 33,000-square-foot Zorro Ranch in a tiny town outside Santa Fe."

Comment: The utter freak probably only felt safe discussing this idea with his peers because some of them had similar ideas...

Bill Gates had a closer relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than he admitted, The New York Times reports

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Brick Wall

Best of the Web: Is it time for America to break apart?

Boyd D. Cathey
The Unz Review
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 21:01 UTC
LGBT protest trump
Fine then. Who is? And what is your country?
There is a question that increasingly arises, uncomfortably, in our conversations...from brief exchanges at work at the water cooler, at home with family, after church on Sunday, with our email messages to friends and associates. To watch any amount of television news these days, to switch back and forth between, say, CNN and Fox, and to listen to their interpretations of any event or issue, no matter what, that same question clambers in the background like an unchained wild beast:

What has happened — what is happening — to the geographical entity we call the United States, to its people, to its culture? Does it not seem like the country is coming apart at the seams, in just about everything, from its once-established moral base in a more or less historic Christian framework to its very vision of reality, of what is real and what is not?

Millions of "woke" social justice progressives now control the Democratic Party and most of our media; they dominate our entertainment and sports industries; they push for open borders and what amounts to "population replacement" of natives by illegal aliens; and they have a stranglehold on the near entirety of our educational system, from the primary grades to our colleges.
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Dollars

Best of the Web: US gives the world a free choice: Dollar debt or death - Keynote speech by Michael Hudson

Michael Hudson
The Unz Review
Tue, 23 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Lincoln/skull money
© nuzzel.com/Global Look Press/KJN
Today's world is at war on many fronts. The rules of international law and order put in place toward the end of World War II are being broken by U.S. foreign policy escalating its confrontation with countries that refrain from giving its companies control of their economic surpluses. Countries that do not give the United States control of their oil and financial sectors or privatize their key sectors are being isolated by the United States imposing trade sanctions and unilateral tariffs giving special advantages to U.S. producers in violation of free trade agreements with European, Asian and other countries.

This global fracture has an increasingly military cast. U.S. officials justify tariffs and import quotas illegal under WTO rules on "national security" grounds, claiming that the United States can do whatever it wants as the world's "exceptional" nation. U.S. officials explain that this means that their nation is not obliged to adhere to international agreements or even to its own treaties and promises. This allegedly sovereign right to ignore on its international agreements was made explicit after Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeline Albright broke the promise by President George Bush and Secretary of State James Baker that NATO would not expand eastward after 1991. ("You didn't get it in writing," was the U.S. response to the verbal agreements that were made.)

Likewise, the Trump administration repudiated the multilateral Iranian nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration, and is escalating warfare with its proxy armies in the Near East. U.S. politicians are waging a New Cold War against Russia, China, Iran, and oil-exporting countries that the United States is seeking to isolate if cannot control their governments, central bank and foreign diplomacy.
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