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Star of David

Best of the Web: Trump's 'Deal of the Millennium' Shows The "Two State" Solution Was Always a Lie

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 21:30 UTC
trump kushner netanyahu
© Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs/FlickrUS President Donald Trump (L), Jared Kushner (C), US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
I have read through the entire 181 pages of Trump's "peace deal" for Israel, and it is breathtaking. It is not just that the "solution" it proposes is ludicrously one-sided, it is the entire analysis of the problem to be solved which reads as pure, unadulterated zionist propaganda.

For example, the word "violence" is used repeatedly. But it only ever refers to violence by Arabs. There is not one single mention of violence by Israel against the Palestinians, even though the ratio of killing between Israelis and Palestinians over the last ten years is approximately 80:1. The only mention of violence against Palestinians at all relates to Kuwaiti expulsion of Palestinian refugees after the first Gulf war.

The analysis of the refugee issue is the same. Nowhere can the paper bring itself to note the key historic fact, that the Palestinian refugees were expelled from Israel. The paper treats Palestinian refugees as if they had simply materialised as an inconvenient phenomenon, like a plague of locusts. This "othering" of Palestinian refugees permeates the entire paper:

Comment: Amen

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Light Saber

Best of the Web: Craig Murray: The FBI has been lying about Seth Rich

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 18:18 UTC
Seth Rich
© LinkedInSlain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
A persistent American lawyer has uncovered the undeniable fact that the FBI has been continuously lying, including giving false testimony in court, in response to Freedom of Information requests for its records on Seth Rich. The FBI has previously given affidavits that it has no records regarding Seth Rich.

A Freedom of Information request to the FBI which did not mention Seth Rich, but asked for all email correspondence between FBI Head of Counterterrorism Peter Strzok, who headed the investigation into the DNC leaks and Wikileaks, and FBI attorney Lisa Page, has revealed two pages of emails which do not merely mention Seth Rich but have "Seth Rich" as their heading. The emails were provided in, to say the least, heavily redacted form.

Comment:

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Ice Cube

Best of the Web: The Chinese coronavirus outbreak is not the zombie apocalypse

Robert Bartholomew Ph.D.
Psychology Today
Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:23 UTC
It's time to take a deep breath and dial down the hysteria.
stock markets coronavirus
Confirmation bias in action
I am not downplaying the seriousness of the new Coronavirus that has been spreading around the world. People are dying and every death is a tragedy, but it is not the end of civilization as we know it, contrary to some media outlets which risk causing undue alarm and panic. The headlines are ominous: "Wuhan is Ground Zero for Deadly Coronavirus." "Situation in China is Grave." One paper carried an image of a Wuhan medic breaking down in tears. Another showing a pile of corpses was fake. The Daily Mail quoted a researcher as saying, "'This time I am scared,' expert who helped tackle SARS warns." Another scientist reportedly simulated a similar epidemic that he projected would kill 65 million people. What the headline didn't say is that it was a worst-case scenario for a virus deadlier than SARS and easier to catch than the flu, an extremely unlikely scenario.

It's important to put the risk into perspective. The Coronavirus does not appear any worse than the annual flu. The key difference is that there is no vaccine, and one will likely take months to develop. It sounds even more daunting and sinister because it's new, mysterious, and originates from a foreign country. Adding the mystique is its suspected origin: a snake at an exotic animal market in the city of Wuhan, which sold everything from cow's heads to camels, foxes, badgers, and an array of rats and reptiles.

Comment: The reason why "the new Information Age is rife with misinformation, disinformation, rumors, fake news, political agendas, conspiracy theories, deep fakes, and photoshopped images that can spread panic faster than any virus..." is because officialdom - especially in the West, though not exclusively - lies so much of the time.

When they keep pushing paranoid conspiracy theories about 'Russian meddling' and 'Kremlin influence operations' onto people - to say nothing of straight-up lies to justify wars of aggression and lining Big Pharma's pockets - major public distrust and mass social hysteria about anything and everything is the natural result.

So in a sense the real virus at work here isn't even the coronavirus; it's the mind virus spread down and out by psychopaths in power. Having said that, the fear of the threat of mass casualties posed by the coronavirus is very real in parts of East Asia.

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Ambulance

Best of the Web: Pentagon AGAIN increases casualty numbers from Iranian airstrikes against US base in Iraq, this time to "50, as of today" - UPDATE: Now it's 64!


The Guardian
Wed, 29 Jan 2020 11:04 UTC

Comment: UPDATE January 31

We're losing track of how many times the number has been revised. It seems American troops keep getting injured by that Iranian attack.

What were the Iranians using, time bombs?

Here's the latest revision:
The U.S. military has once again raised the number of U.S. service members who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran's missile strike on an Iraqi base earlier this month.

Pentagon spokesman Thomas Campbell said that as of January 30, "a total of 64 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI."

In remarks that have angered many U.S. veterans groups, President Donald Trump initially claimed that no Americans were harmed in Iran's January 8 attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq.

The military later said that 11 troops had suffered injuries, then raised it to 34 before saying on January 28 that 50 personnel had been injured.

Trump has downplayed the injuries, saying he "heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things."
This is the FIFTH time the Pentagon has revised its casualty estimate upwards since the airstrikes on January 8th...


al-asad airbase iraq iran airstrikes
© AP
The Pentagon said on Tuesday 50 US service members were now diagnosed with traumatic brain injury after missile strikes by Iran on a base in Iraq earlier this month, 16 more than the military had previously announced.

Donald Trump and other top officials initially said Iran's 8 January attack had not killed or injured any US service members.

"As of today, 50 US service members have been diagnosed" with traumatic brain injury, the Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Campbell said in a statement about injuries in the attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq.

Symptoms of concussive injuries include headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and nausea.


Comment: "As of today..."

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? The situation is always... fluid. Dynamic narratives are always... shifting.

The inability of the top authorities in the NATO sphere to speak plainly about even the smallest things is why conspiracy theories, paranoia, hysteria and chaos in general are proliferating across the West.


Comment: At this point we can no longer rely on the Pentagon's claim of zero US deaths. We have their claim versus the Iranian claim (of 80 or so US deaths). So that remains unknown, for now.

The dodgy PR campaign over this also makes us wonder just how far off is the official death toll for US soldiers in the Iraq War 2003-2011. Officially, it's 3,836, but given how drastically they under-reported Iraqi deaths in that war, and how readily and craftily they lie about the small things, and how sensitive they are about the optics of Americans coming home in coffins...

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Attention

Best of the Web: Twitter suspends independent news outlet Zero Hedge - Fake news site BuzzFeed doxxes 'Tyler Durden'

Ian Miles Cheong
The Post Millennial
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 11:12 UTC
zero hedge twitter
Twitter has suspended the independent news outlet Zero Hedge. The publication, which enjoyed a following of over 673,000 followers on Twitter, was unceremoniously nuked from the social media platform following its report that the origins of the deadly coronavirus (2019-nCoV) may have a man-made origin, in addition to reports that the Chinese government may be suppressing the total number of people infected by the deadly illness that is sweeping throughout Wuhan.

According to the pseudonymous Zero Hedge writer, Tyler Durden, mainstream media outlets have been pushing back against the story by pointing fingers at Zero Hedge for covering the topic that has received widespread attention on social media due to the postings of Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding and Dr. Anand Ranganathan, who highlighted studies noting the coronavirus' strange properties.

Given Twitter's lack of transparency in suspending, it cannot be confirmed if Zero Hedge's new articles and the subsequent backlash from websites like Politifact contributed to the social media's decision to ban it, or if it was taken down by mass reports. Twitter quietly implemented a new report function that allows U.S.-based users to report tweets for being "misleading about a political election."

Comment: Here's the article on SOTT it is suspected Zero Hedge was suspended for. In the comment at the foot of the article, you'll find more information on Zero Hedge's suspension from Twitter. Spoiler alert: Buzzfeed ratted them out. Not only that, their article 'doxxed' Zero Hedge's creator and lead editor, publishing his real name.

See also:

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Soros in NYT op-ed: 'Zuckerberg is only in it for the money! He must be removed from Facebook, one way or another'


RT
Fri, 31 Jan 2020 23:50 UTC

Comment: Chutzpah!


soros zuckerberg
© Reuters / Lisi Niesner / Erin Scott(L) George Soros (R) Mike Zuckerberg
Billionaire speculator George Soros has called for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his COO to be deposed, accusing them of seeking to "maximize profits" without regard for consequences, in perhaps the most ironic attack ever.

Zuckerberg and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg "follow only one guiding principle: maximize profits irrespective of the consequences," Soros snarled on Friday in a New York Times op-ed. While his detractors might have used those exact words to describe the financier's own "guiding principle," Soros meant it as a scathing condemnation.

"One way or another, they should not be left in control of Facebook."

Soros doesn't just want Zuckerberg and Sandberg removed from power - he wants "those who spread false information" punished more severely. Lest one think he's merely referring to users who circulate viral hoaxes, the iron-fisted philanthropist made it clear he had set his sights on Section 230, the now-well-known US law that protects social media platforms from liability for content their users post. Facebook, he said, should be treated as a publisher, not a platform, and "held accountable for the content that appears on its site."

Comment: The pot can't help but call the kettle black. The real target of course is what Soros and like-minded people call 'fake news' - that is, information published outside the control of official/corporate channels. This attack of his against Zuckerberg is intended to pressure him into doing more of this kind of thing:

Warning: Do NOT Read This! NewsGuard 'News Rating Agency' Gives SOTT.net Red 'Fake News' Label

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Microscope 1

Best of the Web: Research paper finds HIV like insertions in 2019-nCoV not found in any other coronavirus, "unlikely to be fortuitous in nature"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 31 Jan 2020 17:35 UTC
hiv coronavirus
Over the past few days, the mainstream press has vigorously pushed back against a theory about the origins of the coronavirus that has now infected as many as 70,000+ people in Wuhan alone (depending on whom you believe). The theory is that China obtained the coronavirus via a Canadian research program, and started molding it into a bioweapon at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan. Politifact pointed the finger at Zero Hedge, in particular, though the story was widely shared across independent-leaning media.

The theory is that the virus, which was developed by infectious disease experts to function as a bio-weapon, originated in the Wuhan-based lab of Dr. Peng Zhou, China's preeminent researcher of bat immune systems, specifically in how their immune systems adapt to the presence of viruses like coronavirus and other destructive viruses. Somehow, the virus escaped from the lab, and the Hunan fish market where the virus supposedly originated is merely a ruse.

Now, a respected epidemiologist who recently caught flack for claiming in a twitter thread that the virus appeared to be much more contagious than initially believed is pointing out irregularities in the virus's genome that suggests it might have been genetically engineered for the purposes of a weapon, and not just any weapon but the deadliest one of all.

In "Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag", Indian researchers are baffled by segments of the virus's RNA that have no relation to other coronaviruses like SARS, and instead appear to be closer to HIV. The virus even responds to treatment by HIV medications.

Comment: ZeroHedge has been suspended on Twitter after BuzzFeed accuses it of a coronavirus conspiracy and 'doxxing' a Chinese scientist:
The popular news blog ZeroHedge has been suspended from Twitter. While no reason was given, their last tweet referred to speculation the coronavirus could be a bioweapon and BuzzFeed had just accused them of doxxing.

The site's last tweet before the suspension referenced a paper by Indian scientists pointing to uncanny similarities between the 2019-nCoV virus and HIV, which internet researcher Christopher Torres Lugo described as "conspiracy theories claiming that 2019-nCoV is a bioweapon."

Twitter does not comment on reasons for suspending or banning any particular account, leaving ZeroHedge's 673,000 or so followers in the dark on Friday afternoon, until the site itself said it received noticed it had engaged in "abuse or harassment."

About two hours before the suspension, BuzzFeed published a story accusing ZeroHedge - which it refers to as "a popular pro-Trump website" - of revealing personal information of a scientist from Wuhan, China and "falsely accusing them of creating the coronavirus as a bioweapon."

Release of personal information, or doxxing, would be a violation of Twitter rules. However, the BuzzFeed story purports to identify by name the proprietor of ZeroHedge, who writes under the pseudonym Tyler Durden.


BuzzFeed was outraged by the "rumors and lies" allegedly pushed by ZeroHedge about the origins and characteristics of the coronavirus, which causes a respiratory infection that has so far sickened almost 10,000 people across the world, and killed over 200 - mainly in China.

The first patient was reported in the city of Wuhan, in Hebei province, just a month ago. The WHO has declared a global health emergency due to the rapid spread of the virus.

ZeroHedge's most recent article included the tweets of several scientists who were alarmed by a pre-publication paper authored by a team of Indian virologists, noticing the "uncanny similarity" between the 2019-nCoV and HIV-1 and finding it "unlikely to be fortuitous."


Commenting on the suspension, ZeroHedge wondered, "Are we then to understand that we have now reached a point the mere gathering of information, which our colleagues in the media may want to eventually do as thousands of people are afflicted daily by the Coronavirus, is now synonymous with 'abuse and harassment'? According to Twitter, and certainly our competitors in the media, the answer is yes."
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: The Terrifying Parable of Laurence Fox's Question Time Appearance

Douglas Murray
The Spectator
Mon, 20 Jan 2020 15:01 UTC

Comment: In the aftermath of British actor and comedian Ricky Gervais tearing into woke Hollywood celebrities' virtue-signaling at the Golden Globes awards ceremony earlier this month, another British actor recently joined the fray, making no-holds-barred appearances on British TV and radio. Only Fox, unlike Gervais, is most certainly not joking...


laurence fox woke question time
In what turned out to be the last year of his life, Roger Scruton often mulled on the nature and techniques of twenty-first century denunciation. For Roger, like others who had seen totalitarian societies up close, knew what intimidation and officially-imposed forms of thinking were actually like.

Which is not to say, of course, that modern Britain or America are totalitarian societies. Only that we have people among us who act with precisely the same techniques as those did in totalitarian societies. In modern Britain, as in communist Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, the habits are the same. A member of a profession comes into their workplace in the morning to find a letter of denunciation signed by all their colleagues. An organ of official opinion castigates someone for having fraternised with the wrong elements. Almost all of this is done by people who think they are doing good. As it happens I have spent the first part of the year reading Vasily Grossman, and this last notion has been particularly striking of late. Bad things are rarely done by people who think they are doing bad things. They are almost everywhere done by people who imagine that they are acting for the common good.

Which brings me to Laurence Fox, or rather the response to Laurence Fox in recent days.

Comment: Follow Mr. Fox on Twitter.

Here's Fox at his most irreverent and non-PC, in a recent interview with journalist James Delingpod:


His music's not bad either. Here's his latest single:




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Jet2

Best of the Web: US Aware Iran Able to Engage in Major Conflict if Necessary: Irish Analyst


Tasnim News Agency
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 13:40 UTC
An Irish political analyst explained the reasons behind Washington's failure to respond to Iran's retaliatory missile attack against a US base in Iraq on Jan. 8, saying that "the US is aware that Iran is willing and able to engage in a major conflict if necessary..."
al-asad airbase iranian airstrikes
Following is the full text of the interview.
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Info

Best of the Web: Kiss me now, you Nazi! Refusing to date woke women makes you 'dangerous' & 'far-right', apparently

Graham Dockery
RT
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 19:47 UTC

Comment: British media was abuzz last week over this actor's outspoken comments on 'woke culture'. If you don't know before who Laurence Fox is, you will soon!


Feminist protesters and Laurence Fox
© Getty Images / Karwai TangFeminist protesters and Laurence Fox
Not into purple hair? Don't think a lecture on your own toxic masculinity sounds like good pillow talk? Won't go to see Little Women on a date? Well that means you are probably a white supremacist, if not a mass murderer.

That's according to pundit Vicky Spratt, who recently penned an angry response to British singer and actor Laurence Fox's declaration that he won't date "woke" women. Fox has become something of an iconoclast of late, first for ridiculing the notion of 'white privilege' on a BBC panel, and then for expounding on his dating preferences in a Sunday Times feature.

Comment: See also:

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