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Better Earth

Best of the Web: Italy will be first G7 nation to support China's One Belt One Road program

kenya railways
© REUTERSA train launched to operate on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and financed by the Chinese government arrives at the Nairobi Terminus on the outskirts of Kenya's capital Wednesday.
Italy is planning to officially announce its support for China's Belt and Road Initiative this month, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. It would be the first endorsement by a G-7 nation, the report pointed out.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's regional infrastructure investment program is widely seen as Beijing's attempt to expand its influence globally through the construction of a network of land and maritime routes across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Critics say that through the project, China forces developing nations to take on high debt burdens while benefiting Chinese companies which are often state-owned.


Comment: China forces no one to participate, that's how the US/World bank/IMF does business.


Comment: Italy has shown itself to be the one of the few forward-thinking countries in Europe that is willing to break away from the entrenched and erroneous 'establishment' for the good of its people: And check out SOTT radio's:


Chess

Best of the Web: Trump/Kim summit: What really happened in Hanoi?

us and korean flags
While the western media has written off last weekend's summit in Hanoi as a failure, the talks did help to burnish Kim Jong-un's reputation as a sincere statesman committed to peacefully resolving the nuclear issue. This is a significant development for the simple reason that Kim needs to continue to build popular support for his cause if he hopes to prevail in the long-term.

In that regard, the lifting of sanctions is not nearly as important as Kim's broader goal of ending Washington's military occupation of the Korean peninsula and reunifying the country. In order to achieve those objectives, Kim will need the support of his allies in Moscow and Beijing as well as that of the Korean people. His disciplined performance in Hanoi suggests that he is entirely deserving of that support.

There's no way to know whether Kim expected President Trump to put the kibosh on the deal or not. But with uber-hawks like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton at the bargaining table, he must have figured that there was a high probability of failure. Was that why Kim made such a generous offer during the negotiations? Was it part of a plan to make him look good because he knew Trump would throw a wrench in the works?

Binoculars

Best of the Web: One year on: An open letter to the Metropolitan police about the Salisbury poisoning

salisbury
© Sputnik / Alexey Filippov
Dear Assistant Commissioner Basu,

It is now a year since the events in Salisbury that shocked the nation, and indeed the world. Since then, your organisation has conducted an investigation into the case, and has laid out a case about what happened in a series of statements, notably those made on 5th September (no longer available on your website), in which two suspects were formally accused, and another on 22nd November, following the screening of the Panorama documentary: Salisbury Nerve Agent Attack - The Inside Story.

To those who have a superficial interest in the case, the explanations you have presented for what happened on 4th March 2018 may appear credible, especially since the British media has largely repeated them verbatim, even when they have been self-evidently flawed and contradictory. Indeed the press has steadfastly refused (or been refused) to ask some very obvious and much needed questions about them. But to those who have spent time looking at the incident, the explanations you have set out contain glaring omissions, factual errors (see here for more detail), and at least one scientific impossibility (more on this below). What I wish to do in this letter, is to set out some of the most important, and which I believe you owe it to the public to explain.

Black Cat

Best of the Web: Don't get caught up by the fascinating spell cast by weasels

J. Edgar Hoover
Hoover: a hard to match weasel for the ages. In a prudish and arch-hypocritical society, his stock in trade was often political blackmail and innuendo over sexual peccadilloes.
"Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful. Hence one must choose a master, God being out of style."
- Albert Camus, The Fall

To be fascinated by another person who holds or symbolizes power is very common. It is often accompanied by a frisson of sexual excitement, whether repressed or acknowledged, explicitly or implicitly projected. Masters need slaves and slaves need their masters. The chief, the big man, the fascinating woman, the glamorous celebrity, the rich mogul, the powerful politician, while all standard vintage people without their accoutrements of prestigious (magical) power, magnetically attract many people wishing to surrender passively to the perceived superior power of what Carl Jung called the "mana-personality." However, such supernatural power or aura is in the eyes of the beholder, who wishes to be hypnotized and to fulfill his secret wish to be will-less. As Dostoevsky has written, "Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born." A smile, a song, or the projection of unconflicted authority - often that is all it takes for the spell to be cast.

Think of weasels. They are very vicious and can be found all around the world. Their cute faces belie their treacherous nature. They have the ability to fascinate their victims - fascinate means to cast a spell upon or hypnotize (from the Latin, fascinare, to bewitch). They do this by a stupefying song and dance, a facility that paralyzes those they prey upon before they pounce upon them.

Most people have never seen weasels in the wild, for they are secretive creatures who go about their killing clandestinely. Whether they kill softly, I can't say. I've never heard their song, or the screaming of their victims.

Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Assange in Room 101: The Prisoner Says no to Big Brother

John Pilger invokes George Orwell in calling on his compatriots to stand up for the freedom of 'a distinguished Australian', the founder and editor of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and for 'real journalism of a kind now considered exotic'.
assange embassy pilger
Whenever I visit Julian Assange, we meet in a room he knows too well. There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and fetid.

This is Room 101.

Before I enter Room 101, I must surrender my passport and phone. My pockets and possessions are examined. The food I bring is inspected.

The man who guards Room 101 sits in what looks like an old-fashioned telephone box. He watches a screen, watching Julian. There are others unseen, agents of the state, watching and listening.

Cameras are everywhere in Room 101. To avoid them, Julian manoeuvres us both into a corner, side by side, flat up against the wall. This is how we catch up: whispering and writing to each other on a notepad, which he shields from the cameras. Sometimes we laugh.

Comment: Organize a protest/riot or flash-mob through which Assange could be secreted into a waiting vehicle or nearby safe-house, and from there hopefully escape Blighty, preferably to safety in Russia as he's not safe anywhere else in NATOstan.


Eye 1

Best of the Web: Watch as US-led coalition uses banned white phosphorus in attacks on Syrian town of Baghouz - UPDATE

U.S. Army
© U.S. Army1st Lt. Daniel Johnson
The US-led coalition has used shells with white phosphorus in its bombing attacks on the southwestern Syrian town of Baghouz, which remains the last stronghold of the Daesh terror group in the country, local media reported on Saturday, citing sources.

This came soon after the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that it had resumed operations against Daesh militants in Baghouz, following a break for citizens evacuation. According to SDF claims, only Daesh militants currently remain in the town.

However, the battle for Baghuz is currently going slowly in order to protect hostages held by the Daesh terrorists, according to co-chair of the US mission of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Bassam Ishak.


Comment: So are there civilians in the area or not?


Comment: This is yet another instance of the US using white phosphorous over an area known to have civilians, which is considered a war crime:
UPDATE: 4th March 2019 at 15:20:
Almasdarnews.com has obtained and posted the footage online:
Last night, the U.S. Coalition dropped internationally banned white phosphorous on the last Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh) enclave in eastern Syria.

According to reports from eastern Syria, the U.S. Coalition specifically dropped the white phosphorous on the Islamic State's positions inside the Baghouz camp.

Video footage of the U.S. Coalition dropping white phosphorous on the Islamic State's positions was captured by 'Ayn Al-Firat (Eye of the Euphrates) on Saturday:






Heart - Black

Best of the Web: The Daily Mail slams Harcombe, Malhotra and Kendrick as 'dangerous statins deniers'

atherosclerosis
Do you want to suffer a heart attack? How about a stroke? The answer will, without doubt, be a resolute 'Not on your life'.

No one does. That's why some eight million Britons take a cholesterol-lowering statin pill every day - doctors prescribe them to anyone with a ten per cent or greater risk of a major cardiac event within ten years.

Statins reduce those risks. This is an indisputable scientific fact.

Comment: A few responses to this article:




Zoë Harcombe has a rather extensive response to this article on her website; as has Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. They're both well worth the read.

See also:


Megaphone

Best of the Web: True conservative: Tucker Carlson shreds RussiaHoax, says Venezuela regime change betrays MAGA, interviews Tulsi Gabbard

Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson, 49
Tucker Carlson of FoxNews has been putting out great stuff for the last couple of years, becoming more and more populist. We'll keeping you posted when we see something worthwhile. It's been interesting to see his positions progress over the months.

People outside the US mostly don't realize that there are some good things happening in the American big media space. Carlson is the best example, but Fox's Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham also have much to commend them. Watch this space for more, as long as the Tuck keeps it up.

Incidentally we recently read his book, Ship of Fools, in which he argues that American elites are grievously harming the American people, worse than at any time in US history. It is excellent, and gets the coveted RI seal of approval!

Comment: You can't cuck the Tuck! (except on China, but that's a world away)

Dissenting voices like Tucker Carlson have become a rarity on US mainstream media, which is more a reflection of how controlled the system is rather than the opinions of many Americans:


Russian Flag

Best of the Web: From strength to strength: Russian goods trade surplus up 20% in 2018 to $212bn

shipping containers
Russia's Russia's goods trade surplus up 20% in 2018 to $212bn
goods trade surplus climbed to $212bn, or roughly 12% of GDP. Exports are dominated by hydrocarbons, while the biggest import item is machinery
Russian customs reports that in 2018 the country's goods trade surplus climbed to $212bn, or roughly 12% of GDP. Russia is now running a triple surplus again for the first time in years: trade, current account and federal budget. Both the budget and the current account surpluses are at record levels. The record trade surplus was driven partly by the rise in oil prices in 2018, but falling imports, especially falling food imports, played at least as important a role.

Exports remain heavily weighted towards hydrocarbons, which totalled $260bn in December - more than half of Russia's exports, with minerals and base metals making up another $48.7bn from the total of $461bn.

Imports are half as much as Russia's exports, which has led to the record current account surplus in 2018. Imports are more evenly distributed but the top four items - machinery ($80.7bn), chemicals ($32.4bn), vehicles ($28.4bn), and base metals ($18.5bn) - accounting for 70% of the total imports to Russia.

Caesar

Best of the Web: How Modi changed the India-Pakistan paradigm, and forced its neighbor to confront terrorism

NarendraModi
© Reuters/Kim Hong-JiIndia's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
The sharp escalation of tensions and clashes between India and Pakistan in recent weeks symbolizes a new phase in an old confrontation that dates back to the bitter partition of the two countries in 1947 on religious lines.

The two South Asian rivals have fought three wars and one quasi-war over the last seven decades, besides engaging in periodic shorter clashes over their disputed border and sparring in international diplomatic arenas.

While it is hard to find any extended spell of normalcy in bilateral relations, the conflict had settled into a low-intensity pattern for years. Short of full-scale wars since 1971, the focus was on how India could respond to Pakistan's doctrine of 'bleeding India through a thousand cuts' through lethal Islamist terrorists that were trained, financed and let loose by the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.

The unconventional threat posed by Pakistan-harboured jihadist terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which boasted thousands of holy warriors in their ranks ready to strike India and force it to concede Kashmir's accession to Pakistan, posed a conundrum to New Delhi. These terrorist proxies would infiltrate fighters into India through the mountainous Himalayan border or radicalize Indian Muslims to carry out deadly attacks on Indian civilians and Indian military personnel.

Comment: Why 'counter-intuitively'? Maybe that's Modi's strategy.

See also: