Best of the Web:


Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Incredible find at ancient site in Scotland reveals massive lightning scar in center of circle of standing stones


University of St. Andrews, UK
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:13 UTC

Comment: Thunderbolts of the gods, literally...


Calanais Stones
© Screen ShotCalanais Stones were constructed with astrological phenomena.
New evidence of a massive lightning strike at the centre of a hidden stone circle in the Outer Hebrides may help shed light on why these monuments were created thousands of years ago.

The Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, a joint venture led by the University of St Andrews with the Urras nan Tursachan and the University of Bradford, with funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, has uncovered a potential link between ancient stone circles and the forces of nature.

While studying prehistoric Tursachan Chalanais, the main stone circle at Calanais on the Isle of Lewis, the project team surveyed nearby satellite sites to reveal evidence for lost circles buried beneath the peat.

One rarely-visited site surveyed, known as Site XI or Airigh na Beinne Bige, now consists of a single standing stone on an exposed hillside overlooking the great circle.

Comment: What an astonishing find.

Clearly, at least some of these stone circles - located all over the world - were machines or technologies of some sort....

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Propaganda

Best of the Web: Media's Deafening Silence On Latest WikiLeaks Drops Is Its Own Scandal

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 14:34 UTC
opcw
This is getting really, really, really weird.

WikiLeaks has published yet another set of leaked internal documents from within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adding even more material to the mountain of evidence that we've been lied to about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria last year which resulted in airstrikes upon that nation from the US, UK and France.

This new WikiLeaks drop includes an email from the OPCW Chief of Cabinet Sebastien Braha (who is reportedly so detested by organisation inspectors that they code named him "Voldemort") throwing a fit over the Ian Henderson Engineering Assessment which found that the Douma incident was likely a staged event. Braha is seen ordering OPCW staff to "remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever" from the organisation's secure registry.
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Pocket Knife

Best of the Web: ANOTHER anti-Semitic attack, this time in New York: Machete-wielding man wounds 5 Jews at Hanukkah event in rabbi's home, suspect arrested

Dom Calicchio
Fox News
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 13:30 UTC

Comment: The global wave of anti-Semitic attacks continues...


attack Monsey
© APPolice work the scene of the stabbings that took place inside the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York, on Saturday
A frightening attack at a Hanukkah celebration in the home of a rabbi in a suburb north of New York City on Saturday night placed the entire New York region on edge and had public officials vowing to stop the violence.

The assault in Monsey, N.Y. -- by a machete-wielding suspect who drove away but whom authorities believe was the man they apprehended later -- continued a string of incidents in recent weeks that have included beatings of Jewish people on the streets of New York City and a massacre at a kosher grocery store in nearby Jersey City, N.J.


Comment: They believe it's the same guy? Well, it either is or it isn't...


Five people were wounded at what public records say was the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who leads a nearby synagogue. Soon after the attack, video posted on social media showed emergency responders frantically transporting victims on gurneys to waiting ambulances.

Comment: No one should ever be attacked because of their faith, especially while peacefully celebrating a religious holiday. The recent epidemic of "anti-semitic attacks" makes us wonder, however, what's really going on. Cui bono?

In an Op-ed today in The Jerusalem Post, titled Inconvenient antisemitism: The daily attacks on Jews in New York, Seth Frantzman ends with:
The result is a multi-layered cake of excuses and fear at confronting a wider range of perpetrators of antisemitism in New York. If violent antisemitism that sees Jews controlling the police and being responsible for slavery and white supremacy, is growing in the African American community in America then confronting it requires asking a minority community that is also a victim to be self-critical. In the US there tends to be pass for minority groups who are homophobic or racist. Society can only confront one kind of racism. This is largely because those driving the agenda of confronting racism either have blinders on regarding all forms of racism and antisemitism or are unaware of it because they don't conduct surveys and polls regarding the prevalence of antisemitism in places like Brooklyn. When the perpetrators and victims do not fit a convenient model, it is easier to just excuse the attacks or see them as random. Unfortunately, in the US these attacks are not random, and there is rising violent antisemitism coming from a broad spectrum of communities, including white supremacists and from African Americans. Confronting it requires the same broad spectrum to step up the struggle.
Does it sound like some Jewish people are vying for THE minority position among all minorities?

UPDATE 21:00 CET

Governor Cuomo has called the attack "an act of domestic terrorism" fueled by intolerance:
"This is intolerance meets ignorance meets illegality," Cuomo told reporters on Sunday, calling the attack the 13th incidence of anti-Semitism in recent weeks. "This is violence spurred by hate, it is mass violence, and I consider it an act of domestic terrorism."


Police have arrested the alleged perpetrator, though his possible terrorist motives are unknown. The man was arrested without struggle in Harlem shortly after midnight.

The attack took place during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, as Rabbi Rottenberg was hosting around 100 people in his home for the lighting of the candle marking the seventh night of the holiday. The rabbi's home is located in Rockland County, which has the highest per-capita population of Jews of any US county.

The New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit said it is "closely monitoring" the incident. Prior to the attack, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the NYPD would step up patrols in Jewish neighborhoods of New York City, citing a string of recent anti-Semitic attacks.
An eyewitness describes what he saw go down at the rabbi's house:
Witness Aron Kohn described the moment the suspect walked into the Rabbi's residence and began attacking with a knife he described as almost as big as "a broomstick."

"I saw him walking in by the door. I asked who was coming in in the middle of the night with an umbrella. While I was saying that, he pulled it out from the thing and he started to run into the big room, which was on the left side. And I had thrown tables and chairs, that he should get out of here. And the injured guy, he was bleeding here, bleeding in his hand, all over," Kohn said. "I ran into the other room to save my life. I saw him running this way, so I ran the other way to save my life. He said something but I could not understand what he said. I saw him pull out the knife from the holder, the case."
Again, it's all very vague.

In France, one small community of Jews in the country's northeast have been targeted dozens of times in the last year. Despite having the full force of the state on their side, authorities there still have ZERO leads...

42 acts of vandalism in 1.5 years: Jewish cemeteries are being systematically desecrated in Alsace, France, but not a SINGLE arrest has been made

The suspect's name and image, by the way:


Update 22:30 CET

The above suspect, Grafton Thomas, is also now, retrospectively, a suspect in a 'stab-a-Jew-and-run' incident in the same town of Monsey, NY, on 20 November this year (that's the earlier incident we comment on above, the one where a cash reward was offered for info).

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Rocket

Best of the Web: What does deploying Russia's hypersonic warheads mean for arms race? Avangard changes everything!

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 20:38 UTC
Avangard
© 1Avangard liftoff, Sputnik/Russian Defense MinistryAvangard liftoff
Moscow's deployment of 'Avangard' hypersonic warheads means the US missile defense installations in Europe are now obsolete - and that Washington would have to spend a lot of money it doesn't have in order to catch up.

Video released by the Russian defense ministry on Friday shows the hypersonic glider warheads being loaded onto silo-based missiles. For now, the Avangards will be mounted on the UR-100N (or SS-19 Stiletto, as NATO calls them) ballistic missiles, until the RS-28 Sarmat is ready to enter service.

Hypersonic weapons fly far faster than the speed of sound. Avangard is capable of reaching Mach 27 without losing control or disintegrating under heat and pressure. This means that the weapon can outmaneuver any defenses on its approach phase, rendering it "absolutely invulnerable to any air or missile defense system," in the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us," is how General John Hyten, then head of the US Strategic Command, put it to the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2018, shortly after Putin confirmed the existence of Avangard and several other weapons.


Comment: See also:



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Eye 2

Best of the Web: The Empire sets 30-day deadline for European contractors to withdraw from Nord Stream 2 gas project: Obey immediately or face sanctions


RT
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 01:47 UTC

Comment: Forget "Ich bin ein Berliner." Today it's "Du bist ein Washingtoner!"

Trump has our full support (in his accidental bringing of Germany and Russia closer together by antagonizing them this way...)


nord stream 2 russia gas transit
© Reuters / Anton VaganovWorkers are seen at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, on June 5, 2019
The US State Department has issued an ultimatum to European companies taking part in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, demanding they cease all work by January 20.

In a document called 'fact sheet' on the US opposition to Nord Stream 2, the State Department demands that all related parties "immediately cease construction-related activity" in a "good-faith wind-down," adding that those who would lack this good faith, would face sanctions.

Further in the text, it clarifies that the contractors have 30 days to comply with America's demands, warning that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will identify and reveal all "violators" to the US Congress in about two months.

Comment: Never did we imagine we'd ever see such words in print!

Astonishing times we live in.

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Yoda

Best of the Web: Three Stoic lessons from a galaxy far, far away

Alex Barrientos
Classical Wisdom
Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Star Wars
Luke gazing into the sunset.
It is no secret, to those who are familiar with the saga, that Star Wars is filled with wisdom. Those not familiar with Star Wars are at least familiar with its iconography, such as the helmet of Darth Vader — that great symbol of the dark side of the force.

Some are also likely familiar with the little green Jedi master, Yoda (not to be confused with the cute little creature of the same species from the Mandalorian). Yoda is first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke seeks him out on Dagobah to learn the ways of the Jedi. He appears again only briefly in The Return of the Jedi (but not without failing to impart some more wisdom), and is present throughout the prequel trilogy.

The great thing about being a reader of the Classics is that you can recognize almost immediately the Stoicism of Yoda's teachings (one may also locate some Buddhist elements as well, though I think that is to be expected given the similarities between the two). He preaches against attachment, cautions against giving into fear, and speaks of the Force with the same reverence that the Stoics spoke of Nature, among other things. So, let us look at some of the Stoic lessons we can learn from Yoda.

Comment: This also goes to show why a phenomena like the original Star Wars trilogy has had such a lasting cultural impression. The newer 'feminist' versions not included. The stories tell a classic archetypal hero's journey but also highlights differing modes of spiritual development through the Jedi and the Sith and a philosophical underpinning that is reminiscent of the ancient Stoics. See also:

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: You say you want a (Russian) revolution?

Pepe Escobar
Consortium News
Sat, 21 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
Andrei Martyanov
The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs by Andrei Martyanov. Andrei Martyanov's latest book provides unceasing evidence about the kind of lethality waiting for U.S. forces in a possible, future war against real armies (not the Taliban or Saddam Hussein's).
Once in a blue moon an indispensable book comes out making a clear case for sanity in what is now a post-MAD world. That's the responsibility carried by "The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs," by Andrei Martyanov (Clarity Press), arguably the most important book of 2019.

Martyanov is the total package — and he comes with extra special attributes as a top-flight Russian military analyst, born in Baku in those Back in the U.S.S.R. days, living and working in the U.S., and writing and blogging in English.

Right from the start, Martyanov wastes no time destroying not only Fukuyama's and Huntington's ravings but especially Graham Allison's childish and meaningless Thucydides Trap argument — as if the power equation between the U.S. and China in the 21stcentury could be easily interpreted in parallel to Athens and Sparta slouching towards the Peloponnesian War over 2,400 years ago. What next? Xi Jinping as the new Genghis Khan?

Comment: See also:

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Christmas Tree

Best of the Web: Merry Christmas in Syria: Liberated from terror by Russia, oldest Christian country celebrates birth of Jesus


RT
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 11:44 UTC
syria christmas
© AFPSyrians gather for the lighting of the Christmas tree in Aleppo's Aziziyah neighbourhood on December 21, 2019.
Flashy firework displays and bright lit Christmas trees popped up all across Syria to celebrate Christmas, a joyous day not only for the Christian minority, but to people of other faiths living in the country.

Christians were among the minority groups persecuted by various Islamist militant forces, which tore Syria into pieces since 2011. The central government has managed to regain control over most of the country, and life there is slowly returning to normality. That includes celebrating Christmas openly and without fear of sectarian violence.

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Dominoes

Best of the Web: Triumph of the right in Sweden is a result of the total failure of liberalism

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:06 UTC
Jimmie Akesson
© Reuters / Johan NilssonSweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson
Sweden's right-wing Sweden Democrats are now neck and neck with the ruling Social Democrats in opinion polls. Though vilified and demonized, the party's success represents a complete failure of liberalism in the face of reality.

The Sweden Democrats - who were until recently dismissed as a fringe, racist party - are now surging in the polls. A voter survey, commissioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper last week, puts the party within 0.2 percentage points of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's left-wing Social Democrats. Moreover, voters now agree with the party's policies on nine out of nine issues.

On immigration, 43 percent of voters side with the party and its leader, Jimmie Akesson. Only 15 percent favor Lofven's policies. Likewise, 31 percent favor Akesson's position on law and order, compared to 19 percent for Lofven.

The press has not made Akesson's ride to the top easy. Yet, most outlets have failed to dig up dirt on the 40-year-old politician, who like France's Marine Le Pen, has made a point of distancing his party from its extreme-right roots and presenting a clean-cut image.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: 'Russian aggression': An excuse for US politicians to further bloat 2020 defense budget - Moscow won't care

Scott Ritter
RT
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 21:53 UTC
trump address military
© Global Look Press / Shealah Craighead/White House
By including provisions to stop Russian pipelines and target Russia's actions in Syria, the new US defense budget demonstrates that country's overreach, but likely does nothing to rein in Vladimir Putin.

$718 billion for NDAA 2020 includes 'lethal aid' for Kiev

Last Friday, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2020. The NDAA lays out the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense and allows Congress to set the policies under which the money appropriated can be spent. The modern American military budget, which for 2020 is slated to be a whopping $718 billion, underwrites the world's largest military and defense enterprise. The NDAA for 2020 builds on the notion that the US is engaged in a major power confrontation with Russia and, as such, it mandates that the Pentagon devise and implement strategies designed to impose political, military, economic, budgetary, and technology costs on Russia.
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