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Better Earth

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: The Caspian sails towards Eurasian integration

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Tue, 14 Aug 2018 14:03 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev walk along a Caspian Sea embankment while participating in the Fifth Caspian Summit in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
© Sputnik/Aleksey NikolskyiRussian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev walk along a Caspian Sea embankment while participating in the Fifth Caspian Summit in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
The five states surrounding the sea - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan - have reached difficult compromises on sovereign and exclusive rights as well as freedom of navigation

The long-awaited deal on the legal status of the Caspian Sea signed on Sunday in the Kazakh port of Aktau is a defining moment in the ongoing, massive drive towards Eurasia integration.

Up to the early 19th century, the quintessentially Eurasian body of water - a connectivity corridor between Asia and Europe over a wealth of oil and gas - was exclusive Persian property. Imperial Russia then took over the northern margin. After the break up of the USSR, the Caspian ended up being shared by five states; Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration

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Mr. Potato

Best of the Web: Now they're censoring censorship? Twitter suspends Alex Jones for tweeting a call to end censorship


RT
Wed, 15 Aug 2018 16:10 UTC
alex jones
© Sean P. Anderson / Flickr
Controversial right-wing commentator Alex Jones has been banned from tweeting after he posted a link to a video of himself calling on President Trump to "take action" against tech companies censoring his content.

Infowars Editor Paul Joseph Watson tweeted a screenshot of the notification sent by Twitter staff to Jones. According to Twitter, a tweet by Jones one day earlier was considered to be "targeted harassment," and, as a result, the Infowars host would have his access to the social-media platform restricted for one week. Watson described the situation as "truly, monumentally, beyond stupid."


In the video, Jones ranted about the censorship of conservative voices by Silicon Valley tech companies, directing much of his scorn at Apple CEO Tim Cook. He called his own ban from various tech platforms a "total anti-American attack," and called on President Trump to "do something about it." Along the way, he bashed Democrats, criticized the mainstream media, and accused Cook of working with the Chinese government to undermine America.


Comment: Most of what Jones says is eye-roll-worthy. But that's about it. And the censorship just makes him more popular.


Comment: Further reading

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Fire

Best of the Web: Lightning strikes thrice? One killed and one in critical condition following explosion at chemical weapons factory in Salisbury


RT
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 23:56 UTC

Comment: This is getting beyond ridiculous. While we wait and see how the British security apparatus spins this, we'll just note that Salisbury and its environs is one strange place: Salisbury Plain is the primary UK military proving ground for testing weaponry, the bulk of which are manufactured in and around Salisbury town; those facilities include numerous producers of chemical weapons, which have been exported globally since WW1, and of which Porton Down is the 'nerve center'...


Salisbury
© Google Street View
At least one person has been killed and another has suffered serious injuries, after an explosion rocked the Chemring Countermeasures plant in Salisbury, located some three miles from the MoD's notorious Porton Down lab.

Six fire crews were immediately sent to the scene to battle the blaze which erupted following the blast that happened at about 17:00 local time. While the fire department managed to put out the blaze, rescuers discovered one person dead at the scene. Another individual was rushed to a hospital in serious condition, Wiltshire police has confirmed.

Comment: So what the heck is going on in Salisbury? While there's no immediate connection to Porton Down and the Skripal incident, it seems this sleepy little town has been quite the hotspot (pardon the pun) as of late.

See also:

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Vader

Best of the Web: Blood-spattered children & broken bodies: Disturbing video reveals bus attack horror in Yemen


RT
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 19:56 UTC
yemen bus attack
© ReutersA doctor treats children injured by an airstrike in Saada, Yemen, August 9
A shocking video of small children - dazed and covered in blood - has revealed the grim truth of Thursday's bus attack in northern Yemen which left 50 people dead.

The bus was in the Dahyan Market in northern Saada, a Houthi rebel stronghold, when it was attacked on Thursday morning. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the attack shortly afterwards, as it was inundated with injured children - many aged under 10 years.

A Ruptly crew has filmed the injured in hospital.

WARNING: Following video contains disturbing images.
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Doberman

Best of the Web: Banning users & throttling posts: Facebook leans on NATO think-tank to 'sort out the Russian bots'


RT
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 19:27 UTC
nato facebook
Under tremendous pressure from politicians and mainstream media, Facebook and other social networks have turned to purging content, viewpoints and even users that the powers-that-be have declared objectionable.

Still angry over the 2016 US presidential election, Democrats blame social media for giving President Donald Trump and his supporters a voice and claim the likes of Facebook and Twitter have served as platforms for "Russians" to "influence" US public opinion - against Hillary Clinton, that is.

Repeatedly told to sort out the "Russians," Facebook, Twitter and Google have turned to throttling posts, suspending and even banning some users. First it was the "suspected Russian" accounts, based among other things on whether they were posting in Cyrillic. Then they demonetized, throttled and flagged accounts of Trump supporters such as Diamond and Silk. Last week, Facebook, Google, Spotify and several other platforms deleted the accounts of Alex Jones and InfoWars. Who is next?
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Eiffel Tower

Best of the Web: French intellectuals livid after watchdog blacklists everyone criticizing Macron-Benalla scandal as 'Russophiles'


RT
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 18:02 UTC
benalla eudisinfo lab
We're all Russian now
The French Twittersphere is on fire after a report leaked accounts of those tweeting on the Emmanuel Macron bodyguard scandal. Politicians Jean-Luc Melenchon and Marine Le Pen were shocked to find themselves blacklisted.

The now widely-discussed report was released by EU DisinfoLab - a Brussels-based non-governmental organization. Its stated mission is to fight "disinformation with innovative methodology."

The NGO decided to counter this very disinformation over Emmanuel Macron's very own 'Watergate' scandal which involved his protester-beating bodyguard Alexandre Benalla. Macron's 'Rambo' case has been blazing in the headlines for nearly a month now. New details, the president's reaction and lengthy op-eds on the consequences of the 'Benalla affair' are being released by media on an almost daily basis, along with heated discussions on social platforms.

Comment: All dissent on all things anywhere in the West is now 'Russian'.

It isn't really of course, but that's the crappy veil the psychopathic ones are going with.

What they're really doing is making lists of 'potential and actual dissenters', which, they hope, will come in handy when 'sorting them out' later.

Totalitarianism is here.

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Why is The Left so Afraid of Jordan Peterson?

Caitlin Flanagan
The Atlantic
Thu, 09 Aug 2018 22:18 UTC
The Canadian psychology professor's stardom is evidence that leftism is on the decline - and deeply vulnerable.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
© Rene Johnston / Toronto Star via Getty
Two years ago, I walked downstairs and saw one of my teenage sons watching a strange YouTube video on the television.

"What is that?" I asked.

He turned to me earnestly and explained, "It's a psychology professor at the University of Toronto talking about Canadian law."

"Huh?" I said, but he had already turned back to the screen. I figured he had finally gotten to the end of the internet, and this was the very last thing on it.

That night, my son tried to explain the thing to me, but it was a buzzing in my ear, and I wanted to talk about something more interesting. It didn't matter; it turned out a number of his friends - all of them like him: progressive Democrats, with the full range of social positions you would expect of adolescents growing up in liberal households in blue-bubble Los Angeles - had watched the video as well, and they talked about it to one another.

Comment:

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War Whore

Best of the Web: Remembering the 08.08.08 Georgia war: Forerunner to today's proxy war against Russia via Ukraine


war080808.com
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:53 UTC
Image
© russia.ru
The US-backed coup d'état in Ukraine during Olympic Games earlier this year wasn't the first blatant attempt in recent years to attack Russia while the world's attention was focused elsewhere. The following Russian documentary exposes the truth about the '08.08.08 war'.

6 years ago today, Washington's puppet regime in Georgia, led by the psychopathic Mikheil Saakashvili, launched unprovoked attacks against civilian targets in the disputed territory of South Ossetia. Western media didn't pay the slightest bit of attention until Russian tanks entered South Ossetia and forced the Georgians back to Tbilisi, at which point it became a major media event and the false official narrative that 'Georgia attacked by Russia' was established and has endured to this day.

As this documentary shows, Georgia in fact attacked Russia, and did so with the help of NATO military personnel, NATO weapons and equipment, NATO 'counter-terrorism' training, and a green light from Washington. In fact, fighters from the Ukrainian National Defense Forces (UNA-UNSO), set up by NATO, supplied snipers and other military personnel, the same organization that would later become instrumental in orchestrating the coup d'etat in Kiev and today's bloodshed against ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine.


War 08.08.08. The Art of Betrayal from RUSSIA.RU on Vimeo.
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Red Flag

Flashback Best of the Web: Russiagate is really all about China

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sun, 28 Jan 2018 16:37 UTC
Putin Xi Jinping
MSNBC's Chris Hayes recently asked a question of his Twitter following that was so heavily loaded it wouldn't be permitted on most interstate highways: "Aside from genuine cranks, is there anyone left denying it was the Russians that committed criminal sabotage in the American election?"

Hayes asked this fake question because he works for MSNBC and it is therefore his job, and he asked it in response to a report first made viral by deranged espionage LARPer Eric Garland that a Dutch intelligence agency had been observing Russian hackers attacking US political parties in advance of the 2016 election. Like all "bombshell" Russiagate reports, this one roared through social media like wildfire carried on the wings of liberal hysteria about the current administration, only to be exposed as being riddled with gaping plot holes as documented here by independent journalist Suzie Dawson. The report revolves around an allegedly Russian cyber threat now known in the west as "Cozy Bear", which as Real News' Max Blumenthal notes is not a network of hackers but "a Russian-sounding name the for-profit firm Crowdstrike assigned to an APT to market its findings to gullible reporters desperate for Russiagate scoops."

This "bombshell" overlapped with another as it was reported by the New York Times that at one point many months ago Trump had wanted to fire Robert Mueller, but then didn't.

*Cough.*

Comment: It seems that China is also aware of this and the US' continued attempts to isolate Russia serve only to further their relations. See also: China-Russia alliance doesn't need to be a threat to the West

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Attention

Best of the Web: Venezuelan President Maduro survives assassination attempt during public speech (UPDATES)


teleSUR
Sat, 04 Aug 2018 01:11 UTC
Maduro drone attack
© AVNVenezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has survived an apparent attack on his life during a military parade.
Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez confirmed the attack late Saturday, shortly after video of the incident began surfacing on social media.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has survived an apparent attack on his life during a military parade celebrating the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard in the capital, Caracas.


Comment: It was also the one-year anniversary of Venezuela's new Constituent Assembly, condemned by the Global Fake News Media as 'anti-democratic', which their Fake Intel Controllers apparently decided to mar with their particular brand of 'democratic terrorism'.


In a televised national address late Saturday, Maduro said he was fine and laid blame for the attack firmly at the feet of "right-wing imperial forces" who he said had hired the would-be assassins.

"I must inform that they have been captured - those who attempted to take my life - and they are being processed. I won't say more, but the investigation is very advanced.

Comment: Maduro has made some additional comments on the attempted assassination:
The Venezuelan President has in turn announced that the investigation into his attempted assassination has already made significant progress: "preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers and planners, live in the United States in the state of Florida."

Maduro has said that he has "no doubt" that the perpetrators include US-backed Colombian and Venezuelan terrorists, including outgoing Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos himself, engaged in a "right-wing plot" to overthrow Maduro.

"I hope the Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries on our continent, in this case Venezuela", Maduro proclaimed on national television.

Indeed, it would not be a conspiracy to suggest that the Venezuelan opposition, which is no stranger to terrorist tactics to achieve their aims of disruption, is behind this. As logically follows, it would by no means be hyperbole to suggest that the CIA and US government have a hand in this.

Evidence to support this is not only the overall track record of US Imperialism in Latin America, notorious for coup d'etats, disappearances, and support for brutal military dictatorships, but more recently, the coup attempts in Venezuela in April 2002 and two attempts at destabilization using the guarimbas in 2014 and 2017.

US Imperialism and the Venezuelan comprador bourgeoisie have proven unsuccessful at dislodging the Bolívarian Revolution from power. They've lost dozens of elections and most recently, Maduro was re-elected President, and regional and local elections saw a consolidation of wins for the PSUV and revolutionary groups. It is no wonder they are stooping to desperate tactics like this drone attempt.

Today's event also takes place just days after Maduro reached crucial new agreements with the peasant movement. Maduro wants to meet their demands for (1) security from the political assassinations of campesinos by Colombian paramilitaries, (2) more land to farm, and (3) credits and technology.

Additionally, Maduro has unleashed investigations against corrupt bureaucrats who sabotaged the state oil company. This represents a continuation of the deepening of the Bolivarian revolution amidst the food crisis caused by capitalist hoarders.

It can be safely assumed that the Bolivarian security forces will pursue the perpetrators of this assassination attempt and the popular forces of Venezuela will secure their areas in case of an escalation from nearby Colombia, which was recently made a member of NATO by the US.
UPDATES 5 AUGUST, 12:30 CET

Another update, courtesy of RT:
Unconfirmed media reports indicated that a splinter group called 'Flannel Soldiers' claimed credit for the attack. Spain's El Mundo newspaper cited a Twitter account under a similar name which alleged "the operation was to fly drones loaded with C4," but said they were shot down by the presidential guard before reaching their target.

According to Gregory Wilpert, co-founder of Venezuelanalysis website, those who orchestrated the plot hoped that "the military would rise up against the president and would take it as an opportunity to organize a coup and overthrow the government."
The Colombian government has of course denied any involvement. It's interesting, however, that outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos - a Nobel Peace Prize laureate despite waging a border war against Venezuela - 'predicted' just 5 days previously that he foresees "regime change" in Caracas "in the near future."

23:30 CET

US National Security czar John 'Evil Ned Flanders' Bolton has piped up to declare that the US govt was "not involved" in the assassination attempt against Maduro.

Bolton was apparently just letting everyone know. Because, ya know, many people were suspecting precisely that.

Which is interesting because it means that even the the US govt. knows that everyone else knows that the US govt. has a long track record of assassinating or otherwise overthrowing the democratically-elected leaders of other nations.

But America's the greatest democracy on earth, don't ya know.

UPDATE 6 August

A video was posted on social media by by Cesar Guardiola, a security adviser and retired military serviceman, purportedly showing the drone exploding. Maduro can be heard giving his speech in the background as the camera focuses on a drone flying in the sky. The drone is then seen to be engulfed in a fireball, followed a split second later by a loud bang. Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez announced that six people had been detained in connection with the reported plot to kill Maduro.



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