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Best of the Web: Why are Western leaders gawd awful bad and China's so darn competent?

Jeff Brown
China Rising
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 20:30 UTC
macron xi jinping
In the first part of this essay, I showed why Western leaders are generally so bad. The one sentence answer is they are almost always suborned to serve the interests of the 1% at the expense of the 99%.

There is a corollary explanation for this. European cultures and their spinoffs in the rest of Eurangloland, including Israel are founded on violence and theft. If you don't believe this goes back to the Jewish Torah/Christian Old Testament, here is a quick review of Westerners' predilection for killing, destroying, plundering first and asking questions later ( and).

I created a comparative Excel table using Wikipedia's pages on Conflicts in Europe, United States and China. Europe's list has 760 entries, the US's 250 and China's 315. Europe's long list really starts in 1,100BC and does not include all of the genocidal horrors in the Torah/Old Testament before that. The US's only starts in 1775, which is wishful propaganda. As Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz clearly proves in her book, A Native Peoples' History of the United States, genocidal wars to exterminate the many millions of First Nations' peoples started Day One with the colonial landing at Jamestown in 1607. And the killing has never stopped. China's goes back to 2,500BC, so is over twice as long as Europe's and, compared to the US, almost ten times longer.

Comment: We're not sure what to make of China really, but one sometimes gets the impression it's a couple thousand years more 'evolved' than everywhere else.

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Newspaper

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: Hong Kong, Kashmir: A tale of two occupations

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:55 UTC
hong kong riots kashmir india
Two hotspots bordering/in China, both coming to the boil...
Readers from myriad latitudes have been asking me about Hong Kong. They know it's one of my previous homes. I developed a complex, multi-faceted relationship with Hong Kong ever since the 1997 handover, which I covered extensively. Right now, if you allow me, I'd rather cut to the chase.

Much to the distress of neocons and humanitarian imperialists, there won't be a bloody mainland China crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong - a Tiananmen 2.0. Why? Because it's not worth it.

Beijing has clearly identified the color revolution provocation inbuilt in the protests - with the NED excelling as CIA soft, facilitating the sprawl of fifth columnists even in the civil service.

Comment: Escobar takes a hardline regarding Indian policy towards Kashmir. Whataboutery isn't the best argument against that, but we have to ask: what then of how China handles the majority-Muslim Uyghur population of Xinjiang province, aka East Turkestan?

Then there's the geopolitical calculation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), mentioned by the author. India resents Chinese influence in its 'far north' or what it considers its sphere of influence, so its decision to 'strike' there now is almost certainly informed by 'containing China'. Additionally, there is even a pocket of the disputed region that China claims...

India certainly has a 'democracy issue' it will have to justify; the fact that the population of Kashmir is overwhelmingly Muslim. Ideally, it would have done as Russia did wrt Crimea; delivered a positive referendum result. But this is where characterizations of Modi's India as 'fascist-Hindu' are distinctly unhelpful. The fact is, Muslim Indians voted for Modi in droves, both in 2014, and more so in 2019.

See also:

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Attention

Best of the Web: John Pilger: Assange being 'treated worse than a murderer' in prison


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 18:06 UTC
assange arrest
© Reuters/Henry NichollsWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van, after he was arrested by British police, in London, Britain April 11, 2019.
Julian Assange is suffering from poor health as a result of mistreatment in prison, according to journalist John Pilger, who recently visited the WikiLeaks founder. Pilger said that he now fears for Assange.

Describing Assange's "deteriorating" condition, Pilger tweeted that he was being treated "worse than a murderer" at London's Belmarsh prison.

"[H]e is isolated, medicated and denied the tools to fight the bogus charges of a US extradition. I now fear for him. Do not forget him," Pilger wrote.

Comment:

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Star of David

Best of the Web: On feeding the Israel Lobby in America

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:13 UTC
Israel lobby in Washington graphic
If you have been wondering when the twenty Democratic aspirants for the presidency will begin a serious discussion of American foreign policy in the Middle East, where Washington has been bogged down in both current and impending wars, you are not alone. With the honorable exception of Tulsi Gabbard, no one seems keen to touch that particular live wire.

Part of the problem is the journalists who are asking the questions in the debates. To be sure, the publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt back in 2007 opened the door to a frank discussion of why the United States is involved in unresolvable conflicts on behalf of a tiny client state. But unfortunately, while it is now possible to find in the mainstream media some honest analysis of Israel's ability to corrupt policy formulation in Washington, in general the Jewish state continues to get a pass from both the press and politicians on all issues that matter.
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Cult

Best of the Web: New Hollywood movie portrays rich liberal elites gleefully abducting, hunting and massacring ordinary Americans


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 14:44 UTC
the hunt movie deplorables
Still from 'The Hunt'. We're ruled by pathological elites, in case anyone hasn't noticed...
A violent thriller in which blue-state elites hunt red-state "deplorables" for sport has been forced to pull some of its ads in the wake of US mass shootings as studio execs fear the tragedies will eclipse the ultra-dark satire.


Comment: So they're actually going ahead with it??

That's some chutzpah!


Universal Pictures, which picked up the controversy-guaranteed script for "The Hunt" after other studios recoiled in horror, is re-evaluating an advertising blitz planned for the month leading up to the film's September 27 release after a trio of mass shootings in Texas, Ohio, and California left 36 dead in the space of a week. The studio has already pulled some TV and internet ads out of concern "for content and placement," according to one high-level source who spoke to the Hollywood Reporter, though another said the matter has not yet been decided.


Comment: The sickest part of it is that 'hunts of deplorables' is what they already do, and have been doing for decades.

Sure, sometimes they hit blue zones more in line with 'their own' (Orlando nightclub massacre, Parkland school massacre), but for the most part they're targeting what we know today as 'the Trump base' - the great majority of ordinary Americans they detest and abuse.

So this movie is just them gloating about it (over and above the mediatized psy-operas that accompany each massacre).

That's how far gone things are. They can do this and get away with it. But you, if you dare to call them out, or mention them by name, you're done for.

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Clipboard

Best of the Web: Eva Bartlett interviews Syrian General Hassan: 'The Middle East was set ablaze to serve Israeli interests'

Eva Bartlett
MintPress News
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Syrian General Hassan Hassan, Eva Bartlett
© Eva BartlettCenter: Syrian General Hassan Hassan • Right: Eva Bartlett • Left: Translator
For years, international headlines spotlighting Syria have claimed that the Syrian government, army, and its allies were guilty of a variety of atrocities. Yet as time has passed, many of the accusations levied at government and its allies have been shown to have been either falsified, staged (as in the case of allegations of chemical attacks in eastern Ghouta), or actually committed by the myriad terrorist groups operating in the country.

For their part, Syrian leadership has maintained from the start that the uprisings leading to the civil war in their country were not peaceful. Media in the West and the Gulf vilified Syria's leadership, featuring story after story of government-imposed violence while ignoring or whitewashing the violence of the burgeoning armed groups flooding into Syria.

From as early as 2011, armed groups were throwing civilians from rooftops and committing beheadings, kidnappings, and massacres. The year 2011 alone saw multiple massacres of civilians and security forces committed by what the media called "unarmed protesters" and later by the "Free Syrian Army." This was the same year that many in the media were insisting that a "peaceful revolution" was underway.

Since that time, those same armed groups, as well as the many iterations they spawned, have starved, tortured, imprisoned, murdered, maimed and even harvested the organs of Syrian civilians, in addition to killing Syrian and allied soldiers and journalists and destroying much of the country's infrastructure.

To give a voice to the often ignored "other side" — those Syrians that have been working to defend their country since 2011 — Eva Bartlett interviewed the Syrian Arab Army's Head of Political Administration, General Hassan Hassan. A stout military man with styled hair and a clean shave, General Hassan's shelves and large wooden desk are covered with stacks of books, family photos, and various homages to the country he serves — the general holds a Ph.D. in geopolitical studies. The following is a transcript of Bartlett's interview with Hassan following the 74th anniversary of the founding of the Syrian Arab Army.
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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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