The Canadian psychology professor's stardom is evidence that leftism is on the decline - and deeply vulnerable.
© 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.
© 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.
Caitlin Johnstone
MediumSun, 28 Jan 2018 16:37 UTC
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.*
© 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.
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 CETAnother 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 CETUS 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 AugustA
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.
RTTue, 07 Aug 2018 03:34 UTC
The two fires are known as the Mendocino Complex, which has become the largest in state history
, authorities have confirmed. Firefighters continue to battle the blaze, which is currently only 30 percent contained.
"We broke the record," state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean
said. "That's one of those records you don't want to see."
The Ranch and River fires that make up the Mendocino Complex wildfire had grown to 283,800 acres by Monday evening, Cal Fire said in their latest
update.
Some 3,908 firefighters, 441 fire engines, and 15 aircraft continue to battle the flames."Tonight fire crews will try to take advantage of the lower temperatures to increase suppression and hold current containment lines," Cal Fire said.
RTMon, 06 Aug 2018 14:38 UTC
© Vladimir Fedorenko / SputnikUS Senator Rand Paul • Senator Konstantin Kosachev
US Senator Rand Paul called for increased dialogue with Moscow and invited a delegation of Russian lawmakers to Washington DC during the Republican's visit to the Russian capital on Monday.
Paul announced that he had "invited members of the foreign affairs committee of Russia to come to the United States to meet with us in Washington," after meeting with Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia's upper house.
The two sides are hoping to organize a meeting in a neutral, third country, the Kentucky lawmaker told reporters.Marking the second US congressional delegation to Moscow in a month - Senator Richard Shelby and a group of US lawmakers held talks with senior Russian officials in July - Paul said that part of the purpose of his trip was to promote greater dialogue between Moscow and Washington.
Comment: Someone, besides Trump, has got to reach out and restart the dialogue.
Maggie Michael, Trish Wilson and Lee Keath
APMon, 06 Aug 2018 16:41 UTC
© AP PhotoCoalition-backed fighters advance on Yemen’s Red Sea port town of Mocha in this Jan. 11 2017, photo. The coalition forces eventually captured the town from Shiite rebels known as Houthis. Some fighters in the unit were openly al-Qaida, wearing Afghan-style garb and carrying weapons with an al-Qaida logo, a sign of how closely the militants have been involved in the war against the Houthis, who are seen by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as a proxy for Iranian influence.
Again and again over the past two years, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States has claimed it won decisive victories that drove al-Qaida militants from their strongholds across Yemen and shattered their ability to attack the West.
Here's what the victors did not disclose:
many of their conquests came without firing a shot.
That's because
the coalition cut secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.
Hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself.These compromises and alliances have allowed al-Qaida militants to survive to fight another day - and risk strengthening the most dangerous branch of the terror network that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Key participants in the pacts said
the U.S. was aware of the arrangements and held off on any drone strikes.
Comment: The entire purpose of the war was to support the Wahhabis from the beginning, and the collaboration has been known about since 2015. See Moon of Alabama's
latest:
The direct involvement of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and of mercenaries from a dozen countries proves that the war in Yemen is not a "civil war". It is a full fledged attack on Yemen, its resources and applaudably cool (vid) people. The Houthis are Zaida, not Twelver Shia like the Iranians. The are backed by Iranian rhetoric but that's about it.
Why bring this news out of the 'conspiracy realm' and make it official now?
RTMon, 06 Aug 2018 15:14 UTC
© Jeremy Pelzer
Two ardent Republicans expressed their support for US President Donald Trump - and their disdain for the Democratic Party - in a fairly original way during a rally held by the president in Ohio at the weekend.
Cleveland photographer
Jeremy Pelzer spotted the two friends, who had travelled from the city of Delaware to attend the Trump rally, wearing matching t-shirts displaying the controversial slogan:
"I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."Unsurprisingly, the photograph has since gone viral and the seemingly pro-Russia sentiment has Democrats fired up in outrage at the thought of Trump supporters
"proudly choosing Russia over their fellow Americans".
Comment: That's some great trolling right there!
Robert Bridge
RTSat, 04 Aug 2018 16:32 UTC
© Alaa Al-Marjani / ReutersAmerican soldiers at the US army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul
Western policymakers brazenly advocate that to be taken seriously, nations must emulate the Western democratic tradition. But peel back the veneer of these so-called democracies, and there lurks something sinister and rotten.
Just about 2,500 years ago, democracy took its first breath in that fertile hotbed of philosophical thought known as Athens, one of the many city-states that made up ancient Greece. This early experiment in 'rule by the people', which Winston Churchill once described as "
the worst form of government, except for all the others," has gone on to generally define the political structure of what is known today as 'the Western world'.
John Wight
SputnikSat, 04 Aug 2018 08:56 UTC
The febrile atmosphere whipped up over the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn's alleged anti-Semitism demands a response, and at times like this W.B. Yeats hovers into admonitory view:
"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world:
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
"The worst are full of passionate intensity" is pristinely apt when attempting to place the hounding and character assassination of Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, into some kind of perspective.
The 'worst' in our time is a sundry crew of, in the main, very middle class, very affluent, and very mendacious champions of war - Iraq, Libya anyone?- and defenders of Israel's oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people, who to all intents have been marked out as children of a lesser God.
Comment: In a way, Corbyn's stance on Gaza and Palestinians' right to not be brutalized aren't the real issue here. Certainly, the Israeli lobby has strong influence and would prefer not to see him become the next PM of the UK. But the Tory establishment (including that part of it ensconced within the Labour Party) is at least equally determined to prevent Corbyn from becoming PM. And thus all its media lapdogs have been marshalled to jump on the bandwagon, not out of particular concern for covering up Israeli war crimes, but because it's a convenient mode of attack against Corbyn - which, they hope, will make him less popular. (No chance!)
What's all the more jarring about this mode of attack is that Corbyn is NOT of the 'far-right'. Ideologically, he's 'the opposite'. And yet here we have a 'leftie' being bashed with something usually reserved for bashing the 'populist right-wing'. That it doesn't at all 'fit' Corbyn points to just how 'black' this black propaganda is, and how fecklessly inconsistent its propagators are.
Comment: