Best of the Web:


Bullseye

Best of the Web: Another mass shooting just in time to distract US from Putin's truth-telling

Melissa Dykes
Truthstream Media
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
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The truth is, we don't even need to hear the gory details.

We don't need to know the shooter's name, his background, what psychotropic meds he was on. We don't need to know the victim's names and hear their harrowing tales recanted dramatically over and over on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC.

We don't have to wonder why the shooter is dead now. We know dead men tell no tales.

If you are wasting your time looking that close at what the right hand was doing, you already missed the sleight of hand magic trick in the left.

All that matters is that stories about Putin calling the U.S.'s bluff in Syria and airstriking of the very ISIS terrorists that the CIA trained, armed, and funded have been knocked off of the mainstream U.S. media's front page news in lieu of yet another curiously timed mass shooting.

Comment: A few direct quotes from George H.W. Bush may be in order here:
A Benevolent Dictatorship is the Best Form of Government. Everything in Secret and above the law needs to be imperative.-- George H W Bush

Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush in 1988 said: New World Order is the consolidation of more power and money into tighter, fewer, righted, eliter, whiter, hands. NAZI Adolph Hitler first coined the phrase: New World Order.

Bush further stated in June 1992 to Sarah McClendon the Grandam of the Washington White House Press Corps when she asked Bush what will the people do if they ever find out the truth about Iraq-gate and Iran-Contra? George H W Bush Replied: Sarah, If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.


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Target

Best of the Web: Islamic Holocaust: Western wars have killed AT LEAST 4 million Muslims since 1990

Nafeez Ahmed
Middle East Eye
Wed, 29 Apr 2015 11:48 UTC
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Shock and awe... and death, lots of death.
Last month, the Washington DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PRS) released a landmark study concluding that the death toll from 10 years of the "War on Terror" since the 9/11 attacks is at least 1.3 million, and could be as high as 2 million.

The 97-page report by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning doctors' group is the first to tally up the total number of civilian casualties from US-led counter-terrorism interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The PSR report is authored by an interdisciplinary team of leading public health experts, including Dr. Robert Gould, director of health professional outreach and education at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and Professor Tim Takaro of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.

Yet it has been almost completely blacked out by the English-language media, despite being the first effort by a world-leading public health organisation to produce a scientifically robust calculation of the number of people killed by the US-UK-led "war on terror".

Comment: Widening the focus to all Western interventions in the Muslim world, the death toll increases further.

Summarizing the above findings... the upper toll for West-caused deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan (since 1991) is 5 million, and the conservative estimate for deaths resulting from Western intervention in Iraq (since 1991) is 3 million (the upper toll is 4 million).

Then we should add in the death toll from the proxy war against Syria (thus far), which is at least 100,000. The death toll in Libya from NATO's blitzkrieg (followed by CIA-fuelled civil war) is officially 40,000, but an independent fact-finding commission found it to be 660,000.

Then there have also been the smaller-scale invasions and occupations of Lebanon and Palestine, the invasions and occupations of Mali and other central African states, and the drone and proxy wars in Yemen and Somalia, each yielding anything from several hundreds of deaths to tens of thousands.

All told, we're probably looking at around 10 million people across 'the Muslim world' (from North Africa to Afghanistan) killed - either directly slaughtered, or as a consequence of military intervention - by the Empire's war machine since 1991.

If that isn't a holocaust, what is it?

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Vader

Best of the Web: With one hand Obama handshakes China's Xi while sticking a knife in his back with his other hand

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 20:04 UTC
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While there were several points of apparent accord reached between the US and China during President Xi Jinping's state visit, the issue of cybercrime will continue to be a source of tension going forward. Tension that will be unilaterally and cynically exploited by Washington for its ulterior geopolitical aim of demonising and browbeating China.

The problem partly stems from Washington being able to propagate its sly, prejudicial attitude towards China. Smiles and handshakes aside, the United States' official mentality harbours and projects a demeaning presumption of Chinese guilt over cybercrime.

That mentality is manifest in the arrogant way that the United States government during President Xi's visit managed to appoint itself as «judge and jury» to arbitrate on this contentious issue.

Washington's truculent attitude is quite a feat of reality-inversion considering its own proven global NSA spying operations, as revealed by Edward Snowden; as well as its known state-sponsored hacking operations against countries, such as when it ravaged Iran's civilian nuclear facilities back in 2010 with the Stuxnet virus. That cyberattack was personally ordered by President Barack Obama, according to the New York Times.
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Radar

Best of the Web: Russian military reports 8 ISIS targets hit during 20 combat flights in Syria


RT
Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:11 UTC
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© Stringer / Reuters
Russia has struck eight Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) targets in Syria, the country's Defense Ministry said, adding that civilian infrastructure was avoided during the operations.

"Today, Russian aerospace force jets delivered pinpoint strikes on eight ISIS terror group targets in Syria. In total, 20 flights were made," spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said.

"As a result, arms and fuel depots and military equipment were hit. ISIS coordination centers in the mountains were totally destroyed," he added.

Konashenkov said that all the flights took place after air surveillance and careful verification of the data provided by the Syrian military. He stressed that Russian jets did not target any civilian infrastructure and avoided these territories.


Comment: Despite the fact that the U.S. military has been caught off guard with how quickly Russia has taken over the battle against ISIS, the Russian military looks entirely prepared and competent to do what the West has been unwilling unable to do.

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Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: Top threats to your life when the SHTF and how to prepare for them

Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper
Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
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When it hits the fan...I mean REALLY hits the fan in a permanent kind of way, the most likely outcome is death.

That's not pretty, and I'm well aware of it. I always try to be positive and optimistic, because for me, preparedness is the ultimate act of optimism, but sometimes we have to look at the numbers and face some things that are pretty terrifying. The first reality check is that some research says that only 3 million Americans are preppers. That means that 315 million Americans are not preppers. Some experts predict that within 30 days of the power going out, 50% of Americans will be dead. Within a year, an astounding 90% of the population will be dead.

Do you want to survive such a scenario? Do you want your children to survive? When you read this information, you have to realize that it's very unlikely that you and your family would live through a grid failure of a year or more unless you are proactive and develop a preparedness plan that takes all of these causes of death into consideration.

Comment: See these among many other articles and shows we have carried here on the whys and ways of prepping: And do have a listen to the SOTT Talk Radio shows that are devoted to this subject:

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Chess

Best of the Web: Checkmate: Putin outmaneuvers Western psychopaths at UN

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik News
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 18:03 UTC
Putin and Obama
© AP Photo/Amanda VoisardIn this Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, photo, provided by the United Nations, US President Barack Obama, left, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin toast during a luncheon hosted during the 70th annual United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's message at the UN General Assembly was stark; either sovereign states get together in a broad coalition against all forms of terror, and the principle of statehood is respected as enshrined in the UN charter - or there will be chaos.

This UN General Assembly revealed that the Obama administration's perpetual newspeak does not cut it anymore. A review of UN speeches by both Putin and Obama is almost painful to watch. Putin acted like a serious global statesman. Obama acted like a poseur flunking a screen test.

Putin's key talking points could not but be easily accessible to the Global South — his prime audience, much more than the industrialized West.

1) The export of color — or monochromatic — revolutions is doomed.

2) The alternative to the primacy of statehood is chaos. This implies that the Assad system in Syria may be immensely problematic, but it's the only game in town. The alternative is ISIS/ISIL/Daesh barbarism. There's no credible "moderate opposition" — as there was not in NATO-"liberated" Libya.

3) Only the UN — as flawed as it may be — is a guarantor of peace and security in our imperfect, realpolitik geopolitical environment.
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Blackbox

Best of the Web: West's coverage of the 'Syrian crisis' is a microcosm of the dying Western media

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:54 UTC
mainstreammedien,corporate media
Seymour Hersh has risked much over his decades of journalism. He is a true journalist who has been attacked, slandered, and shunned by all sides simply because he seems to resist taking any side.

When he reported on US atrocities in Vietnam, he was first attacked and denounced as a traitor or worse. In time, both the truth and Hersh were vindicated and the importance of what he did as a journalist to both inform the public and serve as a check and balance against the special interests of ruling power were recognized with a Pultizer Prize.

In 2007, when he exposed the then Bush-administration's plans to use the Muslim Brotherhood and militant groups linked to Al Qaeda to overthrow the government of Syria - the result of which is unfolding today - the New Yorker gladly welcomed his work as a message they perceived would resonate well with liberal audiences.

Comment: Also see: Syrian death toll exaggerated to generate Western public support for airstrikes and regime change

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Gold Seal

Flashback Best of the Web: Russian President Vladimir Putin: So who created ISIS, anyway?

Russia Insider
YouTube
Fri, 24 Oct 2014 15:57 UTC
Putin valdai
© Mikhail Klimentyev / RIA NovostiVladimir Putin speaks to political experts at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, October 24.
In 2014, President Obama named the three major threats to US national security; ISIS, Russia and Ebola (because spiraling national debt, unequal distribution of wealth, over-incarceration, climate change etc. are less pressing issues.)

It would be fair to say that Russian politicians took much offence to being placed in this list, next to a terror organisation and a disease.

In relation to this statement, Putin answers a number of questions from a US journalist at the Valdai International Discussion Club, late 2014.

To draw his point to a close, Putin mirrors the words of John F Kennedy in a 1963 speech titled "A Strategy for Peace", unusual for its time due to the warmth of the address to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Putin is likely to echo the words he said at Valdai when he speaks at the UN in New York tomorrow.


Comment: Putin isn't shy when it comes to putting liars and hypocrites in their place. With one day before his highly anticipated speech at the UN General Assembly, all eyes are on New York for Putin the Great.

See also: Putin interview on CBS 60 Minutes: Preview of UN speech

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Георгиевская ленточка

Best of the Web: All eyes on New York for Putin the Great

Pepe Escobar
RT
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:40 UTC
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Vladimir Vladimirovich returns to the Lion's Den (aka NYC)
It's the ultimate geopolitical cliffhanger of the season: will US President Barack Obama finally decide to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, either this Friday or during the UN General Assembly next week in New York?

Russia's game changer in Syria - not only weapons delivery but also the prospect of actual intervention by the Russian Air Force - has left the Beltway reeling.

Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Walled Muallem has made it clear to RT that direct Russian involvement in the fight against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and those "moderates" (US neocon designation) of Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in Syria, is even more important than the arms delivery.

Washington, meanwhile, remains mired in a geopolitical black-hole as far as Putin's strategy is concerned. The Obama administration's response will hinge on how Putin's speech at the UN will be received across the world, and how the frantic diplomacy related to the Syrian theatre of war will fare.

It's naïve to interpret the Russian military build-up as a mere show of force, an invitation to the Americans to finally sit down and discuss everything from southwest Asia to Ukraine.

Comment: Pepe has posted an update to the above on his Facebook page:
IMPORTANT UPDATE

The White House announced a while ago that the coin FINALLY dropped on Obama and he WILL talk to Putin at the UN General Assembly.

And now a senior adviser to Assad is saying that the US and Russia have reached a "tacit agreement" on ending the mess in Syria.

Quick recap. Putin started by refusing "Assad must go" as a prerequisite for peace negotiations.

Then he turbo-charged the military build up in Latakia - both the Pentagon and the White House DID NOT see it coming.

So this is what Putin accomplished even BEFORE Obama saw the light and decided to talk:

Forget about a Libya-remixed NATO war on Syria.

Forget about a Sultan Erdogan no-fly zone over areas controlled by Damascus.

And out with the old world order. THIS is how the new world order works, and Russia is also driving it.

Putin's speech on Monday at the UN will be about "the joint struggle against terrorism" (as branded by TASS).

Expect abundant apoplexy in the Washington/New York axis.
While the UK remains committed to Washington's line of 'removing Assad', the German government has taken Russia's position:

'Merkel admits Syrian conflict cannot be resolved without Bashar Assad '

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Cow Skull

Best of the Web: The US blockade of Syria is a war crime, pure and simple

Christopher Black
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
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The news that the United States asked both Greece and Bulgaria to block Russian flights over their air space headed for Syria is a logical extension of the criminality of the aggression against Syria being conducted by the NATO powers and their allies in the region. The NATO alliance has been conducting a war of aggression against Syria since 2011 when it succeeded in destroying Libya and it was responsible for the waves of humanity who fled the NATO bombing and who now flee the Takfiri militants NATO used as their auxiliaries.

These actions are clearly war crimes of the highest order, contemptuous violations of the UN Charter, international law and of all morality. The resulting misery of the peoples of the countries under attack, who are forced to flee and become refugees in the heart of the very alliance that is attacking them, is beyond words. The images bombard us daily. But the images are not placed in the western media to create a call for peace in the region. Instead, as we see from the recent statements of the British, French and American leaders, they are used to manipulate the emotions of the citizens of the NATO countries to justify a call for more military aggression against Syria which will create more misery, more death and more refugees.

Comment: All the world's democratic institutions and courts of justice have proven utterly useless in preventing or addressing US aggression. Worse still, they facilitate the destruction on a scale we haven't seen since WWII with their silence. As we now see, it will require the deep commitment and resolve of the sane leaders of the world's to counter the evil that's been unleashed.

As yet another symbol of US wrong-headedness what can be more indicative of the problem we are facing than this:

Need beheading: US welcomes news that Saudi Arabia will head UN Human Rights panel

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