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Post-It Note

Life in Absurdistan: NY District Attorney subpoenas parody Twitter account linked to Brooklyn Bridge incident

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© Reuters/Regis Duvignau
In a peculiar turn of events, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has issued a subpoena for a parody Twitter account in relation to the July incident that saw white flags placed on top of the Brooklyn Bridge.

According to The New York Times, the subpoena was issued to the @BicycleLobby Twitter account on Friday, a move intended to reveal the identity of the person or persons behind the posts. The subpoena's existence seems to indicate that investigators believe those behind the account could potentially be helpful in determining who placed the flags on the bridge.

As RT reported last month, the New York Police Department was at a loss to explain how the American flags occupying the Brooklyn Bridge were replaced with white ones, especially given the area's tight security. Social media made light of the situation, with some suggesting that Brooklyn was "surrendering" to Manhattan, but police did not take the situation lightly.

Comment: A sign of things to come? Flags atop Brooklyn bridge replaced with faded white versions


Star of David

Five facts the Zionist Israeli government prefer you didn't know

Benjamin Netanyahu murderer
© Inconnu
1. Binyamin Netanyahu claims to speak for the majority of world Jewry although, in fact, he represents only a minority of Jewish Israelis and Americans - those who support his right-wing, Likud Party. To many others, particularly in Europe, he is considered a US-financed, Zionist rabble-rouser with an extremist political agenda that rejects any Palestinian state and requires the 'transfer' of all indigenous Arabs out of former Palestine.

2. Israeli policies such as the illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state); the 8 year blockade of essential supplies into Gaza; the mis-labelling of exported fruit and vegetables to Europe and the horrific killing of hundreds of defenceless women and children in Gaza - all have the effect of exacerbating antisemitism around the world. The agenda of the Israeli government against the indigenous Arab population being the primary driver of anti-Jewish feeling both in Europe and globally.

USA

It's Madness! US opposes ISIS in Iraq, supports them in Syria

isis killing iraqis
© Associated PressIS executing unarmed civilians in Iraq - A CIA/Mossad production
Elite donors of American allies in the Persian Gulf region have poured an immense amount of resources into rebel groups like IS in efforts to advance on three general goals: opposing Iran, its ally Bashar Assad and his government in Syria, and fomenting the Sunni-Shia divides in the region.

Comment: Interesting that Obama became alert and ordered strikes against them only after IS/ISIS/ISIL got close to Kurdistan. Cities were bombed to ruins and evacuated, civilians were being executed in cold blood and most of the women raped for months now! But Kurdistan is at stake? Time for the U.S. to intervene. Why?

Why Israel is in love with Kurdistan


Bomb

US military averting another 'humanitarian crisis' it helped create by bombing Iraq

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© Reuters / Mike BlakeU.S. F-18 fighter jets are being employed to help a humanitarian crises that was created by U.S.
US military aircraft conducted at least three rounds of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq on Friday. This time there are reports of IS militant casualties, CBS News reported.

All of the bombings occurred around Erbil, the capital city of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, including on a target northwest the city, CNN reported. The first strike took place Friday morning, when US jets bombed IS positions in the northern part of the country.

The second strike was conducted with a US military drone, which likely fired a Hellfire missile, CNN's Barbara Starr reported. Hellfires are known for their precision during bombings. That attack was on a mortar position. Militants left the scene, and when they returned, they were attacked by a different US asset.

Comment: Of course the U.S.'s attempts at averting a humanitarian crises by bombing the new Islamic threat du jour, IS, is complete hogwash. The U.S. destabilizes regions, then justifies it's military's activity by trying to help the problem it went to great lengths to help create - all under the guise of "humanitarianism". Then of course this narrative - of trying to help - is further perpetuated in other areas of the world in the hopes that some people will buy these lies and support further interventions. Question is: who's still buying into these lies??


Star of David

U.S.-Israeli disregard and hypocrisy on human rights and international law

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By the end of the 19th century it was recognized by those concerned with human rights that the nation-state was a destructive anachronism. It was an entity that seemed addicted to periodic spasms of mass violence, particularly in the form of war carried on with little or no regard for non-combatants or other restraining factors.

As a consequence, efforts began to create instruments of international law - treaties, conventions and other agreements - to modify state behaviour in such areas as the treatment of prisoners and the victimization of civilian populations.

The precarious status of international humanitarian law

Progress was spotty until the very end of World War II, when various human rights charters came into existence as a part of the United Nations. Through that institution, provision was made - albeit in very narrowly defined circumstances - for the fielding of UN military forces (the famous Blue Helmets) to try to enforce peace and protect civilian populations. Other institutions, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), were also eventually brought into existence.

Propaganda

Western propaganda machine New York Times furiously attempting to rewrite history of Gaza conflict

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© Shutterstock
An important journalistic pattern is beginning right now that must be countered by people who care about human rights: The New York Times is trying to rewrite the history of the Gaza conflict to treat it as a cycle of violence set off by Hamas in June by allegedly orchestrating the teen kidnappings on the West Bank - rather than as a war begun by Israel against Hamas. The Times whites out Israel's interest: to destroy the unity government between Hamas and Fatah that was announced in May, a government the U.S. was prepared to work with, thereby defying Israel.

And as for the seven-year siege of Gaza that has put 1.8 million people in an open-air prison, the Times has nothing to say.

The pattern is evident in Steven Erlanger's piece in the New York Times two days ago: "Arrest by Israel in Abduction of 3 Youths Is Made Public." Erlanger said that Hamas abducted and killed the three Israeli teens June 12, and that this abduction set off the Gaza onslaught.

Quenelle - Golden

South Africa will prosecute citizens who serve in the IDF

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© AP/Ben CurtisA man walks past an election poster of Jacob Zuma's African National Congress (ANC) party in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, May 9, 2014.
Activist group opens case against one soldier, threatens more; convicts could face jail time

South African authorities said they will prosecute citizens who serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

The warning earlier this week came after a pro-Palestinian advocacy group opened a case against Dean Goodson of Cape Town, who reportedly is serving in the IDF.

Action Forum in Support of Palestine told the South Africa Independent online that it plans to open cases against at least four other South Africans that the group believes are serving in the IDF.

South Africa's Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act regulates the involvement of South Africans in armed conflicts beyond the country's borders. Those found guilty could be sentenced to jail time.

Stock Down

Alasdair Macleod: Market risks transferred to currencies

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At the end of July global equity bull markets had a moment of doubt, falling three or four per cent. In the seven trading days up to 1st August the S&P500 fell 3.8%, and we are not out of the woods yet. At the same time the Russell 2000, an index of small-cap US companies fell an exceptional 9%, and more worryingly it looks like it has lost bullish momentum as shown in the chart below. This indicates a possible double-top formation in the making.

Comment: It appears the US Dollar World Reserve (currency) is blazing the trail to devaluation and ultimate destruction.


Stock Up

Ukrainian MP sez over 10,000 dead in Ukraine since start of mad 'anti-terror' op

Shakhtyorsk
© RIA Novosti/Mikhail VoskresenskiyResidential buildings in Shakhtyorsk, destroyed by a Ukrainian military artillery attack.
More than ten thousand people have been killed in Kiev's punitive operation in southeastern Ukraine since April, said a Ukrainian parliamentary group. The MPs addressed the president urging to declassify information on citizens killed.

The Ukrainian parliamentary group "For peace and stability" said on Friday that the figure was given by volunteer groups working in the east of the country, ITAR-TASS reported.

"We have estimated that just in the first two weeks of July nearly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the area of the 'anti-terrorist operation'," the group said in a statement in the Verhovnaya Rada (Ukraine's parliament).

"The number of wounded during the same period was more than 5,000 people. Thousands of civilians fell victim to military actions. Most of them died from shrapnel wounds. Thus, the preliminary number of the Ukrainians killed during the anti-terrorist operation, is more than 10,000 people according to our estimates," said the co-chairman of the parliamentary group, Sergey Gorokhov.

Comment: Over 10,000 deaths is almost too hard to believe. But if documents like the following (allegedly a report from the head of the Ukrainian Security Service, V.O. Nalyvaichenko, to the President of Ukraine, P.A. Poroshenko) are genuine, it just may be that bad in Ukraine at present. And it may be that the UN figures are correct: 1,300 civilian deaths, the vast majority of the total deaths being military personnel. The following figures represent just one week of fighting:
Ukraine document
Translation (courtesy of Gleb Bazov):

An Accounting of the Losses among the Ukrainian Military, the Militants and the Civilians in the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions (for the period from July 9-15, 2014)

TOTAL UKRAINIAN LOSSES
  1. Killed in Action: 1600
  2. Wounded in Action: 4723
  3. Tanks: 35
  4. Armoured Battle Vehicles: 96
  5. Artillery: 38
  6. Aircraft: 7
  7. Helicopters: 2
  8. Automobiles: 104
TOTAL MILITIA LOSSES
  1. Killed in Action: 48
  2. Wounded in Action: 64
  3. Tanks: 2
  4. Armoured Battle Vehicles: 0
  5. Artillery: 5
  6. Automobiles: 8
TOTAL CIVILIAN LOSSES
  1. Killed: 496
  2. Wounded: 762
SIGNED & SUBMITTED BY: Arsen Avakov (Minister of Interior) and V. Gritsak (Head of the ATO)


Quenelle

Pontiac, Michigan, is taking their city back from the 2012 NDAA

Crowd rally
© Photograph: Jonathan Stork
Yesterday two local journalists from the Pontiac Tribune, Aaron Nelson and Helena Kirby, marched into City Hall and submitted a City Resolution on NDAA, which prohibits the enforcement of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act in the city of Pontiac. We are very excited to bring you this story first.

Two years ago U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest declared that Section 1021 of the NDAA was unconstitutional because it mirrored the 1944 Supreme Court ruling in Korematsu v. United States, which let our military detain over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens without trial during World War II.

"This Court rejects the government's suggestion that American citizens can be placed in military detention indefinitely, for acts they could not predict might subject them to detention," Judge Forrest wrote.


On August 21st, hundreds will gather at Pontiac City Hall to demand the City of Pontiac adopt the City Resolution we submitted yesterday. This is the beginning of something great. The rest is up to you.

We're confident we can Take Back Pontiac from the indefinite detention provisions found within the NDAA. It's not okay that the military has the ability to devoid "any person" their rights under this section. One has to only commit a "belligerent" act.

Comment: If one city can do this, will more follow? Also, see sott.net article: U.S. officials: New leaker compromised national security watch list documents, post Snowden