Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 13 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Eagle

RAND Corporation's hope that NATO opposes Russia in the Mediterranean is divorced from reality

Paul Antonopoulos
InfoBrics
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
NATO Mediterranean
Russia is conducting "military intimidation" in the Mediterranean according to RAND in a newly published article titled "Russia Is Eyeing the Mediterranean. The U.S. and NATO Must Be Prepared." The authors claim that "As part of its great power exertions Russia seeks more access and freedom of movement in the Mediterranean region, and is bolstering its military footprint to achieve this objective." The authors also urge the U.S. and NATO to meet "this rising challenge" by developing "a more robust southern strategy with a reinforced air and naval presence."

RAND is considered the U.S. Air Force's think tank as it was established by General H. H. "Hap" Arnold, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and by aeronautical engineer Theodore von Kármán. The bulk of its funding in its early formation was from the Air Force. Therefore, when reading RAND reports it must be noted that articles are written through the eyes of US unilateralism and unipolarity.

The authors argue that "By upgrading its military posture in the region, Russia seems to believe it can be more successful in projecting power and minimizing the influence of the United States and NATO." However, this would imply that NATO has a unified policy in the Mediterranean when in actual fact the Alliance has never been so divided over its so-called southern flank. The article claims that Russia is in direct conflict with NATO and their interests in the Mediterranean, but ignores that the Alliance is deeply divided in Libya, Syria and the Aegean.
      Read More...
Sherlock

Serbia protests: President Vučić caught between coronavirus and color revolution

Joaquin Flores
Strategic Culture
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:51 UTC
serbia protest
© Strategic Culture/REUTERS/Marko Djurica
On the evenings of July 7th and 9th, a wave of unrest swept through several Serbian cities - chiefly Belgrade - in opposition to an announcement from Vučić that Belgrade would return to the government mandated coronavirus quarantine lockdowns.

Largely the protests were peaceful if energetic, with the vast majority of protesters of all ages and walks of life observing norms and voicing their opposition to the announcement that quarantine would return. Many of those protesting were not anti-Vučić per se, and their issues were not political in the electoral sense, but opposed the return to lockdowns which seem arbitrary and capricious at this point.

Vučić Responds Reasonably to Peaceful Protesters

In response to the protests, the Serbian government heard and understood the nature of the grievances, and did something quite rational - in a statement aired on live television, Vučić rescinded the return to quarantine order, which was otherwise to go into effect on the weekend of July 10th.
      Read More...
Burka

UK govt rules muzzles mandatory for going to the shops, instructs police to issue fines for non-compliance

Jessica Elgot
The Guardian
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 22:30 UTC

Comment: Brexit Britain isn't any freer from oppressive rule after all...


bojo
© WPA/Getty Images
Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask during a visit to the London Ambulance Service. Non-compliance will attract up to £100 fine. Photograph:
Face masks will become mandatory in shops across England, ministers are to announce on Tuesday, following mixed messages, a cabinet split and mounting pressure on Boris Johnson to change public advice.

New legislation will not come into force until Friday 24 July, however, raising concerns over the risk of coronavirus spreading over the next 10 days as lockdown is eased.


Comment: Masks were voluntary before and after the lockdown however it's only now, after the virus has spread throughout the country, that masks are being enforced. It only makes sense when one realises there's another agenda in play.


Enforcement, which will include a fine of up to £100 for non-compliance, will be down to police, though shop staff will be expected to encourage the policy, No 10 said.


Comment: Turning people against each other has been a running theme: Global Gestapo: UK police ask public to report on anyone who APPEARS to be breaching lockdown rules with new online tool


Comment: We note, again, that the 'rules' change from day to day, and depending on which govt minister is speaking. It's fairly clear to us that some supranational body is in regular backchannel communication with one or two senior govt people - likely the PM himself - issuing updates to pass on to 'the plebs'...



      Read More...
Dominoes

The Erasure of Western History

Daithí O'Duibhne
The Burkean
Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Old mirrorS.of.L.
© yankeetherebel.com/KJN
Reflection of the past
Remember when you were told that slippery-slope arguments are fallacious?

Such a style of argument became particularly relevant during the last decade, often invoked by the right and ridiculed by the left. A slippery-slope argument was at the core of the 2017 debate over the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to the now infamous 'Unite-the-Right' rally at Charlottesville.

The argument made by many on the right was simple: 'The taking down of Robert E. Lee would lead to the taking down of other statues deemed to be racist.' What started as the removal of a few Confederate generals will end with the removal of figures such as Washington and Lincoln.

The liberal left largely derided this style of argument, saying at the time that it invoked what they called the slippery-slope fallacy. Just because some statues are coming down over racism, they said, it does not mean statues of other, seemingly more decent men, will come down too.

Fast forward three years, and we can see that the right has been justified in its fears. Using the death of George Floyd in the US as an excuse, statues, monuments and buildings have been attacked by militant leftists, all in the name of fighting 'white supremacy'.

Comment: The 'plan' is to disintegrate human society. The mirror, should we manage to open our eyes, will reflect what we chose to ignore.

      Read More...
Dollar

Soros donates $330M to radical BLM groups, includes movement to 'end policing as we know it'

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:10 UTC
G. Soros
© Jewish Business News
George Soros
The Soros Foundation announced $220 million donations to BLM and black-led justice organizations building power in black communities across the country. The Open Society Foundations added that the donations will help the movement to "end policing as we know it."

This is not the first time Soros has donated to Black Lives Matter. In August 2016 the mysterious "DC Leaks" website posted hacked documents from George Soros's Open Society. The documents included information on operations in Latin America, Eurasia, Asia, the US, Europe and the World Bank.

One document revealed Soros paid $650,000 to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Washington Times accused Soros of giving at least $33 million in one year to the far left groups that emboldened black lives matter activists.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Black Magic

Mad Maxine Waters: Trump, supporters, making sure blacks 'do not rise to any level of influence and power'

Eric A. Blair
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 18:37 UTC
Mad Maxine
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said on Sunday that President Trump and his supporters are all racist and are actively working to keep black people down.

Trump and his base "believe that it is their right and their responsibility to ensure that blacks and people of color and others do not rise to any level of influence and power, significant that would cause them not to be in total charge of the country," Waters said on MSNBC's "AM Joy."

The California Democrat did not mention the fact that the last U.S. president, Barack Obama, was black, and that he won easily in two elections.

Waters also said the U.S. "justice system is broken," adding that for black people, "it has never really been in our favor, and it has basically been responsible for ensuring that we could never ever get beyond this suppression and this oppression that has been forced upon us for so many years."


Comment: Maybe she should read the news: Kanye's real success: Trump now supports criminal justice reform, reducing sentences and sending fewer to prison


"So those who criticize Black Lives Matter, they can continue to do that, but I want to tell you the time has come now where we are joined by so many others who really were not there for us in the past." Waters continued.
      Read More...
Blue Planet

Iran-China pact turbocharges the New Silk Roads

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Rouhani and Xi
China will invest $400 billion in Iran energy and infrastructure but nothing in strategic pact allows for a Chinese troop presence or island handover

Two of the US's top 'strategic threats' are getting closer and closer within the scope of the New Silk Roads — the leading 21st century project of economic integration across Eurasia. The Deep State will not be amused.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi blasted as 'lies' a series of rumours about the 'transparent roadmap' inbuilt in the evolving Iran-China strategic partnership.

That was complemented by president Rouhani's chief of staff, Mahmoud Vezi, who said that 'a destructive line of propaganda has been initiated and directed from outside Iran against the expansion of Iran's relations with neighbours and especially (with) China and Russia.'

Vezi added, 'this roadmap in which a path is defined for expansion of relations between governments and the private sectors is signed and will continue to be signed between many countries.'

Comment: See also: Iran negotiates 25-year bilateral deal with China

      Read More...
Arrow Down

WHO ramps up fear-mongering, warns pandemic will get 'worse and worse and worse' unless countries follow Covid precautions


France24
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:27 UTC
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
© Denis Balibouse, REUTERS
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland on June 25, 2020.
The new coronavirus pandemic raging around the globe will worsen if countries fail to adhere to strict healthcare precautions, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday.

"Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from the U.N. agency's headquarters in Geneva.

"If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go: it is going to get worse and worse and worse."

Global infections stand at 13 million, according to a Reuters tally, with more than half a million deaths.


Comment: Put those numbers into perspective: they're comparable to a bad flu season. The lockdowns have only made things worse. They were not designed to eradicate the virus or stop the virus (both of which are impossible), or even to stop deaths, just to spread them out over time to avoid overburdening the healthcare system. But the narrative has shifted now that deaths are trending downwards and populations are approaching, or have already achieved, herd immunity. Some people want to keep the world terrorized and locked down for the foreseeable future, it seems.

Tedros, whose leadership has been heavily criticised by U.S. President Donald Trump, said that of 230,000 new cases on Sunday, 80% were from 10 nations, and 50% from just two countries.

The United States and Brazil are the countries worst hit.

"There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future ... There is a lot to be concerned about," Tedros added, in some of his strongest comments of recent weeks.


Comment: Only because of tyrants and toadies like Tedros.

      Read More...
Bad Guys

China announces sanctions against Rubio, Cruz over Uighur Muslims

David Aaro
Fox News
Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:08 UTC
rubio
© Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS - RC2EIG91O6GI
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) arrives for a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 5, 2020.
China on Monday announced sanctions against a number of U.S. officials, including Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, in retaliation for legislation intended to punish senior Chinese officials over Beijing's alleged treatment of minority Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, according to multiple reports.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the sanctions against the U.S. officials, would begin on Monday. The Republican senators -- both prominent critics of China -- were listed by Hua as targets of the "corresponding sanctions".

Others include Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China -- which monitors human rights and submits an annual report to President Trump and Congress, according to Reuters.

"The U.S. actions seriously interfere in China's internal affairs, seriously violate the basic norms of international relations and seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations," Hua told reporters during a daily briefing. "China will make further responses based on how the situation develops."

It's not clear what the new sanctions against U.S. officials will entail.

The measures come just days after Washington sanctioned a Communist Party secretary and other Chinese officials, over alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China.
      Read More...
Mr. Potato

Steve Bannon claims scientists from Wuhan biolab have 'defected', as he warns Brits off partnering with Huawei

Glen Owen
The Daily Mail
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 21:30 UTC
wuhan lab
© Wuhan Virology Institute
Staff are pictured above at the Wuhan Institute of Technology.
FBI gathers evidence that coronavirus pandemic was caused by an accidental leak

Experts from the Chinese laboratory at the centre of global suspicion over the coronavirus pandemic have 'defected' and are in the hands of Western intelligence, the architect of Donald Trump's presidential victory claimed last night.


Comment: Bannon was not 'the architect of Trump's victory'. He helped, maybe, but Trump was on his way to winning the moment he won over Republican grassroots with his promise to build a wall.


Steve Bannon, who was Trump's White House chief strategist and retains close links to the administration, told The Mail on Sunday that spies were building a case against Beijing on the basis that the global pandemic had been caused by a leak from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan and that the subsequent cover-up had amounted to 'pre-meditated murder'.


Comment: Would those be the same spies working to unseat the US president?


In an exclusive interview, Mr Bannon also urged Boris Johnson to scrap plans to allow the Chinese communications firm Huawei to play a role in the UK's new 5G network.

The Prime Minister is due to make an announcement within days over Huawei's future, which is expected to lead to the company's equipment being stripped from the 5G programme within the next decade.

Comment: Bannon is a class-A looper. The only question is; is he paid to be one by the 'spies', or is this simply all him?

Here he is recently reading out a 'declaration of independence', heralding the new country of the Federal State of China!


Bannon's 'spies' apparently never told him that the virus may have actually come from Fort Detrick...

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts