Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Smoking

UK councils conspire to ban tenants from smoking in their homes

old lady smoking uk
© Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
75 year-old Mary Parish lights a cigarette for her 101 year-old mother, Mary Ann Parish, at their home in Walworth, London, 14th February 1946.
Housing association, council and private tenants could be banned from smoking their homes, under news proposals that have backed by councils, cancer charities and landlord groups.

The plan is put forward in a new report, 'Smoking in the home: new Solutions for a Smokefree Generation', published yesterday, November 20, by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

The ASH report explores the impact of smoking in our homes and what policy measures could be taken across all housing tenures to reduce the levels of smoking in the home. its says this would protect children and adults and support healthy communities. It finds that smoking is now "highly concentrated" on council estates, where it is twice as common.

The report says there are "major differences in the way smoking is treated in different types of tenancies".

Comment: According to a recent UN report on skyrocketing poverty in the UK, the numbers reliant on government assistant will continue to rise, meaning an even greater number of people - only the poor mind you - will be subject to the increasing diktats of UK bureaucracy.

Now, where have we seen this kind of coercion before?... Anti-smoking campaigns aren't new: The Nazis' forgotten drive to eliminate tobacco from the Reich

See also: And check out SOTT radio's: The Health & Wellness Show: The Truth about Tobacco and the Benefits of Nicotine


Stop

In historic move, Sen. Rand Paul puts hold on $38 billion Israeli aid package

Rand Paul
© UPI/Molly Riley
US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
In a historic move, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) may filibuster against massive aid package to Israel. AIPAC issues action alert to pressure Paul, predicts Congress will pass the aid package - largest in US history

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has a history of being skeptical about U.S. taxpayer funds going towards the Jewish state, has placed a hold on the U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, which provides Israel with $38 billion in military aid over the next decade.

[Editor's note: This equals approximately $23,000 for every Jewish Israeli family of four.]

This has caused backlash from organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Comment: AIPAC will be pulling out all the stops on the good congressman. They are not used to open defiance. Even though it may only be a symbolic gesture, it's still brave of Sen. Paul to stand up to Zionist influence in Congress. There are far more important needs within the United States that those funds could be going to.


Vader

Anonymous exposes NATO influence operation targeting Russia-friendly candidates for leadership positions across EU

NATO Institute Statecraft
Anonymous has published documents which it claims have unearthed a massive UK-led psyop to create a "large-scale information secret service" in Europe - all under the guise of countering "Russian propaganda."

In a document dump on November 5, the group exposed the UK-based 'Integrity Initiative', said to have been established by the ominously titled Institute for Statecraft in 2015.

The main objective is "to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare." The Institute for Statecraft is affiliated with the NATO HQ Public Diplomacy Division and the Home Office-funded 'Prevent' program, so objectivity is, of course, at the forefront of their work.

Operating on a budget of £1.9 million (US$2.4 million), the secretive Integrity Initiative consists of "clusters" of local politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics. The team is dedicated to searching for and publishing "evidence" of Russian interference in European affairs, while themselves influencing leadership behind the scenes.

Comment: It doesn't get any more Orwellian than naming a covert influence operation in foreign countries an 'Integrity Initiative'.

This just goes to show that pretty much all it takes to conduct a 'massive' conspiracy is a few million$ and small clusters of 'ideologically-aligned' people.


Star of David

Israel votes against formally recognizing Yazidi massacres by IS as genocide

yazidis
© CHRISTOPHE SIMON (AFP/File)
Of the world's 1.5 million Yazidis, the largest community was in Iraq where it comprised some 550,000 people before being scattered by the IS offensive
Members of Israel's Knesset voted down a bill Wednesday that would formally recognize the killing of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State as a genocide.

The bill, proposed by Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova, was defeated in a 58-38 vote.

The legislation called for Israel to recognize the massacres as a genocide and mark the event annually on August 3. It also recommended curricula be adopted to teach about the atrocities.

"The coalition just voted against my bill to regognize the genocide of the Yazidi people under the ridiculous pretense that 'the UN did not yet recognize the genocide.' Shameful" Svetlova said in reaction to the vote.

Svetlova tweeted her frustration with the right wing of the government who voted down the bill, saying "there is no reason for the right-wing coalition not to recognize the terrible genocide of [Islamic State] against this small and miserable group. They voted in hypocrisy and nationalist egoism."

Bad Guys

UK MPs find MI5 knew London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt was 'supportive of ISIS' but did nothing

Khuram Butt
© Channel 4
MI5 intelligence indicated Khuram Butt was ‘supportive of Isis’, MPs found
Police arrested the London Bridge attack ringleader eight months before the atrocity but let him go - even after finding terrorist propaganda that could have seen him jailed.

A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament revealed that Khuram Butt could have been "disrupted" over allegations of fraud in 2016.

He was already known for his links to hate preacher Anjem Choudary's al-Muhajiroun extremist group and MI5 intelligence indicated he was "supportive of Isis".

Counterterror police investigated Butt in October 2016 over suspected bank fraud and "discovered files that police considered 'may successfully be used in a prosecution under the Terrorism Act'", the report said.

But MPs said the issue "was not explored further" due to reasons that were redacted for national security reasons.

Russian Flag

Fmr French president Sarkozy admits the blindingly obvious: Russia has once again become 'a powerful nation'

Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) meets Vladimir Putin at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2010.
© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolsky
Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) meets Vladimir Putin at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2010.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who paid a sudden visit to Moscow on Thursday, said he had always considered himself a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"You Russians are living here and cannot even imagine how great your prestige is and how your image has changed on the global stage. Russia has once again become a powerful nation, Russia knows its place in the international arena and knows its destination," said the former French president.

"Lastly, I would like to say that I have always been friends with Vladimir Putin, because he is a person with whom you can talk to even in the face of misunderstandings," Sarkozy told a Russian Social Investment Fund (RDIF).

Comment: Sarkozy is making the rounds like the fading political star that he is. Though a nasty piece of work, even he seems preferable to the useless vapidity that is Emmanuel Macron. He even gets a few things right. And prophetically from 2012: Sarkozy wants EU partners to toughen border controls


Pirates

US backed terrorists in Syria looted over 4,500 artifacts from Raqqa Museum

Syria burnt car
© REUTERS / Nour Fourat
Terrorists have stolen more than 4,500 artifacts from a museum in the Syrian city of Raqqa, head of the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) Muhammad Nazeer Awad told Sputnik on Monday.

Awad pointed out that the DGAM had lists of all pieces currently being shown in Syria's museums.

"For example, more than 4,500 showpieces have been stolen from the museum in Raqqa," Awad said.

He pointed out that the directorate had no clear information about the situation in the museum in Idlib as the city was not controlled by government forces.

Comment: And what a surprise, those countries who supported ISIS, in particular the US and Israel, are also notorious for their handling of stolen archeological goods:


Colosseum

Why the DC beltway-types are wrong about nearly everything in Trump's Saudi posture

Trump bin Salman
© Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
President Donald Trump speaks with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, during their meeting Tuesday, March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Yesterday, President Trump resisted public pressure and declined to significantly reorient American foreign policy in light of Saudi Arabia's brutal killing of its political opponent Jamal Khashoggi.

Of President Donald Trump's many disruptions to the established order, his foreign policy has been perhaps the least understood and least accepted by elites. Yesterday, President Trump resisted public pressure and declined to significantly reorient American foreign policy in light of Saudi Arabia's brutal killing of its political opponent Jamal Khashoggi, who was also a columnist for the Washington Post.

In a statement, Trump said that what happened to Khashoggi was terrible, but that Saudi Arabia is an ally that shares our broader strategic interests in the region, while Iran remains a foe to be countered.

Comment: Trump's career was built in the brawling business of construction and deal-making, a world populated with unsavory characters, that had to be worked with in order to accomplish anything. In his mind foreign policy is not much different. Countries are competing ventures, each trying to get the best deal for itself, and the US should conduct itself that way as well. Beltway denizens are appalled that he is dropping the humanitarian act the US uses against countries it doesn't like and is being honest. In other words, realpolitik.

Russia runs its foreign policy along the same pragmatic lines. Russia is aware that it must have the cooperation of deranged countries like Israel and Turkey to bring calm to the Middle East. Towards that larger goal, Putin has tolerated the murder of Russian soldiers, a far greater sacrifice than any the US has made. Russia has restrained itself and turned each tragedy to a larger advantage.

Unfortunately Trump's animus towards Iran is in service to Israel, which is not in the real interests of the US in the least. Pat Buchanan: Trump's pardon of MBS is just politics, but his reasoning is bogus


Dominoes

Irish border issue surrounding Brexit labeled a trap by MEP

Anti-Brexit campaigners protest
© Reuters / Clodagh Kilcoyne
Anti-Brexit campaigners protest outside Irish Government buildings in Dublin
The panic surrounding what will happen at the Irish border after Brexit is nothing more than a "trap" that has been laid by European negotiators - and the UK government has fallen straight into it, MEP William Dartmouth told RT.

"The whole matter of the Irish border - which was never discussed during the referendum, not even by the [David] Cameron government... is in my view simply a trap set up by EU negotiators which the British government has fallen right into," Dartmouth told RT's SophieCo.

That very fact means that all of the British civil servants who have fallen for the charade "should never be allowed near any negotiation ever again, not even to buy a flat for themselves."

Meanwhile, the EU has also put "draconian" demands on the UK, Dartmouth said, while expressing confidence that those terms won't be passed through by Parliament. "They've created a new Versailles treaty on the UK and it isn't going to stick. It actually won't get through the House of Commons and even if it did it won't stick for any palpable period of time."

X

You won't hear this from the US govt: Iran is open to working with Saudi Arabia

Map ME
© Getty Images/JeanUrsula
Washington's rhetoric regarding Iran paints the picture of an evil nation hellbent on destroying the world. In reality, it appears that Tehran would prefer dialogue with its rivals, which is unacceptable to the US.

Tuesday's White House Statement from President Trump on "Standing with Saudi Arabia" was an outright condemnation of Iran and a total free pass for Saudi Arabia.

Iran is to blame for almost every issue in the Middle East, including the war in Yemen, according to the statement. The US-made and supplied bombs raining down on Yemeni school buses, with some 85,000 children dying in the process, is simply because of Iran. Not only is Iran responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen, Tehran has further helped "dictator Bashar Assad" in Syria kill "millions of his own citizens." The official death toll of the Syrian war is under one million, and certainly the various jihadist groups, including Islamic State (IS), share responsibility for that figure.

"The Iranians" have also killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East. Iran not only shouts "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" but it is also considered "the world's leading sponsor of terror."

It is curious enough that firstly, in a statement about Saudi Arabia, the term "world's leading sponsor of terror" is not gifted to the prime sponsors of Al-Qaeda and IS. Secondly, the fact that Trump himself put that term in inverted commas seems to suggest that even he doesn't quite believe that one to be true.

Comment: Audience programming predisposes thinking patterns concerning Iran - even to the level of governments. Accusations without proof of guilt are easier to believe than declarations of innocence which are harder to prove - perhaps not at all.