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SOTT Focus: NewsReal: Social Justice? Alex Jones (Mis)Trial 'Takes Out' Infowars


Sott.net
Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
alex jones sandy hook newsreal
© Sott.netOr are they?
After almost 30 years as a bullhorn against the US establishment and 'globalist' imperial class, is Alex Jones finished? The $45 million in damages awarded to Sandy Hook parents is the end of the line for Alex Jones' Infowars - at least, you'd be forgiven for assuming that based on media coverage of his recent defeat in court.

Look a little closer though, and it seems very unlikely that Jones or his company will have to pay anything close to that. In any event, the purpose of this bizarre showtrial is clear: to deter others from criticizing, much less challenging, government edicts. Don't get us wrong: Jones defamed those parents when he accused them of being 'crisis actors', but that doesn't make the unanswered questions about such atrocities go away.

In the second hour of this NewsReal, Joe and Niall take in the latest US imperial 'theatrics' abroad, including Biden's 'taking out' of 'the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan' and Pelosi's posturing in Taiwan, and note the complete dominance of Trump-allied or 'Trumpian' candidates in ongoing Republican Party primary elections. They keep trying to stamp it out, but the populist wave keeps growing and growing...


Running Time: 01:55:55

Download: MP3 — 79.6 MB

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Star of David

Israel agrees to Gaza truce


RT
Sun, 07 Aug 2022 18:18 UTC
Israel breaking dawn assassination of Taysir al-Jabari
Taysir al-Jabari (center) was assassinated by Israel, provoking retaliation by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group
If the Palestinian Islamic Jihad accepts the deal, the latest round of fighting that began on Friday will end with a ceasefire

Israel agreed on Sunday to an Egyptian-brokered truce in Gaza, Reuters reported. It remains unclear whether the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) will accept the deal. The group continued to fire rockets into Israel as the news broke.

Egypt has "made contacts with everyone" to defuse the rapidly-escalating conflict between Israel and the PIJ, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday, as an intelligence delegation from Cairo arrived in Israel.

Egyptian sources told Reuters on Sunday that the delegation had proposed a ceasefire beginning later in the evening, which the Israeli side agreed to. If the report is true, the PIJ's leadership must now decide whether to accept the truce.

Comment: Israel brags that the leadership of Gaza's Islamic Jihad has been eliminated
On Saturday night, the head of the IDF Operations Directorate, Major General Oded Basiuk, told the press that "essentially, all of the senior officials of Gaza's Islamic Jihad have been eliminated."

He revealed that the commander of the PIJ's Rafah Brigade group, Khatab Amasi, and Mansour's deputy, Ziad Madalal, had been among those killed in the latest airstrikes conducted on the third day of Israel's Breaking Dawn anti-terrorist operation.

According to the IDF's latest update, since the operation was launched on Friday, PIJ militants have fired 580 rockets at Israel. The IDF says 97% of them were intercepted mid-air by the Iron Dome missile defense systems, while "120+ rockets landed in Gaza and killed innocent Palestinians."

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military accused Gaza PIJ militants of killing civilians, including six children, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the enclave. Saying that Israel "did not conduct any activities in Jabaliya at the time of the event," the IDF said that the tragedy "was the result of a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket."

Gaza's Health Ministry claims that the death toll among Palestinians since the beginning of Operation Breaking Dawn has reached 31.

No casualties on the Israeli side have been reported.

Tensions escalated on Monday, after Israel arrested Islamic Jihad's West Bank leader, Bassem Saadi, in a raid that killed a Palestinian teenager. The PIJ threatened retaliation as many Palestinians expressed outrage over the killing.

On Friday, the IDF launched Operation Breaking Dawn, citing the "imminent threat of attack against Israeli civilians posed by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization." The first strikes killed Taysir al-Jabari, while an additional 10-20 operatives were allegedly targeted with missiles and artillery.






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Target

Disciplinary biopolitics vs the new populism

The Evolved Psyche
The Circulation of Elites
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
cartoon
© UnknownPopulism
In the last post, part 1 of this article, we reviewed Michel Foucault's insights into disciplinary biopolitics, with its machinery of power which molded useful subjects through the detailed regulation of bodies. I argued that the oddly irrational vigilance, even fanaticism, about enforcing virtually useless, and indeed likely - economically, socially and psychologically - harmful social strictures of the COVID regime, such as lockdowns, social distancing and masking, are probably best explained as exercises in the very kind of disciplinary biopolitics revealed by Foucault's analyses. As I'd mentioned in that early post, though: to fully appreciate what was involved and at stake in the COVID regime's exercise of such disciplinary biopolitics, we need to draw upon another sadly deceased and largely neglected thinker. Paul Piccone's analysis of the objective objective of the new populism allows us to close the circle in this analysis.

Despite his familiarity with the work of Sam Francis, Piccone doesn't seem to have picked up on the conceptual value of the idea of managerial liberalism1, as the complex ideology of the managerial class (see, here). Still, he did understand that this class - what he called "the New Class," with its technocratic ethos - did arise out of the specifically idiosyncratic transmutation of liberalism over the course of U.S. 20th century history. So, the points made here about the objective enemy (in the Schmittian sense of the word) of the new populism, certainly references an existential tension with classical liberalism, and its tendency to erode communal life, but likewise acknowledges a dramatic escalation of those dynamics under its extreme elaboration into managerial liberalism.
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Pistol

Only 30% of the weapons are even making it to the frontlines

Rolo Slavskiy
The Slavland Chronicles
Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
soldiers
© Carlos Barria/ReutersUkrainian servicemen complain they are ill equipped to fight Russians
There is a constant stream of videos coming out on Telegram of Ukrainian troops complaining that they have no weapons or have inferior weapons and that wages are going unpaid. We talked about the topic of arms deliveries on the blog before.

We were left with a dilemma last time: how do we square this with the information we have about billions of dollars being sent to arm the Ukrainian army? Well, now we have yet more proof that indicates that the money is being stolen and the weapons being resold somewhere else.

We talked about the topic of arms deliveries on the blog before. There is a constant stream of videos coming out on Telegram of Ukrainian troops complaining that they have no weapons or have inferior weapons and that wages are going unpaid. We were left with a dilemma last time: how do we square this with the information we have about billions of dollars being sent to arm the Ukrainian army?

Well, now we have yet more proof that indicates that the money is being stolen and the weapons being resold somewhere else.

This just came out:

Comment: The gush of weapons to 'Ukraine' may well end up pre-arming NATO in Russia's backyard.

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X

Australian Prime Minister Albanese refuses to meet with Assange's family

Oscar Grenfell
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
Albanese/Shipton
© Unknown/TV Tonight/KJNAustralian PM Anthony Albanese • John Shipton, father of Julian Assange
In a revealing development last Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to meet with the family of incarcerated WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange when they visited the Australian federal parliament in Canberra.

Assange's father John Shipton and his brother Gabriel Shipton met with Independent and Greens MPs, but were reportedly unable to secure meetings with Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong or Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

The snub expresses, again, the real attitude of the Labor government to Assange, Australia's most famous political prisoner. In line with its commitment to US-led militarism, including the confrontations with Russia and China, Labor is intensely hostile to Assange because of his exposure of US-led war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While making highly ambiguous statements about the Assange case having "dragged on too long," the Labor administration has refused to use its diplomatic and legal powers to secure his freedom since it was installed after the May 21 election. This amounts to a green light for Assange's extradition from Britain to the US, where he faces Espionage Act charges and 175 years in prison for publishing true information about the illegal wars and global diplomatic conspiracies of American imperialism. In comments to the Guardian after their visit, both Shiptons condemned the Labor government's failure to defend Assange and demanded that it immediately intervene.
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Tornado1

UK's Truss heckled on cost of living and climate change


RT
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 18:58 UTC
Truss
© AFP/Nigel RoddisUK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, one of the final two candidates to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, was interrupted during a speech by climate activists who claimed she has "no credible plan" to tackle rising fuel costs.

As Truss made her opening remarks during a Conservative Party campaign event in Eastbourne on Thursday, several activists rose from their seats shouting "you should be ashamed of yourself."

"The reason ordinary people are struggling is because energy companies like BP and Shell are making record profits, while ordinary people are told to tighten their belts," one protester declared.

As the first activist was led away by security, another rose and accused Truss of having "no credible plan to tackle the biggest issues of our time. What you've announced won't come close to helping people with energy bills over 3,000 pounds a year."


Comment: See also:

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Attention

Why the Gulf states' SCO membership is a big deal

M. K. Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:08 UTC
Brandon & Salman
© Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via APIn this image released by the Saudi Royal Palace, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, greets President Joe Biden with a fist bump after his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, July 15, 2022.
Washington has backtracked from the dissimulation by the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that Washington had intelligence suggesting Iran was preparing to provide Russia with "several hundred" drones to use in Ukraine, with training sessions set to begin in July.

On July 26, NSC spokesman John Kirby, clarified his boss' remark by admitting to Al Arabiya, "We've seen no indications of any sort of actual delivery and/or purchase of Iranian drones by the Russian Ministry of Defence."

Interestingly, Al Arabiya buttonholed Kirby at all. For, Sullivan's fake news (probably based on Israeli disinformation) came at his special briefing on President Biden's visit to Jeddah. Al Arabiya's dogged downstream pursuit of the "fake news" suggests that Riyadh knew Sullivan making a crude attempt to to hustle the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in directions that would have made Biden's trip a roaring success.

Biden had three overlapping objectives: one, to rally Saudi leadership behind his containment strategy against Russia and China; two, to break up the OPEC+ alliance between Saudi Arabia and Russia so that a coordinated counterpoint ceases to be in the world oil market that is beyond American control; and, three, to assemble an anti-Iran military military alliance of Gulf states and Israel to give verve to Abraham Accords which has patently lost its fizz.

Biden drew blank on all three counts: Saudis will pursue their friendly relations with Russia and China and its normalisation with Tehran. Prince Mohammed spoke with President Putin within the week of Biden's visit where they discussed further expansion of trade and economic cooperation and significantly, also underscored "the importance of further coordination within OPEC+".
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Target

Anger from Ukraine's backers after damning Amnesty report spotlights 'human shields'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 05 Aug 2022 10:45 UTC
Hospital
© CBSDestroyed hospital in Ukraine
Amnesty International has in a surprise shift placed its human rights scrutiny on Ukraine in a fresh report released Thursday. It immediately sparked a firestorm of criticism as both Western pundits and Kiev officials themselves blasted the findings as "unfair".

The Amnesty report said investigators had "found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas, as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages" in three war-torn regions of the country from April through July.

The report detailed that schools and hospitals, as well as people's homes, were put in harm's way, suggesting 'human shields' type tactics utilized by the Ukrainian military. Amnesty continued, saying this resulted in Russian attacks on said civilian infrastructure:
"Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure."
The report detailed further that in 22 of 29 schools visited by an Amnesty team between April and July, investigators found evidence of prior military activity. Additionally, five instances of Ukrainian troops using hospitals as bases were documented. The report went so far as to stress Amnesty was "not aware" of instances where Ukrainian troops first tried to evacuate civilians from these locations.
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Arrow Down

Sanctions on Russia 'irresponsible', adviser to Brazil's Lula says


RT
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 17:36 UTC
Amorim
© AP/Eraldo PeresCelso Amorim
Celso Amorim, Brazil's former foreign minister and current foreign policy adviser to presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has condemned the West's sanctions on Russia and said that should Lula take office, Brazil would chart a different course.

In an interview with Bloomberg published on Friday, Amorim claimed that the West's response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine - sanctions on Russia and billions of dollars worth of weapons for Ukraine - have made nuclear war a real possibility.
"For the first time since the Cuban missile crisis we see articles about the risk of nuclear weapons published on a weekly basis, It's irresponsible not to seek peace."
Amorim's argument mirrors that of Lula himself. Back in May the former Brazilian leader told Time magazine that he sees Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as equally responsible for the conflict in Ukraine, and condemned Washington for encouraging him to oppose Russia.

"The United States has a lot of political clout. And Biden could have avoided [the conflict], not incited it," Lula argued at the time.
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Bad Guys

CBS news warns that weapons sent by the West to Ukraine might end up in terrorists hands, 'just 30% reaches its destination'

Andrew Korybko
korybko.substack.com
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 19:47 UTC
CBS ukraine
Screenshot
CBS News published a report late last week about "Why military aid to Ukraine doesn't always get to the front lines: 'Like 30% of it reaches its final destination'". It raised the alarm about the long-term consequences of there being no oversight for ensuring that those Western weapons sent to Kiev actually end up where they're supposed to and stay there. The outlet quoted the founder of a Lithuanian-based organization that claims to only send non-lethal aid to that crumbling former Soviet Republic in reporting their estimate that only less than a third of foreign arms reach their final destination.

Comment: The West shouldn't be sending weapons at all; because it was only two weeks ago that, for the second time, Ukraine itself fired missile at Europe's largest nuclear power plant; it's on Ukrainian territory but under Russian control.

The CBS report mentioned above:



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