Puppet MastersS


Attention

A dangerous warmonger network?

Norman Solomon
truthdig
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
ChrisHayesRachelMaddow
© Daily KosChris Hayes • Rachel Maddow
The evidence is damning. And the silence underscores the arrogance.

More than seven weeks after a devastating report from the media watch group FAIR, top executives and prime-time anchors at MSNBC still refuse to discuss how the network's obsession with Russia has thrown minimal journalistic standards out the window.

FAIR's study, MSNBC Ignores Catastrophic U.S.-Backed War in Yemen, documented a picture of extreme journalistic malfeasance at MSNBC:
● "An analysis by FAIR has found that the leading liberal cable network did not run a single segment devoted specifically to Yemen in the second half of 2017. And in these latter roughly six months of the year, MSNBC ran nearly 5,000 percent more segments that mentioned Russia than segments that mentioned Yemen."

● "Moreover, in all of 2017, MSNBC only aired one broadcast on the U.S.-backed Saudi airstrikes that have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. And it never mentioned the impoverished nation's colossal cholera epidemic, which infected more than 1 million Yemenis in the largest outbreak in recorded history."

● "All of this is despite the fact that the U.S. government has played a leading role in the 33-month war that has devastated Yemen, selling many billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia, refueling Saudi warplanes as they relentlessly bomb civilian areas and providing intelligence and military assistance to the Saudi air force."
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Attention

Lavrov: US aims to remain in Syria 'for a long time, if not forever'


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 12:35 UTC
USconvoy
© Getty Images
Some officials in Washington are aiming to maintain a foothold in Syria for a long time, "if not forever," using chemical weapons provocations to achieve this objective, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

There are no grounds "to doubt the willingness of some US officials to keep a foothold [in Syria] for a long time, if not forever, and contribute to the collapse of the Syrian Arab Republic," Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Various methods" are being used, including "information revealed via [Russia's] Defense and Foreign Ministries, which says that other provocations involving chemical weapons are being prepared," the foreign minister said, noting that one such "staging" might take place in Eastern Ghouta.

On March 5, Lavrov said Russia had evidence that the US involvement in Syria had nothing to do with combatting terrorism. Speaking during a visit to Namibia, the foreign minister asserted that Washington is willing to keep the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group as a "plan B" to change the leadership in Damascus, according to Interfax. Some policymakers in the American capital, he said, are "harboring plans to disintegrate the Syrian state."

Comment: Lavrov calls it. To what degree will the US implement this plan and what will be the ultimate pushback? Surely the US will not gain this ground without a fight to the finish.

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Pistol

Media remains silent as Trump admin gives power over gun control to Feds

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
TrumpGunhands
© Cosmopolitan
While the media focuses on Trump's lack of support for an increase in age requirements for gun owners, his support for a bill that would put every American's Second Amendment rights in jeopardy has been ignored.

The Trump Administration has announced its support for a number of measures involving gun control, and not surprisingly, the mainstream media has chosen to highlight the measure that would have little effect, while ignoring the administration's support for a bill that would have a devastating impact on the Second Amendment.

CNBC's headline said, "Trump gun proposal skips age limits, focuses on teaching educators how to use guns instead," and BBC News went with "Trump drops calls to raise guns age limit." The media's coverage has relied heavily on the idea that if the legal minimum age requirement for gun purchases was raised from 18 to 21, then it may have an effect on stopping mass shootings-without taking any other legitimate factors into consideration.


Comment: Trump is triggering a new paradigm in gun control. Will it end with this legislation?

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Info

Lavrov: Moscow will 'definitely' expel British diplomats in wake of UK's reaction to Skripal case


RT
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 20:45 UTC
Idiots with masks
© Adrian Dennis / AFPBritish circus performers
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Russia will "definitely" expel UK diplomats as a reciprocal measure in the standoff over ex-spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning. Moscow would act "soon," he added.

"You do understand that we, as polite people, will first deliver our response to our British counterparts," Lavrov said, replying to a question from RIA Novosti. He noted Moscow prefers not to speak publicly of some "doubts or suspicions"before they are discussed through the proper channels. "This is, in my view, is being polite, this is how gentlemen behave."

Accusing Russia of being "culpable" in the Skripals' poisoning, UK Prime Minister Theresa May earlier said the UK will expel 23 Russian diplomats, calling them "undeclared intelligence officers."
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Snakes in Suits

Duma Speaker Volodin: The US and EU failed to impose 'pet president' on Russia


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 12:01 UTC
Volodin
© Sputnik/Vladimir FedorenkoState Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin
The speaker of the Russian lower house has said the West's sanctions policy has been a response to Moscow's increased competitiveness, and had crashed Western plans to put a "tame and obedient" president in the Kremlin.

"It is completely obvious that Russia is a very inconvenient competitor for them in many spheres, and they try to remove it from the field, often using unfair moves," Vyacheslav Volodin said on Wednesday, according to TASS.

The Duma speaker suggested that the authorities in the United States and European countries had wanted to impose their own president in Russia - "a tame and obedient one, like they have in Ukraine" - but all such plans had failed.

Comment: Stupid is as stupid does...the only entity destroying American democracy is America.

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Arrow Down

Ten years on, evidence from Norway shows gender quotas don't work for women

Helen Raleigh
The Federalist
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 19:20 UTC
women workplace office
Having more women on boards has done little to benefit 99 percent of women in the workforce.

The country of Norway has many American admirers, from President Trump to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Progressives like Sanders consider Norway a progressive paradise, because it has implemented almost every progressive policy under the sun, from universal health care to government mandated gender equality policy in the work place. But have these policies achieved the desired outcome that the progressives are seeking? The latest data on gender quotas in the work place from Norway and some other European countries shows a policy with a good intention doesn't necessarily translate to a good outcome.

We've all heard the argument, especially in these days, that women are well represented in the educational system and the labor force, but at the top of the power hierarchy they are still surprisingly poorly represented.

UK Channel 4 journalist Cathy Newman repeatedly said "only seven women run the FTSE 100 companies" in a recent interview of Jordan Peterson, to back up her view that male dominance in the workplace prevents women from reaching the top.
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Info

Kremlin spokesman Peskov: Putin 'extremely concerned' over UK's 'destructive, provocative' stance in Skripal case


RT
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 20:10 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik
In his first public reaction to the UK measures against Russia in ex-spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning, President Vladimir Putin said he was "extremely concerned" by the "destructive and provocative" stance of the UK.

A "detailed discussion" of the current crisis in Russian-UK relations was held when Putin met with top officials from the Russian government, military and security services on Thursday, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. "Extreme concern was expressed about the destructive and provocative stance taken by the British side," the spokesman added.

It was Putin's first public reaction since the UK announced steps against Moscow on Wednesday. Accusing Russia of using a chemical weapon on British soil, Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK was expelling 23 diplomats, limiting ties and freezing Russian state assets.

Comment: See also:

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Hourglass

Western civilization on the brink of collapse

Richard C. Cook
Global Research
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 19:15 UTC
Nuclear explosion

Overview

What is "Western civilization"? Why might it end soon? What can be done to prevent that?

These are the questions that face both the U.S. and Russia in the current standoff. The stakes could not be higher. Relationships between the two nations are the most important geopolitical issue, and the most volatile, facing the world today.

But first, some history, including concepts that may be controversial.

Speaking globally, the West is that part of the world settled by people of European descent. Racially, the original peoples of the West stem from those classified as Indo-European, though people of that race and language family also long ago penetrated into Asia, including Northern India and Persia.
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Bandaid

Theresa May fires blank shot over Skripal crisis - no serious measures to be taken against Russia

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:27 UTC
Theresa may
Theresa May spouting hysterics in Parliament
Measures announced today will bounce off Russia but will hurt Britain

After days of hysteria and of mounting speculation, and after having stoked up by her statement on Monday expectations of stern action against Russia to stratospheric levels, Theresa May produced a package of 'sanctions' today which do no more than expose the weakness of Britain's hand.

This is how the BBC describes them
  • The expulsion of 23 diplomats - who have one week to leave
  • Increased checks on private flights, customs and freight
  • The freezing of Russian state assets where there is evidence they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents
  • Ministers and Royal Family to boycott the Fifa World Cup in Russia later this year
  • The suspension of all planned high level bi-lateral contacts between the UK and Russi
Note that none of these sanctions include any of the supposedly draconian steps which have been spoken about over the last few days.

Comment:

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Pistol

Britain, Israel, and the US Have a Far Worse Record of Assassination than Russia

Mike Walsh
The Ethnic-European
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 16:08 UTC
Theresa may
Theresa May spouting hysterics in Parliament
Theresa May on March 12 jabbed her finger at Vladimir Putin over the nerve gas attack on a British former spy. The British coalition leader claimed the facts increasingly suggested Russia was behind the apparent 'hit' on double-agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

Unable to produce her facts we can tell the un-elected premier what the facts are: Russia not only stopped the production of the Novichok nerve agent, but also destroyed all its reserves, as confirmed by international observers of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

When invited by Russia to produce the facts the unpopular premier refused to respond. Her accusations were a shocking and unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.

Comment: A horrifying indictment of the 'enlightened' West. Israel, that bastion of democracy in the Middle East, beats the US hands down for total numbers.

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