Puppet MastersS


Question

How could modern Orthodox Judaism produce Jared Kushner?

Peter Beinart
Forward
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Ivanka and Jared Kushner family
© GC imagesIvanka and Jared are seen with their two children out in New York City
In our annual progression through the Torah, we are now deep into slavery in Egypt. And each year, around this time, as I read the first Torah portions in Exodus, the same thought occurs to me: Why is all this necessary? By the end of Jacob's life, he's back in the Land of Israel, the land God has given him and his progeny. Why must the Jews leave, become slaves in Egypt, wander through the wilderness, and fight their way back to the place where, at the end of Genesis, they already reside? Why the big detour?

Obviously, there are many answers. It is in Egypt that Jews evolve from a family into a nation. It is in Egypt that God displays to that nation his awesome power. It is in the wilderness that God gives the Torah.

But in their Haggadah, "Go Forth and Learn," Rabbi David Silber and Rachel Furst offer another reason. They suggest that "one purpose of the Egypt experience was to sensitize the People of Israel to the suffering of others, to teach them what it means to be alienated and oppressed, so that when they set up their own society, they will be sure not to impose such suffering on others."

Comment: Is it not possible to separate religion from politics?

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Newspaper

Trump: US supports NATO, but wants all members to pay fair share


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump with military
© Carlos Barria / ReutersU.S. President Donald Trump
Donald Trump has stated that although the US strongly supports NATO, it wants all members to make their full contributions to the alliance.

His comments were made during a speech at the US Central Command in Florida.

The comment came just one day after Trump - who has long been critical about NATO's role and the cost of its upkeep - committed to attend the alliance's summit in Brussels in May.

The White House has confirmed that Trump will attend the summit.
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Star of David

Without Arab participation, Israel passes bill that retroactively legalizes Jewish settlements


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 00:03 UTC
Iraeli building site
© AFP 2016/ AHMAD GHARABLI
On Monday Israeli lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing Jerusalem to expropriate privately-owned Palestinian land as property of the state. Right-wing elements in the Knesset are hailing the vote as a "historic day for the settlement movement."

Roughly translated as the 'Regularization Law,' the new measure does not allow Jewish settlers to own the land they live on but does allow them to stay in their homes, while Palestinian owners cannot retake or own the land, "until there is a diplomatic resolution of the status of the territories."

According to Haaretz, the bill was drafted ostensibly to "regulate settlement in Judea and Samaria and allow its continued establishment and development." Detractors see the legislation as justification for ongoing land theft on the West Bank.
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Arrow Up

Syrian Army encircles 5,000 Daesh fighters in Al-Bab

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 23:58 UTC
isis fighters
Reports from Jihadi sources say ISIS fighters trapped by advancing Syrian and Turkish troops in northern Syrian town of Al-Bab.

Reports are circulating - some of which are traceable to Jihadi sources - that fast advancing Syrian army forces have completed the encirclement of 5,000 ISIS fighters who are trapped in the strategic north Syrian town of Al-Bab.

If true then this begs the major question of whether the Syrian troops who have been advancing on Al-Bab from the south are coordinating with the Turkish troops who together with Turkey's Jihadi allies have been trying to take Al-Bab from the north.

One of the key reasons why ISIS has survived and grown in strength over the last few years is that conflicts between its 'enemies' have always prevented them from working together against it. Indeed some of ISIS's 'enemies' (Turkey for instance) have in the past tried to use the organisation for their own purposes.

If the Syrians and the Turks - backed in this case by the Russians - can be brought to fight ISIS together in Al-Bab, then with 5,000 of its fighters apparently trapped in the town the organisation could be facing its biggest ever military defeat in the Syrian war.

Comment: Sputnik reports the same:
President Bashar al-Assad's troops have sealed off a key supply route ISIS has used to funnel resources between al-Bab and Daesh positions in Iraq. A slew of airstrikes contributed to the effort, by leaving roads used to transport Daesh militants and supplies in ruins. At least one anti-Daesh commander told Reuters that the anti-Daesh alliance had al-Bab all but entirely encircled, which could pave way for the liberation of the city.

One "narrow" passage remains, the commander said, but the coalition now has most of it "within close firing range."

Turkey and Syria have not always been on the best terms, but a common ally in Daesh has galvanized troops to defeat terrorists in al-Bab. The Syrian Army has fought against the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkey, a NATO member, but Moscow has taken the lead to ensure Daesh is ousted. The coordination of anti-Daesh forces is organized by Moscow, whose efforts have focused on quelling provocations between the two sides. "It's not a simple job," Russian parliamentarian and deputy chairman of the Defense and Security Committee Franz Klintsevich said.

"We are working on the Syrian territory and cannot help but pursue such coordination," Klintsevich said. While the effort to organize fighters against the terrorists is filled with complexity, "it brings results," he said.

"It's clear the [Syrian government] is in a hurry to reach al-Bab," one FSA official said. The Syrian Army is hoping to make more progress to overtake al-Bab than Turkey, as al-Bab is a strategic area for Damascus.
...
The British-founded Syrian Human Rights Observatory noted on February 2 that Daesh had killed almost a dozen of its own members after in-fighting broke out near al-Bab.


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Info

Poland's Kaczynski warns 'Ukraine won't make it into EU if keeps glorifying Nazi collaborator'


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 23:58 UTC
Ukrainian Bandera followers
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
The glorification of Stepan Bandera and other Nazi collaborators will prevent Ukraine's integration with the European Union, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party, warned.

In his interview with weekly Do Rzeczy, cited by Polish media, Kaczynski said that he had already shared his thoughts with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

"I plainly told President Poroshenko that they won't make it to Europe with Bandera. It's absolutely clear to me. We've already shown great patience, but everything has its limits," he said.

"It's the case of Ukraine's specific choice," the politician said of Kiev's attempts to whitewash Bandera and other Ukrainian far-right radicals, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
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Attention

US tanks and infantry fighting vehicles arrive in Estonia amid NATO buildup on Russian borders


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 23:38 UTC
US tank
© David Mdzinarishvili / Reuters
US military hardware, including M1A2 Abrams battle tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, have arrived in the northern Estonian town of Tapa as part of continued US efforts to counter the alleged Russian threat.

More than 50 units of US military equipment, including four battle tanks and 15 infantry fighting vehicles, were delivered to Tapa, the Estonian Defense Forces said in a statement. The personnel of the Charlie Company of 68th Armored Regiment's 1st Battalion from the US Army 4th Infantry Division arrived in the town two days earlier, on January 30.

The company commander, Captain Edward Bachar, said that the US troops would take part in the Estonian Independence Day parade. Earlier, Bachar also said that his company would begin its expert marksmanship training this week.

Comment: Further reading:

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Vader

Flashback Snowden: US govt aggressively hacks Chinese civilian infrastructure - NSA developed A.I. cyberwar weapon named 'MonsterMind'

David Meyer
gigaom.com
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 22:32 UTC
NSA malware
The U.S. developed a cyberwarfare tool called MonsterMind that would automatically "fire back" if it thought it detected an attempted attack on the U.S., NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has revealed.

In an interview published Wednesday in Wired, Snowden also said an intelligence officer had told him the U.S. was responsible for the 2012 disconnection of Syria from the internet, albeit by accident.


Comment: ...at the time, that incident was spun as 'Assad shutting down the internet because he's a bad man'.


He also said the U.S. had "crossed lines" by attacking civilian infrastructure in China.


Comment: No wonder he went public. The US 'intel community' is completely insane. And this is about more than just attacking China:

NSA plans to infect 'millions' of computers with malware


MonsterMind

MonsterMind seems to have been one of the triggers for Snowden's decision to blow the whistle, along with the construction of a massive new data storage facility in Bluffdale, Utah.

The tool was, according to Snowden, partly designed to look for internet traffic patterns that could denote incoming cyber-attacks, and to block such attacks. However, it would also "automatically fire back, with no human involvement." This raises serious ethical implications because attacks are often routed through other countries, making it possible that automated counter-attacks could target the wrong people, perhaps civilian facilities such as hospitals.


Comment: So THAT's what the 'Data Storage Center' in Utah is used for.

Their strategy here is pretty transparent: hit 'MonsterMind' (who comes UP with such names??) with 'false-flag' cyber-attacks, then 'plausibly deny' that they didn't know the attack came from elsewhere.


Comment: The complete Wired 2014 interview.

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Video

Big brother watching: US spy drone studies the Donbass frontline

translated by Tom Winter
Sputnik / Fort Russ News
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 23:32 UTC
US RQ-4 Global Hawk drone
© AP Photo/ Northrop Grumman via U.S. Navy, Erik Hildebrandt
An American reconnaissance drone overflew the contact line in the Donbass for 10 hours. It was able to observe all the territory of the two self-proclaimed republics, plus the border regions of Russia.

A US strategic drone RQ-4A Global Hawk, with the call sign UAVGH000, carried out a reconnaissance flight Sunday that lasted nearly 10 hours over the contact line in the Donbass conflict zone, announced Western sites following the flights of military aviation.

During the flight, the drone followed the line of contact between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk without crossing it. The reconnaissance aircraft flew at an altitude of 15,500 m (51,000 feet).

As the drone can do reconnaissance with a radius of 300 km, it was able to observe all the territory of the self-proclaimed republics, plus the border regions of Russia.
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Quenelle - Golden

US reporter interviews Snowden in Moscow: Russia is surprising - Putin's government never harasses me

Michael Isikoff
Yahoo News
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 21:33 UTC
snowden Mills
From Russia with love: America's Most Wanted, Ed Snowden, reunited with girlfriend Lindsay Mills in Moscow
In an exclusive interview in Russia with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Edward Snowden, the fugitive whistleblower who leaked information about U.S. surveillance activities, says he is "kind of encouraged" by the idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin might return him to the U.S. to stand trial because that would show the world he's not a spy and Russia "doesn't own me."

But he also acknowledged he isn't eager to return home to face U.S. justice, saying such a prospect "would be a threat to my liberty and to my life."

Speaking for 90 minutes in a Moscow hotel room, Snowden — calm and completely unrepentant — also took new swipes at top U.S. intelligence officials, claiming they have accused him of damaging national security only because they were "embarrassed" by his disclosures of classified National Security Agency documents and worried about their "reputations."

Those comments drew an angry rebuke Sunday from the Obama administration's former top counterterrorism official. "Snowden is delusional," said Matt Olsen, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, when read excerpts of the interview.

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Clipboard

Russia, Iran and Turkey nearly complete mechanism for monitoring Syrian ceasefire


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:29 UTC
turkey syria
© Sputnik
Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, the head of the Russian delegation stated that Russia proposed two documents on control over the ceasefire regime in Syria.

The joint task force (JTF) regime almost adjusted the mechanism on monitoring the ceasefire in Syria during its first session that took place in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana on Monday.
"During the first meeting, we almost completely agreed the draft position of the joint group to monitor compliance with the cessation of hostilities. Some details should be agreed in the capital. I think that at the next meeting we will sign the document," Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, the head of the Russian delegation, said, while a source in one of the delegations in Astana told Sputnik that the mechanism was 90 percent complete.
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