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Fascism in action: Turkish government seizes control of another opposition news agency


RT
Tue, 08 Mar 2016 12:10 UTC
turkish police, news agency seized turkey
© Murad Sezer / Reuters
Despite criticism from European officials over its crackdown on opposition media, the Turkish government has reportedly taken control of another news agency. It comes days after the seizure of the popular opposition newspaper Zaman.

The news agency Cihan is believed to be close to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a foe of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On Monday it posted a statement on its website which said an Istanbul court would appoint an administrator to run it. The ruling was made on a request from prosecutors investigating Gulen, who is suspected by the Turkish government of plotting a coup.

The development came just days after the popular opposition newspaper Zaman was seized by the Turkish government in a similar way. Both the news agency and the newspaper are part of the Feza Gazetecilik media company.

Other media outlets and businesses affiliated with Gulen's movement were taken over last year as the investigation was underway.

Comment:

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Snakes in Suits

Trump is America without a mask

John Wight
RT
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 14:55 UTC
Donald Trump
© Mike Stone / Reuters
The consensus among US political analysts is that Trump is an aberration, a candidate who stands in contradiction to the high morals and ideas associated not with only the White House but also the US itself. They couldn't be more wrong if they tried.

In truth, Trump represents not the idea but the reality of America, the ugly reality of a country and society with its mask removed. For what is the United States if not a brutal place where greed, arrogance and ruthlessness reigns? And what is Donald Trump if not a man whose entire life has been testament to those particular attributes?

It all seems light years away from 2008, when a young black hitherto unknown senator from Chicago, Barack Obama, was filling stadia across the country with soaring oratory, preaching hope, unity, and change to a country emerging battered and bruised from the two-term presidency of George Bush. It was a country in need of hope, desperate to be inspired and lifted out of the swamp of cynicism and callous disregard for human rights either at home or abroad. Who better qualified to do this than the nation's first black president? Those who wanted to believe America had left behind a shameful past of slavery, Jim Crow, and inequality allowed themselves to believe that the day of Jubilee had finally arrived.

As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
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Chart Pie

These 27 major companies pay zero in taxes but Congress wants to give them more

Zach Cartwrigh
U.S. Uncut
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 14:40 UTC
Just as average Americans are preparing to pay their taxes for next month's deadline, it's now been revealed once again that some of the country's richest and most profitable corporations paid $0 in taxes last year, and many are even getting massive refunds.

USA Today assembled a list of 27 multinational corporations that posted between $56 million and $4.6 billion in profits in 2015, yet got money back from the government rather than paying federal taxes. Some of these corporations are household names, and they represent multiple industries ranging from media, to technology, to healthcare, to transportation.

Many of these negative tax bills are due to accounting loopholes that allow profitable global giants, like American Airlines, to write off losses amounting to billions of dollars. Even though American Airlines owed $1.5 billion in federal taxes, the company successfully wrote off $4.7 billion in losses, amounting to a $3.2 billion refund from Uncle Sam. When adding up the refunds, these 27 companies — a mere snapshot of a much larger, systemic issue in the tax code — are responsible for over $11 billion in tax revenue that would have otherwise gone to public services:
corporations pay no taxes
© USA Today

Comment: The people are being drained dry of what little they have, and profitable corporations are being given what are essentially welfare checks without paying a dime. How's that for 'liberty, and justice for all'?

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Star of David

Israel's 'left wing' presents plan to segregate & disenfranchise 200,000 'enemy' Palestinians

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 17:37 UTC
Israeli wall
We often complain that the New York Times is laggard in informing Americans about the true face of Israeli society. Well, Isabel Kershner has an excellent piece in the New York Times today about a new plan to fence off Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem originated by what passes for the Israeli left so as to preserve the Jewish state, and Kershner says the campaign has a "jingoistic" flavor. The Palestinian leader Saeb Erekat is quoted calling the plan "racist."
The contentious plan, promoted by a group of liberal Israeli Jews and adopted in principle by the center-left Labor Party, would unilaterally fence off most of East Jerusalem's Palestinian neighborhoods and transfer responsibility for their 200,000 residents from City Hall to the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

Kicked off with advertisements under the heading "Saving Jewish Jerusalem," the campaign's almost jingoistic tone seems intended to appeal to the broadest Jewish constituency, including Israel's growing political center and conservative "nationalist camp."...

The new campaign describes Jerusalem's Palestinian residents as imperiling the security, demographic balance, standard of living and economy of the city. It argues that a majority of people 18 and under in the city are Palestinian and plays on fears raised by the recent surge of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews.
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Bad Guys

Terrorist state Turkey smells fear in EU, goes in for $6.6 billion kill

Finian Cunningham
RT
Tue, 08 Mar 2016 17:31 UTC
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
© Yves Herman / Reuters
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
When the Ankara government carried out a brutal media crackdown at the weekend and then saw minimal Western protest as a result, President Erdogan knew he had the upper-hand - to leverage the refugee crisis.

It seems more than strange that, only three days before a high-profile summit was to take place between European Union leaders and Turkey on Europe's refugee crisis, the Ankara authorities carried out an audacious assault on democratic rights.

The violent police seizure of Turkey's biggest opposition newspaper, Zaman, and its immediate cowing into a tame pro-government publication represents the most brazen authoritarian move to date by the ruling AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish opposition politicians denounced the full-frontal assault on independent media as tantamount to a coup d'état by Erdogan.

But the Western response to the draconian display of state power was more muted than ever. There was hardly any Western media coverage of the Zaman seizure. Both Washington and the EU merely issued perfunctory statements of "concern," and breathlessly urged Ankara to respect "free speech" and "core European values."
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Eye 2

America's psychopathic Establishment - all other nations 'dispensible', to be exploited

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:10 UTC
psychopath captain America

'Murrica!
It's not only the right-wing think tanks (such as the Hudson Institute and the Rand Corporation) that urge America to invade countries that pose no threat against the US, but also liberal think tanks (such as the Open Society Foundation and the Brookings Institution) that urge firebombing of cities and even ethnic cleansing in order to defeat foreign leaders whom the American aristocracy want to overthrow.

Though there is space here to mention just a few examples of these "liberal" psychopaths, these will be representative ones.

Comment: A clear summation of where the insanity of our "leaders" are taking the world.

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Bullseye

"Real coalition against Daesh is 4+1: Iran, Russia, Syria, Iraq plus Hezbollah - Interview with Pepe Escobar


khamenii.ir
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:17 UTC
Pepe Escobar
The real coalition against Daesh is the "4+1": Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq plus Hezbollah. Their advances on the ground, and on the record, speak for themselves. The US-led-from-behind coalition is mostly for show.

When Palestinians defend themselves by throwing stones, they're called terrorists, while Israel threatens Palestinians' life on a daily basis and is considered innocent. Moreover, U.S. politicians have said many times that Israel has the right to defend itself; do you think they want to imply that the people of Palestine do not have the right to defend themselves?

The whole narrative across the West is framed by the multiple ramifications of the Israel lobby - with fuel to the fire constantly added by Zionists and American, French and British Zio-cons. They control key media outlets and always employ the same crude tactics to discredit critics; ANY criticism of Israel - which is usually directed to the framework of an apartheid state, and the state's internal and foreign policy - is blasted as "anti-Semitic". Criticism of Zionism has never had and will never have anything to do with anti-Semitism. Arguably the best deconstruction of this myth is available in the book aptly titled "Deconstructing Zionism", edited by Gianni Vattimo and Michael Marder (Bloomsbury, 2014). A subplot of the myth is the "Israel has the right to defend itself" meme - which turns reality around to justify any repressive or frankly fascist Israeli attack. On top of it, Palestinians are not considered equal citizens to Israelis (the notorious, perennial Golda Meir maxim "there are no Palestinians") and the Israeli elite overwhelmingly regards Arabs as inferior beings.
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Eye 2

The horror: Thanks to Republican party's civil war, every scenario ends with Killary winning election

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:36 UTC
Hillary Clonton
© CSpan
Hillary Clinton
What is the worst possible outcome for the presidential election of 2016? Assuming that an election will actually take place, that is an easy question to answer - Hillary Rodham Clinton as the next president of the United States. She is truly evil in every sense of the word, and the implications of what four (or eight) years of Hillary would mean for our nation are almost too terrible to imagine. That is why it is so depressing watching what is happening to the Republican Party right now. The civil war in the Republican Party is ripping it to shreds, and as a result of all this warfare every plausible scenario for what will happen the rest of the way ends with Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 election.

Comment: Of course, it really makes no difference who is finally ensconced in the White House. The shots are called far above them. The particular horror of Killary is that she is right on board with the elite's policies and will enthusiastically implement them

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Rocket

Iran defies Western sanctions by test-firing ballistic missiles


RT
Tue, 08 Mar 2016 16:07 UTC
iran missile ceremony
© Raheb Homavandi / Reuters
Iranian-made Emad missile is displayed during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran February 11, 2016.
Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles from silos across the country, the Revolutionary Guard reported. The US has previously imposed missile-related sanctions against Tehran over the testing of the new intermediate-range Emad ballistic missile.

The test on Tuesday was intended "to show Iran's deterrent power and also the Islamic Republic's ability to confront any threat against the Revolution, the state and the sovereignty of the country," the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps statement published on its website said.

The Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian media did not specify which missiles were used in the test. The underground silos in Iran were first revealed to the public in October 2015, almost coinciding with the revelation of the Emad ballistic missile, and were said to be capable of firing "Iranian missiles of varying ranges." Iranian news channel Press TV used archive footage of an October test of the Emad missile when reporting the Tuesday test.

Comment: It's hard to blame Iran for bolstering their military abilities, since the US has shown that it is always aggressively pursuing control and domination over any country that it deems as strategically important. Iran has allied itself with Russia, so it is very likely aware that despite public proclamations from the US, it will not stop itself from attempting to control Iran, either through overt or covert means. Only a fool would think the US has good intentions towards Iran.

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Vader

Fitting gesture: Trump right-hand pledge evokes Nazi salute


RT
Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:46 UTC
trump
© Chris Keane / Reuters
A right-hand pledge of allegiance to Donald Trump is "disgusting" and a "fascist" gesture, reminiscent of Nazi rallies, the former head of the Anti-Defamation League has said.

On Monday Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump again raised his right arm to ask supporters to pledge their support to him ‒ an act which many have likened to Adolf Hitler's infamous 'sieg heil'.

Abraham Foxman, who escaped Nazi Germany in the 1940s, thinks the action by Trump is an intentional "fascist gesture."

"He is smart enough... to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America... he's asking them to swear allegiance to him," Foxman told the Times of Israel.

The former National Director of the ADL - a group set up to fight anti-Semitism and "defamation of the Jewish people" - said footage of the pledge is as "disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America."
trump hitler salute
© Twitter/@wpjenna
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