Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 30 Sep 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Map

Taliban's 'master plan' in Afghanistan: All roads lead to the battle for Kabul

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Afghan militia fighters
© AFP / Farshad Usyan
Afghan militia fighters keep watch at an outpost against Taliban insurgents at Charkint district in Balkh Province in June.
City after city has fallen from government to Taliban control but Afghanistan's end-game is still unclear

The ever-elusive Afghan "peace" process negotiations re-start this Wednesday in Doha via the extended troika - the US, Russia, China and Pakistan. The contrast with the accumulated facts on the ground could not be starker.

In a coordinated blitzkrieg, the Taliban have subdued no less than six Afghan provincial capitals in only four days. The central administration in Kabul will have a hard time defending its stability in Doha.

It gets worse. Ominously, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has all but buried the Doha process. He's already betting on civil war - from the weaponization of civilians in the main cities to widespread bribing of regional warlords, with the intent of building a "coalition of the willing" to fight the Taliban.

The capture of Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province, was a major Taliban coup. Zaranj is the gateway for India's access to Afghanistan and further on to Central Asia via the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

India paid for the construction of the highway linking the port of Chabahar in Iran - the key hub of India's faltering version of the New Silk Roads - to Zaranj.

At stake here is a vital Iran-Afghanistan border crossing cum Southwest/Central Asia transportation corridor. Yet now the Taliban control trade on the Afghan side. And Tehran has just closed the Iranian side. No one knows what happens next.
      Read More...
Microscope 2

Remember this? Obama criticizes states' Ebola quarantine rules

Everett Rosenfeld
CNBC
Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:13 UTC
obama ebola statement
The United States must continue to be a global leader in the fight against Ebola by supporting health workers traveling to West Africa, President Barack Obama said.

"America in the end is not defined by fear — that's not who we are," Obama said in a Tuesday address, critiquing some states' policies of forcing returning humanitarian workers into quarantine.

Comment: Oh how times have changed.



      Read More...
Megaphone

'Delta variant can infect vaccinated, mass testing pointless, need to live with the virus', AstraZeneca lead scientist tells Britain's parliamentary group

Sarah Knapton
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 12:07 UTC
Pollard

Sir Andrew Pollard thinks testing may soon only be used to diagnose COVID in someone with symptoms.
The Delta variant of COVID-19 has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, according to the Oxford scientist who led the AstraZeneca vaccine team, as he called for an end to mass testing so Britain could start to live with the virus.

Scientists who addressed Britain's all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus said it was time to accept that there is no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.

Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford vaccine team, said it was clear that the Delta variant can still infect people who have been vaccinated, which made herd immunity impossible to reach, even with Britain's high uptake.


Comment: Throughout history herd immunity has been achieved through mass infection, not through mass injections; moreover, it's likely that the experimental injections are in large part to blame for the rise in virulent variants.


Comment: That's an alarmingly wrong, and potentially deadly, comment from the paediatrician, because the data already shows that children, even those with multiple comorbidities, are at no risk from the coronavirus and its current variants, and there's increasing evidence showing that young people are more at risk of severe side effects from the experimental injections: See also: Police response times "under strain" because of staff shortages caused by "pingdemic," as NHS app calls for self-isolation

      Read More...
Sheriff

Regime change efforts in Belarus have entered a stalemate. But Russia might be working towards an 'Armenian solution' for Minsk


RT
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 12:05 UTC
Putin Lukashenko
© Sputnik
FILE PHOTO. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko talk during their meeting, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Just one year on from Belarus' disputed presidential election, the tense situation in the country has ground into a stalemate between the government and opposition activists. The next move seems unclear even to the major players.

In the wake of the vote, activists failed to overthrow veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko, even though last fall it felt like another 'spring' revolution was inevitable. The contributing factors have been outlined repeatedly. First, the authorities opted for a ruthless crackdown and there was no noticeable discord among the security services organizing it. Secondly, Moscow offered support, sending a clear signal it would not tolerate a regime change in the country at present. Third, the response by the West was tepid - nothing compared to the overwhelming solidarity with protesters, backed up by material support, that we saw in Ukraine.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Dig

Rep. Devin Nunes: AG Merrick Garland might try to bury Durham report

Martin Walsh
Conservative Brief
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Nunes
© Doub Mills/Pool/Getty Images
Representative Devin Nunes
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, argued a month ago that he expects Justice Department Special Counsel John Durham to release a "damaging report" on the FBI's failed investigation into Donald Trump's alleged ties with Russia.

Less than a month ago, Nunes asserted that prison sentences could fall on a number of former senior Obama officials.

Now, Nunes does not sound quite so confident the report will ever see the light of day.

In an interview with Newsmax, Nunes said Attorney General Merrick Garland "seems to be kind of a puppet for the Left" and questioned whether he'll "bury the report." Back in February during his confirmation hearing, Garland refused to definitively say that he would make Durham's final report available to the public.


Comment: Nunes is not the only one waiting...this report needs to make obvious the hidden agendas and those involved that set the stage to create the circumstances we are in today. It is all connected.

      Read More...
Footprints

GOP leader blasts Biden over Afghan pullout as Pentagon admits 'not much' it can do to save Kabul

Ilya Tsukanov
Sputnik
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 14:56 UTC
BidenMcConnell
© Evan Vucci/AP/Reuters/Leah Millis/KJN
US President Joe Biden • Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
All NATO forces apart from a contingent of Turkish troops left behind to guard the Kabul airport are expected to evacuate Afghanistan by the end of the month. The Taliban has warned that all foreign troops must go. The deteriorating security situation has prompted all of Afghanistan's neighbours to beef up border security.

Hawkish Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has slammed President Joe Biden over his decision to pull all troops out of America's "Forever War" in Afghanistan, claiming the White House's strategy has no rhyme or reason. The Kentucky senator, speaking at a Senate session on Monday, complained:
"Reality was clear to everyone but the very top of the Biden administration. From their bizarre choice of a symbolic September 11th deadline to the absence of any concrete plan, the administration's decision appears to have rested on wishful thinking and not much else."
Recalling his opposition to Biden's decision when he made the pullout announcement in April, McConnell pointed out that his position was supported by some prominent neoliberals, as well as intelligence agencies, who recommended that the US remain in Afghanistan indefinitely after the 19+ long year occupation.
      Read More...
Attention

Joe Biden never mentioned 'quarantine camps' for Covid 'high-risk' individuals, but last year the CDC certainly did

Robert Bridge
RT
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:37 UTC
CDC sign
© Reuters
As a number of politicians push for 'vaccine passports' amid fears that a new brand of medical apartheid is coming, a re-surfaced CDC publication advocating internment camps for the 'high-risk' has some people fearing the worst.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a paper that floated the totally not suspicious idea of relocating "high-risk" individuals into green zone "camps." While the proposal didn't attract much attention at the time, as draconian anti-Covid measures are beginning to ramp up, and basic human rights and liberties are coming under attack, the document has attracted newfound attention. And not without reason, it seems.

The very first line of the document discusses the implementation of a "shielding approach in humanitarian settings... focused on camps, displaced populations and low-resource settings." Essentially, and this will be important later on, 'humanitarian settings' is just another way of saying 'camps'. Many people are quick to associate the idea of camps with the containment of refugees, for example, or illegal aliens who have breached the border. Yet the only time the word 'refugee' is mentioned in the paper is in reference to a camp in Kenya. At the same time, 'camp' and 'camps' are referred to about 20 times.

Comment: We will not go gently. And that is their fear.

      Read More...
Pirates

Exactly: Andrew Cuomo's downfall is meant to protect the Establishment, not hold it accountable

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 20:26 UTC
andrew cuomo resignation computer screen office
© REUTERS/Cindy Schultz
The view from a New York state legislator's office in Albany as Governor Andrew Cuomo announces his resignation, August 10, 2021
Make no mistake, Andrew Cuomo's fall from grace isn't the first domino in holding America's governors to task for Covid-19 mismanagement, but a way to shield both them and the corporate media establishment from accountability.

The Queens-born Cuomo announced his resignation on Tuesday, as New York legislators prepared to impeach him over mounting accusations of sexual harassment and impropriety. He maintained innocence, claimed he didn't realize how "the lines had shifted," and said he was stepping aside out of "love" for New York and a desire to keep the government running free of "distractions."

And if you believe any of that, I have a bridge named after his father Mario to sell you.
      Read More...
Attention

Big Texas cities are in open revolt over Gov. Abbott's ban on mask requirements

Jasper Scherer
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:17 UTC
Abbott Hancock Paddie
© Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
State Rep Chris Paddie • Texas Governor Greg Abbott • State Sen. Kelly Hancock
Austin, Texas • June 8, 2021
As the Delta variant sweeps across Texas, local officials in the state's largest metro areas who have swallowed Gov. Greg Abbott's bans on COVID restrictions for much of the pandemic are now in full revolt against the governor over his refusal to allow local mask mandates.

On Tuesday afternoon, a state district judge in San Antonio granted a request by the mayor and Bexar County judge to require face coverings in schools and at city and county facilities. Hours later, a Dallas judge ruled that Abbott's ban on mask mandates was not "a necessary action to combat the pandemic" and granted Dallas County's top elected official broad authority to require masks in public. Harris County commissioners piled on shortly after, authorizing the county attorney to file their own challenge to the governor's order.

Meanwhile, Austin and Dallas schools already had issued their own mask mandates in defiance of the governor's order. Houston ISD, the state's largest public school system, was expected to follow suit Thursday ahead of reopenings next week, while Mayor Sylvester Turner since last Wednesday has required city employees to wear masks at work when they are unable to socially distance. Fort Worth ISD will also require masks indoors next week when classes begin, the district's superintendent announced Tuesday evening.

Comment: "They" found a way to get around Abbott with an attempt to diminish his authority. It was only a matter of time. Imagine how far up the chain of command this originates, as we see how wide and consistently the fear net has spread.

      Read More...
Arrow Up

CDC director admits they lied about COVID deaths among vaccinated...they are 30 times higher!


en Volve
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Walensky
© CDC/White House
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky
For some reason, people still think the CDC can be trusted.

During a press conference last week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that her assertion that over 99 percent of covid patients dying in hospitals were unvaccinated was a load of nonsense.

The allegation, which was echoed by Anthony Fauci, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and other top officials, was exposed as a fraud on July 29 by the CDC's own statistics, which was published by the Washington Post. According to the CDC, the number of covid patient in-hospital deaths in May was 15% among the vaccinated, not 0.5 percent as they all claimed — a figure that is 30 TIMES more than they claimed.
CDC chart vac and hospitalized

Comment: No matter how bizarre the CDC's 'truth' may seem, the pattern of belief has been set. The Russiagate prototype comes to mind...completely debunked but remains effective.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts