The United States has used "strategic patience" to steadily apply the pressure of sanctions against the Russian economy as oil prices have plummeted in recent months, US President Barack Obama said on Monday.

"Part of our rationale in this process was that the only thing keeping that [Russian] economy afloat was the price of oil. And if, in fact, we were steady in applying sanction pressure, which we have been, that over time it would make the economy of Russia sufficiently vulnerable," Obama said in an interview with the National Public Radio.

According to the president, the US policy toward Russia calculated that "if and when there were disruptions with respect to the price of oil," Russia would have "enormous difficulty managing it."

"And if it does start a war, hopefully people will say, 'You know what? It was worth it. It was a good movie!'" - Seth Rogen

"Wacky dictators sell newspapers, and magazines - for example, the 2003 Newsweek cover depicting Kim [Jong Il] in dark sunglasses over a cover line that read 'Dr. Evil.' ... But demonization, and ridicule, can be dangerous. At its worst, dehumanizing the other side helps to lay the groundwork for war." - Donald Macintyre

Representations of North Korea as a buffoon, a menace, or both on the American big screen are at least as old and arguably as tired as the George W. Bush-era phrase, "the axis of evil." Along with the figure of the Muslim "terrorist," hackneyed Hollywood constructions of the "ronery" or diabolical Dr. Evil-like North Korean leader bent on world domination, the sinister race-bending North Korean spy, the robotic North Korean commando, and other post-Cold War Red/Yellow Peril bogeymen have functioned as go-to enemies for the commercial film industry's geopolitical and racist fantasies. Explaining why the North Korean leader was the default choice for the villain in his 2014 regime-change comedy, The Interview, Seth Rogen has stated, "It's not that controversial to label [North Korea] as bad. It's as bad as it could be."¹

Indeed, one-dimensional caricatures of North Korea flourish in the Western media in no small part because "[w]acky dictators sell."² Yet when it comes to Hollywood's North Korean regime-change narratives, the line between fact and fiction, not to mention the distinction between freedom of expression and government propaganda, is revealingly thin. Whether in Hollywood or Washington, the only permissible narrative for North Korea is what Donald Macintyre, former Seoul bureau chief for Time magazine, has called "the demonization script."³

Not only have the dream machines of the entertainment industry long played an instrumental role within American theaters of war, but also, U.S. officials and political commentators often marshal the language of entertainment - for example, the description of U.S.-South Korea combined military exercises as "war games" and the Obama administration's references to the Pentagon's "playbook" with regard to North Korea - when describing U.S. military maneuvers on and around the Korean peninsula.

Or an attempt to describe how US problems correlate with international security.
On several past occasions I have written that the United States is deliberately destroying the entire system of international security, the same system that they had built together with the USSR. Why did they start dismantling the international security system is also understandable, in the 1990s the generation of "victors" came to power in that country, these people are convinced that they had "defeated" the USSR (as our theory explains it is obviously not so, please refer to this) and because they are "victors" they may do anything they please. They decided that collective security arrangements are onerous, and that they need their own security system, the one that only they will have control over.

If we were to evaluate rhetoric of individuals who were in charge of the states that were admitted as new NATO members in the last 20 years, then we can figure out the logic that stands behind the expansion (and perhaps a bit even farther still). "We are being threatened and the USA is our only possible protection, therefore we must all be integrated within a US-centered security structure." This was all going on while Russia, as a matter of principle, was not participating in affairs of those countries (not even in those of the Ukraine, which was abandoned to its own devices, something that has to a great extent caused the recent events in that country), Russia was not a threat to anyone (and of course it is not a threat to anyone now), the point of this all was deliberate destruction of the old global security system, in which Russia used to play a key role.

Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front have been banned in Russia by the Supreme Court, which has ruled both the organizations as 'terrorist'.

Once the ruling comes into force, those suspected of being involved with either Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) or Al-Nusra Front (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra), will face prosecution in Russia.

The case against the two extremist groups was initiated by Russia's Prosecutor General and supported by the Federal Intelligence Agency (FSB).

The court hearings were closed for the press, as certain documents reviewed were classified.

The judge only announced the final decision.

Prisons employ and exploit the ideal worker. Prisoners do not receive benefits or pensions. They are not paid overtime. They are forbidden to organize and strike. They must show up on time. They are not paid for sick days or granted vacations. They cannot formally complain about working conditions or safety hazards. If they are disobedient, or attempt to protest their pitiful wages, they lose their jobs and can be sent to isolation cells. The roughly 1 million prisoners who work for corporations and government industries in the American prison system are models for what the corporate state expects us all to become. And corporations have no intention of permitting prison reforms that would reduce the size of their bonded workforce. In fact, they are seeking to replicate these conditions throughout the society.

States, in the name of austerity, have stopped providing prisoners with essential items including shoes, extra blankets and even toilet paper, while starting to charge them for electricity and room and board. Most prisoners and the families that struggle to support them are chronically short of money. Prisons are company towns. Scrip, rather than money, was once paid to coal miners, and it could be used only at the company store. Prisoners are in a similar condition. When they go broke - and being broke is a frequent occurrence in prison - prisoners must take out prison loans to pay for medications, legal and medical fees and basic commissary items such as soap and deodorant. Debt peonage inside prison is as prevalent as it is outside prison.

States impose an array of fees on prisoners. For example, there is a 10 percent charge imposed by New Jersey on every commissary purchase. Stamps have a 10 percent surcharge. Prisoners must pay the state for a 15-minute deathbed visit to an immediate family member or a 15-minute visit to a funeral home to view the deceased. New Jersey, like most other states, forces a prisoner to reimburse the system for overtime wages paid to the two guards who accompany him or her, plus mileage cost. The charge can be as high as $945.04. It can take years to pay off a visit with a dying father or mother.

Fines, often in the thousands of dollars, are assessed against many prisoners when they are sentenced. There are 22 fines that can be imposed in New Jersey, including the Violent Crime Compensation Assessment (VCCB), the Law Enforcement Officers Training & Equipment Fund (LEOT) and Extradition Costs (EXTRA). The state takes a percentage each month out of prison pay to pay down the fines, a process that can take decades. If a prisoner who is fined $10,000 at sentencing must rely solely on a prison salary he or she will owe about $4,000 after making payments for 25 years. Prisoners can leave prison in debt to the state. And if they cannot continue to make regular payments - difficult because of high unemployment - they are sent back to prison. High recidivism is part of the design.

Almost all wars begin with false flag operations.

The coming conflicts in North Korea and Russia are no exception.

Mass public hysteria is being manufactured to justify aggression against Moscow and Pyongyang, in retaliation for acts attributed to the North Korean and Russian governments, but orchestrated and carried out by the CIA and the Pentagon.

The false flagging of North Korea: CIA weaponizes Hollywood

The campaign of aggression against North Korea, from the hacking of Sony and the crescendo of noise over the film, The Interview, bears all the markings of a CIA false flag operation.

The hacking and alleged threats to moviegoers has been blamed entirely on North Korea, without a shred of credible evidence beyond unsubstantiated accusations by the FBI. Pyongyang's responsibility has not been proven. But it has already been officially endorsed, and publicly embraced as fact.

The idea of "America under attack by North Korea" is a lie.

Britain's Scotland Yard has been given the names of two more former government ministers accused of sexually abusing children, who are now added to the 22 others already involved in a high-profile pedophile scandal.

The two additional names were reported to police after campaigning lawmaker John Mann was approached by a victim claiming to have been abused by the politicians, British Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

Mann said the victim had given detailed information about the abuse by the two politicians, of whom one was a peer, saying the indecent incidents took place in the 1980s.

On Saturday morning, the Syrian Arab Army's (SAA) 11th Tank Division and the National Defense Forces (NDF) carried out a raid on an Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) hideout near the city of Salamiyya in the Hama Governorate, killing scores of militants and seizing the contents inside the building, while also capturing 5 supply trucks stocked with a number of foreign goods.

According to an SAA source, the 5 supply trucks that were seized by the 11th Tank Division contained a number of boxes that originated from Saudi Arabia that also read "food aid" - inside the boxes were first-aid kits, 40 grad rockets, 20 mortar shells, 23mm machine gun ammunition, 14 half barrels filled with C-4 explosives, 3 mortar launchers, and satellite televisions.

The source further added that this is not the first time the SAA and NDF have confiscated these type of goods; it is common for these supply trucks to enter Syria from the Turkish border in order to resupply militant fighters combatting the Syrian Arab Army.


Some of the militants killed at the hideout were also members of Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham (Falcons of the Levant Brigade) - they are a large militia in the Islamic Front (Jabhat Al-Islamiyya). A total of 19 militants were killed during the firefight, including a fighter identified as Mohammad 'Anwar Al-'Issa from the Idlib Governorate.

Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the Iranian army's chief commander of ground forces, described today the new Iranian drone as a 'mobile bomb.' According to Iranian state media, 'Yasir' is a flying bomb, designed to strike air, ground and naval targets.

I am delighted by the news and congratulate the Iranian engineers and military industry. Iranian advanced technology is needed in order to deter Israel from celebrating its genocidal inclinations.

However, the Israelis label the new Iranian bomb a 'suicidal drone,' no less no more. I would like to grasp what the Israeli media means when it tags a bomb 'suicidal'? Does it leave a note before it plunges into an IDF's headquarter? Are IDF's guided missiles targeting Palestinian family homes also suicidal bombs? Do the Israelis expect the new Iranian drone to 'knock on the roof' just before it goes off? Or is a bomb becoming suicidal only when it is set to hit a Jewish strategic target?

It is impossible to overstate the significance of the High Court of Justice ruling ordering the state to demolish within two years the Amona illegal outpost, which was built on private Palestinian land. After years of evasion, legal tricks, forged documents and unfulfilled pledges, even the High Court came to realize that the state cannot be trusted, not to mention the settlers, to voluntarily agree to return the land they plundered from their owners.

Amona was born in sin in 1997, when a group of settlers established residence in an area that had been earmarked for an archaeological site and a Mekorot Water Company reservoir. Cease and desist orders issued by Civil Administration inspectors in 2004 halted building for four years, but it resumed in force despite new stop-work orders.