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Thu, 30 Sep 2021
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A 'New Cold War' has already started, but Russia & China are winning against a 'weakening' West, says former Kremlin adviser

Jonny Tickle
RT
Sat, 31 Jul 2021 08:15 UTC
Karaganov
© Sputnik / Vladimir Trefilov
Sergei Karaganov
The Soviet Union might have lost the first Cold War, but Russia is ahead in the rematch with the US and, this time, has every chance of coming out on top. That's according to one well-known Moscow scholar, Sergey Karaganov.

Speaking to Russian newspaper Argumenty I Fakty, the academic argued that Moscow is now much stronger than it was during the late Soviet period, and the West has weakened in that time.

Karaganov has been one of Russia's top foreign-policy theorists for decades, and has also advised President Vladimir Putin in the past. He is currently the head of the World Economy and International Affairs faculty at the Higher School of Economics (HSE), a prestigious university in Moscow. He is also well-known for the eponymous 'Karaganov doctrine,' which states that Moscow should act as a defender of human rights for ethnic Russians living in the near abroad.

Comment: See also:

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Heart - Black

Slavoj Zizek: The 'remedies' that Gates and Soros use to try to offset evils they've caused don't cure the disease, but prolong it

Slavoj Zizek
RT
Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:40 UTC
GatesSoros
© Getty/iStock/KJN
Bill Gates, George Soros and Coronavirus
The routine of these billionaires is nothing but a lie: speculative exploitation followed by vacuous humanitarian concerns about the catastrophic consequences that their ruthless capitalism is responsible for in the first place.

Every authentic Leftist should put on the wall above his bed or table the opening paragraph of Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man under Socialism, where he points out that "It is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought." People find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this. Accordingly, with admirable - though misdirected - intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their 'remedies' do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it.

Indeed, these remedies are part of the disease. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property.

This last sentence provides a concise formula of what is wrong with Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation. It is not enough just to point out that the Gates charity is based on brutal business practice - one should take a step further and also denounce the ideological foundation of the Gates charity, the vacuity of its pan-humanitarianism.

Comment: Mindsets stop too short then go too far.

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Chess

Biden ending the US combat role in Iraq is meaningless - America still needs to be there to keep up its role in Syria

Scott Ritter
RT
Thu, 29 Jul 2021 20:24 UTC
Biden Kadhimi
© Reuters
US President Biden • Iraqi PM Al-Kadhimi
Biden's announcement that the US combat mission in Iraq will come to an end by the end of the year hides the reality that their presence in Iraq shields a broader combat mission in Syria and Iran. It's not ending anytime soon.

Joe Biden recently announced that the US combat mission in Iraq will conclude by the end of the year. This announcement reflects the reality on the ground more than a major shift in US policy, and as such operates more as an exercise in semantics than a portent of any withdrawal of US forces from the region. According to the president, the US military will transition away from a hands-on combat role to one which focuses on training, advising and intelligence-sharing with supported Iraqi forces. Biden said:
"Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of the region and our counterterrorism operation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase we're going to be talking about."
There are currently some 2,500 US troops in Iraq.

Current US combat operations in Iraq appear to be the sole purview of elite Special Operations Forces drawn from so-called "Tier-1" Special Mission Units assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command. These units include the Army's Delta Force, the Navy's SEAL Team 6, Marine Raiders, Army Rangers, Air Force Combat Control Teams, and Army Special Operations helicopter units from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. While the Department of Defense is tight-lipped about the deployment and operational tasking of these units, media reports indicate that as of earlier this year, elements of the US Army's Delta Force, operating in concert with units from the British Special Air Service, were engaged in special reconnaissance missions inside Iraq designed to locate and identify targets affiliated with the Islamic State for subsequent destruction by coalition aircraft.

Comment: Nothing is as the US presents it - a flaw to live by.

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Star of David

Why are Canadian charitable donations going to Israel's military?

Khaled Mouammar, Rabbi David Mivasair
Canadian Dimension
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
Rivlin and troops
© Twitter
Former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin salutes members of the Israeli Defense Forces
Funding other countries' militaries is not a charitable activity according to Canadian tax law. Yet some organizations granted charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency funnel their donations to the Israel Defense Forces in clear violation of CRA regulations. Because donations are tax deductible, Canadian taxpayers are essentially subsidizing the IDF — whether they want to or not.

Today we submitted a formal complaint to the CRA regarding the charitable status of a little-known organization called the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association (CZCA). We detail how the CZCA raises and disburses millions in tax-deductible funds to support the Israeli military in contravention of CRA rules.

Groups that grant tax credits are prohibited from supporting other countries' militaries. According to CRA guidelines, "increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Canada's armed forces is charitable, but supporting the armed forces of another country is not."

Yet, the Israel Defense Forces website names CZCA as one of six international organizations "authorized to raise donations for the IDF." In 2019, the CZCA allocated over $1.7 million to an organization in Israel called Yahad (United for Israel's Soldiers), which is run by a retired Israeli General and Colonel. Yahad's stated aim is "raising funds for IDF soldiers." Its website boasts that "with all overhead costs financed by Israel's Ministry of Defense, 100% of all donations are utilized for their objectives without any overhead."
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Eye 1

Australia's MILITARY enforcing lockdown, helicopters soar overheard blaring warnings, gov't wants to inject 80% of population before border block lifted

Tom Pyman
Daily Mail
Sat, 31 Jul 2021 11:54 UTC
army australia lockdown
© Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
Army personnel stand guard at Sydney Airport on April 23, 2020 in Sydney, Australia.
Australian officials have sent in soldiers to enforce lockdown in Sydney as the country grapples rising infection rates with just 17% of adults vaccinated.


Comment: This low coronavirus injection rate is not due to a lack of availability, this, as is the case across much of the planet, reflects people's refusal to be a guinea pigs in these trials.


Ministers had tried to tackle the pandemic with a zero Covid strategy - a bid to eliminate all cases through isolation and closed borders - but concerns are growing over the virus' continued prevalence.


Comment: The relatively harmless and highly infectious coronavirus is already endemic, so it's not possible to achieve 'zero covid'; politicians elsewhere have admitted as much.


Prime Minister Scott Morrison held out hope of better times with a four-stage plan back to freedom but said 80% of adults would have to be vaccinated before the border can begin to open.

Comment: It's rather suspicious that, whilst some areas of the world are, for the most part, 'open for business', others, particularly those in the West, appear to be involved in a coordinated effort to implement some of the most draconian policies our era has ever known: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Governments Everywhere Mandate Vaccines! But Will People Resist?



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Info

DeSantis to sign executive order allowing parents to defy school mask mandates

Natalie Prieb
The Hill
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 14:25 UTC
Ron DeSantis
© AFP / Joe Raedle
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday said he will sign an executive order to "protect the rights of parents" and allow them to choose whether their children should wear masks even if their school requires them to do so.

"In Florida, there will be no lockdowns, there will be no school closures, there will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida," DeSantis said.

The governor cited a Brown University study that found no connection between case rates and mask mandates at schools. Critics have said that study was centered on schools in smaller communities that reopened earlier in the pandemic and is now outdated, according to WPLG, which reported on the DeSantis decision.

Comment: DeSantis finds himself in the precarious position of having to fight people's trumped-up irrational fear with logic and reason. It's not an enviable position.

See also:

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Light Saber

Beijing warns UK as Royal Navy enters disputed South China Sea, occurred 2 days before US incursion in Taiwan Strait

Danielle Sheridan
The Telegraph
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 23:52 UTC
HMS Queen Elizabeth
© LPhot Unaisi Luke/Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright
The Royal Navy's carrier strike group is led by the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth
Beijing has blasted Britain for sending the HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group into the South China Sea, threatening action if it does not "remain restrained and obey the rules".

In a terse warning, an editorial in state newspaper the Global Times made clear that Beijing wouldn't hesitate to make an example out of Britain - "to execute one as a warning to a hundred".


Comment: China wouldn't be reckless, but it will take decisive action if left with no other option; similar to how Russia recently drove a British air-defence destroyer ship out of Crimean waters with warning shots after a deliberately provocative incursion by the Royal Navy.


"China is likely to escalate its attempts to expel the warships at any time. In the future, stopping such intrusive behavior that violates China's territorial waters is a struggle China is destined to intensify."

Comment: See also: Manila claims nearly 300 Chinese militia vessels have swarmed Philippines-held islands in latest incursion

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Mr. Potato

Woketopia: New Zealand plans to ban transgender 'conversion therapy'

Tess McClure
The Guardian
Thu, 29 Jul 2021 23:36 UTC
Jacinda Ardern
© Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Clown world: New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern opens the 2018 Pride Parade in Auckland. Wellington has announced plans to ban gay conversion therapy.
New Zealand has introduced legislation to ban conversion practices, saying the practice is harmful and has "no place in modern New Zealand".

Conversion therapy refers to the practice, often by religious groups, of trying to "cure" people of their sexuality, gender expression, or LGBTQI identity.


Comment: What deceptive nonsense. Notice the "often." By including it, they capitalize on liberal rejections of religious viewpoints. But so-called conversion therapy is much wider than that. This will apply to any therapist that even hints that maybe their patient isn't REALLY transgender. It will require therapists to simply accept their patients' self-diagnosis, no matter how misguided or wrong.


"Those who have experienced conversion practices talk about ongoing mental health distress, depression, shame and stigma, and even suicidal thoughts," the minister of justice, Kris Faafoi, said as he introduced the legislation on Friday. "Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand. They are based on the false belief that any person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is broken and in need of fixing."


Comment: Sometimes it IS broken and need of fixing. Pedophiles (who are victims of pedophiles as children). Rapid onset gender dysphoria, a psychogenic mental illness. There are more examples than that, of course, but according to these clowns sexual or gender problems are never the result of psychopathology.


The legislation makes it an offence to perform conversion practices on anyone aged under 18, or with impaired decision-making capacity, with a sentence of up to three years' imprisonment. It also makes it an offence to perform conversion practices that cause "serious harm," irrespective of age. That carries a sentence of up to five years' imprisonment.


Comment: Under 18 is when transgender kids need help the most. This will prevent them from getting it. State-enforced child abuse, plan and simple.


Conversion therapy is legal is many parts of the world, including the UK and many states in the US. A report by the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity found conversion practices caused "significant loss of self-esteem, anxiety, depressive syndrome, social isolation, intimacy difficulty, self-hatred, shame and guilt, sexual dysfunction, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder."
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Bizarro Earth

Israel calls for harsh response over attack on tanker in Oman, blames Iran despite lack of evidence

Lisa Barrington
Reuters
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 12:30 UTC
oil tanker
© Reuters / Morteza Nikoubazl
FILE PHOTO. An oil tanker pictured in Assaluyeh seaport at the Persian Gulf.
A Briton and a Romanian were killed when an Israeli-managed petroleum product tanker came under attack on Thursday off the coast of Oman, the company said on Friday, in an incident that Israel's foreign minister blamed on Iran and said deserved a harsh response.

There were varying explanations for what happened to the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned ship, with Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime describing the incident as "suspected piracy" and a source at the Oman Maritime Security Center as an accident that occurred outside Omani territorial waters.

Iran and Israel have traded accusations of attacking each other's vessels in recent months and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he had told Britain's foreign secretary of the need for a tough response to the incident in which two crew members, one British and the other Romanian, were killed.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

A new Great Game is afoot in Afghanistan as China hosts the Taliban and eyes a key role in the country's future


RT
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 16:06 UTC
Taliban china
© Li Ran/Xinhua via AP
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pose for a photo during their meeting in Tianjin, China, Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
The inviting of a delegation from the Taliban Islamic fundamentalist group to Beijing this week has raised eyebrows across the world. Is China being clever, or does it face grave dangers on entering the "graveyard of empires"?

China this week took the highly unusual step of hosting a delegation from the Taliban in Beijing for talks, as concerns rise about the future of Afghanistan, amidst growing fighting and a massive offensive by the Islamist group against the government, whose days are increasingly seen as numbered.


Comment: Pepe Escobar reports that the Taliban claims they didn't take every town by force, they were welcomed by citizens who mistrust the Kabul administration.


Comment: See also: Russia's about-face on Syria's Idlib is the opening gambit of a larger diplomatic chess game

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