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Star of David

Norman Finkelstein: 'The Israeli military said' & the NYT coverage of Gaza protests

Norman G. Finkelstein
Mondoweiss
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:48 UTC
David Halbfinger
© New York TimesDavid Halbfinger
New York Times reporter David M. Halbfinger didn't know whether the demonstrations in Gaza were "peaceful protests or violent riots." So he embedded himself with Israeli snipers poised on the perimeter of Gaza concentration camp to find out ("At Gaza Protests: Kites, Drones, Gas, Guns and the Occasional Bomb," June 8, 2018).

One might suppose if he wanted an answer to that question, the obvious place to go would be among the demonstrators. But never mind.

According to human rights organizations, the weekly Gaza demonstrations have been overwhelmingly nonviolent. But from day one, Halbfinger and his Times colleagues have recurrently portrayed them as armed confrontations in which Israeli snipers return the fire of protesters. They rely on official Israeli statements that are quoted without demurral, without further investigation, and without independent corroboration from, say, human rights monitors:
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Cut

Brexit rebels and resignations in the UK Labour party

Emma Ross-Thomas
Bloomberg
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 12:41 UTC
Jeremy Corbyn
© REUTERS / Neil Hall


Today in Brexit: A rebellion and mass resignations expose Labour's divisions over Brexit.

If anyone in Brussels thought negotiating Brexit with the Labour Party would be preferable to talking to Theresa May's divided Conservatives, a rebellion in its ranks on Wednesday will give pause for thought.

Voting on whether the U.K. should remain fully inside the European Union's single market - and accepting all its rules including free movement of people - 90 Labour lawmakers (out of 257) defied the instructions of the party leadership. Of those, 75 voted to remain in the European Economic Area - a non-member affiliation with the bloc often dubbed the "Norway model" - and 15 voted against. Whips had told them to abstain.

Six members of Jeremy Corbyn's core team resigned ahead of the vote.

Comment: Long after the Brexit referendum vote in which the UK people chose to leave the EU, the flip-flopping and arguing over Brexit of the political class continues. One may agree or disagree with the wisdom of Brexit, but it's a little late for such debates, since the Biritsh people already decided.

More on the topic:

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Gold Bar

Russian government approves cooperation agreement with China to develop joint gold mining project in Siberia


RT
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:52 UTC
Bay with water
© Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
The Russian government has approved a cooperation agreement with China on developing the Klyuchevskoye gold ore deposit in the Trans-Baikal region.

The decree was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and the project is expected to be operational in two years. The planned volume of ore extraction is over 12 million tons per year.

Development of the Klyuchevskoye gold deposit is a very important project, according to the region's governor, Natalia Zhdanova. Three countries - Russia, India, and China - are involved in the project's development.

"It is important for the region. Foreign economic policy and attraction of investors are among the key work aspects for the Trans-Baikal's government," Zhdanova said, adding that 28 projects involving foreign investors are already being implemented there.

Comment: There is also a pipeline in the works which is almost complete and increased trade between the two superpowers.

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Megaphone

Stephen Hawking's voice to be beamed into space, eventually to hit a black hole


Sputnik
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:39 UTC
Stephen Hawking
© AFP 2018 / Desiree Martin
The burial ceremony of the famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking will be held in Westminster Abbey. After the ceremony, a recording of the scientist's voice will be beamed into space, the newspaper Cambridge News reports.

An urn with Stephen Hawking's ashes will be buried between the graves of two other famous scientists - Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

In the audio recording, Hawking's words will be accompanied by music written by the composer Vangelis. The composition will be broadcast into space with the help of the European Space Agency's transmitter in Spain.

Comment: See also: Hawking's Paradox: A brief history of Stephen Hawking and his legacy

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Light Saber

BDS: Spanish city Oviedo rescinds invitation to Israeli orchestra and ballet


TeleSur
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 12:28 UTC
Palestine Europe protest Israel
© ReutersIn Europe there have been waves of protests against Israeli use of lethal force against unarmed protesters.
Oviedo City Council's decision comes amid increasing calls to boycott Israel and impose a comprehensive military embargo.

The Spanish city of Oviedo disinvited an Israeli orchestra and ballet group arguing "Israeli organizations are not wanted" in its premises in yet another victory for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Presentations by the orchestra and ballet group were scheduled for this autumn, in the city's cultural program, but Monday an Israeli news site reported the cancellation over political reasons.

Last week, the city of Valencia approved a motion proposed by progressive party Podemos, to declare itself as an "Israeli apartheid-free zone," becoming the largest city in the world to do so.

Before that, Barcelona's city council called for a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and called on the Spanish state to endorse it. Also, the Catalan cities of Terrassa and Badalona joined these calls and demanded Spain and other European governments stop selling arms to Israel.

Comment: Recently, Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left-wing Spanish party Podemos, called Israel an "illegal country" with "apartheid policies". It seems that Israel's popularity around the world is dropping fast in the wake of the massacre in Gaza - yet Zionists don't think they have done anything wrong, because they are ideologically possessed. See:

Ideological Possession: Israel's Zionists Shoot Themselves in the Foot

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Crusader

Chinese internet users defend Einstein's portrayal of them as 'filthy' and 'obtuse' people

Lily Kuo
The Guardian
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:28 UTC
Einstein Formula
© Bettmann/Bettmann ArchiveEinstein described Chinese children as ‘spiritless’ and ‘obtuse’ but some Chinese say he depicted an accurate picture of the era.
Chinese internet users have defended Albert Einstein's recently published travel diaries in which the physicist calls the Chinese "industrious, filthy people."

Portions of the diaries from his travels in Asia in the 1920s were posted online this week and their content surprised Einstein fans.

"Chinese don't sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods," he wrote.

"All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse."

The theoretical physicist, who once said racism was "a disease of white people", added: "It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary."

While some internet users called for a "boycott of Einstein" and said his observations proved "all humans, even Einstein, have a stupid, shallow side," most said the China Einstein witnessed is nothing like it is today.

Comment: See also: Einstein's private travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia during trip to Asia

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Palette

Color revolution: Nicaragua resisting the soft coup

Tortilla Con Sal
TeleSur
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 11:57 UTC
Nicaragua demonstrator
© ReutersA demonstrator holds a homemade mortar during a protest against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government in Granada, Nicaragua June 6, 2018.


The government strategy has been to accept extraordinary levels of opposition violence and intimidation so as to allow the opposition to discredit themselves with public opinion.

Nicaragua has been a good example of how Western corporate and alternative news media are able to create a custom-made bizarro-world to suit the propaganda requirements of their countries' elites. The current media onslaught against Nicaragua uses the whole toolbox of propaganda tricks portraying aggressors as victims, reporting non-existent massacres of peacefully protesting students, denying systematic destruction by opposition paramilitaries of public property and private businesses, even omitting attacks on hospitals and ambulances. The big fundamental fiction has been that a majority of people in Nicaragua reject the Sandinista government led by President Daniel Ortega. The converse of the lie is that most people support the so-called Civic Alliance composed of right-wing business leaders, right-wing political parties, reactionary Catholic bishops, US-funded NGOs and university students allied to those interests.

But events in real life contradict the minority opposition storyline. On April 22nd, the supposed dictatorship proposed a national dialogue mediated by the Catholic church. It took the opposition almost three weeks to agree. They did so on condition the government withdraw the police from the streets. In fact, police had already been ordered not to intervene against the violent opposition paramilitaries. The government agreed, but when the dialogue began the bishops refused to condemn opposition violence while still falsely accusing the government of violent repression. The opposition never tried to negotiate in good faith, simply demanding the government resign and refusing to dismantle roadblocks which the government, supposedly a dictatorship, allowed to operate so as to avoid more violent conflict.

Comment: You can bet that revolutionary movements are being manipulated when the trigger for the violence sompletely blown out of proportion. In the case of Nicaragua, the unrest began as a result of the state's failure to handle forest fires and limited cuts of pensions and social security payments - which the government later took back. Sure, the Nicaraguan people no doubt have much to complain about the Sandinista government, but do does reasons sound like justification enough to kidnap, torture and murder people on the streets? The average person would very much prefer to stay away from bloodbaths, so civil society discontent is normally expressed through peaceful demonstrations or voting someone else in. So who is trying to push Nicaragua over the edge, much like has happened to Venezuela in recent years? See:

Nicaragua's bloody unrest has US fingerprints all over it

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Black Cat 2

Liberal madness: Professor says feminists have 'every right' to 'hate men'

Grace Gottschling
Campus Reform
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 14:44 UTC
hate men
Northeastern University's director of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies demands that men "step away" because "we have every right to hate you."

Suzanna Danuta Walters, who is also a professor of sociology at NU, asks "Why can't we hate men?" in a Friday op-ed for The Washington Post.

"So, in this moment, here in the land of legislatively legitimated toxic masculinity," Walters begins. "Is it really so illogical to hate men?"

"My edge has been crossed for a long time," Walters said, citing the recent Eric Schneiderman and Harvey Weinstein accusations and the incidents of live-streamed sexual assaults and "red pill men's groups and rape camps."
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Light Sabers

Jordan Peterson vs. the Left

John Stossel
reason
Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Left-wing critics try to silence the University of Toronto professor.
Jordan Peterson and Cathy Newman
© Channel 4Jordan Peterson and Cathy Newman
"Shame on you! Shame on you!" chanted protestors after psychology professor Jordan Peterson said he'd refuse to obey a law that would require everyone to call people by the pronoun they prefer-pronouns like "ze" instead of "he" or "she."

It wasn't just radical college kids protesting. Hundreds of Peterson's academic colleagues signed a petition demanding that the University of Toronto fire him.

The totalitarian left doesn't just demand that their own point of view be heard. They want resisters like Peterson never to be heard. When he gives speeches, they bring bullhorns to drown him out.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

F-35 jet security breach reported, Brit arrested over plot to sell secrets to China


RT
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
F-35B jet
© Qian Baihua / Global Look PressAn F-35B jet.
A man has been arrested by counterterrorism police, accused of plotting to sell military secrets to the Chinese. Scotland Yard has confirmed that a man in his 70s has been arrested, suspected of breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and taken to a police station in Derbyshire. He was later released, but remains under investigation. Scotland Yard confirmed that a search warrant was executed at an address in the West Midlands. Further searches at an address in Derbyshire are ongoing.

According to The Sun, the man, understood to be a former Rolls-Royce employee, was arrested over fears that classified information about the UK's new multimillion-pound F-35 stealth fighter jets may have been passed on to China. Rolls-Royce was one of several UK companies with contracts to produce parts for the jet, which landed at RAF Marham in Norfolk last week.

Comment: See also:

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