SOTT Focus:


USA

SOTT Focus: Who Wants To Be CEO of a Red, White and Blue Kakistocracy*?

©2008 All Rights Reserved. Contact author for permission to repost or mirror

*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, "caca", itself derived from the Latin, "cacare". In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning "bad".)

Let me make myself clear from the outset: I am not running for President of the United States, I just am *not doing* it, though I am constitutionally fully qualified, and, truth to tell, would be much better for the country in many ways, on many levels, than the current, thug occupant of the White House (notice that I do not refer to him as "President"). But, no, I really and truly do not aspire to be President of this godforsaken Kakistan masquerading as the USA.

Now that that crucial non-announcement is out of the way, permit me to set forth a couple of the many reasons for my subdued, cyberspace non-campaign for the Oval Office.

Butterfly

SOTT Focus: Is Sott Anti-Semitic? You Be The Judge

A few days ago, I received an email from a person named "Angus" who informed me that my article "Racism not defence at the heart of Israeli politics" was causing "quite a stir" in the UK and that he would like some details about me as he was planning to write something in response. From the beginning it was pretty clear what "Angus'" agenda was, but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt, at least to begin with. The exchange that ensued has left us with a much better insight into the minds and methods of those vociferous defenders of Israel that are doing so much in British academic circles to ensure that the Israeli government continues to enjoy immunity for its human rights abuses in Occupied Palestine.

Read on, it's a real trip!

Coffee

SOTT Focus: Anti-semitism, British Academia and the Israel Lobby



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Every year since 2002 the University and College Union (UCU), the largest trade union and professional association for academics working in further and higher education throughout the UK, has attempted to implement some form of boycott of Israeli academic institutions that have been shown to be complicit in the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people. And each year, amid much acrimony and cries of "anti-semitism", boycotters meet with significant resistance from pro-Israeli members of British academia, and other institutions.

This year however, lowly Sott.net has inadvertently become involved in the melee.

Comment: Update: Within a few hours of posting the link to the mailing list, Ms. Delich responded:
I didn't realise who David Duke was nor did I hear of him. I just looked at the article not the website where it appeared. Apologies for picking up that website as I personallly am strongly against any racists, anti-semitists and the likes of them. I just found the article quite powerful, and none are saying that Joe Quinn (the author of the article) is a racist or anti-semitist, and the article is quite interesting. So, perhaps we should focus on the article itself and not where it appeared (if we look at it in a broader sense, the website itself appeard on Google and so did the article)? Anyone can put anything on their website... Sincere apologies once again though for picking the wrong website, but it's the article that I found interesting as it gives some amazing facts and it was not written by David Duke (who, I most certainly agree, has no place in UCU but is the author of the website and not the article).
Mr. Hirsh at Engage and all of the other "left-wing" anti-boycott, pro-Israeli government defamation artists were surely aware of Ms. Delich's response, yet they chose to pursue their opportunistic and scurrilous manipulation of Ms. Delich's simple mistake in their efforts to perpetuate the Israeli government's continued persecution of the Palestinian people.

By their fruits you shall know them.


Chess

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: A New Cold War Meets Chinese Lanterns Flying in the Wind of Change



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©Gary Varvel

There is a well-known Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. Judging from the rapid unfoldment of "interesting" world events, it is clear that we ain't seen nothing yet and whatever providence has in store for us, it surely is going to become curiouser and curiouser.

So what went on this month, other than more bloodshed, cynical manipulation and overt war propaganda?

Question

SOTT Focus: Strange lights spotted in Israeli sky: Mossad's masters are calling?



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©Matan

Beside the daily atrocities and ongoing Palestinian genocide, it seems that there are other curious things happening lately in the land of sour milk and poisoned honey. First we had a meteorite sighting that caused quite a stir, raising hysteria that Iranians are testing their missiles with the goal to finally eliminate the bravest sons and daughters of Yahweh. And this time we have a report about a mysterious 'simultaneous sighting' on a national scale.

Coincidently, there were quite a few similar mass sightings in other areas of the world recently. But considering the history of this particular cursed place, we have to wonder what's going on and what will happen next.

The following text is a translation of the Hebrew article in Ynet describing the event.

Magnify

SOTT Focus: Sarkozy - Hello NATO, Goodbye France

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That Sarkozy was always going to eviscerate France's tenuous military and political neutrality once he took office should have been obvious to all. Long before he somehow managed to win the 2007 French elections, he was already known as 'Sarko the American' not to mention 'President Bling Bling'. It seems it's just not possible for a French politician to truly admire the American empire builders (as Sarko seems to) and not grovel at their feet.

After all there are great personal advantages to be had from aligning oneself and one's nation (whether they like it or not) with the last great empire. There is the sense of being on the "winning side" (who now can stand up to the US juggernaut?). There is immediate access to the massive resources, influence and intelligence assets of the empire through which previously impossible goals become not just possible but a matter of policy.

Up until Sarkozy's nomination as President last year, France had a 40 year long history of staunch opposition to the type of US diplomacy that has brought us the ludicrous yet deadly "war on terror". As long as there was a major world power that was still relatively independent, there was still a third option - that if small yet strategically important nations weren't "with the US" they weren't by definition "with the terrorists". They could be "with France".

Comment: The above link contained within the text "those that so deftly shunted him into the Elysee Palace" has been removed from the original Quatar Penninsula site, but is still available on archive.org. In case it ever disappears completely from the web, here are two screen-shots of the article for a more secure archive experience:

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Pistol

SOTT Focus: No Taser Deaths In USA?



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This citizen was Tasered for refusing to lie down, and then Tasered again for refusing to get back up.
Long live the Taser!

I was asked to attend a Citizens Police School as part of our local police department's community outreach program. This program is held a couple times a year and lasts 12 weeks. Although this sort of thing wouldn't normally interest me, given the large amount of bad press the police are getting across the country I decided to sign up in order to learn more, in effect, to do some research. What I discovered left me with the strange urge to check if my passport was still valid.

Chess

SOTT Focus: UPDATE: Connecting the Dots: The Axis of Evil in Motion Under Peculiar Cosmic Weather



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Update: Dry weather, fires, spontaneous combustion? As it turns out the Taurid meteor event was not a complete bust, more like a combustion:
1st of July 2008 - Witnesses across Southern California say they saw an object 'moving very fast across the northern sky' and falling near the San Bernardino Mountains. Officials have no firm answers on what it was.

From Hollywood Hills to the Nevada state line, people reported seeing a fireball streaking across the sky and falling near the San Bernardino Mountains this morning. But explanations of the mysterious object were scarce.

San Bernardino County Fire Dispatch reported receiving dozens of calls related to what was described as fireball moving at high speed and falling in northwest sky around 10:40 a.m.

"We got quite a few reports. It started with a gentlemen in the Lake Arrowhead reporting a fireball in the Meadow Bay area and then we started getting calls from all over," said San Bernardino County dispatch supervisor Tom Barnes. "Fire crews in Barstow and on I-15 near Stateline came up on the radio and reported an object in the sky moving very fast across the northern sky and described it as yellowish green in color with streaks of debris. It looked like it burned up before it hit the ground."
Now isn't it a "coincidence" that California became engulfed, at its peak, in 1,783 fires across the state, scorching over 527,000 acres, including one in the San Bernardino mountains. Firefighters are still battling over 300 fires. Yet, all the fires are being blamed on "unusual early-summer lightning storms".

Black Cat

SOTT Focus: Neil Entwistle: Psychopath



Entwistle
©Reuters
The face of evil.

You've probably heard the story, or at least one like it. Husband kills wife and child, seemingly without remorse, then attempts to pass it off as a murder/suicide. And, remarkably, people believe him. The latest such example is Neil Entwistle, a British computer programmer, who murdered his American wife and 9-month-old daughter in 2006. He was recently sentenced to life in prison.

The trial made for a fascinating and disturbing spectacle. Aptly described by jurors as a complete narcissist, Entwistle put on quite the display during the presentation of a video of the bloody crime scene. But before we see his reaction for ourselves, let's see what the media tells us we see.

Beer

SOTT Focus: From Cafe to Cybercafe: The Splintering of Society



Coffee and Cigarettes
©Unknown

During a recent visit to Montreal, I was struck by the many changes. I spent the greater part of my life in Montreal, but had not visited in several years. It is normal to find that a place you once lived has changed. Nothing stands still, however, the changes I am referring to go much deeper than the usual new buildings or housing developments.

The social fabric of a community is made up of many elements: knowing your neighbours, or at least recognizing faces on the street; communication with local merchants; places where people get together to meet and talk over a coffee or a drink; population density and the ease of circulating on foot or by bike, via public transportation, or by car. Neighbourhoods with small businesses run by people who live in the area have a different feel from ones that are rife with franchises.

Roaming through my old neighbourhood, the old haunts had disappeared. The local cafe, run by people from the neighbourhood and offering a spot to go and spend an afternoon or evening reading or talking over a coffee and a cigarette, populated with students, professors, artists, writers, and musicians, had gone, replaced by yet another chain offering a prepackaged and franchised atmosphere that could be found anywhere on the planet. The former rows of books, everything from novels, poetry, and drama to philosophy and social science, sitting on battered shelves for people to pick up and browse over a coffee had been replaced by, well, nothing. Emptiness. Mirrors reflecting back the image of the consumer to himself.