SOTT Focus:


Pirates

SOTT Focus: Vanessa Beeley on the McCain-White Helmets connection, and whether the 'funding freeze' is real

Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire
Sat, 05 May 2018 08:48 UTC
John McCain
© AP Photo/ Rick Rycroft
On the 3rd of May Sputnik published a report exposing potential U.S plans to stage another 'chemical weapon' provocation in Syria. Preparations allegedly began on April 23rd to ship civilians to "to a territory near Jafra oil field to participate in a staged filming of an attack scene"...
"US security services are planning provocations with the use of prohibited substances in Syria. The operation is led by a former militant of the Islamic State *[Daesh], Mishan Idris Hamash. The aim is to stage a chemical attack against civilians to be further spread in the media," the source told Sputnik.
Yes, this is a report from an anonymous source and has been belittled by the mainstream media in the West whose knee-jerk reaction to any information issued by a Russian media outlet is outright denigration and ridicule. However, the subsequent sequence of statements issued in relation to an alleged funding "freeze" for the U.S/UK White Helmet intelligence assets operating under their "regime change" coalition rules in Syria is worth remarking upon.

Among the first to publish the "U.S freezes funding for Syria's White Helmets" story was CBS News, describing the terrorist-affiliated group as "one of the most important humanitarian rescue groups in Syria". There was then a flurry of activity in corporate media and on social media with anti-war activists and journalists celebrating what appeared to be a change of heart from the Trump administration.

We should not, however, forget that on the 19th April US State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert, had issued reassurances that wages would continue be paid to the White Helmets while the funding of the Syria stabilisation program was under "review":

Comment: More research by Vanessa Beeley on the White Helmets:

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Propaganda

SOTT Focus: WaPo Outraged That Trump Lies About Everything That Doesn't Matter

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Mon, 07 May 2018 19:14 UTC
trump funny
Everyday I am thankful, because everyday I have something to be outraged about. Thanks to that bastion of truthfulness and objectivity - the Washington Post - I now have 3,001 more things to be outraged about: President Trump, they claim, has made precisely 3,001 false or misleading claims so far in his presidency. That should last me until middle age. If he keeps it up, at this rate I should be set for life. And for that I'm super thankful. For without WaPo's studious fact-checking, I might otherwise neglect to be outraged that Donald Trump said not once, not twice, but a full twenty-nine times that the U.S. trade deficit with China is $500 billion, instead of $300 billion. Can anyone truly read that without the blood flowing to the face? Without one's delicate hands clenching into outraged fists?

What about the fact - the FACT, dagnabbit - that Trump had the audacity to claim that FDR served as president for 16 years, when he only served 12? Surely an involuntary guttural cry is beginning to escape the sanctified space of your larynx. No? Well what about the time he said Henry Ford invented the assembly line? Henry Ford! Everyone knows it was Ransom Eli Olds. Well, maybe not everyone knows that. But they should. And I'm ready to smash something breakable now that I know that Trump didn't know that too.

I was unaware that Donald Trump plays loose with the facts and tends to wildly exaggerate. That comes as a complete surprise to me. I had no idea he was a bombastic persuasion peddler. But in his 466 days since taking office, WaPo sez, he has made "false or misleading" claims an average of 6.5 times per day. WaPo even has an interactive graphic displaying the ebb and flow of his fibs.
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Red Flag

SOTT Focus: Alternate Reality: British Media Spins Corbyn's Labour Victory in English Local Elections as Defeat

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Sun, 06 May 2018 21:14 UTC
jeremy corbyn
They fear the man, not the ideology
The British media is currently demonstrating a masterclass in how to present fake news, alternate facts, and post-truth as 'reality'. On Friday, local elections in England produced a marginal increase in the number of Council seats held by the Labour Party in England, delivering Corbyn's party with its best local election tally since 1971, and its second-best ever.

If the results were translated into a General Election result, Jeremy Corbyn would have become the UK's new prime minister. But that's not what the British media is telling Her Majesty's Subjects. Instead, the message across all mainstream media - right and left - is that Corbyn's party failed dismally.

Bashing Corbyn non-stop, since he was first elected leader of the Labour Party in 2015 - as 'unelectable', as 'anti-Semitic', as 'pro-Russian', as a 'Communist Czech agent' - the media now lambasts him for not delivering a comprehensive victory - evidence, again, that he should resign!

The last time the Labour Party won local elections by such a wide margin over the Conservative Party was in 1994. Three years later in the UK General Election, it was a landslide victory for Labour. The big difference between now and then is that this time there's no 'third-way', no Tory-lite leader like Tony Blair leading the party - there's Jeremy Corbyn, the British Security Services' "number 1 national security threat."

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2 + 2 = 4

SOTT Focus: Who's Buying Votes in the Lebanese Election?

Brett Redmayne-Titley
Sott.net
Sun, 06 May 2018 22:05 UTC
Beirut, Lebanon

On this lovely morning here on the coast of the Mediterranean there is not a cloud in the sky. In less than twenty-four hours voting will begin. However, on this day before the election, a howling wind is blowing from the south making the thousands of posters, banners and building-sized placards that feature the faces of the scores of potential Lebanese parliamentarians dance and sway wildly above the throngs of tomorrows voters.
Lebanon election poster 2018
But this wind, one that just yesterday seemed to bring the promise of a new future for Lebanon, will it be an ill wind that instead dashes this attempt at populist democratic reform, one cast from nine years of progress, onto the rocks of US-backed history?

Judging from the past twelve hours on the streets of Beirut, there is suddenly strong pause for concern. Someone is buying votes!

And just about everyone knows it.
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Megaphone

SOTT Focus: Joe Quinn on Sputnik: 'Skripal Affair Part of Anglo-American Ideological War Against Russia'


Sott.net
Sat, 05 May 2018 20:06 UTC
sputnik radio joe quinn
London says it still considers Moscow to be the perpetrator of the attempted poisoning of the Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. This comes despite the statement by Czech President Milos Zeman, who said that a small amount of A230 toxic substance, similar to Novichok, was produced at the Czech Defense Ministry's Research Institute in 2017. The toxin was then reportedly destroyed. According to the Czech president, his country's intelligence service did not consider the A230 nerve agent to be Novichok, because this name is contributed to A234 agent. However, its military intelligence service reported that A230, too, is named Novichok.

Radio Sputnik discussed London's attempts to convince the world that Russia is the perpetrator of the attempted poisoning of Skripals with Joe Quinn, Sott.net editor, internet essayist, researcher, author.

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Bullseye

SOTT Focus: Ben Swann's Reality Check: Who's funding the White Helmets?

Ben Swann
Truth In Media
Fri, 04 May 2018 19:00 UTC
white helmets
© Agence France-Presse/Amer AlmohibanyMembers of the Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, take a selfie with their certificates after taking part in a training session in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area, east of the capital Damascus, on November 22, 2016
As the U.S. moves closer toward all out war in Syria, a lot of what our government seems to base its intelligence on, especially claims of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, is the claims of an allegedly impartial humanitarian group called the White Helmets. You've no doubt, heard of the White Helmets. They have been praised in the media as heroes and have reportedly saved more than 100,000 lives as of April 2018.

But who are the White Helmets really? Are they a legitimate organization, or pawns in a plot to implement regime change in Syria?

Let's give it a Reality Check you won't get anywhere else.

Despite a recent U.S. funding freeze for humanitarian aid for Syria, the U.S. continues to fund the controversial group.

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Evil Rays

SOTT Focus: The Most Important Election in the World! Lebanon?...What Election?

Brett Redmayne-Titley
Sott.net
Fri, 04 May 2018 22:05 UTC
Lebanon elections 2018
Election posters cover buildings and walls in Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood
In a matter of mere hours, a new election will take place. Unlike seemingly all other national elections worldwide, this election will bring real "hope" to a needlessly impoverished country. This election will see real "change" come to a country far too long restricted and controlled by external foreign powers. For this is an election that is steeped in real democracy; not the US-inspired definition - the one based solely on the archaic shards of what little is left of a desperate empire struggling to hold onto its waning influence. This election will showcase, finally and thankfully, a return to the true definition.

This Sunday, May 6, 2018, is the most important election in the world!

Proving the point, why is this election being swept under the rug of worldwide US media control? Here, unlike the remaining hapless world, there is a very bright future awaiting for all... an example for an anguished world begging to finally be set free. It will be this democracy, correctly re-defined and judiciously administered, that will, on this coming day, succeed for all.

World! Welcome to Lebanon.
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2 + 2 = 4

SOTT Focus: Armenia's People-Power Revolution, Russia, and the Western Bloc

David Boyajian
Sott.net
Fri, 04 May 2018 19:53 UTC
Armenia
As we write this, massive peaceful civil actions against Armenia's establishment have continued under the leadership of Nikol Pashinyan, a National Assembly (N.A.) member who is part of the opposition Yelk (Way Out) Alliance. Though widely unpopular Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has been forced to resign, his Republican Party (RPA) still has a narrow majority (58 of 105) in the N.A. Most observers believe that the RPA members were elected through fraud, bribery, and intimidation.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Health & Wellness Show: Don't try this at home: Illicit cures and black market medicine


Sott.net
Fri, 04 May 2018 15:00 UTC
ayahuasca
© Chris KilhamThe Banisteriopsis caapi, a vine found in the jungles of South America, and used to brew the psychedelic drink ayahuasca.
More and more, it seems, illegal drugs are being found to be quite helpful for their therapeutic potential to ease suffering and sometimes even cure disease. While made illegal for their potential for abuse, researchers are now more than ever exploring these forbidden drugs for their potential for great healing. Psychedelics like LSD and magic mushrooms for mental disorders or addiction, MDMA for PTSD, ketamine for suicidal states, kratom and ibogaine for opioid addiction, cannabis for a seemingly endless list of aliments - the list is extensive and growing.

Join us on this episode of the Health and Wellness Show where we discuss some of the recent research on the potential power of party drugs to heal. Could the tide be turning on some of these, perhaps unfairly stigmatized drugs?

NOTE: This discussion should not be taken as an endorsement to break the law!

And stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment where she discusses how animals experience pain.

Running Time: 01:26:37

Download: MP3

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Chess

SOTT Focus: Essay by Putin Advisor Vladislav Surkov on Russia's Eurasian Future: 'We Began a New Era in 2014'

Vladislav Surkov
Russia in Global Affairs
Mon, 09 Apr 2018 08:50 UTC

Comment: The following essay was recently published in Russia in Global Affairs, the Russian equivalent of Foreign Affairs in the US. We have translated it from the original at globalaffairs.ru, the cryptic title of which was: 'Одиночество полукровки (14+)' - The Solitude of a Half-Blood (14+).

Its author is Vladislav Surkov. If Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin is mischaracterized in the West as "Putin's brain," then Surkov is similarly mischaracterized "Putin's éminence grise." Surkov was Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999-2011, during which time he apparently played a role in the transition from Yeltsin to Putin and later developed the concept of sovereign democracy, which is arguably 21st century Russia's 'state ideology'.

Surkov also served as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Modernisation from 2011-2013, and has since remained an aide to Putin, apparently with the specific brief of handling Russia's relationships with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Ukraine. When Western elites went apoplectic because Crimea joined the Russian Federation in 2014, Surkov was one of the first names on Obama's sanctions list. Asked how he felt about no longer being able to travel to the US, Surkov responded:
"The only things that interest me in the US are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don't need a visa to access their work."
As Western actors hurl invective, sanctions, cyberattacks, political subterfuge and proxy wars at Russia - all apparently with a view to 'correcting' its policy decisions in the short-term, and thus its developmental trajectory in the long-term - Surkov sweeps through Russian history to explain why he believes that the 'civilizational crisis' his country finds itself in today marks the beginning of a new era and new identity for Russia...

[Hyperlinks to Wikipedia and other sources concerning historical events/actors referenced by the author are ours]


Vladislav Surkov
Vladislav Surkov
There are all kinds of jobs. Some jobs can be tackled only in a state that differs somewhat from a normal one. For example, a proletary1 of the news industry, a garden variety news supplier, as a rule, is a person in a frenzied state, and with a somewhat feverish mind. Which isn't surprising, since news business requires haste: the first to know, the first to report, the first to interpret.

The excitement of those who inform passes to those who are being informed. The excited ones often mistake their own excitement for a thinking process, and this excitement replaces the latter, which leads to long-term 'convictions' and 'principles' being replaced with one-shot 'opinions'. It is also the source for incompetent assessments, which no one seems to mind. That's the price for news being fresh and hot.

Few can hear the mocking silence of fate through the background media noise. Few are interested to know that there is slow and massive news that doesn't come from shallow waters, but from the depth of life, where geopolitical structures and historical eras collide. It takes time before we can understand their full meaning, but it is never too late to do so.
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