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Wine

SOTT Focus: The Mediterranean Diet is Not Mediterranean (Nor is it Particularly Good)

Mediterranean diet
© Sott.net
The Mediterranean diet is what every dietitian thinks of as the "holy grail" of diets. It basically adheres to the USDA Food Pyra- um, I mean MyPlate, and sticks to all the politically correct dietary dogmas of the day. Eat very little meat, some fish, lots and lots and lots of whole grains, vegetables and legumes, olive oil and as much red wine as you can possible manage to fit into the completely subjective term "moderate."

So it's no real surprise that when a bunch of mainstream doctors, researchers and dietitians get together to pick out the "Best Diets for Healthy Eating," as they do annually at U.S. News & World Report, they consistently pick the Mediterranean diet as number one (actually, this year it tied for number one with the DASH diet, which conforms even more closely to the government recommendations, adds in calorie-counting and misguidedly has you limit salt). It's also no surprise that 'health journalists' across the mediascape then dutifully report on these findings, talking about how great the diet is and offering advice on how to convert your eating regime to be more in line with what we're told Mediterranean people ate, like, half a century ago.

Yet another non-surprise is that this body of 'experts' consistently rank the Paleo and Ketogenic diets close to the bottom of their list (Keto is dead last this year), even above a number of diets you've probably never heard of - like, what the hell is the Spark Solution Diet? Or the Nutritarian Diet? They take points off anything that restricts carbohydrates because, "These diets provide fewer carbs than is recommended by government guidelines." They should actually rename the list "Best Authoritarian Diets for Government-Approved Eating to Make You a Good Citizen for 2018." Accurate and catchy. (You can use that one for free, guys.)

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SOTT Focus: The Rising Chinese Dream: How China Became Great Again

chinese dream
The most spectacular economic miracle has been flying under the radar for two decades now, but its impact will be universally acknowledged very soon. This is the story of China. The flip side of that miracle is a coalition of a superpowers and former empires, straddled with a shrinking middle class, rising debt and dwindling geopolitical hegemony. That is the story of America and Europe. Let's take a look at the stories and see how they're intertwined.

Most people still think of China as a "communist," polluted, poor country that either makes horrible, cheap stuff or assembles expensive products for western corporations. In terms of GDP per capita, China is ranked 70th in the world, below many Latin American countries. And there are 40 million Chinese who still live on less than $2 a day.

However, 87% of Chinese say their country is going in the right direction (that number is 43% for America). Why? Here is the paradoxical truth: while the average individual may not be rich, China as a nation has transformed itself into a global powerhouse. China's GDP is now the 2nd largest in the world. In terms of PPP - Purchasing Power Parity - China's economy is actually bigger than the U.S. This is because $100 in China will get you lot more than $100 in America.

China is also #1 in the world in foreign-exchange reserves - it has more than $3 trillion saved up, which includes $1.2 trillion of U.S. treasury bonds. Can't be that poor, right?

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SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Russiagate Coming to a Head? FISA Memo Fever grips Washington DC

obama FISA
Concealer-in-chief?
The great battle to delegitimize and possibly unseat President Trump appears to be coming to a head - in its current phase anyway. Speculation in Washington has reached fever-pitch over when Congress will publish the apparently damning contents of what has become known as the 'FISA Memo'.

According to those who have viewed it, the memo exposes collusion between the FBI and the DOJ to frame Trump for 'colluding with Russia'. Its publication would put an official seal on what most already know: that 'deep state' actors used the infamous Steele Dossier as a justification to spy on and undermine Trump, his campaign, and then his presidency.

A groundswell of support for Trump has seen viral a campaign for declassifying and releasing the memo so that 'Russiagate' is laid to rest. But the DOJ, as well as the Democrats and their obliging media spin-masters, have been doing their level best to suppress its release and downplay its significance. The twists and turns in the Deep State vs Trump just never stop!

Join us this Sunday 28 January from 12-1:30pm EST / 5-6:30pm UTC / 6-7:30pm CET on Behind the Headlines as we discuss the many facets of this High Drama, and cover other significant events of the day.

Running Time: 01:38:49

Download: MP3


Light Sabers

SOTT Focus: The Feminist Seduction of Western Society

jordan peterson cathy newman
On January 16th the UK's Channel 4 News uploaded its now-infamous interview between psychologist Jordan Peterson and newscaster Cathy Newman, treating viewers to a morbid yet fascinating display of feminist ideology careening face-first into the brick wall of reality. Scott Adams reckons Newman effectively hallucinated about 12 times as her ideology-warped mind became incapable of processing a word Jordan Peterson was saying.

Public response came fast and furious, with people overwhelmingly mortified by Newman's inquisitorial display, shocked by witnessing the 'pleasant' face of feminism transform into Medusa-like destruction, yet glad to see feminism taken apart on a mainstream platform by Peterson's rational and eloquent debating style.

Unable to 'win' the debate with Peterson, Newman and her allies in the liberal spectrum nevertheless eked out a 'victory' by casting themselves as victims and Peterson's supporters as "vicious misogynists". To protect their ideological beliefs, the situation was spun into its exact opposite, when clearly it was Newman and her ilk who are misandrists bent on victimizing men. 'Security experts' were brought in to add a veneer of truth to their spin. No verification of any actual threat has emerged - not against Newman or Channel 4 anyway, though some were leveled at Peterson and his followers.

Mr. Potato

SOTT Focus: Radical Leftist Ideologues: Finding Racism Where There is None

Black lives matter
A couple of weeks ago the latest in the sequence of apparently interminable 'social justice furors' erupted on social media, this time over the design on an item of clothing sold by South African branches of Swedish multi-national clothing-retail company H&M.

Given that these days the 'real' media gets most of its material from social media - turning many reporters into FB and Twitter addicts and FB and Twitter users into attention-seeking drama queens - it wasn't long before the story had reached far more people than it ever should have.

In the process of making this non-story into something akin to an international scandal however, something very disturbing was revealed. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The offending clothing item was a child's hoodie, one of a small collection, all of which were 'jungle themed'. Here's an example:

H&M hoodie racist
Horrible, isn't it. I mean, what kind of deviant mind could come up with this? Oh, wait, that's not the problem hoodie, this is it:

Monkey-hoodie-HM1
NOW can you see how horrific this is? Oh, wait, I think I forgot something.

Calendar

SOTT Focus: Australia Day: Change the Date? Absolutely

australia day
"Throw another shrimp on the barbie!"
An issue swirling around Australia's national holiday over the last few years has been the movement to 'Change The Date'. To summarise the issue, it's that Australia's indigenous population considers celebrating today, January 26th - the anniversary of the British First Fleet officially beginning the British Empire's colonisation of New Holland/Gondwana, called 'Invasion Day' or 'Survival Day' by many Aussie Aboriginals - to be offensive.

This issue is really about two things: Aboriginals' valid historical grievance over the mass-murder and expropriation that accompanied British colonisation. Like Native Americans reluctant to celebrate Columbus Day, it's understandable that Aboriginals don't feel like throwing a party on January 26th. And the rest of the population isn't too attached to the date either: Australia has had many 'national holidays' and only settled on today's date in 1994.

Aboriginal protests against that date began shortly thereafter, but it's only recently that secondary issues have been grafted onto what is really just a request for a change of date, with the usual suspects from campuses and leftist organizations vigorously rubbing salt into the historical wound in an attempt to convince the indigenous population to weaponise their victimisation and strike at the heart of White GuiltTM, in the hopes of accruing power and wealth to themselves. They really couldn't care less about the Aboriginals, but they'll appropriate their cause, thank you very much.

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SOTT Focus: The Health & Wellness Show: Toxic Feminism and the War on Men

feminismo occidental
Feminism was once defined as the "qualities of females" and for a while was considered a belief in equality between the sexes. From these fairly benign beginnings, modern-day feminism has morphed into something quite ghastly and destructive. Feminist leaders blame the 'patriarchy' for all the ills of society and, in their mad quest for power, hope to start a social revolution and restructure society from the ground up. Perpetuating gender myths, bemoaning the so-called 'rape culture' and toxic masculinity, naming and shaming men through the #MeToo movement and tearing down the traditional family structure, to name just a few of their tactics, are all done under the guise of empowering women. But what will be the cost? Can normal relations between men and women survive this onslaught? Do we really want a world overrun with hysterical harpies and emasculated men?

Join us for this episode of The Health and Wellness Show where we'll discuss this toxic worldview which, like all radical ideologies, will only lead to chaos and misery.

Running Time: 01:46:37

Download: MP3


Mr. Potato

SOTT Focus: British Defence Secretary Claims Russia 'could kill thousands and thousands and thousands' With Infrastructure Attack on UK

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson
© AFPBritish Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson
The British defense secretary says Russia could kill "thousands and thousands and thousands" of Britons with a cyber attack that could cripple infrastructure and energy supply and cause panic and chaos across the United Kingdom.


Comment: And thousands?


In an interview with The Telegraph, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson claimed Moscow had been researching the UK's critical national infrastructure to know how to damage the British economy and energy supply. He offered no proof.

Comment: The British ministry of defence fear is after funding, and they need an enemy 'out there' to justify it:


Light Saber

SOTT Focus: Eva Bartlett: Personal reply to the fact-challenged smears of terrorist-whitewashing Snopes, Channel 4, La Presse

In Part 1, I wrote of the Guardian's quite unoriginal Russophobic story cheering for al-Qaeda's rescuers, the White Helmets. In this second part, I expose other (some serial) offenders, guilty of disinformation on the White Helmets, and war propaganda on Syria to a degree that Goebbels would be envious. They are further guilty of ignoring the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of Syrians who call a spade a spade, a terrorist a terrorist.
White Helmets recycled image
© Eva BartlettHow about the “fact checkers” and apologists look into why the White Helmets recycled an image claiming to show a victim of “Russian airstrikes” after having previously used the same image before Russia even began bombing ISIS in Syria.
The Channel 4 "Fact Check" Card

In the Guardian article in question, the author began by linking to a Channel 4 News smear piece on myself which had nothing to do with the point she was asserting-whether or not the group had al-Qaeda ties-but which was issued a year ago with the sole intent to cherry-pick my words to discredit myself. Such non sequitur arguments are commonly used by those who cannot backup their statements with facts and who wish to, instead, deflect and mislead.

Had the Guardian had honest intentions regarding the White Helmets article, they might have actually investigated the many members of the White Helmets with ties to al-Qaeda and affiliated extremists. Here is but one example showing the allegiance of over 60 White Helmets members to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

Regarding the Channel 4 smear which the Guardian's own hatchet-piece linked to, it followed my speaking on a December 2016 panel (over 50 minutes, with question period), with three others, including a lawyer and the head of the US Peace Council, in a press room of the United Nations.

In that panel, we spoke of many important issues, including: the illegality of this war on Syria; the need to lift the devastating sanctions on Syria; the statement of unity among over 200 organizations in the US and internationally in solidarity with the Syrian government's fight against foreign intervention; the Syrian reconciliation movement; and the heinous acts committed against Syrian civilians by terrorists, whether from the FSA or Nour al-Deen al-Zenki or ISIS or other.

Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: The Netherlands: A Leading Distributor And Producer of Child Pornography

Dutch newspaper articles promoting pedophilia
Dutch newspaper articles promoting pedophilia in the 80s
Twenty years ago, unspeakable crimes committed against children became public knowledge when the Dutroux pedophile networks in Belgium came to light. Soon thereafter, the authorities - through careful perception management and historical revisionism - sent it back into the darkness. Dutroux and his ex-wife Michelle Martin (a teacher) abducted several young girls and delivered them to an international ring that tortures, rapes and murders children. Martin, who drove the van, filmed her husband raping girls, and left two girls to starve to death while her husband was incarcerated, was released from prison in 2012, despite angry public protests.

But when the news about the Dutch Zandvoort pedophile rings broke two years later in 1998, the Dutch people did not take to the streets to voice their outrage the way Belgians had done during their 'White March' which nearly brought about a revolution. In an earlier article we wondered why this horrendous case did not shock Dutch society to its core.

The newspaper NRC wrote the following in 1998 about the 'Zandvoort File':