SOTT Focus:


Stormtrooper

SOTT Focus: The IDF vs The Teenage Girl: Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Arrested For Slapping Soldiers Who Shot Boy

Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 20:37 UTC
Ahed Tamimi palestinian activist teenage girl
© Asra VoiceAhed Tamimi in Ofer Military Court, 20 December, 2017.
Ahed Tamimi lives in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. She has literally been fighting tooth and nail against Israeli occupation soldiers since before she was a teenager. In the 2015 video above, we see her fighting off a soldier who was trying to take away her then 11 year-old brother Mohammed. Since the video, she became both a symbol of Palestinian resistance and an easily recognizable target for Israelis, both civilian and military.
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Che Guevara

SOTT Focus: F**K You Very Much FCC: The Electrolyte Content of Net Neutrality

J. Martin
Sott.net
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 22:51 UTC
Brawndo Thirst Mutilator Electrolytes
© Mike Judge
In 2004, as a response to the FCC for fining him $5,000 for saying "F**k" on live radio, Monty Python's Eric Eidle penned this gem of a song which, he pointed out, would cost in the realm of $250,000 in fines if it were ever played on the radio, or aired on public television.

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Propaganda

SOTT Focus: Save the Libyan Slaves! How the Road to Hell is Paved with Liberal Intentions

Corey Schink
Sott.net
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 21:56 UTC
Saif Gaddafi
Saif al-Islam - Once sentenced to death, now freed (though wanted by the ICC) and running for President of Libya.
The news that Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, recently released from prison, is running for president in elections next year seemed, for a brief moment, to herald a new dawn for Libya as it attempts to crawl out of the hell NATO made for it in 2011.

But Libya is not yet near the stability it needs to make a political solution take hold.

You may have noticed the furor last month over 'black slaves being sold in Libya', which prompted 'screaming at the sky' from liberal classes everywhere. It turns out that the source of that hysteria was none other than... CNN, which published the bombshell 'discovery' following an undercover investigation inside Libya, made sometime during the summer, and which produced thoroughly dodgy mobile phone recordings as 'evidence' for the report's extraordinary claims. [Warning: link leads to Fake News. Viewer discretion advised].

No prizes for guessing then that CNN's report remains completely unverified. Certainly, cash is changing hands in Libya for the transportation of black Africans, but there is a very plausible reason for that which doesn't involve needlessly hystericizing people: fees being passed to people smugglers by black African migrants and Libyan war refugees seeking a route out of hell to Europe.
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People 2

SOTT Focus: The Strange Saga of Lindsay Shepherd: From Inquisition to Exoneration, But The Crime of Being White Remains

Timothy C. Trepanier
Sott.net
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 20:59 UTC
Lindsay Shepherd
© Dave Abel/Toronto SunMilquetoast - the colour of evil.
Lindsay Shepherd is oppressed.

She's just not oppressed enough for some, it seems.

As the feminist SJW creed goes; being a poor fragile woman trapped in a culture of toxic masculinity entrenched by the hegemonic patriarchy, her status of perpetual victimhood is virtually assured. Yet, because she lacks so many of the other minority signifiers that would allow her to claim her rightful place atop the victim hierarchy, she has become the target of radical postmodern ideologues who inhabit the Canadian left, and who have begun spewing unabashed racism towards her on public television and social media.

What did Lindsay Shepherd do to incite such disdain and vehement vitriol from these peace-loving, inclusive and tolerant progressives?

She is Caucasian.

Her most heinous crime was being born with pale skin.

And it is precisely because she is so melaninly-challenged that, by default, her words carry no weight, her opinions have no value, her suffering is of no consequence, her very being is diminished, and her life is reduced to nothing but a pointless, pitiful exercise in undeserved middle-class privilege.

Comment:


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Eagle

SOTT Focus: Trump's National Security Plan and the End of One World Empire

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:54 UTC
trump russia china
On Monday Trump gave a stump speech to announce his administration's National Security Plan. You can read all 55 pages of it on the White House website (it's yuge, the longest ever). The Plan is framed in terms of 'protecting the Homeland', substantially reads like boilerplate neocon/neolib State Dept exceptionalism, but contains a few novelties that again speak to apparent efforts on Trump's part to 'turn the ship of state around'.

The document was notable for the insertion of elements of realpolitik over idealism, and also for recognizing Russia and China as rivals, characterizing them as follows:
"China and Russia challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.

Through modernized forms of subversive tactics, Russia interferes in the domestic political affairs of countries around the world. Russia uses information operations as part of its offensive cyber efforts to influence public opinion across the globe. Its influence campaigns blend covert intelligence operations and false online personas with state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or 'trolls.'"
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Bacon n Eggs

SOTT Focus: Teaching Kids to Ruin Their Health: America's First All-Vegan School Cafeteria

Doug DiPasquale
Sott.net
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 10:06 UTC
vegan meal
© MUSE SchoolDoesn't this look like a satisfying meal? Dry lettuce with a couple of veggies and some watermelon - yes please! I feel full just looking at it!
An article at the Huffington Post has gotten the Paleo Tweeters in a bit of a tizzy. It's a bit confusing why it's coming up now, since the original article was published in early 2015. According to the byline, it was updated recently but they seem to have failed to update time sensitive references, including the headline, 'America Is About To Get Its First All-Vegan School Cafeteria For Kids'. The fact is, the restaurant/cafeteria has been vegan for two years now, before that having served one entirely plant-based meal per week for about two years, eventually going up to two days per week, prior to the change-over to full insanity veganism.

Confusion aside, I figured this was a good opportunity to not only rip on my favourite whipping boy - veganism - but to try to set a personal record for the number of supporting links I can embed in one piece (betcha can't read them all!).
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Gold Coins

SOTT Focus: How the Fed Destroys Free Market

Chris Kanthan
Sott.net
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:17 UTC
Woodrow Wilson Federal Reserve
It will be shocking to many Americans that our free market system is deeply and fundamentally flawed. Many people understand that we have crony capitalism that creates loopholes to benefit those at the top. The financial crisis of 2008 and the following bailouts also exposed the rotten financial system and the rigged Wall Street. But there's something else that's even more significant and innate in the corruption of our economy: the Federal Reserve Bank. This is an arcane issue that puts most people to sleep, so let's make it easy and fun by story-telling. It's about a small town called Murika.
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Russian Flag

SOTT Focus: Russia Foils Major Terror Attack With Help From the CIA - Trump Says U.S. "Glad to Help"

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:55 UTC
fsb raid
© FSB / TASSRussian Federal Security Service officers detain a suspected Islamic extremist in St. Petersburg on December 15.
Something surprising happened yesterday. Russian President Putin publicly thanked US President Trump for helping to prevent a major ISIS-linked terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. The CIA had provided intelligence to their Russian counterparts, enabling the Russians to find and detain the seven individuals planning the attack and coordinating with "ISIS masterminds" abroad. The raid occurred last Wednesday and Thursday, during which the FSB seized explosives, weapons and ammunition, extremist material, and dismantled a bomb-making workshop.

The Kremlin press service issued a statement on the call Putin made to Trump:
"The Russian president thanked his US counterpart for information shared by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that helped trace, expose and detain a group of terrorists who had plotted explosions in St. Petersburg's Kazan Cathedral and in other crowded places in that city," the press service said.

Putin then reassured Trump that he would reciprocate information sharing if Russian security services knew of any leads.

"Russian security services, should they have information about possible terrorist threats to the United States and its citizens, will swiftly and unconditionally share it with the US colleagues via partner channels," the press service stressed.
Putin asked Trump to pass on his thanks to CIA Director Pompeo and the agents/analysts who gathered the relevant intelligence.
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Butterfly

SOTT Focus: Lawyers, Girls and Money - Cui Bono with #MeToo?

J. Martin
Sott.net
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:33 UTC
Potiphar's wife large
© Unknown
Dante is, to my mind, fiction's most satisfying executioner. In the 30th canto, in the 8th circle of hell, we find Potiphar's wife consumed with a fever so fierce, her skin smokes.

Now Potiphar was the captain of the Pharoah's palace guard in the book of Genesis. When Joseph, the son of Jacob, was betrayed by his brothers, stashed in a cistern and sold to a caravan, he ended up being purchased by Potiphar. Joseph, who was young, handsome and, best of all, favored by God, quickly rose in Potiphar's esteem until he was made overseer of the guardsman's house.

Joseph soon caught the eye of Potiphar's wife, whose name among the Muslims is said to have been Zulaika, and she wanted to get freaky with Joseph, but he refused. Joseph did not want to betray the trust his master Potiphar had placed in him, so every day Zulaika would proposition him, and everyday he would refuse. One day she became enraged at his refusal and tore a bit of cloth from his cloak as he escaped her.

Scorned and affronted by his rejection, a wicked idea came to her, and using the bit of torn cloth as circumstantial evidence, Zulaika falsely accused Joseph of rape. Potiphar felt deeply betrayed and had Joseph imprisoned. While Joseph's ultimate end was not unhappy, Zulaika is never made to answer for her crime until, over 2,000 years later, Dante arrived to condemn her to the 8th circle of hell, and smoldering flesh.
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Stormtrooper

SOTT Focus: Is Mexico Heading Towards a Military Dictatorship?

Marina Romero & Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 20:22 UTC
Mexico protest Internal Security Law
© AFPA masked demonstrator in Mexico City participates in a protest against the approval of Mexico’s Internal Security Law, which empowers the army with police powers.
It is not without good reason that modern political systems separate the armed forces from the three branches of the state: the executive, legislature and judiciary. Under this model, the executive is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces; only the legislature can declare war; and police duties are overseen by the judiciary. This system of checks and balances enables the branches of government to regulate each other. Notice that military power is always subordinated to the executive and legislature, and is independent from the judiciary. One could say that the military - a professional organism designed to kill and destroy - is a necessary evil given the potential external threats to a state. It is a beast that must remain domesticated, to be unleashed only in extraordinary situations, and never against its own people. And woe unto those who break these rules!

On Friday 15 December both Mexico's Senate and the Chamber of Deputies approved the Internal Security Law, thanks to the majority held by the party in power, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the support of some legislators from other parties. The law breaks with the principles of the modern state and sets Mexico on a course for tragedy because it grants police powers to the army.
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