tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61318237702614018672024-03-18T00:31:27.358-07:00Nigeria PropertyNigeria's no 1 blog for latest Nigeria Property, Nigeria House,Private Property Nigeria, Real Estate Nigeria, Lagos Island nigeria, lekki lagos real estate, arable farming land nigeria, Land for sale, to let,for sale and for rent.Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.comBlogger14541125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-82012045796925355022019-06-07T00:36:00.001-07:002019-06-07T00:36:53.320-07:00Ooni of Ile Ife at world IFA festival 2019,<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aDO7mYdxLNI" width="459"></iframe>Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-59871032467712523392018-12-14T21:27:00.001-08:002018-12-14T21:27:03.683-08:00Ankara stalls the Sochi agreement while Washington builds new military bases in Syria: some thoughts on the recent developments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">by Aram Mirzaei </span><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Three months have passed since the Sochi agreement on the so called Idlib demilitarized zone. </span><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The terms of the deal were that all jihadist rebels labelled as terrorists by all parties to the deal were to be evacuated out of the area. This responsibility would lie with Turkey due to Ankara’s clout among the jihadists. But so far there are no signs of jihadists leaving. As a matter of fact things are looking very much similar to the so called ceasefires brokered by Washington and Moscow, where jihadists used the ceasefires to rearm and regroup, only to launch new attacks and kill more Syrian soldiers and civilians the very next day. Let’s not also forget last months chemical weapons attack on Aleppo by the jihadist rebels. Ankara has essentially done nothing to prevent these jihadists from conducting daily attacks across the so called demilitarized zone and have on numerous occasions been called out by the Syrian government for their failure to implement the deal.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It could be argued that these ceasefires have always served to benefit at least one side of the warring parties, acting more like pauses for each side to lick their wounds and/or rotate troops. In the past, Washington used them to save their beleaguered jihadist proxies in Aleppo as the Syrian Army and their allies were about to break the deadlock after 4 years of battle.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">But Moscow and Damascus have also used these ceasefires to their own advantage. When the Turkish-Iranian-Russian brokered ceasefire of last year was implemented, the Syrian Army were given a golden opportunity to move their troops and focus completely on the Islamic State threat, allowing the Syrian Army to recapture swathes of territory. This latest ceasefire came as a result of Ankara’s urging. The situation before the Sochi agreement was very tense, with the Astana process in danger as Syria and her allies were preparing themselves for a final blow on the last jihadist strongholds in the northern parts of the country, a move that Turkey has vehemently rejected and vowed to stop.</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">At the same time, Washington and its cohorts were preparing a new false flag chemical attack in Idlib to blame on Syrian government forces, creating another pretext for defending their beloved jihadists. As the situation was getting out of hand quickly, with Ankara even plotting to assist Washington with strikes against Damascus, Moscow saw no choice but to put the planned offensive on hold and enter the Sochi agreement with Ankara.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">At that moment, it was the right decision for Moscow to make. Things were getting out of hand and needed to be de-escalated. But the poor way this agreement has been handled by Ankara must have the people over in Moscow thinking what their next move should be. Should they give the green light for a new Syrian Army offensive and risk confronting Turkish forces or has Ankara been bluffing all the way to the negotiations table?</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Israel steps out of line</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The costly mistake that the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv committed on September 17, when they caused the downing of an Il-20 ELINT reconnaissance plane, killing all 15 Russian servicemen on board, changed the situation on the ground. Thinking that it was business as usual, this act of aggression did not come without consequences for Syria’s enemies as this prompted Moscow to arm Syria with the fearsome S-300 missile system. </span><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Since then, Zionist warplanes have not entered Syria to attack Syrian and allied forces despite both Tel Aviv and Washington’s initial dismissal of the S-300 system as a non-threat to their air forces.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">This begs the question; if the S-300 is a non-threat to their “superior aircraft”, then why have they been so vocal about their opposition to Moscow supplying the S-300 to Iran and Syria? If this system is so useless as they portray it, what does Washington have to fear? Indeed supplying the S-300 missile system to Syria has to be considered as greatly improving Syria’s ability to defend her airspace more efficiently. Should Israel attack Syria once more, they better be prepared to face a more powerful air defence this time.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">With the air threat reduced (and Israeli warplanes in danger), Washington is intensifying its presence on the ground. Recently several US representatives, including Mike Pompeo have made it abundantly clear that Washington will remain in Syria until “Iranian forces have withdrawn”, which essentially means until regime change has been achieved. But getting “Iranian forces” out of Syria might not be Washington’s only headache.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">A new front is about to be opened</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile Ankara is mobilizing its forces for a new operation aimed at the US-backed “Syrian Democratic Forces”. Responding to this escalation, Washington intensifies its presence in the north-eastern parts of Syria too.</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">If one is to believe the latest reports, Ankara has mobilized 14000 “rebels” for an operation in SDF territory. Defense Department spokesperson Cmdr. Sean Robertson was quick to condemn this move.</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">“Unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern,” Robertson said on Wednesday when asked about Turkey’s announcement. “We would find any such actions unacceptable… coordination and consultation between the US and Turkey is the only approach to address issues of security concern in this area.”</b><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;" /><b style="background-color: #f6f6ec; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It remains to be seen what Ankara will make of this US threat and how Washington would respond if Ankara starts the operation. Anarchy still rules large parts of Syria. With no end to the ruthless fighting in sight, what does the year 2019 hold for Syria?</b></div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-25791092992430055622018-12-14T21:15:00.000-08:002018-12-14T21:15:52.938-08:00The Americans wet their pants because of the Russian Tu-160 in Venezuela<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">by Ruslan Ostashko</strong></div>
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Translated and subtitled by Eugenia</div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-29318523911429794472018-12-06T23:47:00.001-08:002018-12-06T23:47:33.385-08:00Chief of General Staff General of the Army V. Gerasimov briefs foreign military attaches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Chief of General Staff General of the Army V. Gerasimov briefs foreign military attaches
Translation and subtitles by the Russia’s Ministry of Defense.<br />
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-91471893142443208822017-09-03T18:32:00.001-07:002017-09-03T18:35:40.436-07:0040 Rooms suitable for Hostels & Hotel On A Tarred Road @UNAD Ekiti State With C of O For sale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One Storey 40 Rooms all ensuite with Kitchin, Balcony and Varanda, suitable for Hostels & Hotel On a Tarred Road at University ot Ado Ekiti (UNAD) With C of O and Building approval on 1358.235 SQM (90% complete) For sale<br />
Price: <b><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">₦</span>180mln ( 110BTC</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">)</span><br />
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For more info please contact whatsapp number +48796457594<br />
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com373tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-61465251235937885562017-08-21T01:49:00.000-07:002017-08-21T01:49:15.975-07:00Nine confirmed dead as boat capsizes in Lagos water<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />Tragedy struck today at Ilashe waterways in Lagos state today August 20th, as the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Engr Abisola Kamson, confirmed that nine people died in an unfortunate mishap due to overloading of passengers on a Banana Boat and operation of an illegal jetty.<br />
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“An unfortunate incident occurred at Ilashe today Sunday, August 20th arising from overloading of passengers on a Banana boat taking off from an illegal Jetty which has become a perennial issue of the Lagos State Government to rid our Waterfront areas of illegal operators.<br />
We sympathize with the families of the deceased as nine lives were lost in the mishap and four people receiving treatment in the hospital. The LASWA rescue team has been on ground and search is still ongoing. This brings to fore again the need for NIWA to allow the judgment of the Appeal Court granting Lagos Control of her waterways to take effect without hindrance.<br />
It is a matter for regret that ever since the judgment was pronounced, NIWA has rejected all State Water Guards monitoring standards from all Federal owned Jetties. In spite of this, the Government of Lagos State aligns to the safety of citizens on the waterways. All Lagosians are enjoined to wear standard life jackets at all times on our Waterways,” Kamson said.<br />
Boat<br />
The LASWA boss urged boat operators and other stakeholders in the inland waterways sector, who advised boat users to adhere strictly to safety standards at all times, also disclosed that those rescued are already receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, while search and rescue operation was still ongoing.</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-44334050261824637122017-06-27T02:10:00.001-07:002017-06-27T02:10:14.078-07:00Seymour Hersh leaks the true story about the pseudo-chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (MUST READ)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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source: <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905618/We-got-a-fuckin-problem.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905618/We-got-a-fuckin-problem.html</a></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Intelligence officials doubted the alleged Sarin gas attack at Khan Sheikhoun. WELT AM SONNTAG presents a chat protocol of a security advisor and an active American soldier on duty at a key base in the region. This conversation was provided to Seymour Hersh. It is betweeen a security adviser and an active US American soldier on duty on a key operational base about the events in Khan Sheikhoun. We have made abbreviations: American soldier (AS) and Security Advisor (SA). WELT AM SONNTAG is aware of the location of the deployment. For security reasons, certain details of military operations have been omitted.</em></div>
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(Note: emphasis in the text added by me, the Saker)</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">April 6, 2017</strong></div>
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American Soldier: We got a fuckin‘ problem</div>
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Security-Adviser: What happened? Is it the Trump ignoring the Intel and going to try to hit the Syrians? And that we’re pissing on the Russians?</div>
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AS: This is bad…Things are spooling up.</div>
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SA: You may not have seen trumps press conference yesterday. He’s bought into the media story without asking to see the Intel. We are likely to get our asses kicked by the Russians. Fucking dangerous. Where are the godamn adults? The failure of the chain of command to tell the President the truth, whether he wants to hear it or not, will go down in history as one of our worst moments.</div>
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AS: I don’t know. None of this makes any sense. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">We KNOW that there was no chemical attack. The Syrians struck a weapons cache (a legitimate military target) and there was collateral damage. That’s it. They did not conduct any sort of a chemical attack.</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Anzeige</div>
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AS: And now we’re shoving a shit load of TLAMs (tomahawks) up their ass.</div>
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SA: There has been a hidden agenda all along. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">This is about trying to ultimately go after Iran. What the people around Trump do not understand is that the Russians are not a paper tiger and that they have more robust military capability than we do.</strong></div>
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AS: I don’t know what the Russians are going to do. They might hang back and let the Syrians defend their own borders, or they might provide some sort of tepid support, or they might blow us the fuck out of the airspace and back into Iraq. I honestly don’t know what to expect right now. I feel like anything is possible. The russian air defense system is capable of taking out our TLAMs. this is a big fucking deal…we are still all systems go…</div>
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SA: You are so right. Russia is not going to take this lying down</div>
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SA: Who is pushing this? Is it coming from Votel (General Joseph L. Votel, Commander of United States Central Command, editor‘s note) ?</div>
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AS: I don’t know. It’s from someone big though. . . . This is a big fucking deal.</div>
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AS: It has to be POTUS.</div>
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AS: They [the russians] are weighing their options. Indications are they are going to be passive supporters of syria and not engage their systems unless their own assets are threatened..in other words, the sky is fucking blue.’</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">April 7, 2017</strong></div>
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SA: What are the Russians doing or saying Am I correct that we did little real damage to Russia or Syria?</div>
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AS: We didn’t hit a damn thing, thankfully. They retrograded all their aircraft and personnel. We basically gave them a very expensive fireworks display.</div>
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AS: They knew where ships were and watched the entire strike from launch to end game.</div>
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AS: The Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real Intel and know the truth about the weapons depot strike.</div>
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AS: They are correct.</div>
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AS: I guess it really didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump. Fuck.</div>
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AS: No one is talking about the entire reason we’re in Iraq and Syria in the first place. That mission is fucked now.</div>
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SA: Are any of your colleagues pissed or is everyone going along with it and saying this is OK</div>
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AS: It’s a mad house. . . .Hell we even told the Russians an hour before impact</div>
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SA: But they clearly knew it was coming</div>
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AS: Oh of course</div>
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AS: Now Fox is saying we chose to hit the Syrian airfield because it is where the chemical attacks were launched from. Wow. Can’t make this shit up.</div>
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SA: They are. I mean, making it up</div>
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AS: It’s so fuckin evil</div>
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SA: Amen!!!</div>
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April 8, 2017</div>
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AS: Russians are being extremely reasonable. Despite what the news is reporting they are still trying to deconflict and coordinate the air campaign.</div>
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SA: I don’t think the russia yet understands how crazy Trump is over this. And i don’t think we appreciate how much damage the Russians can do to us.</div>
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AS: They’re showing amazing restraint and been unbelievably calm. They seem mostly interested in de-escalating everything. They don’t want to lose our support in the help with destroying Isis.</div>
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SA: But I get the get the feeling are simply trying this approach for as long as they feel it might work. If we keep pushing this current aggressive stance they’re going to hit back.’</div>
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Seymour Hersh’s analysis of what really happened.</div>
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Source: <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html</a></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Trump‘s Red Line</strong></div>
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On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on Shayrat Air Base in central Syria in retaliation for what he said was a deadly nerve agent attack carried out by the Syrian government two days earlier in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon.</div>
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The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives. Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all U.S., allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region.</div>
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Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president’s determination to ignore the evidence. “None of this makes any sense,” one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. “We KNOW that there was no chemical attack … the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth … I guess it didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“</div>
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Within hours of the April 4 bombing, the world’s media was saturated with photographs and videos from Khan Sheikhoun. Pictures of dead and dying victims, allegedly suffering from the symptoms of nerve gas poisoning, were uploaded to social media by local activists, including the White Helmets, a first responder group known for its close association with the Syrian opposition.</div>
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The provenance of the photos was not clear and no international observers have yet inspected the site, but the immediate popular assumption worldwide was that this was a deliberate use of the nerve agent sarin, authorized by President Bashar Assad of Syria. Trump endorsed that assumption by issuing a statement within hours of the attack, describing Assad’s “heinous actions” as being a consequence of the Obama administration’s “weakness and irresolution” in addressing what he said was Syria’s past use of chemical weapons.</div>
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To the dismay of many senior members of his national security team, Trump could not be swayed over the next 48 hours of intense briefings and decision-making. In a series of interviews, I learned of the total disconnect between the president and many of his military advisers and intelligence officials, as well as officers on the ground in the region who had an entirely different understanding of the nature of Syria’s attack on Khan Sheikhoun. I was provided with evidence of that disconnect, in the form of transcripts of real-time communications, immediately following the Syrian attack on April 4. In an important pre-strike process known as deconfliction, U.S. and Russian officers routinely supply one another with advance details of planned flight paths and target coordinates, to ensure that there is no risk of collision or accidental encounter (the Russians speak on behalf of the Syrian military). This information is supplied daily to the American AWACS surveillance planes that monitor the flights once airborne. Deconfliction’s success and importance can be measured by the fact that there has yet to be one collision, or even a near miss, among the high-powered supersonic American, Allied, Russian and Syrian fighter bombers.</div>
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Russian and Syrian Air Force officers gave details of the carefully planned flight path to and from Khan Shiekhoun on April 4 directly, in English, to the deconfliction monitors aboard the AWACS plane, which was on patrol near the Turkish border, 60 miles or more to the north.</div>
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The Syrian target at Khan Sheikhoun, as shared with the Americans at Doha, was depicted as a two-story cinder-block building in the northern part of town. Russian intelligence, which is shared when necessary with Syria and the U.S. as part of their joint fight against jihadist groups, had established that a high-level meeting of jihadist leaders was to take place in the building, including representatives of Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-affiliated group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra. The two groups had recently joined forces, and controlled the town and surrounding area. Russian intelligence depicted the cinder-block building as a command and control center that housed a grocery and other commercial premises on its ground floor with other essential shops nearby, including a fabric shop and an electronics store.</div>
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“The rebels control the population by controlling the distribution of goods that people need to live – food, water, cooking oil, propane gas, fertilizers for growing their crops, and insecticides to protect the crops,” a senior adviser to the American intelligence community, who has served in senior positions in the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, told me. The basement was used as storage for rockets, weapons and ammunition, as well as products that could be distributed for free to the community, among them medicines and chlorine-based decontaminants for cleansing the bodies of the dead before burial. The meeting place – a regional headquarters – was on the floor above. “It was an established meeting place,” the senior adviser said. “A long-time facility that would have had security, weapons, communications, files and a map center.” The Russians were intent on confirming their intelligence and deployed a drone for days above the site to monitor communications and develop what is known in the intelligence community as a POL – a pattern of life. The goal was to take note of those going in and out of the building, and to track weapons being moved back and forth, including rockets and ammunition.</div>
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One reason for the Russian message to Washington about the intended target was to ensure that any CIA asset or informant who had managed to work his way into the jihadist leadership was forewarned not to attend the meeting. I was told that the Russians passed the warning directly to the CIA. “They were playing the game right,” the senior adviser said. The Russian guidance noted that the jihadist meeting was coming at a time of acute pressure for the insurgents: Presumably Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham were desperately seeking a path forward in the new political climate. In the last few days of March, Trump and two of his key national security aides – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley – had made statements acknowledging that, as the New York Times put it, the White House “has abandoned the goal” of pressuring Assad “to leave power, marking a sharp departure from the Middle East policy that guided the Obama administration for more than five years.” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a press briefing on March 31 that “there is a political reality that we have to accept,” implying that Assad was there to stay.</div>
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Russian and Syrian intelligence officials, who coordinate operations closely with the American command posts, made it clear that the planned strike on Khan Sheikhoun was special because of the high-value target. “It was a red-hot change. The mission was out of the ordinary – scrub the sked,” the senior adviser told me. “Every operations officer in the region” – in the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, CIA and NSA – “had to know there was something going on. The Russians gave the Syrian Air Force a guided bomb and that was a rarity. They’re skimpy with their guided bombs and rarely share them with the Syrian Air Force. And the Syrians assigned their best pilot to the mission, with the best wingman.” The advance intelligence on the target, as supplied by the Russians, was given the highest possible score inside the American community.</div>
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The Execute Order governing U.S. military operations in theater, which was issued by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provide instructions that demarcate the relationship between the American and Russian forces operating in Syria. “It’s like an ops order – ‘Here’s what you are authorized to do,’” the adviser said. “We do not share operational control with the Russians. We don’t do combined operations with them, or activities directly in support of one of their operations. But coordination is permitted. We keep each other apprised of what’s happening and within this package is the mutual exchange of intelligence. If we get a hot tip that could help the Russians do their mission, that’s coordination; and the Russians do the same for us. When we get a hot tip about a command and control facility,” the adviser added, referring to the target in Khan Sheikhoun, “we do what we can to help them act on it.” “This was not a chemical weapons strike,” the adviser said. “That’s a fairy tale. If so, everyone involved in transferring, loading and arming the weapon – you’ve got to make it appear like a regular 500-pound conventional bomb – would be wearing Hazmat protective clothing in case of a leak. There would be very little chance of survival without such gear. Military grade sarin includes additives designed to increase toxicity and lethality. Every batch that comes out is maximized for death. That is why it is made. It is odorless and invisible and death can come within a minute. No cloud. Why produce a weapon that people can run away from?”</div>
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The target was struck at 6:55 a.m. on April 4, just before midnight in Washington. A Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) by the U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement, its effect magnified by the dense morning air, which trapped the fumes close to the ground. According to intelligence estimates, the senior adviser said, the strike itself killed up to four jihadist leaders, and an unknown number of drivers and security aides. There is no confirmed count of the number of civilians killed by the poisonous gases that were released by the secondary explosions, although opposition activists reported that there were more than 80 dead, and outlets such as CNN have put the figure as high as 92. A team from Médecins Sans Frontières, treating victims from Khan Sheikhoun at a clinic 60 miles to the north, reported that “eight patients showed symptoms – including constricted pupils, muscle spasms and involuntary defecation – which are consistent with exposure to a neurotoxic agent such as sarin gas or similar compounds.” MSF also visited other hospitals that had received victims and found that patients there “smelled of bleach, suggesting that they had been exposed to chlorine.” In other words, evidence suggested that there was more than one chemical responsible for the symptoms observed, which would not have been the case if the Syrian Air Force – as opposition activists insisted – had dropped a sarin bomb, which has no percussive or ignition power to trigger secondary explosions. The range of symptoms is, however, consistent with the release of a mixture of chemicals, including chlorine and the organophosphates used in many fertilizers, which can cause neurotoxic effects similar to those of sarin.</div>
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The internet swung into action within hours, and gruesome photographs of the victims flooded television networks and YouTube. U.S. intelligence was tasked with establishing what had happened. Among the pieces of information received was an intercept of Syrian communications collected before the attack by an allied nation. The intercept, which had a particularly strong effect on some of Trump’s aides, did not mention nerve gas or sarin, but it did quote a Syrian general discussing a “special” weapon and the need for a highly skilled pilot to man the attack plane. The reference, as those in the American intelligence community understood, and many of the inexperienced aides and family members close to Trump may not have, was to a Russian-supplied bomb with its built-in guidance system. “If you’ve already decided it was a gas attack, you will then inevitably read the talk about a special weapon as involving a sarin bomb,” the adviser said. “Did the Syrians plan the attack on Khan Sheikhoun? Absolutely. Do we have intercepts to prove it? Absolutely. Did they plan to use sarin? No. But the president did not say: ‘We have a problem and let’s look into it.’ He wanted to bomb the shit out of Syria.”</div>
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At the UN the next day, Ambassador Haley created a media sensation when she displayed photographs of the dead and accused Russia of being complicit. “How many more children have to die before Russia cares?” she asked. NBC News, in a typical report that day, quoted American officials as confirming that nerve gas had been used and Haley tied the attack directly to Syrian President Assad. “We know that yesterday’s attack was a new low even for the barbaric Assad regime,” she said. There was irony in America’s rush to blame Syria and criticize Russia for its support of Syria’s denial of any use of gas in Khan Sheikhoun, as Ambassador Haley and others in Washington did. “What doesn’t occur to most Americans” the adviser said, “is if there had been a Syrian nerve gas attack authorized by Bashar, the Russians would be 10 times as upset as anyone in the West. Russia’s strategy against ISIS, which involves getting American cooperation, would have been destroyed and Bashar would be responsible for pissing off Russia, with unknown consequences for him. Bashar would do that? When he’s on the verge of winning the war? Are you kidding me?”</div>
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Trump, a constant watcher of television news, said, while King Abdullah of Jordan was sitting next to him in the Oval Office, that what had happened was “horrible, horrible” and a “terrible affront to humanity.” Asked if his administration would change its policy toward the Assad government, he said: “You will see.” He gave a hint of the response to come at the subsequent news conference with King Abdullah: “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies – babies, little babies – with a chemical gas that is so lethal … that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line . … That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. Big impact … It’s very, very possible … that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”</div>
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Within hours of viewing the photos, the adviser said, Trump instructed the national defense apparatus to plan for retaliation against Syria. “He did this before he talked to anybody about it. The planners then asked the CIA and DIA if there was any evidence that Syria had sarin stored at a nearby airport or somewhere in the area. Their military had to have it somewhere in the area in order to bomb with it.” “The answer was, ‘We have no evidence that Syria had sarin or used it,’” the adviser said. “The CIA also told them that there was no residual delivery for sarin at Sheyrat [the airfield from which the Syrian SU-24 bombers had taken off on April 4] and Assad had no motive to commit political suicide.” Everyone involved, except perhaps the president, also understood that a highly skilled United Nations team had spent more than a year in the aftermath of an alleged sarin attack in 2013 by Syria, removing what was said to be all chemical weapons from a dozen Syrian chemical weapons depots.</div>
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At this point, the adviser said, the president’s national security planners were more than a little rattled: “No one knew the provenance of the photographs. We didn’t know who the children were or how they got hurt. Sarin actually is very easy to detect because it penetrates paint, and all one would have to do is get a paint sample. We knew there was a cloud and we knew it hurt people. But you cannot jump from there to certainty that Assad had hidden sarin from the UN because he wanted to use it in Khan Sheikhoun.” The intelligence made clear that a Syrian Air Force SU-24 fighter bomber had used a conventional weapon to hit its target: There had been no chemical warhead. And yet it was impossible for the experts to persuade the president of this once he had made up his mind. “The president saw the photographs of poisoned little girls and said it was an Assad atrocity,” the senior adviser said. “It’s typical of human nature. You jump to the conclusion you want. Intelligence analysts do not argue with a president. They’re not going to tell the president, ‘if you interpret the data this way, I quit.’”</div>
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The national security advisers understood their dilemma: Trump wanted to respond to the affront to humanity committed by Syria and he did not want to be dissuaded. They were dealing with a man they considered to be not unkind and not stupid, but his limitations when it came to national security decisions were severe. “Everyone close to him knows his proclivity for acting precipitously when he does not know the facts,” the adviser said. “He doesn’t read anything and has no real historical knowledge. He wants verbal briefings and photographs. He’s a risk-taker. He can accept the consequences of a bad decision in the business world; he will just lose money. But in our world, lives will be lost and there will be long-term damage to our national security if he guesses wrong. He was told we did not have evidence of Syrian involvement and yet Trump says: ‘Do it.”’</div>
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On April 6, Trump convened a meeting of national security officials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The meeting was not to decide what to do, but how best to do it – or, as some wanted, how to do the least and keep Trump happy. “The boss knew before the meeting that they didn’t have the intelligence, but that was not the issue,” the adviser said. “The meeting was about, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do,’ and then he gets the options.”</div>
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The available intelligence was not relevant. The most experienced man at the table was Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who had the president’s respect and understood, perhaps, how quickly that could evaporate. Mike Pompeo, the CIA director whose agency had consistently reported that it had no evidence of a Syrian chemical bomb, was not present. Secretary of State Tillerson was admired on the inside for his willingness to work long hours and his avid reading of diplomatic cables and reports, but he knew little about waging war and the management of a bombing raid. Those present were in a bind, the adviser said. “The president was emotionally energized by the disaster and he wanted options.” He got four of them, in order of extremity. Option one was to do nothing. All involved, the adviser said, understood that was a non-starter. Option two was a slap on the wrist: to bomb an airfield in Syria, but only after alerting the Russians and, through them, the Syrians, to avoid too many casualties. A few of the planners called this the “gorilla option”: America would glower and beat its chest to provoke fear and demonstrate resolve, but cause little significant damage. The third option was to adopt the strike package that had been presented to Obama in 2013, and which he ultimately chose not to pursue. The plan called for the massive bombing of the main Syrian airfields and command and control centers using B1 and B52 aircraft launched from their bases in the U.S. Option four was “decapitation”: to remove Assad by bombing his palace in Damascus, as well as his command and control network and all of the underground bunkers he could possibly retreat to in a crisis.</div>
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“Trump ruled out option one off the bat,” the senior adviser said, and the assassination of Assad was never considered. “But he said, in essence: ‘You’re the military and I want military action.’” The president was also initially opposed to the idea of giving the Russians advance warning before the strike, but reluctantly accepted it. “We gave him the Goldilocks option – not too hot, not too cold, but just right.” The discussion had its bizarre moments. Tillerson wondered at the Mar-a-Lago meeting why the president could not simply call in the B52 bombers and pulverize the air base. He was told that B52s were very vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in the area and using such planes would require suppression fire that could kill some Russian defenders. “What is that?” Tillerson asked. Well, sir, he was told, that means we would have to destroy the upgraded SAM sites along the B52 flight path, and those are manned by Russians, and we possibly would be confronted with a much more difficult situation. “The lesson here was: Thank God for the military men at the meeting,” the adviser said. “They did the best they could when confronted with a decision that had already been made.”</div>
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Fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles were fired from two U.S. Navy destroyers on duty in the Mediterranean, the Ross and the Porter, at Shayrat Air Base near the government-controlled city of Homs. The strike was as successful as hoped, in terms of doing minimal damage. The missiles have a light payload – roughly 220 pounds of HBX, the military’s modern version of TNT. The airfield’s gasoline storage tanks, a primary target, were pulverized, the senior adviser said, triggering a huge fire and clouds of smoke that interfered with the guidance system of following missiles. As many as 24 missiles missed their targets and only a few of the Tomahawks actually penetrated into hangars, destroying nine Syrian aircraft, many fewer than claimed by the Trump administration. I was told that none of the nine was operational: such damaged aircraft are what the Air Force calls hangar queens. “They were sacrificial lambs,” the senior adviser said. Most of the important personnel and operational fighter planes had been flown to nearby bases hours before the raid began. The two runways and parking places for aircraft, which had also been targeted, were repaired and back in operation within eight hours or so. All in all, it was little more than an expensive fireworks display.</div>
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“It was a totally Trump show from beginning to end,” the senior adviser said. “A few of the president’s senior national security advisers viewed the mission as a minimized bad presidential decision, and one that they had an obligation to carry out. But I don’t think our national security people are going to allow themselves to be hustled into a bad decision again. If Trump had gone for option three, there might have been some immediate resignations.”</div>
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After the meeting, with the Tomahawks on their way, Trump spoke to the nation from Mar-a-Lago, and accused Assad of using nerve gas to choke out “the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many … No child of God should ever suffer such horror.” The next few days were his most successful as president. America rallied around its commander in chief, as it always does in times of war. Trump, who had campaigned as someone who advocated making peace with Assad, was bombing Syria 11 weeks after taking office, and was hailed for doing so by Republicans, Democrats and the media alike. One prominent TV anchorman, Brian Williams of MSNBC, used the word “beautiful” to describe the images of the Tomahawks being launched at sea. Speaking on CNN, Fareed Zakaria said: “I think Donald Trump became president of the United States.” A review of the top 100 American newspapers showed that 39 of them published editorials supporting the bombing in its aftermath, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.</div>
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Five days later, the Trump administration gathered the national media for a background briefing on the Syrian operation that was conducted by a senior White House official who was not to be identified. The gist of the briefing was that Russia’s heated and persistent denial of any sarin use in the Khan Sheikhoun bombing was a lie because President Trump had said sarin had been used. That assertion, which was not challenged or disputed by any of the reporters present, became the basis for a series of further criticisms:</div>
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– The continued lying by the Trump administration about Syria’s use of sarin led to widespread belief in the American media and public that Russia had chosen to be involved in a corrupt disinformation and cover-up campaign on the part of Syria.</div>
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– Russia’s military forces had been co-located with Syria’s at the Shayrat airfield (as they are throughout Syria), raising the possibility that Russia had advance notice of Syria’s determination to use sarin at Khan Sheikhoun and did nothing to stop it.</div>
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– Syria’s use of sarin and Russia’s defense of that use strongly suggested that Syria withheld stocks of the nerve agent from the UN disarmament team that spent much of 2014 inspecting and removing all declared chemical warfare agents from 12 Syrian chemical weapons depots, pursuant to the agreement worked out by the Obama administration and Russia after Syria’s alleged, but still unproven, use of sarin the year before against a rebel redoubt in a suburb of Damascus.</div>
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The briefer, to his credit, was careful to use the words “think,” “suggest” and “believe” at least 10 times during the 30-minute event. But he also said that his briefing was based on data that had been declassified by “our colleagues in the intelligence community.” What the briefer did not say, and may not have known, was that much of the classified information in the community made the point that Syria had not used sarin in the April 4 bombing attack.</div>
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The mainstream press responded the way the White House had hoped it would: Stories attacking Russia’s alleged cover-up of Syria’s sarin use dominated the news and many media outlets ignored the briefer’s myriad caveats. There was a sense of renewed Cold War. The New York Times, for example – America’s leading newspaper – put the following headline on its account: “White House Accuses Russia of Cover-Up in Syria Chemical Attack.” The Times’ account did note a Russian denial, but what was described by the briefer as “declassified information” suddenly became a “declassified intelligence report.” Yet there was no formal intelligence report stating that Syria had used sarin, merely a “summary based on declassified information about the attacks,” as the briefer referred to it.</div>
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The crisis slid into the background by the end of April, as Russia, Syria and the United States remained focused on annihilating ISIS and the militias of al-Qaida. Some of those who had worked through the crisis, however, were left with lingering concerns. “The Salafists and jihadists got everything they wanted out of their hyped-up Syrian nerve gas ploy,” the senior adviser to the U.S. intelligence community told me, referring to the flare up of tensions between Syria, Russia and America. “The issue is, what if there’s another false flag sarin attack credited to hated Syria? Trump has upped the ante and painted himself into a corner with his decision to bomb. And do not think these guys are not planning the next faked attack. Trump will have no choice but to bomb again, and harder. He’s incapable of saying he made a mistake.”</div>
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The White House did not answer specific questions about the bombing of Khan Sheikhoun and the airport of Shayrat. These questions were send via e-mail to the White House on June 15 and never answered.</div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-27688464239900953022017-06-04T19:06:00.001-07:002017-06-04T19:06:31.616-07:00A king or a disgrace to kingship in Yoruba, SW Nigeria ?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iMfOTSp-ZUs" width="459"></iframe>Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-24709116085876651172017-05-26T17:24:00.000-07:002017-05-26T17:24:05.954-07:00SBU cleans-up after Ukrainian air force shoots down MH17<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEaKntYIBdGDPxwgIeZEh9-ZvH31EDQloa7yAGHdA0nNHNTVkH7ROgJ-_dvkQKN4OIas5eY95Aqe0fBYfQXM8Fxk8HFsCi0pX3cxefMHXODIYWOye30qhgWBhKTEVPvUzF98ZHZa_zL-E/s1600/USA-flag-SBU-Ukraine-864x400_c.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="864" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEaKntYIBdGDPxwgIeZEh9-ZvH31EDQloa7yAGHdA0nNHNTVkH7ROgJ-_dvkQKN4OIas5eY95Aqe0fBYfQXM8Fxk8HFsCi0pX3cxefMHXODIYWOye30qhgWBhKTEVPvUzF98ZHZa_zL-E/s640/USA-flag-SBU-Ukraine-864x400_c.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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<pre style="background-color: white; background-image: url("../img/precode.jpg"); background-repeat: repeat; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: monospace, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; padding: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Featured image: Since Maidan in 2014, <a href="http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/12/us-flag-proudly-flies-over-sbu-building.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">the SBU of Ukraine shares its main building with CIA headquarters</a>.</pre>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Part I.</strong></h2>
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<a href="http://thesaker.is/sbu-orders-to-destroy-all-evidence-of-the-conducted-special-operation-mh17/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">SBU orders to destroy all evidence of the conducted special operation MH17</a></div>
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Part II.</h2>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">A few notes regarding the published materials:</strong><br />
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Upon release of these documents by the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sovershenno secretno</em> newspaper, some observers pointed out that these documents are most likely fake, because of the reference used in Document No.3 where the General V.S. Gritsak refers to the Donetsk People’s republic as a “держава” which means a state, he also uses the words “державні установ” which means “state organization.”</div>
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However, this exact formula for identification of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics has been used by the Ukrainian Court System and the law enforcement from May <a href="http://www.mk.ru/politics/2014/05/12/donetskaya-narodnaya-respublika-provozglasila-sebya-suverennyim-gosudarstvom.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">11, 2014 when the referendum by the Donetsk Republic</a> announced the de jure sovereignty of the DPR.</div>
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<a href="http://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/59182372" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The unified state register of court decisions of Ukraine reported</a> that on April 23, 2016 the Oktyabrsky district court of Poltava issued a death certificate for a citizen of Donetsk Republic. In the document the court uses the following wording “<a href="http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3341202.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">c. Donetsk of Donetsk People’s republic.”</a></div>
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The fact that a district court in Ukraine was using the name of the “republic” so casually made a huge impression when the document was finally discovered in April of this year.</div>
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Ukraine has a very unorthodox way to determine what countries come under the category of neighboring countries. According to the <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.hups.mil.gov.ua/periodic-app/article/1036/soivt_2007_1_10.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Military expenditures and their distribution in the leading and neighboring Ukraine, the States of 2004</a></em></strong> chart published on the official website of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, neighboring with Ukrainian States are Turkey, Poland and Hungary.</div>
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Considering that these and many other official papers, documents and charts have been produced for Ukraine by the CIA and its privately owned contractors, otherwise known as people who don’t know geography, it still doesn’t explain why would the deputy director of the SBU used the term “neighboring state” in reference to Donetsk while ordering the conduct of the special intelligence operations there.</div>
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There are might be several different explanations of why the SBU refers to DPR as a state and its leaders as the “governmental bodies” and treating them as foreign states, against whom the SBU has been conducting an “anti-terror operation or ATO” that was officially launched on the eve of April 13by the Verkhovna Rada-appointed Interim President Turchynov.</div>
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I believe that the SBU in the summer of 2014 used the term “суміжні держави” (neighboring state) in reference to the DPR in the paragraph #1 of the Document No.3 incorporated hereafter, because this term protected the Kiev authorities and the SBU from the claims that they were using regular armed forces of Ukraine against Ukrainian citizens, a move that would normally brand them as a repressive and rogue regime.</div>
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Using this perfidious verbal gymnastic of the Kiev regime, the SBU, which has been under a control of the CIA, managed to claim themselves as the victims, while they have been using the third biggest army in the world to attack the population of two cities and surrounding villages.</div>
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There is one, but very important aspect of the Ukrainian tragedy that you should keep in mind while trying to comprehend the setup of the Ukrainian War operation. The referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk that took place on May 11, 2014 were for sovereignty of the republics. The republics held the referendums even after the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, asked them publicly not to have those referendums. If I remember it correctly the leaders of the republics at the time responded that Putin wasn’t their president to tell them what to do. Many times after that Putin said that the Russian government saw the republics as parts of Ukraine, and that the republics should achieve an autonomous status within Ukraine. He was even accused in “<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/158276-referendum-results-east-ukraine/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">trying to push the republics back to Ukraine.” </a></div>
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He didn’t explain why he was against the referendum for sovereignty of the republics. Now, we might understand what he, being an intelligence officer and an expert in law, saw back then. The SBU leaked documents reveal how exactly the military junta in Kiev was using the proclaimed independence of the republics to cover up their war crimes against the civilians.</div>
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<a href="http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/166/19368.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Based on the winning argument</a> that Russian legal team presented recently in the International Criminal Court titled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Argument presented by the Russian Federation the in the case concerning Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination</em> (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), everything that took place in Ukraine starting with Maidan was the Kiev regime’s own doing.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Terms and abbreviations used in the documents.</strong></div>
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ГУ/GU – Главное управление, Main Directorate</div>
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ВКР/VKR – военной контрразведки, military counterintelligence</div>
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ДКР/DKR – Департамента контрразведки, the Main Military Counterintelligence Directorate</div>
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SBU – Security Service of Ukraine</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">СЗР/</strong>SZR <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><u style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://szru.gov.ua/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">szru.gov.ua</a></u></strong> – Служба зовнішньої розвідки – Foreign Intelligence service of Ukraine</div>
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The Department for National Economy Counterintelligence Protection DKZED, a leading department within the SBU</div>
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<a href="http://sbuforukrenian.blogspot.ru/p/blog-page_6094.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Ukrainian SBU, its Structure and management, in Russian</a></div>
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<a href="http://sbuforukrenian.blogspot.ru/p/blog-page_1086.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The SBU headquarter in Kiev takes an entire block in center city</a></div>
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Official website <a href="http://sbu.gov.ua/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">sbu.gov.ua</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/5703/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Original publication in Russian</a></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Document No. 3 Dated June 24 2014</strong></h2>
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Two Seals, a square seal and a round seal, both say “Security services of Ukraine” in Ukrainian language.</div>
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Classified: Top secret<br />
Security Service of Ukraine Copy No. 1<br />
Office of Inspector General<br />
Ref. No. 1/1038<br />
24.07.2014</div>
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APPROVED BY<br />
First deputy Head<br />
of the Security Service of Ukraine<br />
Colonel General V.S. Gritsak<br />
July 24, 2014</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Addition to the Plan for the main organizational, counterintelligence and special investigation measures of the Counterintelligence Department (site Lugansk city) of the SBU and special forces units ATO for the 2nd half of 2014.</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">1. Counteraction against intelligence activity<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />1.1</strong> Together with DVKR (the Department of Military Counterintelligence – Ed.) of the SBU to establish (during the 3rd quarter of the year) intelligence centers of objects located on the border territory that conduct technical and human intelligence against Ukraine, to ensure (during the 3rd quarter) the study of their personnel during the possible visit of Ukraine.<br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.</div>
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1.2 Within the framework of the ATO in cooperation with the DKR SBU to carry out (during the 3rd quarter) technical infiltration into the governmental bodies of the neighboring state (DNR), from whose position intelligence activities against Ukraine is being conducted.<br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">2. Blocking of intelligence actions of special services of RF, including those carried out from the position of special services of the self-proclaimed DNR.</strong></div>
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In cooperation with DVKR SBU for detection, documentation and termination of the intelligence activities of the Federal Security Service [FSB], which conduct their operations using the positions of the armed units DPR against Ukraine, to infiltrate (during the 2nd half of year) the personnel and agent network of the of the state security strictures of the DPR on the basis of revealed intelligence measures of the named foreign special service.<br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">3. On countermeasures to the intelligence activities of the RF special services</strong></div>
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Together with DBKR SBU to document and terminate (during this year) the activities of the special services of RF that operate under the cover of the military forces of the DPR as well as state and non-governmental structures that are located on the territory of Ukraine, but have an influence of the military forces of the special services of RF from the positions of DNR.<br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the line of counterintelligence protection in relation to the state special operations conducted within the framework of the ATO in the interests of the state, as well as counterintelligence measures against the foreign special services, and prevention of their actions detrimental of our state.</strong><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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Together with DKR SBU, DVKR SBU, and the special forces of the ATO with the purpose of timely detection, prevention and termination of intelligence activities of foreign special services in the areas of conducting special operations to ensure the monitoring of foreign presence (Torez city, village Grabovo). <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Within the framework of the ATO conduct special measures to destroy any facts of the conduct of the special operation. Obtain information about the presence of possible witnesses among the residents of the district, the military and others. Use effective preventive measures.</strong><br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">5. In the line of counteraction to the special services of RF.</strong></div>
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Together with DKR SBU and DVKR SBU identify (during the 3rd quarter) persons from military personnel carrying out transfer of information protected by the state, obtain the facts of their cooperation with the resident intelligence agents of the DPR . Based on the facts, detain them for further criminal changes.<br />
Ex: DKR SBU, DVKR SBU.<br />
I.c.: Kondratyuk V.V.<br />
6. Together with DKR SBU, provide an implementation of the Comprehensive plan of counter-intelligence protection SZR of Ukraine for 2014</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">V. Kondratyuk<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />«24» July 2014</strong></div>
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[As you see in this classified document, the first deputy of the SBU and the head of the Anti-Terrorist Center of the SBU Colonel-General Vasily Gritsak directly and frankly gives the command “Attack” to carry out “special measures to destroy the evidence of the special operation.” He suggests the “use of effective preventive measures” against possible witnesses, regardless, if they were local civilian residents or the military servicemen. Could it be that it was acceding to such measures the sergeant Vyacheslav was killed by a sniper?<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> – </em>note from a publisher<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">]</em></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Document No. 4 June 28, 2014</strong></h2>
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Letterhead of the Security Service of Ukraine</div>
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Marked in the right top corner as Top secret<br />
Office of Inspector General Copy No.1<br />
28.07.2014 No. о/l-147</div>
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Personally<br />
To Head of Department KR<br />
<…></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Concerning the conduct of the special operations</strong></div>
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In pursuance of the instructions and orders of the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, in accordance with the plan for the implementation of special operations conducted within the framework of the ATO on the territory of the Donetsk region (village Grabovo) I ask you to instruct the heads of the units of the Office of SBU in the Donetsk region and special units of the armed forces of Ukraine about the <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">destruction of any materials that indicate law violations by personnel and servicemen of the armed forces of Ukraine.</strong></div>
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In addition according to the plan of the main organizational, KR and ORZ (counterintelligence and operational-investigative measures – Ed) DKR SB of Ukraine from 20.07.2014 No. 1 / 1-837 approved by the First Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Colonel General Gritsak V. S. implement:</div>
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– effective prophylactic measures among witnesses of the special operation on July 17, 2014 ( identify and detain witnesses of civil aircraft explosion);</div>
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– Rotate (regroup) the servicemen who were deployed on the territory of the village Grabovo, Donetsk region; [Rotation in Ukrainian armed forces might mean replacement, or deployment to a different region – translator.]</div>
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– <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">as a part of a special operation, destroy all materials that indicate the presence of combat aircraft and their carrying out combat missions in the specified area on July 17, 2014;</strong></div>
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– conduct prophylactic (preventive) measures and rotation of servicemen of the air force squadron who conducted flights in the specified area. In particular, the servicemen of the Aviation Brigade No. A-4104, Chuguev city, Kharkov region. [See translator’s notes below.]<br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Head of the Office of Inspector General А. Kalyuzhnyak</strong></div>
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«To destroy any materials indicating the presence of combat aircraft and (them) conducting the combat missions in the specified area on July 17, 2014». A signature. An official seal. What is it, if not a personally signed sentence for cynical concealment, and a cover-up of one of the most heinous crimes of the 21st century?</div>
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The Office of the Inspector General is the structural unit having the highest position in the hierarchy of the Security Service of Ukraine. This Office is entrusted with overseeing the implementation of all significant orders of the SBU leadership. Orders and decrees of the Office are binding. The Head of the Office of Inspector the General, General Kalyuzhnyak submitted directly to Head of the SBU Valentin Nalivaichenko and Nalivaichenko to President Poroshenko.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">THE LEADING PERPETRATORS OF THE “CLEAN-UP” </strong></div>
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It is interesting to look, if not directly in the eyes, then at least into the biographies of those high-ranking SBU officials who gave these criminal orders.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjR09_JrunMGuA7t1jRj1mmOcEeK64MT2aGLti68huRQsFC7yktp7GKmhgT_mPXvTU9zKF0IGXknuuJtLTPGX59lFVv8UyJlFeqvk2_ai8YvmQJ0Wv7NtOFriUzxvHWUuMkYbI4NFZaGbP/s1600/gricak-foto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="500" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjR09_JrunMGuA7t1jRj1mmOcEeK64MT2aGLti68huRQsFC7yktp7GKmhgT_mPXvTU9zKF0IGXknuuJtLTPGX59lFVv8UyJlFeqvk2_ai8YvmQJ0Wv7NtOFriUzxvHWUuMkYbI4NFZaGbP/s400/gricak-foto.jpg" width="400" /></a><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Gritsak Vasily Sergeevich</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> (Грицак Василь Сергійович) – 1967. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">After the service rendered to Petro Poroshenko in destroying the evidence of the fighter jets carrying out the combat mission near the village of Grabovo on July 17, 2014 , Vasily Gritsak’s career went up sharply. On July 2, 2015, he was appointed the Head of the SBU in place of Nalivaichenko. On March 25, 2016 received the rank of the rank of General of Ukrainian Army.</span></div>
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Gritsak began the service in 1990 in the organs of the KGB of the USSR in the rank of sergeant. After Ukraine got its independence, he rose to become a head of the Main Directorate of the SBU for Kiev and Kiev region, and in December 2009 he was appointed the first deputy Director of the SBU and the head of the Main Office “K” (anti-corruption unit).</div>
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In March 2010 Gritsak was unexpectedly dismissed from the SBU, but he remained enlisted. For four years he managed the personal security for the oligarch-confectioner Petro Poroshenko. When Poroshenko became president, on July 7, 2014 his strongman “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">licznik</em>” Gritsak was returned to the SBU this time as the First Deputy Director of the SBU and the head of the SBU Anti-Terrorist Center to solve the problem with the Boeing. Per newspaper “RBC-Ukraine,” General Gritsak is considered to be “one hundred percent man of President Poroshenko”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE4RWFS8_atO3tvR9rE81SxTO0LpA_lgiWn_QoPTqXRSa56Z9hG7xotIw7sbtlAp9zrH2LGp5q_RlMhkXfNYqZ_L5T-Bl8cCYSdvyYRbdIanWWhyzOjElFiiY4G_755fejC63MgCk-Lhfd/s1600/kaluzhnyak-foto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="250" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE4RWFS8_atO3tvR9rE81SxTO0LpA_lgiWn_QoPTqXRSa56Z9hG7xotIw7sbtlAp9zrH2LGp5q_RlMhkXfNYqZ_L5T-Bl8cCYSdvyYRbdIanWWhyzOjElFiiY4G_755fejC63MgCk-Lhfd/s400/kaluzhnyak-foto.jpg" width="400" /></a><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Kalyuzhnyak Anatoly</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> (Анатолій Калюжняк) – 1962. </span></div>
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The Head of the Office of Inspector General of the SBU. The author of the unforgettable idea of “effective prophylactic measures” against any witnesses. He was born in Khmelnitsky region, in 1988 he graduated from the Kharkov Law Institute. In 1990 he joined the KGB of the USSR. He held the post of deputy head of the Anti-Corruption Department of the Khmelnitsky regional office of the USB. In 2005 in the rank of colonel he became the head of the Kremenchug office of the SBU.</div>
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In April 2012 he was appointed a Deputy Head of the main office “K” of the SBU. In early 2014, Kalyuzhnyak served as a deputy head of the Office of Inspector General of the SBU. In this role, he testified at the April 2014 hearings of the interim investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada about the mass murders during the Maidan.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kondratyuk Valiry Vitalyevich</strong> (Кондратюк Валерій Віталійович) – born in 1970. As the result of this special operation, after Gritsuk the most benefits got the Head of the Counter-Intelligence department of the SBU General Kondratyuk. The same Kondratyuk, who received the order “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">within the framework of the ATO conduct special measures to destroy any facts of conduct of the special operation</strong>.”</div>
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A year after this “clean-up” on July 27, 2015 he was appointed by the Presidential decree as the head of the Main Intelligence Office of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense . A year later, on October 15, 2016, <a href="http://www.president.gov.ua/documents/4652016-20634" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Poroshenko appointed Kondratyuk as the Deputy head of his presidential administration</a>.</div>
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Valery Kondratyuk graduated from the Kiev Higher Combined Arms Command twice Red Banner School named after M.V. Frunzein in 1991. For some time he served for the SBU, but was kicked out with prejudice<a href="http://rian.com.ua/inquiry/20161018/1017845364.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">. According to the Ukrainian journalist Vladimir Boyko</a>, Kondratyuk was exposed by the Internal Security Office of the SBU as an agent of the US special services. However, after the events on Maidan he was reinstated in the SBU. The fact of his work for the US that was prior considered to be treason, after the Maidan became an honorary part of his biography. Let’s remember that Gritsak also was purged from the ranks of counterintelligence officers in 2010, and now he is the head of the SBU.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mikhail Grek </strong>This is the colonel who organized a manhunt on “Katsap” – the witness who had evidence of the Ukrainian army and air forces violating the law, namely evidence of them shooting down the civilian aircraft.</div>
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Grek was appointed as the head of the Office SBU for the Lugansk region by a Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov with decree № 413/2014 on April 15th, 2014. The fate of “Katsap” is not known, yet.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kalchenko R.</strong> Colonel, Head of department No. 4 UKRP DKR SB of Ukraine<br />
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Office of Counterintelligence Investigations of the Counter-Intelligence Department)</em>. He was the one, who all your zeal directed at “the establishment and detention of witnesses of the shooting of a civilian aircraft.” We have a little information about Colonel Kalchenko. What’s interesting is that after the “Boeing” his name came up in another “Hague” case. In September 2014, Kalchenko was mentioned among persons involved in the organization of the illegal SBU prison located near Kiev, on the territory of the penal military battalion. M/u (military unite) is located near Vodokanal, next to a large shooting range</div>
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<a href="https://readtiger.com/wkp/ru/%D0%A1%D0%BB%D1%83%D0%B6%D0%B1%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8_%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">We recall that in May 2016</a> the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report stating that the Ukrainian security services were implicated in illegal detention of people, cruel treatment and torture of prisoners. The report noted the use of secret detention centers by the Ukrainian secret services in which prisoners were subjected to abuse and humiliation. On May 25, 2016 the delegation of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture suspended its work on the territory of Ukraine, the reason was the failure of the SBU to provide the UN representatives access to places of detention.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">AT THE NAMELESS HEIGHT</strong></div>
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The Malaysian Boeing 777-2H6ER board 9M-MRD performed the daily flight MH17 Amsterdam-Kuala-Lumpur, when it disappeared from the radar screens at 48°02’25” north latitude and 38°46’22” east longitude which is approximately 50 km from the Ukrainian-Russian border, not far from the small town Torez. The catastrophe occurred on July 17, 2014, at 16:20 Kiev time or 17:20 Moscow time. The liner had to cross the Russian border approximately at 17:25 MSK.</div>
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The Ukrainian Independent News Agency (UNIAN) was one of the first mass media sources to report about the accident. It should be known that the owner of UNIAN the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky financed the air traffic control service in Dnepropetrovsk that “guided” Boeing until the last second of its flight. Kolomoisky took the control over of all flight services in southeastern Ukraine immediately after the arrival to Kiev of the CIA director John Brennan in April 2014. A month before this tragedy there was a seizure of “Ukr Avia Ru” and a criminal case was opened against the chief air traffic dispatcher of Ukraine Yury Chernichenko. Poroshenko signed an order dismissing Chernichenko the very next day after he was elected as the president.</div>
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The first report on the plane crash was made at 18:12 (Kiev time) with reference to information in social networks: UNIAN announced that <u style="box-sizing: border-box;">“</u>According to recent reports of the “Information Resistance” a passenger airplane crashed north of Tores. At 16:20 communication was lost between the ground services in Kiev and Rostov with the Malaysia Airlines airliner performed the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight. ”</div>
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The group “Information Resistance” is in fact was title of the website of blogger Dmitry Timchuk, a former Ukrainian military serviceman who worked at the time for the SBU. Currently, Timchuk is a deputy of the Verkhovnaya Rada. At 18:37 the group <a href="https://www.unian.net/politics/940891-silyi-ato-ne-vladeyut-sredstvami-pvo-timchuk.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">“Information Resistance” reported “the ATO forces security services don’t have air defense facilities in the area of the operation.”</a></div>
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At 18:47 minutes on the official website of the president of Ukraine posted a statement from Petro Poroshenko, in which he particularly stated: …<a href="http://www.president.gov.ua/ru/news/prezident-vistupiv-za-stvorennya-derzhavnoyi-komisiyi-iz-zal-33255" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">we emphasize that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not conducted any strikes against airborne targets.”</a><br />
At 21:12 UNIAN reports with a new link to Timchuk’s blog: “According to the recent reports of the group “Information Resistance,” a convoy of terrorists was seen today at about 13:30 in the area of settlement Snezhnoe. The convoy consisted of 3 tanks, 2 armored personnel carriers, a truck with the fighters and a truck with a large-caliber machine gun installed. And also, a long bed truck with a carriage transporting the air defense system “Buk.” <u style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.unian.net/politics/940951-dnem-v-rayone-snejnogo-byila-zafiksirovana-kolonna-terroristov-s-zrk-buk-timchuk.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The convoy proceeded in the direction of settlement Dmitrovka.”</a></u></div>
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Immediately after, at 23:46 the UNIAN posted another article with quotes form the The Wall Street Journal: “The US Intelligence service has confirms that the Malaysian airplane was shot down by a ground-to-air missile.” That’s how the story about the “Russian “Buk” began its journey around the world.</div>
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The aircraft wreckage was scattered on an area of about 50 square km, on a plot of more than 10 km long and 5 km wide. The search area included the settlements Moskovskoe, Rassypnoe, Grabovo, Stryukovo and Grabovskoye water storage reservoir. Not far from the Rasypnoye a front of the aircraft was found, near Grabovo – the central and tail sections. Most of the wreckage was discovered about 8.5 km from the last point recorded by radars. 298 people died, of them 283 passengers: citizens of Netherlands – 193, Malaysia – 43, Australia – 27, Indonesia – 12, Great Britain – 10, Germany – 4, Belgium – 4, Philippines – 3, Canada – 1, New Zealand – 1.</div>
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The Ukrainian side ignored the proposal of DPR for the 10-kilometer ceasefire zone around the crash area. (Remember, in particular, the mortar element of warrant officer Andrei Drozd, military unit A1556)</div>
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The first operation for removing the aircraft wreckage began only on November 4, 2014. For almost six months the “Grads”, mortars and howitzers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine non-stop hammered a 50-kilometer space on which the remains of the airliner, or more accurately material evidence of the killing of three hundred people, were scattered.<br />
Was the operation of the SBU “Clean-Up” successful? We don’t think so.</div>
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The investigation of the newspaper “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Soverschenno sekretno</em>.” “We uncover a secret of Boeing MH17 wreckage” continues.</div>
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The editorial office of the newspaper “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Soverschenno sekretno</em>” thanks the Agency for Federal Investigations FLB.ru for its assistance in preparing the publication”</div>
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22.05.2017 Sergey Sokolov, Alexey Chelnokov</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Notes and references</strong></div>
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The only regiment I could find that matches the description is 203-тя навчальна авіаційна бригада (203 НАБр, в/ч А4104) is <a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/203-%D1%82%D1%8F_%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B0%D1%86%D1%96%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0_%28%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D0%B0%29" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">203th Training Aviation Brigade under the command of Victor Nikoluk.</a></div>
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At the beginning of 2014 the brigade reportedly had one AN-26, two MI-8MT, ten Aero L-39C Albatros , two An – 26A (An-26Sh). <a href="http://militarizm.livejournal.com/46430.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Helicopter MI-8MT, 81 yellow and 87 yellow images</a></div>
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<a href="http://gor.at.ua/news/2014-03-10-10" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Video of the regiment A-4104 and it commander Gennady Dubovik </a> in January 2014, before they committed multiple war crimes..</div>
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Scott Humor</div>
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Director of Research and Development</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
author of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-State-excerpt-Russian-Biography-ebook/dp/B01M319Y54" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The enemy of the State</a></em></div>
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In case you have forgotten what happened in Ukraine, this book should refresh your memory with the incredibly precise and humorous chronicles: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ANTHOLOGY-RUSSIAN-HUMOR-MAIDAN-LAUGHTER-ebook/dp/B0722XNPZW/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;">ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN HUMOR: FROM MAIDAN TO TRUMP</a></div>
<strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></strong><br />
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-21878882756692209132017-05-18T00:13:00.005-07:002017-05-18T00:13:53.278-07:00Et tu, Macron? Hollande the Betrayer Outdone by His Protégé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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by <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ramin Mazaheri</strong></div>
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The Hollande era has ended, and the Macron era has begun –one must look to Brussels to find many who are happy about it.</div>
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This is not a column about Hollande’s reign, and reign is the right word for a man who leaves the country in an 18-month state of emergency, i.e. a police state dictatorship. But it would be too long to list all of Hollande’s crimes against France’s humanity and France’s humans, legal citizens and otherwise.</div>
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That is a column for another day.</div>
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It’s absurd to read the mainstream media’s coverage of the undearly departed Hollande: They are trying to convince us that he “didn’t deserve his unpopularity”, that he was “misunderstood” or that he “will be appreciated later”.</div>
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All of these false narratives arrogantly and shockingly whitewash his four years of record unpopularity, and they also show whose side the mainstream media is truly on: the side of power, and not the people.</div>
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If you are on the side of the French people you do not write such revisionist hagiographies of such a flagrantly undemocratic president – you condemn; you reflect the judgment of the people. That’s the only way a journalist should be able to cash their paycheck with a clear conscience.</div>
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Hollande betrayed his promises to fight for the rights of his people so scandalously that it is absolutely justice that he was betrayed in the end: Macron appears to have manipulated Hollande perfectly.</div>
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I’ll drop the repugnant Hollande with this clear statement: Hollande did not deserve any better than this – to be betrayed by the unknown he plucked from the chorus, groomed for power, and whose name was on the handle of the knife in his back.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Who is this kid we’re stuck with?</strong></div>
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A fundamental question which will likely dog Macron: Is Macron an authentic person?</div>
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I covered the recent passing of Fidel Castro for Press TV and I heard from everyday people over and over – many of whom had met Castro – that he was an “authentic person”. I thought: “I hope people say the same for me when I pass on.”</div>
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But I am a nobody and I do not seek power over others – if I am an inauthentic person the circle of people I hurt will be limited. An inauthentic president, however, ruins entire nations.</div>
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Macron’s wife is a good indication that he may not be an authentic person. They met when she was his high school drama teacher: How can any actor ever be considered an “authentic person”? Actors pretend to be anyone but themselves, after all; they are people who perfect the craft of lying in public.</div>
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Trump was an amateur thespian, and I don’t think he even stops for five minutes to ask himself who he really is.</div>
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The fact is that since the advent of moving pictures politicians increasingly have nothing to do with intellectual accomplishments, ethical standing or even military discipline/selflessness – they simply know how to lie with poise after reading the polling data, which they throw out once in office.</div>
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A word about France’s new first lady, Brigitte Macron, née: Brigitte Trogneux: She was not just a simple drama and French teacher, as is commonly reported. She is also an heiress of the Chocolaterie Trogneux family. The former failed politician is not as rich as Theresa Heinz Kerry, but many are at a loss to explain America’s love for ketchup.</div>
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I’ve known plenty of 39-year olds who “kept it real” – the jury is out on Macron.</div>
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So far the MacronLeaks have not turned up much. To be honest, we journalists in France need more time – we have been busy with the transfer of power. However, Macron is from the new generation which grew up with home video games and computers in his private schools – he’s not dumb enough to leave digital evidence of malfeasance, one assumes.</div>
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So far the biggest thing has been that the Macron team paid hundreds of thousands of euros for polls. Obviously, this needs to be probed deeper, but I bring it up because Macron has just announced his prime minister.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The old lady, or ladies, who would be prime minister (ministerette?)</strong></div>
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A front-runner for Prime Minister was Laurence Parisot, who is now the head of the national bosses union – yes, even bosses get a union in France, and they are almost supremely powerful in the political-business sphere, as you can imagine. Parisot owns and runs perhaps the top polling firm in France, IFOP, the French Institute of Public Opinion.</div>
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This intersection between polling and politics should worry any citizen. Of course, market research firms sell polls – that’s what people who are too dumb to be journalists and too uncreative to be advertisers do – but the obvious temptation to manipulate public opinion with false polling should preclude someone from holding office in a normal democracy.</div>
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However, Parisot was passed over. Many assumed it would be current IMF chief Christine Lagarde. It was not.</div>
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Many assumed it would be some old lady – any old lady – because the 39-year old Macron married a 64-year old woman, so he clearly works well with the elder female generation.</div>
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People are asking: “When will they stop bringing up his wife’s age?” They won’t, at least outside of France. That’s because most everyone assumes there is a moral component to sex, love and marriage. A winter-summer romance, especially on the flip-side of the usual gender, is going to provoke questions and that’s life in the public eye.</div>
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But this, however, is France. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1484609/Mitterrand-spent-most-of-presidency-at-home-of-secret-family.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Mitterand had a secret family</a> which the press dutifully covered up; <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25680726" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Hollande secretly dated an actress</a>. If Macron has certain needs – however varied his may be – that 39-year old men have…well, he’s in the right country to keep it under wraps.</div>
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Or maybe he’s already found that mistress that every French president seems to have: Angela Merkel.</div>
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Hey, shortly after appointing his Prime Minister that’s who he flew off to see…but my imagination insists on keeping visions of that meeting purely work-related. It’s bad enough Merkel has damaged so much else!</div>
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Is Macron even capable saying “no” to Merkel? Regardless of any possible attraction, it’s much more likely this generation’s Margaret Thatcher will act as the inexperienced Macron’s guru, and all we can do is just groan yet again.</div>
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As Marine Le Pen <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-04/marine-le-pen-slams-macron-france-will-be-governed-woman-either-me-or-madame-merkel" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">said in the lone presidential debate</a>: “In any case France will be governed by a woman: either me or Madame Merkel.” Ouch!</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">But, for form’s sake, Merkel was not appointed French Prime Minister</strong></div>
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The <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170515-macron-names-centre-right-prime-minister-edouard-philippe-0" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">new prime minister is 47-year old Edouard Philippe</a>.</div>
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Who? Well, that’s not such a bad response – maybe Macron is going to do what he promised: totally regenerate France’s pool of politicians. Polls said that was the 2<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> most-popular reason why voters chose Macron over Le Pen. Neither the Socialists nor the party of de Gaulle advanced to the 2<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> round for the first time ever in large part for this important reason.</div>
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The new PM may not even last a month, however – it all depends on the “Third Round of the Presidential Elections”: next month’s legislative elections.</div>
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Macron’s list of legislative candidates is also pleasantly surprising, in this vein – there are only a few dozen recycled <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macrons-party-announces-its-parliamentary-candidates-half-are-political-neophytes/2017/05/11/32cd473c-359f-11e7-ab03-aa29f656f13e_story.html?utm_term=.e8007b37dae6" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Socialists among his first 430 of roughly 580 candidates</a>. Half are new to politics (probably businessmen, I imagine). We’ll have to wait for the final list, but now is the time to be optimistic: Maybe there really will be new blood in the halls of French power? Maybe the Socialists will get the punishment they deserve? Maybe the Conservatives won’t keep getting ghost jobs on the taxpayer dime?</div>
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It would be very easy for Macron to blow up the system: He has already said that he is not envisioning a career in politics. His hope appears to be to stay president for 10 years and then go back into the private sector and make more Rothschild-type of money.</div>
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As I wrote, this is good in the sense that it reflects the democratic will of the people – well, at least one current of it. However, there are clearly drawbacks to having your country run by mercenaries.</div>
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It is very easy to blow up public service when you have no intention of recreating a better public service. Isn’t this the overarching goal of neoliberalism? Reflect on this at your leisure….</div>
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The goal of Western politicians is not to create a better government, but to end social services and become billionaires. Look at the Clintons; look at Barack Obama, who is somehow planning to own an NBA team on the salary of a university professor and presidential pension.</div>
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There is no guarantee that Macron’s party will win a majority in Parliament – that’s actually opposed by 61% of the public – but bringing in political neophytes also has a nefarious advantage: they will be easy to control and whip into line. Hollande’s far-right “deforms” – not “reforms” – suffered from too many Socialist “rebels” (LOL) who refused to back them. Macron saw up close how Hollande had to bypass Parliament, threatening it with dissolution, in order to pass the right-wing labor code rollback known as the “Macron Law”.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">It sucks to be ruled by a Westerner – welcome to the 3<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> World</strong></div>
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Here is what the new prime minister thought of Macron – <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/elections-presidentielle-legislatives-2017/2017/01/18/en-latin-on-dit-ambulans_1542461" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">per an interview with French centrist paper<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Libération,</em> </a>dated January 18 of this year:</div>
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“Who is Macron? For some, impressed by his ability to seduce and his reformist rhetoric, he will be the natural son of Kennedy and Mendès France. We can doubt this: the first had more charisma and the second had more principles. For others, he will be Brutus, the adoptive son of Caesar.”</div>
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Wow…was this the best buddy Macron could find to be his number two? Can’t Macron play nice with people his own age? Compare me to Brutus and I wouldn’t hire you to run my lemonade stand.</div>
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“Macron, who takes no responsibility but promises everything, with the ardor of a youthful conqueror and the cynicism of an old truck-driver. If I dare to say it, he acts like a used-car salesman.”</div>
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Sweet Mary, whose side are you on?! Why on earth are you going to work for such a man, then? Do you just want money and power, is it? Who is worse – you or your boss? Sheesh….</div>
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The luckiest countries – whether they know it or not – have revolutionaries as leaders instead of politicians. Ho Chi Minh, Sankara, Khomeini – all were simple people who lived simply, with no desire for material wealth. You might not agree with them, but damned if they weren’t authentic people.</div>
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In the West it’s nothing but total phonies running the show. There’s no metric for it, but the effect this has on increasing individual alienation must be astronomical.</div>
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Who with a normal salary would really rather have a Hillary or a Macron instead of a Castro? All Cubans want is the West to lift their blockade – they don’t want Western culture. Of course, Westerners assume the Coloreds surely want both: Excuse us while we either bust a gut laughing or an eye vessel from excessive rolling.</div>
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Well, Brutus lasted only a year in power. Macron appears likely to be the 3<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> consecutive 1-term president in France – such turnover is great for established capitalists and terrible for the long-term management of society’s needs.</div>
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But we should not be cynical from the beginning: The owl of Minerva flies at night. That’s a dramatic way of saying that we can’t properly judge until time has run its course.</div>
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But it is midnight for Hollande, and the very real victims of austerity hope it comes crashing down on him like the thunder of hell.</div>
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I’m getting pretty dramatic here, eh?! Macron and his wife would likely applaud.</div>
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Best of luck enjoying your Macron era!</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ramin Mazaheri</em></strong> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television.</em></div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-20334986073279524352017-05-12T06:17:00.001-07:002017-05-12T06:17:03.621-07:00Who was defeated in the Great Patriotic war? ( U.S repeating the same NAZI mistake, the fall of U.S Empire ?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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by Scott Humor<br />
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<a href="http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12122375@egNews" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Sergey Shoigu , the Russia’s Minister of Defense, issued an order to congratulate servicemen and veterans with the Victory Day</a></div>
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May 9th Victory Day Parade on Red Square 2017 (FULL VIDEO)</h1>
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President Putin’s speech at 17:30 with English voice over</h3>
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This morning I got a message from Veritas: “Thanks Scott.</div>
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I am sitting here watching the Victory Parade live – VVP’s speech this year was different in tone. He was stern and passionate – it was a message to those outside of Russia too. Never on our soil again – he was stressing. The planes have been grounded due to weather sadly, but at least the rehearsals would have shown the planes and helicopters.</div>
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I truly believe the elections in France and especially the UK are to get the war parties in or maintained. This nonsense about Brexit – it’s about May getting a majority in the Commons to go to war. That is why there has been a sudden snap election – everyone is being manipulated. I feel VVP’s speech today was a sign of this…….<a href="http://theduran.com/newly-released-un-nazi-holocaust-archives-show-us-uk-colluded-with-third-reich-to-destroy-soviet-union/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">this is why the UN info is so important</a> – history repeats itself…..yet again….”</div>
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<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/387691-moscow-victory-day-parade/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">1,000s of troops, state-of-the-art weaponry parade through Moscow on V-Day (PHOTOS, FULL VIDEO)</a></div>
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<a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54469" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">During the celebration with the veterans of the Great Patriotic in Kremlin,</a> Putin made a statement about a fate of the Russian people if the Nazi Germany would win the war.</h3>
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<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“This sacred holiday is celebrated by all of Russia. And it is clear why.</div>
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It is not just the many millions of victims which our people sacrificed on the altar of Victory. If our country would have succumbed to the terrible tragedy and, like many other European countries, suffered defeat, a totally different fate would have awaited us than the enslaved countries of the European continent. It was not only a question of the existence of our country, it was a question of the existence of our people as an ethnos.</div>
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And we are well aware of this from the documents of the Nazi party and the fascist state which are still stored in archives. Those who were not used for slave labour would have been subject either to physical elimination, plain and simple, or resettlement to remote regions without any infrastructure where they would have been doomed to gradual extinction.</div>
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This is what we must always remember when we talk about the truth of the Second World War, the Great Patriotic War, when we speak about the victims which our people sacrificed on the altar of Victory, as I already mentioned. This is something we must never forget. This is the most important thing.”</div>
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=========</div>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Roboto Slab", serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 2px;">
Let’s remember that it was not Germany alone that attacked us, but all European nations took a part in this war against us.</h3>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<a href="https://cont.ws/@rusvoice/609969" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">What moved those ordinary Europeans? Why did they decide to put on military overcoats, to take weapons in their hands and to invade our motherland?</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
On June 22nd, 1941 all of the radio stations of Germany were broadcasting the <a href="http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/hitler4.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">following announcement made by Hitler</a>:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Socialists!</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">You probably all felt that this was a bitter and difficult step for me. The German people have never had hostile feelings toward the peoples of Russia. During the last two decades, however, the Jewish-Bolshevist rulers in Moscow have attempted to set not only Germany, but all of Europe, aflame. Germany has never attempted to spread its National Socialist worldview to Russia. Rather, the Jewish-Bolshevist rulers in Moscow have constantly attempted to subject us and the other European peoples to their rule. They have attempted this not only intellectually, but above all through military means.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The results of their efforts, in every nation, were only chaos, misery, and starvation.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I, on the other hand, have tried for two decades to build a new socialist order in Germany, with a minimum of interference and without harming our productive capacity. This has not only eliminated unemployment, but also the profits of labor have flowed increasingly to working people.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The results of our policies are unique in all the world. Our economic and social reorganization has led to the systematic elimination of social and class barriers, with the goal of a true people’s community.</em></div>
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<…></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I was forced by circumstances to keep silent in the past. Now the moment has come when further silence would be not only a sin, but a crime against the German people, against all Europe.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Today, about 160 Russian divisions stand at our border. There have been steady border violations for weeks, and not only on our border, but in the far north, and also in Rumania. Russian pilots make a habit of ignoring the border, perhaps to show us that they already feel as if they are in control.”</em></div>
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<a href="http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/hitler4.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">You can read the full speech here</a>. It’s very long, confusing and anticlimactic, as everything that Hitler wrote, and you can discover a remarkable wording identical to those of the U.S. defense news and the U.S. senate speeches.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The attack on the Soviet Union early in the morning of June 22nd 1941 were involved:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
the German formations: 153 divisions, 600,000 of motorized units, 3580 tanks, 7184 guns, 2740 aircraft;</div>
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12 divisions and 10 brigades of Romania,</div>
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18 Finnish divisions;</div>
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3 Hungarian brigade;</div>
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two and a half Slovak brigades;</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
later joined by 3 Italian teams and the Spanish “Blue division”.</div>
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Besides Hungarians, Romanians, Finns, Italians, Slovaks and Spaniards who attacked our country in their national divisions and brigades, in the ranks of Nazi troops that broke into our land there were hundreds of thousands of French, Belgians, Dutch, Poles, Czechs, Danes, Norwegians, Bulgarians, Croats, Luxembourgers, Jews, etc.</div>
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All European nations, with some rare exception, treacherously and suddenly attacked us and began ruthlessly killing civilians.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<a href="https://cont.ws/@rusvoice/609969" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">From a remarkable collection of letters coming from the invaders back home in summer of 1941.</a></div>
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From the diary of Joseph Goebbels (9-15 July 1941)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“…The Fuhrer is extremely pleased that disguise of the preparations for the Eastern campaign was quite successful, and the entire maneuver was performed with incredible sneakiness.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
…Preliminary results suggests that the war in the East has been largely won: two-third of the Bolshevik forces have been already destroyed or badly frayed… five-sixths of the air and armored forces can already be considered destroyed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
…The repetition of the fate of Napoleon impossible, though — the irony! — we are opposing the Bolshevism that night, when Napoleon crossed the Russian border.</div>
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…The Fuhrer intends to erase from the face of the earth cities like Moscow, Kiev and St. Petersburg. And it is necessary! For if we want to dismember Russia into separate parts, this huge state should not have any spiritual, or political, or economic center.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">…Moscow be wiped off the face of the earth, and in its place we will make a giant water reservoir in order to destroy all memory of this city and what it was.”</strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGbsCbaq7D6Tjr9ojeazkY2rQ_9zLH8RfOjBLGVXS0rIjvNy53D61-MKA2Ks0d7dgIEVetMz9zpnOdzT9-qfG-MjKhyTA5SeRlcavkKirhKpJ-5NVMI4HffkmkoI_akDVLcuIWq0Z7Xczl/s1600/wounded-in-wwii-300x185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGbsCbaq7D6Tjr9ojeazkY2rQ_9zLH8RfOjBLGVXS0rIjvNy53D61-MKA2Ks0d7dgIEVetMz9zpnOdzT9-qfG-MjKhyTA5SeRlcavkKirhKpJ-5NVMI4HffkmkoI_akDVLcuIWq0Z7Xczl/s1600/wounded-in-wwii-300x185.jpg" /></a></div>
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<h1 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Roboto Slab", serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 2px;">
—-</h1>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Letter of Lieutenant Ewald Lassen (July 2)</strong></div>
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Dear brother Freddy! Everything is wonderful! Our company at first crossed the river Bug, and destroyed 3 border bunkers, and on the first day of fighting advanced 40 kilometers in…</div>
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It’s been already a week and a half as we have been fighting and moving forward. Raging fires are everywhere, and there are huge black pillars of smoke.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Any compassion towards the Russians is impossible, we exterminate fleeing Russians in huge quantities. There are thousands of corpses lying in the fields, on the roads and in the villages. No one removes or buries them. We should be glad that the führer fooled Stalin and hit sooner, than the Russians were prepared to repel our attacks, because if they were ready, the things wouldn’t go so well for us. Now it is clear that the outcome of the war is predetermined, and Russia sang it’s last song.</div>
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Every day confirms the words of the greatest of men our commander Adolf Hitler that this war is a crusade against the Bolsheviks and Jews is the most sacred of all wars in German history and for this reason we scarify everything.</div>
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What a joy to feel involved in the defeat of this state and its Red Army…</div>
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=======</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Letter from corporal troops “SS” Willie Steube (23 July</strong>)</div>
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Dear mother! Ukraine is a fabulously rich land, the fat black Ukrainian earth was created by God for the German ploughs. Ukraine could feed not only Germany, but all the annexed countries and territories.</div>
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We live here like gods. Chickens, geese, eggs, roast, butter, cream, sour cream, juices, wine, honey — every day.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
But to take it from the hands of these dirty and sick people are dangerous and scary: I couldn’t put anything in your mouth they offer, so we take it all by yourself. It’s very simple, without much discussion, but following the German purity. If we want meat, we take an alive pig and slaughter it, the same with calf or geese. If we want fresh milk, we milk the cows. If we want honey, we get it right from its comb, and doing it so cleverly, that not a single bee would bite.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Right now my friend calls me, he opened a hive and I am dying to try fresh honey. We have every right to believe that all this wealth and abundance belongs to us. If someone does not like it, we just stick a gun between their teeth and they go silent. The same our soldiers do when they need a woman. As you know, while we’re here we don’t have to polite with this lowlifes. They are especially afraid of us the “SS” forces.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
I feel like a winner every step of the way, it feels amazingly nice to show that we the Germans, are the lords and absolute owners of everything around us. I like this kind of life very much.</div>
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============</div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Letter from corporal Walter Koch (July 28)</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
My priceless treasure! For a month we advanced East 750 km, all goes according to the Fuhrer’s plan, and in August we should be in Moscow. After the surrender of Russia, it will be the British turn and then America’s.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The commander of our battalion, major Seifert is convinced that every Russian should be killed everywhere, and we have this task performed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Tomorrow I’ll send you another parcel. I have prepared the following things.[A list of children clothes and household items follows.]</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The blue, almost new suit for our little Puni, there are some blood stains. I’m sorry, my heart’s treasure, but we are in the field, to wouldn’t be that difficult for you to get rid of blood stains with the help of my uncle Herbert.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
You wrote about some paintings in gilded frames and other art objects. I remember this all the time, but found nothing suitable so far. Nothing good or valuable, nothing you dream of for our cozy place.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
I kiss both of you long and strong kiss.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Your daddy Walter</div>
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============</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Letter from the head of a group of chroniclers chief-cameraman Otto Lange</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The materials that we have sent demonstrate that you are totally missing out on one of the major issues in our propaganda.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
You strive to capture the victorious advance of our troops and make it highly professional. However, you ignored the most important task. We should immediately, clearly and convincingly show to the German people and all of the Europe, that Soviet Russia is a multimillion assemblage of racially inferior and degenerat bastards: Jews and Asians, who represent a terrible danger to civilized humanity.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
In this aspect, pay attention to the experience of Dr. Muller, who in Ukraine found in one mental hospital two dozen of mentally ill, and dressed them into the uniforms of commanders and commissars of the Red Army. He photographed them under different angles, dirty and unshaven, and created the whole gallery of disgusting, repulsive, aggressive idiots that makes a strong impression.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Also, what deserves your attention is the work of Dr. Hecker, of filming the civilian population near Minsk. For greater credibility he used accompanying text of the chronicles and make them look even more disgusting by dressing those civilians in rags: old sweaters, torn jackets. The men are unshaven, barefoot, in dirty shirts, without ties, holding their falling down pants, since he took their belts. Unkempt women with the brutal expression on the faces we made to hold axes and pitchforks. These images also evoked an active distaste and disgust.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Of course, there should not be a template, maybe you can create a variety of solutions. However, when photographing the Russian prisoners of war and local population it is necessary to try to show the ugliest of Jewish and Asian types, whose faces express anger and hatred and can cause in response only similar sentiments, and, above all, disgust and hatred.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
I hope that my views expressed in this letter will help you in your productive future;</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Heil Hitler!</div>
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Your Henry Demel.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGH141Zh9X3zMvfhjdYLoz0dI6s00gXHDFiBTcCuk1VkEcgpXrxqIbbVgwYB5MS1jNaLY0nKNcig8NTVl_HlaxXynOORkcn3PNjZRJzhieuO25WvZ7VwnlXCqdDw3BLGQrkapyrx7F20Z1/s1600/women-front-WWII-300x213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGH141Zh9X3zMvfhjdYLoz0dI6s00gXHDFiBTcCuk1VkEcgpXrxqIbbVgwYB5MS1jNaLY0nKNcig8NTVl_HlaxXynOORkcn3PNjZRJzhieuO25WvZ7VwnlXCqdDw3BLGQrkapyrx7F20Z1/s1600/women-front-WWII-300x213.jpg" /></a></div>
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====================</div>
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From the letters of the Germans to the eastern front</div>
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To Ober-Lieutenant Heinz Heidenreich/ Neuhausen, June 29, 1941</div>
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My dear boy!</div>
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You participated in the battle for Smolensk? Three time I watched chronicled in “Vohenshau”. What a grandiose view! On the screen tanks were moving, guns rumbled, and our tanned, dusty, smiling young men in shirts with rolled elbow-length sleeves, among them I was hoping to see you my favorite person. And then the field that has been littered with corpses of Russians, and the columns of prisoners of war. Those horrible alive Russians, they look like beasts, just looking at these creatures we can see the horror, a horrible mob that you must fight! Their country is so terrible, so terrible that I don’t know how you and your soldiers are moving forward there.</div>
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When I see this on the screen, only then I realize what you, poor boys have to endure. However, I hope that the greatest challenges are already behind you, Moscow will fall soon and the war will end. I pray daily for your return. Send you greetings and kisses with a caring love — your mother.</div>
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======================</div>
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to the Lieutenant Nola Franz (Munich, 19 July 1941)</div>
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My dear! I have received your letters No. 4 n No. 5, and No. 3 is still not here. Parcel No. 57 of June 30, No. 12 dated July 4, and No. 86 dated July 9, I got one too. The clothing and footwear from Russia do not have decent quality, clumsy and ugly. Do you think that I’m going to wear this?.. The Corporal Kurtof sent Mitzi three massive gold rings, pendant with large diamonds and fur of a beautiful silver fox. This has value. Mitzi gave me an advice: if you occasionally send gold and precious stones, to avoid possible hassles at the border, where the luggage of the soldiers are being examined quite carefully, it’s the best to stick jewelry into a bar of soap.</div>
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On the radio right now there is an emergency message broadcasting about new major victories in the East. This is epic! What a great happiness to be these days a German! Keep on, but be careful!</div>
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Your Elfriede.</div>
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=================</div>
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To the Feldwebel Kurt Hesse (July 22, 1941)</div>
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My dear hubby! Now, the direct road to Moscow is opened. Moscow is a big city, with a huge number of prostitutes, dirty and contagious. I understand that a young, healthy man need a relief time from time. In two little parcels I’ve sent you 3 cakes, 2 apples, cookies, a bag of sausage, cigarettes, and 20 condoms. If you love me and little Rosie, don’t do anything without them. This should be enough for awhile.</div>
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I send you many greetings and passionate kisses.</div>
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Your wife Irma.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2lzCedUjLWpbxhI4fLy_uw6DjyDEor-4aTRR8DVDXpj9YXw6-rojuoljDErPO2On7ZO8ttbfRw5DArdoqR_ZwiU_sJi1QczUa9Pd2EViah3zCwBOnTAkKuQcG9FaqLtFnI5RvbAMXjL07/s1600/women-in-wwii2-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2lzCedUjLWpbxhI4fLy_uw6DjyDEor-4aTRR8DVDXpj9YXw6-rojuoljDErPO2On7ZO8ttbfRw5DArdoqR_ZwiU_sJi1QczUa9Pd2EViah3zCwBOnTAkKuQcG9FaqLtFnI5RvbAMXjL07/s1600/women-in-wwii2-300x225.jpg" /></a></div>
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=========</div>
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To the chief Leitenanta Richard Lange (Germic, July 30, 1941)</div>
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Dear boy! The newsreel that we watch 2-3 times a week, each time, horrified by an unprecedented poverty, abominable roads and unseemly types, with which you have to deal with. Oh, these terrible, criminal, stupid faces, apparently all Jews. And then some women with guns and pathetic, starving children, sick and infested with parasites. Whether these creatures and their entire criminal state has any right to exist?</div>
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Imagine, Richard, that on these territories there are people, or rather, the large apes that think that their bestial existence is the Paradise.</div>
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The movie theaters are filled starting with early morning. Every German wants to enjoy the sight of your victories in Russia and to see our enemies being brought to their knees. Even I, a kind middle-aged woman, a devout and exemplary Catholic, am getting a great satisfaction watching thousands of prisoners walking along the roads, these criminal types, and especially I enjoy the sight of countless corpses. I watch every newsreels for 3-4 times. Yeah, I’m not ashamed to say that the corpses of the enemies make me happy. It’s hard to accept the idea that such backward degenerate nation takes from us so many sacrifices. But this nation must be thrown away out of the history of the world like garbage, once and for all.</div>
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God bless you as He kept you in Poland, in Holland and in France.</div>
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Loving you to pieces your mother and grandmother.</div>
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==============</h1>
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Now you see who and why attacked us and invaded our Homeland! Judge for yourself what those “civilized Europeans” thought of us. Read what they wanted to do to us.! Do you think that today’s Europeans and Americans think about us differently? Do you think they would treat us humanly, if they are given a chance to attack us again? You would think wrong. Remember, what they have been doing in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Syria…</div>
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====</div>
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Newly released UN “Nazi Holocaust archives” show US & UK colluded with Third Reich to destroy Soviet Union</h2>
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Veritas: ” It was an important piece of news that the UN had finally opened up the archives – despite US/UK trying to stop the info getting out. It also backs up everything that the site has always said.</div>
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I think the release of this information by the UN needs to be highlighted on the site. It is so important that everyone is aware – of course the MSM isn’t covering this……<a href="http://theduran.com/newly-released-un-nazi-holocaust-archives-show-us-uk-colluded-with-third-reich-to-destroy-soviet-union/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">the Duran has highlighted it</a>:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">:…the Western governments, or at least powerful sections, were loath to hamper the Nazi war effort against the Soviet Union. Notwithstanding that the Soviet Union was a nominal «ally» of the West for the defeat of Nazi Germany.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">This perspective harks to a radically different conception of the Second World War in contrast to that narrated in official Western versions. In this alternative historical account, the rise of the Nazi Third Reich was deliberately fomented by American and British rulers as a bulwark in Europe against the spread of communism. Adolf Hitler’s rabid anti-Semitism was matched only by his detest of Marxism and the Slavic people of the Soviet Union. In the Nazi ideology, they were all «Untermenschen» (subhumans) to be exterminated in a «Final Solution».</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> So, when Nazi Germany was attacking the Soviet Union and carrying out its Final Solution from June 1941 until late 1944, little wonder then that the US and Britain showed a curious reluctance to commit their military forces fully to open up a Western Front. The Western allies were evidently content to see the Nazi war machine doing what it was originally intended to do: to destroy the primary enemy to Western capitalism as represented by the Soviet Union.”</em></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Scott Humor</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Director of Research and Development</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
author of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-State-excerpt-Russian-Biography-ebook/dp/B01M319Y54" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The enemy of the State</a></em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-15747886774625260922017-05-11T15:50:00.002-07:002017-05-11T15:50:23.977-07:00French Revolution, Take II: “Après Soi, Le Déluge”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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by <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ghassan Kadi</strong></div>
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The weak and selfish French monarch Louis the XV is perhaps best known for his famous/infamous quote; “Après moi, le déluge” (after me, the flood).</div>
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The weak and selfish monarch was at least wise enough to realize that during the time of his reign, the people of France had had enough of the ruthless yoke of absolute monarchy that his predecessor, Louis the XIV, epitomized in the worst manner possible.</div>
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Louis did not only have a premonition about a cataclysmic event that was about to hit France, but he also knew that there was precious little that he could do in an attempt to avert it, so he decided to savour his privileges whilst he could, because his premonition also told him that he could, and that it was his successor who had to bear the brunt.</div>
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The rest is history.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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The French Revolution that took about a hundred years to finally manage to create the changes it was intended to implement has faced a number of challenges, and the French people have successfully managed to keep France’s nose above the water, and emerge after WWII as a victorious nation and an eventual permanent member of the UNSC, even though technically-speaking, the formal French Government, represented by Vichy, had actually lost the war.</div>
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Had it not been for the genius of General Charles De Gaulle and his Free France movement, France might have been reduced to the level of other European nations like Italy or Spain, even Austria.</div>
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But the French are resilient people and always managed to reinvent themselves and move with the times. The reforms that De Gaulle introduced with his Fifth Republic are perhaps the biggest recent success.</div>
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A few decades later, The dream that French President Mitterand and German Chancellor Kohl in creating the Euro-Zone does not seem to be working to the expectations. One does not need to take the stand of Marine Le Pen to cognize this.</div>
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But today’s problems of France do not start and end with the EU and the Euro. The French society is fragmented, terrorized, and a significant fraction of it is claiming that France is losing its identity.</div>
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We can learn from history as much as we can, but what gleans from pre-French Revolution France, does not necessarily reveal that France had bigger problems during the reign of Louis the XV as much as it has had during the reign of Hollande. Without being able to take a trip in time and live the events of the days of Louis the XV and later on the XVI, we can only get information from reading books that were written before cameras, voice and video recorders, and the Internet were invented.</div>
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In retrospect, it would be hard to imagine that a bigger proportion of the French population in pre-French Revolution France knew and was concerned about what was happening behind closed doors within the Élysée. It would be hard to imagine that Louis the XV and the XVI had a lower popularity than Hollande’s infamous 4% popularity rate.</div>
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So what is really stopping the French people from the French Revolution take II?</div>
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To qualify this statement properly and put it in context of 21st Century democracy, French people neither need or are expected to storm a new-found Bastille again. In today’s time and age, they can revolt at the ballot box, but they seem reluctant to do so.</div>
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The reason behind their reluctance is not exactly known and identified, but we all have the right to analyze and speculate.</div>
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The reluctance of French people to seek change is not because they do not realize that France is in trouble, but because they do not know the actual nature of that trouble, they don’t know how to deal with it, and they are fearful of the policies for change strewn at them.</div>
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In reality, they saw Macron as the devil they know something about. They expect him to make “some” change. They know that his centrist party is a remodeled version of the Socialist Party that Hollande managed to destroy, and is much as they disliked Hollande, the hope that Macron, by taking a centrist tact, will create some favourable change.</div>
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On the other hand, they saw in Marie Le Pen the unknown ultra-right loose cannon. They saw in her a divisive leader despite her attempts to unify French people; attempts that in hindsight came in the too little too late category. It is not surprising that French people decided to stick with what they know; painful as it may be.</div>
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Whether Marie Le Pen reinvents herself or passes on the reigns to her niece Marine as some are speculating, little will change unless the French people reach a level of conviction that they have a leadership they can trust to take them forward into a very challenging future.</div>
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Either way, Macron does not have the hallmarks of the leader who is able to save France from a seemingly impending tsunami.</div>
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With his little experience, ill-defined policies, and little or no political support base that will enable him to form a stable and efficient government, the best that Macron can do is to maintain France’s status quo.</div>
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Either way again, France is in deep trouble. France has financial, political, ethnic and religious problems, and her biggest problem is in the lack of proper and unifying leadership; a situation that is historically akin to the days of the infamous Louis the XV and his perhaps only documented quote of turning the blind eye to the flood that was coming after his days.</div>
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Given all the damage and carnage that Hollande has generated for France and the French people, given how he kowtowed to Obama and Merkel, given how he played a big role in destabilizing Europe with his stands on Ukraine and Russia, given his position on the “War on Syria” and the eventual export of the rise in terrorism in Syria to the EU, given his inability to deal with rising terrorism that devastated France and divided her people, and finally, given his acceptance that he was not prepared to face the voters for another tenure at the Élysée, is he the one who is inadvertently saying after me the flood or is he passing on the baton to his protégé Macron?</div>
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France sadly seems to be set on course for major upheaval and the recent electoral decision French people made has only succeeded in delaying having to deal with the problem.</div>
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How will France move on from here will depend on how long will Macron last, how long will he need to bring France down to her knees or anarchy, and how long will it take before he incarnates either Louis, the XV or the XVI.</div>
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The short-term future of France seems to question of “après moi, le deluge” (after me, the flood), or après soi, le déluge (after him, the flood). This is how history is likely to read Hollande’s mind as he hands over the keys of the Élysée to the young Macron.</div>
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On the positive flip-side, what is of significant interest here is that France is leading a trend in Europe, a way in the West that seems unnoticed. Just like the French Revolution has led the way for liberation and inspired many generations globally, for better or for worse, the rise of Macron to power has broken the traditional Western two party monopoly, and that’s already something, or as the French put it, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">c’est déjà quelque chose</em>.</div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-66190356452062640892017-04-23T12:30:00.001-07:002017-04-23T12:30:30.755-07:00What Fake Agencies Do To African Women - for educational purpose only<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UYeljgWjRMI" width="459"></iframe>Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-37897436879100115092017-04-18T22:39:00.001-07:002017-04-18T22:39:00.293-07:00Man Gets Glued To His Best Friends Wife<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-H_Htq195V4" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "YouTube Noto", Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Man Gets Glued To His Best Friends Wife While Seriously Hammering Her From The Back. Any idea what causes this ?</span>Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-86945798283223552602017-04-17T09:29:00.002-07:002017-04-17T09:29:21.362-07:00NY Times: France can only choose between globalization and racism?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5L_0yWq5GBHD9JedYxBRxNsmvuUBjB-TDdNZ5lou9fGr0VB5V0jUvIwJtkmN8QvuCrq9f-9wwhgt8Shoczk_l2aFFoQajjeVMCnCKp_hvtI8rl_X0e2jObuj7p0hFt_gBmm6iAA44NNer/s1600/region-france.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5L_0yWq5GBHD9JedYxBRxNsmvuUBjB-TDdNZ5lou9fGr0VB5V0jUvIwJtkmN8QvuCrq9f-9wwhgt8Shoczk_l2aFFoQajjeVMCnCKp_hvtI8rl_X0e2jObuj7p0hFt_gBmm6iAA44NNer/s640/region-france.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />by <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ramin Mazaheri</strong></div>
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So there I was again, on an airplane from San Francisco to New York – the “job creators’ red-eye” – and I had plenty of time to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/opinion/sunday/france-in-the-end-of-days.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">read the New York Times’ Roger Cohen cover the French presidential election in an extended Sunday Review format</a>.</div>
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Joy of joys! Our “paper of record” has sent Cohen back to cover his old beat for the election. Get ready for some enlightening, edifying, inspirational analysis! Light to the masses from the best of the best – commence!</div>
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The title is: “France in the End of Days”. Well…Paris can be gloomy in the spring, I suppose.</div>
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Now let’s hear the case before we judge, but let’s make one thing clear: The “Anglo-balization” candidate must win, of course.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“For some time France has been a country that does not like itself.”</em></div>
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Well I know America does not like France – they’re pretty much the only country we can make fun of with total impunity – so I’m glad Cohen began his feature op-ed by writing something that already agrees with my assessment. A good columnist plays to his audience, after all.</div>
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But, you know, I met a French guy once and he seemed to go and on about how great French culture was, French history, French language, French food, the French countryside, the French cityside, French painting – I mean that guy loved France to pieces. He must have been an outlier….</div>
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Cohen started to write about Marine Le Pen, and at that point I started to notice my hands shaking uncontrollably.</div>
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I was about to reach for my medication, because I knew what the problem was: I was going through “Russia withdrawal”: I had been interacting with an American news media for nearly 30 seconds without any reference to Vladimir Putin! That bane of everyone’s existence! The reason for what’s wrong in the world! The cause of my childhood problems! Thankfully, I can save my pills for later because Cohen gave me my fix before his 2nd paragraph was done – tough luck Pfizer!</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has been meddling, would be happy.”</em></div>
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Ahh, we can’t have that! Never-happy Vladdy! That should be a new slogan! Hell, it’s a damned political platform as far as this patriotic American is concerned!</div>
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And just read – he has been “meddling”…in France, I assume? Or maybe Cohen means just “meddling” in general? Does Vladimir ever not “meddle” – can’t he just ever mildly “tinker” or “fiddle”?</div>
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There are other candidates in the election, apparently.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“…and an extreme leftist, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Unbowed France movement, whose support has surged in recent days. The left, still singing the Internationale and plotting class struggle, is in disarray.”</em></div>
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Seems odd that the extreme left has done well enough to have “surged” and yet is in “disarray”? The existence of such a paradox must be due to the end of days – and today is Easter, no less!</div>
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If Melenchon is an “extreme leftist”, then I wonder what’s a communist or even an anarchist? An “extreme extreme-leftist” and an “extreme extreme extreme-leftist?” This is like “postmodernism” – I don’t get any of it. Best to move on to the Times’ approved experts.</div>
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Pascal Bruckner, is the lead quote. Ah yes, I remember him: He helped convince everyone to bomb Yugoslavia. He wrote that great updating of Kipling with <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Tears of the White Man</em>, which is exactly what it sounds like. And let’s not forget <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Tyranny of Guilt</em> – I wondered why he didn’t add “White” in front of “Guilt” that time?</div>
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What’s certain is that Bruckner is not the extreme right, much less the extreme extreme-right: Marine Le Pen is!</div>
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After all, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-lepen-chad-idUSKBN16T34O" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">she called to abolish the CFA Franc in order to return economic independence to 14 African countries, even calling it a “hindrance to the economic development”?</a> Such extreme right tyranny will make White Men in corporations cry tears of guilt over lost profits! Who is she, Ghadaffi, another extreme extreme rightist!</div>
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Well, let’s hear what these economic extremists have to say:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“’There is no right or left. This election is about patriotism versus globalization,’ Nicolas Bay, the secretary-general of the National Front, told me.”</em></div>
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You know who else goes on and on about patriotism and its corollary of national sovereignty? Must I name the evil name and risk bad spirits entering my body and requiring more medication? My therapist said it was not enough that <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/04/12/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-sees-a-russia-connection-lurking-around-every-corner/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Rachel Maddow focused on this man for 53% of her reports over a 6-week period</a>, so I’ll be strong and say it: Putin. My therapist said Maddow needs to bump that percentage up to 80% over 12 weeks – my fingers are crossed, and my TiVo is set.</div>
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Cohen then sat down with Emmanuel Macron, who appears to be the only candidate according to many media. I love Cohen’s description of him: “Small, with glittering blue eyes…” Wow, he sounds dreamy, but manageable.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“In an interview, Macron told me: ‘Look, do you want to strengthen Europe, to have a strong reformed France, or do you just want to leave this world and return to the 19th century?’”</em></div>
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You had me at “reformed France”, eyes of blue!</div>
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Clearly, There Is No Alternative: more globalism or regression by three centuries. It’s not complicated! America gets this, why can’t France?</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“The red state-blue state chasm, in various guises, is the core cultural condition of the West,“ </em>wrote Cohen.</div>
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That’s reassuring: the problems with Brussels, Europe’s peculiar history, local specificities – all that is just a “guise,” and not a real difference – France is like us. Or they should be more like us but won’t accept it! Well, Macron will.</div>
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Cohen cites a poll conducted in 2014 that found that 74 percent of French workers felt they were no longer “at home”.</div>
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I’m not really sure what that means: they’re French…they’re as at home as can be? I mean, the outside world is not your living room, so c’mon – get hip to geography. But this is the existential problem, after all: Where ever you go, there you are…and, sadly, you are French. I don’t have that problem, thankfully.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Europe used to signify stability and peace,” </em>writes Cohen.</div>
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That is absolutely the case! What is all this anti-EU, anti-Euro nonsense I’m reading about?</div>
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Of course, there isn’t stability or peace now in Ukraine, or during the breakup of Yugoslavia, or the Cold War, or WWII, or WWI, or the period of conquering colonization, or the period of religious wars. But history books confirm that there was a day – I think it was a Tuesday – back in the year 1145 where not one country in Europe was at war.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“74 percent saw globalization as a threat (while 68 percent of managers saw it as an opportunity).”</em></div>
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Finally, some common sense from the bosses of the common men! There are a lot of private businesses in France, so I’m going to assume that 68% of managers equals an overall majority – stop denying democracy, Le Pen!</div>
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Polls are not always interesting.</div>
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I have this co-worker whom I can’t stand – his name is Fazlollah Bittermani. No one can pronounce that, so we just call him Lefty. He’s from…someplace west of China and not Europe. Maybe Western China. Nobody can really understand him, but he keeps talking.</div>
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We were talking about France and Lefty told me about <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/10/20/97001-20161020FILWWW00021-23-des-francais-jugent-les-politiques-corrompus.php" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">a poll: he said that 77% of France thinks their parliamentarians are corrupt</a>, so what kind of a democracy is that to emulate? Before I could respond, he said he knew about <a href="http://etudiant.lefigaro.fr/article/99-des-jeunes-pensent-que-les-hommes-politiques-sont-corrompus_18a752d8-c2b5-11e6-9da1-d53405673179/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">another poll which found that 99% of 18-34 year-olds all of France’s politicians are corrupt</a>.</div>
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My coworkers seemed interested in this, so I quickly asked Fazlollah where he got this information and he said, “Uh….Rachel Maddow”. I told him the truth: such high numbers of dissatisfaction and popular rejection only exist in Russia. I heard murmurs of approval, but perhaps they were of doubt ?</div>
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“Fazlollah,” I shouted. “When are you going to finally change your crazy name?! It sounds like you took two totally different names and just joined to them together!”</div>
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Everybody laughed! When things are getting away from me I always just make fun of his name. Or better yet, his accent. Lefty just stalked off and went to eat that weird-colored rice stuff he always brings. Rice is supposed to be white!</div>
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Anyway, the real problem is not multicolored rice-ism, but the National Front. Cohen will get to the bottom of them – he was introduced to Florian Philippot, one of Le Pen’s top advisers</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Philippot is a slick operator. He did not have time to talk…”</em></div>
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What? Are you saying that Philippot turned down an interview? He deigned to not be in the world’s greatest newspaper, The New York Times?</div>
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The effrontery of the man! You don’t have time for the Times? You make time, baby! If not – you are an agent of Trump! Which makes you an agent of Putin! Upon touching down at De Gaulle Airport Roger Cohen became the most credible, the most important journalist possible: a regular columnist for the New York Times! You’re lucky we’re even covering your lousy election because we should be talking about Russia! Now where are my pills?!</div>
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Cohen attended a National Front meeting, where this appalling Philippot guy called Macron an agent of high finance. Like it was an insult or something!</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Somebody in the crowd shouted ‘Rothschild!’ and then again ‘Rothschild!’ — a reference to the bank where Macron once worked. The attempt to rid the National Front of its anti-Semitism is clearly a work in progress.”</em></div>
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I’ll admit: I didn’t get this. I didn’t see the link between the fact that Macron worked for the first family of international finance and anti-Semitism.</div>
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But now I do: being against the Rothschilds is bad because they are Jewish. And being against any Jew is bad, regardless of what they do personally.</div>
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No, wait…I think it’s that Rothschilds are powerful bankers, and that powerful bankers are Jews, and…wait, that’s not coming out right.</div>
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Here it is: The National Front supporters hate the Rothschilds because they are Jewish bankers; if the Rothschilds weren’t Jewish, there would be no problem…because National Front supporters love high finance like everyone else!</div>
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I have a banker friend – I have many banker friends – who said he was glad the Rothschilds are Jewish – said it was a good distraction. I didn’t get what he meant? Maybe he understood what Cohen meant, too? Anyway, forget about that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">poseur</em> Philippot.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Le Pen entered to thunderous applause in a black pantsuit. It’s easy to imagine her an everywoman telling it like it is.”</em></div>
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Roger has an eye for ladies’ fashions – very chic of him – but what were the men wearing? I spend big bucks on my French fashions and want to make sure I’m <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">au courant</em>.</div>
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The larger point is: what’s more “everywoman” than a pantsuit? Hillary couldn’t have been more salt of the earth, after all, and she popularized the pantsuit! I like to imagine Hillary in a pantsuit while being a supermarket cashier, farmer, cubicle worker, factory worker, farmer, housewife, etc.</div>
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Well, the National Front is a problem in France, but they have even bigger problems.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Over 31 percent of gross domestic product is spent on health, unemployment and other benefits, compared to 24.6 percent in Germany. France has in effect made a structural choice for unemployment. Everyone knows this.”</em></div>
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What is with the French and their insistence on having a benefit which includes health? Health is not a benefit! And everyone knows the French have made a structural choice for unemployment – it’s great to be unemployed in France!</div>
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All those Mohammads and Jean-Claudes and Maries living on their 400 euros a month RSA “benefit” without working…appalling. Oh yes, they chose to be unemployed for so long! I wish I got 400 euros a month for being unemployed! Why I’d cash in my stock options and my 401k and I’d be quite happy with my 400 euros per month, splitting time between my 3 residences, I can tell you that!</div>
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What I like about Cohen is that he isn’t afraid to take on the system. That’s why he puts stuff like “the system” in quotes, because the system obviously doesn’t exist:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Le Pen’s line of attack on Macron is clear: he is the perpetuation of Hollande, the representative of “the system” and a product of “international finance,” with all the attendant innuendo.”</em></div>
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Oh yes, quotes for “international finance” too – it’s like the Mafia, never admit its existence, Roger!</div>
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And the “innuendo” is clearly another anti-Semitic trope sniffed out by Cohen! Why, even the New York City WASP bankers are being victimized by this anti-Semitism! The bankers in Hong Kong and Dubai – more victims of clear anti-Semitic innuendo! When will the persecution of bankers end?!</div>
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Why are we demonizing the Jews with crazy conspiracy theories when we should be looking at Russia! Thankfully Cohen did with his very next line – thank God (Jewish or not) for honest journalism:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“This attack is pretty disgusting, which is not to say it won’t work. Russia is helping.”</em></div>
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Russia is helping to spread anti-Semitism! Who has Rachel Maddow’s phone number? This is her lead item from tonight until May sweeps week!</div>
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Cohen went back to Macron.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Modernity is disruptive,” Macron declared, “and I endorse that.”</em></div>
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Yes! That is what the people want! Disruptions, not stability! Peace, land, bread – no! Liberty, equality, fraternity – no! Education and safety – no! Modern people prefer disruption, get with the times!</div>
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Are you unemployed? It’s simply disruptive modernity, stop whining! Are you laying on a hospital gurney in a hallway instead of being in a room? Being against disruptive modernity is your only illness – walk it off! Can’t hear me because your pension made you choose between heat and hearing aids? VOTE FOR MACRON AND DISRUPTIVE MODERNITY!!!!!</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“When neoliberal economics was triumphing everywhere, we refused to adopt it,”</em> said Macron (as Cohen gazed deeply into his glittering blue eyes.) <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“And now when demagogues are winning, in France pragmatism is going to win.”</em></div>
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This is my guy: the resistance to the triumph of neoliberal economics is the number one problem of Europe. Macron has the eyes of an angel, and the mind of an artist. Which is why Cohen then referenced the great French writer Michel Houellebecq.</div>
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Houellebecq is part of that wonderful French intellectual tradition exemplified by that great humanist the Marquis De Sade and Céline, who found Hitler’s tolerance too generous. I once read a poetry book by Houellebecq – <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Art of Struggle – </em>his vison of the world is so depressing that when I put it down I sincerely contemplated suicide. What a great artist!</div>
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This was really some great journalism right here: Not only did Cohen dare to go the Muslim suburbs, but he actually got a man to go on the record with his first and last name and then publicly turn in his criminal son:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“My son drifts around the projects selling drugs,” he says.</em></div>
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(I’d reprint this father’s name, but I didn’t get the quote of someone accusing someone of a crime – libel laws, and all that.)</div>
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But thank God Cohen printed that – I’m sure the police will be immediately notified and his son will be arrested shortly. This is why The New York Times is so good – they find informants, publish them, and help clean up society’s big problems. I’m sure that guy is quite happy he talked to Cohen! His wife, too! Happy Easter!</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“As I leave (the 30% immigrant suburb of) Sevran, a lanky kid barges into me. “You could excuse yourself,” he says, looking for a fight. We square up; he moves off, muttering insults. Violence simmers just beneath the surface.”</em></div>
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More anti-Semitism? More anti-high finance sentiment? Was the kid Palestinian – they’re hungry, so they must be lanky? Who is at fault here, Cohen? Please be clearer when including the culture-defining moment of almost bumping into someone on the street. (It can never happen here.)</div>
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After this short trip to the Muslim “no-go zones”, Detective Cohen decided one arrest was enough, and he went back to interviewing the National Front.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Another Macron stumble — the decision to go to Algiers to tell an autocrat that France should apologize for its colonial-era ‘crimes against humanity’ — caused the mayor to explode.”</em></div>
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Totally a stumble, Cohen is right – why should France apologize for colonial era “crimes against humanity”? I’m glad to see Cohen wasn’t bashful with those quotation marks!</div>
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Let’s recap: Right-wing author for a lead quote, right-wing writers for cultural reference, right-wing economic Macron, right-wing mayors for interviews, anti-imperialist Algerian government denigrated as “autocrats” – this is the type of American leftist journalism we desperately need! Sorry, Fox News!</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“After the meeting, I am joined by two leftists who worked in education before retirement….”</em></div>
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Ohhh, Roger. You’re getting soft – soft like old leftists.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Their issue is growing inequality and what they call the ‘pauperization’ of France as the welfare state and workers’ rights and salaries are gradually eroded. They wanted a ‘social Europe’; they got what they see as a Europe of ruthless capitalism.”</em></div>
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Pauperization, social Europe – don’t they just look wrong without the quotation marks?</div>
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Cohen was smart: He immediately cut this nonsense short by getting the restaurant owner into his discussion with these two ancient, outdated leftists stuck in the past.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“People need to know they can be fired. Otherwise all sense of responsibility is lost. You have to decide in life: Do you want to work or not?”</em></div>
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I say the same thing to my employees: “Do you want to work for ME or not?”</div>
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Because my thing is clear: I’m the boss, you are the slave, excuse me, the worker, excuse me that’s too class conscious, the employee.</div>
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Anyway, you can’t work for “the people” – we’re cutting government jobs anywhere possible.</div>
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So you can work for ME or not work at all, for all I care. I mean, what is this – Russia? I didn’t really mean to write that last part – it just comes out: force of habit.</div>
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Cohen gets to the heart of the matter with his final paragraph – a sad lament of a glorious aristocratic past.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Seeking quiet, I wander into a park that was once the grounds of the chateau where Francis I made French the language of the land. The chateau, its roof sagging, its windows boarded up, is collapsing into ruin.”</em></div>
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Francis I and his ruined feudal-era castle…I’m getting misty. I bet Francis the First was a great man (he was “the first”, after all) but lived modestly in his castle, surrounded by his slaves, I mean his beloved employees, I mean his fellow teammates.</div>
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One thing is sure: I bet Francis the First was a wonderful job creator…if the French only listened to him.</div>
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Maybe the French will shake off their depressed laziness, avoid the end of days, and vote for Emmanuel the First, I mean Emmanuel Macron?</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ramin Mazaheri</strong> is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television.</em></div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-68196946442368834372017-02-14T20:21:00.001-08:002017-02-14T20:21:37.766-08:00The Western roots of “Middle-Eastern” terrorism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
By Amir NOUR[1]<br />
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Convinced that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, is unacceptable and unjustifiable, member States of the United Nations were finally able to adopt, on September 8, 2006, a common approach within the framework of the “United Nations global counter-terrorism strategy ». But, ten years later, the “international community” has yet to agree on a consensus definition of the common enemy, which continues to grow and expand, thus inflicting devastation and untold misery, mainly to the States and the peoples of the Arab and Muslim world.<br />
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However, in a bitter irony, and in total defiance of established historical truths, these very victims and their majority religion -Islam- are accused by some of the crime of sponsoring transnational terrorism, hence jeopardizing international peace and security.<br />
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But who is really to be held liable for the birth and expansion of the phenomenon of violence in modern times, against the consequences of which a number of visionary thinkers like Malek Bennabi and Eric E. Hobsbawm had yet forewarned the world a century ago already?<br />
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The opinions exposed in this paper on this burning topic aren’t expressed by Muslim officials or thinkers. They are those of Westerners, at different levels of authority and moral and political responsibility, representing the obverse and the reverse of the terrorism medal, and pointing out the historical responsibility of some Western governments They are representative of a “politically incorrect” voice whose echo is barely audible in the middle of the media tumult skillfully orchestrated by the new “self-righteous”.<br />
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Terrorism, Islam and treason of the clerks<br />
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Recently, magistrate Vincent Sizaire, author of the book titled “L’Imposture sécuritaire”, explained[2] that the characterization of terrorism is more about political calculation than legal hermeneutics, since it is necessarily the result of a process of balance of power and political assessment, at the end of which the powers to be tend to apply it in a more or less discretionary manner to a particular criminal rather than another. Sizaire highlights how it is problematic, today, to use the same term to refer to activities undertaken by fanatical and obscurantist groups, and to actions of political opponents of authoritarian regimes.<br />
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Therefore, there can obviously be no question for the need to put forward a new definition of this concept, one less equivocal. Indeed, it should be pointed out that, to date, no one definition of terrorism has gained universal acceptance. Alex Schmid and Albert Jongman identify 109 different definitions[3]. The United Nations still can’t find an agreed upon definition among its member States since December 17, 1996, date of adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 51/210, by which it was decided to create a special Committee to develop a comprehensive convention on international terrorism. It’s so controversial a debate that, according to Oliver Libaw, even in the United States -where the “Global War on Terror” was launched in 2001- “it turns out that no one is all that sure just what ‘terrorism’ is”[4].<br />
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Thus, the future still looks bright for the famous and often-cited claim that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”[5]. Never mind! For one school of thought in the West, terrorism, barbarity and intolerance are consubstantial to Islam as a religion. Consequently, in the face of the “crazy Muslim zealots” who “see progress as an evil, tolerance as a weakness and pacifism as a sin”, and “call for murder and destruction”, resistance and relentless struggle are to be opposed within a “long Fourth World War”[6], akin to those waged by the “Free World” against fascism and nazism during the First and Second World Wars, and against communism during the third world war, presumably completed with the end of the cold war in 1989.<br />
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Nothing seems to shake the certainties of the proponents of this “dominant thought” often described as neoconservative, mainly conveyed by Western and Israeli think tanks, and relayed by their powerful mainstream media. And it would be pointless to remind them, for instance, that in the absence of a comprehensive international convention on terrorism-a result of the lack of a consensus definition that should be distinguished from the legitimate struggle of peoples for self-determination and which should include “State terrorism”- Arab and Muslim States have developed their own legal instruments within their regional groups; that in the 1990s, a country like Algeria fought alone against terrorism -before a suspicious international silence- that cost her more than 200,000 deaths and economic losses estimated at more than $ 30 billion; that 95% of lives lost to “terrorist barbarity” are to be found among Muslims[7]; that the highest official authorities of Islam have condemned without appeal both the ideology and actions of terrorist groups; and that the overwhelming majority of Muslim populations reject terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, as confirmed by statistics provided by Western survey institutes and agencies themselves.<br />
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In his time, Julien Benda denounced the “betrayal of the clerks”. More recently, Pascal Boniface pin the “intellectual counterfeiters” who bear a heavy responsibility in “the place occupied by lies in the public debate”. He targets in particular those who tend to equate Islam and terrorism by referring to “fascislamism” and contribute to nurture a neoconservative approach that thrives in the West since the 9/11 attacks.<br />
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We have already addressed this issue of Islam as a mobilizing and unifying scarecrow in the West[8]. We have reported “a dangerous semantic shift that we constantly observe since the fall of the Berlin Wall: from ‘counter-terrorism’ actions, we jumped to war against ‘Islamic terrorism’, and then to the fight against ‘Islamic extremism’ “. And we have, inevitably, raised the following question: “Are we soon going to abandon superfluous adjectives and hypocritical euphemisms to openly claim the war against Islam itself ?”. Since then, time and events seem to have proved us right…<br />
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Responsibility of the West regarding transnational terrorism<br />
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Some people believe that radical Islamism and jihadism are not an exclusive “creation” of the West. To think otherwise, they argue, would be to overestimate the Western influence in areas where many other local and international factors have contributed to their development over a long period of time. That is certainly right, and so is the fact that certain misguided policies pursued by Western powers, particularly by Anglo-Saxon countries, have greatly contributed to the emergence and expansion of these phenomena, especially since the iconic events of 9/11 and their disastrous ‘by-products’: the Afghan and Iraqi military expeditions.<br />
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Britain’s role<br />
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This view is shared by Mark Curtis, who documented in a book[9] the collusion of the United Kingdom with Islamism since the last century. Based on reliable documentation and government archives, he dissects an aspect of British foreign policy, which has remained curiously ignored or deliberately obscured by the mainstream media. This collusion, he says, has “a long history which has contributed not only to the rise of radical Islam itself, but also to that of international terrorism, which the new strategy of national security of the UK Government has designated as the biggest threat to the country”, and that the highest ranking officer of the British army has identified as “the fight of our generation, maybe our Thirty Years’ War”.<br />
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Curtis says that the share of responsibility of London in the emergence of the terrorist threat goes well beyond the impact its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have had on a few individuals. The most important fact in this story is, according to him, that the successive labour and conservative governments have, for decades, connived with radical Islamic forces, including terrorist organizations. They have, sometimes, trained and financed them in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives, with a view to desperately preserving what was left of British power and influence internationally, mainly in areas considered as sensitive but where it was no longer possible to impose their will and interests unilaterally or by relying on other local allies.<br />
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The role of the United States of America<br />
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In his book[10] published in 2005, Robert Dreyfuss meticulously documents the American role in this “Devil’s Game”. Drawing on archival research and interviews with policymakers and officials of the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department, he analyzes the consequences of “sixty years of misguided efforts” on the part of the United States in order to dominate the economically and strategically vital Middle East region. Dreyfuss argues that America’s historic alliance with the Islamic right is greatly to blame for the emergence of Islamist terrorism. He concludes by stating that “far from promoting democracy and security”, this policy, which continues to this day, “ensures a future of blunders and blowback”.<br />
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of the late U.S. President J.F. Kennedy, also considered the long history of the violent interventions of his country in the region. He explains in a long article[11] in “Politico” magazine why we should look beyond convenient explanations of religion and ideology and examine instead the more complex rationales of history and oil “and how they often point the finger of blame back at our own shores”. He also describes how “over the past seven decades, the Dulles brothers, the Cheney gang, the neocons and their ilk have hijacked that fundamental principle of American idealism and deployed our military and intelligence apparatus to serve the mercantile interests of large corporations and particularly, the petroleum companies and military contractors that have literally made a killing from these conflicts”.<br />
<br />
Moreover, a Foreign Policy Journal article[12] tells us that the White House had made the decision to support the armed radical Jihadists in Syria (that would later emerge as ISIL and Jabhat Al-Nusra) despite the warnings of the intelligence agencies, which provided for the advent of the Islamic State. This amazing information was confirmed by former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lieutenant General Michael Flynn –after he resigned from his post in April 2014, much to everyone’s surprise- who was previously the Director of information for the Center of command of special operations and, in that capacity, had the main mission to hunt down Usama Bin Laden and dismantle Al-Qaeda.<br />
<br />
It is worth noting that this piece of information and other related revelations have been reported in a documentary film[13] broadcast by ARTE-TV channel, which explains “how, from Bush to Obama, America has left prosper the blind terror that Daesh took over”. In this film, former members of the intelligence community, representatives of U.S. forces in Iraq, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and terrorism experts trace, with supporting evidence and archives, the thirteen years of “the lost war on terror”.<br />
<br />
Last but not least, during the 2016 presidential campaign, the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, said[14] that he meant exactly what he had declared previously in Florida, when he called President Barack Obama the “founder of ISIS”. And when the conservative radio show host, Hugh Hewitt, tried to clarify Trump’s position by saying he understood him to mean “that he (Obama) created the vacuum, he lost the peace”, D. Trump objected, declaring “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton”.<br />
<br />
France’s role<br />
<br />
In his latest book[15], French philosopher Michel Onfray states that “terrorist Islam” was partially created by the bellicose West. Denouncing what he calls “contemporary colonial wars” conducted by some Western countries including France, he argues that Islamic regimes only started to threaten the West once, and only once the latter had indeed threatened them by brutal force.<br />
<br />
For his part, Pierre Conesa, former senior official in the Ministry of defense, said[16] that his country “is paying a high price for a war that is not its own”. In this regard, he cites the example of the intervention in Libya where France has “done on its own account what Bush did in Iraq, which is destroying a regime and leaving behind chaos it has no ability to manage”.<br />
<br />
In Syria, especially during the period when Laurent Fabius was the head of the Quai d’Orsay, this dubious interventionist policy resulted in total support to the rebels fighting against Al-Assad regime. Believing that the departure of the latter “is only a matter of weeks”, Fabius said in August 2012 “Bashar Al-Assad would not deserve to be on Earth”. And in December of the same year, reacting to Washington’s decision to place Jabhat Al-Nusra on its list of terrorist organizations, he declared: “All Arabs were fiercely against” the American position “because, on the ground, they (the elements of Al-Nusra) do a good job”[17].<br />
<br />
In conclusion, we would like to invite the public to ponder the wisdom of a thinker who once said that in the past weapons were manufactured to wage wars, but today wars are manufactured to sell weapons.<br />
<br />
Yet unfortunately, it has to be recognized that the rhetoric on the “clash of civilizations”, constantly and tirelessly repeated by some since the end of the cold war and the subsequent disappearance of the “indispensable enemy”, seems to have achieved the objective assigned to it, chiefly by those who benefit from and pull the strings of the perpetuation of conflicts all over the world. This rhetoric has thus produced a dangerous “clash of fundamentalisms’, which is updating the notions of “revenge of God”, “Crusades” and “Jihad”, and adding new ones such as “islamofascism”. The consequence of this dramatic turn of events is illustrated, on the sought and obtained ground of confrontation, by a “clash of barbarities”.<br />
<br />
In today’s increasing international turmoil, nobody should be blind to the fact that the biggest danger associated with this change is that since the end of the second world war, the world has entered the age of the “supreme weapon” –the atomic bomb- and other weapons of mass destruction, and that extremists on all sides are promising and fervently promoting a “Cosmic War” for “the triumph of Good over Evil”. For some of them, it is a religious war, the ultimate war prior to the Apocalypse or the end of the world, whose theatre of operations one party sets in “Armageddon” and the other in “Dabiq”, both places situated in the Levant, comprising Syria which is being today put to fire and sword…<br />
<br />
Isn’t it insane to believe that our civilized world is unable to find a path other than the one leading toward Mutually Agreed Destruction?<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<br />
Algerian researcher in international relations, author of the book “L’Orient et l’Occident à l’heure d’un nouveau Sykes-Picot” (East and West in time of a new Sykes-Picot”, Alem El Afkar, 2014. ↑<br />
In Le MONDE Diplomatique, “Une notion piégée: quand parler de terrorisme ?” (A Tricky notion: When to talk about terrorism?), August 2016. ↑<br />
A. Schmid & A. Jongman, “Political Terrorism“, 1988. ↑<br />
O. Libaw, “How Do You Define Terrorism ?“, ABC News Network, October 11, 2015. ↑<br />
C. Friedersdorf, “Is One Man’s Terrorist Another Man’s Freedom Fighter ?”, The Atlantic, May 16, 2012. ↑<br />
Norman Podhoretz, “World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism”, Doubleday, 2007. ↑<br />
2015 Global Terrorism Index report shows that terrorist attacks are concentrated in just five countries with a Muslim majority: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria, totalling 78% of all deaths and 57% of all attacks; the West is remarkably safe from terrorism as 2.6% ‘only’ of terrorist deaths occurred there since the beginning of the 21st century (excluding the 3,000 deaths from September 11, 2001, this proportion falls to 0.5%). ↑<br />
In our book “L’Orient et l’Occident…”, op. cit. ↑<br />
M. Curtis, “Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion With Radical Islam“, Serpent’s Tail, 2010. ↑<br />
R. Dreyfuss, “Devil’s Game: How The United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam“, Metropolitan Books, 2005. ↑<br />
http://www.politico.eu/article/why-the-arabs-dont-want-us-in-syria-mideast-conflict-oil-intervention/ ↑<br />
B. Hoff, “Rise of Islamic State Was a Willful Decision“, 7 August 2015. ↑<br />
Titled “Du 11 septembre au Califat: l’histoire secrète de Daesh” (From 9/11 to the Caliphate: The Secret History of ISIS), August 30, 2016. ↑<br />
Tal Kopan, “Donald Trump: I meant that Obama founded ISIS, literally”, CNN, August 12, 2016.↑<br />
M. Onfray, “Penser l’Islam” (Thinking Islam), éditions Bernard Grasset, Paris, 2016. ↑<br />
See: “Les attentats sont la suite logique des bombardements” (Attacks are the logical result of the bombings”, Le Temps, July 16, 2016. ↑<br />
See B. Collombat and J. Monin’s investigation: “Daesh: Autopsie d’un monstre” (ISIS: Autopsy of a Monster), November 20, 2015. ↑</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-88094090997289215882017-02-07T21:34:00.003-08:002017-02-07T21:34:50.376-08:00How the Kiev regime’s war on Donbass broke geopolitics by Scott Humor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/ukraine-fears-us-pivot-russia" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">The liberal think tank Stratfor </a>has stated what we already knew: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kiev could have incited the violence to draw attention to the conflict and rally international support for continued sanctions on Moscow.</em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that’s where the Kiev regime finds no understanding among the European national businesses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the supra-national level everything is business-as-usual: In January in Ukraine, senators McCain and Graham visited front line troops and spent the night with them alongside Ukraine’s president Poroshenko in their barracks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the video uploaded by the Poroshenko’s administration, we see him and Senators McCain and Graham standing in front of a dozen men dressed in Ukrainian military uniform.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not immediately apparently if those men are actual Ukrainian military personnel or if they are foreign private contractors from the US, Poland, Germany and Canada who have been serving in the foreign legion called the “Ukrainian armed forces” for some time now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the video Poroshenko thanks his “partners and friends senators from the United States” for their help in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“fighting with the enemy of Ukraine, aggressor Russia.</em>”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the Russian court ruled the Maidan coup in Kiev to be an unconstitutional putsch and the Kiev authorities to be illegitimate, McCain and Graham implicated in this video in assisting the Kiev regime in war on the Russian population of Ukraine, by definition, in genocide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://russia-insider.com/en/john-mccain-and-lindsey-graham-visited-ukraine-frontlines-ahead-current-bout-fighting-encouraged" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">This is how they spoke during the occasion</a>, Senator Lindsey Graham said: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I admire the fact that you will fight for your homeland.” “Your fight is our fight, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">2017 will be the year of offense.”</strong></em></span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“All of us will go back to Washington and <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">we will push the case against Russia</strong>. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Enough of a Russian aggression. It is time for them to pay a heavier price</strong>.”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/us-senators-praise-ukrainian-marines-slam-vladimir-putin-russia-john-mccain-lindsey-graham/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">McCain said:</a> “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I believe you will win. I am convinced you will win and we will do everything we can to provide you with what you need to win</em></strong><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">. We have succeeded not because of equipment but because of your courage. So I thank you and the world is watching and the world is watching because <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">we cannot allow Vladimir Putin to succeed here because if he succeeds here, he will succeed in other countries</strong>.”</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Graham, McCain and Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, traveled throughout the former Soviet Union in recent days trying to destabilize the situation on the Russia’s border in light of NATO’s buildup.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In response to the three rogue senators activities, including their “<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-29/trump-slams-mccain-graham-stop-trying-start-world-war-iii" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">joint statement on President Trump’s Executive Order on immigration”</a> President Trump issued a statement on his Twitter account</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong - they are sadly weak on immigration. The two...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">...Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Per the Logan Act</a>: Conducting Foreign Relations Without Authority and per President Trump executive order the <a href="http://thesaker.is/president-trump-legislative-briefing-for-january-2017-by-scott-humor/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Ethics commitments by executive branch appointees,</a> there is a rising tide of voices calling to “lock up” these two main assets of the globalists government: The two US senators’ latest attempt to set off World War III during their visit to Ukraine is the last straw. <a href="http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/enough-it-time-lock-john-mccain-and-lindsey-graham/ri18781" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Something must be done</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t know the reasons why the US military has never investigated and charged McCain for his self-admitted treason in Vietnam and his involvement in instigating the death of scores of sailors on the USS Forrestal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Senator McCain has a very colorful history that is coming to light right now. The following has been shared with me by the Kulak.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.trunews.com/article/john-mccains-1969-tokyo-rose-propaganda-recording-released" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">John McCain’s 1969 “Tokyo Rose” Propaganda Recording Released</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Of historical interest — I know McCain, like the other POWs, was beaten but as a special prisoner probably tortured far less and targeted for brainwashing more aggressively. Still it would’ve been better if this audio and transcript had been produced in the pre-Internet era where at least in Reagan’s America it may’ve ended his political career before he got to the Senate.”</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://topix.com/forum/who/cnn/TIPHLLITR99DU2OKV" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Did John Mccain Blow up the USS Forestal Aircraft</a> carrier</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Nonetheless the Trump tweet about McCain mongering for WWIII (with Trump not having to say with whom) goes out, and days later Chuck bearded Johnson (not the weird Little Green Footballs guy) who’s been linked to the Trump camp comes out with this. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">McInsane there’s plenty more kompromat where this came from…”</em></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">McCain, who is 81 and full of energy, is a walking illustration of Alex Jones of Infowars’ revelation that the globalist elites have captured medical discoveries helping people live healthy and productive lives for over 100 years, and that Donald Trump wants to make these medical discoveries available to all people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But coming back to the Kiev junta attacks on Donbass, I recommend to look at the excellent <a href="https://cont.ws/@barbera/511360" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">analytic by RoSsi BaRBeRa</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Provocation in Avdeevka and along the front line in Donbass was organized in the best tradition of Kiev’s punitive missions. Its implementation took a lot of efforts, a variety of means, and lives of the Ukrainian military and the civilian population on both sides, cynicism of Ukrainian media and politicians in the Verkhovna Rada.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The outcome of this bloody act, as expected, were dozens of victims, humanitarian problems for all of the Eastern regions, crippled nerve cells of the civilian population and damaged mental state of children living in Donbass.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“In contrast to the Ukrainian press statements that Kiev has been conducting a “special operation” only “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">in areas where people did not appreciate the privilege of being a part of a unified Ukraine</em>” and because of this the civilians of Donbass were “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">punished for their own guilt</em>,” overall the Western propaganda machine (not so long ago inflating any news associated with Kiev to the size of a full-scale world events), this Western media tone has been hashed. ”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At first the Trump administration, for whose attention this river of Russian blood is being spilled by the Western occupational authorities in Kiev, <a href="http://russia-insider.com/en/white-house-unfazed-recent-bout-fighting-east-ukraine/ri18777" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">declines to blame Russia for the renewal of fighting in East Ukraine</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“White House spokesman Sean Spicer had little to say on Wednesday when asked for the administration’s position on the renewed fighting that began over the weekend and persisted into early Wednesday.</em></strong><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> At least 10 people have been killed and dozens wounded. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">President Donald Trump has been “kept aware of developments”</strong> in Ukraine, Spicer said, and the White House will “have further updates as we go on.” It was not immediately clear when those updates would come.”</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">“On Tuesday, the State Department responded to the violence in Ukraine but omitted any mention of Russia</strong> in a six-sentence statement that called for an immediate cease-fire and full implementation of the agreements meant to outline a political resolution to the crisis.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">“The omission of Russia from the responses contrasted sharply with statements by the Obama administration</strong>, which sharply criticized Moscow for supporting and even directing attacks by the separatists, and not fulfilling its obligations under the 2015 truce plan signed in Minsk, Belarus.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“During the last surge in violence in December, f<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">ormer State Department spokesman John Kirby had gone far further, accusing Moscow of backing “a Russian separatist attempt to seize additional Ukrainian territory.”</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Failure of the Kiev junta to raise anti-Russian hysteria to its “normal” high-pitch tone is bad news for the junta. How else would the democratic West demonize Russia, if no one in Europe and the United states pays attention?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While President Putin dedicated two minutes of his speech in Hungary to the escalation of the conflict, the Western press for the rare exception ignored it, or call it a flair up of the civil war, and domestic conflict, rather than traditional “Russian war in Ukraine. ”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See text of Putin’s statement in the video description.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The imitation of Ukraine’s economic integration into the European Union is practically over. After severing all of the economic ties with Russia, Ukraine is left without an economy as such. Millions of adults have left the country to work in Europe and Russia, and supporting the older population and children with cash remittance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Supranational globalist forces that have been paying for Russophobia to governments, Media and NGOs for the past 26 years, “suddenly” have lost their footing and found themselves in a direct confrontation with the national elites of the same countries which earlier proclaimed Russophobia as their worldview.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Considering that Ukraine is a nation artificially created from forty some million Russian people who lived there and was unconstitutionally cut from Russia, it took several “color revolutions” and a bloody fascist coup with the Nazi prison punitive horror to set up an artificial “anti-Russian” regime in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All of this was accomplished<a href="http://thesaker.is/grandmaster-putin-grandiose-multi-step-operation-lasting-16-years/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"> in preparation to the “color revolution” in Russia</a> that as supposed to take place first in 2011 and <a href="http://thesaker.is/nuland-meets-surkov-to-warn-about-imminent-nato-attack-by-scott/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">then in spring of 2016</a>, but failed due to the brilliant work of the Russian intelligence and law enforcement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the reasons why the Kiev regime decided to stage its regular provocation against the Donetsk republic might be the fact the a part of the Ukrainian lawmakers mysteriously disappeared. This January only 212 Rada deputies showed up for work, instead of the 226 which is a legal quorum. Others resigned or just left without leaving a forwarding address. The situation is so dire that the government has to resign and to form a new coalition, or to have an earlier elections. That’s why Poroshenko and the ruling oligarchs behind him use the only means of making things to go their way which is bombing Donetsk and killing people there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another issue is that February-March 2017 is the pre-planned by the IMF period of dramatic cuts in social payments and pensions and dramatic growth of the price of the basic services as electric, water, gas, and internet connection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The most significant and the most damaging for Ukraine is the IMF demand of privatization of the arable lands, the only national treasure which is not stolen yet. The IMF demands to have a privatization law by March 3, 2017 which will be the end of the “Ukraine project” started by the Bolsheviks in 1917.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When millions of farmers will be kicked off their rented lots of land and forced to hand it over to German and Saudis agro-giants, every villager will start speaking Russian overnight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, by February-March Ukraine will take out all the gas it purchased for the winter, and it will inevitably start stealing gas destined for Europe. The easiest way for the Kiev authorities is to blame the shortage of gas on the war with Russia. Yes, Kiev is ready to blame the shortage of gas that Europe buys from Russia on the “war with Russia.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In December 2016 Rada adopted a 2017 budget without IMF-requested reforms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone understands that without this artificially maintained armed conflict and without the slow slaughter of the Russian population, the junta would have failed a long time ago. Everyone understands that the IMF pays the junta for a mounting body count, not for economic reforms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This time it worked again, to a lesser degree, though. Everything was fine until the new Trump’s administration Ambassador to the UN Haley came out with the statement blaming Russia for Ukrainian attacks on Donbass.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“We know from her confirmation hearing (and<a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2017/02/03/huh-nikki-haley-uses-her-first-statement-at-the-un-to-blast-russia/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"> from her early endorsement of Marco Rubio in the primaries) that Haley’s a Russia hawk</a>,” says HotAir.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to CNN, which has been lying about Trump through its teeth, Haley didn’t get direction from the White House but she wasn’t asked not do to it. Another source told CNN that the National Security Council signed off on the remarks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a far cry from saying that Trump administration signed off and approved ambassador Haley’s statement. And judging by the behavior of the recently fired US Attorney general for refusing to follow the president’s orders, women in Washington continue the war path of Nuland, Clinton, and Evelyn N. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Farkas. <a href="http://thesaker.is/ukraine-sitrep-february-4th-2016-by-scott/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Exactly one year ago I wrote</a>:</em></span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have written before about the clear and present dangers represented by unknown Western government apparatchiks who are capable and known to initiate wars, with disastrous effect on countries and regions. Nuland is not alone to start a war, Evelyn N. Farkas, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia, is another one.</span></em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In reality we have an umpteen number of nameless unelected officials coming up with more and more strategies to upset status quo and plunge countries, regions and continents into all-out wars. The power that these small nameless people wield over our lives and over our children’s future is obscene and horrendous.</span></em></div>
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<a href="http://thesaker.is/thank-you-russia-its-nice-to-see-what-mission-accomplished-really-means-scott-rant/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and also here on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Evelyn Farkas</em></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Add to these list of war mongering American women a former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. I mean, after the anti-Trump protests of walking vaginas, you probably understand the essence of an average liberal American woman. Between us, their fanaticism scares me. In general, they have the highest quality of life of anyone else in the world, and they are willing to personally murder everyone whom they perceive as standing in their way of happiness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This week my friend devastated by a divorce after forty years of marriage, told me that liberal “ethics” of entitlement and zero responsibility has destroyed foreign countries and also the US economy, and lives of its people and relationship between spouses and parents and children. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The only saving grace for America is conservatism,</em>” he said, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">but most people around would rip you apart if they knew that you are a conservative.”</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In November 2016, Politico asked if Nikki Haley was about to put the U.S. in Russia’s corner? <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/nikki-haley-un-confirmation-hearing-233757" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">In January Politico answered its own question</a>: Nikki Haley on Wednesday became the latest Donald Trump Cabinet nominee to break with him on how to deal with Russia.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But there is however a new twist to this old story. A very significant twist.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Out of blue<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/02/03/what-u-n-ambassador-haleys-comment-on-russia-really-means/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">, the <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Forbes rushed in with explanations</strong></a><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of what the UN Ambassador Haley’s comment on Russia really means</strong>:</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Haley’s comments did not pertain to the major sanctions everyone wants removed</strong>,” says Joseph Dayan, head of markets at BCS Global Markets in London. “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">She was very clear about that</strong>.”</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Haley’s comments from yesterday suggest that the smaller Crimea <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/ukraine.txt" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">sanctions are not part of the discussion</a>.”</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“U.S. sectoral sanctions on Russia are due to expire in December.”</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Sanctions against persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine and prohibiting certain transactions with respect to the Crimea region of Ukraine</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These sanctions, if you read into them, just severely restrict American businesses from operating in Crimea, and also keeps away the ability of the Russia’s rich to keep their money in the US banks if they still run businesses in Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Haley’s threat is truly nothing but pushing hot air around the room. Our only hope is that this room is well ventilated. The last time I have been to the UN building it struck me with its general decrepity, but also just about anything else in the US.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Forbes’ Kenneth Rapoza almost got my price of the journalistic sanity for this article, but one cannot be a liberal and remain sane. I am talking about this paragraph where he compares. Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, to “Darth Vader”.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> “Sectoral sanctions impact Russia’s most powerful companies and some of its most powerful oligarchs, from Sberbank to Rosneft, run by Vladimir Putin’s close associate, Igor Sechin, a man known locally as “Darth Vader”. Removal of those sanctions would likely imply that Russia removes counter-sanctions on European agribusiness.”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wait a minute! I thought Putin was “Darth Vader” in liberal terminology of the Matrix. Now, I’m confused.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one of many reasons why liberal propaganda is not believable. They are liberally label everyone they hate as “Hitler,” “Mussolini,” “Darth Vader.” Even their own sitting president. And yes, a “gray cardinal” after Alexandre <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dumas’s </strong> “The Three Musketeers.” You can tell that most liberal journalists read some books in the middle school, but dropped this nonsense the moment porn entered their lives, while not as fulfilling as reading, but nevertheless more enlarging.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, Igor Sechin is an FSB officer, as other “Putin’s close associate,” because Russia is being governed by Russia’s security service officers. Sechin speaks French and Portuguese and has extended experience of service in African countries and Russian’s Asian republics trying to defuse Western organized armed conflicts there. He is also an FSB officer, who is a part of the intelligence services management team which is running the country for the past 16 years. He is a really good man and a potential candidate for future presidency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is why is it is ridiculous for the US to keep sanctions on Sechin meanwhile making this shy suggestions that “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Removal of those sanctions would likely imply that Russia removes counter-sanctions on European agribusiness.”</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s where a dog is buried, how we say it in Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Meaning, that’s the point of truth. You can actually see here the inter-workings of the US government, Wall Street, and the European governments, who are up to their ears in cow manure that their enraged farmers liberally spread them on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Russian counter-measures on the European agribusiness are set until December 2017. In the last three years, Russia became the world biggest producer and exporter of organic grains. This year Russia has an overproduction of potatoes. The list is going on. Next January we will count four years of the sanctions wars, as the result of which we might even see a dissolution of the European Union as a bureaucratic supra-national unelected government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, it makes me chuckle when I see Forbes waking up its market opinion contributor in the middle of the night in a complete panic to make almost “Russia friendly” noises to voice over the words coming from the new US Ambassador’s mouth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t see why Russia would ever want to open its markets for EU produced food if it has started overproducing for its own market as we speak. Thanks to sanctions, I must add.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They made Russia’s supranational comprador rich to flee the country to hold on for whatever money they had stolen prior to sanctions. Those who stay in the country are forced to act patriotic. Why would Russians ever want to eat Polish apples, when Poles are so zoologically Russophobic? Same with the Baltic sardines. <a href="http://johnhelmer.net/new-zealand-meat-on-the-rack-russia-starts-ractopamine-ban/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Same with New Zealand meat</a>. At this point, no one in Russia wants to touch anything coming from the Russophobic countries just for a fear of harm that might be hidden in those products.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s been over twenty years since the Western occupational authorities of Yeltsin’s government declared that Russia didn’t need any industries because it will live by selling gas and oil and buying the Western produced food and goods. Since then it was an uphill battle. These past three years finally provided the most favorable conditions for development of domestic manufacturers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Forbes’ expression of hope for the European agribusiness has also told me everything I needed to know about the current Poroshenko status. From the Nuland-Mccain-Baiden-netanuahy backed political manipulator and the West’s special stake they were trying to ‘push right into Russia’s heart,” he turned into a problem for everyone. The provable fact that he came to power as a result of the illegal putsch, and that he is a war criminal and up to his eyeballs in human blood will come into play shortly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The formula of the African, Latin American and the Eastern European West installed dictators “blood of the population and the wealth of the nations for personal enrichment” has stopped working.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Needless to say that this Forbes article is a sign of a process that as Cat Motya puts it: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://catmotya.blogspot.com/2017/02/blog-post_15.html" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">mice almost made us out</a>. A little bit, and mice will start coming to their senses</em>.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He quotes the article from libertepolitique <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.libertepolitique.com/Convaincre/Dossiers-thematiques/Le-triple-coup-de-maitre-de-Vladimir-Poutine" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Le triple coup de maître de Vladimir Poutine</a></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">in Russian<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <a href="http://inosmi.ru/politic/20170202/238648755.html" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Тройной удар Владимира Путина</a></em></span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let liberals scream locally, while we win globally</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As the French article goes, (you are welcome to submit your own translation)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Let’s not forget that one of the biggest Russia’s victories in Syria is a permanently open access to the Mediterranean Sea. Something that neither Russian tsars, nor the USSR were able to achieve. And the Russian president is looking further, by supporting Morocco he is preparing to advance the Russia’s positions to the Atlantic ocean.</em>”</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“In less than three years, Russia completely has changed its positions in the Black Sea and Crimea, with Turkey and Iran and in the rest of the Middle eastern and the Mediterranean regions with the Egypt, and by supporting general Haftar in Libya and Morocco, with very minimal military involvement and while fighting the Islamic terrorists and helping its allies. “</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being unable to attack Russia any longer, the EU supranational rulers turned and attacked the United States, using nothing less than an old Nazi propaganda. The 100 plus year of Nazi propaganda is so tired and empty and only works in the minds of zombies like Donald Tusk. Not that they don’t try…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As the Kulak says: “Aka the guy the EU was paying to troll Trump (and Alex Jones too) as a Russian agent before Trump’s proposed envoy to the EU compared the bloc to the late Gorby era USSR on the BBC, setting off pout raged statements from EUrocrats like Donald Tusk and Guy Verhofstadt. Maybe Tusk isn’t merely the spitting image of his Nazi grandfather made by the 4th Reich beneath the ice of Antarctica?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Response to Trump’s Likely EU Ambassador’s Euroskepticism and the Trump Executive Orders Restricting Muslim Country Nationals’ Admittance to the U.S., <a href="https://www.roguemoney.net/stories/2017/1/28/trump-tedmalloch-vs-eussr" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">EU Declares Cold War to the US.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The European Union should refuse to accede to the designated U.S. Ambassador Ted Malloch</em>,” Leinen stated.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What he’s basically saying is people of his political stripe should declare war,” Malloch said in an interview with WND. “That means they should work – it’s probably very unlikely – to try to have it such that the European Union does not accredit me when I’m nominated by Donald Trump. In other words, they would like such a political manifestation, basically spitting in Trump’s face and saying, ‘We don’t want your damn ambassador. Frankly, we don’t want any of your policies, Mr. Trump. Europe is going to do what it damn well pleases to do, and it’s not going to please you.’”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For more on the European Union interference with the US elections and an open political war on the newly elected president read the expertly entertaining and informative <a href="https://www.roguemoney.net/stories/2017/1/26/eussr-stratcom-kalensky-neocon-fanatic" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">RogueMoney’s series of articles covering the EU Stratcom East task force, nominally set up to fight ‘Russian disinformation’ instead turning its tweets on Trump and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Breitbart News</em></a>, the media organization formerly led by counselor to the president and current <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Time</em> magazine cover man, Steve Bannon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the Way, the Kulak says, Donald Tusk, a former Polish politician, is the spitting image of his Nazi grandad</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-28209" height="198" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Tusk-and-his-gradfather-300x198.jpg" srcset="http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Tusk-and-his-gradfather-300x198.jpg 300w, http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Tusk-and-his-gradfather.jpg 620w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 15px 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Add to this</span></div>
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<a href="http://johnhelmer.net/victim-or-aggressor-chrystia-freelands-family-record-for-nazi-war-profiteering-and-murder-of-the-cracow-jews/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Victim or aggressor – Chrystia Freeland’s family record for Nazi war profiteering, and murder of the Cracow Jews</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://johnhelmer.net/gorilla-radio-vancouver-justin-trudeaus-falling-star-chrystia-freelands-rising-missile/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Gorilla radio, Canada – Justin Trudeau’s falling star, Chrystia Freeland’s rising missile</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You know what was the Stalin’s biggest problem? Do you know in what way it’s Stalin’s fault that we are still fighting the world war II? He was too kind. He didn’t physically destroyed most of the Bandera followers and German collaborators, but send them to Gulag for their war crimes. They got out, had children, and grandchildren and brought them up in a spirit of fascism. He didn’t go after the Nazi officers and their children, who are now rule Europe, and North America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He didn’t execute 120,000 <a href="http://thesaker.is/tell-eurovision-in-1944-stalin-deported-crimean-tatars-to-protect-them-from-punishment-for-nazi-war-crimes-by-scott/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Crimean Tatars who were fighting for</a> Hitler and mass killed the Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks and Armenians living in Crimea in death camps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He moved the Crimean Tatars to hospitable and warm Uzbekistan, where they grew three times of their initial population, went back to Crimea and started participating in the slaughter of the Russia population of Ukraine again. The same with the Bandera followers in Ukraine. The same with the Zionists, whom he named the “biggest threat to the working people in the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To be kind to the war criminals means to be unkind to their victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Just In</strong>: according to cat Motya and his sources in Donetsk, (confirmed by other independent sources) the trade between Ukraine and the Republics has never stopped even for a night. Trucks and semi-trailer trucks (18 wheelers) loaded with merchandize and agricultural produce are moving through the border up to five at the time going through the control points. This is a gray market that never gets recorded or regulated, and it’s going on despite of the reports of the fighting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s say, the Donetsk republic reports at least 15,000 mortars and shells landing on its territory overnight. And pro-Ukraine OSCE reports at least 7,500 shells and mortars landing on the territory of Avdeevka overnight. Over 22,500 shells and mortars being exchanged overnight near Donetsk, and the trade is still going on around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a good idea of what’s going on, but I can’t write it, yet. I want to wait for some official confirmation, before I tell you what’s actually going on. I can only say that it’s something positive, in style of some recent events that “suddenly” came down onto unsuspecting heads of our “dear partners.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember how for six years the West was calling to fight with ISIS? Remember what had happened when Russia agreed with the West and came and fought with ISIS?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember how upset and flustered the West suddenly became?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since 2014, the West calls on Russia to fulfill the Minsk agreement.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ukraine War on Donbass News in Brief</span></strong></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </strong><a href="http://dan-news.info/defence/ukrainskaya-armiya-v-techenie-nedeli-pochti-15-tysyach-raz-otkryvala-ogon-po-territorii-dnr-basurin.html" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">During the past week the Ukraine military opened</a> 15000 times fire at the Donetsk republic with the use of MLRS “Uragan” and “Grad,” artillery, tanks and mortars. 33 settlements of the Republic were damaged by the shelling. In the night of February 3rd, reportedly the Ukrainian army fired a total of 1268 reactive, artillery, tank shells and mines on Donetsk, Yasynuvata, in the outskirts Dokuchaevsk, Gorlovka and the southern sector of the front. As a result, two people were killed and 13 wounded.</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://armiyadnr.su/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Press office of the Donetsk militia launched its website</a>:</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://av-zakharchenko.su/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">An official website of the head of the Donetsk republic</a> Alexander Zakharchenko</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Russia’s <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/376146-churkin-haley-ukraine-constitution/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Churkin cites US constitution after ambassador Haley’s rant at UNSC over Ukraine</a></span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://rusvesna.su/english" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Articles, images and videos on the escalation of fighting in Donbass</a> in English</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tom Burridge, a BBC correspondent based in Kiev: We met Ukrainian troops and tanks in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Avdiivka?src=hash" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Avdiivka</strong></a>who seemed ready for action – and we could hear that there is no ceasefire here <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: line-through;">in </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ukraine</strong></a></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We met Ukrainian troops and tanks in <a class="PrettyLink hashtag customisable" data-query-source="hashtag_click" data-scribe="element:hashtag" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Avdiivka?src=hash" rel="tag" style="background-color: transparent; color: #2b7bb9; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="PrettyLink-prefix">#</span><span class="PrettyLink-value">Avdiivka</span></a> who seemed ready for action - and we could hear that there is no ceasefire here <a class="PrettyLink hashtag customisable" data-query-source="hashtag_click" data-scribe="element:hashtag" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash" rel="tag" style="background-color: transparent; color: #2b7bb9; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="PrettyLink-prefix">#</span><span class="PrettyLink-value">Ukraine</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="u-linkBlend u-url customisable-highlight long-permalink" data-datetime="2017-02-01T15:20:13+0000" data-scribe="element:full_timestamp" href="https://twitter.com/TomBurridgebbc/status/826812407225909249" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">5:20 PM - 1 Feb 2017</a> · <a class="u-linkBlend customisable-highlight" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=place%3A084d0d0155787e9d" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">Ukraine</a></span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://cont.ws/@skorikovivan/512187" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">How the BBC journalist unwittingly gave up an agreement</a> between the Ukrainian armed forces and OSCE of not reporting the heavy arms movement in demilitarized zone</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am68o6K3Y3E" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">RT reports on Kiev tanks filmed in demilitarized E. Ukraine</span></a></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://osce.usmission.gov/emergency-situation-avdiivka-ukraine-statement-pc/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">The US mission in OSCE blames Russia for escalation</a> after “talking to their Ukrainian colleges.” OSCE employees are talking about Avdeevka, population of 17,000, which is full of Ukro troops and tanks, and not a word about Donetsk population of over 1,000,000.</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://tass.com/world/929038" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Lugansk militia commander Oleg Anashchenko was killed in terror car blast</span></a></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://dan-news.info/defence/prichinoj-otklyucheniya-energosnabzheniya-gorlovki-stala-diversiya-vsu-pod-luganskom-komandovanie-dnr.html" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Donetsk republic town Gorlovka lost electric power</a> to the damaged power lines that were blown up by a group of Ukrainian terrorists</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At this point the town is being connected to the electro grid of the neighboring towns.</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://cont.ws/@colonel-cassad/511638" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Videos and images of Donetsk shelling posted by the “Colonel Cassad</a>“</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72cHDTaRktM" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Ministry of information of the Donetsk Republic</a> situation on February 2nd, 2017</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Military personnel carriers are used to evacuate people from the dangerous areas of Donetsk February 2017</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_vNalUCoXo" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Ukraine military shelled Kiev district of Donetsk, downtown</a> (02.02.2017)</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://rusvesna.su/news/1486074590" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Donetsk has a small but capable army</a>. They don’t have enough manpower for any kind of advancement into the territory of Ukraine, but they have enough firepower to stand their ground.</span></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A candid video of OSCE in Donetsk, three vehicles towing their stuff for easy escape</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On a lighter note,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">RT reported something I have been suspecting for a while that the <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/376109-russia-fsb-us-sanctions/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">US security services are working with FSB</a>. Hence, all those arrests of CIA agents in Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Run, mice, run! They will be looking for a hole in a ground to hide, while the earth <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20170202_33.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">is burning beneath their feet.</a></span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is also something interesting I got from the Kulak.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He writes: “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://voxday.blogspot.com/2017/02/labor-mobility-destroying-nations.html?m=1" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Total labor mobility destroys nations?</a></strong> I think we can say much for not just little Moldova or even midsized Poland, but big Mexico in that regard…” And about Ukraine, who has millions of adult workers working both in EU and in Russia.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘The logic of free trade is inescapable. It amounts to a choice between a steadily declining living standard if free trade is limited to goods and capital versus the total destruction of the nation and the replacement of a majority of its population within a single lifetime if it is pursued to the full “beneficial extent” of the concept.”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We can’t forget <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“<a href="https://archive.is/PNOHZ" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Trump and Bannon spreading a ‘Russian myth</a>‘</em>…according to NYT David Brooks.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“And so along come men like Donald Trump and Stephen Bannon with a countermyth. Their myth is an alien myth, frankly a Russian myth. It holds, as Russian reactionaries hold, that deep in the heartland are the pure folk who embody the pure soul of the country — who endure the suffering and make the bread. But the pure peasant soul is threatened. It is threatened by the cosmopolitan elites and by the corruption of foreign influence.”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The “Russian myth” (a.k.a. a French, German, Finish, Syrian, Greek dream, and so on) that David Brooks perverts is not to be confused with the myths about Russia, like that we all drink vodka and hug bears for comfort. I am not saying that we don’t, but that the globalists who equate morality and ethics to a political party, are now blaming the American conservatives for having a Russian dream of a “heartland” as a “peasant dream” in opposition to a globalists’ dream of hunters and killers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What are they going to do with their dream, when no one else left to be killed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Whistling past the graveyard of certain people having an undying hatred of all things Russian, including tweeted jokes about the Tsar thinking 1917 would be better than the year before — what did Nicholas II ever do to them? As I remarked to a friend for a small number of people the hatred never dies and is their way of signaling to each other,” writes the Kulak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So very true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you for your time,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Scott Humor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">P.S.: A featured image is a German WWI political cartoon: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wait, Ivan, in 100 years Ukrainians will grow up.</em>”</span></div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-75713864876883072682017-02-05T01:15:00.000-08:002017-02-05T01:15:05.363-08:00Al-qaeda Captures 3 Yemeni Towns After Us Raid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EHBxUBUNLR3aummXTf2VfU0WuY22_KZkLIa8R1FxtEFVYnn016Wf_frIJxuwrTEBPRHp2I_JV-NRMporOBii0UuXXZAC15wZ4a4LT4DMvp_bQWgTqsa1KHJHKZtkVq310m0rO3RWf3PV/s1600/yemeni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EHBxUBUNLR3aummXTf2VfU0WuY22_KZkLIa8R1FxtEFVYnn016Wf_frIJxuwrTEBPRHp2I_JV-NRMporOBii0UuXXZAC15wZ4a4LT4DMvp_bQWgTqsa1KHJHKZtkVq310m0rO3RWf3PV/s640/yemeni.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Al-Qaeda terrorists managed to seize three southern Yemeni towns, just a few days after the raid of the US Special Forces in Yemen.</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Al-Qaeda terrorist organization has captured three towns in the south of Yemen just a few days after the <a href="https://southfront.org/us-paratroopers-attack-yemens-bayda-province-40-killed-including-civilians-report/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: red; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">raid of the US Special Forces in Qifah district</a> of the Yemeni province of Bayda, during which 16 civilians were killed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As the Press TV news website reported, citing unnamed local sources, terrorists, backed up by Saudi mercenaries, who were angry over the late payment of their wages, managed to recapture the towns of Ahwar, Loder and Shaqra.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to another source of the website, later, Al-Qaeda left Shaqra and Loder towns, as local residents demonstrated their protest and threatened to use weapons against terrorists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Thursday, the Saudi Interior Ministry reported that a mine blast occurred in the southwestern province of Jizan, located on the border with <a href="https://southfront.org/more-details-on-us-special-forces-raid-on-yemeni-province-of-bayda/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: red; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Yemen</a>. As a result, a Saudi border guard sustained severe injuries and then died at a hospital.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since Saudi Arabia started its military intervention in Yemen two years ago, a large number of Saudi troops and mercenaries have been killed near the Yemeni border.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently, a video, showing an attack of the Houthi-Saleh on the Saudi Arabia’s al-Moqran military base in Jizan, was published online.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #343434;">On Monday, the </span><a href="https://southfront.org/houthi-saleh-alliance-kills-37-pro-saudi-militants-in-shabwah-province/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: red; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Houthi-Saleh forces</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #343434;"> also attacked a Saudi warship in Yemen’s territorial waters near the port city of Hudaydah.</span></span></div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-85356048847723491412017-02-05T01:11:00.000-08:002017-02-05T01:11:57.883-08:00Al-qaeda Captures 3 Yemeni Towns After Us Raid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two people, including the chief of the LPR People’s Militia Office, have been killed in a terrorist attack in the capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in Donbass.<br />
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The blasted car of chief of the People’s Militia Office of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) colonel Oleg Anashchenko (Photo: RIA Novosti / Olesya Potapova)<br />
Saturday morning, a car exploded in Luhansk city, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. As a result two people, including chief of the People’s Militia Office of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) colonel Oleg Anashchenko, were killed.<br />
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“Around 8 am [06:00 GMT], a bomb exploded in a street in the downtown area. Eyewitnesses said that the Toyota offroader was blown up,” a news agency’s source reported.<br />
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Later, it became known that there were two people in the car, the both of them were killed. One of them was chief of the LPR People’s Militia Office Oleg Anashchenko, he was an owner of the exploded car.<br />
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“The car of the chief of the LPR People’s Militia Office, Oleg Anashchenko, exploded… There were two people in the car, both are dead. According to the preliminary data, one of them is Anashchenko,” the police press service said.<br />
The militia considers the incident, occurred in Luhansk, as a terrorist act. The Republic’s Defense Ministry believes that it was committed by Ukrainian secret services in order to destabilize the situation in the republic.<br />
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Over the past few days, the situation in Donbass has escalated, in particular clashes between fighters of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Ukrainian Army have intensified near Avdeyevka town in Donetsk region.<br />
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On Friday, a spokesperson for the DPR Ombudsman’s office said that more than 30 people have lost their lives and over 80 others, including 47 civilians, have been wounded in the republic as a result of violence this year.<br />
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In October of the last year, a prominent DPR commander colonel Arseniy Pavlov (call sign Motorola) was killed in a blast in an elevator. The Donetsk authorities accused Kiev of masterminding the murder.<br />
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In May of the last year, a car of LPR top military commander Alexei Mozgovoi ran into an ambush. Mozgovoi was assassinated by unknown gunmen.</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-77547542215035659552017-02-01T04:02:00.003-08:002017-02-01T04:02:41.628-08:00Political Breakups and Armed Tensions SITREP February 1st, 2017 by Scott Humor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Providing correct and timely information and analysis is important to me as a journalist, but as a professor, I want to teach you a few simple logical skills, so you will be able to grasp the meaning of events through the thick fog of propaganda. I don’t ask you to believe me, because the skills of seeing through don’t require faith, but rather, understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s talk about the temporary suspension of migrants from seven countries, or as the liberal corporate media calls it “the Muslim ban”; yet another virtue signaling statement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First of all, if in doubt, find an original publication and a transcript of the speech. In this case it’s the text of the presidential order.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Executive Order: protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After you have read this text, let’s think about the subject matter of the anti-Trump protests, which is the refugees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What do you think is needed for someone to receive a refugee status? They need to prove that they are being prosecuted by their governments. They need to prove that their governments are oppressive regimes and that they would be in jail, tortured, and killed if they remained in their home countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Syrian refugees are those who hate Assad, who claim that Assad is a “murderer” of his people. The Syrian refugees coming into the US are those big friends of Hillary and liberals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To receive this status, they have to recite the entire list of the Western accusations against Assad, or against the government of Iran. Those who are being granted a refugee status by the Obama administration in the US embassies, and these are those who are trying now to get into the US.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most likely they are people of means and have relatives here. Why are they running now to the US so urgently in such big numbers with the Obama-administration issued Visas? Is it possible that they were involved in something prosecutable, like an anti-government coup attempt in Turkey, or an assistance of terrorism in Iran. I am not saying that they were, but that it’s possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, people who are able to receive a refugee status in the United State are those whom we normally call 5th columnists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, what would they do after arriving to the US? They receive a significant aid package that includes a government healthcare, monthly payments, free language classes, schools for children, and free tuition in colleges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The help that the US government provides to the refugees is very significant. Since many of these people were already involved in political struggles in their home countries, they tend to join NGOs that work against the governments of their old countries. Again, these are not economic migrants or people “running from wars”; they are refugees and this means they have to prove that they were in opposition to their governments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When you say, “how come this evil Trump didn’t ban the poor refugees from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, ” I couldn’t find any information on the refugees from those countries coming to the US.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Could it be that it’s easier for them to buy the citizenship, rather than going through uncertain process to be vetted as refugees, considering that they have to prove that they were in opposition to their governments. The Western darling Saudis is a tyrannical regime with no opposition. It’s not Syria with its Eastern type of democracy and tolerance to opposition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, when the wars on the Middle East are winding down, when the societies are returning to normal function and when the money flow to the NGOs stopped, people who worked for the Western governments and the Deep State want to get out of the countries they helped to destabilize. Remember, that they wouldn’t get a refugee status, unless they proved that they worked against their own governments and likely that they were instrumental to the suffering of their fellow countrymen and women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you remember all those videos of production crews staging the “rescues” in an alleged “Aleppo,” while being filmed elsewhere? The same production crews with hundred million dollars budgets whose nomination for the “peace prize” was quickly canceled due to the international public outrage? As it turned out people paid attention and collected enough evidence to condemn the “White Helmets” as a hoax.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the news came that this hoax ran by the Obama administration and the EU won’t be able to come to the Oscars ceremony, the logic behind Trump’s executive order has become clear.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/375606-white-helmets-banned-oscar/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Trump’s travel ban sees White Helmets figures barred from Oscars.</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For more details please see an excellent analyses of Alexander Mercouris on the subject, thanks to our commentator “Blue” for pointing it out.</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://theduran.com/sally-yates-sabotaging-trumps-travel-ban-executive-order/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Has Sally Yates been sabotaging Trump’s ‘travel ban’ Executive Order all along?</span></a></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://theduran.com/donald-trumps-executive-order-entry-full-text-analysis/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Donald Trump’s ‘travel ban’ Executive Order: Full text and analysis</span></a></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a very important moment to understand, that those refugees, <a href="https://catmotya.blogspot.com/2017/01/blog-post_31.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">poroshenkos and saakashvilis,</a> who love to start wars on their own people and who work for the globalists like McCain and the Clintons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For them, a green card and a refugee status is reassurance that no matter how much damage they bring to their own people, they can always jump the ship to the US and taunt everyone back home from across the ocean. Not any longer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What is needed is the same extreme vetting for refugees applying from Russia and all the former soviet republics. The 5th column will disappear into thin air.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Flying mice, not to be confused with bats.</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/#q=trump+fired+acting+attorney+general" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">President Trump dismissed Obama appointed attorney general Sally Yates</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/trump-roll-fires-director-immigration-and-customs-enforcement" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Trump Fires Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Daniel Ragsdale</span></a></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, we will watch how globalists yell and scream fighting for every chair for their servants.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those of you who like cat Motja’s geopolitical analytics, know that he calls our common enemies “mice.” Some people asked me who those “mice” actually were.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On January 30, Boris Johnson was summoned to UK Parliament over Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. Listen to this video while laying down with your eyes closed. Imagine that you are watching a theater production with life-size mice making humanlike noises, while wearing ballet tutus and pearl necklaces and ties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine them raising their triangular heads up, while they run about, pushing each other with their round bellies, and leaving behind oblong droppings on the floor of the House of Commons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine, how they stomp their tiny white and pink feet and clench their tiny white and pink fists in rage. They called Donald Trump the habitual mice names like “Hitler” and “Mussolini,” obfuscating how well those personages served the British mice pretending to bomb the island, while being paid by the British banks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They also call Trump “a ratchet and bigoted man,” because mice have the monopoly on “everything good.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mice are the universal good, and anyone who disagrees with them is evil, as their liberal religion claims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In panic they petition each other to ban Trump from coming to the UK, which Boris rejected as emotional nonsense, reminding them that only after getting Trump on British soil they can “gently” guide him away from his wrong policies straight into the “right” British mice-approved policies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another thing while this video is worth listening to. It gives you a clear picture who are those “suffering” Syrians and Iranians the British parliament are stomping for: all of them live in EU countries and all of them are holders of the British passports. They also mention the Canadian passports holders. There also fake refugees who hold German and Australian passports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those people who hold the passports of the Western countries and work against their native countries are the main target of Trump’s traveling restrictions. Listen how the British and Canadian parliaments put a pressure on the US government to make the exception for those individuals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why do those people need to be in the US right now? What is so urgent that they are doing in the US that causes such mass hysteria?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It reminds me of the hysteria that was staged around the liberation of Aleppo. Remember how the British and Canadian media screamed about “poor people” being “slaughtered” by Russia’s and Assad’s military? As it turned out they were trying to get from Aleppo their special operations officers who coordinated the war against Syrian government of the ISIS and other armed militia groups.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>After the Western staff of the ISIS command center was arrested, the Western interest to the suffering of Syrian people disappeared.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Not a gram of the European humanitarian aid is coming to Aleppo, but only the Russian and the Syrian governments’ aid.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lo and Behold, ladies and gents, great mice theater….</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">I must admit, though, that the British Parliament ritual of getting up and down, up and down, is a very good exercise for ones knees.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">European Council President Donald Tusk has called the US under President Donald Trump one of the external threats to the EU along with China, Russia and radical Islam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Listen to this great and important mouse with eyes filled with perpetual mice fear of cats: “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/375776-us-under-trump-threat-eu/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The US is a new threat to the EU along with Russia and China</a></em>.”</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two years ago these same people were screaming about the sanctions against Russia to “isolate Russia.” Now, they find themselves surrounded by enemies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s admit that everyday a small miracle takes place and a part of the mice-hoodhold on humanity loosens and every day a part of the mice fiefdom implodes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In their fight against Trump, globalists use the same methods of operations as when they try to frame other leaders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Per the Kulak comment, it could be that <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/seal-american-girl-die-first-trump-era-u-s-military-n714346" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Ash Carter ordered this raid in Yemen</a> on his way out the Secretary of Defense office. The super-secret Joint Special Operations Command raid during which everything went wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We already know that that professionalism of the US special operation forces is a Hollywood myth. Yemenis were circulating a body count of combatants and civilians as high as 59, per NBC news. It was clearly, an intentional operation to inflict as many civilian deaths as possible, to smear the new president in the blood of innocent victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It could become a reasonable precursor to the US troops withdrawal from the Middle East.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another example of the collapsing of globalist rule: </span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Russia, the Director of the FSB Center for Information Security Sergey Mihailov and one of his deputy directors Dmitry Dokuchaev are charged with cooperation with the CIA and with treason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to the FSB spokesperson, four people were arrested with connection to this crime and eight other people are under investigation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this case, the hackers attacks and the direct treason of the country got intertwined. Some of the participants were organizing, designing, and executing the schemes of the hackers attacks, while others leaked information to the CIA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://izvestia.ru/news/661425" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The head of the FSB center for Information Security</a> was arrested on January 25 of this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://russian.rt.com/russia/news/353241-menedzher-laboratoriya-kasperskogo-arest-gosizmena" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The head of the Kaspersky Labs Cyber Crimes Investigation department</a> Ruslan Stoyanov was arrested at the end of December 2016.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-25/head-investigation-unit-russias-kaspersky-lab-arrested-treason" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ZeroHedge published a comprehensive article on this arrests</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&biw=1600&bih=774&noj=1&q=Shaltai-Boltai+hacker+group&oq=Shaltai-Boltai+hacker+group&gs_l=serp.12...28701.31745.2.33494.12.12.0.0.0.0.98.1024.12.12.0....0...1.1.64.serp..0.10.853...33i160k1j33i21k1.gl9Q5WFUHwM" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">An infamous head of the Shaltai Boltai, or Humpty Dumpty hacker</a> group was lured from Kiev to Moscow by a large payoff and arrested in October.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Russia’s parliament adopted a package of new laws addressing the cyber security of the country. Now, a cyber attack against Russia’s strategic infrastructure will earn a perpetrator a ten-year prison sentence. According to the FSB report, there were more than <a href="http://izvestia.ru/news/660585" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">70 million cyber attacks against the Russia’s infrastructures</a> in 2016.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The globalists, however, fight back in the country they occupy, Ukraine.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On January 30, the decision of the Moscow court about Maidan became a law. The court issued a decision that the Maidan in Ukraine in 2014 was an unconstitutional anti-government putsch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It makes the <a href="http://www.interfax.ru/russia/547633" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Regime in Kiev illegal,</a> and the president Yanukovich the only legal head of state. It gives to Yanukovich the legal power to declare every agreement signed by the Kiev junta as null and void.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Predictably, the Kiev regime responded to this with an <a href="https://twitter.com/sbobkov/status/826465834486751232" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">increase shelling of</a> Donbass on January 30th.</span></div>
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<a href="https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/354875-donbass-ukraina-stolknoveniya-live" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">RT has started an online translation of the military escalation in Donbass</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/375755-donbass-kiev-escalation-peskov/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday</a> that the hostilities were provoked by Ukrainian paramilitary units.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2618179" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"> 31 January 2017, Russia’s Foreign Ministry statement</a> on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Donbass</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At first, Poroshenko claimed that Donbass was shelled by the Kremlin. He even produced this image as an evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an unexpected turn, Poroshenko was grilled by German lawmakers and admitted it was SBU (which is run by the CIA) and the Ukrainian military (which is run by NATO) special operations officers who, after penetrating the Donetsk republic border, have been shooting at Ukrainian troops from civilian buildings in Donetsk, giving the Kiev armed forces excuse to start shelling the heavily populated areas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is something that Donestk authorities have been saying for a long time, but it is important to hear this admission from the Junta leader himself. It unknown what exactly Poroshenko was drinking before saying the truth, tap water most likely, because he interrupted his visit on Monday January 30, and left Germany the same day with significant velocity.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/375843-ukraine-ceasefire-shelling-ceasefire/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Kiev continues to violate ceasefire agreement, opts for military solution – Moscow</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Video of Donetsk shelling by the Ukraine’s military, when the Life cameraman was injured</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Footage of the Federal News Agency journalist of the rescue mission to remove Pavel Chuprina, a wounded cameraman, from a bomb shelter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ostukraine-kiews-kalkuel-1.3356319" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Suddeutsche Zeitung</a></em>: Germany considers blaming Ukraine for the escalation of the conflict.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Berlin’s reading of Poroshenko, he wants to try pretty much anything possible to prevent the termination of the sanctions against Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The newspaper says that every time Poroshenko visits Germany, the Kiev regime troops intensify the shelling of Donbass, and he demands more sanctions on Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Using Ukraine as a lever, the globalists pressure Russia and Europe simultaneously. However, Russia, previously banned from protecting its own economy on the European markets, now is able to do so due to sanctions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s fun for the Russians to watch how Germany is trying to wiggle from under Poroshenko’s dead weight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the statement of the Russia’s Foreign Ministry, by making provocations in Donbass, Kiev is trying to keep the Ukrainian crisis on the global agenda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://tass.com/politics/928228" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">“A strange pattern cannot but attract attention,”</a> the statement reads. “Whenever tensions in Donbass grow, the Ukrainian leaders happen to be making foreign visits. It seems, they try to keep the Kiev-initiated crisis on the global agenda.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://tass.com/world/928290" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">The president of the Donetsk republic Alexander</a> Zakharchenko expressed similar sentiments saying that “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ukraine started hostilities only because Russia and the United States started to search for common ground. And, haveing understood that Kiev may get nothing, Poroshenko ordered to launch an offensive on the Donetsk People’s Republic.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On January 31, in reinforcement of the Kiev military attacks on Donbass, Germany begins tank deployment to Lithuania. The German troops in Lithuania soon will be joined by soldiers from Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. They all are joining the US heavy weapons and troops build up in Poland via Germany as part of the same mission, dubbed ‘Operation Atlantic Resolve’. Eighty-seven US battle tanks, 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, and 3,500 soldiers arrived in Europe earlier this month, to add to those who are already there, as part of NATO’s buildup near Russia’s borders, <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/375815-germany-tanks-deployment-lithuania/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">agreed at the NATO summit in Warsaw in July of 2016.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is it interesting how we all can casually walk into a armed conflict in Europe, without even noticing of how we got there. With Soros moving his operations to Europe and setting up his shop in Hungary, the Western European countries are fattened up like Christmas geese and ready to have their heads cut off and gutted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poland is fine-tuning its new ‘<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Death to Ukraine!</em>” and “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Whose Lviv</em>” memes</span><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">NOTE by my editor:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m not disagreeing with your logic but here are some things that you may want to note that could prove what you’re saying to be contradictory or problematic:</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Trump’s seven countries” is not an original list penned by Trump or anyone in his camp; it is a list (which included Syria) leftover from the Obama administration. Trump is literally taking over what has already been in the works. The previous administration put forth active Visa restrictions to and from these seven countries (this was not seen as problematic because Obama is a fun, cool, liberal who can do no wrong.) Visa restrictions to and from countries like Yemen were (suspiciously) added very recently, while Obama was still the president.</span></li>
</ol>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The “Muslim” ban actually does not disproportionately affect refugees, it affects American citizens. The refugee issue is blown up by anti-Trump protesters but it is not the primary defect of the mandate. It also affects Syrian Christian families. How do you explain that?</span></li>
</ol>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Saudi Arabia is one of the countries which was spared from the ban; I am genuinely confused as to why Trump supporters tout Trump as the new anti-imperialist, while he staunchly continues business as usual with countries known for militaristic and imperialist ties with the United States. Will Trump continue allowing SA to bomb Yemen with American-provided weapons? Is this anti-status quo?</span></li>
</ol>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The following is also my editor’s note:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The MAIN issue I have with this ruling is this one:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Both anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters agree on one thing: the “Muslim” ban is anti-status quo and anti-Obama administration. For Trump supporters, this is good (will keep us safe, new world order etc.) for anti-Trump protesters, this is bad (will increase hate crimes, demagoguery etc.) However, they are clearly both WRONG. This mandate isn’t anti-Obama admin: it’s literally FINISHING IT’S JOB. If Trump is supposedly the new, fresh American that will save the world from nuclear war, why is he using the literal models provided to him by his many predecessors? (a Muslim registry is something that goes back to the Bush-era btw, Trump invented literally none of this.)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To put it in terms you will understand: I am staunchly not pro-anyone in contemporary politics, ever, so no one will take me for a ride; it seems to me that the “cats” are taking a page out the “mice’s” book and just rebranding the same old shit that always been happening to make it look good for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Scott Humor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">P.S. A featured image: there are three types of the heads of state:</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God given</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God help</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God forbid</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-91850385275292105692017-01-31T23:55:00.000-08:002017-01-31T23:55:02.353-08:00The Conservative Revolution: the “Left” Dilemma<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
by Iman Safi<br />
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Part II; The “Left” Dilemma:<br />
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(for part I, please see here)<br />
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To understand where the global “left”-“right” divides stands now, we must take a quick look at some key developments and join them together within the particular context sought; because the roots of this divide go back to the times during which the Western mind was in the process of choosing between such issues as succumbing to the Church versus liberation, monarchies versus progressive and democratic governments and science versus fiction.<br />
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A quick look at all the opportunities that people have had for awakening in the past reveals, without much effort at all, that they were virtually all quickly and swiftly hijacked by individuals and organizations seeking gain and mileage. One can perhaps understand why some people are driven by ego, others are lured by financial rewards, fame, power etc, and whilst it is not easy to “forgive” them, they are easier to forgive than those who meddle with people’s minds and replace their drive for enlightenment and knowledge by unsurmountable walls of ignorance, darkness, ill-defined destinations and even no destinations at all to aspire to reach.<br />
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Western Churches had for centuries controlled the minds of their flocks. As a matter of fact, the term “flock” is quite befitting, because they did regard them as mindless sheep. For many generations, they have told them what to believe in, how to think, what subjects to discuss and what to stay away from. They have even told them what to eat, when to eat, who and when to marry, and should one dare break those rules and commandments, he/she can face the pain of death.<br />
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Whilst this monstrosity is considered to be by-and-large a thing of the past in the Western/Christian World, it is still well and alive within some of the other communities and religions, and the new wave of terror under the guise of Islamic terrorism is only a manifestation of this phenomenon that it still thriving.<br />
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The age of awakening in Western Europe did not come from the Church that did not reform despite many claims to the contrary made by the mainstream Churches as well as some breakaway factions alike. The awakening was the result of the fact that the Western mind liberated itself from the yokes of the Church and instead of listening to the rhetoric of their priests telling them that they were born sinners and that they will burn forever in hell unless they obey their orders and directives, for a change, they were able to read the works of Spinoza, Descartes, Kant, and listen to the music of Bach and Beethoven and see the creativity of Da Vinci. The scientific revolution that ensued was a result of this liberation, and the Western mind had the opportunity to lead humanity and to prosper at all levels, and it did.<br />
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To the dismay of some Americans who believe that the American Revolution was the first such popular action against oppressive regimes, the mother of all revolutions was undoubtedly the French Revolution. This is because the French Revolution was the outcome of enlightenment and social awakening, spearheaded by Voltaire, Mollier, Rousseaux and not just a haphazard revolt related to tea trade tax laws. The French Revolution was in fact the inspiration that gave rise to Hegel and Marx, and in its demand for bread to feed the poor, an economic component was therefore added. Sadly, that awakening was not to last because when the Communist Manifesto was published, the European awakening was inadvertently ready to be hijacked and take a detour from its lofty philosophical spiritual sense and be replaced by financial pragmatism.<br />
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Backed by setting up economics as a “science”, in reality, Marx’s “historical materialism” was an indirect outcome of John Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”, and became an uninvited de facto love-child, turned hijacker, of the awakening of the Western mind and the age of European enlightenment. But the “financial/economic revolution” was bound to fail because its approach and reach were not holistic, but at best practical. Somehow, Marx and Hegel have perhaps forgotten that man does not live by bread alone and that mankind seeks spirituality, even when it does not conform with rationality.<br />
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Speaking of rationality, we are now hitting a very sensitive chord. Institutionalized religions did not offer the Western mind any rationality at all, but that was only the beginning. However, even though the age of awakening based its doctrine on rationality and bolstered it with advances in science and medicine, the Western mind was only ready for a portion of it, and later on succumbed to financial pragmatism as lifestyle took precedence over the pursuit of knowledge. On the other hand, in Eastern Europe, the Communist takeover took the Eastern European mind into a seemingly opposing political ideology; Communism as opposed to Western Capitalism, but in spiritual, ideological and philosophical terms, they were not proverbial opposite sides of the same coin, but rather different corners of the same side of the same coin. However, the failure of Communism was evident with the demise of the USSR, but the demise of Capitalism continues to be met with total denial. That collapse is already here and upon us, but its acknowledgment is still in the making.<br />
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In between the demise of the influence of the Western Churches on Western masses and the rise of and fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the political notion of “right” and “left” emerged initially in the UK to later on move to the entire world.<br />
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The political “left” did not only offer its faithful followers the promise of change, but also the promise of liberation; both in body and in mind.<br />
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The right to have a job, fair wages, financial retirement security, medical care, free education, sick pay, maternity pay and similar rights were high on the agenda of the Eastern Communist bloc, and that was perceived as the global socialist “left”. On the other hand, in the Western version of the “left”, and in addition to the above, freedom of political expression and freedom of worship and other freedoms were added to the preamble. Some, indeed many Westerners, would argue that even though the “regimes” of Eastern Europe gave themselves the adjective of being “democratic”, they were very far from it, and use the examples of lifetime leaders like former Yugoslavia’s Tito and Romania’s Ceausescu as examples. In retrospect however, the Eastern European counter-argument is hardly ever heard in the West; and this is not the time and place to present it.<br />
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Either way, whether or not the “left”, in its ideal absoluteness, did reach power in either Eastern or Western Europe or not, it has not yet given any overwhelming evidence that it has furnished the promised Holy Grail of freedom and equality and all the minor promises that come with them.<br />
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The socialist “left” ideas perhaps reached their zenith when Castro and Guevara came to prominence. Guevara is still celebrated as a hero in the most unlikely places. T-Shirts bearing his portrait are even sold in NYC.<br />
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During the USSR era, any ideology that was remotely related to socialism was tagged by Western “regimes” as being Communist. Even speaking about and advocating social justice was a dangerous act in the United States, and immediately labelled one as a member of the infamous, illusive, perhaps fictitious “Un-American Activities Committee”. And whilst many socialist movements, both within the USA or outside it, had nothing to do with Communism per se, they were all made to be perceived as being Communist. That was the establishment’s method to portray them and present them.<br />
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It was within this atmosphere that the “left” thrived in Western Europe, but even the then very popular French Communist Party has distanced itself from the Communist version of the Kremlin. Nonetheless, socialist parties in Europe have made big gains and even reached the Élysée when Francois Mitterrand was elected as French President in 1981.<br />
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But even though the Western “left” tried to distant itself from the USSR, in the eyes of many, the two remained highly associated with each other. And when British unionist Arthur Scargill visited the USSR to spite Maggie Thatcher he made no apologies at all for visiting it, and thus endorsing it, and for this, among other things, he was seen as a so-called militant unionist. That aside, in the UK and Australia, the Labour/Labor parties are highly associated with trade unions and seek social justice, and this is why they have been identified as being on the “left”. And whilst the American Democratic Party could not be given a loud and clear “left” tag per se, the Labour/Labor parties across the Atlantic and the Pacific, respectively, found in it the natural political ally.<br />
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In theory, the demise of the USSR should have put the Western “left” at ease. After all, it meant that any argument based on the alleged association of the Western ”left” with the USSR has lost its foundation. But that demise should have also meant that the “left” had fallen under a new challenge; the challenge of reinventing itself as a stand-alone force for change for the better; in a manner that promoted justice and equality, not only domestically, but also globally.<br />
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In reality however, that process of rebirth was nothing short of being disastrous.<br />
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Without di-polarity, and for the first time since the partition of the Roman Empire, humanity found itself under a so-called New World Order in which the United States of America was the unrivalled leader of the world. Whilst no bans as such were imposed on “left” ideas and “left” parties in the West, the process of rebirth needed new ideas and new preambles. This required a new generation of leaders, but those leaders were not to be found.<br />
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To say that the Western “left” merged into the establishment would be an understatement. If anything, it underpinned the establishment’s position by setting itself up as one of its corner stones. In more ways than one, the “left” in the West did not only merge into the so-called “Imperial Empire” it was meant stand up against, but also became its face and organ. It was no longer a force for the kind of change that was initially promised and expected, and thus has inadvertently lost its stature and very definition of being “left”.<br />
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In the sequel article, we shall have a brief look at surrogate principles that the Western “left” conjured up seeking survival, and possibly in another sequel, project how those newly-adopted ideas are highly likely to lead to its removal from the throne that it has placed itself on for at least two centuries.<br />
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Part III; What’s Left of the “Left” in the “Left”:<br />
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A very brief and quick look at the post USSR Western “left” reveals that it did everything BUT stick to its original principles and ideals.<br />
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To elaborate, we must look at certain examples; beginning with the highly controversial subject of refugees. The “left” in the West continues to uphold the principle of aiding and welcoming refugees, and this is good and ought to be applauded. However, the “left” does not even seem to question how those refugees have become refugees in the first place! Whilst it is a fact that most refugees are in essence political refugees who have been displaced due to wars inflicted upon their countries, mostly seeking regime change, the Western “left” seems to turn a blind eye to this reality. Even worse, when the Western “left” gets democratically elected and assumes power, it does not try to reverse the course of events that create refugees.<br />
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It gets even worse. Take the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as examples. Both wars were initiated by the “right” wing Republican American President GWB. However, his partner in crime in Iraq was Britain’s Labour leader Tony Blair; who was meant to be from the Western “left”.<br />
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And whilst the Australian Labor Party (ALP) can hold its head high because it was an ALP Prime Minister (Gough Whitlam) who bailed Australia out of the infamous Vietnam War, other ALP administrations have followed the USA into wars without too many questions asked about their legitimacy and whether or not they conform with the foundations and principles upon which the ALP is based.<br />
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Such views and politics have nothing to do with the original “left” values of promoting freedom, supporting the oppressed and working towards social justice; none what-so-ever, and quite the opposite, if anything.<br />
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And even though APHEDA, an organization sponsored by Australian trade unions, supports and sponsors humanitarian projects in Palestine, the current ALP leader Bill Shorten has recently described Israeli PM Netanyahu as a friend.<br />
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The contradictions within the Western “left” are not the result of a deliberate attempt to create confusion, but rather the direct outcome of loss of identity and soul, and an inability to reinvent itself in the post-USSR New World Order era.<br />
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A proper reinvention process requires new ideas, but instead of undergoing a serious process of soul-searching, the Western “left” shopped around for existing populist issues to capitalize on.<br />
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For fairness, when the wider community develops and evolves in a manner that it advocates such issues as marriage equality, political parties will need to listen and respect the wish of the community that it is meant to uphold and attempts to govern. It was therefore a democratically and demographically-driven shift when Western “left” parties became advocates of gender equality at all levels, including marriage equality, and for listening to their constituencies, they ought to be applauded.<br />
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That said, moves of this nature lose any genuine intention behind them if and when not done in conjunction with other new moves and directions.<br />
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It would therefore not be too cynical to say that in this particular instance, ie the issue of LBGT rights, that Western “left” parties have simply jumped on an existing and popular band wagon.<br />
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Here, we must stop and remember that whilst the Obama Administration has approved marriage equality within the United States of America, it continued to endorse the Saudi Government that does not give women the right to even drive a car. Furthermore, that same administration has helped and abetted the Saudi regime in attacking and bombing Yemen and creating a human disaster and starvation that no one in the West, including the most “progressive” parties in the “left” are trying to put an end to; let alone seem to know about.<br />
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This is not to forget the support fighters associated with Al-Qaeda and ISIL in Syria and Libya have received from the USA and EU nations; including the so-called socialist “left” French Government of President Hollande. And when we make such exposures, we should not vindicate the Western “left” in opposition in nations like the UK, Australia and in the recent past in Canada.<br />
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There was not a word, not a whisper to stop the onslaught of those wars, and if anything, the West as a whole, either directly by the action of “left” governments or by the tacit support of “left” opposition, has been actively engaged in financing and supporting the most oppressive world regimes and helping finance, arm, and facilitate the activities of fundamentalist terror organizations.<br />
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And speaking of Obama, just by virtue of being a President from the Democratic Party, he was assumed to be from the “left” side of Western politics; and which admittedly is not as hawkish as the Republican Party. But one would wonder, in the true essence of the “left” philosophy, what was/is it exactly in Obama and the American Democratic Party that was/is remotely “left” in its ideals? After all, it was Democratic Presidents who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, started the Vietnam War and created Al-Qaeda. It was the Democratic Obama who led the EU to the brink of war with Russia over Ukraine; and ironically did so by supporting the ultra-right Ukrainian Neo-Nazis. How bizarre indeed!<br />
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Where is anything that can be even remotely referred to as “left” in these actions and endorsements?<br />
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It would be therefore fair to say that with the attempts to reinvent the “left” in the West, the original principles were cast away and fantasy that is very alien to the “left” doctrine seems to have taken precedence over genuine revolutions.<br />
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This is not a call to take arms and to go back to the days of revolutions. Humanity has had plenty of that already. But to honour the spirit of Guevara all the while helping the Saudis bomb Yemen and Al-Qaeda to destroy Churches in Syria is grossly hypocritical to say the least, and forms a blatant exposure of the rot and moral bankruptcy that seems to have overtaken Western “left” movements and governments.<br />
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Without giving a lesson in history, but when Angola was under attack, Castro sent troops to help; not for any gain for Cuba at all. Whether or not one endorses this action, but that was what a “revolutionary” leftist leaders who is true to his word was supposed to do, and certainly Castro epitomized this image. If we compare Castro’s action to current leaders of the “left”, it becomes therefore fair to say that issues such as global justice are no longer on the Western “left” agenda. If we go further and say that the Western “left” has directly and indirectly been involved in creating more global injustice, it then becomes imperative to concede that the Western “left’ has become a part of problem; not the solution.<br />
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So what is really left of the “left” in the “left”? One wonders.<br />
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In reality and practice, the “left” concept was reduced to only be contingent upon supporting such issues as gender equality issues and environmental awareness; but all with a huge taint of unrealistic political correctness that bogs it down and blinds its vision from focusing on other important issues.<br />
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Even when getting facts and having them laid out to members of the Western “left” on a silver platter, they do not seem to understand that, for example, one cannot only look at certain issues of social justice, whilst totally ignoring one’s country involvement in needless wars that are flooding the world with refugees.<br />
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What is also mind-boggling about the Western “left” is its love-hate relationship with mainstream media (MSM). They opt to disbelieve their tabloids and bulletins when they themselves are the victims, but the moment someone else gets his neck under the chopping board of the MSM, instead of putting two and two together and coming up with the conclusion that the MSM make lies not only about them, but also about others, instead of putting two and two together to end up with rational conclusions, they conveniently opt to adopt the easy way out and believe the lies about others whom they choose to dislike.<br />
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Where is the sense of fairness in this attitude? What happened to the aspiration for global justice?<br />
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Rather shamelessly, they are now crying tears of blood to see Obama finish his term, in a clear indication that they are either unaware of the carnage of his warmongering policy or that they know, but they don’t care. However, when one brings out the facts to them and shows them that Obama has created havoc in Libya, Syria, Yemen and many other corners of the world, and when one presents evidence about the tens of thousands of innocent people who perished as a result, they can no longer argue that they did not know. This is a serious indictment because it ultimately means that they have not only abandoned their lofty ideals of global justice, but also that they blatantly do not give much consideration at all to Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni lives. This makes them racists to the extreme, and they can jump up and down decrying the accusation, but their actions and inactions show their true colours.<br />
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In principle, to take the fight against global injustice and racism from the “left” would be tantamount to taking Jesus Christ out of Christianity. But try saying this to today’s alleged “leftists”.<br />
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What is most bizarre perhaps is the fact that the notion of speaking about reform with the western “left” is a taboo subject. This is quite oxymoronic to say the least. After all, the “left” is meant to signify reform, is it not? So, what is really and truly left of the “left” in the “left”?<br />
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Apart from the name tag, what is left of the “left” in “the Western left” and the “left” in general is a combination of remnants of old ideas mashed together with some new-age fantasies that only merge in minds that do not seem to be able to understand the concept of compatibility. This brings back the issue of rationality, and in this case, the lack of it. There is at best very little left about today’s “left” that is well and truly “left” in its core. It’s a muddled up world of juvenile-minded dreamers and screamers, figments of a bygone past, regressive mutants who seem to run more on superficial and distorted vision rather than principles and rationality.<br />
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The truth of the matter is that the “left” is dead, and it cannot be rebirthed; unless it admits its past and present failures and rebuilds itself on its original political doctrine with a clear understanding that its objective is to achieve justice and equal rights for all humans all over the world.<br />
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At the end of the day, politics is politics, and at best, it provides the right environment for human awakening. At best, it is the prerequisite and not the ultimate objective, and for this reason, it ought to be built on ethical foundations. For as long as this form of political and ethical rationality is not the corner stone of political activism that is meant to be part-and-parcel of human awakening, any journey with any other objective(s) will fail, and history is full of such examples, and all that humanity needs to do is to look back at its past failed steps to learn.<br />
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Part IV; The Seemingly Emerging New Left<br />
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In the absence of mainstream political movements pushing for change and reform, the human aspiration for change did not go away. Not even the Western Churches, with their former draconian punishments, were able to stifle humanity and prevent it from demanding awakening and better living conditions.<br />
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Demanding change is a part of human nature, and people do this at many levels and even when it comes to mundane things like rearranging their furniture. And whilst the bigger changes they seek and pursue do not always end up with positive outcomes, the desire for change does not go away.<br />
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And as the traditional Western “left” and “right” formed the establishment and ran it in accordance with electoral alternation, the differences between them shrank and continued to shrink.<br />
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They might have continued to differ on rather minor issues such as government funding of certain projects, where to drop taxes and where to lift them, where to prioritize public spending, their relationships with trade unions and other management issues, but on basic philosophical and doctrinal matters such as global justice, they became almost identical. Ironically, they are both in denial as to how identical they are, even though their constituencies keep telling them that they perceive them as being so.<br />
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They try hard to scorn each other and quarrel over petty matters in desperate attempts to recreate the schism that once separated them, but to no avail. If even the mighty Catholic Church reached a point in time when it was no longer able to fool people, they will need to acknowledge that their power of swaying opinion and fooling people will not work.<br />
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They conjure up all tricks to accentuate the little difference they have left between them, but they also often go back to adopt some former policies of their political foes. When the Australian Liberal Party was in opposition in the 1980’s, it vehemently fought the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) so-called “Option C” in which Paul Keating, the then treasurer, advocated the need for introducing a consumption tax. Yet, the Liberal John Howard’s Government was unapologetic when it introduced it nearly a decade later. That said, the ALP was also unapologetic when it voted against introducing it, even though it was originally an ALP idea.<br />
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Western voters grew increasingly dissatisfied with their political leaders, and the percentage of citizens who actually vote in countries in which voting is not compulsory is a simple reflection.<br />
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Even in a highly decisive and highly controversial election like the recent American presidential elections, 90 million eligible voters out of 231 million did not vote. This is nearly a whopping 40%.<br />
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This is democracy in action, and ironically in this instance, perhaps a reflection of the distrust of American voters in the version of democracy that the two-party system has been pushing down their throats for a very long time. Not even a rally like the Clinton-Trump battle was enough to motivate them.<br />
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That said, the 60% who did vote, voted with a loud and clear message; but are the major parties listening? One really wonders.<br />
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There was a major twist in this election. The Republican candidate Donald Trump has actually won the elections without the support of his party. As a matter of fact, many Republican heavy weights did not endorse him and made statements that they were not going to vote for him.<br />
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Against protocol, former President George Bush Senior did not even attend the inaugural ceremony.<br />
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It is not by accident that Trump is not liked either by his Democrat foes or by his supposed Republican “comrades”. After all, he has broken the mold and based his campaign on seeking change, the kind of change that neither party wants to address, let alone bring up.<br />
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What worries the Western “right” and “left” about Trump is the fact that he has seemingly created a new force in politics and managed to get in from an open window that they least expected and one previously unheard of; the window of the “Conservative Revolution”<br />
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The impact of the “Conservative Revolution” is perhaps not any less virulent in Western politics than the impact of the age of European enlightenment was on the Church. Only time will tell.<br />
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Would it be too immature and inconceivable to say that for the major Western political parties the worst is yet to come? A close-up look at them reveals that the Trump phenomenon is likely going to be the beginning of an avalanche that will politically sweep the West and push the reset button on its party-based infra-structure.<br />
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In the opening article titled “The Conservative Revolution”, and which was not meant to be an opening article per se but rather a stand-alone one, I expressed my views about how the move of the traditional Western “right” and “left” moved to the centre, and how in doing so, they created separate vacuums in the left and right, and which were filled by the Greens and Ultra-Right, respectively.<br />
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What is intrinsically pertinent is the fact that when people are denied the opportunity for change, they will find a way to seek it.<br />
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Traditionally, the drive for change came from below; from the masses. That was how the mother of all revolutions, the French Revolution, was created.<br />
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Traditionally also, the conservative reasoning behind maintaining the status quo came from above; if from authority itself (as in the case of France’s Louis the XVI), the social and financial upper crust, or both.<br />
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The financial divide had been a major driving force that divided the ‘haves and the have nots’; those who wanted change from those who resisted it.<br />
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However, as different contemporary ideologies – political, financial, doctrinal or otherwise – seem to stem from perspectives and objectives that are invariably partial in their views, selective in their outlooks, and primarily irrational in their rationales to varying degrees; they will always eventually fall down and crumble because they all have their own and specific Achilles heel, and their heels will all be struck once they run out of steam and luck.<br />
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Thus, what was seen as a triumph of Capitalism over Communism when the USSR crumbled was in reality a forerunner for Capitalism to come to terms with reality of the forthcoming demise of its own two-party system if not more.<br />
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There is undeniably a new and unprecedented political move on the rise in the West, and if the traditional custodians of alternating Western parties in power have an iota of rationality and long-term vision, they ought to stop and look at their own status quo, and at what size hole they have dug up in the middle of the path of their own political future.<br />
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In their denial to the proximity that was created by their bi-partisan agreement on major issues, little did they see that in doing so, they had signed a mutual death warrant for each other. Little did they realize that for them to be perceived to be on opposite sides, they needed to demonstrate that they were not only the opposite sides of the same coin, but opposite in every way that was related to their modus operandi. But they did not.<br />
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The masses do not go by what is dictated to them, and right or wrong, they will invariably go against the stream when they feel marginalized and ridiculed. If anything, the more they feel they have been marginalized and ridiculed, the more vehement they become in standing up against the offender. And if the offender is the authority, the more they will be inclined to revolt.<br />
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As the “left” is clearly no longer what it used to be, and as the “right” is losing more support from its traditional power base because it is seen as being almost identical to the “left”, the drive for change had to open up for itself a new window for self-expression.<br />
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This brings us back to the issue of human awakening.<br />
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Trump’s “Conservative Revolution” is ideologically and philosophically not in a position to offer humanity an enlightened alternative by any stretch of imagination.<br />
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That said, it is presenting a challenge, a real and significant challenge.<br />
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For the West in general and the United States in particular to ignore the events that led to the election of Trump as President would be foolhardy. To blame the happening on Russia is ridiculous and laughable.<br />
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At the present time, the West is no longer divided on the Cold-War-Take-One divide of Capitalism versus Communism. It is no longer divided on any remaining remnants of that divide that once distinguished “right” from “left” Western politics either.<br />
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At the present time, the political divide that separates the traditional major parties in the West is increasingly becoming one that is only seen in the eyes of those parties and their loyal voters. But it is not the loyal voters who decide who wins elections.<br />
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The swinging voters and those who do not vote, at least not on a regular basis, are indeed those who make that decision, and their decision is becoming more prominent.<br />
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With his business background, Trump may apply fiscal business pragmatism and run the USA as a business. Whilst this sounds like an abhorrent prospect, in reality, it may mean relief to millions around the globe who wish for a cessation of American attempts of further regime changes that serve them with American-style democracy, courtesy of B-52’s.<br />
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The “Conservative Revolution” is the slap in the face that both major parties in all Western democracies need and deserve to get. At best however, it cannot be expected to be much better than just that. It is inadvertently the emerging and still ill-defined force for change; ironically a “new left”; even though it does not bear any ideological resemblance to Guevara’s “left”, but rather just by definition of seeking change.<br />
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In reality, for as long as people continue to look at each other as groups and nations of conflicting interests, they will find a reason to quarrel. They will only stop once they see that what unites them is much stronger and much more profound, and they cannot and will not do this until they seek proper awakening; the kind of awakening that ancient Greek Philosophers and the European philosophers taught and sought. Religion was meant to be an awakening, but sadly it was hijacked by institutions, twisted, diverted and turned into a tool for suppression rather than liberation.<br />
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Will humanity employ the Trump election win as a precursor and a reminder and an incentive to go back to the roots of the age of awakening? This may sound like a huge and a far-fetched call, but in reality, awakening does not necessarily need a huge nudge for it to commence.<br />
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At the end of the day, and going back to basics mentioned in an earlier article in this series, meddling with the minds of people is a serious crime. Technically, it is not defined as a form of genocide. It is not; it is much more serious.<br />
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Politics and ethics should go hand in hand, and when they don’t, we see events akin to what humanity is experiencing now.<br />
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Humanity will survive and will bring out its best, and the best is yet to come.<br />
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At the end of the day again, darkness will never be able to overcome light any more than it can stop the light of a candle from breaking darkness and disabling its light from reaching huge distances. Such is the power of light over darkness, because no intensity of darkness can stifle a single humble candle.<br />
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And finally, at the end of the day, political movements, right, left, conservative revolutions or otherwise, including the multitude of religious factions and schools, none of them mean much at all, unless they offer humanity the real salvation it needs. And the salvation of humanity will not come from politics and politicians.<br />
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But if one looks at different versions of the definitions of salvation, defining salvation as an outcome of knowledge is a definition that cannot be surmounted except by those who prefer ignorance.<br />
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Part V; The Establishment Strikes Back<br />
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With the backlash to the election and inauguration of President Trump, we are witnessing unprecedented events indeed. Certainly, much of this is based on his controversial “Executive Orders”, and this is well expected; especially the one relating to visa restrictions and the trauma and anxiety it is causing. However, in a major twist of events, and among many other things, we see THE American President attacking the Western Mainstream Media (MSM) and his Press Secretary Sean Spicer warning them that they will be held accountable.<br />
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Just a very short time ago, Obama’s Press Secretaries Robert Gibbs and later on Josh Earnest were playing “I scratch your back and you scratch mine” with the same MSM; feeding each other with stories they both loved to hear and making conclusions that suited their “business” agendas.<br />
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For decades, the machine of the “establishment” has been none but the so-called “Deep State” represented by the White House, and it’s figurehead was none but the incumbent President whoever he was. Even the seemingly benign, humane and smiley Jimmy Carter was a part of that “establishment” and its “Deep State”, and so was the former President, who promised to be unlike any other; former President Obama, the suave-looking self-made African American with his eloquence, elegant wife and perfect looking family, the President who promised the earth to end up providing scorched earth, and instead of providing hope, millions across the globe looked forward to the day they gave him the title “former president”.<br />
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Of course, those shedding crocodile tears for the departure of Obama and rampaging the streets of America and the world do not know or care to know about the carnage the Obama administration has caused across the globe; because they have such a narrow agenda of interests, and because what they are trying to protect is not human rights and women as they proclaim, but certain privileges that they personally possess and only some Western women.<br />
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That infamous “establishment” is best described as a pyramid, an octopus if one wishes, but one with a virtually countless number of legs and tentacles, and they all feed off the figurehead, and the head does not only feed them, but offers them raison d’être, protection and all that they need for sustenance and continuity.<br />
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Just like Tolkein’s Orcs cling to Sauron and imbibe their life and existence from him, the satellite entities of the “establishment” have always considered the American President to be the apex of the pyramid, the symbol, the be-all-and-end-all being, a god, upon whom their very existence depended; even when they claimed otherwise.<br />
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So when the head of the “establishment” turns away from his minions, their struggle for survival kicks in, not only because they need to survive, but also because in his departure, they inadvertently become all what is left of the “establishment” and that for them to restore their might and glory, they will first need to make sure that the “establishment” must restore its own stature first, and for this reason, it ought to strike back; albeit at the head that is meant to be its own.<br />
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Thus far, Trump is keeping his election promises; and this is to the utter disappointment and shear horror to what is left of the “establishment”.<br />
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In all of their divisions, alliances, and private/personal aspirations, they had been hoping and praying that the moment he got elected he was going to renege on major election promises. He did not. They hoped that the moment he sat in the Oval Office he would then turn his back on his election promises, and thus far he hasn’t. This is not to say that he will not, but thus far, he hasn’t.<br />
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But unlike the Orcs who were engulfed into the fissures in the earth which were generated after Frodo destroyed the “ring”, what is left of the “establishment” did not, and was not expected to cease to exist the moment the head was no longer sitting on its shoulders. After all, some of the satellites of the “establishment” are much more intelligent and conniving than Orcs; even though at heart, there is little difference that separates them.<br />
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The intelligent ones are capitalizing on the principle of “controlled opposition”; a strategy they developed for other nations in the past, in nations they wanted to destabilize, and this had worked effectively in many places. Now, they are trying this technique at home, and thus far it is working.<br />
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The technique is based on conjuring up a populist issue that inflames emotions enough to mobilize people to take to the streets; if not more. We saw this technique work quite effectively in Egypt, Libya and other places. It almost succeeded in Syria.<br />
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Those monsters specialize in social engineering, and they capitalize on the goodness in humanity and the desire that good people have for making things better. So they flag huge issues such as liberty (as in the case of Egypt), dictatorship (as they did in Libya and Syria), and they find thousands upon thousands of youth rising up in defense of those principles.<br />
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They are playing similar cards now, but this time, they are doing this within the United States of America. They are using a number of anti-Trump trump cards; including misogyny, racism, and Islamophobia.<br />
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They are desperately striking back in a life-or-death attempt that can secure their survival. What is ironic about this “strike back” is that it is banking on a support base that is extremely diverse, or at best multi-based.<br />
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Throughout history, foot soldiers have either been forcefully drafted or mobilized by some human passion; and this takes us back to the issue of the genocidal concept of meddling with peoples’ minds. The foot soldiers therefore are not the ones to blame; not now, and not at the time when the Catholic Church mobilized waves upon waves of soldiers to take back the Holy Land from the Muslim infidels.<br />
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However, unlike the revolutionaries of Soviet and post-Soviet eras, unlike the Al-Qaeda and ISIS Jihadists, the foot soldiers of the post-Obama presidency era do not have any hierarchal foundation at all. They do not have neither a specific agenda nor leadership, neither a preamble nor a strategy, and above all, the diverse backgrounds they have beggars beliefs as to what unites them.<br />
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This is because those who move them and motivate them are similar to the former initial enemies of Syria who were only united by their hatred of Syria and her President. And now, the leaders of the protests of America, who are changing the protests into riots, are united by their hatred for Trump; full stop.<br />
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And speaking of those different backgrounds, here is an interesting list of those who are anti-Trump; both overtly and covertly. The list includes the “Deep State”, Soros and his NGO’s, Murdoch and his tabloids, the Neo-Cons, the Saudi Royal family, ISIL, and of course; the Western “left”. Need one list more?<br />
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Now here is the pertinent question to ask. How do the leaders of the Western “left” feel at ease being associated with those monstrous people and organizations? Do those alleged defenders of women actually know and worry about the fact that they are currently comrades in arms with the Saudi regime? This is the world’s most oppressive anti-women regime, a regime in which women are not only forbidden to vote, but they are not allowed to drive cars either.<br />
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And how about the association with Obama himself? The President who bombed more foreign nations than any other, the one who has caused global havoc and destruction? Are the people he killed less human in the eyes of the leaders of the Western “left”? Obviously, they are.<br />
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The demise of the Western “left” has to be first and foremost blamed on the demise of its leaders and think-tanks. After all, it is leaders who pave the way and set objectives and strategies to achieve them.<br />
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But the blame game has to turn inwardly at some stage, because individuals cannot blame others for all of their actions. They can blame them for misguiding them, but surely, those individuals must reach a point in time at which they must assume at least some responsibility and be able to do their own soul-searching.<br />
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Sadly, many leaders and foot soldiers of the Western “left” alike do not seem to be remotely close to the realization that they have failed their own doctrine.<br />
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By turning the blind eyes to global social justice, the leaders of the Western “left” have reduced the struggle for freedom and awakening to specific agendas only restricted to gender equality, LBGT rights and global warming issues; and no one was “allowed” to bring in any other subject. And what a short-sighted and moronic definition some of them have to gender equality! Rather than pushing for equality in its literal sense, they want to impose equal numbers of men and women in certain positions. Why do they want to take the suppression of women into another wrong twist? One wonders. Isn’t equality supposed to be meritorious in nature? And what if in a certain area there are more qualified women than men? Do we still need to have 50% male representation?<br />
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Such a vision of gender equality is very ill-conceived indeed, and does not serve women’s rights, not the least.<br />
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And how can the alleged protectors of women turn a blind eye to the sex slave industry inflicted upon the war-torn countries in which their nations, and even respected leaders, have poked their noses?<br />
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Yes, what about the sex slaves that Obama allowed to be bought and sold under his watchful eyes and tacit quietness? Syrian and Iraqi girls as young at 10 years old were bought by filthy old Saudi, Gulfie and Qatari pedophilic men as sex slaves. Where were Meryl Streep and Madonna? Don’t Syrian and Iraqi women, and young girls, deserve protection by those alleged protectors of women? Obviously not. We did not hear a single word, not a whisper from the hundreds of thousands of them.<br />
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The West, and its “left”, cannot hide and pretend that the slave industry took off after ISIL (its alleged enemy) took control after June 2014, as facts on the ground clearly indicate that the sex slave industry started very early in the mark at a time when the West fully and overtly endorsed all anti-government forces in Syria, at times when John McCain was visiting them and taking photoshoots with them, and at times when Australia’s then Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr was calling for the assassination of President Assad.<br />
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Does the Western “left” have any intelligence or sense of shame left in it at all?<br />
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The global “left” supporters are now up in arms, not because of Trump’s infamous grabbing quote, but because he has destroyed the “establishment”; their establishment, and they are fighting for the restoration of their stature.<br />
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And how does the woman who rose to infamy by parading in a vagina dress believe that she is presenting, upholding and protecting women? Is this how she regards women? As vaginas? This is the lowest, most demeaning and most appalling act of objectifying women that I have ever seen or expected to live long enough to see. To her I would like to say that to me, women are my late and beloved mother and grandmother, my aunts, my daughter, my wife, my daughters-in-law, my nieces, my cousins, my friends and their friends, my neighbours, and all other women that I know, respect and love. The women I do not know, when I need to communicate with them not knowing their names, I give them the respectful titles such as madam and the like. I do not see them as vaginas and they do not represent themselves as vaginas.<br />
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The demeanour of the vagina dress woman is far worse than Trump’s infamous grabbing statement, but yet, no one seems to be making any comments to condemn her. If anything, she seems to be seen as a heroine.<br />
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This woman is clearly a pervert of some sort, and social misfits like her know well that for decades now, they have decimated and destroyed what is known as the “good old values”, and they also know that there are millions upon millions of people across the globe who are sick and tired of their hypocritical antics. They know that the decent people of the world are growing impatient with their debauchery and despicable demeanour.<br />
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For decades, they have capitalized on the kindness and acceptance of the majority of people who have endorsed them, protected them, and accepted them. This is because it is the decent majority of people who are the true custodians of democracy and freedom of expression; not them. It is the efforts and sacrifices of the decent majority that resulted in the creation of those attributes in civilized societies; not theirs.<br />
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My animated outcry is that of an old leftie who feels that his movement has been hijacked. I feel that the leadership of the Western “left” has fallen off the track, they are not listening to their elders. They are either so politically unsavvy that they don’t know that they have fallen into the traps of the “establishment” they were meant to stand up against, or that they have been fooled to allow to be dragged into it unknowingly. Either way, they have given the reins to a bunch of brainless scavengers, mental retards who are true Fascists in every manner of thought and demeanour. And they are all striking back together, their establishment is striking back with them, because they know that they have been decapitated and that the rest of the world has had enough of them.<br />
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If I am sounding angry, it is because I have already lost my country of birth Lebanon and was driven out of it more than 3 decades ago because the progressive atmosphere and movements that I grew up among in the fifties and sixties were all replaced by fundamentalism and strife. In the last 5-6 years, I saw the same happen to my maternal Syrian cousins and family, and for the same reasons. An age of enlightenment was just beginning to dawn in the Middle East and was hijacked by the radical religious movements that swept and destroyed everything in their path.<br />
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And now, in my adopted homeland Australia, the country I love and dedicate my heart to, is slipping into an opposite but yet very similar radicalism. That was totally unforeseeable only a few years ago, and there is no force to blame but the “left” and how it allowed itself to morph from an impetus for moving forward to a step back into different forms of spiritual debasement and lack of concern for global justice and national sovereignty.<br />
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This may sound like an ultra-right propaganda, but in reality it is not. It is the “left” who has abandoned the principles of the true left and turned it from a force of change and liberation to a force towards breakdown of society and family values. If by endorsing those values and virtues I will be branded a right-wing zealot, then so be it, because as a die-hard true leftie, I do not see any association between my principles and values with what is left of the left in the “left”.</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-42650052224555749612017-01-21T23:00:00.005-08:002017-01-21T23:00:50.746-08:00Global helmsman Xi Jinping steps up with charm offensive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">by <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pepe Escobar</strong> for <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/global-helmsman-xi-jinping-steps-charm-offensive/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">the Asia Times</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He did it, his way; Chinese President Xi Jinping descended on the Swiss Alps; profited from a geopolitical vacuum only three days before Donald Trump’s inauguration with the Atlanticist West mired in stagnation and/or protectionism; unleashed a charm offensive; and deftly positioned China in the lead of “inclusive” globalization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a wide-ranging speech that went from global angst to China’s new normal, Xi sounded all the right notes that global capital needed to hear; protectionism is like “locking oneself in a dark room,” and “no one is a winner in a trade war.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">His speech delved into the necessity of peace in Syria, the perverse effects of the absence of financial regulation, and the struggle for “balance between efficiency and equity.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So onwards with the fourth industrial revolution – and may China deliver.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Xi, the first Chinese president to visit the turbo-capitalist World Economic Forum talkfest, meant business from the start.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He arrived with an 80-strong delegation that included Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Dalian Wanda’s Wang Jianlin – China’s top two billionaires – as well as Baidu’s Zhang Yaqin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Compare these “globalist princelings” with the Trump camp, represented by one of his official business advisers, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of hedge fund SkyBridge Capital and <a href="http://www.saltconference.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Salt</a>, a not exactly stellar Las Vegas investment conference (the next one is at the Bellagio in May).</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where’s the ticket to the Rothschild party?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A “humanized” Davos 2017 is very worried about saving the world – or at least saving the wealthy from most of the world. The WEF has suddenly discovered that globalization as we know it fosters massive inequality, as much as globalization’s self-appointed managers remain inflexible about their moral right to bend whole nations to their will, as the <a href="http://leseconomistesatterres.blogs.liberation.fr/2017/01/15/ces-chiffres-miraculeux-de-leconomie-irlandaise/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">“miraculous” numbers of the Irish economy attest.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus an alarmed WEF is promoting at least six sessions discussing inequality, from “Combating Rising Insecurity and Inequality” to “Squeezed and Angry: How to Fix the Middle Class Crisis,” starring IMF’s Christine “Vuitton” Lagarde and a bunch of hedge funders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And this while Oxfam revealed to the world the real G8 of inequality – as in those <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">individuals who own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the world combined</a>. Call them the Kings of Globalization – featuring, among others, Bill Gates, Amazon supremo Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg, .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In pure neo-Dadaist fashion, there could not be a more graphic emblem for inequality than Davos itself. To get a green card all-area-access, mostly in and around the Grandhotel Belvedere, corporations must become<a href="https://www.weforum.org/about/strategic-partners" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank"> strategic partners of the WEF</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The list is a beauty. Each membership costs a whopping US$600,000, allowing a CEO to bring up to four cohorts; but still they must pay for each individual ticket. And even that does not guarantee an invitation to the glitziest party in town, thrown by Nat Rothschild in tandem with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Still, those who shelled out the cash will hardly resist the chance to hear Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg (with a US$1.3 billion fortune) expand on how “older” global leaders can profit from the optimism of youth. Eric Schmidt (worth US$11 billion), chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is also in town, but this time he opted for discretion.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Listen to the sound of my ‘win-win’ clapping</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Xi was very careful not to advertize a new “Chinese consensus,” or model, as the model itself is being carefully, and painstakingly, tweaked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What stood out in his presentation is that Beijing does not interpret globalization in a Western, turbo-neoliberal sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are indeed benefits. They also do mask the plunder of the developing world’s resources via stealth “international laws” and (now dead in the water) trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), mostly for the benefit of the West’s 0.01%, who then become alarmed by “inequality.”</span></div>
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<img alt="A passerby casts a shadow over a map illustrating China's "One Belt, One Road" megaproject at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China, on January 18, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Bobby Yip " class="aligncenter wp-image-100299 size-full" height="2467" src="http://static.atimes.com/uploads/2017/01/obotr.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="3500" /></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A passerby casts a shadow over a map illustrating China’s One Belt, One Road project. Photo: Reuters/Bobby Yip</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Xi instead is promoting the notion of serial win-win deals; and that’s why his positioning is essentially the ultimate glorious pitch for the New Silk Road, a.k.a. One Belt, One Road (Obor) project, largely featured in the last part of his speech.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone knows about Obor as an essential tool to tweak the Chinese model; develop the Chinese Far West; open an array of Eurasian markets; promote the internationalization of the yuan; and of course consolidate a major geopolitical shift, not least by neutralizing most of the Obama/Clinton “pivot to Asia.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So when we get the concerted firepower of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); the Silk Road Fund; and the New Development Bank (NDB) under Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), we have enough capital to generate generous financing for an infrastructure bonanza from China, across Central Asia, and all the way to Western Europe and Eastern Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only in Kazakhstan, for instance, there are more than 50 deals valued at over US$20 billion in effect. The new peace in Syria negotiations – Russia, Iran and Turkey – will take place in Astana, not Geneva. Kazakhstan represents the intersection of the New Silk Roads and the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU). Russia and China are luring Iran – and later on Turkey – into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) fold. Syria, pacified and rebuilt, will be a key plank of Obor. It’s all interlinked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So what China is proposing has nothing to do with deglobalization. It’s rather about “localization.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But trade deals never die. With the death of TPP, Xi had to extol the merits of the pan-Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which excludes the US but crucially merges all of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members with everyone ASEAN has trade deals with; China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">RCEP will be a boon for manufacturing within the vastly complex and broader supply chain across Asia, smashing tariffs across the board. That will include China-India trade. Yet it remains to be seen how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s <a href="http://www.makeinindia.com/home" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">Make in India</a> campaign will cope with opening up its markets to Chinese imports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And, of course, Xi had to refer to the yuan question. The yuan is currently overvalued. The People’s Bank of China does not want it to slide down even further; its priority is a stable exchange rate – to stabilize trade. Still, Danske Bank strategist Allen von Mehren, who’s usually spot on, predicts the yuan falling to 7.26 to the US dollar by the end of September.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Somebody’s got to explain all this to Trump, implications included. It won’t be Scaramucci. Not to mention Peter Navarro, Wilbur Ross, “Mad Dog” Mattis or Michael Flynn. It has to be global helmsman Xi in person.</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large for Asia Times. His latest book is <a href="https://www.nimblebooks.com/index.php/2030-a-letter-to-my-grandson.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">2030</a>, published by Nimble Books.</span></em></div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-36459102450831202952017-01-21T22:58:00.002-08:002017-01-21T22:58:16.839-08:00India – Crime of the Century – Financial Genocide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
by Peter Koenig<br />
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A Financial genocide, if there was ever one. Death by demonetization, probably killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, through famine, disease, even desperation and suicide – because most of India’s money was declared invalid. The official weak reason for this purposefully manufactured human disaster is fighting counterfeiting. What a flagrant lie! The real cause is of course – you guessed it – an order from Washington.<br />
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On 8 November, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, brutally declared all 500 (US$ 7) and 1,000 rupee-notes invalid, unless exchanged or deposited in a bank or post office account until 31 December 2016. After this date, all unexchanged ‘old’ money is invalid – lost. Barely half of Indians have bank accounts.<br />
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The final goal is speedy global demonetization. India is a test case – a huge one, covering 1.3 billion people. If it works in India, it works throughout the developing world. That’s the evil thought behind it. “Tests” are already running in Europe.<br />
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The Nordic countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, are moving rapidly towards cashless societies. Electronic money, instead of cash, allows the hegemon to control the entire western world, all those who are enslaved to the dollar monetary system. Meaning literally everybody outside the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that includes, China, Russia, most of Central Asia, Iran, Pakistan and – yes, India is an apparent candidate to join the SCO alliance.<br />
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There was no limit set in rupee amounts that were allowed to be deposited in bank or postal accounts. But exchanges or withdrawals were limited the first two days to 2,000 rupees, later to 4,000 rupees, with promises to further increases ‘later on’. The restrictions have to do with limited new bank notes available. The new money is issued in denominations of 500 and 2,000 rupee-notes.<br />
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On 9 November, none of the country’s ATM machines were functioning. Withdrawing money was possible only from banks. Queues behind bank counters were endless – lasting hours and in some cases days. Often times, once at the teller, the bank was out of cash. Imagine the millions, perhaps billions of labor hours – production time and wages – lost – lost mostly by the poor.<br />
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The banned bank notes constitute about 85% in value of all cash in circulation. India is a cash society. About 97% of all transactions are carried out in cash. Only slightly more than half the Indian population has bank accounts; and only about half of them have been used in the last three months. Credit or debit cards are extremely scarce – basically limited to the ‘creditworthy’ elite.<br />
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In rural areas, where most of the poor live, banks are scarce or none existent. The poor and poorest of the poor, again – as usual – are those who suffer most. Hundreds of thousands of them have lost almost all they have and will be unable to fend for their families, buying food and medication.<br />
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According to most media reports, Modi’s demonetization was an arbitrary decision. Be sure, there is nothing arbitrary behind this decision. As reported on 1 January 2017 by German investigative business journalist, Norbert Haering, in his blog, “Money and More”, this move was well prepared and financed by Washington through USAID (http://norberthaering.de/en/home/27-german/news/745-washington-s-role-in-india). Mr. Modi didn’t even bother presenting the idea to the Parliament for debate.<br />
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In November 2010 President Obama declared with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Strategic Partnership with India. It was to become one of his foreign policy priorities which was renewed during Obama’s visit to India in January 2015 with the current PM Modi. The purpose of this partnership was not just to pull one of the most populous BRICS countries out of the Russia-China orbit, but also to use it as a test case for global demonetization. Mind you, the orders came from way above Obama, from the omni-potent, but hardly visible Rothschild-Rockefeller – Morgan – et al, all-domineering bankster cartel.<br />
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This horrendous crime that may cost millions of lives, was the dictate of Washington. A cooperation agreement, also called an “anti-cash partnership”, between the US development agency (sic), USAID, with the Indian Ministry of Finance, was worked out. One of their declared ‘common objectives’ was gradually eliminating the use of cash by replacing it with digital or virtual money.<br />
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It takes two to tango. The PM of the second largest nation in the world, one would expect, would have a say in the extent to which a foreign country may interfere in India’s sovereign internal affairs, i.e. her monetary policies – especially a foreign country that is known to seek only Full Spectrum Dominance of the globe, its resources and its people. The head of India, a prominent BRICS country (BRICS = Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), one would expect, could have sent the naked emperor to climb a tree – and say NO to this horrendous criminal request. But Modi did not.<br />
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Is India with PM Modi still a viable BRICS country? Or more importantly, India is currently poised to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Is India under Modi worthy of being admitted into this powerful Asian economic and military block, the only authoritative counterbalance to the west? – At this point, putting hundreds of millions of his countrymen at peril by obeying Washington’s nefarious dictate, Modi looks more like a miserable traitor than a partner of the New East.<br />
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USAID calls this operation “Catalyst: Inclusive Cashless Payment Partnership“. Its purpose is “effecting a quantum leap in cashless payment in India” – and of course, eventually around the globe. According to the Indian Economic Times, this program had been stealthily financed by USAID over the past three years. Funding amounts are kept secret. Who knows, where else in the world Catalyst is quietly funding and preparing other human financial disasters.<br />
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All fits into the Big Scheme of things: Reducing the world population, so less resources are needed to maintain 7.4 billion people – and growing – many of them finite resources that can be used by a small elite, supported by a few million slaves. This is the world according to still ticking war criminal numero UNO, Henry Kissinger. Forcefully reducing the world population is his one big objective since just after WWII, when he became a key member of the Rockefeller sponsored Bilderberg Society.<br />
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Some of the same people are currently spreading neo-fascist mantras around the world, at the infamous WEF (World Economic Forum) in Davos, Switzerland (17-20 January 2017). WEF attendees (by invitation only) are a mixed bag of elitist ‘private’ billionaires, corporate CEOs (only corporations registering at least US$ 5 billion in sales), high-flying politicians, Hollywood’s cream of the crop, and more of the kind. Pretty much the same definition applies to the Bilderbergers.<br />
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Like with the Bilderbergers, the key topics discussed at the WEF, those themes that are supposed to guide the world further and faster towards the New (One) World Order, are discussed behind closed doors and will hardly surface into the mainstream. It is, however, highly likely that the “Cashless India” decision – a trial for the rest of the world – had previously been discussed and ‘ratified’ by the WEF, as well as the Bilderbergers. None of this is known to the common people, and least to the Indians.<br />
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All-out efforts are under way to maintain highly lucrative disaster capitalism, or at least to slow down its decline – because its end is in sight. It’s just a question of time. Hence, the term Catalyst (accelerator) for the USAID program is well chosen. Time is running out. One of the best ways of controlling populations and unbending politicians is through financial strangleholds. That’s what a cashless society is all about.<br />
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According to Badal Malick, former Vice President of India’s most important online marketplace Snapdeal, later appointed as CEO of Catalyst: “Catalyst’s mission is to solve multiple coordination problems that have blocked the penetration of digital payments among merchants and low-income consumers. We look forward to creating a sustainable and replicable model. (…) While there has been (…) a concerted push for digital payments by the government, there is still a last mile gap when it comes to merchant acceptance and coordination issues. We want to bring a holistic ecosystem approach to these problems.“<br />
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This is further supported by Jonathan Addleton, USAID Mission Director to India: “India is at the forefront of global efforts to digitize economies and create new economic opportunities that extend to hard-to-reach populations. Catalyst will support these efforts by focusing on the challenge of making everyday purchases cashless.”<br />
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What an outright heap of bovine manure!<br />
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Those who are supporting the Catalyst idea in India – and presumably elsewhere in the world, are, as per an USAID Beyond-Cash report, more than 35 Indian, American and international organizations (http://cashlesscatalyst.org/), mostly IT and payment service providers, including the Better Than Cash Alliance, the Gates Foundation (Microsoft), Omidyar Network (eBay), the Dell Foundation Mastercard, Visa, Metlife Foundation. All of them want to make money from digital payments – another transfer from the poor to the rich – another catalyst for widening the rich-poor gab – worldwide.<br />
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Interestingly, the USAID – Indian partnership to temporarily banning most cash coincides with Raghuram Rajan as President of the Reserve Bank of India (September 2013 – September 2016). Mr. Rajan has also been chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and there is talk that he may be poised as Mme. Lagard’s successor at the helm of the IMF. It is clear that the IMF, and by association the World Bank, is fully aboard with this project to transform western society into slavehood of digital money – with emphasis on wester society, because the East, the Russia-China-Iran-SCO axis, where the future lays, has already largely detached itself from the dollar based western – and fraudulent – monetary scheme.<br />
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Mr. Raghuram Rajan is an influential but also highly controversial figure. He is also a member of the so-called Group of Thirty, “a rather shady organization, where high ranking representatives of the world’s major commercial financial institutions share their thoughts and plans with the presidents of the most important central banks, behind closed doors and with no minutes taken. It becomes increasingly clear that the Group of Thirty is one of the major coordination centers of the worldwide war on cash. Its membership includes other key warriors like Rogoff, Larry Summers and others” (N.Häring, 1.1.2017). On the other hand, Rajan is extremely disliked by the Indian business society, mostly because of his tight monetary policy as head of the Indian Central Bank (go figure!). Under pressure, he did not renew his term as India’s central bank governor in 2016.<br />
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The Group of Thirty sounds akin to the highly secretive Board of Directors of the infamous Basle-based BIS (Bank for International Settlement), also considered the central bank of all central banks, which meets once a month in secret (during a weekend for lesser visibility) and no minutes taken. The BIS is a Rothschild controlled private bank, close associate of the FED, also privately owned. It is clear, with the FED, BIS and IMF in connivance, the dice are cast for a cashless (western) society.<br />
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Washington’s interest in a cashless society goes far beyond the business interests of IT, credit card and other financial institutions. More importantly is the surveillance power that goes with digital payments. As with electronic communications today – every one of them read, listened to and spied on throughout the world – some 7 to 10 billion electronic messages per day – every digital payment and transfer will be controlled and checked worldwide by the Masters of the dollar-based hegemony. Every transfer will be registered and monitored by an American-Zionist control mechanism. This is the only way (totally illegal) sanctions can be dished out to governments that refuse the dictate of Washington and its western European lackeys. Cases in point are Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria — the list is endless. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) recently reported that Employees of a German manufacturing firm doing completely legal business with Iran were put on a US terror list, which meant that they were shut off most of the financial system and even some logistics companies would not transport their furniture any more.<br />
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Norbert Häring concludes, “Every internationally active bank can be blackmailed by the US government into following their orders, since revoking their license to do business in the US or in dollars, basically amounts to shutting them down. Deutsche Bank had to negotiate [in September 2016] with the US treasury for months whether they would have to pay a fine of 14 billion dollars and most likely go broke, or get away with seven billion and survive. If you have the power to bankrupt the largest banks even of large countries, you have power over their governments, too. This power through dominance over the financial system and the associated data is already there. The less cash there is in use, the more extensive and secure it is, as the use of cash is a major avenue for evading this power.”<br />
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Back to India. It is not difficult to imagine what the implications of such a massive demonetization operation might have in a country like India, where hundreds of millions live in or near poverty, with a large rural population, where almost all transactions are carried out in cash – and where cash is everything for survival. This is death by financial strangulation.<br />
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No blood, No traces – no media coverage. It is a clandestine willful mass-murder, carried out by the Indian government on its own people, while instigated by the chief assassins, operating from within the Washington Beltway killer farms, no scruples, no morals, no ethics – what Washington knows best to achieve its purpose.<br />
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This no-holds-barred strategy is accelerating, as time runs out. The ship is slowly but surely turning towards another dimension, another world view – one of in which humanity may gain back its status of a solidary being. These atrocities around the globe may go some ways – but I doubt they will go all the way. There is a spiritual limit on how far evil can go.<br />
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Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media, TeleSUR, TruePublica, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.</div>
Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-63948636709197979082017-01-21T22:57:00.000-08:002017-01-21T22:57:03.448-08:00Here’s how the Trump presidency will play out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">by <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pepe Escobar</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Trump era starts now – with geopolitics and geoeconomics set for a series of imminent, unpredictable cliffhangers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/shadow-play-new-great-game-eurasia/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">argued</a> that Trump’s foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger’s strategy to deal with the formidable Eurasia integration trio – Russia, China and Iran – is a remixed Divide and Rule; seduce Russia away from its strategic partnership with China, while keep harassing the weakest link, Iran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact that’s how it’s already playing out – as in the outbursts of selected members of Trump’s cabinet during their US Senate hearings. Factions of US Think Tankland, referring to Nixon’s China policy, which was designed by Kissinger, are also excited with the possibilities of containment regarding at least one of those powers “potentially arrayed against America”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kissinger and Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski are the two foremost, self-described Western <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">dalangs</em> – puppet masters – in the geopolitical arena. In opposition to Kissinger, Obama’s foreign policy mentor Brzezinski, true to his Russophobia, proposes a Divide and Rule centered on seducing China.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet an influential New York business source, very close to the real, discreet Masters of the Universe, who correctly predicted Trump’s victory weeks before the fact, after examining my argument offered not only a scathing appraisal of those cherished <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">dalangs</em>; he volunteered to detail how the new normal was laid out by the Masters directly to Trump. Let’s call him “X”.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The non-stop China watch</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“X” starts by doing something US deep state-connected regulars, who revere their idols, never dare to, at least in public; “It is important not to attribute too much importance to either Kissinger or Brzezinski as they are merely fronts for those who make the decisions and it is their job to cloak the decisions with a patina of intellectuality. Their input means relatively nothing. I use their names on occasion as I cannot use the names of those who actually make the decisions.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s the cue for “X” to detail the new normal; “Trump was elected with the support of the Masters to tilt towards Russia. The Masters have their tools in the media and Congress maintaining a vilification campaign against Russia, and have their puppet Brzezinski also come out against Russia, stating ‘America’s global influence depends on cooperation with China’. The purpose is to threaten Russia to cooperate and place these chips on the negotiating table for Trump. In a traditional good cop-bad cop approach, Donald is portrayed as the good cop wanting good relations with Russia, and Congress, media, Brzezinski are the bad cops. This is to aid Trump in the negotiations with Russia as Putin sees the ‘precarious’ position of his friend and should be willing to make major concessions as the line goes.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that brings us to how Taiwan – and Japan – got into the mix;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Donald shows the Russian tilt by talking to the Taiwanese, demonstrating that the shift is serious. But it was decided to throw Japan into the mix as a predator against US industry, with an attack on Toyota, thoroughly deserved. That moderated the position as the Masters became afraid that the perception of our building up Japan against China would be too much of a provocation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So expect China – as “not too much importance” Kissinger prescribed – to be under non-stop scrutiny; “The Masters have decided to reindustrialize the United States and want to take jobs back from China. This is advisable from the Chinese viewpoint; for why should they sell their work to the US for a dollar that has no intrinsic value and get really nothing back for the work. China should have a car in every Chinese worker’s garage and they will become a larger producer of cars than the EU, US and Japan combined, and their own nation will keep their wealth in their own country.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And why China over Russia? “Russia in this sense being a natural resource country with a gigantic military industrial complex (the latter being the only reason she is secretly respected) is exempt from any tough trade talk as they hardly export anything but natural resources and military equipment. The Masters want jobs back from Mexico and Asia including Japan, Taiwan, etc., and you see this in Trump’s attack on Japan. The main underlying reason is that the US has lost control of the seas and cannot secure its military components during a major war. This is all that matters now and this is the giant story behind the scenes.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In only a few words “X” details the reversal of an economic cycle; “The Masters made money out of transfer of industry to Asia (Bain Capital specialized in this), and Wall Street made money from the lower interest rates on the recycled dollars from the trade deficits. But now, the issue is strategic; and they will make money on the return of industries scaling down their investments in Asia and returning them to the United States as we rebuild production here.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“X” remains quite fond of Henry Ford’s business strategy; and that is the cue for him to address the crucial theme: national defense. According to “X”, “Ford doubled the wages he paid and made more money than any other manufacturer. The reason was that a living wage where the mother can have many children on her husband’s wage was psychologically good for productivity in his car plants, and that his workers could then afford his cars. He thus recognized that in a society there must be a just distribution of wealth that his admirer Steve Jobs could not. Henry’s mass productivity was the wonder of the world and that was what won World War Two for the United States. Amazon does not contribute anything to national defense, being merely an internet marketing service based on computer programs, nor Google which merely organizes data better. None of this builds a better missile or submarine except in a marginal way.”</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s the Pentagon, stupid</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So yes; this all has to do with reorganizing the US military. “X” made a point to refer to a <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/future-foundry" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">CNAS</a> report I quoted in my initial column; “It is very important for what is visible between the lines. And that is we are in deep trouble being technologically behind Russia by generations in weapons, which is a follow-up on the Brzezinski quote that we are no longer a global power.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a thorough, wide-ranging <a href="http://thesaker.is/the-best-armed-forces-on-the-planet/" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;">analysis</a> of how Russia has managed to organize the best armed forces in the world. And that does not even take into account the S-500 missile defense system, which is now being rolled out and arguably seals the entirety of Russian airspace. And the next generation – S-600? – will be even more powerful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“X” does venture into deep state taboo territory, as in how Russia, over the past decade, has managed to leap far ahead of the US, “eclipsing it as the strongest military power”. But the game may be far from over – wishful thinking or otherwise; “We hope Secretary of Defense James Mattis will understand this and that the Deputy Secretary of Defense has advanced technological skills, organizational ability and the foresight to understand that the weapons of World War Three are offensive and defensive missiles, and submarines, and not air power, tanks and aircraft carriers.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A realist, “X” admits that the warmongering neocon/neoliberalcon status quo – represented by most US deep state factions – will never abandon the default posture of unremitting hostility towards Russia. But he prefers to focus on change; “Let Tillerson reorganize the State Department along Exxon efficiencies. He may be worth something in that. He and Mattis may be gutless but if you tell the truth to the Senate you may not be confirmed. So what they say means nothing. But notice this about Libya. The CIA had a goal of driving China out of Africa and so does AFRICOM. That was one of the secrets to our Libyan intervention.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Not that it worked; NATO/AFRICOM turned Libya into a wasteland run by militias, and still China was not driven away from the rest of Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“X” also admits, “Syria and Iran are red lines for Russia. So is the eastern Ukraine from the Dnieper.” He is fully aware Moscow will not allow any regime change gambit on Tehran. And he’s also aware that “China’s investments in Iranian oil and gas imply that China also will not permit Washington’s overthrow of the Iranian government.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The going really gets tough when it comes to NATO; “X” is convinced Russia “will invade Romania and Poland if those missiles are not taken out of Romania and the missile commitment to Poland rescinded. The issue is not the worthless defensive missiles of the United States but the substitutability of offensive nuclear missiles in these silos. Russia will not tolerate this risk. These are not subject to negotiation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In contrast to the “perpetual threat” perpetual propaganda by the US War Party, Moscow focuses on actual facts on the ground since the 1990s; the break up of historic Slavic ally Serbia; Warsaw Pact nations and even former USSR republics annexed by NATO, not to mention attempts to also include Georgia and Ukraine; US deployment of color revolutions; the “Assad must go “ fiasco, as in regime change forced on Syria even including the weaponizing of Salafi-jihadis; economic sanctions, an oil price war and raids on the ruble; and non-stop NATO harassment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“X”, fully aware of the facts, adds, “Russia has always wanted peace. But they are not going to play a game with the Masters of the Universe that has Trump as the good guy and the Congress, CIA, etc. as the bad guy as a negotiating ploy. That is how they see it. They do not regard this circus as real.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The circus may be just an illusion. Or <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">wayang</em> – Balinese puppet theatre – as I suggested. “X” advances a crisp interpretation of the shadow play ahead from Moscow’s point of view, allowing “several months to see if Putin can work out a detente with Trump that essentially creates an autonomous eastern Ukraine, a peace treaty in Syria with Assad in place, and a withdrawal of NATO forces back to their line of defense under Ronald Reagan.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who will prevail; the Masters, or the deep state? Brace for impact.</span></div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131823770261401867.post-31684923921699895412017-01-21T22:55:00.005-08:002017-01-21T22:55:50.378-08:00Trip Report: China<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Period: December, 2016.</div>
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By: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Anil Chelampath</strong> (a pseudonym)</div>
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I just got back to Canada from a 30 day trip through China, and wrote a trip report for my friends here in the Toronto area. Since I am a friend of the Saker, I thought I would polish it up, and submit it to the Saker to see if he might consider it for his blog.</div>
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I had always admired China from afar, but to complete the picture decided to see up close the country, the people and the institutions and infrastructure. With my Chinese born Canadian friends, we flew from Toronto to Shanghai. From Shanghai, to the far west, then north-west up to the Gobi Desert, north to Beijing and beyond, and north-east close to the Yalu River. The places I visited included portions of the Ancient Silk Road; segments of the Great Wall at the far western reaches; several Buddhist places (old and new) including the Shaolin Temple – founded by Buddhabhadra <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">circa</em> 495 AD, and followed by Bodhidharma <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">circa</em> 527 AD; and the tombs of Dr. Henry Norman Bethune of Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada, and Dr. Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, of Solarpur, Maharashtra, India.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Quick Summary:</strong></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">China is an industrial giant, and in my opinion is now the No. 1 superpower economically. She produces about 600 million tons of steel a year (mty), compared to about 80 mty in the US, and about 100 mty by Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Bullet” train – The Chinese call these High Speed Trains. The Bullet Train is a game changer. They travel at over 300 kph (km per hour), which is about 186 mph. Once the New Silk Road is built, the Eurasian land mass will change in a manner unprecedented in history.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Subways: Almost every city I visited had a subway (underground railway, Metro). In every case, they were more advanced and better than our Toronto subway system, in terms of efficiency, cleanliness and speed.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cars, trucks: Top of the line vehicles from Japan, Europe, Korea and the U.S. And many produced in China. And they clog the roads everywhere.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Roadways: Beautifully built and maintained, with a separate lane for electric cycles, scooters and such, and a sidewalk for pedestrians, with raised strips for blind folk.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The people:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Friends and acquaintances: Friendly, generous and hospitable to a fault.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">People and officials in public places: Rough mannered, discourteous, uncharitable, racist to varying degrees. On landing at the Shanghai airport, among a sea of yellow faces, I was singled out for a medical test. Wherever we went, at railway stations, airports, hotels and such, one look at me, and I had to produce my Canadian passport for detailed scrutiny, reminiscent of Hollywood movies caricaturing the Soviet police!</li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The environment:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">A complete disaster. Killing the planet without any sense or inkling of the Earth being a fragile living entity. Every city I visited had varying degrees of extremely severe smog, with up to half the population wearing face masks.</li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Government: The Party has a tiger by the tail. But if the economic model is not immediately changed, there will be problems, irreversible in nature, both for the people and the planet. I have addressed these issues, and suggested solutions, in the detailed report below. I am taking this liberty, as my way of showing appreciation for the fine gesture that Mr. Xi Jinping made when he visited the younger sister of Dr. Kotnis, during his visit to India a couple of years back. This gentle touch indicates to me that the Party is driven by the same compassionate folks that Norman and Dwarkanath volunteered to fight with, and died for.</li>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Detailed Report</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Personal Background</strong></div>
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I wish to maintain the anonymity of all the various people I met. But since this report is bound to be subjective, I will introduce myself to explain any biases I may harbour. I am over 70, been in Canada 50 years, just retired from my engineering company, now work part time as a consultant. I was born in East Africa, my folks are Syrian Christians of Kerala, India, followers of St. Thomas the Apostle, who came to India in the 1<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> Century and died there. The clergy use Syriac Aramaic for liturgy. Some factions owe allegiance to the Patriarch of Antioch.</div>
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Thanks to my friends who accompanied me, I met several dozens of their friends and relatives in different parts of the country. These folks were from different walks of life, such as taxi drivers, cooks, store keepers, captains of industry, and some in government and the Party.</div>
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Rather than follow a chronological order, I have elected to break the report into various subject matter.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Subway Systems</strong></div>
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More than 20 cities have advanced subway systems. The stations are very well constructed. The announcements are always in Chinese and English (generally with a kind of Oxbridge accent). Every car has an electronic map above the door, showing the entire route, where the train currently is, next destination, and so on. The stations have glass partitions close to the platform edge, so that there is no way you can jump on the track. There are sliding glass doors, and the driver lines up the train doors with these sliding doors. I know of a Toronto acquaintance who used to drive a subway train, and told me how frequent are the “jumpers” who commit suicide. This simple system would prevent that. All the trains I saw had overhead electric lines, not the third rail ground level system.</div>
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The tickets are sold from machines that are again in Chinese and English, and once you get used to the electronic language, can be easy to use. But for the older folks, this is not easy to master.</div>
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John Tory, our Toronto mayor, could pick up a thing or two, if he paid a visit.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">High Speed Rail System</strong></div>
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The Bullet Train is a wonder on its own right. The trains are sleek, streamlined beauties. You get seat numbers, no standing. The ubiquitous clickety-clack of the rails that you hear all over the world, is gone. All you hear is a smooth “swish”. The issue of the rail joints every 39 feet is gone. The expansion joints are apparently filled with a special material that adjusts itself with the varying temperature. The stone ballast looks similar to what we use in North America, and look well maintained. But no wood ties, all reinforced concrete ties. I used these trains several times, and the speeds (always displayed on electronic boards) were approaching a maximum of 310 kph. They are actually capable of higher speeds. For speed and convenience, it actually makes more sense to travel, say, from Shanghai to Beijing, or Beijing to Xi’an by Bullet Train than by air, and that is what most of the mandarins (civil servants) do.</div>
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This would never work in Canada, let alone India. We don’t have the population in Canada to justify this. And our track record for maintaining our tracks is abysmal. And India is much worse. But it could work in parts of the U.S. I suggest Mr. Trump visit China, and he would be truly impressed. He is savvy enough to negotiate a business plan to build these all over the U.S., that would be a big boost for the American economy. As the Chinese say, this would be a win-win-win project (China-2 vs US-1).</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Machine/Fabricating Shops</strong></div>
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A couple of places I visited:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Machinery Builder: This was a world class company. Their showroom alone was a huge steel building with three overhead cranes, with various mining and steelmaking equipment, some over 40 feet high. The quality of the workmanship was excellent, and pricing was unbeatable.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Building Component manufacturer: Not world class in quality, but very competitive. When I pointed out some shortcomings in their design, they were quick to acknowledge, and make corrections.</li>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Steel Mills</strong></div>
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I saw one integrated steel mill. This is the classic Soviet design, that you can see all over north India, and most parts of China. All of them use the Blast Furnace route. It is coal based, and is a planet killer. Just the sight of the plumes of smoke from a distance is enough to make one sick. The basic process includes an in-house coal fired power plant, and powdered coal and coke made from coal for the iron making.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Power Plants</strong></div>
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We passed one power plant. Their emanations were horrible to watch. Power plants are generally coal fired. I read that China commissions two coal fired power plants a week. That’s right, two a week.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">General Observations on Chinese Industries</strong></div>
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In almost every case, China takes a working design from another country, and tries to imitate it, with “Chinese characteristics”. This worked in Japan and Korea, and it is applied on a monumental scale in China. In the early days, this approach resulted in some very shoddy work, but now there is a concerted effort by the government to ensure quality, and anything for export has to meet stringent quality controls.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Living Conditions</strong></div>
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Example 1:</div>
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A family where I spent time with, to the west of Shanghai. House by a river, walled all around, enter through a gate. Up to about 30 years ago, life was extremely hard, everything was rationed. You were lucky to get meat to eat once a year. Because of lack of fuel, you would sometimes go without showers for a month. In the winters, there was no heat in the house. The people here are so hardy, even now they manage indoors without winter heat, which this Canadian resident found unbearably cold. Now they live in a mansion, easily worth a $1m in Canada. One daughter and her husband have a store in town, which stays open 7 days a week, all year. These are unbelievably hard working people, and have benefitted from Deng Xiaoping’s revolution. I spent a few hours upstairs over their store, to rest from jet lag, and the place was packed with noodles that are made daily, with a bunch on the balcony, getting sun dried. The son has a high level position, drives a top end Audi, and I would guess their house would be worth about $2m in Toronto.</div>
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At the parents’ house, there are chicken at the back, couple of sheep in a barn nearby, and a plot of land down the footpath, where all kinds of vegetables and fruit are grown.</div>
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Example 2:</div>
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Family in Beijing. One kid is completely Americanized, goes to an American run school, speaks fluent English with a Yankee accent, plays junior hockey, has a Russian coach. Skis in the winter. Lives in a condo in a gated complex of multi-story condos. Inside is lavishly furnished. Because of this location, this condo would be worth several million. Parents widely travelled to all parts of the world, conversed in moderately good English, I even spoke some Swahili and Spanish with them.</div>
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Example 3:</div>
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Way up to the north-east of the country. House by a frozen river. An incongruous scene of a guy actually skating on the river, next to the house. The house was built with sheet metal and plastic sheets, and garbage was strewn all over the frozen river. It was bitterly cold, and I can only guess at the conditions inside. Reminded me of my indigenous brothers and sisters in Northern Ontario.</div>
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Example 4:</div>
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Retired professor in a big city. Lives on a pension in an apartment in the university grounds. Lives modestly but comfortably. Entertained us for dinner in the university cafeteria building. We passed by the kids in the cafeteria, then went to a section where there are large rooms, Chinese style, where they entertained us to a very lavish dinner. We were joined by a few other professors, who were very cordial to me and very respectful to their retired buddy.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Education System</strong></div>
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Basically officially sanctioned child slave labour. The average kid wakes up at 5:30am, after breakfast at home, leaves about 6:00am for school (by bus, taxi, etc.). Lunch and dinner at the school. Back home at 8:30pm. Five days a week. Saturday: Home work. Sunday: Tutoring.</div>
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The sole purpose is to pass the exams with the highest possible score, to qualify for the best universities. On meeting some of the kids, I did not get a sense that anyone was having fun learning. For some of the children of the very poor, this is the only ticket out of poverty. Having met some of the graduates in Canada, and their parents in China, I can see the logic, but cannot agree with this approach.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Food and Booze</strong></div>
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(Vegetarians can skip this section). At a lavish dinner hosted by some of the local well-heeled friends, near the Shanghai area, I was simply awestruck by the stupendous cuisine. And very distinctive. I will never again say “let’s go out for Chinese.” Every province has its own style of cooking. In the Shanghai region, for instance, “sweet and sour pork” is actually sweet and salty. Not sour, Cantonese style. As you go north, food gets more salty, less sweet. It is customary for a family to say “let’s go out for Szechuan”. Or “Cantonese”. In the far north-west, one of the “delights” was minced donkey meat. And a half-cooked lamb with the head still on, that was brought to us to garner our approval, before they finished the cooking. Near the Mongolian border, the sliced lamb meat literally melted in your mouth.</div>
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In one of the group dinners, after hearing that I liked red wine, the hostess brought out a bottle of Chinese red. The label had fake comments about its French pedigree, written in hilarious Chinglish and Frenchlish, and dated “Since 2012”. It tasted like some sort of medication, but to be polite I said it was similar to our Canadian Ontario wines. I said it was not bad, and actually quite good for marinating meat, especially goat meat. She got my drift, and two days later invited my friends and I to a 5 star American hotel, where they actually served a creditable Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. More about the hotel later.</div>
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The native rice wine is stupendous. I tried two kinds, one brownish and milder, and one pure white and much stronger. At a hot pot party, where you dip pieces of lamb into the pot, then dip it into sesame seed paste, they would then down a small glass of this white wine, bottoms up, after each bite. These guys reminded me of Russians, the way they drank, and the camaraderie that got warmer the more they drank.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Toilets</strong></div>
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In all the subways, train stations, malls, up-scale hotels, the washrooms are spotlessly clean. But almost always some are Asian squat style, rather than the Westers seat style. The health benefits of the squat toilet is not well known in the “West”, but a search on the internet will yield very good information. As you go further west and north, toilets start getting somewhat “crappy”, and in the boondocks end up being just a hole in the ground, and quite gross. It is extremely important to bring your own supply of toilet paper if you go to the remote regions.</div>
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After their deed, about half of the fellas would leave without washing their hands, about the same average as Canada.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Basic Courtesies, Charity (Lack Thereof)</strong></div>
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In the entire 30 days that I was in China, I only saw two acts of basic courtesy. In the subways, train stations and bus stops, the folks rush and mill about without a single “excuse me”, “after you” or “thank you”. I don’t mean to me, but to each other. If there is a rush to the elevator or escalator, they would literally shoulder each other off to squeeze in.</div>
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In every subway car, just as in any subways around the world, there are always well marked seats on either side, reserved for the aged, infirm, pregnant women and children. In every case, these were occupied by young men or women. Not a single person would get up for an old man, or woman with child.</div>
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When I had to travel on a bus, standing room only, an older man, neatly dressed, but frail, was standing near me. When the bus suddenly jerked to a stop, he lost his grip on the side bar, and lurched forward. No one on either side moved to help, so I jumped forward and grabbed him.</div>
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I saw a few instances of begging/panhandling. I suspect the authorities try to move them out of sight. In one case, it was an elderly woman, sitting by the side of the sidewalk, one leg painfully contorted, visibly handicapped. It was bitterly cold, and she was dressed in tatters. This was a busy walkway, but not one passerby dropped a yuan. In another instance, what appeared to be an old soldier from his tattered clothes and stiff bearing, was sitting on a small foot high broken stool, painfully playing a tune on his two stringed violin. After a couple of swipes of his bow, he had to rest, he looked so weak. Again, busy walkway, no one dropped a penny. I know a Salvation Army lady in Toronto, who would make short shrift of this situation. But unfortunately, I suspect she would not get any funds in China.</div>
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Courtesy #1: I was once travelling with one of my friends in a crowded subway in Beijing, standing next to a couple of burly Turkmen looking guys, one wearing an Islamic taqiyah (skullcap). They were talking to each other in a Turkic sounding language. At one stop, a seat opened up, and as usual there is a fight for the seat. The taqiyah won the battle, but when he sat down, he looked up to see me, saw my features and age, and instantly shot up, and in a forceful way told me to take his seat, which I did and nodded to say thanks. When I got up to get ready for my stop, I said <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">as-salam-alaykum </em>to him, to which he immediately replied <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">wa alaykum salam</em> with a smile. I asked my friend to chat him up a bit. She told me they hailed from Quinghai, in the far west, north of Tibet, and now work in Beijing.</div>
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Courtesy #2: In the Shaolin Temple (which I address later), in one area, standing far to one side while the visitors were milling about between temple buildings, I saw a portly middle aged monk, in the usual grey uniform. I venture to guess he was the Abbot, and he did not look happy, watching the undisciplined visitors. When he saw me, he suddenly broke into a warm welcoming smile, put his hands together in the traditional Indian style, and bowed down to give me a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">namaste</em>. I reciprocated, of course.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Comment on the “Asian” Culture</strong></div>
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It is fairly common to hear people of Asian ancestry (Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, and so on) say that Asians are different from the rest of the world, when it comes to dealing with the old, infirm and destitute. That Asians are gentler and kinder. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in reality. The “West” is far superior in this regard. I have found more Buddhist compassion in the West than anywhere else.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stares, Glares and Racism</strong></div>
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A psychologist would have a field day with this subject. I am just a lowly engineer, but I am going to give it a shot. First, some definitions.</div>
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“Races” (no basis whatsoever in anthropological reality):</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">White: “European stock”, gringos.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Yellow: Chinese, Han.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Black: African Negro ancestry, originally south of the Sahara.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Brown: Latin Americans, Native Americans, North Africans, Arabs, West Asians, South Asians, South-East Asians, Indonesians, Filipinos. There are about 3 billion of “us”. Meaning much more than Han Chinese.</li>
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Just as Indians are racist to varying degrees, I was surprised to discover that the Chinese are also racist, but of course with “Chinese characteristics”. It turns out the Han have racist terms for the “darker” species, based on some sort of vague chromatic scale. When it comes to “whites”, there is a peculiar combination of “inferiority/superiority” complex, just as in India. In India, in most of the billboards, ads, Bollywood movies and such, “fair” skin is often associated with beauty. Same thing in China. In almost every outdoor ad, on TV, etc., there is always a Hollywood type of gringo in among the Han. To give the commercial “authenticity”, I guess. And the Han depicted are invariably close to the American model in looks. Complete with hair dyed shades of brown/blond. There seems to be a specific obsession with the “American” idea of perfection.</div>
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The irony is that the Chinese are a handsome race, the men, particularly as you go north, are tall, strapping, handsome guys. And the women! If only I were 50 years younger! Just as the cuisine changes from South to North, the women also seem to change, in unique, beautiful ways, same as in India.</div>
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First, a digression:</div>
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My friends here in Canada, while sympathetic, don’t always quite understand the unique experience of being a minority. I don’t mean my indigenous brothers and sisters, who are now a minority in their own land, but my “white” friends. But when I went with a buddy to Nigeria on a business trip some years back, he was so uncomfortable with the stares wherever he went, because he stood out as a “white” guy, he warned me he would never want that kind of experience again. He called it a trip from hell! Another time, a good friend from Chicago was in a remote mountain area of Peru, doing some research on Toltecs, when he was accosted by a group of young toughs, who said some nasty things about “gringos”, and there was a clear danger of getting stoned, but managed to escape with his life. In my case, 50 years ago Canada was quite an uncomfortable place for “minorities”, but now it is quite multi-cultural, with a black chief of police in Toronto, a Sikh defence minister, and Chinese, black and Indian folks in all levels of business and government.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">After landing at the Shanghai airport, we ended up in a huge group, with this intrepid reporter among literally hundreds of yellow faces, heading towards immigration. Far to the left, I spied a desk with two officials in white lab coats, a man and a woman. The woman stands up and points to me, and in a harsh tone said I should go towards her (my friends translated for me). She then demanded my papers, including my passport and boarding card, and if it wasn’t obvious, my friends pointed out to her that I was arriving from Canada. She then pointed to the lab guy next to her, and gestured that I should go to him, again in very harsh tones. The guy had some instruments on him, and asked me to lift my tongue, and then poked under it with a prod thingie. After several minutes, while he checked some gauge that was hooked to the prod, he imperiously allowed me to proceed.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wherever I went, particularly subways, trains and buses where you tend to get visually “exposed”, the stares ranged from the simply curious to quite baleful. Sometimes, walking down a street, a passer-by, or a street cleaner, would stop in his tracks, and actually walk around you, without any smiles or comments, as if watching the panda at the Toronto Zoo. On three occasions, the stare was so baleful, that I would have to go way east of Oshawa, in biker country, to get that kind of look, that says he wants to break every bone in my body. On each of these instances, I went to an inch (25.4 mm) of the guy’s nose, and returned the glare, doing an imitation of Russell Peters. Each time, my friends noticed this, and hurriedly pulled me away.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">When we entered a hotel or restaurant, the waiters or attendants would warmly greet my Chinese friends, but one look at me, would turn away. Even if I tried to catch their eye, and say “nee hao’r u”, no response, no smile.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">At a railway station in the west of the country, as soon as we entered the large waiting hall, all eyes would turn on me, as if on ball bearings.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">When we were boarding the train to go further west, there was a very pretty woman in a red uniform at our car entrance, checking everyone’s tickets. One look at me, “ID please”, in harsh Chinese. My friends helped me with the process, and she let me get on.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">This was a regular train, not the Bullet train, and we had a 6 bed sleeping compartment. The most uncomfortable, intrusive train ride I ever had. There was no door at the entrance, there were seats in the corridor at the entrances. Black clad officials walking up and down, peering at this foreigner. During the night, one official sat on the seat at the entrance, constantly peering in.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">There are signs everywhere, in Chinese and English, warning against “disturbing the social order”, “no loitering”, “no slaptick (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">sic</em>) behaviour” and so on, or you would be dealt with “according to the relevant laws”. When I kind of “lost it” with a rude steward on a plane, I was cautioned by my friend that getting angry is not allowed. The steward was joined by another burly black clad guy, just to make sure I behaved.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">At a hotel in a big city, we checked in, went out to a Szechuan restaurant with a local friend, on the way back, a guy in plain clothes in the lobby notices me, and gets up and tells my friends that I am not allowed, as I was a foreigner. We call our hostess on the phone, she comes back, has a talk with the guy, while she gestures me to go up to my room. The agreement she got was that I should leave and enter “discreetly”, without talking and hanging around the lobby. Well, for three nights, I had this nagging anxiety of getting a knock on the door.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">I learned later that there are restrictions on associating with foreigners, staying in friends’ houses and so on.</li>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Electrical System</strong></div>
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World class transmission system. High voltage transmission up to 1,000 kV AC, and 800 kV DC. Transformers, switchgears, etc. appear to be up to world standards, on a par with GE, ABB and Siemens.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ghost Cities</strong></div>
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I had read about them. Saw several while travelling west and north. Huge apartment blocks, rising suddenly out of the countryside. Not sure how many are occupied.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Internet</strong></div>
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I could not access Google or Reuters. But could get the Saker, Sputnik, RT and ZeroHedge. It turns out that Google is viewed with great suspicion. No Google mail, but did get Yahoo mail. The internet is of course a powerful medium for transmitting deadly political viruses, to create Maidans and other malignant movements. So the Government is justifiably wary.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Traffic and Pedestrians</strong></div>
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The roads and traffic signals are of excellent design, most are better designed than anything I have seen in Toronto. Unfortunately, drivers and pedestrians treat each other with total contempt. It is common to see pedestrians and cycles and scooters cross at the wrong times, even cycles and scooters going the wrong way. At one intersection I saw the aftermath of an accident involving a pedestrian, with a small pool of blood on the pavement. The police and ambulance arrived immediately, and everything was back to normal in minutes. Not sure about the pedestrian.</div>
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The striking thing I noticed was that the cycles, tricycles and scooters and such were all electric. Even what I would call auto-rickshaws were electric.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Politics, News Coverage, CCTV (China Central television)</strong></div>
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Xinhua and Global Times coverage of world events is mediocre. CCTV is usually running in restaurants and public places. In Chinese, of course. But the coverage is excellent. I noticed from the contents that the happenings in Syria, for instance, were covered extensively, including war footage. The reports appeared to be unbiased, meaning the massacres perpetrated by the terrorists, funded by the west, were given fair coverage. On one occasion, I noticed there was a full interview, in English, of a Canadian reporter named Eva Bartlett. Wow, what a wonderful, beautiful person she is. And of tremendous courage. The Party, as represented by the news coverage, clearly identifies with the Russian position.</div>
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Unfortunately, this is not true of the majority of the people. Generally, the Chinese are as morally calloused as North Americans and Europeans. Any attempt to discuss the Syrian conflict, or the million civilians killed in Iraq, or the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas, is met with a glazed look of incomprehension. When I pointed out that Hillary was responsible for the “pivot to Asia”, and that Trump is better for global security, there was uniform disagreement. The sense is that Trump is not good for Chinese business, and that is all that counts for the average guy. Unless you bring up the South China Sea, and then there is some passion.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Advice to Visitors</strong></div>
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To women of all stripes: Dress is generally conservative, very fashionable in the cosmopolitan areas. Judging from the ads in the subways and TV, summer dress is as skimpy as in the west. I did not see any evidence of harassment, unlike, say, north India, where I would not advice any women to travel alone. The only example of extreme smooching was a gringo with his Chinese girlfriend on a bridge over a river in Suzhou, and they drew a lot of stares.</div>
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To men: No hugging or kissing, Russian or Latin style. But unlike India, you can shake a woman’s hand.</div>
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Gays: Did not see any evidence of ostensibly gay folks, and I am sure this lifestyle is not officially welcome.</div>
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Handicapped: Forget it. Saw only one guy in 30 days, in a non-motorized wheelchair, being pushed by another guy. The Party is clearly making valiant efforts to make China handicapped friendly. Unfortunately, with the characteristic hustle and bustle and pushing and shoving in every metropolitan area, they will not survive.</div>
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Chinese: All visitors, including of Chinese heritage, will have a tough time on their own, if you don’t speak the language.</div>
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“Whites”: The younger folk seem to look “up” to you, especially if you can pretend to be a Yank. As a foreigner, you will draw stares. Going far west to the Islamic areas may pose some challenges.</div>
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Blacks: You are lower in the chromatic scale (heheh), unless you can be dressed in an expensive suit, and appear to be well-heeled. Then they will shamelessly suck up to you! Because money talks in this country.</div>
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Browns: Associated with deep poverty (not without some merit!). If you can have good friends accompany you, or are part of a tour group, then you can manage. On your own, it will be challenging.</div>
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Vegetarians: You can manage with soy milk, vegetables, steamed bread and rice. But milk is hard to get.</div>
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Older Folk: Very tough, unless you are part of a guided tour. I know a retired Swiss-Canadian couple that took a train tour through China, with guides and interpreters, who said they enjoyed it immensely.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Commentary on the Chinese People</strong></div>
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First, the Chinese mother: A force of nature, like Niagara Falls, or a Category 6 hurricane. Whether she has a Chinese or foreign husband is irrelevant. When it comes to her child’s well-being and education, you cross her path at your peril. In my opinion, this is the force that drives the rush to prosperity.</div>
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The instinct to succeed at any cost is pervasive in every corner of the country. The Chinese businessman is as genetically corrupt as the Mumbai businessman. For instance, injecting synthetic sweetener into oranges, or contaminating baby’s milk, or cheating on the metallurgy or mechanical properties of steel, is no problem whatsoever. Any concerns with the environment, legality, morality, ethics, worker safety, is of no consequence, if you can get away with it. If it were not for the Government, they would get away with murder. Deng Xiaoping has unleashed a monster.</div>
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The wealth in the eastern parts of the country is incredible. People work very hard, and also spend it well, on expensive cars, parties, travel, schooling for their kids.</div>
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Without Government control, the society would break up into total chaos. There is an inherent lack of discipline everywhere, same as in India. Cigarette butts even in the most pristine areas, even in 5 Star hotels, where the signs clearly say “No Smoking”. Ashtrays with matches are provided in all the hotel rooms.</div>
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Every rich or “elite” family I met had a child studying overseas, or was planning to send one. And always to Canada, the U.S., Australia or New Zealand. And it is well known that rich Chinese are buying up property/houses in the suburbs of Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Melbourne and so on. Which sends house prices in these areas through the roof.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dialects versus Languages</strong></div>
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I don’t understand how the Chinese can call the speech in different parts of the country “dialects”. They are different and distinctive languages. Even within a few hundred kilometres from Shanghai, the Shanghai natives don’t understand the local dialect. Once during a dinner with about 20 people in Shanghai, one of my friends from the north, who spoke only Mandarin and his northern dialect, was left completely out of the conversation, with the result he and I were left politely smiling, but not understanding a word, while the Shanghai mafia carried on their pretty raucous banter.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">A 5 Star American Hotel</strong></div>
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This was in a big city, and for the first and only time during my visit, I was welcomed with the kind of warm and smiling hospitality that top notch American hotels are justifiably famous for. As usual, not a single foreigner in site, the waiters and front attendants (all Chinese) catch your eye, and smile. As you walk through this corridor style area, with cooking facilities behind glass partitions on either side, every single chef smiles at you as you walk by. And the service and food – incredible Chinese fare, including a chicken that was covered in a clay ball, and cooked until the clay was hard. We had to break the clay, to expose the delicious dish inside.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Ancient Silk Road – Yan Guang Pass</strong></div>
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Located in the far North-West of China. This is high desert country, cold at this time (about -10 deg. C , 14 deg. F) and the Silk Road used to traverse this section, from about 200 BC. I saw one section, that had that smooth, worn look, well-trodden over centuries, meandering over the desert. It was about 50 metres wide, and I could almost see in my mind’s eye the traders and their caravans travelling each way with their prized goods.</div>
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Nearby in Dunhuang, we also took a long ride on a camel (two humps!), just to get a feeling for how the ancient traders traveled. Actually, quite comfortable, once you get into their characteristic rocking motion.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The One Belt One Road (OBOR)</strong></div>
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The new Silk Road is contemplated somewhat along the same route as the old one, according to the local officials. In a few years, I can see trucks driven by Afghans/Sikhs/Punjabis carrying fresh shrimp, mangoes, cashew fruit (that’s right, the delicious fruit), coconuts and guavas from the south of Kerala, in the southern tip of India, through Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan, Russia all the way to Western Europe. And the route will be dotted with <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">dhabas</em>, the truck stop restaurants that are dotted all over the Indian sub-continent, that serve roti (chappathis), dhal (lentil) curry, and other spicy stuff. Having seen the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese, most of these will be run by Chinese, and run better than Indians! If Jinping and Vladimir and Nursultan can be joined by Narendra and Nawaz, the OBOR can be built quickly, and they will have helped change the world for the good.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nanjing</strong></div>
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I cannot do justice to this city in this report, there was so much that happened here in the past.</div>
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Briefly:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Capital of China during the war against Japanese occupation. The massacres and rapes here by the Japanese were of grotesque proportions. Words cannot describe this barbarity unleashed on the Chinese people. My Chinese friends tell me the only way they can tell Japanese apart from the Chinese, is when the Japanese bow. What measure of identification did the Japanese use to identify the victims of their horrors? Apart from dress. I can’t even call this racism.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sun Yat-sen Memorial: Sun is acknowledged as the founding father of the Republic of China. A beautiful, well-kept memorial, architecturally stunning.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Confucius Temple: Excellent historical records of Confucius. I was surprised to discover that his concern was with the proper running of society and government. Unlike Buddhism, the backbone of his teachings was “propriety”, not compassion. As an official of the government, he actually had a convict put to death, because the defendant did not show enough “contrition”.</li>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Buddhism in China</strong></div>
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First, a little snippet from the past:</div>
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Shortly after his arrival in China in the year ~520, Bodhidharma had an interview with the Emperor Wu of Liang:</div>
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Emperor Wu: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">From the beginning of my reign, I have built many temples, had numerous sacred books copied, and supported all the monks and nuns. What merit have I?</em></div>
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Bodhidharma: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">None</em>.</div>
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Emperor Wu: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Why</em>?</div>
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Bodhidharma: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">All these are inferior deeds, showing traces of worldliness, but shadows. A truly meritorious deed is full of wisdom, but mysterious, its real nature beyond the grasp of human intelligence – something not found in worldly achievement</em>.</div>
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Emperor Wu: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">What is the first principle of your doctrine?</em></div>
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Bodhidharma: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Vast emptiness, nothing holy</em>.</div>
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Emperor Wu: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Who, then, stands before me</em>?</div>
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Bodhidharma: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I don’t know</em>.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lingshan Buddha </strong>(or Disney meets Sakyamuni)</div>
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Located near Wuxi, in Jiangsu Province</div>
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This is one of the largest Buddha statues in the world. There is also a baby Buddha, high up on a pedestal, with lotus petals that cover the baby, that open up every so often, with a huge fountain shower to the sound of inspiring music.</div>
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Completed in 1996, this is a commercial sham. They charge huge fees, and the place is crowded, even on weekdays. Our hostess friend who was showing us around told us that on auspicious days, the place is completely packed, and people leave money for good luck. There are also donation boxes, so the owners get money two ways. The people who visit here have no inkling of Buddhism, but if a donation can bring good fortune, people will spend money.</div>
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To give it a veneer of authenticity, there are some signs in Sanskrit. But not a single sutra, in Chinese or any language.</div>
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There are stores all over the grounds, selling very expensive trinkets. And the restaurants have various meat dishes, which is truly sacrilegious.</div>
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What merit do they gain?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Buddhist Grottoes, Caves, Carvings</strong></div>
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Mogao Grotto near Dunhuang in the far north-west: Work on these Buddhist carvings were spread over 1,400 years. Sakyamuni, Amitabha and Maitreya Buddhas are all portrayed in truly stupendous carvings on the stone cliff faces, which are sheltered by temple like structures around them. Including one with Kasyapa and Ananda on either side of Gautama.</div>
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Longmen Grottoes in the north-east: Thousands of magnificent carvings of Buddha and his disciples, on either side of the Yi river, dating back more than 1,500 years.</div>
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For any Buddhist students out there, these two are a must-see.</div>
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I was left with a sense that, of all the peoples of the world (including Indian), the Chinese understood and accepted the Buddhist teachings in an incomparable way, for the longest period in history.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Shaolin Temple in Zhengzhou</strong></div>
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This place now has very little to do with Buddhism. During a Xinhua interview with Vladimir Putin, he was characteristically gracious in his description of his visit to the temple. I am afraid Vladimirovich was being kind. First, a sidebar:</div>
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In the village in Kerala where my parents hailed from, my mother used to talk about the local Hindu temple, where some of the members were practitioners of kalaripayattu (kalari in short). They had a reputation for being inconspicuous in appearance, but no one could challenge them physically. On talking to some friends who had familiarity with the art, one of the exercises was the high side kick, that you repeated endlessly. I learned that kalari originated in Kerala, and Bodhidharma likely was adept at this form of martial art.</div>
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Now a little history, some contested:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Shaolin Monastery founded in 464 AD, by Buddhabhadra.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bodhidharma arrives around 520 AD, and among other things, teaches martial arts. Now, this is contested by some so-called experts. The irony is, even Japanese karate acknowledges its Bodhidharma roots.</li>
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Well, I enter the grounds with a lot of trepidation, anxious to absorb every tiny detail, aware that this place marked a historical turning point. As I walk in, to the left, at a lower level, I see a large grassy area the size of a soccer filed. There is a group of about 100 young men, all in red shirts, with several instructors to either side. All of them are vigorously engaged in repeated high side kicks, kalari style. After about 10 minutes, they switch to touching their toes, which is basically the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Uttanasana</em>. Later, inside an auditorium, there is a Kung Fu display, introduced by a beautiful well-dressed young woman, and young male students come on stage and show various martial arts tricks. One guy with a metal sort of belt around his waist, balances horizontally on the tip of a saber. This is of course a variation of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mayurasana</em>. So now you want to give Kung Fu Chinese roots. Basic decency requires that you give credit where credit is due, but go ahead.</div>
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There are small buildings all over the grounds. Each building usually housed carvings and paintings of the Buddha, and his disciples. All looking distinctly Chinese, except for one image, where he was painted with a reddish hue. I saw one image of Bodhidharma, but it was hard to make out his heritage. Reminded me of seeing images of Jesus as a blued eyed Nordic type, not the Semite that he was. And I don’t mean Khazarian.</div>
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Everywhere, you can see men in grey robes, which is basically a kind of government approved uniform. They are pretending to be monks, when in fact they are civil servants. And all the spiritual essence of this place has been wiped clean. There was not a single sutra in evidence.</div>
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You have to pay to enter, of course, but one building that I wanted to enter, was blocked by a young “monk”, because I was not part of a paid tour group. And stalls everywhere, where you pay to get various trinkets, you have to pay even for a poem penned by a monk.</div>
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Again, what merit do you gain?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery, Shijiazhuan</strong></div>
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Apart from the thousands upon thousands of Chinese martyrs who fought and died for freedom, I was keen on visiting the tombs of two men from disparate backgrounds, who volunteered to serve with the resistance against the fascists.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dr. Henry Norman Bethune, born March 4, 1890, in the town of Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. Died November 12, 1939, aged 49, in Hebei. An outstanding doctor, selfless in every sense of the word, served first with the Republicans against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, then with the Eighth Route Army under Mao Zedong.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dr. Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, born October 10, 1910, in Solarpur, Maharashtra. Died December 9, 1942, aged 32 (thirty two!), in China. He was the first director of the Dr. Norman Bethune International Peace Hospital. He married Guo Qinglan, a nurse he met at the hospital, and they had a son they named YinHua (IndiaChina).</li>
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Both these gentlemen are venerated with great reverence at this cemetery, with separate sections for each of them, complete with statues, and photos and detailed personal histories inside a large museum type structure. The tombs are located in a large park, and the entire area is well kept, well manicured.</div>
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I found this place quite heart rending.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Resistance</strong></div>
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As I see it, the martyrs of the revolution, including Dr. Bethune and Dr. Kotnis, and those who followed them around the world, such as Dr. Ernesto Guevara and Fidel, are all simple people who decided not to accept injustice. In the modern age, the milieu and the playing field has changed, whether it is the streets of Aleppo, the slums of Gaza, or the board room in the Trump Tower. I would like to include Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning in this grouping of folks who have nothing in common, except a refusal to accept injustice.</div>
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I salute you.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Environment</strong></div>
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This is a deadly subject, in every sense of the word. In every city I visited, in the middle, north and north-east, the smog was so thick, that you could not see more than a 100 metres or so, and climbing one flight of stairs left you panting. The alert levels were at the highest, school children had to stay home, and vehicles had to alternate between even and odd license numbers , to cut the traffic by half. The solution for the locals is of course face masks, and there appeared to be a kind of high fashion in mask designs, with paper and cloth masks of various styles and colours. This is absolutely unacceptable, and the situation is only getting worse. This has to be not just reduced, but reversed, otherwise we are on a slippery slope to catastrophe.</div>
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The solution for the rich is to pump out as much money as possible, have a kid studying overseas, and perhaps eventually move out. When I pointed out that this is unacceptable in a “workers’ paradise”, I got the comment that the best brains in China are trying to find a solution, and how could I possibly know better. Well, I think I do.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Party:</strong></div>
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I understood that the Party have their way of arriving at decisions. When there is an issue to deal with, all the facts are brought to the table, and there is intense debate. Unfortunately, there are several competing factions, considering the size and complexity of China. Sometimes, an internal debate among the Shanghai faction would be incomprehensible to the rest, because it is a different dialect. When a decision is made, the strongest faction would prevail, not necessarily the one which is “right”. And once a decision is made, it is implemented swiftly and ruthlessly.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Recommendations to the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China, and the General Secretary, Mr. Xi Jinping</strong></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Power Plants: Start switching immediately from coal fired to natural gas power plants, using gas turbines. Cooperate with Russia, Europe and the U.S. for the manufacture of the gas turbines.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Steel Mills: Start switching immediately from coal based blast furnace iron and steel making, to natural gas based technology using the DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) process, with an EAF (Electric Arc Furnace).</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">All Industries: Every industry should be assessed not on their production, but on their cleanliness. The culture to implement this at present does not exist in China. It can only come from the top down.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">China is already importing natural gas from Russia. Increase this flow, and start negotiating the purchase of electricity from Russia. I have seen the HV transmission system in China, and they are world class. All the steelwork for the transmission, and all the substations and switchgear, would require considerable investment, but also produce high value employment.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Start implementing a network of energy storage around the country.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Increase the network of water storage reservoirs around the country. I did not see a single water reservoir, although I understand China has the largest number in the world.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Education: There are two links I would like every one involved in setting educational policy to watch: ElectroBOOM, and the Bollywood movie, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">3 Idiots</em>. Education is not fun in China. What you are producing is a bunch of educated robots, who end up more paranoid than their parents. The goal should not be to become millionaires and kill the planet, but to spread wealth equitably around China and the world, and have fun doing it.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Change the economic model that Mr. Deng Xiaoping initiated. It makes absolutely no sense for a communist country to produce incredibly rich millionaires, who then ship their money out, and the young couple I know in Toronto cannot afford to buy a house to start a family, because house prices have shot up beyond their reach, caused by the rich buyers from China.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Employment: I understand the primary mission for the Party is to provide employment and a good life for the whole country. The western regions have not yet seen the economic prosperity of the south-east. I submit humbly, in keeping with the drive for a clean environment, switch to organic farming. Mr. Putin is now engaged in an agricultural revolution in Russia, by switching to organic non-GMO food. Avoiding all the poisons that accompany GMO food production. This is worker intensive, and also highly profitable.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Relations with the U.S.: Negotiate with Mr. Trump for the following:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">First, take him on a ride on a High Speed Train. Then offer to help build this rail system all over the U.S. Of course, all the infrastructure that supports the rail lines have to be re-built, resulting in huge employment in the U.S.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cooperate with the US, among others, to help with the gas turbine manufacture for the power plants in China. GE would be ecstatic.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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These steps have to be taken immediately. This requires another Long March. But you know how it starts.</div>
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Take the first step.</div>
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Links:</div>
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ElectroBOOM: <a href="http://www.electroboom.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">http://www.electroboom.com</a></div>
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3 Idiots: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvszmNXdM4w" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvszmNXdM4w</a></div>
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Russell Peters: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYiteaPBlz0" rel="nofollow" style="background: rgb(203, 217, 225); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c424e; padding: 0px 3px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYiteaPBlz0</a></div>
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Toltec: ToltecSchool.com</div>
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Naija Loladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03805984728481859520noreply@blogger.com0