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Author Topic: Non-routine News  (Read 19816 times)

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Surly1

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I have seen that look every now and then here in Vermont. It was directed at me. It was from complete strangers I had never conversed with and never met before. It is possible that it is because I am ugly and my momma dresses me funny, but I rather doubt it. I do what I can to avoid violence. So, in these situations, I take on a puzzled look, then look away and walk away.

The only thing about unreconstructed racists is that they easily self-identify, as you illustrate. The best way to win a fight is to avoid it.

AGelbert

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Siberian Kitty 🐱 Ryzhik's Heartwarming Story
« Reply #211 on: July 26, 2019, 05:17:13 pm »
Ryzhik the Siberian 🐈 cat who refuses to be defeated by frostbite

By The Siberian Times reporter 09 June 2019

The pet lost all four paws in January in -40C cold in Tomsk but video shows him walking again with artificial titanium limbs.



Ryzhik 🐈 (meaning Redhead or Ginger) was found with all paws so badly frostbitten and with gangrene developing so fast, that there was no other option but amputation.

Not long ago this was a common cause of pets being put down in the harsh winters. :(

Luckily Ryzhik got himself a new owner who had other plans. 

The cat was taken to a clinic in Novosibirsk, which specialises in implanting artificial limbs.

Computer tomography and 3D modelling were used to manufacture the most comfortable and suitable artificial limbs for the cat.  Pictures: Vesti Rossiya

Now Ryzhik is believed to be the only cat in Russia with four functioning artificial paws.

Indeed surgeon Sergey Gorshkov said: ‘He is definitely the first cat in the world who experienced such surgeries.

‘The limbs have fully connected with the skin and bone. The part of the limb that goes inside the body is spongy, the bone tissue grows inside it.

‘We achieved a good result.

‘We have secured the function of the limb, although part of it has been removed.’

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/ryzhik-the-siberian-cat-who-refuses-to-be-defeated-by-frostbite/

Agelbert COMMENT: Brave Kitty Ryzhik, may you live long and prosper!
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Minutes Before El Paso Killing, Hate-Filled Manifesto Appears Online
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/us/patrick-crusius-el-paso-shooter-manifesto.html



By Tim Arango, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Katie Benner
Aug. 3, 2019

Nineteen minutes before the first 911 call alerted the authorities to a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex., a hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto appeared online.

It spoke of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” It detailed a plan to separate America into territories by race. It warned that white people were being replaced by foreigners.

The authorities were scrutinizing the 2,300-word screed on Saturday and attempting to determine whether it was written by the same man who killed 20 people and injured more than two dozen others near the Mexican border.

Police officers were interviewing the suspect, Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Tex., a roughly 10-hour drive to the Walmart. What brought him to a crowded shopping center in El Paso is one of the many questions on the minds of investigators.

The manifesto that may be linked to Mr. Crusius described an imminent attack and railed against immigrants, saying, “if we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.”

From New Zealand to Pittsburgh to a synagogue in Poway, Calif., aggrieved white men over the last several months have turned to mass murder in service of hatred against immigrants, Jews and others they perceive as threats to the white race.

The unsigned manifesto, titled “The Inconvenient Truth,” draws direct inspiration from the mass murder of Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand in March that left 51 people dead. In that attack, the alleged killer published a manifesto online promoting a white supremacist theory called “the great replacement.” The theory has been promoted by a French writer named Renaud Camus, and argues that elites in Europe have been working to replace white Europeans with immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

Christchurch has become a rallying cry for extremists the world over. The manifesto potentially linked to the El Paso killings begins, “In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto. This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The gunman who opened fire in April at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., near San Diego, posted an anti-Semitic diatribe on 8chan, the same online message board where the El Paso document surfaced. The Poway manifesto echoed the words of the Christchurch suspect, and also drew inspiration from a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October. In that mass shooting, the suspect railed against immigrants, Jews and other groups.

The El Paso shooting, if the manifesto is linked to the gunman, potentially underscored the global spread of white supremacist ideology in the age of social media and at a time when immigration in America and elsewhere has become a divisive political topic.

Shortly after the mass shooting Saturday, Mr. Crusius’ LinkedIn and Facebook accounts were shut down. A LinkedIn page that circulated online after the account was closed down appeared to be several years old, and Mr. Crusius seemed to be a lost young man.

He wrote on LinkedIn while in high school, “I’m not really motivated to do anything more than what’s necessary to get by. Working in general sucks, but I guess a career in Software Development suits me well. I spend about 8 hours every day on the computer so that counts toward technology experience I guess.”

The posting concluded: “Pretty much just gonna see what technology careers present themselves to me; go with the wind.”

If the manifesto is conclusively linked to Mr. Crusius, the federal authorities may treat Saturday’s attack as a hate crime or an incident of domestic terrorism.

The F.B.I. has said that more Americans have died in domestic terrorist attacks than international ones since Sept. 11, and that domestic terrorism is increasingly motivated by white supremacist ideology.

Christopher Wray, the director of the F.B.I., told Congress last month that the bureau had made about 100 domestic terrorism arrests in the first three quarters of the year, roughly the same number of international arrests over that time period.
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No United States government agency is responsible for designating domestic terrorism organizations, and there is no criminal charge of domestic terrorism. Individuals who are considered domestic terrorists are charged under other existing laws, such as hate crime, gun and conspiracy statutes.

Officials have said that domestic terrorists continue to be radicalized online, where individuals are able to align with other extremists, become inspired and find the resources they need to act.

The investigation is currently being led by the state of Texas, with assistance from the local sheriff’s department, the F.B.I., Border Patrol and others. During a news conference Saturday afternoon, law enforcement officials said that they were exploring potential capital murder charges.

“Not speaking about this particular instance, which is still under investigation, the manifesto narrative is fueled by hate, and it is fueled by racism and bigotry and division,” said Veronica Escobar, the congresswoman who represents El Paso. “El Paso has historically been a very safe community. We’ve been safe for decades. We will continue to be safe.”

She added, “This is someone who came from outside of our community to do us harm.”

Once again on Saturday, America’s epidemic of mass shootings intersected with the divisive issues of race and immigration.

The words of the manifesto, in citing the “great replacement” theory, echo the slogan that was chanted during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017: “Jews will not replace us.”

The writer of the manifesto also suggested that Democrats in the United States have a strategy to gain a permanent majority by embracing the growing Hispanic population, a notion that has gained currency on right-wing radio shows for years.

The manifesto said the gunman planned to use an AK-47-style rifle, which has been frequently used in mass shootings. The four-page document said politicians of both parties were to blame for the United States “rotting from the inside out,” and that “the heavy Hispanic population in Texas will make us a Democrat stronghold.”

The manifesto also railed against automation and embraced an argument familiar in anti-immigrant circles: that immigrants are taking jobs from “natives.”

“My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president,” the document says.

Surly1

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8chan Is a Normal Part of Mass Shootings Now
« Reply #213 on: August 04, 2019, 06:48:01 am »
8chan Is a Normal Part of Mass Shootings Now
Three white-nationalist shooters appear to have posted manifestos on the same troll forum. Here’s how 8chan became a meme-filled refuge for hate.



Law enforcement agencies respond to the shooting at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.
JOEL ANGEL JUAREZ/Getty Images


By APRIL GLASER


Late Saturday morning, a young white man entered a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire with an AK-47-style rifle, killing 20 people and injuring 26 more. Police apprehended the suspected shooter, a 21-year-old man from Allen, Texas. It didn’t take long for internet researchers to find a four-page manifesto posted less than hour before the violence, a document that El Paso’s police chief appeared to later confirm was being examined by officials. The document had been uploaded to the notorious, unmoderated message board 8chan at 10:15 a.m. local time, and it included a request: “Do your part and spread this brothers!”

In the anti-immigrant screed, the author describes plans to perpetrate a mass shooting against the Latino people he believes are invading the United States, the weapons he will use to do it, and his white-nationalist beliefs. Soon after it was first posted on 8chan, the manifesto could be found On 4chan, another message board with scant rules about what people can or cannot share. And not long after that, it was circulating as images on Twitter and Facebook and easily findable in a Google image search. Clearly someone got the author’s message.

The writer of the manifesto said he was inspired by the Mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand—before which the gunman, another young white man, posted a sprawling essayon 8chan as well as a link to a Facebook Live broadcast of the massacre and instructions to share. That video was removed about 45 minutes after the broadcast began, giving his audience ample time to copy the footage. It was posted to Facebook 1.5 million times in the first 24 hours after the shooting.

The involvement of 8chan is becoming a familiar detail in cases of white-supremacist violence. The El Paso shooting appears to be the second one since the Christchurch massacre to draw from that killer’s playbook. About five weeks later, two hours before another young man murdered someone at a synagogue in Poway, California, the suspected shooter also posted a manifesto to 8chan. In it, he detailed his ideological rationale for mass murder and gave instructions to spread his words far and wide. Each of these shootings appeared to have been designed to go viral—a horrific act would catch the world’s attention, and a manifesto would deliver the hate-filled payload.

An anonymous, meme-filled internet backwater, 8chan has long been a place for white supremacists to indoctrinate others—mostly young white men—into bigoted ideologies. It’s difficult to put an exact timestamp on when 8chan and 4chan became prime hangouts for white nationalists and neo-Nazis, but the connections to other online venues of hate are clear.

Before 8chan and 4chan, there was Stormfront, a message board created by Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black in 1996. For more than a decade Stormfront was the most popular white supremacist website on the web. 4chan, founded in 2003, had become fashionable among the generally left-leaning online activists Anonymous, who were known for launching online trolling campaigns against those they politically disagreed with. There, the /pol/ message board (short for “politically incorrect”) attracted users who enjoyed trolling people with jokes about Nazis and racist tropes. Around 2012, Stormfront users reportedly noticed an opportunity to make 4channers “racially aware,” and that year, a “Redpill instruction pamphlet” to indoctrinate 4chan trolls began circulating on 4chan, according to a report in Rolling Stone. Andrew Anglin, who founded the influential neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer, once said that 4chan is where he “got into Hitler.”  Anglin later teamed up with Andrew “weev” Auernheimer, an infamous neo-Nazi troll who led vicious doxing campaigns against women, and the two helped to pioneer a meme-ified style of spreading hate that remains popular on 4chan and 8chan and across the fringe-right web today: make lots of jokes about the Holocaust and other genocides, desensitizing people to extreme hate-based violence.

If 4chan’s /pol/ could get pretty bad, 8chan became a destination for the very worst. The board was founded in the U.S. by Fredrick Brennan after 4chan’s owners decided to ban threads about the online harassment campaign Gamergate. While 4chan has a virtually nonexistent moderation policy, it does have rulesagainst posting anyone’s personal information, like home addresses and phone numbers. 8chan doesn’t even have that. Whatever is too gruesome for 4chan finds a home on 8chan. That now includes enthusiasm for a white ethnostate. 8chan, now based in the Philippines, has “less restrictive moderation policies” than almost anywhere else on the internet, which has led it to become a “naturally more transgressional space,” than anywhere else on the internet, according to Benjamin T. Decker, the founder of Memetica, a digital investigations consultancy.

Many people come to the politically incorrect boards of 4chan and 8chan from video-game communities, where players looking to laugh at an abasing joke or chat about violent games without offending anyone can find friends. The forums are rife with in-jokes in which users routinely blur the lines between actually believing in Nazism and laughing about it. After the Poway shooter’s manifesto appeared, posters on 8chan wrote that the killer should try to
“get the high score” and kill a larger number of people than the Chistchurch shooter did.

8chan isn’t only a place where people find community in their hate, but it is where they go when they want to announce mass murder to an online army that can help spread their message. Even when 8chan’s owners do feel compelled to step in—in a rarity, the suspected El Paso shooter’s original thread appears to have been removed—that army will have already gotten to work. The manifesto has been reposted again and again and again. The playbook worked.


AGelbert

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Quote
8chan isn’t only a place where people find community in their hate, but it is where they go when they want to announce mass murder to an online army that can help spread their message. Even when 8chan’s owners do feel compelled to step in—in a rarity, the suspected El Paso shooter’s original thread appears to have been removed—that army will have already gotten to work. The manifesto has been reposted again and again and again. The playbook worked.

Full Surly postedd article:
http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/general-discussion/non-routine-news/msg13103/#msg13103

Yes, shooter games and "social" (i.e. anti-social) media cesspools contribute to mass ☠️ murders. However, that has been true since the year 2000 or so. Shutting them all down and banning shooter video games and passing all kinds of laws might slow the frequency of these horrific events down, but would not stop these atrocities.

WHY? Because the root of this problem is an embrace of Social Darwinism by our FASCIST leadership! Trump is the hate normalizing trigger person that has fueled the increase in frequency of these mass killings. Trump didn't pull the trigger, but while Trump is, as POTUS, deliberately, methodically and repeatedly fostering EVIL HATRED, he is as guilty of these murders as those that actually did, along with those that will.

Expect a Republican Party TOOL , true to the Orwellian MO that Republicans are totally into now, to publish an article claiming there is a "positive" side to mass murders. Yes, they are THAT BRAZENLY MENDACIOUS. After some "prayers" for those killed, the Republican BULLSHIT ARTIST will calmly explain how "good for society mass murders actually are" because they select out those with the poorest survival skills. Darwin and Hitler would agree. Trump would immediately tweet a link to the article (that he had surreptitiously ordered to be written). This would, of course, provide more "evidence" that Trump is helping, not hurting, America.

Furthermore, anyone claiming that Trump's leadership "style" contributed to the increase in frequencies of mass murders would be considered a "conspiracy theory peddling potential homeland terrorist". All patriotic Americans should report these potential terrorists to Homeland Security. Heil Trump. 



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Declassified CIA Document Reveals Iraq War Had Little Justification
 Recently declassified documents reveal what we all felt was true at the time: that there was little justification for the Iraq war.

https://newspunch.com/declassified-cia-document-reveals-iraq-war-had-zero-justification/?fbclid=IwAR3DdjPyG_jkzUAyjxgXrSySXAvzGO8fnZuTxJWSOWMC2f2plb99Jgi67LE



The justification for going to war in Iraq thirteen years ago, was based on a 93-page classified document that allegedly contained “specific information” on former Iraqi leader President Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs he was apparently running.

Now that document has been declassified and it reveals that there was little justification for the Iraq war. 

Vice.com reports:

The CIA released a copy of the NIE in 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, but redacted virtually all of it, citing a threat to national security. Then last year, John Greenewald, who operates The Black Vault, a clearinghouse for declassified government documents, asked the CIA to take another look at the October 2002 NIE to determine whether any additional portions of it could be declassified.

The agency responded to Greenewald this past January and provided him with a new version of the NIE, which he shared exclusively with VICE News, that restores the majority of the prewar Iraq intelligence that has eluded historians, journalists, and war critics for more than a decade. (Some previously redacted portions of the NIE had previously been disclosed in congressional reports.)

For the first time, the public can now read the hastily drafted CIA document [pdf below] that led Congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, a costly war launched March 20, 2003 that was predicated on “disarming” Iraq of its (non-existent) WMD, overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and “freeing” the Iraqi people.

A report issued by the RAND Corporation last December titled “Blinders, Blunders and Wars” said the NIE “contained several qualifiers that were dropped…. As the draft NIE went up the intelligence chain of command, the conclusions were treated increasingly definitively.”

An example of that: According to the newly declassified NIE, the intelligence community concluded that Iraq “probably has renovated a [vaccine] production plant” to manufacture biological weapons “but we are unable to determine whether [biological weapons] agent research has resumed.” The NIE also said Hussein did not have “sufficient material” to manufacture any nuclear weapons. But in an October 7, 2002 speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, then-President George W. Bush simply said Iraq, “possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons” and “the evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.”

One of the most significant parts of the NIE revealed for the first time is the section pertaining to Iraq’s alleged links to al Qaeda. In September 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed the US had “bulletproof” evidence linking Hussein’s regime to the terrorist group.

“We do have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad,” Rumsfeld said. “We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical- and biological-agent training.”

But the NIE said its information about a working relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq was based on “sources of varying reliability” — like Iraqi defectors — and it was not at all clear that Hussein had even been aware of a relationship, if in fact there were one.

“As with much of the information on the overall relationship, details on training and support are second-hand,” the NIE said. “The presence of al-Qa’ida militants in Iraq poses many questions. We do not know to what extent Baghdad may be actively complicit in this use of its territory for safehaven and transit.”

The declassified NIE provides details about the sources of some of the suspect intelligence concerning allegations Iraq trained al Qaeda operatives on chemical and biological weapons deployment — sources like War on Terror detainees who were rendered to secret CIA black site prisons, and others who were turned over to foreign intelligence services and tortured. Congress’s later investigation into prewar Iraq intelligence concluded that the intelligence community based its claims about Iraq’s chemical and biological training provided to al Qaeda on a single source.

“Detainee Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi — who had significant responsibility for training — has told us that Iraq provided unspecified chemical or biological weapons training for two al-Qai’ida members beginning in December 2000,” the NIE says. “He has claimed, however, that Iraq never sent any chemical, biological, or nuclear substances — or any trainers — to al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan.”

Al-Libi was the emir of the Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan, which the Taliban closed prior to 9/11 because al-Libi refused to turn over control to Osama bin Laden.

Last December, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a declassified summary of its so-called Torture Report on the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program. A footnote stated that al-Libi, a Libyan national, “reported while in [redacted] custody that Iraq was supporting al-Qa’ida and providing assistance with chemical and biological weapons.”

“Some of this information was cited by Secretary [of State Colin] Powell in his speech to the United Nations, and was used as a justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq,” the Senate torture report said. “Ibn Shaykh al-Libi recanted the claim after he was rendered to CIA custody on February [redacted] 2003, claiming that he had been tortured by the [redacted], and only told them what he assessed they wanted to hear.”

Al-Libi reportedly committed suicide in a Libyan prison in 2009, about a month after human rights investigators met with him.

The NIE goes on to say that “none of the [redacted] al-Qa’ida members captured during [the Afghanistan war] report having been trained in Iraq or by Iraqi trainers elsewhere, but given al-Qa’ida’s interest over the years in training and expertise from outside sources, we cannot discount reports of such training entirely.”

All told, this is the most damning language in the NIE about Hussein’s links to al Qaeda: “While the Iraqi president “has not endorsed al-Qa’ida’s overall agenda and has been suspicious of Islamist movements in general, apparently he has not been averse to some contacts with the organization.”

The NIE suggests that the CIA had sources within the media to substantiate details about meetings between al Qaeda and top Iraqi government officials held during the 1990s and 2002 — but some were not very reliable. “Several dozen additional direct or indirect meetings are attested to by less reliable clandestine and press sources over the same period,” the NIE says.

The RAND report noted, “The fact that the NIE concluded that there was no operational tie between Saddam and al Qaeda did not offset this alarming assessment.”

The NIE also restores another previously unknown piece of “intelligence”: a suggestion that Iraq was possibly behind the letters laced with anthrax sent to news organizations and senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy a week after the 9/11 attacks. The attacks killed five people and sickened 17 others.

“We have no intelligence information linking Iraq to the fall 2001 attacks in the United States, but Iraq has the capability to produce spores of Bacillus anthracis — the causative agent of anthrax — similar to the dry spores used in the letters,” the NIE said. “The spores found in the Daschle and Leahy letters are highly purified, probably requiring a high level of skill and expertise in working with bacterial spores. Iraqi scientists could have such expertise,” although samples of a biological agent Iraq was known to have used as an anthrax simulant “were not as pure as the anthrax spores in the letters.”

Paul Pillar, a former veteran CIA analyst for the Middle East who was in charge of coordinating the intelligence community’s assessments on Iraq, told VICE news that “the NIE’s bio weapons claims” was based on unreliable sources such as Ahmad Chalabi, the former head of the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group supported by the US.

“There was an insufficient critical skepticism about some of the source material,” he now says about the unredacted NIE. “I think there should have been agnosticism expressed in the main judgments. It would have been a better paper if it were more carefully drafted in that sort of direction.”

But Pillar, now a visiting professor at Georgetown University, added that the Bush administration had already made the decision to go to war in Iraq, so the NIE “didn’t influence [their] decision.” Pillar added that he was told by congressional aides that only a half-dozen senators and a few House members read past the NIE’s five-page summary.

David Kay, a former Iraq weapons inspector who also headed the Iraq Survey Group, told Frontline that the intelligence community did a “poor job” on the NIE, “probably the worst of the modern NIE’s, partly explained by the pressure, but more importantly explained by the lack of information they had. And it was trying to drive towards a policy conclusion where the information just simply didn’t support it.”

The most controversial part of the NIE, which has been picked apart hundreds of times over the past decade and has been thoroughly debunked, pertained to a section about Iraq’s attempts to acquire aluminum tubes. The Bush administration claimed that this was evidence that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear weapon.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice stated at the time on CNN that the tubes “are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs,” and that “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

The version of the NIE released in 2004 redacted the aluminum tubes section in its entirety. But the newly declassified assessment unredacts a majority of it and shows that the intelligence community was unsure why “Saddam is personally interested in the procurement of aluminum tubes.” The US Department of Energy concluded that the dimensions of the aluminum tubes were “consistent with applications to rocket motors” and “this is the more likely end use.”

The CIA’s unclassified summary of the NIE did not contain the Energy Department’s dissent.

“Apart from being influenced by policymakers’ desires, there were several other reasons that the NIE was flawed,” the RAND study concluded. “Evidence on mobile biological labs, uranium ore purchases from Niger, and unmanned-aerial-vehicle delivery systems for WMDs all proved to be false. It was produced in a hurry. Human intelligence was scarce and unreliable. While many pieces of evidence were questionable, the magnitude of the questionable evidence had the effect of making the NIE more convincing and ominous. The basic case that Saddam had WMDs seemed more plausible to analysts than the alternative case that he had destroyed them. And analysts knew that Saddam had a history of deception, so evidence against Saddam’s possession of WMDs was often seen as deception.”

According to the latest figures compiled by Iraq Body Count, to date more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, although other sources say the casualties are twice as high. More than 4,000 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and tens of thousands more have been injured and maimed. The war has cost US taxpayers more than $800 billion.

In an interview with VICE founder Shane Smith, Obama said the rise of the Islamic State was a direct result of the disastrous invasion.

“ISIL is a direct outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion,” Obama said. “Which is an example of unintended consequences. Which is why we should generally aim before we shoot.”

Iraq October 2002 NIE on WMDs (unedacted version)

This article was originally published in 2015 and is frequently updated


AGelbert

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Declassified CIA Document Reveals Iraq War Had Little Justification

Excellent post. I wish some of those bastards would go to jail for that, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for prison sentences for these elite scum any time soon. >:( The fact is that they planned and executed the 9/11 False Flag Operation, AND the subsequent continuing coverup, for the purpose of grabbing that murderously profitable MIC "bonanza" of war(s) AND obtaining a huge "war shock" price spike in oil along the way.

I have not forgotten 👹 Cheney's meeting in the spring of 2001 with a bunch of 🦕🦖 Big Oil partners in crime. Congress tried to get the info on that meeting but Cheney refused to give them the details OR his nice Iraq chart showing how the oil sources were going to be "partitioned" among his 🦕🦖 pals (after our "New Pearl Harbor" took place in early September, the month Ad agencies always roll out new products). The Hydrocarbon Hellspawn always plan ahead. They define MENS REA as "prudent planning".

Those documents, if properly followed up on, lead DIRECTLY to the names of those who did the planning of the 9/11 WTC and Pentagon false flag operations right down to the last detail. So, they probably will stop investigating after they come to the conclusion, that everybody else has reached for well over a decade now, that there was NEVER a Casus belli for the War Crime that 🐵 Bush, 👹 Cheney and 🦍Rumsfeld committed in Iraq.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Declassified CIA Document Reveals Iraq War Had Little Justification

Excellent post. I wish some of those bastards would go to jail for that, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for prison sentences for these elite scum any time soon. >:( The fact is that they planned and executed the 9/11 False Flag Operation, AND the subsequent continuing coverup, for the purpose of grabbing that murderously profitable MIC "bonanza" of war(s) AND obtaining a huge "war shock" price spike in oil along the way.

I have not forgotten 👹 Cheney's meeting in the spring of 2001 with a bunch of 🦕🦖 Big Oil partners in crime. Congress tried to get the info on that meeting but Cheney refused to give them the details OR his nice Iraq chart showing how the oil sources were going to be "partitioned" among his 🦕🦖 pals (after our "New Pearl Harbor" took place in early September, the month Ad agencies always roll out new products).

You have it correct.

Memory: the superpower of liberals.

AGelbert

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Declassified CIA Document Reveals Iraq War Had Little Justification

Excellent post. I wish some of those bastards would go to jail for that, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for prison sentences for these elite scum any time soon. >:( The fact is that they planned and executed the 9/11 False Flag Operation, AND the subsequent continuing coverup, for the purpose of grabbing that murderously profitable MIC "bonanza" of war(s) AND obtaining a huge "war shock" price spike in oil along the way.

I have not forgotten 👹 Cheney's meeting in the spring of 2001 with a bunch of 🦕🦖 Big Oil partners in crime. Congress tried to get the info on that meeting but Cheney refused to give them the details OR his nice Iraq chart showing how the oil sources were going to be "partitioned" among his 🦕🦖 pals (after our "New Pearl Harbor" took place in early September, the month Ad agencies always roll out new products).

You have it correct.

Memory: the superpower of liberals.

Yep, we remember how we got here and, more importantly, WHY we got here.

The thing is, that just about anybody that works in the media knows what I just wrote about. They know the ugly truth but do not have the courage to publlsh it. It is true that they risk being ostracized, losing their jobs AND their lives if they write the truth.

So, they choose a materially comfortable (and spiritually bankrupt) life as liars for hire rather than a shorter lifespan as beacons of truth. 🙃👎

This quote from a long time ago explains WHY we got here:

Quote
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.

I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?

We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

John Swinton,
preeminent New York journalist, at a press banquet,
1880

Those of us who have studied American History during that period are painfully aware of how the THE ROBBER BARONS WORKED TOGETHER TO KILL FREE PRESS IN THE USA. Their despicable corrupting influence is even more pervasive today.

Beacons of truth in different epochs, William Lloyd Garrison and Milton William Cooper, have been the voices crying out in the desert.

Quote
When William Lloyd Garrison launched his crusading abolitionist newspaper The Liberator in 1831—at a time when Congress refused even to debate the issue of slavery, and three long decades before America would finally confront the sin of human bondage—he acknowledged that his call for the “immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves” was going to upset the polite politics and empty calculations of the elites.

“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?” Garrison wrote. “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

There is a way out of this miasma, but I do not see any evidence that those exerting the most influence on human society will take it.

You have taken that path.👍 I have taken that path. BUT, those of us taking that path are in the extreme minority.





« Last Edit: August 09, 2019, 01:12:00 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Not sure this is news, but...

Minimum wage doesn't cover the rent anywhere in the U.S.



A minimum-wage worker would have to put in lots of overtime to be able to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country. And downsizing to a one-bedroom pad barely helps.

Even with some states hiking pay for those earning the least, there is still nowhere in the country where a person working a full-time minimum wage job can afford to rent a decent two-bedroom apartment, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Even the $15 hourly wage touted by labor activists would not be enough to make housing affordable in the overwhelming majority of states, the coalition found. Nationally, someone would need to make $17.90 an hour to rent a modest one-bedroom or $22.10 an hour to cover a two-bedroom place.

Renters across the country earn an average hourly rate of $16.88, the report estimated, a finding that illustrates how even folks earning more than the minimum wage scramble to pay for housing.

The findings are based on the standard budgeting concept of not spending more than 30 percent of one's income on housing.

The nation's costliest housing is in Hawaii, where one would need to earn $36.13, or roughly $75,000 a year, to be able to rent a modest two-bedroom. The state's minimum wage increased to $10.10 an hour this year.

The cheapest housing in the U.S. can be found in Arkansas, where the minimum wage is $8.50 an hour. Yet one would have to make $13.84 an hour, or roughly $29,000 a year, to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

A one-bedroom is affordable for minimum-wage employees in all of 22 counties in just five states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Each has a higher minimum wage than the $7.25 federal minimum.

The study bases its definition of "modest" rental housing on a weighted average of fair market rent estimates developed annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to calculate the agency's housing assistance to poor people around the country.

The cost of housing has steadily risen along with increased demand for rentals, yet new construction has trended toward the high-end market due to lofty development expenses, the findings said.

"While the housing market may have recovered for many, we are nonetheless experiencing an affordable housing crisis, especially for very low-income families," Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote in the report's preface. "In America today, nearly 11 million families pay more than half of their limited incomes toward rent and utilities. That leaves precious little for other essentials."

Surly1

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Re: Non-routine News
« Reply #220 on: September 02, 2019, 01:42:44 pm »

AGelbert

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What will it take to end it?[
« Reply #221 on: September 02, 2019, 11:04:38 pm »
What will it take to end it?

Robert Harrington | 10:45 pm EDT September 1, 2019
Palmer Report » Analysis

When it comes to the hypocrisy of virtue signalling, America has by no means cornered the market. Watching Boris Johnson mince around about “carrying out the will of the people” by implementing Brexit nolens volens, deal or no deal, isn’t merely funny because “the will of the people” hasn’t been consulted lately. It’s also funny because such a consideration for Boris and his kind has been traditionally out of the question.

The “will of the people” is overwhelmingly (85% in fact) that the disgusting practice by the putrid, plummy, inbred aristocracy of that barbarism generously known as fox hunting (fox running down and murdering would be a more likely description), ought to remain banned by law, doesn’t stop Boris and his horde of self-congratulating double-dealers from promising their posh friends to bring it back any day now. Not that they need to. Fox hunting continues unabated despite the ban. So much for the will of the people. It appears that the rich and powerful are above the law here too, no matter how many well-meaning Democrats over there and Labour Party members over here recite the mantra that proclaims otherwise.

But one thing the Brits did get right is gun control. While America is content to suffer September 11th-quantity death tolls every month for decades on end, Britain’s got it sussed, as they say. I know, it’s hard for the average American to believe that cops can actually enforce the law without guns, but enforce it they do. Though they may occasionally find themselves in fear for their lives, just like their well-armed counterparts in America, it is much harder nonetheless for them to murder someone on that account and get away with it, particularly if the person being potentially murdered is black. I don’t know about you but that argument alone makes me happy that cops here don’t carry guns.

But what is a politician to do? The will of the people sometimes isn’t for the objective best (Brexit) and sometimes it is (fox hunting, gun control). I think I have the answer, and it’s one you probably know already, you just don’t have many opportunities to think about it so you’ve never thought about it in a formal sort of way.

I think what we need are politicians who do what’s best for us. I know, that sounds so obvious as to be almost stupidly self-evident. But hear me out. Were I to choose an airline pilot, I would choose her or him with certain specific criteria in mind. Naturally the pilot must fly me comfortably and safely to my destination. They must obey the rules of good piloting. But the pilot doesn’t always do everything I want. For example, in the interest of safety she or he may elect to turn back. I may not want that, but that would be nonetheless in my best interest. They also may take a roundabout route that will get me to my destination much later in order to avoid an intervening storm system. Again, I might not like it, but the pilot is the expert in this.

What we have instead these days, keeping with the airline pilot metaphor, are pilots who don’t take us to our destinations at all. They take us close to where they live, because it’s convenient for them. They assure us that where they live is really the best place after all for everyone, even though it’s not. They give us inadequate bus fare to get us home, and they expect us to be grateful for that. And they become indignant when we are not.

Sometimes they fly dangerously, because it suits them to. They take chances with our lives and ignore safety laws because someone is paying them to get to their destinations quicker, even when that destination isn’t our destination. Sometimes it’s just because they are hungry and want to get home to dinner sooner. But it’s really all about them.

Once in a while, as is the case recently in America, a country will pick an airline pilot, keeping with that analogy, who doesn’t have any idea what an airplane is. We sit in the passenger compartment with our seat belts on waiting for the pilot to take off, while the pilot is in the cockpit trying to eat the plane. After a couple of years he finally realizes the plane isn’t food. So he tries to play golf with it. He makes frequent, baffling announcements over the intercom. Some passengers cheer. Most do not. And so on.

All of which is to say, what we really want are competent leaders, much the same way we want competent airline pilots. We want a smooth ride. We want to reach our destination safely. Our leader should be a man or a woman hired specifically for their special knowledge. They are an intellectual elite who can do something for us that we don’t have a clue about ourselves, and they do it very, very well. They do what they do always with our safety, our comfort and our very best interest as their number one objective.

There has been another mass gun killing. This time in West Texas. Our pilots, the ones currently in charge, and in keeping with the analogy, will invite us to look out the opposite window. We will see the ground and the airport, same as always. A minority of the passengers will be angry because we don’t find the view beautiful. But most of us will remain baffled, confused, frightened, and very much wishing we had a pilot who knew what the hell he was doing.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/what-will-it-take-to-end-it/20525/

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Tue, 09/03/2019 - 10:54

Quote
"This Conservative Government is aggressively pursuing a damaging Brexit in unprincipled ways. It is putting lives and livelihoods at risk unnecessarily and it is wantonly endangering the integrity of the United Kingdom. More widely, It is undermining our country's economy, democracy and role in the world. It is using political manipulation, bullying and lies. And It is doing these things in a deliberate and considered way.

"That is why today I am joining Jo Swinson and the liberal Democrats.



« Last Edit: September 03, 2019, 04:08:50 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Brexit, 🎩👹 Boris, and British Parliament Come to a Head After 3 Years
6,481 views


The Real News Network
Published on Sep 4, 2019

Nation Editor DD Guttenplan unpacks the politics behind Brexit and the revolt against Boris Johnson by forces no normally aligned. What could lie ahead and why.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.

Category News & Politics
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Johnson’s Brexit Mess Now a “Constitutional Crisis”
« Reply #224 on: September 11, 2019, 09:38:39 pm »
🐍 Johnson’s Brexit Mess Now a “Constitutional Crisis”
September 11, 2019

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to undermine parliament and the Brexit process by temporarily suspending parliament, but now a court has ruled that the suspension is unlawful and a constitutional crisis unfolds, says Grace Blakeley


https://therealnews.com/stories/johnsons-brexit-mess-now-a-constitutional-crisis
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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