CNN Journalists Resign: Latest Example of Media Recklessness on the Russia Threat

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/27/cnn-journalists-resign-latest-example-of-media-recklessness-on-the-russia-threat/

Now They've Crossed the Line

Scholar Explains Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201802211061851040-illuminati-conspiracy-explained/

Russiagate or Intelgate?

https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-or-intelgate/

Parents Lose Custody of Child for Refusing to Support Transgenderism

Parents Lose Custody of Child for Refusing to Support Transgenderism:



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Federal Agency Kills Kratom

ORIGINAL LINK

By Dr. Mercola

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is continuing its crusade to take down kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), a plant in the coffee family that’s earned the reputation for being an alternative to opioids. Native to tropical Southeast Asia, people in the area have used kratom leaves as an herbal remedy for centuries not only to relieve pain but also to increase energy and enhance well-being.

According to the American Kratom Association (AKA), a grassroots advocacy organization that is trying to keep kratom legal, kratom is not a drug, an opiate or a synthetic substance. In fact, they state it’s more like coffee and tea than any other substances. That said, kratom binds to some of the same opioid receptor sites as opioid drugs, which may be why many people find it so effective.

“Chocolate, coffee, exercise and even human breast milk hit these receptor sites in a similar fashion,” AKA notes.¹ The FDA, however, in their latest statement against this age-old plant, is using this fact to “underscore its potential for abuse” and otherwise warn people to stop taking the remedy.²

FDA Says Scientific Analysis Provides ‘Even Stronger Evidence’ Against Kratom

In November 2017, the FDA issued a public health advisory regarding risks associated with kratom use, suggesting that its usage could “expand the opioid epidemic.” The FDA claimed at the time that calls to U.S. poison control centers regarding kratom increased tenfold from 2010 to 2015 and said 36 deaths were associated with the use of kratom-containing products.³

They also cited “serious side effects” like seizures, liver damage and withdrawal symptoms associated with its use although, as the Huffington Post noted, “[T]hese potentially deadly symptoms don’t appear in any sort of discernible pattern in the cases the FDA cites, and they’re not well-documented elsewhere.”⁴ In February 2018, the FDA’s latest warning was released, this time with supposedly “even stronger evidence” of kratom’s potential for abuse.

The agency tested kratom using its Public Health Assessment via Structural Evaluation (PHASE) methodology, a 3-D computer program normally reserved for evaluating the abuse potential of newly identified street drugs. The technology looks at how a substance is structured at a molecular level, how it might behave inside your body and how it may affect your brain.

When testing kratom, the FDA analyzed the 25 most prevalent compounds in the plant, concluding “all of the compounds share the most structural similarities with controlled opioid analgesics, such as morphine derivatives.” They then moved on to determine the plant’s potential targets in the body, predicting that 22 of the 25 compounds bind to mu-opioid receptors and two of the top five most prevalent compounds in kratom activate opioid receptors.

“The new data provides even stronger evidence of kratom compounds’ opioid properties,” the FDA said, noting that some of the compounds may bind to receptors in the brain that impact neurologic and cardiovascular function, which they said could contribute to side effects like seizures and respiratory depression.

In addition, the agency said kratom binds strongly to mu-opioid receptors, “comparable to scheduled opioid drugs.” Taken together, the FDA then decided that kratom should be deemed a drug: “Based on the scientific information in the literature and further supported by our computational modeling and the reports of its adverse effects in humans, we feel confident in calling compounds found in kratom, opioids.”⁵

Yet, as kratom researcher Andrew Kruegel, a Columbia University chemist, told the Huffington Post, “They don’t have to do this to claim that kratom is an opioid, because it is … But the question is whether it’s an atypical opioid, which is my preferred terminology. Does it have a better side effect profile than the classical opioid drugs like morphine that we use every day? That’s the key question here.”⁶

Kratom Has Mild Risks Compared to Opioids

In August 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a notice saying it was planning to ban kratom, listing it as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. Massive outrage from kratom users who say opioids are their only alternative followed, including a petition with over 140,000 signatures against it, so the agency reversed its decision.

But the FDA’s latest warning seems to be a clear push to make kratom illegal in the U.S. after all. It’s a sad fact that more than 91 Americans fatally overdose on opioids every day,⁷ and of the more than 33,000 Americans killed by opioids in 2015, nearly half of them involved a prescription for the drugs.⁸ Yet, the FDA allows opioids to be dispensed with abandon while now singling out kratom, which many believe to be a safer alternative for those struggling with chronic pain or even opioid addiction.

AKA points out that kratom’s risk profile appears far safer than that of opioids or even other pain relievers like acetaminophen. In November 2016, AKA also released a report by Jack Henningfield, Ph.D., vice president of research, health policy and abuse liability at PinneyAssociates, concluding that there is “insufficient evidence” for the DEA to ban or restrict kratom under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The report, which includes more than 50 pages of testimonies from responsible kratom users, analyzed the eight factors of the CSA, concluding the DEA had no grounds for CSA scheduling of kratom, let alone a ban:

"Based on all lines of evidence considered in the 8-factor analysis, kratom's potential for abuse, tolerance, and dependence is lower than that of many schedule IV and V drugs and is well within the range of many nonscheduled drugs and substances (e.g., caffeine, nasal nicotine spray, fluoxetine, bupropion, dextromethorphan).

Although kratom and its primary alkaloids MG and 7-OH-MG share certain characteristics with controlled substances, as do many nonscheduled substances, there does not appear to be a public health risk that would warrant control of kratom products or their alkaloids under the CSA."⁹

In fact, AKA noted that according to Henningfield’s analysis, “[K]ratom’s potential for abuse and dependence is no greater than such widely used and unscheduled substances as “nutmeg, hops, St. John’s Wort, chamomile, guarana and kola nut.”

Are Kratom Deaths Really Caused by Kratom?

The latest FDA statement cited 44 deaths related to kratom, up from the 36 cited in November. Yet, a closer look at the deaths reveals, at best, sloppy reporting and, at worst, a tendency to blame kratom for deaths it did not cause. According to the Huffington Post:¹⁰

"Almost all of the FDA's cases involve subjects who were found to be on multiple substances at the time of their death, with the vast majority including either illicit or prescription drugs that carry well-known fatal risks. One incident describes a teenager who had hanged himself after struggling with depression and prescription drug abuse. He tested positive for a variety of drugs, including kratom, as well as alcohol and a handful of prescription drugs."

The Post revealed numerous cases that were linked to kratom only by a thread, like a man who had “fallen out a window, broken his arm and refused treatment before dying” who was found to have nine substances in his bloodstream, one of which was mitragynine, the primary active substance in kratom. Another “kratom death” was a man who died from complications of deep vein thrombosis and another ruled a “death by homicide due to a gunshot wound to the chest.”¹¹

In another example, a Tennessee news outlet broadcast a quote from a Georgia county coroner claiming there had been 17 deaths linked to kratom in Georgia in 2017. AKA has called on the TV station to retract the “fake news” report, as they say there is nothing in the public medical record showing even one death linked to kratom.¹²

Henningfield’s report further reiterated the lack of evidence that kratom has led to any deaths, noting, “To date, in the U.S., there have been no confirmed reports of death that can be considered ‘causatively’ due to kratom overdose. How many, if any deaths, are “probably” classified as kratom poisoning deaths is not clear.

This is consistent with the far larger and longer Southeast Asian experience of very few serious adverse events. In both the U.S. and Southeast Asia, the low toxicity of kratom is in striking contrast to the experience with opioids.”¹³

Is FDA Commissioner Gottlieb Helping Glaxo?

An estimated 3 million to 5 million Americans use kratom, which in the absence of many reports of adverse effects or substance abuse could be evidence in itself of kratom’s safety.¹⁴ Further, many of these people rely on kratom because they found opioids to be too dangerous or too addictive. By banning kratom, it could drive more people to seek out prescription opioids, which are known to be deadly, or drive them to purchase kratom on the black market.

If the FDA were really concerned about public health, they would not lump a diverse group of deaths that happened to involve kratom as “kratom-caused deaths.” Instead, the would seek to identify the true culprit as well as conduct a comprehensive review on kratom’s safety profile and potential benefits, particularly in comparison to opioids. Yet, what we’re seeing is a curious push from the FDA to warn the public about kratom, perhaps in preparation for its eventual ban.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, it’s important to note, has close ties to Big Pharma, having received more than $400,000 from the industry between 2013 and 2015,¹⁵ and millions over the course of his career.¹⁶

Prior to joining the FDA, he served on the board of three pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, whose predecessor Smith Kline & French held patents on certain alkaloids isolated from kratom.¹⁷ The patents, which were issued in the 1960s, have since expired, but there is much speculation about whether Gottlieb is targeting kratom to protect GlaxoSmithKline or some of his other Big Pharma allies.

In the FDA warning, it’s mentioned that “[w]e have been especially concerned about the use of kratom to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms” along with a suggestion to use one of three FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of opioid addiction (a vicious cycle in which drug companies profit on both ends of the opioid epidemic, selling drugs that both cause the addiction and treat it).

But, as noted in The Journal of the American Ostepathic Association, in a systematic analysis of kratom user reports, “[T]he vast majority of users reported beneficial effects in the management of opioid withdrawal and pain, depression and anxiety.”¹⁸

There is so much beneficial potential suggested by kratom research to date — and such a wealth of science about prescription opioids’ harms — that it would seem remiss for the FDA to brush off or, worse, ban this herbal supplement that appears to be far safer than opioid drugs — unless an ulterior motive was at play. The Journal of the American Ostepathic Association report continued:¹⁹

“One strong piece of evidence suggesting that kratom may have extensive therapeutic potential is that several U.S. patents have either been issued or are pending for companies and individuals who are interested in developing kratom-based drugs. These patents would not have been submitted or issued unless there was evidence for medicinal applications of kratom-derived substances.”

Even Kratom Should Be Used With Caution

While kratom appears to have a favorable safety profile compared to opioids, this isn’t to say that kratom usage is without risk. It’s important to recognize that kratom is a psychoactive substance and should not be used carelessly. There's very little research showing how to use it safely and effectively, and it may have a very different effect from one person to the next.

Also, while it may be useful for weaning off opioids, kratom itself may be addictive. So, while it appears to be a far safer alternative to opioids, it's still a powerful and potentially addictive substance. So please, do your own research before trying it. Also, please understand that there are many safe and effective alternatives to prescription and over-the-counter painkillers. If you’re looking for safer options for pain relief than opioid drugs, please see these options for treating pain without drugs.

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The US-UK Deep State Empire Strikes Back: "It's Russia! Russia! Russia!"

ORIGINAL LINK

Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

There’s no defense like a good offense.

For weeks the unfolding story in Washington has been how a cabal of conspirators in the heart of the American federal law enforcement and intelligence apparat colluded to ensure the election of Hillary Clinton and, when that failed, to undermine the nascent presidency of Donald Trump.

Agencies tainted by this corruption include not only the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) but the Obama White House, the State Department, the NSA, and the CIA, plus their British sister organizations MI6 and GCHQ, possibly along with the British Foreign Office (with the involvement of former British ambassador to Russia Andrew Wood) and even Number 10 Downing Street.

Those implicated form a regular rogue’s gallery of the Deep State: Peter Strzok (formerly Chief of the FBI’s Counterespionage Section, then Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division; busy bee Strzok is implicated not only in exonerating Hillary from her email server crimes but initiating the Russiagate investigation in the first place, securing a FISA warrant using the dodgy “Steele Dossier,” and nailing erstwhile National Security Adviser General Mike Flynn on a bogus charge of “lying to the FBI”); Lisa Page (Strzok’s paramour and a DOJ lawyer formerly assigned to the all-star Democrat lineup on the Robert Mueller Russigate inquisition); former FBI Director James Comey, former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and – let’s not forget – current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, himself implicated by having signed at least one of the dubious FISA warrant requests. Finally, there’s reason to believe that former CIA Director John O. Brennan may have been the mastermind behind the whole operation.

Not to be overlooked is the possible implication of a pack of former Democratic administration officials, including former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and President Barack Obama himself, who according to text communications between Strzok and Page “wants to know everything we’re doing.” Also involved is the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and Clinton operatives Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer – rendering the ignorance of Hillary herself totally implausible.

On the British side we have “former” (suuure . . . ) MI6 spook Christopher Steele, diplomat Wood, former GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan (who resigned a year ago under mysterious circumstances), and whoever they answered to in the Prime Minister’s office.

The growing sense of panic was palpable. Oh my – this is a curtain that just cannot be allowed to be pulled back!

What to do, what to do . . .

Ah, here’s the ticket – come out swinging against the main enemy. That’s not even Donald Trump. It’s Russia and Vladimir Putin. Russia! Russia! Russia!

Hence the unveiling of an indictment against 13 Russian citizens and three companies for alleged meddling in U.S. elections and various ancillary crimes.

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume all the allegations in the indictment are true, however unlikely that is to be the case. (While that would be the American legal rule for a complaint in a civil case, this is a criminal indictment, where there is supposedly a presumption of innocence. Rosenstein even mentioned that in his press conference, pretending not to notice that that presumption doesn’t apply to Russian Untermenschen – certainly not to Olympic athletes and really not to Russians at all, who are presumed guilty on “genetic” grounds.)

Based on the public announcement of the indictment by Rosenstein – who is effectively the Attorney General in place of the pro forma holder of that office, Jeff Sessions (R-Recused) – and on an initial examination of the indictment, and we can already draw a few conclusions:

• Finally, “collusion” is dead! If Mueller and the anti-constitutional cabal had any hint that anyone on the Trump team cooperated with those indicted, they would have included it. They didn’t. That means that after months and months of “investigation” – or really, setting “perjury traps” and trying to nail people on unrelated accusations, like Paul Manafort’s alleged circumvention of lobbying and financial reporting laws – and wasting however many millions of dollars, Mueller and his merry band got nothing. Zip. Zilch. Bupkes. Nada.The fake charge that Trump colluded with the Russians is exposed as the fraud it always was.

• And yet, “collusion” still lives! But while there is no actual allegation (much less evidence) that any American, much less anyone on the Trump team, “colluded” with the indicted Russians, the indictment makes it clear that Moscow sought to support Trump and disparage Hillary. Thus, Trump is guilty of being favored by Russia even if there was no actual cooperation. It’s a kind of zombie walking dead collusion, collusion by intent (of someone else) absent actual collusion. Its purpose in the indictment is to discredit Trump as a Russian puppet, albeit an unwitting one. The indictment says the Russian desperados supported Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein too – so they’re also Putin’s dupes.

• Any and every Russian equals Putin. Incredibly, nothing in the indictment points to any connection of those indicted to the Russian government! This is on a par with the hysteria over social media placements by “Russian interests” on account of which hysterical Senators demanded that tech giants impose content controls, or dimwit CIA agents getting bilked out of $100,000 by a Russian scam artist in Berlin in exchange for – well, pretty much nothing. (The CIA denies it, which leads one to suspect it is true.) Paragraph 95 of the indictment points to what amounted to a click-bait scam to fleece American merchants and social media sites from between $25 and $50 per post for promotional content. Paragraph 88 refers to “self-enrichment” as one motive of the alleged operation. That makes a lot more sense than the bone-headed claim in the indictment that the Russian goal was to “sow discord in the U.S. political system” by posting content on “divisive U.S. political and social issues.” What! Americans disagree about stuff? The Russians are setting us against each other! In announcing the indictment, Rosenstein said the Russians wanted to “promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed.” (He wagged his finger with resolve at that point.) It evidently doesn’t occur to Rosenstein that he and his pals have undermined public confidence in our institutions by perverting them for political ends.

• Demonizing dissent. Those indicted allegedly sought to attract Americans’ attention to their diabolical machinations through appeal to hot-button issues (immigration, Black Lives Matter, religion, etc.) and popular hashtags (#Trump2016, #TrumpTrain, #MAGA, #Hillary4Prison). Have you taken a stand on divisive issues, Dear Reader? Have you used any of these hashtags? Are you reading this commentary? You too might be an unwitting Russian stooge! Vladimir Putin is inside your head! Hopefully DOJ will set up a hotline where patriotic citizens influenced without their knowledge can now report themselves, now that they’ve been alerted. Are you a thought criminal, comrade?

• An amateurish, penny-ante scheme with no results – compared to what the U.S. does. At worst, even if all the allegations in the indictment are true – a big “if” – it would still amount to the kind of garden-variety kicking each other under the table that a lot of countries routinely engage in. As described in the indictment this gargantuan Russian scheme was (as reported by Politico) an “expensive [sic] effort that cost millions of dollars and employed as many as hundreds of people.” Millions of dollars! Hundreds of people! How did the American republic manage to survive the onslaught? Rosenstein was keen to point out for the umpteenth time that nothing the Russians are alleged to have done (never mind what they actually might have done, which is far less) had any impact on the election. That stands in sharp contrast to the lavishly funded, multifaceted, global political influence and meddling operations the U.S. conducts in nations around the world under the guise of “democracy promotion.” The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), along with its Democratic and Republican sub-organizations, can be considered the flagship of a community of ostensibly private but government-funded or subsidized organizations that provides the soft compliment to American hard military power. The various governmental, quasi-governmental, and nongovernmental components of this network – sometimes called the “Demintern” in analogy to the Comintern, an organization comparable in global ambition if differing in ideology and methods – are also coordinated internationally at the official level through the less-well-known “Community of Democracies.” It is oftendifficult to know where the “official” entities (CIA, NATO, the State Department, Pentagon, USAID) divide from ostensibly nongovernmental but tax dollar-supported groups (NED, Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) and privately funded organizations that cooperate with them towards common goals (especially the Open Society organizations funded by billionaire George Soros). Among the specialties of this network are often successful “color revolutions” targeting leaders and governments disfavored by Washington for regime change – a far cry from the pathetic Russian operation alleged in the indictment.

• “Mitt Romney was right.” Already many of Trump’s supporters are not only crowing with satisfaction that the indictment proves there was no collusion but refocusing their gaze from the domestic culprits within the FBI, DOJ, etc., to a bogus foreign threat. “This whole saga just brings back the 2012 election, and the fact that Mitt Romney was right” for “suggesting that Russia is our greatest geopolitical foe,” is the new GOP meme. To the extent that Russiagate was less about Trump than ensuring that enmity with Russia will be permanent and will continue to deepen, this latest Mueller indictment is a smashing success already.

The Mueller indictment against the Russians is a well-timed effort to distract Americans’ attention from the real collusion rotting the core of our public life by shifting attention to a foreign enemy.

Many of the people behind it are the very officials who are themselves complicit in the rot. But the sad fact is that it will probably work.

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Russian Meddling: Gagging on the Irony

ORIGINAL LINK

The irony that is most gagging is that America's power elite is destroying the nation's social order by its concentration of wealth and abuse of power.

The irony of the Deep State's obsessive focus on "Russian meddling" in the precious bodily fluids of our hallowed democracy is so overwhelming that it's gagging. The irony is a noxious confluence of putrid hypocrisy and a comically abject terror at the prospect that the citizenry may be awakening to the terrible reality that America has lost its soul as well as its democracy.

The foul stench of hypocrisy arises from the long and sordid history of America' meddling in the internal politics of virtually every nation on the planet-- a deeply entrenched policy of meddling on such a vast scale that the Deep State minions tasked with projecting a wounded astonishment that some foreign power has the unmitigated gall to attempt to influence our domestic politics must have difficulty restraining their amusement.

America's foreign policy is one of absolute entitlement to influence the domestic affairs and politics of every nation of interest, which to a truly global empire includes every nation on the planet to the degree every nation is a market and/or a potential threat to U.S. interests.

Assassination of elected leaders--no problem. Funding the emergence of new U.S.-directed political parties--just another day at the office. Inciting dissent and discord to destabilize regimes--it's what we do, folks. Funding outright propaganda--one of our enduring specialties. Privatizing public assets to reward our cronies and domestic corporations--nothing's more profitable than a public monopoly transformed into a privately owned monopoly.

(If your nation hasn't been targeted for intervention and campaigns of hard and soft power influence, we apologize for the oversight. We'll get to destabilizing your political order and economy just as soon as the queue of pressing interventions clears a bit.)

One of our most effective means of meddling is economic. First we press the targeted foreign government and civilian power centers--universities, corporations, banks and other institutions--to liberalize the economy and banking system to allow foreign credit and investment in, under the guise of encouraging beneficial development.

Then we flood the economy with cheap, abundant credit, first to buy up natural resources and the most valuable assets, and secondly to fuel a consumption binge that feels like Utopia to credit-starved residents and enterprises: suddenly there's credit to buy almost everything consumers could hope for, and credit to expand production, tourism, etc.

The government is encouraged to borrow to fund large-scale infrastructure projects (which are of course built by foreign firms) and other development projects, with great big slices of the borrowed billions carved off for politicos, functionaries and others in line for bribes, fees and offshore accounts of stolen millions.

This monumental expansion of debt eventually undermines the nation's currency and its economy, as the addictive gush of credit quickly moved beyond sensible, productive projects into speculative ventures with little prospects beyond the initial profits earned by insiders.

As all these marginal projects default, the credit spigot is suddenly shut off, and waves of creditors who thought the good times would last forever go bankrupt.

This destabilization was not an unfortunate side-effect--it was the goal from the start. With the target nation's currency in a freefall and enterprises defaulting left and right, U.S. firms flush with U.S. dollars and banks with nearly unlimited lines of credit in dollars swoop in and offer to ease the pain by scooping up devalued assets for dollars, or extending credit denominated in dollars.

Compared to the scale of these interventions, $100,000 in Facebook adverts is like a pin prick. The indignation and outrage of America's power structure is a tell:how dare you give us a taste of our own medicine--only we're entitled to meddle and intervene as we see fit.

The other source of pungent irony is the failure of America's power structure to maintain the pretense of a functioning democracy and social contract. The nation we inhabit has strayed so far from the nation's founding principles and values that it is unrecognizable. In place of democracy, we have a permanent unelected, impervious-to-the-people Deep State and a pay-to-play system in which political power is auctioned off to the highest bidder.

A mercantile nation that sought to protect sea lanes and trade routes and avoid foreign entanglements has metastasized into an entitled Imperial Project, a Project that enriches domestic corporations and veritable armies of national defense / national security functionaries, think tank and university employees, philanthro-capitalist toadies, media factotums--a nearly endless profusion of beneficiaries of Imperial aspirations.

America's power elite isn't just entitled to intervene and meddle at will globally; it also feels entitled to select America's elected leadership. Elected leaders are anointed in the media, and the citizenry is expected to march to the drumbeat.

That the people failed to follow the directives of their betters was a shock that is still reverberating, hence the power elite's hysterical need to locate a source other than the power elite itself that can be publicly blamed and crucified.

Projection is a well-known psychological coping mechanism. That the loss of the nation's democracy and soul are the direct consequence of the self-serving power elite's own concentration and abuse of power--this is unacceptable. And so the responsibility must be pinned on some external demonic force.

The irony is the American social contract is in tatters due to the self-enriching extremes of the New Gilded Age: an era of unprecedented concentrations of wealth and power in which the citizenry has been reduced to dry tinder awaiting a spark.

Washington and the technocrats are aghast at reports that the opportunistic efforts of Russia-based groups to sow discontent ended up generating 300 million impressions says more about the corruption and abuses of power that have undermined the social order than it does about the diabolical effectiveness of amateurish front groups.

If the U.S. wasn't a nation of haves and have-nots, a nation stripmined by the few at the expense of the many, a nation befuddled by a grotesquely Orwellian media that goes into full propaganda mode if its group-think is questioned, a nation that until recently lauded tech giants whose profits flow exclusively from advertising aimed at users whose engagement is encouraged by just the sort of divisive, emotionally disturbing "news and opinion" that the Russian groups paid for--if the U.S. wasn't a rotten-to-the-core fake-news, fake-recovery, fake-democracy nation, then the modest efforts of the Russian interlopers would have been lost in a sea of legitimacy and authenticity.

The irony that is most gagging is that America's power elite is destroying the nation's social order by its concentration of wealth and abuse of power, yet this power elite claims a handful of social media sites undermined our democracy. How pathetic is that?

The correct question to ask is: what democracy?

Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only.


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Former CIA chief admits US meddling in foreign elections

ORIGINAL LINK

... “for their own good”Former CIA chief James Woolsey appeared on Fox News to push the narrative of how dastardly ‘dem Russkies’ are in their meddling with the sacred soul of America’s democracy.Woolsey did his patriotic deep-state-duty and proclaimed the evils of “expansionist Russia” and dropped ‘facts’ like “Russia has a larger cyber-army than its standing army,” before he moved on to China and its existential threats.But then, ...

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Mattis Admits No Evidence Of Assad Sarin Use, No Surprise To Alt Media

ORIGINAL LINK
Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
February 14, 2018

As the banana republic of Europe known as France threatens to “strike” Syria if its “red line” of chemical weapons use is crossed and the United States threatens the same action if Assad uses the alleged “new kind of weapons” to conduct another alleged chemical weapons attack, one thing is being lost in the news media shuffle and no doubt intentionally so. This missing element is the fact that Secretary of Defense James Mattis has admitted that the United States has no evidence Syria has used sarin gas on the battlefield.

As the Washington Post reported on February 2 in an article entitled “US Has No Evidence Of Use Of Sarin Gas, Mattis Says,” only a day after threatening yet more military action against Syria on the basis of “chemical weapons use,” Mattis admitted that there was no evidence to show that the Syrian government used Sarin.

As quoted by Reuters, Mattis stated “We are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use, (but) I don’t have the evidence. What I am saying is that other groups on the ground - NGOs, fighters on the ground - have said that sarin has been used, so we are looking for evidence.”

So no evidence that Assad gassed the “beautiful babies” the U.S. used to justify bombing al – Sha’aryat airbase and killing more “beautiful babies” in the surrounding area. That's good to know  but bombing nevertheless took place despite the lack of evidence. Perhaps Mattis should have announced that the Trump administration's official policy was to “Kill them. God will know his own.” This phrase, of course, would imply that the U.S. is not actively supporting the terrorists who did, in fact, use chemical weapons and who have been torturing and massacring the Syrian people since 2011 so it probably shouldn't be used either.

It should also be pointed out that any evidence Mattis claims to have is coming from the terrorists themselves, including the terrorist propaganda unit known as the White Helmets i.e. "activists," "opposition," and "NGOs."

In a surprising moment of lucidity from Newsweek, an article entitled “Now Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Gas On His People,” where writer Ian Wilkie wrote,

Mattis offered no temporal qualifications, which means that both the 2017 event in Khan Sheikhoun and the 2013 tragedy in Ghouta are unsolved cases in the eyes of the Defense Department and Defense Intelligence Agency. 

Mattis went on to acknowledge that “aid groups and others” had provided evidence and reports but stopped short of naming President Assad as the culprit. 

There were casualties from organophosphate poisoning in both cases; that much is certain. But America has accused Assad of direct responsibility for Sarin attacks and even blamed Russia for culpability in the Khan Sheikhoun tragedy. 

Now its own military boss has said on the record that we have no evidence to support this conclusion. In so doing, Mattis tacitly impugned the interventionists who were responsible for pushing the “Assad is guilty” narrative twice without sufficient supporting evidence, at least in the eyes of the Pentagon. 

This dissonance between the White House and the Department of Defense is especially troubling when viewed against the chorus of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) experts who have been questioning the (Obama and Trump) White House narratives concerning chemical weapons in Syria since practically the moment these “Assad-ordered events” occurred. 

Serious, experienced chemical weapons experts and investigators such as Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, Gareth Porter and Theodore Postol have all cast doubt on “official” American narratives regarding President Assad employing Sarin. 

These analysts have all focused on the technical aspects of the two attacks and found them not to be consistent with the use of nation-state quality Sarin munitions.
The 2013 Ghouta event, for example, employed home-made rockets of the type favored by insurgents. The White House Memorandum on Khan Sheikhoun seemed to rely heavily on testimony from the Syrian White Helmets who were filmed at the scene having contact with supposed Sarin-tainted casualties and not suffering any ill effects.
Likewise, these same actors were filmed wearing chemical weapons training suits around the supposed “point of impact” in Khan Sheikhoun, something which makes their testimony (and samples) highly suspect. A training suit offers no protection at all, and these people would all be dead if they had come into contact with real military-grade Sarin. 

Chemical weapons are abhorrent and illegal, and no one knows this more than Carla Del Ponte. She, however, was unable to fulfill her U.N. Joint Investigative Mechanism mandate in Syria and withdrew in protest over the United States refusing to fully investigate allegations of chemical weapons use by “rebels” (jihadis) allied with the American effort to oust President Assad (including the use of Sarin by anti-Assad rebels). 

The fact that U.N. investigators were in Syria when the chemical weapon event in Khan Sheikhoun occurred in April 2017 makes it highly dubious that Assad would have given the order to use Sarin at that time. Common sense suggests that Assad would have chosen any other time than that to use a banned weapon that he had agreed to destroy and never employ. 

Furthermore, he would be placing at risk his patronage from Russia if they turned on him as a war criminal and withdrew their support for him. 

Tactically, as a former soldier, it makes no sense to me that anyone would intentionally target civilians and children as the White Helmet reports suggest he did. 

There is compelling analysis from Gareth Porter suggesting that phosphine could have been released by an airborne munition striking a chemical depot, since the clouds and casualties (while organophosphate-appearing in some respects) do not appear to be similar to MilSpec Sarin, particularly the high-test Russian bomb-carried Sarin which independent groups like “bellingcat” insist was deployed. 

America’s credibility was damaged by Colin Powell at the United Nations in 2003 falsely accusing Saddam Hussein of having mobile anthrax laboratories. Fast forward to 2017 and we encounter Nikki Haley in an uncomfortably similar situation at the U.N. Security Council calling for action against yet another non-Western head-of-state based on weak, unsubstantiated evidence.

But Mattis’ admission calls into question the credibility of more than the government since all of mainstream media was howling in support of war over “undeniable evidence” of Assad’s use of sarin. For that matter, so were members of the United Nations.

Here’s a few headlines from the Khan Sheikhoun alleged chemical weapons attack:

UN Says Evidence Shows Assad Behind April Gas Attack – The Times Of Israel

France Says It Has Proof Assad Carried Out Chemical Attack That Killed 86 – The Independent

“Fake News” Assad, Despite Overwhelming Evidence, Says Reports Of Chemical Weapons Attack In Syria Are Fabricated – VICE News

Gasping For Life – Syria’s Merciless War On Its Own Children - CNN

In contrast, here are a few headlines in the alt media at around the same time:

Chemical Weapons 2017: What Just Happened In Syria? (Debunks official US narrative of events) - Brandon Turbeville, Activist Post

New U.N. Report Cites Terrorists, Blames Assad For Chemical Weapons With No Real Evidence – Brandon Turbeville, Activist Post

Khan Sheikhoun: why it is sensible to be sceptical still – Tim Hayward of TimHayward.wordpress.com

AMERICA ILLEGALLY BOMBS SYRIA UNDER FALSE PRETEXTS. LINKS FOR CRITICAL THINKING. – Eva Bartlett of Ingaza.wordpress.com

Quite a stark contrast between the reporting of the mainstream and alternative media. Indeed, while msm outlets constantly harp on aboutclaims of “conspiracy theories” and “Russian propaganda” and whatever else can be sold to the lowest common denominator of the mass of its viewers and readers, it’s relevant to ask just what would have happened if the American people would have listened to the alt media writers like those listed above instead of CNN, their government, or the UN.


Brandon Turbeville writes for Activist Post – article archive here – He is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 1000 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

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