Updates....while we wait a bit more... [Strikes on syria updated at the end]


From Boss Tweet April 12:

“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”

There was speculation that this was due to the fact that he’d Tweeted mocking Obama for tipping his hand ahead of some bombing run of his in the past; I’d seen the Tweet, but forgotten the date.

Theresa May won’t make the same mistake her predecessor David Cameron had made: she won’t ask Parliament to authorize joining a coalition to bomb Syria.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says he has “proof” that the Syrian government attacked the town of Douma with chemical weapons last weekend, and that he’ll decide “in due course” whether to respond with air strikes.

Now we haven’t heard if inspectors from the OPCW have arrived in Douma yet, but given this ‘news’ of sorts, one might not be considered a tin-foil-hatter not to be cynical as to what they’ll find…given these stories in the news:

‘Russian spy poisoning: Nerve agent inspectors back UK’, bbc.com, April 12

“The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons did not name the nerve agent as Novichok, but said it agreed with the UK’s findings on its identity. [<the report]

But Maria Zakharova, from the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the allegations in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal were a “clear anti-Russian campaign, the like of which we have not seen in the world for a long time in terms of its scale and lack of principles”.

She accused the British authorities of ignoring the “norms of international law, the principles and laws of diplomacy, the elementary rules of human ethics”.

And she claimed no one except for British authorities had seen the Skripals for more than a month.”

RT is reporting ‘OPCW backs UK findings over nerve agent used in Salisbury poisoning, but doesn’t identify source’, today

“Despite the British government’s claims of Russian ‘culpability’ for the poisoning, nowhere does the OPCW’s report assign blame for the incident or even identify the source of the agent. 

The part of the report that has been released publicly does not even specifically name Novichok as being the substance used, although it says it does name the substance in the parts of the findings which remain classified.

The OPCW used their own samples gathered from the victims of the poisoning and contaminated environmental matter to put together its conclusions. 

The results of analysis by OPCW-designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and severely injured three people“, the OPCW said.

The watchdog also found “the toxic chemical was of high purity” because of an “almost complete absence of impurities.”

UK Prime Minister Theresa May declared on March 12 that the Skripals had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent identified as A-234, also known as Novichok.  

Russia’s Foreign Ministry call the OPCW report a part of London’s operation to discredit Russia.

The OPCW will hold a special session on the incident next Wednesday.”

Well, sure, after being subjected to a nerve gas 10 times stronger than Sarin, the Skripals are both alive, and she’s in a secure location after leaving the hospital.  That kinda stretches credulity wafer -thin, doesn’t it?

But Boris Johnston till knows it was Putin.

I’ve tried, but failed, to discover who did the testing in the UK, what the results actually were, but given this new ‘report’, those are the only hits I’ve gotten.

But in any event, Theresa May ha called for another ‘emergency meeting’ of the UN Security Council to ‘discuss’ this official OPCW report that’s aid to….tally with hers.

As to ‘not seeing the Skipals in public for over a month, etc., b at MoA has added to that weirdness pretty darned well:

“On Sunday Yulia Skripal was secretly released from the Salisbury District Hospital but immediately taken into British government custody. She is under guard at an unknown location. Yesterday the Metropolitan Police released a Statement issued on behalf of Yulia Skripal:

“I have specially trained officers available to me, who are helping to take care of me and to explain the investigative processes that are being undertaken. I have access to friends and family, and I have been made aware of my specific contacts at the Russian Embassy who have kindly offered me their assistance in any way they can. At the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services, but, if I change my mind I know how to contact them.

“Most importantly, I am safe and feeling better as time goes by, but I am not yet strong enough to give a full interview to the media, as I one day hope to do. Until that time, I want to stress that no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves. I thank my cousin Viktoria for her concern for us, but ask that she does not visit me or try to contact me for the time being. Her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father’s.

“For the moment I do not wish to speak to the press or the media, and ask for their understanding and patience whilst I try to come to terms with my current situation.”

While written in quotes it is doubtful that Yulia Skripal expressed any of these words. “At the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is British bureaucratese, not the wording any Russian (or anyone else) with English as a second language would ever use.

The Russian embassy in Britain seriously doubts that the letter is from Yulia Skripal. It notes that despite the claim that Yulia has “access to friends and family” none of her nearest family members, who are in Russia, was recently contacted by her. It also notes a contradiction:

Particularly amazing is the phrase “no one speaks for me” appearing in a statement which, instead of being read on camera by Yulia herself, is published at Scotland Yard website.

(The embassy also published a refutation of earlier British government accusations.)”

From UK former Ambasador Craig Murray on Twitter: @CraigMurrayOrg

“OPCW will produce a complicated report on why the origin of the Salisbury attack cannot be determined. The UK govt will fillet it for individual phrases that out of context implicate Russia, issue a press release and the corporate and state media will scream “It was the Russians”

“Oh look. BBC running with precisely the same propaganda line OPCW confirm “same TYPE OF nerve agent as identified by UK” and the OPCW website has been crashed so we cannot read the actual report.”

And at his website: ‘Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress’, April 11

“Only the Russians have allowed us to hear the actual voice of Yulia Skripal, in that recorded conversation with her cousin. So the one thing we know for certain is that, at the very first opportunity she had, she called back to her cousin in Russia to let her know what is going on. If you can recall, until the Russians released that phone call, the British authorities were still telling lies that Sergei was in a coma and Yulia herself in a serious condition.”, etc.

There does seem to be a certain amount of international pushback on ‘running to war’, including perhaps Mad Dog’s “US ‘still assessing intelligence’ on alleged Syria attack’, but given Bibi’s still telling Boss Tweet that he won’t allow Iran to get a toe-hold in Syria…it’s hard to imagine the Navy being ordered to turn their armada around, isn’t it?

In addition to USS Donald Cook, the U.S has now dispatched USN Carrier Strike Group 8 to the Mediterranean/#Syria: – USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier – Carrier Air Wing VII – USS Hué City missile cruiser – x6 Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers – x1 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate”

The current script seems to have been written for some time now, here’s wsws.org’s take:

“In 2013, the United States was on the brink of a full-scale military assault to carry out regime change against Syrian President Assad, seeking to follow up on the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. But amid overwhelming popular opposition, President Obama was ultimately forced to pull back after the failure of a vote in the UK parliament to authorize British participation in the onslaught. Instead of a direct attack on Syria, the US agreed to a deal brokered by Russia to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stocks.

In a lecture given in September 2013, in the immediate aftermath of the agreement, World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board Chairman David North warned:

“But the postponement of war does not lessen the likelihood, indeed, the inevitability, of the outbreak of a major war. As the bellicose statements emanating from Washington make clear, the “military option” remains on the table. Nor is Syria the only target for military attack. US operations against Syria would set the stage for a clash with Iran. And, still further, the logic of US imperialism’s drive for global dominance leads to a confrontation with Russia and China.”

And Stephen Gowan’s:

“World War III is not about to erupt; it has already begun; indeed, it began as long ago as 2015, when Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, intervened in the conflict in that country, whose government was under attack by Islamist insurgents encouraged, armed, and resourced by the United States and its allies.

The war in Syria, one that counts among its participants the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Jordan, Qatar and others, is no less a world war for being confined to the borders of Syria. A world war is not defined by the multiplicity of its theaters but by the multiplicity of its actors.

Ultimately, the war is a conflict over two types of international order: on the one hand, a hierarchy of states, with the United States at the top, endowed with de facto authority to impose its will on all other states; on the other, a network of sovereign and independent states, linked by mutual benefit—a US-dictated global order vs. a democratic UN-defined international order. This is a battle of tyranny versus democracy at the level of international relations.

The war over these two contending conceptions of how the world’s affairs should be organized—the Third World War in action—is now threatening to spill beyond Syria’s borders.” [large snip]

“The United States’ newspaper of record, the New York Times, urges the US president to commit another illegal act, namely, to punish Syria militarily, without Security Council or Congressional authorization, for an unverified transgression against international law. The New York Times, thus, no less than other major Western media, has chosen a side in World War III—four-square behind the fight for an international order based on the arbitrary rule of the US administration in preference to a global order based on sovereign and equal states governed by the rule of law.

Russia has vowed to intercept incoming US missiles. Its warning has been met by a belligerent reply from the US president. The situation is fraught with danger. The United States, and its major media, which connive in the likely chemical weapons deception and elevate a planned illegal act of war into a moral crusade, are playing a very dangerous game. They’re willing to bring the world to the brink of a general conflagration to fulfil their vision of a hierarchy of states subordinate to the US administration’s rule—an undisputed global US empire.”

What are you seeing?

(Cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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ggersh's picture

Germany, Italy Refuse To Join Syria Airstrikes

There are at least two European nations which remember that when it gets cold in the winter, there is one country they call on to provide the natural gas they need for heating.

39014
APR 12, 2018 11:39 AM
79

https://www.zerohedge.com/

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

boriscleto's picture

@ggersh

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

@boriscleto

. . . if this piece is accurate, in a manner that is tragically comic, they certainly have anxieties about the consequences of going through with ultimately "getting their nut." (It also shows the craven, moral cowardice of "America's" allied neoliberal lackeys, er, "leaders.")

https://russia-insider.com/en/macron-begs-russia-not-retaliate-against-f...

God, the longer I live I am more and more persuaded that politicians are often the lowest forms of life on earth.

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@SoylentGreenisPeople

preferentially hire psychopaths because they'll do anything to anyone and everything for personal profits, which includes bonuses for 'extra' money, often drained from the public one way and another, that goes to the employers/stockholders.

And that's how the lowest of the low wind up in government. But you already knew that, lol, silly me!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@SoylentGreenisPeople

much heavy lifting when we went into Iraq and bombed it back to the Dark Ages. These nations are only good for the propaganda value. Except for Britain, and apparently they’ll put on the knee pads whenever we tell them ro.

Remember this?

US names 'coalition of the willing'

The US has named 30 countries which are prepared to be publicly associated with the US action against Iraq.

*

Full list of coalition countries:

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

Source: US State Department

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2862343.stm

As for the French, I can’t see them really putting their asses on the line. Talk is cheap. But who knows? I’ve been wrong before. But I think they’re asking for more trouble than they can handle. They have a lot of worries about terrorists and terrorist attacks already. Not to mention a large population of Muslim refugees. Things could go South right away if they do something like hopping into our war. But politicians have a nasty habit of starting wars when they’re in trouble politically and Macron (and May) need a diversion from the messes they’re in and the fact that they’te becoming more unpopular by the day.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@boriscleto in nuclear power. How good a long term strategy that might be remains to be seen, but for now, the French are likely not so dependent on Russian gas. Also most of France is USDA zone 7 or warmer; extremely cold winters, such as that of I believe 1430 when wolves roamed the streets of Paris have been rare and were remembered for centuries thereafter.

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Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

may be a bit reluctant. your link went to zerohedge, but as i wasn't able to tell which article you'd meant, i did confirm them thru general bingling (you remember him, don't you?).

italy here, but:

"On the basis of international and bilateral accords currently in force, Italy will continue to furnish logistical support to the activities of allied forces, contributing to ensuring security and protection, he told his interlocutors in contacts on the Syrian question, according to the sources.
A stable and lasting solution for Syria can come by working for peace and giving space to the United Nations, the premier reportedly said."

germany here.

but:
"Berlin, however, supports "everything that is being done to show that the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable," she stated, adding that the West has demonstrated "tremendous" unity on Syria. Earlier on Thursday, Merkel talked by phone to French President Emmanuel Macron, expressing concerns over the eroding ability of the international community to ban chemical weapons.

The German chancellor went even further at the press conference and claimed that some of the Syrian chemical arsenal had survived the destruction of stockpiles back in 2014.

"We… must now acknowledge that it is obvious that the destruction [of chemical weapons] was not completely carried out," she said, claiming that there is "strong evidence" that Damascus used chemical weaponry.

The eradication of Syria's stockpile was observed and confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) four years ago."

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ggersh's picture

@wendy davis Still they're weasel's

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/germany-italy-refuse-join-syri...

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

lowest from of humor and all that. using bing to bingle, not for googling, yada, yada.

thank for the direct link; i hadn't seen it while i was there.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

times more toxic than VX nerve gas didn’t kill the Skripal’s within minutes? Don’t know if I would ever believe Yulia Skripal doesn’t want help from the Russians or to see her cousin even if I saw her in person saying so. This false flag operation so sloppy, I don’t believe anyone involved on the British side. None of this makes sense.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

dance you monster's picture

@ZimInSeattle

The OPCW used their own samples gathered from the victims of the poisoning and contaminated environmental matter to put together its conclusions.

The watchdog . . . found “the toxic chemical was of high purity” because of an “almost complete absence of impurities.”

That British environmental matter sure is clean, not to show up in the samples, but just the scary nerve agent that didn't kill its target.

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edg's picture

@dance you monster

Musta been one helluva clean doorknob that "world's most deadly nerve agent" was smeared on. I for one never keep my outside doorknob that clean.

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@edg

painted the doorknob with poison? I guess the postman only has time to knock once, dropping dead prior to that second knock...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North

Why? Because they just happened to find a Russian training manual for how to use chemical weapons to kill ex spies that they had released from prison 8 years ago.

The facts for this false flag are lining up quite conveniently for them don't ya think? I'm wondering though if there is a way to see if there is any variation between nerve agents and the toxin one finds in sea food? Some people are thinking that they got sick from the food they ate just before they collapsed. Lots of poisons are made from natural resources, IIRC. It's a thought.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

Personally, I'm questioning every aspect of this narrative...

Although on the other hand, Porton Down also has a tendency toward killing people in the woods and insisting that they suicided, and a park's as close as they could get here...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North but if it were my government obsessing over an attack on a couple of double agents while fellow citizens had NO health care...

The whole mess stinks to high heaven. It is known that the Doorknob Caper was something the CIA had in contemplation at one time. They were experimenting with various plant derivatives; I think they had settled on Jimson Weed mixed with DMSO to facilitate skin penetration. In Britain one would probably go to the nearest churchyard for yew berries.

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Mary Bennett

@Nastarana

Mom, he did it! You didn't see me and you can't prove any different!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@dance you monster

so the sample didn't have to travel anywhere.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@ZimInSeattle

One in the UK and now this one allegedly in Syria.

A mere coincidence? Or part of a bigger strategy?

BTW, at least three prominent libertarian/conservative voices have challenged the Syria gas attack narrative, with two of them--Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan--actually referring to the attack as a false flag. (The other guy is Tucker Carlson.)

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wendy davis's picture

@ZimInSeattle

but their guinea pigs died in the sealed house! contra earlier warnings!!!

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@wendy davis

Sergei Skripal's beloved pets, including the cherished cat he paid 2,500 to have brought through quarantine into Britain, of one of the victims, were said to have been coldly, callously, sadistically left to slowly die of starvation and thirst over the objections of their vet.

How deeply humane and caring these psychopaths are, where the helpless and vulnerable are concerned.

I really feel safe and good about them isolating the Skripals so that nobody would even know if they were dead or alive s/ - as the one brief (and very strange) phone call could have been an imposter.

https://futurism.com/this-new-tech-can-copy-anyones-voice-using-just-a-m...

Written By
Dom Galeon
Kristin Houser
Published: April 27, 2017

This New Tech Can Copy Anyone’s Voice Using Just a Minute of Audio

In Brief
Montreal-based startup Lyrebird has launched a new API that allows people to synthesize speech using just a one minute recording of anyone's voice audio. While the tech is revolutionary, its potential use to commit fraud may be cause for concern. ...

...A Concerned Voice

Lyrebird’s new tech is revolutionary, indeed. It doesn’t just edit audio recordings — it makes it easy for someone to generate a new recording that truly sounds like it was spoken by a particular person and not created by a computer.

This raises some rather interesting questions, and not only does Lyrebird acknowledge these, the company actually wants everyone else to as well:

Voice recordings are currently considered as strong pieces of evidence in our societies and in particular in jurisdictions of many countries. Our technology questions the validity of such evidence as it allows to easily manipulate audio recordings. This could potentially have dangerous consequences such as misleading diplomats, fraud, and more generally any other problem caused by stealing the identity of someone else […] We hope that everyone will soon be aware that such technology exists and that copying the voice of someone else is possible. More generally, we want to raise attention about the lack of evidence that audio recordings may represent in the near future.

In short, Lyrebird want people to know they can easily be duped by audio, and hopes this knowledge will actually prevent fraud: “By releasing our technology publicly and making it available to anyone, we want to ensure that there will be no such risks.”

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

but the Offishul Story™ was that against the vet's advice, they sealed the house, and the little critters died from Novochok (or whatever bio-similar agent). but yes, mr wd and i speculated they'd rather died of thirst and starvation.

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@wendy davis @wendy davis

there were several different stories in various newspapers, but the one I've been seeing say at least some died of starvation/dehydration, several most recently seen have all said dehydration for the lot.

This one, the first that turned up on today's search, combines claims, and would have been April 6:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-sergei-skripal-ca...

Russia implies UK destroyed poisoned spy Sergei Skripal's cat and guinea pigs to 'remove important witnesses'

'Is that what the UK usually does with pets? Is that normal practice?'

Jane Dalton
@JournoJane
6 days ago

Russia is demanding an explanation for the death of Sergei Skripal’s cat and two guinea pigs after they were left in his sealed-off house.

The animals were "important evidence" said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, adding that they had been destroyed by British authorities,

The government confirmed the cat had been found alive but "in a distressed state" at the house in Salisbury.

Found extremely malnourished, officials said the long-haired black Persian was taken to the Porton Down chemical weapons laboratory for testing but that it was in so much pain that a vet decided to put it down.

The guinea pigs reportedly died from dehydration. ...

They were callously left in the sealed house with no food or water until they died, only it took the poor little cat longer. The claimed nerve agent produces symptoms, such as convulsions and respiratory failure, often within seconds or minutes. It must be among, and possibly the, most deadly nerve agent known - but in this ever-changing-where convenient story, and in that given to reporters at bottom - 'death is possible'
.
They brought it to Porton Down for testing, but claiming they had a vet put it down? Did that poor little kitty at least get some water and some digestible liquid nourishment first? I freaking doubt it. And I also doubt that they had a vet put kitty down when their vet wasn't allowed to take the animals in the first place and they were sealed up to die.

...Quoting a press report, Ms Zakharova condemned the way the animals had been treated.

“According to the publication, the guinea pigs and the cat were cremated," she said. "In other words destroyed, although the animals could be important evidence in the poisoning case.”

She claimed the BBC had known there were pets in Mr Skripal’s house when it was sealed up but that the information was “hidden”.

“I would like clarification,” she said in a Facebook post, in which she angrily condemned the decision to euthanise the cat.

“It turns out that the Skripals’ pets, in the form of two guinea pigs and the cat, are not alive any more," she wrote. "It's at first glance just an excuse for another joke - 'remove important witnesses'. In fact, they are really 'important witnesses' when it comes to a chemical substance, which, in a number of versions, could have been used in the Skripals’ house.

“According to the British newspaper, the guinea pigs died of dehydration because they weren't taken from the house. What do you mean? Was there a search and no animals? Didn't they notice the pets of the man who was poisoned with nerve gas?!!”

She added: “The cat did it again... Supposedly he (really no one knows what day) was brought to the Porton Down lab and then... drugged. Why drugged? The answer is because the cat was ‘stressed’, since he was ‘not noticed’ in the search. Is that what the UK usually does with pets? Is that normal practice?”

Many different stories - but what a lousy poison gas, that failed to kill 3 people and 3 pets purportedly exposed to it - even when the cat was starved and left without water until in a truly emaciated and miserable state while the guinea pigs outright died of hunger and thirst, supposedly because these jerks failed to notice live animals in a search? When there was a vet warning them that the animals couldn't be left in the sealed house to die? They couldn't decide whether to claim whether they were poisoned or not, because they weren't sure yet what their story was going to be- except that it was going to be used as an excuse to attack Russia and start WW3.

Russia is demanding an explanation for the death of Sergei Skripal’s cat and two guinea pigs after they were left in his sealed-off house.

The animals were "important evidence" said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, adding that they had been destroyed by British authorities,

The government confirmed the cat had been found alive but "in a distressed state" at the house in Salisbury.

Found extremely malnourished, officials said the long-haired black Persian was taken to the Porton Down chemical weapons laboratory for testing but that it was in so much pain that a vet decided to put it down.

The guinea pigs reportedly died from dehydration. ...

The cat wasn't dying of any poison, but of slow, deliberate, cold-blooded hunger and thirst - and kitty's kidneys may well have shut down. This is from April 6; not sure when the animals were actually removed from the house, (they aren't telling anyone - this whole animal cold-blooded cruelty issue is obviously and deliberately being confused via the 'media reports' being handed out until they figure out how they're going to use it) but it might have been several week or a month that poor little cat was left in there to starve and suffer, although I don't see how it could live that long without water, unless it could access the toilet... but, yes, cremated so that it could not be shown that there was no poison in the cat's system to confuse the issue, although it's obvious that the pets couldn't have lived long enough to die of thirst had they been subjected to exposure to this super-deadly nerve agent inside the house.

Also, had this been a real poisoning and investigation, that house would have been immediately searched and tested for that nerve agent they were chasing all over town, in freaking hazmat suits whenever photo ops were required, including checking a playground in hazmat suits weeks? after-the-fact, once parents and kids have already checked for them, evidently just to try to scare them - especially regarding a government that doesn't bother to check right away and places their kids at risk until they need some publicity to try to bolster some very weird claims, 'pragmatically' fully pausing the PR poison-searching process for a busy week-end at Easter... but nobody shows any signs of this nerve agent poisoning them and story given is invariably contradictory and stupid.

... Quoting a press report, Ms Zakharova condemned the way the animals had been treated.

“According to the publication, the guinea pigs and the cat were cremated," she said. "In other words destroyed, although the animals could be important evidence in the poisoning case.”

She claimed the BBC had known there were pets in Mr Skripal’s house when it was sealed up but that the information was “hidden”.

“I would like clarification,” she said in a Facebook post, in which she angrily condemned the decision to euthanise the cat.

“It turns out that the Skripals’ pets, in the form of two guinea pigs and the cat, are not alive any more," she wrote. "It's at first glance just an excuse for another joke - 'remove important witnesses'. In fact, they are really 'important witnesses' when it comes to a chemical substance, which, in a number of versions, could have been used in the Skripals’ house.

“According to the British newspaper, the guinea pigs died of dehydration because they weren't taken from the house. What do you mean? Was there a search and no animals? Didn't they notice the pets of the man who was poisoned with nerve gas?!!”

She added: “The cat did it again... Supposedly he (really no one knows what day) was brought to the Porton Down lab and then... drugged. Why drugged? The answer is because the cat was ‘stressed’, since he was ‘not noticed’ in the search. Is that what the UK usually does with pets? Is that normal practice?” ...

Did they poison the cat at Porton Down to try to claim the poison was in the house - despite the vet evidently (perhaps their own vet getting a court order to try to save the animals?) declaring that the guinea pigs had died of imposed thirst and then realize that the cat had died far too late for this death to have been from any poisoning days or weeks earlier and so could not be used to try to use any in-house poisoning and then cremate it to dispose of evidence of their cruelty in nerve-poisoning an already-tortured animal to use in a faked accusation - or, perhaps more likely, did the vet insist on accompanying the cat to Porton Down so that they were unable to poison the poor thing to use, or - more likely - insist upon putting it down before they took it to do whatever to it, and they then cremated the evidence of no poison being present at Porton Down?) I've no idea even when this occurred and would not trust any dates or anything else given by the government or press, even if they did - and I'll bet the vet's been gagged. This whole mess and the psychopathic people behind it is absolutely psychotic...

I think '...When a vet was able to access the property...' meant when a court order went through; their vet had protested the animals being sealed up in the house to starve and die of thirst. And that '...a decision was taken by a veterinary surgeon to euthanise the animal to alleviate its suffering...' meant that he knew they would not allow the poor thing to be saved and put kitty down to save it being poisoned as 'proof' of the poison having been in the house, as it obviously wasn't.
(It seems to be typical of psychopaths not to care if anyone knows that they're lying; they will simply insist that as long as you can't prove it, it doesn't matter - even when they know that a whole room-full of people knows they're lying. Something about the way that their brains don't work properly and other people don't matter, so neither does the truth, reality... it's all evidently linked with the condition, anyway, and very noticeable, once you've learnt to recognize it.)

...Moscow raised concerns earlier this week over the animals' welfare.

A UK government spokesman said: “When a vet was able to access the property, two guinea pigs had sadly died. A cat was also found in a distressed state and a decision was taken by a veterinary surgeon to euthanise the animal to alleviate its suffering. This decision was taken in the best interests of the animal and its welfare.”

News of the creatures deaths comes, as it has emerged that Yulia Skripal's condition is improving after both she and her father were infected with the Novichok nerve agent last month.

She said she was “getting better” in a phone recording played by Russian state television.

The highest concentration of the nerve agent was later found on the front door of Mr Skripal's home. His condition remains critical but stable, according to NHS England.

Right, nobody noticed a Russian in a hazmat suit painting the front door with a special, slow-acting, timed-for-hours-later-extreme-effects version (of a contact poison - in tiny, liquid alarm clocks, perhaps?) and to be an ineffective version of a fast-acting and utterly deadly nerve agent.

How can a liquid nerve agent be timed to suddenly act hours later, simultaneously on two different people, especially when one or both may never have touched it - and how can all survive after a month's illness, with no permanent effects?

The nerve agent said to have been used was something claimed to be around 8 times stronger than the very nasty VX? developed at Porton Down.

Question: does this stuff never dry, even when painted on a front door by a Russian in a 'perfectly normal' biohazard suit that nobody noticed?

Liquid nerve agents are said to be prone to evaporation as well, with vapors faster-acting. A powder can be used, but how does weather affect that?

What kind of a sloppy assassination attempt would this be, and in what televised comedy would anyone rely upon such a method which could have killed any number of delivery drivers, canvassers and visitors without harming the intended victim, who would knock on the door when the resident's wouldn't - knowing that they'd be caught in any real investigation?

And how could this be 'painted on a door' by an unprotected agent, without his dead body sprawled on the door-step giving the whole thing away right off the hop?

From below:

... Novichok is “a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify.”

Novichok is reportedly 5 to 8 times more toxic than VX...

...The effects of the poisoning on the human body can be almost immediate, with symptoms reported to appear as quickly as 30 seconds to three minutes following exposure. ...

(The headline differs, but the claim seems to typically be 8 or something like 5-8 times stronger, as it says in the body of the article. And this will have presumably been based on what information was officially provided at the time. Is this reduction in toxicity in the headline only intended to make the claimed-as-extremely delayed effects sound more plausible? Why would something intended to drop a army on a battle-field suddenly start acting hours after application - when in actuality, according to experts quoted, it produces drastic effects beginning typically within seconds or minutes?)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/13/nerve-agent-novichock-used-in-ex...

United Kingdom
March 13th
Nerve agent Novichok, used in ex-spy's poisoning, is 5 times stronger than VX or sarin
Lucia Suarez Sang
By Lucia I. Suarez Sang | Fox News

The military-grade nerve agent that investigators believe was used to poison a former Russian spy and his adult daughter was identified as Novichok, a hard-to-detect Soviet-engineered killer that's nearly 8 times more potent than VX. ...

... Gary Stephens, a pharmacology expert at the University of Reading told the BBC that Novichok is “a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify.”

Novichok is reportedly 5 to 8 times more toxic than VX, which is the chemical that was used to kill the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year. ...

... "One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list," Stephens said. "It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier."

Like other nerve agents, Novichok attacks the nervous system, sending blocking messages to muscles. The effects of the poisoning on the human body can be almost immediate, with symptoms reported to appear as quickly as 30 seconds to three minutes following exposure.

Symptoms include constricted pupils, convulsions, drooling, and in serious cases, coma, respiratory failure and possible death.

“The reason you die from these [chemicals] is very simple,” Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told LiveScience. “If your muscles don’t work, you can’t breathe. And if you can’t breathe you eventually die.” ...

(Apparently the foam is connected with the effects of other nerve gases, applied foam seen being used in faked sarin gas attack out-takes of the White Helmets and in their training sessions with children - yet I seem to recall the witness who purportedly found the Skipals stating that they were convulsing and foaming at the mouth, rather than drooling, as is stated to be an effect here? I dunno...)

So sophisticated that it's made with chemicals such as Monsanto/Dow pesticides that anyone can obtain - but luckily, not really all that toxic to the public.

Were these 'traces' from customer use of mosquito repellent or perhaps cockroach spray used in these establishments, or made up of whole cloth, like he rest of this?

..."We have now learned there has been some trace contamination by the nerve agent in both the Mill Pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury," Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England said. "I am confident this has not harmed the health of anyone who was in the Mill pub or Zizzi's."

The health agency added that any clothing should be washed in "an ordinary washing machine using your regular detergent at the temperature recommended for the clothing."

It also said to "wipe personal items such as phones, handbags and other electronic items with cleansing or baby wipes and dispose of the wipes in the bin." ...

Wasn't doing very well last night and shut down here - the thread will be dead, no doubt, but I'll post what's here this far anyway, as I dunno what's going to disappear and it might be handy to have the previous claims in multiple places, assuming that the world's still around later, so to speak.

But going by an alert I just got (the first for quite some time?) those battle-ships in front of Syria need to be moved a bit to save citizens being attacked from gas and other violence.

It's an alert, but I searched by the title for the URL:

https://www.rt.com/news/424018-gaza-protests-idf-wounded/

#GreatReturnMarch clashes: Palestinians injured as IDF fires tear gas (WATCH LIVE)
Published time: 13 Apr, 2018 11:22
Edited time: 13 Apr, 2018 14:13

Some 150 Palestinians, including a Red Crescent volunteer, have been injured as protests at the Gaza border enter a third week. The Great Return March has seen 34 Palestinians killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli fire.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reports that 153 people have been injured, with 63 of those hit by live ammunition. Fifty-nine have been treated for tear gas inhalation, and 24 hit directly by tear gas canisters. Seven people have also been wounded by shrapnel. A Red Crescent volunteer was shot in the knee in Rafah.

Five protest encampments have been set up along the border. RT’s live feed from Rafah, in Gaza shows Palestinians have set tires alight to obstruct the view of Israeli forces.

The six week Great Return March protest kicked off on March 30 and is planned to continue up until the anniversary of Nakba on May 15, which Palestinians refer to as the mass exodus from their land during the establishment of the state of Israel. Israelis celebrate this as Independence Day.

READ MORE: Great Return March: 10 Palestinian protesters killed after IDF fire on Gaza border (VIDEOS)

Ten Palestinians were killed in last Friday’s protests, including journalist Yasser Martaja and two teenagers. More than a thousand Gazans have also received treatment for tear gas inhalation.

Footage filmed along the border during clashes on April 13 shows a person being rushed towards an ambulance on a stretcher.

Other social media footage shows Palestinians drawing protest signs, flying a kite and firing a slingshot towards Israel.

The IDF has been criticized for its use of force in response to the protests. Footage from the demonstrations shows Israeli snipers gunning down unarmed protesters. The state maintains it’s protecting Israelis from Hamas terrorists.

The Gaza Health Ministry has accused Israeli forces of targeting a health center in Khan Yunis with tear gas, which it says has hindered the work of medical crews. It shared footage on social media showing medics running from a tent, inside which smoke is visible.

Over the last hour, several attempts to harm or breach the security infrastructure took place. In addition, a number of attempted terror attacks occurred, during which an explosive device and firebombs were hurled,” the IDF said on Twitter.

IDF

@IDFSpokesperson
Replying to @IDFSpokesperson

Over the last hour, several attempts to harm or breach the security infrastructure took place. In addition, a number of attempted terror attacks occurred, during which an explosive device and firebombs were hurled
6:23 AM - Apr 13, 2018

IDF troops are responding with riot dispersal means and are firing in accordance with the rules of engagement. The IDF won’t allow any harm to security infrastructure & will act against the violent rioters & terrorists who threaten either.”

This is where civilians need protection and the coalition armada is pretty much right in the area - why isn't an army drawn up here to make them stop pretending that trapped and isolated citizens are terrorists? Oh, right... because they're all on the wrong side this time...

Edit: I'm not up to rewriting this, although I can see where bits were inserted without necessary adjustments to the sentences, bad phrasing, etc. but probably nobody will read this anyway... if anyone does, sorry, really wasn't feeling well and still not feeling too lively...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

no evidence available is the Big Deal. and isn't one cat till missing? sorry not to be able to read all that you've brought, but...there it is. i've been trying to listen to the UN security council meeting live now on RT. but the lies from the danish delegate (home of the OPCW at the hague) are a bit hard to bear. sorry to have missed the general secretary's opening gambit, tho.

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@wendy davis

There was only one cat mentioned in those news reports I've seen up until now; Yulia apparently had a pet in Russia, which would presumably have been with her live-in BF, who seems to have left their house suddenly, with mail piling up, everything neglected, and neighbours telling the reporter that he'd gone to his summer home.

If there is another cat, reportedly from a shelter but unmentioned until I saw a couple of mentions in articles when looking just now after you mentioned it, it might be their 'poisoned-outside cat in a hole', for that ever-changing story. No idea, but it may have to stay in the hat for now, I suppose, for later distraction value or 'proof'.

But all I really, actually know is:

If this is really such a deadly poison and if such a deadly poison was used on the Skripals, symptoms would almost certainly have affected the Skripals within seconds or minutes, if the experts quoted are correct and accurately quoted - and they would have become unable to breathe.

If this poison is not so deadly, cannot kill or even permanently damage 3 claimed victims of it and fails to even affect others purportedly exposed to it, including small animals trapped in a house to die slowly of dehydration, and poses no health risk to people purportedly exposed to traces (how?) in a bar and a restaurant - obviously, nobody would dream of using it for an assassination attempt.

The would-be assassins could perhaps get advice from Porton Down, with great expertise in 'mysterious deaths' of various of their staff, and have practice in poisoning people, both duped military volunteers and large swathes of their own population. If anyone knows about killing, you'd think they would - even if some of their best experts were among those 'mysterious' deaths.

And poisoning an outside door or a door-knob has to be one of the stupidest methods suggested; apart from anything else, how did the person applying it protect themselves without dressing up like a space invader, causing the neighbours to point and snicker, so as to avoid dropping dead on the spot? The vapours of the liquid (as would be particles of inhaled powder) are said to be deadly, as well as skin contact. Unless it's really not so very toxic and therefore unsuitable for 'wet work'?

And how to make a liquid contact-poison time-delayed? To guarantee that both parties would touch it at the same time and would succumb at the same instant? In a park, away from witnesses? Where any 'witnesses' 'finding them' and giving the cover story to Press could be 'arranged'?

In the case of two Porton Down expert 'suicides' that I've read of/watched videos on, both scenes set in the woods, searchers looking for older people out for a walk and not back yet were all told not to approach the victims, if found, but to stay back and call for the experts, although the reasonable expectation would be that they might have become lost, ill, or injured and need help, perhaps being too weak to call out.

There is very little that I actually know, but it boils down to: this stinks, and we all can smell it, although all we can do is to speculate to try to make some sense out of this psychotic mess being used against not just Russia but us all.

And I believe - very strongly - that the Skripals are possibly hostages but at this stage, most likely were murdered, Sergei's pets killed off so as to not to have to explain why he abandoned his beloved pets - including the cat he spent $2,500 in bringing through quarantine to Britain - and this whole masquerade conducted at least in great part because if the Skrpals were admitted to be dead, their bodies would be demanded by their relatives - who could have an autopsy done and prove that they were murdered by some means other than the claimed nerve agent.

The phone call proves nothing about their being alive or of that being Yulia speaking, whether independently or scripted and potentially under threat.

https://futurism.com/this-new-tech-can-copy-anyones-voice-using-just-a-m...

Written By
Dom Galeon
Kristin Houser
Published: April 27, 2017

This New Tech Can Copy Anyone’s Voice Using Just a Minute of Audio
mrtom-uk/Getty
In Brief
Montreal-based startup Lyrebird has launched a new API that allows people to synthesize speech using just a one minute recording of anyone's voice audio. While the tech is revolutionary, its potential use to commit fraud may be cause for concern. ...

...A Concerned Voice

Lyrebird’s new tech is revolutionary, indeed. It doesn’t just edit audio recordings — it makes it easy for someone to generate a new recording that truly sounds like it was spoken by a particular person and not created by a computer.

This raises some rather interesting questions, and not only does Lyrebird acknowledge these, the company actually wants everyone else to as well:

Voice recordings are currently considered as strong pieces of evidence in our societies and in particular in jurisdictions of many countries. Our technology questions the validity of such evidence as it allows to easily manipulate audio recordings. This could potentially have dangerous consequences such as misleading diplomats, fraud, and more generally any other problem caused by stealing the identity of someone else […] We hope that everyone will soon be aware that such technology exists and that copying the voice of someone else is possible. More generally, we want to raise attention about the lack of evidence that audio recordings may represent in the near future.

In short, Lyrebird want people to know they can easily be duped by audio, and hopes this knowledge will actually prevent fraud: “By releasing our technology publicly and making it available to anyone, we want to ensure that there will be no such risks.”

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@ZimInSeattle @ZimInSeattle

Yulia, rather oddly, did not appear interested in hearing how her loved ones, her family, her apparently missing live-in boyfriend or her pet (think it was a small dog) were doing.

Apparently a reporter went to try to interview that boyfriend and found the place deserted, mail piling up, everything neglected, and said that the neighbours said that he's gone to his dacha (summer home) presumably (I'm guessing) with Yulia's pet. I've tried searching on RT under 'Yulia Skripal boyfriend' and turned up nothing but am not sure now where I read it, but it seemed rather odd that he'd vanish while his GF was in hospital (where the specialist for poisoning was not consulted or informed and said that nobody suffering from a nerve agent had ever been a patient in that hospital) for over a month in a hostile country, although the Press there may be respecting some expressed wish to not be bothered by reporters at a time of great stress.

And according to the official story, she's willing to never again have contact with any of these loved ones in order to relocate under an assumed name in one of 4 (5-EYE, most likely the US) countries - it's claimed where no mere family member could ever track her down - while nobody seems to have seen her. At all. While British police issued an unlikely-sounding statement in officialese purportedly from Yulia, stating that she wanted no contact from her cousin, who was in any event refused a visa to come to take her relative home on a plane, when well enough.

All this 'so nobody can kill her'? As far as I know, she isn't even a spy herself, just the daughter of one. So why would anyone want to kill her specifically, rather than her being collateral damage, having been visiting her father when a 'nerve agent' was sprayed/painted on something somewhere in some undiscovered location, (although Sergei's house is to be razed, and the bar and restaurant they were in are likely to be demolished (for no given reason) in the official scenario?

Although it's been suggested that her father's connection with the Steele Dossier and some purportedly expressed wish to return to Russia to live and to share some 'embarrassing-to-those-involved' details on that, might have something to do with the wish to dispose of the two knowing about this, while blaming RUSSIA!!!

I have no idea, but could not agree more with you that none of the official story seems to make any sense...

This is interesting; apparently there was a propagandist photo op in a cemetery where Sergei's wife and son were buried - but the story itself is gone, although the above still shows on the search page.

Sergei Skripal | UK news | The Guardian
Investigators in hazmat suits seen at the cemetery where Sergei Skripal's wife and son were buried

I suppose the Russians must have gassed them, too - and that bit of propaganda must have raised too much hilarity to be permitted to stand without censorship.

Edited because I wrote 'bat' for 'bar' - must have been thinking about various batty governments at the time...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

ZimInSeattle's picture

@Ellen North public again.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

wendy davis's picture

@ZimInSeattle

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Alligator Ed's picture

Well-reported essay, wd. Thanks. I have a contrarian opinion of what is occurring, besides missile rattling, if we survive to Saturday, April 14.

The true sickness of the situation is that Trump knows this is a false flag but is pushing pawns forward. His version of the Marshall gambit?

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

april 14? porqué?

but here's mad dog on c-pan, FWIW: ': ‘Defense Secretary to Notify Congressional Leaders Ahead of Military Action Against Syria’; Defense Secretary James Mattis says he will notify congressional leaders of any imminent military action against Syria and will report to Congress."

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Socialprogressive's picture

@wendy davis

but isn't congress supposed to be the ones telling the DOD when military action will be taken, not the other way around?

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When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is yes or no.
Not all this "who are you, and how did you get in here?" nonsense.

@Socialprogressive

They thought they might as well make it official, since they've been running the government for so long anyway.

But it's OK, you can still vote for any electoral choice they give you, same as always. No difference, really.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Socialprogressive

but 'informing the gang of eight' is more polite than an EO, isn't it? did clinton ask for congressional permission to unleash fury on x, y, or z? obama on x, y, or z? and remember, viet nam was not formally a war, it was: a police action.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

@Socialprogressive

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

wendy davis's picture

@Socialprogressive

while in many cases he'd just operated under the piece of rubbish that's the AUMF, the sole time he went to congress was over syria. passing the buck, as the UK parliament has said NO.

"Presidents for decades have ignored the Constitutional requirement that Congress authorize acts of war, launching attacks from Kosovo to Libya without authorization. Presidents Bush and Obama took a 2001 authorization of the use of force against terrorists as a carte blanche for a global secret war from Rome to Pakistan; the last formal authorization came in 2003, for Iraq. And Obama — the president who spent the summer defending the vast surveillance power of the National Security Agency — had shown no particular inclination to give up presidential authority.", from the atlantic

can't remember where to put this, but in r2P libya, sarkozy brought the first bombers in, largely because elections were coming up, as i remember it.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

The British testing of the poison was done by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down. For those that are not familiar with the British military, this is the center of chemical and biological warfare in the UK, and this has been the case for decades. I know that years ago the things that went on at Porton Down were beyond top secret and I imagine they still are. The interesting thing is that Porton Down is about 8 miles from Salisbury!! So...one thing that I have asked is why the elder Skripal came to settle in the provincial town of Salisbury, less than 10 miles from the UK center of chemical and biological warfare, after being released from prison in a prisoner swap. It is an odd coincidence and one that has not escaped the attention of many people in the UK.

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@Roy Blakeley

living near Porton Down must have meaning. In view of the recent news that Syrian forces found a large chemical weapons cache and factory in rebel-held East Ghouta, and considering the photographs of German and British labeled weapons there, there is speculation that there is an effort to frame the perception of all things chemical with Russia in order to distract from the incriminating evidence that European sources have provided chemical weapons to terrorist rebels.

Skripal might have been part of a chemical weapons supply network in Britain.

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/04/08/proof-intel-drop-trump-bolton-b...

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dervish's picture

@Linda Wood about the proliferation of chemical warfare agents in the ME, according to press reports.

Yet here's German giftgas.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

TheOtherMaven's picture

@dervish

"Gift" in English" = a present
"Gift" in German = POISON.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

@Roy Blakeley

that the product was a 'Novichok class nerve agent OR CLOSELY RELATED AGENT'. (craig murray.) (now thi was on march 22):The emphasis is mine. This sworn Court evidence direct from Porton Down is utterly incompatible with what Boris Johnson has been saying. The truth is that Porton Down have not even positively identified this as a “Novichok”, as opposed to “a closely related agent”. Even if it were a “Novichok” that would not prove manufacture in Russia, and a “closely related agent” could be manufactured by literally scores of state and non-state actors.

This constitutes irrefutable evidence that the government have been straight out lying – to Parliament, to the EU, to NATO, to the United Nations, and above all to the people – about their degree of certainty of the origin of the attack. It might well be an attack originating in Russia, but there are indeed other possibilities and investigation is needed. As the government has sought to whip up jingoistic hysteria in advance of forthcoming local elections, the scale of the lie has daily increased.

On a sombre note, I am very much afraid the High Court evidence seems to indicate there is very little chance the Skripals will ever recover; one of the reasons the judge gave for his decision is that samples taken now will be better for analysis than samples taken post mortem."

and thank for history of the place.

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I believe that at least during Soviet Union days, the English taught in their schools was based on UK English. I have heard Russians speak with close to a British accent. But aside from that small point, her seclusion seems "not voluntary".

The brinkmanship of these fools is insane.

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dance you monster's picture

@MrWebster

. . . is unerringly legal/diplomatic in its vocabulary and tone. It is intended to scotch any thought of bringing laws or diplomatic traditions to bear to get to the bottom of all this. Ms. Skripal likely never saw the text.

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wendy davis's picture

@MrWebster

don't they?

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EdMass's picture

When obfuscation, confusion and a lack of moral character was running the show...or is that now?

I'm looking at you John Kerry ( and friends, of course)

Kerry’s softer stance on Syria scrutinized

WASHINGTON — Senator John Kerry has emerged as an outspoken champion of change in the Middle East, among the first in Washington to demand that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak step down and that the US military prepare to intervene against the forces of Moammar Khadafy in Libya.

Yet as Syrian government forces advance with tanks and rifles against masses of protesters and attack mourners at funerals for dissidents, Kerry’s comments have been far more muted about a dictator he has worked with the past two years: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. not called for him to step down, as he did with embattled leaders in Egypt and Libya.

As recently as last month, the Massachusetts Democrat said he remained optimistic that Assad would usher in an era of warmer relations and reform.

...The senator could not be reached for comment ...

And Bashar Assad loses U.S. friends as Kerry, Hagel and Biden take Bush’s stance on Syria

As a bloc on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, President Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Vice President Joseph R. Biden all opposed the George W. Bush administration’s playing tough with Mr. Assad.

None grew closer to Mr. Assad and promoted him in Washington more than Mr. Kerry.

Then again, 100% of the chemicals were "removed" thanks to the RUSSIANS when Obama didn't get his warm milk one night and decided red was not his color. I know because BHO and JFK told me so.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

wendy davis's picture

@EdMass

"But that same month, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in Syria that would lead to a civil war, unmasking Mr. Assad’s brutal tactics, including the Aug. 21 unleashing of nerve gas that killed more than 1,400 civilians."

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Big Al's picture

That's the only question that matters.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

do you have any suggestions?

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Big Al's picture

@wendy davis Ya I do and have made many. Just saying. Round and round we go.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

is it realistic? the reason i ask is that david swanson is a one-issue blogger and author, and my guess is that he might get a tad disappointed now and again that war is still the main bidness of this Imperium. he has a new book out, by the by.

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@Big Al
Thoughts and prayers.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

ZimInSeattle's picture

@Timmethy2.0

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

wendy davis's picture

i'd gone there as their website wouldn't boot up; they say it's been under a DDOS attack much like craig murray's in the past. anyhoo:

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@wendy davis

quotes from a site I can't recall the name of, which showed a series making it obvious that the OPCW test was rigged, using a Turk who'd been something big in charge of the NATO massing on Russia's borders, no chain of custody, no witnesses other that the Brits and an unidentified OPCW tech, besides the Turk, whose name I can't recall, either.

Wish I felt better, can't recall enough details and the article, which I'd had some bits copied, seems to have vanished from a draft page in the inbox I just got back into again the other day, as it seems to be no longer telling me that I have to reformat my browser to access it - although it still pulls the 'session is ended, sign in again' thing while I'm writing.

But pages involving certain topics do seem to vanish from there, which has been the case for some time. And some videos on Syria vanished from a play-list I'd had them on, to keep them handy, among various things going dead on my notification list, one while I watching it live, and when I looked just now, one of the dead Sane Progressive videos having entirely vanished, while I stopped getting notifications from RT last night, while waiting for the promised details-to-come about Yulia Skripal purportedly issuing a public announcement though the British police department that her cousin/family was not to try to contact her - nothing from them since... gotta love a free democracy, don't 'cha?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

Cabinet backs May's call for robust response to Syria crisis’; Unanimous support for need to challenge Assad’s likely use of chemical weapons paves way for military action, the guardian, today:

“...leaving the way open for British participation in military action against Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Downing Street said senior ministers had agreed it was “highly likely” that the Syrian government was responsible for the “shocking and barbaric” gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma, which killed up to 75 people.
At a two-hour meeting, the cabinet backed plans to take further action – along with the United States and France – to prevent Assad’s forces from ever launching such an “appalling and inhumane” onslaught again."

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CB's picture

His Twits about lobbing "nice and new and smart" missiles into Syria was just a ploy to force oil prices up. Russia is now pulling in an extra $125 million per day from oil sales, or about $1 billion/wk. Because this extra money goes right into the state coffers, Putin can make good on his promises to increase benefits for things like maternal and other health care, new hospital equipment and state funded university and increased wages/pensions.

Trump was just punking the war-mongering liberals by intimating he was going to bomb the Russians. With his latest retraction, all they are left with is a severe case of "blue balls" (for those that hadn't already prematurely ejaculated in anticipation).

He never had any intent of bombing his buddy.

/s

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wendy davis's picture

@CB

but honestly, the Big MSM News on wiping out syria was that Mr. Market wobbled mightily.

on morning edit: low brain here; now i realize you'd likely been pinging on boss tweets:
'we don't need to be enemies w/ the russians: they need our economic help", or however it went. MAGA!

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@wendy davis

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

boeing, lockheed martin, northup grumman, and other weapons makers' stocks likely rose, no? 'they' think there's such a thing as 'a winnable war'.

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@wendy davis

But those blinded by greed are going to be short-sighted...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

as i'm feelin' lower than a snake's belly. today's our anniversary, and one gift i got was a kick in the gut from our adopted adult daughter with...let's say, 'mental health issues'. even knowing that, i've been having to smudge myself w/ sweetgrass all day to try and remain...philosophical.

my closing lullaby, playing for change, world peace thru music:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hGSqqhhokE]

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@wendy davis

And belated happy anniversary anyway!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

and i hope one day when our daughter gets back into harmony, as the dineh say, she'll realize that that what she's indicted me with...is past insane. the dineh also call this condition an illness, as is correct, so i'm working on pre-forgiveness. i think mr. wd feels almost worse about it than i do, but w/ attachment disorder, any mother figure is the target, even if not the birth mother, goddammit.

but we've been married 45 years (and of course i was a child bride...).

i got crazy listening to the SC voices and translators, so i went to the guardian hoping they might be live blogging it, but instead found this. doe one laugh...or weep? spoiler alert: more iron-clad innuendo ahead:

Russia tested nerve agent on door handles before Skripal attack, UK dossier claims’, Previously classified intelligence about poisoning of former Russian spy sent to Nato', the guardian

i can't even choose a short key bit to bring.

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@wendy davis

they know inside will always love them anyway, and whatever the accusation was, she probably didn't realize how much it would hurt you, though dunno if anyone pointing that out helps any.

Family is often difficult; they're always people of course, and people always have their problems, which sometimes are very difficult to deal with or may even not be possible to deal with at all.

Hope it all works out, though... Birth or not, if you helped raise her, you are her mother, and a part of her life.

Whoa, 45th anniversary?! Extra congrats on one of the biggies!

Re: the article on the RUSSIAN!!! TESTING DOORHANDLES!!!... nah, it's so self-spoofing, why bother?

*hugs*

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

but oh, yes, her oft'-weaponized mouth knew exactly what might kill me; whether or not she actually believed the neutron bombs she threw at me...might be the larger question. i won't say more on the boards, but said to a grammy who loves and cherishes her/their three (if troubled) chirren ...it was cruel beyond belief, not to mention...total rubbish. that's the part that wounded us both. and given that she'd said her (clearly also unattached) husband agrees, and is the reason they haven't come here recently, we wonder if we'll ever see them again. (350 miles or so)

but i'd asked mr. wd last night to remind me of his favorite PFC cover, and he did; it really helped both of us. peter tosh, iirc. jah guide...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyX82K7CgoE]

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@wendy davis

Music always helps; so do loving husbands on anniversaries; glad you have those!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

and well hugged.

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wendy davis's picture

saturday? gee, there ain't no hurry, is there? who's bettin' on the bombing of the site come before ya get there?

Al-Qaeda’s mash unit: How SAMS is selling regime change & driving US to warvia RT (includes funding sources):

USAID funding, anti-Iran MEK links
“According to SAMS 2015 financial statement [PDF], the organization’s budget jumped from $672,987 in 2013 to nearly $6 million in 2015 — almost a tenfold increase. Over $5.8 million of that funding came from USAID, an arm of the US State Department that boasts its own Office of Transition Initiatives to encourage regime change in states targeted by the West. SAMS Executive Director David Lillie also happens to be a former USAID staffer, as is SAMS Director of Operations Tony Kronfli.

Throughout much of the Syrian conflict, SAMS operations have been overseen by Zaher Sahloul, an ardently anti-Iran operative dedicated to drumming up a war of regime change against the Syrian government. After unsuccessfully lobbying Barack Obama for a NATO-imposed No Fly Zones over Syria, a policy that Hillary Clinton acknowledged would “kill a lot of Syrians,” Sahloul accused the president of having “allowed a genocide in Syria.” Sahloul was a participant in a September 20, 2016 rally in New York dedicated to ramping up conflict with Iran, as well. The rally was organized by the exiled Iranian People’s MEK, a shadowy international organization dedicated to regime change in Iran that has been described as a “terrorist cult.” Neoconservative former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a recipient of MEK payments, was among the speakers. Days later, the neoconservative columnist Eli Lake hailed Sahloul and his colleagues as “Syrian-Americans Who Stood Up to Iran.”

#NATO SG @jensstoltenberg met with PM @JustinTrudeau in #Canada today, called the Alliance “a guarantor of peace, providing security & preventing conflict.” Find out more about his trip: https://goo.gl/KaxkKx

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@wendy davis

Won't comment, due to swears getting in the way of speech... just:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JvFEPEPbiA

Judas Priest - Deal With The Devil

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

how fitting...but sure, leak someone's great opinion/disinformation to jens stoltenberg. they've moved into their new digs, yanno? dig it: 'locked fingers'! i ♥ their twit account cuz ya get to see all the other 'friends of nato', under our umbrella' love.

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@wendy davis

to detach them for crossing behind the back when making promises for such things as... dunno...not massing NATO troops on other country's borders? Respecting international law and NATO structures and claimed NATO overall intentions?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

wendy davis's picture

@Ellen North

but it's o hard to know true believers from true imperialist bullshitters, isn't it?

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seems to think he has evidence that T-rump is about fold, looking for some face-saving gesture. One can only hope. (BTW I don't give a damn who is Bausman, where he was hatched or what other offensive-to-someone's-delicate-sensibilities articles or books he might have published so spare me.) One thing T-Rump does understand is his own base and he surely knows the base is no longer gung ho for intervention.

https://russia-insider.com/en/trump-blinking-syria-russian-ability-hit-b...

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Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

that'll take some time 4 me 2 read. i'd read the 'Marko Marjanovic' one earlier, and couldn't make any sense out of w/o trying to access the woman's (iirc) report he'd tweeted and said made a hella lot of sense to him. kinda seemed too much bother to boot the tweet, delete the extras in a word document, and all that jazz. but this at least look more straight forward, lol.

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@Nastarana @Nastarana

of what a weak and pathetic bully he shows himself to be in such things as sending missile strikes at another, smaller and terrorist-troubled country which he knows cannot strike him back, even where the background on those terrorists isn't known.

And this latest tantrum/propaganda incident - sorta like a playground bully where the big boys gang up on one of the smaller kids and make sure his arms are held behind his back before they start hitting him all at once, in order to pretend that they're 'punishing' him on the claim that he did something everyone knows that they did themselves, thinking that'll help them get away with it to keep doing it again - sickening.

But if America was run by those having any concept of justice and common-sense, it would not be run by a pathological Mafia... but if wishes were horses, crops would be rich with fertilizer rather than poisoned with Monsanto 'Novichok' components.

Edited because I wrote 'Trimp' in the title - must have been thinking of mental shrimp, no idea why...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

(I already know it is a RW-leaning site, but whoever writes it does seem to have some good sources and analytic ability) is reporting this morning that T-Rump seems to have pulled back.

For fear of Russian retaliation it is being said. Maybe. Or maybe Mattis told him he would not issue those orders and if he did the navy would not obey them. I remember during the campaign wondering for how long or even if the military would be willing to take orders from The Donald.

Or, what I suspect is that Republican members of Congress panicked and told the WH that the expected mid-term losses would become a wipe out if war plans went forward. Next year, if a DNCC congress full of (allegedly) former CIA types votes for war, Trump can veto and look like he saved Western Civilization.

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Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

and i'd describe him more pro-russian, pro-reaason, but bernhard was colonel (iirc) in the german military. yes, his analytical skills are good, as is hi commentariat, imo. but wasn't hi caveat 'for now'? his nikki haley quote was a bit baffling for me, but he seem to believe that mad dog's stated fear of a war 'spiraling out of control' was what had caused boss tweet to say 'i'd never said soon, never said when', but others i'd mentioned above had a different take. but thanks, i was about to bring his opinion here (at least i assume this i the one you'd meant).

also, from RT: ‘Syria 'chemical attack' staged to provoke US airstrike, London pushed perpetrators – Russian MoD’, via RT today, with text and two videos, one of which videos is synopsized:

“In the interviews released to the media, the two men reported how footage was shot of people dousing each other with water and treating children, which was claimed to show the aftermath of the April 7 chemical weapons attack. The patients shown in the video suffered from smoke poisoning and the water was poured on them by their relatives after a false claim that chemical weapons were used, the ministry said.

“Please, notice. These people do not hide their names. These are not some faceless claims on the social media by anonymous activists. They took part in taking that footage,” said ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov.”

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@wendy davis I agree Trump is pathetic. Smart and wily but pathetic as well.

I do not for one minute believe the Russia, Russia, Russia nonsense coming from the DNCC--still no cute Russian in my basement--but I would like more exposure of just how Donald made his RE fortune and whom, exactly was financing him.

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Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana let me go dig it out, fwiw. this is all about the information wars, isn't it?

ach, never mind; the list of interviews don't go far enough back, save for 'trump and the koch brothers' anti-science. sorry.

but what's your take on bausman (original co-founder) and b at moa's theories? that's what i'd forgotten to ask in my haste. (being very slow in RL chores, and juggling two website gets wobbly for me.)

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wendy davis's picture

i'll just add further info at the café.

on edit: good grief; my earlier update never got thru. it was courtesy of café commenter greyson smythe who'd alerted me to go looking, and mr. wd had found:

Trump: US, France and UK launch strikes on Syria’ cnn.com

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