@Ellen North is that it sounds far too similar to stupid shit like 'The Illuminati' or 'New World Order'. And many fundies swallow conspiracies about both wholesale. I've spent quite a long time listening to that kind of crap and I'm sick of hearing it.

As for anti-communist sentiment? All some moron has to do is yell 'Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin killed eleventyquadrillion people' or whine about Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba and gulags and most people just fall right back in line.

#2.1.1.1

Behind the 'anti-Communism' actually covering anything and anyone with the ability or inclination to interfere with their free-form profiteering and intended ultimate totalitarian control, behind the spy agencies and the Gladios and later other and more public terrorist networks intended to destabilize societies and countries and to terrorize people in countries around the world into becoming eager to relinquish rights for 'security', for corporate-controlled government acting against the public interest, with everything designed to crush 'the left' (meaning anyone considering the public interest important) for the whole unholy ball of greed-rolled dung ruining things around the world for the past century?

Get rid of that top fraction of the global 1% - especially including the ones we never, or almost never, hear of - and you've got rid of the head of the monstrosity and have only to eliminate the tentacles now embedded virtually everywhere, as with the pathologizing effects of the propaganda.

Easier said than done, of course, lol. But they'd be the Mafia heads that need to be gotten rolling unto that metaphorical basket.

(Note: I don't actually believe in capital punishment, let alone lynchings; all of those involved need to be charged and tried for crimes somewhere justice is actually possible and where they can't get 'get out of jail for a price' cards. I do believe in unicorn dreams, though; if nothing else, they're cheering.)

@dfarrah @dfarrah

which was apparently again verified by inspections last year, they targeted and succeeded in destroying such as a scientific research facility, which they termed one.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/424168-international-law-syria-strike-us/

US-led Syria strikes: West trashes international law in favor of ‘might is right’
Robert Bridge
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is author of the book, 'Midnight in the American Empire,' released in 2013.

Published time: 14 Apr, 2018 17:23
Edited time: 14 Apr, 2018 19:27

Once again, Western nations have ganged up on a sovereign state, first accusing it of crimes without evidence before following up with a brazen attack. The reason for such behavior is diabolically simple: because they can.

On Saturday morning, the world awoke to the news that the US, the UK and France had followed through on their threat to punish President Bashar Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons against innocent people. These NATO states unleashed a massive missile strike near Homs and the capital Damascus with the stated purpose of destroying sites said to be connected to the production of chemical weapons. If the attack was intended for domestic consumption only, in typical ‘wag the dog’ fashion, it failed miserably on that score.

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the military assault, saying it had not been sanctioned by the UN Security Council, and was carried out “in violation of the UN Charter and principles of international law.”

That was just the beginning of the serious legal issues regarding this brazen, cowardly attack on a sovereign nation. Not only did the Americans, British and French flaunt international law, exactly as they had done seven years ago in Libya, they arrogantly ignored the democratic will of their respective constituents, bypassing congressional and parliamentary procedure in a mad rush to war. In fact, the only thing ‘transparent’ and ‘accountable’ about Saturday’s attack was the flimsy foundation upon which it was advertised. ...

...This brings us to the really disturbing part about Saturday’s attack: had Team Trump shown some restraint for just a few more days, they would have been able to make a much more accurate and measured assessment as to what really happened in the Damascus suburb one week ago. That’s because a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), was scheduled to arrive in Syria on April 14 - the very same day the NATO members launched their assault - to carry out an investigation of the alleged chemical attack.

In other words, Trump, May and Macron could actually be charged with ‘tampering’ with a crime scene and destroying the evidence before investigators can carry out their forensic work.

"It's most probably an attempt to create difficulties for the OPCW mission that is just starting its work… or even to thwart it," the chair of Russia's Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, said.

This rush to war brings to mind the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. With UN weapon inspectors on the ground in the country, reporting no trace of weapons of mass destruction, then Secretary of State Colin Powell saved the day by giving a performance worthy of an Academy Award at the UN General Assembly. As attendees stared on in wide-eyed disbelief, Powell shook a vial of ‘anthrax,’ inviting his audience to imagine what would happen if Saddam Hussein decided to unleash the deadly bacteria against their people. Only after the disastrous Iraq War was well underway did the Western mainstream media think to question the ‘bad intelligence’ and blatant deception that permitted the US and its allies to undertake the cruelest, most opportunistic attack on innocent people in recent memory.

The very same could be said about the disastrous NATO-backed regime change in Libya in 2011. In both cases, relatively stable and prosperous countries were turned into hotbeds of terrorism, violence and crime. In fact, the world would most likely never have heard of the terrorist organization ‘Islamic State’ had the West stayed out of Iraq. And here is the sick irony of the West attacking Syrian government forces: it could open the door to bona-fide terrorists coming to power in the event Damascus falls. Indeed, the US has made no secret that its goal is to remove Assad from power, yet – exactly as was the case with Iraq and Libya – they offer no realistic alternatives to his rule aside from ‘moderate rebels.’

Another irony from yesterday’s brazen attack: Trump used the phrase “mission accomplished” to describe the assault, like it was just another day at the golf course. The remark echoed former US President George W Bush’s premature speech on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in 2003 when he declared the end of combat operations in Iraq in front of a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished.” Yet in reality that was just the beginning of the nightmare for Iraq. ...

... Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States began to indulge itself in increasingly belligerent behavior across a wider and wider swath of the planet. The juggernaut was made all the more harrowing by America’s almost fanatical belief that it is the one and only ‘indispensable nation’ blessed by some higher authority with ‘exceptional’ qualities that are beyond question. This was America’s ‘unipolar moment.’

That open window of militaristic opportunity was applauded by neoconservatives, including Charles Krauthammer, who penned a 1990 article in Foreign Affairs (‘The Unipolar Moment’) where he boldly states: “The immediate post-Cold War world is not multipolar. It is unipolar. The center of world power is the unchallenged superpower, the United States, attended by its Western allies.”

This is pure unadulterated Machiavellian thinking, which substitutes liberty and equality before the law with a medieval ‘might is right’ philosophy. Yet, as has been proven time and again throughout history, whenever any single country sits astride the pinnacle of power, it is invariably proven, in the words of British politician Lord Acton that, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

This tendency towards the abuse of power was highlighted by a shocking comment made by General Wesley Clark during an interview with Democracy Now. Clark revealed that he had been shown a memo by one of his military superiors that outlined a classified plan to take out seven countries in a five-year period.

“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran,” Wesley said, repeating what he had been told and shown. ...

... Whatever the case may be, it has become beyond clear that the West holds the claim to the title ‘protector of democratic principles’ only by the force of its lies, deception and outright aggression. How long it will be before the charade ends and the people openly proclaim that the emperor has no clothes is anybody’s guess.

https://www.rt.com/news/424164-putin-history-us-syria/

Putin: History pinned blame on US for ‘bloody carnage’ in Yugoslavia & Iraq, same will be with Syria
Published time: 14 Apr, 2018 17:04

History will set things straight on Syria for the US, which is already responsible for a chain of “bloody carnage” in other countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said following the US-led attack on the country.

“History will set things right, and Washington already bears the heavy responsibility for the bloody carnage in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya,” Putin said in a statement. His disdain was triggered by the overnight attack on Syria launched by the US and its allies, who cited an alleged chemical incident in the town of Douma as a pretext. ...

... The attack came shortly before the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) experts were set to begin their fact-finding mission in Douma. The OPCW mission was disregarded, however, and “in a sign of cynical disdain, a group of Western countries decided to take military action without waiting for the results of the investigation,” Putin said.

Despite the attack, the chemical watchdog’s experts are set to begin their work in Syria, to determine the circumstances of the alleged chemical incident, reported last Saturday. Pro-militant sources, including the controversial White Helmets group, claimed that a chlorine-filled munition was deployed by government troops, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.

The area that allegedly came under attack has since been surrendered by the militants. The site was explored by Russian military specialists, who found no signs of chemical weapons use, victims of the purported incident or even locals, who heard about the “attack.”

Which includes soil samples which tested negative, as was also mentioned in a tweet from Vanessa Beeley, who was on the ground there following the Syrian Army rescue, and verifies that nobody in Eastern Ghouta sought treatment from a chemical attack - which would have been noticed, if only by the hospital staff.

We swim in a sea of propaganda, flooding from those who seek to swamp us, and must be very careful about what we swallow of what some wish to force into our minds and mouths.

They lie like the doormats they wish to make us become.

Regarding also the claims of British Prime Minister as an excuse for attacking Russia:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804151063573543-novichok-creator-opcw-...

Novichok Creator Says OPCW Report Proves Skripals Poisoned With Another Agent
© AP Photo / Matt Dunham
Europe
03:31 15.04.2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) shows that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia could not be poisoned with a Novichok-class nerve agents, Leonid Rink, one of the Novichok creators, told Sputnik.

The OPCW said in its report, issued earlier in the week, that a toxic chemical of high purity was used in the attack.

"OPCW data saying that a toxic chemical of high purity was used proves that it was not Novichok…. Novichok is a complex nerve-paralyzing substance consisting of a mixture of many different components and additives that decompose in different ways. If a pure substance was found, it could not be Novichok," Rink said.

He noted that if it was Novichok, the OPCW would have found different components that disintegrate into non-toxic components over time, and thus they would not be able to make statements on the chemical’s toxicity.

The expert also stressed that if pure Novichok was indeed present in the substance found on the handle of the front door of Skripal's home, Sergei and Yulia would have died right on the spot after exposure to the chemical.

Furthermore, Rink said that the OPCW report contradicted the words of Vil Mirzayanov, who referred to himself as one of the creators of the Novichok-class nerve agents. Mirzayanov said that the toxin did not kill Skripals since the substance is vulnerable to humidity, and there was fog in the United Kingdom on March 4, the day of the poisoning attack on Skripals.

"This is a fair remark, because the Novichok is a very unstable substance, which depends on [exposure to] water, on alkalis, on everything. But then the experts would have found the products of hydrolysis, and certainly not a pure substance," Rink emphasized. ...

... Moreover, the fact that no one has seen Skripals in person after the attack indicated that allegations of exposure to Novichok were false, he said. Rink added that Novichok affects the victim's eyes, but the UK authorities had never mentioned such a symptom in any of their statements on condition of Skripals. ...

https://www.rt.com/news/424149-skripal-poisoning-bz-lavrov/

Lavrov: Swiss lab says ‘BZ toxin’ used in Salisbury, not produced in Russia, was in US & UK service
Published time: 14 Apr, 2018 14:37
Edited time: 14 Apr, 2018 18:05

The substance used on Sergei Skripal was an agent called BZ, according to Swiss state Spiez lab, the Russian foreign minister said. The toxin was never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other NATO states.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with an incapacitating toxin known as 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, citing the results of the examination conducted by a Swiss chemical lab that worked with the samples that London handed over to the Organisation for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The Swiss center sent the results to the OPCW. However, the UN chemical watchdog limited itself only to confirming the formula of the substance used to poison the Skripals in its final report without mentioning anything about the other facts presented in the Swiss document, the Russian foreign minister added. He went on to say that Moscow would ask the OPCW about its decision to not include any other information provided by the Swiss in its report.

Lavrov said that the Swiss center that assessed the samples is actually the Spiez Laboratory. This facility is a Swiss state research center controlled by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection and, ultimately, by the country’s defense minister. The lab is also an internationally recognized center of excellence in the field of the nuclear, biological, and chemical protection and is one of the five centers permanently authorized by the OPCW.

The Russian foreign minister said that London refused to answer dozens of “very specific” questions asked by Moscow about the Salisbury case, as well as to provide any substantial evidence that could shed light on the incident. Instead, the UK accused Russia of failing to answer its own questions, he said, adding that, in fact, London did not ask any questions but wanted Moscow to admit that it was responsible for the delivery of the chemical agent to the UK.

The scandal erupted in early March, when former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found in critical condition in the town of Salisbury. Top UK officials almost immediately pinned the blame on Russia.

Moscow believes that the entire Skripal case lacks transparency and that the UK is in fact not interested in an independent inquiry. "We get the impression that the British government is deliberately pursuing the policy of destroying all possible evidence, classifying all remaining materials and making a transparent investigation impossible," the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, said during a press conference on Friday.

The destruction of evidence having been made particularly obvious...

https://truthstreammedia.com/2015/01/13/cia-flashback-well-know-our-disi...

Jan 13, 2015
Melissa Dykes

CIA Flashback: “We’ll Know Our Disinformation Program Is Complete When Everything the American Public Believes Is False.

William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”

(Truthstream Media) That creepy quote above has been widely attributed to Former CIA Director William Casey.

Casey was the 13th CIA Director from 1981 until he left in January 1987. ...

... This is a new trend lately, people trying to debunk old (and most especially, establishment damaging) quotes.

This time, however, someone who claims to have been there when Casey said it showed up to validate the quote:

[readolog_blockquote ]”I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director William Casey at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80 percent of the ‘intelligence’ that the analysis side of the CIA produced was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.”
Barbara Honegger
[/readolog_blockquote]

Not only does Honegger claim he said it, but apparently he said it in response to what he saw as his goal as CIA Director!

This statement was further backed by an email posted by Quora user Greg Smith from Honegger regarding the quote which is consistent and apparently prompted her to tell the story above:

“Seriously — I personally was the Source for that William Casey quote. He said it at an early Feb. 1981 meeting in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House which I attended, and I immediately told my close friend and political godmother Senior White House Correspondent Sarah McClendon, who then went public with it without naming the source… “

So there you go. Guess it boils down to he said she said, except when she says it, it’s because she was actually there…

The year 1981 was an interesting one for Director Casey. He just so happened to be under investigation and fighting to keep his new job over various seedy dealings that came to light; among them were claims he approved a plan to overthrow Libya’s Moammar Qaddafi to instill a shadow government. (Oh I know, our government would never do that, would they?)

The agency’s plan, according to an article in the July 27, 1981 Gettysburg Times, involved toppling Qaddafi via what else?

Disinfo:

CIAplot-The_Gettysburg_Times_Mon__Jul_27__1981
“Newsweek Magazine reported the covert operation was designed to overthrow Khadafy through a ‘disinformation’ campaign to embarrass him, creation of a counter government to challenge his leadership and a paramilitary campaign.”

(Wow. A lot of that sounds eerily familiar… 2011, anyone?)

That same year, investigative journalist Jack Anderson published this piece in the September 22, 1981 Santa Cruz Sentinel discussing the troubling CIA disinformation campaign being waged against Americans:

misleadingtactics-SantaCruzSentinel22Sept1981

Anderson points out the CIA’s “triple assault on the public’s right to know” included 1) trying to shut off channels of information to the electorate, 2) seeking criminal penalties against reporters whose stories might identify CIA operatives, and the third which Anderson called most troubling, 3) spreading “disinformation” to news agencies.

And who else does Anderson specifically call out in this disinfo campaign but new CIA Director William Casey:

[readolog_blockquote]”Now along comes Bill Casey, the dodering CIA director, with the argument that the government has the right to mislead the public by planting phony stories in the press.”[/readolog_blockquote]

Oh really? So the good director not only talked about his disinformation campaign but actually argued for the government’s right to wage it against the American people? ...

Now, it's apparently a government policy.

Edited due to one of my signature letter-typos.

#2.1.2.4 strikes, however, I do support the way that they were conducted, assuming what I heard is true.

It was reported that Trump chose the three sites specifically to damage storage and production of chemical weapons. It was reported that the activity was done in a manner to not harm the Russians or innocents (and US people). It was reported that the US did not take out the Syrian airforce because it wanted to leave enough power to oppose rebel actions. If the Syrian military was destroyed, then the reasoning was that civil war would start again.

I don't know if the above is true. If it is, then I have a hard time believing that Trump is as promiscuous with the military as HRC would have been, considering she wanted to control Syrian airspace and overthrow Assad upon assuming the presidency.

@Meteor Man

He is now being accused of being a "Putin propagandizer" by the liberal press. He has a very large following and his anti-war posts are reaching hundreds of thousands. I'll take what I get from either quarter.

Unfortunately, Fox and Friends is more to Trumps mental (in)capabilities.

How the ‘dumbest news show’ on TV influences the White House

Fox & Friends has spent years being a fever swamp of conspiracy theories, right-wing propaganda, smear campaigns, and general absurdity. Now, it's President Trump's favorite show, with the power to hijack the news cycle for days at a time.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1d7UvKWh6M]

#2.1.3.2
I'm guessing this will be all the excuse Trump needs for war:

Fox & Friends suggest Trump could bury Comey’s book by bombing Syria

@Meteor Man

Did you watch that video with Stephen Cohen?

#2.1.3.2
I'm guessing this will be all the excuse Trump needs for war:

Fox & Friends suggest Trump could bury Comey’s book by bombing Syria