The Weekly Watch

Truth is stranger than fiction


Life in the age of alternate realities

truth is strange.png

It's been a big news week with the loudest scream being Comey, Comey, Comey, Russia, Russia....it keeps the people distracted. In the Middle East the big scream has been Qatar...better get rid of Al Jazeera as the Saudis start a war with Iran. In the meantime, the house votes to do away with the Dodd-Frank luke warm financial regulation. The Senate rushes to pass some sort of T-rumpcare, and on the day Iran was bombed by Saudi surrogates from ISIS, the Senate passed more sanctions on Iran for basically having elections. In the UK Labour made good election gains and the Conservatives are in a mess prior to the Brexit negotiations.

Out of the gate this week, The Intercept published a NSA leak from an anonymous source about the supposed Russian hacks into the election. TPTB were ready on go and arrested Reality Winter, a 25 year old NSA contractor. She has plead not guilty. People across the media have accused the Intercept of being careless with their sources. I wonder if it was a set up. Here's the article in question...which yet again fails to show any interference but merely a phishing scam. https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russia...
More interesting is the Intercept podcast where author Ryan Grimm is interviewed in the first 10 minutes (later Jill Stein describes the RT dinner with Putin where Flynn and she were present).
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/07/intercepted-podcast-the-woman-democr...

So perhaps this is all a set up using or trying to dispel the credibility of the Intercept? The entire situation doesn't pass the smell test. Here is their comment:

While the FBI’s allegations against Winner have been made public through the release of an affidavit and search warrant, which were unsealed at the government’s request, it is important to keep in mind that these documents contain unproven assertions and speculation designed to serve the government’s agenda and as such warrant skepticism. Winner faces allegations that have not been proven. The same is true of the FBI’s claims about how it came to arrest Winner.

Of course the big Russiagate story of week was the Comey testimony
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/07/james-comey-statement-describes-unse...
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/08/james-comey-senate-hearing-trump-rus...

Here's an excellent analysis and one of my favorite interviews of the week. Max Blumenthal and former FBI special agent Coleen Rowley say that while former FBI Director James Comey's testimony offered almost nothing new, that won't slow the fixation on Trump's alleged Russia ties, not his actual policies. (25 min plus transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19293:Comey-Hearing%3A-Little-New%2C-Mor...

Max interviews Democrap Rep. Raskin at a rally last weekend that is worth a listen or read.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19283:Liberals-Rally-For-%27Truth%27-On-...
Here's an example of the exchange -
REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Duterte's Philippines, Assad's Syria, the recent chaos in Venezuela. All the despots, dictators and kleptocrats have found each other and Vladimir Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Do you support regime change in those countries?
REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Absolutely. From the people. Democratic revolution. I can't ...

I saw our retired Judge yesterday and he suggests congress request any taped conversation between T-rump and Comey. I suggested they subpoena Seth Rich's laptop, phone, autopsy, police cam footage, etc. This 45 min interview with gagged detective, Rod Wheeler, was really fascinating! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuq6ylMKS3U

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Iran attack:
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/08/terror-iran-saudi-arabia-isis-al-qae...
The ISIS terrorist attack in Tehran was managed, orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, in order to confront Iran. (20 min and transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19280:Fmr.-Iranian-Diplomat%3A-ISIS-Atta...
Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council discusses the attack
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/7/attackers_in_tehran_kill_12_injure

Iran sanctions
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/07/bucking-bernie-sanders-democrats-mov...
Bernie asks for at least a delay in the vote (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUGdGQKdKaw

Sadly we are supporting the wrong side in the Saudi -Iran conflict
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/649-reza-marashi-and...
Our blind support of Saudi Arabia has been long standing
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/leaked-emails-expose-how-uae-an...

What's the deal with Qatar? I suspect the goal is to get rid of Al Jazeera
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19287:How-Far-Will-US-%26-Saudis-Go-to-R...
What to do? Blame the Russians...that always works
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/us-investigators-believes-russian-hacker...
https://theduran.com/us-deep-state-working-cnn-pin-blame-saudi-qatar-con...

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UK elections – an 11 minute review from England (with transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19294:Hung-Parliament-a-Stunning-Victory...
John Weeks economics professor adds his thoughts (16 min and transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19295:Labour-Prevented-the-Tories-from-I...
Paul Mason, columnist for The Guardian, and Mehdi Hasan, award-winning British journalist and broadcaster at Al Jazeera English discuss the election
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/9/labours_jeremy_corbyn_rides_leftis...

Abby Martin visits Venezuela and reports on the situation ...
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19279:Abby-Martin%3A-World-Ignores-Oppos...

Meanwhile back in the USA

As all the Comey to-do occupies everyone's attention, the house repeals Dodd-Frank.
http://www.npr.org/2017/06/08/532036374/house-passes-bill-aimed-at-rever...

...and the Senate rushes to repeal Obamacare
https://thinkprogress.org/senate-republicans-are-launching-an-audacious-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koBdRssMvJI (6 min)

Infrastructure
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/private-toll-operators-love-trump-in...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-offers-fools-gold-fund-i...

infrastructure Budget.jpg

Supporting Net Neutrality cost you your job?
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/07/west-virginias-senate-president-mitc...

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/7/worst_epidemic_in_us_history_opioid
Chris Hedges explores the problem with a family that has experienced tragedy. (30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPxnxPxXpS8

So it has been a busy week. The fire hose is on full, and people are distracted. No wonder we can perpetrate such violence and arrogance around the world...the citizens are blind to our own atrocities. Sadly the Russia scam is working beautifully as a mass distraction as we create more war, sell more weapons, and starve more children. Because of our actions there is now a cholera epidemic in Yemen. Another feather in our hat of misdeeds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAv3FXYMmO8 (5 min)

Here's hoping you are awake and speaking out. Hope you all have a great Sunday! I look forward to your stories and thoughts in the comments.

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Lookout's picture

Is being broadcast today by the real news
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3186

Nina Turner will premiere her new show with an interview with Bernie at 3 CT.

Bernie spoke at the Oxford Union this week (22 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehY_ergIiII

He is so good on the domestic side, but is weak on foreign policy. I wish he would attack the war mongers the way he does banks, big pharma, etc. The speech reminded me why I supported him.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

...Bernie spoke at the Oxford Union this week (22 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehY_ergIiII

He is so good on the domestic side, but is weak on foreign policy. I wish he would attack the war mongers the way he does banks, big pharma, etc. The speech reminded me why I supported him.

I firmly believe, going by precedent, that the corporate/co-opted 'left' media would shut him off like a leaky tap if he did - he could then no longer reach the public limited to such with any concept of democratic government working for the public good. Bernie has to stay within certain boundaries in order to keep even the concept alive, and quite possibly himself/his loved ones as well.

Small conceptual steps using that which appeals to virtually all, regardless of ingrained propaganda, such as a living wage and a right to affordable medical care for all, are first required to develop the cohesive people's movement necessary for any chance of the continuance of life and the ideals of civilization.

This is not merely a political battle, but a battle of life's global survival against an anti-life, mindlessly all-consuming evil which is likely to render us all extinct within the next decade, if not sooner.

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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.

TPTB will be able to keep their anti-Russia ball rolling. I don't see how they can maintain its momentum indefinitely, there being so little of actual substance behind it. The harder they push on it, the less it's likely to move.

Rantings of old Cold Warriors notwithstanding, Russophobia just ain't what it used to be in the American heartland. Even the best efforts of the Mighty Wurlitzer won't be able to regenerate the fear and loathing of Russia that once existed there.

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native

@native @native

Democrats wanted peaceful dealings with Russia and Republicans were the Cold Warriors.

Now (D)'s point fingers at Trump appointees and, instead of attacking them for their granny-starving cheapness, talk darkly of having "dealings with Russia". Commercial dealings, that Democrats once sought.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Obomber and Hellery were hellbent on Russia before the election...setting up NATO missiles on the border, creating problems in Ukraine, using Syria as a proxy war, etc...

Was it some set up with the CIA, NSA, FBI, MIC apparatus? Why would you create conflict Russia? Weapon sales, resource extraction, mass distraction, all of the above and more ...?

No matter I look at a conflict with Russia, it is a disaster in my eyes.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
of that nature. Why else maintain such a ridiculous, and nearly unanimous anti-Russia media campaign, at such extraordinary length? This goes beyond just smelling fishy -- it reeks to high heaven. It's becoming so obvious that Dems are using Russia as a scapegoat, I can't imagine how anyone could fail to see it.

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native

@The Voice In the Wilderness
that international Communism, operating under a powerful, Stalinist, USSR umbrella, posed an existential threat to America's cherished values of individualism, and to its championship of private enterprise. I've never agreed fully with this argument, but for many years there was certainly some degree of rational substance to it.

In the post-Gorbachev era however, that argument lost whatever legitimacy it might once have had, since Communist ideology generally, and the Soviet Union particularly, both had ceased being any threat whatsoever to America, or to its individualistic and profit-driven value system. Unfortunately, what we got to replace our previous anti-Communism, was a shameless display of naked capitalist greed, ravaging the bones of a now-defunct and helpless Soviet Empire. Various Russian officials and mafiosi were sanctioned by "the West" to execute a wholesale rape of Russia's economy, without the least consideration of how this might affect the Russian people as a whole. The entire nation was in a disastrous shambles, pre-Putin.

Is it really any wonder that Vladimir Putin is now widely regarded in Russia as something of a national hero and savior? I can understand why America's MIC would be hostile to an emerging global competitor, but why in the world would the American people bear any enmity toward Russia as a nation? Putin's rejuvenated, and comparatively well-organized Russia has never harmed or even threatened the USA, in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, Putin continues to reiterate his desire to establish a peaceful, cooperative relationship with the USA... as long as this relationship does not threaten Russia herself, or the immediate neighbors upon whom her own security depends. Why is this position so very hard for America's diplomats to appreciate? Putin himself has repeatedly, and often eloquently, made his position very clear.

Instead, Putin's and Lavrov's various, and very reasonable overtures and proposals are met with unreasoning hostility, false accusations, personal calumny and ridicule, by a majority of the "Western" msm. Our own pundits and broadcasters seem unaware of how biased they are, and how irrationally they are behaving, in treating Russia as a recalcitrant enemy rather than as the potential ally that it very much wants to be.

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native

Lookout's picture

@native

...and analysis.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
I can only hope that the current confluence of political interests that have combined to generate the Russophobia that now dominates so many front pages, will be soon to re-align into a more logical, and more mutually beneficial pattern. Declaring Russia to be a mortal enemy of America, does not really make any sense at all.

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native

@Lookout @Lookout

Lol, diplomatic, too.

... Our own pundits and broadcasters seem unaware of how biased they are, and how irrationally they are behaving, in treating Russia as a recalcitrant enemy rather than as the potential ally that it very much wants to be.

Not that the corporate media would ever lie to the public, of course! Not even to serve their employer's self-enriching aims against the interests of everyone and everything else or to maintain their very well-paying jobs.

Edit: or does the term 'diplomacy', like 'foreign policy', now only signify such as arms deals involving human rights abusers/terrorists, the overthrow of elected governments in other people's countries to enrich The Right Perpetrators, spying, bullying and manipulation? If so, I'll change it, as I was actually trying to express admiration for the comment.

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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.

Raggedy Ann's picture

Another week, more and bigger distractions. You are so correct that they distract to keep war going. In my daily life, I plan to begin pointing this out to whoever brings up Russia, Russia, Comey, Comey, Herr Drumpf, etc. Nothing but distractions so we can continue watching sports, feeding our consumer addictions, and fall deeper into credit card debt until it all blows up in our faces and we all live communally in tent cities as refugees all.

We are moving into a hot week. The wind keeps blowing and drying everything out, so it's been a challenge to keep everything hydrated. On the positive side, I'll take this over winter any day.

Have a beautiful day, folks! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

@Raggedy Ann

Hope your garden is doing well. It is so nice to have some rain this year after last years drought. We think the politics are wild...I fear an ever wilder climate. There was some success in the UK, and young folks are driving the change. More power to us all!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

... not that I've ever paid it much attention. It's Wahhabist monarchy that tolerates (encourages?) the financing of takfiri movements, while at the same time it sponsors a liberal, pro-MB television network, and hosts a major American military base. How does all that add up to anything like a consistent foreign policy?

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native

Lookout's picture

@native

from wiki

Qatar is a high income economy, backed by the world's third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves.[22] The country has the highest per capita income in the world. Qatar is classified by the UN as a country of very high human development and is the most advanced Arab state for human development.[23] Qatar is a significant power in the Arab world, supporting several rebel groups during the Arab Spring both financially and through its globally expanding media group, Al Jazeera Media Network.[24][25][26] For its size, Qatar wields disproportionate influence in the world, and has been identified as a middle power.[27][28] Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first Arab country to do so.

Also on wiki

The 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis began on 5 June 2017 when several countries abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar. These countries initially included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, and the Maldives. The severing of relations has included imposing trade and travel bans.

Saudi Arabia and other countries have criticized Al Jazeera and Qatar's relations with Iran, and accused Qatar of funding terrorist organizations. Qatar denied that it supports terrorism, given that it has assisted the United States in the War on Terror and the ongoing military intervention against ISIL.

The Saudi Arabian diplomatic actions were verbally supported by United States President Donald Trump. Many countries in the region, including Turkey, Russia and Iran, called for the crisis to be resolved through peaceful negotiations.

That wikiworld is pretty quick...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

AS would be this, from your quote, of course.

...Qatar is classified by the UN as a country of very high human development and is the most advanced Arab state for human development. ...

US business interests can't tolerate such as this lying around the world to give people in other countries, perhaps including the American people, ideas above their serf-er station.

Human development, indeed!

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0 users have voted.

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.

Arrow's picture

for the weekly watch...Lookout.

Here's a little funk for you....

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I want a Pony!

Lookout's picture

@Arrow

The Real News interview with Max and the retired FBI gal was stellar and my favorite analysis of the week. Here's the link if you missed it in the essay
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19293:Comey-Hearing%3A-Little-New%2C-Mor...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”