10 January 2018. No Comment Necessary Department… Sanity Reigns in Woodstock NY

________________________

Remember Rocky and Bullwinkle? Trust me, all the phoney media frenzy and frenetic accusations about “Russian hacking and interference” makes me think of Boris and Natasha, along with Mr Big and Fearless Leader. “It is lie of Moose and skvirrel”… that’s what all the media and political hype sounds like to me. Kudos to the guy who put up the sign… whatever side his political windsock points to, they’ve got one hell of a sense of humour.

Smile awhile…

Oh, if hacking and interfering in someone else’s elections are culpable, tell me… when will all the directors of the CIA stand trial for crimes against humanity? It seems to me that such interference was one of the main things that they did…

BMD 

Advertisement

Oprah for President: Another American Delusion

________________________

Oprah Winfrey, the American queen of TV talk shows, is reportedly set to run for the US presidency… and liberal Hollywood and the media are ecstatic at the prospect. “Oprah for president” broke out like a delirium across social media after the TV star made an “electrifying” speech at the Hollywood Golden Globes ceremony last weekend in which she spoke eloquently in defence of women over sexual harassment and for racial minorities. The 63-year-old African-American Winfrey declared, “A new day is on the horizon”. She is one of the most-recognised celebrities in America after decades hosting a top-rated talk show. CNN and other media outlets (who hate Republican President Donald Trump vigorously) think that they’ve found their political saviour in Oprah. CNN reported that she’d be the “perfect anti-Trump candidate”, on breaking the news from “close friends” that Oprah is considering a run for the White House at the next election in 2020. A CNN comment swooned:

Winfrey has deep pockets, an even deeper well of charisma, and instant name recognition, thanks to decades on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

On a superficial level, Oprah might seem the perfect ticket. She has millions of fans amongst ordinary Americans due to her years of hosting wildly popular TV shows and also from an award-winning acting career. She had an Oscar nomination in 1985 for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s film, The Color Purple. Oprah has the backing of legions of celebrities and media because of her undoubted charisma and humanitarian character. This week, Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep was one of the first to hail her presidential ambitions. “She’s got to do this”, Streep emphatically told the Washington Post.

Oprah’s life story is also appealing to masses of ordinary folks. She was born into poverty to an unmarried mother who worked as a housemaid in the Deep South, in Mississippi. Through sheer talent and grit, she worked her way to the top of the entertainment business. Today, Oprah personal net worth is about 3 billion USD (170.66 billion Roubles. 19.56 billion Renminbi. 191.4 billion INR. 3.74 billion CAD. 3.84 billion AUD. 2.52 billion Euros. 2.22 billion UK Pounds), and owns her own cable TV network and a movie production company. She’s also given hundreds of millions to charitable causes in both the USA and Africa. There’s no doubting her empathy with the downtrodden in society, owing to her own experience of hardship and pain. Her younger sister died from cocaine addiction, and as a child Oprah used to wear clothes made from potato sacks, such was the grinding poverty of her family’s life.

Previously, at the height of her TV fame, she campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 when he became the first African-American president. She also backed Hillary Clinton in 2016. Therefore, in many ways, Oprah has impeccable credentials to galvanise the American electorate behind a liberal Democrat president… and become the first woman to occupy the White House. However, here’s where the fairytale story starts to unravel. It really is a sign of how decrepit the American political system is when the parties are obliged to seek celebrities as their figureheads. It’s a sign of how the public holds “professional” politicians from both parties in such low esteem that the parties have to court a reality-TV-type candidate to represent them. Ironically, the Democrats and liberal media pundits deprecated the Republicans for recruiting reality-TV star Donald Trump as their leader. Now, the Democrats are mulling the same formula by choosing Oprah Winfrey.

Admittedly, Oprah has a very different character and set of moral values from Trump. Her lifework and charitable giving mark her out as a genuine humanitarian with natural leftwing social sensibilities for justice and equality. Nevertheless, putting faith in Oprah to transform American society into something more “progressive” and humane is a pitiful delusion. It really is a touchstone of how degenerate US politics have become when so many people might even contemplate that one benign individual could overturn a backlog of systemic problems, from gross wealth inequality to a culture of endless war-making around the globe.

Oprah’s would-be campaign slogan, “A new day on the horizon”, sounds a lot like Obama’s “hope and change”. Or, Trump’s “America first”. In the end, it’s all soundbite and no substance, much like an advertising jingle. American politics now has sunk to being a commodified pursuit, like buying soap powder or a fast-food snack. It’s delusional for Americans to think that they can solve the many deep-seated problems in their nation through one individual, no matter how well-intentioned that individual might appear.

America’s political problems are systemic in nature. They arise from the plutocratic nature of how it runs its capitalist economy for the benefit of the élite few. Trump’s recent 1.5 trillion USD (85.33 billion Roubles. 9.78 billion Renminbi. 95.7 billion INR. 1.87 billion CAD. 1.92 billion AUD. 1.26 billion Euros. 1.11 billion UK Pounds) tax giveaway for Wall Street and corporate America is a classic example. So too is the relentless annual military spending… 1 trillion USD (56.9 billion Roubles. 6.52 billion Renminbi. 63.8 billion INR. 1.24 billion CAD. 1.26 billion AUD. 840 million Euros. 740 million UK Pounds) by some estimates… by the American government. A fraction of this allocation of taxpayer money would provide all Americans free education and healthcare if the government chose to. However, Washington doesn’t provide that humane option because the military-industrial complex dominates it; it dedicates itself to élite corporate interests, not those of the ordinary people. America’s systemic problems require a systemic solution. That involves electing a president and an administration that truly represent the interests and needs of the majority of working Americans. That, in turn, depends on Americans mobilising as a mass movement of informed citizens aware of what needs to change… the systemic corruption stemming from a capitalist economy dedicated to oligarchic privilege and war-making.

Indisputably, Oprah Winfrey is a wonderful human being and an inspiration to millions from her soulful life. All credit to her for what she stands for as an individual. However, for Americans to place faith in Oprah as a would-be political leader is pathetically misplaced. Americans need to stop looking for individual “saviours” and to start organising themselves as a mass movement for a socially-just and peaceful government. That’s a tall order. Nevertheless, they need to do it. The flurry of media excitement this week over Oprah’s projected presidential ambitions shows how brain-dead American political culture is. Moreover, to be sure, the plutocrats and oligarchs just love it that way. Watch how they’ll lionise and package her to become just another American delusion.

9 January 2018

Finian Cunningham

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201801091060621485-oprah-winfrey-president/

UAVs Attacked Hmeymim Base From “Moderate Opposition”-Controlled Area

________________________

On Wednesday, Krasnaya Zvezda, , the official Minoborony Rossii newspaper, reported that the UAVs that attacked Hmeymim air base earlier this month came from an area in the southwestern part of the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by the so-called “moderate opposition”. The Minoborony stated that terrorists used 13 UAVs in an attempted attack on two Russian military facilities in Syria on 6 January. Ten of them targeted the Hmeymim air base and three targeted the Tartus naval base. An official statement noted:

We established that the launch of the UAVs was carried out from the area of ​​ Muazar, located in the southwestern part of the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by “moderate opposition” armed formations.

In connection with this incident, the Minoborony sent letters to General Hulusi Akar, the Turkish Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff, and Hakan Fidan, the Head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation. The statement added:

The documents indicated the need for Ankara to fulfil its obligations to ensure compliance with the ceasefire by the armed formations under its control and to step up work on the installation of observation posts in the Idlib de-escalation zone in order to prevent such attacks by UAVs against any objects.

On Monday, the Minoborony stated that our forces had taken control over six out of the 13 drones involved in the 6 January attempted attack in Syria. Thus, Russian forces landed three UAVs in a controlled area, three other drones exploded after crashing, and Pantsir-S air defence systems destroyed seven other UAVs . Subsequently, the Pentagon said that the devices and technologies used for the drone attack are “easily accessible on the open market”. This statement caused concern in the Minoborony.

10 January 2018

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/military/201801101060634030-drones-attacked-hmeymim-moderate-opposition/

******

On Tuesday, a Minoborony Rossii source told us that they detected a US Navy P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft cruising between Tartus and Hmeymim during a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria carried out by terrorists. They said:

It’s a strange coincidence that during a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria, a US Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft cruised for more than four hours over the Mediterranean Sea at an altitude of 7,000 metres (23,000 feet).

Besides, the Minoborony voiced concern over statements made by a Pentagon spokesman, in which the American claimed that the technology used to attack the Russian military facilities was easily available on the open market. Our source stated:

The questions are:

• what kind of technologies they meant
• where that “open market” is
• which special service sells space surveillance data

Our statement concerning the handover of technologies needed to carry out a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria mentioned neither any particular country nor provided details of those technologies. The programming of systems to control UAVs to drop GPS-guided munitions requires completing engineering studies in a developed country. Besides, not everyone is capable of calculating exact coordinates using space surveillance data. We’d like to stress once again that terrorists didn’t have anything of that kind until recently.

Earlier, the Minoborony Rossii reported that on 6 January, UAVs controlled by terrorists attacked Russian military facilities in Hmeymim and Tartus. The Russian forces either destroyed or took control of the UAVs used in the attack.

9 January 2018

TASS

http://tass.com/defense/984293

Editor:

The USA is flailing around blindly… it’s trying to punish Russia and Iran for spoiling its little party in Syria. Firstly, they tried to foment riots in Iran. That fizzled. Then, they tried to use their proxies in Syria to attack the Russian bases. That failed, too. In short, the USA, far from regaining face, lost even more face as both Iran and Russia counted coup on them by defeating their amateurish blows. Remember how the Russians tore apart the “cruise missiles” that the USA launched against Syria? Well… if they were able to do that, it isn’t surprising that they were able to repel this ludicrous attempt. Quite frankly, the Anglos’ terrorist pals couldn’t use the best technology… and the USA didn’t want to risk having its best technology fall into the hands of the Russians (again… the Yanks never learn… the stuff that they sent to the Georgians and the Ukrainian junta all ended up in Russian hands after their goofball proxies abandoned it on the battlefield).

BMD

Ukrainian Nationalists Threaten Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra with New Attacks and Deface Canonical Churches in Odessa

________________________

On Tuesday, extremists from the S14 nationalist group issued threats to the UPTs/MP through the Ukrainian media. Additionally, they planned to heighten their actions against clergymen and parishioners of the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, a major Orthodox Christian monastery. The statement came in the wake of their attempt to block the entrance to the monastery on Monday. The Obozrevatel website quoted S14 coordinator Markiyan Yatsinyak:

Our next actions will be more large-scale and more prolonged, perhaps, in the form of a blockade or some other interesting “creative” steps. We’d primarily direct such a blockade against the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, as this is a landmark, symbolic place, but there’d be other targets as well. As far as the Lavra is concerned, we demand that UPTs/MP clergy no longer have the exclusive right to conduct services in its churches.

On 8 January, about 30 extremists from S14 blocked the entrance to the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, protesting against the Lavra’s refusal to perform a pannikhida for soldiers killed in the aggression in the Donbass if such soldiers weren’t baptised members of the UPTs/MP.

S14 began in 2010. In the winter of 2014, its members were actively involved in the unrest in central Kiev that preceded the coup. In November 2017, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland (USA) added S14 to a global terrorism database.

http://tass.com/world/984295

******

Radical Ukrainian nationalists held a protest against the churches of the UPTs/MP in Odessa, putting up stickers on their doors claiming that these churches were part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which they called accomplices of Russian special services. The radicals taking part in the protest posted photos regarding their campaign on social media.

http://tass.com/world/984339

9 January 2018

TASS

Editor:

It’s unclear whether the American-puppet junta sicced these nutters on the canonical Church or whether it’s simply just a symptom of the general anarchy raging in Banderstan. I’d go for the latter… the Americans are stupid and clueless about the real situation on the ground, but this doesn’t smell like an American provocation. Anglos are usually more violent and feral… as the riots preceding their coup showed. The Ukraine is now in the situation that the Guomindang was in 1948-49 or South Vietnam in 1974-75… everyone knows that the situation is unstable and unsustainable, but no one knows when the collapse will come. When the Russians do come, the people will greet them as liberators… the nationalists will flee to the USA and Canada, and muck things up in our diaspora for the next generation or two.

However, no canonical clergy can say pannikhida for open schismatics or Uniates. They can’t do any sort of service for those outside the canonical Church. I’d say that all good Orthodox Christians should stay away from “Ukrainian Orthodox” or “Ukrainian Catholic” parishes and boycott all affairs held on their premises. These groups support anti-Church elements in the Ukraine and we support that aggression if we attend any of their services or attend events held on their premises. They also support the murder of our Orthodox kids in the Donbass. It’s hard, but it’s true. Then again, do bear in mind that most of the ordinary people have no idea of what their hierarchy and clergy really do (nor do most of them know that their churches have been CIA stooges for decades). Have compassion on them. Let those with ears hear…

By the way, the American-jackal Pashkovsky is the “True ROCOR” “bishop” in Odessa. The CIA stooge Potapov brought him into the real ROCOR… but Pashkovsky knifed the canonical Church at the time of the reconciliation in ’07. He’s a known CIA asset… he could’ve been behind the vandalism in Odessa. He’s that much of a despicable worm.

BMD