At least 25 people were killed and 60 injured on Sunday when an explosion rocked a Coptic church in Egypt’s Nile Delta, state television reported, the latest assault on a religious minority that has increasingly been targeted by Islamist militants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the cause of the blast, just one week before Coptic Easter and the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt, was not known.
The bombing in Tanta, a Nile Delta city less than 100 kilometers outside Cairo, comes as Islamic State’s branch in Egypt appears to be stepping up attacks on Christians and threatening them in messages blasted out to followers. (Source)
…Of particular interest are the actions and posturing of the Anti-Defamation League, shameless in its immediate assertion that the perpetrator was a White anti-Semite, again demonstrating great tenacity in the exercise of its considerable political and cultural influence. Employing the flimsiest of narratives, underpinned by an equally suspect “history of persecution,” the ADL was able to disseminate the myth of Jewish victimhood in the media, secure top-level consultation with the FBI, and even publicly chide the President of the United States for his “inadequate” response. (Source)
Very good, very clear and concise essay by Andrew Joyce. Highly recommended. ABN
Bottom line is the worst political loser of the sarin attack is almost certainly Assad, so why would he have done it? In like manner, the worst political loser of an attack on Assad will be Donald Trump (for falling for the ruse), so why would he do it?
This scandal can and should be compared to Watergate, though it is vastly worse.
Watergate was a break-in of one office to get info on the campaign. This scandal is about undermining the incoming president of the USA through the use of America’s intelligence agencies.
If the unmasking of American names was done by Rice, that action is not in itself technically illegal as far as I understand. If Rice unmasked for any reason other than “national security,” it is illegal. Similarly, Obama’s lowering the secrecy status of that unmasked information so that more eyes within the intelligence community would be on it is not in itself illegal as far as I understand.
Leaking those names to the press is illegal. Since both Rice and Obama were responsible for setting up the conditions to make those leaks possible, it does seem that there is very significant moral culpability on both of their parts.
An important point missed by Carlson in this discussion is: Not only is there no evidence of Russian hacking but the DNC refused multiple times to allow the FBI to examine the hacked server.
Five months of this story and still not a shred of evidence. Cohen is a Russian expert. Hear what he has to say in the video below.
In tandem with the false Russian hacking claims, is the truthful claim that people within the Obama administration illegally leaked and illegally “unmasked” illegally gathered intelligence on Trump and members his campaign.
Stephen Cohen on the false Russian hacking claims:
The following short piece is not directly related to the issues above, but will give you a whole new perspective on Russia and thus on those issues. Highly recommended: Searching for Russia.
To me, the image below is disturbing because it illustrates how the history of communism is so poorly understood by far too many today.
Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union were the firstmass murderers in modern Europe, killing many millions through deliberate terror campaigns beforeHitler rose to power.
More people were murdered by communists in the 20th century than by any other ideology or any other form of government, including all fascist governments put together.
Why don’t more people know that?
In a nutshell, it is because of “cultural Marxism” as it is now practiced in the US and Europe.
Cultural Marxism has infiltrated our schools and universities. It dominates much of academia and mainstream news. It is the underlying ideology of most of the Democratic Party and has profoundly affected the GOP. It is a primary reason both the USA and Europe are experiencing massive, destabalizing immigration today.
Imagine if these people did something like this at a Holocaust memorial. (If this image is deleted it has been archived here.)
Well-worth viewing, Bezemenov explains how Soviet Marxism intended to expand. What he describes is the background of today’s “softer” Cultural Marxism, which seeks to overthrow the American system. Europe has the same problem. This interview is from 1984, which makes Bezemenov appear prophetic today.
People that use tobacco have significantly lower rates of Parkinson’s than others. There are some indications that this may also be true for cannabis. Both substances may also help prevent Alzheimer’s and Dementia with Lewy Bodies.
Both drugs, obviously, affect the brain and are enjoyed by many people for their immediate effects. It is possible that users of these drugs to some extent are using them because they really do some good, both short and long term.
For different but similar reasons, it is plausible that people who crave opioids, methamphetamines, psychedelics, caffeine, and other drugs are doing much the same.
I hope we will see more science on these and other popular drugs from now on. A great deal of biochemistry is shared among plants and animals. We have all evolved together.
I wrote the piece below on July 5, 2013. I am reposting it today because I think it is right. A major issue is who controls the database and how do we know who that is and how do we control them?
At the bottom is a video with whistleblower Bill Binney, who worked at the NSA for thirty years. He brings up these same questions. ABN
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Firstly, that database is a sociologist’s wet dream. It is without question the greatest sociological analytical tool ever to come into existence.
The NSA database—using just metadata alone—is capable of discovering and describing in near-perfect detail nearly all social networks in the world.
It is possible that some very secretive groups figured out which way the wind was blowing twenty years ago and have kept away from all electronic surveillance since then, but I doubt that even they can be certain that their membership is not known, or knowable, to the NSA.
In addition to being able to find and analyze all, or virtually all, groups and networks in the world (secret or otherwise), the NSA almost certainly has the capability to reach back years into the content of those groups’ phone calls and other forms of communication.
This makes the database even more than a sociologist’s wet dream. It is also a tool for exceptional good or evil.
First, the evil—anyone with access to the database can spy on virtually anyone anywhere and use the information gained to blackmail, steal inventions or investment ideas, bribe, intimidate, or otherwise do bad stuff behind the scenes.
For the good, the database has the power to figure out groups that are doing bad things and stop them. The database could be used as a massive national and international “lie-detector” or “shit detector.” Just about any group of people up to anything unsavory should be discoverable through the database.
So who controls it? Is there one person at the top? Or a group? Who watches the group?
I am all but certain we will never be rid of that database. If by some miracle the US destroys the NSA database, some other country will surely set one up.
So liberty and goodness now mean that we have to figure out how to make sure the people controlling the database are good people. That they will never do bad things with the information available to them.
How do we do that? Is there any conceivable politics that can bring that about? We need databases watching databases all of which are controlled by groups that are watched by other groups. If we have perfectly reliable lie-detectors, could we establish groups like that? Is there any way forward other than massive transparency of everyone’s life?
It looks to me like our traditional political system is finished. Checks and balances and individual rights are meaningless in the face of that database.
“Fake news” means knowingly publishing something that is not true or knowingly not publishing something that is true.
News media non-coverage of the recent Maryland high school rape case is a glaring example of fake news. Good analysis in the link below of this crime and how it is not being reported due to political bias.
A great deal of fake news involves what is not reported. Controlling what stories the public sees to support a political agenda is propaganda, not news.
…Significant policies like those relating to war and peace, healthcare and immigration were rarely seriously challenged prior to Trump because there is a broad agreement regarding what the Establishment will allow to take place. That is how the Deep State operates.
When it comes to foreign and national security policy the neocons are most definitely an integral part of the Deep State, using money and access to politicians to influence what is taking place without anyone seriously challenging their role. They are an essential cog in a system that is completely corrupt: it exists to sell out the public interest, and includes both major political parties as well as government officials. (Source)
I do not think for a minute that this is all there is to this subject. But this is a big part of it.
This video highlights ethnic differences within the black community, a factor of major significance.
This same factor exists within the white community. Many whites come from serf or indentured-servant backgrounds that strongly resemble slavery. Many whites have bad families and criminal histories.
The same is true for Asian communities in the US. Many arrive in the US with good educations and a strong work-ethic, but many do not. At the end of the day, each one of us is responsible for our own behavior. And each of us has to deal with whatever legacy or family background we have.
Some side notes:
My understanding is that in Britain, the Igbo people from Nigeria have higher IQs than whites. I wonder if MyNameIsJosephine is Igbo.
The American Rust Belt, both urban and rural, now “supports” a white subculture that is all but destroyed due to loss of jobs over many decades. We see many problems within these communities—drugs, suicide, crime, aimlessness.
Obama should have been speaking more like MyNameIsJosephine instead of pandering to BLM during his presidency. I believe he worked a divisive angle on these issues primarily for his own political self-interest as he perceived it and not for the good of the black community or the USA.
American Buddhist Net 