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CODEPINK Activists Face Possible Imprisonment
Stephen Lendman
Free expression and assembly in America are only safe if not sharply critical of its ruthless policies at home and abroad.
On Wednesday, a federal district court found CODEPINK activists Desiree Fairooz, Tighe Barry, and Lenny Bianchi guilty of disorderly conduct for publicly opposing Jeff Sessions at his confirmation hearing.
For exercising their First Amendment rights, they may be fined up to $2,000, imprisoned for 12 months, or both when sentence is pronounced on June 21.
Bianchi and Tighe dressed in KKK white hoods and robes to protest Sessions’ deplorable racist history and contempt for rule of law principles.
Macron Claims He Was Hacked
Stephen Lendman
On the eve of Sunday’s French presidential election runoff, establishment candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign claimed he was targeted by a “massive and coordinated” cyberattack - disclosing potentially damaging 11th hour information.
His campaign railed about hackers anonymously releasing emails, documents and other materials “to sow doubt and misinformation,” claiming:
“Intervening in the final hour of the official campaign, this operation is clearly a matter of democratic destabilization, as was seen in the United States during the last presidential campaign.”
Fact: No “democratic destabilization” occurred in America or France. Macron’s campaign lied, claiming damning information about him is fake, wanting nothing changing the likely outcome of Sunday’s election, enabling him to become France’s next president.
Al-Qaeda Allied With US-Backed Forces in Yemen
Stephen Lendman
On May 2, the UK Independent headlined “Al-Qaeda claims it is ‘fighting alongside’ US-backed coalition forces in Yemen,” saying:
Its leader in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Qasim al-Rimi “said his fighters have worked with government-allied factions…toward their common goal of (defeating) the Houthi(s).”
Though he didn’t elaborate on saying “(w)e fight alongside all Muslims in Yemen, together with different Islamic groups,” including “the Muslim Brotherhood and also our brothers among the sons of (Sunni) tribes,” these elements are allied with Yemen’s exiled Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi regime combating Shia Houthis.
America’s Top Scientists Confirm: U.S. Goal Now Is to Conquer Russia
Eric Zuesse
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published a study, on 1 March 2017, which opened:
The US nuclear forces modernization program has been portrayed to the public as an effort to ensure the reliability and safety of warheads in the US nuclear arsenal, rather than to enhance their military capabilities. In reality, however, that program has implemented revolutionary new technologies that will vastly increase the targeting capability of the US ballistic missile arsenal. This increase in capability is astonishing — boosting the overall killing power of existing US ballistic missile forces by a factor of roughly three — and it creates exactly what one would expect to see, if a nuclear-armed state were planning to have the capacity to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.
NATO Commander Wants More US Forces to Counter Russia
Stephen Lendman
No nations threaten America, not Russia, North Korea or any others. Claims otherwise are Big Lies - a pretext for increased military spending along with fear-mongering to enlist public support.
On Tuesday, NATO commander US General Curtis Scaparrotti said he needs more funding for an increased longterm military buildup in Europe.
He wants an additional combat brigade and support troops to counter a Russian threat - despite none existing, he failed to explain.
In March, he said he needs more ground forces, combat air squadrons and carrier strike groups in areas he commands.
Elusive Conflict Resolution in Syria
Stephen Lendman
Five years of Russian good faith efforts haven’t borne fruition. Conflict in Syria continues raging. Peace remains elusive.
While Putin and Erdogan discussed Syria and other issues in Sochi, Russia, anti-Assad terrorists comprising the Western-sponsored Syrian National Coalition (SNC), an artificial construct, a rogue outlaw gang supporting war, abhorring peace, walked out of the latest round of Astana, Kazakhstan peace talks Its spokesman Ahmad Ramadan said the “delegation…suspend(ed) (participation)…until shelling stops across all Syria” - wrongfully accusing government forces of targeting civilians.
Talks were scheduled to focus on creating “de-escalation zones” in terrorists-held Idlib and Homs provinces, along with Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
Why Americans Distrust the Press More Than They Distrust Trump
Eric Zuesse
A Morning Consult poll published on April 28th showed that “roughly half (51 percent) of Americans said the national political media ‘is out of touch with everyday Americans,' compared with 28 percent who said it ‘understand the issues everyday Americans are facing’.” Plus: “Thirty-seven percent of Americans said they trusted Trump’s White House to tell the truth, while 29 percent opted for the media.” So: the U.S. ‘news’ media are widely distrusted by the American people.
Among Republicans, 72% trusted “Trump’s White House” over (or more than) “National Political Media,” and 10% trusted the media over Trump, and that’s a ratio of 7.2 to 1 trusting Trump over the media. Among Democrats, however, 54% trusted media over Trump, and 12% trusted Trump over media, and that’s a ratio of 4.5 to 1 trusting media over Trump. So: Democrats there were far more trusting of the media than were Republicans.
Korean Peninsula Tensions Risk Boiling Over
Stephen Lendman
On Wednesday, addressing State Department staff, Rex Tillerson stressed “leaning hard” on China to pressure Pyongyang on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula “backed up by very strong (US) resolve…”
“So it’s a pressure campaign…to lean into people” to go along with Washington’s agenda. “We’ve told them we’re watching what you’re doing.” Punishment will be administered to non-compliers by sanctions and other means, he said. His message was meant mainly for Beijing - on North Korea, trade and South China Sea issues. Friendly bilateral relations depend on playing ball with America was his message.
World’s Leading Abuser of Women Appointed a UN CSW Member
Stephen Lendman
Saudi Arabia is the Arab world’s leading rogue state, a regional menace, supporting terrorism, abusing its own people ruthlessly, opposing fundamental rights for women.
The US-led world community turns a blind eye, supporting what demands condemnation. On April 19, 47 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) member-states voted to appoint Riyadh to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
None voted “no.” It wasn’t an option. Seven countries abstained, letting the world’s leading abuser of women become a CSW member, making ECOSOC a laughing stock, supporting pure evil instead of denouncing and rejecting it.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said “(e)lecting Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief. This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights.”
Bigoted Americans Far More Supportive of War Against Syria
Eric Zuesse
On April 23rd, the U.S. mega-corporate and government-funded National Public Radio network, NPR, interviewed voters about their views on President Trump’s achievements so far; and a typical respondent, the 33-year-old Jamie Ruppert, of White Haven, Pennsylvania, said, "I don't think he's been terrible. I mean, he definitely stepped up when the people of Syria kind of needed some help.” She was referring actually to this, though she wasn’t even aware of it; she believed instead the U.S. government’s lies about Syria’s government, just like the Americans who had supported the lies that produced the destruction of Iraq by the psychopathic American government had done, back then in 2003.
Polls show that highly prejudiced (i.e., misinformed) Americans tend to be especially supportive of the jihadists’ war to overthrow and replace Syria’s secular Russian-backed government. (The jihadists in Syria are backed by the U.S. government, which however opposes ISIS jihadists, which are too extreme for even the rulers of Saudi Arabia to trust. But the U.S. and Saudi governments have been backing in Syria every jihadist group that accepts Al Qaeda’s leadership, because Al Qaeda was created to hate Russia, which fact was even captured on video at the time, but is effectively denied by U.S. ‘news’media, after-the-fact, and America’s ‘history’-books also generally hide the actual cause of what today’s U.S. President refers to as “radical Islamic terrorism,” a joint U.S.-Saudi operation. Such realities would be called ‘fake news’ by America’s ‘news’media, if they reported these truths at all, which their censors or ‘editors’ occasionally do — they occasionally slip-up, and allow such facts through, and some reporters and ‘news’room managers even lose their jobs for doing that.)
For example, the polls by ABC News and Washington Post have indicated that whereas Republicans strongly opposed the Democratic President, Barack Obama’s, bombing of Syria as a U.S. response to the U.S.-backed jihadists’ sarin gas attack in 2013, which the U.S. blamed against Bashar al-Assad's government (and Britain’s MI6 found that Obama was lying, so UK refused to join Obama’s planned invasion, and it was called-off), the similar but fully executed American bombing of Syria for a similar set-up-job jihadist-produced gas-attack in Syria, occurring now under the Republican President Donald Trump, is overwhelmingly supported by Republicans, and mildly opposed by Democrats — indeed, "The sharpest change has been among Republicans, among whom 22 percent supported missile strikes [in 2013] compared with 86 percent today.” By contrast, among Democrats today, “37 percent support, while 59 percent are opposed,” to the Republican Trump’s bombing of Syria on April 7th. So: Party-affiliation is a big determinant of whether a given American citizen favors an American invasion of a foreign country. (America’s ‘independent’ voters tend to be between the two types of prejudice, but a few of them are simply unprejudiced. However, even a few Republicans and Democrats are also unprejudiced.)
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