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Scoundrel Media FIFA Bashing
by Stephen Lendman
Amateur and professional sports are big business. It's no surprise they're rife with corruption. With billions of dollars at stake, anything goes, most often unaccountably.
Organized crime is involved. Crooked deals take place behind closed doors.
Corruption has many forms - including bribes, kickbacks, rigged construction bids, money laundering, front companies, exploitation of amateur athletes, and lots more.
Big-time US college sports are notoriously corrupt. Runaway commercialism is pervasive. Schools sell their souls for lucrative advertiser sponsorships, television contracts, ticket, concession and merchandise sales, licensing fees and other revenue sources.
Washington Wages War on International Soccer
by Stephen Lendman
Is there more to what's going on than meets the eye? In January 2011, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Russian Sports minister Vitaly Mulko signed a declaration on Russia's official status as 2018 World Cup host nation.
At the time, Vladimir Putin said Russia would "use the experience…already gained in preparing for the Sochi Olympics in 2014."
Blatter expressed "certain(ty) that the World Cup (would) be held at the highest level and…turn into a truly magnificent event."
Russia won out over Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. It plans to host the event in 13 cities. It intends making it first-class world event.
Thank you Rand Paul for a Patriotic Act
Michael Collins
It’s official. The United States government’s main vehicle for the bulk capture of telephonic and electronic communication metadata, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, expired at midnight May 31, 2015 thanks to Senator Rand Paul (R, KY). Paul’s tactics in the United States Senate forced the expiration. This is a major victory for all those whose phone calls, emails, and other electronic communication can be intercepted by a vast array of National Security Agency computer systems and software; just about anybody in the United States.
When Paul announced his intention to force expiration of Section 215, he promised a no compromise effort that would achieve the state goal. Leaders in both parties opposed this effort. Three Republican presidential candidates support extending Section 215: Jeb Bush and Senators Lindsay Graham (R, SC) and Marco Rubio (R, FL). Candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, (R, TX) sided with Paul on the issue. Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton supported an alternative to the expired provisions while Senator Bernie Sanders, (I, VT) supported Paul’s efforts.
President Barack Obama and his CIA Director John Brennan hauled out the heavy artillery against Paul. On May 29, Obama said:
Policing Solidarity
By Gilad Atzmon
I believe it was my recent expose of JVP’s harassment, slander and herem (excommunication) campaigns that led to a new petition calling on us to “End slander in the pro-Palestine movement online.”
Of course I oppose slander and abuse, but I also reject any form of censorship and thought control. Even though, more than anyone else, I have been the target of vile slander, I will not sign this petition nor will I support it.
The petition pledges to “block”, “delete” and/or “remove” those who behave in such a way as to interfere with ‘unity’. Do I have to remind our activist ‘undersigners’ that while ‘unity’ is not exactly a value, truth, justice and freedom most certainly are?
Relentless Putin Bashing
by Stephen Lendman
Washington and its echo chamber media attack Putin for asserting Russian sovereign independence and opposing America's imperial agenda.
Big Lies substitute for hard truths. On Thursday, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke repeated the canard about "Russian forces…on the territory of a sovereign neighbor, Ukraine, where they are working with, allied with, aiding and fighting alongside separatists whom Russia also backs on sovereign Ukrainian territory."
At the same time, he ignored Kiev aggression, pretended its dirty war without mercy on Donbass is an "anti-terrorist operation," and stressed America's support for "what's been happening in eastern Ukraine remains unchanged."
He lied claiming "Russia continues to fuel the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, initiating attacks together with the separatists."
U.S. ’Progressive’ Magazines Deep-Sixed Senator Sanders’s Incipient Presidential Campaign
Eric Zuesse
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont might be the most progressive of all U.S. Senators — only two Senators are even contenders for that spot, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachussetts, and neither of them has campaigned at all for the Presidency.
Only Sanders even tested the waters. On 17 September 2014, Paul Heintz of Vermont’s weekly newspaper Seven Days, headlined, "'Run, Bernie, Run': In Iowa, Sanders Tests the Presidential Waters,” and opened: "The crowd went wild Saturday afternoon [13 Sep.] as Bernie Sanders ascended a makeshift plywood stage at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo, Wisconsin. … 'Run, Bernie, run! Run, Bernie, run!’” Heintz noted that, later on the same day, in Iowa, Sanders addressed students at Dubuque's Clarke University. Then, the next day, on Sunday morning, he was at Waterloo Iowa’s Center for the Arts.
Ukraine: Gangster State
by Stephen Lendman
Washington allies with the world's most despotic regimes. Ukraine is one of the worst.
Fascists in charge are guilty of most every high crime imaginable - committed with full US support and encouragement.
They continue waging dirty war without mercy on Donbass. They attack civilian neighborhoods - murdering noncombatant men, women and children, torturing prisoners, committing atrocities too grave to ignore.
They used chemical weapons - last May and perhaps other times. A toxic choking agent was used.
Symptoms included first-degree chemical-inflicted eye burns, alcoholic-like intoxication, bodily lacerations and fainting, as well as one or more victims diagnosed with unidentified gas poisoning. White phosphorous and other chemical weapons were used. So were illegal cluster bombs - supplied by Washington.
On May 29, Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Defense Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin warned about Kiev possibly readying to use chemical weapons again.
Israel's War on Palestinian Fishermen, Farmers and Children
by Stephen Lendman
Israeli viciousness has no limits. Palestinians are systematically brutalized for not being Jewish.
They're harassed, intimidated, persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered in cold blood. High crimes too grave to ignore have been commonplace since Israel's so-called war of independence.
At the time, 78% of historic Palestine was stolen for exclusive Jewish development. Israel took the rest in June 1967, including East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is an international city under a UN protectorate. Israeli claims to the city have no legitimacy. Nor does any nation have the right to breach international laws, norms and standards.Israel does multiple times daily with impunity. Little reported war on Palestine continues daily.
Attacks on nonthreatening Palestinian fishermen occur almost daily. They're shot at, wounded and arrested.
Racist Wendy Sherman Leaving State Department
by Stephen Lendman
VUndersecretary of State for Political Affairs/chief US Iranian nuclear talks negotiator Wendy Sherman said she's leaving State shortly after the June 30 deadline for an agreement.
"It's been two long years," she explained. John Kerry commented saying "Wendy has been an absolutely critical member of my team, most notably in her work spearing the nuclear negotiations with Iran, but on every important issue that has crossed my desk."
Obama said he "long counted on Wendy's…intellect, toughness and persistence which have made her one of the most effective diplomats of her generation."
She's No. 3 at State, close to Hillary Clinton, and may have in mind a top position in her administration if she's elected president next year.
Sherman admitted US opposition to normalizing relations with Iran - saying efforts to do it will take years to play out.
In October 2013 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she demonized Iran saying "(w)e know that deception is part of (its) DNA."
It wasn't the first time she made racist statements about the Islamic Republic. Besides saying "sanctions we have in place should not disappear anytime soon, unless all of our concerns are addressed by the Iranians."
U.S. Pressures Nobel Committee to Declare Ukraine’s President a Peace Prize Nominee
Eric Zuesse
A leaked letter dated May 19th and sent by the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Vladimir Groysman, to the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Oslo Norway, thanks her for “the efforts you have made to have Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize,” but continues: “Still we consider your assurances of support by the two members of the Nobel Committee as insufficient,” because there are five members of the Committee, and the support of 3 of them is necessary.
Thus, “We expect further efforts aimed at shifting the position of Berit Reiss-Andersen, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and especially that of the Chair of the Nobel Committee Kaci Kullman Five. Regarding the latter, we recommend that you take advantage of the information you are going to receive from Germany. Your colleagues in Berlin have assured us that the dossier will soon be delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. It is of utmost importance for Mr. Poroshenko to have firm guarantees that he will be awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, since it could highlight the unanimous support of Ukrainian integrity by the democratic community of the world. Assistant Secretary of State Viktoria Nuland has highly estimated your job during her visit to Kyiv.”
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