The
director spoke about the U.S. political system during a master class at the
Sarajevo Film Festival.
Oliver Stone has said in response to the
Charlottesville riots that the problem is not President Donald Trump, but
"the system" in America.
The director, whose latest work is a four-hour series of televised
interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin that aired on Showtime in
June, did not specifically criticize Trump when asked for his reaction to the
weekend's events in Charlottesville, Va., during which one woman died and
several people were injured after a car plowed into non-violent demonstrators.
Speaking Tuesday during a master class at the Sarajevo Film
Festival following a screening of his movie Snowden, Stone said he had not been in the U.S. for
some time but was following events.
The US submarine captain says, "We've all got to die one day,
some sooner and some later. The trouble always has been that you're never
ready, because you don't know when it's coming. Well, now we do know and
there's nothing to be done about it."
He says he will be dead by September. It will take about a week to die, though
no one can be sure. Animals live the longest.
The war was over in a month. The United States, Russia and China
were the protagonists. It is not clear if it was started by accident or
mistake. There was no victor. The northern hemisphere is contaminated and
lifeless now.
A curtain of radioactivity is moving south towards Australia and
New Zealand, southern Africa and South America. By September, the last cities,
towns and villages will succumb. As in the north, most buildings will remain
untouched, some illuminated by the last flickers of electric light.
Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford mathematics professor and the only
woman to earn the Fields Medal, died Saturday at age 40 after a four-year
battle with breast cancer.
Iranian-born Mirzakhani won her Fields Medal, mathematics’ most
prestigious honor, in 2014. The award is often equated to the Nobel Prize.
Mirzakhani’s colleagues have honored both her academic achievements and her
character.
(Courtesy of
Stanford News)
“Maryam is gone far too soon, but her impact will live on for the
thousands of women she inspired to pursue math and science,” said Stanford
President Marc Tessier-Lavigne to Stanford News. “Maryam was a brilliant mathematical theorist, and also a humble
person who accepted honors only with the hope that it might encourage others to
follow her path. Her contributions as both a scholar and a role model are
significant and enduring, and she will be dearly missed here at Stanford and
around the world.”
Amid
the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune.
Take
what happened this past Sunday in Beijing. The China-Arab Exchange Association
and the Syrian Embassy organized a Syria Day Expo crammed with hundreds of
Chinese specialists in infrastructure investment. It was a sort of
mini-gathering of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), billed as
“The First Project Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction”.
This is the state of war in the United States in July
2017.
The US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria is now the
heaviest since the bombing of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1960s-70s,
with 84,000 bombs and
missiles dropped between 2014 and the end of May 2017
That is nearly triple the 29,200 bombs and
missiles dropped on Iraq in the “Shock and Awe” campaign of
2003.
The Obama administration escalated the bombing
campaign last October, as the U.S.-Iraqi assault on Mosul began, dropping
12,290 bombs and missiles between October and the end of January when President
Obama left office. The Trump administration has further escalated the
campaign, dropping another 14,965 bombs and missiles since February
1st. May saw the heaviest bombing yet, with 4,374 bombs and missiles
dropped.
It was pleasing to see Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin greet each other cordially at the G20 summit. After their breakthrough
first meeting, one hopes the two leaders have a personal foundation for future
cooperation.
When
Trump’s UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, asserts – as she did recently –
that the US is sending “not only Assad” but also “Russia and Iran a message”,
and that Washington is putting them “on notice,” she does so as the tribune of
a rogue state.
Haley
issued her ‘warning’ on the back of the dubious claim that Washington had
intelligence confirming Syrian forces were preparing a chemical weapons attack.
The claim and resulting threat revealed that the US continues to arrogate to
itself the status of the world’s policeman, with the right to act as judge,
jury, and – as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya have learned to their
disastrous cost in recent years – executioner. It describes arrogance beyond
measure, conforming to the worldview of an empire whose guiding mantra is “Rome has
spoken; the matter is finished”.
The
“matter” so far as Syria is concerned is regime change, which it becomes
increasingly clear is Washington’s main objective going forward, using its
military campaign against ISIS as a stalking horse to justify the build up of
its military presence in the country with this in mind. Seen in this light, the
recent spate of US attacks on Syrian forces on the ground and in the air take
on an entirely different connotation – i.e. less to do with protecting
US-backed ground forces, as claimed, and more to do with testing Russia’s
response and resolve when it comes to supporting its Syrian ally.
Russia-gate, the sprawling investigation into whether
Russia meddled in last year’s U.S. election, is often compared to the two big
political scandals of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, Watergate and
Iran-Contra. Sometimes you even hear that Russia-gate is “bigger than
Watergate.”
e
bugged phone from the Watergate office of Democratic Party official Spencer
Oliver. Placed on the phone during a May 1972 break-in, the bug was the only
device that worked. A second break-in on June 17. 1972, led to the capture of
Richard Nixon’s Watergate burglars.
Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about those two
Twentieth Century scandals is how little Official Washington really understands
them – and how these earlier scandals significantly contrast, rather than
compare, with what is unfolding now.
Although the historical record is still incomplete on
Watergate and Iran-Contra, the available evidence indicates that both scandals
originated in schemes by Republicans to draw foreign leaders into plots to
undermine sitting Democratic presidents and thus pave the way for the elections
of Richard Nixon in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in 1980.
June 24, 2017 "Information Clearing
House" - On June 21 the editorial board of the Washington Post, long a
propaganda instrument believed to be in cahoots with the CIA and the deep
state, called for more sanctions and more pressure on Russia. One second’s
thought is sufficient to realize how bad this advice is. The orchestrated
demonization of Russia and its president began in the late summer of 2013 when
the British Parliament and Russian diplomacy blocked the neoconned Obama
regime’s planned invasion of Syria. An example had to be made of Russia before
other countries began standing up to Washington. While the Russians were
focused on the Sochi Olympic Games, Washington staged a coup in Ukraine,
replacing the elected democratic government with a gang of Banderite neo-nazi
thugs whose forebears fought for Hitler in World War II. Washington claimed it
had brought democracy to Ukraine by putting neo-nazi thugs in control of the
government.
He’s pursuing the same reckless agenda as
Obama, pushing the envelope toward possible direct confrontation. Despite
neither country wanting war, unfolding events may cause the unthinkable to
happen by accident or design. Among major powers, Russia is the world’s leading
peace and stability champion – America just the opposite. It’s recklessly
waging wars in multiple theaters, threatening conflicts against North Korea,
Iran, and perhaps Russia the way things are going. Madness defines US policy,
state terror on a global scale, naked aggression its main expression,
controlling planet earth, its resources and people its objective – risking
potentially life-destroying nuclear war.
U.S. government officials,
including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr.,
claim the current U.S. authority to mount military operations in Iraq and Syria
is legally based on the Authorization
for the Use of Military Force [AUMF] declaration to go after Al
Qaeda and related terror groups after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. But how does
that cover the recent U.S. attacks on Syrian government forces that have been
battling both Al Qaeda and its spinoff, Islamic State?
Francis Boyle, professor of
international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, asserts that
the recent U.S. shoot-down of a Syrian government jet inside Syria on June 18
was not only illegal under international law but amounts to an impeachable act
by President Trump.
In an interview with Flashpoints’
Dennis J. Bernstein, Professor Boyle said, “What the U.S. government is getting
away with here is incredible.” Boyle also talked to Bernstein about the
questionable Russia-gate investigation and the darker history behind Special
Prosecutor Robert Swan Mueller III, the former Director of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
Dennis Bernstein: Will Syria’s
hot war and the recent U.S. bombings there lead us into a hot war with Russia?
Well, the generals are saying this shoot-down in Syria is legal. You want to
jump into this?
These days I find
myself thinking often about a cartoon by the late Theodore Geissel.
In it, a woman with a
sweater that reads “America First” reads aloud from a storybook to two
children: “And the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones,” she
relays. “But those were Foreign Children and it didn’t really matter.”
Geissel — better known
as Dr. Seuss — was criticizing Americans’ purposeful isolationism during World
War II. But it’s never felt more prescient, as a sitting American president
embarks on a dangerous and deadly new “America First” policy.
We noted yesterday that the Washington Post is owned by one of the world’s richest guys, worth $72.8 billion … and who may soon become THE world’s richest.
And you probably won’t hear it from the New York Times, but the largest shareholder of the Times is the sixth wealthiest guy … worth $54.5 billion. He used to be THE richest person, but he’s slipped a little in the rankings.
It’s not just the Post and the Times …
Forbes reported last year:
June 19, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - In a marked escalation of the war in Syria, a US F-18 fighter jet yesterday shot down a Syrian government fighter bomber for the first time, claiming that it had been attacking pro-US rebel forces on the ground near Raqqa. While nominally fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces, the US shoot-down makes clear that the real target of American-led operations is the ousting of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The US military justified the provocative act by claiming that the Syrian SU-22 had been bombing near so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) troops. It cited fighting that had taken place hours earlier between the Syrian military and SDF forces holding the town of Ja’Din as showing “hostile intent” and declared that attacks on “legitimate counter-ISIS operations will not be tolerated.” The statement absurdly declared that it was not seeking “to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them.”
There is nothing legitimate about the military activities of the US and its allies inside Syria, which, under the guise of the “war on terror,” are seeking to carve out areas that can be used to mount operations against the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian backers. As ISIS militias in both Syria and Iraq are in retreat, the US preparations to move against Assad are coming increasingly into the open.
The Syrian army issued a statement saying that its aircraft had been on a mission against ISIS when it came under fire, accused the US of “coordinating” with ISIS and warned that the incident would have “dangerous repercussions.” The pilot has not been found and is presumed dead.
The US attack follows its shooting down of an unmanned pro-Syrian government drone earlier in June after it allegedly fired on US-backed troops in southern Syria near the border with Iraq. The US military has unilaterally declared “a deconfliction zone” with a radius of 55 kilometres around a training base at al-Tanf—a key border crossing between the two countries.
In effect, Washington has carved out an area of Syria where US and British special forces train so-called rebels—supposedly to fight ISIS, but in reality for its proxy war against the Assad regime. The US has already conducted air strikes against pro-Syrian government forces that have sought to regain control of the vital border area.
Last week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov phoned US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and demanded that the US stop attacking Syrian government forces as they seek to drive ISIS militias out of the border areas. “Lavrov expressed his categorical disagreement with the US strikes on pro-government forces and called on him to take concrete measures to prevent similar incidents in the future,” the Russian foreign ministry reported.
The situation throughout Syria remains extremely fraught with the Assad regime accusing the US-led forces besieging Raqqa of allowing ISIS fighters to escape to the south where government troops are battling ISIS for control of the city of Deir es-Zor.
Over the weekend, Iran’s military fired ground-to-ground missiles for the first time from Iranian territory against ISIS positions inside Syria. While claiming that they were in retaliation for the June 7 ISIS attacks in Tehran, the missile attacks into the Deir es-Zor area were clearly aimed at bolstering the Syrian government forces.
The US proxy war in Syria is part of a broader confrontation which is not just aimed at the Assad regime but more broadly against its backers—Iran and Russia. Trump’s trip to the Middle East last month was above all aimed at forging an alliance with Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf States against Iran and its allies in the region.
The immediate outcome was the imposition of an all-out, Saudi-led economic blockade against Qatar—itself an act of war. Riyadh accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism, but the real reason lies in Qatar’s relations with Iran and its reluctance to join Saudi Arabia in its anti-Iranian war drive.
The Saudi monarchy, which has long regarded Iran as its chief regional rival, is deeply hostile to the Assad regime in Damascus, which it regards as part of a Shiite crescent that includes Shiite parties and militias in Iraq and Lebanon. Backed to the hilt by the US, Saudi Arabia is waging its own war in Yemen against Houthi rebels, who, it claims, are being supported by Iran and who ousted the US-Saudi puppet government in 2014.
The Trump regime signalled its determination to ramp up the war in Syria in April when it launched a barrage of cruise missile strikes against a Syrian government air base on the pretext of unsubstantiated claims the regime had carried out a gas attack. The US military is determined to rebuild anti-Assad forces after the devastating blow suffered by these pro-US militias in being driven out of Aleppo.
The shooting down of the Syrian SU-22 is another demonstration that the US is prepared to resort to the most reckless means to defend its footholds in Syria and lay the basis for the broader war that is being prepared.
While proclaiming its own “deconfliction zones” or no-go areas, the US military reiterated last month that it will operate at will throughout Syria. “We don’t recognise any specific zone in itself that we preclude ourselves from operating in,” Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan, commander of the US air forces in the region, declared.
As a result the stage is set for a dramatic escalation of the Middle East conflict where a relatively minor incident or clash involving US forces and their Syrian, Iranian or Russian counterparts could erupt into a war that draws in major regional and world powers.
Why Are We Attacking the Syrians Who Are Fighting ISIS?
By Ron Paul
June 13, 2017 "Information
Clearing House" - Just when you thought our Syria policy
could not get any worse, last week it did. The US military twice attacked
Syrian government forces from a military base it illegally occupies inside
Syria. According to the Pentagon, the attacks on Syrian government-backed
forces were “defensive” because the Syrian fighters were approaching a US self-declared
“de-confliction” zone inside Syria. The Syrian forces were pursuing ISIS in the
area, but the US attacked anyway.
This video was available on Youtube. A few hours after I posted it they took it off, since it did not meet US government's propaganda against Russia. What a democracy! Another instance how the media is in the pocket of the government, as Information Clearing House calls US press presstitute! However the entire four parts can be watched on Showtime On Demand.
Canterbury, Tory since the First World War, went Labour.
Labour took over Portsmouth South, a Tory–Liberal marginal. Nick Clegg lost
Sheffield Hallam, the Tory ministers Jane Ellison and Ben Gummer were ousted,
and Amber Rudd was only barely saved by the recount. A string of bellwethers,
such as Warwick and Leamington, Reading East, Ipswich, Peterborough and Enfield
Southgate, turned Labour. Mountainous SNP majorities fell. Supposed London
marginals such as Ealing Central, Tooting and Hampstead and Kilburn became safe
seats. Labour had its biggest surge in vote share since 1945, with Corbyn
racking up just short of 13 million votes, 40 per cent of the total, after
coming from twenty points behind. The political map has been completely
re-drawn.
Just as important was the dog that didn’t bark. The “UKIP
effect” was, for good reasons, expected to maul Labour in the rustbelts of the
North and West Midlands. Not a bit of it. Except for a few interesting cases,
such as Stoke and Mansfield, Labour came back with increased majorities.
It is hard to remember, in the face of all this, that Labour
didn’t actually win the election. Because, while Jeremy Corbyn didn’t become
Prime Minister, he did pull off the most stunning upset in recent political
history. And he did this by turning out voters who, according to all received
wisdom, would never vote, above all the young and poor.
For over two weeks this May, a delegation of 30
Americans visited seven regions and ten cities across Russia. Organized by
Sharon Tennison of the Center for Citizen Initiatives.
The participants began in Moscow with several days of meetings and visits, then
broke into smaller groups going to cities including Volgograd, Kazan
(Tatarstan), Krasnodar (near the Black Sea), Novosibirsk (Siberia), Yekaterinburg
and the Crimean cities Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol.
Red
Square in Moscow with a winter festival to the left and the Kremlin to the
right. (Photo by Robert Parry)
After these regional visits, delegates regrouped in
St Petersburg to share their experiences. Following is an informal review with
conclusions based on my observations in Kazan and what I heard from others.
