By Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog US pundits may adore the presidential debates, but political scientists have concluded that “…when it comes to shifting enough votes to decide the outcome of the election, presidential debates have rarely, if ever, mattered.” That’s absolutely not the case in 2020 – politics is not at all a “science”, of course. The most important issue in the US today is, incredibly, largely banned
by Eric Zuesse for the Saker Blog On September 2nd, Pew Research — one of America’s most respected polling organizations — issued findings from their survey of 11,001 U.S. adults between July 27 and Aug. 2, 2020, regarding three important questions that are indicative of whether or not Americans believe the U.S. Government to be a democracy, or instead a dictatorship. These are those three findings: “Elected officials face serious
South Front A video, allegedly showing a Russian-speaking pilot in Libya waiting for an evacuation helicopter after his aircraft had supposedly crashed, appeared online on September 7 causing a wave of speculation in mainstream media and among military enthusiasts. The clip shows a white-and-orange parachute on the ground, in a desert-like environment, and the Russian-speaking person claims that his aircraft was shot down at around 70km and that he ejected
By Pepe Escobar and cross-posted with Consortium News He is being punished not for stealing fire – but for exposing power under the light of truth and provoking the god of Exceptionalism. Police ejecting Julian Assange from Ecuadorian embassy in London, April 11, 2019. (YouTube) This is the tale of an Ancient Greek tragedy reenacted in AngloAmerica. Amid thundering silence and nearly universal indifference, chained, immobile, invisible, a squalid Prometheus
By Ramin Mazaheri and by author permission crossposted with Sputniknews. We are currently experiencing the biggest era of American division in 50 years, but one thing Americans are united in is that they want additional coronavirus stimulus: a poll last week showed 70% of respondents demand a re-routing of taxes back their way. The reasons for that are too numerous to list here, but it’s not hyperbole to summarise that
South Front As the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on with no end in sight, Israel and the US have launched an all-out push to resolve the conflict once and for all, on Israel’s terms. If the manoeuvre is successful, Israel will end up with all of the territories it conquered during the 1967 war, including all of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem and most of the Palestinian Territories, including the best
Nasrallah vows to kill an enemy soldier, Israel’s northern border is paralyzed and Zionist propaganda keeps shaping news reports. By Sayed Hasan from Resistance News Unfiltered As we explained in our article What happened —and didn’t happen— at the Israel-Lebanon border?, Israel has been on high alert at its northern border since its July 20 strike in Damascus that killed a Hezbollah fighter. Three similar experiences have proven, in 2014,
A full-format online meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers has ended. This is the second such meeting this year under Russia’s chairmanship. The first was dedicated exclusively to mobilising efforts to effectively prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection. Today, we discussed a wide range of international issues and key items on the agenda of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly as well as our practical cooperation among
By Ramin Mazaheri – crossposted with PressTV That headline asks a surprising question, yet it’s one which was repeatedly expressed by African-Americans in Kenosha when I asked them for their evaluation regarding how all levels of government had responded to the profoundly shocking series of recent shootings there. Boarded-up Kenosha looks like a community under siege, and they naturally wonder who is coming to help them. Kenoshans would assume that
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Many if not most Americans have always been in denial about the imperial ambitions and practices of US foreign policy. There are honourable exceptions – Noam Chomsky, Tulsi Gabbard come immediately to mind. But on the whole the direction of US geopolitical strategy has been guided and implemented by a small cabal of geopolitical fanatics; these are ensconced in various state and non-state
South Front On September 3, an explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a convoy with equipment of the US-led coalition in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar. Iraqi troops that were escorting the convoy suffered no casualties. According to local sources, no significant damage was caused to the equipment. Following the incident, security forces detained 2 suspects near the explosion site. The investigation is ongoing. However, it
By Middle East Observer During a television political talk show, senior Lebanese political analyst Anees Naqqash commented on the significance of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s visit to Russia on the 21st of July, 2020, to reportedly discuss the extension of a decades-long strategic agreement between Tehran and Moscow by a further 20 years. Zarif’s visit occurred around about the same time that reports emerged regarding the imminent signing of
by Mansoureh Tajik for the Saker Blog The scale and complexity of plots against masses of ordinary people, select prominent individuals, and nations have grown so vast that existing words and expressions fail to adequately define and explain them. The word “conspiracy” is bandied about quite a lot, to the point that it feels inadequate, to frame some major and critical events by distinctly different groups of people with diverse
by Pepe Escobar with permission from the author and first posted at Asia Times There was a time when New Delhi was proudly selling the notion of establishing its own New Silk Road – from the Gulf of Oman to the intersection of Central and South Asia – to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Now it looks like the Indians have stabbed themselves in the back. In
South Front The Israeli Air Force conducted a second round of missiles strikes on Syria in less than a week. Late on September 2, Israeli warplanes launched missiles at the T4 airport in the province of Homs. According to Syria’s state media, the strikes were conducted from the direction of the US-controlled zone of al-Tanf on the Syrian-Iraqi border. Syrian pro-government sources claimed that a large part of the missiles
By Godfree Roberts selected from his extensive weekly newsletter Here Comes China Street Wisdom If you are born in a country with 1.4 billion people and thousands of years of history, you will know how important cooperation is. We need order more than freedom. We need collectivism more than individualism. Many Westerners don’t understand it. The per capita cultivated land of Canada is 18 times that of China, and the
Middle East Observer Description: Lebanese writer and researcher of Islamic Studies, Sayed Abbas Noureddine, gives two reasons why he thinks the ‘West can continue oppressing other nations without any empathy or remorse’. Source: Islamona (YouTube) Date: Mar 7, 2020 Transcript: In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. A close look at the Western psyche, the Western man’s personality, and the way he deals with matters related to us,
By Zamir Ahmed Awan for the Saker Blog The U.S. has intensified its diplomatic activities in the Middle-East. After the Secretary of State Pompeo’s tour to six nations in the Middle-East, the Power-Pillar in White House, Jared Kushner, who is Senior advisor and son-in-law of President Donal Trump, along with Senior officials, is on his Middle-East trip currently. The enhanced focus of the U.S. diplomatic and political engagement in the
South Front Hikers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights found at least 5 armed and unguarded Merkava Mk. IV battle tanks. The doors of the battle tanks were open with equipment and munitions left completely unguarded inside. The incident took place amid the growing tensions between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces in both the Golan Heights area and along the Israeli-Lebanese contact line. During the past weeks, the Israeli military
By Noel Monteiro — first published on the Saker Blog Telluria vs Thalassa Part 1 In one of his poems, Robert Frost says “good fences make good neighbours.” Yet in the 73 years of its existence, India has had border problems with all its neighbouring Asian states, while it allies are distant overseas states. Then on June 15 a unique battle occurred, medieval in practice, in Galwan Valley, Kashmir. The
