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Senior Huffington Post UK editor Chris York has published what is by my count his twelfth smear piece against a small group of academics and independent journalists who’ve expressed skepticism of establishment Syria narratives.

York’s obsessive deluge of hit pieces revolve around British academics Tim Hayward and Piers Robinson, as well as independent journalist Vanessa Beeley. Every word in this sentence hyperlinks to a different article smearing them.

York’s twelfth such hit piece is much like the preceding eleven: it omits fundamentally crucial facts, it hides the shady nature of its sourcing, it makes outright false claims, and will only be believed by individuals who either don’t research this subject very deeply or whose paychecks depend on their not thinking about it too hard. But, more importantly, it’s his twelfth such hit piece.

A dozen smear articles. A dozen. Not against politicians. Not against powerful government leaders or massive celebrities. York’s smears focus on two professors with some 22,000 Twitter followers between them both, and Beeley, whom York himself refers to as an “obscure blogger” while authoring smear piece after smear piece after smear piece about her.

Now Beeley, Hayward and Robinson all do great work asking the important questions that no one else is asking about the many, many glaring plot holes in the narratives we’re being fed about what’s happening in Syria by the western political/media class. I am a fan. But only a relatively tiny number of people have ever heard of them. I don’t want to minimize the importance of what they do, but they are generally unheard of outside of small esoteric internet circles which focus on deep dives into questionable government narratives about Syria.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

HuffPo Yanks Article On Russiagate Hysteria By Award Winning Journalist Joe Lauria – So Here It Is

November 8, 2017

HuffPo Yanks Article On Russiagate Hysteria By Award Winning Journalist Joe Lauria – So Here It Is

Award winning journalist and UN correspondent of 25 years, Joe Lauria, penned an outstanding article on the origins of “Russiagate” which he published to the liberal Huffington Post this week.

24 hours later, HuffPo yanked the article – leaving a dead link and a sad message in its place.

Perhaps the insights offered in the article didn’t quite conform to HuffPo’s approved narratives, or maybe it has something to do with Lauria’s new book “How I Lost By Hillary Clinton,” with a forward written by Julian Assange.

Considering Joe Lauria’s tenure as the Wall St. Journal’s UN correspondent of nearly seven years, as well as the Boston Globe’s for six – covering just about every major world crisis over the past quarter century, his unique perspective on the matter merits a read.

Reproduced below for your edification:

The Democratic Money Behind Russia-gate

As Russia-gate continues to buffet the Trump administration, we now know that the “scandal” started with Democrats funding the original dubious allegations of Russian interference, notes Joe Lauria.

By Joe Lauria

The two sources that originated the allegations claiming that Russia meddled in the 2016 election — without providing convincing evidence — were both paid for by the Democratic National Committee, and in one instance also by the Clinton campaign: the Steele dossier and the CrowdStrike analysis of the DNC servers. Think about that for a minute.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

We have long known that the DNC did not allow the FBI to examine its computer server for clues about who may have hacked it – or even if it was hacked – and instead turned to CrowdStrike, a private company co-founded by a virulently anti-Putin Russian. Within a day, CrowdStrike blamed Russia on dubious evidence.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Wayne Smith, Head Of Statistics Canada, Quits On Point Of Principle

September 18, 2016

Wayne Smith, Head Of Statistics Canada, Quits On Point Of Principle

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada chief Wayne Smith has resigned, saying the independence of his agency is compromised by new information-technology arrangements.

It marks the second time in just over six years that a chief statistician has quit over a point of principle.

In an email to the National Statistical Council, Smith says Shared Services Canada now holds an effective veto over many of the statistical agency’s operations.

Chief Statistician of Canada Wayne Smith appears before a standing committee in Ottawa on April 12, 2016. (Photo: Matthew Usherwood/CP)

Smith says he can’t support federal initiatives to centralize IT services that effectively undermine the independence of Statistics Canada, which the federal government has committed to protect.

“All of you are aware of my view that this loss of independence and control is not only an apprehension, but an effective reality today, as Statistics Canada is increasingly hobbled in the delivery of its programs through disruptive, ineffective, slow and unaffordable supply of physical informatics services by Shared Services Canada,” says the email, obtained by The Canadian Press.

“I have made the best effort I can to have this situation remediated, but to no effect. I cannot lend my support to government initiatives that will purport to protect the independence of Statistics Canada when, in fact, that independence has never been more compromised.”

Smith says he does not wish to preside over what he describes as the decline of a world-leading statistical office. “So I am resigning, in order to call public attention to this situation.”

The decision of the previous Conservative government to make the long-form census a voluntary survey led to the July 2010 resignation of Munir Sheikh, Smith’s predecessor.

“I cannot lend my support to government initiatives that will purport to protect the independence of Statistics Canada when, in fact, that independence has never been more compromised.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Blockbuster Story – How Hedge Funds Invest Heavily in Washington D.C.’s Culture of Corruption

May 14, 2016

Blockbuster Story – How Hedge Funds Invest Heavily in Washington D.C.’s Culture of Corruption

Earlier today, Ryan Grim and Paul Blumenthal published a blockbuster piece in the Huffington Post, titled: The Vultures’ Vultures: How A New Hedge-Fund Strategy Is Corrupting Washington.

It details the secretive world of the dark money groups representing mercenary hedge funds in their insatiable quest for more and more money. In many ways, it’s merely a microcosm of America in 2016. A culture in which ethics has become so irrelevant, it isn’t even a nuisance; it simply never factors into the equation.

The first few paragraphs set the stage perfectly:

WASHINGTON – Take Robert Shapiro.

A Harvard-trained economist, Shapiro is the head of a consulting firm called Sonecon. That business card doesn’t do it for you? He’s got a few more in his wallet:

Senior fellow at the Georgetown University School of Business.

Adviser to the International Monetary Fund.

Director of the Globalization Initiative at NDN, a progressive think tank.

Shapiro, a Democrat, has advised presidents and presidential candidates, and has held powerful government posts. It stands to reason, then, that when he has thoughts on public policy, he can find an outlet ready to publish them.

Recently, he’s had ideas on how the government can address the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and how it can end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by moving them into the private market. Before that, he had a take on how to deal with Argentina’s debt crisis. For all three, he produced academic-looking papers, complete with footnotes and charts.

All three situations have one thing in common: If they were resolved the way Shapiro suggested, a variety of bets placed by a select group of the most politically powerful hedge funds would pay off in a huge way. In the case of Argentina, they mostly have.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Unfolding The World’s Biggest Oil Bribery Scandal

April 5, 2016

Unfolding The World’s Biggest Oil Bribery Scandal

Last week, a sweeping investigative report published by The Huffington Post and Fairfax Media put a little known Monaco-based company, Unaoil, at the center of a wide-ranging bribery scandal that involved dozens of corporate giants from around the world. The article calls it the “world’s biggest bribe scandal.”

After spending months investigating and combing through vast troves of emails and internal documents, The Huffington Post and Fairfax Media published a bombshell report on the bribery empire setup by Unaoil, a company based in Monaco. The report alleges that “Unaoil and its subcontractors bribed foreign officials to help major multinational corporations win contracts” in a variety of countries including Iraq, Kazakhstan, Iran, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, and many more countries in Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.

Unaoil is not a household name, but the family-run company from Monaco, according to thousands of internal documents reviewed by the report’s authors, worked to win contracts for many regulars in the oil and gas industry, including Halliburton, KBR, Rolls-Royce, Samsung, Honeywell, FMC Technologies, Hyundai, and many more.

The publication of the report, putting Unaoil at the very center of a massive international bribery ring, was met with head scratching by many energy analysts. Despite its seemingly crucial role in so many oil and gas contracts awarded around the world, very few have heard of the company.

The alleged operation was relatively straightforward. The clients – exploration companies, construction and engineering firms, and oilfield service contractors – would pay Unaoil large sums, and Unaoil would secure contracts for them by bribing government officials in the country of interest. Many of Unaoil’s clients claim that they did not know that Unaoil was bribing government officials on their behalf, but the report asserts that some were either willfully blind or were fully aware of the corruption.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Presenting, “The Company That Bribed The World”

March 31, 2016

Presenting, “The Company That Bribed The World”

This won’t exactly come as a surprise: the global oil industry is corrupt.

We are, after all, talking about the most financialized commodity in the history of the world, and up until a few years ago, it was controlled by a cartel comprised entirely of nations run by caricatures and stereotypes that the Western public generally regarded as a kind of necessary evil in a world that revolves around fossil fuels.

More recently, we’ve seen how oil funds terrorism and how crude prices are manipulated by the Gulf monarchies to secure “ancillary diplomatic benefits” in the never-ending quest to perpetuate Sunni hegemony in the Arabian Peninsula.

In short, blood money and oil money are synonymous concepts and at the end of the day, any geopolitical dispute that can’t be explained by sectarianism, tribalism, or some other ancient cultural rift, can very likely be explained by a dispute over energy.

Given the above, we weren’t at all shocked to learn that a heretofore obscue firm based in Monaco has made a killing by perfecting the art of oil market bribery and corruption. But even if the story isn’t surprising, it is nonetheless intriguing and with that in mind we present below excerpts from “The Company The Bribed The World,” a collaborative piece by Huff Post and Fairfax Media.

* * *

From The Huffington Post

A massive leak of confidential documents has for the first time exposed the true extent of corruption within the oil industry, implicating dozens of leading companies, bureaucrats and politicians in a sophisticated global web of bribery and graft.

After a six-month investigation across two continents, Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post can reveal that billions of dollars of government contracts were awarded as the direct result of bribes paid on behalf of firms including British icon Rolls-Royce, US giant Halliburton, Australia’s Leighton Holdings and Korean heavyweights Samsung and Hyundai.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Top Five Climate and Environment Issues for Obama-Trudeau Bilateral Summit

March 10, 2016

Top Five Climate and Environment Issues for Obama-Trudeau Bilateral Summit

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a staunch supporter of what he called the “no-brainer” project. President Obama, on the other hand, felt like all sorts of brain should be involved when deciding on the future of such major fossil fuel infrastructure. And he rightfully rejected the border crossing pipeline project, which had clearly failed his climate test.

Now, with Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the helm of America’s Hat, the two most intimately tied economies in the developed world have a lot of catching up to do. Even with Keystone XL dead and buried (sort of), environment and energy issues are still top of mind for the two leaders.

In a recent Q and A with the Huffington Post, Trudeau acknowledged the timing is right for bold leadership on climate change and the environment: “There is a nice alignment between a Canadian Prime Minister who wants to get all sorts of things done right off the bat and an American President who is thinking about the legacy he is going to leave in his last year in office,” Mr. Trudeau said.

“The issues that are important to him and to me are climate change.”

Obama and Trudeau already had an informal ‘bromance’ meeting soon after the new Prime Minister took office in November 2015. But now, with the unprecedented Paris Agreement behind them, the two leaders have an incredible opportunity to break new ground on climate action and environmental protection at this formal summit.

Here are the top five energy and environment issues these self-proclaimed climate leaders should have on their agenda:

1. North American Climate Change Strategy

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Militarizing Police Does Not Serve Or Protect Canadian Citizens

January 24, 2016

Militarizing Police Does Not Serve Or Protect Canadian Citizens

This week, we learned that the Toronto Police Service will be ordering C8 carbine semi-automatic assault rifles for front-line police officers.

The assault rifles, produced by arms manufacturer Colt Canada for the Canadian Forces, will cost $2,500 each, and will be in patrol cars on the streets of Canada’s largest city by May. Toronto becomes only the latest municipality to acquire a weapon described on its website as “battle proven in harsh combat environments.”

Late last year, Winnipeg police purchased a $400,000 armoured personnel carrier. A manufacturer video promoting the 14,000-pound, blast-proof Gurka MPV tactical vehicle with eight gun ports features heavy metal music and the words “make a statement” appearing on the screen.

Indeed, I have to wonder if that’s what these purchases are all about — making a bold statement about who makes the orders and who follows them.

Across Canada, local police forces are acquiring weapons and tools that are designed for military purposes, and policing is becoming increasingly militarized. The usual justification for ever more advanced weaponry is similar to Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders’ — it makes officers safer in an era of declining violent crime.

Crime in Canada is down so much that even the right-wing Fraser Institute has called for scaling back police departments.

Some local police departments receive equipment donated by the Canadian Forces. That’s how Windsor, Ontario and the mean streets of New Glasgow, Nova Scotiareceived armoured tanks free of charge.

Often, one event precipitates a build-up in arsenal and resources that the police keep long after the event is over.

Toronto Police purchased a Long Range Acoustic Device for the G20 Summit in 2010. Otherwise known as a sound cannon, this weapon was developed by the U.S. military to fight Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents. It is powerful enough to make human bones vibrate, and it was used against Canadian citizens.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

More Canadians Going Cashless Thanks To Apps, Credit And Debit Cards

December 25, 2015

More Canadians Going Cashless Thanks To Apps, Credit And Debit Cards

TORONTO — Maureen Turner still makes a point of carrying coins and bills in her wallet — but not for her own personal use.

“I have four kids, and often the teenagers will say: ‘I need $20 for lunch at school,'” says the Georgetown, Ont., resident, whose children range in age from five to 15.

“I keep cash in my wallet sometimes just for my kids. Anything else I don’t see why I would need it.”

Turner, a 42-year-old account executive and social media strategist for a PR firm, relies on her debit card for purchases, and also uses mobile apps for banking and coffee runs at Starbucks.

She’s among a growing number of Canadians finding there’s no longer a real need to carry cash.

An online survey of 1,000 people conducted by processing payments firm Moneris earlier this year found that 77 per cent of respondents preferred to pay for purchases by debit or credit card, and 65 per cent said they rarely buy anything with cash anymore.

“I keep cash in my wallet sometimes just for my kids. Anything else I don’t see why I would need it.”

“I think we’re at a point where you don’t need cash for most of what you need to do today,” says Rob Cameron, chief product and marketing officer for Moneris.

“I do think people will continue to use cash because it’s been around so long…. But this growth in contactless (payments using credit cards or mobile apps) I think is going to lead towards that end of cash.”

Moneris data shows a 162 per cent increase in tap transactions for the third quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2014.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sustainable Development: Something New or More of the Same?

September 26, 2015

Sustainable Development: Something New or More of the Same?

Two years ago when he was 14, my son Matthew grew six inches. Last year he only grew two inches, and this year he has only grown half an inch. Should I be worried?

Of course not. At a certain stage of maturity, quantifiable physical growth slows and stops, and a new mode of development takes over.

Imagine that I did not understand that, and fed Matthew growth hormones in a desperate attempt to keep him growing taller. And imagine that this effort was harming his health and depleting my resources. “I have to find a way to make his growth sustainable,” I would say. “Maybe I can use herbal hormones.”

Our civilization is at a similar transition point in the nature of its development. For thousands of years we have grown — in population, in energy consumption, in land under cultivation, in bits of data, in economic output. Today we are beginning to realize that this kind of growth is no longer possible, nor even desirable; that it can be maintained only at greater and greater cost to human beings and the planet.

The time has come to shift to a different kind of development, development that is qualitative rather than quantitative, better and not more. I wish our policy elites would understand this. Case in point: the new U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) convey real concern and care for the environment. Yet at the same time they are wedded to the ideology of economic growth — more GDP, more industrial infrastructure, roads, ports, etc. — without considering whether other forms of development could better meet their goals of poverty elimination and ecological sustainability.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Oligarch Recovery – Low Income Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Any Metro Area

September 1, 2015

The Oligarch Recovery – Low Income Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Any Metro Area

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 3.02.51 PM

We were told we needed to bail out Wall Street in order to save Main Street. Well the results are in…

Wall Street has never done better, and Main Street has never done worse.

From the Huffington Post:

Low-income workers and their families do not earn enough to live in even the least expensive metropolitan American communities, according to a new analysis of families’ living costs published Wednesday.

The analysis, released by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, is an annual update of the think tank’s Family Budget Calculator that reflects new 2014 data. The Family Budget Calculator is a formula designed to determine the income “required for families to attain a secure yet modest standard of living” in 618 different communities across the country that the U.S. Census Bureau defines as metropolitan areas. The formula uses data collected by the government and some nonprofit groups to measure costs of housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, “other necessities” like clothing, and taxes for families of 10 different compositions in these specific locales.

The updated Family Budget Calculator shows that even the most affordable metropolitan areas in the country are beyond the reach of millions of American families with incomes above the official federal poverty level. The official federal poverty level for a family of two parents and two children in 2014 was $24,008, according to the EPI. But the least expensive metropolitan area in the country for this family type is Morristown, Tennessee, where a family needs an income of $49,114, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s budget calculator.

The Economic Policy Institute also estimates that minimum-wage workers — who almost universally earn less than the federal poverty level — lack the income needed to make an adequate living in any of the communities surveyed, even if they are single and childless. The think tank notes that this includes minimum-wage workers living in cities or states with a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, or $15,080 a year for a full-time worker.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Explosion At Syncrude’s Mildred Lake Site, All Workers Are Safe

August 29, 2015

Explosion At Syncrude’s Mildred Lake Site, All Workers Are Safe

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — An explosion at a Syncrude oilsands processing site near Fort McMurray has interrupted operations at the facility.

Ryan Bartlett with the Alberta Energy Regulator says the blast happened early Saturday morning at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake site.

Bartlett says in an email that the company reports that all workers are safe, no product has been released and no offsite odours have been detected.

Syncrude spokesman Will Gibson says a fire broke out at the Mildred Lake Base Plant’s upgrading complex and was extinguished by Syncrude firefighters.

Gibson says there’s no word on what caused the incident, nor is there an estimate on how much damage has been done.

He says only Syncrude employees are being allowed onto the base plant site on Saturday, and the company is asking its contractors to be patient while it responds to the incident.

“Part of that response will be a thorough investigation and we will release further information when it’s available. The safety of the people at our site is our top priority,” Gibson said.

Bartlett said in his email that there have been no impacts to wildlife or water bodies.

Gibson said air quality at the site is monitored carefully and that there haven’t been any concerns.

He said production has been affected but that it’s too soon to say how seriously. Such information, he said would come from Syncrude’s owners.

“It’s too soon to tell how this is going to impact our production,” Gibson said. “Other parts of our operation are continuing. It’s a very big site up here.”

Canada Pension Plan Swings To A Loss After Record-Breaking Profits Last Year

August 15, 2015

Canada Pension Plan Swings To A Loss After Record-Breaking Profits Last Year

TORONTO — The CPP Fund had a small investment loss in its most recent quarter but the retirement fund’s assets increased by $4 billion overall because of contributions from the Canada Pension Plan.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board says the CPP Fund had $268.6 billion of net assets as of June 30, up from $264.6 billion a year earlier.

It received $4.2 billion in contributions from employees and employers covered by the Canada Pension Plan but that was offset by $200 million in net investment losses after costs.

It says the portfolio’s gross investment return was flat for the quarter and negative 0.1 per cent on a net basis.

That contrasted with the fund’s return for the 2014-15 financial year, which was a record 18.3 per cent.

The three months from April to June was a busy quarter for CPPIB which did more than 25 investments, including several that were worth more than a billion of dollars.

“We continue to assess and seize opportunities that fit our disciplined approach to produce long-term risk-adjusted returns,” CPPIB chief executive Mark Wiseman said in a statement when CPPIB released its 2016 first-quarter financial results.

Among the biggest deals during the quarter was the acquisition of the Antares Capital lending operation from the financial arm of General Electric, for $12-billion.

Antares Capital’s management and about 300 employees will operate the business as a stand-alone, independent lender to private-equity sponsors, subject to regulatory approval.

CPPIB announced in May that it would invest more than $1 billion in a German real estate joint venture. That included $542 million for a 46.1 per cent interest in shopping centre operator mfi AG, and an additional $503 million to support mfi’s needs.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Washington Post Reporter Charged with “Trespassing” in Ferguson, Missouri as the “War on Journalism” Continues

August 12, 2015

Washington Post Reporter Charged with “Trespassing” in Ferguson, Missouri as the “War on Journalism” Continues

A year ago, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, was arrested in a McDonald’s in Ferguson Missouri. The fast-food establishment had been used as a staging area for several reporters, including theHuffington Post’s Ryan Rilley, who was also arrested. Here’s last year’s video clip of Mr. Lowery being harassed by a paramilitary police officer.

Although the men were later released without charges, a year later, they are being charged with “trespassing” by St. Louis County. TheWashington Post reports:

A Washington Post reporter who was arrested at a restaurant last year while reporting on protests in Ferguson, Mo., has been charged in St. Louis County with trespassing and interfering with a police officer and ordered to appear in court.

Wesley Lowery, a reporter on The Post’s national desk, was detained in a McDonald’s while he was in Missouri covering demonstrations sparked by a white police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black 18-year-old.

“Charging a reporter with trespassing and interfering with a police officer when he was just doing his job is outrageous,” Martin Baron, executive editor of The Post, said in a statement Monday. “You’d have thought law enforcement authorities would have come to their senses about this incident. Wes Lowery should never have been arrested in the first place. That was an abuse of police authority.

According to the summons, Lowery is being charged with trespassing on private property despite being asked to leave. He is also charged with interfering with a police officer’s performance of his duties because, the summons alleges, he failed to comply with “

These counts carry a possible fine of $1,000 and up to a year in a county jail, according to the St. Louis County municipal code.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Well-Known Canadian Journalist Visits Ukraine and Praises neo-Nazi

August 5, 2015

Well-Known Canadian Journalist Visits Ukraine and Praises neo-Nazi

One of Canada’s most known journalists was in Ukraine last month on reporting duty. Readers of mainstream media in Canada will be surprised to read Dianne Francis’ observations of her visit. She has penned several articles in the World Post praising the extreme-right and neo-Nazi paramilitary forces that are allied with the Ukrainian government in waging civil war in the east of the country.

The World Post is an international collaboration by Huffington Post.

Francis is one of the more recognized names in Canadian journalism. She is Editor at Large at the National Post, one of two national dailies in Canada. She is a longtime editor and columnist with the Financial Post, now published as the business section of the National Post. She is Distinguished Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Francis is a renowned conservative and pro-capitalist ideologue, but open support for the far-right in Ukraine comes as an eye-opener. Her articles have received no attention or critique, an all-too common sign these days of the political impunity which proponents of war against the people of eastern Ukraine enjoy in Canada.

‘Poignant moments with Right Sector neo-Nazis’

In a July 13, 2015 article in the World Post, Francis sings the praises of Ukraine’s far-right, calling them “remarkable patriots”. The article is incongruously titled, We are all Ukrainians.

Francis’ evident mission in Ukraine is to warn the world of—you might guess—a creeping Russian takeover of Ukraine. She writes from Kyiv, “This trip, I saw more [Ukrainian] flags than ever and met some remarkable patriots who have realized that the public itself must rally to the cause of trying to stop, and eventually reverse, the steady takeover [of Ukraine] by Russia since independence in 1991.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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