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Turkey Now, America Later?

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President Trump recently imposed sanctions on Turkey to protest the Turkish government’s detention of an American pastor. Turkey has responded by increasing tariffs on US exports. The trade war is being blamed for the collapse of Turkey’s currency, the lira. While the sanctions may have played a role, Turkey’s currency crisis is rooted in the Turkish government’s fiscal and (especially) monetary policies.
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Bolton Calls on Al-Qaeda to Stage More Chemical Attacks in Syria

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In a move that was entirely predictable, the US administration is once again threatening to bomb Syria if there is a “chemical weapons attack”.

This was entirely predictable because that chemical attack script has been read out, with salty crocodile tears, fake concern, and mocked indignation by US talking heads over the years - since 2012, in fact, when former US President Obama himself drew his red line on Syria.

The latest script-reader to toe the chemical hoax line is President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, who on August 22, stated: “...if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.”

Beyond the tattered veil of moral superiority that is US war propaganda, Bolton's words were clearly a very public command to Al-Qaeda and co-extremists to stage yet another fake chemical attack.
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DNC Backpedals After Cyberattack 'Hack' Was Actually A Security 'Test'

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The DNC has backpedaled on a report by CNN that a recent "sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database" had been discovered by San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm Lookout - whose co-founder John Hering contributed $30,700 to the DNC in June of 2016, along with $2,700 to Hillary Clinton the same day. It's not Lookout's fault, however, as they were simply "looking out" for the Democratic National Committee when they discovered a "simulated phishing test" they assumed was real.

And in a massive breakdown in communication before verifying facts, the DNC contacted the FBI and CNN about the hack - before thinking to speak with the outside contractor which runs the voter database, NGP VAN.
Earlier on Wednesday, Bob Lord, the committee's chief security officer, briefed Democratic officials after detecting a fake login page that was designed to look like the access page Democratic Party officials and campaigns across the country use to log into a service called Votebuilder, which hosts the party's voter database, a Democratic source familiar with the briefing told CNN.

The initial detection of the apparent hacking attempt by a cybersecurity firm on Monday prompted the DNC to call the FBI, the source said. -CNN
According to Axios, NGP-VAN was running an unauthorized "simulated phishing test" on the DNC's VoteBuilder system. Meanwhile, PCMag reporter Michael Kan reported  that it was the Michigan Democratic Party which asked a third party (NGP VAN) to conduct the test.
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Unipolarism vs. Multipolarism - The Real Russian Interference in US Politics

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The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was ostensibly a conflict between two ideologies, two socio-economic systems.  All that seems to be over. The day of a new socialism may dawn unexpectedly, but today capitalism rules the world. Now the United States and Russia are engaged in a no-holds-barred fight between capitalists. At first glance, it may seem to be a classic clash between rival capitalists
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Facebook Kills 'Inauthentic' Foreign News Accounts - US Propaganda Stays Alive

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The creation of digital content led to the re-establishment of claqueurs:
By 1830 the claque had become an institution. The manager of a theatre or opera house was able to send an order for any number of claqueurs. These were usually under a chef de claque (leader of applause), who judged where the efforts of the claqueurs were needed and to initiate the demonstration of approval. This could take several forms. There would be commissaires ("officers/commissioner") who learned the piece by heart and called the attention of their neighbors to its good points between the acts. Rieurs (laughers) laughed loudly at the jokes. Pleureurs (criers), generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Chatouilleurs (ticklers) kept the audience in a good humor, while bisseurs (encore-ers) simply clapped and cried "Bis! Bis!" to request encores.
Today anyone can create content and rent or buy virtual claqueurs in from of  "likes" on Facebook or "followers" on Twitter to increase its distribution.

An alternative is to create artificial social media personas who then promote ones content. That is what the Internet Research Agency, the Russian "troll factory" from St. Petersburg, did. The fake personas it established on Facebook promoted IRA created clickbait content like puppy picture pages that was then marketed to sell advertisements.
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The New Cold War Flops

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Has there ever been a country so vilified as Russia, a leader so demonized as Vladimir Putin? It makes me dizzy just to think of all the crimes that have been laid at that particular doorstep. I could spend the rest of this column simply listing them, from the deaths of numerous Russian journalists to the extinction of Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions – that and so much more! The omnipotent Russian President has apparently poisoned so many Russian expatriates in Britain that the streets are awash in polonium, novichok, and god knows what else.
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