the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Michael wrote:Found a video from a day or two with a Russian Federation Foreign Ministry spokeswoman saying there were five or fewer people killed and not yet confirmed to be Russian citizens.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxzf4xp2r0

My point exactly! And in the US nothing at all.

There is obviously some type of PR mission to bury the whole thing.

In Europe this is news but since the Russians were mercenaries they would not have been in the US/Russian military operations loop.


Confirming citizenship? LOL!

Steve James wrote:Why do you suspect that Tass or Pravda or RT reports are factual but other sources aren't? They're just mainstream media, Russian style. Journalists who don't follow the party line often disappear.

How about citing a Japanese or Chinese news report? What do they say?
Does this link work.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017 ... es,Russian

This is a side note, but I spend a lot of time trying to get a variety of news sources into my diet, so thank you very much for the link. Cheers

There is no rule about large media companies that one can trust. It's just about trying to take in enough different sources that I would liken to a situation of driving when visibility is poor. You can't see the road directly, but it's still there, and the constant movement of the vehicle and one's eyes (like alternating new sources) allows for patterns of shadows to emerge that define the landscape, haha.

Sometimes RT is shit. It was almost immediately obvious in 2014 when they began focusing on stories meant to sow discord and I've said it many times before. However, there is often a benefit to viewing media of other countries for the major players. i do check RT a few times a week. I also check a couple of other Russian sources, one of which I linked for that video, it wasn't RT.

What can I say? I followed the Syrian war from start to finish as best as I could, closer than any other foreign policy topic for six years now, and I believe the Russians had the consistently correct foreign policy, which biases me toward accepting—to a certain extent—statements from their Foreign Ministry, such as these. I don't mind admitting it, one eventually can reach a conclusion and the Russians did the things that reduced the chaos from non-state actors (terrorists), while the USA had a variety of policies that revealed a deeply fractured govt. which actually supports non-state actors (terrorists). This is clear in Syria, In Libya, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, etc.

BTW, your link is about the Tomahawk cruise missile attack of almost a year ago. For some unknown reason, I want to credit Trump for the fecklessness of that act of war. I can only hope that Turkey will leave NATO and strengthen its bilateral relations with Russia, and indirectly with Syria for policies that will lead to greater order and the rebuilding of Syria in order to prevent the use of terrorists by factions within the USA.

Reuters is reporting the number at 300 as well as the Isrealis.

http://m.jpost.com/Middle-East/Sources- ... ded-542810

Makes one wonder why the Russians have such different numbers.

klonk wrote:Read the fine print. "100 Russian mercenaries..." If you sign on for pay and meet Americans, that reflects a poor career choice.

I find it interesting that this isn't front page news in the US and Russia.

Strange how you have to look outside the US to find out what is really happening.

300 here.

http://m.jpost.com/Middle-East/Sources- ... ded-542810

Greg, that's one part of their news. They cover other stories and there is some variety. I subscrube to Inessa and Russia Insight on youtube, but not to RT. I don't RT for Russian news.

To be hones, it is extremely difficult to break from convenient news sources. I know this American dude here in China who can't get off yahoo.com news. It's not easy to see the other side, which is one reason why I keep posting on RSF, so thanks to you and Steve and everyone here. I really appreciate you guys about 80% of the time, lol.

Yes, I just posted a contemporary link from Japan's new agency. It's no guarantee. It's just a third perspective.

Afa different sources, though. It's one thing to compare sources. Both reports can have some truth. It's another thing to look for contradictions in order to support one's bias. In the first case, the final judgment is not predetermined. For ex., maybe it was closer to 50 casualties than 100, that some were combatants and others were civilians, etc. Rather, the arguments will not seek out the details, and the details won't matter. Moreover, there may always be someone to say that there's a conspiracy to hide the "real" truth.

Anyway, anything that happens in Syria now is on Trump's watch, desk, and that's where the buck stops. Now, maybe he has great, humanitarian motives. In fact, that's what he said in 2017, then I can't disagree with him. But, if he doesn't have feelings for Syrians (especially Christians), then there's no reason to think he'll have sympathy for Uhgyurs (sp?) or Rohingans (sp?) or others.

Just a little comic relief here.

Trump's greatest success with the Chinese was getting those UCLA basketball players out of jail. I still can't relate to how stupid and out of touch with reality you need to be to shoplift in a communist country. They would likely have done 8-10 years in a horrible Shanghai prison if it weren't for him. That is the level of foreign relations (influence) of the USA and it's much more than any other country ever got from PRC as far as I know, which actually shows Trump knows his value in this "deal" with the Chinese.

Trump is just a deal-maker and a wheel-greaser. There is nothing more he can do in China, but for Syria, maybe. That is why I am not at all upset that he invites Russians into the White House.

Well, afa deal making ... bankruptcy is a deal, and then there are plea deals. However, Trump hasn't greased the wheels enough to get the remaining Americans being held in PRNK.

Well, scuse me, but Trump was the one who cared more than the, erm, previous administration. If nothing else, Pence taking the father of the AMERICAN boy the DPNRK tortured to the edge of death and then kept alive for a year in order to extend his suffering, well Pence taking his father to the Korean Winter Olympics, while members of the US team lied about Pence out of ignorance, isn't that just lovely.

Well, scuse me, but Trump was the one who cared more than the, erm, previous administration.

Um, Warmbier wasn't even convicted until 2016. You said Trump got the b-ball players out; and all I wrote was that there are still Americans in N.Korean prisons. Caring has nothing to do with it.

Trial and conviction[edit]
On March 16, 2016, a few hours after U.S. envoy Bill Richardson met in New York with two North Korean diplomats from the United Nations office to press for Warmbier's release,[27][28] Warmbier was tried and convicted for the theft of the propaganda poster from a restricted area of the hotel. Evidence at his trial, which lasted one hour, included his confession, CCTV footage, fingerprint evidence, and witness testimony.[29][30] He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.[7][31]

I have sympathy for the Warmbier family because of their loss. Trump's irrelevant. The SOTU stuff was showtime, just like the upcoming parade. Bread and circuses.

Michael wrote:Greg, that's one part of their news. They cover other stories and there is some variety. I subscrube to Inessa and Russia Insight on youtube, but not to RT. I don't RT for Russian news.

To be hones, it is extremely difficult to break from convenient news sources. I know this American dude here in China who can't get off yahoo.com news. It's not easy to see the other side, which is one reason why I keep posting on RSF, so thanks to you and Steve and everyone here. I really appreciate you guys about 80% of the time, lol.

Yahoo, usually links to other credible journalists so I don't have an issue with them.

Good on you for ditching RT. On the Russians people actually believed them which is why I stopped watching the posted videos and just used my own words against other people's words.

My point is if I find that more than 5 Russians were killed then I would no longer trust or use that news source unless they retracted the story or suspended a news source.

This is also why I believe in universities. In a university you could not get away with a footnote from an unverified news source. As too the Russians covering alternative stories they are not alone. But I believe that they cover these stories to get people on the far left and far right onboard and then load them with propaganda.

I have a very old friend who is a huge fan on Che and Bernie but watches RT and supports all things Putin and although he tries to listen to all sides he has been conditioned to think Trump is good for the country but complains that Trump will target his Salvadorian inlaws.

Looking at Yahoo news it seems that they write a few of there own and link to other sources as well as what is trending now.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/

Michael wrote:Well, scuse me, but Trump was the one who cared more than the, erm, previous administration. If nothing else, Pence taking the father of the AMERICAN boy the DPNRK tortured to the edge of death and then kept alive for a year in order to extend his suffering, well Pence taking his father to the Korean Winter Olympics, while members of the US team lied about Pence out of ignorance, isn't that just lovely.

More comic relief, right? You do know that Trump says he wants to give North Korea bloody nose, don't you?

Trump/Pence don't give a shit about 30,000,000 Koreans dying and don't give a shit how Americans would die in Nork conflict but are willing to go to war to get re-elected by Buba.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 23597236c6

It is W all over again with his fake war in Iraq.

Michael wrote:Just a little comic relief here.

Trump's greatest success with the Chinese was getting those UCLA basketball players out of jail. I still can't relate to how stupid and out of touch with reality you need to be to shoplift in a communist country. They would likely have done 8-10 years in a horrible Shanghai prison if it weren't for him. That is the level of foreign relations (influence) of the USA and it's much more than any other country ever got from PRC as far as I know, which actually shows Trump knows his value in this "deal" with the Chinese.

Trump is just a deal-maker and a wheel-greaser. There is nothing more he can do in China, but for Syria, maybe. That is why I am not at all upset that he invites Russians into the White House.

Btw, Otto was stealing too and a nuclear war is Asia isn't going to bring him back.

I realize that I can probably never know whether it was 100, a dozen, or five people killed. However, I can recognize the political reasons why the different numbers are published (exaggerated or not). Either "It was terrible" or "It wasn't so bad" and therefore fill in the preferred ideological position.