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ZeroHedge, libertarians and Putin..
#1
One of the more bizarre things on the right-wing fringe in the US is the apparent admiration for Vladimir Putin.

Part of this can be explained by the popularity of the sensationalist financial website ZeroHedge, a website that has predicted doom and gloom for Western economies ever since it started after the financial crisis.

None of these predictions have materialized so far, but this hasn't dented the enthusiasm at ZeroHedge, a hangout place for rightwing fringe conspiracy theories and hype.

ZeroHedge got it's own exposé when one of the three bloggers, a guy called Colin Lokey, couldn't take it anymore, quit and revealed who where behind the website (Bloomberg).

Quote:Lokey said the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist. (Bloomberg LP competes with Zero Hedge in providing financial news and information.) In a telephone interview, Ivandjiiski confirmed that the men had been the only Tyler Durdens on the payroll since Lokey came aboard last year, but he criticized his former colleague's decision to come forward.

Ivandjiiski has some baggage:

Quote:Ivandjiiski worked for a hedge fund before being barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in 2008 for insider trading. He didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing, the agency said.

But hey, nobody's perfect. Some eyebrows can also be raised about the rather stark contrast between ZeroHedge guiding motto, which comes from the male teenage cult film Fight Club (the bloggers write under the name Tyler Durden, who fights against consumerism and the financial system and is hell bent on bringing it down.

In reality, as Lokey disclosed, the website is finely attuned to generating advertisement income through maximizing page views, and the lifestyle of Ivandjiiski isn't exactly that of Tyler Durden:

Quote:Despite holding itself out as a town crier for market angst, transcripts from Zero Hedge internal chat sessions provided by Lokey reveal a focus on Web traffic by the Durdens. Headlines are debated and a relentless publishing schedule maintained to keep readers sated. Lokey said the emphasis on profit—and what he considered political bias at the site—motivated him to quit.

He pointed to the wealth of the Durdens as a factor. Ivandjiiski has a multimillion-dollar mansion in Mahwah, N.J., and Backshall lives in a plush San Francisco suburb—not exactly reflections of Pitt's anticapitalist icon. “What you are reading at Zero Hedge is nonsense. And you shouldn’t support it,” Lokey wrote in an e-mail. “Two guys who live a lifestyle you only dream of are pretending to speak for you.”

Lokey himself made more than $100,000 in the year that he worked there but despite that

Quote:he left because he disagreed with the site's editorial vision. “Reality checks are great. But Zero Hedge ceased to serve that public service years ago,” Lokey wrote. “They care what generates page views. Clicks. Money.”

But it's the political bias that is most noteworthy, here is Lokey (who was responsible for most of it) wrote:

 “I tried to inject as much truth as I could into my posts, but there’s no room for it. “Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry= dunce. Vladimir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft,”

We are actually not surprised. Under the cloak of libertarianism, the website is not only hell bent on destroying Western capitalism, it's political bias is thinly veiled.

A guy who features quite regularly on ZeroHedge is Paul Graig Roberts (search on ZeroHedge itself doesn't yield results, but google paul graig roberts + ZeroHedge and you'll find plenty results). This is a curious guy, writing stuff like:
We could go on (there are lots more), but these articles provide the jist of it. They're also really funny and illustrate what Lokey was saying about "political bias" (that's really an understatement).

You should also now this, here is Paul Graig Roberts himself:

Quote:Vladimir Putin’s remarks at the 11th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club are worth more than a link in my latest column. These are the remarks of a humanitarian political leader, the like of which the world has not seen in my lifetime. Compare Putin to the corrupt war criminal in the White House or to his puppets in office in Germany, UK, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, and you will see the difference between a criminal clique and a leader striving for a humane and livable world in which the interests of all peoples are respected.

In a sane Western society, Putin’s statements would have been reproduced in full and discussions organized with remarks from experts such as Stephen F. Cohen. Choruses of approval would have been heard on television and read in the print media. But, of course, nothing like this is possible in a country whose rulers claim that it is the “exceptional” and “indispensable” country with an extra-legal right to hegemony over the world. As far as Washington and its prostitute media, named “presstitutes” by the trends specialist Gerald Celente, are concerned, no country counts except Washington. “You are with us or against us,” which means “you are our vassals or our enemies.” This means that Washington has declared Russia, China, India, Brazil and other parts of South America, Iran, and South Africa to be enemies.

The article is aptly called "Vladimir Putin Is The Leader Of the Moral World..

When we first came across this our first inclination was to think this was a parody, but if you read more stuff from Roberts it is instantly clear it isn't. 

Who is Paul Graig Roberts?

Well, he isn't a nobody, he has actually been the US assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy under Reagan and wrote no less than 12 books (one on Karl Marx's Theory of Exchange, Alienation, and Crisis!)

The curious thing is that he has some interesting views on the financialization of the economy and the effects of the neocons, and a considerable amount of his criticism of the US governance system makes sense.

But in his over the top praise of Putin and other really weird stuff (like arguing the terrorist attack against the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo was executed by the US to punish the French for their independent foreign policy).

By all means, read that article, as there is more rather incredible stuff in there, like 9/11 conspiracy theories in the same vein as the Charlie Hebdo story.
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#2
It is really curious that libertarians should be such admirers of Putin. Libertarians want:
  • An unregulated, free economy
  • A free socieity
  • No foreign adventurisim
Basically Putin's Russia is the exact opposite of all of this. The economy is controlled by a few friendly oligarchs who cannot fart without Putin's permission. They vulture off profits abroad and after a decade and a half, Putin hasn't liberated Russia from being dependent on commodities, despite a well educated population.

Civil society is stifled, media are heavily controlled journalists and critics executed (even abroad, like Litvinenko), there is a large army of trolls defending Putin on social media even abroad, and Putin's pride comes from.. foreign adventurism (Crimea, Ukraine, Syria, etc.)

Libertarians should abhor everything about Putin's Russia.
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#3
And before we forget, there is also Trump, of course..

Former SecDef Gates Worries About Trump’s Admiration For Putin

JONAH BENNETT
National Security/Foreign Policy Reporter

1:40 PM 05/16/2016

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is worried about GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and what that admiration might mean for U.S. foreign policy.

In an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, Gates said, “I worry a little bit about his admiration for Vladimir Putin.”

Compared to other former GOP presidential candidates like Sen. Marco Rubio, who called Putin a “gangster and a thug,” the relationship between Trump and Putin has been considerably warmer. The real estate tycoon has referred to Putin as “very bright” and a “strong leader.”

Trump has declared his intention to repair Washington’s relationship with Russia.

“I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia—from a position of strength only—is possible, absolutely possible,” Mr. Trump said in April. “Some say the Russians won’t be reasonable. I intend to find out.”

Putin seems to be returning the affection. He’s called Trump “a brighter person, talented without a doubt.”

Gates contended that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is more hawkish than President Barack Obama, which could be one one reason why Putin has taken a liking to Trump. Another reason, noted by Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, is that Putin likes Trump’s style of frankness, a style that totally ignores political correctness and gets right down to business.

Currently, relations with Russia have rapidly headed south. The Russian “reset,” pioneered by Hillary Clinton while she was serving as Secretary of State in the Obama administration, has not worked out as planned.

The U.S. protested over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has further protested continued incursions into eastern Ukraine. Russia has also taken heat for buzzing U.S. military exercises in the region.

It’s unclear what Trump would do to repair the sullied relationship, but from initial declarations, it doesn’t sound as though he’d just capitulate to Russian interests to satisfy Putin. In May, Trump said he’d order the U.S. military to shoot down Russian jets if they refused to stop unsafely buzzing ships and other assets. Trump said the Russians were taking advantage of the military because of lack of respect for President Barack Obama.

“Normally, an Obama—let’s say a president, because you want to make at least a call or two—but normally Obama would call up Putin and say, ‘Listen, do us a favor, don’t do that, get that maniac, just stop it.’ But we don’t have that kind of a president. He’s gonna be out playing golf or something,” Trump said. “But I don’t know, at a certain point, you can’t take it.”
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#4
Here is some more from Paul Graig Roberts, he's losing the plot ever more but of course ZeroHedge happily reproduces it:

Paul Craig Roberts Warns "'Adolf Hitler' Is Alive & Well In The US"

[Image: picture-5.jpg]
by Tyler Durden
Jul 13, 2016 10:00 PM

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org,
Gestapo America

FBI Director James Comey got Hillary off the hook but wants to put you on it. He is pushing hard for warrantless access to all of your Internet activity.

Comey, who would have fit in perfectly with Hitler’s Gestapo, tells Congress that the United States is not safe unless the FBI knows when every American goes online, to whom they are sending emails and from whom they are receiving emails, and knows every website visited by every American.
In other words, Comey wants to render null and void the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and completely destroy your privacy rights.

The reason Washington wants to know everything about everyone is so that Washington can embarrass, blackmail, and frame on felony charges patriots who stand up in defense of the US Constitution and the rule of law, and dissidents who criticize Washington’s illegal wars, reckless foreign policies, and oppression of American citizens.
Washington’s demand for power has nothing to do with our security. It has to do with destroying the security that the US Constitution gives us.

The security that Comey wants to protect is not our security or the national security of the United States. Comey’s intent is to make Washington secure despite its violations of statutory law and the US Constitution. The way Comey intends to do this is by intimidating, harassing, and arresting Washington’s critics.
Comey wants the unconstitutional power to demand from the providers of telephone and Internet services all records and information about you. These demands are not to be subject to oversight by courts, and the communication companies that serve you are prohibited from telling you that all of your information has been given to the FBI.

US Senators rushed to stick their swords into the Fourth Amendment. John Cornyn slapped an FBI-written amendment on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2015. This caused the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International to withdraw their support for the act, which caused the act to be withdrawn.

Senator John McCain rushed to the aid of the FBI. This Constitution-hating senator proposed an amendment to a criminal justice appropriations bill that would use a provision in the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act to grant the unlimited unaccountable power to the FBI to totally destroy your privacy.
McCain’s amendment failed, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) changed his vote so that he could negate the Senate’s vote with a vote to reconsider.

The FBI’s senators will continue with amendments to legislation, related or not, until they deliver to the FBI the power it wants.

Unfortunately, most Americans today, unlike their forebears, are too ignorant and uneducated to know the value of the privacy rights that our Founding Fathers put in the US Constitution. The imbeciles say nonsense such as: "I haven’t done anything wrong. I have nothing to fear". God help the imbeciles.

If the American people were sufficiently sophisticated, they perhaps would wonder why such a large chunk of the US Senate had rather represent the FBI than the American people, their constituents who elected them to represent the people in the state, not a police power in Washington.

Why are so many US senators more responsive to the FBI’s desire for Gestapo police power than they are to the civil liberties embodied in the US Constitution?

As the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Defending Dissent Foundation show, the Orlando shootings, the Dallas shootings and whatever shootings, real or staged, next occur have nothing to do with the FBI’s demand to completely destroy all privacy rights of the American people.

What’s that I hear? You say you knew nothing about this? Little wonder. Your media consist of people well paid to deceive you and to deliver you into a Police State. To strip you of all constitutional protection and deliver you unprotected to a police state is the function of the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox 'News', CNN, the rest of the presstitute print and TV media and many Internet sites.
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#5
Now that we know how Russia is interfering with the US elections, ZeroHedge is even more suspect. We give you the front page from Sunday October 23. All the entries are varieties on three themes:
  • The corruption and decline of the US
  • Evil Hillary and Democrats and US government
  • The unjust vilification of Putin in Western media
Basically the whole website's raison d'etre seems to be to undermine the US and boost Putin's Russia. No surprise if you read the previous entries above.

Quote:Earlier this morning we wrote about the obvious sampling bias in the latest ABC / Washington Post poll that showed a 12-point national advantage for Hillary.  Like many of the recent polls from Reuters, ABC and The Washington Post, this latest poll included a 9-point sampling bias toward registered democrats.
New Podesta Email Exposes Dem Playbook For Rigging Polls Through "Oversamples" | Zero Hedge

Quote:You know the decline is well underway when all respect for the practical limits of government and the judicious use of common sense, and a light touch, to govern the affairs of the people has been lost.  That’s about the time political graft and corruption become the dominant operating model. In the later stages of degradation, how to federally regulate the use of public restrooms for those conflicted with the sex designation on their birth certificate becomes the central focus of popular discourse. The point is, miracle economies always lose their magic sooner or later.  The luster fades.  And growth dissipates beneath a series of irrational and intolerable raids by the treasury upon the common man. In the United States, and the world, the great economic growth miracle peaked over 40 years ago.  Here we turn to the Wall Street Journal for edification.
Prepare For The Unthinkable | Zero Hedge

(Needless to say, 40 years ago marginal tax rates were much higher and inequality much lower, but anyway)

Quote:In addition to providing a glimpse into the internal, and often confrontational, dialogue that took place within the Clinton campaign on topics ranging from Hillary's email server, to coordination and collusion with the media, to the planning how to attack Bernie Sanders, to the fascinating strife and conflicts of interest within the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, the Podesta leaks have also been instrumental in providing the public with insight into Hillary's flip-flopping views on the TPP. Indeed, as the WSJ put it recently, a running question through the presidential race has been whether Hillary Clinton is sincere in saying she opposes the 12-nation Asian trade deal that is one of the Obama administration’s top overseas priorities.
Leaked Soros Memo Exposes Obama's Secret TPP Negotiations; Hillary "Flip-Flopping" | Zero Hedge

Most of this is rather innocuous stuff that is being scandalized with endless innuendo. Any insight in Republican email exchanges, if these ever become public, would make that instantly clear. 

Quote:Those waking up to read the news this morning will undoubtedly be "shocked" by the latest ABC / Washington Post goal seeking report (aka "poll") that shows Hillary opening up a 12-point lead with likely voters after the latest debate last Wednesday.  Ironically, this latest polling farce was "embargoed for release after 9 a.m." EST which will certainly make it a dominant topic of conversation on all the morning talk shows.
This Is How WaPo's Latest Poll Gave Hillary A 12 Point Advantage Over Trump | Zero Hedge

Quote:One truth the best and the brightest of our founding fathers knew in their bones: government would always be the preeminent threat to individual security, prosperity, liberty, and happiness. Strip away the irrelevant dross and history boiled down to one theme: the individual versus the state. Government, an institution gestated in fear of violence, inevitably uses the violent power that it has either wrested for itself or has been granted against its supposed beneficiaries. The founders knew that human nature never changes, that those in control of a government would inevitably be corrupted by their power and employ it to their own design and advantage. Their solution was enumerated powers, an overlapping separation of those powers, a myriad of procedural encumbrances, the Bill of Rights, federalism, and limits on the government’s abilities to tax, raise armies, and wage war. The idea was to make it harder for this new government to do what governments had done throughout history. They had to have realized that any effort to constrain a government ultimately depended on the wisdom and virtue of those in power. Wisdom and virtue in perpetually short supply, they also had to have realized that their effort would eventually fail. And fail it has. Donald Trump is making more waves by charging that the electoral system is “rigged,” and for refusing to pledge that he will not challenge the official results of the election. Our entire government is massively rigged, an agglomeration of scams, testament to terminal philosophical deterioration and default. Its partners in crime have reacted vehemently against even the suggestion that the election could be rigged. Their fear: once discussion is allowed about rigged elections, people may take umbrage at all the other scams and actually do something about them.
Trump "Truthers" Versus Hillary's "Hysterically Hyperventilating Hypocrites" | Zero Hedge

But of course they don't tell you how elections are rigged, this is supposed to be self-evident.

Quote:In what may be the most significant modification to Medicare since the program began in 1966, on Oct. 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). It dramatically changes how Medicare pays doctors for their services. Does it really matter how doctors get paid? Yes — the success or failure of the new payment system will profoundly influence the future of the U.S. health care system. And while the goals of MACRA are laudable, its implementation carries a number of unknowns and the potential for unintended consequences — for patients and doctors alike.
Risk Of "Mass Exodus" Of Doctors From Medicare Looms | Zero Hedge

Yes, it's all falling apart, that's ZeroHedge's main message since its inception. We're still waiting for the dollar to collapse, the stock market, bond market, US economy to collapse, gold going through the roof, etc. If you would have invested on ZeroHedge insights, you would be poor by now..

Quote:While the US is pondering how to undo Duterte's dramatic reversal in policy, when last week the Philippines president announced he would align himself with China while abandoning his country's 60+ year strategic alliance with Washington, Beijing is already thinking one step ahead, specifically as pertain to China's claims over the South China Sea, where the Philippines had been one of the biggest hurdles to Beijing's territorial claims: claims which after last week have taken a far back seat as Duterte seeks to rebuild from scratch the country's new regional policy. Which explains why overnight, in an op-ed in the official Chinese mouthpiece The People's Daily, China asserted it would never allow the US to run amok in South China Sea waters, after a US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Decatur, sailed through the waters of the Xisha Islands on Friday without the Chinese approval.
China Mocks America's "Declining Global Influence", Slams US Attempts At "Destabilizing Peace" | Zero Hedge

Quote:Cash is the new “barbarous relic” according to many central banks, regulators, and some economists and there is a strong, concerted push for the ‘cashless society’. Developments in recent days and weeks have highlighted the risks posed by the war on cash and the cashless society. The 
Cashless Society - Is The War On Cash Set To Benefit Gold? | Zero Hedge

Never mind cash is actually a great instrument for criminals and tax dodgers..

Quote:The Pro-Clinton, Anti-Putin propaganda machine of the western media continues to pump out demonization drudgery to ensure when war is unleashed, a sheep-like America will line up behing their 'chosen' leader to cheer on the nukes (and to distract attention from the demise of US hegemony and the loss of the American Dream).
Which Would Be The Better Economist Cover? | Zero Hedge

This entry is especially funny. A few simple questions.. What business does Russia actually has in Syria? How do Russians benefit from this? Why do the bomb hospitals, aid convoys, not once, but multiple times?
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#6
We almost lost sight of him, but here he is again, Paul Graig Roberts. Defending Putin, of course. 

Quote:Adam Schiff is a traitor to the United States. Indeed, to all of humanity. He is a traitor, because he is undermining American democracy and the forces for peace.

The despicable Adam Schiff’s function is to discredit the presidency of Donald Trump by creating an atmosphere in which any interest in establishing normal relations with Russia, thus reducing the tensions that could result in nuclear war, is proof of being a “Putin agent” and a “traitor.”

What Schiff is doing is making it impossible for President Trump to reduce the dangerous tensions between the nuclear superpowers that the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama regimes created. These tensions can easily result in nuclear war, as I have often emphasized. It is extraordinary that Schiff, who endangers the existence of all life on planet Earth, is a hero of the liberal/progressive/left. The pressitute media whores love him. He always gets top billing as he urges on humanity to its final destruction.
Paul Craig Roberts: "Adam Schiff Is A Traitor To Humanity" | Zero Hedge

Putin for peace. Putin for Nobel..

Perhaps he has the same offshore bank as Manafort.
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