Video: ‘Not friendship but pure interest’: Duterte & Netanyahu meet in Jerusalem, plan to sign deals

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The Philippines’ leader, Rodrigo Duterte, has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. It’s the first such visit in 60 years of diplomatic …

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Prison Planet.com » Obama readies fall campaign push, but some Dems say no thanks

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The Hill
September 3, 2018

Former President Obama is set to dive into the midterm elections next week with a speech in Illinois where he is expected to urge Democrats across the country to vote — addressing a problem that plagued the party in 2016.

Obama has kept a low political profile since leaving office, but sources familiar with his plans say he will soon hit the campaign trail to help Democrats in their quest to take back the House, protect vulnerable Senate incumbents and win state legislative races.

The former president will kick off his push by delivering a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Friday. In the weeks ahead, Obama will also campaign in California, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a person familiar with his schedule said.

Not all Democrats want Obama’s help.

Democratic candidates running in states that President Trump won by double digits in 2016 would prefer that the former president stay far away.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:07 am






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Pundits lose minds over ‘bipartisan’ candy-sharing moment between George W. Bush & Michelle Obama — RT US News

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Who knew Democrats and Republicans spoke to each other outside of work hours? Apparently not everyone, since the moment George Bush passed some candy to Michelle Obama at John McCain’s funeral sent social media into meltdown.

The seemingly mundane moment — former President George W. Bush caught on camera handing some kind of sweet to the former First Lady — has turned into one of the most shared moments from McCain’s funeral.

It all started when Roland Scahill, a former theater agent convicted of fraud for conning investors into backing a nonexistent play in 2017, shared a four-second clip of the candy-passing moment on Twitter, which was then retweeted more than 111,000 times.

Even journalists and pundits couldn’t handle the feels they were experiencing seeing the former president sneakily pass the candy to Obama. The official Twitter account for MSNBC tweeted out the video as a moment of “bipartisanship.” Forbes Media Executive Vice President Moira Forbes had a similar thought, referring to the moment as “bipartisanship at its best.”

Some took it even further, however. One CNN contributor, Robert Maguire, tweeted that it “might be the video that saves the Republic,” while CNN producer Caroline Kenny gushed about the “cute” relationship shared between Bush and Obama. Real Daily Wire editor Emily Zanotti suggested the two pals needed a reality TV show to themselves.

NPR host Mary Louise Kelly was so bowled over by the bipartisanship on display that she couldn’t stop thinking about the “unexpectedly moving” moment, while journalist Aisha Sultan remarked that only a “true friend” would pass you candy at such a moment.

It’s almost as if they haven’t realized that the bad blood between the two parties is mostly theater and that they’re really all great buddies who “feed from the same trough” as one tweeter put it.

But it wasn’t all squeals of excitement and declarations that the cuteness was too much to handle. Some Twitter users preferred to remind their followers that Bush is actually the person responsible for lying to the country and getting them involved in a 15-year war in Iraq.

One columnist pointed out that the willingness to forgive Bush for Iraq because he shares candy was a weird reaction to the clip, while another recalled Bush’s responsibility for secret torture black sites around the world and “lawless surveillance” of Americans.

Commenting on the somewhat over-the-top reaction to the candy incident, one Twitter users said he wished Americans were similarly interested in former NSA contractor Reality Winner, a whistleblower who was just sentenced to five years in prison for leaking a document to the media.

Others joked that weighing the candy incident up against the Iraq War, it was difficult to decide whether Bush was a good guy or a bad guy.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Lion jumps into open vehicle full of tourists on safari tour

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Providing a unique photo shoot opportunity to a group of guests at a safari adventure park in Crimea, the cuddly predator not only welcomed the guests but even …

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PressTV-Ex-British colony challenges UK claim to islands at ICJ

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Former British colony Mauritius has challenged at the World Court the legality of the United Kingdom’s claim to its Chagos Islands, which now host the key US military base of Diego Garcia.

Mauritius’ former president Anerood Jugnauth took the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday, arguing that the country had been deceitfully pressured to relinquish control of Chagos during post-independence negotiations with their British colonizers and that it had only agreed to temporary use of the islands for military objectives.

The UK detached the Chagos Islands from its then-colony of Mauritius in 1965, three years prior to offering it independence, but continued to keep the sparsely-populated archipelago part of the British overseas territories.

The US leased the Chagos Islands’ biggest island, Diego Garcia, from the UK in 1966 and constructed a major air base there after forcing its entire population of nearly…

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Injecting Wastewater Underground Can Cause Earthquakes Up to 10 Kilometers Away

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Earthquakes in the central and eastern United States have increased dramatically in the last decade as a result of human activities. Enhanced oil recovery techniques, including dewatering and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have made accessible large quantities of oil and gas previously trapped underground, but often result in a glut of contaminated wastewater as a byproduct.

Energy companies frequently inject wastewater deep underground to avoid polluting drinking water sources. This process is responsible for a surge of earthquakes in Oklahoma and other regions.

The timing of these earthquakes makes it clear that they are linked with deep wastewater injection. But earthquake scientists like me want to anticipate how far from injection sites these quakes may occur.

In collaboration with a researcher in my group, Thomas Goebel, I examined injection wells around the world to determine how the number of earthquakes changed with the distance from injection. We found that in some cases wells could trigger earthquakes up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) away. We also found that, contradictory to conventional wisdom, injecting fluids into sedimentary rock rather than the harder underlying rock often generates larger and more distant earthquakes.

Cumulative number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or larger in the central and eastern United States, 1973-2015.
Cumulative number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or larger in the central and eastern United States, 1973-2015.
USGS

Transmitting Pressure Through Rock

Assessing how far from a well earthquakes might occur has practical consequences for regulation and management. At first glance, one might expect that the most likely place for wastewater disposal to trigger an earthquake is at the site of the injection well, but this is not necessarily true.

Since the 1970s, scientists and engineers have understood that injecting water directly into faults can jack the faults open, making it easier for them to slide in an earthquake. More…

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Reversing Labor’s Losses

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This Labor Day, the vast majority of Americans who need to work for a living still have a long way to go before they recover what they have lost over the past four decades. The real (inflation-adjusted) median wage is only about 10 percent above what it was in 1979.

As economist Dean Baker has noted, we can also see part of this transformation of the United States into a more shamefully unequal society if we look at the distribution of national income between profits and labor. If not for this redistribution from wages to profits from 2000 to 2016, the average worker would have an additional $4,000 per year in annual income.

This historic redistribution of income and wealth was the result of choices made by our political leaders and decision-makers. They chose to maintain higher interest rates ― and levels of unemployment ― than necessary. They subjected workers to increasingly harsh international competition while protecting highly paid professionals and CEOs. They increased protectionism for patent holders, including pharmaceutical companies who charge tens of thousands of dollars for cancer drugs that would sell for a small fraction of these prices in competitive markets. They changed labor law so that unions’ bargaining power would be reduced to levels not seen for most of the twentieth century.

The Trump administration claims that workers’ long night is over, as evidenced by the current headline unemployment rate of 3.9 percent; and that they are responsible…

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Unfit to a T – LewRockwell

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Sitting in two airports last week, in Paris and Riga, it suddenly occurred to me that I had not seen a single person who was smartly, let alone elegantly, dressed (I do not exclude myself from this stricture; I have never been elegant in my life). Indeed, if there is one thing that unites mankind today it is casual slobbery in dress.

This is rather odd, considering that so many people seem to spend a lot of their spare time shopping for clothes. The fact is, though, that however much time they spend on shopping, they will always look just as much a mess as ever. They choose, but they do not discriminate.

Our unwillingness, and increasing inability, to dress elegantly represents the triumph of self-esteem over self-respect. We dress to please ourselves, not others, and not looking like a slob takes effort, especially keeping it up through the day. Convenience is all, and it is easier to throw on a few casual clothes than to dress well. Again, I do not exclude myself from these strictures: When I wake in the morning, my heart sinks at the prospect of having to get ready for the day. Even tying my laces, for the n thousandth time in my life, seems a task at once gargantuan and meaningless. I find some slip-on shoes instead.

Watching the people passing by their hundreds or thousands, certain observations more or less forced themselves on my consciousness.

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The first was the way in which enormously fat people tended to squeeze themselves into tight clothes, revealing the semifluid nature of their abdominal apron. I am far from decrying fat people in themselves; they exhibit the same range of human characteristics as any other large group of people, and gluttony…

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Video: Scuffles erupt during protest outside burned National Museum of Brazil

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Brazil #BrazilMuseumFire #MuseuNacional A few hundred protesters who gathered outside the gates of Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro tried …

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Prison Planet.com » Trump touts economy in Labor Day tweet, says US is fixing ‘worst trade deals ever made’

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The Hill
September 3, 2018

President Trump on Monday touted the U.S. unemployment rate saying the country has “tremendous” potential as it goes about fixing some of the worst trade deals “ever made by any country in the world” in a celebratory Labor Day tweet.

“Happy Labor Day!” Trump tweeted. “Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows. The U.S. has tremendous upside potential as we go about fixing some of the worst Trade Deals ever made by any country in the world.”

“Big progress being made!” Trump added.

The tweet comes amid tense, ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada — negotiations in which Trump reportedly has said he would not compromise at all.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:09 am








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Prison Planet.com » Trump touts economy in Labor Day tweet, says US is fixing ‘worst trade deals ever made’

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The Hill
September 3, 2018

President Trump on Monday touted the U.S. unemployment rate saying the country has “tremendous” potential as it goes about fixing some of the worst trade deals “ever made by any country in the world” in a celebratory Labor Day tweet.

“Happy Labor Day!” Trump tweeted. “Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows. The U.S. has tremendous upside potential as we go about fixing some of the worst Trade Deals ever made by any country in the world.”

“Big progress being made!” Trump added.

The tweet comes amid tense, ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada — negotiations in which Trump reportedly has said he would not compromise at all.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:09 am








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12 fire engines, 80 firefighters called to primary school fire in London — RT UK News

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At least 12 engines and around 80 firefighters have been called to a blaze at a primary school in London, the fire brigade said.

The incident took place at Hewett Road in the Dagenham area of East London, according to the statement.

“Around half of the single-storey building is currently alight,” the firefighters said, adding that the cause of the blaze is unknown.

Reports on Twitter suggest that the affected building belongs to Roding Primary School with provision for deaf children. 

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

NYT shows warm, fuzzy side of Al-Qaeda in Idlib — RT US News

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A New York Times report warning of an impending bloodbath in Idlib downplays the fact that the Syrian province is controlled by Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists, portraying the “rebels” as humanitarian-minded administrators.

“Millions of civilians are dreading what comes next” in Idlib, the New York Times reports, after presumably consulting with most of the province’s estimated three million inhabitants. In a true masterpiece of euphemism-infested journalism, the Times has turned the operation to liberate Idlib from a US-designated terrorist group on its head, bemoaning the uncertain fate of the “rebel fighters and their civilian supporters who rose up more than seven years ago demanding regime change.”

READ MORE: ‘US wants terrorists to stay in Idlib; just imagine what Pompeo would say if they were in Oregon’

Scroll about 20 paragraphs down and the Gray Lady notes with a dismissive air that Syria’s deputy prime minister called these brave fighters “terrorists” (scare-quote credit: NYT) during an interview with Russian (yes, Russian!) television on Saturday. The paper then provides crucial context to help counter this cynical Kremlin soundbite, pointing out that while it’s true that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), “which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda,” has controlled much of Idlib since 2015, there’s more to Al-Qaeda affiliation than meets the eye. After all, the State Department-designated terrorist group has dutifully acted as “a de facto governmental authority, facilitating trade across the long border with Turkey and organizing aid deliveries.”

Seventeen years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Times is now writing articles commending Al-Qaeda affiliates for their aid-delivering abilities. No mention of reports of their chemical weapon stockpiles, however.

Five paragraphs later, the New York Times nonchalantly discloses that HTS – characterized as “rebels”, “fighters”, “rebel fighters”, “rebel forces”, and “Syria’s strongest rebel faction” throughout its mind-melting article – has been “officially declared” a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and even Turkey.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, for many of these “fighters” – especially “foreigners who have moved to Syria to help defeat the government” – surrender is not an option, the Times informs us.

A “fighter” who spoke to the paper said that he and his comrades were frustrated because “we came for jihad” and not “to have truces and to kneel before the Turks.” The terrorist – sorry, “fighter” – only provided his first name to reporters, “out of fear for his safety.” 

And of course, the paper inserts the obligatory swipe at Russia, quoting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s comment that Idlib is a “festering abscess” that needs to be drained. No mention of Lavrov’s efforts to negotiate a humanitarian corridor that would ensure the safe and orderly evacuation of civilians, however.

In a testament to the newspaper’s complete lack of self-awareness, the article notes that Turkey has “worked” with HTS, “despite its affiliation with Al Qaeda, as both have shared a desire to unseat Mr. Assad.”

Seems like Erdogan isn’t the only one who can overlook a few foibles in the pursuit of regime change.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

New York University president receives base pay of $1.3 million

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New York University president receives base pay of $1.3 million

By
Katy Kinner

4 September 2018

Recently released tax returns show that New York University (NYU) president Andrew Hamilton’s base pay was $1.3 million in 2016, his first year in that position. An estimate of Hamilton’s total pay—including compensation and bonuses—would be roughly $2 million, placing him tenth on the list for highest-compensated university administrators, directly above The New School University president David Van Zandt.

According to the 2017 US Census, Hamilton’s $1.3 million pay is almost twenty-four times higher than the average New York City annual income of $55,191 and eighty-six times higher than the poverty threshold $15,000 for a single person. His base pay is the second highest of all university presidents in the United States, according to a 2018 list of executive compensation at private and public colleges released by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

While base pay excludes bonuses and other compensation, NYU’s 990 tax return shows that Hamilton receives an additional $250,000 in deferred compensation each year, to be collected after five years, for a sum of $1.25 million. The document also lists a total of $448,914 as a yearly “estimated amount of other compensation from the organization and related organizations.”

Courtesy of NYU, Hamilton lives in a presidential penthouse that was renovated in 2016 with $1.1 million in university funds. Before moving to NYU, Hamilton had claimed a desire to address the affordability of the university. However, as vice chancellor of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 2009-2015, he angered many students by suggesting the need to raise the legal tuition increase above the cap of £9,000 (roughly $10,982).

Hamilton’s immense…

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PressTV-Trump slams US Attorney General again over GOP probes

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US President Donald Trump has taken yet another swipe at his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who heads the powerful Justice Department, for not blocking two damaging investigations that undermined two Republican candidates ahead of the mid-term congressional elections.

On August 8, Representative Christopher Collins, who was the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president, was indicted for alleged insider trading, wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to the FBI.

According to the indictment, the New York lawmaker was allegedly involved to a scheme to gain insider information about Innate…

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Prison Planet.com » Black People Hate Trump, So Only They Should Be Allowed to Vote, Says Lisa Bloom

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Law & Crime
September 3, 2018

Noted attorney and white woman Lisa Bloom joked Sunday that only black people should be allowed to vote because they overwhelmingly disapprove of President Donald Trump.

That 93 percent disapproval rating among black people is consistent with the results of the 2016 presidential election. Exit polls published by CNN show that only 8 percent of this voting block went for him. Compare that to 89 percent for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. An oft-cited stat shows that only 4 percent of black women supported him. 94 percent marked their ballots for Clinton.

Our POTUS insists that his administration is directly responsible for terrific black employment rate. It’s a recurring theme when he hypes his presidency, and it continued today.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:13 am






This article updates and expands one I wrote on this subject for LewRockwell.com posted on March 8, 2018, and again on July 20, 2018. I presented it at the 36th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Las Vegas last week. Some of the slides I used for that talk are reproduced here.

When WW II ended with two atom bombs dropped on Japan the United States emerged a superpower. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and with Russia struggling, the U.S. became the world’s sole superpower, militarily supreme.

The United States Military Machine Compared to Russia

In his State of the Union speech three years ago, President Obama, citing the sanctions his administration imposed on Russia said: “Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.” Senator John McCain put it this way: “Look, Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”

The U.S. military has sustained its post-war global dominance with 800 military bases and installations in 150 countries encircling the globe. Russia has only 14 military bases outside its current borders, with 11 of them in the former Soviet Republics.

The U.S. military has 1,300,000 servicemen and women on active duty. Some 200,000 are stationed in bases in other countries (with 49,000 still in Japan, 39,000 in Germany, and 28,000 in South Korea). Russia has 1 million active duty personnel.

The carrier-centric United States Navy currently has 11 aircraft carriers–10 Nimitz class supercarriers that cost $6 Billion each and one Gerald Ford-class supercarrier, which cost $13 Billion. (Two more Ford-class carriers are under construction. Two are on order and 10 more planned.) Russia has one aircraft carrier. The U.S. Navy has 71 submarines, about the same as Russia. Fourteen are…

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Prison Planet.com » Facebook should face new laws over its ‘deliberate failure to protect children’s personal data

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Daily Mail
September 3, 2018

Facebook should face new laws over its deliberate failure to protect children, according to the social media giant’s ex-operations manager.

Sandy Parakilas, who worked at the firm between 2011 and 2012, said Facebook’s content and product design was driven by algorithms that maximised the number of users, irrespective of whether it caused addiction, or promoted inflammatory, disturbing or threatening material.

The company repeatedly ignored his warnings about the way it handled the data and health of younger users, he told the Telegraph.

This ‘deliberate failure’ allowed for the spread of problems such as social media addiction, anxiety or depression.

The prominent Facebook critic argues that a duty of care to users must be imposed on tech firms to protect people from the harms of social media.

New laws that force companies to safeguard the personal data, safety and mental health of users are needed to ensure people’s safety, he said.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:16 am






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Nevada woman dies in jail after being denied medical help, DA finds no wrongdoing — RT US News

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Unpaid traffic tickets saw a Nevada woman in jail, where she began to suffer drug withdrawals and seizures. Days later she was dead, after being denied medical care.

A report by state investigators, published this week and revealed by the Reno Gazette Journal, found that staff at Mineral County Jail violated multiple policies by denying 21-year-old Kelly Coltrain medical help, even after she informed them she was dependent on heroin and would suffer seizures without the drug.

In a days-long ordeal caught on her jail cell’s CCTV camera, Coltrain vomited and shook as her condition worsened. Officers rejected her pleas for medical help, instead handing her a mop and bucket to clean up her own vomit.

Coltrain died in her cell, and her body lay motionless for six hours before her jailers realized what had happened. Officers made no attempt to resuscitate her, and did not call for medical assistance until the following morning.

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Kirill Vyshinsky, head of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency, left, in the courtroom of the Kherson Region appeal court in Ukraine © Sputnik

Investigators have asked the local District Attorney to consider pressing charges against the officers involved for inhumane treatment of a prisoner. To avoid a conflict of interest, investigators also passed the report to the district attorney’s office in neighboring Lyon County, which found no reason to press any charges against the officers.

“The review of the case, in our opinion, did not establish any willful or malicious acts by jail staff that would justify the filing of charges under the requirements of the statute,” District Attorney Stephen Rye said.

Furious, Coltrain’s family have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. They described Kelly as a top student and a “friendly, outgoing girl,” who had fallen into depression and drug abuse in her later years.  

“Kelly Coltrain’s medical condition was treatable and her death preventable,” her family’s lawyers wrote. “If Ms. Coltrain had received timely and appropriate medical care, she would not have died. Kelly Coltrain suffered a protracted, extensive, painful, unnecessary death as a result of defendants’ failures.”

Kelly Coltrain’s nightmare began in July 2017, when she was in Reno for her grandmother’s birthday. After leaving the party she was pulled over for speeding. During the stop, officers discovered she had unpaid traffic tickets and booked her into Mineral County Jail, in the tiny town of Hawthorne, Nevada.

Coltrain told her jailers that she was addicted to drugs and suffered from seizures, but they neglected to have her cleared for detention by a doctor, and neglected to monitor her vital signs. Instead, they accused her of trying to skive off to the hospital for her fix.

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© Shannon Stapleton

“Unfortunately, since you’re DT’ing (referring to the detoxification process), I’m not going to take you over to the hospital right now just to get your fix,” Deputy Ray Gulcynski allegedly told Coltrain. “That’s not the way detention works, unfortunately. You are incarcerated with us, so … you don’t get to go to the hospital when you want.”

Coltrain curled up in her cell for the next three days, refusing food and suffering from worsening convulsions. On the third day, officers convinced her to eat and brought her a change of clothes. They also asked her to mop up her vomit off the cell floor, a process that the weakened woman struggled with.

Soon after, CCTV footage shows Coltrain’s body stiffen and convulse as he lies on the jailhouse bed, before lying still. Six hours later, Gulcynski walks into the cell, nudges Coltrain, checks her pulse, and leaves.

No paramedics were called, and Coltrain lay dead in the cell until forensic technician arrived the following dawn. Coltrain’s death was ruled accidental, caused by “complications of drug use.”

Investigators have accused the two officers on duty, Gulcynski and Sgt. Jim Holland, of failing to check in on Coltrain every two hours, as they were required to do. “There were a limited number of times where Coltrain had actual contact with the staff,” the report reads.. “This may be significant because had more contact been made with Coltrain, indicators of Kelly’s medical condition may have been observed. These indicators may have alerted staff therefore prompting medical attention to be rendered to Coltrain.”

In the aftermath of Coltrain’s death, her family are not just looking for compensation, but for an improvement in conditions at Mineral County Jail, something that the sheriff’s office says it is already working on.

“It’s just really difficult for a small rural county like this to handle what is just a massive problem,” the office’s lawyer, Brett Ryman, said. “There are so many people addicted to substances who end up going through withdrawal in the jail.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-12 arrested in Chicago Labor Day protest

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US Police arrested 12 activists purportedly attempting to block Chicago’s Kennedy expressway near O’Hare International Airport on Monday, as part of an anti-violence protest held on Labor Day.

Protesters sought to draw attention to the city’s gang violence epidemic. They called on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s to step down, and demanded more investment be funnelled into neighbourhoods where shooting occurs.

Police proceeded to arrest 12 people and demanded that the protesters clear from the expressway.

The protesters were planning to march down the Kennedy expressway and to reach the O’Hare International Airport.

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PressTV-Trump tweets to warn about attacking Idlib

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US President Donald Trump has claimed that attacking militant-held Idlib would be a “humanitarian mistake” for Tehran and Moscow.

“The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!” claimed the US president in a tweet on Monday.

His tweet followed the latest visit to Damascus by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other top officials from the war-ravaged country.

Trump’s comment follows similar remarks by US…

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How Taxpayers Subsidize Giant Corporate Pay Gaps

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All across the political spectrum, Americans are feeling outraged about the huge gaps between what corporations pay their CEOs and what they pay their workers.

In fact, one poll shows that a majority of Democrats and Republicans want to see a cap on the CEO-worker pay divide.

But this outrage hasn’t had any effect on how our government spends our tax dollars. Every year, billions flow into corporations that pay their top execs more in a year than their workers could make in a lifetime.

In this video, I share the findings of a new Institute for Policy Studies report looking at the federal government’s top 50 contractors and top 50 subsidy recipients. What did I find? In 2017, more than two-thirds of these firms paid their CEO more than 100 times their median worker pay.

One of the firms I highlight in the report and the video is American Airlines, which was among the top 50 recipients of federal subsidies last year. The airline’s CEO took in $12.2 million, 195 times the typical worker’s pay.

We taxpayers are supporting companies like American Airlines directly through contracts and subsidies – and indirectly when their low-wage workers have to rely on taxpayer-funded safety net programs.

A 2018 survey found that employees at American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air were making as little as $9.48 per hour, and 27 percent of these workers had to rely on public assistance to make ends meet.

The really big buckets of taxpayer money go to the federal government’s top contractors. Last year, 34 of the top 50 (68 percent) paid their CEO more than 100 times their median worker pay. These firms raked in a combined total of $167 billion in taxpayer-funded contracts. They include companies like Lockheed Martin, which relied on the federal government for 97 percent of its total revenue last year.

Shouldn’t our government be helping our society become more equal, not less?

Over a generation ago, we started denying government contracts to companies that discriminate —…

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Nazis on the March in Germany

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Berlin.

Ten eventful days in Germany set alarm signals clanging louder and louder – worst of all in the East German state of Saxony –– but in Berlin as well! 

In the first episode, in Saxony, the neo-Nazi PEGIDA movement, which has marched in Dresden on many Mondays since 2014, has faded with the growth of the more respectable-looking, more successful but equally racist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which now, with 25% in the polls in Saxony, is second strongest party, with a strong chance of winning next year’s state elections and forming or at least sharing the next government. In fact, it is close to edging out the Social Democrats as second strongest party in all of Germany.

On August 16th the two closely-related far-right rivals, PEGIDA and AfD, joined in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim togetherness for another protest meeting in Dresden, Saxony’s capital.  

 At a PEGIDA rally six weeks earlier, at a time when a ship full of people rescued from drowning in the Mediterranean was desperately seeking a port, the crowd had chanted “Let it sink! Let it sink!” For the August 16th rally a TV channel sent out a team to film these or similar goings-on.

Suddenly an ugly-looking demonstrator with an odd cap in the colors of the German flag ran in front of the camera shouting that they were filming him without his consent, thus breaking the law. The journalists told him to simply walk away if he didn’t want to be filmed. Instead, after shouting angrily into…

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Prison Planet.com » Who’s an Animal? CNN’s Don Lemon Says Use of ‘Monkey’ Is a ‘Dog Whistle’

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Newsbusters
September 3, 2018

During Wednesday’s edition of CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon played a clip of Representative Ron DeSantis, Republican nominee in the Florida gubernatorial election, saying “the last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state” during an interview with Fox News. Lemon asked: “Does anybody else hear that dog whistle? It’s kind of a bullhorn.”

If “monkey” is imagined as dehumanizing, then what kind of metaphor is “dog whistle”? Aren’t you suggesting conservative voters are dogs?

Lemon then played a clip of DeSantis describing his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum as an “articulate spokesman for those far-left views.” Lemon seemed to think the word “articulate” was racist as well, describing it as a “popular slur disguised as a compliment, articulate, as if it’s surprising when a person of color speaks well.”

By Lemon’s own standards, Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would qualify as a racist. After all, Reid described President Obama as “a light-skinned African-American with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.” Reid surely sounded surprised that “a person of color,” in this case, President Obama, actually “speaks well.”  Yet when this story broke, the media found reporting on it quite inconvenient.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:19 am






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Chicago anti-violence activists detained & fined in ‘respectful’ standoff with authorities (VIDEOS) — RT US News

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Illinois state police have arrested the organizer of an act of civil disobedience, along with at least 11 anti-violence protesters, who tried to occupy a major roadway leading to O’Hare International Airport.

Frustrated by the rise in gun violence and deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the South and West Sides of the city, several dozen protesters assembled at the on-ramp at Cumberland Avenue around noon before attempting to march onto the Kennedy Expressway to block traffic. The activists, who called for the departure of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, were met by dozens of state troopers who blocked the ramp to Interstate 90.

Authorities cautioned the crowd that it was “against the law” for pedestrians to enter the highway, but the group led by Rev. Gregory Livingston from the New Hope Baptist Church appeared to disregard the police order, chanting “Ain’t nobody going to turn us around.”

In an effort to defuse the situation, Livingston addressed the troopers, who again asked the protesters to leave the ramp warning of possible arrests.

Those who attempted to march onto the expressway were arrested, fined $120, and then released, state police said, stressing that the incident “was respectful on both sides.”

Despite the frustration and the brief arrests, the demonstrators eventually left the ramp and marched toward the designated protest area nearby. Monday’s protest was Chicago’s third anti-violence rally in the past three months. Similar protests, all aimed at raising awareness about gun violence and socioeconomic discrepancies between the city’s neighborhoods, were held on August 2 and July 7.

In the last seven years, at least 174 minors have been fatally shot in the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago. Another 1,665 people under 17 were treated for gunshot wounds, figures compiled by The Chicago Tribune show. More than 2,000 people have been injured in shootings this year so far, including 83 minors, nine of whom died.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Boots Riley on His Anti-Capitalist Film “Sorry to Bother You,” the Power of Strikes & Class Struggle

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https://democracynow.org – In a Labor Day special, we air an extended conversation with Boots Riley, writer and director of “Sorry to Bother You,” his new film …

Via Youtube

Washington and Tehran trade threats over the Strait of Hormuz

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As IAEA confirms Iranian compliance with nuclear deal

Washington and Tehran trade threats over the Strait of Hormuz

By
Jordan Shilton

3 September 2018

Less than a month after brutal US sanctions snapped back into force against Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed yet again, in a report released Friday, that Tehran is in full compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord. The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was unilaterally abrogated in May by US President Donald Trump, who made entirely bogus claims that Iran had violated the deal.

The latest IAEA findings further expose the provocative character of the Trump administration’s policy, which threatens not only to plunge the entire region into military conflict, but also has dramatically sharpened tensions between Washington and its ostensible European allies. Trump vowed following his announcement that any company doing business with Iran, including those based in Europe, would be barred from trading with the United States.

The fact that US imperialism is the most destabilizing factor in the present situation has been underlined over the past week following aggressive comments by US National Security Adviser John Bolton. On August 22, he declared that Washington intends to push Iranian oil exports down to “zero,” and do so just as soon as its sanctions on Iran’s energy sector are re-imposed November 8.

Bolton’s ominous threat was made as reports emerged that the US may be preparing a major military strike on the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, which, as a close ally of Tehran and Moscow, is viewed by Washington as a major obstacle to the consolidation of its unchallenged control over the energy-rich and strategically pivotal Middle East.

In response to…

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Is There a Plan in South Africa To Steal White Farms

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President Trump was not wrong about the South African land-grab, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), a liberal think tank. SAIRR said that the Trump had exposed the “damage” the policy was doing.

He did not, however, expose the extent of the damage. Nor the intent.

The current President of South Africa wrote an article for London’s Financial Times just two weeks ago defending the acquisition of land from white farmers by black South Africans without compensation: “This is no land grab; nor is it an assault on the private ownership of property. The ANC has been clear that its land reform programme should not undermine future investment in the economy or damage agricultural production and food security.”

It seems in this era of words not having any valid meaning that bad is good, war is peace, weakness is strength, and up is down. But thievery is still thievery even if done by government.

The Agri SA agricultural union in Pretoria, South Africa, released new figures that reveal black criminal gangs have killed one white South African farmer every five days so far this year! Is this “only” random crime taking place in a troubled and dark land or a plan to drive all farmers off their land by intimidation?

Against the State: An …
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South African officials suggest that these killings are only “burglaries gone wrong” but informed and honest people (black and white) know the truth. The government stopped accounting for such deaths since it is too embarrassing. Hence, “burglaries gone wrong” headlines result in less negative press than “another white farm family wiped out by roaming black…

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‘I Can’t Take My Daughter or Wife Into the City Anymore Because of Harassment by Migrants’

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German town becomes epicenter of anti-mass migration sentiment

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
September 3, 2018

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Video out of Chemnitz shows a German citizen at an anti-mass immigration protest explaining how he can’t take his wife and daughter in law into town anymore because of harassment by Muslim migrants.

Chemnitz has been the epicenter of several clashes between anti-migrant protesters and leftists over the last week following the stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig by a Syrian and an Iraqi migrant.

The clip features several demonstrators attempting to explain to a leftist why they are protesting.

“I worked for 40 years. I can’t go into the city anymore with my grandchildren. Why? My wife, my daughter in law went to the city not too long ago,” one man explains.

“In front of the cops, Arab citizens, young men well dressed, stylish with a mobile phone went past her, ‘Wanna fuck?’ ‘Wanna fuck?’”

“And I ask myself is that normal?”, he added. “If I did that 4 years ago, they would have taken me away as a sexual offended, but with them, closed, closed, closed!”

The leftist woman turns away in effort to dismiss the man’s story. He later points out that the riots in Chemnitz only began after a migrant spat on the graves of Germans.

“And such people remain free! This is incomprehensible! Incomprehensible!” asserts another man.

The Mayor of Chemnitz reacted to the protests by declaring a state of emergency and drafting in 1,200 police officers to secure the city.

“I’m convinced that it’ll mobilise forces as we see today that very clearly…

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Man stole thousands raised for son of slain soldier Lee Rigby, made ‘flop’ music track – prosecutors — RT UK News

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A man who organized fundraisers to supposedly help the son of a British soldier brutally killed in London kept the money for himself and used part of it to make a music single that he knew would “flop,” according to prosecutors.

Gary Gardner, a 56-year-old Lorry driver, organized three truck pull fundraising events in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He claimed those events were to benefit the son of British soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by Islamic extremists near his barracks in southeast London in 2013.

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Lee Rigby was killed outside Woolwich barracks © Reuters/ Olivia Harris

“There were talks of climbing Kilimanjaro, there were a number of things he wanted to do to raise funds for [Rigby’s son] Jack,” Rebecca, the mother of Rigby’s son, told the court. “He spoke about large money – thousands – and it was as if it would set Jack up for life.”

But Rigby’s family didn’t receive any of the money raised from those events, which prosecutors say amounts to at least £24,000.

Instead, Gardner kept the cash for himself, spending “questionable amounts of money” on travel and expenses for himself in London, according to the prosecution, which said that it “appears that the defendant has spent all the money he received.”

Gardner also used some of the money to produce a charity music track which he knew would “flop,” the court heard.

A total of £4,000 did apparently make its way to various charities, with the prosecution stating that they were token payments designed to avoid investigation into his affairs, LeicesterLive reported. But those contributions still didn’t find their way to Rebecca or her son.

“Jack and myself have never received a penny from him,” Rebecca responded when asked if she had ever seen any of the cash.

Gardner has denied the three counts of fraud that he is charged with. The trial remains ongoing.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Man stole thousands raised for son of slain soldier Lee Rigby, made ‘flop’ music track – prosecutors — RT UK News

0

A man who organized fundraisers to supposedly help the son of a British soldier brutally killed in London kept the money for himself and used part of it to make a music single that he knew would “flop,” according to prosecutors.

Gary Gardner, a 56-year-old Lorry driver, organized three truck pull fundraising events in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He claimed those events were to benefit the son of British soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by Islamic extremists near his barracks in southeast London in 2013.

Read more


Lee Rigby was killed outside Woolwich barracks © Reuters/ Olivia Harris

“There were talks of climbing Kilimanjaro, there were a number of things he wanted to do to raise funds for [Rigby’s son] Jack,” Rebecca, the mother of Rigby’s son, told the court. “He spoke about large money – thousands – and it was as if it would set Jack up for life.”

But Rigby’s family didn’t receive any of the money raised from those events, which prosecutors say amounts to at least £24,000.

Instead, Gardner kept the cash for himself, spending “questionable amounts of money” on travel and expenses for himself in London, according to the prosecution, which said that it “appears that the defendant has spent all the money he received.”

Gardner also used some of the money to produce a charity music track which he knew would “flop,” the court heard.

A total of £4,000 did apparently make its way to various charities, with the prosecution stating that they were token payments designed to avoid investigation into his affairs, LeicesterLive reported. But those contributions still didn’t find their way to Rebecca or her son.

“Jack and myself have never received a penny from him,” Rebecca responded when asked if she had ever seen any of the cash.

Gardner has denied the three counts of fraud that he is charged with. The trial remains ongoing.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Man stole thousands raised for son of slain soldier Lee Rigby, made ‘flop’ music track – prosecutors — RT UK News

0

A man who organized fundraisers to supposedly help the son of a British soldier brutally killed in London kept the money for himself and used part of it to make a music single that he knew would “flop,” according to prosecutors.

Gary Gardner, a 56-year-old Lorry driver, organized three truck pull fundraising events in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He claimed those events were to benefit the son of British soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by Islamic extremists near his barracks in southeast London in 2013.

Read more


Lee Rigby was killed outside Woolwich barracks © Reuters/ Olivia Harris

“There were talks of climbing Kilimanjaro, there were a number of things he wanted to do to raise funds for [Rigby’s son] Jack,” Rebecca, the mother of Rigby’s son, told the court. “He spoke about large money – thousands – and it was as if it would set Jack up for life.”

But Rigby’s family didn’t receive any of the money raised from those events, which prosecutors say amounts to at least £24,000.

Instead, Gardner kept the cash for himself, spending “questionable amounts of money” on travel and expenses for himself in London, according to the prosecution, which said that it “appears that the defendant has spent all the money he received.”

Gardner also used some of the money to produce a charity music track which he knew would “flop,” the court heard.

A total of £4,000 did apparently make its way to various charities, with the prosecution stating that they were token payments designed to avoid investigation into his affairs, LeicesterLive reported. But those contributions still didn’t find their way to Rebecca or her son.

“Jack and myself have never received a penny from him,” Rebecca responded when asked if she had ever seen any of the cash.

Gardner has denied the three counts of fraud that he is charged with. The trial remains ongoing.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump warns Assad against ‘reckless’ attack on Syria’s Idlib — RT US News

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US President Donald Trump has warned Syrian leader Bashar Assad not to attack Idlib province, one of the last terrorist hideouts in the country, also advising Iran and Russia against taking part in the “potential human tragedy.”

Expressing his concern that hundreds of thousands of lives might be at risk during the Syrian army’s looming operations to clear the Idlib province of militants, Trump on Monday afternoon cautioned Damascus, as well as Moscow and Iran, against “making a grave humanitarian mistake.”

“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province,” Trump tweeted. “The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy.”

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FILE PHOTO. © Kim Hong-Ji

Russia, which has yet to comment on the latest statement from the US leader, has been working for weeks to establish humanitarian corridors in Idlib province. Shortly before Trump’s tweet, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Russia, Turkey and Iran are working to separate armed opposition and terrorists in the area so that any potential military operations spares civilian lives. At the same time, Lavrov stressed that terrorists in Syria are still being supplied with weapons and munitions.

READ MORE: ‘Aid-delivering’ Syrian rebels: NYT shows warm, fuzzy side of Al-Qaeda in Idlib

For the last couple of weeks, the Russian military has also been warning that militants are preparing to stage a fake chemical weapons attack in Idlib in order to frame Damascus. Moscow repeatedly raised concern that such a false flag attack could serve as a pretext for the US and its allies to carry out airstrikes on Syrian government targets, which would further jeopardize the reconciliation process in the country.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Alec Ross: Hogan Failing Maryland on Climate, Education, and Jobs

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The Maryland Gubernatorial candidate says Hogan wants to carry out Betsy DeVos’s agenda on public schools, has failed to uplift areas like Baltimore, or create …

Via Youtube

She’s Not There | Dissident Voice

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Our culture is now one of masculine triumphalism, in which transhistorically feminine expressions – empathy, sweetness, volubility, warmth – are seen as impediments to a woman’s professional trajectory in many sectors.
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Mama: Dispatches from the Frontline of Love

Femininity is depicted as weakness, the sapping of strength, yet masculinity is so fragile that apparently even the slightest brush with the feminine destroys it.
― Gwen Sharpe, “Policing Masculinity in Slim Jim’s ‘Spice Loss’ Ads,” Sociological Images, August 21, 2012

She has been missed. I looked for evidence of her somewhere in old documents, a remnant left behind, something, but she’s not there. Yet still, when the mistral winds blow cool the stale heat of summer lifts, and there is a scent that reminds me she existed, but there’s no tangible sign. I focus, concentrate, try to remember what she was like, the memory is vaporous, haunting, and then gone. What’s left behind is a feeling. A feeling like something more is possible than this if only she were here.

A feeling reminds me again that she was our collective compassion. She was our gentleness. She was our softer side, the empathetic parts that urged us to let things go, to emotionally connect in the moment, to accept, to forgive. She was our Gaian heart. And I remember this with perfect clarity, she didn’t leave on her own, we got together and plotted her removal, burned her at the stake, and…

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Prison Planet.com » CNN Boosts Left-Wing Campaign to Censor Breitbart; Approves ‘Blacklisting’

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Breitbart
September 3, 2018

CNN swept aside journalistic ethics on Sunday by endorsing a blacklisting campaign with a glowing interview of Matt Rivitz, the founder of Sleeping Giants, a failed effort to censor Breitbart News by harassing and intimidating companies whose advertisements may (or may not) have appeared on the website.

The interview took place on Reliable Sources, a Sunday morning show that once focused on analyzing the media, but which in recent years has been turned into the editorial mouthpiece of CNN president Jeff Zucker, voiced through host Brian Stelter.

Sunday’s program was helmed by substitute anchor John Avlon, in for Stelter — who had earlier used his vacation to dodge questions about CNN’s failure to retract a false story about President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Ironically, Avlon and Reliable Sources addressed the Cohen story without acknowledging that CNN had lied about the fact that Lanny Davis had been one of its sources. Avlon’s panel slammed Davis for “backtracking” on his version of events, then quickly shifted to talking about threats made against the Boston Globe.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 9:21 am






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British ‘kingpin in £350m cocaine gang’ seized in Escobar’s Colombian heartland — RT UK News

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A British man has been captured by Colombian forces in the heartland of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar – for allegedly being the ‘kingpin’ of a “£350 million cocaine-trafficking gang.”

Andrew Deamer, 52, was captured in Rionegro, 20 miles from Medellin – once home to the notorious Escobar – after allegedly operating a number of Breaking Bad-style labs where cocaine could be chemically disguised as dog or cat food and fertiliser, reports the Mirror.

One former US drug enforcer says that Deamer had worked his way into the confidence of the brutal cartels, claiming: “He put his head into the lion’s mouth.” He also suggests that the Brit could be involved in drug trades worth around £1.2 billion.

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 © 003 David Devins

Deamer was captured last November, but details of the arrest have only come to light after video footage of the raid was supplied by Fiscalia, Colombia’s Attorney General’s office, according to the paper.

The video, published by the Mirror, shows Deamer clambouring down from an attic bolt-hole in an early morning raid, before being marched out by military forces along with his Colombian wife Marcela Zapata, 37, in a swoop which busted a £354 million drugs ring.

Fiscalia alleges Deamer, who had the nicknames – ‘El Mono’, Spanish for The Monkey, and ‘Marcos,’ a reference to the TV series Narcos – is responsible for tons of cocaine sent to the UK, Europe and the US. The British press have taken to calling Deamer, originally from Barrow-upon-Soar, ‘The East Midlands Escobar.’

The attorney general’s office said chemists, working for the cartel, applied a unique method to make cocaine look like pet food, adding: “Our seizures revealed the use of multiple controlled substances, essences and dyes to ensure the cocaine had a similar shape, smell, texture and appearance to legal products.

READ MORE: Mum of 6yo epileptic boy becomes first to legally bring ‘miracle’ cannabis oil into UK

“When it was received at the destination, chemists had to travel there to reverse the process for the drug to be sold.”

He is now locked up in Bogota’s infamous La Picota prison. He has managed to negotiate a lighter sentence – 14 years and eight months – after signing a “preliminary agreement” to assist local authorities with their investigations.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Racist robocalls and Soros funding? Florida governor race turns dirty fast — RT US News

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The hotly contested race for the Florida governor’s mansion has turned nasty quickly, with one side accused of racism and the other taken to task over controversial financial donors, including the ubiquitous George Soros.

The high-profile race has been described as a litmus test for America, as it sees Andrew Gillum, a Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat go up against Rep. Ron DeSantis, an avowed Trump supporter and Trump-endorsed Republican.

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Republican Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis (L) © Carlos Barria, Democrat Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (R) © Joe Skipper

Gillum has come under fire for comments made to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, during which he thanked “everyday folks” for donating to his campaign — but also gave a special thank you to billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, two of the more controversial of his funders. “I’m obviously deeply appreciative of Mr. Soros, as well as Mr. Steyer, both men whom I’ve known for some time,” Gillum told NBC.

Unlike some other progressive Democratic candidates standing for election in the November midterms, Gillum has not refused big money donations from the likes of Soros. In April, Gillum’s campaign raised $450,000, but more than half of that came from the Hungarian-American billionaire through a Gillum-affiliated political action committee called Forward Florida, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Soros also made two six-figure donations to Gillum in 2017 and offered another large cash infusion during the final weeks of campaigning during the Democratic primary.

Despite the Soros money, Gillum had still been a dark horse in the race, polling in fourth place at around 16 percent weeks out from voting day. His win was a surprise to the Democratic establishment which was expecting a more moderate candidate to win the nomination.

Gillum has brushed off the notion that his campaign was being bankrolled by billionaires who wield undue influence over American politics, saying that his campaign was “propped up by a lot of small donations” including from his mother, who he said was “on auto-deduct of $20 a month into our campaign”.

Gillum’s opponent DeSantis, who currently represents Florida’s 6th district, has little ability to criticize the mega-donor funding, however, since his campaign too has been bankrolled by billionaires including the conservative Richard Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth, who are some of the top Republican donors in the country.

DeSantis has also been accused of racism after recently warning Florida voters not to “monkey” things up by voting for Gillum, who is black. Gillum claimed the comment was a “dog whistle” to racists, but DeSantis denied any allegations of racism, saying that the comment had nothing to do with race.

Some have questioned that denial, however, pointing to the allegation that the congressman was until recently a moderator for a group on Facebook which regularly posted racist comments and memes. The DeSantis campaign claimed that the candidate did not know he was part of the group and that he never had any active role in moderating it, but his wife, Casey DeSantis was still a member of the group as of last week.

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Ron DeSantis campaign ad

While it’s possible DeSantis is sincere in his denial of racism, some unquestionable racists have indeed sought to target Gillum with an overtly racist robocall that has circulated around Florida and which refers to the Democrat as a “negro”.

During the call, a narrator who claims to be Gillum speaks over background noise of drums and monkeys and tells the listener that Gillum will pass a law letting black people evade arrest “if the Negro know fo’ sho’ he didn’t do nothin’” — among other racially charged statements.

At the end of the call, a voice says that it was funded by The Road to Power, an anti-Semitic and white supremacist website and podcast. Gillum’s campaign has called the robocalls “reprehensible” and said they could only have come from someone “with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity”. DeSantis’ campaign also denounced the calls as “absolutely appalling and disgusting”.

Any niceties ended there, however, with DeSantis accusing Gillum during a radio interview on Sunday, of planning to “turn Florida into Venezuela” with his left wing policies.

Gillum and DeSantis will face off against each other November.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Britain in ‘EU taxi boot’ with May’s plan

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Former British foreign minister Boris Johnson has revived his fierce criticism of Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for leaving the European Union, saying Britain will end up having no say on EU regulations while being forced to accept them.

In his weekly column for the Daily Telegraph, Johnson wrote on Monday that May’s plan for preserving the regulatory alignment with the EU after the country leaves the bloc in March would mean even more dependence on Brussels after Brexit.

“We will remain in the EU taxi; but this time locked in the boot, with absolutely no say on the destination,” Johnson wrote in his column.

The conservative politician resigned from his post as foreign minister after May announced her final plan of action for Brexit in a meeting in Chequers, her country residence, in early July. Johnson said at the time that the plan would nullify a Brexit which people voted for in June 2016.

In his article, Johnson again…

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PressTV-Trump pushing Germans toward Russia, China

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Policies forged under US President Donald Trump could push Germany towards Russia and China, warns the former German ambassador to the United States.

Wolfgang Ischinger made the comments in an interview with Reuters on Monday ahead of the publication of his book “World in Danger.”

“The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully,” said Ischinger, who currently serves as the chairman of the Munich Security Conference. “It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship… And the forces calling for a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and US President Donald Trump (C) make a statement to the press, next to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo…

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New Report Outlines Trump’s Anti-Worker Agenda

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In the week leading up to Labor Day, President Donald Trump’s vicious anti-worker agenda has been on full display: In addition to abruptly canceling a modest pay raise for around two million public employees on Thursday, Trump also signed a retirement savings executive order that was denounced as a gift to Wall Street and “a cruel joke on American workers” facing a retirement income crisis.

Yet, as if none of these latest attacks on American workers took place, the White House issued its annual Presidential Labor Day Proclamation late Friday, touting what it describes as Trump’s “historic action to advance prosperity for the American worker.”

But while the Trump administration may be working hard to obscure its own disastrous anti-worker record—conveniently ignoring the fact that wages for most workers are declining as the obscenely rich continue to get richer—a new Labor Day report by Public Citizen out last week provides uncomfortable truths that Trump and his plutocratic advisers are attempting to erase from history.

“Trump has betrayed America’s workforce, sacrificing lives at the altar of industry profits,” Shanna Devine, worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and author of the new report, said in a statement.

As the consumer advocacy group’s new report (pdf) details, Trump has effectively made the anti-worker agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce official administration policy by delaying and rolling back key regulations that protect workers from injuries on the job and shield them from exposure to the cancer-causing chemicals and metals like beryllium.

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The McCain Death Tour Reaches Its Imperial Apotheosis

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Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings, oh lord yeah!

— Black Sabbath, “War Pigs,” 1969

You’re going to have to shut up or I’ll call the police…Get out of here you low-life scum.

— John McCain’s statement to peace activists calling for the arrest of epic imperial war criminal Henry Kissinger, January 29. 2015

I hate to break this news flash, but the United States was already Orwellian before Donald Trump shat his way into the White House.

Has there ever been a public high-imperial church-and-state ritual more nauseating than the nationally televised (on CBS, FBC, ABC, WGN, FOX, CSPAN, CNN, HLN, MSNBC, FNC, FBN) funeral of the mad dog killer and longtime Roman-, I mean US-Senatorial warmonger John McCain?  I suppose there has, but I am hard-pressed to remember it.

I ran across the funeral by accident, looking to see if I could watch some Premier League Soccer from England on NBC.

Death Becomes Him

I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the seemingly endless memorialization of McCain still in full-swing, reach its Monty Python-esque apotheosis at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.  I knew in the back of my mind that the national send-off had still not occurred. It’s just that the airwaves had already been dominated by the 2018 John McCain Death Tour for at least the last three days, already.

But there it still was,…

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Central Banks Enrich a Select Few

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The message unanimously churned out by politicians, central bankers, and ‘mainstream’ economists is that central banks are there for the ‘greater good’. They provide the economy with sufficient money and credit, and they fight inflation, thereby supporting output and employment growth. What is more, central banks, are supposedly in a position to effectively fend off or at least mitigate financial and economic crises. However, unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

Throughout history, central banks have been created, first and foremost, to fill governments’ coffers. To increase the king’s or elected government’s financial means through an inflationary scheme – usually too elaborate and too treacherous for most people to see through. Central banks are instrumental for putting the ruler — or the ruling class — into a position where they can plunder the people on a grand scale and, by way of redistributing the loot, making a growing number of people financially and socially dependent on it.

To that end, central banks have been assigned the monopoly of money production. This has made it possible to replace commodities, or “natural money” with unbacked paper or fiat money. Central banks provide commercial banks with fiat central bank money, and commercial banks are free to pyramid a multiple of fiat commercial bank money on top of it. This is what monetary experts typically call a “fractional reserve banking system,” which is a genuinely inflationary scheme.

Murray N. Rothbard even speaks of a cartel between the central bank and commercial banks. In practice, the central bank acts as a cartelizing agent: “to cartelize the private commercial banks, and to help them inflate money…

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Prison Planet.com » Migrant Who Stabbed Two American Tourists Cites Criticism of Islam as Motive

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Afghan man who carried out Amsterdam attack says he was offended over insults against Prophet Muhammad.

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
September 3, 2018

null

The Afghan migrant who stabbed two American tourists in Amsterdam says he was motivated by people in the Netherlands insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

Public prosecutors have revealed that the suspect, 19-year-old Jawed S., traveled from Germany to the Netherlands to carry out the attack “because he thinks that the Prophet Muhammad, the Koran and Islam are frequently offended here.”

The jihadist also mentioned that he was offended over statements made by right-wing Dutch politician and strident Islam critic Geert Wilders.

Wilders reacted to the news by tweeting, “Muslim terrorists hate our way of life and our liberties. They answer criticism of Islam with violence. Almost every week this kind of gruesome stabbing takes place against innocent people throughout Europe.”

The two American victims of the terror attack remain in hospital with serious injuries.

As we reported last week, Wilders was forced to cancel a ‘draw Muhammad’ cartoon contest in Amsterdam after terrorists threatened to attack the event.

Wilders made the decision after an Islamist posted a video to Facebook announcing he was in the Hague and ready to kill the Dutch politician.

Islamic terrorists and their sympathizers have targeted high profile individuals for assassination before in the Netherlands as payback for criticizing or making fun of Islam.

In 2004, Theo van Gogh, who worked with Somali-born writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce a film which criticized the treatment of women in Islam, was shot dead by an Islamic terrorist who was offended over the documentary.

The murder prompted Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali to go into hiding for weeks, with Ali eventually leaving permanently for the United States.

In 2002, homosexual…

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Police force resorts to asking an algorithm if they should investigate crimes — RT UK News

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The Norfolk Police Force is resorting to using an algorithm to determine whether officers should investigate burglaries, in an effort to save time and money, under pressure from Tory government cuts.

The police force is testing a computer algorithm designed to assess the “solvability” of cases, using factors such as the quality of CCTV footage of the offender, and whether fingerprints were left at the scene, to determine whether officers should launch an investigation or not.

The move has prompted an outcry from victims’ rights groups and MPs who say technology should never take the place of humans due to the “impact on victims” and “invasive” nature of such crimes.

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© Garvin Snell/Twitter

According to the Daily Mail, hundreds of burglary investigations have been closed by the Norfolk Constabulary this year using the controversial technique, without the knowledge of the victims.

Harry Fletcher of the Victims’ Rights Campaign said: “It’s far better that an individual makes these decisions than a computer, because they can take into account the impact on victims.

“If the victim is elderly or vulnerable the effect of a burglary will be immense. A failure to consider this will risk further losing public confidence.”

The algorithm is built on the analysis of thousands of burglaries in Norfolk, according to the force. It looks at 29 factors that affect whether a case can be solved or not, and determines whether they are present or absent.

The pilot scheme is the latest in a series of initiatives introduced by forces attempting to limit the number of caseloads, with resources stretched in part due to violent crime on the rise as well as police officer numbers falling.

Burglary rose by 6.2 percent in the UK in the year to July, with less than five percent of burglary cases resulting in charges. In Norfolk, burglaries rose by around 10 percent in the year to March, the Times reports.

READ MORE: ‘Less money and opportunity’: Senior Met chief cites social inequality behind rise in crime

The police burglary algorithm, which was formulated by Cambridge University researchers, is said to be the first of its kind. The force insists it has not ditched traditional policing methods and that “in all cases of house burglary an officer will attend.”

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow policing minister, said: “Burglary is one of the most invasive crimes you can fall victim to and technology should not be stopping vulnerable victims receiving a police response.

“It’s an inescapable fact that the vast majority of crime is now not being investigated or prosecuted thanks to eight brutal years of cuts to the police and the criminal justice system.”

READ MORE: Private police force will hit streets of Britain to fill void created by austerity

A spokesman for the force said: “We’ve liaised with academics from the University of Cambridge in relation to the development of an algorithm, which is currently being tested alongside our normal working practices.

“In all cases of house burglary an officer will attend the scene and carry out an initial investigation. An assessment will then be made as to whether further inquiries are required and it is at this stage that we test the use of the algorithm. The results of this will be evaluated in the near future.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

34 Backpacks – An Ongoing Commemoration of Yemeni Children Killed on August 9

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Felton Davis, who coordinates a weekly vigil in NYC calling for an end to the U.S. war against Yemen, sent us a letter written by Yemen’s Minister of Education which names the students and teachers who were killed when a Saudi warplane fired a 500 lb. bomb, made in the US, at their school bus. We feel relieved to know that ten children whom we believed had died are actually alive. The number of children killed was 34, not 44. Four of their teachers were killed along with 12 passers-by. 78 people were wounded, including 55 students. Our hearts also go out to the first responders, EMT workers and hospital staff whose courageous efforts to save and heal people also involved trying to determine the number of dead.

We encourage people to continue commemorating those who died in the April 9, 2018 attack. In Chicago, Voices and other peace groups gathered in the Federal Building Plaza where we set up blue backpacks to commemorate each child who had been killed. (UNICEF had issued blue backpacks to the children before they went on their outing).

Please let us know if you would like to set up a similar vigil in your area. We can equip people with placards describing the attack and naming each victim; we can also supply photos, sample fliers, press releases and information about setting up backpacks. Contact Voices at 773-878-3815 or write info@vcnv.org.

You can also find more information, with photos and videos, at hashtag #44backpacks.

Here are the names of those killed and injured in the August 9 attack:

  • Mohammad Yahya Yahya Faya, killed
    11 years old
  • Zakaria Abdel Wahab Ali Faya, killed
    10 years old
  • Ali Mohammed Hassan Da’i, killed
    10 years old
  • Yousef Hussein Hussein Tayeb, killed
    15 years old
  • Ahmed Zaid Hussein Tayeb, killed
    12 years old
  • Ali Zaid Hussein Tayeb, killed
    9 years old
  • Osama Zeid Ali Al-Hamran, killed
    13 years old
  • Ali Zaid Ali Al-Hamran, killed
    15 years old
  • Ali Abdul Rahim Ali Hashem, killed
    9 years old
  • Akab Mohamed Hassan al-Abbadi, killed
    12 years old
  • Turki Mohamed Hassan Abadi, killed
    10 years old
  • Yousef Abdul Aziz Al-Dahdawi, killed
    13 years old
  • Younis Abdul Aziz Al-Dahdawi, killed
    11 years old
  • Yousef Abdullah Saleh Al-Hatafi, killed
    10 years old
  • Abdullah Hussein Faisal Hajj, killed
    12 years old
  • Hamid Mohammed Ayda Hadi, killed
    10 years old
  • Yousef Hassan Mohammed Al-Dhib, killed
    9 years old
  • Abdul Malik Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al-Dhib, killed
    12 years old
  • Amjad Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al-Deeb, killed
    10 years old
  • Mohamed Abdulsalam Abdullah Al-Dehayani, killed
    12 years old
  • Abd al-Ilah Abdullah Hussein al-Razahi, killed
    11 years old
  • Mohamed Abdel-Ilah Mohamed El-Hakim, killed
    9 years old
  • Mohammed Abdullah Yahya Velita, killed
    12 years old
  • Hassan Abdul Karim Ahmad Al Hadi, killed
    10 years old
  • Ahmed Abdel Hakim Ali Amer, killed
    11 years old
  • Mohamed Abdel Salam Hassan Houria, killed
    9 years old
  • Yahia Mahdi Ezz El Din Houria, killed
    12 years old
  • Hussein Mohammed Ahsan al-Ajri, killed
    15 years old
  • Abdullah Abdulsalam Abdullah Taraf, killed
    12 years old
  • Mohammad…

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PressTV-Trump blasts union leader on Labor Day

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US President Donald Trump has slammed a renowned labor boss on Labor Day for criticizing his policies.

In a TV interview on Sunday, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who represents 12.5 million US workers, pointed out that since Trump came to power, wages have been down, and gas prices have gone up, making workers poorer.

AFL-CIO, or the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, is the largest federation of unions in the United States.

Trump retaliated by beginning his Labor Day holiday on Monday with an attack on the top union leader for the interview with Fox News Sunday .

Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend,” Trump wrote in his tweet, adding, “It is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!”

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PressTV-Online child sex abuse in UK up by %700

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A key government agency in the United Kingdom has reported that child sex abuse on the internet has increased with a dramatic and unbelievable pace over the past five years.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Monday that more than 82,000 child sex abuse images had been referred to the body last year, an increase of 700 percent from 2012.

The NCA said a recent week-long crackdown on online child sex offenders in Britain saw more than 130 suspects, including an ex-police officer, a children’s entertainer, and five teachers, arrested. It added that 165 children were saved from harm in the same period.

Rob Jones, a director at the NCA, said more and more people across the UK were using the dark web on the internet and technologies like end-to-end encryption to evade detection while harming children.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of sophisticated offenders using the dark web to groom and harm children on the mainstream internet,”…

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CNN Reporter Whines About Having To Hire A Bodyguard Because Of Trump

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Says she is receiving ‘death threats’

Steve Watson
Prison Planet.com
September 3, 2018

CNN reporter April Ryan, who has long been pushing the notion that President Trump is inciting violence against reporters, has claimed she has been forced to hire a bodyguard because the President’s rhetoric has led to her getting death threats.

“I’m going to say this, and I’m just going to put it as simply as I can. I blame the president for this,” Ryan claimed on Sunday.

“It is getting worse,” she said. “There is collateral damage. It affects not only the reporter but the people who are around the reporter.”

Ryan claimed “We are a part of the Constitution,” referring to reporters.

In a recent previous interview, Ryan claimed “They’ve put a target on my head…. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had craziness.”

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“All I’m going to say for my safety is: I have a team.” She said, adding that the White House should be paying or her protection.

On the CNN broadcast Sunday, Ryan said she also blames Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, charging that Sanders should have taken the opportunity to square things with reporters, but has continually sided with Trump.

She “had a chance to pull back, saying we’re [not] the enemy of the people. She didn’t,” Ryan said of Sanders.

Ryan has previously claimed that Sanders wants to have a physical fight with her.

Ryan also attacked Trump for his criticism of details in negative stories continually being credited to ‘anonymous sources’

“When I report, I speak the truth,” Ryan claimed.

“And I have Republican sources who are in the inner circle, who give up the information. I don’t go in an office and go through a file cabinet. I’m given the information. Why? Because they’re whistleblowers and this administration does not like it.” she added.

This article was…

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Police force resorts to asking an algorithm if they should investigate crimes — RT UK News

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The Norfolk Police Force is resorting to using an algorithm to determine whether officers should investigate burglaries, in an effort to save time and money, under pressure from Tory government cuts.

The police force is testing a computer algorithm designed to assess the “solvability” of cases, using factors such as the quality of CCTV footage of the offender, and whether fingerprints were left at the scene, to determine whether officers should launch an investigation or not.

The move has prompted an outcry from victims’ rights groups and MPs who say technology should never take the place of humans due to the “impact on victims” and “invasive” nature of such crimes.

Read more


© Garvin Snell/Twitter

According to the Daily Mail, hundreds of burglary investigations have been closed by the Norfolk Constabulary this year using the controversial technique, without the knowledge of the victims.

Harry Fletcher of the Victims’ Rights Campaign said: “It’s far better that an individual makes these decisions than a computer, because they can take into account the impact on victims.

“If the victim is elderly or vulnerable the effect of a burglary will be immense. A failure to consider this will risk further losing public confidence.”

The algorithm is built on the analysis of thousands of burglaries in Norfolk, according to the force. It looks at 29 factors that affect whether a case can be solved or not, and determines whether they are present or absent.

The pilot scheme is the latest in a series of initiatives introduced by forces attempting to limit the number of caseloads, with resources stretched in part due to violent crime on the rise as well as police officer numbers falling.

Burglary rose by 6.2 percent in the UK in the year to July, with less than five percent of burglary cases resulting in charges. In Norfolk, burglaries rose by around 10 percent in the year to March, the Times reports.

READ MORE: ‘Less money and opportunity’: Senior Met chief cites social inequality behind rise in crime

The police burglary algorithm, which was formulated by Cambridge University researchers, is said to be the first of its kind. The force insists it has not ditched traditional policing methods and that “in all cases of house burglary an officer will attend.”

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow policing minister, said: “Burglary is one of the most invasive crimes you can fall victim to and technology should not be stopping vulnerable victims receiving a police response.

“It’s an inescapable fact that the vast majority of crime is now not being investigated or prosecuted thanks to eight brutal years of cuts to the police and the criminal justice system.”

READ MORE: Private police force will hit streets of Britain to fill void created by austerity

A spokesman for the force said: “We’ve liaised with academics from the University of Cambridge in relation to the development of an algorithm, which is currently being tested alongside our normal working practices.

“In all cases of house burglary an officer will attend the scene and carry out an initial investigation. An assessment will then be made as to whether further inquiries are required and it is at this stage that we test the use of the algorithm. The results of this will be evaluated in the near future.”

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Woman carrying baby leads Texas police on high-speed highway chase (VIDEO) — RT US News

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Newly-released video shows a Texas woman leading police on a 100-mph chase and crashing her car, before attempting to flee on foot and hijack another vehicle, all while carrying a baby in a portable car seat.

In the video, shot in June but released recently by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the 29-year-old driver flees from police at high speed, reaching speeds of up to 100 miles per hour in her Mercedes-Benz SUV.

Weaving through traffic on a Texas highway, the woman narrowly misses several cars, and police roll out a spike strip to burst her tires. The spikes send the woman’s SUV careening off the highway, through the dirt and onto an access road.

Straying into oncoming traffic and with her front tire shredded, the woman doesn’t admit defeat. She blasts through an intersection before smashing into a pickup truck and wrecking her SUV.

The woman then grabs a car seat with an infant and tries to escape on foot. She runs across a busy road with the baby swinging in its carrier under her arm.

Police corner her as she attempts to hijack another SUV and approach her with weapons drawn. After setting the baby down on the sidewalk, cops pin the fugitive to the ground and end her shot at freedom.

The woman had outstanding warrants, and has now been charged with evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance, and child endangerment. Child Protective Services took the infant into care.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Conflict of Interest? Ex-corporate lawyer now runs FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

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Corporate lawyer Andrew Smith’s appointment to head the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer protection raised some eyebrows earlier this summer. Now, a heavily …

Via Youtube

Line-up of reaction and militarism at McCain memorial

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Line-up of reaction and militarism at McCain memorial

By
Patrick Martin

3 September 2018

Saturday’s memorial service for Senator John McCain, held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on a half dozen television and cable networks, was an officially sanctioned tribute to militarism and war.

Honoring the arch-warmonger McCain, a fervent supporter of US aggression from Vietnam to Syria and Yemen, were presidents, vice presidents, senators, congressmen and national security officials of the two parties of American imperialism. They sat side by side in the pews of the National Cathedral, Democrats with Republicans, Clintons and Obamas with Bushes, giving a living demonstration of the unity of the American ruling elite.

There was a “who’s who” of war criminals with a bloody record stretching back more than half a century. It would be difficult to accurately calculate how many millions of people have died because of the wars, interventions, civil wars and military coups instigated or ordered by the people sitting in that cathedral. Just listing the countries tormented or laid waste at their direction suggests the scale of their crimes: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, Grenada, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Niger, Somalia …

Seated in the audience were such repugnant figures as former vice president Richard Cheney, defense secretary during the first war in Iraq, political architect of the second war in Iraq and advocate of torture; former president Bill Clinton, commander-in-chief during US military operations in Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq and Kosovo; Hillary Clinton, advocate of wars in…

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Video: ‘Don’t monkey this up’: GOP candidate for Florida governor slammed over ‘racist’ language

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Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis has been denounced by the Democrats and the media as racist, for saying voters shouldn’t ‘monkey this up’ by …

Via Youtube

Have Humans Evolved to be Violent?

0

Ron Newby, a former researcher at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, begins his book Tribal: Truth and Consequences by quoting mathematician Jacob Bronowski on the uniqueness of humans among animals.

Newby notes that 98% of the human genome is identical with that of chimpanzees. Members of both species have exhibited acts of violence. Is this the direction of evolution? Newby also notes that the close cousin to chimps, the bonobos, engage in sexual activity and avoid conflict. Despite this Newby posits determinism: “There can be little doubt that interpersonal violence is inherited from our ancient primate ancestors.” (p 14)

Tribal is an 82 page discussion of what drew humans into groupings and what effect this has had on human evolution and what are the future prospects for humans.

The book is uneven though. For example, Newby considers boys liking guns and girls liking dolls to be instinctual behaviors. (p 15) He provides no definition of instinct, but generally an instinct is considered by psychologists to be an unlearned, automatic, and fixed behavior. Thus instinctual hardly applies to liking guns and dolls.

On p 16 Newby writes, “There are likely genetic factors that influence our killer behavior, however there have been no killer gene or genes that have been linked to our proclivity toward killing.” [italics added] By writing with the pronoun “our,” Newby conveys the impression that killing, or the tendency toward killing, is widespread among…

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Political Corpses as Propaganda Props

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The week-long deification of the late John McCain was quite the deep-state performance:  Three “state funerals”(in Phoenix, D.C., and Annapolis) accompanied by the constant clucking of the “mainstream” media about how the epitome of a deep-state insider — son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, mass murderer of Vietnamese peasants, “Keating Five” criminal conspirator, friend of “the right kind” of Middle East terrorists, lifelong government employee whose senate office was ground zero for defense industry lobbyists for the past several decades — is somehow an anti-establishment “maverick.” The televised sobbing of the very appropriately named Senator Jeff Flake was rich, as were proposals to name a government building after McCain and the seemingly endless feigned sorrow in the voices of  television talking heads.

Deep state propagandists and their media apologists apparently believe that a dead politician can be worth his weight in gold if a big enough spectacle of lies and superstitions can be concocted after the “great man’s” demise and used in support of the current regime. As Murray Rothbard argued in an essay entitled “The Nature of the State,” “it is precisely the function of the State’s ideological minions and allies to explain to the public that the Emperor does indeed have a fine set of clothes . . .  The age-old success of the ideologists of the State is perhaps the most gigantic hoax in the history of mankind.”



THE UNPOPULAR MR. LINC…
Larry Tagg
Best Price: $31.07
Buy New $70.83
(as of 04:50 EDT – Details)

As with so many other statist stunts and superstitions, it all started with Lincoln.  As Larry Tagg wrote in his book, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of…

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‘Cultural drivers’ to be probed in new inquiry, says Sajid Javid — RT UK News

0

Sajid Javid is to launch an inquiry into “cultural drivers” behind grooming gangs. The home secretary referenced cases in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Newcastle and Telford in his speech on child exploitation in Britain.

“We’ve witnessed horrendous abuse perpetrated by gangs who have been persistent and determined in places like Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Newcastle and Telford,” said Javid speaking at the headquarters of the NSPCC in London.

READ MORE: Manchester police allow boy to stay in paedophile’s house to protect covert investigation

“Keeping our children safe will be my mission as home secretary. I have already been clear that I will ask difficult questions about the gangs who sexually abuse our children. There will be no no-go areas of inquiry. I will not let cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem and doing something about it.

“We know that in these recent high-profile cases, where people have been convicted, that those people are disproportionately from a Pakistani background. I have instructed my officials to explore the particular context and characteristics of these types of gangs and if the evidence suggests that there are cultural factors that may be driving this type of offending, then I will take action.”

Read more


© Silas Stein/ Global Look Press

Numerous, high-profile ongoing criminal investigations are being carried out into child exploitation in the UK.

Javid’s speech follows research from the Quilliam think-tank which claimed 84 percent of those convicted, since 2005, of child grooming offences were from an Asian background. White offenders were more likely to act alone while Asian offenders often worked in gangs, the research posited.

Investigators into the Rotherham grooming-gang suggested that there could be up to 1,500 victims.

So-called grooming gangs are just one of many forms of child exploitation and abuse, with police noting ‘county-lines’ drug dealing gangs, online grooming and the abuse of personal relationships as significant threats to children.

More child sex offences committed online are being recorded; the National Crime Agency estimates that 80,000 people pose a threat to children online.

In his speech, Javid urged more action from technology firms to combat images of child sex abuse. The home secretary wants the images to be treated with the same severity and scrutiny as terrorist propaganda.

Javid even hinted at the introduction of new, unspecified laws that may be passed if action was not taken.

READ MORE: Teen on trial for terrorism says ‘discrimination’ a factor in her radicalization

“In recent years there has been some good work in this area, but the reality is that the threat has evolved quicker than the industry’s response and industry has not kept up. There are some companies out there that refused to take this seriously.

“I am not just asking for change, I am demanding it. And the public is expecting it too.

“And if web giants do not take more measures to remove this type of content from their platforms, then I won’t be afraid to take action. How far we legislate will be informed by the action and attitude that the industry takes.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Prison Planet.com » Hillary Clinton Is Hiring Interns For The Fall — But Won’t Pay Them A Cent

0

The Daily Caller
September 3, 2018

Hillary Clinton is hiring a batch of unpaid interns for the fall to work in her New York City office, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Applications are currently being accepted on a rolling basis and will “run from September to mid-December.” The internship requires “a minimum of three days per week,” and undergrads “of all majors are encouraged to apply.”

While the amount of hours per day aren’t specified, the “internship is unpaid.”

“Interns will provide support to our staff, assisting our work on a wide range of projects. Work will include but will not be limited to: compiling press clips, monitoring social media, conducting research, drafting correspondence, and assisting with office management,” the job posting states.

Clinton’s office is looking for applicants who have “a high level of professionalism and discretion,” “strong research and writing skills,” “the ability to work collaboratively as part of a team,” “strong interpersonal communication skills,” “a diligent work ethic and a sense of conscientiousness,” as well as “enthusiasm, dedication, and a positive attitude.”

The job posting does not offer any alternative ways of compensation like school credit or a stipend.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 9:23 am






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Outrage as US cop who killed unarmed black man trains others to ‘survive’ stress — RT US News

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People are protesting over an Oklahoma police officer, who killed an unarmed black man, teaching officers how to cope with stress after ‘critical incidents.’ RT spoke to the victim’s sister who said police should be ‘ashamed.’

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A police vehicle.

Betty Shelby, a deputy at the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office, Oklahoma, believes her new class ‘Surviving the Aftermath of a Critical Incident’ will allow her to share the “skills” she used to “cope with stress” after fatally shooting an unarmed black motorist Terence Crutcher in Tulsa in 2016.

Shelby claimed she had fired at Crutcher after he refused to show his hands and reached into his pocket instead. The officer was eventually acquitted of manslaughter, but the victim’s family and local activists are angry that she had not only kept her job within the law enforcement but is teaching others.

The sheriff and Tulsa officials “should be ashamed of themselves” for letting Shelby train her colleagues, the victim’s sister, Tiffany Crutcher told RT. “The law enforcement should focus on classes that prevent what’s going on in the US and that’s the killing of unarmed black men. So de-escalation courses are necessary.”

The sheriff’s office had stood by Shelby’s class, insisting that it “does not pertain” to her shooting incident itself and only deals with its aftermath. Protesters argue that Shelby still can’t be considered a role model for handling such situations.

“This is a smack in the face of the African American community here,” Marq Lewis, founder of the activist platform ‘We The People Oklahoma,’ told RT. “Why is it that they are parading [this] person around the state and saying that she is their hero, while we have to deal with the aftermath of her killing an unarmed black male?”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Aircraft graveyard: Aerial footage shows thousands of retired military planes in Arizona

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Courtesy: Andrew Breese/U.S. Air Force Aerial footage of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance & Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

Via Youtube

PressTV-California shooting leaves 10 casualties

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A shooting incident at an apartment complex in San Bernadino, California, has left ten casualties, including several children.

Police said that three of the victims of the Sunday night shooting were in dire condition. 

“We found 10 victims down at the scene. Three are extremely critical,” San Bernadino police spokesman, Capt Richard Lawhead, told reporters present at the crime scene on Monday.

Lawhead noted that detectives investigating the incident had not yet found any suspect(s) or motive for the shooting incident. 

He said gang activity had been reported in the area but it was not immediately clear whether it was linked with the shooting.

“We believe that there was an exchange of gunfire,” he said. Handguns and rifles appear to have been involved in the fire exchange, Lawhead said, but no weapons had been found.

Mass shootings are a frequent occurrence in the United States where firearms sales are legal. 

Most Americans,…

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PressTV-UN court hears case on UK’s Chagos sovereignty

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has launched a hearing on Mauritius’s challenge to the United Kingdom’s sovereignty on Chagos islands, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean that includes the strategic US airbase of Diego Garcia.

The hearing began Monday with representatives from 22 countries arguing over colonial history of the Chagos islands and the rights of exiled islanders to return to the archipelago.

During four days of hearing, judges will consider Mauritius’s claims that its decolonization was not completed when it was granted independence in 1968 following its separation from the Chagos islands.

Britain separated the Chagos Islands from the rest of its Indian Ocean colony three years before Mauritius was granted independence. The government of Mauritius claims the move violated UN Resolution 1514, passed in 1960, which prevented colonizers from splitting up the colonies before giving them independence.

The ICJ…

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Video: Watch this to ward off the Monday blues: Puppies play with lion & tiger cubs, chimp at Beijing zoo

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Golden retriever puppies were seen playing alongside lion, tiger & hyena cubs at Beijing Wildlife Park. The retrievers’ mother is nursing the cubs alongside her …

Via Youtube

Why Doesn’t the World Recognize This as Work?

0

As I type this, I’m in the very early stages of labor. Every 15 minutes or so, I’m noticing a small contraction. I’ve never done this before, and I’m nervous, hopeful, antsy.

I read a book that said I should have a “labor project” for these early stages — these long hours in which there’s not much to do but wait. The book suggested cleaning, baking a “birthday cake,” organizing baby clothes, or putting photos in an album. I’m awkward at those things and they don’t relax me, so I’ve decided to write instead.

Two paragraphs in, I do feel a little calmer. I’m reminded that labor isn’t entirely new to me, after all. Writing is labor, right? In fact, I’ve heard the book-baby comparison more times than I can count over the course of the last few months, as I’ve been co-writing a book at the same time as I’m incubating a fetus.

However, it’s worth thinking about how even writing, as devalued as it is in our society, is recognized as “labor” much more widely and readily than labor labor — labor that leads to birth — is. You generally don’t get paid to have contractions. Public recognition of labor as hard work (as opposed to pain inflicted and endured) is rare. There aren’t unions for laboring people.

I doubt there will be laboring-people unions until patriarchy is uprooted, at which point the movement for economic justice may be structured in forms more radical than unions as we know them, anyway. For now, I think it would be a big step to remember that labor is labor. As it’s intensifying for me right now, I’m realizing physically something I’d previously known only intellectually: This could be some of the most difficult work of my life.

At this point, I’m hearing a chorus of voices responding, “This is nothing! Just you wait until you have your kid!” These voices are not unfamiliar. Throughout my pregnancy, whenever I’ve spoken publicly about the weirdness, wildness, pain and/or wonder of being pregnant, a cis man…

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How Israel Spies on US Citizens

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An investigative documentary by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera scheduled for broadcast earlier this year was expected to cause a sensation. Its four 50-minute episodes centred on the young and personable James Anthony Kleinfeld, British, Jewish, an Oxford graduate who speaks six languages including Dutch and Yiddish and is well-informed about Middle East conflicts — seemingly a natural fit for a western foreign ministry or a major thinkthank.

The documentary showed Kleinfeld being enthusiastically recruited for his skills by The Israel Project (TIP), which defends Israel’s image in the media, and associating with senior members of organisations that support Israel unconditionally, especially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful US lobbying group. For five months, he mixed with them at cocktail parties, congresses and conventions, and on training courses. He won their trust and they opened up to him, abandoning doublespeak and official lines. How, he asked, did they go about influencing the US Congress? ‘Congressmen don’t do anything unless you pressure them, and the only way to do that is with money’ (1). How did they counter Palestinian rights activists on university campuses? ‘With the anti-Israel people, what’s most effective, what we found at least in the last year, is you do the opposition research, put up some anonymous website, and then put up targeted Facebook ads.’

Kleinfeld’s contacts told him they were spying on…

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Prison Planet.com » Pentagon withdraws $300M in funding to Pakistan’s military

0

UPI
September 3, 2018

The U.S. Department of Defense suspended $300 milllion in military funding to Pakistan, citing the country’s failure to suppress militant groups.

Pentagon spokesman Koné Faulkner said Saturday that the agency suspend the funding to the Coalition Support Fund, which reimburses Pakistan’s military for fighting against terrorists.

“Due to a lack of decisive actions in support of the South Asia strategy, the remaining $300 million was reprogrammed,” he said.

Faulkner added the funds would be redistributed to other “urgent priorities,” pending congressional approval.

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This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 7:24 am






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British power on trial? Mauritius’ takes UK to court over Chagos Islands — RT UK News

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The UK claim over an archipelago in the Indian Ocean is being challenged by Mauritius in the International Court of Justice. The largest island hosts a US airbase, the construction of which saw mass deportations of the islanders.

Despite the UK’s attempts to go through official channels in the UN to block Mauritius’ claim to the Chagos Islands, the case is set to be heard in The Hague.

READ MORE: 1953 Iran coup – a crime authored in London and Washington

Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will take four days hearing testimonies from the representatives of 22 countries arguing over colonialism and the rights of the deported Chagos Islanders to return. The ICJ’s judgement will be only advisory and have no legal binding.

Of the 22 states, only the representatives of the US, Israel and Australia are expected to support Britain’s claim to sovereignty to the Islands, which they name the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and are some 5,799 miles from London.

The US support in part stems from the strategic value of their airbase, commonly referred to as Camp Justice, which is situated on the largest of the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcia. The airbase has played a crucial role in US operations in the Middle East, including during the Iranian Revolution and both Iraq Wars.

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REUTERS/Olivia Harris

Last year Britain suffered a heavy defeat at the UN General Assembly, when 94 nations supported a Mauritian-backed resolution to take the matter before the ICJ. Only 15 countries supported the UK’s claim.

The ICJ is set to consider both whether the decolonisation of Mauritius from the British was completed lawfully, and secondly the ability of Mauritius to resettle deported Chagossians back onto the islands.

The UK decided to separate the Chago Islands from the remainder of its Indian Ocean colony three years before Mauritius gained independence in 1968. Mauritius is claiming that Britain was in breach of a UN resolution that banned the breakup of colonies before independence.

Britain deported some 1,500 islanders in order to lease the largest island, Diego Garcia, to the US which set up an airbase there in 1971. Chagossians have never been allowed to return.

Mauritius has been promised the return of the Islands by London but only when they are no longer needed for defense purposes. No date has been set for when that is.

The hearing’s outcome is expected to be a signal of the UK’s power, or lack thereof, in the international sphere. Last November, London failed to secure the re-election of Sir Christopher Greenwood to the ICJ. Britain will now be without a judge in the court for the first time since its inception.

READ MORE: Blackwater founder seeks to privatize Afghan war despite mercs getting butt kicked in Yemen

A Foreign Office spokeswoman, quoted in the Guardian, said: “We are disappointed that Mauritius have taken this bilateral dispute to the international court of justice.

“This is an inappropriate use of the ICJ advisory opinion mechanism and sets a dangerous precedent for other bilateral disputes. We will robustly defend our position.

“While we do not recognise the Republic of Mauritius’s claim to sovereignty of the archipelago, we have repeatedly undertaken to cede it to Mauritius when no longer required for defence purposes, and we maintain that commitment.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Upset Ice Cube fan opens fire, shot by police as panic engulfs concert venue (GRAPHIC VIDEO) — RT US News

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San Diego police officers shot a man who pulled a gun and started firing into the air when he found out that evening’s Ice Cube Concert was sold out. The sound of shots sparked panic.

Ice Cube, who once rapped “shotgun bullets is bad for yo’ health,” was due to perform at San Diego’s Del Mar Racecourse on Sunday. As crowds gathered, the racecourse tweeted just after 6.30pm that tickets were completely sold out. On hearing the news, one die-hard fan got into an argument with staff at the box office, pulled out a handgun and began squeezing off shots into the air.

As the crowd panicked and fled, nearby deputies shot the man, leaving him lying on the sidewalk. The man, identified as 22-year-old Daniel Elizarraras, was taken to hospital and is expected to survive, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department stated.

Inside the venue, the evening’s final horse racing event was taking place. Commentators screamed “there’s gunfire at the track,” before abandoning their posts and fleeing. One jockey was flung from his horse as panic took hold.

Emergency services set up a perimeter around the racetrack, but the situation was quickly brought back to normal. Just half an hour after the shooting, and with the day’s racing finished, the racecourse tweeted that the gangsta rap gig would go ahead as planned.

Seemingly unperturbed by gunfire, Ice Cube took to the stage as planned later Sunday night. Nobody else except the suspect was injured in the incident. For them, and for the rapper, who did not have to use his AK, it was a good day.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: It’s raining fish! Utah’s high-mountain lake safely stocked with trout from the air

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Courtesy: http://wildlife.utah.gov/ The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources filmed the process of stocking a high-mountain lake with fish from the air. The trout are …

Via Youtube

Video: British & French sailors ram each other’s boats, hurl stones in ‘scallop war’

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French and British fishing boats clashed in the English Channel on Tuesday, pelting stones and ramming each other’s boats in the latest ‘scallop war’ skirmish.

Via Youtube

PressTV-Trump sets conditions for Arabs after ditching UNRWA

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After cutting money to the UN refugee agency helping Palestinians, the United States now says Persian Gulf Arab states can plug the gap provided that they meet the new guidelines set out by the Trump administration. 

According to Israel’s Channel Two, American officials have informed Israel that any further funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would be on US terms.

The US announced on Friday that it will no longer support UNRWA, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms as it called on Palestinians to renew “peace” talks with Israel.

Channel Two said that US officials have allegedly allowed Persian Gulf states to fund UNWRA projects in the short term, but the ultimate plan is to close down the agency once and for all.

“US approval for funding would include any future sponsors to UNWRA committing to redefining the status of the agency, as well as the definition of Palestinian refugees, with the ultimate aim…

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Declassified Docs Reveal How the Pentagon Aimed

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Plans for a nuclear war devised by the US Army in the 1960s considered decimating the Soviet Union and China by destroying their industrial potential and wiping out the bulk of their populations, newly declassified documents show.

A review of the US general nuclear war plan by the Joint Staff in 1964, which was recently published by George Washington University’s National Security Archive project, shows how the Pentagon studied options “to destroy the USSR and China as viable societies.”

The review, conducted two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, devises the destruction of the Soviet Union “as a viable society” by annihilating 70 percent of its industrial floor space during pre-emptive and retaliatory nuclear strikes.

A similar goal is tweaked for China, given its more agrarian-based economy at the time. According to the plan, the US would wipe out 30 major Chinese cities, killing off 30 percent of the nation’s urban population and halving its industrial capabilities. The successful execution of the large-scale nuclear assault would ensure that China “would no longer be a viable nation,” the review reads.

Secret Empires: How th…
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The Joint Staff had proposed to use the “population loss as the primary yardstick for effectiveness in destroying the enemy society with only collateral attention to industrial damage.” This “alarming” idea meant that, as long as urban workers and managers were killed, the actual damage to industrial targets “might not be as important,” the George Washington University researchers said.

The 1964 plan doesn’t specify the anticipated enemy casualty levels, but – as the researchers…

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‘I Want To Be Tried. The Case Will Boomerang On The Prosecutor’

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Chris Menahan
Information Liberation
August 31, 2018

Nationalist Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini says he welcomes the deep state witch hunt against him for acting to protect his nation’s borders and predicts the case will “boomerang” on the prosecutor.

From Il Fatto Quotidiano as translated by Gates of Vienna:

Salvini: “I want to be tried. The case will boomerang on the prosecutor of Agrigento. I’m sorry for him”

Investigated by Sicilian magistrates for illegal detention, illegal arrest and abuse of power, the interior minister, speaking to Il Messaggero and Libero [newspapers], talks of having received many messages of solidarity and that he will waive immunity. “I want to see how it will end.”

“In Agrigento, everything will come out positively, and therefore I thank the prosecutor because it will boomerang.” For Matteo Salvini, the investigation opened by the Sicilian magistrates regarding the ship, Diciotti, which sees him accused of illegal detention, illegal arrest and abuse of power, “Everything will come out positively,” says the minister to Messaggero. And remembering having received many messages of solidarity, also on the part of judges and prosecutors, speaking to Libero, beginning today there is a signature collection [petition] in his support. To the question of whether he will ask the Senate to say “no” to an authorization to proceed, he responds, “Absolutely not.” If the tribunal says that I must be tried, I will go before the magistrates and explain that I am not a kidnapper. I want to see how this will end.”

Besides the waiving of immunity, he commented also on the choice of the Agrigento prosecutor. “I have only done my work as minister, and am ready to do it again. For the rest, I am sorry for the Agrigento prosecutors. I think that with all the problems that Sicily has, the priority is certainly not to investigate…

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Gulf Coast states ‘must prepare now’ for powerful storm — RT US News

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The Gulf Coast states, still suffering the after-effects of the 2017 hurricane season, are being warned to prepare for heavy rainfall and powerful winds courtesy of Potential Tropical Cyclone Seven.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a Tropical Storm watch for the northern Gulf Coast Sunday – from the Alabama-Florida border as far as Morgan City, Louisiana. Last year’s hurricane season battered the southern US states and Puerto Rico, killing thousands and causing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of damage.

READ MORE: Puerto Rico raises death toll of Hurricane Maria to 2,975 from initial 64

As much as eight inches (20cm) of rain is expected to fall overnight and Potential Tropical Cyclone Seven is expected to increase in strength, first becoming a Tropical Depression and later a tropical storm on Monday night. The storm is moving at a speed of 15mph with maximum sustained winds of approximately 30mph and stronger gusts.

An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft will be deployed Monday evening to investigate how the system is developing and whether it does indeed evolve into a tropical storm. Should this occur it will be renamed Tropical Storm Gordon, reports the Weather Channel.

In an online statement, Florida Governor Rick Scott advised citizens to stay vigilant and be prepared.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards followed suit, activating the state’s Crisis Action Team and advising citizens to prepare their disaster plans and have all the necessary medications and supplies they need. For Louisiana residents, the shadow of Hurricane Katrina still looms large.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Silent march’: Protests against German migrant policy escalates as 11 hospitalized, 300 arrested

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Police have arrested some 300 people during the most recent anti-migrant protest in Chemnitz, Germany. The city continues to be the scene of right-wing rallies, …

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Beyond The DNC – Funding Hacks and Sedition

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Any DNC server leak in 2016 could have been a patriotic act to counter Ukrainian Intel operators access inside the DNC and US Government servers at the State Department.

The big take away from the part 1 article is Ukrainian Intelligence was hired as opposition research by Alexandra Chalupa and they hacked the DNC. And they hacked the RNC. They were probably given the passwords to US Dept of State Top Secret information just as a matter of course to do their jobs. Clinton kept six State Department password slots from2013 to 2016 for her researchers. Ukrainian Intel hackers included Russian traitors Shaltai Boltai. And they hacked.

If Chalupa didn’t give the hackers access, getting it was as simple as doing your job using someone else’s login. This means someone with the password physically typed it in and the hacker/ researcher took over.

The Ukrainian Intelligence workers still work with Irena Chalupa at the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, StopFake, Propornot, Disinfo Portal, and Bellingcat. The hackers worked directly with Andrea Chalupa through of her connection at EuromaidanPR, and InformNapalm. The same hackers worked with Dimitry Alperovich through the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab and Irena Chalupa. They were hunting for hackers they nicknamed Fancy Bear. The hackers were communicating with Dimitry Alperovich and Crowdstrike through Twitter and are part of the same social network.

When I asked them recently about this, Propornot personnel doesn’t take offense at Alexandra Chalupa hiring the Ukrainian hackers because they have the same goal as the hackers which is to destroy Russia. While admitting Ukrainian Intel hackers were hired by Chalupa, they fail to see anything wrong with it. It is somehow “patriotic,” well maybe, if you’re Ukrainian that is.

Let’s review what Hillary Clinton keeping State Department password access for Team Clinton researchers from 2013-2016 led to:

Shaltai Boltai worked for Ukrainian Intel when it hacked Huma Abedin’s  Yahoo email account that she illegally kept her top-secret passwords in. The finance section of Shaltai Boltai resides in Thailand. Thailand has a strong alliance with China. Shaltai Boltai sells access…It makes me wonder…

  • Clinton knew damn well she was compromised going into the campaign. “At the same time her aides were creating “loyalty scores”, Clinton, “instructed a trusted aide to access the campaign’s server and download the messages sent and received by top staffers. She believed her campaign had failed her—not the other way around—and she wanted ‘to see who was talking to who, who was leaking to who.2’” After personally reading the email correspondence of her staffers, she called them into interviews for the 2016 campaign, where she confronted them with some of the revelations.”

Who was the trusted aide? If it was Alexandra Chalupa, Hillary’s intern during the Clinton administration, why wouldn’t Chalupa delegate the task to the people she hired? If it was Huma Abedin, she was already compromised. It is the new normal for presidential candidates to give foreign Intelligence operatives passwords to US top-secret servers. If it is, it’s also fine to give unrestricted access for people who idolize the monsters Adolf Hitler was afraid of when they are determined to influence US policy, isn’t it?

The Podesta Hack 2 – Don’t Mess with the Ukrainian Diaspora’s Parkhomenko

Remember Adam Parkhomenko? A Diaspora Ukrainian nationalist who’s never had a job almost gained a high-level position in a presumed Clinton White House. His first loyalty is to a fascist model of Ukraine which Stepan Bandera devised and if Clinton won he would have solidified the Diaspora as the power bloc in America.

Parkhomenko was fired by Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook because he couldn’t deliver the voter lists he promised which got him the job in the first place. When Clinton said she wanted him back, Podesta took responsibility. He gave Parkhomenko promises that his entire staff would be brought back. It was after that didn’t happen Podesta was hacked in March as noted in the previous article. The Ukrainian nationalist Adam Parkhomenko was hired back April 1st.

The Ukrainian Intel hackers working for Team Clinton Opposition Research are Pravy Sektor Ukrainian nationalists. Pravy Sektor spent 2014 violently murdering people that disagree with them. Like Dimitry Yarosh, Alexandra Chalupa and Adam Parkhomenko are OUNb Bandera Ukrainian nationalists.

Look at the highlighted area of the Podesta phishing email below. If this doesn’t raise questions about Ukraine’s involvement, what will? It says the phishing hack came from Ukraine.

Today, Adam Parkhomenko works with the Ukrainian Intel hackers for the DFRLab Digital Sherlocks at the Atlantic Council. Previous exposes have identified these hackers as Fancy Bear. Only the Ukrainian Intel team had the tools in 2015-16, access, motivation, and passwords to DNC.

Is it strange the information retrieved from the server mirrors what Clinton herself was looking for at the beginning of the 2016 election from “trusted advisers”?

Did Ukrainian Americans Fund Treason or Sedition?

“I do care about social and economic issues affecting every American, but given the war in Ukraine, there is only one issue that we as Ukrainian Americans must focus on: Ukraine.

Let’s look at a smaller organizational and funding effort the Diaspora accomplished which happened over the course of a few days. From this, you can get an idea of how fast the Diasporas can organize and fund when they need to.

Following these two brief examples, you’ll grasp the scope which the Diasporas are capable of working at.

The Coup February 21, 2014 – Who Bought the Bullets?

The first project revolved around funding the violent ousting of soon to be deposed Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych. Put your cookies and the $5 billion the US had paid out to develop the politic aside for the moment. The coup was the fruit of that effort but someone paid for the bullets.

According to the Ukrainian Weekly, “Ukrainians and their supporters took to social media messaging service Twitter to digitally bombard subscribers with targeted messages to specific media and high-profile recipients, with Twitter “storms” occurring on January 20 and 27 worldwide. The effort, known as Digital Maidan, gained momentum following the initial Twitter storms. Leading the effort were: Lara Chelak, Andrea Chalupa, Alexandra Chalupa, Constatin Kostenko and others. The Digital Maidan also highlighted the Internet and social media as the most popular means for Ukraine’s citizens to get the latest news.”

Looking at the Chalupa’s Digital Maidan is the easiest way to open up how the Ukrainian Diaspora funds the people volunteering to work for its causes.

Andrea Chalupa says “DigitalMaidan is a movement without leaders just like Euromaidan and the numbers keep coming and people keep joining us and some of these numbers still don’t know how to use Twitter,” Chalupa said, adding that hundreds of messages were sent to Bill Clinton who tweeted his support of protesters “demanding real democracy” this week. Another Twitter storm targeting members of Congress on the Foreign Relations Committee as well as “people who use their positions of power to further Putin’s anti-human rights agenda” occurred yesterday.

According to Owler, the company profile for Digital Maidan Inc Digital Maidan is a Private company. For every employee, Digital Maidan generates $136.6K in revenue. As of June 2016, Digital Maidan has 2.5K fans on Facebook and 1.4K followers on Twitter.

 

Digital Maidan Inc was also how the Ukrainian Diasporas organized and raised money for the coup. They used it to pull together every Ukrainian Diaspora group in every country worldwide.

According to Owler, they raised $5.1 million.

This was how the Ukrainian emigres bought the bullets used on Euromaidan. Ukraine’s chubby nazi, Dimitri Yarosh stated openly he was taking money from the Ukrainian emigres during Euromaidan and Pravy Sektor still fundraises openly in North America.

Digital Maidan was a single stellar small example of fast organization and money moving from the Diaspora to support illegal activity. It has never even looked at.

“The whole country approach has been in use in Ukraine since the spring of 2014. If we step back to Maidan on February 8th, 2014 we see the last objective statement about Ukraine. “…Russian websites outright accusing the US of supplying ammunition and other support to the rebels.  I asked a friend in a position within the US, that might know more about this, he claims it is a private initiative of US citizens.   This I like… “- Joel Harding

I didn’t realize private citizens in the US (UCCA, Ukrainian, and Eastern European emigres) already delivered bullets to Maidan before February 8th. I didn’t know funding coups in foreign countries was legal under US law. This detracts from the “spontaneous” revolution “our side” reported on considerably. Maidan was “staffed” with nationalists from Lvov.”- Weaponizing Wikipedia- What Invasion Scale Info War Is

Was the 2014 Maidan overthrow of Victor Yanukovych a Crime under US law?

In 2014, four Americans were charged with violating the Neutrality Act which makes it a crime for Americans to plot to overthrow countries the United States isn’t at war with. The four men were sentenced to 5 years in prison for trying to overthrow the president of Gambia.

According to CBS “Defense attorneys argued that had the coup succeeded, the U.S. government would have hailed the defendants as heroes.”

By buying the bullets (supplying the funds) the Chalupa sisters and the Diaspora in violation of the Neutrality Act. Yet, the UCCA, UWC, UNIS, and all the other thousands of Ukrainian Diaspora groups involved not only aren’t doing time, they still have 5013C charity status. Talk about regime change on the cheap. It’s even tax deductible.

Diaspora Funding & Leadership of Ukrainian Punisher Battalions is a Crime

Since 2014, the Ukrainian Diasporas have been funding all the Ukrainian punisher battalions. From the beginning of the civil war, the punisher battalions including Azov, Aidar, Pravy Sektor, Donbas, Kiev Rus, and Kiev-1 have committed atrocities and ISIS style war crimes that have been documented over and over.

According to Ukrainian Diaspora sources, Ukrainian Diaspora leaders like Ivanka Zajac are also making leadership decisions for the battalions including how they spend the money. Just knowing that the volunteers are murdering innocent civilians with continued funding by their groups makes the Ukrainian Diaspora liable for the crimes.

The Atlantic Council’s Michael Weiss reports the UCCA was raising money for weapons that were subsequently used in war crimes. This action by itself is enough to take away 5013C tax-exempt status for every Ukrainian group giving money for Ukraine’s war effort.

The Ukrainian Diaspora have funded and directed their private Ukrainian punisher armies in the Donbass region like Azov Battalion, Tornado Battalion, Pravy Sektor, Donbass Battalion, Myrotvorets, Aidar Battalion and the others that rob, rape, and murder innocent civilians.

Ukrainian Diaspora History Built on Funding World Wide Revolt

Let’s step this up at the national and international level. It’s always the same people and the same groups who keep resurfacing. The same people from the same groups worked together and organized all the regime change attempts over the last decade. They are in charge as managers because these issues are their job within the Diaspora communities.

Let’s establish the entire pattern because what seems like a too big to be true statement pales when set in historical context. Then we’ll look at the signatories and funders which is what this is all about.

Fathering a Nationalist World from 1917 until Today

From its beginning in the 1760’s-90’s nationalism’s history is the history of countries violently murdering citizens that disagree with one conception of how the nation perceives itself.

“…the 1848 Spring of Nations set up a dual loyalty system that bound the countries inside the Empire to Vienna’s rule. Each country weeded out citizens that lacked total loyalty to the empire’s ultra national patriotism or considered other forms of governance. They did this through pogroms and genocide.”

“According to the Institute of Historical Research of the Lvov Institute, guest professor at the Central European Institute in Budapest, Senator and Chair of History of Ukraine Catholic Institute Jaroslav Gritsak, it was the émigrés in the West. While Ukrainians in America were serving in the US Armed Forces during WWII, the OUN leadership in America was cooperating with Bandera’s SS Battalions. In 1943, after Stalingrad, when it became apparent that Germany would lose the war, they started democratizing the image of Bandera nationalism. This was in order to make Ukrainian nationalism more palatable to western democratic sensibilities in America.”

If we look at every war the US has been in since WWII including the Gulf War, it was the Ukrainian Diaspora leading the lobbying effort that took us there. The Vietnam war was fought on behalf of people that supported Hitler’s policies because we were now in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. By ramming the Red Scare down the collective American throat, Bandera’s OUNb set up a situation where if the US didn’t go to war, President Lyndon Johnson was afraid the very media savvy Diaspora would tear the fabric of the country apart by declaring the average citizen anti-American.

“Bandera is a term I use loosely these days. In reality, there were over 2,000 groups that worked under the auspices of Bandera’s ABN (Anti-Bolshevik Nations), and today in America ‘Bandera’ is the UCCA (Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America). Far-flung groups today in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, and the greater horn of Africa have long been part of the greater ABN community. Many of these groups, because they are so many and varied, don’t even recognize each other at first sight. The Muslim Brotherhood is just one example. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are two more. All of these were helped by Yaroslav Stetsko’s Bandera ABN through the UCCA in America. The common bond appears when the religious veneer is stripped away. Take away the Muslim part and you are left with an ultra-nationalist (fascist) politics.”- Why The US Endgame for Russia Means the Death of American Democracy

During the Cold War years, the Ukrainian Diaspora was considered the world’s greatest spies. Ask anybody. But, it was because they spied for everybody. They were the basis of a Deep State and young people were guided in that direction.

When the Cold War ended, the spooks found new digs in the human rights and freedom movements. They seeded all the color revolutions. This can be fact-checked by looking at the history of aspiring and successful modern coup attempts. And it can then be checked against shifts in Diaspora career choices over the modern period post- WWII until today. I lost the reference but it was a US Army War College paper that made this distinction.

Almost without exception, the coups can be tracked to the ABN (Anti-Bolshevik Nations groups) which are all Bandera groups. Most are specifically nationalist groups that supported Hitler and still maintain their political platforms from the WWII period.

Today, the work of the human rights and freedom movement’s work erupted into anti-Russia hysteria which was funded by these same fascist groups. The veteran activists of the Diaspora groups are now moving back into their older more comfortable role as technicians who make up the US Deep State. This is happening across the Diaspora.

They use the state sized tools and tactics they get as part of the spies for hire sector as force multipliers to wage anti-Democracy campaigns, anti-free speech, and anti-Russian media campaigns.

“When it comes to U.S. elections, Ukrainian Americans are a statistically minor, divided, unorganized voting group.  The Central and East European Coalition is a coalition of U.S.-based organizations that represent their countries of heritage, a voting group of over 20 million people. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Association are member organizations of the CEEC. Americans of East and Central European heritage can make a significant difference and influence the election result if their attention is focused.

On a top-down national level – the UCCA, the UNA, and other diaspora organizations hopefully will do everything they can to get Ukrainian Americans mobilized.

In our local communities, we must reach out to churches, organizations, community centers that have an affiliation with Central and East European countries. We need to develop literature that can be shared with other voting Americans of Central and East European ancestry.”- Ukraine Weekly

This is a continued effort from the Diasporas. Their goal is to dramatically change the political climate of the US to a nationalist fascist ideology. Their first big splash was entering WWI and WWII on Germany’s side. As a result of failing to get what they want they tried to assassinate FDR. Their current effort is destroying the presidency of Donald Trump. Ukrainian Diaspora members are acting without hesitancy to destroy the country when it suits their needs.

Today, a big move to censor media is going on as part of this effort. Search engines like Google and social media platforms like Facebook are turning to the Atlantic Council and related groups to decide what is fake news and who is footing the bill.

Subsidizing the Cost of Sedition- Chalupa’s OUNb Ukrainian Diaspora

If you go to the CEEC website, this group represents 20 million US BLOC votes in any election. This means with a little organizing they can and do determine elections.  The Atlantic Council (AC) is the primary think tank among many it employs. The AC is signatory as a working partner with the Ukrainian World Congress which represents another 20 million Ukrainian Diaspora donors worldwide. The AC is signatory with the Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America (UCCA) which represents Banderite Ukrainian nationalist interests in the US (1+ million US votes).

From Eastern Europe to Central and Southern Europe, across the Levant in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Turkey, and all the Arab spring countries, and even South and Central America, these allied groups plied regime change together.

Every group and company associated with the AC such as Bellingcat is selected based on their support for Ukrainian nationalist fascist policies and other member groups rabid nationalisms. According to the Ukrainian Weekly, when Ukraine celebrated its 25th anniversary, The two OUN factions OUNb Bandera and OUNm Melnyk were negotiating on recombining both groups again as late as in 2016. There is no question about rabid nationalism among its membership.

“…Senate is scheduled to vote on it this evening, so time is of essence.

Thanks!

Ali Chalupa”

Note that the email list below is from the end of Maidan and includes most Ukrainian Diaspora leaders UCCA, UWC, and every group in between. It is still the same recipient list used for the email above. Thrown into the mix is Barrack Obama’s favorite Diaspora figure Stepan Bandera III.

I’ve included the other Diaspora ultranationalist groups signatories on the joint letter below which represent CEEC member groups. The message to Congress is clear. Support us or we support someone else.

We looked at how easy the Ukrainian Diaspora made it fund one coup. Most modern-era coup funding will look similar when looked at through the lens of the Diaspora. Unlimited funding is always available because of the 5013C status and tax deductions make overthrowing governments a cheap and easy investment.

Stripping dissenting countrymen of their right to dissent using everything from strong-arm tactics to the illegal is not only cheap and easy, the method is priceless.

Why weren’t the Diaspora’s stripped of their 5013C status based on collecting donations for weapons on numerous occasions? This was documented by @MichaelDWeiss of the Atlantic Council in Newsweek, several news stations, and UCCA NY president Ivanka Zajac. Zajac’s heroes job has always been attacking civilians.

Why aren’t Diaspora leaders under investigation if no one is even arguing whether or not Ukrainian Intel hackers got DNC passwords as well as US top secret passwords? Alexandra Chalupa and her sisters could be dressed in orange right now.

Below are the names of people with direct and indirect oversight of this mess. Even with all the above, none of them or the Atlantic Council is under any condemnation for funding the hackers or directing them. As long as most of the Diasporas are ready to fund the next congressional junket, no one really gives damn.

From: Walter Zaryckyj [mailto:waz2102 at caa.columbia.edu]

> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 1:27 PM

> To: r l; Frank Sysyn; Borys Potapenko; bohdanvitvitsky at gmail.com; Serhii

> Plokhii; Bohdan Klid; Marko Stech; serbyn.roman at videotron.ca; Bohdan

> Futey; bohdan_futey at ao.uscourts.gov; eczolij at lavery.ca; marta at farion.org;

> bohdan.guran at gmail.com; zholubec at gmail.com; ihorwhron at comcast.net;

> ihorkotlarchuk at aol.com; jerry zinich; Dutkewych, Jerry I (CPAPA);

> nazar44 at hotmail.com; Kunasz, Ihor; Nelya; rudnytzky at yahoo.com; Wasyl

> Liscynesky; askold lozynaky; Michael Kostiw; mike.lana at verizon.net;

> jachnoo10 at yahoo.com.ar; Oryshkewych,George; George Polansky; stefan

> romaniw; unis at ucca.org; nestorshust at aol.com; myroslaw at smorodsky.com; Oleh

> Wolowyna; Zachary, Ihor; Walter Zaryckyj (Columbia); Zenon, Shpon;

> ajfutey at ameritech.net; Bohdan Kurczak; Stefan Kaczaraj; Julian Kulas;

> George Makohin; Vicbaba at aol.com; silvibil at aol.com; bohdandom at aol.com;

> nagee007 at aol.com; vassylenko at ukr.net; adamjchadwick at gmail.com;

> alex at zawahouse.com; ajmotyl at andromeda.rutgers.edu; APidgirsky at hotmail.com;

> arud95 at gmail.com; samboritanus at hotmail.com; anyatomko at yahoo.com;

> alichalupa at yahoo.com; fedorko_15003 at yahoo.com; fedynsky at sbcglobal.net;

> iwbardyn at mbzlaw.com; rutgers; hcechowska at yahoo.ca; Halkowycz Zenko;

> hajda at fas.harvard.edu; melanie.rud at gmail.com; matula5 at verizon.net; Stepan

> Bandera; Mark Von Hagen; Lana Babij; jpikles at yahoo.com; jjaresko .;

> ilenczuk .; Ted Oleschuk; PeterVelechko at hotmail.com; Pyszczymuka at aol.com;

> Michael Koziupa; wmohuchy at yahoo.com; rgriffit at kean.edu; Andy Semotiuk;

> Dmytro Shtohryn; StPeteUkie at aol.com; revpoliarny at bellsouth.net;

> Russ at Hoistdepot.com; Valentina Kuryliw; ted at oleschuk.com;

> steve at grogoza.com; victoria.kulik at alston.com; Peter Paluch;

> vsprolisok at gmail.com; romvor at yahoo.com; gp at del‐iplaw.com;

> eugenia.dallas at yahoo.com; roman3847 at yahoo.com; wmkraus at aol.com;

> wmlupan at gmllaw.com; zorianna; Roman Kyzyk; Ed Dantes; Morgan Williams;

> Yuriy Symczyk; Walter Vasilaky; juliana at moscow.com;

> unis.sawkiw at comcast.net; okul17 at aol.com; M6aHgepa at verizon.net; Andrea

> Chalupa; Victor Rud; Ro Myhal; Arthur Hryhorowych; Aso Uke;

> tolexy at ucca.org; Peter Borisow; roma hadzewych; Lada Pastushak;

> karpishka at yahoo.com; vikadyrda at gmail.com; mgongadze at voanews.com;

> ulanamazurkevich at aol.com; orest.deychak at mail.house.gov; Paul Bandriwsky;

> Alex Striltschuk; bfedorak at cs.com; G. Mykytyn; mscorpion at optonline.net;

> Ihor Diaczun; Stepan Kaczurak; Myron Kolinsky; taras kuzio; oksana bashuk;

> Dmitri Lenczuk; Mykola Hryckowian; Ihor Naumenko

 

“CC: All United States Senators and Members of Congress

Dear Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader

Pelosi:

Ukraine needs your immediate help.

As the leaders of more than two dozen American ethnic organizations, representing tens of

millions of voters across the United States, we call on you to provide vital support to Ukraine by

immediately passing Senate Bill 2124.

Respectfully yours,

Naci Tozer President American Association of Crimean Turks, Sean Pender President New Jersey Chapter Ancient Order of Hibernians in America Inc.,  Dan Dennehy Chairman National & NYS Immigration Ancient Order of Hibernians in America Inc., Darek Barcikowski Secretary & Executive Board Member American Polish Advisory Council, Marilyn Piurek Co-Founder & Advisor American Polish Advisory Council, James J. Zogby President Arab American Institute, Mehmet Celebi President Assembly of Turkish American Associations, Javid Huseynov General Director Azerbaijan-American Council, Tomris Azeri President Azerbaijan-American Society, Walter Zaryckyj Executive Director Center for US-Ukrainian Relations, Marju Rink-Abel President Estonian American National Council, Atilla Pak President Federation of Turkish American Associations, Maximilian N. Teleki President Hungarian American Coalition, Karl Altau Managing Director Joint Baltic American National Committee Inc., Marta Farion President Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America, Lyuba Shipovich President RAZOM, Ayla Bakkalli USA Representative The Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Julian Kulas President The Heritage Foundation, Maria Shust Director The Ukrainian Museum, Andrew Bihun President The Washington Group, Ukrainian-American Assoc. of Professionals,US UNITED WITH UKRAINE COALITION, Petro Kostiv President Ukrainian American Bar Association, Ihor Gawdiak President Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, Most. Rev. Stefan Soroka Metropolitan Ukrainian Catholic Church in USA, Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians, Alex Strilchuk President Illinois Division Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Ihor Kusznir President Philadelphia Chapter Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Ulana Mazurkevich President Ukrainian Human Rights Committee, Andrew Fedynsky Director Ukrainian Museum-Archives, Stefan Kaczaraj President Ukrainian National Association, Inc., Marianna Zajac President Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA), His Eminence Antony Metropolitan and Prime Hierarch Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, His Grace Bishop Daniel President of the Consistory Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, Marta Liscynesky Kelleher President United American Organizations of Ohio, Meto Koloski President United Macedonian Diaspora, Larissa Kyj President United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Alexandra Chalupa Founder & Acting President US United With Ukraine”

 

PressTV-US receives advanced air defense radar from Ukraine

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The US Army has received an advanced air defense radar system it bought from Ukraine, after a firm allegedly linked to Russia tried to block the sale.

The US Army Contracting Command center in Orlando, Florida received the 3D mobile radar system from through the Ukrainian state company SFTC “Progress,” according to the ImportGenius, an Arizona-based company which tracks import/export activity at various shipping docks.

The 36D6M1-1 radar, developed by Ukraine’s state-owned Scientific and Production Complex “Iskra,” is a designed to be used in modern automated air defense system and anti-aircraft missile systems.

The 3D radar’s main function is to detect low flying air targets under active and passive jamming. It can also be used to control military and civilian air traffic.

Defense Blog, the first website to report the story, wrote Monday that the US Army was going to analyze the system and probably use it to simulate opposition…

Read more

Video: KKK demonstrators clash with counter-protesters in front of snipers & heavy police control

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White supremacists known as the ‘Honourable Sacred Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’ held a heavily-guarded rally in the Indiana city of Madison on Saturday.

Via Youtube

PressTV-Trump ‘makes things up’ on Iran: Ex-secy. of state Kerry

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Former secretary of state John Kerry has censured Donald Trump’s claim that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was the “worst ever”, saying the US president makes things up and does not often make decisions based on fact or advice.

“Unfortunately — and I say this sadly — more often than not, he really just doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Kerry, who led the American team in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

“He makes things up. And he’s making that up, as he has other things,” the former top diplomat said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” aired Sunday.

Kerry angered Trump in May after reports said he had secretly met with world leaders in a bid to salvage the Iran nuclear deal ahead of Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the agreement.

Trump slammed the ex-diplomat on Twitter, saying “John Kerry can’t get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it! Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your…

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Memorial service held for six of ten children killed in Chicago Little Village house fire

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“This is a class issue, and it’s a social issue”

Memorial service held for six of ten children killed in Chicago Little Village house fire

By
our reporters

3 September 2018

In the shape of a crescent moon, the bodies of six of the ten children killed in the August 26 Chicago house fire lay in white caskets at the center of Our Lady of Tepeyac church in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood Saturday morning. The church held a memorial service for the six children, two blocks from the site of the fire.

Approximately 200 people attended, with many traveling long distances from throughout Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Funerals for the four remaining children will take place this week.

Hearses await to move the caskets of the children to the cemetery

The names of the six victims—3-month-old Amayah Almaraz, 5-year-old Ariel Garcia, 11-year-old Xavier Contreras, 13-year-old Nathan Contreras, 14-year-old Cesar Contreras, and 14-year-old Adrian Hernandez—were airbrushed onto T-shirts and worn by family members and friends to commemorate their lives.

There were moments of a celebratory mood. Family and friends stood and sat in front of the church, exchanging personal memories and stories about the children, laughing as children ate candy and playfully chased other.

This was periodically contrasted sharply by a sudden silence and a look upon family members and friends of deep shock, sadness and yearning to understand how this horror could have happened.

On Sunday August 26, the 10 children, ages 3 months to 16 years old, were having a sleepover in the back coach house of an apartment in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood when a fire broke out in the early morning. Eight children died inside while two more would die days later at John H. Stroger Jr….

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Human Extinction by 2026? | Dissident Voice

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by Robert J. Burrowes / September 3rd, 2018

There is almost unanimous agreement among climate scientists and organizations – that is, 97% of over 10,000 climate scientists and the various scientific organizations engaged in climate science research – that human beings have caused a dramatic increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide released into Earth’s atmosphere since the pre-industrial era and that this is driving the climate catastrophe that continues to unfold.

However, there is no consensus regarding the time frame in which this climate catastrophe will cause human extinction. This lack of consensus is primarily due to the global elite controlling the public perception of this time frame with frequent talk of ‘the end of the century’ designed to allow ongoing profit maximization through ‘business as usual’ for as long as possible. Why has this happened?

When evidence of the climate catastrophe (including the pivotal role of burning fossil fuels) became incontrovertible, which meant that the fossil fuel industry’s long-standing efforts to prevent action on the climate catastrophe had finally ended, the industry shifted its focus to arguing that the time frame, which it presented as ‘end of the century’, meant that we could defer action (and thus profit-maximization through business as usual could continue indefinitely). Consequently, like the tobacco, sugar and junk food industries, the fossil fuel industry has…

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Prison Planet.com » Prof touts ‘ecosexuality’ as ‘environmental activist strategy’

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Campus Reform
August 31, 2018

A St. Mary’s College of Maryland professor published a scholarly article exploring how “queer environmentalism” and “ecosexuality” can make environmentalism more appealing.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies professor Lauran Whitworth wrote “Goodbye Gauley Mountain, hello eco-camp: Queer environmentalism in the Anthropocene,” a study which seeks to convey the “effectiveness of queer environmental ethics in the Anthropocene, a word increasingly used to describe the anthropogenic destruction of ecosystems that marks our current geological era.” The academic journal Feminist Theory published the article.

“What do ecosexual encounters with nonhuman nature offer current discussions of environmental ethics?” she asks. “Can ecosexuality’s posthumanist tendencies queer our speciesist modes of belonging and foster an environmentalism that is not foundationally anthropocentric nor steeped in ‘reproductive futurism’?”

“Ecosexuality celebrates the carnal and grotesque, particularly in some of its campiest moments,” Whitworth explains, offering the example that some “wedding performers wear dildos outside their clothing and don costumes that accentuate and exaggerate their genitalia.”

Whitworth describes ecosexuality as “a theatrical environmental sensibility I deem eco-camp,” arguing that “ecosexuality’s campy ecological ethics and their tragi-comic and parodic tone…provides an alternative to the didacticism and moralism that characterise much contemporary environmentalism.”

Since it “elicits confusion, scepticism, and squeamishness from audiences,” she elaborates, ecosexuality has “the potential to disrupt environmental rhetoric per usual.”

Whitworth defines “eco-camp” as a “mode of florid performance, spectacle, and ostentatious sex-positivity” that looks to explore “new forms of…

Read more

No political bias at Facebook? Employee claims company suffers from liberal mob-rule — RT US News

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A Facebook employee has warned that the company’s liberal culture is becoming increasingly intolerant, going so far as to say that Donald Trump and other critics are right to accuse the social media giant of political bias.

Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, vented his frustration over the company’s liberal conformity in a message posted on an internal message board. His post, titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” sparked a company-wide debate and was later leaked to the New York Times.

“We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,” Amerige wrote in the post.

“We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”

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© Aaron P. Bernstein

He said that employees “tear down posters welcoming Trump supporters” and are quick to call for the firing of anyone believed to be a bigot, lamenting that over-zealous political correctness was damaging the company’s “internal culture” and “viability.”

Noting that critics – including Donald Trump – have expressed doubts about whether Facebook can serve as an “impartial and transparent carrier of people’s stories, ideas and commentary,” Amerige conceded: “Like them or not, we deserve that criticism.”

He added that the company has become “blind and dismissive” of what users and even some employees think about “issues that matter,” and that the problem has gotten “exponentially worse” in the last two years.

At the end of his post, Amerige announced the creation of an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity, where employees can “talk about these issues without fear of the mob.”

Several Facebook employees complained about the post, which they claimed was “offensive to minorities,” according to the New York Times. However, higher-ups said that Amerige’s message had not violated any company rules.

The internal call for more political diversity at Facebook coincides with growing concerns over a number of bans and suspensions on the platform which critics say are politically motivated.

Read more


© Leah Millis

Facebook and Google came under scrutiny earlier this month after what appeared to be a coordinated effort to remove right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms. Jones was later suspended by Twitter. The high-profile de-platforming was followed by the mysterious disappearance of Telesur’s Facebook page. The company later reinstated the Latin American news channel’s page, claiming that it was removed in error.

Facebook has also teamed up with the NATO-funded Atlantic Council in an effort to “expose and explain falsehood online.” Under the new initiative, self-described experts from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL) will liaise closely with Facebook’s “security, policy and product teams” to offer “real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world.”

Their partnership was described by journalist Max Blumenthal as a “war on dissident narratives in online media.” Even Trump has weighed in, tweeting last Friday that social media companies are “silencing millions of people.”

Echoing a similar sentiment in an earlier interview with Reuters, Trump noted that “when they take certain people off of Twitter or Facebook and they’re making that decision, that is really a dangerous thing because that could be you tomorrow.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Spasskaya Tower Military Music Festival closing ceremony in Moscow

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The official closing ceremony of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival takes place in Moscow’s Red Square on Sunday. Concluding the …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Wildfire reshaping US West amid climate change

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Wildfires in the US have charred more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square km) so far this year, an area larger than the state of Maryland, with large fires still burning in every Western state including many that are not fully contained.

Whether sparked by lightning or humans, fire has long been a force shaping the landscape of the U.S. West.

Hot, dry winds can whip flames into firestorms that leave behind charred wastelands prone to erosion and mudslides. Other fires clear out underbrush, open the forest floor to sunlight and stimulate growth.

Government agencies in recent decades effectively upended that cycle of destruction and rebirth. Fire suppression policies allowed fuels to build up in many Western forests, making them more susceptible to major fires.

Those influences are magnified as development creeps ever deeper into forests and climate change brings hotter temperatures. Recent images of subdivisions ablaze thrust the power…

Read more

PressTV-UK govt. ‘concerned’ by Saudi killing of Yemeni civilians

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The UK government has voiced “serious concern” over the rising numbers of civilian casualties from Saudi Arabia’s years-long military aggression against Yemen, even as London refuses to end its extensive arms deals with Riyadh.

“The Government expresses serious concern at the tragic loss of life in Yemen over the last month. In the first two weeks of August alone, over 400 Yemenis lost their lives, including young children, and many more continue to face egregious violations of their basic human rights,” read a statement by Prime Minister Theresa May’s office on Sunday.

Since the beginning of the unprovoked war in March 2015, Riyadh had enjoyed the unconditional support of its Western allies as the Royal Saudi Air Force and its regional peers kept pounding what they claimed were positions of the Houthi Ansarullah Movement across Yemen.

However, the Saudi regime found itself in hot water last month when a surge in civilian…

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Video: RAW: Tornado rips through Kalamazoo County, Michigan

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tornado #Michigan #Kalamazootornado Footage filmed in Michigan’s Kalamazoo County on Saturday shows a tornado ripping through the countryside.

Via Youtube

PressTV-Microwave weapons used on US diplomats: Report

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US scientists and doctors increasingly suspect unconventional microwave weapons caused over three dozen American diplomats and their families to fall sick in recent months in Cuba and China, according to a report by US media.

Douglas Smith, the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said microwave weapons are now considered a main suspect, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Smith told the Times that a medical team that examined the diplomats is increasingly sure they suffered brain injury.

“Everybody was relatively skeptical at first,” he was quoted as saying, “and everyone now agrees there’s something there.”

The victims reported hearing intense high-pitched sounds in their hotel rooms or homes followed by symptoms that included nausea, severe headaches, dizziness, fatigue, hearing loss and sleep problems.

The Times said there were many unanswered questions as to who might have carried out…

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#MeToo Campaign for Sudanese Teen Highlights the Need to End Western Saviorism

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The flash-in-the-pan activism of Noura’s case also begs some questions around the #MeToo movement’s ability to support long-term change and to truly challenge entrenched systems of racism, colonialism and patriarchy, especially when it comes to women in the Global South. While activism has become increasingly in vogue in the West, there is a danger that this mode of change simply replicates the same white (or Western) savior complex as the charity-driven humanitarianism that preceded it.

Western countries have flourished because of the violence and destruction they carried out to build their societies, and they continue to be complicit by failing to take responsibility for this past. “The white man’s burden should not be the motivation to act,” Eltayeb said. “It should be the culpability of 400 years of colonization that stopped the progress of the civilizations in the Global South that led to the situation in our countries now.” Action driven by guilt can be fleeting, but action driven by a sense of conviction and obligation can put societies on much more equal footing.

“Sudanese activists, themselves raising the profile of this case, is what [got the attention of] international circles … Without them, Noura would not be here today,” Eltayeb continued. “Public opinion has begun to shift and recognize that, at least for cases like Noura, it was a clear act of self-defense. This creates openings for more debate, but no laws or policies changed as a result of Noura’s case.”

Noura’s victory indicates that Sudanese activists are having some success changing the understanding of women’s rights domestically in a way that could enable more systemic change to take hold. The fact that Noura’s story spread so quickly on social and independent media outlets in Sudan is a testament to the effective, decentralized organizing of Sudanese activists, especially women.

Noura’s case became known because an audacious female journalist, Tahani Abbas,quietly…

Read more

Fre Ballesteros, Visionary

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Fre Ballesteros was a significant part of the documentary The Ultimate Song, which explored the role of music in the struggle to end poverty.

The film also featured Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Sara Hickman, Wayne Kramer, Brian Blade, Warren Haynes, Ice T, Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, and many other great artists.

Fre’s words, which conclude the film, also provided the title:

“If we were a part of ending that poverty, the feeling would be incredible, to know that we had a part in that. The music is from the heart, from the soul. To see something like poverty be lifted off the face of this earth would be the ultimate song.”

Fre Ballesteros, saxophonist for the Boxing Gandhis, died at age 61 on August 21. His spirit will live on forever.

 

Lee Ballinger, CounterPunch’s music columnist, is co-editor of Rock and Rap Confidential author of the forthcoming book Love and War: My First Thirty Years of Writing, interviewed Honkala for CounterPunch. RRRC is now available for free by emailing Ballinger at: rockrap@aol.com.

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Once the Bubbles Pop – LewRockwell

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I hate to break it to you, but the everything bubble isn’t permanent.

OK, I get it–the Bull Market in stocks is permanent. Bulls will be chortling in 2030 that skeptics have been wrong for 22 years–an entire generation. Bonds will also be higher, thanks to negative interest rates, and housing will still be climbing higher, too. Household net worth will be measured in the gazillions.

Here’s the Fed’s measure of current household net worth: a cool $100 trillion, about 750% of disposable personal income (DPI):

Household net worth has soared $30 trillion in the past decade of permanent monetary and fiscal stimulus. No wonder everyone is saying Universal Basic Income (UBI)– $1,000 a month for every adult, no questions asked–is affordable, along with Medicare For All (never mind that Medicare is far more expensive than the healthcare provided by other advanced nations due to rampant profiteering, fraud and paperwork costs–we can afford it!)

Money and Work Unchained
Charles Hugh Smith
Check Amazon for Pricing.

And we get to keep the Endless Wars ™, trillion-dollar white elephant F-35 program, and all the other goodies–we can afford it all because we’re rich!

We’re only rich until the bubbles pop, which they will. All speculative bubbles deflate, even those that are presumed permanent, And when the current everything bubble pops, net worth–and all the taxes generated by bubble-era capital gains–vanish.

Take a look at the Federal Reserve’s Household Balance Sheet (June 2018):
$34.6 trillion in non-financial assets
$81.7 trillion in financial assets
$15.6 trillion in total liabilities ($10 trillion of which is home mortgages)
$100 trillion in net worth

So $25 trillion is in real estate. When the housing…

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White People Stole Everything They Have And Will Destroy the Planet

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Chris Menahan
Information Liberation
August 31, 2018

According to Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the “religion” of “whiteness” is a “suicide cult” which is putting the world in “grave danger.”

If you thought the Times might ease up on the anti-white racial hate after taking so much heat for hiring Sarah Jeong, this is as clear a message as you’re going to get that they’re instead going to go into overdrive.

From The New York Times, “The Religion of Whiteness Becomes a Suicide Cult”:

“White men,” an obscure Australian academic named Charles Henry Pearson predicted in his 1893 book “National Life and Character: A Forecast,” would be “elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside” by people they had long regarded as their inferiors — “black and yellow races.” China, in particular, would be a major threat. Pearson, prone to terrors of racial extinction while living in a settler colony in an Asian neighborhood, thought it was imperative to defend “the last part of the world, in which the higher races can live and increase freely, for the higher civilization.”


Pankaj Mishra

His prescriptions for racial self-defense thunderously echoed around the white Anglosphere, the community of men with shared historical ties to Britain. Theodore Roosevelt, who held a complacent 19th-century faith, buttressed by racist pseudoscience, that nonwhite peoples were hopelessly inferior, reported to Pearson the “great effect” of his book among “all our men here in Washington.”

In the years that followed, politicians and pundits in Britain and its settler colonies of Australia, Canada and the United States would jointly forge an identity geopolitics of the “higher races.” Today it has reached its final and most desperate phase, with existential fears about endangered white power feverishly circulating once again between the core and periphery of the…

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Boy, 10, hospitalized after being bullied says he didn’t fight back because it’s ‘not the Jedi way’ — RT US News

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A 10-year-old boy who had to be hospitalized after being bullied this week has won the praise of Star Wars star Mark Hamill as he said he did not fight back because it isn’t the “Jedi way.”

Fifth-grader Aiden Vazquez from Desert Hot Springs, California said he did not respond to being punched and insulted because it went against the Star Wars knights’ ethics.

A picture posted by his mother on Facebook captures him with tears rolling down his cheeks and with a bleeding cut to his eyebrow after the reported assault on Monday at the Two Bunch Palms primary school.

READ MORE: Black schoolgirl sent home from Louisiana Christian school over ‘unnatural’ hairstyle (VIDEO)

The boy had to get several stitches to the cut. Explaining her son’s reason for not punching back, Lizette Casanova said: 

Police are investigating an allegation of assault after the mother issued a criminal complaint over the bullying.

In a separate post on her Facebook page, an outraged Casanova claimed it was the second time her child had to be brought to the hospital after being bullied.

“Last year he had to get stitches on his face from getting ‘pushed’, losing his breath on the playground for getting thrown down,” she said.

Star Wars star Hamill noticed Vasquez’s strength of character and expressed his admiration for the 10-year-old, tweeting: “I’m astonished by his wisdom and courage [at] such a tender age.

“I may be a fictional Jedi, but this boy is the real deal.

“I hope he sees this message and knows how much I admire him.”

Aiden’s uncle in response sent a picture of the boy with a thumbs up and captioned: “He’s right here and says THANK YOU!”

Two Bunch Palms Principal Joseph Scudder promised to investigate the bullying. He said in a statement to the Palm Springs Desert Sun that the “safety of our students is our top priority.”

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Massive inferno engulfs National Museum of Brazil housing 20mn+ exhibits

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Brazil #BrazilMuseumFire The National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro has been hit by a massive fire on Sunday night, with images from the scene showing …

Via Youtube

Prison Planet.com » YES! Feds to Crack Down on Cities with Taxpayer-Sponsored “Safe Injection Sites”

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Louder With Crowder
August 31, 2018

If you thought making drug use more accessible via “safe injection sites” in cities like Seattle and San Francisco was stupider than taking health advice from Tess Holliday, you’re not alone. Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General of the United States, has plans to take on such cities that are using taxpayer money to fund addicts shooting up. Rod Rosenstein penned an OpEd at The New York Times, where he writes:

Unfortunately, some cities and counties are considering sponsoring centers where drug users can abuse dangerous illegal drugs with government help. Advocates euphemistically call them “safe injection sites,” but they are very dangerous and would only make the opioid crisis worse.

Before the diehard libertarians who totally love drugs chime in here, we’re talking about illicit drug use sponsored by the government. So not the same thing as a Saturday night brownie bakeoff with your favorite friend, THC. We’re talking hard drugs, with clean needles given to the addicts courtesy of taxpayers. Many of whom are likely not pleased with their money helping to fund Trainspotting 2: Hiiiiiiiigh!

One obvious problem with injection sites is that they are illegal. It is a federal felony to maintain any location for the purpose of facilitating illicit drug use. Violations are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, hefty fines and forfeiture of the property used in the criminal activity. The law also authorizes the federal government to obtain civil injunctions against violators. Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites, cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action.

In other words, cities like San Francisco and Seattle are in flagrant abuse of federal law. Which means the feds actually can crack down on the pompous cities. San Francisco and…

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US police arrest ‘China’s Jeff Bezos’ over suspected sexual misconduct — RT US News

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Minnesota police briefly arrested the CEO of e-commerce giant JD.com, and one of China’s richest men, on suspicion of sexual misconduct. The businessman has been released pending complaint.

Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of JD.com, an online shopping site that has drawn investments from Google and Walmart, was arrested by Minneapolis police on Friday about midnight and released the next afternoon. The billionaire has been dubbed the “Jeff Bezos of China” and has been a prime challenger to Jack Ma’s Alibaba e-commerce empire.

No complaint has been filed against Liu, who goes by the Americanized name of Richard in the US. As grounds for his arrest, Hennepin County records list “probable cause,” which is American legal speak for a “reasonable” amount of suspicion that the allegations are probably true – but not in itself enough for a criminal conviction.

The details and severity of the offense Liu had been implicated in has not been revealed.

Liu, whose net worth of $9.4 billion earned him the Forbes rank of 18th richest Chinese man last year, was released without bail and is free to leave the city, state and even the country, police said.

Police spokesman John Elder told the Wall Street Journal, that law enforcement is “confident” that they will be able to reach the Chinese national “as the time becomes necessary.” 

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© Carlos Barria

After the CEO’s release, JD.com issued a statement on Chinese social media network Weibo on Sunday, arguing that allegations against the company’s CEO were “false” and police quickly determined that there were no merit to the claims, allowing Liu to continue his business trip as originally intended.

The company warned it “will take necessary legal action against false reporting.”

However, the commentary section has been immediately flooded with screenshots from the sheriff’s office jail roster, with users calling the company out for misrepresenting the police report in an attempt at damage control.

While the businessman himself has not issued any comment regarding the allegations or the purpose of his trip to Minnesota, the University of Minnesota has confirmed that Liu was studying for a doctor degree and traveled to Minnesota to complete the residency part of his business leadership curriculum among other students. The program Liu had signed up to was established in a partnership with a Chinese university.

Although Liu has never faced allegations of being involved in any sex crime before, his name got in the news in connection with a sexual assault of a woman in his estate in Australia in December 2015. Liu’s party guest Longwei Xu was found guilty of indecent assault on a woman in July this year. During the proceedings Liu requested that the prosecution hide his identity in the court papers, arguing that mentioning his name in connection with a rape trial would have marred his reputation.

READ MORE: Jeff Bezos’ parents may be ridiculously rich on 12,000,000% return on early Amazon investment

However, the Sydney Morning Herald unmasked the billionaire in July after successfully overcoming Liu’s suppression bid in court. 

JD.com has been regarded as one of Alibaba’s main competitor. In June, Alphabet’s Google invested $500 million into the company, providing it with an access to markets outside Asia by allowing it on its shopping service.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

The Damaging Asian Male Sexuality in Crazy Rich Asians and Why It is Not Asian Black Panther

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Crazy Rich Asians has already been compared by reviewers criticizing it for its exaltation of late-stage capitalism to The Great Gatsby. It is a good comparison because it is true. We know enough by now that if you throw a Gatsby-themed Jazz Age wedding, the joke’s on you—you clearly have not read the book, or, having read it, did not understand it. The same applies to the misguided celebration of Crazy Rich Asians as some triumph of representation or diversity if it is to be praised for its satirical quality. If there is any satire of wealth made in the book, all of it is lost in the film version.

Every subplot in the film is wrapped up neatly with an offering made, finally, at the altar of wealth. When the cool, graceful, unflappable Astrid, whom we are meant to sympathize with, finally leaves her unfaithful husband, Michael, we are meant to relish the moment. Finally, Astrid, released (from what?), can take out her hidden Dior shoes, reach for those 1.2 million-dollar earrings, and strut off, off-screen mechanical fan blowing in her hair to reveal the glinting jewels (which required their own security on set).

We are asked finally, not merely to kneel at the shrine of Money, but to suck its cock. For money is plainly the phallus in the world of Crazy Rich Asians.

Michael Teo, played by Pierre Png, we are meant to understand, of course, gets to marry Astrid despite not being rich, because he is hot. (That this is exaggerated and deliberate is evident to…

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Jack the Ripper – LewRockwell

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On 31 August 1888 Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of Jack The Ripper, was found brutally murdered in east London. Sputnik spoke to Richard Jones, founder of the Jack The Ripper Tour, about why the serial killer exerts such fascination on people even today.

Mr. Jones runs the Jack The Ripper Tour, which takes tourists on a guided tour of the various locations in Whitechapel — an area just to the east of the City of London financial district — which are associated with the Ripper.

Friday, August 31, marks the 130th anniversary of the arrival of the most infamous serial killer in the world — Jack The Ripper.

Mary Anne Nichols’ mutilated body was found in Bucks Row, Whitechapel, at 3.45am by a waggoner called Charles Cross who was on his way to work. She was the first of five prostitutes who would be murdered in the space of 12 weeks, creating terror in central and east London.

“She was found in an unlit street. Electric lighting was just coming in but because Whitechapel was a poor area there were no electric lights and very few gas lamps so most streets were dark. That’s why Jack The Ripper got away with his crimes,” Richard Jones told Sputnik.

He said there were a lot of similarities between the press coverage of the Ripper’s crimes and the media’s current obsession with knife crime, gangs and immigrants.

“It’s almost exactly the same as today. The newspapers are now on about gangs and are saying the police have lost control of the streets and people are not safe and it’s…

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Prison Planet.com » Earth’s ‘Big Freeze’ Approaches As Sun Remains Devoid Of Sunspots For Most Of 2018

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Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
August 31, 2018

Scientists believe that Earth could experience a “big freeze” as the sun goes through what’s known as “solar minimum.” During this time, sunspots are minimal and the globe could be in for a wicked cold snap.

Scientists are reporting that the sun has been free of sunspots for a total of 133 days this year, according to The Express UK. With only 241 days of 2018 passing, that means the sun has been blank for the majority of the year. Experts continue to warn that this is a sign that the solar minimum is on its way. “The sun is spotless again. For the 133rd day this year, the face of the sun is blank,” wrote the website Space Weather. “Solar minimum has returned, bringing extra cosmic rays, long-lasting holes in the sun’s atmosphere, and strangely pink auroras,” the website continued.

The sun follows a cycle of roughly 11 years where it reaches a solar maximum and then a solar minimum. During a solar maximum, the sun gives off more heat and solar particles and is littered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in the sun’s magnetic waves.  Our sun was not expected to head into a solar minimum until around 2020, but it appears to be heading in that direction a little early which could prove to be bad news for warm weather lovers.

But a prolonged solar minimum could mean a “mini ice age.” The last time there was a prolonged solar minimum, it did, in fact, lead to a mini ice-age which was scientifically known as the Maunder minimum.  That little cold snap lasted for 70 years between the years 1645 and 1715. During this period, temperatures dropped globally by 1.3 degrees Celsius leading to shorter seasons and ultimately food shortages.

“Low solar activity is known to have consequences on Earth’s weather and climate and it also is well correlated with an increase in cosmic rays that reach the…

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Trump warns Christians of consequences if GOP loses midterms — RT US News

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In a hotly contested election season, marked by confrontations and a widening divide between the left and right, President Trump fired up his evangelical base with a warning: “you’re one election away from losing everything.”

In a speech to a collection of evangelical Christian leaders Monday night, Trump warned them to get out and vote Republican in November. If they don’t, he cautioned, Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently,” reported the New York Times, citing a recording of the private event.

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A Blue Lives Matter supporter holds a sign in Charleston, South Carolina. © Randall Hill / Reuters

It is unclear what form that this violence would take, or who would carry it out, but Trump warned the faithful that the left “will end everything immediately.”

“When you look at antifa, and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people,” he said, referring to the militant leftist group that has gained national attention for its violent protests, usually during right-wing rallies, as well as its harassment of conservative figures.

“I just ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote,” Trump said. “If they don’t vote we’re going to have a miserable two years and we’re going to have, frankly, a very hard period of time because then it just gets to be one election — you’re one election away from losing everything you’ve got.”

The White House declined to elaborate on what Trump might have meant by his comments. Trump’s manner of speaking is often vague, and his statements rambling. The president is known to go off-script, and to make claims that are later walked back by White House officials.

Trump’s opponents saw his Monday night speech as proof that the president is fear-mongering to his Christian supporters. One commenter wondered whether Trump’s allusion to violence was a “worry, warning or wish?”

Monday night’s dinner event was a who’s who of Christian celebrities, like Robert Jeffress – a Texas megachurch preacher who once called Islam a “false religion inspired by Satan himself,” and the Catholic Church a “cult” whose rise to power was attributed to “the genius of Satan.” Some more left-leaning pastors, however, took offense to Trump’s speech.

“America needs to push back these unhinged people, for disparate humanity’s sake,” tweeted liberal pastor and former Hillary Clinton cheerleader John Pavlovitz. Another pastor, Matteo Carr, compared Trump to a mob boss shaking down businesses for protection money.

Incendiary or not, Trump’s speech took place at a time of growing division in the US. Clashes between the left and right have spilled off online forums and into the streets, and Trump’s controversial policy decisions, particularly his ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy, energized and provoked a fierce response from the left earlier this summer.

The president’s words on Monday echoed the words of his attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who claimed earlier this week that Americans would “revolt” if Democrats were to impeach Trump “for political reasons.” Earlier, Trump himself warned that the stock market will crash if lawmakers decide to remove him from office. “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” the president said in an interview with Fox News.

Keen to avoid any chance of impeachment, Trump urged the Christian leaders to pound the pulpit for Republican candidates in November, and boasted that he had stricken down a law that prohibits churches from campaigning for political candidates. Churches who violate the law, known as the ‘Johnson Amendment’, can be stripped of their federal tax exemption.

Trump did not actually repeal the law, but did sign an executive order asking the Treasury Department to be lenient in enforcing it. Thousands of clergy and preachers have violated the Johnson Amendment since 2008, but only one has been investigated, and none punished according to the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump warns Christians of consequences if GOP loses midterms — RT US News

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In a hotly contested election season, marked by confrontations and a widening divide between the left and right, President Trump fired up his evangelical base with a warning: “you’re one election away from losing everything.”

In a speech to a collection of evangelical Christian leaders Monday night, Trump warned them to get out and vote Republican in November. If they don’t, he cautioned, Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently,” reported the New York Times, citing a recording of the private event.

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A Blue Lives Matter supporter holds a sign in Charleston, South Carolina. © Randall Hill / Reuters

It is unclear what form that this violence would take, or who would carry it out, but Trump warned the faithful that the left “will end everything immediately.”

“When you look at antifa, and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people,” he said, referring to the militant leftist group that has gained national attention for its violent protests, usually during right-wing rallies, as well as its harassment of conservative figures.

“I just ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote,” Trump said. “If they don’t vote we’re going to have a miserable two years and we’re going to have, frankly, a very hard period of time because then it just gets to be one election — you’re one election away from losing everything you’ve got.”

The White House declined to elaborate on what Trump might have meant by his comments. Trump’s manner of speaking is often vague, and his statements rambling. The president is known to go off-script, and to make claims that are later walked back by White House officials.

Trump’s opponents saw his Monday night speech as proof that the president is fear-mongering to his Christian supporters. One commenter wondered whether Trump’s allusion to violence was a “worry, warning or wish?”

Monday night’s dinner event was a who’s who of Christian celebrities, like Robert Jeffress – a Texas megachurch preacher who once called Islam a “false religion inspired by Satan himself,” and the Catholic Church a “cult” whose rise to power was attributed to “the genius of Satan.” Some more left-leaning pastors, however, took offense to Trump’s speech.

“America needs to push back these unhinged people, for disparate humanity’s sake,” tweeted liberal pastor and former Hillary Clinton cheerleader John Pavlovitz. Another pastor, Matteo Carr, compared Trump to a mob boss shaking down businesses for protection money.

Incendiary or not, Trump’s speech took place at a time of growing division in the US. Clashes between the left and right have spilled off online forums and into the streets, and Trump’s controversial policy decisions, particularly his ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy, energized and provoked a fierce response from the left earlier this summer.

The president’s words on Monday echoed the words of his attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who claimed earlier this week that Americans would “revolt” if Democrats were to impeach Trump “for political reasons.” Earlier, Trump himself warned that the stock market will crash if lawmakers decide to remove him from office. “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” the president said in an interview with Fox News.

Keen to avoid any chance of impeachment, Trump urged the Christian leaders to pound the pulpit for Republican candidates in November, and boasted that he had stricken down a law that prohibits churches from campaigning for political candidates. Churches who violate the law, known as the ‘Johnson Amendment’, can be stripped of their federal tax exemption.

Trump did not actually repeal the law, but did sign an executive order asking the Treasury Department to be lenient in enforcing it. Thousands of clergy and preachers have violated the Johnson Amendment since 2008, but only one has been investigated, and none punished according to the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trade tensions increase as US-Canada talks miss deadline

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Trade tensions increase as US-Canada talks miss deadline

By
Nick Beams

1 September 2018

Talks between US and Canadian representatives on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) broke up yesterday without an agreement, missing the deadline for a deal set by the Trump administration.

President Trump has now officially informed Congress of “intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico, and Canada if it is willing, 90 days from now.” US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said the talks had been “constructive” and progress had been made. The Canadian side said only that discussions would resume next week.

Tensions rose in the meeting following the publication in the Toronto Star of off-the-record comments made by Trump during an interview with Bloomberg in the Oval Office on Thursday. He said any possible agreement with Canada would be “totally on our terms” but he could not say this publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.” During the interview, Trump indicated that the main threat against Canada is the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on auto imports if a NAFTA deal is not reached.

One of the main points of difference between the two sides is the US demand that Canada abolish, or at least significantly change, its agricultural supply management system which limits the imports of US dairy products and poultry.

Following the signing of a new NAFTA deal with Mexico on Monday, Trump warned that if Canada did not agree to US terms “the easiest thing we can do is tariff their cars coming in,” a threat he repeated in remarks yesterday. Other points of difference are over whether there should be a dispute resolution system in which member countries can challenge any tariffs imposed by one…

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PressTV-Labor leader raps Trump over workers’ condition

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Workers in the United States do not have good conditions despite US President Donald Trump’s claims, says the country’s labor leader.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka criticized the president over the issue in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“We said when [Trump] was elected that when he did something good for workers, we’d support him. When he did something bad for workers, we’d oppose him,” Trumka said, adding that the US president has not done enough for American workers.

When reminded that unemployment is supposedly down to 3.9 percent and employment numbers have held steady, he asserted that Trump is still falling short.

“Those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year, and gas prices have been up since the first of the year,” said Trumka (pictured above). “So workers really aren’t doing that well.”

He further noted that his party would only focus on the candidates’ plans for workers…

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First Nations Celebrate Win Against Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion

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A Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday struck down the Canadian government’s approval of the ‪Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, halting construction of the 1,150-kilometer project indefinitely.

The expansion would have tripled capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, allowing it to ship up to 890,000 barrels of bitumen oil every day from Alberta’s tar sands to a terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The court decision cited the Trudeau government’s failure to consult with Canada’s First Nations, specifically the government’s insufficient treatment of oral traditional evidence, lack of sufficient time given in the consultation process for affected groups to inform themselves well enough to participate, and failure to consult about the environmental assessment.

The decision comes after months of indigenous-led opposition to the pipeline. Efforts suffered a big blow back in May, when the Canadian government announced it would purchase the project for $4.5 billion when Kinder Morgan struggled to fund the expansion.

“Without question today is a day of celebration,” said Grand Chief Stewart Philip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in an interview posted on Facebook. “But also it’s a day that we must reflect on our journey up to this point in our opposition to the Kinder Morgan Trans mountain expansion project. And I’d like to take this opportunity to thank that massive infrastructure that was pulled together in terms of grassroots people, indigenous leadership, and rank-and-file British Columbians and Canadians.”

Here’s what that leadership has looked like.

Coast Protectors

In British Columbia, indigenous coast protectors led direct actions of allies, environmental activists, and local residents to stop pipeline expansion. Over 200 people have been arrested in direct actions over the past several months.

This campaign was launched in…

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American Militarism, a Bi-Partisan Affair

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Photo Source DVIDSHUB | CC BY 2.0

“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.”

– Gore Vidal

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

On August 25 the American senior Senator John McCain succumbed to a brain tumor; and the US media exploded in unbridled praise. He was lauded as a “war hero” in the paper of record and there has been a seemingly endless stream of tributes since on social media and on network cable news. What was perhaps more telling was the outpouring of grief among liberals. McCain represented to them a sort of bulwark against their arch nemesis Donald Trump. Without a doubt McCain’s sparring with the megalomaniacal liar in the Oval Office made headlines almost weekly. But it was the surreal erasure of public memory that was overwhelming.

McCain came from the ruling class. His great, great grandfather, William Alexander McCain, owned slaves on a cotton…

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‘We Will Take The Land BY FORCE’

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Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
August 31, 2018

The new legislation allowing the South African government to seize the land of white farmers without compensation, is currently on hold pending review.  However, should the law pass, the country will most likely be flung into racial violence as supporters and those in opposition to the law are split – down racial lines.

It certainly seems like the South African government wants a violent and bloody race war.  The law which would allow the government to take white farmers land by force and redistribute it to the black population was proposed by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) as early as 2015 and supported by President Cyril Ramaphosa according to RT.  More than twenty years after abolishing apartheid (strict racial segregation) the government and those willing to steal the land from others view it as “racial” justice. That is likely to fan the flames of a violent race war.

The proposed land reform has pitted radical groups among black South Africans ready to take land by force against white farmers who are ready to protect their property with an equal amount of force. “We will take the land by force,” Peter Seolela, a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, told London-based television channel ITV. “We will not be embarrassed by this. It is our land and we want it now.”

But the white farmers have already paid for the land and many have titles in their hands, meaning it doesn’t actually belong to others just because they want it and based solely on skin color (that’s pretty much the definition of racism). “This land is bought and paid for. I have the title deeds that go back four generations,” said Bernadette Hall, whose husband was reportedly murdered by armed raiders six years ago, according to RT.  “I lost my husband and now they want to take my farm,” Hall told the media. “I’ve put my…

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Honest mistakes or fake news? CNN’s top Trump-related reporting gaffes — RT US News

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US President Donald Trump and CNN have been at loggerheads for years, with the president branding CNN part of the “fake news” media and even calling the network the “enemy of the people” on Twitter.

But while Trump may be exaggerating and turning his distaste for CNN into a public crusade, there were indeed a number of significant reports about his administration that CNN got very wrong. Here are the network’s top Trump-related gaffes.

1. CNN vs. Lanny Davis

In late July, CNN published the shocking news that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen had claimed that Trump “knew in advance” about an infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which the campaign was expecting to be offered dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russian sources. Not only that, CNN said Cohen was also willing to testify on this, according to “sources with knowledge”.

The problem is that Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, has admitted to BuzzFeed that he was CNN’s source for the story and that he “made a mistake” in erroneously confirming their report. He now says Cohen made no such claims about the Trump Tower meeting, and so obviously will not be testifying about it. Oops?

Critics have blasted CNN for failing to adequately correct the record even after Davis has essentially admitted he was lying. The network has defended its report, disputing the claim that Davis was the only source — a line which not everyone is buying.

2. CNN vs. Donald Trump Jr.

CNN managed to botch another story about Trump and Russia in December 2017 — by getting the date of an email wrong. In the story, CNN claimed that Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. had advance knowledge of material possessed by whistleblower site WikiLeaks which had not yet been published — citing an email that had been received by the campaign on September 4, nine days before the documents were published.

It turned out, however, that the email had actually been received on September 14 — after WikiLeaks had already published the information in question. CNN had to correct itself hours after causing unwarranted hysteria. Defending itself, the network claimed multiple sources had provided its reporter with the incorrect date.

3. CNN vs. Anthony Scaramucci

In June 2017, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, that former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci, who served for a brief period as White House communications director, was under Senate investigation for meeting with the head of a Russian state-backed investment fund.

The report had claimed that Scaramucci and several other Trump campaign figures were being looked into over their ties to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and suggested that Scaramucci may have discussed lifting US sanctions on Russia with RDIF’s CEO, Kirill Dmitriev.

After both men denied this, CNN deleted the story admitting that it was not “solid enough” to have published — and three reporters involved resigned.

4. CNN vs. James Comey

A few weeks before the Scaramucci debacle, CNN made another reporting faux pas, when it claimed that former FBI director James Comey, during testimony to Congress, would dispute Trump’s claim that he was told he was not personally under investigation.

CNN claimed it had sources who said Comey was expected to explain to senators that his conversations with Trump were“much more nuanced” and that Trump had simply concluded from them that he was not under investigation.

In reality, Comey did not dispute Trump’s claim that he had been told he was not under investigation — and in fact confirmed Trump’s account. CNN later updated their article, saying that Comey “does not directly dispute that Trump was told multiple times he was not under investigation” and explaining that the original piece was published before he gave his testimony — which makes you wonder why they didn’t just wait to hear what he had to say himself.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

St. Thomas Aquinas and Law

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By nature all men are equal in liberty but not in other endowments.
–        Thomas Aquinas

A good place to start.

Freedom’s Progress?: A History of Political Thought, by Gerard Casey

Thomas Aquinas lived for about fifty years, during the middle of the thirteenth century.  He was at the heart of what was one of the most intellectually revolutionary periods in European history:

…he was one of those who led the successful fight to have the newly translated (into Latin) works of Aristotle accepted by the academic and ecclesiastical establishments…



Freedomu2019s Progress…
Gerard Casey
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In addition to Aristotle, another rediscovered source for this revolutionary period was Emperor Justinian’s sixth century codification of Roman law.  A quick detour into Justinian’s work:

…Justinian tried to restate the whole of Roman law in a manageable and consistent form…. [The members of the second commission] were to read the works of authority, none of them written later than about AD 300, and excerpt what was currently valid.

The compilers were authorized to alter the texts they kept. If the new version of a text differed from the old, the new prevailed, on the theory that Justinian was entitled to amend the previous law as he wished.

Justinian was Eastern Emperor.  Presumably, his codification of law was the basis upon which the Byzantine Empire was built.  What can be said of this?  This codified law supported a long-lasting, reasonably stable, commercially successful empire; connecting Asia and Western Europe, its economy was far more dynamic than could be found east or west; gold coinage, while not free-market derived, was respected – certainly…

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Prison Planet.com » Italy And Hungary Create ‘Anti-Immigration Axis’

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Soeren Kern
The Gatestone Institute
September 1, 2018

  • “We are close to a historic turning point at the continental level. I am astonished at the stupor of a political left that now exists only to challenge others and believes that Milan should not host the president of a European country, as if the left has the authority to decide who has the right to speak and who does not — and then they wonder why no one votes for them anymore.” — Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
  • “This is the first of a long series of meetings to change destinies, not only of Italy and of Hungary, but of the whole European continent.” — Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
  • “We need a new European Commission that is committed to the defense of Europe’s borders. We need a Commission after the European elections that does not punish those countries — like Hungary — that protect their borders.” — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini have pledged to create an “anti-immigration axis” aimed at countering the pro-migration policies of the European Union.

Meeting in Milan on August 28, Orbán and Salvini, vowed to work together with Austria and the Visegrad Group — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — to oppose a pro-migration group of EU countries led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini meet in Milan, Italy on August 28. (Image source: RT France video screenshot)

Orbán and Salvini are seeking a coordinated strategy ahead of the March 2019 European Parliament elections to defeat the pro-immigration Party of European Socialists (PES), a pan-European party representing national-level socialist parties from all EU member states. The objective is to change the political composition of European…

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Fake FB accounts spewing US propaganda at Cubans fit the pattern — RT US News

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While the US accuses Russia of using internet trolls to sow discord, Washington is funding its own propaganda body’s program of ‘non-branded Facebook accounts’ operating in Cuba.

Here is a fun fact: The US Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), an arm of America’s official foreign propaganda agency the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is setting up “non-branded local Facebook accounts to disseminate information” in Cuba. The OCB believes that such pages are more likely to be appearing on newsfeeds of actual Cubans with access to the social network – apparently because Facebook changed its algorithms to give priority to living people over organizations in its crusade on the phantom menace of ‘Russian fake news’.

The quote does not come from some leaked report on American information warfare against the Cuban government. It comes from page 31 of the BBG’s request for fiscal year 2019 funding. Spending taxpayer money on fake online personas used to disseminate propaganda and meddle in another nation’s affairs is perfectly fine – so long as it’s America doing it.

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Of course, the US public will probably not know this, because the national networks are more interested in explaining how bad Russians are plotting to kill Americans by convincing them not to vaccinate. A barrage of no less than 253 tweets was launched with that purpose, according to a recent study (over a period of three years, almost half pro-vaccination, cannot be actually confirmed to have come from Russia). But readers of The Miami New Times may learn about the Cuban story too, along with how the US wasted money for decades in “Wile E. Coyote-esque stunts” to reach the Cuban public.

US attempts to destabilize the Cuban government have been ongoing since 1959, although after the Cold War the focus shifted more to less-direct methods like funding anti-government groups in Cuba and trying to stir dissent through radio and TV broadcasts, points out William Robinson, author and professor of sociology at the University of California. The “non-branded accounts” are just another part of this effort.

“That’s the same thing that the United States is doing all around the world: in Russia, in Eastern Europe, in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia,” he told RT. Robinson added that many of Americans are simply not aware of such facts because major US media outlets would not report them.

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  © Regis Duvignau

“The corporate media and the political leaders in the United States present US interventions around the world… as the promotion of democracy and human rights,” he said. “And this propaganda in the United States has normalized this double standard, whereby the US can intervene all around the world – politically, at the level of propaganda, at the level of social media – but will not tolerate anyone else doing anything of the sort inside the United States.”

The attitude is far from being limited to information warfare, he said.

“The US has sent hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq; it’s intervening in Syria, intervening in Afghanistan, intervening in Yemen. And it’s perfectly acceptable and normalized in the US media and the political establishment. But when then it accuses Iran of intervening in Syria or in Yemen, this is supposed to be a grave violation of international law and justice and Iran is sanctioned tight now,” Robinson said. “This is a very consistent double standard and imperial arrogance that we have seen for much of the 20th and into the 21st century.”

The US-based social media giants like Facebook, Twitter or Google have been lately demonstrating their resolve in fighting “malign Russian influence” on their platforms by deleting “suspicious inauthentic accounts.” Robinson is sure nothing of the sort will happen with OCB’s fake accounts in Cuba.

The tech companies “are all linked to high-level national security establishment… Absolutely we will not see Facebook banning this type of US state intervention in the social media in Cuba, or anywhere else in the world.”

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: How to Understand Globalization: Not Nations, But Class

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We must adopt a class-based analysis of globalization in order to attack the multilateral system that is producing inequality, advises South Centre Chief …

Via Youtube

Video: If London is ‘taken out’ in a nuclear attack, who takes over?

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If London gets ‘taken out’ in a nuclear attack who takes over? Devizes-based journalist and explorer Matthew Williams takes on a tour of some of Britain’s most …

Via Youtube

Battling Contamination: Erin Brockovich Down Under

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The Australian press have been in a state of drooling ecstasy.  Part of it is because Australia can be relevant, however negative it might be, to their monster cousin, defender and protector known as the United States.  This time, it’s cultural – in the legal sense.  Erin Brockovich has found herself doing the media rounds on yet another legal project, this time against the Australian Defence forces in Katherine in the Northern Territory.  “Australia’s Defence has left Katharine hanging out there like a sitting duck.” Central to this are the dangers of using per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a long time favourite of the ADF. The nagging question is not new: Do they cause various diseases, including cancer?

Brockovich and her legal outfit Shine Lawyers have smell legal briefs in the offing.  Lawsuits have been launched against the Defence Department in Katherine, and Oakey in Queensland. The firm is hungry, searching out potential sites of contamination in Western Australia and Victoria.

For Brockovich, there is a sense of environmental redux in all of this: contamination of local water supplies and the environment, the sort that made her case in Hinkley, California, famous.  (Julia Roberts did the rest in her 2000 portrayal.)  Then it was hexavalent chromium and its illegal dumping by Pacific Gas and Electric Company; now it is PFAS chemicals and Australia’s glorious defenders of the realm who have done everything to terrify and…

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Illegal Immigration ‘Major Problem,’ Feds Not Doing Enough

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Breitbart
September 1, 2018

A Rasmussen Reports poll shows a majority of American voters — 68 percent — believe that illegal immigration is a “major problem” and that the federal government is not doing enough to fix it.

The poll also shows that 43 percent of voters consider illegal immigration to be a “very serious” problem.

A minority of respondents to the telephone and online survey, only 32 percent, said illegal immigration is “not a serious problem,” and nine percent said it is “not at all serious.”

In July, a Morning Consult poll revealed that American voters who say they are independents are divided almost evenly on whether Republicans or Democrats can be trusted to handle immigration issues — 35 percent said Democrats versus 34 percent who said Republicans are better suited to deal with it.

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This article was posted: Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 8:25 am






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White House coin marks Trump-Putin Helsinki summit as ‘historic moment’ — RT US News

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Although US President Donald Trump has come under fire for daring to have a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House is making no apologies. It’s even released a commemorative coin marking the event.

The “Kremlin Summit in Helsinki” coin has been listed on the White House gift shop website for $100. However it can be purchased as a ‘Deal of the Day’ for $49.

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© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

The coin is part of the “Historic Moments” series, which is misspelled as “Historic Momements” on the official White House website. The series will “chronicle in coin and ornamental art the entire presidency of President Donald J. Trump in world historic acts of leadership.” 

But anyone looking to purchase the coin immediately will have to just hope it turns out to be ‘big and beautiful,’ as the White House website merely says “photo coming soon.”

However, the ever-leaking New York Times appears to have revealed the design on Twitter, with journalist Kenneth Vogel noting that it does not include the faces of Trump or Putin. 

The commemorative coin comes at a time when some Western countries, Trump critics at home and various Russophobes continue to slam Trump for meeting with Putin. Some have gone so far as to accuse Trump of “treason” for speaking with the Russian leader in Helsinki in July.

Democratic senators have also requested translation notes from the meeting, which was only attended by the two leaders and their respective translators. That call has been sharply rejected by Republicans in Congress who say it would set a bad precedent and block future presidential diplomatic efforts.

Trump, however, hasn’t wavered in his defense of the summit. “The world wants to see us get along,” he said just moments before the closed-door meeting. “Getting along with Russia is a good thing not a bad thing.”

Other coins in the “Historic Moments” series include three coins commemorating Korea peace talks and Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, one on the US Space Force, a Christmas Greetings coin, and one called “Genius Makes its Own Rules” with a monograph titled “President Donald J. Trump: A Study in Genius.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Hold off on Trump impeachment: Ex-CIA chief

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Former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta is calling on Democrats to hold off on impeachment of US President Donald Trump and let special counsel Robert Mueller continue his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“I think the most important thing that the Democrats could do is allow Bob Mueller to complete his work,” Panetta told ABC on Sunday.

Democrats are taking steps that could lead to the impeachment of the president if they can win the House of Representatives in November midterm elections.

“I think Bob Mueller’s report will ultimately determine whether or not there are going to be additional steps taken against the president and they ought not to get ahead of that report because that will be the key to determining what happens in the future,” Panetta said.

Ever since Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, the US intelligence community has overwhelmingly maintained that…

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Further evidence of official criminality surfaces as Grenfell fire inquiry resumes

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Further evidence of official criminality surfaces as Grenfell fire inquiry resumes

By
Robert Stevens

1 September 2018

The Grenfell fire inquiry resumes next week after its summer recess, with further evidence surfacing of the criminality of those who ignored warnings that the tower was a death trap.

The inquiry will not bring justice. It is the creature of the Conservative government and, under the provisions of the 2005 Inquires Act, has no powers to prosecute anyone. Its fraudulent character was epitomised by chairman Sir Moore-Bick’s insistence that issues of a “social, economic and political nature” will not feature in its deliberations.

Issues that have emerged during the recess include the revelations this month by ITV News that it has seen documents proving official warnings about fire safety at Grenfell Tower were ignored just months before the June 14, 2017 fire that resulted in the horrifying deaths of 72 men, women and children.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC) and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), which managed the building on its behalf, were served a fire deficiency notice from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) in November 2016. They were also given, months earlier, a deficiency notice from an independent Fire Risk Assessment that flagged up multiple failures at Grenfell, requiring urgent action by the KCTMO.

ITV reported that the fire safety audits revealed “problems with damaged or poorly fitted fire doors, fire doors that didn’t self-close, and raised questions about how the refurbishment had affected the operation of the building’s smoke venting system and the fire-fighter’s lift controls.”

The “warnings from the independent assessor were issued in June…

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PressTV-‘US military seeks to stay in Afghanistan forever’

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The US government has no plans to pull US troops from Afghanistan because the years-long war in the country provides the Pentagon with an “endless” source of money, an American analyst says.

Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition made the remarks in an interview on Sunday, after US Army General Scott Miller replaced General John William Nicholson as the  new commander of more than 16,000 US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Upon taking the post, Miller said at the headquarters of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission that Washington and its allies needed to “adapt to the enemy” in order to defeat it.  

Becker said the remarks by Miller shows “the thinking of the dominant faction in the Pentagon that is committed to continue the war in Afghanistan endlessly.”

“Since 2001 the US has occupied Afghanistan, bombed Afghan villages, killed Afghan soldiers and civilians, continued to abuse and violate the…

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Mulvaney Student Fee Whitewash Benefits Bank of America, US Bank

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In December 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau produced a study that was useful for the university administrators looking after millions of college students in the United States.

In an annual report to Congress, the agency published an analysis of agreements between credit and debit card issuers and institutes of higher learning—one that included warnings about boilerplate deals enabling banks to ply fees out of students.

“Many general marketing agreements contain features or lack protections that may make them inconsistent with the ‘best financial interests’ of students,” the report warned in boldface text. The agency noted these deals “do not expressly prohibit certain fees,” and stressed that “colleges may negotiate…to include additional key consumer protections.”

Since the Trump administration took power, however—under the leadership of interim CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney—the tenor of the report changed drastically. Last year’s version, published in January 2018, reads more like it was written the night before. The paper has updated quantitative data, little qualitative analysis and no discussion of overdraft charges.

A university that takes a hands-off approach to debit and credit card deals could see its student body incur “hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees per year,” according to the 2016 version of the report.

The Bureau’s approach to reporting on colleges and banks under Mulvaney led a career official to quit earlier this week. Seth Frotman, Student Loan Ombusdman, said the CFPB is currently “shielding bad actors from scrutiny” in a resignation letter obtained Monday by NPR.

“[L]ate last year, when new evidence came to light showing that the nation’s largest banks were ripping off students on campuses across the country by saddling them with legally-dubious account fees, Bureau leadership suppressed…

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Left Politicians’ Responses to McCain’s Death Show Promise and Peril of Electing Socialists to Office

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This is a tale of two tweets. The first is by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who is expected to be elected to Congress from Queens this November. Following the death of Sen. John McCain, she tweeted that his “legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service. … He meant so much, to so many.”

The next day, Kshama Sawant issued her evaluation of McCain. A two-term Seattle City Council member and leader of the Socialist Alternative Party, Sawant said, “An enthusiastic supporter of every imperialist war while in office, John McCain shares responsibility for hundreds of thousands of deaths. To whitewash that is to disrespect those who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere … Not to mention the countless working people’s lives damaged by McCain’s support, as a Senator, for brutal neoliberal social and economic policies in the United States.”

Ocasio-Cortez sparked criticism on the left as her comments come across as pandering to neoliberal and neoconservative elites. Sawant was praised by many while barely causing a ripple in the media as she often makes provocative statements from a left perspective.

Since her stunning victory over an old-style party boss in June, Ocasio-Cortez has become the most prominent standard-bearer of socialism in America besides Bernie Sanders. But with the media glare comes controversy. Even before her clumsy appraisal of McCain, the Left bashed Ocasio-Cortez for…

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If Cody Wilson Isn’t Allowed To Give His Gun-Printing Files Away

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There’s been this rampant fear over Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson and his desire to give away 3-D printer files that allow people to make firearm parts and, in one case, a full firearm. They have freaked out and screamed and gotten the courts involved. They’re terrified at the idea of people being able to hop on the internet and download files that may allow them to build a firearm without the government’s permission.

The fact that people have been doing just that for years is completely irrelevant, apparently.

However, Cody Wilson has been the personal target of all of this. The courts have been focused on him. Anti-gun activists have been focused on him. All this despite the files being hosted on a number of other sites. That doesn’t matter. Wilson simply can’t be allowed to give these files away.



Defend Yourself: A Com…
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So, Wilson has said, “Fine.”

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson crushed their short-lived happiness during a Tuesday press conference where he revealed that he actually won’t be stopped from sharing technical data; he will simply sell the files via his website, defcad.com. (Yes, he can do this.)

“This judge’s order, stopping us from simply giving things away, was only an authorization that we could sell it, that we could mail it, that we could email it, that we could provide it by secure transfer. I will be doing all of those things, now,” announced Wilson.

“A lot of this to me was about principle,” he continued. “For many years, I just chose not to sell these files, because I’m an open-source activist. I believed in demonstrating that there was a right to commit this information to the public…

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From Lanny Davis to Antifa

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Newsbusters
September 2, 2018

Talk about a bad week!

One is simply gobsmacked at what has been going on over at CNN.

Back there in the mists of July, CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein posted a piece on the latest-of-the-moment “news” about the now infamous “Trump Tower” meeting between various Trump supporters (Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort) and a Russian woman who was pitched as having campaign dirt on Hillary but in fact was there to, as it turned out, lobby against an American law on adoption the Russians hate. Among the controversies is whether Donald Trump knew of the meeting in advance. He says no.

Thus the “breaking news” aspect of this was that supposedly now-estranged Trump attorney Michael Cohen said he did. Something Cohen twice denied to an investigating congressional committee. The CNN piece contained this line:

“Contacted by CNN, one of Cohen’s attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.”

The problem? BuzzFeed later headlined: “Lanny Davis says he was a source for CNN’s Trump Tower Story.”

In other words, with that one line CNN was telling its audience something that was, in fact, untrue. All hell quickly broke loose, and it wasn’t just coming from conservatives. There was the Left’s Glenn Greenwald headlining over his personal byline: “CNN, Credibly Accused of Lying to its Audience About a Key Claim in its Blockbuster Cohen Story, Refuses to Comment.”

Here were these lines in a story about CNN from the decidedly non-conservative Associated Press which ran, stunningly, in the New York Times. They read:

“The problem for CNN is that the July 27 story said ‘contacted by CNN, one of Cohen’s attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.’

Yet, if Davis was actually an anonymous source for CNN, the story should not also say that Cohen’s lawyer declined to comment. You can’t have it both ways. That’s a big no-no in…

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Muslim student will be first Miss England finalist to wear hijab — RT UK News

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A 20-year-old Muslim woman is set to become the first beauty queen to participate in the Miss England finals while wearing a hijab. If she wins, Sarah Iftekhar could represent the country at the Miss World competition in China.

Iftekhar, a University of Huddersfield law student from West Yorkshire, will take part in the Miss England beauty contest final at Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire next Tuesday.

While she is not the first Miss England contestant to wear a hijab, she is the first to make it to the final stage of the competition.

READ MORE: L’Oreal hijab model steps down over anti-Israel tweets posted during 2014 Gaza war

Iftekhar, who started her own clothing business at the age of 16, is also using her platform to fundraise for the Miss World charity ‘Beauty with a Purpose.’ The Miss England organization encourages all contestants to raise money and awareness for the charity that aims to help underprivileged children around the world.

Posting on an Instagram account which appears to have since been removed, Iftekhar reportedly wrote about her delight at qualifying for the grand finale of the competition. On her charity GoFundMe page, Iftekhar explained her motivation for entering the beauty contest, writing: “I participated in Miss 2018 in order to show that beauty doesn’t have a definition, everyone is beautiful in their own ways, regardless of their weight, race, color or shape.”

If Iftekhar beats the 49 other beauty queens to claim the crown, she will go on to represent England at Miss World showdown in China.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Desperate for collusion proof, FBI ‘tried & failed to recruit Russian oligarchs’ – report — RT US News

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FBI agents tried to turn Russia’s once-richest man into a US mole, according to an explosive NYT report. It claims that Oleg Deripaska was one of six oligarchs targeted for information in a Russiagate-related intelligence flop.

According to reports by the New York Times, the US government pushed oligarchs with perceived links to President Vladimir Putin for information. Deripaska was allegedly nudged to give up information on Russian organized crime and “possible Russian aid to President Trump’s 2016 campaign.”

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© Kevin Lamarque

Determined to get something on the Kremlin’s unproven involvement in the 2016 election, FBI agents reportedly turned up unannounced at Deripaska’s New York home to quiz him about his ex-business partner Paul Manafort – who went on to lead Trump’s election campaign – and Manafort’s links to Russia.

Despite the US government’s repeated attempts to gather intelligence from him, Deripaska told the US Department of Justice that he had no information to provide. Sources told the NYT that Deripaska disagreed with the agents’ opinion that Russia had colluded with the US in Trump’s election campaign. He also slammed theories about Manafort’s alleged role as “preposterous,” even though the two men were involved in a “bitter business dispute.” He is also said to have notified the Kremlin about the US government’s failed efforts to recruit him.

It is understood that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele – who was responsible for the infamous Trump-Russia ‘dirty dossier’ – were involved in the attempt to turn Russian oligarchs into US informants. The report said that the US government tried to entice Deripaska with promises to relieve him of previous visa issues stemming from past legal problems, but their attempts to win over the aluminum magnate and other Russian oligarchs appear to have failed.

In April, Deripaska and his company were hit by sweeping US sanctions, with Washington accusing him of links to crime, various abuses and even of ordering a murder.

The report comes as Trump took to Twitter to accuse the Department of Justice and FBI of “corruption” over the “Russia hoax.” The president also accused the DOJ and FBI of being “completely out to lunch” in a series of tweets, in which he insisted that “no information was ever given by the Trump Team to Russia”.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV- US military can intervene in Venezuela: Senator Rubio

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The US military can take necessary actions to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power as his government has become a threat to US national security, says Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

In an interview with Univision, an American Spanish-language TV network, Rubio, who is a vocal opponent of Maduro, said a military intervention by Washington was not out of question.

“I believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are only used in the event of a threat to national security. I believe that there is a very strong argument that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the Maduro regime has become a threat to the region and even to the United States,” he said.

The 55-year-old Maduro, who took power in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chavez, has survived massive anti-government protests during the past two years.

Earlier this year, he managed to win a second six-year term. The president has since warned of foreign plots…

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PressTV-Israeli lawmakers back Corbyn in UK anti-Semitism row

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Over a dozen Arab members of Israel’s parliament (Knesset) have announced their support for UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn amid an anti-Semitism row affecting the British politician and his party.

The 13 Arab Knesset lawmakers wrote a letter to the British newspaper the Guardian, in which they praised Corbyn for his fight against all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism.

“We stand in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn and we recognize him as a principled leftist leader who aspires for peace and justice and is opposed to all forms of racism, whether directed at Jews, Palestinians, or any other group,” read the letter from the Joint List coalition, which is Knesset’s third largest faction.

The Israeli lawmakers also hailed Corbyn for “his long-standing solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world, including his unflinching support for the Palestinian people”.

The letter comes amid a continued row within the Labour…

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The Global Alliance for Evil

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Eric Zuesse, as originally posted at The Saker

The global alliance for evil is the system that’s behind the current reality, which some call “permanent war for permanent peace,” and others call “perpetual war for perpetual peace,” but it’s the same thing no matter what it’s called: the ‘national security’ system that exists today, and that was accurately foreseen (and dramatically embellished) in George Orwell’s allegorical novel, 1984. What it is, in reality, is the coerced taking from the public so as to further enrich the aristocracy. And here’s how this system functions, in reality: the aristocracy are the billionaires who control their country’s government and own controlling blocs of stock not only in the privately owned news-media but in the privately owned firms (such as Lockheed Martin and BAE) that make weapons which are sold only to their own government and to the governments which are allied with it. Those governments collectively are called ‘allies’, and thus constitute an international team of aristocracies whose weapons are made by their team and are used against any governments which this team of aristocracies chooses to label as the team’s ‘enemies’. These ‘enemies’ are any nations that are targeted to be conquered by this aristocratic team. The publics in any given country in this aristocratic team — the global alliance for evil — have no real say-so in any of this, but are instead simply forced to fund this aristocratic operation, this operation for international conquest. The public are being forced to fund it (fund their government’s purchase of these corporations’ weapons) by the taxes that they pay to the sovereign government that is their master, and of which government those taxpayers are actually mere subjects (subjects actually of the owners of those weapons-making firms and news-media). These subjects are propagandistically called ‘citizens’ of that given ‘democracy’, in order to ‘justify’ these coerced takings by their aristocracy, to fund its participation in international conquest. This system for international conquest is used by the global alliance for evil, because this is the only system that can even possibly be carried to the point of final victory, which “victory” is an all-encompassing global conquest, the team’s final emergence as the global victor — their goal. No other system than the global alliance for evil can even possibly achieve such victory, which imperialistic aristocracies have always dreamed about; and its main targets now are Russia, Iran, and China; but, first, allies of those targets are targeted, in order to weaken those three.

That paragraph, above, describes the basic structure of these dictatorships, the ones in the global alliance for evil (each and every one of them). (In 1984, Orwell allegorically called this future alliance “Oceania”.) The basic structure is not simple, it’s a complex system: it’s entirely interdependent, so that no part of it can be accurately understood outside the context stated in that paragraph. It’s the context that enables this enormous scam — this vast aristocratic theft from the public — to function effectively. Anyone who doesn’t understand this structure isn’t understanding the basic reality in international relations, nor even the basic reality within that person’s own country. Maybe democracy exists somewhere as being more than a propagandized lie, but democracy certainly does not exist, and cannot exist, within the global alliance for evil. Democracy doesn’t exist there, because that alliance is obsessively committed to the system for conquest, and dictatorship is essential to this system’s functioning at all. It cannot happen in an authentic democracy, because this system consists only of aristocratic rule. The public are mere pawns in such an operation.

This operation is an evil which dwarfs even the evil of churches that use their parishioners’ money in order to sustain the mini-aristocracy called a “theocracy” over their ‘flock’ of sheep to rape or even to slaughter. For example, on Sunday, August 26th, Zero Hedge bannered “In ‘Historic Bombshell’, Vatican Official Accuses Pope Francis Of Covering Up Sexual Abuse, Calls For Resignation”, and linked to this document, dated on August 22, which states:

I had always believed and hoped that the hierarchy of the Church could find within itself the spiritual resources and strength to tell the whole truth, to amend and to renew itself. That is why, even though I had repeatedly been asked to do so, I always avoided making statements to the media, even when it would have been my right to do so, in order to defend myself against the calumnies published about me, even by high-ranking prelates of the Roman Curia. But now that the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy, my conscience dictates that I reveal those truths regarding the heart-breaking case of the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick, which I came to know in the course of the duties entrusted to me by St. John Paul II, as Delegate for Pontifical Representations, from 1998 to 2009, and by Pope Benedict XVI, as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America, from October 19, 2011 until end of May 2016.

Furthermore, on August 28th, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, at his Global Research site, headlined “Who is Pope Francis? Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’”, and exposed that despite the carefully PRed ‘progressive’ image of this Pope, he had actually been “one of the main supporters – within the Catholic hierarchy – of Argentina’s military dictatorship which came to power in March 1976,” and that Bergoglio even had “played a direct and complicit role in the ‘Dirty War’.” All of this was well-known at the time, but covered-up by The West’s PR agencies (or ‘news’ media) when Bergoglio became appointed as Pope Francis in 2013. (Such “rewriting history” was a major theme of Orwell’s 1984.)

But that’s truth only about the world’s largest religion, the Roman Catholic Church, the mother-church of all Christian denominations and the one that wrote and selected the documents which comprise the New Testament and thus comprise the standard account of the life and mission of the Jewish rabbi (he’s referred-to several times as such even in the canonical Gospel-accounts which that Church wrote about) Jesus as the ‘mashiach’ or supposed Savior of all sinners or violators of the Jews’ Scripture, the Torah, which Catholics subsequently called “the Pentateuch” or first five books of that own new Church’s “Old Testament.” (It’s truth about our culture’s ‘history’ as an ongoing “rewritten history.”)

The global alliance for evil is even worse than that Church, because the global alliance for evil is now posing a serious threat of nuclear annihilation of all civilization; and therefore it needs to be understood, before it attains this end — the end of all of us.

Which countries, then, fit the description that the first paragraph here provides? Which countries constitute the global alliance for evil?

All allies of the U.S. Government do. What was described in that first paragraph fits each and every one of them, though to different degrees within each, to the extent that there are different degrees to which each of America’s allies is essential to America’s aristocracy. That’s the aristocracy of the global center, the hub of the aristocratic wheel, which is proudly but entirely propagandistically called ‘The Western Alliance’ (as if good and evil are represented respectively by “The West” versus “The East”), and which alliance constitutes the global alliance for evil.

For example, UK and Australia are certainly members of the global alliance for evil, and on August 26th, the retired Australian diplomat Brian Cloughley headlined at Strategic Culture, “Britain Prepares for War Against Russia”, and he astutely observed that,

The headline in the UK newspaper the Daily Mail on August 7 encapsulated much that is paranoid in sad modern Britain. It read “Russian warships pass through English Channel as Putin’s armed forces ratchet up pressure on the Royal Navy.” …

The Brexit pantomime is taking place in an era in which it is recorded that “As benefits are cut and rents soar, Britain has seen a staggering rise in homelessness: the number of rough sleepers in England alone has more than doubled since 2010. Almost 1.2 million older people in Britain, as well as another one million disabled people, are living without the social care they need for basics such as eating, dressing and washing. It’s horrific: severely ill people forced to wait 14 hours to go to the toilet or wheelchair users who, with no assistant to help them cook, are now malnourished.”

But this dreadful state of affairs means nothing to those who lack for nothing — which includes politicians of the governing Conservative Party who demand that more taxpayers’ money must be spent on military hardware. …

So on August 18 the UK’s Daily Express newspaper, a sad wreck of its former self, and now competing with the Daily Mail in publicising ‘celebs’ and headlining articles of ultra-nationalist tripe, ran a piece headlined “Royal Navy’s £3bn warship launches to tackle ‘frightening’ Russians.” Just how it’s going to deter anyone is not explained, because it hasn’t any aircraft and won’t be operational until 2021. It cost over 4 billion dollars and its yet-to-arrive 36 F-35 aircraft will cost a minimum of 90 million dollars each. This is in a country where the Joseph Rowntree Foundation records that some 14 million people live in poverty – more than one in five of the population.

The sick farce of Britain’s preparation for war against Russia is shown to be even more absurd by the plain facts of comparative expenditure. It is never mentioned by Britain’s defence ministers or the compliant media (from which are excluded the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent) that in 2017, as reported by IHS Jane’s, Russia’s defence expenditure for 2017-2018 was approved at $51.35 billion while that of the UK was some $57 billion. Indeed, the annual military expenditure of NATO’s European members is $254 billion, or about five times that of Russia, and they spend a lot of it deploying forces ever closer to Russia’s borders. Aggression, anyone?

That encapsulates very well the main feature of the global alliance for evil: the aristocracy’s trade-off of reducing even their own public’s welfare so as to increase the aristocratic alliance’s global control. The real war isn’t between countries; it is between classes: the aristocrats versus the public. In this sense, it’s a war which has existed since human civilization began. But only now is it actually being carried to the point that all of civilization, and even all life on Earth, is seriously endangered by it. That’s why it’s now unquestionably the global alliance for evil. It’s no longer merely 1984. It is reality.

Here are the members of this alliance:

—

http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/html/export_values.php

“TIV of arms exports from United States, 2007-2017”

The top 16:

Saudi Arabia 10789

S. Korea 7964

Australia 7853

UAE 7177

Iraq 4558

Japan 4241

Singapore 3964

UK 3704

Turkey 3534

Taiwan 3461

Israel 3294

India 3140

Egypt 3040

Pakistan 2898

Canada 2606

Qatar 2186

—

Since the Saud family are overwhelmingly the top U.S. arms-importer, here’s SIPRI’s summary of that family’s global arms-imports:

In 2013–17 Saudi Arabia was the world’s second largest arms importer from all nations [with India edging it out as #1 globally], with arms imports increasing by 225 per cent compared with 2008–12. By the end of 2017 many more weapons were on order [because of the Saud family’s $400 billion weapons-purchase negotiated with Trump that year], indicating continuing high levels of arms transfers for at least five more years. The previous peak in Saudi Arabia’s arms imports occurred in 1995–99, when it was also the world’s second largest arms importer. However, its arms imports in 2013–17 were 48 per cent higher than those in 1995–99. Unlike in the late 1990s, Saudi Arabia now uses the weapons it has imported in large-scale combat, in particular in Yemen. In 2013–17, 61 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s arms imports came from the USA and 23 per cent from the UK. Deliveries during this period included 78 combat aircraft, 72 combat helicopters, 328 tanks and about 4000 other armoured vehicles.

—

However, in terms of actual ‘defense’ expenditures, the U.S. Government currently spends around half of the entire global total; it’s actually spending around $1.5 trillion per year on (what else would one call it in George Orwell’s Newspeak?) ‘Defense’.

The best PR description of how the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense and Trade Controls works jointly with the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency as, in essence, the chief sales-and-marketing operation for U.S. weapons-makers, throughout the world, and determines which nations are ‘allies’ (buyers of U.S. weaponry) and which are ‘enemies’ (targets of U.S. weaonry), is found starting on page 107 of Dr. Spencer L. Willardson’s 2013 PhD thesis, “Under the influence Of arms: the foreign policy causes and consequences of arms transfers”. But the bottom-line, even there — a sympathetic American treatment — is that if the U.S. President doesn’t like a particular weapons-maker, that President can retaliate or maybe even destroy it, merely by having his/her Administration sell only manufacturers that are cooperating with him/her. Usually, all of America’s weapons-makers are supporting the President, as being their chief sales-person. Furthermore, any country that fails to buy enough U.S. weapons to satisfy those companies, will possibly become a U.S. ‘enemy’, no longer an ‘ally’ — and that’s a very high cost to any nation. The top export-markets for U.S. weapons-producers are the U.S. Government’s top ‘allies’, and the top export-markets for the weapons produced by a U.S. ‘enemy’ nation (such as Russia) become thereby ‘enemy’ nations to the U.S. The U.S. alliance (U.S. diplomatic and military policies) are driven by weapons-sales, not by the national interest of the U.S. or any other public. All of these countries are dictatorships, each controlled by its respective national aristocracy. This has already been scientifically established as true for the U.S. itself.

The central members of the global alliance for evil are the Governments, representing respectively, the national aristocracies, of three nations: U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Whereas America’s aristocracy is the core (the main armaments-seller and war-profiteer) in the alliance; the royal family of Saudi Arabia is the main stanchion for the foreign-exchange value of the U.S. dollar and is also the main customer purchasing those weapons so as to keep itself in power; and the aristocracy of Israel is the Sauds’ mainstay as the Sauds’ proxy-lobbyists in the U.S. Congress. So: it’s a tight-knit threesome at the top.

However, while magazines representing U.S. weapons-makers want there to be a formal U.S. commitment to go to war for Israel, that’s not done, but there is instead a less formal such commitment: the U.S. military do tell Israel that “according to [Israeli Brig.-Gen Zvika] Haimovitch, ‘I am sure once the order comes we will find here US troops on the ground to be part of our deployment and team to defend the State of Israel.’ And those US troops who would be deployed to Israel, are prepared to die for the Jewish state, [US Air Force Third Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Richard] Clark said. ‘We are ready to commit to the defense of Israel and anytime we get involved in a kinetic fight there is always the risk that there will be casualties. But we accept that.’” America’s troops live and die for both the owners and the customers of America’s weapons-manufacturers, and are being paid by U.S. taxpayers to do that, just as all the rest of the trillion-dollar-plus annual U.S. military expenditure is being paid by the U.S. public. It’s just part of their cost for serving the U.S. aristocracy — the people who control the U.S. Government.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Prison Planet.com » Google Tracking 70% Of Retail Purchases Thanks To Secret Deal With Mastercard

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Zero Hedge
September 2, 2018

Over the past year, certain Google advertisers have been able to use a “potent new tool” which allows them to track whether ads they run online translated to sales at physical stores throughout the United States, thanks to a secret deal between the Silicon Valley tech giant and Mastercard, reports Bloomberg. 

Most of Mastercard’s two billion customers weren’t aware of this arrangement, since neither Google parent Alphabet Inc. nor the credit card company told the public about the deal which was brokered after four years of negotiations. The alliance, says Bloomberg, “gave Google an unprecedented asset for measuring retail spending,” as part of the search giant’s “strategy to fortify its primary business against onslaughts from Amazon.com Inc. and others.”

Through this test program, Google can anonymously match these existing user profiles to purchases made in physical stores. The result is powerful: Google knows that people clicked on ads and can now tell advertisers that this activity led to actual store sales.

…

It works like this: a person searches for “red lipstick” on Google, clicks on an ad, surfs the web but doesn’t buy anything. Later, she walks into a store and buys red lipstick with her Mastercard. The advertiser who ran the ad is fed a report from Google, listing the sale along with other transactions in a column that reads “Offline Revenue” — only if the web surfer is logged into a Google account online and made the purchase within 30 days of clicking the ad. The advertisers are given a bulk report with the percentage of shoppers who clicked or viewed an ad then made a relevant purchase. –Bloomberg

Last year Google boasted that that the service, called “Store Sales Management,” had access to “approximately 70 percent” of US credit and debit cards.

Last year, when Google announced the service,…

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‘But why would he go?’ Twitter storm over Trump’s golfing during McCain funeral — RT US News

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President Donald Trump, who was not invited to Senator John McCain’s funeral, hit the golf course during the memorial service, causing a social media storm in the process.

Just as Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton came together to laud the late Arizonan senator, the notably absent president hit up a golf course in Virginia. What’s more, to the outrage of McCain supporters, Trump started tweeting about a dispute with Canada about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during the Arizona senator’s memorial.

“There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal,” he wrote. “If we don’t make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off…”

Shortly after, Trump followed up with “Remember, NAFTA was one of the WORST Trade Deals ever made. The US lost thousands of businesses and millions of jobs.”

Twitter was quick to point out the contrast between the solemn day that the president was apparently ignoring, and the leisurely plans he had. “Washington Mourned John McCain. President Trump Played Golf,” one user posted. “While presidents Obama, Clinton, and Bush gathered to honor John McCain, Trump spent the day at his golf course,” another user said.

READ MORE: MSM one step away from McCain myth-making – well, you can learn from Lenin classic!

“…What does it tell you about yourself when you are specifically not invited to funerals?” another asked.

Others took the time to point out that the backlash over the president’s golf game was just an “opportunity to bash America and its leader,” and Trump should “stay strong.” Another was more direct, calling for the US leader’s naysayers to “rot in hell.”

Some wondered why, despite the lack of an invitation, the president would attend an event that turned into a Trump-bashing session. “Why would he go he was told he wasn’t wanted there?” a Twitter user asked.

Instead of Trump attending McCain’s funeral, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner attended the service in the president’s stead – drawing even more anger from the crowds, as Ivanka was caught apparently texting during the memorial.

READ MORE: ‘Biggest fan’: Bill Clinton trolled for ‘ogling’ pop star Ariana Grande at funeral

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Swedish right-wing parliamentary candidate attacked by ‘immigrant’ during campaign meeting

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A Swedish parliamentary candidate has claimed he was attacked by a migrant at an Alternative for Sweden party rally in a town in the west of the country.

Via Youtube

PressTV-Teenager seriously hurt in UK acid attack

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A fresh acid attack has been reported in the United Kingdom where a teenager has suffered life-changing injuries as result of exposure to corrosive material.

Local media reported on Sunday that the attack on the 16-year-old boy took place late on Saturday in Cribbs Causeway in the city of Bristol.

The boy was having a dispute with another male when he was sprayed in the face with an unknown substance, police said.

“This is a very concerning incident in which a bottle containing an unknown substance, possibly a type of corrosive, has been sprayed into the face of a teenage boy,” said Richard Marsh of the Avon and Somerset Police.

“The victim is being looked after in hospital by medical experts but has some serious injuries which may be permanent,” he added.

The number of acid attacks have been on the rise in Britain, especially among the youth, with populated cities like London becoming a hotspot for incidents involving corrosive…

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Video: Unorganized or politically motivated? MSM speculate over mysterious murder of Russian journos in CAR

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Fresh revelations have surfaced which could potentially shed light on the mysterious murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic, at the …

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There is a Deeper, Darker Agenda Afoot as the US cuts UNRWA Funding

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The Trump administration’s decision to scrap all future aid payments to the main agency helping Palestinian refugees marks a new – and most likely disastrous – chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The US State Department said on Friday it would no longer continue its $360 million annual contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), depriving it of a third of its budget. US officials described the organisation as “irredeemably flawed”.

The move follows an announcement last week that Washington had slashed $200 million from other aid programmes for the Palestinians.

About five million Palestinians – many languishing for decades in refugee camps across the Middle East – rely on the agency for essential food, healthcare and education.

Other states in the Middle East have reason to be fearful. Jordan’s foreign minster, Ayman Safadi, warned on Saturday that the denial of aid would “only consolidate an environment of despair that would ultimately create fertile grounds for further tension”.

Jordan, which hosts two million Palestinian refugees, has called a meeting at the UN later this month, along with Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Turkey, to “rally political and financial support” for UNRWA.

Traditional American and European backing for the UN agency could be viewed as reparations for their complicity in helping to create a Jewish state on the ruins of the Palestinians’ homeland….

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We’re Heading Toward the Worst Bear Market of His Lifetime

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Investment and commodities guru Jim Rogers says we’re heading toward the worst bear market in his lifetime.

Rogers recently spoke a the MoneyShow in San Francisco. He said the first thing we need to understand is that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve “came to the rescue” and drove interest rates to the lowest level in recorded history.

Never in the history of the world have interest rates been this low. In some countries, they were actually negative. This has never, ever happened in the history of the world. Some Federal Reserve governors, when they think nobody’s listening, they acknowledge that this is an experiment. They don’t know how it’s going to wind up.”

But Rogers said he knows how it’s going to wind up.

We’re all going to pay a horrible price for this someday. Interest rates are going to go back to normal levels, probably even higher than normal levels, eventually. And when that happens, all of us are going to pay a very, very serious price.”

Roger’s emphasized that we have always had bear markets and we’re on the cusp of another one.

The next bear market is going to be the worst in my lifetime, and I’m probably among the oldest here, if not the oldest, so it’s going to be a pretty horrible bear market.”



Investment Biker: Arou…
Jim Rogers
Best Price: $2.00
Buy New $10.34
(as of 05:25 EDT – Details)

Rogers noted that the last bear market was caused by too much debt. Well, today we have even more debt. In fact, the world is drowning in debt. The Fed’s balance sheet has gone up over 500% over the last decade. Over the last 30 years, the US went from being a creditor nation to the largest debtor nation in the world. No wonder Rogers isn’t optimistic about…

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Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recruits children to help ‘kick out’ Trump

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American Mirror
September 2, 2018

In Chicago, Democrats recruit the dead to vote.

In New York, they recruit children for their agenda.

While Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was campaigning in Queens today, she attempted to sway a group of kids to her cause.

Speaking to a handful of children with Lt. Governor candidate Jumaane Williams, Cortez put on the sell.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

After nearly calling herself the Congresswoman — months before the general election — she said she’s going to Washington to “fight Trump.”

The children cheered.

“We need your help to fight Trump,” Cortez told them as one boy shadowboxed the President.

“I don’t like Trump,” one child said.

Cortez worked earnestly to get the kids to get their parents to vote for her so she can go to D.C. to impeach the President.

“First you need to ask your parents to vote. Because if they don’t vote, then we can’t kick out Trump,” Cortez told the kids in a football-like huddle.

“Yeah, he doesn’t support immigrants!” one kid lamented.

Cortez then wanted a show of hands for the kids who were going to go lobby their parents.

“Are you going to tell your parents to vote?” she demanded.

“Yes!” the group responded.

“I don’t like Trump” a boy responded.

“Me neither!” shouted another.

“He’s going to put walls up,” said another.

“Tell your parents to vote for Alexandria in November,” she instructed, before requesting they repeat back to her the command.

She ended the recruiting session with a round of high-fives.

This article was posted: Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 8:40 am




…

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Pennsylvania puts all prisons on lockdown after reports of staff sickened by unknown substance — RT US News

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All prisons in Pennsylvania have been locked down after “too many” officers were sickened by unknown substance that was brought in illegally. The move comes amid an opioid-related emergency in Ohio and a nationwide prison strike.

“Our state prisons, especially, those in the western part of the state, have experienced recent incidents in which employees have been sickened and we need to get to the bottom of this issue now,” Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said as he announced the lockdown.

The Department of Correction said earlier that 18 staff members at three instructions in western Pennsylvania have been affected by unknown substance since the beginning of August.

“Simply too many of our officers are becoming sick due to contraband being illegally brought into these facilities,” Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said in a statement. “We’re prepared to help our members who have been sickened — but we must put this dangerous problem to an end.”

The lockdown means that all visits have been suspended, mailrooms indefinitely closed to non-legal mail, and staff have been instructed to don protective clothing and equipment.

On Wednesday, 24 people were treated by doctors from overdose symptoms at the Ross Correctional Institution in Ohio. Five nurses, 15 correctional officers, an inmate and several others at the prison felt sick after exposure to a substance, believed to be some kind of opiate. Those affected were given a special medication, used to quickly reverse opioid overdoses, called naloxone.

The lockdowns came against the background of a massive, nation-wide prison strike, with inmates across 17 US states protesting inhumane conditions and prison labor, which they describe as “modern day slavery.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘WTO treats US very badly’: Trump threatens to pull out if organization doesn’t ‘shape up’

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Donald Trump is threatening to pull the United States out of the World Trade Organisation. He told Bloomberg TV that the US might leave if the organisation does …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Trump impeachment certain if Dems win House: US VP

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US President Donald Trump will likely face impeachment if Democratic Party lawmakers become majority in the House of Representatives after the upcoming mid-term congressional elections, Vice President Mike Pence says.

“They’re all talking about it and so, you know, I take them at their word, even though some of them have decided to not talk about that quite so much,” Pence said of Democrats in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on Saturday.

Despite an apparent reluctance between Democratic leaders for an impeachment before the November 6 election, several Democrats such as Representative Al Green have been filing articles of impeachment.

The possibility of an impeachment increased last week after the Republican president’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and violations of election campaign finance laws.

Cohen’s campaign finance law violations included paying…

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Video: Playing catch-up? US focused on arms race instead of terrorism, says Mattis

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The US says it’s shifting its focus from fighting terrorism to entering an arms race with other major world powers, but is it playing catchup or going into overdrive to …

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Millions of Afghans Face Risks of Drought Related Displacement

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Amid a precarious security situation in Afghanistan, the worst drought in recent history, that hit two out of three provinces in Afghanistan in July, has destabilized the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, some of whom have already been displaced.

The United Nations has predicted that over two million people are expected to become severely food insecure in the coming period.

The West Region of conflict-stricken Afghanistan has been hardest hit by the drought, and over 60,000 people have been displaced to Herat and Badghis provinces, as a result.

Families that fled to Herat are living in dire conditions in makeshift shelters, where they are exposed to the scorching sun and summer temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. Many families are subsisting on a single meal a day. Many get by on just bread and water.

Herat has become the closest refuge for about 60,000 people, who have been displaced from their homes due to the drought. Conflict has also prompted many to flee their homes to the relative safety of province.

Over 1700 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during the first half of 2018, according to UNAMA. It is the highest recorded number, compared to the same periods for the past decade. The combination of drought and conflict has made tens of thousands of families destitute. They live with few long term prospects or means of regaining stability.

Among the most vulnerable are women and children. Many of the children show visible signs of malnutrition and illness, including skin diseases and eye infections due to dust and the hot weather.

Ayesha Halima is one of thousands of such children, who fled her home for Herat. Leaning against the wall of a distribution center, she patiently awaits her next meal, as he mother moves through the growing crowd to get their rationed supplies.

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Revised NAFTA Shows Every Sign of Being Another Trump Scam

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Photo Source Paul Joseph | CC BY 2.0

If the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement were good for working people, its content wouldn’t be hidden. Just what the Trump administration and the Mexican government of Enrique Peña Nieto have cooked up we do not know, but given the proclivities of both it is not likely to be good.

That the hurried-up deal appears to be intended to force Canada, which has the strongest regulations among the three NAFTA countries, into signing on disadvantageous terms, provides all the more reason to be skeptical. And, finally, a study of the United States Office of the Trade Representative’s “fact sheet” leaves no doubt that any new NAFTA will be a windfall for multi-national corporations, at our expense.

Let’s back up for a moment and remind ourselves that we should judge actions, not words. The contrast between Donald Trump’s empty campaign lies and his administration’s actual policies and actions are glaring, such as, for example, in infrastructure, where his plan is little more than a package of subsidies to connected corporations under the guise of “public-private partnerships,” which are scams to funnel public money into corporate pockets. So it is with so-called “free trade” agreements, especially NAFTA.

In July 2017, the Trump administration quietly published its “Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA Renegotiation.” The 18-page document contained almost nothing concrete but did feature boilerplate…

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Prison Planet.com » Chuck Todd Warns Of Possible Friday Mueller Bombshell: “Don’t Miss Work”

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Zero Hedge
August 31, 2018

On Thursday evening, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd issued a warning to the press regarding the Mueller Russia investigation: Don’t miss work tomorrow.

During a discussion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe, Todd’s MTP Daily panel was speculating when the investigation will wrap up, as Mediaite first reported:

“Here’s what I’ve learned about Bob Mueller,” Todd said. “Not a single person that has known him, been with him, worked with him, wouldn’t say that he would have ended this investigation if there was no collusion. He would have already ended this investigation.”

“We can’t tell that, though, until he tells us,” strategist Brad Todd said.

The panel then went on to discuss whether Mueller can make any major announcements in the investigation between Labor Day and the midterm elections. The reason: any new, major developments after Labor Day could be seen as interference in elections.

“I think he knows, more than anything, he keeps quiet between Labor Day and Election Day,” Chuck Todd said and then issued the following preview: “I’m not missing work tomorrow,” he continued. “I wouldn’t miss work tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last business day of the pre-Labor Day to Election Day window.” (3:30 mins into the video).

This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:42 am






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Rudy Giuliani’s strange journey into Romanian politics (with some personal interest) — RT US News

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While the US State Department is well versed in the unsubtle art of telling foreign leaders what to do, Attorney to President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani’s foray into another country’s domestic affairs is a peculiar first.

The former New York mayor has decided to wade in to Romanian domestic politics, urging President Klaus Iohannis to rein in an ongoing and popular anti-corruption drive.

The Romanian government is currently wrestling with the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), an agency that operates independently from government. The DNA has prosecuted several high-ranking political figures in Romania, including Liviu Dragnea, leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party. Dragnea was sentenced to three and a half years in prison this June for inciting others to abuse power. His decision to appeal the verdict, and his refusal to step down from office, caused widespread protests.

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© Leah Millis

Now, Giuliani appears to be siding with an unpopular government on the receiving end of the corruption probe.

In a letter, dated August 22, but published in Romanian media on Monday, Giuliani expressed his concern at “continued damage to the rule of law…committed under the guise of effective law enforcement.” Giuliani called for an amnesty to be granted to those prosecuted under the anti-corruption drive, for Iohannis’ government to rein in the DNA, and for an independent investigation of so-called “secret protocols” signed by Romanian judicial institutions with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). No big deal.

Giuliani accused the DNA of intimidating judges, lawyers, and witnesses, illegal wiretapping, and extracting “forced confessions” from suspects. He added that the government must now “make it clear that it remains committed to due process, transparency, and the rule of law.” Wielding next to no diplomatic clout, Giuliani made vague threats to Romania’s economy instead. Failing to stop corruption, he warned, would “directly and negatively” affect the flow of foreign investment into Romania.

In siding with Iohannis, Giuliani directly contradicts the US State Department’s position. The State Department encouraged the directorate’s work, and a spokesman told The Guardian “Romania until recently has shown considerable progress in combating corruption and building effective rule of law. We encourage Romanians to continue on this path.”

He also puts himself at odds with large sectors of the Romanian public, who rioted in the streets when Iohannis fired Laura Codruta Kovesi, director of the DNA, last month.

Everything fell into place on Tuesday, when it was revealed that Giuliani acted not out of a deep-seated interest in Romanian affairs, or a love for hunted politicians, but because he was paid to. The Trump attorney told Politico that he wrote the letter after reading a report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who now runs a global consulting firm called Freeh Group International Solutions. “They are paying my fee,” Giuliani said. Until Tuesday, Giuliani had kept quiet about his letter’s sponsor. It is still unknown who Freeh group was representing.

Predictably, this angered Romanians, who took to Twitter to vent at the attorney first for meddling in their affairs, and then for doing it on behalf of a paying client.

Romania’s ambassador to the US, George Maior, was similarly displeased, and said that Giuliani was “defending people who have problems with the justice system.” Maior’s remark earned him a stern rebuke from the Romanian foreign ministry, and he was recalled to Bucharest to explain himself.

The Foreign Ministry said that Maior, whom Giuliani accused in his letter of working to undermine the Romanian government, deviated from his role, which is to “promote national interest” abroad. The ministry also assured Romania’s international partners that the government – four of whose members have been convicted of corruption offenses this year so far – is doing more than enough to combat the “phenomenon of corruption.”

Romania is one of Europe’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International. Despite the allegations in Giuliani’s letter and from the Romanian government, the DNA has enjoyed widespread public support since its establishment in 2002. 59 percent of Romanians trust the institution, while only 22 percent trust the government, and 8 percent trust political parties.

While Giuliani’s surprise letter has focused the spotlight on Romania, the American embassy in Bucharest has been keen to downplay its significance. The embassy declined to comment on what it said were “the views or conclusions of private US citizens,” and stuck by its position that Romania should “avoid changes that would weaken the rule of law or Romania’s ability to fight crime or corruption.”

Shortly after Trump’s election, Giuliani was hotly tipped for Secretary of State, a role that eventually went to Rex Tillerson, and then Mike Pompeo. Presumably, foreign adventures like this now let the attorney live out that fantasy in his own way.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Fascist rampage in Germany exposes ties between right-wing extremists and the state

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Fascist rampage in Germany exposes ties between right-wing extremists and the state

By
Johannes Stern

1 September 2018

After neo-Nazis rioted on Sunday and Monday in the east German city of Chemnitz almost undisturbed by the police, and attacked people they identified as foreigners, more and more details have come to light about the close coordination and cooperation between the right-wing extremists, the police and the state apparatus.

On Thursday, an official from Dresden Prison was suspended, suspected of having passed on the arrest warrant for a 22-year-old Iraqi to right-wing extremists. The Iraqi is accused of stabbing a 35-year-old man on Sunday on the street near the city festival in Chemnitz.

The arrest warrant was published by Pegida leader Lutz Bachmann, numerous far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians and the “Pro Chemnitz” initiative, which organized the right-wing march on Monday evening in Chemnitz. Another right-wing politician who published the arrest warrant on the Internet is Jan Timke, a federal police officer and member of the right-wing populist electoral association “Bürger in Wut” (Angry Citizens).

According to a report by the Berlin Tagesspiegel, the two-page document contains the full names of the victim, the alleged perpetrator and the judge. Also mentioned is the place of residence of the alleged perpetrator, but only the street; the names of witnesses were blacked out in first published versions. Later, however, the arrest warrant appeared on the Internet without anything blacked out, including the complete address of the alleged perpetrator and the names of the witnesses.

Apparently, the official who passed on the arrest warrant to the right-wing extremists sought to further fuel agitation against supposedly violent…

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Video: Only what happened in past matters: Myanmar PM to keep Nobel Peace Prize despite Rohingya genocide

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The Nobel Committee has defended its decision not to retract the peace prize from Myanmar’s prime minister. That’s despite a damning report from the United …

Via Youtube

An Online Vigil in Defense of Julian Assange With Daniel Ellsberg, Craig Murray, Bill Binney and Ray McGovern – Consortiumnews

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Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on Saturday helped moderate a daylong chain of interviews in defense of WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange, including a discussion with Daniel Ellsberg. 

A #Unity4J online vigil was held on Saturday to defend the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, whose sanctuary at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has turned into torturous solitary confinement.

Among the participants on Saturday were Craig Murray, a former U.K. ambassador; Nat Parry, son of Consortium New’s founder and first editor, Robert Parry; Bill Binney, former technical director at the National Security Agency, and Ray McGovern, a former CIA officer. Joe Lauria interviewed Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of  

The entire 11 hour and 45 minute event can be viewed here:

International media have reported that Ecuador may hand over Assange to United Kingdom authorities, with a fear that he then would be extradited to the United States. The U.K. and Ecuadorian sides are engaged in ongoing negotiations, but Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer for Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010, has acknowledged that Assange’s legal team is not part of those talks.

The fate of Assange represents a threat to human rights, asylum rights, liberty and press freedoms. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights already have found in Assange’s favor.

#Unity4J originated from an unplanned but timely response to injustice when Assange’s internet access and visitation rights were taken away. The action has grown into a series of high-profile monthly online vigils. 

A dynamic new format for the monthly online vigils was introduced on Saturday.  Conceived by organizer Suzie Dawson, the concept is described as a “daisy-chain style digital relay”—which featured more than  twenty guest appearances of 30 minutes duration each. At the conclusion of each segment, the guests transitioned from interviewee to interviewer. 

“Every time we witness an injustice and do not act,” Assange reminds us, “we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all…

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Video: Pull-over thriller: Man shot at Pennsylvania police officers, badly injuring one

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Courtesy: Pennsylvania State Police Dash-camera footage shows a harrowing shootout between a man who was pulled over for speeding, and two …

Via Youtube

Provocations Have a History of Escalating into War

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The Russian Government and President Putin are coming under pressure not from US sanctions, which are very good for Russia as they force Russia into independence, but from Russian patriots who are tiring of Putin’s non-confrontational responses to Washington’s never-ending insults and military provocations. Russian patriots don’t want war, but they do want their country’s honor defended, and they believe Putin is failing in this job. Some of them are saying that Putin himself is a West-worshipping Atlanticist Integrationist.

This disillusionment with Putin, together with Putin’s endorsement of raising the retirement age for pensions, a trap set for him by Russia’s neoliberal economists, have hurt Putin’s approval ratings at the precise time that he will again be tested by Washington in Syria.

In many columns, I have defended Putin from the charge that he is not sufficiently Russian. Putin wants to avoid war, because he knows it would be nuclear, the consequences of which would be dire. He knows that the US and its militarily impotent NATO allies cannot possibly conduct conventional warfare against Russia or China, much less against both. Putin also understands that the sanctions are damaging Washington’s European vassals and could eventually force the European vassal states into independence that would constrain Washington’s belligerence. Even with Russia’s new super weapons, which probably give Putin the capability of destroying the entirety of the Western World with little or no damage to Russia, Putin sees no point in so much destruction, especially as the consequences are unknown. There could be nuclear winter or other results that would put the planet into decline as a life-sustaining entity.

So, as I have…

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Prison Planet.com » Trade tensions could spark a ‘global economic crisis,’ says former trade minister

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CNBC
August 31, 2018

The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China could lead to a “global economic crisis,” according to George Yeo, a former Singapore foreign and trade minister.

Yeo, currently chairman of Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics Network, said his company has actually benefited in the short term from the tariff conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

Businesses are speeding up shipments and diverting trade and investment to avoid the impact of tariffs, providing a boon for his company’s earnings.

“But this is temporary,” he told CNBC on Friday.

“It’s not good for us in the near term if it leads to a global economic crisis, which may well happen,” Yeo said.

“I mean we’ve just had Trump threatening to leave the WTO if it doesn’t change in the U.S. favor,” he added. “So all this is causing a lot of anxiety all around.”

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:44 am






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Trump says ‘no political necessity’ to keep Canada in new NAFTA deal — RT US News

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Donald Trump said there is “no political necessity” to keep Canada in the NAFTA agreement if a “fair deal” cannot be reached. The US president warned Congress against interfering, threatening to kill the deal single-handedly.

“There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out,” Trump tweeted on Saturday, a day after the trade negotiations with Canada were upended by leaked off-the-record remarks he made to Bloomberg.

He went on to warn US lawmakers against involving themselves into the negotiations, tweeting that should they do this he “will simply terminate NAFTA entirely and we will be far better off.”

Trump, who has repeatedly branded the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the “worst trade deal ever made,” reiterated that he will not back down from his pledge to quit the deal, if his concerns are not met. “We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!” he tweeted.

In the remarks that were published by the Toronto Sun on Friday, Trump said that he did not intend to make any concessions to Canada during the NAFTA negotiations. He asked Bloomberg not to make the remark public, since it is “going to be so insulting that they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”

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Workers remove letters from the

Trump previously set a deadline for Friday to reach the trilateral deal. When the US-Canada trade talks eventually missed the deadline, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that Trump had asked Congress to approve the bilateral agreement with Mexico, notifying lawmakers of his intention within the three-month period prescribed by the law.

“Today the president notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico – and Canada, if it is willing – 90 days from now,” Lighthizer stated on Friday, hailing the deal with Mexico as “the most advanced and high-standard trade agreement in the world.”

Moving ahead towards securing the trade deal with Mexico does not mean Washington is ceasing attempts to agree a deal with Canada, Lighthizer noted. “Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement,” he said, adding that the talks will be resumed on Wednesday.

The NAFTA was signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States in 1993 and came into force in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton. The longstanding trilateral deal was roundly criticized by the protectionist right, as well as the anti-globalization left, particularly for the damage that eliminating tariffs did to the American auto industry.
Without the impediment of tariffs, auto manufacturers moved their operations south of the border, wreaking havoc on former manufacturing hubs like Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio. According to a study on the deal effects back in 2013, NAFTA was directly responsible for raising the US trade deficit with Mexico from $17 billion to $177 billion, and cost the US over 850,000 jobs.

In June this year, Washington introduced a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum imports from Mexico, Canada and the EU. Mexico swiftly retaliated with import tariffs on some American goods, including steel, apples and pork. Ottawa introduced retaliatory taxes on US imports of steel, aluminum and such goods as whiskey, orange juice and other food products .

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Bicycle guy’: Kenyan president forgets Boris Johnson’s last name, causing Theresa May to smile

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Britain’s prime minister Theresa May has wrapped up her tour of Africa. It’s been memorable not only on account of the impressive trade & investment promises, …

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PressTV-‘FBI tried to flip Russian oligarch into informant’

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The FBI and Justice Department sought to turn Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who had close ties to the Kremlin, into an informant between 2014 and 2016, a report says.

The two US agencies offered Deripaska assistance in getting visas for the United States in exchange for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, The New York Times reported, citing current and former officials and associates of Deripaska.

The move aimed to measure the possibility of flipping several of Russia’s wealthiest men, most of whom have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who has been frequently attacked by Trump on Twitter recently, and former British spy Christopher Steele are believed to have played a role in the effort to recruit Russian oligarchs.

In one encounter, FBI agents showed up unannounced and uninvited at a home…

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Video: ‘Doping will always happen’: Olympic Committee president under fire over his statement

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The International Olympic Committee president has admitted that the war on doping in sport might never be won. But Thomas Bach has come under fire for his …

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Corbyn and the Jewish Question

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It doesn’t take a genius to detect the present volatile state of British Jewish institutions. To the outside observer, some of the actions of Britain’s so-called Jewish ‘leaders’ may seem to be a form of collective insanity. Yet, the Brits do not seem to be at all impressed. They are perplexed by the self-propelled collective hysteria. Naturally, many Brits do not agree with Corbyn on issues; some may not agree with his pacifist politics, others see him as a naïve delusional lefty, a few are upset by his association with controversial characters, but no one except a few Israel Firsters sees Corbyn as a crazed ‘anti-Semite,’ let alone as a Hitler type who puts Jewish life under an “existential threat.” While it isn’t clear whether Corbyn can unite the Brits against their horrid government, it is increasingly likely that the Zionist lobby has the capacity to unite the Brits behind Corbyn. A comment on twitter the other day noted that “not supporting Corbyn at this point is an act of treason.”

This week the ex-chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, became completely unhinged; comparing Corbyn to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech. In an interview Rabbi Sacks maintained that Corbyn “undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.” What had Corbyn said that provoked such an extreme reaction from the celebrity rabbi?  Apparently, in 2013 Corbyn criticised British Zionists by suggesting…

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Prison Planet.com » Alternative Social Network ‘Minds’ Debuts Digital Bill of Rights

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Breitbart
August 31, 2018

Alternative social network Minds has debuted a digital bill of rights amid accusations of bias and political manipulation at Google, Facebook, and other Big Tech companies.

“Minds is officially adopting the Manila Principles On Intermediary Liability, a digital bill of rights, outlined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other leading digital rights organizations,” the social network announced, Thursday. “The principles have been endorsed by nearly 300 leading press freedom and technology policy organizations and individuals. They act as a guideline for protecting freedom of expression and create an open environment for innovation.”

The bill of rights are as follows:

1. Intermediaries should be shielded from liability for third-party content.

2. Content must NOT be required to be removed without an order by a judicial authority.

3. Requests for restrictions of content must be clear, be unambiguous, and follow due process.

4. Laws and content restriction orders and practices must comply with the tests of necessity and proportionality.

5. Laws and content restriction policies and practices must respect due process.

6. Transparency and accountability must be built into laws and content restriction policies and practices.

“Our decision to adopt a digital bill of rights stems from our strong conviction that freedom of speech is an inalienable right and required for healthy societies to flourish,” declared a Minds spokesperson to Breitbart News. “The implementation of these rights is a way to demonstrate our starkly different beliefs from those of other service providers and social networks like Google and Facebook regarding censorship, bias, and political manipulation.”

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:45 am




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13yo New Mexico compound victim says he was trained to wage jihad – court papers — RT US News

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The chief suspect in the case of the New Mexico compound, where 11 children were kept in slum-like conditions, sought to build an army of child recruits to carry out jihad, according to an FBI interview with one of the victims.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 37, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with child abuse resulting in the death of his three-year-old son Abdul Ghani, dreamt of turning the children into an army by training them for a religious war against non-believers.

That’s according to an FBI interview with a 13-year-old boy who was among the 11 children Wahhaj and his associates kept in wretched conditions for months at a desert compound in Amalia, New Mexico. The interview is included in the agency’s affidavit in support of the criminal complaint filed against five adults with hardline Islamist views, and cited by Reuters.

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Ethnic Uyghur demonstrators hold a defaced poster of China's Vice-President Xi Jinping during a protest in Ankara February 21, 2012 ©

The boy claims that Wahhaj, the son of a prominent Brooklyn imam, was training him and the other children to handle firearms. The training also included specific techniques, like rapid reload and hand-to-hand combat. He then encouraged children to commit jihad, defining it as killing on behalf of Allah.

The 13-year old also revealed some details about his mother’s bizarre behavior, telling FBI agents that she believes she receives orders from God. The ‘exorcism’ ritual that she and Wahhaj performed on three-year-old Abdul Ghani, which killed him, was approved by the Lord, she claimed.

The toddler’s severely decomposed body was found by police in a tunnel near the compound. The 13-year old said the adults told him to never mention that the deceased boy had ever been on the compound, since it would mean prison sentences for all of them.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his two siblings, Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhanah Wahhaj, his girlfriend Janny Leveille, and one Lucas Morton, were all arrested by the FBI on Friday, days after child abuse charges against all of them were dropped by the judge. The charges against Wahhaj and Leveille relating to Abdul Ghani’s death remain, however.

The FBI charged Leveille, a Haitian national who has overstayed her US visa by 20 years, with unlawful firearms possession and being an illegal alien in the US, while the other four defendants were named as her co-conspirators and abettors.

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Defendants Jany Leveille (L to R) and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj during a hearing in Taos District Court in Taos County, New Mexico, U.S., August 29, 2018. © Eddie Moore

Wahhaj was previously described by local law enforcement as “an extremist of the Muslim belief.” Writings seized from the compound and accounts of the children that had lived through the ordeal suggest that members of the extended family were fascinated by the prospect of blowing themselves up in the name of God.

One of the notes found at the compound is titled “Phases of a Terrorist Attack” and offers guidelines to “the one-time terrorist” and suggests an “ideal” place to commit a terrorist attack. Prosecutors’ earlier interviews with the children revealed that both Leveille and Subhannah Wahhaj talked about dying in jihad, while Morton said he dreamed of being killed in a “holy war.”

The prosecution previously argued that the firearms training could have served a more specific purpose – to repel a potential FBI raid and possibly commit a school shooting.
Despite mounting evidence, no terrorism charges have been brought against the suspects who remain in custody and are due in court on Tuesday. The defense, meanwhile, argues that the defendants have been discriminated against because of their race and religious beliefs, arguing for their right to bear firearms as well as practice whatever religion they want.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic killed in E. Ukraine blast

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The head of the People’s Republic of Donetsk in Ukraine has been killed in an explosion at a restaurant. Local officials confirmed the incident which happened …

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PressTV-May rules out compromise on her Brexit plan

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British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will not compromise on her Brexit plan during negotiations with the European Union.

Writing in The Telegraph, the premier says, “I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.”

It would be a “gross betrayal of our democracy and… trust,” she adds.

This comes as a media report has said rivals in her party were ready to publish their own proposal, demanding a cleaner break with the EU.

Now that the UK and the EU have under two months to strike a deal to end over 40 years of union, May is having a hard time selling what she describes as her business-friendly Brexit to her own party and a divided country.

Nonetheless, May says that “the coming months will be critical in shaping the future of our country and I am clear about my mission.”

She also notes that there has been “real progress” in the Brexit negotiations following…

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Video: ‘Didn’t want to be part of silent crowd’: Chemnitz prison guard admits leaking warrant for Iraqi man

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A German prison guard has turned himself in, after admitting he leaked an arrest warrant for a migrant who was a key suspect in a murder. The case has turned …

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Durham Leaders Investigate Conditions at For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center

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Earlier this month, US District Court Judge Clay Land denied a motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit that Wilhen Hill Barrientos, Margarito Velazquez Galicia, and Shoaib Ahmed filed back in April against CoreCivic. The Tennessee-based private prison company operates the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia — one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the nation with a capacity of about 2,000.

The lawsuit filed by the men, all either current or former Stewart detainees, details overcrowding at the facility, poor bathroom conditions, and a lack of access to basic hygiene products like toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste. While detainees are forced to work for just $1 to $4 a day, CoreCivic reported earnings of over $387 million last year and contributed $250,000 to President Trump’s inaugural festivities.

Stewart detainees have also spoken out about finding worms in their food and the facility’s misuse of solitary confinement. The center’s location in a rural part of Georgia along the Alabama border makes it difficult for the immigrant detainees to obtain legal representation. As a consequence, most detainees who make it out of Stewart do so only when they are deported back to the countries that they fled from. Stewart has gained a reputation as a place that breeds hopelessness.

In order to better understand the detention and deportation process and what might await constituents who end up at Stewart, a group of six local elected officials from Durham, North Carolina — all women of color — made the eight-hour trip to Stewart on Aug. 13. The trip was organized by the office of Democratic US Rep. G.K. Butterfield, and participants included Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson, County Commissioner Brenda Howerton, school board member Natalie Beyer, and city council members Vernetta Alston, Javiera Caballero, and DeDreana Freeman.

While there, the women not only toured the…

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The Tip of the Radiation Disaster Iceberg

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Photo Source Surian Soosay | CC BY 2.0

The World Nuclear Association says its goal is “to increase global support for nuclear energy” and it repeatedly claims on its website: “There have only been three major accidents across 16,000 cumulative reactor-years of operation in 32 countries.” The WNA and other nuclear power supporters acknowledge Three Mile Island in 1979 (US), Chernobyl in 1986 (USSR), and Fukushima in 2011 (Japan) as “major” disasters. ¶ But claiming that these radiation gushers were the worst ignores the frightening series of large-scale disasters that have been caused by uranium mining, reactors, nuclear weapons, and radioactive waste. Some of the world’s other major accidental radiation releases indicate that the Big Three are just the tip of the iceberg.

CHALK RIVER (Ontario), Dec. 2, 1952: The first major commercial reactor disaster occurred at this Canadian reactor on the Ottawa River when it caused a loss-of-coolant, a hydrogen explosion and a meltdown, releasing 100,000 curies of radioactivity to the air. In comparison, the official government position is that Three Mile Island released about 15 curies, although radiation monitors failed or went off-scale.

ROCKY FLATS (Colorado), Sept. 11, 1957: This Cold War factory produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons 16 miles from Denver. It caused 30 to 44 pounds of breathable plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 to catch fire in what would come to be known as the second largest industrial…

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Lies Cannot Hide the Dark Side of Reality

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John McCain died Saturday, August 25, 2018. As expected, he is being lauded as a great American hero, is being called a special man, and being praised for his exemplary service to his country. More accolades are forthcoming, and the praise for this man coming out of Washington DC and its complicit media is rather sickening. In many cases, it is coming from the mouths of very suspect and evil political players. This is reprehensible.

Sometimes the truth hurts, but the truth is what matters the most. That is why it is of such great importance for all of us. Hiding from reality is not only shirking responsibility, but can be very harmful to what is right and just.

So who was John McCain? Most know the McCain portrayed by the media; that of a war hero shot down in Vietnam only to become a POW in an unpopular war. In fact, that war was nothing more than brutal murder affected against innocent people. Most of his life revolved around this persona, that of his suggested misfortune, of a hero protecting his country, and of bravery in the face of torture and solitary confinement. This false picture of McCain put him in the limelight, helped him in business, and propelled him into a powerful political position for life. None of this was warranted. As I see it, he was a maniacal warmonger with an ego to match.

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I am not attempting to analyze the life of John McCain here in these few words, or go into any detailed accounting of his crimes, but only to unmask the false caricature of him portrayed by most of the media pundits. There is ample time now to expose the real John McCain, and to shed light on the dishonest eulogizing and glorification of this…

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‘Hypocrite’ Macron Should Either Shut His Mouth or Open His Borders

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Breitbart
August 31, 2018

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has blasted French President Emmanuel Macron, calling him a “hypocrite” for turning away migrants while lecturing other nations about open borders.

“We do not take lessons from a hypocrite,” Salvini said Thursday in response a statement by Macron decrying nationalists who “preach hate.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Salvini met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Milan after which the two leaders vowed to demolish the current European Union (EU) globalist structure and replace it with a model that respects the national sovereignty of EU countries.

“In Europe, Macron is at the head of the parties that support immigration, on the other side are we ourselves, but we want to stop illegal immigration,” Mr. Orbán declared.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Mr. Salvini said it is time for Mr. Macron to put his money where his mouth is.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:49 am






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US strips Pakistan of $300mn in anti-terrorism aid — RT US News

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The Pentagon has recalled $300 million of aid earmarked to support Pakistan’s anti-terrorism efforts, accusing Islamabad of going soft on extremists and providing them with safe havens, Reuters reports.

“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining $300 [million] was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said, as cited by Reuters.

The funds were earlier frozen as part of the review initiated by US President Donald Trump that should have determined whether Pakistan is showing enough resilience against the insurgents to be worthy of American assistance.

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A supporter of Imran Khan, Karachi, Pakistan, July 22, 2018 © Akhtar Soomro

Falkner pointed out that the cancellation of the aid package, which was part of the so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF), is not the first that the Trump administration has pushed through. Earlier, US lawmakers moved to cancel another $500 million in CSF aid to Pakistan, meaning the country will be short a total of $800 million in earmarked aid.

This is in addition to the suspension of $255 million in foreign military financing (FMF) to Pakistan, which was initially authorized by the State Department in August last year.

By curtailing a total of over a billion dollars of assistance to Pakistan, Washington is following through on Trump’s pledge to minimize financial contributions to the country, which he accused of shielding terrorists.

In an emotionally charged tweet marking the beginning of the new year, Trump lamented that the US “has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit.” The US leader then accused Islamabad of giving refuge to terrorists that flee from Afghanistan.

The January broadside by Trump was met with indignation in Pakistan, its government rejecting the allegations and threatening to cease cooperation altogether. “We do not have any alliance. This is not how allies behave,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said at the time.   

While Trump might have declared open season on Pakistan, ordering a freeze on most of the security assistance to the country, the US has long been complaining about Islamabad’s misbehavior, and cutting funding. The Obama administration scaled aid back from $2.177 billion allocated in 2014 to $1.118 billion in 2016.

The release of the CSF package is conditional to Pakistan’s logistical support of the US-led military operation in the region, primarily against the Afghan Taliban and its affiliate Haqqani network, a Sunni Islamist group that is believed to enjoy support from some elements within Pakistan’s security forces.

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© APB News

The move comes ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pakistan on September 5, when he is expected to underscore the need to fight externally oriented terrorists in his meeting with new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Khan has been known as a staunch opponent of the US, criticizing Washington for linking foreign aid to Pakistan’s cooperation in the fight against insurgents. He has been compared to Trump for his non-political background and authoritarian inclinations, and once vowed to shoot down US drones flying over Pakistani territory.

Khan has recently hinted at rapprochement with India, however, offering a dialogue on the most pressing issues, such as the territorial dispute over Kashmir.

With Pakistan’s relationship with the US seemingly souring, Russia has shown an interest in stepping up cooperation with the new government. Last month, Russia and Pakistan signed a rare agreement that allows Pakistani troops to train at Russian facilities. 

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Palestinians resume Great March of Return protests near Gaza border, at least 120 injured

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According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 120 protesters were injured after Israeli forces deployed tear gas and reportedly used live ammunition to …

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Sharp rise in right-wing attacks on Palestinians and Israeli peace and rights activists

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Sharp rise in right-wing attacks on Palestinians and Israeli peace and rights activists

By
Jean Shaoul

1 September 2018

Last weekend saw violent attacks on Palestinian-Israelis and Israeli peace activists. Ten people were hospitalised with cuts, lacerations, fractures, and other injuries after being attacked by Israeli Jews.

Three Palestinian-Israeli citizens were sitting on the beach at Kiryat Haim, in the northern port city of Haifa, when a young man approached them and asked if they were Arabs. Just minutes after they answered that they were, he returned with nine youths, armed with metal rods, chains, clubs and knives, and attacked them.

Yair Elalouf, a Jewish Israeli who came to their aid and called the police, said that if he and his friend hadn’t intervened, “they [the attackers] would’ve murdered them.” He said that at least 70 to 80 people witnessed the attack, but none of them intervened or called the police even though the assailants “had brutally beaten them with the clubs for 3-4 minutes, and one of the attackers used an iron chain, maybe of a motorcycle or a bike.”

The victims—Dr Muhammad Yousefeen from the Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, a 28-year-old nurse and a 20-year-old man—said the attack was racially motivated, adding that the attackers swore at them and said, “You are Arab dogs, don’t stay here.”

They thanked Elalouf later at the police station, saying, “Without him, we wouldn’t have stayed alive” and they went to see him to thank him again. He said, “They took my phone number, wanted to invite me to Shfaram [their neighbourhood] to eat with them, and wanted to come to my house with their families. I told them they are more than welcome.”

He added, “People ask me all the time, ‘Did you know…

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Video: Keiser Report: Legacy of John McCain (E1274)

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Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/ In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the legacy of John McCain: from …

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PressTV-US cuts $300mn military aid to Pakistan

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The US military has declared it is canceling $300 million in aid to Pakistan over what it calls Islamabad’s failure to take decisive measures against militant forces, marking a further deterioration in ties.

“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 (million) was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said Saturday, according to Reuters.

The suspension was part of a broader cut in the so-called Coalition Support Funds announced by US President Donald Trump early this year, when he accused Islamabad of rewarding past American aid with “nothing but lies & deceit.”

According to Faulkner, the US Defense Department aimed to spend the $300 million on “other urgent priorities” if approved by Congress. He further noted that another $500 million in CSF was stripped by Congress from Pakistan earlier this year, to bring the total withheld to $800…

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Prison Planet.com » Swedish right-wing parliamentary candidate attacked by ‘immigrant’ during campaign meeting

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RT
August 31, 2018

A member of the Swedish right-wing Alternative for Sweden (AfS) party, who is currently running for parliament, says he was “punched in the face” by a young immigrant during an election campaign stop in Western Sweden.

It should have been an ordinary campaign meeting, which every party in Sweden holds ahead of the elections. But things went wrong for AfS in the city of Uddavalla, where the party, known for its hard-line anti-immigrant rhetoric, decided to make a stop.

A group of AfS members, including parliamentary candidate Markus Jonsson, was met by an angry crowd of young people, who were shouting, chanting slogans and holding placards that read: “Crush racism!”

As the AfS members started presenting their program, things quickly boiled out of control. The crowd of people, many apparently of immigrant background, started throwing eggs at the party members. At some point someone from the mob assaulted Jonsson and struck him to the ground.

An RT crew present at the scene filmed the incident. The AfS members had to immediately leave the place while police detained the attacker, apparently provoking further outrage. The video shows another young man engaging in a heated debate with a police officer in an apparent attempt to make the police release the suspect. Police told the Swedish media later that two persons were detained in connection with the incident.

“I tried to protect my friend and colleague and that immigrant started hitting both of us in the face,” Jonsson later told RT, explaining that the assailant first attacked another party member, prompting the parliamentary candidate to intervene. He went on to say that the crowd chased a car belonging to AfS for some time. “When we stopped at the red light, they kicked the car,” he added.

The locals explained that they did not want to see “racists on our streets” and were extremely “unhappy”…

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Democrats say Florida GOP candidate used ‘racist dog whistle’ — RT US News

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Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis has been denounced by the Democrats and the media as racist, for saying voters shouldn’t “monkey this up” by voting for his socialist opponent, who happens to be black.

President Donald Trump’s endorsement propelled DeSantis to easy victory in Tuesday’s Republican primary. The outgoing Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, won his primary to challenge the incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) in November. On the Democrat side, voters preferred Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and the “democratic socialist” bloc.

“Let’s build off the success we’ve had” under Scott, DeSantis said in a Fox News appearance Wednesday morning. “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state. That is not going to work.”

Democrats pounced on the phrasing, with Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo calling it “disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles.” Gillum is the first African-American nominee for the governorship of Florida.

DeSantis’s campaign rejected the insinuation, saying that the candidate’s remarks had nothing to do with Gillum’s race and everything to do with his politics.

“Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses,” spokesman Stephen Lawson said in a statement. “To characterize it as anything else is absurd.”

“Florida’s economy has been on the move for the last eight years and the last thing we need is a far-left Democrat trying to stop our success,” Lawson added.

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Ron DeSantis campaign ad

During the Fox News appearance, DeSantis called Gillum “an articulate spokesman for those far-left views” and a “charismatic candidate” who is “much too liberal for Florida,” however.

“I watched those Democrats debate and none of that is just my cup of tea, but he performed better than the other people there, so we gotta work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction,” he said.

Dog-whistling is the notion that politicians are using coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population, but something else to a specific group of people, using the analogy that only dogs can hear special whistles that use ultrasonic frequencies. The term has entered widespread use in American politics during the 2008 election campaign, when Hillary Clinton was accused of using coded racist language against her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama.

While there is no set meaning for the phrase “monkey this up,” American English does recognize the idiom “to monkeywrench,” meaning to sabotage something as a form of protest. The usage likely dates back to the 1975 novel “The Monkey Wrench Gang” by Edward Abbey, about a group of radical environmentalists.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Passenger plane overshoots runway & catches fire in Sochi, 18 people injured

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A passenger jet has overshot the runway & caught fire in southern Russia, leaving 18 people injured, including 3 children. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9dhh …

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Video: ‘Effectively killing story’: NBC stopped journos from working on material about Weinstein scandal

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One of Hollywood’s biggest scandals was kept under wraps by a prominent news channel, according to the claim of one NBC producer who says journalists …

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Brazil’s Supreme Court Disqualifies Lula Da Silva from Running for President

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Former President Lula da Silva planned to run for president from prison, but Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that he cannot and now his Workers Party must scramble to put forward its replacement candidate, Fernando Haddad. Mike Fox reports from Brazil.

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PressTV-US claims set to defy Iran’s PG warning

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The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has reportedly claimed that it is fully prepared to maintain the flow of commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf despite Iran’s insistence that it will prevent all oil exports through the waterway’s Strait of Hormuz entry point if the US attempts to follow through with its threat of halting Iranian exports.

A Saturday report published by Khaleej Times daily, based in the kingdom of United Arab Emirates, cited a CENTCOM officer identified as Major Josh Jacques as saying that the US partners with “many nations to provide and promote security and stability in the region,” without directly referring to the Persian Gulf region.

He further added, “Together, we stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows.”

Iranian TV image of US military sailors arrested by IRGC naval forces in the Persian Gulf after violating Iran’s territorial waters (File…

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Laughing at the State – LewRockwell

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Listen to the podcast

Rockwell:  Good morning.  This is the Lew Rockwell Show.  And how honored we are to have as our guest this morning, David Smith.  Dave is a comedian.  He was the star of the Mises University this summer.  He’s a podcaster, a political commentator. He’s a contributor to S.E. Cupp Unfiltered on the HLN network, as well as he’s host of the popular podcast, Part of the Problem, where he expounds upon current events, the government, foreign policy, and all things Libertarian in a very entertaining way.  Dave’s debut comedy special, Libertas, was one of the top comedy specials in 2017.  He’s been featured at the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Moontower Comedy Festival and the New York Comedy Festival.  And he’s been a guest multiple times on the Joe Rogan Experience.

Smith:  Well, thank you very much.  I appreciate that.  It’s a real honor to be here.  I’ve done the Mises Weekend podcast, the Tom Woods Show, the Ron Paul Liberty Report.  So now to be here with Lew Rockwell, I feel like this is it.  I’ve got nothing to live for anymore.  I’ve done everything I want to do.

Rockwell:  Dave, were you always funny?  Were you funny as a kid?

Smith:  Yes, I think I was always funny.  At least as long as I remember, I always identified as the funny kid.  I’m not quite sure where it came from.  But my grandfather was hilarious and my mother was very funny so it was just kind of in my blood.

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Rockwell:  That’s tremendous.  And do you find a comedian with your views has problems going on college campuses?  Are you barred or do you still go and find – what happens on campuses?

Smith: …

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Prison Planet.com » Driver Who Allegedly Killed Oregon Couple In DUI Crash Is Illegal Alien, ICE Says

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Daily Caller
August 31, 2018

The man suspected of killing an Oregon couple in a high-speed drunk driving collision earlier in August is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned.

Eduardo de la Lima Vargas, 39, allegedly ran a red light on a state highway in Salem, Oregon, on Aug. 19, striking a motorcycle being driven by Logan Wilson, 34, and his wife Jessi, 32. The collision tossed the Wilsons from the motorcycle, fatally injuring both.

Vargas blew a .10 blood alcohol level on a breathalyzer roughly two hours after the crash, according to a Salem police report. Investigators believe he was probably driving at twice the legal alcohol limit at the time he crashed into the Wilsons, who are survived by four young children.

Following the wreck, Vargas was booked into the Marion County jail on two counts of manslaughter, as well as one count each of reckless endangering, reckless driving and driving under the influence. He remains in state custody on a $500,000 bond.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:54 am






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Teacher who had heart attack almost given another by $109k hospital bill — RT US News

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A Texas hospital has finally agreed to write off most of the nearly $109,000 bill it sent to a teacher who needed life-saving heart surgery over a year ago. He was previously told his insurance would cover the treatment.

Drew Calver, 44, a married father of two, was given life-saving treatment at the nearby St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, after suffering a heart attack in his home in April 2017. Despite having health insurance through his school district, St. David’s fell outside of his network coverage, meaning the hospital was not contracted to provide discounted medical treatment.

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© Stewart Goldstein

Calver’s bill for the surgery and a four-day stay at St. David’s came to $164,941. The school district’s insurance provider, Aetna, paid the hospital only $55,840, leaving the teacher with a balance due of $108,951.31, or almost twice his annual salary.

Previously assured by the hospital that they would accept his insurance, Calver believed he would have to pay little or nothing on the remaining balance, he told NPR and Kaiser Health News on Monday. However, he fell victim to twin medical billing practices that increasingly bedevil many Americans: surprise bills and balance billing.

Surprise bills occur when a doctor sends a direct bill to the patient because they do not participate in the patient’s insurance network, despite the hospital being on the network.

In the case of Calver, St. David’s was the closest hospital to provide emergency treatment, but the hospital and the insurer may not agree on a reasonable price. The hospital then demands that patients pay the difference, in a practice called balance billing.

Itemized charges on the bill received by Calver included more than $10,000 for his hospital room, just under $3,000 for five EKG tests, and more than $42,000 for the four stents he received, two of which were billed at $19,000 apiece.

READ MORE: Injured woman begs people not to call ambulance because she can’t afford it

“They’re going to give me another heart attack stressing over this bill,” Calver said. “I can’t pay this bill on my teacher salary, and I don’t want this to go to a debt collector.”

Since Calver’s story broke on Monday, St. David’s said that the teacher qualities for its “financial assistance discount,” and is now willing to accept $782.29 to resolve the remaining balance.

Insisting that it did “everything right” in handling Calver’s case, the hospital instead blamed the patient’s employer and insurance company for offering such a narrow network.

READ MORE: ‘Arbitrary and capricious’: Judge strikes down Medicaid work requirement in Kentucky

Calver said he would happily pay the amended bill, but expressed frustration that it took the hospital so long to relay that information to him.

“I need to focus on staying healthy and preventing another heart attack and reducing stress in my life, and this is doing the exact opposite,” he said.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: DNR head’s adviser says assassination was planned, Ukrainian security service denies role

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The head of the People’s Republic of Donetsk in Ukraine has been killed in an explosion at a restaurant with the incident now being investigated as a terror …

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PressTV-‘Hold 2nd Brexit referendum,’ London urged

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A Conservative party donor has called for a second referendum on Britain’s final deal with the EU to exit the bloc.

Former Rolls-Royce chairman Sir Simon Robertson made the call during an interview with the Observer, released Saturday.

“I think it is complete balderdash to say the people have spoken, therefore you can’t go back. The people can speak again – why can’t we have another vote on it,” Robertson said. “We had a brilliant deal with Europe. We had an opt-out on ever-closer union, we weren’t in the single currency and we were not in Schengen [the EU’s visa-free travel area]. We had a perfect arrangement. We are now going to end up with one where, at the end of things, we won’t have a final say.”

The call came as the British government was releasing details of a possible no-deal outcome.

“I’m not saying for a moment that it solves the underlying problem – which is the fact that some people have felt left…

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Video: Flaming kids: Youths throw fireballs at one another during El Salvador festival

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Dozens of youths from Nejapa in El Salvador gathered on Friday night for the annual ‘Bolgas de Fuego’ (Fireballs) Festival. Two teams hurled fireballs made …

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Will the Democrats Catch a “Blue Wave”?

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Within of the Andrew Gillum’s upset Democratic primary win to become the first-ever African American candidate for Florida governor, his Trumpite Republican opponent Ron DeSantis warned Florida voters not to “monkey up” the state by voting for Gillum.

The Trump Republicans don’t even try to hide their racism behind so-called “dog whistles” (meaning when politicians use coded language that their supporters understand as racism).

Instead, they reach for the bullhorn.

Championing Medicare for All and supporting calls to abolish ICE, Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, defeated a field of “centrist” favorites to win the Democratic nomination. He had the endorsement of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York congressional nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Gillum will face a tough fight with DeSantis, who has already shown that he’s willing to go into the gutter to defeat him. But his victory on Tuesday stands out from other Democratic primary races for a couple of reasons.

First, it was a win for the Sanders wing of the party, which has more often fallen short of victory during this primary season. And second, the statewide Democratic vote in this closely divided “swing state” trailed Republican turnout — a break in the pattern this primary season of higher Democratic Party mobilization, compared to Republicans.

This last factor may be just an exception due to competitive Republican primary contests as well. But it’s one of the statistics that political analysts are looking at in assessing the coming midterm elections.

The Building Blue Wave

Through most of the summer, each time a forecaster updated their predictions, it was bad news for Republicans. One analyst, Inside Election’s Nathan L. Gonzalez, predicted that 86 seats in the House of Representatives are “in play” — meaning either main party is given a chance of winning.

Of those 86 seats, Republicans currently…

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10 Years After the Financial Crisis

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Photo Source Jakob Montrasio | CC BY 2.0

It is 10 years in September since Lehman Brothers went bankrupt bringing global capitalism to the point of collapse.  Although the crash did not finally lead to a total meltdown, it triggered a slump of 1930s proportions and for most economies the last decade has been a lost decade of low growth, low investment, low productivity, marked by debt and deficit, with virtually no improvement in real incomes for the 90 per cent. 

The stand-out story of the period has to be the continuing rise of China. Initially, the economy was also badly hit by the crisis, but China was able to recover rapidly to emerge today as a major economic power, moving steadily closer centre stage in the global order.

Since 2009, the Chinese economy has nearly tripled in size, from $4,600 billion to over $12,000 billion in 2017, overtaking Japan by 2011 for the world number 2 position.  Growth at 9-10 per cent a year was rapid up to 2011, settling down over the last 6 years to a more sustainable ‘new normal’of around 7 per cent a year, still well above the world rate at 3.9 per cent.

Per capita income has grown from $3,500 in 2009 to $8,800 in 2017, a rate of between 10-15 per cent a year, putting China on course to join the ranks of the high income countries in 8 years time.  The urban population has grown by some 15 million a year with China creating 8-10 million jobs annually.  In 2017, there were 11 million new jobs compared to India’s 1…

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Prison Planet.com » White House Petition to Defend Online Free Speech Soars to Nearly 100,000 Signatures

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Massive response to Big Tech purge of conservatives

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
August 31, 2018

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A White House petition calling on Congress to defend free speech online is set to surpass 100,000 signatures by the end of today, just three days after it was launched.

Entitled Protect Free Speech in the Digital Public Square, the petition asks that, “The President should request that Congress pass legislation prohibiting social media platforms from banning users for First Amendment-protected speech. The power to block lawful content should be in the hands of individual users – not Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey.”

The petition was launched after multiple conservatives were banned or suspended by social media giants, including Alex Jones who earlier this month was deplatformed by YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Spotify.

The petition would need to top 362,000 signatures to beat the one that currently tops the ‘We the People’ White House website, but it has a good shot given there’s nearly a month until it closes.

In repeated public statements and tweets, President Trump has made it clear that he is monitoring the situation and looking at potential action.

Last night during a rally in Indiana, Trump re-iterated that promise.

“We as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting and rigged search results….we will not let large corporations silence conservative voices,” said Trump.

“You look at Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants and I made it clear that we as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting and rigged search results,” he added.

Google became Trump’s latest…

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Feeling the Bern? Amazon pushes back against Sanders’ crusade against retail giant — RT US News

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Bernie Sanders has vowed to introduce legislation targeting Amazon, with the besieged retail giant issuing a rare statement in an attempt to push back against accusations of low pay and dangerous working conditions at the company.

In a blog post published on its website, Amazon said that the Vermont senator was “playing politics” and “continues to make inaccurate and misleading accusations” about the company. The statement went on to encourage all Amazon employees to contact the lawmaker and set him straight.

Sanders ruffled Amazon’s feathers after inviting current and former Amazon employees to fill out a form on his website sharing their experiences at the company. In a follow-up statement, the senator vowed to push the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate unsafe working conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers, and said that he was preparing to introduce legislation to “end the absurdity of middle class taxpayers having to subsidize large, profitable corporations, many of which are owned by billionaires.”

Noting that the retail giant’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man on the planet, worth an estimated $155 billion, Sanders said that the company’s runaway success was not being felt by the average employee.

“All over this country, many Amazon employees, who work for the wealthiest person on Earth, are paid wages so low they can’t make ends meet,” a statement posted to Sanders’ website said. “Thousands of Amazon employees are forced to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing because their wages are too low… [T]he taxpayers of this country should not have to subsidize employees at a company owned by Mr. Bezos who is worth $155 billion. That is absurd.”

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with his parents Mike and Jackie © Molly Riley

In its response to Sanders’ criticisms, Amazon claimed that the senator had used misleading figures to suggest that its employees were underpaid, arguing that full-time workers enjoyed generous salaries and benefits when compared to other retailers.

However, the company offered up far less compelling rebuttals against other accusations leveled by Sanders. For example, citing the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH), Sanders claims that Amazon is considered one of the most dangerous places to work in the United States. According to NCOSH, seven Amazon workers have died on or near the job since 2013.

While not addressing NCOSH’s findings directly, Amazon insisted that its employees enjoy a “safe, climate controlled” workplace.

Sanders has previously targeted Amazon and Bezos as part of a “rigged economy” that exploits workers. In a letter sent to Bezos in June, Sanders said that his staff had received stories from suffering Amazon employees – some of whom are even homeless.

“The people you employ who spend 10 or more hours a night running, bending, lifting, and packing up our new electronic gadgets, baby clothes, dog treats and kitchen appliances – many of these workers struggle to pay their rent, put food on the table, send their kids to college or afford their medical bills.”

While Sanders goes after Amazon for low wages and unsafe working conditions, the company is also battling accusations of tax dodging and hurting small businesses – allegations coming from the opposite side of the political aisle.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed the e-commerce behemoth for destroying traditional retailers, not paying its fair share of taxes and underpaying the US Postal Service for delivering its goods.

Citing sources close to the White House, a story in Vanity Fair claimed that Trump is “obsessed with Bezos” and has essentially declared “war” on Amazon.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Smart’ Putin, election collusion & NATO expansion: US releases Clinton-Yeltsin conversations

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The US has declassified 600 pages of private conversations between former American & Russian Presidents, Bill Clinton & Boris Yeltsin. They took place …

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The Unlikely Force Behind US Prison Reform – Consortiumnews

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While serious prison reform in the United States has long failed there is a new force to be reckoned with from an unlikely source that should be taken seriously, says John Kiriakou.

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

Prison and sentencing reform have long been an important issue for the political left. The United States has five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Congress creates 50 new crimes every year. That’s 500 things that were legal a decade ago that are now felonies. It’s no wonder the prisons are full.

Liberals are concerned because so many poor people and people of color are in prison. One out of every four black men in America is in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole. The numbers are astounding. The rest of the world looks at us and shakes its collective head—especially our European allies.

The truth, though, is that prison reform and sentencing reform are not reserved for the left. In fact, evangelicals and conservatives have been leaders in the reform movement since the 1970s. Chuck Colson, who had been Richard Nixon’s special counsel and hatchet man during the Watergate years and who served eight months in a minimum-security prison for Watergate-related crimes, found his Christian faith there and created Prison Fellowship, now the oldest and largest Christian-oriented prison ministry and reform organization in the country. Its success has spawned countless similar organizations.

Prison Fellowship has become known especially for its program that sends Christmas presents to the children of indigent prisoners and for its provision of bibles and religious literature to prisoners at the federal, state, and local levels. The trend for Christian organizations involved in prison work, though, has changed over the past 20 years or so, ever since President Bill Clinton toughened the already harsh Reagan-era anti-drug laws that have filled American prisons. Now, many of those groups are advocating for legislation that would change sentences, guidelines, and in some cases, the entire system.

Colson: From hatchet man to prison reformer. (Prison Fellowship)

Most recently,…

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Video: Feeling the Bern? Sanders targets Amazon’s low wages & poor working conditions

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There’s a call for web retail giant Amazon to be taxed, to make up for low wages & poor working conditions for staff in the United States. Democratic senator …

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PressTV-Trump renews vow to abandon NAFTA

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US President Donald Trump has renewed his threat to entirely pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), further warning the US Congress against interfering in the negotiations with Canada.

The Saturday development came after American and Canadian negotiators failed to reach consensus on Friday in efforts to restructure the tri-lateral trade deal — also involving Mexico – that governs more than $1 trillion in trade.

This is while Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought the advice of the country’s trade union chiefs as well as former prime minister Brian Mulroney, whose government negotiated the US-Canada Free Trade deal that preceded NAFTA.

The consultations were carried out after the Friday negotiations ended in a stalemate amid reports that Trump had declared that he would not be willing to compromise to reach a deal with Ottawa. The two sides, however, have agreed to resume talks on Wednesday.

Canadian Prime…

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Epic Crimes in Myanmar – LewRockwell

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As the genocidal horrors in Myanmar unfold, I am kicking myself for having risked my skin to go see then sainted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

This event occurred in Rangoon (now Yangon) in 1996 when Suu Kyi was the revered democratic opposition leader resisting the nation’s brutal military regime. The western media loved her, as it always does third world female politicians fighting dictatorships and thugs. The saintly Suu Kyi was even given a Nobel Prize by Sweden’s always giddy liberals.

To get to Suu Kyi’s compound in suburban Rangoon, I rented a car and a terrific driver named Mr. Alexander, and we wove our way through many police checkpoints, risking arrest at each one. Somehow we managed to get to her compound to hear the famous lady speak. She looked very lovely and fragile.

Like my fellow journalists, I felt great sympathy for her. Unlike them, I wondered how, if she ever came to power, this frail, bird-like creature could hold together wild and crazy Burma, a turbulent nation of 43 million that is a stew of scores of angry ethnic groups and religions – a sort of Asian Yugoslavia. As I feared back then, she was proven unfit for this heavy task.



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Once rich Burma was bankrupted and dirt poor after many years of dictatorial rule by eccentric army general Ne Win who terrorized his people and practiced necromancy, other black arts and socialism. Gen. Win used the large Burmese Army to battle the nation’s many ethnic secessionists: Shan, Karen, Mon, Wa, Chinese. He persecuted the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state.Ne Win was finally kicked upstairs by younger army generals. They continued the brutal dictatorship and…

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Prison Planet.com » Cutting down on social media is as important for your health as stopping smoking and drinking, experts say on the eve of ‘Scroll Free September’

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Daily Mail
August 31, 2018

Getting young people to cut down on social media is as important to public health as campaigns designed to curb smoking and drinking.

That is the warning issued by the Royal Society of Public Heath (RSPC), which is encouraging people to participate in the first ever ‘Scroll Free September’ in a bid to stop the negative mental health impacts caused by these online services.

Previous research has found social media use is linked to heightened feelings of anxiety and depression, poor sleep and body images issues.

The ‘Scroll Free September campaign urges people to give up all social networks for a month, starting from tomorrow.

It hopes those who take part will not use the services as frequently after the month.

It follows similar campaigns like ‘Dry January’, which aims to break people’s habits around alcohol by challenging them to stay sober from the month, and smoking-free ‘Stoptober’, which is held in October each year.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:45 am






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The canonization of John McCain: Media, political establishment turn warmonger into saint

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The canonization of John McCain: Media, political establishment turn warmonger into saint

1 September 2018

“I hated my enemies even before they held me captive because hate sustained me in my devotion to their complete destruction and helped me overcome the virtuous human impulse to recoil in disgust from what had to be done by my hand.”—John McCain on the Vietnam War, April 2001

“However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that will be lost when war claims its wages from us. Shed a tear, and then get on with the business of killing our enemies as quickly as we can, and as ruthlessly as we must.”—John McCain, October 2001

The American media and political establishment are in the middle of a five-day exercise in moral hypocrisy, cant and myth-making surrounding the death of Republican Senator John McCain. The operation involves nearly every news channel, newspaper publication and politician, Democrat and Republican, following a common script in preparation ever since McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago—John McCain, the “American hero,” the “warrior,” the “maverick,” the likes of which the world may never see again.

On Thursday, a ceremony was held in Arizona featuring speeches by former Vice President Joe Biden and others, concluding with the playing of Frank Sinatra’s, “My Way.” From there, McCain’s body was flown by military aircraft to Washington, where it lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol building yesterday, a distinction accorded to only 30 other people. McCain’s casket was placed on the wooden catafalque originally built for President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865—only one of the many political obscenities associated with…

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Video: Defense Stocks Soar as Trump Wages War on Syria

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Defense company stocks, such as those of Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, and Boeing, rose to unprecedented levels since the beginning of the year because of …

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Censored documentary a testament to ‘incredible’ power of Israel lobby, Max Blumenthal says (VIDEO) — RT US News

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The suppression of a documentary produced by Qatar-funded Al Jazeera about Israeli influence in Washington demonstrates the incredible power and influence wielded by the Israel lobby, journalist Max Blumenthal told RT.

A two-minute clip from the censored documentary was recently leaked to Blumenthal, who published it on his independent news site, the Grayzone Project. The footage documents how campus fellows from the neo-conservative Hoover Institution were essentially required to attend a pro-Israel rally, with one participant even acknowledging that he and the other bused-in “activists” were engaged in astroturfing – a tactic used to create the illusion of grassroots support for a political cause or organization.

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FILE PHOTO  © Andrew Kelly

“You can see in the footage that the campus fellows are not very interested in going out and shouting at young fellow college students and calling them names and using anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric. But they say they were forced to do this in order to be foot soldiers in the conservative movement. It’s rather pathetic,” Blumenthal told RT in an interview.

However, the explosive contents of the leaked clip almost pale in comparison to the shocking success of the Israel lobby in stopping the release of the documentary.

“There’s an enormous amount of irony around the fact that the Israel lobby has managed to suppress the release of a documentary about the Israel lobby. It really does demonstrate its power and in an unlikely way. Because we know that Qatar has a relationship with Hamas – the governing authority of the Gaza strip – that Qatar maintains diplomatic relations with Iran. It’s not the kind of country you would think that the Israel lobby could influence,” Blumenthal noted.

He explained how Alan Dershowitz and Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, traveled to Doha and pressed the Qatari government to stop the documentary in exchange for their support against the Saudi and UAE embargo.

“So, this is one of the most effective and most high-level Israel lobbying campaigns in recent history, where it managed to extract concessions from a Gulf state that was said to be no friend of Israel, and which the Israel lobby had traditionally demonized. I find it incredible,” remarked Blumenthal.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Dangerous’ liberation: Pompeo calls Russian plans to get rid of Islamic terrorists ‘an assault’

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The US Secretary of State is accusing Russia & President Assad of escalating the Syrian conflict, calling plans to rid Idlib province of Islamic terrorists ‘an …

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Video: £1 bn Nazi gold for post WWII fascist Eurodollar international: Genoa bridge collapsed or blown up?

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The post WWII Eurodollar fascist international: Genoa bridge collapsed, or blown up? The allied traitors who did deals for the billion dollars or so of Nazi loot at …

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Trump Threatens WTO Exit | Dissident Voice

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Transcript: PressTV Skype Interview with Peter Koenig
31 August 2018

Introduction

U-S President, Donald Trump, has threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organization.

Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg News, said he will pull out from the organization if it “does not shape up”. The U-S president warned that he could even take action against the WTO. Trump has complained that the US is being treated unfairly in global trade and has blamed the World Trade Organization for allowing it to happen. Regarding tariffs, Trump said he will enact import duties on 200-billion dollars-worth of Chinese goods as early as next week. Following his remarks, Asian stock markets dropped and partially erased gains made in this week’s global rally. Trump has ignited a global trade war by slapping sharp tariffs on goods from the EU, Canada, Mexico, and China.

PressTV: What is your take on this?

Peter Koenig: Well, it looks like this latest threat to exit WTO goes into the same direction as his trade war with the EU and with China, and also with the new NAFTA Agreement – which so far was negotiated only with Mexico and does not include Canada; it eventually would have another name.

The new trade agreement with Mexico was negotiated like all trade agreements with the US, behind closed doors. Canada was invited to also join, but as far as I know, no decision has been taken yet. At the outset it looks like the new “draft” agreement with Mexico is worse than the original…

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Video: US military blocks proposed railway linking North & South Korea

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Efforts at de-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula have hit another snag: plans for a historic railway meant to link North & South Korea have been …

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Trump Administration Performing ‘Hostile Takeover of the Courts’

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Free Beacon
August 31, 2018

CNN commentator Symone Sanders said Wednesday the Trump administration is enacting a “hostile takeover of the courts,” complaining some of the judges weren’t approved by the American Bar Association.

Senate leaders struck a deal on Tuesday to quickly confirm seven more federal district court judges, meaning President Donald Trump has now had 60 judges put on the bench. That includes Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Sanders, who served as press secretary for the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), said it amounted to a hostile takeover and was “very underreported.”

“This has been very underreported, but folks do not understand that a hostile takeover of the courts by folks who are not even approved by the American Bar Association is happening,” she said. “There are judges on the list right now that are not approved by the American Bar Association, and Donald Trump’s lasting legacy, among other things. will be that he was able to reshape the courts for a generation, and that is something Grassley and McConnell are very tied to, and I think they don’t want to see their ally in this effort go.”

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:46 am






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2 bads make a good? US eyeing F-22/F-35 hybrid to counter ‘Russian & Chinese threats’ – report — RT US News

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The US is reportedly looking into a hybrid of two 5th generation fighter jets – the F-22 and F-35 – to help counter “Russian and Chinese threats.” The two machines, both riddled with technical issues, might not mix well.

The hybrid was proposed to the US military by the arms giant Lockheed Martin, Defense One reported, citing sources “with direct knowledge of the plane.” The plane is basically a modified F-22 Raptor with unspecified changes to its frame and featuring the modern avionics of the F-35 Lightning II.

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 © ERIC PIERMONT

Naturally, the plane is being sold as a powerful tool “to counter Russian and Chinese threats,” according to the report. While the two are favorite scapegoats for the US military, especially when it pushes for more funding, it’s unclear why exactly the US Air Force might need a new fifth-generation fighter jet to counter them. Moscow and Beijing have developed fifth-generation jets, yet both still lack any considerable fleets of such machines.

The F-22/F-35 hybrid plane is supposed to ensure the dominance of the US military while it’s waiting for sixth-generation fighter jets, which are still years away. Earlier, the same idea of a hybrid jet was reportedly proposed to Japan. Tokyo has been seeking an upgrade to its fighter fleet for decades but has so far not procured any fifth-generation jets.

The exact specifications of the proposed hybrid plane remain a mystery. The operational history of the F-22 and F-35, however, raises doubts over whether mixing the two is actually a good idea.

The F-22, the very first fifth-generation fighter to ever enter service, is notorious for its extremely high costs, which eventually led to the shutdown of the program in the early 2010s. The US Air Force initially envisioned ordering 750 Raptors, but the growing price tag of the program meant that only some 200 machines were built and procured. The flyaway cost of one unit in 2009 was $150 million, yet, taking into consideration the research and development costs, a single F-22 plane amounted to a whopping $400 million.

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FILE PHOTO. © Pascal Rossignol

Raptors were riddled with a number of critical issues, namely problems with the oxygen-supply system and the Low Observable (aka ‘stealth’) coating. The coating proved to be quite weak, susceptible to wear and tear, as well as weather, as it basically got washed away. The problem with coating still persists, according to a recent report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). The stealth coat requires time-consuming and complicated maintenance, which often grounds the jets. Spare parts for the planes are also not readily available, the report states, therefore the US fleet of F-22s suffers from “reduced and unpredictable aircraft availability.”

The F-22/F-35 hybrid will feature “advancements in the stealth coatings and things of that nature,” according to Defense One, though no exact details have been provided. The F-35 aircraft development program repeatedly missed deadlines, while the costs of each unit continues to grow, now estimated to surpass $120 million. Despite their lengthy development, the jets are still riddled with numerous issues, including with the coating, which might “melt” during a flight at supersonic speed, according to another report by the GAO, released in June.

The report named almost 1,000 various technical issues affecting the F-35 jets, including 111 designated as Category 1 flaws, which “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage,” according to the US military definition.

A new report by another watchdog, Project On Government Oversight (POGO), has found that the F-35 program is actually cutting corners to call the development “complete” instead of actually fixing the issues. Namely, a number of Category I problems were simply downgraded to a less serious Category II, which could “impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Swedish election: Nationalists gain traction, but criticised for racism

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A tough confrontation is expected during Sweden’s general election, with the country split over a surge in migrant numbers. It could see the governing left-wing …

Via Youtube

PressTV-FBI, DOJ officials ‘out to lunch’: Trump

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US President Donald Trump has lashed out at officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) for being “out to lunch”.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump slammed FBI and DOJ officials for being “completely out to lunch” when it came to fighting corruption.

His tweets evolved around a report by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrants for surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.

Trump quoted from a Friday night appearance on Fox’s Hannity program by President of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, who was discussing wiretap warrants on a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, Carter Page. 

” ‘It is astonishing that the FISA courts couldn’t hold hearings on Spy Warrants targeting Donald Trump. It isn’t about Carter Page, it’s about the Trump Campaign. You’ve got corruption at the DOJ & FBI,’ ” Trump…

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UN Investigation Finds “Genocidal Intent” in Myanmar

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After 10,000 Rohingya deaths and hundreds of thousands of exiles, a new United Nations report has found signs of “genocidal intent” in Myanmar, where the military has been persecuting the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The UN is calling for trials in the case of the prime offenders, including a group of generals — Soe Win, Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, Aung Aung and Than Oo — as well as the commander-in-chief.

Advocates have been warning that the situation in Myanmar appears to be approaching “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide,” but this report codifies the work of an independent fact-finding commission for the international community.

The members of the team have worked for over a year to document activities in Myanmar and beyond, and their evidence collection includes interviews as well as visual records. Their report was filed without official access to Myanmar, as the government refused to cooperate.

While international leaders may have had an excuse for failing to act before these atrocities came to light, this document puts pressure on them to hold Myanmar’s government and military accountable for continued human rights abuses.

The military has been claiming for years that it is engaged in routine operations to protect national security. Human rights advocates — and now the UN — maintain that this is clearly not the case. Instead, the Rohingya are being subjected to a targeted campaign of harassment and murder.

Myanmar’s military is burning down villages, beating people, shooting them, burning them to death and starving them — all after stripping the Rohingya of civil rights, like the ability to move freely through the country.

Those who are able to escape are pouring over the borders into neighboring nations, where governments are struggling to accommodate their needs. Meanwhile, Myanmar has been suppressing the press, making it challenging for journalists to report on what is…

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Luna – Live on KEXP

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gx_qoTJXGk]

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Reparations, Racism, and Equality of Outcome

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South Africa’s land reform program is now front and center after US President Donald Trump tweeted about the South African government’s plan to steal farms from white landowners.

Trump said he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South African “land and farm seizures” and “killing of farmers”…

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South Africa’s president is sticking by his claims that taking farms away from white farmers is a program of “land-reform” that will make South Africa fairer…

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RT CrossTalk host Peter Lavelle and The Duran’s Alex Christoforou examine the Marxist abyss that South Africa has plunged itself into, as the radical left champion the government theft of farmland from landowners as some sort of twisted historical reparation…all the while South Africa, once a country fully capable of feeding its population, has become a net importer of food for the first time in its history.

Via The Express UK…

Although the president was making the case for land-reform, many commentators are insistent that this is a land grab which may further inflame racial tensions.

White farmers in South Africa have said they have been targeted in ‘horrific’ attacks this year,…

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PressTV-‘US taking Israel’s side in conflict’

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The administration of US President Donald Trump is taking the Israeli side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says an activist. 

Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born British  novelist, political activist and writer, told Press TV on Saturday that they “expected the Trump administration to stop the funding” of Palestinian relief organizations. 

Trump has decided to cancel all US funding to Palestinian refugees.

He said Trump’s decision to cut funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) shows the current administration’s submissiveness towards the Israeli regime.

“America is operating as an Israeli colony.”

Atzmon added the Jewish lobby — known as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — wields huge influence over Trump and his administration.

“US foreign policy is dominated by the Jewish lobby, by AIPAC.”

AIPAC dictates pro-Israel policies to the US government.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior…

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Prison Planet.com » MSNBC Anchors Fret People ‘Vote Pretty Selfishly,’ Find It ‘Fascinating’ People Support Trump Because of Guns, Abortion

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Free Beacon
August 31, 2018

MSNBC co-anchors Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi expressed revulsion and fascination on Thursday at the idea people may support President Donald Trump because it would help their pocketbooks or they agreed with his policies on guns and abortion.

Interviewing left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer, Ruhle fretted that in spite of Trump’s boorishness and dishonesty, “a lot of people vote pretty selfishly.”

“While we could find or do find the president’s constant lying or lawlessness or reprehensible behavior morally unacceptable, a lot of people vote pretty selfishly, and they say, ‘What’s going to give me more money in my pockets?’” Ruhle said to Steyer, who has long sought Trump’s impeachment.

“Or what’s going to make abortion illegal or what’s going to make sure that my Second Amendment rights stay the same, and clearly, that adds up to enough people that the president still has something akin to 40 percent of the electorate in polls,” Velshi said. “It’s kind of fascinating to us, as I’m sure it is to you, but how do we talk about that?”

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:48 am






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China Daily derides Trump’s Twitter rants as ‘messages from some alternative universe’ — RT US News

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In a Friday editorial, China Daily said that US President Donald Trump’s social media rants are “from some alternative universe,” following his claim that China hacked Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Trump’s allegation was met with scepticism by commentators, both foreign and domestic, after he posted it on Twitter this week. The Chinese newspaper has now weighed in to allege that he is looking for a “scapegoat” to draw attention away from domestic scandals.

The president tweeted on Wednesday about a “very big story” which claimed that Hillary Clinton’s email server had been hacked by China. He also took the opportunity to sardonically deride both the FBI and Department of Justice while also taking a potshot at the ongoing Mueller investigation saying, “Are they sure it wasn’t Russia (just kidding!)?”

READ MORE: ‘Are they sure it wasn’t the Russians?’ Clinton’s emails were reportedly hacked by China

The China Daily’s riposte was equally pointed. “To the thinking person, there are few things more disconcerting than a tweet by the US president,” it reads.

As the editorial points out, the Chinese government was quick to deny Trump’s claim. The paper, which is owned by the Communist Party of China, added that the tweet was clearly an attempt to distract voters “as he desperately needs a scapegoat,” ahead of the upcoming midterm elections in November, which will see the Republican party fight to maintain control of both houses of Congress.

“Based on both his own definition and from the perspective of the FBI investigation, what he has just resorted to is fiction. Since his supporters have shown a willingness to suspend disbelief, we can no doubt look forward to more such tales,” the scathing editorial concludes.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-Young women knifed in north London

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Police in London have attended to another scene of violence involving knife after a young woman was badly stabbed in broad daylight.

The attack on the woman, who was reported to be in her 20s, took place around noon local time on Saturday in Caledonian Road in north London.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital. Her injuries was described as not life threatening.

“We were called at 10:16am, there were a number of calls to us reporting a stabbing incident … We sent a number of vehicles,” said a health official after the incident.

Police officers were in the scene of the attack while traffic was being diverted from the area. Authorities said they had detained an unidentified man on suspicion of attempted murder. Earlier reports suggested the perpetrator or perpetrators had been at large.

The attack is the latest to come from a spate of knife crimes in London. At least 20 young people have been stabbed to death in the British capital…

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I ‘Can’t Keep Up’ with All the Jobs Created in Indiana

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Breitbart
August 31, 2018

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s rally in Evansville, Indiana, on Thursday evening, a black supporter of the president told the Fox Business Network he “can’t keep up with the jobs” created under the current administration.

Reporting live from outside Evansville’s Ford Center, the venue for President Trump’s campaign rally in support of Republican Indiana senatorial candidate Mike Braun running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly, Fox Business Network correspondent Jeff Flock asked Tony Hughes for his thoughts on the current economic climate.

“I can tell you right now. I saw jobs when Obama was in office, and I saw jobs when Trump’s in office, it’s night and day,” Hughes told Flock. I couldn’t go out in rural communities and get a job when Obama was president. I can’t keep up with the jobs now that Trump is in office.”

It’s no secret that the commander in chief is working hard to spur job creation among minority groups.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:49 am






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MSM one step away from McCain myth-making – well, you can learn from Lenin classic! — RT US News

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With the US media venerating the late John McCain, one can only wonder if the stories will soon cross into the realm of pure mythology. If so, Russia’s Soviet history may offer the MSM some quality myth-making inspiration.

The ‘nil nisi bonum’ maxim became a matter of utmost importance in the case of McCain. His many panegyrists are praising his wartime heroism, personal integrity and, of course, resolve in standing up to dictators abroad (and in the White House). Those who dare mention his history of warmongering, occasional personal meanness, or record of voting for Trump’s policies are disregarded as vile and disrespectable individuals.

READ MORE: McCain beyond the grave… death gives life to political fight with Trump

Stories about how McCain acted in this or that situation, proving his greatness, came in droves. Remember how he defended his opponent, Barack Obama, for being smeared as an Arab? (Don’t ask why calling a person an Arab is a smear in America). How he championed human rights in Ukraine? (By supporting, among others, an openly neo-Nazi protest leader). Or how he helped save the Cuban home of his favorite author Ernest Hemingway (by stepping over his hatred of its communist government and leaning on Cuba-hating bureaucrats in the State Department to give a waiver to US citizens wishing to help restore it).

READ MORE: WaPo column praises McCain as human rights champion with photo of him next to ‘literal neo-Nazi’

If this beneficiation of the late senator goes further, it will likely come into the territory of tall tales and pure legend, where the six-year-old George Washington cannot tell a lie to his father about cutting down the cherry tree while Betsy Ross decides the design of the American flag.

Russia may not have been among McCain’s favorite countries, but it can offer its own experience of turning a political figure into the embodiment of an ideology. Vladimir Lenin was famously turned from a Bolshevik leader into a not-so-living legend by his fellow communists. So, if future authors of McCain tales need inspiration, here are some.

When Lenin was a little kid

Much like Washington, Lenin’s image was used to teach good examples to young children in the Soviet Union. One apocryphal story is pretty much the same as the one about the first US president and the cherry tree – a young Lenin breaks a glass beaker and confesses his misdeed.

A good Soviet kid was expected to wear a little star badge with a young Lenin’s portrait in its center, by the way.

Lenin spares a rowdy stove-maker

However, this Lenin-was-kid-just-like-you narrative was far less pronounced than the alternative – Lenin-the-wise-old-man. The iconic story of this kind is “Lenin and the stove-maker,” which is about a man who does not recognize Lenin and chastises him for trespassing on grazing land. Days later, soldiers come to pick him up but, instead of being sent to a gulag, he is invited to Lenin’s residence to fix his stove.

If one thinks about it, the story is utterly terrifying due to its allusion to state terror under Lenin. But it was still considered a good read for the kids.

Lenin the accessible one

Much like McCain these days, Lenin was depicted as a very accessible man, who responded well to requests from common people. This narrative is called “Lenin and the peasant petitioners,” and involves some poor folks traveling far from their home village to get to Lenin’s office and tell him of their grievances in person. Needless to say that he was eager to solve whatever problem was brought to his attention.

The old meme was given new life over the past several years, thanks to HBO’s TV drama ‘Game of Thrones.’ The Russian word for “petitioner” in Lenin’s case is the same as the one for “walker.” The internet is full of classical paintings, with scary monsters from behind the wall photoshopped in place of the peasants.

Lenin, friend of pets and children

Lenin the role model, of course, could not be anything but nice to children and animals. There was even a small children’s book about this, fittingly named ‘Lenin and Children,’ from which young readers could learn about his cat-training skills and how he convinced children not to leave food on their plates.

One such story goes so far as mixing Lenin’s image with that of Santa Claus (or rather Father Frost, considering it happened in Russia). It’s about Lenin coming to a New Year’s celebration at a boarding school, despite a snow storm. Like a proper Santa, he gave presents and played blind man’s bluff with the kids.

This one is based on a historic fact though, of course, the reality was a bit different. Lenin’s wife was recovering for several months in a medical center that was combined with a school. He did come to the party there, which happened on Christmas Eve rather than New Year’s, and was delayed because he was ambushed by bandits, who took all his valuables and the car. There were no games involving blindfolds, however.

Lenin the strongman

One of the most iconic images of Lenin shows him carrying a log on his shoulder. It is meant to depict a “subbotnik” – a volunteer spring clean – near the Kremlin, which indeed took place.

The episode understandably was milked mercilessly for Soviet propaganda purposes, immortalized in in countless books, paintings, and postage stamps.

There is even a ballet featuring Lenin running across the stage with a log, although the production is a modern one.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-‘British elites committed to Israel’s defense’

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An expert has told the Press TV that British elites do not actually need any puppeteering from outside to stay committed to Israel as they always see any threat to the regime in Tel Aviv as a threat to the old alliance between the Zionists and Britain.

“I don’t think certain British MPs and opinion-makers need to be prodded by the Israeli state they are always loyal to Israel and they are committed to defending Israel,” Chris Bambery, an author and poetical activist from London said on Friday.

The comments come amid a row over positions of leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn on Israel and its crimes against the Palestinians, which some in the UK have sought to depict as racist and against Jews.

Corbyn has lashed out at those criticisms, saying Israel controls even the speeches made by certain lawmakers of the British parliament.

Bambery said attacks on Corbyn over his pro-Palestinian position were systematic…

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Is the Mueller investigation preparing to indict WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange?

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Is the Mueller investigation preparing to indict WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange?

By
James Cogan

1 September 2018

The investigation by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into alleged “Russian interference” in the 2016 US presidential election is close to issuing an indictment against WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. That is the conclusion that can be drawn from a lengthy article authored by James Gordon Meek and Ali Dukakis and published on August 29 by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

James Gordon Meek is not just any journalist. He must be ranked as one of the prime conduits in the American media for the positions of the US intelligence, police and military apparatus. Throughout his now 25-year career, he has been repeatedly used by “unnamed sources” within the state to luridly report on a myriad of purported terrorism conspiracies that have been used to justify the military operations and anti-democratic outrages carried out under the pretext that the US is fighting a “war on terror.” From 2011 to 2013, he worked as the leading “counterterrorism advisor” to the congressional Committee on Homeland Security.

Julian Assange

Meek’s attention to the issue of Julian Assange is therefore of significance. The underlying and unsubstantiated premise of the article is that WikiLeaks was part of a conspiracy, involving Russian intelligence and Roger Stone, a person who supported the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, to manipulate the outcome of the US election.

Meek and Dukakis wrote, as fact, that Assange “is embroiled in the global political scandal surrounding Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, with questions about his role in that drama being raised by friends and foes alike.” They asserted: “In more…

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Banning Chelsea Manning: The Dubious Tests of Character

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National security advocates have been crotchety ever since the release of Chelsea Manning for a sentence they hoped would go the full, crushing 35 years.  Her sins were intimately tied up with making WikiLeaks the publisher of fame, less than fortune: the disclosure of 750,000 classified diplomatic and military documents which revealed, to various degrees, the inner workings of the US military industrial complex.  But a moment of enlightenment prevailed, and President Barack Obama deemed her case suitable for commutation in one of his last executive acts.

While the idea of a celebrity whistleblower is rife with problems (the stereotype is usually that of an insecure, inconspicuous figure, a persecuted shrinking violet), Manning has managed to become one since her release in May 2017.  Identity politics has been grafted upon the political necessaries of exposing injustices and atrocities.  Data security has been paired with transgender politics.

In Australia, joined (even chained?) to the hip of the US imperium, not all are revelling in Manning, the spiller of secrets big and small.  The simple conclusion they reach is that she should be barred from entering the country.  She was a military intelligence analyst gone bad, and for those reasons, should be treated as such.  “Despite the media breathlessly describing Manning as a whistleblower,” penned a sceptical Rodger Shanahan of the Lowy Institute, “she is far from that.  In fact, if she thought she…

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Lincoln as He Really Was

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The following is the foreword that I have written for the outstanding new piece of Lincoln scholarship, Lincoln as He Really Was, by Charles T. Pace.

Despite the fact that there are well over 10,000 books in print about Abraham Lincoln it is almost impossible for the average American – or anyone else – to know the truth about the real Lincoln.  Having given hundreds of public presentations, appeared on dozens of radio talk shows (including the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show), and participated in numerous debates on the subject of Lincoln, I have learned that the average American knows nothing at all about the man except for the few slogans and platitudes that we are all taught in elementary school (and then repeated endlessly in the popular culture).

As an elementary school student in the Pennsylvania public schools I was taught that Lincoln was so honest that he once walked six miles to return a penny to a merchant who had mistakenly undercharged him.  Decades later, when I debated Harry Jaffa who, like the man he called “Father Abraham,” was a student of rhetoric (but not of American history), Jaffa assured the Oakland, California audience of several hundred that Lincoln’s political speeches were in fact “the words of God.”  (This presumably did not include his dirty jokes, for which was famous).

Lincoln As He Really Was
Charles T. Pace
Check Amazon for Pricing.

Abraham Lincoln is the only American president that has literally been deified like a Roman emperor (Like Julius Caesar, his image is the first to be placed on his country’s coinage).  Lincoln’s deification eventually spread to the presidency, and then to the entire federal government.  The Lincoln myth is thus the ideological cornerstone of the global…

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Prison Planet.com » Trump and His Supporters Willing to ‘Lie, Steal, Cheat’ and ‘Kill’ for Political Purposes

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Newsbusters
August 31, 2018

Just when you think the media couldn’t sink any lower in their view of Donald Trump and his supporters they go lower. In the past month we’ve seen CNN’s Don Lemon insult Trump supporters as “people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother” for their own political purposes.

MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann posited: “How many people in the Republican Party think that it would be okay for Donald Trump to dissolve their own grandparents?”

As for Trump himself, liberal hosts, reporters and pundits have accused him of being a “despot” that was inciting “violence” against journalists that will leave “blood on his hands.” One New York Times columnist even suggested Trump would “like to” murder his political foes.

And speaking of the Times – they just hired a new columnist who, among other incendiary comments, once tweeted “Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins?” So much for the tolerant left.

The following are the worst liberal outbursts over the past month from lefty journalists:

[LANGUAGE WARNING] 

Trump Supporters Would “Lie to Their Mother” and Let Him “Kill” Their Grandparents

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“We’re up against tribalism. We’re up against people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother, lie to themselves about what’s right of this country, about truth and facts. If they will ignore any misgiving, any terrible misdeed, any awful saying they will just ignore it for their own political purpose. They will ignore the bigotry and the pettiness and the childishness about what Donald Trump said about me and LeBron James and others just because they want to gain some sort of political clout or they want a few more dollars in tax money. At what cost?”
— CNN host Don…

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NASA gives Opportunity rover a deadline to wake up, or be lost forever — RT US News

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A global dust storm on Mars is threatening the planet’s longest-living robot, NASA’s Opportunity rover. The machine has been in hibernation since June to wait out the storm and now NASA have given it a deadline to wake up.

The US space agency has given the rover a 45-day deadline before giving up on the robot, which has been exploring the Red Planet for 14 years. Skies are finally starting to clear over Mars following an epic sandstorm, and mission managers are hopeful that the rover will attempt to make contact soon.

“The sun is breaking through the haze over Perseverance Valley, and soon there will be enough sunlight present that Opportunity should be able to recharge its batteries,” said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at JPL, in NASA’s latest update on the rover.

However, if the robot is silent for 45 days after the storm subsides, the team will be “forced to conclude that the sun-blocking dust and the Martian cold have conspired to cause some type of fault from which the rover will more than likely not recover,” said Callas.

READ MORE: Pence vows US will regain manned space flight capability ‘very soon’ & reconquer Moon by 2024

“At that point our active phase of reaching out to Opportunity will be at an end. However, in the unlikely chance that there is a large amount of dust sitting on the solar arrays that is blocking the sun’s energy, we will continue passive listening efforts for several months.”

If the golf-cart-sized vehicle can’t get enough sunlight, its batteries may brown out or lack the electricity needed to power the heaters to protect the machine’s electronic circuits from Mars’ blistering cold.

The Opportunity rover was only scheduled to last for three months, but has been exploring the Red Planet for over 14 years, clocking up more than a marathon worth of Mars miles. A global dust storm has been raging on the planet for nearly two months. The rover fell asleep on June 10 and has yet to wake up and “phone home.”

While dust storms aren’t an unusual occurrence on Mars – the planet is shroud in a red haze of dust once every couple of years – but NASA says this is “one of the most intense” storms ever recorded.

“This is the worst storm Opportunity has ever seen, and we’re doing what we can, crossing our fingers, and hoping for the best,” said Steve Squyres, a planetary scientist at Cornell University and leader of the rover mission, in a recent Planetary Society blog.

The robot is battling a killer weather combination with the extreme dust storm, which is blocking light to its solar panels and coating it in a fine dust, while also fighting -100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. Together, they can reduce the rover’s ability to store and use electrical energy, while also shrinking and snapping electronic circuits.

The longer the robot goes without generating the electricity needed to charge its batteries, NASA says the batteries could “brown out” and the rover will join the defunct likes of Spirit, the Opportunity rover’s near-identical sister machine.

READ MORE: Curiosity rover snaps stunning selfie during dust storm on Mars (PHOTOS)

Spirit stopped communicating with NASA during an extreme Martian winter in March 2010. Engineers attempted to regain contact with it for more than a year afterwards, before they eventually gave up and left it to join the plant’s growing pile of space debris.  

However, “there is reason to be optimistic,” says NASA, as the storm appears to be weakening, meaning that sunlight may have time to peak through the dust and give the rover a much-needed boost. But even if Opportunity does wake up, it’s still “not out of the woods” as “there’s a real possibility the rover won’t be the same.”

“The rover’s batteries could have discharged so much power – and stayed inactive so long – that their capacity is reduced. If those batteries can’t hold as much charge, it could affect the rover’s continued operations.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Trump Proposes $100 Billion Gift to Richest 1 Percent

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Hours after he launched yet another “direct attack” on workers by canceling a modest pay raise for around two million federal employees, President Donald Trump told Bloomberg on Thursday that he is considering a regressive and possibly illegal plan to use his executive power to hand the rich another $100 billion in tax cuts by indexing capital gains to inflation.

“There are a lot of people that love it and some people that don’t,” Trump said of the plan, which would disproportionately reward the top 0.01 percent of Americans. “But I’m thinking about it very strongly.”

Trump’s Oval Office interview with Bloomberg came shortly after the president announced in a letter to congressional leaders that he is freezing a planned 2.1 percent pay increase for federal workers just ahead of Labor Day, claiming that “federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.”

But for Trump and the Republican Party, concerns for “fiscal sustainability” are quickly dropped when it comes time to deliver major gifts to the rich, Wall Street, and the Pentagon.

“Hours after cheating millions of middle class workers, Trump wants to send another kiss to the rich — unilaterally, without any approval from Congress,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) wrote on Twitter late Thursday. “He ignores the law, governs for the top one percent, and doesn’t give a hoot about the rest of us.”

In a Facebook post responding to Trump’s decision…

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McCain, Confederate

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The day after John McCain died, I happened to visit a memorial to Confederate prisoners of war at Point Lookout, Maryland. Flying a Confederate flag overhead, the monument seemly ironically features a quote at the base from Maya Angelou.

I realized the way I felt about the soldiers commemorated there was decidedly similar how I felt about John McCain the POW in Vietnam: They both fought for a cause that was unjust and ended up enduring real suffering.

We can feel some measure of compassion for human agony regardless of the morality of the person living it. Celebrations of anguish, whether of John McCain’s death or Osama Bin Ladin‘s killing leave me simply sad.

Of course, celebrations over the assassination of Bin Ladin were commonplace in the U.S. and McCain’s death has prompted a virtual media and political deification of a serial war criminal. In a sense, he represents the latest example of Trumpwaching — that is, the laudatory echo chamber around McCain is fueled in large part by an at least implicit put down of the current psudo isolationist president who, for better or worse, got multiple military draft deferments.

Of course, the greatest discrepancy, rarely hinted at, is how humanized someone like McCain is and how rarely victims of the wars he pushed are. Does the average American know the name of a single civilian Vietnamese or Iraqi victim of the U.S. military?

But we have reams of selective information about McCain, endlessly depicted, like clichés…

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Prison Planet.com » As Election Looms, Sweden Is Burning Again Tonight

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Zero Hedge
September 1, 2018

With the highly anticipated Swedish election looming next weekend, and the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party having surged in the polls (until the last few days), the timing of tonight’s gang riots is only likely to enrage voters even more.

Up to 22 cars were torched or damaged across southern Sweden Friday morning, weeks after dozens of cars were set on fire using molotov cocktails.

Police in the southern city of Trollhättan have opened an investigation into one fire which left up to 10 cars damaged, according to local news outlet Aftonbladet. Authorities were also called to the Kronegården around 3:30 a.m. to put out a “fully-fledged” fire which had fully engulfed three cars before spreading further.

“It was a fully-fledged fire in three cars and then spread to the fire related cars,” said Johan Ytterberg, internal officer at Norra Älvsborg’s Rescue Service Federation.

According to the police, four cars were totally burned out and six cars, which were nearby, were injured by the fire.

The police have written a notification of gross damage, but no person is arrested for the crime. –Aftonbladet

Two weeks ago, we reported that multiple gangs of masked youths rampaging across three major Swedish cities, setting cars on fire in what appeared to be a coordinated action.

As The Daily Mail reported at the time, police said they were dealing with multiple fires as dramatic footage showed youths targeting vehicles in a shopping centre and hospital car park at Frölunda…

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Bill Clinton trolled for ‘ogling’ pop star Ariana Grande at funeral — RT US News

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Former US President Bill Clinton was slammed and ridiculed on social media after he was caught seemingly mesmerized by pop singer Ariana Grande’s performance during soul legend Aretha Franklin’s funeral in Detroit.

The 25-year-old singer, donning a short black dress and high-heeled shoes, took the stage on Friday for a rendition of Franklin’s hit single ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.’ Clinton seated right behind Grande, was captured looking hypnotized by the former Nickelodeon star’s performance.

Some users on social media poked fun at Clinton for ‘ogling’ the singer and even ‘undressing’ Grande with his eyes, suggesting that she had ‘brought him back to life.’

Others found the whole situation “uncomfortable,” calling the ex-president’s fascination with Grande “gross” and “creepy.” Commenters also argued that Clinton’s reaction was inappropriate, since Grande was honoring the late soul legend Aretha Franklin, who had passed away on August 16. Others pointed out that Hillary Clinton was also present at the event.

Some, however, came to Clinton’s defense, suggesting that the apparent ‘ogling’ is just his usual ‘look.’

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Watch Online Vigil in Defense of Julian Assange – Consortiumnews

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Join Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on Saturday as he moderates a daylong chain of interviews in defense of WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange beginning at 10 am EDT, 2 pm GMT.

From 10 a.m EDT to 10 p.m. EDT, a #Unity4J online vigil will be held to show support for the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, whose sanctuary at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has turned into torturous solitary confinement.

International media have reported that Ecuador may hand over Assange to United Kingdom authorities, with a fear that he would then be extradited to the United States. The two sides are engaged in ongoing negotiations, but Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer for Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010, has acknowledged that Assange’s legal team is not part of those talks.

The fate of Assange represents a threat to human rights, asylum rights, liberty and press freedoms. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights already have found in Assange’s favor.

#Unity4J originated from an unplanned but timely response to injustice when Assange’s internet access and visitation rights were taken away. The action grew into a series of high-profile monthly online vigils featuring Chris Hedges, George Galloway, Ray McGovern, Bill Binney, Daniel Ellsberg and many other noteworthy figures.

A dynamic new format for the monthly online vigils will be introduced on Saturday. To be led for the first time by Joe Lauria, Editor in Chief of Consortium News, the upcoming event will showcase the ever-growing list of high profile supporters of the movement in an engaging new way. Conceived by organizer Suzie Dawson, the concept is described as a “daisy-chain style digital relay” – featuring twenty four guest appearances of 30 minutes duration each. At the conclusion of each segment, guests transition from interviewee to interviewer. 

Dawson said: “This fresh new format will produce unique pairings of vigil participants as each person interviewed becomes the moderator of the next segment. This will enable many activists and journalists who defend WikiLeaks and Julian Assange to engage each other directly and…

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PressTV-US ‘ready’ to boost lethal arms supplies to Ukraine

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A US diplomat to Ukraine says Washington will provide Kiev with more lethal weapons to help build up its naval and air forces in the face of what they call Russian threat.

US Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker told The Guardian that the administration of President Donald Trump was “absolutely” prepared to go further in supplying such weaponry to Ukraine.

The West accuses Moscow of providing support for the pro-Russia forces fighting in eastern Ukraine, a charge Russia resolutely denies.

“They [Ukrainians] are losing soldiers every week defending their own country,” said Volker. “And so in that context it’s natural for Ukraine to build up its military, engage in self-defense, and it’s natural to seek assistance and is natural that other countries should help them. And of course they need lethal assistance because they’re being shot at.”

He said Kiev and Washington are engaged in negotiations “about naval capability…

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Earth’s ‘Big Freeze’ Approaches – LewRockwell

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Scientists believe that Earth could experience a “big freeze” as the sun goes through what’s known as “solar minimum.” During this time, sunspots are minimal and the globe could be in for a wicked cold snap.

Scientists are reporting that the sun has been free of sunspots for a total of 133 days this year, according to The Express UK. With only 241 days of 2018 passing, that means the sun has been blank for the majority of the year. Experts continue to warn that this is a sign that the solar minimum is on its way. “The sun is spotless again. For the 133rd day this year, the face of the sun is blank,” wrote the website Space Weather. “Solar minimum has returned, bringing extra cosmic rays, long-lasting holes in the sun’s atmosphere, and strangely pink auroras,” the website continued.

The sun follows a cycle of roughly 11 years where it reaches a solar maximum and then a solar minimum. During a solar maximum, the sun gives off more heat and solar particles and is littered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in the sun’s magnetic waves.  Our sun was not expected to head into a solar minimum until around 2020, but it appears to be heading in that direction a little early which could prove to be bad news for warm weather lovers.

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But a prolonged solar minimum could mean a “mini ice age.” The last time there was a prolonged solar minimum, it did, in fact, lead to a mini ice-age which was scientifically known as the Maunder minimum.  That little cold…

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PressTV-US may allow schools to use federal money to buy guns

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US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she will not block states if they seek to use federal grants to purchase guns for schools, amid rising gun violence at American schools.

“I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act],” DeVos said on Friday in a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education Committee.

Democratic lawmakers and some education groups have called on the administration of President Donald Trump not to allow federal education grants to be used for firearms after reports said last week that the Education Department might allow this.  

Education Department officials have argued that states and school districts already have the authority to purchase firearms and use federal education grants for this purpose.

In her letter, DeVos said that states have “substantial flexibility” in…

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Prison Planet.com » FBI arrests five New Mexico compound suspects days after multiple charges were dropped

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Fox News
September 1, 2018

The FBI announced Friday that it had arrested all five New Mexico compound suspects, days after multiple charges were dropped. The suspects were now being charged with violating federal firearms and conspiracy laws.

The announcement comes after local prosecutors dropped charges in the death of a 3-year-old boy at the compound site. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said Friday his office would now seek grand jury indictments involving the death. Gallegos said seeking indictments would allow more time to gather evidence.

“The defendants, Jany Leveille, 35, a Haitian national illegally present in the United States, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Lucas Morton, 40, are charged in a criminal complaint that was filed earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico,” the bureau said in a statement.

“The criminal complaint charges Jany Leveille with being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition in the District of New Mexico from Nov. 2017 through Aug. 2018,” the bureau said. “The criminal complaint charges the other four defendants with aiding and abetting Leveille in committing the offense, and with conspiring with Leveille to commit the offense.”

On Wednesday, three of the suspects were released from custody, just hours after a judge dismissed all of the charges against them.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:00 pm






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Pentagon seeking contractors to train Saudi pilots on US soil amid bloody Yemen air campaign — RT US News

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The Pentagon plans to hire private contractors to train Saudi military pilots on US soil, documents show. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the move disturbing amid outcry over US involvement in Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen.

The US Air Force is currently soliciting private contractors for training Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) personnel, the federal documents reveal. Conveniently, contractors interested in providing their expertise to Saudi pilots won’t have to relocate to the Middle East as all training will be “conducted in the US at contractor’s facility,” the government solicitation states.

READ MORE: Saudi-led strike in Yemeni city of Hodeidah kills at least 26, mostly children – local media

The training will include instructions for the US-made F-15 fighter jet, which the Saudis are currently using in Yemen. The deadline to bid on the government contract is September 24, but it’s not clear when the US-based training program is scheduled to begin.

The training program would mark a new chapter in US logistical support for the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen, raising the ire of human rights activists concerned over the rising death toll in a conflict which has left thousands of civilians dead including many children.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned Saudi Arabia earlier this week that support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is “not unconditional” and urged them to take greater care to avoid civilian casualties. Despite Mattis’ warning, the government solicitation for training RSAF pilots was posted two weeks after a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed 40 children.

Informed about the training program, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director for HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told journalist Ken Klippenstein, “At a time when even the Pentagon has threatened to cut military and intelligence [support] for Saudi’s disastrous campaign in Yemen, it’s disturbing that the Air Force is ratcheting up its relationship by training more Saudi pilots, however veiled by the use of contractors.”

The United States is Saudi Arabia’s largest weapons supplier, and the US military has provided intelligence and logistical support for the bombing campaign against Yemen. As consequence, Washington has tiptoed around a humanitarian crisis that has left more than 20 million Yemenis dependent on humanitarian aid and some 8 million on the verge of starvation – not to mention the more than 1 million suspected cases of cholera.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched their first airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2015, in an attempt to bring deposed President Mansour Hadi back to power. Since then more than 5,500 civilians have been killed and over 9,000 injured, according to UN estimates.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

What Future Awaits the Babies of 2018?

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Some of you will hate me for what I am about to write.

I’m quite accustomed to it.

It used to be acceptable to ask questions about what future can be expected for children brought into our world now, this world with its increasingly grim environmental prognosis. At one time the bleak forecasts were mostly about extreme heat and pollution. Present projections involve far more: oceans acidifying at dizzying speed and full of microplastics which have now entered the food chain, possible massive methane eruptions from underneath polar ice caps which are melting at a phenomenal rate, water wars driving mass migration which in the future will dwarf anything we have seen so far, the list goes on. But instead of making the debate about children and population growth more relevant than ever: oddly, most of what was once known as “The Left” now considers the subject taboo. Lefties galore, just like right-wingers, will now tell you that everyone has the right to have children and no one should be “shamed” about it. Many also assert that our planet can easily support two or three times its current number of humans … “if we only (do such-and-such, all pitch in to do this or that)…” … which we will certainly NOT all do. As if we had the right, anyway, to keep wiping out other species faster and faster to make that even theoretically possible.

The truth – from my perspective, obviously — is that, however horrifying the forecast for our planetary future…

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PressTV-Trump exit threat scenario not good for anyone: WTO

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) has hit back at a threat made by President Donald Trump of the United States that Washington would withdraw from the organization, telling other members not to panic.  

Roberto Azevedo, the WTO’s director general, said on Friday that if the US were to leave the institution, such a move would cause chaos and disruption for American firms across the globe.

Trump threatened on Thursday that if the WTO did not “shape up,” Washington would withdraw.

However, the WTO chief said the “scenarios are not going to be good for anyone.”

Azevedo said there should be “no panic” over Trump’s threat, media reported on Friday. He said the US president’s comments on Thursday were nothing new and a reiteration of earlier comments regarding the WTO.

“The US concerns about areas in the WTO that they would like to improve are not new. And I think what he said yesterday is consistent with what they have expressed…

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Trump threatens pay freeze for federal workers

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Trump threatens pay freeze for federal workers

By
Harvey Simpkins

1 September 2018

In a letter to Congress Thursday, President Trump announced plans to implement an across-the-board pay freeze on the United States federal government’s two million employees starting in January should Congress fail to pass a budget in the New Year. Trump, citing budget concerns, told lawmakers, “We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.”

According to Trump’s letter, “Under current law, locality pay increases averaging 25.70 percent, costing $25 billion, would go into effect in January 2019, in addition to a 2.1 percent across-the-board increase for the base General Schedule.” The cynicism of such remarks is highlighted by the recent $1.5 trillion-worth in tax cuts that Trump awarded to the wealthiest Americans last December. According to the Office of Management and Budget, Trump’s tax windfall has produced a record federal deficit of over $1 trillion less than a year after its passage in Congress.

Congressional Democrats and politicians in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, which houses over 15 percent of the nation’s federal workforce, denounced the president’s plans.

While the US House of Representatives has passed a budget that ignores federal worker pay, the US Senate has announced a budget that includes a minor pay rise of 1.9 percent. With the House and Senate budget proposals in conflict, any resulting raise will have to be negotiated between the two, with the White House now weighing in on the side of the House.

“President Trump’s plan to freeze wages for these patriotic workers next year ignores the fact that they are worse off today financially than they were…

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Passports To Citizens Denied More Under Obama Than Trump

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Zero Hedge
September 1, 2018

The Washington Post reported a terrifying immigration-related trend developing on the Mexico–United States border: the U.S. State Department denied passports to US citizens of Hispanic descent, leaving them in a state of confusion, as their rights as a citizen were revoked, including the ability to travel abroad.

The Post said that hundreds – if not thousands – of people with US birth certificates delivered by midwives on US border states have recently found themselves trapped on the Mexican border or stuck in the US, as their passports were suddenly, without much notice, revoked or their applications denied.

Sounds terrifying…

However, as The Daily Caller’s Mike Brest reports, the State Department is pushing back on the WaPo article, denying their claimsthat the number of American citizens living near the southern border area being denied renewal passports is rising under Trump.

Midwives and physicians located near the border in Mexico have given families fraudulent birth certificates to prove American citizenship for decades in exchange for money. WaPo’s article focused on the people in America who applied for renewed passports but were denied because the government believed their birth certificates were from one of these midwives.

The Post’s piece claimed that “The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown.”

However, that is not true, according to the State Department. In fact, the number of domestic passport denials at the southern border is at a six-year low and the number of midwife cases has gone down under the current administration.

Further, the 2015 calendar year had more renewal denials at the border than any year in that timeframe with approximately 1,500. That…

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‘No panic’ over Trump threat to leave, says WTO chief — RT US News

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President Donald Trump’s remark about possibly withdrawing the US from the World Trade Organization is not a new sentiment and not a cause for panic, the WTO director general said, downplaying the line that rocked media headlines.

“No panic,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said on Friday, according to Reuters. “The US concerns about areas in the WTO that they would like to improve are not new. And I think what he said yesterday is consistent with what they have expressed before.”

Trump said he was considering the possibility of withdrawing the US from the organization during an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday.

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“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said, shortly before departing the White House for a campaign rally in Indiana.

He has previously called the WTO a “catastrophe” that has treated the US “very badly” for many years, and that the Geneva-based body will need to “change their ways.”

His trade envoy Robert Lighthizer has called the move to allow China into the WTO “a mistake” and accused the trade body’s dispute settlement system of interfering with US sovereignty. The Trump administration has recently blocked the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body.

The WTO was established in 1995, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), that was started by 23 countries in 1948 in order to lower tariffs and promote free trade.

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The Trump administration has recently introduced a series of tariffs on imports, complaining that US trade partners have been taking advantage of badly negotiated free-trade deals to flood the US market and destroy domestic manufacturing.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

PressTV-9/11 hijackers were brought to US by CIA: Scholar

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Fifteen of the 9/11 “hijackers” from Saudi Arabia were CIA agents who were brought to the United States by the American spy agency, says Dr. Kevin Barrett, an American academic who has been studying the events of 9/11 since late 2003.

Dr. Barrett, a founding member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a Newsweek report about a new explosive book on 9/11 that has revealed a US government-wide cover-up of Saudi complicity in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The 9/11 attacks were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists – 15 of them were Saudi citizens — but many experts have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements…

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Trump’s New Fascistic Use of Law

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This week’s chilling revelation that the Trump administration has jailed and initiated deportation proceedings against United States citizens who possess official US birth certificates exposes the absurdity of the far-right myth promoted by Trump and his supporters that xenophobic policies are merely about legality rather than racism.

The State Department is calling into question the legal status of Latinx citizens along the southern border based on the claim that “there has been a significant incidence of citizenship fraud” in the region, though there is evidence of no more than a handful of cases. In 2009, the government seemed to have settled the matter in court with the ACLU before Trump’s State Department recently resurrected this xenophobic conspiracy theory. As a result, Latinx citizens residing near the southern border have been denied passports, prevented from re-entering the country without warning, detained in immigration camps and scheduled for deportation proceedings.

For years right-wing pundits have harped upon the importance of coming to the United States legally — “doing it the right way.” But if they mean what they say, then how can they support the denial of citizenship to documented Latinxs who were born in the US? If the hackneyed reactionary refrain that anti-immigrant policies are about legality rather than racism is true, then why is the Trump administration planning to make it harder for legal immigrants to obtain green cards and citizenship?

There are two basic sets of answers to these questions that are not mutually exclusive: first, because it is about race, because Trump and many of his advisers are racist and because the history of immigration enforcement in the United States is a story of race. Second, because Trump and his administration have no real allegiance to the law and have “trampled on all manner of constitutional principles,” as CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic and countless critics have pointed out. After all, Trump

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Growing Despair Amidst Insecure Economic Recovery 

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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

It’s now almost a decade since the last fiscal crisis, launching what was dubbed the “Great Recession.”  It wreaked havoc on the U.S. banking system and the housing market, leaving millions of Americans is desperate free-fall.  While many conventional economic indicators suggest that the economy has rebounded, a significant portion of the American public feel stuck, their futures looking bleak.

On August 6th, Pres. Trump tweeted, “Great financial numbers being announced on an almost daily basis. Economy has never been better, jobs at best point in history.”  So, with such good news, why do an increasing number of Americans feel un-well?

Two recent studies point to the deepening despair shared by many Americans and unacknowledged by Trump and the mainstream media. The Federal Reserve study, “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017,” and the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index detail this despair in complementary ways.  Taken together, they paint a disturbing picture of the suffering being endured by Americans, especially the nation’s most vulnerable.

While Trump seeks to dismiss all challenges to his empty bluster as “fake news,” there is a growing perception among Americans that the once proudly proclaimed “American Dream” is over.  This perception is shared by critics of capitalism and some mainstream pundits as well as (incoherently) by those who back Trump and his call to “make…

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Video: LIVE: Russian Foreign Ministry news briefing

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The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, is giving her weekly news briefing in Moscow. Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE …

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Peace With the EU? – LewRockwell

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Donald Trump is on a mission.  His goal? Destroy the post-WWII institutional order that has outlived its usefulness.

And there have been a number of major moves that fundamentally tear at the fabric of that order.  In a span of a day we’ve had the following things occur in quick succession.

  • French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference calling for a new “strategic relationship with Russia and Turkey.”
  • At the same time he softened the EU’s stance on Russia’s reunification with Crimea, saying Russian – EU relations needed “to be brought up to date.”
  • On the trade and tariff war with Trump, Germany called Trump’s bluff about free trade on cars by offering to scrap all import tariffs on theirs in exchange for the U.S. lifting them on light trucks and pickups, which Trump promptly rejected.
  • Trump then called the EU “Worse than China” and threatened to pull the U.S. out of the World Trade Organization.
  • Ayatollah Khamenei put pressure on the EU to stand up to Trump over the JCPOA, clearly threatening a return of their nuclear program.



The Anti-Capitalistic …
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Just last week German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, clearly frustrated with Trump’s endless dollar belligerence called for the EU to develop, like Russia and China, it’s own electronic interbank payment system to skirt U.S. sanctions.

So in one week we’ve had the Germans threaten SWIFT, the French question the validity of NATO and Trump threaten to leave the WTO.

All against the backdrop of the end of the Syrian Civil War and the potential withdrawal of U.S. troops from there while the Taliban arrive in Moscow to discuss peace terms with the Afghan government.

Is…

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PressTV-Trump defiant as impeachment looms large

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US President Donald Trump has shrugged off the findings of a new poll that shows nearly half of Americans now support his impeachment.

Trump questioned  the accuracy of the ABC News/Washington Post poll in a tweet without mentioning the survey’s latest finding on the question of impeachment.

“The ABC/Washington Post Poll was by far the least accurate one 2 weeks out from the 2016 Election,” he posted on Twitter Friday evening.

“I call it a suppression poll – but by Election Day they brought us, out of shame, to about even. They will never learn!”

The survey, released on Friday, has found that 49 percent of Americans believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. That is more than the percentage of voters – 46 percent — who do not support impeachment.

The poll also showed that 60 percent of voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, a new low.

In the previous ABC News/Washington Post poll in…

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Obama To Receive Award For Ethics In Government

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Daily Wire
September 1, 2018

Former President Barack Obama, never missing a chance to posture himself as a champion of freedom, will reputedly call for rejecting “the rising strain of authoritarian politics and policies,” according to his communications director.

Obama, whose administration was embroiled in various scandals, is scheduled to accept an award for ethics in government at the University of Illinois on September 7. That award flies in the face of this list of events during the Obama Administration: the Fast and Furious scandal; the IRS targeting conservative groups; Obama making light of ISIS, calling it the “JV team”; protecting the terrorist group Hezbollah by stalling project Cassandra; spying on Fox News’ James Rosen, and lying to the American people in order to sell the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, among other nefarious occurrences.

Katie Hill, Obama’s communications director, asserted:

Next week, President Obama will offer new thoughts on this moment and what it requires from the American people. He will expand upon several of the themes from his summer address, including that America is at its best when our democracy is inclusive and our citizens are engaged. He will echo his call to reject the rising strain of authoritarian politics and policies. And he will preview arguments he’ll make this fall, specifically that Americans must not fall victim to our own apathy by refusing to do the most fundamental thing demanded of us as citizens: vote.

The University’s Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government is given to someone who contributes to “the understanding and practice of ethical behavior in public service,” according to the University.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:06 pm




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Animal shelter offers $36k reward as Washington cat killer claims 13th victim — RT US News

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An animal sanctuary in Washington has offered a reward of $36,000 to anyone who can help identify an individual suspected of a string of cat mutilations across the state.

READ MORE: Listing of notorious serial killer among notable alumni angers university

Some 13 animals have been found dead in Washington in recent times, with the last feline victim found on Thursday in Thurston County, near Olympia in the northwest of the state.

All of the cats have been found in public places, with the latest apparently surgically slit and splayed. In some cases, the cats’ spines have been removed and in others, the organs have been laid out beside the body, according to The New York Times.

“Kind of like an arsonist goes back to the scene of fire. They want people to find these animals,” Thurston County Animal Services Officer Erika Johnson told the newspaper. “It’s for shock value. It’s like a trophy.”

Authorities believe the macabre acts have been done by the same person. There are few clues in the chase for the cat killer other than a surgical glove that was found at one of the scenes, and DNA that was found under the claws of one of the cats.  

The incidents have taken place over the last six months and now the animal shelter is offering a $36,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the individual responsible. Thurston police have also set up a 10-person task force to investigate the killings. If found, the perpetrator faces up to two years in prison for each cat killed.

READ MORE: Man arrested for decapitating 5 cats, but ‘Croydon cat killer’ may still be at large

The case is similar to that of the so-called Croydon Cat Killer in south London. Around 400 cats have been found killed, dismembered and decapitated across the English capital since 2014. Metropolitan Police Detective Andy Collin told the BBC that he has no doubt the killer exists and is not just a series of copycats.

“Cats are targeted because they are associated with the feminine. The killer can’t deal with a woman or women who are troubling him,” Collin said.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: RAW: Russia test-launches new interceptor missile

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Courtesy: Russian Ministry of Defence A new anti-missile defence system was successfully tested in eastern Kazakhstan, according to the Russian Ministry of …

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Video: Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara—A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony

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https://democracynow.org – In this exclusive broadcast, Democracy Now! breaks the media blockade and goes to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of …

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From Venezuela to McCain, Media and Human Rights Industry on Same Page

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Economist: The exodus from Venezuela threatens to descend into chaos

The Economist‘s claim (8/20/18) that migration from Venezuela “might surpass the Syrian crisis” is off by a factor of seven.

On August 20, the Economist ran an article on Venezuela saying that “forced migration from the country might surpass the Syria crisis.” The magazine reported:

The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that at the end of 2017 approximately 1.6 million Venezuelans were living outside their country. Today that number is likely to be far higher: as of June 2018 there were nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia alone. The UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, has recorded 135,000 asylum applications from Venezuelans during the first seven months of 2018, already 20 percent more than for the whole of 2017. The total number of displaced Venezuelans may already have reached 4 million, out of a population of some 30 million. The outflow could eventually surpass the 6 million people who have fled the Syrian civil war.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that, by July of 2018, 2.3 million Venezuelans were living abroad (which includes hundreds of thousands who have spent decades abroad).  Why does the Economist say it “may already” be 4 million? A good guess is that they are relying on the estimates of Tomas Paez, a vehemently anti-government Venezuelan academic who has long been a favorite source for corporate journalists (FAIR.org, 2/18/18). Paez has estimated that 1.6 million people left Venezuela from 1999–2015, about five times more than UN Population Division estimates for that period.

No doubt as Venezuela’s economy entered what could fairly be called a “collapse” starting in 2015, migration began to skyrocket, and it is indeed likely to get worse, thanks to illegal economic sanctions that Trump enacted in August 2017.

What about the Economist‘s Syria comparison? First of all, Syria’s civil war has not just created a massive “outflow” of refugees. It also created an enormous population of internally displaced people, as wars typically do. As of 2017, Syria had 6 million people forcibly displaced within its borders. Another 5 million refugees were still living in three bordering countries (Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey). That brings the total of those forcibly displaced by Syria’s civil war to nearly 11 million—almost seven times larger than the most credible estimate of the numbers displaced (so far) by Venezuela’s economic crisis.

Syria had a population of about 21 million in 2011 when the civil war began. It has now been estimated to be about 18 million. So more than half of Syria’s 2011 population are now refugees, either internally or externally—a far cry from the 13 percent of the Venezuelan population claimed by Paez (and hinted at by the Economist), or the 5 percent (1.6 million) estimated by the UN’s International Organization for Migration to have left since 2015.

In absolute terms, Colombia’s population of internally displaced is even larger than Syria’s. As of March 2018, the UNHCR estimated it at 7.7 million out of total population of about 50 million, or more than one in seven. Of course, relative to population, Syria’s internally displaced population is vastly larger than Colombia’s. Still, 7.7 million internally displaced is a hell of a disaster to sweep under the rug, but those are the benefits of being a government in the good graces of the US and its allies.

The Economist doesn’t mention that US policy (backed by the entire Western establishment) is to use harsh and illegal economic sanctions to deliberately make Venezuela’s economic crisis worse, which will help drive more people to leave the country. US economist Mark Weisbrot, who was recently given a very rare bit of space to state this fact, noted afterwards that

Brian Ellsworth, a journalist for Reuters who reports from Venezuela, has joined the latest avalanche of trolls, bots and blowhards who swarmed me because I dared to mention on BBC World TV, on Friday night, that Trump’s financial embargo against Venezuela makes it more difficult for any government to stabilize the economy—a fact that no economist would dispute. Indeed, that is the purpose of the embargo.

The Western establishment includes prominent human rights groups, who often express the same imperial perspective one finds in the Economist.  By citing these outfits, corporate media seem to provide critical assessments that are independent of Western officialdom. Don’t buy it. Amnesty International has refused to oppose US economic sanctions on Venezuela, and has also refused to denounce flagrant efforts by US officials to incite a military coup. Amnesty’s Americas director Erika Guevara-Rosas tweeted the dubious Economist article comparing Venezuela to Syria.

Kenneth Roth praises John McCain on Twitter

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth (Twitter, 8/26/18) praised John McCain’s not-so-principled stance on torture.

Guevara-Rosas also tweeted out an article praising John McCain. McCain’s death has been a real “teachable moment,” showing how tiny the ideological differences are between corporate media and the human rights industry. Four different Human Rights Watch (HRW) officials used their Twitter accounts to spread praise for McCain. In 2011, McCain tried to have Venezuela placed on the US “sponsors of terrorism” list—not scary at all, coming from a man who joked about bombing Iran. McCain dutifully echoed the Venezuelan opposition’s line (also the Western media line, and HRW’s line) that the country is a “dictatorship.”

Ken Roth (HRW’s executive director) said McCain “will be remembered for his firm, principled opposition to torture, especially by Bush, a member of his own party.” Jose Miguel Vivanco said McCain was “a giant in North America politics and an ally in the defense of human rights.” Sarah Margon, HRW’s Washington director, said that McCain’s death ”feels exceptionally tough for those of us who have fought for human decency and basic rights alongside and with him.” Dinah PoKempner, HRW’s general counsel, spread an article that called McCain a “war hero.”

HRW followed up with an official statement saying McCain “was for decades a compassionate voice for US foreign and national security policy.”

And, of course, the Economist’s obituary (8/30/18) similarly laid the praise on thick, casting McCain as part of a heroic Republican “resistance” to Donald Trump: “The talk was never straighter, the stance never more upright, than when he called on his fellow Republicans not just to endure, but to resist.” McCain voted with Trump 83 percent of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight website.

The victims of empire are never more invisible than when it is time to whitewash a departed warmonger. McCain’s “war hero” credibility stems from being a direct perpetrator of, and not simply a cheerleader for, the mass slaughter in Vietnam that took the lives of millions of people—or “gooks,” as McCain unapologetically preferred to call them. It is left to independent voices like Max Blumenthal (Consortium News, 8/27/18), to review McCain’s bloodthirsty record:

McCain did not simply thunder for every major intervention of the post-Cold War era from the Senate floor, while pushing for sanctions and assorted campaigns of subterfuge on the side. He was uniquely ruthless when it came to advancing imperial goals, barnstorming from one conflict zone to another to personally recruit far-right fanatics as American proxies.

In Libya and Syria, he cultivated affiliates of Al Qaeda as allies, and in Ukraine, McCain courted actual, sig-heiling neo-Nazis.

While McCain’s Senate office functioned as a clubhouse for arms industry lobbyists and neocon operatives, his fascistic allies waged a campaign of human devastation that will continue until long after the flowers dry up on his grave.

Unless there is radical change—real “resistance”—that transforms the organizations that people rely on to be ”informed” (media and NGOs included), Donald Trump, like Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush, will eventually be whitewashed as well.

 


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Video: ‘Peace mission’: Shanghai Pact countries hold drills in Russia

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Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) participated in military drills known as ‘Peace Mission 2018’ in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Some 3000 …

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Two people help Hillary up stairs at Aretha Franklin funeral

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American Mirror
September 1, 2018

The Clintons were in Detroit today for Aretha Franklin’s funeral, and after viewing the open casket, the two made their way to different parts of the stage.

As Hillary approached the stairs, two people grabbed each of her arms to help her ascend the handful of steps.

Watch:

Earlier this year, Clinton wasn’t as successful on a staircase.

While visiting Jahaz Mahal in Dhar’s Mandu in March, Clinton was attempting to descend about 15 stairs.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

She was holding the arm of an aide.

With Huma Abedin following behind, Clinton slipped about halfway down the descent, nearly tumbling down.

A man walking in front of her jumped to grab her as she reached for him.

Despite both men helping her get to the bottom of the stairs, she slipped again, nearly doing the splits.

Huma stopped to watch as Clinton attempted to regain her balance.

Hillary kicked off her sandals to get to the bottom of the stairs.

No one seemed alarmed by the startling display.

This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:12 pm






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FBI arrests 5 suspects accused of training children for school shootings in New Mexico compound — RT US News

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The FBI has arrested five adults who kept malnourished children in squalid conditions at a compound in New Mexico, training them to wield weapons. They were detained on firearms-related charges after a judge let three of them go.

The FBI says it arrested Jany Leveille, 35, on charges of “being an alien unlawfully in possession of firearms and ammunition in the District of New Mexico from Nov. 2017 through Aug. 2018.”

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Personal items from the New Mexico compound where 11 malnourished children were found earlier this month © Andrew Hay

Leveille is the wife of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the father of 3-year-old child Abdul Ghani, whom he allegedly kidnapped from his ex-wife and whose remains were found in an underground tunnel near the New Mexico compound on August 6th, shortly after Wahhaj and four other adults were arrested and taken into custody in a police raid. The prosecutor said the child died during an Islamic exorcism ritual performed by Wahhaj and Leveille.

In addition to Leveille, a Haitian national present in the US illegally, the FBI has brought charges against the woman’s alleged accomplices.

“The criminal complaint charges the other four defendants with aiding and abetting Leveille in committing the offense, and with conspiring with Leveille to commit the offense, “ the FBI said.

Three of the defendants, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, and Siraj Wahhaj, are siblings and children of prominent Brooklyn imam, Masjid at-Taqwa, who tipped off the police of the suspects’ whereabouts in the first place. The fifth man arrested is Lucas Morton, 40.

READ MORE: From ‘high-strung’ to ‘school-shooting training’: New Mexico captors come from prominent imam family

Taqwa claimed that all 11 minors, who police found severely malnourished and filthy, were his grandchildren. At a pre-trial hearing, the prosecution argued that the children had been trained by the adults in how to use firearms to fend off a potential FBI raid, as well as how to commit a school shooting.

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Siraj ibn Wahhaj’s compound in New Mexico © Taos County Sheriff's Office

The suspects are said to harbor hardline Islamist beliefs, with Wahhaj described by the local police chief as “an extremist of the Muslim belief.”

Despite the grim evidence suggesting numerous instances of child abuse and a number of other serious offenses, District Judge Emilio Chavez on Wednesday tossed out charges against three of the suspects, Lucas Morton and two Wahhaj siblings, Subhannah and Hujrah. Justifying his decision, which startled many commentators, Chavez said that the government did not heed the 10-day limit to establish probable cause when it arrested the members of the extended family on child abuse charges.

The same charges were also dropped against Siraj Wahhaj and Jany Leveille. Charges relating to the death of the 3-year-old boy were upheld, however.

The prosecution said it would now ask a grand jury to indict the suspects in the death of the boy, so it would have more time to collect evidence. All five have been put in custody pending a federal hearing on Tuesday.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Thick toxic smoke billows after explosions at Melbourne factory

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Clouds of toxic smoke were billowing over Melbourne’s West Footscray, after a series of explosions early on Wednesday morning set a storage facility on fire.

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Planned Chemical Weapon Provocation in Idlib aimed to Prevent Removal of Terrorists: Lavrov

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Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists in Syria (Ammar Abdullah/Reuters

The planned chemical weapon provocation in the Syrian province of Idlib is aimed at maintaining the presence of terrorists in the area, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

The Russian FM, who met his Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir in Moscow on Wednesday, compared the terrorist presence in the province with an “abscess” that should be swiftly removed.

“Idlib is now the last remaining hotbed of the terrorists, who try to speculate on the area’s status of de-escalation zone; try using the population as a human shield and try repressing the armed groups that are ready for talks with the government,” he said.

The Minister also noted that the overall goal in Washington with regard to war-ravaged Syria, was not really helping the country, but to push for regime change.

US chose ‘neocolonial course’ in Syria to gain control over its resources – Russian envoy to UN

“It’s not the first time the US – no matter the administration – has prioritized the task of changing dissident regimes above the common goals of eradicating terrorism and extremism. It happened in Iraq and Libya. Now they’re trying to do the same in Syria. To phrase it more correctly – they tried to do it in Syria, but failed,” Lavrov said.

The chemical attack issue and “the threats that are put forward against the Syrian government, are used with the sole purpose of preventing the expulsion of the…

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Concerning the Real Culprits of September 11, 2001

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Mister President,

The crimes of 11 September 2001 have never been judged in your country. I am writing to you as a French citizen, the first person to denounce the inconsistencies of the official version and to open the world to the debate and the search for the real perpetrators.

In a criminal court, as the jury, we have to determine whether the suspect presented to us is guilty or not, and eventually, to decide what punishment he should receive. When we suffered the events of 9/11, the Bush Junior administration told us that the guilty party was Al-Qaïda, and the punishment they should receive was the overthrow of those who had helped them – the Afghan Taliban, then the Iraqi régime of Saddam Hussein.

However, there is a weight of evidence which attests to the impossibility of this thesis. If we were members of a jury, we would have to declare objectively that the Taliban and the régime of Saddam Hussein were innocent of this crime. Of course, this alone would not enable us to name the real culprits, and we would thus be frustrated. But we could not conceive of condemning parties innocent of such a crime simply because we have not known how, or not been able, to find the guilty parties.

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We all understood that certain senior personalities were lying when the Secretary of State for Justice and Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, revealed the names of the 19 presumed hijackers, because we already had in front of us the lists disclosed by the airline companies of all of the passengers embarked – lists on which none of the suspects were mentioned.

From there, we became suspicious of the « Continuity of Government », the instance tasked with taking over…

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Video: ‘Act like a lady!’ US police detain journalist who interfered while trying to take photograph

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Courtesy: Denver Department of Public Safety Susan Greene, editor of The Colorado Independent, was put in a patrol car in Denver in July after trying to …

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Prison Planet.com » Trump blasts media after ‘off the record’ comments about Canada leak

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TheHill
September 1, 2018

President Trump blasted the news media on Friday after apparently off-the-record comments he made about Canada were leaked, calling it another example of “dishonest reporting.”

“Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED,” Trump asserted in a tweet.

“Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!” Trump added, apparently confirming the comments.

Trump’s attack on the media came only hours after The Toronto Star reported that Trump privately said he wouldn’t compromise in regards to trade with Canada.

Trump’s comments about Canada reportedly came during an interview with Bloomberg News in the Oval Office on Thursday.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:16 pm








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US Syria rep. to visit Turkey, Jordan, Israel & address Moscow’s tip on false-flag chemical attack — RT US News

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Newly-appointed US Special Representative for Syria Engagement, James Jeffrey, together with US Special Envoy for Syria, Joel Rayburn, will tour Israel, Jordan and Turkey on September 1-4, the State Department has announced. During their trip, the US diplomats will reassure Israel of its support and “underscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime.” The US officials will also touch upon Russia’s repeated warnings of a potential false flag chemical attack to be staged by rebels in Syria’s Idlib, which the US State Department labeled “specious allegations.”

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Russia Squelches Trump’s New Plan to Invade Syria

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Eric Zuesse

On Friday, August 31st, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia has handed to the OPCW (Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), and to the U.N., “proof” that the U.S. Government has been working with Al Qaeda to set up a chemical incident that the U.S. and its allies can then use as a supposed justification for invading Syria as a ‘humanitarian’ response to a chemical attack allegedly by Syria’s Government, but actually done by U.S.-backed forces, to re-ignite the 7-year-old ‘civil war’ between Syria’s Government and U.S.-backed ‘rebels’, who consist almost exclusively of fundamentalist-Sunni jihadists that are trained and led by Al Qaeda in Syria, with U.S. help and Saudi financing.

On August 29th Global Research headlined “Video: US Creates Strike Force to Attack Syria”, and posted an August 28th report from South Front saying:

Reports are appearing that the Syrian Air Defense Forces (SADF) have already started preparing to repel an expected US-led missile strike by deploying additional specialists and air defense systems near the crucial objects of the infrastructure, which they expect may be targeted.

On August 22, US National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed that

“if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons, we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.”

This was only one of a series of threats to the Syrian government issued by the US, the UK and France. While all these threats are clearly exploiting the chemical weapons narrative, their main goal is to prevent the defeat of the terrorists in Idlib by delaying the Syrian Army operation.

On August 25, a source close to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told the Kurdish news outlet Bas News that the US-led coalition began deploying radar stations at its bases in the governorates of al-Hasakah and Aleppo as part of a new plan to increase its control of Syrian airspace. The report  pointed out the airbases in Kobani and Rmelan as places where the radars were installed.

Also on August 28th, the U.S.-backed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was informed by reliable sources that negotiations are underway between the Turkish intelligence services and between Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham [Syria’s Al Qaeda branch, formerly called “Al Nusra”], The Islamic Turkestani Party, and other jihadi groups, with the aim of reaching agreement and consensus for these factions to resolve themselves, where these endeavors coincide with accelerated preparations by the regime forces and their loyal fighters for the start of the grand battle of Idlib [the place to which the surrendered jihadists in Syria have been sent], through which the regime forces seek to control the province and other areas in its surroundings of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces, and the continuation of negotiation comes after the conflicted information about reaching consensus on this issue, where Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and the rest of the groups continue to experience confusion among their leaders and members, as a section of which has agreed to the demands of the Turkish authorities to resolve themselves, while the larger section rejects this process and refuses to approve any of the Turkish terms within the Negotiations. …

[In the] Idlib battle, … Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham controls the largest part of Idlib province, and shares it with other 3 parties: the rebel and Islamic factions, the Islami Turkestani Party, and the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them.

The military operation to be conducted in Idlib province, … the regime forces and their allies have been significantly preparing over the past weeks, by bringing in thousands of members of their forces and loyal gunmen as well as hundreds of faction fighters who have recently joined the “reconciliation”, and hundreds of vehicles, armored vehicles, ammunition, and machinery. …

Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham … is one of the renewed names of al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda Organization in the Levant). …

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the regime forces bringing more vehicles, members, materiel and ammunition, to these lines, and in conjunction with these mobilizations by the regime forces, the SOHR monitored on the 21st of August 2018 the leader of Al-Nusra Front (Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham) Abu Mohammad al-Julani, taking a military tour in the northern mountains of Lattakia, where al-Julani reviewed with a number of the commanders of the first and second rank in Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, the members of Tahrir Al-Sham and the front lines.

Like other reports by U.S.-allied organizations, Syria’s Government is called “the regime” instead of “the Government,” and the jihadists (except for ISIS) are accepted as being the U.S. alliance’s boots-on-the-ground in Syria to ‘liberate’ the Syrian people from Syria’s Government.

So, the U.S. Government can hardly call this allegation of U.S. working in conjunction with Al Qaeda, ‘Russian propaganda’. However, on that very same day, August 28th, RT bannered “US army accuses RT of ‘ridiculous misinformation’ over Syria, but not UN or NBC”, and reported: “A US Army colonel has accused RT of ‘ridiculous misinformation’ for reporting a Russian government suggestion that Islamic State is operating inside a US-controlled zone in Syria, despite the UN and NBC reporting the same.”

On August 25th, RT had headlined “Terrorists readying chemical attack to frame Damascus & provide pretext for US strikes – Russian MoD”, and reported:

The US and its allies are preparing new airstrikes on Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that militants are poised to stage a chemical weapons attack in order to frame Damascus and provide a pretext for the strikes.

The attack would be used as a pretext for US, UK and French airstrikes on Syrian targets, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov said. USS ‘The Sullivans,’ an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer, was already deployed to the Persian Gulf a couple of days ago, he added.

The destroyer has 56 cruise missiles on board, according to data from the Russian Defence Ministry. A US Rockwell B-1 Lancer, a supersonic bomber equipped with 24 cruise missiles, has also been deployed at the Qatari Al Udeid Airbase.

On August 24th, RT had headlined “ISIS & Al-Nusra terrorists are hiding in Syrian refugee camp within US-controlled zone – Moscow”, and reported that “Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and the Al-Qaeda proxy group Jabhat al-Nusra found quiet shelter in one of the biggest camps, Rukban, near the Syria-Jordan border. … The same refugee camp was listed in a recent UN Security Council’s Sanctions Monitoring Team report as one of the sources of IS reemergence. The same document reported that ISIS had been defeated in most of the Syrian Arab Republic during 2017, but ‘rallied in early 2018’ due to ‘loss of momentum’ by forces fighting in the east of Syria, where the US base is located.”

The Wikipedia article on “Rukban” opens by saying that its population is 75,000, and that: “Rukban … is an arid remote area near the extreme northeast of Jordan, close to the joint borders with Syria and Iraq. The area contains a refugee camp lying along the demilitarized berm between Jordan and Syria, a no man’s land.” That would be an ideal place for the U.S. and its allies to be assembling the materials for what will be alleged to be a chemical weapons attack ‘by the Assad regime’. Rukban is located in Jordan, a U.S. ally, and adjoining Syria, of which the U.S. has been an enemy ever since first failing in 1949 to turn Syria into a land controlled by the Saud family, as Obama and now Trump are again trying to do.

I had reported, on August 25th, the history of this sort of operation by the U.S. Government, going back to 1949, and mentioning recent faked ‘chemical attacks’ set up by the U.S. Government working in conjuction with Al Qaeda in Syria. So: with that lengthy history as background, there exists very sound reason for Syria and its allies to be expecting now yet another invasion of Syiria by U.S.-and-allied missiles, to be ‘justified’ on the basis of lies.

The latest of America’s missile-invasions of Syria occurred back on 14 April 2018, allegedly in response to a Syrian Government ‘chemical weapons attack’ in the city of Douma, which had allegedly occurred on April 7th. Russia tried to get the U.N. Security Council to announce that no invasion of Syria should occur until after the OPCW would enter Douma and collect samples and testimony to determine whether any such attack had actually occurred; and, if so, who had done it. The U.S. blocked that proposal, and invaded on the 14th. Despite that, the OPCW rushed in, to examine Douma, even after the invasion. On April 18th, America’s jihadist allies in Douma shot at OPCW inspectors, who courageously continued their work, despite the U.S. Government’s repeated efforts to stop it. The OPCW’s findings have been kept secret, so that the public still doesn’t know what the evidence about that April 7th matter actually showed. Also on April 18th, Turkey’s newspaper Yeni Safak headlined “US to build Arab force in NE Syria as part of new ploy: The US is seeking to amass an Arab force in northeastern Syria comprised of funding and troops from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.” That effort by Trump failed; so, the only path forward for him on Syria now is a U.S. invasion, but this one will have to be much larger than the last one, which was done on April 14th, and in which UK and France also supplied a few of the 100+ missiles. Perhaps, if the U.S. does that, Russia will this time target and maybe destroy some U.S. planes and warships. Then, the question would be whether to go to all-out nuclear war, over the Syrian matter and, of course, over America’s other excuses for its aggressions against Russia and its allies, such as America’s 2014 conquest of Ukraine and turning that country over to nazis.

Perhaps these are the reasons why Russia is announcing clearly, ahead of time, that it won’t simply acquiesce if the U.S. tries this faked accusation against Syria, yet again. Perhaps things won’t be so easy, if there is a “next time” on this particular matter.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Video: ‘Another false flag’: US ignores Russian warning of preparation for chem attack in Syria

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The US is ignoring warnings that terrorists are preparing a chemical attack in Idlib province in North-west Syria. A State Department spokesperson simply said …

Via Youtube

An interview with a relative of Chicago house fire victim

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“Everything started failing for us”

An interview with a relative of Chicago house fire victim

By
George Gallanis

31 August 2018

Thursday evening, World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke with Olga Guzman, the great-aunt of 16-year-old Victor Mendoza, one of the ten children that were killed Sunday by a house fire in the city’s working-class neighborhood of Little Village.

Olga and her sister, Victor’s grandmother, sat next to a commemorative collage of Victor, celebrating his life. Along with other family members, friends and supporters, they were attending a continuing vigil for the ten children.

A collage commemorating Victor Mendoza

More than sixty workers and young people were once more in attendance for the vigil ahead of the funeral for the children on Saturday. Candles, photos, stuffed animals, balloons and cards of remembrance still adorned the street.

Absent again were any representatives from Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office or Little Village’s Alderman George Cardenas. Instead the mayor, the media and the political establishment have rushed to blame the victims of this social tragedy.

The grief of Olga and her family was at times eclipsed by their contempt for these figures, who have done nothing to help the victim’s families. As reporters began to speak to her, she immediately condemned Chicago’s Democratic Party politicians and the mainstream press.

Her face was stern as she relayed the tragic events and the impact on the community. “They say that the fire started in the other building. The stove exploded inside and broke all the windows.”

“Look at all the windows,” she pointed. “They’re broken. The fire then spread.”

“When the fire caught in this building where my nephew was, and when he went upstairs at…

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Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara — A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony

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In this exclusive broadcast, Democracy Now! breaks the media blockade and goes to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco’s violent crackdown. Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation. A 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile. The international media has largely ignored the occupation — in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from entering Western Sahara. But in late 2016 Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the occupied territory in years.

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Today a Democracy Now! exclusive: “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.” Western Sahara, where peaceful protesters, led by women, are beaten in the streets. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation.

SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] He jabbed right at my eye with his baton. I was yelling at him, “Hey, you Moroccan! You pulled out my eye!”

AMY GOODMAN: Where natural resources are plundered, from phosphates to fish.

HMAD HAMMAD: [translated] I say that our damnation comes from the natural resources we have here. If it wasn’t for these natural resources, Morocco never would have invaded Western Sahara.

AMY GOODMAN: Where a massive wall divides a people, the Sahrawi, the native population, denied a vote for self-determination.

ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] If we don’t speak out, especially us, as victims who have suffered all of this, if we don’t speak out and defend our cause, this problem will remain.

AMY GOODMAN: Western Sahara — the center of…

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Why McCain Lost: a Flashback

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Photo Source Mason Votes | CC BY 2.0


After a week of media fawning, flags racing up and down staffs, and memorials coast-to-coast, John McCain will finally be laid to rest this weekend in Annapolis amid eulogies from George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Give McCain some credit for using the occasion of his funeral to illustrate vividly that there’s less than a dime’s worth of difference between the politicians of our time.  I’m only surprised that McCain’s final will and testament didn’t follow the Caesarian tradition and call for seven days of war games as part of his memorial. (The best protest Trump could make against this prolonged McCaingasm is not to drone anyone this week.) The image of McCain as some kind of free-wheeling political contrarian was, of course, almost entirely the creation of the press corps that is now weeping over his corpse. McCain was no Cicero. His jokes, barbs and long-winded floor speeches were largely for show. When it came time for voting (on matters ranging from war in Iraq to apartheid in South Africa), McCain was an unvarnished creature of the far right. Politically he wasn’t far removed from the political savages of our time: Jesse Helms, Trent Lott and Dick Armey. Those spitting cobras have been rightly consigned to a kind of historical detention for their racism and warmongering, but McCain has been almost universally venerated, largely because he knew that the easiest way to manipulate the press was to preen for…

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Video: Migrant accused of 542 crimes remains in Germany because authorities don’t know where to deport him

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The issue of illegal migration is shaping Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tour of Africa. Germany has sheltered a vast amount of migrants, and is now struggling to …

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PressTV-US accuses China of spy campaign on LinkedIn

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The United States has accused Chinese intelligence agencies of using fake LinkedIn accounts in a bid to recruit US citizens who have access to government and commercial secrets.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, William Evanina, the US counter-intelligence chief, said that intelligence and law enforcement officials had informed LinkedIn of China’s “super aggressive” efforts on the site.

Evanina alleged that the Asian country’s espionage agencies contact thousands of LinkedIn members at a time, but declined to give further details like how many Americans may have been contacted.

Previously, German and British authorities had told their citizens that Beijing was allegedly using LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft Corp., in order to recruit them as spies. But this is the first time a US official has made such an allegation, saying it is a bigger problem now than before.

Evanina urged LinkedIn to look at copying the response of…

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Prison Planet.com » Migrant in Germany accused of 542 crimes can’t be deported because nobody knows where he’s from

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RT
August 31, 2018

A migrant suspected of committing hundreds of crimes has been let roam free in the German city of Frankfurt because the authorities have been unable to establish his identity and country of origin for decades.

Little is known about the man, as no one knows his name, let alone his age or nationality. The only more-or-less verifiable fact known about him is that he arrived in Germany some 20 years ago, in 1998, without any identity documents. He has lived on the streets of German cities ever since and currently resides in Frankfurt, according to the German Bild daily.

The list of the crimes that the unidentified migrant has allegedly committed over this period is extensive. Some 542 criminal proceedings have been opened against him during these years, according to the German police.

“One third of the investigations were related to possession and purchase of drugs,” Ruediger Buchta, a high commissioner with the Frankfurt police, told the German media, adding that the migrant’s other alleged offenses included “fraudulent acquisition of services like fare dodging,” as well as “assault, theft, robbery” and numerous “offenses against the Residence Act.”

Despite being repeatedly detained, the man has successfully resisted deportation from Germany for all these years for one simple reason: the German authorities still do not know where to deport him. The man repeatedly claimed to be from one of the North African countries, Algeria and Morocco in particular. However, the authorities of these states did not confirm this information.

The migrant apparently refused to reveal his name or provide any other personal details to the German authorities. Database searches for his fingerprints also yielded no matches, leaving the German police in limbo.
This quite bizarre case exposes flaws in the current German migration policy, Michael Seyfert, a migration spokesman…

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US stops funding to Palestinian refugee agency due to ‘irredeemably flawed operation’ — RT US News

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The White House has announced it’s withdrawing all funding from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, describing its approach to handling the issue as “unsustainable” and the US contribution disproportionate.

The US State Department said on Friday that the installment of $60 million it allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in January was its last financial contribution to the organization, which helps provide healthcare and education to millions of Palestinians.

Outlining the reasons for its decision, Washington accused the agency of maintaining an unsustainable business model and practices, in particular providing assistance not only to the 700,000 people displaced from their homes in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but also to their descendants. The total number of registered Palestinian refugees qualifying for the UN assistance is over five million.

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Palestinian demonstrators on the border between Gaza and Israel © Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

“The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” the State Department said. The US, which has been the agency’s biggest donor, would no longer “shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs,” it stressed.

While ceasing its decades-old cooperation with the agency, Washington said it wound considering helping refugees, namely Palestinian children, through “direct bilateral assistance.” 

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency is disappointed by the US move, which he called “all the more surprising given that UNRWA and the United States renewed a funding agreement in December 2017.”

He called Washington out on labeling the agency “irredeemably flawed,” saying “these very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East.”

Moscow has pointed out that by ending its financial support for refugees, the US isn’t helping the Arab-Israeli peace process.

“The US decision does not contribute to the advance of the Middle Eastern peace settlement, the significant part if which is the fair resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue,” Russia’s UN mission spokesman Fedor Strzhizhovskiy said

The US decision to discontinue its financial backing of UNRWA puts a finishing touch to the Trump administration’s gradual effort to phase out its assistance to Palestinians. Last week, the State Department told Congress that the administration would redirect over $200mn in funds earmarked for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza

The $60mn the UNRWA has been given by the US this year is a far cry from the initially promised sum of some $365mn. The shortage of funds forced the cash-strapped agency to fire over 250 employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and move some 580 to part-time jobs. The workers who had to leave their posts were involved in the UNRWA emergency program, which had to reduce its scope following the US decision.

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Aida refugee camp Ammar Awad

The $60mn the UNRWA has been given by the US this year is a far cry from the initially promised sum of some $365mn. The shortage of funds forced the cash-strapped agency to fire over 250 employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and move some 580 to part-time jobs. The workers who had to leave their posts were involved in the UNRWA emergency program, which had to reduce its scope following the US decision.

Washington’s quest to defund the UN agency has been reportedly spearheaded by Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser for the Middle East Jared Kushner, Foreign Policy magazine reported last month. In an email Kushner sent to the US President’s Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblat and other officials, he reportedly wrote that it was important “to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA.”

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: ‘Stay on message – SJP is hate group!’ Leaked footage reveals US Israel lobby astroturfing event

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An Israeli lobby group has allegedly staged an anti-Palestinian protest in the United States. A leaked extract from an unreleased Al-Jazeera documentary is said …

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‘We Would Be Opening the Heavens to War’

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Janine Jackson interviewed Karl Grossman about the the weaponization of space for the August 24, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

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LA Times: Pence says Pentagon Should Create 'Space Force'

LA Times story (8/9/18) goes from “would” to “will” on Space Force.

Janine Jackson: While the internet treated it largely as a kind of painful joke, corporate news media reported the Trump White House’s plans to establish a “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the US military as almost an inevitability: A Los Angeles Times story slips from saying the force “would be” responsible for training military personnel to saying the space command “will centralize planning for space war-fighting.” The pushback reported is from those concerned about “bureaucracy,” or changes in the “roles and budgets” of existing military branches. There are details to be worked out—even such “basic” ones, says a Washington Post front-pager, as “what uniforms” the space force would use. But coverage presents potential opposition to the plan, from congressmembers, for example, more as a “hurdle” than a cause for deeper investigation.

Karl Grossman is a preeminent resource on the weaponization of space. He’s professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of the books Weapons in Space and The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet, among others. He’s also a longtime associate of FAIR, the media watch group that brings you this show. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Karl Grossman.

Karl Grossman: A pleasure to be with you, Janine.

JJ: We can ask how media can report the statement, from the bipartisan leaders of the Armed Services Committee Panel on Strategic Forces, that “beefing up” military capabilities in space “will result in a safer, stronger America,” with no thought to whether terrestrial war-making has made America safer or stronger, but we know that elite media takes place in this sort of la-la land where those presumptions are premises.

But I want to ask you about the more specific claim being made, and simply recited in the press, about the nature of this plan: USA Today says it “would develop forces to defend satellites from attack and perform other space-related tasks.” It says the Pentagon’s plan “identifies”—doesn’t allege, but identifies—Russia and China as “explicitly pursuing space war-fighting capabilities to neutralize US space capabilities in a time of conflict.” What are we to make, Karl Grossman, of the idea that creating a space force is a defensive measure?

KG: What we would be doing is opening the heavens to war, making space a war zone, and that flies in the face of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which sets space aside for peaceful purposes, and precludes the deployment in space, by any nation, of weapons of mass destruction. And there’s been efforts—I’ve covered them for years now; mainstream media has not covered these efforts—to broaden the Outer Space Treaty to preclude not just weapons of mass destruction, but any weaponry in space, and in that way ensure that it would be space for peace.

Rendering of a space-based missile weapon

And the two countries that have been leaders in this effort have been Russia and China. In fact, I have here a piece from Chinese media, this was just a couple of weeks ago, “China Envoy Calls for Strengthening Outer Space Covenants and Cooperation.” What Russia and China—and let me mention, too, our neighbor Canada—have been promoting, pushing, has been a treaty titled Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, the PAROS treaty.

And I’ve been actually to the United Nations for votes on the PAROS treaty. And one country after another country votes for it—again, with Russia, China and our neighbor Canada in the lead. And the one nation, in all the countries of the world, voting against the PAROS treaty? The United States. And because there’s a consensus process for a disarmament treaty, the PAROS treaty has gotten nowhere. So what we’d be doing by creating this Space Force, and seeking, as Trump put it, “American dominance” in space, is just really asking for Russia and China and other countries—there will be India and Pakistan, the list will go on—to go up into space and weaponize space.

JJ: So it’s really turned on its head; it’s being presented, in the words, largely, of Mike Pence and other officials, that it’s “our adversaries,” as it’s put, that have already transformed space into a war-fighting domain—those are their words—and so, therefore, the US has to get up there to respond.

KG: I must say, China did a real stupid thing in the year 2007. It used one of its missiles to destroy an obsolete Chinese satellite. And the next year, we did the same thing to one of our satellites, with a missile. And this is being used by the US as an example of China being keen on anti-satellite weaponry. In fact, what is was was a very dumb way to eliminate a satellite, because you’re left with all kind of debris—dumb on the Chinese part, and dumb for the United States to do the same thing the year after.

But up to now, China and Russia—and I’ve spoken to officials of both countries, and I’ve been to both countries; I’ve been on the story for a long time—and they’re very, very reluctant to violate the intent of the Outer Space Treaty. Also, and they’ve gone on and on with me about this, they don’t want to waste their national treasuries; they don’t want to expend—I mean, to put weaponry up in space is an expensive proposition; it isn’t like acquiring a tank or even a jet fighter; billions and billions of dollars would be the cost—and they’ve told me that they just don’t want to waste their money on placing weapons in space. However, if the US moves up into space with weapons, with this mission to dominate the Earth below from space, despite the cost, they’ll be up there.

JJ: I’ve read a lot about satellites, Karl, but a word that I haven’t seen much of in this current round of coverage is nuclear. But that’s got to be in the story, right?

Karl Grossman

Karl Grossman: “Consider the consequences of a shooting war: Battle platforms are hit, and radioactivity from these nuclear reactors rains down on Earth.”

KG: Absolutely. In moving up into space, with the Space Force, no doubt the United States will be placing nuclear power systems in space. That was the architecture of Reagan’s Star Wars, orbiting battle platforms with nuclear reactors on them providing the power for hypervelocity guns, particle beams and laser weapons; as Star Wars head general James Abrahamson said, without reactors in orbit, there would need to be a long, long extension cord that goes down to the surface of the Earth, bringing up power. Consider the consequences of a shooting war: Battle platforms are hit, and radioactivity from these nuclear reactors rains down on Earth.

JJ: You really are not getting the picture of, not just things going wrong, but things going as they might be anticipated to go, being, really, a horrific calamity for human beings. It’s a very tidy image that we’re getting about what war in space would be like.

KG: This lethal threat would be above our heads. I did a documentary a number of years ago, entitled, advisedly, Nukes in Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens. And nukes and weapons in space, they go together.

JJ: And I wanted to ask you about that question of priorities, finally. The Washington Post had an article headlined “Potential Winners if a Space Force Flies,” which delivered the no doubt shocking news that “a group of government contractors sees a chance to profit.” Hold onto your hat! An analyst tells the Post, “Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Harris Corporation may be particularly well positioned to benefit from Trump’s Space Force.” I found it odd to present military contractors as sort of savvily responding to policy, as opposed to driving it, but then, to your point, there was vanishingly little reference in media coverage to who would not benefit from this allocation of funds, to what would be lost, to what would be harmed, and so I wanted to underscore that point that you made, just to say, media didn’t talk about it either.

And then, finally, what do you see as the role for the public in this, where can people focus in terms of speaking out on this issue?

“Space Force” looks to be a coup for the military industrial complex (LA Times, 8/18/18).

KG: Just a quick mention of a very important piece, in regards to mainstream media, I was so happy to see it, in the Los Angeles Times, this is just a couple of days ago, the headline, “Trump Backed ‘Space Force’”—in quotes—“After Months of Lobbying by Officials With Ties to the Aerospace Industry.” And listeners can Google that; it’s very, very detailed, talks about

a small group of current and former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems.

So on this issue, we can at this point, there’s been enough documentation, to include the “follow the money” precept.

As to what people can do, we have to rise from the grassroots. An excellent organization, that I would recommend that people connect with, is the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Its website is Space4Peace.org, and among other things, the Global Network will be doing, October 6–13 this year, they’re going to—all over the world, this is going to be happening—protests and other actions in a Space for Peace week. So from the grassroots, people—certainly in this country, and all over the world—need to stand up and to stop this madness, to keep space for peace.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. You can find his recent article, “Turning Space Into a War Zone,” on CounterPunch. Karl Grossman, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

KG: A pleasure, Janine.

 


This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

Nazis Were Not Marxists – LewRockwell

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The abject practical failure of the Marxist revolutionaries in the post-WWI period had done much harm to their image as the vanguard of social progress.

The explanation for this failure in the writings of Mises, Max Weber, and Boris Brutzkus had led many economists to revise their views about the suitable scope of government within society. But others remained unrepentant advocates of the total state. They merely rejected the specifically egalitarian agenda of the socialists.

The uncontested leader of this group was Werner Sombart, the greatest star among the interwar economists in Germany. Sombart had started his career popularizing Marxism in academic circles with his 1896 book Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung im 19. Jahrhundert (Socialism and Social Action in the Nineteenth Century).Later editions testified to Sombart’s increasing estrangement with his initial Marxist ideals. The tenth edition, which appeared under a new title in 1924, featured an outright demolition of Marxist socialism. Sombart had turned back to the mainstream Schmollerite socialism, which advocated the total state without an egalitarian agenda.

Sombart’s intellectual qualities had gained him a place of preeminence. Where most Marxist intellectuals held dogmatically to the tenets of Marx and Engels, Sombart sought to analyze and develop their doctrines with a critical mind in quest of objectivity. This made his work the perfect target for a thorough criticism of the intellectual current of anti-Marxist socialism, and Mises provided such a criticism in an article with the title “Antimarxismus” (Anti-Marxism).



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Video: Keiser Report: Knowledge Economy (E1273)

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Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/ Max and Stacy discuss the myth of the knowledge economy and the real containment policy of …

Via Youtube

PressTV-US-Canada talks on NAFTA break up without deal

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The United States and Canada have failed to reach a final deal on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in spite of long discussions this week.

The talks ended on Friday a day after President Donald Trump had told Bloomberg that a pact would be “totally on our terms.”

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Friday, however, that the “talks were constructive, and we made progress.”

“Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement,” Lighthizer added.

He said that Trump had notified Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico “and Canada, if it is willing – 90 days from now.”

A new NAFTA agreement will not get through Congress unless Canada is included.

The two countries plan to take up where they left off next week on Wednesday.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks at a press conference August 31, 2018 at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

Meanwhile, Canadian…

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Video: Aretha! Unapologetically Black, Unapologetically Woman

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Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed at 76. She leaves a legacy of music, commitment to Black and human liberation and defined America’s DNA Visit …

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Majority believes it’s ‘not appropriate’ to kneel during anthem

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The Hill
August 31, 2018

A majority of voters say they believe it is inappropriate for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem as a way to protest policy brutality and racial inequality, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Friday.

The survey reports that 54 percent of voters believe the form of protest to be inappropriate, while 43 percent say it is an appropriate way to bring awareness to the issues the players are protesting.

The responses were heavily divided along partisan lines.

About 88 percent of Republicans believe the protests are inappropriate, while 72 percent of Democrats believe kneeling is an appropriate form of protest.

Independents surveyed believed kneeling during the national anthem was inappropriate by a 15-point margin, with 57 opposed to the protests and 42 percent saying they’re appropriate.

The results also fall sharply along racial lines.

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This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:53 am






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US already drafted list of targets for potential strike in Syria – report — RT US News

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The US military and intelligence have already compiled a list of preliminary targets they would strike in response to another chemical weapons incident in Syria, CNN reported, citing the US administration officials.

The military are ready to “respond very quickly” at any moment if the US President Donald Trump decides to launch another strike against the Syrian government, one such official told CNN, adding that no decision to “take action” has been made yet. However, the intelligence experts already “assembled” targeting data of what they described as “chemical weapons facilities,” the media outlet reported.

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A displaced Syrian boy is pictured at Kelbit refugee camp in Idlib province, Syria on January 17, 2018.

It comes as the Pentagon is seemingly engaged in an all-out information war, as it vehemently denies all statements referring to a potential false-flag chemical-weapons attack, which Russia says is being prepared by terrorists in Syria’s Idlib. The US military has accused Moscow of spreading “lies” by revealing this information and suggesting that the attack could be used to justify a new US strike on Syria.

“Russia has recently launched a concentrated disinformation campaign to discredit the United States and international partners and allies… Specifically, Russia has suggested that as a pretext for United States strikes against the Assad regime, humanitarian organizations in Syria were planning a chemical weapon attack. This is absurd,” a Pentagon spokesperson, Commander Sean Robertson said on Friday.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the chemicals to be used in the fake attack had been already delivered to terrorists in the area with the assistance of the controversial White Helmets group, which Moscow has accused of having links with terrorists.

CNN’s sources, meanwhile, expressed their concerns that the Russian forces in the region might be preparing to “shoot US missiles down,” thus thwarting Washington’s attack against Damascus.

On Saturday, the Russian military will start a week-long exercise in the Mediterranean, involving 25 ships and strategic bombers. Moscow has explained that it’s taking “additional safety measures” amid heightened tensions in the Idlib province, which it described as “a hotbed of terrorism.”

READ MORE: US-led coalition admits 1,061 civilians killed in Iraq & Syria strikes in latest death toll

Earlier on Friday, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “there is no doubt” that the extremists in Idlib are preparing for a false flag chemical attack, adding that the proof of this fact was already presented by Russia to the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Russia is said to have already provided this data to the US.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Fenced off: Palestinian girl is filmed scaling Hebron barrier to reach home

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Video of a young Palestinian girl climbing a security fence erected by Israeli forces in the West Bank has provoked outrage online. The girl is apparently trying to …

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Credit Suisse Freezes $5 billion of Russian Money due to U.S. Sanctions

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A few days ago, Reuter reported that Switzerland’s second largest bank, Crédit Suisse, has ‘frozen‘ about 5 billion Swiss francs of Russian money, or about the same in US-dollars, for fear of falling out of favors with Washington – and being ‘sanctioned’ in one way or another. Crédit Suisse, like her bigger sister, UBS, have been amply punished already by Washington for facilitating in the US as well as in Switzerland tax evasion for US oligarchs. They want to be good boys now with Washington.

Switzerland’s banking watchdog, FINMA, does not require Swiss banks to enforce foreign sanctions, but has said they have a responsibility to minimize legal and reputational risks. Crédit Suisse is cautious. In 2009, it reached a $500 million settlement with U.S. authorities over dealings with sanctions-hit Iran. And most every major bank remembers the 2014 settlement of France’s BNP Paribas for a record $8.9 billion fine for violating U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

When asked, two other Swiss banks, UBS and Julius Baer, who are known to deal with Russian clients, declined a straight forward answer whether they too will resort to sanctioning their Russian customers. An UBS spokesman said evasively, they were “implementing worldwide at least the sanctions currently imposed by Switzerland, the U.N., the EU and the U.S.”

What doesn’t stop amazing me is how the western world just accepts such horrendous US fraud, or better called, outright…

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Video: ‘Ever seen anything so obviously scripted as doc about White Helmets?’ – Roger Waters (EXCLUSIVE)

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Political activist and outspoken British rock musician Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, who has long been a vocal critic of the Syrian organisation, shared his …

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Attackers Hurl Stones at Church While Shouting “Allahu Akbar”

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Spate of attacks on churches by Muslim migrants in recent months

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
August 31, 2018

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A church in Berlin was damaged after unknown attackers pelted stones at the building while shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

Six individuals threw stones at the windows of the St. Simeon Church in Kreuzberg on Wednesday night. The stones “damaged the building” according to one report and the culprits fled the scene.

The attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which means ‘God is great’ in Arabic throughout the incident.

An added irony is that the church in question declared itself to be a ‘refugee-friendly’ church in 2015, offering advice to migrants in Arabic.

“We want to give them a voice and a space in which they can actively contribute their ideas and interests, develop and fulfil their own plans,” said a statement released by the church at the time.

A recent poll of Germans found that 16.6% would not want a Christian church in their neighborhood, while 55.7% said they wouldn’t want a mosque in their neighborhood.

The incident in Berlin is one of several attacks on churches to have taken place in recent months in Europe.

Last month, a church in the French city of Orleans was vandalized, with the culprits smashing up furniture, setting fires and writing “Allahu Akbar” on the walls.

In May, a 37-year-old Muslim man threatened to blow up a church in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, unless passages from the Koran were read aloud.

Back in April, 20 Muslim migrants attacked a Christian congregation outside a church in Leukosia, Greece, screaming, cursing, and beating the attendees.

In July 2016, Islamic terrorists stormed a church in Normandy during mass and proceeded to slit the throat of elderly priest Jacques Hamel before being shot dead by police.

In March of this year, migrants and left-wing protesters stormed the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris….

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Want to know about new FTC head’s conflicts of interest? Too bad, that’s redacted — RT US News

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Corporate lawyer Andrew Smith’s appointment to head the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer protection raised some eyebrows earlier this summer. Now, a heavily redacted set of documents have done little to allay this concern.

According to his financial disclosure form, Smith provided legal services to a host of companies, including Uber, Amazon, JP Morgan, and the Dallas Cowboys. Several of these companies are currently under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including Equifax, the credit company that exposed the personal information of 145 million Americans in a data breach last year.

Among the 53 other companies listed on Smith’s disclosure are “predatory” payday lenders Elevate Credit and MoneyKey, the latter of which was ordered to pay back more than $4 million to customers after it violated consumer finance laws in Virginia in 2015.

The long list of potential conflicts, which could see Smith forced to recuse himself from important cases, led liberal consumer rights watchdog Public Citizen to file a Freedom of Information Act request. The group wanted to know where Smith’s conflicts lay, and what the FTC was going to do to prevent him from backing his former clients instead of the ordinary consumer.

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Yellow police tape is displayed at a crime scene in Chicago, US © Joshua Lott

The response revealed nothing. The FTC returned almost 500 pages, nearly all of which were blank or heavily redacted.

“This raises additional questions about whether Smith is truly working to protect consumers or simply carrying water for his corporate friends,” said Public Citizen’s Remington A. Gregg. “The public deserves more than hollow promises of transparency.”

A raft of emails contained within the FOIA request reveal only Smith’s email headers and footers, and those of several other FTC bureaucrats. Almost everything else is blocked out and unreadable. A copy of an executive order on ethics from President Trump, and a copy of a letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) warning the agency against Smith’s appointment were also included in the stash.

“Mr. Smith is well known in Washington for his representation of Equifax, Facebook, Uber, and other companies that have been accused of some of the worst abuses of consumers,” read the letter from Warren to FTC Chairman Joseph Simmons. Smith’s record, Warren wrote, “leaves him unfit and unable to function as the FTC’s top consumer advocate.”

The FTC was well within its rights to redact the documents, no matter how suspect the move appeared. FOIA exemptions allow the agency to withhold information that would not be available to anyone save for in a court case. Exemptions also allow the agency to redact anything they would consider trade secrets or confidential financial information.

That a former corporate lawyer would be chosen to lead the US’ top consumer protection organization might sound bizarre, but Smith’s appointment is par for the course in Washington. Andrew Wheeler, the current acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is a former coal industry lobbyist who fought the Obama administration’s climate regulations on power plants, while his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, was an advocate against environmental regulations before heading the agency.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: To infinity and beyond: Tesla Model S gets airborne, smashes into school yard

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An Ontario man is facing dangerous driving charges after he was filmed driving a Model S Tesla erratically across a set of railway tracks before smashing into a …

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PressTV- ‘War in Yemen not on US media’s agenda’

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The mainstream US media’s all attention is on the death of America’s most famous war criminal, hawkish Republican Senator John McCain, and understanding something as complicated as the war in Yemen is not on its agenda,  according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a report which says the US military is planning to resume training programs for Saudi pilots, despite attempts by American officials to distance the US from the Saudi-led carnage against the people of Yemen.

The US Air Force has recently put out request for information (RFI) forms, calling on contractors to come forward with pricing and availability details for training no less than 41 Royal Saudi Air Force personnel, the website The Young Turks network reported Thursday.

While there are no details available about the…

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Trump’s Disapproval Hits Record High After Manafort and Cohen News

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President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has reached a record high — and the number of Americans who support special counsel Robert Mueller over Trump is now greater than those who do not.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that three out of five Americans (60 percent) disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, with only 36 percent approving of how he has performed so far. Similarly 49 percent of Americans believe that Congress should start proceedings that might ultimately lead to Trump’s removal from office, with only 46 percent saying they should not do so. Finally a whopping 53 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s efforts to interfere with the Mueller probe counts as obstruction of justice, while only 35 percent say that this isn’t the case.

Even on the issue of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Trump has repeatedly insulted and intimated he might want to fire, Trump’s own party doesn’t have his back. It is to be expected that 75 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents don’t want Trump to fire Sessions, but it’s more telling that 47 percent of Republicans feel the same way — with only 31 percent believing that Trump should terminate the employment of his attorney general for recusing himself from the Mueller probe.

These recent polling numbers raise interesting questions about the future of Trump’s presidency. With the midterm elections approaching, Republicans like former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon have attempted to turn the election into a referendum on whether or not Trump will be impeached. The underlying assumption behind this strategy has been that most Americans don’t want to see the president impeached and will oppose Democrats who focus on that as a strategy, as well as that the threat of a Trump impeachment will motivate his base to turn out and vote.

“I agree with Steve Bannon 100 percent: the mid-term…

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A Plague on Both Their Houses

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Photo Source pxl | CC BY 2.0

Donald Trump is a miscreant, worse than any president in modern times.  Nevertheless, he is sometimes more right than Democrats and their media flacks. His express views on the multi-lateral institutions that regulate global trade in capitalism’s current neoliberal phase are an obvious example.  Trump thinks, or says that he thinks, that American workers have been getting a raw deal.  He is right.

The agreements in place are good for global capital and therefore for American corporate moguls and Wall Street financiers, but not for workers in the United States or anywhere else.

There are a few comparatively progressive Democrats who do want to make existing arrangements less harmful to workers and the environment.  But even they don’t want to change anything fundamental.  Mainstream Democrats support the neoliberal status quo more or less as is.

The American labor movement has opposed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, ever since its inception in 1994. The Clinton administration could have cared less.  Neither could its successors, both Democratic and Republican. Democrats rely on organized labor for money, campaign workers, and votes, offering only malign neglect in return.  The GOP’s hostility is more overt; Republicans don’t even pretend to care.

In 2016, Bernie Sanders opposed both NAFTA and the TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership.  Challenged from her left, even Hillary Clinton said that she would renegotiate…

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EU Plans for ‘Completion of the Currency Union’

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Even those who are convinced that the EU is indispensable for the countries of Europe, that without it there would be nothing good, no peace and no future, should absolutely deal with the broad picture of the financial side of the matter, even if they aren’t interested. If they do so with open eyes, they will get to the point where they must at least concede the possibility that the idea of the ‘EU’ may at best and theoretically speaking, be a peace project, but not a provider of prosperity.

On the contrary: after 20 years of the euro (the first price determination was in May 1998), which brought about an artificial boom, a devastating crisis and today another artificial boom and, on top of that, an almost 30 percent loss in value, these plans for the economic and monetary area all point in the same direction: debt and impoverishment. The problem: poverty and peace in the sense of the absence of disruption and disturbance rarely go hand in hand. For without prosperity there is ‘peace’ for one reason only: for fear of those who have the control and the monopoly on the use of force – the state.

The baby boomers, who in Europe are the people born from the mid-1950s to the mid/end of the 1960s, are retiring today or want to do so in the coming years. In view of this fact and the demographic development, which only the debt economies of the member states are threatening to turn from a manageable challenge into a crisis, it can be assumed that at some point between 2028 and 2038 the coffers of the welfare systems will be empty. It is therefore high time for the EU, and in particular for the highly indebted countries, to set the course now to keep the EU project and thus their own lucrative jobs alive. The EU needs one thing…

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Video: Macron angers opposition by calling French ‘Gauls who resist change’

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The president of France has described some of his own citizens as being stuck in the past and backwards. Emmanuel Macron said so-called ‘French Gauls’ …

Via Youtube

PressTV-Trump’s disapproval rating hits all-time high: Poll

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A national opinion poll shows that US President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has hit an all-time high, with 60 percent of Americans being dissatisfied with the businessman-turned-politician’s performance in office.

The survey conducted and released by ABC News/Washington Post on Friday said 53 percent of the figure included those who “strongly” disapproved of Trump’s performance in the White House.

The poll also indicated that just 36 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance, matching his low in surveys carried out since he was inaugurated as president in January of 2017.

In the previous ABC News/Washington Post poll in April, Trump’s approval rating was 40 percent and his disapproval rating was 56 percent.

The Friday poll was administered among 1,003 adults and was conducted between August 26 and August 29 via landlines and cellphones. The poll enjoyed a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage…

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As classes begin, Detroit schools shut off drinking water due to high levels of lead and copper

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As classes begin, Detroit schools shut off drinking water due to high levels of lead and copper

By
Eula Holmes and Patrick Martin

31 August 2018

The Detroit Public School system has shut off drinking water at every one of the 106 school buildings it operates because of elevated levels of lead and copper found in water testing at 16 out of 24 schools.

The announcement is an admission that the catastrophic conditions in Flint, Michigan, caused by the profit-driven decision to shift the city’s water system to polluted water from the Flint River, are replicated for school children in Detroit, the largest city in Michigan and the poorest big city in America.

The notice to teachers and parents about the decision to cut off water avoids the obvious implication: for years, hundreds of thousands of school children and thousands of teachers have been exposed to poisoning by lead, copper and other toxins, with incalculable consequences on their long-term health.

A spokeswoman for the school district told the Detroit Free Press that there was “no evidence at all that children have been impacted from a health standpoint,” but the district has said that it will not be carrying out any tests on the students to check for high lead levels.

Officials of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Great Lakes Water Authority said there was no excess lead or copper in the water being delivered to school buildings, indicating that the source of the pollution was internal to the buildings themselves, the result of decades of inadequate investment in their plumbing infrastructure.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti sent a robocall to parents on Sunday, August 26, alerting them to the lead-tainted and copper-tainted water coming into DPS water fountains and kitchens where school lunches are…

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The Trump Administration’s Cruel Collective Punishment of the Iranian People

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Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

USA Today published a very extensive report on conditions inside Iran this week. Here is a description of the response to the reimposition of U.S. sanctions:

Still, despite rhetoric from the Trump administration and some exiled Iranians – as well as praise for Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the overwhelming sentiment on Iran’s streets is not revolutionary fervor but fatigue over decades of failed Iranian-U.S. diplomacy and the resulting economic struggles for ordinary Iranians [bold mine-DL].

“We waited for so long for good news between our two nations,” a woman, 37, in a coffee shop told USA TODAY as she despaired over the renewed sanctions and breakdown in relations.

The Trump administration doesn’t appreciate and certainly doesn’t care that reneging on the nuclear deal and moving to strangle Iran’s economy have dashed the hopes of most Iranians for a better future. Iran hawks hope to rile up the Iranian people through increased hardship and deprivation, but no nation ever responds to collective punishment this way. US policy towards Iran is sowing enmity between our two countries for years and decades to come, and both of our countries will be worse off because of it. For all of the administration’s complaints about Iran’s “malign behavior” in the region, they have made a point of penalizing Iran even though it is abiding by the nuclear deal. Iran has responded constructively on the nuclear issue, and it is being strangled with sanctions anyway.

It will come as no surprise that Iranians don’t want the US meddling in their politics:

Although demonstrators in Iran may be occasionally emboldened to call for the death of Rouhani and Khamenei, they do not necessarily view support from Trump administration regime-change hawks such as national security adviser John Bolton as the answer.

“Just look at our neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan. After 6 p.m., you can’t go out. It’s too dangerous. This is what happens when Americans intervene in other countries,” said Mohammad, a merchant at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, referring to two countries where the United States has spent billions of dollars on military occupations and long-term nation-building missions. “The reality is that we don’t want the US interfering with our problems.”

Most Iranians can see very clearly from our government’s track record that our interference tends to make other countries’ problems worse. They understandably want none of that for their own country. Our meddling is destructive and therefore it is naturally unwelcome.

The deleterious effects of sanctions are already being felt by ordinary Iranians:

Inside Iran, there is a mixture of anger and weariness at Trump’s decision to reimpose sanctions. Though Washington insists the sanctions are not aimed at Iran’s civilians, only its government and nuclear program,…

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Prison Planet.com » Physician Warns About Dangers of ‘Body Positivity’ Movement

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Tweets image of unhealthy heart after Cosmopolitan features obese model

Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
August 31, 2018

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A physician and former Green Beret has tweeted about the dangers of the ‘body positivity’ movement after Cosmopolitan featured an obese model on the cover of its UK edition.

The October issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in the UK will feature “plus-sized” model Tess Holliday, a “body positivity” activist who weighs almost 300lbs, meaning at a height of 5″5′ she is clinically obese.

TV host Piers Morgan slammed the decision to feature Holliday, writing that the cover “is just as dangerous & misguided as celebrating size zero models” given that Britain is battling an obesity crisis.

Holliday responded by telling TMZ, “Worry about what horrible people you are by whining about how me being on the cover of a glossy magazine impacts your small minded life.”

Now physician, investigator and former Green Beret Mike Simpson, M.D. has waded into the debate by pointing out the obvious – that obesity is incredibly unhealthy.

“I do not condone body shaming. But, as a physician, I also cannot condone people pretending that obesity is healthy,” tweeted Simpson. “Beauty may be skin deep, but fat deposits go all the way to your internal organs. Be healthy, live well!”

The tweet was accompanied by an image of a healthy heart and that of an obese person.

According to doctors, obesity is linked with all kinds of horrible illnesses, including heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and osteoarthritis.

As we have repeatedly…

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Moon landing movie stirs controversy by leaving out American flag — RT US News

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One small step for man, one giant sh*tstorm for the internet. A new Canadian-directed Neil Armstrong biopic drew fierce criticism after it left out the iconic planting of the star-spangled banner on the moon.

‘First Man’ opened to rave reviews from audiences at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday for Canadian actor Ryan Gosling’s portrayal of astronaut Neil Armstrong. Faithfully depicting the 1969 moon landing, the movie did leave out one important detail: Armstrong’s planting of the American flag, which still stands motionless on the moon today.

American flags could be seen in the background in several shots, but the omission still rankled American viewers. How could Hollywood write such a towering American achievement out of history?

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) led the charge. “This is total lunacy,” he tweeted. “The American people paid for that mission,on rockets built by Americans,with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasn’t a UN mission.”

Others jumped in to vent their anger at this piece of “revisionist PC history bullsh*t.”

Lead actor Ryan Gosling threw more gasoline on the dumpster fire when he defended director Damien Chazelle’s decision to leave out the flag. The landing, he said, was a “human achievement,” not an American one, and a victory “transcending countries and borders.”

“So I don’t think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero,” Gosling continued. “From my interviews with his family and people that knew him, it was quite the opposite. And we wanted the film to reflect Neil.”

“That’s not the Neil Armstrong I know,” tweeted World War II fighter ace Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier. As derision continued to pour in on Twitter, reminding Chazelle and Gosling they were in La-La-Land no longer, Yeager called the new movie “more Hollywood make-believe.”

While planning the Apollo 11 moon mission, NASA actually did debate planting a United Nations flag on the moon instead of an American one. In the end they settled on the star-spangled banner as a symbol of the perceived US ‘victory’ over the Soviet Union in the space race.

‘First Man’ is not the first depiction of America’s space program to cause controversy. 2016’s ‘Hidden Figures’ caused some ire for supposedly expanding the role three black female mathematicians played in the success of the early US space program.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: US threatens India with sanctions over S-400 defence system deal

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The U.S. has warned India it could be facing sanctions – if Delhi goes ahead with the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defence system. Check out …

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John Powers on Voting Rights, Karen Dolan on School Safety

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Polling place (cc photo: Jim Naureckas)

(cc photo: Jim Naureckas)

This week on CounterSpin: Corporate media cover electoral politics—a lot. Yet the questions that guide that coverage don’t seem to change much: Who’s leading in polls (before anyone’s learned much about the candidates’ ideas), who said what awful thing about their opponent, who’s raised more money from rich people? That’s not the same as covering the electoral process: Do elections represent the public will? Does everyone who wants to vote get to? How can we ensure that our voting process reflects the principles of democracy that are so insistently invoked? There are few questions more critical right now. We’ll talk about them with John Powers, counsel in the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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Active shooter exercise, elementary school (photo: USAF/David Tracy)

(photo: USAF/David Tracy)

Also on the show: When you think “school safety,” you may think about the Parkland shooting or Sandy Hook or Columbine; certainly, that would be the media context in which the phrase occurs. But policies and practices based on that definition of safety end up making kids—particularly kids who are black and brown, or female or LGBTQ or disabled—less protected and less secure in school. A  new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, Students Under Siege, outlines how that happens, and how alternative definitions of “safety” lead to better outcomes for kids, their families—and schools. We’ll speak to the report’s co-author, Karen Dolan. She’s director of the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.

PressTV-Trump absent as Washington mourns McCain

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When Washington’s political leaders gather in the US Capitol on Friday to commemorate the late Senator John McCain, President Donald Trump will travel to one of his private golf clubs for a campaign fundraiser.

In a week of solemn events marking McCain’s passing, Trump has been and will be absent, a reflection of the animosity between the two men that lingered even after the Arizona senator’s death on Saturday from brain cancer.

Trump will also miss Saturday’s service at the Washington National Cathedral, where former President Barack Obama, the Democrat who defeated McCain in 2008, and Republican President George W. Bush will pay tribute to McCain.

Traditionally, sitting American presidents “serve as a source of solace and comfort” for the country at times of loss and tragedy, said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer.

The Trump-McCain relationship left little room for that.

In 2015, not long after Trump kicked off his…

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Video: Please, dance WHEN nobody’s watching: Theresa May shows off ‘robotic’ African moves

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Scouts show Theresa May some moves during visit to UN campus in Nairobi, Kenya. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9dfo Check out http://rt.com RT LIVE …

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If Trump ‘Leaves Twitter’ for Alt Platform, ‘Twitter Is Done’

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Breitbart
August 31, 2018

President Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign manager Brad Parscale issued a warning to Twitter on Tuesday.

In response to an Axios article which claimed a “conservative social network would fail,” Parscale declared, “Yeah. Maybe. But if @realDonaldTrump leaves @Twitter for another platform Twitter is done. Put a fork in it.”

This month, Parscale also claimed Big Tech companies were creating a “stifling” effect on free speech, and expressed, “They must be stopped from turning the Internet into Big Brother.”

In March, Parscale warned Facebook, Twitter, and Google that the Trump Administration “are watching,” and, “This is your opportunity to make sure the playing field is level,” while in May, he sent a letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding transparency over their repeated censorship of conservatives.

This article was posted: Friday, August 31, 2018 at 7:54 am








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Dead in the water? New ‘centrist’ party backed by ex-Goldman banker splits before launch — RT UK News

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A new ‘centrist’ party, backed with £50 million ($64.9 million), promising to be an “alternative to the divisive and extremist politics we see at Westminster,” has embarrassingly lost its CEO and other staff before its launch.

‘United for Change,’ founded by Simon Franks, an entrepreneur and film producer who set up online rental service ‘Lovefilm,’ had been preparing to officially launch as Britain’s newest centrist party next year. That was until Adam Knight, a co-founder of the prospective party and its chief executive, quit the organization along with several members of his staff, to set up a new political outfit.

Knight told the Times that despite United for Change sharing the “same diagnosis” as his new organization, coined ‘Twelve Together’ after the number of UK regions, disagreements arose over strategy.

The latest proposed political savior for all “moderates,” which has seemingly run into major difficulties, follows a long list of potential new centrist parties that have never materialized.

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© UPPA

Knight told the paper: “In the end, United for Change considered two potential strategic directions.

“The first was to take advantage of political instability surrounding Brexit to launch a political party around which the public, and maybe existing parliamentarians, could congregate as quickly as the beginning of 2019, while the second was to take a longer look at what it might mean to develop a new type of political organization.”

Knight added: “We tried for a while to see if the two approaches could coexist, but it became clear that, while overlapping in places, they represented a fundamentally different type of leadership, set of values, timeline, and program of activity.”

The Anglo-Canadian’s curriculum vitae includes stints with investment banks Credit Suisse as global head of commodities and Goldman Sachs as their managing director – not exactly breaking the establishment mold with those job roles.

He describes himself as an “angel investor” and stood as an independent in the Witney by-election in Oxfordshire, which was triggered when ex-PM David Cameron quit parliament after losing the EU referendum in 2016.

READ MORE: ‘Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich’: Plans for new UK centrist party dismissed

Franks is reported to have garnered investment worth £50 million ($64.9 million) with the entrepreneur putting in a seven-figure sum himself. Potential members are told to expect “an organization that reflects the brilliance and potential of modern Britain in 2018.”

It comes after former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called on Labour and Conservative MPs to “grow a flipping backbone” in recent days and set up a new party, insisting that it would have the support of the Lib Dems.

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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Louisiana police sued for withholding ‘Antifa list’ of anti-Trump petitioners — RT US News

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Louisiana State Police are being sued by a Harvard lecturer over their alleged refusal to release a list of anti-Trump petitioners that they had. He says it originated from a neo-Nazi website, and was named “Antifa list.”

Harvard Law School lecturer Thomas Frampton is suing Louisiana State Police (LSP) over its alleged failure to release a list of thousands of citizens who had signed a petition against US President Donald Trump. According to the lawsuit, the list comes from a hoax roster that originally showed up a year ago on neo-Nazi conspiracy theories website, 8Chan, WGNO reports.

READ MORE: WaPo column praises McCain as human rights champion with photo of him next to ‘literal neo-Nazi’

The list was discovered by New Orleans civil-rights attorney William Most. Frampton is now taking action against the LSP’s Baton Rouge police department on his behalf.

The LSP’s alleged implication with neo-Nazi groups drew the ire of the public, some of whom went as far as to accuse the “racist” police force of taking orders from white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.

News of the lawsuit prompted others to call for the State Police to be “abolished” altogether.

Others suggested there may be some more suspicious reasons for the police not wanting the documents in the public domain.

The whole case unraveled when Most demanded in May that LSP release thousands of internal emails containing hateful and racist communication, including phrases such as “white genocide.”

LSP initially delayed the release but after a few months relented and handed out 64 emails.

It was then that Most spotted a document called “full list of antifa.docx,” which had reportedly been circulated among the department’s most senior officials, as well as local enforcement ones.

The attorney requested the department give him the list in question, but LSP refused on the grounds that it would “compromise” an ongoing investigation which was expected to result in arrests. The police also hesitated for fear the document would blow the cover of their “confidential informant,” Most claimed.

Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

Video: Chemnitz hit by protests against German migration policy & clashes with Antifa

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The German city of Chemnitz has seen a fourth day of demonstrations against the country’s migration policy. Up to 20 people were injured in the course of the …

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PressTV-Congressional candidate compares Trump to Bin Laden

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A Democratic congressional candidate has drawn an analogy between US President Donald Trump and former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, saying the two have “a tremendous amount in common.”

Sean Casten, who is running for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, made the comparison during the primary in February but the audio was published on the Washington Free Beacon’s website on Thursday.

Casten is said to have drawn the analogy when he was asked to address the gun violence epidemic in the country and discuss the measures he would take to fight it if he were elected.

“I don’t mean to sound overly hyperbolic in this. Trump and Osama bin Laden have a tremendous amount in common,” Casten can be heard saying in the audio clip.

The Democratic congressional hopeful then goes on to elaborate on what exactly he believed those similarities to be between Trump and Bin Laden, who was the al-Qaeda founder and the man allegedly responsible for…

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Hearing on the Draft and Draft Registration, Thursday, 9/20/2018 in Los Angeles

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The “National Commission on Military, National and Public Service” has announced that the final event in its year-long series of “informal” open-mike public hearings on whether registration for a military draft should be ended or extended will be at Cal State University, Los Angeles, on Thursday, September 20, 2018, from 3-5 p.m.:

Thursday, September 20, 2018
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT

California State University Los Angeles
Golden Eagle Ballroom 1 & 2
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032

Following presentations by an invited panel, members of the public will get 2 minutes each to testify. This will probably be framed as an opportunity to ask questions of the panel, but members of the public can testify on any of the issues the Commission has been appointed to study.

According to the Commission, “The public meeting will also include a service fair for the audience members to explore local, state, and national opportunities across military, national, and public service.” This would appear to create a public forum, at which anti-war or counter-recruitment organizations could request space to provide information and literature about peace work as a form of service.

The Commission was appointed by the President and Congress to study and report on the draft, compulsory national service, and “the feasibility… of modifying the military selective service process in order to obtain for military, national, and public service individuals with skills (such as medical, dental, and nursing skills, language skills, cyber skills, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills) for which the Nation has a critical need, without regard to age or sex.”

It’s especially important for the Commission to hear from people of draft age, women, health care workers, and people with others of these skills who might be drafted.

Edward Hasbrouck works with Resisters.info.

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Energy: Missing from the Nuclear Story

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One of my first memories of watching TV during the early 1950s was ads promoting leaded gasoline for reducing engine knock.  Little did I suspect the strange history of that gas.  By the beginning of World War I, it became clear that the internal combustion automobile was edging out its rival steam cars and electric cars.  Shortly afterwards, Thomas Midgley began researching how to remove the knocking “ping” sound from gasoline-powered cars.

Midgley devoted no fewer than six years of his life searching for a fuel additive that would have a “no-knock” effect.  He found that corn alcohol would be too expensive.  Benzene would also be effective, but it would be impossible to manufacture enough.  Both oxygen and chlorine increased knock.  Aniline, selenium oxychloride and tellerium worked, but produced an awful smell.  Examining one element after another in a periodic table of the time, he finally found a gasoline additive: tetraethyl lead. Since poisonous effects of lead were well known, the product was labeled “ethyl gasoline.”

Multiple states banned sale of ethyl gasoline, prompting a retort from Midgley that car exhaust contained far too little lead to cause concern.  A vice-president of a new gas company proclaimed that leaded motor fuel was a “gift of God” as Midgley told his partner that they could make 3¢ from each gallon of leaded gasoline in the 20% of the market they could corner.  During the next few decades, leaded gasoline…

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A Cancer on the Papacy?

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Shop all books by Pat Buchanan

This summer, the sex scandal that has bedeviled the Catholic Church went critical.

First came the stunning revelation that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington and friend to presidents, had for decades been a predator-priest who preyed on seminarians and abused altar boys, and whose depravity was widely known and covered up.

Came then the report of a Pennsylvania grand jury that investigated six dioceses and found that some 300 priests had abused 1,000 children over the last 70 years.

The bishop of Pittsburgh, Donald Wuerl, now Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, defrocked some of these corrupt priests, but reassigned others to new parishes where new outrages were committed.

This weekend brought the most stunning accusation.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Vatican envoy to the United States under Pope Benedict XVI, charged that Pope Francis had been told of McCarrick’s abuses, done nothing to sanction him, and that, as “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse is Francis’ own policy, the pope should resign.

In his 11-page letter of accusations, Vigano further charged that there is a powerful “homosexual current” among the Vatican prelates closest to the pope.

What did the pope know and when did he know it?

Not unlike Watergate, the issue here is whether Pope Francis knew what was going on in the Vatican and in his Church, and why he was not more resolute in rooting out the moral squalor.

Orthodox, conservative and traditionalist Catholics are the most visible and vocal demanding an accounting. Progressive and liberal Catholics, to whom Pope Francis and Cardinal McCarrick were seen as allies on issues of sexual morality, have been thrown on the defensive.

Now, accusations alone are neither proof nor evidence.

Yet there is an obligation, an…

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Video: Insect horror: Mosquitoes attack Russian city hindering breathing & vision

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Millions of ‘Chironomidae’ mosquitoes attacked the city of Taganrog in southeastern Russia, as footage filmed on Thursday shows. Swarms of insects covered …

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