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Bizarro Earth

Netanyahu gives interviews on election day despite Israel's legislative ban


Sputnik
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:59 UTC
netanyahu
© REUTERS / RONEN ZVULUN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to give media interviews on election day and also called on Twitter supporters to vote, despite the fact that such activities are prohibited by the law.

According to Israeli law, election campaigns on radio and television must be completed at 7 p.m. on the day before the election. Nevertheless, on election day, Netanyahu was interviewed by the Kol Chai broadcaster. The incumbent prime minister also was broadcasting live on Facebook and was actively publishing messages on Twitter, encouraging supporters to vote.

"Right-wing voters, have you gone crazy? Come out now to vote for the Likud to stop a left-wing government with the Arab parties," Netanyahu said.

Comment: RT reports:
'Israel at historic juncture': Netanyahu refuses to concede as Gantz claims 'mission accomplished'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to fight on even as exit polls showed him tied or lagging behind his main opposition rival, with a slim chance of assembling the coalition needed for a fifth term.

"We won't have and can't have a government dependent on anti-Zionist Arab parties," Netanyahu proclaimed as the crowd of his supporters booed and chanted 'we don't want unity.'

"Israel needs a strong government, a stable government, a Zionist government, a government that is committed to Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people."

The embattled PM stopped short of claiming a victory - or conceding his defeat - saying instead "we are waiting for the real results. One thing is clear: Israel is at a historic juncture."


Netanyahu's chief rival for the premiership, retired General Benjamin 'Benny' Gantz, gave his followers a cheerful "mission accomplished" speech in the early hours of Wednesday, encouraged by the exit polls.

"We will wait for the actual results, but the way things stand, we've fulfilled our mission," he said at Blue and White HQ in Tel Aviv, adding that Netanyahu "did not succeed in his mission."

Negotiations to form a national unity government are under way, Gantz said. Blue and White has previously said they were open to such a government with Likud, but only without Netanyahu anywhere in the picture.
What does it say about a candidate who flouts his country's basic laws? Although this is of course to be expected with Netanyahu:

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Eye 1

Facebook will bankroll an 'independent supreme court' to moderate your content & set censorship precedents

Helen Buyniski,
RT
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 01:05 UTC
facebook money
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Facebook has unveiled the charter for its 'supreme court,' a supposedly independent content moderation board that will take money from, and be appointed by, Facebook itself - while making binding decisions. What could go wrong?

Facebook has released preliminary plans for an "Oversight Board" tasked with reviewing content disputes. The 40-member body, referred to previously as Facebook's "supreme court," will have the authority to make binding decisions regarding cases brought to it by users or by the social media behemoth itself, according to a white paper released Tuesday, which stresses that the new board will be completely independent of Facebook, by popular request.

The company has clearly taken pains to make this new construct look independent, the sort of place a user might be able to go to get justice after being deplatformed by an algorithm incapable of understanding sarcasm or context. But board members will be paid out of a trust funded by Facebook and managed by trustees appointed by Facebook, while the initial board members will also be appointed by Facebook.

"We agreed with feedback that Facebook alone should not name the entire board," the release states, proceeding to outline how Facebook will select "a small group of initial members," who will then fill out the rest of the board. The trustees - also appointed by Facebook - will make the formal appointments of members, who will serve three-year terms.

Comment: Facebook already does pretty much what they like, so having their own "supreme court" to moderate content is all show and games. Don't expect a fair hearing. But to include other companies to fall under their 'jurisdiction' will be yet another blow against free speech. See also:

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Bad Guys

Oil supply is back, but we don't know yet who is responsible - Saudi energy minister


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:00 UTC
Saudi Aramco
© Reuters / Ahmed JadallahFILE PHOTO: Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's energy minister said that its oil supplies had resumed and that its oil market would be "fully back online" by the end of September following attacks which Washington blames on Iran while Riyadh is still probing.

Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the media that oil production in October would reach 9.89 million barrels per day and 12 million bpd by the end of November.

"We are asking the world to help us to help secure oil," he said, adding that Riyadh expect no decline in oil exports and "no oil cargoes were canceled."

Comment: RT also reports:
Both drones and cruise missiles were used to attack the refinery at Abqaiq and the Khurais oil field, flying over southern Iraq and Kuwait to avoid Saudi air defenses, according to CNN's source. This information was also quoted by AFP, but it was unclear whether their source was the same official or a different one.

CBS News quoted a "senior US official" who said the Saudi air defenses did not stop the drones and missiles because they were pointed south, to detect and prevent attacks from Yemen.

While Washington immediately blamed Iran for the attack, the Saudi authorities have been more circumspect, with Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman saying they "don't know" who was behind it just yet.

France was likewise skeptical, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian telling reporters he had seen no evidence indicating the origin of the attack just yet.

"Up to now, France does not have any proof that would allow us to say where the drones came from," Le Drian, who is on a working visit to Egypt, told reporters on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference with his Egyptian colleague, Le Drian urged a "strategy of de-escalation" and seconded Saudi calls to involve the UN in the investigation.
See also:

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Megaphone

"Tremendous concern": Jordan's King Abdullah says Israel annexing settlements would be "disaster"


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:00 UTC
merkel jordan
© Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
The King of Jordan has come out harshly against any Israeli plans to annex new territory in the West Bank, predicting a "disaster" for what remains of the peace process with the Palestinians, and for a two-state solution.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday following a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Jordan's King Abdullah II denounced recent Israeli threats to annex all existing settlements in the West Bank, among other provocative proposals from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"So these types of statements, I think, are a disaster to any attempt to move forward to the two-state solution," the King said, adding that Jordan looked at the situation with "tremendous concern" because "it does not bode well for trying to get Israelis and Palestinians together."

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Objections by Poland and Lithuania to Nord Stream 2 are geopolitical not economic - analyst


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 19:29 UTC
Nord Stream
© Reuters / Stine JacobsenPipes being laid for Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea, September 13, 2019
It is "rubbish" for Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki to claim that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will deliver a supply of cheap gas from Russia to the EU, is a "threat" to European energy security, analyst John Laughland told RT.

Morawiecki said at a press conference on Tuesday that the pipeline, currently under construction, posed a "threat to energy security" in the Baltic region. Poland and the Baltic states have consistently complained that the project affords Russia too much leverage over Europe's energy supply, despite the fact that EU heavyweight Germany has backed the project, touting its economic benefit.

"The opening of a new pipeline does not threaten energy security," international commenter John Laughland told RT, explaining that Russia was not going to prevent Europe from going elsewhere for gas if it wanted to.

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

US' anon intel blaming Iran for oil facility strikes insufficient say Saudis


Sputnik
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 12:59 UTC
drone
© AP Photo / Cliff Owen
On Monday, Yemen's Houthi militia movement reiterated that they were responsible for Saturday's drone attacks, and accused those trying to blame the attacks on outside actors of acting like "cowards."

US intelligence agencies have handed over a secret report to their Saudi counterparts which has implicated Iran directly for the weekend's attacks on two major Saudi Aramco oil facilities, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the situation.

According to the report, which has yet to be shared publicly, the strikes were staged from Iran, and involved some 20 drones and at least a dozen missiles.

A Saudi official speaking to WSJ said the report was not conclusive, adding that the US side hadn't provided sufficient evidence that Tehran was 'definitely' behind the attacks.

Comment: Sputnik reports:
Riyadh to Invite Int'l Experts to Join Investigation Into Attacks on Oil Facilities


Riyadh also called on the international community to "take a firm and clear position against this reckless behaviour that threatens the global economy."

Houthi rebels regularly conduct drone attacks on facilities in Saudi Arabia, which has been providing air support to Yemen's internationally recognized government in its fight against Houthis since spring 2015. At the same time, US officials have claimed that intelligence indicates Iranian involvement in the incidents. Iran firmly denied any involvement.
See also:

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Oil Well

Rouhani: Drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities were Yemen's response to SA-led coalition bombings


RT
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 19:40 UTC
Rouhani
© Reuters/Pavel Golovkin/PoolIranian President Hassan Rouhani at a joint news conference with his Russian and Turkish counterparts in Ankara, Turkey, September 16, 2019.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said recent drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure were a proportionate Yemeni response to years of daily bombings carried out by a Saudi-led coalition.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara following three-way talks between the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran, Rouhani suggested the drone attacks were a legitimate act of self-defense.
"On a daily basis Yemen is being bombarded and innocent civilians are dying ... so they have to retaliate. Yemeni people are exercising their legitimate right of defense ... the attacks were a reciprocal response to aggression against Yemen for years."
Rouhani added his hope that the conflict in Yemen would be resolved through diplomacy, and said that such a process might even mirror Syria's Astana talks.

Addressing the same question, Turkish President Recep Erdogan also pointed out that it was Saudi Arabia who'd started the cycle of attacks.

Comment: And from RT, 16/9/2019: Trump points finger at Iran for oil facility attacks
While Saudi Arabia is investigating the attacks on its oil facilities, President Donald Trump has said that "it certainly would look like" Iran was the culprit. Yet, he also noted he doesn't want another war.

Trump's statement, made to reporters on Monday, is the latest in a series that stop short of outright blaming Iran for the attack, which has already been claimed by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Earlier in the day Trump tweeted that "there is reason to believe that we know the culprit," before questioning Tehran's denial of the strike.

Other US officials have been more forceful in ascribing blame. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately called the "unprecedented attack" the work of the Iranians, and hawkish US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called for retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets.

Amid rising fears of conflict, Trump boasted of the US' military might, saying that "the United States is more prepared" for a conflict than any country in history, but told reporters that he would "certainly like to avoid" war. "I don't want war with anybody," the President said.

Saturday's drone attacks targeted two oil refineries in Abqaiq and Khurais in the country's east. The strikes cut off half of Saudi Aramco's oil output, or five percent of the world's supply.

The Kingdom's foreign ministry added later on Monday that it will invite international experts, including UN officials, to investigate the attack.


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Arrow Up

Outgoing IMF chief Christine Lagarde, voted new ECB President


thejournal.ie
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Christine Lagarde
© Getty Images/S. LoebChristine Lagarde
The European Parliament has approved outgoing IMF chief Christine Lagarde as the next boss of the European Central Bank, which last week announced massive stimulus for the sluggish eurozone despite divisions among its governors.

Lagarde, who was absent for the vote, won backing from 394 MEPs, with 206 voting against and 49 abstaining in a secret ballot. Some criticised her not turning up. The European Parliament vote on the appointment of the president of the ECB is done by secret ballot.

The parliament's green light is just a recommendation. The final decision on her appointment is up to EU leaders in a mid-October summit. She is expected to easily clinch that confirmation as the leaders put her forward for the ECB post back in July.

Lagarde, a former French economy minister and head of the International Monetary Fund for the past eight years, is expected to largely follow the course set by departing ECB president Mario Draghi.

Comment:



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Cell Phone

Hello? Hillary Clinton used at minimum 6 personal phones for government business, all easily hacked

Joe Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Clinton/phone
© APIconic photo of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her BlackBerry
Recent reports that Russians and others hacked Hillary's emails are not unfounded. Per a review of Hillary's history with personal phones, she used at least six phones all of which were easily hacked.

Per an Intel expert, there are basic rules that everyone should abide by, especially any US politician or department head:
1. The moment your data is out of the SCIF (or if it never made it there), you can safely assume that it's being read by every decent intelligence organization in the world. HRC's emails were no exception. So, the moment her emails were placed on a private server everyone (including her IT team) were reading them.

2. Every decent intelligence agency has a whole department dedicated to senior US political figures like the Secretary of State, the FBI Director, etc. These teams can have dozens of individuals who on daily basis analyze everything the target does.

Like for example what restaurant they visited last night (then another team hacks into the restaurant's high resolution CCTV system, gets the video footage, and a different team does some lip reading).

Tracking someone like HRC would have quickly revealed that she was using a non-government issued phone. As a matter of fact, she was using six different phones. This meant that her voice/email/messaging had to be non-government based. Once that was known, intercepting the calls, messages, and emails of HRC becomes a trivial problem.
We know from expert analysis that Hillary used at least six different personal phones over the years. Here she is with phones 1 and 3:
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Airplane

After stalled negotiations with the US, Taliban delegation visits Iran to discuss peace deal


Sputnik
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 14:04 UTC
Abdul Salam Hanafi
© Getty ImagesAbdul Salam Hanafi, deputy political head of the Taliban
A delegation of the Taliban movement has travelled to Iran amid the decreasing prospects for signing a peace deal with the United States, a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said Tuesday.

According to the spokesman, the four-member delegation met with Iranian officials on Monday to discuss the recent developments in the Afghan peace process, the progress and security of Iranian economic projects in Afghanistan, and international and regional efforts to reach peace in the war-torn country.

The delegation was led by the deputy political head of the Taliban, Abdul Salam Hanafi, the spokesman added.

Comment: See also:

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