Puppet MastersS


Cross

Pope proposes making 'acts against the environment' a sin

Steve Watson
Summit News
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC
pope francis
Thou shalt not deny man-made climate change?

Pope Francis declared Friday that he is considering making it a sin to be un-environmentally friendly, continuing his brand of eco-popery that he has been pushing since becoming the Pontiff in 2013.

The Wall Street Journal writes:
Pope Francis, who has made the environment a signature cause of his pontificate, said he was strongly considering adding the category of "ecological sin" to the Catholic Church's official compendium of teachings.

Comment: Clearly the Pope has been recruited. He's got all the talking points in order (he must be a fan of Greta). By endorsing the climate change narrative, Catholics the world over will be forced to accept severe 'Green New Deal' style austerity measures or face the consequence of going to hell. Quite brilliantly diabolical!

See also:

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Stock Down

Clinton Foundation files $16.8 MILLION loss

Steve Watson
Summit News
Tue, 19 Nov 2019 13:52 UTC
hillary clinton
Hillary Clinton's name is pure poison and no one in their right mind wants anything to do with her.

This is evidenced nowhere more in the fact that the Clinton Foundation has gone from turning over a revenue of almost $400 million in 2013, to actually LOSING almost $33 million since Donald Trump wiped the floor with Hillary in 2016.

Newly released tax records show that the foundation reported a loss of almost $17 million in 2018, to add to the net loss of $16.1 million the previous year in 2017.
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Snakes in Suits

How EU foreign policy chief spent 5 years pandering to Israel

David Cronin
Electronic Intifada
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 12:00 UTC
Netanyahu
© European UnionFederica Mogherini has constantly indulged Benjamin Netanyahu during her time as EU foreign policy chief.
Federica Mogherini is closing her term as the European Union's foreign policy chief in much the same way that she kicked it off: by pandering to Israel.

Shortly after taking up her post in 2014, Mogherini paid a visit to Benjamin Netanyahu. She assured the Israeli prime minister that he could "count on the European Union" to build a "new start."

Mogherini was vague about what the "new start" would entail. Nonetheless, she has brought some degree of innovation - though not in a positive sense - to international relations.

Comment: See also:

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Windsock

US cancels civil-nuclear-cooperation waiver for Iran


RFE/RL
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 21:10 UTC
Natanz
A photo reportedly shows a truck carrying nuclear fuel leaving the Natanz nuclear power plant in the central Iranian province of Isfahan to the underground Fordow facility on November 6.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is canceling one of four sanctions waivers that allowed foreign firms to cooperate with Iran's civilian nuclear program without penalties.

The waivers are some of the last remaining provisions of a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from last year. Under the 2015 deal, Tehran pledged to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

Pompeo told a news conference on November 18 that the waiver for Iran's Fordow site will be eliminated in mid-December. Iran has recently stepped up uranium enrichment at the facility.

Comment: And so the US opens yet another avenue for sanction threats to countries that would, otherwise, choose to work with Iran:

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TV

RT Spanish pulled from broadcasting in Ecuador 'because they gave me platform' - Correa


RT
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 17:10 UTC
correa
© AFP / Aris Oikonomou
Former leader of Ecuador Rafael Correa believes his country's national broadcaster suddenly cut its distribution of RT Spanish simply because the channel gave him a platform to air views critical of Lenin Moreno's government.

"I am very sorry, I feel bad, because I think the National Telecommunications Corporation has cut off RT's broadcast because of me," Correa, who hosts a weekly political talk show on the channel, said.

"In this particular case it looks like RT is being censored simply because they offered me a platform for my program."

Correa's comments come days after Ecuador's National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) decided to cease its broadcast of RT Spanish without prior notice or explanation.

Comment: It's a sure sign of RT's independent coverage that governments including the US, the UK and France, have all tried to ban or hinder their work at one time or another:

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Pistol

Bolivia's U.S. appointed president has given the military a license to kill protestors

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Jeanine Áñez Bolivia
The de facto and unelected president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, signed a decree that exempts all military personnel from being criminally responsible, even in the cases of murder, in the midst of demonstrations against the coup d'etat that ousted democratically elected first Indigenous President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Effectively, Bolivian security forces have a license to kill now.

Since the decree was signed last Thursday, it has inevitably caused controversy with demonstrators and social media users alike. And it very well should - it is a blatant U.S.-orchestrated coup against Morales who helped his country reduce unemployment, poverty and illiteracy by at least 50% from 2006 to 2018, and liberated his country from strangling neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The decree was immediately denounced by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), by Morales, and by regional leaders such as the newly elected president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández.

Comment: US 'coup d'état': Bolivian President Evo Morales announces his resignation, UPDATES

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Newspaper

Spain: How an "impossible" governing coalition was clinched in an hour

Carlos E. Cué‌
El Pais
Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:37 UTC
Podemos
© Andrea ComasThe leader of PSOE, Pedro Sánchez and the leader of Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, sign the coalition agreement between their parties.
Spain's caretaker prime minister, Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE), finally decided to agree on a coalition government with the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos on Sunday night.

At that point, the repeat election of November 10 had given him a victory with 120 seats in the 350-strong lower house of parliament, but nowhere near enough for a governing majority.

Instead of gaining strength as Sánchez had mistakenly anticipated, the PSOE lost three seats from the previous election of April 28. And the far-right party Vox surged to become the third-largest force in Congress with 52 representatives.

And so a deal that had seemed impossible for all of six months suddenly became a reality in a one-hour meeting at La Moncloa, the seat of government. On Tuesday Sánchez and Unidas Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias signed a preliminary agreement and embraced in front of the cameras.

Comment: It's rather telling as to the state of Western politics that stale mates and coalitions between traditional parties are becoming the norm meanwhile we're seeing a rise in votes for populist parties as well as for the far-right:

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Rocket

S-400 Deal: India pays $850 Mn to Russia via 'Special' system to avert sanctions - Report


News Nation Bureau
Fri, 15 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Russia says the S-400 is a cutting-edge air defence system that can detect and shoot down targets including ballistic missiles, enemy jets and drones up to 600 km away.
S-400 System
© New Nation BureauThe S-400 missile system can simultaneously shell 36 targets moving at a speed of up to 4,800 metres per second with 72 ground-to-air missiles.
India has reportedly paid the first instalment of $850 million to Russia as part of the S-400 deal. The payment was made via special arrangements in order to avert the US sanctions. The S-400 Triumph Deal was inked between India and Russia in October last year. The mega defence deal worth $5.4 billion will give five S-400 missile systems to India. According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the first instalment was paid by India in September. The hush-hush way in which the payment was made was to avoid the US sanction under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

This the second time that a report has spoken about the payment. Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov was quoted by state-owned broadcaster Rossiya-1 saying that, "The advance payment has been received and everything will be delivered in strict accordance with the schedule, within about 18-19 months."

Comment: See also:

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Folder

Michael Lynk's UN report on Israeli settlements speaks the truth - but the world refuses to listen

Robert Fisk
Independent
Fri, 15 Nov 2019 08:41 UTC
Israeli settlements
© Mahmoud Illean/ReutersPompeo stated on 18 Nov. 2019 that the US will no longer abide by 1978 State Department opinion that settlements are against international law.
He's a very tall man with bright eyes and a broad smile, and he holds out a great paw when he greets you. But Michael Lynk is no gentle giant.

He may teach human rights law at the Western University in London, Ontario, but as the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, he has to endure the fury of Israel and its acolytes abroad - not least in his native Canada - and, two years ago, even the enmity of his own country's foreign minister.

In his latest UN report, he reminds readers that the creation of Israel's "civilian settlements" in occupied territory is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a "war crime" under the Rome Statute. So you can see why the 67-year old Lynk, a labour lawyer by training, has been having a tough time since his appointment to the voluntary, unpaid UN post three years ago.

When Lynk was appointed special rapporteur, Stephane Dion, then Justin Trudeau's foreign minister, spotted that UN Watch, a pro-Israeli lobby, had called Lynk "antisemitic" - the usual slur for anyone who criticises the actions of the Israeli government - and suggested that he be forced to resign. Dion soon lost his foreign minister's job and his career went downhill.

Lynk's went in the other direction. He became a gadfly to all who stand accused of breaking international law in the Middle East. Hamas is certainly not spared in his report; he accuses the Islamist militia in charge of Gaza of "beatings, arbitrary arrest and detentions, and torture and ill treatment" of hundreds of Palestinian protestors. But the opposition to him wasn't about his even-handedness.

"Dion took these shoddy arguments [from UN Watch] and used them to re-tweet his opposition to my appointment," Lynk told me. "I would have thought a former academic would have looked at my writings before saying this - but I guess he was just the 'politician Dion'. I always find it surprising that someone could be deemed radical for insisting on the functioning of international law."

Comment: A few days after Robert Fisk penned this article, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, declared his government's decision that Israel's West Bank settlements are NOT illegal.
Pompeo repudiated a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the occupied territories are 'inconsistent with international law.'

[...]The Trump administration views the opinion, the basis for long-standing U.S. opposition to expanding the settlements, as a distraction and believes any legal questions about the issue should be addressed by Israeli courts, Pompeo said.

'Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,' Pompeo said. 'The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.'


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Fire

Fanning the flames: US says Israel's West Bank settlements are NOT illegal


Daily Mail
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:43 UTC
palestinian flipping the bird
A Palestinian protester flashes an obscene gesture at Israeli soldiers (unseen) during a weekly demonstration against Israel settlement construction on November 8
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that the U.S. is softening its position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that weaken Palestinian claims to statehood.

Pompeo repudiated a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the occupied territories are 'inconsistent with international law.' The move angered Palestinians and immediately put the U.S. at odds with other nations working to end the conflict.

The Trump administration views the opinion, the basis for long-standing U.S. opposition to expanding the settlements, as a distraction and believes any legal questions about the issue should be addressed by Israeli courts, Pompeo said.

'Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,' Pompeo said. 'The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.'

U.S. moves that have weakened Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood have included President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the movement of the U.S. Embassy to that city and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

Comment: Outrage erupts over Trump administration's 'legalization' of (still-illegal) Israeli settlements in West Bank
In an effort to downplay the change, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision came as a result of a "legal review" of the State Department opinion on the settlements from 1978, but reactions exploded both domestically and internationally.

While most US politicians avoided immediately confronting the president on Israel - always a third-rail topic in Washington - Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders slammed Trump for "isolating the United States and undermining diplomacy by pandering to his extremist base" in a tweet.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini renewed calls for Israel to "end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power," following the announcement. An EU court ruled last week that all goods originating in Israeli settlements must be labeled as such.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned the move would have "dangerous consequences" on the possibility of peace in the Middle East.

Others pointed out that aiding and abetting a breach of international law made the US complicit in Israel's crimes. Amnesty International has deemed Israeli settlements in occupied territories a war crime.



"Trump can't wipe away with this announcement decades of established international law that Israeli settlements are a war crime," Human Rights Watch's Kenneth Roth tweeted, adding "Trump doesn't read, but we do," and pointing to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Some commenters wondered at who the move was supposed to appeal to, since "US Jews massively reject Trump." A few mused whether this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back regarding a backlash against Israel.


Others merely snarked at the mushy headlines US media used to cover the announcement.



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