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Ocasio-Cortez calls Politico 'anti-Semitic' for pointing out Bernie Sanders is rich


RT
Mon, 27 May 2019 09:34 UTC
Bernie Sanders anti-semitic money tree Politico tweet
© Politico
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted Politico for using anti-Semitic tropes in its scathing profile of Bernie Sanders. In a piece focused on his 'wealth', the presidential hopeful is shown next to a 'money tree'.

The Friday cover of Politico Magazine is graced by the image of Bernie Sanders, the only Jewish candidate in the packed Democratic presidential race, standing against the backdrop of a tree with dollar bills instead of leaves and a luxury mansion. The article, titled 'The Secret of Bernie's Millions', contrasts Sanders' socialist inclinations with being "a three-home-owning millionaire with a net worth approaching at least $2 million."

Politico's Michael Kruse does not pull any punches in his review of Sanders' political career, with colorful passages like: "The champion of the underclass and castigator of 'the 1 percent' has found himself in the socioeconomic penthouse of his rhetorical bogeymen." He describes Sanders' 2016 presidential run, effectively hijacked by the Clinton camp and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), as "the most lucrative thing he's ever done."
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Quenelle

UN maritime convention can't be applied to Kerch Strait incident because Russia opted out decades ago


RT
Sun, 26 May 2019 13:05 UTC
ukraine navy
© Russia's Federal Security Service / Sputnik
Ukrainian naval vessels seized by Russia on November 25, 2018.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is urging Russia to hand over Ukrainian ships and crew detained for "border violation" off Crimea in 2018. Moscow has hit back, saying the body has no jurisdiction here.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Moscow had made an opt-out while ratifying the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which now effectively "excludes" its rules from being applied to the case with Ukraine. The opt-out in question allows Russia not to follow the international rulings on issues of its borders, military and national security.

Stressing this point, the ministry again lamented the "irresponsible" behavior of Ukrainian sailors during the incident almost a year ago.

Comment: See also: Drama in the Kerch Strait: A desperate ploy by West to undermine upcoming Trump/Putin meet

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Black Magic

Stoltenberg: 'NATO to adopt new strategy' - but can't say what it is


RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 15:52 UTC
NATO

FILE PHOTO. Global Look Press / Kay Nietfeld
NATO 'experts' have developed an updated strategy, the bloc's chief Jens Stoltenberg revealed. And one doesn't have to look for long for an explanation, with 'bad Russia' conveniently cited as a reason for the overhaul.

"Our military experts have adopted a new military strategy for the alliance this week," NATO's Secretary General Stoltenberg told Germany's Die Welt.

The very ability to come up with a new strategy, according to NATO's chief, shows the alliance's strength, since "we are able to change when necessary."

No actual details about the strategy have emerged at this point. The need for an updated document was explained by Stoltenberg as a reaction to a "new security situation," as well as "challenges in the east and the south." The top brass also did not miss out on the opportunity to cite a commonly hyped "nuclear threat" from Moscow as one of the reasons.

Comment: See also:

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Target

Trump attacks Military Industrial Complex and calls for infrastructure investments in the Middle East

Matthew Ehret
Strategic Culture
Thu, 23 May 2019 19:51 UTC
US F-35 fighter jet
© Andy Wolfe / Reuters
For the first time in over half a century, an American President has actually come out attacking the Military Industrial Complex. Of course, everyone knows of President Dwight D. Eisenhauer's famous outgoing 1961 speech warning the world (and the incoming President Kennedy) what sort of monster had arisen at the heart of America's defense institutions. Very little on the matter was said on the frightening topic by decades of political leaders who rose to prominence in the shadow of JFK's corpse. Instead, the beast grew like a malignant cancer over the ensuing years as a major branch of the British-run deep state that carried out a coup with Sir Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in 1946 and the MI6-directed re-organization of American intelligence with the creation of the CIA in 1947.

After John F. Kennedy's assassination, networks of neoconservative contaminated all branches of government in both parties bringing the USA into a frenzied military doctrine centered on regime change wars, oil-centered geopolitics and unipolarism totally uncharacteristic with the better constitutional traditions of the nation. This geopolitical doctrine nearly drove the west into a full military confrontation with Russia and China in recent years.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Sanders tweet-burns neocon fossil Bill Kristol over 'foolish' pushing for Iraq war, asks where his apology is


RT
Sun, 26 May 2019 20:48 UTC
Iraq war
© Khalid al-Mousily / Reuters
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took a swipe at neoconservative Bill Kristol for his "foolish advocacy of the Iraq war," and questioned whether he had apologized to the country for it yet.

Sanders was responding to a tweet Kristol sent that said, "#Never Sanders," and linked to a New York Times article about the longtime Vermont senator's opposition to war.

"Have you apologized to the nation for your foolish advocacy of the Iraq war?" Sanders tweeted, adding he makes "no apologies for opposing it."

Sanders' record of opposing wars like Vietnam and Iraq, and US meddling in Nicaragua, has recently been highlighted by the media as the 2020 presidential primaries approach.

Comment: William Kristol is a war criminal, pure and simple. The amount of blood on his hands can hardly be calculated.

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Bullseye

'Negotiating with the devil bears no fruit' - IRGC on talks with US


RT
Sun, 26 May 2019 12:23 UTC
us iran
© FILE PHOTO simon2579 / Getty Images
Talking with Washington is akin to talking with the devil, a senior official with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said, downplaying the US military presence in the region as the "weakest in history."

"Negotiating with the devil, the Quran says, bears no fruit," the deputy commander of the IRGC, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, said, as cited by Fars News Agency.

Fadavi made his remarks while talking about the longtime lack of effective negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

He also did not mince his words on the state of the US military presence in the region, labeling it the "weakest in [its] history." The influence of Saudi Arabia, a US major ally and arms-buyer, in the Middle East has also been diminished over the years, the official added.


Comment: However: Weapons worth $8 billion headed to Middle East without congressional approval


Comment: He's simply speaking the truth; as Pepe Escobar notes in Iran squeezed between imperial psychos and European cowards:
Professor Mohammad Marandi at the Faculty of World Studies of the University of Tehran offers quite a sobering perspective: [...]

"Iranians have been preparing for war with the Unites States ever since the Iraq invasion in 2003. After what they've seen in Libya, in Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, they know that the Americans and Europeans are utterly brutal.
See also:

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Magnify

Ukraine appoints 'Russian agent' as Army chief, claims that the Crimea was lost long before 2014

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ
Sun, 26 May 2019 12:00 UTC
Ruslan Khomchak

Newly appointed Chief of the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief Ruslan Khomchak
In a major development, the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, acknowledged that the Crimea actually became Russian long before 2014. Of note to readers, is that General Khomchak is widely reviled in ultra-nationalist circles that comprise the volunteer battalions that are sanctioned by the UAF. He is accused across their media and campaigns as a traitor and 'Russian agent'.

According to UNIAN, the general said that he had the impression that Crimea was already Russian when he went to there to rest in 2010, having bought a ticket to a vacation spot in Alupka. He said that he was "shocked" by what he saw in the city, and decided not to go there again to rest.

"It was a bad remnant of the Soviet Union ... I asked myself the question, am I in Ukraine? I did not understand where I was. So, the seizure of the Crimea began much earlier, " quotes the words of Khomchak UNIAN.


Comment: And just look at Crimea now: German MPs impressed on Crimea visit while Ukraine throws a tantrum


Comment: See also:

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Hardhat

Are Rare Earth Metals China's Ultimate Weapon?

F. William Engdahl
New Easter Outlook
Sun, 26 May 2019 19:52 UTC
china minerals
In the dramatic escalation of tariff escalations and trade war tensions between China and the USA, China President Xi Jinping made a well-timed visit to see the JL Mag Rare-Earth Company Ltd., a state-owned complex in Ganzhou. Though he did not openly threaten, he sent a clear psychological message to Washington that China has more weapons in its arsenal to pressure the Trump Administration. What is the nature of the China role in rare earth minerals mining and how serious is the likelihood they could weaponize it?

In a May 20 article the China government paper, Global Times, wrote of the Xi Jinping visit, "The visit [is] seen as a sign of backing from the top leadership for the domestic rare-earth industry." They further noted not so subtly, "Many have suggested that China should limit rare-earth exports to the US as a countermeasure to the US decision to slap tariffs on Chinese goods and cut supplies of semiconductors for Chinese companies." The paper makes a point to note that rare earth metals from China were "among the few items excluded from the latest US tariff list."

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

The Golden Golem strikes back

James Howard Kunstler
kunstler.com
Fri, 24 May 2019 19:26 UTC
trump storm calm February 2017
© Time.com
Not long ago, few Americans of the thinking persuasion might have imagined that such a well-engineered republic, with its exquisite checks and balances, sturdy institutions, and time-tested traditions would end up as so much smoldering goop in a national dumpster fire, but such is the sad state-of-the-union moving into the fateful summer of 2019. The castle of the permanent bureaucracy is about to be torched by an uprising of deplorable peasants led by a Golden Golem made furious by relentless litigation. It's Game of Thrones meets the Thermidorian Reaction with a Weimar-flavored cherry on top - really one for the ages!

There's perhaps a lot to dislike about Donald J. Trump, US President No. 45. Despite all the grooming and tailoring, there's little savoir faire there. He tweets not like a mellifluous songbird, but in snorts like a rooting aardvark. His every predilection is an affront to the refined Washington establishment: his dark business history, his beloved ormolu trappings, his Mickey-D cheeseburgers, the mystifying hair-doo.
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Yoda

Trump turns AG Barr loose to request any information from intelligence agencies necessary regarding Russiagate probe: "I've declassified everything"


RT
Sun, 26 May 2019 18:16 UTC
trump william barr
© Reuters / Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr
US President Donald Trump has allowed his attorney general to declassify information about what prompted the Russiagate investigation - and ordered the heads of the intelligence agencies to cooperate with the reveal.

Attorney General William Barr has been allowed to begin declassifying information related to the counterintelligence investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election as he reviews the circumstances that led the FBI to open the probe. The order also directs the "intelligence community" to "quickly and fully cooperate," providing whatever materials Barr requests.

Comment: Comment: Has Trump released the kraken, as many are celebrating? He has widened his fire to include the international stage, targeting the UK, Australia and Ukraine:
President Trump on Friday said that he wants Attorney General William Barr to investigate the UK, Australia and Ukraine for their roles in the 'greatest hoax in the history of our country.'

Speaking with reporters at the White House on Friday before his trip to Japan, Trump discussed his decision this week to issue a sweeping declassification order - leaving it in the hands of Barr to determine exactly what happened to Trump and his campaign before and after the 2016 US election.

"For over a year, people have asked me to declassify. What I've done is declassified everything," said Trump, adding "He can look and I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine."

"It's the greatest hoax probably in the history of our country and somebody has to get to the bottom of it. We'll see. For a long period of time, they wanted me to declassify and I did."

(UK, Australia, Ukraine comment at 2:30)


"This is about finding out what happened," said Trump. "What happened and when did it happen, because this was an attempted takedown of the president of the United States, and we have to find out why."

"We're exposing everything. We're being a word that you like, transparent. We're being, ultimately we're being transparent. That's what it's about. Again, this should never ever happen in our country again."

After the Mueller report made clear that Trump and his campaign had in no way conspired with Russia during hte 2016 election, Democrats immediately pivoted to whether Trump obstructed the investigation. Trump and his supporters, however, immediately pivoted to the conduct of the US intelligence community, including the involvement of foreign actors and possibly their governments.
comey clapper brennan hearing
© Gary Cameron/Reuters
Better days: James Comey, FBI Director, John Brennan, CIA Director, and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in Washington D.C. on Feb. 4, 2014.
According to a report last week, the discredited "Steele Dossier" - assembled by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele - was referred to as "crown material" in an email exchange suggesting that former FBI Director James Comey insisted that CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the dossier in the intelligence community assessment (ICA) on Russian interference.

Moreover, much of "Operation Crossfire Hurricane" - the FBI's official investigation into the Trump campaign - occurred on UK soil, which is perhaps why the New York Times reported last September that the UK begged Trump not to declassify 'Russiagate' documents 'without redaction.'

Shortly after he announced his involvement with the Trump campaign, aide George Papadopoulos was lured to London in March, 2016, where Maltese professor and self-described Clinton foundation member Joseph Mifsud fed him the rumor that Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton. It was later at a London bar that Papadopoulos would drunkenly pass the rumor to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer (who FBI agent Peter Strzok flew to London to meet with the day after Crossfire Hurricane was launched).
mifsud papadopoulos dossier

Joseph Mifsud and George Papadopoulos
Two weeks later, Papadopoulos would be bilked for information by Australian diplomat (another Clinton ally) Alexander Downer at a London bar, who relayed the Russia rumor to Australian authorities, which alerted the FBI (as the story goes), which 'officially' kicked off the US intelligence investigation.


As for Ukraine, a Ukrainian court ruled in December that the country meddled in the US election when they revealed details of suspected illegal payments to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
In 2016, while Mr. Manafort was chairman of the Trump campaign, anti-corruption prosecutors in Ukraine disclosed that a pro-Russian political party had earmarked payments for Mr. Manafort from an illegal slush fund. Mr. Manafort resigned from the campaign a week later. -New York Times
Manafort
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Paul Manafort
Last week, President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani met with a former Ukrainian diplomat, Andril Telizhenko, who has previously suggested that the DNC worked with the Kiev government in 2016 to dig up 'dirt' on then-candidate Donald Trump. Giuliani told the Washington Post in a Friday interview that Telizhenko "was in Washington and he came up to New York, and we spent most of the afternoon together," adding "When I have something to say, I'll say it."

This comes on the heels of Giuliani canceling a trip to Ukraine to meet with President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the Manafort situation.

According to The Hill's John Solomon,

A former DNC operative steeped in Trump-Russia research approached the Ukrainian government looking for 'dirt' on then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 US election, citing written answers to questions submitted to Ambassador Valeriy Chaly's office.

Chaly confirmed that DNC insider of Ukrainian heritage, Alexandra Chalupa, approached Ukraine seeking information on Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's dealings inside the country, in the hopes of exposing them to Congress.



Chalupa, who told Politico in 2017 that she had "developed a network of sources in Kiev and Washington, including investigative journalists, government officials and private intelligence operatives," said she "occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clinton's campaign.


In short, a DNC operative of Ukrainian heritage, who shared information with the Clinton campaign and worked with a convicted terrorist to spread misinformation to undermine the legitimacy of the 2016 election, approached the government of Ukraine in the hopes of obtaining "dirt" that would hurt the Trump campaign.

And Trump wants AG Barr to look at it all. He'll be visiting the UK next month, meanwhile, where he can ask outgoing PM Theresa May, or the Queen, all about it.


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