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Obama pins climate change on 'mommy issues' without specifying it's Trump he's speaking ill of


RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:48 UTC
Obama
© Reuters / Lehtikuva
Former President Barack Obama cattily ripped on his successor in a long-winded speech to a room full of his young acolytes Monday night as a part of a two-day "leadership summit" named in honor of himself.

Obama slammed President Trump during an onstage conversation with writer Dave Eggers, opining that "the reason we don't" address climate change "is because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism - mommy issues." While Obama has conspicuously avoided using the president's name since Trump took over as Commander in Chief, there was little question as to the target of his remarks.

Speaking in front of a giant Obama.org banner at the Obama Foundation Summit, the former president pressed on, proclaiming, "we are - we are fraught with stuff," and emphasizing the country's very specific need to "invest in people. We got to get people to figure out how they work together in ... a cooperative, thoughtful, constructive way."

Comment: Obama's comments are very rich with sickening irony considering all the divisiveness and destruction he's responsible for domestically and globally. But, hey, at $400,000 a pop he can afford to be a little hypocritical, no?

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Light Saber

Tulsi Gabbard lays smack-down on Trump, says being Saudi Arabia's 'bitch' is not 'America First'

John Bowden
The Hill
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 23:17 UTC
Tulsi Gabbard
© Alex Wong/Getty Images
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has distinguished herself with an anti-interventionist approach to foreign policy and the Middle East.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) took aim at President Trump on Wednesday over his comments regarding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who disappeared after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.

Gabbard wrote on Twitter that "being Saudi Arabia's bitch" did not align with the president's campaign theme of "America First," a day after Trump indicated that Saudi Arabia would not face severe consequences over Khashoggi's death.


Her comments came after Trump, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, indicated that the U.S. would not sanction Saudi Arabia or otherwise punish the country over Khashoggi's death. Their stance drew criticism from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as politicians in both parties accused the White House looking the other way when it came to the Saudi government's alleged crimes.

Comment: Gabbard easily won reelection because she is saying things that no other politician dares to say. McCain is just upset that Gabbard supports diplomacy and the legitimate leader of Syria over the terrorists her father favored.

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Pirates

Senate Foreign Relations Committee 'demands' Trump determination on the Crown Prince's involvement in Khashoggi killing

Burgess Everett
Politico
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 23:17 UTC
Sen. Bob Corker
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
“I never thought I’d see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” Sen. Bob Corker said on Twitter.
The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is demanding a definitive determination from President Donald Trump about whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In a letter to Trump, the panel's chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and ranking member, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), specifically asked on Tuesday whether the administration believed that bin Salman was involved in the murder of Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post and was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last month. Trump gave no ruling on bin Salman's involvement in a statement earlier Tuesday that largely sided with Saudi Arabia, declaring that "maybe he did and maybe he didn't!"

Comment: Puleeze! The White House and the US media has always acted 'as a public relations firm' for Saudi Arabia. This is nothing new, and all the Senate committee is doing is maintaining pressure on Saudi Arabia to keep them in line with US foriegn policy. They obviously haven't any genuine concern over this since human rights violations and the Kingdom are peas in a pod.

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Airplane

United Nations environment chief resigns after frequent flying revelations

Damian Carrington
The Guardian, UK
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 12:56 UTC
Erik Solheim resigns
© Natalia Mroz/Unep
The UN's environment chief, Erik Solheim, has resigned following severe criticism of his global travels and internal rule-breaking which led some nations to withhold their funding.

The Guardian understands Solheim was asked to resign by the UN secretary general, António Guterres. Sources at the UN Environment Programme (Unep) said that countries unhappy with Solheim's conduct were holding back tens of millions of dollars, threatening a financial crisis at the body.

A draft internal UN audit leaked to the Guardian in September found Solheim had spent almost $500,000 (£390,000) on air travel and hotels in just 22 months, and was away 80% of the time. The audit said this was a "reputation risk" for an organisation dedicated to fighting climate change.

A UN staff union leader called some of the revelations "mind-blowing" and a prominent climate scientist accused Solheim of "obscene CO2 hypocrisy".


Comment: Speaking of 'obscene CO2 hypocrisy':
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Brick Wall

White House approves use of force, some law enforcement roles for troops at the border

Tara Copp
Military Times
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 14:53 UTC
Trump admin approves use of force at border
© Military Times
The White House late Tuesday signed a memo allowing troops stationed at the border to engage in some law enforcement roles and use lethal force, if necessary - a move that legal experts have cautioned may run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act.

The new "Cabinet order" was signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not President Donald Trump. It allows "Department of Defense military personnel" to "perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary" to protect border agents, including "a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention and cursory search."

There are approximately 5,900 active-duty troops and 2,100 National Guard forces deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Some of those activities, including crowd control and detention, may run into potential conflict with the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. If crossed, the erosion of the act's limitations could represent a fundamental shift in the way the U.S. military is used, legal experts said.
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Info

No Trump, Pakistan did everything the US wanted, and got nothing in return

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:33 UTC
Imran Khan i Trump
The Pakistani Prime Minister is correct in pointing out how much his country did for the US in response to Trump's disrespectful attack against it this weekend.

One of Trump's prerecorded interviews aired this weekend where the American President attacked Pakistan for supposedly doing nothing for the US during the nearly two decades that the two Great Powers have been notionally "allied" in the War on Terror. He mocked the country for supposedly knowing about Bin Laden's alleged whereabouts in Abbottabad, implying that it was only leeching off of American taxpayers this entire time and was never serious about fighting terrorism in exchange for aid. Trump's insults might have went unanswered under previous administrations, but Prime Minister Khan's "Naya Pakistan" ("New Pakistan") made a point to directly reply to him on the President's favorite medium, Twitter. In a series of hard-hitting tweets, the Pakistani leader protected his country's reputation by responding with the following clarification:
"Record needs to be put straight on Mr Trump's tirade against Pakistan:
  1. No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pak decided to participate in US War on Terror.
  2. Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123 bn was lost to economy. US "aid" was a miniscule $20 bn.
  3. Our tribal areas were devastated & millions of ppl uprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted lives of ordinary Pakistanis.
  4. Pak continues to provide free lines of ground & air communications(GLOCs/ALOCs).
Can Mr Trump name another ally that gave such sacrifices?

Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before."

Comment: See also: Trump announces end to foreign aid for Pakistan - Imran Kahn responds: 'Thanks for nothing'

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Star of David

Israeli 'Justice' Minister says Trump's peace plan is a waste of time


Times of Israel
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:12 UTC
Ayelet Shaked

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
Amid speculation that US President Donald Trump is looking to roll out his administration's peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians in February, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Wednesday that she would counsel the American leader that any such proposal was "a waste of time."

"I think that the gap between the Palestinians and the Israelis is much too big to be bridged," she said in an English-language interview on stage at the Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference.


Comment: She's actually correct. The Israelis are simply unwilling to concede anything. The continued existence of their state requires that they never find a solution - because their state is built upon anti-democratic principles, ethnic cleansing and theft. That's the real reason all previous efforts have failed: the Israelis only ever put up a pretense of negotiating with no intention of finding a solution the Palestinians would find acceptable.


She added: "I think personally it's a waste of time. Although I want peace like anyone else, I think I'm just more realistic. And I know that in the current future, it is impossible."

In a possible concession to diplomatic niceties, she added, "But let's wait and see what [the Trump administration] will offer."

Trump was set to hold a meeting with top advisers this week to review his administration's peace plan and discuss the timing for its release, according to a television report on Sunday.

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Sherlock

Welcome to dictatorship? What lies behind France's controversial 'fake news' law


RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:56 UTC
french parliament
© Reuters / REUTERS/Charles Platiau
French parliament has passed a controversial law to tackle 'fake news'. Approved ahead of the European election and clearly targeting foreign media, it is feared it could jeopardize democracy and censor press.

The National Assembly finally adopted the law, advocated by President Emmanuel Macron, against "the manipulation of information" during the country's election campaigns on Tuesday. The legislation which had been rejected by the Senate earlier this year, 'crowns' the president's campaign to clamp down on what he calls 'destabilization' attempts, aka 'fake news'.

The bill allows a candidate or party to appeal to a judge to stop the dissemination of "false information" during the three month period preceding any ballot, be it a vote to choose the French president or the European Parliament election. The latter is taking place in May 2019. The legislation mainly targets those media controlled by foreign states.

The primary goal of the law is to target those who sponsor the spread of fake news, Bruno Studer, a deputy of the Bas-Rhin department from Macron's ruling LREM party explains, adding that it will fight the spread of fake facts, not opinions.
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Cut

Mississippi run-off: Walmart withdraws campaign donations to Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on basis of 'public hanging' remark

Dartunorro Clark
NBC News
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 10:28 UTC
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
© Chris Todd/EPA (file photo)
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith talks to supporters in in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 6, 2018.
Walmart on Tuesday said it was "requesting a refund" from the campaign of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after the company came under pressure to distance itself from the Mississippi lawmaker's "public hanging" remark.

Campaign finance records show that the company made a $2,000 donation on Nov. 18, nearly a week after a video of Hyde-Smith saying she would be "on the front row" if a supporter invited her to "a public hanging" went viral. Records also show the company gave a $1,000 contribution to her campaign this past June.

The retail giant announced its decision to withdraw its support from Hyde-Smith in response to actress Debra Messing, who tweeted about the issue on Monday.

"Hi Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smith's recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations," the company said in a tweet.


Comment: It's hard to avoid the notion that they did this as part of a campaign to ensure as many seats for the Dems as possible...

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Attention

Washington's dirty fight against China's OBOR project

Joseph Thomas
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
The SRoad
© Agoracom
Five years into China's ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative sees analysts and political circles around the globe taking stock of Beijing's progress.

This includes the Wall Street Journal in its article, "U.S. Fights China for Influence, One Project at a Time: Washington prods private sector and focuses on financing as Beijing's 'Belt and Road' hits obstacles." What the article reveals and what the article omits, speaks volumes of America's response, or lack thereof. The article claims:
The U.S. has launched a new strategy aimed at ramping up investment in Asia to vie with Chinese President Xi Jinping's overseas infrastructure-building spree, as Beijing grapples with setbacks to its sprawling program.
The WSJ would explain:
In October, President Trump signed into law the Build Act, which creates a new development finance agency that offers loans, loan guarantees and political-risk insurance to private companies.

The Build Act allows for $60 billion in U.S. development financing around the world under the new agency, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. The IDFC merges existing programs, doubles the current agency's spending cap and has the authority to own equity stakes in projects, giving it more flexibility to choose and guide them.
Yet what development this scheme will fund was curiously absent from both the WSJ's article, and has been consistently absent from statements being made by Washington. While the article claims China has a "head start," the reality is that Washington has had a head start of about half a century in the realm of both primacy over Asia and in spurring development.

Comment: See also:

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