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'Big fat brick into hornet's nest': Trump calls invasion of Iraq 'worst decision ever'


RT
Sun, 04 Mar 2018 23:01 UTC
Trump
© Alex Brandon/AP
US President Donald Trump has reportedly scorched former President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq, calling it "worst decision ever made" and compared the war to throwing a "big fat brick" into hornet's nest.

The remarks were made by Trump during a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday, CNN reported, claiming it obtained a recording of the event. Trump reportedly turned on Bush over his decision on to invade Iraq in 2003.

"Here we are, like the dummies of the world, because we had bad politicians running our country for a long time," Trump said, adding that the Iraq invasion was "the single worst decision ever made," amounting to "throwing a big fat brick into a hornet's nest."

Trump also mocked the Intelligence Community for providing faulty "evidence" that was supposed to prove Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "That was Bush. Another real genius. That was Bush," Trump said. "That turned out to be wonderful intelligence. You know? Great intelligence agency there."

Comment: Insightful, but are there lessons to be learned from this blight of US history that have not translated into today's arena? If Trump is expressing this, he has his work cut out for him given what he thinks and what is diktat beyond his control. Citizens have to lock in support.

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No Entry

Czech PM rejects European Union's migrant quotas


Voice of Europe
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 20:29 UTC
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis
© Photo credits: yakub88 / Shutterstock.com
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis
The new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, said there's no way the country's government will accept refugees as part of the European Union's quota system.

"We certainly will not accept anybody. We are resolutely against anybody dictating to us who should live and work in our country. These quotas divide Europe and they are not effective", Babis told the Czech parliament.

Comment: See also: Czech PM says no to accepting 'large Muslim community'

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Red Flag

Russian senators determine that 'opposition' movement is seeing more funding from foreign sponsors


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:18 UTC
opposition procession
© Maxim Blinov / Sputnik
Foreign sponsors boost funding of Russia’s opposition, upper house commission claims
Participants of the opposition procession and rally of protest against the Russian election system in Moscow
Russian senators have registered an increase in foreign funding to various Russian opposition movements and politicians, but added that external sponsors had become more careful in hiding their schemes.

The report from the upper house Commission for Protection of State Sovereignty released on Monday reads that the signals about the increase in foreign donations that various minor and non-registered opposition groups receive from abroad were arriving from all over the Russian Federation - from the westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad to the Russian Far East.

"Western interference programs are being used with much more caution and quite often under disguise so that the recipients of this funding can fail to understand that they are being influenced," the authors of the research noted.

Comment: Washington and it's NGO's are absolutely determined to undermine Russia's sovereignty using any and all means possible; the use of 'soft power' being just one of them: And in response, Russia has taken the following steps:

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Arrow Down

Another Naftogaz fail: Ukraine is overpaying for European gas & wants Russia to foot the bill


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 18:00 UTC
man wheelbarrow firewood
© Konstantin Chernichkin / Reuters
A man prepares firewood at the village
Kiev was forced to buy expensive gas in Europe after Russia's state-run company Gazprom severed contracts with Ukraine and refused to deliver the fuel in March. Now, Ukraine is demanding that Russia pays the price difference.

"According to operational data, the average weighted price of gas from European suppliers in March this year exceeded the price of gas from Gazprom (after its decline in accordance with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration) by 33.9 percent. All this overpayment will be billed to Gazprom," Ukraine's Naftogaz Commercial Director Yury Vitrenko wrote on Facebook.

Previously, Vitrenko said that, because of the gas shortage in Ukraine, the country was forced to buy gas in Europe for four times Gazprom's price.

Comment:

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Chart Pie

Renzi reportedly to step down as Italian Democratic Party leader after election defeat


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 17:25 UTC
renzi
© Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
The leader of Italy's Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, has decided to step down after Sunday's general election rout, Ansa news agency reported. Renzi's spokesman, however, said he can't confirm it.

A center-left bloc led by the ex-prime minister's party scored some 23 percent, according to the election results. It now trails the center-right bloc of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the Euroskeptic Lega Nord as well as the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

Renzi's spokesman told Reuters that he had heard nothing about any decision to step down.

"This is a very clear defeat for us," Michele Martina, a top figure in Renzi's party, told reporters earlier on Monday. "We are expecting a result below our expectations... This is very clearly a negative result for us," he said.

Comment: Salvini's rallying cry: "Europe should be rebuilt around people, not bureaucracy."
salvini
© Alberico / Fotogramma / Ropi / Global Look Press
Election campaign of the Northern League leader Matteo Salvini (C). Italy, Milan
See also: Head of Italy's ultra-nationalist Lega Nord party Matteo Salvini vows to kick out 100k migrants per year if elected PM

And just for laughs: Propaganda Alert! Washington think-tanks: 'Russian bots are influencing Italian election'

Confirmed: Renzi has stepped down.

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Bad Guys

What sanctions? Trade surges between Russia and Germany


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 17:06 UTC
European girl boy
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
With EU sanctions against Russia still in effect, trade between Germany and Russia grew significantly for the first time in five years, according to the German Federal Statistical Office, as cited by local media.

German exports to Russia increased to €25.9 billion ($31.9 billion) in 2017, while imports from the sanctioned state grew to €31.4 billion ($38.7 billion) in the same year. The figures represent a 20.2 percent rise in exports and an 18.7 percent growth in imports, according to the Wiesbaden-based agency.
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Propaganda

House intel chair Nunes says balanced media 'is dead' in America


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 16:57 UTC
nunes FBI memo
© Nicholas Kamm / Agence France-Presse
Devin Nunes
Chairman of the House Intel Committee Devin Nunes (R-California) believes fair media in the US "no longer exists" and that 90 percent of it is "far left" - even calling the media "part of the Democratic Party's network."

Nunes made the comments during a lengthy interview on the Fox News Channel Sunday show Life, Liberty & Levin with conservative host Mark Levin. "The media in this country is dead," he said. "It no longer exists and the American people need to understand this."

Nunes made the criticism when Levin asked him about the media's coverage of a controversial GOP memo written by Nunes and published last month. It contained accusations of bias against President Donald Trump within the FBI and raised doubts about the Democrats' favored narrative of "collusion" between Trump and Russia.
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Bad Guys

US establishment lies through its teeth to foment hostility against Russia

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 03 Mar 2018 16:05 UTC
Hillary Clinton
The same people, Republicans and Democrats, who lied through their teeth for an invasion of Iraq in 2003, are doing it again for an invasion of Russia, sometime soon, so as to 'defend' 'democracy'. The US has by now swallowed up virtually all lands surrounding Russia, at least in Europe, the latest being Ukraine, and is placing its missiles now on and near Russia's borders, which is to Russians like would be to Americans if Russia had swallowed up Canada and were placing its missiles there.

But the lying holier-than-thou US Establishment accuses Russia of being 'aggressive' when Russia holds war-games on and near its borders in order to prepare for a US-NATO invasion, which actually looks increasingly likely to them every day - and not because of 'Russian propaganda', but because of the US Government's actions.

Comment: The likelihood of the United States making any overt moves to actually 'invade Russia' is incredibly small. While they may surround Russia with military bases and inundate Western populations with massive amounts of propaganda, the US has little ability to go beyond such measures. Its military is stretched too thin, they have very little credibility among ordinary Russians, the majority of average Americans are sick of war, and on top of all that the US as a general policy doesn't go head to head with an opponent who can fight back. And Putin just made it clear that Russia can deliver a devastating blow if necessary.

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Fire

Stockholm tribunal awards Ukraine a win against Russia in gas dispute, but victory may be hollow

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 16:35 UTC
Naftogaz Gazprom Russia Ukraine
In a conflict in which Ukraine repeatedly claims victories which in reality turn out to be defeats, Ukraine did win finally win a genuine victory over Russia at the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal on Wednesday 28th February 2018.

The victory came in the litigation between Russia's monopoly gas exporter gas exporter Gazprom and Ukraine's national gas company Naftogaz.

After having previously rejected all of Naftogaz's arguments against the legality of its gas supply contracts with Gazprom, and after having ordered Naftogaz to pay Gazprom $2 billion for unpaid gas, the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal ordered on Wednesday 28th February 2018 that Gazprom owed Naftogaz $4.7 billion for its failure to supply agreed volumes for transit.

Comment: Though Russia may sentimentally view Ukraine as a 'little brother', she is having to apply some tough love to its insane government. Ukraine may need to suffer some more before figuring out their Western 'friends' are only using Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia.

Gazprom finally fed up: Terminates gas supply contract with Ukraine's Naftogaz

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Arrow Up

Syrian Army advances further in Eastern Ghouta following string of hard-won successes


Sputnik
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 16:12 UTC
Eastern Ghouta shelling
© Agence France-Presse/Stringer
A general view taken from a government-held area in Damascus shows smoke rising from the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the Syrian capital following fresh air strikes and rocket fire on February 27, 2018
Though the situation in Eastern Ghouta has been deteriorating day after day, ever since February 18, the Syrian regular army appears to be seeing at least some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Syrian government says it has achieved "significant" progress in its ongoing military operation in Eastern Ghouta, a vast suburban area around the capital, Damascus. The authorities reported having seized about one third of the total area held by different armed militant groups scattered all around Ghouta.

Syria's Central Military Media says troops are continuing to advance from the east and are only within 3 kilometers, or 1.8 miles, from the military regiments moving in their direction from the west, which means Eastern Ghouta has been in essence divided into two parts. Syria's SANA news agency reported that the success of the Syrian army has sent terrorists into a state of disarray and collapse.
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