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Trump retweets claim Jewish Israelis love him like he is 'King of Israel and second coming of God' - cue controversy

trump
© KEVIN LAMARQUE/ REUTERS
Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office, Washington D.C., August 20, 2019
Donald Trump has promoted a claim that Jewish people in Israel love him like he is the "king" of the country and "the second coming of God".

"President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world...and the Jewish people in Israel love him like he's the King of Israel," tweeted Mr Trump, quoting Wayne Allyn Root, a conservative radio host known for promoting conspiracy theories.

"They love him like he is the second coming of God...But American Jews don't know him or like him. They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense!"

"But that's OK, if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's good for all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he's good for everyone in America who wants a job."

Star of David

'A volcano about to erupt': Israeli military chief praises its 'lethal army' as Gaza siege fuels increasing tensions

Avigdor Lieberman
© Israeli Ministry of Defense
Then Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman and Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi in 2018.
Here is yet another example of why you have to read the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, or Al-Jazeera, instead of the U.S. mainstream press, to learn what's actually happening in Israel/Palestine.

The Israeli paper reports that tensions are rising along the Gaza/Israel fence, as Israeli soldiers shot dead 3 armed Palestinians who were trying to cross it last weekend. Amos Harel, Haaretz's military correspondent, certainly does not support Hamas. But he is an honest reporter, and instead of reflexively blaming Hamas for that escalation, he points out that the organization is actually "losing its grip" on the Gazan public.

Harel, who relied partly on Israeli intelligence officials as sources, explains that
the Hamas leadership. . . itself is facing a growing challenge to its control of Gaza from the smaller Palestinian factions and groups that have splintered from Hamas itself.
Harel's article is corroborated by Al-Jazeera. Harry Fawcett reported that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad say that the 3 armed men who died last weekend were carrying out "'some kind of freelance individual operation' that was not sanctioned by the two groups."

Attention

Researcher exposes Google, Clinton, US election hacking, blacklists, voter manipulation

solarpanelsGoogle
© Reuters/Steve Marcus
Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is "in Google's pocket," but her legacy doesn't have to include the destruction of US democracy, researcher Dr. Robert Epstein has pleaded after being smeared by the ex-First Lady.

After Clinton dismissed Google's sizable role in swaying undecided voters in 2016 as "debunked," Epstein urged the former Secretary of State to listen to his congressional testimony "for the sake of our democracy," unleashing a torrent of tweets in an effort to set her straight. Enumerating the sins of Google, the psychologist implored Clinton to think of her "legacy."

Comment: See also:


Arrow Up

Prior to G7 Summit, Trump once again supports Russia being allowed to rejoin alliance

TrumpPutin
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Just days before heading to the G7 Summit in France, President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his support for allowing Russia to rejoin the group of the world's advanced economies.

Trump has repeatedly called for closer ties with Moscow and it's a move he backed last year. But Western democracies have said no, citing Russian aggression in Europe and in particular Ukraine.

President Trump said Tuesday at the White House:
"I think it's much more appropriate to have Russia in. A lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia, I could certainly see it being the G8 again, if someone would make that motion, I would be disposed to think about it favorably."
In 2014, President Barack Obama and other the member nations booted Russia out of what was then the G8 as a rebuke to Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea and its support for Russian-led separatists in eastern Ukraine.

But Trump suggested Tuesday that Obama wanted Putin out because he had been "outsmarted" by Putin.
"I guess President Obama because Putin outsmarted him. President Obama thought it wasn't a good thing to have Russia in, so he wanted Russia out."

Comment: From a year ago June 8, 2018: Trump states his case for reinstatement of Russia in G7




Snakes in Suits

Attack dog Bolton accuses China of bullying in S. China Sea, amid US intimidation and war games

SChinaSea/Bolton
© MTSAT/Defense One/KJN
South China Sea • US National Security Advisor John Bolton
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has accused Beijing of "coercive behavior" in the South China Sea - after the Pentagon boosted its own military drills, passages of warships, and bomber flybys in the region.

Beijing's "recent escalation of efforts to intimidate others out of developing resources in the South China Sea is disturbing," Bolton wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. He accused China of "coercive behavior and bullying tactics which threaten regional peace and security."

Bolton did not specify any incidents in particular, but his tweet appears to indicate that the White House is throwing its weight on the side of the Philippines, whose claims on the South China Sea overlap with China's. Over the weekend, Manila protested after a Chinese warship sailed through what the Philippines considers a part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) - and Beijing a part of its own.

Meanwhile, Washington has been flaunting its own maritime forces in the face of Beijing, regularly launching what it calls freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), dispatching warships to sail the South China Sea - which apparently doesn't count as bullying in Bolton's books. Such passages aim to challenge China's "excessive maritime claims," as per the spokesperson for the US Seventh Fleet, Commander Clay Doss.

The Pentagon also stepped up its naval drills in the area and sent B-52 strategic bombers to fly over the disputed island held by China.

Comment: See also:


Rocket

'Let go of your cold war mentality!' Russia and China deride Pentagon's INF-defying missile test

Banned INF missile launch
© US Department of Defense/Scott Howe
Conventional ground-launched cruise missile test, San Nicolas Island, CA, August 18, 2019
Reaction out of Moscow and Beijing was swift after the US revealed Monday that the Pentagon successfully tested a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of over 500km for the first time in a post-INF treaty world.

Russia warned of a new "costly arms race" which it says it's seeking to avoid. Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told state news agency TASS:
"The US has obviously taken a course towards escalation of military tensions. We won't react to provocations. We will not allow ourselves to get drawn into a costly arms race."
Interestingly, given the Pentagon test of a previously banned land-based intermediate cruise missile - which took place at a range in California on Sunday - came a mere 17 days after the final and formal US pullout of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, Ryabkov further said this was clear evidence that the United States had already been in breach of the treaty prior to its official end, given the technology development and extensive preparations that went in to such a test.

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X

Banned missile test tells us all we need to know regarding US foreign policy

Banned missile
© picture-alliance/Zumapress/Department of Defense
US launches INF-banned missile
A recent missile test confirmed by the Pentagon is stoking fears of a newly established arms race which would include, among others, Russia and China.

On August 18, North Korea tested a previously banned ground-launch missile with a range of over 500km, sending the entire world into an enormous, frenzied panic. Oh no, it was the United States which in fact tested the missile to the sound of crickets over Western media discourse.

The missile in question was likely a Tomahawk missile (at a cost of at least $1.4 million per missile, but then again you can't put a price on wanton death and destruction), which is typically launched from ships and submarines - as we saw in Trump's infamous April 2017 Syria strike.

It sounds like a waste of money (to me, anyway) but there's a reason why Tomahawks cost a fortune. According to Popular Mechanics, a modern-day Tomahawk is guided by GPS and has the capacity to store coordinates for several targets. If a primary target was destroyed by friendly strikes, it can "take a picture of the damage done and loiter nearby until planners decide to re-attack the target or send the missile to attack an alternate."

Dollars

Planned Parenthood whistleblower awarded $3 million for wrongful termination after trying to address illegal and unethical conduct

Mayra Rodriguez
© Mayra Rodriguez
Mayra Rodriguez and former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
An Arizona court awarded $3 million in damages to a Planned Parenthood whistleblower Friday who sued the organization in 2017 for wrongful termination.

The Maricopa County Superior Courts in Maricopa, Arizona, awarded Mayra Rodriguez $3 million in a wrongful termination suit against Planned Parenthood after she was fired in October 2017.

Planned Parenthood terminated Rodriguez after 17 years at the organization during which she ran three different clinics, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Quenelle - Golden

Manufacturing Mass Fascism Hysteria

based spartan protester

"Based Spartan" guy
If the neoliberal ruling classes expect to keep the American masses worked up into a white-eyed hysteria over "fascism" until November 2020, they're going to need to get some better Nazis. The current Nazis are just not going to cut it. They are neither scary nor Nazi enough. OK, the militia ones look kind of scary, and that "Based Spartan" guy looks kind of... uh, weird, but most of them just look like regular old rednecks. How hard would it be to get them some brown shirts, or those khaki pants like they wore in Charlottesville, or some other type of Nazi-like uniform?

And some jackboots. People love those jackboots.

Seriously, the Resistance needs to get their official narrative optics in order, and they need to do it without delay. Millions of liberals are standing by to be brainwashed into a year-long frenzy of manufactured mass "fascism" hysteria, but they are going to need some halfway convincing Nazis to spastically freak out over. A few hundred bozos in MAGA hats parading around with American flags does not exactly a Sturmabteilung make.

Jet3

US State Dept approves $8B sale of F-16s to Taiwan disregarding Beijing's warning of 'consequences'

F-16 jets
© Reuters/Nicky Loh
F-16 jets at Taiwan's Chia-yi air force base
Despite extreme objections voiced by Beijing, the State Department has approved the sale of dozens of F-16 fighter planes to Taiwan, openly admitting that the move serves US economic and national security interests in the region.

The approval of the $8 billion sale by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCPA) came just days after plans to supply 66 fighter jets to Taipei were greenlighted by the White House. In approving the proposed deliveries, the DCPA reasoned that additional arms will help maintain "political stability, military balance, and economic progress" in the region.
"This proposed sale serves US national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient's continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability."
The prospects of yet another weapons sale by the Trump administration to Taiwan, which still has to be approved by Congress, drew ire from Beijing, which repeatedly slammed all US attempts to arm the enclave, that China considers an integral part of the mainland.

Comment: Followup from RT: 21/8/2019: China threatens sanctions against US firms providing F-16 jets to Taiwan
Beijing has urged Washington to cancel the sale of American F-16 fighter planes to Taiwan, vowing sanctions against US companies that take part in the deal in order "to protect [China's] interests."

"We demand from the United States to adhere to joint agreements and immediately cancel the supply plan. Otherwise, Washington will have to answer for all the consequences," Gen Shuang, official representative of China's Foreign Ministry, said at a news briefing on Wednesday.

He stressed that the Taiwan issue relates to purely internal problems of China, and Beijing will firmly defend its interests on the matter, even if it comes to sanctions.

"China will take all possible measures to protect its own interests, including sanctions against US companies that will participate in these arms transfers to Taipei," he summed up.
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