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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Hang tight! British general election could be just weeks away

DogFrisbeePollingstation
© Reuters/Toby Melville
The fetid, stagnant waters of the Theresa May era have been replaced by the foaming effervescence of The Boris Interregnum. It will be thus described whatever happens in the next election, which cannot be delayed for long.

Turbo-charging the political scene with his customary élan, Boris Johnson cuts a dash to be sure, especially in comparison to the Artificial Intelligence which preceded him. Future generations will marvel at what possible question there could have been to which Mrs May was thought to be the answer.

Much of the Boris shtick is mere bloviating, of course - re-announcements of public expenditure which didn't set the heather on fire the first time. Or even the second. And Johnson is way more popular in the London salons and media houses than he is in the north of the country. But he cannot be underestimated.

The Ronald Reagan guff about making America "a shining city on a hill" - with a "thousand points of light," as the first George Bush used to say - did make people look up. When Reagan said it was "morning in America," the voters woke up, and gave the man who was - let's be frank - just a B-Movie actor, two whole terms in the White House.

Comment: See also:


Key

'Five Eyes' security alliance: Law enforcement must have backdoor access to encrypted material

5 Eyes
© Devan Feeney/staff
'Five Eyes'
The U.S.-led "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance said on Tuesday that tech firms must allow law enforcement agencies access to encrypted material, warning that failing to do so put people at risk.

After a two-day summit in London, senior ministers from the group comprising the United States and allies Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said encryption should not come at the expense of the public's safety.

"We are concerned where companies deliberately design their systems in a way that precludes any form of access to content, even in cases of the most serious crimes," the group said in a statement following the conference. "Tech companies should include mechanisms in the design of their encrypted products and services whereby governments, acting with appropriate legal authority, can obtain access to data in a readable and usable format."

Comment: See also: Did the DoJ's encryption bypass 'to fight crime' just raise your vulnerability to hacking?


Eye 2

Hypocrisy much? The Intercept, which built its reputation on Snowden leaks, calls on Democrats to step up attack on Julian Assange

Assange book arrest
© Ruptly
Julian Assange being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy
The Intercept, a prominent online publication that has built a following based on exposures of government crimes and surveillance operations, published a scurrilous article last week calling for an intensified US campaign against persecuted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The article, authored by James Risen, did not even mention the fact that the Trump administration, with the full support of the Democrats, is seeking to extradite Assange from Britain, so that he can be prosecuted in the US for his role in WikiLeaks' exposures of war crimes, diplomatic intrigues and mass surveillance.

Instead, it sought to present the WikiLeaks founder as the crucial link in a conspiracy between Trump and the Russian administration of President Vladimir Putin, to deprive Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton of the presidency in the 2016 US election.

Comment: Though it bills itself as righteous alt-media, given the founder of The Intercept's sketchy background, there's no surprise it's an outlet for the Empire's talking points.


Eye 2

Messages left for Jeffrey Epstein 'suggested his friend might be procuring two 8-year-old girls for the pedophile to sexually abuse' state court docs

Jeffrey Epstein
© New York State Sex Offender Registry / AP
Messages that were left for Jeffrey Epstein around the time the Palm Beach Police first began investigating the pedophile in 2005 offer a rare glimpse into his juxtaposed worlds.

There are calls from former members of the Royal Family, details about and conic designer's weekend visit to his Palm Beach mansion, and multiple messages from his close friend Jean-Luc Brunel.

There is one that appears to reference underage girls, another noting how much an 18-year-old woman 'loves Jeffrey' and another in which Brunel relays one doctor's professional opinion on how best to treat a sexually transmitted disease.

Fire

DCCC self-destructing over 'diversity' in mass staff shakeup: 'It's the Monday Night Massacre'

Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill
© Associated Press / Susan Walsh
In this Jan. 4, 2019 file photo, Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., walks to a group photo with the women of the 116th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) saw a mass departure of senior staff late Monday amid outcry over the lack of diversity within the committee's top ranks under Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.).

Communications director Jared Smith, political director Molly Ritner, deputy executive director Nick Pancrazio, top communications aide Melissa Miller and the committee's diversity director Van Ornelas all resigned by Monday evening.

The exits come on the heels of the resignation of the committee's executive director, Allison Jaslow, which she announced at an all-staff meeting earlier on Monday.

Comment: But it is all about diversity and, and feelz, for the Dems, don't you know?

The Washington Examiner adds:
A mass departure of top aides shook House Democrats' campaign arm Tuesday, an exodus prompted by complaints from Hispanic and black lawmakers that the organization's staff lacked diversity.

The tumult comes in a period when race has become a partisan battlefield, following a series of Twitter attacks by President Donald Trump on House Democrats of color. In his latest blasts, he has disparaged Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and his city of Baltimore, which is majority black.


Some Examiner disingenousness here. Trump did not attack Cummings for his race, but for his dismal performance representing Boston, a black hole (no pun intended) that HUD has sunk millions into with no discerntable results.


The shake-up also occurred as both parties are already fundraising and recruiting candidates for the 2020 elections, in which Democrats will be defending their House majority. The DCCC outspent its counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, in the 2018 elections that saw Democrats regain House control after eight years in the minority.

Lawmakers complaining about the DCCC's staff have included Texas Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez and Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Bustos, 57, became chairwoman of the campaign committee following the 2018 elections, arguing she would be effective because she has represented a swing district that swung to support Trump in 2016.

Hispanic lawmakers became disenchanted after she replaced top staffers, including many minorities, with aides who were largely white, said an aide to Gonzalez who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. New committee leaders often name long-time aides to their staffs.


Maybe those aides were largely competent?


In a statement last weekend, Gonzalez and Vela said the DCCC was "in complete chaos." They said Bustos should appoint a person of color to be executive director "to restore confidence in the organization and to promote diversity."

Fudge also told Politico, which first reported about the DCCC's disarray, about her unhappiness about the committee's lack of diversity.

"It is shocking, and something needs to be done about it," she said.

Gabrielle Brown, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus, said black House lawmakers have been holding meetings with DCCC officials for months at which they expressed similar concerns. None of the lawmakers complained about the DCCC's performance this year in raising money and finding candidates to challenge Republicans, the committee's main job.



Smiley

No, YOU'RE the 'Russian asset': Meme war turns tables on Washington Post

the washington post
With the Washington Post stuck in a mud-slinging meme war with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, the capital's paper of record has found itself on the receiving end of internet trolls' meme-cannons.

Confused? The sordid saga began Friday, when the Post published an op-ed titled "Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset," in which columnist Dana Milbank accused the Senate Majority Leader of selling out to the Kremlin by refusing to bring a trio of anti-election-meddling bills to the Senate floor. That the bills came bundled with untenable (to the GOP at least) Democratic demands was immaterial; McConnell was quickly dubbed "Moscow Mitch" on Twitter.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday to respond, President Trump said, "The Washington Post called Mitch McConnell what? I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset by comparison."


Though Trump has called the Post "garbage,""fiction," and "more like a poorly written novel than good reporting," "Russian asset" is a new one for the president.

The Post wasted no time fact-checking Trump's quip, proudly tweeting out: "Trump makes unfounded claim The Washington Post is a 'Russian Asset."

The irony wasn't lost on McConnell, however. "OMG I'm so sorry this is happening to you" tweeted his campaign team, with the patronizing just dripping from the emojis.

Comment: Sweet memetic justice. The sad thing is that the idiots at WaPo probably don't even see how they are being treated exactly the same as they have treated all the people they have labeled Russian agents. They're that delusional.


Better Earth

U.S. Envoy Hails 'Most Productive' Afghan Visit

Zalmay Khalilzad
U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has wrapped up what he called his "most productive visit" to Kabul since his appointment last year to negotiate a political settlement with the Taliban to end the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad said on July 31 that he is heading to neighboring Pakistan and then on to Qatar, where he is set to hold a ninth round of talks with the Taliban to end the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan.

"The U.S. and Afghanistan have agreed on next steps. And a negotiating team and technical support group are being finalized," Khalilzad tweeted as he ended his visit.


"I'm off to Doha, with a stop in Islamabad. In Doha, if the Taliban do their part, we will do ours, and conclude the agreement we have been working on," he wrote in a separate tweet.

Comment: See also:


Chess

Boris Johnson rattles Irish peace, but his arrogance may backfire with Irish reunification

anti-brexit protestor
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
An anti-brexit protestor holds a flag naming the six counties of Northrn Ireland
Britain's Boris Johnson is going for it, a no-deal exit from the European Union. His cabinet of "hard Brexiteers" are turbo-charged for an abrupt departure; the consequences could be tumultuous for Ireland.

On his first day as British prime minister last week, Johnson was candid in his disdain for attempts to minimize disruption in Ireland over Brexit. He slammed the proposed "backstop" arrangement of maintaining an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as "anti-democratic" and vowed to scrap it.

A hard-Brexit scenario which Johnson and his cabinet are pushing for will mean Britain leaving the EU's single market and customs union without any transition deal. That will inevitably see the return of a hard border for trade and customs control between the Republic of Ireland (an EU member) and Northern Ireland under British jurisdiction.

Given the preponderance of daily trade and traffic between the north and south of Ireland, any such border control will cause immense damage to both economies.

Bad Guys

'Russia doesn't have a good side': More xenophobic bile spewing forth from Western 'experts'

accordian
© Global Look Press / Nikolay Gyngazov
Pretending to 'understand' Russia has become quite the lucrative business for Western media professionals in recent years - and "leading" Russia expert extraordinaire Keir Giles is the latest to believe he has cracked the code.

Generous Giles has published a list of 10 "ground rules" for befuddled Westerners seeking to unravel the enigma that is Russia - but before we delve into the finer details, let's add some important context. This Russia whisperer is a "senior consulting fellow" at Chatham House - a British think tank receiving funding from the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO), the UK Ministry of Defence, the British Army and the US embassy, as well as an impressive array of arms manufacturers.

Very often, those posing as 'experts' on Russia pepper their analysis with outright xenophobia. Yet, this problematic and bigoted language is rarely noticed by their admiring peers because, as I have written before, "the Russians" are an exception to current cultural rules around political correctness. Xenophobia, when it is about Russians, is never condemned in Western media and 'think tank' circles. Rather, it has become an essential component of any celebrated 'analysis' of the country and its actions.

Newspaper

Poisoning that shaped 15 years of Ukraine politics never happened - prosecutor on Yushchenko case

Yuschenko
© Reuters/YK/AS/CLH; REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko
Viktor Yuschenko in 2001 (left) and after the alleged poisoning in 2004 (right)
Former president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko was not poisoned during the 2004 campaign, Ukraine's chief military prosecutor said in an interview, casting fresh doubts on the narrative shaping Kiev politics for the past 15 years.

At the time, Yushchenko led a Western-backed coalition against the incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whom they accused of being "pro-Russian." His disfigurement from what he called dioxin poisoning led to an outpouring of popular support and street protests, later dubbed the 'Orange Revolution.' Under that pressure, the Ukrainian supreme court annulled the run-off election Yanukovich had won, delivering Yushchenko the presidency after a revote.

This week, however, the deputy Prosecutor-General and chief military prosecutor of Ukraine since 2014, Anatoly Matios, revealed in an interview that his investigators found no evidence of a poisoning.

Comment: It's notable that most of the ruling factions in Ukraine are, like Yuschenko, subservient to the West, and so it's not immediately apparent how deliberately discrediting the story benefits them, leading one to believe that their findings are true.

See also: