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Trump vows to hit back against French 'digital tax' on US technology companies - by slapping tariffs on wine imports


RT
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 17:52 UTC
macron trump g20 2019
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28, 2019.
US President Donald Trump has promised to take "substantial reciprocal action" against a proposed French "digital tax" if it seeks to target any American technology firm.

The president took to Twitter on Friday afternoon with a threat of retaliation, following the recent passage of a law in France which would impose a new three-percent tax on tech firms such as Facebook and Amazon.

President Trump insisted that if any country should tax American tech firms, "it should be their home Country, the USA." He then took a potshot at his French counterpart and one-time best pal Emmanuel Macron, calling out his "foolishness" and then denigrating one of France's most cherished exports.

Comment: France is looking out for its own interests, the same as Trump is for the US. They perceive Amazon and other US tech companies as unfairly drawing revenue out of the country and are attempting to recover some of it.

The Twitterati couldn't resist the wine angle:
Residents of Twitter soon pointed out the president's famous claim to have never tasted a drop of alcohol; naturally, they started posing the tough questions.


However, as Trump developed his idea of striking back on Paris, for some the mood has become very sobering. Speaking in the White House, Trump said he "might" impose a new French wine tax.

Finally, one commenter found how to bring 'Russiagate' into the row, bringing up his own favorite wine that bears the name of a certain former special counsel.




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NPC

Desperate Dem rep Ted Lieu goes full conspiracy theorist: "Somebody got to Mueller"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 17:38 UTC
ted lieu twilight zone conspiracy Mueller
© ZeroHedge
This is starting to feel like a Twilight Zone episode.

Having been embarrassed by Mueller's mumblefest, it seems Democrats have merely cranked up their conspiracy theories in an effort to save themselves from mental health crises.

California Rep. Ted Lieu was the best example by far (which is saying something with Rep. Swalwell on the committee) as he gloated that, during his discussion with Special Counsel, Mueller dropped a potential bombshell that the reason he did not indict Trump for obstructing the Russia probe was because of a Justice Department office of legal counsel opinion that prohibits indicting sitting presidents.

Comment: Why is Lieu the point man on this? He's not the sharpest knife in the Democrat drawer.

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2 + 2 = 4

Ukraine's incoming freshman class of MPs will get schooled before parliament convenes

Christopher Miller
RFE/RL
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:32 UTC
zelensky
© afp
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (second right) and participants sing the national anthem during his Servant of the People party's conference before the recent parliamentary elections. Many of the candidates chosen at this event will now be entering parliament for the first time.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party won Ukraine's first-ever majority in parliament in elections this month, giving it unprecedented power.

But before its 254 deputies are seated in the Verkhovna Rada and get down to governing, they're going back to school.

At the initiative and expense of the party, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) is opening its doors, so to speak, in summer to give Servant of the People's incoming neophyte deputies a crash course on economics and lawmaking.

The endeavor is part of a broader approach being undertaken by the some of the five parties that won seats in parliament to prepare first-time lawmakers, who account for about 75 percent of its makeup, for work inside of an institution that is among the country's least trusted and is notorious for the fistfights that erupt in its session hall.

When the new parliament convenes in late August or early September, these newcomers will have their work cut out trying to reform the country.

They will almost certainly face great resistance from powerful tycoons in their efforts to enact progressive policies, crack down on endemic corruption, and fix the economy. And they are likely to be targeted by public criticism when making tough decisions about how to end the half-decade-long war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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Quenelle

Students protest left-wing university taking hundreds of thousands of pounds from British military for 'cultural advice'

Phillip Miller
Morning Star
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 17:08 UTC
britain military UK university payments culture
© The Morning Star
An unholy alliance? Student group Decolonising Our Minds found at least £400,000 has passed between the military and the university since the end of 2016
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has paid a British university hundreds of thousands of pounds for "cultural advice" on how to operate in former colonies.

Students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London have slammed the payments as "outrageous."

At least £400,000 has passed between the military and the university since the end of 2016, according to freedom of information requests filed by student group Decolonising Our Minds.

The money has gone towards academic staff delivering study weeks on the history and culture of people in Africa, Asia and the Americas, including many former colonies.

Comment: Nothing like trying to implement a kinder, gentler invasion.

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Eye 1

Judge signs protective order over materials feds to turn over to jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein

James Hill and Chris Francescani
ABC News
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 06:33 UTC
Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman
© Richard Drew/AP
U.S Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks during a news conference, in N.Y., July 8, 2019.
Federal prosecutors in New York overseeing the case against millionaire Jeffrey Epstein are preparing to hand over highly-sensitive investigative material to the financier's defense attorneys after a federal judge on Friday granted the government's request to place a protective order on the documents.

Prosecutors sought the order because, they said in court filings, they intends to produce documents and materials that could ... "affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals...[and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the Government's ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals."

When Epstein secured a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida in 2008 over a previous investigation, the much-criticized deal also immunized any and all potential co-conspirators, known or unknown, and also included the names of four women who had been suspected by authorities of having facilitated or participated in alleged crimes against children.

The deal, which is currently under review by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, allowed Epstein to plead guilty to two state counts and avoid federal charges for an allegedly broad pattern of similar conduct.

Comment: See also:

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Info

MbS goes Elon Musk on steroids: Seeks flying cars, electric dinosaurs, robot maids, and glowing sand for barren Saudi desert

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 14:38 UTC
Saudi Arabia's Neom project
In northwest Saudi Arabia, where most people see a barren wasteland, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has envisioned the future, and according to the Wall Street Journal, it is something straight out of an Elon Musk wet dream, complete with flying taxis, robot maids, robot dinosaurs, robot martial arts, endless booze and glow-in-the-dark sand, among other things.

Perhaps MbS has been following Elon Musk's Twitter account a little too closely. Or perhaps he has joined him in a microdosing regimen. Regardless, MbS has hatched a $500 billion plan to cover 10,000 square miles of this desert to attract the "world's greatest minds and best talents" to the world's best paying jobs in the world's most livable city.

A true modern day, pardon, future Shangri-La.

The ideas have been laid out in 2300 pages of confidential documents at Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Company and Oliver Wyman that the Wall Street Journal was able to review. The project is called "Neom", which - it will come as no surprise - is a mash up of the Greek word for "new" and the Arabic word for "future". The documents were dated September 2018.
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Arrow Down

Oops!! Croatian MOD publishes highly classified NATO maps putting 17K soldiers at risk in Afghanistan

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Croatian MOD publishes classified NATO maps

The Croatian officer showed and explained the positions of NATO troops in the area, which means that practically all NATO troops in Afghanistan could be in danger as they rotate.
The Croatian Ministry of Defense (MoD) seems to have accidentally published classified NATO maps in Afghanistan. According to the Croatian media, the scandal happened in the midst of a media conference announcing that Croatian soldiers were targeted in a terrorist attack in Kabul.

A spokeswoman for the NATO mission in Afghanistan contacted the N1 Television after the Croatian Defense Ministry published highly classified information at a press conference, which was subsequently published by all media in the country.

After the Croatian Defense Minister Damir Krsticevic told a press conference that three Croatian soldiers were wounded during a terrorist attack, during which he also showed a map of the site of the attack, today N1 television was contacted by NATO official Debra Richardson, with a request to remove the map at which the route of the terrorist attack on the Croatian military vehicle was plotted, because it is a threat to security and the disclosure of highly confidential data.
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Brick Wall

Trump's Big Win: Supreme Court rules Southern border wall may proceed

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 07:38 UTC
Trump Border Wall
It's not been a great week for the great-left-hopers.

Having been summarily embarrassed by Mueller's performance, Democrats just lost another 'fight' as Bloomberg reports that the Supreme Court has cleared President Trump's administration to start using disputed funds to construct more than 100 miles of fencing along the Mexican border.

How did we get here?

As The Hill details, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in California, an Obama appointee, issued a permanent injunction blocking officials from utilizing $2.5 billion of the roughly $6 billion in diverted military dollars, siding with the groups' arguments that building the wall would cause "irreparable harm" to their interests at the border.

And the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling earlier this month, declined to temporarily halt that injunction, finding that "the use of those funds violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress."

House Democrats also attempted to sue to stop the diversion of the Pentagon dollars for a wall, claiming that only lawmakers can allocate federal funding under the Constitution.

Comment: Trump WILL have his wall..it's already in process:

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Info

US delays vote on Nord Stream 2 sanctions

Charles Kennedy
Oilprice.com
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 13:22 UTC
Nord Stream pipes
A U.S. Senate committee will now not vote until next week on a bill that seeks to levy sanctions on companies and individuals involved in building the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The bill was expected to be considered during a business meeting on Thursday but one member requested a delay consideration of the "Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act" which was accepted by the Committee Chairman Republican Senator Jim Risch.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, must pass the full Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as signed off on by President Trump before becoming law.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline intended to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany, raising fear in the US and in Europe about a deeper dependence on Russia for gas supplies.


Comment: No. Let's be honest here. It raised fears in the US that Europe might not buy more expensive energy from the US. Let Europe be dependent on the US, not Russia.

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Jet5

Washington greenlights military sales to Pakistan and India, months after air skirmish


RT
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 13:15 UTC
PAF F-16 and IAF C-17 and two Su-30MKI fighter jets.
© PRAKASH SINGH / AFP
PAF F-16 and IAF C-17 and two Su-30MKI fighter jets.
The US has approved $125 million worth of support for Pakistan's F-16 warplanes as well as $670 million of support for India's C-17 transport planes. The two regional rivals had their first direct air combat in decades this year.

The sale to Pakistan will require the deployment of some 60 contractor representatives, who will "provide 24/7 end-use monitoring" for the country's US-made fleet of fighter jets, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement on Friday. The package will service the Lockheed Martin F-16s delivered to Pakistan as part of the "Peace Drive" program, which includes 12 F-16C jets and 6 F-16D jets.
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