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German MP: Time for NATO to retire - 'security risk & lawbreaker'


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:55 UTC
nato flag
© Reuters / Ints Kalnins
German lawmaker Alexander Neu lambasted NATO for conducting aggressive wars and raking up defense spending, suggesting Germany should quit its military command, and the bloc be dissolved altogether.

NATO's 70th birthday is "not a reason to celebrate, but rather an occasion to finally rethink it, before it's too late," Neu wrote in Die Freiheitsliebe blog on Thursday.

The lawmaker from the opposition Left Party slammed the US-led military bloc as an organization that poses "significant security risk to the world" and "systematically violates international law."

NATO revealed its true colors when it waged an "aggressive war" against Yugoslavia without the UN's approval, and carried out numerous interventions, which claimed the lives of "countless victims," Neu argued.

He pointed out that last year NATO's member states spent more than $1 trillion on defense, which is far more than the defense budgets of its rivals, China and Russia, combined.
The imperialist competition and the fear of losing economic and ideological supremacy drive NATO towards more rearmament and confrontation.
In order to avoid global escalation, the lawmaker proposed that Germany should leave the alliance's "military structures," and then NATO itself should be dissolved and replaced by a new "collective security system," which would include Russia.

Comment: Neu isn't wrong! Which is why countries like Germany, and Turkey, are probably better off out of NATO, threats from the American hegemon notwithstanding:

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Attention

Philippines President Duterte warns China to back off disputed island in South China Sea


The Guardian
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:53 UTC
Thitu Pag-asa island china philippines
© PAO,AFP,GHQ/Handout
Pag-asa island, also known as Thitu.
Philippine military warns that hundreds of Chinese vessels have 'swarmed' the Manila-held Pag-asa island

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned Beijing to back off from a disputed island in the South China Sea, warning of "suicide missions" if China touches it.

Duterte, aiming to attract trade and investment from China, has mostly withheld his early criticism of Beijing's expansive claims to the sea - a point of regional contention because trillions of dollars of goods pass through it.

But as the Philippine military warned this week that hundreds of Chinese coastguard and fishing vessels had "swarmed" the Manila-held Pag-asa island, also known as Thitu, the Philippine president spoke out late on Thursday.

Comment: Bloomberg adds:
The president's comments came hours after his Foreign Affairs Department said the presence of about 275 Chinese vessels near Thitu Island is "illegal" and violates Philippine sovereignty. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Wednesday the Philippines had filed a diplomatic protest on the latest incident.

Duterte, who pivoted the nation's foreign policy toward China almost three years ago when he took office, has said the Philippines can't afford to go to war against China, even after a July 2016 arbitral ruling on the sea dispute favored the Philippines. He's been under pressure to make a stronger stance against China's incursions in the South China Sea.

He would never allow China, which has "gobbled up the whole of China Sea" to occupy Thitu -- where the Philippines is constructing a ramp and repairing a runway, Duterte told reporters separately on Thursday. The president said he will tell his soldiers to "prepare for suicide missions" if China moves into Thitu.

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have said this week the nations should settle disputes peacefully, while asserting their country's claim over the disputed island which it calls Zhongye.


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Che Guevara

Venezuela's pro-Maduro 'colectivos': True grass-roots organizations demonized by the West


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:26 UTC
colectivos militia venezuela revolution
© Redfish
Ever since the US recognized Venezuela's wannabe coup leader, pro-government activists have been bracing for possible military intervention. Western media have been for years portraying them as thugs of the dictatorship.

So-called 'colectivos' caught the eye of the Western mainstream media around 2011, depicted as government-sanctioned gangs who are allowed to commit crimes in their neighborhoods with impunity as long as they serve as vigilantes against the opposition.

The term comes from much earlier times in the 1960s, when it was used to describe self-organized local political action groups banding together for various causes. An indigenous tribe opposing logging on its ancestral land, a local volunteer radio station going on air to discuss local politics, or an ad hoc labor union negotiating better conditions are all examples of colectivos.


Comment: The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies

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Colosseum

Joe Biden's surprise at Washington weaponizing the #MeToo movement

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 15:34 UTC
Joe Biden
© associated Press
Biden's "affectionate style" isn't always welcome
The nationwide sexual shakedown that first took root in Hollywood has spread cross-country to the US capital, and is now knocking on Joe Biden's door. Is nobody safe anymore from charges of improprieties?

Let's start by saying that any attempt to separate sexual intrigue from the dull political process is about as likely as separating a dog from his bone. It's not really going to happen. Since the times of Cleopatra and Antony up until the contemporary smashup between Bill and Monica, such salacious tales have provided the public some titillating relief from the mundane and monotonous world of politics.

However, with the dawning of the #MeToo age, it seems that the prying public has pushed the envelope too far, and people now see - or really, really want to see - a dirty indiscretion in every innocent gesture. At least that is what Barack Obama's former vice president, Joe Biden, would like everyone to think.

Comment: There is some truth to this argument, but it does not negate the fact that men like Biden, with proven records of inappropriate behavior, have no business running a country.

Biden did not confine his 'affectionate style' to adults. He felt perfectly comfortable imposing himself on defenseless children. There's also the testimony of many Secret Services agents assigned to him over the years, who had to go out of their way to shield their female agents from him:

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Eye 2

More Project Fear: BoE's Carney says risk of calamitous no-deal Brexit is "alarmingly high"

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:45 UTC
Mark Carney

UN Special Envoy on Climate Action Mark Carney
As MPs battled to pass a business motion on the Letwin-Cooper bill to try and force Theresa May to request a lengthy Article 50 extension to try and avert a 'no deal' Brexit on April 12, BoE Governor Mark Carney took to Sky News to deliver his latest salvo in the central bank's efforts to stoke hysteria surrounding the prospect of the UK crashing out of the EU.

Before revealing that he would "absolutely not" be staying in his role at the central bank past 2020 due to Brexit-related stress, Carney told Sky News that the risk of a no-deal Brexit is "alarmingly high" (even after Jeremy Corbyn said talks with the PM on a potential Brexit deal alternative were making progress), and that Tory demands for a "managed" no-deal Brexit were "absolute nonsense."

He also defended the central bank's gloomy forecasts for a 'no deal' scenario (as a reminder, Carney and the central bank's staff said 'no deal' would lead to an economic crisis in the UK that would be "worse than 2008"), and denied that he was guilty of fearmongering. After all, the central bank didn't simply butt in without reason: a committee of MPs had requested that the bank conduct an analysis, and hundreds of staffers at the central bank participated in the project, including its staff economists.

Comment: Brexit could happen by "accident" - eh?
And check out SOTT radio's:

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Eye 1

US has been using FISA warrant to spy on Huawei & keep evidence secret


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 10:28 UTC
Huawei
© Reuters / Tyrone Siu
The US government has been spying on Huawei using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, prosecutors in the case against the firm's CFO Meng Wanzhou revealed, collecting "extremely voluminous" evidence via the secret channel.

While the substance of the evidence - described as "electronic surveillance and physical search pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" - was not disclosed, Assistant US Attorney Alex Solomon said it would require "classified handling" and that the government would require a protective order over whatever it shares with the defense.

FISA warrants can only be obtained in cases where the target is suspected of acting as an agent of a foreign power, meaning US authorities were already treating Huawei as an extension of the Chinese government in order to collect evidence Huawei was acting as an extension of the Chinese government.
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Propaganda

Facebook is paying British Daily Telegraph to publish 'fake news' about how great it is

Rob Price
Business Insider
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 10:28 UTC
facebook daily telegraph

Some of the sponsored content so far. These people are shameless!
Facebook has found a novel solution to the never-ending deluge of negative headlines and news articles criticizing the company: Simply paying a British newspaper to run laudatory stories about it.

Facebook has partnered with The Daily Telegraph, a broadsheet British newspaper, to run a series of features about the company, Business Insider has found - including stories that defend it on hot-button issues it has been criticised over like terrorist content, online safety, cyberbullying, fake accounts, and hate speech.

The series - called "Being human in the information age" - has published 26 stories over the last month, to run in print and online, and is produced by Telegraph Spark, the newspaper's sponsored content unit.
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Airplane

Boeing CEO accepts responsibility for plane crashes, admits 737 MAX 8 had faults


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 10:28 UTC
Boeing 737 MAX 8
© Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
The angle of attack sensor marked on the nose of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 at the company's factory in Renton, Washington
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said "it's apparent" that the 737 MAX 8's MCAS maneuvering system contributed to two fatal air accidents. Investigators had long suspected the system's role in the disasters.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged into a field shortly after takeoff in March, killing all 157 people on board. Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 nosedived into the sea last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Investigators noted "clear similarities" between both accidents.

"The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports," Muilenburg said in a video posted Thursday. "It's apparent that in both flights the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to [the] erroneous angle of attack information,"he continued.

Comment: Well at least they stopped lying and owned up. Still though, when too much focus is on making money...

Also see:

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Bad Guys

$7 billion in equipment 'looted' from former US base in Afghanistan

Jason Ditz
Anti War
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 12:00 UTC
Rebel weapons Syria terrorist ISIS Daesh
© Sputnik / Morad Safed
DAESH weapons seized by the SAA
The US handed over the Camp Kearney base in Paktika Province to the Afghan government in 2014, with an estimated $8 billion in equipment still inside. Today, the estimation is that about $1 billion worth of equipment is left.

So what happened between then and now that cost the site about $7 billion? Mass looting. The provincial governor says that former governors, local mayors, MPs, and commanders have all had a go at the site, and everyone has been entering the base and taking anything that isn't nailed down.

Though he didn't name names, pretty much everything was considered fair game, with military equipment stripped, vehicles stolen and sold off, and even locked containers full of weapons broken open and looted.

Comment: Previously a US commander has commented that militants in Syria should just 'keep the weapons they've lost track of'. Although it is clear that throughout the US-led wars in the Middle East, it repeatedly turns out that terrorists have massive stocks of arms and medical supplies which trace back to the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia:

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Eye 2

Ecuadorean embassy may expel Assange within 'hours to days', govt source tells WikiLeaks


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 01:11 UTC
assange manning free speech truck
© Reuters / Peter Nicholls
The Ecuadorean embassy in London is set to expel Julian Assange within "hours to days", using the corruption scandal leaks as a pretext, WikiLeaks claimed, citing a high-level source in the South American country.

The government of Lenín Moreno, which has long been annoyed by Assange's prolonged stay at its embassy in the UK, will use the so-called INA Papers leak as the pretext to oust the whistleblower from the safety of the diplomatic mission, WikiLeaks said. It added that the Ecuadorean government has already worked out Assange's expulsion with UK authorities, which will result in the journalist's arrest.

Comment: According to the former Consul of Ecuador Fidel Navarez:
Not a single document referring to INA PAPERS, or the president's family, has ever been leaked or published by WikiLeaks, let alone by Julian Assange, who for more than half a year has not been its editor and who has been isolated for one year under a regime quasi-prison by the government of Ecuador.

Despite being an outrageous accusation, the farce has reached the point that the Ecuadorian National Assembly has issued a resolution to investigate Julián and encourages the government to take measures to "safeguard national interests." In short, the government seeks a false pretext to end the asylum and protection of Julian Assange.


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