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China buys more Iranian and Venezuelan oil undermining US sanctions

Benoit Faucon
Wall Street Journal
Fri, 19 Mar 2021 17:40 UTC
oil platform rig
© Bloomberg
An offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf near Iran in 2017. China is expected to import 918,000 barrels a day from Iran in March.
China has sharply increased its imports of oil from Iran and Venezuela in a challenge to two Biden administration foreign-policy priorities, according to U.S. officials, undermining key diplomatic leverage Washington needs to restart long-stalled negotiations.

China is expected to import 918,000 barrels a day from Iran in March, which would be the highest volume since a full U.S. oil embargo was imposed against Tehran two years ago, according to commodities-data company Kpler.

That trend is confirmed by other shipping trackers, some of which see those sales at 1 million barrels a day.

Comment: See also:

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USA

Congressman asks Veteran Affairs to strip benefits from veterans that participated in the Jan 6 Capitol riot

Katie Daviscourt
The Post Millennial
Mon, 22 Mar 2021 12:25 UTC
capitol scuffle
"Insurrectionists should not enjoy benefits they no longer deserve."

Last week, Congressman Ruben Gallegos (D-AZ) called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough to withdraw benefits from active-duty service members, veterans, and military retirees who participated in the US Capitol riot on January 6.

"The behavior of these individuals is not representative of the large population of American veterans, the vast majority of whom served honorably and are appalled by the thought of insurrection in the country they served," the congressman who is also a US Marine Corps veteran wrote in a letter.

The benefits included affordable healthcare options, disability compensation, and vocational opportunities. Benefits that representative Gallegos says the average American doesn't receive.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Ex-aide to former Malta PM charged with corruption, was named by local investigative journalist murdered by car bomb in 2017


The Guardian
Sat, 20 Mar 2021 20:41 UTC
Schembri
© Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Keith Schembri in 2017. Prosecution seen as vindication of work by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was murdered after accusing him of graft
A top aide to former Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat accused of graft by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, whose brutal murder rocked the nation, was charged on Saturday with money laundering and fraud.

Anti-corruption campaigners hailed the prosecution of Keith Schembri as a vindication of the work of Caruana Galizia, whose death in a car bomb in 2017 sparked grief and anger across the Mediterranean island.

Schembri, who was Muscat's chief of staff from 2013 to 2019, appeared in court on Saturday charged with money laundering, corruption, fraud and forgery. He pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.

Comment: See also: Third Maltese minister quits after breakthrough in investigation of 2017 assassination of journalist investigating local corruption

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Bulb

Sen. Paul spars with Fauci over wearing masks after COVID-19 vaccination: 'Isn't that theater?'

Nicholas Ballasy
Just The News
Thu, 18 Mar 2021 14:46 UTC
Fauci
"Can I just state for the record that masks are not theater," Fauci said of mask-wearing after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

OP Sen. Rand Paul and National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci sparred with each other Thursday over the use of masks among people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The exchange occurred during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal government's coronavirus response.


Comment: Once again Rand Paul (a doctor) seems to be the only person in Washington challenging Fauci on all the lies being perpetuated about the virus, and the incredibly damaging policies it has helped usher in.

See also:

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No Entry

Biden White House working with Silicon Valley to censor vaccine criticism


21st Century Wire
Mon, 15 Mar 2021 07:07 UTC
biden google facebook
As reports of problems regarding the new experimental COVID vaccines continue to mount internationally, officials in the United States have been working behind the scenes to try and censor any dissent against the official party line on COVID policy, and vaccine efficacy, safety and distribution.

A recent Reuters report has revealed how a worried Biden administration has reached out to Silicon Valley's digital monopoly firms Google Inc, Facebook, and Twitter - to coordinate effort to shut down any discussions or independent journalism online which might challenge the credibility of either government or World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic and vaccine policies, as well crush any serious challenge to the credibility of pharmaceutical firms and the products they are pushing, namely their new experimental range of COVID vaccines.

According to a White House official, the new effort is meant to curb supposed "COVID misinformation" included making sure Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter prevent any independent content from going viral.

A Twitter spokesman admitted that the firm was coordinating their censorship operation with the Biden team, and were "in regular communication with the White House on a number of critical issues including COVID-19 misinformation."

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Trump thumps Biden: He turned a 'national triumph into a national disaster'

Neil Munro
Breitbart
Sun, 21 Mar 2021 06:15 UTC
Donald Trump
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President Joe Biden's easy-migration strategy has converted a "national triumph into a national disaster," former President Donald Trump said in a March 21 statement:
We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history. All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast.

The pathetic, clueless performance of Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas on the Sunday Shows today was a national disgrace. His self-satisfied presentation — in the middle of the massive crisis he helped engineer — is yet more proof he is incapable of leading DHS. Even someone of Mayorkas' limited abilities should understand that if you provide Catch-and-Release to the world's illegal aliens then the whole world will come.

Furthermore, the Mayorkas Gag Order on our Nation's heroic border agents and ICE officers should be the subject of an immediate congressional investigation. But it's clear they are engaged in a huge cover-up to hide just how bad things truly are. The only way to end the Biden Border Crisis is for them to admit their total failure and adopt the profoundly effective, proven Trump policies.

They must immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks — they should never have stopped it. They are causing death and human tragedy. In addition to the obvious, drugs are pouring into our country at record levels from the Southern Border, not to mention human and sex trafficking. This Administration's reckless policies are enabling and encouraging crimes against humanity. Our Country is being destroyed!
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Attention

John Helmer: Not Shock & Awe, US war against Russia is Woozle & Bamboozle

John Helmer
Dance with Bears
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:00 UTC
Biden & Blinken
How many times must we repeat: in this war which the US and NATO have started against Russia, force will decide the outcome, not words. So if President Joseph Biden (lead image, centre) and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) are afraid of running the risk of losing the former - watch the Donbass in the coming weeks — they will stick to wars of words; that's propaganda, info-war, cyber-war.

In wars of words, truth isn't the first casualty. It's the first weapon - that's to say, our side's truth is our weapon; the other side's truth is a pack of lies (aka deception, disinformation, active measures, trolling). By the way, the US Constitution's free speech amendment is a two-edged sword in this war-making. Our side's freedom to speak the truth or to tell lies is lawful; the other side's freedom to speak their truth on our side of the front is an indictable crime, according to the Department of Justice. It's foreign agent influence peddling, election interference, sedition, or (if Julian Assange did it) espionage.

Comment: Going back a few years regarding Navalny, see Origins of the anti-Russia sanctions: The CIA-MI6 plot to corrupt Russia, recruit Navalny, murder Magnitsky, and blame Putin (VIDEO)

As for Sergei Skripal, see The Disappearing Spy

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Cult

Bush II 'still disturbed' by Capitol riot: 'I was sick to my stomach'

Jessica Chasmar
Washington Times
Fri, 19 Mar 2021 21:11 UTC
george bush laura inauguration biden
© AP/ Carolyn Kaster
Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura arrive for the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.



Comment: Pretty rich coming from the butcher of Iraq.


Former President George W. Bush said in a new interview he's "still disturbed" by the U.S. Capitol riot.

"I can't remember what I was doing, but ... I was sick to my stomach ... to see our nation's Capitol being stormed by hostile forces," Mr. Bush told Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith. "And it really disturbed me to the point where I did put out a statement, and I'm still disturbed when I think about it.

"It undermines rule of law and the ability to express yourself in peaceful ways in the public square," he said. "This was an expression that was not peaceful."

Comment: Spoken like a true member of the elite. Why didn't he have the same sentiments about the catastrophe born of the 9/11 lie that was the Iraq War?

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USA

Russia recalls their US envoy following interview where Biden agreed Putin was a 'killer'


RFE/RL
Sun, 21 Mar 2021 13:18 UTC
Antonov

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov (file photo)
Russia's ambassador to the United States returned to Moscow on March 21 after being recalled for emergency consultations amid rising tensions with Washington following President Joe Biden's comments that he believed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a killer.

Biden's remark in a TV interview earlier in the week in turn prompted a terse quip from Vladimir Putin who wished the U.S. president "good health" and said that people tend to refer to others as they really see themselves.


Comment: In response, Biden fell up the stairs of Air Force One.


The Biden interview came on the heels of the release of a report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence that concluded Putin had "authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President [Donald] Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States."

Comment: Whilst it's apparent that Biden is suffering from some kind of brain disease - and one poll reports that 40% of Americans think it's dementia - calling the President of another super power, a killer, showing absolutely no remorse and then basically refusing to talk to engage with him is a serious diplomatic incident and Russia will be forced to respond on behalf of its President and the people he represents:

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TV

No laughing matter: UK Foreign Office contractor sought to recruit comedians, YouTubers to take part in secret Baltic psyops camp

Kit Klarenberg
RT
Sun, 21 Mar 2021 09:27 UTC
microphone
© Getty images/7713Photography/British Foreign Office
Controlling the Message'
In recent weeks, RT has run a series of articles based on leaks by hacktivist collective Anonymous, exposing UK government information warfare efforts targeted at Russia. The British mainstream media has ignored the story.

An earlier report revealed how UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) contractor Albany Associates proposed to infiltrate civil society at every level in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for London's benefit.

The Baltic states, all members of NATO, are considered strategically vital by London and Washington. They are also home to a sizable Russian-speaking population, a legacy of the countries once being constituent states of the Soviet Union.

Albany was just one of several firms potentially running FCDO-funded psyops in the region. Zinc Network, which has conducted a variety of clandestine operations for the UK government at home and abroad, is another.

Comment: Public relations: Manage the message to manage the people.

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