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Novichok? What Novichok? New US sanctions urge Russia to destroy chemical weapons stockpile, but Kremlin insists it already has


RT
Thu, 04 Mar 2021 17:18 UTC
Signage Chem weapons
© Ilya Pitalyov
Chemical weapon destruction at Kizner facility, Udmurtia.
Russian officials are puzzled by demands from Washington to scrap their country's chemical weapons program, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has said, arguing that the country has already disposed of all such substances.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Dmitry Peskov slammed America's warning that Moscow must register and eliminate stores of nerve agents, toxic gases and other poisons, or else face sanctions.
"Russia declared and verified the destruction of all chemical weapons on its territory many years ago and fully complied with international conventions. Russia has no chemical weapons.

"By the way, we expect that our counterparts will also comply with these conventions."
In 1991, then-US President George H.W. Bush committed his country to destroying all chemical weapons. However, the process has not been straightforward and works to decommission the US Army's Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado are still underway. The facility had originally hosted more than 780,000 munitions, including mustard gas shells. The process is expected to be complete by 2023.

Comment: The US knows attack is the best defense when it comes to obscuring its own culpabilities.

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Pirates

Terrorism is a serious business and attributing the label wantonly to any act of violence makes a mockery of the term

Frank Furedi
RT
Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:28 UTC
shredded news Terrorists
© Getty Images/Charles Taylor/EyeEm
Shreds of Society
I wince when I read when someone wants to promiscuously brand any group they don't like 'terrorists'. The recent calls to expand it to include the misogynist 'incel' movement are a perfect example of the term's devaluation.

Incels, are 'involuntary celibates' who blame feminists and women for their sad, sexless predicament. Some have lashed out against their lack of sexual and cultural status, while others have murdered women in Canada and the United States.

This week, Alek Minassian, a self-described incel, was convicted of killing 10 people and injuring 16 others in his 2018 van attack in Toronto. Minassian's depraved act of violence was motivated by his hatred of women, but does that mean that this mass murderer is a terrorist?

Law enforcement agencies in Canada are certainly leaning in this direction. Last year they announced terrorism charges against a 17-year-old boy from Toronto for the murder of a woman at a massage parlour. The police claim that the boy was motivated by incel extremism. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police justified this decision on the grounds that incels are an 'ideologically motivated violent extremist' movement.

Acts of murderous violence against women have been perpetrated throughout the ages. But it is only now that some wish to rebrand these criminal acts as 'terrorism'. It is not just violent acts committed by incels that are interpreted through this prism now. In the United States and the UK, there is a growing tendency to apply the recently invented term of 'domestic terrorism' to acts of violence.

Comment: Method to the madness: Expand the definition of terrorism; increase the programmed fear factor; exercise new levels of societal control.

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Pirates

Fed probe into Hunter Biden's 'tax affairs' reportedly 'discreetly' moving ahead

Mark Moore
New York Post
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 19:05 UTC
hunter biden family
© Mark Makela/Getty Images
Melissa Cohen (from left), Hunter Biden and their son, Beau Biden, on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021
​The federal probe into Hunter Biden's "tax affairs" is plowing ahead without any interference from President Biden's White House, according to a report Wednesday.

Prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office in Delaware are "treating it seriously" and they have "not heard from the White House" or Judge Merrick Garland, the president's nominee to run the Justice Department, Fox News reported.

Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a confirmation hearing last week that he hadn't discussed the Hunter Biden investigation with the president.

Comment: Are Hunter Biden's financial and personal indiscretions being quietly held as yet another means to weaken his father's credibility as president?

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Cut

German bank closes RT-affiliated accounts 1 month after German channel announced


RT
Thu, 04 Mar 2021 11:51 UTC
RT germany

(L) RT Deutsche; (R) Ruptly
The company behind RT's video agency Ruptly and RT DE Productions GmbH, which runs the German-language website, received a notice about their accounts being closed by Commerzbank.

Ruptly GmbH and RT DE Productions GmbH have been informed by Commerzbank that it will no longer offer them its services, with the decision set to come into force on May 31.

RT believes this to be part of a wider campaign to obstruct its work in Germany. Last November, Commerzbank inexplicably made its terms of service much less financially favorable for RT, starting an ongoing legal dispute. RT has been trying to find a replacement for Commerzbank, but several financial institutions, including Helaba, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, HSBC, UBS, and HypoVereinsbank, have either ignored RT's inquiries or refused to open accounts on its behalf.

Comment: Obviously Germany, as with many other Western countries under the sway of factions of the deep state, is keen to suppress any voices that may expose holes in the government narrative. But it's notable that this occurs at the same time Germany is edging towards completion of Nord Stream II with Russia as a significant supplier of its energy; much to the chagrin of the US. It also occurs alongside other moves such as the lockdowns with their infringement on citizen freedoms and the suppression of protests against them; its admission that it's continuing to surveil its far-right AFD party; as well as the recent raids on extremist groups.

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Question

Mother, may I? Seemingly confused Biden asks 'Nance' permission to take questions, mic and feed immediately cut

Kyle Becker
Becker News
Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:28 UTC
biden confused

Joe Biden
President Joe Biden hasn't taken a formal press briefing in 43 days. He has also not scheduled a State of the Union Address, although every president since Carter has given one by March in their first term.

So, when he gave America a scripted 'update' on his administration's efforts on Wednesday, a moment of awkwardness ensued when the President of the United States asked for permission to take questions.

Comment: It's becoming more difficult to hide Biden's cognitive deficits. Will Kamala be 25th Amendment-ed into office soon?

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Star of David

Continued Israeli airstrikes on Syria are testing Moscow's patience, Jerusalem would do well not to poke the Russian bear

Scott Ritter
RT
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 19:30 UTC
israeli airforce pilots
© Reuters
Israeli air force pilots are seen inside the cockpit of a F15 aircraft during "Blue Flag", an aerial exercise hosted by Israel.
How Russia responds to Israel's attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria could make all the difference as to whether the region boils over into full-scale war or continues to simmer at its current, already dangerous, level.

In an official statement last week, the special envoy of the president of Russia to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, indicated that Moscow was rapidly losing patience with Israel over airstrikes against alleged Iranian targets on Syria soil. "Sooner or later, the cup of patience, including the Syrian government, may be overflowing, and a retaliatory strike will follow, which will accordingly lead to a new round of tension. These attacks must be stopped, they are counterproductive. We hope that the Israeli side will hear our concerns, including concerns about the possible escalation of violence in Syria."

The language, though diplomatic, leaves little room for misinterpretation. By using the term "including" about the Syrian government losing patience, Lavrentiev left no doubt that the other "inclusive" party was Russia. This linkage carries over into the not-so-veiled threat of a "retaliatory strike" and "possible escalation of violence." In short, Lavrentiev's warning was as blunt a threat against Israel that could be made short of stating the obvious - if Israel continues to bomb Syria, Russia will have no choice but to shoot down their planes.
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Dollar

AOC calls minimum wage debate 'embarrassing,' touts Danish McDonald's wages

Jacob Jarvis
Newsweek
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 05:23 UTC
AOC mask
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on November 19, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called the debate surrounding raising the federal minimum wage to $15-an-hour "utterly embarrassing" and compared the figure against higher hourly pay for McDonald's workers in Denmark.

President Joe Biden has backed increasing the minimum wage $15, but plans to push it through with COVID-19 relief measures via budget reconciliation have stalled after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that it should not be passed using this process.

Progressive Democrats have urged Vice President Kamala Harris to overrule the parliamentarian, though the White House has indicated she will not do so.

Comment: Further from RT:

The argument about well-compensated McDonald's workers in the European nation has been around for years and has been regularly used by progressive politicians in the US. The Danish branch of the international company prides itself on being among the best employers in the country.


Ironically, Denmark has no government-mandated minimum wage. The substantial pay rates and privileges enjoyed by working-class folks employed by McDonald's there are a result of collective bargaining on their behalf by a union. One could argue that this solution is inapplicable for US union-busting realities.

But direct wage comparisons are somewhat tricky considering the vastly different approaches to taxation and public services in the US and in Denmark — and obviously things like prices and unemployment rates should be factored in to tell how much the lot of European burger-servers and cashiers is better compared to their American counterparts.


A battle over such intricacies and whether they were relevant to force a vote on minimum wage in the Congress raged in AOC's comments, pushing Denmark's name to trend on Twitter. Some of her critics found a different line of attack, however. If the New York City representative is such a fan of Danish policies, wouldn't she endorse those on immigration, they pointed out.



This week Denmark became the first European country to strip residency permits from dozens of Syrian refugees and tell them to go back to their home country. The government argued it was safe to return to a government-controlled area surrounding Damascus.

The ruling Social Democratic Party has an anti-immigration stance and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen even pledged to work toward having "zero" applications for asylum in the country during a parliament session in January.


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Brick Wall

Capitol Police to bolster security for March 4 over QAnon theory

Jeff Mordock
The Washington Times
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:01 UTC
capitol breech
© AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, Trump supporters, including Doug Jensen, center, confront U.S. Capitol Police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Washington. QAnon conspiracy theory believers were front and center at the Jan. 6 rally in support of Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud as well as the riot that followed.
The U.S. Capitol Police said late Tuesday that it has bolstered security at the Capitol complex this week because of "concerning information and intelligence" related to March 4, the day QAnon conspiracy theorists believe former President Donald Trump will return to power.

"Based on the intelligence that we have, the Department has taken immediate steps to enhance our security posture and staffing for a number of days, to include March 4," the Capitol Police said in a statement. "The Department has communicated our enhanced posture as well as the available intelligence for the entire workforce."

The Capitol Police said it will continue to work with all of its law enforcement partners to make them aware of "concerning information and intelligence."

Comment: See also:

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Binoculars

UK gov ominously extends £5billion-a-month furlough scheme to OCTOBER

Jason Groves
Daily Mail
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 22:19 UTC
uk economy spanish flu covid frost

The Office for National Statistics has said over the whole of 2020 the economy dived by 9.9 per cent - the worst annual performance since the Great Frost devastated Europe in 1709
The furlough scheme that has cost Britain £53billion will be extended to the end of September as Rishi Sunak vows to do 'whatever it takes' to help the economy recover.


Comment: Note that's just what the government has paid out, this sum does not include the massive immediate financial losses by staff and small and medium businesses that have been prevented from working for nearly a year now.


In today's Budget, the Chancellor will extend the job protection scheme for an extra five months beyond the current deadline at the end of April.

The move takes the scheme, which has cost almost £5 billion a month, well beyond the official target for ending lockdown on June 21, and raises questions about whether ministers expect to lift all restrictions at that point.

Comment: Furlough extensions seem to coincide with lockdown extensions, which is notable because, as reported in the article, the UK government has just laid out it's 'road map' out of lockdown, and citizens are not expecting lockdown to last until (or past) October 2021: 'No route to zero-Covid': Boris Johnson unveils 'irreversible' lockdown-lifting plan

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NPC

As Biden bans export of defense articles to Russia, 'bewildered' Moscow reveals it hasn't received US weapons since WWII


RT
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 22:09 UTC
Russian military
© Sputnik / Kirill Braga
Military personnel during the pre-holiday training camps dedicated to the Defender of the Fatherland Day at the Prudboy training ground of the Southern Military District in the Volgograd region.
Russia's Service of Military-Technical Cooperation has noted its "bewilderment" after Washington imposed an export ban on "defense articles and defense services" to the country, despite Russia not receiving any US arms since 1945.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled new sanctions against Moscow after the alleged poisoning and "attempted assassination of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny."

"The US government has exercised its authorities to send a clear signal that Russia's use of chemical weapons and abuse of human rights have severe consequences," a press statement from Blinken said.

As part of the restrictions, Russia has been included in Section 126.1 of the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which essentially means that any requests from Moscow to buy defense-related items would be flatly rejected.
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