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Lindsey Graham's 'blank check' defense agreement with Israel spells disaster for Americans

Philip Giraldi
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Lindsey Graham
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Two world wars began because of unconditional pledges made by one country to come to assistance of another. On July 5, 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany pledged his country's complete support for whatever response Austria-Hungary would choose to make against Serbia after the June 28th assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist during an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia. This fatal error went down in history as Germany's carte blanche or "blank check," assurance to Austria that led directly to WW I.

In September 1939, World War II began when Great Britain and France came to the assistance of Poland after the German Army invaded, fulfilling a "guarantee" made in March of that year. What was a regional war, and one that might have been resolved through diplomacy, became global.

One would think that after such commitments were assessed by historians as the immediate causes of two world wars, no one would ever consider going down that road again. But that would be reckoning without Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who has been calling for a "defense treaty" with Israel since last April. In his most recent foray, Graham announced late in July that he is seeking bipartisan support for providing "blank check" assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is hoping to be able to push a complete defense treaty through the Senate by next year.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Having embraced Russia, the Liberal Order now wants 'regime change and revenge'

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
PutinRoxburgh
© Unknown/goodreads.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin • Agnus Roxburgh
A former adviser to Russia's government, Angus Roxburgh became famous for covering the fall of communism in eastern Europe. At a point, the former BBC Russian Service scriptwriter worked for the pan-European public relations firm GPlus, as part of a PR advisory team for the Kremlin. Since 2009 Roxburgh turned on the Kremlin. Now, like so many other "Putin experts," he wants a regime change and revenge.

More Putin Fairytales

This story's title is a spin on a The Guardian article "Putin began by embracing the west. Now, he wants revenge," by Angus Roxburgh. In his latest tirade on Vladimir Putin, the British journalist, broadcaster, and former PR adviser just spits out what he wants from relations with Russia with:
"There's little hope of an improvement in relations so long as the Russian president's 20-year reign continues."
It's the lead in a story right out of Mother Goose about how Vladimir Putin is the ruthless strongman who shocked the Fairy Godmother in Buckingham Palace and the Goody Two Shoes operators in the White House by being so, so, bad in Chechnya. Forgive my sarcasm. Another nincompoop Putin expert has reared his bobbly head. Roxburgh continues with a deep, deep, deep analysis of Mr. Putin's psyche and the deep, deep, deep concern by the westerners about the fate of the Russian people. According to Roxburgh:
"The problem lay elsewhere - in Putin's inability to understand the west's wariness and increasing hostility as his internal policies revealed him to be no democrat."
Wow! What a condemnation of the entire western hierarchy and political belief system. London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, and Washington have been bitch-slapped repeatedly by a man incapable of reasoning! What does this say about the people who end up paying Roxburgh's bills? Let's move on.
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Star of David

US confirms Israel staged 'several strikes in recent days' on Iraq

Oleg Burunov
Sputnik
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:38 UTC
Netanyahu/Smoke
© Times of Israel/AP/KJN
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that his country was behind the latest attacks on ammunition depots in Iraq allegedly linked to Tehran, recalling that "Iran is a power that has sworn to annihilate Israel".

Israel conducted "several strikes in recent days" in Iraq, including the July 19 attack north of Baghdad which targeted a base allegedly used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "to transfer weapons to Syria", unnamed senior US officials were quoted by the New York Times as saying.

One of the sources said that Israel was "pushing the limits" with the alleged strikes on Iraq, and that the Jewish state risks "getting the United States military removed from Iraq".

Netanyahu Hints Israel Could Conduct Strikes in Iraq

The claims come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at his country's involvement in the latest attacks on ammunition depots in Iraq belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) composed of mostly Shia Muslim groups. Netanyahu told the Russian-language Israeli news network Channel 9 when asked whether Israel acts in Iraq "if required":
"We're acting not only if required, we're acting in very many theatres against a state that seeks to annihilate us. Obviously I've given the security forces the order and the operational freedom to do what is necessary in order to disrupt these plots by Iran. And obviously I've also led, and in many ways continue to lead, a global effort against Iran".

Comment: Things are finally opening up in the Middle East.

Bibi calling everyone 'Iran' is like Western leaders calling everyone 'Russian trolls': what's actually happening is that the largest (population-wise) countries in the region are coordinating their military actions to encircle and eventually contain Israel.

Israel - blinded by pathological hatred - doesn't see that its preemptive actions are just tightening the noose around its neck.

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Question

A push to wrap up before 2020 elections? US holds secret talks with unidentified Venezuelan officials


RT
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 21:12 UTC
Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello
© REUTERS/Manaure Quintero
Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello
Faced with eight months of failed regime-change efforts, the US is trying to achieve its goals in Venezuela by holding secret talks with members of the government in Caracas, to the dismay of hawks and US-backed opposition.

Following news reports about the secret negotiations, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and US President Donald Trump have both confirmed some kind of talks were going on, but would not say more.

"We've had secret meetings in secret places with secret people that nobody knows," Maduro said, adding that he personally authorized the talks. "There's been contact and we'll continue having contact."

"I don't want to say who," Trump told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about Venezuela. "But we're talking at a very high level."

Citing multiple anonymous sources, AP and the Wall Street Journal reported that the talks involved Diosdado Cabello, head of the Constituent Assembly in Caracas. The body was elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution, but the US has refused to recognize it, insisting that the National Assembly last elected in 2015 was Venezuela's only legitimate legislature, and even recognizing its chair Juan Guaido as "interim president" of the country.

Cabello, however, described the rumors of his participation as a "lie" and "manipulation." He would only agree to meet with the highest-ranking officials, in Venezuela, and with Maduro's approval, he added. "I meet with the owners of the circus, not with those who work for them," he told reporters.
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Footprints

How BoJo might play Brexit

Steve Brown
FRN
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
BorisJohnson
© The National
UK PM Boris Johnson
"Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support reestablishing a border. Even if they do not admit it." -Donald Franciszek Tusk, President of the EU

Wrong! No UK leader has ever proposed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic since the Good Friday agreement - only the European Union has suggested and threatened to enforce it, in the event of a hard Brexit. Now it is time for Boris Johnson to call the EU's bluff.

For too long, the EU has driven the argument that it is in charge of how and under what circumstances the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. The situation must be reversed with Britain in charge — something that Theresa May could not see, or was politically forced to abandon. Now the only way for the new UK leadership to play this, is to accept that only by proactive initiative can Britain take charge and assume the driver's seat.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

UK licensed £6.3bn worth of arms to Saudi-led forces encompassing four years of the Yemen conflict


Middle East Eye
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 08:54 UTC
Yemeni girl
© AFP
Yemeni girl stands amidst the rubble of a building that was destroyed at an unknown date, during reported strikes by Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen's Hajjah province.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade says the arms sales were 'immoral and illegal'

The UK government licensed £6.3bn ($7.6bn) worth of arms to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in the four years of the group's bombing campaign, according to a new report by Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

According to new government statistics, since March 2015 the UK has licensed £5.3bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, £657m to the United Arab Emirates, £85m to Egypt, £72m to Bahrain, and £40m worth to Kuwait. The UK also licensed £142m worth of arms to Qatar prior to its withdrawal from the coalition in 2017. The coalition has been targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The bombing campaign has resulted in what the UN has branded the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 20 million people across the country left food insecure and 3.2 million people suffering from acute malnutrition. Andrew Smith of CAAT said in a statement:
"Thousands of people have been killed in the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen, but that has done nothing to deter the arms dealers. The bombing has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and it wouldn't have been possible without the complicity and support of Downing Street. These arms sales are immoral and illegal."
The UK Court of Appeal ruled in June that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia were unlawful because the government had illegally approved the sales without properly assessing the risk to civilians. The government was ordered by the court not to approve any new licences and to retake decisions on current licences.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Russian envoy to UN: World is on the verge of 'uncontrolled arms race' due to US


RT
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 22:44 UTC
UNSC
© Reuters/Lucas Jackson
United Nations Security Council
The US ambitions have put the world on the brink of a new arms race that can easily spiral out of control, warned the Russian envoy to the UN. Washington responded by blaming Moscow for the INF treaty's collapse.

"Are you aware of the fact that all of us have found ourselves just one step away from an uncontrolled arms race, because of the US geopolitical ambitions?" Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, said at the emergency session of the Security Council that Moscow and Beijing convened on Thursday, in the wake of the US missile tests. "This a source of great concern for us, but apparently not for the US."

Washington apparently planned to leave Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty long before announcing its withdrawal from the 1987 agreement back in February, Polyanskiy added, since this is the only way it could have tested a new ground-launched cruise missile that violated the accord mere weeks after it officially expired.

The launcher used in the test was the same one installed in Aegis Ashore missile defense batteries in Romania and Poland. When the first of those systems was placed in 2016, Moscow expressed its concerns over their capability to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in violation of the INF treaty. The US assured Russia at the time the Aegis systems did not have such features.

"Now these suspicions are confirmed," Polyanskiy said,

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Tulsi Gabbard's campaign wants the DNC to change debate qualifying poll requirements

Beatrice Peterson and Justin Gomez
ABC News
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:28 UTC
Debate
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and former Maryland congressman John Delaney take part in the first night of the Democratic presidential debate on June 26, 2019 in Miami, Florida.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's presidential campaign is calling on the Democratic National Committee to revise its list of debate qualifying polls in an effort to help the Hawaii Congresswoman qualify for the upcoming third DNC debate hosted by ABC News.

According to the criteria that the DNC set forth, 2020 candidates must meet the donor threshold of 130,000 unique donors and 2 percent in 4 DNC qualified polls. Gabbard has exceeded the donor threshold but needs two polls to meet the debate criteria.

The Gabbard team is citing what they describe as several irregularities in the selection and timing of the DNC sponsored polls. The campaign points out "Gabbard has exceeded 2% support in 26 polls, but only two of them are on the DNC's "certified" list.

In a press release, the campaign says many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as TheEconomist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC "certified" polls."
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Star of David

Trumps parrots the Zionist talking points: US Jews must be loyal to Israel

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:48 UTC
Bari Weiss

Bari Weiss
The Jewish community has good reason to be disturbed by Trump's assertion that the Jews who vote Democratic and not for him (the vast majority) are "disloyal." We can only imagine how this statement will affect nationalist wingnuts who already think Jews are "replacing" them.

But the allegation by many Jewish organizations and individuals that Trump is echoing an antisemitic European trope of the disloyal, transnational Jew, rings hollow. Trump has no idea about that history. Trump has heard that Jews who criticize Israel are disloyal from rightwing Zionists, his own friends, everyone from Sheldon Adelson to David Friedman to Elliott Abrams to Alan Dershowitz. If there's a trope here, it's the Zionist claim that Jews must be loyal to Israel, no matter where they live.

Bari Weiss makes my point in the NY Times: "If you're pro-Trump or Trump-curious," she allows, "you'll generously hear an assertion that Jews should be loyal to Israel." She hastens to add, "If you're anything like me, you can't help but hear echoes of the sinister charge of dual loyalty."

But Weiss has stated the principle: It's a good thing to say that American Jews should be loyal to Israel.
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Einstein

President Bolsonaro tells world not to meddle in Brazil's affairs as Amazon rainforest burns

Aris Folley
The Hill
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 07:34 UTC
Jair Bolsonaro
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is telling other nations not to meddle in its growing crisis in the Amazon rainforest as wildfires continue to spread across the region, shortly after he said Brazil didn't "have the resources" on its own to extinguish the blaze.

"These countries that send money here, they don't send it out of charity," the right-wing president said in a live broadcast on Thursday, Reuters reports.

"They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty," he added.

However, shortly before those comments on Thursday, Bolsonaro said his country could not fight the growing blaze alone.

"The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?" Bolsonaro reportedly asked local media. "We do not have the resources for that."

Bolsonaro has faced international criticism for the blaze, which critics say has been exacerbated by his administration's rollback of environmental protections for the rainforest.
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