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Elliott Abrams and the absurd paradoxes of American foreign policy

Damon Linker
The Week
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 00:01 UTC
Elliot Abrams
© Illustrated | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Only in America could a man best known for enacting policies that led to mass murder, participating in a criminal conspiracy to subvert the will of Congress, and helping to plan and execute a war that destabilized an entire region and resulted in more than a hundred thousand deaths be chosen to lead yet another delicate foreign policy mission and then enjoy the fulsome support of the country's bipartisan national security establishment who passionately defend him as "a leading advocate of human rights and democracy."

I'm talking, of course, about Elliott Abrams, President Trump's choice of special envoy to Venezuela, who faced blunt, sometimes rude questioning from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) before the House Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. The grilling sparked a tidal wave of outrage and umbrage among leading members of the foreign policy community, many of whom viewed Abrams' treatment as a violation of decorum and an affront against a card-carrying member of the club of Very Serious Policy Intellectuals who have devoted their lives and careers to helping the United States lead the free world.

Comment: See also:

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Broom

7 UK MPs leave Labour party complaining about Brexit, Corbyn and 'anti-semitism'


BBC
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 11:23 UTC
the independent group
© Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP Getty Images
Former Labour party MPs Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes, Luciana Berger, Ann Coffrey, Angela Smith and Chuka Umunna (left to right) watch as Gavin Shuker (center) addresses the press |
Seven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism.

They are: Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey.

Ms Berger said Labour had become institutionally anti-Semitic and she was "embarrassed and ashamed" to stay.


Comment: It's notable UK MPs have been the targets of corrupt agents from Israel, and for Corbyn it's likely due to his stance on the rights of Palestinians:


Mr Corbyn said he was "disappointed" the MPs had felt unable to continue working for the policies that "inspired millions" at the 2017 election.

The MPs are not launching a new political party - they will sit in Parliament as the Independent group.

But Chuka Umunna said they had "taken the first step" and urged other Labour MPs - and members of other parties - to join them in "building a new politics".

Comment: We'll have a better idea of how the British public feels by whether these MPs continue to enjoy the support of their constituencies in future elections.

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Brick Wall

Top Trump adviser predicts 'hundreds of miles' of border wall by 2020


Breitbart
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:38 UTC
Stephen Miller Trump adviser
A top adviser to Donald Trump said Sunday that the president's emergency declaration could allow "hundreds of miles" of barriers to be built on the Mexican border before the 2020 election.

"You're looking at hundreds of miles," Stephen Miller said on Fox News Sunday, "probably a couple hundred miles" by September 2020, two months before the election.

Trump has made clear he plans to exploit the issue in his re-election campaign, even amid sharp criticism from Democrats, rights groups, border-state landowners - and several prominent Republicans.
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Bad Guys

Nancy Pelosi's brother's company got $737 million from Obama's Energy Dept.

HJIC
Illicit Info
Sat, 09 Feb 2019 10:38 UTC
Obama Nancy Pelosi
To understand the future we must understand the past. At least when it comes to what we can expect from corrupt politicians.

To envision the size of the pot of gold that Democrats envision for themselves at the other end of the Green New Deal rainbow we only have to look back to the Obama administration, the $3 Trillion in "stimulus" money, the Green Movement, and how it seemingly enriched Democrats, their donors, and Nancy Pelosi in particular.

For background we cite a September 2011 article from the Daily Mail:

Even as government financed "green energy" pioneer Solyndra was failing, the Obama administration approved an additional $1 Billion in loans to similar green energy projects.
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Quenelle - Golden

Russia, China & Turkey ignore US blockade to deliver critical aid to Venezuela

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:38 UTC
Venezuela aid packages
Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Humberto Alvarado González reported that humanitarian aid made up of drugs from the Allied countries reached Venezuela.

"Despite the blockade, the Bolivarian government through agreements with Cuba, China, Russia, Palestine, Turkey, and cooperation with multilateral organizations of the UN, Pan American Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, Population Fund of the United Nations, among others, is responding to the population's health needs," Alvarado wrote on his Twitter account .

The minister also published photos of the containers with the help of the humanitarian who arrived in the country.
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X

The first rule of AIPAC is: you do not talk about AIPAC

Thomas Knapp
CounterPunch
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:40 UTC
AIPAC
© WJLA/KJN
Washington's political establishment went berserk when US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) publicly noted that US-Israel relations are "all about the Benjamins" - slang for $100 bills, referring to money shoveled at American politicians by the American Israel Public Affairs Group (AIPAC).

Omar was accused of antisemitism - immediately by Republicans, shortly after by members of her own party - and bullied into apologizing. She may or may not be prejudiced against Jews, but even if she is, that wasn't her real offense.

Her real offense was publicly mentioning the irrefutable fact that many members of Congress take their marching orders from a foreign power's lobbying apparatus (an apparatus not, as required by law, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act), at least partly because those marching orders come with promises of significant donations to those politicians' campaigns.

AIPAC itself doesn't make direct donations to political campaigns. But AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbying groups like Christians United For Israel punch well above their weight in American politics, largely by motivating their supporters to financially support and work for "pro-Israel" candidates in general elections and help weed out "anti-Israel" candidates in party primaries.

By the way, "pro-Israel" in this context always means "supportive of the jingoism of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party," and never "supportive of the many Israelis who'd like peace with the Palestinian Arabs."

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

Hating neocons is becoming mainstream again, and it is excellent

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:01 UTC
ro khanna tweet


American Conservative has published an article titled "Why Are These Professional War Peddlers Still Around?", an excerpt from a book by Fox's Tucker Carlson, which documents neoconservative thought leaders Max Boot and Bill Kristol's consistent track record of supporting spectacularly awful US war policies. Carlson goes over the many, many acts of military interventionism which have been pushed for by these two legendary failmeisters, documents what they predicted would happen as the result of that interventionism (freedom, democracy and prosperity) and what actually ended up happening instead (needless death, terrorism and chaos), and marvels at how they both somehow remain in positions of high esteem with high-profile, high-paying jobs.

The article was shared today on Twitter by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who commented that Carlson "offers a devastating critique [of] interventionism and shows how much of the foreign policy establishment has failed the American people. There is an emerging, left right coalition of common sense for a foreign policy of restraint."

Comment: See also:

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X

Facebook blocks pages with TENS OF MILLIONS of views without warning, because Russia


RT
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:12 UTC
maffick media
Facebook has suspended several accounts operated by Maffick Media without prior warning, right after CNN ran a report about the company's perceived ties to the Kremlin.

In what seems to be a new step in the social media giant's fight against perceived 'Russian propaganda', Facebook took down, without prior notice, several pages offering video content. The social media network said it would ask the administrators of Soapbox, Back Then and Waste-Ed to disclose their "Russian affiliations."

"People connecting with Pages shouldn't be misled about who's behind them. Just as we've stepped up our enforcement of coordinated inauthentic behavior and financially motivated spam over the past year, we'll continue improving so people can get more information about the Pages they follow," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

However, no official requests were filed with Maffick Media, the German-based company operating all three pages. They were not notified before the fact, which prompted an angry response (posted on Maffick's front page at the time of writing) in which they branded Facebook policies "new McCarthyism." All three pages remained offline on Monday.


Comment: See also: Yes, Moscow boosts western anti-imperialist voices. So what?

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Stock Down

Russians told to "prepare for the worst" as US prepares new sanctions

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 09:53 UTC
russian map sanctions
A bipartisan team of US senators is preparing to hit Russia with additional sanctions over its 2016 US election interference and military operations in Syria and Ukraine.

Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are spearheading the measure, called the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act, which includes a wide range of financial penalties targeting Russia's energy complex, financial industry and "political figures, oligarchs, and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Vladimir Putin," reported The Independent.

Threats of the sanctions rocked Russian stock and government bond markets at the end of the week, and the country's debt insurance costs jumped alongside FX volatility.

Moscow has responded to the prospect of new sanctions with anger.

A former minister told Russians to prepare for the worst outcome; the Kremlin accused the US of "racketeering."

Comment: See also:

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Evil Rays

NPR deliberately misleads public in report on AIPAC vs Ilhan Omar

Alison Weir
If Americans Knew
Sun, 17 Feb 2019 22:31 UTC
NPR headquarters national public radio

Washington D.C. headquarters of NPR, National Public Radio
NPR's All Things Considered segment underreports AIPAC's finances, uses only Israel partisans as commentators, minimizes power of AIPAC, ignores Palestinians, and fails to inform listeners of the full scope of the Israel lobby

A recent NPR report, "Unpacking What The American Israel Public Affairs Committee Does," misleads listeners on several points.

The report is in response to freshman Democratic Congress member Ilhan Omar's tweet that AIPAC is the cause of U.S. politicians' support for Israel over U.S. needs and principles. Omar has come under numerous attacks ever since.

NPR's report, broadcast Wednesday, substantially downplays the power of AIPAC. In doing so, it suggests that Omar's comments were "antisemitic," while failing to interview anyone with different views.

The report was on NPR's All Things Considered, which says it is "the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country."

Comment: NPR's role in the 'unholy choir' of Western propaganda

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