Puppet Masters

EU foreign affairs chief: Bloc to create special payment channels to do business with Iran

RT
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:32 UTC

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says the EU signatories remain committed to the nuclear deal with Iran that the US has quit. The group is working to create special payment channels to do business with Iran.

Mogherini read from a statement following a ministerial meeting of the remaining signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The statement by the five nations -Russia, the UK, Germany, China and France- confirms that Iran has been complying with its end of the agreement.

With that in mind, the EU is working to create the means to continue doing business with Iran legally, at a time when the US is looking to stifle Tehran's oil exports with sanctions, aiming ultimately to bring them down to zero.

"Mindful of the urgency and the need for tangible results, the participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and develop payment channels, notably the initiative to establish a special purpose vehicle to facilitate payments related to Iran's exports, including oil," Mogherini said.

Amnesty International wants Kavanaugh vetting process halted over alleged role in post-9/11 torture

RT
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 14:55 UTC

The US branch of Amnesty International has dived into the heated debate on whether US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is morally fit for the office, calling for his role in the post-9/11 torture program to be highlighted.

In a letter to Senators penned on Monday, Amnesty argues that Kavanaugh's vetting on the subject of human rights "has been insufficient and calls for the vote on his nomination for Supreme Court of the United States to be further postponed" unless the Trump administration promptly moves forward with disclosing all the data related to Kavanaugh's role in the post-9/11 crackdown, namely, his alleged complicity in the CIA's notorious torture program.

Explaining its foray into the hottest issue currently raging in US politics, Amnesty insists that it typically does not intervene into the appointment of government officials, except in cases when "they are reasonably suspected of crimes under international law and could use their appointment...to ether prevent accountability to these crimes or to continue perpetration."

Why the fight for Kavanaugh matters

The Editors
National Review
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:14 UTC

© Jim Bourg/Reuters
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, September 4, 2018.

The cynics - or, perhaps more precisely, the realists - believed that the Democrats were playing for time in the hopes of finding another accusation against Brett Kavanaugh. The cynics were right.

The New Yorker stooped to publish a shoddy story alleging that Kavanaugh exposed himself to a woman while he was at Yale. The alleged incident occurred at a drunken party when both were in their freshman year. What's extraordinary is that the woman making the charge, a fellow Yale student named Deborah Ramirez, admits that she hesitated to come forward because there were such large gaps in her memory.

As the magazine puts it: "In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh's role in the alleged incident with certainty." She only decided to talk, it says, "after six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney."

Comment: Second woman accuses Kavanaugh of sex abuse - claims are even weaker than Ford's

Christine Ford's unhinged attorney was wearing radical socialist power fist t-shirt at anti-Trump protest

Amber Athey
The Daily Caller
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 14:48 UTC

Debra Katz, one of the attorneys representing Brett Kavanaugh's accuser, attended a resistance rally against the president in 2017 and promised to "fight back."

Katz is representing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who claims Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s while the two were in high school.

The lawyer has numerous ties to the resistance against Trump, and was caught on camera at a protest in February 2017 after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the administration's attorney general.

"We are going to fight back," she told a reporter. "We are going to resist. We will not be silenced."

China's deputy minister: Trade talks impossible with Washington 'holding a knife' to Beijing's neck

RT
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 08:42 UTC

Wang Shouwen

Trade talks between China and the US are impossible with Washington "holding a knife" to Beijing's neck, the Chinese deputy commerce minister said.

The statement was released after a 10-percent import tariff imposed by the US on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods came into effect. The tax is to be raised to 25 percent at the end of the year.

"Now that the United States has adopted such large-scale restrictive measures and holds a knife to another's neck, how can negotiations proceed?" Wang Shouwen said at a news conference, adding that such talks would not be "negotiations of equality."

As the Sino-American trade conflict unfolded, Beijing announced the introduction of $60 billion in tariffs on US goods.

Comment: The Trump administrations 'negotiating' strategy doesn't seem to be working so well with Beijing (or Tehran) - does he have a backup plan or will Jack Ma's prediction of a protracted trade war be fulfilled?

Pompeo foolishly thinks trade war with China will force Beijing to behave the way Washington wants

RT
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 14:38 UTC

As the latest US and Chinese tit-for-tat tariffs are about to take effect, Mike Pompeo has reassured Americans that any inconveniences they might suffer in the trade war are temporary, before they emerge victorious and prosperous.

After a vast number of American businesses and multinationals expressed concern about the damage from the new tariffs and potential further escalation of the trade war, the chief US diplomat stressed that Washington strives to protect US workers and force China to play by its rules.

"We're going to get an outcome which forces China to behave in a way that if you want to be a power - a global power transparency, rule of law, you don't steal intellectual property - the fundamental principles of trade around the world: fairness, reciprocity," Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday.

Soros sore at not getting his way: Open Society Foundation taking Hungary to court to repeal law against aiding migrants

VOA
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:54 UTC

© Reuters
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sits before vote on the 'Stop Soros' package of bills that criminalises some help given to illegal immigrants at the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, June 20, 2018.

U.S. billionaire George Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) said on Monday it would challenge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg Hungarian laws that make it a crime to help asylum-seekers.

But Budapest, which accuses Soros and the liberal groups and causes he backs of trying to destroy Europe's Christian culture by promoting mass migration, said it would not repeal the laws, whatever the outcome of the court appeal.

Under legislation named "Stop Soros," anybody who helps migrants not entitled to protection to apply for asylum, or helps illegal migrants gain status to stay in Hungary, can be jailed. Orban has also introduced a 25 percent special tax on aid groups it says support migration.

Comment: Viktor Orban's people recognize he is defending their right to configure their society as they wish. They have observed the chaos surrounding them and want no part of it. He will never lose their support.

Have Kavanaugh's two accusers been carefully constructing perjury hedges? Sure looks like it

Monica Showalter
American Thinker
Mon, 24 Sep 2018 12:50 UTC

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

While Democrats and the public holler to each other about who's lying in the 11th-hour sexual abuse charges seeking to shoot down the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, and the Drudge Report headlines it as a he-said, she-said case, what stands out is that the two sides in this aren't equal. It's amazing how much careful hedging against perjury charges Kavanaugh's accusers have taken, in contrast with Kavanaugh's defenders.

Christine Blasey Ford set off a few red flags from the get-go, not only because of first her insistence on anonymity in making the charges, then her vague recall of critical details such as when the incident was and how she got there, and finally her lawyer's crazy conditions for her client to testify before the Senate, insisting that only male Senate members ask questions, Kavanaugh speak first, and lots of time to set up the Senate hearings due to the Hawaii-commuting professor's suddenly disclosed fear of flying, alongside her false claim that the Senate insisted she sit at the same table as Kavanaugh as she made her charges.

Comment:

No Anuses allowed: Facebook forces Belgian political candidate to change his 'rude' real surname

RT
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 07:21 UTC

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointing and laughing

Cheeky censors at Facebook have made one man's local election campaign in Belgium somewhat harder after his real surname was deemed too offensive for him to register a Facebook page.

Luc Anus, 26, was hoping to use the social networking site to help spread his campaign ideas and gain enough votes for a position on his local council in Lobbes, in Belgium's Wallonia region.

However, Anglophonic censors at the US tech giant have barred him from using his real name on the platform saying it was against its community guidelines.

"Facebook just does not accept my name," Anus said.

Bolton & Mattis offer competing reasons for 'protracted occupation' in Syria

Sputnik
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 11:22 UTC

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton told the media Monday that the US will continue to have a presence in Syria until Iran no longer does. Later in the day, Defense Secretary James Mattis contradicted Bolton's stated mission - although he claimed otherwise - when talking to reporters at the Pentagon.

"We're not going to leave [Syria] as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias," Bolton told the Associated Press at the United Nations General Assembly, presumably referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps presence in Syria and Hezbollah.

That could put the US campaign in Syria in dubious legal territory. The US is prohibited from waging war without the consent of Congress, but has been able to battle groups such as the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Daesh and their affiliates in Africa and the Middle East because of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) Against Terrorists. The bill was passed just three days after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11 and allows the US to use "necessary and appropriate force" against the perpetrators. While Daesh didn't exist in 2001, the Obama administration argued that the bill's purview extended to the group as a successor of al-Qaeda.

Comment: Also see: Niall Bradley on Sputnik: 'Kerry Shadow Diplomacy Exposes US-Israeli Urgency to Contain Iran Before it Acquires Strategic Deterrence'

I live in Australia, but the outcome of that election even pleased me. I hope the Left doubles down on their insanity so that all of them will...

Spur

JP Sears - Why two classes of citizens is a GREAT idea: [Link]

Animanarchy

Is this not a case of, The pot calling the kettle black.

Winternights3

Here's a Mandela Effect for you. I swear I read more than one article saying she died about 4 months ago. 4 Months later I read this - at least I...

scrutinizer

Wait!.. WHAT?! Agents de Surete Ferroviaire with Service Weapon?!? I know I left france a while back, but back then even cops were not allowed...

tof

Puppet Masters

EU foreign affairs chief: Bloc to create special payment channels to do business with Iran

Amnesty International wants Kavanaugh vetting process halted over alleged role in post-9/11 torture

Why the fight for Kavanaugh matters

Christine Ford's unhinged attorney was wearing radical socialist power fist t-shirt at anti-Trump protest

China's deputy minister: Trade talks impossible with Washington 'holding a knife' to Beijing's neck

Pompeo foolishly thinks trade war with China will force Beijing to behave the way Washington wants

Soros sore at not getting his way: Open Society Foundation taking Hungary to court to repeal law against aiding migrants

Have Kavanaugh's two accusers been carefully constructing perjury hedges? Sure looks like it

No Anuses allowed: Facebook forces Belgian political candidate to change his 'rude' real surname

Bolton & Mattis offer competing reasons for 'protracted occupation' in Syria

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us