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Spanish government set to pardon nine Catalan independence leaders

Sam Jones
The Guardian
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
Pedro Sanchez
© Albert Gea/ReutersPedro Sánchez: ‘When it comes to weighing up political decisions, the future has to matter more than the past.’
Spain's socialist-led government will on Tuesday approve the deeply controversial pardons of the nine Catalan independence leaders who were jailed over their roles in the illegal, failed attempt to secede from the rest of the country in October 2017.

The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has acknowledged that the decision will anger many Spaniards, but insists the act of clemency is the best way to bring the country back together and to help find a political solution to the enduring territorial crisis.

Sánchez finally confirmed the long-anticipated move during a speech in Barcelona on Monday in which he stressed the need for coexistence, magnanimity and a fresh start. The pardons will be formally approved during Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

The nine - among them six members of Catalonia's former government who had not fled Spain, plus the speaker of the regional parliament and two influential activists - were convicted of offences including sedition by the supreme court in 2019.

Comment: See also:

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X

Former Brazil President Lula da Silva acquitted in yet another corruption case


MercoPress
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:49 UTC
Lula da Silva
© AFPFormer Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was acquitted due to lack of evidence Monday in one of the corruption cases for which he was being tried, it was announced. Together with Lula, six other officials who had also been charged with favouring auto companies in exchange for bribes were found not guilty.

Judge Frederico Botelho de Barros Viana maintained the prosecution did not "convincingly demonstrate" how the former president and his chief of staff "had participated in the supposedly criminal context."

The magistrate also specified that "there are elements that demonstrate the performance of Mauro Marcondes' company - Marcondes and Mautoni - in terms of the extension of tax benefits to CAOA and MMC companies, there is no adequate evidence and not even minimally capable of demonstrating the existence of an illicit adjustment between the accused to transfer amounts in favour of Lula and Carvalho," about former Cabinet Chief Gilberto Carvalho, who was also secretary of the Presidency under Dilma Rousseff.

The Prosecutor's Office had accused the former president in 2017 of modifying, in exchange for alleged bribes, a legislative measure to favour companies in the automotive sector through an extension of tax benefits for five years, but the accusation was later dismissed and in the closing arguments in May it had requested Lula's acquittal.

Comment: See also:

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Footprints

Taliban perceives 'hasty withdrawal' of American troops from Afghanistan as 'victory'

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Mon, 21 Jun 2021 14:04 UTC
Taliban warning sign
© Reuters/Jim HollanderTaliban warning sign
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was installed following the expulsion of the Taliban* from Kabul, has harshly criticised the US and NATO for failing to eradicate terrorists in the country over the last two decades. He argued that western nations are leaving Afghanistan "in total disgrace and disaster".

The view of American troops packing their things as they prepare to leave Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war is apparently a sight for sore Taliban eyes. The group, which has been fighting against NATO forces for the last two decades, is treating this moment as their victory in the lengthy fight,

The Daily Beast has reported citing a Taliban media official: "We strongly believe the US military was terribly defeated in Afghanistan. And they're running away from Afghanistan in a hurry", Taliban representative Khalid Zadran said.

According to media reports, the Taliban is already making use of the situation. While the US hands over its military bases to Kabul's forces, the group's troops are reportedly taking over some of the now-unguarded districts and provinces. Apparently, the Afghan security forces have so far been unable to stop their progression.

Comment: Perhaps the 'military' was not the 'change agent' needed to turn Afghanistan into a subordinate Western neighborhood. Given the outcome, change was never the goal. It was profit not progress.

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Attention

Best of the Web: The Empire strikes: US government SEIZES website of Iran's Press TV, two other media outlets


RT
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 18:33 UTC
US seize IRan website presstv
© https://www.presstv.com/The Press TV website has been disappeared.
US authorities have seized the web domains of Iran's international media outlets Press TV and Al-Alam, along with the Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, run by the Houthi faction.

Visitors to the three domains were greeted on Tuesday with a notice that they were seized under US laws that allow civil and criminal forfeiture of property involved in "trafficking in nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons technology or material, or the manufacture, importation, sale, or distribution of a controlled substance."

The seizure notice by the US Department of Justice also invokes a law governing presidential authority in dealing with "unusual and extraordinary threat; declaration of national emergency," which includes the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005 and the ironically named Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006.
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MIB

Best of the Web: FBI monitoring of social media posts pre-Jan 6 raises even more questions of what it REALLY knew prior to Capitol Hill riot

Kit Klarenberg
RT
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 18:07 UTC
protesters enter capitol building january 6
© AFP / Saul LoebSupporters of US President Donald Trump walk around in the Rotunda after breaching the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
Publicly, US authorities have rigidly stuck to the story that no one saw the January 6 Capitol ruckus coming. But the publication of internal documents is casting further doubt on the established version of events.

On June 21, NBC News reported on a recent court filing that raises further questions about whether the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) foresaw what happened in Washington DC on January 6 and, if so, why the agency failed to sound the alarm in good time.

The document in question is an FBI investigative report on social media activity prior to that fateful day, produced in February, showing that enraged Donald Trump supporters were openly talking about bringing firearms to the Capitol in order to instigate a "revolution." The offending posts were used as justification to launch a probe into protest attendee Thomas Webster, a former New York Police Department officer, who was indicted the following month for attacking a Capitol Police officer.

Comment: More and more information is coming out that not only did the FBI have plants in the different groups attending the Jan 6 protests, they were the ones egging on the violence. Couple that with the various "light-touch" and confusing stand-down orders and you have the perfect dragnet for unsuspecting patriots who are now cast as enemies of the state. Tucker nails it:



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2 + 2 = 4

Professor Giordano Joins Tucker Carlson on Fox News

Nicholas Giordano
The P.A.S. Report
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 17:50 UTC
Domestic terrorism conspiracy theory
Nicholas Giordano joins Tucker Carlson on Fox News to discuss how the Biden Manual on Fighting Domestic Terrorism can easily be abused. This is an extremely important segment that exposes the vagueness of the document, and how it can be manipulated and used against political opponents. The Department of Justice's National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism should concern every American regardless of political affiliation, and the text of the document proves that even the most casual critic of the government could be ensnared, and therefore be labeled as a domestic terrorist.

This four-minute clip just scratches the surface. On June 23, Professor Giordano will break down the document, going page-by-page, showing just how dangerous it is, how it can easily be manipulated and exploited, what will happen if it is fully implemented, and why it shouldn't matter what your political affiliation is.

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X

80 years after Nazi invasion of USSR, Ukraine's main opposition party asks Kiev to finally clamp down on neo-Nazi organizations


RT
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 17:46 UTC
ukraine neonazies
© RIAParticipants of the "March of embroidery" in Kiev. The action is carried out by nationalists and is timed to the anniversary of the creation of the SS division "Galicia" during the Second World War, Ukraine.
On the 80th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German-led WW2 military invasion of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's leading opposition party has demanded that authorities in Kiev finally ban neo-Nazi organizations.

In a statement published on its website on Tuesday, the Opposition Platform - For Life party also asked the Ukrainian government to stop "rewriting history."

Back in April, Ukrainian nationalists held a march in the center of Kiev to mark the anniversary of the creation of the SS Galicia during World War II. The SS division was made up predominantly of Ukrainian volunteers who took up arms for Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and who mainly fought against local partisans. The unit was almost wiped out in the 1944 Battle of Lvov-Sandomierz, and later saw action in Slovakia and Austria. In 1945, it rebranded as the Ukrainian National Army and lasted until the end of the war in May that year.

The march in Kiev was condemned by officials from Russia, Germany, and Israel, amongst others.

At the time, Opposition Platform asked the government for a "tough reaction," noting that the traditional WWII Victory Day parade was banned, due to Covid-19 restrictions, but the SS Galicia parade wasn't.

"On this Day of Mourning and Remembrance of Victims of War, we do not expect fake lamentations from the authorities," the Opposition Platform statement explains. "We demand prohibition and persecution for all neo-Nazi organizations, an end to the glorification of Nazi collaborators and an end to the rewriting of history. An end to the policy of ethnic and cultural discrimination."
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Penis Pump

Duterte still going full Duterte: 'You choose, Covid vaccine or I will have you jailed'


The Guardian
Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:41 UTC
duterte
© AFP/Presidential Photo Division (PPD) King Rodrigues
President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Philippines battles one of Asia's worst outbreaks, with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths.

"You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed," Duterte said in a televised address on Monday following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital Manila.

Duterte's remarks contradict those of his health officials, who have said that while people are being urged to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, it was voluntary.

"Don't get me wrong, there is a crisis in this country," Duterte said. "I'm just exasperated by Filipinos not heeding the government."

As of Sunday, Philippine authorities had fully vaccinated 2.1 million people, making slow progress towards the government's target of up to 70 million of the country's 110 million people.

Duterte, who has been criticised for his tough approach to containing the virus, also stood by his decision not to let schools reopen.

Comment: He didn't leave it there. He made it personal:
"If you don't want to get vaccinated, leave the Philippines," he said, as quoted by the PNA news agency. "Go to India if you want, or somewhere to America. But for as long as you are here and you are a human being and can carry the virus, you should get vaccinated."
...
Duterte, who is known for using straightforward and crass language in public, was quoted by the Rappler news website as saying, "If you don't want to get vaccinated, I'll have you arrested [and] then I'll inject a vaccine into your buttocks."


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Arrow Down

Maxine Waters: 'I'm told' Jan. 6 riot organizing took place in Trump campaign

Jeff Poor
Breitbart
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 17:36 UTC
maxine waters joe biden
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst; Reuters / Joshua RobertsJoe Biden (L) Maxine Waters (R)
Saturday, during an appearance on CNN, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) suggested the Trump campaign played a role in the January 6 Capitol Hill riot.

Waters made those remarks when asked by CNN's Jim Acosta to react to what he called Republicans blaming the FBI.

"They can say whatever they want to say," Waters declared. "One of the things we know is we need a commission, and they are opposing a commission to find out who all was involved. Where did the money come from to send busloads of people in? Who supported them in all of this? Where was the organizing taking place? I'm told there was organizing taking place right in the Trump campaign. And so, if they are really concerned about why our Capitol was invaded and why there was an insurrection, they would support a commission to find out. But they don't want to know because too many of them side with them and support what they have done, and they are not going to call them to task for it."

"It is outrageous what happened to us, that the Capitol of the United States was invaded by domestic terrorists," she continued. "And they don't want to live up to it and admit what took place. They call themselves patriots, but that speech that you heard me give on the floor, I challenge their patriotism. And I told them that they were not really patriots. And they're the ones who claim to be more patriotic than anybody else. But I'm going to keep challenging them because they have joined in supporting literally the fact that not only were we invaded, there was a noose that was hanging at opening of the Capitol grounds, threatening to hang even the vice president at that time of the United States."

Comment: Projection. Reversive blockade. To understand, just reverse all her statements and you'll come pretty close to the truth. The evidence for the less savory elements of Jan. 6 being an FBI operation is much better than "being told" it came directly from the Trump campaign.

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Putin

Best of the Web: 'Being Open, Despite the Past' - Article by Vladimir Putin in German newspaper

Vladimir Putin
Kremlin, Russia
Tue, 22 Jun 2021 10:30 UTC
An article by the President of Russia has been published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit and is timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic war.
Putin
© Twitter
On June 22, 1941, exactly 80 years ago, the Nazis, having conquered practically the whole of Europe, attacked the USSR. For the Soviet people the Great Patriotic War - the bloodiest one in the history of our country - began. Tens of millions of people lost their lives, the economic potential of the country and its cultural property were severely damaged.

We are proud of the courage and steadfastness of the heroes of the Red Army and home front workers who not only defended the independence and dignity of our homeland, but also saved Europe and the world from enslavement. Despite attempts to rewrite the pages of the past that are being made today, the truth is that Soviet soldiers came to Germany not to take revenge on the Germans, but with a noble and great mission of liberation. We hold sacred the memory of the heroes who fought against Nazism. We remember with gratitude our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, participants in the Resistance movement, and German anti-fascists who brought our common victory closer.

Having lived through the horrors of the world war, the peoples of Europe were nevertheless able to overcome alienation and restore mutual trust and respect. They set a course for integration in order to draw a final line under the European tragedies of the first half of the last century. And I would like to emphasize that the historical reconciliation of our people with the Germans living both in the east and the west of modern united Germany played a huge role in the formation of such Europe.

Comment: In short:

Russia to the EU: "Let us in!"

USA & UK to Russia: "No chance, EU is OURS!"

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