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© Romeo Ranoco / ReutersPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte, wearing a military uniform
Addressing a group of former rebels last week at Heroes Hall, the Presidential Museum and Library, in Quezon City, Duterte said that soldiers should take disturbing action to counter the threat of female opposition.
"Tell the soldiers. 'There's a new order coming from mayor. We won't kill you. We will just shoot your - so that... If there are no - it would be useless," he said. His comments drew widespread condemnation from human rights and feminist groups.
Comment: As the women's party spokesman says, while disturbing, they are are just remarks, and they're in reference to female rebel soldiers - it wouldn't be the first time a president has referenced violence against the opposition. One would think Duterte's actions would be taken into consideration, because, while he does have a very original delivery, his track record for allying with reasonable nations and his efforts to sort out the problems within his country are evident:
- 'Execute me by firing squad': Duterte defiant despite ICC investigation into war on drugs
- Duterte is the best president The Philippines has ever had
- Duterte defends his behavior: 'If I don't act like a dictator, nothing will happen to this country'
- Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte hits back at Catholic Church after clerics tried to undermine drug war
- Analyzing the CIA's 'cloddish' ISIS attack on Duterte & the Philippines
- President Duterte thanks Putin for helping Philippines to win battle against ISIS
- Philippines is mastering the art of "win-win" at APEC summit, a geo-economic triumph for Duterte
- Why Neoliberals are frightened of Duterte defeating ISIS
© AP Photo/ APTVAmerican soldier standing on an armored vehicle in the northern village of Darbasiyah, Syria
"We have 911 kilometers of border with Syria. What is their [US'] connection with the Syrian border? They have already spent 550 million dollars [to help the YPG], but now they want to increase this figure to three billion. You say that you are fighting against Daesh. And how many Daesh members did you destroy? Those who fought against Daesh are now fighting against Turkey. No one has the right to use Daesh as an excuse. It's time to finish this theater with Daesh, it's time to remove the masks," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
In an address to the members of his ruling AK Party, Erdogan stated that a decision by the US to continue to fund the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia will affect Turkey's decisions.
Comment: On February 12, the Pentagon requested $550 million to train and equip units operating under the brand of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The $550 million will be separated into two parts:The US Defense Department has called on Congress to approve a major budget increase in order to counter "threats" from Russia, China, and North Korea.In other words, Washington not only tricked the Erdogan government with its promises to drop support to the SDF, but not even abandoned the idea to establish the so-called "border force" in northern Syria.
- $300 million to train and equip the SDF;
- $250 million for so-called "border security requirements related to the counter-[ISIS] mission".
Ankara describes the Kurdish-dominated SDF as well as its core the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Women's Protection Units (YPJ) as a terrorist organization, the local branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is officially designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and many other countries and is involved in a long-standing militancy campaign against the Aknara government. Thus, Turkey sees any arms supplies or additionally trained forces within the SDF in northern Syria as a threat to its national security.
The Pentagon on Monday asked for a budget of $686 billion to be allocated to military spending in 2019. The requested amount is one of the largest in US history. The budget sees an increase of $80 billion from 2017.See also:
Under-Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist told reporters on Monday that the budget aims to neutralize threats posed by China and Russia which "want to shape a world consistent with their own authoritarian intentions."
"We recognize that, if unaddressed, our eroding US military advantage versus China and Russia could undermine our ability to deter aggression and coercion in key strategic regions," he added.
- Trump releases 2019 budget plan slated to boost spending on infrastructure, military and Mexican border wall
- Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu says Ankara-Washington ties at very critical point - Turkey will close Incirlik airbase if needed, Turkish official says
Rep. Devin Nunes joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss the latest developments in the largest political scandal in US history - The Obama Deep State war against Donald Trump.
Rep. Nunes says there are multiple crimes uncovered so far and yet the Deep State refuses to prosecute DOJ and FBI crooks.
© Unknown
Rep. Devin Nunes: The good thing about the Grassley-Graham memo, not only was it a criminal referral to Justice, it was written before our memo was put together. So essentially what it does is it corroborates what we said. And it goes further than that and it really points out how Christopher Steele lied to the FBI. So it is a clear cut case. Christopher Steele lied to the FBI. And I can't for the life of me know that when you have the House who said this guy lied to the FBI, and you have the senate who said this guy lied to the FBI, Christopher Steele, what is the Justice Department doing? Where is the prosecution of Christopher Steele. This is a slam dunk case that they have all the documents. And this is what makes people really wonder and have confidence that the DOJ and FBI are playing this straight up.Nunes is right.
Comment: Instead of finding the evidence to Russian Collusion, investigators found the Clinton Uranium scandal, FBI collusion with Clintons. Still Hillary Clinton walks free, the United States does indeed look like a Banana Republic. See also:
- Intel Committee chair Nunes issues instructions, FBI to be charged with contempt of Congress
- Nunes: 'Clear evidence' that the DNC and Clinton campaign colluded with the Russians
Venezuela's neighbors plan to dispatch more security personnel while Brazil prepares to relocate thousands of refugees to country's interior
Venezuela's neighbours are tightening their borders, alarmed by the exodus of hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees fleeing hunger, hyperinflation and a spiralling political crisis.
Brazil and Colombia are sending extra troops to patrol frontier regions where Venezuelans have arrived in record numbers over recent months.
Colombia, which officially took in more than half a million Venezuelans over the last six months of 2017, also plans to make it harder to cross the frontier or stay illegally in Colombia. Brazil said it will shift refugees from regions near the border where social services are badly strained.
The economic crisis and food shortages which have driven so many from their homes show no signs of easing.
© Ariana Cubillos/APPolice stand guard as a Venezuelan woman crosses into Colombia through a bridge linking San Antonio del Táchira, Venezuela, with Cúcuta, Colombia. Photograph:
Brazil and Colombia are sending extra troops to patrol frontier regions where Venezuelans have arrived in record numbers over recent months.
Colombia, which officially took in more than half a million Venezuelans over the last six months of 2017, also plans to make it harder to cross the frontier or stay illegally in Colombia. Brazil said it will shift refugees from regions near the border where social services are badly strained.
The economic crisis and food shortages which have driven so many from their homes show no signs of easing.
Comment: President Maduro has some allies in his fight against American empire.
- Moscow, Beijing save Venezuela from the attack of US financial vultures
- Russia agrees to restructure Venezuela's $2.8billion debt to make repayments more manageable
- Venezuela awards 2 offshore gas field licenses to Russia's energy giant Rosneft
© Mussa Qawasma / ReutersThe West Bank
The move to ring fence lands in the West Bank - where the Palestinians hope to build an independent state - could potentially inflame the already fraught situation. However, the White House dismissed the idea that Washington is working with Israel on an annexation plan as "false."
"On the subject of applying sovereignty, I can say that I have been talking to the Americans about it for some time," Netanyahu was recently quoted as saying by a spokesman of the Likud party, Reuters reports.
However, it's now being suggested that Netanyahu may have been trying to appease certain sections of his own party, with a senior Israeli official telling Reuters that the prime minister has not presented any plans to the US.
Comment: Whatever Trump's long-term plans for re-starting peace talks between Israel and Palestine were, they were greatly hurt by his tenuous recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and has undercut the US's already faltering standing as a broker for peace. To be guilty of working out annexation plans for the West Bank with Israel, if true, would be the nail in the coffin in the eyes of many. As if the following weren't bad enough:
In another controversial move apparently aimed at forcing Palestinians into negotiations with the Israelis, the US has been applying economic pressure. Washington withheld $65 million-worth of a planned installment of $125 million to the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA. Trump, in one of his tweets, also accused the Palestinians of not showing enough "appreciation or respect" to the US after he had taken "the toughest part of the negotiation off the table." Tel Aviv meanwhile is not being pressured by Washington to alter its course.
© BillMoyers.com/WordPress.com/KJN
So it is with the scandalous behavior of the FBI during its probe into whether President Trump's campaign conspired with Russia in 2016. One layer at a time, we're learning how flawed and dirty that probe was.
A top layer involves the texts between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and her married lover, Peter Strzok, the lead agent on the Hillary Clinton email probe. They casually mention an "insurance policy" in the event Trump won the election and a plan for Strzok to go easy on Clinton because she probably would be their next boss.
Those exchanges, seen in the light of subsequent events, lead to a reasonable conclusion that the fix was in among then-Director James Comey's team to hurt Trump and help Clinton.
Another layer involves the declassified House memo, which indicates the FBI and Justice Department depended heavily on the unverified Russian dossier about Trump to get a warrant to spy on Carter Page, an American citizen and briefly a Trump adviser.
The House memo also reveals that Comey and others withheld from the secret surveillance court key partisan facts that would have cast doubt on the dossier. Officials never revealed to the judges that the document was paid for by Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee or that Christopher Steele, the British former spy who compiled the dossier, said he was "desperate that Donald Trump not get elected."
A third layer of the onion involves the revelations in the letter GOP Sens. Charles Grassley and Lindsey Graham wrote to the Justice Department. They urge a criminal investigation into whether Steele lied to the FBI about how much and when he fed the dossier to the anti-Trump media.
Comment: All onion layers come to an end: the good ones in a salad, the rotten ones in the compost pile.
© BOOMsbeat
High-ranking officials and other major players in those agencies - which Obama oversaw - are increasingly embroiled in the growing scandal: James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Andrew Weissmann, Sally Yates, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr.
Given the tight control Obama exercised over every part of his administration and agenda, the idea that any of these appointees and loyalists freelanced their activities without at least his tacit approval or that of his White House strains credulity.
These kinds of abuses of power were nothing new, given the Obama team's long history of this type of misconduct on everything from the Benghazi terror attack to the political misuse of the IRS. They weaponized the most fearsome government agencies to target, monitor and presumably illegally unmask political opponents, including members of Congress, journalists reporting unfavorable stories, Trump allies and average Americans.
Comment: Even if he could, Obama would not go back and do it differently. It is not in him.
© Global Research/KJN
Moreover, it is also clear that Russia - despite all that is said in the media - is aware of the Syrian decision to confront Israel. Moscow is supplying Syria with anti-aircraft missiles, its forces dominates the air space over the Syrian Army's controlled territory, and has the radar capability to see and monitor any Israeli aircraft flying over Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Russia is also informed when the Syrian army repeatedly fires missiles and confronts the Israeli air force in the sky over Syria or in the border areas.
It is not in the interests of Russia to see war break out in Syria where its forces are present on the ground and in the Mediterranean. Russia considers it has the right to intervene because its official presence on Syrian territory is at the request of and in agreement with the Damascus government. In its role as a superpower, it is in its interest to stop the tension on the Syrian border and show it has the power to impose peace on would-be belligerents.
© Shizuo Kambayashi / ReutersUS Vice President Mike Pence
The US vice president disclosed this subtle change in US Korean policy to Washington Post correspondent Josh Rogin while flying back from South Korea after a state visit. Apparently, Pence was convinced that actually talking to North Korea may be a good idea. Previously, senior US officials - starting with President Donald Trump - have insisted that talking to the North Korean government was of no use to America.
"The point is, no pressure comes off until they are actually doing something that the alliance believes represents a meaningful step toward denuclearization," Pence said as cited by the newspaper. "So the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify. But if you want to talk, we'll talk."So the US still wants to hurt North Korea as much as possible without starting an actual shooting war, but now it looks like it is willing to eventually hear Pyongyang's plea for mercy. Which is admittedly a step in the right direction compared to obstructing any talks.
Comment: Lazy, predictable, the US repeats patterns and ploys instead of looking for suitable and effective means to its ends.
Comment: Sounds like a nothingburger, but it is possible this is some kind of threat to Donald Trump Jr.
See also: Envelope with 'white powder' sent to Trump Jr's residence, wife hospitalized in NY