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© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / ReutersA Palestinian protester takes cover during clashes with Israeli troops near the border between Israel and Central Gaza Strip.
Putin made the remarks while meeting with Abbas on Monday evening, TASS reports. "I just had a phone conversation with the President of the United States of America, [Donald] Trump," the Russian President said.
"Of course, we also talked about the Israeli-Palestinian settlement," he said, adding that Trump wished Abbas "all the best."
Comment: Russia is a respected actor in the Middle East because of her policy of open and transparent relations with all parties involved
© Emmanuel Dunnand / AFPDutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Halbe Zijlstra
The official admitted that his credibility had been damaged by the ongoing scandal to such an extent that his position had become untenable.
Halbe Zijlstra announced his resignation in an emotional speech to the House of Representatives. Zijlstra described the "Greater Russia" affair as the "biggest mistake" in his political career, adding that the country deserves a Foreign Minister who is beyond reproach.
Comment: It appears the Western intelligence closed community of ultra-liberal nutjobs also has its arm firmly wedged up Dutch affairs. Previously:
- Dutch foreign minister's decade-long claim that Putin personally told him about plans for 'Greater Russia' exposed as barefaced lie
- 10 reasons why the Dutch-Russia hacking story is fake news
Salvini said that Islam sees women as inferior and is a law instead of a religion. As a law it is incompatible with Italian values, he said. Asked about mosques, Salvini said he could shut down illegal mosques.
Salvini could become Italy's next Prime Minister as he takes part in a popular centre-right bloc in Italy's elections. In several regions he already leads the polls and his support is growing.
Comment: One of the reasons for the popularity of sharia law among European Muslim populations is that it preserves family rights that have been gutted in the West by feminist policy. Sharia fills the vacuum left by gender policies that have destroyed the family and thus European values. Ironically (or not), feminism and Islamism both politicize sex and gender for the purpose of political "empowerment". As long as European values remain neutered by feminist activism, Europeans will be stuck between a rock and a hard place, fighting a multiculturalism that threatens their own legal sovereignty and cultural identity, while Europe cannibalizes its own values on the altar of feminism.
© The Rutherford Institute
"Why throw money at defense when everything is falling down around us? Do we need to spend more money on our military (about $600 billion this year) than the next seven countries combined? Do we need 1.4 million active military personnel and 850,000 reserves when the enemy at the moment - ISIS - numbers in the low tens of thousands? If so, it seems there's something radically wrong with our strategy. Should 55% of the federal government's discretionary spending go to the military and only 3% to transportation when the toll in American lives is far greater from failing infrastructure than from terrorism? Does California need nearly as many active military bases (31, according to militarybases.com) as it has UC and state university campuses (33)? And does the state need more active duty military personnel (168,000, according to Governing magazine) than public elementary school teachers (139,000)?"- Steve Lopez, Los Angeles TimesMark my words, America's war spending will bankrupt the nation.
For that matter, America's war spending has already bankrupted the nation to the tune of more than $20 trillion dollars.
Now the Trump Administration is pushing for a $4.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2019 that would add $7 trillion to the already unsustainable federal deficit in order to sustain America's military empire abroad and dramatically expand the police state here at home. Trump also wants American taxpayers to cover the cost of building that infamous border wall.
Truly, Trump may turn out to be, as policy analyst Stan Collender warned, "the biggest deficit- and debt-increasing president of all time."
For those in need of a quick reminder: "A budget deficit is the difference between what the federal government spends and what it takes in. The national debt, also known as the public debt, is the result of the federal government borrowing money to cover years and years of budget deficits."
Right now, the U.S. government is operating in the negative on every front: it's spending far more than what it makes (and takes from the American taxpayers) and it is borrowing heavily (from foreign governments and Social Security) to keep the government operating and keep funding its endless wars abroad.
This is how military empires fall and fail: by spreading themselves too thin and spending themselves to death.
It happened in Rome. It's happening again.
© Mr Fish/Truthdig
Comment: The US is exhibiting all the signs of impending collapse:
- Lament for Babylon
- The demise of Western Civilization: "Gender fluidity" as a harbinger for Postmodernist Hell
- Why the UN is investigating extreme poverty in the United States
- Is the U.S. Republic ending? 8 striking parallels between the Fall of Rome and the U.S.
- Love Him or Loathe Him, Trump is Liberating us All From The Empire's Lies
- Americans Love Perpetual Wars
- Behind the Headlines: Babylon, Ancient Rome and the American Empire
- The Truth Perspective: Poverty and Homelessness in America
- Behind the Headlines: 'Containing' Russia-China and Global Economic Collapse
- Behind the Headlines: The Russia Collusion Ruse: Why the US Deep State Hates Russia, Not Trump
© Al Drago-Pool/Getty ImagesLast week, congressional Republicans, under the leadership of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), center, teamed with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), right, to pass a budget bill that will explode the deficits and grow the national debt.
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed into law a hefty two-year bipartisan budget bill that increases the debt ceiling until March 2019 and expands budget caps by $300 billion. About $165 billion will go toward defense-related spending increases, and $131 billion will pay for various discretionary programs, including $10 billion for infrastructure and $3 billion to tackle the country's opioid crisis.
Comment: The US could learn a thing or two from Putin: Russian economy under Putin: Quality of life tripled, foreign debt fell 75%
See Also:
- Something, something ... Tax Cuts For The Rich
- Why Trump's Tax Reform will lead to booming economic growth
- Drugged nation: Over one third of Americans were prescribed opiate pain medications in 2015
- Does Russia have the key to solve America's opioid crisis?
- Trumps spending proposals: Boost military spending, infrastructure, build a wall, cut medicare but support veterans
- Trump's infrastructure initiative
© Polfoto/Jens DreslingInger Støjberg, the Danish minister of immigration and integration talking to media Copenhagen.
Titled "The Sad Truth About Islam" in Danish, the article starts off talking about a new play that had premiere January 25 in Copenhagen. The play, named The Book of Mormon, in the words of Robert Bengtsson, an actor playing in it, "is famous for being 'offensive'".
What Støjberg emphasizes is when Kasper Holten, the director, told Denmark's TV2: "If you are a Mormon and do not want us to make fun of your faith, then do not go and see the play."
In response to this "correct" statement, Støjberg says: "Try changing 'Mormon' to 'Muslim' and say that if you are a Muslim and do not want us to make fun of your faith, then do not go and see the play. An unthinkable act in Denmark 2018? Yes, unfortunately."
Comment: Kudos to the Danish minister for telling it like it is. It may be that the numbers that perpetrate the violence are small, but they are besmirching the reputation of Islam as a whole. What will the 'silent majority' do about it?
© Hosam Katan / ReutersFighters from Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra
Late on Monday, the center received a phone call from a resident of the village of Serakab in Idlib province about the planned incident.
According to the source, on the afternoon of February 12, rebels from the Jabhat Al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) terrorist organization brought three cars packed with more than 20 cylinders of chlorine along with personal protective equipment to Serakab.
Additionally, according to the caller, representatives of the local branch of the White Helmets, wearing individual means of protection, conducted rehearsals of "giving first aid" to "local residents" who were supposedly suffering from poisoning.
The entitlement cuts over a decade are included in a White House summary of the budget obtained by Bloomberg News. The document says that the budget will propose cutting spending on Medicare, the health program for the elderly and disabled, by $237 billion but doesn't specify other mandatory programs that would face reductions, a category that also includes Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and agricultural subsidies.
The Medicare cut wouldn't affect the program's coverage or benefits, according to the document. The budget will also call for annual 2 percent cuts to non-defense domestic spending beginning "after 2019.'
Comment: Whatever happens, the situation in the US is precarious:
- US debt surpasses historical $20 trillion mark
- We just witnessed the stock market take its largest one day decline ever, down 1,175 points
- Trump's infrastructure initiative
- Caitlin Johnstone: How establishment propaganda gaslights us into submission
- The Solution to DACA is the Trébuchet Express
Comment: Good luck to Nunes and his fellow committee members.