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Trump threatens China with $267 billion in additional tariffs


RT
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 16:51 UTC
trump
© Brian Cahn/Global Look Press
President Donald Trump told reporters that tariffs on an additional $267 billion worth of Chinese goods are ready to go, in addition to the $200 billion in tariffs the White House has already lined up.

Trump told reporters about the tariffs on Friday while returning to Washington DC from Montana, where he held a campaign-style rally Thursday night.

The new taxes are in addition to a 25 percent levy on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods with which Trump has already threatened China. These tariffs have not yet been applied, and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that Trump will not make a final decision on implementing them until after he evaluates comments from the public.

Comment: Trump must know that China won't concede to an unfair deal, and China is already opting for less volatile and more viable alternatives, so one suspects that, as Trump has done before, these relentless tariff threats are part of a strategy, possibly related to the US midterm elections, to appear strong but to eventually propose a more reasonable deal: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration

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Bad Guys

Pakistan on verge of bail out considers another malignant IMF loan, fires chief economist amidst religious squabbles


RT
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 11:40 UTC
dollar pakistan
© Reuters/ Caren Firouz
Despite being on the verge of an economic crisis, Pakistan's government has caved to pressure by hardline Islamists to cancel the appointment of a Princeton economist to the Economic Advisory Council.

Atif Mian, 43, who is considered to be one of the world's top young economists, had his appointment to the key role on the 18-member Council revoked because of his adherence to the Ahmadis Muslim minority.

The announcement came as a surprise given the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had just three days ago defended the appointment of the top economist, saying it would "not bow to extremists."

Comment: Pakistan needs to learn from Greece's (and many, many others) mistakes and avoid deals with the IMF at any cost: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: What's The Problem With Nationalism?

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Info

German intel chief: 'No evidence' far-right mobsters attacked foreigners during Chemnitz rallies


RT
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 09:46 UTC
Police block the right-wing demonstration in Chemnitz
© Hannibal Hanschke / ReutersPolice block the right-wing demonstration in Chemnitz, Germany September 1, 2018
There is no evidence that the far-right were hunting foreigners during rallies in Chemnitz, according to Hans-Georg Maassen, chief of Germany's domestic security agency. It has prompted some MPs to say he is not right for the job.

It was widely alleged that radicals were seen chasing down non-Germans during the unrest following massive far-right demonstrations in Chemnitz, where a 35-year-old native was fatally stabbed in a brawl involving migrants. However, Maassen, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has expressed his doubts.

"I share the skepticism towards media reports of right-wing extremists chasing down [foreigners] in Chemnitz," Maassen toldBild newspaper. Videos purporting to show far-right activists attacking foreigners have circulated online since last week, but their authenticity is questionable, according to the intelligence chief.

Comment: See also: 'I would join protests if I wasn't minister': Merkel interior chief Seehofer on Chemnitz unrest

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Hourglass

A little clarity on Washington's road to Civil War

Tom Luongo
Gold Goats 'n Guns
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Civil war America
If there's one thing that makes this job difficult it is the endless smokescreens. Filtering out the noise is draining. From the double-speak of politicians to the endless manipulations of financial markets by central bankers the world is awash in fake news, fake prices and fake geniuses.

So, when a series of events occur that bring clarity to the circus that is world politics, my first reaction is to distrust them. It's that weird moment when the evil-doers rip off their masks and just start telling you what their intentions are. This creates cognitive dissonance in those of us conditioned to reading between the thinnest of lines.

But, sometimes things are exactly what they appear to be.

And what is clear to me now is that the Deep State is done whipping the progressive Left into a frenzy over Donald Trump. They are now openly handing them pitchforks and mustering for a hostile takeover of the Oval Office.
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Map

US envoy says Syria's Golan Heights may forever remain under Israeli occupation


Press TV
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Avigdor Lieberman
© AFPAvigdor Lieberman, the Israeli minister of military affairs (2nd-L), walks with army officers during a visit to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on August 7, 2018.
The US ambassador to Israel says Washington could recognize the occupied side of Syria's Golan Heights as Israeli territory, as the administration of President Donald Trump speeds up its support for the regime's widely-criticized land theft policies.

In fresh controversial comments to Israel's Hayom daily, David Friedman said he expects the Golan Heights could remain under Israel's grip "forever."
"I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever," Friedman said in the interview the excerpts of which were released on Thursday, adding, "I cannot imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is returned to Syria."
Friedman's remarks contradicted those by US National Security Advisor John Bolton, who said late last month that the Trump administration was not discussing possible US recognition of Israel's annexation of the occupied Syrian territory.

Asked about that contradiction, the US envoy said Bolton was describing the current situation and not the future stance of the US on this issue.

Comment: Israel will fight tooth and nail to hold on to their stolen cash cow:

Genie Energy Granted Drilling Rights in Occupied Golan Heights by Israeli Regime - Rothschild, Cheney & Murdoch Claim Syria's Oil

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Bad Guys

50-year USDA experiment exposed: Thousands of kittens killed to research parasite linked to mind control

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 20:47 UTC
Kittens killed for USDA research
A recent lawsuit against the USDA is seeking the details of a decades-long experiment to study a parasite in kittens that can literally influence human behavior

Rep. Mike Bishop, a Republican representing Michigan's 8th District, exposed a program in May, as TFTP reported, that he calls "secretive and problematic" within the U.S. Department of Agriculture in which thousands of kittens are being incinerated in Maryland. Now, four months later, a lawsuit is claiming the USDA is blocking the release of information on the death of these kittens.

The lawsuit, filed by the watchdog group, White Coat Waste Project, says the government-funded Animal Parasitic Disease Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, has euthanized thousands of healthy kittens after putting them through experiments related to food-borne illnesses in humans.

"They kept this project a secret for virtually 50 years and have been fighting tooth and nail [not] to release details about it. We are not going to let them go dark again," said Justin Goodman, the White Coat Waste Project's vice president.
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Alarm Clock

US oblivious to the resistance movement forming in Iraq - in response to US meddling

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Wed, 05 Sep 2018 20:46 UTC
iraq
While domestic US politics are dominated by stories of foreign interference in US elections, the US government seems oblivious that its open efforts to control the politics of Iraq may be fostering a genuine resistance movement with dire consequences for the United States.

A new wave of violent demonstrations is taking place in the southern oil-rich city of Basra after 6 civilian demonstrators were killed and over 65 wounded by local forces. These Basrawis are asking for drinkable water, electricity, jobs and basic city infrastructure, all of which are lacking due to the rampant corruption and incompetence of decision makers and leaders. These demonstrations contribute to the embarrassment of the current government led by the interim prime minister Haidar Abadi, the US man in power in Iraq.
iraq
These demonstrations are not unrelated to the arm wrestling between the US and Iran over the identity of the new ruler of Mesopotamia. Indeed, a group of Iraqi parties have made a clear threat against "the US, the UK and Iraqi politicians if they continue interfering in the political process", specifically in the election of the new government and its leaders. It is the beginning of the rise of a resistance movement against the US, to which the US establishment seems oblivious. Some local Iraqis don't exclude that a 2018 revolution is starting in Basra against the US and their allies in the government, similar to the 1920 Great Revolution that started in Baghdad against the British.
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Sheeple

Roger Waters: Neoliberal propaganda keeping voters 'asleep' like Orwellian sheep


RT
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 20:41 UTC
Roger Waters
© Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has taken aim at decades of neoliberalism in the West. Speaking to RT's SophieCo, he said government propaganda in the media has left viewers "asleep" and uncomfortable "to see anything real."

Speaking to Sophie Shevardnadze, Pink Floyd's former frontman said that those who say he should "stick to music" were "sleepwalking" when it came to conflicts like the Syrian civil war and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

"Because they're asleep. Because they're the victims of the neoliberalism that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher brought to the world," Waters said.

Neoliberalism's pervasiveness through Western culture and politics, in Waters' view, has left many people with the inability to see and accept anything critical of the mainstream narrative.

"Part of the way it works is to anaesthetise people and almost make it uncomfortable for people to see anything real."

For Waters the root of this antipathy, in the US at least, lies in part from its poorly funded public education system. In Waters' view the reason for this lies in the political establishment's desire to keep an ignorant and compliant population.

"They want to keep the electorate ignorant, and mindless, and unthinking, and malleable, and pliable, and very open to the use of consumerism and propaganda to keep them under control, to maintain the Orwellian notion of the sheep and whatever."
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Map

Australia still propping up Nauru - a country in democratic free fall plagued by corruption

Anne Davies and Ben Doherty
The Guardian
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 20:23 UTC
Baron Waqa
© Joel Carrett/AAPNauru president Baron Waqa at the Pacific Islands Forum in Sydney in 2015. His nation’s economic relationship is seen by many as one of client state and patron.
As Marise Payne stands in her colourful shirt for the obligatory photo opportunity at the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru this week, she might do well to consider the high price Australia pays to prop up one of the most dysfunctional governments on the planet.

As the newly minted foreign affairs minister, the arc of Australia's influence in the Pacific is now Payne's bailiwick, and Nauru is a country, it seems, edging closer to the cusp of democratic calamity.

Economically it is beholden: Nauru survives essentially on Australian largesse and self-interest.

In 2017-18 the Australian government directly provided two-thirds of Nauru's entire revenue of $170m either as direct aid, resettlement and visa fees for refugees, fees to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre Corporation, or reimbursements to Nauru's government.

That's before the $26m in taxes on high earners - paid mainly by Australians - and the airfares and charters on Nauru Airlines, the only way to reach the island.

The economic relationship is one of client state and patron, in the view of many, but it is Australia's publicly uncritical support for Nauru that is proving damaging.

Australia's moral authority as a champion of robust democracy and good governance in the region is taking a battering. By turning a blind eye to the disintegrating rule of law and flagging democracy in Nauru, Australia has abandoned the role of role model.

While New Zealand has withdrawn aid for the judicial system in protest, Australia continues to pump ever more funds into Nauru.

Comment: See also:

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Oil Well

Iranian oil exports plunge despite 'creative solutions'


RT
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 20:01 UTC
oil tanker
© Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters
Iran's oil exports have been falling much faster than expected, but Tehran is hoping to avoid the worst, deploying some creative solutions to keep exports from crashing too much.

Iran's oil exports may have plunged as much as 600,000-700,000 bpd in August, falling as low as 1.66 million barrels per day (mb/d), according to the Wall Street Journal and SVB Energy International. The pain only grows worse as the November deadline for US sanctions on Iran's oil industry approaches. SVB expects Iran's oil exports to fall as far as 0.8 mb/d by November. That will amount to the loss of nearly 1 mb/d from April, the month before the US withdrew from the nuclear accord.

The supply disruptions have been more severe than many had expected because the US is taking a very hard line on sanctions, sending signals that Washington will grant few, if any, waivers to buyers of Iranian oil. That, in turn, is making it difficult for Iran to find insurance for its shipments and bankers to finance the deals.
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