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Red Pill

Trump tells MSM Putin's a competitor, not an enemy, ahead of Helsinki summit


RT
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 12:30 UTC
Donald Melania Trump
© Leah Millis / ReutersUS President Donald Trump speaks with the news media, with first lady Melania Trump standing beside him, before boarding Marine One for travel to Europe from the White House. July 10, 2018.
Vladimir Putin is a competitor but getting along with Russia is a "good thing," Donald Trump told the press before embarking for Europe, causing another Twitter meltdown ahead of his summit with the Russian leader next week.

Asked on Tuesday if the Russian president was a "friend or foe," Trump remarked: "I really can't say right now. As far as I'm concerned, he's a competitor." Trump also said that it was in Washington's interest to foster better relations with Moscow and Beijing.

"Getting along with Russia, getting along with China and others is a good thing, not a bad thing. I've said that many times, for many years," he noted. His comments triggered a wave of tweets, ranging from Russiagate-induced fury to dictionary definitions.

Comment: Further reading: Hardcore Hitler on Hitler in Helsinki

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Chess

Trump picks Kavanaugh for Supreme Court, setting up fight with Dems

Catherine Lucey, Zeke Miller & Mark Sherman
SF Gate
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 12:30 UTC
Trump Brett Kavanaugh
© Evan Vucci / APPresident Donald Trump greets Judge Brett Kavanaugh his Supreme Court nominee, in the East Room of the White House, Monday, July 9, 2018, in Washington.
President Donald Trump chose Brett Kavanaugh, a solidly conservative, politically connected judge, for the Supreme Court Monday night, setting up a ferocious confirmation battle with Democrats as he seeks to shift the nation's highest court ever further to the right.

A favorite of the Republican legal establishment in Washington, Kavanaugh, 53, is a former law clerk for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Like Trump's first nominee last year, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh would be a young addition who could help remake the court for decades to come with rulings that could restrict abortion, expand gun rights and roll back key parts of Obamacare.

"He is a brilliant jurist, with a clear and effective writing style, universally regarded as one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time," Trump said in his prime-time televised White House announcement. He added: "There is no one in America more qualified for this position, and no one more deserving."

Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

Members of Congress slow to reintroduce presidential term limit repeal under Trump

Steven Nelson
Washington Examiner
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 12:30 UTC
Steny Hoyer Jose Serrano
© APReps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., introduced bills repeatedly to repeal the 22nd Amendment, but have not done so under Trump.
Members of Congress responsible for almost a dozen attempts to repeal the two-term limit on being president have not reintroduced their bills since President Trump took office.

Two sitting lawmakers, Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., introduced bills repeatedly to repeal the 22nd Amendment, but have not done so under Trump.

Hoyer pushed six bills to repeal the 22nd Amendment between 1995 and 2005, and Serrano led five attempts between 2005 and 2013.
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Oil Well

It's all about business: Trump accuses NATO-ally Germany of being a 'captive of Russia' - because it buys energy from Moscow

Jeremy Diamond
CNN
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 11:25 UTC
Donald Trump Melania
Brussels - President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused fellow NATO ally Germany of being beholden to Russia because it buys energy from Moscow, in pointed remarks ahead of a summit of the military alliance in Brussels.

"Germany is a captive of Russia," Trump said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, his first since arriving in the Belgian capital. "It's very inappropriate."

Trump went on to complain that the United States is expected to "defend them against Russia," despite Germany making "billions of dollars" in energy payments to Moscow.

"I think it's something that NATO has to look at," Trump said.

Trump's comments were a remarkable criticism for a US president to make about a close US ally and is likely to increase tensions between the US and its European allies. Indeed, while Trump singled out Germany, he also noted that "numerous" NATO countries have made pipeline deals with Russia.

Comment: As usual, what is first and foremost in Trump's mind is business. Cold War phantoms are not as important for him as the prospect of taking over the European gas market from Russia. Sadly, NATO's bozos may end up complying with Trump's wishes - against their best interests and those of Russia - because they do get spooked by Cold War phantoms.

See also:

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Propaganda

NBC's 'source' claims secret Trump-Kennedy SCOTUS deal

John Nolte
Breitbart
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 10:31 UTC
Trump SCOTUS Anthony Kennedy
© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
NBC News is spreading an unfounded conspiracy theory that claims President Trump and newly retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy cut a secret deal that ensured Brett Kavanaugh would be chosen as Kennedy's replacement.

Here is how NBC's Capitol Hill reporter, Leigh Ann Caldwell, spread this conspiracy Tuesday morning. Her first tweet read:
On Kavanaugh pick Kennedy and Trump/WH had been in negotiations for months over Kennedy's replacement. Once Kennedy received assurances that it would be Kavanaugh, his former law clerk, Kennedy felt comfortable retiring, according to a source who was told of the discussions.
Then she tweeted this:
Furthermore, the five names Trump added to his list of Federalist Approved judges last November was to get Kavanaugh on that list. The other four names were considered cover, per source. In other words: the decision has been baked for a while[.]

Comment: Anonymous 'sources' are a penny a dozen, so as a general rule it's best not to believe anything 'they' say.

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Star of David

Israel now arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine

Asa Winstanley
The Electronic Intifada
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
Azov leaders Ukraine
© Azov/TwitterThe Azov Battalion uses the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol as its logo. Its founder Andriy Biletsky (center) has moved to ban “race mixing” in the Ukranian parliament.
Israeli arms are being sent to a heavily armed neo-Nazi militia in Ukraine, The Electronic Intifada has learned.

Azov Battalion online propaganda shows Israeli-licensed Tavor rifles in the fascist group's hands, while Israeli human rights activists have protested arms sales to Ukraine on the basis that weapons might end up with anti-Semitic militias.

In a letter "about licenses for Ukraine" obtained by The Electronic Intifada, the Israeli defense ministry's arms export agency says they are "careful to grant licenses" to arms exporters "in full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government entities." The 26 June letter was sent in reply to Israeli lawyer Eitay Mack who had written a detailed request demanding Israel end all military aid to the country.

Azov's official status in the Ukrainian armed forces means it cannot be verified that "Israeli weapons and training" are not being used "by anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi soldiers," Mack and 35 other human rights activists wrote. They had written that Ukrainian armed forces use rifles made in Israel "and are trained by Israelis," according to reports in the country.

Comment: "In Central America, Israel is the 'dirty work' contractor for the US administration. Israel is acting as an accomplice and an arm of the United States." This is also what is happening in Ukraine.

On July 9, 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz ran the following headline:

Rights Groups Demand Israel Stop Arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine

Haaretz reports:
A group of more than 40 human rights activists have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice, demanding the cessation of Israeli arms exports to Ukraine.

They argue that these weapons serve forces that openly espouse a neo-Nazi ideology and cite evidence that the right-wing Azov militia, whose members are part of Ukraine's armed forces, and are supported by the country's ministry of internal affairs, is using these weapons.

An earlier appeal to the Defense Ministry was met with no response.

The ministry's considerations in granting export licenses for armaments are not disclosed to the public, but it appears that the appearance of Israeli weapons in the hands of avowed neo-Nazis should be a consideration used in opposing the granting of such a license.

Nevertheless, this is not the first time in which the defense establishment is arming forces that embrace a national socialist ideology.

In the past, Israel has armed anti-Semitic regimes, such as the generals' regime in Argentina, which murdered thousands of Jews in camps while its soldiers stood in watchtowers guarding the abducted prisoners with their Uzi submachine guns.

Israel has also armed Nazis, such as the war criminal Klaus Barbie in Bolivia. In the case of Ukraine forces using Israeli weapons are openly stating their support for racist and anti-Semitic ideas, in various publications.

The Azov militia was established in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The militia's emblems are well-known national socialist ones. Its members use the Nazi salute and carry swastikas and SS insignias.
ZeroHedge comments on this issue:
As we detailed previously Azov militia members sport fascist symbols from the World War II era and their founder and chief patron, Andriy Biletsky - also a prominent member of Ukrainian parliament - has openly declared that the goal of his group is to "lead the White Races of the world in a struggle for their survival." He's recently pushed to ban "race mixing" in the Ukrainian parliament.

There was so much bad publicity surrounding the Azov Battalion over the past years that Congress unanimously passed legislation forbidding any aid to the group - a provision, as this piece by Joseph Epstein in the Daily Beast pointed out long ago, was ultimately meaningless as is was essentially unenforceable:
"In an interview with The Daily Beast, Sgt. Ivan Kharkiv of the Azov battalion talks about his battalion's experience with U.S. trainers and US volunteers quite fondly, even mentioning US volunteers engineers and medics that are still currently assisting them. He also talks about the significant and active support from the Ukrainian diaspora in the US As for the training they have and continue to receive from numerous foreign armed forces. Kharkiv says 'We must take knowledge from all armies... We pay for our mistakes with our lives.'

"Those US officials involved in the vetting process obviously have instructions to say that US forces are not training the Azov Battalion as such. They also say that Azov members are screened out, yet no one seems to know precisely how that's done. In fact, given the way the Ukrainian government operates, it's almost impossible."
Yes, an unfortunate yet familiar theme: your tax dollars funded the arming, training, and feeding of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. That's what we bought into when Washington decided to launch a regime change operation in that bedraggled corner of southeastern Europe. Your money has also long gone toward propping up the country's war-stricken economy - albeit not before corrupt government officials rake their cut off the top.

And now it appears the Israeli public and rights groups are wising up to the Israeli government's longtime partnership with Washington in propping up fascist Ukrainian paramilitary groups.


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Heart

SOTT Focus: Hardcore Hitler on Hitler in Helsinki

CJ Hopkins
Consent Factory
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 12:17 UTC
Trump Putin
Here it comes, the moment we've been waiting for, when Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki to officially launch the Destruction of Democracy, and very possibly the Apocalypse itself. That's right, folks, once again, it appears we're looking at the end of everything, because according to the corporate media, on July 16, 2018, Trump is probably going to disband NATO so that Putin can invade the Baltic states, then Germany, then the rest of Europe, and then presumably order an all-out thermonuclear strike on the United States, which will pretty much end civilization as we know it. Or perhaps the plan is to do away with NATO, withdraw all American troops from Poland, let Putin rape and pillage Western Europe, and then have North Korea nuke both coasts of the US mainland (and Canada, of course) so that a Putin-Nazified Middle Amerika will have carte blanche to exterminate the Mexicans and make women wear those "Handmaid" costumes, or some other ridiculously paranoid scenario, possibly involving Susan Sarandon as some kind of Putin-Nazi triple agent.
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Stock Down

US releases $200billion list of Chinese products for possible new tariffs to begin in 60 days


RT
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 23:03 UTC
cargo
© Beck Diefenbach / Reuters
Accusing China of not negotiating "seriously" on trade, the Trump administration has released a list of products it wants to impose a ten percent tariff on, amounting to $200 billion. The new tariffs would kick in within 60 days.

The 200-page document, released on Tuesday by the US Trade Representative's office, gives notice to those who wish to comment on the proposal and lists hundreds of products that would be subjected to the new tariffs. The Trump administration intends to impose a ten percent duty on the products listed, Reuters reported, citing US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) was quick to condemn the proposal, saying it will punish American consumers.

"The President has broken his promise to bring 'maximum pain on China, minimum pain on consumers,' and American families are the ones being punished," Hun Quach, RILA VP of international trade, said in a statement. "Consumers, businesses and the American jobs dependent on trade, are left in the crosshairs of an escalating global trade war."

Comment: The US has itself in a bind of its own making. So while Trump may be working towards the best deal for the US, it has greatly benefited from the former trade set up and it will probably have to make some concessions or risk being sidelined: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Red Pill

China to reduce tariffs on Indian medicines after Xi-Modi summit - Other members of Asia-Pacific trade agree to similar reductions


Sputnik
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:26 UTC
pills
© Pixabay
China has agreed to cut tariffs and increase imports of medicines, especially anti-cancer drugs, as a result of negotiations on tariff reductions under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement. Other members of the trade agreement, including South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Laos, have also agreed to cut tariffs.

As part of a crucial move to broaden its trade ties amid strained relations with the US, China will now import more medicines from India. According to an agreement reached between India and China, New Delhi will reduce tariffs on 8,549 products, while Beijing reduces tariffs on 3142 products.

Comment: With the rise of China and Russia, the US now has to compete with who can offer the best deals to the world - experience it is sorely lacking in - and it seems that the multi-polar powers, as evidenced by recent deals, have much more to offer: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Bizarro Earth

US buying 27,000 laser-guided rockets that only work on clear days and on planes that struggle to stay in the air for more bombing in Iraq and Syria


Sputnik
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 01:19 UTC
jet fly
Defense contractor BAE Systems was awarded a contract to produce 10,000 more APKWS laser-guided rockets on June 29, evidently on top of the 17,000 units already ordered under the US Defense Department's fiscal year 2018 budget, National Interest reported Tuesday.

Warrior Maven reported that unguided Hydra 70 2.5-inch rockets are being upgraded with laser-guidance packages under the so-called Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS).

Speaking with the news outlet, a US Air Force spokesperson said APKWS "provides the warfighter [with] a precision-guided, moving-target capability" that can be mounted on an F-16 Fighting Falcon or A-10 Warthog. Officials in the service have said that the demand for guided rockets among aircrews conducting operations against Daesh in Iraq and Syria has been high, which might explain why so many more are being sought.

Comment: The US needs more missiles to fight terrorists it is actually supporting in Syria - and where they're not invited by the host country - and Iraq, where the war, started in 2003, is supposed to be over? Moreover, It's all well and good having laser guided missiles but if the planes themselves struggle to stay in the air, one wonders what good (other than filling the pockets of contractors) more missiles will do?

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