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India's defense council reportedly approves S-400 deal despite Washington's pressure


RT
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 14:53 UTC
Russian S-400 air defense system
© Alexey Sazonov / AFP
India's Defense Ministry has reportedly given the green light for the acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defense systems and has forwarded the deal for final approval, despite a warning from the US of potential consequences.

After endorsing some "minor deviations" in the contract, defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman forwarded the 39,000 crore ($5.7bn) deal to purchase S-400 for final government approval, to the finance ministry and the Prime Minister's office, sources told the Times of India.

"The S-400 procurement case will now go to the finance ministry for clearance and the PM-led Cabinet Committee on Security for the final nod," a source at the Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC), told the publication. "The country's top political leadership will have to take a call on when the actual contract can be inked."
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Arrow Up

Is Trump really winning? Can people trust the polls?

Tom McCarthy
Guardian
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 12:42 UTC
trump thumbs up
© Steve Helber/APDonald Trump gives a thumbs up.
US voters remain deeply skeptical of political polling. But Trump's approval rating so far has been 'incredibly stable'

Six hundred days after the 2016 election, many US voters remain deeply skeptical of, if not hostile to, political polling.

The national polls in 2016 were actually fairly accurate: Hillary Clinton was supposed to win the popular vote by about three points and she ended up winning by two.

But election models portraying Clinton as a sure thing left her supporters feeling betrayed when, thanks to the electoral college, the presidency fell to Donald Trump. For those voters today, mistrust of surveys can take on an almost spiritual vehemence.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Coins

Polish leader demands (more) WWII reparations from Germany


RT
Sun, 29 Jul 2018 08:38 UTC
Nazi German soldiers question Jews after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943
© AFPNazi German soldiers question Jews after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943
The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has demanded reparations from Germany for the murder of "millions of people" and the destruction it brought during the Nazi occupation in WWII.

"This is a Polish-Germany issue, I mean it was Germany who invaded Poland, murdering millions of people, destroying material goods, and we must be compensated for this," Kaczynski, who is considered to be one of the most powerful men in Poland and an influential official in the EU, said in an interview with Polskie Radio 24 on Friday.

The issue of reparations has been raised by a number of Polish politicians in recent years, including former defense minister Antoni Macierewicz and former prime minister Beata Szydlo.

Comment: The devastation of WWII lies at the feet not only of the German Nazi's but also at the collaborators and funders of whom were an international group of players. And while we're at it, the country that suffered the greatest loss of lives and eventually defeated of the Nazi's was Russia. One of the best ways to go about reparations would be to forge ahead and create a better world where this kind of catastrophe could never happen again:

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SOTT Logo

Is gender-obsessed Justin Trudeau's hyper-liberal platform backfiring?


RT
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 13:56 UTC
Trudeau
Looks like an already highly liberal Canada has taken the very notion of tolerance to a whole new level. But could the "progressive" policies of the self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau eventually backfire?

Ottawa has recently shaken things up as both chambers of the Canadian parliament passed a bill legalizing the recreational use of marijuana as well as its cultivation, including home growth. The legislation that made Canada the first Western country to fully decriminalize pot was actively promoted by Trudeau's ruling Liberal Party for quite some time.

But that's not the first move Canada's recently made that might seem a little extravagant. It appears to be on a spree of overly liberal political decisions, many of which ended up in controversy. Just about a week ago, a Canadian court recognized two men in a polyamorous relationship with a woman as legal parents of a child in the first such case ever.

This radical change in attitude when it comes to the idea of family has probably yet to sink in, while some other initiatives of the Canadian officials have already garnered discontent.
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Megaphone

Lavrov: Syria crisis is attempt from outside forces to change map of Middle East


TASS
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 23:49 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
Sergey Lavrov
Attempts by outside forces to use the situation in Syria to reshape the map of the Middle East and North Africa led to the crisis in this Arab country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday in an interview with UK Channel 4.

"It's a war, which started by mistakes made on the part of everyone, including the Syrian government. I believe these disturbances could be handled politically at the early stage," Lavrov said.

"But we have now on our hands what is the result of outside forces... having tried to use this situation in order to reshape the map of the Middle East and Northern Africa by trying to get into Syria without any invitation and trying to promote their own agenda there," he continued.

Comment: For more on the interview by UK's abysmal Channel 4 with the brilliant and ever patient Lavrov: Lavrov to British Channel 4: We are in the post-West world order

And for more on the possible reasons why the increasingly unstable established powers in the West continuing causing chaos in the Middle East: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Briefcase

Dem 'aide' Imran Awan solicited bribe from IT vendor in exchange for work with then-Rep. Gwen Graham

Luke Rosiak
The Daily Caller
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 13:46 UTC
gwen graham
  • Democratic IT aide Imran Awan solicited a bribe from an IT vendor in exchange for work with then-Rep. Gwen Graham, the vendor said.
  • The Department of Justice knows about the vendor, but hasn't been contacted.
  • The vendor said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz would encourage newly elected members to hire Imran or his relatives.
Democratic IT aide Imran Awan solicited a bribe from an IT vendor in exchange for contracting opportunities with the office of then-Rep. Gwen Graham, the vendor alleged to The Daily Caller News Foundation, adding that Imran spoke to him in detail about his alleged financial fraud schemes in the House.

The Department of Justice knows of the source - the longtime owner of a major House IT company - and what he is prepared to testify, a high-level official in Jeff Sessions' DOJ with knowledge of the investigation confirmed. But the vendor said no law enforcement ever even tried to interview them.

Imran worked as an IT aide for the congressional office of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz before he and various family members began appearing on the payrolls of other members, particularly from Florida. The House Inspector General found that the Awans made "unauthorized access" to congressional computers in 2016, but the House has been extraordinarily mum about why little action has been taken since.

Comment: It seems as if there is a lot more to the Imran Awan scandal than has been made public so far, which isn't surprising given that most MSM outlets won't even touch it. The Daily Caller's Luke Rosiak is the only one closely following the story. See also:

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Dollar Gold

SOTT Focus: Where Will Trump's Trade War Lead?

Chris Kanthan
Sott.net
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 15:08 UTC
Peter Navarro - Trump's rabid anti-China trade adviser - is now a staunch proponent of protectionism and tariffs. However, in his 1984 book, he warned that ,"as history has painfully taught, once protectionist wars begin, the likely result is a deadly and well-nigh unstoppable downward spiral by the entire world economy." He went on to say that, "consumers will pay tens of billions of dollars more in higher prices for a much more limited selection of goods." Thus we see that economic theories are very political and fungible. Ignoring such hypocrisies, the fact is that tariffs are neither good nor bad by themselves, and the optimal solution will be based on the specifics of a particular situation.
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Star of David

Report: Nikki Haley convinced Trump to freeze aid to Palestinians


Ma'an News Agency
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 11:58 UTC
Palestinian boy refugee camp
© Ashraf AmraA Palestinian boy sits on sacks of flour at the United Nations food distribution center in al-Nusirat refugee camp in the Gaza strip on January 17, 2018 after the White House froze tens of millions of dollars in contributions. The agency provides Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the Middle East with services including schools and medical care, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long accused it of hostility toward Israel and called for its closure.
The United States has frozen aid funds to the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday morning, according to Israeli Walla news.

The Hebrew language news outlet reporter that the aid has been suspended under the "Taylor Force Law," which was passed in March of this year, and will prevent the Palestinian Authority from paying monthly stipends to families of killed, wounded and imprisoned Palestinians.

A Palestinian official confirmed the report, saying the Trump administration had told the PA in mid-January 2018 that it was reexamining its West Bank and Gaza aid budget.

Comment: Further reading:

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2 + 2 = 4

How the dictatorship over America functions

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 11:29 UTC
American eagle and flag
Democrats have won the national vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, which, with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, will have resulted in the appointment of eight of the Supreme Court's nine justices. And yet four of those justices will have been appointed by presidents who took office despite having fewer votes than their opponent. Republicans will have increasingly solid control of the court's majority, with the chance to replace the sometimes-wavering Kennedy with a never-wavering conservative movement stalwart.

Over the last generation, the Republican Party has moved rapidly rightward, while the center of public opinion has not. It is almost impossible to find a substantive basis in public opinion for Republican government. On health care, taxes, immigration, guns, the GOP has left America behind in its race to the far right. But the Supreme Court underscores its ability to counteract the undertow of its deepening, unpopular extremism by marshaling countermajoritiarian power.

Comment:

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2 + 2 = 4

Rethinking Europe's migrant crisis: Weapons of mass migration?

Michael Welch, J. Michael Springmann, & Barrie Zwicker
Global Research
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 11:15 UTC
Europe migrants
"In Goodbye, Europe? Michael Springmann shows his grasp of how American military, economic, diplomatic, cultural, surveillance, technological, and vast "intelligence" resources comprise an integrated colossus using false flag ops, Trojan Horse fronts, incessant propaganda campaigns, and overt strong-arming." - Barrie Zwicker [1]

Comment: Also see:
The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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