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The Hungarian government continues its quest to limit Soros' influence


Associated Press
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 16:36 UTC
soros
The Hungarian government has resumed its campaign against Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros and his support for migration.

The government's "national consultation" includes a survey sent to Hungarian households about a so-called "Soros Plan" - which the government says is being carried out by the European Union - as well as billboards and television ads.

Comment: For more on Hungary's legitimate grievances against Soros see:

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Brick Wall

Fed up with do-nothing Congress, top GOP donors are closing their wallets

Alex Isenstadt and Gabriel Dabenedetti
Politico
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 09:02 UTC
mitch mcconnel, GOP donors vent lack congressional action
© Mark Wilson / GettySome exasperated givers are turning to Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s hard-charging former chief strategist and a Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) nemesis, to vent.
Republicans are confronting a growing revolt from their top donors, who are cutting off the party in protest over its inability to get anything done.

Tensions reached a boiling point at a recent dinner at the home of Los Angeles billionaire Robert Day. In full view of around two dozen guests, Thomas Wachtell, a retired oil and gas investor and party contributor, delivered an urgent message to the night's headliner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: Just do something.

Wachtell, who has given tens of thousands of dollars over the years to Senate Republicans, recalled that McConnell responded defensively. Passing legislation takes time, the Republican leader responded, and President Donald Trump didn't seem to understand how long it required.


Comment: Passing the buck: Senate leader Mitch McConnell has run out of excuses for not accomplishing anything


"Anybody who was there knew that I was not happy. And I don't think anybody was happy. How could you be?" said Wachtell, who has previously given over $2,000 to McConnell but recently stopped donating to Senate GOP causes. "You're never going to get a more sympathetic Republican than I am. But I'm sick and tired of nothing happening."

Comment: Time for a seismic shift in politics: Trump dumps the do-nothing Congress

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Jet3

Russian airstrikes target and kill ISIS warlords, dozens of militants in Syria


RT
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 16:30 UTC
SU-34 fighter jet
© Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/SputnikSU-34 fighter jet
Dozens of ISIS militants, among them warlords and foreign fighters, were killed in a series of Russian airstrikes in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Russian Air Force also targeted command posts, heavy weaponry, and ammunition depots.

"During the last day, [a] Russian Air Force task force in Syria [targeted] Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] reinforcements of foreign fighters coming from Iraq to the vicinity of the town of Abu Kamal near [the] Iraq-Syria border," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

As all terrorist targets, including command outposts, manpower and armored vehicles, were identified and confirmed within a week, a series of airstrikes followed, it added.
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Cardboard Box

Russian arms deliveries to Iran will not be affected by U.S. abandoning its nuclear agreement


Sputnik
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 09:20 UTC
Iran's Rouhani
© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
An ex-chief of the Russian upper house's defense and security committee has claimed that Russia would continue to fulfill its obligations to Iran under the program of arms deliveries.

The possible abandoning by US President Donald Trump of a nuclear deal with Iran will not affect Russia's implementation of the program of arms deliveries to Tehran from 2020, in particular, combat planes and helicopters, warships and missile systems, ex-chief of the Russian upper house's defense and security committee, Viktor Ozerov told Sputnik on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, the Washington Post newspaper reported that US President Donald Trump intended to "de-certify" the nuclear deal with Iran next week. According to the newspaper, Trump is expected to deliver a speech on October 12, when he will open the door to modifying the agreement as part of a tougher approach toward Iran. Under the terms of the current nuclear agreement, Trump has until October 15 to certify Iran's compliance.

Comment: Is Trump just looking for a "better deal" with Iran, or is his backing out of the agreement part of the longer-term neocon strategy to isolate and eventually 'neutralize' the Persian country - as Israel would have the US do? Whatever the case, it looks as though Iran will be armed and prepared to counter aggression.

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Gold Coins

Investment fund CEO says Russia, Saudi Arabia made $40bn each from OPEC output-cutting deal


RT
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 15:11 UTC
Russian oil well
© Sergey Karpukhin / ReutersA Russian oil well
Russia and Saudi Arabia have each earned $40 billion from the 2016 deal between OPEC and non-OPEC countries to cut oil output, said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

International efforts to stabilize oil prices "have been fruitful, bringing oil prices to above $55 per barrel," Dmitriev told Rossiya 24 news channel.

"We believe that without this deal, prices would be below $35 per barrel now," he added.

Dmitriev praised the 2016 agreement, saying it "generated trust between nations and showed that by working together we can achieve meaningful, serious results."

Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who was in Moscow together with other officials accompanying King Salman on his landmark Russian visit earlier this week, also said that the deal between OPEC and non-OPEC countries had helped to stabilize oil prices.

The minister also said that cooperation between Riyadh and Moscow had "breathed back life into OPEC which found itself, quite frankly, unable to swing its production as supply was persistently high in 2014 and global inventories were steadily rising ahead of demand."

The deal has been prolonged until April 2018, but its future after that remains uncertain.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the accord may be extended until the end of next year.
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Laptop

40 million: Trump overtakes the pope as the world's most-followed leader on Twitter

Christine Rousselle
TownHall
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:55 UTC
Trump
© Arutz Sheva
President Donald Trump is now the most-followed world leader on Twitter, having bested Pope Francis during the weekend. Trump now has 40 million followers on his @RealDonaldTrump account, slightly more than the combined total of Pope Francis' @Pontifex accounts in various languages. The numbers are tracked by the website Twitplomacy. However, both accounts are likely followed by a fake "bot" accounts as well as by accounts that are no longer used.

Former President Barack Obama has more followers than Trump, but he's not counted in this as he is no longer the president.

From the Associated Press:
Twitplomacy says Trump, with about 40 million followers, over the weekend took the top spot on its tracked list of about 890 accounts of leaders like heads of state and government. The pope's followers in all languages are slightly fewer.

Twitplomacy founder Matthias Luefkens, head of digital with Burson Marsteller EMEA, acknowledged that many followers could be dormant accounts or "bots." The list also doesn't count ex-leaders like Barack Obama, who has 95 million-plus followers.
While Twitter has only really been around for the last two administrations (although it was created during the last part of the George W. Bush administration, it was not really popular until the Obama era), Trump has adopted a much different approach to the social network than Obama. Trump retained the use of his personal account (the @realdonaldtrump handle) as well as the @POTUS official account. Trump has announced many new policies on Twitter (such as the ban on transgender soldiers), surprising even his advisors.
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Cloud Lightning

Trump talks about 'calm before the storm' after meeting with military officials

Cristiano Lima
Politico
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 13:51 UTC
Trump
© Arutz Sheva
President Donald Trump issued an unprompted, cryptic message Thursday after meeting with military officials at the White House, saying about the gathering, "Maybe it's the calm before the storm."

"We have the world's great military leaders in this room," Trump said to reporters after uttering his remark during a photo-op in the Cabinet Room of the White House.

Pressed on what he meant, the president said, "You'll find out."

Comment: Trump likes these kinds of cryptic messages that provide attention. Looking around these days, there's not much calm. The storm is already here.

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Arrow Down

Insanity! The media is now using the post-9/11 response toward war as an argument for gun control

Ed Krayewski
Reason.com
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 00:22 UTC
Vice President Dick Cheney & President George W. Bush
© LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS
The old refrain of "We must do something" has a new corollary affixed to it: "After all, we did something after 9/11."

I cannot imagine a worse argument for any policy. Yet in the wake of the massacre in Las Vegas, some high-profile people have embraced this idea like it's a revelation.

"When planes flew into the World Trade Center, did we say now is not the time to talk about terrorism?" asked Meet the Press host Chuck Todd. We didn't, but maybe we should have. Todd has apparently forgotten that the product of that post-9/11 talk about terrorism was a war on terror that has left Americans less free and the world less safe.

Comment: These people have completely lost the plot!

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Che Guevara

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - The cure for the neocons idiocy: A story of true leadership


TASS
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 09:46 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sergei Savostyanov/TASSVladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin turns 65 on October 7, 2017

Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) on October 7, 1952. His father Vladimir Putin (1911-1999) had been a submariner before World War II. In 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army. First, he served in a mobile internal security battalion of the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs - the then equivalent of the Interior Ministry), and then in the 330th infantry regiment of the Red Army's 86th division. Suffered a serious injury in November 1941. After the war worked as a foreman at the Yegorov Industrial Plant in Leningrad. Mother, Maria Shelomova (1911-1998), a general worker, survived the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

In 1975, Putin graduated from the Department of Law (International Law Branch) of the Leningrad State University. Underwent a retraining course of KGB operatives in Leningrad (1976) and in Moscow (1979) at the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB of the USSR. In 1985, graduated from the Andropov Institute of the KGB of the USSR (currently the Academy of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR).

Academic degree - Candidate of Sciences (Law).

In 1997, defended a dissertation entitled Strategic Planning of the Mineral and Resources Base Reproduction in the Context of Emerging Free Market Economy Relations (St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region) at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
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Question

John Pilger: The Rising of Britain's 'New Politics'

John Pilger
johnpilger.com
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn
© Global Look Press
Delegates to the recent Labour Party conference in the English seaside town of Brighton seemed not to notice a video playing in the main entrance. The world's third biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems, supplier to Saudi Arabia, was promoting its guns, bombs, missiles, naval ships and fighter aircraft.

It seemed a perfidious symbol of a party in which millions of Britons now invest their political hopes. Once the preserve of Tony Blair, it is now led by Jeremy Corbyn, whose career has been very different and is rare in British establishment politics.

Addressing the Labour conference, the campaigner Naomi Klein described the rise of Corbyn as "part of a global phenomenon. We saw it in Bernie Sanders' historic campaign in the US primaries, powered by millennials who know that safe centrist politics offers them no kind of safe future."

Comment: We will have to wait and see...

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