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Trump's approval rating is low...but consumer confidence is high?

Scott Adams
Scott Adams' Blog
Sat, 14 Oct 2017 11:55 UTC
trump thumbs up
How did we get to a place where The President of the United States has historically low approval at the same time we have recent highs for consumer confidence?

Almost everything President Trump does has an impact on the economy, and on consumers. That includes national security, immigration, taxes, health care, budgets, treaties, government regulations, and international relations. If the public is optimistic about the economy, that is normally the same as having confidence in the president. At least on the big-ticket items.
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Document

Australia to join UN Human Rights Council despite its awful treatment of asylum seekers

Harriet Agerholm
Independent
Sat, 14 Oct 2017 17:08 UTC
asylum seekers
© ReutersAsylum-seekers look through a fence at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.
Australia is to be elected uncontested to the United Nations Human Rights Council amid stern criticism of its asylum policies.

The nation was competing with France and Spain for one of two seats but its election was made almost certain when Paris retracted its bid.

It comes at the end of a two-year-long international campaign by Australia, which has vowed to be a "pragmatic, principled and passionate" promoter of human rights.

Canberra said it would champion freedom of expression and indigenous rights and would push for the global abolition of the death penalty.

But the nation has come under fire for its asylum policies, which include turning back boats and detaining immigrants offshore. The UN has also criticised Australia's treatment of indigenous people, who are 14 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-indigenous people.
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Arrow Down

An interview with journalist Chris Hedges: The elites "have no credibility left"

David North
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 15:52 UTC
chris hedges quote
On Monday, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North interviewed Chris Hedges, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, lecturer and former New York Times correspondent. Among Hedges' best-known books are War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, The Death of the Liberal Class, Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and Wages of Rebellion: the Moral Imperative of Revolt.

In an article published in Truthdig September 17, titled "The Silencing of Dissent," Hedges referenced the WSWS coverage of Google's censorship of left-wing sites and warned about the growth of "blacklisting, censorship and slandering dissidents as foreign agents for Russia and purveyors of 'fake news.'"
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Info

Tillerson vows to continue diplomatic efforts on N. Korea 'until first bomb drops'


RT
Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:10 UTC
Rex Tillerson
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Washington will continue its diplomatic efforts to solve the North Korean crisis only "until first bomb drops," US State Secretary Rex Tillerson told CNN.

Tillerson appeared on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, where he told host Jake Tapper that President Donald Trump wants to resolve the Korean Peninsula crisis "diplomatically."

"He is not seeking to go to war [with North Korea]," Tillerson stated. "He made it clear... that he will continue diplomatic efforts."

"As I've told others these diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops," Tillerson said.
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Info

What's it going to be? Madrid vows to 'take action' unless Catalonia clarifies independence declaration


RT
Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:01 UTC
Catalonia flags
© Enrique Calvo / Reuters
After the Catalan government declared independence earlier this week, only to suspend it moments later, the Spanish interior minister has warned that Madrid will have no choice but to take direct control of the region unless it clearly states its intentions.

On Tuesday, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and other local leaders signed a symbolic declaration of independence, calling on "all states and international organizations to recognize the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state."

However, Catalan sovereignty appeared to be short-lived, as the declaration was suspended moments later to resume negotiations with the central government.
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Bullseye

The writing's on the wall - Empire destroying wars are coming to America under Trump

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 18:59 UTC
MAGA Trump
There are a variety of reasons Trump supporters voted the way they did in November, but one clear message many found attractive was the idea his administration would be driven by an "America First" doctrine.

America first meant a lot of things to a lot of different people, running the gamut from economic populism and immigration, to an avoidance of barbaric and costly overseas wars. The economic populism part was the biggest ruse from day one, a betrayal which (as we had seen under Obama) became undeniable as soon as he started appointing lifelong swamp-dwelling billionaires and Goldman Sachs partners to run his administration.

Irrespective of who you elect, Wall Street runs the empire, as Trump proved once again.
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Jet1

US-backed rebels begin final assault on Daesh in Raqqa


Sputnik
Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:02 UTC
Syrian troops
© REUTERS/ Rodi Said
The US-backed Syrian rebels have announced the final stage of their operation to free the former so-called Daesh "capital," Raqqa, from terrorists.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that they have started the final assault on Raqqa after the evacuation of civilians and Daesh terrorists, who agreed to leave the city.

"The battle will continue until the whole city is clean of the terrorists who refused to surrender, including the foreign fighters," a statement by the SDF said on Sunday.

Earlier, the US-led coalition announced that an agreement has been reached to evacuate civilians from Raqqa. After a convoy with evacuees left the former "capital" of Daesh terrorist group, the final battle with remaining terrorists began. Reuters reported citing a militia spokesman that 275 Daesh fighters from Syria left Raqqa, according to the agreement, while 200-300 militants mostly of foreign origin remained in the city.
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Attention

Pyongyang threatens Australia with 'disaster' for engagement in US 'war preparations'


RT
Sun, 15 Oct 2017 15:38 UTC
Australian navy personnel march past their HMAS Perth Anzac class frigate on display ahead of the IMDEX Asia maritime defence exhibition at Changi Naval Base
© Edgar Su / ReutersAustralian navy personnel march past their HMAS Perth Anzac class frigate on display ahead of the IMDEX Asia maritime defence exhibition at Changi Naval Base in Singapore May 18, 2015.
Pyongyang has threatened Australia with "disaster" unless the island nation abandons its allegiance with the US interests. Canberra however said it will not be "cowed" by threats and will continue to do everything to "protect and help" its allies.

"Should Australia continue to follow the US in imposing military, economic and diplomatic pressure upon the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] despite our repeated warnings, they will not be able to avoid a disaster," KCNA warned on Saturday quoting a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

Stressing that North Korea regards Australia's "frantic engagement" with Washington a "hostile" act against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Ministry accused Canberra of "zealously joining frenzied political and military provocations of the US."

The statement specifically condemned Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's support for US policies, which she apparently exhibited during a visit to the Panmunjom village on October 11 with Defence Minister Marise Payne.
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X

Trump's art of the deal? Backslide and alienate all JCPOA stakeholders

Finian Cunningham
RT
Sat, 14 Oct 2017 14:40 UTC
Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
US President Donald Trump never stops bragging about his business genius for deal-making. He supposedly authored a best-selling book about it all. But his latest declaration on the Iran nuclear deal shows his 'talent' for blowing deals up - for no gain.

Trump's much-anticipated announcement Friday to decertify the 2015 international accord was an exercise in alienating all stakeholders in the landmark agreement. Trump's disavowal of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) fell short of withdrawing from it. But the president has put on notice that he's ready to terminate it at any time.

There was near unanimous resistance around the world to Trump's "scalding" speech, as the New York Times described it. Russia, China, and the European powers - the other signatories to the JCPOA - all issued statements rebuking Trump's verbal broadside. All of them said they remained committed to the deal. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, sternly stated that the JCPOA was a multilateral agreement ratified by the UN Security Council, which "does not belong to any single country and it is not up to any single country to terminate it."
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Blackbox

What should Iran, Russia and America do with the JCPOA Deal?

Scott Bennett
The Duran
Sat, 14 Oct 2017 14:02 UTC
Donald Trump
On Friday the 13th of October, a day notoriously celebrated for its tragic news and bad luck, President Donald Trump gave the world both. In a scathing speech from the White House accusing Iran of a litany of offenses, conspiracies, and terrorist attacks, Donald Trump read from a teleprompter words which mirrored ones spat at the world by President George W. Bush about Iraq a decade earlier. After a fifteen-year global war costing trillions of dollars, irreversibly wounding civilization, and destroying millions of people's lives, these words uttered by Bush were irrefutably proven to be not only absolute lies, but responsible for what quite possibly could be proven to be the greatest crime against humanity in history - plain and simple. For this reason, the world cannot afford another; and an American President must never again be allowed to lecture and manipulate the nations into war using another speech of lies, fabricated evidence, misunderstood agendas, and misguided expectations - which was exactly what President Trump, or perhaps the Zionist neocons controlling him, tried to do on Friday the 13th.

Although re-shaped to fit an Iranian mold and Trump's vocabulary, once again the same old words, dripping with the stench of death, poisoned the airwaves with sequential images of Colin Powell's non-existent chemical weapons claims, ludicrously impossible religious alliances between Iran's Shia believers and their sworn Sunni-Salafi Wahhabi ISIS/Al Qaeda enemies, and the nightmare of an inevitable societal collapse if America didn't act. The question on everyone's mind after the speech was, what action would be taken?
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