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Surrounded by treacherous enemies, Donald Trump needs to learn lessons from the intrigues of Shakespeare

Martin Sieff
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
painting of royalty
Now that President Donald Trump has finally been exonerated from the always farcical Big Lie of Collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, the US leader had better watch out: The Deep State will really go after him now that it's supposed Soft Coup plot has failed.

Trump needs to recognize he is a modern version of Shakespeare's King Henry IV, a monarch who can never afford to rest.

The forces opposed to Trump and his decent, sensible 2016 campaign vision of defusing tensions with Russia worked viciously, relentlessly and long to discredit the 45th President of the United States before he could even get going. The idea that they are now going to sit back like good losers because their entire pyramid of lies on Collusion with Russia has been exposed is ludicrous.

The two years of hysteria in fact were far from unsuccessful. They failed to topple Trump from office or separate and discredit him with his potent domestic political base. But they certainly prevented him from working openly and constructively with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the ongoing bloodbaths in Syria and Yemen that Trump inherited and to reduce global nuclear tensions.
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Eagle

Is Trump's labeling of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organization a preparation for war?

Whitney Webb
Mint Press News
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
© AP
Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard march during an annual military parade marking the anniversary of outset of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war in Tehran, Iran.
The Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite group of that country's military, as a foreign terrorist organization early Monday, confirming a report published last Friday in the Wall Street Journal that suggested that such a move was likely to occur in a matter of days. In a statement released Monday, the White House stated:
This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."
While most reports on the subject have interpreted the move as aimed at pressuring European countries and others from conducting business with Iran while also making the Iran nuclear deal much more difficult to revive, the move would further allow the Trump administration to conduct more "robust" combat operations against Iran's military, all without congressional approval.

As was noted by the WSJ and other outlets, the Trump administration's upcoming move to label the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization would mark the first time that any element of a foreign state is officially labeled as a terrorist group. The Bush administration had previously blacklisted the Quds Force, the IRGC unit in charge of foreign operations, in 2007 "for its support of terrorism," and further described the group as Iran's "primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups." However, unlike the Trump administration, they stopped short of labelling the IRGC, or any of its elements, as foreign terrorist organizations themselves.

Comment: See also:

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NPC

Russiagate numbskull Rep. Eric Swalwell makes gun control the focus of his 2020 presidential run

Jeff Daniels
CNBC
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 07:34 UTC
Rep. Eric Swalwell
© Elise Amendola | AP
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks at a political event, Feb. 25, 2019, in Manchester, N.H.
California Rep. Eric Swalwell, an Iowa native and former prosecutor, is making fighting gun violence a central theme of his newly launched presidential campaign.

The congressman, who announced his bid in the crowded Democratic on Monday, is proposing a ban on and federal buyback of all 15 million assault weapons in the U.S. The 38-year-old congressman wants to exempt law enforcement agencies and shooting clubs.

"We should take the most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous people," Swalwell said in his campaign launch video. The video also plays up his roots in Iowa, a state that could be critical because it's the first to hold a caucus for the 2020 presidential elections.

Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump and his policies, charging they are hurting ordinary Americans. Also, he has said Americans are struggling and feel "disconnected" and hurt by the policies of President Donald Trump.

Comment: Another brain-dead hack "progressive" who panders to typically "liberal" policies and doesn't have a fraction of the guts and brains that Tulsi Gabbard has in lambasting destructive US wars around the world.

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TV

UK government issues proposal that would 'regulate' the internet

Chris Fox
BBC
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 12:00 UTC
online harms uk internet censorship
Internet sites could be fined or blocked if they fail to tackle "online harms" such as terrorist propaganda and child abuse, under government plans.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has proposed an independent watchdog that will write a "code of practice" for tech companies.

Senior managers could be held liable for breaches, with a possible levy on the industry to fund the regulator.


Comment: Any senior manager wishing to keep his job would likely be extra stringent, censoring harmless and maybe even vital content, rather than run the risk of falling foul to the regulators.


But critics say the plans threaten freedom of speech.

The Online Harms White Paper is a joint proposal from the DCMS and the Home Office. A public consultation on the plans will run for 12 weeks.

The paper suggests:

Comment: This is just one of many angles of attack the West is using to achieve internet censorship: All Your Meme Are Belong to Us: EU Plans 'European Firewall' to End Free Internet

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Smiley

EU rejects Theresa May's bid for short delay, Brexit 2020?

Daniel Boffey
The Guardian
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 22:32 UTC
Donald Tusk
© Isopix/Rex/Shutterstock
Donald Tusk said granting a short extension 'would increase the risk of a rolling series of short extensions and emergency summits'
Theresa May's request for a short Brexit delay has been torn up, putting the EU on track to instead extend Britain's membership until 2020.

Despite the prime minister's desperate dash to Paris and Berlin, to convince leaders of her plan to break the Brexit impasse, the European council president, Donald Tusk, signalled EU politicians' lack of faith in her cross-party talks.

Against a backdrop of growing support among the EU27 for a lengthy Brexit delay, Tusk picked apart May's appeal for a shorter delay to 30 June in a letter to the leaders inviting them to Wednesday's summit, where they will agree the new end date.

An EU diplomat said on Tuesday, following a late-night meeting of ambassadors, that the two end dates crystallising in EU capitals were the end of December or the end of March 2020.

Comment: RT reports:
UK parliament passes law allowing MPs to question, change May's June 30 Brexit delay

The UK has passed legislation permitting members of Parliament to make, during the debate on it on Tuesday, legally binding alterations to PM Theresa May's request to the EU for a delay until June 30 of its Brexit departure date.

The law designates Tuesday's 90-minute debate period for lawmakers to question and even to legally change the substance of May's planned formal request for a Brexit extension, which she plans to deliver during Wednesday's emergency EU summit.

One thing UK lawmakers were able to agree on - by one vote - was a bill to block a "no deal" Brexit, essentially forcing May to reach some kind of compromise. Last week, she entered into talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn in an effort to reach a deal members of both camps can hold their noses and vote for, though two ministers resigned from her cabinet in protest over the meeting.

Despite the gesture of transpartisanism, however, Labour reported that May's talks with Corbyn have thus far amounted to nothing, with the Conservative leader unable to offer any "real change or compromise" in the form of policy concessions or amendments to her three-times-failed Brexit deal. Corbyn is one of many voices from multiple parties to call on May to resign.
See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Yellow Vest Protests, Brexit Farce - Revolutionary Climate in Western Europe?

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Network

India moves closer to buying nearly 500 Russian battle tanks

Rahul Bedi
Jane's 360
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 21:28 UTC
T-90MS MBT battle tank
© Rosoboronexport
A T-90MS MBT demonstrates its mobility. India’s CCS approved in early April the procurement of 464 of these tanks for the Indian Army.
India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved the INR134.48 billion (USD1.93 billion) procurement of 464 Russian-made T-90MS main battle tanks (MBTs) for the Indian Army (IA).

Official sources told Jane's that the move by the CCS, which convened in early April and is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is the penultimate step in the process of acquiring the MBTs and will be followed by the signing of a contract between India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Russia's arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, during the next few months.

The MoD's Defence Acquisition Council approved the procurement of the tanks in November 2016.
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USA

US, NATO share blame for Libya's re-descent into chaos

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 13:33 UTC
Misrata forces
© Reuters/Hani Amara
A Member of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, prepares himself to go to the front line in Tripoli Libya April 8, 2019.
Recent developments in Libya have put the focal point of the international media back on the war-torn country. As we will see, there are many crucial omissions from the mainstream assessment of Libya's descent into further chaos.

Libya is back in the news again. At the beginning of this week, a warplane attacked Tripoli's only functioning civilian airport, Mitiga airport. The airstrike was allegedly delivered by forces loyal to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan National Army (LNA). The timing of the attack appears to have coincided with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' visit to the city, who eventually left Libya "with a heavy heart and deeply concerned."

Between 2,800 and 3,400 people have fled the fighting around Tripoli so far, with at least 47 reportedly dead and over 180 others injured, including both civilians and pro-government (GNA) fighters.

Originally, UN-backed talks were scheduled for 14-16 April this year, but this recent fighting has called all of that into question. So much so, that US forces have been withdrawn temporarily due to "security conditions on the ground." Announcing that US troops will be withdrawing from a North African nation temporarily barely seems to attract even the most basic questions from the mainstream media, including the much-needed "why are US troops still in Libya?"


Comment: See also:

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

'King Bibi' snake-charmed Israel for a decade - have voters had enough?

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 06:32 UTC
Neti Billboard
© Reuters/Ammar Awad
If he wins Tuesday's election, Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become Israel's longest-serving prime minister. But as his tricks have grown hoarier and his persona more outsize than Trump himself, he risks becoming a self-caricature.

Final polls on Friday showed that his right-wing coalition was favored to reach the magic number of the 61 seats that would give them a majority in the Knesset, even if the prime minister's own Likud party was not likely to be the biggest individual faction.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu has, predictably, been in his customary scuttling underdog mode. On Monday, he called an "emergency" cabinet meeting to declare that victory in the parliamentary election was not assured. So far no bombshells, like the homemade-quality video released on election day four years ago, in which he looked his voters in the eye, and warned them that left-wing opponents were "bussing in Arabs" to vote for them and that there was still time.

The ace up his sleeve was the announcement that he was considering annexing the Jewish-settled parts of the West Bank - an idea that was long considered beyond the pale, and a sure death knell for the comatose peace process. The vague wording left it unclear if he is serious or just pandering to the Zionist parties that he will need for his majority.

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Stormtrooper

US: Iran's Revolutionary Guards are 'terrorists', but who are they?


RT
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 23:24 UTC
Iranian Rev.Guard Corps
© AFP
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the start of Iran-Iraq war.
The US has for the first time ever designated an official foreign military institution as a terrorist organization. RT looks at Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite and powerful military force.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed shortly after the Islamic Revolution back in 1979, when US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran was overthrown. Soon the country became an Islamic Republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Corps was created out of several paramilitary forces loyal to the new government - while the loyalty of the standing army was under question back then. The IRGC was tasked with protection of the gains of the Revolution itself, while the Army was entrusted with preserving the country's territorial integrity and independence.

However, the IRGC was soon forced to act as a regular army, following the Iraqi invasion in 1980. The IRGC had to substitute for dwindling numbers of the regular army, which had been plagued by desertions - and political purges - after the Revolution. Eventually, the IRGC grew its own aerospace (AFAGIR) and naval (NEDSA) forces, duplicating many of the responsibilities of Iran's regular military.

Comment: What goes around, comes around: US troops are now on Iran's terrorist list:
In response to Washington's decision to put Iran's Revolutionary Guards on the terrorist list, the Iranian Supreme Security Council declared the US a "terrorist government" while calling the US CENTCOM a terrorist group as well as all its affiliates a terrorist group.

The statement blamed CENTCOM for harming Iran's national security as well as ruining the lives of "innocent Iranian and non-Iranian individuals" to promote the US' "aggressive policies" in Western Asia.

The Iranian Security Council condemned the move by calling it "an illegal and dangerous action" that poses a "major threat to the regional and international peace and security as well as grossly violates the rules of international law."
Iranian president Rouhani has a few choice words for the US:
"You want to use terrorist groups as tools against the nations of the region... you are the leader of world terrorism. Even now America is hiding the heads of ISIS, even now they are not prepared to tell the regional governments where the heads of ISIS are hiding. Who are you to label revolutionary institutions as terrorists?"

Rouhani said Trump's move was a "mistake" that will unite the nation and make the Revolutionary Guards more popular among Iranians.
IRGC's top commander also had warnings for the US:
"Mr. Trump, tell your warships not to pass near the Revolutionary Guards boats," Mohsen Rezaei, a senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was quoted by the semi-official news agency ISNA.

[The] US President designated the elite Corps as a terrorist organization...to "expand the scope and scale" of pressure on Tehran. Now, the US may impose further sanctions on the IRGC, with Trump himself warning that "if you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Joe Dunford, expressed concerns about troop safety in the region. They argued that the designation could spark violence against US forces across the Middle East.


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Attention

China signals it is set to eliminate Bitcoin, virtual currency mining

Wang Cong
Global Times
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:41 UTC
Bitcoin equipment
© VCG
Worker checks on Bitcoin mining at Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Bitcoin's price has been on a bull run this month, but the virtual currency could soon feel a chill from China, as government agencies and officials signal that they might further tighten their grip on mining and trading of virtual currencies.

On Monday, China's top economic planning agency the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a catalogue of industries that it would support, restrict or eliminate. The catalogue listed "mining" activities for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as an area to be "eliminated."

Furthermore, the NDRC did not mention a specific timetable or plan to eliminate virtual currency mining, which indicates the government will immediately eliminate the sector.

That should leave no speculation about China's official stance against Bitcoin and other virtual currency mining, and, given China's role as a world leader in mining activities, the move will likely have a major impact on the global market, analysts said.

Though China's central bank banned Bitcoin trading in September 2017, mining continued in China, despite efforts to phase out.

Comment: See also:

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