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Idiocracy: Trump to impose new sanctions on Russia over Skripal poisoning


RFE/RL
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 17:11 UTC
trump lijekovi
© Leah Millis / Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 1 that indicates he is imposing a fresh round of sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the March 2018 nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain.

The State Department determined in August 2018 that Russia violated the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) Act in the Skripal case, and imposed a first round of sanctions targeting foreign aid, the sale of defense and security goods, and U.S. government loans for exports to Russia.


Comment: It must be good to be government - unhampered by that little thing known as the rule of law, or that other little thing called evidence.


In his letter to both the speaker of the House of Representatives and president of the Senate, Trump said that his order was "pursuant to section 307...of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991."

The same 1991 law requires the president to impose a second round of sanctions if he cannot determine whether the country in question has stopped using chemical weapons within three months.

Moscow strongly denies it was behind the poisoning, which has added tension to already severely strained ties between Russia and the West.

Comment: Governments don't make reality-based decisions, they shape reality into the form required to support their decisions. Kind of like this:
  • U.S.: "So, who was responsible for these poisonings?"
  • UK: "Russia."
  • U.S.: "So has there been a trial or anything like that?"
  • UK: "Nope, we just know."
  • U.S.: "So no evidence, or anything like that?"
  • UK: "We are highly confident it was Russia."
  • U.S.: "Good enough for us! Sanctions it is."
Here's Russia's response to the latest sanctions:
The new sanctions will see the US opposing loans and any other assistance to Russia from international financial organizations, while also banning American banks from lending money to the country. Ironically, Trump made his move a day after what he called a "short, but good" phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The Skripal affair wasn't the real reason for the new sanctions as "everything [the US does] in relation to Russia should be put in the context of the growing campaigning in the run-up to the election" in America in 2020, Ryabkov pointed out.
It's most unfortunate that the rest of what has been called the US-Russian partnership some years ago is now being sacrificed because of the demands of some, who simply use relations with Russia as a tool in domestic US infighting.
The deputy FM said that Russia had long-since "adapted" itself to US sanctions and even managed to make parts of its economy, including agriculture, more effective because of them.

In order to further minimize the negative effect of the restrictions, Moscow is "first and foremost going away from the US financial system and departing from the dollar as a universal number one means of payment in the world."


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MIB

FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new 'domestic terrorism threat'

Jana Winter
Yahoo! News
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
fbi badge
© Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Michael E. Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Matt Rourke/AP, AP
FBI designates Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy-based theories as domestic threats.
The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.)

The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau's Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes "conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists," as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven't been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.

The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn't actually have a basement).


Comment: How You Can be 100% Certain That QAnon is Bullshit


Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Light Sabers

2nd front of trade war begins as Japan removes South Korea from preferential export list

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 21:40 UTC
shinzo
President Trump's 'good friend', Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has formalized Japan's decision to remove South Korea from its "white list" of 27 countries with preferential trade status, a move that further fuels bilateral tensions.

The move follows a decision by Japan on July 4 to tighten controls on exports for three chemicals used in the production of semiconductor products.

As The Asia Nikkei Review reports, the breakdown in relations was sparked by last year's decisions by the South Korean Supreme Court to award reparations to the country's wartime laborers at Japanese companies during Japanese occupation.

Comment: Andrew Korybko writes in The Japan-Korea trade dispute debunks anti-Chinese narratives:
China and ROK are therefore both victims of separate trade wars that might even possibly be connected to an uncertain degree. It puts them in the same position vis-a-vis their relationships with the U.S. and Japan respectively, and creates the conditions for both of them to possibly work closely together from here on out.

[...]

In addition, the rest of the world is now seeing that economic warfare isn't "natural," but is driven by political motives, whether ambitions of global leadership in the U.S.' case or avoiding its ethical post-war responsibilities in Japan's.


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Stock Down

Trump to impose additional 10% tariff on remaining $300 bln of Chinese imports to US from Sept 1


RT
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 16:09 UTC
boxes made in china
© REUTERS/Jane Ross
Boxes of goods labeled 'Made in China' sit in a US warehouse (file photo)
US President Donald Trump said that he will impose additional 10 percent tariff on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports starting September 1, as trade war between Washington and Beijing rages on.

Trump announced the new tariff on Twitter, calling it "small" and expressing hope that "the future between our two countries [US and China] will be a very bright one."


The US president said that the move was necessary because Beijing decided to renegotiate the trade deal already struck with Washington three months ago, failed to make good on its promise to buy "large quantities" of American agricultural products, and continues to send the dangerous opioid fentanyl to the US, so "many Americans continue to die."

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

Libya: Terrorist Regime of Fayez al Sarraj (GNA) threatens UN Envoy for telling the Truth


Lybian War The Truth
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Fayez al-Sarraj - Ghassan Salame Lybia
Let me see, the UN appointed puppet government of national accord (GNA) is throwing out the UN Envoy to Libya! You cannot make this stuff up....

The GNA terrorist regime of Sarraj has gone crazy, proving to the world the truth behind the words of the UN Envoy to Libya, Mr. Gassam Salame'.

Mr. Salame', a Lebanese national and appointed representative to Libya for the UN, told the UN Security Council yesterday that militias allied with GNA (Sarraj) had committed war crimes after they raided the city of Gharyan in late June this year. He also pointed out that there are extremists fighting alongside the GNA and accused its allied militias of using Mitiga airport, Tripoli's only functioning airport, for military purposes. These statements have also been confirmed as true many times in other places in Libya by the Libyan National Army that is fighting terrorists and terrorism in Libya.

Comment: See also:

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Black Cat

Are Dems prepping Michelle Obama for a Hail-Mary toss against Trump

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 20:35 UTC
michelle obama
Having watched two nights of Democratic Party infighting and left-ism, Filmmaker Michael Moore exclaimed that former first lady Michelle Obama is the one person who could "crush" President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
"The only way to remove Trump is to crush Trump," Moore said.

"And that's the question that has to be asked. Who can crush Trump? Who's the street fighter?

...There is one person that would crush Trump - and she hasn't announced yet. And her last name rhymes with Obama. In fact, it is Obama - Michelle Obama."
But, as Robert Bridge writes at The Strategic Culture Foundation, the timing of Moore's outburst is curious as joins a broader mainstream media machine that is promoting the former First Lady as celebrity, rock star and saint with more public fanfare than even the almighty Oprah. Is Michelle Obama being primed as the Democrat's last-ditch effort to unseat Trump in 2020?
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Pyramid

RT America visits Epstein's pedo-elite island


RT
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 22:20 UTC

Comment: Well, CNN was hardly gonna do it...


epstein pedophile island little saint james
An RT investigation of millionaire Jeffrey Epstein's private island in the Caribbean has revealed an extravagant hideaway cut off from the rest of the world, and locals who are glad that the registered sex offender is in jail.

Reporter John Huddy traveled to the US Virgin Islands to learn the truth about Little Saint James, nicknamed 'Pedophile Island,' where the highly-connected financier and his friends allegedly carried out sex crimes against minors.

The island is complete with numerous imported palm trees, lavish buildings, a helipad, statues and even a fake cow grazing on perfectly-manicured grass.


Comment: Little Saint James Island, which Epstein liked to called 'Little Saint Jeffrey Island' (barf), is part of the US Virgin Islands, a 'non-incorporated' territory of the USA, one of a number of 'gray areas' the US has dotted around the world.

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Pirates

ACTUAL foreign meddling: Secret comms between FBI and MI5 chiefs cast light on British role at outset of 'Russiagate'

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Nick Hopkins
The Guardian
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 17:01 UTC
prince charles jeremy fleming

'I do say, Jeremy, what say we do away with that ghastly man in the White House?'
Two of the most senior intelligence officials in the US and UK privately shared concerns about "our strange situation" as the FBI launched its 2016 investigation into whether Donald Trump's campaign was colluding with Russia, the Guardian has learned.

Text messages between Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI at the time, and Jeremy Fleming, his then counterpart at MI5, now the head of GCHQ, also reveal their mutual surprise at the result of the EU referendum, which some US officials regarded as a "wake-up call", according to a person familiar with the matter.


Comment: McCabe's history now, but notice that Fleming was subsequently PROMOTED up the spook chain...


While Russia had previously been viewed as a country that would seek to interfere in western elections, the Brexit vote was viewed by some within the FBI as a sign that Russian activities had possibly been successful, the person said.


Comment: Which shows just how out of touch these people really are. More to the point, it shows that they were going with 'Russia did it' by the time the Brexit referendum in late June 2016 result stunned them into realizing the Old Order was under threat...


Their exchanges offer new insights into the start of the FBI's Russia investigation, and how British intelligence appears to have played a key role in the early stages.

Comment: Masterful use of English by The Guardian!

Yes, this top spook organized security for the London Olympics... and torture sites, abductions, black propaganda, psy-ops, mass manipulation, 'special executive ops' (assassinations), coups, regime change, etc, etc.

Oh, and, it turns out, attempting a coup against the president of the USA.

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Jet3

Persian Gulf: US cluster bomb-armed fighter jets now on patrol increasing tensions with Iran


Sputnik
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 11:07 UTC
F-15Es
© USAF
F-15Es
The development comes against the backdrop of US-led efforts to build an international coalition that will patrol the Strait of Hormuz as tensions with Iran continue to drastically escalate.

US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fighter jets have joined maritime and surface warfare drills in the Persian Gulf as tensions with Iran continue to escalate, the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) reported.

Based out of Al Dhafra Air Base, the UAE, and attached to the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, the jets are reportedly fitted with cluster bombs.

"Their [the F-15Es'] role is to conduct combat air patrol missions over the Arabian Gulf and provide aerial escorts of naval vessels as they traverse the Strait of Hormuz. The F-15E is a dual-role fighter designed to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions and is currently conducting Surface Combat Air Patrol (SuCAP) operations to ensure free and open maritime commerce in the region".

According to The Drive, some of the aircraft were fitted with Wind Corrected Munition Dispensers (WCMD), a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system-guided canister that can carry a variety of cluster munitions. Beyond cluster bombs, the F-15Es are said to carry a pair of AIM 120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and two AIM 9-X Sidewinder short-range infrared homing missiles.
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Yoda

Petulant losers: US slaps sanctions on Iranian FM Zarif (for pointing out that the Saudis were involved in 9/11)


RT
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 20:26 UTC
Zarif
© Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina
Iranian FM Javad Zarif
The US Treasury Department has placed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, after threatening to do so for several months. Zarif is a vocal and public critic of American policy towards Iran.

The Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Wednesday, after declining to blacklist the outspoken diplomat earlier this month. The move comes at a critical time for US-Iran relations, with Washington currently putting together a multinational maritime mission to protect shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf and combat "Iranian aggression."

"Javad Zarif implements the reckless agenda of Iran's Supreme Leader, and is the regime's primary spokesperson around the world," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday. "The United States is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable."

Comment: You know you're making a positive impact on the world when the Empire personally penalizes your livelihood and freedom of movement.

Let's read Zarif's offending tweet again shall we...


Iranian president Rouhani has responded with the understatement of the year: 'Washington has lost power of rational thought'
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has castigated the US for imposing sanctions on his country's foreign minister, describing the move as puerile and senseless.

Rouhani accused the US of "childish behavior" on Thursday over Washington's decision to sanction Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Washington had previously proposed unconditional talks with Tehran - a curious turnaround which Rouhani was quick to point out.

"[The United States] were claiming every day 'We want to talk, with no preconditions'... and then they sanction the foreign minister," Rouhani said during a live television broadcast. "This means they have lost the power of rational thought."

Iran's president surmised that Zarif was targeted because the US is "afraid of our foreign minister's interviews."

The Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Wednesday, accusing Zarif of "implementing the reckless agenda of Iran's supreme leader."

The decision has split Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers protesting against the sanctions as counterproductive.

"Rather than sanctioning the foreign minister for doing his job, we should engage him in serious diplomacy," California Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. "The only way we'll have a lasting diplomatic resolution with Iran is through talks, and sanctioning their top diplomat isn't the way to accomplish that."

The sanctions have also been criticized in the international arena. China said on Thursday that Washington's decision to target Zarif does nothing to solve the standoff between the US and Iran.
See also:

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