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WH: Biden now 'perfectly comfortable' with migrant payouts - after calling $450K report 'garbage'

Steven Nelson, Samuel Chamberlain
New York Post
Thu, 04 Nov 2021 04:55 UTC
Biden
© AP
US President Joe Biden
President Biden is "perfectly comfortable" with cash payouts to migrant families whose members were detained separately after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

The answer comes just a day after Biden labeled as "garbage" a report that his administration is considering $450,000-per-person payments.

Jean-Pierre pointedly pivoted Biden's assessment after the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday night said:
"The president may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department.

"If it saves taxpayer dollars and puts the disastrous history of the previous administration's use of zero tolerance and family separation behind us, the president is perfectly comfortable with the Department of Justice settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the US government.

"The president, what he was reacting to, was a figure that was mentioned, that you mentioned to him yesterday... DOJ made clear to the plaintiffs that the reported figures are higher than anywhere that a settlement can land."
Biden on Wednesday appeared unaware of settlement negotiations and dismissed as ridiculous the large reported size of payouts.

Comment: Makes us wonder exactly who and what is important to this administration. Surely it is not the USA nor its lawful citizens who will foot the payouts.

See also:
Biden administration may pay millions to migrant families separated at border under Trump

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Hiliter

Putin, Lukashenko approve new military doctrine as they ink Russia-Belarus integration docs


RT
Thu, 04 Nov 2021 17:16 UTC
Flags
© Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko
Flags of Belarus and Russia
The Russian and Belarusian presidents have signed a revised Union State military doctrine, as well as a package of other integration documents, paving the way for bringing the two nations closer together.

The landmark documents were signed by Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Lukashenko on Thursday during a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. Due to Covid-19 measures, the meeting was held via a video link.

The new military doctrine, also signed on Wednesday, would "make defense policy more coherent [and] adapt the objectives of the defense ministries in a timely fashion," State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev said.

Announcing the revision last month, Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the doctrine had been updated to better coordinate the actions of the two nations, not only purely in the military arena, but also to resist the economic and political pressure coming from the "so-called collective West."

Comment: The difference between Russia and the collective 'West' is 180 degrees.

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Sherlock

Russian diplomat found dead outside embassy in Berlin, reports claim he 'fell from a window'


RT
Fri, 05 Nov 2021 11:15 UTC
Russian embassy Germany
© REUTERS / Fabrizio Bensch
A general view shows the Russian embassy after Germany expelled two Russian diplomats in Berlin, Germany.
A Russian diplomat was found dead last month outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin. According to a report just released, the man fell from a window.

Der Spiegel said the deceased man was a 35-year-old secretary who had worked at the embassy. The magazine said the man appeared to have fallen from an upper floor of the building. His body had been discovered on October 19.

Russia's embassy in Germany released a short statement in response to the report, saying it would "not be commenting on this tragic event for ethical reasons."

Comment: Notably this occurred over 2 weeks ago and reports are only coming out now.

See also:

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Radar

Israeli 'military grade' Pegasus spyware parent company added to US 'Black list'


Al Mayadeen
Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:00 UTC
pegasus
© Reuters
Israeli cyber firm NSO Group's exhibition stand is seen at Israel security expo in Tel Aviv, June 4th 2019
After media reports, months ago, on Pegasus' usage in various spyware attacks on heads of states, journalists, political activists, and human rights activists, the United States decided to blacklist NSO, Pegasus' parent company.

The United States placed "Israel's" spyware maker NSO Group, the corporation behind the notorious Pegasus, on its list of restricted companies. NSO Group's Pegasus was exposed as having been used by oppressive regimes to spy on journalists, human rights activists, dissidents, and even heads of state.

According to an investigation led by The Washington Post and 16 media partners, Pegasus is military-grade spyware leased by the Israeli firm to governments who used it in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, and business executives.


Comment: These are hacks that we know about, it's likely that there are many more, as well as other spywares currently at work.


Comment: A curious development considering the US & Israel's cozy and controversial 'friendship'; or is it merely a bluff?

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Info

Israel attacks Syria in broad daylight. We shouldn't actively ignore it

Vanessa Beeley
RT
Fri, 05 Nov 2021 08:18 UTC
Israeli soldiers

Israeli soldiers take position near the border with Syria in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights
Israel is on an attacking spree in Syria. Surface to surface missiles were launched from inside the Palestinian occupied territories twice in the space of four days. Israel is violating international law with criminal regularity.

On Saturday, October 30, Israel changed strategy and attacked Syria in broad daylight. The attacks usually come in the early hours of the morning under cover of darkness, but this time Israel launched at 11.15am. The target was the Syrian air defense base to the West of Damascus. The base is shared with a racehorse training facility and racetrack. If Israel had attacked an hour earlier, there would have been horses on the track with their jockeys, trainers watching from the side lines, and people in the seats having a traditional breakfast picnic. There would have been chaos and, possibly, carnage.

That morning there was a meeting of over one hundred civilians in the seating area next to the track. I was also in the area walking my dogs, never thinking that Israel would break its MO and attack at this time. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day. I heard what I thought were jets in the skies above but later I realised it was the sound of incoming winged missiles finding their target. Suddenly, about one hundred meters from me, the first missile hit. The sound was ear shattering. Plumes of smoke rose above the impact. Molten shrapnel was propelled into the air behind the gathering of civilians. They couldn't see the explosion, but the sound must have been deafening.
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Blue Planet

Scott Ritter: ISIS-K is taking over Afghanistan - the US is to blame

Scott Ritter
RT
Fri, 05 Nov 2021 11:29 UTC
taliban kabul
© REUTERS/Ali Khara
Taliban fighters arrive at the site of explosions at a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan November 2, 2021.
The US failed to ensure stability in Afghanistan from 2001 through 2014. Instead, it promulgated policies that not only strengthened the Taliban, but also created pockets of ungovernable space that were then taken over by ISIS-K.

A recent spate of suicide attacks, including Tuesday's brazen daytime assault on a military hospital in downtown Kabul that left at least 25 people dead, has underscored the reality that Afghanistan today has an Islamist terrorist problem. The irony is that, while the US has long labeled the current rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban, as a terrorist organization, the latest acts of terror are being perpetrated by a group, Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K), that has been fighting both the US and Taliban for the better part of seven years.

The failure to defeat ISIS-K, an affiliate of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), in the years since it was founded in 2014 can be laid squarely at the feet of the US, which had overwhelming military capabilities assembled in the region, yet lacked a coherent strategy for Afghanistan around which to build an effective plan for using this power. Moreover, the US continues to demonstrate an abject lack of understanding about current realities in Afghanistan, eschewing support to the Taliban out of spite and, in the process, further empowering the forces of ISIS-K.

Whether ISIS-K will be able to replicate the successes of IS in Syria and Iraq of 2014-15 in either Afghanistan or Pakistan is yet to be seen. The original focus of effort for ISIS-K was Pakistan. Indeed, the first emir of ISIS-K was a Pakistani national named Hafiz Saeed Khan. Khan was a veteran commander of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an alliance of Islamic militant groups formed in 2007 to oppose the Pakistani military in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In October 2014, Khan was joined by other TTP leaders when he pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS until his death in 2019.
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Heart - Black

Billionaires are not morally qualified to shape human civilization

Caitlin Johnstone
caityjohnstone.medium.com
Sun, 31 Oct 2021 00:00 UTC
our global goals
Human civilization is being engineered in myriad ways by an unfathomably wealthy class who are so emotionally and psychologically stunted that they refuse to end world hunger despite having the ability to easily do so.

The United Nations has estimated that world hunger could be ended for an additional expenditure of $30 billion a year, with other estimates considerably lower. The other day Elon Musk became the first person ever to attain a net worth of over $300 billion. A year ago his net worth was $115 billion. According to Inequality.org, America's billionaires have a combined net worth of $5.1 trillion, which is a 70 percent increase from their combined net worth of under $3 trillion at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

So we're talking about a class which could easily put a complete halt to human beings dying of starvation on this planet by simply putting some of their vast fortunes toward making sure everyone gets enough to eat. But they don't. This same class influences the policies, laws, and large-scale behavior of our species more than any other.

To get a sense of how insane this is, imagine if you had seen a video clip of me calmly watching a child drown to death in a swimming pool and doing nothing to help. After watching such footage, would it ever in a million years occur to you that I am someone who should be in charge of the entire world?

Comment: Though we agree with most of the points made by the author, we don't agree with her statement that "Billionaires should not exist". First, they have a right to exist just as surely as we non-billionaires. Second, being a billionaire, (in and of itself) is not necessarily a guarantee that they will not, or cannot, exercise conscience (though we can certainly see how the author comes to this conclusion). Third, being an "ordinary person" is not a guarantee of having a conscience or being particularly competent at ruling either. Every individual with a potential for leading must be assessed on their own merits. Having stated the above, there is something to be said for individuals who are more "spiritually" qualified to lead humanity - based on a very normal and healthy set of values and competencies. But how such criteria can even be established and evaluated is another story.

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Brick Wall

Poland to build new $400 million wall on border with Belarus to stem flow of refugees & illegal migrants


RT
Wed, 03 Nov 2021 12:55 UTC
poland border
© Sputnik / Viktor Tolochko
Polish border guards watch a refugee camp behind barbed wire installed on the border between Belarus and Poland near the village of Usnarz Dolny, Belarus.
Poland is set to build a new border wall on its eastern flank in an effort to end a sharp spike in asylum seekers attempting to cross over from neighboring Belarus, after Warsaw declared a state of emergency over the situation.

On Wednesday, the country's president, Andrzej Duda, signed into force new legislation for the construction of the barrier, after it was backed by the national parliament. Expected to cost more than $400 million, work on the new wall will likely be completed next summer. Running close to half the length of the 400-kilometer border, it will be kitted out with both motion sensors and surveillance systems.

Warsaw has warned that around 500 people a day are attempting to cross into the country illegally, with a sharp spike in recent months. The EU has accused Belarus of laying on flights from troubled destinations like Iraq and Iran, and of encouraging would-be migrants to make the border crossing.

Comment: Maybe Belarus doesn't want to take responsibility for refugees and migrants that are actually the result of Western scheming and warmongering? Note also that Belarus has become a target of the establishment after rejecting bribes to lockdown its citizens and for turning away from the EU towards Russia: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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Star of David

Secret Israeli dossier offers no proof to justify terror label for Palestinian groups

Yuval Abraham, Oren Ziv, Meron Rapoport
The Intercept
Thu, 04 Nov 2021 18:11 UTC
Palestinian flag
A secret document distributed by Israel to justify its terrorist designations of six prominent Palestinian human rights groups shows no concrete evidence of involvement in violent activities by any of the groups.

The designation of the Palestinians groups, which was met by international outrage from defenders of human rights, was announced on October 22 by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Gantz cited alleged links between the groups and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a left-wing Palestinian political party with its own military wing.

Despite the severity of the declaration, Israel has yet to publicly present any documents directly or indirectly linking the six groups to the PFLP or to any violent activity.
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Cult

To protect Fauci, the Washington Post is preparing a hit piece on the group that denounced gruesome dog experimentations

Glenn Greenwald
greenwald.substack.com
Tue, 02 Nov 2021 19:31 UTC
fauci beagles dog experiments cruel

Footage from “Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation,” May 17 2018, reported by Glenn Greenwald and Leighton Woodhouse for The Intercept
For years, the White Coat Waste Project was heralded by The Post as what they are: an activist success story uniting right and left. But now its work imperils a liberal icon.

Anger over the U.S. Government's gruesome, medically worthless experimentation on adult dogs and puppies has grown rapidly over the last two months. A truly bipartisan coalition in Congress has emerged to demand more information about these experiments and denounce the use of taxpayer funds to enable them. On October 24, twenty-four House members — nine Democrats and fifteen Republicans, led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) — wrote a scathing letter to Dr. Anthony Fauci expressing "grave concerns about reports of costly, cruel, and unnecessary taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs commissioned by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases." Similar protests came in the Senate from a group led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

The campaign to end these indescribably cruel, taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs has been underway for years, long before Dr. Facui became a political lightning rod. In 2018, I reported on these experiments under the headline "BRED TO SUFFER: Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation." That article described "a largely hidden, poorly regulated, and highly profitable industry in the United States that has a gruesome function: breeding dogs for the sole purpose of often torturous experimentation, after which the dogs are killed because they are no longer of use."

Comment:

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