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Nuke

If the US is really worried about a nuclear Iran, it would go back to JCPOA. But nukes are not at the core here

Robert Inlakesh
RT
Thu, 25 Feb 2021 17:35 UTC
Biden/Netanyahu
© Reuters/KJN
US President Joe Biden • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
The US keeps fear mongering about the dangers of the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet, it doesn't rush to return to the JCPOA, suggesting the real fear of Iran stems from a completely different origin.

Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its readiness to return to respecting its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if the US lifts economic sanctions against Iran imposed by the Trump administration. However, US President Joe Biden's hesitancy on the matter has led to a diplomatic deadlock and resumption of hostile rhetoric.

The Obama-era JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal, was designed, from a Western perspective, to prevent Iran reaching a nuclear weapon. We are now at a stage where the alarmist rhetoric, coming from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Israeli Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, predicts that Iran could develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons in the span of weeks to months. The question then would be, if there is truly a genuine fear of Iran quickly producing a nuclear bomb and potentially using it, then why would the US not be scrambling to re-enter the deal?

Whilst it is likely that the US government is truly fearful of an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons, it is less likely that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is the main reason behind the hesitancy to re-enter the JCPOA.

Comment: Israel's signs and portents are meant to provoke anger and outrage from Iran, knowing the West will pass on any reprimand or consequences:


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NPC

It's always Putin! Russian president engineered coup in Armenia because Pashinyan insulted Moscow's missiles, Western media claims


RT
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 12:57 UTC
Pashinyan Armenia
© Sputnik
Sasna Tsrer's group members take part in a rally demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in central Yerevan, Armenia.
Not content with fixing US elections and making sure your favorite sports team loses, Vladimir Putin's shadowy hand is now behind a power struggle in Yerevan, after a row over rockets. At least, that's according to American media.

In an article by journalist Anna Nemtsova published on Friday, New York-based outlet The Daily Beast claimed that "Putin may have triggered an attempted coup in Armenia" because of a public spat over the effectiveness of the Russian-made Iskander missile systems. The Caucasian country's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned on Friday that the country's army was planning to oust him after its top generals signed a joint statement calling for his resignation.

Pressure had escalated on the embattled leader after he requested the dismissal of a top military chief, Tiran Khachatryan, when the general contradicted his criticism of the Moscow-made rockets. Pashinyan had told journalists that the Iskander missiles had failed during bloody fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan, or had "exploded only by 10 percent."

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

Divide & conquer: PM Ardern tells Kiwis to rebuke lockdown rule-breakers


Yahoo
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 05:50 UTC
Ardern

A frustrated Ardern said the breaches that led to Auckland being shut down for the second time in a month were intolerable
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged New Zealanders to "call out" Covid-19 rule-breakers Monday, as public anger built over a series of infringements that forced the country's largest city back into lockdown.


Comment: New Zealand MPs chose to lockdown, the situation didn't force them to do so.


A frustrated Ardern -- who has won widespread praise for her pandemic response -- said the breaches that led to Auckland being shut down for the second time in a month were intolerable.

She said some people involved in the latest outbreak had ignored clear instructions to remain in isolation and failed to fully disclose their movements to contact tracers.


Comment: Because under the emergency lockdown regulations citizens no longer have freedom of movement or privacy.


Comment: While that kind of deliberately divisive language may be shocking, it isn't surprising; here's a revealing video of PM Ardern discussing how to deal with citizens in quarantine:

See also:

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Dollar

US wasted billions on cars, buildings in Afghanistan - destroyed or abandoned

Kathy Gannon
AP
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:55 UTC
Kabul, Afghanistan
© AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File
The United States wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, according to a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog.

The agency said it reviewed $7.8 billion spent since 2008 on buildings and vehicles. Only $343.2 million worth of buildings and vehicles "were maintained in good condition," said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the protracted conflict.

The report said that just $1.2 billion of the $7.8 billion went to pay for buildings and vehicles that were used as intended.

"The fact that so many capital assets wound up not used, deteriorated or abandoned should have been a major cause of concern for the agencies financing these projects," John F. Sopko, the special inspector general, said in his report.


Comment: Not their money, not their problem. Government spending has always been wasteful. That's the primary reason it exists.


The U.S. public is weary of the nearly 20-year-old war and President Joe Biden is reviewing a peace deal his predecessor, Donald Trump, signed with the Taliban a year ago. He must decide whether to withdraw all troops by May 1, as promised in the deal, or stay and possibly prolong the war. Officials say no decision has been made but on Monday, Washington's peace envoy and the American who brokered the U.S.-Taliban deal, Zalmay Khalilzad, was back in the Afghan capital for a tour of the region.
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Eye 1

EU will propose creating Covid-19 vaccine passports in March


MSN
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:05 UTC
vaccine passports eu
© Jack Guez, AFP
Prototype vaccine passports proposed for Europe in March 2021
The European Commission will present a proposal in March on creating an EU-wide digital vaccination passport, an issue that has divided member states, Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

"We will submit a legislative proposal in March," von der Leyen told German conservative lawmakers during a video conference on Monday.

With vaccinations now well under way, governments are increasingly seeing vaccine "passports" - or other forms of Covid-19 status certificates - as a way out of the cycles of shutdowns and curfews that have ground travel to a near halt.

The certificates would enable people to present proof of vaccination and thus skip quarantine protocols when arriving in a new country.

Comment: The push for the passport is very strong. Is it likely that the measure has been on the shelf for years, just as the Patriot Act was?

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Handcuffs

Ex-French president Sarkozy 'jailed' for corruption - 2 years suspended sentence, plus one year house arrest with monitor


RT
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:30 UTC
sarkozy prison corruption
© Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, wearing a protective face mask, arrives for the verdict in his trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, at Paris courthouse, France, March 1, 2021
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption on charges of trying to bribe a magistrate. The judge sentenced Sarkozy to three years in prison, with two years suspended.

Judge Christine Mee, who presided over the case, stated that the 66-year-old former political leader had "used his status as former French president" in a "particularly serious" act of wrongdoing, as she handed down the sentence.

Sarkozy was put on trial over accusations of trying to bribe Gilbert Azibert, a French magistrate, by offering him a well-paid job in Monaco in return for information about a criminal investigation into his political party at the time, the Union for a Popular Movement.

Comment: The French government has more trials lined up for Sarko. French media is highlighting that 'this right-winger' has been 'put away', implying that Sarkozy was something 'beyond the pale' of French establishment politics. In fact, he played by their rules.

The inescapable conclusion of this 'soft sentencing' that bars Sarkozy from re-running for public office is that President Macron now has one less challenger when he goes up for re-election next year.

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Attention

How to play 3D Chess

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:03 UTC
3D CHess
© Corbett Report
It's a ridiculous, no good, stupid, rotten meme.

You know the idea that every horrible move that Precedent Trump ever made (like appointing John Bolton or launching Operation Warp Speed) was actually some super complicated three-dimensional chess move intended to accomplish the exact opposite of what he was actually doing? ("You don't understand, man! He's appointing Gina "CIA Torture" Haspel because he wants to expose her role in CIA torture!")

Yeah, that meme.

Well, as much as "Trump the 3D chess master" represented the apotheosis of Hopium for the Trump Train crowd (cf. The Babylon Bee's spot-on satirical headline from January 20, 2021: "Republican Starting To Think Trump Might Not Pull Off A Last-Minute 4D Chess Move"), the idea of three-dimensional chess itself is not without merit. After all, I employed it in 2013 to discuss the reality of "China and the New World Order" and used it again in 2014 to discuss the true nature of the Global Chessboard. (Don't blame me for launching the meme, though! The earliest reference I could find was a 2010 clip of Cenk Uyghur discussing liberal defenses of Barack Obama.)

So in defense of this much-abused idea, allow me to present to you a beginner's guide outlining How To Play 3D Chess.
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Bad Guys

Trump confirms calling for 10,000 National Guard for Jan 6th... Pelosi refused

Natalie Winters
The National Pulse
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:15 UTC
national guard washington
© The National Guard
National Guardsmen at the Capitol building on January 12, 2021, in preparation for Biden's inauguration
President Donald Trump has confirmed reports he requested 10,000 National Guard troops ahead of the January 6th rally in Washington, D.C., only to be rebuffed by authorities.

Speaking Steve Hilton on "The Revolution," the former president outlined how he knew in advance of the crowd size:
"Everyone said we'll be at the rally. It was, I think, the largest crowd that I have ever spoken to before. I have spoken to big crowds, hundreds of thousands of people, more than that, but hundreds of thousands of people."
In response, Trump said he "gave the number" to the Department of Defense, insisting that 10,000 members of the National Guard would be needed.
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Hammer

Merrick Garland: Antifa Attorney General plans to crush dissent

John Derbyshire
Unz Review
Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Merrick Garland
[Excerpted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively through VDARE.com]

Of the sixteen persons nominated for a cabinet position, as listed in the January 23rd issue of The Economist [After the chaos of the Trump era, what can Joe Biden hope to achieve?] nine have now been confirmed by the U.S. Senate and have assumed office. So we are better than halfway through the confirmation process.

You can't help but notice the diversity. Not one of them — not one of the sixteen — is a non-Hispanic white Protestant heterosexual male. To put that another way: Not one of the sixteen comes from the same slice of the diversity pie as did every single one of our nation's Founding Fathers.

(Am I still allowed to say "Founding Fathers"? "Founding persons," whatever.)

That is the working definition of the word "diversity" in our benighted age: no non-Hispanic white Protestant heterosexual males! That's true diversity!

Only one of the sixteen is a white male Protestant: Peter Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary; and as an Episcopalian, his Protestantism is borderline. I used to be an Episcopalian, and I recall that bit in the liturgy where we prayed for the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Comment: More fun facts about Biden's AG pick Merrick Garland:

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Bad Guys

Biden's first foreign policy speech vows forever wars

Brian Berletic
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Biden
US foreign policy has clearly continued in the same direction, without missing a beat. Unlike in previous transitions in the White House, this time US President Joe Biden has not even really tried to promise even the faintest hope that it wouldn't.

There were a few glimpses of remote hope - particularly regarding the possibility the US wouldn't abandon its last arms treaty with Russia, New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) - and Biden's promise of returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal.

However, in Biden's first speech regarding foreign policy since taking office, now posted on the White House's official website and titled, "Remarks by President Biden on America's Place in the World," reveals that, if anything, US belligerence on the global stage is set to only expand.
"America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy."
Biden's opening remarks attempt to suggest that America has drifted away under his predecessor US President Donald Trump. But when he says "America is back," we are left to assume he means "back" to what the US was doing under the administration of US President Barack Obama under which he served as vice president.

Comment: It seems that Biden has A LOT of coals in the fire where ratcheting up the US war machine is concerned:

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