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Nuke

Would Trump roll back US nuclear strategy to the 1950s?

Geoff Wilson and Will Saetren
War is Boring
Sat, 18 Feb 2017 18:10 UTC
atomic test cannon tyndal air force

First ground footage of destruction at Tyndall Air Force Base
Everyone loses when nuclear weapons - of any kind - get involved

As Donald Trump's first three weeks in office come to a close, critics are pointing out that his iconic slogan, "Make America Great Again" is starting to look more and more like an attempt to bring American society back to the 1950s. What most people haven't realized yet is that his vision of turning back the clock also applies to America's nuclear arsenal.

Just this past week, CQ Roll Call reported that a blue-ribbon Pentagon panel urged the Trump administration to make the U.S. arsenal more capable of fighting a "'limited' atomic war."

According to the report, "The Defense Science Board ... urges the president to consider altering existing and planned U.S. armaments to achieve a greater number of lower-yield weapons that could provide a 'tailored nuclear option for limited use.'"

Comment:

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Heart - Black

Chelsea Manning off to jail: Mainstream media would care if this was Russia


RT
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 16:51 UTC
Chelsea Manning
© Reuters / Ford Fischer
Chelsea Manning speaks to reporters outside a federal court in Virginia.
Does the American media care that a whistleblower was hauled off to jail for refusing to testify to a secret grand jury? Not really. After all, there's 'Russian collusion' to chase.

Manning was placed in custody on Friday for contempt of court after refusing to testify in front a grand jury in a closed hearing regarding her disclosure of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has historically been used to entrap and persecute activists for political speech," Manning said in a statement.

Her silence saw her thrown back in jail, where she will remain until she either changes her mind and testifies, or until "the end of the life of the grand jury," Judge Claude M. Hilton ruled.

Comment: See also: Chelsea Manning sent back to jail for refusing to testify in secret proceedings against Wikileaks

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Light Saber

Those thirsty for 'anti-semitic' Omar's blood disappointed as Dems pass watered-down anti-hate bill


RT
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 17:35 UTC
Ilhan Omar
© Agence France-Presse / Mandell Ngan
Rep. Ilhan Omar - (D-MN)
The House of Representatives adopted a resolution condemning all forms of bigotry (including anti-Semitism) after a long day of linguistic gymnastics that saw it morph from censuring Rep. Ilhan Omar to frowning on... intolerance.

The thrice-rewritten bill was barely recognizable as a rebuke of the alleged anti-Semitism of the Minnesota Democrat, instead bristling with denunciation of bigotry against every imaginable minority group in the US - a process that began when Omar's supporters requested the language be modified to include Muslims.

The final resolution veered close to self-parody after Democrats insisted Latinos, Asians, Pacific-Islanders, and LGBTQ people be added to the "traditionally persecuted peoples" list, pushing the vote back an hour on Thursday afternoon. Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and even the Dreyfus affair - which took place in 1800s France! - were name-dropped in the final version of the bill.

The final vote was 407 in favor, with 23 Republicans opposed.

Comment: Omar's principled stand against AIPAC and the demand for US loyalty apartheid Israel is creating divisions in the Democratic party
Ilhan Omar's remarks on the Israeli lobby's grip on American politics have seen her fellow Democrats blast her for anti-Semitism, and in one extreme case, for daring to question the US-Israel alliance at all.

Omar (D-Minnesota) has been a longtime opponent of the Israeli government, accusing it of "evil doings" in a 2012 tweet, then suggested recently that there is "political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," a reference to the powerful Israel lobby.

WIth Omar facing accusations of anti-Semitism, the House of Representatives passed a watered-down resolution denouncing not just anti-Jewish racism, but racism and discrimination of all kinds, on Thursday. The resolution passed with 407 votes, with 23 Republicans opposed.

Criticism didn't just come from the GOP, but from some of Omar's fellow Democrats. Rep. Juan Vargas (D-California) spelled things out clearest, stating that "questioning support for the US-Israel relationship is unacceptable."


"The change that is happening in the Democratic party is something that started with the recent elections that brought Ilhan Omar and others - young, progressive, and pushing for new ideas," US-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud told RT. "I think this is a sign of hope that more popular involvement in the party could...challenge the traditional elites of the party."

RT's Caleb Maupin took a closer look at the saga, and what it means for the Democratic party at large.




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Stop

May warns Brexit 'may never happen at all' if MP's reject her deal for a second time

Thomas Colson and Adam Payne
Business Insider
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
theresa may
© Getty images
Theresa May
Theresa May has said that Brexit "may never happen at all" if members of Parliament vote to reject her deal for a second time.

The UK prime minister, who plans to put the Withdrawal Agreement to another House of Commons vote on Tuesday, said Parliament could vote for a delayed exit from the European Union if her deal with the EU is rejected, an outcome that could ultimately lead to the UK remaining in the EU.

"Next week MPs in Westminster face a crucial choice: whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it," May said Friday afternoon in Grimsby, the coastal English city in an area that largely favored Brexit in the 2016 referendum.

"Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen."

She added: "We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all."

Comment: As SOTT has previously noted, the likelihood of mutually agreed upon terms for Brexit is remote as the British establishment does not want to leave the EU and is determined to make sure it never happens:

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Eye 2

Leaked documents show US government secretly tracks journalists and activists tied to migrant caravan

Tom Jones, Mari Payton and Bill Feather
NBC 7
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 02:26 UTC
The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates
Border Patrol agents
© File Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.

At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines.

As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding.

But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
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Cow

Cattle ranchers are trying to get the word 'Meat' taken off the labels of meat substitutes

Tom McKay
Gizmodo
Sun, 10 Feb 2019 13:09 UTC
burger
The rise of Impossible Foods and its signature Impossible Burger, the plant-based burger brand that is all the rage lately, and their faux-meat ilk has apparently rattled some in the cattle business. The New York Times reported this weekend on a spate of state laws aiming to outlaw the use of the word "meat" on labels to describe products made from meat alternatives, some of which were bogged down by opposition and one of which passed.

According to the Times report, some ranchers and farmers (as well as lobbyists paid by their industry) are worried that plant-based meat substitutes-an industry that is growing by double digits each year and is rapidly getting better at producing tastier products-will threaten their bottom line. They seem particularly worried about losing control of labeling, like the dairy industry failed to anticipate the rise of almond and soy milk, as well as the potential impact of hypothetical future cheap, lab-grown meat on their businesses. That's despite lab-grown meat still not being out on the general market, and almost certainly remaining quite expensive for the foreseeable future.
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Eye 1

'Shutdown' smokescreen: Former NSA execs say agency still spies on American phones in hidden program

Nafeez Ahmed
Medium
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
NSA surveillance

The bulk of the NSA’s surveillance and “offensive” information warfare capabilities remain completely unknown
On Monday 4th, the New York Times reported that the National Security Agency has "quietly" shut down a controversial phone records surveillance program revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

The claim was made by a senior Republican congressional aide who told the newspaper that the Trump administration had stopped using the program, which analyses the domestic call and text logs of American citizens, due to technical problems.

On Twitter Snowden hailed the news as a "victory", while Intercept journalist Glen Greenwald, who broke the Snowden story to international acclaim, took the story at face value. Neither of them raised the obvious question - is the "shut down" of this program merely a smokescreen to continue spying on American phones under new or different secretive programs?


Comment: See also:

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NPC

House Democrats overwhelmingly reject motion condemning illegal immigrant voting

Alex Pappas
Fox News
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:41 UTC
House Democrats Ocasio Cortez
Nearly every House Democrat on Friday opposed a measure condemning voting in U.S. elections by illegal immigrants, as part of a sweeping election reform bill.

The GOP-backed measure would have added language to the "H.R. 1" election proposal stating that "allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting power of United States citizens."

Federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in elections for federal office. But the GOP motion referenced how San Francisco is allowing non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to register to vote in school board elections.
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Eye 1

Abrams: Project Venezuela 'still on track' with even more sanctions coming 'any day now'


RT
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:41 UTC
maduro elliot abrams
US special envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams maintained that the regime change project in Caracas was still on track, with even more sanctions sure to persuade Venezuelans into backing the US-chosen opposition leader any day now.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department on Friday, Abrams tried to put the best face on the ongoing failure of Washington to replace the "regime" of President Nicolas Maduro with the "democracy" of self-proclaimed opposition leader Juan Guaido. Abrams went so far as to blame Maduro for Thursday's power blackouts, which the Venezuelan government said were a result of US sabotage.

He maintained that most Venezuelans, as well as the majority of the country's military, were unhappy with Maduro, but could not answer why only a handful of soldiers have switched sides to back Guaido. "It doesn't look like it's happening until the day it begins to happen."
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Bad Guys

Pence urged Merkel to provoke Russia by sending warships to Crimea

Patrick Donahue
Bloomberg
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:34 UTC
merkel pence
© Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images
Angela Merkel, right, shakes hands with Mike Pence in Munich on Feb. 16.
The U.S. leaned on German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month to conduct a naval maneuver in Russia's backyard aimed at provoking President Vladimir Putin, according to three people familiar with the talks.

At a Feb. 16 meeting at the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged Merkel to send German warships through a narrow channel between the Crimean peninsula and mainland Russia to show Putin that Western powers won't surrender their access to those waters, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The German leader refused, they said, citing reservations from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. A spokesman for the chancellor declined to comment.

Comment: Yet another example of heinous US provocation towards Russia. And when we consider that most of Europe has chosen Russia to be the supplier of its much needed gas, any claims of Russian aggression are evidently unfounded:

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