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"The purge": Director Ken Loach expelled from UK's Labour party for 'not disowning those already expelled'

Mattha Busby
The Guardian
Sat, 14 Aug 2021 12:46 UTC
ken loach
© Ian West/PA
Loach's films are regarded as landmarks of social realism.
The veteran leftwing film-maker Ken Loach has said he has been expelled from the Labour party.

Loach, whose films are regarded as landmarks of social realism, claimed the move by the party was because he would "not disown those already expelled", and he hit out at an alleged "witch-hunt".

It follows reports last month that the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, was preparing to support a purge of factions vocally supportive of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.


Comment: Starmer usurped Corbyn's leadership following a manufactured smear campaign: Galloway: 3 nails in Corbyn's leadership coffin are anti-Semitism smears, appeasement & attitude to Brexit


Comment: Neither the Conservative nor the Labour party reflect the values they were known for, and their leaders don't seem to be too concerned. In fact it almost seems as if those involved in corrupting the parties know that a significant number will continue to vote for them, regardless of what insidious avenues they drag members down, and worse, some members will probably even take on the new warped, shared, ideology; because it's increasingly looking like both parties are pushing the same nefarious agenda:

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NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?


Sott.net
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
afghanistan taliban newsreal
© Sott.net
Is the war in Afghanistan finally over? The US' longest war appears to be reaching its conclusion with the withdrawal of American forces, and the Taliban's rapid advance into Afghanistan's cities.

Although it seems to have occurred 'overnight', this development has actually been in play since the Trump administration. Since the week before Western lockdowns began, funnily enough...

In this NewsReal, Joe and Niall explain why the bizarre (mis)adventure of 'get Osama Bin Laden hiding out in Afghanistan' merely delayed inevitable Eurasian integration, and set the stage for a 'Corona World Order'.


NewsReal on Facebook
Joe Quinn on Facebook
Niall Bradley on Twitter

Running Time: 01:41:26

Download: MP3 — 69.7 MB


Comment: Alternately, you can watch this NewsReal on Odysee and Rumble.

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X

Trump on Afghanistan: Biden 'wrong every time,' a 'complete failure through weakness, incompetence'

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Wire
Sat, 14 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
TrumpBiden
© Chicago Tribune/AP/Hoshang/Otago Daily Times/KJN
Former US President Donald Trump • US President Joe Biden • US Troops in Afghanistan
Former President Donald Trump slammed Democrat President Joe Biden in a statement on Saturday as the situation in Afghanistan continues to rapidly deteriorate, saying that Biden did not follow the plan put in place by the Trump administration and that the entire situation was a "disgrace."

Trump's statement comes as Biden tried to deflect responsibility for his own actions by blaming Trump for the situation in a statement on Saturday. Experts quickly pushed back on Biden's attempts to deflect blame, calling it "pathetic" and saying that "he owns all of this."

In a statement, Trump said:
"Joe Biden gets it wrong every time on foreign policy, and many other issues. Everyone knew he couldn't handle the pressure. Even Obama's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said as much. He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him — a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America. The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground.

"After I took out ISIS, I established a credible deterrent. That deterrent is now gone. The Taliban no longer has fear or respect for America, or America's power. What a disgrace it will be when the Taliban raises their flag over America's Embassy in Kabul. This is complete failure through weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence."
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Briefcase

Federal judge orders Biden administration to revive 'Remain in Mexico' Policy

Carmine Sabia
Conservative Brief
Sat, 14 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
TrumpBidenHands
© New York Times/CNP/Polaris/Newscom/KJN
Former US President Donald Trump • President Joe Biden
A federal judge has ruled that the Biden administration must resume the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy that was ended this year.

The Department of Homeland Security "failed to consider several critical factors" before it got rid of the policy, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Donald Trump, said on Friday, Bloomberg reported.

It's another setback for President Joe Biden following a January ruling by a different judge in Texas that temporarily blocked the new administration's plan to pause deportations of undocumented immigrants for 100 days.

Friday's decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri, which claimed the suspension of the program was worsening conditions at the border and allowing criminals to slip into the country.

Biden suspended the so-called Remain in Mexico program the day after he office on Jan. 20., on the grounds that it pushed migrants into squalid and dangerous housing south of the border.

Comment: On the surface this turn of events sounds like a ding for Biden's knee-jerk presidency and a win for Trump policies. In all likelihood the ongoing border disaster will similarly continue and the case against it diminish. Any reductions will remain in excess of Trump tallies.

Mayorkas admits to border agents 'we're going to lose' if this crisis persists:
In a leaked audio tape of a private meeting between Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol agents in Texas, the cabinet member can be heard saying that current conditions at the U.S. southern border are "unsustainable," and America is "going to lose."

Mayorkas was at the border on Thursday when he announced that agents had encountered more than 212,000 illegal migrants entering the country in July, a 13% increase from June. He publicly acknowledged that the ongoing crisis is "one of the toughest challenges we face."

Privately, but recorded on tape, he told agents:
"our people in the field can't continue, and our system isn't built for it. A couple of days ago I was down in Mexico, and I said look, you know, if, if our borders are the first line of defense, we're going to lose and this is unsustainable."
One agent in the meeting reportedly responded to Mayorkas by telling him that mitigating the current flood of illegal immigrant crossings is a matter of policy. "We know exactly how to shut it down," he said. "We need to make illegal entry illegal."

The Department of Homeland Security is advocating for an increased number of expulsion flights into the deep interior of Mexico, such that illegal migrants can't "turn around and give it another try," said Mayorkas, adding that 27% of those apprehended last month had tried at least one time in the last 12 months to enter the U.S.
See also:

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Arrow Up

DHS warns of heightened risk for attacks ahead of 9/11 anniversary

Rebecca Beitsch
The Hill
Fri, 13 Aug 2021 02:58 UTC
nineoneone duplicates
© unknown/KJN
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning of a heightened threat environment leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Friday bulletin from DHS said that while domestic extremism still poses a high threat in the U.S., the anniversary of the attacks could also serve as a motivator for foreign terror groups. The department wrote in the bulletin:
"The 20th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks as well [as] religious holidays we assess could serve as a catalyst for acts of targeted violence. Leading up to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula recently released its first English-language copy of Inspire magazine in over four years, which demonstrates that foreign terrorist organizations continue efforts to inspire U.S.-based individuals susceptible to violent extremist influences."
The bulletin noted several areas that could spur violence from domestic extremists, with racially motivated and anti-government extremists possibly spurred to action by the pandemic.
"These extremists may seek to exploit the emergence of COVID-19 variants by viewing the potential re-establishment of public health restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct attacks. The reopening of institutions, including schools, as well as several dates of religious significance over the next few months, could also provide increased targets of opportunity for violence though there are currently no credible or imminent threats identified to these locations."
The DHS warning also noted disinformation campaigns underway by several U.S. adversaries.
"Russian, Chinese and Iranian government-linked media outlets have repeatedly amplified conspiracy theories concerning the origins of COVID-19 and effectiveness of vaccines; in some cases, amplifying calls for violence targeting persons of Asian descent."

Comment: The annual homeland security jab: A 9/11 booster of appropriated fear and projected trepidation to remind how much we need to cower and depend on our defense systems to 'protect us' from our own terrorism spawn. If domestic extremism is such a big deal, there wouldn't be a welcome mat on the US southern border, nor would the US continue, ad nauseum, to piss off the rest of the world. Russia and China? Look there, not here.

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Target

Biden admin targets DeSantis' ban on mask mandates, offers cash to Florida school districts defying governor

Brie Stimson
Fox News
Sat, 14 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
DeSantis
© AP
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis • Surfside, Florida, August 10, 2021
DeSantis has said parents should decide whether their children wear masks in school and banned school mask mandates in an executive order.

The Biden administration this week offered federal financial support to Florida school districts defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on mask mandates as the coronavirus surges in the state, according to reports.

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote in a letter to DeSantis and state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Friday that defiant districts that lose state funding would have federal funds available to them, according to Politico.

Cardona wrote in the letter, adding he was "deeply concerned" by DeSantis' July 30 anti-mask mandate executive order:
"Florida's recent actions to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts students and staff at risk."

Comment: Supposed high numbers in Florida were in error. Three days' tally was counted as one day as DeSantis relates in the video.

See also:
White House fires back at Florida's GOP governor over handling of COVID surge

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Footprints

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin poised to resign on Monday, ending political crisis

Bhavan Jaipragas, Norman Goh
South China Morning Post
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 01:00 UTC
Yassin
© AP
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in parliament
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will resign on Monday and pave the way for the country's protracted political crisis to be resolved, a minister has said. Redzuan Yusof, a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, told the Malaysiakini news portal:
"We just finished the meeting. Tomorrow, there will be a special cabinet meeting. After that, he will head to Istana Negara [National Palace] to submit his resignation."
Muhyiddin, 74, announced the decision to lawmakers during a meeting in his Perikatan Nasional alliance's headquarters on Sunday, Redzuan said. The minister, a member of Muhyiddin's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, made similar comments to The Malaysian Insight. He did not immediately respond to This Week in Asia's queries. Other Muhyiddin allies who attended Sunday's meeting declined to confirm or deny Redzuan's comments when contacted.

The political stand-off came to a head on Friday when anti-Muhyiddin lawmakers rejected his last-ditch proposal for a raft of concessions and polls by July 2022 in exchange for support in a September 7 vote of no confidence.
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Eagle

'Manifestly not Saigon'? US helicopters evacuate Kabul embassy as Blinken defiantly rejects Vietnam pullout comparisons


RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 19:28 UTC
Globemaster
© Twitter
Stills taken from a video being shared online appears to show people being evacuated in a C-17 Globemaster III at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
American military helicopters have been filmed evacuating US embassy staff in Kabul, with multiple aircraft shuttling to and from the compound. The footage invoked striking similarities with the 1975 retreat from Vietnam's Saigon.

At least two CH-47 Chinook tandem rotor heavy transport helicopter has been spotted at the compound, making the footage seem eerily similar to that shot in South Vietnam in April 1975, amid the hasty evacuation of US diplomatic staff as the capital city of Saigon fell. Back then, helicopters of that type were landing on the embassy's roof to pick up diplomats as North Vietnamese troops were closing in onto the capital.


Both US President Joe Biden and now Antony Blinken have rejected any similarities between the hasty pullouts. On Sunday, Blinken was directly asked whether the Kabul withdrawal would become Biden's "Saigon moment." Speaking to ABC, he responded by saying it was "manifestly not Saigon."

Comment: The U.S. embassy has warned Americans to shelter in place rather than make their way to the Kabul airport, which was "taking fire."



In the UK, PM Johnson has assembled an emergency COBRA meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

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Bad Guys

Taliban take Kabul, Ghani flees country


RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 18:57 UTC
Taliban
© REUTERS/Stringer
Taliban fighters keep watch in Ghazni province, Afghanistan August 14, 2021.
Taliban commanders have apparently taken control of the presidential palace in Kabul shortly after President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan. The group says it expects a total handover of power.

Taliban militants entered the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, after a whirlwind advance that saw them take most of the country's provinces and cities - some without firing a shot - on the heels of the US military withdrawal. Amid negotiations to surrender, US-backed President Ashraf Ghani departed shortly afterwards, reportedly bound for Tajikistan.


By Sunday evening, Taliban commanders told Reuters they had entered Ghani's presidential palace and taken control of the building. Their claim has not been confirmed by Ghani's government.

Comment: Ghani says he resigned in order to prevent a Taliban slaughter in Kabul, where multiple explosions were reported today at key locations, including the presidential palace and US embassy.


Before Ghani fled, Taliban representatives had reportedly headed to the palace to negotiate a peaceful surrender. The Ghani government had hoped for a "transitional administration," and the Taliban had expected a "peaceful transfer of power" over the next few days. Events seem to have intervened. Fighters, who had the city encircled, were instructed to refrain from violence and allow safe passage for those leaving the city. Only sporadic gunshots have been reported from the capital. Before taking Kabul, Jalalabad surrendered.


In Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan province, Taliban fighters showed off the ostentatious palace of US ally and warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum:



A Taliban spokesman promises that Afghan women will not be deprived of work or education, provided they remain veiled in public. Watch out, Taliban, Nancy Pelosi is watching:



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Bad Guys

I recently worked in Kabul and weep for all my Afghan friends: We're abandoning them to their deaths. Here's why our mission failed

Kevin Hurley
RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 15:32 UTC
car bomb kabul afghanistan
© REUTERS/Stringer
A member of Afghan security forces looks at a damaged car at the site of yesterday's night-time car bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan August 4, 2021.
Afghanistan's falling apart again and the Taliban's on the brink of victory, as I predicted. So, why did the 20-year US-led occupation fail? Because it refused to tackle the rampant corruption that pervades all echelons of power.

Knowing that in less than three hours, you will be in Kabul, the most dangerous capital city in the world, makes boarding the pristine Emirates flight from Dubai a surreal experience. This spring I did just that, as I went to join the United Nations Development Programme mission in Afghanistan as its expert advisor on policing and security.

I knew what to expect. I'd spent a year there, before Covid broke out, as a senior adviser for policing, working directly with the Afghan government and senior NATO commanders. I even advised the US's four-star commanding general, the Afghan minister of the interior and the chief of police.

Comment: Déjà vu all over again: The Taliban tide rolls on ahead of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

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