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Bullseye

Nord Stream 2 pipeline a political defeat for US, but a victory for Russia, Germany and, in the long run, possibly Ukraine

Tarik Cyril Amar
RT
Sat, 11 Sep 2021 11:33 UTC
Fortuna crew
© Sputnik
Workers celebrate as they prepare to lay the final section of Nord Stream 2, in Germany. The Fortuna crew welded the final part, number 200,858, on Friday.
Nord Stream 2 has gone from pipe dream to pipeline. Despite controversy and opposition, the 1,224 kilometer, $11-billion underwater gas link has been completed, doubling Russia's gas export capacity through the Baltic Sea.

Now, the team behind the construction, having welded the final segment into place, say gas could start flowing as early as October. While some German regulatory decisions are still pending, there are no clear signs Nord Stream 2 can be blocked at this point. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday:
"We expect that millions of European consumers in the near future will be able to receive Russian gas along the shortest, most economical and environmentally friendly route. It's time to stop creating obstacles to this important project."
In the future, the new pipeline is supposed to carry up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, the equivalent of the needs of about 26 million households, according to its developers.

Comment: Gift horses don't often open their mouths. When one does...just accept!

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Briefcase

Justice Department sues Texas over 'unconstitutional' abortion law

Harper Neidig
The Hill
Thu, 09 Sep 2021 03:07 UTC
Garland
© Washington Post/Getty Images
US Attorney General Merrick Garland
The Justice Department is suing Texas over the state's new controversial restrictions on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday.

Garland said the law is plainly improper both for its onerous restrictions on abortion access and for the provisions allowing state residents to sue anyone who aids or carries out restricted abortions. Garland, at a press conference, said:
"The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent. This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear. If it prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas by other states and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents. nor need one think long or hard to realize the damage that would be done to our society if states were allowed to implement laws that empower any private individual to infringe on another's constitutionally protected rights in this way."
The move comes a week after the Supreme Court refused to block the state law, which would effectively ban most abortions, in a 5-4 ruling over the objections of the court's liberal wing and the Chief Justice John Roberts. The law went into effect on Sept. 1.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday afternoon in federal district court in Texas.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

Leaked emails show State Department refused to greenlight Afghan evacuation planes even with American citizens onboard

Elizabeth Elkind and Jimmy Mccloskey
The Daily Mail
Tue, 07 Sep 2021 18:50 UTC
grounded planes kabul afghan evacuation
© Maxar Tech
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows satellite imagery of the Mazar-i-Sharif and grounded planes at the airport in northern Afghanistan on September 3
The State Department refused to green light a number of privately chartered flights out of Afghanistan that could have evacuated US citizens and Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, leaked emails reportedly show.

Military lawyer and retired Marine Eric Montalvo shared the communications with Fox after he organized some of the flights and now claims the federal government thwarted his rescue effort.

The leaked emails show State officials refusing to allow Montalvo's privately paid for flights to use US property either inside the country or at one of its many overseas bases, after the Biden administration pledged to do whatever it can to rescue all Americans and as many Afghan allies as possible.
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Eye 1

NYT throws Biden under bus, exposes US drone strike as war crime - family murdered, not ISIS

Matthieu Aikins, Christoph Koettl, Evan Hill and Eric Schmitt
New York Times
Fri, 10 Sep 2021 18:27 UTC
kabul drone
© Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Relatives and neighbors survey the damage to vehicles in the courtyard of the home of Mr. Ahmadi.
It was the last known missile fired by the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan, and the military called it a "righteous strike" — a drone attack after hours of surveillance on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought contained an ISIS bomb and posed an imminent threat to troops at Kabul's airport.

But a New York Times investigation of video evidence, along with interviews with more than a dozen of the driver's co-workers and family members in Kabul, raises doubts about the U.S. version of events, including whether explosives were present in the vehicle, whether the driver had a connection to ISIS, and whether there was a second explosion after the missile struck the car.


Comment: In other words, every major facet of the story told by the U.S. military.


Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car's driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car.

Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.

While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.


Comment: A fittingly psychopathic end to a pointless, evil war. No one will be held accountable.

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Burka

No, the Afghan fighters are not going to build an 'inclusive regime'

Vladimir Danilov
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 11 Sep 2021 18:07 UTC
afghan fighters

Taliban fighters sit in a pickup truck at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.
Twenty years after American troops ousted the Taliban (a movement banned in the Russian Federation) from power in Afghanistan, militants of this group announced the formation of an interim government. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid stressed that the government he announced has a temporary status, de facto, with all acting cabinet members. Other appointments are expected to be announced at a later date.

Contrary to experts' expectations and pressure from both opposition forces and the international community, the old guard of Taliban fighters won vital positions in the country's new leadership. Other political forces, including secular authorities, militias and women, are not represented. By doing so, the Taliban have already violated their earlier agreements with the Americans to establish a coalition government, based on which the US, in fact, withdrew from Afghanistan.
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Heart - Black

Prince Andrew finally served court papers in sex-assault lawsuit after attempts to avoid them

Lee Brown and Rebecca Rosenberg
New York Post
Fri, 10 Sep 2021 17:47 UTC
prince andrew ghislaine maxwell virgina robert giuffre
© BACKGRID
Virginia Roberts Giuffre has sued Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew has finally been served court papers over his sex accuser's lawsuit — after his police guards and security were initially ordered not to accept them, according to court papers filed Friday.

Cesar Sepulveda filed an affidavit in the Manhattan federal lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre confirming that he had served the papers to Andrew at his Royal Lodge home at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 27.

He detailed how he had been repeatedly rebuffed in previous attempts to hand over the documents in which Queen Elizabeth II's 61-year-old son is accused of first-degree rape tied to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's sex ring.

Sepulveda said the day before the papers were successfully served, he had been told to wait at Andrew's main gates, where police officers — including Andrew's head of security — repeatedly claimed they could not reach anyone inside.

Comment: Has the long arm of the law snagged Andrew at last? Or has a decision been made to hang him out to dry?

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Attention

"Not now, not ever": RNC to sue Biden over vaccine mandate as GOP governors go ballistic


Zerohedge
Fri, 10 Sep 2021 05:45 UTC
don't vaccinate me
© Mother Jones, Getty
Republicans clapped back over the Biden administration's unprecedented 'jab or your job' Executive Order for federal workers and contractors, and a 'jab or test' mandate for corporations with over 100 employees. 600,000 postal workers are oddly exempt.

The sweeping new vaccine requirements, which completely ignore tens of millions in America who have recovered from Covid-19 and have natural immunity, will affect as many as 100 million Americans.

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Magnify

That was the point: Ex-Mossad chief recounts how & why 9/11 changed West's security policy, pushing it closer to Israel

Elizabeth Blade
Sputnik
Sat, 11 Sep 2021 11:43 UTC
twin towers
© REUTERS / RAY STUBBLEBINE
Shortly after the assaults, the delegations of many Western countries visited Israel to learn how it secures its airport. They also wanted to find out how to classify people and how to spot those who could potentially present a danger to society.

Danny Yatom, the former head of Israel's spy agency, the Mossad, remembers well that tragic Tuesday, 11 September 2001, when two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. A third plane hit a part of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defence.

The last one -- with which the al-Qaeda terrorists planned to hit the White House -- fell in an open field following a clash between the passengers of the aircraft and the extremists. At that time, Yatom had already left the Mossad but he was still an important figure within Israel's security apparatus and someone who had been linked to key players of Israeli politics.
"I remember I was sitting in my office. When I saw one airplane colliding into the World Trade Center, I immediately said that that was not an accident. It was a terror attack. Initially, some people were doubtful. When the second plane hit the building, everyone realised that I was right."
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Light Sabers

EU implicitly threatens Hungary and Poland to change rule of law if they want recovery money payout


RT
Sat, 11 Sep 2021 12:01 UTC
eu flag
© REUTERS/Yves Herman
(FILE PHOTO)
The European Commission has called on Hungary and Poland to do more to address the EU's concerns about their maintenance of the rule of law if they want their pandemic recovery money.

On Friday, European Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said the EC was still withholding funding from Visegrad partners Hungary and Poland because the two nations were yet to address the EU's recommendations concerning the rule of law.

Speaking in the Slovenian town of Brdo, following a meeting of eurozone finance ministers, Gentiloni told a news conference that while some progress had been made, it wasn't enough. "I hope that we can be able to make progress in near future, but we are not yet there," he noted.

Comment: Poland and Hungary have butted heads with the EU on numerous issues, from Russian vaccines, Russian gas, to the dispute over mass migration, and the laws banning LGBT propaganda aimed at children, and, whilst they do have some bargaining power, in the end, the EU behemoth won't relent until it has near total control; and we can see just how the EU seeks to exert its pressure:

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Arrow Up

Denmark to end lockdown & Covid 'digital pass', no longer considers Covid-19 "a socially critical disease"

Jan M Olsen
Independent.ie
Fri, 10 Sep 2021 10:47 UTC
Roskilde
© Claus Bech/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File
The return to normality has been gradual, but now digital proof of having been vaccinated is no longer required when entering night clubs. People sit outside a restaurant for outdoor service in Roskilde Denmark
After 548 days with restrictions to limit the spread of Covid-19, Denmark's high vaccination rate has enabled the Scandinavian country to lift all domestic restrictions.

The return to normality has been gradual, but now the digital pass — a proof of having been vaccinated — is no longer required when entering night clubs, making it the last virus safeguard to fall.


Comment: Meanwhile, over in the UK, they're just about to start enforcing Covid IDs for nightclubs, despite similarly high rates of uptake following an equally coercive and scandal-ridden roll out: Scotland to launch vaccine passports on 1 October for large events, stated goal is to 'encourage' young people to be injected


More than 80% of people above the age of 12 have had two vaccinations.

Comment: Lest we forget that, back in November of 2020, Denmark was one of the first countries to threaten mandatory and even forced injection, and it only backed down following nationwide protests. Prior to that, on the unfounded notion that mink could spread coronavirus, it illegally slaughtered millions of them, destroying a national industry and creating a serious biohazard in the regions where they were dumped. It also rejected mask mandates based on its own studies that showed that they were ineffective, only later to enforce them, and then scrap them again. It's government also railroaded its health authority into condoning lockdowns, eventually downgrading it from a regulatory to an advisory role, in order to remove any further influence it may have on policy.

Taken together, whilst it appears to be a positive development that they're dropping the lockdown restrictions, and it's shows that no science is driving the continuation of the lockdowns elsewhere, there's no guarantee that the nefarious forces pushing this agenda won't snap their fingers and have Denmark slap its people back into lockdown: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Pandemic is Over! (If You Want it)



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