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Wine n Glass

Corking the bottle: Trump threatens to tariff French wine


RT
Tue, 11 Jun 2019 14:34 UTC
French wine
© Reuters/Charles Platiau
US President Donald Trump has once again accused France of creating trade barriers to US wine exports. He promised that he would work to open the European market to 'great' American wine.

"France charges us a lot for the wine. And yet we charge them very little for French wine," Trump told CNBC during an interview. He said that California winemakers have complained to him about the EU tariffs.

"So the wineries come to me and say 'Sir, we're paying a lot of money to put our product into France, and you're letting' - meaning, this country is allowing - 'these French wines, which are great wines, but we have great wines too - allowing it to come in for nothing. It's not fair,'" said Trump.

He continued: "And you know what? It's not fair. We'll do something about it."
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Jet4

Pentagon: Turkish pilots grounded from F-35 training in retaliation for Ankara's refusal to ditch S-400


RT
Mon, 10 Jun 2019 08:38 UTC
Arizona-56th Fighter Wing
© Facebook / Luke AFB
Arizona-56th Fighter Wing
Turkish pilots have been banned from training on F-35s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, the Pentagon confirmed, as Washington steps up pressure on Ankara to force it out of S-400 air defense deal with Russia.

"The department is aware that the Turkish pilots ... are not flying," Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, told Reuters. "Without a change in Turkish policy, we will continue to work closely with our Turkish ally on winding down their participation in the F-35 program."

Four Turkish pilots and 47 personnel were undergoing training at the facility in Arizona, where they were instructed by the US Air Force on how to maintain the fifth-generation jets - four of which have already been ceremonially transferred to Turkey, without leaving the US soil though. Turkey planned to deploy the first batch of fighters by November, alongside the Russian S-400 air defense systems that are due for delivery in summer.

While Ankara argues it has a sovereign right to diversify its defense suppliers, Washington demands full obedience and insists that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should only purchase NATO-approved weapons systems.

Comment: See also:
Still whining: US to stop training Turkish F-35 pilots, gives deadline to cancel S-400 deal

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Light Saber

BIG: Nearly 1,700 child predators behind bars in massive operation by Trump's DOJ


Big League Politics
Tue, 11 Jun 2019 23:42 UTC
trump william barr
© Reuters / Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr
Attorney General Barr's leadership appears to be crippling those who exploit children.

Today the Department of Justice announced that nearly 1,700 child predators were arrested in the two month duration of operation "Broken Heart", resulting in 357 who were exploited being identified.

In total, the Internet Crimes Against Children "investigated more than 18,500 complaints of technology-facilitated crimes targeting children" between April and May, resulting in the nearly 1,700 arrests.

In the agency's press release, Attorney General William Barr said that "The sexual abuse of children is repugnant, and it victimizes the most innocent and vulnerable of all," and went on to say that "Over the span of just two months, our ICAC task forces investigated more than 18,000 complaints of internet-related abuse and helped arrest 1,700 alleged abusers.

"We must bring the full force of the law against sexual predators, and with the help of our Internet Crimes Against Children program, we will." Barr added, "We are committed to bringing the defendants in these cases to justice and protecting every American child."
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Propaganda

In The Western Media Narrative, Terrorist-Run Prisons And Underground Bunkers Become "Hospitals"

Vanessa Beeley
MintPress News
Mon, 10 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
makeshift hospitals in Syria
© Vanessa Beeley
After liberation of East Aleppo from Nusra Front-led occupation, Russian medical teams established makeshift hospitals in Jibreen to treat civilians, the majority of whom had received no medical care during the five-year occupation.
In recently liberated Qalaat Al Madiq - 500 meters from As Suqaylabiyah, a predominantly Christian town near Syria's embattled Idlib province - the White Helmets, a controversial rescue group financed primarily by the U.K. Foreign Office, was found to have an established presence in a network of tunnels. The tunnels zigzagged under a former wheat factory that had since been converted into a headquarters of Nusra Front/HTS - Al Qaeda in Syria.


This has been a pattern repeated in many of the areas liberated from extremist groups in Syria: a White Helmets presence alongside the Nusra Front, or whichever extremist group happens to dominate specific districts of the occupied territories. Invariably, the majority of the White Helmet operatives departed upon the seemingly endless stream of green buses that carried the various cadres of armed groups from liberated regions of Syria into Idlib.
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Bullseye

Vatican office blasts gender theory, questions intentions of transgender people

Joshua J. McElwee
National Catholic Reporter
Mon, 10 Jun 2019 12:00 UTC
gender catholic
The Vatican office responsible for overseeing Catholic educational institutions around the world has blasted modern gender theory, claiming in a new document that it seeks to "annihilate the concept of 'nature.' "

In an instruction released June 10 as LGBT people globally are celebrating pride month, the Congregation for Catholic Education calls the idea of people's gender identities existing along a spectrum "nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants."

Labeling the biological differences between men and women "constitutive of human identity," the office also questions the intentions of those who identify as intersex and transgender.

Comment: As noted in How genetics is proving that race is not necessarily a social construct science is in accord with the position of the Catholic church:
For me, a natural response to the challenge is to learn from the example of the biological differences that exist between males and females. The differences between the sexes are far more profound than those that exist among human populations, reflecting more than 100 million years of evolution and adaptation. Males and females differ by huge tracts of genetic material - a Y chromosome that males have and that females don't, and a second X chromosome that females have and males don't.
And check out SOTT radio's:

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Bullseye

Journalists silent on Assange's plight are complicit in his torture and imprisonment

Danielle Ryan
RT
Mon, 10 Jun 2019 20:16 UTC
assange
© Getty Images / Dan Kitwood
When Julian Assange was dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and arrested by police doing the bidding of the US government, most Western journalists sneered, sniggered, and lined up to publicly wash their hands of him.

Op-eds and think pieces declaring that Assange was "not a journalist" came in thick and fast. Smug hacks belittled his appearance on Twitter. They eagerly shared salacious rumors about his personal habits. Many bought the line that it was his alleged "misbehavior" which prompted Quito to suddenly expel him after seven years - and they defended the Trump administration when it levelled a charge of conspiracy to hack a government computer, arguing that it really wasn't such a big deal. He wasn't in their club, so there was little need to defend him.

This nonchalant response to the arrest of perhaps the most consequential journalist and whistleblower of our time was exactly the one British and US authorities relied upon - and they were not disappointed. The indifference of the media on both sides of the Atlantic to Assange's plight was like a flashing green light for authorities to step things up, which of course they did, announcing 17 new charges in May.
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War Whore

Pompeo declares war (again). This time on Her Majesty's Opposition

George Galloway
RT
Tue, 11 Jun 2019 19:51 UTC
pompeo
© Reuters / Peter Nicholls
Foreign interference in other people's elections is rightly abhorred by all who care about national sovereignty and the principle of non-interference in other people's internal affairs.

More so surely when the country in question is not just your ally but, as expressed repeatedly by US President Donald Trump on his recent state visit to the UK, your closest ally with whom you are in a "special relationship."

Yet as the president plighted his troth before the Queen in Buckingham Palace last week his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was secretly pledging to US 'Jewish leaders' that he planned action to stop the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn PC MP ever coming to power. A blatant, brazen and wholly illegal intention to subvert British democracy. It doesn't get much bigger than that.

A recording emerged this week of an "off the record" briefing given to the Jewish leaders in New York.
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Arrow Up

Huawei looks to Russian technology to replace Google's Android, testing under way


RT
Tue, 11 Jun 2019 11:03 UTC
android
After Google cut Huawei off its Android operating system, the Chinese telecom giant is seeking alternatives to keep its smartphones working. A viable option has reportedly been found in Russia.

Last month, Google and a number of US tech companies were prohibited from dealing with China's telecommunication major Huawei and other Chinese corporations. The direct order by US President Donald Trump bans American firms from supplying Huawei with spare parts or technology solutions. The step was reportedly implemented amid high security concerns after Washington accused Chinese tech companies of spying on behalf of Beijing.

The Chinese corporation is negotiating a replacement for Android with the Aurora operating system, currently being developed by Moscow-based firm Russian Mobile Platform, Russian news outlet the Bell reports, citing an official familiar with the issue.

Comment: The US is losing more battles in the global trade war than it's winning: The unipolar moment is over

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Arrow Up

The unipolar moment is over

Pepe Escobar
Consortium News
Mon, 10 Jun 2019 12:00 UTC
1936 map of Eurasia
© Flickr/A 1936 map of Eurasia
The Russia-China strategic partnership, consolidated last week in Russia, has thrown U.S. elites into Supreme Paranoia mode, which is holding the whole world hostage.
Something extraordinary began with a short walk in St. Petersburg last Friday.

After a stroll, they took a boat on the Neva River, visited the legendary Aurora cruiser, and dropped in to examine the Renaissance masterpieces at the Hermitage. Cool, calm, collected, all the while it felt like they were mapping the ins and outs of a new, emerging, multipolar world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was the guest of honor of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was Xi's eighth trip to Russia since 2013, when he announced the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

First they met in Moscow, signing multiple deals. The most important is a bombshell: a commitment to develop bilateral trade and cross-border payments using the ruble and the yuan, bypassing the U.S. dollar.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Murdered half-brother of North Korean leader was CIA informant: Wall Street Journal

Victor Morton
The Washington Times
Tue, 11 Jun 2019 18:32 UTC
Kim Jong-nam
© Shin In-seop/JoongAng Ilbo via AP, File
In this June 4, 2010, file photo, Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, waves after his first-ever interview with South Korean media in Macau. The murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother
The murdered half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had been a CIA informant and was killed while on a trip to meet his contact person, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Kim Jong-nam had met on several occasions was CIA operatives and "almost certainly" was in contact with other nation's intelligence services, including China's, the Journal reported, citing "a person knowledgeable about the matter."

Kim Jong-nam was killed at a Malaysian airport in 2017 by two women who rubbed his face with a fatal nerve agent, and North Korea was widely blamed.

Comment: CIA informants have a common history of being 'mysteriously' killed. It's just a coincidence that such people are more useful to the CIA dead than alive.

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