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America's 'Islamic Republic' moment in Iraq? Protesters storm US embassy compound in Baghdad after US airstrikes against anti-ISIS forces


RT
Tue, 31 Dec 2019 11:37 UTC

Comment: It may not play out quite like the revolution in Iran in 1979, but the increasing turmoil in Iraq over the last year is headed for 'regime-change' not to Washington's liking...


baghdad embassy protests
© REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Hashd al-Shaabi (paramilitary forces) fighters set fire to the U.S. Embassy wall to condemn air strikes on their bases, in Baghdad, Iraq December 31, 2019.
Dozens of Iraqi protesters furious over airstrikes that targeted Hezbollah positions have forced their way into the US embassy compound in Baghdad. Tear gas and sounds of gunfire were reported at the scene.

The crowd was able to gain access to sections of the heavily-fortified Green Zone, smashing doors and security cameras on the wall surrounding the diplomatic building, according to the Associated Press. The agency said that there was a fire in one part of the compound, and that at least three US soldiers were spotted on the roof of the embassy.

Plumes of dark smoke could be seen rising from the compound, as protesters waved Hezbollah flags and chanted "Down, down USA!", "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."


Comment: The 'protesters' in military fatigues with guns are standing around watching the burning. It looks like Iraqi military and therefore the government is tacitly approving.

Officially, however, it is not. But what else can they do given that the country is held together by a coalition of militias, a swathe of which are Shia and thus natural allies of Iran, Hezbollah and the anti-ISIS government in Syria.

So when America blows up two dozen of their fighters taking on ISIS in the Syria border region, this is what results: the first real penetration of the Green Zone since 2003. The compound can resist mortars and car-bombs, but it withers under a wave of popular discontent.

How much did that facility cost US taxpayers again? Oh yeah, a billion to build, and another billion ANNUALLY to run... that's about $16 BILLION. Good job, Pompeo...

Now, will he be signalling his support for these protests in Iraq, as he did last month when he said "Lebanese and Iraqi protesters have the right to get rid of Iran's meddling"?

No chance!

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Attention

US companies are forcing workers to train their own foreign replacements

Stef W. Kight
Axios
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 07:16 UTC
briefcase
© Sarah Grillo/Axios
Opponents of job outsourcing are making a holiday-season appeal to President Trump: Stop U.S. companies from forcing American workers to train the very same cheaper foreign laborers who will soon replace them.

Why it matters: Trump promised voters he'd end abuses of worker visa programs and save U.S. jobs — but as he campaigns for re-election, advocates say he hasn't done enough.

Driving the news: AT&T is poised to send thousands into the new year hunting for new jobs after assigning them to train their own foreign replacements, according to conversations with current and former workers and documents obtained by Axios.
  • Many have worked for the company for over a decade. They aren't being offered severance or early retirement, and may not easily find a comparable job elsewhere with similar pay.
What they're saying: Sara Blackwell, a Florida-based lawyer who represents Americans displaced by workers on visas or overseas, told Axios: "American workers are tired of waiting for President Trump to do something on this issue."
  • "They've gone from great hope in President Trump's administration, to great discouragement."
  • She sent letters to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, as AT&T is headquartered in Dallas.
  • She also met this month to discuss the problem with White House officials.
  • The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

'Go back to school kid': Netizens bash 'climate guru' Greta Thunberg over her take on #2019in5Words

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 08:40 UTC
Greta thunberg
© REUTERS / GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE
In September, teen climate activist Greta Thunberg availed herself of the opportunity to stare down global leaders at the UN Climate Summit, raging at them for inaction on the challenges of climate change, since then becoming the youngest person to be named Time magazine's person of the year, and doggedly pursuing her message on social media.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, known for her impassioned plea for action at the UN General Assembly Climate Action Summit in New York in September, has jumped on the bandwagon of the currently trending end of year hashtag on Twitter #2019in5words.

Summing up the year using only five words, Greta Thunberg tweeted one of her own quotes: "Our house is on fire".

Thunberg said these words at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January of this year when delivering her climate warning to a gathering of the world's most powerful leaders.

Comment: See also:

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Hammer

NY Times disdains wage raises for blue-collar Americans

Neil Munro
Breitbart
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 03:48 UTC
wage labor blue collar workers
Wages for Americans have jumped since ICE arrested almost 700 illegals at several labor-intensive chicken plants in Mississippi — yet the New York Times disdains the extra cash as "little."

On December 2018, The NYT reported the wage-gains since the August enforcement:
[Juan] Grant, only two years out of high school and still finding his way in the world. He said it felt good to be earning $11.23 an hour, even if the new job entailed cutting off necks and pulling out guts on a seemingly endless conveyor of carcasses. It was about $4 better, he said, than what he used to earn at a Madison County cookie factory.
...
... the opportunity to earn more than $11 an hour can still turn heads in this part of Mississippi. Mr. Grant was not the only person to jump at the chance the raids provided. Niah Hill, manager of the Sonic Drive-In in Morton, said 10 of her workers quit soon after the raid at Koch Foods. "When they heard about the raids they all went over there and got jobs right away," Ms. Hill said. Carhops at this Sonic make $4.25 an hour — three dollars less than the state's minimum wage — plus tips, she said.
But the NYT's reporter dismissed the economic gains for working-class Americans, with a quote from a press release issued by the University of Pennsylvania:

Comment:

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Pills

Pete Buttigieg says possession of all drugs should be decriminalized

Scott Shackford
Reason.com
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 01:25 UTC
Pete Buttigieg
© Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Pete Buttigieg
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Democratic presidential candidate, told a newspaper editorial board that he doesn't want to put people in jail for possessing or using drugs — not even meth, cocaine, and ecstasy.

Buttigieg's statements to the Des Moines Register's in a meeting right before Christmas is garnering him some new national attention for his blunt declaration that America should not imprison drug users.

His comments start at about 55:15 minutes into this hour-long interview below:

Comment: Scott Adams considers Buttigieg's position to be a tactical weakness for the Trump campaign, as it is antithetical to Trump's base of support:



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People

Protests over Citizenship Act: Indian PM launches outreach campaign, tweets Sadhguru video


India Today
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 01:48 UTC
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inviting the public to express support for the Citizenship Amendment Act with a new hashtag, as protests against the controversial law continue
Narendra Modi
© PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched an outreach campaign with the hashtag #IndiaSupportsCAA to gather support for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has sparked furious, sometimes deadly protests across India in recent weeks.

PM Modi's official website tweeted that the CAA "is about giving citizenship to persecuted refugees and not about taking anyone's citizenship away".

At around the same time, PM Modi tweeted a video featuring spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who he said had provided a "lucid explanation of aspects relating to CAA" and "calls out the misinformation by vested interest groups".

Comment:



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Mr. Potato

Good Riddance 2019, The Year of The Woke Police

Douglas Murray
Daily Mail
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 20:18 UTC
Demonstrators take part in 'Women Demand Bread & Roses' protest organised by Women's March in central London, January 19

Demonstrators take part in 'Women Demand Bread & Roses' protest organised by Women's March in central London, January 19
This was the year of 'woke'. Or at least the year that 'woke' made its biggest land grab. For anyone lucky enough not to have encountered the term, woke is essentially political correctness after a course of steroids. Its followers spend their lives punishing any wrong-think committed, which can include thinking something everyone thought until yesterday. And includes saying things that are true.

The main inspirations for the wokerati are anything to do with relations between the sexes, race, LGBT issues, and the last of these (Trans) in particular. In each case a legitimate rights debate is weaponised into a culture war.

This year started in the manner in which it meant to go on. In January, former policeman Harry Miller was contacted by Humberside Police after a member of the public reported him for allegedly 'transphobic' comments made on Twitter. His offence? The 53-year-old posted a limerick that questioned whether trans women are biological women. The police recorded it as a 'hate incident'.
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Wedding Rings

Cultural rot: Daily Telegraph wants men to give their wives a "cheat pass"

Serban V.C. Enache
The Duran
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 18:01 UTC
cheating tweet
It's not enough that for almost 100 years, Christmas has been hijacked by mindless, materialistic consumerism, now the cultural degeneracy must be pushed further. It was done in a satanically clever manner, replacing the birth of Jesus Christ with a fat, old guy in a red suit that brings presents - this new character being a caricature of Saint Nicholas, especially cooked up to replace both the Saint in question and [the New Testament] God.

This year, the Daily Telegraph, a so-called respectable, intelligent, conservative, UK publication, called on husbands to give their wives a pass for Christmas and allow them to cheat on them. The publication made the same call back in 2018 in an article titled: Why men should give their wives a cheat pass this Christmas and was ridiculed on social media. In essence, the Daily Telegraph ran a huge advertisement for a book whose author supports 'women sexual liberation' [from their husbands], claiming that societal decline is proof of the book's thesis.

'Martin, whose 2015 book Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir became a New York Times bestseller, is not alone in her espousal of such ideas. This year has seen, if not an explosion, then at least a creeping insinuation into our culture of the idea that monogamy might not be the only approach to long-term relationships... Meanwhile we've had an MP, Labour's Jess Phillips, recommending that schoolgirls should be taught about orgasms.'

Comment: See also: Feminist hysteria: The Telegraph publishes article urging men to give their wives permission for infidelity this Christmas

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Attention

London club-goers panic as knife-wielding man prowls the streets

Chiara Fiorillo
The Mirror
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 17:52 UTC
knife crime
© London Crime LDN & U.K Crime/Twitter
The knifeman tried attacking another male prone on the floor.
Clubbers on a night out were herded into a strip club when a man with a huge knife tried to stab another male in the street.

Terrifying footage shows a fight breaking out in Shoreditch, East London.

As people shout and run along Hackney Road, a man holding a giant blade approaches another male on the floor and tries attacking him.

A woman can be heard screaming "No, no, no, please" as the attacker slashes at the man prone on the floor near Browns lap dancing club.

A man who appears to be a bouncer repeatedly shouts for the victim to get inside as he tries to protect people from the knifeman.

Three people were arrested in connection with the incident, according to the Met Police.

Comment: Video of the incident:



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Pistol

Berlin: Suspect firing blanks triggers Checkpoint Charlie


The Local
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 17:45 UTC
german police
© DPA
A special task force at the location on Monday afternoon.
A major police operation at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin on Monday was triggered by shots fired from a blank gun, police reported.

There was no robbery, which witnesses had initially reported, according to a police spokesperson.

The suspect linked to the shooting was in the Starbucks a few meters away from the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing, according to the police. However, the suspect had not threatened anyone, reported police.

Whether the shots were fired in the Starbucks or on the street in front of it was still unclear. Witnesses had alerted the police around 1:20 pm. The police cordoned off the area. A special police task force (SEK) approached and searched a house nearby.
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