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The global economy is sick and it has nothing to do with the trade war

Jeffrey Snider
RealClearMarkets
Fri, 20 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
Earth
© NASA
The World Trade Organization (WTO) reported that for the first time since 2009 global trade volumes have declined. During the third quarter of this year, the gross number of goods sent abroad from one country to another were fewer than the amount of those traded during the third quarter of last year. Though the negative was small, they always are to start with, it's never a good thing when fewer goods are moved around.

Despite worldwide population expansion and the presumed gain of wealthier economies due to a boom everyone had been talking about, the WTO says that trade volumes peaked during that last third quarter. According to the same data, total trade values, that is, the monetary value of goods being traded factoring prices and currency translation, peaked the quarter before.

You may remember the second quarter of 2018. Central bankers remained in their full glory talking about the resurrected global recovery which they would use to return their policies to or near normal. It was a good time to be one for the first time in a long time. They made full use of the trend - as a means to dismiss the more and more frequent warning signs.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Maccabee Task Force provided covert funding for 3,200 pro-Israel events on US campuses

Alison Weir
If Americans Knew Blog
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Maccabee
© Maccabee
David Brog announced that his organization secretly funded over 3,200 pro-Israel events on 112 campuses in 2019, and brought over 2,300 student leaders on "transformative trips to Israel." He writes: "You will never see our name on the events we sponsor..."

David Brog, executive director of the Maccabee Task Force, emailed supporters on December 26th: "In the spirit of Hanukkah, donate to help us create modern day Maccabees." (Maccabees are sometimes seen as violent extremists; see below).

The Maccabee Task Force funds free, propaganda trips for campus leaders to Israel, while obscuring its role and objective in the trips. In his email solicitation for donations, Brog acknowledged his organization's covert tactics:
"Many groups like to talk about what they're doing on campus. We rarely do. You will never see our name on the events we sponsor. You will never see our logo on the buses we send to Israel. But if we hope to continue to raise the funds we need to support these extensive efforts, then we do need to share 'what we're doing about it' on occasion.

"By the time this academic year is over, we will have funded over 3,200 pro-Israel events on 112 campuses across the country and around the world. And we will have brought over 2,300 leaders from these campuses on transformative trips to Israel.

"And these efforts are working! Last year, BDS passed on only one of the 80 campuses on which we were active. And we intentionally go to the campuses with the most active anti-Israel efforts.

"These efforts are extremely effective — and extremely expensive. If we're going to be able to keep growing at this pace, we need your help. Together, we can ensure that we bring more strategies and support to even more pro-Israel students next year."

Comment: Israel has instigated a war on perception through indoctrination and the repetition of controlled messages. It works if you are not informed of current and historical events, not familiar with the pathological markers of this mindset and can't see where Israel's plan is heading. Manipulation always leads us somewhere we don't want to be.

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Footprints

Palestinian Gaza border protests halted until March 2020


Sputnik
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 22:00 UTC
Palestinian w flag
© REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestinian organizers have announced that routine demonstrations will be scaled back in 2020 - signaling a potential easing of hostility between Israeli leadership and Hamas within the region.

After almost 20 months of weekly demonstrations, the High Commission for the March of Return and Breaking the Siege announced Thursday that protests will decrease in frequency in the new year.

According to the organization, beginning March 30, 2020, demonstrations will occur on "a monthly basis as well as whenever we need masses to gather and during prominent national occasions." The statement read, as reported by the Times of Israel:
"We, in the High Commission for the March of Return and Breaking the Siege, are making this decision and embodying national responsibility. Through this [decision], we are affirming the Commission's bold and responsible leadership role."
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TV

Canadian TV cuts Trump's cameo from 'Home Alone 2' - Twitter notices


RT
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 19:00 UTC
trump home alone
© 20th Century Fox / Fox News
Before he was US president, Donald Trump had a notable cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. You won't know that if you watch the Christmas movie in Canada, as the CBC removed it - to make time for commercials, they say.

The John Hughes comedy follows the misadventures of Kevin (Macauley Culkin) as he ends up in New York City while his family goes from Chicago to Florida. In one scene, Kevin is gawking at the glitzy Plaza Hotel and asks Trump for directions - which the real-estate mogul helpfully and politely provides.

Those who watch the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's TV cut of the 1992 classic, however, will never see the scene. Nor will those who rely on the BBC America version, apparently.


Many Trump supporters called foul on CBC, some going so far as to accuse the Canadian state broadcaster of suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and making the edit for political reasons.
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Brick Wall

Estonia says it 'won't yield to foreign pressure' after Russia calls for EU protection amid persecution of Sputnik news


RT
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 11:10 UTC
sputnik
© Nina Zotina / Sputnik
The Estonian foreign minister said his country will not "yield to foreign pressure" after Russia turned to European authorities with a call to protect the Estonian branch of the Russian network Sputnik from Tallinn's harassment.

The Estonian government has demanded that all Estonian employees of Sputnik resign, saying otherwise they may be prosecuted for violating EU sanctions against Russia. Tallinn claims that individual sanctions against the head of Sputnik's parent organization make any financial ties to the network illegal.

Moscow sees the demand as an obvious attempt to silence Sputnik and a blatant attack on media freedom. Concerns about the situation have been voiced by some European officials, including OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir, who said he asked Tallinn "to refrain from unnecessary limitations on the work of foreign media:

Comment: There is a history of ill will between Estonia and Russia, this latest spat is a continuation.

Harassment of Sputnik reporters by police in Estonia 'beyond all existing norms': Journalist groups call to protect colleagues

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Star of David

Bitter spat between Palestinian Authority and Hamas deprives Gazans of passports—and the opportunity to travel

Khuloud Rabah Sulaiman
Mondoweiss
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
This report is by a writer from WeAreNotNumbers.org in Gaza.
Palestinians Egyptian border crossing
© Ashraf Amra/APA Image
Palestinians hold their passports as they wait for travel permits to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing after it was opened by Egyptian authorities for humanitarian cases, in the southern Gaza Strip December 17, 2017.
For over a decade Israel and Egypt prevented Palestinians from exiting Gaza by tightly controlling crossings that lead outside of the besieged strip. Palestinians now say that another block they face in traveling abroad is from the Palestinian Authority who have used a quiet policy to deny travel documents over the last decade.

In the past, Hamas's ministry of interior had oversight on passport requests and used that authority to purge passport requests from political opponents. Presently the Palestinian Authority, or PA, is the only authority that can issue this vital document for Palestinians-including those in Gaza.

According to human rights monitors and sources who spoke to Mondoweiss, when passport requests are denied, Palestinians are told it is for "security reasons." This block was traced back to interference by the Palestinian Intelligence Service in the West Bank.

Bakr al-Turkmani from the Gaza office of the International Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), a quasi-governmental human rights monitor, said his group has monitored passport denials since 2007.

Comment: As if the constant onslaught from Israel wasn't causing enough grief, Gazans also have to contend with the PA:

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Boat

Cargo vessel crashes into bollard on Istanbul's Bosphorus


Hurriyet Daily News
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 12:44 UTC
cargo instanbul crash
A cargo vessel crossing through the Bosphorus in Istanbul crashed into a bollard next to Aşiyan Cemetery on Dec. 27.

Songa Iridium, a Liberian-flagged cargo vessel departing from Odessa port of Ukraine, ran ashore at the Rumeli Hisarı 25 minutes after entering the Bosphorus Strait.

Rescue boats from the General Directorate of Coastal Safety were dispatched to the scene.

No loss of life due to the accident was reported.

The cargo vessel was 191-meters (626-feet) long and weighted over 23,500 gross ton.

Comment: Footage of the crash collated by RT and Sputnik:






See also:

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NPC

How do you know woke 'Star Wars' is a failure? When social justice warriors start blaming 'Russian bots'

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:23 UTC
Rise of Skywalker
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Partisan hacks in both media and entertainment have forced even the Force to become political. But after the new and woke 'Star Wars' films underperformed with American moviegoers, the activists blamed - who else - Russia!

The latest - and perhaps the last - installment in the saga, 'The Rise of Skywalker,' premiered the weekend before Christmas. While the box office receipts have reportedly been anemic, Rotten Tomatoes review averages show that the audience liked it as much as 2015's 'The Force Awakens.' By contrast, critics hated it - almost as much as moviegoers hated 2017's 'The Last Jedi,' which was beloved by critics and activists alike.

That clearly cannot stand, according to one Annalee Newitz, whose tirade about 'Star Wars' was published in the New York Times on Christmas eve. The best she can say about 'Skywalker' is that it's the Joe Biden of 'Star Wars' movies, managing to "deliver a few liberal-sounding messages," while the previous two movies were like Barack Obama, and "gave fans truly diverse casts and grappled in a relatively nuanced way with the class and race conflicts that have hovered at the margins of every 'Star Wars' story."
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Christmas Tree

Hiker killed by toppled giant redwood tree in Northern California's Muir Woods National Monument Park

Bill Hutchinson
ABC News
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 04:50 UTC
Muir Woods National Park
© Eric Risberg/AP, FILE
Visitors walk along a pathway near the entrance to the Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, Calif., March 25, 2008.Visitors walk along a pathway near the entrance to the Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, Calif., March 25, 2008.
A 28-year-old tourist from Minnesota was killed on Christmas Eve when a giant redwood tree toppled over on him while he was hiking in Northern California's Muir Woods National Monument Park, authorities said on Thursday.

Subhradeep Dutta of Edina, Minnesota, was hiking on the marked Hillside trail with other people when the 200-foot tall tree, measuring 4-foot in diameter, came crashing down, according to the Marin County Corner's Office.

The freak incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the national park about 16 miles north of San Francisco, the coroner's office said in a statement.

"Upon the arrival of first responders to the scene, a male subject was discovered unconscious and lifeless beneath a large redwood tree, which had unexpectedly fallen to the ground," the statement reads.
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Airplane

Another executive departs as Boeing tries to correct course


ABC News
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 08:28 UTC
Mike Luttig
A close adviser to Boeing's ousted CEO will also leave the company.

Mike Luttig was Boeing's general counsel from 2006 until this spring.

Shortly after the crash of a second Boeing 737 Max, the companies premiere aircraft, he was assigned to head the company's legal strategy and to advise the board.

Luttig, who will retire next week, is the latest executive to leave the beleaguered company. In addition to CEO Dennis Muilenburg who was pushed out this week, Kevin McAllister, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, was forced out in October. Anne Toulouse, senior vice president of communications, will leave at the end of the year.

Comment: See also:

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