- Ukraine Triggered After Leather-Clad Putin Attends Biker Rally In Crimea
People in Ukraine were massively offended after Vladimir Putin attended a biker rally in Crimea – with the Ukrainian foreign ministry saying Sunday’s visit was a “blatant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
The 66-year-old Russian President rode in to the annual rally of the Night Wolves bikers, snapping pictures with supporters and giving a speech, where he complimented the motorcycle group for setting a great example for the country’s youth.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a controversial and heavily criticized referendum by the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
As Euro news notes, Putin’s visit comes as “tens of thousands of people in Moscow and other cities protested against Putin’s government following local election violations. As many as 275 were arrested across the country, according to the arrest-monitoring group OVD-Info.”
- Germany Stalls And Europe Craters
Authored by Alastair Crooke via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
The influential economic commentator on Europe, Ambrose Pritchard Evans, writes:
“German industry is in the deepest slump since the global financial crisis, and threatens to push Europe’s powerhouse economy into full-blown recession. The darkening outlook is forcing the European Central Bank to contemplate ever more perilous measures.
“The influential Ifo Institute in Munich said its business climate indicator for manufacturing went into “free fall” in July, as the delayed damage from global trade conflict takes its toll and confidence wilts. It goes far beyond the woes of the car industry. More than 80pc of Germany’s factories are in outright contraction.”
Why? What is going on here? It seems that, though other European member-states used to be Germany’s largest market, Germany’s first and third largest export destinations are now the US and China, respectively. Together, they account for more than 15% of all outbound German trade activity. More than 18% of Germany’s export goods ended up somewhere in Asia. Therefore, Germany’s industrial struggles in 2019 point the finger in the direction of its external focus, which means the US, China, and Asia – i.e. its largest marginal trade partners. And the principal assailants in today’s trade and tech wars.
Clemens Fuest, the Ifo president, says: “All the problems are coming together: It’s China, it’s increasing protectionism across the board, it’s disruption to global supply chains”.
But if Germany’s manufacturing woes were not sufficient in and of themselves, then combined with the threat of trade war with Trump, the prospect indeed is bleak for Europe: And the likelihood is that any of that ECB stimulus – promised for this autumn, as Mario Draghi warns that the European picture is getting “worse and worse” – will be very likely to meet with an angry response from Trump – castigated as blatant currency manipulation by the EU and its ECB. EU Relations with Washington seem set to sour (in more ways than one).
But there is more: Speaking in the German parliament, Alice Weidel, the AfD leader, tore into Chancellor Merkel for her, and Brussel’s, botched handling of Brexit (for which “she, Merkel bears some responsibility”). Weidel pointed out that “the UK is the second biggest economy in Europe – as big as the 19 smallest EU members combined”. “From an economic perspective, the EU is shrinking from 27 member-states to 9. In the face of such an enormous event, the EU reaction verges on a pathological denial of reality … [they should recall] that German prosperity and jobs are at stake here. It is clearly in Germany’s interest that trade and investment continue unhindered. But, out of blind loyalty, you [Merkel], follow France, which wants to deny Britain access to the Single Market. Yes, you [Merkel] are considering not allowing Britain access to the European Economic Area, because France does not want it. [Sarcasm] that would be too much: Too much free trade; too much fresh air in the markets … France with its failed industrial policy serves as [the new] blueprint [for the EU]”. (See video here).
Weidel’s last point is key: She is implying that Macron is positioning himself to eclipse Merkel as the EU leader on the waning of the Chancellor’s influence and credibility. Macron intends to impose instead, the “failed” French industrial model, to Germany’s disadvantage, Weidel suggests.
She is not alone in this suspicion. Trump too, dislikes any prospective Macron take-over of the EU leadership that will (almost certainly) be more hostile to any trade agreement with the US (especially on agriculture), and which would open French industry to US competition. Hence Trump’s riposte (on French wine) in retaliation to France’s new taxes on US tech firms – contributing little, or nothing, to the French Treasury. Trump is enlisting too in the battle for the future shape of Europe. It is going to be a battle royal.
A major threat to the EU now emanates from the least anticipated direction – from the US. At no point did European leaders consider their project as a challenge to US power. Rather, they saw progress in their careers as contingent on receiving the US approval. Consequently, they deliberately chose not to found the Euro in anything other than within the dollar sphere. They never considered the possibility that the United States might change attitude. And now – suddenly – the EU finds itself exposed to all manner of sanctions through the Euro’s close vulnerability to dollar hegemony; from a possible trade and tech war between Europe’s two key trading partners; and even a falling-out as a result of a changing US defence calculus. Steering a course between the US and China will challenge deeply Europe’s imbedded cultural predisposition.
Weidel also warns the German Parliament that that the biggest consequence for Germany from Brexit is not just its exports, but rather, without the UK as a EU member, Germany will lose its ability to assemble a blocking majority (35%) in Council: And, absent this ability to block, Germany may not be able “to stop the crisis-ridden, Club-Med States and France, from reaching into community funds”.
This goes to the crux of the European crisis: an accord rooted in Germany’s traumatic experience of the inter-war hyper-inflation; in the Great Depression of the 30s; and to the social erosion to which it led. To exorcise these ghosts, Germany deliberately painted the EU into an automatic system of austerity ‘discipline’– enforced through a German surveilled, Central Bank (the ECB). The whole was ‘locked-fast’ in automaticity (i.e. in Europe’s ‘automatic stabilising mechanisms’). This was conceded by other European states (the core accord), since it seemed the only way (it was said), that Germany would agree to put its revered ‘Ark’ of the then stable Deutsche Mark, into the common ‘pot’ of the ECM system.
Professor Paul Krugman explains:
“How [then] did Europe manage to follow a common monetary policy … with an European Central Bank, explicitly … set up to give each country an equal voice, and yet satisfy the German demand for assured monetary rectitude? The answer was to put the new system on autopilot, pre-programming it to do what the Germans would have done if they were still in charge.
First, the new central bank – the ECB – would be made an autonomous institution, as free as possible from political influence. Second, it would be given a clear, very narrow mandate: price stability, period – no responsibility at all for squishy things like employment or growth. Third, the first head of the ECB, appointed for an eight-year term, would be someone guaranteed to be more German than the Germans: W. Duisenberg, who headed the Dutch central bank during a period when his job consisted almost entirely of shadowing whatever the Bundesbank did”.
Krugman is too polite to say it explicitly, but it never was a common policy. It was German control, hidden in stabilising mechanisms, designed by Frankfurt. The loss of this mechanism is what is frightening man of the German élite.
And Macron has just exploded that original Franco-German compact through putting a French woman (Lagarde) in charge of the ECB; a self-declared Federalist (“I want a United States of Europe”) as EU Commission President, and a Brexit hawk as President of the EU Council. Macron’s triumph over Merkel is intended to de-throne Germany. And a punishment Brexit – both to weaken Germany, and to sap Germany’s voting power at the Council – as well as the satisfaction of seeing a chastised Britain being chased from out of the EU.
So Macron is ushering in his notion of a closer centralised European governance – but who is to pay for it now? Without Germany’s former level of contributions and Britain’s input as a major contributor nation, the EU can neither reform itself (since many reforms would require Treaty re-writes), nor afford itself.
And wide political discontent to the Macron formula is already baked in for the future, as Frank Lee notes:
“Those Eastern European states which emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union had been led to believe that a bright new world of West European living standards, enhanced pay levels, high rates of social mobility and consumption were on offer.
Unfortunately, they were sold an illusion: the result of the transition so far seems to have been the creation of a low-wage hinterland, a border economy on the fringes of the highly developed European core; a Euro version of NAFTA and the maquiladora, i.e., low tech, low wage, low skills production units on the Mexican side of the US’s southern borders”.
And we are not talking ‘just Latvia’: For many in the East of Germany (the AfD’s electoral heartland), German unification in 1990 was not a merger of equals, but instead an “Anschluss” (annexation) with West Germany taking over East Germany. Reasons for East German disenchantment can be seen everywhere: The eastern population has shrunk by about 2 million, unemployment has soared, young people are moving away in droves, and what was one of the Eastern Bloc’s leading industrial nations is now largely devoid of industry.
And here lies the kernel of the crisis. There has been a call from all sides to try something different: such as relaxing the fiscal rules that are destroying public services; or, more daringly, to touch the ‘holy grail’: of reform of the financial and banking system.
But here is the rub: All such initiatives are prohibited in the locked-down treaty system. Everyone might think to revise those treaties. But that is not going to happen. The treaties are untouchable, precisely because Germany believes that to loosen its hold over the monetary system will be to open Pandora’s Box to the ghosts of inflation and social instability rising, to haunt us anew. Weidel was very clear on this danger.
The reality is that the European ‘lock-down’ derives from a system that has willfully removed power from parliaments and governments, and enshrined the automaticity of that system into treaties that can only be revised by extraordinary procedures. No one in Brussels sees any prospect of ‘that’ happening – hence the Brussels ‘record’ is stuck: repeating the mantra of ‘There Is No Alternative’ (TINA) to more, and closer, Euro-integration. And that is precisely what the European ‘sovereigntists’ are determined to oppose, by all means possible.
Only the onset of the coming recession in Europe and the associated sovereign debt crisis may prove sufficient to shake Brussels from its smug torpor, and to focus minds on how to manage the coming crisis. As Evans-Pritchard concludes, the ECB cannot save the eurozone another time. The baton passes to the politicians – if they are able?
Welcome to the new phase of Westphalian struggle: European ‘Empire’ – to be, or not to be.
- Project Fear Panic: Predicted Hard-Brexit Job Losses Across Europe
As a no-deal, hard Brexit becomes ever more likely, the fearmongering of the establishment has been turned up to ’11’ as it appears they have little to no control over the process – no matter what they think – now that Johnson (and his cabinet) are in charge.
And on the heels of a surprise contraction in GDP in The UK, Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes the latest projections for just how end of the world, a hard Brexit will be… A study by Leuven University in Belgium has predicted that 1.2 million jobs will be lost across Europe in the case of a hard-Brexit.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Unsurprisingly, the study finds that the United Kingdom is expected to be the country that will suffer the most with over 500,000 jobs set to be lost. Germany would also be significantly impacted with just under 292,000 redundancies while France and Italy would lose 141,320 and 139,140 jobs respectively.
- Paul Craig Roberts Slams Dems & Western Media: "It's Open Season On All White People"
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
Survival of The Fittest
CJ Hopkins doesn’t say it, but he shows that within all of the Western countries in which the white core populations are experiencing fierce attack from anti-white ideologues in the media and governments that rule them, there is unity of voice from the media that “Trump is a White Supremacist who inspires Terrorism.”
This unity of voice is suspicious as there are many different possible explanations of the El Paso shooting. The unity of voice is so uniform—in some cases identical phrasing—and so repetitive that it certainly looks like an orchestration against Trump and raises suspicions that the shooting itself was an orchestration.
The question naturally arises, to achieve such an uniformity of response from the Western world, who organized it? How was the explanation that blames Trump ready at hand all over the US, UK, Europe, Canada and Australia, the minute the shooting occurred? Does it remind you of the BCC announcing the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 a half hour before it occurred?
Anytime an explanation is ready at hand the minute an event occurs, the natural question is who had advance information? If there is advance information, where did it come from? Why did not authorities with their advanced information prevent the attack? Why after “Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,” “Iranian nukes,” “Russian invasions,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons,” etc., do media organizations continue to provide unexamined explanations? Why did the media suppress the shooter’s manifesto? Because it did not support the story line and attack on Trump?
As the presstitutes speak with one voice, little wonder that some of the few and diminishing number of Americans still capable of thought conclude that the El Paso shooting was an orchestrated event designed to discredit Trump and to abolish the 2nd Amendment. We have long known about CIA mind control programs. Many experts believe that Sirhan Sirhan, the alleged assassin of Robert Kennedy, was a product of the CIA’s mind control program.
As the US government has lied to us about so much for so long about so many big events, we have no alternative but to question everything. But the presstitutes never do. Russiagate was a politically motivated hoax, but the presstitutes had one voice proclaiming the truth of a hoax.The American people have been misled by the media and gone along with Washington’s destruction of entire countries, such as Iraq and Libya, with millions of people killed, maimed, widowed, orphaned, and displaced, based on Washington’s lies and fabricated “evidence.” If we cannot believe the reasons that the government takes us to war, how can we believe anything we hear from media and politicians?
The media and Democratic Party’s response to the El Paso tragedy make the facts irrelevant. The controlled explanation wraps people up in emotions over guns and Trump’s wall. The dead in El Paso are portrayed as Trump’s fault for being a White Supremacist and enforcing US law, which specifies border controls. Only White Supremacists kill people and build walls, unless they are Israelis, but we are not permitted to say anything about that.
By law the US has borders that the law demands be enforced. If immigrants can simply walk across the border, why can’t they fly into the country or come by ships? What is the point of passport control? Indeed, what’s the point of passports? The concept of citizenship simply disappears.
US borders have always been enforced. Badly no doubt, but enforced. Trump is simply trying to do a better job of enforcing the law than has been done in the past.
If the US would simply stop overthrowing reformist governments in Latin America, the resources of those countries would be taken out of foreign hands and be put to work for the local people, which is what Venezuela is doing much to the chagrin of American oil companies. The last time Honduras elected a reformer, America’s first black president—Obama—overthrew him. Brazil’s Workers Party was destroyed with the US-orchestrated imprisonment of its leader, Lula da Silva, and removal from office of his successor. In their place Washington has installed a corrupt agent of the Americans. Oppression is applied to the supporters among the people of reformist politicians to ensure that voting ceases to put reformers in power. As General Smedley Butler said, “I was the enforcer in Latin America for the New York Banks and the United Fruit Company.” Perhaps it is poetic justice that the peoples whose resources are carted off to America decide to go with the resources.
If the Democrats want open borders, why don’t they draft legislation and fight for its passage? Why blame Trump for enforcing the laws on the books?
The El Paso shooting has been turned not only into an attack on President Trump but also into an attack on white people. Suddenly the “Muslim terrorist threat” has disappeared. Its replacement is the domestic terrorist threat of “white supremacy.” The attack on whites is indiscriminate. The attack on Trump extends to all of the Americans who elected him—“Trump deplorables”—in Hillary’s words. All whites become “racists” and are covered in guilt.
The anti-white propaganda is effective. Actress Rosanna Arquette said that her white skin makes her ashamed. The success in teaching emotionally and mentally weak white people to feel guilt is to make it easier for those who wish to displace them to run over them. And most definitely, the core white populations of the Western world are being overrun.
As white populations have become too brainwashed and loaded with guilt to defend themselves, perhaps the Social Darwinists were correct after all. The fit survive, and white people are no longer among the fit.
CNN former host Reza Aslan, now a professor at the University of California, tweeted:
“The President is a white nationalist terror leader. His supporters—ALL OF THEM—are by definition white nationalist terror supporters. The MAGA hat is a KKK hood. And this evil, racist scourge must be eradicated from society.”
How can it be that Trump wanting to enforce US law inspires a person to shoot Hispanics, but Aslan’s call to eradicate all Trump supporters doesn’t inspire a person to attack Trump supporters? Why wasn’t Aslan disciplined by the University of California for his hate speech? Why wasn’t he blocked by Twitter?
How can NBC Universal’s film, “The Hunt,” produced by Jason Blum, a Jew, depict liberal elites hunting and killing “Trump deplorables” for sport and escape the charge of hate speech and encouraging deadly violence against half of the US population?
If wanting to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants encourages Americans to shoot Hispanics, how much violence is encouraged by a movie in which Trump supporters are hunted and shot? There is scant complaint about Israel’s wall that keeps Palestinians out of their own country. Try to imagine someone making a film about hunting Jews for sport and calling it a satire.
Clearly in the Western media and US Democratic Party it is open season on all white people. The most intense hatred is expressed against them—even calls for their extermination—and it doesn’t qualify as hate speech or encouraging violence.
The hatred and demonization of white people in America is no different from the propaganda against Jews in the Third Reich. Yet not a single member of the Democratic Party or American print, TV, and NPR radio protests.
That fact tells us all we need to know. If white people don’t get organized and defend themselves there is likely to be a white holocaust.
- Florida Homeowner's Glock Stolen During "Anonymous" Orgy
Everybody knows that when you’re having an orgy where everyone is wearing masks and using code names, to make sure to lock up your Glock. That was the difficult lesson that one Florida (of course) resident learned in late July when their handgun was stolen, according to the Daytona Beach News Journal.
The culprit was – wait for it – unable to be identified because they were wearing a mask and using a code name.
Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Smith said:
“We’re probably not going to solve this one. And DNA (identification) is not going to be an option.”
The 9mm Glock was holstered and sitting on top of a nightstand in the master bedroom when it was stolen during an orgy. The theft was helped along by the fact that the “theme” of the night was conveniently “anonymous sex”. Guests were reportedly invited to (no pun intended) come and go as they pleased throughout the course of the weekend, and even bring friends and acquaintances if they wanted to.
Guests were also encouraged to use fake names, or no names at all.
The orgy took place between July 19-21 and the gun was reported stolen days later. The homeowner was contacted by detectives on July 26 but was “apprehensive” about giving the details of the theft. The homeowner said there were about 20 people in his home over the course of those days, but that he only knew 5 or 6 of them.
- Complete List Of Clinton Associates Who Allegedly Died Mysteriously Or Committed Suicide Before Testimony
Authored by Jim Hoft via GatewayPundit.com,
On Saturday multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the highest profile prisoner in US custody, was found dead in his prison cell in Manhattan.
This occurred the day after two thousand previously sealed court documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein child sex abuse case were released to the public.
The documents described how Bill Clinton held a private party on Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile island.
Clinton made at least 27 times trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane. Most of those flights were with underage girls.
Despite a previous attempt on his life just three weeks ago the prison guards skipped the 30 minute required checks on Epstein’s cell last night.
Early yesterday morning they found him dead.
Jeffrey Epstein is the latest in a long list of Clinton family associates and acquaintances who died mysteriously or committed suicide before their public testimony.
In 2016 CBS Las Vegas posted a list of Bill and Hillary Clinton associates alleged to have died under mysterious circumstances.
Here is that list.
1- James McDougal – Clintons convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.
2 – Mary Mahoney – A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown .. The murder …happened just after she was to go public w:th her story of sexual harassment in the White House.
3 – Vince Foster – Former White House counselor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.
4 – Ron Brown – Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the Air Traffic controller commited suicide.
5 – C. Victor Raiser, II – Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.
6 – Paul Tulley – Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock , September 1992. Described by Clinton as a “dear friend and trusted advisor”.
7 – Ed Willey – Clinton fundraiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
8 – Jerry Parks – Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock .. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock Park’s son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.
9 – James Bunch – Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas
10 – James Wilson – Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater..
11 – Kathy Ferguson – Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
12 – Bill Shelton – Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.
13 – Gandy Baugh – Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.
14 – Florence Martin – Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal, Mena, Arkansas, airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.
15 – Suzanne Coleman – Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
16 – Paula Grober – Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.
17 – Danny Casolaro – Investigative reporter, investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.18 – Paul Wilcher – Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993, in his Washington DC apartment had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.
19 – Jon Parnell Walker – Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington ,Virginia apartment balcony August 15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.
20 – Barbara Wise – Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death: Unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, naked body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.
21 – Charles Meissner – Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
22 – Dr. Stanley Heard – Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton ‘s advisory council personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.
23 – Barry Seal – Drug running TWA pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident.
24 – Johnny Lawhorn, Jr. – Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
25 – Stanley Huggins – Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.
26 – Hershell Friday – Attorney and Clinton fundraiser died March 1, 1994, when his plane exploded.
27 – Kevin Ives & Don Henry – Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:
28 – Keith Coney – Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.
29 – Keith McMaskle – Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988
30 – Gregory Collins – Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.
31 – Jeff Rhodes – He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.
32 – James Milan – Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to natural causes”.
34 – Richard Winters – A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.
THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE ALSO DEAD
35 – Major William S. Barkley, Jr.
36 – Captain Scott J . Reynolds
37 – Sgt. Brian Hanley
38 – Sgt. Tim Sabel
39 – Major General William Robertson
40 – Col. William Densberger
41 – Col. Robert Kelly
42 – Spec. Gary Rhodes
43 – Steve Willis
44 – Robert Williams
45 – Conway LeBleu
46 – Todd McKeehan
And the most recent, Seth Rich, the DC staffer murdered and “robbed” (of nothing) on July 10. Wikileaks founder Assange claims he had info on the DNC email scandal.
Not Included in this list are the 4 heroes killed in Benghazi.
And now you can add multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein to the list…
- US Lobster Exports To China Plunge Amid Escalating Trade War
VOA News interviewed a business owner and a trade official in Maine following a massive drop in lobster exports due to President Trump’s escalating trade war. Their comments on the trade war are an eye-opener that contradicts the president’s claim that his trade duties on China won’t hurt American firms.
VOA spoke with Vice President of sales and marketing at Maine Coast, Sheila Adams, who said her company saw a 20% plunge in business activity in a matter of days last July after China retaliated against US tariffs on Chinese goods by raising duties on US food and agricultural exports, which included live lobsters.
“Essentially what’s happened is about 80% of our sales into mainland China have gone away,” she said.
“And that’s purely because our product is simply just too expensive compared to the Canadian because of the additional 25% tariff that was levied.”
The 25% tariff paid by Chinese consumers was enough of a price shock that sent most of Maine Coast’s Chinese clientele north into Canada for cheaper, un-tariffed lobster.
“The North American lobster is caught in US waters, but also in Canadian waters,” Adams said. “So when they make a buying decision between ‘Do I want to buy a lobster out of Canada or do I want to buy a lobster out of the United States?’ it becomes very difficult for them to make a decision to buy an American lobster because it’s so much more expensive.”
“The Chinese as a culture love live seafood in general, and have a particular passion for live lobster,” she explained.
“Obviously it’s a very large country, with a lot of people, so they consume — or have the ability to consume — a lot of lobster, which is important for us as a wholesaler volume business.”
Adams and her team had to quickly shift sales channels out of China to new markets across Asia. Her facility can process, package, and prepare fresh lobsters for 29 countries weekly, but with the Chinese market obsolete at the moment, business activity has slumped.
“It takes all of those other countries combined to equal one market in mainland China. So we had to put a tremendous amount of effort across many, many markets to try to recoup the lost business in China,” Adams said.
Wade Merritt, president of the Maine International Trade Center, and director of international trade for the state of Maine, told Voa that Maine Coast is a good example of how President Trump’s tariffs impacted the local economy and penalized small businesses.
“We were up about 170% from January to June of 2018 — that was prior to the tariffs,” Merritt said. “But by the end of the year, Maine’s exports of live lobster to China had actually declined by almost 7%. So we gave up a lot of ground in a very short amount of time in those six months.”
Merritt said overall exports of live lobster to China from Maine had crashed 82% between 2018 and 2019. “So it has had a significant impact on that industry.”
“Think about the corner store, or the gas station, or the schools, or the anything in any of these communities that is a major lobster fishing port,” Merritt said. “If they’re not fishing lobsters, then there is a real problem for those other businesses too. So there are definite ripple effects that cascade down through the economy.”
Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, an alliance of trade associations and agriculture commodity groups, said tariffs cost US firms $3.4 billion in June alone.
Trump has stated that he can get a better deal with China by waging a trade war against them as a negotiating tactic, but at this point, it has widely backfired. American businesses that are suffering from the trade war could be the next recessionary shock in 2020.
- Moscow Mitch, Secret Russian Subs… And Russophobia Derangement
Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
Arch Republican Senator Mitch McConnell is being taunted by major US media outlets and at political rallies as a “Russian asset”. Meanwhile, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports on “super-secret” Russian submarines which are “operating unseen” in British territorial waters.
The collapse in rational thinking among American and British political mainstream circles is highlighted by the rampant Russophobia.
Such thinking is delusional, paranoid and ultimately horrifying at a time of heightened international tensions between nuclear superpowers.
First, let’s deal with the farcical furore over Senator McConnell being labelled a Russian asset. The Senate majority leader has been dubbed by US news channel MSNBC and the Washington Post as “Moscow Mitch” and “doing Putin’s bidding”. The monikers followed McConnell’s blocking of legislation aimed at tightening security of electoral systems ostensibly to prevent “foreign meddling”.
It’s not clear why McConnell objected to the proposed legislation. It seems he doesn’t agree with extra federal controls over state-level electoral systems. Also, he claims that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent upgrading electoral systems, and therefore additional expenditure is not warranted. He is a fiscal hawk after all.
Nonetheless, it is a preposterous leave of senses when paranoid Russophobia in US politics and media are inferring that McConnell’s opposition to the proposed electoral legislation is “evidence” that he is a Russian agent, by allegedly enabling Russian hacking into US elections.
At a recent political event in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell was heckled and booed by Democrat supporters chanting “Moscow Mitch, Moscow Mitch!” The protesters were wearing T-shirts and brandishing placards with images of McConnell donning a Cossack hat with Soviet-era hammer and sickles.
Understandably, the 77-year-old senator has reacted with aghast over the political attacks. He called it “modern-day McCarthyism” harking back to the Cold War years of Red Baiting. He even said it was worse that the past McCarthyism. And he has a point there.
McConnell’s exasperation is borne out of the complete irrational vacuousness of the accusations. The six-time elected lawmaker is the longest-serving Republican senator. He is a grandee of the traditionally rightwing party, with an “impeccable” record of being hawkish towards Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
How anyone can construe that good ole boy McConnell is a Russian stooge is too absurd for words. What the accusations do betray is the total derangement and politically illiterate condition of mainstream American political and media culture.
As Princeton Professor Stephen Cohen remarked in a recent interview Russophobia and paranoia over alleged interference in US politics has become a permanent mindset among too many American politicians, pundits, military-intelligence agencies and Democrat supporters. Cohen rightly deplores how the whole baseless narrative of “Russia-gate” continues with a life of its own, having not been finally made redundant after the two-year Mueller probe spectacularly failed to provide any substantive details or evidence.
Still, however, former FBI chief Robert Mueller in recent hearings before Congress was permitted to reiterate hollow accusations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential elections and, he asserted, Moscow will do so again in the 2020 elections. This is simply doctrinal thinking which is, in turn, accepted as “fact” that Russia’s President Putin ordered an “interference campaign” to subvert American democracy. (Moscow has always vehemently rejected that.)
That’s why when someone as antipathetic towards Russia as Senate leader Mitch McConnell exercises relative sanity by rejecting the alleged need for more electoral security systems to “prevent foreign meddling” he is then assailed with hysterical accusations of being a “Russian asset”. The utter irrationality is self-reinforcing because of unhinged delusions about Russian malignancy. No evidence is required. It’s “true” because “we believe it is true”.
McConnell has hit back at his detractors by calling them “leftwing hacks” and “communists”. He made that conclusion by referring to the Democrats’ policy of seeking to expand free healthcare for American citizens. He proudly called himself the “Grim Reaper” who would protect America from a “socialist agenda”.
This inane back and forth demonstrates how dumbed down American political culture is. Increasingly bitter partisan accusations and slander are flying around based on no facts, no evidence, no reason, nor any intelligent understanding about policy, history or political philosophy.
But, lamentably, at bottom the crazed political discourse relies on an embedded Russophobia. Russia is viewed as evil and malicious, by both sides of the political coin. Rather than addressing inherent problems in American society, the discourse finds a common false explanation – blame it on Russia or association with presumed communism. The Cold War nihilism of American politics and propaganda has never stopped. It’s just become more delusional and divorced from any semblance of reality. In this context, the modern-day Russophobia is perhaps more dangerous because of its irrationality and evidence-free doctrinal thinking.
Which brings us to the “super-secret” Russian submarines that are stalking Britain, according to the Daily Telegraph. The so-called report (more accurately, psy-ops piece) is a must-read for exposing the delusional anti-Russia paranoia that the British political class have in common with the Americans.
“A new breed of super quiet Russian submarines are feared [sic] to be operating unseen [sic] in British territorial waters, according to military sources [sic],” the Telegraph claimed.
The sources were, as usual, anonymous, betraying that the Telegraph was being used, as it often is, as a conduit for British intelligence propaganda.
Not one scrap of evidence was presented to substantiate these “fears” of “unseen” Russian submarines. Supposedly, the “unseen” vessels are “proof” of how dastardly and stealthy those damn Russians are. The point of the article was to deliver a public message for more military spending on Britain’s Royal Navy.
What makes it possible for the Daily Telegraph to publish such bogeyman rubbish is because of the systematic inculcation of Russophobia among many, but not all, Britons.
As with its American counterpart, British political culture has become degenerate and depraved. It is the equivalent of medieval sorcery and “magical thinking”. Standards of proof, reason and due process have been abandoned. It’s like a regression to pre-Enlightenment times. The fact that the US and Britain possess nuclear arsenals aimed at Russia makes the deranged thinking of their political class a truly frightening prospect for the entire world.
- Epstein's Autopsy Results Delayed "Pending Further Information"
The much-anticipated results of the New York City medical examiner’s autopsy of Jeffrey Epstein have been released… kinda… saying its determination is “pending further information at this time.”
Statement from Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson:
Today, a medical examiner performed the autopsy of Jeffrey Epstein.
The ME’s determination is pending further information at this time.
At the request of those representing the decedent, and with the awareness of the federal prosecutor, I allowed a private pathologist (Dr. Michael Baden) to observe the autopsy examination.
This is routine practice.
My office defers to the involved law enforcement agencies regarding other investigations around this death.
Inquiries regarding the determination of the Chief Medical Examiner should be directed towards my office.
So, the autopsy is complete? What further information could the ME need? Instructions?
On a side note, the private pathologist, demanded by Epstein’s attorneys, Dr. Michael Baden, was the city’s chief medical examiner in the late 1970s and has been called as an expert witness in high-profile cases including by the defense at O.J. Simpson’s 1994 murder trial.
Of course, this unusual delay will merely spur further uncertainty and the all around ‘conspiracy theory’ feel to this whole debacle.
What are the odds that Epstein’s body gets misplaced? Or accidentally cremated?
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