Aug 08

Today’s News 8th August 2019

  • Ukraine's Zelensky Presses Putin For Peace Talks After Four Soldiers Killed

    Significant escalating clashes between pro-Kiev forces and Russian-backed separatists in the contested Donetsk region has resulted in the deaths of four Ukrainian soldiers, government officials said Wednesday. 

    Ukraine’s Defense Ministry issued a statement saying pro-Russia separatists opened fire at Ukrainian military positions on August 6, which killed the soldiers in a hail of mortars, machine guns, and assault rifle fire.

     “We say with sadness that, as a result of the enemy’s attacks today, according to the information in our possession, four of our heroes sustained injuries, to which they succumbed,” the statement said.

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday following the deadly incident, via UNIAN

    President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack as an attempt to “undermine” Ukraine’s push for a peaceful resolution, which has been a key and popular part of the newly elected “outsider” president’s platform, who had won an unexpected landslide victory last April after pledging to end the war in Donbass.

    Zelenskiy further called on EU countries as well as Russia to “meet as quickly as possible to resume negotiations.” Though since the conflict began in April 2014 there’s been an estimated over 13,000 people killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Tuesday’s flare up in intense fighting marked the highest daily casualty toll since a truce was declared three weeks ago. 

    Ukraine’s president spoke to President Putin by phone Wednesday, reportedly urging him to pressure Donbass fighters into holding firm to peace talks. 

    “I said that this doesn’t bring us closer to peace,” Zelenskiy described of the call.

    “I beg you to influence the other side so that they stop the killing of our people.”

    A July 22 ceasefire agreement inked in Minsk – agreed to by Ukrainian and Russian envoys – however, (like other short-lived ceasefires) witnessed both sides accuse the other of breaching the terms nearly from the start. 

  • How Brexit Is Leading A Resurgent Irish American Influence In US Politics

    Authored by Liam Kennedy via The Conservation,

    Observing the build up of Irish and Irish American energies in Washington DC in preparation for St Patrick’s Day in March, the Economist’s Lexington column marvelled that the Irish Taoiseach is the only world leader guaranteed an annual meeting with the US president. As Ed Luce wrote in the FT: “No one who sampled Washington’s manic schedule of St Patrick’s day events … could miss the formidable display of Ireland’s influence.”

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    And yet that influence has often been missed, or simply dismissed as “shamrock diplomacy”, particularly by British observers. It’s ironic, then, that this influence may play a significant part in the diplomatic shenanigans around Brexit, and in post-Brexit relations between Britain, Ireland and the US, after strong political groups in Congress warn they are ready to block any US-UK trade deal in the event of a threat to an open Irish border as the UK seeks to leave the EU.

    Ireland’s soft power in the US has long been hidden in plain sight, drawing on the appeal of an ethnic identity that around 35m Americans claimed in the last national census. It has close ties to the Irish American leadership at the heart of American politics and to the Irish American lobby in Washington. The power of this lobby, as with any ethnic lobby, is contingent on both US domestic affairs and international interests. Today, it is showing signs of flexing diplomatic muscles long thought dormant.

    Nationalism and independence

    The main issues that have historically concerned the Irish American lobby are support for Irish independence, the conflict in Northern Ireland, and increasing quotas for Irish immigrant entry to the US.

    These issues reflect the scale and nature of Irish emigration to, and patterns of settlement in, the US. Of the more than 6m people who journeyed from Ireland to the US between 1840 and 1900, most settled in northern and eastern urban centres. From immiserated and often traumatic beginnings in the US, the Irish aggregated power and identity in these urban centres over time, via the catholic church, machine politics and union leadership.

    Nationalism was a core feature of American life for many Irish emigrants and their offspring. From the Untied Irish Exiles in the early 1800s to Clan na Gael in the early 1900s, Irish American political culture maintained a strong investment in the imagined freedom of the old country. With reciprocal interest from organisations in Ireland, a transnational culture of political activism developed that eventually fed into the successful struggle for Ireland’s independence in the early 20th century.

    Much of this activism worked through civil society organisations. But in 1917, following President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of war against Germany and the need to defend the rights of small nations, several political resolutions pressed US support for Irish independence. These pressures to address “the Irish question” reached a head with a full floor discussion in Congress in March 1919, which passed a resolution calling on the US delegation at the Versailles peace conference in Paris to make Irish self-determination an urgent matter.

    The temperature of Irish nationalism in the US cooled in the later 1920s. Ireland still promoted itself in the US after this but its neutrality meant it had difficulties getting its voice heard. Successive US presidents and administrations deferred to British perspectives, most notably on Northern Ireland.

    The Troubles

    The eruption of violent conflict in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s fuelled a resurgence of ethnic consciousness in Irish America and politicised portions of it in favour of a militant nationalism. Through the 1970s, there was a small but significant swell in support for the claims and activities of the IRA.

    This militancy galvanised moderate Irish American political leaders to promote support for constitutional nationalism and to lobby in Washington for US intervention in Northern Ireland. The Four Horsemen – Senator Edward Kennedy, Speaker Tip O’Neill, Senator Daniel Moynihan and Governor Hugh Carey – had some success in pressing President Jimmy Carter to make a symbolic statement on Northern Ireland in 1977, which broke the silence of American administrations.

    In 1981, they helped form Friends of Ireland, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives, which played a significant role in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 and advanced the idea that a political solution was possible.

    Carter’s symbolic line would later be bulldozed by Bill Clinton as he led a major shift in US policy towards Northern Ireland as president. This shift was facilitated by a lobby group of influential Irish Americans, which pressed Clinton to intervene in Northern Ireland and contributed to back-channel diplomacy involving covert discussions with the IRA and efforts to connect Sinn Féin with US policy makers.

    There can be no doubt that the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 has the fingerprints of Irish America on it. It was a high-water mark for its Washington lobbyists. But for the next 20 years Northern Ireland would slip off the agenda and focus shifted principally to economic relations between Ireland and the US. After the passing of the Four Horsemen’s generation of leadership and the post-9/11 deterrence to new Irish emigrants, Irish America no longer functioned as a recognisable political block and had drifted from its once strong association with the Democratic Party.

    Brexit

    But Brexit and Donald Trump – in different but complexly related ways – have galvanised Irish America and re-energised Washington lobbying. On Brexit, there is now consistent messaging around the need to defend the Good Friday Agreement in relation to any trade deal between the UK and the US. Former members of Congress and US ambassadors to Ireland, and the leaders of major Irish American organisations now belong to the Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement, created in January 2019.

    There is powerful support from the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who took it directly to the UK and Irish governments when she said in April that if the Brexit deal undermined the Good Friday Accord there would be “no chance” of a trade agreement between the US and the UK.

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    Another powerful voice is Congressman Richard Neal, a long time spokesman for Irish interests, stretching back to his involvement in the Northern Irish peace process. His voice carries some authority in Washington as chair of the influential Ways and Means Committee in Congress, which will oversee any post-Brexit trade deal between the US and the UK.

    Competing interests

    Underlying this coordinated messaging is a complex of political drives and interests. While there can be no doubting Pelosi’s and Neal’s commitment to protecting the Good Friday Agreement, their forthright comments on the makings of a trade deal between the UK and the US are also a form of opposition to President Donald Trump.

    This opposition is about more than Brexit but neither is it simply domestic political partisanship. It also reflects a deeper ideological struggle over American identity and the US’s role in the world. Trump supports Brexit, viewing it as a weakening of the European Union’s regulatory power, aligning it with his worldview of “America First” in which all international relations are transactional. Pelosi and Neal view Brexit as a threat to the liberal internationalism that has guided US foreign policy since the end of World War II and now seems imperilled by Trump.

    In this regard, Ireland finds itself in the midst of a transatlantic struggle between advocates of nationalism and globalisation. With its government having pinned its colours to the forces of globalisation and the merits of continued EU membership it too has to politick carefully with its powerful neighbours as it designs its future post-Brexit.

  • China's H-6K Heavy Bomber Could Soon Air-Launch Hypersonic Missiles For Pre-Emptive Attacks 

    As an economic war deepens between China and the US, China Central Television (CCTV) said on Tuesday that the Xian H-6 heavy bomber could be armed with hypersonic missiles that can strike targets up to 1,864 miles away within minutes, reported Global Times.

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    Together with Chengdu J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighters, H-6Ks could deliver pre-emptive hypersonic missile attacks deep in enemy territory, military analysts said.

    “In a war, our main objective is to launch attacks on an enemy’s deep and vital positions, paralyzing their facilities. This is what we especially excel at,” said H-6K pilot Li Ping via a CCTV report.

    Wang Ya’nan, the chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told Global Times that H-6Ks aren’t stealth bombers and cannot penetrate heavily armed aerospace; it’s the plane’s ability to air-launch cruise missiles that allows it to strike high-value targets deep in enemy territory.

    “The H-6K can remain within a safe zone, launch its hypersonic missiles that can reach targets 2,000 kilometers [1,242 miles] away,” Ya’nan said, noting that these missiles are difficult to intercept due to their stealth capabilities.

    “With China developing hypersonic weapons [missiles that fly at least five times the speed of sound] in recent years, its attack range and speed could become even greater than a conventional cruise missile, potentially capable of taking out targets deep within hostile territories 3,000 kilometers [1,864] away within just a few minutes,” Ya’nan predicted.

    He said each H-6K could carry six hypersonic missiles, and with ten bombers, could attack 60 high-value targets at once.

    During an attack, J-20s will defend H-6Ks so that they can effectively launch superfast missiles that will hit targets within minutes.

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    Hypersonic missiles are already being tested by the People’s Liberation Army, can travel over Mach 5 and evade the world’s most advanced missile defense shields.

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    CCTV said H-6Ks are undergoing constant war training exercises with fifth-generation stealth fighters.

    The rapid advance of hypersonic technology in China has eroded America’s dominance over its rivals.

    A dangerous new global paradigm of power being shifted from West to East has started. In other words, China is attempting to become the world’s next superpower, threatening the US, the status quo power, could ultimately end up in a shooting war.

    The world is falling into Thucydides’s Trap: prepare for war.

  • Paul Craig Roberts Slams The FBI's "Open Invitation To Tyranny"

    Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

    The FBI has published a document that concludes that “conspiracy theories” can motivate believers to commit crimes.

    Considering the growing acceptance of pre-emptive arrest, that is, arresting someone before they can commit a crime that they are suspected of planning to commit, challenging official explanations, such as those offered for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King or the official explanation for 9/11, can now result in monitoring by authorities with a view to finding a reason for pre-emptive arrest.  Presidents George W. Bush and Obama created the police state precedents of suspension of habeas corpus and assassination of citizens on suspicion alone without due process.  If Americans can be preemptively detained indefinitely and preemptively assassinated,  Americans can expect to be preemptively imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit. 

    As Lawrence Stratton and I explained in our book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, the historic achievement of forging law into a shield of the people is being reversed in our time as law is being reforged into a weapon in the hands of the government. 

    The FBI document says that conspiracy theories “are usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”  Note the use of “official” and “prevailing.”  Official explanations are explanations provided by governments.  Prevailing explanations are the explanations that the media repeats.  Examples of official and prevailing explanations are: Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, Iranian nukes, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the official explanation by the US government for the destruction of Libya.  If a person doubts official explanations such as these, that person is a “conspiracy theorist.”  

    Official and prevailing explanations do not have to be consistent with facts.  It is enough that they are official and prevailing.  Whether or not they are true is irrelevant.  Therefore, a person who stands up for the truth can be labeled a conspiracy theorist, monitored, and perhaps pre-emptively arrested. 

    Consider 9/11.  No forensic investigation of 9/11 was ever officially conducted.  Instead the destruction of the buildings was blamed on Osama bin Laden, and scenarios and simulations were created to support the allegation, not to find the truth.  Architects, engineers, scientists, pilots, and first responders on site cannot reconcile the official prevailing explanation with the facts.  The scientific and testimonial evidence that they have produced is dismissed as “conspiracy theory.”  It is those experts who stand on the evidence who are defined as conspiracy theorists, not those who created the story of Osama bin Laden’s 9/11 conspiracy.

    Consider Russiagate.  Here we have an alleged conspiracy between Trump and Russia that was the official prevailing explanation.  Yet, to believe in the Russiagate conspiracy did not make one a conspiracy theorist as this conspiracy was the official prevailing explanation.  But to doubt the Russiagate conspiracy did make one a conspiracy theorist.

    What the FBI report does, intentionally or unintentionally, is to define a conspiracist as a person who doubts official explanations.  In other words, it is a way of preventing any accountability of government.  Whatever the government says, no matter how obvious a lie, will have to be accepted as fact or we will be put on a list to be monitored for preemptive arrest.

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    In effect, the FBI’s document reduces the First Amendment, that is, free speech, to the right to repeat official and prevailing explanations.  Any other speech is a conspiratorial belief that can lead to the commission of a crime.

    Every American should be greatly concerned that the government in Washington does not see this FBI document as an open invitation to tyranny, repudiate it, and demand its recall.

  • NASA Circling DC-8 Jet Around San Andreas Fault Sparks Conspiracy Theories

    NASA appears to have flown a Douglas DC-8 observation plane, packed with scientific equipment, over the San Andreas fault, a tectonic boundary that extends 745 miles through California.

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    The plane was spotted flying extremely low to the ground over Altadena and Southern California on July 22, several weeks after California’s Searles Valley was struck with a magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 within 24 hours around July 4/5.

    NASA spokeswoman, Kate Squires, told CBS Los Angeles (CBSLA) that the plane was conducting a mission to study the effects of fire smoke on air quality. However, conspiracy theory-websites don’t buy the government’s explanation of why the aircraft was zig-zagging over the faultline.

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    Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the plane, with call sign NASA817, took off from Palmdale Regional Airport, an airport in Palmdale, California, before flying 2,000 miles over Central California and Nevada and then landing at Boise Airport, Idaho.

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    The Metro reported Californians were startled by the plane because it was flying at such a low altitude.

    “It was scary, a little bit. You didn’t know if was going to land,” CBSLA reporter Jasmine Viel, who was commuting when the plane flew over her, said.

    “Everyone kind of stopped in their cars, looking up. It was big and loud.”

    Conspiracy websites point to the planes flight path, appears to have followed some parts of the San Andreas fault.

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    Secureteam10’s Tyler Glockner suggested in a video that the plane was monitoring seismic activity across the fault. Glockner said the government could be gearing up for the next big earthquake.

    “A registered NASA aircraft was noticed doing zig-zag flying patterns near and over the San Andreas fault line,” he said in the clip.

    “It’s almost as if it is scanning the ground as if to try and get more data about what is happening underneath. What is going on? Is something occurring? What do they know, are they gearing up for something? Do they know the Big One is coming?”

    Conspiracy site allnewspipeline.com said the plane’s activity suggests NASA and the US government are hiding something from the public.

    One Twitter user the plane is “possibly scanning for data and information about the new supervolcano that is slowly forming in Southern California.”

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    And possibly the US government is preparing for a nuclear disaster in Southern California because if the next big earthquake strikes, there are currently five nuclear reactors right along the fault.

    A Natural News investigation into the geolocation of nuclear power facilities in California reveals that five nuclear facilities were built in close proximity to the San Andreas fault line, with some constructed right in the middle of earthquake zones that have up to a 50% chance of a severe earthquake every 30 years.

    One nuclear power plant – the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant which produces 2,160 megawatts — was constructed on the coast, making it extremely vulnerable to the very same kind of ocean water surge that destroyed the Fukushima-Daiichi facility which suffered a 2011 meltdown in Japan.

    So what exactly is the US government preparing for in Southern California? Is it the next big earthquake that could spark a nuclear disaster?

  • CDC Shuts Down Military Lab Studying Ebola, Plague Amid Fears It's Getting Out Through Wastewater

    Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

    We may not have to wait for a traveler from the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit the United States for an Ebola outbreak. It just might be brought to us by our own military along with the plague and other horrifying germs.

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    The laboratory at Fort Detrick, the  U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, has been sent a cease-and-desist order by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention after a second inspection showed sloppy handling of deadly germs and viruses.

    The CDC inspected the military research institute in June and inspectors found several areas of concern in standard operating procedures, which are in place to protect workers in biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories, spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden confirmed in an email Friday.

    The CDC sent a cease and desist order in July.

    After USAMRIID received the order from the CDC, its registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees disease-causing material use and possession, was suspended. That suspension effectively halted all biological select agents and toxin research at USAMRIID, Vander Linden said in her email. (source)

    At this time “no infectious pathogens, or disease-causing material, have been found outside authorized areas.” The New York Times reports that the CDC could not provide more specific details due to “national security reasons.”

    What was USMRIID doing wrong?

    The laboratory, which is located in Frederick, Maryland, studies different deadly bugs for biological warfare purposes. They have failed inspection specifically by the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees the possession, use and transfer of biological select agents and toxins that could potentially pose a severe threat to public, animal or plant health.

    CDC spokeswoman Kathryn Harben wrote in an email that the Federal Select Agent Program doesn’t comment directly on whether a program is registered or what specific enforcement actions are taken.

    “As situations warrant, [Federal Select Agent Program] will take whatever appropriate action is necessary to resolve any departures from regulatory compliance in order to help ensure the safety and security of work with select agents and toxins,” Harben said in the email.

    The suspension was due to multiple causes, including failure to follow local procedures and a lack of periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories, according to Vander Linden. The wastewater decontamination system also failed to meet standards set by the Federal Select Agent Program, Vander Linden said in a follow-up email.

    The suspension was due to multiple causes, including failure to follow local procedures and a lack of periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories, according to Vander Linden. The wastewater decontamination system also failed to meet standards set by the Federal Select Agent Program, Vander Linden said in a follow-up email.

    “To maximize the safety of our employees, there are multiple layers of protective equipment and validated processes,” she said.

    Vander Linden could not say when the laboratory would be able to continue research.

    “USAMRIID will return to fully operational status upon meeting benchmark requirements for biosafety,” she said in an email. “We will resume operations when the Army and the CDC are satisfied that USAMRIID can safely and consistently meet all standards.” (source)

    The problems started with a flood in 2018.

    It’s important to note that the USAMRIID facility was flooded in May of 2018.

    In May 2018, storms caused a flood at the Fort Detrick facility, seriously damaging its 10-year-old steam sterilization plant, which provides high-tech wastewater management. The plant was offline for months, and the incident resulted in upgraded biosafety procedures. But as Vander Linden told the Frederick News-Post, the new protocols significantly increased “operational complexity” at the facility. The CDC inspection found that the “new procedures were not being followed consistently,” along with the discovery of “mechanical problems with the chemical-based decontamination system, as well as leaks [inside the lab]. (source)

    Imagine.

    A lab with all sorts of deadly viruses flooded, and most of us never heard a single thing about it. And ever since, the wastewater leaving the lab may or may not have been properly treated by steam sterilization.

    What is the lab at Fort Detrick studying?

    The USAMRIID is the Department of Defense’s (DoD) lead laboratory for medical biological defense research. Their mission is to “provide leading-edge medical capabilities to deter and defend against current and emerging biological threat agents.” Their vision is to “advance medical biological defense to protect our military and the nation.”

    So they study biological warfare from both an offensive and defensive standpoint.

    The local news outlet, The Frederick News-Post said:

    At the time of the cease and desist order, USAMRIID scientists were working with agents known to cause tularemia, also called deer fly or rabbit fever, the plague and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, all of which were worked on in a biosafety level 3 laboratory. Researchers were also working with the Ebola virus in a biosafety level 4 lab, Vander Linden said.

    Of the pathogens, Ebola, bacteria Yersinia pestis (plague), and bacterium Francisella tularensis (tularemia) are on the list of the Health and Human Services select agents and toxins. The three are considered Tier 1 agents, which pose a severe public health and safety threat.

    Venezuelan equine encephalitis also falls under the Federal Select Agent Program, according to the Code of Federal Regulations. (source)

    Nifty. Just imagine that stuff getting out with the facility’s wastewater.

    There’s no word on when operations will resume.

    I imagine the good people of Frederick, Maryland aren’t too thrilled to be in the same neighborhood as a laboratory which is sloppily studying all these deadly bugs. This is reminiscent of the rumors about Plum Island and ticks weaponized with Lyme disease, which lawmakers have recently been investigating. And it’s certainly no wonder the people of Manhattan, Kansas didn’t want the research facility being built there.

    Every time I see a story like this it reminds me of books like The Stand and movies like Outbreak.  All it takes is one careless laboratory accident – you know, like not sanitizing the wastewater before it leaves the facility – to start something that simply cannot be contained. It looks like all those folks prepping for a deadly pandemic may not be so crazy after all.

  • "Carry" Trade: Armed Men Steal $2.5 Million In Gold Coins From Mexico's Mint

    Talk about a “carry trade.”

    Mexico’s Federal Mint Headquarters was looted yesterday during the day, with armed thieves making off with invaluable items, including gold coins, from a vault, according to Reuters and the South Wales Guardian. The incident happened at a “Casa de Moneda” branch located in Mexico City, which as we reported last week has succumbed to the deadliest violence on record. 

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    City Public Security Secretary Jesus Orta Martinez was quoted on Mexican news as saying that that three armed men disarmed security guards at the offices and, in a scene right out of the movie Heat, “went straight to the vault, which was open.”

    “The line of investigation…is that there were deficiencies in the security protocol,” he continued.

     “It is striking that they went directly to the vault, and that they easily removed, or stole, coins… and commemorative watches.”

    The armed robbers were described  as “clean cut, young looking men” and are said to have stolen gold coins, watches and other valuables. One robber reportedly filled a backpack with 1,567 gold coins, each of which are valued at about $1,610, according to Mexican bank Banorte. This would put a price of at least $2.5 million on the robbery. Local Mexican media is reporting that the stolen items were worth up to 50 million pesos, or about $2 million U.S.

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    But regardless if the take was $2 million or $2.5 million, it’s been a successful “carry trade” for the robbers in more ways than one. Gold futures skyrocketed again on Wednesday, up about 2.2% to $1516 near the U.S. equity market cash close while spot continued its three day, $70 run, finally breaking the $1500 mark. 

    Mexico first printed 50 peso gold coins in 1921 to commemorate 100 years of independence. They’re now bought and sold by investors as their value changes with the price of gold. 

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    Coincidentally, the same “Casa de Moneda” branch was broken into last year while the building was under renovation. The robbery marks the latest in an increasing string of crime in Mexico City, where record lawlessness has hit the city. Since the new leftist government took charge of Mexico City in 2018, critics have claimed that violence has “spun out of control.”

    We also reported just weeks ago that Mexico City’s new government alleged that the city had been under-reporting crime statistics. 

    A Mexican media report of the robbery, including security footage, can be seen here:

  • The Mainstream Media Wants The Mifsud Story To Just Go Away

    Authored by Brian Cates via The Epoch Times,

    While many mainstream media journalists have been spinning fantasies for more than two years, based on Russian collusion stories being handed to them by anonymous sources, crack reporter John Solomon of The Hill has been pursuing real leads and uncovering actual evidence.

    Now, Solomon is reporting that an audiotape containing professor Joseph Mifsud’s deposition has been given to both U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigators and to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    “I can report absolutely that the Durham investigators have now obtained an audiotape deposition of Joseph Mifsud, where he describes his work, why he targeted George Papadopoulos, who directed him to do that, what directions he was given, and why he set that entire process of introducing Papadopoulos to Russia in motion in March of 2016, which is really the flashpoint the starting point of this whole Russia collusion narrative,” Solomon told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

    “I can also confirm that the Senate Judiciary Committee has also obtained the same deposition,” he said.

    Mifsud, who I have written about extensively in previous columns, is the key that turns the lock to the lid of this Pandora’s box that we refer to as “Spygate.”

    So I’m wondering why Solomon appears to be the only mainstream reporter pursuing this Mifsud story.

    I suspect it’s because many DNC Media outlets, after having fallen deeply and passionately in love with the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, are reluctant to call attention to something that would be the final nail in its coffin.

    The last thing the mainstream media wants right now would be for Mifsud to go on the record with both Durham’s investigative team and with Congress to say he was working for the FBI and was only pretending to be a Russian agent.

    If Mifsud was an FBI asset sent to entrap Papadopoulos, then there are no real Russian agents anywhere in this entire Trump-Russia collusion story.

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    Foreign policy advisor to US President Donald Trump’s election campaign, George Papadopoulos goes through security at the US District Court for his sentencing in Washington, DC on Sept. 7, 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

    Ponder what that means for a minute.

    You can’t save the Russian collusion narrative, if you can’t find any real Russians anywhere in the story. The FBI under James Comey will then be seen as having engaged in an operation to entrap people, and “Russian agents” turn out to be fakes working for the FBI and who were making fake offers of Russian help to the Trump campaign.

    Some of these news media outlets are still – at this late date – claiming there’s some life left in the Russian collusion narrative. Mifsud is literally the last dying hope for these people that somewhere in all of this there is a real Russian asset and real collusion. They literally need Mifsud to be a real asset of the Putin government. And if Mifsud goes on the record to officially affirm he was working for the FBI, then the media’s last dying hope is gone forever.

    To hear the mainstream media tell it, Mifsud turning out to be a fake Russian agent working for the FBI is a “conspiracy theory” created by “right-wing zealots” such as Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

    To have to admit that the story was actually right, while they themselves were still peddling the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, would be a most bitter pill for many of these ‘legitimate’ news outlets to swallow.

    Which likely explains why Solomon appears to be just about the only mainstream reporter pursuing the Mifsud story. If there are any other major news outlet reporters out there avidly pursuing the facts about Mifsud and his reported contacts and testimony to Justice Department investigators, they’re being pretty quiet about it.

    What are the mainstream news reporters who are ignoring the Mifsud story telling themselves, anyway?

    “I can’t pursue this new information on Mifsud, because it’s taking the story where I don’t want it to go!”?

    That’s a thought process that happens only to a political activist disguised as a reporter. No real reporter would ever think that way.

    And yet when it comes to recent developments about Mifsud, a key player in this Trump-Russia collusion narrative, many mainstream reporters appear indifferent at best, or outrightly hostile at worst to these latest developments.

    While many of these mainstream media reporters have been desperately trying to find some way to save the Trump/Russian collusion narrative, the last thing they want to have to report is that the supposed key Russian agent that started this whole Spygate thing wasn’t really a Russian agent, but was instead an FBI asset pretending to be a Russian agent.

    These selfsame media reporters have spent more than two years mocking the idea that Mifsud is an FBI asset as something straight out of the right-wing fever swamp of convoluted nonsense conspiracy theories. This is why so many political activists masquerading as journalists are desperately hoping that somehow the Mifsud story will just go away and die on its own.

    My instinct says they’re going to be massively disappointed soon.

  • Trump's Blockade Begins: Venezuela Says Food Shipment Blocked In Panama Canal

    Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has denounced what state media is describing as a ship seizure by the US in the Panama Canal Wednesday.

    The ship is reportedly packed with 25 thousands tons of Soya and was entering the narrow vital central America waterway, when its progress was halted in an event which Maduro government officials have condemned as a “serious aggression” that impedes the country’s “right to food”. 

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    Panama Canal. Image source: Shutterstock

    Though in the initial hours of Wednesday’s allegation major international media outlets had yet to confirm the claim, Rodriguez tweeted a statement, saying, “Venezuela denounces before the world that a boat that holds 25 thousand tons of Soya, for food production in our country, has been seized in the Panama Canal, due to the criminal blockade imposed by Donald Trump.”

    “Venezuela calls on the UN to stop this serious aggression by DonaldTrump’s govt against our country, which constitutes a massive violation of the human rights of the entire Venezuelan people, by attempting to impede their right to food,” the vice president added.

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    State media subsequently explained that the undisclosed owner of the vessel was informed by the insurance company that it must cease moving the cargo through the canal.

    The serious allegation comes after on Monday President Trump signed an executive order imposing a full economic embargo against Venezuela after a week ago the White House began signaling the US would seek to “quarantine” and fully “blockade” the Maduro regime if the socialist leader doesn’t immediately hand over power of his own accord. 

    The executive order freezes all government assets in the United States and prohibits all transactions by any Venezuelan officials, in what constitutes the first major expansion of sanctions targeting a nation in the western hemisphere in over three decades. 

    John Bolton had denounced Maduro as leading a “rogue state” on par with Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea following Trump’s signing the order.

    “The Maduro regime now joins that exclusive club of rogue states,” Bolton said at a one-day conference in Peru of more than 50 governments aligned against Maduro. — AP

    “We are sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: Proceed with extreme caution,” Bolton said on Tuesday in Peru. “There is no need to risk your business interests with the United States for the purposes of profiting from a corrupt and dying regime.”

    The executive order states, “All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States … are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in.”

    Given the new sanctions by US Treasury fall short of a full trade embargo, the US is not outright targeting urgent supplies like food, thus it’s not clear whether the alleged halting of the Soya transporting ship is the result of direct US action.

    However, it’s likely that maritime insurance companies and private shipping firms will become increasingly skittish in dealing with Venezuela. 

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