Daily Archives: August 24, 2019

2019-08-24: News Headlines

RT (2019-08-24). Huawei, evil Chinese & decapitated cat: Bannon serving warmed-over propaganda to Trump & Americans. rt.com Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has faced the "China threat" head-on with a lukewarm propaganda film dramatizing the Huawei case in Canada, hoping to galvanize the American people (and president) for a second Cold War. | Claws of the Red Dragon — "inspired by real life events" — tells the tale of a stand-in for Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, her arrest in Vancouver on US orders, the retaliatory arrest of two Canadians for definitely not spying in China, and the Huawei-standin's totally real collusion with an especially evil Chinese government. Characters include a plucky Chinese-Canadian journalist hot…

Staff (2019-08-23). Putin Orders Russia to Respond After U.S. Missile Test. truthdig.com MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military on Friday to work out a quid pro quo response after the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty. | In Sunday's test, a modified ground-launched version of a U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The test came after Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. | Speaking at a meeting of his Security Council, Putin charged that the U.S. waged a "propaganda campaign" alleging Russian breaches of the pact to "

RT (2019-08-23). 'Provocative' post-INF missile test serves US neocon goal to stop détente with Russia. rt.com The decision by the United States to test a cruise missile banned under the now-expired INF treaty was a provocative move that delights neocons who oppose rapprochement between the US and Russia, analysts told RT. | Less than a month after pulling out of the INF arms control treaty, the US military tested a ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missile previously prohibited under the agreement. | Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow would "take exhaustive measures to prepare a symmetrical response" to the test, while stressing that it is not aiming to ignite a new arms race. | Also on rt.com

RT (2019-08-23). WATCH: Plane cabin fills with smoke moments before emergency landing. rt.com Horrified passengers of Hawaiian Airlines were lucky to escape disaster after their cabin filled with smoke during a flight to Honolulu on Thursday. Their plane made an emergency landing before the crew evacuated all on board. | Seven passengers, five adults and two children, were hospitalized after suffering "smoke-related symptoms," the airline said in a statement. | Also on rt.com | | Watch Swiss fighter jets shadow Russian GOVERNMENT PLANE as 'act of hospitality' | Smoke began filling the cabin 20 minutes before the flight from Oakland, California lan…

RT (2019-08-23). More Russiagate unraveling? Ex-CEO says FBI instructed him to have relationship with Maria Butina. rt.com Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has told media that he was ordered by the FBI to initiate a romantic relationship with imprisoned Russian gun activist Maria Butina, seemingly confirming claims made by her lawyer. | Byrne, who resigned from the online retail company on Thursday, explained to CNN's Chris Cuomo that he had been asked by the FBI — on the orders of then-director James Comey — to "rekindle a romantic relationship" with Butina. | Taken aback by the claim, Cuomo interjected: "You believe that Jim Comey knew that you were being asked to do these things in the name of the United States gove…

RT (2019-08-23). 'Crime does pay': CNN hires disgraced ex-FBI director Andrew McCabe. rt.com What does one get for leaking to the media, lying to federal investigators about it, and allegedly participating in a plot to derail an American election? If you answered jail time, too bad. The correct answer is a job at CNN.

WSWS (2019-08-23). Macron-Putin meeting before G7 summit highlights global geopolitical conflicts. wsws.org The meeting took place in the context of increasing calls centered in Paris and Berlin for the European Union to develop its capabilities to wage wars independently of the United States.

Andrew Korybko (2019-08-23). "New Detente" Between Russia and The West? Impacts on the Russia-China Strategic Partnership. globalresearch.ca Macron's Mediation | The dynamics of the New Cold War might undergo a dramatic transformation if the geopolitical game-changer of a "New Detente" between Russia and the West succeeds, which is becoming increasingly possible as proven by recent events. | President Putin's …

Andrew Korybko (2019-08-23). Kashmir and the US-Russia Power Play in South Asia. globalresearch.ca Russia is reluctant to jeopardize its ultra-profitable arms relationship with India by strategically "balancing" South Asia, which is why the US decided to play this irreplaceable role instead by actively seeking to cut deals in both Afghanistan and Kashmir since …

WSWS (2019-08-23). US escalates preparations for nuclear war with Russia and China. wsws.org After withdrawing from the INF treaty, the US is accelerating its preparations to fight a nuclear war with China or Russia by testing and stockpiling dangerous new weapons in a nuclear arms race.

Dr. Jacques R. Pauwels (2019-08-23). Eighty Years Ago… The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939: Myth and Reality. globalresearch.ca In a remarkable book, 1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II, the Canadian historian Michael Jabara Carley describes how, at the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union repeatedly tried, but finally failed, to …

Staff (2019-08-23). Sen. Merkley on the Dangers of a New Nuclear Arms Race & Why He Backs the Green New Deal. democracynow.org Fallout from the Trump administration's decision to pull out of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is mounting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to prepare for what he called a "symmetrical response" after the U.S. tested what it said was a nonnuclear cruise missile earlier this week. The U.S. launch was the first test of its kind since the Trump administration withdrew from the INF. We speak to Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about U.S. nuclear policy, as well as the Green New Deal, President Trump's wish to buy Greenland and more.

Staff (2019-08-23). How Jair Bolsonaro Emboldened Brazilian Agribusiness to Torch the Amazon & Attack Indigenous People. democracynow.org The United Nations is calling for the protection of the Amazon amid fears that thousands of fires raging across Brazil and some parts of Bolivia are rapidly destroying the world's largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. The fires have spread a vast plume of smoke across South America and the Atlantic Ocean that's visible from space. They're unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. Indigenous people in Brazil have accused far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the destruction. Bols…

Kenneth Good (2019-08-23). Congo's Patrice Lumumba: The Winds of Reaction in Africa. counterpunch.org The Congo won independence from Belgium in June 1960 with Patrice Lumumba, age 35, as Prime Minister. Immediately it began to fall apart, under revanchist Belgian assault, Cold War pressures, adjacent settler colonial reaction and collaborationist Congolese elites like Moise Tshombe and Joseph Desire Mobutu. On 12 July Lumumba and President Kasavubu asked UN Secretary More

susan_p (2019-08-22). Arms race accelerates as US tests cruise missile. greenleft.org.au arms race Jessica CorbettIssue 1234 United States US missile testAugust 22, 2019Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the United States tested a new missile on August 18. | The test would have vio…

RT (2019-08-21). Trump might one day NUKE Denmark, 'prophetic' Ted Cruz predicted in 2016. rt.com No one could have predicted in 2016 that US President Donald Trump would be throwing a geopolitical hissy fit over Denmark's refusal to consider his offer to buy Greenland. No one, that is, except… Republican ex-rival Ted Cruz? | "I don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the [nuclear] button. We're liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would've nuked Denmark," Cruz told a crowd during a New Hampshire campaign event in February 2016. | With Trump cancelling a visit to Denmark in a fit of pique after PM Mette Fredriksen ref…

Staff (2019-08-20). Headlines for August 20, 2019. democracynow.org NYPD Fires Daniel Pantaleo 5 Years After He Killed Eric Garner, Planned Parenthood Rejects Federal Funds over Trump "Gag Rule" on Abortion Referrals, Fears of Renewed Arms Race as U.S. Tests Ground Missile and Questions Remain over Russian Blast, Sudan: Omar al-Bashir Heads to Court Days After Signing of Transitional Deal, Salvadoran Rape Survivor Cleared After Prior Conviction for Killing Stillborn, Twitter & Facebook Remove China-Linked Accounts over Hong Kong Protest Misinformation, Elizabeth Warren Apologizes to Indigenous Groups at Iowa Native American Forum, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Asks Federal Court to H…

Staff (2019-08-16). North Korea Suspends Talks With South Korea Because of U.S. Sanctions. therealnews.com While U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks fail to proceed because of a lack of unanimity within the Trump administration, the North suspended peace talks with the South because of the U.S.'s refusal to lift economic sanctions, says Tim Shorrock…

Aaron Maté (2019-08-16). Trump worsens threat of nuclear catastrophe with Russia. thegrayzone.com MIT professor Ted Postol warns that Trump's withdrawal from the INF treaty threatens nuclear 'catastrophe.' Guest: Theodore Postol, award-winning Professor…

Aaron Maté (2019-08-16). How Obama helped Trump escalate nuclear tensions with Russia. thegrayzone.com The Trump administration has dangerously withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). MIT professor emeritus Ted Postol explains how…

Norman Stockwell (2019-08-09). How We Learned to Hate the Bomb. progressive.org For nearly three-quarters of a century, "The Progressive" has been a consistent voice against nuclear madness.

Eoin Higgins (2019-08-01). Kamala Harris Team Accused of "Inventing Conspiracies" About Tulsi Gabbard. theantimedia.com The Kamala Harris' campaign jumped to tie Gabbard and her campaign to a nebulously defined and unclear Russian conspiracy.

Peace Action (2019-06-25). Peace Action Endorses Ilhan Omar for Congress. peaceaction.org Washington, DC — June 25, 2019 — Peace Action has announced its endorsement of Ilhan Omar for Congress in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. Peace Action is a national grassroots organization working to advance nuclear disarmament, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights, and support nonmilitary …

Peace Action (2019-06-24). Peace Action Endorses Kara Eastman for Congress. peaceaction.org Washington, DC — June 24, 2019 — Peace Action has announced its endorsement of Kara Eastman for Congress in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District. Peace Action is a national grassroots organization working to advance nuclear disarmament, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights, and support nonmilitary …

Peace Action (2019-06-17). Peace Action Endorses Ayanna Pressley for Congress. peaceaction.org Washington, DC — June 17, 2019 — Peace Action, the nation's largest grassroots peace organization, and its affiliate Massachusetts Peace Action, endorsed Ayanna Pressley for Massachusetts' 7th district. Peace Action is a national grassroots organization working to advance nuclear disarmament, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and …

2019-08-24: Social Media Postees

Huawei, evil Chinese & decapitated cat: Bannon serving warmed-over propaganda to Trump & Americans
rt.com | 2019-08-24
Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has faced the "China threat" head-on with a lukewarm propaganda film dramatizing the Huawei case in Canada, hoping to galvanize the American people (and president) for a second Cold War. | Claws of the Red Dragon — "inspired by real life events" — tells the tale of a stand-in for Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, her arrest in Vancouver on US orders, the retaliatory arrest of two Canadians for definitely not spying in China, and the Huawei-standin's totally real collusion with an especially evil Chinese government. Characters include a plucky Chinese-Canadian journalist hot…
rt.com/usa/467176-bannon-huawei-china-propaganda-film/

More Russiagate unraveling? Ex-CEO says FBI instructed him to have relationship with Maria Butina
rt.com | 2019-08-23
Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has told media that he was ordered by the FBI to initiate a romantic relationship with imprisoned Russian gun activist Maria Butina, seemingly confirming claims made by her lawyer. | Byrne, who resigned from the online retail company on Thursday, explained to CNN's Chris Cuomo that he had been asked by the FBI — on the orders of then-director James Comey — to "rekindle a romantic relationship" with Butina. | Taken aback by the claim, Cuomo interjected: "You believe that Jim Comey knew that you were being asked to do these things in the name of the United States gove…
rt.com/usa/467136-butina-byrne-fbi-informant-russia/

"New Detente" Between Russia and The West? Impacts on the Russia-China Strategic Partnership
Andrew Korybko | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-23
Macron's Mediation | The dynamics of the New Cold War might undergo a dramatic transformation if the geopolitical game-changer of a "New Detente" between Russia and the West succeeds, which is becoming increasingly possible as proven by recent events. | President Putin's …
globalresearch.ca/new-detente-proceeding-apace-china-should-very-concerned/5686937

Putin Orders Russia to Respond After U.S. Missile Test
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-23
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military on Friday to work out a quid pro quo response after the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty. | In Sunday's test, a modified ground-launched version of a U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The test came after Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. | Speaking at a meeting of his Security Council, Putin charged that the U.S. waged a "propaganda campaign" alleging Russian breaches of the pact to "
truthdig.com/articles/putin-orders-russia-to-respond-after-u-s-missile-test/

'Provocative' post-INF missile test serves US neocon goal to stop détente with Russia
rt.com | 2019-08-23
The decision by the United States to test a cruise missile banned under the now-expired INF treaty was a provocative move that delights neocons who oppose rapprochement between the US and Russia, analysts told RT. | Less than a month after pulling out of the INF arms control treaty, the US military tested a ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missile previously prohibited under the agreement. | Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow would "take exhaustive measures to prepare a symmetrical response" to the test, while stressing that it is not aiming to ignite a new arms race. | Also on rt.com
rt.com/usa/467147-us-provocation-inf-missile-tests/

Macron-Putin meeting before G7 summit highlights global geopolitical conflicts
wsws.org | 2019-08-23
The meeting took place in the context of increasing calls centered in Paris and Berlin for the European Union to develop its capabilities to wage wars independently of the United States.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/23/frru-a23.html

Kashmir and the US-Russia Power Play in South Asia
Andrew Korybko | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-23
Russia is reluctant to jeopardize its ultra-profitable arms relationship with India by strategically "balancing" South Asia, which is why the US decided to play this irreplaceable role instead by actively seeking to cut deals in both Afghanistan and Kashmir since …
globalresearch.ca/trump-south-asian-balancer/5686954

US escalates preparations for nuclear war with Russia and China
wsws.org | 2019-08-23
After withdrawing from the INF treaty, the US is accelerating its preparations to fight a nuclear war with China or Russia by testing and stockpiling dangerous new weapons in a nuclear arms race.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/23/nucl-a23.html

WATCH: Plane cabin fills with smoke moments before emergency landing
rt.com | 2019-08-23
Horrified passengers of Hawaiian Airlines were lucky to escape disaster after their cabin filled with smoke during a flight to Honolulu on Thursday. Their plane made an emergency landing before the crew evacuated all on board. | Seven passengers, five adults and two children, were hospitalized after suffering "smoke-related symptoms," the airline said in a statement. | Also on rt.com | | Watch Swiss fighter jets shadow Russian GOVERNMENT PLANE as 'act of hospitality' | Smoke began filling the cabin 20 minutes before the flight from Oakland, California lan…
rt.com/usa/467124-hawaiian-airlines-smoke-evacuation/

'Crime does pay': CNN hires disgraced ex-FBI director Andrew McCabe
rt.com | 2019-08-23
What does one get for leaking to the media, lying to federal investigators about it, and allegedly participating in a plot to derail an American election? If you answered jail time, too bad. The correct answer is a job at CNN. | …
rt.com/usa/467172-mccabe-cnn-russiagate-hoax/

Eighty Years Ago… The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939: Myth and Reality
Dr. Jacques R. Pauwels | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-23
In a remarkable book, 1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II, the Canadian historian Michael Jabara Carley describes how, at the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union repeatedly tried, but finally failed, to …
globalresearch.ca/hitler-stalin-pact-august-23-1939/5687021

Congo's Patrice Lumumba: The Winds of Reaction in Africa
Kenneth Good | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-23
The Congo won independence from Belgium in June 1960 with Patrice Lumumba, age 35, as Prime Minister. Immediately it began to fall apart, under revanchist Belgian assault, Cold War pressures, adjacent settler colonial reaction and collaborationist Congolese elites like Moise Tshombe and Joseph Desire Mobutu. On 12 July Lumumba and President Kasavubu asked UN Secretary…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/23/congos-patrice-lumumba-the-winds-of-reaction-in-africa/

Sen. Merkley on the Dangers of a New Nuclear Arms Race & Why He Backs the Green New Deal
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
Fallout from the Trump administration's decision to pull out of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is mounting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to prepare for what he called a "symmetrical response" after the U.S. tested what it said was a nonnuclear cruise missile earlier this week. The U.S. launch was the first test of its kind since the Trump administration withdrew from the INF. We speak to Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about U.S. nuclear policy, as well as the Green New Deal, President Trump's wish to buy Greenland and…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/amazon_fires_brazil_andrew_miller

How Jair Bolsonaro Emboldened Brazilian Agribusiness to Torch the Amazon & Attack Indigenous People
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The United Nations is calling for the protection of the Amazon amid fears that thousands of fires raging across Brazil and some parts of Bolivia are rapidly destroying the world's largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. The fires have spread a vast plume of smoke across South America and the Atlantic Ocean that's visible from space. They're unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. Indigenous people in Brazil have accused far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the destruction. Bols…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merkley_us_nuclear_policy_green

Arms race accelerates as US tests cruise missile
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-22
arms race Jessica CorbettIssue 1234 United States US missile testAugust 22, 2019Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the United States tested a new missile on August 18. | The test would have vio…
greenleft.org.au/content/arms-race-accelerates-us-tests-cruise-missile

Trump might one day NUKE Denmark, 'prophetic' Ted Cruz predicted in 2016
rt.com | 2019-08-21
No one could have predicted in 2016 that US President Donald Trump would be throwing a geopolitical hissy fit over Denmark's refusal to consider his offer to buy Greenland. No one, that is, except… Republican ex-rival Ted Cruz? | "I don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the [nuclear] button. We're liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would've nuked Denmark," Cruz told a crowd during a New Hampshire campaign event in February 2016. | With Trump cancelling a visit to Denmark in a fit of pique after PM Mette Fredriksen ref…
rt.com/usa/467014-cruz-predicts-future-denmark-trump/

Multipolar World: a new axis of resistance
unitedEditor | uwidata.com | 2019-08-19
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin, who recovered Russia which was politically, economically and socially dispersed, once again succeeded in making Moscow one of the center of the world in foreign policy. Through the period we have been passing in which the relations between Turkey and Russia are deepening and the paths of …
uwidata.com/4958-multipolar-world-a-new-axis-of-resistance/

North Korea Suspends Talks With South Korea Because of U.S. Sanctions
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-16
While U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks fail to proceed because of a lack of unanimity within the Trump administration, the North suspended peace talks with the South because of the U.S.'s refusal to lift economic sanctions, says Tim Shorrock…
therealnews.com/stories/north-korea-suspends-talks-with-south-korea-because-of-u-s-sanctions

How Obama helped Trump escalate nuclear tensions with Russia
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-16
The Trump administration has dangerously withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). MIT professor emeritus Ted Postol explains how…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/16/how-obama-helped-trump-escalate-nuclear-tensions-with-russia/

Trump worsens threat of nuclear catastrophe with Russia
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-16
MIT professor Ted Postol warns that Trump's withdrawal from the INF treaty threatens nuclear 'catastrophe.' Guest: Theodore Postol, award-winning Professor…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/16/trump-worsens-threat-of-nuclear-catastrophe-with-russia/

How We Learned to Hate the Bomb
Norman Stockwell | progressive.org | 2019-08-09
For nearly three-quarters of a century, "The Progressive" has been a consistent voice against nuclear madness.
progressive.org/dispatches/how-we-learned-to-hate-the-bomb-stockwell-190809/

Kamala Harris Team Accused of "Inventing Conspiracies" About Tulsi Gabbard
Eoin Higgins | theantimedia.com | 2019-08-01
The Kamala Harris' campaign jumped to tie Gabbard and her campaign to a nebulously defined and unclear Russian conspiracy.

Kamala Harris Team Accused of "Inventing Conspiracies" About Tulsi Gabbard