Human Rights Abusing Chinese Surveillance Firm Blacklisted by Trump to be Promoted by UK

The United Kingdom will promote a Chinese tech firm that is responsible for the mass security apparatus used to surveil minority groups in the western region of Xinjiang, China.

Following recent spats with the United States over Chinese involvement in the UK, Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance company, has been permitted by the Home Office to attend next month’s Security and Policing trade fair in Farnborough, England. The move flies in the face of judgements made by British allies, including the United States which blacklisted Hikvision in October for its human rights violations in China.

The fair will be held between March 3-5, hosted by the Home Office, who said the event will be used to strengthen “our strong security alliances around the world and for our international partners to understand and hear about the work we are doing to keep our country secure,” according to The Guardian.

Analysis reported by the newspaper found that nine of the 300 companies invited to the event have been accused of human rights abuses, including Hikvision.

Conservative MP Bob Seely urged the Home Office to rescind the invitation, saying: “We need to stop having an ethical bypass when it comes to China and hi-tech. If we are going to proclaim UK values and standards, we need at least the appearance of consistency.”

The move to invite Hikvision could increase the tension between the United States and the United Kingdom, which has recently become strained following Boris Johnson’s decision to allow Huawei to help build parts of the UK’s 5G network, a decision that was heavily criticised by the United States and other allies including Australia.

Peter Schiff Warns of an Epic Stock Market Crash and Economic Collapse Worse than 2008 !! Peter Schiff, in a recent interview, talked about the current stock market bubble and why it’s bigger and more dangerous than the one that popped in 2008, causing an economic crisis. The bubble building up in the stock market today is more significant than the 2008 bubble. But the sources are the same. It is artificial low-interest rates and QE. The FED is responsible for the rise in the stock market.

The Fed is printing money that is going right into the stock market. In 2019 the corporate earning actually declined slightly, yet the stock market was up like 30 percent, Peter Schiff noted. If we really had a good economy, you would have expected the corporate earnings to reflect that. The Fed is doing today More QE than anytime before. This is QE extra says, Peter Schiff.

This is the result of a 40-year bull bond and the stock market as interest rates have fallen from 18 percent to near zero, wild printing, and over the past decade, QE. Since 1982, stocks are up 3500 percent while Real GDP is up 150 percent. Buffer Index, which is the total stock market value to GDP, was .28 in 1982. Today it is 1.6. The historical average market to GDP is .6. If we were at a historical average market to GDP, GDP would have to be 60 Trillion. This market is not the result of production. Its the result of 40 years of easy money.

Did you know that Microsoft and Apple combined make up nearly 40% of the Dow index value. And that Apple and Microsoft contributed the most to the market’s big year. Apple and Microsoft, which surged 85% and 54% this year, respectively, are the two biggest contributors to the S&P 500′s gains this year.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/human-rights-abusing-chinese-surveillance-company-promoted-by-uk/

Peter Schiff Warns of an Epic Stock Market Crash & Economic Collapse Worse Than 2008! - Great Video

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Peter Schiff Warns of an Epic Stock Market Crash & Economic Collapse Worse Than 2008! - Great Video

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 11:03

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Peter Schiff Warns of an Epic Stock Market Crash and Economic Collapse Worse than 2008 !! Peter Schiff, in a recent interview, talked about the current stock market bubble and why it’s bigger and more dangerous than the one that popped in 2008, causing an economic crisis. The bubble building up in the stock market today is more significant than the 2008 bubble. But the sources are the same. It is artificial low-interest rates and QE. The FED is responsible for the rise in the stock market.

The Fed is printing money that is going right into the stock market. In 2019 the corporate earning actually declined slightly, yet the stock market was up like 30 percent, Peter Schiff noted. If we really had a good economy, you would have expected the corporate earnings to reflect that. The Fed is doing today More QE than anytime before. This is QE extra says, Peter Schiff.

This is the result of a 40-year bull bond and the stock market as interest rates have fallen from 18 percent to near zero, wild printing, and over the past decade, QE. Since 1982, stocks are up 3500 percent while Real GDP is up 150 percent. Buffer Index, which is the total stock market value to GDP, was .28 in 1982. Today it is 1.6. The historical average market to GDP is .6. If we were at a historical average market to GDP, GDP would have to be 60 Trillion. This market is not the result of production. Its the result of 40 years of easy money.

Did you know that Microsoft and Apple combined make up nearly 40% of the Dow index value. And that Apple and Microsoft contributed the most to the market’s big year. Apple and Microsoft, which surged 85% and 54% this year, respectively, are the two biggest contributors to the S&P 500′s gains this year.

What’s amazing is that even though we have a great economy according to the stock market and certain politicians, the United States ran a nearly $1 TRILLION deficit in 2019. This is with unrelenting QE and other market stimulants in effect. Where do we go when the markets inevitably take a turn for the worse? If the economy is great, shouldn’t the deficit be getting smaller? All of these factors together should make you think.

https://youtu.be/ixk5eiauILo

Division is how they control us

The system divides us and then pits us against eachother so that we are always at eachother’s throats instead of recognizing the true nature of reality and the control system we live under and then finding a way to end it:

division between male and female

division between old and young

division between straight and LGBT

division between ethnicities and skin color

division between religions and cultures and sub-cultures

division between the owners and non-owners of property

division between abled and disabled

division between urban and rural

division between countries themselves

and last but not least the division of labor itself

These are the primary ways the elites divide us and in turn get to rule over us. I believe sooner or later the people will realize that this is wrong and end these forms of divisions so that humanity can be united, and become one organic whole, not separated by artificial boundaries anymore but all of society becoming harmonious and symbiotic like a big healthy organism. When that happens that is when people will truly be free, living in a highly advanced peaceful and prosperous future society where the people will be in charge over their lives and destiny.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/division-is-how-they-control-us/

Boris Row with Trump over Huawei Intensifies, Australian MPs Cancel UK Visit

Boris Johnson’s row with U.S. President Trump and other key allies over Huawei has intensified, with Australian MPs cancelling a trip to Britain amid rising tensions.

Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to allow the Chinese tech giant to participate in the construction of Britain’s 5G infrastructure — at its “periphery” rather than its “core”, his administration insists — has caused a rift with allies who believe the company is in thrall to China’s ruling Communist Party and represents a significant security risk.

Richard Grenell, the President’s no-nonsense ambassador to Germany, tweeted that President Trump had “called me from Air Force One and instructed me to make clear that any nation who choose to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardise our ability to share intelligence and information at the highest level”.

Ambassador Grenell’s message was also a clear warning to Germany, which is also mulling Chinese involvement in 5G infrastructure — and insisted it was not bullying but right and proper for the United States to make it clear it would not share intelligence to the same extent with allies it believes are compromised.

Responding to criticism from Germany’s Die Linke (The Left) party, Grenell said it was unreasonable to expect U.S. intelligence-sharing to “continue as usual even when you make dangerous mistakes.”

We get to have our own policy too. Don’t assume we don’t get to react to your policy,” he warned.

“I find it offensive that you think the U.S. co-operation must stay the same no matter what you do. We call that taking us for granted.”

Britain’s membership of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network which encompasses the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada is arguably its most important security alliance — and it is not just the Americans who believe Johnson’s entanglement with Huawei may turn the British into a liability.

Parliamentarians from the former British colony’s intelligence and security committee cancelled a trip to Britain, following a row over leaked details of a meeting between the British foreign secretary and his Australian counterpart over Huawei.

“How would you feel if the Russians laid down infrastructure in your own networks? That’s how we feel about Huawei,” the Australians had warned, taking the side of the U.S. administration.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/boris-row-trump-over-huawei-intensifies-australian-mps-cancel-uk-visit/

‘NY Times’ covers up annexation plan scheme to ‘denationalize’ 350,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel

The U.S. mainstream media, with the New York Times in the lead, is covering up a shocking feature of the Netanyahu/Trump annexation plan that would strip 350,000 to 400,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel of their citizenship. The “denationalization” proposal is a crime against humanity, but the American press is ignoring it.

Thabet Abu Rass lives in the affected area, a predominately Palestinian part of northeast Israel known as “The Triangle,” where he heads an organization devoted to promoting peace between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens. Here’s how he translated the denationalization proposal:

Just imagine if today Donald Trump would tell Hispanic Americans living in the southwest, in territories annexed to the United States from Mexico in the 19th century, that they are Mexican citizens now and no longer American citizens. . . That is exactly what they are trying to do to us.

Abu Rass’s comments appeared in the independent Israeli daily Haaretz, as part of an excellent report by Judy Maltz. She visited The Triangle, and listened to him and other Palestinian Israelis talk about their fears. Eyed Amer, a high school principal, explains that “there is no contradiction between identifying as Palestinian and being a proud holder of Israeli citizenship.”

Amer says:

You can be proud of your ethnicity and religion, and still want to be Israeli — even if you don’t necessarily identify with all the symbols of the state.

None of this has appeared in the New York Times or anywhere else in the U.S. mainstream. A few days after Trump announced the annexation plan at the White House, Times reporters David Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner took what is for them an unusual step — they contacted a few Palestinians and asked for their views. The two barely hid their satisfaction at the resignation and despair they heard, but every Palestinian they quoted was from the occupied West Bank.

In fact, the Times consistently erases the 20 percent of Israelis living within the 1967 borders who are Palestinian. They have still not done a profile of Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, the third-largest force in Israeli politics. Nor has the paper ever interviewed Issawi Frej, another Palestinian who actually served in the Israeli Knesset for 6 years as part of the small, left-wing, mostly Jewish Meretz party.

Haaretz continues to do the reporting that the Times hides from. Amir Tibon and Noa Landau found that it was Benjamin Netanyahu himself who pushed the proposal to denationalize The Triangle’s residents, in a conversation with Jared Kushner back in 2017. The two somehow had no problem eliciting a comment from Ayman Odeh, who denounced what he called Netanyahu’s

dangerous attempt to revoke the citizenship of 400,000 Israeli Arab citizens, who were born here. . . [Netanyahu] is conveying a clear message to all of Israel’s Arab citizens: ‘You are not welcome here and your turn will come when the next plan is released.’

https://mondoweiss.net/2020/02/ny-times-covers-up-annexation-plan-scheme-to-denationalize-350000-palestinian-citizens-of-israel/

Unprecedented: master’s thesis on Jewish white privilege and Israel attacked in Canadian legislature

Canadian grad student, Jewish anti-Zionist activist, and descendant of Holocaust survivors Jenny Peto is breaking new ground with her University of Toronto master’s thesis The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education, though perhaps not in the way she intended.

The Canadian National Post reports:

It has provoked intense debate online, in academia and even the political realm. Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark raised it in the legislature Tuesday in response to sharp criticism in the Jewish community, calling it “shockingly anti-Semitic.” Citizenship and immigration minister Eric Hoskins likewise condemned the thesis in the legislature saying he was “greatly disturbed and, in fact, disgusted,” when he read media coverage about it.

These attacks (by some if not many who haven’t actually read it) on a master’s thesis, one that has already been through an academic review no less, are unprecedented. Also from The National Post:

Michiel Horn, a York University history professor and author of Academic Freedom in Canada: A History: “I know not of a single case where a master’s or a phD paper has been subject of discussion in the legislature of any province in Canada,” he said.

You can read Jenny Peto’s thesis yourself by downloading it here. Her abstract states:

This paper focuses on issues of Jewish identity, whiteness and victimhood within hegemonic Holocaust education. I argue that today, Jewish people of European descent enjoy white privilege and are among the most socio-economically advantaged groups in the West. Despite this privilege, the organized Jewish community makes claims about Jewish victimhood that are widely accepted within that community and within popular discourse in the West. I propose that these claims to victimhood are no longer based in a reality of oppression, but continue to be propagated because a victimized Jewish identity can produce certain effects that are beneficial to the organized Jewish community and the Israeli nation-state. I focus on two related Holocaust education projects – the March of the Living and the March of Remembrance and Hope – to show how Jewish victimhood is instrumentalized in ways that obscure Jewish privilege, deny Jewish racism and promote the interests of the Israeli nation-state.

I myself can’t wait to read it. There’s not a lot here that those seriously familiar with these Jewish institutions and Israeli history and politics could really argue with. For too long, the central organizing principle of much of institutional Jewry has been fear, which has been essential in, among other things, enabling an unaccountable Israel. And few programs more dramatically reflect this than the March of the Living which inflicts a proxy Holocaust trauma on Jewish teenagers (without proper context and support, so I hear from friends who have gone) as an essential right of passage into Jewishness.

To the young N. American Ashkenazi Jews especially who can’t help but notice that Jews as a whole occupy places of real economic and racial privilege in their communities, the messages of perpetual victimhood (and the implied privileges that might go with it, as in the case with the free pass that Israel tends to get) just don’t compute.

I’d imagine that in addition to her own experience, Peto had plenty to draw on from work and discussions happening in academic environments these days regarding Holocaust studies, Israeli politics, white privilege and so on. Is it possible that Peto’s crime is to have thought too complexly –in an academic setting.

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/24619/1/Peto_Jennifer_201006_MA_thesis.pdf

https://alethonews.com/2010/12/11/unprecedented-master%e2%80%99s-thesis-on-jewish-white-privilege-and-israel-attacked-in-canadian-legislature/

Bloomberg: Fanatic pro-Israel billionaire trying to buy US Presidency

Michael Bloomberg – the 8th or 9th richest person in the world* – is trying to buy his way into the campaign, and the Democratic National Committee is permitting it, even though Bloomberg flip flops on his political affiliation… a Democrat, Republican, or independent, depending on what’s most advantageous.

Bloomberg is a fervent Israel advocate. In 2014, as Mayor of New York, he flew to Israel to support Israel’s ruthless assault on Gaza that killed hundreds of children – & defied the FAA’s flight ban to do it.

Read two articles below:

Oligarch Buys Political Party – Seeks to Become President

Reposted from Moon of Alabama

Mike Bloomberg is the world’s ninth richest person.* An oligarch known for strong racism and insulting sexism who once was the Republican mayor of New York City. He since decided that he wants to become president.

As he saw no chance to run for a Republican party that is happy with Trump he filed to run as a Democratic candidate. Bloomberg has since bought the Democratic Party in every state as well as the DNC:

The DNC told Mike Gravel they wouldn’t change the debate rules for any candidate. “That’s our #1 rule – we can’t change the rules for anybody.”A few months later, they changed the debate rules to let oligarch Bloomberg into the debates… after he gave the DNC $300K.

His political tactic is very simple. He does not talk about issues, as people would not like what he has to say, but simply spends tons of money:

He’s dropping huge sums of money: on staff and resources, on TV advertisements, and on Facebook ads, where Trump has long dominated. And he’s attempting to overcome his stodgy public image with the help of a meme army and through well-catered campaign events seemingly designed to convince voters that life under a wealthy technocrat might not be so bad. “I think it’s classy,” one supporter told the Times at a Philadelphia campaign rally complete drink station and a selection of cheesesteaks, hoagies, and brie-and-fig appetizers. “I feel like it’s a nightclub in here. This is what he needs to get people going.”

To this date Bloomberg has spent more than $350 million for his campaign. He is willing and can afford to put several billions into it. Over the years Bloomberg has given more than $10 billion to build a political and philanthropical empire. He used that money to suppress voices critical of him:

In 2015, Center for American Progress researchers wrote a report on U.S. Islamophobia, w/a 4300-word chapter on the Bloomberg-era NYPD.When the report was published, the chapter was gone.

By then, Bloomberg had given CAP ~$1.5mm. That number has grown.

More

https://israelpalestinenews.org/bloomberg-fanatic-pro-israel-billionaire-trying-to-buy-us-presidency/

Massive Israeli Data Leak Is Treasure Trove for Iran Intel. It Can Jeopardize Mossad and Special Ops

February 17, 2020 "Information Clearing House" - The leaks of personal information of 6.5 million Israelis three weeks before the election is one of the worst security screw-ups in the country in the last few years.

Both the first breach, which was reported about a week ago, and the more serious second one, reported Sunday, stem from criminal negligence by Elector Software – a small and hitherto barely known company that developed the mobile election software being used by Likud and other parties.

This app, which enables access to the country’s entire voter registry, is used “to run elections and make contact with voters,” according to the company. It includes voters’ full names, ID numbers, gender, telephone numbers and current addresses. In addition, there is information entered by party campaign staff about whether or not the individual in question supports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Beyond the severe violation of Israelis’ privacy, the hacking of the voter rolls has unprecedented implications for tens of thousands of employees of the Mossad, the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, the Israel Institute for Biological Research and the Israel Defense Forces – especially for pilots, intelligence personnel, special forces and nuclear scientists. The damage caused by the breaches doesn’t end with exposure of information: Exposure of such data also enables potentially hostile elements to access additional sources of information, and to cross-check sensitive details including license plate numbers, personal and corporate assets and confidential medical information.

The potential damage is enormous. This is a gold mine for enemies like Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence, as well as for intelligence agencies that are more or less friendly to Israel.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52997.htm

Israel Confident Friendly ICC Members Will Block Palestine Probe

Brazil, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Australia -all Israeli allies- applied to file legal opinions to the ICC against the Palestinian case.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Sunday “efforts” by friendly states to block the International Criminal Court (ICC) from launching an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by his country against the Palestinians in their occupied territories.

RELATED:

Netanyahu Pledges ICC Investigation Won’t Impede Settlements

Netanyahu told his cabinet that countries had responded to Israeli lobbying over the launching of the investigation.

“We are struggling against this [proceeding] and, at our side, I must say, are many friends around the world [which] joined the U.S. [United States] in a steadfast stand alongside Israel.”

Despite Israel and the U.S., not being members of the ICC, both countries are now allowing themselves to dispute the court’s jurisdiction, arguing a Palestinian state does not exist.

ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced last year in December the existence of “a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation,” and added that the probe would be carried out in occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the besieged Gaza Strip.

Bensouda also declared that Israeli settlements in Palestinian lands may constitute a war crime.

But, according to ICC records, Brazil, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Australia -all Israeli allies- applied to file legal opinions to the court over the case.

Germany said it would posit that the court has no jurisdiction to probe possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories because Palestine is not considered a state and Brazil said it would argue it’s not the court’s role to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which should be resolved through political negotiations.

RELATED:

Israeli Minister Calls for Elimination of Palestinian Authority

Fifty-seven Muslim states represented by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) asked to file a legal brief, arguing that the Palestinians have sovereignty over the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian Bar Association, the International Commission of Jurists and other legal and human rights organization have also asked to file briefs with the court to say it does have jurisdiction in this case.

The Palestinians signed the ICC’s founding Rome Statute​​​​​​​ in 2015 and were then accepted as a member of the court, on the base of their United Nations “observer state” status.

The court’s move to start an investigation followed a request they made in May 2018, urging it “to investigate […] past, ongoing and future crimes committed in all parts of the territory of the State of Palestine.”

A probe could result in charges against individuals, as states cannot be prosecuted.

The ICC started its functions in 2002 to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Israel-Confident-ICC-Friendly-Members-Will-Block-Palestinian-Probe-20200216-0011.html

US Boy Scouts files for bankruptcy after abuse scandal

Washington (AFP) – The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in what it said was an effort to safeguard compensation payouts for sexual abuse victims.

The organization has been accused of covering up generations of abuse inflicted on thousands of its young members and failing to do enough to root out pedophiles using the youth movement to prey on minors over its 110-year history.

Bankruptcy proceedings will help the Boy Scouts to “equitably compensate” victims through the establishment of a victims’ compensation trust and allow the organization to continue at a local level, a statement from the group said.

“The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting,” chief executive Roger Mosby said in the statement.

The organization estimates liabilities of up to $1 billion, according to court filings lodged Tuesday.

The national Boy Scouts council and its affiliated local councils together hold nearly $5 billion in assets including landholdings, according to a Wall Street Journal report last month.

Local councils hold around two-thirds of the organization’s assets, which the Journal said could be shielded from creditors under the bankruptcy plan, limiting the group’s overall exposure to sexual abuse lawsuits.

More than 12,000 members of the Boy Scouts had been sexually abused in the organization since 1944, victims’ lawyer Jeff Anderson said last year.

He also said files maintained by the Boy Scouts listed more than 7,800 alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse.

The existence of that documentation — known as the “perversion files” and listing scoutmasters or troop leaders accused of sexual abuse — was first revealed in a 2012 court case.

At the time the organization admitted its response to the scandal had been “plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong”, and said it had overhauled its procedures to protect members.

“The BSA today has some of the strongest, expert-informed youth protection policies found in any youth-serving organization, including mandatory youth protection training and background checks for all volunteers and staff,” the organization said Tuesday.

– Growing number of lawsuits –

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America currently has around 2.2 million members between the ages of five and 21.

Lawsuits against the group have multiplied in recent years, thanks in part to state legislative changes that have increased the statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse against minors.

The bankruptcy plan was first mooted in 2018, the Journal reported, as the organization struggled with declining members and rising costs.

Abused in Scouting, a network of law firms representing victims, said the bankruptcy proceedings could spell the end of the Boy Scouts.

“It’s going to be a mess. If it takes a long period of time, it’s an open question whether the Boy Scouts will have any resources to keep operating while the bankruptcy is pending,” attorney Tim Kosnoff said in a statement for the lawyers’ network earlier in February.

The Boy Scouts had attempted to stay solvent by raising membership fees and mortgaging properties, Abused in Scouting said.

https://www.breitbart.com/news/us-boy-scouts-files-for-bankruptcy-after-abuse-scandal/

WHO Director Tedros receives bogus award in Ireland instead of doing his job

Seriously he has to go. He has time to post on twitter while the world gets sick. He has time to travel to Ireland for a bogus award while the world gets sick.

Dude is bought and paid for.

First comment in his twitter “GO TO WUHAN”

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/who-director-tedros-receives-bogus-award-in-ireland-instead-of-doing-his-job/

Awarded for corona roll out?

2.5M Pounds of Radioactive Waste Illegally Dumped in Oregon Landfill

The Oregon Department of Energy has issued a notice of violation to a hazardous waste facility for accepting more than 2 million pounds of radioactive materials east of the Columbia River Gorge.

Chemical Waste Management, a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., was illegally dumping radioactive materials it received from a North Dakota company, Goodnight Midstream, at its waste landfill near Arlington, Oregon.

Chemical Waste Management is the only hazardous waste landfill in Oregon and according to the ODOE, Oregon law prohibits the disposal of radioactive materials in the state.

“We received an inquiry from a citizen from North Dakota in September who was under the impression fracking waste from North Dakota was being disposed of in an Oregon landfill,” ODOE’s assistant director for nuclear safety Ken Niles said.

The agency found that Chemical Waste Management dumped nearly 1,284 tons of radioactive waste it received from Goodnight Midstream over a period of three years, totaling over 2.5 million pounds.

Goodnight Midstream provides brine water supply and recycling services to the oil and gas industry for fracking operations. The liquid that Chemical Waste Management had received had been in contact with rocks underground that contained radium, said ODOE’s nuclear waste remediation specialist Jeff Burright.

“Then they filtered that water so that they can reuse it, that radium was captured in what are known as filter socks, which are very long teabags if you will, and it accumulated there and what we’ve gathered is about 80% of the total waste consisted of these filter socks,” Burright said.

Oregon has a threshold of five picocuries per gram of radium 226. Picocuries are a measurement of the radioactivity in a liter of air.

“The waste that was received at Chemical Waste Management Arlington had a range of concentrations over the time running from just a few picocuries per gram up to the maximum in about one and half tons total was around 1,700 picocuries per gram,” Burright said.

Initially, Chemical Waste Management had no records of a relationship with Goodnight Midstream. But it was later confirmed that the North Dakota company contracted a third party, Oilfield Waste Logistics, to dispose of its solid waste. Shipping manifests showed that OWL was sending Goodnight Midstream’s waste to Arlington.

“OWL basically misrepresented the fact that this waste could come into Oregon. … In the manifest that they provided to Chemical Waste Management Arlington, it basically said that this waste does fit within Oregon’s regulations,” Niles said. “The other part of the problem is that Chemical Waste Management did not do their due diligence to ensure what they were being told by OWL was in fact accurate.”

ODOE’s notice of violation has directed Chemical Waste Management to prepare a risk assessment to develop a corrective action plan to prevent recurrence. This will also help determine the best and safest course of action for the waste that is already buried in the landfill near the Columbia River.

ODOE hasn’t issued any fines associated with the illegal dumping of radioactive waste. Officials said it doesn’t meet the criteria that would qualify for a fine. ODOE expects the risk assessment action plan to be submitted by the end of April.

“This is the first time that we’ve had an incident like this that we have become aware that radioactive material has been brought into the state and illegally disposed in violation of our rules,” Niles said.

Dan Serres from the Columbia Riverkeeper said the news of the illegal dumping of fracking waste is a serious violation of the public trust and it’s a huge risk for Oregonians.

“It’s seems unacceptable that Oregon can be used as a radioactive fracking waste dump for three years,” Serres said.

“Oregon is trying to move in the direction of clean energy and what this tells us is, it is urgently important to stop using fracked gas and fracked oil as quickly as possible, because of these health risks that come with fracking to workers and communities where this toxic material is being dumped,” Serres said.

Waste Management Inc. officials said in a written statement that they are cooperating with state regulators and are committed to improving the procedures they use to ensure they’re complying with Oregon law. They said they now send waste samples to an independent technical experts for analysis prior to accepting it.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/2-5m-pounds-radioactive-waste-illegally-dumped-oregon-landfill/5703840

NATO Has No Plans to Provide Military Support to Turkey in Syria’s Idlib

Even the Trump admin is offering rhetorical and political support only (albeit that's bad enough)

NATO has no plans to provide Ankara with military support if Turkey launches a military operation in northern Syria, a diplomatic source from a NATO country told TASS on Monday.

“NATO countries will not support the invocation of Article 5 over the death of Turkish troops in Idlib in early February,” the source pointed out. According to him, NATO is not considering the possibility of providing Turkey with military assistance in the event of a military operation in the region. The diplomat said that the death of Turkish troops in Idlib was a tragedy but it had taken place during a unilateral military operation on foreign soil, which goes beyond Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty. He added that the fact was clear to Turkey as well, which is why Ankara had not tried to initiate NATO consultations on the matter.

As for the possibility of a Turkish military operation aimed at halting the advance of Syrian government forces in Idlib and assisting illegal armed groups in retaining control of certain parts of the province, the source noted that as a NATO member, Turkey had the political support of other member states but there were no plans to provide Ankara with military assistance.

The diplomat emphasized that not all NATO members shared Turkey’s goals in Syria and Libya, and the issue of providing military support to Turkey had not been raised at a meeting of NATO defense ministers on February 12-13.

The situation in the Syrian province of Idlib escalated after the Russian and Turkish militaries had made another attempt to ensure a ceasefire. In response, terrorists increased attacks, killing both Russian and Turkish military experts. The Syrian army took action against extremists, seizing the town of Saraqib on February 5. On February 7, Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper reported that three out of 12 Turkish observation points were located in areas controlled by Damascus.

On the morning of February 11, Syrian opposition forces supported by Turkey launched large-scale attacks on Syrian government troops, particularly on Saraqib and the Nayrab settlement. The fighting also involved supporters of the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group (outlawed in Russia). Syrian troops thwarted the attacks, while militants suffered substantial losses.

https://www.anti-empire.com/nato-has-no-plans-to-provide-military-support-to-turkey-in-syrias-idlib/

Libyan Rivals Readying for Long Fight

Weapons flood into the country as war looks set to escalate

With more weapons flooding into the country and no real peace talks, the various combatant factions in Libya are all gearing up for a protracted civil war. This is true both of the large groups, like Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and the UN-backed unity government, and smaller tribal groups.

With fighting looking to get worse, not better, the oil ports of Libya are under a state of blockade, with LNA forces and allies controlling the area, and everyone demanding a bigger cut of revenue to let the unity government restore shipments.

UN efforts to keep arms out of the country are failing miserably, and now every group sees new fighting as inevitable and is snatching up as many weapons for themselves as possible before that new round of violence.

And while a lot of the focus right now is on the influx of weapons, the fighting also threatens to drag a number of other countries in. Turkey is backing the unity government, and throwing Syrian rebels into the country to fight as well. The LNA, on the other hand, has allies from across the Middle East, s well as support from Russia.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/02/17/libyan-rivals-readying-for-long-fight/

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense Submitted Historic Case Against U.S. Government for Children Injured by Wireless Technology Radiation

CHD Chairman, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will lead the legal team with seasoned telecommunications and administrative law attorney Scott McCollough.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is leading a historic legal action against the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) for its refusal to review their 25 year old guidelines, and to promulgate scientific, human evidence-based radio frequency emissions (“RF”) rules that adequately protect public health from wireless technology radiation. The Petition contends the agency’s actions are capricious and not evidence-based. The Petition was filed on 2/2/2020 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The Petitioners include parents of children injured by wireless devices, a mother whose son died from a brain tumor from cell tower exposure, physicians who see the epidemic of sickness in their clinics and Professor David Carpenter, a renowned scientist.

“This action represents the first time in 25 years that we finally can expose the FCC fecklessness in court, and give those who have been injured by the FCC’s disregard for human health a voice,” says Dafna Tachover, CHD’s Director of Stop 5G & Wireless Harms.

In 1996, the FCC, responsible for regulating the safety of wireless technology, adopted guidelines which only protect consumers from thermal levels of wireless harm, ignoring substantial evidence of profound harms from non-thermal levels. The FCC hasn’t reviewed its guidelines since, despite clear scientific evidence and growing rates of RF related sickness.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/children-health-defense-submitted-historic-case-against-u-s-government-wireless-harms/5703845

Far Left Democrat Chris Murphy Admits to Meeting Secretly with Iranian Foreign Minister in Germany — Defies Trump Administration

In early January the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike.

Following the death of Commander Soleimani Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lashed out at President Trump for assassinating the Iranian al-Quds terrorist leader who was responsible for the deaths and maiming of HUNDREDS of US soldiers.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/far-left-democrat-chris-murphy-admits-to-meeting-secretly-with-iranian-foreign-minister-in-germany-defies-trump-administration/

Russia Becomes First Country To Ban All Chinese From Entering

Update (1300ET): In a landmark decision, Russia has temporarily banned Chinese from entry as of Feb. 20, becoming the first country to ban all Chinese from entry in response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to Russian news agency TASS.

• • *

Update (0840ET): Global Times editor Hu Xijin, a government mouthpiece whose tweets were closely followed during the 'Phase 1' trade-deal negotiations, is touting China's dubious data as a sign that the Communist Party is winning the 'People's War' against COVID-19.

Last night, the western press exposed the Americans for breaking Japan's quarantine on the 'Diamond Princess' by ferrying some 14 infected individuals to the US. But with one day left to go before the Japanese government ends its quarantine and releases thousands of terrified and paranoid passengers into the streets of Tokyo.

On Tuesday, another 88 passengers from the Diamond Princess were diagnosed with the virus, bringing the total to 542.

Japan has completed tests for all passengers and crew aboard the ship as of Monday, but the results for the last batch of tests aren't expected until Wednesday, the day that the quarantine is slated to end. So far, results are back for 2,404 passengers and crew, out of the 3,711 who were on board the ship when the quarantine began on Feb. 5.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday that people who have tested negative for the virus would start leaving on Wednesday, but that the process of releasing passengers and crew won't be finished until Friday, according to the Washington Post.

The remaining 61 American passengers on the DP who opted not to join the evacuation will not be allowed to return to the US until March 4, according to the American embassy in Tokyo. The governments of Australia, Hong Kong and Canada have also said they would evacuate passengers.

Elsewhere, Japan confirmed three more cases of the virus. This time, they were confirmed in Wakayama, a prefecture in eastern Japan.

In the latest indication that the 14-day quarantine simply wasn't enough to kill the virus, a British couple has tested positive for the virus just one day before Japanese authorities are set to release everybody from quarantine, according to the Guardian.

"David and Sally Abel, a British couple onboard the Diamond Princess cruise liner in Japan, have tested positive for coronavirus, a day before passengers who tested negative were due to start leaving the ship after spending two weeks in quarantine."

Including all of the cases announced overnight, there are now 73,336 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide, compared with 1,874 deaths.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/japan-confirms-88-more-cases-aboard-diamond-princess-one-day-quarantine-set-end

California Wants to Exempt LGBT Child Rapists from Sex-Offender Registry

Lawmakers in California are working on legislation that would exempt some homosexual and transgender child rapists from the state's sex-offender registry, leaving registration up to the discretion of the individual judge.

And considering the make-up of California's far-left judiciary and the broader state government, it is virtually a certainty that many child-raping homosexuals and transgenders will be left off the list of sex-offenders.

The bill, dubbed “LGBTQ Young People Nondiscrimination in the Sex Offender Registry Act,” is ludicrously being described by proponents as a “civil rights” issue, as if there were a civil right for adult homosexuals to sodomize children.

Under the legislation, a 24-year-old grown man would be able to sodomize a 14-year-old boy and claim it was “consensual.” Of course, 14-year-old children cannot consent to sodomy — or vote, smoke, drink, drive, sign contracts, and so on — because they are children.

Right now, homosexual or transgender rapists who rape and sodomize children are automatically added to the state's sex-offender registry. This helps alert the local community to the dangers lurking in their midst.

Under the bill, though, state judges would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to add the rapists into the registry, if the victim was within 10 years of the perpetrator. That is how the state currently treats vaginal intercourse, and so, hiding behind “equality,” the LGBT lobby wants sodomy-based rape protected, too.

Even some Democrats thought that was too much to swallow. “No sex between a 24 and 14 year old is consensual,” explained Assemblyman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat, when temporarily blocking the widely criticized legislation last year.

But California's sexual revolutionaries, led by vicious homosexual activist group “Equality California,” exploded in outrage when their bill was blocked. That's because the state's perversion lobby is doing everything possible to protect child predators — and to normalize pedophilia, too.

For instance, under the guise of complying with an Equality California-backed statute mandating LGBT indoctrination of children, government schools were caught using a curriculum that included ancient Greek child rape as part of LGBT “history.”

When an outraged mother complained at a public meeting, the Assistant Superintendent of Curricula for the district, Kerrie Torres, dropped a bombshell that sparked a national scandal (and a half-baked cover up by the perverts running the fake fact-checking service Snopes).

“This is done because we are talking about historical perspectives of how gender relations and different types of sexual orientations have existed in history,” said Torres about why pedophilia was being taught to young children. “It's something that occurred in history, and so this is really important for us to include.”

https://freedomproject.com/the-newman-report/1320-california-wants-to-exempt-lgbt-child-rapists-from-sex-offender-registry

Taliban: Afghanistan Peace Deal Terms Finalized

US, Taliban expected to finalize deal before month's end

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen reported on Monday that the US and Taliban have finalized the language of the Afghanistan peace deal. The US has not confirmed this yet, but had indicated in recent days that such a deal was imminent.

Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah confirmed the deal is finalized, saying that his understanding is that the signature depends on the success of the reduction of violence. If all goes well, the deal should be signed by all sides by the end of February.

The exact language of the deal has never been public, though indications are that it was effectively finalized in October of last year and has not substantially changed. The deal sees the US commit to a withdrawal from Afghanistan, negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and a commitment by the Taliban to fight al-Qaeda and ISIS to keep them out of the country.

The deal should end a 19-year US occupation of Afghanistan, and bring American troops home. It is expected that NATO forces will be withdrawing with the US, and the Afghan factions will reach a power-sharing deal.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/02/17/taliban-afghanistan-peace-deal-terms-finalized/

European Defense Funding Takes $1.5 Billion Hit in Pentagon Budget Request

Funding for European defense against Russia faces a sizable reduction in the Pentagon's fiscal 2021 budget request as the administration continues to push for NATO allies to invest more deeply in their own defense.

Under the Defense Department's budget plan rolled out Feb. 10, funds for the European Defense Initiative would be cut from $6 billion to $4.5 billion. But Elaine McCusker, acting under secretary of defense (comptroller), said the reduction did not reflect any lessening of U.S. commitment to the alliance. She also noted that funding for the Ukraine Security Initiative, within that, was the same as this year's enacted amount.

"We have $250 million for Ukraine security initiative in the budget request, which is actually the same as what we had last year," she said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeared eager to get past the charges and counter-charges that emerged from the President Donald Trump impeachment process in order to focus on ending the war with the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine with continued U.S. support.

At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Zelensky said he looked forward to an eventual White House visit, and said Trump was welcome to come to Ukraine.

McCusker noted that the U.S. this month began participation in the NATO "Defender Europe 2020" training exercise, involving the largest deployment of U.S.-based forces to Europe in 25 years.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/18/european-defense-funding-takes-15-billion-hit-pentagon-budget-request.html

Top intelligence community lawyer leaving position

Jason Klitenic, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) whose handling of a government whistleblower complaint helped spur the House's impeachment inquiry into President Trump, is stepping down from his post, an agency spokeswoman told Politico.

Klitenic is planning to exit ODNI in early March, the news outlet reported, adding that it is unclear what led to his departure from the agency. ODNI did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

Klitenic's announced departure comes less than a month before the deadline for acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire to exit his position. A federal law that limits how long an official can serve as acting DNI prevents Maguire from serving past March 11.

Maguire and Klitenic's decision to block the dissemination of a government whistleblower complaint that Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson deemed "urgent" sparked outrage from Democratic lawmakers last September.

The complaint, which was later released publicly, focused on Trump's dealings with Ukraine and alleged that the president had pressured the nation to announce investigations of his political rivals. It was at the center of the House's eventual vote to impeach Trump.

Klitenic said in a letter to Atkinson at the time that Maguire consulted with the Justice Department and determined that the complaint was not authorized for congressional disclosure because it "did not concern allegations of conduct by a member of the Intelligence Community or involve an intelligence activity under the DNI’s supervision."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) requested the whistleblower complaint after first learning that Atkinson dubbed it "urgent." But Klitenic later responded by noting that DNI had consulted with the Justice Department and determined that the documents did not meet the criteria for public disclosure.

"Based on those consultations, we determined that the allegations did not fall within the statutory definition of an 'urgent concern' and that the statute did not require the complaint to be transmitted to the intelligence committees," Klitenic said in a September letter to House and Senate Intelligence committee leaders.

He also said in that letter that the contents of the complaint included "potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/483462-top-intelligence-community-lawyer-leaving-position

Michigan parents upset over graphic child rape, gay sex scenes in school books for 10 year olds

Parents in Grand Haven, Michigan recently got a glimpse of some of the books local schools are promoting to their kids, and they’re not impressed.

In recent months, several parents have spoken out at school board meetings about novels involving graphic gay sex scenes, child rape, and the normalization of sexual perversion in the LGBTQ lifestyle that are assigned to students as young as 10 years old.

The parents offered suggestions and assistance to help local officials weed through inappropriate content and devise a system for flagging potentially offensive materials parents should know about.

But so far, district leaders have largely ignored the issue by shifting the burden of censoring school libraries to parents, as liberal religious figures in the community malign their concerned neighbors as misinformed bigots.

Jennifer Lee Stuppy, mother of a sixth-grader at Lakeshore Middle School, explained to board members last month that she reviewed a seven-page list of LGBTQ books, including some with sexually explicit content warnings, sent to parents in December. Stuppy highlighted excerpts from one of the books, “One Man Guy” by Michael Barakiva.

“When I got the book, I was stunned by what I read thinking about kids ages 10 and 11 reading this book,” Stuppy said. “The book is about a 14 year old boy, Alek, and his romantic encounter with an older sexually experienced, 17-year-old Ethan. Ethan details a sexual relationship he had with a college student who lived in his home when he was only 15 years old himself. Now it’s a few years later and an older, sexually experienced, Ethan is pursuing 14 year old Alek.”

“The book talks about how to steal from stores, which teachers they’d like to ‘bang.’ And the thrill Alek experiences in a clothing store dressing room having older Ethan looking at his 14 year old naked body, making out with him, with people nearby. One scene leads the reader to believe an older Ethan will give oral sex or anal sex to 14 year old Alek right as his parents walk in.”

“This sexually explicit content, whether gay or straight, in my opinion, has no business being in the hands of 5th and 6th graders who are 10-12 year old minors.”

Stuppy planned to read several of the more graphic excerpts at the meeting, but opted against the idea because of children at the school board meeting. Instead, she shared her written testimony along with the explicit clips directly to board members.

https://www.thedailysheeple.com/michigan-parents-upset-over-graphic-child-rape-gay-sex-scenes-in-school-books-for-10-year-olds/

PM warns Hamas of ‘big surprise’ amid reports Israel planned to kill its leaders

Meanwhile, report claims Egypt persuaded Israel to hold off on assassinating Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and head of military wing, Marwan Issa

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the military was planning a “big surprise” for Hamas if the terrorist group failed to rein in violence aimed at southern Israel, amid reports that Israel is contemplating the assassination of two senior Hamas leaders.

In a pre-election interview with Army Radio, Netanyahu said: “Hamas and the other terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad, whose commander [Baha Abu al-Ata] we eliminated a few weeks ago, have to understand that either there is complete quiet and they rein in the rogue factions — shoot them in the knees, that’s the way — or we will have no choice but to launch our operational programs. I can’t share what they are, but I can say it will be a big surprise.”

The prime minister said he would not subject any decision on Gaza to “political timetables,” with the March 2 election less than two weeks away, adding that he would “choose the right time to take action.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-warns-hamas-of-big-surprise-amid-reports-israel-planned-to-kill-its-leaders/

Barr’s “Outside Prosecutors” and the FISC Sequestration Agreement…

When the FISA Court responded to the DOJ Inspector General report in December and January 2020 they requested an action plan from the DOJ and FBI to respond to the issues raised about misrepresentations to the court.

The DOJ/FBI replied to the FISA Court admitting the last two FISA renewals (April, June ’17) used against Carter Page were insufficiency predicated while withholding opinion on the original application (Oct ’16) and first renewal (Jan ’17).

To address the consequences of fraudulently obtained FISA warrants the DOJ and FBI informed the court they would begin a process to “sequester” all collected evidence from all four FISA warrants. [FISA COURT LINK]

Sequestering the evidence is essentially a search for what investigative material the FISA warrants were used to obtain; ie. the search for the fruit of the poisoned tree; and then a review of all DOJ/FBI cases that may have utilized that investigative material.

In late January the DOJ contacted the FISA court and asked for an extension to the deadline. The FISA court granted an extension until February 5th [LINK] The response from the DOJ has not yet been declassified or released by the FISC for public review.

However, with recent media reporting of AG Barr using “outside prosecutors” to review current, former and ongoing cases, it simply makes sense this ‘outsider’ effort is part of the DOJ/FBI sequestration review.

If you consider that several DOJ offices may be involved with the material under review, including the Southern District of New York; The Eastern District of New York; The Eastern District of Virginia; The Washington DC District, and even Main Justice itself; it makes sense that outside DOJ personnel would be needed for this review.

Additionally, all of the various FBI field offices who may have used the FISA authorizations as the underpinning evidence to gain separate Title-1 and/or Title-3 warrants, wiretaps or National Security Letters, in their various investigative cases would also need to be reviewed. This is an aspect the media is not discussing while they write opinions about AG Bill Barr bringing in outside DOJ attorneys.

The media are framing the use of outside attorneys as Bill Barr working on behalf of President Trump to undermine current and former prosecutions. However, understanding the FISC order requiring the sequestration effort, the use of outsiders is absolutely necessary.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/18/barrs-outside-prosecutors-and-the-fisc-sequestration-agreement/

Turkey Denies Destruction of Its Vessel in Port of Tripoli

Ankara previously deployed military advisors and instructors to Libya to support the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar.

Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Ankara can't confirm claims that its vessel has been destroyed in the port of Tripoli, Libya.

"The ship was fired at, but there was no hit. Multiple shots were fired in return. I can say that after this the situation calmed down," Kalin told reporters.

The statement comes hours after the Libyan National Army (LNA) said in an official statement on Facebook that its forces had destroyed a Turkish vessel, carrying weapons and ammunition that was docked in the port of Tripoli. According to the LNA, by delivering the cargo, Ankara has violated an international agreement banning arms sales to the country.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202002181078342678-haftar-led-libyan-national-army-says-it-destroyed-a-turkish-vessel-with-weapons-in-port-of-tripoli/

The War on Dissent: FBI Gives Man 6 Months in Prison For His Political Beliefs

Fred C. Arena, a former employee of the Navy Yard in Philadelphia with no criminal record, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for the process crime of "lying to the FBI."

According to the indictment, Arena had filled out an electronic questionnaire to obtain a national security clearance for his job. On it, there he answered "no" to a question asking if he was a member of a group or organization that uses violence to deny the constitutional rights of others.

The FBI claims that Arena was lying and was a member of the nationalist group Vanguard America due to photographs they uncovered of him posing with alleged members. Federal informants were also apparently in communication with Arena on Facebook, where he admitted to attending the 2017 Charlottesville march. Vanguard America, by August 2018, when Arena was interviewed about his supposed membership, was largely defunct and has never been officially designated a criminal or terrorist organization.

The FBI never provided any hard evidence that Arena was an official member of Vanguard, but FBI prosecutor William McSwain - a "partner" of the non-governmental Israeli lobby group the Anti-Defamation League - decided to bring him up on federal charges of "lying to the FBI" over this supposed omission, along with stacking Arena with fillers like forgetting that he had a car repossessed six years ago in an interview.

What is most shocking about this case is that US Attorney McSwain called on Judge David R. Strawbridge to deny Arena bail, which the judge agreed to. Arena had no criminal history and lying to the FBI is not a violent crime, but McSwain argued that Arena's constitutionally protected nationalist beliefs were "dangerous," and that he should be stuck in solitary confinement, where he has remained since November 2019.

The FBI and various unscrupulous judges enabling them have been using the denial of bail for minor offenses as a way to torture political dissidents in solitary confinement until they plea, or in other words, sign confessions for crimes they are not guilty of. The FBI's case against Arena was transparently political and testing it in open court would've exposed this, but under the plea agreement, the defendant may be finally allowed to go home by April, so he complied.

The inability of dissidents to access fundraising and banking platforms for crowd funded legal support has allowed the FBI a free hand to violate our constitutional rights. This is how capital, the controlled media and the state have colluded since Trump's election to make the Constitution and rule of law nothing more than a museum mantle piece in order to ensure a populist movement can never rise again. Without erecting a powerful legal network to defend the vulnerable, the purge will continue.

With the abuse of Roger Stone by the FBI and its careerist prosecutors in the headlines, the public has been increasingly noticing that politically-motivated abuses like this are rampant. The FBI has been exposed as little more than a secret police agency. Just like the FBI has been using the criminal system to politically retaliate against Paul Manafort and Roger Stone for helping Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, they have gone off the rails in their paranoid crusade to terrorize critics of permanent Washington's increasingly unpopular state ideology.

https://national-justice.com/war-dissent-fbi-gives-man-6-months-prison-his-political-beliefs

Putin on Globalization, Bonehead Elites and the Ever-Shrinking Middle Class

Globalization is one of the great issues of our time. The erasure of national borders, the weakening of sovereign governments and the impoverishment of workers across the developed world has triggered a massive populist backlash that threatens to roll back the economic-integration scheme that places Capital at the head of a new global order. Widespread social unrest, deepening political polarization, and the relentless rise of right-wing parties have put a damper on a process aimed at transforming the world into an unregulated free trade zone overseen by Central Bankers and corporate mandarins. The future of that project is now very much in doubt.

The basic problem with globalization is not hard to grasp. The giant corporations have outsourced millions of high-paying manufacturing jobs to low wage platforms across Asia leaving behind thousands of shuttered factories and broken communities, a sharp spike in opiate addiction, and the steady erosion of living standards. Author Paul Craig Roberts predicted Globalization’s devastating fallout 15 years ago in a series of articles at Counterpunch. Here’s an excerpt from one of those articles:

“Corporations offshored or outsourced abroad their manufacturing output, thus divorcing American incomes from the production of the goods that they consume. The next step in the process took advantage of the high speed Internet to move professional service jobs, such as engineering, abroad. The third step was to replace the remains of the domestic work force with foreigners brought in at one-third the salary on H-1B, L-1, and other work visas.

This process by which financial capital destroyed the job prospects of Americans was covered up by “free market” economists, who received grants from offshoring firms in exchange for propaganda that Americans would benefit from a “New Economy” based on financial services, and by shills in the education business, who justified work visas for foreigners on the basis of the lie that America produces a shortage of engineers and scientists….

The immiseration of working people has not resulted from worsening crises of over-production of goods and services, but from financial capital’s power to force the relocation of production for domestic markets to foreign shores. Wall Street’s pressures, including pressures from takeovers, forced American manufacturing firms to “increase shareholders’ earnings.” This was done by substituting cheap foreign labor for American labor.” (“Marx and Lenin Reconsidered” Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch)

https://russia-insider.com/en/putin-globalization-bonehead-elites-and-ever-shrinking-middle-class/ri28307

President Trump to Commute Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s Sentence

President Trump is expected to commute former Illinois Governor Rod “Blago” Blagojevich’s sentence, according to the New York Times and ABC.

President Trump previously floated the idea of commuting Blago’s sentence, claiming the charges against him were “unfair.”

“We’re looking at it,” he said. “I feel very badly. I think he was very harshly sentenced, but we’re looking at it very strongly. People feel very strongly about that. I floated it and I wanted to see where the Democrats stood, where the Republicans stood. People feel very strongly about Rod Blagojevich’s sentence. He’s been in there for seven and a half years. That’s a long time and what he did was terrible, but it’s a long time,” Trump previously said.

Blago’s wife has recently appeared on Fox News begging President Trump to pardon her husband after he has served more than 7 years of his 14 year sentence.

Recall, Blago was prosecuted and convicted for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Barack Obama lied when he denied having any knowledge of Blagojevich’s efforts to sell his Senate seat after he won the presidential election in 2008.

“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening,” President-elect Barack Obama said in a statement in December 2008.

But Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod contradicted Obama’s statements on Blago and his vacant senate seat.

“I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them,” Axelrod said in November of 2008 in a media interview.

Axelrod then walked back his statement to cover for Barack Obama.

“I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject,” said Axelrod.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/breaking-president-trump-to-commute-former-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevichs-sentence/

Feds Arrest Crooked State Democrat David Nangle in Massachusetts — He Was Sitting on House Ethics Committee

Federal authorities arrested Massachusetts state Democrat David Nangle Tuesday on several corruption charges.

Nangle is a compulsive gambler.

MassLive reported:

Massachusetts State Rep. David Nangle, who is accused of using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, had “regular cash flow problems as a result of extensive gambling,” federal prosecutors said in court records.

The Democratic state representative was arrested Tuesday on several charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, filing false tax returns and making false statements to a bank…

…“Despite his salary and perks, Nangle was heavily in debt, had poor credit (with a credit score reported as low as 593), and had regular cash flow problems as a result of extensive gambling at various casinos…,” federal prosecutors said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/feds-arrests-crooked-state-democrat-david-nangle-in-massachusetts-who-was-sitting-on-house-ethics-committee/

‘We will have papa and mamma’: Putin says no to gay ‘marriage’ in Russia

President Putin said the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman should be added to the Russian constitution.

RUSSIA, February 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the traditional definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman should be added to the Russian constitution, adding that under his leadership Russia would not adopt terms such “parent number 1” and “parent number 2.”

Putin made the comments last Thursday at a meeting to discuss Russian constitutional reform. During a discussion on family values in Russia, conservative lawmaker, Olga Batalina, said that some people would like the word “family” to be defined in the constitution as a “union of a man and a woman.”

“We need to clarify some things. A marriage is a union of a man and woman,” Putin responded. “'A family is a different thing, but the idea is right and it should be supported. We need to only think about how to formulate it and where.”

Batalina also claimed that the family is under attack from attempts to introduce new terms like “parent number one” and “parent number two.”

“This is not fantasy, this is reality in some countries,” she said.

Putin responded: “As for ‘parent #1’ and ‘parent #2’, I have already publicly said it and I will repeat it once more: as long as I am president, we will not have parents #1 and #2, we will have ‘papa’ and ‘mamma.’”

Last year France passed a law requiring that schools replace the words “mother” and “father” in their documents with “parent 1” and “parent 2.” In Italy in 2018, then Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, ordered that the words “parent 1” and “parent 2” be deleted from online government forms and replaced with “mother” and “father.”

In 2013 Putin signed a bill to outlaw the promotion of homosexuality, “same-sex marriage,” and Gay Pride parades throughout the Russian Federation. The law imposes stiff fines or prison terms for spreading “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.” He also supported measures to stop same-sex couples “married” overseas from adopting children in Russia.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/we-will-have-papa-and-mamma-putin-says-no-to-gay-marriage-in-russia

Iran’s ayatollah claims 'wealthy Zionists' control America

Khamenei also claims the US “Deal of the Century” is “satanic” and that it includes the “Jewishization” of Jerusalem.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday claimed “wealthy Zionists” control America.

America has reached the “peak of arrogance,” and it is controlled by “corporate owners,” which makes it a “manifestation of oppression, abhorred by the world,” he said in a tweet.

Attacking Zionists is the Iranian regime’s usual rhetoric. But claiming that “Zionists” control America is intended to push antisemitic conspiracy theories while hiding behind its official anti-Israel line.

The official slogan of some of Iran’s allies, such as the Houthis in Yemen, is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews.”

Khamenei wrote the tweet as part of Iran’s commemoration of the US killing of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

The Iranian leader has slammed Jews before. He claims the US “Deal of the Century” is “satanic” and that it includes the “Jewishization” of Jerusalem.

On February 8, he tweeted: “Banu Nadir Jews, Quran says that God struck the enemies a blow from where they didn’t expect it.” He connected this “blow” against “the Jews” with recent Iranian actions. The Banu Nadir was a Jewish tribe in Arabia at the time of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.

Last year, the ayatollah said Iran is not antisemitic and that Jews live safely in Iran. In June 2019, he contrasted Iran’s treatment of Jews with “certain old Arab leaders who believed Jews should be thrown into the sea.”

He says Iran is only opposed to the “Zionist” regime.

https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Irans-Ayatollah-claims-wealthy-Zionists-control-America-617970

Israel to expand Gaza fishing zone, add entry permits

Military liaison to the Palestinians says fresh set of leniencies coming into effect is contingent upon maintaining calm from recent days

Israel will extend the fishing zone off the Gaza Strip back to 15 nautical miles from the coast and provide additional 2,000 entry permits from the Strip into Israel following a period of relative calm, according to a statement by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) on Tuesday.

This fresh set of leniencies raises the total number of permits to an unprecedented 7,000.

The decision lifts a new host of sanctions recently imposed on the coastal enclave following a period of heightened tensions, which included regular rocket fire and the launching of explosive devices into Israel using balloons.

The sanctions include restricting the permitted fishing zone down to 10 nautical miles and cutting some 500 entry permits for merchants into Israel from Gaza.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ByUP00tt78

>>8175237

Hmmmmmmmmm