The Military is Afraid of Climate Change
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-military-is-afraid-of-climate-change
President Trump is skeptical of climate change and its link to extreme weather events, but the U.S. Department of Defense takes the threat deadly serious. The Pentagon is fortifying military bases...
Tiens, Trump se pose des questions sur le #Venezuela, au moins sur la stratégie suivie jusque là, avec le succès que l’on sait…
A frustrated Trump questions his administration’s Venezuela strategy - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-frustrated-trump-questions-his-administrations-venezuela-strategy/2019/05/08/ad51561a-71a7-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html
President Trump is questioning his administration’s aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure, according to administration officials and White House advisers.
The president’s dissatisfaction has crystallized around national security adviser John Bolton and what Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.
Trump has said in recent days that Bolton wants to get him “into a war” — a comment that he has made in jest in the past but that now betrays his more serious concerns, one senior administration official said.
The administration’s policy is officially unchanged in the wake of a fizzled power play last week by U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó. But U.S. officials have since been more cautious in their predictions of Maduro’s swift exit, while reassessing what one official described as the likelihood of a diplomatic “long haul.”
U.S. officials point to the president’s sustained commitment to the Venezuela issue, from the first weeks of his presidency as evidence that he holds a realistic view of the challenges there and does not think there is a quick fix.
But Trump has nonetheless complained over the past week that Bolton and others underestimated Maduro, according to three senior administration officials who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Opposition leader Juan Guaidó called on Venezuelans to protest April 30 and urged the military to “keep advancing” in efforts to oust President Nicolás Maduro. (Reuters)
Trump has said that Maduro is a “tough cookie” and that aides should not have led him to believe that the Venezuelan leader could be ousted last week, when Guaidó led mass street protests that turned deadly.
U.S. defense leaders regard any military scenario involving boots on the ground in Venezuela as a quagmire and warn that standoff weapons such as Tomahawk missiles run a major risk of killing civilians. The White House has repeatedly asked for military planning short of an invasion, however.
Officials said the options under discussion while Maduro is still in power include sending additional military assets to the region, increasing aid to neighboring countries such as Colombia and other steps to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced Venezuelans outside of Venezuela. More forward-leaning options include sending Navy ships to waters off Venezuela as a show of force.
[…]
John D. Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador and Univision political analyst, said there is another reason that military intervention is unlikely.
“It runs counter to Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection narrative,” Feeley said. “At a time when you’re pulling people back from Syria, back from Iraq, back from Afghanistan, how do you say we’re going to commit 50-, 100-, 150,000 of our blood and treasure to a country where you can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys?”
[Venezuela] a country where you can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys
John D. Feeley, Former US ambassador [to the Republic of Panama, from 2015 to 2018]
China wants ’tranquillity’, navy chief says ahead of new warships reveal - Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-military-anniversary-idUSKCN1RY0WB
President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by developing everything from stealth jets to aircraft carriers as China ramps up its presence in the South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan, which has rattled nerves in the region.
The navy has been a key beneficiary of the modernization plan, with China looking to project power far from its shores and protect its trading routes and citizens overseas.
Last month, Beijing unveiled a target of 7.5 percent rise in defense spending for this year, a slower rate than last year but still outpacing its economic growth target.
Tuesday’s parade in the waters off the eastern city of Qingdao will feature 32 vessels and 39 aircraft, some of which will not have been unveiled before, as well as warships from 13 foreign countries including India, Australia and Vietnam.
[…]
Military officers accompanying reporters in Qingdao have been at pains to point out China has no hostile intent with the naval parade and it is not a show of force but a sign of a genuine desire for global maritime cooperation.
La parade navale a eu lieu dans une brume épaisse.
Présage funeste pour l’empereur, maître du temps et des éléments ?…
(si vous n’aimez pas la musique martiale, coupez le son !)
An overview of the Chinese Navy parade in 120 seconds - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxzEyX2fzzk
A naval parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of China’s Navy was held on April 23 near Qingdao City. The PLA Navy sent 32 vessels and 39 warplanes into six groups and 10 echelons for President Xi’s inspection.
RT en espagnol, reprenant les images (et le son…) de la vidéo officielle
Gran desfile naval en la clausura del 70.º aniversario de la Armada china - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzJh2xWs-Jc
Un gran desfile naval ha protagonizado el final de las celebraciones en la ciudad china de Qingdao dedicadas al 70.º aniversario de la fundación de la Armada del país asiático. Además, China exhibió su nuevo portaviones llamado ’Liaoning’ por primera vez. El evento contó con la presencia de 60 delegaciones internacionales.
Despite Putin’s Swagger, Russia Struggles to Modernize Its Navy - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/02/21/world/europe/21reuters-russia-military-insight.html
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08c-xdQeP4
President Vladimir Putin calls improving the Russian navy’s combat capabilities a priority.
The unfinished husks of three guided-missile frigates that have languished for three years at a Baltic shipyard show that is easier said than done.
Earmarked for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the frigates fell victim to sanctions imposed by Ukraine in 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, prompting Kiev to ban the sale of the Ukrainian-made engines needed to propel them.
With Moscow unable to quickly build replacement engines for the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates, construction stopped. Russia is now cutting its losses and selling the three ships to India without engines.
The navy’s problems stem largely, but not exclusively, from the Ukrainian sanctions. There are also problems, for different reasons, with new equipment for the army and air force.
The picture that emerges is that Russia’s armed forces are not as capable or modern as its annual Red Square military parades suggest and that its ability to project conventional force is more limited too.
L’annonce du contrat avec l’Inde (20/11/2018) ne dit pas un mot des turbines…
India signs contracts to purchase 4 Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates from Russia
▻https://thedefensepost.com/2018/11/20/india-russia-4-admiral-grigorovich-project-11356-frigates
India has signed contracts to purchase four Admiral Grigorovich-class (Project 11356) stealth frigates from Russia, Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said on Tuesday, November 20.
“Contracts were signed for the construction of Project 11356 frigates for the Indian Navy. This is yet another important event in developing Russian-Indian military and technical cooperation,” Tass- reported the Federal Service as saying.
The agreement for four ships was first brokered in 2016.
India’s Ministry of Defence signed a $950 million deal with Russia to purchase two Admiral Grigorovich frigates which will be built in Russia’s Baltic Coast Yantar Shipyard, Janes reported on October 29. As of last month negotiations over price and transfer of technology were still ongoing for the two ships to be built in Goa Shipyard.
The new agreement between Russian state exporter Rosoboronexport and Goa Shipyard Limited for two ships is for $500 million, although a government official said that includes only the “_foreign content,” including material, design and assistance, Hindustan Times reported. The final cost of the two ships has yet to be determined, according to the report.
According to the Indian defense ministry, the deal includes transfer of technology and the frigates will be outfitted with India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system.
Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates are armed with A-190 100mm artillery guns, strike missile and air defense systems, including Kalibr and Shtil complexes and torpedo tubes, according to Tass. They can perform against surface ships and submarines as well as air targets.
The ships will be delivered to India beginning in 2026.
BrahMos is a supersonic medium-range liquid-fuelled ramjet-powered cruise missile that can be launched from sea, land and air. It is a two-stage missile, with a solid-fueled first stage to bring it to supersonic speed. Surface-launched missiles can carry a 200-kg warhead, while the air-launched variant can carry a payload of 300 kg.
It is manufactured in Hyderabad by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India’s DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace bursts out laughing as she tries to read Trump’s incoherent ramblings from his latest interview | Alternet
▻https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/msnbcs-nicolle-wallace-bursts-out-laughing-she-tries-read-trumps-incoheren
En prime une vidéo totalement hilarante (enfin, un rire jaune : c’est le Président des Etats-Unis !).
« Je crois à mon instinct plus qu’à la science et aux faits ». Terrible message de Donald Trump. Porte ouverte au fascisme : tout devient une questionde foi, de croyance. Rien ne ressort des faits et de la recherche.
President Donald Trump’s standing as commander-in-chief has devolved into such self-parody that even as his remarks reveal darkly troubling attitudes, some observers can’t help but laugh at their sheer absurdity.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace had that problem Wednesday as she tried to read out portions of Trump’s rambling and deluded mess of an interview with the Washington Post, which was published Tuesday.
“I’m not happy with the Fed," Trump said in the interview. "They’re making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”
Egypt: The White House and the Strongman - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/sunday-review/obama-egypt-coup-trump.html
President Trump boasts that he has reversed American policies across the Middle East. Where his predecessor hoped to win hearts and minds, Mr. Trump champions the axiom that brute force is the only response to extremism — whether in Iran, Syria, Yemen or the Palestinian territories. He has embraced the hawks of the region, in Israel and the Persian Gulf, as his chief guides and allies.
But in many ways, this hard-line approach began to take hold under President Barack Obama, when those same regional allies backed the 2013 military ouster of Egypt’s first elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
That coup was a watershed moment for the region, snuffing out dreams of democracy while emboldening both autocrats and jihadists. And American policy pivoted, too, empowering those inside the administration “who say you just have to crush these guys,” said Andrew Miller, who oversaw Egypt for the National Security Council under Mr. Obama, and who is now with the Project on Middle East Democracy. Some of the coup’s most vocal American advocates went on to top roles in the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser.
Image
In July 2013, supporters of the ousted Mr. Morsi protested in Cairo against the killing of 50 demonstrators a day before. A much bigger massacre came in August.CreditNarciso Contreras for The New York Times
I was The New York Times Cairo bureau chief at the time of the coup, and I returned to the events years later in part to better understand Washington’s role. I learned that the Obama administration’s support for the Arab Spring uprisings had been hobbled from the start by internal disagreements over the same issues that now define Trump policy — about the nature of the threat from political Islam, about fidelity to autocratic allies like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and about the difficulty of achieving democratic change in Egypt and the region.
Trump greets EU trade reprisals with threat of steep auto tariff | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-autos/trump-threatens-20-percent-tariff-on-european-union-cars-idUSKBN1JI1YF
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to escalate a trade war with Europe by imposing a 20 percent tariff on all U.S. imports of European Union-assembled cars.
Trump posted his threat on Twitter the day European Union reprisals took effect against U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum. The EU targeted $3.2 billion in American goods exported to the 28-member bloc.
“If these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!” Trump wrote.
Trump signs ’right to try’ drug bill | TheHill
▻http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/389908-trump-signs-right-to-try-bill-for-terminally-ill-patients
President Trump signed a bill Wednesday allowing terminally ill patients access to experimental medical treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) .
Dubbed “right to try,” the law’s passage was a major priority of Trump and Vice President Pence, as well as congressional Republicans.
“Thousands of terminally ill Americans will finally have hope, and the fighting chance, and I think it’s going to better than a chance, that they will be cured, they will be helped, and be able to be with their families for a long time, or maybe just for a longer time,” Trump said at a bill signing ceremony at the White House, surrounded by terminally ill patients and their families.
Des médicaments à l’efficacité douteuse et au prix astronomique.
Market for dev talent is tight - Take-Two
▻https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-05-30-market-for-dev-talent-is-tight-take-two
President Karl Slatoff says the core 10-15 creative leads is more important to making a team work than the Houser/Levine/Meier types up top
Trump on Syria attack: ’very soon or not so soon at all!’ | AFP.com
▻https://www.afp.com/en/news/205/trump-syria-attack-very-soon-or-not-so-soon-all-doc-13y57v4
President Donald Trump was evasive Thursday about when the United States might attack Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons assault, saying it could be “very soon or not so soon at all!”
A day after warning starkly that “missiles will be coming,” Trump in another early morning tweet storm wrote: “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!”
Bon ! et notre grand homme à nous ? il va y aller tout seul ?
Décidément, question #ligne_rouge, #bis_repetita …
It’s Time the United States Accounts for Its History of Torture
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/its-time-the-united-states-accounts-for-its-history-of-torture
President Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel to head the CIA has stirred objections from many quarters. After 9/11, Haspel ran an illegal black site in Thailand where a man was tortured, and she...
Trump taps Army cyber chief as next #NSA head - POLITICO
▻https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/13/nsa-cyber-command-nakasone-337114
President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the leader of the Army’s digital warfighting arm, to helm the National Security Agency.
The move, which was long expected, will also put Nakasone atop U.S. Cyber Command, the Defense Department’s digital warfighting unit, once he is confirmed by the Senate. The two organizations have shared a leader since the Pentagon launched Cyber Command in 2009.
Rob Joyce, Trump’s top cyber adviser, announced the pick on Twitter.
“An exceptional leader for two exceptional [organizations], he brings great experience and strong cyber background,” Joyce wrote.
Both the NSA and Cyber Command need a new head after current NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers announced he would retire this spring after a nearly four-year term.
Nakasone, 54, has been the chief of Army Cyber Command since late 2016. In that role, he also directed Joint Task Force Ares, a special unit that develops digital weapons to attack and disrupt the Islamic State’s online operations.
Prior to that, Nakasone served at Cyber Command, where he oversaw the units tasked with defending the country’s digital networks and information systems, collectively known as the Cyber National Mission Force.
In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/12/29/in-a-30-minute-interview-president-trump-made-24-false-or-misleading
President Trump gave an impromptu half-hour interview with the New York Times on Dec. 28. We combed through the transcript and here’s a quick roundup of the false, misleading or dubious claims that he made, at a rate of one every 75 seconds. (Some of the interview was off the record, so it’s possible the rate of false claims per minute is higher.)
“You all just got a lot richer” - President Trump kicks off Mar-a-Lago stay, tax reform accomplished
▻https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mar-a-lago-christmas-trip
President Trump kicked off his holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago Friday night at a dinner where he told friends, “You all just got a lot richer,” referencing the sweeping tax overhaul he signed into law hours earlier. Mr. Trump directed those comments to friends dining nearby at the exclusive club — including to two friends at a table near the president’s who described the remark to CBS News — as he began his final days of his first year in office in what has become known as the “Winter White House.”
Israel lobby billionaire praises Kushner for collusion with Netanyahu | The Electronic Intifada | Ali Abunimah Power Suits 4 December 2017
▻https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lobby-billionaire-praises-kushner-collusion-netanyahu
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner received public praise on Sunday from a billionaire Israel lobby financier for his possibly illegal attempts to derail a UN Security Council vote condemning Israel’s settlements a year ago.
This came as news broke that Kushner failed to disclose in government ethics filings his role as director of a family foundation that funded Israeli settlements.
Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, is in charge of efforts to revive the so-called peace process.
New details of Kushner’s Saudi-backed plan reported Sunday confirm that it would require nothing less than a complete capitulation by the Palestinians to Israel’s demands, leaving them with a state in name only.
“Nothing illegal”
On Sunday, Kushner appeared at the Saban Forum, an Israel lobby conference at Washington’s Brookings Institution, financed by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban.
Saban and Kushner sat on stage for what was billed as a “keynote conversation.”
“You’ve been in the news the last few days, to say the least. But you’ve been in the news about an issue that I personally want to thank you for, because you and your team were taking steps to try and get the United Nations Security Council to not go along with what ended up being an abstention by the US,” Saban said in the exchange in the video at the top of this article.
“As far as I know there was nothing illegal there but I think that this crowd and myself want to thank you for making that effort.”
“Thank you,” Kushner responded.
(...)
“Peace” plan
Given the systematic lack of accountability for senior US officials, dating back decades, there is little reason to expect that anything short of an indictment will remove Kushner from his role.
And the more that is known about the “peace plan” he is helping forge, the clearer it is that Kushner and his colleagues are simply mouthpieces for Netanyahu.
On Sunday, The New York Times characterized the as yet unpublished plan in the following terms: “The Palestinians would get a state of their own but only noncontiguous parts of the West Bank and only limited sovereignty over their own territory. The vast majority of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal, would remain. The Palestinians would not be given East Jerusalem as their capital and there would be no right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.”
These were the elements reportedly conveyed to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman last month with an ultimatum that he accept them or resign.
These ideas are so far below what any Palestinian could ever accept that even Abbas was “alarmed and visibly upset” by the Saudi proposal, according to an official from his Fatah party cited by the Times.
The White House has denied that its plan has been finalized, and Saudi Arabia denied it supported such positions, according to the Times.
But the newspaper provides ample reason to doubt those denials, noting that: “the main points of the Saudi proposal as told to Mr. Abbas were confirmed by many people briefed on the discussions between Mr. Abbas and Prince Mohammad, including Mr. [Ahmad] Yousef, the senior Hamas leader; Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Parliament; several Western officials; a senior Fatah official; a Palestinian official in Lebanon; a senior Lebanese official; and a Lebanese politician, among others.”
The Saudis have been pressuring the Palestinians to capitulate to Israel evidently to clear the Palestinian cause out of the way so that the growing Saudi-Israeli alliance aimed at Iran can be brought fully into the open.
One element of the plan reportedly includes giving Palestinians a capital in the village of Abu Dis, instead of Jerusalem.
This is a revival of a 1990s fantasy in which the small village would be renamed “al-Quds” and declared the “capital of Palestine,” while the real city of Jerusalem is swallowed up by Israel.
Israel currently uses part of Abu Dis as an illegal garbage dump.
L’étrange cas de Jared Kushner et du lobby israélien
Richard Silverstein | 4 décembre 2017
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinions/l-trange-cas-de-jared-kushner-et-du-lobby-isra-lien-1758255038
Il était clair que l’objectif de toute la hiérarchie, à commencer par Netanyahou et Trump, était de détruire la résolution, qui bénéficiait du soutien tacite de l’administration Obama.
Bien que les États-Unis se soient finalement abstenus, l’administration Obama n’a manifestement rien fait pour arrêter la résolution – ce qui signifie qu’elle l’a tacitement soutenue. Par le passé, elle avait en réalité opposé son veto à des propositions pratiquement identiques du Conseil de sécurité.
L’abstention était alors une initiative assez audacieuse de la part des États-Unis. Par conséquent, en intervenant pour tuer la résolution, Kushner a franchi la ligne entre le fait d’utiliser son droit de s’exprimer librement sur la politique du gouvernement garanti par le Premier Amendement et le fait de subvertir la politique étrangère officielle des États-Unis. Il s’agit là d’un terrain juridique encore inexploré.
L’inclusion de la loi Logan dans une liste d’accusations contre Kushner ne serait pas seulement un fait nouveau : cela avertirait en effet le lobby israélien qu’une ligne rouge a été franchie. Et qu’une fois que cette ligne est franchie, on a affaire à un comportement criminel. Ce serait là une première. Un coup de semonce choquant qui ferait vaciller le lobby.
Cependant, on peut douter que Mueller fasse de la loi Logan un élément clé de sa stratégie juridique. Lorsque l’on poursuit un président des États-Unis, on préfère ne pas s’essayer à des théories juridiques non éprouvées ou ésotériques.
U.S electricity generation by source: Natural gas vs coal - Washington Post
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/power-plants
President Trump signed in March orders to reverse the previous administration’s energy policies, a move that he framed as “an end to the war on coal” and that comes amid a drop in the fuel’s use. Natural gas surpassed coal last year as the most common source for electricity generation in the United States, according to a Post analysis of preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration.
Joshua Landis a cassé l’internet hier soir en twittant:
▻https://mobile.twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/935972140192583680
President Lincoln killed 700,000 of his own citizens in order to prevent partition of USA. 55,000 US prisoners died in captivity during civil war. It was as brutal as Syria’s. Fortunately, neither side had an air force. But same effort to starve enemy into surrender was made
Games industry is going 100% digital - Take-Two
▻http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-29-games-industry-is-going-100-percent-digital-take-two
President Karl Slatoff says physical game sales are probably going away on a 5-20 year timeline, weighs in on loot boxes
“It’s not Hitman without IO”: Why Square Enix set the franchise free
▻http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-22-its-not-hitman-without-io-why-square-enix-set-the-franchis
President and CEO Yosuke Matsuda tells GamesIndustry.biz the reasons behind the surprise split with IO Interactive
Did Trump go easy on the Las Vegas shooter by not calling him a terrorist? - LA Times
▻http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-vegas-terrorism-20171003-story.html
President Trump is being criticized on the internet — and elsewhere — for not calling the massacre in Las Vegas an act of terrorism. A typical comment on Twitter was: “Trump said the Las Vegas shooter was a sick demented man[;] why not call him what he is a TERRORIST because that what he did he caused Terror.”
Mouarf. Vivement le même débat chez nous. Mais chez nous #cépapareil.
Ça donne l’impression d’être dans le salon de Clinton, qui en robe de chambre et en chaussons marmonne devant la télé « tse, j’aurais été à sa place, j’aurais utilisé le mot terroriste ». Ou il y a quelques jours « tse, j’aurais été à sa place, j’aurais utilisé le mot nazi ».
« tse, j’aurais tellement été mieux que lui ».
Turkey’s Erdogan links fate of detained U.S. pastor to wanted cleric Gulen
▻http://www.dailystar.com.lb//News/Middle-East/2017/Sep-28/420858-turkeys-erdogan-links-fate-of-detained-us-pastor-to-wanted-cler
President Tayyip Erdogan suggested Thursday that Turkey could free a detained U.S. pastor if the United States hands over a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Ankara blames for a failed military coup last year.
Turkey has been seeking the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan whose supporters are blamed for trying to overthrow Erdogan’s government in July 2016. Gulen has denied any role in the coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed.
Thousands of people have been detained in a crackdown since the failed coup, including American Christian missionary Andrew Brunson, who ran a small church in Izmir on Turkey’s western coast.
Brunson has been held since October. Turkish media say the charges against him include membership of Gulen’s network, considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government. The United States says Brunson has been wrongfully imprisoned and has called for him to be released.
In a speech to police officers at the presidential palace in Ankara, Erdogan appeared to link the fate of the two men.
“’Give us the pastor back’, they say. You have one pastor as well. Give him [Gulen] to us,” Erdogan said. “Then we will try him (Brunson) and give him to you.”
“The [pastor] we have is on trial. Yours is not - he is living in Pennsylvania. You can give him easily. You can give him right away.”
A decree issued in August gave Erdogan authority to approve the exchange of foreigners detained or convicted in Turkey with people held in other countries “in situations required by national security or national interests”.
Americans Who Don’t Want War With Iran Must Speak Out Now | Alternet
▻http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/americans-who-dont-want-war-iran-must-speak-out-now?akid=16112.2663896.a8k
President Trump’s comments at the United Nations General Assembly urging the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal sounded familiar to our guest, Jeffrey Sachs. “The last time we had this kind of rhetoric was George W. Bush with the axis of evil,” Sachs said. “It was immediately followed by the Iraq War, which was the most disastrous single step of American military action and ’diplomacy,’ or anti-diplomacy, in modern times. So this is a setup, again, for war, for conflict. And it is extraordinarily ignorant and dangerous. Iran is in compliance with the agreement that was reached.”
JEFFREY SACHS: —bewildered. But after the deal was made, Iran had elections, and the moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, was re-elected, despite opposition from hardliners. And the U.S. response is to provoke. Now, why is this happening? Because two U.S. allies—Israel and Saudi Arabia—are luring our ignorant president into this kind of vehemence. This is Israeli and Saudi policy, Saudis because of the Sunni-Shia conflict and battle for regional power, Israel because of its own narrow concerns. And all the United States is doing, Trump is doing, is being lured into this and making the U.S. unsafe and making the world unsafe. It’s shocking.
JEFFREY SACHS: I believe the American people who do not want war—and we need to avoid war—need to speak out right now, because I believe these are the drumbeats of war. We’ve heard them many times before. Our government absolutely is war-oriented. We have a deep security state which believes in overthrowing other countries. We have a secret army called the CIA, which is engaged in covert wars all over the world. And we have a president who is openly provocative, openly gunning for war, it seems, with these two countries and heaven knows how many more.
Corporate Tax Cuts Don’t Create Jobs, They Enrich CEOs
A new study provides galling examples of this trend.
▻https://www.thenation.com/article/corporate-tax-cuts-dont-create-jobs-they-enrich-ceos
President Trump, after a summer of neglecting his top legislative priority, will make a full-throated pitch for tax reform today in Missouri. The still-fuzzy plan will have a lot of moving parts: lower top marginal rates, simplification of deductions, and elimination of the estate tax, which “only morons pay,” according to Trump’s economic adviser, Gary Cohn. But one centerpiece will be a significant reduction in the corporate tax rate, from the current 35 percent rate to as low as 20 percent.
This is necessary for three reasons, according to Republicans: “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” to quote House Speaker Paul Ryan this June. Though congressional Republicans and the White House rarely see eye-to-eye these days, they are united on the idea that cutting corporate taxes will spur an hiring boom that will reach down to the ordinary worker.
A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies shows this isn’t true. US companies are already paying minimal amounts in corporate taxes, and the ones most likely under Republican theory to pour tax savings into job creation have instead been more likely to cut their workforce over the past nine years. The data shows that low corporate tax rates more often lead to increases in CEO pay and boosts for shareholders.
Here’s the list of military weapons Trump will now allow police departments to receive, virtually free of charge.
Recommendations Pursuant toEXECUTIVE ORDER 13688
Federal Support for Local Law Enforcement Equipment Acquisition
Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group
▻https://www.bja.gov/publications/LEEWG_Report_Final.pdf
Trump is ending restrictions that limit the military from giving surplus gear to police
▻http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-military-gear-20170828-story.html
President Trump moved Monday to again allow the Pentagon to distribute surplus armored vehicles, grenade launchers and large-caliber weapons to local police, his latest reversal of an Obama-era policy intended to stop militarization of law enforcement.
Trump signed an executive order reversing the limits that President Obama had imposed after heavily armed police had used military equipment to quell street protests in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.
Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, who has sought to restore tough-on-crime policies and remove what he sees as shackles on law enforcement, told a police union Monday that Obama’s restrictions “went too far.”
Trump’s order, he told the group, "will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal.”
The History and Importance of the Antifascist Movement
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-history-and-importance-of-the-antifascist-movement
President Trump is facing widespread criticism for his latest comments on the deadly white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. Speaking at Trump Tower on Tuesday, Trump said the...