The situation in Hong Kong is rapidly deteriorating, with violence breaking out in seven locations Monday afternoon as the citywide strike crippled transportation.
What were supposed to be peaceful sit-ins in different districts turned into riots, “with Wong Tai Sin and Harcourt Road seeing the most intense confrontations as protesters kneel instead of flee, to shield themselves while tear gas rounds and sponge grenades rain on them,” according to SCMP.
VIDEO: 🇭🇰 Hong Kong police launch rounds of tear gas and try to clear pro-democracy protesters who had gathered near a police dormitory in the working-class district of #WongTaiSin#HongKongProtestspic.twitter.com/GkuCBM0DCV
Protesters threw a suspected gasoline bomb at police after first being attacked by bricks.
20:00 A suspected gasoline bomb was thrown by protesters to the police who were resting on Tai Po Tai Wo road near the crossroad with Nam Wan Rd. The police were attacked suddenly first by bricks from the protesters and then the bomb. #antiELABpic.twitter.com/hyv8YLhKxH
Riot police used crowd control measures in at least five locations – targeting those filing the streets. 82 people were arrested for offences including rioting, unlawful assembly, assaulting a police officer, obstructing police and possession of offensive weapons.
Fighting broke out between protesters and local residents, while reports of ‘white shirted’ men believed to be triad gang members began beating protesters as the evening devolved.
Here's the aftermath. Protesters chased the men with sticks up the hill and broke the windows of a residential building. To clarify, unclear if men with sticks are residents. Overheard some speaking in Cantonese and some speaking Mandarin. #HongKongpic.twitter.com/aN0bFZoaHH
One woman was paraded through the streets after her underwear had been either removed or fallen off during her arrest.
In response to the unrest, Cathay Pacific airlines canceled over 150 flights and urged passengers to postpone non-essential travel according to CNN.
Cathay Pacific urged customers not to flyMonday and Tuesday, and said it would waive fees for rebooking. Shares in Cathay plunged more than 4% during trading Monday.
The airline is the city’s flagship carrier. It flies about34 million passengers every year and serves nearly 200 cities around the world from its hub at Hong Kong’s international airport.
Hong Kong Airlines, a smaller carrier, said it has canceled 32 flights. United Airlines said its flights were unaffected.
More than 2,300 aviation workers took part in the strike, including 1,200 Cathay cabin crew and pilots, according to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.
Service was suspended for more than an hour Monday morning on the Airport Express, which is a line that zips people between the airport and the city center in under 25 minutes. –CNN
“I am Antifa” began trending in Germany after Trump said he might label the group a terror organization.
Left-wing politicians hit back at the US president, while far-right politicians expressed support for the proposal.
The hashtag #IchbinAntifa(“I am Antifa”) began trending on Twitter in Germany on Sunday after US President Donald Trump said he was considering labeling the group a terrorist organization.
Antifa, which is short for anti-fascists, is a loose network comprised of radical left-wing activists that confront right-wing extremists, neo-Nazi groups and white supremacists.
On Saturday, the US president said that the new classification “would make it easier for police to do their jobs,”and dubbed the anti-fascist group “gutless radical left wack jobs.”
In response, German social media users and some politicians pushed back against Trump’s remarks, with the “I am antifa” hashtag taking the number one spot on Twitter’s trending list.
“I am Antifa always and every time. German history compels us to stand up against racism and fascism. On the street and in parliament,”wrote Bernd Riexinger, co-chairman of the Left party.
Sven Lehmann, a Greens MP and the party’s spokesperson for social and queer policy, wrote on Twitter that he supports Antifa because the group “often looked closely when people were devalued or attacked, where others looked away.”
The hashtag sparked ire among politicians of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, several of whom expressed support for Trump and called for a similar measure in Germany.
“If Antifa is finally classified as a terrorist organization in this country as well, then the currently popular hashtag ‘I am Antifa’ offers up a very rich pool of investigative leads in the fight against terrorism,” AfD parliamentarian Jürgen Braun wrote on Twitter.
“Donald Trump is making it possible, thank you very much!” the far-right politician added.
The Hamburg branch of Germany’s police union also criticized Antifa, posting pictures of black-clad protesters holding signs calling for violence against police.
“Violence as a means of political conflict must be prohibited and criminally prosecuted — this must be a democratic consensus that transcends party and ideological boundaries,” the union wrote.
Although many Antifa members participate in peaceful protests, they have been criticized for believing violence is justified to combat racist or fascist groups.
The Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish group in the United States focused on hate crimes, describes Antifa as “a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements.”
Early anti-fascist groups in Europe fought against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The modern Antifa movement began to take shape in the 1960s and became active in the US in the 1970s.
Recent clashes between left-wing and right-wing protesters in the US prompted conservative Republican lawmakers to propose classifying Antifa as a terrorist organization.
If the federal government doesn’t protect us from illegals, then we as citizens have both a right and responsibility to do it ourselves. ((Their)) time is running out
The Kochs and Soros are uniting to stop Trump and protect globalism.
By Shane Trejo
This weekend, the globalists George Soros and the Koch Brothersannounced a partnership to fund the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to allegedly oppose endless war.
“The Quincy Institute is an action-oriented think tank that will lay the foundation for a new foreign policy centered on diplomatic engagement and military restraint. The current moment presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring together like-minded progressives and conservatives and set U.S. foreign policy on a sensible and humane footing. Our country’s current circumstances demand it,” the Quincy Institute’s website reads.
Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation put up half a million each to get the think-tank off the ground. It will be led by Trita Parsi, who founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). Pariso wrote A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran, praising former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
The NIAC has come under fire for its alleged ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was ordered to pay “$183,480.09 in monetary sanctions” over a defamation suit brought against journalist Hassan Daioleslam by NIAC in an attempt to bully him into silence.
“They sued me, and ran a smear campaign against me,” Daioleslam said to Business Insider in 2015. “They did everything to crush me. But after seven years of the lawsuit they couldn’t break me.”
The NIAC “flouted multiple court orders,” according to Judge Robert Wilkins, during the course of the defamation suit that they brought against Daioleslam, as they desperately wanted to keep their internal workings hidden from the public.
“Its resolute failure to produce all relevant drives until over a year after it was first ordered to do so is inexcusable,” Wilkins said about NIAC’s dishonest and secretive behavior in the courts.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found in 2012 that Parsi’s work is “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the regime.”
Parsi’s writings show his far-left, anti-Israel political leanings. He recently wrote an op/ed for The Guardian where he praised Muslim socialist Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) following her incendiary comments made against the Jewish people.
“On the Israel-Palestine conflict, it was Omar, more than her party elders, who represented the values of Democratic voters when she criticized the influence of money in politics and applied the point to America’s virtually unconditional support for Israel,” he wrote, cheering on the Democratic Party’s recent shift against the Jewish nation.
“The overwhelming majority of Democrats, about 82%, now say the US should lean toward neither Israel nor Palestinians. Even more dramatically, 56% of Democrats favor imposing sanctions or harsher measures against Israel if its settlements keep expanding,” he added.
Parsi wrote another op/ed in The Guardian blaming Donald Trump for allowing mass shootings to persist while claiming that right-wing conservatives, not extremist Muslims, are the most pressing terror threat.
“Trump apparently considers neo-Nazis, white supremacists and those motivated by racial and cultural anxiety as his constituency,” he wrote. “Depicting them as a threat counters his interests while depicting those whom they hate as dangerous serves his agenda. The more immigrants and Muslims are seen as threats, the more America’s racists are compelled to back Trump.”
“This makes Americans less safe. Not just because it turns Americans against Americans, but because Trump further shifts our focus away from the threat of rightwing extremists and racists even though they are at least as dangerous as Isis extremists,” he added.
Because of the Koch Brothers and their close ally George Soros – who are also partnering to implement Big Brother censorship against right-wing dissidents – Parsi will be at the helm of another influential think-tank where he will be able to oppose President Trump’s foreign policy and promote Iranian interests under the guise of supporting peace.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released vision Friday morning that confirms a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (or BAMS-D) ISR Global Hawk drone waslostto an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
The downed aircraft is large–wingspan the size of a Boeing 757–and designed for high altitude spy missions.
The command said the $240 million unmanned aircraft was operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 11:35 p.m. GMT on June 19, 2019 when it was lost.
CENTCOM refuted Iranian reports that the aircraft was over its territory. Iran, for its part, released footage of its own that allegedly shows the drone being taken out by a surface-to-air missile:
The vision from both sides was made public at the same time the New York TimesreportedPresident Donald Trump ordered air and naval strikes against Iranian targets in response to the attack but canceled them “abruptly.”
Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the RQ-4 Global Hawk, describes it as a “premier provider of persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information.”
The attack by Iran came just 48-hours after the Pentagon released new images which officials said offered more evidence operatives from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were responsible for last week’s attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran’s navy has begun a three day war game exercise on Friday in the Persian Gulf, in an expansive area encompassing Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, to the Sea of Oman and even stretching to northern parts of the Indian Ocean, state media reports. Some reports indicate the games could go on for as much as a week, but all emphasized the “large-scale” nature of the drills in which Iran’s navy will showcase the Fateh-class submarine — a domestically built sub carrying cruise missiles and torpedoes, as well as its Sahand destroyer.
The cruise missile-firing capable Fateh, or “Conqueror”, was launched for the first time at the start of this week and has been touted as “state-of-the-art” and with the ability to stay underwater for five weeks at a time. Crucially, the large exercises come after last week’s US-sponsored Warsaw conference in which both Israeli and US officials made threats of war with Tehran. Indeed during the conference Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu openly stated that he was attending the summit with an aim to “advance the common interest ofwar with Iran.”
The games also come at a time when even foreign policy establishment insiders, such as the Council on Foreign Relation’s Steven Cook, increasingly acknowledge that the White House’s “march to war against Iran” is now “echoing the drumbeats” of the lead up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Taken together—the Warsaw conference, Pence’s bullying of the Europeans, Bolton’s threatening video, and the broader background noise in Washington—the events of the past week were familiar in a foreboding way. The chatter about Iran has not become the war fever that gripped Washington in 2002 over Iraq, but the echoes of that year are not hard to miss in the Trump administration’s effort to shape the domestic and international debate about Iran.
#BREAKING: #Iran Navy is now testing its new weapons including new Fateh-Class submarine during exercise "Velayat-97" in Oman Sea close to #Pakistan territorial waters. First stage of the exercise is a counter-amphibious assault operation for protecting the shores of #Chabahar. pic.twitter.com/85log0FNUf
Iran’s drills in the coming days will further involve battleship exercises and amphibious and anti-amphibious warfare maneuvers, according to Iranian military statements.
Though there’s general agreement that Iran’s navy poses no match of US superiority on the sea and in the skies, Iran seeks to be a significant disruptor of American Persian Gulf capabilities.
Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, commander of Iran’s navy, reflected this in comments announcing the inauguration of the games: “For the first time, these weapons will be tested seriously and we can make the maritime region unsafe for the enemy in any way possible,”he said. He said the games, formally called “Velayat 97,” will begin 2km from the Strait of Hormuz and extend 10 degrees north of the Indian Ocean, in an extended zone some analysts worry may indicate broader intentions regarding Oman and Yemen.
As the Jerusalem Post summarizes of this concern, “In Yemen Iran has supported the Houthi rebels who have used Iranian technology to target Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles.” And recently, “In addition Oman enjoys decent relations with Iran but Oman also hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year and has sought to play a role in the Israel-Palestinian peace efforts.”
In the past, Iranian war games have resulted in close encounters with US warships traversing parts of the Persian Gulf. But this somewhat “routine” occurrence could potentially spark a major incident considering the high level of aggressive rhetoric coming out of Washington at this time.
The poll analysis called it a “stunning reversal” of years of results where Democrats wanted troops withdrawn from U.S.-led wars
By Paul Bedard
Democratic voters, long opposed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, now disagree with President Trump’s call to withdraw troops in Afghanistan and Syria, according to a new survey.
And the likely reason they have flipped is simply to oppose the president.
On Trump’s Syria move, the latest Zogby Analytics Poll found that 52 percent of Democrats oppose the troop withdrawal. Just 31 percent agree with Trump’s move.
The poll analysis called it a “stunning reversal” of years of results where Democrats wanted troops withdrawn from U.S.-led wars.
“Is this a shift in policy on the part of Democratic leaders, or Democrats disagreeing with any proposal put forth by the president? Are the Democrats the new party of ‘no,’ and willing to obstruct anything the president does out of mere spite? Presently, the data isn’t painting a different picture,” said the analysis from Jonathan Zogby.
Among all voters surveyed, his poll found that more back withdrawing the troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
I stand with @realDonaldTrump. It is time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan and Syria. It is ludicrous to call withdrawal after 17 years "precipitous." pic.twitter.com/IKMjOruKP1
But Zogby said his survey revealed the shift by Democrats, an important sign that indicates the degree of opposition the party has in accepting anything Trump does.
(Zogby Analytics)
In two separate questions, one on withdrawing troops from Syria and the other on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, he found the same shift by Democrats.
From his analysis:
Over the last fifteen years, our polling of voters in the U.S. has shown that most Democrats vehemently opposed the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a stunning reversal of past polling, a majority of Democrats disagree with President Trump’s plan to withdraw American troops from Syria and a plurality of Democrats disagree with the president on removing troops from Afghanistan. A third (31%) of Democrats agreed (strongly and somewhat agree combined) with Trump, while half (52%) disagreed (strongly and somewhat disagree combined). These numbers were much different than the overall voter figures: 46% of likely voters agreed with Trump, while 37% ‘disagreed’, and 17% were not sure.
Our polling has shown that in past years, Democrats have, like the president, wanted the troops to come home. In 2011, Zogby Analytics polled Democratic voters and 74% ‘thought it was a bad idea’ to have gone to war with Iraq and 57% thought the same about the war in Afghanistan. Additionally, only 21% of Democrats thought ‘the Afghani people are better off than they were before U.S. led-forces invaded and occupied their country.’
After the mainstream media and establishment Democrats piled on President Trump for even considering pulling the US out of NATO, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked when the doves became cheerleaders for war.
That Republicans love war is an easy assumption to make. President Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton has been howling for regime change in Iran since day one. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is equally hawkish and confrontational towards the Islamic Republic. Further back, George W. Bush’s cabinet was stuffed with war enthusiasts like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, and the late Republican Senator John McCain never met a war he didn’t like.
But opposition to President Trump has seen Democrats – once considered the more peace-loving and diplomatic of the two parties – embrace war like never before.
The New York Times, citing its usual anonymous sources, revealed on Monday that current and former Trump administration officials concluded the president must be a Russian agent, because he discussed pulling the US out of NATO.
“This is a huge story,” said Carlson. “Or it would have been huge in 1983 when the Soviet Union still existed, and it was still clear what the point of NATO was. NATO, you’ll remember, was created to keep the Soviets from invading Western Europe…and did a very good job at that.”
Trump’s opposition to NATO is well documented, and the president has excoriated allies like Germany for failing to meet their spending obligations under the organization’s charter. In 2018, the US spent almost $700 billion on defense, over double the expenditure of all 28 other NATO states combined. Moreover, the idea of bankrolling western Europe’s defense needs also clashes with the president’s more transactional view of foreign relations than his predecessor.
“Vladimir Putin runs Russia now,” Carlson continued. “He does not plan to invade Western Europe. He can’t. So why do we still have NATO? Nobody really knows. In Washington you’re definitely not allowed to ask.”
After the New York Times’ article was published, Democrats took their turns thrashing Trump. Former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara stated that Trump should be “promptly impeached, convicted, and removed from office” for daring to question the alliance’s value to America.
Former US Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns called the mere idea of pulling out of the alliance “madness”that would lead to “one of the greatest strategic catastrophes in American history.”
“He can’t do that to this country,”Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier added in a news interview. “It would be a ground for some profound effort by our part, whether it’s impeachment or the 25th Amendment.”
“Did you catch that?” Carlson said. “The 25th Amendment. In other words, according to a sitting member of Congress…rethinking membership in NATO isn’t just treasonous and criminal. It’s prima facie evidence of insanity.” The 25th Amendment allows for a president to be removed from office for being “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office;” in other words, unfitness.
But is the left’s NATO cheerleading a partisan reaction to Trump’s ‘America First’ brand of 21st Century isolationism? After all, the left fact-checks his McDonalds orders and would declare breathing an impeachable offense if Trump came out in favor of air.
Not so. Among the handful of Democratic challengers who have announced presidential bids in recent weeks, Hawaiian Representative Tulsi Gabbard distinguished herself by focusing her campaign on America’s foreign policy. An Iraq war combat veteran, Gabbard has consistently questioned Washington’s bipartisan consensus on foreign wars and intervention, opposing Barack Obama’s air campaign in Syria, calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan “as soon as possible,” and sponsoring legislation to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia and defund the National Security Agency.
Gabbard was quickly labeled an “Assad sympathizer” for meeting with the Syrian leader in 2017. While Gabbard called Assad a “brutal dictator,”her opposition to military action rubbed the hawks in both parties the wrong way. The left and right piled on, christening Gabbard a “right-wing puppet of the Kremlin,” digging up past homophobic remarks she had made, and calling her a darling of the alt-right, the KKK, and even RT.
“She went, in 2017, Gloria — this is going to be another issue — to visit with Bashar al Assad in Syria,”said CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “This trip has already come back to bite her.”
“I think it makes her a less effective candidate,”contributor Gloria Borger responded. “She can’t position herself against Trump about meeting with dictators when, in fact, she’s done it herself.”
With the Democratic party circling the wagons against Gabbard, Trump, and anyone breaking from the endless war consensus, Carlson asked “whatever happened to the Democratic Party?”
“When did the anti-war people become florid neocons? When did it become the party of Bill Kristol and Max Boot and every other discredited hack still trying to replicate the Iraq disaster in nations around the world? Who knows when that happened? But that’s exactly what the Democratic Party is today.”
A new poll from Morning Consult/Politico found the majority of Democrats are against President Trump’s move to pull out of Syria and also oppose Trump pulling half our troops out of Afghanistan.
On the flip side, Republicans overwhelmingly favor both pulling out of Syria and drawing down troops from Afghanistan.
On the religious front, non-evangelical Catholics were the most supportive of pulling out of Syria (64%/24%) while Jews were the most opposed (34%/52%).
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