The revolt against globalism accelerates
DECEMBER 31, 2018
The revolt against globalism accelerates.
The account that originally posted the video referred to the flag as “the flag of shame”.
CFR’s Martin Indyk Slams Trump: Soon He May Be Asking ‘Why Are We Giving Israel So Much Money?’
By Chris Menahan
Martin Indyk, two-time US Ambassador to Israel and current Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, attacked President Trump on Twitter Wednesday for saying Israel will be okay despite the US pulling out of Syria because we give them “billions of dollars.”
“This cavalier attitude is deeply worrying,” Indyk said. “Ignores the role of US as force multiplier for Israeli deterrence. From here it’s a short step to Trump asking: why are we giving Israel so much money?”
Here’s Trump’s full comments as reported Thursday by the Times of Israel:
Speaking with reporters, Trump was asked about criticism that the move could put Israel in jeopardy by allowing Iran to expand its foothold in Syria.
“Well, I don’t see it. I spoke with Bibi,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told Bibi. And, you know, we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And they’re doing very well defending themselves, if you take a look.”
“So that’s the way it is,” Trump said, according to a White House transcript.
“We’re going to take good care of Israel. Israel is going to be good. But we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And we give them, frankly, a lot more money than that, if you look at the books — a lot more money than that. And they’ve been doing a very good job for themselves,” he added.
Here’s some of the top responses to Indyk’s tweet:
Indyk has a rather fascinating history according to his Wikipedia page (click through for source links):
In 1982, Indyk began working as a deputy research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington.[4][5] From 1985 Indyk served eight years as the founding Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research institute specializing in analysis of Middle East policy.[6]
[…]He served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council. While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the President and the National Security Advisor on Arab–Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran, and South Asia. He was a senior member of Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S. Israel Science and Technology Commission.
He served two stints as United States Ambassador to Israel, from April 1995 to September 1997, and from January 2000 to July 2001. He was the first and so far, the only, foreign-born US ambassador to Israel.
He has served on the board of the New Israel Fund.[7] Indyk currently serves on the Adivsory Board for DC based non-profit America Abroad Media.[8]
On July 29, 2013, Indyk was appointed by President Barack Obama as Washington’s special Middle East envoy for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.[9] Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas favored his appointment.[10] He resigned from this position June 27, 2014, returning to the Brookings Institution as its vice president and director for foreign policy.[11][12]
Controversy
In 2000, Indyk was placed under investigation by the FBI after allegations arose that he improperly handled sensitive material by using an unclassified laptop computer on an airplane flight to prepare his memos of meetings with foreign leaders.[13][14][15] There was no indication that any classified material had been compromised, and no indication of espionage.[16]
Indyk was “apparently … the first serving U.S. ambassador to be stripped of government security clearance.”[16] The Los Angeles Times reported that “veteran diplomats complained that Indyk was being made a scapegoat for the kinds of security lapses that are rather common among envoys who take classified work home from the office.”[16] Indyk’s clearance was suspended but was reinstated the next month, “for the duration of the current crisis,” given “the continuing turmoil in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza [Strip] and for compelling national security reasons.”[16]
Criticism
Receiving donations from Qatar
In 2014, Indyk came under scrutiny when a New York Times investigation revealed that wealthy Gulf state of Qatar made a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings Institution, in order to fund two Brookings initiatives,[17] the Brookings Center in Doha and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.[18] The Times investigation found that Brookings was one of more than a dozen influential Washington think tanks and research organizations that “have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities.”[17] A number of scholars interviewed by the Times expressed alarm at the trend, saying that the “donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments.”[17]
The revelation of the think tank’s choice to accept the payment from Qatar was especially controversial because at the time, Indyk was acting as a peace negotiator between Israel and the Palestinians, and because Qatar funds jihadist groups in the Middle East and is the main financial backer of Hamas, “the mortal enemy of both the State of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.”[19] Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal, who directs Hamas’s operations against Israel, is also harbored by Qatar.[17] Indyk defended the arrangement with Qatar, contending that it did not influence the think tank’s work and that “to be policy-relevant, we need to engage policy makers.”[17] However, the arrangement between Qatar and Brookings caused Israeli government officials to doubt Indyk’s impartiality.[20]
Islamic State Flag Found Near Suspected Sabotage on Railway – German Police
By Ben Warren
An Islamic State (IS) flag was discovered near a damaged overhead power cable on a Berlin railway track, according to German police.
Leaflets in Arabic were also found and authorities are investigating if the propaganda is related to the apparent sabotage.
“Since the beginning of the investigation, several pieces of evidence have been secured,” said police.
Additionally, a torn steel cable was found at the scene of Sunday’s suspected attack on the tracks.
Given the possibility of this being a terrorist attack, federal police have taken over the investigation to officially deduce any “political motivations” linked to the findings.
Correspondingly, in October, German authorities discovered a threatening letter written in Arabic alongside mangled steel cables that were stretched across the tracks of a high-speed railway line between Nuremberg and Munich.
As of this writing, it is unclear if the two incidents are connected.
Watch: French Police Draw Firearm on ‘Yellow Vests’
By Dan Lyman
‘Yellow Vests’ protests erupted across France for the sixth straight week and frayed tensions have pushed some police to the breaking point as at least one officer drew his firearm during violent clashes in Paris.
Video footage shows motorcycle troopers overwhelmed by protestors as tear gas canisters and projectiles fly near Champs-Élysées.
Some officers deploy pepper spray, while one draws his service weapon and aims it at the advancing crowd.
French officials have blasted the attack on police, with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe tweeting, “Assaults of unprecedented violence against police officers . . . It is out of the question to trivialize such actions which must be the subject of unanimous condemnation and criminal sanctions.”
However, footage depicting the moments leading up to the confrontation give broader context.
The officers in question can be seen throwing flashbang grenades toward a crowd who appear to be moving in a non-threatening fashion along Champs-Élysées.
Some in the throng react to the provocation, and eventually the officers are forced to flee amid a hail of flying objects.
Notably, many in the mob are not wearing yellow vests, indicating they may be opportunists capitalizing on the chaos.
Infowars has reported at length on the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ demonstrations, including on-the-ground coverage which you can view here, here and here.
BREAKING: Austrian church attacked and religious monks taken hostage – Five seriously injured
Updated 19:17 GMT
On Thursday, two strangers stormed a Catholic Church in Vienna Austria and attacked and took hostage several monks, newspaper Krone reports.
The men tied up and robbed the monks in a brutal attack. As a result at least five victims are seriously injured.
Afterwards, the suspects fled the scene. The victims were discovered around 4:15 pm and had already been tied up for several hours.
The two perpetrators attacked the church around 1:30 pm. According to Russia Today:
“Police have confirmed that five people, all of them monks, were injured in the attack. One monk suffered serious injuries. A 68-year-old monk was at the premises of the church when the robbers broke in. They threatened the man with a firearm and forced him to lie on the ground.
“The perpetrators then hit him and trampled upon him, inflicting serious head injuries, the Austrian Kronen Zeitung reports. Four more monks, who arrived at the church later, were also attacked and injured, police spokesman Harald Soeroes told Kronen Zeitung.
“The suspects are still on the run, their identities unknown. Soeroes described one of the suspects as a 5.9-feet tall man with dark hair. “Both men speak German and have a foreign accent,” the police spokesman said.”
A Huge police operation started immediately and a Cobra helicopter is circling the area. The area between Langenzersdorferstraße, Anton-Böck-Straße and Krottenhofgasse was cordoned off in a large scale operation. “Please avoid the restricted area and let our colleagues work locally,” the police warned via Twitter.
Currently, according to the investigators there is no suspicion of terrorism, but the exact motive is still unknown. However, according to reports, one of the perpetrators has been behaving suspiciously for days around the church.
Police special forces of WEGA and tactical unit Cobra have come into action.
“According to the currently available information, all the people injured as a result of the attack by unknown persons are staff of the Catholic church. The preliminary information indicates that it was a robbery. We are checking whether there are Russian citizens among those injured,” the embassy’s spokesman Bulat Haydarov told Sputnik.
Top Democrats post identical ‘orange man bad’ anti-Trump tweet
Nanci Pelosi and Chuck Schumer ; the infamous ‘NPC’ meme © Reuters / Joshua Roberts
Ranking Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been accused of being Trump-hating automatons after posting identical tweets attacking the president. The curious stunt has breathed fresh life into the infamous ‘NPC’ meme.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi were mocked as “non-player characters” (NPCs) – a video game term that has been retooled to describe those who mindlessly regurgitate anti-Trump mantras – after tweeting identical Christmas Eve roasts of Donald Trump.
“It’s Christmas Eve and @realDonaldTrump is plunging the country into chaos. The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve — after he just fired the Secretary of Defense,” Schumer tweeted.
Less than thirty minutes later, Pelosi tweeted an identical Christmas Eve warning. The lawmakers also posted a series of nearly-identical follow-up messages, lambasting the president for shutting down the government.
The lazy messaging strategy provoked a snark storm on Twitter, with many users dusting off their favorite NPC meme to satirize the herd-mentality hatred of the president.
“Holy smokes. They are literally NPCs. They think and speak EXACTLY alike!” one Twitter user wrote.
The NPC meme gained wide popularity ahead of the November midterm elections. In October, Twitter deleted an estimated 1,500 accounts that used the meme to mock liberal conformity, claiming they were Russian bots.
The “tanking” stock market that Schumer and Pelosi expressed identical grief over later experienced a record-setting rebound. The Dow added over 1,080 points (4.9%), its biggest single-day gain in history.
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Neocons and Media Unite to Attack Trump’s Syria Decision
By Mark Alan
President Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria has been met with some push back among neoconservatives and the media. Although the move seems consistent with the presidents previous statements about the conflict, that didn’t stop some from expressing shock over the decision. Undoubtedly, the two loudest voices among Republicans were Senators Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.
Graham called the move an “Obama-like” mistake. Rubio, apparently trying to establish himself as the leading figure of the neoconservative movement, went as far as calling the president’s decision a “retreat.” Graham and Rubio have both expressed past support for using the US military to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The response from many in the media hasn’t been too different from that of the neocons. CNN’s Erin Burnett strongly condemned President Trump’s decision. She said the president was giving Vladimir Putin an early Christmas present by withdrawing US soldiers from Syria. However, she failed to articulate why she believes the lives of US soldiers are less valuable than the alleged disruption between the US and Russia.
Burnett wasn’t the only CNN personality to attack the president for his decision. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria also bashed the withdraw of US troops from Syria. He claimed President Trump was making an even bigger mistake than former president George W Bush’s “mission accomplished” fiasco during the Iraq War. It’s worth noting that Zakaria is one of many prominent members of the media who supported the decision to invade Iraq.
Anchors from other networks also condemned the president’s choice to withdraw troops from Syria. Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade called Trump’s decision “stunning and irresponsible.” He also suggested the president was “cutting and running.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough expressed similar sentiments on his show this morning.
The reaction of the neoconservatives and like minded members of the media shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The two groups have united numerous times in the past, salivating at the idea of a ground war to overthrow Assad in Syria. Thankfully, peace has prevailed.
United States military forces have been in Syria for over four years. The first known instance of American troops fighting on the ground in Syria occurred in July of 2014, as part of a hostage rescue operation. The Global War on Terror has already cost US tax payers nearly 6 trillion dollars. To provide that number some context, the combined value of the entire US housing market is worth about 30 trillion dollars.
Elsewhere, President Trump’s decision has been met with praise. Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul both applauded the president’s withdraw of troops from Syria. Senator Paul saidthe president’s decision is another example of Trump keeping his campaign promises. Paul further defended the move, saying the president’s decision in Syria illustrates why he won the 2016 election.
France’s ‘yellow vests’ block borders ahead of Christmas
By AFP – 22 DEC. 2018
Paris (AFP) – Three days from Christmas, French “yellow vests” turned out in small numbers for a sixth Saturday of protests in cities and border points as a fatal road accident brought the death toll to 10 since the movement began last month.
Near the border between France and Spain hundreds of protesters disrupted traffic as they gathered around an autoroute toll booth.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the “yellow vests” who retreated to a bridge, throwing objects on the road, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
“The autoroute is now being cleaned to allow traffic to resume normally,” local authorities said.
France borders the Catalan region of Spain, and the French protesters were joined by dozens of Catalan pro-independence activists, also wearing yellow vests.
The separatists often block highways to protest against Madrid’s rejection of Catalonia’s independence referendum in October 2017.
Even though their goals are different, “this demonstration at the Boulou (toll booth) is symbolic, it shows the solidarity between the Spanish Catalans and the French,” said Marcel, a 49-year-old winegrower.
Roadblocks by protesters were also reported on autoroutes near the border with Italy and at a bridge in Strasbourg near the German border.
A driver died overnight when his car slammed into the back of a truck stopped at a roadblock set up by “yellow vest” protesters at an autoroute entrance in Perpignan on the Mediterranean coast, prosecutor Jean-Jacques Fagni told AFP.
There have now been 10 deaths related to the protests since they began on November 17.
– Macron effigy –
In Paris, the scene of violent clashes during previous demonstrations, around 800 protesters joined rallies scattered around the city, police said at mid-day.
But the French capital’s iconic Champs-Elysees avenue was calm, with most shops except for some luxury boutiques open for business in the busy weekend before Christmas.
David Delbruyere, 48, was one of about 20 protesters near the Arch of Triumph, the fifth time he has come to the French capital for a demonstration as he remains “disgusted” with conditions in France.
Paris police said 65 people had been arrested, including a “yellow vest” leader, Eric Drouet.
Authorities were also stationed at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris which has been closed to visitors over fears of unrest.
A Facebook event organised by Drouet had listed thousands of people “interested” in joining the Versailles demonstration but only around 60 have shown up.
Further demonstrations of several hundred “yellow vests” were reported in Lyon, Marseille, Rouen and Bordeaux.
And in Angouleme in southwest France, a puppet effigy of President Emmanuel Macron was decapitated Friday night during a “yellow vest” protest, regional authorities said Saturday.
Meanwhile, police stepped in with tear gas to disperse around 80 protesters who had gathered Saturday outside Macron’s home in the Channel coast town of Touquet.
The number of protesters has however fallen significantly since last week, when Macron, a pro-business centrist, gave in to some of their demands.
Since the peak on November 17 with 282,000 demonstrators, the turnout has fallen to 166,000 on November 24, 136,000 on the first and eighth of December and 66,000 on December 15.
The movement characterised by the high-visibility yellow vests worn by the protesters originally started as a protest about planned fuel tax hikes, but has morphed into a widespread demonstration against Macron’s policies and top-down style of governing.
On Friday evening, the French Senate approved Macron’s measures to help the working poor and pensioners — just hours after they were adopted by the lower house of parliament — which aim to quell “yellow vest” anger and should come into force early in 2019.
burs-adm-sab-ito/boc/wai
Another Saturday in Paris: Smoke & scuffles, more than 100 Yellow Vests detained
The atmosphere at the Yellow Vest protests in the heart of the French capital has become more strained as demonstrators engage in scuffles with police officers.
Tensions rose hours into the rallies and police resorted to force against the rioters near the artistic Montmartre district in the north of the capital.
Scuffles also broke out near Madeleine Church, some 2km from Montmartre. Protesters were also seen near the iconic Louvre Museum and Sacre-Coeur Basilica. More than 100 people have been detained, according to the Paris Police Prefecture.
Some 2,000 people in fluorescent vests – clothing usually worn by drivers that has now become an emblem of the rallies – were marching in the capital Saturday, according to the city’s police prefecture. The number of participants in the streets has notably diminished, however.
WATCH LIVE:
Yellow Vest protesters changed their usual meeting place. Instead of the Champs-Elysees, where violent clashes have occurred, they rallied in Montmartre. Yet, the district wasn’t the intended venue for the rallies. Initially, they were called to march towards a French symbol of power and a major tourist site – the iconic Versailles Palace. Located some 20km west of Paris, the palace was once besieged during the French Revolution.
As in previous weeks, the protests have also spread beyond the capital. Across the whole country 23,800 protesters tuned out, BFMTV reported. Some 300 demonstrators gathered in front of the city hall in Marseille. People also marched near a local police station, demanding the release of two Yellow Vests who had been detained earlier in the day.
Protesters also gathered at the A9 highway toll of Le Boulou in southern France. Waving Catalan flags and carrying a banner saying “All united” the rally was apparently a nod to Friday’s protests in Barcelona.
Protesters wearing “Yellow Vests” wave Catalan flags at the A9 highway toll of Le Boulou
France has been hit by a sixth consecutive weekend of Yellow Vest rallies. Previous protests turned violent, with demonstrators hurling stones and fireworks at police, while law enforcement resorted to using tear gas and water cannon. The mayhem has left almost 3,000 people, both protesters and police officers, injured. Over 4,500 have been detained and placed into custody since mid-November.
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‘Possible suicide attempt’: Car rams into crowded bus stop in Germany leaving 1 dead & 9 injured
A car is seen after it plowed into a bus stop in Recklinghausen. © Reuters / Leon Kuegeler
A woman was killed and nine other people were seriously injured as a car rammed into a group of commuters waiting for a bus in the western German town of Recklinghausen. Police say the driver might have attempted suicide.
A passenger car suddenly strayed into the oncoming lane and plowed through the people at a crowded bus stop midday on Thursday, the witnesses said, describing the scene as “chaotic.”
Ten people were taken to hospital in serious condition, with one woman later succumbing to her injuries.
The police believe that the collision was intentional, with spokeswoman, Ramona Hörst, saying that were “first indications of a possible suicide attempt by the man.”
The driver survived the crash and was released from his wrecked car by the firefighters. According to other reports, the man wasn’t trapped in the vehicle.
The incident comes in wake of a string of ramming attacks in Europe, with radicalized assailants using vehicles to target civilians in France, Spain, Sweden, and other countries.
Germany saw its deadliest vehicle attack in December 2016. Twelve people lost their lives and 56 others were wounded when a Tunisian national plowed his truck through a Christmas market in central Berlin.
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