According to the former cartoonist of Charlie Hebdo “There is no valid reason for Islam to be an exception”.
By Mark Alan
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.
This article contains the personal opinions of the author. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Mess of Media. This disclaimer appears on all articles that feature the personal opinions of the author, as Mess of Media is an unbiased and nonpartisan source of information.
A car is seen after it plowed into a bus stop in Recklinghausen. © Reuters / Leon Kuegeler
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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Georges Soros (L) ; Anti-Orban demonstrators in Hungary © Reuters / Charles Platiau / Laszlo Balogh
For thirty years, liberal businessman and philanthropist Soros has used his vast wealth to crusade against“authoritarianism, racism and intolerance,” the FT profile reads.
Armed with his expansive grant-giving network, Open Societies Foundations (OSF), the Hungarian-American spread his influence to some 100 countries across the globe. The NGO currently has annual expenditures of over $940 million, with 26 national and regional foundations and offices.
There’s hardly a question over whether the Soros-funded apparatus is doing the right thing. The first paragraph of the story says it just “helped thwart an allegedly corrupt nuclear power plant contract with Russia” – a feat to be admired in the liberal world.
“We haven’t stopped having a beneficial influence,” Soros is then quoted as saying.
ALSO ON RT.COMGeorge Soros’ Open Society foundation ends operations in Hungary
But there’s a worrying trend for the Democrat mega-donor, passionate advocate for open borders and outspoken critic of Brexit. More and more detractors see his work as an existential threat to conservative values and even state sovereignty.
The “standard bearer of liberal democracy and open society” has found his ideals “under siege” as he “has attracted the wrath of authoritarian regimes and, increasingly, the national populists who continue to gain ground,” writes FT.
At one point Soros sounds a bit more critical of himself than the paper, as he acknowledges he’s a divisive figure, something he still believes indicates his effectiveness as an activist.
“I’m blamed for everything, including being the anti-Christ,” Soros says. “I wish I didn’t have so many enemies, but I take it as an indication that I must be doing something right.”
Soros wasn’t joking. Hungarian lawmaker Andras Aradszki of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) once declared that it is a Christian’s duty to oppose Soros’ calls for Europe to take in asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East – what Aradszki called “Satan’s Soros plan.” The lawmaker added that “Soros and his comrades want to destroy the independence and values of nation states.”
In May, the OSF ended its operations in Hungary, citing an “increasingly repressive political and legal environment.” A month later, Hungary’s parliament passed the ‘Stop Soros’ law which threatens jail time for anyone helping illegal immigrants claim asylum.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban accused Soros of attempting to use mass migration to undermine Europe’s stability.
“Soros has antagonized not only us but also England, President Trump and Israel too,” Orban said in February.“Everywhere he wants to get migration accepted. It won’t work. We are not alone and we will fight together… and we will succeed.”
ALSO ON RT.COMHungary approves ‘Stop Soros’ law criminalizing aid to illegal migrants
In the UK, the billionaire has been sharply criticized for his donations of over £800,000 ($1,062,000) to pro-EU campaigns. The pledges included £400,000 to Best for Britain, a campaign group that has been at the forefront of anti-Brexit activism.
The businessman’s activities have received similar hostility in the United States, where some have accused him of providing assistance to the so-called “migrant caravan” which made its way from Central America to the US’ southern border. “The venom, long concealed among extreme right networks, has leaked into the mainstream,” laments the FT.
Soros, along with other notable critics of Donald Trump, such as former President Barack Obama, the Clintons and CNN, was recently targeted by an alleged pipe bomb mailed to his home in New York.
A prominent backer of the Democratic Party, Soros has called Trump a “danger to the world,” and once (wrongly) bet that stocks would collapse if Donald won presidency. The bet reportedly cost him $1 billion – quite affordable for the investor who is currently worth $8.3 billion after his 2017 transfer of $18 billion to the OSF.
ALSO ON RT.COM‘Lock him up!’ Smiling Trump joins chant against Soros (VIDEO)
For a man who made billions short-selling the UK pound sterling and has been accused of several more currency crises in Asia, FT’s Soros comes across as a wise old benefactor “looking beyond his formidable legacy” in his “twilight years.”
READ MORE: Soros sold off Facebook stocks before they tanked, documents show
But for all the accolades, the paper may have forgotten that the businessman has long had his sights set on a title more ambitious than merely the ‘person’ of the year. In a 1993 interview with the UK Independent, Soros actually confessed that he suffers from a god complex.
“It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out,” he said.
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DECEMBER 20, 2018
All of the economic numbers tell us that the economy is slowing down, and on Wednesday Fed Chair Jerome Powell even admitted that economic conditions are “softening”, but the Federal Reserve raised interest rates anyway. As one top economist put it, raising rates as we head into an economic downturn is “economic malpractice”. They know that higher rates will slow down the economy even more, but it isn’t as if the Fed was divided on this move. In fact, it was a unanimous vote to raise rates. They clearly have an agenda, and that agenda is definitely not about helping the American people.
Early on Wednesday, Wall Street seemed to believe that the Federal Reserve would do the right thing, and the Dow was up nearly 400 points. But then the announcement came, and the market began sinking dramatically.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 720 points in just two hours, and the Dow ended the day down a total of 351 points. This is the lowest that the Dow has been all year, 60 percent of the stocks listed on the S&P 500 are in bear market territory, and at this point approximately four trillion dollars of stock market wealth has been wiped out.
We haven’t seen anything like this since the last financial crisis. This is officially the worst quarter for the stock market since the fourth quarter of 2008, and it is the worst December that Wall Street has experienced since 1931.
It is insanity to raise interest rates when stocks are already crashing, but the Federal Reserve did it anyway.
They knew what kind of reaction this would cause on Wall Street and in other global markets, but that didn’t stop them. The financial world is in utter turmoil, and this move by the Fed has definitely added fuel to the fire.
Could it be possible that they actually want a stock market crash?
Some are suggesting that the reason why the vote was unanimous was because they wanted to send a “strong signal” to President Trump. He has been extremely critical of the Federal Reserve in recent weeks, and this could be a way for the Fed to show Trump who is really in charge.
They are calling this “the Trump economy”, but that is simply not true. And when Barack Obama was in the White House, it wasn’t “the Obama economy” either. Ultimately, it is the Federal Reserve that is running the economy, and they fiercely guard their independence and their authority.
President Trump knows that the only way that he is going to win in 2020 is if the economy is doing well, and he also understands that higher interest rates will slow the economy down.
So essentially the Federal Reserve has a tremendous amount of political power in their hands.
During the Obama era, the Fed pushed interest rates all the way to the floor and kept them there for many years.
But now the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates seven times since Donald Trump took office, and four of those rate hikes have been under current Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Needless to say, it certainly doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out how Donald Trump is feeling about Powell at this moment.
Meanwhile, we continue to get more indications that the U.S. economy is heading for difficult times. Just consider the following news about FedEx…
FedEx shares are plunging after what Morgan Stanley called a “jarring” cut to its annual forecasts, suggesting global growth is slowing far more than most expect – in fact, the bank hinted at the possibility of a “severe recession” unfolding – and prompting expectations of an “uber-dovish hike” by the Fed.
The global logistics bellwether slashed its outlook just three months after raising the view, reflecting an unexpected and abrupt change in the company’s view of the global economy amid rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Not only were the cuts were deeper than the Street expected according to Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker, but everyone is pointing to the following comment from the press release: “Global trade has slowed in recent months and leading indicators point to ongoing deceleration in global trade near-term.”
To see the term “severe recession” used in such a context is more than just a little bit alarming.
The last time the U.S. economy went through a recession, millions of Americans lost their jobs and we saw a wave of mortgage defaults unlike anything we had ever seen before in modern American history.
Are we about to go through something similar?
Earlier today, a CNN article also used the term “recession”, and it discussed the fact that investors now want big corporations to focus on paying down their debts instead of buying back shares of stock…
Fears of an economic slowdown — or even recession — have turned a spotlight on the debt that businesses piled up during the past decade, when borrowing costs were historically low.
For the first time since the Great Recession, investors want companies to prioritize paying down debt rather than investing in the future or share buybacks and dividends, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers.
But stock buybacks are one of the only things that has been propping up the stock market. The only way for the bubble to continue is for corporations to go into dizzying amounts of debt in order to fund massive stock buybacks, because the Federal Reserve clearly does not intend to support the markets right now.
At least for the short-term, the Federal Reserve could have calmed the markets and encouraged economic activity by leaving interest rates alone.
In the end, they decided not to do that, and that makes one wonder what they are really trying to achieve.
IRENA IRIS SZEWCZYK
By LAURA CAT 19 December 2018
The countries who will vote against the plan include the Visegrád Four group of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, as well, Bulgaria, Latvia, Austria, the United States, Israel, Australia, Dominica and Brazil, Péter told at the hearing.
Minister Szijjártó also has asserted that Hungary will also reject the “sister document”, which has been hailed as even worse than the Migration pact, The Global Compact on Refugees.
This is is said to allow migrants to enter Europe “through a backdoor” and as the minister said, “Hungarian communities across the border will not be sacrificed for geopolitical interests or under international pressure”.
Referring to the “unbelievable pressure” western allies have deployed on Hungary in the effort to have Hungary relinquish its position vetoing Ukraine’s NATO integration, the foreign minister insists that Hungary would stand firm until “Ukraine drops its anti-Hungarian policies”.
Mac Slavo
December 19th, 2018
By Mac Slavo
December 19th, 2018
According to NPR, the Fed last raised rates in September. Since then, the U.S. economy has given off mixed signals. The job market remains strong, with unemployment at the lowest level in nearly 50 years and economic growth clocked in at a solid 3.5 percent in the third quarter. But the stock market is stumbling and home sales and car sales have slumped because of the higher interest rates. Not to mention the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China which have led to growing fears about the outlook for the global economy.
President Donald Trump has even taken to Twitter to announce the Fed’s plan to hike interest rates again.
The decision to raise the interest rate will affect the rates on all kinds of borrowing, from home mortgages to credit cards. The 30-year mortgage rate in the past year climbed from 3.95 percent to a peak of nearly 5 percent in November, which is a seven-year high. It has since dropped to 4.63 percent, still higher than most borrowers would want.
Trump also called the Fed the “greatest threat” in October in an interview with Fox Business, and has singled out Fed chairman Jerome Powell for harsh criticisms., of which the central bank is in desperate need of. The Fed is answerable to no one and usually insulated from political pressure. Presidents in recent times, including Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush, have refrained from overtly criticizing the central bank, probably because they collude with the government for economic destruction.
Meanwhile, Powell has said that the economic outlook remains solid and that interest rates are nearly within a “neutral” range which seems to be indicating that the Fed may not be immediately worried about any inflation. “Interest rates are still low by historical standards,” he said in November.
Stock prices have fallen sharply since early November and it is somewhat rare for the Fed to raise rates in the face of a sustained market selloff. So there’s an outside chance the Fed could change course and pull a stunner by keeping rates steady at the Wednesday meeting.
Belgian PM Charles Michel
Speaking to the parliament, Michel admitted that his call for a “coalition of the willing” to govern until the next election – scheduled for May 2019 – had “not been heard,” adding that he would respect this outcome and resign.
His speech received standing ovation, according to the Belgian media.
ALSO ON RT.COMMigration not a ‘human right’: Austria refuses to join global UN-backed migration pactMichel’s decision came after the opposition Green and Socialist parties tabled a no-confidence motion against his government. The move was allegedly provoked by the ruling coalition’s failure to agree on some budget proposals.
The Belgian government was already weakened earlier this month, when the center-right New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which is actually the largest political force in the parliament, quit the ruling coalition citing disagreements with its partners over the controversial UN Migration Pact. Michel had to reshuffle his cabinet and planned to make his government continue its work as a minority one.
The UN-backed pact that has turned out to be a stumbling block for the Belgian government was approved by more than 160 nations in Marrakech, Morocco earlier in December.
ALSO ON RT.COMDivided nations: UN migration pact sows discord as states turn away & face domestic tensionsSome nations have openly opposed it, while many others, including Belgium, witnessed widespread protests of their citizens against it. The US, which was the first to openly oppose the pact, said the agreement was “dead even before it’s been signed.”
Although the text is not legally binding and is regarded as more of a declaration, the pact is worded in a way that encourages domestic courts and authorities to consider it when making decisions based on interpretations of their laws.
Such provisions have prompted Austria, Hungary, Israel and several other countries to reject the pact. Critics claim that the deal is inadequate for managing global migration flows and might negatively affect their national immigration policies.
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Adan Salazar | Infowars.com – DECEMBER 18, 2018
The 3 Dollar Bill gay club in Brooklyn sold tickets to the “Club Whoa!!!” show on EventBrite for $15, promising 11-year-old “drag kid” Desmond Napoles, AKA Desmond Is Amazing, would headline the event.
Subsequent video and photos from the event posted to Instagram and Reddit show Desmond indeed performed dressed up as No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, while men threw money on stage.
Photos posted to Desmond’s Instagram profile also show him performing at the club in various other outfits.
Reactions to the performance have ranged from disgust to outrage, with some asking if the club will be investigated for promoting pedophilia, while others urged Child Protective Services to take action.
“10 year old kids shouldn’t be performing at any bar. Gay or straight. He should be at home playing with legos and riding his bike….or at a dance class for kids…not being sexually groomed. This is child abuse,” reads the top voted comment at /r/trashy.
“This isn’t Trashy: It’s child abuse. If this were a 10 year old girl at any other club CPS would already be there,” another keen Redditor commented.
“I left after seeing a child dance on stage for money at nighttime. This was on Saturday night and I have been feeling disturbed ever since,” a Yelp reviewer wrote.
Writing at LouderWithCrowder.com, Courtney Kirchoff made the connection between the left’s promotion of “drag kids” and the creeping normalization of pedophilia.
I don’t care if you’re gay, straight, or wish to marry a potato. If you went to this event, if you watched a child perform sexually, if you gave him money for it, if you think his mother is anything other than the handmaiden of Satan for encouraging, allowing, and making this event happen, you are everything wrong with our species. Further, if you shrug your shoulders and dismiss this, if you say it’s the child’s choice to perform like this, that we shouldn’t opine on what is happening to Desmond Napoles and every other child being exploited by his or her parents and our current culture of anything goes, you are everything wrong with humanity.
In another video shared on Twitter Tuesday, Desmond livestreams with a drag queen named Lactacia, and appears familiar with the dissociative club drug Ketamine.
This will likely not be the last we hear of Desmond, as the left continues to push its demoralizing pedophiliac agenda.
Christopher Steele’s salacious 17-page report was commissioned by Fusion GPS, a firm connected to Clinton’s campaign.
“Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as ‘Hillary for America’) could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election,” Steele wrote in recently unsealed declaration that was published by the Washington Times.
His statement is part of a series of answers which Steele provided in a defamation suit brought by three Russians who head Alfa Bank, who were named in the dossier as part of the alleged collusion conspiracy between Trump and the Kremlin.
The court challenge never came. Instead, the unsubstantiated dossier was leaked to news outlets such as BuzzFeed, fuelling Russiagate hysteria and serving as the backbone of a two-year probe that has yet to corroborate any of the document’s core claims. The document was also used by the FBI to obtain a warrant to spy on former Trump aide Carter Page, who was accused by Steele of meeting secretly with Kremlin insiders in Moscow. Incredibly, former FBI Director James Comey admitted that his agency had not verified the dossier’s contents before using it to justify the warrant.
The dossier itself has apparently fallen out of favor with many of its early champions: One of the first journalists to report on Steele’s research has stated that many of Steele’s central claims have yet to be substantiated and are “likely false.”
ALSO ON RT.COMSteele dossier’s main claims ‘likely false,’ admits journalist who helped launch RussiagateThe defamation case against Steele was dismissed by a DC Superior Court judge, but lawyers representing the Russian bankers have launched an appeal in US District court, attaching Steele’s revelatory statements as part of their filing. Steele claimed that internet traffic data had been observed between Alfa Bank and a computer served linked to the Trump Organization. The allegation has yet to be proven, with some reports suggesting that the flagged data actually originated from an internet spam farm based outside Philadelphia.
Steele faces similar legal trouble in London, where he is being sued for defamation by Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev. In one of his memos, Steele accused Gubarev of personally hacking DNC computers. Gubarev has also sued BuzzFeed for publishing the unverified claim as part of its uncritical coverage of the dossier.
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