Majorityrights News > Category: World Affairs

Daily Kos, “Bombshell: Devin Nunes’ Entire Net Worth Sunk In Company With Strong Ties To Russia: Updated”, 26 Mar 2017:

Oh those rascally republicans! Not only was Devin Nunes caught sharing evidence with the White House he is supposed to be investigating, now reports show that he has sunk almost his entire net worth (which ain’t a lot) into The Napa Valley’s Alpha Omega winery, which has, as it’s only European contract, a distributor in Russia with close ties to…you guessed it… Putin.

“Nunes has put almost his entire net worth into a winery with strong ties to Russia.How strong? Well, the Alpha Omega Winery has distributors all over the U.S., but just a few abroad. One of those overseas distributors is the Luding Trading Company in Russia. Luding is, in fact, Russia’s largest distributor for alcoholic beverages. But they don’t just operate in Russia – they also appear to have a relationship with Vladimir Putin.”

Here’s a copy of his financial dregs:

       

So, Nunes is worth $51,000 and a penny and has $50,000 tied up in Russian Red.

Nice.

But he’s taking care to protect his investment, huh?

  “It’s also odd that Alpha Omega Winery would have a relationship with Russia’s largest distributor when they only have a relationship with one Western nation (Switzerland). They don’t have any relationships with any other distributor in the EU, which means no relationships with NATO allies at all.

  Then there’s the fact that Nunes is one of the people Trump called upon to refute news about the whole Russia scandal. That right there compromised the House’s investigation into Trump and Russia because it blurs the lines between the intelligence community, the White House, and Congress.”

Sunday, Mar 26, 2017 · 9:04:59 PM · durrati

Several Comments have pointed out that the source of this story didn’t make a compelling case for the Nunes/Russia slant of this story and they may be right to do so. The link to the LA Times Financial information has value though, it seems to me, and it is strange that a major player in the Russian Liquor Distribution Industry lists as one of it’s suppliers a small California vintner Nunes is invested in. I’ll leave this up because some of our sleuths here might find it interesting to dig into.

Daily Sabah, “FM Çavuşoğlu meets Trump’s top national security advisor”, 18 Jan 2017:

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with designated U.S. National Security adviser Rt. Gen. Mike Flynn on Wednesday at Trump Hotel in Washington.

“Met with General Flynn, who will assume the position of National Security Advisor, and other officials at a working breakfast in Washington D.C.,” Çavuşoğlu tweeted.

The meeting marks a first direct reachout between the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan administration and the incoming Donald Trump administration, other than a phone call between two leaders last November.

House Intelligence Committee Congressman Devin Nunes, a Republican heavyweight, also attended the breakfast.

An aide of the foreign minister didn’t provide additional details on the meeting, but said that Çavuşoğlu was the only foreign leader at the breakfast and the topics on the U.S.-Turkish agenda were discussed by the attendees.

A invitation letter for the breakfast, obtained by Daily Sabah, said the breakfast would be a small event for about 50-60 guests. It also said White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus might join the meeting. It was not immediately clear whether he attended. An official at the Trump Organization, and two other fundraisers were presented as co-hosts, according to the letter.

Çavuşoğlu previously told Turkish media that he would attend the incoming Trump administration’s inauguration ceremony, which is due to be held on the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on Friday.

The official announcement comes as questions over whether the Trump administration will be able to normalize relations between Turkey and the U.S. are increasing.

Turkish officials have previously stated that Turkey can cooperate with the new U.S. administration since many of Turkey’s views overlap with the incoming president

Daily Sabbah, “Turkey confident on extradition of Gülen under Trump administration”, 23 Jan 2017:

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş addressed the media after a Cabinet meeting Monday, reiterating the Turkish government’s two primary expectations of the newly sworn in Donald Trump administration, the extradition of U.S.-based Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen and the halting of U.S. support for the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

The revelation comes on the heels of the inauguration of Donald Trump who took the Oval Office as the 45th president of the U.S. on Friday. Despite recent tensions with Washington, Turkish officials are confident that, compared to the Barack Obama administration, the new administration will usher in a new era of cooperation for the NATO-ally, especially in the counterterrorism fight against Daesh and FETÖ.

“Especially in efforts to revamp Turkish-U.S. relations, we expect the Trump administration to conduct a re-assessment of its position on Turkey and reconsider its position on two primary matters, the first of which is the extradition of the retired preacher Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S. as the purported leader of an outlawed Turkish gang which conducted crimes against the nation during the failed July 15 coup attempt. The second fundamental matter is halting U.S. support for the PYD,” the deputy prime minister asserted.

Emphasizing Turkey’s hopes that the new U.S. administration will not repeat the mistakes of the previous administration, Kurtulmuş also said that, “It is our aim to bring bilateral relations back to the level that is required between two, long-standing allies.”

Under the Obama administration, Turkish-U.S. relations deteriorated significantly due to Obama’s insistent claims that the PKK and the YPG are not one-in-the-same, regardless of mounting evidence and statements made by YPG terrorists.

Thus, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said that he is confident Turkey will see results under the Trump administration, further referring to the PYD as, “An armed group with a few militants who are accountable for the instability of the region.”

“The PYD, an armed group with few militants, is clearly a contributing factor to the region’s instability. Turkey urges the U.S. to stop supporting the group on the grounds that it is affiliated with the PKK and engages in terror activities. We are hopeful that we will yield results regarding this matter, as well. If these two expectations are met, Turkish-U.S. bilateral relations will be restored and strengthened once again. I do hope that this new administration moves forward by making decisions that contribute not only to Turkish-American relations but also to world peace and stability in the Middle East,” Kurtulmuş added.

New Observer, “8,606 Fake Refugees Invade Europe in first 37 Days of 2018”:

At least 8,606 nonwhites pretending to be “refugees” invaded Europe in the first 37 days of 2018, meaning that 232 invaders landed every day, according to new figures released by the United Nations’ International Organization of Migration (IOM).

 

The IOM figures show that 7,795 of the nonwhites invaded Europe by sea, and 811 by land as of 7 Feb 2018.

At least 186,768 nonwhites invaded Europe this way in 2017, and 392,879 in 2016, the IOM added.

The main nationalities of the invaders are, in descendant order, as follows:

To Italy: Nigeria, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, Mali, and Eritrea;

To Greece: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, and Algeria;

To Spain: Morocco, Algeria, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, and Syria;

To Bulgaria: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Pakistan.

In the period from 1 February 1 to 7, 11 nonwhites invaders landed in Cyprus, and in the same period, 10 nonwhites demanded “refuge” in Hungary.

At the same time, 29 nonwhites demanded “refuge” in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

In 2017, at least 92 percent of the invaders landed by sea (172,362) to Italy, Greece, Spain and Cyprus. The remaining 14,406 invaded Europe by using land routes to the Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa (6,293) and from Turkey to Greece (5,551) and Bulgaria (2,562).

The IOM also revealed in its “Flows Compilation Report” for Decemebr 2017 that under the “EU Relocation Scheme”—through which that organization moves nonwhites from the countries of landing to other EU nations, another 106,000 nonwhites were moved from their landing points in Greece and Italy to elsewhere in Europe.

To date, 25 countries have committed to make places available under the scheme, namely Austria (50) Belgium (1,530), Bulgaria (1,070), Croatia (316), Cyprus (205), Czech Republic (50), Estonia (396), Finland (2,128), France (6,940), Germany (13,250), Ireland (1,152), Latvia (627), Liechtenstein (10), Lithuania (1,160), Luxembourg (545), Malta (205), the Netherlands (2,825), Norway (1,500), Poland (100), Portugal (3,218), Romania (2,182), Slovakia (60), Slovenia (579), Spain (2,500), Sweden (3,777) and Switzerland (1,530) with an overall number of 47,905 places.

An additional 54,000 nonwhites claiming to be Syrians were flown out of Turkey for “resettlement” in Europe.

Two sites that deal with these issues as they combine, the largest elephant in the room of liberal and neoliberal hypocrisy:

Population-Environment Research Network:

Carrying Capacity Network:

Dear Congressperson,

How would you like to tell your constituents that there was an extra $758,000,000 each year to spend in their district? How could you help direct the spending of $758,000,000 ($758 MILLION!) in your district each year?

According to a study by noted Economist, John Williams, which can be viewed at Carrying Capacity Network [1] which sponsored the Study, U.S. Taxpayers pay out a NET $330 BILLION ANNUALLY (believe it or not) on LEGAL Immigration. That is, LEGAL Immigration costs U.S. tax-payers $330 BILLION AFTER SUBTRACTING ALL TAXES IMMIGRANTS PAY. [And this $330 Billion does NOT include the additional NET amount of Taxes State and Local Taxpayers pay to finance this LEGAL Immigration.]

Way to go Alt-Right. You’re wise to them, don’t get played by them or anything.

Trump: It’s great to be with Prime Minister Netanyahu, we’ve developed a great relationship, both as countries it has never been stronger and also as personal friends.

The big move is the fact that we will be moving our embassy to Jerusalem, way ahead of schedule by years.

Netanyahu: We also support you on your stalwart position on the Iran nuclear deal, you said it’s a disastrous deal. You said its fatal flaws are now fixed. You should walk away from it and I want you to know that if you decide to do that we will back you all the way.

We also appreciate the fact that you confront Iran’s aggression with us and with other parties in the region as never before.

I’ve never seen the holistic alliance between the Unites States, Israel and your other allies in the region as strong, as unified as it is under your leadership.

The last one is that you stood up for Israel in the UN, in a remarkable way, rock solid support. This is a place, it’s a house of slander against Israel and against The Unites States, and by word and by deed you’ve told them enough is enough ..as you finish your first year in office, I want to say that I look forward to continuing our remarkable, tremendous friendship in the years ahead and I want to express the appreciation of the people of Israel to you - thank you Mr. President.

Trump: Israel has always supported The United States.

There were many deals that came close [with the Palestinians] but we could never get past Jerusalem.

We took Jerusalem off the table so we don’t have to talk about it [with the Palestinians] anymore.

READ MORE...

TV: postmortem on passivity induced runaway destruction, including speculation on zombie effects despite the new dawn of interactive media. It’s being a retrospective gives me an excuse to post this older show which I’ve only seen today for the first time. It’s funny as hell. Charlie Brooker is clever. I don’t vouch for his politics, am unfamiliar with that.

But as we say goodbye to the hegemonic days of television and the passive acceptance of its audiences of a world they could not interact with nor hope to change, it is worthwhile to take another look back on the days of how the Televitz shaped and manipulated our attention; and to speculate on some of its lingering effects, both on runaway systems in a world unchallenged, and its parallel tropisms in the computer screen, exponentially better though it is in the choice and interaction the mechanisms attached may provide…

“How Television Ruined Your Life”

Parts 1-6, BBC production, 2012, under Youtube license:

Episode 1 - Fear

Episode 2 - Life Cycle

Episode 3 - Aspiration

Episode 4 - Love

Episode 5 - Progress

Episode 6 - Knowledge

The Russian Federation is still crying: “Nobody likes traitors. Apparently, Kurds will stay alone with Turkish armed forces. Neither Damascus nor Moscow will provide any assistance to them. And only Kurdish leaders are responsible for that” - Alexandr Dugin.

It is a good sign that they are, along with their People’s Protection Unit (YPJ), putting imperialist Turkey, US, Russia and Israel in a bind.

Having their origin in separation from the Jewy treachery of Soviet Russia, its imperialism, its Muslim Turkish cohorts, in favor of left nationalism in order to wrest national independence for the Kurds, it would be ideal if this Asian backed left nationalism could sheer off the eastern half of Turkey and, along with fellow ethnonationalists from the west, put the squeeze on those rats. The imperial Russian Federation is still crying that the Kurds have rejected them. In causing consternation for the JewSA, Russovitz and Israel’s Turkish Friends, they are causing ethnonational consternation for imperial Israel as well.

Now, the Kurds have different facets and we are talking favorably about the ideal form and purpose of their left nationalism, not any assistance or alignment that some of them may have provided for radical Islam - on the contrary, that is just another form of imperialism.

Jerusalem Post, “Turkish and Syrian threats in Afrin put U.S., Russia in a bind, 19 January 2018:

What does it all mean for Israel?

People hold flags of People’s Protection Unit (YPJ) as they walk during a protest against Turkish attacks on Afrin, in Hasaka, Syria, January 18, 2018. . (photo credit: RODI SAID / REUTERS)

On Friday, Turkey increased its shelling of the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria. According to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) up to 70 artillery shells were fired during the night.

While Turkey has threatened to invade the Kurdish area, which it says is being controlled by terrorists aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party, Syria has threatened to shoot down Turkish warplanes in case of any attack on Syria’s territory. The war of words in northern Syria puts the US and Russia in a bind because the US is allied with the Kurds in eastern Syria while Russia has been a close ally of the Syrian regime.

Since mid-January, there have been rumors and threats of a Turkish invasion of Afrin. The area has been controlled by the YPG since the early years of the Syrian civil war. In eastern Syria, the YPG and its affiliated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been successful at defeating Islamic State. However, in northern Syria, the Kurds have only come to control the thinly populated mountainous area of Afrin.

The autonomous canton is home to around one million people. The area is surrounded by Turkey on two sides and in Syria it borders areas controlled by Syrian rebel groups. The Kurds in this area have remained mostly outside the Syrian conflict because the Syrian rebel groups represent a buffer from most of the heavy fighting.

However, the Kurds here also have a complex relationship with the Syrian regime. They have not opposed Russian military personnel, for instance, who have been spotted in the Afrin area, and the YPG maintains amicable contact with the Russians, who are the Syrian regime’s closet ally.

Since the fall of 2016, when Turkey began to intervene in Syria, the YPG has been targeted by the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies. When Turkey and those allies moved into the area between Jarabulus and Kilis in 2016, it was widely seen as an offensive not only against ISIS, but also to make sure the Kurdish forces did not get any closer to the Turkish border to link up Afrin with the areas they control in eastern Syria.

In March 2017, the US, which has been working closely with the SDF and YPG against ISIS, sent vehicles to Manbij to ward off any Turkish attack on its Kurdish partners. This was an important symbol because it showed the US had drawn a clear line around its partner forces and would warn off any attack. The US shot down a Syrian plane in June 2017 that was operating close to the SDF as well.

However, US-led coalition spokesman Ryan Dillon put out a statement on January 16 saying it is not operating in Afrin and the Pentagon told the Turkish news agency Anadolu that it was not involved with the YPG in Afrin. “We don’t consider them as part of our defeat ISIS operations,” a Pentagon spokesman said. This is a clear message to Turkey that the US would not be involved in any sort of operations if they happened in Afrin.

However, the US has indicated the US will be remaining in eastern Syria for the foreseeable future. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated this pledge Wednesday. The US has often urged Turkey to keep its focus on fighting ISIS, rather than mission creep that would lead to conflict with the Kurds. Any conflict with the Kurds would inevitably complicate the US mission in eastern Syria, because it would cause the Kurds in the east to want to aid their comrades in Afrin.

Turkey has posited that any operation into Afrin would be with rebel groups and that the operation is carried out “for them,” and Turkey is “helping our brothers,” according to statements from the Turkish Presidency. However, this poses problems because the Syrian rebels that Turkey wants to work with against Afrin are busy fighting the Syrian regime in Idlib, where they are hardpressed, suffering civilian and military loses.

Nevertheless Turkey’s defense minister Nurettin Canikli vowed on January 19 that Ankara would carry out the operation, according to Turkish media. “The threat level against Turkey is increasing by the day. This operation will be carried out and we will combat terrorism.” At the same time, the Syrian regime warns that any incursion could bring Syrian air defense into the picture. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Daisal Mekdad warned Friday that any attack on Afrin would be an act of “aggression” against Syria.

According to Al-Jazeera, Russia has moved military observers in Afrin “away” from the area, closer to Syrian regime-held territory. Any attack would therefore not harm the Russians who have become a key arbiter of issues in Syria. Russia has hosted the Astana and Sochi talks about the future of Syria, meeting with Turkey, Iran and Syria’s governments. In Afrin, Russia is the key player because it has relations with all sides and it has warmed relations with Turkey over the last six months.

However, Russia has remained mum on any potential Turkish operation. It must balance its interests in cultivating relations with Syria, with its support of Damascus and its relations with the Kurds. Wishing to see itself as the broker of peace, Russia would hope that there is not a major Turkish incursion. That means any Turkish action might be limited, as it has been before, and the war of words is intended more to test the waters with the US, Russia and Syria, than lead to a major attack jeopardizing the lives of thousands.

For Israel, what does this mean? A similar scenario will eventually play out near the Golan, without Turkey but with the regime seeking to test the US, Jordan and Israel’s resolve with Russia in the background. Afrin therefore matters greatly to the region and what transpires there will tell us about the future of Syria.

READ MORE...