Category Archives: Global Politics

Lizard conspiracist David Icke not wanted in Berlin | Germany | DW.COM | 23.02.2017

Icke, a well-known soccer goalkeeper and sports broadcaster in the UK in the 1980s before he announced that he was the “son of the Godhead” on a TV chat show in 1991, now regularly holds live speaking events that run for several hours promoting a theory that the world is run by a reptilian elite known as the “Brotherhood.”Slipping into the physical world from another dimension, Icke says the Brotherhood has genetically manipulated humanity and sought to divide people along racial and gender lines as a means to subjugate them.He has identified dozens of leaders as shape-shifting lizards, including ancient Egyptian pharaohs, the majority of US presidents, and the British Royal Family, and argues that the Brotherhood runs the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Bilderberg Group, as well as several other international organizations, and encourages genocide, war, and the mass slaughter of animals. He also says the reptilians use human anxiety as a source of energy.Lizards and dog-whistlesMany critics have noted that Icke uses anti-Semitic arguments and imagery. Like many racist conspiracy theorists, he identifies investor George Soros as an enemy of humanity, and has endorsed “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a long-since-debunked Russian anti-Semitic book published in 1903 that purports to detail a global Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The book influenced Adolf Hitler and was used by the Nazis to agitate against Jewish people in the 1930s – though Icke himself denies being anti-Semitic and says the book is not evidence of a Jewish conspiracy, but a reptilian one.

Source: Lizard conspiracist David Icke not wanted in Berlin | Germany | DW.COM | 23.02.2017

Philippines senator who branded President Duterte ‘serial killer’ arrested | World news | The Guardian

The 57-year-old lawyer, who has spent nearly a decade trying to link Duterte to death squads that have allegedly killed thousands of people, could be jailed for life if she is found guilty of the charges.“I have no plans of fleeing and I have no plans to go in hiding. I will face all these charges,” a tearful De Lima told reporters at the Senate on Thursday evening after a Manila court issued the arrest warrant.De Lima then went to her home in another part of the capital after believing she had secured an agreement with authorities to surrender on Friday morning.But, after police were seen on national television driving to her home to arrest her, De Lima quickly left and returned to the perceived safety of the Senate building.De Lima appealed late on Thursday night for police not to arrest her overnight, and committed to surrendering on Friday.“If they respect the Senate as an institution, they should not force an arrest tonight,” she told reporters at the Senate.Police followed her to the Senate. But, signalling an apparent pause to a night of intense drama, the head of security at the Senate and De Lima’s aides said police had committed to waiting until Friday morning to arrest her.When morning came reporters had gathered in their dozens and watched as De Lima was escorted from her office into a waiting police minibus.As she left she was quoted saying: “It is my honour that I will be imprisoned for the things I am fighting for.”De Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug trafficking ring when she was justice secretary in the previous administration of Benigno Aquino.

Source: Philippines senator who branded President Duterte ‘serial killer’ arrested | World news | The Guardian

‘Demonic activity was palpable’ at Trump’s rally, pastor says – The Washington Post

I heard two ladies off to my left chanting, not yelling or screaming but chanting, “T-R … U-M-P; that’s how you spell — bigotry!” They repeated the rhyme over and over. Two ladies in front of them began seething and screaming in their face while shaking their Trump signs at them. Another couple standing behind them started screaming at them as well. One of the chanting ladies had her eight-year-old daughter on her back; the other had a severely disabled child in a wheelchair in front of her. As they continued chanting, the people around them became violently enraged. One angry man grabbed the lady’s arm — that’s when I went into action. I barged through the crowd and yelled at them to back off. My heart wasn’t racing; I just instinctively became a protector. I didn’t actually want a Trump sign, but one of the volunteers had shoved it into my hands as I walked through the door earlier; “Make America Great Again!” That sign probably saved someone from getting hurt. I held the sign close to my chest as I positioned myself between the chanting protesters and the angry mob. My 11-year-old daughter was clinging to my arm, sobbing in fear. The two angry, screaming ladies looked at me, both of them raised their middle finger at me in my face and repeatedly yelled, “F*#% YOU!” Repeatedly. I calmly responded, “No thank you, I’m happily married.” Their faces and their voices were filled with demonic anger. I have been in places and experiences before where demonic activity was palpable. The power of the Holy Spirit of God was protecting me in those moments and was once again protecting me and my daughter in this moment. I raised my voice and calmly said, “These ladies have the right to do what they are doing and they are harming no one; this is America and they a right to express themselves in this way. They are harming no one.” A couple of other people around me stepped in and supported me in protecting them as a barrier, as well. My daughter was shaking in fear as she clung to me. The one man behind the protesters shoved himself forward, grabbed the lady by the arm and screamed with multiple expletives, “I’m going to take you out! This is my president and nobody has the right to disrespect him and nobody has the right to keep me from hearing him!”“I’m trying to separate how I actually feel about this man and his campaignisms,” Tooley wrote. “I know why people voted for him; I know why people voted against his opponent. But, at the end of the day, what I felt from his leadership in this experience was actually horrifying. There was palpable fear in the room. There was thick anger and vengeance. He was counting on it. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that it would not have taken very much for him to have called this group of people into some kind of riotous reaction.”

Source: ‘Demonic activity was palpable’ at Trump’s rally, pastor says – The Washington Post

Alternative facts: Trump’s mad cows | In English | EL PAÍS

America’s political world has been russified. Half of the population now feels it is irrelevant whether the statements coming out of the executive are a lie or not. They have abandoned reason to embrace faith, and like cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse, they are happy to let themselves be fooled by the president and his buddies. Masha Gessen, a journalist who was born in Russia, wrote in The New York Review of Books: “Lying is the message. It’s not just that both Putin and Trump lie, it is that they lie in the same way and for the same purpose: blatantly, to assert power over truth itself.”Combat lineWhat to do? Unlike Russia, the US fortunately does have institutional antibodies, among which are Congress, judges and the press, which is already smelling a new Watergate. France and Germany have similar defense mechanisms, and they have taken pre-electoral care to set up systems to neutralize Russia’s already visible misinformation cyber campaign.But Trump has already won in the US; half the country has been infected by the virus of “alternative facts,” to use the curiously candid definition provided by the counselor and ex-campaign manager for Trump, Kellyanne Conway. The time has come to fight, to prevent the disease that has already corroded so many brains from migrating to the marrow of the political system.America’s so-called traditional press is on the front line of the battle. That is why, in one of his infamous tweets, the nation’s commander, troller-in-chief and serial liar identified The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and others as “the enemies of the American people.” The battle is on. What’s at stake is the democracy of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were real presidents. Donald Trump is not. He’s not even a rabbit. He’s a mad cow.

Source: Alternative facts: Trump’s mad cows | In English | EL PAÍS

Tuesday Open Thread | Kremlin paid $40,000 to Michael Flynn for 2015 Moscow visit | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Here’s the sequence of confirmed events as we now know them. In April of 2014, Michael Flynn was forced out of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency for erratic behavior, ending his career in the United States military and government. In June of 2015, Donald Trump entered the presidential race. In December of 2015, the Kremlin paid Michael Flynn the sum of $40,000 to travel to Moscow and sit at the same dinner table as Vladimir Putin during a Russia Today event. In February of 2016, Michael Flynn became a campaign adviser for Donald Trump, during which time he routinely colluded with Russian agents.Flynn’s attendance with Putin at the dinner in Moscow has long been documented, and there’s even a now infamous photo of the two of them sitting together at the same table. But until today, it wasn’t known that Flynn had been paid to be there. New York Daily News now reports that Flynn was paid $40,000 just to attend the dinner, and that Flynn failed to ask for the necessary Pentagon approval for such a payment.

Source: Tuesday Open Thread | Kremlin paid $40,000 to Michael Flynn for 2015 Moscow visit | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Inoreader – Alt-Right News Website Breitbart Thinks Christians In Lebanon Are Persecuted

You see, if you had any inkling about Lebanon or about the Middle East in general apart from it being one big blur in your eyes, you’d know that the political system in Lebanon allocates political power to Christians and Muslims equally. You’d have known that the president Marine Le Pen met has to be Maronite by law and that to be elected that persecuted Christian man held the entire country hostage for almost two years. But please, by all means, tell me more about how I’m persecuted.

Source: Inoreader – Alt-Right News Website Breitbart Thinks Christians In Lebanon Are Persecuted

How I dealt with masked men with guns pounding on my door | +972 Magazine – Deja vu of you know who…

Late one night last month I was shaken from my bed by Israeli riot police pounding on the door to our house. At first, I thought the noise was from people in the building fighting over a parking spot again. But when I heard shouting in Hebrew and the neighbor screaming, and when I felt my room shaking from the blows to the door, I realized it was serious — another terrible incursion by black-clad, masked invaders.I leapt out of bed in a panic, opened the door and was faced with around 20 masked riot police, armed with assault rifles and terrifying expressions. I was scared to death. One of them asked me, in Arabic: “What’s your name?” Using my most Ashkenazi accent, I responded: “My name is Sulimmm… Suliman. Who are you looking for, sir?”He fixed his eyes on me intimidatingly, and asked whether I know someone by the name of Mohammed (the officer mentioned a family name as well, although I’ve forgotten it). I answered cautiously, “Sir, I’m new to the area, I don’t know anyone in the neighborhood or even in the building, and I don’t speak to anyone.” I tried talking without an Arabic accent and emphasized certain consonants, so that he would know I speak Hebrew well.Unfortunately, my answers didn’t convince anyone. The masked cop invited himself into my apartment, pushed me against the wall and glanced toward my room. Two more officers accompanied him and asked me for my ID, as if it weren’t enough that I have to identify myself to them every day at the checkpoint.I showed them my identity card and prayed to God that they’d leave. One of them scrutinized me to make sure that I was indeed the person on the identity card, then gave it back to me. I have no idea how he came to the conclusion that it was me, given that it was the middle of the night, I’d just been asleep, and looked somewhat like The Joker from “The Dark Knight.”Eventually they left and continued on their way to intimidate the neighbors. I’ve actually gotten used to these monthly invasions, but this time it was different. It was so serious that I was afraid I’d lose control and react to the humiliation, which in turn brought the terrifying thought that protesting even a little would lead them to put a bullet in my head and tell the world that I had tried to snatch one of their weapons. Who knows? Anything is possible in this country.

Source: How I dealt with masked men with guns pounding on my door | +972 Magazine

Agenzia Fides – ASIA/LEBANON – Marine Le Pen visits Lebanon. Meeting with the Maronite Patriarch on the agenda

If she becomes the President of France, Marine Le Pen will reconnect official diplomatic relations with Assad’s Syria and will reopen the French embassy in Damascus. On the occasion of her 48-hour visit in the Country of Cedars, the candidate for the Elysee, National Front leader has confirmed her programmatic intentions regarding the Syrian dossier in interviews to the Lebanese press. During her brief trip to Lebanon, Marine Le Pen has already been received by President Michel Aoun in the Presidential Palace in Babda. The agenda of the short trip also includes meetings with Maronite Patriarch Boutros Bechara Rai, with Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri and politician Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces.

Source: Agenzia Fides – ASIA/LEBANON – Marine Le Pen visits Lebanon. Meeting with the Maronite Patriarch on the agenda

Israel destroys drinking water pipeline in Jordan Valley – PNN

Israeli military bulldozers destroyed, Monday, a drinking water pipeline that was funded by The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Central Plains of the occupied West Bank.Mo’taz Bisharat, a Palestinian official in charge of Israeli colonies’ file at the Palestinian Authority in central West Bank, said many Israeli army jeeps and bulldozers invaded the area, during early morning hours, and destroyed a drinking water pipeline, providing water to Palestinian communities along the al-Hadeediyya and ar-Ras al-Ahmar areas.Bisharat added that the pipeline provided clean drinking water to 47 families, and extended on 8.5 kilometers.He also stated that the pipeline’s installation and equipment costs were 12500 euros, provided by the UNICEF to enable access to clean drinking water, and added that the soldiers confiscated large sections of the pipeline.

Source: Israel destroys drinking water pipeline in Jordan Valley – PNN