While accusing Russia, without proof, of paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers, US politicians are conveniently ignoring facts about who really armed and financed terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
The allegation by some US intelligence agencies that Russia paid the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan has kicked up a partisan furore in Washington. It has renewed the tirade by the Democratic Party that President Donald Trump is soft on Russia and raised fresh demands for additional sanctions on Russia.
With a US presidential election due shortly, reusing the ‘Russia’ card to paint Trump as incompetent on national security or as a commander-in-chief who treacherously colluded with Russia to spill the blood of American troops is a handy political attack tool.
For the liberal camp in the US, nothing quite stirs up hair-raising emotions and passions like Russia and its supposed evil actions around the world. Even though both Russia and the Taliban have denied any collaboration, Trump’s National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien clarified that the Russia-Taliban bounty theory was “uncorroborated,” and despite the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) information about Russia “incentivizing” the Taliban being met with skepticism from the National Security Agency (NSA), it is open season for the political knives to be brought out in Washington.
This imbroglio has everything to do with American domestic politics and little do with Russian foreign policy. American politicians accusing Trump of negligence or naivety towards Russia are conveniently ignoring facts about who really armed and financed the Taliban and several other terrorist and rogue actors in Afghanistan’s complex multi-sided, two-decade-long war which began with the US invasion in 2001.
Forgot Pakistan?
For years, American strategic experts, intelligence agencies and military commanders have held a near unanimous and consistent view that sanctuary and sponsorship of the Taliban came from sections of Pakistan’s military establishment and its allied jihadist infrastructure across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
President George W. Bush’s Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage spoke of “substantial information that there was direct assistance from the Pakistan government to the Taliban between 2002 and 2004,” the crucial period when the Taliban regrouped and re-emerged to fight a long anti-US insurgency.
In 2011, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Barack Obama, Admiral Mike Mullen, called the dreaded Haqqani terrorist network, which carried out several terrorist attacks on American forces and is almost inseparable from the Taliban, “a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.”
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/493759-us-russia-afghanistan-taliban/
Yesterday we noted that one of the Hong Kong pro-independence movement's most visible young activists, Nathan Law, fled Hong Kong for an undisclosed outside country on fears of how the new national security law could be applied retroactively, especially given his and his close associate Joshua Wong's public relationship with and backing by the US embassy and American Congressional leaders.
There is also the looming question of just what the law will look like applied in action. Recall that the law which went into effect Wednesday harshly cracks down on dissent and fomenting unrest with possible maximum life jail sentences for some crimes, largely dependent on the ambiguous and highly open to interpretation (with no independent review) question of what ultimately constitutes 'foreign interference' or sponsorship of a 'terror' organization.
It was perhaps wise that Nathan Law didn't stick around to find out how stringently it will be applied given that on Friday HK authorities made their first example, arresting a man for carrying an anti-Beijing sign after he was alleged to have intentionally rammed police with his motorcycle.
Has this been noticed yet? Logged out of my yahoo account and saw this headline:
Herman Cain Hospilalized for COVID19 Hours After Tweeting "People Are Fed Up" With Masks
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain announced Thursday that he has been hospitalized due to symptoms of COVID-19. But in an unusually on-the-nose development, the announcement came only hours after he denounced measures to stem the spread of the illness on Twitter in a show of political support for Donald Trump.
Early Thursday afternoon, Cain’s representatives said in a statement, posted on Cain’s Twitter account, that he was informed June 29 that he tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and that by Wednesday his symptoms were severe enough that he “required hospitalization.” According to the statement, Cain was taken to an Atlanta-area facility Wednesday night, and while his symptoms are “serious,” he “did not require a respirator.”
Left out of Cain’s statement is a notable event that took place between his diagnosis on Monday and his hospitalization Wednesday night. On Wednesday afternoon, Cain tweeted a link to a Western Journal article about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who bragged that social distancing will not be required at a July 4th Trump rally at Mt. Rushmore. In his tweet, Cain added: “Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”
[snip]
seen at https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/herman-cain-hospitalized-covid-19-001059330.html
which is quoting Ross A Lincoln from TheWrap
The House Armed Services Committee this week voted to pass a 2021 defense authorization bill that would require the Pentagon to strip Confederate names from military bases and other property within a year — setting the bill up for a fight in the Senate and with the White House.
The amendment responsible for the language was sponsored by Reps. Anthony Brown (D-MD) and Don Bacon (R-NE), and was adopted on party lines, with Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI) being the only other Republican to vote for it.
Brown has claimed that a “vast majority of Americans” support the renaming of military bases, but an ABC News-Ipsos poll released in mid-June showed that the majority of Americans opposed changing the name of military bases named after Confederate military leaders at 56 percent against 42 percent.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last month approved a bill with their own language sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that would require the bases to be renamed within three years.
However, some Republican senators are proposing amendments to modify that language when the bill finally hits the Senate floor later this year.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) have introduced an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would create a commission to study Defense Department assets that are named after or commemorate the Confederacy or anyone associated with the Confederacy.
The commission would submit a list to Congress and the defense secretary, who would decide on how to move forward on possible renaming.
“Instead of mandating the renaming of military bases, including Fort Bragg, we need a thoughtful and constructive process that includes the input of our military communities. Our amendment accomplishes that goal,” said Tillis.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has also introduced an amendment that would remove the language requiring the Defense Department to rename the bases, and instead direct a one-year commission to work with state and local stakeholders to nominate names referring to the Confederacy for removal from Defense Department installations.
A group supporting President Donald Trump plans to hold a Fourth of July flotilla Saturday on the Sacramento River.
A boat parade, which begins at noon, has been promoted on the social media platform by a pro-Trump account called The Patriot Network. The event details say more than 150 boats plan to take part.
Posts advertising the parade said that Sacramento and Yolo sheriff’s offices would be providing security and expressed support for the police.
“Sacramento Sheriff & Yolo County Sheriff Boat Patrols will have a Patrol Boat leading, following and on both Port & Starboard of the Trump Flotilla. Back the Blue,” one post said.
Sacramento and Yolo deputies said they would not be involved in providing security for the parade. “I know it says we are on their Facebook, but they just are not giving accurate information,” said Lt. Matt Davis, a spokesman for the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said the Sacramento Police Department would be providing security. Messages to the city agency about the event were not returned Thursday.
The parade plans to move upstream from Tower Bridge to the Virgin Sturgeon restaurant on Garden Highway and back, then to a “party on the American River,” according to the Facebook event.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday announced he will be rolling back the state’s reopening due to the surge in Coronavirus cases.
On Wednesday, Newsom shut it down.
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Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Orange County on Wednesday were ordered to close indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, zoos and museums.
Here is the list of sectors to close operations including wineries and tasting rooms and the impacted counties:
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Conveniently, Gavin Newsom’s vineyard, Plumpjack Winery, located in Napa Valley is open for business.
Protesters plan to storm Washington, D.C., over Independence Day weekend with protests and demonstrations. Activists in the most high profile of these events plan to protest the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park. The memorial, which leaders of the local collective the Freedom Neighborhood claimed they would topple last week, has become a subject of national interest, with many people making a case both for and against the statue. Glenn Foster, the leader of the Freedom Neighborhood, has promoted multiple protests against the memorial set for the days surrounding the July 4 weekend. In some of his material, he celebrated the fact that on Tuesday the Boston Arts Commission voted to remove an identical copy of the statue, which depicts President Abraham Lincoln freeing the slave Archer Alexander, from public display. “The job is almost finished! Let’s get it D.C.!” Foster wrote in reference to his efforts to remove the memorial. The movement has received support from D.C. public officials. Shadow Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Thursday introduced legislation to have the statue removed from the park and placed in a museum. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said last week that she would be open to having a "reasonable conversation" about the statue’s future.
At the same time, the U.S. Park Police has kept up a fence surrounding the statue, which they say will remain in place until further notice. As of this writing, the fence is covered with many protest signs, as the fence surrounding the White House is, some explaining not only the racism present in the statue but, more broadly, the issue of systemic racism throughout the country. “Our justice starts with tearing down the symbols of our oppression and demanding that we will wait no longer for the government to give us our freedom,” one of the signs reads. Foster had an event planned for Thursday afternoon, but announced to his followers several hours before its start that it had been canceled “due to logistical issues on behalf of our enemy” — namely, the police. The Freedom Neighborhood plans to hold a big event in front of the statue on Friday, but it will be met with resistance. The local historian Nathan Richardson, who, dressed as the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, defended the statue last week, said he plans to show up again on Friday. Richardson said he will recite excerpts from Douglass’s landmark 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” in an effort to explain the country’s complicated history with slavery and racism.
A series of other local historians and fans of Douglass, who famously dedicated the statue in the presence of President Ulysses S. Grant, also plan to stand in front of the statue and promote a “family-friendly community dialogue” about the memorial. Several residents nearby Lincoln Park also plan to stand watch in the park to show their support for the statue. One resident told the Washington Examiner that they “need all the help we can get” to keep the statue from being toppled. D.C. tour guide Don Folden has been visiting the park semi-regularly and since an incident last Friday where he led two reporters, one from One America News and the other from the Washington Examiner, away from protesters attempting to shove them. Folden plans to hold his own counter-rally after July 4 and said that he is prepared to “fight alone to save this statue.”
While the drama unfolds in front of the Emancipation Memorial, many other protesters plan to swarm the city during the day on July 4, according to a series of activist social media accounts. The plan, as it stands, is to wear all black and loudly protest racial injustice in front of the Capitol Building. Christian Tabash, who on Wednesday led an anti-Israel march on the Capitol, said that the reason for the turnout on July 4 is to make a point about the illegitimacy of the American founding. “What is Independence Day to black folks? What was Independence Day to honestly anyone but the white economic elite on that day?” Tabash asked, recalling July 4, 1776. “Poor folks and women couldn’t even vote. It’s a hoax.”
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Frederick Douglass | July 5, 1852
https://twitter.com/EleanorNorton/status/1278435717300006915
"This is fucking BULLSHIT!"
"They're charging the woman and her husband with a felony now! This is where we are headed if you defend yourself! And these types of blacks are only going to get more boisterous and scream racism at every opportunity. Only to have the fucking authorities charge YOU with a crime if you defend yourself."
