“Migrants Face Deportations and Walls in Europe, Too”

The New York Times wrote on February 23:

“Just hours after the German cabinet approved tapping cellphones and attaching electronic bracelets to illegal migrants who might be deemed a threat, a group of Afghan men were put on a plane at a Munich airport Wednesday night and deported. The deportation was only the third such mass expulsion to Afghanistan since last fall, and in combination with new antiterrorism measures, it was a clear sign of the stiffening political headwinds that have made Europe, like America, a less welcoming place for migrants…

“Many governments are restricting their welcome to strangers. Sweden tightened immigration rules last year. Britain is leaving the European Union in large part to stem the flow of foreigners. Italy has embarked on a plan to train Libyans to scoop up migrant boats off their shore. Hungary sees the shift against migration as affirming the ‘correctness’ of its decision to build its own wall to seal its border.

“Then there are some states, like Germany, that are taking more assertive steps to ensure that those who have been denied asylum actually leave, like the 18 Afghans deported Wednesday… The deportation debate has flared in Germany since December when Anis Amri, a young Tunisian asylum seeker, drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 50. He had been expelled from Italy, had registered under at least 14 aliases for welfare and other benefits, and had been listed as a terrorist threat who should be deported. Yet he could not be deported because his native Tunisia failed to provide identity papers. After his attack, he fled first to western Germany, then to the Netherlands and finally to Italy before being killed in a shootout with the police. Ms. Merkel, under pressure from both the right and the left as she seeks a fourth term in September elections, cited Mr. Amri’s attack as she pressed Germany’s 16 states — which are responsible for deportation — to stop ‘this considerable danger to life and limb.’…

“In Central and Eastern Europe, European Union countries have fiercely resisted taking in migrants, particularly Muslims, arguing that they are ill equipped culturally and economically to shelter many strangers. In 2015, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, was the first European Union leader to resist mass migration. He built a fence along his country’s borders with Serbia and Croatia to block refugees fleeing the war-afflicted Middle East via a Balkan route; that route largely shut down last spring after the union persuaded Turkey to stanch the flow, and governments along the way shut their borders for the most part… New measures likely to be passed by Hungary next month foresee the closing of camps where migrants who have been rejected for asylum have effectively waited while planning new attempts to cross into Austria and beyond. Migrants would instead be held in much more restricted conditions…”

Deportations of EU Citizens from Britain?

The Telegraph wrote on February 27:

“EU citizens living in the UK have expressed panic and confusion after it was alleged that Government regulations will allow the Home Office to remove some of them from the country if they do not have a comprehensive sickness insurance (CSI)… A briefing published by a barrister specialising in immigration law claims that the Home Office acquired controversial new enforcement powers against EU citizens from 1 February. It warns those EU citizens who are not considered to have a ‘right of residence’, including some students and spouses of UK citizens, and who do not have CSI, could be deported or refused entry back into the UK if they leave. The majority of EU nationals living in the UK…do not have the insurance.

“The Home Office has said this interpretation of their guidance is incorrect, and that the regulations are not new, nor will the Government remove EU citizens from the country if they do not have CSI. A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent: ‘It is completely wrong to say that we have new powers to deport EU citizens without comprehensive sickness insurance. EU citizens will not be removed from the UK or refused entry solely because they do not have this insurance. Their right to remain will remain unchanged while we are a member of the European Union and they do not need any additional documents to prove their status.’

“But the briefing… nonetheless provoked a wave of panic from European nationals residing in the UK… The barrister who wrote the briefing, Colin Yeo of Garden Court Chambers in London, said he believed the changes would not have as serious an impact as feared, but that the Home Office was being ‘careless’ and was causing ‘unnecessary panic’ to EU citizens.

“He told The Independent: ‘According to the regulations, if you are perfectly self-sufficient in the UK and you’re not claiming benefits or anything like that, but you don’t have comprehensive sickness insurance, you don’t have a right of residence and therefore you could be removed. I don’t actually think the Home Office is going to enforce this against say, the French wife of a British citizen. I think they’re using it against people they don’t like, like Polish rough sleepers. The position of a Polish homeless person who hasn’t committed any criminal offences or claimed public funds is exactly the same as the wife of a British banker but doesn’t have CSI, according to the regulations. They’re both equally removable as far as the Home Office is concerned. ‘I think they’ve drawn it up without really realising the power they’ve granted themselves and the way that it’s going to make people feel, because this is going to make people feel very insecure.’…

“When contacted by The Independent, the Home Office said it would be ‘securing the status’ of EU nationals in the UK ‘as a priority… as soon as we trigger Article 50 and the negotiations begin’…  It comes amid reports that Ms May is to end rights given to EU nationals under freedom of movement rules when she triggers Article 50 next month, which would establish a ‘cut-off date’ of around 15 March after which EU citizens would not be entitled to live in the UK permanently. It is unclear if the Government’s plan would be a breach of the EU treaties that guarantee freedom of movement. Under the plan, the 3.6 million EU citizens who are already in Britain and others who come before that date would have their rights protected – providing the EU agreed to the same status for UK citizens living in the EU.”

Will EU Nationals Have the Right to Stay in the UK after Brexit?

BBC wrote on March 1:

“The government has been defeated after the House of Lords said ministers should guarantee EU nationals’ right to stay in the UK after Brexit… The amendment backed by the Lords requires the government to introduce proposals within three months of Article 50 to ensure EU citizens in the UK have the same residence rights after Brexit. But it could be overturned when MPs, who have already backed the Brexit bill without amendments, vote on it again. The government is expected to attempt to overturn the defeat when the legislation returns to the Commons…

“[In] Theresa May’s… view, it would be unwise to guarantee the rights of the three million or so EU citizens in this country, before other EU countries are ready to do the same for British citizens abroad.”

Violent Attacks Against Migrants in Germany

AFP wrote on February 24:

“Germany saw more than 3,500 attacks against refugees and asylum shelters last year, interior ministry data showed, amounting to nearly 10 acts of anti-migrant violence a day as the country grapples with a record influx of newcomers. The assaults left 560 people injured, including 43 children, the ministry said in a written response to a parliamentary question…

“The sharp rise in hate crimes came after Germany took in some 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 at the height of Europe’s refugee crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open the doors to those fleeing conflict and persecution polarised the country…

“A German neo-Nazi was sentenced to eight years in jail this month for burning down a sports hall set to house refugees, causing damage worth €3.5m. In another case that shocked Germany, a crowd of onlookers cheered and applauded as an asylum shelter went up in flames in the country’s former communist east last February.”

Pope Will Meet EU Leaders

AFP wrote on March 2

“Pope Francis will meet with the leaders of all EU nations at the Vatican on March 24 ahead of the bloc’s special summit in Rome, Vatican sources said Thursday. The March 25 summit will mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty. The pontiff will meet the leaders in the afternoon, the sources said.

“The pope has already received EU leaders at the Vatican in May 2016 when he was presented with the bloc’s Charlemagne Prize for his contribution to European unification. In a speech at that ceremony he called on them to ‘tear down the walls’ and build a fairer society.

“Invoking the memory of the EU founding fathers’ pursuit of integration in the aftermath of World War II, the pontiff said they inspired because they had ‘dared to change radically the models’ that had led to war. The pope also made a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in November 2014.”

Religious Leaders in Southern California Provide Shelter for Illegal Immigrants

The Los Angeles Times wrote on February 23:

“A hammer pounds away in the living room of a middle class home. A sanding machine smoothes the grain of the wood floor in the dining room. But this home… is no ordinary home… The purchase of this home is part of a network formed by Los Angeles religious leaders across faiths in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. The intent is to shelter hundreds, possibly thousands of undocumented people in safe houses across Southern California. The goal is to offer another sanctuary beyond religious buildings or schools, ones that require federal authorities to obtain warrants before entering the homes…

“The religious leaders have a name for their network: the Rapid Response Team. The idea is not necessarily a new one, according to… Zach Hoover, executive director of the interfaith community organization LA Voice. Hoover, 37, wasn’t an active member during the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s when US congregations across faiths resisted federal law and provided shelter for Central Americans fleeing violence in their home countries. Many congregations offered direct sanctuary, housing the undocumented immigrants, while others offered food and legal assistance.

“The Rapid Response Team mirrors that structure, but goes one step further by also incorporating private homes, which offer a higher level of constitutional protection than houses of worship and an ability to make it harder for federal agents to find undocumented immigrants. Under federal law, locations like churches and synagogues are technically public spaces that authorities could enter to conduct law enforcement actions. In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a policy limiting ICE action at religious locations. The policy ordered ICE to not enter ‘sensitive locations’ like schools and institutions of worship. Religious leaders in Los Angeles that spoke to CNN are skeptical whether that policy will stand under a Trump presidency…

“Hoover points out that’s a tiny fraction of the estimated one million undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles county. The network’s focus would be on families fearing separation and working to keep them together by ‘moving into a place so that ICE can’t find them’… Hoover points to the Bible’s Matthew 25, which teaches the faithful should feed the hungry and fight for those in prison. ‘The God that I worship sent a person to earth in the name of Jesus who did not always get along with the authorities,’ Hoover explains. ‘I feel really convicted that I answer to God at the end of the day. That’s who I’m going to see when I die.’…

“[An unidentified] Jewish man offering his home as a safe house says he draws upon his religion’s history during WWII. As the Nazis rounded up Jews for detention and eventual extermination, Germans resisted their government, hiding their Jewish friends and neighbors in attics and basements…

“The growing energy of the network doesn’t mean the members aren’t also apprehensive or fearful about the consequences. The people forming the network are not a crowd with criminal records… there’s… concern about how the new Department of Justice will operate under Attorney General Jeff Sessions… Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, says the law is clear about what these groups are intending to do. ‘They’re committing a felony. Harboring is a felony,’ Krikorian says. ‘Regular folks hiding people in a basement face jail time because it is ultimately a smuggling conspiracy.’”

ICE Becoming Much More Aggressive

The New York Times wrote on February 25:

“In Virginia, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited outside a church shelter where undocumented immigrants had gone to stay warm. In Texas and in Colorado, agents went into courthouses, looking for foreigners who had arrived for hearings on other matters…

“In Southern California, in one of the first major roundups during the Trump administration, officers detained 161 people with a wide range of felony and misdemeanor convictions, and 10 who had no criminal history at all.

“Interviews with 17 agents and officials across the country, including in Florida, Alabama, Texas, Arizona, Washington and California, demonstrated how quickly a new atmosphere in the agency had taken hold…

“At Kennedy Airport, Customs and Border Protection agents checked documents of passengers getting off a flight from San Francisco because ICE… thought a person with a deportation order might be on the plane. They did not find the person they were looking for… Bystanders are now being taken in if they are suspected to be undocumented, even if they have committed no crime, known within the agency as ‘collateral’ arrests…”

Mexico Threatens Retaliation Against the USA

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 25:

“Mexico has threatened retaliation if the US imposes a border tax to pay for Donald Trump’s wall… Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Mexico could tax US products tit for tat should its northern neighbor impose a levy on Mexican imports to finance Donald Trump’s pledged ‘great’ border wall… Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Mexico could bear any withdrawal of security funding by the United States. And officials have called absurd the notion that the US might deport non-Mexican irregular immigrants to Mexico…

“Politicians in both countries worry that Trump’s novice administration could jeopardize longstanding binational cultural and economic ties through its plans for a ‘military’ anti-migrant operation…”

AFP added on February 26:

“The Catholic Church in Mexico has accused the government of adopting an attitude of fear and ‘submission’ over US President Donald Trump’s immigration measures, which it labeled ‘terrorism.’ ‘Mexican authorities’ only make declarations and promises, their reactions are lukewarm and they also show fear and even worse, submission,’ read an editorial in the Church’s From the Faith weekly. The editorial, entitled ‘Migrant Terrorism,’ criticized Trump’s immigration measures, which aim to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States.”

The Puzzling Situation in Sweden—What Is the Truth?

Daily Mail wrote on February 26:

“A trans-Atlantic wave of puzzlement is rippling across Sweden for the second time in a week after a prominent Fox News program featured a ‘Swedish defense and national security advisor’ who’s unknown to the country’s military and foreign-affairs officials. Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly convened an on-air face-off Thursday over Swedish immigration and crime between a Swedish newspaper reporter and a man identified on screen and verbally as a ‘Swedish defense and national security advisor,’ Nils Bildt.

“Bildt linked immigration to social problems in Sweden, lamented what he described as Swedish liberal close-mindedness about the downsides of welcoming newcomers and said: ‘We are unable in Sweden to socially integrate these people,’ arguing that politicians lacked a systematic plan to do so. But if viewers might have taken the ‘advisor’ for a government insider, the Swedish Defense Ministry and Foreign Office told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter they knew nothing of him. In fact Bildt is an ‘independent analyst’ who moved to the US in 1994…

“Bildt’s appearance comes  a week after Donald Trump appeared to refer to a terror attack in Sweden which never happened. The president cited ‘what’s happening in Sweden right now’ during a speech on terror across Europe, prompting many to deduce he was out of touch with facts. President Trump later said he was in fact referring to the country’s immigration issues that he’d read on Fox News…”

Deutsche Welle added on February 26:

“This is the second time in a week that Swedes felt themselves forced to react to misinformation in the US media. Last Saturday, US President Donald Trump decried a mysterious incident in Sweden, apparently blaming it on immigration and invoking a Fox News report. While no incident of any great note took place in the country on Friday, Trump supporters pointed to a migrant riot in Stockholm three days later as evidence that the US president was right.”

Subsequently, Daily Mail wrote on February 26:

“A Swedish detective who has triggered a row by blaming violent crime on migrants has gone one step further and accused politicians of turning a blind eye to the problem because of ‘political correctness’. Earlier this month Peter Springare, who has spent more than 40 years in the police, aired his anger on social media when he was told not to record the ethnicity of violent crime suspects… Now Springare has told The Sunday Times: ‘The highest and most extreme violence – rapes and shooting – is dominated by criminal immigrants…

“Springare said he was due to retire soon and therefore no longer feared the disciplinary proceedings which might be brought against a younger officer for disobeying their superiors and raising the issue…”

The Local wrote on February 24:

“US president Donald Trump intensified his verbal attacks on Sweden, France and Germany on Friday, painting swaths of Europe as a jihadist-infested hellscape… Trump trashed long-time allies as he sought to justify his own controversial crackdown on immigrants. ‘Take a look at what’s happening in Sweden. Take a look at what’s happening in Germany. Take a look at what’s happened in France. Take a look at Nice and Paris,’ he said…

“Trump also defended contentious comments linking immigration and crime in Sweden. He earlier issued baffingly opaque remarks that suggested the peaceful Scandinavian country was undergoing significant unrest or attack. ‘I took a lot of heat on Sweden,’ he said… Trump’s remarks earlier this week were in fact highly controversial in Sweden.”

“Sweden to Introduce Military Draft for Men and Women”

Deutsche Welle wrote on March 2:

“The Swedish government has decided to reinstate military conscription over fresh security fears, triggered by Russian actions in Ukraine. The conscription would apply to both men and women in the Scandinavian country… Thousands of Swedish youths will be conscripted and selected for military training that is set to start in 2018, the Swedish Defense Ministry said on Thursday. Sweden abolished the draft in 2010, but Russia’s moves in Eastern Europe have since prompted Stockholm to rethink its strategies and boost its armed forces. One of the challenges, according to officials, was shortage of volunteers for the army…

“The draft will cover people born in 1999 or later, with some 13,000 being called upon and 4,000 selected to receive military training in 2018 and 2019. According to the Swedish government, ‘modern conscription is gender neutral and will include both women and men.’ Women already make up 16 percent of Swedish 20,000-people-strong military.

“Although Sweden is not a NATO member, Stockholm maintained a formidable military force during the Cold War. In 1991, the country’s military budget was some 2.5 percent of GDP, but fell to 1.1 percent by 2015…

“Russian airplanes reportedly violated Swedish airspace repeatedly since the beginning of the diplomatic crisis in 2014, with Moscow also boosting defenses in its exclave of Kaliningrad, which is located across the Baltic Sea from Sweden. In December 2016, Sweden’s Civil Contingency Agency asked local authorities across the country to improve readiness for emergency scenarios, including a possible military attack. The recommended measures included maintaining and upgrading underground bunkers as emergency bases of operation.”

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

The New Yorker wrote on February 23:

“… contempt for Jews keeps showing up as a symptom of social stress—even now, and even in the United States. That was blatantly the case in Germany in the sixteenth century, when Martin Luther characterized Jews as ‘vermin’ within the German body politic, ‘a pest in the midst of our lands.’ That belief ultimately came to flower, of course, in the exterminating anti-Semitism of Hitler, who saw the very existence of Jews as a mortal threat to the Thousand-Year Reich. But, as the Holocaust revealed, this fear infected both Nazi ideology and the broader Western consciousness. The crime of genocide may have been enacted by the Nazis, but Jews died as they did because the rest of Europe—and America, too—excluded them from moral concern…

“When Christendom launched the Crusades, the holy wars that shaped Europe, in the eleventh century, Jews were the paradigmatic enemy inside (the infidel near at hand), and Muslims became the defining enemy outside (the infidel far away). Little wonder, then, that the First Crusade coincided with some of the earliest German pogroms, known as the Rhineland massacres. Within a few hundred years, the Spanish Inquisition had instituted its blood-purity laws, which lumped Muslims and Jews together in a new category of biological inferiority. In 1492 and 1502, first Jews and then Muslims were declared personae non gratae in Spain, facing forced conversion, expulsion, or death…

“Islamophobia is thus … a strange secret sharer of Western anti-Semitism…”

President Trump Attacks Media Again… and Changes His Story

The Huffington Post reported on February 24:

“President Donald Trump criticized the media again on Friday while speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Trump claimed it was wrongly reported that he called the media the ‘enemy of the people’ last week, saying he’d actually called ‘fake news’ the enemy…

“Trump also said he thinks news outlets should not use anonymous sources, despite using them himself to make claims that have been proven false…

“Trump’s war with the media is ‘going to get worse,’ Trump adviser Steve Bannon said Thursday at CPAC. ‘Every day is going to be a fight,’ Bannon said.”

President Trump’s recent claim that he only attacked fake news and not the media is false. This is what he twittered on February 17: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” This tweet speaks for itself. The problem is, hard-core Trump supporters only hear what they want to hear.

As USA Today wrote on February 24: “Trump’s constant attacks on the press are designed to undermine the public’s faith in institutions in general and the media in particular, as well as to generate doubt about negative stories regarding the administration… attacking the media at a forum like the Conservative Political Action Conference is the easiest way for Trump to unite conservatives who might otherwise oppose him over issues like entitlement spending, free trade, and limited government.” In reporting on President Trump‘s speech, Der Stern ran an article with the headline, “Trump saws at the main pillar of the freedom of the press.”

Is the USA Becoming a Dictatorship?

The New York Times wrote on February 24:

“Journalists from The New York Times and several other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps. Reporters from The Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times and Politico [as well as The Daily Mail, the BBC, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, the Hill, Al Jazeera, and the New York Daily News, among others] were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed. Those organizations included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended.

“Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press [as well as USA Today], who were set to be allowed in, chose not to attend the briefing in protest of the White House’s actions. ‘Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,’ Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement. ‘We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.’

“The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, quickly rebuked the White House’s actions. ‘The W.H.C.A. board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,’ the association president, Jeff Mason, said in a statement. ‘We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not…’”

Bild Online commented that this step is very disturbing. The White House justified its move by stating that it was an “off-camera” press “gaggle.” Deutsche Welle added that “The briefing had initially been billed as a traditional on-camera daily briefing but was switched to an off-camera press gaggle with restricted access at the last minute.” The White House’s explanation sounds contrived, as it was clearly in retaliation towards those reporters from some outlets that have provided critical coverage of the Trump Administration. Deutsche Welle added that “Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted that CNN and the New York Times stood with Fox in 2009 when the Obama administration attempted to exclude the outlet from interview rounds. Baier said the ‘gaggle should be open to all credentialed organisations.”

The Huffington Post added on February 24: “Though a reporter from the Wall Street Journal attended, the paper said later it would not do so again under such circumstances. ‘The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House’s decision to bar certain media outlets from today’s gaggle,’ a Journal spokesman said. ‘Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future.’”

In a damning article, the Daily Mail wrote on February 24:

“White House takes its revenge on the ‘fake news’ media by BANNING outlets from Sean Spicer’s briefing – including Trump’s top target CNN… The ban is the latest round in Spicer and his boss’s war with the media – dubbed the ‘opposition party’ by (Stephen) Bannon …

“CNN issued a defiant statement saying: ‘This is an unacceptable development by the White House. This is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like.’ The news network was already involved in a confrontation with the White House on Friday morning after it reported Thursday night White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus had tried unsuccessfully to have the FBI deny there had been contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

The Guardian wrote on February 24:

“The decision to limit access to Spicer… marked a dramatic shift. While prior administrations have occasionally held background briefings with smaller groups of reporters, it is highly unusual for the White House to cherry-pick which media outlets can participate in what would have otherwise been the press secretary’s televised daily briefing. The briefing has become indispensable viewing for journalists trying to interpret the often contradictory statements coming out of the Trump administration, and Spicer’s aggressive handling of the press and delivery of false or misleading statements…

“‘Gaggles’ – more informal briefings – with the press secretary are traditionally only limited to the pool when they conflict with the president’s travel, in which case they often take place aboard Air Force One. At times, impromptu gaggles form with reporters who spend their days in the White House, but denying outlets wishing to participate is extremely uncommon… outlets who made requests to attend were told this would not be permitted. When the Guardian asked to participate, pointing to its possession of a ‘hard pass’ that grants daily entry to the White House, an official declined.”

The Independent added on February 24:

“Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists [said that] ‘President Trump’s calls for an end to anonymous sources was alarming. It is not the job of political leaders to determine how journalists should conduct their work, and sets a terrible example for the rest of the world, where sources often must remain anonymous to preserve their own lives… We are concerned by the decision to bar reporters from a press secretary briefing. The US should be promoting press freedom and access to information.’”

Press Secretary Sean Spicer “said in December the Trump White House would not kick news organizations out of the briefing room over critical coverage. During a panel discussion that month with Politico, he said you can’t ban news organizations from the White House. ‘That’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.’” (The Huffington Post, dated February 24).  Recently, John McCain warned that dictatorships start with censorship of the press. In this context, Breitbart reported on February 27: “During a discussion of the Trump administration banning certain outlets from a press gaggle on Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ co-host Mika Brzezinski wondered if the White House was ‘trying to create a dictatorship?’ After playing a clip from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in 2016 [which is quoted above], Brezinski stated, ‘[H]e’s just described himself.’ She added, ‘[A]re they trying to create a dictatorship? I mean, I’m not joking and I’m not angry.’”

FBI Investigation—How The White House Is Making a Mess of Things

The Guardian wrote on February 26:

“The White House made a messy attempt on Sunday to control public perceptions of a widening scandal over alleged contacts between aides to Donald Trump and Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election, alleging that the FBI had dismissed reports of such links. The scandal has shown little sign of coming under control, with a Republican congressman calling for an independent inquiry, multiple congressional committees pursuing investigations and Trump escalating a war with the media in an apparent attempt at distraction.

“While the White House has, by its own clumsy admission, been working behind the scenes to try to manage the conduct of Congress and intelligence agencies in the scandal, those efforts have so far backfired. Contacts between the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and top FBI officials have come in for particular criticism as a violation of a necessary line separating the White House from justice department investigations with potential targets inside the administration…

“The FBI has in fact made no public comment on its investigation into alleged contact between Trump associates and Russian operatives, which was first reported two weeks ago by the New York Times and CNN… The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has confirmed that Priebus had asked top FBI officials to publicly debunk the matter, which they declined to do.

“… White House attempts to write the story off as a confabulation were undermined, however, by expressions of alarm on Capitol Hill. In an appearance on HBO on Saturday, Republican congressman Darrell Issa, a fiercely partisan warrior, called on the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who was a member of the Trump campaign, to recuse himself from justice department investigations of the affair. ‘You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office,’ Issa said. ‘You can’t just give it to your deputy. That’s another political appointee.’”

President Bush Speaks Out in Rare Interview

Today wrote on February 27:

“Early on in the exclusive sit-down, the former president expressed a clear-eyed support for the news media, saying a free press was ‘indispensable to democracy.’ ‘We need an independent media to hold people like me to account,’ Bush told TODAY’S Matt Lauer. ‘Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.’

“Bush was asked about the media’s role in light of President Donald Trump’s recent characterization of the media as the ‘enemy of the American people.’ He noted he spent a lot of time during his two terms trying to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to embrace an independent press. ‘It’s kind of hard to tell others to have an independent free press when we’re not willing to have one ourselves,’ he said.

“Bush also addressed the controversy over Trump advisers and the role they may have played in the scandal involving Russian hackers who tried to intervene in the election, saying he would leave questions about whether a special prosecutor should investigate up to the Senate intelligence committee leaders. ‘I think we all need answers,’ he said, going to on praise North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, the head of the U.S. Senate intelligence committee. ‘I’m not sure the right avenue to take. I am sure, though, that that question needs to be answered.’

“Bush, the last Republican to occupy the White House, also was asked about President Trump’s controversial executive order that banned immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations.  Asked pointedly if he favored or opposed the policy, Bush said, ‘I am for an immigration policy that is welcoming and upholds the law.’”

The Huffington Post added on February 27:

“Bush also called the right to worship freely a ‘bedrock of our freedom’ and took a dig at Trump’s January executive order on immigration, which sought to indefinitely ban Syrian refugees and temporarily block visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries. ‘I understood right off the bat … that [the executive order] was an ideological conflict,’ Bush told Lauer…”

Why a Special Prosecutor?

Salon wrote on February 26:

“Press Secretary Sean Spicer had strong words when trying to dismiss a reporter’s question about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia: ‘A special prosecutor for what?’ After a brief but tense exchange with the reporter during Monday’s press conference, Spicer said: ‘We have now for six months heard story after story come out about unnamed sources, say the same thing over and over again. And nothing has come of it. Right? We’ve heard the same people, the same anecdotes, and we’ve heard reports over and over again. And as Chairman Nunes made very clear today, he has seen nothing that corroborates that. So at what point are you gonna ask yourself, What are you investigating?’

“Spicer’s comment about Rep. David Nunes, R-California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, referred to Nunes’ assertion that ‘there’s no evidence of anything’ tying Trump’s presidential campaign to Russia’s ruling class.

“Spicer also confirmed that the administration is working with the CIA and Congress to discredit reports about Trump’s connections to Russia. ‘We have continued to give reporters information and sources that went to the accuracy or lack thereof of a report that was in a newspaper,’ Spicer said. He again referred to Rep. Nunes, who claimed that reports about Spicer coordinating a press campaign to counter reports of contact between Trump and the Russians were simply attempts by the administration to be ‘transparent.’

“Despite Spicer’s dismissal of these claims, there are a number of sound reasons to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. He has had two powerful aides resign due to their relationship with Russia or pro-Russian politicians — former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn — and his own son admitted in 2008 that ‘Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.’ Because Trump has refused to release his tax returns, it is impossible to determine his potential conflicts of interest with that country.”

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions Recuses Himself 

The Times of Israel reported on March 3:

“US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that he would recuse himself from any investigation into Donald Trump’s election campaign, which faces intense scrutiny over contacts with Russia…

“Sessions has faced increasing demands that he resolve the seeming contradiction between his two conversations in the summer and fall with Moscow’s US envoy, Sergey Kislyak, and his sworn statements to Congress in January, when he said he had not had communications with Russians during the campaign…

“Trump has been trailed for months by questions about potential ties to Russia. He’s vigorously denied being aware of any contacts his associates had with Russia during the campaign and has also insisted he has no financial ties to Russia.

“The Justice Department acknowledged two separate Sessions interactions with Kislyak, both after cybersecurity firms had concluded that Russian intelligence agencies were behind cyber-hacking of the Democratic National Committee…

“Sessions, an early supporter of Trump’s candidacy and a policy adviser during the campaign, did not disclose those discussions at his Senate confirmation hearing in January when asked what he would do if ‘anyone affiliated’ with the campaign had been in contact with officials of the Russian government. Sessions replied that he had not had communications with the Russians, and answered ‘no’ in a separate written questionnaire when asked about contacts regarding the election…

“At the confirmation hearing in January, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Sessions about allegations of contact between Russia and Trump aides during the 2016 election. Sessions said, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have, did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.’”

“Trump Is Following Bannon’s Agenda”

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 25:

“[President] Trump… announced that he would do something to prevent media from basing their reporting on insider sources without naming those contacts. If something like this were really drafted into legislation, it would constitute a major attack on press freedom. Without protection for sources, without anonymous informers and ‘whistleblowers,’ the media would not be able to effectively carry out its job – keeping the powerful in check.

“Trump did stress that his attacks were not directed at the media as a whole, that there were ‘good’ examples too. But by ‘good,’ the president was referring to those outlets that tend to take his side: for instance, the openly pro-Republican broadcaster Fox News. Trump himself has often singled out the breakfast show Fox and Friends, whose hosts revere the president with a devotion that borders on sycophancy.

“Nevertheless, Fox also has some serious anchors who apply their critical faculties to all, like Shephard Smith and Chris Wallace. The channel does at least try to bring in voices from the left and liberal side of the spectrum in measured doses. You can’t say that about some of Trump’s other media pals like conservative radio crusader Rush Limbaugh. Or there’s the even more irate Alex Jones (of Infowars), who propagates conspiracy theories online, on the radio and via video. And of course there is the online platform Breitbart, which was managed for four years by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon…

“At the end of the day, it is principally Bannon who wants to fundamentally shake up the ‘Grand Old Party’ and ultimately America itself. His tool for these renovations is President Trump, supported by the nationalist ‘movement’… ‘Nationalist’ is not a ‘mainstream-media’ exaggeration. Bannon himself often used this term, just like many other CPAC speakers and participants.

“And what of the more moderate conservative forces in the Republican Party, in Congress and in the Trump administration? They are playing along in order to realize their political goals… They had better tread carefully. Bannon and Trump might be hitting the media now, but their target is the entire establishment – including the Republican Party.”

Scandal in Germany: BND Spied on Foreign Journalists

Der Spiegel wrote on February 25:

“Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, apparently spied on large numbers of foreign journalists overseas over the course of several years, including employees of the BBC, Reuters and the New York Times. Critics see a massive violation of press freedoms.

“Arnaud Zajtman, 44, is not exactly the kind of person you would mistake for a terrorist, weapons trader or drug dealer. The Belgian journalist has been reporting from Africa for almost 20 years, with a keen interest in Congo. For 10 years, he was stationed in Kinshasa as a correspondent, first for the BBC and then for the television broadcaster France 24. His stories focused on the forgotten children of Congo, on the battles fought by the rebels and on the country’s first free elections since 1965. In that election year, in September 2006, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, took an interest in the journalist’s work… German officials never informed him that his phone had been tapped…

“The Belgian journalist isn’t the only reporter who was spied on… the BND conducted surveillance on at least 50 additional telephone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses belonging to journalists or newsrooms around the world in the years following 1999…

“Journalists in Germany enjoy far-reaching protection against state meddling. They enjoy similar legal protection to lawyers, doctors and priests: occupations that require secrecy. Journalists have the right to refuse to testify in court in order to protect their sources. German law forbids the country’s domestic intelligence agency from conducting surveillance on persons who have that right. The German chapter of Reporters without Borders says that the BND’s systematic surveillance of journalists is an ‘egregious attack on press freedoms’ and ‘a new dimension of constitutional violation’… Reporters without Borders is concerned that the BND will continue conducting surveillance on foreign journalists…”

The Obamacare Debacle

The Huffington Post wrote on February 26:

“White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to assure Americans on Sunday that anyone currently covered under the Affordable Care Act would not lose their coverage under President Donald Trump’s health care plan… A consulting firm told governors Saturday that the Republican plan to replace Obamacare could lead to millions losing their health coverage, with many people covered under the Medicaid expansion suddenly unable to afford health insurance.

“… in January, Trump vowed ‘insurance for everybody,’ but congressional Republicans have taken to guaranteeing ‘access’ to health care, rather than health care itself, meaning if individuals have the money to pay for insurance, they can get it.

“According to the presentation given to governors on Saturday, the effect of the GOP replacement bill would be huge insurance enrollment losses and greater budget pressure on states to make up the loss in federal money for programs like the Medicaid expansion.”

While some within the GOP [including President Trump] demand repealing and replacing Obamacare, others just speak about amending Obamacare, as—so they say—no acceptable plan for replacement has been proposed. [Even some of those who want to appeal Obamacare are apparently willing to retain certain provisions, for instance guaranteeing somehow the insurance of those with preexisting conditions. At the same time, President Trump rejects the concept of a personal mandate.]  While Republicans were right in pointing out the unsatisfactory consequences of Obamacare, they have now a mess on their hands.

“Historic Increase” for US Military

The Telegraph wrote on February 27:

“Donald Trump is ordering a $54billion surge in defence spending… as he tries to make good on the populist programme that propelled him to the White House… ‘It will include an historic increase in defence spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States of America at a time we most need it,’ he said… It will leave expensive federal welfare programmes such as Social Security and Medicare [and Medicaid] in place… the money will be found from a significant reduction in foreign aid along with cuts at most domestic agencies…

“That sets up a showdown with Democratic opponents in Congress and the possibility of a government shutdown. Agencies will have the chance to negotiate changes before the 2018 budget is published in March…

“He has also promised to return the US ‘to the top of the pack’ on nuclear weapons…”

Deutsche Welle added on February 27:

“The US military already spends significantly more on defense than any other country. The defense budget will be officially unveiled to Congress next month… During a speech to conservative activists on Friday, Trump said he would lead ‘one of the greatest military buildups in American history.’’

First Speech to Congress—“Media Left and Right Give Trump’s Speech Thumbs Up”

The New York Times wrote on March 1:

“At precisely the moment he needed to project sobriety, President Trump delivered the most presidential speech he has ever given.”

The Hill wrote on February 28:

“President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress exceeded expectations among the pundit class on Tuesday night. CBS’s Gayle King felt Trump’s speech was authentic. ‘He said from the beginning he was going to speak from his heart, and I certainly think he did that.’ Fox News’s Chris Wallace echoed King’s sentiment. King’s sentiment. ‘I thought it was by far the best speech I’ve ever heard Donald Trump give,’ he said. ‘It was one of the best speeches in that setting I’ve ever heard any president give.’

“Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Kirsten Powers echoed Wallace’s sentiments, calling it Trump’s ‘best speech’ ever. MSNBC’s [network’s highest-rated host] Rachel Maddow said the speech would be ‘well-received.’… But Maddow’s analysis wasn’t all positive. ‘It will be a notable thing that the president spent a big portion of what was in effect a State of the Union telling the country what vicious, murdering criminals immigrants are,’ Maddow said.

“Media analysts estimate 40 million to 45 million people watched Trump’s address Tuesday night.”

Breitbart wrote on March 1:

“A CNN poll of Americans who watched President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening showed that nearly four out of five had a ‘positive reaction’ to the speech. The survey, conducted among 509 respondents with a 4.5% margin of error, showed that 57% had a ‘very positive’ reaction to the speech, while 21% had a ‘somewhat positive’ reaction, adding up to 78% ‘positive’ overall. Only 21% of those who watched the speech had a ‘negative’ reaction. In addition, 69% of viewers thought that the speech ‘would move the country in the right direction,’ while only 26% said it would move the country ‘in the wrong direction.’…

“On specific issues, Trump scored the highest marks for his proposed policies on the economy, with 72% saying those went in the right direction. Almost as many, 70%, said the same about his terrorism proposals. Slightly fewer, but still a majority, felt his policies on taxes (64%), immigration (62%) or health care (61%) were heading in the right direction.

“Ideologically, about two-thirds saw Trump’s speech as about right, while roughly one quarter (26%) pegged it as too conservative. Just 8% said it wasn’t conservative enough. The numbers, CNN said, were similar to those of similar president[s]. The poll sample was more Republican than the country in general by 8%, due to the inherent bias of viewers who identified themselves beforehand as interested in watching the speech.”

Politico wrote on March 1:

“The president’s hope-infused address before Congress was the most unifying moment of his divisive and chaotic first 39 days in office. For 60 minutes and 14 seconds Tuesday night, President Donald Trump abandoned the dark rhetoric and narrow vision that have long defined his politics and offered an aspirational message stocked with bold promises for the country in his first address before a joint session of Congress. While Trump still offered some charged language — including his use of the term ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ — the speech was notably less confrontational than his ‘American carnage’ inaugural address. It was, in fact, by far the most unifying moment of his divisive and chaotic first 39 days in office. Reading almost exclusively from prepared remarks on a teleprompter, the president pledged to provide ‘massive’ tax relief for the middle class, extinguish the ‘vile enemy’ that is ISIS, and rebuild America’s military… For the most part, the president’s specific policy prescriptions were as broad and vague as they were sweeping and ambitious…”

The Los Angeles Times wrote on February 28:

“[His] well-delivered speech to Congress on Tuesday night answered one major question — whether he could offer the country a less divisive tone — but provided almost no clarity about how he hopes to fulfill the promises that he made in his campaign. In addition to ‘massive’ tax cuts and additional write-offs, Trump talked of spending tens of billions more on the military and $1 trillion on infrastructure projects, with no explanation of how to achieve that without expanding the debt, which he criticized his predecessor, President Obama, for having increased.”

The Editorial Board of The Washington Post wrote on February 28:

“… the sunny tone and a laudable condemnation of recent attacks on minorities soon gave way to the same dark and false vision of the country featured in the president’s grim inaugural address — one in which borders are open, drugs are pouring in, illegal immigrants prey on law-abiding Americans and globalization has impoverished vast swaths of the nation. When it came to specific policy proposals, Mr. Trump similarly offered a few encouraging signs — but many more reasons for skepticism.

“In describing his bleak vision of a ruined United States exploited by foreigners, Mr. Trump wrote a series of checks he almost certainly cannot cash. He promised that ‘dying industries will come roaring back to life,’ that ‘crumbling infrastructure will be replaced’ and ‘our terrible drug epidemic will slow down and ultimately stop.’… Mr. Trump called for a $1 trillion ‘program of national rebuilding,’ ‘one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history’ and ‘massive tax relief for the middle class,’ all issues on which he could work with Democrats…

“The ugliest moment in the 60-minute address came when Mr. Trump announced the formation of an office on ‘Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement,’ and then introduced families of people allegedly murdered by illegal immigrants. It was an appeal to raw prejudice and fear that will do nothing to promote the national unity he claims to be seeking.”

The Chicago Tribune wrote on February 28:

“”[What was] really missing was a respect for reality.. Nothing is beyond him… Did we elect a president or a messiah? From this speech, you wouldn’t know that Republicans once emphasized the limits of government’s power to solve problems. Or that once upon a time — like, a year ago — they understood that every expenditure has to be paid for and has to be the best use of that money.

“House Speaker Paul Ryan gushed over the speech until he was asked how it would all be paid for. At that point, he walked away without answering. But it’s easy to guess: A bill will be sent to the taxpayers of the future.”

Russia and USA Clash Over Syria

The New York Times wrote on February 28:

“Russia and the Trump administration clashed in a vote at the United Nations Security Council for the first time on Tuesday, as the Kremlin vetoed a measure backed by the United States and its Western allies to punish Syria for using chemical weapons. While the Russians had long signaled their intent to block the resolution, which was supported by dozens of countries, the clash offered insights into the big divisions that remain between the Kremlin and President Trump, who has vowed to improve ties.

“Russia and China, two of the five permanent members of the Council, blocked the measure. It was the Kremlin’s seventh Security Council veto in defense of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria over the war that has been convulsing his country for nearly six years. The American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, who has called chemical weapons attacks in Syria ‘barbaric,’ accused Russia and China of putting ‘their friends in the Assad regime ahead of our global security’ in her blunt rebuke of the vetoes…

“Diplomats said that Ms. Haley had insisted on putting the measure up for a vote this week, signaling a desire to take a tough stand on Russia. In recent weeks, Ms. Haley has condemned what she called Russia’s ‘aggressive actions’ in eastern Ukraine, vowed to maintain sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and, in her Senate confirmation hearing, went as far as saying that Russia was guilty of war crimes in Syria.”

Two-Speed Europe Fast Approaching

Express wrote on February 24:

“‘TWO-SPEED EUROPE’ Juncker backs ‘EU at different speeds’ in [a] bid to quell populism. JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER has proposed a ‘two-speed’ Europe in a desperate attempt to smooth over internal fractures amid discontent with Brussels from EU nations.

“European Commission President Mr Juncker has revived the idea, which has been frequently proposed as a way to deal with the differing rates various European countries are developing… But… the ‘multiple-speed’ Europe is controversial and has attracted criticism and fierce debates… Mr Juncker, the former premier of Luxembourg, is a self-confessed fan of the two-speed approach… He said: ‘This is no longer a time when we can imagine everyone doing the same thing together.’

“… one of the bulwark’s of Europe, Germany, is said to be behind the proposals. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met with Mr Juncker on Wednesday, said ‘an EU at different speeds’ was approaching… Other founding members France and Italy, widely tipped to be in the fast-stream of a two-speed Europe, also acknowledged the move was likely.  And the news was met with delight in Rome, which is hosting a summit next month to reinforce closer cooperation to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome… One notable example of a differing layers currently with the EU is the single currency, the Euro, which is only used by 19 of the 28 members.”

Germany and Austria Call for EU-Wide Solutions

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 27:

“Germany’s foreign minister and Austria’s chancellor have said the US and Russia were openly trying to destabilize the EU. Sigmar Gabriel called for EU-wide solutions to current challenges… [and] to close ranks in the face of pressures from the new US administration and from Russia… Gabriel stressed that Europe needed above all a common foreign, defense and security policy…”

“Europe Is Starting to Get Serious about Defense”

 The Economist wrote on February 23:

“Donald Trump’s team has spent much of the last week in Europe cleaning up the boss’s mess. At the Munich Security Conference, James Mattis, the defence secretary, called NATO (which Mr Trump had written off as obsolete) ‘the best alliance in the world’. In Brussels, Mike Pence, the vice-president, assured his audience of America’s ‘strong commitment’ to the European Union, a club the president has dismissed as a ‘vehicle for Germany’. Europeans remain baffled by the mixed messages emanating from Mr Trump’s administration…

“But on one issue the president is in full agreement with his team… Mr Trump grouches that America’s NATO allies are not paying their bills. Only four other countries in the 28-member alliance meet its target of spending 2% of GDP on defence…

“Mrs Merkel needs a story to persuade sceptical German voters of the wisdom of ramping up military spending from its current level of just 1.2% of GDP… Wolfgang Ischinger, head of the Munich conference, suggests a 3% target for military, development and humanitarian spending…

“Germans in particular will chafe at devoting more money to a cause they dislike to please a foreign president they detest. Slamming American-inspired militarism could prove a useful campaign tactic for Martin Schulz, a Social Democrat who wants to thwart Mrs Merkel’s bid for re-election in September…

“Mr Trump’s warnings could even prove counter-productive… Make NATO conditional, and you force your partners into independence, and a foreign policy that may not suit American interests…”

Concern about Trump’s Contradictory Messages on Europe

Reuters wrote on February 24:

“When Donald Trump called the European Union ‘wonderful’ and said he was ‘totally in favor of it’, some Brussels officials feared the headline was a hoax, given the U.S. president’s earlier apparent disdain for the bloc. Trump’s remarks in an interview with Reuters late on Thursday appeared to contrast sharply with comments he made last month when he labeled the EU a ‘vehicle for Germany’, called Brexit a ‘great thing’ and said more countries would follow Britain out of the bloc.

“European diplomats were quick to credit Vice President Mike Pence with persuading his boss of the Union’s merits… Officials said it was unclear, however, if Trump’s policies would match the pro-EU language which Pence used on Monday or that of White House strategist Steve Bannon, whose scepticism about the bloc had been reflected in Trump’s earlier comments… Bannon told Germany’s ambassador last week that Washington would deal with individual states, but not the EU…”

Europe No Longer Toeing Washington’s Line?

Sputnik News wrote on February 24:

“The issue of a pan-European army reflects the Europeans’ desire to break free from US patronage and take their security into their own hands… ‘European policy needs its own concepts,’ said Johen Scholz, a member of the Society of International Policy of Peace and a former Bundeswehr officer. He recalled German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s statement about the EU’s need for an equal-footed partnership with the US instead of simply toeing Washington’s line…”

“Germany Takes Command of Czech Army”

Prague Morning wrote on February 24:

“Czech Defense Minister, Martin Stropnický, has signed a defense bill with his German counterpart, Ursula von der Leyen, signaling an era of closer military cooperation. The meeting took place in Brussels last week and the bilateral agreement was rushed through. Vladimíra Vítová, head of the Czech Peace Forum called the deal a subordination of the Czech military to Germany and denounced the defense minister’s authority to make such a move.

“The 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade, considered amongst the Czech Republic’s finest, is to be moved under the command of the German Bundeswehr… Some within the army top brass are pleased with the move as it allows for the army to gain experience at working alongside troops from other nations… ‘We want to better prepare our troops for a possible joint deployment in the context of larger army groups,’ [according to Czech army spokesman, Jan Šulc.].”

Growing Russian-German Estrangement

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 24:

“Russia and Germany are becoming increasingly estranged… and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Schoigu’s announcement that a replica of the German Reichstag will be built near Moscow and used for teenagers to ‘storm’ at a theme park hasn’t helped the situation… ‘The building of a Reichstag replica comes out of a deterioration of Russia’s relationship with Germany,’ said Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations… ‘This will lead to a negative picture being created about Germany. It is a glorification of Soviet history.’

“For Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament and until recently head of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, the crucial point is what kind of ‘Reichstag’ is going to be built. ‘I don’t have any objections if it is a recreation of how the Red Army occupied the Reichstag in the battle against Hitler,’ Brok said. ‘But if it is Germany’s modern home of democracy, then it is unacceptable.’ Such a step would look like threatening military action against modern Germany, he added… Since the end of World War II, Germany has used the term ‘Bundestag’ to refer to the country’s parliament while the ‘Reichstag’ is used to connote the building that houses the parliament.

“Julius von Freytag-Loringhoven, head of the Moscow office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is tied to Germany’s free-market liberal Free Democratic Party, also described Moscow’s plans as disturbing. ‘Even if such an exercise is done for the purpose of a historical recreation, by building a replica Reichstag, it is unavoidable that those taking part in such military exercises will have the current Reichstag in mind,’ he told DW. He said Germans view Russia’s increasing militarization and identification with a belligerent period of history as rather sinister… ‘It seems that some in Germany have forgotten that Hitler and those who built the Third Reich started their bloody march from the Reichstag,’ [Russian Defense Military] spokesperson Igor Konaschenkow told DW. ‘The attacks from German politicians are met not only with a complete lack of understanding [in Russia] but also make one wonder about what views they may really have about the founders of the Third Reich.’”

The Associated Press added on February 24:

“The Reichstag Parliament building in Berlin was the scene of bitter fighting in 1945 between the Red Army and Nazi troops. The building, first opened in 1894, was refurbished after German reunification and in 1999 became the home of the German parliament… In Moscow, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov lashed out at the German officials for their reaction and vigorously defended the ministry’s plan, saying the Reichstag replica ‘will contribute to the patriotic education of young citizens and foreign guests.’

“Konashenkov also referred to the 1933 Reichstag arson, which is seen as a pivotal moment in establishing Nazi Germany… ‘Verbal attacks by certain German politicians are not only dismaying but they also make one wonder about how these people really feel about the creators of the Third Reich,’ Konashenkov said Friday…”

The relationship between Russia and a coming unified Europe under German leadership will ultimately result in nuclear war between these two power blocs.

Germany Condemns Turkey

Deutsche Welle reported on February 28:

“[Deniz] Yucel’s case is unparalleled: He is the first German journalist who has been jailed in Turkey since President Erdogan’s party, AKP, came to power in 2002. Yucel has both German and Turkish citizenship. Turkish authorities had initially detained the German correspondent of Die Welt newspaper on February 14 on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organization and inciting violence. A formal indictment is still pending…

“The arrest is part of a widespread crackdown by the Erdogan administration that has targeted the media, civil service and academics, as well as military and police sectors, following last year’s failed July 15 coup. Since July 2016, more than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended, tens of thousands have been arrested. So far, foreign reporters have mostly been spared, and they have enjoyed more liberties than local journalists. But Turkish authorities reportedly chose to treat dual-citizen Yucel as Turkish, rather than a German.

“In Germany, a country that used to be one of Turkey’s close allies and cooperated closely with Turkey as part of NATO, the case of Deniz Yucel has been criticized harshly by both the German government and the opposition parties. In fact, Yucel’s treatment is the one topic that all parties in the German parliament are currently able to agree on – from the Left Party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

“Relations between Turkey and Germany have been tainted by a number of incidents in 2016, including the vote in German parliament to recognize the Armenian genocide. Death threats, especially against the 11 members of the Bundestag with Turkish roots, came pouring in after the vote, while German politicians weren’t allowed to visit German troops at the Turkish military base Incirlik. Yet after the failed coup attempt in Ankara in July, Merkel and her government were slow to condemn the events. But Germany, and especially Angela Merkel, who has come under pressure because of her refugee policies, desperately need Turkey to uphold a so-called ‘refugee deal’ that controls the flow of migrants into Europe.

“Since the deal was cut between the EU and Turkey in March 2016, the number of migrants crossing the Sea from Turkey to Greece has dropped from an average 1,740 to 89 per day, according to the European Commission.

“Merkel has often refrained from harsh criticism of Turkey’s human rights practices in the past and has been strongly criticized for her lack of ‘clear words’ by the opposition in parliament. The case of Deniz Yucel puts the German chancellor in a tough spotonce again, just six months ahead of a federal election in Germany that Merkel said will be the toughest she has had to face in her career.

“Angela Merkel’s assessment of Yucel’s detainment, however, was untypically candid. She criticized Yucel’s arrest as ‘bitter and disappointing’ as well as ‘disproportionate.’ ‘The German government expects that the Turkish justice system keeps in mind the great importance that press freedom has in any democratic society in its treatment of the Yucel case,’ she said. ‘We will continue to insist on a fair and legal treatment of Deniz Yucel and hope that he will soon regain his freedom.’

“Germany’s top diplomat Sigmar Gabriel was even more candid in his response to the case. The new foreign minister expressed his dismay, saying Ankara was exacerbating what were already ‘dramatic times for German-Turkish relations.’… But at a time when German-Turkish relations are at their lowest point in decades, Yucel is only the tip of the iceberg. But one that will most certainly inflict further serious damage to the two countries’ relationship.”

“Could This Man Be the Next Chancellor of Germany?”

BBC News wrote on February 24:

“His critics say he is more Brussels than Berlin… But they have failed to damage his bid for Germany’s top job… Recent polls suggest that, given a choice between Mr Schulz and Mrs Merkel, he would be Germany’s preferred chancellor… After 12 years as its chancellor, Germany is, some say, simply fed up with Mrs Merkel… For years there has been no realistic alternative, until now…

“Mr Schulz has yet to unveil a manifesto but he has promised generous, and controversial, welfare reforms. A future coalition of the left is no longer out of the question, although commentators point out that it may be difficult to smooth over fundamental differences with some of the smaller parties. The left wing party, Die Linke, for example, urges the dissolution of Nato.

“A month ago it was possible to predict, with some certainty, that Mrs Merkel would win the September election, albeit having taken a hammering from the AfD. Now, for the first time in years, she faces significant opposition from a different political direction.

“Germany, like much of Europe, appeared to be edging to the right. Now it is just as likely to turn instead to the left… And, after a year of global political surprise, there is a sense here too now that anything could happen.”

“French Election Turns Ugly”

AFP wrote on February 27:

“Journalists accused of bias. Judges said to be taking orders from the president. The country in a state of ‘near civil war.’ This isn’t America’s bitter presidential election campaign last year, but France’s in 2017… Seven police officers were injured on Saturday in Nantes including one with serious burns when anarchists and vandals began throwing rocks and firebombs during an anti-Le Pen protest…

“Both [conservative Francois] Fillon and [far-right leader Marine] Le Pen have also attacked judicial investigations into their use of allegedly fake parliamentary aides as an attempt by outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande to influence the election. Fillon has described an inquiry launched in January as an ‘institutional coup d’etat’ and has accused journalists of trying to carry out a ‘lynching’ and an ‘assassination’.

“Herve Le Bras, a veteran political observer and head of research at the EHESS social sciences university in Paris, said he could detect the influence of US President Donald Trump in the French campaign. ‘The way that Trump has defied the justice system and attacked the media, calling them “fake news”, I think in a way it’s encouraging Fillon and Marine Le Pen to copy,’ he told AFP. ‘They can see that it seems to work in the United States,’ he said.

“Fillon, a 62-year-old former prime minister, faces allegations he paid his wife for 15 years as a fake assistant, while one of Le Pen’s aides was charged last week over allegations the party defrauded the European parliament. Both deny any wrongdoing but their attacks have repeatedly questioned the independence and neutrality of the justice system ahead of a two-stage presidential election on April 23 and May 7.

“Polls currently show independent centrist Emmanuel Macron as the most likely winner, though analysts caution against any firm forecasts after a rollercoaster campaign and the surprises of Brexit and Trump in 2016. Fillon was the clear frontrunner until January when newspaper Le Canard Enchaine brought his wife’s job to light… Le Pen went ahead with her rally in Nantes on Sunday where she delivered a speech laced with criticism of how French democracy had been corrupted by the political establishment, the media and financial interests…”

Carnival and “Christianity” in Brazil

The Associated Press wrote on February 23:

“While campaigning last year to become Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Marcelo Crivella, a retired Pentecostal bishop, insisted his faith would not get in the way of governing the nation’s most famous city. The former gospel singer and missionary, a high-profile member of one of Brazil’s most powerful evangelical churches, captured 59 percent of the vote and took office January 1. But less than two months into his four-year term, Crivella’s promises are about to be tested by the Carnival, Rio’s annual week-long party often marked by heavy drinking and drug use, wild sex and round-the-clock dancing. The mayor’s office signaled this week that Crivella may not participate in the festivities…

“Participating in the Carnival is not unheard of for evangelicals, some of whom organize street parties and use the event to recruit church members. Evangelicals have enjoyed a growing role in politics in a country that is both a center of extraordinary growth for their churches and also home to more Catholics than any other country in the world. Twenty-two percent of Brazilians currently identify as evangelical Christians, up from 5% in 1970. A shortage of Catholic priests combined with evangelicals’ willingness to work in slums plagued by drug-trafficking and violence have helped them mobilize voters… Still, many Brazilians still reject evangelical faiths, seeing them as contrary to the live-and-let-live attitude that remains a strong part of national culture…

“When [Criviela] was running last year, the 59-year-old former bishop in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God promised he would not try to alter major city events, such as the Carnival or an annual gay parade. He also apologized about disparaging comments he made about gays, Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian religions in a book about working as a missionary in Africa…”

German Carnival Floats Show No Mercy for Trump and Other Political Figures

The Local wrote on February 27:

“The floats at Karneval parades across southern and western Germany are known for their biting satire. This year the main target of their derision was only ever going to be one man. Carnival is known as die fünfte Jahreszeit (the fifth season) in German. It is a time when the usual rules of polite society are thrown out the window. In the major cities of the Rhine region the inhabitants become Narren (jesters) for a week, mocking the political establishment of the day with satirical floats which parade through the city centres. The past twelve months have clearly provided plenty of ammunition to the west German satirists.

“In Düsseldorf one of the central floats on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) showed US President Donald Trump standing next to French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders and Adolf Hitler—all of them sporting carefully coiffed blond manes. The four populist leaders of past and present held a banner reading ‘Blond is the new brown’. Another float in Düsseldorf appeared to show Trump raping the Statue of Liberty…

“In Mainz, the US president was depicted as an elephant crashing through crockery. The sign on the float read Trumpel-tier, a pun on the word for a two-humped camel Trampeltier. The word (literally: lumbering animal) is also an insult meaning klotz or clumsy person. In [a] piece of quite literally biting satire, Trump was portrayed, along with Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Poland and Hungary, as a caterpillar munching away at the leaf of democracy.

“But Trump wasn’t the only leader to invite the scorn of the Karneval Narren. Theresa May, Prime Minister of United Kingdom, was shown pointing a pistol through her own teeth inscribed with the word Brexit. Erdogan, who has been accused of human rights abuses after imprisoning thousands of people following an attempted coup in July 2016, was shown screaming ‘terrorist’ at a clown in Düsseldorf. In Mainz, meanwhile, he had mounted a lawn mower and was cutting down the flowers of democracy and free speech.”

“Heightened Controls—How Trump Frightens Away [German] Tourists”

Der Stern reported on March 1:

“In 2015 alone, 2.27 million Germans traveled to the United States… But now, President Trump diminishes the eagerness of German visitors to travel to the US… Currently, nearly every second German is opposed to vacationing in the US… they feel unwelcome and do not want to support the politics of Donald Trump by coming to the US. Only 17 percent say they don’t care about the politics of the President and are still willing to spend their vacation in the US…

“Especially New York City and San Francisco suffer from restrictive entry permits. ‘We have no influence on the controls at the airport,’ said Joe D’Alessandro, president of the San Francisco Travel Association… The Foreign Affairs Office in Berlin announced: ‘Heightened security controls exist in the USA. Travelers should arrive at the airport at least three hours in advance to be able to go through security controls before their departure.’ It also states that it is within the discretion of the particular US custom agent whether or not to allow entrance at arrival.

“According to statistics, approximately two German travelers per day are being rejected by the Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBP) and have to fly back to Europe with the next plane. A much larger percentage can only enter the USA after a lengthy interview—even though they had received clearance through ESTA or are in possession of a valid visa stamped in their passports.

“Recently, NASA co-worker Sidd Bikkannava had to produce the PIN number of his business cell phone in order to prevent arrest, even though he is a participant of the Global-Entry program.

“The Department of Homeland Security includes now a section on the ESTA document [which must be submitted to be able to enter the USA under the visa waiver program], asking for personal information regarding participation on social networks, such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or Youtube. The official document states: ‘List the username, handle, screen-name, or other identifier associated with your social media profile.’ Presently, the answers are still ‘optional.’”

“Visa War” between EU and USA Escalates

The Telegraph wrote on March 2:

“Americans should be forced to apply for visas to travel to Europe, the European Parliament has said, in response to Washington refusing to allow all Europeans to travel to the States visa-free. The vote by show of hands is the latest in the ongoing ‘visa war’ between Brussels and the US capital… A European Parliament source told Telegraph Travel this was a ‘serious negative step in the EU-USA visa war’…

“The need to apply for a visa to travel to a country is widely seen as a turn-off to potential visitors, given the extra cost and time an application requires…

“It was in April 2014 the European Commission was first made aware that the US – along with Australia, Brunei, Canada and Japan – was failing to ensure the same visa waiver rights for its citizens that Europe offered in return. The Commission then gave the countries a deadline of two years before retaliating. Since, Australia, Brunei and Japan have all lifted their visa requirements, with Canada set to do the same by the end of the year, but the US has failed to act…

“Some 30 million American tourists visit Europe each year, spending more than $54billion (£44bn)… Most British nationals do not require a visa to enter the US, but must apply for an ESTA that costs $14 (£11.50) if arriving by air.”

Deutsche Welle added the following on March 2:

“The European Parliament on Thursday called on the EU’s executive body to reintroduce visas for US citizens ‘within two months’…

“By a show of hands, parliamentarians passed a [non-binding] resolution demanding that the European Commission impose visas by May, ahead of the traditionally-busy tourist season…

“However, a similar parliamentary attempt in 2014 fell to the wayside after Brussels allowed a deadline to pass without a response. The Commission said European officials have contacted US President Donald Trump’s administration ‘to push for full visa reciprocity.’… European officials said they hope to resolve the issue at an EU-US ministerial meeting slated for June 15…”

Reuters wrote on March 2:

“The European Commission stressed it was pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the row, leaving it unlikely that it would act on the vote by lawmakers setting a May deadline to impose visas…

“Washington refuses to grant visa-free access to people from four east European states and Cyprus, while those from the other 23 member states can enter using the U.S. visa waiver program. EU rules call for equal treatment for all Union citizens…

“Former Communist countries Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, have been calling on Brussels to end U.S. discrimination against their citizens. But the economic cost of imposing visa restrictions on the millions of American tourists and business travelers who visit Europe each year is a major disincentive…”

What Is All the Fuss About Discovery of Seven “Earth-Like” New Planets?

Forbes wrote on February 26:

“On Wednesday, the scientists at NASA kind of freaked out. They announced the discovery of some seemingly Earth-like planets outside of our solar system… They’re about 40 light years from Earth. That means using today’s rocket technology (and a whole lot of cash), it would probably take about 11,250 years to get [there]…

“I called up one of NASA’s exoplanet experts, Aki Roberge, to help us break down the find…

“At the moment, all you really tell from the transits is these are small black dots… Six of the seven planets look like they’re rocky… There are, however, several reasons to think that being a rock in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star is not actually a nice place to live, and that those environments are very different from our solar system… maybe they could have liquid water on their surfaces. But that’s a huge maybe. Just look at our solar system… We’ve got Earth, Venus and Mars in or near what astronomers call the ‘habitable zone’ – and they couldn’t be more different!… The Earth is unique in the solar system in one really important way: it’s the only planet that has surface life so abundant that it’s affecting the atmosphere. That is noticeable from interstellar distances…”

This does not sound like convincing proof that there could be any life on these “earth-like” planets.

Nuclear Incidents in the Arctic?

The Drive wrote on February 19:

“There have been rumblings regarding some sort of nuclear incident—or possibly incidents—in the Arctic over the last month. Multiple reports, some of them from official monitoring organizations, have reported iodine 131—a radioactive isotope often associated with nuclear fission—has been detected via air sampling stations throughout the region.

“The first detection of the isotope came during the second week of January, via an air sampling station located in Svanhovd, on Norway’s border with Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Within days, air sampling stations as far south as Spain also detected the presence of small amounts of the isotope. The fact that iodine-131 has a half-life of just eight days would point to the release occurring just days earlier, and not being a remnant of a past nuclear event.

“Because of the low levels of concentration, there is no health risk to the public or the environment, at least on a wide scale…

“After weeks without answers, the story seemed to pass as a peculiarity… until Friday when the US dispatched its WC-135 Constant Phoenix atmospheric testing aircraft to Europe without explanation. The highly unique aircraft are specifically designed to respond to nuclear incidents—especially those that include the detonation of nuclear warheads…

“You can check twitter to see loads of people claiming this is proof that the Russians have restarted nuclear weapons testing at Novaya Zemlya near the Arctic… There has been some talk about even the US restarting its nuclear testing under President Trump…

“A more likely possibility is that some sort of limited nuclear material storage, research, or power generation incident has occurred. Russia uses nuclear propulsion for many of its active submarines as well as its Kirov class battlecruisers and its icebreakers. Russia also uses nuclear power in the arctic region for multiple applications. Not just that, but Russia’s northerly naval bases near the arctic are nuclear graveyards of the Cold War. Hulls of decommissioned nuclear submarines sit idle still waiting to be denuclearized and disposed of. Many have said that over the decades following the end of the Cold War, these vessels are just an accident waiting to happen…

“The Arctic is also dotted with other Cold War relics that relied on nuclear power to function, these include Russia’s nuclear lighthouses and outposts. And this is just what you can see, below the surface, hulks of sunken nuclear vessels and other waste still pose a major threat to the environment. It is not really a question of if they will do harm, but when.

“During the Cold War, Russia dumped all types of nuclear waste in the Kara Sea, including an estimated 17,000 containers and 19 vessels full of radioactive waste. The USSR also pitched 14 nuclear reactors, some with spent fuel rods, into the same body of water and other forms of lower-level nuclear waste was just poured directly into the sea. The Russian submarine K-27, which was scuttled in the Kola Sea, is said to be literally a ticking time bomb. That is just that one area, and other areas in the region, such as the Barents Sea (K-159) and Norwegian Sea (K-278), also have abandoned nuclear submarines and who knows what else lining the sea floor. Even the US left its own portion of nuclear waste in the northern latitudes, such as the once secret reactor at Camp Century, in Greenland, although this is minuscule compared to what the Soviets left behind.

“With all this in mind, if there was a peculiar release of iodine-131 into the atmosphere, it is much more likely to have come from the nuclear wasteland that the Soviet Union created, or from operational reactors in the region, and not from some sort of clandestine atomic testing. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, just highly unlikely. There is even a possibility that it didn’t come from Russia at all, and was leaked by a reactor in Europe or elsewhere. Still, with the Arctic likely becoming a key battleground of the future… suspicions surrounding Russia’s true intentions in the region are at an all-time high…”

Radioactive Iodine 131 All Over Europe

The Sun wrote on February 20:

“Dangerous radioactive particles have been detected in seven different European countries and scientists can’t explain where they have come from. Traces of Iodine-131 were spotted in Norway, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain in January, but the public were not immediately alerted. These radioactive particles are produced by atomic bomb explosions or nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl or Fukushima. They appear to be emanating from Eastern Europe, but experts have not been able to say exactly what produced them…

“The particles could [have] been produced by Russian nuclear submarines. Scientists detected the highest number of particles in Poland, although still not enough to spark a public health emergency.”

Bewildered Europe Wonders About Chaotic White House and Contradictory Messages

Bloomberg wrote on February 19:

“… for many of the Europeans… the perception of chaos in Washington also raised an equally unsettling question: How much should Europe start doing on its own?… Chancellor Angela Merkel called for increased military integration between Germany and France. With the U.K. negotiating to leave the EU, a major hurdle to long-shelved projects for creating a consolidated military command and even centralized funding will also be removed…”

“Mike Pence Widens US Rift with Europe over Nato Defence Spending”

The Guardian wrote on February 18:

“The US vice-president has delivered the most uncompromising message yet from the Trump administration to Nato allies that they have to step up financial contributions towards defence spending.  On his first visit to Europe since taking office, Mike Pence said ‘some of our largest allies do not have a credible path’ towards paying their share of Nato’s financial burden. Although he did not name individual countries, his targets included Germany, France and Italy. ‘The time has come to do more,’ he said. This section of his speech to the Munich security conference… was greeted with lukewarm applause.

“He was speaking immediately after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made it clear she would not be bullied by the US over defence spending. She said Germany had made a promise to increase defence over the next decade and would fulfil that commitment rather than be forced into the faster rises that Trump is looking for…

“In a thinly veiled warning, Pence said that while the US was bound by Nato’s article five – an attack on one member would be an attack on all – he also reminded the audience that article three contained a commitment to sharing the financial burden, echoing Trump’s warning last year that he did not feel bound to come to the defence of countries that did not pay their share.  Pence peppered his speech with regular references to Trump, stressing that he was delivering messages from the president…

“Pence also attempted to square the contradictory comments made by Trump towards Russia. While the US wanted a new relationship with Russia, he said that the US expected Russia to honour the 2015 Minsk peace agreement aimed at ending violence in Ukraine.

“With Pence in the room, [Merkel] avoided direct references to Trump even though many of her comments during her speech and in a question-and-answer session afterwards were aimed at him. Asked about attacks on the media, Merkel said: ‘Freedom of the press is a pillar of democracy.'”

Der Stern commented on February 18: “The performances of Pence and Merkel looked like the clash of two different worlds. Since this weekend, we know from the mouth of Mike Pence that payday is drawing near. The times will get more unpleasant.”

Europeans Challenge President Trump

The Telegraph wrote on February 17:

“European leaders have pushed back at Donald Trump’s ultimatum that they increase defence spending or risk America scaling back its commitment to Transatlantic protection… The president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker… said countries must not cave in to US demands… Mr Juncker said he was ‘very much against letting ourselves be pushed into’ an increase in defence spending. He said: ‘I don’t like our American friends narrowing down this concept of security to the military… If you look at what Europe is doing in defence, plus development aid, plus humanitarian aid, the comparison with the United States looks rather different. Modern politics cannot just be about raising defence spending.’…

“Meanwhile Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, acknowledged that her country would in [the] future be unable to step back and rely on American protection… But she also had a message for Donald Trump, warning him that he could not put European allies on an equal footing with an aggressive Russia. She said: ‘Our American friends know well that their tone on Europe and Nato has a direct influence on the cohesion of our continent… There cannot be a policy of equidistance to allies and to those who openly question our values, our borders and international law.’”

EU Council President Attacks Donald Trump

Express wrote on February 20:

“The EU Council president (Donald Tusk) railed against ‘brute force, egoism and arrogance’ in a series of jaw-dropping remarks which will be interpreted as a very thinly veiled assault on the Republican commander-in-chief. Polish eurocrat Mr Tusk admitted that nobody could ‘pretend that everything is as it used to be’ following months of verbal attacks from the Republican’s administration which have met with furious responses in European capitals. And in an extraordinary press conference following talks with Vice-President Mike Pence the top Brussels official effectively admitted that trans-Atlantic relations are in the gutter following the election of Mr Trump.

“In an exchange surely unprecedented in recent EU-US history he railed against the new US President’s ‘surprising opinions’ on European integration and said he had directly challenged his second-in-command over the administration’s hostility towards the bloc. The remarks came after signs earlier emerged of the gaping chasm emerging between the two sides as France railed against a speech the Republican gave to delegates in Munich in which he did not even mention the EU.

“Mr Tusk made no attempt to hide Europe’s dismay at the election of Mr Trump, and instead harked back to better times for trans-Atlantic relations under his predecessors Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan…”

Subsequently, Mike Pence was asked in a press conference what America will do if Europe does not fulfill America’s demands of contributing more to NATO’s defense costs. The journalist raised the question in regard to a comment that Europe must do so, “or else.” Mike Pence refused to explain what was meant by that comment and said that the future will have to provide the answer.

And Now: President Trump’s Fight with Sweden

Deutsche Welle reported on February 20:

“US President Donald Trump has tried to clarify his comments about a non-existent terror incident in Sweden. He said his remarks referred to a television report on immigrants. ‘You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden,’ Trump said. ‘They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible,’ he continued, implying the country had been the victim of a terrorist attack… Former Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt was… asking ‘what has he been smoking? Questions abound.’

“On Sunday, Trump tweeted that his statement was in reference to a Fox News report on immigrants and Sweden. On Friday, the network had aired an interview with documentary film maker Ami Horowitz about the alleged effects of immigration in Sweden. A number of officials have dismissed the documentary which alleges a rise in violent crime after a rise in the number of refugees coming to the country. Official statistics show that Sweden’s crime rate has fallen since 2005 even as it has taken in hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

“Trump took to Twitter again on Monday, attempting to shift focus back to Sweden’s ability to integrate immigrants. ‘The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!’ the president wrote.

“With a population of around 9.5 million, Sweden has taken in nearly 200,000 refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The policy has meant the Scandinavian country has taken in more refugees per capita than any other European nation.

“The Swedish Embassy to the US tweeted on Sunday that it looked ‘forward to informing the US administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies.’ As part of the online responder to Trump’s comments, there has been a search for actual events in Sweden last Friday… They ranged from preliminary rounds for Sweden’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest to a bad snowstorm.”

Bild Online wrote on February 20 that the Fox Report “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and its interview with Ami Horowitz, which President Trump was apparently referring to, was filled with inaccuracies, conspiracies and fake news. The paper quoted Ylva Johansson, Swedish Minister for Labor, saying that the whole world listens to President Trump when he speaks, and that he has therefore an obligation to explain what he means, when he comments “about Sweden in a manner which we don’t understand.”  

The story is also big news in Britain. The Telegraph published a lengthy and detailed story on February 20 with the title, “Last Night In Sweden: Celebrities and the Swedish Mock Donald Trump’s Bizarre Claims.”

The Independent added on February 20 that President Trump “admitted he was talking about a widely debunked Fox News report he had seen on television the night before… News of Mr Horowitz’s documentary made headlines last year when he told conservative outlets such as Breitbart News that there were Muslim ‘no-go zones’ in Europe…”

Subsequently, some news agencies published a few selected articles to the effect that there was some violence in Sweden, allegedly involving refugees. But these articles did by no means support the claim that terrorist activities were rampant in the country.   

John McCain Compares Today’s Atmosphere to Nazi Years

Newsmax wrote on February 17:

“Arizona Sen. John McCain delivered a series of blows to President Donald Trump Friday during a speech in Germany, and at one point he compared today’s political atmosphere to the Nazi years of the 1930s and 1940s…

“While making his case, McCain… mentioned Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist. Von Kleist was part of the group that plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. ‘What would von Kleist’s generation say if they saw our world today?’ McCain asked. ‘I fear that much about it would be all too familiar for them… They would be alarmed by the hardening resentment we see toward immigrants, and refugees, and minority groups, especially Muslims… They would be alarmed by the growing inability, and even unwillingness, to separate truth from lies. They would be alarmed that more and more of our fellow citizens seem to be flirting with authoritarianism…'”

Mike Pence and the Ignorance of Darwinists and Evolutionists

The following was an absolutely appalling and mean-spirited article, attacking Vice President Mike Pence’s belief in the Bible and upholding Darwin’s nonsensical evolution hypothesis. We chose to ignore most of it. But, the following inadvertent admissions are revealing:

The Daily Beast wrote on February 17:

“The vice president dodges the question of whether he believes in evolution but he has his own version of intelligent design… ‘The Bible tells us that God created man in His own image, male and female; He created them,’ Pence has said. ‘And I believe that God created the known universe, the earth and everything in it including man, and I also believe that some day, scientists will come to see that only the theory of intelligent design provides an even remotely rational explanation for the known universe.’

“Pence also argued that evolution should not be taught in schools without a parallel commentary of Biblical explanations as being equally valid…

“Darwin himself was an agnostic. Whether he actually believed that the hidden architecture of life that he had described for the first time had divine origin doesn’t really matter… All of which makes it strange that anyone today would think it reasonable to persist, as Pence does, with the idea of ‘intelligent design.’ Indeed, Darwin saw that idea coming and dealt with it dismissively: ‘It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the ‘plan of creation’ ‘unity of design’ etc and to think that we give an explanation when we only re-state a fact.’’

Of course, Darwin did not state any “fact” supporting his fairy tale of evolution.

On a related subject, The Telegraph reported on February 22 that “life may have evolved on at least three planets within a newly discovered solar system that is 39 light years from Earth… Astronomers… have detected no less than seven roughly Earth-sized worlds orbiting a dwarf star in the system… Three of the new planets are said to be particularly promising because they could sustain oceans. [A Nasa spokesperson said:] ‘This gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not a matter of “if”, but “when’”.

This is further nonsense, because Evolution did not create life anywhere in the universe. GOD created life, but there is no hint in the Bible that He created physical life anywhere else but on planet earth.

Trump Administration Lifts Federal Guidelines “Protecting” Transgender Students

The Associated Press wrote on February 22:

“The Trump administration on Wednesday ended federal protections for transgender students that instructed schools to allow them to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities. Stepping into an emotional national debate, the administration came down on the side of states’ rights, lifting federal guidelines that had been issued by the Obama administration…

“Without the Obama directive, it will be up to states and school districts to interpret federal anti-discrimination law and determine whether students should have access to restrooms in accordance with their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex… the [Obama] guidance carried no force of law. But transgender rights advocates say it was useful and necessary to protect students from discrimination. Opponents argued it was federal overreach and violated the safety and privacy of other students…

“Conservative activists hailed the change, saying the Obama directives were illegal and violated the rights of fixed-gender students, especially girls who did not feel safe changing clothes or using restrooms next to anatomical males…

“Legal experts said the change in position could impact pending court cases involving the federal sex discrimination law, including a case to be heard by the Supreme Court in March involving Gavin Grimm, a transgender teen who was denied bathroom access in Virginia…

“Fifteen states have explicit protections for transgender students in their state laws, and many individual school districts in other states have adopted policies that cover such students on the basis of their gender identity…”

The left-liberal agenda, which protects and supports young boys declaring to be girls and therefore demanding access to girls’ locker rooms and showers, is a blatant abomination in God’s eyes.

Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith Stands Up to Donald Trump’s “Crazy” Press Conference

Yahoo! News reported on February 16:

“Shepard Smith, the Fox News anchor, on Thursday afternoon seemed to have had enough of Donald Trump’s slams at the media as peddlers of ‘fake news’ — or, when it comes to CNN, ‘very fake news.’ ‘It is crazy what we are watching every day, it is absolutely crazy,’ Smith said. ‘He keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines that are not true at all and sort of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we are some kind of fools for asking the question.’

“Smith then started to look into the camera and added, ‘Really? Your opposition was hacked, and the Russians were responsible for it, and your people were on the phone on the same day it was happening, and we are fools for asking those questions? No sir, we are not fools for asking those questions, and we demand to know the answer to this question. You owe this to the American people.’…

“As long as Trump’s press conference was… it was dominated by Trump’s attacks on the media…

“Smith’s reference to ‘ridiculous throwaway lines’ may not have just referred to Trump’s ‘fake news’ and ‘fake media’ catchphrases, but his fixation on the size of his electoral college victory. When Trump boasted that his 306 electoral votes (actually 304) was the largest since Ronald Reagan, reporters corrected him. Barack Obama got more in 2012 in 2008, as did George H.W. Bush in 1988 — facts that are easily verified by a Google search…

“CNN’s Jake Tapper, in his own state of disbelief about the press conference, also looked into the camera on Thursday and said, ‘President Trump… You legitimately won the presidency. Now get to work and stop whining about it.’”

Shepard Smith has all along been making critical and challenging comments about Mr. Trump. Subsequently, outraged hard-core Trump supporters demanded the resignation of Shepard Smith for “daring” to stand up to the President. They reject any news article from the “left-liberal” press, criticizing Mr. Trump, and appreciate more the likes of Sean Hannity, a Fox News conservative political commentator, who with total acceptance and uncritical approval supports everything which Mr. Trump says or does.  It is interesting that highly-praised and long-time moderators such as Megyn Kelly or Greta von Susteren have left Fox News. (Megyn joined NBC News, and Greta has a new show on MSNBC, called “For the Record.”).

In addition to Shepard Smith, another Fox News “icon,” (according to Der Stern), Chris Wallace, strongly rebuked Donald Trump in an interview with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, saying that President Trump went too far for stating that the media is America’s enemy.

Showdown Between Ford and Donald Trump?

AFP wrote on February 17:

“US car maker Ford is sticking with a plan to open two auto-parts plants in Mexico this year, despite earlier announcing it had scrapped plans for a separate factory there. Ford without warning last month canceled plans to build a $1.6 billion project in San Luis Potosi, an auto-making area in central Mexico. Gabriel Lopez, president and CEO of Ford Mexico, said however that this did not affect two other projects it has under way in the country since 2015, which are scheduled to begin production this year.

“The plants… will make engines and transmissions. They will supply Ford factories in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. The two facilities will cost about $2.5 billion and employ some 3,800 people…

“Ford is one of several US companies under pressure from the country’s new President Donald Trump. He has offered inducements to keep some US manufacturers in the United States, and threatened others with punishing tariffs if they go. Ford has been operating in Mexico for about 90 years. It currently employs around 9,000 workers in Mexico, according to Lopez.”

New “Trump Directives” Create Panic in Mexico

The Associated Press wrote on February 22:

“Mexicans fear deportee and refugee camps could be popping up along their northern border under the Trump administration’s plan to start deporting to Mexico all Latin Americans and others who entered the U.S. illegally through this country. Previous U.S. policy called for only Mexican citizens to be sent to Mexico. Migrants known as ‘OTMs’ — Other Than Mexicans — got flown back to their homelands. Now, under a sweeping rewrite of enforcement policies announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, migrants might be dumped over the border into a violence-plagued land where they have no ties while their asylum claims or deportation proceedings are heard in the United States. U.S. officials didn’t say what Mexico would be expected to do with them.

“The only consensus so far in Mexico about the new policies of President Donald Trump is that the country isn’t remotely prepared… It’s unclear whether the United States has the authority to force Mexico to accept third-country nationals. The DHS memo calls for the department to provide an account of U.S. aid to Mexico, a possible signal that Trump plans to use that funding to get Mexico to accept the foreigners…”

The Guardian added on February 22 that “Mexico has indicated it would not accept the Trump administration’s new immigration proposals, saying it would go to the United Nations to defend the rights of immigrants in the US.”

Deutsche Welle added on February 23:

“US officials met with Mexican officials to affirm positive relations, but success was limited. The US Homeland Security chief said immigration operations would not use ‘military force,’ contradicting the president…

“Trump [had] described a sweeping campaign of deportation across the US as a ‘military operation.’ However, Kelly appeared to undermine Trump’s remarks, telling a press conference that ‘there will be no use of military force for immigration operations.’ ‘There will be no, repeat, no mass deportations,’ Kelly said…”

“New Trump Immigration Orders Target Nearly All Illegal Immigrants in US”

Deutsche Welle reported on February 22:

“Nearly all of the United States’ 11 million illegal immigrants can be subject to deportation under the Trump administration’s new immigration guidelines released on Tuesday… Under the previous president, illegal immigrants not linked to serious crime… were not targeted for deportation. Both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations also attempted to create an immigration framework that would allow long-term undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.

“The new memos pave the way for mass deportation that critics say will uproot families and damage economies…”

ACLU Will Challenge Trump’s New Immigration Directives

The Associated Press reported on February 21:

“Any immigrant who is in the country illegally and is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority… That could include people [with a traffic violation or] arrested for shoplifting or minor offenses — or simply having crossed the border illegally… Overstaying a visa is a civil, not criminal, offense. Those who do so are not specifically included in the priority list but, under the memos, they are still more likely to face deportation than they had been before…

“The American Civil Liberties Union said it would challenge the directives. ‘These memos confirm that the Trump administration is willing to trample on due process, human decency, the well-being of our communities, and even protections for vulnerable children, in pursuit of a hyper-aggressive mass deportation policy,’ said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project…

“The directives do not affect President Barack Obama’s program that has protected more than 750,000 young immigrants from deportation. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals remains in place, though participants could be deported if they commit crimes or otherwise are deemed to be threats to public safety or national security, according to the department… The directives indicate that some young people caught crossing the border illegally by themselves may not be eligible for special legal protections if they are reunited with parents in the United States. And those parents or other relatives that the government believes helped the children would face criminal and immigration investigations…”

Jewish Groups Oppose President Trump’s New Immigration Directives

The Times of Israel wrote on February 22:

“Jewish groups expressed alarm… ‘These new rules are extremely ill-advised and counter to our values as a nation that has always served as a beacon of hope for people around the world,’ Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

“‘The guidelines released today treat vulnerable people, many of whom are unaccompanied children and asylum seekers, like criminals,’ warned Mark Hetfield, president of the Jewish refugee rights group HIAS…”

Immigrants Seek to Naturalize

The Associated Press reported on February 21:

“Since last month, immigrants have been rushing to prepare applications to become U.S. citizens… The growing interest in citizenship follows a surge in naturalization applications last year amid Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric and ahead of a December increase in filing fees. Nearly 1 million people applied to naturalize during the 2016 fiscal year, the largest number in nine years…

“Immigrants historically have sought citizenship for the many new opportunities it brings: the ability to vote, better job prospects, an American passport for travel, bringing relatives here from overseas. This year, it’s more about fear in a Trump administration… For years, immigrant advocates have urged lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, to naturalize, which would protect them from deportation were they ever convicted of a crime…”

Jewish Alumni Implore Jared Kushner to Change His Father-in-Law’s Mindset on Immigration

JTA wrote on February 21:

“Some 180 alumni and former staff of a New Jersey yeshiva high school implored graduate Jared Kushner to use his influence with President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, to ease the path for refugees coming to the United States… Kushner’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors who came to the United States after spending over three years in a displaced persons camp in Italy.

“‘Like you, many of us are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who escaped to this country when the lands of their birth promised almost certain death; like those of your grandparents, many of their parents, siblings and extended families did not make it to our shores and perished in the Holocaust…’

“The letter references the Torah calling on Jews ‘to love and welcome the stranger, for we too were once strangers in Egypt.’ ‘We implore you, as a Jew and as a graduate of an institution that instilled you with Jewish values, to exercise the influence and access you have to annals of power to ensure others don’t suffer the same fate as millions of our co-religionists. We ask you to ensure they gain the second chance our grandparents received to succeed and thrive in America,’ it concluded.”

Will Mr. Kushner respond to this plea, and will President Trump listen?

President Trump Decries Threats against Jewish Centers

JTA wrote on February 21:

“President Donald Trump denounced anti-Semitism a day after bomb threats were made to 11 Jewish community centers across the country and a large-scale cemetery was vandalized in the St. Louis area. Under pressure to condemn anti-Semitism in the wake of what has been called an uptick in incidents since he was elected, Trump told MSNBC on Tuesday morning, ‘Anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop, and it has to stop.’…

“Jewish groups and political leaders have called on Trump to speak out against anti-Semitism, especially after four waves of bomb threats called in to dozens of JCCs across the country in the past five weeks. After yesterday’s bomb threat hoaxes were reported, officials at various Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Organization of America, issued remarks urging the president to make a personal condemnation of anti-Semitism.”

In a related article, JTA wrote on February 21:

“That it took so long for Trump to condemn anti-Semitism after twice being asked about it last week, and coming on the heels of a White House International Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that somehow omitted any mention of the Jews, was ‘mind-boggling’ to many groups…”

Stephen Bannon’s Beliefs and the Possibility of Civil War in the USA

Business Insider wrote on February 21:

“In a revealing interview, historian Neil Howe candidly discusses his perspective on Steve Bannon, the former head of the website Breitbart News who is now President Donald Trump’s chief strategist. Bannon is a proponent of the theory that history generally moves in 80-year cycles, with each cycle ending in a crisis that destroys the old order and ushers in something new…

“In widely reported remarks, Bannon believes the US has had three ‘turnings’ — the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression/World War II — and is now in the midst of another emanating from the 2008 financial crisis…

“In the wide-ranging interview, Howe also detailed his own views about the possibility of civil war in America by discussing the mood in the US just before the Civil War in 1859: ‘Right up to the end, no one really realistically thought that actual war would happen. It just seemed incredible.’”

Holy Intifada Against Israel?

The Times of Israel wrote on February 21:

“Calling Israel a ‘cancerous tumor,’ Iran’s supreme leader on Tuesday expressed support for a ‘holy intifada’ to eradicate the Jewish state, arguing that the international community is headed toward confrontation with the ‘Zionist regime.’… ‘The people of Palestine have no option other than keeping the flames of fighting alight by relying on Allah the Exalted and by relying on their innate capabilities, as they have genuinely done so until today,’ said Khamenei…

“A wave of terrorism some called a third intifada, which began last year and manifested itself mainly in stabbings and vehicular attacks against Israelis troops and civilians, is ‘moving forward in a bright and hopeful manner,’ the ayatollah declared. ‘And by Allah’s permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime.’… The supreme leader declared the Palestinian plight as ‘the most important issue in the world of Islam and as the pivot of unity for all Muslims and all liberated individuals in the world.’”

Germany Searches for a Common Identity

MSN wrote on February 17:

“Since World War II, trying to define the German national identity, much less celebrate it, has been taboo. Doing so was seen as a possible step toward the kind of nationalism that once enabled the Nazi regime. Flags were frowned upon, as was standing for the national anthem.

“But spurred by a sense of lost control over the country’s borders, economy and politics, many Germans are reaching for a shared identity but finding only an empty space. Into that vacuum slipped the Alternative for Germany, known by its German initials, AfD, the nation’s fastest-growing party with recent polls showing support at 12 percent, ahead of some mainstream parties. Only the AfD, whose populism puts it far outside of mainstream political norms, is openly promising to fulfill a desire for patriotism that would be routine in most other countries…

“The AfD, despite its rapid growth, remains a minority party… But as mainstream parties become more focused on defending against the far-right upstarts, the AfD’s populist agenda is trickling into their policies and messaging… Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her re-election bid in December by announcing a more populist agenda. She took a harder line on immigration and called for a ban on Islamic veils that cover the full face, saying they ‘do not belong to us’ and should be ‘forbidden wherever that is legally possible.’”

Martin Schulz, the “left Trump”

The Local wrote on February 21:

“The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats, Martin Schulz, could beat Chancellor Angela Merkel in September elections according to recent polls, thanks to a leftist programme that has earned him accusations of veering toward populism.  After years of languishing in Merkel’s shadow, Germany’s traditional workers’ party is almost giddy with excitement these days, hoping their new leader can end the decade-long reign of the ‘queen of Europe’. Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, on Monday attacked a holy cow of his party, criticising the sweeping labour and social welfare reforms pushed through under former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder between 2003 and 2005…

“‘The Robin Hood of the SPD’, ran a comment in business daily Handelsblatt. ‘Martin Schulz changes the course of the Social Democratic Party to the left’… Schulz unashamedly shifts the SPD – the party more than 150 year old and now a junior partner in a ‘grand coalition’ government with Merkel’s conservatives – to the left, more in line with Britain’s Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn or the French Socialists under presidential hopeful Benoit Hamon. Schulz has been applauded by the German far-left party Die Linke. It has signalled it is now far more open to entering a left-wing coalition with the SPD after the September election, which would likely also have to include the ecologist Greens party.

“Criticism has rained down all the harder from the right. One of the leaders of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, Michael Fuchs, has accused Schulz of employing ‘social-populism’. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble accused the SPD candidate of using ‘demagoguery’ by depicting as catastrophic the situation of workers in Germany while making fiscally irresponsible promises. ‘It’s almost word-for-word Trump,’ Schäuble told news weekly Der Spiegel in a recent interview…

“The newcomer can also count on a degree of voter fatigue with Merkel, who has been in power for over a decade, and has been weakened by the refugee crisis… A poll published Sunday by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper gave the SPD 33 percent support – one point ahead of Merkel’s party.”

Germany, France, Italy and Spain to Discuss Europe’s Future

Euractiv wrote on February 20:

“French President François Hollande said yesterday… there would be a summit in Versailles with the leaders of Germany, Italy and Spain on 6 March to prepare reforms for the European Union ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March. ‘It’s not about deciding between the four of us what Europe should be… but we are four important countries and it is up to us [to] say what we want to do with the others, together,’ Hollande said at a news conference alongside Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Malaga.

“On the occasion of the 60^th anniversary of the Rome Treaties, EU leaders will hold a summit expected to finalise the formulation of a vision for the future of the Union after Brexit. The first two discussions were held at the EU informal summit in Bratislava on 16 September 2016 and at the Malta summit on 3 February. Rajoy and his Italian colleague Paiolo Gentiloni met on 27 January and discussed the EU summit in Rome this coming March to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the treaty establishing the European Economic Community.

“France, Germany and Italy are founding members of the EU, while Spain joined in 1986. The future of Europe has been discussed at various formats, including at ministerial level between the foreign ministers of the six founding members of the European Union, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. But EU countries outside this group decried the gatherings.”

No Set of Circumstances in which Scotland Will Stay in the EU

The Telegraph wrote on February 21:

“Scotland will be outside of the EU regardless of the terms of the UK’s Brexit deal or whether Nicola Sturgeon [First Minister of Scotland] wins a second independence referendum, David Mundell will tell MSPs this week. The Scottish Secretary will tell a meeting of Holyrood’s Europe and external relations committee on Wednesday that there is ‘no set of circumstances’ in which Scotland will stay within the EU when the UK leaves. Even if there was a vote for independence, he will say Scotland would have to apply for EU membership from scratch and advised against making ‘easy assumptions’ about how long this would take and the terms that would be offered by Brussels.

“… His intervention will come after an analysis published by two academics concluded that it would take a minimum of five to six years after an independence referendum for Scotland to become an EU member state…”

The New World of AI

The website of newatlas.com reported the following on February 16:

“The European Parliament has voted on a resolution to regulate the development of artificial intelligence and robotics across the European Union… the proposed rules include establishing ethical standards for… artificial intelligence, and introducing an insurance scheme to cover liability for accidents involving driverless cars…

“There still is a bit of a process before any hard and fast laws are established, with the proposals now moving through to the executive branch of the Union, the European Commission. The Commission is not legally obliged to institute the Parliament’s recommendations but it must state fair reasons for anything that’s rejected.”

The Potential Curse of AI

The New York Post wrote on February 17:

“Tech billionaire Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence could be catastrophic for humanity who are set to become a cyborg race which will have to grapple with 15 percent of the global workforce being without a job… self-driven cars were just 10 years away from usurping human driven vehicles completely…

“[He said:] ‘Make sure researchers don’t get carried away – scientists get so engrossed in their work they don’t realize what they are doing.’… Musk also discussed how he saw human beings as already being ‘cyborgs’ as we become more and more dependent on technology.”

Robots Take Over…

The San Diego Tribune wrote on February 20:

“The wave of automation that swept away tens of thousands of American manufacturing and office jobs during the past two decades is now washing over the armed forces, putting both rear-echelon and front-line positions in jeopardy… The U.S. military is very likely to pursue forms of automation that… remove soldiers from non-combat deployments where they might face risk from adversaries on fluid battlefields, such as in transportation… Driver-less vehicles poised to take taxi, train and truck driver jobs in the civilian sector also could nab many combat-support slots in the Army.

“Warehouse robots that scoot goods to delivery vans could run the same chores inside Air Force ordnance and supply units. New machines that can scan, collate and analyze hundreds of thousands of pages of legal documents in a day might outperform Navy legal researchers. Nurses, physicians and corpsmen could face competition from computers designed to diagnose diseases and assist in the operating room. Frogmen might no longer need to rip out sea mines by hand — robots could do that for them…

“… warships [are] increasingly designed to… reduce the number of sailors required for operations… The highly automated guided-missile destroyer Zumwalt that arrived in San Diego in December carries 147 sailors — half the crew that runs similar warships — and deploys up to three drone MQ-8 Fire Scout helicopters to find targets, map terrain and sniff out bad weather. The Office of Naval Research and the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office continue to experiment with what futurists call a ‘ghost fleet’ of unmanned but networked surface and underwater boats — and their flying drone cousins overhead.

“Tomorrow’s sailors could begin to encounter what scores of bookkeepers, cashiers, telephone operators and automotive assembly line workers already faced in the past two decades as increasingly fast and cheap software and automated machinery replaced some of their tasks in factories and offices. And that trend isn’t diminishing.  Advances in artificial intelligence, software and robotics threaten nearly half of all American civilian jobs during the next several decades… While such cuts might hit low-wage manual laborers the hardest, the cheap cost of high-speed computing also will slash many ‘high-income cognitive jobs’ while triggering the ‘hollowing-out of middle-income routine jobs’…

“In the United States, the push to automate blue-collar trades accelerated after the 2009 global financial crisis. American factories installed 27,500 units in 2015, triple the number six years earlier… They also bought 60,000 robots between 2010 and 2015, second only to China’s nearly 90,000 units.”

Staying the Enforcement of Travel Ban Not the Final Word

On February 9, Lawfareblog.com published the following article:

“Today’s 9th Circuit decision is a bit less of a big deal than it will play in the press tomorrow… This case is about two big questions, only one of which the panel’s per curiam today even mentions. The first question is how broad the president’s authority is to limit admissions from the relevant seven countries—and to what extent that authority is limited by constitutional law—under a statute that gives him the sweeping power to do this:

“(f) Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President

“‘Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.’

“Remarkably, in the entire opinion, the panel did not bother even to cite this statute, which forms the principal statutory basis for the executive order (see Sections 3(c), 5(c), and 5(d) of the order). That’s a pretty big omission over 29 pages, including several pages devoted to determining the government’s likelihood of success on the merits of the case.

“The other question, one the panel does discuss, is the extent to which the repeated and overt invocations of the most invidious motivations on the part of the President himself, his campaign, his adviser, and his Twitter feed will render an otherwise valid exercise of this power invalid…

“The Ninth Circuit is correct to leave the TRO in place, in my view, for the simple reason that there is no cause to plunge the country into turmoil again while the courts address the merits of these matters over the next few weeks…  it’s worth emphasizing that the grounds on which this order was fought are not the grounds on which the merits fight will happen…”

It is legally not compelling to rely on the above-quoted statute (Section 212(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), “Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President”), giving the President the right to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens or impose restrictions he may deem appropriate. The reason is that if it is argued that this statute gives the President the right to circumvent, ignore or violate constitutionally guaranteed rights of individuals, then it would be unconstitutional on its face. A statute can also be viewed as unconstitutional if it is applied in an unconstitutional way. This was one of the issues the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals had to focus on, and since the Court concluded that there is a great likelihood that the President’s Executive Order, as applied under the statute, would for example violate due process, it did not even have to discuss the statute as such.

Also, as the New York Times pointed out in an article, dated January 28, in its analysis of the Executive Order, the Order may violate 8 U.S. Code § 1152 that bars discrimination “in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth or place of residence.” Jennifer Chacon, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said that a challenge to the executive order based on the later law’s equal-protection principles was the most promising line of attack. In an opinion article in The New York Times, David J. Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian group, said Mr. Trump had at least violated the spirit of the later law. ‘Even if courts do find wiggle room here, discretion can be taken too far,’ Mr. Bier wrote. ‘If Mr. Trump can legally ban an entire region of the world, he would render Congress’s vision of unbiased legal immigration a dead letter.’”

However, Newsmax stated on February 8:

“President Donald Trump will lose the appeal on the nationwide ban on his travel executive order — but he will prevail before the Supreme Court, famed civil-rights attorney Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV on Wednesday. ‘I do not believe that this order constitutes a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution,’ the Harvard Law School professor emeritus told ‘Newsmax Prime’ host J.D. Hayworth. ‘The fact that they picked seven Muslim states, those are the states that have high levels of terrorism… So, I think that the Trump administration will ultimately win on that issue, at least as it relates to people who have never been in the United States,’ Dershowitz concluded.”

That will remain to be seen and is far from certain, nor is Dershowitz’ opinion legally compelling. In any event, Dershowitz by-steps one of the most important issues, when singling out persons “who have never been in the United States.” The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals spent much of its opinion on people, however, who HAVE been in the USA LEGALLY, or who were in the process of entering the USA with LEGAL visas.

Report: Countries in the Travel Ban DID Produce Terrorists

Newsmax reported on February 11:

“Since the 9/11 attacks, 72 people coming from the seven Middle Eastern countries named in President Donald Trump’s executive order on travel and refugees have been convicted on terrorism charges according to a new report released Saturday. According to the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies, the report stands ‘in stark contrast to the assertions by the Ninth Circuit judges who have blocked the president’s order on the basis that there is no evidence showing a risk to the United States in allowing aliens from these seven terror-associated countries to come in.’

“At least 17 of those who have been convicted claimed to be refugees, while three came into the United States as students. Twenty-five more eventually became American citizens, the report shows. Jessica Vaughan, the center’s director of policy studies, said she based the report on information from a report in 2016 from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest…

“Out of the 72 from Trump’s targeted states, the persons arrested on terrorism charges lived in at least 16 different states, with the most living in New York, which had 10; Minnesota and California had eight each; and Michigan, six. Minnesota, along with Washington, were the states that sued to block the travel ban order, and the report revealed at least two of those convicted were from Washington.”

Trump Announces Replacement Ban by Next Week

Newsmax wrote on February 16:

“President Donald Trump’s administration said in court documents on Thursday it wants an end to the legal fight over its ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations and will issue a replacement ban as it strives to protect the nation.

“Details of the new proposal were not provided in the filing or at a wide-ranging news conference by Trump. But lawyers for the administration said in the filing that a ban that focuses solely on foreigners who have never entered the U.S. — instead of green card holders already in the U.S. or who have traveled abroad and want to return — would pose no legal difficulties.”

Melania Trump’s Immigration Lawyer: “Travel Ban Is Wrong; Melania Is Like Esther”

The Times of Israel wrote on February 10:

“So far Attorney Michael Wildes has escaped President Donald Trump’s wrath.  An immigration lawyer, Wildes is speaking out against Trump’s January 27 executive order that banned immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim majority nations. While Wildes is certainly not the only one to oppose the president’s order, he isn’t just any immigration lawyer: He represents First Lady Melania Trump in immigration matters.  ‘She was very respectful and understood my position. She is not only First Lady; she is a lady of the first order. I think America is going to come to appreciate her,’ said the 52-year-old lawyer in a telephone interview with The Times of Israel. ‘I liken her to Queen Esther; she has the ear of the president. She is an immigrant herself,’ said Wildes.

“Even so, Wildes, who is conservative Democrat, said he couldn’t remain silent in good [conscience]. ‘I feel the president is a patriot but I just wish the [language of the] order was more restrictive, that it had excluded green card holders, those with permanent residency,’ Wildes said…

“A managing partner at Wildes and Weinberg Law Office in New York City, Wildes focuses solely on immigration. The firm, founded by his father Leon Wildes, represents Trump Models, President Trump’s NY modeling agency and secures visas for models in the Miss Universe pageants. The first also helps students, business people, and physicians navigate US immigration laws.

“When Wildes heard about the order he said he ‘was concerned… I had one client, an Iranian doctor who treats children, who was doing cancer surgery in Italy. He couldn’t get back…’  Wildes’ Sudanese brain surgeon client said he wasn’t able to make it to the airport to greet his parents, who are permanent residents. He was nervous and asked Wildes to send lawyers to JFK. Wildes, in addition to being the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey for two terms, has served as a federal prosecutor. He made a few phone calls to former colleagues, a letter was drafted and the parents ‘were given every courtesy,’ he said, and entered the US without incident.

“For Wildes, representing immigrants goes to the core of who he is, as an American and as a Jew. On one side his grandparents came from Poland and Russia, on the other from Liechtenstein. Wildes was raised in a Modern Orthodox household… Until the First Lady, the firm’s most famous client was John Lennon. Wilde’s father represented him in 1970 when Richard Nixon wanted to deport the Beatle for his political activism. Today the song ‘Imagine’ plays when callers are put on hold at Wildes and Weinberg.

“Trump approached Wildes last September when questions surfaced regarding Melania Trump’s immigration to the US. She released a letter, signed by Wildes that unequivocally denied allegations she worked illegally in the US before acquiring the right work visa. However, two months after that letter was published, the Associated Press reported that in the nearly two months before Trump received her work visas, the First Lady was paid for 10 modeling assignments.

“Wildes continues to represent Trump on immigration matters as well as in a $150 million libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail. He also represents her parents Viktor and Amalija Knaus, who live in Trump Tower. Wildes wouldn’t clarify their immigration status, saying only ‘they are here.’

“As for the executive order, Wildes agrees the nation must be protected. Yet, the current list of seven nations appears arbitrary and ill conceived, he said. It neither includes Indonesia or Saudi Arabia, the origins of 16 of the 19 hijackers in the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Trump and the majority of GOP members of Congress argue the executive order will keep terrorists from flooding the country.

“However, it must be noted the US knows precisely who gets resettled here, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The less than one percent of refugees chosen for permanent resettlement in a new country are already required to go through an arduous vetting process, according to Chris Boain, spokesperson for the UNHCR. It takes between 18 and 24 months to go through the US process, which includes background checks by government multiple agencies. Individuals don’t reach that point until after UNHCR or another international agency does an initial vetting that lasts several weeks to several months, according to the UNHCR. Additionally, the majority of these refugees, including Syrian refugees, must submit biometric data, including retinal scans and fingerprints. This information is collected from virtually all Syrians four-years-old and above. Only then will the UN refer the refugee to a county for resettlement, according to the UNHCR.

“However, Wildes said there are countries where the vetting procedures need to be tightened. ‘In a nutshell there are countries where law enforcement is not as it should be and biometric data can be purchased and dummied up,’ Wildes said. Even so, Wildes said he finds the order wrong.

“He isn’t alone. On Tuesday several refugee organizations joined the fight. HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, initiated a legal challenge against the order. ‘As an organization that has long partnered with the US government, litigation is unprecedented for HIAS, but we feel we have no other choice,’ said HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield. ‘We cannot remain silent as Muslim refugees are turned away just for being Muslim, just as we could not stand idly by when the US turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Germany during the 1930s and 40s. Our history and our values, as Jews and as Americans, require us to fight this illegal and immoral new policy with every tool at our disposal — including litigation,’ said Hetfield.”

Let us hope that Melania Trump is indeed like Esther and has the ear of her husband.

Mexico Warns Its Citizens Living in the USA against Trump’s Immigration Policies

CNN wrote on February 10:

“Mexico warned its citizens living in the United States on Friday to ‘take precautions’ and remain in contact with consular officials a day after the deportation of an undocumented mother following a routine visit with US immigration authorities… ‘The case… illustrates a new reality for the Mexican community living in the United States, facing the most severe implementation of immigration control measures,’ Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

“Mexican consulates ‘have intensified their work of protecting fellow nationals, foreseeing more severe immigration measures to be implemented by the authorities of this country, and possible violations to constitutional precepts during such operations and problems with due process,’ the statement said.

“On Wednesday, Garcia de Rayos made her eighth visit to the immigration office since her 2008 arrest and conviction for using a fake Social Security number. After each previous meeting, the married mother of two was released and went back to her family, but this week she was detained and deported within 24 hours to her native Mexico. Her attorney said the deportation was a direct result of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. US immigration officials said there was nothing special about her case — she committed a crime and her deportation order was enforced…”

The New York Times wrote on February 10:

“By no standard of common sense or decency should Guadalupe García de Rayos have been a priority for deportation. Ms. Rayos, a 35-year-old mother of two, was arrested on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Phoenix. On Thursday she was deported to Mexico, a country she left 21 years ago. Her devastated family, including her American-born children, remains in the United States.

“President Trump persists in the absurd claim that America will be safe and great again only after an assault on ‘bad dudes’ and ‘criminal aliens,’ whom he has promised to arrest and remove by the millions. But Ms. Rayos fits no such definition and was no threat, though she had been living in the United States illegally since she was 14. She had been known to the authorities since she was caught in a workplace raid in Phoenix in 2008. In the years since, she would check in regularly with immigration officials, who chose not to deport her, having more important things to do.

“Mr. Trump ran for office promising to eliminate such discretion and replace it with heedless and pointless enforcement. His campaign amplified the nativist passions of his supporters and hard-line advisers, including the man who is now his right hand in the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“What was always most alarming about Mr. Trump’s posturing on immigration wasn’t the wall, which will never be built in the way he describes it. It is instead the prospect of ramped-up enforcement that promises to increase misery on both sides of the border… the brutal idiocy of it all.

“Mr. Trump, or the ideologues who speak into his ear and guide his pen, came up with executive orders the first week of his presidency that vastly expanded the universe of potential deportation targets to include anyone found guilty of any offense, no matter how old or minor, and people accused of crimes but not convicted…

“Mr. Trump’s federal force… threatens to return America to a disgraceful era of workplace raids, indiscriminate sweeps and mass arrests. This will fix nothing…”

USA Today wrote on February 8:

“Garcia de Rayos came to the U.S. in 1996, when she was 14. In 2008, she was swept up in one of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s work-site raids targeting the Golfland Entertainment Centers, which operated several water and mini-golf parks. Sheriff’s deputies seized hundreds of employment records and later arrested Garcia de Rayos at her house in Mesa. She pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal impersonation, a Class 6 felony, the lowest level.

“As a result of the charge, Garcia de Rayos was then turned over to ICE, Ybarra-Maldonado said. She spent six months in ICE custody at the Eloy Detention Center, he said. In 2013, an immigration judge found Garcia de Rayos had no legal stance to remain in the U.S. and issued a voluntary departure instructing her to leave the country, Ybarra-Maldonado said. After Garcia de Rayos appealed the voluntary departure, ICE gave her an order of supervision instructing her to check in yearly, and then every six months, Ybarra-Maldonado said.

“Garcia de Rayos was scheduled for her six month check-in Wednesday but instead of being told to come back in six months, she was taken into custody, he said. Ybarra-Maldonado immediately filed documents asking ICE to stay her deportation, on the grounds that she has lived in the U.S. since she was 14, has two children who are U.S. citizens, and she is fighting to have her felony conviction thrown out on the grounds that Arpaio’s work-site raids were unconstitutional.”

Bild Online strongly condemned this action. The mass tabloid pointed out that the lady was married in Arizona, and her husband and their two American children (14 and 16), who had never been in Mexico, were waiting outside the immigration building when it became clear to them that their wife and mother would not return to them. Her attorney stated that her deportation has nothing to do with national security, but that it was just for the purpose of destroying families. The attorney stated that this is a prime example of a failed immigration policy, which will lead to more illegality, as illegal immigrants will from now on no longer report to the immigration offices, but they will rather try to find shelter in churches and other safe places.

This is indeed just one example of an immigration policy which has gone awfully wrong, if judged based on godly standards.

Report: Trump’s Wall Extremely Costly and Time-Consuming

Reuters reported on February 9:

“President Donald Trump’s ‘wall’ along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday…

“The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020… The report said the first phase would be the smallest, targeting sections covering 26 miles (42 km) near San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. The report assumes DHS would get funding from Congress by April or May, giving the department sufficient time to secure contractors and begin construction by September. Trump has said Congress should fund the wall upfront, but that Mexico will reimburse U.S. taxpayers. Mexico has said it will not pay…

“Bernstein Research, an investment research group that tracks material costs, has said that uncertainties around the project could drive its cost up to as much as $25 billion.

“The second phase of construction proposed in the report would cover 151 miles (242 km) of border in and around the Rio Grande Valley; Laredo, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas and Big Bend, Texas. The third phase would cover an unspecified 1,080 miles (1,728 km), essentially sealing off the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

“… A source familiar with the plans said DHS may have to go to court to seek eminent domain in order to acquire some of the private land needed to cover the final and most ambitious phase.

“The first phase, estimated to cost only $360 million, could be a relatively easy way for Trump to satisfy supporters eager to see him make good on his campaign promises to limit illegal migration. But the rest of the construction will be markedly more expensive, covering a much larger stretch of land, much of it privately owned or inaccessible by road. In addition to seeking eminent domain and environmental waivers, the U.S. government would also have to meet the requirements of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a U.S.-Mexico pact over shared waters. The report estimated that agreement alone could bring the cost from $11 million per mile to $15 million per mile in one area.”

US Weapons Deal with Saudi Arabia

 Mic Network Inc wrote on February 10:

“As President Donald Trump spent this week bitterly defending his temporarily blocked de facto Muslim ban, his administration is reportedly preparing a big arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was notably excluded from Trump’s controversial immigration ban, which barred U.S. entry to nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees.

“… the majority of people killed in domestic terrorist attacks were killed by Saudis… The White House has been tightlipped about the alleged arms deal, but unnamed government officials involved directly in the reported deal told the Washington Times Tuesday that a major sale of arms to Saudi Arabia was imminent.

“Saudi Arabia is reportedly set to buy a $300 million precision-guided missile technology package from the United States — a deal confirmed by anonymous Congressional sources.

“The U.S. has a long history of making billion dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and America’s key ally, the United Kingdom, continues to sell arms to the oil-rich Arab nation, a decision currently under judicial review…

“Saudi terrorists have been responsible for the vast majority of people who have died in terrorist attacks committed on U.S. soil. Between 1975 and 2015, there have been 40 successful terrorists on U.S. soil, according to the think tank Cato Institute. Nineteen of those were responsible for executing 9/11, 15 of whom were from Saudi Arabia. With 2,983 deaths from 9/11, the 15 Saudi nationals killed an average of 2,355 people. However, the remaining 25 terrorists over the 40 year period were collectively responsible for an average of 669 deaths… Supporting and encouraging Saudi Arabia’s military might has major implications for the world and regional stability — that means it unavoidably has implications for national security too.”

Only 29 Percent of Americans Think Trump Is Respected by Foreign Leaders

Vox wrote on February 10:

“… a new Gallup poll shows that by a stunning 29-67 margin, Americans think foreign leaders don’t have much respect for Trump. That’s dramatically worse than Americans’ assessment of the state of American leadership under either Barack Obama or George W. Bush.”

War Between the US Intelligence Community and President Trump?

The Observer (a British paper, which has been linked by the German magazine, Der Stern) wrote on February 12:

 “… the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington—a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.

“Now those concerns are causing problems much closer to home—in fact, inside the Beltway itself. Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust. That the IC has ample grounds for concern is demonstrated by almost daily revelations of major problems inside the White House, a mere three weeks after the inauguration. The president has repeatedly gone out of his way to antagonize our spies, mocking them and demeaning their work, and Trump’s personal national security guru can’t seem to keep his story straight on vital issues.

“That’s Mike Flynn, the retired Army three-star general who now heads the National Security Council. Widely disliked in Washington for his brash personality and preference for conspiracy-theorizing over intelligence facts, Flynn was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for managerial incompetence and poor judgment—flaws he has brought to the far more powerful and political NSC.

“Flynn’s problems with the truth have been laid bare by the growing scandal about his dealings with Moscow. Strange ties to the Kremlin, including Vladimir Putin himself, have dogged Flynn since he left DIA, and concerns about his judgment have risen considerably since it was revealed that after the November 8 election, Flynn repeatedly called the Russian embassy in Washington to discuss the transition. The White House has denied that anything substantive came up in conversations between Flynn and Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.

“That was a lie, as confirmed by an extensively sourced bombshell report in The Washington Post, which makes clear that Flynn grossly misrepresented his numerous conversations with Kislyak—which turn out to have happened before the election too, part of a regular dialogue with the Russian embassy. To call such an arrangement highly unusual in American politics would be very charitable.

“In particular, Flynn and Kislyak discussed the possible lifting of the sanctions President Obama placed on Russia and its intelligence services late last year in retaliation for the Kremlin’s meddling in our 2016 election. In public, Flynn repeatedly denied that any talk of sanctions occurred during his conversations with Russia’s ambassador. Worse, he apparently lied in private too, including to Vice President Mike Pence, who when this scandal broke last month publicly denied that Flynn conducted any sanctions talk with Kislyak. Pence and his staff are reported to be very upset with the national security adviser, who played the vice president for a fool.

“It’s debatable whether Flynn broke any laws by conducting unofficial diplomacy with Moscow, then lying about it, and he has now adopted the customary Beltway dodge about the affair, ditching his previous denials in favor of professing he has ‘no recollection of discussing sanctions,’ adding that he ‘couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.’ That’s not good enough anymore, since the IC knows exactly what Flynn and Kislyak discussed…

“A new report by CNN indicates that important parts of the infamous spy dossier that professed to shed light on President Trump’s shady Moscow ties have been corroborated by communications intercepts… This is bad news for the White House, which has already lashed out in angry panic, with Press Secretary Sean Spicer stating, ‘We continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.’ That is hardly a denial, of course, and I can confirm from my friends still serving in the IC that the… dossier… is damning for the administration. Our spies have had enough of these shady Russian connections—and they are starting to push back…

“A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the ‘good stuff’ from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this… NSA doesn’t appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears…

“None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago… This is a risky situation, particularly since President Trump is prone to creating crises foreign and domestic with his incautious tweets. In the event of a serious international crisis of the sort which eventually befalls almost every administration, the White House will need the best intelligence possible to prevent war, possibly even nuclear war. It may not get the information it needs in that hour of crisis, and for that it has nobody to blame but itself.”

Michael Flynn Resigns

The Daily Mail wrote on February 15:

“President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his recently resigned National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was torpedoed by Democratic partisans who ‘illegally leaked’ intelligence material in order to harm him. Appearing in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said ‘the fake media’ had fomented a scandal that wouldn’t exist but for angry Democrats who were acting out in the wake of an embarrassing loss in November’s presidential election. ‘General Flynn is a wonderful man,’ Trump said. ‘I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media – as I call it, the fake media, in many cases.’ ‘From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked,’ Trump complained. ‘It’s a criminal action – a criminal act. And it’s been going on for a long time, before me, but now it’s really going on.’ …

“The president’s comments came after a morning tweet-storm attacking his own intelligence agencies by saying malicious leakers had touched off a tempest by suggesting he and his aides had improper contact with the Russian government during his presidential campaign. ‘The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!’ he tweeted. The president faces accusations that he was needlessly sympathetic to Moscow, along with renewed suspicions that his foreign policy was informed by threats of blackmail from Vladimir Putin’s government.’

In addition, the President faces accusations that he knew about Flynn’s conduct and left his Vice-President in the dark, who embarrassed myself by repeating Flynn’s denial on public television.  

The Times of Israel wrote on February 15:

“Questions about the Trump administration’s ties to Russia are hardly going to disappear with the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Investigations are underway, and more are likely by the new administration and on Capitol Hill. US agencies, including the FBI, have been probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. And three congressional committees are conducting their own investigations that include looking at contacts between Russian officials and members of the Trump campaign and administration.

“This isn’t the first time Trump has distanced himself from an adviser in light of a relationships with Moscow. In late August, Paul Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman after disclosures by The Associated Press about his firm’s covert lobbying on behalf of the former pro-Russian ruling political party in Ukraine. Trump’s own ties to Russia have been questioned in light of his friendly posture toward the long-time US adversary and reluctance to criticize President Vladimir Putin…

“On Tuesday, Republican leaders focused on the idea that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his contacts with the Russian ambassador… The Justice Department had warned the White House late last month that Flynn could be at risk for blackmail because of contradictions between his public depictions of the calls with the Russian ambassador and what intelligence officials knew about the conversations… Flynn did not concede any wrongdoing in his resignation letter, saying merely that he ‘inadvertently briefed the vice president elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador.’

“… Republican Lindsey Graham, who is leading a Senate judiciary subcommittee investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, echoed… concerns about whether Flynn was acting alone and without direction in his contacts… ‘I think most Americans have a right to know whether or not this was a General Flynn rogue maneuver, or was he basically speaking for somebody else in the White House,’ Graham told CNN Tuesday.”

USA Does No Longer Insist on Two-State Solution

The Guardian wrote on February 15:

“In a single sentence, and without detailed elaboration, Donald Trump has casually discarded decades of US diplomacy – pursued by both Democratic and Republican administrations – on the Middle East peace process. Standing alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House, the US president declared himself unconcerned whether negotiations should be aimed at the two-state solution, which has long been guaranteed by Washington. Instead, Trump indicated that it would be left to Israelis and Palestinians to sort out the ‘ultimate deal’ he had once promised he would make. ‘I’m looking at two-state and one-state and I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like,’ Trump said…”

The Europeans are strongly committed to a two-state solution. A one-state solution would be totally unacceptable to them.

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 15:

“Germany has reaffirmed its support of a two-state solution in the Middle East after reports the US was open to alternatives… The head of a German parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Norbert Röttgen, was quoted by ‘Die Welt’ newspaper as saying ‘the two-state solution is the only way Israel can remain a democratic and a Jewish state at the same time.’ Niels Annen, foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats in parliament, told the same paper that if the alleged shift in the US stance on Israel was indeed true, ‘it would torpedo the efforts of the United Nations and cause a break in German-American Middle East policy.’…

“Shimon Stein, a former Israeli ambassador to Germany, told the Bayerischer Rundfunk public broadcaster that abandoning the two-state solution was ‘unrealistic’ and ‘a lot of blood would be shed’ before both sides finally end up returning to the two-state solution. A spokesperson for the EU’s foreign policy official, Federica Mogherini, also reaffirmed the EU’s support for the two-state solution. The two-state solution is seen by many as the only way to achieve lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. However, Israel’s policy of expanding settlements under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put it at odds with the international community – including the United States – making a two-state solution a difficult prospect for the time being.”

One-State Solution Absurd and Dangerous

The Times of Israel wrote on February 16:

“In a barrage of editorials, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times described Trump’s statements as ‘nonsensical’ and the idea of a one state solution as ‘absurd,’ and said that by withdrawing from decades-old US policy the president was instead increasing the chances of violent conflict…

“‘He offered no details on any peace initiative, and the vagueness of his remarks suggests he has no inkling of how to move forward. His willingness, however, to lend credence to those who would deny a separate state to the Palestinians will certainly make peace harder to achieve,’ the editorial board [of the New York Times] wrote…

“The Washington Post described Trump’s shift in policy as ‘a dangerous retreat’ that made the chances for peace even less likely ‘and increased the chances that one of the few relatively peaceful corners of the region will return to conflict.’… Trump… is being ‘naïve’ and is setting himself up for ‘diplomatic failure,’ the paper wrote.

“… The LA Times said that Trump had ‘demolished’ the two-state solution and described the idea of Israelis and Palestinians agreeing to a one-state outcome ‘absurd.’ ‘A single state that would be agreeable to both sides isn’t the “ultimate deal” of Trump’s imaginings; it’s the ultimate fantasy,’ the newspaper said.

“Netanyahu… indicated a willingness to consider the US president’s call to rein in settlement construction. Later, however, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying he did no such thing.”

The Coming Collapse of the USA and the Resurgent Powers of Other Nations

The Bookings Institution wrote on February 10:

“… the declining will and capacity of the United States and its allies to maintain the present world order… will reach the moment at which the existing order collapses and the world descends into a phase of brutal anarchy, as it has three times in the past two centuries. The cost of that descent, in lives and treasure, in lost freedoms and lost hope, will be staggering…

“History shows that world orders do collapse, however, and when they do it is often unexpected, rapid, and violent. The late 18th century was the high point of the Enlightenment in Europe, before the continent fell suddenly into the abyss of the Napoleonic Wars. In the first decade of the 20th century, the world’s smartest minds predicted an end to great-power conflict… The most devastating war in history came four years later. The apparent calm of the postwar 1920s became the crisis-ridden 1930s and then another world war.

“Where exactly we are in this classic scenario today… is, as always, impossible to know. Are we three years away from a global crisis, or 15? That we are somewhere on that path, however, is unmistakable. And while it is too soon to know what effect Donald Trump’s presidency will have on these trends, early signs suggest that the new administration is more likely to hasten us toward crisis than slow or reverse these trends… For the moment, he seems not to have thought much about the future ramifications of his rhetoric and his actions…

“Now, the question is whether the United States is willing to continue upholding the order that it created and which depends entirely on American power or whether Americans are prepared to take the risk — if they even understand the risk — of letting the order collapse into chaos and conflict. That willingness has been in doubt for some time, well before the election of Trump and even before the election of Barack Obama. Increasingly in the quarter century after the end of the Cold War, Americans have been wondering why they bear such an unusual and outsized responsibility for preserving global order when their own interests are not always clearly served — and when the United States seems to be making all the sacrifices while others benefit…

“Germany, the aggrieved victim of Versailles, did not satisfy itself by bringing the Germans of the Sudetenland back into the fold. They demanded much more, and they could not persuade the democratic powers to give them what they wanted without resorting to war…

“… unsettled, disordered conditions produced the fertile ground for the two destructive world wars of the first half of the 20th century. The collapse of the British-dominated world order on the oceans, the disruption of the uneasy balance of power on the European continent as a powerful unified Germany took shape, and the rise of Japanese power in East Asia all contributed to a highly competitive international environment in which dissatisfied great powers took the opportunity to pursue their ambitions in the absence of any power or group of powers to unite in checking them. The result was an unprecedented global calamity and death on an epic scale.

“It has been the great accomplishment of the U.S.-led world order in the 70 years since the end of World War II that this kind of competition has been held in check and great power conflicts have been avoided. It will be more than a shame if Americans were to destroy what they created — and not because it was no longer possible to sustain but simply because they chose to stop trying.”

Hard To Believe–USA Used Psychics to Try to Locate American Hostages

The Miami Herald wrote on February 10:

“The dozens of American diplomats taken hostage by revolutionary students who seized the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979 may have had some secret company during their 15-month captivity: U.S. intelligence agencies had a squad of military-trained psychics using ESP to watch them, according to declassified documents in a newly available CIA database. In an operation code-named Grill Flame, half a dozen psychics working inside a dimly lit room in an ancient building in Fort Meade, Maryland, on more than 200 occasions tried to peer through the ether to see where the hostages were being held, how closely they were guarded and the state of their health.

“Officially, the psychics worked for U.S. Army intelligence. But the documents in the CIA database make it clear their efforts were monitored — and supported — by a wide array of government intelligence agencies as well as top commanders at the Pentagon. They were even consulted before the super-secret U.S. military raid that attempted to free the hostages in April 1980, which ended in disaster when a plane and a helicopter collided at a desert staging area…

“Edwin May, a physicist who oversaw parapsychology research for government intelligence agencies for 20 years [said]: ‘The psychics were able to tell, in some cases, where the hostages were moved to. They were able to see the degree of their health…. If you can sit in Fort Meade and describe the health of hostages who are going to be released, so that the right doctors can be on hand, that’s very helpful.’

“Others are more skeptical, to put it mildly. ‘The intelligence agencies might as well get a crystal ball out and stare into space and hope they see something,’ said James Randi, a former professional magician who turned his career into debunking ESP and psychics. ‘It’s a huge waste of time and money…’

“Operation Grill Flame was just one part of a broader U.S. intelligence project involving psychics and ESP that continued for 20 years. It… carried out 26,000 telepathic forays by 227 psychics before the government shut it down in 1995… in the fall of 1979… six [psychics] were put to work looking for a missing U.S. Navy plane. On Sept. 4, 1979, the psychics were able to pinpoint the location of the missing plane to within 15 miles.

“Other details of the search for the plane are blacked out in CIA documents, but Jimmy Carter, who was president at the time, may have been alluding to it in an interview he gave 12 years ago. ‘We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic — a twin-engine plane, small plane. And we couldn’t find it,’ even with satellite photography, Carter said. ‘So the director of the CIA came and told me that he had contacted a woman in California that claimed to have supernatural capabilities. And she went in a trance, and she wrote down latitudes and longitudes, and we sent our satellite over that latitude and longitude, and there was the plane.’…”

We know that Satan and his demons are ruling this world, but sometimes, we may be astonished of their methods in doing so, and how receptive even our governments might be to their influence.

America Unprepared Militarily to Defend Itself at Home and Abroad

The Daily Signal wrote on February 10:

“This week on Capitol Hill, several top U.S. military leaders from across the armed services presented a sobering case to Congress: U.S. military readiness is the lowest it has been in decades, leaving it unprepared to defend America’s interests at home and abroad…

“According to multiple reports just this week, about two-thirds of the Navy’s fighter/attack aircraft and more than half of the Marine Corps’ total aircraft fleet are unable to even get off the ground. These problems are merely the tip of the iceberg. The American people can expect to hear more accounts like these in the coming months as we learn more about the declining state of U.S. military readiness…”

“Britain’s Entire Fleet of Attack Submarines Are ‘Out of Action’”

The Telegraph wrote on February 10:

“The Ministry of Defence have denied that the Royal Navy’s fleet of attack submarines are all currently out of action. Britain’s seven ‘hunter-killer’ vessels were reported to be ‘non-operational’ as they undergo repairs and maintenance. However, an MOD source told the Telegraph the reports were ‘categorically not true.’ Theresa May was said to have been kept in the dark by Defence chiefs, the Sun reported. A Whitehall source told the newspaper: ‘No one is being honest about the scandal.’

“It was reported that five of the fleet, including one of the new type, are having refits or maintenance after breaking down. Sources said the three new Astute class subs, which cost £1.2billion each, are beset by technical problems… It comes after Britain’s ability to defend itself against a major military attack was called into question after an investigation found Navy warships are so loud they can be heard 100 miles away by Russian submarines.

“A Royal Navy spokesman said: ‘We don’t comment on specific submarine operations. Britain has a world-class fleet, the Royal Navy continues to meet all of its operational tasking, deploying globally on operations and protecting our national interests as Britain steps up around the world.’’

If you want to believe that…

German Army Leading NATO Army in Europe?

The EUObserver wrote on February 10:

“German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen [stated that the] longer term strategy would turn the Bundeswehr into the leading Nato army in Europe, with small countries integrating their military forces into the German command structures, reports German daily FAZ.”

Will Germany Fill the Military Void?

The Local wrote on February 15:

“After less than a month of life with the Trump administration, it is still far from clear how Washington now sees NATO and the defence of Europe. On Tuesday US Defence Secretary James Mattis described NATO as “the most successful military alliance in history” on his way to a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels. But his boss in the White House has repeatedly called the alliance’s continued utility into question and has called on other member states to do more,,,

“As the largest economy in Europe, and the powerbroker in the EU, Germany is the obvious NATO partner to step into the breach, should the US draw back.In late January and early February, hundreds of German soldiers landed in Lithuania to head up a deployment of a 1,200-strong battalion that will include forces from several NATO members.

“Germany’s Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who was at the base to welcome the troops, said that ‘it sends a clear and important message to all: NATO stands strong and united.’ It was one of several headlines over recent months that suggest Berlin is taking its military commitments more seriously. In May 2016, the Defence Ministry announced that it was adding thousands of new soldiers to its ranks and increasing its spending by billions. It was the second year in a row that an increase in defence spending was announced, after continual cuts since the end of the Cold War. ‘It is clear to Germany that we need to contribute more to the NATO alliance,’ a spokesman for the Defence Ministry told The Local on Tuesday. But he also stressed the contribution the Bundeswehr (German military) is already making to European security.

“As well as the troop commitment in Lithuania, Germany is a key contributor to the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) – a highly mobile force of 5,000 soldiers set up to deter a Russian assault on smaller NATO members. The German airforce has also been involved in policing air space over the Baltic region, while contributing ‘significantly’ to Multinational Corps Northeast (a military cooperation with Poland and Denmark), the spokesman added.”

Disgrace: German Weapons End Up in the Hands of “Child Soldiers”

The Local wrote on February 10:

“A new report by the German Alliance for Child Soldiers and other non-profits found that there are currently around 250,000 child soldiers in at least 20 conflict-ridden countries who are forced to spy, fight, carry supplies and even be sex slaves. And often German arms end up in these child soldiers’ hands. ‘The study proves that Germany delivers small weapons of the deadliest kind to many conflict regions – also those where child soldiers are deployed, for example in the Middle East, India, Pakistan or the Philippines,’ said Ralf Willinger, children’s rights expert and spokesman for the child soldiers alliance, in a statement. ‘Germany is thus jointly responsible for the escalation of armed conflicts and the suffering of children in these countries.’

“Germany exported €47 million-worth of small arms in 2016 – €15 million more than the year before, the study notes – an increase of nearly 50 percent. More than a third of these exports end up going to countries outside of the EU or NATO. German law forbids the export of weapons to conflict-torn countries, but the report says weapons still manage to cross borders illegally. On top of that, German weapons may be licensed to be produced in other countries, but where they go afterwards becomes unclear…

“[The report] also calls for Germany to lift its own military recruitment age to 18. Germany allows 17-year-olds to join the Bundeswehr with parental permission, though they are limited to using weapons during training, and are not sent on international missions…”

EU Warns Trump Not to Interfere

The Times of Israel wrote on February 10:

“EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini warned Donald Trump’s administration Friday not to ‘interfere’ in European politics, in an apparent reference to the US president’s praise of Brexit. ‘We do not interfere in US politics… And Europeans expect that America does not interfere in European politics,’ said Mogherini…

“Trump’s election dismayed many European leaders, who see him as dangerously naive about the threat posed by Russia and fear his victory will inspire Europe’s own far-right populist parties. ‘Europeans feel and believe that their interest[s] are better protected and promoted through our union,’ Mogherini said. ‘The European Union is here to stay.’”

A European Nuclear Superpower—Yes or No?

The Telegraph wrote on February 9:

“The German government has been forced to deny it is interested in acquiring nuclear weapons amid calls for it to lead a European ‘nuclear superpower’… The highly unusual statement comes amid growing calls for the European Union to invest in its own nuclear deterrent… Spiegel magazine has questioned whether it is time for Germany to acquire its own nuclear weapons. And the Financial Times has called for Germany to ‘think the unthinkable’ on the issue…

“Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP and former army colonel who is foreign policy spokesman for Mrs Merkel’s party, has called for Germany to take a leading role in setting up a European nuclear deterrent… he wants Germany to pay for the UK and France, Europe’s two existing nuclear powers, to increase their arsenals in order to provide a ‘nuclear shield’ for the continent… ‘Europe must start planning for its own security in case the Americans sharply raise the cost of defending the continent, or decide to leave completely,’ he said.

“Others believe the UK is not a viable partner in the light of Brexit, and have called for any such plan to focus on France. ‘If the US is no longer prepared to do its part of the nuclear deterrence, Germany and France will have to fill this vacuum,’ Gustav Gressel of the European Council on Foreign Relations said.”

Canada Supports Strong EU

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 15:

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed the European Union as a bastion of international partnership on Thursday. In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Trudeau made it clear that Canada sought to distance itself from the protectionism promoted by US President Donald Trump and post-Brexit vote Britain. ‘You are a vital player in addressing the challenges that we collectively face as an international community,’ he told lawmakers. ‘Indeed, the whole world benefits from a strong EU.’

“The prime minister then called on the EU and Canada to take center stage in the global economy: ‘We know that, in these times, we must choose to lead the international economy, not simply be subject to its whims… Canada knows that an effective European voice on the global stage isn’t just preferable, it’s essential,’ he added, calling the bloc a ‘truly remarkable achievement and unprecedented model for peaceful cooperation.’

“Trudeau’s talk came just one day after the European Union backed a controversial free-trade deal with Canada, commonly known as CETA. Not only does the move show a stark contrast to the policies of President Trump, who withdrew from the proposed trans-Pacific free trade deal TTP, it illustrates Canada’s drive to pivot away from complete reliance on trade with its neighbor to the south… The Canadian leader gave his speech fresh from a trip to Washington, where he and President Trump attempted to bridge their many differences, even as Trump threatens to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”

France Prevents Possible Terror Attack

The Associated Press wrote on February 10:

“Anti-terrorism forces arrested four people Friday in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other ingredients for fabricating a bomb. France’s top security official said the raid thwarted an ‘imminent attack.’ A police official said the teen had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in a recent video.

“The prosecutor’s office said around 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of TATP were seized in the Montpellier-area home of a 20-year-old man, along with a liter each of acetone, oxygenated water and sulfuric acid. TATP, which can be made from readily available materials, was used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by Islamic State extremists.

“Two other men were arrested, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old… The police official… said one of the suspects was believed to be planning a suicide attack but that the investigation had not yet uncovered a specific target. He said one person in the group had tried to reach Syria in 2015 and was known to intelligence services. The group — notably the girl — attracted new attention with their social media postings, he said…

“France is still under a state of emergency after several deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016.”

Most Europeans for a Muslim Travel Ban

Deutsche Welle reported on February 9:

“A new survey by London think tank Chatham House reveals that the majority of Europeans oppose Muslim immigration, Germans included. There is no country polled in which support for Muslim immigration surpasses opposition…

“The survey was carried out in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary and Poland. Some countries, like France, Belgium and Great Britain, have relatively large Muslim minorities, while others, like Poland or Hungary, have practically none. This difference is not reflected in the opinion of Muslim immigrants… It is also clear that in all of these countries, the right-wing populist parties are strong and in some cases, make up the government. The most pro-Muslim immigrant country was Spain, where 41 percent of the population opposed the survey statement…”

Germany’s New President

 AFP wrote on February 12:

“Billed as Germany’s ‘anti-Trump,’ center-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Sunday as the new ceremonial head of state. The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU’s top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the nation…

“Steinmeier is one of Germany’s best-known politicians, having twice served as top diplomat under Merkel for a total of seven years. Though the trained lawyer is usually measured in his speech, in the thick of last year’s US election campaign Steinmeier labeled Donald Trump a ‘hate preacher.’… “

Martin Schulz the German Donald Trump?

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 10:

“Germany’s finance minister [Wolfgang Schäuble] compared the rival SPD’s candidate for chancellor, Martin Schulz, to US President Trump… Schäuble, who is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called Social Democrat (SPD) Martin Schulz ‘Trump, almost word-for-word’ in an interview with ‘Der Spiegel.’ He also accused the former president of the European Parliament of trying to ride a similar wave of populism that put the real estate mogul in the White House…

“‘If Schulz allows his supporters to use the slogan “Make Europe Great Again,” then he is Trump almost word-for-word,’ said Schäuble, referencing the use of the slogan and the hashtag #MEGA by a small group of Schulz supporters on the website Reddit. Schäuble continued, ‘in a time when populism is seducing people the world over, politicians should not speak like Mr. Schulz. If he wants to fight populism, as he claims, he should take note of these facts.’

“Schulz has himself expressed his distaste for the US president’s bombastic rhetoric, calling Trump ‘dangerous to democracy’ and accusing him of ‘playing with the security of the Western world.’”

North Korea’s Missile Test

Newsmax reported on February 13:

“North Korea’s missile that it claims it tested over the weekend is designed to launch from a submarine… Officials said the KN-11-mod-2 missile was launched in the northwest region of North Korea Saturday evening and traveled around 300 miles into the Sea of Japan. The missile test this weekend happened around the same time as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s appearance in the U.S. with President Donald Trump.

“The missile traveled farther than any other missile that North Korea has launched… The launch was a ‘clear grave threat to our national security,’ Capt. Jeff Davis said, according to Fox News. Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s 33-year-old dictator, witnessed the launch in person, officials said…”

China Expels Christian Missionaries

Reuters reported on February 10:

“China has expelled 32 South Korean Christian missionaries… amid diplomatic tension between the two countries over the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in the South. The 32 were based in China’s northeastern Yanji region near the border with North Korea, many of whom had worked there more than a decade…  they were expelled in January… four people, including a Korean missionary and a Korean-American pastor, were apprehended by Chinese police in a Yanji hotel on Feb. 9…

“China’s Communist Party says it protects freedom of religion, but keeps a tight rein on religious activities and allows only officially recognized religious institutions.”

More Nonsense from End-of-the-World Conspirators

The Daily Mail wrote on February 11:

“The world could be set to end in October this year, when a giant mysterious planet collides with our own – according to a conspiracy theorist. David Meade, author of the book ‘Planet X – The 2017 Arrival’, believes a star, which he calls ‘a binary twin of our sun’, is coming ‘at us towards the south pole’. He says the star will bring with it ‘seven orbiting bodies’, including Nibiru, a large, blue planet that he also refers to as Planet X hurtling towards our planet.

“Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X, is a hypothesised planet on the edge of our solar system. Nibiru is a different planet to the Planet Nine, which is also sometimes referred to as Planet X, that was proposed by astronomers in Caltech in January last year.

“Conspiracy theorists believe the gravitational influence of the ‘rogue planet’ Nibiru disrupted the orbits of other planets hundreds of years ago… David Meade believes the planet is set to hit into our planet in October this year, after being driven here by the gravitational pull from a ‘binary star’ twinned with the sun – of which there is no evidence.

“He says the star is difficult to spot because of the angle it is approaching Earth… The scientific community does not agree Nibiru exists. ‘Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an internet hoax,’ Nasa has said previously… Nibiru was widely predicted to hit our planet in December 2015, and before that in September. It was also predicted to smash into our planet to coincide with the Mayan apocalypse that did not occur in 2012. Even before that it was predicted Nibiru it would destroy the world in 2003.”

How gullible can people be to believe such nonsense? Even the admission is telling that the “star” is difficult to spot.