Saturday, June 18, 2022
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
European Politics > Hungary's First Ever Female President; Navalny Jailed another 9 years; Navalny Missing
..
Hungary elects its first female president
The National Assembly has appointed Katalin Novak,
from Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, to serve a five-year term
Katalin Novak, 44, was elected as the new president of Hungary on Thursday, becoming the youngest and first-ever female incumbent in the role in the country’s history.
The National Assembly appointed Novak, who had been serving as the vice president of the ruling Fidesz party, to a five-year term after she delivered a rousing speech calling for national unity.
Novak defeated economist Peter Rona in a vote that was split down party lines within the legislature. Her 137 votes to Rona’s 51 secured her success. She replaces Janos Ader, who was also a member of Fidesz. Ader was unable to run for president again due to constitutional limits that permit an individual to serve only two five-year terms.
Prior to her election, Novak had served as a member of the National Assembly since 2018 and the minister for family affairs within Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s fourth government from 2020 to 2021. While serving as the vice president of Fidesz, she was tasked with overseeing economic support for Hungary’s populace, including housing subsidies, state-backed home loans, and tax cuts.
Speaking prior to the vote, Novak pledged to defend the country’s constitution, which was drafted and approved by Fidesz, showing her support for the continued implementation of key elements of Orban’s agenda. Officially, the role of president is a non-partisan position, the duties of which are largely ceremonial, but the election marks a victory for the prime minister’s party.
The opposition United for Hungary party had condemned Novak’s nomination for president, accusing Fidesz of picking “a party soldier for the third time in a row for one of the most important public offices in Hungary.”
“Those saying that I would be just a puppet in this position degrade not me personally, but women in general. They cannot [imagine] that a woman can be a sovereign public [official] capable of making autonomous decisions," Novak was quoted by Hungarian media as having said.
Congratulations, Katalin. God bless you!
Russian court gives Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny
another 9 years in prison
By Clyde Hughes
March 22 (UPI) -- A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced opposition leader and high-profile Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine more years in prison on charges of fraud and contempt of court that critics say are intended to quash dissent.
The court's ruling means that Navalny, who was already in prison for a parole violation technicality, could now be behind bars for a total of 12 years, his legal team said.
Prosecutors charged Navalny with stealing more than $4.7 million in donations that were given to his political organizations for his own personal use.
The court's sentence says that Navalny must spend the time in a maximum security prison.
"The whole world knows that this trial has nothing to do with the law," Ruslan Shaveddinov, a Navalny supporter said, according to The Washington Post.
"We see that Alexei will be held in prison for many more years, they hope to do that. We can't turn a blind eye to this as we see that everything is headed toward a very sad end of our country."
The judge on Tuesday also fined Navalny about $11,000. Navalny can appeal the court's decision.
Navalny had been serving a 2½-year sentence for violating a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement while recovering from poisoning in Germany in 2020. Critics said the embezzlement conviction was also politically motivated.
The Russian government is suspected in his poisoning, which medical officials said was carried out with the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok.
After he fell ill on a flight, Navalny spent 32 days in the hospital, most of them in the intensive care unit. He was later taken to Germany for treatment, where doctors identified the novichok.
Democracy, in Eastern Europe, is very different than elsewhere. Instead of winners having the most financial backing, Eastern European winners are the ones who can avoid prison long enough to win. Myanmar also uses this model.
Lawyer says Russian critic Alexei Navalny missing after prison transfer
By Simon Druker
June 14 (UPI) -- Alexei Navalny is missing and his whereabouts are unknown following a prison transfer, a spokesperson for the Russian opposition leader said Tuesday.
Navalny had been in custody, but his lawyers were told he was no longer at the prison when they attempted to meet with him Tuesday, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
"Alexei Navalny @navalny was transported away from the penal colony No. 2. His lawyer, who came to see him, was kept at the checkpoint until 14.00, and was then told: 'There is no such convict here.' We do not know where Alexei is now and what colony they are taking him to," Yarmysh Tweeted.
"Of course, neither Alexei's attorneys nor his relatives were informed about his transfer in advance. There were rumors that he was going to be transferred to the high-security penal colony IK-6 'Melekhovo,' but it is impossible to know when (and if) he will actually arrive there."
The Kremlin critic is serving a 12-year prison sentence, after having nine additional years tacked on in March to an existing sentence.
His lawyers were also arrested at the same time, while Yarmysh said the sentence would make it "practically impossible" to keep in contact with Navalny.
"The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier. As long as we don't know where Alexei is, he remains one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our main task now is to locate him as soon as possible," she wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Navalny, who has been previously arrested by Russian authorities, survived being poisoned in August of 2020, an act that has been widely blamed on the Kremlin.
His anti-corruption organizations were also labeled "extremists" last year, effectively shutting them down. And then in late January, Navalny was added to Russia's terrorists and extremists list.
===========================================================================================
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Deep State > Pope Declares WWIII - Ukraine War Provoked by NATO; NATO pledges more heavy weapons for Ukraine; NATO's Man in Odessa; Lara Logan, Ukraine and the Globalists
..
It's flattering when someone like the Pope confirms what I have been saying for years
World War III has been declared – Pope Francis
The pontiff has lamented military conflicts across the globe and said
the Russia-Ukraine crisis may have been “provoked”
© Getty Images / Milos Bicanski
Pope Francis has suggested that World War III is already in progress, as evidenced by “intertwined elements” at work in the Russia-Ukraine crisis and other conflicts across the globe.
“A few years ago, it occurred to me to say that we are experiencing a third world war fought piecemeal,” the head of the Catholic Church said in a May 19 interview with Jesuit media outlets that was published on Tuesday. “Today, for me, World War III has been declared.”
Francis noted that while the fighting in Ukraine “pricks our sensibilities more,” wars also are ongoing in such places as northern Nigeria and Myanmar, “and nobody cares.” He added, “The world is at war. This is something that should give us pause for thought.”
What is happening to humanity that has had three world wars in a century ... ? You have to think that in a century there have been three world wars, with all the arms trade behind it.
Acknowledging criticism for his failure to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and his past comments suggesting that NATO expansion onto Russia’s doorstep might have provoked the crisis, the pontiff denied being “pro-Putin.” He said such a claim would be “simplistic and erroneous.”
“I am simply against turning a complex situation into a distinction between good guys and bad guys, without considering the roots and self-interests, which are very complex,” he said. “While we witness the ferocity and cruelty of Russian troops, we should not forget the problems and seek to solve them.”
Asked how the Jesuit editors should report on the Eastern European conflict in a way that contributes to a peaceful future, Francis replied, “We have to get away from the common mindset of Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood was good, and the wolf was the bad guy. Here, there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in the abstract. Something global is emerging, with elements that are closely intertwined with each other.”
He also cautioned against focusing only on the “brutality and ferocity” of the conflict. “The danger is that we only see this, which is monstrous, and miss the whole drama that is unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented. I also note the interest in testing and selling weapons. It is very sad, but at the end of the day, that is what is at stake.”
Francis praised the heroism of the Ukrainian people in defending their country, but he pointed to outside interests putting them in peril. “What is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales, and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic people,” he said.
The pontiff reiterated his concern, first made public in an interview last month, that NATO may have instigated Moscow’s military offensive against Kiev. He recalled a conversation with a head of state, whom he identified only as “a wise man,” a couple of months before the fighting began. “He told me that he was very concerned about the way NATO was acting. I asked him why, and he said, ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia, and they don't understand that the Russians are imperial and they will not allow any foreign power to approach them.’”
Francis also warned that after many of Ukraine's Western backers “opened their hearts” to the women and children fleeing the country in the early days of the conflict, support for its refugees is already “cooling down.” He added, “Who will take care of these women? We need to look beyond the concrete action of the moment and see how we will support them so that they don’t fall into human trafficking or end up being used, because the vultures are already circling.”
===========================================================================================
NATO pledges more heavy weapons for Ukraine
The bloc is unwilling to fight Russia directly and treats Kiev as a proxy, Dutch PM admits
Ukraine must get more NATO heavy weapons, the military bloc’s head said on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of the US-led ‘contact group’ to discuss the logistics of that undertaking. NATO is trying to adapt to the “constantly changing” demands from Kiev, according to the US envoy to the alliance.
“Ukraine should have more heavy weapons and NATO allies and partners have provided heavy weapons ... and they are also stepping up,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday in The Hague, where he met with leaders of seven member countries ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for the end of June.
“In terms of weaponry, we stand united here that it is crucial for Russia to lose the war,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who hosted the meeting. “And as we cannot have a direct confrontation between NATO troops and Russia, what we need to do is make sure that Ukraine can fight that war, that it has access to all the necessary weaponry.”
That way, NATO countries get to make kazillions of Euros with none of the casualties. And Zelensky thinks they are doing him a favour. He must have shares in weapons manufacturers.
Romanian President Klaus Johannis, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Belgian PM Alexander De Croo, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, and Latvian PM Krisjanis Karins also attended the meeting in the Netherlands. Stoltenberg previously visited Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO but will most likely not be formally invited to the June 29-30 summit in Madrid, due to Turkish objections.
Meanwhile, US Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith was reported as saying that NATO countries are trying to adapt to Kiev’s demands for additional weapons, which are constantly changing.
According to the Pentagon, initial efforts to supply Ukraine focused on portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, but are now shifting to tanks and heavy artillery due to the nature of the current fighting in Donbass.
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has said that Kiev urgently needs 1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 1,000 drones.
While the US has pledged only four HIMARS rocket launchers, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Colin Kahl, on Tuesday revealed that they would be supplied with heavy guided missiles, with a range of 70 kilometers.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Brussels, where he will chair the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to discuss how to best supply Kiev. According to an unnamed US official quoted by the Pentagon’s news release, “Ukrainians know themselves best what they’re dealing with, and we actively seek their information on the battlefield conditions.”
“Generally, we take their assessment as reliable and valid,” the official added.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Of course, to say this they have to ignore the 28 or more bio-labs working in the country, financed by the Pentagon. No other country has dozens of bio-labs.
Cheerleader of NATO wars spotted in Ukraine
Bernard-Henri Levy’s presence in Odessa should give pause to those
who still believe NATO is not involved in Ukraine
Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.
Bernard-Henri Lévy. © Getty Images / Franco Origlia
French intellectual and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy (commonly referred to as “BHL”), has an odd propensity for appearing alongside western proxy fighters in war zones. And new reports now place him on the ground amid the conflict in Ukraine.
The day after the February 24 launch of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, France 2, the main state-owned television network, hosted a debate featuring, on one side, former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, perhaps best known worldwide for his role during the run up to the Iraq war in 2003. Back then, he served as the foreign minister and represented France’s opposition to the American efforts under then president Jacques Chirac at the United Nations Security Council.
After then US Secretary of State Colin Powell made his now infamous speech imploring the international community to back an invasion of Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein’s use of weapons of mass destruction, De Villepin argued in favor of inspections.
“Given this context, the use of force is not justified at this time. There is an alternative to war: Disarming Iraq via inspections. Moreover, premature recourse to the military option would be fraught with risks,” he said.
History has now proven him correct in his assessment.
De Villepin’s call for prudence and avoidance of military escalation in Ukraine was loaded with historical lessons learned. “Military interventions never yield the expected results,” recalled the former French prime minister. “History has taught us this in Libya, Iraq and the Sahel.”
On the other side of the France 2 debate table was BHL, who has a rather interesting relationship to some of the conflicts evoked by De Villepin. “[Russian President Vladimir Putin] launched this crazy war, without reason, against a people who had done nothing to him,” replied the philosopher.
It seems that in BHL’s world, wars start like magic with a need to protect completely innocent parties that just happen to be on NATO’s side, and not because of covert shenanigans that predate them — something that BHL should certainly know about.
During the NATO-backed war in Yugoslavia — the war in Europe that those commenting on the current situation in Ukraine seem to forget — BHL, who just happened to be hanging out in the region, overtly backed the NATO proxy, then Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović, who, his opponents believed, was a Muslim fundmentalist. Izetbegović was allegedly used by western forces to helm Islamist fighters against Serbia and ultimately carve out a zone of influence and military control in the Balkans. Later, in a 2019 tweet, BHL referred to the al-Qaeda-linked Izetbegović as “one of the great, luminous figures of the 20th century.”
Then, in March 2011, ahead of the NATO invasion of Libya, which led to an overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi that October, BHL was spotted in Libya meeting with “Libyan rebels,” footage of which can be seen in BHL’s documentary, “The Oath of Tobruk.” It would be easy to chalk up Levy’s presence among the western-backed proxy fighters ahead of Gaddafi’s ultimate demise at their hands as just journalistic interest or intellectual curiosity. But that theory is betrayed by French reports of an activist role at the highest level of the French government.
BHL succeeded in bringing three members of the future Libyan government in waiting to meet with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace on March 10, 2011 — seven months before Gaddafi’s demise, according to Le Figaro. The newspaper also reported that BHL, who met with then US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, at a Paris hotel and noted an American disinterest in military intervention, subsequently took to French airwaves to pressure Sarkozy into having the French take the lead in the invasion by telling the French audience that, “If Gaddafi takes Benghazi, the huge French flag flying on the Corniche will literally be spattered with the blood of the massacred Libyans.” Four days after the media appearance, NATO began its military intervention in Libya.
In 2012, as the NATO-led invasion of yet another country, Syria, raged in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad with “Syrian rebels” backed by CIA and Pentagon covert programs, BHL took to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival with both Libyan and Syrian rebels, to symbolize “the passing of the torch of Liberty,” according to Le Point magazine. Just a few months later, BHL was calling for France to also send weapons to the western’s proxy “rebels” to fight the Syrian army, specifically, “cannons, anti-aircraft missiles, defensive weapons, for Aleppo, Homs and the rest of Free Syria.”
Then, in February 2013, BHL wrote on his blog, “La Règle du Jeu,” praising then French president Francois Hollande for launching French military operations in Mali, which were ultimately an unsurprising result of the destabilization of Libya caused by the earlier French-led, NATO-backed invasion cheered by BHL himself. “For the first time, in Mali and Libya, force was put at the explicit service of freedom and justice; for the first time – since Valmy! – there is a desired link … between the exercise by France of its power and the defense of values that go beyond it.” In defense of the “values” of leaving countries in tatters for years after hopelessly destabilizing them because their leaders refuse to kowtow to the agenda of Washington and its allies, apparently.
And now, BHL — symbolic of a certain caviar leftist that sells wars and invasions of benefit to the military industrial complex from the lofty perch of humanitarianism — wants action in Ukraine. And after calling for it prominently via French mainstream media, he is hanging out in Odessa — coincidentally, just in time for the launch of the new “Ukraine fighters”, once again doing NATO’s dirty work, but this time comprised of foreign and domestic western-armed warriors, both regular troops and irregular combatants, cheered from the sidelines by the west against Russian troops.
A regular and welcome fixture all over English and foreign western establishment media from America to Europe, BHL tends to show up wherever there’s armed conflict between interests of the western establishment intent on clinging to the current unipolar world order, against those more representative of a more competitive multipolar alternative. His very presence in Odessa should give pause to anyone who still honestly believes that NATO isn’t a directly involved player, using Ukraine as a platform for its ongoing fight against a new and emerging world order over which it risks losing control.
============================================================================================
Lara Logan Sheds Light on Ukraine and Its History
with Globalists (VIDEO)
Lara refers to another journalist who, unfortunately, is never named. But her brief summary of his work is worth listening to. I will attempt to find out who she referred to.
By Joe Hoft
Published March 20, 2022 at 7:30am
Lara Logan was on with Cowboy Logic and dropped some bombs on Ukraine in her assessment of all that was going on there. The Conservative Treehouse brought this video to our attention.
In this short interview segment, Lara Logan outlines her brutally honest perspective on why Ukraine is ultimately so important to people in power within the DC system.
Logan shares on Cowboy Logic the following:
I encourage everybody to look at the work of a journalist, an American journalist in Ukraine who has been there for years and years and years and has done extraordinary work trying to uncover how Ukraine is at the center of this cult of globalists. How it is a center of money laundering for the oligarchs and their allies in the United States. How it is at the center of Russia collusion and the whole false narrative. How it was amazingly a Ukrainian dossier, right, that put Paul Manafort behind bars…
We’ve been reporting for years that some key US politicians were all making money in Ukraine.
Please go to The Gateway Pundit to watch the video.
==========================================================================================
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Military Madness > Biden wants Ukraine war to continue, apparently
..
Macron reacts to Biden’s Putin 'butcher' comments
The French president made it clear that he himself “wouldn’t use such words.”
© AFP / Saul Loeb
The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine through words or actions should be avoided, French leader Emmanuel Macron has warned, after US President Joe Biden labeled his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “a butcher,” who “cannot remain in power.”
When asked to comment on the statements made by Biden on the final day of his visit to Poland on Saturday, Macron said that, personally speaking, he “wouldn’t use such words.”
The French leader told the broadcaster France 3 that he was planning to talk to Putin about the situation in Ukraine in the next two days. He said his goal was “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops by diplomatic means.”
“If we want to do that, we can’t escalate, either in words or actions,” Macron stressed.
Biden had earlier called Putin a “butcher” after visiting a stadium in Warsaw hosting Ukrainian refugees. In his speech later on that day, the US president proclaimed, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
US officials subsequently clarified that Biden hadn’t been calling for regime change. An unnamed White House official told the media the president had gone off script when he delivered the controversial line.
It's pretty hard to discern any other possible meaning for what Biden said. That he went 'off-script' is probably an indication that he wasn't supposed to say out loud what everyone in the White House was thinking.
The adolescent name-calling was clearly an attempt to prevent any meaningful peace negotiations. Biden has been a politician all his life and must know what his words mean and the effect they have. If not, he must be a moron. Between Biden's tongue and Stoltenberg's intransigence, it seems clear that the west wants this situation to continue for some time.
The inventory of war is moving!
“A national leader has to keep a cool head,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov remarked in response to Biden’s words. “Personal insults narrow the window” for cooperation between Moscow and Washington, he added.
Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, over a month ago, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two republics by force.
The Media is the Message > NY Times tentatively outing Hunter's laptop
..
New York Times finally wakes up and admits Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop IS REAL, a YEAR after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents and broke dozens of stories about his shady dealings
The New York Times admitted the contents of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop are indeed authentic, in a report about his business dealings published this week
The Macbook Pro was recovered in October 2020 after the president's son left it at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware in April 2019 and never returned for it
When files from the device were first published ahead of the 2020 election, the NYT cast doubt on its provenance and linked it to Russian disinformation
On Wednesday, the paper changed its tune in an article referencing the files, which they confirmed 'were authenticated by people familiar with them'
Last March, DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop and was the first – and only – news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis
DailyMail.com can also reveal that the Washington Post has had a copy of the laptop hard drive for over six months, but has failed to admit it or report on it
'They haven't done anything. They're not just late to the party, they didn't even show up,' said Jack Maxey, a political activist who gave DailyMail.com the laptop
By JOSH BOSWELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:27 EDT, 17 March 2022
The New York Times has finally admitted Hunter Biden's laptop is real – more than a year after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents with top experts.
When files from the laptop were published before the 2020 presidential election, the newspaper cast doubt on its provenance, linked it to Russian disinformation, and made no public attempt to obtain and verify it.
But buried 1,200 words into a story this week about a federal probe into the president's son, the Gray Lady admitted to an astonishing U-turn.
Reporters referenced emails 'obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop', adding that they 'were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.'
DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop a full year earlier, and was the first – and only – news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis.
Last March, we hired top cyber forensics experts at Maryman & Associates to examine the hard drive to determine its authenticity.
DailyMail.com published dozens of a stories based on the scandalous contents of Hunter Biden's
abandoned laptop - including a cache of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails, more than
2,000 photos (pictured)- that were verified by top forensics experts
The firm's founder, Brad Maryman, was a 29-year veteran of the FBI, served as a Chief Information Security Officer and founded the bureau's cyber forensics unit. His partner, Dr. Joseph Greenfield, is an associate professor at the University of Southern California and helped write their degree program in intelligence and cyber operations.
After an extensive analysis of the hard drive, Greenfield and Maryman produced a report for DailyMail.com detailing their findings.
'The operating system timestamps appear to be authentic, and no evidence was found to suggest that the timestamps or data were altered or manufactured,' the report said.
'No indications were found that would suggest the data was manufactured.'
Since then, DailyMail.com has revealed a series of troubling stories based on the scandalous material from the laptop that go to the heart of the FBI's probe into Hunter's alleged dodged taxes, foreign lobbying and suspected money laundering.
Over the past year we have published stories including:
Please go to the Daily Mail for links to those stories and for much, much more on this story.
==========================================================================================
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)