Sunday, March 31, 2019

Globalism's Last Disgrace: Desperate Macron Sends French Army Against Yellow Vests

Globalism's Last Disgrace: Desperate Macron Sends French Army Against Yellow Vests

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Tom is a regular contributor not only here at Russia Insider but also at Seeking Alpha and Newsmax. Check out his blog, Gold Goats 'n Guns and please support his work through his Patreon where he also publishes his monthly investment newsletter.

There are few people in this world more odious than French President Emmanuel Macron after his behavior this week. I’m sure there are child molesters who are worse. But as a man who is pivotal in the future of hundreds of millions of people, his decision to order the French military to quell the Yellow Vests protests with live ammunition is simply vile.

Macron outed himself as the very symbol of what animates the globalist elite he represents.
Disdain.


The disdain he holds for the people he leads is palpable. It’s as palpable for his disdain for the British who voted for Brexit. To him the EU is all, the EU is inevitable and when faced with the choice of serving France or serving the EU, he chooses the EU every time.


That is what led him to this disastrous decision to deploy the French military to the streets for the first time since 1948 with orders to shoot protestors.

And that disdain is so complete that he doesn’t realize what happens if even one of those men goes too far and takes the President at his word. Thankfully, that did not happen.

But if it did, he would have lost complete control of his country, if he hasn’t already.

The estimates for Act XIX of the Gilets Jaunes this weekend were over 125,000 across France. That many people taking to the streets risking getting shot is not something you dismiss with a wave of your hand.

It is something as a leader you need to take very seriously.


Because the real fear for Macron is not a violent demonstration that ends with protestors shot and killed. No, the real fear is the protests that are peaceful.

Because what happens, Mr. Macron, if the soldiers you deployed to suppress attendance to these demonstrations see first-hand just how much the violence reported has been overblown?

Or worse, the lack of it confirms their suspicions that the violence was committed by agent provocateurs who now didn’t show up because it’s no longer worth the €25/hour they are being paid to sow discontent?

They’ll see exactly what Macron doesn’t want them to see: angry, dispirited, desperate people with legitimate grievances expressing those feelings the only way they know how.


If Macron wasn’t courting civil war before this weekend, he is now.


Because an uprising against a corrupt and unresponsive government by some people is one thing. It starts with the most angry but it can spread over time only if the government doesn’t hear them.

Macron’s reactions have only made things worse at every turn.

So, while the people started this fight for the future of France it will be the military that ends it. And woe to Macron and the French political elite if the military on the ground sides with the people they were sent to shoot.

There is nothing more cowardly than a supposedly liberal, tolerant democracy sending in the military to shut down and order violence against is own people for taking to the streets. It is simply the order of tin-pot dictator with delusions of adequacy.


Prudent leadership stems from having weapons and knowing when and how to use them. The images coming from France have been horrific and no better than those captured during Mariano Rajoy’s crackdown on Catalonia during its independence referendum in 2017.


That response cost him his job. So too will it be for Macron now that he has crossed that line.
Macron is under the orders of his paymasters in The Davos Crowd to get control over France. He will not be removed from office as long as he acts in accordance with their wishes. By now they would have replaced him with someone more acceptable to defuse the situation.

There is only one problem with that. There is no one else.

Macron’s approval rating is abysmal. He’s polling behind Marine Le Pen’s National Rally who will send more members to the European Parliament than his En Marche will in May.


He was already the bait and switch candidate in 2017’s election. The globalist-in-reformer’s clothing. And now that he’s the focal point of the Gilets Jaunes’ anger nothing short of a violent put-down of their rebellion will save Macron at this point.


Because they know this and they know that he hates them.

But a violent put-down is only winning the battle to lose the war.

With the EU locked in mortal combat with Brexiteers and Italy pushing the envelope in the European Council, there’s no room to maneuver here.

So, this continues until it can’t. At which point Macron’s legitimacy will evaporate and political change will occur. But the globalists behind Macron and in French political circles will put that off for as long as possible.


That’s why the lack of violence at ACT XIX’s marches this weekend was so important. Macron’s bluff was called. And that means we’re nearing the end of his story. And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving weasel.


Merkel, you’re on deck.

UK: Radical Muslims Welcome, Persecuted Christians Need Not Apply


In this mailing:
  • Raymond Ibrahim: UK: Radical Muslims Welcome, Persecuted Christians Need Not Apply
  • Amir Taheri: Brexit's Message to European Union

UK: Radical Muslims Welcome, Persecuted Christians Need Not Apply

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  March 31, 2019 at 5:00 am
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  • In rejecting the claim for asylum of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, and presumably compelling his return to Iran, the British government is effectively sentencing him to death.
  • "[O]ut of 4,850 Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement by the Home Office in 2017, only eleven were Christian, representing just 0.2% of all Syrian refugees accepted by the UK." — Barnabas Fund.
  • At the same time, the Home Office allowed a Pakistani cleric, Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri, considered so extreme that he is banned even from his native Pakistan, to come and lecture in UK mosques.
  • "It's unbelievable that these persecuted Christians who come from the cradle of Christianity are being told there is no room at the inn, when the UK is offering a welcome to Islamists who persecute Christians.... There is a serious systemic problem when Islamist leaders who advocate persecution of Christians are given the green light telling them that their applications for UK visas will be looked on favourably, while visas for short pastoral visits to the UK are denied to Christian leaders whose churches are facing genocide. That is an urgent issue that Home Office ministers need to grasp and correct." — Dr. Martin Parsons, Barnabas Fund.
In rejecting the claim for asylum of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, and presumably compelling his return to Iran, the British government is effectively sentencing him to death. (Image source: iStock)
In two unrelated cases, the United Kingdom denied asylum to persecuted Christians by bizarrely citing the Bible and Jesus. Both Christians, a man and a woman, are former Muslims who were separately seeking asylum from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ninth-worst persecutor of Christians -- particularly of those who were Muslims and converted to Christianity.
UK asylum worker Nathan Stevens recently shared their stories. In his rejection letter from the UK's Home Office, which is in charge of immigration, the Iranian man was told that biblical passages were "inconsistent" with his claim to have converted to Christianity after discovering it was a "peaceful" faith. The letter cited several biblical excerpts, including from Exodus, Leviticus, and Matthew, presumably to show that the Bible is violent; it said Revelation was "filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence." The governmental letter then concluded:

Brexit's Message to European Union

by Amir Taheri  •  March 31, 2019 at 4:00 am
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  • The first problem with the EU is that, though it is called a union, it isn't really one. The EU is essentially an economic club; not a state.
  • Brexit has highlighted the key challenges that the EU faces. The first challenge concerns a widespread overestimation of the EU's role. This is due to its perception as a supra-national state, which it certainly is not.
  • The EU is also facing the challenge posed by the return of the nation-state as the most popular model of socio-political organization across the globe. Right now all supra-national and/or international organizations, from the United Nations to NATO, are regarded with suspicion, if not outright hostility, not only in Europe but also throughout the world.
(Image source: iStock)
With the Brexit saga's denouement still uncertain, the European Union would do well to re-examine its performance as a daring experience in socio-political engineering on a grand scale. Even if, as expected, the United Kingdom somehow manages to fudge Brexit and remain tied to the EU, the fact remains that millions of Brits and other Europeans are unhappy with aspects of the experience.
The first problem with the EU is that, though it is called a union, it isn't really one. To be sure it has a flag, an anthem, a parliament, a council of ministers, and even pseudo-embassies in many countries, but despite such trappings of a state, the EU is essentially an economic club; not a state.
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They conned you America, what are you going to do about it?

Who Speaks For Canada?



Salim Mansur, Professor Emeritus of Western University, condemns Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a globalist demagogue who has no mandate to speak for Canada or Canadians.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Stop Iran From Going Nuclear


Stop Iran From Going Nuclear

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  March 30, 2019 at 5:00 am
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  • "Thank God, the tests on the IR4 and IR2M (centrifuges) have been completed. They were tested for over 12 years. Today we have all the data, and we can easily manufacture them on an industrial scale." — Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was not allowed to inspect or monitor Iran's military sites where nuclear activities were most likely being carried out. Among the many concessions that the Obama administration gave the Iranian government, one was accepting the Iranian leaders' demand that these military sites would be out of the IAEA's reach.
  • Due to this surrender, various high-profile Iranian sites such as the Parchin military complex, located southeast of Tehran, were free to engage in nuclear activities without the risk of inspection.
  • Once the authoritarian, anti-Semitic and anti-American government of Iran possess a nuclear bomb, no amount of actions will be able reverse the catastrophe.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran -- which revealed Iran's clandestine and undeclared uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002 -- has recently confirmed that Iran is continuing to pursue its nuclear ambitions. Pictured: The heavy water production facility at Arak, south of Tehran. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Advocates of Iran's nuclear deal are conspicuously ignoring the Iranian government's nuclear activities, even though they jeopardize global security as much as Israel's security. Advocates of Iran are also rushing to criticize the Trump administration in the United States for tightening its sanctions in response to Iran's illegal defiance.
In a recent interview with Iran's state-owned Channel 2 in the Persian language, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, made it clear that the flimsy "nuclear deal" initiated by then US President Barack Obama has done nothing to stop Iran from making advances in its nuclear program.
Salehi boasted:
"If we have to go back and withdraw from the nuclear deal, we certainly do not go back to where we were before ... We will be standing in a much, much higher position."
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Friday, March 29, 2019

The Long War Journal (Site-Wide)

The Long War Journal (Site-Wide)



Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:00 AM PDT
The Islamic State issued several claims of responsibility for attacks by the group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Posted: 28 Mar 2019 08:58 PM PDT
At least 15 people were killed yesterday when Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, detonated a car bomb on one of Mogadishu’s busiest roads. The bombing was just the latest in a string of car bombs that have hit the Somali capital this week. Those 15 people were killed when the car bomb detonated […]

Eye on Iran: US Mideast Strategy Includes Expelling Iran From Syria, Pompeo Says



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TOP STORIES


US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that part of Washington's overall strategy in the Middle East is aimed at expelling Iran and its forces and militias from Syria. "Our strategy is designed to prevent that from happening," Pompeo said during his testimony at a congressional hearing on the State Department's budget review on Wednesday in which several congressmen spoke on their concerns about the US troop withdrawal from Syria and the possibility of Iranian influence strengthening there.


The United States is keen to see that Malaysia, Singapore and others are fully aware of illicit Iranian oil shipments and the tactics Iran uses to evade sanctions, a top U.S. sanctions official said on Friday. Sigal Mandelker, under-secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told reporters in Singapore the United States had placed additional "intense pressure" on Iran this week.
  

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday naming terrorist financing a serious crime and demanding that all countries set up a domestic legal framework to counter the practice. The U.N.'s counterterrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov said the resolution came at a critical time, as terrorist attacks around the globe have demonstrated that groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda have continuing access to vast financial revenues.

NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM


In her March 5, 2019, statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on the subject of monitoring and inspection in Iran, U.S. Ambassador Jackie Wolcott stated that "[t]he United States welcomes the Director General's February 22 report on verification and monitoring in Iran. We once again extend our appreciation to the Director General, and . . . [his] staff for their continued dedication in carrying out their responsibilities in Iran..."


The proponents of Iran's nuclear deal are criticizing the new sanctions imposed on Iran's nuclear program by the US last week. The Treasury and State Department unveiled measures against 14 individuals and 17 entities that are linked to the Iranian Ministry of Defense. These entities are reportedly associated with Iran's attempts to build nuclear weapons.


Nearly half of Middle Eastern survey respondents say they are skeptical that Iran has stopped working to achieve nuclear weapons, according to a poll taken by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and reported by the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom. The latest survey conducted by professional pollsters on behalf of the ministry found that 43% of Middle Easterners say Iran did not stop its nuclear program. The number of North American respondents who believe similarly is also high at one-third or 33%.

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS  


A court in Luxembourg has ruled against a group of Sept. 11 victims in a novel lawsuit seeking $1.6 billion in Iranian assets, bringing to a head a long growing disagreement about a significant question of international law: Should governments be immune from lawsuits even when they are accused of responsibility for terrorist attacks? For decades after World War II, as the modern international order was established, the United States stood in alignment with the world by restrictively interpreting "sovereign immunity," the principle that people generally cannot sue governments. 


The United States placed additional "intense pressure" on Iran this week, a top U.S. sanctions official said Friday. Sigal Mandelker, under-secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told reporters in Singapore she would stress the inherent risks in dealing with Iran in meetings over coming days with government officials in Malaysia, Singapore and India.


Japanese refineries have put a halt on imports of Iranian oil after buying 15.3 million barrels between January and March ahead of the expiry of a temporary waiver on U.S. sanctions, according to industry sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon. The waiver, which allowed Japan to buy some Iranian oil for another 180 days, expires in early May. However, Japanese refiners want to ensure enough time for all cargoes already loaded to arrive in Japan and for payments to be completed. 


A top U.S. sanctions official is in Asia to push efforts to increase pressure on Iran, saying Washington was intent on making Tehran "radioactive to the international community." Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in Singapore on March 29 that she would stress in further meetings this week with officials in Malaysia, Singapore, and India the risks involved in dealing with Tehran.


Iran's trade generally declined in the first two months of 2019, largely due to less oil exports and a substantial reduction in imports, due to its ongoing economic crisis. Iran's exports to U.S. reached zero during January 2019, while its imports from the United States plunged to $4.5 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, released March 28. The monthly trade turnover between the two countries stood at the lowest level since 2000.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi has downplayed US warnings on a possible stop of waivers from sanctions on Iran's oil imports. Washington "will not achieve all its objectives," Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA on Thursday. "The policy of the United States is that we are not looking to grant any new oil waivers," Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, said this week.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the death toll from flash floods across the country has risen to 44 from 17. The Thursday report quotes Hamidreza Khankeh, an official in the country's emergency medical services agency, as saying 44 people have died since Monday in 10 provinces. Since March 19, many roads in Iran have been affected by heavy rainfall that caused flash flooding.

IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION


Saudi Arabia relies on the principle of preserving sovereignty and stability of States in dealing with Arab issues, while Iran incites regional crises in order to break the unity of Arab states, stressed Saudi Ambassador to Egypt and Permanent Representative at the Arab League Osama bin Ahmed Naqli. The Ambassador indicated that this also applies to the Kingdom's endeavor to get an independent Palestinian state established on the 1967 border with East al-Quds as its capital, in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab peace initiative.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN


US President Donald Trump's March 21 decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights has sparked widespread international reaction. While European countries announced that they would not follow suit, Russia expressed concern over the "negative repercussions" of the move. Turkey adopted a more active stance, calling for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Trump's announcement was also met with negative reactions from Arab allies of the United States.


As the dust settles after the last week of escalation between Israel and Gaza, neither Hamas nor Netanyahu have managed to score a substantial victory or breakthrough. 






Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email press@uani.com.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.