PETER KOENIG—Then came Trump, a ferocious anti-socialist, anti-everything-that-is-not capitalist fanatic. He also immensely dislikes Obama and wanted to undo as much as possible of what Obama managed in his 8 years at the helm in Washington. So, instead of talking about the next steps of loosening the embargo, as the Cubans rightly expected, Trump tightened the screws on the sanctions invoking the strengthening of the Helms-Burton act. This US federal law is a mere strengthening of the sanctions and embargo against Cuba.
VASSAL STATES
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ERIC ZUESSE—News has only gradually seeped out that the Minsk II agreement, to find a peaceful way to end the war between Ukraine and its breakaway far eastern Donbass region, collapsed on March 26th. It was an agreement which Francois Hollande of France and Angela Merkel of Germany had established with Vladimir Putin of Russia, on 11 February 2015, in Minsk, Belarus. U.S. President Barack Obama, the founder of today’s Ukraine, had opposed that Agreement, because he was encouraging the then-President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, militarily to retake both Donbass and Crimea by force — or at least to attempt to do so.
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The Fall Of The Unipower (Revised/Reposted)
34 minutes readPAUL CRAIG ROBERTS—The distinguished and knowledgeable international commentator William Engdahl, in a superb statement, has expressed the view I gave you that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on September 28 at the 70th anniversary of the United Nations changed the balance of power in the world. Until Putin’s speech the world was intimidated by the Washington Bully. Resistance to Washington brought swift retribution. In the Middle East and Africa it brought economic sanctions and military invasions that destroyed entire countries. In France and other US vassal states it brought multi-billion dollar confiscations of bank net worth as the price of not following Washington’s policies toward other countries.
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HOW TO MEASURE PREJUDICE – DUTCH JUDGE HENDRIK STEENHUIS DEMONSTRATES IN THE MH17 SHOW TRIAL
35 minutes readJOHN HELMER—In his opening Steenhuis claimed it was forbidden to make video recordings for re-broadcast. The lack of a document or film archive means the Dutch are restricting the press to presence at a designated courtroom in the Schiphol building and to listen there, making notes as the proceedings unfold. The Dutch Government is also deciding who may attend from the press, and who may not. The court’s livestream link acknowledges it is live; no recovery is possible, officially.
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U.S. Breaks Its Just Signed Agreement With The Taliban
29 minutes readMoA—oday a U.S. fighter jet bombed a Taliban unit which was fighting with an Afghan government checkpoint.
The air attack came just a day after U.S. President Trump had a telephone call with the Taliban leaders in Doha. The Taliban will likely see this as a breach of the recent ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban.
The Russian Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov supports that view:
“This is a treaty violation, because both the US and the Taliban entered into legally binding commitments not to attack. The Taliban did not attack the Americans or other foreign forces. If the US did that, they violated the agreement blatantly,” the diplomat pointed out.