shotten99
shotten99's JournalJohn Bolton says 'Putin was waiting' for Trump to withdraw the the United States from NATO
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton says 'Putin was waiting' for Trump to withdraw the United States from NATO in his second term
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was waiting for former President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization if he had won a second term.
Bolton made the remarks during a virtual event with the Washington Post on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Bolton mostly offered critiques of current President Joe Biden's foreign policy in the region. At the end of the event, he was asked by the Post's Michael Duffy about how close Trump came to withdrawing the country from NATO, a translantic security alliance that includes the United States, Canada, and most of Europe.
"I thought he put his foot over it, but at least he didn't withdraw then," said Bolton, who wrote in his memoir about Trump's consideration of withdrawing from NATO in 2018. "In a second Trump term, I think he may well have withdrawn from NATO. And I think Putin was waiting for that."
Trump viewed NATO as a liability during his presidency, believing that European countries were not paying enough of their fair share of the burden of providing defense to the alliance. Bolton, a State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, was brought on to be Trump's national security advisor in 2018 only to be ousted a year and a half later.
[link:https://www.businessinsider.com/bolton-putin-waiting-for-trump-to-withdraw-from-nato-in-2nd-term-2022-3|
Germany: Police raid COVID skeptics over alleged assassination plot
Source: Deutsche Welle
Police raided several locations in the eastern German city of Dresden on Wednesday after online threats were made against state Premier Michael Kretschmer and other members of the Saxony state government.
In Dresden, police searched five properties, and another place was being searched in the nearby town of Heidenau. Prosecutors said five men and a woman, aged between 32 and 64, were targeted in the investigation. All of them are German nationals. Police have reason to believe the suspects were preparing to carry out violent acts.
Officials in the German state of Saxony said "murder plans" against Premier Kretschmer were discussed via the Telegram messaging app.
"The members of the chat group, which links opponents of vaccination, the state, and the current anti-pandemic policy, stated plans of murdering the premier of Saxony and other representatives of the Saxony government, both in the group and in non-virtual meetings," police said in a statement.
Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-police-raid-covid-skeptics-over-alleged-assassination-plot/a-60124553
These people are over here, too and they're really starting to piss me off.
Unvaccinated Texas GOP candidate who was hospitalized with COVID-19
Allen West, who is running to represent the Republican Party in next year's Texas gubernatorial race, said in a video posted Monday that he was out of the hospital and "doing well."
West, a former US representative for Florida and retired Army lieutenant colonel, had continued tweeting criticism of vaccine mandates and the Biden administration's pandemic response from his hospital bed over the weekend.
"I can attest that, after this experience, I am even more dedicated to fighting against vaccine mandates," West tweeted Sunday. In the Monday video, which was taken from his home, he also urged people "not to fear the virus."
While his wife was discharged over the weekend, West said he had to stay a bit longer because there was concern over his oxygen saturation levels. He said his wife was vaccinated, but he was not.
Business Insider
[link:https://www.businessinsider.com/allen-west-covid-hospitalization-says-more-dedicated-fight-vaccine-mandates-2021-10|
4th Wisconsin voter out of 3 million charged with fraud
Source: Yahoo News
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A fourth Wisconsin voter out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election was charged with election fraud on Thursday by a Republican prosecutor who is running for attorney general.
Fond du Lac District Attorney Eric Toney said the charge alleging that a felon voted illegally does not mean that the election won by President Joe Biden was stolen. The criminal complaint does not identify whether the person charged is a Republican or Democrat or who he voted for in the presidential election.
“But elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and the integrity of our electoral process must be protected at every turn," Toney said in a statement. “We will continue to prosecute any circumstances of voter fraud, as allowed by law, in order to safeguard our electoral process and ensure the public has confidence in our elections.”
Wisconsin Republicans, fueled by anger and the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, have ordered two separate investigations in the battleground state Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes. One is underway by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau. The other was ordered by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and is being led by former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/3rd-wisconsin-voter-3-million-200927985.html
Fact check: Biden honored service members killed in Kabul, checked watch only after ceremony
[link:https://us.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-biden-honored-members-180612827.html|
For Biden, he did appear to check his watch during his visit to Dover Air Force Base. But he did so after the dignified transfer ceremony was over.
Footage leading up to the moment shows Biden with his hand over his heart for about 30 seconds as vans carry the service members' remains off the tarmac. After the vans had left, Biden closes his eyes briefly before dropping his arms and glancing down at his watch.
At that point, everyone else in the video also stands at ease, indicating that the ceremony was over. About 35 seconds later, Biden and the first lady walk off the tarmac toward a black SUV.
Our rating: Partly false
Based on our research, we rate PARTLY FALSE the claim that Trump saluted the caskets of fallen U.S. service members, while Biden checked his watch. The pictures are real, but they don't accurately summarize the two events. The way Biden honored the 11 caskets presented at Dover Air Force Base, with a hand over his heart, was similar to how Trump paid respects to fallen service members during his presidency. Biden checked his watch, but he did so after the ceremony had ended.
Rocket strike reported amid Kabul attack warning
Source: BBC
Blast may have been rocket attack - official
A health ministry official has told the BBC the recent blast was caused by a rocket that struck a house near to the airport.
The airport was not hit directly, the source said.
It is not yet known if there are any casualties.
The BBC is seeking further confirmation and more details will follow.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-58279900
Afghanistan: Former advisor to Mike Pence warned in 2020 that Trump was setting up another 'Benghazi
[link:https://us.yahoo.com/news/afghanistan-former-adviser-mike-pence-014552156.html|
"Perhaps by design, perhaps by incompetence, perhaps out of sheer spite or arrogance, Trump has created the circumstances for another Bay of Pigs, Black Hawk Down, or Benghazi," James Golby, who served as a special advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, wrote in a November article for The Atlantic. Those were all situations, he wrote, "where the United States inserted itself into overseas conflicts enough to draw lethal opposition but without sufficient strength to protect its people."
China fears 'Islamist terror attacks' from 'Uyghur militants' now that the Taliban controls Afghanis
Source: Alternet
Mainland China's border with Afghanistan is only 47 miles long — compared to borders with Russia and India that are longer than 2100 miles and a border with Myanmar that is more than 1300 miles long. But journalist Stuart Lau, in an article published by Politico on August 17, explains why that 47-mile border has become a major worry to the Chinese government in Beijing. With the extremist Taliban now in control in Afghanistan, according to Lau, Chinese officials fear that Taliban jihadists will help Uyghur separatists.
Lau explains, "Afghanistan looms larger in the mindset of China's leadership than you'd imagine from the countries' mere 47-mile stretch of shared border — a curly line that you'll easily miss if Google Maps is not sufficiently zoomed in…. For China, the nightmare is Islamist terror attacks, plotted across that short border. Before Beijing turned to its more recent draconian policies like internment and forced sterilization against the Uyghur Muslims in the region of Xinjiang, which neighbors Afghanistan, Chinese anti-terrorism officials accused the Taliban of supporting Uyghur militants who they said plotted 'thousands' of attacks inside its territory since the 1990s."
According to Lau, "China attributed multiple fatal attacks in the 2000s and 2010s — including one outside Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 2013, as well as a train station stabbing case in the southern city of Kunming a year after — to a Uyghur insurgent group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Beijing has particular concerns that regional instability could reignite Afghan Islamist support for fighters associated with ETIM. Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the Taliban's co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — who's now tipped to be the next Afghan president — to cut ties with ETIM and do more."
The Taliban have a long history of alliances with fellow extremists, including al-Qaeda. When the Taliban were in control in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, they provided a safe haven for al-Qaeda training camps — and following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the George W. Bush Administration cited those camps as one of the reasons why the Taliban needed to be removed from power in Afghanistan. One terrorist group the Taliban doesn't get along with at all, however, is ISIS (Islamic State, Iraq and Syria). ISIS, ironically, is too violent even for The Taliban, and ISIS believes that what the Taliban practices isn't true Shariah law.
Read more: https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/taliban-2654706704/
A former Pence adviser said Trump had 4 years to help Afghan allies leave the country
Source: Business Insider
A former national security official blamed the Trump administration and Stephen Miller's "racist hysteria" for impeding the visa application process for Afghans who worked with the US.
Olivia Troye worked as the homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In a Twitter thread Friday, she blasted the Trump administration for its handling of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs that provide a path to US residency for locals who worked with the US government in Afghanistan.
"There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan. He & his enablers across gov't would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State," Troye wrote.
Read more: https://us.yahoo.com/news/former-pence-adviser-said-trump-073525391.html
Barr describes his break with Trump and 'bulls***' claims of election fraud
Source: Yahoo News
Former Attorney General William Barr bluntly dismissed some of former President Donald Trump's election fraud allegations as "bulls***" in new interviews published Sunday in the Atlantic.
“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr recalled at one point. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bulls***.”
The comment was part of multiple interviews Barr did this spring with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, who wrote the Atlantic article describing Barr’s break with Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Trump lost that election to now-President Biden, but had sought to overthrow the will of the voters by pushing a mix of conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods claiming he had actually won key states. Trump was clearly hoping that Barr’s Justice Department would help him in the effort. Barr had been widely seen as a Trump loyalist, and the attorney general had drawn widespread criticism for his rollout of the Mueller report.
Read more: https://us.yahoo.com/news/barr-trump-atlantic-interview-140833210.html
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