Daily News Thread 8/15

South Korea to Prevent War at All Costs, President Moon Says

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that any military action against Kim Jong Un’s regime requires his nation’s approval, and vowed to prevent war at all costs.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-15/south-korea-will-prevent-war-at-all-costs-president-moon-says

Amid Protests, Mexico, US, Canada Set to Renegotiate NAFTA Deal

The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement will enter its renegotiation process as organizations announce protests against its implementation in Mexico, Canada and the United States.
telesurtv.net/english/news/Amid-Protests-Mexico-US-Canada-Set-to-Renegotiate-NAFTA-Deal-20170815-0016.html

Iran Threatens to Quit Nuclear Deal if US Imposes New Sanctions

Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers and restart its nuclear program “within hours” if the United States imposes any more sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.
telesurtv.net/english/news/Iran-Threatens-to-Quit-Nuclear-Deal-if-US-Imposes-New-Sanctions-20170815-0008.html

Confederate statue pulled down in North Carolina

A monument to pro-slavery forces has been destroyed, in the wake of clashes in Charlottesville. The Durham Country sheriff said he would seek vandalism charges against those involved.
bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-40935250/confederate-statue-pulled-down-in-north-carolina

Taliban open letter to Trump urges Afghan withdrawal

As the White House mulls its next move in conflict-hit Afghanistan, the Taliban offer their advice in an open letter to the US president.
bbc.com/news/world-asia-40935422

Ecuador's Lenin Moreno Rejects US Interference in Venezuela

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno called for respect of the principle of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other states, in relation to threats issued by the United States against Venezuela.
telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Lenin-Moreno-Rejects-US-Interference-in-Venezuela-20170815-0011.html

US government wants info on 1.3 million visitors to anti-Trump website

The US Department of Justice has demanded that a website host hand over 1.3 million IP addresses of people who visited a page that organized inauguration day protests against President Donald Trump, the hosting company said.
rt.com/usa/399692-doj-requests-protesters-ip-addresses/

GoFundMe removes campaigns for Charlottesville suspect

GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites have taken a tough stance on campaigns for a man arrested following violence at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
bbc.com/news/technology-40935650

Trump to revoke Obama-era flood risk building standards

U.S. President Donald Trump will revoke an Obama-era executive order on Tuesday that required strict building standards for government-funded projects to reduce exposure to increased flooding from sea level rise, sources said.
reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-infrastructure-idUSKCN1AV1ZI?il=0

Americans' debt level notches a new record high

Americans' debt level notched another record high in the second quarter, after having earlier in the year surpassed its pre-crisis peak, on the back of modest rises in mortgage, auto and credit card debt, where delinquencies jumped.
reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-debt-idUSKCN1AV1PY

North Korea delays Guam missile firing, U.S. says dialogue up to Kim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has delayed a decision on firing missiles towards Guam while he waits to see what the United States does, the North's state media reported on Tuesday as the United States said any dialogue was up to Kim.
reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-idUSKCN1AU04U

Sierra Club sues U.S. Energy Department over power grid study

Environmental group the Sierra Club sued the U.S. Energy Department on Monday in hopes of forcing it to reveal the groups it has consulted in conducting an eagerly awaited study on the electricity grid.
reuters.com/article/us-usa-powergrid-suit-idUSKCN1AU1T1

US police officer 'laughs' at Charlottesville attack on Facebook

A police officer from Massachusetts has been criticised after he appeared to use Facebook to laugh at the Charlottesville attack, which left one person dead and many more injured.
ibtimes.co.uk/us-police-officer-laughs-charlottesville-attack-facebook-1634932

Other urls found in this thread:

rt.com/news/399671-palestinian-family-eviction-jerusalem/
rt.com/op-edge/399575-afghan-heroin-funded-us-political/
inthesetimes.com/article/20427/false-equivalency-white-supremacist-nazis-fascists-antifa-Charlottesville/
pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1312/
twitter.com/AnonBabble

OP/ED

'Great injustice': Palestinian family on brink of eviction by Israel from home of 50yrs speaks to RT

An elderly Palestinian couple have told RT that it's "great injustice" if Israel carries out a decision to evict them and their relatives from the home they have owned in East Jerusalem for over 50 years. The EU is already urging Israel to reconsider the step.
rt.com/news/399671-palestinian-family-eviction-jerusalem/

‘Afghan heroin funded US political campaigns and black ops’

Not only the military, but ex-military people who were involved in doing a lot of the flights in and out of Afghanistan began shipping drugs out, claims Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor of Veterans Today.
rt.com/op-edge/399575-afghan-heroin-funded-us-political/

Drawing Equivalencies Between Fascists and Anti-Fascists Is Not Just Wrong—It’s Dangerous

After a fascist march in Charlottesville, Va. left one anti-Nazi protester dead and 19 others wounded, there has been widespread criticism of President Donald Trump’s failure to forcefully denounce white supremacists. However, this condemnation has rarely included a genuine understanding of the actions of antifascist protesters in Charlottesville and elsewhere, creating a continued justification for the “both sides” argument that paints antifascists, or antifa, as equivalent to the white supremacists they oppose.
inthesetimes.com/article/20427/false-equivalency-white-supremacist-nazis-fascists-antifa-Charlottesville/

Alameda County sheriff’s office catches heat for retweet of white nationalist

The public information officer for the Alameda County sheriff’s office apologized Tuesday for mistakenly retweeting a video of a press conference held by a prominent white supremacist.
Sgt. Ray Kelly said he was doing research Monday night on neo-Nazi groups ahead of their planned Aug. 27 gathering in Berkeley when he accidentally retweeted Richard Spencer’s “Unite the Right” news conference to the more than 10,000 followers of the sheriff’s office.
Kelly told The Chronicle that his views “couldn’t be further” from the sentiments in the video and that he had to call his the sheriff’s IT department to undo the retweet, which remained posted for more than half an hour.

“I hit buttons at the bottom of the video and somehow it went up on our feed,” Kelly said, adding that he took full responsibility for the error. “It was a complete accident. … It’s very embarrassing for me personally because I couldn’t feel further from how those people feel.”
The backlash on Twitter was swift, with many users saying the retweet was a tacit endorsement of racist views.
It’s common for law enforcement to collect intelligence over social media ahead of protests. That’s how local and state police in Virginia knew that white nationalist organizers of the Charlottesville gathering were planning on bringing military-grade weapons, according to interviews Gov. Terry McAuliffe has given in recent days.

In the Bay Area, Kelly said it’s part of his job to keep tabs on groups from across the political spectrum. In the past, the sheriff’s office and other agencies have followed the postings of Occupy Oakland and other affiliated groups.
“It’s important for me to know the faces of the people who are talking — who’s in the news, who they are, who’s following them and what they stand for,” Kelly said.
Police agencies in the East Bay are on high alert in the wake of the deadly car crash in Charlottesville that killed a 32-year-old woman and injured 19 people who were protesting the white nationalist groups. An Ohio man was charged with murder after authorities said he rammed his car into a line of vehicles, then fled the scene.
Kelly said the sheriff’s office, Berkeley police and other departments are putting together a “robust plan” that includes creating an area for demonstrators that vehicles can’t reach. And although Kelly said he didn’t watch much of Spencer’s news conference, he said that information gleaned online can be invaluable to preparing for potentially turbulent events.
“Social media is a very powerful platform to get real-time information,” Kelly said. “And it’s also a very unforgiving place for accidental retweets.”

Thank god some sanity in the world.

They only do it because they know Seoul is toast when there is a war. South Korea has been staunchly anti-communist sind its inception.

I know but that doesnt change the fact that at least someone in power doesnt want to kill and sacrifice several million innocent people because "muh display of power".

Trump again blames 'both sides' for Virginia violence

U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that not all of the facts were known yet about the aftermath of a white supremacist rally in Virginia that turned violent at the weekend and that both left- and right-wing groups used force.

Trump, taking questions from reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, reverted to his initial comments on Saturday blaming "many sides" for the violence in Charlottesville, but on Monday had explicitly condemned neo-Nazi groups.

"They came at each other with clubs … it was a horrible thing to watch," Trump told reporters at what was supposed to be an announcement of his administration's infrastructure policy. He said left-wing protesters "came violently attacking the other group."

Trump has faced a storm of criticism from Democrats and members of his own Republican Party over his initial response to the violence around the rally in the Southern college town of Charlottesville.

The trouble erupted after hundreds of white nationalists converged in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army in the U.S. Civil War.

treet brawls broke out as the white nationalists were met by crowds of anti-racism demonstrators. A car then plowed into a group of the counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. A 20-year-old Ohio man, James Fields, said to have harbored Nazi sympathies, was charged with murder, malicious wounding and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

On Tuesday, Trump explained his initial restrained response by saying: "The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts."

Trump earlier Tuesday hit back at business leaders who quit a presidential advisory panel in protest, calling the executives "grandstanders."

Three business leaders quit a Trump panel in protest on Monday and on Tuesday, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said on Twitter he was also resigning.

Trump bowed on Monday to two days of pressure for a more forceful response, singling out groups behind the "Unite the Right" rally that were widely seen as stoking the disturbances. But he was still clearly frustrated over the reaction to his response.

"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!" Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday.

Oh my god this is fantastic

Bourgie infighting. Nice.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if a week after this goes into effect, some tower in America just floods and poor people drown on every floor?