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Amid Qatar-Saudi Rift, Qatar May be Turning Its Back on the US Dollar

Archives for June 2017

2016 Deadliest Year On Record for LGBTQ Community in US

The startling report reveals that LGBTQ communities continue to suffer amid the hard-right tilt in U.S. politics which has revived homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and outright racist biases that have long thrived in United States culture.

teleSUR
By teleSUR

The U.S. LGBTQ community's deadliest year on record was 2016, according to a June report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, with homicides alone increasing from 2015 to 2016 — and that's after setting aside the 49 victims of the horrific Pulse nightclub attack. "Continuing an alarming multiyear trend, people of color,

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Senate Committee Passes $700 Billion Military Spending Bill

Sequestration capped the increase rate of military spending in theory, but in practice the OCO budget has been used to circumvent that, as there was no limit on this, and laws enabled the money put into that budget to be shifted by the Pentagon wherever they want.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz

Just days after the House Armed Services Committee unveiled its $696.5 billion military spending bill, their Senate counterpart, led by Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) offered an alternate version that would exceed even that, topping out at around $700 billion. Both of these versions far surpass the $603 billion proposal of President Trump, which was

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DEA, CIA Linked to Venezuela Opposition Coup Attempt

More than 80 people miraculously avoided injury or death in a helicopter attack that targeted Venezuelan government buildings this week. The attack may have been part of an attempted coup supported by the U.S. as it seeks to topple Venezuela’s government to gain access to its massive oil reserves.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb

Opposition efforts to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government are rapidly heating up, as months upon months of opposition protests have failed to make the inroads desired by the more extremist elements of the opposition and their foreign backers, particularly the United States. With the current government still hanging on to

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Russia-gate Is No Watergate or Iran-Contra

Although the historical record is still incomplete on Watergate and Iran-Contra, the available evidence indicates that both scandals originated in schemes by Republicans to draw foreign leaders into plots to undermine sitting Democratic presidents and thus pave the way for the elections of Richard Nixon in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in 1980.Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about those two Twentieth Century scandals is how little Official Washington really understands them – and how these earlier scandals significantly contrast, rather than compare, with what is unfolding now.

Robert Parry
By Robert Parry

Russia-gate, the sprawling investigation into whether Russia meddled in last year’s U.S. election, is often compared to the two big political scandals of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, Watergate and Iran-Contra. Sometimes you even hear that Russia-gate is “bigger than Watergate.” Although the historical record is still incomplete on

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US Attacks ISIS Prison, Killing Dozens of Civilians

US coalition spokesman Joe Scrocca insisted that the attack “disrupts” ISIS and was “meticulously planned” ahead of time. He denied any knowledge of civilian deaths, however, or even knowing the site was a prison, insisting that there would be “an assessment.”

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz

Officially it was a “command and control facility” but it would be more correct to call it a prison full of detained civilians. Either way, US warplanes attacked the site, in the ISIS-held city of Mayadin, killing 57 people, at least 42 of them prisoners. The identities of the prisoners aren’t known, obviously, because ISIS doesn’t make public

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End of the (Petro)Dollar: What the Federal Reserve Doesn’t Want You to Know

“If dollar inflation emerges, China’s Treasury holdings will devalue, but the dollar price of its gold will soar. A large gold reserve is a prudent diversification.  Russia’s motives are geopolitical. Gold is the model 21st century weapon for financial wars.The US controls dollar payments systems and, with help from European allies, can eject adversaries from the international payments system called Swift. “

Shaun Bradley
By Shaun Bradley
Trump US Saudi Arabia

  (ANTIMEDIA) — OPINION -- The United States’ ability to maintain its influence over the rest of the world has been slowly diminishing. Since the petrodollar was established in 1971, U.S. currency has monopolized international trade through oil deals with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and continuous military

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