U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: “When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out,
“Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi; The Late & Former Libyan Leader
Gaddafi likened elements of the uprising and ordinary people engaging in demonstrations against him “COCKROACHES” that would be “turned to chaff.” or “burned to ashes”.
Qaddafi is long gone; the troubles and tribulations of Libya remain perpetually unabated
Shaking his forefinger at the camera, he said he would defy America, superpowers, “men with turbans and long beards” and anyone else who tried to end his revolution.
In an interview in March that year, Gaddafi insisted: ” All my people are with me, they love me all. They will die to protect me, my people.”
But later in the month, as his forces appeared to be pushing the rebels back to their Benghazi stronghold, he made a chilling radio address to the people of the city, telling them: “We are coming tonight. There won’t be any mercy.”
Using the word “zenga”, meaning neighbourhood, Gaddafi had said his men would hunt opponents down right into their homes.
He said: “We will come zenga by zenga, house by house, room by room. We will find you in your closets.”
There was a more conciliatory tone in April, when, with the Nato bombing campaign well under way, Gaddafi made a widely-discredited truce offer to Libyan rebels, telling them: “We cannot fight each other. We are one family.”
In August, after being forced from his Tripoli compound, the dictator pledged “martyrdom or victory”, saying the move was a “tactical withdrawal”.
But Gaddafi had not finished. “If Libya goes up in flames, who will be able to govern it? Let it burn,” he declared from an undisclosed location last month.
“We will fight in every valley, in every street, in every oasis, and every town,” he said. “We won’t surrender again; we are not women; we will keep fighting,”
A week later he announced: “Gaddafi won’t leave the land of his ancestors. We are ready to start the fight in Tripoli and everywhere else, and rise up against them.”
He said of the rebel forces: “All of these germs, rats and scumbags, they are not Libyans, ask anyone.”
Still convinced of final victory, Gaddafi said: “The Libyan people are marching in their millions, in the streets and in the cities”
“The youths are now ready to escalate the resistance against the rats in Tripoli and to finish off the mercenaries. We will defeat Nato … Nato is rejected by the Libyan people.”
The toppled dictator’s voice was said to have been played on a loop on loudspeakers in the town of Bani Walid.
“This is zero hour,” he said. “Those who don’t fight will go to hell.”
United States of America President, Donald Trump
Donald Trump has called Omarosa a “dog” and a “crying lowlife” in a wild Twitter attack.
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 01: Businessman Donald Trump and actress Omarosa Manigault attend the “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on April 1, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic)
That book, named Unhinged, includes a whole range of explosive allegations including suggestions that there are recordings of the president using the n-word during recordings of The Apprentice. Ms Manigault Newman came to fame as a contestant on that show, before the president invited her to work in the White House.
“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out,” Mr Trump wrote in his latest post. “Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”
Zimbabwe’s then President Robert Mugabe remark on journalists
Indeed, when we ourselves, individually and collectively, betray our own principles, we cannot proclaim ourselves as champions of human rights wherever they are violated. The principle of democracy must be a pervading one as much for the Commonwealth as for its every member.
“He has lived under a corrupt government, in a country that has been widely criticized by many nations for its oppressive regime,” Giles said. “Under these conditions he founded an independent paper, and kept it printing in the face of the strongest political opposition.”
Nyarota’s paper has had numerous conflicts with President Robert Mugabe’s government since its launch in 1999.
After six arrests, two death threats, and years of being harassed by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s police and security services, Nyarota had developed a sense for trouble. And, as he hung up the phone, his internal alarms were screaming.
Nyarota launched the Daily News in 1999, with the goal of focusing on serious investigative journalism in a country where all the other media outlets were controlled by the government, he says.
Within a year, the Daily News was the most widely-read paper in the country, with a circulation of 100,000. The Herald, the government’s largest paper, saw a drop in circulation from 150,000 to 70,000.
During his tenure at the Daily News, Nyarota was arrested and taken into custody six times, he says, while running stories about human right abuses and corruption.
He received numerous death threats, he says, but he also won an award from Committee to Protect Journalists for his “courage to speak in a silence lands.”
In 2000, the Daily News’ headquarters were bombed, and in 2001, its printing press was bombed. For the past two years the paper was only able to print 70,000 copies a day.
In 1989, he was editor of the state-owned Bulawayo Chronicle. The paper built a reputation for aggressive investigations into corruption at all levels of government, and Nyarota became “something of a hero”. In the “Willowgate” investigation, Nyarota and deputy editor Davison Maruziva reported that ministers and officials from the government of President Robert Mugabe had been given early access to buy foreign cars at an assembly plant in Willowvale, an industrial suburb of Harare. In some cases, the cars were bought wholesale and resold at a 200% profit. The newspaper published documents from the plant to prove its case, including identification numbers from the vehicles.
“The government feels cornered, unpopular and relies on the true force of violence,” Nyarota says.
Mugabe said of Nyarota at the time: “Who is ‘little’ Nyarota? Who is he?” while describing Geoff Nyarota’s investigative journalism work as “over zealousness”. He once called the then Zimbabwe African People’s Unon (ZAPU) leader – Joshua Nkomo, a “snake that had taken over the chicken run.”
Celebrating Joshua Nkomo “Father Zimbabwe”‘s life and his struggle to free Zimbabwe from Colonialism.
Counter-protest drowns out small Washington neo-Nazi rally
AFP / Nicholas KammPolice escort far-right demonstrators during a rally at Lafayette Park opposite the White House A white supremacist rally outside the White House fizzled out Sunday after only a handful of neo-Nazis showed up and were massively outnumbered by hundreds of counter-protesters.
A white supremacist rally outside the White House fizzled out Sunday after only a handful of neo-Nazis showed up and were massively outnumbered by hundreds of counter-protesters.
In an effort to avoid a repeat of the chaos of a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Virginia exactly a year ago, Washington police closed streets and threw a ring of steel across a public park to make sure the white supremacists and rowdy counter-protesters did not come into contact.
Officers used pepper spray toward the end of the demonstrations, targeting a group of black-clad anti-fascists who scuffled with police a few blocks from the White House, but the day appeared to end without major incident.
Early in the afternoon, about 20 white nationalists trickled in from nearby Vienna, Virginia — under heavy police escort — at Washington’s Foggy Bottom Metro station, as a larger group of at least 300 counter-protesters awaited them, shouting “Shame!” and “Get out of my city!” and jeering them loudly. After marching to Lafayette Square in front of the White House, the small group was driven in police vans back to a different train station. “Behold the master race,” one counter-protester mockingly yelled.
By the end of the day, only a smaller group of six individuals remained, ashen-faced as a crowd of about 200 counter-protesters screamed at them, separated by scores of police officers. Heavy rain helped bring the so-called United the Right demonstration to an early end, hours before the scheduled finish of what had been billed as a “white civil rights rally” protesting, among other things, the social media shut down of some voices on the extreme right.
AFP / Nicholas KammCounter-protesters gather in Washington ahead of the Unite
At Freedom Plaza, located on one end of Pennsylvania Avenue that leads to the US Capitol, a few hundred counter-protesters of all ages, including children and retirees, gathered in a seemingly light-hearted atmosphere.
One group danced in the street. “The US is for all of us, NOT just some of us,” one sign read, while another said, “Fighting Nazis: An American Tradition.” Last year, torch-bearing white supremacists marched through Charlottesville in two days of chaos that culminated with a man driving a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 people. In that case, some of the white supremacists carried guns, including assault rifles, but all firearms were barred from Sunday’s rally.
AFP / Daniel SLIMA sign is posted on “First Ammendment activities” and the prohibition of firearms
Charlottesville police faced massive criticism for their response and their failure to keep demonstrators and counter-protesters apart.
Washington police, who had begun massing near Lafayette Square as early as 8:00 am, appeared intent on avoiding the same pitfalls.
– ‘Like Nazi Germany’ –
AFP / Daniel SLIMProtesters march against the Unite the Right rally
Kei Pritsker, 22, a Washington-area volunteer for the Answer Coalition that organized this year’s counter-protest, said it was necessary to send a strong message to neo-Nazi sympathizers.
“It would be a major mistake if we allowed fascists to just walk into the nation’s capital and go in unopposed,” he said.
The white supremacist movement is enjoying a greater sense of empowerment under President Donald Trump, he added.
“When Trump was elected, a lot of those people that were harboring a lot of racist sentiments felt like, because they had a president’s backing, they could just go out and say this stuff,” Pritsker said.
In the immediate aftermath of last year’s march, Trump drew broad criticism when he appeared initially reluctant to condemn the extreme right-wingers — many of whom have rallied behind him since his election.
AFP / Nicholas Kamm
About 20 white nationalists trickled in from nearby Vienna, Virginia — under heavy police escort — at Washington’s Foggy Bottom Metro station
On Saturday, the president issued a generic condemnation of “all types of racism and acts of violence” via Twitter.
A black man at the counter-protest who would only give his name as Jim said America feels more racist under Trump.
“It has emboldened white folks now. If they are walking down the sidewalk, their position is you better get out of the way,” he told AFP.
“It was subtle, now it’s not subtle, it’s in your face. It’s like Nazi Germany.”
Washington’s population is about 50 percent black.
– Wearing masks –
Rally organizers encouraged supporters to bring only US or Confederate flags — not neo-Nazi emblems — and cautioned them to avoid reacting angrily to counter-protesters.
The few demonstrators who showed up for the most part wore masks or concealed their faces. Counter-protesters ridiculed the group for not having the courage to show their faces.
Their police escort was such that it was all but impossible to get close enough to interview any of them.
Trump has retweeted white nationalist material, said Mexicans crossing the US border are rapists and drug dealers, and tweeted demeaning descriptions of black athletes and politicians.
A black former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, wrote in an upcoming memoir that Trump repeatedly uttered a racial slur while making his hit reality TV show “The Apprentice” prior to his presidential run, and that there are tapes to prove it. Trump called her a “lowlife.”
Turkey has pledged it will take action to calm markets after the lira plunged to a new record low in Asian trading.//AFP
As The FT reports, Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused other countries on Sunday of mounting an “operation” to bring down the Turkish economy…
“What is the cause of this storm?” he asked a gathering of ruling party officials in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. “There is no economic reason . . . It’s an operation against Turkey.”
But gave no indication he would meet investors’ demands for an emergency plan to prop up the plunging lira.
“I’m calling out to industrialists, do not attack banks to buy FX,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech in Trabzon.
Women wait at a bus stop beside an advertisement featuring Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.Source: Stringer/Bloomberg
“It is industrialists’ duty too to keep this nation on its feet. Otherwise we will set into motion our plan B and C,” he added.
Sounds very scary – Plan B and C… we can guess that the ‘B’ stands for ‘Block’ capital outflows and ‘C’ stands for confiscation of gold and dollars.
As Goldman Sachs warned, further lira depreciation to 7.1 would erode all of Turkey’s banks’ excess capital.
Traffic stands in line beneath skyscrapers in the district of Levent in Istanbul. Photographer: Ismail Ferdous/Bloomberg
Within the current backdrop, we view banks as being vulnerable to Turkish Lira depreciation given that it impacts:
(1) capital levels due to a meaningful portion of FC assets, which increase RWAs in local currency terms on Turkish Lira depreciation,
(2) asset quality and cost of risk, as Turkish Lira volatility can put stress on borrowers’ ability to repay as well as underlying collateral values. Moreover, Lira depreciation leads to higher provisioning requirements for FC NPLs, though banks are hedging this risk and can offset the impact through trading income.
The CET 1 ratio for Turkish banks under our coverage is around 13.2% on average on a bank-only basis and 12.2% on a consolidated basis, vs. 8%-9% fully-phased in requirement. We calculate that every 10% Lira depreciation impacts bank’s capital by c.50bp on average. Indeed, 14% Lira depreciation in 2Q18 took away around 80bp off bank’s CET 1 ratios. We estimate that the c.12% depreciation of the Turkish lira since June 30, 2018 would further reduce capital by c.60bp on average (pre internal capital generation and any management action).
We view Yapi Kredi as the weakest positioned on capital levels, with 2Q18 consolidated CET 1 of 10.7% vs. 8.5% fully phased-in minimum requirement. While the recent rights issue added 140bp to capital levels, Lira depreciation offset it by around 80bp.
We calculate that quarter to date 3Q18 Lira depreciation would offset the remaining c.60bp capital uplift from the rights issue, though this may be mitigated through internal capital generation and a potential transition to an IRB-based approach. As a result, incremental Lira depreciation could increase capital concerns for banks, especially for ones with lower capital levels.
We calculate that further Lira depreciation to around 7.1 vs. USD on average could largely erode banks’ excess capital
* * *
Looks like we were off by 2 days…
zerohedge@zerohedge
After Albayrak ends, there is another speech by Erdogan. TRY should be at 7 by then
Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show” and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. .
DEAN OBEIDALLAH ~~(CNN) To say that the Muslim and Arab-American communities were overjoyed by Rashida Tlaib’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic congressional primary on Tuesday is an understatement. My email inbox and my Facebook newsfeed were overflowing with both Muslim and Arab American organizations cheering her stunning win.
And since Tlaib is running without a Republican opponent in this November’s general election, she’s expected to become the first Muslim woman ever elected to Congress. (To date, there have been two Muslim men in Congress, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.))
But Tlaib, who is Muslim and the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, didn’t just score a win for the Muslim and Arab communities on Tuesday. In fact, less than 5% of her congressional district identifies as Arab American. Tlaib’s triumph was a victory for the America I choose to believe in. In a time in which Donald Trump openly demonizes minorities and gins up hate of those who look or pray differently, this was a victory for the American ideals of tolerance and pluralism.
First, though, I want to share as a Muslim American why Tlaib’s success was such a needed boost. This may surprise some, but the anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign didn’t start with Trump. Rather, it began in earnest with then GOP presidential candidate, Ben Carson, who now serves as Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
It was September 2015 when Carson made headlines declaring that a Muslim American should not serve as president because they would be more loyal to their religion than America. Carson added that he didn’t believe Islam was consistent with the US Constitution.
What was the reaction to this comment? Carson surged in the GOP primary polls and raised $1 million dollars in the 24 hours following his bigoted remark.
Trump noticed how well anti-Muslim hate played with the GOP base, commenting just a few weeks later about Carson: “He’s been getting a lot of ink on the Muslims and other things.” Trump then candidly added, “And I guess people look at that and they probably like it. Some people thought they wouldn’t like it, but they probably do.”
It was no coincidence that just a few months later, on December 7, 2015, Trump infamously called for banning an entire religion of over 1 billion people from American soil. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” he told the crowd at his rally.
From there, Trump claimed on the campaign trail that “Islam hates us.” As President, Trump continued ginning up fear of Muslims with his repeated attempts to impose a travel ban from several Muslim majority countries. And last November, Trump even retweeted anti-Muslim videos that had been created by one of the United Kingdom’s most notorious hate groups.
Trump’s drumbeat of demonization of Muslims comes with a human cost. We have seen a 15% spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the last year, ranging from attacks on women wearing hijabs to death threats to our places of worship being bombed. And there has been an alarming increase in bullying of Muslim-American students simply for their faith, with more than half of these students reporting bullying incidents in 2017.
But what might surprise some is that despite this climate — or more accurately because of it — there are a record number of Muslim Americans seeking elected office in 2018, with over 90declaring their candidacies. One notable race takes place this Tuesday in Minnesota where State Representative Ilhan Omar, if she wins the Democratic primary, would likely join Tlaib as the second Muslim woman in Congress.
And in Michigan last Tuesday, in addition to Tlaib, two other Muslim Americans were on the ballot seeking Democratic nominations, Fayrouz Saad for Congress and Abdul El-Sayed for the Democratic nomination for governor. While only Tlaib won, both Saad and El-Sayed are in their 30s and are part of the next generation of American Muslims who respond to hate not by cowering in fear, but by becoming more visible in an effort to better define who Muslims are and what they can contribute to our nation.
We are in the midst of a battle for our nation’s soul. On one side, there’s Trump who wants to potentially restrict even legal immigration and who parrots white nationalist talking points when demonizing African-Americans. And on the other side are those who believe in an America that is welcoming and celebrates our diversity. Tlaib’s victory Tuesday is clearly a win for all those who believe in this second vision of America.
Incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita failed to reach the 50 percent threshold in the first round vote in the West African state. Eighteen candidates have said they will not accept results marred by irregularities.
Malian authorities hope their additional security measures will help to boost voter turnout mm/ng (AFP, Reuters)
bY CRIMSON TAZVINZWA ~~WEST AFRICA//MALI Authorities have beefed-up security across the country ahead of Mali’s presidential second-round vote after attacks during last month’s initial round kept many voters away. Despite the situation, incumbent Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is expected to win.
Election officials were concerned that fresh attacks would dampen turnout for the runoff, after several incidents forced about a fifth of polling stations to close during the July 29th preliminary poll — mostly in the lawless central region.
Just 40 percent of voters took part in the first round, which saw Keita win 41 percent support against nearly 18 percent for Cisse, a former finance minister.
“We traveled the whole country and we noticed everywhere a strong desire for change,” said Cisse. “Malians want change, they want another future and hope. This is why I am happy to be here. I am happy because I am confident in the vote, which takes place today.”
Despite Cisse vowing to win over voters in time for Sunday’s runoff, analysts said he has failed to unite the opposition behind him, after the most popular first-round challengers backed Keita.
The president is seeking a second term after beating Cisse in a 2013 election.
But the 73-year-old Keita faces severe criticism over his failure to dampen a wave of jihadist bloodshed and ethnic violence.
The main opposition has also accused his government of rampant corruption and voting fraud in July.
Militants regroup
Concerns are mounting that militants — including those linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State (IS) armed group — have regrouped since a French intervention in 2013, and are now expanding their influence across the desert north and into the fertile center.
Mali Military Enters Town of Timbuktu//AP
More than 930 militant attacks were recorded in the first half of 2018 by the civil society website Malilink, almost double that for the previous year, and triple 2015’s figures.
Rohingya Muslims, who fled the massacre of Chut Pyin in Myanmar, tell Campbell MacDiarmid of their battle for dignity
A young Rohingya refugee in a camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 11 2018. Campbell MacDiarmid for The National
bY CAMPBELL MAcDIARMID ~~It was once called the Village of Bitter Gourds for the vegetables that residents grow in Chut Pyin. As well as the gourds, the lush fields around their homes in northern Rakhine State produced a profusion of rice, pumpkins and okra.
But last year, the rice paddies of Chut Pyin became killing fields, as Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist extremists carried out a brutal massacre of the Rohingya villagers. On August 26, nearly 400 of them were killed and the village razed, while those who survived fled on foot across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh. The bitter gourds of Chut Pyin were supplanted by bitter memories for the more than 1,000 odd people to whom that bountiful home is just a memory.
Mohammad Haror, six, left, embraces his brother Mohmmad Aktar, fourIMAGE: REX FEATURES
Instead, 12 months on, the villagers live in a tight cluster of tarpaulin and bamboo huts atop a small hillock in the Kutupalong-Balukhali Refugee Camp.
“You won’t find anyone around here who didn’t lose at least one family member,” says Mohammed Sadiq, a grey-haired farmer in a white skull cap, whose granddaughter and daughter-in-law were both killed.
Of the 1,400 Rohingya who lived in Chut Pyin, 358 were killed and another 94 were wounded, according to Ahammed Hossain, who was once the village foreman.
According to Mr Hossain, a boyish 25-year-old who wears a T shirt emblazoned with the white sign of the Hollywood hills, a further 59 men were detained by Myanmar soldiers and have not been released. At least 19 women were savagely raped. He recounted how he found his own sister dying in the bushes after being raped and shot.
“I couldn’t save her,” he says flatly. His father and brother were also killed, he added, the numbness of loss palpable in his voice.
These Rohingya men all fled their village when Myanmar soldiers attacked last August. Camp 13, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Campbell MacDiarmid/The National
The massacre at Chut Pyin – which has been documented and corroborated by various international rights groups – became the most notorious example of the Myanmar government’s campaign to expel the ethnic minority Rohingya from its lands, and precipitate a mass exodus of refugees into Bangladesh.
Today, as Bangladesh and Myanmar discuss the return of refugees, the villagers of Chut Pyin hold up their experience as evidence of why greater international involvement is needed to protect the rights of Rohingya Muslims.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa addresses a media conference following the announcement of election results in Harare, Zimbabwe, on August 3, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, filed a court challenge on Friday against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election victory, halting Mnangagwa’s planned Sunday inauguration.
The first election since Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a coup in November had been expected to end Zimbabwe’s pariah status and launch an economic recovery but post-election unrest has reminded the country of its violent past.
Chamisa’s lawyer Thabani Mpofu said he had asked the Constitutional Court to nullify the July 30 vote and that his court application meant Mnangagwa’s swearing-in had been halted.
Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told Reuters Sunday’s inauguration “will no longer happen” until the case is finalised.
“On the basis of the evidence we have placed before the court, we seek in the main relief to the effect that the court should declare the proper winner and the proper winner is my client,” Mpofu told reporters outside.
“In the alternative, we seek that there be another election which complies with the dictates of the law,” Mpofu said. “There is no inauguration that will take place until the matter is determined by the court.”
The constitution requires a losing presidential candidate to file any challenge within seven days of a winner being declared.
The Constitutional Court, which can declare a new winner or order a fresh election, must rule within 14 days of an election petition.
Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU-PF party dismissed the legal action.
“I am confident they have no case. Elections are not won in court, they are won in the field. But if they want to meet us in court we have sufficient legal minds to meet them squarely in court,” ZANU-PF legal secretary Paul Mangwana said.
Mnangagwa secured a comfortable victory in last month’s vote, according to results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, polling 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for the 40-year-old Chamisa. The opposition said the result was rigged.
The election passed off relatively smoothly but its aftermath revealed the deep rifts in Zimbabwean society.
Two days after the vote, six people were killed in an army crackdown on protests against the victory by Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU-PF party.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said it was concerned that no one was taking responsibility for the deployment of soldiers that the opposition says were harassing its supporters and ordinary citizens in townships at night.
“This poses an even bigger danger to communities as it appears that the soldiers beating up civilians are not accountable to anyone,” the commission said.
Earlier on Friday, opposition leader and former finance minister Tendai Biti appeared in court to challenge his arrest on Thursday on charges of public violence and illegally announcing election results. The case was postponed to next Wednesday.
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