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Iran raises gas prices, ensuing protests leave one dead, border with Iraq closed


Sputnik
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 11:13 UTC
iran
© REUTERS/ West Asia News Agency
Protests erupted in several cities across Iran, following Tehran's sudden increase in gas prices, IRNA reported.

According to the news outlet IRNA, protests have been reported in Mashhad, Shiraz, Ahvaz and several other cities, including Sirjan, where people tried to set a local oil storage facility on fire but were stopped by police.

According to preliminary reports, one person has died during clashes in the city of Sirjan.

On Friday, Tehran introduced quotas for retail sales of gasoline and subsequently increased prices.

Comment: RT reports of Iran's request to shut down the Iran-Iraq border due to the protests occurring in both countries:
The Shalamcheh border crossing between Iraq and Iran was shut down on Saturday, Reuters has reported. The move was made at Tehran's request and in response to the ongoing mass protests in both countries.

The crossing will remain closed for travel in either direction, the news agency said, citing an Iraqi security source and an Iranian diplomat, without naming either. However, goods will be allowed to travel through.

Iraq has been gripped for weeks by violent street protests against the government's policies. Over 300 people have been killed. The wave of public anger spread from the capital Baghdad to the south of the country, where the Shalamcheh crossing is located.
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Eye 1

'The goal was to destroy the human mind': Chris Hedges interviews author Stephen Kinzer on the CIA's search for mind control

Chris Hedges and Stephen Kinzer
RT
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 23:29 UTC
Stephen Kinzer
© RT
Chris Hedges talks to author Stephen Kinzer about the CIA's quest for mind control through its experiments in drug and torture during the 1950s and 1960s, both domestically and internationally.

Kinzer's new book is titled "Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control".


Comment: Further reading: Alternative link to the above video: "Stephen Kinzer CIA Search for Mind Contro" from The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel.



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X

Google secretly blacklists conservative websites, favors big business


Sputnik
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 23:00 UTC
Google blacklists conservative sites
© AP/Thibault Camus
Google, along with other Silicon Valley companies like Twitter and Facebook, has been accused of anti-conservative bias by Republican senators, who have threatened the tech giant with anti-trust action. Google has repeatedly said its search engine is unbiased.

Google is secretly preventing some websites from appearing in its search results, including conservative websites, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper's investigation revealed that right-wing websites such as The United West and the Gateway Pundit were included in a blacklist that featured hundreds of websites and did not appear in Google's 'news' section or featured products.

WSJ said it had seen a policy document dating back to August 2018, which instructs Google engineers to focus on websites that attempt to mislead - "a publisher misrepresenting their ownership or web properties" - rather than websites that provide inaccurate information.

The newspaper cited an unknown person familiar with the matter who claimed that any changes in the blacklist should be introduced by at least two persons - one makes the change and the other one approves it.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

Broadband communism?' Labour's 'free internet for all' plan enflares passions as election fly


RT
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 13:38 UTC
Labour Party
© Global Look Press / Margit Wild; Inset: Global Look Press / Andrew MccarenThe Labour Party unveiled the broadband plan on Friday.
A brilliant idea that will be a boon to the entire UK or a wild and expensive fantasy that will leave consumers with no choice? The Labour Party's election promise to roll out free broadband has sparked a fierce debate.

In an eye-catching election gambit, Jeremy Corbyn's party pledged to provide free full-fiber broadband to every home and business in the UK by 2030 if it wins December's vote.

The plan includes part-nationalizing BT and introducing a tax on tech giants to help pay for the proposal. Labour says it would cost around £20 billion ($25.8 billion) but critics claim the real cost would be twice as much.

Comment: It is a rather strange pledge from Labour, and one that's unlikely to glean them many votes. After nigh on a decade of government collusion with big business to dismantle public services through under funding, disastrous privatization schemes, a stagnant and fragile economy, increasing crime and rampant corruption, it's not like Labour have nothing else to work with.

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Light Sabers

Worst case scenario in Lebanon is civil war

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Lebanon
© Evan Bench/CC by 2.0
In Lebanon, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned that the ongoing anti-government protests might lead to "chaos, collapse and civil war ". What is the scenario for a civil war? Is it a realistic possibility?

The Lebanese people think the current upheaval was triggered by monthly taxes imposed on the messaging application WhatsApp. In fact, this was only the most recent of a series of measures, starting with US sanctions on Lebanese banks and on wealthy individuals accused of having links with Hezbollah. Rumours - later confirmed by the US administration - spread in Lebanon that more sanctions were in the pipeline and expected to hit more banks and more Lebanese allies among Christian groups in Lebanese society. Many rich and middle-class Lebanese panicked at the consequences of the US targeting the country with even more sanctions, destabilising the banking system and destroying confidence, thus creating the risk of capital outflows. Many Lebanese withdrew their cash assets from banks and transferred their wealth outside the country.
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Bad Guys

Bill Taylor and his private war with Trump, Ukraine and Russia

George Eliason
The Saker
Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
William Taylor
© Avalon red via NewscomAmbassador William Taylor holds news conference in Kyiv, June 25, 2019.
John Solomon of the Hill just penned a seminal article for people who want to understand how widespread the hate for Donald Trump is inside the State Department. If it was one or two activist diplomats, the problem would be easy to remedy. Unfortunately, Ambassador Yovanovitch is a symptom of a much greater problem that spread like cancer inside the agency.

With over 400 vacancies, the agency is now overfilled with Clinton activists and the remnants of a once vibrant diplomatic corps that will take years for the US to rebuild.

After three years in office, the State Department problem Donald Trump has is catching up to him in spades. The US State Department as it exists today was staffed by Hillary Clinton ahead of her failed presidential bid.

When political activists masquerade as diplomats forging their own policies that stand in the face of the US policy and standing, the world becomes a very dangerous place. Today, State Department activists work hand-in-hand with the Intel community's deep state to embarrass the United States and the executive branch they supposedly serve.

Bill Taylor's Private War

According to the New York Times, Taylor said "So during my meeting with Secretary Pompeo on May 28, I made clear to him and the others present that if U.S. policy toward Ukraine changed, he would not want me posted there and I could not stay."

Taylor was so disturbed by the direction the new Ukrainian president was taking by honoring the troop pullback Ukraine just signed in Minsk, he went to the frontline after it started and demanded it stop.

Comment: See also:
Impeachment inquiry: It's really about who sets US foreign policy

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Sherlock

Why we need Sherlock Holmes' cool logic and reasoning in the current political climate

Neil Clark
Sputnik
Thu, 14 Nov 2019 15:14 UTC
S. Holmes
© CC0/KJN
This year marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. In an age where our politics has become increasingly emotionalised (and infantilised), adopting a Sherlockian approach can help us see through the manipulation and the lies.
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr Watson, A Scandal in Bohemia.
Theorising before one has data? Isn't that exactly what fanatical Russiagate pushers have been doing for the past three years? Sherlock Holmes would not be at all impressed by those who blame Russia for everything, without any evidence, but it's not all he would take objection to.

If the master sleuth had been around in 2003 we can be sure he would not have believed the Bush-Blair guff about Iraq possessing WMDs. Logic would have told him that the US and its allies would not have dared to contemplate attacking Iraq, had they genuinely believed there were WMDs there. For why would they do the one thing that would provoke Saddam to use his deadly weapons - which we were told could be assembled and launched within 45 minutes? When the neocons and liberal interventionists want war, we're expected to suspend logic and believe the unbelievable. Our emotions are played on quite shamefully.
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Folder

Flynn exposes Gulen-Clinton connection; Erdogan hands Trump Gulen documents

Joe Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Flynn
© Yuri Gripas/BloombergUS Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn
We reported in June on a story that was first brought to our attention by Neonrevolt. In November 2017, General Michael Flynn wrote an op-ed for the Hill. In the piece Flynn wrote:
"The primary bone of contention between the U.S. and Turkey is Fethullah Gülen, a shady Islamic mullah residing in Pennsylvania whom former President Clinton once called his "friend" in a well-circulated video."
Flynn then shared a video of President Clinton claiming that the shady mullah is a friend of the US:


Flynn then shared:
"Gülen portrays himself as a moderate, but he is in fact a radical Islamist. He has publicly boasted about his "soldiers" waiting for his orders to do whatever he directs them to do. If he were in reality a moderate, he would not be in exile, nor would he excite the animus of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government."

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Morales: US would send him to GITMO


RT
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 01:47 UTC
Morales
© Reuters/Edgard GarridoFormer Bolivian President Evo Morales attends an interview with Reuters, in Mexico City, November 15, 2019.
Ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales says he will not take part in the next presidential vote if the people are truly against it. He also revealed that the US ominously offered him 'help' fleeing Bolivia.

Morales, who resigned under pressure from top military officials after weeks of opposition protests, said that he does not mind if the fresh presidential elections are held without him on the ballot. Morales told Reuters in an interview:
"For the sake of democracy, if they don't want me to take part, I have no problem not taking part in new elections. I just wonder why there is so much fear of Evo."
However, the veteran leftist said that he did not know another person who could represent the left-wing forces in a potential presidential poll.

Opposition senator Jeanine Anez, who declared herself "interim president" this week, has said that she would like to mend relations with Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) majority party, but would not welcome him as a presidential candidate again.

Comment: See also:



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Target

Envoy Yovanovitch's 'feelings' that Trump 'threatened' her on Twitter are impeachable, says Democrats


RT
Fri, 15 Nov 2019 22:50 UTC
Yovanovitch
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstEx-Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch
Ex-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch feeling "threatened" by President Donald Trump and his tweet criticizing her "in real-time" during her testimony amount to new grounds for impeachment, Democrats and their media proxies claimed.

During Friday's impeachment hearing, Yovanovitch complained that she's been the victim of a "smear campaign" by the Trump administration, carried out particularly by the president's personal counsel Rudy Giuliani - and Trump himself.

The former ambassador recalled her reaction to the transcript of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a testimony that the New York Times called "powerful and personal."

Quoting a third-person account for some reason, Yovanovitch said that "a person who saw me actually reading the transcript said that the color drained from my face. I think I even had a physical reaction. I think, you know, even now, words kind of fail me," she went on.

Comment: See also:

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