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Putin signs off on constitutional changes allowing his 2024 run for president


RFE/RL
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 11:31 UTC
Putin
© Unknown
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin has formally signed off on constitutional amendments that would allow the Russian leader to run again for president in 2024. News of the signing, via a state website, comes a day after it was reported that all of Russia's regional parliaments had voted in favor of the measures. Russia's Constitutional Court must now examine the constitutional changes, which are due to be put to a nationwide vote in April.

In January, Putin announced a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin described as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But earlier this week, Putin, 67, who has been president or prime minister of Russia for two decades, appeared in the State Duma to back a new amendment that would allow him to ignore a current constitutional ban on him running again in 2024.
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Attention

Dems are weaponizing Covid-19 against Trump hoping to do what Russiagate and impeachment couldn't

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 17:48 UTC
blue gloves
© John Moore/Getty Images
Nobody in their right mind would wish for a global pandemic. Yet, such wisdom may seem less obvious in an election year as the Democrats look prepared to use the coronavirus as a weapon in their quest to unseat Trump.

Whatever one may think about the coronavirus — that it has been overblown, underestimated, or handled with impeccable care — one thing is indisputable: Trump's political opponents will be hard-pressed not to use Covid-19 as yet another way of portraying the Republican leader as unworthy of the White House. After all, we are talking about the year 2020, when the American people are staring down the barrel of the most pivotal presidential election to come along in many years. In other words, nothing should surprise us.
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Stop

Afghanistan: A messy war full of lies

Caleb Maupin
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Afghanistan
© U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jacob Krone
Mountainous terrain in southeastern Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan
Eighteen years ago, the US led the NATO invasion of Afghanistan for the stated purpose of toppling the Taliban government and crushing the Al Qaeda forces they were harboring. Now, after more than 4,000 US military personnel and contractors have been killed, and over a trillion dollars spent, a peace agreement between the USA and the Taliban appears to be in the works.

But what led up to this optimism about a possible US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a reduction in chaos? The current hope of peace was preceded by a string of revelations about how completely false the western media's narrative and the words of US officials about the war have been.

In December of 2019, the Washington Post revealed that it had obtained a string of documents revealing that US officials had consistently lied through their teeth. Progress wasn't being made in Afghanistan. The country was in a state of confusion and chaos, amid constant setbacks. Due to a lack of progress and clear strategy, the generals overseeing US Afghan operations had also changed frequently during the 18 years of occupation.
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Better Earth

On coronavirus alert? NATO's Defender 2020 drill under risk of being sneezed off


RT
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:37 UTC
troops arrive
© AFP/Patrik Stollarz.
US troops arrive to the Port of Bremerhaven, Germany, for the Defender Europe 2020 international military exercises on February 21, 2020.
The Alliance has been preparing to stage its biggest military exercise in decades when it encountered a foe it was not apparently ready to face — the coronavirus. Now, the drill is at risk, while its true aim comes to the fore.

A large-scale exercise with a pompous name 'Defender Europe 2020' was expected to become the biggest one for the Alliance in a quarter of a century. Up to 20,000 US troops together with some 17,000 more soldiers from 17 other NATO members were scheduled to take part in the drill, which was about to be held [in] Germany, Poland, and the Baltic states.

Staged mainly between April and May, this training designed to supposedly promote peace through deterrence and practicing to counter a hypothetical military aggression was aimed at demonstrating the Europeans that the Alliance is there to protect them against any threat - particularly if one imagines, let's say, Russia to be the one.

Comment: There is an interesting comment above about 'soldiers being needed at home' that signals a manmade global distraction to hide outcomes planned and executed by the PTB.

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Beaker

Iranian Supreme Leader: Evidence suggests Coronavirus outbreak is a 'biological attack'

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 12:56 UTC
Khamenei
© Khamenei.ir
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke about the coronavirus at a ceremony marking the National Week of Natural Resources in Tehran, Iran, March 3, 2020.
Previously, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian suggested on his Twitter page that the COVID-19 coronavirus could have been "brought" to China's city of Wuhan by the US military. However, he stopped short of providing solid evidence to support his suspicions.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated during an address to the country's armed forces that the recent coronavirus outbreak, which has led to the infection of over 9,000 people in the Islamic Republic, could have been orchestrated intentionally. In the speech, the leader referred to "some evidence" that suggested the pandemic was man-made, but didn't elaborate any further. Khamenei stated:
"[The establishment of the 'Health and Treatment Base' by the military] may also be regarded as a biological defence exercise and add to our national sovereignty and power given the evidence that suggests the likelihood of [the outbreak] being a 'biological attack.'"

Comment: Pompeo and Khamenei have another thing to fight over: Coronavirus
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized Iran's efforts at "biological defense" against Covid-19, but conspicuously avoided addressing Ayatollah Khamenei's claim that the virus was a "biological attack."
Pompeo merely chided him for not "telling the Iranian people the truth about the Wuhan virus when it spread to Iran from China" in a tweet on Friday, suggesting Tehran missed an opportunity for "the best biological defense" when it failed to curtail flights from Wuhan and "jailed those who spoke out." He made no mention at all of the virus as a "biological attack" - American or otherwise.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the Trump administration's "medical terrorism" earlier this week, pointing out that artificially-induced shortages have put a major strain on hospitals' resources.


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Footprints

Hundreds of US and UK troops arrive in southern Yemen

Drago Bosnic
FRN
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Yemen
© nthnews.net
A large number of US troops have arrived in Aden in southern Yemen, a Yemeni website reported, adding that this measure has taken place in coordination with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Arabic-language al-Mashhad al-Yamani reported that 450 US troops have arrived in Yemen in coordination with the UAE.

"The US and British troops who have arrived in Aden are the first soldiers of a big force that Washington intends to station in the strategic regions of the Southern provinces," al-Mashhad quoted a person affiliated to the UAE-backed South Transition Council as saying.

The source noted that Washington and London intend to deploy 3,000 troops in Aden, al-And military base in Lahaj province, Saqtari, Shabweh in Southern Yemen and al-Mohreh in the eastern parts of the country. The military experts have warned that the US' excessive movement in Yemen's southern provinces is mainly aimed at setting up permanent military bases in the war-ravaged country.
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Rocket

Rockets hit Iraqi base where US & British soldiers were killed in similar attack last week


RT
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 17:53 UTC
iraqi troops
© AFP / Mohammed Sawaf
An Iraqi base hosting foreign military service members was hit by a barrage of rockets on Saturday, Iraqi officials have said. A similar attack on Wednesday killed three people, including two Americans.

A dozen rockets hit Camp Taji north of capital Baghdad, Stars and Stripes reported, citing Iraqi officials. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Unconfirmed reports on Iraqi social media said as many as 20 Katyusha rockets had been fired at the base.


Comment: The Iraqi military are warning that this rocket attack does not warrant a retaliation from the Americans. The attack apparently left several Iraqi air defense soldiers critically wounded. Such attacks have been a pretty regular occurrence since the assassination of Soleimani. They'll probably continue as long as the U.S. refuses to leave Iraq. They're there illegally now, after all, but that has never stopped them in the past. The Americans had "retaliated" to the previous attack by attacking five sites that killed 3 Iraqi soldiers, two police and a civilian. These strikes are most likely revenge for those attacks. This comes after the U.S. military said that their "retaliation" would "have an effect on deterring ... future strikes of this nature." Right. It doesn't help that the positions they targeted weren't even Kataib Hezbollah, whom the Americans blamed for the previous rockets.

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Brain

DESPICABLE — Joe Biden promotes Trumpian conspiracy theory that Joe Biden has dementia

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC
joe biden dementia

Joe Biden
During a "virtual town hall" staged to avoid public gatherings amid COVID-19 fears, former vice president Joe Biden advanced a disgusting, ageist, ableist conspiracy theory about the Democratic Party's presidential frontrunner, Joe Biden.

Throughout the appearance Biden repeatedly spoke in a befuddled, incoherent way, severely confusing the amount of time between March and November, even beginning to walk off-camera in the middle of a babbling screed. The derisive implication of this cruel performance being, of course, that Joe Biden is not in possession of his mental faculties because he is suffering from some form of dementia.

Utterly reprehensible.

Comment: See also: Stop calling it a "stutter": Here are dozens of examples of Biden's dementia symptoms

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Mr. Potato

First point of Joe Biden's coronavirus action plan is to stop "racism"

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:36 UTC
Joe Biden
The very first point of Joe Biden's plan to stop the spread of coronavirus in the United States highlights the need to stop "acts of racism."

Because when dealing with a global pandemic, preventing people's feelings from being hurt is surely of the utmost importance.

In the first section of Biden's plan, "Restoring trust, credibility, and common purpose," curbing misinformation and stopping xenophobia are listed as key goals.
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Hammer

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refused to campaign more for Bernie Sanders

Daniel Marans
HuffPost
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 09:27 UTC
AOC and Bernie Sanders
© Salwan Georges/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduces Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Sunday. It was her first campaign-trail appearance for Sanders in nearly a month.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) turned down repeated requests from Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign to appear at events promoting the Vermont senator's candidacy in recent weeks, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

After the Iowa caucuses, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir asked Ocasio-Cortez to stump for Sanders in New Hampshire, according to the sources. The campaign prepared a model schedule to highlight the kind of popular support she would expect if she attended, one of the people familiar with the talks said.

Ocasio-Cortez resisted the entreaties until a few days before the primary on Feb. 12. She ultimately spoke the day before the election at a Sanders rally in Durham, New Hampshire, where the rock band The Strokes performed.

Comment: Despite the 'a-guy-who-knows-some-stuff' sourcing in the above article, a rift of sorts between AOC and Sanders seems inevitable. As Bernie softens some on his hard-line progressive stance to appeal to more American voters, diehards like Cortez are likely to become more disenchanted. In other words, Sanders just isn't woke enough for the likes of AOC. As has been said multiple times before, the fracturing nature of the progressive left means it always ends up eating its own.

Tim Pool's take:


See also:

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