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Impeachment hearing gets more bizarre with Sondland confirming 'Zelensky loves Trump's ass' , but vague on quid pro quo


RT
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:25 UTC
Sondland
© Reuters / Loren Elliott
Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland
House Democrats tried repeatedly to goad their diplomatic witness into "admitting" the elusive quid pro quo of aid withheld pending a probe, but the best they could get was confirmation he told Trump "Zelensky loves your ass."

US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland played the 'can't recall exactly' card as Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and Democratic Counsel Daniel Goldman pushed him to confirm President Donald Trump had made the release of foreign aid to Ukraine contingent upon President Volodymyr Zelensky's launch of a corruption investigation. Sondland did say he believed that there was a quid pro quo in his prepared remarks, but in his later testimony he was hazy about where that belief came from.

Comment: Aaron Mate took to Twitter:






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Jet2

Report: Russian Military, Command Control Exceeds NATO Capacities


RFE/RL
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 20:28 UTC
russian military helicopter troops
© Reuters
Russian marines disembark from a Mi-8 helicopter during the military exercises known as Center-2019 on the Caspian Sea coast on September 20.
Russia's ongoing development of an advanced command-and-control military system using sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) has surpassed the existing capacities of NATO, an analysis by the Washington-based global research group Jamestown Foundation says.

The breakthrough, announced by the Russian Defense Ministry, means that Russian field commanders can make real-time military decisions faster than their potential adversary.

Called automated command and control, the system uses "AI and Big Data technologies to analyze the battlefield situation and through the automated system to rapidly provide commanders in the field with several possible solutions," the analysis, published on November 20, says.

To use the system, a commander must enter numerous battlefield-related factors into a computer software program based on the Russian armed forces combat regulations on decision making: the number of one's own forces and equipment, intelligence on the enemy, road conditions, weather, amount of ammunition, fuel, and many more.

Then the AI system in a matter of seconds makes calculations using special programmed formulas or algorithms to provide commanders with a battle plan consisting of how much force to use on a particular combat mission.

Comment: Not that NATO is in any real danger because of this - Russia has not demonstrated any intention to invade Europe, political hysteria notwithstanding. But the fact that the Russian military is so advanced is cause for concern for a different reason. The United States would love to control Russia. The fact that they can't makes them angry. So until military supremacy is once again established, expect more hysteria, more calls for increases in defense spending, and more Russophobia in general. The U.S. and NATO don't like strong rivals.

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Bad Guys

Pompeo reinvents NATO's mission: To boldly contain the 'Chinese Communist Party'


RT
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 17:32 UTC
pompeo
With the US establishment's attention firmly fixed on the impeachment hearings in Washington, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to have expanded NATO's mission into the Far East, to oppose the Communist Party of China.

Speaking at the meeting of NATO ministers of foreign affairs in Brussels on Wednesday, Pompeo said that "our alliance must address the current and potential long-term threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party," adding that NATO countries cannot ignore the "fundamental differences and beliefs" between themselves and the ruling party in Beijing.


Comment: Many alt-media people would agree with Pompeo on this. So let's ask: what ARE the "fundamental differences and beliefs" between Western elites and Chinese?


The US Secretary of State framed the anti-China pivot in the context of what he described as NATO's victory in the Cold War for "the cause of freedom and democracy."

Comment: Notice the similarity of thought between Pompeo, which accurately reflects US foreign policy, and that of the 'progressive' SJW mentality. Although each have their own playing field, both identify 'enemies' based on 'differences and beliefs'. Neither can accept that others have freedom of association.

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Dollars

Ukrainian MP: $7.4B Obama-linked laundering, Biden group's take tallies at $16.5M

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 12:25 UTC
Hunter/Joe
© Unknown
Hunter and Joe Biden
A Ukrainian MP says a document leaked from the Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General contains claims against Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, as well as Hunter Biden and his partners - who allegedly received $16.5 million for their 'services' - according to Alexander Dubinsky of the ruling Servant of the People Party.

Dubinsky made the claim in a Wednesday press conference, citing materials from an investigation into Zlochevsky and Burisma. "Zlochevsky was charged with this new accusation by the Office of the Prosecutor General but the press ignored it," said the MP. "It was issued on November 14."

"The son of Vice-President Joe Biden was receiving payment for his services, with money raised through criminal means and money laundering. Biden received money that did not come from the company's successful operation but rather from money stolen from citizens."

According to Dubinsky, Hunter Biden's income from Burisma is a "link that reveals how money is siphoned [from Ukraine]," and how Biden is just one link in the chain of Zlochevsky's money laundering operation which included politicians from the previous Yanukovich administration who continued their schemes under his successor, President Pyotr Poroshenko.

Comment: In addition from TASS, 20/11/2019:
Dubinsky stressed that through the implementation of this scheme Ukraine has money siphoned from it with high interest rates — "40% of the state budget is spent on the debt service."

"This amount — 440 billion hryvnia [around $18.18 billion — TASS] in the end of 2020 — is the last step towards a default and then Ukraine will go bankrupt either by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021."

Earlier, former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko announced that Hunter Biden received around $1 million from Burisma.
More from en.interfax.com.ua News Press Conference KYIV. 20/11/2019:
As reported, on October 9, 2019, Derkach published official correspondence between NABU and the U.S. Embassy, according to which the first deputy of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Gizo Uglava, through his assistant Polina Chyzh, for a long time provided the U.S. Embassy with information that negatively affected the course of events in Ukraine and the United States.

Derkach said Chyzh received instructions from the representative of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Hanna Emelyanova to provide information on the case involving Zlochevsky.

Derkach also announced the amount of money transferred to representatives of the Burisma Group, including Hunter Biden. According to documents, in general, in favor of Hunter Biden, Alexander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter and Devon Archer, Burisma paid about $16.5 million.

According to Derkach, ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin repeatedly appealed to the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk in the framework of criminal proceedings for Burisma, but constantly received formal responses.

The activities of Shokin, according to the MP, irritated then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his fifth visit to Kyiv in two years. The visit on December 7-8, 2015, was devoted to solving the issue of Shokin's resignation for the affairs of Zlochevsky and Burisma, he said.
See also:

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Attention

Kissinger's warning: US and China in 'foothills of a cold war'

Zachary Evans
National Review
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 09:11 UTC
Kissinger
© Getty Images
Henry Kissinger
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned on Wednesday that the U.S. and China were in the "foothills of a Cold War" and could be headed toward a conflict worse than World War I.

Kissinger flew to Beijing in 1971 to begin trade talks with China when he served as Richard Nixon's secretary of state. He presented his views on U.S.-China relations at Wednesday's Bloomberg New Economy Forum, held in Beijing.
"If conflict is permitted to run unconstrained the outcome could be even worse than it was in Europe. World War I broke out because a relatively minor crisis could not be mastered. It is especially important that a period of relative tension be followed by an explicit effort to understand what the political causes are and a commitment by both sides to try to overcome those . . . It is far from being too late for that, because we are still in the foothills of a cold war."
The U.S. and China are in the midst of strained relations resulting, in part, from an ongoing trade war. President Trump has imposed tariffs on a range of imports from China, to which China has responded by ceasing imports of U.S. agricultural goods.

Trump has sought to sign a trade deal with China to relax certain tariffs. However, reports emerged on Wednesday that the first phase of the deal may not be inked until the coming year.
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Clipboard

Ukraine: 4 key issues named by Zelenskiy for upcoming peace summit on Donbas


RFE/RL
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 01:39 UTC
Zelenskiy and group
© Reuters/Gleb Garanich
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will advance four key issues during an upcoming four-way meeting with the leaders of Germany, France, and Russia on a potential peace settlement in the Donbas conflict.

While visiting the opening of a reconstructed bridge in the frontline town of Stanytsya Luhanske on November 20, Zelenskiy said the most important discussion point was conducting local and regional elections in territories that Kyiv doesn't currently control.

Holding elections "is one of the difficult ones because it has many components," he said. "This is an opportunity to hold local elections already in the territory of Ukraine, not in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. It's the most important issue," Zelenskiy said.

The return of all Ukrainian captives is another priority as well as regaining control over its border with Russia. According to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, Kyiv doesn't control 409 kilometers of its eastern border with Russia.

Sealing a permanent cease-fire is paramount, Zelenskiy said, while adding that the current truce in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since April 2014, was "fake."
"It's, you know, temporary. For two-three days there could be no shooting and then somebody starts shooting, which over time becomes serious and we start to lose people. Therefore, we need a serious cease-fire when no shots are fired."
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Tornado1

Beijing furious as US Senate unanimously votes in favor of Hong Kong 'human rights act' with a 'hidden agenda'


RT
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 04:04 UTC
Rubio
© Reuters
Senators: Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) • Protester in Hong Kong
The US Senate has approved a Hong Kong "human rights" bill by unified vote which would empower the State Department to grade the territory's "autonomy" and levy sanctions on foreign officials if Washington deems it insufficient.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed through the Senate on Tuesday after a unanimous voice vote, following a similar unchallenged approval of a companion bill in the House in October. Both chambers of Congress are now set to reconcile the two different versions of the law before it goes to President Donald Trump's desk for a final sign-off, however the full support of both houses makes a veto unlikely.

While the law has been hailed by Hong Kong's protest movement, with activists flying to Washington in September to lobby Congress to vote in its favor, Beijing eviscerated the bill, calling it a "serious violation of international law." In a statement on Tuesday the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated its staunch opposition to the bill, arguing that its aim is not to underpin democracy, but deter China by fanning extremist sentiment inside the country.
"The aim is to bolster anti-China, extremist and violent radicals who attempt to disrupt Hong Kong, damage Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, so that they can contain China by making a fuss out of the Hong Kong issue, which is exactly the malicious intention of certain people."
The ministry said the bill seeks to misrepresent violent actions as a pursuit of human rights and democracy, and is driven by a "hidden political agenda."
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Whistle

According to Schiff, all whistleblowers are equal - as long as they hate Trump

Graham Dockery
RT
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:34 UTC
Schiff
© Reuters/Yara Nardi
Schiffting the blame...
In his full-bore efforts to impeach President Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff has repeatedly demanded that the whistleblower responsible for the fiasco need[s] protection. Just don't mention Snowden, Assange or Manning to him.

The whistleblower - reportedly a CIA officer whose name has been circulating in the media but remains officially anonymous - kicked off the impeachment inquiry by claiming that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky reopened a corruption investigation into former US VP Joe Biden's family. Despite Trump's release of a transcript of the call that showed the allegation of 'quid-pro-quo' was flimsy at best, Schiff has nevertheless pressed ahead.

Cue a parade of deep state bureaucrats testifying over whether or not this quid-pro-quo took place, the answer to which varies wildly depending on the witness, and often on the wording of the question. Schiff has repeatedly denied knowing the identity of the whistleblower, but cuts off off any questioning by Republicans that comes remotely close to picking out the agency he works for, under the auspices of not "outing" him.

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Document

Leaked memo shows the US still does not understand Turkey's Syria operation

Paul Antonopoulos
InfoBrics
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 19:59 UTC
trump erdogan
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
An 'internal memo' that was intentionally leaked has blasted U.S. President Donald Trump's decision for the U.S. military to withdraw from Syria, or more accurately, relocate from northern Syria to the oilfields in the east, as well as his complacency as Turkey commits "war crimes and ethnic cleansing" against the Kurdish minority.

The author of the memo, diplomat and former ambassador to Bahrain, William V. Roebuck, took every opportunity to lambast Trump as he faces impeachment 12 months before the next U.S. presidential elections. Roebuck questioned whether the U.S. could have prevented the Turkish military operation in northern Syria by increasing military patrols, sanctions and threats, but conceded that "the answer is probably not," citing Turkey's membership in NATO and its large army against the small American presence in the region. "But we won't know because we didn't try," Roebuck added.

The New York Times claims that Roebuck's memo was delivered to the State Department's special envoy on Syria, James F. Jeffrey, and to dozens of officials focusing on Syria in the State Department, White House and Pentagon. However, the entirety of the 3,200-word memo failed to mention Ankara's motivation in conducting this operation.

The Syrian perspective is that this is part of a project for a Greater Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu emphasized in an October interview that Turkey is not interested in territorial expansionism, stating "Russia is concerned about some sensitive issues, such as territorial integrity and the unity of the country [Syria]. We are also worried. If we look at all the joint statements of Turkey, Russia and Iran, we emphasize it."
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Brain

Big-brain politics: Swedish PM won't blame immigrants for surge in immigrant crime

Graham Dockery
RT
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:54 UTC
swedish police
© Reuters / Johan Nilsson
A policeman looks on after an object exploded next to a police station in Rosengard, Malmo
With gang crime soaring in Sweden, the country's Prime Minister still refuses to blame immigration for the problem. The statistics prove him wrong, but in Sweden, social justice is more important than actual justice.

The country that gave the world ABBA and IKEA is now famed for a more sinister export: crime. Amid a wave of bombings and shootings, Denmark last week closed its border with Sweden, reintroducing passport controls and police checks for the first time since the 1950s. The tightening of security is necessary "to counter the threat from serious, cross-border crime," said Denmark's minister of justice, Nick Haekkerup.

Thirteen explosions and a double murder on Danish soil prompted the lockdown, but in Sweden, the problem is worse. There were 162 bombings in Sweden last year, and 120 in the first seven months of 2019 alone. The right have blamed immigrant-led gangs for the crime wave, but Sweden's Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, isn't having any of it.

Deny, deny, deny

While Lofven admitted that the threat of gang violence is real and rising, he told Swedish TV network SVT on Sunday that the sources of the problem are "segregation," poverty and unemployment.

"The segregation is because there is...too high unemployment in these areas. But that would have been the same regardless of who had lived there. If you put people born in Sweden under the same conditions, you get the same result" he said.

"Because of the economic gaps, the social injustices would have been the same."


Comment: Good to know that in addition to being PM, Lofven is also adept at precognition.


Blaming 'segregation' in one breath, then telling Swedes that the problem would still exist without immigration in the next, requires a delusional level of doublethink and a willful ignorance of the facts.

Comment: See also:

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