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Trump: Fighting back against Russia probe is self-defense, not obstruction

Brandon Carter
The Hill
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 14:47 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© Denis Balibouse / Reuters
US President Donald Trump walks in a corridor after a meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 25, 2018
President Trump defended his attacks on investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, denying that it amounts to obstruction and saying he was merely "fight[ing] back."

"There's been no collusion whatsoever," Trump told reporters in an impromptu press conference on Wednesday. "There's no obstruction whatsoever. And I'm looking forward to it."

Trump also mocked critics who have accused him of obstructing the Russia probe by attacking the investigations and referring to them as a "witch hunt."

"You fight back, oh, it's obstruction," Trump mockingly told reporters.

Comment: In the new American justice system, trying to prove you're innocence is incontrovertible proof of guilt.

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Info

DOJ has successfully recovered Strzok & Page's missing text messages

Jake Gibson
Fox News
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 14:02 UTC
Peter Strzok and Lisa Page

The Department of Justice has recovered missing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the DOJ’s inspector general said Thursday.
The Department of Justice has recovered missing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the DOJ's inspector general said Thursday.

In a letter sent to congressional committees, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office "succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page that were sent or received between December 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017."

"Our effort to recover any additional text messages is ongoing," Horowitz said. "We will provide copies of the text messages that we recover from these devices to the Department so that the Department's leadership can take any management action it deems appropriate."
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Bad Guys

Here's why Europe must reject US blackmail over Iran's nuclear agreement

b
Moon of Alabama
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 14:02 UTC
Trump Iran
The Trump administration has threatened to end the nuclear deal with Iran. In our last post we argued in detail that the attempt of the European 3, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, to soothe Trump by condemning Iran's ballistic missiles is itself a breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

The University of Alabama endorsed Moon of Alabama's legal reasoning :-). Professor Daniel Joyner, author of several books on international law, non-proliferation and the nuclear deal with Iran, responded to the piece:

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Snowflake

Triggered Zionist: Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman urges ban against poet for calling hero Ahed Tamimi a hero

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 13:23 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
Poet and author Yehonatan Geffen is an iconic popular figure in Israeli culture since the 1970's. I grew up as a toddler on his children's books, and he has a lot to say to adults today. He is tongue-in-cheek and doesn't mince his words. The kind of guy who calls out Netanyahu for being a racist.

On Monday, he posted a poem on his Instagram which infuriated Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman so much that Lieberman called for the army radio to ban him and his work completely, also urging all media outlets to do the same.

Comment: If you are looking for the extreme of hypocritical snowflakery look no further than Israel. A teenage girl slaps a soldier and she is a terrorist. A poet writes a poem for her and he is desecrating Jewish history. When are people going to understand that if they don't simply accept the Israeli oppression of Palestine then you hurt Israel's precious feelings??

For more on Israeli double-standards, see:

Gaslighting for Israel: Liberal and Leftist Zionists

And please consider signing the petition to free the hero Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian Joan of Arc, and whose name will be mentioned on the same line as Hannah Szenes and Anne Frank:

Sign Basem Al-Tamimi's letter to free his daughter Ahed and all Palestinian children in Israeli military prisons

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Blackbox

Turkey bombarding US 'partner forces' in Syria, and the US dares do nothing?

Marko Marjanović
Check Point Asia
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
Turkish artillery firing into northern Syria — home to ten US bases

Turkish artillery firing into northern Syria — home to ten US bases
Where is now that vaunted "collective self-defense of partnered forces" the US was invoking when it was shooting down Syrians, threatening Russians?

Last June a US Navy F/A-18 fighter plane shot down a Syrian Su-22 ground attack plane over central Syria. The Americans said the Syrian army jet had endangered "US partner forces" by dropping its bomb load "near SDF fighters" and their actions were therefore justified and "defensive".

In reality the Syrian jet had been on a bombing mission against ISIS which was just a few kilometers away, but became momentarily disoriented. It is not at all clear that the Syrian plane ever even released its bomb load, or that the US-backed Kurdish fighters were ever in any danger. Nonetheless the Americans attacked the jet over its own country.

Comment: That could be why all we're seeing from Russia are calls for exercising 'restraint' while Assad 'condemned' Turkish actions:

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Mr. Potato

British Defence Secretary Claims Russia 'could kill thousands and thousands and thousands' With Infrastructure Attack on UK


UK Telegraph
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 12:15 UTC
British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson
© AFP
British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson
The British defense secretary says Russia could kill "thousands and thousands and thousands" of Britons with a cyber attack that could cripple infrastructure and energy supply and cause panic and chaos across the United Kingdom.


Comment: And thousands?


In an interview with The Telegraph, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson claimed Moscow had been researching the UK's critical national infrastructure to know how to damage the British economy and energy supply. He offered no proof.

Comment: The British ministry of defence fear is after funding, and they need an enemy 'out there' to justify it:

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Cloud Grey

Storm clouds are gathering over the Ukraine

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 19:56 UTC
ukraine donbass tanks
In a recent article for The Duran I wrote of how the economic situation in Ukraine appeared once more to be deteriorating, with economic statistics apparently being distorted to conceal the extent of the rise in inflation, making the claimed figure of 2% GDP growth in 2017 unlikely.

In a further sign of a deteriorating economic situation, recent reports from Ukraine speak of rolling electric power blackouts in some regions, suggesting growing energy shortages as the price of oil hikes.

In a symptom of how bad the situation has become, the Ukrainian government has quietly dropped its sanctions prohibiting coal imports from Russia, indicating that Ukraine is being forced to turn to Russia for imports of coal in light of the gathering energy crisis.

In this situation, as Paul Goncharoff has recently pointed out, the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal to force Ukraine to resume gas purchases from Gazprom actually helps Ukraine, since the gas Gazprom is able to supply Ukraine is actually cheaper than the gas Ukraine has up to now for political reasons been buying in Europe.

Comment: Stavros Hadjiyiannis comments in the source article:
I agree with everything that Alexander is saying here, except the closing statement:

"with the Western powers once again doing everything possible however thoughtlessly to aggravate the process, the country seems to be slipping back towards war."

The Western powers are not thoughtlessly aggravating the situation but deliberately so. A renewed conflagration in the Donbass (even if 100% initiated by Ukraine) will surely be portrayed by the Western media as yet more "Russian aggression" and may be utilized for any number of different tasks:

a) Put the Russian government on the spot right before and during the approaching Presidential elections, by forcing a serious dilemma on the Kremlin, either appear weak (by not responding adequately) or respond and appear as an aggressor and an adventurer.

b) Explain away Ukraine's dire and worsening economic situation as the result of Russian aggression, and not as is the case due to the self-defeating anti-Russian policies of the Maidean regime and even more crucially, the quite astonishing lack of any significant material support on the part of the both the EU and the US. In my view, the most underestimated and under-discussed aspect of the Ukrainian crisis is the complete unwillingness or incapacity of the Western powers in actually providing Ukraine with any significant economic benefits and/or opportunities. This simple fact, on its own, should seal the fate of the Maidan regime and everything it represents, but as long as Ukraine's economic suffering can be falsely blamed on the Russians, then the pro-Western Maidan regime can prolong its agony.

c) More "Russian aggression" can be utilized as an excuse for further economic sanctions.
See also:

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Wolf

Louise Mensch's pathology: Brit conspiracy theorist slanders US conservative pundit D'Souza with 'Kremlin kompromat'

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 10:46 UTC
Louise Mensch
These days, when America's political extremes clash online the results can often be unedifying. And Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch's latest questionable accusation is especially uncouth.

The notorious New York Times contributor alleged on Thursday morning (GMT) that Dinesh D'Souza, a married Indian-American conservative commentator, was a homosexual. She then further asserted how Russia had allegedly used this situation to manipulate the noted filmmaker and supporter of President Donald Trump.


Comment: It's no surprise that Mensch is working for an American newspaper since in the UK she's seen as the columnist equivalent of a sad being who's lost complete touch with reality and babbles loudly on a street corner.


"Dinesh, you're gay and had a one night stand with a man on a Navy ship, my sources said. And that was how Russia kompromated (sic) you as you were too cowardly to come out of the closet. There is a recording apparently. True or false?" Mensch tweeted.
mensch tweet d'souza

Class-A looper

Comment: Mensch and her ilk are almost certainly out of time: Is 'Russia Collusion' Narrative About to Come Crashing Down?

Generally, troubled beings like Louise Mensch should just be ignored - and not given a news column. However, in the interests of science and safety, since stupid people can be extremely dangerous when left to their own devices (and on Twitter), and the demented nature of their thinking can also be rather fascinating and educational, it's best to take a moment and flick through some of the articles posted below which will provide some insight into just how sick a person can really be yet still, apparently, function:

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Attention

Erdogan says Turkish forces will clear Syria of Kurdish fighters 'all the way to Iraqi border'


RT
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 10:35 UTC
Soldiers driving tanks
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
Turkish forces in Syria will go after Kurdish militias in Manbij after finishing the operation in Afrin, President Erdogan said. Ankara intends to continue fighting the Kurds all the way to the border with Iraq, he added.

The Turkish military launched a military operation in Syria targeting Kurdish militias in the enclave of Afrin last week. Ankara considers armed Kurdish groups in Syria an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdish militant group PKK, which it labels a terrorist organization. The US plan to train and arm the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a militant force dominated by Kurdish militias, outraged Turkey, which responded with an attack on Afrin.

Escalating the situation on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the incursion will not be limited to Afrin, which is located in north-western Syria near the Turkish border, and that the Turkish troops will later advance on other Kurdish areas in Syria.

Comment: See also: Kurdish officials seek Damascus' protection as Turkey's Erdogan vows to return Afrin to 'owners'

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Chess

Kurdish officials seek Damascus' protection as Turkey's Erdogan vows to return Afrin to 'owners'


RT
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 09:55 UTC
Fighters from the self-defence forces of the Kurdish-led north
© Rodi Said / Reuters
Fighters from the self-defence forces of the Kurdish-led north hold their weapons during a rally in Hasaka, northeastern Syria, January 23, 2018
Kurdish officials in Afrin have urged Damascus to send troops to protect Syria's sovereignty from the "Turkish occupier." Ankara insists it will return the enclave to its "original owner" after its "liberation" from "terrorists."

The self-administrated, Kurdish-held enclave in the northern Syria issued a plea for help to the Syrian government on Thursday, reiterating its commitment to the integrity of the country.

"We reaffirm that the Afrin region is an integral part of Syria and that our forces are the people's protection units," it wrote in a statement, arguing that the Turkish military operation in Afrin "threatens the territorial integrity of Syria and the security and lives of the civilians."
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