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Deep State double standards: What's genius for Obama is scandal when it comes to Trump

Ben Shapiro
The Hill
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:01 UTC
Cambridge Analytical
© Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
Alexander Nix, chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, at the Concordia Summit for public-private business partnerships in New York in September. The firm claimed to have developed psychographic profiles that could predict the political leanings of every American adult.
On Sunday, The Guardian reported on the supposedly nefarious workings of President Trump's data-gathering team at Cambridge Analytica. The report suggested that Cambridge Analytica had essentially issued questionnaires through a third party; those questionnaires, which were personality quizzes, requested that you use your Facebook login. Cambridge Analytica then compiled data regarding those who completed the quiz and cross-referenced that data with political preferences in order to target potential voters.

This isn't particularly shocking. In 2012, The Guardian reported that President Obama's reelection team was "building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before."

What, exactly, would Obama be doing? According to The Guardian, Obama's new database would be gathered by asking individual volunteers to log into Obama's reelection site using their Facebook credentials. "Consciously or otherwise," The Guardian states, "the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page - home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends - directly into the central Obama database."

Comment:

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Gold Bar

The end of the dollar: The rush to gold is here

Alex Deluce
The Gold Telegraph
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 08:53 UTC
gold bars
The US dollar has been dominant as the global reserve currency for a century. It was backed by gold, and the phrase, "good as gold," had a literal meaning. Each dollar bill was worth its equivalent in physical gold. This made the dollar the world's most respected and accepted currency.

These days, the dollar is joined by the euro and the yen as accepted currencies. No longer dominant, the dollar is losing its global position. Can it survive?

Gold-backed money vs Fiat Currency

Comment: It is only a matter of time for the US empire to collapse due to the contradictions of the global economic system it leads. If Russia and China manage to avoid the trap of a direct confrontation, eventually these reemerging powers will naturally find themselves at the top.

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Attention

Coming: The collusion bloodbath

Kevin McCullough
Townhall
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 12:01 UTC
DripBlood
© KJN/Elizabeth Mueller
The firing of Andrew McCabe, the discovery of his "private notes," the ill-tempered response by other Obama loyalists and a yet to be disclosed Inspector General's report on an investigation that began before Donald Trump had come to office are all pieces of a story that dwarfs the still absent evidence of anything Trump and company did to cooperate with Russians in changing votes in Michigan and Wisconsin.

So many Democrats and Republicans have asserted the lack of evidence in the Russian collusion issue its become comical if not annoying to endure as the uninformed continue to argue otherwise.

But few have had interest in addressing a separate issue that demands attention. For while the Russians attempted mass chaos, the more serious scandal appears to have covered up criminal behavior, illicit manipulation of the FISA process, and an attempt to undo the quite serious results of an election. Is there anything more sacred in our representative republic?

The scandal that goes mostly unmentioned began before the election had even occurred, but appears to have continued well past the final results of election night, with one candidate winning 30 of 50 states, and racking up a 304 to 227 victory in the electoral college.

A victory that looks increasingly historic in light of what increasingly appears to be the collusion of the then current administration with one campaign, and in instance after instance attempting to push their thumb on the scale of the outcome.

Comment: The Democrats - in collusion with govt agencies - who masterminded the (so far unsuccessful) manipulation of the 2016 election, have the only profile that fits election corruption: 'Demogate'

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Attention

Trump: Mueller probe has 'massive conflicts of interest'


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:28 UTC
Mueller
© Newsy News
Special Counsel Robert Mueller
US President Donald Trump has again used Twitter to take aim at special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia. Trump tweeted Monday morning that the Mueller probe is a "total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!"

The tweet sparked another flurry of speculation that Trump is planning to fire Mueller, despite assurances from his legal team at the weekend that the president is "not considering or discussing" firing the special counsel.

The tweet came about an hour after another in which Trump praised Fox News host Sean Hannity for his "great" performance on the channel's morning show Fox & Friends.

Hannity used his appearance on the show to claim there "never was any Trump-Russia collusion" and to lambaste the "fake news media" that Trump himself routinely criticizes. Hannity also said that Hillary Clinton and some FBI and Justice Department officials should be investigated and prosecuted for the "many crimes" they have committed. Left-wing, pro-Clinton media watchdog Media Matters said Trump's comments on Hannity's appearance shed light on the "feedback loop" between the Trump administration and Fox News.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

Putin's primary objective of his new presidential term


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:18 UTC
Putin
© stripes.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that raising the standard of living will be a key task in the coming years, but also acknowledged the importance of strengthening the nation's defenses.
"The main thing that we will be working on is of course the internal agenda. First of all we must ensure the growth rate for the economy and make it an innovative one. We must develop healthcare, education, industrial production, infrastructure and other branches that are crucial for moving our country forward and increasing the living standards of our citizens,"
Putin said in a Monday meeting with people in senior positions at his election headquarters.
"Workforce productivity is a key issue. Let us work on this agenda together!" he said. "Of course, there are also issues connected with the national defense and security, we cannot do without them, but still the internal agenda is of primary importance today," the president added.
Putin also promised that those who worked in his election HQ would take an active part in discussions of Russia's future development.
"As for the defense expenditures, we have slated their decrease for this year and for the next year. This will not cause any problems for our defense capability, because the main investments into the development of the newest weapons systems have been made over the previous years," Putin told his key supporters. "We just need to bring some things to their logical conclusion, to continue the research and development that I have not spoken about yet," he added. "There will be no increase in spending, no arms race. We have everything, we have secure reserves in this field," the president concluded.
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Chess

US war plans - Kurdish land bridge to Israel and the British support for war against Russia

Petri Krohn
The Duran
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 20:30 UTC
Pipelines in the sand
Russia, Turkey and the United States have come to a tacit agreement that the final settlement of the Syrian civil war will include population transfers, where isolated problem populations are "ethnically cleansed" and moved to larger, economically and logistically more viable larger enclaves.

The relationship of these "cantons" to each other and to the Syrian state will be a matter for the political peace negotiations.

The United States did not protest the ethnical cleansing of Afrin of its almost exclusively Kurdish population. These Kurds are needed to strengthen the US occupation zone east of the Euphrates. America nor Israel has any use for Afrin, especially since dreams of a Kurdish or ISIS corridor to the Mediterranean have permanently been curtailed.

On the other hand, the US has shown its willingness to massacre hundreds of Syrians and Russians to demonstrate its ownership of some key points of Syrian geography. The locations of these points of contention might reveal a grand geopolitical scheme of the US and its allies.

Comment: See also: Israel quietly begins practicing for possible war with Russia and Iran in Syria

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Gear

Israel quietly begins practicing for possible war with Russia and Iran in Syria

Darius Shahtahmasebi
Russia Insider
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:55 UTC
Israel Quietly Begins Practicing for Possible War With Russia
Israelis practiced scenarios "where Russians made trouble"

The Israeli army quietly conducted a military exercise last week that simulated a multi-front war where Russia intervened to prevent Israel from attacking Syria, Haaretz reports.

According to Haaretz, the drill involved the top-ranking officers of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), as well as the headquarters staff of all the commands that would be required to successfully pursue a fight with Hezbollah, an Iranian-aligned militia based in Lebanon. Haaretz noted that Israel prepared for the scenario in which a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon would require the Israeli military to fight on other fronts - most likely Syria - where Hezbollah retains a significant military presence.

"Throughout the exercise, we examined various implications of the Russian presence" in Syria, a senior IDF officer said, as quoted by Haaretz. "We practiced everything that could be coordinated with the Russians and also what couldn't be, how we would operate without harming their interests in the region, and on the flip side, scenarios in which the Russians made trouble." [emphasis added]

Comment: See also: IDF holds drill simulating mass missile attacks across Israel

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Bad Guys

UK pulls out of EU defense force despite EU's 'unequivocal' solidarity in Skripal propaganda


RT
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 16:02 UTC
British UK soldier
© Ray Tang/ Global Look Press
The UK has announced that it will pull out of the EU defense force after Brexit. The move comes after the EU stated it's "unequivocal" solidarity with Britain over the Skripal spy poisoning case.

London will rescind its pledge to lead a 1,500-strong battlegroup for EU defense in 2019. Britain's Lieutenant General George Norton cited logistical problems tied to Brexit as a reason for the move, which will likely see the first severing of defense ties between the two parties since the bloc's foundation.

The UK is withdrawing its offer to provide the bulk of troops for the so-called EU battlegroup, a force established in a bid to boost the bloc's military clout.
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Light Saber

Corbyn finds unlikely support in Mail columnist Peter Hitchens over his Russia stance


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:52 UTC
Peter Hitchens Jeremy Corbyn
© Facebook / Agence France-Presse
Peter Hitchens(L), Jeremy Corbyn(R)
As the Russian spy poisoning saga rages on, Jeremy Corbyn has found an unlikely ally amongst the media establishment... Mail columnist Peter Hitchens, who leapt to defend Corbyn's cautious approach.

Corbyn has copped considerable flak from both sides of the House over his unwillingness to blame Russia in the poisoning that left ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in intensive care. At least 16 Labour MPs have signed a motion backing PM Theresa May's hard-line stance against the Kremlin, in defiance of their own party leader.

In an op-ed for Mail on Sunday, Hitchens backed Corbyn's position that the UK should go through the appropriate avenues of international law before proportioning blame. He reminded readers of the danger of rushing into conflict - just as the UK has done in the past.

Comment: Corbyn demands Russia be given sample of nerve agent, says international law should be followed in Skripal case

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Bullseye

Russia and China block UN Security Council's 'politicized' meeting on human rights violations


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 13:48 UTC
United Nations
© AFP 2018/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY
The United Nations Security Council cancelled a meeting on human rights violations in Syria on Monday after Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gennady Kuzmin called for a procedural vote on the briefing's agenda.

"This really confirms the politicized nature of this initiative, that has nothing to do with concerns for Syrians itself," Kuzmin said of the effort to hold the briefing. "We believe there is a need to cancel this briefing, and we are going to asked the distinguished president to put this situation to a procedural vote."

The provisional agenda - which would have involved a briefing by the UN human rights chief - was put to a vote. Eight countries supported the initiative, but four others, including Russia and China, blocked it. Three council members abstained from voting.
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