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Trump refuses deadline extension for TikTok to arrange US sale

Josh Wingrove, Jordan Fabian and Saleha Mohsin
Bloomberg News
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:51 UTC
tiktok Trump
© Getty Images
President Donald Trump said he won't extend his Sept. 15 deadline for ByteDance Ltd. to sell the U.S. operations of its popular TikTok video-sharing app.

"We'll either close up TikTok in this country for security reasons, or it will be sold," Trump told reporters Thursday before boarding the presidential aircraft for a campaign trip to Michigan. "There will be no extension of the TikTok deadline."

Administration officials had been considering whether to give more time to TikTok's Chinese owner to arrange a sale of the app's U.S. operations to an American buyer, though a decision hadn't yet been presented to Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Comment:

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Wolf

Weasel Vindman, not whistleblower, was the driving force behind impeachment farce

Mollie Hemingway
The Federalist
Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:28 UTC
vindman
© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please.”
The most interesting thing about Byron York's exhaustively reported and richly detailed new impeachment book, Obsession: Inside the Washington Establishment's Never-Ending War on Trump, is that the whistleblower who filed the official complaint that got impeachment rolling isn't ever identified.

It turns out that the heated discussion over the whistleblower, who was previously identified by Real Clear Investigations as the CIA's Eric Ciaramella, was a diversion from allowing the American people to understand who was the actual instigator of the failed effort to oust President Donald Trump from office.

Rather than being a witness who independently supported the claims of the whistleblower, the National Security Council's Lt. Col Alex Vindman was the driving force behind the entire operation, according to the book's interviews with key figures in the impeachment probe and other evidence. The whistleblower's information came directly from Vindman, investigators determined.

Comment: More from Fox News:
York reveals Vindman, who retired from the Army in July after being fired from the National Security Council in February, was the driving force for Democrats' impeachment in his new book, "Obsession: Inside the Washington Establishment's Never-Ending War on Trump."

"It didn't take a real rocket scientist that the source of this, the original source of this, was Lt. Col. Vindman," York told "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday night, laying out the facts of the case.


"If you remember early on in the Ukraine matter, the Democrats said they wanted the whistleblower to testify, and then they changed their mind and they didn't want the whistleblower to testify and they began to shut off any Republican attempts to find out who the whistleblower was," he said.

The Washington Examiner chief political correspondent asked, "So the question is if the whistleblower wasn't in the White House, how did he learn what was going on?"

He points out Vindman was one of several people who listened to Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, "but [Vindman] was the only one who was disturbed by what took place. He was the only one who thought there was a problem there."

[...]

Trump reacted to an excerpt on Vindman in York's book Thursday.

"No, Vindman knew the call itself to the Ukrainian President was 'perfect', but also knew the whistleblower report described the call incorrectly, way off. Why didn't Vindman say so? That's why Shifty didn't want the whistleblower to testify. A big scam!" Trump tweeted.

York also claimed former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, formed in May of 2017, knew early on there wasn't evidence for Trump-Russia collusion but continued to investigate.

"[Mueller] looked into everything, but what was happening was Trump lawyers could see that Mueller wasn't getting anywhere and by the fall and certainly by the end of the year, they knew that collusion was a dry hole for Mueller," York said. "He had not come up with what he was supposed to find."


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Eagle

Trump claims Iran will sign new agreement 'very rapidly' after his reelection


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:25 UTC
iran deal
© AP Photo / Brendan Smialowski
A fresh agreement between the US and Iran will be signed "very rapidly" by Tehran if US President Donald Trump wins his reelection campaign in early November, 45 told reporters on Thursday.

"If we win the election, Iran will come and sign an agreement with us very rapidly. I would say within a week, but let's give ourselves a month," he claimed during a September 10 news conference at the White House.

Trump notably withdrew the US from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, or Iran nuclear deal, on May 8, 2018, citing Tehran's continued "pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently made the same argument to the United Nations Security Council after the US set forth a resolution to extend the international arms embargo against Tehran - set to expire October 18.

"We will never allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to have a nuclear weapon," the Washington official vowed.


Comment: Fair enough - they currently don't and most likely never will. How about we now deal with the actual rogue nuclear state: Israel?


However, US allies France, Germany and the United Kingdom openly declared that Washington's push to invoke the "snapback" mechanism was actually in violation of the JCPOA, which is still being upheld by its remaining signatories.

Comment: In other U.S.-Iran news, Iran says the U.S. withdrew its drones from an area closed off for military drills after given a warning by Iranian military.
According to the officer, Iranian forces detected a concentration of US drones trying to gather information in the exercise areas. "These activities were detected by the army's signal detection systems, and the drones were warned by the air defences," he said.

"Since then, we have been witnessing a noticeable change in the activities of American drones," Irani added. "They were forced to leave the area after seeing the level of readiness of the surveillance, identification and defence systems of the Iranian military," the senior naval officer said.




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Mr. Potato

Belarusian Guaido! Lithuania recognizes exiled Tikhanovskaya as 'elected leader' of Belarus


RT
Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:06 UTC
Tikhanovskaya belarus
© Global Look Press / Valdas KopustasProtesters in Vilnius in front of Belarus Embassy express their support to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
Lithuanian MPs have unanimously voted for a resolution to recognize former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the disputed election, as the elected leader of her country.

In the resolution, titled "On the Illegitimate Union Imposed by Russia on Belarus" and adopted on Thursday, the Lithuanian parliament threw its weight behind the presidential election's official runner-up, deeming her and the Belarusian opposition's Coordination Council "the only legitimate representatives of the Belarusian people."

The resolution refers to Tikhanovskaya as the "elected leader" of the country, while Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is called "an illegitimate leader."


Comment: Slight logic problem: if the election results were rigged, how do they know the actual results? Lukashenko officially got 80% of the vote. Do they know for a fact he didn't get 60% of the vote? They don't, because they can't.


The document takes aim at relations between Minsk and Moscow in particular, preemptively labeling all future integration agreements between the two neighbors as "null and void" and a "de facto annexation" so long as Lukashenko signs them.

The MPs also proposed slapping sanctions on Russian officials and Lukashenko if they attempt to ink such agreements, which the deputies argued "are made to limit the sovereignty of the country by illegal means against the will of the Belarusian people."
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Colosseum

In the footsteps of Rome: Maybe it no longer matters who's Emperor

Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
Fall of empires
Pretense and PR are not reality, and believing the Old Normal will magically be restored with sacrifice-free Federal Reserve printing is not an actual strategy.

Quick history quiz: who was the second-to-the-last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire? How about the third-to-the-last? Answers: Glycerius, 473-74 A.D. and Julius Nepos, 474-475 A.D. The last emperor was the grandly titled Romulus Augustus, who reigned less than a year until the whole shebang disintegrated in 476 A.D.

You get the point: when the momentum of collapse crosses the Event Horizon, it no longer matters who claims the title of Head Snake; the collapse is beyond the control of any individual or agency.

So when I hear the most important election in history, last chance for democracy, etc. I hear blah-blah-blah because we're following the footsteps of Rome's collapse to a T. As I explained in How Nations Collapse: Disunity (8/20/20), profound disunity between classes and within power elites is the key driver of collapse, as all the energy required to make the perilous, radical changes needed to save the system are squandered on in-fighting and jockeying for control of the dwindling centralized power.
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Newspaper

Lukashenko has no intention of leaving office yet, says change of power won't come from street protests


RT
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 11:48 UTC
Lukashenko
© Sputnik / Maxim GuchekBelarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko dampened the hopes of those expecting a swift power transition in the country, saying change won't take place under pressure from street protests, but in accordance with the law.

"I would like to tell you in a manly way, so as not to leave a word unspoken. I'm often reproached: 'He will not cede power.' This is correct. That's not what the people elected me for," state news agency BelTA quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

"Power is given not to be abandoned or given away. In the mid-1990s it lay in the mud. Some wiped their feet on it. And on you, those in law enforcement. Many of you remember this period. I do not want Belarus to go back to those days," he stated at a ceremony where he introduced the country's new prosecutor general, Andrei Shved, to his subordinates. "Nobody will dare throw mud at the authorities, contrary to what they demand."

Comment: See also:

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Info

CNN's Zucker gives advice for then-candidate Trump, offer of a weekly show

Jeff Poor
Breitbart
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 00:01 UTC
carlson cohen zucker
Tuesday, Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson played a series of audio clips of CNN head Jeff Zucker interacting with convicted former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen about then-GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump on his Tuesday broadcast.

The "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host laid out the clips, which range from Zucker's reluctance to contact Trump directly to offering advice for Trump and even raising the possibility of a weekly show for Trump.

Comment: Social media lit up over the leaked audio:






See also:

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Eye 2

Georgia cover-up of deaths in $3.3 billion pharmaceutical project: documents

Dilyana Gaytandzhieva
Arms Watch
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 06:13 UTC
georgia pharma deaths 1
Confidential reports reveal that at least 249 patients enrolled in a Gilead-sponsored program have died in Georgia.
Confidential reports reveal that at least 249 patients enrolled in a Gilead-sponsored program have died in Georgia.

A new data leak reveals that the Georgian government and US drug giant Gilead have failed to investigate at least 249 deaths of patients enrolled in a $3.3 billion Hepatitis C elimination project.

Arms Watch has analyzed these documents allegedly originating from the Ministry of Health of Georgia and leaked anonymously on Twitter. We have already published a detailed report on US government projects at the Pentagon biolaboratory in Tbilisi - the Lugar Center.

In our current report we have analyzed data about death cases of patents enrolled in the Hepatitis C Elimination project in Georgia. This is an experimental pharmaceutical project sponsored by Gilead in cooperation with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Georgia's Ministry of health.

Georgian media and health officials have previously denied any possible link between the experimental program and these death cases. However, the cause of death of some patients has been reported as "unknown" in Gilead confidential reports. Other patients enrolled in the program have discontinued treatment due to serious adverse effects. Some of them have died.
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Attention

Joe Biden walks back his national mask mandate, admits it would probably be unconstitutional

Paul Sacca
The Blaze
Mon, 07 Sep 2020 05:57 UTC
biden mask
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden declared on Aug. 13 that he would call for a nationwide face mask mandate. "Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum," Biden said in August. "Let's institute a mask mandate nationwide starting immediately, and we will save lives."

Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), eagerly approved of Biden's mask mandate. "That's what real leadership looks like," Harris said on the same day. "We just witnessed real leadership. Which is Joe Biden said that as a nation, we should all be wearing a mask for the next three months, because it will save lives."

During Biden's acceptance speech on the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he firmly declared that he would implement a national mask mandate if elected president.

"We'll have a national mandate to wear a mask — not as a burden, but to protect each other," Biden said on Aug. 20 at the 2020 DNC. "It's a patriotic duty."

Comment: See also:

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Control Panel

NATO think-tank enrolls English-language journalists and activists covering Belarus - and Twitter looks the other way


RT
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 22:11 UTC
A masked opposition activist at a protest in Minsk, Belarus September 6, 2020.
© Tut.By via REUTERSA masked opposition activist at a protest in Minsk, Belarus September 6, 2020.
Some of the top journalist-activists covering Belarus in English on Twitter are now working for organizations that defend the interests of Western arms manufacturers - with no disclaimer for their followers.

On Wednesday, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) - based in Warsaw, Poland and Washington, DC - announced it was "thrilled" to welcome Tadeusz Giczan as a fellow. He has previously worked with NEXTA, described as "Belarus's largest Telegram channel."


Comment: The Western regime-change specialists have been going full-on crazy - pulling out all the stops - in an effort to overthrow Lukashenko's government, further encircle Russia - and, try to get Belarus to comply with the Covid lockdown hysteria to boot!

See a sampling of the many stories regarding this wannabe Maidan:

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