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'I'm not your opponent, I'm your sentence!' Ukraine presidential hopefuls trade jabs in final debate

Petro Poroshenko and his rival, comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukraine's incumbent president Petro Poroshenko and hard-hitting frontrunner Volodymyr Zelensky faced off in a much-hyped big stadium debate, exchanging harsh accusations yet revealing little of their plans for the country.

It was promoted as the most spectacular political show in Ukrainian history, but the debate only attracted 22,000 people at the Olympiyskiy stadium in Kiev on Friday, despite a capacity of more than 70,000. The event was the final chance for the contenders to impress the voters ahead of the election's second round on Sunday.

An experienced comedian, Zelensky delivered stronger punchlines on the night, calling himself the predictable outcome of Poroshenko's mistakes. "I'm not your opponent - I'm your sentence," he told the president, hinting that the latter may well face prosecution for his misdeeds after the election.

Comment: "Poor Ukraine" is right:


TV

Google 'disables' Press TV's YouTube account

Google blocks Press TV on YouTube
© Press TV
Google has blocked Press TV and Hispan TV's access to their official accounts on the technology company's platforms, including YouTube and Gmail, without prior notice, citing "violation of policies".

"Your Google Account was disabled and can't be restored because it was used in a way that violates Google's policies," Google said in a message that appears after Press TV tries to log into its account.
Press TV banned on YouTube
© Press TV
The YouTube channels are open to public view for now, but the administrators cannot publish any new content.

Google has so far refused to provide any explanation for disabling Press TV's account.

This is not the first time that Google is blocking Press TV's YouTube channels.

Question

India claims terrorists using Chinese supplied arms sent by Pakistan

pakistan grenades
© Representative Image/HT File PhotoAccording to an internal document accessed by HT, 70 Chinese grenades (64 in 2018 and six so far in 2019) have been seized by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1 last year.
Other than the seizures, a dozen incidents documented in the past 15 months involved either trained terrorists or over-ground workers (OGWs) of terror groups lobbing grenades at patrol parties, bunkers, vehicles or camps of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitary forces, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and the army.

Pakistan is supplying Chinese-made grenades and sophisticated ammunition in large quantities to terror groups in the Kashmir Valley so that it cannot be blamed for subversive activities in India, an assessment by agencies conducting counter-insurgency operations has concluded.

According to an internal document accessed by HT, 70 Chinese grenades (64 in 2018 and six so far in 2019) have been seized by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1 last year.

The document said security forces had recovered pistols, armour piercing incendiary (API) shells and tracer rounds of Chinese origin from terrorists belonging to different groups.

Comment: Those are some serious claims coming out of India: Pakistan-India showdown: What you're not being told


Light Sabers

Libyan GNA accuses France of supporting Haftar, halts cooperation with Paris

Libyan Tank
© REUTERS / Ahmed Jadallah
Earlier in the day, it was reported by The Libya Observer that Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's army had regained control over the Tamanhint Base following the withdrawal of the South Protection Force loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA).

The Interior Ministry of Libya's internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) on Thursday accused France of supporting the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and said it would halt security cooperation with the French authorities.

"The cooperation with the French side on bilateral agreements in the area of security is halted," the ministry said in its Facebook blog.

Comment:




Brick Wall

Orwellian Media: Censorship happens in the blink of an eye

Ben Shapiro - Jordan B Peterson
Two weeks ago, I tweeted a triptych that read: "How censorship happens: a story in three parts." The first image was of a recent Vice headline stating that Facebook was moving to ban white nationalism and white separatism. The second was a tweet by left-wing activist Anthony Watson referring to Quillette as a "right-wing, white-nationalist website." The third was a tweet thread in which two Canadian academics speak about monitoring and making a list of Canadians who dared to publish with Quillette.

Cheeseburger

SOTT Focus: Mueller Report Reveals an Empire of Bullshit

mueller nothing burger
After two years of gaslighting the public while it blew smoke up America's ass, the Jacobin news media enjoyed its final feeding frenzy with the release of the 400-page Mueller report. They expected 1000 pounds of raw filet mignon, but it turned out to be tofu fried in olestra. The ensuing fugue of hyperventilating hysteria was also duly expected and William Barr stoically endured their hebephrenic peevings at the release ceremony - a press conference which itself offended the media.

The threats and raving continued all the livelong day and far into the peeper-filled night with CNN's Chris Cuomo blustering "It's time to rumble," and the lugubrious hack David Gergen muttering soulfully, "This was not fake news," and The Times' Maggie Haberman fuming that the White House had played the "Nazi anthem" Edelweiss - very fake news, it turned out, since the tune was written for Rodgers' and Hammerstein's 1959 Broadway show, The Sound of Music (and sung by the anti-Nazi hero Baron von Trapp). Meanwhile Rachel Maddow had the balls to confab in prime time with disgraced former FBI mandarin Andy McCabe, officially identified as a liar by his own colleagues at the agency. What a circus of perfidious freakery!

Understand that the Mueller Report itself was the mendacious conclusion to a deceitful investigation, the purpose of which was to conceal the criminal conduct of US government officials meddling in the 2016 election, in collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign, to derail Mr. Trump's campaign, and then disable him when he managed to win the election. Mr. Mueller was theoretically trying to save the FBI's reputation, but he may have only succeeded in injuring it more gravely.

Comment: We're highly doubtful there will be a counter-attack. That's what should happen, but it probably won't.

Besides hobbling Trump - which it did, more or less successfully - 'Russiagate', as the name suggests, was also about Russia. More specifically, about Americans' perceptions of Russia/Russians.

Most Americans have been successfully time-travelled, thanks to this farce, back to the 20th century Cold War, where Russia is The Enemy, just because it's... RUSSIA.

They are now, more or less completely, locked in to an un-reality where Russia is 'evil', whereas, in fact, it currently has a uniquely positive influence on the world.


Bad Guys

Pepe Escobar: The deep state vs. WikiLeaks

wikileaks
The Made by FBI indictment of Julian Assange does look like a dead man walking. No evidence. No documents. No surefire testimony. Just a crossfire of conditionals.

But never underestimate the legalese contortionism of US government (USG) functionaries. As much as Assange may not be characterized as a journalist and publisher, the thrust of the affidavit is to accuse him of conspiring to commit espionage.

In fact the charge is not even that Assange hacked a USG computer and obtained classified information; it's that he may have discussed it with Chelsea Manning and may have had the intention to go for a hack. Orwellian-style thought crime charges don't get any better than that. Now the only thing missing is an AI software to detect them.

Comment: See also:


Bad Guys

Ukraine: Savchenko released from prison, supports the comedian and would accept Defense minister position

Savchenko
Savchenko -- Future Defense minister?
We read in Tsargrad:

The guessing game that remained after "dark horse" Nadezhda Savchenko's release from the Ukrainian prison has been resolved. It's no longer necessary to guess which of the presidential candidates the people's deputy will support: she come out for the comedian Vladimir Zelensky.

At the same time, answering journalists' questions, Savchenko noted that she would accept an offer to take the post of Minister of Defense.
Savchenko announced her support for Zelensky on the Ukrainian TV channel Ours. At the same time, the deputy noted that she was confident that the one she voted for would be the president.

She metaphorically pictured Zelensky as "the green button of the future." In contrast, Savchenko dubbed the current president "the evil of the past."

At the same time, according to the woman, she will have to vote in the detention facility, since her passport remains there.

However, she is ready to go there again, "already as a free person," in order to exercise her right to vote.

Comment: For insight on just what Ukraine's future may hold, see: The Saker interviews Dmitry Orlov


Star of David

Mueller Report: 'Multiple members' of Trump transition team tried to stop UN resolution against Israeli settlements

TrumpNetiJared
© Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump • Senior Advisor Jared Kushner • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
The Mueller Report was released today, and one section reveals that "multiple members" of the Trump transition team, led by Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, "communicated with foreign government officials" in an effort to undermine the Obama White House's decision to allow the passage of a UN Security Council resolution in December 2016 that was sharply critical of Israeli settlements.

We knew that Trump's transition tried to block the resolution by reaching out to Russia; former national security adviser Mike Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the matter.

The news here is that "multiple members" of the transition team reached out to other foreign countries. The report suggests that in order "to support Israel," Jared Kushner issued an all points bulletin throughout the transition team. (The report confirms what the Wall Street Journal characterized as a "blitz" in its own investigation of the incident last year.)

Comment: See also:


Footprints

War rumors: Washington is looking for a fight

troops arrive
© unknown
It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insider's viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was being transformed bit by bit into a bipartisan doctrine that featured as a sine qua non global dominance for Washington. Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union collapsed the opportunity to end once and for all the bipolar nuclear confrontation that threatened global annihilation was squandered as President Bill Clinton chose instead to humiliate and use NATO to contain an already demoralized and effectively leaderless Russia.

American Exceptionalism became the battle cry for an increasingly clueless federal government as well as for a media-deluded public. When 9/11 arrived, the country was ready to lash out at the rest of the world. President George W. Bush growled that "There's a new sheriff in town and you are either with us or against us." Afghanistan followed, then Iraq, and, in a spirit of bipartisanship, the Democrats came up with Libya and the first serious engagement in Syria. In its current manifestation, one finds a United States that threatens Iran on a nearly weekly basis and tears up arms control agreements with Russia while also maintaining deployments of US forces in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and places like Mali. Scattered across the globe are 800 American military bases while Washington's principal enemies du jour Russia and China have, respectively, only one and none.