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Caesar

Best of the Web: Victory: Syria's Assad visits ally Iran for first time since Western war to kill him began


RT
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 22:52 UTC
assad khamenei
© Reuters / SANAAllahu akbar
Syrian President Bashar Assad has made his first public visit to Iran - his country's closest regional ally - since the beginning of the Syrian conflict eight years ago.

Syrian state television reported the visit on Monday, showing footage of Assad meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the two had agreed to "continue cooperation at all levels for the interests of the two friendly nations."


Comment: Humanitarianists and Israel-firsters are having aneurysms right about now.

8 years of proxy war, 15 years of black-ops and psy-ops, all probably costing well over a trillion dollars. And half a million dead Syrians. And a culture shock in Europe from millions of refugees.

And yet Assad's still there defending his country from the combined forces of the greatest (though also the most effeminate) war machine ever amassed on Earth.

We salute you.

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Wall Street

Best of the Web: How Ebay Founder Pierre Omidyar is Funding a Globalist Disinformation Factory

Alexander Rubinstein & Max Blumenthal
MintPress News
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 18:00 UTC
Pierre Omidyar
© YouTube ScreenshotPierre Omidyar is pictured during an interview on technical innovation published by The Henry Ford, a Dearborn-based museum.
A select group of national news "stakeholders" gathered at an undisclosed location for what was described as a "semi-secret" workshop somewhere in Canada on January 26. The meeting had been convened to determine how and to whom a "news industry bailout" of $645 million in Canadian government subsidies to private and supposedly independent media outlets would be disbursed. It was a striking event that signaled both the crisis of legitimacy faced by mainstream media and the desperate measures that are being proposed to answer it.

Jesse Brown, a Canadian journalist who participated in the meeting, complained that the first thing he noticed about it "was that one major public 'stakeholder' wasn't represented: the public." Inside what amounted to a smoke-filled room that was off limits to most Canadian citizens, Ben Scott - a former Obama administration official who also served in Hillary Clinton's State Department - presided over the discussions. Today, as the director of policy and advocacy for the Omidyar Network, Scott works for one of the most quietly influential billionaires in helping to shape the media landscape and define the craft of journalism itself.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Ex-Iraqi PM lets cat out of bag: 'US president Obama created ISIS to take over our country'


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 13:15 UTC
Daesh
© REUTERS / Muhammad Hamed
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki previously accused the administration of the 44th US president of being responsible for the rise of Daesh, which "caused bloodshed" in the Arab world.

Iraq's former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, told a local TV station on Sunday that the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama had played a crucial role in the creation of Daesh* by allowing the terrorist group to occupy Iraqi territories, PressTV reported.

Maliki, who served as prime minister between 2006 and 2014, reportedly said that the United States had provided Iraq with intelligence and aerial images, locating with great precision positions of Daesh terrorists, who had lined up behind Iraqi borders in Syria.


Comment: ISIS would barely exist were it not for the West and its allies:


Comment: And he's not the only official stating the obvious: See also:

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Oscar

Trump slams Spike Lee for 'racist hit' on his presidency during Oscar acceptance speech

Jayme Deerwester
USA Today
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:57 UTC
Spike Lee
Spike Lee may not have angered the team behind Oscar best-picture winner "Green Book" with his comments Sunday, but someone else made it clear he was unhappy by what Lee had to say at the Academy Awards: President Donald Trump.

In an early-morning tweet Monday, Trump went after the "BlacKkKlansman" writer-director for remarks he made about the current administration while accepting his first Oscar for the movie's screenplay, calling Lee's speech a "racist hit" on him.

"Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts,etc.) than almost any other Pres!" he tweeted.

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Attention

Venezuelan minister: 'Opposition planned to kill people at border and frame National Guard'


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:49 UTC
Venezuelan border
© AFP 2018 / Cristian Hernandez
The Venezuelan opposition, led by self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, attempted to force US-sponsored humanitarian aid into the country, including through Colombia, where an aid collection centre is located. Maduro has refused to allow in such aid, calling it a "fake show" and a ploy to oust him from power.

Venezuela's Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information, Jorge Rodriguez, has claimed that the opposition was planning to kill people crossing the Simon Bolivar Bridge in the western state of Tachira after receiving humanitarian aid across the border between Venezuela and Colombia.

"The first false-positive [fabricated] operation planned the theft of a tank by two terrorists. It was planned to use that stolen military vehicle to cross the Simon Bolivar Bridge, hitting all pedestrians along the way and trampling them to death, and then blaming the National Guard and the government of Nicolas Maduro", the minister said at a press conference in Caracas.
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Arrow Down

Defeated in Syria: US is at the wrong end of 'might makes right'

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Syrian Army personnel
With Damascus and its allies firmly in control of Syria and its future - the war having been decided on the ground rather than "politically" as envisioned by Western politicians, media, and policymakers - the US proxy war against Syria has all but failed.

Despite the obvious defeat - and as contemporary American history has illustrated - the US will unlikely relent and instead, do all within its power to complicate the war's conclusion and disrupt desperately needed reconstruction efforts.

Encapsulating current American intentions in Syria is a Foreign Policy article titled, "The New U.N. Envoy to Syria Should Kill the Political Process to Save it."

The article - written by Julien Barnes-Dacey of the NATO-Soros-funded European Council on Foreign Relations - suggests the otherwise inevitable end of the conflict be delayed and that reconstruction aid be held hostage until political concessions are made with the militarily-defeated foreign-backed militants dislodged from much of Syria's territory by joint Syrian-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah efforts.

The article makes an unconvincing argument that maintaining Idlib as a militant bastion, delaying the conflict's conclusion, and withholding reconstruction aid will somehow positively benefit the day-to-day lives of Syrian civilians despite all evidence suggesting otherwise.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Anger in the UK: May asks for yet more time to amend Brexit deal

Alice Ritchie, Lachlan Carmichael
Yahoo News
Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
MayTusk
© PA ImagesBritish PM Theresa May • European Council chief Donald Tusk
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday called for still more time to renegotiate her Brexit deal, and drew outrage by suggesting parliament may not be able to vote on the text until just 17 days before Britain leaves the EU.

Business leaders and MPs reacted with anger and dismay at the news, which also prompted fresh calls to delay Brexit to avoid a damaging "no deal" exit on March 29. Three of May's ministers had earlier warned that the House of Commons would seek a delay if there was no breakthrough this week.

May had raised the possibility of a vote on her deal in the coming days, but said on Sunday she was still negotiating with the European Union.

"As we're continuing with those talks, we won't bring a meaningful vote to parliament this week," she said at a summit of European and Arab leaders in Egypt. "But that will happen by March 12. And we still have it within our grasp to leave the European Union with a deal on March 29."

Lawmakers last month rejected her withdrawal deal, and since then, May has sought to address their concerns about its so-called "backstop" plan for the border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

Comment: See also:

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Stop

Trump to delay increase in tariffs on Chinese goods after 'substantial progress' in trade talks


RT
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 22:55 UTC
US-Chinamoneyhand
© Supply Chain 23/7
US President Donald Trump has promised to extend the temporary truce in the trade war with China, claiming that talks between the sides were so "productive" that he might even meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in person soon.

Trump hinted that an agreement might be concluded during a face-to-face meeting with Xi at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, but gave no concrete time frames, saying that "additional progress" was needed.



Beijing and Washington are struggling to come to an agreement before the March 1 deadline that marks the end of a 90-day truce the leaders agreed-to when they met in Argentina late last year.

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

EU calls for peaceful "Venezuelan-owned resolution" of crisis


TASS
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 18:14 UTC
venezuela flag
© AP Photo/Andrea ComasOn February 28, the EU will discuss preparations for a new ministerial meeting of the Contact Group on Venezuela
The European Union stands for resolving the Venezuelan crisis peacefully, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Maja Kocijancic said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday.

"We need a peaceful political and democratic and Venezuelan-owned resolution of this crisis. This obviously excludes the use of force," she said.

On February 28, the EU will discuss preparations for a new ministerial meeting of the Contact Group on Venezuela, Kocijancic noted, adding that no date for the meeting had been determined so far.

Comment: So the EU declared Guaido as Venezuela's president despite the fact that by the country itself had legitimately voted Maduro as its leader, but now its calling for a 'peaceful Venezuelan-owned' resolution? So has the EU suddenly changed its mind or is it just looking to appear impartial while the US and its lackeys stir up trouble? Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?

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Briefcase

Lavrov: North Korea should have iron-clad security guarantees for full denuclearisation


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 11:12 UTC
USA/DPRK summit
© Reuters/Jorge SilvaVietnamese Police stand guard outside the North Korea USA summit's media center in Hanoi, Vietnam February 23, 2019.
Pyongyang should be given iron-clad security guarantees if it agrees to full denuclearisation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated.

"North Korea should be provided security guarantees in case a complete denuclearisation really take place. And those guarantees must be iron-clad", the minister said at Valdai forum in Vietnam.

Lavrov continued by saying that the six-party format that includes North Korea, the United States, Russia, China, South Korea, and Japan may be revived to address the Korean Peninsula issue provided that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump make progress at the upcoming summit in Hanoi.

"I hope that the six-party mechanism, primarily on issues of peace and security, can be very useful if there is progress in bilateral communication between the United States and North Korea", Lavrov said in Ho Chi Minh City.

The minister stressed that there had already been some improvements in the North Korean problem and urged the UN Security Council to lift some of its sanctions with regard to inter-Korean projects in order to further facilitate a settlement.
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