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Trump urges lawmakers to find bipartisan solution to border security reform


RT
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:15 UTC
protesting dreamers
© Mark Wilson / Getty Images / AFPPeople who call themselves Dreamers, protest in front of the Senate side of the US Capitol to urge Congress in passing the DACA program, on December 6, 2017 in Washington, DC
President Donald Trump is urging lawmakers to find a bipartisan solution to the so-called Dreamers and border security in "a bill of love." However, as midterm elections loom, negotiations on immigration are heating up.

"I'll take all the heat you want. But you are not that far away from a comprehensive immigration reform," Trump said during a televised meeting with lawmakers of both parties on Tuesday.

Trump met with a group of 20 members of Congress seeking a solution to avoid a government shutdown by passing the next spending bill by January 19. Ditching the shutdown is essential for Republicans to show their strength, while Democrats come under pressure from their base to pass a legislative fix to the impending end of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Last year, Trump ended the DACA program, which shielded more than 700,000 illegal immigrants who arrived as children from deportation and gave them the right to work legally. Trump has given Congress until March to codify a permanent protection status.
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Folder

About time! Trump lawyer sues BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS over Trump dodgy dossier


Sputnik
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:02 UTC
Buzzfeed
© Nicholas Kamm/AFP
The lawsuit comes almost a year after the website published the document which still remains unverified. Cohen described the actions by BuzzFeed and the intelligence firm behind the dossier as "despicable" and "intentional."

A personal lawyer for US President Donald Trump has sued the news website BuzzFeed over the publication of a salacious dossier alleging collusion between the Trump team and Russia.

"Just filed a defamation action against @BuzzFeedNews for publishing the lie filled document on @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and me!" Michael Cohen said in a Twitter post on Tuesday, calling the dossier "fake."


Comment: BuzzFeed was already desperately trying to defend itself from another libel suit related to the same dodgy dossier:

Fending off Libel Suit, BuzzFeed is on Mission Impossible to Prove 'Trump Dossier' is Fact-based

Happily, it looks like reality is finally catching up with BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS.

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Chess

Palace Coup: Claims that Trump's 'mentally unfit' signal another impeachment option

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:35 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Almost a year of "Russia-gate scandal" alleging collusion between President Trump and the Kremlin has produced nothing in the way of pressuring his resignation from the White House. No doubt, that's simply because there is no substance to this "scandal". However, the failure to bring Trump down through Russia-gate by his domestic political enemies, may have found a new lever in the form of salacious questions over the president's mental state.

Trump is due to take a medical examination later this week, and that appointment is fueling media speculation that the doctors may find evidence of the president's alleged psychiatric deterioration.

The media speculation over Trump's mental state has exploded after publication of the tell-all book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff. Days after going on sale, the book has already become a best-seller. In it, Wolff quotes senior White House staff and aides, and even Trump family members, whom he says all attest that the president is suffering from mental ill-health.
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Mr. Potato

Good Grief! Billionaire Tom Steyer thinks hand-delivering 'Fire & Fury' to Congress will lead to Trump impeachment

Chris White
The Daily Caller
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:35 UTC
Tom Steyer trump impeachment
© Associated Press/Jeff ChiuTom Steyer speaks at a rally calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017.
Billionaire liberal financier Tom Steyer hopes hand-delivering 535 copies to Congress of a recently published book trashing the Trump administration will help bolster a fledgling push to impeach President Donald Trump.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager and Democratic moneyman, bought hundreds of copies of a book about the Trump presidency called "Fire and Fury,"and plans to give them to members of Congress. The ploy is part of an internet and TV ad campaign the wealthy Californian concocted in October to impeach Trump.

"We believed when we started this impeachment petition on Oct. 20, we felt every subsequent day would bring information that would bolster our argument that this was a dangerous, unfit president who needed to be removed from office," Steyer told local reporters Saturday in California. He believes that the book's author, Michael Wolff, lays out a compelling case for why Trump must be ousted.

Comment: Further reading:

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Hardhat

Ecuador seeks third party to mediate 'safe passage' for Julian Assange


TeleSur
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 13:30 UTC
Julian Assange
© ReutersAfter living five years behind the safety of Ecuador’s London embassy, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be in for a change of scene.
The Ecuadorean president warned Assange to refrain from commenting on politics of the nation's allies

After living five years behind the safety of Ecuador's London embassy, Julian Assange may be in for a change of scenery.

Ecuador is seeking out a third country or individual to mediate the safe passage of Assange from its Embassy in the United Kingdom, the country's foreign minister told a press conference on Tuesday.

"The foreign minister of Ecuador Maria Fernanda Espinosa said they are seeking the mediation of a third country or personality so that Julian Assange can leave the embassy in London," teleSUR's Orlando Perez tweeted.

Comment: Earlier we read: Ecuador FM: Assange still has Ecuador's protection, but his health is deteriorating . Is Ecuador trying to move Assange due to his health or because its government is under pressure from parties interested in Assange's arrest?

Update January 10, 2018 from RT:
Espinosa emphasized that besides possible international assistance, cooperation will also be required from UK authorities, which are looking to arrest Assange for violating the terms of his 2012 bail.

"A person cannot live in those conditions forever," she added, reiterating that Ecuador will continue to provide the whistleblower with all necessary assistance.
Assange has not tweeted or liked anything on Twitter since his strange New Year's Day message, which triggered rumors it could have been a "dead man's switch" operating on his behalf. However, speaking to RT last week, a spokesman for the Ecuadorian embassy, where Assange has resided since 2012, confirmed that the Australian was still in the building and his health status remains unchanged.

The WikiLeaks co-founder has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy fighting sexual assault allegations in Sweden. He maintains the charges are politically motivated and a way to extradite him to the United States for his whistleblowing activity. Although the Swedish investigation was dropped last year, he is still facing arrest by British authorities if he leaves the diplomatic compound.


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Info

GotNews.com founder Charles C. Johnson: Why Steve Bannon had to go from Breitbart

Charles C. Johnson
GotNews
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC
steve bannon
Today, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon stepped down from Breitbart News network after revelations in Michael Wolff's salacious new book sparked a feud between him and President Trump. It is with great pain that I write this, but Steve Bannon simply had to go.

First of all, Michael Wolff is telling the truth. I have known Steve Bannon since 2010. Michael Wolff is telling the truth about what Bannon said regarding Don Trump Jr. I know this is true because everything Bannon is quoted as saying to Wolff he also said to me when I met with him at his Embassy, first in August and again in September. At that meeting, Bannon obsessed about money laundering, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. I said that I was under Senate investigation for a fake Russian involvement story, and that the claims of treason were absurd. The conversation then moved on. Of course Bannon bizarrely claims he fired me from Breitbart, but the records show I quit when he (and editor-at-large Joel Pollak) didn't want to break news anymore, content to be a talk radio of the internet and scrape others' content.

Comment: One thing that seems to be becoming more and more obvious in the recent feud between Trump and Bannon is that Bannon is a very dodgy character. Not that we didn't know that before, but with more and more coming to light in recent weeks, the extent of his dodginess seems to have no limit. See also:

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Jet1

Drones used in attack on Russia's bases in Syria "could only be shipped from US"

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 11:59 UTC
Drones used in attack on Russia’s bases “could only be shipped from US”
The Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that a so far unnamed member of Russia's Federation Council - the upper house of Russia's parliament - has said that the thirteen drones which on Saturday attempted unsuccessfully to attack Russia's two Syrian bases in Khmeimim and Tartus could only have been shipped from the US.

Note that this does not outright say that the US supplied the drones to the Jihadis who carried out the attack, though it comes very close.

The Interfax report of the statement about the US origin of the drones by the member of Russia's Federation Council is dated 16:31 hours Moscow time. At 16:50 hours Moscow time - ie. just 20 minutes later - Interfax reported the Russian Ministry of Defence saying that at the time of the drone attack on Russia's Syrian bases a US reconnaissance plane was spotted flying over the Mediterranean.

Comment: While its slowly becoming common knowledge that the US and its lackeys are the source of terrorism around the world, they are becoming increasingly brazen in how they go about it:

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Birthday Cake

Nikki Haley hosts Jerusalem UN vote after-party for 'Friends of the US': Countries representing 0.5% of world population show up

Kathryn Shihadah
If Americans Knew
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 12:31 UTC
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley’s tweet: “It’s easy for friends to be with you in the good times, but it’s the friends who are with you during the challenging times that will never be forgotten. Thank you to the 64.”


What if the US Ambassador to the UN had a party for all of America's true friends? The room might be pretty empty.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hosted a "Friends of the US" reception Wednesday to thank the 64 brave diplomats who didn't scold Donald Trump for his over-the-top Hanukkah gift to his bro, Bibi Netanyahu.

There were three levels of guests at the party, really.

First, the VERY welcome guests - those who voted with the US, against the resolution. Numero Uno, of course, Israel: "Israel completely rejects this preposterous resolution. Jerusalem is our capital. Always was, always will be," explained Netanyahu.

The other heavyweight nations that proudly stood with the United States were Guatemala, Honduras, Togo ("Africa's Best-Kept Secret") and the wee island states of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. As USA Today put it, "Four of the countries - Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau - have combined populations less than Boise, Idaho." This massive amalgamation, this force to be reckoned with, standing arm-in-arm with America, has a total population of less than one half of one percent of the world's population (about 3.7 million).

Comment: The funny thing is that Nikki Haley doesn't realize how pathetic this is. See also:

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Propaganda

Moldova's government suspends popular president again in order to push through anti-Russian policies


IntelliNews
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
Moldova's Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended pro-Russian President Igor Dodon
Moldova's Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended pro-Russian President Igor Dodon from his post in order to allow the ruling coalition and the government to enact decrees that Dodon had refused to promulgate.

This is the third time Dodon has been temporarily suspended in recent months, and the second time since the beginning of this year.

The court suspended Dodon to allow the government to promulgate a bill that bans Russian propaganda, agora.md reported on January 5. Moldova's parliament on December 7 endorsed an amendment to the media law to ban radio and TV programmes "with informative, analytic, military and politic" content produced abroad, except for those produced in the European Union, the US, Canada or signatories of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television.
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Gift

Russian ambassador denies 'foolish' allegations of election meddling in Mexico


The Moscow Times
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 12:11 UTC
José Antonio Meade México election candidate
© Daniel Becerril / ReutersJose Antonio Meade, presidential pre-candidate, Mexico

Russia's ambassador to Mexico has denied allegations that his country is attempting to interfere in the Mexican presidential elections as "foolish."

U.S. National Security Advisor Herbert McMaster accused Russia last month of launching a "sophisticated effort" to sow divisions ahead of Mexico's presidential election next July. The U.S. intelligence community has previously accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Comment: The allegation that Russia may be trying to meddle in Mexican elections is absurd to the point of being comical. First, do Mexicans think they are so important geopolitically speaking that Russia would want to interfere in their elections? How would Russia benefit from that? Second, Mexico has historically done quite well in 'meddling' with its own elections without the help of any foreign nations - apart perhaps from the US. Fraud and vote-rigging are almost a given in Mexico, and there are already indications that the next presidential election this year will not be any different. If any scandal comes up in the context of the electoral process, are they planning to blame it on Russia already??

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