With rare exceptions, virtually everything reported by major Western media about Syria follows the falsified official narrative - concealing US-led aggression on a sovereign independent state threatening no one. Yet it was attacked and invaded (by US-supported terrorists and Pentagon forces) as maliciously and illegally as Hitler's aggression during WW II. The same goes for all US wars since the early 1950s.

No nation in world history has been responsible for more ruthless mass slaughter and destruction than America since its 1776 creation, none inflicting more human misery, none more lawless, none more disdainful of human life, rights and welfare, none more risking humanity's demise by its disdain for rule of law principles - by its rage to rule the world, risking its destruction.

Big Lies unjustifiably justify all US wars of aggression. None are waged for responsibility to protect, humanitarian intervention, or any other officially stated reasons. They're all about advancing America's imperium, its quest for unchallenged global dominance, its rage to replace all sovereign independent governments with pro-Western puppet regimes.

He has continued and intensified the financial war against Russia waged by Obama and he's bitching about ruble weakness?? Give this man an economics textbook!

There is just too much economic confusion in the latest tweet from Trump to even begin to explain it, so we will just point out that moments ago Trump, in this case definitely not under the advice of Larry Kudlow, accused China and Russia of "playing the currency devaluation game", at a time of rising interest rates, which Trump slammed as "not acceptable."

Without going too deep - as we would never get out - it is worth noting three things.

Russia did not provide WikiLeaks with Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 US presidential campaign and Julian Assange has physical evidence to prove it, says a Republican congressman who met with him.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London in August 2017 and met with Assange. He brought up that meeting on Wednesday evening's episode of Breitbart Radio.

"By now, everybody knows that this idea that Trump was colluding with the Russians in order to get them to do things like steal the DNC emails and then release them through WikiLeaks, the public knows that's just total baloney," Rohrabacher said. "I knew the one man who could prove that it was all baloney was Assange. So I went to see him in London, and he confirmed for me that the Russians did not give him the DNC emails."

Assange had "physical proof of that" and was going to show it in exchange for an agreement that he would not get arrested upon leaving the embassy, Rohrabacher said. The WikiLeaks co-founder has been virtually imprisoned inside the London building since 2012, after the UK sought to arrest him on a Swedish warrant that has since been lifted. British authorities insist they will arrest Assange the moment he leaves the embassy, for violating the terms of his bail.

Rohrabacher has not been able to discuss the Assange meeting with President Donald Trump so far, due to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election, he told Breitbart.

The newly-appointed White House national security adviser John Bolton has met with Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov to discuss the US-Russia relationship amid unprecedented tensions between Washington and Moscow.

"Ambassador Bolton reiterated that it is in the interest of both the United States and Russia to have better relations, but that this will require addressing concerns regarding Russia's interference in the 2016 election, the reckless use of chemical weapon in the United Kingdom, and the situations in Syria and Ukraine," the White House said in a statement.

While US officials and Trump had earlier personally expressed some will to cooperate and to build a "good relationship" with Russia, the White House has now taken quite a hostile approach, implying in its statement for the US media that Moscow should first confess its alleged sins in order to move on. The Russian Embassy in Washington has not immediately issued any statements following the meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described US threats to impose sanctions on Turkey if it purchases Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles as blackmail, and an attempt to secure the market for US firms.

"What Mr. Mitchell has said about Ankara risking being subject to sanctions if it goes ahead with the S-400 purchase from Russia is a typical example of attempted blackmail with the intention of giving American companies an unfair advantage in market competition," Lavrov said at a Friday press conference following talks with Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.

The Russian foreign minister referred to a statement made earlier this week by US Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell.

"Ankara should be mindful of the risks in making strategic concessions to Moscow in order to achieve its tactical objectives in Syria. Ankara claims to have agreed to purchase the Russian S-400 missile system, which could potentially lead to sanctions under section 231 of CAATSA and adversely impact Turkey's participation in the F-35 program," Mitchell said in a speech before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Earlier, officials from the US and other NATO nations said Turkey's use of the S-400 system would compromise NATO's communications and cause interoperability problems.

Two of the most remarkable facts concerning the April 14th attack on Syria by the US, UK and France are:

1. Materially, the attacks were completely ineffective, as explained by Joe Quinn's article About Those 'Nice, New, Smart' Missiles And The 'Chemical Weapons' Sites in Syria. The Syrians understood this, which is why they were celebrating rather than mourning when the sun came up.
2. They were carried out hours before the OPCW mission reached Syria and right after the Russian Ministry of Defense began showing testimonies of local doctors denying there was a chemical attack in Douma. This suggests F.UK.US. were in a hurry to make a show of force before the facts could be properly analyzed while distracting attention away from the evidence.

Rather than demonstrating strength, these facts speak of weakness, impotence and a desire to compensate with theatrics. The US knows it cannot go too far in its pursuit of regime change in Syria because it risks paying a heavy price at the hands of Russia. Even if it could take out all Russian forces in Syria, it is not willing to lose any ships, aircraft or personnel and thus lose its status as the supreme global military force. Furthermore, there is always the risk of escalation, which is madness when it comes to nuclear powers. The Americans are acutely aware that they are playing with fire, which explains how careful they were to stay away from Russian targets. The attack was carefully measured to appear stronger than last year's, yet not strong enough to provoke Russia into action. This could also explain, in part, why the Trump administration is seeking to replace US troops in Syria with an Arab force, as it is much safer (and cheaper) to fight with proxy forces.

In the aftermath of the strikes on Syria, and as more information is coming out about the chemical attack that never was, it is becoming increasingly clear that Western mainstream media outlets are also losing their dominant positions and their grip on the narrative.

On Sunday April 15^th, Britain's Guardian bannered "OPCW inspectors set to investigate site of Douma chemical attack" and pretended that there was no question that a chemical attack in Douma Syria on April 7^th had actually occurred, and the article then went further along that same propaganda-line, to accuse Syria's Government of having perpetrated it. This 'news' story opened [and clarificatory comments from me will added in brackets]:

UN chemical weapons investigators were set on Sunday to begin examining the scene of a chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, which had prompted the joint US, French and British strikes against military installations and chemical weapons facilities near the capital, Damascus.

The arrival of the delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) came as the Syrian military announced that it had "purified" [no source provided, but this - from 7 March 2018 - is the only source that existed prior to the April 14th missiles-invasion of Syria, and its meaning is very different] the region of eastern Ghouta, of which Douma is a part, after a two-month campaign that killed nearly 2,000 civilians [no source provided as regards either the number, or that all of them were 'civilians' and that none of them were jihadists or "terrorists"], following years of siege.

With Washington dropping all pretense and turning ever more hostile and confrontational towards Russia, Moscow needs to make its foreign policy more offensive, the head of the Russian national security council believes.

Over the past few years Washington has taken a number of steps and made policy changes that pose a threat to Russia, Nikolay Patrushev told the nation's top security body on Friday. Russia needs to respond to this to protect its core interests, he said.

"There are several key goals we need to reach to make our foreign policy more offensive, to ensure a necessary level of national and public security," the official said. The goals described by Patrushev range from boosting the stability of Russia's financial system to ensuring that Russia can produce essential military and civilian products with a minimal reliance on foreign suppliers, to just defending the traditional values of the Russian society.

The Russian security council head said that, under President Donald Trump, Washington had shed all pretense of seeking cooperation with Russia and has taken a position of open confrontation. The US has also boosted reliance on hard military power in pursuit of its strategic interests, he observed.

"This change is apparent not only in rhetoric, but also in actions. The latest example is the illegal missile strikes conducted by the US, Britain and France on Syrian territory on the night of April 13-14," he said. "Russia's independent foreign policy, its persistent defense of its national interests are perceived by the US as a threat to its unconditional global domination."

Patrushev suggested that Russia should seek engagement with nations other than the US, including those that currently follow America's lead in confronting Russia, to find common interests.

Ankara "expects statements befitting of a president", advises Macron to become more serious

Macron has defended Trump's strikes on Syria he participated in with 8 missiles saying they had the benefit of driving a wedge between Russia and Turkey (seeing how one rhetorically condemned and the other welcomed them):

Among other things, the French president claimed that the operation drove Turkey and Russia apart. "With those strikes we have separated the Russians and the Turks on this. The Turks condemned the chemical weapons," he told the BFM television channel.

Turkey through its FM first denied its differences on Trump's fireworks show had affected its level of closeness to Russia:

"The French president said Turkey and Russia have been separated because of the airstrikes. This is not true. We have differences of opinion, but our relations with Russia are too strong for the French president to sever," he assured.

Then advised Macron to grow up and become serious as Ankara "expected statements befitting of a president":

The redacted copies of notes that former FBI Director James Comey made following his meetings with President Trump, have been leaked online, after the Justice Department released them to Congress.

The documents, obtained by Associated Press, appeared online on Thursday evening, shortly after they were sent to the chairs of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Intelligence committees by the DOJ.

Earlier this week, House Judiciary chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), Oversight chair Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) and Intelligence chair Devin Nunes (R-California) told the justice department there was "no legal basis for withholding these materials from Congress."