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'Andres Manuelovich?' Mexican presidential candidate chuckles at 'Russian links'


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 05:24 UTC
Obrador
© Jonathan Ernst/ReutersPresidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Mexican presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has laughed of suggestions that his campaign may be backed by everyone's favorite bogeyman - the Russians.

The perennial leftist candidate responded to claims that his campaign may have Kremlin backing by releasing a satirical online video. The allegations were made Wednesday by a spokesman for rival candidate, Jose Antonio Meade.

The former mayor of Mexico city, who is also known as "Peje" after a thin-skinned fish found in his native state of Tabasco, and the acronym AMLO, decided the best weapon to use against his detractors was comedy.

In a short video, which has so-far been viewed over 380,000 times, Lopez Obrador looks out to sea where he says he is waiting for a Russian submarine, laden with gold from Moscow, to surface. Grinning to the camera he says "I am no longer 'Peje,' now I'm Andres Manuelovich."

It appears there's no end to the Russophobia which has gripped the world since the election of Donald Trump as US president. Mexico is the Kremlin's latest target - at least according to US National security adviser H.R. McMaster, who in December said he had seen "initial signs of it (Russian meddling) in the Mexican presidential campaign already."

Comment: Ridiculosity...the combination of the absurd with momentum.

See also: Russiagate Circus Comes to Mexico

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Snowflake

Do the Dems really care about Dreamers or just do anything to score political points

Liz Peek
Fox News
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Flag Snowstorm
© Hindustan Times/KJN
Democrats are threatening to shut down the federal government, refusing to pass a spending bill unless it contains a path to legal status for the so-called "Dreamers" protected under President Obama's DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program.

Are the Democrats really concerned with the status of these young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, or with reforming our broken immigration system? No. They are trying to score political points.

Let's review:

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently went to a closed-door meeting at the White House to push his immigration plan. He was so genuinely intent on getting a bipartisan deal done to save the Dreamers that he torpedoed the entire undertaking by running to the microphones and claiming President Trump's made a "racist" comment about "s---hole" countries.

Does that make any sense? No, it does not.

Durbin knew full well when he made his accusation that President Trump used such vulgar language that a media firestorm would be unleashed. He was betting that if the talks broke down, and Congress failed to resolve the Dreamer issue, President Trump would be blamed.

Comment: The Dreamers are Democrats' pawns in a political game of revenge. Betting money, for the long haul, is on Trump.

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Arrow Down

Exodus of the wealthy to escape new tax rules worries California Dems

Adam Ashton
The Sacramento Bee
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 12:33 UTC
Face downred jag
© TruthoutRed Line of Fear
The Republican-backed federal tax bill flipped the tables on a never-ending question for California politicians: Will high taxes lead the state's wealthiest residents to flee the Golden State for the comparable tax havens of Florida, Nevada and Texas?

Republicans reliably raise that alarm when Democrats advocate for tax increases, like the 2012 and 2016 ballot initiatives that levied a new income tax on very high-earning residents.

But now, with the federal tax bill cutting off deductions that benefited well-off Californians, the state's Democrats suddenly are singing the GOP song about a potential millionaire exodus.

"People with higher incomes pay a lot more money, and some of them may be tempted to leave," Gov. Jerry Brown said when he unveiled his 2018-19 budget proposal last week. "This was an assault by the Republicans in Congress against California."


Comment: Weather anomalies, fires statewide, rumbles underground, migrant worker issues...perhaps these are bigger concerns for the incoming and outgoing California population. Many love to live there, but the state has recently taken hits.

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Snakes in Suits

Congressman slams AG's weed 'witch hunt', 'War on Drugs' helps cartels

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Curbelo/Sessions
© THEFREETHOUGHTPROJECT.com
A Republican congressman called out the attorney general for blatantly ignoring states' rights and launching a 'witch hunt' targeting a plant. While the federal government still blindly refuses to acknowledge that cannabis has any medicinal value, not all of its employees are fooled into believing the lie that legalizing the plant will do more to harm the public than what has been done under the guise of the "War on Drugs."

Congressman Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from Florida, took to Twitter to call out Attorney General Jeff Sessions' war on cannabis in states that have voted to legalize it. He noted that by supporting interference from federal agencies, Sessions is proving that he has no respect for states' rights.
"The Attorney General's witch hunt against legally-operating, state-regulated marijuana businesses in states like Florida favors drug dealers and cartels operating ILLEGALLY and hurts LEGAL small business owners' ability to compete," Curbelo wrote. "Our government must respect states' rights."
While cannabis is legal for medicinal use in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and a recent poll found that its legalization is now supported by 86 percent of Americans, Sessions started 2018 by showing that he does not care about what the overwhelming majority of the country wants.


Comment: See also:

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Moon

Zuckerberg: Facebook to prioritize news from 'trustworthy' news sources


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 13:51 UTC
Facebook
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press
Feeling the pressure from Congress to 'fix' his social media platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has resorted to crowdsourcing the ratings system for "trustworthy" news sources appearing on users' feeds.

"I've asked our product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local. And we're starting next week with trusted sources," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

"There's too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That's why it's important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground," he added.

Zuckerberg statement

Comment: These inane policies are obviously a response to Congressional pressure over 'Russiagate,' and will likely result in Facebook's ultimately marginalizing many of the types of articles, news sources and perspectives that one is likely to find right here on Sott.net.

There can be no real "meaningful social interactions" in an echo chamber.

See also:

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Stock Up

Russian wheat production rockets while US share crashes

AlanBjerga
Bloomberg
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 11:11 UTC
A worker supervises the loading of a truck with harvested grain from combine harvesters during the summer wheat harvest on a farm in Ust-Labinsk, Russia.
© Andrey Rudakov/BloombergA worker supervises the loading of a truck with harvested grain from combine harvesters during the summer wheat harvest on a farm in Ust-Labinsk, Russia.
Russia's emergence as the world's leading exporter of wheat, a shift that's reorienting global trade in the grain around the Black Sea region, recalls the Soviet Union's previous dominance of production -- albeit under markedly different conditions.
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TV

Russian Embassy ridicules Facebook's reopening of probe into Brexit fake news link


RT
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 11:57 UTC
Russia Facebook Twitter
© Dado Ruvic/Reuters
The Russian Embassy to the UK quoted Albert Einstein to mock social media giant Facebook, and their re-investigation into whether Russia used their site to spread fake news during the Brexit referendum.

In aid of an Electoral Commission investigation, last month Facebook announced that a meager 70p ($0.97) had been spent by a Russian-based company called 'Internet Research Agency'. The paid adverts reached only 200 news feeds, pouring cold water on claims that the Kremlin helped swing last year's EU referendum.

Despite this, Facebook has reportedly bowed to pressure from politicians and will once again conduct an investigation into whether or not Russians used the social media platform to spread disinformation and influence the Brexit vote.

Comment: Russia has been accused by the US, Britain, Germany and even Mexico, of interfering with the democratic process, yet not one bit of proof has ever come forward.

The US and their CIA have spent millions if not billions of dollars in their attempts to subvert democracies around the world, while apparently Russia is able to undermine them with a few unrelated tweets: 'Ukraine on Fire': How US, Not Russia, Destroyed Ukraine - Oliver Stone Documentary Finally Available (VIDEO)

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Bad Guys

Trump's first year of foreign policy: Losing allies and alienating nations

Alexandre Antonov
RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:17 UTC
trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
The first year of Donald Trump's presidency has been chaotic, to put it mildly - both domestically and for the world in general. And the world community should ask itself whether it was just a glitch in the system.

One can safely assume that the majority of world leaders don't consider Trump the best president the US has had. His domestic troubles aside, he has managed to imperil US credibility in many parts of the world.

He scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, which he believed was not good enough for America, and threatened similar pacts with Canada, Mexico and South Korea. He withdrew from the Paris climate accord, putting the self-interest of US business ahead of the global climate change threat. He disrupted the Middle East by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and threatening to scrap a hard-won nuclear deal with Iran. And he is currently pursuing a North Korea policy apparently aimed at either a mass famine in the country or an all-out, possibly nuclear war on the peninsula.
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Light Sabers

US-Turkey proxy war: Kurdish terrorist presence in northern Syria an existential threat to Turkish state

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 18:57 UTC
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump
This was predictable. The Duran has been stating now for over a year that Turkey's Erdogan would never allow the Kurds to set up any sort of state, quasi-state, or (as Rex Tillerson outlined last week) a "Border Security Force" made up of Kurdish fighters.

The a Kurdish presence south of Turkey is a threat to Turkey's very existence as a nation state. Erdogan will have no choice but to crush America's BSF forces.

The question on Pat Buchanan's mind is what will the US reaction be?

"A US-Turkish Clash in Syria?", by Patrick J. Buchanan...
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Briefcase

McCain associate David Kramer, who handled Trump dossier asks judge to seal deposition - fears 'hounding by the press'

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:54 UTC
David Kramer
© Kham / ReutersJohn Mcain associate David Kramer
An associate of Arizona Sen. John McCain's who handled the dossier is asking a federal judge to block the release of a videotape and transcript of a deposition he recently gave in a lawsuit related to the salacious document.

David Kramer, a former State Department official and former director at the McCain Institute for International Leadership, filed a motion in federal court in Florida asking a judge for a protective order to block the public release of his deposition.

Kramer was deposed last month by lawyers for a Russian businessman suing BuzzFeed News for publishing the dossier. The lawyers for the businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, are interested in Kramer because he is one of just a few people known to have handled the dossier after it was completed by former British spy Christopher Steele and before its Jan. 10, 2017 publication.

Comment: True Pundit wrote in February 2017:
This could be the beginning of the end for embattled Sen. John McCain's life in politics. According to White House officials, McCain is believed to have somehow gained access to the content of President Donald Trump's private, classified telephone calls with world leaders. And he isn't keeping quiet about what was talked about either.

An analysis of McCain's recent public statements by White House officials, coupled with information from intelligence personnel working with the Trump administration, paints a disturbing picture for McCain - or any elected U.S. politician. Officials believe the senator has inside knowledge of a number of President Trump's telephone conversations, including at least one conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even more alarming, officials believe McCain is secretly sharing this sensitive information with colleagues and his cabal of friendly mainstream media journalists in a dangerous clandestine campaign to damage Trump's presidency even before it has a chance to succeed. Trump has been searching for media rats in the Beltway in recent weeks. White House aides are confident they have now outed one of the major leaks plaguing the early days of the Trump presidency. To everyone's surprise, it is a senior senator supposedly belonging to the same side of the political aisle as the president.

McCain has been lambasting Trump to anyone and everyone who will listen since the newly minted president's inauguration. This includes a Russian comedian who pranked McCain posing as Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. Even during that troubling conversation, where McCain shared sensitive U.S. intelligence with an imposter, White House aides said McCain unknowingly exposed himself as having inside knowledge of Trump's telephone conversations.


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