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Pope Francis summons the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican


Fort Russ
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:02 UTC
the pope
Tensions continue to rise over Ukrainian legislative bills on control of the Russian Church. After the Patriarch of Russia asked the Pope to intervene, the Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to the Vatican.

Pope Francis summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See after controversial bills for the Russian Orthodox Church were proposed in Ukraine.

"The Vatican is concerned about the possibility of passing bills 4128 and 4511 [against the Russian Orthodox Church]. Our Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican was summoned. The Vatican is fully supportive of the position expressed by Catholic Bishop Stanislav Chirokoraduk on this subject," -- posting of Nikolai Danilevich, archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Patriarchate of Moscow on his facebook page.

Stanislav Chirokoraduk, criticizing the Ukrainian legislative motives for the Orhodox Church, lamented on May 16: "How can such bills be proposed? If the Church exists, it has its own rules [...] It is a humiliation of the Church. "
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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: No-Brainers and "Conspiracy Theories": Seth Rich, Craig Murray and the Narratives of the National Security State

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Clinton Rich
Why is it a "conspiracy theory" to think that a disgruntled Democratic National Committee staffer gave WikiLeaks the DNC emails, but not a conspiracy theory to think the emails were provided by Russia?

Why?

Which is the more likely scenario: That a frustrated employee leaked damaging emails to embarrass his bosses or a that foreign government hacked DNC computers for some still-unknown reason?

That's a no-brainer, isn't it?

Former-DNC employee, Seth Rich, not only had access to the emails, but also a motive. He was pissed about the way the Clinton crowd was "sandbagging" Bernie Sanders. In contrast, there's neither evidence nor motive connecting Russia to the emails. On top of that, WikiLeaks founder, Julien Assange (a man of impeccable integrity) has repeatedly denied that Russia gave him the emails which suggests the government investigation is completely misdirected. The logical course of action, would be to pursue the leads that are most likely to bear fruit, not those that originate from one's own political bias. But, of course, logic has nothing to do with the current investigation, it's all about politics and geopolitics.

Comment: As the author correctly states in regards to the Seth Rich murder,"any information that challenges the government version of events, could actually change the course of history". Which is why the truth of this story is absolutely incendiary and must be kept suppressed, obscured and quashed - at any cost - by those who would have Russia (and most of the rest of the world) under the thumb of US imperial control.

All the more reason to get the facts of this matter out and exposed.

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Snakes in Suits

Witch hunt begins: The Special Counsel comes to town

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Robert Mueller
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Donald Trump ran on a platform of improving relations with Russia: his victory was a mandate for that policy. Yet the real power in this country doesn't reside within the ballot box, and that reality was brought home when the Justice Department appointed a "special counsel" to investigate "any links and/or coordination with the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump."

After months of leaks coming from the intelligence agencies, who bitterly oppose the new policy, and a barrage of innuendo, smears, and character assassination in the media, the will of the people has been abrogated: the Deep State has the last word. The denizens of Langley, and the career spooks within our seventeen intelligence agencies, have exercised their veto power - a power that is not written into the Constitution, but is nevertheless very real.

Their goal is to not only make détente with Russia impossible - and Trump's goal of "getting along with Russia" will surely not be implemented now that the regime of the special counsel has trumped him - but also to overthrow a democratically elected chief executive, and perhaps prosecute him for "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the process.

Comment: The Special Council Inquisition: Bad For Trump, Bad For America

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Handcuffs

Sick indeed: Ex-Congressman Weiner pleads guilty to sexting with a minor, says "I have a sickness"


RT
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:00 UTC
anthony weiner
© Brendan McDermid / ReutersFormer US Congressman Anthony Weiner exits US Federal Court in New York City, May 19, 2017
Former US Congressman Anthony Weiner has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of sending obscene messages to a minor. The "sexting" case played a part in the 2016 presidential election. Huma Abedin, Weiner's wife, also filed for divorce on Friday.

On Friday, in an appearance in US District Court in New York, Weiner, 52, agreed as part of his plea deal to not appeal any prison sentence of 27 months or less, according to reports. The charge comes with a potential of up to 10 years in prison.

He was emotional before the judge Friday, according to NBC News, saying, "I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse."

Weiner surrendered to the FBI on Friday morning, the New York Times reported.

The plea deal covers a period from January through March of last year, when Weiner is alleged to have exchanged sexually explicit messages with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Weiner is believed to have known the girl was underage.

Weiner read a prepared statement to the court after answering the judge's questions.
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War Whore

Global wrecking ball: If NATO wants stability in the Middle East, it should stop sowing chaos

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 20 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Nato
A curious op-ed appeared in The National Interest, penned by Hans Binnendijk and David Gompert, adjunct senior fellows at the RAND Corporation. Titled, "NATO's Role in post-Caliphate Stability Operations," it attempts to make a case for NATO involvement everywhere from Libya to Syria and Iraq in fostering stability in the wake of a yet-to-be defeated Islamic State.

The authors propose that NATO step in to fill what it calls an impending "vacuum left as the caliphate collapses," heading off alternatives including "chaos or Iran, backed by Russia, filling the void, with great harm to U.S. and allied interests in either case." The op-ed never explains why Iran, neighboring Syria and Iraq, is less qualified to influence the region than the United States which exists literally oceans away and shares nothing in terms of history, culture, language or shared interests in stability and peace.

The op-ed would literally claim:
NATO is the only security organization with the skills and breadth to take on this task. The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition of 68 partners is ill equipped to engage in this complex task. A more cohesive organization such as NATO should lead, but in ways that allow continued Arab participation. A creative version of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition could provide the answer.
It was an interesting choice by the authors to showcase one of NATO's most stupendous and continuing failures in Afghanistan with mention of the ISAF, a force that not only has failed to bring stability to the Central Asia nation in over a decade and a half of occupation, but has presided over the emergence of the Islamic State there where previously it had no presence.
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Bullseye

Russian Embassy has implicated Hillary in Tweet: "Who Killed Seth Rich?"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Seth Rich
Earlier this week, Fox News dropped a bombshell report officially confirming, via anonymous FBI sources, what many had suspected for quite some time, that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was the WikiLeaks source for leaks which proved that the DNC was intentially undermining the campaign of Bernie Sanders. In addition to exposing the utter corruption of the DNC, the leaks cost Debbie Wasserman Shcultz her job as Chairwoman.

At the time, we mockingly wondered why the mainstream media seemingly overlooked a huge new development in a highly suspicious unsolved murder case.
Finally, we find it 'shocking' that while the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, etc are all too eager to regurgitate each others anonymously sourced stories that are critical of Trump, not a single one of them had a single reference of this Fox News bombshell on their website at the time this article was published.
Turns out we weren't alone, as the Russian Embassy in the U.K. just sent out the following tweet:

We're currently waiting for Wapo to confirm that Trump actually insisted the Russians send this tweet.

Comment:

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Info

Ex-leader Rousseff calls for Brazil snap election to avoid 'abyss' amid corruption scandal


RT
Sat, 20 May 2017 16:20 UTC
protest against Brazil's President Michel Temer
© Pilar Pilares / Reuters
Ousted Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called for new direct elections as the Supreme Court publishes testimony accusing the ex-leader, her predecessor, and current President Michel Temer of bribery.

Brazil needs immediate direct elections to overcome the ongoing political crisis, the county's former leader wrote on her website on Friday.

"The only way out of the crisis is direct elections, now" she said. "No indirect election will have the legitimacy to take the country out of the abyss into which it was plunged."

The statement came as the country's Supreme Court published testimony from executives of the country's biggest meatpacking company, JBS.
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USA

House Republicans worry that more conversations were secretly recorded

Jonathan Swan
Axios
Thu, 18 May 2017 15:49 UTC
trump et al.
© Evan Vucci / AP
House Republican leadership is agitated after the Washington Post published a transcript from a secret recording of one of the inner-sanctum conversations in the office of Speaker Paul Ryan.

The transcript shows House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy joking with his colleagues that then-candidate Trump and California Republican Dana Rohrabacher were both on the payroll of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The unknown is frustrating," said one senior GOP aide, referring to the possibility that this wasn't the only private leadership conversation that was secretly recorded.

Behind-the-scenes: House leadership sources have pored over the article and are privately discussing theories about where the leak came from:
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Cowboy Hat

Merciless Zakharova: US has nothing to show because it can't pour Russian hackers in a test tube


Russia Insider
Fri, 19 May 2017 15:20 UTC
Maria Zakharova and Colin Powell
Maria Zakharova has gone too far this time. This is below the belt.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is known for her quick wit and devastating zingers.

But this time she crossed the line. This time she went too far.

During an eventful press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Zakharova responded to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent claim that there is well documented evidence showing "the Russians were playing around in [US] electoral processes".
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Bullseye

Venezuelan general pushes for snipers to control demonstrators

Antonio María Delgado, Sonia Osorio
Miami Herald
Thu, 18 May 2017 15:03 UTC
Venezuelan flag
Claiming to be primed for civil war, a Venezuelan general issued orders to prepare for the future use of snipers against anti-government protesters, according to a secret recording of a regional command meeting held three weeks ago at a military base in the northwestern Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto.

On the recording, obtained from a Washington source that has provided el Nuevo Herald with information on Venezuela for previous stories, the generals discuss the legality and risks of using snipers during the massive demonstrations taking place almost daily against President Nicolás Maduro.


Comment: The unnamed "Washington source" is a clear indicator that this is another US attempt to plant fake news and to prepare Venezuela for more US interference and another attempt at regime change. It does also remind us of the US backed coup in Ukraine where snipers were used to blame the police and military of turning on their people. Seems like the book of tricks is limited in scope.


The military, however, insists publicly that it is not using lethal force against demonstrators, a claim that was repeated on Wednesday by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

Comment: Read more on the ongoing crisis in Venezuela:

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