A years-long forensics investigation into the computer image of the long-form Hawaiian birth certificate image that Barack Obama released during a White House news conference during his first term and presented to the American people as an official government document concluded it is "fake."

The probe also confirms that those who were subjected to the derogatory "birther" label from many media outlets and Democrats were right - at least regarding the document used to establish Obama's eligibility to be president.

The issue is that the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be a "natural-born citizen" but does not define the term. Scholarly works cited by the Founders defined it as a citizen at birth, born in the country to two citizens of the country, or merely the offspring of two citizens of the country.

The birth certificate Obama displayed on the White House website as "proof positive" of his eligibility states he was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father.

Some immediately pointed out alleged anomalies, questioning its validity, while others argued it also could prove his ineligibility because his father was not a citizen. Some of the lawsuits argued Obama was a dual citizen at birth through his father, contending the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens.

The Chinese government should be prepared to seize Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade state, by force before the new US administration "activates the Taiwan card" to dictate terms in mutual relations, Beijing's unofficial mouthpiece has stated.

"The Chinese mainland should display its resolution to recover Taiwan by force," the Communist party-owned Chinese newspaper Global Times wrote earlier this week. Calling recent comments by US President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters regarding Taiwan and one-China policy a "farce," the editorial stressed that China is now forced to be "vigilant" and forestall any potential US actions regarding the matter with their own actions.

"It might be time for the Chinese mainland to reformulate its Taiwan policy, make the use of force as a main option and carefully prepare for it."

"If the Chinese mainland won't pile on more pressure over realizing reunification by using force, the chance of peaceful unification will only slip away. Independent forces on the island publicly believe that time is on their side... they can turn the tables with the help of international forces. The future of Taiwan must not be shaped by... Washington," the article stated.

Exactly how Putin's hackers planted all the incriminating material on the poor man's computer and forced him to confess, is still being investigated.

British media are reporting on the start of the trial of Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet-era dissident who testified in support of the case alleging Vladimir Putin's secret services were behind the death of fellow dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

Bukovsky is being accused of amassing a huge collection of images of children being physically abused, according to the Guardian:

The Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky downloaded thousands of indecent images of children over a 15-year period, most of them featuring boys, a court has been told.

Bukovsky, 73, is charged with 10 counts of making and possessing indecent photos and one count of possessing an indecent computer-generated graphic. He denies all charges.

William Carter, prosecuting, told a jury at Cambridge crown court on Monday that Bukovsky's computer was identified during an operation by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. Police arrested him in October 2014 at his home on the outskirts of Cambridge.

Bukovsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1976, told detectives he had indecent material, the court heard. "He [Bukovsky] responded immediately by saying he did download images and that they would be on the computer in his study," Carter said.

The police subsequently discovered "a very great deal of material" on two hard drives. It showed some "very young" children up to the ages of 12 and 13. They were "largely but by no means exclusively boys", the court was told. There were some adults involved.

Uncanny how every criminal psychopath from Russia somehow always ends up in either London or Israel.

The system of the Electoral College is quirky, but it is not going away anytime soon. Each party thinks they can work the system to their advantage. The losers complain about it. The winners are happy with it, says political cartoonist Ted Rall.

Donald Trump may have won the US presidential election, but he faces one last hurdle - the Electoral College which convenes on Monday to vote for America's 45th leader.

Technically, it has the power to block him and electors are facing immense pressure from those hoping to scupper a Trump presidency.

The Washington Post has an interesting piece that reveals more about how Trump operates and how much he knows about things. And there is good news and bad news.

WaPo first explains Trump was not happy with his State Department finalists. That is excellent news because his finalists, Bolton, Giuliani, Romney, Petreas, were all awful choices. It shows that Trump has good instinct.

On the other hand, WaPo reveals further it was only by random chance that the name of Rex Tillerson ever came up. Tillerson, I hope, could prove to be a very good pick for US-Russia relations but it almost did not happen:

Then, by happenstance, Trump welcomed into his office a man who has served presidents of both parties, Robert M. Gates. Trump asked his guest, a former CIA director and former defense secretary, what he thought of the four candidates. After Gates ran through his thoughts, it seemed that Trump was "looking for a way out," a person familiar with the session said.

Trump asked whether there was someone else to consider.

"I recommend Rex," Gates told Trump, referring to Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of ExxonMobil. Gates said in an interview that he had not gone to the meeting intending to recommend Tillerson, and he did not recommend anyone else.

Separately, on the previous day, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had proposed Tillerson to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Rice and Gates, who run a consulting firm that counts ExxonMobil as a client, had jointly concluded that Tillerson might give Trump a fresh alternative.

Trump "seemed intrigued," Gates said. "It was not something he had considered."

Agreed evacuation of Jihadi fighters from eastern Aleppo stalls as local Al-Qaeda commanders refuse to allow reciprocal evacuation from two besieged Shiite villages and some Jihadi fighters reportedly try to smuggle their prisoners out of Aleppo.

The withdrawal of Jihadi fighters and civilians from the formerly Al-Qaeda controlled districts of eastern Aleppo has against stalled today, notwithstanding that thousands of civilians and Jihadi fighters left eastern Aleppo under Russian military escort yesterday.

The Syrian government says that there are two reasons for the latest delay.

The organization partnered with Facebook to help determine whether a certain story is "disputed" is financed by billionaire George Soros and a slew of other left-wing funders.

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) drafted a code of five principles for news websites to accept, and Facebook yesterday announced it will work with "third-party fact checking organizations" that are signatories to the code of principles.

Facebook says that if the "fact checking organizations" determine that a certain story is fake, it will get flagged as disputed and, according to the Facebook announcement, "there will be a link to the corresponding article explaining why. Stories that have been disputed may also appear lower in News Feed."

IFCN is hosted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. A cursory search of the Poynter Institute website finds that Poynter's IFCN is openly funded by Soros' Open Society Foundations as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and the National Endowment for Democracy.

Poynter's IFCN is also funded by the Omidyar Network, which is the nonprofit for liberal billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The Omidyar Network has partnered with the Open Society on numerous projects and it has given grants to third parties using the Soros-funded Tides Foundation. Tides is one of the largest donors to left-wing causes in the U.S.

Another significant Poynter Institute donor is the Craig Newmark Foundation, the charitable organization established by Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark. On Monday, just days before the announcement of the Facebook partnership, Poynter issued a press release revealing that Newmark donated $1 million to the group to fund a faculty chair in journalism ethics.

Donald Trump continues to defy the mainstream media by trolling like a boss. The Donald just fired off this incredible slam at the MSM presstitutes pushing the Russia hacking BS:

Channeling US displeasure with the Syrian government regaining control of Aleppo from militants, Secretary of State John Kerry called for a truce and placed much of the responsibility on Russia, while staying silent about US influence with Syrian rebels.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department on Thursday, Kerry accused the Syrian government of "continued, relentless and inexcusable attacks... directed at civilian population of Aleppo, including women, children, humanitarian workers and medical staff."

"What we want in Aleppo right now... is an immediate and verifiable, durable cessation of hostilities," he said. "We want safe passage, corridors of evacuation... for both civilians and fighters who choose to evacuate the city."

PropOrNot: Evidence of a CIA Psychological Operation ... On November 24, The Washington Post published a story citing the anonymous group PropOrNot. The story accused the Russians of building a large propaganda operation that worked to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect "insurgent candidate" Donald Trump. It claimed a large number of alternative news websites are acting as Russian agents, dupes, and useful idiots. - BoilingFrogs/Rockwell

This article excerpted above explains the forces behind PropOrNot and identifies them from a leftist/Ukraine standpoint. But another article published not so long ago by Washington's blog, here, makes the connection between Ukraine and the Koch Brothers.

This article will explain briefly what would seem to be full (or almost full) panoply of influences behind PropOrNot. The Koch Brothers along with the Scaife Foundation and some hugely powerful intel agencies have been identified as supporting the PropOrNot initiative. We've already written about this issue here and here.

But we were puzzled by some other articles that seemed to attribute PropOrNot to different influences, including those of the Clintons and some groups oddly affiliated with Ukraine. The Kochs and Clintons didn't seem to fit together but as it turns out, there's apparently a link thanks to Washington's blog, which seems to have solved this particular puzzle for us.