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SOTT Focus: Anti-Trump Chaos Is Exploding Across America

anti-trump graffiti protest
Trump suggested that he might not accept the election results if Clinton won. Hillary and her supporters in the government, media and public called this "horrifying" - a stunning rejection of America's longstanding democratic practice. Now, in a repeat of anti-Bush protests in 2001, Clinton supporters are refusing to accept the results. Not only that, at least some Hillary supporters are turning out be exactly what they accused Trump supporters of being: violent and hateful bigots. As The Duran's Alex Christoforou puts it, "For liberals and progressives, love and peace is only acceptable if it falls in line with their definition of such."

First there were the calls for Trump's assassination on Twitter. Shockingly, a freelance journalist for the UK's Guardian and New York Times, Monisha Rajesh, even called for president-elect Trump to be assassinated in a tweet to journalist Mark C. O'Flaherty, who writes for the Financial Times, Sunday Times, among other propaganda outlets. O'Flaherty responded "haaaa - that's all we've talked about for the last hour." Rajesh quickly deleted the tweet and her account, but not before it was seen and captured by other Twitter users.

Sherlock

Republicans on House Oversight Committee preparing to spend years investigating Clintons

chaffetz
© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg NewsRep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington last May
Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, unendorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed him up to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton.

"It's a target-rich environment," the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City's suburbs. "Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years' worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good."

In a tweet Wednesday night, Chaffetz reaffirmed his distaste for Clinton and his refusal to endorse Trump — but reversed his plans not to vote for the Republican nominee.

If Republicans retain control of the House, something that GOP-friendly maps make possible even in the event of a Trump loss, Clinton will become the first president since George H.W. Bush to immediately face a House Oversight Committee controlled by the opposition party. (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama lost Congress later in their presidencies.)

Comment: Despite the fact that Killary wasn't elected president, Chaffetz has vowed to continue investigating the Clintons:
"It would be totally remiss of us to dismiss [the email investigation] because she's not going to be president," Chaffetz said of the defeated Democratic nominee.

"I still have a duty and obligation to get to the truth about one of the largest breaches of security at the State Department," he said. "Tens of thousands of documents still have not been turned over to Congress."
We can only hope that Killary gets the justice she deserves.


MIB

FBI ran 23 Dark Web child porn sites to gather visitor info with malware

Computer keyboards
© Ina Fassbender / Reuters
The FBI was authorized to operate 23 child-porn websites on the Tor network in order to collect data on users via malware, according to unsealed court documents. In January, it was revealed that the FBI had similarly ran a top child porn site for 13 days.

Court documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show that the FBI was authorized by a Maryland judge to target child porn users of "Websites 1-23." The sites operated in areas of the "Dark Web" on the browser Tor, where IP addresses are hidden.

In January, the FBI said that for 13 days in February last year it had taken over operations of Tor-hidden Playpen, which the agency called "the largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world." In the process, the FBI used malware — or "network investigative technique" (NIT) — to infect users' computers until May 4, 2015. More than 4,000 computers worldwide were hacked in this fashion, and 186 people were charged.

"In the normal course of the operation of a web site, a user sends 'request data' to the web site in order to access that site. While Websites 1-23 operate at a government facility, such request data associated with a user's actions on Websites 1-23 will be collected," said an FBI affidavit within the recently unsealed documents. "That data collection is not a function of the NIT. Such request data can be paired with data collected by the NIT, however, in order to attempt to identify a particular user and to determine that particular user's actions on Websites 1-23."

Snakes in Suits

Jean-Claude Juncker: 'We will need to teach Trump what Europe is' and tears up congratulatory speech for Clinton

Jean-Claude Juncker
© Tobias Schwarz / AFP
The relationship between the EU and newly-elected US President Donald Trump has got off to an inauspicious start, after the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker fired a volley of criticism across the Atlantic.

"We will need to teach the president-elect what Europe is and how it works," Juncker, arguably the EU's most powerful politician, told students during a conference in Luxembourg, his home state. "I think we will waste two years before Mr. Trump tours the world he does not know."

"The election of Trump poses the risk of upsetting intercontinental relations in their foundation and in their structure," said Juncker, and said that his attitude towards joint security obligations was "pernicious."


Comment: Is Junker and the EU worried about not having the US dictate what they should do?


Bad Guys

ISIS prepares sulfur pits and hangs 'traitors' on lampposts as Iraqi troops close in on Mosul

destroyed car belonging to the Islamic state militants is seen in the town of Bashiqa
© Alaa Al-Marjani / ReutersA destroyed car belonging to the Islamic state militants is seen in the town of Bashiqa, after it was recaptured from the Islamic State, east of Mosul, Iraq November 10, 2016.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) is stockpiling mustard gas, using increasingly brutal tactics against civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul, while resorting to the use of child soldiers as its ranks are being depleted by the coalition's onslaught.

"On Tuesday, ISIL reportedly shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul city after accusing them of 'treason and collaboration' with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The victims were dressed in orange clothes marked in red with the words: 'traitors and agents of the ISF'. Their bodies were then hung on electrical poles in several areas in Mosul city," said the latest briefing from the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), published on Friday.

Later through the week, more than 20 other men were shot dead in three separate executions, as a result of being found with SIM cards, and displayed in public with notes saying "used cell phones to leak information to the ISF."

Question

Canadian oil company seeking to invest $50bn in Russian projects with Chinese investors

oil pumping rig
© Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
Canadian engineering technology company Genoil has signed a letter of intent worth $50 billion with Russia's Grozneft. The deal will support what are described as integrated oil projects in Russia.

Genoil will develop oil fields and build clean technology upgraders, refineries and pipelines in Russia, according to the company.

At first, Genoil plans to invest $15 billion into projects in Russia's southern republic of Chechnya. The company will explore ways to link the new project to existing pipeline networks in the region.

"We have good ties to Chinese investors, we are ready to invest into infrastructure development, and we believe that it's possible to increase oil production in Russia by this," a company representative said as quoted by Vedomosti daily.

"First of all, money will be invested into developing reservoirs in the republic to create a refinery with a capacity of 3-6 million tons of oil," said Grozneft chairman Andrey Gusak, stressing that the investors may consider buying mining assets in other regions of the country.

Attention

Trump may seek support from Japan in countering China's growing influence

Soldiers from U.S. Marines and Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force
© KYODO / Reuters Soldiers from U.S. Marines and Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force.
The US president-elect will likely seek to gain Tokyo's support in countering China's rising influence in Asia despite existing rift over Japanese funding for American troops stationed in that country, according to Donald Trump's security adviser.

A meeting between Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York next Thursday may include discussing tougher stance on China which seeks to extend its influence over Southeast Asia, Reuters reported on Friday.

Trump wants Japan "to play a more active role in Asia," a security adviser for the US president-elect who chose not to disclose his identity, told Reuters.

Colosseum

Trump, Brexit and the collapse of the Western liberal order

trump cartoon caricature
© DonkeyHotey
One of the most confounding aspects of Donald Trump's election as 45th President of the United States is that in the space of a year - indeed less than a year - a man with zero political experience has destroyed two of America's most entrenched political dynasties: Bush and Clinton.

Just pause on this for a moment, and place it in the context of someone who when he first appeared on the political stage as a candidate for the Republican nomination was met with ridicule and scorn. Consequently, a mainstream media and liberal commentators for whom politics is an exclusive club, the preserve of a select group of blessed people who belong to this club as if by divine right, have just been delivered one almighty slap-down.

The sense of entitlement that emanated from the Clinton campaign during this election was astonishing to behold. Hillary Clinton emitted the demeanour of a woman approaching a coronation rather than an election, disdaining not only Donald Trump but also his supporters, whom she infamously described as "deplorables". This was her undoing.

Regardless of the attempt to paint her as someone in touch with the suffering and pain of the millions of Americans who have long been denied a seat at the banquet of US democracy, she came over as the very embodiment of a machine politician, a candidate whose credibility and character was irredeemably tainted by her connections to Wall Street, big business, the Saudis, George Soros, etc.

Cowboy Hat

Duterte humility: 'I'm just small molecule compared to Trump'

Duterte
© Edgar Su / ReutersPhilippines President Rodrigo Duterte
Controversial Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte has said that compared to Donald Trump he is just a "small molecule." Duterte, known for his harsh rhetoric toward outgoing US President Barack Obama, has hailed Trump's election victory.

"I'm just a small molecule on this planet, he's now the president of the most powerful country in the world," Duterte is cited as saying by ABS-CBN News.

"I am just a president struggling barely above the water," he added.

According to Duterte, he and Trump share the same "passion to serve" the people of their respective countries.

The Philippines leader expressed confidence that Washington will remain Manila's "friend" and "ally" under the new US president, adding that all bilateral agreements between the states will be respected.

Comment: Duterte has a passion to serve the Filipino peoples and is not afraid to take the heat for it.


Chess

Obama directs Pentagon to deploy more drones to eliminate Al Qaeda targets in Syria

A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator
© U.S. Air Force / ReutersA U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator
President Obama has reportedly ordered more armed drones and intelligence assets to be deployed to Syria as he tasked the Pentagon to go after Al-Qaeda-linked militants. The move, not formally confirmed yet, could signal a major turn in Obama's approach in Syria.

Several unnamed US officials told The Washington Post that Obama ordered the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to use additional armed drones and surveillance aircraft in the airspace over northwestern Syria.

According to one official, the president could not deal "with the devil" - meaning the Syrian Al-Qaeda offshoot formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra. Fighting against Assad on the side of the US-supported rebels, the group cut ties with Al-Qaeda and changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in July.

"The president doesn't want this group to be what inherits the country if Assad ever does fall," a senior US official told The Post. "This cannot be the viable Syrian opposition. It's Al-Qaeda."

Comment: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that the possible instruction to kill key leaders of the terrorist group formerly known as the Nusra Front by the United States is welcome news if confirmed officially.
"If in fact we are talking abut such a decision, it can only be welcomed," Ryabkov told reporters, noting that he has not yet seen official confirmation of the media reports.