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There is a desire to force us into constant defense: Lavrov weighs in on possible WADA ban for Russian athletes


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:11 UTC
red square
© Sputnik / Maksim Blinov
Russia's foreign minister has spoken out about a possible ban for the country's athletes from international competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), reminding that Moscow is nowadays blamed for nearly everything.

Sergey Lavrov made his statement shortly after the Kremlin announced it has no plans to hold a discussion with the leaders of Russia's athletic federations on a possible four-year ban from WADA.

The Compliance Review Committee (CRC) of the world doping watchdog has recommended the suspension over alleged tampering with data of the Russian national anti-doping agency.

WADA's leadership is to take a decision on how to proceed on December 9. Some Russian media reported that a high-level meeting of Russian sports officials will be gathered at the Kremlin to discuss the case. But Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president's office, told journalists on Tuesday that the reports were not true.
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Light Sabers

US senator whines as Turkey conducts first S-400 radar tests, calls for new sanctions against 'ally'


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:08 UTC

Comment: Update: Turkey has released footage of its first S-400 air defense system 'radar' tests... on its US-made F-16 fighter jets:



s 400
© Reuters / Vitaly Nevar
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is mocking the US and has crossed a new "red line" as Ankara decided to start testing its S-400 air defense systems, a US senator said, calling for new sanctions against Turkey.

Turkey's persistence in its desire to actually use the armaments it procured from Russia was bemoaned by US Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in a bitter tweet.The official said that Ankara's push for testing radars of the S-400 systems just two weeks after Erdogan's visit to the US is an insult to Washington and open mockery of the US president.
Two weeks after his WH visit, Erdogan is thumbing his nose at Trump, the US [and] NATO, and crossing another red line on S-400s.
The senator called upon Trump to impose sanctions on Ankara over this behavior, as well as remembering the Syrian Kurdish-led militias - once the main US ally in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
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Stop

'He's trained to attack': Trump warns journalists to keep quiet during WH event with dog who helped kill al-Baghdadi


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:38 UTC
conan the dog
© Reuters / Tom Brenner
During a ceremony to honor Conan — the dog who famously helped take down Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — Donald Trump warned the press corps that the hero canine was "trained to attack if you open your mouth."

The US president introduced Conan at the White House ceremony on Monday as "probably the world's most famous dog" before issuing the warning to reporters, who he said would "want to be very, very careful."

He recalled the "flawless attack" on al-Baghdadi who was reportedly chased into a tunnel by Conan before blowing himself up in Syria last month. Trump told reporters that the four-legged terrorist catcher — who was injured during the attack — had been awarded with a medal and a plaque for his bravery.
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Propaganda

Rep. Devin Nunes to sue CNN, Daily Beast over fake hit pieces

Matthew Boyle
Breitbart
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 16:17 UTC
Devin Nunes
© Win McNamee/Getty Images
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) intends to file lawsuits against both CNN and the Daily Beast over fake hit pieces the outlets have published about him in recent days, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Two pieces recently published in both outlets-one from Daily Beast earlier this week, and one from CNN published late Friday-alleged that the Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who is now indicted on unrelated charges, helped Nunes with a variety of matters when digging into Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on behalf of Democrats.

The Daily Beast story, from Betsy Swan (formerly Woodruff), alleges that Parnas helped Nunes set up a variety of meetings on Ukraine matters. The CNN story, from Vicky Ward, goes even further, alleging that Nunes arranged a secret trip to Vienna and met there with Victor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor that former Vice President Joe Biden pushed to have fired when Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, the natural gas company paying Biden's son Hunter Biden $83,000 per month. It is unclear at this time how much of these reports are blatantly false, but most of each of them appear to be inaccurate, according to sources familiar with the matter.
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Calendar

Finally charged on criminal counts and lacking a mandate to govern, Netanyahu's days appear to be numbered

Jonathan Cook
Dissident Voice
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
netanyahu
As the deadlock over forming a government continues, charges against the caretaker prime minister have tipped the country into an uncharted constitutional crisis

The decision to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on three separate criminal counts pushes the country's already unprecedented electoral stalemate into the entirely uncharted territory of a constitutional crisis.

There is no legal precedent for a sitting prime minister facing a trial - in Netanyahu's case, for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was charged with corruption in 2009 but only after he had resigned from office.

Israeli commentators are already warning of the possibility of civil war if, as seems likely, Netanyahu decides to whip up his far-right supporters into a frenzy of outrage. After a decade in power, he has developed an almost cult-like status among sections of the public.

The honorable thing would be for Netanyahu to step down quickly, given that the two elections he fought this year ended in deadlock. Both were seen primarily as plebiscites on his continuing rule.

He is now the country's caretaker prime minister, in place until either a new government can be formed or an unprecedented third election is held.

Comment: We can probably look forward to another uptick in regional chaos and destruction as Netanyahu tries to save his political hide:

See also:

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Star of David

Pompeo gives away the Palestinian West Bank and any chances for a lasting peace

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Reader
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Pompeo Netanyahu
A story has been circulating suggesting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will soon be resigning because he needs to focus on planning for his campaign to become a Senator from Kansas in 2020. This is good news for the United States, as Senator Lindsey Graham has had no one he is able to talk to about exporting democracy by blowing up the planet since Joe Lieberman retired and John McCain died. And the tale even has a bit of palace intrigue built into it, with an interesting back story as Pompeo is apparently considering his move because he fears that staying in harness with Donald Trump for too long might damage his reputation. There are also reports that he has been traveling to Kansas frequently on the State Department's dime to test the waters, a violation of the Hatch Act which prohibits most government officials from engaging in self-promotional political activities unrelated to their actual jobs.

If one is seeking evidence to suggest that Pompeo, a man who lies with a fluency that takes one's breath away, is delusional, it would certainly have to include his self-assessment that he has a reputation to protect. It is possible to cite many instances in which Pompeo has asserted something that is absolutely contrary to the truth, though one might also have to concede that he could often be saying what his factually challenged boss wants to hear. When Pompeo was Director of the CIA he even joked openly about how "We lied, we cheated, we stole."
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Birthday Cake

Queen cancels Prince Andrew's 60th birthday party in wake of disastrous Newsnight interview

Nick Enoch
Daily Mail
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 20:35 UTC
the queen prince andrew

The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February. Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke.
The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February.

Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke, according to The Sunday Times. His birthday is on February 19.

The news comes just days after the Queen effectively sacked him from his royal duties at the behest of her eldest son in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Democrats haven't learned a darned thing from past impeachment probes

John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon
The Nixon and Clinton impeachment inquiries were bipartisan, serious, and easy to understand. None of that is true of the Democrats' anti-Trump impeachment charade

The history of impeachment proceedings in the modern era, from Nixon to Clinton to Trump, shows that a successful impeachment needs three things: it must be bipartisan, it must be about something Americans think is important, and Congress must strike while the iron is hot. In Trump's case, Democrats have botched all three.

First, this impeachment inquiry is an entirely partisan affair. The public hearings of recent weeks have made this undeniable, but even before the hearings it was obvious that Democrats alone were going to conduct this impeachment. The House's impeachment inquiry resolution passed last month without a single Republican vote, and in fact two Democrats joined GOP lawmakers in voting against the resolution, making opposition to the impeachment probe bipartisan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to avoid this, which is one reason she refused to call for an open House vote on whether to open an impeachment inquiry and instead announced the "inquiry" in a press conference. She knew any House vote would be entirely along partisan lines, undermining the inquiry's credibility from the outset. By the time Democrats brought forward their impeachment rules resolution at the end of October, Pelosi had lost control of the process.

Comment: It is also clear that, on the heels of the ridiculous and disastrous "Russiagate" and Mueller investigation - there is already a precedent set in the minds of many Americans for Washington accusing Trump of great malfeasance and, after much hoopla, it coming to absolutely nothing. This impeachment probe is just obviously more of the same. Unless you're a Trump hater that is.

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Gear

Who gets to decide that the US should fight a "hot war" with Russia?

Andre Damon
WSWS.org
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
US deep state gears
There is a saying attributed to the banker J.P. Morgan: "A man always has two reasons for what he does — a good one and the real one."

On September 26, Congressman Adam Schiff reviewed the contents of the "whistleblower" complaint that triggered the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. "It reads like a classic organized crime shakedown," Schiff said.

Imitating Trump speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, Schiff demanded, "I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand. Lots of it."

If the alleged "organized crime shakedown" by Trump was the "good" reason for the impeachment inquiry, the "real" reason has emerged over two weeks of public congressional hearings. The hearings have lifted the lid on a massive US conspiracy to spend billions of dollars to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014 and foment a civil war that has led to the deaths of thousands of people.

The impeachment drive is itself the product of efforts by sections of the intelligence agencies and elements within the State Department to escalate Washington's conflict with Russia, with potentially world-catastrophic consequences.

Comment: That's right, the choice to declare war on a peaceful country gets decided by a few thousand crazies in Washington, not the democratically elected leader of the US - or the majority of Americans - who, if they were actually given the facts instead of the propaganda - would likely usher out the genocidal beltway crazies in seconds flat.

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Star of David

Human Rights Watch slams Israel's expulsion of director over BDS activism


RT
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
HRW director Omar Shakir
© REUTERS/Ammar Awad
HRW director Omar Shakir speaks at Ben Gurion International Airport before his deportation from Israel, November 25, 2019.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the decision by Israel to deport Omar Shakir, HRW's director for Israel and Palestinian territories. Israel revoked his visa over activism on behalf of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Shakir, a US citizen, was placed on a flight out of Ben Gurion International Airport on Monday, after the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the government's decision to expel him from Tel Aviv. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Shakir has been an outspoken advocate of the BDS movement prior to his work at HRW, and that they have every right to expel him under a 2017 amendment to the rules of entry and residency.
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