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SC Mueller suggests zero to 6 months jail time for former Trump aide, George Papadopoulos


Sputnik
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 03:38 UTC
George Papadopoulos
© Liberty Front Press
George Papadopoulos
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation, recommended zero to six months in prison for George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Donald Trump campaign. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October.

Papadopoulos claims to have had contact with a foreign professor whom he believed to have "substantial connections" to Russian government officials and informed him that the Russians possessed "dirt" on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He said he was told of the dirt in April 2016, before the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta were hacked.

The professor, identified as Joseph Misfud of the London Academy of Diplomacy, disputed Papadopoulos' account of the meeting and denies that he has connections to the Russian government.

President Trump has characterized Popadopoulos as a 'proven liar.' Papadopoulos has been revealed to have embellished the credentials listed on his LinkedIn page.

The adviser only met with Trump once in March 2016 along with other aides. Previously, Papadopoulos worked as a foreign policy adviser to Trump primary opponent Ben Carson.

Comment: Zero to 6 months...quite the big-catch criminal to hit the slammer (or not) in this over-extended, over-blown nothing-burger of a waste-of-time international investigation! What about a reciprocal mandate. Bring to trial the accusers and maybe a few dozen cells will gain full-time occupancy.

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HRC Blue

Hungary will no longer certify 'gender studies': Attack on academic freedom or stand against pseudoscience?


RT
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 19:24 UTC
bathroom gender logos
Viktor Orban's Hungary risks becoming a European pariah after declaring it will no longer certify gender studies courses. Even if they're right about their academic worthlessness, should officials tell universities what to teach?

"Astonishment" was the word Budapest's Central European University (CEU) used in response to the government's measures - "without any justification or antecedent" - first proposed last year and outlined in detail earlier this month. The 44 students enrolled in the master's program at the George Soros-backed university would be allowed to complete their courses, alongside the 10-person intake at the state-funded ELTE, the only other Hungarian university to teach the discipline. But from next year onwards, the ministry of education will not spend public funds on gender studies, nor award diplomas for completing a degree (though CEU students can continue to study for the English-language US-certified degree).

The decision places Hungary radically at odds with the rest of the Western world. From Croatia to Ireland, every other EU state has at least one functioning gender studies program, and in the US, the number has risen threefold in the last three decades, with courses offered at over 350 higher learning institutions.

Comment: The people of Hungary elected Viktor Orban, presumably knowing his conservative viewpoint. He is implementing the wishes of his citizens. Isn't that what a leader is supposed to do?

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Oil Well

India is yet another country to be struck by economic instability - Oil bill expected to increase by $26 billion

Irina Slav
Oil Price
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:30 UTC
oil pipe
A cheaper rupee could increase India's crude oil bill by as much as US$26 billion in FY 2018/19, according to Indian government officials. The currency hit a low of 70.32 to the U.S. dollar today, which will also push up fuel prices at the pump and prices of cooking gas.

At the same time, Indian crude oil imports are set to rise: last financial year, the country imported 220.43 million tons of crude, with the bill coming in at US$87.7 billion This financial year, imports are estimated to reach 227 million tons while international oil benchmarks and the U.S. dollar rise higher and the rupee falls.

The FY 2018/19 oil import bill was at the start of the year estimated at US$108 billion on the basis of an average benchmark oil price of US$65 and an exchange rate of 65 rupees per dollar. However, oil has been trending higher than this for much of the year so far and supply concerns resulting from the U.S. sanctions against Iran and worry about spare production capacity among OPEC members are likely to keep it higher than US$65 until the end of the year at least.

Comment: Currency instability also recently struck Russia and Turkey. But while Russia seems to be more than capable of riding it out, Turkey is struggling. As for India, at least in this instance, an alternative to trading oil in dollars could be seriously advantageous:

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Yoda

Exposing the propaganda: The New Yorker's fake Browder story

Lucy Komisar
The Komisar Scoop
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:38 UTC
William Browder
© Reuters
Some of hedgefunder William Browder's firms were caught involved in $230 million tax fraud in Russia
How do you get credibility for a story that is mostly lies? You throw in a few negatives about the person you are going to white-wash. Then you repeat all his unproved assertions as if they were fact. And you don't bother to provide evidence. And you ignore the major story you ought to be telling: how conman William Browder got western governments and media to block the Russians from collecting some $70 million he owes on taxes and illicit stock buys. And how that helped provoke ColdWar 2.0.

Joshua Yaffa's article about William Browder in the current New Yorker is a classic. Whatever happened to the New Yorker's famed fact-checkers?

First, the agenda is in the subhead "why the West should confront Putin." Yaffa is a fellow at the neocon New America think tank. So, the purpose of the article is not to shed light on Browder's story, it is to build hostility to Russia.

Let's go through his article.
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Oil Well

Iran mulls over 'solutions' to sell oil bypassing US sanctions


Sputnik
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 17:33 UTC
Iranian Military speedboat
© AFP 2018 / ATTA KENARE
The EU previously pledged to resist US sanctions on Tehran by implementing legislation allowing European businesses not to comply with restrictive US measures against the Islamic Republic, introduced after Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iran's Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri has expressed hope that "European countries can meet their commitments" under the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
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Mr. Potato

NY governor Andrew Cuomo's back-peddle: 'America has always been great'

Nate Church
Breitbart News
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:26 UTC
Andrew Cuomo
© Associated Press/Andrew Harnik
Gee, I didn't realize my constituents wouldn't like being insulted
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo walked back his claim that the United States "was never that great" in a Friday conference call, describing the comments as "inartful" and asserting that he believes the opposite of what he said.

The embattled New York state Governor has faced mass public backlash after deriding President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" message. "We're not going to make America great again," he said during a speech in New York City. "It was never that great."

"The expression I used the other day was inartful, so I want to be very clear," Cuomo told press on Friday's call. "Of course America is great, and of course America has always been great."

Comment: There are more important issues about Cuomo than his proclivity to put his foot in his mouth. He seems hostage to the SJW agenda.

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Propaganda

Mainstream Media's Application of Its Collective Voice Reveals a Tragic Truth About The US

Pam Martens & Russ Marten
Wall Street On Parade
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 16:52 UTC
media fake news cartoon
August 16, 2018 will be remembered as the day there was a collective awakening by America's media that there was something intrinsically and morally and constitutionally wrong with not just the functioning of the President of the United States - but with America itself.

In response to an August 10 appeal from the Boston Globe to newspaper editorial boards around the country to write and publish their thoughts on Trump's "dirty war against the free press," more than 300 newspapers responded yesterday.

The Globe's own editorial yesterday contained one of the most poignant phrases, stating that the President tosses out lies about the media "much like an old-time charlatan threw out 'magic' dust or water on a hopeful crowd." You can read the coast-to-coast outpouring of editorials on what a free press means to democracy here.
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Biohazard

Top ten holes in the UK govt's official Salisbury narrative: #1 - The motive

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 16:39 UTC
may skripal
When I began writing about the Skripal case, I was moved to do so by three main considerations.

Firstly, I really am passionate for the truth, and whatever the truth happens to be in this case, I strongly desire it to be made manifest. It was clear to me fairly early on that this was not happening.

Secondly, I am also very passionate about concepts such as the rule of law, innocent until proven guilty, and the apparently quaint notion that investigations should precede verdicts, rather than the other way around. And so when I saw accusations being made before the investigation had hardly begun, verdicts being reached before the facts were established, I was appalled - appalled that this was happening in what we British pride ourselves is the Mother of Parliaments, and equally appalled that this meant the investigation was inevitably prejudiced and - pardon the expression - poisoned from the off.

Thirdly, the incident happened to have taken place pretty much on my doorstep, which made it of even more interest to me.

Nothing I have seen in the intervening time has persuaded me that my initial impressions were wrong. In fact, the whiff of rodent I first detected has only become stronger as time has gone on and the case has become - frankly - farcical. Not only that, but the reaction to the case has been simply incredible. For instance, the United States expelled 60 diplomats back in March, and more recently they have effectively declared economic war on the Russian Federation - all in response to unproven and inconsistent assertions of a botched assassination attempt against an old spy in a quiet Wiltshire City. Such a response ought to raise the suspicions of any sentient being that all is not what it appears.

Comment: By May's logic, if any former Russian intel officer deemed a traitor is murdered, Russia is the only entity to have the motive. As Slane points out, that is patently absurd.

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Better Earth

Afghan President Ghani proposes three-month ceasefire with Taliban


Source
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 16:35 UTC
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has called a "conditional" cease-fire with the Taliban to mark the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The cease-fire will commence on August 20 and run for three months, Ghani said during an Afghan Independence Day ceremony on August 19.

"We announce a ceasefire that would take effect from tomorrow, the day of Arafa, until the day of the birth of the prophet [November 19], provided that the Taliban reciprocate," Ghani said.

He did not say whether Taliban authorities had agreed to the cease-fire.

Comment: See also: Taliban leader repeats his wish for sincere negotiations with American occupiers

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Map

Germany is planning to return some migrants to Greece


Infowars Europe
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 16:19 UTC
Angela Merkel
Germany will soon send back migrants to Greece if they had already applied for asylum there.

The two countries made the deal at the behest of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose coalition government is on shaky ground due to increased opposition to her immigration policies.

"EU law states that refugees should apply for asylum in the first EU country they reach, but Germany has typically allowed newcomers with open applications elsewhere to reside in the country as it examines their claim," reported the Wall Street Journal. "In practice, very few ever leave Germany, even if they fail to obtain asylum there."

Germany's policy contradicts claims that the migrants are "war refugees," because if that were the case, they'd seek asylum at the nearest, non-wartorn country.

In fact, many of the migrants travel across multiple European countries, including Greece, to seek asylum in Germany, which under Merkel has offered comprehensive welfare to migrants.
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