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Proof that Cohen and Manafort are criminals adds no weight to Russia collusion probe


RT
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:07 UTC
MuellerCohenManafort
© Mother Jones/Reuters/KJN
Cohen • Manafort • Mueller
What do Paul Manafort's five counts of tax fraud, one count of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud all have in common? None of them have anything to do with collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In the midst of the pandemonium and joyful celebration over Manafort's guilty verdicts and Michael Cohen's decision to plead guilty to charges brought against him, it's important to remember that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate one thing: "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with" Trump's campaign.

That is what the Mueller investigation is primarily about and that is what it has, so far, been unable to prove. We are more than 18 months into Donald Trump's presidency and neither Manafort, nor anyone else, has been charged with, let alone found guilty of, anything that remotely fits that description. Indeed, Manafort's crimes date to a time long before he was even hired for a brief stint as the Trump campaign manager.

Comment: If there is no evidence of Russian collusion, either Mueller is at a dead end or he is a really, really incompetent investigator. Time to fold.

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Laptop

The five most absurd US 'Russian Hacker' narratives


Sputnik
Tue, 21 Aug 2018 20:18 UTC
Votehack
© Unknown
Microsoft is the latest to back the anti-Russian witch hunt and has pledged its support to US political candidates, sources said. The gesture comes on the heels of fresh scrutiny against Russia and the upcoming midterm elections in November.

US software giant Microsoft has taken new measures to protect American democracy by piggybacking on US special counselor Robert Mueller's indictment of 12 Russian "agents," AP news reported on Tuesday.

The accusations have reportedly led to the discovery of new attempts to undermine the US electoral process, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith asserted. The "activity is most fundamentally focused on disrupting democracy," he stated.

Smith told reporters that Russians attempted to create fake websites to mimic two conservative political platforms, the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute. When asked whom he suspected, Smith replied, "We have no doubt in our minds" who was responsible.
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Star of David

Noam Chomsky interview slams Israeli interference in US politics as far greater than Russian


Haaretz
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 13:41 UTC
Noam Chomsky
© Medium
Noam Chomsky
In an interview on Democracy Now, the renowned linguist said that Russian interference in the U.S. elections was minor in comparison to open Israeli interference

The renowned American political dissident, MIT linguist, and author Noam Chomsky came out in criticism of the media's portrayal of what he considers trivial issues - the Russia investigation, U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies and Trump's cozying up to Russia's Putin.

Chomsky was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now - an independent news program. He believes that there are more pressing issues to be addressed by the media, such as the root causes of immigration, Trump's climate policies, and Israeli interference in U.S. elections.

Beginning at 5:27 in the video, Chomsky said:
"First of all, if you're interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support."
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Stop

New hacker attempt to break into US Democratic voter files thwarted


RFE/RL
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 04:49 UTC
Hacker
© Shutterstock
U.S. officials say hackers attempted to break into the massive voter database of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), but were stopped, two years after Russian operatives allegedly hacked and leaked the committee's e-mails during the presidential election.

Democratic party officials said on August 22 that a web security firm using artificial intelligence uncovered the attempt and the committee was notified on August 21.

The hackers created a fake login page to gather user names and passwords in an effort to gain access to the Democratic Party's voter file, which contains information on tens of millions of voters, the officials said. The attempt was quickly thwarted by suspending the attacker's account, and no information was compromised, they said, adding that the FBI was immediately notified.

Government and technology officials say it's too early to know who was behind the attempt. The FBI declined to comment.

Ross Rustici, senior director for intelligence services at Cybereason in Boston, told AP that a voter database is a good target for anyone trying to exacerbate political divisions in the United States or gain insight on political opponents. "The data housed in these types of databases would be incredibly useful both for domestic opposition research as well as for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes," he said.

Comment: Actual hack or testing the system, the DNC says it's prepared.

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USA

The American Dream? It's the American Scream

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik News
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:04 UTC
Court Room Sketch
© AP Photo/ Dana Verkouteren
This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, seated right row second from right, together with his lawyers, the jury, seated left, and the U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III, back cent
Just like when the medieval executioners tortured their prisoners to scream out for "mercy", so today two former aides of US President Donald Trump are put being on the rack to extract a begging response. If they finger the president, then maybe mercy will be shown to the prisoners.

Trump's former lawyer and his campaign manager are facing lengthy prison sentences for financial fraud and political campaign irregularities. Michael Cohen could get five years in jail, while Paul Manafort faces a soul-crushing 80 years behind bars. A de facto death sentence, given his age.

The set-up here is so obvious and pathetic. Both men are being dangled by the feet ahead of their sentencing, with the blatant purpose of forcing them to incriminate Trump, and in that way, Trump's political enemies finally get their long-held objective of impeaching the president.

This is how the "American Dream" really operates. It's dirty, grim, and brutal, and has very little to do with democracy or rule of law. Forget the emblems of supposed American civility, the white-picket fences, apple pie in bourgeois comfort, old glory fluttering down at the courthouse, and all those other imaginary democratic virtues.

American politics has more in common with Francis Ford Coppola's classic movie, The Godfather, illustrating how organized crime is intertwined with politicians and lawmakers. Mob practices are more the currency of American politics than dainty civic duties. In reality, it's not the American Dream, it's the American Scream.

Comment: Trump is nowhere near as rotten as the rest of them, but yes, he has taken rotten positions (not least, maximum support for whatever Israel wants).

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Hammer

Canada doubles down on criticism of Saudi Arabia, condemns planned beheading of female activist


RT
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 22:03 UTC
Canadian government
© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
The Canadian government has poured salt in an already-open wound by renewing its criticism of Saudi Arabian human rights violations following a row earlier this month on the issue. This time, the subject is Israa al-Ghomgham, a female Shiite activist who faces the death penalty.

Ghomgham's trial began earlier this month, 32 months after her arrest in late 2015 in connection with her political activism, Sputnik previously reported. Along with five other activists, state prosecutors at the specialized criminal court in Riyadh are reportedly seeking the death penalty, which if delivered would make Ghomgham the first female activist to be executed by the Saudi state for her political activities.

Following the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries in early 2011, a wave of protests and civil disobedience swept across Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, where most of the country's oppressed Shiite minority lives, including Ghomgham.
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Stock Down

Rand slumps after Trump questions land confiscation from white farmers in South Africa


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 17:45 UTC
South African Rand
© Getty Images
The South African rand slumped almost two percent on Thursday, following US President Donald Trump's tweet about the country's land reforms. Trump's comment raised fears about the possibility of US economic sanctions.

The currency fell to 14.43 per dollar after the Trump's tweet before recovering to 14.22 per dollar during afternoon trading in Johannesburg.

Trump tweeted late on Wednesday that he would ask Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations."

Comment:

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Eye 2

Media silent as US aids Saudi Arabia in bombing children so they can 'build oil port' in Yemen

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:15 UTC
Yemeni child
Pipeline plans and a proxy war with Iran could be motivating factors in the America's continued support of genocide in Yemen.

This week, the mainstream media has finally started to report on the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, after the details of a school bus bombing carried out by US forces and their allies went viral online. At least 43 people were killed in the attack, with the majority of the victims being under the age of 10. An additional 63 people were wounded in the attack as well.

There is a great deal of confusion about what it is taking place in Yemen, and much of this is by the intentional design of the US military industrial complex and their lapdog mainstream media. Since early 2015, a coalition consisting of forces from the US, Saudi Arabia, and UAE have been bombing Yemen on a regular basis, and have worked together to set up a blockade that has cut the country off from the world, causing mass starvation and disease.

Despite the fact that the US government is the most powerful player in the coalition who is providing all of the weapons and intelligence, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have taken the brunt of the blame in western mainstream media, allowing war crimes to go unnoticed by the majority of the world for years.

Comment: See also: Riyadh's dirty secret for bombing Yemen is targeting their vast oil reserves

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Bullseye

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour is being made to fail - by design

Jonathan Cook
Jonathan Cook
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 17:07 UTC
Besieged for four years with charges of anti-semitism, Jeremy Corbyn's allies in the Labour leadership have largely lost the stomach for battle, one that was never about substance or policy but about character assassination, says Jonathan Cook.
Jeremy Corbin
The Labour party, relentlessly battered by an organized campaign of smears of its leader, Jeremy Corbyn - first for being anti-semitic, and now for honoring Palestinian terrorists - is reportedly about to adopt the four additional working "examples" of anti-semitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Labour initially rejected these examples - stoking yet more condemnation from Israel's lobbyists and the British corporate media - because it justifiably feared, as have prominent legal experts, that accepting them would severely curb the freedom to criticize Israel.

Comment:

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Hardhat

Russia choosing projects for $40bn infrastructure upgrade mega-plan


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 17:03 UTC
Russian bridge
© Anton Denisov / Sputnik
Russia has pledged to invest three trillion rubles (around $40 billion) in infrastructure. Now, the authorities are choosing projects on which to spend the money.

The projects span all across Russia, Kommersant daily reports. They include reconstruction of the 1,879km-long M5 motorway, which starts in Moscow and ends in Chelyabinsk in the Ural region. The 1,351km-long M7 motorway that connects the Russian capital with several cities on the Volga river has also been included.
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