As the Chinese government on Sunday urged the U.S. government to drop its "Cold War mentality" and criticized the Trump administration's new nuclear weapons posture, released Friday, other world leaders also expressed alarm that the new policy for expanded development of "smaller" atomic weapons and reduced restrictions on their use was leading "humankind closer to annihilation."

Beijing expressed alarm over how the U.S. characterized the Chinese military buildup as it reminded the world that nuclear weapons should not be considered "first strike" weapons.

"China has always exercised the utmost restraint in the development of nuclear weapons and limited its nuclear capabilities to the minimum level required for national security," said Ren Guoqiang, a spokesperson of the Chinese defense ministry, in a statement.

"We hope the US side will discard its 'cold-war mentality,' shoulder its own special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, understand correctly China's strategic intentions and take a fair view of China's national defense and military development," Guoqiang added.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee released troves of documents Wednesday highlighting the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

The near-three year investigation was spearheaded by Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and the Republican majority, and specifically highlights text messages between top FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

The interim report released Wednesday - titled "The Clinton Email Scandal And The FBI's Investigation Of It" - claims the text messages "paint a picture of bias and animus, and certainly raise questions about possible corruption," Johnson said.

The oversight investigation will continue, the report claims.

The report notes the 400 pages of texts released by Johnson do not include those exchanged between Dec. 13, 2016 and May 17, 2017 - a crucial time during the Russia investigation. Those texts were originally thought to be lost because of a technical glitch, but the Justice Department said last month they had been recovered.

On Monday, nationally-syndicated radio host Mark Levin said he believes former President Obama knew about Hillary Clinton's role in the FISA warrant used to surveil the Trump campaign.

Defense Secretary James Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee that if Congress enters another shutdown, his testimony and the National Defense Strategy will be rendered useless.

Mattis explained that Congress "rightfully mandated" the National Defense Strategy but then entered a government shutdown, forcing the military to operate under a "disruptive continuing resolution."

"It is not lost on me that as I testify before you this morning, we are again on the verge of a government shutdown, or at best, another damaging continuing resolution," he said in his opening statement.

On February 7, the US-led coalition carried out several airstrikes on positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the province of Deir Ezzor. The coalition claimed that the SAA had "initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] headquarters," added that "coalition service members" were co-located with SDF fighters during the attack, and described the strikes as "self-defense".

According to local sources, the US targeted positions of the SAA near the town of Khasham, located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, where some clashes between the SAA and the SDF were also reported. Earlier, pro-opposition sources speculated that the SAA was preparing to use Khasham as a foothold to attack the SDF position in the areas of the CONICO gas facility and the Jafar oil field. However, these reports were not confirmed by any evidence.

No doubt the US-led coalition will use the incident to deepen the rift between the SAA and the Kurdish-dominated SDF. Earlier this month, Damascus allowed a large convoy of Kurdish fighters to reach the area of Afrin where Turkey is conducting a military operation against YPG/YPJ forces that are the core of the SDF. However, relations between the sides remained complicated.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said that if it weren't for his dictatorial style, his country would stagnate and never improve.

Opposition leaders have railed against Duterte's proposal to revise the Philippines' constitution. Currently the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of each state in a body of states are contained within a central authority, but the proposal aims to switch these over to a federal system.

"If you say dictator, I am really a dictator. If I don't act (like a) dictator, son of a b****, nothing will happen to this country," the president said at the meeting in Visayan, as cited by The SunStar Manila. Duterte made the inflammatory remarks when speaking to a gathering of former Communist rebels, insisting that his style of governance was necessary in order to sustain progress and growth in the country.

"That's true. If I don't act (like a) dictator, which is my style now, nothing will happen to this country," he added. "I had to (act like a dictator). Besides, you have chosen me as your president. Why won't you follow me when my dreams are all for you?"

I read the released FISA memo last Friday night, and since then have been mulling over how bright-yellow-gaudy-outrageous the whole thing is. And by outrageous, I mean horrific from the outset, and getting worse with each passing day. And by worse, I mean more yellow. Right now it is like a bushel basket full of jaundiced canaries. It is like that headache that Wodehouse described once, the one that started at the ankles and got worse going up. So this is not a dumpster fire. This is not a grease fire. This is a dumpster-full-of-grease-fire.

For the remainder of this rant, I would request that my readers not attempt to interrupt me with any words or gestures calculated to soothe. This is no time for sootheries. And don't tell me I am using too many metaphors. My metaphors have all joined hands and are full of strange oaths. They are dancing around in a circle with a dangerous kind of gleam in their eyes.

Allow me to attempt my part in explaining the level of corruption involved in all of this. The issue is not what was done in private by various officials. There have always been dirty deeds done in secret. Politics has always been dirty, and it has always been this dirty. For those who are shocked, shocked, that this could possibly have happened, somebody needs to get them their hospitality basket and say, "Welcome to earth, kid."

The terrifying issue is what is being done, now, on a massive scale, by respectable people, in public, right out in front of everybody. The issue is not that there was a cancer deep in the innards of the Republic. That happens from time to time. The true measure of our corruption is how the establishment johnnies are reacting now that the corruption has been made known. Every large nation has always had people doing things in back rooms that were better left undone. The problem, the crisis, is that massive numbers of people, well placed and hell-bent on brazening it out, are trying to shrug the whole thing off.

On Feb. 6, Israel's Security Cabinet paid a visit to the country's northern border. The ministers, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, were photographed in fashionable windbreakers, baseball caps and binoculars looking out over the Syrian border from the Golan Heights. Photos from the tour that reached the press were shot in the Golan Heights, with the ministers looking northeast, or in other words, at the Syrian front.


According to official reports from the Syrian army, that same night, Israeli aircraft attacked a target on the outskirts of Damascus. That same area, where a Syrian research facility involved in the "Precision Project" for missiles is located, had already been bombed in the past. Indeed, this site is considered by Israel to be a direct strategic threat. The Syrian army's statements about the attack were unusually detailed. The official statement said that Israeli jets fired missiles from Lebanon's air space. The Syrians are trying to reshuffle the deck and get Israel to violate its "balance of fear" with Hezbollah. The Syrians charged Israel with having "complete responsibility for its repeated and uncalculated adventurism and shows of force."


The Syrian statement was intended, supposedly, to reveal what the Syrians believe are Israel's true intentions and to entangle Israel in a conflict with Hezbollah, with whom it has a "balance of fear." The irony is that Israel operated freely in Lebanon for decades while taking care not to violate Syrian sovereignty. Now the situation is reversed. According to the current rules of the game, the foreign press reports that the Israeli air force has been bombing targets in Syria on a weekly basis, while taking every precaution not to violate Lebanese sovereignty.

YouTube found no evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, a British parliamentary committee inquiry into fake news has heard.

Britain's Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Committee is hearing evidence on Thursday at George Washington University as part of its inquiry. YouTube's Juniper Downs told MPs: "[YouTube] have conducted a thorough investigation around the Brexit referendum and found no evidence of interference.

"Again, we looked at all advertisements with any connection to Russia, and we found no evidence of our services being used to interfere in the Brexit referendum. We are happy to cooperate with any further efforts," she said.

The leftist magazine Jacobin has published a "review" of sorts of the work of Prof. Jordan B. Peterson, with reference to his new book 12 Rules for Life. Written by Harrison Fluss, the article is affectionately titled "Jordan Peterson's Bullshit". According to Fluss, Peterson's thought is "filled with pseudo-science, bad pop psychology, and deep irrationalism." The article is quite an entertaining read - if you enjoy pulling your hair out. If I were to lower my standards of civilized speech for a moment, I'd even call it bullshit. Let's take a look. Fluss begins by commenting on Peterson's recent interview with Cathy Newman. By the second sentence, we can already see how it will end.

With his recent book's success and with over 40 million views on YouTube, Jordan Peterson's star is on the rise. His conservative and alt-right fan base is heralding his interview with Channel 4 News' Cathy Newman as a victory against "PC Culture."

Apparently Fluss has access to the demographics of Dr. Peterson's fan base. I'd like to see those statistics for myself. Who knows, maybe I can count myself among the outliers, not being conservative or alt-right. But then again, maybe the shoe fits? "Alt-right" is no different to many other popular words these days that serve as catch-alls thrown about by lazy thinkers in order to smear anyone who might violate even the tiniest jot or tittle of the Law of PC Culture. (Note that Fluss puts PC Culture in quotation marks, as if to imply there's no such thing.)