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US seeks to prolong terrorism in Syria, not defeat it

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
ISIS in Syria
Recent attacks on Syrian positions from terrorists of the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (ISIS) and the release of thousands of prisoners in US-occupied eastern Syria illustrate how Washington is demonstrably prolonging instability in Syria as part of its promise to transform the nation into a "quagmire" for Russia and Iran.

Newsweek itself, in an article titled, "US Syria Representative Says His Job Is to Make the War a 'Quagmire' for Russia," had admitted earlier this year that:
The US special representative for Syria has urged continued American deployment to the war torn country in order to keep pressure on US enemies and make the conflict a "quagmire" for Russia.
The article further elaborated:
Assad — who now controls the majority of the country — is backed by Russia and Iran, both of which the US is trying to undermine. Jeffrey said Tuesday that the US strategy will both weaken America's enemies while avoiding costly mission creep.

"This isn't Afghanistan, this isn't Vietnam," he explained. "This isn't a quagmire. My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians."
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Attention

A warning of the imminent danger of a Kamala Harris Presidency

Max Parry
Dissident Voice
Sat, 17 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Biden Harris
With the 2020 U.S. presidential election less than a month away, there is widespread speculation concerning Democratic nominee Joe Biden's mental and physical fitness at 77 years of age if he were to defeat incumbent Donald Trump on November 3rd. The former Vice President and Senator from Delaware would surpass his opponent as the oldest to ever hold the office of the presidency if victorious, while his generally acknowledged cognitive decline has led many to question whether he is even capable of serving a single term. Given the concerns about his health, the likelihood that Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, would become his successor has put the controversial former prosecutor and California Attorney General's own politics under scrutiny, though not to a degree sufficient with the odds she could very well become commander-in-chief in the near future.

Trump himself suggested it was the hidden motivation behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent introduction of a 25th Amendment commission on removing a "mentally unfit" president to enable the replacement of an incapacitated Biden with Harris after the election. Even Saturday Night Live recently joked about Biden's poor first debate performance as a Harris term in-the-making — but as journalist Caleb Maupin explains in his new book Kamala Harris and the Future of America: An Essay in Three Parts, the prospect of her becoming president is no laughing matter.
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Gold Seal

Lionel Shriver: Covid has killed off our civil liberties

Lionel Shriver
The Spectator
Sat, 17 Oct 2020 00:08 UTC
face cop
© Getty Images
It started with smoking. The 1960s and 1970s saw little popular objection to legislation restricting advertisements by private companies purveying a legal product. Little objection was raised thereafter when these same companies were banned from promoting their wares at all. Broadly shamed, even smokers have mutely accepted confiscatory taxes on cigarettes. As laws to protect the public from passive smoking have extended parts of the US to beaches, parks and even one's own apartment balcony — locations where the danger to others is virtually nonexistent — few have cried overreach. It's a truism: tobacco companies are evil (and so are smokers). The suppression of smoking is widely regarded as a public health triumph.

Thus few of us ever paused to examine the assumption behind anti-smoking laws: that the people are not to be trusted to make their own decisions regarding their health. The idiots have to be controlled.

For the curtailment of civil liberties, public health policy, graciously instituted for our own good, has been the thin end of the wedge for decades. Over time, that wedge has been getting fatter.

Why, speaking of fat: the latest matter that the state regards as its business is what we eat and how much. In the interests of curbing obesity, British soft drinks now incur a tax when exceeding a set level of sugar. Regulatory pressure to reduce fat, salt and sugar content is resulting in smaller serving sizes, so that shoppers pay the same price for less food. NHS GPs are encouraged to 'prescribe' bicycles. Teachers primly remove chocolate bars from children's lunch boxes. Denmark's groundbreaking 2011 'fat tax' on products containing more than 2.3 per cent saturated fat (butter, meat, non-skimmed milk, cheese, pizza and much processed food) may have lasted less than a year, but could credibly be revived any time at a supermarket near you. Although overeaters and smokers pay the same taxes to support the NHS as everyone else, the service has seriously entertained denying such sinners access to certain kinds of care. What the hell — in 2020 they've at least gone egalitarian, denying everybody care.
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Eye 1

Google & Oracle to monitor Americans who get Warp Speed's Covid-19 vaccine for up to TWO years

Whitney Webb
The Last American Vagabond
Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Google & Oracle to Monitor Americans
Moncef Slaoui, the official head of Operation Warp Speed, told the Wall Street Journal last week that all Warp Speed vaccine recipients in the US will be monitored by "incredibly precise . . . tracking systems" for up to two years and that tech giants Google and Oracle would be involved.

Last week, a rare media interview given by the Trump administration's "Vaccine Czar" offered a brief glimpse into the inner workings of the extremely secretive Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the Trump administration's "public-private partnership" for delivering a Covid-19 vaccine to 300 million Americans by next January. What was revealed should deeply unsettle all Americans.

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal published last Friday, the "captain" of Operation Warp Speed, career Big Pharma executive Moncef Slaoui, confirmed that the millions of Americans who are set to receive the project's Covid-19 vaccine will be monitored via "incredibly precise . . . tracking systems" that will "ensure that patients each get two doses of the same vaccine and to monitor them for adverse health effects." Slaoui also noted that tech giants Google and Oracle have been contracted as part of this "tracking system" but did not specify their exact roles beyond helping to "collect and track vaccine data."

Comment: See also:

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Chess

'Not our concern': Moscow has no intention of getting involved in US-Turkey dispute over S-400 deal - UPDATE: Turkey allegedly tests missile system


RT
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 15:12 UTC
Russian S-400 missile system
© AFP PHOTO / Russian Defence Ministry
Russia's S-400 air defence missile systems in Syria
The Kremlin says it has no intention of interfering in how Turkey and the US work to settle their dispute over Ankara's purchase of Russia's S-400 defense systems. Earlier, Ankara said it's committed to the deal.

"Turkey does not have to notify [Russia about the creation of a working group], this is none of our business," the Russian president's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Tuesday.

Instead, what Moscow is focused on is "to complete the S-400 deal" with Turkey, "which is currently underway."

Comment: UPDATE 16/10/2020: Though this disputes has faded from the news cycle it is still having reverberations:
The US State Department has warned the Turkish government of "potential serious consequences" to the two nations' security relationship should reports of Ankara testing the Russian S-400 air defense systems prove true.

"If confirmed, we would condemn in the strongest terms the S-400 test missile launch as incompatible with Turkey's responsibilities as a NATO ally and strategic partner of the United States," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Friday.

Ortagus insisted that the air defense system "should not be operationalized," adding, "We have also been clear on the potential serious consequences for our security relationship if Turkey activates the system."

Washington's reaction comes after a Reuters report showed "a narrow column of smoke headed high into the blue sky" near the city of Sinop in northern Turkey. According to the outlet's defense analyst Turan Oguz, the smoke pattern suggested it was a missile launch of the Russian-made S-400.


The Turkish defense ministry said it would neither confirm nor deny any missile tests. Ankara has previously said it intended to make the S-400s it had purchased from Moscow fully operation by the end of 2020.

Turkey has already received a lot of backlash from the US over its procurement of the air defense system. Following the delivery of the first four missile batteries from Russia in August 2019, Washington suspended Turkey from the F-35 fighter-jet program, and has threatened further sanctions.


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Eye 1

US authorities harass RT reporter for hours at airport, question his Covid-19 vaccine shot


RT
Sat, 17 Oct 2020 03:24 UTC
RT news journalist
© RT
FILE PHOTO.
Russian journalists are facing prejudice and routine harassment by American authorities, Russia's embassy in Washington has warned, after US security services questioned an RT filmmaker for hours and combed through his devices.

RT documentary director Konstantin Rozhkov was stopped by US federal agents at a New York airport soon after arriving in the country on Wednesday, where he was subjected to a three-hour interrogation and forced to provide access to his electronics. Konstantin was subjected to the sort of treatment Washington would be up in arms about, if it was meted out to an American media worker in a foreign country.

"The journalist was requested to open all electronic media, as well as explain publicly available information, including about him receiving the Russian-made [Covid-19] vaccine, Sputnik V," the embassy said in a statement, adding that Rozhkov was also questioned about his "correspondence related to journalistic activities."

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Joe Biden says 8 year olds are capable of choosing to be transgender


RT
Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:12 UTC
Biden
© Reuters / Mike Segar
FILE PHOTO. US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden campaigns on train tour in Pennsylvania, September 30, 2020
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden suggested that children as young as eight-years-old should be allowed to change their gender identity if they decide they "want to be transgender."

The comment came on Thursday night at an election town hall hosted by ABC News, where a woman who said one of her two daughters is transgender asked Biden what he would do to protect LGBTQ rights. The former vice president said, "I will flat out just change the law." He then told a story about seeing two gay men kissing each other and being told by his father, "Joey, it's simple, they love each other."

Biden next turned to the topic of child transgenderism: "The idea that an eight-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, 'You know, I decided I want to be transgender, that's what I think I'd like to be, it'd make my life a lot easier,' there should be zero discrimination." He later added, "There is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied your daughter... that your other daughter has a right to be and do."

Comment: Let it stand that Joe Biden has explicitly stated that he supports ideology that promotes and facilitates the psychological harm and potential mutilation of children:

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Magnify

Feds investigating if alleged Hunter Biden emails connected to foreign intelligence operation: report

Justine Coleman
The Hill
Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:44 UTC
hunter joe biden emails laptop burisma
© NY Post Photo composite
Hunter and Joe caught red-handed?
Federal authorities are investigating if emails allegedly discovered on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop discussing Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine were connected to a foreign intelligence operation, NBC News reported Thursday night.

Two people familiar with the matter told the network about the federal investigation.

The FBI took the laptop and a hard drive through a grand jury subpoena that was later published by the New York Post, a conservative newspaper. The FBI declined to comment to The Hill on the reported probe, citing its standard practice of not confirming or denying an investigation.

Comment: The fallout continues with House Republicans asking the FBI if it had Hunter Biden's alleged laptop during Trump's impeachment
"If the FBI was, in fact, in possession of this evidence and failed to alert the White House to its existence that would have given even more weight to the president's legal defense, this was a gross error in judgement and a severe violation of trust," the letter says.

The Post reported that the FBI was in possession of the laptop on which the emails were found in December 2019 -- right in the middle of the impeachment of President Trump over remarks he made to the Ukrainian president about Biden's conduct in the country.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House but later acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.

"A large portion of the president's legal defense case revolved around strong evidence that former Vice President Biden's son Hunter was peddling his influence to his father to land lucrative jobs overseas that he might not have otherwise been qualified for," the letter says.

The lawmakers ask whether the FBI was in possession of the laptop and drive as documented in the Post, whether it took steps to authenticate the drive and the data, and if anyone at the FBI briefed officials at the Department of Justice or White House after December.
Meanwhile, matters have taken a darker turn. The Gateway Pundit reports the possibility Hunter's laptop is being investigated by an FBI agent known to specialize in child porn cases:
One image included in the New York Post photos was the FBI's subpoena for the laptop.

Bleeding through the top page was the FBI Special Agent's signature: Joshua Wilson. As Western Journal describes it, Joshua Wilson works a specific kind of crime: child porn.

From Business Insider:
It's unclear whether the FBI employs more than one agent named Joshua Wilson. But the available evidence seems to show **the Joshua Wilson who signed the subpoena for Hunter Biden's laptop, and the Joshua Wilson who investigates child pornography for the FBI, are the same person**. This raises the possibility, not explored by the Post, that the FBI issued the subpoena for reasons unrelated to Hunter Biden's role in Ukraine and Burisma.

The shop owner has told several news outlets that he did not *see* any child pornography on the hard drive. But those news outlets also confirm that the shop owner has severe vision problems. Some commenters have described him as "legally blind."

Suppose the FBI's child pornography and exploitation division is investigating the laptop. In that case, we begin to see possible answers to the two burning questions: Why did Hunter Biden agree to share his income with his wealthy father, and why has the FBI failed to act on the laptop's contents.
We know that Hunter Biden exploited his father's position as Vice President to win ridiculously lucrative jobs with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, several Chinese companies and officials, and a $3.5 million gift from the wife of Moscow's mayor.

We have learned from the New York Post story that Hunter seems to have arranged a meeting between a Burisma executive and Joe Biden in 2015.

We know that Joe Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired in exchange for a $1 billion gift to the Ukrainian government.

We just learned that Joe Biden demanded at least half of his son's vast income and that Hunter Biden complied with his father's demands.

And now we know the FBI sent its child porn expert to seize Hunter Biden's laptop.


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Dollar

Biden Inc.

Ben Schreckinger
Politico
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Joe/Hunter/JamesBiden
© Politico
The Bidens: Joe, James and Hunter
The day the Bidens took over Paradigm Global Advisors was a memorable one.

In the late summer of 2006 Joe Biden's son Hunter and Joe's younger brother, James, purchased the firm. On their first day on the job, they showed up with Joe's other son, Beau, and two large men and ordered the hedge fund's chief of compliance to fire its president, according to a Paradigm executive who was present.

After the firing, the two large men escorted the fund's president out of the firm's midtown Manhattan office, and James Biden laid out his vision for the fund's future. "Don't worry about investors," he said, according to the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation. "We've got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden."

At the time, the senator was just months away from both assuming the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and launching his second presidential bid. According to the executive, James Biden made it clear he viewed the fund as a way to take money from rich foreigners who could not legally give money to his older brother or his campaign account. "We've got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash ready to invest in this company," the executive remembers James Biden saying.

Comment: Cashing in on influence is a rare deal - especially if it leads all the way to the top of the governmental hierarchy. Regarding the Bidens, this advantage was continuously exercised and exploited but never well played.

See also:

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Briefcase

Trump wants Giuliani and Jay Sekulow spearheading post-election legal battle

Katherine Doyle
Washington Examiner
Tue, 13 Oct 2020 06:04 UTC
Trump Sekulow Giuliani
© Getty Images/thinkstock/Alexey Malgavko/Reuters/Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/Erin Scott/Reuters/KJN
President Donald Trump • Jay Sekulow • Rudy Giuliani
At the top of President Trump's list to head a legal battle in the event of a contested election are two staunch allies: Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, a conservative media personality and lead attorney in the president's Senate impeachment trial defense.

"I want Jay and Rudy on this," Trump said in a private conversation this summer, a source told the Daily Beast.

The potentially historic legal battle over the results of the 2020 election could go on for weeks, warned an attorney who served as co-counsel for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's presidential ticket in the Florida recount of 2000.

Giuliani has repeatedly cast doubt on the integrity of the U.S. electoral system, including before Trump's 2016 victory. Weeks before the president was elected, former New York City Mayor Giuliani claimed that "dead people usually vote for Democrats" and called the vote "rigged."
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