'No Troops in Syria': China Refutes Media Reports Alleging Conflict Involvement

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Media reports about the alleged Chinese military involvement in the Syrian conflict are speculations that provide false interpretation of the Chinese political course, Chinese Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan said on Monday.

“Recently, some media speculations that China is going to involve in the Syrian conflict emerged. That is a false picture of the Chinese policy. These Arab media, which issued the relevant material, later explained that China had no military presence in Syria. China is strongly advocating settlement of the conflict only by peaceful means … China has never sent its troops to Syria,” Xie told reporters.

Xie stressed that China was strongly opposing any form of terrorism and calling for the boost of the international anti-terror cooperation.

In early August, Syrian media reported that the Chinese servicemen were ready to fight terrorists in the province of Idlib and other parts of the country together with the Syrian troops.

In July, China and the European Union have confirmed their support for UN Security Council resolution 2254, which envisions a nationwide ceasefire and inclusive political process for Syria, as the only path toward establishing peace in the war-torn country. The parties also called for protection of Syria's civilians and facilitation of humanitarian access to the affected areas.

Resolution 2254 on Syrian settlement was unanimously adopted in December 2015. The Security Council endorsed a timetable and a road map for the UN-facilitated peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition. The document highlighted the importance of the ceasefire and a parallel political process, which should include free and fair elections, and a new constitution.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces battling against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Russia along with Turkey and Iran are guarantors of the ceasefire regime in Syria. Moscow has also been providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the crisis-torn country.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201808201067325317-china-syria-military-reports-involvement/

What If Russiagate Is The New WMDs?

Democrats, certain in their accusations of guilt, sound a lot like Republicans in 2002…

“The evidence against Trump and Russia is huge and mounting every day,” declared liberal celebrity activist Rosie O’Donnell at a protest in front of the White House last week.

“We see it, he can’t lie about it,” she added. “He is going down and so will all of his administration.”

“The charge is treason,” O’Donnell declared. Protesters held held large letters that spelled it out: “T-R-E-A-S-O-N.”

O’Donnell is by no means alone in her sentiments. Trump’s guilt in “Russiagate” is now assumed by much of the American left, and reaches greater levels of fervor with every passing day.

This kind of partisan religiosity is not new.

In the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, conservative pundit Ann Coulter accused war opponents of “treason” and insisted of Saddam Hussein, “We know he had weapons of mass destruction.”

Coulter was confident and she wasn’t alone. Virtually the entire mainstream American right—from pundits like Coulter and Sean Hannity to President George W. Bush and the Republican Congress—was deeply invested in the notion that Hussein possessed WMDs and that the Iraq war was justified based on that unshakeable premise. This belief was so ingrained for so long that many excitedly rushed to pretend that chemical weapons discovered in Iraq as reported by the New York Times in 2014 were somehow the same thing as the “mushroom cloud” the Bush administration said Saddam was capable of.

Unfortunately for the right (and America, and the world), that premise turned out to be false. There were no WMDs. Today, only a minority of delusional, face-saving hawks and unreconstructed neoconservatives still parrot that lie.

And far from being “traitors,” Iraq war opponents today are considered to have been on the right side of history.

Now, “Russian collusion” could be becoming the new WMDs.

The post-2016 left’s most dominant narrative is arguably their deeply held belief—with all the ferocity and piety of yesterday’s pro-war conservatives—that Russia colluded with Trump’s campaign to undermine the presidential election. Many believe that the president and anyone who supports his diplomatic efforts like Senator Rand Paul are in the pocket of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I will meet not just with our friends, but with our enemies,” said Barack Obama in 2008, and he did just that with Putin, as has every other president in recent times.

But Trump-Russia relations have been spun into far-fetched conspiracy theories on the left. New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait recently went so far as to speculate that Trump has been a Russian agent since 1987, a cockamamie idea on par with the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes’ discredited conspiracy theory that Saddam and Osama bin Laden were in cahoots.

It really was plausible that Iraq had WMDs in 2003 based on what our intelligence agencies knew, or purported to know. Today, it is feasible that American democracy really has Putin’s fingerprints on it based on things revealed by U.S. intelligence.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-19/what-if-russiagate-new-wmds

>>2674220

Time to hit play!

U.S. Steel to Invest $750M at Indiana Plant Thanks to Trump Tariffs: ‘We Are Experiencing a Renaissance’

U.S. Steel has announced that they will invest $750 million at their 110-year-old steel manufacturing plant known as Gary Works in Gary, Indiana, crediting President Trump’s protective tariffs on steel imports.

What was once the largest steel mill in the world will now get a $750 million facelift thanks to Trump’s 25 percent tariff on all imported steel into the United States, designed to protect American industries and jobs from being outsourced.

In a statement this week, U.S. Steel executives said they would be revitalizing the Indiana plant which employs about 3,800 American workers, the Chicago Tribune noted.

While U.S. Steel executives say they are not yet planning to increase the number of jobs at the Indiana plant, U.S. Steel Corp. President and CEO David Burritt said the company is “experiencing a renaissance” because of Trump’s tariffs.

“We are pleased to be making this significant investment at Gary Works, which will improve the facility’s environmental performance, bolster our competitiveness and benefit the local community for years to come,” Burritt said in a statement.

“We are experiencing a renaissance at U.S. Steel,” Burritt said.

That manufacturing renaissance for U.S. Steel comes after decades of free trade policies which incentivized American companies to readily outsource their labor force to foreign countries.

Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. Between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China, as Breitbart News reported.

Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the crippled manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.

Already, though, Trump’s tariffs have created 11,100 American jobs in six months. There have been 20 times as many U.S. jobs created because of the tariffs than those jobs that have been lost.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/19/u-s-steel-to-invest-750m-at-indiana-plant-thanks-to-trump-tariffs-we-are-experiencing-a-renaissance/

UFC’s White: ‘I Will Never Talk Bad About Donald Trump’

During Fox News Channel’s Sunday airing of “OBJECTified,” UFC President Dana White praised his friend Donald Trump as someone he will “never talk bad about.”

White said way before Trump ever ran for office, the president gave his league its start when nobody else would give them a shot.

“I’m never going to say anything bad about — ever. Ever, ever, ever. That guy gave us our start when nobody would talk to us,” said White.

He added, “No arenas wanted us. [Trump] reached out and he’s always been a friend to me. The guy’s always been a friend to me. Donald Trump has never done anything remotely negative to me, ever — except try to compete with me.”

https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/08/19/ufcs-white-i-will-never-talk-bad-about-donald-trump/

>>2674391

Brennan was firewall 1

Weinstein accuser Asia Argento made deal to pay her own sexual assault accuser, bombshell report says

Actress Asia Argento, one of the first prominent women to accuse disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, agreed to pay $380,000 to an actor who accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17 years old, The New York Times reported Sunday night.

The actor claimed that the assault took place in a California hotel room in 2013, according to the report. The age of consent in California is 18.

Neither Argento's representatives nor the actor's attorney immediately responded to Fox News' request for comment.

The newspaper obtained documents sent between lawyers for Argento and the accuser that laid out a payment schedule. The paper also obtained a photograph dated May 9, 2013 that showed the two lying in a bed together.

On that date, according to a notice of intent to sue document sent to Argento's then-lawyer in November, Argento met the actor at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif. After giving him alcohol, Argento kissed him and performed oral sex on him before the two had sexual intercourse, the report said.

The notice of intent asked for $3.5 million in damages. The Times reported that the final agreement was reached in April of this year.

Argento, now 42, played a prominent role in the downfall of Weinstein, the former head of Miramax. In October of last year, The New Yorker published allegations by Argento that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 1997.

"I was not willing,” she told journalist Ronan Farrow at the time. "I said, 'No, no, no.' … It's twisted. A big fat man wanting to eat you. It's a scary fairy tale."

Argento added that she occasionally had consensual sexual encounters with Weinstein over the years, because she felt she "had to" and "didn't want to anger him."

The allegations against Weinstein by Argento and other actresses – including Ashley Judd, Gwenyth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Rose McGowan – gave rise to the global "MeToo" movement and prompted a re-examination of the behavior of prominent men in other industries, most notably media and entertainment.

Weinstein has since been charged in New York with first- and third-degree rape and first-degree commission of a criminal sex act. He faces up to 37 years in prison if convicted.

As of Sunday evening, the pinned tweet on Argento's Twitter account referenced a speech she gave at May's Cannes Film Festival in France, an event she described as Weinstein's "hunting ground."

"For all the brave women who came forward denouncing their predators, and for all the brave women who will come forward in the future," she wrote. "We got the power."

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/08/19/weinstein-accuser-asia-argento-made-deal-to-pay-her-own-sexual-assault-accuser-bombshell-report-says.html

>>2674444

Sadly this is true. I am finding people who I'd already started to wake have gone back to sleep putting what I taught them firmly in the conspiracy theory pile. And leaving me looking like I have a screw loose!

Meanwhile the gender blending continues

Harvard's last sorority closes its doors to become open to men amid school's crackdown

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/20/harvards-last-sorority-closes-its-doors-to-become-open-to-men-amid-schools-crackdown.html

>>2674371

>>2674393

Winning!>>2674610

Unknown Gunman Attacks US Embassy in Turkey - Reports

An unidentified person fired shots at US Embassy in Ankara at around 5 am local time, CNN Turk reported. The fires were reportedly shot from a white vehicle, however, the license plate could not be determined.

According to the local media reports, the gunman reportedly targeted the security guard cabin at the US Embassy. Local authorities were reportedly alerted abouth the vehicle and shooting and they are on the lookout for the suspect.

At least 4 gunshots were reportedly fired in front of Gate 6 of the US embassy, hitting a window in a security post but causing no casualties, CNN Turk reported.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201808201067325746-turkey-ankara-embassy-shooting/

>>2674743

NOTABLE

>>2674806

NP.