John Brennan's New Year message to Republicans: Dump Trump

Former CIA Director John Brennan has a New Year's prediction: 2019 is about to usher in more political and legal problems for in President Trump. "It is my sincere hope that the forthcoming exposure of your malfeasance & corruption will convince enough Republicans to abandon you in 2019. We have had enough of your whining from the White House. We need an actual leader—our Nation’s future is at stake," Brennan tweeted Monday.

Trump and Brennan have repeatedly clashed since the former real estate magnate and reality TV star was elected in 2016. Brennan, now an MSNBC pundit, in particular has criticized Trump's foreign and national security polices as they pertain to Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Israel. "It is abnormal for us to speak out as critically and as vocally as we have, but these are abnormal times and he is an abnormal president. He's an aberration and not in a good way," Brennan said in June during a segment on his network. "As former national security officials and nonpartisans, we are very, very concerned that what we're seeing here is something that we have seen in other countries around the globe, which really led to the degradation of democratic principles as well as the standards of governance. That should not be happening here, this is the United States of America."

Tensions between the pair came to a head in August when the White House pulled Brennan's security clearance over his "erratic behavior." Brennan's comments come as Trump's lead personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani reiterated his calls for special counsel Robert Mueller to complete his federal Russia investigation. "My ultimatum is put up or shut up, Bob. I mean, you know, what do you have? There are those of us who believe you don’t have anything on collusion. And by the way, if you did, it’s not a crime, so what the heck are you doing?" Giuliani told Fox News over the weekend.

Brennan served as CIA director from March 2013 to January 2017 under former President Barack Obama, prior to which he was Obama's national security adviser from 2009 to 2013. He was also acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2004 to 2005 during the George W. Bush administration. In addition, Brennan worked as a CIA analyst under the George H.W. Bush presidency and gave former President Bill Clinton his daily intelligence briefing.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-brennans-new-year-message-to-republicans-dump-trump

Vatican Spokesman Resigns Abruptly Amid Preparation For 2019 Fallout From Sex Abuse Crisis

The Vatican spokesman and his deputy resigned Monday to the surprise of the Vatican communication team amid preparations for Pope Francis’ summit on sex abuse. Francis accepted the resignations of Vatican spokesman Greg Burke and his deputy Paloma Garcia Ovejero, effective Jan. 1, despite facing continued fallout from the Catholic Church’s global sex abuse crisis. The timing of the resignations sparked concerns that there may be problems with Francis’ efforts to overhaul Vatican bureaucracy, throwing the church into further tumult as Francis prepares for an important February summit on sex abuse with the presidents of bishops conferences from around the world. “What’s more, given the standard rule of crisis communications that you don’t leave in the middle of the storm, but ride it out, to lose both the Vatican’s top press hands (both quite devout) in mid-scandal appears to signal that something has become professionally untenable,” tweeted Catholic commentator and writer Rocco Palmo.

Paolo Ruffini, head of Vatican communication, also noted that Francis will need a strong communication team to weather the continuing controversy over what sex abuse survivors, advocates and Catholic lay-faithful see as his failure to adequately address sex abuse and cover-up allegations in the church, including allegations against himself. “The year ahead is full of important appointments that will require maximum communications efforts,” Ruffini said, according to The Associated Press. The approaching summit on sex abuse is imbued with grave importance for the church, not only because of its subject matter, but also because the Vatican ordered the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to hold off on approving and implementing new protocols to hold bishops accountable for committing or failing to report sex abuse. Vatican officials asked the bishops to wait until they had attended the summit to act on any potential sex abuse reforms. Despite leaving prior to the summit, Burke wrote on social media that he believed his departure was in the best interest of Francis’ papacy and the church. “At this time of transition in Vatican communications, we think it’s best the Holy Father is completely free to assemble a new team,” Burke tweeted. “New Year, New Adventures.” Francis named Alessandro Gisotti, a veteran of the Vatican’s communication team, as Burke’s interim replacement.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/31/vatican-spokesman-resigns/

North Korea: The U.S. Envies Our ‘Flower Garden of Human Love’

North Korea’s state media has wrapped up 2018 with yet another tirade against the United States, this time condemning Washington’s rebuke of the dire state of human rights in the communist country and insisting that any criticism is the product of the envy Americans feel at the “flower garden of human love” in North Korea. The statements, reproduced by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, came from an alleged “North Korean human rights association,” which condemned the United States in remarks published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “Does the U.S. not want to get over with the old conventions, prejudices and hostile ideas even now when the Singapore North Korea-U.S. joint summit agreement has been declared?” the association allegedly demanded to know, asking, “Point out if there is a flower garden of human love like our republic on the planet.”

The United States, the KCNA piece went on to claim, is seeking to “wipe out the most superior place for the people in the world and the utopia envied by humankind by toppling our socialist system.” Any criticism against North Korea for decades of human rights abuses against its people constitute “an act of political terrorism,” according to the piece.

Many human rights researchers consider North Korea the world’s worst state violator of human rights. The nation is governed as a dynastic communist dictatorship where dissent is harshly punished, typically with internment in labor camps. A suspected dissident and their entire families, sometimes for up to three generations, can suffer internment if suspected of political disagreements with the regime in any way. Other crimes such as being illegally in possession of entertainment from outside North Korea or a Bible can result in internment or public execution. Beatings, rape, killings, and forced abortions are common in North Korea’s camps, researchers have repeatedly found, citing the testimonies of survivors. This has not stopped North Korea from condemning the United States for using international venues such as the United Nations to expose the regime’s abuses. Last week, Uriminzokkiri, a state media outlet, accused Washington of “fabricate[ing] human rights performance of those countries incurring its displeasure and mislead[ing] the public.” “The wicked intention of the U.S. and its followers in getting vocal about the non-existent ‘human rights issue’ of the DPRK [North Korea] is to broaden the scope of the sanctions and pressure and escalate them,” the outlet proclaimed.

Uriminzokkiri continued its claims that North Korea, one of the world’s most impoverished countries, would “continue” to advance towards socialist victory in a piece published Monday. “This year has witnessed sharper conflict and confrontation among big powers for supremacy and ever more undisguised and arbitrary practices of the imperialists to reverse the global trend towards independence, but they failed to shift the main trend of the times towards independence,” the article declared. “The more undisguised the imperialists’ strong-arm and arbitrary practices and interference in internal affairs of other countries, the stronger the international opposition to it.” Rodong Sinmun, the official state newspaper, also declared 2018 a “historic year” for the country without specifically mentioning dictator Kim Jong-un’s first-ever meeting with an American president. Instead, Rodong Sinmun applauded Kim for his various travels abroad – to China, South Korea, and Singapore – and congratulated the world on having received his visits.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2018/12/31/north-korea-flower-garden-human-love/

>>4541842

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>>4541810

North Korea: The U.S. Envies Our ‘Flower Garden of Human Love’

>>4541842 Q post Slave Gardens