Brennan Falsely Claims Trump Wrote Note Released by Schiff Saying “Get Zelensky to Announce Biden Investigation”

Former CIA Director John Brennan falsely claimed during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball” Wednesday evening that President Trump wrote the note released by Schiff earlier this week saying “get Zelensky to announce Biden investigation.”

John Brennan lied during the live broadcast.

President Trump did not write the note on Ritz Carlton stationary.

Lev Parnas, Giuliani’s Ukrainian-American ‘associate’ who was recently indicted supposedly wrote the undated note (screenshot below) and Schiff is using it as evidence against Trump.

After Brennan spread the lie that Trump wrote the note, he took to Twitter to correct his ‘mistake.’

Isn’t it strange how all of these Deep State crooks always make mistakes against President Trump?

Is there a single example of just one of their mistakes being in favor of Trump?

“On MSNBC tonight, I mistakenly said Trump wrote note, released by House yesterday, saying “get Zelensky to announce Biden investigation.” It was written by Les Parnas, who told Rachel Maddow today in explosive interview everything he did was known & directed by Giuliani & Trump,” Brennan said in a tweet.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/brennan-falsely-claims-trump-wrote-note-released-by-schiff-saying-get-zelensky-to-announce-biden-investigation/

Ukraine Launches Criminal Probe Into 'Illegal Surveillance' Of American Ambassador Fired By Trump

The first domino in the House Dems' plan to push moderate Republicans to support a decision to call witnesses during President Trump's impeachment trial has just fallen.

As we reported earlier this week, House Dems released a cache of notes and texts from former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who has been accused of funneling foreign money to the Trump campaign.

Text messages released from March 2019 between Parnas and Robert Hyde, a Connecticut resident who is planning a Congressional run on the Republican ticket, appear to shed light on a plot to try and oust former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich. In the conversation, the two discussed rumors that Yovanovich was being protected by the Kremlin (how's that for Russian influence?). They also allegedly discussed the ambassador's whereabouts, and how they had a person on the "inside" to keep tabs on her.

Yovanovich was eventually pushed out, and now Ukraine has opened a criminal case into the possibility of illegal surveillance of Yovanovitch during her time as ambassador, according to a release from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Yovanovitch, who provided evidence to the House, claimed she was spied on before being fired by President Trump, according to the Independent.

Keep in mind: many of the handwritten notes released yesterday were unverified and undated, though Dems allege they were written by Parnas.

But that didn't stop Yovanovitch's lawyer from calling for an investigation after the notes and texts allegedly suggested that she was being watched.

However, to many people, the behavior being described is no different from having an office mole who feeds information about employees to the boss. That being said, we're sure the Dems will use this as an excuse to revive the Russian interference narrative.

Of course, when the Dems inevitably push to call Parnas as a witness, Republicans can counter with a totally legitimate political quid pro quo: Calling Parnas as a witness in exchange for calling Hunter Biden.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ukraine-launches-criminal-probe-illegal-surveillance-american-ambassador-fired-trump

US Senate passes US-Mexico-Canada trade deal in another big win for Trump

The US Senate has passed President Donald Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, despite the opposition of several Democrats. The pact’s passage is a legislative victory for Trump ahead of his impeachment trial.

The USMCA was agreed by Trump and his Canadian and Mexican counterparts in 2018, and languished in Congress since, despite repeated protestations from Trump. After passing the House with bipartisan support in December, it finally passed the Senate on Thursday, with 89 Senators voting in favor and ten opposing.

The agreement is a renegotiation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal that was widely criticized in the 1990s for allowing American manufacturers to move production to Mexico.

The deal now only needs Trump’s signature to become law. For the president, its passage is the second legislative victory in as many days.

Wednesday marked the signing of the first part of a trade accord between the US and China, a deal that pauses the two-year trade war between Washington and Beijing, and stipulates that China will increase its imports of American goods.

Once signed by Trump, the USMCA will need to be approved by Canada. The House of Commons in Ottawa will debate the agreement in the coming weeks.

https://www.rt.com/usa/478450-us-senate-passes-usmca-trump/

Epstein Had Burst Capillaries In Eyeballs, Indicating He Was Strangled, Forensic Pathologist Says

A forensic pathologist says that burst capillaries in Jeffrey Epstein’s eyes are consistent with strangulation, not hanging.

Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, the pathologist hired by Epstein’s brother to investigate his death, examined photographs of Epstein’s eyes during his autopsy, according to The Daily Mail, which reviewed an exclusive clip from a Dr. Oz special set to air on Thursday. Dr. Baden was among physicians in the room when Epstein’s autopsy took place.

Dr. Baden said the burst capillaries and “the fact that the color in his lower legs was pale and not purple or blueish” are indicative that which, he says, of strangling, not suicide by hanging — which authorities claim was the manner of death for the convicted pedophile.

“In a hanging, the arteries and the blood vessels, the veins are both clogged off and the person is pale. The face is pale,” Dr. Baden said. “It suffocates you, no blood goes up there,” Dr. Oz says. “That’s right. No blood coming in or out…. with a manual strangulation, there’s a backup of a pressure and the little capillaries can rupture and they’re best seen in the eye.”

Dr. Baden also questioned the color of Epstein’s legs after his death. “The blood settles after we die. The so-called lividity, if your hanging, the lividity is on the lower part on the legs. These would be like maroon/ purple, front and back and they aren’t.”

Epstein was found dead in August in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Dozens of women have accused the Epstein, who was a billionaire, of trafficking them when they were underage girls.

Dr. Baden also says it was “very unusual” how Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide. “The initial death certificate was issued at the time of the autopsy, it’s pending further study, getting more information. Five days later it was changed to hanging suicide and one of the things the family wishes to know, the estate wishes to know is, what was that additional information that caused them to change it when five months later and the family still doesn’t know what happened to in the first encounter and what happened to him when he was found dead.

On Jan. 5, CBS News released explosive new photos showing the convicted pedophile’s jail cell, where he supposedly committed suicide, strewn with scraps of bed sheets and a supposed noose.

Baden said the photos showing injuries to Epstein’s neck convince him that the “findings are more indicative of homicide” than a suicide.

“I think there’s a lot of information that still hasn’t been revealed yet that is essential in order to arrive at a conclusion, whether this is a suicide or homicide,” Baden said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.

“I think the closing out of the case as a suicide so quickly was premature.”

The photos show makeshift nooses Epstein supposedly made out of bedsheets at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. But his neck is deeply marked, prompting questions about whether a cotton sheet could cut so deeply.

Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said the photo showing the marks on Epstein’s neck “doesn’t match the ligature that was found at the scene and that the medical examiner copied to show how he was hanged.”

He added that “it was too wide and too smooth. This is a rougher injury.”

And he had more.

Baden also questioned Epstein’s two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam’s apple, and on the left hyoid bone above the Adam’s apple.

The doctor also said there are many unanswered questions. “I think the important thing is to find out what was seen when the guards first went into the cell. Was he hanging? Was he on the ground? As some people reported when he was found,” Baden said.

And he said “the removal of the body destroyed a lot of the forensic evidence.”

“EMS is not supposed to remove dead bodies from jails,” Baden said. “They’re supposed to have a whole forensic workup, what kind of forensic evidence is on the clothing, how long the person was dead.

“We can tell from the ligature mark that he had been — there was a tight ligature around his neck for many hours, and the front of the neck, before he was found — so he was dead for a long time. But we could be more specific about that if somebody tested out the stiffness of the body, et cetera, at the scene.”

“A lot was lost when the body was removed,” he said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/epstein-had-burst-capillaries-in-eyeballs-indicating-he-was-strangled-forensic-pathologist-says/

Trump Steps Back From the Edge. Neocons Rage Accordingly

Trump’s response to the attack on two US military bases showcase a hopeful about face on a dark age agenda which many thought could lead nowhere but World War III in the immediate days following Soleimani’s murder on January 3.

Immediately after the Iranian counter-attacks occurred on Wednesday morning at the same hour of Soleimani’s assassination, Iran’s Foreign Minister stated: “Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched. We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.” Iran’s retribution was more moderate than many analysts imagined as fore notice was delivered to the Iraqi government 30 minutes before rockets were launched giving American military personnel in the bases ample time to seek shelter.

In Trump’s remarks the following day, the President stated: “Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world… ISIS is a natural enemy of Iran. The destruction of ISIS is good for Iran, and we should work together on this and other shared priorities.”

Although Trump’s speech characterized Iran as a “major supporter of terrorism” and Gen. Soleimani as a “top terrorist”, his assertion that a common interest exists between the USA and Iran in the combat of ISIS is a spectacular break from the neocon agenda. This break is also one of many in a long line of internal struggles emanating from the corridors of American power in the days since Soleimani’s murder. This includes the memo written to the Iraq government by William Seely, commanding general of the Iraq Task Force saying: “We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.” Seely’s memo created a major crisis amongst the radical war hawks like Mark Esper and Mark Milley who raced to deny the memo’s validity.

Recent revelations published in the Wall Street Journal demonstrating the incredible back channel discussion set up by Trump through the Swiss embassy in Tehran in the hours after Solemenei’s murder also play into this “movement of sanity” within the USA.

The Paradox of America Resolved

This contradictory behaviour is undoubtedly not so confusing for leading figures among Eurasia’s intelligentsia who are not ignorant to the battle occurring within America between nationalists who genuinely wish to end “the forever wars” in the Middle East vs those Pax Americanists embedded throughout the neoconservative and neo-liberal establishments who would rather burn the earth than abandon their dark age ideology. Trump’s many calls for positive relations with Russia and China over the past 3 years terrify these groups, and this potential US-Russia-China alliance has represented a real threat which today’s London-steered impeachment debacle, and years of Russia-gating has always aimed to derail.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/15/trump-steps-back-from-the-edge-neocons-rage-accordingly/

Pelosi Insists House Dems Have New Evidence in Impeachment Scam — After GAO Rules It’s ILLEGAL to Withhold US Taxpayer Dollars to Ukraine!

Speaker Pelosi switches tactics.

Democrats now want to impeach President Trump for not giving tax-payer dollars to the corrupt Ukrainian government fast enough.

Good luck with that, Nancy!

Pelosi made the announcement on Thursday morning during her weekly briefing.

The Government Accountability Office issued a legal opinion on Thursday saying the Trump Administration did not give US tax-payer dollars to corrupt Ukraine fast enough.

The GAO just happened to release their report on Thursday morning to help Democrats and Nancy Pelosi.

What a coincidence!

FOX News reported:

The Government Accountability Office issued a legal opinion on Thursday saying that President Trump’s administration broke the law by withholding defense aid to Ukraine — the issue at the heart of the president’s impeachment trial.

That money — $214 million which had been allocated to the Department of Defense for security assistance — was appropriated by Congress and therefore the administration did not have the right to hold the money just back because it disagreed with its allocation, the opinion from the nonpartisan government watchdog said.

“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the opinion said. “OMB withheld funds for a policy reason … not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that the OMB violated the ICA [Impoundment Control Act].”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/here-we-go-pelosi-insists-house-dems-have-new-evidence-in-impeachment-scam-after-gao-rules-its-illegal-to-withhold-us-taxpayer-dollars-to-ukraine/

India needs to go on global anti-terrorism spree like US did after 9/11 – defense chief Rawat

India’s new chief of defense staff, General Bipin Rawat, has said that the ‘war on terror’ is far from over and its roots must be analyzed in order to combat terrorism.

“Terrorism is here to stay. So long as there are… states that are going to sponsor terrorism and… use terrorists as proxies, make weapons available to them, [provide] funding for them, then we can’t control terrorism,” Gen. Rawat said, as quoted by local media.

We have to bring an end to terrorism and that can only happen the way Americans started after the 9/11 terror attack. They said let’s go on a spree… [a] global war on terror.

India, he suggested, has "to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause." It would be wrong to think that "the war on terrorism is going to end," he added.

Gen. Rawat, who spent several years leading counter-insurgency operations, hailed the activities of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – an international watchdog tackling money laundering and terrorism financing – saying that countries sponsoring extremists must be held accountable.

"Any country which is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task," he said. It is also crucial to tackle “the ideology of radicalization” and suppress radicalism online, Rawat suggested.

https://www.rt.com/news/478396-india-war-terrorism-us/

VA Declares State of Emergency to Stop ‘Serious Threats of Armed Militias Storming Capitol’

Richmond, VA — Since last month, tensions have been escalating in Virginia as lawmakers prepared a slew of gun laws that would have drastically changed the landscape of the state’s view on the Second Amendment. Protests have erupted, police officers have parted ways with the state government promising not to enforce gun bans, and on Wednesday, the hostility between pro-gun groups and government came to a head as Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency.

Since the battle over guns began in the state, more than 100 counties, cities and towns around Virginia have declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” saying they feared state officials would try to remove their guns. In response, Northam said he would enforce the law, regardless of sanctuaries.

The state of emergency will be enforced from Friday evening until Tuesday evening as thousands of Second Amendment activists plan to descend on the capitol. Adding fuel to the fire brewing between the pro and anti-gun groups is the fact that this declaration ban all guns. It also bans all weapons, including bats and knives—even helmets.

Mincing no words, Northam compared this event to that of Charlottesville in which a racist white supremacist drove his vehicle into a crowd, tragically killing Heather Heyer. This parallel the governor is attempting to draw between Charlottesville and Richmond is not only inaccurate but dangerous. Supporting one’s right to self-defense is not white nationalism.

Nevertheless, Northam touted dangerous threats “similar to what has been seen before other major events such as Charlottesville.”

According to Northam, there are armed militias preparing an attack on the capitol, complete with drone strikes. Seriously.

“These are considered credible, serious threats by our law enforcement agencies,” Northam said, citing claims that “armed militia groups” plan on “storming our Capitol” and “weaponizing drones.”

Organizers of the protest, Virginia Citizens Defense League, disagree and have openly disavowed violence as a means of seeking change. They seek change through legislation instead.

As the Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

Monday’s rally is being organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, which says it expects as many as 50,000 people to arrive on the steps of the Capitol to protest gun control legislation Democratic lawmakers are proposing.

VCDL President Philip Van Cleave said in an interview Wednesday that he has encouraged peaceful demonstrations by rally participants. At the same time, he said the group plans to challenge Northam’s decision, which he believes goes beyond the governor’s legal authority.

“We believe it is illegal what he is doing,” Van Cleave said. “At this point, we’re going to try to take the governor to court. So it may mean guns aren’t banned on Monday.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/state-of-emergency-virginia-guns/

Formula still works: Jojo Rabbit is an average film that would never get 6 Oscar noms if it wasn’t about the HOLOCAUST

Long after it became a cliché, exploiting the Holocaust for easy Oscar nominations is still a thing – and Jojo Rabbit is prime evidence.

Directed by Taika Waititi, the comedy drama tells the story of a young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose imaginary friend is a whimsical Adolf Hitler. Jojo, the titular character, comes to question his Nazi beliefs when he meets a teenage Jewish girl his mother helps to hide in the walls of his house.

Jojo Rabbit is a mild misfire of a movie that never quite threads the delicate needle of comedy and drama that its bold premise requires. It isn’t an awful movie, but it isn’t perfect either, as is reflected in its critic score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and the fact it has only brought in $32 million at the box office.

With the film’s subdued, even underwhelming, critical and financial results you would think it stood no chance of winning the biggest prizes… and you’d be wrong.

Jojo Rabbit has reeled in six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

So how did the mediocre mixed bag that is Jojo Rabbit become such Oscar bait?

Easy: it used the super-cynical Oscar formula.

It goes like this: if you want to guarantee an Oscar nomination, then your movie must be about one of four broad topics. Here they are in hierarchical order:

1. Holocaust and/or Nazis

1. Slavery/civil rights/race

1. The AIDS epidemic and LGBTQ themes

1. Hollywood

Since 2009, when the Best Picture category expanded from five nominees to ten, only once has the field been completely devoid of films that hit upon one or more of these subjects. Some notable beneficiaries of the formula over the last decade are such mediocrities as BlacKkKlansman (2018), Call Me By Your Name (2017), Hidden Figures (2016), Selma (2014), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Help (2011), and The Kids Are Alright (2010), as well as Best Picture winners Green Book (2018), Moonlight (2016) and The Artist (2011). And that’s not including films like The Shape of Water – the winner in 2017 – that address the same issues in more oblique ways.

Even the best directors in the business have turned to that simple list of ingredients to advance their careers.

Steven Spielberg spent two decades making blockbusters that earned him no Oscar love, but after a failed attempt to use the formula for Oscar gold on The Color Purple (1985), he finally took home the Best Director and Best Picture prizes with Schindler’s List (1993).

Quentin Tarantino’s last four films, Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), have all utilized the formula, and three of them received Best Picture nominations for their efforts.

Tarantino has yet to win the coveted Best Director or Best Picture Oscar, but maybe he’ll be victorious this year with his homage to Hollywood.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/478360-jojo-rabbit-oscar-holocaust/

Instead of Kidnapping and Caging Drug Addicts, Police are Getting Them Help—And It’s Working

Tuscon, AZ — In the land of the free, when most police officers catch individuals with substances deemed illegal by the government, they will extort, kidnap, cage, or kill those individuals. This is the standard operating procedure for police departments from coast to coast. Despite applying this process of extortion, kidnapping, caging, and killing for over five decades — known as the war on drugs — addiction and drug use have gone up, not down. The good news is that some cops, not addicted to the violent war on drugs, are seeing that they cannot arrest or kill their way out of a drug problem. One department in Tuscon has saved nearly 1,000 people from the confines of cages related to their drug problems and the results are worth getting excited over.

About 18 months ago, the Tuscon police began a revolutionary shift in the way they treat people who they catch with drugs. Instead of kidnapping, caging, and killing them — they were given treatment options. The program started on July 1, 2018 and worked so well that it has been nationally recognized for its success, according Assistant Chief Kevin Hall.

“It’s a public health issue, not a criminal justice issue,” Hall said of the department’s new drug policy.

We wholeheartedly agree. If you arrest someone for drug possession it does nothing to prevent future use which ensures that they will be ensnared in the system later down the road, costing taxpayers dearly.

As KGUN 9 reports:

In total, 953 people were deflected from jail. Eight people were self-referred, meaning they showed up at a police facility looking for help. And 19 people sought out a police officer or CSO in the field for help.

TPD’s deflection program is one of six national learning sites designated by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, according to Hall. The designation allows other agencies from across the U.S. to visit Tucson to learn from TPD’s program.

This policy needs to be adopted immediately by every single department in the country before anyone else has their life ruined by cops arresting them for drug use.

More

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/drug-program-tuscon-police/

OMB Releases Memo on Legal Reasons to Withhold Ukraine Aid

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memorandum Wednesday to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explaining the legal foundations and reasons for holding up U.S. security assistance to Ukraine over the summer.

The Washington Post reported the existence of the memorandum and published it on Thursday morning; it was largely overlooked in in favor of the day’s lengthy impeachment debate in the House Judiciary Committee. Yet the memo fills in some of the factual gaps in the account of what happened.

In the memo to GAO, which works for Congress, the OMB begins by explaining that it often holds up funding to federal agencies in the regular course of business under its apportionment authority, often for reasons as mundane as making sure funding is being spent efficiently.

However, there are different methods of holding up funds. One is “deferral,” which is still subject to the provisions of the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the president to inform Congress. The other way in which funds may be held is “programmatic delay,” in which the president withholds funds while developing policies around the funds. A “deferral” runs against the intent for which Congress appropriates money; a “programmatic delay” works in favor of congressional intent. OMB argues that both practices have a lengthy, legitimate history.

Without delving into details, the OMB explains that the hold on aid to Ukraine was a “programmatic delay”:

The pause in obligations of the Ukraine funds at issue here is an example of programmatic delay. … It was OMB’s understanding that a brief period was needed, prior to the funds expiring, to engage in a policy process regarding those funds. OMB took appropriate action, in light of a pending policy process, to ensure that funds were not obligated prematurely in a manner that could conflict with the President’s foreign policy.

The OMB memo notes wryly in a footnote that the executive has sometimes held up funding beyond the statutory deadline at the request of the legislature itself: ” OMB is aware of instances in which Members of Congress demanded that agencies withhold funds for months— and even years—beyond the period required by statute for reasons wholly unrelated to the purpose of the appropriation.”

Again and again, witnesses before the House Intelligence Committee were asked about disputes between the OMB, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State about whether the hold on funds was legal. The issue was never cleared up.

What the OMB memo argues, however, is that the hold on aid — regardless of what the Ukraine did, or knew — was not meant to defy Congress’s intent to help Ukraine, but to make sure the money actually did.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/13/omb-releases-memo-on-legal-reasons-to-withhold-ukraine-aid/

Trump DOE Promotes School Prayer on National Religious Freedom Day

President Donald Trump is marking National Religious Freedom Day with a ceremony at the White House on Thursday and is also issuing a guidance letter to educational institutions and the public on students’ Constitutional right to prayer.

The guidance will be posted in the Federal Register on January 21, 2020 and it states, in part:

Section 8524(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act and codified at 20 U.S.C. 7904(a), requires the Secretary to issue guidance to State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and the public on constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools. In addition, section 8524(b) requires that, as a condition of receiving ESEA funds, an LEA must certify in writing to its SEA that it has no policy that prevents, or otherwise denies participation in, constitutionally protected prayer in public schools as detailed in this updated guidance.

Education Week’s report on the guidance noted precedent for the Trump administration’s move:

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, in its current and past versions, requires the U.S. Department of Education to provide guidance on prayer in schools every two years, but that guidance hasn’t been updated since 2003, a senior administration official said.

“President Trump is committed to making sure that people of faith, particularly children,” are not discouraged from constitutionally protected rights to pray, an administration official said in a conference call with reporters.

The new school prayer guidance, which will be published in the Federal Register Thursday Jan. 21, reiterates requirements under existing law that school districts must annually certify to their state departments of education that they have “no policy prohibiting participation in constitutionally protected prayer,” officials said. State education departments must have a process for fielding complaints the right to prayer has been violated, and they must report any complaints or lawsuits over school prayer to the federal Education Department, the guidance says.

The guidance also states that student religious groups should have the same access to school facilities as secular groups, which has been in place since 1998, Education Week reports.

The Trump administration will also issue a directive on Thursday that states religiously affiliated groups can get federal grants even if the group is located in a state that prohibits public funding of such groups.

“Those laws, known as Blaine amendments, are the subject of a case on tax-credit scholarships for private schools that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next week,” Education Week notes in its report.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/16/trump-doe-promotes-school-prayer-on-national-religious-freedom-day/

Leftists Try to Shut Down Screening of Climate Change Sceptic Film

A group of far-left extremists attempted to shut down the screening of a climate change critical film at the offices of the populist Alternative For Germany, vandalising the area in front of the building with climate activist slogans.

The film, titled Myth of the Climate Catastrophe, was screened at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party office in Schwerin earlier this week, but was met with protest from left-wing extremists who spray-painted climate activist slogans in the early morning before the screening, Schwerin Lokal reports.

The two leftist groups, Schwerin Against Racism and Schwerin for Everyone, also called for a demonstration at the offices during the screening, which was attended by 30 to 35 activists, with the local news website indicating that several protesters were also involved in the school strike protests instigated by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Dirk Lerche, a local member of the AfD, commented on the vandalism of the sidewalk in front of the AfD office, saying: “Society must send a clear signal against left-wing and eco-extremism. In any case, it can be assumed the offenders are from the left spectrum due to the choice of words.”

German conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit, who helped create the film, reported that district spokesman for the AfD-Schwerin Martin Schmidt also condemned the vandalism, saying: “Behind the alleged philanthropy of our opponents is an esoteric-totalitarian spirit, from which other opinions are suppressed and people are to be panicked before the impending end of the world.”

Many protests, often violent, have been directed toward the AfD for years in Germany. On Wednesday, the party’s Thuringia leader Björn Höcke received a suspicious substance to his home address which he brought to the state parliament to open.

The building had to be partially closed off as experts in hazmat suits examined the contents of the package. Police say they have ruled out explosives, but have not identified the substance in the package.

AfD members have been subjected to many violent attacks over the last several years, with one estimate released in 2016 cataloguing over 800 separate attacks on members and their property.

Last year, the infamous far-left extremist Antifa movement released an “assassination guide” directed at AfD members that showcased methods to kill politicians and escape being caught.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/16/far-left-activists-attempt-shut-down-screening-climate-change-critical-film/

May’s Brexit Negotiator Olly Robbins Handed a Knighthood

Former Prime Minister Theresa May’s adviser Oliver Robbins has been handed a knighthood, despite the Brexit deal he assisted crafting being rejected three times in the House of Commons.

Prince William knighted the former Brexit negotiator a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for his supposed public service on Tuesday. Mrs May had named the civil servant in her resignation honours list late last year.

The honour proved controversial, given Mr Robbins, now titled Sir Olly, was blamed not only for the failure of May’s deal to pass but was accused of attempting to block the United Kingdom from leaving the EU.

“I would have thought a Legion d’honneur would have been more appropriate for his services to the European Union,” a Conservative MP said in September when it was announced the career bureaucrat would be honoured with a knighthood.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage had accused the Civil Service of trying to thwart Brexit, saying in October 2018 during May’s talks with the bloc: “The problem I’m afraid is there is a rogue element in these negotiations. A group of people who do not wish to see a solution, who put up an immovable brick wall to stop us from breaking free. I regret to say it isn’t your chief negotiator Monsieur Barnier, it is actually the British civil service, Olly Robbins’ team.

“They signed up years ago to the European dream, they have been happy to take their orders from Brussels, they are now out to sabotage Brexit. They are indeed the enemy within.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/16/mays-brexit-negotiator-olly-robbins-handed-knighthood/

>>7830937

Don't encourage violence here Fren, that's what they want

‘Perverse’ Individuals Back New Migrant Caravan, Says Honduras’ Top Cop

The top law enforcement official in Honduras claims “perverse” individuals are “manipulating” and funding a new caravan of nearly a thousand to eventually reach the U.S. border.

During a news conference, Public Security Secretary Julian Pacheco said a new caravan departed on Wednesday, La Tribuna reported. According to Pacheco’s statements, the caravan is organized and funded by several undisclosed parties. Honduras National Police are working the case and plan to unmask the organizers shortly, he said.

Despite Pacheco’s comments, his staff is providing security for the caravan.

“Leaving the country under these circumstances is the last decision we should take as a person,” he told La Tribuna. “This is our country and this is where we should look for opportunities and we are sorry that this is happening.”

Pacheco’s statements seem to match a series of revelations made by Mexico City in June 2019 when as Breitbart Texas reported, they announced the freezing of assets for 26 individuals and entities who were allegedly tied to human smuggling and caravans. According to Mexico’s Finance and Tax Secretariat, an investigation determined the funding came from the U.S., United Kingdom, Africa, and Central America.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/01/16/perverse-individuals-back-new-migrant-caravan-says-honduras-top-cop/

Keeping with its Crackdown on Alternative Voices, Google Deletes Press TV from YouTube

Press TV says the move is “part of an anti-Iran purge as the West sets its sights on regime change in Iran.”

Without warning, tech giant Google “permanently removed” Iranian government-owned media channel Press TV UK’s YouTube channel Monday night amid increasing American hostility to Iran.

“This attack on the freedom of speech of Press TV’s journalists seems to be part of an anti-Iran purge as the West sets its sights on regime change in Iran,” Press TV said. Its content, in its own words, focuses on “anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and covers aspects of the news which the mainstream corporate media in the United Kingdom have refused to air.”

The London-based outlet had over 28,000 subscribers on its YouTube account at the time of its deletion.

British-Sudanese journalist Ahmed Kaballo accused Google of acting like the “judge jury and executioner” for his employer’s channel, expressing his great disappointment that his journalistic output is now gone and his worry at “what this really represents” for alternative media that “show a different perspective and holds a critical lens” on war and empire.

MintPress News reached out to Kaballo for comment. “The actions of Google in the last 24 hours has made me lose hope in the idea of free press and free speech,” he said. “Journalism is about pushing the boundaries and being fearless in our reporting but in this climate where they can do this to us in this fashion, it’s clear that our perspective. which is overtly anti-imperialist, is, in the eyes of Google, simply not allowed.”

https://www.mintpressnews.com/crackdown-alternative-media-google-deletes-press-tv-youtube/264142/

Afghan war plagued by 'mendacity' and lies, inspector general tells Congress

WASHINGTON - The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. officials have routinely lied to the public during the 18-year war by exaggerating progress reports and inflating statistics to create a false appearance of success.

"There's an odor of mendacity throughout the Afghanistan issue . . . mendacity and hubris," John Sopko said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The problem is there is a disincentive, really, to tell the truth. We have created an incentive to almost require people to lie."

As an example, Sopko said U.S. officials have lied in the past about the number of Afghan children enrolled in schools - a key marker of progress touted by the Obama administration - even though they "knew the data was bad." He also said U.S. officials falsely claimed major gains in Afghan life expectancy that were statistically impossible to achieve.

In addition, Sopko criticized the Trump administration for classifying information that shows the war is going badly, including data on Afghan troop casualties and assessments of the Taliban's strength.

Afghan war plagued by 'mendacity' and lies, inspector general tells Congress

Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post Published 3:09 pm PST, Wednesday, January 15, 2020

WASHINGTON - The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. officials have routinely lied to the public during the 18-year war by exaggerating progress reports and inflating statistics to create a false appearance of success.

"There's an odor of mendacity throughout the Afghanistan issue . . . mendacity and hubris," John Sopko said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The problem is there is a disincentive, really, to tell the truth. We have created an incentive to almost require people to lie."

As an example, Sopko said U.S. officials have lied in the past about the number of Afghan children enrolled in schools - a key marker of progress touted by the Obama administration - even though they "knew the data was bad." He also said U.S. officials falsely claimed major gains in Afghan life expectancy that were statistically impossible to achieve.

In addition, Sopko criticized the Trump administration for classifying information that shows the war is going badly, including data on Afghan troop casualties and assessments of the Taliban's strength.

"When we talk about mendacity, when we talk about lying, it's not just lying about a particular program. It's lying by omissions," he said. "It turns out that everything that is bad news has been classified for the last few years."

Congress created the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, in 2008 to investigate contractual fraud and waste in the war zone. Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $132 billion to modernize the country - more than it spent, adjusted for inflation, to rebuild Europe after World War II.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee summoned Sopko to testify in response to a series of articles published last month in The Washington Post that revealed how senior U.S. officials did not tell the truth about the war, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the conflict had become unwinnable.

Known as The Afghanistan Papers, The Post's series was based on hundreds of confidential interviews that SIGAR conducted with key figures in the war. The inspector general had drawn on the interviews to publish seven reports - called "Lessons Learned" - about policy failures in Afghanistan. But the reports left out the harshest and most frank criticisms and omitted the names of more than 90% of the people who were interviewed for the project.

The Post obtained about 2,000 pages of unpublished notes and transcripts from the interviews under the Freedom of Information Act, but it had to sue SIGAR in federal court - twice - to force it to release the records.

Several lawmakers said they were shocked by revelations in The Afghanistan Papers, including blunt admissions from generals, ambassadors and White House officials that they didn't know what they were doing in Afghanistan and that the war strategy was fundamentally flawed.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Afghan-war-plagued-by-mendacity-and-lies-14978585.php

Pentagon contradicts Trump’s $1bn Saudi payment for troops

For the second time in under a week the US Pentagon has contradicted President Donald Trump, this time for his boastful claim that he manged to get $1 billion from the Saudis for increasing the number of American troops in the Middle East.

Speaking of the deal in an interview with Fox News, Trump recounted his conversation with the Saudis: “I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.”

However, the pentagon has dismissed the claim saying that discussions about how Saudi Arabia can help pay for the cost of the US military deployment are still ongoing.

“The Saudi government has agreed to contribute to the costs of these activities, and discussions are ongoing to formalise these contributions.”

“Contributions of this nature do not lead to the deployment of additional US forces, and they do not drive [the] DOD [Department of Defence] to take on new missions or responsibilities,” pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told CNN in a statement.

For the second time in under a week the US Pentagon has contradicted President Donald Trump, this time for his boastful claim that he manged to get $1 billion from the Saudis for increasing the number of American troops in the Middle East.

Speaking of the deal in an interview with Fox News, Trump recounted his conversation with the Saudis: “I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.”

However, the pentagon has dismissed the claim saying that discussions about how Saudi Arabia can help pay for the cost of the US military deployment are still ongoing.

“The Saudi government has agreed to contribute to the costs of these activities, and discussions are ongoing to formalise these contributions.”

“Contributions of this nature do not lead to the deployment of additional US forces, and they do not drive [the] DOD [Department of Defence] to take on new missions or responsibilities,” pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told CNN in a statement.

WATCH: Putin and Assad caught mocking Trump

“While we will not comment on specific bilateral defence agreements, more broadly the United States encourages burden-sharing among partners in support of shared security interests, to include defence of the Arabian Gulf,” a State Department official said.

With no mention of the alleged $1 billion, the statements clearly contradict the president, making it the second time in as many days that the pentagon has disputed information from the White House.

On Monday US Defence Secretary, Mark Esper threw further doubts over the reason provided by President Trump for ordering the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad at the start of the month.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200116-pentagon-contradicts-trumps-1bn-saudi-payment-for-troops/

Trump’s New Defense Secretary Embodies “the Swamp.”

Congress Is Fine With That.Mark Esper is just the latest lobbyist to join Trump’s Cabinet.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/mark-esper-defense-secretary-raytheon-lobbyist.html

Air Force Two-Star Fired Amid Investigation into Misconduct Allegations

The head of the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is under investigation after misconduct allegations were made against him and has been removed from his position.

Gen. Arnold Bunch, head of Air Force Materiel Command, relieved Maj. Gen. William Cooley from his post Wednesday "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead," the command said in a release, adding that the move is related to the ongoing investigation.

Derek Kaufman, spokesman for AFMC, told Military.com that Cooley has been temporarily reassigned as the special assistant to Bunch while officials look into the allegations.

Kaufman added that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations is looking into the matter, but could not comment on the nature of inquiry. However, a military lawyer previously told Military.com that when "OSI embarks on an investigation, it is inherently a criminal investigation."

"The Air Force takes any misconduct allegation seriously," Bunch said in the release. "I expect our leadership to uphold the highest standards and live up to the Air Force's core values."

Brig. Gen. Evan Dertien has been appointed as the new AFRL commander, officials said in the release. Dertien was previously AFRL's vice commander from July 2016 to May 2017.

"I have great confidence in Brig. Gen. Dertien and in the professionalism of the entire AFRL workforce," Bunch said. "Together, they will remain focused on implementing the U.S. Air Force Science and Technology 2030 Strategy and ensuring AFRL is best postured to support the National Defense Strategy."

Cooley became the AFRL commander in May 2017, according to his official Air Force biography. Prior to his role in Ohio, Cooley was the program executive for programs and integration at the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

In April, Cooley unveiled the service's S&T 2030 Strategy following a 12-month review to analyze how and where the service could strengthen or foster new relationships with the science community, academic universities and industry partners.

"To ensure that we have confidence in and understand how to employ these new technologies and capabilities, we have to demonstrate them in a relevant environment, build prototypes and perform experimentation," he said at the time. "This will build confidence in these new technologies for our warfighter."

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/16/air-force-two-star-fired-amid-investigation-misconduct-allegations.html

ICC chief prosecutor dismisses anti-Semitism allegation

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected the charge of anti-Semitism following its announcement to launch a full investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian Territories.

The landmark decision was met with hostility in Tel-Aviv. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the court’s decision, stating that it had no jurisdiction to investigate in the Palestinian Territories. To disrupt the court’s investigation, Israel threatened to prevent ICC officials from entering the occupied territories; a move that would mirror its treatment of United Nations investigators, also prevented from entering the region.

Further attack on the ICC ensued. Netanyahu denounced the court’s decision as “pure anti-Semitism,” during a candle-lighting ceremony marking the start of the eight-day Hanukkah holiday, last month.

“New edicts are being cast against the Jewish people – anti-Semitic edicts by the International Criminal Court telling us that we, the Jews, standing here next to this wall … in this city, in this country, have no right to live here and that by doing so, we are committing a war crime,” asserted the Israeli prime minister.

Other senior politicians, The Times of Israel reported, similarly condemned the court and its prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, because of her decision. Some Israeli journalists published articles highlighting her past as a senior official in the Gambian government, where she served under a brutal dictator, in an apparent effort to sully her reputation.

This week chief ICC prosecutor, Bensouda, dismissed the accusation, in an interview with The Times of Israel. “This is a particularly regrettable accusation that is without merit,” stressed Bensouda. Bensouda explained that she expected to face attempts to undermine her credibility through “character assassination” in the same way that witnesses are discredited and undermined during a legal case.

“I, along with my office, execute our mandate under the Rome Statute with utmost independence, objectivity, fairness and professional integrity. We will continue to meet our responsibilities as required by the Rome Statute without fear or favour,” she added.

Bensouda is the latest in a growing list of people to face the charge of anti-Semitism. Last week a Jewish teacher in a New York school was fired for expressing remarks critical of Israel. 150 people signed a letter in defence of the teacher, in which it was claimed that the controversy around her firing was another instance in the “weaponisation of anti-Semitism” which “is the subject of a pitched battle within Jewish communities.”

Their concerns were echoed in December by the author of a controversial definition of anti-Semitism, who spoke out over its misuse and warned of its “chilling effect” on free speech. US attorney, Kenneth Stern, who drafted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “working definition of antisemitism,” warned that “right-wing Jews were weaponising” it to supress criticism of Israel.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200116-icc-chief-prosecutor-dismisses-anti-semitism-allegation/

DoD to Announce New Base Security Measures Worldwide in Wake of Pensacola Shooting

Defense Secretary Mark Esper will head to Naval Air Station Pensacola next week to meet with base leadership and the first responders who provided aid in the wake of a deadly mass shooting last month, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Thursday.

While there, Hoffman said, Esper will provide air station leadership with a preview of new security measures being developed to prevent future incidents – measures that include physical installation security improvements as well as the enhanced vetting protocols that have been previously announced.

"[Esper] will announce these new measures shortly, which will include physical security procedures as well," Hoffman said.

On Dec. 6, a Saudi junior officer in training at the base opened fire in a classroom building, killing three service members and injuring eight other people before being killed by sheriff's deputies who responded to the scene.

A federal probe concluded that the shooting was an act of terrorism and that the shooter "was motivated by jihadist ideology." This week, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said a follow-up investigation into foreign military students resulted in the return of 21 other Saudi students to their home country. The majority of these students, he said, had pro-jihadist or anti-American materials in their possession; many also were found to have had contact with child pornography.

Hoffman noted that more than one million students had participated in the foreign military training program in its two decades of existence, and Pensacola was the first security breach of its kind.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest participants in the program, he added.

He reiterated that the Defense Department is now looking to augment the vetting procedures that take place prior to students arriving at U.S. bases, co-located with American troops.

"Previous vetting had been handled by the home country … as well as the Department of Homeland Security and State Department," he said. "We've taken a look at that as far as how we can use our resources to do enhanced vetting."

While classroom instruction is ongoing for international students, Hoffman indicated that an operational training pause for Saudi students, implemented in early December, remains in place.

"That's an announcement we will likely have in the coming days," he said. "Over the holidays … the training schedule was a little bit different. We look forward to turning that back on in the coming days."

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/16/dod-announce-new-base-security-measures-worldwide-wake-pensacola-shooting.html

Seven and Counting: Cambridge, Massachusetts Passes Facial Recognition Ban

Last Monday night, the Cambridge City Council passed a measure banning facial recognition technology in the city. The growing movement to prohibit the use of facial recognition at the state and local levels could hinder the operation of a growing national facial recognition network.

Cambridge Mayor McGovern, along with Councilors Craig Kelley and Sumbul Siddiqui, proposed the ban last summer in a resolution. The amendment to the Surveillance Technology Ordinance passed last year prohibits any city department from intentionally accessing or using face recognition technology. It also bars the use of any information obtained from such technology.

The amendment passed 9-0.

McGovern announced the passage to the measure in a tweet.

“Cambridge joins a small but growing number of cities who are stepping up to protect residents from intrusive and undemocratic technology.”

Cambridge became the fourth Massachusetts city to pass a ban on facial recognition technology, joining Northampton, Brookline and Somerville. The city of Springfield is considering a similar ban, and there are also bills moving through the Massachusetts state legislature to place a statewide moratorium on facial recognition technology.

Efforts in Massachusetts make up part of a broader nationwide movement to limit this invasive surveillance technology at the local and state level. San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. have all prohibited government use of facial recognition technology, The California governor recently signed a bill that imposes a 3-year ban on the use of the tech in conjunction with police body-worn cameras, leading to the shutdown of one of the biggest facial recognition programs in the country. The New York Assembly is considering a bill to ban facial recognition in schools and on police body cameras.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

A recent report revealed that the federal government has turned state drivers’ license photos into a giant facial recognition database, putting virtually every driver in America in a perpetual electronic police lineup. The revelations generated widespread outrage, but this story isn’t new. The federal government has been developing a massive, nationwide facial recognition system for years.

The FBI rolled out a nationwide facial-recognition program in the fall of 2014, with the goal of building a giant biometric database with pictures provided by the states and corporate friends.

In 2016, the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law released “The Perpetual Lineup,” a massive report on law enforcement use of facial recognition technology in the U.S. You can read the complete report at perpetuallineup.org. The organization conducted a year-long investigation and collected more than 15,000 pages of documents through more than 100 public records requests. The report paints a disturbing picture of intense cooperation between the federal government, and state and local law enforcement to develop a massive facial recognition database.

“Face recognition is a powerful technology that requires strict oversight. But those controls, by and large, don’t exist today,” report co-author Clare Garvie said. “With only a few exceptions, there are no laws governing police use of the technology, no standards ensuring its accuracy, and no systems checking for bias. It’s a wild west.”

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/01/seven-and-counting-cambridge-massachusetts-passes-facial-recognition-ban.html

Putin signs decree appointing Mishustin Russia’s prime minister

The decree comes into force on the day of its signing

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing Mikhail Mishustin as the country’s prime minister.

"In accordance with Article 83(a) of the Russian Constitution, Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin is appointed as Russia’s Prime Minister," says the decree published on the Kremlin’s website.

The decree comes into force on the day of its signing.

Earlier on Thursday, the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) gave its consent to Mishustin’s appointment. As many as 383 lawmakers voted ‘yes,’ no one voted ‘no,’ while 41 abstained from voting.

Meeting with former PM

Former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, appointed deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, will hold a meeting with new Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Friday, January 17, the Russian government’s press service informed.

"The meeting between the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and the Russian prime minister will take place tomorrow [January 17] at the House of Government of the Russian Federation," the press service stated.

The entire Russian government, headed by former PM Dmitry Medvedev, resigned on January 15. Earlier on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Mikhail Mishustin as the country’s prime minister after the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) gave its consent to Mishustin’s appointment.

The newly appointed head of government stated on the outcomes of the plenary session of the Russian State Duma that he would announce the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers within a few days.

https://tass.com/politics/1109577

Capitalism in America: How a Dismal Decimal is Robbing Americans Blind

There is no hiding anymore, the United States has become an oligarch owned banana republic with nukes, and with a monopoly currency which has allowed it to rig the markets for half a century. But now we are only a couple of hours from curtain – Midnight in America.

With the stock market at all-time highs, virtually no unemployment (or so they say), and brisk GDP growth (supposedly) in the last decade, economic analysts would declare that the US economy is in excellent shape. But, it isn’t. The stock market is a central bank inflated asset bubble, and what GDP growth there has been, is an illusion brought about by the very same financial bubble and by pumping the economy up with record federal borrowings to finance the deficits that America cannot afford. Rigged statistics showing artificially low inflation serve to hold together the Trumped-up American economic narrative. (About the rigged inflation statistics, see this report https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/the-inflation-measurement-scam/?fbclid=IwAR0qmpe4i0sp5Uce9UlyEDt0_NkIv-aiDTSgvzHh5EMfZn5WQboZz_mB-XU). And the low unemployment figure is nothing but a chimera based on misleading statistics.

In reality, the US economy is failing – and the country with it. At least two-thirds of the population has seen dramatic declines in living standards and half are back to levels of developing nations – without the development.

The big story covered up by all the happy macroeconomic figures repeated by rote by the US establishment – everybody from the president to cable television pundits and Trump fanboys – is the gradual impoverishment of the American worker. That’s an inconvenient truth increasingly difficult to hide as the American dream has turned into a nightmare for huge swathes of the population. As the figures we present below show, the rich are really getting richer, the middle class has been decimated, and half of Americans are poor and destitute of any financial wealth. The super-rich are gobbling up an ever-increasing slice of the American pie at the cost of all the rest who get nothing but table scraps on one side and leftover crumbs on the other, if anything. The resulting stratification of society has brought back a medieval servant economy, where the have-nots are doing odd jobs, cleaning houses, fetching groceries, running errands and deliveries for the feudal rich and the remaining shrinking middle class.

Thanks to the Fed (the American oligarch owned central bank) pushing easy money into the hands of the privileged elite, the super-rich Dismal Decimal – the top 0.1% – have by now amassed as much wealth as they had just before the Great Depression that started with the stock market crash in 1929. A lesson not learned. Back to square one. How will it end this time?

This article is based on an Awara Accounting https://www.awaragroup.com/ study titled “Widening Income and Wealth Gap and Stagnating Wages in America.” https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/widening-income-and-wealth-gap-and-stagnating-wages-in-america/ Links and source references to all the facts presented here can be found in said study.

BTW all the data in this report is derived from official US government sources and American experts analyzing them.

During the last decades, the financial rewards from the rigged markets first flew exclusively into the pockets of Top 10%, but later it was increasingly Top 1%, which pocketed most, perfectly illustrated by below charts.

1. The income of Top 1% has grown five times as fast as that of Bottom 90% income since 1970, who now earn double the amount of income than 160 million poor of the lower 50% stratum.

MUCH MOAR

https://thesaker.is/capitalism-in-america-how-a-dismal-decimal-is-robbing-americans-blind/

How the 1% are stealing everything

Barr & DOJ Covering Up Massive NEW Hillary Clinton Scandal That Will Rock D.C.

The Justice Department has been giving Hillary Clinton another free pass and this round it is on the alleged watch of U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

Thomas Paine broke the story on his Patreon show on Tuesday night as well as his new Podcast.

Paine said Barr is allowing Clinton to get away with another scheme, this one very large involving the Clinton Foundation and U.S. tax money. This comes on the heels of Barr allowing Saudi trainees linked to the murders of three Navy sailors at a Naval base in Florida to walk away from the deadly shootings.

Paine said Barr will not prosecute Clinton and her cartel members involved in the new massive scheme, which will soon be detailed in True Pundit.

FBI officials recently fired or ‘retired’ may also be using knowledge of the covered-up Clinton scheme as leverage to stay out of prison, Paine said.

Here is an excerpt from the podcast.

“These Saudi ‘soldiers” (in Florida) have porn child porn on their computers and number them are basically terrorists radicalized.

Muslim terrorists and Barr says, you know, I think we’ll just ask them to leave the country.

This guy is like a dope.

He’s actually probably worse than Sessions. I think when the final analysis is over. This guy is a cover-up artist and worse than Sessions. I think that’s what’s going to shake out. I’m probably way ahead of the curve again, but I think that’s probably what’s going to happen.

Hey if I’m wrong, I’ll apologize, but I haven’t had to apologize that much in three years now.

And the reason I could say that with some definitive confidences because I know everything that’s going on behind the scenes that they haven’t done and they haven’t prosecuted this Saudi trainee thing is just like the latest … that’s like a speed bump compared to the other stuff that these guys are are letting the Elites in DC get away with.

It’s really maddening.

And I will be honest with you. I probably should have done a podcast yesterday because I think it’s like a week. I was so mad yesterday. You think this is bad? Like my opening five minutes is bad? I probably would have been tossed off of here yesterday. I was so mad the whole day even the guys I work with the like, you know, what’s the matter with you? Why are you so mad because I’ll tell you why I’m mad because I get calls from Justice guys. And from Intel guys and the stuff keeps getting worse.

Worse and worse

And a lot of that stuff will be coming out on True Pundit in the next weeks in the next months … it’s so bad folks.

I’ll tell you it just it brings you to your knees as a patriot to to see what is going on with this country …

These people are crazy and dangerous and selling you out.

By the hour not by the day or by the week now. It’s by the hour.”

This story is developing.

https://truepundit.com/exclusive-barr-doj-covering-up-massive-new-hillary-clinton-scandal-that-will-rock-d-c/

Democrats Dump New Impeachment Evidence On Eve Of Vote, Say It Proves Senate Trial Can’t Be ‘Full And Fair’

Hours after finally announcing their decision to hold the vote on sending their delayed articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Democrat-led House impeachment investigation committee released new materials to the press that Democrats say prove a trial in the Senate cannot be “full and fair” without documents they’ve demanded from Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed the transfer of the impeachment articles against President Trump for nearly a month in an attempt to pressure Senate Republicans to hold an impeachment trial that effectively retries the case the House Democrats were supposed to have already proven convincingly. Amid mounting pressure, including from key Democrats in the Senate, Pelosi finally caved Tuesday, the Democrats holding a press conference to announce that they would vote on sending the articles on Wednesday.

Tuesday night, on the eve of the big vote, House investigators released new documents that have “spurred Democrats to renew calls for the White House to turn over documents related to the Ukraine pressure campaign that it has refused to share with Congress,” reports The Washington Post, which promptly reported on the conveniently timed document dump.

Along with the new materials, the chairs of the Democrat-led House Intelligence, Oversight, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees issued a joint statement Tuesday night saying the “new evidence” means “there cannot be a full and fair trial in the Senate” until Trump hands over the demanded information he has thus far withheld.

https://truepundit.com/democrats-dump-new-impeachment-evidence-on-eve-of-vote-say-it-proves-senate-trial-cant-be-full-and-fair/

Judge blocks Trump executive order giving states the ability to reject refugee settlements

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday, that President Trump can’t give state and local governments “veto power” to reject refugees from resettling within their borders.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte, a Clinton nomine agreed to block Trump’s executive order requiring resettlement agencies to get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they want to resettle refugees beyond June.

In his 31-page ruling, Messitte said the agencies are likely to succeed in showing that November’s executive order is unlawful because it gives state and local governments veto power over the resettlement of refugees. The judge issued a preliminary injunction requested by three resettlement agencies that sued to challenge the executive order.

Messitte concluded Trump’s order doesn’t appear to serve the “overall public interest.”

“Refugee resettlement activity should go forward as it developed for the almost 40 years before [the executive order] was announced,” he wrote.

The administration didn’t immediately say whether it will appeal Messitte’s decision. The State Department said it is reviewing the decision and has no immediate comment.

Church World Service, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS — a Jewish nonprofit — filed the lawsuit in Greenbelt, Md., on Nov. 21. They are three of the nine national organizations that have agreements with the federal government to provide housing and other services for refugees. The agencies argued the order illegally conflicts with the 1980 Refugee Act.

Texas, which took in more refugees than any other state during the 2018 fiscal year, became the first state known to reject the resettlement of new refugees. Gov. Greg Abbott said in a letter released Friday that Texas “has been left by Congress to deal with disproportionate migration issues resulting from a broken federal immigration system.”

The head of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, said the ruling puts on hold a policy that was causing “irreparable harm to refugee families and resettlement agencies already.” She added that it essentially reopens the door to refugees being resettled in Texas.

“It’s a significant day in which the rule of law won,” O’Mara Vignarajah said.

So far, 42 states have publicly agreed to accept refugees, but a governor’s decision wouldn’t preclude local officials from refusing to give their consent. For instance, the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Mass., has refused to give written consent for refugees to be resettled in the city.

Trump’s order says his administration acted to respect communities that believe they do not have the jobs or other resources to be able to take in refugees. Refugees have the right to move anywhere in the U.S. after their initial resettlement, but at their own expense.

https://www.thedailysheeple.com/judge-blocks-trump-executive-order-giving-states-the-ability-to-reject-refugee-settlements/

Haftar says he is ready to adhere to Libya ceasefire — German top diplomat

On Monday, representatives of the parties to the conflict arrived in Moscow for talks after which GNA envoys signed a ceasefire agreement while LNA Commander Khalifa Haftar left Moscow without inking the deal

BERLIN, January 16. /TASS/. Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar stated that he is ready to adhere to the ceasefire in the country, planning to take part in the conference on Libyan regulation set to take place on January 19 in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated on Thursday in Benghazi.

"He promised to adhere to the ceasefire, despite not signing the ceasefire agreement in Moscow earlier this week. This is very important," DPA news agency quotes the minister as saying. Maas held three-hour-long talks with Haftar, the message notes.

"General Haftar has signaled his readiness to contribute to the success of the Libya Conference in Berlin and is willing to participate. He has repeated his commitment to observe the existing ceasefire," the German Foreign Ministry quoted Maas on Twitter.

Libya regulation

On January 12, a ceasefire in Libya proposed by Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a larger initiative to achieve peace in the country entered into force at midnight. The ceasefire’s objective is to stop hostilities between the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) sitting in Tripoli.

On Monday, representatives of the parties to the conflict arrived in Moscow for talks after which GNA envoys signed a ceasefire agreement. Haftar took a pause to study the agreement. However, later he left Moscow without putting his signature under the document, Arab media outlets reported.

The international conference on Libya will take place on January 19 in Berlin. The German government’s press service informed on Tuesday that Russia, the US, China, the UK, Italy, France, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of the Congo, along with representatives of the UN, the EU, the African Union and the Arab League are set to take part in the conference. Haftar and al-Sarraj have confirmed their participation in the conference earlier on Thursday.

https://tass.com/world/1109685

>>7831224

Mossad replaces CIA as Haftar's handler in Libya

https://www.sott.net/article/358876-Sibel-Edmonds-Mossad-replaces-CIA-as-Haftars-handler-in-Libya

>>7831253

where are we getting these faggot bakers

hiding shit for the DS

>>7831283

your a fucking idiot low IQ

>>7831362

hi RABBI