Russia & China Use Logic When it Comes to Gold

Posted with permission and written by Rory Hall, The Daily Coin

 

 

 

As we reported both here and here, gold is the answer going forward. How we the people will access physical gold or if we will be able to access physical gold is really the only remaining question. How high gold is going is the other important question. I hope it doesn’t get into the lofty heights that have been suggested in recent years - highs like $7,000, $9,000 and even $10,000 an ounce, as it would be much harder for people to use in everyday transactions. Unless, of course, it was on the blockchain or some other yet-to-be-developed type of fintech.

 

It is also no secret that Russia is looking for the exit door where the Federal Reserve Note (FRN), world reserve currency, US dollar is concerned. Russia has made it very clear they are making all the moves to stop using the FRN/US dollar as their primary currency to settle international trade. Gold will probably handle Russia’s trade settlement just fine.

 

Gold Is Russian Answer To U.S. Dollar Dominance – CPM Group

Russia’s increased purchases of gold is not a red flag, but a clear message of diversification away from the U.S. dollar and its “monetary hegemony,” according to Jeff Christian, the CPM Group managing director.

In October, Russia added another 21 metric tons of gold, which tripled the amount over the last decade and brought the overall total to 1,800 tons.

Russia has added, approximately 18 tons per month, every month, for the past 3 years. At their current pace Russia will move ahead of China into sixth largest gold hoard by late Q1 2018.

 

But, it’s “business as usual for Russia,” Christian told Kitco News at the Silver & Gold Summit in San Francisco. “[Russia is] finally able to execute on a long-term desire to rebuild their [gold] inventories and to diversify away from the dollar.”

Russia has witnessed most of its gold reserves sold off after the breakup of the Soviet Union, which it has been attempting to regain since about 1997, Christian pointed out.

“In 1997 to 2005 [Russia] didn’t have the foreign exchange and capital inflows needed to convert money to gold. But, as the oil, palladium, and nickel prices started rising in 2005, all of a sudden, Russia’s economy had a massive inflow of U.S. dollars.”

But, the Russian government quickly realized that it had a problem relying on the U.S. currency, said Christian.

“Russia had a massive inflow of U.S. dollars at a time when the U.S. government was increasingly hostile toward the Russian government,” he noted, adding that Russia decided to diversify away from the American currency.

Christian added that Russia is not alone in sending this kind of message of diversification, highlighting that China as well as many other countries are on the same page.

“China in Q1 2009 bought a lot of gold that was supposed to go to China Investment Corp, the sovereign wealth fund. And instead, the government decided to add it to monetary reserves to send a message to the U.S. Treasury that China can in fact diversify monetary reserves,” he said.

Change is in the air, according to Christian: “There is a great dissatisfaction with the monetary hegemony that the U.S. has exercised since WWII and [the world] will move towards some sort of post-Bretton Wood floating exchange rate program at some point in the future.”

You know there is a serious alliance between Russia and China when even Jeffrey Christian can’t discuss one without mentioning the other. These two countries are working hand-in-glove to displace the FRN from its world reserve currency status and move into a system that includes gold at the foundation. Neither country wishes to upset the warmongers in Washington DC as these two countries understand they are dealing with an unstable group who haven’t honored one treaty they have ever signed – not one treaty in all the history of Washington DC has ever been honored. Russia and China are just going about their business of conducting business and when all the major competent pieces are in place it will be too late for the US/Uk to retaliate.

 

 

Questions or comments about this article? Leave your thoughts HERE.

 

 

 

 

Russia & China Use Logic When it Comes to Gold

Posted with permission and written by Rory Hall, The Daily Coin

 

 

Check out these other articles by our contributors:

Dave Kranzler -  Bitcoin’s Inconvenient Truths: The Silence Is Deafening

Craig Hemke - Banks Again Defending Silver"s 200-Day Moving Average

Ask The Expert: Jim Willie

Russia Warns It Will Retaliate Against American Media Next Week

It has been over a month since Russia and the US engaged in political tit-for-tat escalations, but that is about to change: after a recent crackdown by the U.S. government, which ordered state broadcaster RT to register as a foreign agent following accusations it interfered in last year’s presidential elections, and which saw Twitter ban all RT-sourced advertising (despite actively seeking RT"s business beforehand) Russia said on Thursday it would retaliate next week against the American media, Bloomberg reports.

While the Russians didn’t specify what measures would be taken, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that “practical implementation” of steps in response to the U.S. move would begin next week. Russia has previously warned its retaliation would mirror restrictions imposed by the U.S. The foreign-agent label, which applies to several state-owned outlets operating in the U.S. including Japan’s NHK and the China Daily newspaper, requires disclosure of the media organization’s foreign funding.

As reported earlier today, RT"s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on the broadcaster’s website that it has no choice but to comply with the DOJ’s demand to register as a foreign agent by a final deadline of Monday. Otherwise, the head of the channel’s U.S. subsidiary would face arrest and its bank accounts would be frozen, she said. “This demand violates U.S. law and we intend to appeal it in U.S. courts.”

What may Russia"s next move be?  One month ago, Zakharova said that “we have never used Russian law in relation to foreign correspondents as a lever of pressure, or censorship, or some kind of political influence, never. But this is a particular case..."

She cited a 1991 Russian law which, she said, stated that if a Russian media outlet is subject to restrictions in a foreign country, then Moscow has the right to impose proportionate restrictions on media outlets from that country operating inside Russia. “Correspondingly, everything that Russian journalists and the RT station are subject to on U.S. soil, after we qualified it as restriction of their activities, we can apply similar measures to American journalists, American media here, on Russian territory." She did not identify any specific U.S. media outlets that would be targeted. She said it made no difference from the Russian government’s point of view if those outlets were backed by the U.S. state, or privately-funded.

In September, Russia’s state communications regulator accused CNN International of violating its license to broadcast in Russia and said it had summoned the broadcaster’s representatives in connection with the matter. The watchdog did not publicly disclose the nature of the violation. The head of the regulator said it was a technical matter and denied that politics was involved. The U.S. Congress is investigating RT’s role in the 2016 election, as well as possible influence by state-owned Sputnik news service.

Russian authorities have signaled that CNN and Radio Liberty could be among those targeted in response to the action against RT.

Twitter Bans RT, Sputnik Ads "For Attempting To Interfere With The US Election"

In a blog post this morning, Twitter"s Jack Dorsey explains why the social media company is banning RT and Sputnik from advertising on their platform...

Twitter has made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, effective immediately. This decision was based on the retrospective work we"ve been doing around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government. We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter.

 

Early this year, the U.S. intelligence community named RT and Sputnik as implementing state-sponsored Russian efforts to interfere with and disrupt the 2016 Presidential election, which is not something we want on Twitter. This decision is restricted to these two entities based our internal investigation of their behavior as well as their inclusion in the January 2017 DNI report. This decision does not apply to any other advertisers. RT and Sputnik may remain organic users on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.

 

Twitter has also decided to take the $1.9 million we are projected to have earned from RT global advertising since they became an advertiser in 2011, which includes the $274,100 in 2016 U.S.-based advertising that we highlighted in our September 28 blog post, and donate those funds to support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections, including use of malicious automation and misinformation, with an initial focus on elections and automation. We will have more details to share on this disbursement soon.

Notably, the "off-board"-ing move comes less than a week before the company will testify on Russian election meddling on Capitol Hill, where he"ll join colleagues from Google and Facebook.

RT is not taking this lying down, asking an awkward question that we suspect will also get asked next week in Congress...

Hope @jack won’t forget to tell @congressdotgov how @Twitter pitched @RT_com to spend big $$s on US elex ad campaign. pic.twitter.com/7GqoEoSaY8

— ????????? ???????? (@M_Simonyan) October 26, 2017

We are sure this move will please Mark Warner, but the bigger questions are how will Putin respond, and whether Facebook and Google (which owns YouTube) are likely to follow Twitter"s freedom-of-speech-denying lead.

"We Microchip Dogs, So Why Not Athletes" - Olympics Suggest Implants To Prevent Doping

Companies in Scandinavia and the US have already embraced microchipping as a way to make the office experience more seamless by allowing employees to easily unlock doors or pay for food in the cafeteria.

Of course, while workers say they"ve welcomed the technology (one Russian hobbyist has reported self-implanted six microchips), and companies not to abuse the technology, the temptation to do so should make people nervous.

But the use of microchips in the workplace likely won’t be limited to corporate environments. Pretty soon, microchipping might become a common tool for monitoring professional and amateur athletes as sports leagues try to eradicate the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs.

At least that’s what recent remarks from Mike Miller, chief executive of the World Olympians Association, appeared to suggest. Speaking Tuesday to anti-doping leaders at a Westminster forum on integrity in sport, Miller said the Olympic Games should begin microchipping athletes to try and prevent the type of state-sponsored evasion of anti-doping rules purportedly organized by the Russian government ahead of the winter games in Sochi, the Guardian reported.

Because cheating is so widespread, Miller said such a radical approach is justified to help protect the integrity of the games. However, in what appears to be an ill-conceived attempt to preempt criticism, Miller clumsily compare human athletes to animals, saying that, since microchips are now being used to monitor pets, using them on humans wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.  

“Some people say we shouldn’t do this to people,” Miller said. “Well, we’re a nation of dog lovers, we’re prepared to chip our dogs and it doesn’t seem to harm them, so why aren’t we prepared to chip ourselves?”

The Olympics should act quickly to begin microchipping, Miller said, because a breakthrough in the technology is on the horizon that could allow microchips into a potent tool for cheaters. For example, the chips could be used to determine when levels of banned substances in an athletes blood have returned to “normal” levels.

What about the invasion of privacy inherent in using microchips? Well, Miller has an answer for that, too, noting that sports are “a club and people don’t have to join…if they don’t want to.”

“In order to stop doping we need to chip our athletes where the latest technology is there. Some people say it’s an invasion of privacy, well, sport is a club and people don’t have to join the club if they don’t want to, if they can’t follow the rules.”

“Microchips get over the issue of whether the technology can be manipulated because they have no control over the device. The problem with the current anti-doping system is that all it says is that at a precise moment in time there are no banned substances but we need a system which says you are illegal substance-free at all times and if there are changes in markers they will be detected.”

To be sure, Miller said he was not speaking on behalf of the organization, and that his remarks about microchips reflect his views alone. He was merely throwing out an idea to try and guage the public"s reaction, he said.

“I’m just throwing the idea out there,” he said. “I’m gauging reaction from people but we do need to think of new ways to protect clean sport. I’m no Steve Jobs but we need to spend the money and use the latest technology.”

The WOA supports the 48 national Olympians associations and 100,000 living Olympians.

As the Guardian notes, the idea of microchips being inserted into athletes might not be so well-received by national teams and individual athletes. Some feel the current system of vigorous testing is already too invasive. According to current Olympic rules, athletes must declare on an online database where they will be every day for a one-hour window between 5 am to 11 pm to allow drug testers the opportunity to surprise them.

Nicole Sapstead, the UK’s anti-doping chief executive, said she’s wary of using microchips to monitor athletes, adding that the Olympics would never be able to guarantee that the technology is immune to tampering.  

“We welcome verified developments in technology which could assist the fight against doping. However, can we ever be sure that this type of thing could never be tampered with or even accurately monitor all substances and methods on the prohibited list?”

“There is a balance to be struck between a right to privacy versus demonstrating that you are clean. We would actively encourage more research in whether there are technologies in development that can assist anti-doping organizations in their endeavors.”

Miller isn’t the first person to cite the increasing use of microchips to monitor pets as possible justification for using the technology on humans. Last year, a local NBC News report appeared to advocate implanting children with microchips. In one particularly galling passage, the report tried to guilt-trip parents by asking them: “How far would you go to keep your children secure?”

With that in mind, how far should the Olympics (not to mention professional sports leagues) go to stamp out the use of performance-enhancing drugs?

What do you think?

"The Bombs Are Still Falling" - MSNBC Urges Government Censorship Of Social Media "To Protect Democracy"

Authored by Chris Reeves via NewsBusters.org,

On Friday’s Morning Joe, Willie Geist hosted a panel to discuss the latest news on the Russian hacking narrative regarding Facebook ads that were purportedly used by Russian intelligence to stoke "racial tensions" during the 2016 presidential election.

The panel’s primary reaction, with only one dissenting voice, was to call for increased government "regulation" and financial “penalties in the hundreds of millions” to shut down alleged Russian influencers.

The segment started off with Geist introducing the latest reporting on the topic:

GEIST: Twitter says it has shut down more than two-hundred accounts that were tied to the same Russian operatives who bought political ads on Facebook. Of the 450 accounts released by Facebook as part of its investigation, Twitter was able to match 22 of them to its own site. The disclosure by Twitter followed a briefing by company officials to staffers of the Senate and House Intel committees yesterday. Following that meeting, the top Democrat on the Senate committee, Mark Warner, slammed Twitter for its presentation.

SEN. MARK WARNER [D-VA]: [playing clip] The presentation that the Twitter team made to the Senate Intel staff today was deeply disappointing. The notion that their work was basically derivative based upon accounts that Facebook had identified showed enormous lack of understanding from the Twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and, again, begs many more questions than they offered.

(...)

GEIST: The top Democrat on the House Intel Committee, Adam Schiff, also weighed in on Twitter’s briefing to his committee, releasing a statement that read, in part: "... it is clear that Twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of Russian activity during the campaign. This additional analysis will require far more robust investigation into how Russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign..."

Without any perceptible degree of skepticism about the Democratic Congressmen"s claims, Geist then teed up Nicolle Wallace, host of the MSNBC afternoon show Deadline: White House, to talk about social media and the 2016 election more generally:

GEIST: You do get the sense, Nicolle, that Facebook, Twitter, social media was totally clueless about what was happening on their sites during the 2016 campaign.

WALLACE: It"s worse than that [...]. The social media companies are sort of like the worst stereotype of a Republican political organization. They"re reactive, they’re opaque, they"re defensive, they are very slow to understand the value of transparency. They"re totally lawyered up, lobbied up. And they are as a culture, the hubris of thinking that they"re all about the public good, when if you take a low-tech analogy, it’s basically like someone got mugged in your backyard and their position is: well, it"s not our problem, I mean, we just bought the lot on which the house was built, not our problem.

Donny Deutsch chimed in his agreement with Wallace’s analysis, mainly to suggest that perhaps internet news sites and social media sites need government regulation to make sure that what they post or allow up is accurate:

DEUTSCH: [T]here’s a tremendous irony with these guys, because, the tech guys, these young-, are, are the ones who are revolutionizing the world for betterment, yet the irony is, if I wanna take an ad out on NBC or anyplace else for a laundry detergent, the things I have to go through-

WALLACE: [interrupting] It has to work, it has to be real, you have to be real. Right!

DEUTSCH: [continues talking over Wallace] -[...] to prove that it’s got 5% more blue crystals in it, yet there is no regulati[on]. There is nothing more important for us, for people watching this show over the next ten and twenty years as the regulation of these companies. They control the flow of communication. [...] [W]hat"s happening here, as far as our power versus what"s happening over here [points to his smart phone], multiply it a thousand-fold and there is no regulation.

Ah, so here we see one of the real reasons for wanting to regulate internet-based news content: it’s out-competing (supposedly) respectable news outlets like MSNBC!

After Deutsch floated the idea of government censorship to get the internet under control, Wallace decided to try her hand at stand-up comedy, declaring:

“One difference though is that we have quality controls, we have standards. [...] [A]nd they [internet/social media] should be held to the same standards.”

Well, if we all only had to adhere to MSNBC’s standard for truth, that would make our jobs here much easier!

But on a more serious note, Geist subsequently moved the segment forward to allow New York Times reporter Yamiche Alcindor to summarize her latest findings on “racially divisive Russian ads on Facebook.” Alcindor said:

Facebook admitted to members of the Congressional Black Caucus as well as the subcommittee on the House Oversight Committee that there were ads that were targeting Black Lives Matter and targeting, specifically, ethnic groups [...] and allowing people to target, not only for Russian influence, but also target housing ads, employment ads.

[...]

[A] lot of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are fuming because they"re saying that Russia actually exploited a lot of the racial divisions that already exist in America and used both Facebook and Twitter [...] in this way to essentially make people hate each other more.

So, Alcindor and the Congressional Black Caucus think that decades of the Democratic Party and the far left exploiting racial divisions for political gain was totally normal and fine, but now, they demand aggressive government action to stop it when it is being used by the Russians?

Without addressing this glaringly obvious point, the segment then moved in a much more interesting direction as Geist turned to Noah Rothman, associate editor of Commentary Magazine, for his opinion on the whole Russia matter. Although Rothman acceded to the larger narrative about Russians hacking the DNC and weaponizing social media, he did offer some true background to the current story:

First, you probably have to know that Russian intelligence is going to exploit anything they possibly can to do precisely what she was talking about. This isn"t new, this is the Kremlin playbook. They have been exacerbating racial tensions in the United States since there [has been] a Russian intelligence organization. As recently as 2014, you had RT talking about police tyranny and an Afro-Maidan, referring to the Ukrainian revolution that ousted the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. This is what Russia does. So if you"re a media institution and you know that Moscow is going to target your audience, you have to be proactive and aware of that. And, as you say, you have, you had gatekeepers in most institutions. Institutions that are not, you know, aware that they"re going to be targeted are the most irresponsible, I would say. But I"m not sure that regulation is something that you can even entertain. This is about responsibility.

Rothman’s point about past Soviet infiltration of the United States was correct, if lacking somewhat in details. Rothman would have done well to point out, in contrast to his characterization of Russian government-owned or funded media, that they actually frequently take stances in support of left-wing causes if those causes serve to diminish America’s international moral authority, particularly as regards anti-war narratives or movements like Black Lives Matter.

It was also refreshing to see someone push back against Wallace and Deutsch’s calls for government censorship and control over the Internet, but that didn’t last. Mark Halperin ultimately decided to make the most straightforward case for the federal government to crack down on "Russian operatives" and fake news with the support of both Wallace and Deutsch:

HALPERIN: [T]here’s some interesting intellectual debates to be had around all this stuff to be sure. But these companies are American companies making a lot of money, dominating our lives, hiding behind a lot of intellectual arguments. And, as the Congressional members of both parties are saying publicly and privately, they are using lobbyists and PR executives and their own platforms to try to limit the disclosure that they make to be accountable. American democracy is under siege and they are hiding behind intellectual arguments.

[Deutsch tries to speak at same time as Wallace, then stops]

WALLACE: And it"s ongoing. I mean, they were involved, some of these Russian-linked Twitter accounts were involved last weekend in helping to sow-

EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: [interjecting] Exactly.

GEIST: [mumbles agreement] Right.

WALLACE: -hatred around the debate about the NFL. This isn’t, we"re not at a forensic stage where we"re gonna look back at what they did in 2016, we"re not even there yet. This is still-

HALPERIN: [interrupting] The bombs are still falling.

WALLACE: Right.

ROTHMAN: [tries to speak, hard to hear] Wait, to what extent is there even a recourse?

DEUTSCH: [interrupting] By the way, we can regulate, I’m gonna give you, we can regulate, we can regulate this. We start-, instead of the FCC, it’s the FDC. The Federal Digital Communications company. And there is a body, a governing body there, regulatory body, that when something like this happens, the, the economic consequence, the penalties in the hundreds of millions, you hit ‘em in the pocketbook, they"ll figure it out.

There are a lot of amazing comments here, particularly from Halperin and Deutsch.

It’s not completely clear what Deutsch means by using a "FDC" "regulatory body" to financially cripple people (or who precisely those people/organizations would be, although based on his following comments it might be Facebook and Twitter that would suffer fines in his mind). However, Halperin’s characterization of protecting people’s right to freedom of speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment, as “hiding behind intellectual arguments” was most chilling.

Thankfully, Rothman stepped in to voice some cogent defense of arguably this country’s most important founding principle: “I suppose there"s any number of ways in which the federal government could target an institution that is a media institution that provides a platform for the exercise of the First Amendment. What is the limiting principle there? At what point are we targeting speech that we simply don"t like?”

After a brief pause and Deutsch simply interjecting “um,” Wallace tried her Ministry of Truth argument out again:

WALLACE: Well you can"t yell [...] fire in a movie theater if it"s not true. I mean-

ROTHMAN: [interrupting] You can if it"s on fire.

WALLACE: Well, I think the point on Twitter is that some of these things are not true, and-

ROTHMAN: [interrupting] That’s, incitement to violence is one thing-

WALLACE: -Twitter, Twitter and Facebook have done nothing. I mean money,-

ROTHMAN: -and it’s extremely difficult to prove incitement to violence.

WALLACE: -mon-, money has a seal to, so that we know when a dollar is real, when a dollar is counterfeit. There are groups that are trying to get the social media companies to have some sort of water seal or to verify the content, the veracity of it.

It was fun to see Rothman trying, ever so subtly, to point out the basic problem with Wallace’s argument, namely: who determines what is and is not true?

But then Halperin, skirting by having to address Rothman’s concerns, decided to seal the deal and make his position extremely clear: “[T]he government shouldn"t be the recourse at first, it should be the boards of these companies.” That is, if Facebook and Twitter don’t start censoring in the right way or to the right extent, then Big Brother should do it himself.

It’s nice to know that the media’s support for the free speech rights of NFL football players extends to all of us rubes too!

The panel closed out the lengthy segment by chuckling at the prospect of quick action to "figure out" this "problem" and never addressed the more fundamental question about whether or not what they were proposing was anathema to the U.S. Constitution, either in law or spirit.

We strongly suggest putting down all sharp objects before watching the following...

"Clear That DHS Was Wrong": California Says Russians Did Not Hack Voting Systems

Last Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dropped a "bombshell" statement that sent a "thrill up the leg" (to quote Chris Matthews) of every CNN reporter across the country.  The news from DHS implied that the election systems of 21 states around the country had been hacked, or at least were close to being hacked, which set off a new wave "Russian collusion" speculation in the U.S. news media (see: DHS Notifies 21 States Of Hacker Targeting; Election Officials Blame "Russian Government Cyber Actors").

That said, according to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla who released a statement this morning in response to the DHS, the whole thing was just a bunch of "fake news."  Padilla noted that after requesting additional information from DHS on the "hacks" it quickly became clear that their "conclusions were wrong" and that "California"s elections infrastructure and websites were not hacked or breached by Russian cyber actors.”

“Last Friday, my office was notified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Russian cyber actors "scanned" California’s Internet-facing systems in 2016, including Secretary of State websites. Following our request for further information, it became clear that DHS’ conclusions were wrong.”

“DHS confirmed that Russian scanning activity had actually occurred on the California Department of Technology statewide network, not any Secretary of State website. Based on this additional information, California voters can further rest assured that the California Secretary of State elections infrastructure and websites were not hacked or breached by Russian cyber actors.”

“Our notification from DHS last Friday was not only a year late, it also turned out to be bad information. To make matters worse, the Associated Press similarly reported that DHS has reversed itself and "now says Russia didn’t target Wisconsin’s voter registration system," which is contrary to previous briefings.”

“The work of our intelligence agencies is critical in defending against cyber threats. I remain committed to a partnership with DHS and other intelligence agencies, however, elections officials and the American public expect and deserve timely and accurate information.”

Meanwhile, this comes after another stunning and embarrassing reversal from the DHS earlier this week in which they first blamed Russians for hacking the Wisconsin election systems, then reversed and said it wasn"t the Russians then reversed further and said there was actually no hack on the WI election system at all.

But in a stunning reversal - one which we doubt will put endless rumors of Russian cyberinterference to bed - the AP now reports that DHS has told Wisconsin that the Russian government was not involved in the cyber-targeting.

In an email to the state’s deputy elections administrator that was provided to reporters at the Wisconsin Elections Commission meeting on Tuesday, Homeland Security said that initial notice of Russian involvement was made in error. Also, as we noted at the time, the government did not originally assign blame to the Russians when news of the alleged "scanning" initially broke on Friday although most medias jumped at the opportunity to blame Putin.

Infuriated by the error, some state officials said that DHS should provide an expalanation for the errror, or at least issue an apology to state elections officials, who were understandbly unnerved by the news of Russian involvement.

Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator Michael Haas told AP that Homeland Security had assured the state that it had not been targeted - by Russians, or anybody else, for that matter. 

“Wisconsin was not provided any information that indicated before the November election that Russian government actors were targeting election systems,” Haas said. He said one theory is that Homeland Security saw suspicious activity from IP addresses targeting state election systems in other states and assumed that was the intent in Wisconsin as well.

Others were apparently in shock: “It’s been a difficult process trying to piece all of this together,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney. “We’re trying to understand what happened.”

So, for folks, like WI"s Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney, who are still "trying to understand what happened"...allow us to clarify: NOTHING HAPPENED.  Hillary Clinton lost an election...other than that, not much happened that hasn"t happened in every election since the 1950"s. 

Mnuchin Begins Selection Process For Trump's New IRS-Auditor-In-Chief

In just over six weeks, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen’s term expires. This allows President Trump to choose a new IRS chief who may have two high-profile and sensitive jobs: helping implement the the president’s proposed tax cuts and overseeing an audit of his tax returns.

Trump hasn’t nominated anyone to replace Koskinen yet, but as Bloomberg reports, Koskinen, who was hired by President Barack Obama and is loathed by congressional Republicans, who tried to impeach him in 2016, is unlikely to be reappointed.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose department includes the Internal Revenue Service, is said to be in the early stages of the selection process, according to two people familiar with the matter.

We would imagine this will be the next target for the left - potentially leading to demands of recusal as the slightest perception that Trump is trying to influence the agency overseeing his audit or any tax-related probes of his campaign’s ties to the Russian government would ignite a furor in Congress.

A commissioner who tried to interfere in either the Russia investigation or Trump’s audit would likely be foiled, former leaders of the agency told Bloomberg.

“The career folks at the IRS are not going to let anybody come into the organization, appointee or not, and tell them who and what they have to do in the way of examining someone,” said Lawrence Gibbs, who worked at the IRS for 17 years, including as the commissioner in the 1980s.

That didn’t stop former President Richard Nixon, whose attempts to manipulate tax investigations were cited by Congress in one of his articles of impeachment in 1974.

“The IRS pushed back when Nixon tried to exert political influence; that reinforced the probity of the IRS,” said Mark Iwry, who served as a senior adviser and deputy assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury during the Obama administration.

“IRS personnel know very well that improperly favoring or disfavoring a particular taxpayer would be absolutely wrong and contrary to IRS’s mission and decades of IRS practice and adherence to principle.”

Notably, while a permanent replacement for Koskinen must be confirmed by the Senate, by law the job can’t remain vacant.

The Internal Revenue Code requires the president to appoint an acting head of the agency.

“We are actively focused on nominating a new IRS commissioner. We will put someone in on a temporary basis if needed,” White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom said.

Coming as it does just a week after special counsel Mueller is reportedly gaining cooperation from the IRS, this will be one to grab the popcorn for as we are sure the mainstream media will find no end of conspiracy to chase.

In Stunning Reversal, DHS Says Russians Were Not Behind Attempted Wisconsin Vote Hacking

Just in time for the weekend, the Associated Press reported on Friday that the Department of Homeland Security had notified 21 states earlier that day that their election systems had been targeted by malicious cyber actors. The states and DHS quickly jumped to the conclusion that Russia had ordered the cyberattacks, even though it was reported that the identity or identities of the perpetrators were inconclusive Yet, the news spread like wildfire after readers had been primed as reports of possible infiltartion of state election systems had circulated for nearly a year. Even so, for many states, the call Friday from the Department of Homeland Security was the first official confirmation that their election systems had, in fact, been targeted by hackers.

Federal officials said that in most of the 21 states, the targeting was preparatory activity such as scanning computer systems.

But in a stunning reversal - one which we doubt will put endless rumors of Russian cyberinterference to bed - the AP now reports that DHS has told Wisconsin that the Russian government was not involved in the cyber-targeting.

In an email to the state’s deputy elections administrator that was provided to reporters at the Wisconsin Elections Commission meeting on Tuesday, Homeland Security said that initial notice of Russian involvement was made in error. Also, as we noted at the time, the government did not originally assign blame to the Russians when news of the alleged "scanning" initially broke on Friday although most medias jumped at the opportunity to blame Putin.

Infuriated by the error, some state officials said that DHS should provide an expalanation for the errror, or at least issue an apology to state elections officials, who were understandbly unnerved by the news of Russian involvement.

“Based on our external analysis, the WI IP address affected belongs to the WI Department of Workforce Development, not the Elections Commission,” said the email from Juan Figueroa, with Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection.

It wasn’t immediately known if Homeland Security made similar mistakes with any of the other 20 states. Figueroa did not immediately reply to an email seeking an explanation of how the mistake was made.

Homeland Security initially told the Elections Commission that the Russians scanned the state’s internet-connected election infrastructure, likely seeking specific vulnerabilities to access voter registration databases.

“Either they were right on Friday and this is a cover up, or they were wrong on Friday and we deserve an apology,” Mark Thomsen, the commission’s chairman, said in light of the new email.

Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator Michael Haas told AP that Homeland Security had assured the state that it had not been targeted - by Russians, or anybody else, for that matter.

“Wisconsin was not provided any information that indicated before the November election that Russian government actors were targeting election systems,” Haas said. He said one theory is that Homeland Security saw suspicious activity from IP addresses targeting state election systems in other states and assumed that was the intent in Wisconsin as well.

Others were apparently in shock: “It’s been a difficult process trying to piece all of this together,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney. “We’re trying to understand what happened.”

Furthermore, Wisconsin’s chief information officer, David Cagigal, told the elections commission that Wisconsin had never been told by Homeland Security, prior to the Friday notice, that Russians had targeted Wisconsin’s election system or anything else. Deputy information officer, Herb Thompson, said Homeland Security told the state in October to check on a certain IP address that the state had blocked from accessing its systems in August 2016.

“We have never seen any of those activities result in anything other than someone trying to turn the doorknob to see if a door is open,” Thompson said. “Those IP addresses we talked about, we had blocked, they were related to non-election systems.” Cagigal said, “Our systems were protected and we had no incidences.”

Still, the state"s election commission has promised to improve security before the midterms next year. Reports that Russians may have targeted, or infiltrated, state voting systems have been circulating since late last year, when the Washington Post published a story about alleged Russian infiltration in Vermont, only to retract the story shortly after. 

While we doubt that this will be the last "Russia hacked the elections" fake news, it is reassuring that all this frenzied chaos will at least bring some security to America"s voting systems. Security enhancements being considered include encrypting the entire voter registration database to protect the information and make it unusable to anyone who may be able to steal it and requiring two-factor authentication for the roughly 3,000 local and state officials who have access to the WisVote system.

Perhaps an appropriate question is why this wasn"t done before?

DHS Notifies 21 States Of Hacker Targeting; Election Officials Blame "Russian Government Cyber Actors"

It"s Friday night and with stocks at record highs, Trump"s approval ratings jumping to 4-month highs, and Mueller scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to pin on anyone, the media has their red meat for the weekend now as DHS has notified 21 states Friday that their election systems were targeted before the 2016 election.

The government told The Associated Press last year that more than 20 states were targeted by hackers believed to be Russian agents before the 2016 elections. But for many states, the calls Friday from the Department of Homeland Security were the first official confirmation of whether their states were on the list.

DHS Spokesman Scott McConnell said in a written statement to The Hill...

"[R]ecognizing that state and local officials should be kept informed about cybersecurity risks to election infrastructure, we are working with them to refine our processes for sharing this information while protecting the integrity of investigations and the confidentiality of system owners."

"As part of our ongoing information sharing efforts, today DHS notified the Secretary of State or another chief election officer in each state of any potential targeting we were aware of in their state leading up to the 2016 election. We will continue to keep this information confidential and defer to each state whether it wishes to make it public or not.”

So the government did not release a list of what states were notified. However, as AP reports, after contacting every state election office on Friday...

While not all of them responded immediately, those that said they were targeted were Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Federal officials said that in most of the 21 states, the targeting was preparatory activity such as scanning computer systems.

The targets included voter registration systems but not vote tallying software.

Officials said there were some attempts to compromise networks but most were unsuccessful.

The government did not say who was behind the hacking attempts or provide details about what had been sought.

But election officials in three states said Friday the attempts could be linked to Russia.

The Wisconsin Election Commission seem utterly convinced that the state"s systems were targeted by "Russian government cyber actors."

Wisconsin Notified of Unsuccessful Russian Hacking Attempt

This afternoon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified the Wisconsin Elections Commission for the first time that “Russian government cyber actors” unsuccessfully targeted the state’s voter registration system in 2016.

WEC Administrator Michael Haas has informed WEC Chair Mark Thomsen, who directed Commission staff to investigate why election officials were not notified earlier and report to the Commission at its meeting Tuesday.

“This scanning had no impact on Wisconsin’s systems or the election,” Haas said. “Internet security provided by the state successfully protected our systems.  Homeland Security specifically confirmed there was no breach or compromise of our data.”

Wisconsin is one of 21 states whose chief election officials were notified Friday by DHS officials that their systems were targeted by Russians, said Haas. DHS did not disclose which other states were notified, but said the states were free to disclose the information.

According to DHS, it appears that Internet-facing election infrastructure in Wisconsin was targeted by Russian government cyber actors. They scanned internet-connected election infrastructure likely seeking specific vulnerabilities such as access to voter registration databases, but the attempt to exploit vulnerabilities was unsuccessful.

Haas said the Commission is seeking more specific information, including when the scanning activity occurred in 2016.

The news that 21 states were targeted was first announced by DHS at a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on June 21, 2017.  Coincidentally, Haas also testified at that hearing and said in response to questions that the Elections Commission had not been notified by DHS and concluded that Wisconsin was not one of the targeted states.

Which reads more like WI officials wanting to crows of their security and pin the blame of Russians (when we know from what AP reported that no blame was asssigned, merely notification of targeting).

Colorado said the hacking wasn"t quite a breach.

"It"s really reconnaissance by a bad guy to try and figure out how we would break into your computer," said Trevor Timmons, a spokesman for the Colorado secretary of state"s office.

"It"s not an attack. I wouldn"t call it a probe. It"s not a breach, it"s not a penetration."

Only Illinois reported that hackers had succeeded in breaching its voter systems.

The Death Of Free Speech Is Imminent: Government Begins Censorship Of Media Through Disingenuous Means

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

The death of free speech is imminent.

Anyone with access to a computer and the internet can see that the United States mainstream media is nothing more than a propaganda machine designed to brainwash the masses into a lemming-like agreement with the government.

And now, it’s oh-so-ironic that the same government that tells the media what to report on in order brainwash the public is seeking to quiet those who disagree and label them as “propaganda.”  Some may call it fake news, others just want a different opinion rather than the left-leaning media hysteria we are accustomed to.

But now, media outlet RT (Russia Today), founded in Russia will have to register with the United States as “foreign media;” which will forever give it the inaccurate title of “propaganda.”

This doesn’t apply to merely the Russian version of the news outlet, but the American-run and operated site as well. According to The Hill, in a report on Monday, RT did not name the company that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has compelled to file paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but blasted the edict as overreaching.

“The war the US establishment wages with our journalists is dedicated to all the starry-eyed idealists who still believe in freedom of speech. Those who invented it, have buried it,” Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, said about the registration.

Media organizations have been exempted from the law, which is wide-ranging in its disclosure requirements and generally applies to political consultants and those working in lobbying or public relations.

It would be a felony if RT is found to have willfully failed to register as a foreign agent, however.

The registration would not stop the organization from operating, but requires regularly submitted paperwork that lists its sources of foreign government-tied revenue and the contacts it makes in the United States, and it would require any reporting to be labeled as being influenced or financed by the Russian government. –The Hill

RT has also contracted with Julian Assange, who runs WikiLeaks and is suspected of leaking internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, so the fact that they are being singled out with attempts to silence their reporting is not a big surprise to anyone with functioning neurons.

RT must be a threat to the political elites and the establishment, or they would be left alone while outlets like CNN brainwash and lie for profit to prop up the wealthy and powerful politicians they will stop at nothing to protect.

The Race For Deir Ezzor: Russian Jets Strike US-Backed Forces In Syria

One week ago we wrote that in "The Race For Deir Ezzor: US And Syrian Forces Are About To Collide", explaining that "as ISIS continues to rapidly collapse in its last two strongholds (Raqqa and Deir Ezzor cities), the competition for recovery of territory seems in full gear between the US-SDF and Syria-Russia alliances." More importantly, "Deir Ezzor province happens to be Syria"s most oil-rich territory, which means the future of some of Syria"s largest oil fields remains up for grabs."

Furthermore, we added that "it looks increasingly like US-backed SDF forces and the Syrian Army could be set to clash as both roll back ISIS lines from either side of the Euphrates. The SDF"s surprisingly rapid advance Friday and Saturday was assisted by US and coalition airstrikes and was further made possible by the Syrian Army"s weakening of ISIS defenses on the southeast side of the river. The airspace over Deir Ezzor is potentially growing even more dangerous as there are substantial rumors that the US coalition has declared a no fly zone (NFZ) over the north side of the Euphrates. In the meantime, Syrian and Russian air operations in the area will only increase with Deir Ezzor military airport"s returning to full service."

One week later, that"s precisely what happened, and overnight we got the first glimpse of just what this next stage of the Syria proxy war, now largely devoid of ISIS, will look like, when according to Reuters "U.S.-backed militias", which have included various and assorted Al-Qaeda offshots, spinoffs and reverse mergers, said they came under attack on Saturday from Russian jets and Syrian government forces in Deir al-Zor province.

The Syrian Democratic Forces - an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting with the U.S.-led military coalition -  said the strikes wounded six of its fighters. In a statement carried by Reuters, the SDF said that "our forces east of the Euphrates were hit with an attack from the Russian aircraft and Syrian regime forces, targeting our units in the industrial zone."

A Deir Ezzor military council fighter which fights under the SDF holds the council"s flag.

And, as has been the case for years now, ISIS was used as the strawman to justify escalation on both sides. The SDF accused Damascus of trying to obstruct its battle against Islamic State. Such attacks “waste energies that should be used against terrorism ... and open the door to side conflicts,” it said. Right... terrorism. Meanwhile, the real reason for the scramble for Deir Ezzor, imposing one"s influence on this key resources rich region, remains unmentioned even as assaults by the Russian-backed Syrian army and the U.S.-backed SDF have at times raised fears of clashes that could stoke tensions between the competing world powers.

With Russian and Iran-backed Syrian troops closing in from the west, while US-backed SDF forces operating mostly on the east side, the two factions have mostly stayed out of each other’s way in their "fight against ISIS" with the Euphrates acting as a dividing line.

And while talks have been under way to extend a formal demarcation line, there has been little progress on the issue. Meanwhile, as Deir Ezzor is set to fall shortly to either government or SDF forces, and any imaginary demarcation line is voided, the simmering proxy war may once again suffer an explosive breakout.

Ahmed Abu Khawla, the commander of the SDF’s Deir al-Zor military council, said Russian or Syrian fighter jets flew in from government-held territory before dawn.

The warplanes struck as the SDF waged “heated and bloody battles” in the industrial zone on the eastern bank, seizing factories from Islamic State militants, he said.

”We have requested explanations from the Russian government,“ he told Reuters. ”We have asked for explanations from the coalition ... and necessary action to stop these jets.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government or Moscow, and there certainly has been no comment from the US-led coalition on action to stop Russian jets. Incidentally, if anyone wants a sign from Trump that he has truly turned his back on Putin, it won"t come from the confiscation of some unneeded Russian assets or confiscation of Russian diplomatic buildings in the US, but from the US launching a firm Russian counter-offensive in Syria.

Also on Saturday, a senior aide to President Bashar al-Assad said the government would fight any force, including the U.S.-backed militias, to recapture the entire country. ”I‘m not saying this will happen tomorrow ... but this is the strategic intent,” Bouthaina Shaaban said in a TV interview according to Reuters.

Ironically, The U.S.-led coalition said last week that the SDF did not plan to enter Deir Ezzor city, where Syrian troops recently broke an Islamic State siege that had lasted three years. Just a few days later, however, they appears to have changed their mind.

Meanwhile, seeking to maintain the offensive momentum, a pro-Damascus military alliance launched attacks on Saturday from the southern corner of Deir Ezzor province to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi border. The last local vestige of the Islamic State is also coming under attack by U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces just over the border from Syria’s Deir Ezzor inside Iraq.

With the fate of Deir Ezzor - and much of the oil in the region - set to be sealed in the coming days, the Syrian war which has gradually disappeared from both the front pages and the public consciouness, may make a strong comeback, especially if it is Syria/Russia/Iran that first gains control of this key regional outpost.

Trump Admin Orders Russia To Shutter Consulate, Annexes In The U.S.

Update: Russia"s response was quick:

• LAVROV TELLS TILLERSON HE REGRETS ESCALATION OF TENSIONS


• LAVROV: RUSSIA TO STUDY U.S. MEASURES AGAINST CONSULATES: RIA

* * *

Tit for tat.

Exactly one month after Vladimir Putin ordered the expulsion of 755 US diplomats from Russia, as well as the seizure of two diplomatic compounds used by the US in Russia on July 31, moments ago the US State Department announced that "in the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians", the US has ordered the Russian government to close its San Francisco consulate, a chancery annex in Washington and a consular annex in New York City.

Russian consul general in SF

Russia was given two days, or until September 2, to complete the closures.

The State Department explains that "with this action both countries will remain with three consulates each."

And, in the spirit of "generosity", the US added that "while there will continue to be a disparity in the number of diplomatic and consular annexes, we have chosen to allow the Russian Government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship."

Full statement below:

Achieving Parity in Diplomatic Missions

The United States has fully implemented the decision by the Government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia. We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.

In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian Government to close its Consul. General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City. These closures will need to be accomplished by September 2.

With this action both countries will remain with three consulates each. While there will continue to be a disparity in the number of diplomatic and consular annexes, we have chosen to allow the Russian Government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship.

The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation"s desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern. The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted.

Whether in the "full spirit of parity" Russia will next dump a few thousand soliders in nations neighboring the US, we don"t know, but we are confident that an escalating Russian response to this latest US move is inevitable and imminent.

Burger King Russia Introduces The "Whoppercoin" - The Fast-Food Industry's First Digital Currency

In what we believe to be a first for the global fast-food industry, Burger King Russia has reportedly created a virtual currency called the “Whoppercoin.”

The company has reportedly issued one billion of the tokens using the Waves blockchain platform. According to Fortune, the coin was launched alongside a new loyalty program: For every Whopper purchased, customers will receive one Whoppercoin. However, it’s unclear if the company will accept the digital tokens as payment.

“The Whoppercoin launched in tandem with a new loyalty program. For each Whopper burger customers purchase, they"ll receive one Whoppercoin in a special cryptocurrency wallet. While the coins’ wider use is unclear, some reports suggest that the Whoppercoin will be accepted as payment at Burger Kings across Russia.”

Burger King’s decision comes amid a thaw in Russia’s posture toward digital currencies. After initially threatening to jail digital-currency users, the Russian government is reportedly considering legislation to legalize digital-currency payments. Earlier this month, an aid to Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would be seeking to raise $100 million to build a large bitcoin-mining operation with the goal of eventually claiming 30% of the bitcoin network’s hashing power.

The Whoppercoin was officially introduced on Aug. 22. Its introduction followed reports earlier this summer that Burger King Russia was planning to start accepting payment in bitcoin.

Hillary Says "Creep" Trump Made Her "Skin Crawl"

With two weeks left until "What Happened,” Hillary Clinton’s post-campaign memoir, is slated to hit the shelves, excerpts from the book are starting to leak. And, in order to build the pre-launch buzz, the first chapters to emerge focus not on the mistakes Clinton made during the campaign, but target the man who some believe stole her presidency with the help of the Russian government.  

Audio of Clinton reading from “What Happened” was leaked to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe." Here, Clinton describes how her “skin crawled” during a moment during the second debate with President Donald Trump when the "creepy" Republican nominee loomed behind her while she spoke – a moment that was roundly mocked by “Saturday Night Live.”

Clinton noted the timing of the debate, which took place two days after Trump’s “Grab her by the p***y comment emerged, in a transparent effort to make Trump"s supposedly "aggressive" behavior look shadier than it was. 

“In audio clips of Clinton reading from the book, "What Happened," which were first obtained by MSNBC"s "Morning Joe," Clinton recounted her thoughts as she toyed with the idea of telling her Republican rival to "back up, you creep" as he stood behind her during the second presidential debate.

"My skin crawled," Clinton said. "It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching "well, what would you do?""

Just two days prior, Clinton said, ‘the world heard [Trump] brag about groping women.’”

Clinton briefly contemplated telling Trump to "back up," decided against it – a decision she now regrets. In hindsight, it would’ve been “great TV.” Instead, she says she gripped the microphone "extra hard."

“Clinton said during the debate she decided against telling Trump, "back up, you creep, get away from me," and in order to keep her composure, she gripped the microphone "extra hard." But, in hindsight, Clinton wondered if she should have taken the time to tell Trump off for following her.

"It certainly would have been better TV. Maybe I have over-learned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my finger nails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world," she said.”

"What Happened" has been marketed as a mea culpa – a chance for Clinton to talk about some of the mistakes she made during the campaign. With the Clinton campaign a disaster on many levels, there should be plenty of material to fill 200 pages, allowing Clinton to avoid exploring the real, underlying issues. Alas, that won"t happen: Clinton has already told NBC that the book won’t be a “comprehensive” account of the campaign.

“Clinton"s memoir is slated to be a postmortem on mistakes she made along the campaign trail and the “devastating” and unexpected loss to President Donald Trump, according to a press release.

"In this book, I write about moments from the campaign that I wish I could go back and do over. If the Russians could hack my subconscious, they’d find a long list," Clinton said in one part of the book.”

We have no special insight into the exact nature of these confessed “mistakes” that will appear in the book. However, given Clinton’s penchant for minimizing blame since the election, it will likely be filled with specious insights like “we should’ve hit more campaign stops in Pennsylvania.” Of course, ultimately none of that mattered and Clinton lost the election after the electorate ultimately decided that she was untrustworthy and a continuation of a failing status quo. Furthermore, a mea culpa that doesn’t involve some honest introspection about how her embrace of the status-quo, her militant hawkishness on Libya and other US conflicts and her rejection of populist values ultimately doomed her campaign, would not only be meaningless but could further harm the Democratic cause into the midterm elections.

Then again, who knows? Perhaps the twilight of Clinton"s political career has engendered within her a newfound appreciation for candor, and there may be surprises when the book is released on Sept. 12. In the meantime, brace for more hype-generating "leaks."

We have three words after reading all this from Hillary... But Bill didn"t?

PCR: "The New Russian Sanctions Bill Is Washington's Monument To Its Criminality"

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The Congress of the United States by almost unanimous votes in both House and Senate has made it clear that Congress would rather destroy the President of the United States and to increase the risk of nuclear war than to avoid conflict with Russia by normalizing relations.

The vote on the new sanctions makes it pointless for President Trump to veto the bill, because it passed both houses by far more than the two-thirds vote required to over-ride the president’s veto. The only thing Trump can achieve with a veto is to prove the false charge that he is in league with Vladimir Putin

The new sanctions bill forecloses the possibility of reducing the rising tensions between the two major nuclear powers. It also shows that whatever interest Congress has, if any, in reducing the threat of war and in avoiding a break with Europe over the sanctions, Congress has a much greater interest in continuing to collect campaign contributions from the powerful and rich military/security complex and in playing to the growing hatred of Russia that is encouraged by the US media.

This reckless and irresponsible action by the US Congress makes completely clear that Washington has intentionally chosen conflict with Russia as the main element of US foreign policy. Perhaps now the Russian government will abandon its cherished illusion that an accommodition with Washington can be reached.

As I have written on many occasions, the only way Russia can achieve accommodation with Washington is to surrender and accept American hegemony. Any further resistance of the Russian government to this obvious fact would indicate dangerous delusion on the part of the Russian leadership.

The fig leaf Congress chose for its violation of diplomatic protocols and international law is the disproven allegation of Russian interference in behalf of Trump in the US presidential election. An organization of former US intelligence officers recently announced that forensic investigation has been made of the alleged Russian computer hacking, and the conclusion is that there was no hack; there was an internal leak, and the leak was copied onto a device and Russian “fingerprints” were added. There is no forensic evidence whatsoever that shows any indication of Russian hacking.

It is all made up, and everyone alleging Russian hacking knows it. There is no difference between the allegation of Russian hacking and Hitler’s allegation in 1939 that “last night Polish forces crossed our frontier,” Hitler’s fig leaf for his invasion of Poland.

That Congress uses a blatantly transparent lie to justify its violation of international law and intentionally worsens US relations with both Russia and the EU proves how determined Washington is to intensify conflict with Russia.

Expect more false allegations, more demonization, more threats.

War is in the cards.

Trump Jr.: Never Told My Father, "There Was Nothing To Tell"

In his first public appearance since his tweeted emails earlier today, which seemed to confirm that the Trump campaign was aware that the Russian government was willing to help then-Mr.Trump, Donald Trump Jr. admits "in retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently," telling Fox News" Sean Hannity that he did not tell his father about the meting because "It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell."

Key excerpts include (via Axios):

On whether in retrospect he would have done things differently:

"In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently. Again this is before the Russia mania, this is before they were building this up in the press. For me this was opposition research, they had something you know maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I"d been hearing about, probably under reported for years not just during the campaign so I think I wanted to hear it out. But really it went nowhere and it was apparent that wasn"t what the meeting was about."

Clip from the show

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

On why he decided to take the meeting with the Russian lawyer:

"Honestly, my take away when all of this was going on, is that someone has information on our opponent. Things are going a million miles per hour. You know what it"s like to be on a campaign. We just won Indiana, but we"re talking about a contested convention. Things are going a million miles per hour again and hey, wait a minute, I"ve hear about all these things, but maybe this is something, I should hear him out."

On whether he read the emails:

"I had been reading about scandals that people were probably underreporting for a long time so maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. I mean this was her perhaps involvement with the Russian government…so, you know, again, I didn"t know if there was any credibility, I didn"t know if there was anything behind it, I can"t vouch for the information…someone sent me an email! I can"t help what someone sends me. I read it, I responded accordingly, and if there was something interesting there, I think that"s pretty common."

On whether he told his father about the meeting:

"No. It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell. I mean, I wouldn"t have even remembered it until you started scouring through this stuff. It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame."

President Trump has finally reacted...

My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017

Stocks Slammed As Trump Jr. Email 'Confirms' Russian Government Involvement

If marketwatchers thought that stocks were driven by "earnings" and not the hype of Trump, they just got a very quick lesson. As headlines hit proclaiming to confirm that Trump Jr received an email showing that the "Russian government wanted to help Mr. Trump," the market began to nosedive...

...The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government"s support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin.

To which the market responded thusly...

The Dollar Index also tumbled...

And traders piled into bonds and bullion...

For now impeachment odds havent shifted.

British Foreign Secretary Cancels Moscow Trip; Russia Responds "No Big Loss"

It appears efforts to improve British relations (especially trade, post-Brexit) with Russia are on hold as British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has cancelled his forthcoming trip to Moscow...

I will now not travel to Moscow on Monday 10 April. My priority is talks w/ my #G7 counterparts about Syria and Russia"s support for #Assad

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 8, 2017

Johnson had planned to travel to Russia Monday on a trip intended to start fresh dialogue with the Russian government (which would have been the first visit by a UK foreign secretary in more than five years), but following this week"s actions he said in a statement.

"Developments in Syria have changed the situation fundamentally,"

"We deplore Russia"s continued defence of the Assad regime even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,"

"We call on Russia to do everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated."

"My priority is now to continue contact with the U.S. and others in the run-up to the G7 meeting on 10-11 April - to build coordinated international support for a ceasefire on the ground and an intensified political process."

Russia"s reported response to BoJo"s change of plans: cancellation of Boris Johnson"s trip is not a big loss. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says by phone...

“There’s an impression that our western colleagues live in their own parallel reality, in which they first try to build joint plans single-handedly and then -- again single-handedly -- change them, inventing absurd reasons,”

Johnson’s reasons for the canceling the trip are “absurd”

“Unfortunately, stability and consistency have long ceased to be the hallmark of Western foreign policy” 

The Washington Post Actually Takes Russian Government Money (Unlike The Websites It Helped Slander)

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Earlier this week, Tucker Carlson interviewed the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple and brought up the fact that the paper regularly receives money from the Russian government to publish propaganda known as “native advertising” within the contents of the newspaper. This was news to me.

Here’s the clip.

As you heard, the paid Russian propaganda sections are known as “Russia: Beyond the Headlines.” The earliest article I found about it was published in Slate back in 2007 in the piece, Hail to the Return of Motherland-Protecting Propaganda! 

Here are a few excerpts:

Soviet propaganda hit the skids during the Gorbachev era, and as the empire broke up, its propaganda essentially vanished. But the heavy-handed purveyors of party-line orthodoxy and nationalist cant have returned with the rise of President Vladimir Putin, and a demonstration of this lost art’s resurgence can be found in a 10-page advertising supplement to today’s (Aug. 30) Washington Post, titled “Russia: Beyond the Headlines.” (It can also be viewed on the newspaper’s Web site.)

Produced by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official Russian government newspaper, the section mimics the look and feel of a hometown paper, with news, an op-edsection, a sports feature (Maria Sharapova), two business pages, an entertainment page, and even a recipe for “Salad Oliver.” But beneath the shattered syntax of these laughable pieces beats the bloody red heart of the tone-deaf Soviet propagandist.

On the opinion page, we learn in “Dog-Walking - a Gateway to Wisdom” that Vladimir Putin likes Labradors and takes Connie, his Lab, with him to televised events. “Russia’s citizens like Putin, and that’s probably why there are a fair number of Labradors on my neighborhood streets,” the writer states. All glory to Labrador-loving Comrade Putin and his patriotic walking-dog, Connie!

Now check out the following excerpts from a 2015 article on the topic from The Daily Caller titled, China, Russia Pay Washington Post To Publish Their Propaganda:

Chinese and Russian propaganda supplements are regularly included in The Washington Post, but the widely read newspaper won’t say how much money it gets on the deals.

China Watch – a China Daily publication – and Russia Beyond The Headlines – a Rossiyskaya Gazeta publication – have both appeared in the Post for years as paid advertising supplements. Both foreign periodicals are owned and operated by their respective governments.

The Russia Beyond The Headlines material has appeared in other major news papers, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

I find all of this extremely interesting, as well as disturbingly dishonest and hypocritical, considering that The Washington Post itself played a major role in falsely claiming that 200 websites (including this one), were somehow doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin.

As I discussed in last year’s post, Liberty Blitzkrieg Included on Washington Post Highlighted Hit List of “Russian Propaganda” Websites:

What’s particularly interesting about this list, isn’t the fact that a bunch of anonymous whiners decided to demonize successful critics of insane, inhumane and ethically indefensible U.S. government policy, but rather the fact that the Washington Post decided to craft an entire article around such a laughably ridiculous list. This just further proves a point that is rapidly becoming common knowledge amongst U.S. citizens with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together. The mainstream media is the real “fake news.”

Let’s take Liberty Blitzkrieg for example. Despite the fact that my site is mentioned on “the list,” nobody from PropOrNot bothered to contact me while doing their “research.” They could’ve asked very simple questions about how the site is run, who owns it, and who makes decisions about editorial content. Furthermore, I doubt they did any such research with regard to any of the mentioned sites before slandering them.

Since they failed to do any real work, let me answer several of these questions. I, Michael Krieger, am the 100% owner of Liberty Blitzkrieg. I am the only person who makes decisions on what to publish and when. I have absolutely no connections, financial or otherwise, to the Russian government, Russian interests, or the interests of any other government or government related group. Moreover, there is simply nobody on planet earth who has any influence on what I write or what I publish. I left a very successful and financially lucrative job to do what I do now because my passions and ethical grounding pushed me in this direction. If I was interested in making enormous sums of money, I could’ve easily stayed on Wall Street.

Moreover, I rarely write about Russia, with the exception of trying to prevent insane neocons and neoliberals in our government from actively seeking a military confrontation, because I — like most normal human beings — would prefer not to contribute to the manifestation of World War 3. Likewise, I try to prevent war breaking out in all circumstances where I think it can and should be avoided. I intentionally almost never use RT as a source, and I’ve never quoted anything from Sputnik. Unlike The Washington Post, I try to be extremely diligent about not publishing fake news, but I am a very strong critic of U.S. government policy, because much of U.S. government policy is certifiably insane and unethical. You can disagree with my opinion on that all you’d like, but I challenge anyone to find anything that could reasonably be considered pro-Russia propaganda on my website. If Liberty Blitzkrieg really is a Russian propaganda site, this should be easy to do since I’ve published thousands of articles over the years.

The fact that The Washington Post would give credibility to a obviously ridiculous organization with an entirely invented list of “Russian propaganda websites,” knowing all the while that they themselves were the ones taking Russian government money is the height of hypocrisy, dishonesty and deceitful journalism. Once again proving the obvious point: The mainstream media is the real fake news. 

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