The United States has filed charges against 13 Russian individuals and three entities for purportedly breaking the law with the intention to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. The US deputy attorney general said that indictment includes no allegation that purported Russian meddling altered the outcome of the vote.

The office of US special counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment against Internet Research Agency LLC, stating the Russian organization engaged in operations to interfere with the 2016 elections.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the accusations of Russian meddling reflected the absurdity of the "modern American political reality."

"The Internet Research Agency is a Russian organization whose goal is to interfere in elections and political processes," the indictment says. It is noted that the persons against whom charges are brought are employees of the organization.

READ MORE: US Intel Community Discusses Preventing More Alleged Russian Election Meddling

"Defendants and their co-conspirators also used false US personas to communicate with unwitting members, volunteers, and supporters of the Trump Campaign," the document said.

Read morrrre:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201802161061741500-us-indicts-russian-nationa...

 

 

Should you be a thinking person, which I know you are, you woud ask yourself why is the Murdoch media indulging in reporting on "Russiagate" as if it was a "fait accompli"? Good questions, considering that Murdoch did far far more million times more to promote Trump before the 2016 Presidential elections than a few so-called "Russians" from Brooklyn. 

The answer is simple but machiavellian... It defects attention from the MASSIVE role the Murdoch submarine played in the election of DumbDumb... The Murdoch torpedoes against Hillary were sometimes discreet like the poisonous end of an umbrella, while some were like exploding Scuds designed to frighten the masses, not to kill...

"The Americans are very emotional people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. I am not at all upset that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them," Prigozhin told RIA Novosti.

The entities and individuals were indicted by a US federal grand jury on Friday of “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump...and disparaging Hillary Clinton.” 

However, there are “no allegations” that the suspected activities of the Russian nationals somehow affected the polls, according to the US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that supporting Donald Trump has never been an official Russian policy, even if some Russians did express their backing of the new US leader.

The Minister has expressed his discontent with the apparently continuing nosedive in the US-Russia relations. “It’s a pity that under Donald Trump, for more than a year of his presidency, our relations have not improved compared to the period of the Democratic administration. Even worsened to a certain extent,”Lavrov told Euronews.

The indictment of 13 Russians is the latest twist in the “meddling saga,” which has persisted in the US politics and media for over a year. The illicit activities attributed to Russia include, but are not limited to, “hacking” into Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers during the 2016 elections campaign, maliciously leaking emails filled with unsavory revelations, meddling through media coverage and fake social media accounts. However, no solid evidence to back the numerous allegations has been presented yet.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/419049-us-indictment-elections-russian-reaction/

 

See toon at top...

From : Petri Krohn

THE “INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY” IS A HOAX

Mueller’s indictment rests on the false claim that the suspended ‘Russia-connected’ Twitter and Facebook accounts were controlled by a non-existent company and 13 Russian individuals in Saint Petersburg. The only thing that connects the anonymous U.S. accounts to Russia or the hoax “Internet Research Agency” is that they may have used some Russian VPN service to hide their identities from NSA and FBI spies.

Twitter and Facebook self suspended the accounts based on some connection to Russia, including use of Russian IP addresses or Cyrillic letters in administrator names. They had no way of knowing if all accounts were controlled from a single “troll factory” or if that troll factory was operated by a company named “Internet Research Agency”. (If they had such information, they would have said so.)

The whole thing is hoax. It is impossible for Russians to impersonate American internet personalities, when they are unable to speak up in English under their own names. Russia does not have the people and skills needed to maintain English language accounts that would influence and resonate among the American audience and electorate – yet alone do this at a minimum wage in a “troll factory” sweatshop.

I personally know almost all pro-Russian English-speakers that have an influence on English language alternative and social media. None of them are Russians. If they ever were, they emigrated decades ago. There is no one that can translate Russian talking points from Russian society and media into the English speaking wold.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/17/comment-set-free-the-mueller-indictm...

 

Knowing EXACTLY (it's longish but trust Old Gus) how the War on Saddam was sold to the public by the CIA, I have no hesitation in seeing how Mueller and his little dancing inquiring turd-eating monkeys are setting up more ways of fudging reality. One things is important to consider: In one of my cartoon, before Trump got elected I think, I showed that Putin only had "a choice" between an idiot who would change his mind and bomb everything under the influence of the "hawks" and an idiot woman hell-bent on bombing anything that moved, both under religious mad-extremist evangelicals in the USA. So there was no gain for Putin to try to influence the US Presidentil elections. Either way, it was going to be crap.

 

... including the ABC — our ABC.... repeat the "news" that Mueller and his team of grinder monkeys have discovered some fabulous treasures under a Russian rug, somewhere in wherever. The whole lot is fabricated to suit Mueller's and his monkeys' employment. But this is what "news" is all about. Repeat what the headquarters of the pigs in charge of Big Brother say, with a nod of approval. The news industry has never been more moronic than today... What am I say? The "news industry" has always been moronic — except for a few investigations that exposed governments' dirty laundry. In Australia, there is so much dirty laundry trying to get "cleaned" that the Hills Hoist of the Bordello on the Hill has collapsed...

 

Joyce and Trumble are idiots... as much as all the Abbott lovers and Abbott himself, who like their pizza with fake cheese, greasy salami and GM tomatoes...

Leaving aside the validity of what has become known as the “Steele dossier,” it’s important to look at how Christopher Steele was able to guarantee that the information in it would play a significant and ongoing role in American politics. 

Steele, who is British, did far more than simply provide opposition research to the Democratic National Committee. He was able to make sure it reached the most influential people possible in politics, media and government to shape and influence the growing narrative of the 2016 presidential election. In other words, as a skilled professional intelligence officer, Steele ran a full-spectrum information operation against the United States. One could even call it information warfare.

This is what separates his work creating the dossier  (which a decent journalist with friends in Russia could have done) from his work insinuating the dossier into the highest reaches of American government and political society. For that, you need a real pro, an intelligence officer with decades of experience running just that kind of operation. Looking for foreign interference in the 2016 election? Let’s take a closer look at Christopher Steele.

Steele’s skill is revealed by the now familiar Nunes and Grassley memos, which show he used the same set of information in the dossier to create a collaboration loop, every intelligence officer’s dream, which is his own planted information used to surreptitiously confirm itself, right up to the point where the target country’s own intelligence service re-purposed it as evidence in the FISA (Foreign Intelligence  Surveillance Act) court.

Steele admits he briefed journalists off-the-record starting in summer and autumn 2016. His most significant hit came when in September 2016, journalist Michael Isikoff broke the story of Trump associate Carter Page’s alleged connections to Russia. Isikoff did not cite the dossier or Steele as sources, and in fact denied they were when questioned.

 

read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/christopher-steele-the-r...

 

And don't forget to revisit:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31994

Robert Mueller discredited himself and his orchestrated Russiagate investigation today (Friday, February 16, 2018) with his charges that 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies plotted to use social media to influence the 2016 election. Their intent, Mueller says, was to “sow discord in the US political system.”

What pathetic results to come from a 9 month investigation!

Note that the hyped Russian hacking of Hillary’s emails that we have heard about every day is no where to be found in Mueller’s charges. In its place there is “use of social media to sow discord.” I mean, really! Even if the charge were correct, considering the massive discord present in the last presidential election, with the Democrats calling Trump voters racist, sexist, homophobic white trash deplorables, how much discord could a measly 13 Russians add via social media?

Note also that the Trump/Putin conspiracy is also not present in Mueller’s charges. Mueller’s charges say that the Russians’ plan to sow discord began in 2014, before there was any notion that Trump would run for president in 2017. The link of the plot to Putin is reduced to the allegation that the plot was financed by a St. Petersburg restaurateur whose connection to Putin is that his business once catered official dinners between Russian officials and foreign dignitaries.

Finally, note that Mueller’s release of his charges in the face of dead news weekend means that Mueller knows that he has nothing to justify the massive propaganda onslaught against Trump for conspiring with Putin with which the presstitutes have regaled us. If the charges amounted to anything, they would have been released on Monday morning, and the presstitutes would have been handed by the FBI and CIA the news stories to file with their papers.

How did the 13 Russians go about sowing discord? Are you ready for this? They held political rallies posing as Americans and they paid one person (unidentified) to build a cage aboard a flatbed pickup truck and another person to wear a costume portraying Hillary in prison clothes.

 

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/18/the-result-of-muellers-investigation...

 

 

Oh yes, but our miserable mediocre mass media de mierda got the news that the little tailor KILLED SEVEN!... SEVEN! Wow! Alleluyah!

No, the little tailor did not kill seven GIANTS but seven flies with a couple of accidental swats... That did not stop the news from turning this little guy into an national hero, a president and a leader of the Free World!...

Our media is getting more mad by the day...

On Friday, a former CIA director speaking on American television suggested that the US meddles in the elections of other countries. The top US security official’s observation follows a federal indictment of multiple Russians accused of allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.

When asked whether the US meddles in the elections of other nations, ex-CIA director James Woolsey said "probably," and added, "only for a very good cause in the interests of democracy."

"Oh, probably, but it was for the good of the system in order to avoid communists taking over," Woolsey, who served as CIA director under former US President Bill Clinton, told Fox News.

Woolsey's comments come after 13 Russian individuals and three Russian-linked groups were federally indicted on Friday for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

 

On Saturday, the Russian embassy to the United Kingdom quoted Woolsey in a tweet, adding the comment: "Says it all."

Although the US intelligence community claims that Russian meddling in the US election began in 2014, Moscow denies any interference.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have urged further investigation into Russia's alleged election meddling as a means of preventing what they claim would be similar future interference by unknown actors, according to The Hill.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201802191061789711-former-cia-director-allows...

 

So far NOT A SINGLE PROOF OF RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. NOT ONE.

I know, I employ scatological words that annoy me as well. But guys like Bidden are walking stupid. They are full of the shit of empire and their boots are put on backwards...

 

Former US Vice President Joseph Biden delivered an impassioned speech which alternated between attacking Russia and praising the US-led world order, while omitting the essence of the ongoing Cold War redux.

Biden, a former senator and America’s second-highest official for two terms, took to the podium at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Friday evening to deliver a moving speech about the threat posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the “liberal world order.” He said NATO members must oppose these “malign activities” and stick to their values, even though the US did not do this under the administration he was part of.

Russia-bashing is a popular game for Western politicians nowadays. Biden was not the first speaker at the MSC to focus on the menace of the East, although unlike Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, he didn’t address his anti-Kremlin rally cry to a nearly deserted hall. On the contrary, it was packed full, including by some former Obama officials like John “you don’t invade a country on phony pretext” Kerry, the ex-Secretary of State.

And the audience heard a lot about how the Kremlin is so weak that it threatens the very core of the world order (don’t ask, just take his word for it).

READ MORE: Facebook advertising VP says ‘Russian meddling’ didn’t aim to sway the election

Russia is a “nation in a serious decline,” Biden said, and it suffers from the stranglehold oil and gas have on the economy (Russian energy exports were 11.78 percent of GDP in 2016, amid the oil price crisis, compared to 20.32 in 2000). Russia maintains a “network of partnerships solely through coercion,” said the former vice president of a nation which has over 1,000 military bases throughout the world. Russia’s population is “aging and shrinking” (Russia’s demographic situation is typical among countries in which women can make careers, birth control is not frowned upon, and people are not forced to rely on their children in old age, although it is enduring a birth gap stemming from three generations ago, when the Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people in World War II).

The Kremlin is dealing with its weakness by undermining the West in general and “democratic ideals” on its borders in particular, the former VP believes, because “any alternative that can attract support jeopardizes the wealth, power and privilege of those oligarchs in charge.” For instance, Ukraine – which could be called Biden’s pet project – supposedly chose those “democratic ideals” in 2014, when armed mobs kicked out its democratically-elected president who already submitted to the demands of the opposition leaders. And then, the new Kiev went after Ukrainian people in the east who didn’t share such ideals, sending tanks against unarmed civilians and later shelling cities engulfed by rebellion.

But at least the government in Kiev enjoys a steadfast protection of its sovereignty – another value that Washington holds in great regard, according to Biden, and Moscow sees as nothing but a nuisance. The vice president can attest to that personally. He ordered Poroshenko to sack his prosecutor general or else kiss US-backed credit goodbye. But, well, the man was allegedly a “corrupt son-of-b***h.”  

So how exactly is the Kremlin “abusing its power,” according to Biden? “By using its hard military power,” said the man who helped oversee the NATO destruction of Libya, once Africa’s most socially developed and richest nation. By “manipulating energy supplies” said Biden, a staunch opponent of having more gas pipelines from Russia to Europe – which would undermine Ukraine’s ability to blackmail Russia and Europe by holding its gas transit hostage, and incidentally prevent LNG (from America and Qatar) from being a more attractive alternative source for Europe. By “weaponizing corruption,” said the man whose son joined the board of directors of Burisma – a Ukrainian oil company – shortly after the US supported the Euromaidan.

But, of course, the biggest offense is Russia’s alleged election meddling all around the world. He berated Russians for buying political advertising on Facebook, which, according to the FBI, had no tangible effect on the outcome of the election. Biden called the ads “thousands of attempts to meddle” in the 2016 campaign.

“They have no damn right!” he roared. “No right whatsoever. It’s our sovereign right to be able to conduct our elections unfettered. Period!”

Yes, we know. American intelligence officials believe meddling in other nations’ elections is their job and won’t allow anyone else to cut in. America first!

 

Read all:

https://www.rt.com/news/419153-biden-munich-russia-speech/

 

see also: 

diplomacy...

and:

Leg Cramps at Night?...

 

Read from top...

THE INTERPRETER 
Russian Meddling Was Drop in Ocean of American Discord

By AMANDA TAUB and MAX FISHER 

It does not take much to get Americans to turn against one another. Partisan polarization was well underway before Moscow got involved.

 

--------------

News for you: "Moscow" never got "involved... The Western media is hostage to the CIA and other crapagencies in the USA.....

When Napoleon Bonaparte executed the Duc d’Enghien in 1804 for what seemed like trumped-up treason charges, the implications extended far beyond questions of French justice and even beyond the borders of France. European leaders were shocked, and the episode helped crystallize anti-Bonaparte sentiment throughout the Continent and in Britain. The famous French diplomat Charles de Talleyrand captured the moment when he said: “It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder.”

That might well be said now about the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential election by using social media to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, promote the candidacy of Donald Trump, and generally sow discord throughout the American body politic. Three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens were indicted by U.S. authorities Friday on charges of engaging in a three-year, multimillion-dollar effort to interfere in the election. Americans naturally are shocked at this brazen effort to unravel the political fabric of their country.

But it isn’t really all that shocking. To understand why it was more of a blunder than a crime—and a blunder with likely tragic consequences—it is important to absorb five fundamental realities surrounding this important development in U.S.-Russian relations.

Read more crap at: 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/russias-election-meddlin...

Hey you! Hey you at the American Conservative! Yes YOU! Putin and the Russians did not interfere with the 2016 Presidential elections!!!! Capiche. No. Nupe. Nix. No way... But the way the Muellers of this world work is in tandem with the previous crap of the previous administrations is flagrant:... LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES... REPEAT, REPEAT REPEAT... It slowly sinks into the brains of the most critical person on the planet, like water torture on a prisoner. The nazis were good at it in germany, though the USA had been using the deceit tactic since the beginning of the invention of the "dollar"... So go back to the drawing board and ANALYSE CAREFULLY the hoax — a hoax build differently to that of the War on Saddam — but still a hoax that claims the Ruskies interfere with the election of Dumbdumb... IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE (like religion, mind you)!

According to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment, Russian trolls, operating out of St. Petersburg, took American identities on social media and became players in our 2016 election.

On divisive racial and religious issues, the trolls took both sides. In the presidential election, the trolls favored Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and Donald Trump, and almost never Hillary Clinton.

One imaginative Russian troll urged Trumpsters to dress up a female volunteer in an orange prison jump suit, put her in a cage on a flatbed truck, then append the slogan, “Lock Her Up!”

How grave a matter is this?

This Russian troll farm is “the equivalent [of] Pearl Harbor,” says Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who would head up the House Judiciary Committee, handling any matters related to impeachment, if Democrats retake the House.

When MSNBC’s Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: the Russians “are destroying our democratic process,” he said. While Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence, in its “seriousness, it is very much on a par” with Japan’s surprise attack.

Trump’s reaction to the hysteria that broke out after the Russian indictments: “They are laughing their (expletives) off in Moscow.”

Read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/is-that-russian-troll-fa...

 

Read from top... This is NOT A SINGLE PROOF OF "RUSSIAN" INTERFERENCE IN THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. Meanwhile there are MANY CONCRETE proofs that the US and their partners interfered with the Russians elections and other elections around the world.

 

Read from Top...

On Sunday, Qatari network Al Jazeera published an article about the restoration process, entitled, “Is Russia attempting to erase Crimean Muslim culture?” The author of the piece, Moscow-based journalist Mansur Mirovalev, gave an overdramatic depiction of the construction site, comparing the mosque to a “bandaged patient.”

The article cited Ukrainian officials and the Tatar community’s self-proclaimed leaders, who chose to leave Crimea after it reunited with Russia in 2014. Those who were interviewed called the restoration a “part of Kremlin’s drive to reshape, ban and erase the cultural identity of Crimean Tatars.” A Crimean official during the Ukrainian rule, Edem Dudakov, claimed that “the palace will be lost; what they're building is a sham.”

However, it seems more likely that the mosque would have been lost to history if the urgent restoration work did not start. The Big Khan Mosque was built in 1532 using wooden materials, which have not passed the test of time. RT Ruptly video agency has visited the site and examined the damaged tiles and dried out beams that were removed from the historic building – the wood was so fragile that it could be broken with bare hands.

READ MORE: 'Exotic idea': Russian senator blasts Ukrainian initiative to undermine election in Crimea

The wooden beams “lost their bearing capacity completely,” Aleksandr Yasko, a construction supervisor for the ATTA company, which is carrying out the restoration, said. “They’re doty; damaged by timber beetle. A mycological examination was carried out and it established that the beams are all infected with fungi. It lives there, in 100 percent of the structural beams.”

Yasko emphasized that the historic building is treated with extreme care and showed the tiles that were removed from the roof of the mosque. “Not even a single piece of tile has disappeared. It’s all stored on the territory of the open-air museum as well as the rotten beams.”

Removing the roof tiles was “a very complicated job… as every piece had to go through the hands of several workers. Besides, it had to be taken down from the height of 13 meters,” he said. The mosque has been losing tiles for centuries because the roof, which was redesigned after the 1736 fire, turned out to be too steep. Yasko said that the historic shape of the Big Khan Mosque will remain unchanged after the restoration, but the newly-placed tiles will be equipped with a special fixing system that will prevent them from sliding.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/419280-crimean-tatar-mosque-restoration/

 

Of course all this "news" is designed, like the ABC lauded visit of the alleged crook William Browder to Australia, to demonise Russia, especially Putin, as much as possible.  Are they trying to make sure that Putin gets re-elected, because, let's face it, Putin might be the only chance Russia has to ride the US vengeful storm?

Ex-CIA director James Woolsey's Friday interview on Fox News ended up with a sudden confession that the US is used to meddling in foreign elections "for the good of the system." Speaking to Sputnik, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel stressed that messing with other nations' votes is not behavior that great powers should pursue.

"Just as most Americans recoil in anger that foreign parties may have meddled in the 2015/6 election cycle, citizens in republics everywhere should expect that their voices, alone, dictate election results," Ortel told Sputnik commenting on former CIA director James Woolsey's remarks on US meddling in foreign elections. According to Ortel, if the ex-CIA chief told the truth, "this is appalling."

Speaking on the Fox News show The Ingraham Angle, Woolsey admitted that the US has "probably" meddled in other countries' elections. "But it was for the good of system, in order to avoid the Communists from taking over, for example, in Europe in 1947, 1948, 1949, " he added.

When asked whether the US "mess[es] around in other people's elections" now, the former CIA chief dropped the hint that the controversial practice still goes on: "Only for a very good cause… in the interests of democracy," he mumbled.

Commenting on Woolsey's words, Ortel noted that "since 1945, seemingly unchecked oversight of America's "intelligence" services appears to have led insulated members of the senior management and rogue agents to believe they know better than we, the people, of the United States."

"Woolsey's arrogance, which is displayed by many from the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama long march embracing unregulated 'globalism,' may actually unite the political spectrum here to incite true reform of our national security services and ensure pursuit of coherent, sensible goals that actually keep this nation safe here, while promoting the exceptional founding ideals enshrined in our own constitution," the investigative journalist emphasized.

WikiLeaks on CIA Hacking of French Parties Ahead of 2012 Vote

In 2015 WikiLeaks shed light on the Obama administration's eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several of her ministers, triggering nothing short of a scandal which, nevertheless, ended up in nothing.

Two years later, the non-profit organization specializing on news leaks disclosed that the CIA had infiltrated all major French parties ahead of the presidential elections back in 2012, using both human ("HUMINT") and electronic ("SIGINT") resources.

 

 

WikiLeaks✔@wikileaks

Full doc: CIA orders to hack Le Pen & other French presidential candidates https://wikileaks.org/cia-france-elections-2012/#Press …

However, the revelation did not catch headlines being overshadowed by the story of Russia's alleged interference into the US 2016 presidential vote. In contrast to the CIA's France case, the Russia narrative has not been backed by any evidence yet.

 

So why does the CIA interference in European affairs remain neglected by the mainstream media?

"A small percentage [of Americans] concentrates upon foreign political news, so it is not surprising that so few know the long history of interference by America, and by other great powers, in elections and governance modes around the world," Ortel responded.

However, the Wall Street analyst stressed that he has "trouble understanding why sorely stretched taxpayers should be financing unchecked US government efforts to spy on allies, or to possibly help allies spy on political or business rivals inside America."

It is believed that the 2014 February coup in Ukraine was facilitated by the Obama administration and prominent US officials like Republican Senator John McCain. An alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, which leaked on YouTube in February 2014, shed some light on these events.

 

It is not the first time when Obama administration officials and senators have meddled in European affairs. During the Russian presidential elections of 2011-2012, Senator McCain went as far as to tweet addressing the Russian president: "Dear Vlad, The Arab Spring is coming to a neighborhood near you."

For her part, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the opposition 2011 protests in Russia, by saying: "We are supportive of the rights and aspirations of the Russian people to be able to make progress and to realize a better future for themselves, and we hope to see that unfold in the years ahead."

Meanwhile, the chorus of Western mainstream media openly promoted an anti-Kremlin narrative, publishing articles with eloquent headlines such as "The Beginning of the End of Putin."

 

"This period must be understood going further back to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the emergence of Eastern European states and the break-up of the Former Soviet Union," Ortel opined. "From 1988 onwards, as elites embrace unregulated globalism, foreign investors were able to purchase many crown jewel assets in league with local politicians, often at fire-sale prices."

According to the investigative journalist, there is often an economic story behind political rivalries. "Where there is trouble, there frequently is opportunity for 'vulture investors' — people like Marc Rich and George Soros are just two examples," he said.

He suggested that "tension erupting on Maidan square and escalating thereafter was sparked by seemingly irreconcilable economic battles during the Obama era."

Ortel referred to Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, who has seemingly benefited a lot from the regime change in Ukraine. Pinchuk, a longstanding donor to the Clinton Foundation, "have become extraordinarily rich cultivating foreign investors and assembling large industrial and trading interests there and in neighboring nations, in association with the Clinton family through their respective 'foundations'," the Wall Street analyst stressed.

Ahead of the Euromaidan Revolution, Pinchuk, a son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Kuchma, held the 10th annual meeting in Yalta, Crimea entitled "Changing Ukraine in a Changing World: Factors of Success," with ex-president Bill Clinton among his special guests.

 

Ortel expressed hopes that "the Trump Administration will soon be able to purge holdovers from the Obama- (and earlier) holdovers remaining in the State Department and in the security services and then think more sensibly about pursuing projects with foreign nations, including Russia and her people, to our mutual benefit."

So is it possible that Trump administration officials or influential American politicians will try to meddle in the 2018 [Russian] presidential vote?

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201802201061837302-us-cia-elections-dem...

 

The answer to the last question is YES, YES and YES.... 

The political world has known the power of repetition since Cato the Elder reputedly ended every speech in the Roman Senate with the words: “Delenda est Carthago” or “Carthage must be destroyed.” Stanley Kubrick brought this rhetorical principle to life when he had rebellious Roman gladiators each rise to declare: “I am Spartacus.”

Robert Mueller’s surprise indictment of a baker’s dozen of Russians provides an opportunity for the White House press corps to harness the power of repetition. Every media availability should begin with the same question: “Mr President, if your claim that there was no collusion with Russia is correct, then why do you refuse to condemn Vladimir Putin or enforce sanctions against Russia?”

If Trump responds with a series of nonsense sentences about the Steele dossier or “Crooked Hillary,” then the next reporter should try again in “I am Spartacus” fashion. Whenever cabinet members and Trump mouthpieces appear on television, they should also be pressed to explain why the president is so soft on Putin if he truly has nothing to hide.

Yes, such an orchestrated approach runs against the journalistic traditions of obsessing on the day’s news and leaving crusading to the editorial page or its equivalent.

But there is a strong set of counter-arguments based on the reality that the fractured attention span of reporters undermines the traditional agenda-setting role of the press.

...

Like a small child being introduced to board games, Trump’s instinct is to knock over the table whenever he is challenged. These daily uproars and Twitter tantrums all but erase memories of the prior week’s outrages. The result: the news media has lost its ability to declare that one topic (Russian interference) is of far more lasting importance than Trump’s assaults on random targets like Oprah Winfrey.

Given the leak-proof nature of the Mueller investigation, there is as yet no way to know whether the special counsel has uncovered convincing evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Putin’s puppets. And it remains likely that most Trump insiders and the troll farmers in Moscow never expected the bilious billionaire to actually become president.

Read more of this biased Walter Shapiro crap at: 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/20/donald-trump-trump...

 

Here one must be careful. The game played by the US Administration is more devious that can be seen on the surface. The President, Trump, DOES NOT HAVE TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS on Russia as the US Congress has already done so with a major intent to sabotage Russia's ability to trade. Only two senators voted against. And Trump is the one under attack by the media. Should he admit to "Russian influence", he would question his own legitimacy, would he not? The "leak-proof" Mueller investigation is a sham. Putin's puppets?... Fuck, this is not a journalistic vernacular, but that of a partisan... or?

Now, I think that this article by Walter Shapiro is a satire... He is deprecating upon the media and himself. Very clever... Shapiro used to be a comic: see:

Shapiro has written One-Car Caravan: On the Road with the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In (PublicAffairs, 2003) and Hustling Hitler: How a Jewish Vaudevillian Fooled the Fuhrer (Blue Rider Press, 2016).

Shapiro performed stand-up comedy for many years, and in 1998 The Times of London described him as "one of Manhattan's leading political satirists." His columns have included satire as well.

 

What is sad, is that The Guardian is passing Shapiro's article as a serious analysis by a serious journalist as indicted by the Guardian:

Walter Shapiro is a columnist for Roll Call, a lecturer in political science at Yale and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice....

Ah Ah ah ah.....

 

WASHINGTON — The son-in-law of a Russia-based billionaire admitted on Tuesday to lying to investigators about his communications with a former Trump campaign aide. The guilty plea by the defendant, a former lawyer at a powerful New York-based law firm, broadened the scope of the special counsel’s inquiry into Russia’s election interference.

The lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, acknowledged in federal court in Washington that he lied to prosecutors about a September 2016 conversation with Rick Gates, the former Trump aide, over work they did together for a Ukrainian political party aligned with Russia. He also admitted that he deleted records of email exchanges that prosecutors had sought. He faces up to five years in prison but said in court that he expected to serve six months or less.

 

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/us/politics/alex-van-der-zwaan-gates-russia-mueller.html

 

Meanwhile, all the US mob who did work with the Nazis in Ukraine to the tune of 5 billion bucks won't get a look in....

 

Democracy is in serious danger.

President Donald Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unableto defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

Read more crappo:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/whatever-trump-is-hiding-is-hurting-all-of-u...

 

If 13 pranksters in St Petersburg managed to throw "democracy" off its perch in the USA, then one must realise that "democracy" has been moribund — or completely dead — for a long time in the USA. Trump is not hiding anything and this is the crux of the matter, whether he is a nutter or not...

Hillary lost the elections fair and square but the establishment — especially those on the Democrats side — cannot come to term with "the first glorious woman to become President" being beaten by a racist, misogynist, finger-in-the-nose and four-times bankrupt real estate merchant, loony Dumbdumb... So they blame the Russians for having interfered with the glorious victory that should have been theirs. So far, the Mueller investigations has shown NOTHING, but a few guys "in Russia" — who in the days of the internet could have been anywhere in the world but it's better to say they were in "St Petersburg" —  who fiddled with Twitter and Facebook, plus some "aides" in the Trump camp who told a few fibs to the FBI because they wanter to hide  they had made "undeclared" cash in UKRAINE...

But the savants at the "liberal" branches of the Democrats still hope that Mueller will come up with some fizzy clangers... We have seen it before, and manufacturing FAKE information is FUCKING EASY. That's why we went to war in Iraq and all other invented purposes to give us the self-righteous title of the "good causes' guys". That is what has killed democracy. Not the Russians. Mr Murdoch has done far more to kill off democracy, by embracing its freedom to tell and sell opinions like a python in love, to death. 

For an event designed to address real global security issues, the Munich Security Conference has shown itself to be a useless talking shop. But it does add more propaganda fodder for Russia-bashing.

How ironic. A forum proclaiming to uphold global security is acting like a bullhorn for war.

The release on Friday of the US Department of Justice’s indictment of 13 Russian citizens for alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election went on to dominate the conference being held in Munich over the weekend.

Rather than being a peripheral matter owing to its dubious claims, the Washington hobby horse of “Russian meddling” was given free rein in Munich. Instead of parsing the latest Russophobia with intelligent skepticism, the conference added fuel to the bonfire of warmongering.

The annual gathering in the Bavarian capital is supposed to be an occasion when international political, military and intelligence leaders gather to discuss pressing security issues. The pro-NATO bias of the 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC) – never too disguised at best of times – was this year openly brandished.

A flurry of speakers eagerly took the latest US indictments at face value and cited them as “evidence” of Russian subversion and cyber warfare against Western democracies.

We should expect no less invective impugning Russia from the likes of NATO civilian chief Jens Stoltenberg, or Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, as well as US National Security Advisor General HR McMaster. But even German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in his address to the conference accused Russia (and China) of trying to “undermine” unity within the European Union.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/419238-us-meddling-russia-munich-security/

 

Read from top...

If only Joe McCarthy had lived to see this moment, when it’s suddenly in vogue to attribute large-scale events in American politics to the hand of Russia and to inveigh against domestic subversion.

Robert Mueller released an indictment of 13 Russians for crimes related to their social-media campaign to meddle in our internal affairs in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2016 election.

Mueller obviously isn’t a McCarthyite, and can’t be held responsible for the hysteria — and hopeful expectations of an impeachment-level event — that has built up around his work. His indictment is, as far as anyone can tell, rigorously factual.

That’s probably the point of it — to create a record of an episode that we should want to know as much about as possible and prevent from ever happening again.

The Russia campaign was a shockingly cynical violation of our sovereignty. President Trump would do himself and the country a favor by frankly denouncing it.

But the scale of the operation shouldn’t be exaggerated. In the context of a hugely expensive, obsessively covered, impossibly dramatic presidential election, the Russian contribution on social media was piddling and often laughable.

The Russians wanted to boost Trump, but as a Facebook executive noted, most of their spending on Facebook ads came after the election. The larger goal was to sow discord, yet we had already primed ourselves for plenty of that.

Does anyone believe, absent Russian trolls on Twitter and Facebook, that we were headed to a placid election season involving an incendiary, mediagenic former reality TV star bent on blowing up the political establishment and a longtime pol who had stoked the enmity of Republicans for 30 years and was under FBI investigation?

If you read the Mueller indictment, you might think the Russians were everywhere, not only advertising on Facebook (“Trump is our only hope for a better future”; “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison”), but organizing rallies around the country.

But it’s not clear these rallies even came off.

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2018/02/20/the-russians-didnt-do-anything-to-us-that-...

 

The Murdoch media was far more involved in getting Trump elected than a dozen trolls with Ruskie names... It should know that the smoke coming from the Mueller inquiry is a sad mirror image of a declined deranged democracy...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is making a mockery of democracy by running for a third term as president, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

Having already been president from 2000 to 2008 before becoming prime minister, Putin on September 24 unveiled plans to swap jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev, allowing the duo to continue their joint rule. 

“First of all, the way that the whole thing was done makes a bit of a mockery of the electoral process,” Rice said in an interview to promote “No Higher Honor,” her memoir of serving as Republican former President George W. Bush’s national security adviser and secretary of state. 

Asked if it was a good idea for Putin to run again, Rice said “no” and sighed. “It’s unfortunate.” 

If Putin is elected in March as universally expected, Rice said, there is a chance, and perhaps a probability, that he may try to limit dissent and centralize power more than he had during his earlier incarnation as president. 

However, Rice, a Stanford University Soviet specialist before entering government, said Russia’s integration into the world economy may over time limit his ability to curb civil and political liberties.

 

Read more:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rice-book/putin-election-bid-makes-mockery-of-democracy-rice

Who can forget Condoleezza Rice? I suppose all the people who got conned by the administration of George W Bush — and this means everyone, except Condoleezza Rice and Bush. Whether Putin is the best man for the job is for the Russians to say. But from my window, he has not done a bad job saving Russia from Ruins so far, and why not carry on? If "democracy" is so important to Condoleezza that the President has to be obligatory replaced at the end of his second term (should he get one), ending with the election of DumbDumb (or by the way, Hillary the warrior), then democracy is a complete arse. 

Despite being a Stanford University Soviet specialist before entering government, Rice is still basically a failed concert pianist.

Putin is actually smarter than George W Bush, Barak Obama and Donald Trump all put together... I suppose that's why they limit the numbers of time the one person can get elected President in the USA. The electors keep getting the duds... and some of them are deceitful nasty, lying bastards on both side of the political spectrum.

 

Donald Trump’s legal fixer Michael Cohen has also been representing the firebrand conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity, one of only three private legal clients Cohen has taken on in the past year, his lawyer told a federal court on Monday.

The revelation came as a federal judge rejected a bid by the president and Cohen to prevent US prosecutors from examining a cache of documents and recordings seized from Trump’s long-time confidant.

Cohen’s office, hotel and home were raided by the FBI last week following a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller that incensed the president and opened Trump up to a second front of legal peril.

Last week district judge Kimba Wood had ordered Cohen to disclose all his private practice legal clients since he left the Trump Organization after the 2016 election, but the president’s longtime confidant had partially resisted the court’s order. In a letter to Wood from his attorneys, Cohen disclosed that he had been representing the president and the disgraced former GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy, but declined to reveal the identity of a third client.

However, lawyers for Cohen were forced on Monday afternoon to disclose that Hannity was the third individual.

Shortly after the revelation, Hannity said on his radio show that his legal relationship with Cohen involved “occasional discussions with him for his input and perspective” and he had assumed those discussions were confidential and covered by client confidentiality.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/16/michael-cohen-trump-atto...

 

Read from top.

Russophobia continued it’s rampant domination of the headlines this week. Donald Trump’s former campaign chief faced the consequences of meeting Russians, while activist Maria Butina faced the consequences of being Russian.

RT takes a weekly look at the last seven days of Russophobia.

Don’t mention the Russian Elephant

The Paul Manafort trial, which ramped up this week, is like a case study in Russophobia. Trump’s former campaign chief is accused of bank and tax fraud linked to his work in Ukraine.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that Ukraine is not actually Russia, and no one is really mentioning the ‘R’ word at the trial which so far has been dominated by evidence of Manafort’s crimes against fashion more than anything else. The media however is framing the proceedings as the first step in proving Donald Trump colluded with Moscow to win office. Manafort’s main crime is the worst that can be committed… he definitely met a Russian once, maybe two.

Dentist denial for locked up Butina

Poor old Maria Butina is going to be a regular in this column, you can just tell. The Russian gun activist is being held in a US prison accused of being a government agent sent by Moscow. Or of just being a Russian, it’s hard to tell. She stands at the other end of the Russophobia/paranoia scale to Manafort. He’s in trouble for meeting Russians, she’s in trouble for meeting Americans.

This week it emerged that she’s being given access to a phone in prison, but not a dentist. It’s not waterboarding, but it’s still not nice either. I suppose we can’t have Russian ladies with nice smiles though, it could swing an election.

READ MORE: Accused 'Russian agent' Butina allowed phone calls, but not dental help, after 19 days' detention

‘Pervasive messaging’ could bring down the US

Speaking of swinging elections, the US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told journalists that Russia is trying to meddle in the midterms using a “pervasive messaging campaign”. Translation: Someone Russian posted a Trump meme on Facebook.

In the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “It’s just hilarious when I hear that funny pictures can undermine American democracy.”

Some might suggest that reporting a Russian conspiracy around every corner is the thing that’s really freaking everyone out. Some might.

Don’t worry though Americans, because FBI Director Christopher Wray said he’s working with social media to get on top of the problem. Between them they should be able to make sure election meddling remains a purely American pastime.

Hunt dabbles in Russophobia to save Brexit

Jeremy Hunt has only just taken over as the UK’s Foreign Secretary, but he’s learning fast. The most important lesson: If you want to scare the hell out of people, Russophobia is your friend.

Brexit is looking more disastrous with each passing day so Hunt (no it’s not rhyming slang, it’s his name) said: “Frankly, if we end up with no deal, the only person rejoicing will be [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.”

That’s going to be news to a few British million voters, half of Hunt’s own Tory party, quite a bit of the opposition too, and Messrs Farage and Rees-Mogg who would happily accept a ‘no deal’ exit from the EU at this point.

READ MORE: ‘Only Putin will rejoice at a hard-Brexit’: UK foreign sec employs tired Russia scare tactics

Next week voters will probably be told that Putin would also rejoice at tax cuts, free childcare and increased funding of Britain’s National Health Service.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/435054-russophobia-digest-manafort-butina-hunt/

 

The point of all this is to make sure that voters, who vote for Trump or not, are aware that there could be some Russian minuscule disinformation on useless social media platforms that are praising both side of the spectrum, GOP and Democrat, designed to confuse voters' natural choices of dummies for the incoming mid-term elections. Confused? Why don't you read the Murdoch's New York Post instead? Or Murdoch's The Times should you be a Brit?

 

Read from top.

The FBI released 71 almost entirely blank pages of documents about its relationship with former British spy Christopher Steele, author of the infamous 'dodgy dossier' alleging scandalous acts by US President Donald Trump, on Friday.

Although the heavily redacted documents offer next to zero details about the FBI's work with Steele, it did indicated that the ex-MI-6 agent who helped compile the Trump-Russia dossier was instructed to stop collecting intelligence on behalf of the FBI in November 2016.

"CHS was used as a source for an online article. In the article, CHS revealed CHS' relationship with the FBI as well as information that CHS obtained and provided to FBI," the second page of the release states. "On November 1, 2016, CHS confirmed all of this to the handling agent. At that time, handling agent advised CHS that the nature of the relationship between the FBI and CHS would change completely and that it was unlikely that the FBI would continue a relationship with the CHS."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/news/201808041066938290-fbi-releases-steele-doss...

 

Top Lawyer in White House Gives Mueller Coveted Details

 

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMAN 

 

• The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, was a witness to key episodes at the heart of the obstruction inquiry overseen by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
• 
  
• In an unusual example of cooperation, Mr. McGahn described to investigators the president’s fury toward the Russia inquiry and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it.

This is quite funny really. The NYT frothes at the mouth and yet the "Coveted Details" given to Mueller III do nothing to prove a Russian/Trump collusion — and TRUMP KNOWS IT... He could not care less, though he might show "fury". This is going to keep the "investigation" going, busy with the media collusion — until the proof of what really happen (the non Russian interterference) WILL BE EXPOSED at a time of Trump's choosing for maximum damage on his "enemies" and the "enemy of the people" — the media...
Pompeo might do a deal with Assange... and Gus Leonisky might have egg on his face... and "the Russian connection could be established"... But I don't think so... I believe the leaks of the DNC emails came from within... And the DNC, the FBI and the CIA know it...
Read from top.