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Slim Chances for Improved US/Russia Relations
Stephen Lendman
According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House “pushe(d) off the Kremlin’s proposals for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and takes an increasingly skeptical view of reaching a grand bargain with Moscow.”
In mid-April, Tillerson will meet with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow for the first time since a brief get-to-know-you meeting on the sidelines of the Bonn, Germany G20 foreign ministers summit.
Heightened anti-Russia sentiment in Washington prevents improved bilateral relations, unlikely any time ahead as long as it’s prudent to predict.
Republican and Democrat senators vowed to “go wherever the intelligence leads us.” House members are “bogged down amid partisan acrimony,” the Journal explained.
US intelligence claims about Russian US elections hacking were fabricated. No evidence corroborates them. None exists except what’s invented - to bash Russia and undermine Trump.
Russia Bashing Senate Hearing
Stephen Lendman
Thursday’s hearing on Russia was reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition - a nation and its leadership on trial, spurious accusations featured, made-for-television witch-hunt proceedings.
McCarthyism is back on steroids. Intense bipartisan Russia bashing risks possible military confrontation.
Fabricated claims about Russian US election hacking persist - despite no evidence suggesting it. Congress is spoiling for a fight.
The Thursday Senate Select Committee on Intelligence open hearing was Orwellian titled “Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns.”
Netanyahu’s Phony New Settlement Construction Policy
Stephen Lendman
The new policy replicates the existing one - unrestrained construction on stolen Palestinian land.
On the one hand, Israel said it’ll “significantly rein in the footprint” of settlement construction, limiting it “wherever possible” in new areas - a meaningless statement, intending unrestrained longstanding policy.
Netanyahu proved it by announcing Israel’s first new settlement since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
It’ll be located north of Ramallah - on Palestinian land registered as belonging to Israel. Security cabinet members approved it unanimously.
Iran Key Player in Combating Terrorism in Syria
Stephen Lendman
Iran is falsely accused by Washington, Israel, AIPAC and other dark forces of being the world’s “biggest sponsor of terrorism” - a despicable Big Lie.
It’s the price it pays for 38 years of sovereign independence, free from US dominance, refusing to serve its imperial interests.
On Thursday, Sergey Lavrov praised Iran as a “powerful player” in combating terrorism in Syria, saying:
“What we do now with Iran and those that cooperate with us and the Syrian army is fighting terrorists in Syria.”
“Iran is a powerful player on the ground, legitimately invited by (Assad’s) government” - combating the scourge of US-supported terrorism.
No Investigation of Clinton Foundation Uranium Deal with Russia
Stephen Lendman
Judicial Watch earlier investigated a controversial Clinton Foundation 2010 uranium deal with Russia. As secretary of state, Hillary used her position for profit-making.
In his book “Clinton Cash,” Peter Scheweizer raised questions about the deal and others, involving millions of dollars of Clinton Foundation donations from foreign governments and other sources.
The foundation was used as a money-laundering, pay-to-play, self-enrichment racket, masquerading as a charitable NGO.
Federal, state and international laws prohibit operating so-called public charities for private gain. The Clinton Foundation systematically ignores its legal obligations - unaccountably so far.
Republicans Demand the Impossible in a Healthcare Bill
Eric Zuesse
Republicans demand a healthcare bill (or medical system) that will simultaneously (and without sacrificing quality of healthcare) reduce their total expenses on medical care — including their insurance premiums and their out-of-pocket costs — and that will also be more free-market (with less government involvement and regulations) than in existing U.S. healthcare policy (both before and after Obamacare began); they want more free-market, and less cost, and also no sacrifice on quality.
The economic data show that (by far) the most cost-effective medical care is in countries that have socialized healthcare; the least cost-effective (meaning the least efficient) medical care is in countries that have not socialized healthcare, and the middle that’s between those two extremes is countries (there is only one: Switzerland) that are between those two categories: countries that legally require everyone to have health insurance but that remove the profit-motive from health insurance by having (as Switzerland puts it) “60 government-approved non-profit insurance providers offer basic mandatory insurance and optional loss-of-earnings [disability] insurance in accordance with legal requirements and the supervisory authority’s directives.” America’s propagandists for Obamacare had been saying such things as "Switzerland Has Its Own Kind of Obamacare — and Loves It”, and mentioned that "For many Americans, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which makes health insurance mandatory, is a bitter pill to swallow” but that it’s really “a victory for common sense,” but they were misrepresenting the extent to which the Swiss system is similar to Obamacare, and also misrepresenting (over-praising) the Swiss system’s track-record of performance.
Brazil’s Coup Plotter Convicted on Corruption Charges
Stephen Lendman
Former Brazilian Chamber of Deputies president Eduardo Cunha was convicted on corruption and related charges in connection with Operation Car Wash, a scandal involving state-owned oil company Petrobras.
Last May, Brazil’s Supreme Court suspended him as lower house speaker for attempting to intimidate members of Congress and obstruct investigations into corruption allegations.
In September, the Chamber of Deputies stripped him of his position for breaching parliamentary decorum for lying about secret offshore accounts he maintained.
Accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes, he hid his wealth in foreign tax havens - like many other crooked politicians and others with ill-gotten gains.
Cunha was instrumental in ousting democratically elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff last August, a coup plot on fabricated charges - phony claims about budget manipulations, nothing improper about what she did, a practice many governments employ, notably America.
Neocon US General Urges War on Iran
Stephen Lendman
Iran threatens no one. It’s a leading global advocate for peace, stability, and mutual cooperation among all nations.
Russia’s geopolitical agenda fosters the same objectives. US policies are polar opposite, waging endless wars of aggression against sovereign independent countries - wanting pro-Western puppet regimes replacing their legitimate ones.
CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel outrageously called Iran “the greatest longterm threat to (Middle East) stability.”
He lied, saying it’s “operating operating in what I call a gray zone, and it’s an area between normal competition between states…just short of open conflict.”
“We need to look at opportunities where we can disrupt (Iran) through military (or other) means.”
Genocide in Mosul
Stephen Lendman
America’s rage for global dominance is responsible for raping and destroying Mosul - the same pattern as in all US wars of aggression, civilians harmed most, massacred in cold blood.
At her weekly press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said humanitarian crisis conditions in Mosul “soared to an unprecedented degree.”
“It’s time to ring alarm bells.” Hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the city with scant food, virtually no medical care and other essentials to life.
“Experts warn mass famine will be unavoidable if the operation…lasts” much longer, she stressed. “Regrettably,” this is where things are heading.
She condemned US-led airstrikes massacring civilians. No one in the West wants to talk about mass casualties. Horrendous war crimes continue daily - unaddressed and ignored.
Continued bombing of residential areas assures mass slaughter of civilians in harm’s way.
CENTCOM Commander on Phony Regional Threats
Stephen Lendman
America’s rage for endless wars is the greatest threat to world peace, stability and security.
Russia justifiably fears possible preemptive US nuclear attack on its territory.
According to its General Staff deputy head of operations Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, “(t)he presence of American ABM sites in Europe and ABM-capable ships in the seas and oceans close to Russia’s territory creates a powerful clandestine potential for delivering a surprise nuclear missile strike against Russia.”
“The presence of the global ABM system lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, because it gives the US the illusion of impunity for using strategic offensive weapons from under the protection of the ABM ‘umbrella.’ “
“The ABM shield is a symbol of the build-up of rocket forces in the world and a trigger for a new arms race.”
Since the onset of Western-instigated Cold War in the late 1940s, lunatics in Washington and at the Pentagon believed nuclear war on Russia was winnable.
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