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Day 2 of the Michael Sussmann trial started with some housekeeping. Here are the rulings of note: Robby Mook, who has a scheduled vacation in Spain, will testify on Friday. He’s a defense witness. Evidence of Steele’s meetings with Sussmann and Fusion GPS in July 2016, and his tasking to conduct research on Alfa Bank, according to the judge, “can come in.” The judge observed they are “relevant to Mr. Sussmann’s activities for the campaign and his attorney-client relationship, as far as it went, with the campaign as it relates to Alfa-Bank.” Onto the witnesses. We start with the short...

There appears to be the equivalent of a "How To Overthrow America" training manual (my description of this article) in the The Atlantic right now (excerpts below).It assumes that rational people naturally consider Trump a dictator, cites with approval the strategy behind the overthrow of the Ukraine, and sees Esper's public repudiation of Trump's authority as signs of progress toward the overthrow of US, which he calls "the revolution" to topple a dictator. While reading it - the Deep State's strategy glares from the text. It describes rather concisely why the Deep State is cutting vigorously at oaths of office...

China and the US have failed to reach a climate agreement after Biden's climate envoy John Kerry pushed Beijing to make more public pledges before a UN climate summit in November. "China already has its own plans and road map for achieving its climate goals," an official on the Chinese side was cited in South China Morning Post as saying. The source said further that Beijing wouldn't tolerate Washington telling it what it should do or not do. SCMP summarized of Kerry's proposals: During talks with Chinese leaders in Tianjin, US climate envoy John Kerry presented a list of proposals...

China and Russia declare “solidarity” with Iran after Gulf tanker attacks “Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed solidarity with Iran…even as the U.S. Navy revealed evidence the Iranians were behind the terrorist attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.” The two oil tankers were Japanese and Norwegian. The U.S. military released a video it says “shows Iran’s Revolutionary Guard taking an unexploded mine from the hull of one of two oil tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman.” Tehran’s usual response was denial, and it also accused the U.S. of “waging...

...twenty-one sailors from the M/T Kokuka Courageous who had abandoned their ship after discovering a probable unexploded limpet mine on their hull... At 4:10 p.m. local time an IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Gashti Class patrol boat approached the M/T Kokuka Courageous and was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine from the M/T Kokuka Courageous (video attached). The United States has no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East. However, we will defend our interests.

NEW YORK — Former Vice President Joe Biden was reportedly one of the few Obama administration officials who participated in secretive meetings during the early stages of the Obama-era intelligence community’s initial operations regarding suspected Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The number of Obama administration officials who were allowed access to the Russia intelligence was also highly limited, The Post reported. At first only four senior officials were involved, and not Biden. Those officials were CIA Directir John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and then-FBI Director James Comey. Their aides were all...

Viet Cong veteran Vo Ban Tam remembers the first time he crossed paths with John Kerry on the banks on the Bay Hap river, a day that ended in bloodshed. Almost a half-century later, the now 70-year-old Mekong Delta shrimp farmer locked eyes with the US Secretary of State on Saturday and they warmly grasped hands in mutual respect. Kerry returned to the Vietnam waterway at the end of a visit to the Communist nation, less than a week before he was to leave office, searching for the spot where he won a Silver Star for bravery as a young...

A report issued Thursday by the Department of State repeatedly refers to sex reassignment surgery in Iran as “gender-confirmation surgery.” Iran has a well-documented record of coercing gay and lesbian people into having the gender reassignment surgery, that is, disrupting rather than “confirming” the gender identity of hundreds per year. Since homosexuality can be punishable by death in Iran, known homosexual men tend to accept the government-subsidized surgery to become women, and vice versa. By referring to the surgeries as “gender confirmation,” rather than the much more widespread and morally neutral “sex reassignment surgery,” the State Department seems to be...

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states launched airstrikes against rebel forces in Yemen’s capital and across the country in defense of what Riyadh called the nation’s legitimate government. The attacks began Thursday morning, hours after Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, fled the southern port city of Aden by boat when Iranian-backed Houthi militants closed in. The decision by Saudi Arabia and the region’s Sunni monarchies to intervene on Mr. Hadi’s behalf raises the stakes in their rivalry with predominantly Shiite Iran, which has raged in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region. The raids also risked further inflaming sectarian...

Day after Obama urges Iran to seize ‘historic opportunity,’ supreme leader says US seeks to create insecurity. Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei called for “Death to America” on Saturday, a day after President Barack Obama appealed to Iran to seize a “historic opportunity” for a nuclear deal and a better future, and as US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed substantial progress toward an accord. Khamenei told a crowd in Tehran that Iran would not capitulate to Western demands. When the crowd started shouting, “Death to America,” the ayatollah responded: “Of course yes, death to America, because America is the...

Secretary of State John F. Kerry — now Boston’s most prominent shoveling scofflaw — returned home to his Louisburg Square manse last night, his sidewalk newly cleared just in time to avoid an international incident. Kerry is due to host the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico in Boston today and tomorrow, he announced on his Twitter feed. “Glad to welcome FM @Baird & FS @JoseAM­eadeK up to #Boston on Fri. Hope they don’t mind a little snow. #GoodNeighbors,” 
@JohnKerry tweeted. But in a neighborhood where people were out diligently cleaning their sidewalks, Kerry’s remained untouched two days after the...

Full Title: ISIS butchers leave 'roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers': Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government's call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen. Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad. They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — White House aides are accusing soldiers who served with Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are “swift boating” him following his release over the weekend after five years in captivity. NBC News’ Chuck Todd reported Monday that the White House did not expect this sort of vitriolic backlash exchanging five high-level Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl, who left his Army post in 2009 in Afghanistan and was subsequently taken captive. “They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself,” Todd reported on NBC’s “Today.” I’ve had a few aides describe it to me as we didn’t...

Today, at a joint press conference between Barack Obama and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski in Warsaw, Secretary of State John Kerry pulled the old "dad on the couch" move, testing the limits between what he called "a really long blink" and what looked more like a very short nap. The tell is always in the jerk back to wake up. Twitter: Brian Rie$ ✔ @moneyries Secretary of State @JohnKerry taking a power nap in Warsaw (in his defense...long flight!) http://twitpic.com/e5dtql John Kerry ✔ @JohnKerry Follow .@moneyries just a really long blink! The other dead giveaway is protesting too much.

<p>A quick glance at this morning's news coverage makes clear that the media is more than a little eager to let Secretary of State John Kerry off the hook for accusing Israel of devolving into an "apartheid state" if it doesn't make peace with the Palestinians. The media is also going to let Kerry get away with claiming that those who criticized his reprehensible remark are motivated only by "partisan politics."</p>

Russia and the US have "no common vision" on the crisis in Ukraine, Russia's foreign minister has said after talks with his US counterpart. However Sergei Lavrov added that his meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry had been "constructive". Mr Kerry said the US was "deeply concerned" about Russian troop deployments on Ukraine's eastern border and in Crimea. The two foreign ministers held six hours of talks in London. Mr Lavrov told reporters that Russia had no plans to invade south-eastern Ukraine. Russia would "respect the will of the people of Crimea", he said, ahead of Sunday's referendum there....

As Russia spins a false narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine, the world has not seen such startling Russian fiction since Dostoyevsky wrote, “The formula ‘two times two equals five’ is not without its attractions.” Below are 10 of President Vladimir Putin’s recent claims justifying Russian aggression in the Ukraine, followed by the facts that his assertions ignore or distort. 1. Mr. Putin says: Russian forces in Crimea are only acting to protect Russian military assets. It is “citizens’ defense groups,” not Russian forces, who have seized infrastructure and military facilities in Crimea. The Facts: Strong evidence suggests...

JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Good to be with you. TAPPER: So you've been secretary of State for a year. What's been the most surprising thing about the job? KERRY: I - I think just the sheer intensity of the number of issues coming at us all at one time on a global basis. A lot of transformation, a lot of challenge in the world, a lot of upheaval. And all of it affects our interests, you know... ... TAPPER: There's a lot of talk about two of...