Germany’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said she does not regret her decision to sign natural gas deals with Russia during her 16 years in power, arguing that Moscow has long been a “reliable energy supplier” and offers lower prices than its competitors.

Speaking to reporters at an event in Lisbon, Merkel explained that Germany has long sought to move away from coal as an energy source, and that Russian natural gas was the best available option as Berlin aimed to eventually “arrive at CO2-free forms of energy.”

“From the perspective of that time, it was very rational and understandable to obtain pipeline-bound gas from Russia, which was cheaper than LNG [liquefied natural gas] from other parts of the world,”she said on Thursday, adding that “Even during the Cold War, Russia was a reliable energy supplier.”

US President Joe Biden was recorded apparently sniffing a young girl’s hair on Friday, before telling her “no serious guys until you’re 30.” The president has a long history of inappropriate comments to children.

Posing for photographs after a speech at a California community college, Biden placed his hands on the shoulders of a teenage girl and appeared to inhale deeply. He then offered the girl “a very important thing I’ve told my daughters and granddaughters, no serious guys until you’re 30.”

“OK… I’ll keep that in mind,” the girl replied, as Biden repeated himself. A video of the conversation was posted on Twitter by reporter Kalen D’Almeida.

Circumstantial evidence, just like direct proof, can be used to prove the elements of a crime, the existence or completion of certain acts and the intent or mental state of a defendant. Generally speaking, a prosecutor, to obtain a conviction, needs to show beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant committed a certain act and that the defendant acted with specific intent.

By Scott Ritter / Consortium News

We’re being driven toward nuclear war on the completely fictional claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a Hitler-like megalomaniac who’s just invading countries completely unprovoked, solely because he is evil and hates freedom and won’t stop invading and conquering until he’s stopped by force.

I could be wrong, but I think this was one of our first mention of George Monbiot… in opposition to his “relatives” — the ridiculously awful GLOBAL WARMING DENIALISTS — THE Moncktons and THE Lawsons. 

On 31 Jan 2010 - 7:36pm Gus Leonisky's blog … 28294 reads

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/8985

(nearly) all in the family…

Meanwhile we’re not fond of “The Guardian”

….SEE:

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/35882

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/36125

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heckled for ‘voting to start nuclear war’

The congresswoman was branded a “liar” and a “coward” for backing US military aid to Ukraine

Protesters have interrupted a town hall event being addressed by Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, accusing her of pushing the US into a nuclear war with Russia and China by supporting military aid to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.

Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) was heckled during a Q&A, held to engage with voters in the New York City borough of the Bronx on Wednesday.

A man in the audience interrupted the far-left congresswoman from New York, shouting that none of the things she was speaking about would matter if there’s a nuclear war.

Ukraine’s “Christmas list” of demands for more assistance from the US should be rejected by Congress, popular conservative TV host Tucker Carlson said as he lashed out at President Vladimir Zelensky for his latest request of tens of billions of dollars to keep his government afloat.

Speaking during his Thursday show on Fox News, the top-rated commentator dismissed the Ukrainian president as a “celebrity-endorsed dictator of the most corrupt nation in Europe.”

Elon Musk claimed he was following the instruction to “f**k off,” which outgoing ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik issued to him, by refusing to provide free Starlink satellite services to Kiev.

The CEO of SpaceX confirmed the connection on Friday. He responded to a correspondent from the Kyiv Post, who shared news about the company’s demand that the Pentagon foot Ukraine’s growing bill and noted how Melnik insulted Musk recently.

“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk tweeted, adding a ‘man shrugging’ emoji.

The Minister of Defence Richard Marles is “firmly of the view” that the current war powers arrangements “are appropriate and should not be disturbed”. According to Marles, the current arrangements “enable the duly elected government of the day to act expeditiously on matters of utmost national importance in the interests of the safety and security of our nation and its people.”

Marles expressed his views in a late-September letter to fellow Labor MP Shayne Neumann, when referring the Inquiry into International Armed Conflict Decision Making to the The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, of which Mr Neumann is chair. In the letter, Mr Marles provides further background to his views:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was open to talks with the U.S. or with Turkey on ending the war in Ukraine, claiming that U.S. officials are lying when they say Russia has been refusing peace talks.

Reuters reports:

“Lavrov said officials, including White House national security spokesman John Kirby, had said the United States was open to talks but that Russia had refused.”

“This is a lie,” Lavrov said. “We have not received any serious offers to make contact.”

The US-led NATO military bloc once managed to “lose” an armed underwater drone right under the Nord Stream pipeline, a Gazprom spokesman has claimed.

“On November 6, 2015, a NATO underwater mine destroyer ‘Seafox’ was discovered during a scheduled visual inspection of the Nord Stream gas pipeline,” Sergey Kupriyanov told Rossiya 24 on Monday.

One of the conditions of Western society today in which all citizens are immersed, is that the lie has become the truth and the truth a lie. The lies that have become the truth, emanate primarily from governments and corporations, while the truths which are lies are on the part of the people. These latter are at the very least “misinformation” bordering on domestic terrorism, the telling of which is attracting increasingly onerous and even frightening repressive and punitive measures. We seem to be 80% of the way to the end game.

Ukraine is a de facto member of the NATO alliance, despite not having officially joined the US-led military bloc, Kiev’s Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov has claimed.

He made the statement in a tweet following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the bloc’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.

“We have come a long way and have de facto joined the alliance,” the minister wrote, while also thanking Stoltenberg for his support for Ukraine amid its ongoing conflict with Russia.

“Ukraine is already making significant contributions to the security of the free world,” the minister added.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Moscow to return to peace negotiations, while at the same time pledging additional military support for Kiev amid the ongoing escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Speaking to the France 2 broadcaster on Wednesday, Macron condemned the large-scale missile attack launched by Russia against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Crimea bridge. The missile strikes have shown that the conflict has entered “an unprecedented stage,” Macron asserted, claiming that “for the first time all over Ukraine civilians have been killed ... and electricity and heating facilities have been destroyed.”

OUR FRIEND, JULES LETAMBOUR, NOTICED AN ARTICLE ABOUT FAT TROOPERS IN THE US ARMY.... THIS REMINDS HIM OF AN ASTERIX COMIC CLIP WHEN ASTERIX AND OBELIX JOINED THE ROMAN LEGION*. ACCORDING TO JULES, THE JOKE IS HARD TO TRANSLATE IN ENGLISH BUT HE'LL GIVE IT A GO: "IS THIS THE BIG PART OF JULIUS CAESAR?" ASKS A ROMAN TROOPER FROM THE SCIPIO ARMY. OBELIX ALWAYS PEEVED WHEN PEOPLE POINT AT HIS FAT SUPERSTRONG BODY (HE FELL IN THE MAGIC POTION POT WHEN HE WAS A BUB) RESPONDS "NO, SIRREEE", WHILE BASHING SEVERAL SCIPIO TROOPERS. THE PROBLEM WITH THE FATBERGS IN THE US ARMY, IS THERE IS NO MAGIC POTION....