The rumors began almost as soon as the disease itself. Claims that a foreign adversary had unleashed a bioweapon emerged at the fringes of Chinese social media the same day China first reported the outbreak of a Mysterious Virus.

Anatomy of a conspiracy: With COVID, China took leading Role BRUSSELS (AP) — The rumors began almost as soon as the disease itself. Claims that a foreign adversary had unleashed a bioweapon emerged at the fringes of Chinese social media the same day China first reported the outbreak of a Mysterious Virus. (1 of 9) (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) (2 of 9) People wearing masks attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong. The outpouring of grief and rage sparked by Li's death was an unusual - and for the Chinese Communist Party, unsettling - display in China's tightly monitored civic space. (3 of 9) Russian Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky speaks during a session at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia. Zhirinovsky, the nationalistic leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, suggested that the U.S. and its greedy pharmaceutical companies were to blame for the coronavirus. (4 of 9) Biological science specialists, background, wear biosafety protective clothing for handling viral diseases at U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. On March 9, 2020, a public WeChat account called "Happy Reading List" reposted an essay claiming the U.S. military created SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at a lab in Fort Detrick and loosed it in China during the Military World Games, an international competition for military athletes, held in Wuhan in October 2019. (5 of 9) A smartphone records Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying as she speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. "I'd like to stress that if the United States truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States," she said at a January 2021 MOFA press conference that went viral in China. (6 of 9) Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a sermon with a picture of the late spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in the background, during Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus in Tehran, Iran. Khamenei was among the first and most powerful world leaders to suggest the coronavirus could be a biological weapon created by the U.S. (Meisam Hosseini/Hayat News Agency via AP, File) (7 of 9) Russian national Igor Nikulin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia. Nikulin argues the U.S. created the virus and used it to attack China. Nikulin says he is a former U.N. arms inspector, but the man who would have been his boss said he's never heard of him. (8 of 9) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing. Zhao has repeatedly suggested on Twitter that the coronavirus might have come from the U.S. Army. (9 of 9) President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Powerful voices in the U.S. -- from former President Trump to congressional Republicans -- worked to rebrand COVID-19 as “the China virus,” amplifying fringe theories that it had been engineered by Chinese scientists. In response, China launched what may be its first global digital disinformation campaign. February 15, 2021 “Watch out for Americans!” a Weibo user wrote on Dec. 31, 2019. Today, a year after the World Health Organization warned of an epidemic of COVID-19 misinformation, that conspiracy theory lives on, pushed by Chinese officials eager to cast doubt on the origins of a pandemic that has claimed more than 2 million lives globally. From Beijing and Washington to Moscow and Tehran, political leaders and allied media effectively functioned as superspreaders, using their stature to amplify politically expedient conspiracies already in circulation. But it was China -- not Russia – that took the lead in spreading foreign disinformation about COVID-19’s origins, as it came under attack for its early handling of the outbreak. A nine-month Associated Press investigation of state-sponsored disinformation conducted in collaboration with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, shows how a rumor that the U.S. created the virus that causes COVID-19 was weaponized by the Chinese government, spreading from the dark corners of the Internet to millions across the globe. The analysis was based on a review of millions of social media postings and articles on Twitter, Facebook, VK, Weibo, WeChat, YouTube, Telegram and other platforms. Chinese officials were reacting to a powerful narrative, nursed by QAnon groups, Fox News, former President Donald Trump and leading Republicans, that the virus was instead manufactured by China. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Beijing has used its expanding megaphone on Western social media to promote friendship and serve facts, while defending itself against hostile forces that seek to politicize the pandemic. “All parties should firmly say ‘no’ to the dissemination of disinformation,” the ministry said in a statement to AP, but added, “In the face of trumped-up charges, it is justified and proper to bust lies and clarify rumors by setting out the facts.” The battle to control the narrative about where the virus came from has had global consequences in the fight against COVID-19. By March, just three months after COVID-19 appeared in central China, belief that the virus had been created in a lab and possibly weaponized was widespread, multiple surveys showed. The Pew Research Center found, for example, that one in three Americans believed the new coronavirus had been created in a lab; one in four thought it had been engineered intentionally. In Iran, top leaders cited the bioweapon conspiracy to justify their refusal of foreign medical aid. Anti-lockdown and anti-mask groups around the world called COVID-19 a hoax and a weapon, complicating public health efforts to slow the spread. “This is like a virus, like COVID, a media pathogen,” said Kang Liu, a professor at Duke University who studies cultural politics and media in China, comparing the spread of disinformation about the virus to the spread of the virus itself. “We have a double pandemic -- the real pathological virus and the pandemic of fear. The fear is what is really at stake.” SPREADING RUMORS On Jan. 26, a man from Inner Mongolia posted a video claiming that the new virus ravaging central China was a biological weapon engineered by the U.S. It was viewed 14,000 times on the Chinese app Kuaishou before being taken down. The man was arrested, detained for 10 days and fined for spreading rumors. People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, broadcast news of his detention in early February, showing the man, face pixelated, wrists shackled, and legs caged in a chair. It was a stern reminder to the citizens of China that fake news can lead to arrest and part of a broader effort by Chinese state media to debunk COVID-19 conspiracies. But just six weeks later the same conspiracy would be broadcast by China’s foreign ministry, picked up by at least 30 Chinese diplomats and missions and amplified through China’s vast, global network of state media outlets. During those six weeks, China’s leadership came under intense internal criticism. On Feb. 7, Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor punished for circulating an early warning about the outbreak, died of COVID-19. The outpouring of grief and rage sparked by Li’s death was an unusual – and for the ruling Communist Party, unsettling -- display in China’s tightly monitored civic space. Meanwhile, powerful voices in the U.S. -- from former President Trump to congressional Republicans -- were working to rebrand COVID-19 as “the China virus,” amplifying fringe theories that it had been engineered by Chinese scientists. Social media accounts that appeared to be pro-Trump or QAnon followers pushed the disinformation, repeatedly retweeting identical content that claimed China created the virus as a bioweapon, researchers at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology found. As U.S. rhetoric intensified, China went on the offensive. On Feb. 22, People’s Daily ran a report highlighting speculation that the U.S. military brought the virus to China, pushing the story globally through inserts in newspapers such as the Helsinki Times in Finland and the New Zealand Herald. The New Zealand Herald said it has an “ad hoc commercial relationship with People’s Daily,” labels their content as sponsored and reviews it before publication. “Upon further review of the story that you have referred to, we have removed this particular item from our website,” a spokesman said in an email. The Helsinki Times said it has a “barter-exchange” content agreement with People’s Daily, whose content it labels but does not vet. “We believe that the western media coverage is at times extremely one-sided and biased,” said Alexis Kouros, the editor of the Helsinki Times. “Even though People’s Daily is state-owned, like the BBC, we believe it is beneficial for the global audience to have both sides of stories.” As China embraced overt disinformation, it leaned on Russian disinformation strategy and infrastructure, turning to a long-established network of Kremlin proxies in the West to seed and spread messaging. “One was amplifying the other…How much it was command controlled, how much it was opportunistic, it was hard to tell,” said Janis Sarts, director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, based in Riga, Latvia. Long-term, he added, China is “the more formidable competitor and adversary because of the technological capabilities they bring to the table.” ‘THE TRUTH AS I SEE IT’ In January, long before China began overtly spreading disinformation, Russian state media swept in to legitimize the theory that the U.S. engineered the virus as a weapon. On Jan. 20, the Russian Army’s media outlet, Zvezda, announced that the outbreak in China was linked to a bioweapons test, citing a four-time failed political candidate named Igor Nikulin. Nikulin claims to have worked with the United Nations on disarmament in Iraq from 1998 to 2003, including as an adviser to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But the U.N. has no record of his service. Richard Butler, the lead U.N. weapons inspector at the time, told AP he’s never heard of him. Neither has Hans Corell, who served as Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations from 1994-2004, where he worked closely with Annan. Nikulin said records of his U.N. work may have been destroyed and stuck by his theory that COVID is a U.S. bioweapon – a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. “What other proof is needed?!” he said in an email to AP. Over the next two months, more than 70 articles appeared in pro-Kremlin media making similar bioweapons claims in Russian, Spanish, Armenian, Arabic, English and German, according to AP’s analysis of a database compiled by EUvsDisinfo, which tracks disinformation for the European Union. Online journals identified by the U.S. State Department and others as pro-Russian proxies picked up the bioweapons narrative, enhancing its reach and resonance. Russian politicians joined the chorus. Parliamentarian Natalia Poklonskaya argued that the novel coronavirus could be a biological weapon created “by those who want to rule the planet” to undermine China. Shortly after, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalistic leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, suggested that the U.S. and its greedy pharmaceutical companies were to blame. Meanwhile, Nikulin kept flogging his theory, which morphed as the pandemic spread from an attack on China to an attack on Trump. Despite his inconsistency and questionable bona fides, by April, Nikulin had appeared at least 18 times on Russian television. U.S. officials also said Russian intelligence had been covertly spreading COVID-19 disinformation, including claims that the virus was a U.S. bioweapon. On Jan. 23, Beijing began to roll out the largest medical quarantine in modern history, sealing tens of millions of people at the epicenter of the outbreak in central China. The images were harrowing, as people desperate to slip out thronged train stations. Shortly after 11 a.m. the next morning, Francis Boyle, a Harvard-trained law professor at the University of Illinois, emailed a “worldwide alert” to 300 contacts warning, without evidence, that China had been developing the coronavirus as a bioweapon at a biosafety lab in Wuhan. Over the next few weeks, Boyle refined his theory, now asserting that Chinese scientists had not developed the virus themselves, but taken it from a North Carolina laboratory. “This is clearly an offensive biological warfare agent,” Boyle told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on a Feb. 19 Infowars broadcast. The theory spread via outlets like One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel, Iran’s Press TV, Global Research and its erstwhile partner, the Strategic Culture Foundation, an online journal that masquerades as independent but is actually directed by Russia’s foreign intelligence service, according to the U.S. State Department. Boyle told the AP his conclusions are based on research and that he can’t stop conspiracy theorists or foreign governments from using his claims for their own ends. “My job is to tell the truth as I see it,” he said. “INFORMATION LAUNDERING” On March 9, a public WeChat account called Happy Reading List reposted an essay claiming the U.S. military created SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at a lab at Fort Detrick, in Maryland, and loosed it in China during the Military World Games, an international competition for military athletes, held in Wuhan in October 2019. The account, which has been suspended, was registered in May 2019 by a woman from Henan province in central China, who did not reply to messages. It’s not clear who first wrote the article, which can still be found on other WeChat accounts. The next day an anonymous petition appeared on the White House’s now-defunct “We the People” portal. It urged U.S. authorities to clarify whether the virus had been developed at Fort Detrick and leaked from the lab. The petition was lavishly covered by China’s state media, despite getting only 1,426 signatures, far shy of the 100,000 needed to merit a response from the White House. On March 11, Larry Romanoff, who claims to be a former management consultant based in Shanghai, posted an article on Global Research Canada that cribbed heavily from the Happy Reading List posting, citing it as a source. “There have been a number of stories where the origin of a story is in Russian-controlled space but it’s picked up by Global Research and then put forward as their own story. Then you get Russian media saying western analysts in Canada say that. We call that information laundering,” said Sarts, the NATO StratCom director. “They have been helpful for a long time to Russian information operations and recently to the Chinese as well.” Neither Romanoff nor Global Research responded to requests for comment. The day of Romanoff’s article, the World Health Organization officially designated the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, spent part of the next afternoon retweeting cute dog videos. Then, late that night, he sent out a series of tweets over 13 minutes that launched what may be China’s first truly global digital experiment with overt disinformation. “When did patient zero begin in US?” Zhao wrote. “How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe (sic) us an explanation!” The next morning, Zhao urged his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers to read and retweet Romanoff’s piece. An hour and a half-hour later he gave Global Research another boost, referring his followers to an earlier Romanoff article that cited Chinese state media reporting to cast doubt on the origins of the virus. Twitter later added a fact-check warning to Zhao’s tweet about the US Army – but only in English. An identical post in Mandarin carried no such alert. Twitter also put a fact-checking label on only one of Zhao’s two reposts of Global Research content. A Twitter spokesperson said that the platform has expanded its policies to deal with misleading COVID-19 information but did not address specific posts flagged by AP. Zhao’s tweets were now global news, and they hijacked mainstream discussion of the coronavirus. On Twitter alone, Zhao’s aggressive spray of 11 tweets on March 12 and 13 was cited over 99,000 times over the next six weeks, in at least 54 languages, according to analysis conducted by DFRLab. The accounts that referenced him had nearly 275 million followers on Twitter – a number that almost certainly includes duplicate followers and does not distinguish fake accounts. Influential conservatives on Twitter, including Donald Trump Jr., hammered Zhao, propelling his tweets to their largest audiences. China’s Global Times and at least 30 Chinese diplomatic accounts, from France to Panama, rushed in to support Zhao. Venezuela’s foreign minister and RT’s correspondent in Caracas, as well as Saudi accounts close to the kingdom’s royal family also significantly extended Zhao’s reach, helping launch his ideas into Spanish and Arabic. His accusations got uncritical treatment in Russian and Iranian state media and shot back through QAnon discussion boards. But his biggest audience, by far, lay within China itself -- despite the fact that Twitter is banned there. Popular hashtags about his tweetstorm were viewed 314 million times on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, which does not distinguish unique views. Late on the night of March 13, Zhao posted a message of gratitude on his personal Weibo: “Thank you for your support to me, let us work hard for the motherland !” CONTAGION The same day Zhao tweeted that the virus might have come from the U.S. Army, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also announced that COVID-19 could be the result of a biological attack. State media outlets reinforced Khamenei’s message, drawing on foreign sources for validation. Tasnim News, for example, quoted Nikulin, the self-proclaimed Russian bioweapons expert, to suggest the U.S. engineered the virus to target China. Javan Online quoted Zhao’s tweets to claim Chinese officials had evidence the U.S. was behind the pandemic. Military and religious leaders in Iran repeatedly referred to the virus as a U.S.-made bioweapon. Their remarks were, in turn, amplified by Russian media and picked up in China, where they fueled further speculation. The International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), an Iranian network that has been purged repeatedly by Facebook, Google and Twitter, activated a network of websites and covert social media accounts to accuse the U.S. of engineering the virus and praise the leadership and benevolence of China. Khamenei again cited the conspiracy theory that the virus was made in America during his annual Persian New Year speech on March 22 -- this time as justification for refusing U.S. assistance. “I do not know how real this accusation is but when it exists, who in their right mind would trust you to bring them medication?” Khamenei told the nation. “Possibly your medicine is a way to spread the virus more.” That same day, the first of two cargo planes loaded with doctors and supplies for a 50-bed field hospital from Doctors Without Borders landed in Iran. On March 23, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted a Global Research reprint of an article from Chinese state broadcaster CGTN that questioned the origin of the coronavirus, again suggesting it had been made in a U.S. government lab at Fort Detrick. The next day, Iran’s Ministry of Health withdrew permission for Doctors Without Borders to deliver COVID-19 aid. A MEDIA PATHOGEN Ten days after Zhao’s first conspiratorial tweets, China’s global state media apparatus kicked in to push the theory that Zhao, and now Khamenei, were broadcasting. “Did the U.S. government intentionally conceal the reality of COVID-19 with the flu?” asked a suggestive op-ed in Mandarin published by China Radio International on March 22. “Why was the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick in Maryland, the largest biochemical testing base, shut down in July 2019?” Within days, versions of the piece appeared more than 350 times in Chinese state outlets, mostly in Mandarin, but also around the world in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic, AP found. The story flew across China, through social media accounts run by police, prosecutors, propaganda departments, anti-cult associations and Communist Youth Leagues. Seven prisons in Sichuan province, five provincial and municipal traffic radio stations, and a dozen accounts run by state media giant CCTV also pushed it out. China’s Embassy in France promoted the story on Twitter and Facebook. It appeared on YouTube, Weibo, WeChat and a host of Chinese video platforms, including Haokan, Xigua, Baijiahao, Bilibili, iQIYI, Kuaishou and Youku. A seven-second version set to driving music appeared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. “Clearly pushing these kinds of conspiracy theories, disinformation, does not usually result in any negative consequences for them, ”said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow in the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund. AP found the story was viewed over 7 million times online, with more than 1.8 million comments, shares or reactions. Those numbers are an undercount because many platforms did not publish metrics, and they don’t account for television viewership or circulation in closed groups. Accounts promoting the content had a combined total of over 817 million followers, though many are likely to be duplicates or fakes. Conspiracies brewing in the United States reinforced China’s messaging. In late March, George Webb, a for-profit conspiracy theorist in Washington D.C., doxed a U.S. Army reservist as Patient Zero, claiming on YouTube that she brought the virus from Fort Detrick to Wuhan during the October military games. Webb’s video circulated widely in China and was picked up by state-run Global Times. The falsely accused woman got death threats and Webb’s video was pulled from YouTube, but it’s still live in China on Weibo, where it has accrued millions of views. IN SEARCH OF AN ENDING In April, Russia and Iran largely dropped the bioweapon conspiracy in their overt messaging. They had a more pressing concern: Surging numbers of dead. China carried on. Beijing was besieged by demands for accountability. In the U.S., there were calls for a “pandemic tariff” and canceling U.S. debt with China. Republicans in Congress began introducing legislation to strip China of its sovereign immunity so Americans could sue. Australian officials called for an inquiry into the origins and spread of coronavirus. China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, issued a veiled threat. “Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’” he said. Within a month, China banned beef from four big Australian producers and slapped an 80% tariff on Australian barley -- moves widely seen as retribution, though China has denied that charge. Chinese officials and state media continued to promote made-in-America COVID-19 conspiracies. State broadcaster CGTN jumped in on May 16, releasing a slick documentary about Fort Detrick set to spooky music that has been viewed on its YouTube channel more than 82,000 times. YouTube has not flagged the video as state-sponsored content, despite a 2018 policy to label government-funded videos. A YouTube spokesperson said that because the video is about COVID-19, it was labeled with an information panel about the virus instead of the publisher. The video has been played on China’s Bilibili platform 378,000 times and broadcast in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Indonesian, Filipino -- as well as by NTV, a Houston TV station that failed to note the content was Chinese government propaganda. NTV said it has removed the video flagged by AP. “I have warned our newsroom department for the future,” said Navroz Prasla, the CEO of NTV, which says it is the largest South Asian TV network in North America. In July and August, Zhao, the foreign ministry spokesman, rekindled the Fort Detrick conspiracy in Tweets that have not been flagged for fact-checking: “Much remains unclear about US’ #FortDetrick and over 200 bio labs in the world,” he wrote on Aug. 11. On Jan. 14, 2021, a team from the World Health Organization landed in China to investigate the origins of the outbreak. The next day, in one of the final acts of the Trump administration, the U.S. State Department put out a “Fact Sheet” stating that the pandemic could be the result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which it claimed has collaborated on secret projects with China’s military. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned those allegations as “the ‘last-day madness’ of ‘Mr. Liar.’” “I’d like to stress that if the United States truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a Jan. 18 press conference. Her remarks went viral in China. COVID-19 disinformation has been good for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Within China, Zhao and his colleagues have a growing fan base and their followers on Twitter have soared. Zhao now has over 879,000 Twitter followers. Questions have been raised about how much of this audience is real and how much is from fake accounts — speculation China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said is groundless. “Spreading disinformation about the epidemic is indeed spreading a ‘political virus,’” the ministry told AP. “False information is the common enemy of mankind, and China has always opposed the creation and spread of false information.” __ Associated Press reporters David Klepper, Farnoush Amiri, Beatrice Dupuy, Dake Kang, Peter Hamlin, Jeannie Ohm, Allen Breed, Francois Duckett and news researcher Si Chen contributed to this report. Follow Kinetz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ekinetz __ Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org ------------------------------- The US President Donald Trump politically associating with the US hatred Groups and Republican white Extremist Right Groups in using political fallacies.without real relevance to the fact that Chinese have had trade surplus with the US for over 20yrs:with the US Riches mostly Republicans who have shipped US jobs to Asia for cheap labor with its poor environmental regulations for corporate greed, arguments based on non feasible economic jobs creation options, racial politics based on hatred & racial divide, using White House insiders to propagate false Swiss code account & framing up case against President Obama and general racial heat up/divide as political tool to woo gullible US people as to win the next US presidential election, will definitely backfire, counterproductive and will not work, as most moderate & reasonable Americans cannot pay such ideas and politics. They will challenge any such foul attempt and reinstall US greatness through oneness and ideas that prepare the US to be able to face Nostradamus prediction that Persia/modern Iran will acquire nuclear arm with help of Russia and shall use it against Rome, Jew/Israel, southern France and Moscow. The Republican White Extremist Rights branding President Obama & Democrats,as socialists,is unfortunate and uncalled for,as the Obamacare comprehensive Health scheme, was put in place as to provide US with healthy people, which people the US Military with right stock of quality people who will be able to mine various US Military/Security challenges and to protect US investment/interest globally.The taxing US Riches who owes large businesses/investments as to generate resources For the State, which will enable the Military to have sufficient funds for its global operations and care for US citizens at home.A US comprehensive immigration Policy is very important as the leader of Free World and allows immigrants to know their right of stay and what are obtainable by Law, as well as enable the US with its Immigrants live and co-exist harmoniously with Its neighbors/Foreigners. Further details on US Immigration and US Health Care are contained on my website as stated:It is advisable that apart from the New EU Economic policies formulation and implementation, there should be some serious efforts of restructuring various European little-industrialized Countries like, Greece, Italy, Spain Ireland and Portugal whose little industries with its low technological products, were overtaken by the China-led Asia cheap industrialized goods under its poor non-regulated environment..Visit these published Articles' websites. http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick  O., email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst. As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything..

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Monday released a list of 243 people who have allegedly been abducted by the security forces, piling pressure on the government to find those missing amid continuing political tensions after last month's elections

Allegations of abductions grip Uganda after tense Elections. KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Monday released a list of 243 people who have allegedly been abducted by the security forces, piling pressure on the government to find those missing amid continuing political tensions after last month's elections. Uganda votes for the illegal Third Term President amid the Opposition Boycott.The World were misled & misinformed Allied/World on this,,Uganda with its illegal 3rd Term,World,Legally,Wisely to adopt Swiss Political Rotational Model,with Vice.P Elections for All Regions for a 5years Terms,while President, chosen by All Elected VP & P to be rotated a 5 yrs term Per a Region,until All Regions got its Slots.. Ugandans voted for this illegal Third Term President amid the Opposition Boycott.Ugandans were led the West into this Third Term non constitutional illegal Election,as only Ugandan old written Two Terms are constitutionally Written,but these Quacks opted for non feasible Third Term,which is not Okayed & non Acceptance by the World,Legally,Wisely for Ugandans  to adopt Swiss Political Rotational Model. (1 of 3) Ugandans wait to cast their votes for the presidential election in Kampala, Uganda. Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021 released a list of 243 people who have allegedly been abducted by the security forces, piling pressure on the government to find those missing amid continuing political tensions after last month's elections. (2 of 3) Security forces gather on election day in Kampala, Uganda. Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021 released a list of 243 people who have allegedly been abducted by the security forces, piling pressure on the government to find those missing amid continuing political tensions after last month's elections. (3 of 3) Opposition presidential challenger Bobi Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, gestures as he speaks to the media outside his house after government soldiers withdrew from it, in Magere, near Kampala, in Uganda. Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021 released a list of 243 people who have allegedly been abducted by the security forces, piling pressure on the government to find those missing amid continuing political tensions after last month's elections. February 15, 2021 Wine, a singer and lawmaker whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has asserted that at least 3,000 of his followers were detained before and after the presidential elections on Jan. 14. President Yoweri Museveni won the polls with 58% of the vote, according to official results that Wine has called fraudulent. Uganda's top court will hear a case in which Wine seeks to overturn Museveni's victory. Wine's allegations, newspaper reports and statements by diplomats have raised the specter of illegal abductions by state agents in Uganda. Wine, in a Twitter post on Monday, published what he said was the first part of a list of Ugandans being held illegally. Suggesting that Museveni is responsible for the abductions, Wine posted: “Like all tyrants, he pushed the narrative that all is well, with hundreds of mothers, fathers and siblings in tears over missing loves ones.” Museveni in a national address on Saturday dismissed allegations that his forces have illegally detained civilians, saying his army “is a disciplined force" and that his party “does not kill" its opponents. But he acknowledged that he had beefed up security ahead of the elections by deploying soldiers from a commando unit previously deployed in Somalia who “killed a few" people he described as terrorists. Museveni’s admission raised concerns that state agents carried out extrajudicial killings as tensions persist following polls whose outcome is disputed. Local newspapers are dominated by accounts of alleged abductions by security personnel in vans without license plates from which armed men have jumped and grabbed their victims. Museveni, a former guerilla leader who took power by force in 1986 and has since been elected six times, is popular among many Ugandans for bringing relative stability and security. Museveni himself has castigated former leaders such as Idi Amin, whose regime was notorious for kidnappings and extrajudicial killings. Some now charge that Museveni's government is behaving like its predecessors. “Efforts to find many of them have been in vain. A few have been arraigned before the courts of law while others have been found dumped in jungles and other remote places, often in poor health and bearing torture marks,” human rights attorney Sharon Nakandha said in a column in the local Daily Monitor newspaper, referring to kidnapping victims. “This state of affairs should concern every individual irrespective of political affiliation.” Nakandha called for an independent commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances. The United States and the European Union have noted concerns about Uganda’s elections. Natalie E. Brown, the U.S. ambassador, in a recent statement cited “deep and continuing concern about the extrajudicial detention of opposition political party members, the reported disappearance of several opposition supporters, and continued restrictions” on the work of Wine’s party. Uganda’s 76-year-old president has defied calls for his retirement, saying he has been elected many times by Ugandans who love him. But in elections last month Museveni faced a strong challenge from Wine, whose criticism of corruption and bad governance resonated with young people, including the urban poor. Wine, whose rallies were frequently disrupted by police who accused him of endangering public safety, captured the imagination of many at home and abroad in his generational clash with Museveni. The elections were marred by violence ahead of polling day as well as an internet shutdown that remained in force until four days after the vote. Facebook remains restricted. Museveni has dismissed allegations of vote-rigging, calling the election “the most cheating-free” since independence from Britain in 1962. ----------------------Mazi Literal Works To: SHINKAIYEJ@africa-union.org,MoussavouP@africa-union.org,MfasoniJ@africa-union.org Date: Jan 9, 2011, 6:03 PM Subject:Sanction/Cut of Diplomatic Ties can’t work in an eEthnic/Regional fractured Uganda For AU Bureau of the Chairperson Sanction/Cut of Diplomatic Ties can’t work in an ethnic/regional fractured Uganda. No Country in Africa,can allow to amend its Constitution,should allow only two term,for peace to be retained Until a Proper National Ethnic Conference under aegis of UN as to formulate the best co-existing Constitutions and to work out general ethnic agreement on its framework on how vast African minerals and Agricultural products with its abundant manpower could be harnessed and distributed for equitable development and Peace. African Election shall be used as a point of ethnic challenge, source of pouring out bottled Anger/mistrusted Aggravation or Political Ethnic Contest for State Power Control as any ethnic Group that has Political Power’s advantage, always use it for its ethnic Political Power’s advantage. Ironically, there is sources which factually revealed that the Incumbent President won the Ivorian election on basis of  all countered votes of  Ugandan Votes with verifiable National ID, while Ugandan Election must be  won its election on strength of all votes cast by all Voters with unverifiable National ID and that is why most African Countries could not be able to have credible National ID which is pancreas for peaceful credible election and to safeguard  its Citizen from violent crime and to promote development with better welfare for its citizens. Also, all developed with some better developing nations have credible verifiable national ID cards in place as it augur easy & peaceful Elections and ease better developmental benefits for all its citizens but why it is allowed in Africa and this, have caused Africa a lot destruction and lost, when UN with West can  insist that World/IMF can only recognize or do official business with any African Country that  have credible National Identity Cards in operation, but they are silent on this and this wicked collaboration that ruin Africa and create huge emigration problem for West and other developed Nations.Africans are waiting for the world to assist them in projects that create peace and development. Visit these published Articles' websites. http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick  O., email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst... As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything.

Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol,concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former U.S. president but exposed the fragility of America’s democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to terms with the violence sparked by his defeated presidency

Trump acquitted, denounced in historic impeachment trial. WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol,concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former U.S. president but exposed the fragility of America’s democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to terms with the violence sparked by his defeated presidency. (1 of 13) Democratic House impeachment managers from left, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo.,walk out of the Senate Chamber in the Capitol at the end of the fifth day of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in Washington. The Senate has acquitted Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, bringing his trial to a close and giving the former president a historic second victory in the court of impeachment. (2 of 13) Michael van der Veen, second from left an attorney for former President Donald Trump, fist bumps a colleague as the depart on the Senate Subway, on Capitol Hill after the Senate acquitted Trump in his second impeachment trial in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. Trump was accused of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the acquittal gives him a historic second victory in the court of impeachment (3 of 13) Former President Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday in his Senate impeachment trial for inciting a mob to assault the U.S. Capitol in January. Seven Republicans voted with Democrats to convict him. (AP Graphic) (4 of 13) In this image from video, Republican senators and staff talk on the floor after a vote on the motion to allow witnesses in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (5 of 13) In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks about the motion to call witnesses during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (6 of 13) In this image from video, Michael van der Veen, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, speaks about the motion to call witnesses during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (7 of 13) Jason Miller, Senior Adviser to the Trump 2020 re-election campaign, holds a list on the fifth day of the second impeachment trial of former President Trump, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021 at the Capitol in Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)of 13) Five Republicans joined Democrats Saturday to vote in favor of considering witnesses at former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial. A deal later was struck to forgo testimony. (AP Graphic) (8 of 13) Five Republicans joined Democrats Saturday to vote in favor of considering witnesses at former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial. A deal later was struck to forgo testimony. (AP Graphic) (9 of 13) In this image from video, security video is shown to senators as House impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) 10 of 13) Ed Trump's supporters chanting "Fight for Trump!" after they stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, was used by prosecutors as they sought to connect the mob with Trump and make the case that the president had incited them to insurrection. (Senate Television via AP) (11 of 13) House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., with other impeachment managers from left, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Raskin, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks to members of the media during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, after the U.S. Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump, ending the impeachment trial. (12 of 13) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after the Senate voted not guilty in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on the charge of inciting the January 6 attack on the Congress by a mob of his supporters, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. After voting to acquit Trump of the impeachment charge, McConnell said there is still "no question" that Trump was "practically and morally responsible for provoking" the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. 13 of 13) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., with impeachment managers Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., speaks to members of the media during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, after the U.S. Senate voted not guilty, to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting riot at U.S. Capitol, ending impeachment trial, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. February 14, 2021 Barely a month since the deadly Jan. 6 riot that stunned the world, the Senate convened for a rare weekend session to deliver its verdict, voting while armed National Guard troops continued to stand their posts outside the iconic building. The quick trial, the nation’s first of a former president, showed in raw and emotional detail how perilously close the invaders had come to destroying the nation's deep tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power after Trump had refused to concede the election. Rallying outside the White House, he unleashed a mob of supporters to “fight like hell” for him at the Capitol just as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. As hundreds stormed the building, some in tactical gear engaging in bloody combat with police, lawmakers fled for their lives. Five people died. The verdict, on a vote of 57-43, is all but certain to influence not only the former president's political future but that of the senators sworn to deliver impartial justice as jurors. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats to convict, but it was far from the two-third threshold required. The outcome after the uprising leaves unresolved the nation’s wrenching divisions over Trump's brand of politics that led to the most violent domestic attack on one of America's three branches of government. “Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.., one of the House prosecutors in closing arguments. “What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here, in this moment, will be remembered." Trump, unrepentant, welcomed his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement “has only just begun.” He slammed the trial as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country.” Though he was acquitted of the sole charge of incitement of insurrection, it was easily the largest number of senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment count of high crimes and misdemeanors. Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania. Even after voting to acquit, the Republican leader Mitch McConnell condemned the former president as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection. McConnell contended Trump could not be convicted because he was gone from the White House. In a statement issued several hours after the verdict, Biden highlighted the bipartisan nature of the vote to convict as well as McConnell's strong criticism of Trump. In keeping with his stated desire to see the country overcome its divisions, Biden said everyone, especially the nation's leaders, have a duty “to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.” “That is how we end this uncivil war and heal the very soul of our nation. That is the task ahead. And it’s a task we must undertake together,” said Biden, who had hardly weighed in on the proceedings during the week. The trial had been momentarily thrown into confusion when senators Saturday suddenly wanted to consider potential witnesses, particularly concerning Trump's actions as the mob rioted. Prolonged proceedings could have been especially damaging for Biden's new presidency, significantly delaying his emerging legislative agenda. Coming amid the searing COVID-19 crisis, the Biden White House is trying to rush pandemic relief through Congress. The nearly weeklong trial has delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled for their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still coming to grips with. House prosecutors have argued that Trump’s was the "inciter in chief" stoking a months-long campaign with an orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims they called the “big lie” that unleashed the mob. Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer. Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment is nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office again. The senators, announcing their votes from their desks in the very chamber the mob had ransacked, were not only jurors but also witnesses. Only by watching the graphic videos — rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the January certification tally — did senators say they began to understand just how perilously close the country came to chaos. Many senators kept their votes closely held until the final moments on Saturday, particularly the Republicans representing states where the former president remains popular. Most of them ultimately voted to acquit, doubting whether Trump was fully responsible or if impeachment is the appropriate response. “Just look at what Republicans have been forced to defend,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Look at what Republicans have chosen to forgive.” The second-ranking Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, acknowledged, “It’s an uncomfortable vote," adding, "I don’t think there was a good outcome there for anybody." In closing arguments, lead defender Michael van der Veen emphasized an argument that Republican senators also embraced: that it was all a “phony impeachment show trial.” “Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,” said van der Veen. “The act of incitement never happened.” The House impeached Trump on the sole charge of incitement of insurrection one week after the riot, but the Senate was not in full session and McConnell refused requests from Democrats to convene quickly for the trial. Within a week Biden was inaugurated, Trump was gone and Pelosi sent the article of impeachment to the Senate days later, launching the proceedings. The turmoil on Saturday came as senators wanted to hear evidence about Trump's actions during the riot, after prosecutors said he did nothing to stop it. Fresh stories overnight had focused on Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who said in a statement that Trump had rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters. Several Republican senators voted to consider witnesses. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed his vote to join them on that 55-45 vote. But with the Senate facing a prolonged trial and the defense poised to call many more witnesses, the situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement about the call was read aloud into the record for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats dropped their planned deposition of the congresswoman and Republicans abandoned their threat to call their own witnesses. They also agreed to include GOP Sen. Mike Lee's time stamp of a call from Trump around the time Pence was evacuated, minutes after Trump sent a tweet critical of his vice president. Impeachment trials are rare, senators meeting as the court of impeachment over a president only four times in the nation's history, for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now twice for Trump, the only one to be twice impeached. There have been no convictions. Unlike last year’s impeachment trial of Trump in the Ukraine affair, a complicated charge of corruption and obstruction over his attempts to have the foreign ally dig up dirt on then-campaign rival Biden, this one brought an emotional punch displayed in graphic videos of the siege that laid bare the unexpected vulnerability of the democratic system. At the same time, this year's trial carried similar warnings from the prosecutors that Trump must be held accountable because he has shown repeatedly he has no bounds. Left unchecked, he will further test the norms of civic behavior, even now that he is out of office still commanding loyal supporters, they said. -------------------------- The US tough Surveillance & All Issues Monitoring,which resulted in Trump's non realizable US Electoral Ambition & coupled with Putin 's inability to Act or Perform as before,is fast beclouding or has beclouded Trump expected electoral Result or non feasible Trump electoral Win. These have made Trump's & Putin's Agents/Supporters,in conjunction with her Imperial Majesty Networks/Agencies to maneuver overtly or covertly the Media,to lobby, to  propagate gullible Public with some fabricated misinformation or to mislead  through unwarranted Racial Tension with its  infused Crisis. All US Stakeholders and all concerned,should be aware or Be warned of More Coming Trump/Putin booboo Racial Traps/Crisis with some futuristic Economic Protests,as to engage US or Preoccupy US and divert US Political intention for expectant US Electoral Change. Ironically,People should exercise Calm,Patience with Deserved Intelligence when dealing or handling Racial issues or Resolving Economic Issues ............................................................................... Russia Vladimir Putin, as a groomed voodoo political/economic crisis Expert and as a KGB trained Con Artist Expert/KGB insecurity crisis Expert.Huge Migrant Crisis,Trump induced Trade Tariff Economic Conflict/Crisis and Far Right/White Extremist Political Instability confronting West & US with its Allies nowadays,have testified Russia Vladimir Putin, as a groomed voodoo political/economic Crisis Expert and as a KGB trained Con Artist Expert/KGB insecurity Crisis Expert. Analysts were of opinion that Putin Russia KGB Elements/NGOs secretly organized, sponsored & tel-guided Stranded Mediterranean sea Migrants and Stranded US-Mexico border Migrants, as technical analysis or careful studies of some years back Migrants,could show that past migrants were resourceful, matured & well knowledgeable than present youthful migrants,as many present migrant do not have the required Resources or Maturity & traveling know-how,as to leave their various Countries,in order to be able to reach either Mediterranean sea or US-Mexico Border. Putin migrant problematic Designs were created to inflate the US or West with large Refugee Complex Problems and to create a migrant unsolvable situation where the US or West is portrayed in bad Media light as inhuman or not caring. Western Securities/Agents should be on the field, as to counter and checkmate this Putin Russia Migrant Crisis program as quickly as possible.  Putin led Russia Kremlin/KGB Hardliners accused US with its Western Allies for the collapse of former Soviet Union Republics,whereby  Putin with his Cohorts strategically nurtured & sponsored European Far Right Chauvinists/White Extremists and US White Extremist Conservatives,as to create Racial Divide Crisis, inflate Racial Inequalities, Economic Disharmony & to  segregate US various Races/Classes from US flourishing Economy. Trump led Extremist Republicans after saying that Obama 8 years were disastrous,but upon Trump Office assumption,they asserted that Jobs were created and the US Economy has turned Around & is now performing,while the smallest Economy takes 2years,to be able to turn it Around............................... Astonishingly,the US President Trump recently goofed on Harris Citizenship & Shocked the World by his Non Strategic Ignorance,Displayed Parochialism and lack of Technical Think Tank Reserve on Universal Basis,US Ethnic/Racial Divide Sentiment and wiping up Parochial Racial Sentimentalism. US Stakeholders and all concerned,should be aware or be warned of more coming Trump/Putin booboo Racial Traps/Crisis with some futuristic Economic Protests,as to engage US or Preoccupy US and divert US Political intention for expectant US Electoral Change.Ironically,US People should exercise Calm,Patience with Deserved Intelligence when dealing or handling Racial issues or Resolving Economic Issues. Visit these published Articles' websites. http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick  O., email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst.... As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything..

In his speech from the Senate floor, Sen. Mitch McConnell delivered a scalding denunciation of Donald Trump, calling him “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

US News GOP's McConnell: Trump morally responsible for Jan. 6 attack WASHINGTON (AP) — In his speech from the Senate floor, Sen. Mitch McConnell delivered a scalding denunciation of Donald Trump, calling him “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (1 of 5) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, walks in the Capitol as the Senate convenes in a rare weekend session for final arguments in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (2 of 5) In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., lower center right, and other Republican senators and staff talk on the floor after a vote on the motion to allow witnesses in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (3 of 5) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returns to the chamber after the Senate voted to consider hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (4 of 5) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives as the Senate convenes in a rare weekend session for final arguments in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (5 of 5) In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks before the Senate voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal to U.S. Capitol Police offer Eugene Goodman for his actions during the Jan. 6 riot, as the Senate took a break from the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) February 14, 2021 But earlier Saturday in his vote on Trump's impeachment, McConnell said “not guilty” because he said a former president could not face trial in the Senate. Washington's most powerful Republican and the Senate's minority leader used his strongest language to date to excoriate Trump minutes after the Senate acquitted the former president, voting 57-43 to convict him but falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to find him guilty. Seven Republicans voted to convict. Clearly angry, the Senate’s longest-serving GOP leader said Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on Congress were “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.” He even noted that though Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws. “He didn’t get away with anything yet,” said McConnell, who turns 79 next Saturday and has led the Senate GOP since 2007. It was a stunningly bitter castigation of Trump by McConnell, who could have used much of the same speech had he instead decided to convict Trump. But by voting for acquittal, McConnell and his fellow Republicans left the party locked in its struggle to define itself after Trump's defeat in November. Fiercely loyal pro-Trump Republicans, and the base of the party they represent, are colliding with more traditional Republicans who believe the former president is damaging the party’s national appeal. "It was powerful to hear the 57 guilties and then it was puzzling to hear and see Mitch McConnell stand and say not guilty and then minutes later stand again and say he was guilty of everything," one of the House prosecutors, Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” “History will remember that statement of speaking out of two sides of his mouth.” A guilty vote by McConnell, which likely would have brought some other Republicans along with him, would have marked a more direct effort to wrest the party away from Trump. That could have prompted 2022 primary challenges against GOP incumbents, complicating Republican efforts to win the Senate majority by nominating far-right, less-electable candidates. McConnell has spent years fending off such candidates. “Time is going to take care of that some way or another,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked about the party's course. “But remember, in order to be a leader you got to have followers. So we’re gonna find out.” After Saturday's vote, furious Democrats launched their own attacks against McConnell and the GOP. Speaking to reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., mocked the “cowardly group of Republicans” in the Senate she said were afraid to “respect the institution in which they served.” She also said McConnell had created a self-fulfilling prophecy, forcing the Senate trial to begin after Trump left the White House by keeping the chamber out of session. Republicans say Pelosi could have triggered the proceedings earlier by delivering official impeachment documents sooner. McConnell had signaled last month that he was open to finding Trump guilty, a jaw-dropping admission of alienation after spending four years largely helping him or ducking comments about his most outrageous assertions. McConnell informed GOP senators how he would vote in a private email early Saturday, saying, “While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction.” He expanded on his rationale on the Senate floor after Saturday's roll call, making clear his enmity toward Trump's actions. “There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day," he said. Even before the November election, Trump repeatedly claimed that if he lost it would be due to fraud by Democrats, a false accusation that he continued to assert until leaving office. He summoned supporters to Washington for Jan. 6, the day Congress would formally certify his Electoral College loss to Joe Biden, then used a provocative speech near the White House to urge them to march on the Capitol as that count was underway. His backers violently fought past police and into the building, forcing lawmakers to flee, temporarily disrupting the vote count and producing five deaths. The visceral, bloody images from that day were at the core of Democrats impeachment case against Trump. McConnell called that assault a “foreseeable consequence” of Trump using the presidency, calling it “the largest megaphone on Planet Earth.” Rather than calling off the rioters, McConnell accused Trump of “praising the criminals” and seeming determined to overturn the election “or else torch our institutions on the way out.” The 36-year Senate veteran maneuvered through Trump's four years in office like a captain steering a ship through a rocky strait on stormy seas. Battered at times by vindictive presidential tweets, McConnell made a habit of saying nothing about many of Trump's outrageous comments. He ended up guiding the Senate to victories such as the 2017 tax cuts and the confirmations of three Supreme Court justices and more than 200 other federal judges. Their relationship, built more on expedience than admiration, plummeted after Trump's denial of his Nov. 3 defeat and relentless efforts to reverse the voters' verdict with his baseless claims that Democrats fraudulently stole the election. It withered completely last month, after Republicans lost Senate control with two Georgia runoff defeats they blamed on Trump, and the savage attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. The day of the riot, McConnell railed against “thugs, mobs, or threats” and described the attack as “this failed insurrection.” Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. --------------------------------- The US President Donald Trump politically associating with the US hatred Groups and Republican white Extremist Right Groups in using political fallacies,without real relevance to the fact that Chinese have had trade surplus with the US for over 20yrs:with the US Riches mostly Republicans who have shipped US jobs to Asia for cheap labor with its poor environmental regulations for corporate greed, arguments based on non feasible economic jobs creation options, racial politics based on hatred & racial divide, using White House insiders  to propagate  false Swiss code account & framing up case against President Obama and general racial heat up/divide as political tool to woo gullible US people as to win the next US presidential election, will definitely backfire, counterproductive and will not work, as most moderate & reasonable Americans cannot pay such  ideas and politics.  They will challenge any such foul attempt and reinstall US greatness through oneness and ideas prepare the US as to be able to face Nostradamus prediction that Persia/modern Iran will acquire nuclear arm with help of Russia and shall use it against Rome, Jew/Israel, southern France and Moscow. The Republican White Extremist Rights branding President Obama & Democrats,as socialists,is unfortunate and uncalled for,as the Obamacare comprehensive Health scheme, was put in place as to provide US with healthy people, which people the US Military with right stock of quality people who will be able to mine various US Military/Security challenges and to protect US investment/interest globally.The taxing US Riches who owes large businesses/investments as to generate resources For the State, which will enable the Military to have sufficient funds for its global operations and care for US citizens at home. A US comprehensive immigration Policy is very important as the leader of Free World and allows immigrants to know their right of stay and what are obtainable by Law, as well as enable the US with its Immigrants live and co-exist harmoniously with Its neighbors/Foreigners. Further details on US Immigration and US Health Care are contained on my website as stated: It is advisable that apart from the New EU Economic policies formulation and implementation, there should be some serious efforts of restructuring various European little-industrialized Countries like, Greece, Italy, Spain Ireland and Portugal whose little industries with its low technological products, were overtaken by the China-led Asia cheap industrialized goods under its poor non-regulated environment. Visit these published Articles' websites. http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick  O., email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst. As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything..

House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump's impeachment said Thursday the Capitol invaders believed they were acting on "the president's orders” and reflected his violent rhetoric when they set out to storm the building and stop the joint session of Congress that was certifying Democrat Joe Biden's election.

Rioters acted on Trump's 'orders,' Democrats say in trial. WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump's impeachment said Thursday the Capitol invaders believed they were acting on "the president's orders” and reflected his violent rhetoric when they set out to storm the building and stop the joint session of Congress that was certifying Democrat Joe Biden's election. (1 of 8) In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (2 of 8) Bruce Castor, lawyer for former President Donald Trump, arrives on the third day of the second impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate, at the Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP) (3 of 8) In this image from video, security video is shown to senators as House impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (4 of 8) In this image from video, a quote from news media reporting is displayed for senators as House impeachment manager Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (5 of 8) In this image from video, a video from Donald Trump is shown to senators as House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Senate Television via AP) (6 of 8) Ed Trump's supporters chanting "Fight for Trump!" after they stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, was used by prosecutors as they sought to connect the mob with Trump and make the case that the president had incited them to insurrection. (Senate Television via AP) (7 of 8) Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., left, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, right, walk on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, before the start of the third day of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. (8 of 8) Michael van der Veen, lawyer for former President Donald Trump, removes his coat as he arrives on the third day of the second impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate, at the Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP) February 11, 2021 The prosecutors were wrapping up their opening presentation, describing in stark, personal terms the horror they faced that day and unearthing the many public and explicit instructions Trump gave his supporters — both in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack and at his midday rally that unleashed the mob on the Capitol. Videos of rioters, some posted to social medial by themselves, talked about how they were doing it all for Trump. “We were invited here,” said one. "Trump sent us,” said another. “He’ll be happy. We’re fighting for Trump.” Five people died. “They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders,” said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado. “The president told them to be there.” Trump’s lawyers will launch their defense on Friday, and the trial could wrap by weekend. At the White House, President Joe Biden said he believed “some minds may be changed” after senators saw chilling security video Wednesday of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, including of rioters searching menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence. Biden said he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage. This second impeachment trial, on the charge of incitement of insurrection, has echoes of last year's impeachment over the Ukraine matter, as prosecutors warn senators that left unchecked Trump poses a danger to the civic order. Even out of office, the former president holds influence over large swaths of voters. The prosecutors on Thursday drew a direct line from his repeated comments condoning and even celebrating violence — praising “both sides” after the 2017 outbreak at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and urging his rally crowd last month to go to the Capitol and fight for his presidency. “There’s a pattern staring us in the face,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead prosecutor. “When Donald Trump tells the crowd as he did on January 6 to fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore. He meant for them to fight like hell.” Trump lawyers will argue later this week that his words were protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment and just a figure of speech. Though most of the Senate jurors seem to have made up their minds, making Trump’s acquittal likely, the never-before-seen audio and video released Wednesday is now a key exhibit in Trump’s impeachment trial as lawmakers prosecuting the case argue Trump should be convicted of inciting the siege. Senators sat riveted as the jarring video played in the chamber. Senators shook their heads, folded their arms and furrowed their brow. Screams from the audio and video filled the Senate chamber. Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma bent his head at one point, another GOP colleague putting his hand on his arm in comfort. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, saw himself in the footage, dashing down a hallway to avoid the mob. Romney said he hadn’t realized that officer Eugene Goodman, who has been praised as a hero for luring rioters away from the Senate doors, had been the one to direct him to safety. “That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional,” he said. Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, but the graphic compilation shown to senators Wednesday amounted to a more complete narrative, a moment-by-moment retelling of one of the nation’s most alarming days. In addition to the evident chaos and danger, it offered fresh details on the attackers, scenes of police heroism and cries of distress. And it underscored how dangerously close the rioters came to the nation’s leaders, shifting the focus of the trial from an academic debate about the Constitution to a raw retelling of the assault. The footage showed the mob smashing into the building, rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police and audio of Capitol police officers pleading for back-up. Rioters were seen roaming the halls chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” and eerily singing out “Where's Nancy?” in search for Pelosi. Pence, who had been presiding over a session to certify Biden’s election victory over Trump — thus earning Trump’s censure — was shown being rushed to safety, where he sheltered in an office with his family just 100 feet from the rioters. Pelosi was seen being evacuated from the complex as her staff hid behind doors in her suite of offices. “President Trump put a target on their backs and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down,” said House prosecutor Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate representing the Virgin Islands. The goal of the presentation was to cast Trump not as an innocent bystander but rather as the “inciter in chief” who spent months spreading falsehoods about the election. “This attack never would have happened, but for Donald Trump,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the impeachment managers, said as she choked back emotion. “And so they came, draped in Trump’s flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and to bludgeon.” The Trump legal team takes the floor Friday and Saturday for up to 16 hours to lay out its defense. The difficulty facing Trump’s defense became apparent at the start as his lawyers leaned on the process of the trial, unlike any other, rather than the substance of the case against the former president. Trump's lawyers are likely to blame the rioters themselves for the violence. The first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office, Trump is also the first to be twice impeached. His lawyers also say he cannot be convicted because he is already gone from the White House. Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday's vote to proceed to the trial, the legal issue could resonate with Senate Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior. While six Republicans joined with Democrats to vote to proceed with the trial on Tuesday, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds threshold of 67 votes needed for conviction. Minds did not seem to be changing Wednesday, even after senators watched the graphic video. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was among those leading the effort to challenge the Electoral College tally, said, “The president’s rhetoric is at times overheated, but this is not a referendum on whether you agree with everything the president says or tweets.” It appears unlikely that the House prosecutors will call witnesses, and Trump has declined a request to testify. Trump's second impeachment trial is expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated affair of a year ago. In that case, Trump was charged with having privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, then a Democratic rival for the presidency. The Democratic-led House impeached the president swiftly, one week after the attack. Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire and Kevin Freking in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Houston and Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report. -------------------------------- Experts opined that US Poor & US Middle Class from all Races vote for Joe Biden,while Rich from All Races for Trump,but Joe Biden with Democrats/US Moderates must prevent Trump with his Republican Hardliners & Trump/Putin US Coordinators from blocking or frustrating Voters from Voting. I,Mazilieralworks,Primarily to inform,theorize,Caution,Dialogue,Expose or to educate All People & not to engage or to join issues with any Gullible,Misinformed,Ignorant or Bankrupt Cronies or Hired Sycophants on any Mazilieralworks Issue or literal Article. Gratefully to late US President George Bush for his Successes,on his 13 years as CIA Boss,greatly straightened the US & Western Economically/Globally in 1970s during his Active Service,when the US had past Economic Problems & on his Assistance to Nigeria 1977,with his Vast Experiences. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx View my articles on these websites: http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick O. email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst.... As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything

Germany, Poland and Sweden on Monday each declared a Russian diplomat in their country “persona non grata,” retaliating in kind to last week’s decision by Moscow to expel diplomats from the three European Union countries over the case of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

EU countries expel Russian diplomats in Navalny Dispute. BERLIN (AP) — Germany, Poland and Sweden on Monday each declared a Russian diplomat in their country “persona non grata,” retaliating in kind to last week’s decision by Moscow to expel diplomats from the three European Union countries over the case of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. (1 of 4) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell leave a joint news conference following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. The European Union's top diplomat told Russia's foreign minister Friday that the treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny represents "a low point" in the relations between Brussels and Moscow. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov several days after Navalny was ordered to serve nearly three years in prison, a ruling that elicited international outrage. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP) (2 of 4) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell walk during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP) (3 of 4) High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell listens during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. The European Union's top diplomat told Russia's foreign minister Friday that the treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny represents "a low point" in the relations between Brussels and Moscow. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov several days after Navalny was ordered to serve nearly three years in prison, a ruling that elicited international outrage. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP) (4 of 4) In this photo provided by the Babuskinsky District Court, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a cage during a hearing on his charges for defamation, in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. The European Union's top diplomat has told Russia's foreign minister that the treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny represents "a low point" in the relations between Brussels and Moscow. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow days after Navalny was ordered to serve nearly three years in prison. (Babuskinsky District Court Press Service via AP) February 08, 2021 Russia had accused diplomats from Sweden, Poland and Germany of attending a demonstration in support of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile political foe. “We have informed the Russian Ambassador that a person from the Russian embassy is asked to leave Sweden,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde wrote on Twitter. “This is a clear response to the unacceptable decision to expel a Swedish diplomat who was only preforming his duties.” Germany’s foreign ministry said Russia’s decision to expel the European diplomats “was not justified in any way,” insisting that the German Embassy staffer had been acting within his rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to "inform himself about developments on site." The ministry added that the decision was taken in close coordination with Poland, Sweden and the EU's diplomatic service. Poland's foreign ministry tweeted that “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity" it considers "the diplomat working at the Consulate General in Poznan as a persona non grata.” In a statement, EU lawmakers also appealed to “all EU Member States to show maximum solidarity with Germany, Poland and Sweden and take all appropriate steps to show the cohesiveness and strength of our Union.” The parliamentarians called for “a new strategy for the EU’s relations with Russia, centered around support for civil society, which promotes democratic values, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms and human rights.” The tit-for-tat expulsions come as EU officials ponder the future of the 27-nation bloc's troubled relations with Moscow amid deep concern that their large eastern neighbor sees democracy as a threat and wants to distance itself further from the EU. Moscow's decision Friday was as an extra slap in the face for the Europeans because it came as the bloc’s top diplomat — foreign policy chief Josep Borrell — was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Borrell said he learned about the expulsions on social media. “The messages sent by Russian authorities during this visit confirmed that Europe and Russia are drifting apart,” Borrell wrote in a blog on his return to Brussels. “It seems that Russia is progressively disconnecting itself from Europe and looking at democratic values as an existential threat.” He said the trip left him “with deep concerns over the perspectives of development of Russian society and Russia’s geostrategic choices,” and the expulsions, which he requested be dropped, “indicate that the Russian authorities did not want to seize this opportunity to have a more constructive dialogue.” Some EU lawmakers criticized Borrell for going, or for not insisting on visiting Navalny, who was arrested in January when he returned to Moscow after spending months in Germany recovering from a poisoning in Russia with what experts say was the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. On Feb. 2, a Moscow court ordered Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years for violating the terms of his probation while in Germany. Borrell tried to arrange a prison meeting through Lavrov but was told to take it up with the courts. “If you are familiar with the court procedures in Russia, you will know that it would take much more time than the duration of the visit,” Borrell’s spokesman, Peter Stano, said Monday. Ultimately, the trip was never uniquely about Navalny. Russia is a major trading partner and the EU depends on it for natural gas. It’s also a key player in talks on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and has a central role in conflicts that impact on European interests, like those in Syria and Ukraine. Borrell’s aim was to “deliver firm messages” on the broad state of EU-Russia ties as much as on the imprisonment of Navalny, Stano said. EU foreign ministers will debate the issue Feb. 22 in preparation for the bloc’s leaders to weigh Europe’s Russia strategy at a summit on March 25-26. But the real challenge is overcoming the vast divisions between countries on how to approach Russia. EU heavyweight Germany has strong economic interests there, notably the NordStream 2 undersea pipeline project, and German and other ambassadors are reluctant to rapidly wade into any sanctions battle over Navalny. Despite calls for such punitive measures, particularly among some of Russia’s close but small EU neighbors like Lithuania, Borrell said Friday that no country has officially raised any proposals on who or what organizations to hit with sanctions. —- Cook reported from Brussels. Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.     ------------------- Navalny, a lawyer by training, earned a reputation as a Kremlin enemy writing about official corruption. His activism expanded to organizing anti-government protests and seeking political office, and over the years he'd experienced frequent jailings, a chemical attack and an unexplained illness. Now, his family, friends and supporters have a new reason to worry. The 44-year-old opposition remained in grave condition in a Siberian hospital Friday more than a day after he became ill on a flight back to Moscow and fell into a coma. His allies suspect he drank poisoned tea before boarding the plane. His wife wants him moved to a clinic in Germany that has treated other Russian dissidents. After announcing that they found no poison in Navalny's system, doctors in Siberia refused to authorize the transfer, saying his condition was too unstable. But when German specialists later examined the politician and said he was fit for transfer, the Russian doctors reversed themselves and said he could go. His suffering is a shock and a worry to supporters who see him as a stalwart in Russia's beleaguered opposition. “Many times I was asked publicly and privately how I can support this terrible Navalny ... I always answered the same way: Alexei Navalny risks his life every day for his beliefs,” Grigory Chkhartishvili, a dissident author noted for detective novels written under the pen-name Boris Akunin, said on social media after Navalny's illness was announced. Navalny began his rise to prominence by focusing on corruption in Russia’s murky mix of politics and business. In 2008, he bought shares in Russian oil and gas companies, so he could push for transparency as an activist shareholder. Navalny’s work to expose corrupt elites had a pocketbook appeal to the Russian people's widespread sense of being cheated. Whether he was writing for his website or running for public office, his target likely better resonated with potential supporters than more abstract goals such democratic ideals and human rights. Russia’s state-controlled television channels ignored Navalny, but his investigations of dubious contracts and officials' luxurious lifestyles got wide attention through the back channels of YouTube videos and social media posts. The information uncovered by his Fund For Fighting Corruption mostly overrode the reservations raised about Navalny's nationalist streak and his advocacy for the rights of ethnic Russians, even in opposition circles. Navalny also understood the power of a pithy phrase and a potent image. His description of President Vladimir Putin’s power-base United Russia party as “the party of crooks and thieves” attained instant popularity. A lengthy investigation into then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s lavish country getaway boiled down to the property's well-appointed duck house; yellow duck toys soon became a way of deriding the prime minister. The founder of two opposition political parties, he also also be flippant in the face of difficulty, tweeting sarcastic remarks from police custody or courtrooms on the many occasions he was arrested. In 2017, after an assailant threw green-hued disinfectant in his face, seriously damaging one of his eyes, Navalny joked in a video blog that people were comparing him to comic book character the Hulk. Navalny frequently was jailed for participating in protests — or sometimes even as he headed to them. Online video reports of protests broadcast from Navalny’s studios sometimes were enlivened by on-camera police raids. He also faced more serious legal troubles. In 2013, on the day after Navalny had registered as a candidate for Moscow mayor, he was sentenced to five years in prison for an embezzlement conviction. He was accused of stealing timber from a company in a region where he was an adviser to the reformist governor. But in a hugely surprising move, the prosecutor’s office appealed the sentence hours later. The opposition attributed his release to the massive protests that greeted news of Navalny's imprisonment, but many observers thought it was a calculated move by authorities to make sure the mayoral election two months later carried a tint of legitimacy. Navalny ended up placing second, an impressive performance against the incumbent mayor with the backing of Putin’s political machine and who was popular among Muscovites for improving the capital’s infrastructure and aesthetics. The embezzlement conviction was eventually reinstated, and Navalny was convicted, along with his brother Oleg, in another embezzlement case in 2014. His brother received a 3 1/2-year prison sentence, while Navalny's sentence was suspended. Although he did not get sent to prison, the conviction blocked Navalny from being able to carry out his plans to run against Putin in Russia's 2018 presidential election. His own legal obstacles and the widespread obstruction authorities set before other independent candidates seeking public office led Navalny and his organization to adopt a new strategy for the 2019 Moscow city council elections. The “Smart Vote” initiative analyzed which candidate in each district appeared to have the best chance of beating United Russia's pick and tried to drum up support for that candidate. The initiative appeared to be a success, with nearly half of the city council seats going to “systemic opposition” candidates, although its effectiveness could not be quantified. Navalny intended to redeploy the same strategy in next year’s national parliament elections. But the Moscow city council races may have foretold even worse troubles for Navalny. While jailed last summer for taking part in a pre-election protest against the exclusion of many independent candidates, Navalny became ill and was taken to a hospital. The official version was that he had suffered an allergic reaction. His supporters and some doctors said at the time that poisoning appeared to be a more likely explanation. Visit these published Articles' websites.   www.maziliteralworks.wordpress.com   www.maziliteralworks.blogspot.com www.disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com/ www.twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick  O. Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst. As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything.

Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” and accused House Democrats on the eve of the former president's trial of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month’s Capitol riot for their party's gain.

Trump lawyers blast impeachment trial as 'political theater. WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” and accused House Democrats on the eve of the former president's trial of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month’s Capitol riot for their party's gain. (1 of 7) Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Arguments begin Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 2 of 7) The Republican side, right, in the House chamber is seen as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence officiate as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington. Arguments begin Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. (3 of 7) Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., arrives for a Republican policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. (4 of 7) Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., leaves the chamber after taking an oath and voting on how to proceed on the impeachment against former President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. (5 of 7) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination of Miguel Cardona to be education secretary on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times via AP, Pool) (6 of 7) A list of whom the House has impeached and the outcomes of those impeachments. (AP Grap (7 of 7) People shelter in the House gallery as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol. Arguments begin Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.. February 08, 2021 Trump's legal brief is a wide-ranging attack on the House case, foreshadowing the claims his lawyers intend to present on the same Senate floor that was invaded by rioters on Jan. 6. The sharp-tongued tone, with accusations that Democrats are making “patently absurd" arguments and trying to “silence a political opponent,” makes clear that Trump's lawyers are preparing to challenge both the constitutionality of the trial and any suggestion that he was to blame for the insurrection. “While never willing to allow a ‘good crisis’ to go to waste, the Democratic leadership is incapable of understanding that not everything can always be blamed on their political adversaries, no matter how very badly they may wish to exploit any moment of uncertainty on the part of the American people," the defense lawyers say. In their brief, they suggest that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he disputed the election results and argue that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to have a peaceful protest and therefore cannot be responsible for the actions of the rioters. They also say the Senate is not entitled to try Trump now that he has left office, an argument contested by even some conservative legal scholars, and they deny that the goal of the Democrats' case is justice. “Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote. House impeachment managers filed their own document Monday, asserting that Trump had “betrayed the American people” and that there is no valid excuse or defense. “His incitement of insurrection against the United States government — which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power — is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president," the Democrats said. The trial will begin Tuesday with a debate and vote on whether it's even constitutional to prosecute the former president, an argument that could resonate with Republicans keen on voting to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior. Opening arguments would begin Wednesday at noon, with up to 16 hours per side for presentations. Under a draft agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the proceedings will break Friday evening for the Jewish Sabbath at the request of Trump's defense team and resume on Sunday. There will likely be no witnesses, and the former president has declined a request to testify. This impeachment trial will be different because of COVID-19 restrictions. Rather than sitting at their desks through the trial, senators may be spread out, including in the “marble room” just off the Senate floor, where proceedings will be shown on TV, and in the public galleries above the chamber, to accommodate social distancing, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Trump's second impeachment trial is opening with a sense of urgency — by Democrats who want to hold him accountable for the violent Capitol siege and Republicans who want it over as quickly as possible. The proceedings are expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated trial that resulted in Trump's acquittal a year ago on charges that he privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on a Democratic rival, Joe Biden, now the president. This time, Trump's rally cry to “fight like hell” and the storming of the Capitol played out for the world to see. Trump very well could be acquitted again, and the trial could be over in half the time. Biden will be busy with the business of the presidency and won't spend “too much time watching,” press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked on Monday. Trump is the first president to be twice impeached, and the only one to face trial after leaving the White House. The Democratic-led House approved a sole charge, “incitement of insurrection,” acting swiftly one week after the riot, the most violent attack on Congress in more than 200 years. Five people died, including a woman shot by police inside the building and a police officer who died of injuries the next day. So far, it appears there will be few witnesses called, as the prosecutors and defense attorneys speak directly to senators who have been sworn to deliver “impartial justice” as jurors. Most are also witnesses to the siege, having fled for safety that day as the rioters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the electoral count certifying Biden's victory. Instead, House managers prosecuting the case are expected to rely on videos from the siege, along with Trump's incendiary rhetoric refusing to concede the election, to make their case. His new defense team has said it plans to counter with its own cache of videos of Democratic politicians making fiery speeches. “We have the unusual circumstance where on the very first day of the trial, when those managers walk on the floor of the Senate, there will already be over 100 witnesses present,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Trump's first impeachment, said on NBC's “Meet the Press.” "Whether you need additional witnesses will be a strategic call.” Democrats argue it’s all about holding the former president accountable for his actions, even though he’s out of office. For Republicans, the trial will test their political loyalty to Trump and his enduring grip on the GOP. Initially repulsed by the graphic images of the siege, Republican senators including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell denounced the violence and pointed fingers of blame at Trump. But in recent weeks they have rallied around Trump, arguing his comments do not make him responsible for the violence and questioning the legitimacy of trying someone no longer in office. Senators were sworn in as jurors late last month, shortly after Biden was inaugurated, but the trial proceedings were delayed as Democrats focused on confirming the new president's initial Cabinet picks and Republicans sought to put as much distance as possible from the bloody riot. At the time, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky forced a vote to set aside the trial as unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, drawing 44 other Republicans to his argument. The 45 votes in favor of Paul's measure suggest the near impossibility of reaching a conviction in a Senate where Democrats hold 50 seats but a two-thirds vote — or 67 senators — would be needed to convict Trump. Only five Republicans joined with Democrats to reject Paul’s motion: Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. ------------------AP FACT CHECK: Trump sees voting chaos that does not Exist. Experts opined that US Poor & US Middle Class from all Races vote for Joe Biden,while Rich from All Races for Trump,but Joe Biden with Democrats/US Moderates must prevent Trump with his Republican Hardliners & Trump/Putin US Coordinators from blocking or frustrating Voters from Voting. WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeing chaos where others don't, President Donald Trump is falsely asserting that voting by mail is proving to be rife with problems across the country. For the most part, the surge in early votes has been managed smoothly. (1 of 3) Debra Hubbard jumps after voting on the first day of early voting inside the Vote Center at Staples Center sports and entertainment arena in Los Angeles. Tens of millions of Americans already cast ballots in the 2020 election amid record-breaking early voting during the coronavirus pandemic. But for some voters in a handful of states, casting an early ballot in-person isn't even an option. (2 of 3) Voters wait in line to enter the Pip Moyer Recreation Center, in Annapolis, Md., on the first day of in-person early voting in the state. Tens of millions of Americans already cast ballots in the 2020 election amid record-breaking early voting during the coronavirus pandemic. But for some voters in a handful of states, casting an early ballot in-person isn't even an option. (3 of 3) Voters cast ballots at Boston City Hall during early in-person voting, in Boston. Tens of millions of Americans already cast ballots in the 2020 election amid record-breaking early voting during the coronavirus pandemic. But for some voters in a handful of states, casting an early ballot in-person isn't even an option. October 27, 2020 Trump also made the impossible demand that all votes be counted election night. That is guaranteed not to happen. Some states will be counting mailed votes for days and many may not have final results that night. It’s all part of Trump’s effort to sow distrust in the integrity of the election if he loses. He introduced a new twist in his case Tuesday, encouraging people who have already cast ballots for Democrat Joe Biden to change their vote to him. Some states allow people who voted early to change their ballot if they show up Election Day and nullify their initial vote; many do not. TRUMP: “Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd." — tweet Monday. THE FACTS: No, the catastrophe Trump has warned darkly about for months in mail-in voting has not materialized. There have been sporadic reports of voters receiving mail ballots that were incorrectly formatted and other localized hitches in the record early turnout, but the large-scale disenfranchisement that election experts worried might happen has not been seen. Trump has conspiratorially inflated local incidents, contending, for example, that mail-in ballots filled out for him are being dumped in rivers or creeks. This is a fabrication. Three trays of mail were found by the side of a road and in a ditch — not a river or creek — in Greenville, Wisconsin, in mid-September. The sheriff initially said “several absentee ballots” were in the mix. The state's elections officer later said no Wisconsin ballots were in the lost mail after all. No one said ballots marked for Trump were thrown out in the incident. Trump’s motive for challenging votes by mail is plain: Democrats are dominating that segment of voting. Registered Democrats have also outnumbered registered Republicans in early voting in person at polling places, though the gap is narrower than with mailed ballots. In short, Trump may need supporters to show up in huge numbers on Election Day if not before, and his baseless allegations of early-voting irregularities are designed to motivate them to do so as well as to portray the result as illegitimate if Biden wins. As for his demand for a “final vote total” on election night, that flies in the face of how votes are counted and reported. Apart from the usual lags in rounding up and reporting totals from every precinct in the country, the U.S. is seeing unprecedented numbers of early votes, and some battleground states won't even start counting them until Election Day votes have been tallied. Indeed, the Supreme Court is allowing Pennsylvania to count mailed ballots that are not even received by elections officials for three days after the election, as long as there's no evidence that such ballots were filled out after Nov. 3. The court quashed an effort in Wisconsin to extend the absentee ballot deadline there. Earlier in the campaign, Trump asserted that the winner should be declared on election night, another outcome no one can guarantee and one that may elude the country in a week. There is no requirement that the winner be determined Election Day. He raised the question of delaying the election, then dropped it, but has persisted in groundless allegations that it is certain to be plagued by fraud. TRUMP “Strongly Trending (Google) since immediately after the second debate is CAN I CHANGE MY VOTE? This refers changing it to me. The answer in most states is YES. Go do it. Most important Election of your life!” — tweet Tuesday. THE FACTS: Not so fast. Some states allow voters to switch their early vote, but laws vary and many have restrictions. Minnesota, for instance, allows voters to “claw back” their vote and change it, but the deadline for that has passed. Wisconsin allows people to change their vote up to three times, though it doesn’t happen often. Florida allows voters who received mail ballots to choose to vote in person instead, but they cannot vote more than once. If a voter has already sent his or her mail-in ballot and then goes to vote in person, “the (mail) ballot is deemed cast and the voter to have voted,” according to Florida law. David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation said changing a vote in states where that is possible is “extremely rare” and very complicated. “It’s hard enough to get people to vote once — it’s highly unlikely anybody will go through this process twice,” he said. -------------------------------- Experts opined that US Poor & US Middle Class from all Races vote for Joe Biden,while Rich from All Races for Trump,but Joe Biden with Democrats/US Moderates must prevent Trump with his Republican Hardliners & Trump/Putin US Coordinators from blocking or frustrating Voters from Voting. I,Mazilieralworks,Primarily to inform,theorize,Caution,Dialogue,Expose or to educate All People & not to engage or to join issues with any Gullible,Misinformed,Ignorant or Bankrupt Cronies or Hired Sycophants on any Mazilieralworks Issue or literal Article. Gratefully to late US President George Bush for his Successes,on his 13 years as CIA Boss,greatly straightened the US & Western Economically/Globally in 1970s during his Active Service,when the US had past Economic Problems & on his Assistance to Nigeria 1977,with his Vast Experiences. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx View my articles on these websites: http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick O. email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst.... As to publish our literal work,pls you/your company can assist us with anything