House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Val Demings, a Florida Democrat, is demanding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recuse himself from the Senate's impeachment trial. She accused McConnell of promising the White House to «sabotage» the trial. «No court in the country would allow a member of the jury to also serve as the accused’s defense attorney. The moment Senator McConnell takes the oath of impartiality required by the Constitution, he will be in violation of that oath,» she said in a statement. That's in response to McConnell's admission on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Thursday night that he would act on Trump's behalf. «Everything I do during this, I'm coordinating with White House counsel,» he said. «There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this.» He would be in violation of his oath, as Demings pointed out, referencing Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution which delineates «The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation.» That oath, or affirmation, every senator will take says «that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [President Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.» Demings should not stand alone. Every Democrat—including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his team—should join her. And they should publicly shame any Republican senator still capable of feeling that emotion who is allowing McConnell to get away with this. Sign the petition: Mitch McConnell must recuse himself from Trump impeachment trial.

Read Full Article at RT.com

A Salvadoran asylum-seeker who had been forced to wait out his case in Mexico for four months under inhumane and illegal Trump administration policy was kidnapped and murdered last month, The New York Times reports. “Mexican authorities said the man was ‘dismembered’ and they are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.” Despite a false claim from Homeland Security that Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico, has “successfully provided protections” to returned asylum-seekers, human rights leaders said violence against them has surged, documenting nearly 640 cases to date. Nearly 140 of these instances have involved kidnappings. The administration’s policy has been a boon to thugs and cartels, who’ve stooped to targeting asylum-seekers as they’re being sent to Mexico or trying to return to the U.S. for court dates in order to extort them or relatives.  The asylum-seeker, whose identify has not been revealed to protect his widow and two children, had found work at a pizzeria when he was targeted, kidnapped, and killed. "They sent us back,” his widow said. “We said Tijuana was really dangerous, there was a lot of crime but they didn't listen to us. They said that they couldn't do anything because those were Trump's orders.” Some public servants have recognized Trump’s orders are illegal, however.  Doug Stephens, believed to be the first asylum officer to formally refuse to implement Remain in Mexico, said last month that the policy “is violating numerous domestic and international laws by sending people back and causing this harm.” He said he knew he could no longer do his job when “it seemed clear” someone he was interviewing would be harmed if they were returned to Mexico, but he was told by a superior to reject the claim. “I was not really surprised,” he said. “The interviews as they’re structured are clearly designed to make individuals fail and send everyone back without really giving them a fair shot.” The asylum-seeker’s widow said they were trying to do everything right by doing what they were told to do, but this is a system that’s not set up to implement asylum law: It’s set up to block it, and at horrific human costs. “We didn't cross over illegally, we crossed over the right way, we waited our turn to do things right,” she said. “That's why this is so unfair.” NBC News San Diego reports that only now is the family in San Diego, with their attorney working to have them placed with relatives in San Francisco.

World champion figure-skater Alina Zagitova has decided to put her career on ice, foregoing appearances at the upcoming Russian, European and World championships. Read Full Article at RT.com

America’s farmers can now rejoice, praise Donald Trump, and “buy much larger tractors.” Or at least that’s the word that Trump handed down after he inked a preliminary deal with China on Thursday evening. But—shocking as it may seem—there are not many connections between Trump’s claims about this deal and the actual deal in the real world. As The New York Times reports, this deal is still a long, long way from the kind of victory that Trump has promised for his long-running trade war. It won’t come close to restoring the fortunes of American farmers, who have been suffering a record level of bankruptcies since Trump decided to prove his toughness by blowing up international relations. It also won’t pave over the massive payments Trump has handed out in an effort to minimize the damage. In fact, it will leave behind a $10 billion hole. The agricultural purchases required in the agreement are both vague and clearly far too small to restore even the conditions that existed before Trump’s actions sent China looking to South America and other regions to replace goods they would have previously purchased from America. In 2019, farm debt topped $416 billion—absolutely swamping the scale of Trump’s “enormous deal,” even when including non-agricultural products.  Even as bankruptcy is up 24% in a single year, Trump is telling America’s farmers that it’s time to buy “much larger tractors” to generate all the grain required by this deal. Trump says that he expects China to buy $50 billion of U.S. agricultural products. That $50 billion figure is one that Trump has deployed before. It’s just that the date keeps shifting. And shifting. That number is imaginary, but the exploding farm debt and bankruptcies are very real. The hole between what Trump “expects” and what’s actually in the deal is far larger than any of the gaps Republicans complained about in the impeachment case. As in Trump doesn’t give any timetable for those purchases, or any description of how they will be configured, or any real reason to believe the purchases will happen at all. When will farmers see new purchases from China? “Pretty soon,” says Trump. That’s not exactly something that cash-starved farmers can take to the bank when asking for that new tractor loan. Though imaginary tractors will probably do for this imaginary deal.

Khabib Nurmagomedov has no intention of facing Conor McGregor again any time soon, despite UFC boss Dana White claiming the Irishman would be in line for a rematch if he wins on his octagon comeback in January. Read Full Article at RT.com

A whole residential building was turned into a living hell by one vengeful resident, who played horse neighing through a loudspeaker almost every night. The man thought he’d get away with it, but he was wrong. Read Full Article at RT.com

The next Democratic presidential debate had its location changed over a labor boycott of the University of California. Now, top contenders Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren say they will skip the debate if a labor dispute with the new location, Loyola Marymount University, isn’t settled. x.@UniteHere11 is fighting for better wages and benefits—and I stand with them. The DNC should find a solution that lives up to our party's commitment to fight for working people. I will not cross the union's picket line even if it means missing the debate.— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 13, 2019 xI stand with the workers of @UniteHere11 on campus at Loyola Marymount University fighting Sodexo for a better contract. I will not be crossing their picket line.— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 13, 2019 Food service workers at the university have been in contract negotiations with Sodexo, the company that employs them, for over a year. With the negotiations stalled, the workers have held pickets, and a Democratic debate could provide them leverage. It’s a little late in the game for the debate to be moved again, but the university could pressure Sodexo. At the time of this writing, none of the other candidates who have qualified for the debate have committed to honor a picket line. Friday, Dec 13, 2019 · 6:54:53 PM +00:00 · Laura Clawson Andrew Yang is the third candidate to say he won't cross a picket line. That is a surprise.

Historic election results in Northern Ireland which saw pro-Irish nationalists overtake pro-British unionists for the first time indicates the demographics of the region are moving in favor of a united Ireland, analysts told RT. Read Full Article at RT.com

Read Full Article at RT.com

Not content with the victorious Conservative leader’s suggestion that it was time to “let the healing begin,” an angry crowd of anti-Brexit protesters has taken to London streets, chanting “Boris Johnson – not our Prime Minister!” Read Full Article at RT.com

As complete proof that Donald Trump hasn’t been soliciting smears from Ukraine to ratf#ck the 2020 election, Rudy Giuliani has been over in Ukraine … soliciting smears to ratf#ck the 2020 election. And while Trump isn’t apparently happy with the instant whitewashing that Mitch McConnell is offering up in the Senate, there is something that has him very, very excited. So excited that he couldn’t wait even minutes to get the latest installment. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Trump called up Giuliani as soon as his plane hit the ground. As soon as it hit the ground. As in, while it was still taxing down the runway. Trump was literally watching the clock, waiting for that first moment when he could call up his personal attorney and get the latest progress on smearing political opponents with the help of foreign officials. Because this is where we are now. Giuliani had to make this trip without the assistance of his pals and former guides Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, because they happen to be under indictment in the United States for funneling foreign funds into Republican accounts—including a big, big chunk for Trump. Frequent campaign “bundler” and White House guest Parnas appears to be actually on his way back to jail after hiding a $1 million payment that the Russians slid his way through the ultra-sophisticated method of inserting it into his wife’s bank account. But lacking his former connections didn’t seem to slow down Giuliani’s efforts. He already had enough connections between ousted pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, and lawmakers who want to see new President Volodymyr Zelensky fail, that he had no trouble coming up with a line of people willing to testify that Joe Biden is evil incarnate. All of which really, really pleases Trump. Giuliani was equally excited to tell the Journal about his runway conversation with Trump. According to his personal attorney, Trump’s first words were “‘What did you get?’” And Giuliani assured him that he has “More than you can imagine.” Which is a big claim, because Trump’s belief in the “CrowdStrike conspiracy” shows that he can believe a helluva lot.

On Thursday, Republicans made up two whole new excuses for Donald Trump withholding funds from Ukraine, which is handy for Republicans who want to pretend they’re not defending a grave threat to national security without cause. However, Trump himself doesn’t seem to give a damn. While Republicans are defending Trump using claims that he never bothered to make, Trump isn’t interested in defense. Instead, Mr. “Perfect phone call” is out there trying show that he has noting to defend. One step in that is something that did come up repeatedly in Thursday’s impeachment hearings. Republicans are claiming that since Ukrainian officials stated that they did not feel pressured by Trump, there can be “no crime.” To back that up, The Daily Beast reports that Trump wants to bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States to not just give him that White House meeting that he’s so far been denied, but to give Zelensky a tour of U.S. liquefied natural gas producers. The goal is to push back against the idea that holding up a meeting that Zelensky long desired was ever part of the extortion Trump was conducting in Ukraine. Republicans have trotted out a court case in which they claim that a meeting isn’t sufficient to be the subject of a bribery charge, while ignoring the fact that it was a very different kind of meeting in a very different context. But Trump is planning to … trump them, by simply moving the needle to “see, he got that meeting after all,” and, Trump will claim, America even got a trade deal out of it—one sure to create millions, and millions of millions, of jobs.  That this meeting is happening not just after Trump was caught with his hand in the Ukraine jar but after he’s actually been impeached by the House won’t matter to the claims made by Republicans. After all, they’re already claiming that the release of the military assistance had nothing to do with the fact that Trump had just been definitively, and decisively put on notice. And as Republicans made absolutely clear in Thursday’s hearing, if you mention that someone is a hostage who is being forced to make a statement they don’t agree with, it’s an insult … to the hostage.

Moscow Mitch McConnell didn't just casually toss the Constitution into the trash on Sean Hannity's show Thursday when he promised Donald Trump would be in control of his own impeachment hearing. He gloated over his wanton destruction of federal judiciary, laughing at Hannity for saying that he was shocked President Obama left judicial vacancies. «I'll tell you why,» he answered. «I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.» Then he laughed. He laughed over the fact that he single-handedly refused to let the Senate advise and consent on President Obama's judicial nominees. He's laughing over the fact that he left all those vacancies open for Donald Trump. For Trump. Including a Supreme Court seat. He's now reached an obscene milestone—50 circuit court judges confirmed. Fifty. These are the judges that will send every anti-abortion, anti-civil rights, anti-environment case from the states up to the Supreme Court. For decades to come, because many of them are very young and these are lifetime appointments. He's reached his goal on the circuits, he told POLITICO, and is moving on. «Whatever's on the calendar, I'm going to make every effort I can to clear them all,» McConnell said. «We've already […] finished up the circuits. So I'm going to make my best effort to clear the calendar of district judges by the end of the year.» He has been completely undaunted by the fact that a record number of those judges have been deemed «unqualified» by the American Bar Association. They're now up to seven unqualified judges confirmed, including two just confirmed: the «arrogant, lazy ideologue» Lawrence VanDyke, who cried crocodile tears over his ABA rating, and anti-abortion zealot Sarah Pitlyk, who «has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, whether civil or criminal [and] has never examined a witness.» Moscow Mitch is infesting the federal judiciary with unqualified, bigoted judges and he's proud of it. He thinks it's funny. And he's doing it for Trump, a bigoted, unqualified president. Because it wasn't enough to destroy the Senate. He has to destroy the judiciary, too. His wanton destruction of the institution of the Senate must be stopped. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end McConnell's career as majority leader.

President Donald Trump has called the approval of impeachment articles against him a “sham” and “a hoax,” and accused Democrats of “trivializing impeachment.” Read Full Article at RT.com

Jurgen Klopp has committed his future to Liverpool with a new deal until 2024, giving the Anfield club the certainty that Premier League rivals Manchester City would so desperately love with their boss Pep Guardiola. Read Full Article at RT.com

Built to ensure Russia’s success in the Arctic, the flagship of a new line of nuclear icebreakers took to the sea near St Petersburg. The Arktika vessel is set to become the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world. Read Full Article at RT.com

Vasily 'Dumpling' Khamotskiy is «waiting for an invitation» from Dana White after the UFC head honcho announced he wanted to take the Russian 'Slapping Champion' onto the organization's Fight Pass streaming service. Read Full Article at RT.com

Prominent Russian sabre fencer Alexey Yakimenko has commented on the recent four-year ban imposed on Russia, saying it’s not fair to prohibit clean athletes from competing under the national flag. Read Full Article at RT.com

The final obligation for the stars of UFC 245 is the official early-morning weigh-ins in Las Vegas, as the fighters take to the scale to make weight for their respective bouts. Watch the weigh-ins live with RT Sport here. Read Full Article at RT.com

House Republicans keep insisting that if impeachment is not bipartisan, it’s illegitimate. Let’s talk about that. First, of course, a House Republican did come out for impeachment, months ago. The fact that Freedom Caucus co-founder Justin Amash is no longer a Republican is exhibit one in how tightly Republicans have closed ranks against any criticism of Donald Trump. But there’s another recent House vote that tells us what we need to know about Republicans and bipartisanship: the Voting Rights Advancement Act. The recent passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the Voting Rights Act protections dismantled by the Supreme Court came on a nearly party-line vote. Just one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, voted for it. In 2006, a Republican-controlled House passed the last update to the Voting Rights Act with 192 Republican votes. It went on to pass the Senate unanimously and be signed by then-President George W. Bush. All that Republican support has disappeared, and it’s not because the question of voting rights has changed so much. It’s because of what the Republican Party—already a hard-right party in the W. era—has become. Something that had broad bipartisan support in 2006 is now a partisan issue. Only Democrats want to protect the voting rights of people of color. Republicans are opposed. Does that Republican opposition mean that voting rights are illegitimate because it’s not bipartisan? So when Republicans point to their own opposition to impeachment to say that impeachment cannot possibly be acceptable in a democracy, consider the question of voting rights. This is the Republican standard these days: furious opposition to anything that might weaken Republican electoral prospects. 

Moscow Mitch McConnell isn't even going to bother with the pretense of having a real impeachment trial in the Senate. They'll have a trial, but it's going to be the defendant who is running the show. He told Sean Hannity so on Fox News Thursday night, making it very it clear: «Everything I do during this, I'm coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this.» That's following a strategy session McConnell had with Trump's White House counsel Pat Cipollone where the two «sketched out a plan […] to coordinate closely for an impeachment trial but haven't reached agreement on a final strategy to defend Trump against charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.» Because McConnell sees his role as defending Trump against the charges, even though he's one of the jury. He couldn't be more blatant if he tried. Every move he makes, he told Hannity, will be «in total coordination with the White House counsel.» Here is the oath Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will administer to McConnell and every other senator before the hearing, the oath they will all swear to: «I solemnly swear […] that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.» Impartial justice. That's what he's required by the Constitution and will swear to deliver. Throwing that in the trash isn't enough for McConnell. He had to add a not-so veiled threat to his Republican senators on top of it. «There's no chance the president will be removed from office,» McConnell told Hannity. «My hope is there won't be a single Republican who votes for these two articles of impeachment.» His wanton destruction of the institution of the Senate must be stopped. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end McConnell's career as majority leader.

After an overnight break, the House Judiciary Committee returned Friday morning and quickly voted through two articles of impeachment—abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—on party-line votes. Both articles passed 23 to 17, with Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu absent due to illness. This vote sets up a vote in the full House as soon as next week.

Republican members have put on quite a show during impeachment, airing plot points from the Fox News universe

Coaching is often a huge difference-maker in the NFL. Read Full Article at RT.com