Puppet MastersS


Cross

Russian Patriarch urges Turkey to preserve Hagia Sophia's status as museum


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Jul 2020 19:19 UTC
hagia sophia
© REUTERS / MURAD SEZER
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Monday called on Ankara to keep the Hagia Sophia as a museum, as the "neutral status" will contribute to the further development of interfaith peace and harmony, amid the Turkish authorities' plans to turn the complex into a mosque.

"I hope for the prudence of Turkey's state leadership. Preservation of the current neutral status of Hagia Sophia, one of the greatest masterpieces of Christian culture and a church-symbol for millions of Christians all over the world, will facilitate further development of the relations between the peoples of Russia and Turkey and help strengthen interfaith peace and accord", Kirill said in a statement, as quoted by his press office.

The head of the Russian church added that changing Hagia Sophia's status will "inflict great pain" on the Orthodox-majority population of Russia.

Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Hagia Sophia, formerly the Church of the Holy Wisdom, which used to be an Orthodox Christian cathedral before becoming a mosque and then a museum, could become a mosque again with free admission. Earlier in July, Turkey's Council of State held a meeting on the matter, and a final decision on the fate of the UNESCO World Heritage Site is expected to be made by mid-July.
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2 + 2 = 4

Saudi Air Force brags about shooting down $200 Yemeni drone with $2-million AA missile fired from a $100-million F-15

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ News
Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:49 UTC
F-15 israel
© AP/Ariel Schalit
The Wahhabi Saudi Arabia is one of the world's top military spenders. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Royal Saudi Armed Forces spent a staggering sum of over $100 billion dollars in 2019, and are expected to spend no less in 2020.

This puts the infamous terrorist-sponsoring Wahhabi kingdom at the 3rd place in terms of military spending, just behind China and the United States, but ahead of military superpowers such as Russia (spent $65 billion in 2019) or military giants such as India (spent $60 billion in 2019).

And yet, a country like Russia maintains a military force which even the Pentagon considers a near-peer adversary, since Russia is a world leader in a number of key military technologies, including, but not limited to hypersonic, laser and directed-energy weapons, as well as military aviation and even prospective space-warfare weapons. And all this with a military budget 40% smaller than that of Saudi Arabia.

So this leaves us wondering how exactly did the Saudis manage to be in top 3 military spenders, and yet, they can't even defeat Yemen, their impoverished, hunger-ridden neighbor to the south, which they have been consistently bombing ever since 2015, while operating and supporting a sizeable mercenary ground force in the country.

Well, this is how.

Comment: Government: responsibly spending other people's money since ... forever.

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Megaphone

Trump rips Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians for eyeing name changes to be 'politically correct'

Bob Fredericks
New York Post
Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:27 UTC
washington redskins
President Trump waded deeper into the culture wars roiling the US on Monday — defending the team names of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians and slamming them for being "politically correct."

"They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct. Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now!" Trump tweeted.

The Redskins, who have long faced criticism from Native American groups and others, said last week it would consider a name change.

Nike appeared to have pulled Redskins merchandise off its website after FedEx — the company whose name is on the arena where the team plays — publicly called on the franchise to change its name, putting increasing pressure on owner Dan Snyder, who has refused to consider a name change for years, Fox Business reported.

On Sunday, three minority owners, Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar and Fred Smith, who own a combined 40 percent of the team, said they were "not happy being a partner" with Snyder and hired an investment firm to search for potential buyers of their shares, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

Comment: Hysterics seem incapable of realizing that not everyone agrees with them. Or at the very least, they don't care. They just want the world to conform to their image of it, no matter how silly or unreasonable their wishes may be.





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Eiffel Tower

In a major shift (or not), Macron swaps out key ministers in government revamp


The Local (France)
Mon, 06 Jul 2020 20:27 UTC
Macron and others
© AFPFrench President Emmanuel Macron congratulates Jean Castex, named successor to the popular PM Édouard Philippe.
French President Emmanuel Macron replaced key ministers in a long-awaited government reshuffle, announced on Monday. But will they really plot a "new course" for France or are they more of the same?

Gerald Darmanin, until now budget minister, will replace much-criticised Christophe Castaner as interior minister, a troubled portfolio owing to alleged racism and violence among police forces.

Barbara Pompili, a former member of France's green party, will serve as the new environment minister instead of Elisabeth Borne.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Defence Minister Florence Parly and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire all kept their posts, top presidential aide Alexis Kohler told reporters at the Elysée Palace.

But government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye was also replaced.

Comment: Someone once said: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". (The more things change the more they stay the same.) New feet. Same road. More control.

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Light Sabers

Russia to impose 'reciprocal sanctions' on UK following publication of 'Magnitsky List'

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 07 Jul 2020 15:34 UTC
browder magnitsky
© Bill Browder / AFP / Drew Angerer; Sergey Magnitsky / AFP / Hermitage Capital ManagementBill Browder and Sergey Magnitsky (inset)
Russia will impose tit-for-tat sanctions on the United Kingdom after London issued on Monday a list of 25 Russians who will be sanctioned over the case of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody in 2009.

The UK's 'Magnitsky list' includes Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, as well as other representatives of Russian law enforcement agencies, and judges.

Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison in 2009, eight days before he was due to stand trial for financial crimes. Since Magnitsky's death, his former associate Bill Browder has courted governments to punish those he deems responsible. This prompted the US to adopt the original Magnitsky Act in 2012, which allowed the US to sanction numerous Russian officials and businessmen over alleged human rights violations. Browder, a hedge-fund manager who gave up his US passport to avoid paying taxes, alleges that Magnitsky was tortured and did not receive necessary medical care for gall stones and pancreatitis. Browder has been accused by German magazine Der Spiegel of fabricating parts of Magnitsky's story. He is currently wanted by Russia for a long list of crimes, including tax evasion, creating a "criminal community," and murder.

Comment: Russia has shown great forbearance in the face of so many lies. But it seems they have reached their limit. Still, the Kremlin has stated they will only match the the list, measure for measure, as they did when the US and other countries expelled Russian ambassadors.

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Eagle

Flashback Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy

William Blum
williamblum.org
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
NED CIA
How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies. The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s. The latter was a remarkable period. Spurred by Watergate - the Church committee of the Senate, the Pike committee of the House, and the Rockefeller Commission, created by the president, were all busy investigating the CIA. Seemingly every other day there was a new headline about the discovery of some awful thing, even criminal conduct, the CIA had been mixed up in for years. The Agency was getting an exceedingly bad name, and it was causing the powers-that-be much embarrassment.

Something had to be done. What was done was not to stop doing these awful things. Of course not. What was done was to shift many of these awful things to a new organization, with a nice sounding name - The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.

It was a masterpiece. Of politics, of public relations, and of cynicism.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

The UK's largest intelligence agency is infiltrating British schools, propagandizing and spying on children

Matt Kennard
Declassified UK
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 19:07 UTC
cyber school children uk public school
© Cyber Schools HubPupils from Ribston Hall school in Gloucester, southwest England, take part in an activity organised by GCHQ’s Cyber Schools Hub programme. Anonymisation by Declassified.
Declassified UK can reveal that Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's largest intelligence agency, has gained access to at least 22,000 primary and secondary school children in dozens of UK schools, and that the organisation may be spying on children.

GCHQ officers are operating in at least one school, while parents of pupils at schools across the programme do not appear to have been informed about the extent of the spy agency's role in it.

Evidence also suggests that quotes purporting to be from children praising the programme have been manufactured.

Further, GCHQ's Cyber Schools Hub (CSH) programme, also known as CyberFirst, appears to be disseminating propaganda to school children, telling them it acts as the "heart of the nation's security". This is controversial, given that GCHQ's programmes of mass surveillance have been found to be unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights and that the agency also conducts offensive cyber operations.
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Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Remaking the World: The Globe-spanning Agenda of Protesters, Corporate and Cultural elites

Carol King
UncoverDC.com
Sun, 05 Jul 2020 22:54 UTC
reset button
Revolutions, historically speaking, bubble up from the most oppressed sections of society - workers, peasants etc, with only the leader coming from the top echelon. The revolutionary type activism occurring in America for the last two months is different - it is taking place on the street, in elite institutions, corporate enterprises and at the international level. Let's look first at the Democrats' plan to win in November from the strategy emerging on the streets.

Information Operation

They say the long-term strategic objective is a more equitable society for all, but a key component of this would consist of denying the protection of certain norms and laws, all while subjecting you to norms and laws when it works to their benefit. It is materializing as an information operation from activists at the societal level coupled with a soft power effort from elites and international actors.

While there have been some tragic casualties in the protests, so far there is no actual warfare, but the protests are continuing. Mostly they are trying to affect perceptions, build a narrative, play on those perceptions and cause an action that will lead to the activists'/democrats' victory.
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Sherlock

Ex-Reddit CEO knew Ghislaine Maxwell was trafficking underage girls, attended parties with Al Gore, Facebook and Twitter Execs

Nick Regan
The National Pulse.
Mon, 06 Jul 2020 12:00 UTC
Epstein and Maxwell
The former CEO of social networking website 'Reddit' - Ellen Pao - made the startling Twitter admission that she "knew" Ghislaine Maxwell was "supplying underage girls for sex" and therefore refused to take photos with her at a party attended by Former Vice President Al Gore and other high profile individuals.

Maxwell was indicted on multiple charges last week in connection to an alleged sex-trafficking operation that brought girls as young as 14 to Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan home between 1994 and 1997.

Prosecutors allege Maxwell actively "assisted, facilitated and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18."
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Snakes in Suits

Bojo blames care home providers for lockdown deaths, providers blast government's 'slow and conflicting' guidance


Mirror
Mon, 06 Jul 2020 23:27 UTC
bojo
The Prime Minister claimed "too many care homes didn't really follow the procedures" - despite the government repeatedly being told they were too slow to act and didn't provide enough PPE
On a visit to Yorkshire today, the PM claimed: "We discovered too many care homes didn't really follow the procedures in the way that they could have."

Almost 20,000 people have died from coronavirus in care homes since the start of the pandemic in March.

The Prime Minister's comments today sparked anger from care providers, who said they were "neither accurate nor welcome."

Number 10 insisted the PM was "absolutely not" blaming care homes.

Mr Johnson's government has been repeatedly criticised for being slow to react to the epidemic in care homes - with Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall branding their testing strategy "slow, confused and chaotic".

Comment: See also: UK's lockdown could cause extra 35,000 extra cancer deaths due to delayed diagnosis and treatment

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