Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Far-right Le Pen plots parliament win after loss to Macron

Elaine Ganley
AP News
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:25 UTC
Marine Le Pen
© AP Photo/Michel EulerFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen, followed by acting National Rally president Jordan Bardella, arrive at their campaign headquarters, Monday, April 25, 2022 in Paris. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen gathered her party's troops on Monday, not to mourn her loss a day earlier in the presidential election but to plot how to scratch out a victory in next month's legislative elections.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen gathered her party's troops on Monday, not to mourn her loss a day earlier in the French presidential election but to plot how to orchestrate a victory in June's parliamentary vote and capture a majority of seats in the National Assembly.

Centrist President Emmanuel Macron beat her 58.5% to 41.5% to win reelection Sunday but Le Pen produced her highest-ever level of support in her three attempts to become France's leader. That gave the 53-year-old nationalist momentum as she charged into what is called the "third round" of voting, hoping to turn the tables on Macron's majority in parliament.

Le Pen called a national meeting of her far-right National Rally party on Monday. French media reports that Le Pen told party officials she would seek to renew representing her working-class stronghold in northern France could not be immediately confirmed.

Le Pen's high support Sunday laid bare a European Union nation that is fractured between those she refers to as the "France of the forgotten" — the vulnerable working class that has been hard hit by rising inflation and the fallout from sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine — and what she calls the "elitists" of Macron's staunchly pro-EU voters.
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Snakes in Suits

Boris Johnson to face investigation into whether he misled MPs over partygate

Jack Maidment and Dominic Penna
Telegraph
Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:25 UTC
boris johnson partgate
© Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
Boris Johnson has been referred by MPs to a parliamentary investigation by the privileges committee into whether he deliberately misled the Commons over Downing Street parties.

A Labour Party motion, which cites four separate comments made by the Prime Minister about the scandal, passed without division as it became clear it had the overwhelming support of those present in the Commons.

The privileges committee will now investigate Mr Johnson's statement to MPs in December that "the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times".

Comment: The Times said Sue Gray's report 'is so damning that senior officials believe it could leave Boris Johnson with no choice but to resign as prime minister'.

Here's what Sky News had to say about the investigation:
Tory MPs had earlier been ordered to back a government attempt to delay the vote until inquiries by the Met Police and civil servant Sue Gray have concluded.

In a late reversal shortly before the debate began, Commons Leader Mark Spencer said Tory MPs could vote however they wanted on Labour's motion.

[ ...]

Defending Mr Johnson in the debate, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis said the prime minister did not mislead the Commons, but made comments about partygate revelations "in good faith".

He added that Mr Johnson "has always been clear that he is happy to face whatever inquiries Parliament sees fit".

"He has responded to the event for which he has received a fixed-penalty notice," Mr Ellis said.

"He made clear that he did not think at that time, that the event was in contravention of COVID rules, however he has apologised for his mistake, paid his fine and accepted the findings of the Metropolitan Police.


Oh good, well that's the end of that then.


"There is a difference between a deliberate and an inadvertent situation and I think most people would accept that."


What a load of baloney.



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Birthday Cake

Europe's big energy problems and the birth of a new relationship with Russia

Tom Luongo
Gold, Goats 'N Guns
Fri, 22 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
EU symbol
"Energy makes energy anyhow
So spend yourself and get rich right now"
— Marillion "Rich"
This day has been a long time coming. From the moment, more than a decade ago, when it was finally admitted that Europe was destined to be an energy importer, we were going to see the climax of the showdown between the West and Russia.

Europe as energy importer always meant that time was on Russia's side. All it had to do was draw the conflict out long enough, survive long enough, to force Europe into submission. Russia has the energy Europe needs, no one else can supply it, therefore the final decision will be to accept this fate.

No amount of financial wizardry, pathetic virtue signaling about Climate Change, malinvestment into inefficient and unsustainable 'renewables,' or military threats would ultimately change the outcome of this story.

Output off the North Slope has fallen off and Groningen's gas fields are drying up faster than Hillary's va-jay-jay with each twist of John Durham's investigation into RussiaGate.

Every gambit to secure energy from Ukraine (Donbass coal, gas fields in the Sea of Azov) and the Middle East (Syria, EastMed Pipeline, Iran) have also failed.

This is the basic problem the EU faces in its quest for political hegemony. How does it get around this basic fact without fomenting 1) a political crisis at home and 2) a war with Russia and the rest of the Global South who support her, it cannot win?

Comment: See: Russia urges its allies to dump dollar and euro for trade deals

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Evil Rays

Obama, Clinton rail against free speech under guise of fighting 'misinformation'


Zerohedge
Sat, 23 Apr 2022 09:11 UTC
obama hillary
Over the last 24 hours, former President Barack Obama and twice-failed presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton have come out against free speech - calling for big tech to go further to censor views they disagree with.

On Thursday, Obama told an audience at Stanford University that tech companies are "turbo-charging some of humanity's worst impulses," adding "One of the biggest reasons for the weakening of democracy is the profound change that's taken place in how we communicate and consume information."

He then said that people are 'dying because of disinformation.'


Comment: Obama and Killary aren't the only ones fighting like mad to suppress free speech now:

Former intelligence officials, citing Russia, say Big Tech monopoly power is vital to national security

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Newspaper

Putin promises normal business environment for companies that remain


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:49 UTC
Bridge Moscow
© Sputnik / Evgeny BiyatovPeople on the Floating Bridge in Zaryadye Park in Moscow.
Russia faces unprecedented sanctions pressure that continues to intensify, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, noting that despite the prevailing conditions, the country's economy has the opportunity to function stably and smoothly. He has promised to support businesses as much as possible, including foreign firms that have stayed in Russia.

To do that, it is necessary to respect the rights of business owners and support them to the full, including by reducing the administrative burden, Putin said. Foreign companies that have remained in Russia despite sanctions pressure should be allowed to "work peacefully," he added.

The Russian president earlier instructed the government to allocate additional resources to support small and medium-sized businesses and create better growth conditions for new industries based on new and yet-to-be-developed supply chains. Putin also said he believes that sanctions will result in new leaders emerging in the Russian market.
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Magnify

Secrets of the command bunker underneath Azovstal revealed in Russian media reports

Margarita Menshikova
JohnHelmer.net
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:48 UTC
Azovstal
© Chad NagleAzovstal iron and steel factory, Mariupol, Ukraine
On the day before Good Friday (Orthodox), Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported at the Kremlin to President Vladimir Putin that at Mariupol, inside the Azovstal steel works, about two thousand troops remain underground, including foreigners. Putin issued the following order: "There is no need to penetrate these catacombs and crawl under these industrial facilities. Seal off the industrial zone completely."

Four days earlier on April 17, the Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov told the press that "up to four hundred foreign mercenaries were trapped [at Azovstal]... Most of them are citizens of European countries, as well as Canada. We have already reported earlier that radio conversations between militants in Mariupol are conducted in six foreign languages"

Today, an unusually detailed report by the Moscow internet broadcaster Tsargrad was published to signal the strategic significance and political value of the NATO officers in their command bunker under Azovstal.
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Hammer

Poland's Ukrainization puts the final nail in PiS' faux nationalist project

Andrew Korybko
Kolozeg.Org
Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
Kaczynski
© Political CritiqueJaroslaw Kaczynski
There's no denying that PiS' faux nationalist project has utterly failed. Patriotic Poles won't be distracted by vague foreign policy victories that have yet to even happen and might never transpire, nor will they let PiS' rabid Russophobia influence them into forgiving it for their country's forced Ukrainization.

It's impossible for anyone to seriously describe Poland's ruling "Law & Justice" (PiS per its Polish abbreviation) party as "nationalists" after they willingly allowed their country's Ukrainization by hosting over 3 million refugees from that former Soviet Republic. Warsaw's population jumped by 15-20% according to Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski as quoted by the New York Times (NYT) in their article about this issue titled "Warsaw's Welcome Mat Risks Unraveling Under The Pressure Of A New Wave Of Refugees".

The outlet also revealed some other intriguing facts, including Trzaskowski's concern that "these costs (related to accommodating so many refugees) amount to hundreds of millions of dollars" and that "Warsaw's largest pediatric hospital has put Ukrainian patients on its waiting list for liver transplants, sometimes ahead of Polish children." A Ukrainian refugee in Poland whose son has a rare liver disease also revealed that medics at the hospital in Kiev that was treating him left to treat soldiers at the front.

Comment: Reminds us of another country's leadership spouting one thing and doing another to the detriment of its people.

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Book 2

Communist China has thrown out the old rules of war

Robert Spalding
Zero Hedge
Fri, 22 Apr 2022 11:40 UTC
Military
© AP/Pavel GolovkinChinese Military
When I first read the Chinese war manual Unrestricted Warfare in 1999, I thought it was wacky. I was flying B-2 Stealth bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri and reading a lot about war. As an Air Force officer, I thought it was part of my day job to understand the bigger picture - even though the prevailing attitude in the military was "Just fly the planes." Unrestricted Warfare was one of those books that caused a stir among some military folks because it had recently been translated into English. It had that insider whiff of mystery and secrets, a peek into the mind of the Chinese Communist Party.

Despite that mystique, not a lot of people were finishing the book. For one thing, regardless of its title, no one thought we were ever going to be fighting a war with China, so it seemed like a lot of work for very little payoff. For another, the book itself is not a light read. It is a dense compendium of strategy, economics, social theory, and futuristic thoughts about technology. It imparts centuries of military history, particularly as it relates to the United States, but I already knew a lot of that. It seemed vague and also a little sci-fi, not relevant to a U.S. bomber pilot - even one with a fascination for military history. My mistake.

Comment: Bias is the detriment of advice.

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Stop

Jill Biden was against picking Kamala Harris as husband's running mate, new book reveals

Patrick Reilly
New York Post
Sun, 24 Apr 2022 01:41 UTC
J Biden
© Getty ImagesFirst Lady Jill Biden
First Lady Jill Biden was against choosing Kamala Harris as her husband Joe Biden's running mate after she attacked him during a primary debate, according to an upcoming new book.

The first lady's vexations were revealed in a bombshell new book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns titled This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future, due to be released in May.

After learning that Harris was the leading candidate for the job, according to an excerpt of the book provided to Fox News, Jill Biden said:
"There are millions of people in the United States. Why do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?"
Many from Biden's inner circle, however, believed that Harris would give the president the best chance of winning the election, according to the book.

Comment: If Harris was 'the best candidate' what does that say about the other contenders - given smarts, talent, experience and decorum were off the list?

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Fire

Oil depot on fire in Russian region bordering Ukraine


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:22 UTC
Fires
© Social MediaFires in Bryansk, Russia
A fire broke out on Monday morning at an oil depot in Bryansk, a large Russian city around 150km from Ukraine, and 370km south-west of Moscow.

The blaze occurred at a premises operated by Transneft-Druzhba JSC and at another location, officials told RIA Novosti. No casualties have been reported and there is no threat to residential buildings, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has advised.

"The evacuation of the population is not planned. According to preliminary information, there were no victims," its press service stated, according to TASS. Local residents have reported that explosions were heard and sirens are audible in social media videos.

Comment: The war is expanding via missiles and drones:
A pair of Ukrainian drones were destroyed in Russia's Kursk Region, which borders Ukraine from the northeast, the region's governor has said.

Governor Roman Starovoyt wrote on social media that "Russian air defense troops shot down two Ukrainian drones" early Monday morning in the village of Borovskoye. He said no one was hurt in the incident.

"The terrorist alert in the region will be extended," Starovoyt added later during a government meeting. The governor earlier said that mortar shells had hit a border crossing on Saturday, also with no casualties.
Targets: Ukrainian railway stations come under fire:
The head of Ukraine's railway service says five stations in the central and western parts of the country have been hit by missile strikes. Oleksandr Kamyshin, the chairman of the railway service, said on Telegram:
"Russian troops continue to systematically destroy railway infrastructure. This morning, within an hour, five railway stations in central and western Ukraine came under fire."
Kamyshin said trains are being forced to find alternate routes and schedules for security reasons. There were no reports of injuries.


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