Puppet MastersS


Black Cat

Vulture capitalist and Republican mega-donor Paul Singer buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey

Martin Pengelly
The Guardian
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 10:13 UTC
Paul Singer
Paul Singer
Billionaire Paul Singer's Elliott Management has taken a 'sizable stake' and intends to 'push for changes', reports Bloomberg News

A major Republican donor has purchased a stake in Twitter and is reportedly seeking to oust its chief executive, Jack Dorsey.

Bloomberg News first reported that Elliott Management has taken a "sizable stake" and "and plans to push for changes at the social media company, including replacing Dorsey".

Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of Elliott Management, is a Republican mega-donor who opposed Donald Trump during the real-estate magnate's run for the presidential nomination but has since come onside.

After a White House visit in February 2017, Trump said Singer "was very much involved with the anti-Trump or, as they say, 'Never Trump', and Paul just left, and he's given us his total support and it's all about unification".

Comment: Whenever a creature like Paul Singer gains more influence on a social media company like Twitter, chances are the signal to noise ratio regarding good information is likely to be further degraded.

See also: How and why neocon billionaire Paul Singer Is driving the outsourcing of US tech jobs to Israel

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Control Panel

Bill Browder points finger at Bernie Sanders on Magnitsky Act vote, but the real story is his own corruption

Danielle Ryan
RT
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 19:43 UTC
Browder Sanders
© (L) AFP / Daniel Leal-Olivas, (R) Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
UK investor Bill Browder has jumped aboard the anti-Bernie Sanders train, smearing the 2020 frontrunner as a Russian pawn for a 2012 vote on the Magnitsky Act, which he championed. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot more to the story.

To understand the motivation behind Browder's finger-pointing at Sanders, one needs to do a little reading into Browder's own background — beyond the glowing praise that can be found in pages of Western media.

The American-born banker who heads the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund (and renounced his US citizenship to avoid paying taxes) made his fortune in 1990's Russia. When things were going well for him, he was decidedly pro-Putin, praising the Russian president in a 2004 op-ed for "fighting to stop the oligarchs from taking over the country."


Comment: Browder is a mega-conman who deserves a mega comeuppance for all the political and social Russophobia he's stirred up in the interest of maintaining his business, influence and lifestyle.

See also:

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Bug

Trump and the politics of Coronavirus

Mike Luongo
Gold, Goats 'N Guns
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
Trump Coronavirus
Normally I agree with Moon of Alabama's analysis on foreign affairs and certainly geopolitics. But the latest post discussing the political fallout from spread and potential mismanagement of nCOVID-19 is nothing short of fantasy.

I don't disagree that China, assuming that the numbers they've published are any more real than a lot of their economic numbers, has shown remarkable power to stop the spread of the disease.

And they have done so so as to disrupt supply chains all across the world. This week the equity markets finally came to terms with the real world effects of such a disruption, even if the disease itself is, in the end, controllable and the response to it to this point, overblown.

I'm not saying it is one way or the other. I've heard every conspiracy theory about this virus you can imagine. It speaks directly to the power of rumor and the ability for people absent good information to make up stories that fit their personal bias.

And in this post B. betrays his in a way that, frankly, highlights just how little he understands America, its culture and the electorate.
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Bizarro Earth

US aircraft carrier & warships enter Mediterranean


Sputnik
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 12:05 UTC
aircraft carrier sputnik
© Sputnik/ US Navy // Miguel A. Contreras Contreras
The Mediterranean Sea area is home to two major conflicts - a full-blown civil war in Libya (which turned into a failed state in 2011 following NATO airstrikes) and tensions in Syria between Damascus and Washington's Turkish allies.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower crossed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday night, the Marine Traffic maritime information portal has reported.

According to the resource, the aircraft carrier, going by the call sign NIKE, is currently sailing east of Gibraltar as of Sunday afternoon.

The ship reportedly has an escort of several other US Navy warships, including the USS San Jacinto and USS Vella Gulf Tomahawk-armed guided-missile cruisers, as well as a destroyer squadron consisting of the USS Stout, USS James E. Williams and USS Truxton destroyers.

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

Buttigieg's exit a sign Dems trying to stop Sanders - Trump

Frank Miles
Fox News
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 12:13 UTC
Buttigieg
© REUTERS/Brian SnyderDemocratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg joins the Annual Bloody Sunday March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, U.S., March 1, 2020.
Pete Buttigieg suspends 2020 campaign following fourth place finish in South Carolina primary.

Moments after former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg told supporters he's ending his presidential campaign Sunday, President Trump said it reflected the growing pressure among more moderate Democrats to consolidate in order to blunt the rise of progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Trump tweeted: "Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!"

Buttigieg previously had said Sanders was too liberal to be elected.

Comment: RT reports:
Buttigieg, the youngest on the Democratic candidate roster, called it quits after finishing a respectable fourth in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, where he was surpassed only by former VP Joe Biden, current Democratic race frontrunner Bernie Sanders, and billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who himself bowed out shortly after the results came in.

"After a year of going everywhere, meeting everyone, defying every expectation, seeking every vote — the truth is that the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy, if not for our cause," Buttigieg said, announcing his decision to pull the plug on his campaign at a rally in his hometown of South Bend on Sunday night.

Buttigieg rather unexpectedly took center stage in the nomination process early on after he stunned observers, edging out Sanders in the Iowa caucus on February 3.

Buttigieg's withdrawal from the race could give a boost to Biden's chances of swaying the nomination process in his favor, cutting short the leadership of Sanders who, despite the former VP's landslide victory in South Carolina, is still leading by eight delegates overall after winning New Hampshire, Nevada and the popular vote in Iowa.


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Eye 1

'Still more to learn': Federal judge orders Hillary Clinton deposition to address private emails

Ronn Blitzer
MSN News
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 03:38 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© FOX News
A federal judge Monday granted a request from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch to have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sit for a sworn deposition to answer questions about her use of a private email server to conduct government business.

Clinton has argued that she has already answered questions about this and should not have to do so again -- the matter did not result in any charges for the then-presidential candidate in 2016 after a high-profile investigation -- but D.C. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth said in his ruling that her past responses left much to be desired.

"As extensive as the existing record is, it does not sufficiently explain Secretary Clinton's state of mind when she decided it would be an acceptable practice to set up and use a private server to conduct State Department business," Lamberth said.

The judge went on to recognize that while Clinton responded to written questions in a separate case, "those responses were either incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory at best. Simply put her responses left many more questions than answers." Lamberth said that using written questions this time "will only muddle any understanding of Secretary Clinton's state of mind and fail to capture the full picture, thus delaying the final disposition of this case even further."
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Attention

Lawyers say IOC documents presented as evidence of Russian biathletes' doping contained fake signatures


RT
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:30 UTC
Grigory Rodchenkov
© Global Look Press / Viktor ChernovGrigory Rodchenkov
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been given one day to provide an explanation regarding alleged forged signatures on documents presented as evidence against Russian biathletes accused of doping.

On Monday the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) considered a claim by Russian lawyer Alexey Panich, who said that IOC documents on the case involving three Russian biathletes - Olga Zaitseva, Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina - contained fake signatures of former Moscow Anti-Doping laboratory chief Grigory Rodchenkov.

The trio of Russian athletes were slapped with lifetime bans in 2017 and stripped of medals over alleged doping violations.

According to TASS, the IOC will need to provide an explanation regarding the documents - the key evidence against the Russian athletes - by Tuesday.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Development plan for Pakistan's Belt and Road port at Gwadar stirs skepticism due to lack of funds and resources

Adnan Aamir
NIKKEI Asian Review
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:33 UTC
Pakistan Gwadar smart port
© ReutersThere are plans to make the port city of Gwadar, near the Gulf of Oman, into a smart metropolis of 2 million, but the city's 85,000 current residents already struggle with poor electricity and water supplies.
Pakistan's Gwadar Smart Port City Masterplan has raised eyebrows among economic experts because of the massive amount of resources it will cost financially strapped Pakistan.

Gwadar Port is a major part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which for China is an essential part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

The masterplan was approved at CPEC's 9th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting in November. It was developed by the Fourth Harbor Design Institute at a cost of 521 million Pakistani rupees ($3.3 million). The FHDI is a Chinese engineering and design company.

The complete text of the masterplan has not been made public, and only limited information about the salient features is available on the website of the Gwadar Development Authority, the body responsible for implementing the plan. The project has been shrouded in mystery despite demands from journalists and experts to release it in its entirety.
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Star of David

What's absent? Outrage over Netanyahu's interference in the US election!

Michael Arria
Mondoweiss
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
netanyahu
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueIsraeli PM Netanyahu addresses AIPAC 2020 from Israel
For the last four years, there's been a national debate regarding the scope of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The issue might end up dominating discourse in 2020 as well. Last month, intelligence officials warned House members that Russia is allegedly meddling in an effort to get Trump reelected.

Concerns about Putin's impact on U.S. elections has generated countless articles and wall-to-wall cable news coverage. It also fueled an impeachment investigation. However, blatant election interference from other countries is certainly not treated in the same way.

This contradiction was on display over the weekend, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed AIPAC's annual policy conference via video feed. Netanyahu repeatedly referenced Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders, who skipped the conference and claimed that the lobbying group promotes bigotry. At the most recent Democratic debate, Sanders called Netanyahu a "reactionary racist."


Comment: Trump is Netanyahu's golden ticket - without which he would likely be in jail. Interference is a given.

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Jet3

Bailing on Erdogan: Pentagon says Turkey will not get US air support in Idlib


Sputnik
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 19:14 UTC
Pentagon Chief Mark Esper
© Agence France-PressePentagon Chief Mark Esper
On Saturday, President Trump said the US had been speaking with President Erdogan of Turkey "a lot" over the situation in Idlib, and confirmed that the two countries were discussing Ankara's request for the temporary deployment of US Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.

The United States will not provide air support to Turkey in the wartorn Syrian province of Idlib, Pentagon Chief Mark Esper has said, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday.

Asked directly if US assistance would include air support, Esper responded bluntly "No."
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