Puppet MastersS


Dominoes

Italy's Salvini faces 15 years in jail following Trump-style legal circus aimed at killing off his popularity

Damian Wilson
RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 19:42 UTC
salvini
© REUTERS/Guglielmo
Having voted to lift his immunity from prosecution, the Italian Senate has cynically followed the US Democrats' playbook by creating a legal sideshow to combat the growing popularity of the League's Matteo Salvini.

Salvini's 14-month term as Italy's interior minister was a rollercoaster ride, as he ruled the national political agenda and built a massive power base - much to the chagrin of his former political allies, who are now exacting their revenge.

The Senate vote to lift his parliamentary immunity, meaning a prison sentence of up to 15 years comes into play, is the first step of the traditional ruling class towards stopping the political force that is Salvini - who, even in opposition, has barely spent a day out of the headlines.
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Arrow Down

Clueless Mike Bloomberg hired Fyre Festival marketing team to help him "look cool" for primaries

John Vibes
The Mind Unleashed
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 12:32 UTC
Bloomberg
© Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Mike Bloomberg hired Frye Festival promoters to make his campaign memes. Seriously.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been desperately trying to inject himself into the 2020 election, and according to a recent report from the New York Times. Bloomberg has even gone so far as to hire the marketing team behind the now-infamous Fyre Festival.

Jerry Media, the disgraced marketing firm that played a major role in the botched festival, is involved with a meme campaign that hopes to make the 77-year-old candidate look "cool."

"The Meme 2020 project" is being organized for Bloomberg by Jerry Media executive director Mick Purzycki who played a major role in the failed Fyre Festival.

Comment: More on the Fyre Festival scam:

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Star of David

UK Left slams Labour Party leader candidates who call themselves 'Zionist' or sympathetic to Zionism


RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 18:57 UTC
UK labour party button
© Getty Images / Oli Scarff
The four Labour leader hopefuls all claimed to be Zionist - or sympathetic to the movement - at a special event held by a Jewish wing of the party, drawing outrage from party supporters on pro-Palestinian grounds.

When answering questions posed at the Jewish Labour Movement hustings on Thursday, Lisa Nandy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Emily Thornberry unequivocally called themselves Zionist. Their fellow Labour leader candidate Keir Starmer qualified his answer, saying "I don't describe myself as a Zionist, but I understand, sympathize, and support Zionism." The pronouncements quickly ignited the ire of many Labour members who took to Twitter to vent their anger - with some even threatening to leave the party altogether.

Comment: There is no better documentation of how deep Israeli interests reach into British politics than Al Jazeera's undercover expose, The Lobby

Al Jazeera undercover investigation: 4-part series on how the Israel Lobby in Britain influences politics and universities

Part 1:

What will Israel do when the smear of 'antisemtism' doesn't work any more?
Right now, the accusation of 'anti-Semitism' is the political and social equivalent of a nuclear weapon. This is part of the problem with using it so freely to shut down any and all criticism of Israel - much like the term 'racist,' overusing it may lead to it losing all its power against actual racists and anti-Semites. It works for now, and will work for a while yet - until some day soon it doesn't anymore. People can only handle so much hyperbole before they become inured to it. Not everything is the second coming of the Holocaust, and arguing otherwise only cheapens its horrors.

Worst of all, invoking it to shut down speech - however hateful one may find it - actually fuels the very tropes promoted by actual anti-Semites about 'Jewish control' of the media and politics. At the end of the day, the argument of force can never truly replace the force of argument, and sunlight is usually the best disinfectant.


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Chess

India plans to get new frigates from Russia while the US threatens New Delhi with sanctions over purchase of S-400 missile system

Shishir Upadhyaya
RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 19:20 UTC
frigate
© RIA Novosti / Alexei Demichev
Despite the modernization of India's defense industry, Indo-Russian military cooperation is still strong — and two Talwar-class frigates will be delivered to New Delhi in 2024. But could competition from the US get in the way?

As part of a $2.2 billion deal with Moscow, the pair of warships, currently under construction at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad, will be delivered in two years — and two additional frigates will be built domestically at India's Goa Shipyard under a technology transfer agreement.
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Putin

In phone call, Zelenskiy and Putin discuss next Normandy summit, possible prisoner exchange


RFE/RL
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 19:17 UTC
putin and zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have discussed by phone preparations for a new summit in the so-called Normandy format and a possible prisoner swap, Zelenskiy's office said on February 14.

"Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin paid special attention to the process of releasing Ukrainian citizens being held in temporarily occupied territories of Donbas [districts controlled by Russia-backed separatists since April 2014], Crimea, and the Russian Federation," the office said.

After his upset win in presidential elections last year, 41-year-old former comedian Zelenskiy managed to negotiate a long-awaited prisoner exchange with Russia that saw the two countries exchange dozens of prisoners in September and December.
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Laptop

Iran civil defence chief: Last week's cyberattack on Iran originated in US


Sputnik
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 18:14 UTC
cyber warfare US iran
The United States government reportedly carried out a number of cyberattacks targeting Iran's internet infrastructure over the past year, in response to Tehran's shootdown of a US drone over Iranian airspace in the Hormuz Strait, and other actions in the Middle East which Washington has blamed on the Islamic Republic.

Iran foiled a 'large-scale' attack on the country's cyber infrastructure on February 8, with the denial of service (DDOS) attack believed to have been launched by the US, Brig. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, chief of Iran's Civil Defence Organization, has said.

"It's very difficult and time-consuming to trace the source of a cyberattack. The Telecommunication Infrastructure Company is currently studying and looking for the source of the recent cyberattack against the country...but our analysis is that the US was the origin," Jalali said, his comments cited by Press TV.

Comment: Iran has long been one of the U.S. (and Israel's) top cyber warfare targets, dating all the way back to the Stuxnet virus that temporarily crippled Iran's civilian nuclear industry. The net effect has been to make Iran one of the leaders in cyber warfare defense.

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Handcuffs

Trump: Bloomberg made 'stop and frisk' much worse for black New Yorkers, he'd be surprised if blacks support him

Charlie Spiering
Breitbart
Thu, 13 Feb 2020 18:03 UTC
stop and frisk
© AP Photo/Seth Wenig
President Donald Trump said that Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the "stop and frisk" policy much worse for black New Yorkers.

"Honestly, if you were a black person in New York, you were stopped two times a day, three times a day, you couldn't go to your house, they were stopping you every day," Trump said. "What Bloomberg did to the back community was a disgrace."

The president commented on the policy during a podcast interview with Geraldo Rivera.

Trump defended former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's creation of the policy but said that the former mayor used it "sparingly and really brilliantly" and even "gingerly" to fight crime.

"Bloomberg came in and he multiplied it times ten," he said. "If you were a black person walking down the street, you were going to be stopped and frisked under Bloomberg."

Trump said that Bloomberg turned the "stop and frisk" policy into a "vicious" policy.

"I would be very surprised if the black community can support him," Trump said

Comment: Trump, as usual, speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Before becoming president, he liked to say he wasn't a politician, but he's got the language down pat. In fact, he's pretty damn good at it, which is one of the reasons he won the election in the first place.

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Family

'As long as I'm president we will have 'mother' & 'father': Putin backs traditional family values once again


RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 18:01 UTC
russian family agricultural land
© Vitaliy Ankov / Sputnik
Russia will not introduce politically correct terminology such as "parent #1" and "parent #2" any time soon, Putin told a constitutional reform working group on Thursday, as they discussed family values in Russia.
As for 'parent #1' and 'parent #2', I have already publicly said it and I will repeat it once more: as long as I am president, we will not have parents #1 and #2, it will be 'mother' and 'father'.
One of the working group members, Russian lawmaker Olga Batalina, told the president that many people in Russia are concerned about the fate of the traditional family and would like to see it protected by the constitution. Putin welcomed the idea but said that it needs careful consideration.

Batalina noted that some people who sent proposals to the 75-strong body which is tasked with processing citizens' suggestions on the constitutional reform, would very much like to see 'family' defined as a "union of a man and a woman."

Some Western nations have clearly moved beyond such definitions and terms altogether. French schools replaced 'mother' and 'father' in their documents with 'parent #1' and 'parent #2' back in February 2019 while Italy initiated a similar process as well but it was stalled by former Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. The US took the lead in this field as early as in 2011 when it announced that it would replace "mother" and "father" on passport applications.

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Rocket

Israel kills 4 Iranians, 3 Syrians in Damascus strikes, Netanyahu says maybe Belgium did it


Times of Israel
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:56 UTC
damascus missile
© Global Look Press /ZUMA Press/ Ammar SafarjalaniSyria's air defense missile, responding to a missile strike, is seen in the sky over Damascus, capital of Syria.
Four members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and three Syrian soldiers were killed in airstrikes around Damascus late Thursday night which Syria attributed to Israel, according to a Britain-based Syrian civil war monitor.

At approximately 11:45 p.m., incoming missiles struck five weapons depots near Damascus International Airport, including an attack on a military position south of the Syrian capital, the al-Arabiya news channel reported, citing unidentified sources.

The attack came hours after a shipment — reportedly of munitions — arrived at the airport from Tehran, according to flight data.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that in total seven people were killed in the strikes, four of them from the IRGC and three from the Syrian military.


Both Syria and the Observatory said Israel was behind the strike. The Israeli military did not comment on the matter, in accordance with its long-standing policy of neither confirming nor denying such operations abroad.

Asked about Israel's alleged involvement in a Friday morning interview to Radio Haifa, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I don't comment on one operation or another.

"I don't know what happened at night. Maybe it was the Belgian air force," he quipped.
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Broom

Boris de Gaulle is taking power in London: What the UK government reshuffle really means

George Gallowy
RT
Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:18 UTC
Boris Johnson Charles de Gaulle
© AFP / Daniel Leal-Olivas; Global Look Press/ZUMAPRESS/k09(L) Boris Johnson (R) Charles De Gaulle
Commentary about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle has largely missed the point in the British media. This is the real Boris Johnson standing up, not some cack-handed mishandling of "the colleagues."

No more primus inter pares [first among equals], just primus and the pygmies.

This is President Boris Johnson, a better-educated Donald Trump, one who can speak Latin at least as well as Trump can speak English. This is populist Boris Johnson. Dirigiste Boris Johnson, the first Gaullist prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Comment: Bojo reshuffles cabinet, Chancellor quits, Northern Ireland & environment minster among notable sackings

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