Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Trump's diplomatic coup with Serbia and Kosovo curdles quickly

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:00 UTC
Vucic trump
Serbian President Aleksander Vucic was further embarrassed when this photo of his meeting with Donald Trump circulated with commentary that he looked like a school boy.
Just six days after US President Trump proudly announced another diplomatic breakthrough with Serbia and Kosovo, saying both will be opening embassies in Jerusalem, there came a spoiler: Serbia is apparently backing out of the deal, because Israel is to recognize the breakaway republic of Kosovo in reciprocity.

The Times of Israel reported yesterday:

Comment: See also:

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Health

Woodward says Trump consciously 'downplayed coronavirus', Fauci didn't see it that way, Trump says his goal was to reduce panic

Virginia Kruta
Daily Caller
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 21:17 UTC
trump i fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci responded Wednesday to claims that President Donald Trump had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that he "didn't get any sense" that was happening.

Fauci spoke with Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts about audio recorded by Rage author Bob Woodward that appeared to reveal Trump intentionally downplaying the seriousness of the virus.

Fauci began by saying that it as very common for him and other members of the Coronavirus Task Force to meet with Trump prior to press conferences, and he did not recall instances when the president said things publicly that they had not discussed in the private meetings.

"I may not be tuned in to the right thing they're talking about, but I didn't see any discrepancies what he told us and what we told him and what he ultimately came out publicly and said," Fauci added.

"So did you get a sense that he was or wasn't playing this down?" Roberts asked directly.

"No. No, no, I didn't. I didn't get any sense that he was distorting anything," Fauci replied. "In my discussions with him, they were always straightforward about the concerns that we had. We related that to him. And when he would go out, I'd hear him discussing the same sort of things."

Comment: The funny thing is, in retrospect people will look back and see that Trump was right. In fact, he could have gone even further and still have been right... The amount of cheap propaganda and blatant lies being spread and believed worldwide about this 'pandemic' is staggering.

Trump dealt with the new controversy of the day during a press conference:


And on Twitter:




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Umbrella

Democrats, Republicans agree: Politicians and corporations should be spared from prosecution over killer Covid-19 care homes


RT
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 19:14 UTC
Healthcare protesters
© Reuters/Mike BlakeCalifornian healthcare workers protesting for safer working conditions
Republican and Democrat politicians have both embraced legislation to immunize themselves and their deep-pocketed corporate donors from legal liability for ill-thought-out pandemic policies blamed for the deaths of thousands.

Republicans in the Senate have all but plagiarized a controversial provision from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that will offer legal immunity to corporations that ran the care homes in which hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans died with the coronavirus over the last six months, according to a trio of progressive journalists who compared the texts and interviewed some of the lobbyists who wrote the polarizing passages for the politicians in their pockets.

When Cuomo's corporate immunity provisions first resurfaced in Senate Republicans' Covid-19 stimulus package in July, some thought it was a fluke. The legislative package protected elder care homes from lawsuits over "resource or staffing shortage" and classed hospital administrators as caregivers for the purpose of that immunity. Cuomo himself criticized the bill, even as journalists noted the similarity of its language to his own legislation.

The bill in question was actually written by the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), a lobbying group that paid Cuomo over $1 million for the privilege of walling its members off from legal action in the midst of a pandemic that has seen tens of thousands of Americans die in nursing homes across the nation. Careful to cover all its bases, the GNYHA also spread over a quarter of a million dollars among Democratic legislative committees, ensuring the provision would be passed.

Comment: Immunity for Senate Democrats was worth $2M in payoff irrespective of the consequences to care facilities, human tally or sworn duty to the charge it de-serves.

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Hammer

The real goal of US sanctions on ex-Lebanese ministers is to weaken Hezbollah and combat Iranian influence, not corruption

Bradley Blankenship
RT
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 05:06 UTC
Beirut tribute
© Reuters/Mohamed AzakirObserving a minute of silence to mark one month since the massive explosion at Beirut's port area, September 4, 2020.
US sanctions against ex-Lebanese ministers are an attempt to weaken Hezbollah, cast out "Iranian influence" and keep protests lukewarm in terms of their anger toward America which helped construct the corrupt Lebanese government.

On September 8, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on two former Lebanese government ministers, Yusuf Finyanus and Ali Hassan Khalil, who the office claims have ties to Hezbollah. Washington said the sanctions are an effort to assist the Lebanese people in restructuring their government to fit the demands of protests that have raged across the country since October of 2019.

Comment: There is more to the false assignment of blame for the explosion than meets the eye. Thus heavy sanctions and 'corrections' will let the trail go cold as distraction infiltrates local efforts of recovery. The US, led by the nose to bolster Israel's ring of deflection and absolution, is thereby complicit.

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Dollar

US needs $3T in fiscal stimulus to support coronavirus-hit economy, says economist William Lee

Yen Nee Lee
CNBC
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 11:20 UTC
store closing scene
© Noam galai/Getty Images
The U.S. needs around $3 trillion in fiscal stimulus to support its pandemic-hit economy, an economist said Thursday as Congress and the White House remain in a stalemate over what to include in the next relief package.

William Lee, chief economist at Milken Institute, said the $3 trillion should be spent on programs such as incentivizing businesses to increase remote working capabilities and helping the unemployed find jobs in companies with viable business models. He told CNBC's Squawk Box Asia:
"I think the one thing that everyone ... agrees with is we have to get in there and get in big. The issue is how do you get big without a permanent increase in fiscal deficit. That's why the programs that are put in place have to be targeted and designed in a way so that they disappear once the economy comes back online again."
But disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on what programs to fund have contributed to the impasse over passing another stimulus bill in the U.S.


Comment: Americans won't get financial stimulus until the US government gets brain stimulus. What are the chances of that?!!!

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Briefcase

Julian Assange extradition hearing: Why justice must not only be done, but be 'seen' to be done - literally

Neil Clark
RT
Mon, 07 Sep 2020 17:57 UTC
Assange supporters
© Reuters/Peter NichollsSupporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hold placards outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court London, Britain September 7, 2020.
The denial of remote access to the newly resumed Assange extradition hearing of 40 civil society and political monitors has been strongly criticized given the importance of the case, and it's easy to see why people are concerned.

"It is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done," Lord Chief Justice Hewart's famous dictum goes.

Sadly that's not the case - literally - with the extradition hearing of Julian Assange which resumed today in London. Amnesty International and Reporters Sans Frontieres were just two of the 40 civil society and political monitoring groups who have had their remote access to the hearings denied, having, it is claimed, been invited to apply for such access only last week.
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Question

French pundit queries Western narrative on Navalny 'poisoning' with 'CIA' comments, gets bashed by establishment


RT
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 14:58 UTC
Zemmour/Navalny
© AFP/Philippe Wojazer/Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/Evgenia NovozheninaEric Zemmour (L) and Alexey Navalny (R)
A French pundit has questioned the Western narrative that Moscow played a role in the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny. Yet, the 'deviation' did not go down well with some of the French establishment.

German military scientists claim that Navalny, a prominent activist in Russia, was poisoned by a potent military-grade nerve agent last month. Berlin said that it had "a lot of evidence" that the Russian state was involved but has so far failed to provide this evidence to Moscow. Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has threatened Russia with sanctions over the alleged attack, while his G7 colleagues have condemned the "confirmed poisoning" in the "strongest terms."

However, prominent French essayist Eric Zemmour sees things differently. Though Western media are coalescing around the idea that Navalny was poisoned by the Russian state, Zemmour departed from that narrative in dramatic style. He told France's Cnews channel on Wednesday night:
"I'm trying to understand, and there are things that confuse me. If Putin gave the order to poison this political opponent, then why did Russian doctors save his life and transport him to Germany for treatment by the Germans, at the risk of exposing the crime? This is strange."
Zemmour even hinted that the US Central Intelligence Agency may have had a hand in the case. "Some people fantasize about the KGB, which has become the FSB, I fantasize about the CIA, which is still the CIA."

Comment: Handing over Navalny's test results to OPCW will further false suspicions rather than qualify accuracy and source.

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Dollar

UN's Guterres calls for $35 BILLION more for WHO COVID-19 program

John Miller
Reuters
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 19:02 UTC
World Health Organization
© Reuters / Denis Balibouse
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for $35 billion more, including $15 billion in the next three months, for the World Health Organization's "ACT-Accelerator" programme to support vaccines, treatments and diagnostics against COVID-19.

Some $3 billion has been contributed by countries so far, Guterres told an online event on Thursday, calling it "seed funding".

"But we now need $35 billion more to go from 'start up' to 'scale up and impact'," he said. "There is real urgency in these numbers. Without an infusion of $15 billion over the next three months, beginning immediately, we will lose the window of opportunity."
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Yoda

President Trump wants US troops out of the Middle East

Corey Dickstein
Stars & Stripes
Wed, 09 Sep 2020 18:25 UTC
US soldiers Iraq
© Desmond Cassell/U.S. ArmyU.S. soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Task Force-Iraq, take up defensive positions at Forward Operating Base Union III, Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2019.
US to cut thousands of troops from Iraq, Afghanistan in coming months

The United States will withdraw almost half of its troops from Iraq this month and make a similar cut to its force in Afghanistan by November, the top U.S. general overseeing operations in the Middle East announced Wednesday.

The decisions were announced by Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander for U.S. Central Command, during a visit to Baghdad almost exactly six years after the United States first launched military operations against the Islamic State along the Iraq-Syria border. They also come as President Donald Trump has continued to denounce U.S. involvement in long-running wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, from which he vowed to disentangle U.S. troops since his 2016 election campaign.

"In recognition of the great progress the Iraqi forces have made and in consultation and coordination with the government of Iraq and our coalition partners, the United States has decided to reduce our troop presence in Iraq from about 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September," McKenzie said during a U.S. military ceremony in Baghdad. "This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat."

Comment: Tucker summarizes and gives context:



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Bad Guys

Julian Assange hearing paused over Covid fears: Lawyer to get test

Ben Quinn
The Guardian
Thu, 10 Sep 2020 18:01 UTC
Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Assange's extradition case has been paused until Monday so that a member of one of the legal teams can be tested for Covid-19 after potential exposure.

The judge Vanessa Baraitser granted an adjournment at the request of lawyers for the WikiLeaks co-founder and the US government.

"We should not really be here today. Covid would be in the courtroom," said Edward Fitzgerald QC, who is representing Assange in his struggle to resist extradition to the US, where he could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years if convicted on all charges.

His request for an adjournment was backed by James Lewis QC, acting for the US government, who addressed the Old Bailey via video link.

Comment:

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