Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Craig Murrey: Emergency powers being used to extinguish civil liberties


craigmurray.org.uk
Wed, 06 May 2020 18:54 UTC
John Shipton protest Westminster Crown Court
The sinister potential of coronavirus lockdown to suppress dissent was on display on Monday as police broke up a small group of protestors outside Westminster Crown Court during a case management hearing for Julian Assange. The dozen protestors, who included Julian's father John Shipton, were all social distancing at least 2 metres apart (except where living in the same household). The police did not observe social distancing as they broke up this small and peaceful protest.

This is a stark illustration of the use of the current emergency powers to suppress legitimate dissent.

For the first time, there was something of a court victory for Assange's defence team, as they obtained their preferred date of September for resumption of the extradition hearing. Last week magistrate Baraitser had tried to impose a choice of July or November based on the availability of Woolwich Crown Court. As defence witnesses have to come from around the world, July was too early for the defence, while November would mean another lengthy period of incarceration for the unconvicted Assange. This is not the first time the defence have secured the agreement of the US-led prosecution to a procedural request, but it is the very first time Baraitser has acceded to anything proposed by the defence, throughout all the lengthy proceedings.

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Propaganda

'Peak cringe': New York Times roasted for Biden 'hottest-bad-boy' election campaign strategy article


RT
Thu, 07 May 2020 18:43 UTC
New York Times, Joe Biden
The New York Times is being credited with finally achieving "peak cringe" on the topic of Joe Biden, after the publication of an election strategy article that casts the presidential hopeful as "the hottest bad boy" in media.

The opinion piece by Democratic communications strategist Lis Smith attempts to plot Biden's course to the White House amidst the unprecedented election scenario brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Smith, who was an adviser on Pete Buttigieg's failed presidential bid, says that the pandemic could be a "blessing in disguise" for Biden, as it offers him the opportunity to skip the grueling travel schedule of a normal presidential election and instead to beat incumbent Donald Trump by broadcasting from his basement.

Comment: Who's more cringe-worthy, Biden or his supporters?

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Bad Guys

Judicial Watch: Emails show extensive communications between senior defense official and columnist who published leaked info on Flynn calls with Russian ambassador


Judicial Watch
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 18:38 UTC
michael flynn
© Reuters / Joshua Roberts / FileFormer US national security adviser Michael Flynn departs the US District Court in Washington, DC.
Judicial Watch released 143 pages of new records today from the U.S. Department of Defense, showing extensive communications between the Pentagon's Director of the Office of Net Assessment James Baker and Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.

Lawyers for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn alleged in a November 1, 2019, court filing that Baker "is believed to be the person who illegally leaked" to Ignatius the transcripts of Flynn's December 29, 2016, telephone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The Washington Post published Ignatius' account of the calls on January 12, 2017, setting in motion a chain of events that lead to Flynn's February 13, 2017, firing as National Security Advisor and subsequent prosecution for making false statements to the FBI about the calls. U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly investigating the leak of information targeting Flynn.
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Black Cat

Did FBI operative Stefan Halper's lie launch the Flynn investigation, and did IG Horowitz run cover for it?

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 03 May 2020 17:47 UTC
Halper Lokhova Flynn russiagate
(L-R) Stefan Halper, Svetlana Lokhova, Michael Flynn
For those who haven't been paying attention, recently unsealed materials in the case against former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn all but prove that the FBI set him up with a perjury trap (a 'squeeze' which even Bloomberg's Eli Lake says 'undermines the rule of law').

And as the case against Flynn continues to unravel, perhaps the most important dots have been connected by investigative researcher @JohnWHuber, better known as "Undercover Huber" on Twitter, who makes a cogent argument that Stefan Halper - the portly spy who the FBI used to conduct espionage on the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election - may have sparked the Flynn investigation after lying to the FBI.

What's more, IG Michael Horowitz's report makes no mention of the lie, or the recently-learned fact that the FBI tried to close the Flynn case, dubbed 'Crossfire Razor', in Jan. 2017, only for agent Peter Strzok to go 'off the rails' and demand it not be closed.
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Bad Guys

Immunity passports are not a way of reopening societies, they're a plunge towards totalitarianism

Peter Andrews
RT
Thu, 07 May 2020 18:12 UTC
immunity passport
© Getty Images / Try Media
The idea of immunity passports is gaining in popularity among Western governments. But they are fraught with problems, from their implementation to their functionality. Above all, they're a grave threat to fundamental freedoms.

Ordinary passports may not be much good to many of us for a while, with little possibility of foreign travel. But what if you needed a passport to leave your house and go about your daily life? In a world dominated by coronavirus, immunity passports are increasingly being talked about as a possible path out of lockdown. But what exactly would this path entail?

Track, trace, erase?

The basic premise of an immunity passport is to hasten the reopening of society by allowing those who are immune to Covid-19 to move freely, leaving only those who are not immune subject to restrictions. The passport itself might be a paper certificate, such as those that Chile has been issuing, although, in Europe and America, it would more likely appear on your smartphone as an app, code or as digital certification.

This has been the solution adopted in China. All Chinese people have had to register for a QR code that downloads an app. The app uses a traffic-light system that sorts people into red, yellow or green groups based on their health status and Covid-19 risk level - although how this is determined is not transparent.
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Monkey Wrench

#MeToo exposed as the fraudulent political weapon it was designed to be

Deanna Lorraine
LifeZette
Tue, 05 May 2020 00:00 UTC
biden sniffing hair
Exposed! The #MeToo movement is nothing more than the political weapon it was designed to be.

There, I said it.

Alyssa Milano, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and all the celebrity talking heads who call themselves feminists stormed after Brett Kavanaugh with pitchforks, inciting an angry mass mob virtually foaming at the mouths after him. Overnight, he went from being a highly esteemed judge with a squeaky-clean record and 30 years of honorable service to being labeled a "sexual predator." All without a shred of credible evidence.

Just one woman, who came out of nowhere, accused him of something that supposedly happened thirty years earlier in high school. It didn't matter that Christine Blasey Ford's story had more holes and inconsistencies in it than Swiss cheese. Nor that she couldn't remember pertinent details and had no one to corroborate the story.

The Left was game to destroy his family, his career, his life of achievements and rip his reputation to shreds. They whipped up their mob of millions on the Left and got the hashtags #MeToo and #BelieveWomen trending for weeks. They staged a dramatic #BelieveSurvivors National Walkout day to "show solidarity" with Christine Ford, with women across the nation wearing all-black because, as they repeated ad nauseum, "women should be believed and any woman who has a story of sexual harassment should be heard."

Comment:

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Георгиевская ленточка

Victory Day parade is going ahead as planned - Belarus' Lukashenko responds to critics


BelTA
Tue, 05 May 2020 17:20 UTC
Alexander Lukashenko
© SputnikAlexander Lukashenko
Accusations should be met with timely, purposeful, and adequate responses, BelTA learned from Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Aleksandr Lukashenko was asked about the negative response of some mass media and Telegram channels to Belarus' decision to go ahead with the Victory Day parade on 9 May and about the need to respond to negativity of this kind.

The head of state said: "If you are bombarded with accusations, if speculations are put forward, then certainly it is necessary to respond." Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the response should be timely, purposeful, and adequate.

In that context the president responded to criticism, in particular, criticism expressed by a number of Russian mass media, about the allegedly low number of coronavirus tests being done in Belarus. He cited figures from a survey prepared specifically for the Belarusian head of state. The survey explains how many tests are done per one million residents in various countries. The survey includes information not only about CIS states but also about a number of non-CIS states. Aleksandr Lukashenko noted: "As of this morning the Russian Federation did 29,500 tests per one million residents. Belarus came second with 22,500 tests. And the USA came third with 22,000 tests per one million residents. So, they should criticize Americans."

Comment: The parade is going ahead as planned.

See also:

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Arrow Down

Maduro: Two Americans 'on Trump's security team' were part of the failed mercenary invasion UPDATES


RT
Tue, 05 May 2020 03:27 UTC
Maduro
© Reuters/Manaure QuinteroVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed that two US citizens were captured along with a group of "mercenaries" Caracas accused of trying to infiltrate the Latin American nation in order to assassinate him.

"Among those captured are the traitor Antonio Sequea and a citizen with the last name Baduel, who stated that two Americans from Donald Trump's security team were in the raiding group," Maduro's office tweeted on Monday night, referring to the group of infiltrators.

Comment:
As this latest coup attempt was literally stopped in its tracks, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry made this accusation: "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces to the international community a new mercenary and terrorist aggression organized from the territory of the Republic of Colombia and planned by US agents, against peace, democracy and sovereignty of Venezuela." Predictably, Colombia denied any responsibility and dismissed the accusations. And as for the US, recall it had put out a $15 million bounty on the Venezuelan president. Included in those arrested was a "veteran agent" of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) - an undeniable link to Washington.
See also: UPDATE: 5/5/2020
Trump has denied any involvement by the U.S. government in the failed armed incursion.

"We'll find out. We just heard about it," Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans' arrests. "But it has nothing to do with our government."

The US State Department accused the Maduro government of a "highly questionable representation of the details," saying it did not accept the account at face value and was seeking more information. It did not specify, however, what it believed had been distorted.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a Pentagon briefing: "The United States government had nothing to do with what's happened in Venezuela in the last few days."

State Department spokesman said: "We will also be looking closely into the role of the Maduro regime in this melodrama and especially of the very large Cuban intelligence apparatus in Venezuela." There was no immediate sign, however, that the U.S. and Venezuelan governments were communicating about the matter.
UPDATES: 6/5/2020
Maduro
© Reuters/Miraflores PalacePersonal documents of detained US mercenaries shown by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro during a virtual news conference in Caracas.
Two captured mercenaries are spilling the beans. They say kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and bringing him to the US was the objective of the failed incursion into the country.

Mercenary Luke Denman said he was tasked to take control of the airport in order to facilitate the transfer of Maduro to the US. "I expected anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000," he said.


Pompeo pledged that the White House would use "every tool" in order to bring the two Americans - who used to serve in US special operations forces - back home.


Perhaps to shut them up?


Meanwhile, Moscow isn't buying US' denial of culpability - says it was 'alarmed' by foreign mercenaries with links to US special services attempted to land in Venezuela.

As the US has said: 'All options are on the table."


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X

Trump vetoes resolution limiting Iran war powers


RFE/RL
Thu, 07 May 2020 16:49 UTC
al-asad air base crater
© APU.S. soldiers and journalists stand near a crater caused by an Iranian missile strike at the Ain al-Asad air base in January, following the U.S. strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
U.S. President Trump has vetoed a congressional resolution to prevent military action against Iran without first receiving permission from Congress amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

In a statement on May 6, Trump described the attempt by lawmakers to curtail a president's war powers as "very insulting" and based on "misunderstandings of facts and law."

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House passed the nonbinding resolution in March after it had earlier cleared the Senate.

It came amid concern that the United States was on a warpath after a U.S. airstrike killed Iran's most powerful general, Qasem Soleimani, and a top Iraqi militia leader in Baghdad in January.

Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base housing U.S troops that left more than 100 soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the sole power to declare war. But Trump said that "contrary to the resolution, the United States is not engaged in the use of force against Iran."

"The resolution implies that the President's constitutional authority to use military force is limited to defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack. That is incorrect," Trump said.

"We live in a hostile world of evolving threats, and the Constitution recognizes that the President must be able to anticipate our adversaries' next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That's what I did!"


Comment: That's what he did. Doesn't make it right, or legal. Trump may not be as bad as any of his predecessors - he's practically a dove in comparison - but he's still a war criminal.

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Snakes in Suits

'Political Ponerology': Understanding 'Pathocracies'

Ali Saeed
Pakistan Observer
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
ponerology
Political Ponerology is an emerging field in social-psychology which deals with the study of leadership with reference to politics. It attempts to explain behaviours and thinking patterns of leaders as to what motivates them to embark on quest for power, rule and fomenting change. Unlike the ordinary that may wait for an opportunity, people with manipulative behaviour and authoritarian mindset are highly inclined and ambitious to join politics. Exceptions apart, life of most of the political leaders is dark with conspiracies than bright with ethical conduct. Let us break this gestalt, bit-by-bit, to find out how people around the globe fall into the trap and suffer after becoming a tool for these highly ambitious leaders.

Most of our human instincts are traced back to the times of hunter-gatherer societies. Sapiens, in their earliest form, were governed by a religious code, pronounced by their religious elders known to us as 'Shamans'. For decision making, as to who would lead the society, they had the veto powers over their followers. They used to overturn decisions made by families and groups in a given tribe. It was an agreed upon principle among shamans to undermine the position of men who were manipulative and used to aspire leadership aggressively. To them, leadership was not a position to be struggled for, but a trust reposed in those who have no desire for it.

Comment: Nice to see that Political Ponerology now has something of a world-wide reach.

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