Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Judge overseeing Trump case could face ethics investigation

Chris
Trending Politics
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
MerchanTrump
© Ahmed Gaber/NY Times/Redux Pictures/ABC7.com/KJNJudge Juan Merchan • Former US President Donald Trump
Judge Juan Merchan, who presides over the case of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan, may be subject to an ethics investigation for violating New York's Code of Judicial Conduct.

Outlined in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct, sitting judges are prohibited from engaging in any political activity, including making contributions to political organizations or candidates. Judge Juan Merchan's three donations to Democrats during the 2020 election could be a violation of this rule.

Judge Juan Merchan made three donations to Democrats in 2020, which include $15 to Biden for President and $10 each to Progressive Turnout Project and Stop Republicans, according to FEC records.
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Dollars

O'Neill urges BRICS bloc to expand, challenge dollar's dominance

Antony Sguazzin
Bloomberg
Tue, 28 Mar 2023 05:40 UTC
O'Neill
© Simon Dawson/BloombergEconomist Jim O’Neill
Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist who coined the acronym BRIC, said the bloc of nations that later adopted the name should expand and work to counter the dollar's dominance.

In a paper published in the Global Policy journal on March 26, O'Neill called on the group to apply strict criteria to ensure the addition of any new members to its ranks helps further its aims and urged it to focus on climate finance, improving healthcare and boosting trade.
"The US dollar plays a far too dominant role in global finance. Whenever the Federal Reserve Board has embarked on periods of monetary tightening, or the opposite, loosening, the consequences on the value of the dollar and the knock-on effects have been dramatic."
Brazil, Russia, India and China established BRIC in 2009 and the bloc became BRICS a year later when South Africa was admitted. If it expands to include other "emerging nations with persistent surpluses," a globally fairer, multi-currency global system could emerge, O'Neill said.

Comment: As reality continues to divide, there is little chance opposing ideologies will cooperatively merge.

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X

African state rejects IMF 'diktats'


RT
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 12:53 UTC
Kais Saied
© Fethi Belaid/AFPTunisia's President Kais Saied
The Tunisian president has rejected the terms of a stalled $1.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), citing unacceptable foreign influence and the risk of increasing poverty.

Speaking on Thursday, Kais Saied said he "will not hear diktats" and argued that cutting state subsidies will cause social unrest, while warning that "public peace is not a game."

Tunisia reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF in October 2022 for a loan to support the economy over a 48-month period under an Extended Fund Facility. However the deal, which was supposed to be approved in December 2022, was postponed after the North African country failed to meet key commitments.

The loan conditions include cuts to food and energy subsidies, as well as a reduction in the public wage bill.

"It's true that some people who don't need subsidies are benefitting from them, but we can find other ways to make sure they get to those who deserve them," the president told reporters in Monastir.

Comment: Puppet Master World Bank is now utilizing 'remarks' as a reason to refuse financial assistance.

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Nuke

The Times reveals failed Ukrainian attack on Zaporozhye nuclear plant


RT
Sun, 09 Apr 2023 19:04 UTC
zaporozhye nuclear plant
© Sputnik / Konstantin MihalchevskiyThis aerial view shows the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant located in the steppe zone on the shore of the Kakhovsky reservoir in the city of Energodar, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine.
An elite force tried to seize the Zaporozhye NPP last autumn, the newspaper's sources have claimed

A "highly dangerous" Ukrainian operation to capture the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant last year ended in failure due to heavy Russian resistance, The Times reported on Friday, citing sources.

According to Kiev's military personnel interviewed by the British newspaper, the attack involved some 600 elite Ukrainian soldiers who tried to cross the Dnieper River on October 19 by boat.

The operation hinged on the presumption that Moscow's troops would not be able to fire artillery so close to the nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe, one officer told The Times.

Comment: More proof the Zelensky regime has lost its collective mind:

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Bad Guys

Ukrainian ambassador: Ukraine will eventually reveal 'horrible' losses


RT
Sun, 09 Apr 2023 18:23 UTC
Vadim Pristaiko
© MFA of UkraineVadim Pristaiko, Ukraine Ambassador to the UK, 2019
The true number of casualties will be acknowledged only once the conflict is over, Vadim Pristaiko has said

Ukraine will reveal the extent of its "horrible" losses once its conflict with Russia is over, Vadim Pristaiko, Kiev's ambassador to the UK, said in an interview released on Friday.

Asked by British tabloid the Daily Express to comment on casualties among Ukrainian military personnel and civilians, Pristaiko said "it has been our policy from the start not to discuss our losses."

"When the war is over, we will acknowledge this. I think it will be a horrible number," he added.

Comment: Pristaiko is putting on a brave front, but he has to know that even if Ukraine still has the wherewithal to launch a counteroffensive, the chances of its success are almost nil. A sane government would have already sued for peace, but Ukraine's masters don't care what happens to it, only about damaging Russia. That the country has lost, and continues to lose its best and brightest are of no moment at all.

The Grayzone analyzed the leaked Pentagon documents for potential information on losses in the Ukraine-Russian war:
The leaked documents claim that Russia has sustained troop losses ranging from 16,000 to 17,500 while Ukrainian losses amount to as many as 71,500 - a staggering differential that stands at odds with the triumphalist narrative projected by Kiev. They are dated March 1 2023 and appear to be part of an ongoing briefing effort to analyze the war's progress and plan a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

[...]
Ukrainian killed in action outnumber Russians 4:1

Perhaps the most notable piece of information contained in the leaked documents relates to military death tolls, with Ukrainian and Russian losses estimated at about a 4:1 ratio. According to one document, 71,500 Ukrainian troops have been killed in action.

That figure is close to the 100,000 KIA's cited by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a November 2022 speech, before her comments were retracted. It also tracks closely with statements by one of Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky's top advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, who told the BBC in June of last year that Ukraine was losing between 100 and 200 soldiers per day (200 deaths per day over the course of 370 days between the launch of Russia's military operation and the date of the documents would total 74,000.)

Other American and EU state officials have offered dramatically different figures placing Russian KIA's over the six figure mark. For instance, Norway's defense chief has charted 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead to Russia's 180,000, while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley asserted that Russian losses are "significantly well over 100,000."




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Wolf

Visitor logs show son of George Soros scoring easy White House access

Rich Calder and Matthew Sedacca
New York Post
Sun, 09 Apr 2023 18:03 UTC
Alexander Soros son George
© Anthony J. CausiAlexander Soros, a son of billionaire tycoon George Soros
A son of billionaire George Soros has quietly become a de-facto White House "ambassador," making at least 14 visits there on behalf of the far-left kingmaker since President Joe Biden took office, records reviewed by The Post show.

Alexander Soros — a prolific Democratic fundraiser in his own right who likes to boast about his relationships with world leaders on social media — scored at least a dozen meetings with White House officials in 2022, according to recently updated White House visitor logs. Soros, 37, also participated in two other confabs there in late 2021, the records show.

His latest trips include visiting Dec. 1 with then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain's advisor Nina Srivastava, who also worked on Biden's presidential campaign, the logs show.

Later that evening. the younger Soros was one of 330 people who attended a lavish state dinner on the White House South Lawn hosted by the president and First Lady Jill Biden honoring French President Emmanuel Macron and Macron's wife, Brigitte.

Comment:

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Briefcase

Leaked Pentagon papers say Israeli spies encouraged anti-Netanyahu protests


RT
Sun, 09 Apr 2023 17:40 UTC
anti netanyahu protests
© AFPProtestors against Netanyahu's government February 24, 2023
The government says assessments in leaked American documents are "mendacious and without any foundation whatsoever"

Israel's spy agency Mossad encouraged its staff and the general public to take part in massive protests against a judicial reform plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaked papers from the Pentagon have reportedly revealed.

The assessment was included in a Central Intelligence Update from March 1, found among a batch of sensitive documents from the US Department of Defense which recently appeared online, according to reports on Sunday by several outlets, including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

In "early to mid-February" the top commanders of Israel's foreign intelligence service "advocated for Mossad officials and Israeli citizens to protest against the new Israeli Government's proposed judicial reforms, including several explicit calls to action that decried the Israeli Government," the assessment read, as cited by the media. The memo did not contain the names of the Mossad leaders who allegedly made those calls, or any other details.

Comment: Hmmm, Bibi makes nice on behalf of Mossad. Is the crowned head lying uneasy?

RT also reports that the Pentagon is quietly freaking out over the leak:
A recent leak of classified documents on Washington's war planning in Ukraine has caused turmoil in the Pentagon, forcing officials to step up security, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing sources.

Several Western officials interviewed by the outlet said they were still trying to assess the damage from dozens of leaked national security papers which grabbed the public's attention in recent days, with many wondering how the breach had gone unnoticed for so long.

A recent leak of classified documents on Washington's war planning in Ukraine has caused turmoil in the Pentagon, forcing officials to step up security, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing sources.

Several Western officials interviewed by the outlet said they were still trying to assess the damage from dozens of leaked national security papers which grabbed the public's attention in recent days, with many wondering how the breach had gone unnoticed for so long.

Two US officials told the Post that the Pentagon leadership has "restricted the flow of intelligence" in response to the leak. One source described the measures as unusually strict, and a testament to "a high level of panic" among the top brass.

Both US officials and their foreign partners were "stunned" and even "infuriated" by the level of detail provided in the documents, which exposed how the US "spies on friends and foes alike," the report says, suggesting the files could stir diplomatic unease.

A senior Ukrainian official told the Post that the leak had caused anger in Kiev, as the files provided insight into information it wanted to keep secret from Russia - namely "vulnerabilities related to ammunition shortages and other battlefield data."

Meanwhile, a European intelligence official reportedly expressed concerns that due to the disclosures, the US could cut back on intelligence sharing with allies. While some of the documents made public were supposed to be shielded from foreign nationals, others had been cleared for transfer to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, composed of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.


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Black Magic

The Leicester Villainies — The line that runs between the deaths of King Richard III, Richard Mayne of MH17, and Dawn Sturgess of Novichok

John Helmer
Dance with Bears
Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
Villainy
It's an evil place which keeps evil secrets of murder. Leicester town (lead, logo) is one.

The ancient and the recent secrets in this place form a line between five hundred years of falsification of the death of King Richard III on August 22, 1485; the delayed coroner's findings on the death of Richard Mayne on July 17, 2014; and the still hidden pathologists' report on the death of Dawn Sturgess on June 30, 2018. The public papers of all three are propaganda concealing the truth of crimes for the benefit of potentates in London, one hundred miles to the south of Leicester.

An almost invisible and crooked line but a direct one connects Leicester, its university, its coronial court and coroner, the university's forensic professors, and a Leicester newspaper from the Battle of Bosworth Field, to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, and several poisonings attributed by the British Crown to Russian assasssins between March and June of 2018.

This is how to draw the line, and the lesson to be drawn from it.

Comment: Since MH17 and before with Maidan, the years of Western lies and institutional stalling fly by. Clearly, the stage had been set early for what is happening today.

The following are just a few article of a bigger written body that take one through the questions and evidence (or non evidence) of just these two cases, although both are of course interrelated.

MH17 Novichok

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Newspaper

Saudi delegation to hold ceasefire talks with Yemen's Houthis in Sanaa

Aziz El Yaakoubi
Reuters
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 15:34 UTC
yemen saudi
© REUTERS/Khaled AbdullahFILE PHOTO: A military helicopter, operated by the Houthis, flies over Sanaa, Yemen September 21, 2022 for the first time since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen and controlled the country's airspace in 2015. Beijing deserves some credit for bringing the end of one of the most brutal conflicts in history closer.
Saudi and Omani envoys are planning to visit Yemen's capital Sanaa next week to negotiate a permanent ceasefire deal with Iran-aligned Houthi officials and end an eight-year-old conflict there, two people involved in the talks said.

The move signals that regional rifts are easing after rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore relations last month following years of hostility and backing opposite sides in Middle Eastern conflicts, including Yemen.

A visit by Saudi officials to Sanaa is an indication of progress in Oman-mediated talks between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which run in parallel to United Nations peace efforts.

Comment: The world's worst crisis, that wouldn't have been possible without the support of the West.

See also: Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye: Truces, not peace

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Eye 2

Israel launches massive attack on Gaza


RT
Thu, 06 Apr 2023 21:48 UTC
Gaza City
A building in Gaza City is seen alight in the early hours of Friday morning
Israeli planes began bombing Gaza in the early hours of Friday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian group Hamas for Thursday's rocket attack from Lebanese territory.

"The IDF is currently striking in Gaza," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted at 12:21 am local time.

Palestinian media outlets reported that Hamas air defenses have been activated. There were no reports of casualties so far. Videos shared on social media showed explosions lighting up the night.

Comment: See also:

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