Puppet MastersS


Chess

Best of the Web: Trump reaps the whirlwind with China/Iran mega deal

Tom Luongo
tomluongo.me
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 12:00 UTC
sanctions dollar
For more than three years I've tried to explain that President Trump's foreign policy was having the exact opposite effect of its intended purpose.

Trump, under the advice of people like John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has pursued a maximum pressure campaign against Iran in the hopes of the regime either crumbling or suing for peace.

Trump was warned by both Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that Iran would 'rather eat dirt' than submit to him on nuclear weapons, support for Hezbollah, Iraq and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
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Dominoes

Indictments coming in "Russia collusion" investigation


WND
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 20:16 UTC
Barack Obama
'My sources tell me there's a lot of activity'

Investigative reporter John Solomon says there's a "lot of activity" in U.S. Attorney John Durham's criminal investigation of the Obama administration's probe of now-debunked claims of Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 election.

"My sources tell me there's a lot of activity. I'm seeing, personally, activity behind the scenes [showing] the Department of Justice is trying to bring those first indictments," Solomon said in an interview with the Fox Business Network's Lou Dobbs reported by the Washington Examiner.

"And I would look for a time around Labor Day to see the first sort of action by the Justice Department."

Solomon said he's seeing "action consistent with building prosecutions and preparing for criminal plea bargains."

"Until they bring it before the grand jury you never know if it's going to happen. I'm seeing activity consistent with that."

Top former officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, are said to be targets of the Durham investigation. But Attorney General William Barr has said he doesn't expect Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to be subjects of a criminal investigation.

Comment: Between the Dem-organized rioting, "color revolution," and their attempts to rig the presidential election - and AG Barr's work prosecuting the Russia collusion liars - we are now witnessing a political fight to the death that may be unmatched in ferocity and intensity in Washington.

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Hammer

UK court TRASHES Christopher Steele, says former spy clearly worked for Hillary Clinton

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Steele Hillary
The Duran's Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss a long awaited British court ruling made against disgraced former spy Christopher Steele, ordering the fake dossier creator to pay damages to businessmen he smeared in the now infamous Russiagate document.


Comment: Piece, by piece, the whole-cloth lies about the 2016 presidential election are being revealed for what they were. Now if we can only see some real justice served...

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Radar

Venezuela says it NEUTRALIZED US-registered 'narco' aircraft for violating airspace


RT
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:42 UTC
Venezuela downed US aircraft
© Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivian National Armed Force / Twitter
Venezuela claims it has "neutralized" a US-registered aircraft for violating its airspace, in what it said was part of its battle against drug trafficking.

The Strategic Command Operations branch of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces tweeted on Wednesday that it "neutralized" the plane "with military jets according to protocols" after it was spotted in Venezuelan airspace at midnight on July 7. It shared photos of a downed plane on fire, with a soldier standing next to the wreckage.

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USA

'Done with Trump', Kanye West talks White House bid, damaging Biden...and much, much more

Randall Lane
Forbes
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 01:11 UTC
Kanye West
© James Toppin/Forbes/Getty Images
Kanye West's Fourth of July declaration, via Tweet, that he was running for president lit the internet on fire, even as pundits were trying to discern how serious he was. Over the course of four rambling hours of interviews on Tuesday, the billionaire rapper turned sneaker mogul revealed:
  • That he's running for president in 2020 under a new banner — the Birthday Party — with guidance from Elon Musk and an obscure vice presidential candidate he's already chosen. "Like anything I've ever done in my life," says West, "I'm doing to win."
  • That he no longer supports President Trump. "I am taking the red hat off, with this interview."
  • That he's okay with siphoning off Black votes from the Democratic nominee, thus helping Trump. "I'm not denying it, I just told you. To say that the Black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy."
  • That he's never voted in his life.
  • That he was sick with Covid-19 in February.
  • That he's suspicious of a coronavirus vaccine, terming vaccines "the mark of the beast."
  • That he believes "Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil's work."
  • That he envisions a White House organizational model based on the secret country of Wakanda in Black Panther.
And that's just for starters.
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Brain

A worried New York Times lays out conditions for Biden-Trump debate or loophole to save Joe from live sparring

Graham Dockery
RT
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:57 UTC
TrumpBiden
© Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Kevin LamarqueUS President Donald Trump • Former VP Joe Biden
Joe Biden is a stumbling speaker at the best of times, and Donald Trump is the insult king. With the two set to engage in three televised debates, the New York Times has decided that Biden needs an out.

"I worry about Joe Biden debating Donald Trump," New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on Tuesday. Friedman is likely not the only liberal pundit sweating at the prospect. Donald Trump, for all his ineloquence, is a brutal debater, well used to ripping his opponents apart with off-the-cuff insults and jibes. Joe Biden, by contrast, mumbles and fumbles his way even through prepared statements, and often forgets where he is, what he's talking about, and confuses figures.

Thankfully for Team Joe, Friedman offered up a roadmap for Biden to worm his way out of the traditional televised debates, the first of which is scheduled for late September. First, he argued, Biden should demand Trump release his tax returns. Though Trump is not legally required to do this, his opponents have claimed that his reluctance to release his records belies some shadiness.

Secondly, Friedman reckons the Biden camp should insist that the debates be fact-checked in real time by a team approved by both candidates. Ten minutes before the conclusion of the debates, the team should report on any "misleading statements, phony numbers or outright lies either candidate had uttered."

Comment: Not even Hollywood could write this script!

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People 2

Trump shreds CDC, threatens fed funding for schools if they don't open for in-person learning

Brett Samuels, Jessie Hellmann
The Hill
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 08:49 UTC
School closed sign
© Middleweb
President Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off federal funding for schools if they do not resume in-person learning this fall and criticized a top government health agency for being too tough with its guidelines to aid that process.

"The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!" Trump tweeted.

In a separate tweet, Trump said he disagreed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!"

CDC Director Robert Redfield emphasized at a press briefing held Tuesday with Vice President Pence that the guidelines are just recommendations.


Comment: There are many aspects to be gained from a group learning environment that cannot be achieved online. Humanity is a group. Human interaction is fundamental to our school of life.



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Propaganda

NYT that headlined 'The Russians paid bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops', quietly admits zero evidence on page 19

Ben Aris
RT
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 10:16 UTC
Girl/Soldiers
© Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
Is this how journalism is supposed to work in America? That you can make - or, more accurately, make up - lurid allegations, and then keep running with them even when there's no proof at all?

What does a newspaper do when it publishes a supposed "bombshell" story and then discovers that, erm, there is actually zero evidence for it?

Well, if you are the New York Times, it appears that you quietly bury a story admitting to this on page 19 - but make it so opaque that even the most diligent reader would be unlikely to make it to the last paragraph, which is where, ever so quietly, you make your confession.

It was bad enough that their original story - alleging that US intelligence agencies believed payments were made by the Russian foreign military intelligence GRU to Afghan fighters as "bounties" for killing US soldiers in Afghanistan - was based on anonymous sources.

Then we had to endure other mainstream media outlets picking up the story, after apparently having it confirmed by other anonymous sources. As one veteran military writer in the US succinctly put it, "I'm not sure that anonymous sources confirming what other anonymous sources said actually proves anything."

Finally, seven days after its 'scoop', the NYT ran another story on the subject, entitled 'New Administration Memo Seeks to Foster Doubts About Suspected Russian Bounties', which was published on July 3 and buried in the bowels of the paper.

Comment: Not even the high-ups in US military ranking could validate the New York Times account:
The head of U.S. Central Command says he is "not convinced" that any Russian bounties paid to Taliban militants resulted in the deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Marine General Frank McKenzie spoke to reporters on July 7 about the alleged bounties.

"I'm very familiar with this material and I'm a theater commander and I've had an opportunity to look at it. I found it very worrisome. I just didn't find that there was a causative link there," McKenzie told reporters, according to a transcript of McKenzie's comments released by Central Command.

The general said whether the Russians are paying the Taliban or not, the Taliban has "done their level best to carry out operations against us" over the past several years, and that has meant there has been little change in terms of force protection.

U.S. officials stressed that the intelligence was not conclusive.
The Pentagon has said it had "no corroborating evidence" to validate the allegations.

McKenzie noted that the Russians were "not our friends in Afghanistan and they do not wish us well." He said it's important to remember that Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan a few decades ago, and "that weighs on the Russian psyche," and there are therefore a "variety of competing sort of impulses that are active there when the Russians think about Afghanistan."

Russia has a genuine concern about the spread of Islamic extremism from Afghanistan toward the north.
See also:

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TV

Trump campaign says Univision is 'Leftist propaganda'

J. Edward Moreno
The Hill
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 15:59 UTC
Univision Trump
President Trump's campaign on Wednesday called the Spanish-language news network Univision "a Leftist Propaganda Machine."

"Univision is not a news network; it is a leftist propaganda machine and a mouthpiece of the Democrat Party," a statement from the campaign reads. "We will treat them accordingly."

The campaign has previously accused the Spanish-language TV network of "trashing" Mount Rushmore by describing his speech there last weekend as divisive.

The renewed attack comes after Univision hosted a forum where panelists recommended books on Latin American history, which included "Open Veins of Latin America," a book written by Eduardo Galeano that describes the economic exploitation of Latin America by Europe and the U.S.
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Brick Wall

UK 'complicit' in devastating 'unlawful' Saudi led blockade of Yemen


Middle East Monitor
Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:14 UTC
Human rights campaigners protest against the UK arms sale to Saudi Arabia
© Campaign Against Arms Trade/FlickrHuman rights campaigners protest against the UK arms sale to Saudi Arabia in London, UK on 11 July 2016
Britain has been "complicit" in the devastating Saudi led sea blockade of Yemen, a new investigation by Declassified UK has concluded in a new damning report, "Paralysing a nation". The Saudi-led coalition received British training on naval tactics that are said to have been used to blockade Yemen, an embargo which UN experts have described as "unlawful".

The Royal Navy's role in the world's worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War and the full extent of the training provided by the UK to the Saudis and their allies, came to light following freedom of information requests by Declassified. The website, which monitors British military influence around the world, found extensive evidence of UK support for the Saudi-led sea blockade of Yemen.

Since the beginning of the Saudi-led offensive in Yemen in March 2015, the UK has licensed £5.3 billion ($6.6 billion) worth of arms to the kingdom. Shamefully, the Conservative government has continued the sale of arm and admitted to multiple breaches of a 2019 ban on new licences issued by the Court of Appeal.

Comment: "Disgraceful," "morally bankrupt" and we'll add one more descriptor to the UK's assistance of Saudi Arabia's carnage in Yemen: psychopathic.

See also:

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