Puppet MastersS

USA

Laying the groundwork for the next US civil war

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 18:40 UTC
"Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away..."
โ€” Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet
US Civil War
© SkyMinds
And so it continues.

This impeachment fiasco is merely the latest in a never-ending series of distractions, distortions, and political theater aimed at diverting the public's attention from the sinister advances of the American Police State.

Don't allow yourselves to be distracted, diverted or mesmerized by the cheap theater tricks.

This impeachment spectacle is Shakespearean in its scope: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Nothing is the key word here.

Despite the wall-to-wall media coverage, nothing will change.

Mark my words: the government will remain as corrupt and self-serving as ever, dominated by two political factions that pretend to be at odds with each other all the while moving in lockstep to maintain the status quo.

So President Trump's legal team can grandstand all they want about the impeachment trial being "an affront to the Constitution" and "a dangerous perversion of the Constitution," but that's just smoke and mirrors.

You know what is really "an affront to the Constitution"? The U.S. government.

We've been losing our freedoms so incrementally for so long โ€” sold to us in the name of national security and global peace, maintained by way of martial law disguised as law and order, and enforced by a standing army of militarized police and a political elite determined to maintain their powers at all costs โ€” that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started going downhill, but we're certainly on that downward trajectory now, and things are moving fast.

The republic has fallen.

The Deep State's plot to take over America has succeeded.

The American system of representative government has been overthrown by a profit-driven, militaristic, corporate oligarchy bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad.

Even now, we are being pushed and prodded towards a civil war, not because the American people are so divided but because that's how corrupt governments control a populace (i.e., divide and conquer).

These are dangerous times.
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Passport

US to impose visas restrictions for pregnant women

Matthew Lee and Colleen Long
ABC News
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 12:39 UTC
birth tourism
The Trump administration is unveiling new visa restrictions aimed at restricting "birth tourism," in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport.

The State Department plans to publicize the rules Thursday, according to two officials with knowledge of the plans who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The rules would make it more difficult for pregnant women to travel on a tourist visa. In one draft of the regulations, they would have to clear an additional hurdle before obtaining the visa โ€” convincing a consular officer they have another legitimate reason to come to the U.S.

The Trump administration has been restricting all forms of immigration, but the president has been particularly plagued by the issue of birthright citizenship - anyone born in the U.S. is considered a citizen, under the Constitution. He has railed against the practice and threatened to end it, but scholars and members of his administration have said it's not so easy to do.

Regulating tourist visas for pregnant women is one way to get at the issue, but it raises questions about how officers would determine whether a woman is pregnant to begin with, and whether a woman could get turned away by border officers who suspect she may be just by looking at her.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Hunter Biden ordered to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court

Andrew Kerr
Daily Mail
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 11:49 UTC
Bidens
An Arkansas judge ordered Hunter Biden on Monday to appear before a court Jan. 29 to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt for his failure to produce information about his finances in relation to a heated child support dispute.

Independence County Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer ordered Hunter Biden to appear in court on Jan. 29, to "show cause, if any exists, as to why he should not be held in contempt for any of the alleged violations of this Court's orders."

The order came the same day an attorney for the mother of Hunter Biden's child, Lunden Roberts, accused Hunter Biden of failing to abide by a court-mandated deadline to disclose a deluge of information, including a list of all companies he owns or controls, his sources of income and employers for the past five years, unredacted copies of his tax returns, copies of deeds to properties he owns and more.

Hunter Biden has even refused to provide the address in which he resides and his telephone number, Roberts's attorney Clinton Lancaster said in his filing Monday.

Comment: See also: Investigator says Hunter Biden used identity of dead brother Beau to hide his whereabouts

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Russian Flag

Russian PM Mishustin announces first cabinet: Lavrov and Shoigu remain, but many fresh faces are among appointees

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:06 UTC
New govt Moscow Jan 2020
© Reuters / Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi / KremlinRussian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin meet with members of the new government in Moscow, Russia January 21, 2020.
Russia's new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, has announced his first cabinet. It doesn't amount to a radical overhaul, but there are new, and younger, appointees and some well-known ministers have been replaced.

Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoigu held on to their "big beast" positions, which suggests foreign and defense policy won't change much. The cabinet retained 12 people from the outgoing one and replaced nine positions, bringing down the average age of ministers down to 50 years. Here are the new faces of Mishustin's cabinet.

First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov (replaces Anton Siluanov) A Muscovite and son of a prominent Soviet economist, the 60-year-old Belousov might have remained a theorist with his degree in economic cybernetics, if not for his 2005 report in which he made several prophetic predictions, including the 2008 financial crisis. He joined the Ministry of Economic Development in 2006 and became its head six years later, before being appointed as an aide to President Vladimir Putin in 2013.

Comment: For an in-depth analysis of Putin's changes and methodology to shepherd Russia as he begins the transition from President, see: Putin prepares his succession, the West is purged from the Kremlin

More:

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Chess

Trump again offers U.S. 'help' in mediating India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir

Alexandra Alper, Luke Baker & Alexander Smith
US News & World Report
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Donald Trump
© REUTERS/Denis BalibouseU.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with the President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020.
President Donald Trump said the United States was watching developments between India and Pakistan over Kashmir "very closely" and was prepared to help if necessary, but did not say how.

Speaking ahead of talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Trump said trade and borders were both critical points for discussion, while Khan said that for him Afghanistan was the top priority.

"Trade is going to be of very, very paramount importance ... and we're working together on some borders, and we're talking about Kashmir in relation to what is going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help we certainly will be helping," he said.

Comment: India was against any outside interference in Kashmir and will protest any outside interference, including Pakistan. China tried to raise this issue at the UNSC and found itself isolated over it due to the refusal of 14 other nations:
France and UK out and categorically called Kashmir a "bilateral" issue between India and Pakistan. 14 members of the UNSC rejected China's request to discuss the issue saying it is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
...
China sought a "closed-door consultation" under "AOB" (Any Other Business) at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after the listed issues were discussed. The meeting was based on the old request of Pakistan and was scheduled for December 24 but could not take place.

Sources have told India Today TV that the second consultation after the August 2019 closed-door meeting on Kashmir also ended with "zero" outcome.

India Today TV has learnt that UK was forthright in saying that "bilateral" dialogue has no place in the United Nations. US, on its part, also added that the issue did not belong "here" (the UNSC).


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Sherlock

Co-opting nationalism: The case of Italy

Giuseppe Verdi
The Saker Blog
Wed, 15 Jan 2020 12:16 UTC
Salvini
Matteo Salvini addressing his supporters during the yearly Party meeting in Pontida (2019)
Nationalism is dead. Its stinking corpse is laying in front of Palazzo Montecitorio, home to the Italian Parliament (its increasingly peripheral power centre). People start to notice it, people start to smell its awful stench. What is left of the brief Italian nationalist experience has finally shown its true, cowardly face, bowing to the international globalist elite and rejecting its truly revolutionary potential. This is the story of how Italian nationalism has been co-opted by the establishment to serve its wicked agenda.

Liliana Segre and her security detail

Comment: See also:

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Sheriff

Defense, Foreign and Finance ministers retain their positions in new Russian government


RT
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 17:09 UTC
Lavrov
© Sputnik / Maksim BlinovFILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu (R).
President Vladimir Putin has approved a new Russian government after the surprise resignation of the previous cabinet last week. While there was a significant reshuffle, the defense, foreign and finance ministers kept their posts.

"The new government is a well-balanced one, although it went through a major reshuffle," Putin said during a meeting with the new cabinet.

Both Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoigu are political heavyweights and among the most trusted political figures in Russia, trailing only behind President Putin himself when it comes to popularity with the public. Anton Siluanov has been Russia's finance minister since 2011.

A career diplomat with decades of experience in international relations, Lavrov served as Russia's envoy to the UN for ten years before taking the helm at the Foreign Ministry in 2004.

Comment: The reshuffle has apparently been on the cards for some time now and for very good strategic reasons, as noted in Putin prepares his succession, the West is purged from the Kremlin:
[...]
What emerges from my approach as set out below is a tentative and still partially self-contradictory constitutional restructuring to assure continuity of a strong, centralized and deeply patriotic federal government with or without Mr. Putin. Most important of all, it is a restructuring that begins at once, so that it can consolidate in the coming four years of transition, allowing all the political actors to grow into new roles of greater responsibility and prove their mettle under the watchful eye of the sitting president.

[...]

And so, we are likely to see in the coming days that candidates for a number of federal ministries in the new, post-Medvedev cabinet will be drawn precisely from parties other than United Russia. In effect, without introducing the word "coalition" into his vocabulary, Vladimir Putin has set the stage for the creation of a grand coalition to succeed the rule of one party, United Russia, over which Dimitri Medvedev was the nominal chairman. It is highly relevant to note that, unlike Putin, whose popularity as measured by opinion polls has returned to well above 60% in recent months, the United Russia party has seen its popular support continue to erode so that its ability to hold a parliamentary majority after the next general elections is very much in doubt. The new grand coalition will ensure political continuity and stability in all eventualities.


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Attention

Here are four legal problems House Democrats have to face at impeachment trial

Jenna Ellis
Fox News
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 06:43 UTC
trump
President Trump's defense counsel has filed their legal brief on impeachment. It lays out a clear argument explaining why the Senate constitutionally cannot even consider the two flimsy articles of impeachment. The Senate, which has the sole power to try all impeachments, must acquit President Trump and outright dismiss this attempt to undermine the Constitution.

Here are the four legal problems the president's brief reveals that House Democrats have:

1. The Substance Problem โ€” The Articles don't identify any impeachable offense or even any crime

Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution clearly and intentionally limits impeachment to instances of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." The two articles of impeachment do not allege any conduct that fits within that constitutional definition, or even any crime whatsoever. "Abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress" are vague allegations and a newly invented theory from the Democrats โ€” not an allegation that is a violation of any actual law.

Trump's brief notes that every prior presidential impeachment in U.S. history has been based on allegations of violations of existing law (specifically, criminal law). For example, though Clinton was ultimately not convicted in the Senate of an impeachable offense, that impeachment still alleged violations of existing federal criminal law โ€” felonies. "Abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress" are not criminal violations, just catchy phrasing that the Democrats are using to create the public perception of wrongdoing.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Senate impeachment trial: Trump lawyers and Schiff go head-to-head accusing each other of obstruction


RT
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 23:30 UTC
Schiff/Cipollone
© Reuters HandoutHouse Intel committee chair Adam Schiff โ€ข White House Lawyer Pat Cipollone
House intel committee head Adam Schiff clashed with President Donald Trump's attorneys as the Senate impeachment trial began, attempting to spin his party's lackluster articles of impeachment as dire crimes and getting cut down.

Even while insisting the evidence presented during the House hearings was "more than enough" for the Senate to convict Trump, Schiff maintained that failing to include all the witnesses, documents, and other material the Democrats had tried (and failed) to shoehorn into those hearings "only rewards the president's obstruction."

Trump's "refusal to obey subpoenas" was allowing him to "hide all evidence harmful to his position," Schiff insisted, claiming that "the innocent do not act this way."

Americans want a fair trial.

Comment: See also:

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Evil Rays

US officials admit fueling Iran p๏ปฟrotests with covert tech programs to evade government internet controls

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:32 UTC
Iran internet access
© Zuma Press/R. FouladiInternet access was disrupted in Iran in response to protests
After major protests hit multiple cities across Iran in November following a drastic government slash in gasoline subsidies which quickly turned anti-regime, broad internet outages were reported โ€” some lasting as long as a week or more nationwide โ€” following Tehran authorities ordering the blockage of external access.

And during smaller January protests over downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, more widespread internet outages were reported recently, likely as Iranian security services fear protest "crackdown" videos would fuel outrage in western media, and after months ago Mike Pompeo expressly urged Iranians in the streets to send the State Department damning videos that would implicate Tehran's leaders and police.

But now Washington appears to have initiated the "Syria option" inside Iran: covertly fueling and driving "popular protests" to eventually create conditions for large-scale confrontation on the ground geared toward regime change.
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