Puppet MastersS


Newspaper

Iran detains foreign vessel for allegedly smuggling fuel in Persian Gulf - reports


Sputnik
Sat, 07 Sep 2019 10:53 UTC
iran tanker
© AP Photo / Tasnim News Agency / Morteza AkhoondiIn this Sunday, July 21, 2019 photo, an aerial view shows a speedboat of Iran's Revolutionary Guard moving around the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero which was seized in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday by the Guard, in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas
The supposed detention comes amid an increasingly escalating situation in the Persian Gulf, as the United States has been lobbying its allies to start patrolling the area to increase the security of their vessels in the face of what it has called the "Iranian threat". Tehran, for its part, has repeatedly stated that it can guarantee the security of the Gulf region on its own.

Iranian coast guards have seized a ship purportedly carrying nearly 284,000 litres of smuggled diesel in the Persian Gulf and detained its 12 Filipino crew members, ISNA news agency reported.

Over the past three months, Iran has detained three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway linking Middle East crude oil producers to key world markets, over alleged maritime violations.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Taliban warns US will suffer more than anyone after Trump called off landmark peace talks


RT
Sun, 08 Sep 2019 14:24 UTC
Taliban fighters
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.comTaliban fighters
President Donald Trump's decision to cancel talks with the Taliban will backfire in the future, inflicting more damage to the US, the group said following a terrorist attack that put the Afghan peace process in jeopardy.

The United States will suffer more than anyone else for ditching the negotiations, Reuters quoted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as saying. He claimed that negotiations with the US were going smoothly until Saturday, when Trump tweeted his condemnation of a blast in Kabul that killed 12 people, including civilians and a US service member.

The abrupt cancellation came as senior Taliban representatives were about to meet with Trump in Washington, discussing how both sides could come to terms following nearly two decades of the Afghan war.
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Bizarro Earth

Universal Basic Income + automation + plutocracy = Dystopia

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sun, 08 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
CNN news
Americans are discussing the possibility of a universal basic income (UBI) more seriously than ever before, largely due to the surprisingly popular campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Yang has made UBI the central issue of his platform, promising a "Freedom Dividend" paid for by a Value Added Tax on businesses which would give every American over the age of 18 an unconditional $1,000 a month to help offset the looming crisis of automation replacing US jobs.

"In the next 12 years, 1 out of 3 American workers are at risk of losing their jobs to new technologies — and unlike with previous waves of automation, this time new jobs will not appear quickly enough in large enough numbers to make up for it," Yang's campaign site argues. "To avoid an unprecedented crisis, we're going to have to find a new solution, unlike anything we've done before. It all begins with the Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income for all American adults, no strings attached — a foundation on which a stable, prosperous, and just society can be built."

Yang is absolutely correct that automation is going to be replacing the jobs of many people in the very near future, and he is absolutely correct that new solutions unlike anything ever tried before are going to be necessary to help address this problem. But his plan, and indeed all the most publicized plans which involve the implementation of a universal basic income, will necessarily lead to an oppressive oligarchic dystopia unlike anything we've ever seen before.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Bitcoin, Gold and the Cashless Society

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Better Earth

Putin and Zelensky discuss future contact, settling conflict in Ukraine - Kremlin


RT
Sat, 07 Sep 2019 19:46 UTC
putin zelensky
© Sputnik / Grigoriy Sysoyev (L) / Stringer (R)
Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky had phone talks after the landmark prisoner swap between the two countries, discussing the civil conflict in eastern Ukraine and measures to settle it, the Kremlin said.

The two presidents stressed the humanitarian aspect of the swap that affected 35 people from each side during the phone conversation late Saturday night.

They both agreed that the swap is an important step to mending ties between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said. Putin and Zelensky also discussed the prospects of solving the crisis inside Ukraine and putting the lengthy conflict between Kiev and the breakaway Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to an end.

Comment: Ukraine will need to deal with the neo-Nazi's running amock and pry itself from the clutches of the US, but it has everything to gain from better relations with Russia:

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Newspaper

Pepe Escobar interviews Brazil's Lula: The Iran deal

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 19:47 UTC
Silva Ahmadinejad Erdogan
© AFP / Wilson Pedrosa / Agenciia EstadoBrazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate the signing of a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran in May 2010.
As we advanced past the first hour of a historic interview - see here and here - at a Federal Police building in Curitiba, southern Brazil, where Lula has been incarcerated for over 500 days as part of the lawfare endgame in a complex coup, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was on a roll.

"Let me tell you about Iran."

He felt relaxed enough to start telling stories of political negotiation at the highest level. He had already set the context. Nuggets abounded - especially focusing on the sometimes rocky relationship between Brasilia and Washington. Here are only three examples:

1) On the overall relationship with the US: "People think that I'm angry at the Americans. On the contrary, we had a very healthy political relationship with the US, and that should be the case for Brazil. But to be subservient, never."

Fights with Hillary

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Pompeo assures ME peace plan unveiled 'within weeks' as speculation mounts over new delay

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Sat, 07 Sep 2019 08:36 UTC
Pompeo
© AP/Andrew Caballero-ReynoldsUS Sec. of State Mike Pompeo
US President Donald Trump's administration decided to hold off on the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan after Israel found itself facing new elections, slated for 17 September, with the resignation of Trump's adviser on the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, casting doubt on the fate of the US-led initiative.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has dismissed all speculations of a substantial delay in the announcement of the much-anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace plan on Friday, saying the United States would present it within weeks. Pompeo's response to a question at Kansas State University, according to AFP:
"We've been consulting broadly throughout the region for two and a half years now and I think in the coming weeks we'll announce our vision. And hopefully the world... will see that as a building block, a basis on which to move forward." Peace in the Middle East is "a difficult problem, one that ultimately those two peoples will have to resolve for themselves, but we've worked hard on that".
Pompeo's comments come in the wake of the unexpected resignation on 3 September of US President Donald Trump's adviser on the Middle East, and one of the key architects of the "deal of the century", Jason Greenblatt. Greenblatt is an Orthodox Jew from Teaneck, New Jersey, one of the most Jewish communities in the United States, and attended Yeshiva University before obtaining his law degree from NYU.

Comment: The PA's claim of 'bias in Israel's favor' is only one of the reasons Palestinians refuse to trust the US or consider the negotiations on the 'peace' (piece) deal. At the end of the day they will still be at the mercy of Israel, no matter what is stated in a document or stipulated in an agreement. The price they have paid (and will continue to pay) can never be compensated.

See also: Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt resigns

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Attention

What's so damaging to Hillary that the DOJ continues to withhold a requested email to Senator Grassley?

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Jail deepstate
© Unknown
Senator Grassley has been trying to get his hands on a document related to the Hillary email investigation, but the DOJ just won't provide it. The corrupt DOJ must know that there is something very damaging about Hillary in it or it would be released.

Senator Chuck Grassley has been trying for years to get the DOJ to produce some highly classified material in regards to the Clinton email investigation, but the DOJ just won't provide him the material he has patiently waited to see. An August 14, 2019, letter from the Finance Committee/Homeland Security/Governmental Affairs Committee (Finance Committee Letter) outlines the progress to date of Grassley's request.

What the material that Grassley is seeking nobody really knows since Grassley's October 17, 2018, letter is classified, but apparently, as a condition of allowing Barr's nomination, Grassley asked Barr, if nominated, will you finally answer that letter. Barr says yes.
Grassley Barr Request 1
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Question

France, UK, US - will they ever pay for what they've done to Yemen?

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 15:59 UTC
Yemen bombing
© Reuters/Mohamed al-SayaghiSite of an air strike launched by the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, Yemen May 16, 2019.
A recent UN Human Rights Council report has exposed the US, UK, and France's role in the destruction of Yemen, prompting conversations about the accountability of those responsible for the carnage.

Renowned activist, press freedom advocate, and Nobel Laureate Tawakul Karman once told the Yemen Times that "a day will come when all human rights violators pay for what they did to Yemen." This statement was made years before the US, UK, and France enabled a Saudi-led coalition to ravage Yemen's entire civilian population through a host of criminal actions.

Thanks to a UN report released on Tuesday this week, we may be closer to seeing some accountability for the criminal actions of all human rights violators who have used the people of Yemen in a cruel, geopolitical chess game to further their own agenda. But will Western governments be held accountable, or is this yet another case of wishful thinking?

Comment: See also:

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Target

Feds demand Apple, Google produce names of 10K users of a gun scope app

Thomas Brewster
Forbes
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 03:50 UTC
Scope app
© Getty ImagesThe federal order calls for the release on the data of users who downloaded apps used to calibrate scopes from a major manufacturer.
Own a rifle? Got a scope to go with it? The U.S. government might soon know who you are, where you live and how to reach you.

That's because the government wants Apple and Google to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It's an unprecedented move: Never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds have asked the Silicon Valley giants for info on so many thousands of people in one go.

According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn't provide download numbers, so it's unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab.
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Question

What to expect when expecting FISA abuse

Charles Lipson
Real Clear Politics
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
ComeyBRennanClapper
© UnknownJames Comey • John Brennan • James Clapper
Now that James Comey's corruption of the FBI has been exposed, the country awaits the next report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz. This one will deal with government misrepresentations to the special court that grants secret surveillance warrants on foreign agents in the United States.

To launch a counter-intelligence investigation on an American citizen, like Carter Page, the Department of Justice applies to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. All warrants require accuracy and integrity, but those to the FISA court should meet an even-higher standard. Why? Because, unlike criminal warrants, FISA warrants remain hidden. The goal is to "spy on spies," not haul them into court, so the application will remain secret, never challenged by a defense attorney at trial.

That's why the DoJ and FBI must certify, in writing, that the FISA application is truthful and complete and that the evidence it presents has been thoroughly vetted by the bureau. That's what the Obama administration's top law-enforcement officials did when they wanted to spy on Carter Page. It is becoming increasingly clear they were lying.
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