Puppet Masters

War economy: UK has spent £1.75 billion on airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014

RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 03:08 UTC

The UK has spent £1.75bn ($2.44bn) on air and drone strikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led campaign against Islamic State, the Drone Wars UK group said, based on data it acquired through Freedom of Information requests.

Since August 2014, the Tornado, Typhoon and Reaper aircraft of the Royal Air Force have spent a total of 42,000 hours, or almost five years, in the air. That alone cost the taxpayers around £1.5 billion, Drone Wars said. The group estimates it costs £80,000 to keep the multirole fighter Typhoon airborne for 60 minutes, and the per-hour price of operating Tornado and Reaper planes stands at £35,000 and £3,500, respectively. Besides fuel, the calculations include crew, maintenance and capital costs - which are absent from official estimates.

The cost of the munitions fired by the UK warplanes and drones during Operation Shader, which is the collective name of the ongoing UK involvement in Iraq and Syria, has reached £268 million, the information received by Drone Wars UK revealed. The British pilots have carried out 1,700 airstrikes in Syria and Iraq over the last three and a half years, dropping 3,545 bombs and missiles.

Comment: That's good old-fashioned British free trade for you.

Trump announces plan to run for re-election in 2020, liberals probably already wailing in the streets

CBS News
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:30 UTC

© FNA
The US has deployed troops at the border between Iraq and Syria in a bid to cut off the link between the two Mideast nations, an Iraqi source said

President Donald Trump announced that he's running for re-election in 2020, and Brad Parscale, who served as the Trump campaign's 2016 digital guru, has been named campaign manager.

In an announcement posted on the president's campaign website, his son, Eric Trump, called Parscale "an amazing talent" who was "pivotal to our success in 2016." Top Trump adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner said that Parscale "was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run."

The news was first reported by Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report.

The president had already filed for re-election -- he filed his Form 2 paperwork with the Federal Election Commission hours after he was inaugurated over a year ago. He has also held a number of re-election campaign rallies already.

While President Trump famously relies on Twitter, Parscale relied on Facebook during Mr. Trump's presidential campaign. Parscale told CBS News' Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" that he spent most of the $94 million his digital marketing firm received on Facebook ads, which he said were particularly effective in targeting rural voters.

Merkel finally acknowledges existence of 'no-go' zones, vows to eliminate them

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 18:43 UTC

Following approval from Germany's conservatives to cooperate with the Social Democrats (SPD) on several political impasses, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat down with Germany's RTL Aktuell where she discussed a number of policy positions - including an acknowledgement of Germany's growing "no-go" zones, and the need to do something about them.

Amid a spike in crime attributed to refugees, German officials been slowly acknowledging the negative impact of the flood of migrants taken in after the destabilization of Libya and similar regions - even going so far as to offer thousands of Euros to rejected asylum seekers.

The scheme, which the government has dubbed "Your country. Your future. Now!" will run until February next year. Individual migrants can receive up to €1,000 ($1,185) if they voluntarily return home, while families can receive up to €3,000 to do the same. The assistance is meant to help reintegrate rejected asylum seekers in their home countries. -Quartz

While on the topic of keeping Germany safe, Merkel said "It's always a point to me that internal security is the state's duty, the state has the monopoly of power, the state has to make sure that people have the right to it whenever they meet and move in a public space." (translated)

Comment: So in other words, Merkel just finally got around to realizing what the purpose of the state is. What has she been thinking all these years?

Tucker Carlson describes the real authoritarianism - and it ain't Trump

S. Noble
Independent Sentinel
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:34 UTC

Tucker Carlson, one of the few real MSM reporters in the Western hemisphere

On Monday night, Tucker Carlson responded to a comment by CNN's David Gergen who claimed the President discrediting the [corrupt people in the] DoJ and in the press is the beginning of authoritarian rule.

Carlson had a good answer although we would simply say enacting a coup is the beginning of authoritarian rule.

Comment: It's really ironic that the Left can't see its own authoritarianism, given that the biggest totalitarians of the 20th century were on the Left. They just can't seem to grok that believing yourself to be good and virtuous, demonizing those you believe are evil for not agreeing with you, and using all means at your disposal to coerce your enemies into agreement or silence, including state power, is what all authoritarians do.

Syrian Army advances in East Ghouta suburb after intense battle as militants disrupt 1st day of ceasefire

RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:07 UTC

© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
The damaged cars and buildings are seen in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syria February 25, 2018

The first five-hour ceasefire in Syria's eastern Ghouta was sabotaged by armed groups holed up there, which shelled the humanitarian corridor and prevented civilians from leaving, the Russian Center for Reconciliation said.

"As of 14:30 local time, no one has left the area," Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin, a spokesman for the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, told journalists. "The militants do not let anyone out," he said, adding that the situation on the ground remained "complicated" as the militants continued to shell the neighboring area, and even went on offensive against the Syrian Army positions.

The armed groups had been carrying out provocations for some five hours by conducting shelling around every 30 minutes, the general said, noting that the Syrian government forces observed the humanitarian pause and did not respond to the incitement. The attacks also targeted the recently established eastern Ghouta humanitarian corridor.

According to the Syrian SANA news agency, the militants shelled a refugee camp in the al-Wafidin neighborhood near Damascus, which is part of the corridor. The attack on the humanitarian corridor resulted in no casualties. However, six civilians were injured in separate militant shelling that targeted a settlement in the Damascus countryside.

Comment: Comment The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) observed the Russian-sponsored ceasefire between the hours of 9:00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M. (Damascus Time), today, before resuming their operations inside the East Ghouta this afternoon.

Once they were given the green light by their high command, the Syrian Arab Army's (SAA) 4th Mechanized Division stormed the large district of Al-Ajami in the Harasta suburb.

According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Arab Army is attempting to seize the last building blocks under the control of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham and Faylaq Al-Rahman in this district.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) once again advanced inside the East Ghouta region, today, capturing several sites from the jihadist rebels of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham and Faylaq Al-Rahman.

According to an Al-Masdar field correspondent in Damascus, the Syrian Arab Army's 4th Division managed to break-through the jihadist defenses at the Harasta Orchards, seizing nearly 200 meters of territory in the process.

The Syrian Army is attempting to capture the Harasta Orchards in order to apply pressure on the rebel forces in the large city of Douma.

Chris Steele's man at State Dept, Jonathan Winer, was exec for firm that did pro bono work for Clinton Global Initiative

Aaron Klein
Breitbart
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 17:56 UTC

Jonathan Winer

Jonathan M. Winer, the Obama State Department official who acknowledged regularly interfacing with the author of the controversial, largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier, served as senior vice president of a firm that did extensive pro bono work for the Clinton Global Initiative.

After his name surfaced in news media reports related to probes by House Republicans into the dossier, Winer authored a Washington Post oped in which he conceded that while he was working at the State Department he exchanged documents and information with dossier author and former British spy Christopher Steele.

Winer further acknowledged that while at the State Department, he shared anti-Trump material with Steele passed to him by longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, whom Winer described as an "old friend." Winer wrote that the material from Blumenthal - which Winer in turn gave to Steele - originated with Cody Shearer, who is a controversial figure long tied to various Clinton scandals.

Steele was commissioned to produce the dossier by the Fusion GPS opposition research firm, which was paid for its anti-Trump work by Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Comment: Winer also happens to be notorious Bill Browder's "legal counsel". He's the guy that got Alex Krainer's expose of Browder removed from Amazon. What a tangled web of disreputable connections...

Hybrid Warfare: Was Russia Sabotaged At The Olympics By The CIA?

Rick Sterling
Oriental Review
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 15:51 UTC

Russian curling team Alexander Krushelnitsky and Anastasia Bryzgalova

There is something very fishy about the Anti Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) pinned on the Russian curler and Russian bobsledder during the final week of the Peyongchang Winter Olympics.

It makes no logical sense that an athlete would do a one-time consumption of a chemical that is of no value in circumstances where it is almost certain to be detected with huge negative consequences.

That is precisely the situation. The Russian Mixed Curling bronze medal winner, Alexander Krushelnitsky, had to give up his medal, plus that of his partner wife, because traces of meldonium were found in his urine sample. He had previously tested clean. Meldonium is a medication which helps keep the heart healthy by increasing blood flow.

That would be of no benefit in a sport like curling which requires accuracy, strategy and focus but is not taxing physically. The "sweeping" to help guide the rock down the ice lasts only 20 seconds or less. International curlers were astounded at the news and bemused at the idea of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) for curling. The skip of the Danish curling team said "I think most people will laugh and ask, 'what could you possibly need doping for?"

Boris Johnson wants to back US strikes on Syrian government if chemical weapons claims prove true, US forced to admit no evidence found

RT and Sputnik
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 15:24 UTC

© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
A child removes debris from a damage building in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syria February 25, 2018.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has hinted he could back strikes against the government of Syria's Bashar Assad over alleged chemical attacks, saying that he hopes the West would not "stand idly by" if the claims were proved.

Johnson was responding to an urgent question in Parliament on the situation in Syria and the ongoing offensive in Eastern Ghouta. The foreign secretary appeared to resent the fact that military action in Syria was initially blocked by the House when former Prime Minister David Cameron called for it back in 2013, although that was later overturned by a vote two years later.

Johnson said he would now consider "limited strikes" if there was "incontrovertible evidence of further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime or their supporters." He added that while there may be international support for a response to the "individual use of chemical weapons," it would be "misleading" to say the same for "sustained military engagement."

Comment: Notice the mainstream media has minimal coverage of this latest 'gas attack' on Syrian civilians and now the US is backing away from the incident. Seems Russia foiled their plans by exposing the false flag operation before it happened.

US destroyer docks in Ukrainian port not far from Russian Crimea

RussiaFeed
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 12:00 UTC

The provocative act by the US navy so close to the disputed peninsula is bound to be seen by Russia as a security threat

It looks like the carnival is in town - a real 'cirque du freak'. The USS Carney, a Tomahawk-cruise missile destroyer arrived in Odessa this week. A video of its docking appeared on the official Twitter page.

While this is Ukrainian waters, one still must wonder what was the point of the move? To train with the Ukrainian navy? Please! The most impressive warship in the Ukrainian navy is a frigate. For those unaware, Frigates are not a very formidable class of ship - especially measured up against the US and Russia's best destroyers and cruisers.

Comment: We do know how the US reacts when Russia appears to be close by: US media loses it when Russian 'spy' ship makes annual trip to the Caribbean

Also See:

Russia and Pakistan strengthen ties in new Cold War conditions

M K Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
Thu, 22 Feb 2018 09:59 UTC

Afghanistan, no doubt, was what brought Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to Moscow on a 'working visit' on February 20. This was Asif's second meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the past 5-month period. They last met in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA session in September.

The Russian Ministry took pains to highlight Asif's visit. A 'working visit' cuts out protocol frills and gets straight to transacting business. Yet, Moscow made an exception and issued a glowing 'curtain-raiser' to hail Asif's arrival. There must have been strong reasons to do so. The regional backdrop is indeed tumultuous. The new Cold War is slouching toward the Hindu Kush and Central Asian steppes and Pakistan's geography is regaining the criticality in strategic terms reminiscent of the 1980s.

The Russian statements have become highly critical of the US regional strategies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Moscow has concluded that the US is determined to keep an open-ended military presence in the region. On the other hand, Russia is being kept at arm's length from the Afghan problem. Instead, Washington is directly engaging the Central Asian states, bypassing Russia, including at the military level. Clearly, Washington is working hard to undermine Moscow's leadership role in the region in the fight against terrorism and to challenge Russia's notion of being the provider of security to the former Soviet republics neighboring Afghanistan.

Comment: The more the U.S. behaves like a bully, the more the rest of the world understands the need to unite against it.

Eclipse throws new light on gut infections [Link] #astrology

Javed

The " I love my job, but not as much as my freedom " is much too tame. It should read " I love my job, but not as much as my life "

codis

.. .. W ho's the mayor of Bots-Biden, NJ? [Link]

Jibrish

Estimated impact energy 1200 megatons give or take a lot. The apparent impact point -20.758, -69.008 (not really a crater) is roughly 6km across....

StonedMentat

When is Space Weather Scary? & Top Science Updates | S0 News Nov.5.2021 [Link]

parzival

Puppet Masters

War economy: UK has spent £1.75 billion on airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014

Trump announces plan to run for re-election in 2020, liberals probably already wailing in the streets

Merkel finally acknowledges existence of 'no-go' zones, vows to eliminate them

Tucker Carlson describes the real authoritarianism - and it ain't Trump

Syrian Army advances in East Ghouta suburb after intense battle as militants disrupt 1st day of ceasefire

Chris Steele's man at State Dept, Jonathan Winer, was exec for firm that did pro bono work for Clinton Global Initiative

Hybrid Warfare: Was Russia Sabotaged At The Olympics By The CIA?

Boris Johnson wants to back US strikes on Syrian government if chemical weapons claims prove true, US forced to admit no evidence found

US destroyer docks in Ukrainian port not far from Russian Crimea

Russia and Pakistan strengthen ties in new Cold War conditions

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