Puppet Masters
From Mexico's AMLO to Malaysia's Mahathir, 'Trumps' are coming to power all over the world. Whatever their political background, the one thing they have in common is an essential patriotism that runs counter to the pro-Western, pro-Globalist 'open borders' regime that has ruled most countries since WW2.
This week on NewsReal, Joe & Niall discuss why the Western media routinely compares these diverse new political leaders with US president Donald Trump. Live audio broadcast from 12-1:30pm EST / 6-7:30pm CET.
Running Time: 01:28:31
Download: MP3
- That military grade nerve agent was used to poison Mr Skripal
- That it was applied to the door handle of his house
These are perfectly reasonable questions that deserve reasonable answers. I am aware, however, that no matter how obvious and rational such questions might be, doing so places one - at least in the eyes of the authorities - in the camp of the conspiracy theorist. This is disingenuous. One of the marks of a true conspiracy theorist is that he is someone who refuses to accept an explanation for an event, even after being presented with facts which fit and explain it coherently. But when the "facts" presented in a case do not fit the event they are supposed to explain, and are neither rational nor coherent - as in the Salisbury case - then calling the person who raises legitimate questions a "conspiracy theorist" is a bit rich, is it not?
Salvini, an outspoken EU critic, told the Sunday Times that the British prime minister should adopt a tougher stance while dealing with Brussels. "My experience in the European parliament tells me you either impose yourself or they swindle you," he maintained.
Salvini urged May to be ready to pull out of the talks without a deal "because on some principles there is no need to be flexible and you should not go backwards." He also lashed out at the 27-member bloc, saying: "There is no objectivity or good faith [for Brexit talks] from the European side."
Comment: In their harsh dealings with the UK, the Eurocrats are further confirming just how detrimental membership in the EU can be, and for those countries fed up with the EU, how they may need to go about renegotiating their own position:
- Almost half of Swedes and Danes reject EU, prefer to create own 'Nordic Union'
- Atlantic Alliance uber alles? EU agrees to extortionate gas imports from US, and to team up against China in trade war
- Britain will remain in the EU: Why 'Brexit' outcome is a foregone conclusion
- SOTT Exclusive: Brexit's main goals: Oust Jeremy Corbyn and expand predatory capitalism in Europe
- Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration
- Behind the Headlines: Mass immigration: Wall 'em out of Fortress Europe and the Trump State?
The Sunday morning tirade saw the president claim he "would be willing to 'shut down'" the federal government if members of Congress from the opposition party didn't row in behind Republicans in voting for his immigration reform package, which includes releasing funds for the US-Mexico border wall that formed the cornerstone of his election campaign.
"I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security," the president tweeted, "which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc."
He also called for an immigration system "based on MERIT!," adding that immigrants wanted by the USA needed to be "great people."
Coming on the heels of the summit in Helsinki between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, media reports assumed that Obama was taking a swipe at these two leaders for supposed growing authoritarianism.
Obama's casting of the "strongman" as a foreboding enemy to democracy is a variant of the supposed threat of "populism" that Western political establishments also seem concerned about.
Trump, Putin, Turkey's Erdogan, Italy's Salvini, Victor Orban in Hungary and Sebastian Kurz in Austria, among many others, are all lumped together as "strongman politics", "populists" or "authoritarians".
Here we are not trying to defend the above-mentioned political leaders or to make out that they are all virtuous democrats.
The point rather is to debunk the false narrative that there is some kind of dichotomy in modern politics between those who, on one hand, are supposedly virtuous, liberal, democratic, multilateralists, and on the other hand, the supposedly sinister "strongman", "authoritarian", or "populist".
Talking to Turkish media about US threats of sanctions if Ankara doesn't release Pastor Andrew Brunson, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said US president Donald Trump is waging a "psychological war," the Daily Sabah reports.
Washington would lose a "strong and sincere ally" if the administration there does not change its attitude regarding Brunson, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, after Trump threatened to impose sanctions against its NATO ally.
Comment: Erdogan has made a deal proposal to the US: Let's make a deal: Erdogan proposes release of US pastor in exchange for coup suspect Gulen
But maybe is being thwarted by Washington: Rogue elements in CIA-State Dept. blocking release of American pastor from Turkish prison
Cherchesov and the Russian team met Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday for a ceremony to honor their performance at the recent World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals.
The team presented the Russian president with a specially-made football as well as a shirt signed by all the players.
Cherchesov joked after the ceremony that there was no danger that the ball presented to Putin had been surreptitiously fitted with a listening device - mocking claims in the US that a ball the Russian leader had given Trump in Helsinki earlier in July had been bugged.
"We gave Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] a ball that was specially made, with our photographs and signatures,"Cherchesov said, before joking: "It's without a listening device."
Western media and politicians still seize every opportunity to pin the blame on Moscow for the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. However, German lawmakers received nothing but the allies' assurances about the case, according to MP Heike Haensel. Speaking to daily newspaper Junge Welt, she revealed that two requests for any proof of the allegation, from her and her fellow MP Sevim Dagdelen, were left unanswered.
"Still neither British nor German intelligence agencies have evidence of Russian responsibility for the attack in March", Haensel said in an interview published on Saturday.
Comment: Whenever the powers-that-be don't have convincing evidence, they use the cloak-and-daggers approach to obfuscate:
The plot thins: How a gel became a liquid and the whole Novichok affair began to smell to high heaven
The possibility of a no-deal Brexit made the Ministry of Defence "dust off" blueprints to use army trucks and helicopters to deliver key supplies to far flung parts of the UK - something usually reserved for civil emergencies, like severe weather.
However a source inside the department said they have not yet received "a formal request" to assist the civilian authorities, according to the Sunday Times.
Comment: This Brexit fiasco keeps attaining new heights in absurdity. How did Britain ever function before the EU was created?

German FM Heiko Maas, French FM Jean-Yves Le Drian, EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini and Iran's FM Mohammad Javad Zarif meet in Brussels on May 15, 2018.
"Americans are addicted to sanctioning but we can show them that they have to give up their addiction," Iranian top diplomat said in Tehran on Sunday as cited by local news agencies. The minister was addressing a meeting of Iranian envoys and representatives of private sector companies.
He added that "it's become clear to the world" that Washington should stop the restrictive policies.
The US and its EU allies have locked horns over Iran since US President Donald Trump decided to unilaterally withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement. Since then, another row over trade shook the American-European relations and Iran can benefit from the situation, Zarif stressed.
"I'm not that naive to say we can wage a conflict between US and Europeans, but there's a fracture between them from which we should take advantage of and we don't need to be a bridge for their gap," the minister said.
Comment: Another threat from Iran that could get the US riled up: Iran plans launch of national cryptocurrency, ditching the dollar in oil trade














Comment: Good luck getting any answers... It's in the British authorities best interests to say nothing. By not even acknowledging the contradictions, they can avoid any actual public scrutiny that would expose them for being either criminally incompetent, or incompetently criminal.