Puppet MastersS


Gem

When it comes to fighting Russian Diamonds, the Jewish Diamond trade and De Beers are a busted flush

Diamonds


Mazal u' Bracha
has been the Hebrew expression for sealing transactions in the international diamond trade for hundreds of years - in Amsterdam until World War II, and Antwerp since then. Literally, it means "luck and blessing". Sociologically, it means that if you default, the community of Jewish diamantaires will impose the sanction of religious law, redline your credit, and you will be unable to take goods on approval, buy, borrow, trade, or continue in the business.

In the major Jewish diamond business centres - Antwerp, Ramat Gan (Tel Aviv), New York - the potency of this blessing has been waning under pressure of falling consumer demand, rising borrowing costs, company bankruptcies, government sanctions, and sanctions-busting. And that was before the Palestine war began.

On March 1, after heavy lobbying by Israeli and American diamantaires - and despite resistance from the Belgian businesses - new restrictions were imposed with the aim of driving Russian diamonds - rough and polished - out of the major jewellery markets of Europe and the US. The new scheme has a catch, however. It is now the US Customs Service with whom diamond buyers and traders must shake hands.

In a rule issued on March 1, the US Government requires importers to sign a statement declaring: "I certify that the non-industrial diamonds in this shipment were not mined, extracted, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Russian Federation, notwithstanding whether such diamonds have been substantially transformed into other products outside of the Russian Federation."

Heart - Black

Canadian Nazi Yaroslav Hunka given a military award by Ukrainian provincial government

The announcement didn't specify if Hunka's contribution was his recent political fiasco in Ottawa or his work with the Nazi SS during the 1940s.

Yaroslav Hunka
Unknown

Yaroslav Hunka, the former Nazi SS officer whose invitation to Canada's Parliament by Justin Trudeau sparked an international scandal six months ago, has been awarded a state honour by the regional council of Ternopil, a province in Western Ukraine.

The award, named after Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Stetsko, was given to Hunka last week for "significant personal contribution to providing assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, active charitable and public activities", according to the Ukrainian news service Suspilne. The announcement didn't specify if Hunka's contribution was his recent political fiasco in Ottawa or his work with the Nazi SS during the 1940s. Ternopil had a significant Jewish population until 1943 when the Nazis and their collaborators murdered thousands of Jews, and sent thousands more to death camps in Poland.

While Hunka himself did not attend the awards ceremony in person, Ternopil politician Oleg Syrotyuk presented the award to Hunka's grand-niece Olga Vitkovksa, suggesting that the family still takes pride in their Nazi past.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that one of his reasons for invading Ukraine was to root out Nazis, a claim disputed by Ukraine.

Comment: Original story here: Ukrainian region honors former Nazi Waffen-SS fighter
About a month after the incident, Moscow charged Hunka with genocide and issued a warrant for his arrest. Russian diplomats have pointed to the incident as proof of "strong influence" of neo-Nazi ideology in Canada.
Canada Has a Nazi Monument Problem


Wall Street

What Ukraine thinks of Republicans' loan plan

Zelensky
© Paula Bronstein / Getty ImagesUkrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
A proposal to convert aid for Ukraine into a loan is gaining traction on Capitol Hill as a solution to satisfy Republican skeptics and Democrats and DONALD TRUMP, at least in theory. Ukrainians, on the other hand, say they need to see more details.

Republicans are seriously considering making $12 billion of the $60 billion that the Biden administration wants to send to Ukraine into a loan. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) said he raised the prospect, which was inspired by Trump, with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY during his trip to the country on Monday.

While the idea has circulated for weeks in Congress, Ukrainian officials suggest that Kyiv hasn't been kept in the loop as much. And they have questions.


Comment: Ukraine is a foreign country, and the U.S. owes her nothing. Beggars can't be choosers. Ukraine is free to look elsewhere if she does not like it.


"I have not heard any specific proposals for such a strategy being offered to Kyiv," a person close to Zelenskyy's office, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NatSec Daily this morning. "But Kyiv would definitely need to know the conditions under which Ukraine will not have to pay it back."

Bizarro Earth

Emails reveal Biden security officials sought advice from left-wing censorship activists

Imran Ahmed Center for Countering Digital Hate
© (Screenshot / YouTube / Phil in the Blanks)Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate
Biden administration officials, including the co-chair of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) ill-fated Disinformation Governance Board, communicated with a foreign NGO that pushes online censorship, newly released emails show.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a United Kingdom-based nonprofit with U.S. tax-exempt status that has called to ban people, including independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from social media for espousing purportedly dangerous views. CCDH head of policy Eva Hartshorn-Sanders communicated with DHS Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy and Plans Robert Silvers in March 2022 regarding her organization's recent research and invited him to a CCDH event, according to emails obtained by the America First Legal Foundation.

Truck

Biden finalizes crackdown on gas cars, forcing more than half of new car sales to be electric by 2030

Regan  Biden
© Getty ImagesPresident Biden, left, and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan.
The Biden administration has finalized a slate of highly-anticipated environmental regulations curbing gas-powered vehicle tailpipe emissions as part of its broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.

In a joint announcement Wednesday, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled the most aggressive multi-pollutant emission standards ever finalized. While the regulations target gas-powered vehicles, they are explicitly designed to push wider nationwide adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and, according to officials, are expected to ensure nearly 70% of all new car sales are zero-emissions within a few years.

"President Biden is investing in America, in our workers, and in the unions that built our middle class and established the U.S. auto sector as a leader in the world," White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said in a statement. "The President's agenda is working."


Comment: This is a PR statement, not a statement of fact.


"With transportation as the largest source of U.S. climate emissions, these strongest-ever pollution standards for cars solidify America's leadership in building a clean transportation future and creating good-paying American jobs, all while advancing President Biden's historic climate agenda," added EPA administrator Michael Regan.

Putin

Washington lives in denial over Putin's victory while gaming its own elections

Joe Biden
© Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden.
America's legacy media and political ruling class have thrown a predictably massive hissy fit over last weekend's Russian election, insisting that President Vladimir Putin's landslide victory was "preordained" and "stage-managed."

Every protest and anti-Putin statement before, during, and after the election was amplified. Every allegation of misconduct was reported with zero scrutiny or skepticism. Washington and its allies decried the results, arguing that the vote wasn't free or fair. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron went so far as to call it "illegal."

The pearl-clutching over Russia's vote was the most intense I've ever seen over a foreign election. It was so inordinate, in fact, that it reminded me of the nonstop media coverage last month after Russian political activist Alexey Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony. The same media that showed no concern over the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian jail - after he had been tortured, at American taxpayer expense, for daring to criticize the Kiev regime - huffed and puffed for weeks about the death of a Russian citizen in a Russian prison.

Lost in all the hysteria over Putin's victory is the fact that most of the Russian people like their president. The incumbent won over 87% of the votes, and as even CNN begrudgingly acknowledged before the election, a poll last month showed that Putin had an 86% approval rating. That compares with a 9% approval rating for Navalny, the great Western hope for destabilizing Russia, in a January 2023 poll. And by the way, it also compares with US President Joe Biden's approval rating of around 38%.

Attention

Columbo investigates the Crocus City Hall shooting

Columbo
© The Reading Junkie / An American tourist in Russia
Oh Mr. Blinken, so sorry to intrude, I know you're a very busy man, I just have to tie up some loose ends. It's probably nothing, but you know me and my loose ends. They just bother me like an itch that needs to be scratched. My wife pokes fun at me about it all the time...
Blinken Idiot and Columbo
© The Reading Junkie / An American tourist in Russia
-Oh, just one more thing, Mr. Blinken sir.

-What now, Columbo?

-Oh, it's probably nothing. But two hours after the attack your office blamed ISIS-K.

-Yes and that was correct. Even ISIS said it. And the shooters were Tajik. What is your point?

-Yes sir, but ISIS only took credit, they did not say which branch. How could you possibly know they were Tajiks from ISIS-K before even the Russians knew?

Typewriter

Best of the Web: How the Western media helped build the case for genocide in Gaza

gaza city ruins bombing wasteland
© UNRWAIsrael has reduced Gaza to a wasteland.
The past five months have been clarifying. What was supposed to be hidden has been thrust into the light. What was supposed to be obscured has come sharply into focus.

Liberal democracy is not what it seems.

It has always defined itself in contrast to what it says it is not. Where other regimes are savage, it is humanitarian. Where others are authoritarian, it is open and tolerant. Where others are criminal, it is law-abiding. When others are belligerent, it seeks peace. Or so the manuals of liberal democracy argue.

But how to keep the faith when the world's leading liberal democracies - invariably referred to as "the West" - are complicit in the crime of crimes: genocide?

Cult

Terrorist attack in Moscow — who is really responsible?

Crocus City Mall moscow theater terrorist attack
© AFP via Getty ImagesEmergency services vehicles are seen outside the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall following the shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024.
On the "Usual Suspects" list we have Ukraine and we have ISIS. A good case can be made for both. I am posting three videos — some of it is repetitive — that discusses the attack and the very odd behavior of the Biden Administration. Let's go through the chronology of events.

On March 7 US Embassy Moscow issued the following alert:
The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.
What you need to understand is that this warning was not issued at the discretion of the embassy. This was approved in Washington, DC at Main State and would have required some intelligence that was deemed somewhat specific and "credible." When I was doing this job at State Counter Terrorism in 1990, this was in the aftermath of the bombing of Pan, 103. It was widely believed in the public that state department, and the CIA had information in advance about the terrorist bombing of that plane, and warned our person out not to get on board. That was not true but it did raise the issue of when, and how to warn the public about a potential threat. We came up with a system that required specific and credible intelligence. The more specific and credible the intelligence, the less need to warn the public. Consider, for example, that if we knew a terrorist attack was going to be carried out on Friday at a public concert hall by a particular group, we would be able to alert appropriate authorities and take precautions to intercept the attack without alarming the public.

Cruise Missle

Ukraine reports large-scale power outages across the country after Russian airstrikes

the Dnieper Hydro Power Plant Zaporozhye Region
© Ukraine Prosecutor Office/Telegramthe Dnieper Hydro Power Plant in the Kiev-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region was damaged in a massive Russian airstrike March 22, 2024
One attack severely damaged the Dnieper Hydro Power Plant in the Kiev-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region, local officials say

The Russian military has launched a powerful wave of air and missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight, officials in Kiev have claimed. The Defense Ministry in Moscow has yet to comment on the assertions.

Reports on the ground described it as the most powerful attack for many months. One Russian missile strike targeted the Dnieper Hydro Power Plant (HPP) in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporozhye, according to Ukrhydroenergo. The company stated that the facility had been hit and that a fire was raging at the site.

Comment: Looks like Russia is finally taken the gloves off. Notice though, the strikes are aimed at crippling military infrastructure, as Ukraine moves most of its armaments by electric train. An though this strikes will impose hardships on the common people, they've been made at the start of the warmer season, as oppose to the dead of a Ukrainian winter.