Puppet Masters

Establishment alarmed: Trump threatens to gut US 'democracy promo' racket

RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 22:26 UTC

The foreign policy establishment in Washington is crying foul after the Trump administration proposed to cut funding for organizations responsible for "promoting democracy abroad," often in the guise of color revolutions.

The 2019 State Department budget request cuts the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) budget and separates it from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). Funding for the institutes would be moved to the State Department, where NDI and IRI would have to compete with private contractors, according to the Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, who described the proposal as "an assault not only on their organizations but also on the pro-democracy mission they are dedicated to."

Comment: This is sound business sense, keeps budgets separated, makes orgs accountable and offers competition to the marketplace - an accountability of sorts. This has nothing to do with democracy...(as neither do those organizations underneath all the democracy promo and facade).

"If implemented, the proposal would gut the program, force crippling layoffs and the symbolic meaning would also be shattering, sending a signal far and wide that the United States is turning its back on supporting brave people who share our values," NED President Carl Gershman told Rogin.

Comment: Shaking things up - what stays, what changes, what falls by the wayside that is corrupt or doesn't serve us. Sort of like cleaning out entrenched and moldy government closets.

Tillerson pits Beijing's 'predatory' African expansion to Washington's 'responsible' support

RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 03:03 UTC

China's rapidly growing influence on the African continent is worrying the US Secretary of State. He claims that its investments are detrimental, unlike Washington's "responsible" promotion of the "rule of law."

The Chinese approach to relations with the African countries "encourages dependency" through the use of "opaque contracts, predatory loan practices, and corrupt deals that mire [the African] nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty," Rex Tillerson stated in his speech at the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday, ahead of his official trip to Africa. He claimed that China's approach "stands in stark contrast" to the good intentions of the US.

Even though the top US diplomat admitted that "Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa's infrastructure gap," he still argued that it eventually would only lead to "mounting debt" for the African nations and would create only "few, if any, jobs in most countries." He also claimed that China "endangers Africa's natural resources and its long-term economic political stability."

Comment: China is giving the US a run for the money in Africa. The US will have to 'up its game' to stay solidly in the market.

Bombshell ruling by Fed judge: Trump's EO on DACA will stand

John S. Roberts
Diamonds and Silk
Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC

A federal judge has dismissed the challenge to President Trump canceling DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), driving a spike directly through the Obama administration's declaration.

This is a big win for team Trump and the nation as a whole.

Here's the scoop...

From The Hill:

A federal judge in Maryland on Monday dismissed a challenge to President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

"This Court does not like the outcome of this case, but is constrained by its constitutionally limited role to the result that it has reached," Judge Roger Titus said in his opinion. "Hopefully, the Congress and the President will finally get their job done."

"An overwhelming percentage of Americans support protections for 'Dreamers,' yet it is not the province of the judiciary to provide legislative or executive actions when those entrusted with those responsibilities fail to act," Titus continued.

Comment: See also:
Supreme Court ruling benefits Trump's bid to defend DACA cancellation

Lavrov: US neo-imperialist ambitions promote interference in other countries' affairs

RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 09:16 UTC

Rex Tillerson's criticism in Ethiopia of China's policy in Africa is inappropriate, says Russia's Sergey Lavrov. From Zimbabwe, Lavrov slammed the US for interfering in other countries' affairs, pursuing neo-imperialist ambitions.

"I didn't know that [US Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson is a specialist in Chinese-American [Chinese-African] relations," Lavrov said after he met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare. He added that "it's not exactly appropriate" for Tillerson to speak about Africa's relations with other countries while a guest on the Dark Continent - especially in such "a negative way."

Lavrov made his statement almost at the same time his American colleague was some 3,000km further north - where he warned Africans about China's influence. He urged African countries to carefully weigh the benefits of Chinese loans at a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, during his first diplomatic trip to the continent.

"We are not in any way attempting to keep Chinese dollars from Africa," he said.

By interfering in the internal affairs of other counties, the US seems to be pursuing "neo-imperialist" ambitions, Lavrov said. "We don't share such an approach. I consider it 'neo-imperialist'. And we will never pursue such policies," he added.

Ron Paul: The Iraqi people have spoken, time for US to move out

RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 21:41 UTC

Speaking to RT, former US congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul said that "enough is enough" for the American military presence in the Middle East.

"I wish the American people would wake up and say 'enough is enough,'" said the 82-year-old Republican maverick, days after NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance's forces will remain in the country despite a parliamentary ruling in Baghdad calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, claiming NATO forces will "not stay longer than necessary." A long-time critic of US foreign policy and interventionism as well as an opponent of the Iraq War, Ron Paul told RT that maintaining the American presence in the region was a bad idea.

"Their definition of 'necessary' is a lot different from other people's. The people of Iraq have spoken, their legislative body have voted and said we ought to leave, and I think that's a grand idea," Paul said.

'Something broken in the US State Dept?' Russian Embassy perplexed by Nauert's 'Twitter' eruption

RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 04:18 UTC

The Russian Embassy in Washington DC believes that something might be "broken" in the US State Department, given the recent barrage of tweets targeting Moscow by spokesperson Heather Nauert.

Over the last 24 hours, Heather Nauert has unleashed a massive anti-Russian campaign on Twitter:

Blaming Russia for civilian casualties in Syria; praising the controversial Oscar-winning 'Icarus' documentary for exposing Putin's "disregard for international rules"; and glorifying Ukraine for its sacrifice to "ensure reliable gas delivery to European customers" in the face of Gazprom aggression.

While anti-Russian rhetoric coming out of Washington is nothing new, the latest Twitter spasm has raised eyebrows at the Russian embassy in the US. "We always assumed that Heather Nauert closely follows events in the world and inside the State Department. However, in the last couple of days, something seems to have broken in her department," the embassy said, in a statement to RT.

"We hear a stream of 'fake news' - about Russia's atrocities against the peaceful population of East Ghouta, about the gas 'heroism' of [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko, and sincere joy over the Oscar award to the story about the inventor of an alcohol doping-cocktail."

The embassy has been particularly concerned by the "disinformation" surrounding a possible meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Rex Tillerson.

US congressmen want a 'foreign agent' tag for Al Jazeera for digging into pro-Israel lobby

RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 16:14 UTC

A group of congressmen has called for Al Jazeera to be designated a "foreign agent" for its "anti-American and anti-Semitic broadcasts." This coincided with reports the TV network was releasing a film on the US pro-Israel lobby.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, urging him to scrutinize Al Jazeera for what they said was undermining American interests. The Qatari government-funded news network, the letter asserted, has a record of "radical anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel broadcasts."

The letter, signed by Ted Cruz, Josh Gottheimer, Lee Zeldin and others, claims Al Jazeera's coverage also favors State Department-designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as Al-Nusra Front. The Americans "deserve to know whether the information and news media they consume is impartial, or if it is deceptive propaganda pushed by foreign nations," it urges.

Comment: Well, yes indeed Americans do. Would any US politician, given the past year of partisan political turmoil and slanderous press coverage, be objective enough to make that determination?

The call to label Al Jazeera comes amid reports that the Qatari broadcaster is about to release an investigation disclosing lobbying groups either serving Israeli interests or trying to silence pro-Palestinian advocates in the US.

Comment: If Americans pay attention, signs are all around that the US propaganda machine is pumping bias and narratives through their own MSM sources. When faced with inconvenient truths or different perspectives, foreign media have been cherrypicked and made to register as foreign agents, as was recently the case with RT and Sputnik. See also:

Every investigative trail leads back to the Clinton Crime Family

Jim Hoft
Source
Tue, 06 Mar 2018 20:08 UTC

On February 5th this story broke by Ryan Saavedra at The Daily Wire:

On Monday The Hill reported that Alexander Downer is a former Clinton associate.

Comment: So the initial whisper that kicked off the whole #Russiagate fiasco came from a Killary donor. This just keeps getting better and better. How many lives have been destroyed (starting with Michael Flynn) because of this harpy's unlimited greed and ambition? Time to lock Killary and co. up!

Senior British diplomat working at firm behind multi-million pound Saudi PR offensive

RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 19:44 UTC

Mohammad bin Salman Theresa May Avaaz protest

© Henry Nicholls / Reuters
Activists from Avaaz stage a protest timed to coincide with the visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, March 7, 2018

A UK diplomat is working for the firm behind a multimillion pound Saudi PR drive while still employed by the Foreign Office, it has been revealed. It comes as Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince prepares for his trip to Britain.

Jolyon Welsh, whose Foreign Office roles have included deputy head of Middle East, was given special unpaid leave in 2014 to become a senior director of Consulum, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The communications firm was founded by former executives from Bell Pottinger, the agency that collapsed last year after a scandal over a campaign for South Africa's Gupta family.

Consulum's client list includes Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, widely known as MBS. He is Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, whose state visit to the UK starts this Wednesday amid controversy over his country's military campaign in Yemen. Saudi-led coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians and, at one point, sealed off the state to humanitarian access.

Netanyahu in DC: I don't want Palestinian 'subjects' but the West Bank will remain under Israeli military control

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 20:19 UTC

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Rubenstein

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club in Washington DC

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he wants the West Bank to remain under Israeli's military control and does not want the Palestinians living there to become citizens or "subjects" of Israel, revealing an apparent hope to annex the occupied Palestinian territory while leaving its residents stateless. The remarks, made in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club in Washington DC, signal that Netanyahu has no intention of negotiating in talks that would conclude in Palestinian statehood. Yet the prime minister stopped short of explicitly calling for an official takeover of Palestinian lands in the form of a "one-state solution."

"I think most Israelis would favor a situation where we could separate from the Palestinians. I don't want the Palestinians as citizens of Israel and I don't want them as subjects of Israel," he explained, "So I want a solution when they have all the powers they need to govern themselves, but none of the powers that would threaten us. What that means is that whatever the solution is, the area west of the Jordan, that includes the Palestinian areas, would be militarily under Israel. The security, the overriding security and responsibility would be Israel's."

Netanyahu gave an example of where Israel could benefit from preventing the Palestinians from gaining security control over the West Bank: Ben-Gurion Airport, which "is about 10 seconds away from the West Bank."

Comment: This piece of 'subject' should be put in jail as soon as possible.

"If people who torture animals are psychopaths, then what are government officials who use taxpayer dollars to fund animal torture? Many are...

parzival

Billionaires should not exist. I agree with the author but respectfully disagree with SOTT’s comment. Money system is an artificial scam so the...

LadyRad

Western elites have made no secret of their envy of the Chinese governments complete control of their population. The Chinese social credit system...

zaddick

The truth is at the top of the pendulum which is fixed to the ceiling. For instance, Donald Drumpf did nothing when the fake erection took place,...

scrutinizer

well you sure don't have to think about anything so what would you call it

cracker

Puppet Masters

Establishment alarmed: Trump threatens to gut US 'democracy promo' racket

Tillerson pits Beijing's 'predatory' African expansion to Washington's 'responsible' support

Bombshell ruling by Fed judge: Trump's EO on DACA will stand

Lavrov: US neo-imperialist ambitions promote interference in other countries' affairs

Ron Paul: The Iraqi people have spoken, time for US to move out

'Something broken in the US State Dept?' Russian Embassy perplexed by Nauert's 'Twitter' eruption

US congressmen want a 'foreign agent' tag for Al Jazeera for digging into pro-Israel lobby

Every investigative trail leads back to the Clinton Crime Family

Senior British diplomat working at firm behind multi-million pound Saudi PR offensive

Netanyahu in DC: I don't want Palestinian 'subjects' but the West Bank will remain under Israeli military control

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us