Puppet MastersS


Better Earth

The US grip on the Middle East slips, and peace breaks out

Robert Inlakesh
RT
Tue, 02 May 2023 12:13 UTC
Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
© Photo by Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesFaisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia meets Bashar al-Assad on April 18, 2023 in Damascus, Syria.
Washington's poor decision-making is starting to catch up with it, as nations choose to pursue peace without American interference

As Washington's influence in the Middle East declines, countries throughout the region are taking to compromise, rapprochement, and peace talks, inflicting a blow to the US narrative that seeks to depict its role as a stabilizer and democracy advocate.

Under the leadership of US President Joe Biden, there has been a notable downgrade in the status of the West amongst various long-time Middle East allies. As the US-led West exerts the majority of its efforts on the war in Ukraine, its poor decision making in the Middle East has finally begun to catch up to it.

The first major blow to Washington's influence came in the form of a Chinese-mediated agreement to end a decades-long feud between major regional actors Iran and Saudi Arabia, one which led to the severing of ties in 2016. This has a number of implications for US power in the region.
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Eye 2

Vulture US corporations cashing in on Ukraine's oil and gas

Ben Norton
Geopolitical Economy Report
Sat, 29 Apr 2023 20:00 UTC
biden zelensky
© The White House/TwitterUkraine's Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US President Joe Biden in Kiev on February 20, 2023
As Ukraine sells off public assets in a privatization spree, US fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Halliburton are in talks to run its oil and gas industry, and the IMF is imposing the Washington Consensus.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, the government is selling off state assets in a big privatization spree.

US fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Halliburton are participating in discussions to take over the Eastern European nation's oil and gas industry, as Kiev pushes to increase production to replace Russian energy exports.

This comes soon after Ukraine's Western-backed leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, sent a friendly video message to a US corporate lobby group, thanking companies like BlackRock, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Starlink, and promising "big business" for others.

In September, Zelensky also symbolically opened the New York Stock Exchange, announcing that his country is "open for business", offering more than $400 billion in "public-private partnerships, privatization, and private ventures" for US companies.

The Ukrainian government has used the war as an excuse to ram through some of the most aggressive anti-worker laws on Earth.
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Light Saber

Rep. Jim Jordan subpoenas government agencies in GOP-led probe on alleged censorship

Megan Lebowitz
NBC News
Fri, 28 Apr 2023 21:11 UTC
Jim Jordan subpoenae censorship
© Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed three federal agencies on Friday.
The new subpoenas are part of the House Republican majority's broader investigations into the alleged 'weaponization' of the federal government against conservatives.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed three government agencies on Friday as part of a Republican-led investigation into allegations of censorship.

The subpoenas were sent to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA); and James P. Rubin, Special Envoy and Coordinator for the State Department's Global Engagement Center.

Jordan, R-Ohio, is requesting they provide his committee with communications between their agencies and private companies and third-party groups to determine if the agencies "coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies in order to censor speech," Jordan wrote in letters announcing the subpoenas.

Comment: Ms. Plaskett (who's a whole 'nother story on her own) has obviously not been paying attention. Others aren't waiting for Big Government to take on the problem:

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Bad Guys

When you give away all your stuff: UK military 'woefully underprepared for war' says retired general


RT
Wed, 03 May 2023 17:50 UTC
AS90 muntion shells tank
© Finnbarr Webster/Getty ImagesCrates of ammunition are seen during live fire training with the AS90 tank, on March 24, 2023 in southwest England.
Britain only has 22 hours' worth of ammunition, a former senior army officer has told Sky News

Britain's military would run out of ammunition within 22 hours of combat in the event of a war, retired General Rupert Jones has told Sky News. Previous estimates have put the number even lower.

Speaking to Jones on Wednesday morning, Sky News presenter Kay Burley said that she had been told "our entire supply of ammunition here in the UK could be used up in something like 22 hours, if there was a war like we've seen in Ukraine."

"Yes," Jones confirmed. "The UK and many of our allies are woefully underprepared, and we need to commit far more money into these sorts of ammunition stocks."

"It also tells you the huge amounts of ammunition that are being expended in Ukraine," he added, citing figures from a British think tank that put Kiev's consumption of artillery shells at between 4,000 and 7,000 per day, and Russia's at 20,000.

Comment: Russia is outgunning Ukraine by a margin of more than three-to-one, and with its industrial might can keep that pace for years. It's not only 'demilitarizing' Ukraine, but the entire West. Normally that would be cause for rejoicing. However, with the West being backed into a corner, its more deranged members are now considering the use of nuclear weapons. Mentions have become more ubiquitous lately, and the catastrophic consequences are downplayed. The world is at a dangerous pass.

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Arrow Down

Yellen warns US facing default by June 1 without debt ceiling hike

David Sivak
Washington Examiner
Mon, 01 May 2023 17:11 UTC
Yellen
© Leigh Vogel/Getty ImagesUS Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
The Treasury Department warned lawmakers on Monday that without congressional action to lift or suspend the debt limit, the country will be unable to pay its obligations as soon as June 1.

In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Congress to resolve the current brinkmanship over the federal borrowing limit, warning that waiting until the last minute could have adverse impacts on the economy and the nation's credit rating.

Yellen had previously warned Congress in January that the United States had reached its $31.4 trillion debt limit and that the Treasury Department would take "extraordinary measures" to buy time for Congress to act. Since then, the agency has collected the tax filings of millions of Americans, allowing the Treasury to better predict when it will be unable to pay its bills.

Comment: The pass the U.S. has come to was almost inevitable as a perusal of Yellen's words and actions over the years show. Why this woman was put in charge of the economy whether formally, or informally is a mystery.

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Propaganda

Russia's Wagner in Africa: Everywhere, all at once

Joe Shanley
OpenBookReport.substack
Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
Is the US exaggerating Wagner's influence in Sudan as a pretext for more direct engagement?
Russia's alleged involvement in Sudan2
From CNN, the jet that was allegedly in a Wagner-controlled base surface-to-air missiles to the RSF Forces
Since the Sudan civil war broke out last week, all major powers have been publicly signaling for peace and stability in the region. As one cease-fire after another collapses, Sudan has caught the world's attention as the next nation that has the capacity to fall into chaos similar to the civil wars that overtook Libya and Yemen. As the US, Russia, China, France, and other global powers increase their foreign involvement, regional conflicts become global affairs and fall into larger battles for international power and influence. Particularly, Africa has become a primary front for a new Cold War. The present instability of Sudan creates a window of opportunity for foreign alliances as they compete for credibility, natural resources, and regional influence.

In US media, there is an orchestra of voices talking about a growing influence of Russian paramilitary organization Wagner in the Sudanese conflict, and the "destabilizing" role that Russian influence is playing in Africa at large. CNN's recent "How Putin's 'cat's paw' sunk into Sudan" article or the Washington Post's "Russian mercenaries closely linked with Sudan's warring generals" show the focus on Russian influence in the region, perhaps signaling for an increasing US presence.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Coins

AOC and Matt Gaetz join forces on bill to ban lawmakers from owning stock

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
The Post Millennial
Tue, 02 May 2023 00:01 UTC
gaetz aoc
A new bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that aims to prohibit members of Congress from owning and trading individual stocks, in an effort to prevent any potential insider trading scandals.

The bipartisan legislation, called the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, is sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans and was introduced by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Matt Gaetz, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

The proposed legislation would require lawmakers to place their stocks into blind trusts, which would be managed by an independent trustee who would be responsible for making all investment decisions.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

2011 emails reveal Hunter Biden helped business associates get access to VP Biden, top aide

Cameron Cawthorne , Jessica Chasmar
Fox News
Tue, 02 May 2023 14:14 UTC
hunter and valerie biden
© Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden's sister, Valerie Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden, board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on April 11, 2023.
'This is the guy with the magic paper that you had me meet with,' VP Biden's deputy chief of staff said in 2012 email to Hunter Biden.

President Joe Biden and his deputy chief of staff appear to have met with three of Hunter Biden's business associates, at least one of whom was a foreign national, at the White House in the summer of 2011 when he was vice president, according to emails and White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital.

At the time of the meeting, Hunter was trying to secure a deal with those associates in bonds worth billions of dollars.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Multipolar Committee


Katehon
Tue, 02 May 2023 03:34 UTC
A multipolar world is based on the recognition of the equality of civilizations and cultures, each forming its own cosmos.
Multipolar World

A multipolar world is based on the recognition of the equality of civilizations and cultures, each forming its own cosmos. This means that each civilization has its own system of values, its own codes, its own Logos, its own identity. And if so, each civilization itself forms its own ideas about God, man, world, time, space, matter, society, good and evil, right and wrong. And it is these ideas that should form the basis of the social, political, economic system, which each civilization creates independently. There are no universal rules for all civilizations. And no civilization has the right to impose their own rules on one another.

Humanity is made up of these independent and sovereign entities - civilizations. The system of international relations should be built through equitable and respectful dialogue, taking into account the views and positions of each civilization. This is the essence of the theory of a multipolar world.

The multipolar world order is opposed to the unipolar world order, which imposes on all peoples, civilizations and cultures only one single civilizational model, presented as something "universal", "progressive" and having "no alternative". In this world only one ideology is acceptable - liberal, one type of economic structure - capitalism, one form of political organization - Western-style representative democracy, one system of values - extreme individualism and postmodernist decomposition of all entities - ethical, social, ethnic, religious, including the call to overcome man in favor of the machine and AI (modern transhumanism).

This is how Western globalists build their foreign policy on a global scale, seeking to maintain the hegemony of the West at all costs and forcing everyone else to accept "universal" rules, criteria, laws, threatening all dissenters with repression, ostracism, isolation, or sanctions and even war.
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Quenelle - Golden

Russia's defense chief wants doubling of missile output


PressTV
Tue, 02 May 2023 19:12 UTC
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
© AFPRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu chairs a meeting in Moscow In April.
Russia says the output of its high-precision missiles needed to be doubled "as soon as possible," calling on defense enterprises to rapidly increase the "pace and volume of production," despite the West's sanctions on the country.

RussianDefense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that weapons production and the supply of arms to the front line in Ukraine would be crucial to the success of the war in Ukraine, now in its 15th month.

"The actions of Russian units conducting the special operation largely depend on the timely replenishment of stocks of weapons, military equipment and means of destruction," Shoigu said.

He said defense enterprises had been told to rapidly increase the "pace and volume of production."

Comment: Is this an example of Russia's 'struggling military campaign'? Videos show huge explosion as Russia hits Ukraine's 'counteroffensive munitions depot'

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