Puppet MastersS


Target

State Department funded foreign think tank working to censor Americans

Ailan Evans
Daily Caller
Mon, 13 Feb 2023 07:38 UTC
Blink
© Jose Luis Magana/Associated PressSecretary of State Anthony Blinken
The U.S. State Department funds and partners with a U.K.-based think tank that collaborates with online platforms to censor perceived mis- and disinformation.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is a British nongovernmental organization that styles itself as a research group working in partnership with several online platforms to combat extremism, hate and disinformation. However, the organization frequently classifies typical conservative discourse and journalism as hate and/or disinformation and has received funding from the U.S. government.

The State Department awarded the organization a grant in September 2021 to "advance the development of promising and innovative technologies against disinformation and propaganda" in Europe and the U.K. after it won the U.S.-Paris Tech Challenge. The event was held in collaboration with:
"U.S. Embassy Paris, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) [and] the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)."
The Challenge was also won by the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), an organization which reportedly seeks to demonetize conservative news sites.

Comment: ISD: The Hydra of censorship uses the 'welfare' of the people as its excuse.

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Blue Planet

Lavrov challenges French neocolonialism claims


RT
Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:08 UTC
SLavrov
© Grigory Sysev/SputnikRussian FM Sergey Lavrov delivers speech to parliament • February 15, 2023
French allegations that Moscow is pursuing a neocolonialist policy in Africa turn reality upside down, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, adding that they are part of the Western proxy war against Russia.

France and other European nations "committed multiple bloody atrocities on the continent," and even today, Paris "openly considers Africa its backyard," Lavrov said at a briefing of MPs on Wednesday.

Moscow on the other hand "played the leading and decisive role in liberating the continent from the colonial yoke," and assisted African nations in "building their statehood, forming the basis of their economies and defense," according to the foreign minister. This assistance was often provided for free, he noted.

Several French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, accused Russia of trying to exploit Africa. Earlier this month, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Claire Legendre slammed Moscow for what she called its "neocolonial political involvement" on the continent, claiming that Russia is using "mercenaries" in various parts of Africa.

Comment: The standard mantra of the West: Accuse another of what you do yourself.

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Jet3

F-16s useless in Ukraine - Wagner pilot


RT
Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:17 UTC
F-16jet
© CT757fan/Getty ImagesF-16 Fighter jet
While Ukrainian forces are quickly incorporating munitions supplied by the West, it will take time and effort to effectively use Western fighter jets such as the US-made F-16, experts from the Wagner Group suggest.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, one of the PMC's aircraft specialists commented on the potential deliveries of Western-designed military aircraft to Ukraine's armed forces, as Kiev has repeatedly asked the US and its NATO partners for increasingly advanced weaponry.

The Wagner expert pointed out that there would be a lot of problems with establishing repair centers and supplying spare parts for the expensive F-16 aircrafts, noting that talks about Western jet deliveries are just "noise."

The specialist noted that it's "unclear" what the F-16 "would even be doing here," considering Russia's air defense systems are all over the place and the jets will simply not be able to enter the combat area. "Our air defense systems are much more effective than the enemy's," he stated, noting that the Western jets are nevertheless "welcome to visit."
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Mail

FBI searched University of Delaware for classified Biden documents: report

Victor Nava
NY Post
Wed, 15 Feb 2023 20:42 UTC
biden delaware home
© Joe Biden/YouTubeThere were documents found at Biden’s Delaware home
The FBI has reportedly conducted searches at the University of Delaware on at least two occasions as part of the criminal investigation into President Biden's apparent mishandling of classified documents.

The searches were conducted in "recent weeks," according to CNN, with the consent and cooperation of the 80-year-old president's lawyers.

Investigators searched two university locations on two different days and seized material that did not appear to have classified markings, according to the report. The materials are being reviewed by the FBI.

The two batches of documents investigators focused on were an archive of materials from Biden's time in the Senate and documents that the president sent to the university in recent years, according to CNN.
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Cowboy Hat

Beijing challenges Western press on Nord Stream blasts


RT
Thu, 16 Feb 2023 19:02 UTC
gas leak from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
© Handout / Airbus DS 2022 via AFPA gas leak from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline taken on September 29, 2022
Beijing has mocked mainstream Western media for its apparent reluctance to look into recent allegations by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, that the US was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream undersea pipelines last year.

The sabotage of the natural gas routes last September had a major economic and environmental impact and caused global concern over the safety of cross-border infrastructure, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a press briefing on Thursday.

"Immediately after the explosions, we saw extensive coverage in US and other Western media with one-sided speculations on who was 'responsible' for the sabotage," he said. "What we see now, however, is that these media, hailed as free, professional and impartial, have fallen silent over Seymour Hersh's detailed report."
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Satellite

Best of the Web: Russia issues warning over 'quasi-civilian' satellites US is using to 'win' war for Ukraine


RT
Thu, 16 Feb 2023 18:22 UTC
satellites starlink
Starlink array over Earth
Civilian satellites used by the military could become targets, a senior Moscow diplomat has cautioned

The US and its allies are exposing civilian space assets to potential attack by utilizing them for military purposes, a senior Russian diplomat has warned. The warning came after NATO unveiled plans for a space monitoring fleet that will use commercial and military satellites for its missions.


Comment: Even when they tell the truth, NATO is lying. They ALREADY ARE using any and all satellites in their 'war to destroy Russia by proxy'. And the Russians are kind of also lying; they have already targeted some Western 'civilian' satellites, since Day One last February 24th, when a number of 'civilian satellite services' went off-line, probably due to Russian cyber-attacks.


Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the non-proliferation and weapons control directorate in the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday that the US is weaponizing space and blurring the boundaries between military and civilian infrastructure in orbit.

American use of spacecraft to benefit other nations on the battlefield "is in fact a form of participation in [conflicts] by proxy," Vorontsov said, adding that "quasi-civilian space infrastructure" in particular could face "retaliation."

Comment: Musk is the most prominent of the satellite operators in the civilian/military field, but he is not the only one. Russia already has the capacity to block satellite functions, however the time may come when it might feel that more dramatic action is warranted...



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Arrow Down

Foreboding Sign of Crazy Times... U.S. shoots down suspected Chinese balloons with F-22s and F-16s

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture
Thu, 16 Feb 2023 17:27 UTC
Chinese Balloon
© Wikimedia
The Chinese balloon-scare episode gripping the United States' political class is comical if it were not so serious in its implications for global security.

Four suspected Chinese spy balloons were rapidly shot down with F-22 and F-16 fighter jets in the last two weeks. Turns out though that the White House is now admitting that the last three unidentified aerial objects blown out of the skies with Sidewinder air-to-air missiles were "benign" and probably had not even anything to do with China.

The debris from the air strikes landed in remote frozen parts of Alaska and Canada, so we may never know what the U.S. Air Force jets were actually shooting at. One of the missiles even missed the target, instead hitting the icy waters of Lake Huron in Upper Michigan.

It illustrates just how über-militaristic and paranoid American politicians and their propaganda media system have become. Fittingly for a country that sees horrific mass shootings among its citizens almost every week, the U.S. government conducts its foreign relations with increasingly routine and gratuitous violence. The country is trigger-happy beyond any rationality.

Of course, the Chinese balloon hysteria could be a convenient distraction from the blockbuster report last week by Seymour Hersh implicating the United States and President Biden personally in a brazen act of international terrorism in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany. That could be a factor. Nonetheless, the balloon mania seems to be symptomatic of an endemic, febrile mindset on hair-trigger paranoia.
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Mail

Best of the Web: Trump announces he is embracing ballot harvesting

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
The Post Millennial
Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:01 UTC

Comment: No, this is not satire!


donald trump
Former President Donald Trump's campaign is examining ways to win over the mail-in vote after the Democrats' performance in the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump's staff is examining state laws on absentee and mail-in voting, as well as ballot harvesting techniques.

Trump, who was famously critical of mail-in votes following the 2020 election, is changing his tune following comments by some GOP 2024 presidential hopefuls, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who have criticized the party for not capitalizing on opportunities in recent elections by focusing too much on Election Day turnout.

The change of heart can be observed in a Trump fundraising email released earlier this week which read, "The radical Democrats have used ballot harvesting to cancel out YOUR vote and walk away with elections that they NEVER should have won. But I'm doing something HUGE to fight back."

Comment: He'll also need funds to bribe thousands of ballot mules throughout Election Month, hire poll station officers (preferably disguised as Democrats), and hire ballot harvesters to begin operating months beforehand. It's a tall order, but if anyone can game a corrupt system, it's Trump!

See also:

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Bad Guys

France faces shortages of munitions amid arms supplies to Kiev, pledges to boost production in case of 'major standoff'


TASS
Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:00 UTC
france EU flag
© Artem Geodakyan/TASSFrance faces shortages of munitions amid arms supplies to Kiev — paper Vincent Bru urged to replenish the country's military arsenals
The armed forces of France are experiencing shortages of munitions against the backdrop of the country's military aid to the Kiev government, the Le Figaro newspaper wrote.

"Ground forces are facing shortages of 155mm munitions [used in howitzers and artillery cannons]," the paper quoted Julien Rancoule, a member of the French parliament's lower chamber representing the National Rally party, who compiled a report about the country's ammunition reserves jointly with another lawmaker, Vincent Bru of the Democratic Movement.

The report "outlines reasons for re-assessing stocks of ammunition, keeping in mind the possibility of a major standoff," Le Figaro reported.

Comment: News Front reports:
French authorities are working with military-industrial companies to speed up and increase the volume of munitions production both for Ukraine and its own army, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecorniou said.

"The issue of ammunition will be an important topic on which France intends to work with MBDA and NEXER. Efforts will be made to increase production capacity, to speed up production, to build up stocks faster both to assist Ukraine and to resupply the French army," the minister said ahead of the NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the rate of ammunition consumption in Ukraine now exceeds the West's ability to produce it. According to him, the wait for large-calibre ammunition has now grown from 12 to 28 months.

Russia earlier sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that any cargo containing arms for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia. The Russian foreign ministry said that NATO countries were "playing with fire" by supplying weapons to Ukraine. The Russian president's press secretary, Dmitriy Peskov, noted that pumping weapons into Ukraine from the West would have a negative effect.


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Wolf

Israel is struggling to maintain a coherent position on Russia and Ukraine

Dr Ramzy Baroud
Middle East Monitor
Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:19 UTC
Putin Netanyahu
© Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Handout/Anadolu AgencyRussian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) during a meeting in Sochi, Russia on 12 September 2019
Israel has struggled for a whole year to articulate a clear and decisive position regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. The reason behind the seemingly confused Israeli position is that it stands to lose, regardless of the outcome. But is Israel a neutral party?

It is home to almost one million Russian-speaking citizens, one-third of whom arrived from Ukraine shortly before and immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Those Israelis with deep cultural and linguistic roots in their actual motherland are a critical constituency in Israel's polarised politics. After years of marginalisation following their initial arrival in Israel, mostly in the 1990s, they managed to create their own parties and, eventually, exert direct influence on Israeli politics. Russian-speaking ultranationalist leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, is a direct outcome of the growing political clout of this constituency.

Comment: See also:

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