Puppet MastersS


Broom

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy officially ends Pelosi's proxy voting policy in Congress

Chris Pandolfo
Fox News
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:45 UTC
US house rules book
© Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesRep. Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a House Rules and Manual book during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 2020.
McCarthy says members of Congress need to show up to work if they want their vote to be counted

House Republicans have officially ended the practice of proxy voting, which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to permit lawmakers to vote without being present in-person.

"No more proxy voting," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced Thursday. "Effective immediately, Members of Congress have to show up to work if they want their vote to count."

Proxy voting was established by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in May 2020 to allow Congress to operate under COVID-19 pandemic protocols. Instead of showing up for votes, a member of Congress could submit a letter to have a colleague announce their position on bills and amendments and even cast votes in their name.
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MIB

Best of the Web: Moscow: The US govt is covertly sponsoring ISIS


RT
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 08:00 UTC
Members of the Islamic State
© AFP / Noorullah ShirzadaMembers of the Islamic State (IS) group stand alongside their weapons, following their surrender to Afghanistan's government.
Washington wants to take revenge on the Taliban for its defeat, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The US has been reaching out to armed groups that oppose the Taliban and secretly giving money to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), Zamir Kabulov, Russia's presidential envoy for Afghanistan, has said.

When asked if the US is in contact with the Afghan opposition in an interview with Russia 24 TV on Friday, Kabulov said, "Yes, there is such data."

The Americans have been acting this way "because they really want to avenge their shameful military-political defeat in Afghanistan, and in retaliation they do everything so that peace isn't established in this troubled land," he claimed.

"But worst of all is that, in addition to contacts with the armed opposition in Afghanistan, the Anglo-Saxons are covertly sponsoring Islamic State, who are aimed at undermining not only the stability of our Central Asian partners... but also the security of Russia," Kabulov added.

Comment: See also:

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MIB

Ukrainian secret police shot the man who 'saved' Kiev, Zelensky aide reveals


RT
Sat, 21 Jan 2023 19:05 UTC
Denis Kireev
© EFEUkrainian banker Denis Kireev, executed in March 2022 by the SBU
The extrajudicial execution of Denis Kireev in March 2022 was due to a lack of coordination between security services, a top aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Thursday. Mikhail Podoliak was responding to a Wall Street Journal feature describing the 45-year-old banker as an asset of Ukrainian military intelligence, who supposedly helped save Kiev from Russian attack.

Kireev was killed on March 2 last year. His body was dumped on a Kiev sidewalk "with a bullet hole in the back of the skull," according to the WSJ. Ukrainian media reported at the time that the country's security service, the SBU, had "clear" evidence Kireev had committed high treason. The military intelligence, however, said he "died protecting Ukraine."

Comment: See also: Arestovych resigns from the post of advisor to Ukraine's presidential office

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Network

Why Russia maintains friendly relations with Turkey, one of NATO's key members

Lidia Misnik
RT
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 21:18 UTC
Putin Erdogan
© Sputnik / Vyacheslav ProkofyevFILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia.
Five years ago, Türkiye's Operation Olive Branch started off with massive airstrikes, columns of armored vehicles, tanks with infantry support, and special forces clearing up Syrian territories. The Turkish military entered a region where Russian troops had been stationed just a day earlier. The incident severely strained relations between Moscow and Ankara.

Despite this, Russia and Türkiye didn't break off ties. Amidst conflicts in Syria, the Caucasus, and Ukraine, both sides resorted to compromise and continued holding a constructive, mutually beneficial dialogue. In this article, Russian turkologists explore how Moscow's former enemy and one of NATO's oldest member states became one of Russia's most stable partners.

Syrian conflicts
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Stock Down

Top EU official admits dialogue with Ukraine becoming 'more difficult' as EU votes to adopt 10th round of sanctions


RT
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 09:46 UTC
President of the European Council Charles Michel
© AFPFILE PHOTO: President of the European Council Charles Michel. European Council President Charles Michel concedes there's a divide between Kiev and Brussels on sanctions.
Negotiations regarding further sanctions on Russia with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky are becoming increasingly complicated with each new round, European Council President Charles Michel said during a trip to Kiev on Thursday. The statement came after Zelensky urged the EU to impose even tighter restrictions on Moscow.

"Each debate on sanctions is much more difficult than the previous one," Michel told reporters, as quoted by Bloomberg. "We have good debates with President Zelensky, and I will brief my colleagues on what are the Ukrainian proposals and we will consult. I'm confident we will be able to strengthen the pressure on the Kremlin."
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Russian Flag

Dmitry Trenin: 2023 will be make-or-break year for Russia

Dmitry Trenin
RT
Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:52 UTC
VPutin
© Sputnik/Sergey GuneevRussian President Vladimir Putin
As the West throws the whole shebang at Moscow, the world's largest country faces a moment of truth...

Predicting the course of political events during particularly volatile periods, such as the one we entered a year ago, is a thankless and meaningless endeavor. Yet in such times, there's both a need and an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the main trends shaping the world. This brief overview is an attempt to identify Russia's main course of development in the international arena and its relations with key players in the year ahead.

Ukraine

The longer the conflict in Ukraine lasts, the more it resembles an uncompromising confrontation between Russia and US-centric Western countries. The escalation of hostilities continues to be the dominant trend. The stakes are extremely high for all sides, but for Moscow even more so than for the United States or Western Europe. For Russia, the conflict is not only a matter of external security and its place in the world, but also a matter of internal stability, including the cohesion of its political regime and the future of Russian statehood. After the partial mobilization last fall, combat operations in Ukraine began to resemble something far broader. What started out as a "special military operation" may well become a "patriotic war."

Comment: While there is much to comprehend, the future is only partially written. We must consider that all sides to this global conflict are pawns in the play.

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Bullseye

Rex Murphy: Liberals' 'just transition' a fist to the mouth of Canada

Rex Murphy
National Post
Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00 UTC
Protesters
© Gavin Young/Postmedia NewsPro-pipeline protesters • Calgary's Stampede Park
A better name for the massive dislocation of the national economy and Canadian workers would be the 'Great Disruption'...
"When you start to think about it, it's pretty extraordinary that we — (a) select group of human beings ... are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet. ... I mean, it's so almost extraterrestrial to think about 'saving the planet.'"

— John Kerry at Davos.
What's really, finally, at the heart of radical environmentalism?

An insatiable urge, an unslakeable lust to govern the lives, habits and choices of everyone — everyone who does not think like them, who chooses not to see the world as they prefer them to see it, who questions their furious dogmas and resists their sprawling imperatives into every corner of every person's real life.

It is far more about control of people, control in the smallest ways and control in the absolutely largest ways, than it is about — as they so pompously and vacuously put it — saving the planet.

Comment: Leadership's programing is complete. Canada is set for maximum submission and angst. Whose agenda does this benefit? Determine the source.

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Gold Coins

Poszar was right: Saudis confirm non-dollar oil trade plans in Davos

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 19 Jan 2023 06:05 UTC
money
© unknownMoney Wars
Earlier this month, former NY Fed repo guru Zoltan Pozsar wrote one of his most important reports of 2022, in which he described how Putin could unleash hell on the Western financial system by demanding that instead of dollars, Russian oil exporters are paid in gold, effectively pegging oil to gold and launching Petrogold.

Then, China's President Xi visit with Saudi and GCC leaders marked the birth of the petroyuan and a leap in China's growing encumbrance of OPEC+'s oil and gas reserves: that's because with the China-GCC Summit, "China can now claim to have built a 'special relationship' not only with the '+' sign in OPEC+ (Russia), but with Iran and all of OPEC+."

At the time, Zoltan urged the reader to think of the timing of this statement in a diplomatic sense:
"President Xi communicated his message on 'renminbi invoicing' not during the first day of his visit - when he met only the Saudi leadership - but during the second day of his visit - when he met the leadership of all the GCC countries - to signal the following:

GCC oil flowing East + renminbi invoicing = the dawn of the petroyuan.
And now, according to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the kingdom's finance minister.
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Bandaid

West must contribute to Russia's search for 'destiny' - Macron


RT
Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:08 UTC
MacRon
© Global Look Press/PanoramicFrench President Emmanuel Macron
Supporting Kiev isn't enough, there's a need to build peace and talk to Russia, the French president believes...

Russia is a "great nation" which is now actively seeking a new "destiny," French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. The conflict between Moscow and Kiev has become part of this search, the French leader believes, adding that the West would only see a lasting peace if it contributed to this process through a dialogue with Russia.

"Russia as a power ... is searching for a [new] self and [is] looking for a destiny," Macron told Spain's daily El Pais in a lengthy interview. "Russia is a ... great nation, territorially and historically," he pointed out, also calling Russians a "great people." Macron admitted that Russia's revival in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "very difficult" period.

Now, Russia is standing in front of another "abyss," with its future "at stake," Macron stated. While accusing Moscow of "imperialist" ambitions and a desire to decide the fate of its neighbors, the French president still maintained that the West should somehow help Russia find its destiny.

Comment: Russia is cognizant of its destiny and what it must do. If Macron wants to be the global therapist, he should begin by examining France's motives and contributions to this crisis.

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Magnet

US pulling military gear from Korea for Ukraine


RT
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:08 UTC
SK soldiers
© AP/Jang Se-youngSouth Korean army soldiers and 155mm howitzer shells • Goseong, South Korea
The Pentagon is scrambling to keep Kiev's forces fighting...

The US has asked its forces stationed in South Korea to provide military equipment for Ukraine, the Department of Defense said on Thursday. While the Pentagon did not state what kind of equipment would be requisitioned, earlier reports suggested that the US is sourcing artillery shells from Seoul.

US Forces Korea confirmed the Pentagon's request, with a spokesman saying:
"It would have zero impact on our operations and our ability to execute on our ironclad commitment to the defence of our ally, the Republic of Korea."
The spokesman did not specify what kind of equipment had been requested, how much would be supplied, or whether any had already been transferred.

However, the New York Times claimed on Tuesday that the Pentagon has already given Ukraine 155mm artillery shells from its stocks in South Korea and Israel. The US has supplied Ukraine with just over a million of these shells, "a sizable portion" of which came from these two countries, the newspaper reported, citing an anonymous US official.

Comment: Leaving no 'rock' unturned, nothing may be left except self-annihilating nukes.

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