Puppet MastersS


Gold Seal

The Goldilocks War

this is fine
Are you happy with the way the war in the former Ukraine is going? Most people aren't — for one reason or another. Some people hate the fact that there is a war there at all, while others love it but hate the fact that it hasn't been won yet, by one side or the other. Bounteous quantities of both of these kinds of haters are found on both sides of the new Iron Curtain that is hastily being built across Eurasia between the collective West and the collective East. This seems reasonable; after all, hating war is standard procedure for most people (war is hell, don't you know!) and by extension a small war is better than a big one and a short war is better than a long one. And also such reasoning is banal, trite, platitudinous, vapid, predictable, unimaginative and... bromidic (according to the English Thesaurus).

Seldom is to be found a war-watcher who is happy with the progress and the duration of the war. Luckily, Russian state television shows a very significant one these almost daily. It is Russia's president, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Having paid attention to him for over twenty years now, I can confidently state that never has he been so imbued with calm, self-assured serenity leavened with droll humor. This is not the demeanor of someone who feels at any risk of losing a war. The brass at the Ministry of Defense appear dour and glum on camera — a demeanor befitting men who send other men to fight and possibly to be wounded or to die; but off-camera they flash each other quick Mona Lisa smiles. (Russian men don't give stupid American-style fish-eyed toothy grins, rarely show their teeth when smiling, and never in the presence of wolves or bears).

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Lawmakers reject bid to audit US aid for Ukraine

155mm shells, Ukraine aid
© AP / Alex BrandonFILE PHOTO. A US Air Force serviceman checks pallets of 155mm shells bound for Ukraine.
A resolution calling for an audit of US military and economic aid to Ukraine has been narrowly defeated in the House of Representatives. The measure, spearheaded by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and backed by multiple fellow legislators, was rejected by 26 votes to 22 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

The proposed audit had been strongly opposed by House Democrats, who argued that such oversight activities would have sent a wrong signal to Ukraine, which has been strongly supported by Washington in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

"This is not the time for us to be divided. We've held together with NATO, and the EU, and our allies. Let's not fall into this trap," the top Democrat on the committee, Representative Gregory W. Meeks (NY), said during the debate.

Republicans rejected such arguments, however, insisting that the measure was about transparency and accountability for Americans, rather than about sending any messages to Kiev. Greene also claimed that House Democrats were "blinded by hate" for her and were making Ukrainian oversight a purely political issue.

Comment: Of course lawmakers don't want the aid sent to Ukraine scrutinized. Any close oversight would inevitably lead to the Ukraine gravy train coming to a screeching halt:


Sherlock

SOTT Focus: Musk's Twittergate & Hunter's Laptop: Why FBI Have a Ton to Answer For

hunter laptop
© Epoch Times
Last Friday, Elon Musk dropped the "Twitter Files" bombshell via journalist Matt Taibbi. He detailed how Democratic operatives and FBI execs censored the "laptop from hell" story and Team Biden's political opponents prior to the 2020 election."

The first batch of the Twitter Files proved that Twitter executives helped Joe Biden cover up the fact that he lied about not knowing anything about his son Hunter's business dealings. In fact, he not only knew about those dealings but was involved in them," Hans Mahncke, a US investigative journalist and co-host of "Truth Over News" on EpochTV, told Sputnik.

He referred to files originating from Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" which were made public in October 2020 and then immediately suppressed by Twitter.

On December 2, Musk, who became the owner of the social net platform on October 28, started to release thousands of internal Twitter emails. On November 30, the businessman accused the platform's former leadership of interfering in US elections through content moderation. According to the Musk, the US public deserves to know who was behind the decision to censor the laptop story.

Stormtrooper

Homeland Security DELAYS nationwide rollout of Real ID for another two years because of the 'lingering effects of COVID'

Real ID California license
© Emily Zentner - The Sacramento Bee
A new form of government identification that was meant to go into effect in 2008 is being delayed yet again, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday.

The nationwide rollout of Real ID is being delayed by two years due to COVID-19, the department said in a press release.

Real ID will be needed to board domestic flights and enter federal facilities when finally implemented.

The push until 2025 was made 'to address the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability to obtain a REAL ID driver's license or identification card.'

DHS said the additional time will give motor vehicle agencies the ability to work through backlogs created by the pandemic, when many services were greatly reduced to comply with lockdown regulations and other public health precautions.

Comment: See also: Exposing the 'Digital ID is a human right' Scam


Corona

China announces nationwide loosening of Covid restrictions

Shanghai covid
© Hector Retamal/AFP.Health workers wait to test passengers for Covid-19 after their arrival at Hongqiao railway station in Shanghai on December 6, 2022.
China announced Wednesday a nationwide loosening of its hardline Covid restrictions that had hammered the world's second biggest economy and ignited rare protests against the ruling Communist Party.

The new rules are a major relaxation of President Xi Jinping's signature zero-Covid policy, three years into the pandemic and long after the rest of the world had largely learnt to live with the virus.

However, with vaccination rates remaining low among China's elderly and a health system still regarded as ill-prepared for a wave of infections, Xi has not abandoned travel curbs and heavy testing completely.

Under the new guidelines announced by the National Health Commission, the frequency and scope of PCR testing — long a tedious mainstay of life in zero-Covid China — will be reduced.

Magnify

Best of the Web: German police raids group accused of far-right coup plot, minor aristocrat implicated


Comment: What in the WORLD?!


Waidmannsheil castle
Waidmannsheil castle in Saaldorf is one of the locations owned by Heinrich XIII which is said to have been used by far right extremists to plot a takeover of Germany's parliament
An alleged far-right plot led by a German aristocrat to overthrow the state that sought the backing of the Russian government has been thwarted in Germany, after a series of dawn raids across the country.

Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old prince, a retired military commander, and an acting judge and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) were planning a violent overthrow of the state, including an armed attack on the parliament, inspired by the storming of the US Capitol, according to prosecutors.


Comment: They were inspired by a deep state subversion of a peaceful protest outside of the capitol? If true, this group weren't as clued up on deep-state machinations as they thought they were.


The group was apparently driven in ideology by the deep-state conspiracy theories of QAnon and the Reichsbürger ("empire citizens") movement, which denies the right of modern Germany to exist.


Comment: Again, QAnon is a deep state psyop.


It was planning to renegotiate the country's post-second world war settlement, insisting the "Deutsche Reich" still had legitimacy despite having ended with the Nazis' defeat in 1945.

Comment: Germany seems to be increasing its crack down on groups such as these; the following is from 2021: Germany cracks down: 20 arrested in raid on banned Salafist group, 8 arrested in raid on far right group

Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Twitter Files: US Spies And Dems Colluded to Interfere in 2020 US Election


Hiliter

Russian 'LGBTQ propaganda' law signed by Putin explained

Putin
© AP/Kremlin PoolRussian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a complete ban on 'LGBTQ propaganda', which criminalizes the distribution of material promoting non-traditional sexual relations, pedophilia, and transgenderism. The law also allows foreign offenders to be expelled from Russia.

Putin signed the bill on Monday, after it was approved by the upper and lower chambers of the Russian parliament late last month.

1 What does the law forbid?

The law bans the dissemination of LGBTQ materials to both "minors and adults," and applies to "the media, the internet, literature and cinema," according to a statement issued by the Duma last month.

The materials banned include content promoting non-traditional sexual relations or preferences, pedophilia, and transgenderism.

Advertisers are also forbidden from depicting non-traditional sexual relations or preferences under the law.

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Meta threatens to remove news content over US journalism bargaining bill

Meta
© prima91/stock.adobe.com
Facebook owner Meta threatened to remove news content from its platforms on Monday following reports that US lawmakers have added controversial legislation favoring news media to the annual defense authorization bill.

The warning highlights the danger that Meta perceives to its business model in the face of the proposed bill, known as the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA).

The legislation introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar and backed by more than a dozen other lawmakers from both parties would create a four-year exemption under US antitrust law allowing news outlets to bargain collectively against social media platforms for a larger share of ad revenue in exchange for their news content. It is one of several tech-focused antitrust bills currently pending on Capitol Hill.

Meta, in a statement tweeted by spokesman Andy Stone, said:
"If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions."

Gold Bar

Central banks start Q4 buying more gold

gold
© UnknownFILE PHOTO
After adding a historically high amount of gold to reserves in the third quarter, central banks kicked off Q4 buying more gold. According to data compiled by the World Gold Council, central banks globally added another 31 tons of gold to official reserves in October.

Total central bank gold holdings are now at the highest level since 1974.

The Central Bank of the UAE was the largest gold buyer in October. It added just over 9 tons to its gold reserves. So far this year, the UAE has increased its reserves by 18 tons.

Turkey also bought roughly 9 tons of gold in October. The Central Bank of Türkiye has been the biggest purchaser of gold in 2022, adding 103 tons to its reserves so far.

Uzbekistan has also been adding gold to its holdings on a consistent basis. It also increased its reserves by 9 tons in October. It was the seventh straight month of gold purchases for the nation. This brings its y-t-d net purchases to 37 tons despite beginning the year by selling almost 25 tons in the first quarter. Gold reserves account for just over 60% of Uzbek's total reserves.

Footprints

Flashback Best of the Web: Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser

Barbara Roche immigration minister great britain
Barbara Roche was the former Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, and was immigration minister from 1999 to 2001.
Labour threw open Britain's borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a "truly multicultural" country, a former Government adviser has revealed.

The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett.

He said Labour's relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".

As a result, the public argument for immigration concentrated instead on the economic benefits and need for more migrants.

Critics said the revelations showed a "conspiracy" within Government to impose mass immigration for "cynical" political reasons.

Comment: And how did this cynical policy work out?