Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

After days of failed attempts, judge finally grants Trump lawyers permission to appear in Mar-a-Lago warrant dispute

Aaron Keller
Law&Crime
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 15:18 UTC
trump
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFormer U.S. President Donald Trump appears in a Feb. 26, 2022 file photo taken in Orlando, Florida.
A federal judge in Florida has approved the appearances of two out-of-state Donald Trump attorneys in a court skirmish connected to a search warrant executed on Aug. 8 at the ex-president's palatial Mar-a-Lago club and residence.

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee to the Southern District of Florida, issued the approval order late Wednesday after several days of wrangling by two Trump attorneys. Those attorneys, James M. Trusty of Washington, D.C. and M. Evan Corcoran of Baltimore, Maryland, sought to appear in Cannon's Florida courtroom for Trump's case only — a process known as pro hac vice admission. As a general rule, lawyers can apply for pro hac admission in connection with a specific proceeding — the phrase means "for this occasion only" — if they're members in good standing of their own local bar, if they agree to work through "local counsel" (someone who is licensed in the forum jurisdiction), and with the permission of the court. However, attorneys admitted pro hac become subject to the ethics rules of the forum jurisdiction, as Judge Cannon rather sternly noted up front in a Wednesday order:

Comment: A ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Bill Clinton's records back in 2012 should negate all the sturm un drang:

Trump and Slick Willy's sock drawer: An old case over audio tapes could impact Mar-a-Lago search dispute

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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Jeffrey Sachs: The west's false narrative about Russia and China

Jeffrey Sachs
Pearls and Irritations
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 12:00 UTC
bear dragon
The world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of Western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. The relentless Western narrative that the West is noble while Russia and China are evil is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous. It is an attempt to manipulate public opinion, not to deal with very real and pressing diplomacy.
The essential narrative of the West is built into US national security strategy. The core US idea is that China and Russia are implacable foes that are "attempting to erode American security and prosperity." These countries are, according to the US, "determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their. militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence."

The irony is that since 1980 the US has been in at least 15 overseas wars of choice (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Panama, Serbia, Syria, and Yemen just to name a few), while China has been in none, and Russia only in one (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union. The US has military bases in 85 countries, China in 3, and Russia in 1 (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union.

Comment: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Winning the Information War... by Car-Bombing Dugin's Daughter?



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Wolf

Kiev was gearing up for military conflict since 2019, security chief admits


RT
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 09:55 UTC
Ukrainian soldiers
Ukrainian soldiers ride through a street in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, on July 8.
A top Ukrainian security official has said that Kiev had been gearing up for hostilities with Russia since as early as December 2019. The Russian military had earlier reported uncovering classified Ukrainian documents indicating a planned offensive against Donbass rebels.

The revelation about Kiev's military preparation was made by Aleksey Danilov, who chairs Ukraine's national security council, in an interview with the Polish daily Wyborcza on Tuesday.

"We were actually preparing for the war from December 2019, and all the claims that we were not dealing with it are absolutely out of touch with reality," he was quoted as saying. "If we did not prepare for war, today Russian tanks would be in Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn and Vilnius."

Comment: Ukraine was preparing to wage war years before 2019, lest we forget the US-backed coup in 2014 when Kiev began its relentless assault on the Donbas: Zelensky is Not in Charge of Ukraine, Nazis Are - And They Believe They Are on a Mission From God to 'Derussify Ukraine in Holy War'

Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Winning the Information War... by Car-Bombing Dugin's Daughter?



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Wolf

Steven Hoffenberg, Epstein mentor & fellow Ponzi criminal found dead

Tina Moore
New York Post
Fri, 26 Aug 2022 10:31 UTC
Hoffenberg
© Melissa Bunni Elian for The Washington Post via Getty ImagesSteven Hoffenberg was found dead in his Derby, Connecticut, home by police during a wellness check.
Steven Hoffenberg, the disgraced businessman and longtime mentor of Jeffrey Epstein, was found dead Tuesday when Connecticut police discovered his rotting corpse during a wellness check, The Post has learned.


Comment: Unusual choice of phrasing.


Authorities discovered Hoffenberg, who spent 18 years in prison for running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, dead in his home around 8 p.m. Tuesday. It is not clear exactly when he died.

Police had been called to the 77-year-old's home in Derby, Conn., at the request of a friend.

Comment: This news is notable because, if Hoffenberg's claims are true, then it's possible he would have had information on Epstein that might have proved useful. However, since Hoffernberg went to jail for his crimes, and early on, and apparently died in relative obscurity might reflect how he no longer served any use to the establishment and was left to fend for himself.

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Laptop

FBI brass warned agents off Hunter Biden laptop due to 2020 election: whistleblowers

Emily Crane
New York Post
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 19:01 UTC
Hunter Biden
According to a whistleblower, FBI officials told agents to not investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop in order to not influence the 2020 presidential election.
FBI officials told agents not to investigate first son Hunter Biden's infamous laptop for months — vowing that the bureau was "not going to change the outcome of the election again," according to whistleblower claims made public Wednesday by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)

"These new allegations provide even more evidence of FBI corruption and renew calls for you to take immediate steps to investigate the FBI's actions regarding the laptop," Johnson wrote in a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

According to the senator, "individuals with knowledge" had told his office that "local FBI leadership" had slow-walked the laptop investigation after the computer was recovered from a Wilmington, Del. repair shop in December 2019.

Comment: By not investigating the infamous laptop, the FBI were in fact interfering in the election. Withholding crucial information from the public would have just as much of an effect on election outcomes as revealing it would (only not for the right team).

See also:

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Arrow Up

Don't go searching for terrorists, they are not hard to find

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 08:00 UTC
French Foreign Legion
© New Eastern Outlook
May I just spit it out? We are the terrorists. Americans are the terrorists creating tremendous suffering and tragedy around the world. And no, I am not the only one admitting to this. Deep down, all of my fellow citizens know what we are up to. A recent incident in Yemen drives home the hegemony my country has created, looted, and still loots the whole world.

I watched talk show host Jimmy Dore a few moments ago, laying out how the US, France, and other nations are robbing other people of this world to prop up failed super-capitalism. Dore, who has an uncanny ability to drive at the heart of matters, was interviewing Ethiopian-American Journalist Hermela Aregawi in a story about the French Foreign Legion securing Yemeni natural gas for sale to the EU. The story begins something like this from The New Arab:
"France could be gearing up to help protect a gas facility in Yemen to allow for exports in a bid to cut Europe's reliance on Russia, according to an ex-Yemeni foreign minister."
Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, told reporters the other day that the French Foreign Legion has arrived in Yemen's Shabwah province to secure control of the Balhaf gas facility. He said the French are making "preparations being made to export gas from the Balhaf facility."

Hermela Aregawi commented with Dore about how current American policies are building up massive resentment toward the United States, even in countries that were once highly favorable towards us. I know from my experience here in Greece too. As recently as three years ago, criticizing the US in any way at all brought about a look of shock among the Greek population. Today, many Greeks question our role not only in Greece but in Ukraine and other lands where proxy wars over resources burn.

The larger Yemen story also reveals the meaning of a July Paris - Abu Dhabi LNG cooperation that depends on securing Yemen's gas resources via the Balhaf facility, owned by French multinational oil and gas company Total.
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Eye 2

Canadian 'climate ministry' will have arms storage and detention rooms - media


RT
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 06:49 UTC
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
© Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via APCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after signing a deal with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz on August 23, 2022, in Newfoundland.
The facility for Trudeau's new climate cops includes a massive firearms storage space and interrogation rooms.

A Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) facility under construction in Winnipeg includes a sizable firearms storage room, as well as multiple evidence rooms and interrogation rooms, according to CounterSignal. The outlet, which claims to have received a leaked copy of the architectural plans as drawn up by a Winnipeg firm, published a snapshot showing some of the more disturbing labels on Tuesday.

The sprawling 50,000 square-foot building also encases biological labs, media relations offices, a weather forecasting station, and - perhaps most disturbing, given the implications - facilities for housing hundreds of people, including "enforcement officers" working for the ECCC.

The "enforcement officers" are essentially climate police, endowed with equivalent authority by the 2019 Impact Assessment Act, which purports to be legislation aiming to reduce the impact of energy, farming and other large projects on indigenous communities and the environment. They may enter any property without a warrant in order to verify compliance with the IAA, taking photos, accessing computers, phones and other devices, giving orders to anyone operating machinery, or even demanding the premises be vacated and future access prohibited.

Comment: The pollution regulation or prevention of carbon emissions are just cover up stories. The essence is that they are going fully authoritarian fascistic police state ruling. By following the illogical and harmful rules, they are creating an energetic crisis and food shortages.

There are many studies that prove that humans do not contribute in any significant way on a global climate. It is a natural and cyclic process and we cant influence on it.

They want to play gods, to create and destroy realities according their wishful thinking and ignoring the objective reality as it is, but eventually at the end it will all collapse like tower of cards.It is sad that ordinary people will suffer a lot because of their dark evil "games."

See also:

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Nuke

Ukraine unplugs from Russian power grid


RT
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 21:36 UTC
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ukraine shelling
© European Union, Copernicus Sentinal-2 image/ReutersA satellite image of the fires by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on August 24.
Ukraine has terminated an agreement with Moscow on the operation of the two countries' energy systems, the government's representative to the Rada, Taras Melnichuk, announced on Tuesday.

"The agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Russian government on measures to ensure the parallel operation of the unified energy system of Ukraine and the unified energy system of Russia, concluded on July 12, 2012, has been terminated," he posted on Telegram.

Comment: RFE/RL adds more details:
Ukrainian authorities said the last two working reactors at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant were shut down due to fires and damaged power lines, heightening fears of a potential accident as the facility was temporarily disconnected from Ukraine's electricity grid for the first time.

The August 25 announcement by the state energy operator Enerhoatom came as foreign officials warned of a potential catastrophe and continue to push Russian and Ukrainian forces to do more to safeguard Europe's largest nuclear station.

Russia has controlled the facility since about two weeks after invading Ukraine on February 24, but it has allowed Ukrainian engineers to remain and operate the plant, whose first reactor went into operation in 1985.

Fighting near the plant between Russian and Ukrainian forces has stoked worries of an accident. Ukrainian officials have also warned Russia might try to disconnect the plant from the grid, a move that would severely strain Ukraine's battered economy, particularly with winter looming. The plant supplied over 20 percent of Ukraine's electricity needs before the war.

"The actions of the invaders caused a complete disconnection of the [facility] from the power grid -- the first in the history of the plant," Enerhoatom said in a post on Telegram.

Disconnecting the plant is considered potentially dangerous as a failure in backup power systems could lead to a loss of coolant and bring about a melting of the fuel in the reactor core.

In a later statement, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Ukrainian authorities informed it that the last regular power line supplying electricity to the plant was working again after having been cut earlier.

The power line that was apparently affected is different from the one that carries power to run cooling systems for the reactors. A loss of power in those supply lines is a major concern of experts closely watching the situation at the plant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later said that diesel generators had turned on during the power outrage, helping to avoid any prolonged interruption in power supply.

Adding further worries is the fact that some of the radioactive ash heaps on the plant's grounds have been set ablaze by shelling, sending potentially radioactive smoke and dust into the air. Ukraine's military intelligence agency on August 23 accused Russia of purposely striking the ash heaps, and said the smoke was drifting toward the nearby city of Enerhodar.

The Enerhoatom announcement came on the same day the head of the IAEA said Kyiv and Moscow both agree that the UN watchdog's personnel need to go to inspect the situation at Zaporizhzhya.
Everyone know that Ukraine is the one doing the shelling, and that Russia has repeatedly called for inspectors, who refuse to visit because . . . . the plant is being shelled.

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Arrow Down

In FBI vs. Trump, the people lose

Aaron Maté
mate.substack.com
Sun, 21 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
Officer and Trump hater
© Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images
Investigating Trump for an Espionage Act violation, the FBI must have him over a barrel, we are told. Does anyone remember Russiagate?

For my money, the early beneficiary of the FBI's espionage investigation of Donald Trump is Donald Trump.

According to the Washington Post, "Trump has told advisers that in the nearly two years since leaving office, no issue had better galvanized Republican voters around him." A Politico poll of Republican voters in the aftermath of the Mar-a-Lago raid gave Trump a 10-point boost over his closest possible primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump's ensuing fundraising campaign has done even better, quickly topping $1 million on at least two days, a jump of at least 700%.

Over the long run, it is difficult to form a conclusive judgment on Trump's potential culpability in the absence of any confirmed detail about both the contents of the documents that Trump allegedly mishandled, and the evidence to support the Justice Department's suspicions. But if the last six years of routine Trump standoffs with the national security state are any guide, the walls are nowhere closer to closing in.

Comment: While the sound and fury of Russiagate 'found' nothing, it did not 'signify' nothing.

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Dollars

Biden pledges nearly $3 billion to Ukraine in largest U.S. military aid package yet


RFE/RL
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
Howitzer
© Gleb Garanich/ReutersUkrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer in the Kharkiv region.
U.S. President Joe Biden has announced nearly $3 billion in new U.S. military aid for Kyiv as Ukraine marked its independence day six months after Russia invaded the country. Biden said in a statement on August 24:
"On behalf of all Americans, I congratulate the people of Ukraine on their Independence Day. The United States of America is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue the fight to defend their sovereignty. As part of that commitment, I am proud to announce our biggest tranche of security assistance to date: approximately $2.98 billion of weapons and equipment to be provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative."
The financial package will allow Kyiv to obtain air-defense and artillery systems, ammunition, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars, the statement said.
"Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere."

Comment: How will Biden afford his obscene three billion bucks giveaway? Tax-Print-Inflate. He professes to 'stand with the Ukrainian people'. Does he 'stand' with Americans? (Do they 'stand with him'?)
Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative:

Training, equipment, and advising activities have been included in USAI packages to improve Ukraine's defensive capabilities, such as marine domain awareness, operational safety, and capacity of Ukrainian Air Force facilities, as well as its lethality, command, and control, and survivability. To counter Russian cyberattacks and misinformation, USAI also supports cyber defense and strategic communications.[2]

The USAI, in collaboration with the United States Department of State, supports a wide range of security assistance activities, including, but not limited to, intelligence support, personnel training, equipment and logistics support, supplies, and other services.
A lot of bureaucratic fingers move the hands of this war.

See also: Biden admin sending billions to Ukraine as America falls apart

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