Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Donbass fighting is 'hell' - Zelensky admits Russian advantage is overwhelming


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 18:40 UTC
ukraine soldier kharkiv war
© Collin MayfieldSoldier stands in front of the recently destroyed Kharkiv administrative building
The president says Ukrainian forces can't break Russia's advantage in artillery and manpower

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Tuesday that the fighting in Donbass was "hell," claiming that Kiev's military remained heavily outgunned and even outnumbered by Russia and appealing to the US and its allies for even more weapons such as the HIMARS rocket launchers.

In a five-minute address to Ukrainians, Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden and NATO for sending the rocket artillery, calling it "very effective" and vowing to inflict "more painful losses" on the Russians, whom he described as a "horde" of invaders.

"The word 'HIMARS' has become almost synonymous with the word 'justice' for our country," Zelensky said.

Comment:

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Rocket

How a missile in Kabul connects to a speaker in Taipei

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
Pelosi
© The CradleNancy Pelosi in Taiwan
Washington's hard power display of taking out Al-Qaeda's Al-Zawahiri will not be reciprocated by Beijing over Pelosi's provocative visit to Taiwan. It does however, definitively bury the decades-long era of cooperative US-Chinese relations.

This is the way the "Global War on Terror" (GWOT) ends, over and over again: not with a bang, but a whimper.

Two Hellfire R9-X missiles launched from a MQ9 Reaper drone on the balcony of a house in Kabul. The target was Ayman Al-Zawahiri with a $25 million bounty on his head. The once invisible leader of 'historic' Al-Qaeda since 2011, is finally terminated.

All of us who spent years of our lives, especially throughout the 2000s, writing about and tracking Al-Zawahiri know how US 'intel' played every trick in the book - and outside the book - to find him. Well, he never exposed himself on the balcony of a house, much less in Kabul.
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Attention

'Deep mistrust' between US and Zelensky - NYT


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:46 UTC
AustinZelenskyBlink
© ADP/USDFUS Sec. Defense Lloyd Austin • Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
US Sec. of State Antony Blinken
There is a "deep mistrust" between the administration of US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, a New York Times columnist claimed in an article published on Monday.

The US has so far been the strongest backer of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, providing billions of dollars in military aid along with intelligence, but according to the paper's foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman, relations between Washington and Kiev are not as they seem.

Friedman, A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote:
"Privately, US officials are a lot more concerned about Ukraine's leadership than they are letting on. There is deep mistrust between the White House and Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky — considerably more than has been reported."
The NYT writer described Zelensky's decision to fire Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova and the head of the State Security Service (SBU), Ivan Bakanov, in mid-July as "funny business going on in Kiev."

Friedman noted that he hasn't yet seen any reporting in the US media that "convincingly explains" the reasons behind the largest shakeup in the Kiev government since the launch of the Russian military operation on February 24.
"It is as if we don't want to look too closely under the hood in Kiev for fear of what corruption or antics we might see, when we have invested so much there."

Comment: There are facts and then there is what is reported.

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Binoculars

Britain helps Ukraine hunt for Russian spies eyeing Western military aid

Dominic Nicholls
The Telegraph
Mon, 01 Aug 2022 06:00 UTC
Himar system
© ShutterstockUkraine forces operate US Himars rocket launch system
Britain is helping Ukraine hunt Russian spies targeting Western-supplied weapons, the acting deputy head of Kyiv's military intelligence has said.

Finding and destroying military aid flowing into Ukraine from Western countries is "goal number one for Russian agents", according to Major General Vadym Skibitsky.

Long-range artillery pieces, such as the US-supplied Himars system, have brought Moscow's advance almost to a halt and in recent days have rendered bridges in the Kherson region impassable to Russian vehicles, cutting off troops as Ukraine prepares a counter offensive.

Western officials believe Moscow has instructed intelligence agents, possibly including spies from the GRU's Unit 29155 - deemed responsible for the 2018 Salisbury nerve agent attack and other attempted assassinations - to find the weapons donated by Western partners.

Comment: General Skibitsky feeds the West what it wants to hear. Look what he gets in return!

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Russian Flag

Russia finally fed up: Cooperation with the West is 'over'


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 18:10 UTC
Biden Putin
© epa/New Statesman/KJNUS President Joe Biden • Russian President Vladimir Putin
Moscow only needs "transactional" deals with Western states, a top official has explained

Russia's decades-long attempt to integrate with the west is not only over, but even cooperation is now off the cards, a senior strategist in Moscow has warned. Aleksey Drobinin, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Planning Department, believes that future dealings can only take place on a "transactional" basis.

Drobinin, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Planning Department, was writing in a keynote article published on Wednesday. He explained that the West is trying to protect its power from an emerging multipolar world, which means countries like Russia which reject Washington's so-called "rules-based order" must resist.

Thus, after the present crisis in Ukraine, there can be no return to attempts at a rapprochement with the US and its allies, he argues.
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Eye 2

Rachel Levine is a nutcase promoted by pharma-backed advocacy group to normalize transitioning children

Jennifer Bilek
Human Events
Tue, 02 Aug 2022 17:42 UTC
rachel levine transgender children
Rachel Levine
How does a dangerous man like Dr. Rachel Levine wind up in the White House, spewing potentially deadly information to the public about drugs to treat children distressed about their sexed bodies? He was backed by The Victory Institute, which works to get LGBTQ activists into top levels of power in the US.

According to the group's website. "When LGBTQ presidential appointees are empowered, they can significantly influence the policies and direction of agencies and the executive branch to make positive change for LGBTQ people."

Read: In this instance, push forward gender identity industry policies and laws that harm children and profit the medical-industrial complex by promoting dissociation from one's sexed body as progressive.
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Light Saber

Flashback Miss him yet? IRS data proves Trump tax cuts benefited middle, working-class Americans most

Justin Haskins
The Hill
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:32 UTC
Trump Tax cut
One recipient of Trump's tax cut
President Biden and congressional Democrats' Build Back Better (BBB) Act is now in the hands of the Senate. That legislative body's 50-50 partisan split will undoubtedly make the bill's passage difficult.

In order for BBB to become law, Democratic Senate leadership will need to convince moderates such as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that the legislation's $2.4 trillion price tag can be offset by expanding the IRS and its enforcement efforts while imposing substantial tax reform measures.

Congressional Democrats have argued that one of the best ways to pay for the legislation is to raise taxes on wealthy households, which, according to many on the left, have benefited disproportionately and unfairly from the 2017 tax reform law passed by Republicans and signed by former President Trump. The latest data, however, proves that this claim is pure mythology.

Comment: Those were the days . . . .

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Vader

NATO-backed network of Syria dirty war propagandists identified

Aaron Maté
The Grayzone
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:46 UTC
the guardian cia white helmets bellingcat propagandists intercept
© The GrayzoneNATO's propaganda network
Defaming journalism on the OPCW's Syria cover-up scandal, The Guardian and its NATO-funded sources out themselves as the real "network of conspiracy theorists."

On June 10th, The Guardian's Mark Townsend published an article headlined "Russia-backed network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified." ("Russia-backed" has since been removed).

The article is based on what Townsend calls a "new analysis" that "reveals" a "network more than two dozen conspiracy theorists, frequently backed by a coordinated Russian campaign." This network, Townsend claims, is "focused on the denial or distortion of facts about the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons and on attacking the findings of the world's foremost chemical weapons watchdog," the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). According to Townsend, I am named "as the most prolific spreader of disinformation" among the nefarious bunch.
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Bad Guys

As Lebanon suffers an unprecedented food crisis, Ukraine uses Western support to block flour and wheat from its markets

Robert Inlakesh
RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 12:33 UTC
razoni ship
© AP / Michael ShtekelThe bulk carrier Razoni starts its way from the port in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
A Syrian-flagged ship named the Laodicea that docked in the Lebanese port of Tripoli was detained last Saturday, preventing desperately needed flour and barley from reaching people in the Middle East. The move came after Western threats against Beirut and unsubstantiated claims from Kiev that the cargo was stolen from Ukraine. The ship, which has been on a US blacklist since 2015 for allegedly carrying shipments from sanctioned Crimea, is now under investigation.

On Friday, allegations emerged in Western media, citing the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut, that "stolen" flour and barley had been transferred to the Lebanese port of Tripoli and that Kiev had warned the Lebanese government against buying the grain. The news was said to have sparked protests from Western governments "warning" Lebanon's Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, over the allegedly stolen cargo. It later turned out that Kiev possessed no evidence that the flour and barley aboard the ship was from Ukraine. Despite this, Lebanon has now seized the ship and will act according to legal proceedings on the issue, after reported Western pressure.
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Eye 1

Let's wait and see: Liz Truss rules out any more lockdowns shutting down UK PLC if another pandemic ever sweeps the country

David Wilcock
Daily Mail
Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:44 UTC
Lizz Truss
© ReutersFacing Tory members at a leadership hustings she claimed she had always been against them despite being in Boris Johnson's administration that repeatedly closed shops, schools and pubs to deal with Covid.
Liz Truss tonight ruled out ever ordering the UK into lockdown if she becomes prime minister.

Facing Tory members at a leadership hustings she claimed she had always been against them despite being in Boris Johnson's administration that repeatedly closed shops, schools and pubs to deal with Covid.

Asked if she would authorise another lockdown, she said 'no, I wouldn't', and when asked if she thinks lockdown was a bad idea, she said: 'I wasn't really a core part of that Covid decision-making, and often frankly it was presented as a fait accompli, as the French would say, to the wider Cabinet.

Comment: See also:

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