Puppet MastersS


Dig

Italian parliament dissolved paving way for fresh elections after Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigns


RT
Thu, 21 Jul 2022 17:04 UTC
Sergio Mattarella Mario Draghi
© AFP / Quirinale Press OfficeSergio Mattarella (R) signs a decree to dissolve the Parliament in front of resigning Prime Minister Mario Draghi (L) at the presidential Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, July 21, 2022.
Italy is facing a general election after President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament on Thursday. Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned hours earlier, after three of his coalition partners boycotted a confidence vote.

Mattarella did not set a date for elections, but said that a vote must take place within 70 days, as per Italy's constitution.

His decision to dissolve parliament came after an attempt last week to keep Draghi in power. Draghi, who formerly led the European Central Bank, announced his resignation last Thursday after his largest coalition partners in the populist Five Star Movement withdrew their support from him, but Mattarella rejected his bid to quit.

Comment: See also:

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Microscope 1

Dr. Birx admits she and Fauci made up 'The Science' on lockdowns, social distancing

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:40 UTC
trump fauci birx
President Trump's former Covid-19 adviser Dr. Deborah Birx has made several stunning admissions of late - first telling the Daily Mail that Covid-19 "came out of the box ready to infect" when it hit Wuhan, China in 2019 - and that it may have been created by Chinese scientists who were "working on coronavirus vaccines."

But it goes further than that.

As Fox News' Jesse Waters lays out, Birx admitted in her new book that she and Dr. Anthony Fauci were essentially shooting from the hip when it came to national directives such as "two weeks to stop the spread," and social distancing requirements.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

Russia moves to annex occupied Ukrainian land by September - reports


Caliber.Az
Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:43 UTC
crimea putin annexation
Wiki Commons: Russian President Vladimir Putin signs the treaty of "accession" (annexation) with Crimean leaders in Moscow, 18 March 2014.
The Kremlin is in a dash to hold referendums in Ukrainian territories occupied by its troops to give grounds for President Vladimir Putin to absorb them into Russia as early as September, according to people familiar with the strategy.

Officials are preparing to organize votes in areas currently controlled by the Russian military and any others its troops are able to seize in coming weeks, three people said, Bloomberg reported on July 21.

The goal is to conduct referendums on joining Russia by September 15, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive.
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Network

Putin speaks to Saudi crown prince, leaders agree OPEC & allies should continue to work together to 'stabilize energy markets'


RT
Thu, 21 Jul 2022 20:23 UTC
Putin Salman
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R).
Russia's President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in global oil markets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a phone call on Thursday. The two leaders praised the high level of "friendly" bilateral relations between the two nations and their cooperation within the OPEC+ group, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, which together comprise OPEC+, are "consistently fulfilling their obligations" to keep the balance and stability in the global energy market, the two leaders said, according to the Kremlin.

Last month, the group agreed to increase output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 0.7% of global demand, over July and August. The decision came as Western nations had been pressuring OPEC to address global energy shortages exacerbated by sanctions on Russia. The move, however, failed to drive oil prices lower at that time.

Comment: Biden's recent visit didn't go as smoothly: Saudi prince reminds Biden of US torture in Iraq

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Yoda

Lavrov spells out what would push Moscow to redraw front line in Ukraine


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2022 22:18 UTC
Lavrov
© UnknownRussian FM Sergey Lavrov
Western weapon supplies will spur Russia to push forward, foreign minister says

The use of Western-supplied heavy weapons by Kiev will only force Russia to move deeper into Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT and Sputnik on Wednesday.

Lavrov told RT Editor-in-Chief, Margarita Simonyan that when negotiators met in Istanbul, Turkey on March 29-30, they were discussing "one geography," referring to the areas controlled by Russia and the forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR).

"Our willingness to accept Ukrainian suggestions was based on the geography as of the end of March, 2022," the minister noted.
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Stormtrooper

Army cuts expected force size amid unprecedented shortfall of recruits

Lolita C. Baldor,
PBS
Tue, 19 Jul 2022 22:17 UTC
army personnel
Army recruits
The Army is significantly cutting the total number of soldiers it expects to have in the force over the next two years, as the U.S. military faces what a top general called "unprecedented challenges" in bringing in recruits.

Army officials on Tuesday said the service will fall about 10,000 soldiers short of its planned end strength for this fiscal year, and prospects for next year are grimmer. Army Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, said it is projecting it will have a total force of 466,400 this year, down from the expected 476,000. And the service could end 2023 with between 445,000 and 452,000 soldiers, depending on how well recruiting and retention go.

With just two and a half months to go in the fiscal year, the Army has achieved just 50 percent of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers, according to Lt. Col. Randee Farrell, spokeswoman for Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. Based on those numbers and trends, it is likely the Army will miss the goal by nearly 25 percent as of Oct. 1. If the shortfalls continue, Martin said, they could have an impact on readiness.

Comment: Not just a U.S. problem, either.

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Briefcase

Mystery solved: DOJ secretly thwarted release of Russia documents declassified by Trump

John Solomon
Just the News
Wed, 20 Jul 2022 22:18 UTC
mark meadows trump jan 6 capitol
© Associated PressInsets: Mark Meadows (L); Donald Trump (R)
Department used last-minute privacy concerns to halt release, then ignored direct order from president to make memos public.

In the final hours of the Trump presidency, the U.S. Justice Department raised privacy concerns to thwart the release of hundreds of pages of documents that Donald Trump had declassified to expose FBI abuses during the Russia collusion probe, and the agency then defied a subsequent order to release the materials after redactions were made, according to interviews and documents.

The previously untold story of how highly anticipated declassified material never became public is contained in a memo obtained by Just the News from the National Archives that was written by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows just hours before Trump left office on noon of Jan. 20, 2021.

Comment: There are mounds of dirty laundry in those documents and not just belonging to the U.S. Deep State.

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Document

Leaked docs: Facebook 'bot' adviser secretly in pay of US regime change agency

Kit Klarenberg
MintPress News
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Ethiopia military
© MintPress News
Documents shared with MintPress reveal that Valent Projects - a shadowy communications firm that advises social media platforms such as Facebook on alleged state-backed online influence campaigns - has itself received $1.2 million from U.S. intelligence front USAID, for "counter disinformation and communications support."

This relationship has hitherto never been publicly acknowledged, and the resulting income is not reflected in the company's published accounts.

On Valent's direction, Facebook has purged huge numbers of Sudanese accounts and pages critical of the Western-backed government, helping to keep a controversial civilian and military administration in power. There are also suspicions the company may have played a role in the mass suppression of Ethiopian voices online supporting the government of Abiy Ahmed, and opposing U.S. attempts to overthrow him.

Valent Projects is the creation of Amil Khan, a veteran BBC and Reuters journalist turned British intelligence-adjacent information warfare professional. For many years, Khan worked on secret Foreign Office projects in Syria. There, he ran covert psyops campaigns targeting domestic and international audiences, trained ostensibly independent opposition journalists and activists to communicate effectively with the media, and provided propaganda support to numerous armed groups trained, funded, and armed by London and Washington.
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Putin

Putin predicts 'revolutionary' changes


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:34 UTC
Putin
© Sputnik/Alexey MaishevPresident of Russia Vladimir Putin
A new epoch of world history is approaching and only "truly sovereign" states will be able to succeed in the changed environment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a business forum, Putin claimed that
"truly revolutionary," "enormous" changes would lead to the creation of a new, "harmonious, fairer and more community-focused and safe" world order. In this new epoch, "only truly sovereign states can ensure high growth dynamics."
By the term 'sovereignty' the Russian president means
"freedom of national development, and thus of each person individually," as well as "technological, cultural, intellectual, educational viability of the state" and a "responsible, active and nationally minded, nationally oriented civil society."
Such a state, the president said, will serve as an example for others when it comes to
"the standards and quality of people's life, the protection of traditional values and high humanistic ideals."
This kind of world is in sharp contrast to the Western-dominated unipolar world order, which, in Putin's opinion, is
"becoming a brake on the development of our civilization." He accused the West of being "racist and neo-colonial," saying that its ideology "is becoming increasingly more like totalitarianism."

Comment: The West's time is up. The pendulum swings.

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Airplane

Biden's Hollow Middle East Trip

Scott Ritter
Energy Intelligence
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
BidenMBS
© UnknownUS President Joe Biden • Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
US President Joe Biden comes away from a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia with a handful of commitments on regional and energy security issues, many of which are little more than empty promises. The price paid for these hollow accomplishments was high.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has, from its inception, placed perception management at the forefront of its national security policy, packaged into well-known tropes such as "democracy," "human rights," and the "rules-based international order." While the embrace of such policy thematics is not unique to this administration, the degree to which it has been allowed to drift away from foundation in fact, and instead craft narratives that are often more fiction than real, is alarming.

No single policy moment has come close to capturing this combination of inconsistency, contradiction and half-truths as Biden's recent Middle East trip. Born from the dual needs of salving regional concerns over Iran's nuclear program and securing Saudi guarantees on increased oil production, Biden's trip devolved into a series of made-for-television moments designed to shape public perception, only to be quickly brushed aside by the harsh truth of reality.
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