Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Lawmakers subpoena Secret Service for January 6 texts


RT
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 04:49 UTC
Secret Service
© AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteUS Secret Service takes position near the White House November 8, 2020
The Congressional panel investigating the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 has subpoenaed the Secret Service for text messages that might shed light on the incident, after a government watchdog suggested the agency may have deleted them maliciously.

In a letter written to Secret Service Director James Murray on Friday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) said the House committee had subpoenaed the policing authority to produce a series of text messages originally sent on January 5 and 6. It was given a July 19 deadline to provide the documents to Congress.

Comment: The Secret Service: Long time, no tell. They fully cooperated via silence.

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NPC

White House 'diversity hire' Jean-Pierre's utter incompetence highlights identity politics failure

Ben Bartee
The Daily Bell
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 18:49 UTC
Karine Jean-Pierre rachel levine
© Rachel Levine/TwitterPresident Biden’s spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre and Admiral Rachel Levine
Just two months in, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is the most monumental failure at the podium in recorded history:
"It's been a rocky first month for White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Her answers have baffled reporters, and even made some of her White House colleagues wince."
Imagine how bad her performance really has been to induce neoliberal Politico into writing such an unflattering intro paragraph.
Karine Jean-Pierre politico headline diversity hire
© Politico
That's like a Hindu priest beating a sacred cow. Ordinarily, while covering a sacrosanct immigrant lesbian Person of Color© in such a position, Politico would fawn.

Just how historically awful has Jean-Pierre been? More importantly, what lesson does her failure teach on the hollowness of leftist identity politics?
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Oil Well

Media reports Russia has price cap-busting oil pricing plan


RT
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 18:29 UTC
Russian oil well
© Sergey Karpukhin / ReutersA Russian oil well
Moscow wants to create a crude pricing benchmark by next year as the West seeks to squeeze its profits, Bloomberg reports

Russia has ramped up efforts to create its own national oil pricing benchmark as part of its response to Western efforts to limit its oil revenues, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing government and industry sources.

According to the agency, the Western sanctions campaign, which was launched after Russia began its military operation in Ukraine, and the attempts to squeeze its oil export revenue with a proposed price cap, have reinvigorated the idea.

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen is attempting to set an upper limit on how much Moscow can charge for its crude exports. Some experts have warned that the scheme may backfire.

Comment: Why doesn't Yellen just state the matter baldly? 'That's a nice little export business you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it."

Such tactics may work in the short--term with Western customers, but Russia's developing markets with its Asian neighbors (no shipping), plus increasing use of its own tankers (self-insured), may soon render the need for the West's markets moot, or at least of far less importance that they currently are. The Russians have a lot of other fish to fry.

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Dollars

Another insider trade: Pelosi's husband buys millions in computer chip stocks right before vote on massive subsidy

Gabe Kaminsky
The Daily Caller
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 18:16 UTC
Nancy/Paul Pelosi
© ReutersStock traders Nancy and Paul Pelosi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul bought up to $5 million in stock of a computer chip company ahead of a vote on a bill next week that would hand billions in subsidies to boost chip manufacturing, a financial disclosure shows.

Paul Pelosi purchased 20,000 shares of Nvidia, one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, on June 17, according to the speaker's disclosure report released Thursday. Now, senators will convene as early as Tuesday to vote on a bipartisan competition bill, which allocates $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and gives tax credits for production, Reuters reported Thursday.

Comment: The Pelosis may not be criminals on the epic scale of the Biden family, but they are no slouches either.

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Bad Guys

Amidst Ukraine-Russia grain deal, US inserts itself into diplomatic efforts claiming it wants to help facilitate exports

Daphne Psaledakis
Reuters
Fri, 15 Jul 2022 19:09 UTC
farmer wheat grain ukraine
© REUTERS/Gleb GaranichRussia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donbas region

Farmers harvest wheat, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Donbas region, Ukraine July 13, 2022.
The United States on Thursday sought to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports by reassuring banks, shipping and insurance companies that such transactions would not breach Washington's sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Enabling those Russian exports is a key part of attempts by the United Nations and Turkish officials to broker a package deal with Moscow that would also allow for shipments of Ukraine grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa, which have been blockaded by the war.

The written U.S. clarification came a day after Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and U.N. officials met in Istanbul for talks aimed at resuming Ukraine's grain exports. Turkey announced that the parties would return next week to sign a deal.


Comment: Lest we forget that the US is primarily responsible for this catastrophe, has scuppered peace talks since the beginning, and has done next to nothing to facilitate this deal; except maybe realising that if it doesn't allow Ukraine to agree to the deal, the upheaval it will cause to global food supply chains will be even more difficult to manage.

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Colosseum

Leaked doc reveals EU plan for gas rationing and blackouts as their proxy war worsens energy crisis

Kira Taylor
EURACTIV
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 12:48 UTC
gas compressor station germany
© Filip Singer / EPA-EFEThe gas compressor station in Mallnow, near the German-Polish border, has stopped receiving Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which transits Belarus and Poland, since Russian operator Gazprom in May had discontinued usage of the Poland section. Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom on 11 July 2022 suspended deliveries of gas to Germany via Nord Stream 1 for scheduled annual summer maintenance works
The European Commission is drafting plans to help EU countries reduce fossil gas demand and, if necessary, curtail consumption in the face of "a likely deterioration of gas supply outlook" this winter, according to leaked policy proposals seen by EURACTIV.

Over the past few months, gas supplies from Russia have declined in a "deliberate attempt to use energy as a political weapon", driving energy prices higher and raising concerns about whether Europe will have enough supply to get through the next winter.


Comment: Not quite; Europe has sanctioned itself out of the gas market: Whilst Canada withholds turbine, Gazprom cannot guarantee functioning of Nord Stream pipeline


Already, supply to the Baltic States, Poland, Bulgaria and Finland has stopped. Supply to Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy has been reduced and flows through Nord Stream 1, the largest import route to the EU, have been cut by 60%.

Comment: The document reveals just what hellish future awaits citizens of the EU if they continue to allow their leaders to get away with with their incompetence and criminality.

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Blackbox

Brazil president Bolsonaro says he has plan to end Ukraine conflict


RT
Fri, 15 Jul 2022 20:22 UTC
Jair Bolsonaro
© AFP 2021 / Evaristo SABrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
The president of South America's biggest country claims to have a solution for ending the conflict in Eastern Europe

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he has figured out how to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but he won't share his plan with anyone until he pitches it to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky next week.

"I'll tell him my opinion, what I think," he told reporters on Thursday. "The solution to this, I know how it could be resolved, but I won't tell anyone."

The Brazilian leader is scheduled to speak with Zelensky by phone on Monday. "This war has been causing huge disruption, less for Brazil, much more for Europe," Bolsonaro said.

Comment:

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Question

Hungary has 'military plans' for Ukraine - foreign minister


RT
Fri, 15 Jul 2022 19:58 UTC
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
© RTHungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
Budapest needs to protect ethnic Hungarians living in the western part of the bordering country, FM Peter Szijjarto has said

Hungary has military plans on how to protect ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has revealed. Budapest is ready to act in defense of 150,000 people it considers its own, he revealed in an interview on Friday.

"Our country has prepared emergency war scenarios," the minister told Index news website. He said the Hungarian government wanted to avoid using them, which is why it sought a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict.

Comment: The vultures are circling the possibly soon-to-be-ex-country of Ukraine

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Bullseye

Blunt truth: Anti-Russia sanctions are 'killing' EU economy - Orban


RT
Fri, 15 Jul 2022 19:19 UTC
orban
© AP NewsHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
Hungary's prime minister says the EU's response to Moscow was a miscalculation and has severely backfired

EU sanctions against Russia were "miscalculated" and could destroy Europe's economy, unless Brussels changes its stance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a radio interview on Friday.

"The moment of truth must come in Brussels, when leaders admit they have made a miscalculation, that the sanctions policy was based on wrong assumptions and it must be changed," Orban, an outspoken critic of the EU's policy on Russia, stated.

Comment:

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Network

NASA, Russian space agency sign deal to share space station flights

Joey Roulette
Reuters
Fri, 15 Jul 2022 15:27 UTC
NASA
FILE PHOTO: Astronauts arrive before launch to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral
NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos have signed a long-sought agreement to integrate flights to the International Space Station, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S.-made spacecraft in exchange for American astronauts being able to ride on Russia's Soyuz, the agencies said Friday.


Comment: More importantly, the US will likely continue to get and use Russian made rockets which it will struggle to get to space without. Back in 2018, despite all the manufactured furore of Russiagate and the onslaught of anti-Russian propaganda, America ordered four Russian made rockets, again, because the government does not produce any (although to be fair, it has heavily subsidised Musk's endeavours).


"The agreement is in the interests of Russia and the United States and will promote the development of cooperation within the framework of the ISS program," Roscosmos said in a statement, adding it will facilitate the "exploration of outer space for peaceful purposes."

NASA and Roscosmos, the two-decade-old space station's core partners, have sought for years to renew routine integrated crewed flights as part of the agencies' long-standing civil alliance, now one of the last links of cooperation between the United States and Russia as tensions flare over the war in Ukraine.

Comment: On that last point, Rogozin had become pretty outspoken in recent years:

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