Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Russia might defend Israel if Iran launched missile strikes against it

Andrew Korybko
South 24
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 07:18 UTC
BennettPutin
© Kobi Gideon/GPOIsraeli PM Naftali Bennett • Russian President Vladimir Putin
Sochi, Russia • October 22, 2021
Observers have been speculating for years about how the scenario of an Iranian-Israeli war would play out if it ever comes to pass. It's admittedly difficult to predict how everything would unfold, but there's a high likelihood that Russia would defend Israel if Iran ever launched missile strikes against it. Moscow's potential role in such a conflict is rarely discussed, but more research should be commenced since the Kremlin might play the security kingmaker in that scenario. This isn't wild theorizing either but is based upon the relevant statements of the highest-ranking Russian officials over the years and recent military moves in that possible direction.

To be absolutely clear, Russia has no aggressive aims against Iran, nor any ambitions to actively contain it. There is no realistic chance of those two countries fighting one another since their bilateral relations are better than at any prior moment in history despite incipient differences over their shared Syrian ally's post-war future. The Kremlin would never attack the Islamic Republic, not on its own initiative nor in order to protect Israel. It could, however, utilize its Syrian-based air defense systems to intercept any incoming Iranian missiles, the same as its hoped-for sale of similar such systems to Saudi Arabia could help the Kingdom do with respect to protecting the self-professed Jewish State.

Comment: Putin cares for the Russian people - his loyalty runs far and deep.

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Stop

Jan. 6 committee backs down on some Trump document requests after Biden administration objects

Madeleine Hubbard
Just the News
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 11:48 UTC
Jan 6 committee
© Rod Lamkey/CNIP/ABACAPRESS.COMCommittee members Liz Cheney (R-WY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is withdrawing requests for some Trump White House documents after receiving objections from the Biden administration.

The committee is no longer seeking to obtain hundreds of pages from the National Security Council, but, according to CNN, "the documents may not have been all that helpful, anyway."

The House panel backed down after a Biden White House attorney Jonathan Su said earlier this month that the requested documents "appear to have no content that might be material to the Select Committee's investigation."

In the first reported pushback against the committee, the Biden administration argued that the desired Trump-era records were unnecessary for the panel's investigation.

Comment: See also:

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Extinguisher

How the woke's war on words took over 2021

Frank Furedi
RT
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 12:09 UTC
Gavel
© Pexels/Ekaterina Bolovtsova
For more than two decades, language has been the most important terrain on which the culture war has been fought. But in 2021, the policing of words gained unprecedented momentum to reach nonsensical levels.

2021 was the year of "You can't say that".

I have stopped counting the number of words that we are no longer allowed to use, as well as the newly invented terms that linguistic crusaders have attempted to shove down our throats.

Historically, the promotion of what used to be called 'politically correct language' was associated with the activities of campaigning groups who sought to weaponise words to draw attention to their cause. But in 2021, the advocacy of a new woke vocabulary was no longer the monopoly of campus radicals and identity politics-driven campaigners. Government officials, heads of the civil service and various cultural institutions, and even the courts were busy lecturing the public about what words can and cannot be used.

In Britain, for example, judges were told to stop using the word 'postmen' and instead embrace the term 'postal operatives'. The recently revised Equal Treatment Bench Book, issued in December by the Judicial College, is devoted to the objective of ensuring that the courts embrace a gender-neutral language. Judges were also instructed to use the preferred personal pronouns of transgender people.

The involvement of the courts and the system of criminal justice in the project of linguistic policing has an important symbolic significance. It legitimates linguistic engineering, and endows the vocabulary of wokeness with respectability.
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Dollar

Fauci to collect fattest government retirement package in US history


RT
Thu, 30 Dec 2021 06:29 UTC
Fauci/Flag
© UnknownDr. Anthony Fauci
President Biden's chief medical aide, Anthony Fauci, the senior US Covid-19 adviser and national institute director, is slated to receive over $350,000 in annual retirement benefits - the largest in the US government's history.

An estimate by OpenTheBooks.com - a Chicago-based non-profit devoted to transparency in public spending - published by Forbes on Tuesday states that Fauci's pension plan will begin in the $350,000 range and continue to grow "through annual cost-of-living adjustments." Though Fauci insists he has no plans on retiring any time soon, he will reportedly reap the largest benefit package ever paid to a federal worker when he does.

The 81-year-old immunologist has served as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, and was placed on the White House's Covid-19 response team under US President Donald Trump. Biden has since promoted Fauci to chief medical adviser to the president, during which time he has kept his place as NIAID director. In total, he's worked the better part of six decades in the federal government.

For the past two years running, Fauci has been the most highly paid federal employee - including the president - earning $417,608 in 2019 and another $434,312 in 2020, according to US Office of Personnel Management records obtained by the watchdog. The health adviser's 2021 salary is currently subject to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, which is also seeking details about potential conflicts of interest, financial disclosures, and his employment contract.
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Radar

US spy plane flies over eastern Ukraine

Jonny Tickle
RT
Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:37 UTC
us spy plane
© Senior Airman Andrew LeeThe flight comes as tensions on the frontier between Ukraine and Russia remain high, amidst suggestions of an upcoming conflict
A US Air Force E-8C Joint STARS battle management plane has made its maiden flight over eastern Ukraine for a reconnaissance mission to gather information about the situation on the ground, an American official has revealed.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, US European Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Russ Wolfkiel explained that the aircraft flew on Monday with permission from Ukrainian authorities and did not cross the border of the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republics (LPR), which are currently run as unrecognized states by separatists demanding independence from Kiev. The frontier area is the site of a war between the forces and the Ukrainian military.

Wolfkiel did not reveal the aircraft's exact route or its scouting information but told CNN that the Pentagon "routinely operates aircraft in the Black Sea region."

Comment: See also:

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Network

Polish use of NSO spyware against gov't opponents is 'tip of the iceberg' — expert


Times of Israel
Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:56 UTC
Krzysztof Brejza
© AP PhotoPolish Senator Krzysztof Brejza on the night of parliamentary elections, on October 13, 2019.
Recent allegations that Pegasus spyware by Israel's NSO Group was used against three Polish government opponents are likely the "tip of the iceberg," a cyber expert who helped identify the phone taps said Wednesday.

Evidence of the hacking, which has become a major scandal in Poland, was reported by the Canada-based cyber-security watchdog Citizen Lab.

"We think this is just the tip of the iceberg and there'll be more discoveries to come," John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with the group, told AFP.

"It's shocking and it looks very bad," he said. "Pegasus is a tool of dictators. Its use in these cases point to an authoritarian slide" in Poland.

Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location, and even turn on their camera without their knowledge.

One of the victims, lawyer Roman Giertych, who is involved in several cases against the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that the government was using the spyware "to fight the democratic opposition."

Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor and opposition figure, also said the spyware had been used against her, adding that she was first alerted by Apple.

Comment: More on Pegasus here:

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Eye 2

Israel hid behind landing Russian aircraft during airstrikes on Syria's Latakia port


South Front
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 12:00 UTC
Khmeimim
© AFPKhmeimim Air Base
Syrian citizens are already usual to regular explosions, fighting and terrorist attacks. Another headache for Syrian military as well as civilians are attacks by the neighboring Israel. Syria's Latakia that seemed to be one of the most secured areas thanks to the nearby Russian military bases has not avoided a disaster. Israeli warplanes found the way.

On December 28, from 03.21 to 03.26 a.m. local time, two F-16 fighter jets of the Israeli Air Force carried out the attack at the port of Latakia from the Mediterranean Sea. Without crossing the Syrian border, they hit the port of Latakia with four guided missiles.

According to the Syrian Defense Ministry, the commercial port's container yard was the main target of the strike. Surprisingly, no casualties have been reported so far.

Comment: Likely a war crime - and yet it's a tactic Israel has used before: See also:

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Question

Did Joe Biden just end the pandemic?

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 17:54 UTC
Biden
© Reuters/Evelyn HocksteinUS President Joe Biden on a call with the National Governors Association to discuss Omicron response December 27, 2021
No, he didn't make good on his campaign promise to "shut down the virus," but by seemingly admitting defeat against Covid-19, Biden has opened a clear path to ending onerous pandemic restrictions and returning to normality.

President Joe Biden admitted on Monday that "there is no federal solution" to the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement paves the way for his mandates to be scrapped, but don't expect liberals to go along willingly.

Speaking during a teleconference with governors, Biden followed this statement up by declaring that the pandemic "gets solved at the state level," before shuffling onto a helicopter and departing for his home state of Delaware.

Delegating responsibility to the states was essentially the approach of Donald Trump, and a return to this policy represents a complete reversal of Biden's campaign-trail promise to use the might of the federal government to "shut down the virus." Far from shutting down the deadly pathogen, Biden has presided over more Covid-19 deaths than his predecessor and a current daily caseload higher than at any point since his inauguration.


Comment: Qualification bias is the problem here. What percentage of deaths were actually COVID and what percentage were VACCINE-related reactions? The government isn't going to tell you what doesn't fit the narrative.


Comment: The priority: Is Biden 'saving the country' or saving himself? Spontaneous strategy is rarely suspected.


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Hammer

Marines say they're being 'crushed' over vaccine refusal: 'A political purge'

Jessica Chasmer
Fox News
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
to be vaxxed
© Getty ImagesUS Marines queue to receive Moderna vaccine, Camp Hansen, Kin, Japan
Zero religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine have been granted to date, Marine Corps spokesman says.

U.S. Marines are being "crushed" by President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate as thousands face dismissal for their continued refusal to get the shot, several active-duty Marines told Fox News Digital.

To date, 169 Marines have been discharged for refusing the vaccine, and thousands more face the same fate after the Department of Defense's mandate on all active-duty service members went into effect for the Marine Corps on Nov. 28.

Marines are allowed to apply for a religious exemption, but so far not a single application regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, or any vaccine for that matter, has been approved, a Marine Corps spokesman told Fox News.


Comment: Where can the military go for exemption consideration and fair ruling? Bias indoctrination has been successful beyond imagination, cemented into most junctures for arbitration, flatlining any response other than support of the agenda.
A US federal judge has ruled against the Oklahoma government and a group of soldiers in a lawsuit challenging the military's vaccination requirements, denying a requested pause on the policy for National Guard troops in the state.

US District Judge Stephen Friot said he would not grant a temporary injunction against the mandate in a decision on Tuesday, arguing that the state's case was "without merit." He said:
"The vaccine mandate to which the governor objects is ... intended to protect service members from the virus, which has, in less than two years, killed more Americans than have been killed in action in all of the wars the United States has ever fought."
Originally filed on December 2 on behalf of Kevin Stitt, state Attorney General John O'Connor and 16 anonymous National Guard soldiers, the lawsuit followed previous wrangling over the same mandate. It was launched after the Oklahoma Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Thomas Mancino, told his troops they would not be penalized for being unvaccinated. Governor Stitt later sought an exemption from the Pentagon, but this was ultimately refused, and he took the issue to the courts soon after.

In its suit, the state government argued that the mandate was unconstitutional and had been imposed "without any semblance of a congressional authorization." It insisted that President Joe Biden should have obtained consent from lawmakers before moving ahead on "a matter of such vast political and economic significance." The lawsuit also accused the White House of "trying to disarm the State of Oklahoma from protecting itself, its territory, and its citizens" by threatening to discharge unvaccinated troops who hadn't received a formal exemption.

However, Judge Friot also noted that the state's original complaint focused "entirely" on the wrong federal order - one that applied only to civilian government contractors. An amended suit addressing the correct statutes was filed on Monday. Unimpressed by the apparent mix-up, the judge shot down the state's newly filed complaint regardless, arguing that its lawsuit demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the National Guard and the authorities that govern it.
Wrong on many accounts, the false narrative indoctrination runs long and deep.

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Syringe

Biden says if medical team advises it, he'll issue domestic travel vaccine requirement

Alex Gangitano
The Hill
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 06:19 UTC
Joe/Jill
© Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden and wife Jill at Delaware beach
President Biden said Tuesday he would impose a mandate that Americans be vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel domestically if his medical team recommends it. When asked when he would make a decision on domestic travel vaccine requirements while out for a walk in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Biden told reporters, "when I get a recommendation from the medical team."

The idea of mandating coronavirus vaccines for domestic travel has been bouncing around the administration for months, and the emergence of the omicron variant caused the White House to revisit questions over whether to impose it.

Biden last month said he would wait for the scientific community to give him a recommendation when asked if consideration has been given to domestic flights requiring tests or vaccines. Fauci told CNN's Jim Acosta on Monday, when asked about for his thoughts on a domestic travel mandate:

Biden's chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Monday cleaned up his previous remarks on a mandate after he said on Sunday that
"anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome. Everything that comes up as a possibility, we put it on the able and we consider it, that does not mean that it is likely to happen. I doubt if we're going to see something like that in the reasonably foreseeable future."

Comment: This likely means the country has not met full indoctrination quotas to ensure a win for this mandate. Biden is already knee deep in controversy over successive and obsessive edicts. When one programs the gullible with a sticking point, reversing course is nigh on political suicide.


Comment: See also:





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