Puppet MastersS


Magnify

Trump sanctions ICC officials over their investigation into alleged US war crimes

Michael Arria
Mondoweiss
Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
Pompeo/Mochochoko/Bensouda
© Lukas Kabon/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images/Twitter/ICC/KJNUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo • ICC Jurisdiction Division Director Phakiso Mochochoko • ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the U.S. government will impose sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, over her investigation into whether or not American troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Pompeo also said that Phakiso Mochochoko, who runs the ICC's Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, has also been blacklisted as a result of the investigation. The United States is able to block the ICC officials and prohibit them from entering the country. The Trump administration successfully blocked Bensouda's entry visa last year, but she able to brief the U.N. Security Council as a result of an agreement worked out with the United Nations.

Bensouda is the former minister of justice in Gambia, and she was a part of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after the Rwandan genocide. She has been the ICC's chief prosecutor since 2012. In March, she began investigating war crimes that were allegedly committed by the U.S. military, the Taliban, and the Afghan military.

Comment: Exceptionalism, at its best, resorts to 'unacceptable' interference via intimidation:

On Wednesday, Pompeo described the ICC as "a thoroughly broken and corrupted institution" and said the US "will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction."

The US has opposed the ICC from the very beginning, and refused to ratify the Rome Statute. The George W. Bush administration even passed the American Servicemembers Protection Act in 2002, which includes the so-called "Hague invasion clause" authorizing the use of force to liberate any American or allied national held by the ICC.
Other opinions comment on the unprecedented measures against a treaty-based international organization :



Read More...
Light Sabers

Washington Post: 'Americans may need to prep for war on election night if Biden doesn't win in a landslide'

Shelby Talcott
The Daily Caller
Thu, 03 Sep 2020 03:51 UTC
Trumpbiden
© pjimage/Mandel Ngan/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump • Presidential candidate former VP Joe Biden
A Washington Post op-ed published Thursday suggested Americans should prepare for war if the election result is anything but a landslide for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The op-ed, titled "What's the worst that could happen?" is written by Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University. In it, Brooks notes that the Transition Integrity Project, which she co-founded, "built a series of war games," gathered participants "and asked them to imagine what they'd do in a range of election and transition scenarios."

"A landslide for Joe Biden resulted in a relatively orderly transfer of power. Every other scenario we looked at involved street-level violence and political crisis," according to Brooks.

The op-ed goes into detail regarding "four scenarios experts consider most likely" in terms of the 2020 election.
"We explored the four scenarios experts consider most likely: a narrow Biden win; a big Biden win, with a decisive lead in both the electoral college and the popular vote; a Trump win with an electoral college lead but a large popular-vote loss, as in 2016; and finally, a period of extended uncertainty as we saw in the 2000 election."



Comment: So where was the scenario that had Trump winning both popular vote and electoral college?


Comment: Utter nonsense, since the reverse scenario is already happening in liberal-leaning cities and states. Trump has been the brakeman; Biden unaccounted. Biased exercises such as these are worthless. This one doesn't even pretend to be fair.

Read More...
Cell Phone

U.S. Court of Appeals: Mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal

Raphael Satter
Yahoo
Wed, 02 Sep 2020 06:15 UTC
Snowden
© Reuters/Rafael MarchanteNSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks via video link during the Estoril Conferences in Portugal May 30, 2017.
Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.

In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans' telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional.

Snowden, who fled to Russia in the aftermath of the 2013 disclosures and still faces U.S. espionage charges, said on Twitter that the ruling was a vindication of his decision to go public with evidence of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping operation.

"I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them," Snowden said in a message posted to Twitter.

Comment: Unfortunately the verdict doesn't impact the surveillance program, nor likely any change in Snowden's status:
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday. The opinion delivered by Judge Marsha Berzon reportedly contained multiple references to Snowden and his role in disclosing the program to the public - for which he became a wanted fugitive.


While the ruling might pave the way for Snowden seeing charges against him dropped, or perhaps receiving a presidential pardon, its significance was otherwise symbolic.
See also:

Read More...
Arrow Down

'They'll shoot me!" Biden slammed for 'sick' joke in Kenosha after police shooting


RT
Thu, 03 Sep 2020 21:11 UTC
Biden Vehicle
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueJoe Biden leaves for Kenosha, WI, September 3, 2020. (His other hand is on the door...!)
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been slammed for insensitivity after he joked "they'll shoot me" at a community event called to discuss the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Long before he hit the 2020 campaign trail, Biden had a reputation as a gaffe machine. His latest clanger, though, left pundits groaning.

Speaking at a community meeting in Kenosha on Thursday, Biden explained his tax plan to voters, promising not to raise rates for low- and middle-income Americans, and vowing to slap the country's biggest corporations with tax hikes. Wrapping up his spiel on corporate tax, Biden quipped: "I'm not gonna lay it out for you. I won't now because they'll shoot me."

Comment: Biden meets Jacob Blake's family, an advantageous photo and publicity opportunity, though few are buying it:
After months of insisting the riots were peaceful protests, Joe and Kamala released a TV ad "now is the time for racial justice" now blaming the riots on Trump who was deploying the National Guard at the governor's request.


The former VP is promoted as coming with "compassion, a desire to heal, and a fire extinguisher" to Trump's "matches and kerosene." Biden would provide "the selfless leadership and constructive voice we have sorely missed for almost 4 years," is how former Obama aide David Plouffe put it:

The reception in Kenosha certainly seemed different. While Trump's visit drew crowds of both supporters and protesters, Biden's visit seemed to have attracted only the media, with locals apparently conspicuously absent.

See also:

Read More...
Bullseye

Tearful salon owner says 'Mrs. Pelosi owes the entire country an apology'

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:45 UTC
Erica Kious pelosi salon video
© Fox News/TwitterSalon owner Erica Kious (L); Pelosi caught on shop security camera
Salon owner Erica Kious told a Zoom press conference on Thursday that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was lying to say she was "set up," and that she should apologize to America and to small business owners and workers struggling to survive.

Pelosi was caught on surveillance camera attending Kious's salon earlier this week for a private hair appointment indoors with a stylist, Jonathan DeNardo. San Francisco and Alameda counties are still not allowing salons to reopen indoors due to going coronavirus restrictions.

Comment:

Read More...
Bullseye

Election 2020 is going to be a 'dumpster fire' as Dems intent on taking country by force

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:20 UTC
biden trump mail in ballots
The Democrats appear to be threatening an all out coup d'etat if their guy doesn't win. Unless there is an epic landslide in favor of one or the other candidates, the election results will be contested. Depending on who contests, the violence may become extreme. So goes the prediction laid out on Tucker Carlson's program, shown here below.

The mere fact that the rhetoric has reached this level is considerable. As we hear in the video below, one of the models of how the election might go features the attempts or threats by Washington, Oregon and California to seceded from the Union should the results not go the Democrats way.
Read More...
Eye 1

Cuomo wants '4000-person social-distancing taskforce' before he'll allow indoor restaurants to open

Christian Britschgi
Reason
Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:00 UTC
cuomo
© Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press/NewscomNew York City restaurants have been excluded from the reopening of dining rooms in the rest of the state.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said on a press call today that he would not allow indoor dining to return in New York City unless local politicians devoted significant police resources to enforcing social distancing and other reopening conditions.

"Our rules and guidance on reopening is only as good as the compliance and the enforcement," Cuomo said, adding that state resources have already been stretched thin attempting to enforce limits on the serving of alcohol by outdoor restaurants in the city. "If we open restaurants that's going to complicate by the hundreds if not thousands the number of establishments that have to be monitored."

Restaurants are allowed to open for outdoor dining in New York City, but can only serve alcohol to seated patrons who've also ordered a meal, per a July executive order from Cuomo.

Comment: Entrusting someone like Cuomo who has proven themselves to be diabolically incompetent with your livelihood can only lead to a worsening of the state of things: Medicare chief blasts Cuomo for deflecting blame onto White House for knowingly sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Pacific nation of Palau may build 'anti-China' US military base following visit from US defense secretary

Bernadette Carreon
The Guardian
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 06:31 UTC
Palau
© Itsuo Inouye/APUS defense secretary Mark Esper flew nearly halfway around the world to Palau, which no Pentagon chief has ever visited
The western Pacific nation of Palau has urged the United States military to build bases on its territory - in the heart of a region where Washington is pushing back against growing Chinese influence.

US defense secretary Mark Esper visited the island nation last week as part of a Pacific tour, accusing Beijing of a "malign influence" and "ongoing destabilising activities" across the region.

Palau's president Tommy Remengesau Jr later revealed he had told Esper the US military was welcome to build facilities in his country, an archipelago about 1500km east of the Philippines.

In a letter apparently hand-delivered to the defence secretary, Remengesau urged the US to commit to military infrastructure on its islands.

Comment: How desperate, deluded and/or coerced must the leadership of Palau be to think that a US base is a sensible move? John Pilger: The Coming War on China

Read More...
Eye 1

Digital coronavirus ID scheme being pushed by Tony Blair as UK gov plan draconian change in laws


BBC
Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:00 UTC
Blair
Tony Blair: "People give a lot more information probably to their supermarkets than they will to the government."
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said it is "common sense to move in the direction of digital IDs" as part of efforts to fight coronavirus.

Mr Blair said there should be a record kept by the government of those vaccinated against the virus.

The government recently set out plans to change laws to enable the use of digital identity across the UK.

As prime minister, Mr Blair launched a compulsory ID card scheme, but it was scrapped by the coalition government.


Comment: So Tony Blair has a history of pushing for compulsory ID cards - even before the propaganda 'pandemic' campaign - it seems now he has the perfect excuse. And one wonders whether this sudden change of laws will be rushed through, without debate nor democratic mandate, just like the first 'coronavirus laws'.


Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

Read More...
MIB

Secret Service inadvertently confirms Gateway Pundit story about Biden sexually assaulting agent's girlfriend

Cassandra Fairbanks
Gateway Pundit
Thu, 03 Sep 2020 13:28 UTC
joe biden mask
In 2017, the Gateway Pundit exclusively reported that a Secret Service agent was suspended for a week in 2009 for shoving then-Vice President Joe Biden after he cupped his girlfriend's breast while the couple was taking a photo with him.

The situation got so heated, a source who was a Secret Service agent at the time told TGP, that others had to step in to prevent the agent from hitting the then-Vice President.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the agent asserted that, "we had to cancel the VP Christmas get together at the Vice President's house because Biden would grope all of our wives and girlfriend's asses." The annual party was for agents and Navy personnel who were tasked with protecting the Biden family.

Comment: Is anyone actually surprised that creepy Joe Biden is a pervert and a molester? This partial confirmation is just icing on the cake.

See also:

Read More...