Puppet MastersS


Chess

Kurds rebuild ties with Washington to even the score with Ankara and Damascus

Vladimir Danilov
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Kurdish fighters
© Delil Souleiman/AFPFighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)
The cultural identity of the Middle East where peoples lived for century [sic centuries] without statehood has given the Kurds a particularly strong incentive to carry on their struggle for independence over the last few decades, and American political strategists have taken full advantage of this. That is why the Kurds have been designated a place on the map to establish their own independent state of Kurdistan in America's plans for the Greater Middle East (MENA), which would serve as a new Washington-controlled ally with a population of 30 million, and would owe its existence to the United States. Yet being able to rely on US-funded Kurdish armed groups to deal with regional security issues would be just one of the tasks the White House plans to allocate to this Kurdish state, given that the Kurds have proven they are capable in combat and have demonstrated their commitment to achieving military objectives. The state could also be used to maintain a favorable power balance in the Middle East from Washington's point of view, between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and part of the Kurds' historical homeland in east Transcaucasia between the Kur and Araxes rivers, where they have lived for centuries.
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Stop

Democrats urge Biden not to debate Trump

Rick Moran
PJ Media
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 10:35 UTC
Clinton/Trump
© BloombergPresidential campaign Trump debating Clinton: He was expected to implode but won the debate with "Never explain. Never apologize."
Democrats around the country have begun to pressure the Biden campaign to call off all debates with Donald Trump due to the coronavirus pandemic — they say.

In truth, the reason they don't want Biden to debate Trump is that they don't think Trump will play by their rules. The president would take over the debate and make it about what he wants, not what Biden wants. Democrats are also worried about Biden's mental stamina and his ability to remain engaged for an hour and a half during a debate.

Newsweek:
Democratic strategists and supporters of Vice President Joe Biden are urging him not to debate President Donald Trump in the lead-up to Election Day, citing Trump's publicity stunts and disregard for the rules in 2016. Meanwhile Biden backers, including some conservatives, applauded the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan for cancelling their scheduled debates over COVID-19 concerns.

Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart joined several Democratic Party strategists in bluntly advising Biden, "whatever you do, don't debate Trump." Speaking on CNN Saturday, Lockhart said Trump shouldn't be given another platform which will enable him to "repeat lies," which he said occurred in the 2016 debates against Hillary Clinton.
Trump has a knack for exaggeration and hyperbole that Democrats don't like. It's very effective in debates and Biden would spend most of his time on the defensive.

Comment: If Biden can't debate Trump, heaven help us when it comes to foreign policy. Then again, how much simpler this would make puppetizing the presidency.

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Clipboard

Why Biden's VP pick will matter so much

Michael McKenna
Washington Times
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Biden
© AP/Andrew HarnikFormer US VP Joe Biden at a Delaware campaign event.
There is a good reason why former Vice President Joe Biden's looming selection of a running mate has become so freighted with emotion and expectation, and it is not just that the Democratic presidential nominee is not, shall we say, entirely and always there.

The anticipation is heightened because this will be Mr. Biden's first personnel selection for an administration that is likely to be marked by a difficult and durable civil war over its ideological preferences.

For most Americans, this vice presidential selection is more important than usual because they understand and even sometimes have witnessed that Mr. Biden appears to be in the midst of an unfortunate cognitive decline. This concern is enhanced by the equally clear understanding that most of the media, which vote for and prefer Democrats, have a vested interest in not covering the actual extent of the decline. There is nothing censurable with having an opinion — but it is wrong to pretend that you don't.

Mr. Biden may be our next leader. Addled and superannuated leadership is nothing new or particularly egregious on this planet or in this country, but when the enormous arsenal of the United States is stirred together with a rising China, a hostile and nuclear Iran, and maybe a North Korea that might like to do us damage, the situation becomes a matter of literal life and death.

Consequently, the question of who will be Mr. Biden's running mate has taken on an outsized — and completely warranted — importance to most voters.

Comment: Tucker's take on two possible VP choices for Biden's running mate; why we should run the other way:



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Bandaid

Dry-run for WWIII? Covid-19 is practice for future biological warfare claims top Russian doctor

Jonny Tickle
RT
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 10:07 UTC
Plane disinfectant
© Sputnik/Domodedovo AirportCovid's 'mask' is slipping as dutiful employees disinfect the insides of a passenger plane, Domodedovo Airport, Russia.
The Covid-19 pandemic has functioned as a "rehearsal for biological warfare," says a leading Russian pediatrician, who believes that the rapidly-spreading virus was a test for the world's healthcare systems.

In an interview with Forbes, Professor Leonid Roshal, President of the Research Institute of Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology, explained that not all nations were ready for a mass influx of patients, and their lack of preparation has been exposed by the pandemic.
"When I analyze the current situation, I understand that this is a rehearsal for biological warfare. I am not saying that this virus was created by humans... but this is a test of the health system's strength, including the country's biological defense."
The doctor was also quick to praise the Russian people, and the government, for their roles in the battle against coronavirus, commending the public for supporting the country's "correct and timely" decision to impose entry restrictions and other measures.

Comment: While this pandemic has been most useful for various and nefarious reasons, it would seem that each new pathogen would create its own signature and protocol in a susceptible society. Was Covid a trial run for the next level of human culling? Should that come to pass, real biological warfare will not be discriminant and plans against it may be useless.

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Blue Pill

Trump is Mussolini, riots are peaceful, federal agents are terrorists - top black Democrat turns to trite #Resistance rhetoric


RT
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 21:29 UTC
Clyburn/Biden
© Reuters/Elizabeth FrantzRep. Jim Clyburn • Former VP Joe Biden • Primary night rally in Columbia, SC, Feb. 29, 2020
Rep. Jim Clyburn was a key figure behind securing Joe Biden's nomination, and will be instrumental in picking his running mate. However, his views of late are show denial of reality and falling back on #Resistance tropes.

Jim Clyburn's name carries gravitas in both Washington and his home state of South Carolina. Clyburn's endorsement is considered to have pushed Joe Biden ahead of Bernie Sanders in the state's primary election, securing him the black vote. The veteran lawmaker and House Majority Whip is expected to vet Biden's eventual choice of running mate, given Biden has promised to consider a black woman for the slot.

However, the South Carolinian Democrat appears to have embraced some of the more unhinged talking points of his party's progressive wing. He demonstrated this in a series of cable news interviews on Sunday.

Speaking to CNN's Dana Bash, Clyburn revised his earlier comparison of President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, this time comparing him to Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. "I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini," Clyburn declared, before rebranding Russian President Vladimir Putin as "Hitler." "I believe very strongly this guy never had an idea about being wanting peacefully [sic] transfer of power."

Comment: There it is - a key supporter for the Dems and one of the choosers for Biden's running mate. Are we confident yet? How about now?

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Bulb

Best of the Web: "China is not an enemy": US Cold War policy will isolate the US, not China

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
Global Research
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Tensions between the United States and China
Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new U.S. sanctions and no less than three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation in U.S.-China relations. China's responses have been careful and proportionate, with Chinese officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly asking the U.S. to step back from its brinkmanship to find common ground for diplomacy.

Most of the U.S. complaints about China are long-standing, from the treatment of the Uighur minority and disputes over islands and maritime borders in the South China Sea to accusations of unfair trade practices and support for protests in Hong Kong. But the answer to the "Why now?" question seems obvious: the approaching U.S. election.

Danny Russel, who was Obama's top East Asia expert in the National Security Council and then at the State Department, told the BBC that the new tensions with China are partly an effort to divert attention from Trump's bungled response to the Covid-19 pandemic and his tanking poll numbers, and that this "has a wag the dog feel to it."

Meanwhile, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has been going toe-to-toe with Trump and Secretary Pompeo in a potentially dangerous "tough on China" contest, which could prove difficult for the winner to walk back after the election.
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Star of David

List of Israeli targets leaked: Tel Aviv fears the worst in ICC investigation of war crimes

Ramzy Baroud
Dissident Voice
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 02:20 UTC
ICC Israel
When International Court of Justice (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, confirmed last December that the Court has ample evidence to pursue a war crimes investigation in occupied Palestine, the Israeli government responded with the usual rhetoric, accusing the international community of bias and insisting on Israel's 'right to defend itself.'

Beneath the platitudes and typical Israeli discourse, the Israeli government knew too well that an ICC investigation into war crimes in Palestine could be quite costly. An investigation, in itself, represents an indictment of sorts. If Israeli individuals were to be indicted for war crimes, that is a different story, as it becomes a legal obligation of ICC members to apprehend the criminals and hand them over to the Court.

Israel remained publicly composed, even after Bensouda, last April, elaborated on her December decision with a 60-page legal report, titled: "Situation in the State of Palestine: Prosecution Response to the Observations of Amici Curiae, Legal Representatives of Victims, and States."

In the report, the ICC addressed many of the questions, doubts and reports submitted or raised in the four months that followed her earlier decision. Countries such as Germany and Austria, among others, had used their position as amici curiae — 'friends of the court' — to question the ICC jurisdiction and the status of Palestine as a country.

Bensouda insisted that "the Prosecutor is satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation into the situation in Palestine under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute, and that the scope of the Court's territorial jurisdiction comprises the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza ("Occupied Palestinian Territory")."
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Clipboard

Hospital data leaks allegedly reveal Iran's Covid death toll 3 times official figures - still less than UK's 'official' figures

Tim Wyatt
Independent, UK
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 16:56 UTC
iranians masks covid
© AFP via Getty Images
Iran's actual coronavirus death toll is three times the official government numbers, an investigation concluded over the weekend.

The Middle Eastern nation has been accused of deliberately suppressing the extent of its Covid-19 outbreak after an anonymous source leaked data which showed vastly more people had both caught and died from the virus.

Iran's health ministry figures claim 279,000 people have been infected, of which 14,000 have died.

But the BBC's Persian service has been given details of daily admissions to hospitals, including ages, gender and symptoms, which found at least 451,000 people have caught coronavirus in Iran and almost 42,000 have died.

Iranian health officials on Sunday rejected the BBC's report, which was broadcast on Saturday.

"Despite all the pressures that the pandemic has put on the country's medical staff, the outbreak is not large enough to cause such deaths figures," Ali Akbar Haqdoust, deputy health minister, told state radio on Sunday.


Comment: Those figures still put the death toll below that of the UK (keeping in mind many can probably be attributed to the lockdowns and not solely Covid). UK population = 66.7 million (46k 'official' deaths). Iran population = 81.8 million (42k 'unofficial' deaths). So it's not that hard to believe. Whether those deaths can be attributed solely to Covid-19 is another story.


Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat-Lari said on Saturday that Iran follows WHO guidelines, while hard-line news media in Iran accused BBC of fabricating evidence.
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X

Venezuela's major opposition parties pledge to boycott December election


Reuters
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 16:49 UTC
Guaidó & Maduro
© Socialist Alternative
Venezuela's main opposition parties on Sunday pledged to boycott legislative elections scheduled for Dec. 6, saying they will be rigged by the ruling socialist party and that taking part would amount to "collaborating with the dictatorship's strategy."

The move was widely expected after a series of recent interventions by President Nicolas Maduro's government in the National Electoral Council (CNE) and opposition political parties. The parties boycotted Maduro's 2018 re-election on similar grounds, and now label him a usurper.

But it nonetheless paves the way toward a loss of opposition control of the National Assembly, which could complicate the standing of Juan Guaido, recognized by dozens of countries as Venezuela's rightful president due to his position as the congress's speaker.

"Venezuela, a nation undergoing a humanitarian crisis that is also subjected to a criminal, oppressive dictatorship, deserves free, democratic and transparent elections," the 27 parties wrote in a statement published on the National Assembly's website.

The parties included Guaido's Popular Will party, as well as the Justice First, Democratic Action, and A New Era parties, which are collectively known as the "G4" and make up the bulk of opposition representation in the legislature.

Venezuela's information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maduro calls Guaido a U.S.-backed puppet seeking to oust him in a violent coup, and has argued the opposition boycotts elections it knows it would lose.
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Attention

Emails implicate elite British SAS in Afghan massacres

Thomas Harding
The National
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 16:36 UTC
british sas
© AFPConcerns have been raised over the conduct of British special forces in Afghanistan.
British special forces must "uphold the same standards" as other soldiers in wartime, a senior defence figure said after accusations that a rogue unit killed Afghan civilians.

The Special Air Service Regiment has come under the spotlight after emails were released suggesting its troops were involved in the deaths of 33 Afghan people in 11 night raids on homes in 2011.

The Ministry of Defence said it had thoroughly investigated the claims and found no evidence to prosecute any soldiers.

But the level of detail in the emails has raised concerns over the conduct of the troops in Helmand province during the conflict.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told The National that any new evidence should be pursued by investigators.

"The British Armed Forces have one of the most highly respected reputations in the world because of their standards and values on the battlefield," Mr Ellwood said.


Comment: Correction: because of the PR image projected to the public about their alleged standards and values. Surface is not reality.


"If evidence comes to light that we have fallen beneath those standards, then it's imperative that the military police reopen the investigation."

Comment: See also:

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