Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Macron accuses Turkey of playing 'dangerous game' in Libya - Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE weigh in on the fray


RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:35 UTC
frigate
© Pool via Reuters / Christophe SimonFILE PHOTO: French frigate FS Provence (D652)
French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced Ankara's 'dangerous game' of meddling in Libya and said the illegal targeting of a French frigate by a Turkish ship proved correct his comments about 'brain death' of NATO.

"Turkey is playing a dangerous game in Libya and is violating all of its commitments made at the Berlin conference," Macron said on Monday, referring to the January meeting co-sponsored by Ankara and Moscow.

Describing the situation in Libya as "intolerable," Macron called for "an end to foreign interference and the unilateral acts of those who wish to gain new positions by favoring war."

Comment: It's because of duplicitous puppets like Macron that Libya went from being the most prosperous nation in North Africa to yet another country decimated by war:

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Putin

Russia to abandon flat tax after almost two decades, will start moving back to progressive system - Putin

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:31 UTC
putin
© Sputnik / Alexey Nikolskii
Russia is planning to introduce a progressive tax regime, adding a 15% tax bracket for those earning over five million rubles ($72,000) a year, President Vladimir Putin said. The money will be used to treat severely ill children.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Putin explained that a tax hike would raise approximately 60 billion rubles a year ($870 million), with Russia's highest earners paying an extra two percent tax on their income. The rate for all other Russians will remain unchanged at 13 percent.

He said that the tax increase will be used to treat children with serious illnesses, removing the need for parents to seek assistance from charities or to crowdfund help.
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Attention

Dutch prosecution have rigged outcome of MH17 trial on charge that requires no proof

John Helmer
johnhelmer.net
Mon, 22 Jun 2020 17:31 UTC
robots
The Dutch Government has devised an evidence-proof scheme for ensuring the trial of the Russian government for the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 will end in a conviction.

This scheme will work without evidence to prove that the four men accused of the crime of shooting down the aircraft, killing the 298 passengers and crew on board on July 17, 2014, intended to kill; or even intended to fire the missile which allegedly brought MH17 down.

The Dutch scheme is evidence-proof because no evidence will be needed, not from US satellite photographs which are missing; nor NATO airborne tracking which shows no missile; nor Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) evidence which has proved to have been fabricated, and in the case of Ukrainian witnesses for the prosecution, threatened, tortured or bribed.

The scheme is also evidence-proof because the Dutch Prime Minister has told the Dutch Minister of Justice to order the state prosecutors to tell the state-appointed judge that he must convict the Russians if he finds as proven that MH17 crashed to the ground in eastern Ukraine; that everyone on board was killed; and that the four soldiers accused - three Russians and one Ukrainian - were on the ground fighting.

International war crimes lawyers are calling this a legal travesty. It was presented in court near Amsterdam by Dutch state prosecutor Thijs Berger on June 10. It has gone unnoticed in the mainstream western media. Russian reporters following the trial have missed it. The scheme was first reported in English and Russian by a NATO propaganda unit on June 12.
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Black Cat

The supporting players: 8 Russiagate 'investigators' you may not have heard of

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:18 UTC
TrumpBarr
© wikimediaPresident Donald Trump • Attorney General William Barr
The multiple investigations of the U.S. government's intelligence-gathering activities against the Trump campaign have typically focused on the actions of the same small group of former officials: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan, James Clapper and a few others.

But just as significant to the efforts to get to the bottom of the government's Trump-related surveillance are a handful of current and former FBI and Justice Department employees whose names are not as well known to the public.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena up to 53 current and former government employees as part of a sprawling investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane. The Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee voted to subpoena another 35 individuals, some of whom are on the Judiciary panel's list.

Comment: A comparative analysis of Crossfire Hurricane FISA warrant requests to a sample unrelated to the investigation has yielded some interesting results:
The FBI disclosed in a little-noticed court filing last week that the bureau found only one "material" error in a review of 14 applications to conduct surveillance against American citizens, an error count that is far lower than the 17 "significant" issues flagged in surveillance orders granted against Carter Page, the former Trump campaign aide.

FBI's general counsel, Dana Boente, and Melissa MacTough, a Justice Department national security official, said in a filing June 15 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court that the single material error found in the 14 applications was not a serious enough infraction to invalidate the underlying surveillance warrant.

That stands in stark contrast to the Justice Department's decision to invalidate two of the four FISA warrants against Page due to the rampant errors in those applications.

The FBI is conducting a review of 29 FISA applications that the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (IG) flagged in an audit of the government's surveillance program. The IG said in a report released on March 31 that all 29 of the applications selected for the random audit contained errors of some sort.

According to MacTough, the assistant attorney general for the national security division, the FBI's Office of Intelligence (OI) identified 63 "non-material errors" in the so-called Woods Files of 14 FISA warrants subject to the audit.

The FBI is supposed to use the Woods File to document each factual statement made in its FISA warrants.

Twenty-nine of the errors were typographical errors or date discrepancies. The FBI claims that the remaining 34 errors include 13 in which factual claims were not backed up by underlying documents, and 21 involving deviations from information regarding source documents.


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Vader

US tightens rules on four more Chinese state 'propaganda' outlets


The Jakarta Post
Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:44 UTC
us and china flags
© Shutterstock
The United States on Monday changed the status of four more Chinese state media organizations, denouncing them as propaganda outlets, renewing a feud with Beijing.

The State Department said it was reclassifying four outlets -- China Central Television, the China News Service, the People's Daily and the Global Times -- as foreign missions rather than media outlets in the United States, adding to five others designated in February.

All nine outlets "are effectively controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

The state-run news organizations will be required to report details on their US-based staff and real estate transactions to the State Department. Their reporting will not be restricted, officials said.
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Eye 1

Covid-1984: UK govt allows pubs to open, but they'll have to track customer's private details

PA and Briana Millett
Bristol Post
Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:46 UTC
british pub mask
© PAThe face of totalitarianism, 2020 edition.
Pubs will be allowed to reopen in from July 4 - but you may be asked for more than just your ID at the door.

That's because Prime Minister Boris Johnson is asking businesses to help NHS Test and Trace respond to any local outbreaks by "collecting contact details from customers".

Today (Tuesday, June 23), Mr Johnson confirmed pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be allowed to reopen from July 4.

The two metre rule will also be dropped in favour of a "one metre plus" rule.

Outdoor gyms, theme parks and libraries are all able to open but close contact venues such as nightclubs and indoor gyms must remain closed for now.

But businesses which are allowed to reopen are being asked to take down the details of their customers - to prevent further outbreaks of COVID-19.

Boris Johnson said: "I can tell the House that we will also reopen restaurants and pubs. All hospitality indoors will be limited to table service and our guidance will encourage minimal staff and customer contact.
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Chess

'Assad can stay but must change his behavior' - claims US envoy to Syria

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Assad on a shop in Damascus
© REUTERS/Yamam Al ShaarA picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a shop in Damascus, Syria April 22, 2020.
While special envoy James Jeffrey says the US no longer demands regime change in Syria, only "change of behavior," his explanation shows this distinction is without a difference and no November election results will change it.

"We're not demanding total victory, we're not saying that Assad has to go," Jeffrey said on Monday, during a live event hosted by the Middle East Institute and moderated by MEI director Charles Lister.

Instead, he explained, the goal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act - a US sanctions law that came into effect last week - is to "make it clear to anyone who wants to rebuild Assad's Syria that that cannot happen without Caesar sanctions," until there is a government in Damascus that carries out US demands with what Jeffrey described as "real eagerness."

Comment: Ben Swann's take on this development:


See also:

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Magnify

What's inside Grassley's letter demanding more about deep state role in spygate

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
Sen. Chuck Grassley
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote James Baker, the director of the Office of Net Assessments, seeking information concerning ONA's potential involvement in Spygate. The chair of the Finance Committee had previously asked Baker for all records related to Crossfire Hurricane's go-to informant, Stephan Halper, but as Grassley's follow-up letter made clear, Baker's response was greatly lacking.

In addition to pushing for more answers about Halper, Grassley is now demanding answers about Baker's alleged role in leaking details about Michael Flynn's conversation with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, to the press.

Grassley's June 18, 2020 letter opened with a recap of his early 2020 request for information "regarding Stefan Halper's work for the Office of Net Assessments." Halper served as a confidential human source for the FBI during the targeting of the Trump campaign, during which time he "secretly recorded several conversations with Trump campaign advisors Carter Page and George Papadopoulos," as well as taping "an extensive conversation with Sam Clovis — a co-chair of the Trump presidential campaign."

Comment: See also:

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Beaker

Technocrat Fauci: Americans 'don't believe science and they don't believe authority'

Steve Watson
Summit News
Fri, 19 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
fauci and trump
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images


Disease kingpin slams Americans who don't trust him as having "anti-science bias".

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the polarising director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, slammed everyday Americans for refusing to go along with 'authority' on medical matters, and accused people of 'amazing denial' when it comes to 'truth'.

Speaking on a podcast called Learning Curve, produced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Fauci charged that "unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are — for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable — they just don't believe science and they don't believe authority."

Comment: Fauci seems to be conflating Americans not believing science and Americans not believing him. If he were even moderately humble, Fauci might realize this. And lamenting the fact that Americans don't "believe authority", we suppose it would be rather upsetting for him that many Americans aren't simply buying what Fauci is selling due to his authority. It's very inconvenient for authoritarians when they're actually expected to earn people's trust and not simply 'believed'.

See also:

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Handcuffs

Fool me twice? Bolton's memoir claims Iran had yellowcake uranium, echoing bogus claims that led to Iraq war


RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2020 19:01 UTC
bolton
© Reuters / Jonathan Drake / Chris Helgren
Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has claimed Israeli agents found "yellowcake uranium" in Iran in 2018, channeling the discredited intelligence used by the George W. Bush administration to justify invading Iraq.

Israel's Mossad retrieved "human-processed uranium" that was "perhaps yellowcake (uranium oxide in solid form)" during a "daring raid on Iran's nuclear archives" in 2018, the mustachioed warmonger declared in his controversial Trump administration memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened'. The discovery, Bolton alleged, was substantiated when the International Atomic Energy Agency subsequently conducted an inspection of Iran's Turquzabad site. Israeli media trumpeted the vague, unverified claim over the weekend, publishing selected quotes from the book.

Bolton insisted the discovery "could well be evidence that Iran kept alive its 'Amad plan' for nuclear weapons after it was supposedly ended in 2004." However, despite the wild claims leveled against Tehran by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in his theatrical speech following the raid, the IAEA denied Tel Aviv had uncovered any evidence that would change the international understanding of Iran's nuclear activities. Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, meanwhile, accused Netanyahu of deliberately tailoring his speech to give the Trump administration a rationale for withdrawing from the JCPOA nuclear deal - which it did, much to Bolton's delight.
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