Puppet MastersS


Attention

Beijing sees US meddling and won't fold

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sat, 30 May 2020 21:25 UTC
Xi and Trump
© YouTube Screen CaptureChinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in a file image.
Stranger things have happened.

Everyone was expecting US President Donald Trump to go nuclear by de facto sanctioning China to death over Hong Kong. In an environment where Twitter and the President of the United States are now engaged in open warfare, the rule is that there are no rules anymore.

So in the end, what was announced against China amounted to an anti-climax.

The US government, as it stands, is terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO). The geopolitical repercussions are immense and that will take time to sink in. In the short term, something must be blamed for the US' appalling Covid-19 record, so it might as well be a UN institution.

Hong Kong's preferential trade status will also be terminated, but in a hazy future in still undetermined terms.

Phase 1 of the US-China trade deal still stands - at least for now. Yet there's no guarantee that Beijing itself won't start to doubt it.

The bottom line: "Investors" were duly appeased, for now. Team Trump seems not to be exactly versed in the niceties of Hong Kong's Basic Law, as the president stressed the "plain violation of Beijing's treaty obligations with the United Kingdom." The national security law was blasted as "the latest" Chinese aggression against its own special administrative region.
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Evil Rays

Citing privacy concerns, Pompeo gaslights German cooperation with Huawei, forgets NSA spied on Merkel


RT
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 15:38 UTC
pompeo
© ReutersUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned the US' European allies against using Huawei tech, insisting privacy-loving Germans shouldn't stand for such (alleged) spying. Never mind that time the NSA wiretapped Merkel.

Pompeo pleaded with European governments on Fox News on Sunday that "the right thing to do for their people" was to kick Huawei's cheaper and arguably more advanced technology to the curb and run back into the waiting arms of Uncle Sam.

The US diplomat insisted the track record of the villainous Chinese government warranted nothing less. Pompeo proclaimed:
"No German citizen should have their private information transition across a piece of Chinese hardware which will clearly be owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. In Europe, they care deeply about privacy of their citizens. Allowing that information to go across Chinese-controlled networks is the antithesis of providing that very privacy."
Pompeo neglected to mention that the US has still not produced evidence of back doors in Huawei equipment feeding users' information to Beijing, despite hyping up the possibility for years. He also somehow omitted how the National Security Agency (NSA) was caught snooping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials in 2015.

Comment: Washington is on a tear to strip China of trade deals - in part a retaliation to China's shift away from US grain even though it was a signature part of the recent pact. And, let's not forget America always has to have an enemy at hand. It has no memory nor acumen how to function without one.

See also:

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Fire

Twenty unanswered questions to the George Floyd protests, how did we get here?


Off Guardian
Sun, 31 May 2020 00:00 UTC
fire/4 people
© off-guardian.org
Racial politics in America are a simmering pot waiting to boil over, they have been for decades. This is only exacerbated as the poverty created by the (totally unnecessary) lockdown starts to hit home. As the weather gets hot, and jobs dry up and prices skyrocket and the small businesses close...people will get tense. They will get angry.

This is dry tinder which can burst into flames at any moment. All it took was a spark. Now the protesters swarm cities all across America, as windows are smashed, shops looted and public buildings set afire. Civilians are being maced and tasered and the rubber bullets are flying.

How did we get here?

It started when a video of a police officer (later identified as Derek Chauvin) kneeling on the neck of a black man (later identified as George Floyd) went viral.

And this is the first thing we need to interrogate. Though, of course, most of us won't.

"Going viral" is a term that has smoothly worked itself into our collective lexicon over the last decade and a half. Everyone thinks of it as an organic process that lacks impetus or agency. This is not so, as a moment's reflection will tell you. Things don't just "go viral", things are made to go viral.

Comment: See also:

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Boat

Iran to continue shipping fuel to Venezuela in spite of US threats


Aljazeera
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
IranTanker
© Marcos Moreno/APIranian tankers carrying $45.5M worth of gasoline sailed into Venezuela without incident.
Iran sent flotilla of five fuel tankers to Venezuela, which is suffering severe shortages, defying US pressure.

Iran has said it will continue fuel shipments to Venezuela if Caracas requests more supplies, despite criticism from the United States of trade between the two nations, both under US sanctions.

"Iran practices its free trade rights with Venezuela, and we are ready to send more ships if Caracas demands more supplies from Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a weekly news conference broadcast live on state television on Monday.

The first of five Iranian oil tankers arrived in Venezuela last week to help ease fuel shortages, encountering no immediate signs of US military interference. Venezuelan authorities described "threats" from the United States over the shipments.

Seeking to deter further shipments of Iranian fuel to Venezuela, Washington is monitoring the original supply. It has warned governments, seaports, shippers and insurers that they could face measures if they aid the Iranian tankers.

Comment: The US is acting like a thug with the world as its marked territory. Despite this, Iran's final tanker reached Venezuela:
The tanker 'Clavel,' the last of a five-tanker Iranian flotilla, has made it to Venezuela's shores to deliver much-needed gasoline - carrying the last shipment of the more than 1.5 million barrels of fuel sent to Venezuela by Iran.

Earlier this week, Venezuela's military escorted four other ships - the 'Fortune,' the 'Forest,' the 'Faxon' and the 'Petunia' - through its exclusive economic zone to their destination. The 'Faxon' was the last to arrive at Puerto la Cruz on the country's eastern coast on Friday.

The US Special Representative to the country, Elliott Abrams, told Reuters that the United States government's pressure campaign against Tehran and Caracas was aimed at ensuring that "everyone recognizes this would be a very dangerous transaction to assist."


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Arrow Down

China has ordered state traders to not buy American farm goods, threatening phase one of trade deal


South China Morning Post
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:57 UTC
men and grain
© ReutersThe halt is a sign that the hard won phase-one US-China trade deal is in jeopardy.
Chinese government officials told major state-run agricultural companies to pause purchases of some American farm goods including soybeans as Beijing evaluates the ongoing escalation of tensions with the US over Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the situation.

State-owned traders Cofco and Sinograin were ordered to suspend purchases, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Chinese buyers have also cancelled an unspecified number of US pork orders, one of the people said. Private companies haven't been told to halt imports, according to one of the people.

The halt is the latest sign that the hard won phase-one trade deal between the world's two biggest economies is in jeopardy. While Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last month reiterated a pledge to implement the agreement that was signed in January, tensions have continued to escalate since then amid a stand-off over Beijing's move to tighten its grip on Hong Kong.


Comment: In the 'Time of Coronavirus,' frustration and pushback reactions are spreading and escalating to the extremes, not to be outdone by our heads of state. The tirades that now represent diplomacy will not go far in renegotiating arms treaties, nor will they bring people together in service to humanity.

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Light Saber

Roger Stone speaks out: 'Now that I'm ungagged, I'd like to say a few things about my prosecution'

Roger Stone and Tyler Nixon
The Daily Caller
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:53 UTC
Roger Stone
© GettyRoger Stone
With Attorney General William Barr now firmly in charge at the Justice Department, the steady unraveling of the coup plot against President Donald J. Trump by the Obama-Clinton junta raises the real possibility that a number of its culprits will face prosecution. The pushback from Democrats and their allies is the false claim that Attorney General Barr "interfered" in the sentencing recommendations of the "non-political career line prosecutors" in my case as well as recommending the dismissal of the thoroughly corrupted case against Gen. Michael Flynn. Now that I am ungagged, I can outline why this charge against the Attorney General is entirely false. Read on.

After years of obfuscation, foot-dragging and distracting sham investigations to prop up the Democrats' Russian collusion hoax, the end is perhaps nigh for the defiant zealots behind the most brazen attempt to systematically subvert constitutional government in our nation's entire history.

Despite his somewhat-plodding manner, AG Barr is emerging as a stolid, steady leader in the national imperative of correcting the veritable crime spree of Obama-Clinton sponsored injustices, while exorcising the DOJ of the lawless partisan corruption that infested its ranks during the Obama administration.
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Bullseye

Finally had enough? Spain says 'mission complete', will withdraw troops from Iraqi military base


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:43 UTC
training mission iraq coalition
© AP Photo / Khalid MohammedIraqi, US and Spanish soldiers participate in a training mission outside Baghdad, Iraq
Spain is planning to withdraw in late July its troops from the Gran Capitan military base in the Iraqi city of Bismayah, which is Madrid's most important base in the Middle Eastern country, as troops have completed their mission to train Iraqi security forces, El Pais newspaper reported on Monday, citing military sources.

According to the newspaper, before the coronavirus pandemic, the base, which is one of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) centres run by the US-led international coalition, hosted 350 out of 530 Spanish service members in Iraq. In mid-April, Spain temporarily withdrew 200 soldiers due to the spread of the virus.

Comment: Will Spain's actions precipitate the disintegration of the latest 'coalition of the willing'?

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Yoda

Flynn transcripts released: 'Nothing improper, and FBI knew it'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 29 May 2020 17:12 UTC
flynn victory sign
© AP Photo/Carolyn KasterTaken in 2016. Michael Flynn now looks to prevail against his accusers
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the transcripts between then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisliak, which revealed that Flynn asked Russia to take "reciprocal" against sanctions levied by the Obama administration over interference in the 2016 US election.

"I ask Russia to do is to not, if anything, I know you have to have some sort of action, to only make it reciprocal; don't go any further than you have to because I don't want us to get into something that have to escalate tit-for-tat," Flynn told Kisyak.

Comment: RT reports:
Flynn and Kislyak spoke several times in December 2016 and January 2017, during the presidential transition. Within days of President Donald Trump's inauguration, the FBI interviewed Flynn with an intent - as shown by recently published documents - to catch him in a perjury trap. After a description of his call with Kislyak was leaked to the Washington Post, Flynn was accused of misleading the White House about the calls and pressured to resign.

Those invested in the 'Russiagate' conspiracy theory have claimed for years that Flynn discussed easing US sanction against Moscow.

"Do not allow this administration to box us in, right now, okay?" Flynn tells Kislyak in a call on December 29, 2016, asking Russia to make its response "reciprocal." He doesn't want to create a situation where "everybody's got to go back and forth and everybody's got to be the tough guy here, you know?"

"We don't need that right now," Flynn says. "We need cool heads to prevail, and uh, and we need to be very steady about what we're going to do because we have absolutely a common uh, threat in the Middle East right now."

Two days later, on December 31, Kislyak informs Flynn that their conversation "was taken into account" in Moscow. In fact, President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate at all, saying he didn't want to ruin the holidays for American diplomats and their families.

Flynn called this decision "wise." Kislyak then said something that would turn out to be prophetic - that Russia judged these actions by the Obama administration to be aimed not just against Moscow, but against Trump.

"And I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions have targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president-elect... and with all our rights to respond we have decided not to act now because, it's because people are dissatisfied with the loss of elections and, and it's very deplorable," the ambassador said.

The events that unfolded proved Kislyak correct. The pretext for the FBI and DOJ to go after Flynn was that he supposedly violated the Logan Act - an archaic law banning ordinary Americans from conducting foreign policy, but which did not apply to him as the incoming presidential adviser anyway. Instead, what the transcripts show is that the outgoing administration was seeking to sabotage the incoming one.


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Russian Flag

Nationwide vote on Russian constitutional changes to be held on July 1 - Putin

Jonny Tickle
RT
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:31 UTC
Putin
© bne INTELLINEWSRussian President Vladimir Putin during lockdown
Russians will vote on a package of amendments to the constitution on July 1, President Vladimir Putin has announced. If passed, the new constitution would allow Putin to potentially stay in power until 2036.

On Monday, Putin agreed that the proposed date looks "quite suitable for holding an all-Russian vote on constitutional amendments," and called the scheduling "impeccable" from the legal point of view.

Initially planned for April 22, Putin was forced to postpone the vote due to an ever-worsening epidemiological situation. A package of constitutional amendments was passed by Russia's parliament, the State Duma, in March. They swiftly gained approval from the legislative bodies of each Russian region and the country's Constitutional Court. The bill passed 383-0, with 44 abstentions - mainly members of the opposition Communist Party.

The amendments include banning important officials from having foreign citizenships and restricting all future presidents' time in office to a total of two terms. The new constitution would also transfer more powers to the country's two houses of parliament - the State Duma and the Federation Council. For example, the appointment of a prime minister and other cabinet members proposed by the president would be subject to the approval of the State Duma.

Controversially, the new constitution would also 'nullify' the terms already served by President Putin, allowing him to run again for a fifth term in 2024.
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Eye 1

Silicon Valley has effectively banned freedom of speech - and it's time we take it back

Robert Bridge
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 31 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Silicon Valley
Somewhere along the road of America's development, corporations were blessed with not only 'personhood,' but with the power to sanction what sort of messages were permissible to enter the public realm. Let's be clear: This sort of corporate control, which borders on pure fascism, has no place in a democracy.

There is no need to ask. There is no need to be polite. There is no need to debate. It is only necessary to point to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for this fundamental human right, inscribed into law over 200 years ago, to be returned to the American people.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
So how did it come to be that such a straightforward and unambiguous command has become so unattainable in reality?
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