Puppet Masters

Poking the tiger: Congressman proposes US recognition of Taiwan as a 'sovereign and independent country'

RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:22 UTC

A California congressman has put forth a resolution proposing that the US recognize the island of Taiwan as a "sovereign and independent country." The move is sure to anger China, which considers Taiwan to be a rogue province.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) submitted a 'sense of Congress' resolution to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, urging the US to declare the 'One China' policy "effectively obsolete" and recognize the "obvious reality" that Taiwan has been an independent country for over 50 years.

The US should also "aggressively support Taiwan's full participation in the United Nations and any other international organizations of which the United States is a member, and for which statehood is a requirement for membership," says the resolution, which was posted on the website of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

The government in Taipei welcomed Rohrabacher's proposal. Regine Chen, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Focus Taiwan news channel that Taipei will "continue to work closely with our friends in the US Congress over the latest developments regarding the proposal."

Rohrabacher's initiative comes just a week after the US-funded American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) unveiled its new $256 million headquarters in Taipei, over Chinese protests. The US-based nonprofit acts as a de facto embassy of Washington on the disputed island.

Comment: See also:

The UK's anti-Russian propaganda is self-destructing as the World Cup carries on

Free West Media
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:47 UTC

The World Cup in Russia is turning out to be a stunning success and a PR disaster for Britain's anti-Russian cohorts. Even BBC sports journalists and pundits are ignoring propaganda narratives and going off-message to enthuse about everything Russian, especially the welcome they are receiving.

"Fans are having the time of their lives and telling their British relatives and friends back home they are missing something special. They describe amazing chance encounters and magical atmospheres. In bars, on the streets, something is happening and it is all good," one British soccer fan told FWM.

"It's all about Russian people getting together with people from all over the world and getting along perfectly. Sport fans have travelled to Russia to see their teams and British sports journalists have not had the full self-censorship training."

The Soccer World Cup is currently being held in 11 cities in European Russia.

Two notorious anti-Russian "journalists" Shaun Walker and Luke Harding from the Guardian have been trying to keep up the Russia-bashing while UK sports journalists like Barney Ronay, from the same paper, are destroying their efforts.

Comment: So much for the scare mongering. Try as they might, there really isn't much the mainstream media can do except dig their graves deeper because by the end of it, there will be many 'on-the-ground' reports from all around the world that will counter their fake narratives. See also:

Europe's populist wave may sweep Angela Merkel next

Doug Bandow
The American Conservative
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:46 UTC

Europe's populist wave is still building-and it could claim the German chancellor next.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel could be out of a job and her country headed towards elections barely 100 days after the formation of her new government, which took six months to form. It would be a performance worthy of, well, Italy, and all because the stolid, reliable Bavarian conservatives who spent years acting as a doormat for her chancellorship turned into raging populists. They now demand that Berlin bar entry of foreign migrants from other European Union states. A majority of Germans are in agreement.

That makes even less realistic French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed "reforms" that would shift even more power to Brussels. Berlin had already largely demurred from Macron's plan, offering a basket of half-measures in response. "Solidarity must never lead to a debt union," Merkel explained. Now Macron, who vanquished the National Front's Marine Le Pen in last year's presidential race, will have to adapt to a Europe that is moving sharply away from him.

For instance, the United Kingdom continues to stagger towards Brexit, under Theresa May's desultory premiership. The EU remains a populist foil in Greece, which, under the left-wing Syriza government, is imposing another round of pension cuts to satisfy EU creditors. Hungary's populist Viktor Orbán, a former liberal, was reelected two months ago with an overwhelming parliamentary majority.

Comment: More:

Jean Claude-Juncker says EU is getting ready for no-deal on Brexit

Daniel Boffey
Guardian
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:02 UTC

European commission president says bloc must prepare for worst outcome

The EU needs to be realistic about the dangerous state of the Brexit negotiations and is preparing to deploy its trillion-pound budget to cushion the bloc from the prospect of a no-deal scenario, the European commission president has warned.

With the two sides still far apart on the "hardest issues", just days from a crunch leaders' summit in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker told the Irish parliament on Thursday he was stepping up preparations for a breakdown in talks, and even drafting plans aimed at keeping the peace in Northern Ireland.

The problem of avoiding a hard border with the Republic - said by the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to be akin to a "riddle wrapped in an enigma" - is threatening to thwart all attempts to make progress on a wider deal.

With Theresa May refusing to countenance what Juncker described as the bloc's "bespoke and workable solution", of the Northern Ireland effectively staying in the customs union and single market, it was crucial for the 27 EU member states to prepare for the worst outcome, the commission president said.

Comment: A week ago: Theresa May faces Parliamentary rebellion for amendment effectively nullifying Brexit

World in transition: Russia invests in gold after dumping half its US treasury holdings

RT
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:34 UTC

US sanctions have forced Russia to look at ways of securing its foreign reserves. In recent years, Moscow has increased purchases of physical gold and dramatically reduced its share of US debt bonds.

The political standoff started in 2014, shortly after the conflict in Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea in favor of joining Russia. Several rounds of US sanctions followed, with the latest affecting major Russian companies and individuals who run them.

In April, Russia sold half of its US sovereign debt bonds, getting rid of nearly $47 billion worth of securities, according to US Treasury data released last week. The sell-off is a signal that Russia's financial regulators are diversifying the country's foreign exchange reserves, say analysts at the Copenhagen-based Danske Bank.

Comment: The trade war the US initiated, as well as its belligerence on the geopolitical stage and its failing economy, leaves Russia and China with little option but to invest in a stable market and potential currency for trade, while also providing leverage against the US:

Also check out SOTTs': Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration

At least eight people killed as US-led coalition strikes Syria's Deir ez-Zor

RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:29 UTC

A pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles

At least eight people have been killed in Syria following an airstrike by the US-led coalition in Deir ez-Zor province, according to state-run television.

The airstrike, which targeted the village of al-Shaafa, also destroyed a number of houses, as well as infrastructure, according to SANA.

It comes as the US State Department said it was "deeply troubled by reports of increasing Syrian regime operations" in southwestern Syria on Thursday, after the government moved to regain control of rebel-held areas.

Comment: At least one Syrian soldier was killed in a US-led coalition airstrike on Syrian army positions in the east of Homs province on Thursday, a Syrian field commander told Sputnik.

"The combat planes belonging to the coalition led by the United States, attacked the army position in Jabal Ghurab, some 150 kilometers [93 miles] east of Palmyra near the border with Iraq," the commander said.

"One serviceman was killed and several others wounded," he added.

According to a Syrian field commander, the sudden US-led coalition air assault occured after Syrian forces responded to an open fire from three coalition's vehicles, moving towards positions of governmental forces.

Canadian Liberal caucus member exposes himself as a hateful bigot after news broke of US child migrant crisis

Bryan Passifiume
Toronto Sun
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 03:56 UTC

There's the two lovebirds.

A federal Liberal riding association chair is under fire for a vitriolic Facebook rant which calls for supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump to be separated from their children and exiled to detention camps.

In the now-deleted exchange on his personal Facebook page, Mark Elyas - the Liberal Party of Canada's riding chair for Vancouver-East - reacted angrily towards critics on social media who expressed displeasure at him posting an anti-Donald Trump Youtube video on his Facebook page, entitled "Mr. President, F- You!"

Comment: If those who support the current Liberal ideology see authoritarians, fascists, bigots and racists around every corner, they need not look any further then their own backyard.

"The Whole thing is a scam": Trump unloads on "Deep State"

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 19 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

President Trump went way off script during a Tuesday speech at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) - lashing out against everything from the "deep state" to the intense immigration debate, which he calls a distraction from Congressional hearings on the recently released Inspector General's (OIG) report on FBI bias during the 2016 US election.

Comment: See also:

The foxes and the henhouse: The public opinion manipulation of Wikipedia

Sputnik
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 13:09 UTC

Independent German investigators Markus Fiedler and Dirk Pohlmann have told Sputnik Deutschland about some of the mysterious Wikipedia editors they say are responsible for 'safeguarding' mainstream viewpoints on the world's largest and most influential free online encyclopedia.

With Germans' trust in the mass media on the decline, more and more people are turning to the internet for their news and information. However, here too, search engine inquiries are filtered, with Google often directing queries directly to Wikipedia, the free, multilingual online encyclopedia which anyone can theoretically edit.

However, as independent bloggers Markus Fiedler and Dirk Pohlmann have found out, as important and valuable as Wikipedia is, its 'freely editable' model definitely doesn't mean an absence of censorship and biased political activism.

"If you're a journalist preparing to interview someone, chances are you'll look on Wikipedia to find out who this person is. If it's written that they're an anti-Semite and supporter of conspiracy theories, as is often the case with people who someone doesn't happen to like, there probably won't be much interest in interviewing them," Pohlmann explained.

"In other words, on Wikipedia one quite often finds a [political] coloring of this or that public person and whether they are believable or not. And this is a very effective tool," he added.

Comment: Valid sources of information are critical in the verification of viewpoints and facts for any news article. Wikipedia has a track record of untrustworthy filters of information which, by default, negates its viability for those purposes. See also:

Say 'NO' America! Trump is bought and paid for by Zionists demanding war with Iran

Chuck Baldwin
Russia Insider
Wed, 20 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

Following up on my column last week, Perpetual War: A Racket For Politicians, Bankers, And War Profiteers, I wrote this on my Facebook page on Monday, Memorial Day:

If we truly want to support our troops and honor our men and women in uniform, we would stop requiring them to have their limbs blown off, their bodies paralyzed, their eyes blinded, their minds destroyed and their lives lost for wars that have NOTHING to do with protecting America and EVERYTHING to do with enriching globalists, bankers, politicians, and war profiteers.

We would stop using them for political nation-building, regime change and drug dealing. We would stop using them as global cops. And we would especially stop using them to fight perpetual wars of aggression for Zionist Israel.

Short of the above, all of the hype about "supporting our troops" is just so much hot air. No! It's even worse than that: It's pure propaganda for the sake of benefiting the merciless, murderous war merchants and heads of state who profit off of the sacrifices of their country's sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters and husbands and wives.

The best way to "support our troops" is to BRING THEM HOME.

Sadly, since World War II and the advent of the United Nations and Zionist State of Israel, the United States has turned into a militaristic, warmongering, arms-running, New World Order-building piranha state. The United States spends more money on its military than at least the next eight countries combined.

Comment: See also:

Winternights3 There's probs a good connection! Just think about it.

sbc

Moving the goalposts. and people are too shit stupid to notice or care

sbc

Hang em... All the jab pushers. At this point they are trying very hard to continue blatant bullshit lies in a bid for total societal control

sbc

It was interesting when the brothers (their family owns the dealerships/service center that were vandalized - something of like 130+ cars burned...

Scoot Over

I ain't going to watch any more than I didn't watch the OJ trial, which ended exactly as I predicted. The thing is that the state should have...

Rowan Cocoan

Puppet Masters

Poking the tiger: Congressman proposes US recognition of Taiwan as a 'sovereign and independent country'

The UK's anti-Russian propaganda is self-destructing as the World Cup carries on

Europe's populist wave may sweep Angela Merkel next

Jean Claude-Juncker says EU is getting ready for no-deal on Brexit

World in transition: Russia invests in gold after dumping half its US treasury holdings

At least eight people killed as US-led coalition strikes Syria's Deir ez-Zor

Canadian Liberal caucus member exposes himself as a hateful bigot after news broke of US child migrant crisis

"The Whole thing is a scam": Trump unloads on "Deep State"

The foxes and the henhouse: The public opinion manipulation of Wikipedia

Say 'NO' America! Trump is bought and paid for by Zionists demanding war with Iran

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