Puppet MastersS


Black Cat 2

The coronavirus hysteria

Eric Peters
Eric Peters Auto
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 23:58 UTC
Corona Lies
© EricPeters Auto
Hysterical headlines today - Sunday, March 21 - about the number of Americans supposedly identified as having been infected with Coronavirus. The modifier supposedly used because the tests being used to identify the virus are of dubious reliability. But, regardless - 25,493 as of today. A big number, banner-headlined across the Internet.

But there's another number you have to look for, which isn't being banner-headlined around the Internet.

307.

That's how many Americans have supposedly died from WuFlu so far. The modifier added - and italicized - to emphasize the fact that it is not known whether it was the WuFlu that killed all these people or old age/underlying infirmity pushed over the edge by what would otherwise have just been a nasty cold.

But regardless, 307.

It is not a big number . . . relative to the other number. See the graph (above) accompanying this article, which is not the product of a "conspiracy" web site but rather using data compiled by Johns Hopkins, widely accepted to be a reputable source for medical data.

Note that the "death curve" isn't.

While the number of people infected - or supposedly identified as being infected - has indeed gone up, the number of people dying (see here for data regarding that) has not gone up proportionately. About 60 people more are reported dead over the past 24-48 hours as opposed to many thousands of people newly tallied as Corona-infected.

This is really important - and very good - news.
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Arrow Down

Mad sultan Erdogan's game failing in Idlib: Caught playing the ends against the middle

John Helmer
Dances With Bears
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 19:40 UTC
erdogan mouse trap
© Boris Efimov, 1942/Dances With Bears
At the end of President Putin's war talks in Moscow with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 5, Erdogan refused to shake the hand of Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu.

Erdogan's insult, in the presence of Putin, revealed the Turkish president's anger at the defeat his ambitions have suffered on the battlefields of northern Syria, at the hands of the Russian military. By snubbing Shoigu at the farewells, Erdogan was revealing that he blamed the Defence Ministry and General Staff for opposing the terms of troop deployment, reinforcement of arms, and rules of engagement which he demanded, and was repeatedly refused, during the five hours of negotiations.

Shoigu knows Erdogan knows that he expects him to attempt to break out of the new agreement, just as he has done with the two Sochi agreements of September 17, 2018 and October 22, 2019. Erdogan hates him for that. Shoigu is content to let Erdogan demonstrate to Putin which of them cannot control himself.

Comment: Sputnik reports yet another u-turn by Turkey. Erdogon now "pledging" to remove militants in the demilitarized zone.:
Turkey has vowed to neutralise radical elements that impede the Russian-Turkish joint patrols in Syria's Idlib, the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria reported on Monday.

According to the statement, the measure, which Ankara pledged to undertake soon, will concern the M4 Aleppo-Latakia highway in a safety corridor, created to ensure traffic along a route running six kilometres north and south of the highway.

The centre added that the latest joint patrol took place earlier in the day on a shortened route due to safety concerns.

On 5 March, the Russian and Turkish presidents held negotiations on the spiralling tensions in the Syrian province of Idlib. Following the meeting, the two sides adopted a joint document, reaffirming their commitment to the Astana format and announcing the introduction of a ceasefire regime. The parties agreed to jointly patrol the crucial M4 highway.
Believe it when you see it. Erdogan has produced nothing but a string of broken agreements in his quest to enlarge Turkish territory at Syria's expense. How much rope is Putin going to give him before he (metaphorically) hangs himself? His generals will not tolerate too many more losses in service of the Mad Sultan's delusions.

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Bad Guys

Covid-19 has taken away bread and circuses, laying bare the true American empire

Michael McCaffrey
RT
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 20:01 UTC
corona virus shutdown
© Reuters / Sergio Estrada
Regular Americans can no longer numb themselves with sports and gluttony, freeing them to clearly see the malignantly craven ruling class that exploits and despises them. If only they would open their eyes to reality.

Anyone who has eyes to see can clearly make out that America is an addled empire in steep decline that is firmly entrenched in its bread-and-circuses stage. This has been brought into clear focus due to Covid-19. Since there is now a shortage of bread, as supermarket shelves are bare, and the distraction of the circus of sports has been indefinitely removed from the culture, Americans are left with little to distract them from cold, hard reality.

With no brawls or ballgames to watch, and the fear of potential hunger gnawing at their bloated bellies and brains, and with social distancing leaving them isolated with little but their thoughts as company, Americans will now find it harder and harder to ignore the truth about their country and its deplorably corrupt media, financial, government, education and health care systems, that is staring them in the face.
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X

The Great Economic Depression of 2020 proves lessons not learned, central banks misfire

Mitchell Feierstein
RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:27 UTC
NYStock Exchange
© Reuters/Lucas JacksonNew York Stock Exchange
After 2008, we were promised that too-big-to-fail caused by too much debt, credit, and leverage was history. Covid-19 exposed Wall Street's culture of "Heads I win, tails you bail me out." That's not capitalism, it's extortion.

Are globalization's new record highs a minefield-filled Potemkin village? In 2020, financial markets have set numerous records. In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, famed Bridgewater boss and fund manager Ray Dalio told a CNBC audience that "cash is trash" and encouraged viewers to "buy the dip." Next, he went as far as to warn investors "not to sell stocks." In February, as if on cue, every stock index obediently and euphorically rocketed to new all-time highs. If ever alarm bells were ringing to warn how stratospheric valuations fueled by twelve years of reckless central bank "temporary emergency measures" could signal a market top, Dalio's Davos hubris certainly qualified. President Trump neatly summarized the market's frothy top in just twelve words.
Nine days after Trump's "raging bull market tweet," an unprecedented collapse began that swiftly and violently turned history's longest bull market (2009 -2020) into a bear market that sent indexes plummeting over 20 percent in less than a month - another record. The bull-to-bear collapse was quicker than both 1999 and 1929.
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Snakes in Suits

Pompeo meets with Ghani and Abdullah despite corona crisis


RFE/RL
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 17:16 UTC
Pompeo/Ghani
© Reuters/Presidential PalaceUS Sec of State Mike Pompeo • Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Afghanistan on a mission to try to jump-start a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Pompeo on March 23 met separately with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Ghani's archrival, former Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, before meeting together with both Afghan leaders.

His schedule also has Ghani and Abdullah coming together for a one-on-one meeting, presumably to discuss a possible compromise. Since the signing of the deal with the Taliban, the peace process has ground to a halt amid political turmoil, with the country's leaders squabbling over who was elected president.

Ghani and Abdullah both declared themselves the country's president in dueling inauguration ceremonies earlier this month following contested elections in September. Pompeo is expected to try to help end the political stalemate, which has put on hold the start of intra-Afghan peace talks that would include the Taliban.

Comment: See also: Afghanistan officials hold talks with Taliban leaders on prisoner swap deal

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Question

A year passed since the N. Korea-US Hanoi summit, any expectations for the next one?

Konstantin Asmolov
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
KimDonald
© KCNA/Korean News Service/APNorth Korean Leader Kim Jong-un • US President Donald Trump
Just over a year has gone by since US President Donald Trump met with Chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission Kim Jong-un in Hanoi. It was the second North Korean-American summit to be held, following on from the first 2018 North Korea-United States Singapore Summit. Many were surprised that the meeting ended without any concrete agreements being made, due to a variety of reasons. The primary disagreements between the two sides were made more difficult to resolve due to actions taken by American conservatives and domestic politics in the United States at the time, which prevented Trump from making any concessions.

The talks which followed between working groups and high-level officials also ended without any visible results. A brief meeting between the Supreme leader of the DPRK and the US President on the sidelines of Trump's visit to South Korea was little more than a media photo op, and the working-level talks in Stockholm got off to a bad start: North Korea demanded that Washington come up with a new plan by the end of 2019 if the US wants denuclearization talks.

Towards the end of 2019, the North Korean leader gave a clear delineation of relations between the two countries, yet Kim Jong-un did not keep his promise to deliver a "Christmas gift", by which he meant a demonstration of North Korea's new strategic weapons. As it was put at the time, "the door is closed, but not locked." There are several different explanations given for this. Pro-Pyongyang experts say Kim made a gesture of goodwill. Others believe that China used its leverage to make North Korea call off the demonstration and avoid exasperating the situation. We would like to add that given the increased attention the DPRK was receiving during this period (due to its satellites, constant use of reconnaissance aircraft, etc.), it would not have made sense for Pyongyang to "show its cards" at the time.
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Attention

Predictions: How six countries will fare in coronavirus-induced economic chaos

Peter Andrews
RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 13:44 UTC
Virus/Market/dashboard/$
© Unknown
Time to buckle up: economists believe the looming Covid-19 crash will throw millions out of work and bankrupt thousands of businesses across the globe in a downturn that might even surpass the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Economics is the study of choices, and never more so than now. It's now clear that, with the coronavirus pandemic causing widespread chaos that economists believe will cause a prolonged economic depression, the choices that each person makes have the power to affect their country's and the world's economy over the coming weeks and months. With the caveat that much depends on those individual choices and the actions of governments, here is our current assessment of which places are likely to be worst-hit economically, as well as a few that might come out rosier than most.

Comment: Statistics indicate the coronavirus is neither the economic game-changer, nor the 'killer' it has been made out to be. It would be more accurate to call it a global distraction that serves a matrix of deceptive purposes that happen to include a massive financial reset.

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Arrow Up

Afghanistan officials hold talks with Taliban leaders on prisoner swap deal


RFE/RL
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:09 UTC
Khalilzad
© AP/Rahmat GulUS peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad
The Afghan government has held its first talks with the Taliban about a prisoner swap, the U.S. envoy to the war-torn country has said. "Prisoner releases by both sides is an important step in the peace process," Zalmay Khalilzad said in a March 22 statement on Twitter.

The talks -- held via Skype amid the coronavirus pandemic -- lasted more than two hours and were facilitated by the United States and Qatar, Khalilzad said. The spread of the novel coronavirus has made the release of prisoners "that much more urgent."

"All sides conveyed their strong commitment to a reduction of violence, intra-Afghan negotiations, and a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire," Khalilzad said.

Afghanistan announced the same day the first death in the country due to COVID-19, the new strain of the coronavirus. Afghanistan had 34 confirmed cases of the virus as of March 22.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Russian-Japanese relations continue warming despite dispute over Kuril Islands

Dmitry Bokarev
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 19:25 UTC
LNG tanker sakhalin island russia
© Sakhalin Energy/SovcomflotThe LNG tanker Grand Aniva carries the 500th delivery of LNG for Sakhalin-2 project, in 2012
Relations between Russia and Japan are not all blue skies: the dispute over the Kuril Islands has hung over them like a dark cloud for many decades now, which is why two countries never signed a peace treaty after World War II.

The most recent minor flare-up in tensions was in January 2020 in response to Japan's National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty Special Exhibition, which was reopened in Tokyo with the support from the authorities and displayed exhibits designed to prove that the disputed islands belong to Japan. At the time, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the exhibition is an obstacle to the creation of a working atmosphere around the issue of the Kuril Islands, and shows that Tokyo is unwilling to accept the results of World War II and maintain good relations with Moscow.

Apart from Russia and Japan's direct bilateral disagreements, Russia's relations with Japan's main ally the United States play a role, and make Japan-Russia relations more complicated.

Comment: Trade is always better than war. Here's to the multi-polar world!

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Stormtrooper

US Army battles skepticism from Congress after Bradley replacement program's failure

Rod Renny
The Duran
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 17:22 UTC
M2 Bradley tank
M2 Bradley in the mud
Here's why the Army cancelled their Bradley replacement program

The U.S. Army has received praise for its innovative approach to modernizing the force through its new four-star command, which reached full operational capability earlier this year. But with the recent failure to launch its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement effort, lawmakers are calling into question the Army's new process for developing and acquiring future capabilities.

The service faced a barrage of questions from House lawmakers during fiscal 2021 budget hearings over its decision to walk back initial plans to hold a competition to replace the Bradley and start over with a new approach.

Army leadership took pains during testimony on Capitol Hill to stress that major acquisition mistakes are a thing of the past, citing the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program as an example of improvement.

Comment: The US could take a page from Russia, where the development process is not only much more stream-lined, but where the motivation is a patriotic one, pride in helping to defend one's county, not just to make profits. A far cry from the porkbarrel attitude of America's MIC. Putin still extends a hand in friendship regardless:

Putin: Russia offered to sell Trump hypersonic weapons, balance everything

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