Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: Sociopaths on the Left and Right working to break potential US-China alliance

us china
Donald Trump is in a painful bind.

The China-bashing traitors within his own party trying to pass themselves off as American patriots have done everything imaginable to destroy the one chance the President has to save America from the policies of economic and social decay which have mis-shaped the past 50 years of world history. Before breaking under the pressure to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on November 27, Trump attempted desperately to push against the hard liners stating a day earlier:
"I stand with Hong Kong, but I also stand with President Xi. He's a friend of mine, he's an incredible guy. We have to stand, but I'd like to see them work it out, OK? We have to see them work it out. I stand for Hong Kong, I stand for freedom, I stand for all those things we want to do. But we are also in the process of making the largest trade deal in history."

Comment: See also:


Dollar

Backfired? Trump tariffs caused job losses and higher prices according to Fed study

Trump/workers
© Reuters/Joshua RobertsUS President Donald Trump
President Trump's tariffs on imports — meant to boost the economy — ultimately led to job losses and higher prices, a new study from the Federal Reserve has found.

"We find that tariff increases enacted in 2018 are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices," the report by Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce reads.

MarketWatch first reported the study, noting that 10 primary industries were hit by retaliatory tariffs and higher prices, including producers of magnetic and optical media, leather goods, aluminum sheet, iron and steel, motor vehicles, household appliances, sawmills, audio and video equipment, pesticide, and computer equipment.

U.S. and Chinese officials say they have neared a preliminary trade deal
that would grant China relief from some tariffs in exchange for drastically increasing purchases of American farm exports.

Comment: See also:




Star of David

Israeli minister's diaries: Mossad involvement in anti-BDS events revealed

Terrorists in Suits
© UnknownTerrorists in Suits
Israeli intelligence arm Mossad has worked with the BDS-fighting Strategic Affairs Ministry to counter the international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, government diaries reveal.

The Strategic Affairs Ministry has been referred to as Israel's 'anti-BDS start up,' and was behind the blacklist of 20 international BDS groups. It also set up the secretive Kella Shlomo [Solomon's Sling] corporation -now called Concert- with $36 million in government funding to carry out covert "mass awareness activities" and online engagement efforts to counter boycotts supporting Palestinians and the "delegitimization" of Israel.

The 2018 diaries of Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan reveal he met with Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel's foreign intelligence agency Mossad, to discuss "the struggle against the boycott."

The diaries were obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Hatzlaha movement which requested the same information from all ministers. Erdan's office told Haaretz the meeting was just a "review," but its sources confirmed the ministry works with the Mossad.

Comment: Zinc, 6/12/2019: Datebooks reveal Mossad involved in anti-boycott activity
Officials in the Strategic Affairs Ministry are proud of their work with the state's security agencies, but hide the content and full scope of these activities on grounds that if these would be revealed, it would undermine the covert efforts being made against BDS and its leaders.

"Concert-Together for Israel" Its aim was to covertly advance "mass awareness activities" as part of "the struggle against the campaign to delegitimize" Israel globally. This corporation...was to also collect 128 million shekels in private contributions. A steering committee was to be appointed for the initiative to comprise representatives of the government and the other funding partners.

According to a ministry document revealed by The Seventh Eye website, the organization was expected to carry out mass awareness activities and work to exploit the wisdom of crowds, "making new ideas accessible to decision-makers and donors in the Jewish world, and developing new tools to combat the delegitimization of Israel."

Elad Mann, Hatzlaha's legal adviser, said
"Revealing the date books of senior and elected officials is crucial to understanding how the government system works and it has great value taken together with other details of information. This is how to monitor the government and its priorities or the actions it takes with more efficiency and transparency."
Erdan's office said that he "met during this past term with heads of the security echelons to give them a survey of the ministry's activities in the struggle against the delegitimization and boycott of Israel."
The Times of Israel, 5/12/2018 The relegitimizer: A terror victim's son partners with government to combat BDS
Micah Lakin Avni [founded the] multi-million dollar organization designed to oversee the strategic defense of Israel against its boycotters and delegitimizers - doing so in a direct partnership with the Israeli government.

"Concert funds Keshet David [AKA: Innovative Collaboration Strategies - a subsidiary headed by Yossi Kuperwasser - a former head of research in the IDF Military Intelligence divisions, ex-director of Ministry of Strategic Affairs] and we get all the information. That's one leg of what we're doing."

Shareholders include Amos Yadlin (INSS think tank head and ex-head of IDF Military Intelligence), Dore Gold (JCPA think tank head and former Foreign Ministry director-general) and Yaakov Amidror (former national security adviser).

"The core to delegitimization is not external, it's internal. It's getting the country to be partisan, and getting people to argue about things, and getting people to disagree. And then creating chaos. And then stepping in and taking over."

"So Concert does not differentiate between diplomatic, economic and other attacks specifically focused on settlements, and diplomatic, economic and other attacks aimed generally at Israel. Both serve the same goal, and we need to stand firm and united against them."

"We need to change the trajectory. Changing it means engaging those who have no opinion. And as for those who are trying to influence the ones who have no opinion against us, finding tactics and strategies to stop them."

BDS and boycott efforts are "just one piece of it. Campuses is just one piece of it, but we're seeing it in labor unions, we're seeing it in municipal governments, we're seeing it in the UN. You see a growing number of artists having issues. That's not even necessarily about boycotting. It's about expressing opinions. You may have somebody in the States putting out a tweet to 50 million people: I don't like Israel, or, Israel doesn't need to be here. Even if they're not canceling a concert, it's the thinking that way."

"We're putting a big focus in terms of our understanding and planning now on Western Europe. There are a lot more resources in the US. Things are getting more and more challenging in Europe, and there's less being done there."



Snakes in Suits

Gregg Jarrett: McConnell should go ahead with impeachment trial in Senate without Pelosi

Trump Mitch McConnell
© REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
"The framers never envisioned a stunt pulled by a speaker of the House like Nancy Pelosi holding onto articles of impeachment. Two decades ago it was sent over immediately, within minutes. There was a vote to convey and transmit it," Gregg Jarrett said on "Hannity" on Friday. "The Constitution is actually silent about that. It doesn't say that the Senate has to wait until it's transmitted. It's simply a Senate rule."

"Mitch McConnell shouldn't be subjecting himself to the extortion of Nancy Pelosi," Gregg Jarrett continued. "He can, beginning in January, simply alter the rule or eliminate it entirely and set a date for an impeachment trial."

"Mitch McConnell can say, 'Well, if you're not going to send them over, I don't care. We're not we're not going to deal with it,'" Jarrett said. "Nancy Pelosi, though, could then use it as a cudgel to hit Trump over the head at every turn — add things to it."

"Simply change the rule, hold a trial, do it. Do it on your own terms," Jarrett advised McConnell.

Handcuffs

Iranian govt accuses France of 'interference' in case of jailed academic

Fariba Adelkhah
© France 24 screen grabA specialist in Shia Islam, researcher Fariba Adelkhah is being held by Iranian authorities on charges of espionage.
Iran accused France on Sunday of "interference" in the case of an Iranian-French academic held in the Islamic republic, saying she is considered an Iranian national and faces security charges.

France said Friday it summoned Iran's ambassador to protest the imprisonment of Fariba Adelkhah and another academic, Roland Marchal of France, saying their detention was "intolerable".

Their imprisonment has added to distrust between Tehran and Paris at a time when French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to play a leading role in defusing tensions between Iran and its arch-foe the United States.

No Entry

'No joke, intruders will be shot!' Iran warns spies to keep clear of its joint drills with China & Russia


Comment: Few in the West noticed because they're too busy slugging each other over trivia, but this triangulation of Eurasian power is a pretty significant event...


Xining
© AFP / Iranian Army officeChinese destroyer Xining (117), Iranian frigate Alborz (72), and Russian frigate Yaroslav Mudry (727) during joint Iran-Russia-China naval drills
As Iran, China, and Russia hold unprecedented joint naval drills that focus on anti-piracy and counter-terrorism tactics, Tehran has warned potential adversaries against nearing the war game zone for military espionage.

"A joint war game is no joke, and this is no joking matter for us either," the deputy chief of Iran's army for coordination, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, told reporters on Saturday. "Many countries are definitely seeking to know what the matter is. Spies have also taken action."

"We will hit whatever spying craft in the war game zone, be it watercraft or aircraft, as we have proved having such a capability in the past."

The four-day exercise between the three nations began Friday in the Gulf of Oman, which saw multiple maritime incidents this year, while a section of the drills is set to take place in the northern parts of the Indian Ocean.

Comment: See also:


Better Earth

Ukraine and Donbass conduct planned 'all for all' prisoner exchange in move to end war

ukraine prisoner exchange
© AP Photo/Alexei AlexandrovA Russia-backed separatist soldier escorts a group of separatists war prisoners after they were exchanged near the checkpoint Horlivka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels in the east have begun exchanging prisoners in a move aimed at ending their five-year-long war.
Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine began exchanging scores of prisoners Sunday in a move aimed at ending their 5-year-long war.

The move was part of an agreement brokered earlier this month at a summit of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.

A rebel government official and the Ukrainian president's office confirmed that the swap at a checkpoint near the rebel-held city of Horlivka had started.

The total number of people freed was not immediately known, though authorities said earlier that 142 were expected to be involved in the exchange — 55 released by the rebels and 87 by Ukraine.


Comment: So far, the numbers are looking higher than expected:
The self-declared Donetsk People's Republic has handed over 51 people to Kiev, while receiving 61 of their followers. The Lugansk region returned 25 and took in 63 prisoners; nine people held by Kiev refused to partake in the exchange.

The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Kiev had received a total of 76 people from Donetsk and Lugansk.



Those to be released by Ukraine included five former members of the now-disbanded special police force Berkut who were charged in the killing of protesters in Kyiv in 2014, Ukrainian news site Hromadske quoted their lawyer, Igor Varfolomeyev, as saying.


Comment: Charged, but perhaps not guilty. Most if not all of the killing was done by neo-Nazi snipers and mercenaries.


Ludmila Denisova, human rights envoy for the Ukrainian parliament, said the first group released by the rebels included Ukrainian soldiers.


Attention

Imran Khan: India 'will conduct some action' in Pakistani-held part of Kashmir to distract from citizenship law protests

Imran Khan
© AFP / Aamir QureshiImran Khan addresses the nation outside the Prime Minister Secretariat building in Islamabad on August 30, 2019.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, wants to shift global attention away from ongoing protests against the citizenship law by conducting an operation in Pakistani-held territory.

"I have been telling the world for the past five months that Modi-RSS government, in order to divert the world attention away from Kashmir and the protests against the [citizenship] laws, will definitely conduct some sort of action in Azad Kashmir," Khan told the crowd in the Punjab Province on Thursday, according to local media reports, referring to the part of disputed Kashmir controlled by Pakistan.

Khan did not elaborate on what kind of "action" India may undertake in Pakistani-held areas of Kashmir. Cross-border shelling occurred along the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday, claiming victims on both sides. India and Pakistan accused each other of firing the first shot.

Attention

Pakistan ex-President Pervez Musharraf challenges death sentence

Pervez Musharraf
© Anjum Naveed/APThe verdict called for the former president's corpse to be displayed outside Parliament
Former Pakistan president and army chief Pervez Musharraf has submitted a petition in Lahore High Court challenging the death sentence handed to him in a treason case earlier this month.

According to local media, the petition highlighted that the "judgement contained a mix of anomalies and contradictory statements" and that the special court "rapidly and hurriedly wrapped up the trial which was far from conclusion".

A special court convicted Musharraf and sentenced him to death on December 17 on charges of high treason and subverting the constitution - an unprecedented verdict in a country that has been ruled by its powerful military for roughly half of its 72-year history.

Calendar

Britain sets 'hard deadline' for trade deal with EU - Brussels very worried

johnson leyen
© GETTYBoris Johnson has slapped down Ursula Von der Leyen's fears about a trade deal
Britain has set a hard deadline of December 2020 for reaching a new trade deal with the EU. But the European Commission President said both sides needed to seriously think about whether this is enough time to negotiate a new trade deal and work out agreements about a series of other issues. Ms Von der Leyen told French daily newspaper Les Echos: "It would be reasonable to evaluate the situation mid-year and then, if necessary, agree on extending the transition period."

In separate comments to German magazine Der Spiegel, Ms Von der Leyen added the UK's departure deadline on December 31 "worries her a lot."

She said: "That worries me a lot, because time is extremely short for the mass of issues that have to be negotiated."

She said earlier this month that this timeframe is "extremely short" to discuss not only trade issues but also education, transport, fisheries and other issues.

Comment: Which is why Brexit isn't happening this year, next year, or any year anytime soon.