Puppet MastersS


Bullseye

Trump's advisor says no to admitting Ukraine to NATO: 'We don't want conflict with Russia'

usa-nato flags
© Unknown
US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien rejected the idea of ​​Ukraine joining NATO, which could lead to a direct conflict with Russia.

"I do not think that NATO as a whole is attractive to accept Ukraine and enter into a direct conflict with Russia," the adviser said.

O'Brien emphasized that "the West does not want a conflict with Russia" and "NATO was founded to prevent that conflict," he claimed.

Attention

Russian intelligence states that coup in Bolivia is an attempt to destabilize all of Latin America

Evo Morales
© REUTERS / David MercadoEvo Morales
Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Sergei Naryshkin denounced US involvement in the political crisis in Bolivia.

Sergei Naryshkin said the United States is involved in the political crisis in Bolivia and is trying to "shake" the situation in Latin America "following" what is going on in Venezuela .

"Yes, the United States is involved in the crisis," Naryshkin answered the question of whether we can talk about any kind of US interference in Bolivia's current situation.

He said the events happening in Bolivia and Venezuela "are the same thing."

Comment: Looks like the Empires is doing marginally better in Bolivia than in Venezuela. Key to that fact is that while Maduro retains the loyalty of the military, the US has been able to pry Bolivia's officers away from Morales. Keeping the world safe for rechargeable batteries . . . .


NPC

Wolfowitz crawls out of hole to slam Trump for abandoning Kurds, not preparing for 'next' war in Syria

wolfowitz
© Reuters / Aboud Hamam (inset: Reuters / Yuri Gripas)
Unreconstructed neocon Paul Wolfowitz has slammed President Donald Trump for 'abandoning' the Kurds, insisting the US will need them next time there's a war in Syria. Trump's blunder, then, is thinking wars can "end."

The man once described by CNN as "the heart and soul of the Iraq war" points out in an op-ed in the New York Times on Thursday that decades of meddling in the Middle East have made the US some friends in the region - namely, the Kurds. Casting them aside, he says, will make future meddling much more difficult.


Comment: If the neocons are disappointed, that's all the proof you need that Trump has done something right.


The failed war's mastermind reminds Trump that because the US' Kurdish and Arab allies were gracious enough to serve as cannon fodder in the fight against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, the US lost just six soldiers, compared to 11,000 from the US-backed opposition. A less belligerent mind might see this as exploitation, rather than alliance - but friendship means never having to say "sorry I turned your homeland into a hotbed of sectarian conflict."

When the next war comes around - and Wolfowitz assures us there will be a next war - the US will be sorry it spurned its Kurdish friends, he warns. The inveterate warmonger calls Trump short-sighted for viewing all engagement in the Middle East through the lens of the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires, and holds up a failed Shiite uprising against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a cautionary tale of what happens when the US isn't lurking in the shadows ready to play World Police at the drop of a shell - but glosses over the fact that every war Wolfowitz has backed in his lengthy career has ended with the "liberated" country all but turned to dust.

Comment: The stench is strong with this one. Time to crawl back into your hole, Wolfowitz. Better yet, we're sure the Kurds would welcome you to join them in northern Syria. Just watch out for the Turkey-backed jihadists you're so enamored with. They're unlikely to return the good will you've extended to them over the years.


Airplane

Sounds legit: Pence visits troops in Iraq, reassures Kurds that US supports them

pence
© AP Photo/Andrew HarnikVice President Mike Pence arrives at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. The visit is Pence’s first to Iraq and comes nearly one year since President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to the country.
Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Saturday in the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago.

Flying in a C-17 military cargo jet to preserve the secrecy of the visit to the conflict zone, Pence landed in Erbil to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani. The visit was meant to reassure the U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State after Syrian Kurds suffered under a bloody Turkish assault last month following the Trump-ordered withdrawal.

Earlier Pence received a classified briefing at Iraq's Al-Asad Air Base, from which U.S. forces launched the operation in Syria last month that resulted in the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

It was Pence's second trip to the region in five weeks after Trump deployed him on whirling trip to Ankara, Turkey, last month to negotiate a cease-fire after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized on the U.S. withdrawal to launch an assault on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Trump's move had sparked some of the most unified criticism of his administration to date, as lawmakers in both parties accused Trump of forsaking longtime Kurdish allies and inviting Russia and Iran to hold even greater sway in the volatile region.


Comment: Russia and Iran's influence in the region was already secured before Trump's decision. If anyone is to 'blame' for this, it's the neocons and Obama. But the critics just can't accept the reality that the U.S. is no longer top dog in Iraq and Syria. Trump made the right move. In fact, he didn't go far enough. He's still being held back by the myopic foreign policy idiots who are living in the past and dreaming of a glorious American empire that is becoming increasingly unrealistic.


Pence said he welcomes "the opportunity on behalf of President Donald Trump to reiterate the strong bonds forged in the fires of war between the people of the United States and the Kurdish people across this region."


Comment: Damage control.


Yoda

John Solomon corrects the record with facts: Responding to Lt. Col. Vindman' testimony about my Ukraine columns

vindman
© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please.”
I honor and applaud Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's service to his country. He's a hero. I also respect his decision to testify at the impeachment proceedings. I suspect neither his service nor his testimony was easy.

But I also know the liberties that Lt. Col. Vindman fought on the battlefield to preserve permit for a free and honest debate in America, one that can't be muted by the color of uniform or the crushing power of the state.

So I want to exercise my right to debate Lt. Col. Vindman about the testimony he gave about me. You see, under oath to Congress, he asserted all the factual elements in my columns at The Hill about Ukraine were false, except maybe my grammar

Bad Guys

Ukraine, Trump, Biden — The story behind the story of "Ukrainegate"

Trump Zelensky Biden
© Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump; Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky; and Joe Biden
Unravelling a scandal in four parts.

Part 1: Trump's 25 July 2019 Phone call to Zelensky

Since this news-report is going to be especially harsh regarding today's Democratic Party in the United States, readers should be aware that until that Party nominated Hillary Clinton in 2016, this writer was, and consistently voted as, a Democrat, and that I have never been, and never could be, a Republican. In no way does this article reflect a Republican viewpoint. It is not partisan — not favoring one person's viewpoint over any other's. (Though it does favor trustworthy evidence over untrustworthy hearsay and witnesses, etc.) This article is written by a consistent progressive, which means a person whose top value is truth, nothing else than 100% honesty and reflecting only personally verified sources, real facts. Intense care has therefore been taken in checking and cross-checking and validating information before accepting here anything as constituting information instead of as being disinformation (which is sadly rampant). The following article is written only because it reports what my own independent researches have found to be the actual case regarding what is now commonly called "Ukrainegate" (the focus of the impeachment-proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump).

Smoking

Nanny State: Greece PM says no exemptions in smoking ban

Greece smoking ban
© ekathimerini.com
Three days after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis unveiled his government's plan to crack down on smoking in public places, inspections were in full swing Thursday as Deputy Health Minister Vassilis Kontozamanis vowed that the law would be enforced "to the letter."

Kontozamanis' comments came amid calls for exceptions to be granted to large nightclubs and other venues.

"We all know that governments in the past did not dare to fully enforce the law," Kontozamanis told Skai. "Things have changed."

Asked whether any concessions could be granted for casinos, betting shops and nightclubs - where opposition to change has been most vehement - Kontozamanis said there would be no exceptions.

"If we start with the loopholes, the law won't be enforced," he said. He added that the government's key aim was not to raise revenue but to protect public health. "It is the state's duty to protect, to inform, to warn people, and that's what we're doing with the full ban on smoking," he said.

Comment: See also: Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State


Info

Michael Bloomberg launches Democratic presidential bid


Comment: A Jewish president of the United States? Given the melding of Israel and the US in recent decades, it would be super-appropriate.


michael bloomberg
© AP Photo/John LocherIn this Feb. 26, 2019, file photo, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a news conference at a gun control advocacy event in Las Vegas.
Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the world's richest men, has formally launched a Democratic bid for president.

Ending weeks of speculation, the 77-year-old former Republican announced his candidacy Sunday in a written statement posted on a campaign website describing himself as uniquely positioned to defeat President Donald Trump. He will quickly follow with a massive advertising campaign blanketing airways in key primary states across the U.S.

"I'm running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America," Bloomberg wrote.

Comment: See also:


Newspaper

China will never force Pakistan to repay debt on time, unlike the West's IMF - China's ambassador to Pakistan

Yao Jing
Yao Jing
Chinese envoy Yao Jing on Friday rejected US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Alice Wells' recent statement regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying that Beijing will never force Islamabad to make timely payments of its debt, unlike the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"If Pakistan is in need, China would never ask it to repay its loans in time," while on the other hand the International Monetary Fund, mainly governed by the West, is strict in its repayment system," said Jing, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, during his address to the 5th CPEC Media Forum in Islamabad.

He asked where Washington was in 2013 when Pakistan faced a shortfall of energy, and why it did not invest in Pakistan's power sector despite knowing the country's dire need for electricity.

Comment: It's the US and its allies, in league with criminal institutions such as the IMF and World Bank that have proven themselves to be the world's financial terrorists, meanwhile Russia and China have provided debt relief in return for mutually beneficial outcomes: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins


Snakes in Suits

US not doing anything illegal by 'securing' Syria's oil fields says US special envoy

US syria oil
© AP Photo / Baderkhan Ahmad
Washington is not doing anything illegal by securing oil fields in Syria, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey told reporters on Friday.

"I have every belief that it is legal under international law", Jeffrey said responding to whether he considers the US seizing the oil in the Arab republic legal under international law. "We are doing nothing illegal, the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] is continuing to work and control the fields as in the past, we will facilitate that work as part of our overall strategy towards Syria".

Jeffrey also said that the US military will continue to support the Kurdish-led SDF in keeping the oil out of the reach of the Daesh* terror group.

Comment: More from Sputnik:
Earlier this month, the US announced that it would keep its military presence in Syria despite achieving its stated goal of defeating Daesh*.

US Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie stated Saturday that some 500 US personnel still remained in eastern Syria in order to take part in the upcoming anti-Daesh operation in the region.

US President Donald Trump announced early in October his intention to bring the US troops stationed in Syria "back home," though weeks later the US announced they it would keep a small number of troops in the area to "protect the oil fields."

The decision was made amid another noteworthy occasion - the death of former Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up along with two children on 26 October when he was cornered by the US military in his hideout in northern Syria.

The group confirmed the death of al-Baghdadi, naming Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi their new leader.
See also: U.S. Didn't 'Withdraw' From Syria - It Redeployed, And Now Controls 75% of The Country's Oil