Puppet MastersS

Arrow Up

Impeachment? Turn-about fair play. Trump can put Dems on trial in the Senate

TrumpSwamp Capitol
© UnknownTrump has a swamp to drain!
The entrenched elites of both parties and a large portion of the corrupt upper federal bureaucracy understand the mortal threat President Trump poses to them. This threat has been the driving force behind the continuous efforts to destroy the Trump presidency since (and before) the president's inauguration.

These forces have no doubt already figured out they can't beat the president at the ballot box. Impeachment is their last desperate chance to rid themselves of the man who has so effectively exposed their self-enrichment and multiple sell-outs of the American people. And now they think they see their chance โ€” based on a single telephone call in which America's president, reasonably and with more than good cause, suspecting criminal wrongdoing, may have sought the assistance of a foreign head of state in getting to the bottom of his amply justified suspicions.

They are counting on the now widely and deeply loathed former Republican, Mitt Romney, to round up enough Republican turncoat Trump-haters to reach two thirds of the Senate โ€” all without regard to the total absence of anything remotely approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Comment: It is more likely we will never know the full story behind the dog-and-pony scandals that have rocked the nation, courtesy of partisan politics emanating from those elected to represent us. We have fallen for 'causes' without legality, maneuvers that lessen our rights, belief in judicial structures that continually fail us and politicians with false personae whose only concern is to achieve an agenda. Undermining half of government will never make us stronger, never 'Make America Great Again' unless we first demand a return to value, decency, and adherence to principle and law for every citizen - the way it's supposed to be.


Arrow Up

Putin: Give Trump credit for historic talks with Kim and cooling tensions in N. Korea

TrumpKim
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueU.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.
Donald Trump's decision to engage in direct talks with North Korea was a historic step that helped reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"As soon as the US chose to engage in a direct conversation with North Korea... abandoning their usual, sometimes very harsh and even insulting rhetoric, the hope for a peaceful settlement immediately appeared."
The president has been speaking at a plenary session of the 16th meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. The annual gathering with high-ranking guests deals with global challenges.

There are still a lot of problems on the way towards peace between North and South Korea, but "the US president's ability to make extraordinary moves deserves credit."

For decades, American leaders treated North Korea as a "pariah" and completely ignored Pyongyang, Putin said, adding that it has changed recently.
"Mr. Trump was able to make a historic step by crossing the line of misunderstanding and alienation; meeting with Kim Jong-un and launching a negotiation process."

Attention

NYT reveals 'whistleblower' consulted 'Shifty Shiff' before filing complaint. Trump triumphant.

SchiffTrump
© Reuters/Alexander Drago/Kevin LamarqueHouse Intel Chief Adam Schiff โ€ข US President Donald Trump
The CIA agent accusing President Donald Trump of a quid pro quo with Ukraine spoke to House intel chief Adam Schiff's staff before filing his whistleblower complaint, sources say - and Trump believes the collusion goes deeper.

The "whistleblower" spoke to a House Intelligence Committee staffer about his concerns, gleaned from secondhand knowledge of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that the president was abusing his power - and that staffer shared the information with Schiff - before the still-anonymous CIA officer filed his complaint, according to the New York Times, which cited Schiff's spokesman and "current and former American officials" in a report published Wednesday.

The Times' report "shows that Schiff is a fraud," the president told reporters during a White House press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto Wednesday afternoon when he was asked about the story, calling the fact that the congressman, whom he dubbed "shifty Schiff," knew about the complaint before it was even filed "a scandal."

"I'd go a step further - I think he probably helped write" the complaint, Trump said. "He knew long before, and he helped write it too," he continued more confidently. The president - who elsewhere in his remarks tried out his new "corrupt news" moniker for the mainstream media - nevertheless congratulated the Times on the scoop. "Maybe they're getting better," he mused.

Arrow Down

So long Irish backstop: Boris Johnson's final offer to the EU - 'take it or leave it'

Johnson/Juncker
© Reuters/Yves HermanBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sent Brussels his 'take it or leave it' Brexit offer that would see the Irish backstop replaced with electronic and a "number of physical" customs checks on the island of Ireland.

Publishing his letter to the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday via social media, Johnson's "final offer" Brexit proposals contain alternatives to the contentious Irish backstop issue, which he describes as a "bridge to nowhere."

If ratified, it would mean that Northern Ireland would remain in the same 'regulatory zone' as the Republic of Ireland for goods traded across the north-south border.

Stop

Afghanistan's national security advisor to Taliban: 'Join in peace' or we will win this fight

Hamdullah Mohib
© Brendan McDermid/ReutersAfghanistan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib
As the smoke gradually cleared from an Afghan presidential election riled by Taliban threats over the weekend, the country's national-security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, issued a message to the hard-line Islamic insurgents that the government won't back down from them.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly's general debate in New York on September 30, Mohib said:
"To the Taliban and their foreign sponsors, hear this now, a message from the Afghan people: Join us in peace, or we will continue to fight. This is a fight we can win. Peace is our common objective, and terrorists are our common enemy."
However, peace cannot be rushed "at the risk of empowering" terrorists, he said.

His speech came two days after a little more than 2 million people voted in the presidential election, which was marred by a spate of militant attacks across the country and reports of problems at polling stations.

Comment: More from RFE/RL, 1/10/2019: Taliban attack kills 11 police

Balkh Province map
© OpenStreetMapBalkh Province's Shortepa district
Taliban attacks have continued during the weekend's presidential election after the collapse of talks over a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said a column of more than 400 Taliban fighters on motorbikes attacked Shortepa district police headquarters in the early hours. The attack sparked a gun battle that is still under way.

"Eleven police officers were killed in the attack. The Taliban also suffered heavy losses," Farhad said.

Karim Khan, the Shortepa district chief, said the Taliban had captured 13 other policemen and set the headquarters buildings on fire before leaving the area. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents had overrun the district.

The chief of the Balkh provincial council, Muhammad Afzel Hadid, said he feared the toll could rise further unless reinforcements arrived promptly, as the district is in a remote area.
See also:


Attention

Shifty Schiff denies conflict of interest on staffer's trip sponsored by think tank backed by Ukraine gas company Burisma

Adam Schiff
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif
A spokesman for Rep. Adam Schiff's House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence denied any impropriety related to a trip taken by a staffer to Ukraine last month sponsored and organized by the Atlantic Council think tank.

The Atlantic Council is funded by and works in partnership with Burisma, the natural gas company at the center of allegations regarding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

The Schiff staff member, Thomas Eager, is also currently a fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Congressional Fellowship. Burisma in January 2017 signed a "cooperative agreement" with the Council to sponsor the organization's Eurasia Center.

Comment: Connecting the dots . . . .


Binoculars

Robert Service's pathetic fallacy โ€” British warfighter's guide to targetting Vladimir Putin

putin service
Robert Service (lead images) commits the pathetic fallacy over and over.

It isn't that his fallacies are pathetic, and so deserve to be pitied. It is that Service takes money for writing histories, purporting to be about Russia, its revolutionary leaders, and now its current leader, by projecting his own emotions on to his targets. It's the kind of personification intended to convince readers of the hostility of his Russian targets, and Service's wisdom in judging them for what they are; that's to say, what deserves to be done to them (if they aren't dead yet) by people like Service.

Service is a propagandist for Russia-hating, Kremlin-changing warfare. His output is a stream of books aimed by Pan Macmillan โ€” now a German-owned publisher with most of its sales in the US โ€” at American readers inveigled into wanting war with Russia.

"I came to this project after serving as a witness in the Berezovski v. Abramovich trial in 2011-2012", Service says by way of his oath to tell the truth at the start of his new testimony against Vladimir Putin. Service's book, released this week, is called Kremlin Winter: Russia and the Second Coming of Vladimir Putin. From the start line at the title, the assumption is Service's war-fighting one: Putin is omnipotent in Russia - topple him so the world, as Service is paid to represent it, will be safe from global winter and other Kremlin hostilities.

What Service doesn't acknowledge is that he was hired by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to testify as an expert in the High Court case against Boris Berezovsky. Service's fee is also undisclosed; it would have been more than a vet's (ยฃ90 per hour) but less than a neurosurgeon's (ยฃ171).

Dig

Red-state Democrats worry Trump impeachment drive will backfire (they should)

Manchin trump tester
© Greg Nash/Aaron Schwartz via The Hill(L-R) Joe Manchin (D- WV), President Donald Trump, John Tester (D-Mont.)
Red-state Senate Democrats hoping to win back a majority next year are worried that the House impeachment proceedings may suffer from 'mission creep' and cost them a win, according to The Hill's Alexander Bolton.

"It's really incumbent on the House to really be laser-focused. The president is a master of pivoting and deflecting and I think it's really important to stay focused," said Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, who barely won his 2018 re-election in the very red state. Tester thinks the impeachment inquiry should revolve around Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - currently at the heart of a second-hand whistleblower complaint by a CIA employee.

While initial reports in the mainstream media suggested that Trump pressured Zelensky, followed by word that nearly $400 million in paused US military aid was linked to the 'threat,' a release of the call transcript revealed no such threat, while later reporting revealed that Zelensky had no clue the military aid had been withheld pending a corruption review of Ukraine by the Trump administration.

Comment: Third (fourth? fifth?) time's the charm, according to the Democrat leadership. Such untrammeled disconnect from reality, should have their rank-and-file in a panic.


Stop

Iran says it foiled assassination plot against elite Quds brigade commander Soleimani

Soleimani
© AFP / IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER'S WEBSITE
An assassination attempt on the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force has been foiled and several of its "Hebrew-Arab" plotters captured, Tehran claims as cited by local media. The assault was meant to trigger sectarian violence.

After years of plotting, the suspects had generated a plan to pack explosives under a Shiite congregation hall in Kerman, southeastern Iran, it is reported. They further aimed to detonate it when Brigade Major General Qasem Soleimani visited in September, Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) security chief Hossein Taeb announced.

The plotters, Taeb says, hoped to purchase a property next to the religious hall, which belonged to Soleimani's late father, and pack it with up to 500kg of explosives with the help of a team of terrorist recruits. The latter were first transferred to "a neighboring state" for training purposes before they were sent to Iran.

Their presence in that country was apparently what tipped off IRGC intelligence, which had them under surveillance.

Comment: Soleimani was recently interviewed by Khamenei.ir for the first time. Here's the video from PressTV:


Transcript available on thesaker.is.


Stop

Best of the Web: Losers! Twitter censors Joe Biden meme Trump made go viral


Comment: What a bunch of illiberal authoritarian nutjobs. The thing had already gone viral, so it can't be unseen or undone! And yet they bleached it anyway. In real time!

Aren't these people supposed to be LIBERALS??


man with Biden photo
© Twitter / Donald Trump Jr.
Twitter has yanked a clip featuring a photo of Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and a Ukrainian gas exec set to a Nickelback song after the meme was tweeted by US President Donald Trump and went viral.

The platform cited copyright in its decision to remove the video, which opens with Biden denying he had ever spoken to Hunter about his "overseas business dealings," then segues through just a few seconds of the Nickelback video before zeroing in on a framed photo of the two Bidens with a "Ukrainian gas exec" and unidentified fourth man. Hearts appear drawn around their faces.