Puppet MastersS


USA

Denial? An American pastime. Real patriotism? Requires honesty.

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 02:21 UTC
boy and mom
© WeAreChange.org
Anti-patriotism is trendy thanks to the popular depiction of Trump as Antichrist, but the US' decline has been a long time coming. Truly Making America Great Again requires dismantling the Potemkin village erected to hide the rot.

Trump seems convinced that the job of restoring America's Greatness is mostly done, and even his detractors don't seem aware of the very serious problems the country faces, instead shrieking about social issues and self-flagellating over assumed privilege. Historical or economic understanding is largely absent from the current "woke" critiques of America.
As its economic fortunes began to decline in the latter half of the 20th century, the US government threw its considerable weight behind keeping up appearances, prioritizing maintaining the facade of a prosperous nation ahead of fixing the problems keeping prosperity at bay. Disciples of Milton Friedman's neoliberal economics convinced the government that their only hope was to keep cutting taxes on the rich and hope they would eventually trickle a little down on everyone else. Admitting that this system had failed would betray weakness that would surely be leveraged into a full-fledged communist takeover. As a result, Americans have become shockingly adept at lying to themselves, and even the Trump era's trendy antipatriots are defiantly setting off their fireworks, convinced that everything will be just fine once they get rid of that nasty old president.
Read More...
Pyramid

The Kolomoisky Pyramid: Hillary Clinton, Victoria Nuland and Christine Lagarde

John Helmer
johnhelmer.net
Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
ClintonNewlandKolomoisky
© UnknownDoing the heavy lifting: Hillary Clinton, Victoria Newland, Igor Kolomoisky
When Igor Kolomoisky financed anti-Russian units operating with the Ukrainian Army in the Ukrainian civil war, he was a staunch ally of Petro Poroshenko's government in Kiev and the Obama Administration's chief Ukraine policymakers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland.

They in turn dominated the voting on the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by managing director Christine Lagarde. Following the US regime change which installed Poroshenko's regime in the spring of 2014, the IMF voted massive loans for the Ukraine to replace the Russian financing on which the regime of Victor Yanukovich had depended. More than a third of the fresh IMF money was paid out by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the state's central bank, into PrivatBank controlled by Kolomoisky and his partner, Gennady Bogolyubov.

At the time, investigations of Kolomoisky's business and banking practices, and the special relationship he cultivated with the NBU, reported he was stealing the money through a pyramid of front companies lending each other the IMF cash which was not intended to be repaid. Clinton, Nuland, Lagarde and the IMF staff and board of directors ignored the evidence, as they continued to top up Kolomoisky's pyramid. Criminal investigations by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were also reported at the time; they were neutralized by their superiors.

Comment: See also: Who will have the power in Ukraine? Gangster mayors, oligarch's dirty money and criminals?

Read More...
Arrow Down

Elijah Magnier: Iran, cheated by the JCPOA, heads towards full withdrawal

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
EU/Iran flag, rig
© Iran Review
For more than 14 months now, Europe has offered no solution to ease the crippling US sanctions on Iran, giving the "Islamic Republic" no valid reason to hold on the JCPOA nuclear deal. The Leader of the Revolution Sayyed Ali Khamenei advised Iranian officials to trust neither the US nor Europe. From Iran's point of view, the US is honest in revealing is animosity to Iran, showing its bad intentions and plans to corner the country. It is playing - in Iran's view - "the bad cop role". Europe, on the other hand "is worse, taking upon itself the good cop role, offering nice phrases, a pretense of care and concern, but with no intention of buying Iranian oil". Iran believes today it has been cheated and gave up a high degree of uranium enrichment and the many centrifuges it possessed in 2012, in return for unprecedented sanctions. This is what is pushing Tehran towards a "gradual partial withdrawal, every few months until reaching total withdrawal and a request for the IAEA to leave the country sometime next year". That will enable Iran to regain its full nuclear capability, irrespective of US and EU concerns, without necessarily heading towards producing nuclear bombs.

Iranian officials said that "President Vladimir Putin advised Iran to stay within the nuclear deal, against Iran's inclination to partially withdraw from it. Putin believed Europe, by joining China and Russia, would be in a position to meet Iran's demands and soften the heavy US unilateral sanctions. Today the Russian President is aware that Europe has little to offer except for asking for more time and further delays. Europe is in no position to exchange its commerce with the US for its Iranian trade. Whatever European leaders might like to do, they are in no position to compensate for the US sanctions on Iran".

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Vader

Who will have the power in Ukraine? Gangster mayors, oligarch's dirty money and criminals?


RT
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 19:40 UTC
Odessa graffiti
© RIA NovostiGraffiti on the streets of Odessa, Ukraine
As Ukraine braces for an early parliamentary vote, its political elites are desperately looking for ways to forge alliances that would be of benefit in the new political environment. Some deals, however, look shadier than others.

While Ukraine's major political parties led by former President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are preparing to face off, as well as the newly formed party of current President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a parliamentary election, some political figures with a long criminal history also want a piece of the pie.

One of the leaders of the newly formed 'Opposition Bloc' who made it to the top of its election list, Gennady Trukhanov, appears to have a particularly gruesome criminal history behind him.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Magnify

Juncker: EU top jobs nomination process 'not very transparent'

Alice Tidey
Euronews
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 14:57 UTC
Jean-Claude Juncker
© Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesOutgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
Outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday criticised as "not very transparent" the way European Union leaders selected the nominee to replace him.

After three days of marathon talks, the European Council rejected the Spitzenkandidat system to nominate German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen to replace Juncker when his term expires on November 1.

Under this system — through which Junker himself had been appointed — each group in the European Parliament had nominated a lead candidate during the election campaign, who was meant to assume the Commission presidency should they end up with the largest number of seats.

During a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne in Helsinki on Friday, Juncker said the nomination process "was not very transparent", adding that "it's a vision to come back to what unfortunately didn't become a tradition." He then joked: "I said in the European Council the other day that I always had the impression that I would add to history. But not like that, because I am a very unique guy. I was the first and the last Spitzenkandidat."


Comment: See also:
Galloway: Does anyone seriously expect Von der Leyen and Lagarde to change the neo-liberal status quo?

Read More...
Attention

Right to Information: Epstein documents may expose powerful politicians, businessmen

Lisette Voytko
Forbes
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 02:31 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein
© Corbis/Getty ImagesSex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered that 167 documents in a lawsuit that alleges famously well-connected financier Jeffrey Epstein participated in a sex-trafficking ring should be unsealed — and that many of his powerful friends could be named.
  • In its 27-page decision, the court cited the public's right to access the case information outweighed the privacy of certain individuals, "including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well‐known Prime Minister, and other world leaders."
  • Virginia Guiffre (now Roberts) filed the lawsuit against Ghislane Maxwell, alleging that she had used her as part of a sex trafficking network of underage girls to Epstein and a number of his famous friends, including his lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew. Both men denied the accusations.
  • Dershowitz has supported unsealing the documents, according to the Daily Beast.
  • The documents will not be immediately available, as anonymous individuals involved in the case have two weeks to file appeals.
  • The court advised the documents be read carefully. "We therefore urge the media to exercise restraint in covering potentially defamatory allegations, and we caution the public to read such accounts with discernment," wrote the court in its decision.
Key background: Epstein had previously been charged in 2007 in a 53-page indictment. As the Miami Herald revealed in its investigative series "Perversion of Justice," Epstein managed to escape all federal charges through a plea deal that gave him and all of his coconspirators immunity, with all documents being sealed. Epstein ended up pleading guilty to one state prostitution charge in Florida. He then registered as a sex offender and paid unspecified restitution to three dozen victims identified by the FBI.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Health

Biden to revive Obamacare's individual mandate penalty for not having insurance - that everyone hated

Jessica Bursztynsky
CNBC
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 09:24 UTC
SpookyJoeB
© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesFormer US VP Joe Biden
Joe Biden, former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, said Friday he would bring back the individual mandate, the penalty for not having health insurance, which was a pillar of the Affordable Care Act.

"Yes, I'd bring back the individual mandate," Biden said in an interview on CNN. The individual mandate would be popular now, "compared to what's being offered," he added.

Biden played an integral part in crafting the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare. However, President Donald Trump eliminated the individual mandate in 2017 by signing the Republican tax bill, effective the 2019 tax year.

Nearly all of the Democratic presidential hopefuls support some kind of government health-care plan. While he does not support of "Medicare for All," Biden said people should have the option to buy into Medicare if they want it. "If you provide an option for anybody who in fact wants to buy into Medicare for All, they can buy in," the Democratic presidential front-runner said.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Attention

Desperate times, desperate measures? US calls emergency IAEA meeting regarding Iran, having spurned it for 3 years


RT
Sat, 06 Jul 2019 02:44 UTC
IAEA
© Dean Calma/IAEAThe IAEA in session
The US has called an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog after Iran's uranium stockpile exceeded the 2015 nuclear deal's limits. That's the same body whose reports of Iran's compliance Washington has ignored for years.

"The international community must hold Iran's regime accountable," US Ambassador to International Organizations Jackie Wolcott said in a statement calling for a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors to discuss what it calls the group's "latest, concerning report" on the Iranian nuclear program. "The United States strongly supports the IAEA and its verification efforts in Iran," the statement continued.

Such support is new for the US, which ignored years of IAEA reports certifying the Iranian government was compliant with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal in order to pull out of that deal unilaterally last May, reimposing sanctions while declaring Iran was violating it.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Star of David

Anti-Semitism accusations against Labour are a disgrace & insult to Holocaust victims: Noam Chomsky


RT
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 17:40 UTC
Noam Chomsky
Progressive intellectual Noam Chomsky has voiced his opinion over the ongoing barrage of "anti-Semitism" allegations against the Labour party, calling them a "disgrace" and an "insult to the memory" of Holocaust victims.

The left-wing icon rallied in support of the party led by Jeremy Corbyn, and MP Chris Williamson in particular, arguing that the embattled politician did not say anything anti-Semitic in reality.

"The way charges of anti-Semitism are being used in Britain to undermine the Corbyn-led Labour Party is not only a disgrace, but also -to put it simply - an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust," Chomsky told independent journalist Matt Kennard in an e-mailed statement.


Comment: The charge of anti-Semitism against Labour and Corbyn has been one of the most overblown nothingburgers of identity politics nonsense in recent years. Even otherwise insightful critics like Sargon of Akkad (who isn't shy to point out what he sees as expressions of Jewish identity politics) treat the accusations as something "everyone knows". If you want real anti-Semitism, you can easily find it among alt-right 4chan trolls, but the charges against Labour are overblown.

Read More...
Chess

Fearful US "grants" China an oil waiver on Iran sanctions

Steve Brown
The Duran
Sat, 06 Jul 2019 17:15 UTC
Trump Xi
Florida Senator Marco Rubio posted a typical whining comment on June 28th, "The Administration stopped issuing sanctions waivers for Iranian oil exports in May, yet China just received massive oil cargo from Iran. The tanker Saline, capable of carrying 1 million barrels, docked in Jianzhou bay on June 20."

To illustrate how far things have fallen in the west, the prospect that one nation - any nation - may determine on behalf of any other sovereign nation the means by which it trades, is not only absurd, but supremely dangerous.

While this is no surprise to most people, when US threats of gunboats and sanctions fail to intimidate nations like China and Russia, then that creates a sense of alarm in US State. While the US B-team bandies about empty threats on the world stage — Trump claimed he was minutes away from striking Iran for Iran's defensive strike on a US Global Hawk RQ-4 on June 20th, then he backed down, full of doubt — the US State Department is now preparing to issue a special use waiver to China, allowing China to purchase Iranian oil.

Comment: As if the US is in a position to "grant" anything to China. It is China, with its infinite patience, that is allowing the US to save face. A fact that will likely be quietly brought up in future negotiations.

Read More...