Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

Media hysteria over Trump comments on opposition research from foreigners is totally silly and disingenuous

Trump speech
© Reuters / Jim Bourg
Relentless Russiagaters and media pundits are working themselves into a tizzy over Donald Trump's admission that he would take information on his 2020 opponent from a foreign citizen - but the outrage is fake and disingenuous.

Trump told ABC News reporter George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday that he would want to hear information offered to him by a foreigner about his election opponent and said that gathering opposition research is common practice.

"Somebody comes up and says hey, I have information on your opponent. Do you call the FBI?" Trump asked Stephanopoulos, who predictably responded: "If it's coming from Russia, you do."

Bad Guys

Propaganda is the root of all our problems

George Kurtz
A new article by Forbes reports that the CEO of Crowdstrike, the extremely shady cybersecurity corporation which was foundational in the construction of the official CIA/CNN Russian hacking narrative, is now a billionaire.

George Kurtz ascended to the billionaire rankings on the back of soaring stocks immediately after the company went public, carried no doubt on the winds of the international fame it gained from its central protagonistic role in the most well-known hacking news story of all time. A loyal servant of empire well-rewarded.

Never mind that US government insiders like Hillary Clinton had been prepping for escalations against Russia well in advance of the 2016 elections, and that their preexisting agendas to shove a geostrategic obstacle off the world stage benefited from the hacking narrative as much as George Kurtz did.

Never mind that Crowdstrike is tied to the NATO narrative management firm known as the Atlantic Council, which receives funding from the US government, the EU, NATO, Gulf states and powerful international oligarchs. Never mind either that Crowdstrike was financed with a whopping $100 million from Google, which has had a cozy relationship with US intelligence agencies since its very inception.

Never mind that to this day the DNC servers have not been examined by the FBI, nor indeed were they examined by the Special Counsel of Robert "Iraq has WMD" Mueller, preferring instead to go with the analyses of this extremely shady outfit with extensive and well-documented ties with the oligarchic leaders of the US-centralized empire. Also never mind that the Crowdstrike analyst who led forensics on those DNC servers had in fact worked for and was promoted by Robert Mueller while the two were in the FBI.

Laptop

Microsoft and the Pentagon are quietly hijacking U.S. elections

military intelligence voting
© Composite image: Shutterstock
Good news, folks! We have found the answer to the American election system!

Why do we need an answer? Well, our election system is ... how do you say ... a festering rancid corrupt needlessly complex rigged rotten infected putrid pus-covered diseased dog pile of stinking, dying cockroach-filled rat shit smelling like Mitch McConnell under a vat of pig farts. And that's a quote from The Lancet medical journal (I think).

But have no fear: The most trustworthy of corporations recently announced it is going to selflessly and patriotically secure our elections. It's a small company run by vegans and powered by love. It goes by the name "Microsoft." (You're forgiven for never having heard of it.)

The recent headlines were grandiose and thrilling:

"Microsoft offers software tools to secure elections."

"Microsoft aims to modernize and secure voting with ElectionGuard."

Penis Pump

US general: 'NATO surrounds Serbia... but Russia is the problem'

Wesley Clark
© Facebook / Wes ClarkFILE PHOTO: Retired General of the United States Army, Wesley Clark, in Kosovo
Retired US General Wesley Clark, NATO commander during the 1999 Kosovo War, has accused Russia of keeping the Balkans as a 'crisis in waiting,' raising an alarm over one humanitarian base entirely surrounded by NATO countries.

Clark was in Kosovo this week along with other leading figures from the conflict, to mark the 20th anniversary of NATO troops occupying the Serbian province on behalf of the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army." While he did not get a medal, like former US President Bill Clinton, or a statue like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the retired general was interviewed by the government TV station RTK about his vision for the region.

Speaking with RTK's Evliana Berani, Clark described NATO's presence in Kosovo as an "important continuing commitment" that's helping peace and stability in the Balkans - but warned that a threat from Russia was looming over the region.

Comment: It's notable that while Clark claims US presence is bringing 'peace and stability' to the region, tensions are actually rising: Serbian troops on high alert after Kosovo's forces raid Serb-populated regions

See also:


Chess

US Office of Special Counsel charges Trump aide Kellyanne Conway with violating Hatch Act and recommends her removal

Kellyanne Conway
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesKellyanne Conway
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on "numerous occasions" and should be removed from the government, a United States federal office announced Thursday.

The recommendation was made by Henry Kerner, head of the Office of Special Counsel, in a letter and report sent to President Trump recommending she be removed from federal service.

Federal employees are prohibited by the Hatch Act from using their jobs to campaign for or against political candidates. The president and vice president are exempt from the Hatch Act, but employees of the White House are not.

The Office of Special Counsel, led by Kerner, whom Trump nominated to the post, is charged with enforcing the Hatch Act and is not connected to now-former special counsel Robert S. Mueller's Russia investigation.

Dominoes

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving White House - Trump

Sarah Sanders
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueSarah Sanders
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave the White House at the end of June, President Donald Trump has announced.

"After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas," Trump tweeted on Thursday. "She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas."

Sanders herself had not yet announced her departure at time of writing, nor are the circumstances of her apparent resignation known.

Named as Deputy Press Secretary after Trump's election, Sanders was promoted to her most recent position in July 2017, replacing Sean Spicer. In her post, she sparred regularly with an often vicious Washington press corps, and was subjected to scathing media criticism, along with her boss.

Rocket

Israel goes on rampage after 'rocket' devastates small portion of exterior tiles on building

Israel rocket damage
A view of the 'devastating' rocket attack on Israel
The Israeli army hit targets in the Gaza Strip Thursday overnight, hours after a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

The military said in a statement that "several terror targets" were hit, including a military compund used by Hamas' naval force. Earlier reports in Palestinian media indicated the strikes occurred along the Gaza City beach and in the southern city of Khan Yunis. No casualties were reported.

In light of the rising tensions, UN Special Envoy Nickolay Mladenov arrived in Gaza through the Erez crossing Friday morning, according to reports from the southern Strip.

Thursday's rocket fire comes less than 24 hours after a fire exchange between Israel and Gaza that began when a rocket was fired at Israel from the coastal enclave on Wednesday night.

Eye 1

Breitbart: Leaked doc reveals Facebook monitors offline behavior to determine if you're a 'hate agent'

facebook
© Soohee Cho/The Intercept
Facebook monitors the offline behavior of its users to determine if they should be categorized as a "Hate Agent," according to a document provided exclusively to Breitbart News by a source within the social media giant.

The document, titled "Hate Agent Policy Review" outlines a series of "signals" that Facebook uses to determine if someone ought to be categorized as a "hate agent" and banned from the platform.

Those signals include a wide range of on- and off-platform behavior. If you praise the wrong individual, interview them, or appear at events alongside them, Facebook may categorize you as a "hate agent."

Facebook may also categorize you as a hate agent if you self-identify with or advocate for a "Designated Hateful Ideology," if you associate with a "Designated Hate Entity" (one of the examples cited by Facebook as a "hate entity" includes Islam critic Tommy Robinson), or if you have "tattoos of hate symbols or hate slogans." (The document cites no examples of these, but the media and "anti-racism" advocacy groups increasingly label innocuous items as "hate symbols," including a cartoon frog and the "OK" hand sign.)

Facebook will also categorize you as a hate agent for possession of "hate paraphernalia," although the document provides no examples of what falls into this category.

Comment: Carl Benjamin (aka Sargon of Akkad) on the news:




Russian Flag

Putin strikes again! EU claims 'continued, sustained' online disinformation coming from 'Russian sources'

fake news russia
© Shutterstock
The European Union says that it has gathered evidence of "continued and sustained" disinformation activity by Russia aimed at influencing the results of May's elections for the European Parliament.

The European Commission report said "Russian sources" tried to suppress voter turnout and influence voters' preferences.

It did not elaborate on what it meant by "Russian sources," and it said it was not yet able to identify a "distinct cross-border disinformation campaign from external sources specifically targeting the European elections."


Comment: In other words ... they've got nothing?


"The number of disinformation cases attributed to Russian sources...doubled as compared to the same period a year ago," Security Commissioner Julian King told a news conference in Brussels highlighting the report.


Comment: Anyone can 'attribute'. What are the criteria, if they even have any?


"So almost 1,000, as compared with over 400," King said, adding that EU steps to counter disinformation might have also had "some sort of deterrent effect."

Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova told the same news conference that there was "no big-bang moment" -- like the Cambridge Analytica scandal -- to draw attention to organized manipulation.

Fire

Twitter shores up Pompeo's 'Gulf of Tonkin' fairy tale with a massive online propaganda campaign - deleting thousands of pro-Iranian accounts

prowestern iran protest
© Reuters / Monica Almeida
Twitter has announced that it is removing 4,779 accounts associated or backed by Tehran, the latest strike in the ongoing anti-Iran campaign perfectly timed to coincide with the attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was already blaming Iran hours after the incident, offering not a shred of proof aside from a few other dubious incidents in the Middle East that the US has previously pinned on Iran, without evidence. Even the mainstream media has initially been reluctant to take his word for it, mostly because the narrative is so improbable. Japan's PM Shinzo Abe was in Tehran, promising to use his "utmost effort" to de-escalate tensions, when as if on cue, a Japanese ship was hit along with a Norwegian vessel.