Puppet MastersS


Black Cat

Saber-rattling US ambassador to Russia says US practices diplomacy with aircraft carriers


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 19:12 UTC
US navy aircraft carrier
© Reuters / U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joseph MillerThe U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis transits the Strait of Hormuz on January 20, 2019.
The US ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, says there is little need for his craft as "200,000 tons of diplomacy" are prowling the waters of the Mediterranean, unabashedly endorsing military show-offs as a political tool.

"Each of the carriers operating in the Mediterranean at this time represent 100,000 tons of international diplomacy," Huntsman said in a statement to the US Navy's 6th Fleet.

Huntsman was speaking aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, part of the dual carrier strike group that also consists of the USS John C. Stennis, the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier. The warships kicked off their joint training operations on Wednesday. It is the first time since summer 2016 that two carrier strike groups have operated in the Mediterranean at the same time.

Comment: Carrying on the British tradition of gunboat diplomacy. And the U.S. wonders why no one likes them.

Western aggression: US Navy planning permanent deployment in Mediterranean

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Pirates

New batch of Strzok-Page texts discussed recruiting White House sources to spy for FBI

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com/
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 20:19 UTC
strzok Page
Peter Strzok and Lisa Page
Senior Republican chairmen submitted a letter Thursday to Department of Justice Attorney General William Barr revealing new texts from former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok to his paramour FBI Attorney Lisa Page showing the pair had discussed attempts to recruit sources within the White House to allegedly spy on the Trump administration.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson revealed the information in a three page letter. The texts had been obtained by SaraACarter.com Tuesday and information regarding the possible attempt to recruit White House sources had been divulged by several sources to this news site last week.

The texts and sources reveal that Strzok had one significant contact within the White House - Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Joshua Pitcock, whose wife was working as an analyst for Strzok on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. A senior White House official told this news site that Pitcock's wife recused herself from the Clinton investigation as soon as Pence and Trump became the Republican nominees in July 2016. A senior law enforcement official also told SaraACarter.com that Pitcock's wife no longer worked under Strzok after she recused herself from the Clinton investigation.
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Network

Putin: Russia & China enjoying best trade and economic ties ever


RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 18:58 UTC
fireworks
© Getty Images / Rapisan Sawangphon
Russia-China cooperation on trade, the economy, military and defense has reached the highest level of trust, and continues to steadily expand, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Our relations, which are currently at a historically high level exemplify how state-to-state ties must be constructed these days," Putin said at the opening session of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

Putin stated that trade turnover between Russia and China has seen historic growth of around 25 percent to US$108 billion, beating all forecasts.
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Magnify

Why China is US' number one adversary

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 18:46 UTC
china
© REUTERS/Stringer; REUTERS/Jason Lee
There's a reason China is adversary number-one when it comes to the Trump administration's foreign policy agenda. There's also a reason why every other country on Trump's radar has a close relationship with Beijing.China's perceived military threat

According to a recent Reuters investigative report, China's leader Xi Jinping has "refashioned the People's Liberation Army [PLA] into a force that's rapidly closing the gap on US firepower - and in some vital areas has surpassed it." Plenty of US military personnel, official reports and politicians have been warning the same. Just recently, US Navy Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, warned the US Senate Armed Services Committee that China is developing a wide range of capable weapons systems that can threaten US interests in the Pacific region. Davidson even went so far as to classify the PLA as the "principal threat to US interests, US citizens and our allies."
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Vader

Best of the Web: Report: US govt sanctions have killed 40,000 Venezuelans so far


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:50 UTC
Counting $
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
The Trump administration claims that its increasingly punitive sanctions on Venezuela "do not target the innocent people" but the government of President Nicolas Maduro. A new report on the effects of sanctions debunks that myth.

The analysis, compiled by Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), found that the sanctions have increased hunger, disease, mortality, have displaced millions of Venezuelans and exacerbated the country's economic crisis. Overall, the report says the measures have caused "very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated 40,000 deaths" between 2017 and 2018.

Weisbrot and Sachs, both well-known American economists, wrote that: The sanctions in fact "fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population" as described by the Geneva and Hague conventions, as well as being "illegal under international law."

Yet, a totally different narrative has been adopted by mainstream media in the US, which seems to unquestioningly accept the Trump administration's claims that civilians are not the targets. Ever since Trump recognized unelected opposition figure Juan Guaido as Venezuela's self-declared "interim president" in January while calling for the overthrow of Maduro, big chunks of the media have cheered on his efforts. It barely even raised eyebrows when national security advisor John Bolton went on Fox News and admitted that oil was the US's major interest in the country.

Comment: The whole world's an emergency for the US - from Venezuela to France to Sri Lanka to North Korea to New Zealand - because it's about to lose it all.
An 'imaginary' statement from Abrams:

US Special Representative to Venezuela Elliott Abrams called for the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, and said tens of billions in foreign investment could pour into the country as a result of his ouster. Abrams dug deep and gave his best John Lennon impression, asking his audience to "imagine" a free and prosperous Venezuela with clean water, enough food and a stable currency.



See also: Activists guarding Venezuela's DC embassy brace for US seizure - takeover meant to shore up failed Guaido coup

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Bullseye

DNC Chair Perez: 'We are at war' with Russia; Trump is 'compromised'


RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 01:01 UTC
TrumpFlags
© CNN
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez went on CNN to declare cyber war on Russia, and slammed President Donald Trump for being 'compromised.'

"The federal government is asleep at the switch," Perez told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on her show New Day, adding that the president was disloyal to the country for "weaponizing" hacked material.

"When the Russians called Donald Trump and said 'I got dirt on Hillary Clinton,' they should have called the authorities," Perez said, apparently referring to the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. "Instead they said 'tell us what you got.'That's not right."
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Snakes in Suits

GRU chief Kostyukov: US could attempt Venezuelan-style 'color revolutions' in Nicaragua and Cuba


RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 01:01 UTC
ProtestersVenezuela
© Jorge Martin
The US is ready to use all means to remove the unwanted socialist governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba from power in order to achieve full control over Latin America, Russian GRU chief Igor Kostyukov has warned.

Washington's foreign policy will be the main security threat for Latin America in the coming years, Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia's main intelligence directorate (the GRU), told the guests of the annual Moscow Conference on International Security. Washington acts "in disregard of international law" and without considering the possible aftermath for its allies "in order to achieve full control on the region," he said.

The State Department officially spends at least $1.5 billion every year to boost its influence in Latin America, Kostyukov said. Taking into account "special and non-budget programs" would make the sum much larger, he added.

The technologies of 'colored revolution' that are now being worked out in Venezuela, may soon be implemented in Nicaragua and Cuba

Comment: GRU chief Kostyukov also warns:
"The jihadists currently operating in Latin America are linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Qaeda. Among the new risk factors is the emergence of jihadist training camps and hideouts in the region." Kostyukov didn't name specific countries where the jihadist camps have been discovered.

Last year, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales Cabrera said that around 100 people linked to IS and other groups were arrested in his country and deported to where they came from.


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Attention

N. Korea warns of 'corresponding response' as US/SK stage scaled back war games


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:13 UTC
Max Thunder
© Reuters handout/via US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Carlos JimeneUS troops during the Max Thunder 2017 exercise
North Korea has warned of a "corresponding response" as it vented anger at the ongoing military drills between the US and South Korea. Pyongyang says such steps simply hamper the reconciliation process.

In a strongly-worded statement issued by the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country on Thursday, Pyongyang blasted the joint air force exercises as "acts of perfidy."

It added that the maneuvers go against the "trend toward the reconciliation on the peninsula" and threatened the "valuable spark of peace, reconciliation and cooperation" between the two Koreas.

The committee, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, also warned the South Korean authorities "to behave with discretion," and said the exercises risked north-south bilateral ties.

It finished by saying that such a "military provocation" would garner a "corresponding response," noting that authorities in Seoul "can never make a complaint" over whatever actions Pyongyang eventually undertakes.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Killing the dollar softly: China approaches ASEAN to use the yuan to expand economic influence


RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 10:35 UTC
Torn dollar skull
© Global Look Press
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its East Asian partners consider adding Chinese and Japanese currencies to their $240 billion currency swap safety net, business journal Nikkei Asian Review reported.

It said the 10 members of the association along with China, Japan and South Korea will discuss the proposed change to the so-called Chiang Mai Initiative at a May 2 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Fiji.

The Initiative, which was established in 2000, is aimed at preventing a repeat of the 1997 Asian currency crisis. Under its framework, countries in financial trouble can access a pool of dollars that can be sold to prop up a falling currency, though it has yet to be used.

Allowing participants to access Asian currencies in an emergency could encourage their use, including in foreign exchange reserves. The inclusion of the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan in the currency swap framework would reduce Asia's reliance on the US dollar in the event of another crisis. The move will strongly back China's push for internationalizing the yuan and expanding its economic influence in the region.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Satire is dead: Wikipedia founder appointed to judge trustworthiness of news by Orwellian group NewsGuard

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 18:34 UTC
misinformation
© Getty Images / Atilgan Ozdil
The Orwellian browser plugin NewsGuard, which purports to judge the trustworthiness of media outlets, has appointed Wikipedia's founder to its board, proving that even neoliberal thought police have a sense of humor.

In its bid to "tackle misinformation online," NewsGuard has named such defenders of journalistic integrity as former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales to its advisory board. That's Wikipedia, "the encyclopedia anyone can edit," where propaganda and hoaxes cross-pollinate to produce mutant strains of fake news that would make a 19th-century 'yellow journal' merchant blush.


Comment: All NewsGuard is is a propaganda outlet for the Powers That Be:

The Wikipedia model posits that it's hopeless to look for absolute truth, so the best we can hope for is "verifiability." This is achieved by querying "reliable sources" and writing up whatever the consensus is. Editors are forbidden from drawing conclusions based on the sources they use - if a "reliable source" hasn't covered it, it didn't happen. And what does Wikipedia consider reliable? The same type of publications that NewsGuard assigns a "green" rating - mainstream media outlets - along with scholarly journals, books from reputable publishers, and so on.
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