Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Trump-obsessed Democrats scramble to keep 'Russian-collusion' conspiracy theory alive and weaponized

David Schoen
The Epic Times
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Robert Mueller
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThen-FBI Director Robert Mueller in Washington on June 25, 2008. Special Counsel Mueller is reportedly close to finishing his investigation.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the lionized hero on whom the President's detractors have pinned their hopes and dreams for nearly two years, is reportedly very close to issuing his final report. No one on the outside actually knows yet what exactly Mueller and his team of partisan lawyers will write, but those who have been predicting daily that the Mueller report would demonstrate that "illegal collusion" with Russia was the real reason Hillary lost the election are now falling all over themselves to lower expectations and hedge their bets.

In typical fashion, they cannot accept that the report might fall short of their dreams because the evidence did not support the conclusions they wanted to hear. Instead, their latest avenue of spin is to minimize Mueller's authority and efforts and to promise that the Committee chairs in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, driven by ego and a thirst for power, will now mount their own aggressive alternative investigations digging into every aspect of the President's personal, business, and public life.
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Newspaper

Malaysia frees Indonesian woman accused of Kim Jong Nam's poisoning

Joseph Sipalan
Reuters
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Siti Aisyah
© Mast Irham/EPASiti Aisyah arrives from Malaysia at Halim Perdana Kusuma airport in Jakarta on Monday, after charges against her in Kim Jong-nam’s murder case were dropped.
An Indonesian woman accused in the 2017 chemical poison murder of the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed on Monday after a Malaysian court dropped the charge in a case that drew suspicions of being a political assassination.

As the court announced its decision, Siti Aisyah, 26, turned to her Vietnamese co-defendant, Doan Thi Huong, 30, in the dock and the two women, who had been facing the death penalty together, embraced in tears.

They had been accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

Facebook briefly takes down Elizabeth Warren's ads on breaking up Facebook


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
© REUTERS/Sergio FloresDemocratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA)
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren might have felt vindicated in her crusade against the monopoly of tech giants like Facebook and Google, after the former took down her ads calling for their dismemberment.

Warren made a full-blown offensive against a number of the most prominent digital giants a key part of her 2020 campaign agenda. Blasting the vast power that conglomerates such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple have accumulated, Warren has unveiled plans to "unwind tech mergers" by introducing legislation that would bar the platforms from offering a marketplace and selling their services on that same marketplace.

That, however, did not stop Warren from using the platform provided by one of her adversaries, Facebook, to place her campaign ad urging her supporters to join her quest in disbanding it, along with Amazon and Google.

Comment: See also:

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Propaganda

NBC report lies about construction at North Korea's Sohae launch facility

William Craddick
Disobedient Media
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:19 UTC
north Korea nuclear site
© Digital Globe/CSIS/Beyond Parallel
In the aftermath of the Hanoi Summit, President Trump has been barraged with attempts to undermine his confidence in the good faith of Kim Jong Un and his intentions to deal fairly with the United States in the negotiation process concerning denuclearization and de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. One of the primary causes of concern has been a series of reports from NBC News claiming that "commercial" satellite footage shows that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been engaging in fresh construction at their Sohae Launch Facility in preparation for an alleged missile launch or test.

Not only is the use of the term "commercial" misleading in nature, but analysis of the photos indicates that the activity at the Sohae facility is related to deconstruction. The reports are driven by a number of entities with connections to the Central Intelligence Agency and a number of other special interests which call into credibility both the veracity of the reports and the journalistic integrity of NBC News.

Comment:

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Sherlock

Is Norway's oil & gas selloff a mistake?

Cyril Widdershoven
OilPrice.com
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:07 UTC
norway oil gas
© Global Look Press / Jin Liangkuai
Another big step has been taken to end the hydrocarbon era, if the decision by Norway's sovereign wealth fund to dump oil stocks and investments is a sign on the wall.

After the news broke, "fossil free" non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and others declared the Norwegian SWF Government Pension Fund (or "Oil Fund") decision to divest as a major victory for the Green Movement. Norway's official reaction is, however, that the pension fund has chosen to divest its oil and gas related stocks the coming years due to financial considerations.

No links have been made to environmental or climate change issues in the decision making process. Still, there are signals that oil companies are facing a steep uphill battle, if the Norwegian decision is translated into policy in the next couple of months.

Norway's "Oil Fund", holding assets of around $1 trillion worldwide, is seen by institutional investors as a beacon. Still, the Norwegian decision needs to be assessed on its merits, and not on political statements or NGO assessments, forgetting the fact that the full financial structure of the fund has been, and partly is still, based on Norway's enormous oil and gas revenues. At the same time, Norway's decision-making process also seems to be influenced by national elections.

Comment: A curious move indeed, and it seems one will need to keep an eye on developments to see if there are reasons other than 'global warming' hysteria that have influenced their decision:

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Magnify

US drafts agreement with Taliban on Afghanistan troop withdrawal


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 18:23 UTC
Taliban fighters
© Reuters/ParwizTaliban fighters in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, June 2018.
A "marathon" round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar has produced an "agreement in draft" on counter-terrorism assurances and American troop withdrawal, said US envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.

"The conditions for peace have improved," Khalilzad tweeted after the talks. "Despite ups and downs, we kept things on track and made real strides."

"It's clear all sides want to end the war."

Troop withdrawal and counter-terrorism assurances are the first two issues that Khalilzad and the Taliban reached an "agreement on principle" during the talks in January.

Comment: We'll believe it when we see it. The US and it's allies aren't really looking for peace in the region unless it involves them at the head of the table, and it's highly likely that when this envoy gets back to the US similarly dodgy agreements will be proposed as happened with the Syrian troop withdrawal: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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War Whore

Best of the Web: Lisa Page said FBI discussed charging Hillary Clinton with 'gross negligence' in 2016, and DOJ told them no

Jerry Dunleavy
Washington Examiner
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 20:48 UTC
hillary clinton cell phone
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her phone in October 18, 2011
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified last year that officials in the bureau, including then-FBI Director James Comey, discussed Espionage Act charges against Hillary Clinton, citing "gross negligence," but the Justice Department shut them down.

Newly released transcripts from Page's private testimony in front of a joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in July 2018 sheds new light on the internal discussions about an investigation into Clinton's emails. This goes back to the FBI's "Midyear Exam" investigation, which looked into whether Clinton committed crimes when she sent and received classified information on her unauthorized private email server while serving as secretary of state.

Comey cleared Clinton of all charges in a press conference on July 5, 2016.

Page told the committee that the FBI "did not blow over gross negligence." Responding to a question from Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, Page testified the FBI, including Comey, believed Clinton may have committed gross negligence. "We, in fact - and, in fact, the Director - because, on its face, it did seem like, well, maybe there's a potential here for this to be the charge. And we had multiple conversations, multiple conversations with the Justice Department about charging gross negligence," she said.
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Red Flag

In the US, state regulation of family life is on the rise

James Silberman
The Resurgent
Thu, 28 Feb 2019 20:41 UTC
house
Among the most foundational worldview differences between conservatives and progressives is the conservative position of family being the cornerstone of society vs the progressive position of the government being the cornerstone of society.

For conservatives, the monogamous union of man and woman is the vehicle for creating babies and raising them according to certain values. To progressives, the nuclear family is the single greatest bulwark against the growth of government power, hence the Marxist rallying cry for the "abolition of the family." Marx and Engels knew that for the state to expand and establish the egalitarian utopia, the family order had to be broken down.

With that as a preface, let's survey the national landscape as it relates to state regulation of the family.
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Bad Guys

Jeb Bush super PAC hit with massive FEC fine for accepting $1.3 million in illegal donations from Chinese corporation

Cristina Laila
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 20:25 UTC
jeb bush
The FEC [Federal Election Commission] hit Jeb Bush's super PAC with a $390,000 fine for illegally accepting $1.3 million in donations from Chinese-owned corporation American Pacific International Capital (APIC) during the 2016 presidential primary.

Jeb Bush's brother, Neil Bush sat on the board for APIC.

Jeb Bush founded the PAC in January of 2015, but handed over control of the PAC to Republican consultant Mike Murphy in Spring of 2016.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a watchdog group, filed a formal complaint with the FEC in August of 2016 citing a report from The Intercept detailing how Chinese businessmen were illegally funneling money to Jeb Bush's PAC, Right to Rise USA.
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Airplane

Trump blasts technological complexity of modern planes - 'I don't want Einstein to be my pilot'


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 18:33 UTC
trump
© REUTERS/Leah Millis
The passenger of arguably the world's most-famous aircraft, US Air Force One, Donald Trump is highly concerned that the complexity of modern planes is creating danger as pilots can no longer take control of the plane when needed.

The increasing automation of the aircraft industry drew some barbs from US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. On his Twitter account the 72-year-old leader said "airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly" and require "scientists from MIT" rather than pilots.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want Albert Einstein to be my pilot," he complained. "I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!"
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