Puppet MastersS


Fire

What if every debate about US interventionism was about Godzilla instead

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 08:00 UTC
godzilla
Person A: Wow, things are looking really bad in Venezuela right now.

Person B: Yeah.

Person A: All that poverty and unrest!

Person B: I know, it's terrible.

Person A: You know what we should do?

Person B: Please don't say send in Godzilla.

Person A: What? Why not??

Person B: Because he always makes things worse! You know that! Every time we send in Godzilla to try and solve problems in the world, he just ends up trampling all over the city, knocking down buildings and killing thousands of people with his atomic heat beam.
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Bizarro Earth

Is Donald Trump a peace president surrounded by an entire class of war-loving technocrats?

Daniel McCarthy
The American Conservative
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump hawk dove
Perhaps, but he also shows the limits of having advisors who don't want restraint.

"Merchants of death" was a sobriquet once applied to the arms industry, notably by the journalists F.C. Hanighen and H.C. Engelbrecht in the title of a book they published in 1934. Today the real merchants of death are not the arms dealers but those who sell the idea of war within America's policy elite, both inside and outside of government. They possess a monopoly on respectability, and politicians who thirst for respect from the real governing class need little incentive to adopt the ideas of the smart set. Those who don't play along get the treatment meted out to Ron Paul or Tulsi Gabbard-or Donald Trump.

Trump does not crave respectability. He supplies whatever desire for approval he feels from his own reservoir of self-esteem. This makes him seem arrogant and perversely proud of his ignorance, so far as his enemies see it, but in fact it means he is largely immune to the ideological virus to which virtually all other politicians are susceptible. Trump knows that the foreign policy establishment is bankrupt. And that's what makes him a president who can actually give peace a chance.
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Snakes in Suits

Theresa May to suggest delaying Brexit if her own deal and 'no-deal' gets rejected by MPs


RT
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 12:56 UTC
Theresa May
© REUTERS/Peter NichollsTheresa May to propose delaying Brexit if her own deal and ‘no-deal’ rejected by MPs
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside of Downing Street in London, Britain, February 26, 2019.
Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that if her deal or a no-deal Brexit is rejected by MPs in the House of Commons then her government will propose delaying the UK's exit from the European Union.

In a statement to parliament, to update politicians on Brexit negotiations with the EU, the prime minister promised to give MPs a vote on whether to accept a no-deal scenario, if her government loses a meaningful vote on her agreement by March 13.

May told the House, in the event parliamentarians reject a no-deal Brexit then they will have an opportunity to vote on extending Article 50, to delay the UK's withdrawal from the EU for a "short" period of time.
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X

US sending 'spoiled food' and 'expired medicine' as humanitarian aid - Venezuelan ambassador


RT
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 21:57 UTC
USAID
© Reuters/Marco Bello
Venezuela's ambassador to Russia discussed his government's rejection of American 'foreign aid', pointing out that aside from coming with dangerous strings attached, the so called 'aid' is unfit for consumption.

"We don't perceive what the United States and its satellites offer as humanitarian aid," Ambassador Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa explained in an interview with Russian media.

He added that International Committee of the Red Cross agreed with his position, referring to recent incidents of opposition figures using fake Red Cross credentials at the Colombian border.
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Chess

Bernie finally comments on DNC corruption as 'not quite evenhanded', expects 'fair treatment' in 2020

Michael Burke
The Hill
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 21:41 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Stefani Reynolds
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Monday that he expects to be treated fairly in 2020 by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) despite lingering tensions over the 2016 primary.

"In 2016, I think I will not shock anybody to suggest that the DNC was not quite evenhanded. I think we have come a long way since then and I fully expect to be treated quite as well as anybody else," he said during a CNN town hall Monday evening.

Sanders gave the answer after an audience member asked whether Sanders believes he can get a "fair shake" in the Democratic nomination process.
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Pyramid

SOTT Focus: Pierre Omidyar: A Billionaire Prone to Reclusiveness, And His Trove of State Surveillance Secrets

Alexander Rubinstein & Max Blumenthal
MintPress News
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:38 UTC
This is the concluding part of our series exploring billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's broad sweep of influence over global media and surveillance enterprises. Part 1 examined Omidyar's use of investment to build a vast and tangled web of influence in NGOs and media outlets around the world; Part 2 illuminated his involvement with regime-change networks and the surveillance state.
Pierre Omidyar
© Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Editing by MintPress NewseBay founder Pierre Omidyar speaks at the eBay Developer’s Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Wednesday, June 13, 2007.
Flinging accusations of cultism while funding the Dalai Lama

Since pumping $100 million into a network of news outlets, fact-checking sites, film projects and press-advocacy groups, Pierre Omidyar has emerged as one of the most quietly influential media funders in the country. All along, he has kept out of the spotlight, avoiding the scrutiny and attack campaigns that have followed other politically influential oligarchs like Jeff Bezos and George Soros.

Omidyar lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, far from the American mainland. From there, he courts famous gurus and wields his media empire against a Hawaiian lawmaker who has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of the national security state and its militaristic agenda.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Pakistan-India showdown: What you're not being told

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:31 UTC
Pakistani soldiers
© AFP / Aamir Qureshi; India Home Guard Global Look Press / Abhisek Saha / ZUMAPRESS.comPakistani soldiers
A recent terrorist attack in Kashmir could set the stage for a major conflict between India and Pakistan as India begins bombing Pakistani territory. As always, the root causes of these are being ignored by the media.

On February 14, India was rocked by a suicide-bombing which took place inside Jammu and Kashmir. The attack targeted a convoy of security personnel vehicles, killing at least 42 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers (as well as the bomber himself).

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Pakistan-based Islamist group called Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). JeM's main goal is to steal Kashmir away from India and unite it with Pakistan, to ensure that Pakistan is ruled by Sharia law, and to drive Western forces out of Afghanistan. Its other eventual priority is to drive all Hindus and non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent.

The attack has drawn such negative publicity that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), finally agreeing on something for once, identified India as a victim of terrorism and asked member states to cooperate actively with New Delhi to bring these attackers to justice.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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NPC

Let the latest media circus begin: Cohen to testify on 'crimes' committed by Trump in office

Tyler Durdan
ZeroHedge
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:42 UTC
Michael Cohen
© Craig Ruttle/APMichael Cohen, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves federal court in New York, Aug. 21, 2018.
As former Trump attorney and soon-to-be federal inmate Michael Cohen prepares to begin a three-day gauntlet of Congressional testimony on Tuesday, leaks in the press have detailed what Cohen might say both during his closed-door hearings (before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday) and his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee. And as was widely expected given his attempts to deflect from his own crimes by agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors, Cohen will reportedly share never-before-revealed details about alleged criminal acts committed by President Trump while in office, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.

What specific illegal activity will Cohen reveal? Well, it's not 100% clear. The WSJ's source said "Cohen would provide "evidence of criminal conduct since Mr. Trump became president," but other than saying it involved the payoff to Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford), they refused to provide more specifics. The $130,000 payoff to Daniels, which was first reported by WSJ in October 2016, allegedly took place during the final months of the presidential race, so it's unclear exactly what illegal behavior could be tied to Trump's time in office.

Though that didn't stop WSJ from venturing a guess:

Comment:

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Attention

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announces sudden resignation - via Instagram. President Rouhani rejects it


RT
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:04 UTC
Zarif
© azertacIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announces resignation from his post in a statement on his Instagram account.

"I am apologising [to] you for all the shortcomings ... in the past years during my time as foreign minister ... I thank the Iranian nation and officials," he wrote on his Instagram page jzarif_ir.

Zarif has served as Iran's foreign minister since 2013. He led the Iranian delegation at the negotiations over the Iran's nuclear program, which eventually concluded with the signing of the 2015 deal, which is also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Before assuming his duties as a minister, he served as Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations between 2002 and 2007.

The reasons for his resignation remain unclear so far.

Comment: More from Sputnik:
Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, has categorically refuted media reports claiming that the country's leader accepted the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Later in the day, media reported that Rouhani had accepted the minister's unexpected resignation.

The foreign minister's aide, in turn, told Sputnik on Monday that the ministry's personnel was unaware of Zarif's resignation or the possible reasons behind it. The aide also stressed that Zarif's Instagram account was official and it had not been hacked.

The move was confirmed by Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Seyed Abbas Moussavi, according to the Fars news agency. The Iranian parliament will debate on the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at Tuesday's session, a source told Sputnik.
Well that's weird.

What's weirder is that Rouhani has 'counter-instagrammed':

The hashtags, in Farsi, say "#Zarif_is_not_alone," and "#Zarif_is_staying."

Zarif could just be sick and tired of it all. He's been doing this as long as Lavrov.

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Footprints

Macron welcomes Trump's agreement to keep some troops in Syria


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:36 UTC
Macron
© unknownFrench President Emmanuel Macron
Last week, US President Donald Trump reportedly agreed that about 400 troops would remain in Syria after the withdrawal of most of its forces. The step was taken after two months of pressure by Washington's allies and resignations of American top defence officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Trump's reported decision to leave about 400 US military personnel in Syria. "On the US decision, I can only but welcome this choice", Macron told a news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih. "The US decision is a good thing. We will continue to operate in the region within the coalition".

The remaining forces will be stationed in two areas: 200 at the al-Tanf base and around 200 more soldiers in north-eastern Syria as peacekeepers, Reuters reported last week, citing a US administration official. As the official noted, quoted by the media, those deployed in the northeast would be a part of a larger contingent, including Washington's European allies. The latter's contribution will number around 800-1,500 soldiers.

Comment: See also:

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