Puppet MastersS


Question

Develop missiles or seek 'better' deal? Trump sends mixed signals to Russia over INF treaty


RT
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 21:21 UTC
Trump?
© Mediadc.brightsptocdn Getty Images
The US hopes for a "much better" deal in place of the INF treaty, Donald Trump has said. At the same time, he vowed to develop a "military response" to alleged Russian violations - which the US has been doing for years, actually.

The US president has sent quite mixed signals over what exactly he sought to achieve with the announcement of withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. On Friday, Washington suspended its participation in the landmark agreement and promised to leave it altogether in 180 days unless Russia gives in to its demands.

"I hope that we're able to get everybody in a big and beautiful room and do a new treaty that would be much better. Certainly, I would like to see that," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Earlier in the day, however, he vowed to "move forward with developing our own military response options" against Russian alleged violations. Moscow, on its part has vehemently denied the accusations, even showcasing the missile the US claimed to be in violation of the INF agreement in an unprecedented step towards transparency.

Comment: See also: US desires to abandon INF, uses Russia as excuse

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Arrow Down

House Dems reject GOP proposal blocking raises for federal employees guilty of sexual misconduct

Brent Scher
The Washington Free Beacon
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 03:18 UTC
CA REP TonyCardenas
© Tom Williams/CQ Roll CallTony Cardenas (CA-Dem)
Vote was chaired by Democrat Tony Cardenas, who is accused of drugging teenage girl

House Democrats on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to add a provision that would block federal employees who were disciplined for sexual misconduct to receive the same pay raise as the rest of their colleagues.

Republicans attempted to add the provision to legislation proposed by Democrats to give federal workers a 2.6 percent raise. The Republican proposal was to simply stipulate that workers disciplined for sexual misconduct be exempt from the raise.
"During calendar year 2019, no increase in pay as authorized under this Act may be provided to any Federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct under chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, or any other provision of law," read the Republican proposal.
Despite receiving support from 17 Democrats, the proposal was rejected in a 216-206 vote.
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Jet1

Pentagon report: Can't aim guns, short-lived, the troubled F-35 jet reveals more problems


RT
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 18:01 UTC
F-35 planes
© USAF/Staff Sgt. Andrew LeeF-35 strike fighters
Bad aim & short life: New Pentagon report reveals MORE problems with trillion-dollar F-35 jets.

Adding to the pile of flaws and setbacks plaguing the F-35 strike fighter, a new report by the Pentagon reveals that jet's life span is nearly four times shorter than expected and the accuracy of its guns is "unacceptable."

The number of F-35s ready to fly remained "flat" for past three years and there was "no improving trend" in 2018, Robert Behler, the director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) at the Pentagon, wrote in this week's report.

In fact, the average availability rate of F-35 jets didn't hit the "target value of 60 percent," which is also "well below [the] planned 80 percent" needed for efficient testing and pilot training, according to the military's assessment.

In addition, the tests revealed that the life span of early-production models is far lower than the expected 8,000 flights hours, and "may be as low as 2,100 flight hours," the document reads.


Comment: The US apparently doesn't mind selling high price junk.
See also: Oops: US military's trillion dollar fighter jet's radar doesn't work

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Target

Double standard? Venezuela, and Canada's duplicitous criminality

Mark Taliano
Global Research
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Chart of election winners
© Screen-Shot-2019-01-28#Maduro got a higher competitive vote and a greater proportion of all possible votes than any of his key detractors: #Trump #Macri #Santos or #Piñera . The plain truth about #Venezuela– Prof. Tim Anderson
Socialism isn't the problem. The problem in Venezuela is the cancer of Western-supported deep state agencies that are subverting its political economy for the perceived benefit of a tiny transnational oligarch class.

The same agencies which helped to renovate the post 9/11 Canadian government, by ushering in the Harper Regime [1]- arguably a soft coup - and the on-going coup beneath the progressive veneer of the Trudeau regime, are hard at work in Venezuela.[2]

The Canadian government's support for Juan Guaido in the name of democracy and freedom is beyond absurd because he has almost no support in Venezuela, and he was not elected to lead the country

The Canadian government's actions demonstrate clearly that it denies and negates democracy and freedom as policy. Nation-state sovereignty, ideological pluralism, and international law are all proven enemies to the Canadian government. This is amply demonstrated, not only in its support for the imperial puppet opposition in Venezuela, but also in the Canadian government's support for ISIS, al Qaeda and assorted terrorists in Syria [3], as well as the government's support for a neo-Nazi infested coup government [4] in Kiev.

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Document

Geneva-based NGO to issue upcoming report smearing prominent European politicians


RT
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:21 UTC
Ticking timebomb
© Global Look Press/CHROMORANGE/Bilderbox
A Geneva-based peacemaking NGO is about to issue a report "smearing" a number of European politicians, including former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, RT has learned.

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue advertises itself as an impartial body, which offers assistance in mediation between conflicting parties to prevent or end armed conflicts. The full list of individuals targeted by the report remains unclear, but RT understands from a source familiar with the matter that Schroeder is among the names.

The exact nature of the upcoming "smear" is also unclear, but the presence of the former German chancellor, who is long retired from active politics, may contain a clue. After finishing his tenure as chancellor in 2005, he moved to a senior management role with Nord Stream AG, a joint venture involving Russian and European companies that operate the Nord Stream pipeline.

It is understood that the "smear" will be connected to Washington's efforts to exert pressure on Europe. For example, the Nord Stream was the subject of harsh criticism from the US, with its ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell even warning German firms earlier in January that they could face sanctions for contributing to the project.
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Bad Guys

'Moral disgrace': EU Parliament lectures world on rule of law then destroys it in Venezuela


RT
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:26 UTC
Guaido
© Reuters / Rayner Pena‘Moral disgrace’: EU Parliament lectures world on rule of law, then destroys legality in Venezuela
Juan Guaido
It's a moral disgrace when the EU Parliament, which lectures the world on the need to respect the rule of law, uses legal language to tell lies about the legality of the situation in Venezuela, and to destroy that legality.

Exciting news from France: Marine le Pen is the country's new president. After the Macron regime plunged the country into political crisis, Mrs Le Pen took the oath of office on Place de la Concorde on Friday before a small crowd of gilets jaunes (yellow vests) specially assembled - with the TV cameras - for the occasion.

Proclaiming that she was acting according to Article 7 of the Constitution of the 5th Republic, Mrs Le Pen announced that Emmanuel Macron is no longer in office. To be sure, the government and civil service, the police and the armed forces all continue to operate normally, and Mr Macron continues to work in the Elysée Palace as usual, while Mrs Le Pen is under investigation for financial irregularities. But as she has received official recognition from both Russia and China, she has now become the legitimate president of France.

Comment: For more on the constitutional aspect, see: What the Venezuelan constitution says about changing the President

See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?

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Light Sabers

Cold War is on: Russia suspends INF Treaty in 'mirror response' to US halting the agreement, greenlights creation of hypersonic mid-range missile


RT
Sat, 02 Feb 2019 13:30 UTC
launch of a missile from a Russian Iskander system
© Sputnik/StringerA launch of a missile from a Russian Iskander system. US says that 9M729, one of the Iskander-launched missiles, violates INF.
President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is halting its participation in the Cold War-era INF nuclear agreement after Washington's decision to suspend it. Russia will develop missiles previously forbidden under its terms.

"Ours will be a mirror response. Our US partners say that they are ceasing their participation in the treaty, and we are doing the same," the Russian president said in Moscow on Saturday in reference to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

"They say that they are doing research and testing [on new weapons] and we will do the same thing," Putin said during a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

Comment: RT reports the following on the Russian MOD's allegation that the U.S. has been developing their own missiles in violation of the treaty for at least the past 2 years:
Washington has apparently been headed for production of the banned munitions since at least June 2017. Back then, the US began to actively expand and modernize a factory in Arizona, belonging to the defense corporation Raytheon. The plant is the largest US facility, producing the full spectrum of missile weaponry. Over this period of almost two years, the factory's facilities were expanded by 44 percent, while its personnel was expected to grow by 2,000, the MoD added.

At the same time, in November 2017, the Congress allocated $58 million to the Pentagon explicitly for "research and development program on a ground-launched intermediate-range missile." Notably, the said program was a stated goal in the US defense budget for 2018.
You can read the full transcript of Putin's meeting with Lavrov and Shoigu here.

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USA

SOTT Focus: FBI Concludes Las Vegas Massacre 'Motiveless', Leaving Deep State Prime Suspect

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Sat, 02 Feb 2019 14:32 UTC
route91 harvest shooting
© Chase Stevens / @csstevensphoto / Las Vegas Review-Journal
On January 30th, the FBI published its final report on the Las Vegas Massacre on October 1st, 2017, which saw over a thousand rounds fired in 10 minutes at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival at the Las Vegas Village venue. Fifty eight people were shot dead and another 900 were injured, over half from gunfire, in America's most violent mass shooting. Focusing on what motivated 64-year-old Stephen Paddock to spend around $1.5 million of his own money, and a year of his time, planning and executing his crime, the FBI report concludes that the crime was without motive!

Faced with the impossible task of trying to make what was clearly a coordinated multi-site attack spread over a large area fit with the narrative that one man alone carried it out from one crime scene, it's little wonder the FBI came to such an unsatisfactory conclusion regarding motive. Critics will, justifiably, interpret this as confirmation that investigative authorities are complicit in covering up what really happened, who really did it, and why they did it, while the lack of reasonable closure on the case will do nothing to assuage the general public's unease with the official narrative for this and similar atrocities.

The best face one can put on the FBI's conclusion is that it is, in a sense, more honest than the alternative option of concocting some motive to fit with the core premise - laid down at the outset by anonymous mainstream media sources, then vigorously adhered to by the FBI - that one man acted alone. The problem for US authorities, and indeed for US society as a whole, is that this non-answer leaves a gaping wound in public awareness, emboldens the perpetrators and their patrons, and increases the likelihood of such crimes happening again.
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Snakes in Suits

Howard Schultz announce he's running as a 'centrist' - gets schooled in US politics 101

Robert Bridge
RT
Sat, 02 Feb 2019 11:40 UTC
Howard Schultz Starbucks protest
© Reuters / Jason RedmondPeople protest outside before former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz speaks during his book tour in Seattle, Washington, U.S., January 31, 2019
Increasingly, the only people who can challenge the two-party US political system are ultra-wealthy business tycoons with no government experience, a factor that should preclude the US from lecturing others on democracy.

Hell hath no fury like a two-party system scorned.

Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, learned that lesson the hard way when he announced he was planning to run for the White House in 2020 as a "centrist independent." The Democrats responded by sending fire and brimstone raining down on his head.
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NPC

Republicans demand Nancy Pelosi remove Ilhan Omar from the House Committee after criticizing Israel

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Sat, 02 Feb 2019 11:38 UTC
Ilhan Omar
© J. Scott Applewhite / Associated PressRep. Ilhan Omar
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has spent two weeks proving that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made a big mistake promoting her to the House Foreign Affairs Committee - an error that is hurting her party and the country.

In the past several days, Omar has:
  • Failed to apologize for an antisemitic tweet that, she says, she now realizes is "offensive," but refuses to delete;
  • Mocked the idea that Israel is a democracy, comparing it to Iran and saying it should not be accepted as a "Jewish state" - then doubled down; and
  • Justified writing a letter to a judge in 2016 asking for a lenient sentence for nine Somali-Americans who were convicted of trying to join the so-called "Islamic State," or ISIS.

Comment: Clearly Rep. Ilhan Omar is part of the hysterical left in the US and her views are infected by that, as is evidenced by her belief that 'systematic alienation' is responsible for the violence of the Islamic State. However, her criticisms of Israel's ethnic cleansing and US foreign policy, as we see throughout this article, are pretty close to the truth.

And that's the problem. Americans have spent decades cherry-picking data to support their worldviews and, when the other side provides uncomfortable information, it's become ever easier to resort to accusations of 'racism,' 'anti-Semitism' or some other moralism to categorically dismiss that unwanted piece of data. Clearly this disease of the mind is far more advanced in the Left today since most of their 'cherished beliefs' were postmodern frauds to begin with. But we see evidence of it on the Right whenever someone criticizes Israel.

Also see: Zionism is the Right's 'Identity Politics'

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