Puppet MastersS


Chess

Ocasio-Cortez already making enemies in DC as "exasperated" Dems concoct strategy to keep her under control

Rachael Bayd and Heather Cagle
Politico
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 20:15 UTC
ocasio cortez
© Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is already making enemies in the House Democratic Caucus - and some of its members are mounting an operation to bring the anti-establishment, democratic socialist with 2.2 million Twitter followers into the fold.

The effort, described by nearly 20 lawmakers and aides, is part carrot, part stick: Some lawmakers with ties to Ocasio-Cortez are hoping to coax her into using her star power to unite Democrats and turn her fire on Republicans. Others simultaneously warn Ocasio-Cortez is destined for a lonely, ineffectual career in Congress if she continues to treat her own party as the enemy.

"I'm sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there's almost an outstanding rule: Don't attack your own people," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). "We just don't need sniping in our Democratic Caucus."

Incumbent Democrats are most annoyed by Ocasio-Cortez's threat to back primary opponents against members of their ranks she deems too moderate. But their frustration goes beyond that: Democratic leaders are upset that she railed against their new set of House rules on Twitter the first week of the new Congress. Rank and file are peeved that there's a grassroots movement to try to win her a top committee post they feel she doesn't deserve.
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Caesar

Why MSM still cries wolf about Vladimir Putin

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
The latest news about Russia from New York and Washington is chilling, ominous, and more diabolical than ever before. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is now in complete control of U.S. President Donald Trump's mind. The Raw Story is, the Russian president has managed to infiltrate the teeming grey matter of America's chief executive. The implications are mind-boggling, to be sure.

I should continue this real news story with brilliantly contrived fabrications, for it's for certain, the world will believe anything these days. What if a noted geopolitical analyst (like me), wrote for a well thought of geo-policy think tank news media (like NEO), that the real "Putin Plan" truly is world domination? Maybe the New York Times would even pick up on a Putin mind control project in a lab deep beneath Mount Yamantau is a mountain in the Ural Mountains.

Truly, if the Washington Post got wind of Putin's "real plan," Jeff Bezos' creative writers would conjure up Slavic sounding scientists clad in new U.S.S.R. lab coats as they filled test tubes with neuronal cell bodies, neuropil, and other brain particulates. In fact, I am a bit surprised the brilliant minds along Think Tank Row in Washington, have not already brought to light Putin's rehabilitation of Bunker-42, Stalin's anti-nuclear retreat 65 meters beneath the streets of Moscow. But then, I am not sure how Putin's devious scientists manage their dark experimentation while tourists visit the Bunker-42 museum? Perhaps there's a secret wall operated by a secret lever, that leads to a secret chamber, where super-secret mind control experiments are carried out? Or not.
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Attention

Trump, 'one way or another', is inching towards an emergency over wall and shutdown impasse


RT
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 00:45 UTC
Trump & Cruz
© Reuters/Leah MillisPresident Trump and Senator Ted Cruz and agents of Customs and Border Patrol in Texas, January 10, 2019
US President Donald Trump seems poised to declare a national emergency and redirect Pentagon resources towards building a wall on the border with Mexico, after his talks with congressional Democrats went nowhere.

Visiting the border in Texas on Thursday, Trump met with federal, state and local officials and repeated the need for a barrier along the border with Mexico.

"We need a wall - whether it's steel or concrete, call it whatever you want - but we need it," Trump argued in a video posted on Twitter, flanked by Border Patrol agents.

"One way or another, we will get it done."


Comment: The proposal of using funds from California and Puerto Rico were the possibilities offered by MSM. Do we know these are the only sources available or were they particularly chosen to represent a controversial and argumentative choice.

See also: A 'total waste of time': Trump walks out as talks shut down with Democrats



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USA

Pompeo claims the US is 'a force for good' in the ME - really!

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 13:16 UTC
Bombed building
© Global Look Press/Morukc UmnaberThe US' definition of 'good'.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the US a "force for good" in the Middle East. A closer look at the evidence reveals this to be the greatest lie ever told in the era of "fake news."

Pompeo said to an audience at the American University of Cairo, Egypt on Thursday:
"The good news is this: The age of self-inflicted American shame is over, and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering,"

"In just 24 months, the United States under President Trump has reasserted its traditional role as a force for good in this region. We have rediscovered our voice. We have rebuilt our relationships. We have rejected false overtures from enemies."
While taking breaks from blasting the Obama administration, Pompeo also referred to the US as having "always been a liberating force, not an occupying power." "It is a truth that isn't often spoken in this part of the world, but I'm a military man by training, so I'll put it bluntly: America is a force for good in the Middle East," Pompeo said. "Period."

Let's review the evidence.

Comment: Calling a spade 'a spade'. As long as the US has believers in the delusions it puts forth, it will continue on the same path with the same unconscionable results; Pompeo guarantees it.

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Light Saber

Turkey vows to begin offensive in East Euphrates if US pullout from Syria stalls


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 10:22 UTC
TurkFMCavusoglu
© RavaTurkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu
The US support for Kurdish militias, which have been fighting Daesh in Syria, has been a major stumbling block in the relations between the two NATO allies and coalition members. Turkey considers the YPG to be a part of the PKK, which is outlawed by Ankara as a terrorist organisation.

According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Ankara's offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria doesn't depend on the US troops' pullout from the country.

Turkey's foreign minister added that Ankara would launch a military operation east of the Euphrates River, in predominantly Kurdish-held Syrian territory, if the US fails to withdraw its troops in time.

In mid-December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey was ready to launch a military operation against the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units in Syria's Manbij if the United States did not remove the militia from there.

Comment: The US neocons would love for Turkey to provide the excuse for US troops to remain in Syria.

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Footprints

Pompeo's 'good news': American shame is over! US occupiers liberators are returning to ME


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 21:49 UTC
USsoldiersIraq
© US Army/Staff Sgt. James SelesnickUS soldiers in Iraq
In his keynote speech in Cairo, the Secretary of State continued with Trump-era policy of not just refusing to read the room, but baiting the audience with cocksure declarations of American greatness verging on the evangelical.
"It's the truth, lower-case 't,' that I'm here to talk about today. It is a truth that isn't often spoken in this part of the world, but because I'm a military man by training, I'll be very blunt and direct today: America is a force for good in the Middle East,"
started off Pompeo, part stern homespun preacher, part P.T. Barnum getting the show back on the road.

And what's the best way of drawing customers to your circus (or church)? It's definitely not focusing on granular analysis of intractable centuries-old geopolitical problems, or admitting that you are just a tawdry freak show.


Comment: Muzzle? Bulk purchase? Good deeds speak for themselves in silence.

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Ice Cube

'Hell will freeze over': Iranian FM Zarif responds to Pompeo's Cairo speech


RT
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:49 UTC
Zarif
© Reuters/Murad SezerIranian FM Javad Zarif
Iran's foreign minister fired back at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech in Cairo, Egypt, declaring that hell would freeze over before Iran "mimics US clients."

"Whenever/wherever US interferes, chaos, repression & resentment follow," Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Thursday, adding that it's "best for the US to just get over loss of Iran."

"The day Iran mimics US clients and Secretary Pompeo's 'human rights models' - be it the Shah or current butchers - to become a 'normal' country is the day hell freezes over," Zarif said.


Comment: "The world is recognizing the full scope of Iran's threats." Reverse projection from those who need a constant enemy: The US-Israel amalgamation.

See also: Pompeo's 12 demands list for Tehran is 'an ultimatum designed to fail'

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Attention

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard calls out Democrats for 'religious bigotry' in Knights of Columbus flap

Valerie Richardson
The Washington Times
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
© AP/Scott ApplewhiteRep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi)
Sens. Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono quizzed judicial nominee on affiliation with Catholic men's charity. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has criticized her fellow Democrats for targeting a judicial nominee over his membership in the Knights of Columbus, calling it "religious bigotry."

Ms. Gabbard wrote in a Tuesday op-ed in The Hill:
"While I oppose the nomination of Brian Buescher to the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, I stand strongly against those who are fomenting religious bigotry, citing as disqualifiers Buescher's Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus."
While Ms. Gabbard mentioned no names, two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee - Kamala Harris of California and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii - raised the issue of Mr. Buescher's Knights membership last month in written questions.

"If Buescher is 'unqualified' because of his Catholicism and affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, then President John F. Kennedy, and the 'liberal lion of the Senate' Ted Kennedy would have been 'unqualified' for the same reasons," Ms. Gabbard said.

Comment: Tulsi Gabbard is becoming a touchstone, sorely needed in the US government.

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Megaphone

Zakharova: Moscow has impression US trying to back down from withdrawing forces in Syria

Gh.A.Hassoun
Syrian Arab News Agency
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 18:57 UTC
zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had the impression that the United States was trying to back down from withdrawing its forces from Syria.

"The presence of US forces is illegal in Syria and does not lead to calming the situation but rather to escalating it and supporting terrorist organizations," Zakharova said at a press conference on Friday.

She stressed that if Washington has intentions to withdraw from Syria, it should achieve it because it is a positive step, but the most important is the return of the areas from which the US troops will withdraw to the Syrian State authority,"
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Vader

Best of the Web: Foreign Affairs comes right out and says it - Attacks on Russia are because Putin challenges the Western Empire

Peter Harrell
Foreign Affairs
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 17:46 UTC
putin
Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, its war in eastern Ukraine, its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and other aggressive acts against the United States and its allies demand a strong Western response.


Comment: There was no Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the Russian military is not actively involved in any war in E. Ukraine (although the gov't is helping Donbass with its needs), and Russia only came to the aid of Crimea after the people of Crimea voted in a referendum for self-determination to join Russia. The UN has in the past accepted the self-determination of other nation-states. Only sock puppets for the Western Empire call what happened in Crimea "Russian aggression".


For the past four years, that response has been dominated by sanctions and other coercive economic measures. U.S. and European officials have hoped that the economic measures would not only exact a cost for such actions but also deter the Kremlin from escalating its assault on American and European interests.


Comment: Those efforts have been mostly futile. The Western Empire's influence is fading.


The economic pressure has certainly had an effect. The IMF estimated that the sanctions linked to the 2014 invasion of Ukraine cost Russia 1 to 1.5 percent of its GDP by mid-2015. The sanctions also hurt the Russian treasury's bottom line, since Russia had to make up for lost Western capital by spending billions of dollars to prop up large companies that depended on Western funds. The more recent sanctions announced in April 2018 in response to Russia's interference in the U.S. election rattled Russian financial markets and put pressure on the value of the ruble. Specific people and companies have also felt the squeeze: the net worth of Oleg Deripaska, the pro-Putin oligarch, for example, has tumbled because of U.S. sanctions.
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