Puppet MastersS


Chess

Trump's transactional troop pullout from Syria could blow up


RT
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:53 UTC
Free Syrian Army member
© REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi ReutersTurkish-backed Free Syrian Army member
It's something of a paradox. President Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria is potentially a boon for peace in the long-term. But in the short-term, the move risks increasing conflict.

The danger of conflict stems from NATO ally Turkey viewing the US pullout as an opportunity to launch an offensive on Syrian Kurdish separatists. Also, American ally Israel has warned that it will fill the "void" left by US forces in order to attack Iranian-backed militia in Syria.

It almost goes without saying that neither Syrian government forces nor the Iranian military will hardly tolerate the above putative offensives without taking counter-measures. It's not hard to imagine therefore how Syria could become a new battleground - just when the eight-year war against jihadist anti-government militants was coming to an end.

The irony about this precarious situation is that the possible flare-up in violence is coming from US allies, Turkey and Israel, not from remnant terror groups affiliated with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Nusra Front.
Read More...
Snowman

Rand Paul roasts Washington's warmongers in epic 'Festivus Twitterstorm'


RT
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 14:08 UTC
rand paul
Taking a break from the busy legislative season, US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) had a field day on Twitter, roasting President Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham and John Bolton among others.

Paul, who, like other lawmakers, headed home for the holidays amid an ongoing partial government shutdown, has been using his spare time to make jabs at a few "people in Washington," sparing neither fellow senator, Trump advisor, nor the president himself.


Comment: The Beltway is in hysteric melt down over Trump's Syria withdrawal

Read More...
Sherlock

Mexican governor & senator killed in helicopter crash on Christmas eve


RT
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 23:35 UTC
mexico sentator helicopter crash
© Reuters / Imelda MedinaMexican police and rescue personnel at the helicopter crash site in Coronango
The governor of the Mexican state of Puebla and her husband, a former governor and senator, died in a helicopter crash on Christmas eve, Mexican authorities have confirmed.

Governor Martha Erika Alonso and Senator Rafael Moreno died when their helicopter went down outside of Puebla on Monday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed reports of the tragedy.

"Terrible news," said Senate leader Ricardo Monreal Avila. "We are in sadness and pain after this tragedy."

Comment: Whether they are the victims of assassination, which is sadly all too common in Mexico, or they're victims of a helicopter crash, which is also increasingly common these days, remains to be seen: Helicopter crashes outside Leicester football stadium with 4 aboard, including club's billionaire Thai owner

Read More...
X

Bring the troops home and while you're at it, also stop the bombing

Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J. S. Davies
CounterPunch
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 10:06 UTC
US soldiers in Syria
As our nation debates the merits of President Trump's call for withdrawing US troops from Syria and Afghanistan, absent from the debate is the more pernicious aspect of US military involvement overseas: its air wars. Trump's announcement and General Mattis' resignation should unleash a national discussion about US involvement in overseas conflicts, but no evaluation can be meaningful without a clear understanding of the violence that U.S air wars have unleashed on the rest of the world for the past 17 years.

By our calculations, in this "war on terror," the U.S. and its allies have dropped a staggering 291,880 bombs and missiles on other countries-and that is just a minimum number of confirmed strikes.

As we contemplate that overwhelming number, let's keep in mind that these strikes represent lives snuffed out, people maimed for life, families torn apart, homes and infrastructure demolished, taxpayer money squandered and resentment that only engenders more violence.

After the horrific crimes of September 11th, 2001, Congress was quick to pass a sweeping Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). While three presidents have claimed that the 2001 AUMF legally justifies these endless wars as a response to the crimes of 9/11, no serious reading of the Authorization could interpret it that way. What it actually says is:
"That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."

Comment: Bombs are where the real money is at for the MIC. Not likely we'll see an end to that any time soon.

Read More...
Dominoes

Analysis: The fall of the House of Clinton may trigger domino effect worldwide

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 22:50 UTC
clinton family
© Associated Press/ Frank Franklin IIFormer Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporters as her husband former President Bill Clinton, second from right, Chelsea Clinton, second from left, and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, join on stage Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York
Over the past two decades the Clintons have created nothing short of a global network consisting of influential foreign politicians, oligarchs and royalty, exercising what Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel called "the cult of unregulated globalism." The fall of the House of Clinton may bring an end to this globalist structure, he told Sputnik.

"The Clintons - and the Bushes and Obamas - have embraced the cult of unregulated 'globalism' wherein a small band of cronies drawn from the billionaire class, multinational companies, international nonprofits, academia, and media swarm around the world trying to dominate the political agenda, as they move financial markets, and put deals together," Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist, told Sputnik.

According to the analyst, this approach gained momentum starting around 1988 and allowed globalist elites to build even greater fortunes out of being able to control any national government.

Comment: Psycho Killary in a nutshell.

Read More...
Cult

Why are Western elites so eager to buy into Russia conspiracy theories?

StalingradandPoorski's Blog
Zero Hedge
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 21:31 UTC
putin glass wine toast
The West - and in particular Western elites, have taken to blaming Russia for everything from Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss, to Brexit, to their latest target of Putin's "nefarious designs"; the Yellow Vest movement.

To that end the New York Post's Sohrab Ahmari has penned an intriguing Op-Ed on the phenomenon of the West uncritically accepting tales of Russian meddling behind everything. Originally from Iran - a "nation of conspiracy-mongers" who believe there's a "hidden hand" behind every setback or stroke of bad luck, Ahmari notes:

"Only in the West these days, the hidden hand is usually a Russian one. And unlike in the Muslim world, where it's typically the man on the street who suspects elites of serving nefarious foreigners, in the West, it's the reverse: Many elites imagine that the common people, vast swaths of their own populations, are Kremlin agents."

Comment: Russophobia has so many political uses in the West, it's like a drug the deep state can't/won't quit.

Read More...
Fire

Best of the Web: Gilets Jaunes: The End of Dystopia

Israel Shamir
The Unz Review
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
graffitti france yellow vests
© PBOY
The French are the best. The men don't get fat. The women don't sleep alone. The kids are well-behaved. They have the best architecture, the best way of living, best bread, best wine, best olive oil, best cooking, some of the best writing, films, painting, poetry, perfume - and women. They also excel in revolutions. Each revolution of theirs is a peach, perfect, round and juicy. They open a new epoch for mankind.

Just thinking of a French revolution makes me feel young, for I remember the previous one, in May 1968, and it was a beauty, the revolution of Forbidden to Forbid. It ushered us into the short-living paradise of permissible. Believe it or not, we could freely flirt with the opposite sex, we could smoke in the pubs and cafés, we could have a drink and drive. We could rent a room for small price, and roam Europe for $5 a day. Workers weren't fired, jobs were aplenty, there were no one-year contracts, parking was free and gasoline cheap. Oh yes, and the cotton was high.

Previously, the world had been hard, cold and rigid - more or less the way it is now, with prohibitions overtaking permissions. Half a century had passed since then, and the world is ripe for a new French revolution - and it came, the GJ rising. And in time for Christmas, making it an excellent gift for us all.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Mohammad bin Salman's fall from grace: Start of a much bigger crisis

David Hearst
Middle East Eye
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 13:18 UTC
MbSalman
© AFPSaudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman
In killing Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi crown prince revealed his true place in the Arab world. He and other despots in the region are not sources of stability.

The words that were to seal Jamal Khashoggi's fate are of no consequence. At the time, Khashoggi himself was unconscious of the danger he was putting himself in.

It was 15 November 2016. Trump had just been elected president and a Washington think-tank was trawling the opinions of journalists and analysts around the Middle East.

The future of the Saudi-US relationship was only one of a number of issues discussed. Speaking from Berlin over Skype to the Washington Institute, Khashoggi contradicted the official line in two parts of his modest five-minute intervention.
"Many of my [Saudi] colleagues and commentators ... see Mr Trump as just another Republican. Republicans are good for Saudi Arabia. I disagree with them. I don't think he is a Republican in that mould. Also my colleagues and many officials say that Trump the president is different from Trump the candidate. Again I tend to disagree with that. The ideas that Trump expressed are deep rooted in his philosophy ... I think Saudi Arabia should be ready for surprises," Khashoggi said.

An existential threat?

Nothing treasonable or seditious there. Nothing that Henry VIII or Ivan The Terrible could baulk at. The identification of Khashoggi as an existential threat to Mohammad bin Salman only makes sense - and even that is understating the madness in his mind - if you knew, which no one did at the time, that the Saudi crown prince and his Emirati tutor, Mohammed bin Zayed, were making extraordinary efforts to cosy up to the incoming president.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Matt Taibbi's spoken truths against the industries of death

Teodrose Fikre
The Ghion Journal
Sat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Matt Taibbi
© BillMoyers.comMatt Taibbi
In a stunning departure from mainstream media orthodoxy, Matt Taibbi wrote an article for Rolling Stone about Trump's announced pullout from Syria that rebuked the never-ending and bipartisan clamor for war. Instead of going along with the establishment punditry and echoing the talking points of arm chair generals, Taibbi methodically took apart the case for our continued presence in Syria. In a display of courage that is sorely lacking in our supposed "free-press", he detailed the appalling costs of war-the human toll and the financial waste-which have been deftly hidden by industries that profit from the proliferation of bombs and bullets.

Too many Americans have been shielded from the horrors that are unleashed by the military-financial complex. The bloody reality of riddled bodies and shattered lives has been sanitized by propagandists who put on the guise of reporters - human suffering hidden by euphemisms, technology and distance. Taibbi made it his intention to speak against these distortions that are purveyed by professional dissimulators who commit journalistic malpractice on a regular basis. From the outset, Taibbi brings to light the lunacy of the perpetual "War on Terror" that has done everything to perpetuate terror while making us less safe.

"What's the War on Terror death count by now, a half-million? How much have we spent, $5 trillion? Five-and-a-half? For that cost, we've destabilized the region to the point of abject chaos, inspired millions of Muslims to hate us, and torn up the Geneva Convention and half the Constitution in pursuit of policies like torture, kidnapping, assassination-by-robot and warrantless detention."
Read More...
Star of David

Israeli parliament to dissolve, election to be held in April


Sputnik
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 15:26 UTC
Neti
© Debbie HillIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
The resignation of Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the withdrawal of his party from the governing coalition in mid-November left Netanyahu with just a one-seat majority in the Knesset.

Israel will hold a general election on 9 April, a representative of Likud party told Sputnik, adding that the current Knesset convocation would be dissolved by that time. According to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the decision to disband the government was "unanimous".

The announcement came after a meeting of members of the country's Likud-led ruling coalition. According to Haaretz, the coalition failed to agree on the new law on conscripting yeshiva students. Earlier in the day, the Yesh Atid party refused to vote for the bill.

Israeli Defence Minister Lieberman stepped down from his post on 14 November over Netanyahu's push for a ceasefire with Hamas militants, which wrapped up the latest uptick in violence across the Gaza border. Lieberman, who accused the PM of "surrendering to Hamas terror", also said that his Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) Party, which at the time held five seats in the 120-seat Knesset, would leave the coalition.

Comment: Can we expect an upcoming 'distraction' to bolster Netanyahu and rally support to his coalition before April?

Read More...