Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Kadyrov: Thwarted terror attack on Orthodox church in Chechnya ordered by West, not ISIS


RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 17:20 UTC
Emergency services seen at the Church of Michael the Archangel in Grozny, Chechnya on May 19, 2017.
© Said Tsarnaev / SputnikEmergency services seen at the Church of Michael the Archangel in Grozny, Chechnya on May 19, 2017.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack on an Orthodox church in Russia's Chechen Republic, which left a worshiper and two police officers dead.

The terrorist group took the credit for the attack, issuing a statement through its online mouthpieces, the SITE Intelligence Group reported Sunday. Four terrorists, armed with blades, incendiary devices and guns, stormed the Church of Michael the Archangel in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Comment: See also:

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USA

Engelhardt: An Empire of Nothing at All?

Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com
Tue, 15 May 2018 07:36 UTC
CARTOON-CIVIL-WAR-1862
© Granger - Historical Picture ArchiveCARTOON CIVIL WAR, 1862
The U.S. Military Takes Us Through the Gates of Hell

As I was putting the finishing touches on my new book, the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute published an estimate of the taxpayer dollars that will have gone into America's war on terror from September 12, 2001, through fiscal year 2018. That figure: a cool $5.6 trillion (including the future costs of caring for our war vets). On average, that's at least $23,386 per taxpayer.

Keep in mind that such figures, however eye-popping, are only the dollar costs of our wars. They don't, for instance, include the psychic costs to the Americans mangled in one way or another in those never-ending conflicts. They don't include the costs to this country's infrastructure, which has been crumbling while taxpayer dollars flow copiously and in a remarkably -- in these years, almost uniquely -- bipartisan fashion into what's still laughably called "national security." That's not, of course, what would make most of us more secure, but what would make them -- the denizens of the national security state -- ever more secure in Washington and elsewhere. We're talking about the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. nuclear complex, and the rest of that state-within-a-state, including its many intelligence agencies and the warrior corporations that have, by now, been fused into that vast and vastly profitable interlocking structure.

Comment: When costs outweigh benefits, when progress becomes regression, when life no longer matters...the price is too high to pay.

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Footprints

FM Zarif: EU companies may withdraw from Iran, not counting on support for nuclear deal


RT
Sun, 20 May 2018 14:23 UTC
FMZarif
© Yves Herman/ReutersIran FM Mohammad Javad Zarif
Iranian FM Javad Zarif told the EU energy chief that the bloc must take "practical steps" to strengthen economic ties with Tehran after Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, saying that "political support" was not enough.
"With the withdrawal of America, [Iran's] public expectations of the European Union have increased in order to maintain the deal's gains, and in the current context, the European political support for the accord is not sufficient,"
Zarif said as he met Miguel Arias Canete, the EU's energy commissioner, in Tehran on Sunday, the IRNA news agency reports.

To provide real support to Tehran, European countries should ramp up economic co-operation and increase investment in the country, Zarif said. While EU member states have expressed their continued commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he suggested that ongoing developments signal otherwise.
"The announcement of the possible withdrawal by major European companies from their co-operation with Iran is not consistent with the European Union's commitment to implementing [the nuclear deal]," Iran's top diplomat said.

Comment: Iran and the EU are scrambling since the US 'pulled the plug on the drain'. The US has set up the big gamble. Will Europe stand alone or kowtow to US protocol?

From Sputnik:
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi denied reports that the European Union had requested to include talks on Iran's missile program and regional power and announced that the European nations had agreed to limited talks with Tehran only to the nuclear deal.

"Araqchi said that we only implement the nuclear deal and remain committed to our nuclear deal undertakings. We have not negotiated on any other issues. The Europeans have also accepted that we will not negotiate on other issues," Seyed Javad Abtahi, a senior MP, cited the deputy minister as saying.

According to Araqchi, Tehran doubts that Europe can stay committed to the deal and continue its implementation without the United States. "The Europeans do not want to enter a political or trade war with the US and they cannot force their private companies to cooperate with Iran either," Abtahi quoted him as saying.

The European Union seeks to protect its companies operating in the Islamic Republic from secondary sanctions; for instance, the European Commission has already announced it will introduce the 1996 "blocking statute" to counter US restrictions.

Earlier, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire proposed three counter-measures to Washington's pullout, and voiced hope that the Commission would take "concrete decisions." He suggested that the bloc start implementing the "blocking statute," withdraw from the US-controlled SWIFT and establish, along with the European Investment Bank, "an independent financial instrument that will allow our companies to work freely where Europe deems fit." And, last but not the least, to set up a mechanism to better control, single out and block risky investments.


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Key

Trump to sign prison reform bill, could free thousands

Jamiles Lartey
Yahoo
Fri, 18 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Trump meeting
© CNN.comPrison reform summit
The bill, which could immediately release 4,000 federal prisoners, is likely to be brought up for a vote early next week

Donald Trump on Friday promised to sign bipartisan prison reform legislation currently working its way through Congress that could free thousands of prisoners.

"My administration strongly supports these efforts and I urge the House and Senate to get together ... work out their differences [and] get a bill to my desk. I will sign it," Trump said at an event the White House described as a prison reform summit.

Trump called prison reform an issue "that unites people from across the spectrum", as he thanked progressive commentator Van Jones and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner for their involvement in pushing for the bill.

The package, which would immediately release 4,000 federal prisoners according to some advocates, passed the House judiciary committee last week and is likely to be brought up for a vote early next week. The bill would also expand compassionate release, giving elderly and terminally ill inmates a path home, and invest tens of millions in re-entry programs. It would also end the shackling of women giving birth behind bars and provide them with necessary hygiene items at no charge.

Comment: Vacancies: A prison suite for Killary perhaps?

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Star of David

Israeli DM Lieberman lambasts UN Human Rights Council as 'cheerleaders for terrorists'


Sputnik
Sun, 20 May 2018 15:26 UTC
Injured Palestinian
© AFP, Mahmud HamsPalestinians carry injured demonstrator, Gaza Strip protest
The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution, with a majority of votes in favor of launching an investigation into the bloodshed that has taken place on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has posted a tweet slamming the UN Human Rights Council as a supporter of terrorists and called for an investigation into its activities. "The only investigation that needs to be set up is into how the Human Rights Council became a cheerleader for terrorists," the Times of Israel writes, quoting the original tweet written in Hebrew.

Lieberman has previously urged Israel to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council in protest at its decision to initiate an investigation into the bloodshed on the border of the Gaza Strip, which has claimed lives of dozens of Palestinians. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said that Israel is not going to cooperate with an international investigative committee "that wants to dictate results without a connection to facts."

Beginning on March 30, thousands of Palestinians have been taking part in protests on the border of the Gaza Strip with Israel. Israel claims that the protests are organized by the Hamas movement. Clashes between the protesters and border guards have led to casualties and injuries among Palestinians. The "bloodiest" clashes claiming the lives of 62 Palestinians the same day as the new US embassy in Jerusalem was being opened.

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

Trump's Iran sanctions made the EU look like the fools they are

John Laughland
RT
Fri, 18 May 2018 18:24 UTC
EU-Western Balkans Summit
© Stoyan Nenov / ReutersEU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 17, 2018.
The attacks by European leaders against US President Donald Trump are getting sharper by the day.

On the day Trump announced that he was ripping up the Iran deal, and that the US would impose sanctions on European companies trading with that country, the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that European states refused to be treated like "vassals" of the US.

At Aachen on 11 May, Emmanuel Macron effectively accused the US of blackmail. On 17 May, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, asked, "With friends like that (i.e. Trump), who needs enemies?"

The temperature only rose further when the French energy giant Total announced that it would pull out of a multi-billion dollar gas deal with Iran unless European diplomacy succeeds in obtaining a specific waiver from US sanctions. Other European behemoths including Allianz and Siemens have also announced either that they will wind down operations in Iran or that they will not start any new ones.

These statements show that Trump's decision is a slap in the face for the EU politically, economically and - perhaps above all - ideologically. Politically, because both Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel made special trips to Washington to plead with Trump, to no avail whatever. Moreover, the EU is itself a signatory to the Iran deal, which it regards as a major diplomatic triumph from which it draws credibility: its disavowal by Trump is a deep insult to the diplomatic status of the EU as such.

Comment: The US has put the EU in a tight situation. Like a cornered animal, it might be have no other option than to fight back. Or submit. Either way, their actions over the next few weeks will reveal once and for all who's really charge. See also:

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Light Saber

Devin Nunes to leaky DOJ: No more meetings until they cough up documents

Daniel Chaitin
Washington Examiner
Sun, 20 May 2018 11:34 UTC
devin nunes
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Sunday said he ignored an invitation by the Justice Department to continue talks Friday with government officials about documents he seeks related to the Russia investigation because he was sure someone at the agency was leaking.

"We're not going to go to another meeting where we don't get documents, and then the meeting leaks out," Nunes said during an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo.
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Snakes in Suits

President demanding DOJ probe into FBI 'infiltration' of Trump campaign


RT
Sun, 20 May 2018 17:55 UTC
Trump
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Light Sabers

Trump slams Hillary, Podesta in angry tweetstorm: "When does this witch hunt STOP"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 20 May 2018 10:22 UTC
trump angry finger
With the "Russian collusion" narrative disintegrating fast, as even the biggest Russiagate cheerleaders exit stage left now that the public's attention has shifted to the FBI itself for having created the narrative after planting at least one infiltrator - Stefan Halper - in the Trump campaign, overnight the NYT tried to pivot the collusion story away from Russia and toward the middle east, reporting that Trump advisers met with an emissary for two Gulf nations during the campaign, a meeting arranged by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, suggesting countries beyond Russia may have offered help.

Comment: Trump's right: this is a witch hunt, and always has been. The question is, if he's toeing the deep state's line, why are they bothering to continue it?

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Boat

New Russian Kalibr cruise missile-capable corvette heads for sailing tests before joining Baltic Fleet


RT
Sun, 20 May 2018 15:11 UTC
Ship
© Минобороны России / YouTube
Cutting-edge corvette 'Uragan' has been deployed to Lake Ladoga for tests before joining Russia's Baltic Fleet. The ship will boast Kalibr and Onyx missiles, as well as modern electronic equipment.

The 'Uragan' corvette has been towed to Lake Ladoga from the Pella shipyard in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday. The vessel then proceeded to the sailing tests on its own.
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