Puppet MastersS


Jet5

In 2018, Russian defense detected more than 3K spy planes near its borders

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Russian radar coverage
© Planeman 2010
In 2018, anti-air defense forces detected and escorted about 3,000 foreign fighter aircraft, of which more than 1,000 were reconnaissance aircraft, reported the Russian Aerospace Force.

The exact number of foreign military aircraft was announced by the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces Radiotechnical Troops, Major General Andrei Koban, in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper:
"The intensity of air traffic within the limits of responsibility of the Radiotechnical Troops is what mainly hampers military service. In 2018, the units in service of the Radiotechnical Troops detected and monitored more than 980,000 aerial targets, among which there were about three thousand foreign airplanes including more than 1,000 reconnaissance aircraft."
At the same time, the Russian major general underlined that the air defense units were put in combat readiness more than four thousand times.

"This is clear evidence of the high voltage of the service in the Radiotechnical Troops, which we are accustomed to and for which we are ready," Koban said.

In his words, Russian anti-aircraft units detect and escort more than five thousand aerial objects daily, of which about 2,500 are foreigners. In addition, each day about 20 military units are put in combat readiness.
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Arrow Down

US faces its African 'moment of truth': It is losing out to China

Michael Cohen, Samer Al-Atrush
Bloomberg
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 12:00 UTC
Bolton
© Joshua Roberts/BloombergUS National Security Advisor John Bolton
When a press release announced that President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton would unveil a new American strategy for Africa, it raised the question: What was the old one?

From Algeria to Zimbabwe, the U.S. risks losing sway over the 1.2 billion people who inhabit the world's second-most populous continent. Bolton's speech on Thursday acknowledged as much, as he framed the administration's strategic rethink around countering gains made by the U.S.'s primary geopolitical rivals.

"Africa is incredibly important," Bolton said Thursday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "If we didn't understand it before, the competition posed by China and Russia and others should highlight that for us."

But much of the strategy Bolton laid out, including counterterrorism and overhauling foreign aid, may result in a more narrow focus on the continent. And the administration's trade initiatives -- Bolton said the U.S. will look for bilateral deals -- wouldn't arrive for years to come.

That means the U.S. could miss investment opportunities in a region with the world's fastest-growing middle class, a continent that will account for half of global population growth by 2050. Led by Ghana and Kenya, African nations are stitching together a trade union designed to bolster intra-Africa commerce. The initiative has a long ways to go, but if it can achieve critical mass, the continent's combined GDP would be almost the size of Germany's.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Australia has recognized West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital


BBC
Sat, 15 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Jerusalem dome
© Getty Images
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that his government will recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, he said Australia's embassy would not move from Tel Aviv, until a peace settlement was achieved. He added Australia also recognised the aspirations of the Palestinians to a state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contested issues between Israel and the Palestinians. Opposition Labor party leader Bill Shorten said he would reverse the decision if he won next year's elections.

US President Donald Trump drew international criticism last year when he reversed decades of American foreign policy by recognising the ancient city as Israel's capital. The US embassy was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.
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Target

Maduro: Military must be combat ready to defeat 'imperialistic plots'


Sputnik
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:47 UTC
Maduro
© AP/Ariana CubillosVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he had instructed the Armed Forces to maintain the highest level of combat readiness to defeat "imperialistic plots."

"I have instructed our Armed Forces to be ready and maintain the highest level of readiness, discipline, leadership and training to defeat imperialistic plots and support peace. Venezuela relies on you," Maduro wrote on Twitter.

Maduro has accused US National Security Adviser John Bolton of plotting to overthrow and assassinate him with the help from Colombia, whose president Ivan Duque, Maduro claimed, was part of the plan.

On Thursday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza handed a note of protest to the top US diplomat in the country, Jimmy Story, over an alleged coup plot.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Kosovo's US-backed army: A nominal claim to statehood, revenge on EU and future NATO vassal


RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 19:23 UTC
Kosovo Security Force
© Reuters / Laura HasaniKosovo Security Force
Kosovo has upset just about everyone (except the US) by creating its army, in a move that researchers see as revenge against both Serbia and the EU, and an attempt to better stake a claim for the breakaway region's sovereignty.

On Friday, the parliament of the breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo voted to create a 5,000-strong standing army. Belgrade has denounced the move, calling it the "most direct threat to peace and stability in the region." But even the EU, despite its support for Kosovo's self-proclaimed independence, was not entirely happy, and NATO has objected to it, calling it "ill-timed." Meanwhile, the UN Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, told TASS that any effort to block the presence of the existing international peacekeeping force would violate UN Security Council resolution 1244. Out of the major international players, only the US cheered Pristina on.

Three researchers who studied the history, politics and conflicts of former Yugoslavia and the greater Balkans, have weighed in on why Kosovo chose to seemingly alienate its regional allies.

Comment: Kosovo should be careful about hedging all its bets on an ailing super power like the US:

See also:

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Gingerbread

Best of the Web: It's actually happening: German court mandates that 'diverse' be added as a 'gender' to national birth register


Deutsche Welle
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Men and woman
The German parliament was forced by the courts to make "diverse" an option on the birth register. Critics are split on whether the law goes too far, or not far enough.

Germans will soon be able to choose a third gender on the register of births, with "diverse" set to become an option.

Up until now, people had to choose between "male" and "female" when giving their gender, or leave the option blank.

But following a vote in the German parliament late on Thursday intersex people - people whose sexual anatomy does not fit the typical definitions of male and female - will be allowed to change their entry to "diverse."

Comment: Wow, this is actually happening.

See also:
Sweden's own Jordan B. Peterson: Professor refuses to comply with medical school demanding 'correct' gender terminology
Are gender feminists and transgender activists ignoring science?

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Headphones

Putin: Drug content in rap songs is concerning, but banning will only make things worse


RT
Sat, 15 Dec 2018 19:18 UTC
putin drugs
© Global Look Press / Kremlin Pool (L) / Castello-Ferbos / Godong (R)
Banning rappers is a bad idea, and the state should fight drug culture rather than youth culture, Vladimir Putin has said, weighing in on the scandal over some Russian rap gigs, canceled for their links to narcotics and violence.

The Russian president on Saturday warned against attempts to ban and prosecute rappers, describing such measures as "the least effective, the worst ones anyone could come up with."

"The effect of them would be opposite to the desired one," Putin said.


Comment: Putin has learned the lesson of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, some Russians haven't, in addition to practically everyone on the Left in the Western world...


Putin delivered the remarks during a meeting of the presidential council on culture in St. Petersburg, where rap culture, which has recently been a hot topic in Russia, was one of the topics. Over the past few months, Russia's authorities have canceled several concerts featuring the genre at the last minute, justifying it by the artists' promotion of drugs, obscene language and insinuations of a need for violence.

Comment: Note how RFE/RL, the U.S.'s state-run propaganda outlet, puts it:
Speaking at a meeting with cultural advisers at the Kremlin on December 15, Putin said the music should not be banned but controlled.

"If it is impossible to stop, then we must lead it and direct it," Putin was quoted by Russian media as saying at the meeting.

His comments come amid a wave of cancellations of concerts by popular artists who commentators say are channeling the political and economic frustrations of young Russians.

The crackdown has evoked Soviet-era censorship of the arts.
Yeah, sure. But it wasn't so long ago that great bastion of democracy - the USA - banned music for similar reasons:
The 1978 Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation established that the FCC had the power to regulate the broadcast of content considered "indecent" on terrestrial radio and television.

In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), founded by Tipper Gore, published the "Filthy Fifteen"-a list of fifteen songs it deemed to be the most objectionable due to their references to drugs and alcohol, sexual acts, violence, or "occult" activities.
In 1948, Memphis police confiscated records from stores and destroyed those they considered obscene. In 1952 the Weavers were blacklisted for their political beliefs. Cleveland banned rock concerts in 1965. The BBC banned Sgt. Pepper's in 1967, and Jimi Hendrix in 1969. Nixon censored songs about drug use. The BBC again banned songs deemed too 'sensitive' for the Gulf War in 1991 (including Lennon's "Imagine", The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" and Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight"). Clear Channel recommended a post-9/11 song ban (again including "Imagine", in addition to Rage Against the Machine).

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Bizarro Earth

The endgame in Maria Butina's cruel ordeal

Tony Kevin
The Off Guardian
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 19:00 UTC
butina
Maria Butina
The Maria Butina criminal investigation, cruel and futile as it has been, seems to be approaching resolution. I wrote in some detail in Off-Guardian on 29 July about the 15 July arrest by the FBI in Washington DC of a 29-year-old Russian national, a postgraduate student in Washington DC and gun enthusiast, Maria Butina.

I was not expecting Maria Butina to be still languishing in solitary confinement in a high-security prison in Virginia awaiting trial as an agent of foreign influence, over four months later. Yet this is what has happened to this unfortunate young aspiring lobbyist for better US-Russian relations.

The Russian Government considers her, with good cause in my view, to be an innocent political prisoner who has been sorely mistreated - a victim of current American elite Russophobia.
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Bomb

Anonymous Hackers Expose UK Plans to Mine Sevastopol Days Before Crimea Vote


Sputnik
Sat, 15 Dec 2018 18:31 UTC
sevastopol
© Sputnik / Sergey Malga
On Friday, the hacker group Anonymous leaked a new portion of documents related to the activities of the Integrity Initiative - a UK-based company, claiming to be fighting "propaganda and disinformation", but primarily focusing on Russia.

According to the documents published by the hacktivists known as Anonymous, the Integrative Initiative is funded by the Institute for Statecraft, whose director appears to be Christopher Donnelly, a special advisor to the House of Commons Defence Committee.

A piece of leaked data from 2014 indicates that Donnelly laid out a number of suggestions to the British authorities just days before Crimea's reunification with Russia that included mining Sevastopol harbour.

"Set up a cordon sanitaire across the Crimean Isthmus and on the coast N. of Crimea with troops and mines. Mine Sevastopol harbour/bay. Can be done easily using a car ferry if they have no minelayers. Doesn't need a lot of mines to be effective. They could easily buy some mines", he proposed, according to the group.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Butina's real crime was upending decades of Deep State propaganda by trying to befriend the United States

Jacob G. Hornberger
Future of Freedom Foundation
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 18:43 UTC
Maria Butina
© Reuters / Alexandria Sheriff's OfficeMaria Butina, after months in solitary confinement
The Justice Department's criminal prosecution of 30-year-old Russian Maria Butina, along with the mainstream media's reporting on the case, gets more comedic with each passing day. Yesterday, Butina pled guilty to the grave federal criminal offense of befriending the United States.

What could be more evil and nefarious than that? Imagine the audacity of a Russian trying to make friends with the United States! What could possibly have been going through her mind? Lock her up!

Okay, it's true that that wasn't the actual charge to which Butina pled guilty. Technically, she pled guilty to conspiring to fail to register as an agent of the Russian government. But it is clear that that "crime" is just a sham. Her real offense is befriending the United States on behalf of the Russian government, which is a grave crime in the eyes of the U.S. national-national establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA), whose existence has depended on a hostile relationship with Russia since the time the U.S. government was converted from a limited-government republic to a national-security state after World War II.

Comment:

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