Puppet MastersS


Heart - Black

Assange for a $3.9bn loan? Ecuador ousts London envoy, fuels rumors of Wikileaks founder's imminent eviction


RT
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 14:56 UTC
Hands off Assange protest
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.com / Brais G. Rouco
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has terminated the credentials of his UK ambassador, who has been at the center of negotiating the fate of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, as concerns mount over the whistleblower's safety.

The decree, with which Moreno effectively sacked Ecuador's London ambassador Abad Ortiz, was published by WikiLeaks on Wednesday. The document does not offer any explanation as to why Ortiz, who had been his country's ambassador to the UK since 2015, is now being permanently recalled. Nor does it name a successor for the outgoing diplomat. The decree is effective immediately.

Comment: See also:

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Apple Red

Trump derangement syndrome fail: Even California says Trump right about wildfires

Betsy McCaughey
New York Post
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 15:06 UTC
trump jerry brown
© AFP/Getty ImagesDonald Trump and Jerry Brown view the damage from the wildfires in California.
President Trump's critics are belittling him for not buying the lefty narrative that global warming is to blame for the California wildfires. Instead, Trump points to decades of mistakes by government agencies that caused the woodlands to become overly dense and blanketed with highly flammable dead wood and underbrush.

He's exactly right.

Just ask California officials. Two months ago, the state legislature enacted a measure that would expedite the removal of dead trees and use "prescribed burns" to thin forests. In other words: the very same reforms that Trump is now being mocked for proposing. The September law followed a Gov. Jerry Brown executive order earlier this year that also called for "controlled fires" to improve forest health.

This scientific approach isn't easily conveyed in Trump's preferred mode of communication, the 280-character tweet. But University of California forest expert Yana Valachovic conceded in a Washington Post interview that Trump's "general sentiment is correct - that we need to manage fuels." That is, to get rid of dangerous buildups of dead and dying trees.

Comment: Try an experiment: ask the sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome closest to you to tell you all the things Trump is right about, then observe their response. Chances are they won't be able to think of a single thing. The disagree with him on principle, even if they would've agreed with several of his statements or policies just a few years ago, and even if one of their heroes says the same thing now. The cognitive dissonance will be palpable. That is the strength of 'Orange Man Bad.'

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Pirates

Collusion with terrorists: Former Israeli defense minister admits he personally met with Syrian jihadists


Sputnik
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 14:54 UTC
yaalon
© AFP 2018 / YURI CORTEZ
Since Syria's civil war began in in 2011, neighbouring Israel has repeatedly denied its involvement in the fighting but admitted at the same time that it provided humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians within the framework of the Good Neighbour programme.

Former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon met with Syrian operatives during the civil war in Syria, Haaretz newspaper quoted a retired Israel Defence Force (IDF) general as saying.

Speaking at an Israel Democracy Institute conference, Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen, a former IDF General Staff Corps commander, explained that he and Yaalon "sat with three Syrian activists from the other side, from Syria," when Yaalon was Israel's defence minister and Hacohen himself was "commanding a corps in the Golan [Heights]".

"They came and Bogie [Yaalon] wanted to understand who they were. He asked one of them, 'Tell me, are you a Salafist?' And he said, 'I really don't know what a Salafist is. If it means that I pray more, then yes. Once I would pray once a week, on Fridays, now I pray five times a day. On the other hand, a Salafist isn't meant to cooperate with the Zionists. I'm sitting with the defence minister of the Zionists. So I don't know'," Hacohen said.

Comment: For all their talk about terrorism, the Israeli government has no problem allying with al-Qaeda or ISIS, as long as it means they can be used to weaken or destroy the secular Arab governments they consider their enemies. That's realpolitik for you. But really, shouldn't there be a red line? You'd think ISIS would be beyond the pale. Not for Israel! The more dead Libyans, Iraqis, Syrians, the better.

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Bomb

"Must get Spain's seal of approval": UK accused of treachery over Gibraltar Brexit deal

Daniel Boffey
The Guardian
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 18:48 UTC
Gibraltar
© Jon Nazca/ReutersWomen talk through a fence in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Spain's secretary of state for the EU claims the UK has acted 'under the cover of darkness'.
The UK has been accused by Spain of "treachery" and acting "under the cover of darkness" in an escalation of a war of words over the future of Gibraltar that risks derailing Theresa May's Brexit deal.

Marco Aguiriano, Spain's secretary of state for the EU, said on Thursday that his government could "stop the clock" on the negotiations and force May and the other EU leaders to come back in December unless it gets its way in the next 48 hours.

Madrid has insisted from the start of the Brexit negotiations that it would not tolerate the Rock, a disputed territory, benefiting from agreements made in the talks without Spain's consent.

Comment: That Brexit talks are being done under cover of darkness should be no surprise because Theresa May's Conservative government is facing rebellion from members of her coalition in Northern Ireland and even her own party: Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie

See also: And for more on Brexit, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

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Bizarro Earth

Denmark suspends future weapon sales to Saudi Arabia in response to Khashoggi murder and Yemen 'concerns'

Stine Jacobsen
Reuters
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 12:00 UTC
starving Yemeni children war
© Reuters / Khaled AbdullahMalnourished Yemeni children receive treatment
Denmark has suspended future approvals of weapons and military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist and the kingdom's role in the conflict in Yemen, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Germany has already suspended issuing future weapons export licenses and has moved to halt all arms sales, while France said on Monday said it will decide soon on sanctions over Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest weapons importers. It heads a military coalition fighting in a civil war in Yemen in which tens of thousands of people have died and caused a major humanitarian catastrophe.


Comment: Saudi war crimes: 85,000 children under the age of five have starved to death in Yemen


Comment: It's quite telling of the priorities of those involved in the Saudi-led Western-backed war on Yemen - which has been going on for 3 years - that it took the murder of a high profile journalist before any government even thought to reconsider their position: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Stock Down

The upcoming bankruptcy of the American Empire

Hunter Derensis
The American Conservative
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
buck&flag
© Reuters/Thomas White
Better to bring the troops home on our terms than wait for a debt crisis to do it for us. The chickens are coming home to roost. It's only a question of when.

Herbert Stein was chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and is the father of the more well known Ben Stein. In 1976, he propounded what he called "Stein's Law": if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Stein was referring to economic trends, but the same law applies just as much to foreign policy and the concept of empire.

Stein's Law at first glance might seem like a banal platitude. But we should be fully cognizant of its implications: an unsustainable system must have an end. The American empire is internally flawed, a fact that anti-imperialists both left and right should appreciate.

The United States' national debt is approaching $22 trillion with a current federal budget deficit of over $800 billion. As Senator Rand Paul often points out, bankruptcy is the Sword of Damocles hanging perilously close to Uncle Sam's neck. Outside of a handful of libertarian gadflies in Congress such as Paul, there is no serious political movement to curb the country's wayward spending. It would take some upset of multiple times greater magnitude than Donald Trump's 2016 victory to alter this course.

Comment: As countries find other ways to trade than a dependency on the dollar, the process of US financial disintegration increases at an even greater pace.

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Document

Brexit: Future relations between the UK and EU agreed 'in principle'

Joe Murphy, Patrick Grafton-Green
Evening Standard
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Theresa May/Jean-Claude Juncker
© Getty ImagesUK PM Theresa May • EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
A draft agreement on Britain's future trade and security relationship with the European Union after Brexit was finally agreed by negotiators today.

A 26-page text of the political declaration, which is due to be formally signed at a summit on Sunday, was leaked from the EU showing agreement in a series of areas.

In a tweet confirming that a deal was ready to be signed off, European Council president Donald Tusk said:
"I have just sent to EU27 a draft Political Declaration on the Future Relationship between the EU and UK. The Commission President has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the Leaders."
The Prime Minister later stood outside No 10's front door and hailed it as "the right deal for Britain".

"It delivers on the vote of the referendum," said Mrs May. "It brings back control of our money, our borders and our laws." She said she was "confident" that it would be agreed - even by Spain.

The pound surged after Mr Tusk said the draft agreement had been reached.

Prime Minister Theresa May is due to address the Commons on Brexit on Thursday at 2.30pm. The text has been shared with the 27 other governments of the EU.

Comment: Will May's partial success with the EU leadership change the political climate in the UK to one of review, negotiation and acceptance? Or is the UK at such odds none of this makes a big difference? See also:

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Arrow Up

Erdogan, MbS, Islamic leadership and the cost of silence

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 01:57 UTC
PutinErdogan
© AFP/Krill KudryavtsevPresidents Putin and Erdogan at a meeting in Tehran, September, 2018.
It was packaged as a stark, graphic message, echoing across Eurasia: Presidents Erdogan and Putin, in a packed hall in Istanbul on Monday, surrounded by notables, celebrating completion of the 930 kilometer-long offshore section of the TurkStream gas pipeline across the bottom of the Black Sea.

This is no less than a key landmark in that fraught terrain I named 'Pipelineistan' in the early 2000s. It was built by Gazprom in only two and a half years despite facing massive pressure from Washington, which had already managed to derail TurkStream's predecessor, South Stream.

TurkStream is projected as two lines, each capable of delivering 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The first will supply the Turkish market. The second will run 180 km to Turkey's western borderlands and supply south and southeast Europe, with first deliveries expected by the end of next year. Potential customers include Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.

Call it the Gazprom double down. Nord Stream 1 and 2 supply northern Europe while TurkStream supplies southern Europe. Pipelines are steel umbilical cords. They represent liquid connectivity at its best while conclusively decreasing risks of geopolitical friction.

Turkey is already being supplied by Russian gas via Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan pipeline. Significantly, Turkey is Gazprom's second largest export market after China.

Comment: Burying Saudi Arabia and assuming Islamic leadership? Washington will have none of that!
See also: Russia's major leap in the European gas war

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Attention

A 'mission accomplished'? Study reveals number of Sunni terrorists has quadrupled from 9/11


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 17:27 UTC
Al-Qaeda flag and guys
© Reuters/Khalil AshawiIdlib Province, Syria
Despite Washington's extremely costly worldwide 'War on Terror', nearly four times as many Sunni Islamic militants are operating around the world today as on September 11, 2001, a new study has found.

As many as 230,000 jihadists are spread across 70 countries, with the largest concentrations of terrorists located in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC think tank.

The shocking reported spike in the number of Sunni jihadists worldwide raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the US-led Global War on Terrorism, which was launched in the wake of the deadly attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

US taxpayers have already forked over a mind-melting $5.9 trillion to fund the massive and increasingly secretive war - but the noble pursuit of eradicating terrorism has apparently had the opposite effect. Ironically, the think tank has called for the US to double-down, arguing that withdrawing forces from Africa and the Middle East would only embolden terrorist groups.


Comment: The study: A Report of the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, is comprehensive, informative and worth a gander.

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Bullseye

The focus is on precision: Putin urges ramp-up of production of 'smart' missiles and artillery shells


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:19 UTC
Krasnopol laser-guided artillery shell
© YouTube/Russia's Defense MinistryKrasnopol laser-guided artillery shell hits a group of militants in Syria.
Russia must ramp up production of high-precision missiles and artillery shells, President Vladimir Putin said. Smart munitions can do the job more effectively than their "dumb" counterparts - and even save on the costs.

"We definitely need, not the notorious 'slugs', but 'smart' and highly precise munitions instead, which expand the capabilities of both existing and prospective weapon systems, and, I stress, can save funds considerably," Putin said on Thursday, speaking at a meeting with industry representatives and top military officers.

Russian munitions plants make a wide variety of products which must satisfy the defensive needs of the country both in quantity and quality. High-precision munitions actually save the defense budget, as their usage allows to be done what earlier "could have been achieved only by expensive weapon systems," Putin stated.
Krasnopol shell
© Wikipedia/Mike1979 RussiaKrasnopol Shell

Comment: The future of weapons and armaments is already in Russia's hands.

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