Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Israeli 'Justice' Minister says Trump's peace plan is a waste of time

Ayelet Shaked
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
Amid speculation that US President Donald Trump is looking to roll out his administration's peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians in February, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Wednesday that she would counsel the American leader that any such proposal was "a waste of time."

"I think that the gap between the Palestinians and the Israelis is much too big to be bridged," she said in an English-language interview on stage at the Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference.


Comment: She's actually correct. The Israelis are simply unwilling to concede anything. The continued existence of their state requires that they never find a solution - because their state is built upon anti-democratic principles, ethnic cleansing and theft. That's the real reason all previous efforts have failed: the Israelis only ever put up a pretense of negotiating with no intention of finding a solution the Palestinians would find acceptable.


She added: "I think personally it's a waste of time. Although I want peace like anyone else, I think I'm just more realistic. And I know that in the current future, it is impossible."

In a possible concession to diplomatic niceties, she added, "But let's wait and see what [the Trump administration] will offer."

Trump was set to hold a meeting with top advisers this week to review his administration's peace plan and discuss the timing for its release, according to a television report on Sunday.


Sherlock

Welcome to dictatorship? What lies behind France's controversial 'fake news' law

french parliament
© Reuters / REUTERS/Charles Platiau
French parliament has passed a controversial law to tackle 'fake news'. Approved ahead of the European election and clearly targeting foreign media, it is feared it could jeopardize democracy and censor press.

The National Assembly finally adopted the law, advocated by President Emmanuel Macron, against "the manipulation of information" during the country's election campaigns on Tuesday. The legislation which had been rejected by the Senate earlier this year, 'crowns' the president's campaign to clamp down on what he calls 'destabilization' attempts, aka 'fake news'.

The bill allows a candidate or party to appeal to a judge to stop the dissemination of "false information" during the three month period preceding any ballot, be it a vote to choose the French president or the European Parliament election. The latter is taking place in May 2019. The legislation mainly targets those media controlled by foreign states.

The primary goal of the law is to target those who sponsor the spread of fake news, Bruno Studer, a deputy of the Bas-Rhin department from Macron's ruling LREM party explains, adding that it will fight the spread of fake facts, not opinions.

Cut

Mississippi run-off: Walmart withdraws campaign donations to Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on basis of 'public hanging' remark

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
© Chris Todd/EPA (file photo)Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith talks to supporters in in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 6, 2018.
Walmart on Tuesday said it was "requesting a refund" from the campaign of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after the company came under pressure to distance itself from the Mississippi lawmaker's "public hanging" remark.

Campaign finance records show that the company made a $2,000 donation on Nov. 18, nearly a week after a video of Hyde-Smith saying she would be "on the front row" if a supporter invited her to "a public hanging" went viral. Records also show the company gave a $1,000 contribution to her campaign this past June.

The retail giant announced its decision to withdraw its support from Hyde-Smith in response to actress Debra Messing, who tweeted about the issue on Monday.

"Hi Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smith's recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations," the company said in a tweet.


Comment: It's hard to avoid the notion that they did this as part of a campaign to ensure as many seats for the Dems as possible...


Attention

Washington's dirty fight against China's OBOR project

The SRoad
© Agoracom
Five years into China's ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative sees analysts and political circles around the globe taking stock of Beijing's progress.

This includes the Wall Street Journal in its article, "U.S. Fights China for Influence, One Project at a Time: Washington prods private sector and focuses on financing as Beijing's 'Belt and Road' hits obstacles." What the article reveals and what the article omits, speaks volumes of America's response, or lack thereof. The article claims:
The U.S. has launched a new strategy aimed at ramping up investment in Asia to vie with Chinese President Xi Jinping's overseas infrastructure-building spree, as Beijing grapples with setbacks to its sprawling program.
The WSJ would explain:
In October, President Trump signed into law the Build Act, which creates a new development finance agency that offers loans, loan guarantees and political-risk insurance to private companies.

The Build Act allows for $60 billion in U.S. development financing around the world under the new agency, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. The IDFC merges existing programs, doubles the current agency's spending cap and has the authority to own equity stakes in projects, giving it more flexibility to choose and guide them.
Yet what development this scheme will fund was curiously absent from both the WSJ's article, and has been consistently absent from statements being made by Washington. While the article claims China has a "head start," the reality is that Washington has had a head start of about half a century in the realm of both primacy over Asia and in spurring development.

Comment: See also:


Star of David

As the tide turns, Israel is losing on two war fronts

Palestinian boy
© AP/Khalil HamraPalestinian boy in rubble of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station building hit by Israeli airstrikes November 13, 2018.
The botched Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on 12 November is delineating Tel Aviv's failure to utilise its army as a tool to achieve Palestinian political concessions.

Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.

Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel - long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - was quickly unravelling.

Comment: Sit on its heels or double down...what will Israel do? Pushed out of control, Israel could become really dangerous.


Clipboard

Trump turns in written responses to Mueller's Russia probe questions

Trump
© Reuters/Carlos BarriaPresident Donald Trump
A lawyer for Donald Trump has confirmed that the US President has submitted answers to the questions penned by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. The questions refer to the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Moscow.

"The president today answered written questions submitted by the special counsel's office," Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow said in a statement, as cited by AP.

The issues Trump covered in his responses are "the Russia-related topics of the inquiry," Sekulow said. Trump's legal team has indicated that the president would not answer any additional questions aside from potential follow-ups. Likewise, Trump is not expected to answer any questions that refer to allegations of obstruction of justice, with his lawyers insisting that the constitution protects the sitting President from answering questions on policies he conducted while in office.

Trump's personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani said Tuesday, that "much of what has been asked raised serious constitutional issues and was beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry," without elaborating.

Comment: Interpretation and context can askew any statement. Was this a wise move? Likely Mueller will aim for a verbal Q&A.


Question

America has constructed 800+ military bases worldwide, so why can't it build a border wall?

cartoonWall
© Dave Simonds'The bucks stop here!'
The US government has constructed at tremendous cost to its taxpayers some of the most impressive structures - both architectural and organizational - of all time. Yet somehow it has failed to build a viable wall on the Mexican border.

In 1931, during the Great Depression, the US government began construction of the Hoover Dam, one of the most ambitious civil engineering projects ever attempted. Employing thousands of US laborers, some 100 of whom reportedly lost their lives in the course of the project, the dam is mind-boggling due its sheer size, rivaling that of the pyramids.

At 726 feet tall, the wedge-shaped structure is 660 ft (200 m) thick at its base, narrowing to 45 ft (14 m) at the top, which provides enough room to accommodate a highway connecting Nevada and Arizona. The project required millions of cubic feet of concrete - said to be enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York - and tens of millions of pounds of steel.

Many decades later, the US government undertook another extensive project known as the US Embassy in Baghdad. Although rarely discussed in the US media, this 104-acre slice of American property in a foreign country is so immense that it rivals Vatican City in terms of size [the Vatican is an independent city-state, complete with its own euro-based currency and security detail, located inside of Rome].

Comment: And the challenge looms bigger each day that passes. The cost of troops and guard personnel will be ongoing from here on out, given reports of new migrations on the rise.


X

Saudi FM blasts 'CIA report' on Crown Prince's alleged involvement in Khashoggi killing

Mohammed bin Salman
© AP/Alastair GrantCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Last week The Washington Post reported, citing sources with knowledge of the case, that the CIA had named Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as the person who had given the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Both US President Donald Trump and the State Department stated that the final conclusions of the case are yet to be made.

In an interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat, an Arabic-language newspaper, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir dismissed the allegations that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had orchestrated the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as 'false'.

The foreign minister was cited as saying:
"We in the kingdom know that such allegations about the crown prince have no basis in truth and we categorically reject them, whether through leaks or not. There are leaks that have not been officially announced, and I have noticed that they are based on an assessment, not conclusive order."

Comment: The Khashoggi "process of 'elimination.'" What was easily offered was not the truth. What is the truth has remained unsaid.


Star of David

'Limited time' left on Earth: Israeli minister's threat to kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

Hamas group
© Reuters/Mohammed SalemThe son of senior Hamas militant Mazen Fuqaha sits on the shoulders of Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar during a memorial service for Fuqaha, in Gaza City March 27, 2017.
A senior cabinet minister has signaled that Israel is preparing to assassinate the leader of Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, testing a fragile ceasefire agreed last week.

Yoav Gallant, Israel's minister of construction and housing, has promised that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's "time is limited" and he "will not end his life in an old folks' home." The minister's threats did not end there, as he vowed that there would be another Israeli campaign in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas recently agreed to a ceasefire after several days of cross-border violence. The deal prompted the resignation of right-wing firebrand Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister.
Hamas TV station bombed
© Reuters/Suhaib SalemA Palestinian man looks at the remains of Hamas's TV station building that was destroyed by Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City November 13, 2018.

Comment: See also:


Laptop

Nunes wants declassification of emails that prove information withheld from FISA Court

Devin Nunes
© Getty ImagesHouse Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo yesterday that he wishes to see a "fourth bucket" of emails declassified, saying it would reveal evidence that the Department of Justice and FBI withheld information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

Nunes said the first of three "buckets" were Russia-related documents which President Trump - after calling for their release - had to backtrack on after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein intervened and suggested the Inspector General review them first.
"The new fourth bucket that we're asking to be declassified now is - for months we have been reviewing emails between FBI, and DOJ, and others that clearly show that they knew about information that should have been presented to the FISA court," he said. "So it is real evidence that people within the FBI withheld evidence from the FISA court."
Nunes said that even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) requested that the DOJ release the emails. "Even though we know what's in those emails a lot of them are redacted so they're still refusing to give Congress - even in a classified setting - this information," he said.


Comment: More from The Daily Caller News Foundation:
Republicans for months have pressed the Justice Department to turn over classified emails that show that the FBI "withheld evidence" from the federal court that authorized surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

California Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence panel, said in an interview on Fox News that Republicans have recently added the documents to a list of records that they hope President Donald Trump will declassify.

Republicans have already called on Trump to declassify three other categories of documents: portions of the fourth and final FISA application against Page, FBI interview notes used in the Page surveillance warrant, and FBI interview notes with Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who was a backchannel to dossier author Christopher Steele.

Trump has recently said that he is revisiting whether to declassify the documents. He said on Nov. 7 he is "very seriously" considering releasing the records.