Puppet MastersS


Attention

Both the US and Iran condemn Bahrain's imprisonment of Shi'ite opposition leader

Say No sign
© Mohammed Al-Shankh/AFP
The United States has voiced concern over Bahrain's sentencing of the head of the country's Shi'ite opposition movement to life in prison, a move which was also condemned by Iran.

"The United States is concerned by the verdict sentencing Ali Salman to life in prison," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said on November 8.

Washington will not seek to impose sanctions over the matter, he said, but it will continue to raise concerns when human rights issues arise in the Persian Gulf ally.

Bahrain, an island state across the gulf from Iran, is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

"The United States will continue to engage regularly with the government of Bahrain on a range of shared interests, including the importance of safeguarding fundamental freedoms and human rights," Palladino said.

Bahrain on November 4 sentenced Salman, who headed the now-banned Al-Wefaq movement, for allegedly spying on behalf of rival gulf state Qatar.

Comment: See also:


Windsock

President Trump and Michele Obama trade grudges: birthism versus state of the US military

MB&DT
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque; Global Look Press /Nancy KaszermanPresident Donald Trump • Former First Lady Michele Obama
Donald Trump and the Obamas locked horns over things they can't forgive each other for. For former First Lady, it's "loud and reckless" birther "innuendos," for the tycoon-turned-president, it's the poor state of the US military.

Michelle Obama recently attacked Donald Trump in her memoir, accusing the 45th President of giving birth to the "birther thing" that stirred up "the wingnuts and kooks." Trump, the former First Lady wrote, employed "loud and reckless innuendos," thus "putting my family's safety at risk."

"And for this I'd never forgive him," she argued.

Characteristically, Trump couldn't leave such an accusation unanswered. "She got paid a lot of money to write a book and they always expect a little controversy," Trump retorted on CNN on Saturday.

According to Trump, former President Obama is to blame for the poor state of the US military where "everything was old and tired." Keeping the controversy going, Trump added: "I'll never forgive [President Obama] for what he did to our US military. It was depleted, and I had to fix it."

As for Mrs. Obama's safety, Trump parried, "What he did to our military made this country very unsafe for you and you and you."

Michelle's memoir recently caused quite a stir among her supporters in the UK. Tickets to see her at the book's presentation were sold out within seconds - and offered for resale at up to £70,000 (over $90,000).

The former First Lady is set to appear in London on December 3rd as part of a 13-day tour that kicks off in Chicago on November 13th. Tickets for the tour's US dates were reasonably priced but sold out fast.

Comment: Nothing like the innuendo of 'bad publicity' banter to sell more books.


Network

South Korean sends 200 tons of tangerines in good will gesture following North's gift of fancy mushrooms

Tangerine
© Reuters / Mariana BazoFILE PHOTO
Seoul has returned the favor after receiving a gift of pine mushrooms from Pyongyang, sending 20,000 boxes of rare tangerines north in the biggest cross-border shipment of goods in almost a decade.

North Koreans will soon have an opportunity to enjoy the taste of tangerines as four cargo planes took off from South Korea on Sunday. The fruit was chosen as a gift because it is not a common delicacy in the North.

"Tangerines were chosen because they are in season at the moment, and it is a kind of fruit that is rare in North Korea," presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said, as quoted by Yonhap.

The 200-ton present was sent in response to Kim Jong-un's gesture of good will after the third high-level summit between the leadership of South and North Korea. Back then, Kim gifted some two tons of expensive pine mushrooms to the South. However, the gift had only recently been declared clear of radiation and safe to eat.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Wags the Iran Riot Dog, Kim Talks Korean Peace


Bad Guys

US coalition to 'investigate' reports they've killed Syrian civilians, used white phosphorus

US military Iraq Syria Middle East
© AFP 2018 / DELIL SOULEIMAN
US-led coalition air strikes against Daesh* militants in Hajin, Syria had also claimed the lives of at least 26 local civilians, including 14 children, AFP reported Friday.

According to the coalition, the reports of the deaths of the civilians due to the airstrikes in Hajin are under investigation.

"We've heard claims of strikes in Hajin reportedly killing civilians. As part of the stringent planning process in identifying ISIS [Daesh] targets, we take extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and take all instances of civilian casualties seriously. This incident is currently under investigation," the coalition's spokesperson said.

Stop

Election fraud expert: Brenda Snipes let illegal aliens and felons vote; illegally destroyed ballots

brenda Snipes
© Mario Tama/Getty ImagesBrenda Snipes
Three statewide races in Florida are headed to a recount and all depend on results from a county whose supervisor of elections has a history of losing ballots and breaking laws by allowing illegal immigrants and felons to vote, as well as illegally destroying ballots.

Broward County supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes' office has admitted "they don't know" how many ballots there are still to count.

Snipes' latest failure to finalize Tuesday's election returns days after the polls closed is also in violation of Florida law, which requires elections officials to
"report all early voting and all tabulated vote-by-mail results to the Department of State within 30 minutes after the polls close. Thereafter, the canvassing board shall report, with the exception of provisional ballot results, updated precinct election results to the department at least every 45 minutes until all results are completely reported."

Comment: It should surprise no one that nothing was done. Broward County's sheriff is none other than the monumentally incompetent, corrupt Scott Israel. His greatest disgrace is the bungled handling of the Parkland High School mass shooting.


Clipboard

Gillum withdraws concession to DeSantis as Florida orders recount of Senate & governor races

rick scott bill nelson florida
© Reuters / Carlos Barria; Agence France-Presse / Jeff J MitchellFlorida Governor, Rick Scott (L) Senator Bill Nelson (R)
Florida is officially holding a recount of votes in its Senate and governor races, where Republicans Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis have led over their Democratic rivals, Bill Nelson and Andrew Gillum, both by a small margin.

With the results of both races falling within the margin of triggering a recount, Florida secretary of state Ken Detzner ordered just that on Saturday.

Comment: Broward County is infamous for its tainted elections, going right back to GW Bush's "hanging chad" fiasco. A small sample:


MIB

SOTT Focus: We want to believe: 'Russian hacking' memo shows US intel pinning leaks to Kremlin was an exercise in wishful thinking

mulder scully X-files
© Getty Images / FOX / ContributorIf you ever thought the endless search for “Russian hackers” sounded very X-Files, that's because both used variations of the motto “I want to believe.”
A newly-out memo containing the Obama admin's talking points about "Russian hacking" in the 2016 election reveals how US spy agencies attributed email leaks to Kremlin by saying it's "consistent" with what they think Russia does.

The seven-page document was contained within the 49 pages published on Friday by BuzzFeed, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiry from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in late October. At the root of it is a November 29 letter by several Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, asking then-President Barack Obama to declassify documents concerning "Russian Active Measures."

Comment: Very important point in that last paragraph. It wasn't the supposedly hacked and leaked DNC emails that "delegitimized" the Trump presidency, but the Washington establishment that accused Russia of hacking and leaking the emails that led to the smearing of Trump as a 'Russian agent'. It can logically be assumed that, in claiming that Russia was behind the leaked emails, it was the INTENT of the Washington establishment to delegitimize the Trump presidency.


Snakes in Suits

Democratic lawyers object to 'non-citizen' Florida ballot being thrown out

gillum
If there's one overriding lesson to be learned from the ballot-counting debacle in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, it's that, if you're trying to ensure an accurate vote count in Florida, then you're a racist.

That theme, which Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz learned this lesson the hard way when a liberal group employed the r-word in response to Gaetz's attempts to figure out exactly what is going on in Broward County.

And soon, trying to exclude votes cast by non-citizens could be construed as racist, because, in a shocking report culled directly from an unofficial transcript from the review of provisional ballots in Broward County, lawyers for Democratic candidates Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson - who narrowly lost their bids for governor and senator, respectively - can be heard trying to stop a ballot cast by a non-citizen from being excluded from the official count. The ballot review was held earlier this week, before Florida's Secretary of State ordered the recount on Saturday.

Briefcase

Florida judge orders voter records inspection, siding with Republican candidates as recount looms

Bill Nelson and Rick Scott Senate race dispute
© Reuters / Karl KolczynskiWhile Scott looked to have won his Senate race by a secure margin on Tuesday night, late-counted ballots have cast doubt on his victory, leaving him within 0.25 percent of his opponent, Democrat Bill Nelson – which would trigger an automatic recount.
A Florida judge ruled the Broward County elections supervisor must allow inspection of voter records in response to a lawsuit from outgoing Governor Rick Scott, whose Senate victory is now in jeopardy thanks to late-counted votes.

Judge Carol-Lisa Phillip ruled that Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes must allow the records to be inspected before 7 pm local time on Friday and determined she had violated public records law by failing to release the information to Scott's attorneys.

Scott filed suit in Broward and Palm Beach counties on Thursday. The first lawsuit, which he filed jointly with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, alleges Snipes was "unwilling to disclose records revealing how many electors voted, how many ballots have been canvassed, and how many ballots remain to be canvassed."

At the same time, Scott ordered Florida law enforcement to investigate the elections offices in both counties, though he stopped short of alleging criminality or fraud in writing. Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesperson Gretl Plessinger told CNN that the agency is not "actively investigating anything related to the election."

Comment: RT reports that Broward County election supervisor Brenda Snipes has complied with the 7pm deadline to submit the requested voter information while Palm Beach County's Susan Busher has filed for a motion for an emergency hearing to extend the deadline. Chris Hartman, spokesman for the Scott campaign, has accused Busher of disrespecting the court and state law in general:
"Susan Buchar has consistently refused to follow state law and comply with legally required deadlines and regulations. Whether it's gross incompetence or intentional disregard for the rule of law is irrelevant at this point. Either way, it's embarrassing and unacceptable."



2 + 2 = 4

SOTT Focus: Globalism Vs Nationalism in Trump's America

trump globalists media
Billed as a 'referendum on Trump's presidency', the US Midterm Elections drew an unusually high number of Americans to the polls yesterday. The minor loss, from Trump's perspective, of majority Republican control of the lower House of Representatives, suggests, if anything, the opposite of what the media and establishment want you to believe it means.

An important clue to why the American media has declared permanent open season on this man transpired during a sometimes heated post-elections press conference at the White House yesterday. First, CNN's obnoxious Jim Acosta insisted on bringing up the patently absurd allegations of 'Russia collusion' and refused to shut up and sit down. Soon after, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor joined her colleagues in asking Trump another loaded question, this time on the 'white nationalism' canard:

Alcindor: On the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists...

Trump: I don't know why you'd say this. It's such a racist question.

Alcindor: There are some people who say that now the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you make of that?

Trump: Why do I have among the highest poll numbers with African Americans? That's such a racist question. I love our country. You have nationalists, and you have globalists. I also love the world, and I don't mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. We have a lot of problems...