Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Under the fog of Kavanaugh, house passes $3.8 trillion more in tax cuts

Glenn Fleishman
Fortune
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:01 UTC
Brett Kavanaugh
© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
With attention fixed on the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new $3.1 trillion tax cut on Friday. The vote was 220 to 191, including three Democrats.

The down-to-the-wire 2017 tax act passed in late December contained a mix of permanent and temporary changes that had to result in a net increased cost that fell within a structural limit of $1.5 trillion that allowed the Senate to approve the bill with a simple majority.

The House's new bill takes effect starting in 2025, and would add $600 billion to the national debt within the next decade, and then $3.2 trillion in the 10 years after that, according to Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center.

Comment: The Kavanaugh circus was bound to be a distraction for something. Wonder if anyone will notice...

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Briefcase

Palestine suing US in International Court of Justice - wants Jerusalem embassy closed


RT
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 15:11 UTC
ICC international court
© Piroschka van de Wouw / Reuters / FileThe International Court of Justice
The Palestinian authority has asked the International Court of Justice to compel the US to shut down its embassy in Jerusalem, because it violates the Vienna convention, which says an embassy must be located in a host country.

The Palestinian government submitted its application to launch proceedings against the US on Friday. The 14-page complaint, released by the UN's principal judicial body, alleges that the US, as a party of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, has flouted its obligation by setting up an embassy outside the territory of the host state, Israel.

Comment: There may be some publicity value in the Palestinian nation's suit, but the ICC will remain a corrupt, toothless body, so long as it is simply a club to be used on any nation the West targets.

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Star of David

Palestinian Aziz Abu withdraws from Jerusalem mayoral race after Israel threatens review of his residency status

Jaclynn Ashly
Mondoweiss
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:39 UTC
Aziz Abu Sarah
© Jaclynn AshleyAziz Abu Sarah in Jerusalem.
After announcing his daring campaign to become the first Palestinian to contend for the seat of mayor in Israel's municipal elections in Jerusalem scheduled on October 30, Aziz Abu Sarah, 38, announced on Tuesday that he has been forced into withdrawing due to mounting pressures put on his campaign from Israel and Palestinian political factions.

"It seems that entrenched political interest groups on both sides [Israel and the Palestinian political factions] hope to maintain the status quo, and will stop at nothing to prevent forward progress," Abu Sarah said in a Facebook post.

"After seeking advice from friends and legal counsel, we have therefore made a difficult decision: to withdraw from both the mayoral and city council races," he wrote.
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Arrow Up

Iraqi trade with Russia surged to 1.4bln over past 2 years - Iraqi Ambassador to Russia


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 05:39 UTC
Iraqi trade with Russia surges
© Wikipedia / User Kalan
The bilateral trade between Iraq and Russia has grown by 52 percent to $1.4 billion a year over the past 24 months, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi told Sputnik.

"Our relations with Russia are very good, both old and current [relations], they continue. Russian-Iraqi trade has increased by 52 percent from $900 million to $1.4 billion over the past two years," Hadi said on Friday.

The ambassador noted that Moscow and Baghdad would continue their joint work on increasing trade and cooperation in various areas, including energy.

There were Russian companies trying to enter the Iraqi market, Hadi noted, adding that the embassy in Russia would try to support them. Good Iraqi-US relations did not hamper Baghdad's cooperation with other states in various areas, including military cooperation, Hadi pointed out.
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Chess

Federal judge rules Democrats can sue President Trump for 'emoluments' over DC hotel


RT
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 08:42 UTC
Protesters outside Trump's International Hotel
© Leah Mills/ReutersProtesters outside the Trump International Hotel during the "March for Our Lives" event, March 2018.
The 200 congressional Democrats have standing to sue US President Donald Trump over what they say are violations of the US Constitution's Emoluments Clause, a federal judge in Washington, DC has ruled.

At the heart of the dispute is a broadly defined prohibition from Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution on accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

Democrats have argued that foreign governments doing any business whatsoever with the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC constitutes prohibited "emoluments," for which the president would have to ask permission from Congress

Led by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), the opposition lawmakers filed the lawsuit in June of 2017. The Department of Justice filed a request for it to be dismissed. But, on Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the plaintiffs have standing to proceed.
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Nuke

Best of the Web: As Barmy Bibi (again) points finger at Iran in UN speech, RT reports on Israel's 'nuclear research'


RT
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:34 UTC
Benjamin Netanyahu
© Carlo Allegri / ReutersPrime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu
During his UN General Assembly (UNGA) speech, the Israeli PM was adamant that Tehran has secret nuclear sites. As Israel keeps playing the blame game, let's see if they have their own radioactive skeletons in the closet.

Using his cherished 'presentations,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out with his new revelations on Thursday, showing aerial photographs of Iranian sites allegedly holding nuclear-related material. It did not take long for Tehran to fire back, saying Tel-Aviv is better to look at its own "undeclared nuclear weapons program."

While Israel has never admitted - notably, not denied as well - to possess military nukes, RT's Murad Gazdiev looks at whether Tel Aviv may really be not the right country to point its fingers at others.
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Chess

Erdogan blasts US for 'not keeping promises' over Manbij roadmap


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:04 UTC
US Army Syria
© AP Photo / Hussein Malla
Turkish President accused the United States on Friday of failing to fulfill promises to withdraw the self-defense forces of the Syrian Kurds from Syria's Manbij.

"The US has not fulfilled the roadmap and calendar for Manbij. YPG has not left this region. The US did not keep its promises," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Erdogan also accused the US of strengthening its military presence in northern Syria "together with the terrorist organization," adding that Turkey was taking retaliatory measures in Idlib.
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Nuke

Iranian, US officials push back on Netanyahu's bogus claims of new nuke warehouse


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:13 UTC
Benjamin Netanyahu
© REUTERS / Carlo AllegriIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that Israel uncovered a secret warehouse in Tehran holding nuclear weapon-related materials.

The prime minister called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations group, to immediately inspect the location. A US State Department official has also called on the IAEA to investigate Netanyahu's claim, according to Reuters. Not everyone, however, is buying it. The atomic inspection agency has repeatedly said Iran is in compliance with its nuclear obligations - still in effect with France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia - as recently as this summer.

Israel itself is exempt from inspections by the IAEA because it is one of four UN members to have never accepted the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has also successfully defeated UN resolutions to bring it into compliance with the treaty.
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Bad Guys

US-delisted MEK terrorists still openly committed to violence

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:04 UTC
Bolton MEK
In 2012, the US State Department would delist anti-Iranian terrorist group - Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) - from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Yet years later, MEK has demonstrated an eager desire to carry out political violence on a scale that eclipses the previous atrocities that had it designated a terrorist organization in the first place.

In the US State Department's official statement published in September 2012, the rationale for delisting MEK would be as follows (emphasis added):
With today's actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK's past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992. The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.

The Secretary's decision today took into account the MEK's public renunciation of violence, the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, their historic paramilitary base.
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Bad Guys

State Department 'ready for talks' with Taliban & Kabul


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:04 UTC
taliban
© REUTERS/Stringer
The United States is ready to engage in negotiations with both the Afghan government and the Taliban in order to help Afghanistan find a peaceful settlement, Alice Wells, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Region, said on Friday.

In July, US media reported American officials held first-ever direct talks with representatives of Taliban in Qatar.
"The US administration is prepared to engage and participate in negotiations with both Taliban and the Afghan government. It is imperative that the Taliban and the Afghan government work together towards a peace solution. No political settlement can be negotiated over the heads of the Afghan people, and no political settlement can be negotiated only between certain elements," Wells added.
In August, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the time for peace in Afghanistan has come and Washington was ready to facilitate dialogue between the parties to the conflict.

Afghanistan has long been in a state of turmoil, with the government fighting the Daesh terror group, outlawed in Russia, and the Taliban insurgency. In August, the Taliban rejected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's offer for a three-month ceasefire.

Comment: Attempts at peace talks with the Russians, with the Americans, with Kabul, with the Taliban...have so far been futile. Without an actual pullout of foreign troops, the call to sit down at the table may again be rejected - no matter what Pompeo says. And, now there is ISIS.

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