Puppet MastersS


Black Cat

Setup: Cohen plea deal is another Mueller attempt to trap Trump

Mark Penn
Te Hill
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 15:11 UTC
Meuller cohen trump
© Getty/Alex Wong/AP/Andrew Harnik/Evan VucciRobert Mueller; Michael Cohen; Donald Trump
Here we go, from Russia with love, to campaign finance with love.

Why was Michael Cohen investigated? Because the "Steele dossier" had him making secret trips to meet with Russians that never happened, so his business dealings got a thorough scrubbing and, in the process, he fell into the Paul Manafort bin reserved by the special counsel for squeezing until the juice comes out. We are back to 1998 all over again, with presidents and candidates covering up their alleged marital misdeeds and prosecutors trying to turn legal acts into illegal ones by inventing new crimes.

The plot to get President Trump out of office thickens, as Cohen obviously was his own mini crime syndicate and decided that his betrayals meant he would be better served turning on his old boss to cut the best deal with prosecutors he could rather than holding out and getting the full Manafort treatment. That was clear the minute he hired attorney Lanny Davis, who does not try cases and did past work for Hillary Clinton. Cohen had recorded his client, trying to entrap him, sold information about Trump to corporations for millions of dollars while acting as his lawyer, and did not pay taxes on millions.

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Chess

Philippines continues pivot to Russia with port visit, submarine talks

Carmela Fonbuena
Rappler
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 14:52 UTC
duterte Putin
© The MalacañangAllies: President Rodrigo Duterte meets with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 24, 2017.
The Philippine Navy may have its first submarine by 2023 - if the timeline of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana pushes through

The Philippine Navy plans to make a port call in Russia this year, the latest sign that President Rodrigo Duterte's push to warm ties with Moscow is serious.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the country is also looking at finalizing within the next 12 months talks to acquire 2 submarines from Russia. This is on top of an ongoing negotiation for grenade launchers, the first military acquisition from Russia should it push through.

"Gantihan. Nag-visit din sila sa atin ilang beses na. (We are returning the gesture. They've visited the country several times)," Lorenzana told the Defense Press Corps on Thursday, August 9.

The Philippine ships will be docking at Vladivostok, the nearest Russian port from the Philippines which is located west of Japan, according to the defense chief.

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Megaphone

Law professor on Cohen deal: 'Everyone breaks election laws, it's like jaywalking'


Source
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:45 UTC
protestors white house
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz has sought to dampen excitement over a plea deal taken by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying that "every candidate" violates election laws when they run for president.

Speaking on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show on Tuesday, Dershowitz said that breaking campaign finance laws - which Cohen recently admitted to doing "at the direction" of Trump - is regarded as being similar to "jaywalking" in the world of political campaigns.

Dershowitz said that "every candidate violates the election laws when they run for president" and usually the violations end up with the candidate paying a fine before it all goes away.
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Bizarro Earth

South Africa rejects Trump tweet on land seizures & 'killing of farmers, says he's 'misinformed'


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:26 UTC
A farm in northern province of Limpopo
© Siphiwe Sibeko / ReutersA farm in northern province of Limpopo
The South African government has slammed US President Donald Trump's "narrow perception" over land seizures in the country after he ordered US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study the situation.

"South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past," the government tweeted, tagging the US leader.

Comment: Is South Africa the next to be put on America's sanctions list?

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Bizarro Earth

Is South Africa the next to be put on America's sanctions list?

Adam Garrie
Euraisa Future
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:56 UTC
South African farmers
© Sputnik
South Africa is currently the 39th largest trading partner of the United States while Pretoria runs a comparatively small trade surplus of $2.2 billion with the US. Donald Trump has already put substantial tariffs and/or sanctions on far larger trading partners of the US. With the full scale trade war with China continuing to escalate, with the US now threatening at 25% tariff on all cars manufactured in the European Union, with Canada and Mexico still trying to save NAFTA, with full-scale Iran sanctions set be in force in November and with looming further tariff and sanction threats against NATO ally Turkey on the horizon, the Trump administration is already playing rough with trading partners that are far more significant to the US than South Africa.

But what has South Africa done to directly upset the United States? The short answer is that this seemingly obvious question is the wrong one. It remains clear that the current administration in Washington does not require any sound reason to implement tariffs and sanctions as its use of sanctions is not "corrective" in the traditional sense nor are the use of tariffs about redressing minor trade imbalances. Instead, both tariffs and sanctions are used by the Trump administration as a tool to help and strengthen the internal US position by forcing developing nations into an inflationary debt spiral at a time when the US Dollar goes from strength to strength. A full report on this particular phenomenon can be read.

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Alarm Clock

Federal prosecutors derail re-election bids of two prominent Trump supporters - candidates say timing of charges 'dirty tricks'


RT
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 13:32 UTC
voter polling station election
© Fred Prouser / Reuters
In at least two congressional districts at opposite ends of the US, federal indictments of Trump-supporting lawmakers may play a key role in handing over their solid Republican constituencies to Democrat challengers.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, representing California's 50th district, and his wife Margaret were charged on Tuesday with 60 counts of misusing about $250,000 in campaign funds for personal purchases, and with filing false reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

California has a "jungle primary" system, in which the top two candidates proceed to the general election regardless of their party affiliation. As the primaries took place on June 5, there is no mechanism to replace Hunter on the ballot, which means his Democrat challenger, Ammar Campa-Najjar, will basically run uncontested despite winning less than 18 percent of the primary vote.
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UFO

Elvis, UFOs & Big Foot are (probably) attempting to hack the US political system, too


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 11:49 UTC
Elvis montage
© Ethan Miller / Getty Images
It seems everyone wants a piece of the US democratic action these days. Yet little do these meddling outsiders know, the system was already 'hacked' many years ago by the Americans themselves.

In Hans Christian Andersen's famous fable, The Emperor's New Clothes, two enterprising tailors promise the emperor a new suit of clothes that they say will be invisible only to those who are stupid or incompetent. In reality, the weavers produce no clothes at all. Terrified at the thought of being betrayed as fools, not a single soul in the king's court dared say aloud what their eyes could plainly see - until one boy merrily pointed to his highness' exposed assets.

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Lucy Komisar: I've Been Browder's Number One Journalist Critic for Two Decades. What President Trump Should Know About Handling Him

Lucy Komisar
The Komisar Scoop
Fri, 20 Jul 2018 12:51 UTC
Browder deposition
Sleazy US oligarch William Browder admits in U.S. Federal Court deposition that Sergei Magnitsky didn't go to law school or have law degree, which means he lied to President Trump.
Dear President Trump,

William Browder sent you a letter before your meeting with President Putin, and I'd like to offer you a perspective about Mr. Browder that you probably aren't getting elsewhere. I am copying the form of his letter, but substituting Browder where he wrote Putin, and including facts you and the public probably don't know. Though there are indications your State Department does know.

As a journalist, I've have been investigating Mr. Browder for nearly two decades. I'm probably his number one enemy journalist. He had me banned from a public talk December 2016 at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton where he feared I would ask him about his corruption.

As he said with some irony about President Putin, Mr. Browder is a bald-faced liar. Whatever he tells you, it's not true.

Comment: As with all psychopaths, Browder accuses Putin of what he himself is guilty of. Ms. Komisar turned the tables. The result is a most useful guideline for handling the dangerous, slippery Mr. Browder.

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Snakes in Suits

NATO claims its military buildup is 'justified' since it deters 'scary Russia'


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 11:53 UTC
NATO Silver Arrow 2017 drills
© Ints Kalnins / ReutersPolish Army PT-91 tanks during NATO Silver Arrow 2017 drills in Latvia
NATO claims its military buildup in Eastern Europe is justified as it deters Russia's superior might. Yet, any Russian activity is overshadowed by the US-led bloc's huge border drills, supposedly held to 'counter' Moscow's moves.

"NATO's actions are defensive, proportionate and fully in line with our international commitments," the alliance's spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told Reuters, commenting on NATO military activities. She further added that the troops deployed by the Alliance to Eastern Europe "cannot compare to the divisions deployed by Russia" on its western borders.


Comment: Oana also hallucinated that Russia had 'thousands' of invisible troops stationed in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova:
"NATO has deployed 4,000 troops to the eastern part of the Alliance - to deter any possible aggression," spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told Reuters. "These troops cannot compare to the divisions deployed by Russia. In contrast, Russia has troops in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova against the wishes of their governments."



The rant was provoked by the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rebuked NATO for building up its military infrastructure right on Russia's doorstep. "We do not deploy our military contingents away from our borders and close to the NATO states, it is the NATO infrastructure that advances to our own borders," Putin told journalists in Sochi.

Comment: Also see:

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Bullseye

Kadyrov: Poroshenko must shoulder blame for Putin's increasing support in Ukraine


RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 11:51 UTC
Participants of the protest against the current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko near the Presidential Administration in Kiev
© SputnikParticipants of the protest against the current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko near the Presidential Administration in Kiev
The fact more politicians in Ukraine are now backing Vladimir Putin's position must be blamed on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's cowardly tactics of fighting imaginary threats, according to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"The president of Ukraine has formed an imagined adversary for himself and this adversary is Russia. However, he cannot nobly and decently oppose such an "enemy" and there are two reasons for this," Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram messenger-blog on Wednesday.

Comment: No. 1 supporter: Kadyrov calls Putin a 'superhero' who should rule Russia for life

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