Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Trump lawyers make solid case for freeing Julian Assange in legal filing

Cassandra Fairbanks
The Gateway Pundit
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 23:13 UTC
Assange silenced
Assange’s health is deteriorated after five years and a half, said foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
President Donald Trump's attorneys made a solid case for preemptively pardoning Julian Assange in a motion to dismiss a WikiLeaks-related lawsuit against the Trump campaign.

While preemptive pardons are rare - they are not unheard of.

The motion, filed on December 29, was in response to a lawsuit by two Democratic Party donors who allege that the Trump campaign and former adviser Roger Stone conspired with Russians to publish the leaked Democratic National Committee emails. The outlandish lawsuit, based largely on conspiracy theories, was orchestrated by a group called Protect Democracy - which happens to be run by former attorneys from the Obama administration.

In defense of the Trump campaign, the 32-page filing by Michael A. Carvin argues that the publishing of the DNC leak passes both aspects of the Bartnicki First Amendment Test.

Comment: WikiLeaks issues (another) firm denial to head of Podesta think tank - Russia not source of leaked emails

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Binoculars

Chairman of Russia's biggest bank sees geopolitical catastrophe if West ramps sanctions up further

Gilbert Doctorow
Russia Insider
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Herman Gref
"The result would be a confrontation that would 'make the Cold War look like child's play'."

In this holiday vacation period between Christmas and New Year's, a time when we tend to put the cares of daily life aside, the Financial Times has published an interview with Herman Gref, chairman of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, that contains a clear warning of dire developments in the New Year should the United States push its economic sanctions to the limit, as may well occur given other very troubling items in the news with respect to Ukraine. See https://www.ft.com/content/9c25c852-e400-11e7-97e2-916d4fbac0da

It bears mentioning that Herman Gref is a highly intelligent, capable and widely respected Russian statesman and business leader. He is a key exponent of Liberal economics and democratization of state governance within Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Gref is by nature reserved, not at all an alarmist.

The detonator of dire developments to which he alluded is the threat by some politicians on Capitol Hill to extend the economic sanctions against Russia to a cut-off of access to SWIFT, which is a vital component of the global infrastructure for interbank settlements. This threat has been in the air ever since the initial imposition of sanctions on Russia in 2014 following its annexation of the Crimea and intervention in the Ukrainian insurgency of Donbas.


Comment: The author should know better than to use the term 'annexation' above. Crimea democratically voted to re-join the Russian Federation.

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Laptop

WikiLeaks issues (another) firm denial to head of Podesta think tank - Russia not source of leaked emails

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 22:46 UTC
assange wikileaks logo
Wikileaks has once again denied that Russia was their source of leaked emails published during the 2016 election. In a Monday reply to Neera Tanden, former Hillary Clinton advisor and President of the Center for American Progress - a liberal think tank founded by John Podesta, the WikiLeaks Task Force tweeted "2. Russia was not @wikileaks source. Deal with it."



While Julian Assange has previously denied Russia as their source, this is the first explicit admission by the organization in print regarding Kremlin involvement in leaked emails published during the 2016 US presidential election.

Comment:

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Russian Flag

Best of the Web: Stephen Cohen: Why Russians think America is waging war against them

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 22:50 UTC
stephen cohen
Russiagaters allege, with no evidence, that "Russia attacked America" in 2016, but many Russians believe-with reasonable cause-that the US has been attacking their country for 25 years.

Professor Emeritus of Politics and Russian Studies (at Princeton and NYU) Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.)

Cohen's subject is both contemporary and historical. The most central, ramifying, and dangerous allegation of Russiagate is that "Russian attacked American democracy" during the 2016 presidential election. After 18 months, there is still no credible evidence for this allegation. On the other hand, many Russians - in the policy elite, the educated middle class, and ordinary citizens - believe that "the United States has been at war with Russia" for 25 years, a perception regularly expressed in the Russian media. They believe this for understandable reasons.

American commentators attribute such views to "Kremlin propaganda." It is true, Cohen points out, that Russians, like Americans, are strongly influenced by what appears in the media, especially on television, and that Russian television news reporting and commentary are no less politicized than their US counterparts. But elite and middle-class Russians are no less informed and critical-minded than American ones. Indeed, they have more access to daily American news and opinions - from cable and satellite TV, US-funded Russian-language broadcasts and Internet sites, and from Russian sites, such as inosmi.ru, that translate scores of American media articles into Russian daily - than most Americans have to Russian media. (The recent censoring steps taken by the Department of Justice against RT and Sputnik might be viewed in this context.) Generally, Cohen argues, many more Russians are much better informed about Washington politics than Americans are about Moscow politics.

Comment: Cohen is one of the sole voices of reason in American political commentary.

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Piggy Bank

Pointless socialite brat who's running as Russian presidential candidate mocks and dances drunk in front of church on New Year's

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 12:47 UTC
Liberal ‘opposition’ heroine Ksenia Sobchak
Liberal 'opposition' heroine Ksenia Sobchak channels Pussy Riot and shows her true colors at the entrance to an Orthodox Church, posted on Instagram

It would seem that at least one Russian presidential candidate is a bit more daring than a candidate elsewhere might be.

Or, should we replace the word 'daring' with 'thoughtless'? How about just stupid?

At any rate, this video shows Candidate Ksenia Sobchak dancing, apparently drunk, in front of an Orthodox Church with two men, accompanying the video with the description, "About last night, or Pussy Riot is no longer what they used to be."


Comment: Watch Putin school Sobchak when she recently addressed him at his annual marathon Q&A session:
Socialite Ksenia Sobchak - a presidential hopeful for the 2018 election - has the microphone. "This is the only opportunity I have to ask you a question," she says. "You do not participate in debates." Putin: "I said the opposition needs positive proposals - what are you offering?" "The people you mentioned [Navalny] are the Russian versions of Mikhail Saakashvili... Do you want Russia moving from one Maidan-style situation to another?" Putin says, referring to the events in Ukraine. "Most Russians don't want that."



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Dollar

Trump dossier "ex"-spy Chris Steele doubled his profits last year


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 22:25 UTC
Christopher Steele
© PA Archive/PA Images
The notorious document was first published a year ago. Media reports claim that the Hillary Clinton campaign was involved in the funding of the research into Trump's alleged ties with Russia.

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent behind the salacious dossier on US President Donald Trump, earned nearly $600,000, the Daily Mail reported.

According to the report, accounts for Steele's company Orbis Business International disclose that he and his business partner Christopher Burrows shared £868,000 (nearly $1.2 million) in dividend payouts over two years.

They each own 50 percent of the company, which means they received £434,000 ($590,000) each.

In addition, Steele and Burrows also run another company Orbis Intelligence Limited, which more than doubled its profits last year and paid dividends to Orbis Business International, which in turn paid the money to the owners, according to the Daily Mail.

Comment: Chris Steele may be wealthy, but he'll only be remembered as that guy who made a killing off of tabloid-level garbage and who conned almost the entire U.S. establishment into starting a tremendously expensive witch hunt, thus exposing said establishment for being the mushy-brained hacks they truly are.

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Bad Guys

Iranian protests signify deep state's unfinished business

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Deepstate
© usdefensewatch.com
Protests have been reported across several cities in Iran over the last several days of December 2017. Protesters allegedly decry Iran's economy as well as the nation's involvement in nearby Syria.

The Western media has attempted to cultivate two narratives - one focused on portraying the protests as widespread, spontaneous, and having focused first on "economic grievances" before becoming political - another narrative openly admitting to US involvement and praising US President Donald Trump for "standing up" to the "Iranian regime."

Of course, neither narrative is even remotely grounded in reality.

US Meddling in Iran Stretches Back Decades

US regime-change operations targeting Iran stretch back decades and have continued within a singular geopolitical strategy, regardless of who has occupied the White House, including under the more recent US administrations of George Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump.

While pro-war circles in the US claim the 1979 Iranian Revolution was an instance of Iran drawing first blood, the revolution was in fact a direct response to then already decades of US meddling in Iran stretching back as early as 1953 with the US Central Intelligence Agency's Operation AJAX.

Comment: See also:

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Telephone

N. Korea calls S. Korea on cross-border hotline, first contact in two years


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 04:46 UTC
Communications hotline
© ReutersS. Korean official at direct communications hotline with N. Korea.
North Korea was first to use a border hotline with the South which resumed operation after an exchange of messages between Pyongyang and Seoul. Officials reportedly spoke for 20 minutes to make sure that the line works.

South and North Korea made their first contact at the border village of Panmunjom via a communication channel which Pyongyang ordered brought back online earlier on Wednesday, Yonhap reported. South Korea's unification ministry said that "A North Korean official first contacted the South side via the channel."

Future discussions will focus on sending North Korean athletes to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics which will kick off in South Korea next month, according to the statement issued by an unnamed Northern official.

The North will open dialogue at 7:00am GMT (3:00 pm Pyongyang time) at the shared border village of Panmunjom, the statement said as cited by Yonhap.

Kim Jong-un had said he was open to talks with Seoul in his New Year address, saying the two Koreas should "lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment. "Kim added that efforts should be made by "both the North and the South."

Comment: More attempts at communication, without the US, may begin to pave the way to an improved relationship for NK/SK and a change in international dynamics.

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Footprints

China amassing troops, tanks to N. Korea border 'prep for war'

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Chinese military transport
© Daily NKChinese military heading north to the North Korea border.
A dramatic influx of Chinese tanks, soldiers, and military trucks has been reported in the Chinese border province of Jilin, which shares a border with North Korea, according to reports from the Daily NK.

The reports indicate that China's People Liberation Army (PLA) forces have been building up military assets around the Tumen River in Yanji city, Jilin province. "There were so many soldiers in the car that there was a lot of traffic. I have not seen so many soldiers trucking to Yanji so far," a source told the Daily NK.

Another source said, "Chinese troops are gathering around the Yalu and Tumen rivers. It is also heard that the tanks are moving to the North and the Chinese border."

Comment: See also: South Korean media: 'China has deployed 150,000 troops to North Korea border'

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Chart Pie

Nix the single market! Britain could join despised TPP instead


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 13:31 UTC
TPPprotest signs
© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Britain could join the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to kick-start exports after Brexit. If the unusual move goes ahead, the UK would be the first member without borders on the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea.

The proposal is being developed by Liam Fox's Department for International Trade. The group lost the United States, its largest member, when President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement last year. The 11 remaining members, which include Japan, Canada and Australia, agreed in November to continue with a successor deal.

Trade minister Greg Hands told the Financial Times there is no geographical restriction on Britain joining trade groups. "Nothing is excluded in all of this," he said. "With these kind of plurilateral relationships, there doesn't have to be any geographical restriction."


Comment: The 'special interests' TPP is no 'silk road'.

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