Puppet MastersS


Take 2

Bowing out of Syria: The White Helmets' final performance

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
White Helmets filmed
© Global Research'Lights'...'Camera'...'Action!' The staging of a rescue.
It is commonly known that when a ship is sinking, the crew does not board the lifeboats before the passengers. Most noble of all is when the captain and crew go down with the ship. Then with what level of ignobility should we assess the so-called "Syrian Civil Defense" more commonly referred to as the White Helmets?

We are told that Syrian forces backed by Russian airpower are brutalizing the remnants of "rebels" in southern Syria near the Jordanian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Surely now more than ever do the people of southern Syria need the "bravest of the brave" - as UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt described them on social media.

Yet instead of rushing to where the cannons sound loudest, the White Helmets slunk across Syria's borders with the aid of the Israeli Defense Forces, onward to Jordan, where the UN is working to relocate them - allegedly to Europe and North America.

It is a final act laying to rest once and for all a monumental lie - that the White Helmets were anything more than an extension of the foreign-funded proxy war aimed at overthrowing Damascus. And now that overthrowing Damascus is no longer a possibility, the White Helmets are being evacuated to lie another day.

Comment: Another day, another war -- 'White Helmets', the sequel.
See also:

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Dollars

IMF predicts Venezuela on brink of 1,000,000% hyperinflation


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 09:29 UTC
Venezuela cash
© Carlos Garcia Rawlins/ReutersBolivar notes: Not worth the paper it's printed on.
Venezuela is facing one of the worst hyperinflationary crises in modern history, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It expects the country's economy to contract by 18 percent this year amid falling oil production - the third consecutive year of double-digit declines, and three points worse than projected in May.

"We are projecting a surge in inflation to 1,000,000 percent by end-2018 to signal that the situation in Venezuela is similar to that in Germany in 1923 or Zimbabwe in the late 2000s," said Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department.

He also pointed to "economic distortions," including printing money to finance the government. "We expect the government to continue to run wide fiscal deficits financed entirely by an expansion in base money, which will continue to fuel an acceleration of inflation as money demand continues to collapse," said Werner.

One million Venezuelan bolivar is today worth just over $8.

Comment: Hyperinflation is a runaway freight train going downhill in value, while uphill in difficulty to correct.



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Handcuffs

'Lock her up!' US AG Sessions amused as students chant anti-Clinton slogan


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:07 UTC
Signage Sessions speech
© Mike Segar/ReutersSignage at Sessions speech
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions seemed to join in as conservative teenagers chanted the former Trump campaign anti-Hillary Clinton slogan "Lock her up" at a high school student event in Washington on Tuesday.

Sessions was delivering remarks promoting free speech and conservative values at Turning Point USA's High School Leadership Summit at George Washington University.

During his speech, he criticized universities for "coddling" young people and said he could tell that the students in front of him were able to handle political debate and political attacks. "I like this bunch, I gotta tell you. You're not going to be backing down. Go get 'em. Go get 'em," he said.

At that moment, chants of "Lock her up" began. Sessions, the top law enforcement official in the country, briefly joined in, laughing, before saying: "I heard that a long time over the last campaign," and then continuing on with his speech.


Comment: If Sessions was going to make a move on Killary, there would be indications. So far...?

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Stop

Merkel warns Europe can't rely on the US to impose world order

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 13:38 UTC
Angela Merkel
Having been called a "foe" by President Trump last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that she was right to say a year ago that Europe could no longer rely on the United States to impose order on the world, and that it needed to take matters close to home into its own hands.
"We can't rely on the superpower of the United States," Merkel told a news conference in Berlin.
As AntiWar's Jason Ditz notes, Merkel did not elaborate on exactly what this "order" meant, but it comes in the context of recent polls showing German voters resistant to her desire to increase military spending. This suggests Merkel is trying to sell increased armament as a way to intervene regionally.

Merkel also said she intends to continue to work on improving Germany's relationship with the United States. This appears to be an uphill battle, with the two nations at odds over a number of issues, but she insisted ties are "crucial."

Comment: See also: Merkel: Europe can no longer rely on superpower US

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Violin

Hillary's health under scrutiny AGAIN amid speculation she wears 'Life-Alert' panic button


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:39 UTC
Hillary life-alert panic necklace
© Brad Barket / AFPHillary Clinton speaking at OZY Festival, wearing a low-hanging 'button necklace'
Hillary Clinton's health was again the subject of Twitter speculation, after she appeared at a festival last weekend wearing a necklace that looked suspiciously like a 'Life Alert' panic button.

Clinton was appearing at OZY Festival, a weekend event of music, food, political discussion and liberal 'comedy' in New York's Central Park. As well as rocking a Homer Simpson-style Hawaiian muumuu, the former Secretary of State wore a dull beige button on a necklace.

Eagle-eyed Twitter sleuths immediately came up with a theory: Clinton was wearing a 'Life Alert' panic button, used by pensioners to call the emergency services when they fall and can't get up.


Comment: Yet, the queen of delusion plans another run for the presidency. Heaven help us!

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Attention

Canada to accept up to 250 White Helmet propagandists after Israeli 'rescue'

Murray Brewster
CBC News
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 13:35 UTC
White Helmets 1
© Syria Civil Defence via Associated PressA member of the White Helmets carries a child after airstrikes hit a school in Syria's Daraa province, in an image made from video on June 14, 2017. Hundreds of people, volunteers belonging to the rescue organization and their families, were extracted late Saturday from the southwestern part of the country. (Syria Civil Defence via Associated Press)
Canada is among three Western nations that will take in nearly a hundred volunteer emergency workers and their families that Israeli forces plucked from Syria under the cover of darkness in a dramatic international rescue, CBC News has learned.

Several hundred people - volunteers and their families - belonging to the rescue organization known as the White Helmets were extracted late Saturday from the southwestern portion of the war-torn country that's being overrun by forces loyal to leader Bashar al-Assad.

The Israeli military said Sunday it was responsible for rescuing members of the Syrian volunteer organization from the volatile frontier area and evacuated them to a third country - the first such Israeli intervention in Syria's lengthy civil war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Sunday saying the rescue came about as a result of recent requests by U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "and others."

"These are people who have saved lives and whose lives were in danger," Netanyahu said of the White Helmets. "Therefore, I approved their passage through Israel to additional countries as an important humanitarian gesture."


Comment: Be assured that there's nothing 'humanitarian' about his gesture. Perhaps now that Syria has reclaimed most of their territory from the rebels, they don't want anyone left around that could spill the beans. Besides, they get to look good by 'helping'.


Comment: CBC, like other mainstream media, paints quite a different picture of the reality behind the White Helmets. See also: Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria responds to UK government statement whitewashing White Helmets

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Star of David

Israel intercepts and shoots down Syrian warplane over contested Golan Heights


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:31 UTC
sukhoi plane
© Sputnik
Israel has fired interceptor missiles at a Syrian Sukhoi warplane, the IDF said in a statement, adding that the aircraft had penetrated Israeli-controlled airspace.

"Two Patriot missiles were launched at a Sukhoi fighter plane. The plane was under [Israeli] surveillance, it penetrated about two kilometers into Israeli territory and was intercepted," the Israel Defense Forces wrote on Twitter.

Israeli Army Radio stated that the plane was shot down over the Golan Heights, but may have crashed on the Syrian-held side of the frontier, Reuters reports.

Comment: The IDF later announced they were 'certain' that the jet was not a Russian jet:
The Israeli army has been in regular contact with Moscow, he stressed, adding that previously the Israeli army hesitated when targeting incoming planes out of concerns they might belong to the Russian Air Force.

The IDF spokesman said that the plane which was targeted may be a Sukhoi Su-22 or Su-24. These supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft were developed by the Soviet Union. Both types have been in service with the Syrian Air Force.

Conricus said that the IDF increased air force activity in southwestern Syria on Tuesday morning. "We have passed a number of messages, in a number of languages, in order to ensure that no-one violates Israeli air space," he added.
A Syrian military source also told RIA Novosti that one of the pilots died after ejecting and the fate of the other pilot is not yet known.

This is clearly another case of unprovoked Israeli aggression against Syria. The Golan Heights is not recognized as part of Israel, yet Tel Aviv continues to insist it is their territory as if the rest of the world does not exist. They clearly live in another reality.

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Blue Planet

Kremlin receives Trump invite, Putin US visit may be planned for end of 2018


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:48 UTC
trump putin handshake helsinki
© Putin receives Trump invite, US visit could take place at end of 2018 - Kremlin
The Kremlin says it has received an invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet with President Trump in Washington at the end of the year, as suggested by US security adviser John Bolton.

While preparations for a new summit have not yet been made, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that there was a need for another summit after last week's Helsinki meeting.

In the meantime, Ushakov hinted that Trump and Putin could potentially meet at the G20 summit in Argentina this November.

Comment: The Hill reports:
The American Barometer poll, a joint project of The Hill and the HarrisX polling company, found that 54 percent of respondents back Trump's plan for a second summit with the Russian leader, this time in Washington, D.C. Forty-six percent of respondents opposed the idea.

The survey also found that 61 percent of Americans say better relations with Russia are in the best interest of the United States.

[...]

Concha and a panel of polling experts said the poll results show that Americans can separate the nation's long-term interests from the negative media coverage of Trump's first summit with Putin in Helsinki last week.

For instance, the poll found 60 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump's handling of Russia in the aftermath of the summit, but they approve of holding another summit, with 87 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents supporting another meeting with Putin.

"The American voter has a very healthy and nuanced perspective on the issue," HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho said on What America's Thinking.

"They support the president on his position on the issues, as we saw, and actually have a pretty pragmatic view about how we should handle Russia," Nesho added. "They believe in engagement with Russia, they believe in dialogue with Russia, and they're not worried about an invitation to President Putin this fall."

View the poll results here.


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War Whore

War-loving Russia critic Nikki Haley: We don't trust Putin or Russia and will never be their friends


RT
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:36 UTC
trump putin handshake
Staunch Russia critic Nikki Haley, who serves as the US ambassador to the UN, has said in the true spirit of diplomacy that Moscow and Washington will never be friends, and that the US will never trust Russia.

"We don't trust Russia, we don't trust Putin, we never will," Nikki Haley told CBN News. The US envoy to the UN, who has taken a tough anti-Moscow stance since assuming office in January 2017, stressed that Russia is "never going to be our friend." "That's just a fact," she added.

Haley attempted to clarify why Trump decided to hold his diplomatic tete-a-tete with Vladimir Putin during the Helsinki summit, which has created a media frenzy and been criticized by a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle in the US.

"It's his style. It's the way he does it," she said of Trump, noting that he also met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinse President Xi Jinping. She explained that Trump always wants "just to create that genuine reality of the two of them talking, he feels like he needs to do it face-to-face."
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Yoda

Devin Nunes' memo validated by released FISA warrant application

Byron York
The Washington Examiner
Sun, 22 Jul 2018 15:46 UTC
Carter Page
© Anton Denisov / SputnikCarter Page
The weekend release of a highly-redacted version of the FBI's application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to wiretap onetime Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page has renewed the argument over the Nunes memo - the brief report produced by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes detailing problems in the application. From the time of the memo's release in February, Democrats and some in the press have denounced it as a collection of lies and mischaracterizations. On Saturday night, the denouncing started again. "The only thing the newly released FISA documents show is that Republicans have been lying for months," the lefty think tank Center for American Progress said in a typical response.

Now, however, we have both the memo and the FISA application, if in a blacked-out state. We can compare the two. And doing so shows the Nunes memo was overwhelmingly accurate. Perhaps some Democrats do not believe it should have been written, or they dispute what it included and left out, or they do not agree with its conclusions, but it was in fact accurate.

The memo comprised a short introduction followed by 13 substantive paragraphs. Here is a look at each one.
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