Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

'Pardon me?' Trump claims power to pardon himself, but insists he's done nothing wrong


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 14:58 UTC
President Donald Trump
© Leah Millis / ReutersPresident Donald Trump
Donald Trump has declared that, as the US President, he could pardon himself if Robert Mueller's 'Russiagate' investigation were to find him guilty of crimes. Talk of pardoning, however, is not playing well with Republicans.

"As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!" Trump tweeted on Monday.

Trump's tweet comes hot on the heels of the publication of a 20-page document sent to Special Counsel Mueller from Trump's legal team earlier this year. The document outlines the president's legal strategy and argues that Trump cannot be indicted, subpoenaed or found guilty of obstruction of justice because he is the nation's "chief law enforcement officer."The document also argues that Trump "could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired."

As Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 fruitlessly drags on, Trump was not the only one to tout the President's power of pardon. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on ABC's 'The Week' on Sunday that Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself, as the constitution "doesn't say he can't."
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Network

Pepe Escobar: Why India is brushing aside US sanctions and sticking with Iran

Pepe Escobar
Asia times
Sun, 03 Jun 2018 15:16 UTC
Iran oil
Pay very close attention to what India's External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier this week in New Delhi:

"Our foreign policy is not made under pressure from other countries ... We recognize UN sanctions and not country-specific sanctions. We didn't follow US sanctions on previous occasions either."

After fellow BRICS members China and Russia, India left no margin for doubt. And there's more; India will continue to buy oil from Iran - its third top supplier - and is willing to pay in rupees via state bank UCO, which is not exposed to the US. India bought 114% more oil from Iran during the financial year up to March 2018 than in the previous term.
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Cell Phone

A look at why Israel wants to ban filming of Israeli soldiers

C J Werleman
The New Arab
Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Palestinian w phone
© AFPPalestinian uses mobile phone to record Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Ain Shibil.
Israeli lawmakers have concocted a typically anti-democratic strategy to combat the rise of citizen journalists

Israel has carried out three military wars against the besieged Palestinian population in Gaza in the 13 years since it disengaged from the embattled enclave in 2005.

There was Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including 926 civilians, while destroying more than 4,000 homes and displacing 50,800 residents. Then came Operation Pillar of Defense three years later, which killed 105 Palestinian civilians and injured more than 1,000.

In 2014, however, Israel launched the siege to end all sieges, Operation Protective Edge, a merciless form of collective punishment meant to break the will of Palestinian resistance forever and eternity.

Adopting an "open fire policy", which gave Israeli soldiers unprecedented freedom to fire upon civilians, the Israeli military killed 2,200 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, along the way to destroying at least 10,000 homes and displacing nearly a quarter of Gaza's 2 million people.

One element that made the 2014 siege of Gaza different to the two the preceded it, at least in the court of world opinion, was that it was the first to take place in the age of ubiquitous social media.

Comment: 'Israel' is a construct - a fabrication for the public - a con job. And as such, it doesn't happen to like others sussing out the truth of it in any way, shape or form.

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Star of David

Israel creates new, 'one of a kind' apartheid wall to choke Gaza with a triple-layered sea barrier

Elliot Gabriel
MintPress News
Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Wall walker
© Mahmoud Illean/APStudent wrapped in Palestinian flag walks over Israel's apartheid wall between the West Bank and Israel in Abu Dis.
Unimpeded by an international community that remains largely silent over Israeli crimes, Tel Aviv has subjected the people of Gaza to numerous novel and experimental tools of repression and weapons delivery systems, including new unmanned systems and militarized methods of spatial control.

Whatever one's opinion may be about the ongoing Israeli dispossession of the people of Palestine and the crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, one can't fault Tel Aviv for lacking originality.

Such unique means of choking off the Palestinians' ability to live as normal human beings will be on full display with a new $833 million sea barrier being erected: it will include a submarine barrier, a stone wall, and a layer of barbed wire that will be surrounded by an additional fence.

Hardline Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the barrier as a "one of a kind in the world" measure that protects the occupation "with power and sophistication" and prevents the people of Gaza from entering Israeli-controlled territory by sea.

Comment: Any other occupying force that did what Israel has done - and continues to do in increasing intensity to the Palestinians - would have been toast by now.

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Arrow Up

Russia's the big winner in European gas war

Tim Daiss
Oilprice.com
Mon, 28 May 2018 02:00 UTC
Gazprom
© Oil and Gas People
There's been a lot of talk on both sides of the Atlantic about the U.S. pivot and efforts at locking in natural as market share in Europe. Much of this comes amid President Donald Trump's so-called American energy independence push as well as both U.S. and several EU members thrust to wean Europe off of geopolitically charged Russian gas.

In fact, Trump has pushed for U.S.-sourced LNG to become so much of the EU's energy security that several European states, particularly Germany, have accused the president of playing energy geopolitics, cloaking American concern for European energy security under the guise and to the benefit of U.S. LNG producers.

Now, however, Trump and U.S. LNG exporters will have an even harder time convincing key EU members to offset overreliance on Russian piped gas with U.S. LNG.

Comment: As the world grows colder, gas commodities, as well as any other means to mitigate temperature change, will be front and center for all countries in those zones - petty projects and ideas of monopoly aside. See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Jordan's King Abdullah replaces Prime Minister amidst protests over tax hikes and 'economic reforms'

Ellen Francis and Suleiman Al-Khalid
Yahoo News
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Jordan's King
© ReutersIn this file photo taken on May 01, 2018, Jordanian King Abdullah II (L) and Prime Minister Hani Al-Mulki attend an official lunch meeting at the Royal Palace in Amman.
Jordan's King Abdullah replaced his prime minister on Monday in a move to defuse the biggest protests in years over IMF-backed reforms that have hit the poor.

Government plans to lift taxes have brought thousands of people onto the streets in the capital Amman and other parts of Jordan since last week, shaking a U.S.-allied Arab country that has remained stable through years of regional turmoil.

King Abdullah appointed Omar al-Razzaz, a former World Bank economist, to form the new government after accepting Hani Mulki's resignation, a ministerial source said. Razzaz was education minister in Mulki's government.

While some celebrated the change of government, the head of the Professional Unions Association said a strike planned for Wednesday would go ahead unless the draft income tax law was withdrawn.
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Bad Guys

The European Union's current disintegration and collapse is a US power-play

Marija Katic
Fort Russ News
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
EU Collapse
The EU is in complete disintegration, there is little doubt about that. While this will provide opportunities for EU member states, especially those in the periphery, to come back and negotiate a better relationship with Berlin and Brussels, it is necessary to understand why this is happening and what is at stake.

In short, the threat of an EU collapse is being pushed by the powers that be in Washington and Wall Street.

The end-game is to push the EU into conflict with MENA countries, Central Asia, Russia, and China. This is of course a suicidal move. But it's only the final move in what has been an imposed suicidal course.

Has it ever occurred to anyone that Eurocrats are hand-picked for being particularly weak-kneed, groomed for their lack of creativity, servility, apparently low testosterone levels for men and low estrogen levels for women -and in the leading positions - are people without children or extended familial obligations? It seems that having no family obligations extends outwards and outwards, the extended concentric circles of obligations are not there. Nations and peoples are little more than largely extended families comprised of concentric circles of distant cousins.

Comment: See also:

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Sherlock

Four 'invisible clues' in the Skripal case

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:41 UTC
Skripal case video cam
Having stated in Part 1 why I believe the official story does not hold water, I want in this piece to take a look at four important aspects of the case. However, what is particularly remarkable about them is not so much the aspects themselves, but rather the fact that they seem to have been either:
  1. Ignored altogether or
  2. Quietly forgotten
Yet in each instance they are clearly significant aspects, and so the fact that they are being ignored or forgotten, together with the official story being implausible, only goes to arouse suspicions that they may be crucial pointers to what really happened on 4th March.

Comment: Further reading: 30 Important Questions On The Skripal Case And The UK Government's Response That Journalists Should Be Asking

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Target

White House working on summit between Trump and Putin

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 02 Jun 2018 10:05 UTC
Trump and Putin
Almost two years after Trump's shocking election, which supposedly only happened because a troll farm of a few dozen pimply Russian teenagers in St. Petersburg brainwashed America's middle class into voting against Hillary Clinton, Trump and his alleged puppetmaster, Vladimir Putin, have yet to hold a formal summit, even as Trump prepares to sit down in ten days with America's sworn enemy, North Korea's Kim Jong-Un, in what is set to be a historic meeting. But that may be about to change because according to the WSJ, the White House is planning for a potential summit between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, "a meeting that would bring to the international stage one of the world's most enigmatic political relationships."

Citing sources, the WSJ reports that Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, and current US ambassador to Russia, has been on the front end of talks to bring the world leaders together, an official said.

Comment: They certainly have much to discuss, not least of which is the US's insistence on continuing to propagate discord and chaos in Syria - against Trump's better instincts: Business as usual: Trump moves to protect ISIS and al-Qaeda in southwest Syria

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Eagle

Trump lawyers bid for unlimited presidential authority in effort to end Russiagate investigation

Patrick Martin
World Socialist Website
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Jay Sekulow
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow
In a 20-page letter sent to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in January, two of President Trump's private lawyers argued that Trump had the authority to order an end to the Russia investigation and to pardon anyone targeted by it. This assertion of unlimited presidential power was made public Saturday, when the New York Times published an account of the letter as well as its full text.

The apparent purpose of the letter was to respond to pressure from the special counsel for Trump to testify under oath about a range of issues. These relate to claims both of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian government operatives and of obstruction of justice by Trump in connection with his firing of FBI Director James Comey after Comey rebuffed suggestions that he "go easy" on former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

The two Trump attorneys were John Dowd, who has since resigned, and Jay Sekulow, who remains part of the team of lawyers handling Trump's response to the Mueller investigation. Recent additions to this group include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Emmet Flood, who worked as part of the team defending President Bill Clinton against impeachment in 1998-99.
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