Puppet MastersS


Bug

No joke: Poroshenko's regime introduces bill that legalizes government corruption

Poroshenko
If Ukraine passes bill 7499, it will be legal to earn money illegally - you know, just like any 'European' country

If Ukraine passes bill 7499, it looks like corruption will officially be legal. Remember back when we said Ukraine hit a new low (when they claimed God was Ukrainian)...well...it's happening again.

The Russian phrase used in an article to describe what the bill intends to do reveals the proposal is remarkably Orwellian in nature. Bare with me as we dissect the original phrase. It says Ukrainian deputies literally seek to:

"...отменить уголовную ответственность чиновников за незаконное обогащение."

It essentially means "To abolish criminal responsibility of officials for illegal обогащение. It is the last word which truly reveals how incredibly shameless and ridiculous the proposed bill really is.

The word обогащение, means literally "enrichment", but in layman's terms, one could translate the noun as the action of "getting rich".

So simply put: Ukrainian deputies want to make it legal for officials (themselves) to get rich illegally.

Comment: The Ukraine: Another resounding success in the US's attempts to bring 'democracy' and 'freedom' to countries around the world!


Attention

Best of the Web: Lookout! Russiagate scandal approaches its implosion point

Russiagate
© Pinterest/KJN
Publication of GOP memorandum on surveillance abuses by Obama's Justice Department threatens to blow lid off the scandal.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the point of crisis in the Russiagate scandal has now been reached, and that it centres on the four page memorandum
prepared by Republican Congressional investigators after their examination of the Justice Department's documents on the evidence provided during the 2016 election by Obama's Justice Department to the FBI to undertake surveillance of members of Donald Trump's campaign.

Publication of this memorandum has just been agreed by the House Intelligence Committee. The final decision whether or not to publish the memorandum lies with President Trump.

I think it is a foregone conclusion that he will decide to publish it, though I expect heavy lobbying from the Justice Department and the US intelligence community to persuade him not to. All I would say about that is that if President Trump allows himself to be persuaded by whatever threats or promises the Justice Department and the US intelligence community make to him, then he is a fool.

I do not know what is in the memorandum, though FBI Director Christopher Wray, who read it on Sunday, was apparently profoundly shocked by its contents, leading him to demand the immediate resignation of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Comment: What's next you ask? The War of the Memos!


Stormtrooper

Israeli nut-job minister labels BDS activists enemy soldiers, compares them to Nazis

Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett
Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party.
The New York Times has published an Op-Ed by Israel's Education Minister Naftali Bennett, in which he educates the world about BDS activists, saying they are "enemy soldiers", and making a thinly-veiled comparison of them to Nazis. This is the man who compared Palestinians to "shrapnel in the butt", said he has "killed lots of Arabs and there's no problem with that", has recently coined the term "auto-anti-Semites" (as a new alternative to "Jewish self-haters"), and has called for a prison life-term for Ahed Tamimi and her cousin Nour - for slapping Israeli soldiers.

Bennett's Op-Ed is titled "My Country Bars Enemies From Entry. Yours Would Do the Same". It is a disingenuous, and dangerous, piece of incitement.

Bennett seeks to whitewash the recent Israeli ban against various organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace, for their non-violent, civil and democratic support of Palestinians through Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS).

Bennett calls the BDS movement a "new enemy", which, although lacking "tanks and missiles", nevertheless "poses a serious threat to the Jewish state".

Gold Seal

SOTT Focus: The West's New 'Values-Based' Racism

dutch schoolbook russia
How Russia is portrayed to European schoolchildren today
Psychologists say that every war first starts in human hearts - with the dehumanization of one's opponent. The current sad state of Russia's relations with the US and the EU is characterized by exactly that - dehumanization.

The modern form of the Western denial of an opponent's human qualities is to make them "non-eligible" for expressing their views via global media, for holding votes that the West does not approve of, or even for participating in international sports events. This article will consider the forms of this denial.

Clapper's foray into genetics

There are some old-fashioned forms of dehumanization, when an opponent is declared "genetically" inferior or dangerous. When former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper last year spoke about "the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, are almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique," he used exactly that old method.

Comment: Wallerstein's work has been taken up by a new generation of World-Systems theorists, the best of which we've encountered thus far is in John Hobson's The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory, 1760-2010.

Another tremendous book, on the history of Russophobia, is Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria, by Guy Mettan.


Bad Guys

Indian-Pakistan conflict continues to mount as ceasefire agreements unravel

India Pakistan soldiers
© AP Photo/ Channi Anand
The fragile peace between nuclear powers India and Pakistan that has been continuously tested over the past few years has begun to break down, as both nations reported record number of ceasefire violations across the heavily militarized border that splits the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir is a Muslim-majority region whose populace was split over joining India, Pakistan, or declaring independence during the partitioning of India. The region was the site of the 1947 war between India and Pakistan that left the region split between India (which controls the lion's share of the land and populace), Pakistan and China, which controls a small amount of the former princedom known as Aksai Chin along their southwestern border.

Separating the Indian and Pakistani sides of the region is the 482-mile Line of Control (LoC), the most heavily guarded border in the world, with hundreds of thousands of troops standing at the ready at both sides armed with rifles, machine guns, mortar platforms and artillery.

Stock Down

Every Brexit option will hurt Britain, leaked government report reveals

An anti-Brexit protester demonstrates opposite the Houses of Parliament in London
© Hannah Mckay / ReutersAn anti-Brexit protester demonstrates opposite the Houses of Parliament in London
A leaked government analysis on the impact of leaving the EU has detailed how Britain's economy will be worse off after Brexit - no matter what trade deal is struck with the bloc.

The report, 'EU Exit Analysis - Cross Whitehall Briefing', outlines three of the most likely scenarios, and brings only bad news for Britain. Growth for the UK will falter in any case, the report says.

According to the report, which has been obtained by Buzzfeed, Britain's growth would be 5 percent lower over the next 15 years - compared to current forecasts - under a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU. A 'no deal' scenario would reduce growth by 8 percent over that 15 year period.

Comment: The EU is going to punish Britain for voting to leave, but when we see similar feelings are bubbling throughout European countries, it may be that other options will present themselves:


USA

'We are in a coup d'etat': Christian leader says media is the weapon in overthrowing the government

Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham
Prominent Christian leader Franklin Graham said he believes the country is already in the throes of a coup d'etat. Graham also said that those attempting to overthrow the government are using the media, not bullets, to achieve their goals.

"I believe we are in a coup d'etat," Franklin Graham said last week on the Todd Starnes Radio Show. "There are people in this country who are wanting to destroy the president and take over the government by force." Graham and other Christian conservatives have been targets of the bias and liberal weaponized propaganda we often refer to as "the mainstream media."

"They are not going to use bullets. They are using the media - to plant thoughts in people's minds that he's incompetent, that he's dangerous, that you can't trust him with nuclear weapons, that he is mentally unstable," Graham said. According to Fox News, many prominent Christians have been accused of hypocrisy for backing a man who is accused of cheating on his wife and using profanity.

"I have a very simple admonition at this point," Michael Steele said on MSNBC's Hardball. "Just shut the hell up and don't ever preach to me about anything ever again. I don't want to hear it." Steele, the former head of the Republican National Committee, was furious at evangelicals. "After telling me how to live my life, who to love, what to believe, what not to believe, what to do and what not to do and now you sit back and the prostitutes don't matter? The grabbing the you-know-what doesn't matter? The outright behavior and lies don't matter? Just shut up."

Question

Trump, is he the US version of Gorbachev?

GorbatchevTrump
© Voltairenet.orgGorbachev • Trump
For Thierry Meyssan, the policy of the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union has been a combat between two schools of thought. On one side, the partisans of prosperity, and on the other, the partisans of imperialism. Money or Power. This cleavage exists within each party, Republican and Democrat. However, time flies, and the United States is now on the edge of inner collapse. As of now, Donald Trump finds himself in the uncomfortable position of Mikhaïl Gorbachev.

All pending international problems are affected by the refusal of the United States - and sometimes their European allies - to admit the growth of other countries. And Washington does not hesitate to use unspeakable methods to postpone the fall of its empire.

Let's remember the end of the Soviet Union, in 1991. The colossus fell to ruins, throwing the economy of its populations back several decades, brutally amputating the life expectancy of its inhabitants by more than twenty years, and provoking the domino fall of several of its allies. At that time, the question of knowing what would be the consequences of this cataclysm on the other great empire of the 20th century - the United States and their allies - was already being asked.

Comment: It is beyond disturbing that the American public has to be informed of the nation's history and the strategies of its government from outside sources instead of its leaders. Honest glimpses are rare from those who determine the course of the nation, with only partial or false narratives to appease those who search for reason and perspective.


Target

Assange blasts US 'subservience to Saudis' in tripling drone strikes in Yemen

wallpicUSdrone
© Khaled Abdullah / Reuters
US drone strikes in Yemen have tripled under the Trump administration, as the US targets Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula while at the same time providing support to ally Saudi Arabia in its attacks there, a new study shows.

"The Trump administration's subservience to Saudi Arabia's military adventurism in Yemen has lead to 8x the drone assassination rate of Obama," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wrote on Twitter. "Most killed are civilians. Obama, in turn, had 10x the drone kills of Bush."

Drone program

The targeted drone program was created during the George W Bush administration and multiplied under President Barack Obama, with Trump then taking the reins and further increasing its operations in the first year of his presidency.

Obama carried out 563 strikes, largely by drone, during his two-term presidency, 10 times more than his predecessor, according to research conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Strikes have increased under Trump, with the number of strikes conducted in Yemen tripling in 2017. The Bureau's research shows there were 127 confirmed US strikes in Yemen in last year, a sizeable increase on 2016's 32 strikes. US forces have carried out 10 strikes in Yemen in since the start of 2018, a US Central Command spokesperson told the Bureau on January 29.

Comment: For some, the earth must be painted red, no matter if it is in the blood of the innocent.


Snakes in Suits

Mueller's corrupted probe, the twisted truth

Robert Mueller
© CNN.comRobert Mueller
You know the old saying, "give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves?" Well that time has surely come for Mueller, the FBI (Fake, Biased Investigations) and the whole damn bunch of Trump hating, sore loser Clintonistas. With this week's astounding revelations of premeditated, utterly biased and criminal behavior by top members of Mueller's hit squad, this is more than a smoking gun.

There is so much evidence of a well planned, Obama backed, multi intelligence agency "conspiracy" to bury President Trump in a smear campaign under the pretext of "keeping our elections safe from the Russians!" With top members from Mueller's team texting their hatred of Trump, referring to "an insurance policy" in case he was elected and then admitting that they knew from day one that "there's no big there, there."

The two top Mueller investigators, everyone knows by now are Peter Strzok, formerly the deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division and his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page. Referring as to whether or not there is any evidence of Trump and his campaign colluding with the Russians Strzok texted "You and I both know the odds are nothing..."

This is so much bigger than Clinton's sex scandal, Lois Lerner's IRS controversy or Nixon's Watergate scandal that it sets a new level of government corruption at the highest levels. We are talking about top elements; from Obama himself, the White House, the NSA, the FBI, and DOJ conspiring to change the outcome of a presidential election by any means necessary.

Comment: The corrupt investigating the corrupt. 'Truthfully speaking', how will that turn out?