Puppet MastersS


Warning

Everything is explosive: Israel and Lebanon are on the brink of war

Nurad Sadygzade
RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 14:27 UTC
cardamage
© Mohammed Zaatari/APA car damaged after an explosion from what is believed to be a rigged walkie-talkie • Sidon, Lebanon • September 18, 2024
On September 17, a series of explosions rocked Lebanon, as pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah for communication were detonated. The blasts occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, as well as other parts of the country and Syria. According to Reuters, the explosions lasted for more than half an hour, claiming at least 12 lives, including the ten-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member. Thousands were injured, including Iran's ambassador to Lebanon.

The next day, Lebanon witnessed another wave of detonations, this time involving communication devices and equipment installed in cars and motorcycles, as reported by Al Hadath. The explosions occurred in Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley, leaving around 100 people injured and at least three dead in the town of Sohmor.

Al Jazeera confirmed that the blasts were linked to portable devices used by members of Hezbollah. Iran's Press TV added that radios and ICOM communication devices were among those that exploded. Al Hadath also reported that laptops and equipment installed in vehicles were destroyed, some of which were unrelated to communication devices. A security source told Reuters that the portable radios were acquired by Hezbollah five months ago, similar to the pagers that were also sabotaged.

Comment: Israel's obsession defines/confines and resigns the future to one path forward. We may not have long to wait.

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Russian Flag

Is the end nigh? Here's what the Russian Army has achieved in the last two months

Sergey Polataev
RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 18:31 UTC
soldier
© RT/RTRussian Army
Moscow's forces are building on gains on three key fronts as Kiev desperately tries to find a response.

The front line in the Ukraine conflict has shifted considerably since early August. Almost seven weeks later, we can draw some interim conclusions by examining the key areas of the front, from north to south.

The Kursk front

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk Region. At first glance, this seemed like just another cross-border raid, similar to many that had gone before; however, it quickly became apparent that this operation was more significant. This time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) advanced under their own flag and clearly aimed to repeat the success they had in Kharkov Region in the fall of 2022. The strategy was to break through a relatively weak front (compared to Donbass and Zaporozhye), quickly capture a large area, and force the Russian Army to retreat without a fight.
green map
© lostarmour.info/map/ RT
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Gavel

Hunter Biden lawyers ask for delayed sentencing so Biden-Harris admin officials can 'submit letters' in support

Katelynn Richardson
The Daily Caller
Tue, 17 Sep 2024 19:44 UTC
Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden's attorneys asked the judge on Tuesday to delay sentencing for his gun charges, noting some of his potential character witnesses are involved in the 2024 presidential campaign and current administration.

A Delaware jury convicted Biden on three felony gun charges in June. His attorneys asked the judge to postpone sentencing, currently scheduled for Nov. 13, for several weeks because there are "a variety of overlapping pre-sentencing tasks that need additional time to be completed for both the Delaware and California cases."

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in California on Sept.5 just as his trial was set to begin, and the judge set his sentencing date for Dec. 16.

Comment: Waiting for "letters of support"? Guess that presidential pardon from Dad (or Kammie?) was quietly taken off the table.

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Attention

Leader of the free world? Two assassination attempts so far on U.S. presidential candidate amid spiraling election violence


Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 20 Sep 2024 18:39 UTC
Trump Dodging Bulllets
© Strategic Culture Foundation
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has repeatedly warned that the United States "is becoming a Third World nation." Too late, it seems. There are plenty of signs that the U.S. is already a failed state of dictatorship, poverty and violence - albeit one that sports the biggest number of billionaires and supposedly the largest military power in the world.

That dichotomy is not a weird aberration. It is central to why the United States of America is a failed state.

So far, in the oligarchic-controlled 2024 election cycle, there have been two assassination attempts on Trump. On July 13, he narrowly escaped death after being shot in the ear by a sniper while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania. Last weekend, a second sniper was thwarted at a golf course in Florida by Secret Service agents.

With seven weeks counting down to election day on November 5, the atmosphere across the United States is fraught with violence and a palpable sense of extreme crisis. Both candidates, Trump and his Democrat rival Kamala Harris, have labeled each other as "threats to democracy." The level of maligning rhetoric and vilification is unprecedented and cofounds a "normal" political process.

It is reasonable to cast the two parties' campaigns as being guilty of inflaming the climate of hatred, violence, and intense polarization bordering on civil war. The corporate-controlled news media is discernibly in favor of Harris, creating a climate of enmity towards Trump, which is reciprocated by his base toward Democrats. The dysfunctional process is accentuated by many former senior Republican figures publicly endorsing the Democrat, and repudiating Trump as "unfit to serve".

Kamala Harris and the Democrats may denounce the assassination attempts on Trump and assert that "there can be no violence in American politics". But Harris' election ads have painted Trump as a traitor and appeaser of foreign dictators. This seems to have been a motivating factor behind the latest assassination incident. The shooter is a fervent supporter of the U.S.-led proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The Harris campaign has targeted Trump as a domestic enemy over his election pledge to end the war in Ukraine through diplomacy.
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Black Magic

Israel planned pager attacks for 15 years - ABC News


RT
Fri, 20 Sep 2024 14:50 UTC
Ambulance in Beirut
© Houssam ShbaroAn ambulance in Beirut, Lebanon on September 17, 2024.
Israeli intelligence has long eyed an attack using explosive communication devices, a US source has claimed

Israeli intelligence services have been contemplating an operation along the lines of this week's mass explosions of Hezbollah electronic devices for at least 15 years, a US intelligence source has told ABC News.

Thousands of people were injured in Lebanon by a series of blasts on Tuesday and Wednesday, when pagers, walkie-talkies, and other devices used by the militant group exploded simultaneously. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the incident, although media reports have widely described it as a Mossad plot that involved rigging the gadgets with remotely-triggered explosive charges.

Speaking to ABC News, a US source called it a "supply chain interdiction," adding that the CIA has long been reluctant to employ similar tactics due to the risk of collateral damage. In Lebanon, children were among the dozens of people killed in the attack, which also left many victims mutilated.

The New York Times previously reported that the supply of sabotaged devices started in the summer of 2023, citing multiple officials familiar with the operation.

Comment: The mass terror attack by Israel on Lebanon has caused multiple deaths and upwards of 5000 injured. The initial attack was followed up on the following day with exploding walkie-talkies, radios and other electronic gadgets.

Belgium is about the only country in the West which condemned the Israeli terror attack, which the Western mainstream media didn't find newsworthy. 'Massive terror attack': Belgian deputy premier condemns the pager bombs in Lebanon, Syria

The BAC 'company' mentioned above had all the signs of a being a Mossad shell company as detailed by Joe Quinn in this article: BAC Consulting: The Mossad Front Company And The Hezbollah Pager Explosions

See also:

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Star of David

Doubling down: Israel declares 'new phase' expanding war to Lebanon after terror attack on Hezbollah


RT
Wed, 18 Sep 2024 21:23 UTC
yoav gallant israel
© Getty Images / Ariel HermoniYoav Gallant visits an airbase near the city of Haifa, Israel, September 18, 2024
The IDF is moving forces toward Lebanon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said

Israel is shifting its military strength north to focus on Hezbollah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday, after thousands of pagers and radios belonging to the Lebanese paramilitary group were detonated in a devastating operation widely attributed to Israeli secret services.

Speaking to troops at the Ramat David Airbase near Haifa, Gallant said that "a new phase" of Israel's almost year-long war was beginning, focused on Hezbollah rather than Hamas.

"The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north," he said, according to a statement published on social media by his office.

Comment: If Israel is stupid enough to try to invade Lebanon (again), the outcome will be even worse for them this time around. The Lebanese learned their lessons well from the brutal IDF occupation in 1982. Hezbollah is as professional a military organization as any in the world, as the IDF are about to find out.

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Nuke

EU calling for nuclear war - Russia's top MP


RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 19:25 UTC
FILE PHOTO: A test-launch of the Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.
© Sputnik / Russian Defense MinistryFILE PHOTO: A test-launch of the Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.
Vyacheslav Volodin has slammed Strasbourg's call to "lift restrictions" on Ukraine's use of Western weapons

The European Parliament is calling for nuclear war and should disband, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has said.

The Strasbourg-based body adopted a resolution on Thursday calling on the EU to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with Western-supplied weapons, as well as to continue funding Kiev's war effort by confiscating Russia's frozen sovereign assets.

The resolution was adopted with 425 votes in favor, 131 against, and 63 abstentions.

"What the European Parliament is calling for would lead to a world war using nuclear weapons," Volodin said on Telegram.

Comment: A few days ago there was from the same source, see the article below, the suggestion that some French officials were concerned about the prospects of a wider war. These officials probably belong to the minority just like the 131 members of the European Parliament as compared to the 425 plus 63.
14 Sep, 2024 19:05
French officials fear WWIII - Le Monde
Paris is reportedly concerned about the prospects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalating into a global war

Members of the French government are concerned about the Ukraine conflict spiraling out of control and are now exercising "great discretion," Le Monde reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.

Fears of the confrontation escalating into a direct collision between Moscow and the NATO bloc have skyrocketed over the past few days, as the US and its allies reportedly consider authorizing Kiev to strike targets deep inside Russian territory using Western weaponry.

While France has announced "no official position" on the matter, unnamed diplomats in private conversations admitted to the French daily that Paris has been concerned about potential escalation and has been trying to avoid it.

"We must do everything possible to avoid World War Three," an unnamed official told the newspaper.

"One cannot simply dismiss the hypothesis that the Russians could expand the scale of their military operations," the official added, referring to the warnings voiced by top Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Thursday, Putin warned that removing restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons would directly involve the US and its allies in the conflict and would be met with an appropriate response. Explaining his stance, the president said that such weaponry relies solely on Western intelligence and targeting solutions, with Kiev effectively unable to use it on its own.

That position has been reiterated by Russia's envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, who warned the move would constitute an "open war" between NATO and Russia. "Our Western colleagues will not be able to dodge responsibility and blame Kiev for everything," Nebenzia stated.
See also:

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Attention

This ain't no WWIII: this is a War OF Terror

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 19:13 UTC
War of Terror
© Strategic Culture Foundation
This ain't no party
This ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancin'
Or lovey-dovey
I ain't got time for that now

Talking Heads, Life During Wartime

First we had action: President Putin - cool, calm, collected - warns that any attack on Russia with long-range NATO missiles will be an act of war.

Then we had reaction: NATO rats scurrying back to the gutter - in haste. For now.

All that was a direct consequence of the Kursk debacle. A desperate gamble. But the state of things in the proxy war in Ukraine was desperate for NATO. Until it became crystal clear it's all basically non-recoverable.

So there are two options left.

Ukraine's unconditional surrender, on Russia's terms, tantamount to NATO's complete humiliation.

Or escalation to all-out war (italics mine) with Russia.

The U.S. - but not the UK - ruling classes seem to have registered the essence of Putin's message: if NATO is at war with Russia, "then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us."

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was ominously more precise: "The decision has been made, the carte blanche and all indulgences have been given [to Kiev), so we [Russia] are ready for everything. And we will react in a way that will not be pretty."
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USA

WWII redux: The endpoint of US policy

John Walsh
Asia Times
Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00 UTC
Josef Stalin, Harry S Truman and Winston Churchill in Potsdam
© Photo: WikipediaJosef Stalin, Harry S Truman and Winston Churchill in Potsdam, Germany, in July 1945.

Comment: The article was published three days before the current conflict in Ukraine gained momentum on February 24 2022 and turned into much more than some initially expected.


The threatened peoples of East Asia and Europe can stop the US drive to restore its global domination

"This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war." So spoke Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky just days after berating the US for beating the drums of war.

It is not hard to imagine how Zelensky's words must have fallen on those European ears that were attentive. His warning surely conjured up images of World War II when tens of millions of Europeans and Russians perished.

Zelensky's words echoed those of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on the other side of the world at the eastern edge of the great Eurasian landmass: "When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled flat." We can be sure that Duterte, like Zelensky, had in mind World War II, which also consumed tens of millions of lives in East Asia.

Comment: Since the article was published, the conflict in Ukraine has taken the lives of several hundred thousand people and injured many times more, moving successively from one escalation to the next.

Possibly the collapse of Germany during WWII will not be repeated as much as a broader collapse in the US and its European satellites. which of course does not exclude Germany, but will it this time also be the real if not intended "endpoint of US policy"?

See also: In his commentary on the present, the author presents one perspective on WWII. For more on that conflict, see: Why Everything You Know About World War II Is Wrong

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Nuke

RFK, DTJr: Negotiate with Moscow to end the Ukraine war and prevent nuclear devastation

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Donald Trump Jr.
The Hill
Tue, 17 Sep 2024 07:30 UTC
DonnieTrumpRFKJr
© Scott Olson/Getty Images/Sky NewsDonald Trump Jr. • Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the Biden administration is considering allowing Ukraine to use NATO-provided long-range precision weapons against targets deep inside Russia. Such a decision would put the world at greater risk of nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis.

At a time when American leaders should be focused on finding a diplomatic off-ramp to a war that should never have been allowed to take place, the Biden-Harris administration is instead pursuing a policy that Russia says it will interpret as an act of war. In the words of Vladimir Putin, long-range strikes in Russia "will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia."

Some American analysts believe Putin is bluffing, and favor calling his bluff. As the Times reported:
"'Easing the restrictions on Western weapons will not cause Moscow to escalate,'17 former ambassadors and generals wrote in a letter to the administration this week. 'We know this because Ukraine is already striking territory Russia considers its own — including Crimea and Kursk — with these weapons and Moscow's response remains unchanged.'"
These analysts are mistaking restraint for weakness. In essence, they are advocating a strategy of brinksmanship. Each escalation — from HIMARS to cluster munitions to Abrams tanks to F-16s to ATACMS — draws the world closer to the brink of Armageddon. Their logic seems to be that if you goad a bear five times and it doesn't respond, it is safe to goad him even harder a sixth time.

Comment: Putin does not bluff.

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