Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

US, Canada to host 'world' summit on N. Korea - Russia and China not invited


RT
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 21:52 UTC
Tillerson/Freeland
© CBC.caCanadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland • US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Canada and the US are hosting a meeting on the Korean peninsula deadlock, gathering diplomats from 20 nations. Moscow and Beijing, however, are not invited, and will only be "briefed" on the outcome, Russia's FM Lavrov said.

The meeting, held January 15-17, seeks to achieve the goal of a "secure, prosperous and denuclearized Korean peninsula," according to its organizers. "The Vancouver group of foreign ministers from across the globe will meet to demonstrate solidarity in opposition to North Korea's dangerous and illegal actions," reads the statement on the event issued by the Canadian government.

There are 18 countries in the "Vancouver group" besides the US and Canada, including Denmark, Greece, Norway, New Zealand and others. The two major players - China and Russia - who are the immediate neighbors of North Korea and are definitely not keen on the prospect of a nuclear conflict on their borders, were not invited to the gathering for some reason. The choice of participating countries, a large part of which are at the periphery of the Korean standoff, has reportedly raised eyebrows even among diplomats of one of the closest US allies - Japan.

Comment: Leaving out China and Russia is inconceivable - apart from South Korea, they're the only countries bordering North Korea!

Note that it's pretty much a gathering of NATO/Westernized/Anglophone countries, which reflects their staggering egocentricity.

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Snakes in Suits

Assault on civil liberties passes the House due to Democratic 'defections'

John Nichols
The Nation
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Nadler
© The HillNew York Congressman Jerrold Nadler
If all Democrats had opposed the FISA Amendments and Reauthorization Act, they could have united with libertarian-leaning Republicans to block it.

New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and one of the chamber's most ardent defenders of civil liberties, went to the floor of the House on Thursday with a simple request: that members reject the draconian FISA Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 2017. Nader's argument was pointed and powerful:
"When we came to Congress, each of us took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. I ask that each of my colleagues honor that oath today - and that we work together to defeat this bill, and to bring the right set of reforms to the floor without delay."
He explained that the legislation, which has the backing of the White House and Republican leaders in the House, proposed to reauthorize the federal government's surveillance powers without adequate safeguards for the privacy rights of Americans. Noting that the legislation, which is supposed to protect against terror threats, "allows the FBI unfettered access to (federal database) information, for purely domestic cases, without a warrant," Nader asked:
"What does that mean, in the era of Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump? It means that absolutely nothing stops the Department of Justice from trolling the database for evidence that you use marijuana, or failed to pay your taxes, or may be in the country unlawfully, or possess a firearm that you should not have."

Comment: The House has spoken. Deep state is halfway home. Citizens are halfway to being screwed - only if you believe that votes are able to maintain privacy and curtail access to any person, anywhere - is today's reality. More than likely the votes are an exercise in futility, an illusion.

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Pirates

Sanctions, subversion, and color revolutions: The US-directed disruption of elections in Cambodia

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Cambodia elections
After a nearly year-long marathon of daily, acrimonious accusations against Moscow for alleged, yet-to-be proven interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, Washington finds itself increasingly mired in its own hypocrisy - openly and eagerly pursing the very sort of interference abroad in multiple nations regarding elections and internal political affairs it has accused Russia of.

A particularly acute example of this is Cambodia where recently, the government has begun uprooting and expelling US State Department-funded fronts and media organizations as well as arresting members of the US-backed opposition party while disbanding the party itself - for interfering in preparations for upcoming elections.

Comment: For more on the so-called US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), see:

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Camera

New "art selfie" app sparks privacy concerns about Google building facial recognition database


RT
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:27 UTC
Google-orwell
© unknown
A new feature of Google's Art & Culture app, which allows users to find their art doppelganger by uploading a selfie, is being dubbed by some as a "facial recognition database."

The new update to the app, which has been in existence for more than a year, has unleashed a frenzy of activity online as users post images of their painting lookalike.

Comment: The PTB have to smile when the sheeple voluntarily give up even more of their privacy.

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2 + 2 = 4

US traps itself with new Syrian policy: Unsustainable military occupation, pushes Turkey to reinforce Astana agreement


Moon of Alabama
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 22:55 UTC
sdf syria
The Trump administration policy in Syria is finally coming into daylight. It has decided to permanently separate north-east of Syria from the rest of Syria with the rather comical idea that this will keep Iranian influence out of Syria and give the U.S. a voice in a final Syrian settlement. This move lacks strategical foresight:
The U.S.-led Coalition against Islamic State is currently training a force to maintain security along the Syrian border as the operation against ISIS shifts focus. The 30,000-strong force will be partly composed of veteran fighters and operate under the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces, CJTF-OIR told The Defense Post.
...
"The Coalition is working jointly with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to establish and train the new Syrian Border Security Force (BSF). Currently, there are approximately 230 individuals training in the BSF's inaugural class, with the goal of a final force size of approximately 30,000," CJTF-OIR Public Affairs Officer Colonel Thomas F. Veale said.
...
Veale acknowledged that more Kurds will serve in the areas of northern Syria, while more Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq.
The SDF and the Kurds are under control of the PKK/YPK, a terrorist organization that is nearly daily fighting and killing Turkish forces within Turkey. The Arabs which ostensibly shall seal the area against off from the rest of Syria are most likely tribal forces that were earlier aligned with the Islamic State.

Comment: This sums it up nicely: "It goes against everything Trump had said about U.S. engagement in the Middle East. It goes against NATO's interests. There is no legal basis for the move. It has little chance of being sustainable." It's almost as if they're planning to lose on purpose.

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Eye 1

While you weren't looking: 4 privacies you didn't know you lost

James Corbett
Steemit
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 21:13 UTC
britain privacy
We all know that privacy is a thing of the past, right?

Followers of The Corbett Report will see past the metadata lie and the PRISM limited hangout to the underlying reality of the all-pervasive Big Brother surveillance grid. CALEA and the Stellar Wind. The CIA spying on you through your dishwasher. And who can forget the dolls that spy on your children?

Heck, even the normies no longer scoff at the "conspiracy theorists" who warn that every one of your electronic gadgets is listening to everything you say and beaming that information off to third parties. Now they just think that's a good thing. I mean, how do you order a dollhouse for the doll that spies on you? By surfing and clicking? Pfff.

But Alexa and their technocratic police state brethren are only the most obvious examples of how our privacy has been obliterated in recent years (even in our own homes). Here are four privacies you didn't even realize you lost.

Comment:

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Tornado2

Double standards: Rand Paul defends Trump's 'sh*thole' remark, blasts Lindsey Graham's hypocrisy

Cassandra Fairbanks
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Rand Paul
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) defended Donald Trump's "sh-thole" remark and blasted Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for his hypocrisy in the same breath on Sunday morning - like a boss.

Appearing on Meet the Press, Senator Paul was asked about why Trump has not apologized for the immigration remark that sent the mainstream media into a tearful tailspin.

"There are two different standards here, in 2013, Lindsey said the exact same thing that the president did except he used the word 'hell hole,'" Senator Paul said. "'You can't have everybody coming up from every hell hole to here,'" he quoted his colleague as saying.

Comment: Hypocrisy abounds: 7 times Trump critics called Russia a 's***hole' & worse, and no one cared

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Briefcase

Meet the Russia expert who worked on two of Fusion GPS' most controversial projects: Edward Baumgartner

Natasha Bertrand
Business Insider
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 16:15 UTC
PageFeinsteinSimpsonSteeleBaumgartner
© Immoral MInority/Daily Caller/Zero Hedge/LinkedinPage • Feinstein • Simpson • Steele • Baumgartner
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's unilateral release of the Senate Judiciary Committee's August interview with Fusion GPS cofounder Glenn Simpson was applauded by those who called it a win for transparency - and a nail in the coffin of GOP lawmakers' attempts to distract from the probe into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Others, however, viewed the content of Simpson's testimony as validation of a talking point often repeated by President Donald Trump and his allies in the media and Congress: Fusion GPS was working both for the Russians and against Trump - albeit on separate projects - during the 2016 election.

The accusation lacks the necessary nuance - Fusion was working for an American law firm, Baker Hostetler, that had been hired by a Russian holding company, Prevezon, as part of a money laundering case in New York's Southern District court.

Baker Hostetler hired Fusion to look into the wealthy investor Bill Browder, who had told the Justice Department that Prevezon was implicated in a $230 million tax fraud scheme that was uncovered by Browder's tax attorney, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2008. The research Fusion did on Browder made it back to Baker and, inevitably, to Prevezon's Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

In late 2015, Fusion was hired by the Republican megadonor Paul Singer to work on an entirely separate project: opposition research on Trump. That research, according to Simpson's testimony, was done using open-source information and covered a wide range of subjects, including the Trump family's reported use of sweat shops in Asia and South America to produce Trump-branded merchandise.

Comment: Desperate times, desperate measures? A Hail Mary pass? That new information and new players are surfacing late in the game must raise questions. Certainly it was all available months ago if any of it is true. Also, Feinstein's release of the Senate Judiciary Committee's interview, mid-stream in the inquiry, is highly irregular and potentially compromises the integrity of the investigation. Perhaps that is her plan.

See also:

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Stock Up

Economists in agreement: Trump, not Obama, gets credit for booming US economy

Liz Peek
The Hill
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 09:30 UTC
Trumpeffect
© Conservative Refocus/US HotAir/KJN
Who deserves credit for the booming economy? This is not a petty argument. How voters answer the question could well determine whether Democrats retake the House of Representatives come November.

Trump and Obama (and their admirers) are slugging it out, both claiming that it is their policies that have led to the ongoing economic expansion, steady job growth and higher stock prices.

Happily for President Trump, the pros agree with him. A recent survey of economists suggest it is President Trump, and not Obama, who should be taking a bow.

The Wall Street Journal asked 68 business, financial and academic economists who was responsible for the strengthening of the economy, and most "suggested Mr. Trump's election deserves at least some credit" for the upturn. A majority said the president had been "somewhat" or "strongly" positive for job creation, gross domestic product growth and the rising stock market.

The pros cite the White House's push for lighter regulation and the recent tax bill as critical to a pro-growth environment; more than 90 percent of the group thought the tax bill would boost GDP expansion over the next two years.

Comment: Someone ought to tell the Dems..."it's the economy, stupid!" A rising economy is one of the few great mechanisms that can positively impact all levels of society.

See also: Trump's not-so-secret weapon is the economy

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Arrow Up

Trump support among blacks has doubled since 2016, defying racism claims

Neil Munro
Breitbart
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Trump thumbup
© CNN
Two new polls show President Donald Trump's rising support among black voters, highlighting his political gains from pushing employers to hire Americans instead of lower-wage migrants.

The growing support from blacks - despite furious Democratic claims of racism - could become a shocking political validation in November when Trump will face millions of upper-income Democratic voters who are angry at his "Buy American, Hire American" policies.

Among black men, Trump's "2017 average approval rating significantly exceeds his 2016 vote share," admitted a January 11 article in the Atlantic by author Ronald Brownstein. "23 percent of black men approved of Trump's performance versus 11 percent of black women," said the article. That score averages out to 17 percent, or twice the 8 percent score he was given in the 2016 exit polls.

In November 2016, Trump got 13 percent support among black men and 4 percent support among black women, according to the exit polls. That very low support was critical to his victory in the Democrats' now-demolished "Blue Wall" states.

The poll was "a cumulative analysis of 605,172 interviews SurveyMonkey conducted with Americans in 2017," according to the Atlantic.

Comment: Fat cats would naturally want to keep their corner on the market. But it is a scant view that doesn't consider the benefits of Americans being adequately paid and able to spend as consumers, thereby raising the standard of living from the bottom up and across the board. Trump is gaining ground.

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