Puppet MastersS


War Whore

Supporting the jihadists? Netanyahu opposes peace in Syria

Benjamin Netanyahu and Emmanuel Macron
© Stephane Mahe / Reuters

Yesterday, a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded in Paris. At the press conference after the meeting, PM said that Israel rejected the ceasefire in southwestern Syria brokered by Russia and the U.S., Israeli news site Haaretz reported.


Taking such a strange stance, Netanyahu pointed out that the truce agreement in the de-escalation zones increase Iran's presence in Syria. Some sources claim that Tel-Aviv is especially displeased with the fact that the agreement removes the Iranian forces 20 kilometers from the border while Iran's presence in the country is not excluded.

Moreover, Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper quotes some diplomatic sources claiming Iran is up to establish air, land and sea bases in Syria and Lebanon. In its turn, Politico stresses that Israeli politicians are wary of a land corridor in Iran allegedly plans to set up to directly support Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Tehran is one of Israel's main rivals and the recent hysteria about Iran's military presence near Israeli borders seems quite logical. However, is it wise of Netanyahu not only to confront Russia and the U.S. but also to display contempt for peace in a neighboring state?

Comment: Russia tells Israel to 'live with it' on the new Syrian ceasefire


Info

NYT: Bannon and Kushner are privatizing war, outsourcing to Blackwater and DynCorp mercs

Erik Prince Blackwater Mercenary Xi
During the time that U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster were reviewing the U.S. military policy in Afghanistan, The New York Times ran a story on July 10, 2017, that exposed a threat that will upend U.S. defense strategy and return it to a bitter past.

The Times story was centered around the following paragraph: "Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, have developed proposals to rely on contractors instead of American troops in Afghanistan at the behest of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump's chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations."

The history of Blackwater and Dyncorp is one of heinous war crimes in Iraq and the Balkans and massive fraud involving U.S. taxpayers' money in military forays around the world. After coming under investigation for his activities as Blackwater's chief, Prince, whose sister is Donald Trump's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, sold the company and moved his mercenary operations offshore to Abu Dhabi.

Dollar

House Republicans release 2018 budget proposal - Increase military spending while cutting billions in aid for Medicaid and Social Security

Diane Black
© Aaron P. Bernstein / ReutersRep. Diane Black (R-TN) announces the 2018 budget blueprint during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 18, 2017
House Republicans have released their 2018 budget proposal, which they say will balance over the next decade by cutting billions in spending for programs such as Medicaid and Social Security while overhauling the tax code.

On Tuesday, the House Budget Committee released their "Building a Better America" budget blueprint for the fiscal year 2018.

The committee laid out their plan in five steps: balancing the budget within 10 years, promoting economic growth by reducing regulations and reforming the tax code, strengthening national defense through increased spending, returning power back to the states and reforming government programs.

"We believe that these five principles, put into practice, will help us build a better America we can be proud to leave to future generations," House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black (R-Tennessee) wrote in an op-ed for USA Today Tuesday.

Comment: Rand Paul has responded to the budget proposal by calling it a "giant bailout superfund for insurance companies:
"I think the longer the bill is out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it's not a repeal, and the more that everybody is going to discover that it keeps the fundamental flaw of Obamacare." Paul said on CBS' Face The Nation.

As Paul notes, the GOP bill maintains the fundamental flaw of Obamacare which is that this was never about giving people affordable health care and always about making health insurance companies super rich by forcing all Americans to become customers of major health insurance providers.

Through Obamacare, insurance companies are literally using government force to mandate that everyone in the country buy their product, via penalties and threats, and the GOP plan keeps this in place.

"It keeps the insurance mandates that cause the prices to rise, which chase young, healthy people out of the marketplace, and leads to what people call adverse selection, where you have a sicker and sicker insurance pool, and the premiums keep rising through the roof." the Senator urged.



Chess

Chinese vessels escorted by UK, Danish and Dutch navies on way to joint drills with Russia in Baltic Sea

warship
© Ministry of Defence of The Netherlands
British, Dutch and Danish ships have escorted a trio of Chinese vessels which are heading to the Baltic Sea to conduct the first stage of joint drills with Russian ships.

"A Chinese frigate, a supply ship and a destroyer are passing through Danish waters. We are escorting [them] as part of the normal surveillance we have in our territorial waters," Klaus Thing Rasmussen, senior duty officer at the Danish military operations center, told the DR broadcaster.

Rasmussen, however, declined to reveal the exact location of the Chinese ships.

"We sent one unit out to them last night, when they were approaching Danish waters. It will take around a day in total until they leave again near Bornholm, where they entered, and we will escort them the entire way," he said.

"Our position is that there is free passage through the Baltic Sea, and the Danish Navy acts as a stopper in the gap. That means we accompany foreign state vessels as part of our surveillance of Danish waters," he added.

Propaganda

Fake news Russophobia strikes again: Trump confirms G20 dinner chat with Putin, slams 'sick' MSM reports of 'secret talks'

Trump and Putin
© BPA Agency / Reuters
US President Donald Trump lashed out at "sick" media reports that he held a second "undisclosed" meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin at a state dinner during the G20 summit in Germany, saying the press was fully aware of the high-profile event.

"Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is 'sick'. All G20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!" Trump said in an angry tweet, followed by another one saying: "The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!"

The first report about the meeting was apparently provided by Ian Bremmer, president of the global political consultancy Eurasia Group. In a newsletter to group clients, Bremmer reportedly said the meeting began "halfway" into the dinner and lasted "roughly an hour," according to the Washington Post.

"Never in my life as a political scientist have I seen two countries — major countries — with a constellation of national interests that are as dissonant, while the two leaders seem to be doing everything possible to make nice and be close to each other," he told Bloomberg's Charlie Rose.

Comment: Here is the consequence of the media's Russophobia: Straitjacket of Russophobia prevents Trump from returning seized Russian property


Vader

GOP Senator Cotton says U.S. should cheat on Russia-US missile treaty by helping allies make nukes

U.S. missiles
© Department of Defense / WikipediaFILE PHOTO: Pershing II missiles
A Republican senator has proposed a way around the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) between Russia and the US by urging Washington to provide its allies with the technology and assistance to build the very missiles banned by the accord.

The INF Treaty, signed by Soviet Union and the US 1987, bans the testing, production and possession of land-based intermediate-range missiles by both Moscow and Washington.

It enabled the scrapping hundreds of nuclear-tipped missiles deployed in Europe amid the Cold War arms race. The missiles needed so little time to fly in case of an attack, that both sides had virtually no time to react to a launch warning, posing a grave threat of launching a nuclear war by mistake.

However, Senator Tom Cotton, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the US should skirt around the accord during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.

Attention

Straitjacket of Russophobia prevents Trump from returning seized Russian property

Russian compound in New York
© Rashid Umar Abbasi / ReutersA Russian compound, which was ordered to be closed and vacated, is seen in Upper Brookville, Long Island, New York.
The protracted row over the US' seizure of Russian diplomatic property illustrates how Russophobia has become a dangerous impediment to healthy bilateral relations. All contact with Russia is being seen through a prism of anti-Russia hysteria.

Seven months after ex-US President Barack Obama ordered the confiscation of two Russian diplomatic compounds and the expulsion of 35 diplomats and their families, the row trundles on - much to Moscow's vexation.

This week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov held lengthy discussions with US Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon in Washington DC to try to resolve the matter. After two hours of talks, there seems to have been no resolution.

Russia has reportedly said it reserves the right to retaliate by seizing US diplomatic property and expelling American officials.

Info

US oil sector warns Washington over 'unintended consequences' with new anti-Russian penalties

oil platform at sea
© imago stock&people / Global Look Press
A new round of sanctions against Russia approved by the Senate could massively hit the US labor market and oil and gas projects around the world, having "unintended consequences," according to the industry officials, as quoted by the Financial Times.

Last week, the Senate approved legislation banning US individuals and companies from providing goods, services or technology for Arctic offshore or shale projects where Russian companies are "involved."

The step comes as an extension to the penalties introduced against Russia in 2014 over its alleged role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The new measures are reportedly to punish the Kremlin for its alleged interference in the US presidential election.

Top Secret

CIA plans to destroy old records related to leaks

Central Intelligence Agency
© Larry Downing/Reuters
A CIA proposal to destroy files deemed no longer of historical importance has been authorized. Critics are questioning how honest the agency will be when it comes to the purging of potentially serious files.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has authorized the move to dump CIA documents that include classified information that was leaked, according to the Daily Beast.

The plan may be shelved, though, if enough people disapprove. There is a 45-day public comment period during which people can voice their concerns over the CIA plan before it goes into place.

In 2014, The National Security Archive, along with other interest groups, filed objections which blocked a 2014 CIA proposal to destroy the emails of 22 senior agency officials, according to the Daily Beast.

TV

Lousy script: The biggest plot hole In Russiagate is that nobody can even say what it is

Putin and Trump
© AP Photo/ Evan Vucci
After months and months of shrieking about Russian hackers, Kremlin bots, RT propaganda and urinating prostitutes, the dauntless crusaders for the Russiagate conspiracy theory are now crowing that they have at long last been vindicated by a new revelation that has nothing whatsoever to do with any of these things. Today's Shocking Trump-Russia Revelation is that Donald Trump Jr. published his emails with a British tabloid reporter last year who claimed that the Russian government supported Trump over Clinton, and wanted to provide documents to the Trump campaign proving Clinton's connections with the Kremlin.

Leaving aside the fact that no such documents ever surfaced, the fact that none of these manic Russiagaters seem to be remotely curious about their anointed queen's Kremlin connections, the fact that it should surprise no one that Russia preferred Trump over the woman who wanted to set up a no-fly zone in an area where Russian military planes are conducting operations, the fact that the lawyer Trump Jr. met with is nowhere near the Kremlin power broker these people are pretending she is, and the fact that what Trump Jr. was doing is virtually identical to what the Clinton camp was doing at the exact same time — leaving all of that aside — the single biggest plot hole in this Trump-Russia collusion narrative is that nobody has ever painted a clear picture of what specifically said collusion is meant to have looked like. The fact that Trump Jr.'s emails don't fit with any part of the preexisting Russiagate narrative, don't confirm anything the Russiagaters have been saying about what happened, and never manifested in any actual released documents of Clinton-Russia connections doesn't seem to bother these people at all.