Puppet MastersS


Attention

Tightening the reins: Beijing begins limiting trade with North Korea in compliance with UN sanctions


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:39 UTC
Cargo ship Huangpu river
© Reinhard Kaufhold / Gettyimages.ruA cargo ship sails on the Huangpu river in front of the modern centre of Shanghai
Beijing has tightened restrictions on exports to North Korea, in compliance with UN sanctions against Pyongyang, limiting further oil supplies and banning imports of its steel and of other goods.

China, North Korea's main economic lifeline, will impose bans on exports of iron, steel and other metals, as well as on industrial machinery and transport vehicles to North Korea, from January 6, its Commerce Ministry stated on Friday. Crude oil and refined petroleum supplies will be also capped, in accordance with the restrictions imposed earlier by the UN.

Some North Korean exports to China will also be restricted, including equipment, grain, timber and other agricultural products. Those goods that had been sent prior to the sanctions imposed on December 23 must be released by customs no later than January 24.
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Megaphone

Iranian prosecutor blames CIA, Israel and Saudi Arabia for stoking unrest


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:56 UTC
anti-government Iran protesters
© Lucy Nicholson / ReutersPeople protest in Los Angeles, California, U.S., in support of anti-government protesters in Iran
Iran's public prosecutor has blamed the CIA, Israel and Saudi Arabia for stirring unrest in the Islamic Republic which resulted in the deaths of more than 20 people over the last week.

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Thursday that the "main protector" of the agitation plan was an American national called Michael Andrea, a man he claims is a former CIA agent who formed a group tasked with fermenting discord in the country.

The state prosecutor also pointed to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Montazeri is quoted in Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying that Andrea, and an unnamed officer affiliated with Israel's spy agency Mossad, masterminded the plot dubbed the 'Consequential Convergence Doctrine' and that Saudi Arabia picked up the bill.

Montazeri's comments echo those of the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who earlier claimed that enemies of Iran are using money, weapons and political warfare to create problems for the country's leaders.

Comment: Trump's Jerusalem Card and the 'Obama-Hezbollah' Scandal

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Snakes in Suits

MPs in Westminster sex scandal need 'only to apologize' or take anti-sexual harassment training


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:46 UTC
Houses of Parliament
© Nigel Roddis / ReutersThe Houses of Parliament are seen on the bank of the River Thames at night in central London
A leaked report has revealed that the UK's parliament may only expect MPs accused of sexual harassment to say sorry to their victims - not to resign. Campaigners have hit, warning that the issue is being swept under the rug.

The draft report, by the cross-party group established to stamp out sexual harassment in Westminster after a wave of allegations in recent months, was leaked on Thursday.

Six male politicians have resigned or have been suspended from duty following allegations of sexual misconduct. One of those six men, Welsh AM Carl Sargeant, hanged himself in his family home four days after being removed from the Welsh Labour Party.

The leaked document admits that a "range of sanctions" will be required to address the inappropriate behavior that appears to be rife - but in the short term, MPs need only attend an anti-sexual harassment training session or apologize to those they have harangued or pestered for sex.
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Stock Up

Trump Effect: Dow Jones index reaches 25,000 for first time ever, report shows 25,000 private sector jobs added in December


RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 15:37 UTC
stock trader
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Wall Street opened with a bang, with the Dow soaring past 25,000 points for the first time ever, following a job data report showing the private sector added 250,000 jobs in December.

The Dow composite, a stock index from Dow Jones Indexes that tracks 65 prominent companies, shot up 0.55 percent, or 38 points, to 25,060.88 Thursday.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter after learning of the news and attributed the historic rise in the stock market to past regulation cuts he set forth as president. He also promised more were on the way.

As the Dow reached its milestone, the S&P 500, a stock market index based on the market capitalizations of 500 large companies with common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, also rose 0.46 percent, or 12 points, as of 9:58am ET Thursday, according to Investing.com
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Chess

While MSM focuses on 'red buttons' Kim Jong-un embraces peace talks with S. Korea

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:27 UTC
Kim Jong-un
In his New Year address Kim Jong-un embraced the Russian-Chinese proposal for direct talks between the two Koreas to settle their conflict

Kim Jong-un's New Year address to the Korean nation - addressed pointedly to all Koreans, not just to those who live in the North but also to those who live in the South - has mainly attracted Western attention because of his inflammatory comments about the nuclear button on his desk.

North Korea's own official account of Kim Jong-un's address shows however that these were only passing words. Instead the speech's primary focus was the diplomatic initiative Kim Jong-un extended to South Korea.

Comment: RT reports that the two countries have agreed to meet on January 9th. Predictably, the US snubs the talks as attempts by North Korea to 'drive a wedge' between the US and South Korea. If anyone is cynically driving a wedge here it's the US, who has no business determining the affairs of the peninsula whatsoever. The empire stubbornly persists in the delusional belief that the peninsula is still an 'open door' to containing China, and to its own detriment.

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Cell Phone

White House bans personal cell phones for staff & guests, citing security and integrity concerns


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:58 UTC
Kellyanne Conway
© Jonathan Ernst / ReutersFILE PHOTO. Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway (L) with her phone in the Oval Office at the White House.
The White House has imposed a ban on personal cell phones for employees and visitors in the West Wing, which houses the offices of the US President, citing "security and integrity" concerns.

Both the staffers and guests will have to hand over their personal mobile devices to security before entering the West Wing of the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Thursday. It remains unclear whether the new rule will affect the US president Donald Trump himself, or he'll be an exempt from it.
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Arrow Down

Ecuador FM: Assange still has Ecuador's protection, but his health is deteriorating


Andes.info.ec
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:27 UTC
Assange silenced
Assange’s health is deteriorated after five years and a half, said foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
Ecuador's foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa affirmed Wednesday that Julian Assange's health is deteriorated after five years and half of being holed up in the Andean country's embassy in London.

"His health is really deteriorated which is what occurs to a person who has been holed up for five years and a half in a place the size of an office which is not appropriate to have a normal life," said Espinosa without further detail.

Talking to media, the Ecuadorian official added that the 46-year-old Australian journalist is living in a very difficult and concerning situation and ratified that his government will continue to offer him protection.

Comment: Meanwhile US authorities continue to threaten Assange for publishing Clinton's emails. As the Daily Mail reported in December 2017, this includes 'three congressional probes and a federal criminal inquiry'. Assange's lawyer is still waiting for Mueller to call:
Pollack is a criminal defense lawyer at Miller and Chavalier and Assange's personal attorney for criminal matters in the United States-he has no direct association with WikiLeaks. For years he has tried to learn what actions, if any, the US government intends to take toward his client following WikiLeaks' 2010 release of more than 250,000 classified diplomatic and military cables passed to the organization by Chelsea Manning.

"It continues to be status quo. The Department of Justice will not engage with me. They will not tell me what they're doing, where are they are in the process, any information whatsoever, and have always told me if and when they get to the point where there's something to discuss, they know where to find me," Pollack says. "My phone has not been ringing."
Holed up in a room with the American empire breathing down one's neck would be bad for anyone's health. However, it's worth remembering what Wikileaks tweeted in January of 2017:



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X

Trump dissolves voter fraud commission


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 23:56 UTC
we voted
© pix-hd.com/KJN
President Donald Trump has signed an order to collapse his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The Trump administration had faced opposition or limited cooperation from most states, when the commission controversially requested voter information, such as Social Security numbers and addresses.

In a statement, the White House said,
"Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry. Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next courses of action."
After announcing that he was dissolving the committee, Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that the "system is rigged, must go to Voter ID," adding that it was "mostly Democratic states" that refused to share voter data because "they know that many people are voting illegally."

Only Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Washington State had complied with all of the commission's requests. California, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico and South Carolina had all signaled their unwillingness to cooperate.

Comment: Apparently civil-rights groups are happy that the fraud commission is now dead:
Civil-rights groups celebrated the end of the commission. Dale Ho of the ACLU voting rights project called the panel "a sham from the start." Vanita Gupta, formerly the head of the Obama-era civil-rights division and head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the commission was "a political ploy to provide cover for the president's wild and unfounded claims of mass voter fraud, and to lay the foundation to purge eligible voters from the rolls." Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, one of the groups that sued the commission, said the panel was "launched with the singular purpose of laying the groundwork to promote voter suppression policies on a national scale," adding that its disbanding was "a victory for those who are concerned about ensuring access to the ballot box."
Are they so naive that they think the US electoral system is 'fraud-proof' and 'that couldn't happen here'?

See also: US court rejects advocacy group challenge to Trump's voter fraud commission

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Flashlight

US District Judge rules Fusion GPS to turn over banking records


The Last Refuge
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 12:13 UTC
Nunes and Fusion GPS
U.S. District Judge Richard J Leon ruled today that Fusion-GPS must turn over their banking records as required under the existing congressional subpoena.

Fusion GPS had sought an injunction from the federal court blocking the U.S. House Intelligence Committee from forcing them to provide banking records related to their 2016 opposition research work on Russia related matters.

In a 26-page-ruling (full pdf) Judge Leon rebuked each of the Fusion GPS reasons for the injunction and ruled the subpoena from the congressional committee was appropriate, proper and lawful.

This is critical and presents a joint approach toward the entire scheme. At the same time the Judicial Committees are focusing on the DOJ and FBI and how they used the FISA court, the House Intel Committee is focusing on the underlying documents, research and evidence behind the manipulated FISA warrant. Splendid.
Fusion GPS vs House Committee ruling

Comment: This is significant because back in November Fusion GPS founder Glen Simpson was said to be caught withholding 112 Fusion GPS transactions related to the Russia probe.

Update: All documents were handed over on Friday, January 5.

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Bell

Get Your Hands Off Our Weed: Republicans disapprove of Sessions marijuana directive

Gideon Resnick
Daily Beast
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 17:49 UTC
Jeff Sessions
© SAUL LOEB/GettyAttorney General Jeff Sessions las week abandoned the Justice Department's effort to ed debtors' prisons.


The attorney general announced a new marijuana directive on Thursday. And he forgot to tell anyone in advance.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pulled off something that would have been unthinkable just a few years back: he managed to rally Republican lawmakers behind weed.

Sessions announced on Thursday that he would be rescinding a policy from the Obama administration that had discouraged prosecutors in states where marijuana was legalized from bringing charges for marijuana-related crimes, unless they involved distribution to minors, revenue sale benefiting gangs or cartels and a few other federal priorities. In its place, federal prosecutors would be given discretion (not guidance) to pursue marijuana-related prosecutions.

The announcement was a reversal of a memo authored by former Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2013, who wrote the Obama-era guidelines after Colorado and Washington voted to decriminalize marijuana for recreational use. And it managed to tick off a number of lawmakers from those states as well as the eight others - in addition to Washington D.C. - who have voted to legalize recreational marijuana use since.

Comment: More on the ephemeral status of marijuana policy in the US:

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