Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

2017 has been worst year of US-Russia relations 'since fall of the Berlin Wall'

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:10 UTC
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump
© Reuters / Jorge SilvaVladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017.
On this day 12 months ago, Moscow held off from retaliating to Barack Obama's diplomatic parting shot, in hope of a new start. Instead, 2017 has been the worst year of US-Russia relations since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Three weeks before leaving the Oval Office, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Moscow-owned properties in the US over claims of election meddling. Counter-measures were expected.

"I invite all children of US diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas children's parties in the Kremlin," Russian President Vladimir Putin announced instead, capitalizing on the moment to show unexpected festive magnanimity.
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X

Syrian Army liberates town after town in Idlib province from terrorists


Fort Russ
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:10 UTC
tiger forces
The Syrian Army, primarily the units of the elite Tiger Forces and 4th Mechanized Division, have continued their impressive run against the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front and continue to liberate town after town in the Idlib-Hama province axis.

Just less then an hour ago the Syrian Army liberated the crucial town of Abu Dali that lies on a strategic juncture on the southeast countryside of Idlib province. Full details of that can be read here.

However, the Syrian Army wasted no time at all, and then went onto also liberate the village of Hamdaniyah.
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Wolf

UK baroness: Ex-PM Lloyd George would probably have been sacked for sexual harassment


RT
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:17 UTC
Lloyd George
© Scherl/ Global Look PressLloyd George, former Britain’s Prime Minister
David Lloyd George would probably have been sacked over his attitude towards women if he were still in office today, a Conservative peer has claimed. Baroness Trumpington has claimed the ex-PM "measured" her in her teen years.

Trumpington told the BBC Today program that Lloyd George, who served as Britain's Prime Minister in the early 20th century, liked to survey "pretty well all" of her body with a tape measure as she worked on his farm in Churt, Surrey, at the age of 17.

The revelation comes as Westminster reels from a series of sexual harassment scandals, with allegations of inappropriate behaviour forcing cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Damian Green to resign.
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Black Cat

Huma Abedin cousin convicted in shareholder fraud case involving fake emails

Benjamin Brown
Fox News
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:08 UTC
Huma Abedin
© Getty ImagesHuma Abedin, longtime aide to former US Secretary of State and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Huma Abedin's first cousin, Omar Amanat, was convicted of fraud on Tuesday and could face over a decade in prison.

A first cousin of Huma Abedin, a former aide to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and soon to be ex-wife of disgraced former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, was convicted Tuesday in a fraud case involving fake emails.

Omar Amanat, 44, and his colleague Kaleil Tuzman face more than a decade in prison after a jury in New York City found the pair guilty of cooking the books and defrauding shareholders of the technology company Kit Digital between 2010 and 2012.

Amanat's brother, Irfan Amana, was also arrested in the United Arab Emirates and faces charges of fraud with the same tech firm, the New York Post reported.

Comment: Illegal emails seem to run in the family.

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Megaphone

Kremlin calls Tillerson's New York Times op-ed 'confrontational' and 'fake news'

Cortney O'Brien
Townhall
Thu, 28 Dec 2017 08:30 UTC
trump tillerson
As expected, the Kremlin did not respond kindly to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's no holds barred op-ed in The New York Times Wednesday. In the piece, entitled, "I Am Proud of Our Diplomacy," Tillerson condemns Russia for undermining U.S. elections and worsening relations between the two countries.
On Russia, we have no illusions about the regime we are dealing with. The United States today has a poor relationship with a resurgent Russia that has invaded its neighbors Georgia and Ukraine in the last decade and undermined the sovereignty of Western nations by meddling in our election and others'. The appointment of Kurt Volker, a former NATO ambassador, as special representative for Ukraine reflects our commitment to restoring the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Absent a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine situation, which must begin with Russia's adherence to the Minsk agreements, there cannot be business as usual with Russia. (New York Times)
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, accused Tillerson of using "a language of coercion," according to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who was reporting from Moscow. The op-ed was "confrontational" and "fake news," other Russian spokesmen noted.

Comment: Moscow is right to call it confrontational and fake news. It's Kiev that didn't want to hold up their end of the deal. As for Georgia, it was the US that created that situation in the first place. Election meddling? Nope. And Kurt Volker seems only interested in sending weapons to the Ukraine instead of actually working towards a resolution. Looks like Tillerson isn't ready to get off the "blame Russia" merry-go-round just yet.

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Георгиевская ленточка

'Russia doesn't want liberal democracy, but patriotism!' RT interview with controversial thinker Alexander Dugin


RT
Fri, 29 Dec 2017 14:00 UTC
Alexander Dugin RT interview
© RTAlexander Dugin in RT interview
The West paints him as Kremlin's top ideologue, but the philosophy of "Neo-Eurasianist" academic Alexander Dugin is considered radical even by staunch Russophiles. RT sat down for a no-holds-barred interview.

"The Western mind doesn't understand the Russian mind. They blame us for not being Western, and praise any aspect of us that resembles the Western way of life. That's a very unproductive attitude," Dugin told 'Worlds Apart' host Oksana Boyko during a half-hour sit-down talk in Moscow.

The former head of the department of sociology of international relations at Moscow State University says that at its "profound" level, Russian society rejects "poisonous" values such as individualism, liberal democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

"Russia does not want a liberal democratic leader. We first of all want to have a strong, powerful and patriotic leader that could restore the glory of our country, and our international independence," said Dugin, who has served as an advisor to several politicians, but has never enjoyed official endorsement from the Kremlin.
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Attention

DOJ ignores deadline to turn over documents to Congress on dodgy dossier

Katie Pavlich
Townhall
Fri, 29 Dec 2017 14:45 UTC
Rod Ronstein
Rod Ronstein
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is blasting the Department of Justice and FBI after officials ignored congressional subpoenas and blew through a deadline to turn over documents related to the infamous Fusion GPS dossier.

In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Nunes points out that not only did DOJ mislead his Committee about the existence of documents, they also unlawfully failed to comply with congressional requests.

"Several weeks ago, DOJ informed the Committee that the basic investigatory documents demanded by the subpoenas, FBI Form FD-302 interview summaries, did not exist. However, shortly before my meeting with you in early December, DOJ subsequently located and produced numerous FD-302s pertaining to the Steele dossier, thereby rendering the initial response disingenuous at best," Nunes wrote.

Comment: It seems Nunes ain't messin' around! But it seems unlikely the DOJ/FBI are going to take the January 3rd deadline any more seriously than they've taken previous deadlines which they ignored. Perhaps Nunes is going to have to put his money where his mouth is and actually file the contempt charges. Get your popcorn, folks! We might actually see some swamp-draining yet!

See also:

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Blue Planet

Russia to import strawberries from Gaza for the first time following years of Israeli sabotage

Khaled Abu Amer
Al-Monitor
Thu, 28 Dec 2017 12:00 UTC
Eldery #Palestinian woman sells Strawberry in #Gaza streets
Eldery Palestinian woman sells Strawberry in Gaza streets
The strawberry harvest season in the Gaza Strip is underway. Farmers call the fruit "red gold" given the high revenues they make from exporting it to foreign markets between December and April every year.

Russia is preparing to import the first cargo of strawberries from Gaza for the first time, according to Ahmed al-Shafey, the CEO of the Gaza Agricultural Cooperative for Producing & Marketing, which specializes in planting and exporting agricultural products.

Shafey told Al-Monitor, "Russian companies have set their local marketing plans for the importation of strawberries from Gaza. The total exports is estimated to reach 15 tons worth $76,500 by April 2018."
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Bullseye

SOTT Focus: The American People Are Coming to Terms With The Fact That Their Government Is A Dictatorship

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
pulling the strings
Gallup headlined on December 18th, "Americans View Government as Nation's Top Problem in 2017". Their report made clear that though this finding was unprecedented, it's part of a longer-term trend, toward Americans naming America's own "government as the most important problem facing the nation." In a democracy, the public do not view the nation's government to be (as in America) their enemy (which is the case if they view the "government as the most important problem facing the nation"). Americans increasingly view the Government as their enemy.

In a dictatorship, only the people who control the government are satisfied with the government; but, in a democracy, the public are satisfied with the government - or else that government will be replaced in elections by people who control the government and who do provide government that the public approve of. In the United States, we're instead moving in the exact opposite direction: steadily going from one government to another, none of which wins the public's approval; and the present American government winning the public's approval even less than its predecessors did. This is not the situation that exists in authentic democracies. It's what one expects to find in a country that's ruled by a dictatorship. Dictators don't need to worry so much about polls, because they don't represent the public; they exploit the public - they use the public.
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Clipboard

10 times the US intelligence community ran completely amok

Matt Vespa
Townhall
Thu, 28 Dec 2017 13:00 UTC
CIA seal
Since the 2016 election, the intelligence community has been under greater scrutiny - and for good reason. The leaks emanating from this cadre of professionals in D.C. was not exposing government malfeasance from the Trump administration, but classified information that was putting America's national security interests at stake. It seemed to have been done to hamstring a new administration. As apolitical operatives, this was not their job. If you can't handle working under a new administration, then resign. Leaking to undercut the Trump presidency because you're sore about Hillary Clinton losing is not an act of patriotism. Former investigative journalist for CBS News Sharyl Attkisson listed ten instances in which the intelligence community reportedly ran amok-and some of these instances occurred way before Trump even considered running for president (via The Hill):
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