Puppet MastersS


Nuke

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry warns of the dangers of the new Cold War

Gregory Clay
Inside Sources
Wed, 13 Dec 2017 15:46 UTC
William Perry
Moving. Powerful. Frightening.

That sounds like descriptions of movie scenes from World War II Britain's "Darkest Hour." This time, the scene was a state-of-the-nuclear-age speech by William Perry, former secretary of defense, during the Bill Clinton administration.

Perry spoke all things nuclear - threats, blunders, miscalculations, technology - on the globe since World War II ended and the Cold War began. His view of today's world is what left a rapt audience spellbound when listening to the former head of the Pentagon. Perry went all biblical in his message, using the analogy of Noah and his carpenters building an ark to survive epic flooding.

"Today, inexplicably to me, we are re-creating the geopolitical hostility of the Cold War and we are rebuilding the nuclear dangers of the Cold War. We are doing this without any serious public discussion or any real understanding of the consequences of these actions.

Comment:

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Megaphone

New Czech PM: EU push to force country to accept asylum-seekers will only fuel rise of populists

Simon Marks
Politico
Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:22 UTC
Andrej Babiš
© Michel Cizek/AFP via Getty ImagesAndrej Babiš
The Czech Republic's Prime Minister-designate Andrej Babiš fired back at the European Union over its decision to sue the country for not complying with the bloc's migration policies.

In an interview published Saturday by the Pravo newspaper, Babiš said the EU's push to force his country to accept asylum-seekers would only fuel the rise of extremist parties.

"The (European) Commission can withdraw the charge at any moment. We have to negotiate on this and to offer different models, like guarding the borders or help to other countries. But we don't want any refugees," Babiš said, according to Reuters.

The Commission said Thursday it would take Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Court of Justice over their refusal to take in asylum seekers.

The Commission also took legal proceedings over Hungary's asylum law to the next step, by issuing a formal request for Budapest to comply with EU rules. It said Budapest's response to a Commission letter expressing concerns about the law was "found to be unsatisfactory as it failed to address the majority of the concerns."
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Star of David

Israel and US risk uniting entire Arab world against them with Jerusalem decision

Patrick Cockburn
Counterpunch
Mon, 11 Dec 2017 15:11 UTC
dome of the rock
© Kristoffer Trolle | CC BY 2.0
President Trump and the Israeli government will have foreseen and discounted a Palestinian "day of rage" and protests among Muslims everywhere in the wake of the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and plans to move its embassy there. They assume that this will all blow over because US allies such as the rulers of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt will be satisfied with pro-forma protests, and the Palestinians are too weak to do anything except demonstrate ineffectively.

The US and Israel could be miscalculating: when I lived in Jerusalem I came to believe that many dramatic events in Israel, such as shootings and bombings, often had less effect than the outside world expected. But anything involving Jerusalem itself, and above all its Muslim holy sites, had a much bigger impact than anybody had imagined.

The immediate consequence of Trump's action is that the US becomes weaker because it has carried out another initiative of which the rest of the world disapproves. A superpower at the height of its strength might get away with such a demarche, but not a politically divided US, its influence already ebbing because of failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The move is so obviously against US foreign policy interests that it will further persuade other world leaders that Trump is an impossible ally.
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Stop

FCC votes to repeal 'Net Neutrality' amid widespread protests


RT
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 13:21 UTC
Net neutrality
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersNet neutrality advocates rally in front of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ahead of Thursday's vote in Washington, US, December 13, 2017
The Federal Communications Commission has voted to repeal the rules classifying internet providers as public utilities. Critics say this will lead to pay-for-play behavior by providers, while FCC chair argues it will benefit consumers.

The Republican-majority commission voted along party lines on Thursday to repeal the 2015 rules adopted under the Obama administration, which classified ISPs as public utilities under a 1934 law intended to regulate telephone service. FCC chairman Ajit Pai has argued that these "heavy-handed" regulations throttled investment and innovation and harmed poor and rural consumers.

"This is not Thunderdome. The FCC is not killing the internet," Commissioner Brendan Carr said at the hearing on Thursday. "We are not relying on market forces alone. We are not giving ISPs free reign to dictate your online experience."
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Propaganda

Over 90% of 'Fake News' media's coverage of Trump is negative


NTK Network
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 13:21 UTC
Trump fake news
The media's coverage of President Donald Trump and his administration since September has been 90 percent negative, according to a study released by the Media Research Center on Monday.

Trump has taken to Twitter often to blast members of the media for their false reporting about his administration and campaign, and the press has become fixated with trying to take down Trump by repeatedly reporting on stories that paint Trump in a negative light.

The coverage of Trump on "ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in September, October and November was more than 90 percent negative," according to the report.
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USA

Russiagate and the collapse of Barack Obama's war on Syria

Glenn Ford
Black Agenda Report
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:02 UTC
Putin Obama
Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama
"Russia-gate" is the scream of a wounded U.S. empire - a military colossus that can destroy the planet many times over but was defeated in its war of regime change in Syria, despite killing half a million people and displacing a third of its population. Barack Obama was packaged as a "peace" candidate, but his real objective was to reverse the humiliation of his predecessor's forced withdrawal from Iraq and thus maintain the image and substance of U.S. "primacy" in the world. U.S. public opinion, however, would not tolerate another massive mobilization of American ground forces in the region. Instead, Obama and his secretary of state and would-be successor, Hillary Clinton, partnered with the monarchies of the Persian Gulf, the most backward regimes on the planet, to transform the various flavors of al Qaida into a pro-western foreign legion: foot solders of imperialism.

The nature of the obscene alliance -- although impossible to fully conceal, and rooted in U.S. policy since Jimmy Carter's presidency -- could not be spoken. Americans are conditioned to hate and fear all things Arab and Muslim (and, indeed, all people's not sufficiently "white"). How could a U.S. administration align itself with the same forces that were blamed for 9/11? The same people that the CIA claimed had been harbored by Saddam Hussein? The same madmen that, we are told, want to kill Americans because they hate "our freedoms"? That's way too much boggling for most American minds.

Comment: It is a matter of time before the US empire collapses to the ground completely. Hopefully, this will happen relatively peacefully and not with a major war as a catalyst.

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Rocket

Hear that Nikki? ISIS got a powerful missile the CIA secretly bought in Bulgaria

Aram Roston
Buzz Feed News
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 11:29 UTC
ISIS militants march in Syria in 2014.
© ReutersISIS militants march in Syria in 2014.


A new report on how ISIS built its arsenal highlights how the US purchased munitions, intended for Syrian rebels, that ended up in the hands of the terrorist group.

A guided anti-tank missile ended up in the hands of ISIS terrorists less than two months after the US government purchased it in late 2015 - highlighting weaknesses in the oversight and regulation of America's covert arms programs, according to information published Thursday by an arms monitoring group called Conflict Armament Research (CAR).

Though the report says the missile was purchased by the US Army using a contractor, BuzzFeed News has learned that the real customer appears to have been the CIA. It was part of the spy agency's top secret operation to arm rebels in Syria to fight the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The missile ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters in Iraq, according to the report.

Comment: This is rich, considering that yesterday Nikki Haley tried to pull a 'Colin Powell' by accusing Iran of providing a missile that Yemeni rebels used to target the Riyahd airport:
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has described Iran as a "global threat" in a news conference outlining evidence of the nation's "destabilizing behavior" in the Middle East. [...]

She said missiles from Iran have been found in war zones across the Middle East.

"It's hard to find a conflict or a terrorist group in the Middle East that does not have Iran's fingerprints all over it."

Nikki Haley Iran UN
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley briefs the media in front of remains of Iranian "Qiam" ballistic missile provided by Pentagon at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, U.S., December 14, 2017
Can we call the US a global threat now Nikki?

More on the CAR investigation here:

New investigation concludes US and EU weapons boosted 'quantity & quality' of ISIS arsenal

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Fire

'Wunderkinds' Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince wreak havoc

Finian Cunningham
Strastegic Culture Foundation
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:01 UTC
American admin and Saudis
© Joseph Bahout - Twitter
Donald Trump's rash declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is so out of whack with global opinion and decades of international legal rulings, one has to surmise that the initiative stems from dubious inspiration.

Turns out that the likely authors of the harebrained idea are Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner (36), and 32-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS).

Kushner, a dodgy property dealer with no diplomatic experience, is Trump's unelected top aide, assigned to seal the "deal of the century" - meaning bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Comment: See also:

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Stormtrooper

What could possibly go wrong? Mexico one step closer to legalizing military state


Tele Sur
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 10:59 UTC
Mexico demonstration security bill law internal actor Diego Luna
© ReutersMexican actor Diego Luna marches as he protests against a new security bill, Law of Internal Security, in Mexico City, Mexico, December 13, 2017.


A special committee within the Mexican House of Representatives approved the latest version of the controversial Internal Security Bill.

A special committee within the Mexican House of Representatives has approved the latest version of the controversial Internal Security Bill, inciting heavy criticism from national and international human rights organizations.

In a joint press release, the National Commission of Human Rights, NCHR, and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Mexico, UNHCHR Mexico, said the law, if passed, is "highly worrying to the respect for human rights in Mexico."

A slightly different version of the bill was passed by the Senate two weeks ago.

Comment: Mass demonstrations, protests and road blockages in Mexico happen on a daily basis - including in Mexico City, which is relatively peaceful compared to the rest of the country. Next year, there will be a presidential election that will be very contested, bearing in mind that the PRI ruling party has a history of rigging elections and everybody knows this. Mass protests, contested elections, the military on the streets, and on top of this high levels of insecurity... You can see where this is going, can't you?

See also:

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Blackbox

World bank to end financing of oil and gas projects after 2019, except for in certain countries

Michel Rose
Reuters
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 13:58 UTC
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the Elysee Palace as part of the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, December 12, 2017.
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the Elysee Palace as part of the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, December 12, 2017.
The World Bank will no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances, it said on Tuesday, drawing praise from environmental groups.

The announcement came as French President Emmanuel Macron told dozens of world leaders and company executives at a climate summit that they were losing the battle against climate change and needed to react.


Comment: Meet Emmanuel Macron: Rothschild banker, Bilderberger, 'anti-Establishment' candidate in French election

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