Puppet MastersS

Bullseye

Russian Foreign Ministry: 2018 Olympics bans yet another attempt to "isolate" the country

Olympic Committee
© Anton Denisov / Sputnik
The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to ban the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) from the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang is yet another attempt to "isolate" the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The IOC ban, which allows Russian athletes to compete only as neutrals in the February Olympics, shows how Russia is forcefully "squeezed out of world sports," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. While previous attempts to isolate the country failed, the 2018 Olympics ban came as a new plan, the official said.

Comment: Zakharova on IOC decision to bar Russia from 2018 Olympics: "We always survive"


Info

'No change of heart' for McConnell; Roy Moore will 'immediately' face an ethics committee if elected

mcconnell
© AP
Tuesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said when he said the people of Alabama would decide if Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore wins the special election on December 12, it did not signal a "change of heart."

McConnell said, "There has been no change of heart. I had hoped earlier he would withdraw as a candidate. That obviously is not going to happen. If he were to be elected, he will immediately have an ethics committee case. And the committee would look at the situation and give us advice."

Comment: Guess a 'toxic' heart isn't so easy to change. So when McConnell said they were going to let the people of Alabama decide on Moore, what he really meant was that he'll attempt to nab Moore afterwards, if the people make the 'wrong' decision. See also:


Light Saber

Zakharova on IOC decision to bar Russia from 2018 Olympics: "We always survive"

The IOC announced on Tuesday its decision to ban the Russian national team from taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

Maria Zakharova
© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASSRussian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Decisions made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday to bar the national Russian team from the 2018 Olympics will not knock Russia out, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

"One can only imagine what we have suffered from our 'partners,'" she wrote on her Facebook account. "But they cannot knock us out. Neither by means of a world war nor by means of tearing down the Soviet Union nor by means sanctions... We always survive."

Better Earth

Russia's victory in Syria births a new era in the Middle East

Assad Putin
© The Saker
With the liberation of Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border, the last Syrian town controlled by ISIS, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have completed the task of eliminating the Caliphate and its control over Syrian cities.

ISIS returns to its original dimensions of being a terrorist organization without control of any territory or a city-state proclaimed as its capital.


These are important days, with political conferences about the future of the region and Syria itself occurring from Sochi to Cairo and passing through Riyadh. In Sochi, Assad met with Putin to confirm the alliance as well as Moscow's loyalty to the Syrian State, and to also focus on a political solution. The Russian and Syrian presidents agreed on the need to involve the largest possible number of opposition groups in the reform process. In this regard, the meeting between Rouhani, Erdogan and Putin was also aimed at creating the conditions for an inclusive solution for all those who have agreed to put down arms and engage in talks with the legitimate government in Damascus. Turkey is the country that holds together the ranks of the so-called legitimate opposition, and Erdogan's moves have confirmed that his strategy in the region is based around pivoting towards Russia through a full-fledged cooperation with Moscow. It is an almost unprecedented diplomatic victory for Russia that in two years it has managed to turn a potential opponent into one of the main guarantors of the peace process in Syria.


Whistle

Chelsea Handler says Sarah Huckabee Sanders a 'harlot' wearing 'summer whore lipstick'

Chelsea Handler and Sarah Huckabee Sanders
© AP/AP

Left-wing comedian Chelsea Handler made a series of lewd remarks about White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during the latest episode of her recently canceled Netflix series Chelsea.

"That Harlot that they're dressing up and trolloping out every day?" Handler said on last Friday's episode in reference to Sanders. "I mean, one day she has no makeup on at all, the next she has six foot long eyelashes, she's got cleavage and summer whore lipstick all over her face. Can you believe what they turned her into? A proper trollop."

Comment: This isn't the first time Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been the victim of harsh words from the liberal left, even recently being accused on Twitter of lying about a pie she had baked (yes, seriously). This is simply the latest example of how reporters and celebs will criticize Trump administration figures over the tiniest of details, complete with social media ridicule. But don't worry, it seems Sanders is perfectly capable of defending herself. See:


Bizarro Earth

Yemen's former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, killed in Sanaa after making 'peace overtures' to Saudis

Ali Abdullah Saleh became an ally of the Houthis after Yemen's civil war began in 2015
© EPA ImageAli Abdullah Saleh became an ally of the Houthis after Yemen's civil war began in 2015
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed amid fighting between his supporters and their former allies, the Houthi rebel movement.

Officials from Mr Saleh's General People's Congress party said he died in an attack south of the capital, Sanaa.

The Houthis' leader hailed the news as a "great and significant occasion".


Brick Wall

Russia reportedly spent more than $25 million preparing its athletes for the 2018 Winter Olympics

Vladimir Putin Olympics
© Kremlin Press Service
Russia spent at least 1.5 billion rubles ($25.5 million) on preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, according to a new investigation by the magazine RBC, and now the International Olympic Committee has suspended Russia's national team next year because of doping violations. Meduza summarizes RBC's findings.

RBC found that the costs for preparing Russia's Olympic athletes falls primarily on two sources: the government and corporate sponsors. The state channeled funding through the Sports Ministry and through regional sports committees, financing the construction and renovation of athletic centers, training facilities, and stadiums throughout the country, while organizing local and national competitions. The government also allocates money to pay salaries to coaches and physicians and stipends to the athletes themselves.

A nongovernmental organization called the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which manages all private donations to the country's Olympic preparations, is directly responsible for forming and developing Russia's national team. The organization hires foreign specialists and covers Russian athletes' travel and living fees abroad. More than half the ROC's budget consists of donations from Gazprom in 2014.

Comment: The decision to ban Russia from the next Winter Olympics was obviously politicized. If a number of Russian athletes dope themselves, you can be absolutely certain that most of the rest of the world does too. It is simply common practice in the Olympic sphere to see who can get away the most with cheating. Indeed, there had been cases in the past of single athletes or entire teams from several different countries caught cheating. But how often is it that an entire country is banned? In this case, a country which normally does pretty well in the medal ranking, and which has recently been the target of a Western campaign to demonize it. More info here:


Dollar

Best of the Web: US Military invests $100m in 'genetic extinction' technologies, should Russia be concerned?

mosquito bite
© dr_relling/Flickr, CC BY-SACutting-edge gene editing tools could be used to distort the sex-ratio of mosquitoes to effectively wipe out malarial populations.
A US military agency is investing $100m in genetic extinction technologies that could wipe out malarial mosquitoes, invasive rodents or other species, emails released under freedom of information rules show.

The documents suggest that the US's secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has become the world's largest funder of "gene drive" research and will raise tensions ahead of a UN expert committee meeting in Montreal beginning on Tuesday.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is debating whether to impose a moratorium on the gene research next year and several southern countries fear a possible military application.

UN diplomats confirmed that the new email release would worsen the "bad name" of gene drives in some circles. "Many countries [will] have concerns when this technology comes from Darpa, a US military science agency," one said.

The technology is capable of splicing DNA strands in order to insert, alter, or remove targeted traits, and "drive" them through a population by ensuring all the offspring of the targeted organism inherit the alteration. Proponents of the gene-editing technology say it can be used to wipe out malaria-spreading mosquitoes, for example. Critics point out that the method could have unforeseen environmental consequences.


Comment: Many countries should have concerns about this news, particularly Russia. DARPA has a history of involving itself in some really creepy stuff. It is highly unlikely that the US military, in particular its DARPA branch, is interested in using this technology to deal with mosquitoes or other 'environmental' problems. DARPA has always been about improving the US military's fighting capability and its ability to defeat its perceived enemies. As such, it is likely that this research is linked to the report from July this year that the US Air force has requested samples of Russian RNA and synovial fluid.
'Weaponizing viruses'? U.S. Air Force places ad for biological samples from Russians

The US Air Force is looking to acquire samples of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and synovial fluid from Russians, according to a government website used to place tenders. The reason behind the order hasn't been specified.

The Air Force's Air Education and Training Command has placed a listing on the Federal Business Opportunities website asking for at least 12 RNA samples from Russian people of a European ancestry, as well as 27 samples of synovial fluid.
Russian RNA request US Air Force
The original US Air Force tender for Russian RNA and synovial fluid
In the request, the US Air Force stated that "information on donors must be provided with the samples, including their sex, age, ethnicity, smoking history, medical history, height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI)."

Russian president Putin may have hinted at this report while presiding over a meeting of Russia's Human Rights Council in late October 2017.
"Images are one thing, but do you know that biological material is being collected all over the country, from different ethnic groups and people living in different geographical regions of the Russian Federation? The question is - why is it being done? It's being done purposefully and professionally. We are a kind of object of great interest", Putin said.
After the initial request was released by the US Air Force, member of the UN Commission on Biological Weaponry, Igor Nikulin told reporters:
"New types of biological weapons are being developed. There's nothing else that could possibly interest the military department. Most likely, they are weaponized viruses. The US is trying to develop various types of biological weapons specifically for specific carriers of this gene pool, and Caucasoids are needed since they constitute the majority of the population of our country. This is the same focus group for which they are trying to find the samples. It's necessary for the viruses to act selectively on one or another ethnic group."

Comment: So on the one hand the idea that the research could be used for bioweapons is dismissed as fantasy, while another report assessed the "potential threats the technology might pose in the hands of an adversary".


Snakes in Suits

May's mistake bungles Brexit: The DUP border demands

Theresa May
Theresa May and Jean Claude-Juncker almost made a Brexit deal - and then the DUP called
Prime Minister Theresa May's mistakes are coming back to haunt her. Losing her majority in a snap election, a desperate DUP deal and a double dose of Brexit bungling may have just neutralized negotiations with Brussels.


On Monday, negotiations with the European Union (EU) over Brexit were looking good. Britain and Brussels have been wrangling over the big three issues for months - EU citizens' rights, the Brexit bill and the Irish border.

President of the Commission, Jean Claude Juncker was "positive" May was ready to sign on the dotted line. And then it all came crashing down with a phone call from Belfast.

Blackbox

Best of the Web: MI5 Foils 'Islamist Terror Plot' to 'blow up and assassinate' Theresa May

Theresa May 10 downing street
Easy target? Unlikely.
British intelligence has allegedly foiled a terrorist plot to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May, one of nine terrorist schemes thwarted so far by UK spies in 2017, local media report.

Two men were arrested last week for plotting terrorist atrocities in the UK, British news outlets reported Tuesday. Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, from north London, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, from Birmingham, were apprehended during security raids and charged with preparing and assisting in acts of terrorism. They are due to appear before the Westminster Magistrates court Wednesday.

Comment: Indeed, the timing of this announcement about the 'plot to kill May' is very interesting. Yesterday, the independent assessment highlighted many problems with British intelligence handling of suspects who went on to carry out attacks, and that some of those attacks COULD have been prevented, but were not. As noted, there is likely a conflict of interest here where British intelligence is reluctant to prevent terror attacks when their own budget depends on those terror attacks being carried out. So this alleged 'plot' against May would appear to be damage control, as if to say 'look, you still need us!'.