Puppet MastersS


Die

Leader of Germany's Social Democrats says government coalition with Angela Merkel is "not a done deal"

Jon Rogers
Sunday Express
Sun, 03 Dec 2017 20:20 UTC
Angela Merkel Martin Schulz
© AFPAngela Merkel could agree a deal with Martin Schulz of the SPD to form a government
Angela Merkel's political future is still up in the air after the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) said that forming a new government with the Chancellor was "not a done deal".

Angela Merkel has been unable to form a working coalition government since Germany went to the polls on September 24 with both the SPD and Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) as well as its sister party the CSU losing support.

After the collapse of forming a Jamaica coalition in a three-way coalition with two smaller parties failed Mrs Merkel has been forced to make overtures to her main political rivals lead by Martin Schulz, who had previously ruled out forming an alliance.

SPD leader Martin Schulz said after party board discussions in Berlin: "Regarding the formation of a new government, there was broad support for not ruling any option out."
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Umbrella

Obama tells a climate change joke

Katie Leach
Washington Examiner
Sat, 02 Dec 2017 15:58 UTC
obama
© Reuters
While speaking to a group of business leaders in Paris, former President Barack Obama said there is a "temporary absence of American leadership" when it comes to tackling climate change.

"I grant you that at the moment we have a temporary absence of American leadership on the issue," the former president noted, which was met with laughter from the room full of French former ministers and CEOs at the invite-only event, according to Reuters.

However, he noted, "you're seeing American companies and states and cities continuing to work" to meet targets and stay on track.

Comment: Were they laughing because Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, or because the climate change narrative is a joke? See:

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Bad Guys

The US's war on Russia: A progress report


The Saker
Fri, 01 Dec 2017 09:26 UTC
America Russia fist
I am often asked if the US and Russia will go to war with each other. I always reply that they are already at war. Not a war like WWII, but a war nonetheless. This war is, at least for the time being, roughly 80% informational, 15% economic and 5% kinetic. But in political terms the outcome for the loser of this war will be no less dramatic than the outcome of WWII was for Germany: the losing country will not survive it, at least not in its present shape: either Russia will become a US colony again or the AngloZionist Empire will collapse.


Comment: In the Absence of Evidence of Russian Collusion and 'Hacking', Congress Makes It Up


In my very first column for the Unz Review entitled "A Tale of Two World Orders" I described the kind of multipolar international system regulated by the rule of law that Russia, China and their allies and friends worldwide (whether overt or covert) are trying to build and how dramatically different it was from the single World Hegemony that the AngloZionists have attempted to establish (and almost successfully imposed upon our suffering planet!). In a way, the US imperial leaders are right, Russia does represent an existential threat, not for the United States as a country or for its people, but for the AngloZionist Empire, just as the latter represents an existential threat to Russia. Furthermore, Russia represents a fundamental civilizational challenge to what is normally called the "West" as she openly rejects its post-Christian (and, I would add, also viscerally anti-Islamic) values. This is why both sides are making an immense effort at prevailing in this struggle.
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Target

The West openly organizing former provinces of Moscow against Russia

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sat, 02 Dec 2017 17:24 UTC
bearvseagle
© mccaininstitute.org
The world is being driven to a very real conflict between Russia and the US, because a corrupt US military and intelligence complex needs an enemy to justify its huge budget, because Hillary Clinton and the DNC cannot accept a their election defeat at the hands of Trump, and because the neocons have an ideology anchored in American "exceptionalism" at all costs.

According to news reports in the British press, Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed Russia's industries to prepare themselves to be able to make a quick switch to war production.

Clearly, the Russian government would not make such an announcement unless it was convinced that the prospect of war with the West was real. For some time I have emphasized in my columns that the consequence of years of hostile actions taken by Washington and its European vassals against Russia was leading to war.

It is easy to understand that the massive US military/security complex needs a convincing enemy in order to justify its enormous budget, that the crazed neoconservatives put their fantasy ideology of US world hegemony above the life of the planet, and that Hillary and the Democratic National Committee will do anything to overturn Trump's presidential victory. However, it is difficult to understand why the European political leaders are willing to put their countries at risk for Washington's benefit.

Comment: The West may rue the day its narrative and allegations invoke a price too big and horrible to pay.

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USA

Why is the U.S. holding an American citizen prisoner in secret in Iraq?

Joseph Tanfani
Los Angeles Times
Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:30 UTC
Raqqa Prison
© Asmaa Waguih / Associated PressA member of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces walks inside a prison in Raqqa, Syria. An American citizen who allegedly fought for Islamic State in Syria has been detained in Iraq for more than two months.
In a case that defense lawyers warned could create a "constitutional black hole," a federal judge expressed exasperation Thursday at the U.S. government's secret detention of an American citizen in Iraq for more than two months.

The American, who has not been publicly identified, allegedly fought for Islamic State in Syria and surrendered to a U.S.-backed militia on Sept. 14. He has not been charged or given access to a lawyer while in custody, as U.S. law normally requires.

For now, U.S. officials have designated the man as an "unlawful enemy combatant," the status used for foreign suspects held for years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while the Trump administration tries to figure out how to handle his case.
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X

Mueller removed FBI agent from Russian election meddling probe over 'anti-Trump texts'


RT
Sun, 03 Dec 2017 14:02 UTC
Strzok/Mueller
© Business InsiderFBI agent Peter Strzok • Special Counsel Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller removed an FBI agent from his investigation into alleged Russian election meddling, people briefed on the matter told US media. The move came after the Justice Department began probing whether the agent had sent anti-Trump text messages.

Mueller, the special counsel examining alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, removed FBI agent Peter Strzok from the investigation over the summer, according to The New York Times. He was reportedly reassigned from the investigation to the FBI's human resources department, a move which is largely seen within the bureau as a demotion.

Three sources told the Times that the catalyst was the discovery of text messages in which Strzok reacted to news events - including presidential debates - in ways that could be deemed critical of Donald Trump. The text message exchange was between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, another member of Mueller's team, according to The Washington Post. Strzok and Page, who were engaged in an extramarital affair at the time, reportedly wrote disparaging comments about Trump and appeared to favor Hillary Clinton, according to sources cited by the Post.

"Immediately upon learning of the allegations, the special counsel's office removed Peter Strzok from the investigation," said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, as quoted by the Times. Page left Mueller's team weeks before news of the text messages broke, Carr added.
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Attention

WaPo panics over Jeff Sessions' success at the Justice Department

Ken Klukowski
Breitbart
Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
Sessions
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesAG Jeff Sesssions
Establishment media elites at the Washington Post recently attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a full-length editorial piece disguised as a news report.

They criticize Sessions for adhering to conservative principles, being faithful to the historically lawful role of the attorney general's office, and carrying out President Donald Trump's agenda. In short, the Post hits Sessions for doing his job.

Although they likely did not mean it as a compliment, the Jeff Bezos-owned Post's writers admit, "Supporters and critics say the attorney general has been among the most effective of the Cabinet secretaries." The authors then go through a laundry list of items from Sessions and the Department of Justice (DOJ) he leads, all consistent with the president's MAGA agenda that Americans voted for in November 2016.

Comment: There is no 'perspective' applicable to justice except what is written in law if Sessions is truly doing his job -- not a Democratic-leaning one, nor one influenced by MSM.

See also: Former AG Holder warns Trump's Justice Department could lead to 'resignations, investigations, public outcries'

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X

Pentagon: US to stop arming Syrian Kurds as ISIS is defeated


RT
Sat, 02 Dec 2017 23:06 UTC
YPG in building
© Rodi Said / Reuters
Washington will stop providing weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militias, US Defense Secretary James Mattis has said. This follows a vow US President Donald Trump made to his Turkish counterpart to scale down support to the groups Ankara sees as terrorists.

"The YPG is armed and as the coalition stops operations then obviously you don't need that, you need security, you need police forces, that is local forces, that is people who make certain that ISIS doesn't come back," Mattis told journalists on a military plane en route to Cairo as he was on his way to start a five-day trip to the Middle East. The YPG, or the People's Protection Units, are Kurdish militias playing a leading role in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by the US in Syria.

Asked if the US indeed intends to halt is program to arm the Kurdish forces in Syria, Mattis said, "Yes," and added that Pentagon is "going to go exactly along the lines of what the President announced." Last Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that US President Donald Trump promised he would "not provide weapons to the YPG" in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

However, at that time, Washington did not issue any clear statement of the White House's position on that matter. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the US is ready to "stop providing military equipment to certain groups" in Syria during a briefing on Monday. Pentagon also went only as far as to say that it was reviewing "adjustments" in arms for the Syrian Kurds.

Comment: YPG: US partners or pawns? Has the US stopped the flow of arms? See also:

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Star of David

Flynn's guilty plea may implicate Israeli intelligence, Logan Act

Tom Rogan
Washington Examiner
Fri, 01 Dec 2017 11:15 UTC
Flynn
© Andrew Harrer/BloombergFormer Security Advisor Michael Flynn
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pled guilty Friday to two counts of lying to FBI agents.

Court filings show one count accuses Flynn of wrongly claiming "on or about December 22nd 2016" that he "did not ask the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution and that the Russian Ambassador subsequently never described to Flynn Russia's response to his request."

That's very interesting.

Because on Dec. 23, 2016, the U.N. vote went ahead. In the absence of a U.S. veto, Israel was condemned for its settlement construction in the West Bank. Yet that's just the mid-point of the story. Four days after the resolution passed, top Russian diplomats told the Israeli press that they had attempted to delay the U.N. vote.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Israel, US hiding names of companies supporting Israeli settlements

Marjorie Cohn
Truthout
Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
stop illegal settlement
© unknown
In December 2016 the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution reaffirming that Israel's Jewish settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal and calling on Israel to stop settlement activities in the OPT. Resolution 2334 says the settlements have "no legal validity," calls them "a flagrant violation under international law," and demands Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities."

Nine months earlier, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Resolution 31/36, had ordered the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to "produce a database of all business enterprises" that "directly and indirectly, enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements."

The database was scheduled for release in December 2017. Meanwhile, the Israeli and US governments have been trying to prevent that list -- which reportedly includes at least 150 local and international companies -- from becoming public. "We will do everything we can to ensure that this list does not see the light of day," Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon told The Associated Press. US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, "We just view that type of blacklist as counterproductive."

The UNHRC has reportedly delayed the release of the list until "early next year."

Comment: Even a delay is a win for Israel, postponing the implementation of serious leverage in lieu of progressive stalling and extended opportunities to control the message. Meanwhile, the settlements are continuing to be built.

See also:

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