Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Horrors! Soldier-medic-killer Elor Azarya is denied pardon by Israeli president

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 20:03 UTC
Sgt. Elor Azaria murder palestinian
Sgt. Elor Azaria contritely receiving his conviction of manslaughter in an Israeli military court.
Elor Azarya, the soldier-medic who got 18 months prison for killing an alleged Palestinian assailant by a bullet to the head point-blank, yesterday was denied pardon by the President Reuven Rivlin, as Haaretz reports (Hebrew).

Less than two months ago, Azarya's sentence was cut by 4 months, by Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. The statement noted that Azarya had already 'endured a lot'. Haaretz correspondent Amos Harel had already assessed at that point that Azarya, who only begun serving his sentence in August, would possibly be out in March 2018 on good behavior, anyway. Seeing that so many, including the court, see Azarya as a "positive personality" and consider him to be "a normative person" until his "complication" (these are quotes from the court sentence), there is really no reason to believe that this "child with the smile of an angel", as his mother calls him, would be out any later than next spring - right in time for Passover, the holiday of liberation.

Comment: Farcical indeed. The whole of Israeli hypocrisy is encapsulated in this story.

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Footprints

Cambodian political changes should make US nervous about its Vietnam policy

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 18:43 UTC
Cambodia
© scmp.com
Cambodia's long time leader has rebuked the meddling that accompanies 'US aid', signally a broader South East Asian pivot towards China.

Cambodia's long serving Premier Hun Sen has just issued a defiant set of statements aimed at the United States. Hun Sen who has been in power since 1985 and consolidating his rule ever since, and has now turned to the US, telling Washington that its aid is effectively no longer welcomed if it comes with political strings attached.

Pro-government Fresh News reported,
"Samdech Techo Hun Sen confirmed that cutting U.S. aid won't kill the government but will only kill a group of people who serve American policies".
Fresh News further reported,
"Hun Sen ... welcomes and encourages the U.S. to cut all aid".
Hun Sen's personal history in terms of political loyalists is something of a pendulum. While he once was a member of the China backed and covertly US armed and sponsored Khmer Rouge government, in 1977 he switched sides and backed pro-Vietnamese (Soviet backed) forces.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

USA: From superpower to incompetence

Paul Craig Roberts
The Unz Review
Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
incompentence
© Monty WolvertonUS working model
Having grown up during the second half of the 20th century, I don't recognize my country today. I experienced life in a competent country, and now I experience life in an incompetent country. Everything is incompetent.

The police are incompetent. They shoot children, grandmothers, cripples, and claim that they feared for their life.

Washington's foreign police is incompetent. Washington has alienated the world with its insane illegal attacks on other countries. Today the United States and Israel are the two most distrusted countries on earth and the two countries regarded as the greatest threat to peace.

Comment: Has the US reached the point of no return? There is certainly argument for this view.

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Attention

Merkel, Macron, May less popular than Trump

Paul Bedard
Washington Examiner
Sun, 19 Nov 2017 08:09 UTC
the 3 Ms
© New StatesmanMacron • Merkel • May
President Trump's approval ratings, often mocked by Democrats and the media, top those of Europe's biggest three leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Britain's Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron.

A new Zogby Analytics survey of people in those countries also finds that the disapproval ratings are sky-high.
may chart
© Zogby Analytics
"Citizens of France, Germany and U.K. not happy with Macron, Merkel and May," is the poll headline. "A majority of adults in France and U.K. dislike Macron and May; nearly half of adults in Germany dislike Merkel."
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Target

Soros accuses Hungary of 'anti-Muslim sentiment, anti-Semitic tropes'


RT
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 10:30 UTC
Soros Orban
© The Krasnals, Whielki KrasnalGeorge Soros • Viktor Orban
Billionaire investor George Soros has spoken out against the Hungarian government, which issued a survey revealing the "Soros plan" and has repeatedly accused him of weakening EU states by fueling the migrant crisis.

In October, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called on Hungarians to participate in the government's National Consultation survey on the "Soros plan." The letter asked citizens for their views on whether or not Hungary should become an immigrant country, presenting seven points of the "plan" to consider.

The document accuses the Hungarian-born investor of attempting to resettle a million migrants in the EU, dismantling the borders, making EU citizens (Hungarians in particular) pay for refugees, forcing European languages and cultures into the background, and political attacks on states which stand against Soros' ideas.

In response to these claims, Soros issued a statement on Monday, calling them "distortions and outright lies," arguing against each point. Among other things, Soros argued that the "circumstances had changed" after he called for a million migrants to be accepted in 2015, later advising the EU to make a "commitment to admit even a mere 300,000 refugees annually."

Soros also accused the Hungarian government of targeting him in a massive "media campaign," "stoking anti-Muslim sentiment, and employing anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of the 1930s."

Comment: Soros is an example of how money equates the concentration of power and influence. See also: Angry PM Orban: Soros using EU to create 'mixed, Muslimized Europe'

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Stock Up

May likely to cave to EU, offer double Brexit 'bill' payoff to Brussels


RT
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 09:06 UTC
T. May
© reuters
Britain is expected to cave to the European Union (EU) today and discuss offering a higher Brexit settlement, despite earlier claims that the government did not "recognise" the two-week deadline.

Theresa May's government is expected to offer a larger sum to the EU in a desperate bid to unblock negotiations - after Michel Barnier and his Brexit team refused to budge.

Brussels gave London a two-week deadline to agree on three issues including the settlement figure, rights of EU citizens in the UK, and the Irish border. If an agreement is not reached, talks will not progress until March, and there will be 12 months to make a deal, or risk a cliff-edge Brexit.

Prime Minister May is expected to outline plans to boost the settlement figure to her cabinet today, before presenting them to Donald Tusk, the European Council president on Friday. Both sides have failed to agree on a figure, while the EU insists Britain must cover every commitment made up until 2020 - a year after the expected withdrawal.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Soros, Pelosi headline posh dark money conference

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sun, 19 Nov 2017 18:25 UTC
sorospelosi
© YourNewsWire.com
Top item on the agenda...the "resistance" to Donald Trump.

A secretive three-day conference where globalist liberals plot their next moves in the "resistance" to Donald Trump, was headlined by big names like billionaire George Soros and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The Washington Free Beacon has obtained internal documents of the event, and this private memo gives an inside look at Democracy Alliance's secret donor meeting...

According to The Washington Free Beacon the Democracy Alliance, a donor club of deep-pocketed liberal donors that each pledge to direct hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to approved left-wing groups, descended on California's posh La Costa Resort on Wednesday morning for its fall donor summit. The group continued its tradition of secrecy, promising all members and guests of the summit their participation would "remain confidential."

Comment: All the clout money can buy.

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Brick Wall

Nonsense: Trump declares North Korea "state sponsor of terrorism"


RT
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 20:22 UTC
KimTrump
© freemalaysiatoday.com
President Donald Trump has declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism. The designation will impose further penalties on Pyongyang.

"Today the United States is designating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism," Trump declared from the White House on Monday. "It should have happened a long time ago, should have happened years ago."

"In addition to threatening the world with nuclear devastation, North Korea has supported international acts of terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil," Trump added.


Comment: Ahem. CIA?


The US has accused Pyongyang of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's estranged half-brother in a Malaysian airport this year, declaring it an act of terrorism.

"The North Korean regime must be lawful, must end its nuclear ballistic missile development and cease all support for international terrorism, which it is not doing," remarked Trump, sitting next to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Comment: This pretty much sums it up:
By any objective standard, North Korea is not a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea does not fund illegal militias over seas, does not pay civilians to plant bombs or stage armed attacks, hijackings or robberies and does not cultivate foreign recruits to spread acts of terrorism. The model of 21st century state sponsored terrorism as pioneered initially by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, simply does not fit North Korea's position in any sense.

The designation designed to insult the DPRK, is little more than a belittlement of the US list of state sponsors of terrorism which already is a subject of mockery for including Iran, a country which fights al-Qaeda and ISIS, while excluding Saudi Arabia. (Adam Garrie - The Duran)


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Eagle

The zealots of 'Russiagate' are themselves a major threat to U.S. national security

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin
© Jorge Silva / Pool Photo via APDonald Trump and Vladimir Putin talk at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, November 11, 2017.
At an international summit in Vietnam last week, President Trump took necessary steps to reduce the perils of the new Cold War with Russia. Liberal Democrats call it "treasonous."

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.)

Cohen argues that America is now in unprecedented danger due to two related crises. A new and more dangerous Cold War with Russia that is fraught with the real possibility of hot war between the two nuclear superpowers on several fronts, including Syria. And the worst crisis of the American presidency in modern times, which threatens to paralyze the president's ability to deal diplomatically with Moscow. (To those who recall Watergate, Cohen points out that, unlike Trump, President Nixon was never accused of "collusion with the Kremlin" or faced reckless, and preposterous, allegations that the Kremlin had abetted his election by an "attack on American democracy.")

Comment: A long-time Russia expert with no geo-political axes to grind, Stephen Cohen knows of what he speaks.

From May of 2017:



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Binoculars

Saakashvili tells protestors he's ready to become Ukraine's next PM


RFE/RL
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 19:56 UTC
saakashvili
© Efrem Lukatsky / APMikheil Saakashvili (center) marches with supporters central Kyiv on November 12.
Mikheil Saakashvili, the former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, told a protest rally in Kyiv that he is ready to "create a new government of Ukraine" and to become the country's prime minister.

"Ukraine needs an urgent formation of a new government," Saakashvili told several hundred people in a tent city of protesters outside the parliament building on November 19. "I'm ready to spearhead this process jointly with you and to head this government if necessary."

"Let's create a new government of Ukraine," he added. "But above all, we will find those Ukrainians who care about Ukraine, who will respect and develop Ukraine."

Antigovernment protesters set up the tent city outside the Verkhovna Rada building on October 17, calling for the cancellation of parliamentarian immunity, the creation of an anticorruption court, amendments to election laws, and legislation on impeachment of the president.

The protests were initially called by Saakashvili, a onetime ally of President Petro Poroshenko, but many of Ukraine's opposition political leaders have also joined the demonstrations.

Comment: Saakashvili is right: Ukraine needs a new government. Where he's wrong: Saakashvili would make a terrible PM. This is the guy who can't even go back to his home country because he'd be arrested the second he set foot on Georgian soil. But who knows, maybe he'd actually be better than Poroshenko? It's a very low bar.

Interesting that the following news has come out now, amid Saakashvili's current political antics in Ukraine: Former member of security services to Georgian ex-president Saakashvili reveals he was hired to be a sniper and "sow chaos" at Maidan in 2014

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