Puppet MastersS


Gear

Seeds of Discord: The Balfour Declaration still divides the Middle East 100 years later


Al Jazeera
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:20 UTC
Arthur Balfour
© izquotes.com
A hundred years since Britain's infamous declaration, its repercussions are still felt across the Middle East today.

The Balfour Declaration was a public promise by the British government during World War One, announcing support for the establishment of "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Palestine was still a part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, with a minority Jewish population.

The 67-word document, in the form of a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to the prominent British Jewish figure, Lord Rothschild, dated November 2, 1917, read:
His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
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Bad Guys

American experts unable to see their hypocrisy when it comes to Russia

Nick Turse
The UNZ Review
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 14:24 UTC
Putin Tsar
© The Economist
"They are very concerned about their adversary next door," said General Raymond Thomas, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), at a national security conference in Aspen, Colorado, in July. "They make no bones about it."

The "they" in question were various Eastern European and Baltic nations. "Their adversary"? Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Thomas, the commander of America's most elite troops - Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among them - went on to raise fears about an upcoming Russian military training event, a wargame, known as "Zapad" or "West," involving 10 Russian Navy ships, 70 jets and helicopters, and 250 tanks. "The point of concern for most of these eastern Europeans right now is they're about to do an exercise in Belarus... that's going to entail up to 100,000 Russian troops moving into that country." And he added, "The great concern is they're not going to leave, and... that's not paranoia..."


Comment: Putin has said he has no interest in imperial expansion, and his actions thus far show that there are no plans for a Russian invasion of Europe. So yes, it is paranoia.

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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: US Deep State has committed 'soft power suicide' with its RussiaGate inquisition

Andrew Korybko
Sputnik
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 18:14 UTC
statue liberty
© CC0 / Pixabay
The US' obsession with "proving" alleged "Russian meddling" in the 2016 election and America's subsequent institutional destruction as a result will go down in history as representing the suicide of this former superpower's soft power.

The US spent decades building up its soft power reputation as "the land of the free" and portraying itself as the most "democratic" society in the world, only to have generations' worth of soft power investments dramatically done away with over the past twelve months as the media-manufactured "RussiaGate" scandal transforms into an institutional inquisition. It's presumed that the reader is already generally aware of what's going on and why, namely that hostile elements of the US' permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (the "deep state"), in full collusion with academia, the Mainstream Media, and Hollywood, are vehemently working to subvert Trump's surprise election victory by alleging that he only won because of secretive Kremlin support.

This is a completely false narrative that's regularly debunked every time a newly invented accusation arises, but instead of crafting a different political approach to complicate Trump's Presidency, the Democrats and their "deep state" accomplices have continued to advance this made-up storyline, and in the process they've inflicted irreparable soft power damage to the US' international prestige. The country that was once the unquestioned superpower of the world has all but committed soft power suicide in the course of only a single year by confirming the same "conspiracy theories" that it's worked so hard to belittle in the past, thereby exposing many of its international information campaigns as lies and ultimately contradicting the very essence of "American Exceptionalism".
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Eye 2

Career criminal Hillary Clinton refuses to "Go away" says Americans who dislike her are sexist (VIDEO)


True Pundit
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 16:05 UTC
Hillary clinton gurn
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Clinton vowed to stay in politics Wednesday night and fight politicians who get elected to line their own pockets with personal wealth.

No, this is not a joke. She did actually say that. Right after accusing half of the country as sexist women-haters. If it were only that simple.


Comment: Killary the 'feminist'? She's the most anti-women, anti-life candidate in history

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Snakes in Suits

Seriously? Chrystia Freeland claims Canada doesn't engage in 'regime change'

Yves Engler
Dissident Voice
Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
ChrystiaFreeland
© News 1130FM Chrystia Freeland
It may walk and quack like a regime-change-promoting duck, but Ottawa's unilateral sanctions and support for Venezuela's opposition is actually just a cuddly Canadian beaver, says Chrystia Freeland.

"Canada has never been an imperialist power. It's even almost funny to say that phrase: we've been the colony," said the journalist turned politician after a Toronto meeting of foreign ministers opposed to the Venezuelan government.

The above declaration was part of the Canadian foreign minister's response to a question about Chavismo's continued popularity, which was prefaced by a mention of protesters denouncing Ottawa's interference in Venezuela's internal affairs. Freeland added that "one of the strengths Canada brings to its international affairs" is that it doesn't engage in "regime change".

Notwithstanding her government's violation of the UN and Organization of American States charters' in Venezuela, Freeland's claim that Ottawa doesn't engage in "regime change" is laughable. Is she unaware that a Canadian General commanded the NATO force, which included Canadian fighter jets, naval vessels and special forces, that killed Muammar Gaddafi in Libya six years ago?

Comment: One person's regime change is another person's amnesia. The West, Canada included, engages in so much regime change, it could arguably be called regime management.

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War Whore

General Mattis: White House could order nuke strike if North Korean attack is 'imminent'


Sputnik
Tue, 31 Oct 2017 22:24 UTC
T&K arm wresstle
© Chappatte.com"Armed" and ready.
During his testimony before Congress, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the White House has "rehearsed" their response to a North Korean nuclear attack. He added that Washington would fire a nuclear weapon at North Korea for two reasons: a North Korean attack, or a "direct imminent... attack."

Mattis told Congress that he, the president and other key players had rehearsed their response to a nuclear strike - and the threshold of provocation that would lead the US to fire their own nuclear device. That, according to Mattis, would be "a direct imminent or actual attack."

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) asked Mattis what would happen if the US detected a nuclear launch. Matties replied that "the first step, of course, would be that our ballistic missile defense forces at sea and in Alaska, California - the various radars would be feeding in and they would do - they would do what they're designed to do as we make every effort to take [the missile] out."

Comment: See also: Dems want to pass a law to keep Trump from bombing N. Korea

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Telephone

US goes forward with 'frequent and substantive' direct talks with N. Korea despite Trump's dismissal


RT
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:13 UTC
KimTrump
© freemalaysiatoday.com
The State Department is conducting ever-broadening behind-the-scenes talks with North Korea, despite US President Donald Trump labeling such negotiations a "waste of time," a senior administration source has told Reuters.

Talks through the so-called New York channel, between the Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun and Pyongyang's officials at the UN, have "not been limited at all, both in frequency and substance," the American diplomatic source said.

Initially charged with returning US citizens detained in North Korea, Yun has now been given a "broader mandate," including trying to persuade North Korea to "stop testing" nuclear weapons.

"The preferred endpoint is not a war but some kind of diplomatic settlement," said the diplomat, explaining that options go beyond a "misleading" binary choice of North Korea surrendering its nuclear potential through international pressure, or the US taking military action.
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Attention

Buchanan: Are our Mideast wars forever?

Patrick Buchanan
Patrick J. Buchanan Website
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:47 UTC
USIRANISRAELflags
© Vestnik Kavkaza/KJN
"The Kurds have no friends but the mountains," is an old lament. Last week, it must have been very much on Kurdish minds.

As their U.S. allies watched, the Kurdish peshmerga fighters were run out of Kirkuk and all the territory they had captured fighting ISIS alongside the Americans. The Iraqi army that ran them out was trained and armed by the United States.

The U.S. had warned the Kurds against holding the referendum on independence on Sept. 25, which carried with 92 percent. Iran and Turkey had warned against an independent Kurdistan that could be a magnet for Kurdish minorities in their own countries. But the Iraqi Kurds went ahead. Now they have lost Kirkuk and its oil, and their dream of independence is all but dead.

More troubling for America is the new reality revealed by the rout of the peshmerga. Iraq, which George W. Bush and the neocons were going to fashion into a pro-Western democracy and American ally, appears to be as close to Iran as it is to the United States.

After 4,500 U.S. dead, scores of thousands wounded and a trillion dollars sunk, our 15-year war in Iraq could end with a Shiite-dominated Baghdad aligned with Tehran.

Comment: Israel will never let the US off the hook for more involvement in the Middle East. Israel has now come forward as an active participant in this debacle and expects/demands the US come to its rescue. That may well happen - as it has countless times in the past - but the day may come when Israel is finally left high and dry, without its Big Brother to do its dirty work.

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Snakes in Suits

Dems want to pass a law to keep Trump from bombing N. Korea

Patricia Zengerle
Reuters
Tue, 31 Oct 2017 01:49 UTC
Kimtrumpflag
© youtube.com
Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday they said would prevent President Donald Trump from launching a nuclear first strike on North Korea on his own, highlighting the issue days before the Republican's first presidential trip to Asia.

The measure would stop Trump, or any U.S. president, from launching an attack on North Korea, or spending any money on a military strike, without congressional approval, unless North Korea has first attacked the United States.

Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have been building after a series of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea and bellicose verbal exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The CIA has said North Korea could be only months away from developing the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon, a scenario Trump has vowed to prevent.

Comment: What a load of posturing nonsense.

See also: Mattis: WH could order nuke strike if North Korean attack is 'imminent'

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Dollar Gold

US War Machine churns forward as planned nuclear arsenal upgrade to exceed $1trillion


RT
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:10 UTC
USS Lassen
© U.S. NavyThe Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82)
At a time when the US national debt stands at just over $20 trillion, American taxpayers find themselves stuck with a massive maintenance bill to keep the nation's nuclear arsenal operational over the next three decades.

The modernization of US nuclear forces will carry a price tag estimated at $1.2 trillion from 2017 until 2046, according to the US Congress Budget Office (CBO) report.

That planned modernization would increase the total costs of maintaining the current number of nuclear weapons and delivery system by 50 percent over normal operating costs, according to the CBO.

The trillion-dollar question on everybody's mind is: How exactly will the US government foot the bill for such a massive program?

"We never really knew where the money was coming from and now it is even less clear," Jon Wolfsthal, former senior director for arms control and non-proliferation in the Obama administration, told the Guardian.
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