Puppet MastersS


Vader

Trump caves: Falls in line with Deep State's imperialist interventionism

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 21:37 UTC
Trump UN speech
© Whitehouse.govPresident Trump speaking to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 19, 2017.
President Trump's U.N. speech showed that despite his America First rhetoric, his policies are virtually the same as the neocon strategies of George W. Bush and liberal interventionism of Barack Obama,.

In discussing President Trump, there is always the soft prejudice of low expectations - people praise him for reading from a Teleprompter even if his words make little sense - but there is no getting around the reality that his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly must rank as one of the most embarrassing moments in America's relations with the global community.

Trump offered a crude patchwork of propaganda and bluster, partly delivered as a campaign speech praising his own leadership - boasting about the relatively strong U.S. economy that he mostly inherited from President Obama - and partly reflecting his continued subservience to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, perhaps most importantly, Trump's speech may have extinguished any flickering hope that his presidency might achieve some valuable course corrections in how the United States deals with the world, i.e., shifting away from the disastrous war/interventionist policies of his two predecessors.

Comment:

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Star of David

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi: 'American Jews drive America's wars'

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
Trumpstardavid
© GettyImages/KJN
Shouldn't they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?

I spoke recently at a conference on America's war party where afterwards an elderly gentleman came up to me and asked, "Why doesn't anyone ever speak honestly about the six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room? Nobody has mentioned Israel in this conference and we all know it's American Jews with all their money and power who are supporting every war in the Middle East for Netanyahu? Shouldn't we start calling them out and not letting them get away with it?"

It was a question combined with a comment that I have heard many times before and my answer is always the same: any organization that aspires to be heard on foreign policy knows that to touch the live wire of Israel and American Jews guarantees a quick trip to obscurity. Jewish groups and deep pocket individual donors not only control the politicians, they own and run the media and entertainment industries, meaning that no one will hear about or from the offending party ever again. They are particularly sensitive on the issue of so-called "dual loyalty," particularly as the expression itself is a bit of a sham since it is pretty clear that some of them only have real loyalty to Israel.

Comment: Without strong leadership from the top that recognizes if and when it is being manipulated and has the ability to wake up the public, there is little chance for an independent, clear thinking and free America. The new anti-semitism definition, that includes everything critical or questioning of 'Israel', has virtually sealed the lid on social commentary and opposition in all of Western society.

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Chess

Tillerson: Trump is 'clear and concise' but remains quiet on Iran deal decision


RT
Thu, 21 Sep 2017 07:42 UTC
Tillerson
© Politico/KJN
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insists that Iran is only in "technical compliance" with its nuclear deal, following President Donald Trump's cryptic announcement that he has reached a decision on whether to re-certify the agreement.

Tillerson said that Trump has been "quite clear and articulate" about his concerns with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, during a press conference Wednesday. Tillerson detailed some of the meeting he had just completed with his international counterparts involved in the Obama-era agreement.

Tillerson said that he spoke personally with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari and other leaders in an "open and candid exchange," and said it was "useful to hear their perspectives."

While Tillerson said that Iran is in "technical compliance" with the deal, he also said the US still finds "significant issues with the agreement."


Comment: Is Trump rashly creating a nexus to war? Renegotiating uncomfortable points without tossing the agreement would seem prudent -- unless you are a tiny and powerful fear-mongering country that has the US by the jugular. Any decision to scrap the Iran Deal will not be out of consideration for 'the best interests of the American people.'

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Clipboard

Inside look at the new economic science of capitalism and its slow-burn energy collapse

Nafeez Ahmed
Insurge Intelligence
Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:07 UTC
Dollar sign oil
© Greentech Media
Why the struggle for a new economic paradigm is about to get real.

New scientific research is quietly rewriting the fundamentals of economics. The new economic science shows decisively that the age of endlessly growing industrial capitalism, premised on abundant fossil fuel supplies, is over. The long-decline of capitalism-as-we-know-it, the new science shows, began some decades ago, and is on track to accelerate well before the end of the 21st century.

With capitalism-as-we-know it in inexorable decline, the urgent task ahead is to rewrite economics to fit the real-world: and, accordingly, to redesign our concepts of value and prosperity, precisely to rebuild our societies with a view of adapting to this extraordinary age of transition.

A groundbreaking study in Elsevier's Ecological Economics journal by two French economists, for the first time proves the world has passed a point-of-no-return in its capacity to extract fossil fuel energy: with massive implications for the long-term future of global economic growth.

Comment: Here today, gone tomorrow. The theory implies that a steady demand of a specific resource defines both the cost of acquisition and the return on money spent to provide it. In addition, as supplies theoretically diminish, costs go up until the society can no longer afford the commodity and the return on investment plummets discouraging future procurement. A lose-lose situation. Thus we have the manipulated management of fossil fuel to extract every penny as long as 'the demand' is not suspect to false projections of supply.

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Attention

Report: White House planning for confrontation with Iran

Darius Shahtahmasebi
AntiMedia
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 12:04 UTC
Iraq-n
© unknown
As Donald Trump takes to the U.N. General Assembly to demonize Iran yet again, the Trump administration is also considering a more aggressive strategy towards Iran behind closed doors, sources have told Reuters.

According to six current and former U.S. officials, the U.S. will be looking at more hostile responses to Iran's forces, its proxy armies in Iraq and Syria, and its support for militant groups.

According to the sources, the current proposal was drafted by Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security advisor General H.R. McMaster, and several other top officials before it was presented to President Trump at a National Security Council meeting on September 9.

The proposal will ultimately be made public before the end of September, two of the sources said. The sources requested anonymity because the draft proposal had not yet been finalized.

"I would call it a broad strategy for the range of Iranian malign activities: financial materials, support for terror, destabilization in the region, especially Syria and Iraq and Yemen," said a senior administration official, as quoted by Reuters.


Comment: Priceless self-reflection in a one-way mirror.


Without giving specific details, sources said the current draft proposal seeks to do the following:
  1. target cyber espionage and nuclear proliferation;
  2. provide for more aggressive U.S. interceptions of Iranian arms shipments heading to places such as Yemen and Gaza (even though U.N. experts confirmed earlier this year that they could find no evidence of a large-scale Iranian weapons supply line to Yemen);
  3. react more aggressively in Bahrain (presumably, to prop up the government in the face of Shia-led unrest) as the country's Sunni Muslim monarchy has been suppressing its majority Shia population, a move that continues to anger Iran; and most importantly
  4. allow U.S. naval forces to react more forcefully when harassed by armed speedboats operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Funnily enough, many of the encounters taking place between U.S. ships and Iranian ships are arguably within Iranian waters. Who is harassing who, exactly?

Comment: Interesting how proposals of restrictions to and counter-measures against another country also include an increase in liberties for a more aggressive US. Creating opposition -- to the point of adversarial confrontation -- does not bode well for a cooperative solution to shape the future. And, sometimes deals that are perceived to be less than acceptable, are actually more useful than no deal at all, since 'the adversary' has agreed to a level of accommodation, a concrete step towards improved relations.

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Whistle

'Trump was right!' CNN admits FBI wiretapped Paul Manafort, Twitter goes wild


RT
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 15:26 UTC
PManafort
© Reuters
A report claiming that the US government wiretapped US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort created quite a stir on social media, with many claiming it vindicates Trump's earlier claim about being under surveillance. CNN released the bombshell report, which cites "three sources familiar with the investigation," late Monday.

According to the report, the FISA court authorized a "secret order" to monitor Paul Manafort back in 2014. Surveillance was discontinued "at some point last year [2016] for lack of evidence," CNN said, citing one of the sources. However, the FBI restarted the surveillance and extended the warrant at least into early 2017. Federal agents also searched "a storage facility"which belonged to Manafort, but so far it is unknown what they may have found.

The report claimed that conversations between Trump and Manafort continued "after the President took office [in January 2017], long after the FBI investigation into Manafort was publicly known." They only stopped at the insistence of Trump's and Manafort's lawyers.

Comment: See also:

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Propaganda

Samantha Power recalls fake history, makes false claims, then warns of fake news

b
Moon of Alabama
Thu, 21 Sep 2017 20:17 UTC
Samantha power fake news
While warning of Russian influenced fake news and hacking, Samantha Power, Obama's banshee and ambassador at the UN, spreads fake news about "Russian hacking".

Power starts off by retelling fiction as historic fact:
Soviet agents were instructed to infiltrate party and campaign staffs in the United States in search of embarrassing information to leak to the press, while Soviet propagandists pushed a set of anti-Reagan story lines to the Western media. Ultimately, they failed to influence the election. President Reagan defeated Walter F. Mondale, winning 49 states. Margaret Thatcher, who was similarly targeted, also won re-election in a landslide.
There is no historic evidence of any such Soviet operation. But, as Mark Ames points out(@0:30m), the Samantha Power tale of a Soviet influence campaign against Reagan is the storyline of a 1980 spy thriller by Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss. Both authors were corrupt rightwingers and known CIA assets. Their bestselling book about nefarious Soviet influence, The Spike, was political fiction.
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Attention

Sebastian Gorka: How the 'permanent state' is undermining Trump

Kristina Wong
Breitbart
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump meeting
© AP/Andrew Harnik
President Trump is battling an entrenched "Permanent State" - unelected bureaucratic workers entrenched throughout the echelons of government who are unaccountable to the American people and even the president, Sebastian Gorka, Trump's former deputy assistant, said Friday at a panel that conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch hosted.

Referred to derisively as the "Deep State," Gorka said a more accurate name for the officials who have filled government bureaucracies in Washington is the "Permanent State" because they are neither hidden nor covert.

"It was in our faces. It was arrogant. It was right there in the surface of our policy discussions at the highest level of the White House. ... It's overt," he said during the panel, which was called Exposing the Deep State. He added, "It's been there for a long time. This thing has been brewing for decades, truly decades."

Gorka, who left the White House about three weeks ago, described attending frequent meetings at the National Security Council, where participants from all the agencies - State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, the intelligence community - would never once mention the president's name or his agenda, as if it did not exist or matter.
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Propaganda

Still no evidence: 'Analysts' claim Russians & US Alt-Right teaming up to meddle in German elections


RT
Thu, 21 Sep 2017 19:19 UTC
Angela Merkel protest
© Odd Andersen / AFP
Despite Germany's unfounded fears that Moscow could meddle in its upcoming election, analysts say they "haven't seen any trace of the Russians." Instead, they say there is evidence that America's far-right is trying to sway voters.

"So far we have not been able to track down any specific Russian activity," Simon Hegelich, a professor of political science data at the Technical University of Munich who has advised the German government about the threat of hacking and false information, told USA Today.

According to Hegelich, America's so-called 'Alt-right' movement, a term which defines far-right ideology which includes racism and white nationalism, appears to be aiming to influence the German election.
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Bad Guys

Ukraine rejects Russian proposal for UN peacekeepers to protect OSCE observers

Alexander Mercouris
Russia Feed
Thu, 21 Sep 2017 19:19 UTC
OSCE observers Ukraine conflict line UN peacekeepers
On 5th September 2017, during his press conference at the latest BRICS summit in China, President Putin of Russia unexpectedly announced a proposal for the UN Security Council to organise a lightly armed force of peacekeepers to provide protection to observers from the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) who are patrolling the contact line between the militia in the Donbass and the Ukrainian army.
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