Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Mueller's Russia probe is putting its targets in dire financial straits

Betsy Woodruff
Daily Beast
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 17:33 UTC
Paul Manafort
© GettyPaul Manafort
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort parted ways with WilmerHale, the law firm defending him, earlier this week. That was largely because Bob Mueller's 16-lawyer Russia probe-which is targeting him-has shifted its focus and is drilling down on tax issues, which aren't WilmerHale's specialty. But the parting of ways with WilmerHale was also in part because Manafort's finances are increasingly strained, according to sources familiar with the situation.

"Paul Manafort's resolve is limitless, but his resources are not," said a person close to Manafort.

Manafort isn't the only person facing financial challenges because of the legal costs of responding to Mueller's probe. Michael Flynn, the retired general and deposed National Security Adviser, is struggling mightily with his mounting legal bills, according to a source familiar with his situation. The expenses has put his family's finances under significant duress, the source said, and it's expected he will soon create a legal defense fund to keep from going bankrupt.
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Bell

Russian general to RT: North Korea threat to Guam a bluff, stands no chance against U.S.


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 17:20 UTC
north korea flag
© Global Look Press
North Korea wouldn't stand a chance against the US if the war of words between the two states escalates into a military conflict, Leonid Ivashov, a political analyst and retired Russian Colonel-General, told RT, urging a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

"It's a total mismatch," Ivashov, who currently heads the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, said of the possible confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang.

"The US is a superpower, while North Korea is a small regional player. North Korea can't compete with America on any level," he said.

President Donald Trump needs to strengthen his position in Washington, and the American attack on North Korea "can't be ruled out," Ivashov said.

According to the retired colonel-general, modern surveillance technologies allow the US to know "the exact location of all missile systems and nuclear production facilities" possessed by Pyongyang.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Lynch-Clinton tarmac meeting timeline: Crisis management panicked within one minute of first media revelation

Cristina Laila
Gateway Pundit
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:54 UTC
lynch clinton meeting
An attorney for Trump, Jay Sekulow read the stunning timeline breakdown of the Lynch-Clinton tarmac docs on his radio show Friday morning.

Sekulow pointed out that upper level crisis management stepped in and responded to an email inquiry within ONE MINUTE of the news breaking that Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton met on the Phoenix tarmac in June of 2016. The internal panic is very telling. The Obama administration along with Lynch and Comey were doing everything they could to get this under control by creating talking points to deceive the public.

Jay Sekulow also found an email directly connecting the Obama White House to the AG Lynch scandal. This is an incredible discovery by Sekulow and his team as they uncover more lies about this tarmac meeting.

Comment: More on Tarmacgate:

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Bizarro Earth

Mad Maxine speaks sense to Trump's North Korea rhetoric - Mike Huckabee offers sarcastic solution

Sarah Taylor
The Blaze
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:23 UTC
maxine waters
© Mike Segar / Reuters
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told TMZ on Wednesday that the only way to deal with North Korea and its president, Kim Jong Un, is to work with the nation on "things that they're asking for."

Assenting to the opinion that the United States is on the "brink of nuclear war," Waters told a TMZ cameraman that she wants the U.S. to be "very careful."

"I want us to be very careful, very alert to what is happening and to avoid war," Waters said. "I think we can do this with some diplomacy, but we have got to have [Rex] Tillerson, who is our secretary of state, get those positions filled for deputy [and] for assistant, so that we can engage with North Korea."

Waters said that despite North Korea's continued threats against the U.S. and on U.S. territory, Guam, the government should be actively negotiating with the Kim regime.

Comment: Remember that time Putin invaded Korea? Mad Maxine does:


But it seems Trump has figured out how to make his most hysterical detractors speak common sense: by acting like a crazy man, his opponents have no choice but to speak some sense. Waters is not only calling for NOT going to war (a rare thing for Democrats this day and age), she is supporting Tillerson's office and actions on the diplomatic front. Paradoxically, Trump's Kim-like rhetoric may be serving the same purpose: bringing North Korea to the point where the only option to save face is to come to the negotiating table, and thereby avoid initiating a self-destructive war.

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Arrow Down

Zuck running for president in 2020!

James Corbett
Stemmit
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 16:09 UTC
President Zuck?
© Zerohedge
Look at that. Do you see it? The pieces are sitting there on the table. All we have to do is fit them together.

But it's as if a Medusa head has been cut up into a jigsaw puzzle; simply piecing it together would create a picture too ghastly for anyone to behold. So I'll let you assemble the picture for yourself:
  • For his annual "personal challenge," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has vowed "to visit every state I haven't spent time in before to learn about people's hopes and challenges, and how they're thinking about their work and communities."
  • He is having lunch with South Dakotan ranchers and hanging out with Ohio steelworkers and other Rockefeller-handing-out-dimes-level staged PR claptrap.
  • He has inserted an exemption in his corporate succession plan to ensure he can still run Facebook if he leaves the company to go serve in government.
  • He has hired Joel Benenson, a former Obama advisor and Clinton strategist, to work for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Zuck's obligatory gazillionaire tax shelter/"philanthropic" social engineering foundation).
  • And, most tellingly, he has suddenly seen the light and renounced atheism in favor of a more voter-friendly stance: "I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important."
Ugh. It's too horrific to even write this sentence, but here goes: Mark Zuckerberg, Overlord of the Evil Facebook Empire, is running for President.
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Bizarro Earth

Vaudeville Trump, DEFCON 1, Wile E. Coyote and run for the fallout shelter

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 14:33 UTC
Trump and destruction graphic
Is mutually assured nuclear annihilation everything that we can expect from the “peace loving” Mr. Trump?
American foreign policy has now entered its Vaudeville stage. The latest far out act being convincing the dumbest Americans that North Korea is a threat to the US at all. President Donald Trump's madman assertions and swagger recently are made even more horrific by mainstream media's apparent shift into his corner. By the time you're done reading this, fallout shelters may be back in vogue.

For those too young to recollect, Vaudeville entertainment was the fad in the US in the early 20th century famous for a mixture of burlesque comedy and song and dance. The presidency of Donald Trump, so far, has been a marque extravaganza of all three. His song has changed with regard to reconciliation with Russia, but rabid rhetoric on North Korea seems about to go ballistic - literally. A little more than a week ago Trump rubber stamped a sanctions bill that rolled Russia and Iran into the same rogue state ball as North Korea. Today North Korea is in the nuclear crosshairs! Please excuse, but is it just me, or does this darkening situation resemble impossible coincidence? Wow! The term we use in social media so often is the only one that fits here. But wait, the new Trump war drums are drummed by formerly hostile tribes.
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Propaganda

Times believes RT's coverage of NatWest bank account closure was fake news


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 14:20 UTC
RT UK
British newspaper the Times is apparently preparing to brand RT's coverage of a story on the intended closure of its accounts with a British government-owned bank an example of fake news meant to further Kremlin policies. RT sets out the facts.

The story began in 2016, when the National Westminster Bank (NatWest) sent a letter to Russia Today TV UK Ltd, the sole provider of all of RT's operations in the UK, stating that it will no longer provide banking services to it. The letter stated that the entire Royal Bank of Scotland Group, of which NatWest is part, would no longer be available for RT and that the decision was final and not subject to discussion.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan shared the news on her Twitter feed. Many commenters voiced outrage over the decision, which was perceived as an attack on a media outlet that often went against the narrative prevailing in the mainstream British media. The fact that RBS is controlled by the British Treasury led some to believe that the decision may have been influenced by the British government.
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Display

China probes top social media sites for 'hazards to national security'


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 10:55 UTC
Chinas' Baidu social media site
© Damir Sagoji/Reuters
China is investigating its major social media sites, including Baidu, WeChat and Weibo, for potentially breaching cybersecurity laws. The country's cyber regulator said that users are spreading "violence, pornography and hazards to national security."

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the government's internet watchdog, released the statement on its website on Friday.

"Users are spreading violence, terror, false rumors, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order," the statement said.

The probe involves microblogging website Weibo, a Facebook-Twitter hybrid equivalent. The site has 500 million registered users, according to data from tech sites. Baidu, a search engine like Google, which has roughly 260 million monthly users, is also under investigation.
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Syringe

Duterte admits he 'can't control drugs' after year of crackdown and 7,000 deaths


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:53 UTC
Rodrigo Duterte
© Erik de Castro / Reuters
With the Philippines' War on Drugs - so far claiming up to 7,000 lives - in its second year, firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte now says his nation cannot fix the problem due to lack of equipment, difficult terrain and the brevity of his presidential term.

Duterte made the stunning remark while speaking to medical staff in Davao City on Friday, according to CNN Philippines. Lamenting difficulties of scaling down the drug problem, he argued that other nations had failed there too.

"Others can't do it. How can we? Those drugs, we can't control it," Duterte admitted.

The Filipino strongman, who came to power on the back of his promise to defeat drug lords and prevent his country from devolving into a "narco-state," complained that having a lengthy coastline was too much of a challenge.

It is difficult to protect Philippines shores and thousands of adjacent islands from illicit drug trafficking, Duterte said.

"We do not have the equipment, [it's not enough]. And you know the coastline," he added.
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Ice Cube

Jared Kushner's White House task force will attempt to break ice in Arab-Israeli peace talks


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:24 UTC
Jared Kushner
© Cheriss May / Global Look Press
President Donald Trump has dispatched his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, to lead a White House team headed for the Middle East in search of Arab-Israeli reconciliation. The visit comes at a moment of relative calm between the two foes.

Kushner's crew is expected to leave for the Middle East in pursuit of a peaceful reconciliation between the Arabs and the Israelis, the Trump administration said in a statement cited by AP.

The team, which also includes the president's envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, will have to try to exploit the moment of calm in Jerusalem after a flare-up in tensions that has opened a window for negotiations.

Trump "believes that the restoration of calm and the stabilized situation in Jerusalem after the recent crisis on the Temple Mount-Haram al Sharif has created an opportunity to continue discussions and the pursuit of peace that began early in his administration," the White House said.
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