Puppet MastersS


Binoculars

Avoiding nuclear war: Why Kim Jong-Un's strategy makes sense

Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 14:26 UTC
Kim Jong-Un
Looking at the recent North Korean testing of two intercontinental missiles, it may seem that Pyongyang wishes to increase tensions in the region. A more careful analysis, however, shows how the DPRK is implementing a strategy that will likely succeed in averting a disastrous war on the peninsula.

In the last four weeks, North Korea seems to have implemented the second phase of its strategy against South Korea, China and the United States. The North Korean nuclear program seems to have reached an important juncture, with two tests carried out at the beginning and end of July. Both missiles seem capable of hitting the American mainland, although doubts still remain over Pyongyang's ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to mount it on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). However, the direction in which North Korea's nuclear program is headed ensures an important regional deterrent against Japan and South Korea, and in some respects against the United States, which is the main reason for North Korea's development of ICBMs. Recent history has repeatedly demonstrated the folly of trusting the West (the fate of Gaddafi remains fresh in our minds) and suggests instead the building up of an arsenal that poses a serious deterrence to US bellicosity.
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Bullseye

Political fallout: GOP Senators reaping the fruits of turning on Trump

Alex Pappas
Fox News
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Dean Heller and Jeff Flake
Flake and Heller — considered two of the most vulnerable GOP senators up for reelection in 2018.
Republican senators who have been a thorn in President Trump's side are beginning to see the political consequences of opposing the White House as pro-Trump activists start to mobilize.

Just this week, it was revealed that conservative billionaire and Trump benefactor Robert Mercer would be contributing $300,000 to a super PAC supporting a primary challenger to Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. The Republican lawmaker has sparred with Trump on immigration and is promoting a book that argues the GOP is in "denial" about the president.

Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller - who gave only tepid support to Trump's presidential bid and the subsequent push to repeal and replace ObamaCare - also learned this week he would face a primary challenge from a Trump backer who has run unsuccessfully for Senate before.

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Rocket

Russian general: Pyongyang could hit US targets in S. Korea on provocation by US


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 22:45 UTC
S. Korea multiple missiles
© Kim Hong-Ji / ReutersSouth Korean Army's multiple launch rocket system.
North Korea may well fulfil its threat to hit US targets on South Korean territory if continued pressure by Washington puts Pyongyang at an impasse, Pavel Zolotarev, a retired Russian Major General, told RT.

"A US strike against North Korea may go against common logic, but when a country is governed by propaganda - and the United States is going through such a period - political decisions go beyond rational logic, and there we can have consequences that are hard to foresee," Zolotarev warned.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump promised to bring "fire and fury like the world has never seen" on North Korea if it doesn't stop tests aimed at the developing a nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile. Than the next day he went even further to say that the "fire and fury" warning to North Korea may not have been "tough enough."

Increased pressure from Washington may force the North to "be more assertive in terms of retaliatory measures,"with South Korea becoming hostage in this situation, he warned.

Comment: See also:

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Nuke

Susan Rice blasts Trump: 'US can tolerate a nuclear N. Korea'


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 22:26 UTC
Susan Rice
© NewsweekSusan Rice
Susan Rice, former US ambassador to the UN and national security adviser to Barack Obama, has blasted President Donald Trump's "reckless rhetoric" on North Korea, saying that the US can "tolerate" a nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

In an op-ed published on Wednesday in the New York Times, the former ambassador to the UN downplayed North Korea's threats, saying "we have long lived with successive Kims' belligerent and colorful rhetoric."

"[The] juxtaposition of tough sanctions and military exercises has predictably heightened North Korea's threats," and it was to be expected, Rice wrote referring to the recent sanctions against North Korea unanimously passed by the UN Security Council, as well as the large-scale military exercises that the United States conducts with South Korea every year.

Rice blasted Trump's response to North Korea's threats, calling it either folly or lunacy. "Either Mr. Trump is issuing an empty threat of nuclear war, which will further erode American credibility and deterrence, or he actually intends war next time Mr. Kim behaves provocatively," Rice wrote. "The first scenario is folly, but a United States decision to start a pre-emptive war on the Korean Peninsula, in the absence of an imminent threat, would be lunacy."

She has also criticized Trump's national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, for saying last week that if North Korea "had nuclear weapons that can threaten the United States, it's intolerable from the president's perspective." The US can tolerate a nuclear North Korea, Rice argued, "the same way we tolerated the far greater threat of thousands of Soviet nuclear weapons during the Cold War."


Comment: There's a bit of a difference between gung-ho Kim Jong-un and the former Soviet Union.


Comment: Had the Obama administration, including Susan Rice, come up with a solution and dealt with North Korea, there wouldn't be this 'crisis' waiting to happen. Starting place? Remove US troops from S. Korea and close down the multiple bases. Show some good faith and respect.

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Snakes in Suits

In case you're wondering why Saudi Arabia and Israel have united against Al-Jazeera, here's the answer

Robert Fisk
Independent
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:25 UTC
Saudi King and Theresa May
© AFP
When Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel has both the Saudis and the Israelis demanding its closure, it must be doing something right. To bring Saudi head-choppers and Israeli occupiers into alliance is, after all, something of an achievement.

But don't get too romantic about this. When the wealthiest Saudis fall ill, they have been known to fly into Tel Aviv on their private jets for treatment in Israel's finest hospitals. And when Saudi and Israeli fighter-bombers take to the air, you can be sure they're going to bomb Shiites - in Yemen or Syria respectively - rather than Sunnis.

And when King Salman - or rather Saudi Arabia's whizz-kid Crown Prince Mohammad - points the finger at Iran as the greatest threat to Gulf security, you can be sure that Bibi Netanyahu will be doing exactly and precisely the same thing, replacing "Gulf security", of course, with "Israeli security". But it's an odd business when the Saudis set the pace of media suppression only to be supported by that beacon of freedom, democracy, human rights and liberty known in song and legend as Israel, or the State of Israel or, as Bibi and his cabinet chums would have it, the Jewish State of Israel.
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Attention

Watchdog files complaint, alleges DNC worked with Ukraine, violated federal law

Jonathan Easley
The Hill
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:42 UTC
Paul DonJR Alexandra
© Denver Post/Politico/medium.comPaul Manafort • Donald Trump, Jr. • Alexandra Chalupa
A watchdog group will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday alleging that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) violated federal law by soliciting opposition research on the Trump campaign from a foreign government.

The conservative group Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust (FACT), launched in 2014 by former U.S. attorney Matthew Whitaker, will allege that political operative Alexandra Chalupa, in her capacity as a DNC consultant, improperly sought intelligence on President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, from Ukrainian officials.
"Federal law and Commission regulations prohibit any person from knowingly soliciting, accepting or receiving contributions or donations of money or other things of value from a foreign national," the complaint reads.
FACT alleges that Chalupa violated the ban by "knowingly soliciting" a "valuable in-kind contribution in the form of opposition research and information on a Trump campaign official from a foreign national on behalf of the Democratic National Committee."

The complaint is based on an investigation by Politico, which found that Chalupa "met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia." Chalupa "developed a network of sources in Kiev and Washington, including investigative journalists, government officials and private intelligence operatives," according to Politico, and "occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC."

Comment: The international-scandal soap opera. Just when you think there is an end to the crazy narratives, slimy characters, nefarious deeds and political incest... WRONG! Don't touch that dial. There's more!

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Attention

US senators from oil refining states call on Trump not to sanction Venezuela oil imports


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:11 UTC
Amuay refinery complex
© Carlos Garcia / Reuters
US Senators from oil-refining states have called on the president to avoid a blockade of the Venezuelan oil sector, fearing it may harm the US economy, open economic doors for Russia and China... and take away America's "leverage for delivering democracy."

Four US Republican senators, Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), John Cornyn (Texas), Thad Cochran (Mississippi) and Roger Wicker (Mississippi) sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday.

"Domestically, we are concerned that unilateral sanctions could harm the US economy, impair the global competitiveness of our businesses, and raise costs for our consumers," the letter said, reminding that oil refineries along the US Gulf Coast that process Venezuelan crude represent "a significant portion, nearly 10 percent, of US imports."

According to the letter, it is "critical" to consider "the role that the US energy industry and refining sector play in our economic and national security interest."

"Blockading [US] imports could inflict great harm on this industry and burden US taxpayers with the cost.... the US energy industry and American citizens will bear the economic consequences of the sanctions."
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Attention

"Locked and loaded": Trump assures North Korea the U.S. military is armed and ready


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 14:48 UTC
Trump under the gun
US President Donald Trump has again added fuel to the fire amid the North Korea crisis, saying that if Pyongyang "acts unwisely," Washington has military solutions "locked and loaded."

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely," Trump tweeted on Friday.
The US president added that he hopes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "will find another path."


Trump's comments come a day after US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that Washington and its allies "now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth."

"The DPRK [North Korea] regime's actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates," Mattis said

Comment: So far this is playing out pretty much as Scott Adams has predicted:


Takeaway point: notice what is NOT being said. Trump is not personally insulting Kim Jong-un, which you'd expect him to do, knowing Trump's infamous insults. He's treating him as the leader of a major military adversary, which is exactly how North Korea wants and needs to be seen. Despite the rhetoric, neither side wants war:
Rationally speaking, North Korea couldn't possibly launch a nuclear strike. Therefore, it was critical for North Korea to appear irrational. Only apparent irrationality, meticulously managed, could convince the Americans, the South Koreans, the Japanese, the Russians, and the Chinese that North Korea was utterly dangerous.

But the regime's apparent irrationality had to be calibrated in such a way that North Korea's dangerousness was never so credible or imminent that someone would preemptively attack it.

It had to preserve the regime and paralyze its opponents without forcing military action by its adversaries.
But if Adams is right, things will have to get a bit worse before the opportunity for real negotiations. It will look like war is about to break out. Only at that time will the negotiations table be set.

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Info

Lavrov says Russia does not accept a nuclear North Korea


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:05 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
© Iliya Pitalev / Sputnik
Russia does not accept a North Korea that possesses nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Lavrov added that there was an overwhelming amount of belligerent rhetoric on North Korea's nuclear and rocket programs from Washington and Pyongyang, and that Russia hopes that ultimately common sense will prevail.

"Russia together with China developed a very smart plan which proposes 'double freezing': Kim Jong-un should freeze nuclear tests and stop launching any types of ballistic missiles, while US and South Korea should freeze large-scale drills which are used as a pretext for the North's tests," Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that North Korea had once signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but then withdrew from it.

"Now [North Korea] claims that it has legal rights to make nuclear weapons and has already [done so]," he said. "But you know our position: we don't accept the fact that North Korea could possess nuclear weapons."
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Info

District Court Judge orders new searches for Clinton Benghazi emails

Josh Gerstein
Politico
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 14:34 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Patrick Semansky/Associated Press
Nine months after the presidential election was decided, a federal judge is ordering the State Department to try again to find emails Hillary Clinton wrote about the Benghazi attack.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the State Department had not done enough to try to track down messages Clinton may have sent about the assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound on Sept. 11, 2012 - an attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, State searched the roughly 30,000 messages Clinton turned over to her former agency at its request in December 2014 after officials searching for Benghazi-related records realized she had used a personal email account during her four-year tenure as secretary.

Comment: See also: Court orders State Dept to release Killary's emails on Benghazi attack

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