Puppet MastersS


Target

China's foreign minister calls out Japan for kowtowing to US policies in Asia


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 13:42 UTC
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono
© Mohd Rasfan / ReutersChina's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Manila, Philippines August 7, 2017.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, and said that Japan seems to be "forced to fulfill a mission that the US had given" to Tokyo, in criticizing China's policies in the region.

The foreign ministers held their first talks on Monday in Manila, where both arrived for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial meeting.

It came shortly after China was criticized by Japan for its alleged military build-up in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

Wang said, "we felt that you were forced to fulfill a mission that the United States had given you," seemingly referring to Japanese criticism of China, as cited by Japanese media outlet Mainichi.

The US, Australia, and Japan recently issued a joint statement urging China to cease land reclamation and military activities in the South China Sea.
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Piggy Bank

China willing to 'pay most of the price' to uphold N. Korea sanctions but calls for talks


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 12:18 UTC
N. Korea and China flags
© Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
China has pledged to sacrifice its own economic interests in order to properly enforce the new sanctions on North Korea that slash the rogue country's imports. Both Moscow and Beijing, however, call for the six-party talks to resume.

Acknowledging that it is mostly China that will bear most of the brunt of the new economic sanctions on North Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged that Beijing would not hesitate to enforce them in full.

"If we consider traditional economic relations between China and North Korea, it is China that will have to pay most of the price for implementation of the latest resolution," Wang Yi said, speaking at the ASEAN forum in Manila on Tuesday.

The foreign minister went on to say that China is prepared to go against its own economic interests "for the sake of supporting international system of nuclear non-proliferation and to maintain peace and stability in the region."

Wang said that China always heeds United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on North Korea, and the latest one is no exception.

"China, as always, will strictly and fully comply with respective resolutions."
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Target

U.S. considers beginning airstrikes against ISIS in Philippines

Courtney Cube
NBC News
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 02:21 UTC
Duterte Tillerson
© Erik De Castro / ReutersPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte shakes hands with visiting U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a meeting at the presidential palace in Manila, Philippines on Aug. 7, 2017.
The Pentagon is considering a plan that allows the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes on ISIS in the Philippines, two defense officials told NBC News.

The authority to strike ISIS targets as part of collective self-defense could be granted as part of an official military operation that may be named as early as Tuesday, said the officials. The strikes would likely be conducted by armed drones.

If approved, the U.S. military would be able to conduct strikes against ISIS targets in the Philippines that could be a threat to allies in the region, which would include the Philippine forces battling ISIS on the ground in the country's southern islands.

The U.S. military has been sharing intelligence with the Philippines for years, according to Pentagon spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis, who called it a "steady state."

"We have had a consistent CT [counterterror] presence in the Philippines for fifteen years now," he said.

Comment: So the U.S. wants to go all Russia-in-Syria in the Philippines. How nice. How helpful. Duterte had better watch his back.The Empire is no respecter of sovereignty as Russia is. The small gains he has made in freeing the Philippines from the U.S. yoke are soon to be erased if the neocons have their way.

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Vader

US foreign military bases: Global aggression masquerading as defense

Thomas Knapp
AntiWar.com
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
US military bases in the world
© Wikimedia CommonsUS military bases in the world
"U.S. foreign military bases are the principal instruments of imperial global domination and environmental damage through wars of aggression and occupation." That's the unifying claim of the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases (noforeignbases.org), and it's true as far as it goes. But as a signer of the Coalition's endorsement form, I think it's worth taking the argument a bit further. The maintenance of nearly 1,000 US military bases on foreign soil isn't just a nightmare for peaceniks. It's also also an objective threat to US national security.

A reasonable definition of "national defense," it seems to me, is the maintenance of sufficient weaponry and trained military personnel to protect a country from, and effectively retaliate against, foreign attacks. The existence of US bases abroad runs counter to the defensive element of that mission and only very poorly supports the retaliatory part.

Defensively, scattering US military might piecemeal around the world - especially in countries where the populace resents that military presence - multiplies the number of vulnerable American targets. Each base must have its own separate security apparatus for immediate defense, and must maintain (or at least hope for) an ability to reinforce and resupply from elsewhere in the event of sustained attack. That makes the scattered US forces more, not less, vulnerable.

Comment: Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs: US stuck in 20th Century foreign policy with nonstop wars and bases around the globe

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Black Magic

Get your sick bag ready! Rebranded Hillary Clinton sets her sights on the pulpit

Thomas Phippen
The Daily Caller
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 10:20 UTC
clinton
© REUTERS/Brian SnyderU.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reacts as she is introduced during services at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 6, 2016.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is looking to become a spiritual leader after losing to President Donald Trump in 2016, according to reports from people in Clinton's circle.

Clinton wants to preach, according to her pastor Rev. Bill Shillady, who has written a book about the former secretary of state's spiritual life, particularly during her years-long campaign for president.

During a promotional photoshoot for Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions Of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a year's worth of devotions tailored for Clinton as she campaigned for president, Clinton told Shillady that she'd like spiritual leadership to be part of her career.

Clinton asked Shillady not to write about her desire to be a pastor, however, because "it will make me seem much too pious," Clinton told Shillady, according The Atlantic.

Comment: We have no doubt Killary has "faith". In what, is the question....

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Arrow Up

Duterte signs new law providing free education for Filipino university students

Ucan
EurasiaReview
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Duterte
© Keith Kristoffer Bacongco
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, a law providing free tuition for Filipino students at 112 state universities and colleges.

The president signed the law despite opposition from his economic advisers who said the government did not have the money to sustain the program.

Palace spokesman Menardo Guevarra said "free tertiary education ... is a pillar or cornerstone of the president's social development policy."

Congress will make the decision on how to fund the implementation of the law.

Comment: It's easy to understand why Duterte's popularity continues to rise: Duterte is the best president The Philippines has ever had

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USA

'I'm your humble friend': Positive Duterte meeting with Tillerson suggests U-turn on Philippines attitude to US


RT
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:39 UTC
Rex Tillerson and Rodrigo Duterte
© Erik de Castro / Reuters
In an unusually soft tone, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has called himself a "humble friend" of Washington while meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It comes despite Duterte recently calling the US "lousy."

"I am happy to see you...and you have come at a time when the world is not so good, especially in the Korean peninsula, and of course, the ever-nagging problem of the South China Sea," Duterte told Tillerson at the presidential palace on Monday, as quoted by Reuters.

The Philippines leader went as far as to state his country and the US are "friends" and even "allies."

"I am your humble friend in Southeast Asia," Duterte said.

Tillerson arrived in the Philippines on Saturday to participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, as well as to hold diplomatic meetings with the bloc's members and its dialogue partners.

Comment: Most likely, Duterte distinguishes the Trump administration from Congress and Deep State.

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Airplane

True Pundit sources: FBI leaked Lynch's flight plan to set up Clinton's tarmac ambush

Investigative Bureau
True Pundit
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:36 UTC
lynch comey
FBI agents are pointing their collective finger at Bureau brass for leaking sensitive intelligence to Bill Clinton to set up and stalk former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport tarmac in June 2016.

Lynch was taken aback and reportedly physically shaken by Clinton's seemingly impromptu June 27, 2016 visit just one week before a scheduled FBI interrogation of his wife Hillary Clinton. While the meeting between President Clinton and Lynch is now widely known, questions about how Clinton knew exactly where and when the Attorney General would be have been grossly overlooked by the media.

Until now.

The question is who in the FBI breached and leaked the classified information to the Clintons? Was it fired former director James Comey? Deputy Director Andew McCabe? Or FBI General Counsel James Baker who is believed to be under investigation for leaks. McCabe's wife received almost $700,000 to run for office in Virginia from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a well known Clinton family consigliere who is also under FBI investigation. McCabe is currently the target of departmental inquiries for misconduct linked to Hillary Clinton as well.
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Briefcase

Best of the Web: Dep. AG Rosenstein: Grand jury subpoenas normal, no pending Russiagate indictments, no fishing expeditions

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:20 UTC
rosenstein
Rod Rosenstein
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein pours cold water on claims about Grand Jury indictments pending and of fishing expeditions into Donald Trump's business affairs.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein - the man who is supervising Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russiagate investigation - has given an interview to Fox News in which he has attempted - within the limits of the duty of confidentiality that cover all such investigations - to pour cold water on the overheated reporting of the last few days.

On the subject of the Grand Jury, he first of all refused to say whether or not one has been specially empanelled (as I have said previously, a highly sourced leak to the New York Times has shown that it has not). However he did say this about the use of Grand Juries in investigations of this sort.
WALLACE: We learned this week that special counsel Robert Mueller is taking his case to a grand jury. I know you can't and won't talk about the details of that case, but as a general proposition, does the fact that a prosecutor takes a case to a grand jury, what does that say about the likelihood of indictments?

ROSENSTEIN: Chris, I'm - you are right that I'm not going to comment on the case. I'm not going to comment about whether Director Mueller has or hasn't opened a grand jury. You know, we read a lot about criminal investigations in the media and some of those stories are false..... (bold italics added)
The highlighted words are a clear hint from Rosenstein that as the New York Times has previously reported no special Grand Jury has in fact been empanelled, and that the reporting that one has is false.
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Info

Russian Deputy FM: Europe not an independent player in relations with Moscow


RT
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:27 UTC
Western leaders
© Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
Europe can hardly act independently when it comes to relations with Russia, while US policy is reminiscent of the worst legacy of the previous administration, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.

"I do not believe in present-day Europe as an independent player, especially when it comes to Russia," Ryabkov said in an interview to the International Affairs journal posted Monday. "They have created such a mess there and such a ballast in relations with Russia, that it will be difficult for them to get rid of it."

While the deputy minister acknowledged that some European politicians show their eagerness to maintain normal bilateral relations, those intentions should be cemented with actions.

"We see statements reflecting the sentiments of a large part of the European population, especially those who are more interested in normal relations with Russia, including the economic ones," Ryabkov said. He also recalled that once Europe had a tough position against the US sanctions on Cuba imposed by the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, when the EU resorted to legal instruments to protect its business from the outcome of the restrictive measures.
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