Puppet MastersS


Chess

China gets its way on North Korea despite resistance from Washington

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:16 UTC
Rex Tillerson
The latest UN Security Council resolution on the North Korea crisis shows that it is China's approach which is prevailing.

On 30th July 2017, in the immediate aftermath of North Korea's latest ballistic missile test, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, published a portentous statement saying that the US would not seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the North Korean test or additional sanctions against North Korea.

Nikki Haley's words in her statement bear some repeating:
There is no point in having an emergency session if it produces nothing of consequence. North Korea is already subject to numerous Security Council resolutions that they violate with impunity and that are not complied with by all UN Member States. An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value.
A few weeks later the UN Security Council has met and has voted unanimously for further sanctions on North Korea.

What happened to cause the US to change its mind?
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Info

Shaky anti-government faction in Venezuela trying to stake claim at power

Fabiola Sanchez
AP
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:01 UTC
Venezuela protesters
Pro- and anti-government factions dug themselves further into their trenches Monday amid Venezuela's deepening political crisis, with each side staking a claim to the powers granted them by dueling national assemblies.

The new chief prosecutor who replaced an outspoken government critic outlined plans for restructuring the Public Ministry, and the opposition-controlled National Assembly vowed to continue meeting at the stately legislative palace - a short walk across a plaza from where the all-powerful constitutional assembly is expected to hold its next meeting Tuesday.

National Assembly president Julio Borges told fellow lawmakers they should keep an active presence in the building despite threats from the new assembly to swiftly strip them of any authority and lock up key leaders. Borges called the building, with its gold cupola, the "symbol of popular sovereignty."

"We are a testament to the fight for democracy," he said at a meeting cobbled together amid mounting uncertainty about the legislature's future. "It should be known this assembly was true to its mandate."
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Gear

Double standards: US meddles across Southeast Asia while accusing others of meddling at home

Joseph Thomas
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
US embassy Bangkok
The latest round of sanctions levelled by the United States government against Russia are predicated on allegations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential elections. Alleged interference includes leaking e-mails obtained from the US Democrat Party.

However, compared to the open interference the US conducts around the world in the internal political affairs of nations, leaked e-mails is particularly benign.

Across Southeast Asia, entire political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, Anwar Ibrahim's Bersih street front and Thailand's Pheu Thai Party and accompanying street movement, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) have attempted and at times succeeded at clawing their way into power primarily because of extensive financial and political support from the United States and various European allies.

In addition to support in the shape of propping up entire political parties, the US funds and directs myriad fronts posing as nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). In Thailand, these include media platform Prachatai, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT), Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), the New Democracy Movement and Thai Netizen.

Comment: More on US meddling in Thailand:

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Attention

Former Navy Seal warns the US may witness a "gruesome massacre" if Trump removed from office

Joe Newby
Conservative Firing Line
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
trump
Donald Trump
In a Facebook post published Friday, Craig "Sawman" Sawyer, a Marine veteran, former Navy SEAL, sniper, combat instructor and the owner of Tactical Insider, warned of a "gruesome massacre" if President Trump is removed from office.

"I'm hearing serious rumblings of a hostile, illegal coup against our democratically elected President by seditious, deep-state subversives funded by Soros & other globalists. Very disturbing," he wrote, adding:
Patriots, this would be nothing less than an act of war against the American people. It would be the removal of our boldest defender & last possibility of maintaining our protective Constitution. Under the boot of globalists, life as we know it, would immediately decline to the model that suits the globalist interest - Marxist/Socialist/Communist. They get complete control, you get zero. Freedom, Gone! Liberty, Gone! This agenda is evil and simply cannot be allowed, at ANY cost.

Like ALL military, law enforcement and government officials, I took an oath to defend our Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. By abandoning the rule of law and conducting a coup against the President & policies WE THE PEOPLE elected, they have made themselves enemies of the United States.

Comment:

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Question

Moronic Russian Liberal Democrats urge transition to bipartisan political system


RT
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 17:49 UTC
Vladimir Zirinovsky Russian liberal democrat
© Vladimir Astapkovich / SputnikVladimir Zirinovsky, (second left) leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Russian opposition party LDPR is proposing a rapid change to a two-party system consisting of a 'conservative party' created out of current parliamentary majority party United Russia, and a united 'social democratic' opposition.

In a statement published on its website, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) explained that their proposal addresses the need to adjust to a rapidly changing world, and claimed that the United States has already begun the transition from a presidential to parliamentary democracy.


Comment: What has the LDPR been smoking??


The LDPR say the benefits of having a bipartisan political system include the equal presence of various forces in parliament, the ability to form coalition governments, and the stable transfer of power.

Comment: Russia seems to be doing fine as it is. Why would the LDPR want to adopt the obviously failed two-party system the U.S.is plagued with? The Atlanticists seem to be busy again.

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Star of David

Zionism is worse than apartheid

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 17:10 UTC
Palestinian women walk past a mosque and water tower damaged by Israeli air strikes
© AFPPalestinian women walk past a mosque and water tower damaged by Israeli air strikes and shelling in Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. August 3, 2014.
Sometimes confronting the naked truth is shocking - yet sobering.

Israeli historian Benny Morris was alas right, when he concluded that:
"[T]ransfer was inevitable and inbuilt in Zionism - because it sought to transform a land which was 'Arab' into a Jewish state and a Jewish state could not have arisen without a major displacement of Arab population."
I believe every Zionist knows this, even if they have not meticulously scrutinized the history of Zionism as Morris and many others had done. They know it because their logic tells them that they should not reverse the results of this ethnic cleansing (which occurred in various waves, mainly 1948, 1967, in between, thereafter and currently), because it would endanger the 'Jewish and democratic' state that is a 'must' for them.

Everything that results from this logic is an extension of it. How to deal with the dispossessed, how to close them in, how to deal with their 'aggression and violence'.
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Footprints

Is Trump another Nixon?

David Stockman
Daily Reckoning
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Trumpnixon
© dailyreconing.com
Approximately two months before the election on September 10th I locked down the final draft of my book, Trumped! In the opening sentence I ventured the following opinion, which was most certainly not in the mainstream at the time:
FIRST THERE WERE 17. THEN LITTLE MARCO, LOW ENERGY JEB AND LYIN' Ted were gone. At length, there was one. And now there is even a chance he may become President.
That he did, and contrary to all expectations, too. But now there is an excellent chance that Mike Pence will become the 46th occupant of that office. This time the pundits do see it coming. That's because they are complicit - functioning as self-appointed magistrates of a recount of the 2016 election.

Indeed, the mainstream media is no longer even in the news business. It's conducting a grand witch hunt and venomous prosecution that will not be sated until the Donald vacates the Oval Office - one way or another, probably by a threatened invocation of the 25th Amendment by the GOP elders on Capitol Hill.

Yes, it sounds a tad far fetched. But the key to what comes next is hiding in plain sight. The Donald is exceedingly vulnerable because he is an insurgent outsider who will eventually end up alone in the Swamp in helpless isolation.

Comment: Testy times ahead need a "testy" president. Trump does have some things in his favor: unpredictability, unorthodox approach, willingness to be where he is and give it his all, play some of the game to stay in the game and expose it. Will this be enough? He is not the mastermind behind the economic tsunami, nor is he Nixon.

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Magnify

Kislyak: America is an 'unhealthy society', its behavior 'shameful' in thinking he was a spy

Charles Bausman
Russia Insider
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
LavTrumpKislyak
© CBS News
Recently retired Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak served for 9 years as Russia's envoy in Washington, and before that he was Deputy Foreign Minister for 5 years.

People who know him say that he stood out as a diplomat for his jovial disposition and social tact. Ever courteous, upbeat, friendly, welcoming, with a quick smile and a good sense of humor. He was a popular and welcome figure in the US, criss-crossing the country, meeting and greeting, giving the lie to the cold war stereotype of the dour Russian apparatchik, appearing regularly on political talk shows.

He genuinely likes the USA, identifies with its people, and saw himself as a friendly emissary, working to improve relations, which is how many Americans who knew him saw him. He was popular and well-liked.

The picture of him having a laugh with Trump and Lavrov actually captures his MO quite accurately.

Genial charm aside, he is also a savvy and astute observer, so what he says about his impressions of America is also interesting - and remarkable coming from such a tactful, inherently diplomatic and positive personality.


Comment: Can America take feedback? Ambassador Kislyak gave 14 years of service as a liaison between the US and Russia. His remarks protest the power of propaganda and political sway, and its affects on the American people. True friends tell you what you ought to hear. Anyone listening?

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Bad Guys

Israel has turned President Abbas into a prisoner in Ramallah


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 18:37 UTC
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
© REUTERS/ Mark SchiefelbeinPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, July 18, 2017
Israel has been accused of besieging Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, within the walls of the city of Ramallah. Mr. Abbas has been blamed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for increased tensions in Jerusalem.

Israel has denied they are preventing Mr. Abbas from leaving Ramallah, the city where the Palestinian Authority is based, to visit other parts of the West Bank.

But several incidents on the Temple Mount in July have increased tensions in the area and the Palestinian leader has been accused of reducing co-operation with Israel's security forces.

Comment: See also: Abbas will not resume Israel contact until all Temple Mount security is lifted

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Star of David

Israel's Netanyahu exudes calm in face of charges

Aron Heller
AP
Sun, 06 Aug 2017 16:11 UTC
Benjamin Netanyahu
© Gali Tibbon, Pool via AP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's circle attempted to convey calm Sunday amid reports of a slew of corruptions charges against him that threatened to force him from office.

Netanyahu himself did not address the latest developments at his weekly Cabinet meeting, but a close ally said he was relaxed and confident despite reports that police were preparing to recommend he be indicted.

"I am not worried at all. The prime minister is not worried either," said Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev, one of the few ministers to rush to Netanyahu's defense. "As he has said repeatedly: 'there will be nothing, since there is nothing.' Part of the media and the opposition are doing everything they can to topple the right and topple Netanyahu. It won't help them. You replace the leadership at the ballot box, not in investigations and not in headlines."
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