Puppet MastersS


Crusader

Trump doesn't seem to want another Libya in Syria, says Lavrov


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:29 UTC
man on crutches Aleppo
© Ali Hashisho / ReutersA man on crutches walks through a damaged neighbourhood in Aleppo, Syria January 30, 2017.
US President Donald Trump doesn't seem to want to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria when he proposes setting up 'safe zones' in the war-stricken country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Libyan case had been "tragic."

"We understand that Donald Trump's administration is yet to specify its approach [on Syrian 'safe zones']," Lavrov said at the Fourth Session of the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Russia's foreign minister said the idea of 'safe zones' had been discussed at the early stages of the Syrian crisis when negotiators proposed following the "tragic" Libyan scenario.

"[They] established such a 'safe zone' in Benghazi area, where anti-government forces were stationed, some kind of alternative government was established [there]," he said.

He pointed out that "NATO came to help that government and [then] in flagrant violation of the Security Council resolution, overthrew the regime of Muammar Gaddafi."

The foreign minister said that Russia was ready to discuss 'safe zones' in Syria with the new US administration.

"As soon as the State Department leadership is completely formed, I am convinced that we will get in contact and establish a full-blown regular dialogue," Lavrov said.

Lavrov proposed re-including the official Syrian government in the Arab League as a way of solving the crisis. The country was suspended from the group back in September of 2011, months after the bloody conflict broke out.
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Info

Belgian lawmakers set to visit Damascus on Thursday and likely to meet Assad


Sputnik
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:42 UTC
Damascus sunrise
© SANA
A delegation of Belgian lawmakers will arrive in Damascus on a working visit Thursday, an informed source told Sputnik on Wednesday.

The source added that Syria's President Bashar Assad was likely to receive the Belgian delegation.

"A delegation comprising four Belgian lawmakers will meet with Syrian Parliament Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas and some Syrian lawmakers tomorrow," the source said.

In November 2016, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said the European Union should be more actively involved in resolving the Syrian crisis and not just monitor actions taken by Russia and the United States.
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Arrow Down

US Navy guided-missile cruiser damages propellers, spills oil into Tokyo Bay


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:05 UTC
US Navy cruiser
© yukikazeyochan / YouTube
An American guided-missile cruiser, the USS Antietam has run aground in Japan reportedly spilling hundreds of gallons of oil in Tokyo Bay. The Navy is assessing the cause of the incident and the impact on the environment.

"The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) damaged its propellers while anchoring in Tokyo Bay in the vicinity of Yokosuka, Japan, Jan. 31," the US Pacific Fleet said in a statement. "The incident did result in the discharge of hydraulic oil into the water."

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Saudi Arabia and Israel share soft spot for Sunni extremism

Brian P. McGlinchey
28Pages.org
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:52 UTC
Israel Saudi Arabia
© Incog Man
In the War on Terror, Israel's government is not a reliable friend of the American people—but neither is our own

Thanks to last summer's release of 28 pages detailing a variety of links between 9/11 hijackers and Saudi government officials—and the October leak of a 2014 email from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declaring the Saudi government was directly supporting ISIS—it's increasingly clear that the U.S. government's depiction of Saudi Arabia as a vital ally in the "war on terror" is dishonest.

Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia isn't the only supposed "ally" whose official depiction as a steadfast foe of terrorism is out of sync with reality: The branding of Israel is also deeply misleading.

Israeli Aid to Al Qaeda in Syria

Thought it received very little coverage in U.S. media, last year it was revealed that the Israeli government was providing medical support to the al Nusra Front, a Syrian arm of al Qaeda.
netanyahu
That would seem inconsistent with routine declarations from U.S. politicians that there should be "no daylight" between the United States and Israel, language that suggests two peoples whose interests are in perfect alignment.

Where Israel's support of an al Qaeda affiliate is concerned, however, a former chief of the Mossad—Israel's national intelligence agency—pulls no punches in differentiating between U.S. and Israeli interests.

Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan asked Efraim Halevy why Israel would give medical aid to wounded members of al Qaeda—and return them to jihad in Syria—but not to the wounded of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Shi'a militant group in Lebanon that has often clashed with Israel and has been linked, sometimes dubiously, to terror attacks.
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Treasure Chest

Saudi Arabia likes Trump and wants to boost investment in US energy


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:24 UTC
Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih
© Heinz-Peter Bader / Reuters Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih.
Riyadh may increase investment in the American energy sector said Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khalid al-Falih.

"President Trump has policies which are good for the oil industries, and I think we have to acknowledge it... He has steered away from excessively anti-fossil fuels, unrealistic policies," Falih told the BBC.

"I think he wants a mixed energy portfolio that includes oil, gas, renewables and make sure the American economy is competitive. We want the same in Saudi Arabia," he added.
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Dollar

Millions of Indians will have taxes halved new annual budget reveals


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:10 UTC
Indian middle-class taxpayers
© Shailesh Andrade / Reuters
Nearly 20 million Indian middle-class taxpayers will get a 50 percent cut in their income tax, according to the annual budget revealed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The tax rate for people with income of 250,000 rupees ($3,700) to 500,000 rupees ($7,400) a year, as well as tax for small and medium-sized businesses with annual turnover of up to 500 million rupees ($7.4 million) has been reduced to five percent from the current ten percent.

Those who earn less than 250,000 rupees ($3,700) a year will pay nothing.

The larger incomes of above 500,000 rupees are now assessed a 30 percent tax rate.

"We are largely a tax non-compliant society. The predominance of cash in our economy makes it possible for people to evade taxes," said Jaitley.

Comment: Is this a concession to ease the effort towards a cashless society? At least there is some good news for India's economy: Anchor of stability: India's economy set to sustain 7.6% growth rate in 2017 or is there: Cash crisis causes IMF to lower forecast for India's economic growth

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War Whore

What is more morally reprehensible? Banning refugee visas or murdering them, destroying their homeland?

Neil Clark
RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 10:29 UTC
Displaced Iraqis
© Marwan Ibrahim/AFPDisplaced Iraqis are seen on December 12, 2016 in Maktab Al-Khaled area, 30 kms west of Kirkuk, after fleeing the town of Hawija due to the ongoing fighting between Iraqi forces and jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group.
Which is more morally reprehensible: (1) Introducing a ban on refugees and immigrants from a small number of countries for a temporary period or (2) Killing people and destroying their countries through illegal regime change wars?

A bit of a no-brainer, eh? It has to be the second answer, surely.

Well, you'd think so, but for some it seems, the first option is far worse than the latter.

How else to explain that large sections of the Western liberal-left seem to be more incensed by Donald Trump's ban on visitors from some Muslim countries (unjust though it is) than they were by the war which destroyed Libya, a country that had the highest living standards in Africa. In their anti-Trump crusade, some 'progressives' appear perfectly happy to link arms and sing 'Kumbaya' with the serial warmongers who unleashed the carnage which caused the refugee crisis in the first place?

Trump's executive order has caused a furious liberal backlash which Obama's backing of jihadist death squads in Syria never did. It has led to widespread protests in the US and UK. Over 1.7 million people have signed a petition calling for the State visit of the American president to the UK to be called off. In the House of Commons on Monday, Trump was called a fascist and likened to Hitler and Mussolini, while outside Downing Street angry demonstrators shouted 'Donald Trump has got to go!' Parliamentary sketch writer Quentin Letts said the eyes of politician Yvette Cooper were "bulging so much she could have gone to a fancy dress party as Marty Feldman."

Comment: See also: Islamic Holocaust: Western wars have killed AT LEAST 4 million Muslims since 1990

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Propaganda

New York Times' Paul Krugman betrays his ignorant Russophobia

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:48 UTC
Mexico border wall
© Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters
Leaving the twelve months of mass celebrity expiration behind and welcoming a fresh epoch, I made a New Year bet with a colleague. That, before St Patrick's Day, an established American media outlet would refer to its own government as a "regime."

Now, it turns out I was overly conservative in my estimate. Because we haven't even reached the end of January and the New York Times has already obliged. And €20 is winging its way to me.

However, what I hadn't countenanced is how the first writer to break the proverbial levee would style the incumbency as "the Trump-Putin regime." Which is a level of absurdity Samuel Beckett would have strangulated at conception. Not to mention, how the accompanying piece provides zero evidence of any Kremlin collusion in the US President's projects.

Indeed, it now appears that just dropping the words "Russia" or "Putin" into an assault on Donald Trump, serves some bovine purpose amid the current American media "red scare" frenzy - no matter how irrelevant Moscow is to the subject on hand.

So, thank you Paul Krugman for helping me win my wager. And shame on you for yet another McCarthyite smear on Russia which betrays your pettiness and your utter ignorance of the country, best exemplified by the November assertion of how Trump was a "Siberian candidate" installed in office by some conspiracy orchestrated by Vladimir Putin and FBI director, James Comey. This was part of a cracked "tweet-storm," which manifested as the ravings of a paranoid crank.
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Stock Down

Soros's bad bets against Trump cost his clients $1bn


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:21 UTC
George Soros
© Charles Platiau / Reuters Georges Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management.
George Soros's hedge fund was one of the biggest losers of 2016, as the Hungarian-born billionaire's misplaced investments turned into a $1 billion loss for his clients, according to a report by hedge fund investor LCH Investments, cited by Bloomberg.

The only notable hedge fund which did worse than Soros is Paulson & Co, which lost $3 billion last year, according to LCH. The biggest winner is billionaire Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates, which earned $4.9 billion for its clients.

After Donald Trump's election victory, Soros made some bearish market bets. While Soros called Trump a "would-be dictator," and predicted uncertainty and sell-off after his win, the markets rallied significantly.

"The overall returns from hedge funds in 2016 were disappointing. Even the managers with the greatest long-term records did not perform strongly, and their results were no better than average," Rick Sopher, chairman of LCH, said in the report.

"This underperformance by the world's greatest money managers reflects the difficulties experienced by most active managers for much of 2016," he added.

Soros and Bridgewater hedge funds were created in the 1970s and remain top-performers, cumulatively earning nearly $90 billion since then.

Comment: Also see:

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Light Saber

Trey Gowdy enters immigration debate, and destroys opposition arguments


American News
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:02 UTC
Trey Gowdy
For what seem like the thousandth time, Trey Gowdy has proven that he is going to help win the fight against illegal immigration. Liberals in the United States may be pushing for 12 million illegal immigrants to have a clear path to citizenship, but Gowdy has an epic response to that argument.

Watch below:

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