Puppet MastersS


Attention

Former AG Loretta Lynch now under Senate scrutiny over Clinton email probe


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 22:42 UTC
Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton
© Reuters
The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to hear from former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, after ousted FBI Director James Comey implied she interfered in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server during the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Friday, Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) confirmed that he and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-California) sent a letter to Lynch with six questions, seeking her take on Comey's testimony to the Senate as well as media reports alleging she assured someone in the Clinton campaign the probe will not "go too far."

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), the chair and ranking member of the Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee, also signed on to the letter.
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Info

Abusive relationship: Ukrainian ex-Pres Kuchma says EU 'brought Ukraine to its knees'


Sputnik
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:42 UTC
Kiev flea market
© AP Photo/ Efrem Lukatsky
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has lashed out against the EU, saying that the bloc's policies had brought Ukraine "to its knees," and turned it into a raw material colony. Speaking to Sputnik, Ukrainian political analyst Alexander Okhrimenko said that it was surprising that Kiev expected anything different from the Europeans.

Speaking at a forum in Kiev on Thursday, Kuchma, who served as independent Ukraine's second president between 1994 and early 2005, accented his speech with some unusually frank remarks about the nature of the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union.

The ex-president complained that the EU was "bringing [Ukraine] to its knees" with its trade policy, adding that Europe sees the country as a mere raw materials colony. Ukraine couldn't even sell Europe its foodstuffs, Kuchma said, given its extremely stringent system of quotas.

Comment: More trouble for Ukraine: Tymoshenko's party prepare impeachment proceedings against President Poroshenko

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Cell Phone

New German law enables police to hack into encrypted messengers with 'state trojans'


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:27 UTC
WhatsApp on smart phone
© Justin Sullivan / AFP
German police may now hack into messengers like WhatsApp using "state trojans" to intercept user communications before they are encrypted on their devices, according to a new law swiftly passed by the parliament.

The new legislation allows police investigators to use a "state trojan" to hack into a suspect's mobile device, tablet, or computer, and get full access to their chat messages, video recordings, or other private data, German media reported.

The "state trojans" could make it easier to bypass the encryption employed by popular messaging services, including WhatsApp, as they can gain access to data straight from the source, well before it is secured by the messengers.

Comment: The slippery slope writ large. They grant themselves hacking rights due to terrorism concerns and then get to use them on for general surveillance - tax evasion, sports betting fraud, etc.

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Telephone

Investigation alleges Tories broke election law by canvassing voters from secret call center


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:34 UTC
Telemarkter
© Reza Estakhrian/Getty Images
The Conservative Party operated a secret call center to canvas for candidates during the 2017 general election, breaking both data protection and election rules, according to an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.

During the course of their investigation, an undercover reporter secured work at Blue Telecoms, a firm in Neath, South Wales.

In an area plagued by unemployment and low wages, the call center hired up to one hundred people on zero-hour contracts.

The investigation found the party used a market research firm to make thousands of cold calls to voters in marginal seats in the weeks before the election.

Callers were told to say they worked for a market research company called "Axe Research." No such company is registered in England or Wales.
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Attention

Tymoshenko's party prepares impeachment proceedings against President Poroshenko


Sputnik
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:09 UTC
Petro Poroshenko
© AFP 2017/ TOBIAS SCHWARZPetro Poroshenko
Several factions of Ukraine's parliament, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party, are planning to launch impeachment proceedings against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Izvestia reports, citing Fatherland Party sources.

A source from the Fatherland Party confirmed to the newspaper that Tymoshenko herself had initiated the legal proceedings to impeach Poroshenko. Her fellow MPs support the initiative, the source said, because "tolerating the corruption and abuses of power is no longer possible."

The source also indicated that impeachment proceedings are supported by the Opposition Bloc and Self Reliance Parties, which have the third and fourth largest number of seats in the Ukrainian parliament, respectively. A number of individual deputies from other factions also support impeachment. The Radical Party may also support initiating impeachment proceedings, the source said, but only pending a final understanding of the balance of forces.
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Eye 1

FEC proposal by anti-Trumper eyes widening Russia probe to websites, foreign companies

Paul Bedard
Washington Examiner
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 15:40 UTC
Ellen Weintraub
© APFEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub
A new proposal by an anti-Trump Democrat on the Federal Election Commission would expand the federal government's probe into alleged Russian influence to foreign companies and internet sites that take political ads, like Facebook or the Drudge Report, while giving the FEC an unprecedented role that some say oversteps its authority.

Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, citing petitions from leftist groups demanding a wider investigation, on Thursday plans to push for commission support for her idea.
"This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our democracy," she wrote in a hasty bid to get the commission to consider it at their Thursday meeting.

"The mere allegation that foreign interference may have occurred shakes the faith of Americans in our democracy. The FEC must find out the facts of what happened during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and move swiftly and firmly to fix any problems we find. Only then can we begin to restore the American people's resilient but battered faith that our federal elections belong to us -- and now some foreign power," she added.
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Yoda

Poll: Corbyn now more popular choice for PM than Theresa May


RT
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 14:59 UTC
Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is now a more popular choice for prime minister than the Conservative leader Theresa May, according to a recent poll.

According to YouGov pollsters, 35 percent of those asked "who would make best prime minister" opted for Corbyn. PM May lagged a point behind at 34 percent. A third of respondents were not sure.

May has been under extreme pressure from the opposition and her own backbenchers to improve her performance after her disastrous result in the snap election.

The electoral gamble, aimed at strengthening the government's hand, left the Tories without a majority in the House of Commons. She was reportedly given 10 days to "shape up" or step down.

Comment: Will June or July bring the end of May?
[P]aradoxically, May's clinging on to her job at least for a short while is doing Corbyn a huge favor. Her approval ratings continue to sink, while his continue to soar. In the two weeks since the election it has been Corbyn who has looked Prime Ministerial and not "Theresa Mayhem." Bookies now have Corbyn as 2-1 to be the next British Prime Minister. The odds of the next election being held in 2017 is 13-8, with 2018, 2-1.


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Info

They just can't help it: Nebraska Dem Party official ousted after heartless audio recording surfaces

Paul Gutierrez
Fox42
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 19:52 UTC
Phil Montag
A Nebraska Democratic Party official is now in hot water. An audio recording was posted on YouTube Thursday with Phil Montag, a technology chairman, voicing how glad he was Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise got shot last week at a baseball practice. Nebraska Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed to FOX 42 News Thursday it was really his voice.

"His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to (expletive) kick people off (expletive) health care. I'm glad he got shot," said Montag in the audio recording.

Montag is now looking for a new job. Kleeb let him go after the recording became public.

"I wish he was (expletive) dead," said Montag in the recording.

"We obviously condemn any kind of violence, whether it's comments on Facebook or comments in a meeting," said Kleeb when reached by phone Thursday.

Comment: Class act, no? No wonder the Democratic Party is rotting from within.

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Light Sabers

Propaganda alert: Express reveals Vladimir Putin's evil scientists have drone-killing lasers (what, no sharks?)

Will Stewart
Express, UK
Fri, 23 Jun 2017 19:38 UTC
sharks lasers
Leaked image from Putin's evil scientist lair.
VLADIMIR Putin's scientists have developed technology capable of zapping enemy drones by laser while also remotely recharging friendly Russian unmanned flyers in the sky.


Comment: "Vladimir Putin's scientists"? What is he, an Austin Powers villain? Count on the Express for your daily dose of unintentional humor.


The technology was presented at an innovation exhibition this week, but pictures were not permitted, it was reported.

Researcher Grigory Filimonov said "highly efficient fibre lasers" are used which permit remote recharging. "It allows recharging friendly - and shooting down alien - drones," he said.

The drone-zapping technology was developed by specialists from the Institute of Atmospheric Optics, part of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It was unveiled at the R&D and Innovation Exhibition, part of the Technoprom-2017 international forum, taking place in Novosibirsk.

The exhibition's theme was the diversification of the Russian defence industry.

Comment: Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

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Bullseye

UN Report: Three nations with highest number of refugees were targets of US intervention

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
refugees
© kroz-samariju.netOut of Syria
A UN report has shown that more than 65 million people were forced to leave their home countries last year, becoming refugees due to deadly conflict. The top nations from which refugees fled have one thing in common, they were all targets of US intervention.

A United Nations report has shed light on the world's burgeoning crisis of displaced peoples, finding that a record 65.6 million were forced to vacate their homes in 2016 alone. More than half of them were minors. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which drafted the report, put the figure into perspective, stating that increasing conflict and persecution worldwide have led to
"one person being displaced every three seconds - less than the time it takes to read this sentence.
UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi called the figure "unacceptable" and called for "solidarity and a common purpose in preventing and resolving the crisis." However, what the UN report failed to mention was the role of U.S. foreign intervention, indirect or direct, in fomenting the conflicts responsible for producing most of the world's refugees.

According to the report, three of the nations producing the highest number of refugees are Syria (12 million refugees created in 2016), Afghanistan (4.7 million) and Iraq (4.2 million).

Watch the UNHCR's New Global Trends Report:


Comment: Sickening how many millions of people in the world have to pay for the hubris, lust and cruelty of covert operations orchestrated by a few psychopaths in power. And then there are the dead whose numbers are not mentioned here. The UNHCR video is mind-blowing.

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