Puppet MastersS

Question

Why is Japan's Defense Minister asking US to cancel Okinawa drills?

US base in Okinawa
© AP Photo/ Greg Baker
Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has urged the US to call off the May 31 - June 1 parachute drills slated to be held on the country's southern Okinawa Island.

"We asked the United States to cancel the drills and cancel notifications for aircraft. At the moment we have not got a US answer," Inada said, as quoted by the NHK broadcaster.

Tomomi Inada also said that the Americans hadn't given a seven-day prior notification of the exercise, which is part of the defense agreement currently existing between the two countries.

Info

Japan's Okinawa Prefecture plans to sue state to stop relocation of US military base

US base in Okinawa
© AFP 2017/ TORU YAMANAKA
The government of Japan's Okinawa Prefecture plans to sue the national government in an attempt to halt the relocation of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the city of Ginowan in the south of the prefecture to the north of Okinawa, local media reported on Tuesday.

The plans to relocate the Futenma Airbase were first formulated in the 1960s, but ever since the process has been put on halt several times. The current plans see the base relocated to the Henoko district of the city of Nago in the northern part of Okinawa. The construction works at the site have already started.

Dollar

Vietnam to ink $17bn worth of deals for US goods and services

Artists perform in front of a giant screen showing Vietnam's late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh
© Nguyen Huy Kham / Reuters Artists perform in front of a giant screen showing Vietnam's late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.
The Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc expects to have signed contracts for US goods and services worth $15 billion to $17 billion during his current visit to Washington DC.

"Vietnam will increase the import of high technologies and services from the United States, and on the occasion of this visit, many important deals will be made," said Phuc who's due to meet US President Donald Trump on Wednesday at the end of a three-day official visit.

According to the CEO of General Electric Steve Bolze, the company will sign new business worth about $6 billion with Vietnam.

USA

The United States of Gaslighting and Abusive Narcissism

Exceptionalism: the condition of being different from the norm; also: a theory expounding the exceptionalism especially of a nation or region.
brainwaves
There are many theories surrounding the origin of American exceptionalism. The most popular in US folklore, being that it describes America's unique character as a "free" nation founded on democratic ideals and civil liberties. The Declaration of Independence from British colonial rule is the foundation of this theory and has persevered throughout the often violent history of the US since its birth as a free nation.

Over time, exceptionalism has come to represent superiority in the minds and hearts of Americans. Belief in their economic, military and ideological supremacy is what has motivated successive US governments to invest in shaping the world in their superior image with little or no regard for the destruction left in the wake of their exceptional hegemony.

In considering itself, exceptional, the US has extricated itself from any legal obligation to adhere to either International law or even the common moral laws that should govern Humanity. The US has become exceptionally lawless and authoritarian particularly in its intolerant neo-colonialist foreign policy. The colonized have become the colonialists, concealing their brutal savagery behind a veneer of missionary zeal that they are converting the world to their form of exceptionalist Utopia.

Comment: It's rare for a journalist to connect the dots between governments and pathological behavior. Kudos to the author.


Snakes in Suits

Say what?: Democratic Rep threatens to kill Republican Rep on legislative floor after he called ICE on illegal immigrants in Texas

Rinaldi2
Pictured: Texas State Representatives Panco Nevarez (Left) and Matt Rinaldi (Right) Came To Blows On The House Floor Over Illegal Immigration
We've repeatedly warned that the division festering among the Left and Right could soon lead to violence across America and the real possibility of a civil war. Earlier this year we reported that Anti-Fascist groups were beginning to arm themselves for physical violence after taking a beat down in Berkeley.

And while attacks have thus far been limited to protesters clashing on college campuses and speaking venues for Republicans, things have now taken a drastic turn.

Hours ago, as supporters of illegal immigration massed to protest the policies being put into place by the new White House administration and the Texas State government, two Texas legislators nearly came to blows in the Capital.

According to Republican legislative representative Matt Rinaldi, he was accosted by Democrat Poncho Nevarez.

The argument stemmed from the fact that scores of protesters were waving signs in Austin, TX, with many identifying themselves as illegal immigrants. Rinaldi reportedly had enough of the disturbance and contacted ICE agents. When Rinaldi advised the House Floor that the agents had been contacted, Nevarez apparently lost total control of his faculties and began assaulting him, to the point that other legislators had to step in to break up the fight.


Comment: Well, we've seen this sort of thing in the Ukraine, South Korea and other places - one supposes it was just a matter of time before the slow-boiling rancor among our elected representatives started turning violent.


Eagle

We're staying!: Netanyahu says that even with peace deal West Bank must remain occupied

West Bank
© REUTERS/ Mohamad Torokman
In the event that Israel and Palestine are able to reach a peace accord, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will keep military personnel in all areas of the West Bank.

"In any peace agreement, we will have to maintain military control of all the territory west of the Jordan River," the Israeli leader told Army Radio. Without Israeli Defense Forces occupying the territory there would be a power vacuum just calling for extremists to set up shop in Israel's backyard, he noted.

Rocket

Russian frigate and submarine fire 4 cruise missiles at ISIS targets near Palmyra

Russian missiles against ISIS
© RT
According to the MoD, "[the ships] targeted an area east of Palmyra, where the ISIS' heavy weaponry and manpower were located. The militants moved there from Raqqa. All targets have been destroyed," it said. The US, Turkish, and Israeli militaries received appropriate warning in advance of the missile launches through active hotlines, the Defense Ministry added. On May 25, a large Islamic State convoy, comprising 39 vehicles and 120 militants, was spotted outside Raqqa, a Defense Ministry source told RIA Novosti on Saturday.


The missiles destroyed heavy equipment and killed fighters that Islamic State had transferred from its stronghold, Raqqa, to Palmyra, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. The Russian warships, a frigate named Admiral Essen and submarine named Krasnodar, fired Kalibr cruise missiles on combat vehicles and terrorists outside the Syrian city of Palmyra, the Defense Ministry said. The four cruise missiles were fired from the eastern Mediterranean, it noted in a statement. The submarine fired its missiles while submerged.

Comment: While the West is notorious for being unable to hit the correct targets in Syria, killing innocents and destroying civilian infrastructure, Russia is famous for its accuracy against ISIS.

See also:


Red Flag

Making excuses: Former UK counterterrorism chief says terrorists 'will always get through the net'

British police and Salman Abedi
Terrorist attacks should be accepted as "a norm" and no matter how hard security services work to foil plots, some will "always get through the net," former UK counterterrorism chief Chris Phillips told RT.

Phillips, who was head of the UK's National Counter Terrorism Security Office, says the "sheer weight" of numbers of potential terrorists is stretching police forces around the world.

"It doesn't matter how many police officers you've got, the numbers are so great of people that could go bad on us - there's a good likelihood that you're going to miss at least one threat.


Comment: It's becoming harder to swallow these lame excuses of 'intelligence failures' and 'missed chances' when in virtually all recent terror attacks carried out in Europe the suspects involved were previously known to security and intelligence agencies. The national security state is not interested in stopping terror attacks when terrorism is a useful tool to keep people in line and enrich the military industrial complex.


Snakes in Suits

President Emmanuel Macron: Will reverse five decades of working-class power

macron
Introduction: Whatever has been written about President Emmanuel Macron by the yellow or the respectable press has been mere trivia or total falsehood. Media lies have a purpose that goes beyond Macron's election. Throughout Europe and North America, bankers and manufacturers, NATO, militarists and EU oligarchs, media moguls and verbal assassins, academics and journalists, all characterized the election victory of Macron as a 'defeat of fascism' and the 'triumph of the French people'.

Document

German prosecutors probe officers over Berlin terrorist attacker document 'cover-up'

German police
© Fabian Bimmer / Reuters
Investigators have raided officers' homes and offices amid an ongoing inquiry into document forgery in the case of Berlin terrorist Anis Amri. It is alleged that Amri's criminal history was downplayed to justify police inaction prior to the assault.

Since Friday, police have raided seven places, including offices and apartments, of five Berlin criminal police officers linked to this case, German media report, citing Martin Steltner, the spokesman for the Berlin Prosecutor's Office.

Only one of them is currently accused of document forgery and obstruction of justice while the others are regarded as witnesses. The identity of the prime suspect has not been publicly revealed and Steltner did not comment on whether he is still a serving officer.