Puppet MastersS


Microphone

CNN finalizes rules on mics, muting, notes, for first Biden vs. Trump debate; RFK Jr. could still qualify

Kyle Morris
Fox News
Sat, 15 Jun 2024 18:02 UTC
biden trump kenney presidential debate 2024
© Getty ImagesJoe Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Donald Trump

President Biden (L), independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (C), and former President Donald Trump (R).
The 90-minute debate is slated to take place June 27 in Atlanta

CNN has finalized the rules for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, which is less than two weeks away.

The campaigns of President Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to the rules, CNN said on Saturday, noting that it is not "impossible" for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to join the pair on stage.

To qualify for the CNN showdown, a candidate must have received 15% support in four separate national polls, and be on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral college votes. Currently, Kennedy is on the ballot in six states, totaling 89 potential Electoral College votes.

Comment: More details from the Washington Examiner:
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already agreed to the 90-minute debate rules, and will be allowed two breaks amid their likely verbal combat. As for the other details, muted mics was a stipulation included in a 2020 debate, and Trump has pushed for the candidates to stand at podiums, in a likely assumption Biden will be more uncomfortable, against the Biden campaign's suggestion to sit.

There will be at least one more presidential debate as ABC is hosting a debate on Sept. 10, not long before early voting begins in the general election. Trump leads by 1.1% in 538's national polling average.


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Attention

Best of the Web: Serbian President Vucic warns of looming world war: 'No one can stop it'

Stewart Battle
EIR
Tue, 11 Jun 2024 17:51 UTC
President Aleksandar Vucic
FILE PHOTO: President Aleksandar Vucic
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic gave a video interview to the the Swiss German-language publication Die Weltwoche, posted on June 8, in which he discussed in stark terms the danger of global conflict the world currently faces. "The train has left the station, and no one can stop it," he said, speaking in English. (Subtitling for this video was available in Serbian, German and English.) Some relevant excerpts of his remarks follow:

"I believe that we are getting close to the last days of possible rethinking and reconsidering in Ukraine. If those big powers don't do anything in a short period of time, yes, I'm pretty much certain that we'll face a real disaster."

In reference to the Western rhetoric claiming that Putin is bluffing: "If you bet on the fact that someone is bluffing, it means that you have no better cards. That you just believe that the other side has weaker cards. But you don't know and you didn't see his or their cards...."

Comment: Note that Slovakia's PM Fico who also spoke with such honesty, suffered from an assassination attempt; and Vucic himself was threatened just a few weeks ago:

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Attention

The BRICS weigh in on Palestine

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Sun, 16 Jun 2024 16:51 UTC
The gravity around the newly-enlarged BRICS constellation is drawing in Arab, Muslim, and Global South adherents to the influential group's message on international law, Palestine, and halting forever wars.
BRICS Leaders
© The Cradle
MOSCOW - Something of extraordinary magnitude happened in Moscow on 23 May. Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help organize a peace conference on Palestine, at which Russia would be the first non-Arab nation invited.

Al-Khalifa and Putin had two rounds of discussions - one of them closed - during which the main focus was always Palestine. The Bahraini monarch noted that in a rare show of unity, the Arab world had finally come together in agreement to end the war in Gaza. It was implied that Russia was subsequently chosen as the most reliable mediator to end the brutal conflict.

Bahrain - and the Arab League - recognize that the Russian position centers around what Putin had previously defined as the "UN formula": an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

That happens to be the position of the BRICS-10 nations and virtually the whole Global Majority. Crucially, it is also the common position of China and the Arab world, reaffirmed in Beijing only one week after the Russia-Bahrain meeting.

The problem is how to implement the "formula" when the US hegemon, Israel's unconditional ally, has a virtual stranglehold on the United Nations.

By 2020, as Tel Aviv was openly announcing the inevitable annexation of the West Bank, the Abraham Accords were smashing a major Arab taboo on openly supporting Israel, via the normalization agreements signed in Washington DC by Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan.

Nine months ago, Palestine was virtually isolated, and destined to extinction via quiet Israeli policies to incrementally force expulsion. But never underestimate the power of a genocide committed in broad daylight, on video. Today, the Russia-China strategic partnership, BRICS, and the Global Majority have been mobilized to enshrine Palestine as a sovereign state - faithful to the recent super-majority UN General Assembly vote to accept Palestine as a UN member.

It will be a long, winding, and thorny road that has the potential to split the world in two.
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Bullseye

Western silence encourages Kiev's atrocities - Zakharova


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2024 15:07 UTC
Maria Zakharova
© Sputnik / Sergey GuneevFILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
International institutions that stay silent in the face of Ukrainian atrocities become Kiev's accomplices in these crimes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said, highlighting the targeted attack on a Russian news crew near Gorlovka that killed a photographer and seriously injured two others.

On Thursday morning, an NTV crew reporting from Donbass came under Ukrainian fire near Gorlovka. Journalist Aleksey Ivliev, camera operator Valery Kozhin, and their Russian military escort were wounded. Kozhin later died of his injuries.

"Once again, representatives of the journalistic community and Russian media find themselves in the crosshairs of the Nazi regime in Kiev," Zakharova told reporters at the regular press briefing.

She pointed out that according to some sources, the crew was deliberately targeted by a Ukrainian drone, which dropped a mortar shell on their location.

According to Zakharova, international organizations from the UN on down have either remained silent or voiced "general concerns" about "this monstrous hunt for our correspondents," practically becoming Ukrainian accomplices and encouraging further atrocities on Kiev's part.

Comment: It's unlikely to hear anything but silence or the softest and broadest acknowledgement that something happened. Either way, Ukraine won't be condemned. But Zakharova already knew that.

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Telephone

NATO top-job favorite says dialogue needed with Russia


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:45 UTC
Rutte
© Marco Tacca/Getty ImagesDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said the EU must accept that Russia is "not going away".

The EU will have to build some form of relationship with Russia when the Ukraine conflict ends, outgoing Dutch Prime Minister and the next likely NATO chief Mark Rutte has said.

Rutte visited Finland on Thursday for talks with President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on European security, including military assistance to Ukraine. Stubb later told reporters that Rutte is likely to become the US-led military bloc's next secretary general, Reuters reported.

Rutte, at a press conference following his meeting with Orpo, stated:
"At this moment, Russia of course is our main adversary, and we have to ensure that Ukraine wins. Russia will not go away and we have to find in the longer term a form of relationship with Russia. At this moment, it's very difficult to foresee how that will play out."
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Attention

Musk wants Ukrainian NGO designated as terrorist group


RT
Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:47 UTC
musk
© STR/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesElon Musk
The billionaire is one of 392 Americans accused of "echoing Russian propaganda" by the organization, which could now lose US funding.

A Ukrainian NGO has compiled a database of influential American citizens, who it claims hold positions that 'mirror' those of Moscow. One of the blacklisted individuals is billionaire Elon Musk, who has called for the organization to be designated as a terrorist group.

The NGO, Texty.org.ua, produced a lengthy report last week, which detailed a supposed "ecosystem" of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives "echo key messages of Russian propaganda" regarding the Ukraine conflict.

On Wednesday, Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee added a provision to the markup of the State Department's 2025 budget that bans Texty from receiving US funding.
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No Entry

Russian troops never intended to capture Kiev - Putin


RT
Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:24 UTC
baracade
© Fadel Senna/AFPFortifications in the streets of Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in March 2022
Russian forces did not plan to storm Kiev when they advanced towards the Ukrainian capital in the first weeks of the conflict between the two countries, President Vladimir Putin has said.

During a meeting with his Russia's top diplomats on Friday, Putin noted continued "speculation" in Ukraine and the West about the intentions of Russian units when they reached the outskirts of Kiev in late February 2022.

Putin insisted:
"There was no political decision to storm the city of 3 million, no matter what anyone says due to their lack of thought. The Russian advance towards Kiev was nothing more than an operation to persuade the Ukrainian regime to [make] peace. The troops were there to motivate the Ukrainian side to engage in negotiations, to try to find an acceptable solution and this way end the war unleashed by Kiev against Donbass back in 2014."
The conflict between the Ukrainian government and the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which erupted after the Western-backed coup in Kiev in February 2014, "posed a threat to the security of our country, to the security of Russia," Putin stressed.

Comment: The Bucha tragedy was pre-paged in the Biden-Zelensky playbook, timely carried out, falsely attributed. They couldn't let Russia 'go home' without a war to fight. Russia would be too honorable.

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Fire

Ukrainian spies involved in Moscow terror attack - FSB chief


RT
Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:37 UTC
Bortnikov
© SputnikFederal Security Service (FSB) Chief Alexander Bortnikov
Ukrainian intelligence services were involved in the deadly terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow in March, the director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

Aleksandr Bortnikov made the statement during a virtual meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) on Tuesday:
"The Ukrainian and Western intelligence services are expanding the circle of possible perpetrators, recruited to commit high-profile crimes inside Russia. Kiev and its foreign backers are also assisting 'international terrorist organizations', which train and provide equipment to those people.

"A vivid example [of such activities] is the involvement of Ukrainian military intelligence in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall near Moscow that was established by us."
The main targets of recruitment by Ukrainian and Western agencies are younger people including migrant workers, he said.

The attack on the concert venue on March 22 claimed 145 lives and left over 550 injured. Four gunmen stormed the building ahead of a rock concert, shooting everyone in sight before setting it on fire.

Comment: See also:

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Quenelle - Golden

Lebanon's Hezbollah warns of 'decisive' response amidst Israel's threats to escalate and expand war


PressTV
Sat, 15 Jun 2024 19:46 UTC
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem
© al-ManarHezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem speaks at a ceremony in the capital Beirut on June 14, 2024.
A senior official of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement has warned the Israeli regime of a "decisive" response in case of expanding the scope of its war on Lebanese soil.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, issued the warning in a ceremony in the capital Beirut on Friday as fire exchanges between the Lebanese resistance movement and Israeli troops intensified over the week following the targeted killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in the country's south.

Sami Abdallah, better known by the nom the guerre Abu Taleb, was killed along with three other people in the Israeli strikes that targeted a residential building in the southern Lebanese town of Jwaya on Tuesday.

Comment: Israeli officials have stated their intention to expand their aggression, and it does appear to be losing its advantage on various fronts, which may compel its pathocrats to take ever greater risks. And, just today, Gilad Atzmon commented that Israel's media does appear to be making the case for a looming escalation.

It's perhaps no coincidence that this is also occurring alongside the myriad of other developments on the world stage that presage some kind of uptick:


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Bad Guys

DOJ 'declines' to prosecute AG Garland for contempt for refusal to turn over audio from Biden, Hur interview

Louis Casiano, David Spunt
Fox News
Sat, 15 Jun 2024 15:18 UTC
merrick garland
© AP/Jacquelyn MartinAttorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice June 4, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The House voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Biden's interview with Robert Hur

The Justice Department will not prosecute U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for contempt, according to a letter sent from the agency to House Speaker Mike Johnson Friday.

The House voted Wednesday to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

"Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General," Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte told Johnson in a letter.
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