Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

Russia arrests twelve Central Asians on extremism charges in Kaliningrad


RFE/RL
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 16:07 UTC
FSB conducts counterterrorism drills in Kaliningrad
© Sputnik
Russia's main domestic security agency says that it arrested 12 people in the Kaliningrad region for suspected involvement with an Islamic extremist group.

Earlier on April 26, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the arrest of two suspected supporters of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group who it said were planning a "high-profile" terror attack in Russia's Far East.

The FSB alleged that the 12 detainees in Kaliningrad were involved with a group called Islamic Jihad-Jamaat Mujahedin and were of Central Asian descent. It said they may have been involved in militant recruiting activities.
Read More...
Stock Down

Trump plans to slash taxes for some businesses, wealthy estates


RT
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 19:56 UTC
Trumptaxes
© Daily Beast
The White House is proposing comprehensive tax reforms which are said to simplify the federal tax code by cutting rates and eliminating deductions. The plan fell short on how the measures would be paid for with critics saying it will primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans.

"This is going to be the biggest tax cut and largest tax reform in the history of our country, and we are committed to seeing this through," US Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said announcing the tax reforms with scant details at the White House on Wednesday.

The plan calls for slashing the federal income tax from 35 to 15 percent for corporations, small businesses, and partnerships of all sizes. That would represent a major tax cut for many businesses from mom-and-pop grocers to hedge funds - including Trump's own business empire.

Under current law, companies pass their earnings and deductions through to their owners, who are then taxed at their individual income tax rates.

There are already critics of the 15 percent tax rate.

Comment: Must ask: Are US politicians, and the government they feed off of, worthy of our tax money? Earn their keep? Spend in our best interests? If not, why should THEY be in charge of the plan?

See also: Treasury Secretary hints Trump tax cut to be biggest of all time

Read More...
Footprints

What should S. Korea do? Give US troops the boot

Jacob G. Hornberger
Future of Freedom Foundation
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
boots on ground
© Catallaxy Files
The best thing that South Koreans could ever do, both for themselves and for the American people, as well as the Japanese citizenry, is boot all U.S. troops out of their country.

Isn't the reason obvious? If President Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA succeed in instigating a war with North Korea, guess who is going to pay the biggest price for such a war.

No, not the United States. At the end of such a war, the continental United States will remain untouched, just like it was after World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and all the other foreign wars in which the U.S. government has become embroiled.

The same cannot be said about South Korea and Japan. While North Korea would undoubtedly end up losing a war against the United States (assuming that China doesn't enter the fray), South Korea will end up as a devastated wasteland. That's because as it is going down to defeat, North Korea can be expected to cause as much death and destruction as it can.
Map US basesKorea
© Business Insider

Comment: Great idea...and how exactly would that be accomplished? It is likely South Korea entertains the idea of kicking US troops out of their country, but the US doesn't want to go. Japan can't make them go either, and Okinawa has been trying for decades. China wants them to go. Russia wants them to go. They're still there! Look around the world. The US has perfected the art of unlimited occupancy.

Read More...
Biohazard

From Korea to Abu Ghraib: War, bio-weapons, torture and back


Moon Of Alabama
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:46 UTC
North Korea flag and nuclear flag
© Getty Images
In Why North Korea Needs Nukes - And How To End That we pointed to the utter destruction the U.S. and its allies waged in the war on Korea on all parts of the country. That North Korea seeks "weapons of mass destruction" is quite understandable when one takes into account the hundreds of thousands tons of napalm used against it. But even Napalm and the criminal destruction of North Korean dams were not the worst deprivation the U.S. applied. Biological warfare agents, primarily anthrax, were dropped over North Korea and China and killed civilians. The U.S./UN command denied such use and covered it up. One consequence of that cover up was the development of torture methods in the U.S. SERE pilot training programs and their later proliferation into criminal abuses in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. An important piece of evidence of this trail was recently and for the first time re-published on the web.

During the 1950s war on Korea heavy air to air fights were waged near the Chinese border which led to significant losses of airplane on both sides especially along the MiG Alley:
USAF pilots nicknamed April 12, 1951 "Black Thursday", after 30 MiG-15s attacked three squadrons of B-29 bombers (36 planes) escorted by approximately 100 F-80s and F-84s. The MiGs were fast enough to engage the B-29s and extend away from their escorts. Three B-29s were shot down and seven more were damaged, with no casualties on the communist side.
Read More...
Dollars

Richard Branson bankrolls manipulation to oust Brexit-supporting Tory MPs


RT
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 11:02 UTC
Richard Branson
© Lucy Nicholson/ReutersEntrepreneur Richard Branson
Entrepreneur Richard Branson is bankrolling a tactical voting campaign which aims to unseat Brexit-supporting Tory MPs in the June 8 general election, it has been revealed.

The Virgin boss, who left Britain four years ago to live overseas, has donated £25,000 (about US$32,000) to the Best for Britain campaign, launched yesterday by Gina Miller - the businesswoman behind a successful UK Supreme Court Brexit challenge.

Miller has promised "the biggest tactical voting effort in our history" and has vowed to ensure the government does not have a mandate to "destroy our rights and relationship with Europe." She says people need to vote tactically in the general election to avoid an "elected dictatorship."

Best for Britain has so far raised £300,000, which will be poured into up to 100 marginal seats to help elect candidates who do not rule out the country remaining in the EU or to MPs who could block a 'hard Brexit.'

Miller says the funds, donated by more than 10,000 people, will be allocated to local candidates who will be chosen using data that takes account of the referendum result in the constituency, the 2015 election result and how people feel about tactical voting. She confirmed it was looking at all parties, including the Tories.

Comment: More political manipulation. Big name, big grudge, big pounds. Money doesn't just talk. See also: Fickle Brits: Majority now against Brexit according to polls

Read More...
Arrow Up

Why Russia, Cuba, and Bolivia will be happy if Trump cuts USAID budget


RT
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:00 UTC
USAID
© AFP
The Trump administration is proposing to ax the budget of USAID, an agency meant to promote American interests in other nations through humanitarian development. But no tears will be shed in many capitals, considering the agency's history of fomenting unrest.

The White House budget proposal to Congress seeks to cut US foreign aid, among other things, to fund increased military spending.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) grew from the post-World War II Marshall Plan for Europe, which funded reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and ensured that Washington rather than Moscow directed the political course in the west of the continent.

Comment: Trump's budget cuts could slash USAID

Read More...
Arrow Down

Boris Johnson embarrasses himself once again, calls Jeremy Corbyn a "mutton-headed mugwump"


RT
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:26 UTC
Boris Johnson Corbyn mutton headed mugwump
Boris Johnson (L) and Jeremy Corbyn (R) Ben Cawthra / Global Look Press
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is a 'mugwump' who fails to understand Britain must be strong in the world, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said.

The personal attack on Prime Minister Theresa May's main rival has been branded 'childish.'

Writing in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper, the foreign secretary said the Labour leader had little ability to deal with complex international issues like Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and North Korea.

The term 'mugwump' refers to someone who is politically aloof, and stands apart from party politics.

However, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter books and movie franchise, Johnson's name-calling could be considered a complement.

In J.K. Rowling's magical universe, the "supreme mugwump" is the title given to the head of the International Confederation of Wizards.

Equally complementary is the word's origin as a Native American term from the Algonquian tribe meaning "great chief."

Comment: Here's Johnson's full quote:
"They watch his meandering and nonsensical questions and they feel a terrible twinge of human compassion. Well, they say to themselves: he may be a mutton-headed old mugwump, but he is probably harmless."
Old Borris has no business referring to any other person on the planet as meandering or nonsensical.

Read More...
Handcuffs

Paul Craig Roberts: Trump now a captive of the Deep State

Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 14:49 UTC
Trump deep state
When the gullible and insouciant American public and the presstitutes who participate in the deceptions permitted the Deep State to get away with the fairy tale that a few Saudi Arabians under the direction of Osama bin Laden, but without the support of any government or intelligence agency, were able to outwit the entirety of the Western Alliance and Israel's Mossad and deliver the greatest humiliation in history to "the world's only superpower" by making the entirety of the US government dysfunctional on September 11, 2001, Washington learned that it could get away with anything, any illegal and treasonous act, any lie. The gullible Western populations would believe anything that they were told.

Not only insouciant Americans, but much of the world accepts any statement out of Washington as the truth despite the evidence. If Washington said it, Washington's vassals in Germany, France, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan assent to the obvious lie as if it were the obvious truth. So do the CIA purchased media of these vassal states, a collection of whores who prefer CIA subsidies to truth.
Read More...
Mr. Potato

France's Macron latest victim of MSM 'fake news' on Russia and RT's non-role in Western elections

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:35 UTC
Emmanuel Macron
© Pascal Rossignol / ReutersEmmanuel Macron (C), uses a megaphone to talk to Whirlpool employees in front of the company plant in Amiens, France, April 26, 2017.
French Presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron's team banned RT from his campaign headquarters last weekend. But even NATO's think tank can't find evidence of RT bias against the candidate. The affair shows the power of media embellishment, distortion, and overstatement.

It's the old pub quiz standard: "What's the biggest country in Europe?" Blinded by the usual political definition of the continent, the contestant usually hums and haws, stumped on Germany or France. And is then startled to discover it's Russia.

A few rounds later, another poser is frequently lobbed in. "What's the biggest country in Asia?" Cue much conferring as the assembled brain boxes deliberate over the acreage of India and China. Of course, they are then stupefied when the answer is Russia again. Over the post-tournament drinks, talk turns to the country's sheer magnitude, and there may even be a few resolutions to visit.

You see, this is probably Russia's central problem in Western minds. The place is colossal, immense and vast. And this scares folk. What's more, it means you can convince ordinary punters that Russia is a tremendous threat, even when all credible logic suggests otherwise. Such as the current madness surrounding elections in the "liberal democratic" world, which we are encouraged to believe are increasingly manipulated from Moscow.
Read More...
Info

Pentagon reports 2 US troops killed, 1 wounded, fighting ISIS in Afghanistan


RT
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:56 UTC
U.S. soldiers
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Two US special forces troops were killed, and one wounded on Thursday while conducting a joint US-Afghan raid in the Achin District in Nangarhar Province, according to the Pentagon.

The two service men were killed, and one wounded, while carrying out a special operations raid against Islamic State fighters on Wednesday night. Eighteen IS fighters were allegedly killed in the gunfight.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Thursday the incident took place in the southern Nangarhar province.
Read More...