Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Cernovich: McMaster, Powell, Cohn controlling foreign policy, forcing Trump to deal with Saudi terrorists

Mike Cernovich
Medium.com
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 21:22 UTC
trump saudis
Dinner with the devil.
Bowing to pressure from the H.R. McMaster, Dina Powell, Gary Cohn coalition, President Donald Trump's first overseas trip is scheduled to be in Saudi Arabia, multiple sources confirmed after Steve Holland of Reuters first reported rumors of the trip. This decision has split Trump's base, which views the Saudis as the largest state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.

During the visit Trump will discuss a proposed arms package for the Saudis, which would include a massive missile defense system as well as civilian nuclear technology. Behind the scenes McMaster will be seeking Saudi support for a ground war in Syria, which Mike Cernovich first reported in an article whose reporting was confirmed by Eli Lake of Bloomberg.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act will also be on the agenda. McMaster is loybbing Trump to give Saudi Arabia an exemption from JASTA. Under JASTA, the Saudis can be sued for the terrorism they sponsor. A pivot on JASTA would be in line with former President Barack Obama's foreign policy.

Comment: What's worse: the idea that Trump is fine with Saudi Arabia? Or the idea that he is powerless to contradict his "advisers"?

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USA

America is a constitution-free zone

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:28 UTC
"Policing is broken... It has evolved as a paramilitary, bureaucratic, organizational arrangement that distances police officers from the communities they've been sworn to protect and serve. When we have shooting after shooting after shooting that most people would define as at least questionable, it's time to look, not just at a few bad apples, but the barrel. And I'm convinced that it is the barrel that is rotted."— Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief
Constitution of the United States
© Wikipedia CommonsConstitution of the United States
Please.

Somebody give Attorney General Jeff Sessions a copy of the Constitution.

And while you're at it, get a copy to President Trump, too.

In fact, you might want to share a copy with the nation's police officers, as well.

I have my doubts that any of these individuals—all of whom swore to uphold and defend the Constitution—have ever read any of the nation's founding documents.

Had they actually read and understood the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, there would be no militarized police, no mass surveillance, no police shootings of unarmed individuals, no SWAT team raids, no tasering of children, no asset forfeiture schemes or any of the other government-sanctioned abuses that get passed off as law and order these days.

We've got serious problems in this country, and they won't be solved on the golf course, by wining and dining corporate CEOs, giving local police forces more military equipment, locking down the nation, or pretending that the only threats to our freedoms are posed by forces beyond our borders or by "anti-government" extremists hiding among us.

So far, Trump's first 100 days in office have been no different from Obama's last 100 days, at least when it comes to the government's ongoing war on our freedoms.

Government corruption remains at an all-time high.

Police shootings and misconduct have continued unabated.

The nation's endless wars continue to push us to the brink of financial ruin.

And "we the people" are still being treated as if we have no rights, are entitled to no protections, and exist solely for the purpose of sustaining the American police state with our hard-earned tax dollars.
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Chess

The not-so-grand strategy behind America's warring around

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 20:01 UTC
US soldiers
It's getting pretty crazy, the warring around of Washington since the Trump Project took office January 20. The question is whether there is a true strategy behind the dramatic escalation of Trump Administration military aggression around the world. There definitely is in my view, and it's not good for world peace, not good for the United States and the rest of the world.

First, just a week into office, the new President authorized a Navy Seal illegal attack in Yemen's civil war in which one Seal was killed and four wounded, allegedly intervening to hit the Al Qaeda in Yemen terrorist organization, yet another spin-off of the CIA's Afghan Mujahideen. Then on April 7, a Syrian false flag sarin bomb allegation, with no independent international verification, was used by Washington as excuse for the US Navy to launch 59 US Tomahawk missiles to try to destroy a key airbase of the legitimate government of Syria. Videos, most faked, showing dead or suffering children was the offered pretext as well as the alleged disgust of Ivanka Trump, the President's alarmingly influential daughter.
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Arrow Down

Election hacking? Hollande sez Ministers must do all possible to ensure Le Pen defeat; Le Pen prefers support of the people


RT
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:39 UTC
MacronHollandeLePen
© Getty Images
French President Francois Hollande has told his ministers to do everything possible to ensure the defeat of right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in the decisive second round of elections on May 7. The outgoing socialist president appears to be backing centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the race.

"Hollande has asked ministers to fully commit themselves in the election campaign to ensure that Marine Le Pen has the lowest possible result," French presidential spokesman, Stephane Le Foll, said at the Council of Ministries on Wednesday. Each minister must be "totally mobilized in this campaign," Le Foll said, adding that in 2002 Marine Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, also made it into the second round and was defeated.

Hollande and his government are not the only politicians backing Macron. Defeated candidates Francois Fillon of the Republicans and Benoit Hamon of the Socialist party have also urged their supporters to vote for the former economics minister and investment banker. Macron won the first round of the elections held on Sunday with 24.01 percent of the vote, followed by Le Pen with 21.3 percent.

Marine Le Pen accused the French media and elite of handing the presidency to Macron on a platter. "Macron goes into the second round on a carpet of rose petals with almost total support from the French mainstream media, elites, trade union organizations, entrepreneurs," she said in an interview on the TV channel France 2. "But it's OK, I prefer to be supported by the French people."


Comment: An Hollande endorsement for Macron may be akin to the proverbial "kiss of death." In addition, an establishment centrist, such as Macron, will appear to have no 'position' for which to fight (except against something else). Marine Le Pen goes forth with none of the former administration's residue, and by comparison, the advantage of bringing something 'newer and fresher.' Elections are about framework. (BTW: 54.69% of the first round did not vote for Macron...meaning it is likely a good portion of those voters will still not vote for him as their second choice, hence Hollande's panic edict to his base.)

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Pistol

Odd how the US has killed 70K ISIS fighters - twice as many as it says exists...and other amazing statistics

Darius Shahtahmasebi
Anti-Media
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 11:31 UTC
ISIS
© The Sun
In June 2014, around the time ISIS was making headlines across the world, the Wall Street Journal reported that the terror group had 4,000 fighters in Iraq. In September 2014, the CIA released an estimate claiming ISIS had between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters combined in both Iraq and Syria, including 15,000 who were foreign fighters. Almost half were foreign fighters? That's some organic uprising taking place in Syria.

One month before the CIA's estimate, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released an estimate of their own that placed ISIS' membership at well over 50,000 fighters in Syria, alone (including 20,000 non-Syrians.) But SOHR is run by one man who owns a clothing shop in Coventry, England. He was once quoted as saying "I came to Britain the day Hafez al-Assad died, and I'll return when Bashar al-Assad goes." This bias is rarely reported in the corporate media, which regularly cites SOHR.

Comment: The trend to fudge numbers without verification is undoubtedly today's standard. It makes one want to go back to other wars in other eras and check the bias/impression management we have come to take as true and verified. Perhaps it was, at one time, a true testament of the statistics of war -- but it is becoming clear that that concept was snipered and died on the page.

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USA

Trump versus Tehran: Ripping up Iran Deal would plummet US credibility


Sputnik
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:43 UTC
US capitol crows
© The Nation
The Trump administration is ramping up its anti-Iranian policy. This is evidenced by recent statements from President Trump himself, and those from other high-ranking US officials. What are the 'sins' Washington is accusing Tehran of committing? Just how far will the White House be able to go? How will Tehran react? Sputnik Persian investigates.

Last week, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of failing to comply with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, adding that this would receive a response from the United States. Trump also directed the US National Security Council to conduct a review of whether the Iran nuclear deal is in line with US interests.

Trump's comments were part of a series of remarks made by senior US officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism, and blamed the Obama administration for having "bought off" Iran's nuclear ambitions temporarily, an argument which Tel Aviv has been making for years.

Also last week, in the course of his tour of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East, Defense Secretary James Mattis accused Tehran of causing "trouble" "everywhere you look" in the region.

Speaking to Sputnik Persian about the root of the Trump team's hostility to Iran, political scientist and Middle East expert Vladimir Sazhin explained that a lot of it comes down to Trump's hostility to President Obama.

Comment: Some roads are best not traveled. Some things are best left the way they are. Wisdom is knowing when to remain calm and support the status quo.

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Gift 3

Fake news: Scotland independence support drops to 40%, sez consultancy hired by UK government


RT
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:18 UTC
Sturgeon
© Russell Cheyne/ReutersScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
Support for Scottish independence has plummeted to 40 percent among Scottish voters, according to a new poll, further undermining First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's plans for another referendum. According to a survey published on Tuesday by Kantar Scottish Opinion Monitor, support for another independence vote is "weakening," as up to 60 percent support [for] remaining part of the UK.

Sturgeon recently won the Scottish Parliament's blessing to seek a second independence referendum, to be held at some point between autumn 2018 and spring 2019. The last independence referendum held in September 2014 saw 55 percent vote against independence, with 45 percent in favor.


Comment: It didn't really; that was the fake result.


UK Prime Minister Theresa May, however, has already said "now is not the time" for another referendum, as she claimed it would not be fair for the Scottish people to vote without knowing the actual terms of Brexit.


Comment: Which means it's a great time to try it again.


Comment: Kantar is a London-based consultancy headed by CEO Eric Salama, a "consultant of the British government on the questions of education, industry, creation and e-business." The firm is owned by British multinational WPP. All of which means this 'poll' is part of the UK government in London's PR drive to 'get the facts they want to hear, and want others to hear'.

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Attention

Administration official: White House considers order to quit NAFTA

Steve Holland
Reuters
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 19:53 UTC
Trucks wait at the international border bridge Zaragoza
© REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File PhotoFILE PHOTO: Trucks wait at the international border bridge Zaragoza to cross over to El Paso, USA, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, December 20, 2016. Picture taken December 20, 2016.
The White House is considering a draft executive order to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday.

It was unclear whether the order would be enacted by President Donald Trump, who has vowed to pull out from NAFTA - a U.S., Mexico and Canada trade pact - if he cannot win better terms for America.

But the action under consideration could signal heightened prospects that one of the world's biggest trading blocs could unravel in an economically damaging dispute.

The possible executive order, first reported by Politico, sent stocks and currencies falling in Mexico and Canada. Investors were rethinking their assumptions that Trump would back away from some of the drastic actions on trade that he had promised during the presidential campaign.

"It is a clear indication that they (in the White House) are wanting changes but we will have to see what emerges," said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
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Newspaper

Ivanka Trump complains: Media misunderstood her role in Syrian airbase attack


Sputnik
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:32 UTC
Ivanka
© Chip Somodevilla
US President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, said on Tuesday that media misinterpreted comments about her involvement in the government's decision to launch airstrikes on Syrian airfield in Homs. "That would be a flawed interpretation," Trump stated in Berlin, Germany referring to a New York Times publication on how the decision was made.

On April 11, the president's son Eric Trump revealed that his sister Ivanka, who has recently agreed to take an unpaid job as a White House adviser, influenced the order to take a military action on Syria. The White House also confirmed that Ivanka weighed in the decision. However, Press Secretary Sean Spicer did not specify the extend of her participation.

The United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase on April 6. Trump assured that the launch was conducted in response to a chemical attack on civilians in Idlib that killed more than 80 people, including children.

Comment: More from Politico:
Eric Trump, who alongside his brother, Donald Trump Jr., runs the Trump Organization, told The Daily Telegraph he was confident that his sister used her influence with the president to compel him to respond to the Syrian regime's chemical weapons attack on civilians. "Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I'm sure she said: 'Listen, this is horrible stuff,'" Eric Trump said during the interview.

"That would be a flawed interpretation," Ivanka Trump told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday, pointing to a New York Times report detailing, in the first daughter's words, "how the decision process was managed."

"It was informed at the highest levels of military and state," the unpaid White House adviser and special assistant to the president continued. "I, of course, shared my perspective and opinion. It aligned with his own."

Eric Trump said he sensed his father was "deeply affected by those images of the children," and Ivanka Trump shared a similar sentiment on Tuesday, telling reporters, "It would be very hard as a human being to see the images that we saw and not to be very shaken to the core. "

"That said ... you can't make decisions based on emotion alone," she added. "His decision was incredibly well informed and advised. I'm proud of the action he took, how decisive it was."
'Decisive' doesn't necessarily mean a decision is well-informed or advised. 'Decisive' should only come after all the facts are in and the path forward is defendable as the correct one. In this instance, emotion overrode waiting for all means of verification, negated any other strategic response. It has cost the president in home support and on the global stage. Perhaps family members should remain so.

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Piggy Bank

'El Chapo Act': Ted Cruz wants to fund US-Mexico border wall with '$14bn' drug fortune


RT
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 19:45 UTC
Joaquin Guzman Loera aka
© AFPJoaquin Guzman Loera aka "El Chapo" Guzman (C) escorted by the Mexican police.
President Donald Trump's much vaunted Mexican border wall could be built using the fortune of a notorious drug kingpin, according to Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who has proposed the 'El Chapo Act'.

Cruz, a one time political rival to Trump, has backed the president's desire to build a 1,000 mile-long (1600km) barrier between the US and Mexico.

Cruz has now gone a step further by proposing the so-called 'El Chapo Act', or the Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order, which would use any of the $14 billion being sought by the US government in a case against Mexican drug boss Joaquín Guzmán, to construct the barrier.
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