Puppet MastersS


Pistol

Having branded MEPs 'mafia', Farage backtracks: 'They're actually gangsters!'

Farage
© Getty Images
Nigel Farage has been scolded for likening members of the European Parliament to the "mafia" holding the UK "hostage." The former-UKIP leader made the scandalous remarks while the legislators were meeting to draft guidelines for Brexit negotiations. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, an Italian MEP, demanded that Farage retract his "unacceptable" comments.

Acknowledging that there are "national sensitivities" connected with the word "mafia," Farage then went on to brand MEPs "gangsters" instead.

Speaking in Strasbourg, where the Parliament had convened to draft "red lines" for Brexit negotiations, Farage said: "You are behaving like the mafia. You think we are a hostage. We are not, we are free to go." He said that after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the official two-year exit process under Article 50 last week, the EU's response had been "all too predictable."

The demands being put forward by the bloc are not only "unreasonable," but also at times "impossible" for the UK to accommodate, he added. Farage also slammed suggestions that the UK may have to pay a divorce bill of £52 billion.

"You began by telling us that Britain would have to pay a bill. A cool 52 billion sterling, a figure that has clearly been plucked out of the air, effectively a ransom demand. What you could have done is acknowledge that we have put net over 200 billion sterling into this project, we're actually shareholders... and you should be making us an offer we can't refuse - to go," he said, while calling the EU's divorce demands "vindictive and nasty."

"All I can say is thank goodness we're leaving," he said.

Comment: Breaking up is hard to do. Farage wins the latest tantrum round.


Attention

Western media quiet as Russia exposes lies at Security Council

Vladimir Safronkov
© Russia InsiderVladimir Safronkov
Twitter was flooded with commentary about Nikki Haley's call to arms against Russia during the Security Council meeting on Wednesday afternoon. But no one bothered to report what Russia had to say.

Russia's deputy United Nations ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said that the West's "obsession with regime change is what hinders this Security Council."

He noted that for Washington and its partners, "everything is guided by regime change" and allegations that Assad used chemical weapons in an attack in Idlib province on Tuesday are based on "falsified reports from the White Helmets", an organization that has been "discredited long ago".

He further added that "taking [the White Helmets] at face value is not professional and not serious."

Tornado1

Purging on: Turkey dismisses 45 more judges and prosecutors

Justice dismissed
© Stockholm Center for Freedom
Turkish authorities dismissed 45 more judges and prosecutors in the latest purge within the judiciary following last July's failed coup, state media reported. Since July 15, at least 113,000 people have been suspended or sacked from their public sector roles, or detained in connection with the group accused of trying to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, New Arab reported.

Ankara has accused US-based opposition leader Fethullah Gulen with ordering the attempted putsch, claims he strongly denies.

According to the Hurriyet daily, over 4,000 prosecutors and judges have been dismissed over alleged links to Gulen's Islamic movement since July. Those suspended in the latest round by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) include the three judges who ordered the release of 21 suspects in a trial of Gulen's "media structure" last week, state-run news agency Anadolu said. The HSYK is a key judicial council that appoints and removes personnel in the judiciary. Hours after the order on Friday, the suspects were not released because the ruling was challenged and new arrest warrants were issued, Anadolu reported.

Twenty-nine suspects are on trial including pop music singer Atilla Tas, accused of being a member of an armed terror group, Hurriyet said. The suspects include journalists from different media organisations and an individual accused of using the pseudonym Fuat Avni to run a whistleblowing Twitter account. The purportedly pro-Gulen account previously released sensitive claims about Erdogan's entourage.

Turkey's wide-scale purge has been criticized by the West and activists who accuse the government of using the coup as a pretext to crack down on opponents, but the government insists it is a dealing with an extraordinary threat.

Comment: Removing more than 4000 legal experts will surely speed on the investigations and trials...unless of course there are none.


Star of David

Israel cries discrimination: Shame on EU for obsessing over demolition of West Bank Palestinian homes

Bedouin village
© Abbas Momani / AFPPalestinian Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar
Tel Aviv has accused the European Union of "disproportionately" focusing on the West Bank instead of paying attention to humanitarian crises taking place across the globe. It comes after the bloc demanded that Israel stop demolishing Palestinian homes.

Israel's Foreign Ministry summoned the EU's deputy ambassador to Israel, Mark Gallagher, on Monday, according to Haaretz. The summons followed Brussels' vocal protest of the demolition of 42 homes in a Bedouin village in the West Bank, in order to make room for Jewish settlements.

During the meeting with Gallagher, the ministry's EU director, Avivit Bar-Ilan, told the deputy ambassador that the buildings being destroyed were constructed illegally. She reminded that "in Israel, illegal construction is dealt with according to the law," according to ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. "There are 32 humanitarian crises around the world, but the EU chooses to disproportionately focus only on what is done in Area C of the West Bank, which are most definitely not suffering a humanitarian crisis," Bar-Ilan said.

According to Nahshon, the ministry also asked Gallagher to "stop being so obsessive" about matters in the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reported.


Comment: "Look the other way. This is not the crisis you seek..."


Comment: Other acute humanitarian crises may rise to the top of the list, but for length and depth of ongoing suffering by the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis...it must be duly considered in top priority. As the decades role on, shamefully nothing substantial has been done to prevent or rectify Israeli persecution and Palestinian abuse.


Laptop

Germany's cyber command becomes official military branch

Cyber and Info
© Scientific American Blogs
The German military has officially inaugurated a 260-strong cyber command which will become a fifth branch of the Bundeswehr. Meanwhile, MPs demand that every attack on enemy computer networks be specifically approved by the parliament.

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has officially inaugurated the newly-created Cyber and Information Space Command (CIR), making it the fifth branch of German military after the army, navy, air force and medical service, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony for the CIR in Bonn, von der Leyen said the military will retaliate with "offensive measures" if its computer networks are attacked. "If the German military's networks are attacked, then we can defend ourselves. As soon as an attack endangers the functional and operational readiness of combat forces, we can respond with offensive measures," she said, as cited by Reuters. Though the minister refused to elaborate on such retaliatory measures, she added the new cyber command would be scrambled in the event of an inbound attack on German government agencies.

Comment: "...military will retaliate with 'offensive measures' if its computer networks are attacked." How much evidence and accuracy to be required before retaliation? Waiting for a parliamentary decision...unlikely. How soon will this development turn on its own people? Security, a most sought-after illusion, is a delusion of the past.


Umbrella

California closer to becoming a 'sanctuary state'

Support SB54
© 12 News
The California Assembly will take up a bill declaring the entire Sunshine State [sic - Golden State] a sanctuary jurisdiction after the legislation cleared the Senate. If it passes, it will set up a showdown between California and the Trump administration over immigration.

The state Senate passed the controversial Senate Bill 54 (SB54) in a 27-12 vote along party lines on Monday. If the bill becomes law, it would make California a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants. The legislation was a direct responseto President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and administration threats against sanctuary jurisdictions.

The passage of SB54, known as the California Values Act, as well as two other immigration bills, "is a rejection of President Trump's false and cynical portrayal of undocumented residents as a lawless community," Senate leader Kevin de León said in a statement.

Sanctuary jurisdictions limit or prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and the federal government on undocumented immigrants, even after federal immigration enforcement issues a detainer requesting that an immigrant be held. California has the greatest number of such jurisdictions in the US.

Trump made dealing with illegal immigrants ‒ whom he variously referred to as "bad hombres," "rapists" and "murderers" ‒ a cornerstone of his presidential campaign. Five days after entering the White House, he signed an executive order that aimed to empower US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to "unapologetically enforce the law, no ifs ands or buts," according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer.


On March 27, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced action against sanctuary cities, saying that states and local jurisdictions must prove compliance with immigration laws before they can be eligible for $4.1 billion in Department of Justice grants. The DOJ will also "claw back" grants to jurisdictions that do not comply with the law. Three days later, Seattle sued the federal government, claiming the executive order is unconstitutional, and other jurisdictions have since joined the suit as plaintiffs.

Comment: California is a mix of political views, traditional and progressive ideals, and a heritage melting pot. On a normal day, this is part of the life-blood of the state. The proposed legislation is reactionary, Democrat-driven, doesn't represent the whole body of its constituents and shows no willingness to come to the table and work out a solution. This is knee-jerk politics.


Jet3

Russia using laser-guided bombs in Syrian anti-terror airstrikes

laser guided bomb russia
The Russian air force has armed its Su-34 Fullback strike fighters with 3,000-pound smart bombs in the war against terrorism in Syria, state media disclosed on Monday.

The Arabic service of the Russian state news agency, Sputnik, reported that the country has armed its Su-34 Fullback fighters with high precision KAB-1500L laser-guided bombs for missions in Syria.

The highly sophisticated bombs are likely used for destroying underground tunnels and command bases of the terrorists, specially in Northern Hama province.

Previously the heaviest bombs Russians used in Syria were KAB-500.

Comment: Lots of technical specs there, but what it comes down to is that the Russians are implementing some high-tech weaponry to defeat an enemy who entrenches itself among civilian populations. Quite different from Senator "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" McCain's claim that Russia is 'barrel bombing' Syria.




Snakes in Suits

Former Fox News Chairman Ailes facing new sexual harassment allegations, and O'Reilly loses two advertisers

Roger Ailes Bill O’Reilly
© Brian Ach/Associated Press Images for The Hollywood ReporterRoger Ailes, left, and Bill O’Reilly in 2012.
The sexual harassment scandal that engulfed Fox News last year and led to the ouster of its chairman, Roger Ailes, continued to batter the network on Monday, as a new lawsuit described unwanted sexual advances by Mr. Ailes and two major advertisers pulled their spots from the show of its top-rated host, Bill O'Reilly.

Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai said they were withdrawing their ads from Mr. O'Reilly's prime-time show, "The O'Reilly Factor," after The New York Times published an investigation this weekend that found five women who made allegations of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior against him. Those five women received settlements totaling about $13 million, The Times reported.

Comment:


Health

European delegation visits Syria, shocked to see the truth about how Russia is helping Syrian people

Russian aid to Syria
© Sputnik/ Andrey Stenin
Russian and European MP's, including the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora, have just completed a visit to Syria, where they had the opportunity to take a fresh look at the situation in the country compared to Western media.

According to a member of the delegation and European Parliament, Jaromir Kohlicek, "The events taking place here [in Syria] seriously contradict the reports of European and Czech media."

Kohlicek told Radio Sputnik: "One of the main objectives of the trip was meeting with Bashar al-Assad. Together with deputies from the State Duma of the Russian Federation, we wanted to discuss further proposals for peacefully resolving the conflict. Our second task was visiting Aleppo. I've never seen a city destroyed to such an extent. When we toured the downed power lines and stations, I understood that I've never encountered such a large city with such large problems with water and electricity supplies. I was seriously surprised when I found that in such severely damaged parts of the city like Eastern Aleppo, schools have already started working. We visited a school which, despite considerable devastation, has been working for a month and a half. We were told that there are 36 such schools in Aleppo."

Comment: This happens time and time again. When people actually go to Syria, what they see there is entirely different from what is portrayed in the Western media.


Bizarro Earth

Afghanistan destroyed by the West, yet media focused on possible negative impact of Chinese mining company

MCC Mes Aynak
© Kartemquin Films
Ask anyone on the streets of Kabul about the revolutions that in recent years transformed huge parts of Latin America, and the chances are you'll encounter a blank stare. Perhaps mentioning Cuba could evoke at least some recognition, but definitely not Venezuela, Ecuador or Bolivia. I know because I tried on several occasions, and I failed.

Ask in the marvelous historic city of Herat, with its huge minarets and Italian military contingent, about Western imperialism, or about NATO and its murderous campaigns all over the world, and chances are that your question won't even be understood.

"Chances are that those Afghan people who can speak English or other Western languages, are now actually working for the Westerners; either for their military, or for their 'defense' contractors... or for the embassies, the United Nations, or perhaps some NGO", explained an Asian reporter who is based in Afghanistan for more than two decades. "These people are not going to rock the boat, dwelling on crimes committed by the West, here and all over the world."

That appears to be the case.