Puppet MastersS


Vader

These before and after photos prove that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had nothing but love for Islam

Where was the liberal left outrage when Barack and Hillary were bombing the hell out of these three "Muslim" countries?

As the entire liberal left is in a tizzy over Trump's immigration executive order, which has been cleverly dubbed by the establishment media as a "Muslim ban" (see how Steven Crowder dismantles this word play, fake news propaganda here), we thought it would be fun to showcase three Muslim countries, that under the Obama/Clinton rule, flourished under the inclusive love of the liberal left.

The three countries below are part of the seven countries under US visa moratorium, in accordance with Trump's executive order.

Bomb

Russian investigators launch probe into civilian deaths from fresh Ukrainian shelling

Civilian residents of Donetsk near their home
© Irina Gerashchenko / SputnikCivilian residents of Donetsk near their home
Russia's top federal investigative agency has begun a criminal case into the deaths of civilians in Donetsk that were reportedly the result of shelling by Ukrainian government forces on February 1-3.

According to Investigative Committee acting chief spokesman Svetlana Petrenko, a criminal case has been launched into the use of illegal methods of warfare.

Petrenko specified that Russian investigators possessed information that on February 1, 2 and 3 this year, Ukrainian military servicemen used heavy weapons on several residential areas of the city of Donetsk and the suburban towns of Yasinovataya and Makeyevka.

Fire

Torched cars, military coup calls & death threats: The other face of anti-Trump America

limo trump inauguration protest
US President Donald Trump continues to polarize his country, with some mulling a military coup or even an assassination. RT looks at what lengths people who say Trump is too much for their democratic country can go.

Donald Trump's push for the presidency has been met with a certain concern in the US, but it escalated into more than just a war of words when it became clear that he was set to take the Oval Office, with violent protests gripping some of the country's biggest cities.

Arrow Down

Nat. Sec. Advisor Flynn's empty threat against Iran is just embarrassing

General Michael Flynn
© Carlos Barria / Reuters"I came, I saw, Iran." National security adviser General Michael Flynn should take a chill pill.
Trump's National Security Advisor Flynn keeps demonstrating the limits of his strategic-intellectual capacity. He went in front of the cameras and issued this empty threat:
The international community has been too tolerant of Iran's bad behavior. The ritual of convening a United Nations Security Council in an emergency meeting and issuing a strong statement is not enough. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate Iran's provocations that threaten our interests.

The days of turning a blind eye to Iran's hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over.
What is such bluster supposed to achieve?

Interestingly the statement came out just an hour after Donald Rumsfeld left the White House where he had talked about "process" with Flynn and NSC staff.

The neo-conservatives are of course very happy about such nonsense talk. Obama Should Thank Trump for Putting Iran on Notice writes Eli Lake. James Rubin intones: Finally, the president made a smart move on foreign policy. For the very first time the neoconned Washington Post editors are lauding Trump and highlight Flynn's juvenile outburst.

Comment: Good cop, bad cop?

Some advice: What Flynn could learn from Kerry about Iran


Dig

People be losing their minds: Even The Intercept gets Trump's immigration order so wrong

trump executive order
According to Jon Schwarz in The Intercept, "There's not a lot that's funny about President Trump's January 27 executive order temporarily banning immigrants and refugees from seven majority Muslim countries. " Well, I beg to differ. The histrionics that have ensued since Trump signed the executive order temporarily limiting immigration from 7 Middle Eastern countries are fascinating, and - to my dark sense of humor - hilarious in a number of respects, not least that it has shocked people despite Trump saying while campaigning that he would do something pretty much exactly like that.

Schwarz continues:
But you have to admit this is a little funny: Trump's executive order appears to brazenly violate another executive order about how the government should issue executive orders.

It's sort of like the Supreme Court declaring the Constitution to be unconstitutional.

Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
Am I the only one who has noticed liberals' departure from reality of late? The whole point of executive orders is that the next president can override them, including an order on how to make orders - otherwise, a sitting president could just write an order that there will be no more executive orders.

Question

Iraqi FM: 'Quite surprising' that US slapped close ally and terrorism victim with travel ban

protest at Detroit Metropolitan airport in Romulus
© Rebecca Cook / ReutersA protest at Detroit Metropolitan airport in Romulus, Michigan, U.S., January 29, 2017.
The US travel ban on Iraqi citizens - dismissing all US-Iraqi cooperation in fighting terrorism - was "premature and misled," the Iraqi FM has said, adding that Baghdad will adopt a carefully considered response.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told RT Arabic in an exclusive interview that his country won't rush into an immediate response as it prefers to take counter-measures without "haste and emotions."

The decision of Donald Trump to ban citizens of Iraq, alongside with several other Muslim-majority countries, from entering the US was quite surprising and confusing for the Iraqi government, al-Jaafari said

"I don't know what was the starting point which led to such decision," al-Jaafari said.


Comment: So this news may be a bit premature: Reciprocity measure: Americans banned from Iraq


Comment: More on the travel ban: US suspends travel ban to comply with court ruling, President Trump tweets "ridiculous" and will be "overturned"


Dollar

The US economy is too damaged to be fixed

humpty dumpty
As I outlined in my article 'The False Economic Narrative Will Die In 2017', the mainstream media has been carefully crafting the propaganda meme that the Trump administration is inheriting a global economy in "ascension," when in fact, the opposite is true. Trump enters office at a time of longstanding decline and will likely witness severe and accelerated decline over the course of the next year. The signs are already present, and this fits exactly with the basis for my prediction of the Trump election win — conservative movements are indeed being set up as scapegoats for a global economic crisis that international financiers actually created.

Plus, it doesn't help that Trump keeps boasting about the farcical Dow hitting record highs after his entry into the White House. Talk about the perfect setup...

With the speed at which Trump is issuing executive orders, my concern is that people's heads will be spinning so fast they will start to assume an appearance of economic progress. Here is the issue — some problems simply cannot be fixed, at least not in a top down fashion. Some disasters cannot be prevented. Sometimes, a crisis has to run its course before a nation or society or economy can return to stability. This is invariably true of the underlying crisis within the U.S. economy.

It is imperative that liberty activists and conservatives avoid false hope in fiscal recovery and remain vigilant and prepared for a breakdown within the system. Despite the sudden political sea change with Trump and the Republican party in majority control of the D.C. apparatus, there is nothing that can be done through government to ease fiscal tensions at this time. Here are some of the primary reasons why:

Passport

US suspends travel ban to comply with court ruling, President Trump tweets "ridiculous" and will be "overturned"

Protest travel ban
© Neil Hall / ReutersMarch against U.S. president's travel ban, London, February 4, 2017.
The Department of Homeland Security has said it will stop flagging travelers from the countries under the Trump administration's travel ban, following a federal judge's ruling to suspend the executive order.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security said in a statement on Saturday that the decision was made in order to comply with a Friday ruling by a federal judge, adding that the department will resume with its standard procedures in its inspection of travelers.

The Justice Department will lodge an emergency stay to reverse the court ruling order at the earliest possible time, the spokesperson said.

Earlier, President Donald Trump responded to the judge's block of his travel ban, tweeting that the decision is "ridiculous" and will be "overturned."

Comment: See also: Lawsuits are piling up against Trump's travel ban and anti-sanctuary city executive orders

More info on these latest developments:
The State Department, since being notified by the Justice Department of the ruling from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, has been in contact with the Homeland Security Department and legal teams to coordinate operations, according to Reuters.

Customs and Border Protection officials said they would reinstate visas in compliance with the order.
Summary of updates from the Daily Mail:
  • Several major airlines say citizens can board U.S. bound flights on Saturday
  • Qatar, Air France, Etihand and Emirates among those allowing people to board
  • The Washington state judge's ruling was made effective immediately on Friday
  • Customs and Border Protection told major US airlines that it is reinstating visas
  • Homeland Security said it was suspending any action from executive order
  • The White House said it 'intends to file an emergency stay' against the 'outrageous' order at the earliest possible time
  • Travelers from previously banned countries will have a temporary time frame to enter country before the emergency stay is filed
  • Trump's order last week sparked protests nationwide and confusion at airports
Several airlines have resumed flights for passengers blocked under the ban:
Airlines in Europe and the Middle East responded to the suspension of tightened U.S. immigration rules by again allowing passengers from countries that had been blocked to fly to the U.S., following chaos at airports and protests across the country.
...
Deutsche Lufthansa AG on Saturday said all passengers with valid travel documents including from the seven countries included in the ban would be allowed to travel to the U.S. The airline remains in contact with U.S. authorities in case the rules change again, a spokesman said.

Qatar Airways, a major carrier serving routes from the Middle East to the U.S., said all individuals who present valid visas or green cards will be permitted to travel to the U.S.

Air France, Etihad Airways and British Airways also said they were accepting passengers from the countries included in the ban on flights to the U.S.
The State Department has reversed its visa revocations:
The State Department says previously banned travelers will be allowed to enter the United States after a federal judge in Washington state on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of President Trump's controversial immigration ban.

"We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas under" Trump's executive order, a State Department spokesman said Saturday. "Those individuals with visas that were not physically canceled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid."
...
Department of Justice lawyers were preparing to immediately ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to dissolve Robart's order, but had not filed anything as of Saturday afternoon. It is not clear how quickly those appeals court judges would consider the government's stay request. And although the 9th Circuit is considered one of the country's most liberal, its randomly assigned three-judge panels can be unpredictable.

If not successful, the government has the option of asking the Supreme Court to get involved. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is designated to hear emergency requests that arise from the 9th Circuit. But in high-profile cases such as this, such applications are generally considered by the full court.

The issue could reach the high court in days--or weeks.
Now consider what Scott Adams wrote soon after the ban was introduced: Trump's 'Muslim ban' is just another 'Art of the Deal' opening bid
If Trump is a Master Persuader, as I have been telling you for over a year, he just solved his biggest problem with immigration and you didn't notice. The biggest problem is that his supporters on the right want more immigration control than he can (or should) deliver while his many critics on the left want far less. Normally when you negotiate there is only one party on the other side. But in this case, Trump is negotiating two extremes in two different directions. It's the toughest possible situation. Best case scenario is that 40% of the country want you dead when it's all over. Not good.

So what does a President Trump do when he is in an impossible situation?
...
[The persuasion] filter says Trump always opens with an extreme first offer so he has room to negotiate to the middle. The temporary ban fits that model perfectly. ... The Persuasion Filter says Trump is negotiating with his critics on the extreme right at the same time as he is negotiating with his critics on the left. He needed one "opening offer" that would set up both sides for the next level of persuasion. And he found it. You just saw it.

The left sees Trump's executive orders on immigration as pure Hitler behavior. That gives him plenty of room to negotiate to the middle. The initial orders are too broad, and clearly target too many of the wrong people. As he fixes those special cases he will be moving away from the Hitler model toward the middle. And people are more influenced by the DIRECTION of things than the absolute position of things. As long as he is moving away from the Hitler analogy, people will chill out, even if they think he was too close to that position before. Direction matters.
...
But what about Trump's critics on the far right who want more extreme immigration? Trump needs to negotiate with them too. And he is. He did that by showing them that his temporary offer was so extreme that people took to the streets. The system (America) is actively trying to eject Trump like some sort of cancer cell. And the worse it gets, with protests and whatnot, the more leverage Trump has to tell his far right supporters that he has gone as far as the country will let him go. He needed that. The protests are working in his favor. He couldn't negotiate with the extreme right without them.

Are Trump's temporary immigration plans chaotic? Yes. Do they hurt innocent people who were minding their own business? Yes, temporarily at least. Did he scare the pants off of half the country? Yes. Will there be lots of unintended damage from Trump's immigration orders? Yes. No honest person should deny the cost component of the equation. It's ugly. But don't stop with a half-pinion. If you want a full opinion on immigration you have to compare those costs to the potential benefits that include fewer terrorist acts and avoiding Europe's refugee problems. Are people making that comparison?

No.



Handcuffs

Major moves being made to curb and outlaw protest in US states

protests trump
© Lucas Jackson / ReutersNew York, U.S., February 2, 2017
Republican lawmakers are pushing back "by any means necessary" against the wave of protests sweeping across the US with new bills in at least half a dozen states seeking to rigorously curb public dissent.

The legislative tools, many of which have been introduced in recent months, would regulate public dissent as demonstrators take to the streets.

In Indiana, Senate lawmakers introduced a bill in January that would require public officials to immediately dispatch "all available law enforcement" to clear a traffic blockade involving at least 10 people "by any means necessary." Opponents, such as the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, have dubbed it the "block traffic and you die" bill.

Bad Guys

A dangerous nostalgia for 'The Pre-Trump New World Order'

Steve Bannon
It is not often I recommend a Jonathan Freedland column, but this one is interesting in the way it reveals, mostly inadvertently, what is bad and what helpful about a Trump White House.

As Freedland notes, the more we learn about Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon, the more dangerous this administration seems. Bannon apparently believes in
The Fourth Turning, which argues that human history moves in 80- to 100-year cycles, each one climaxing in a violent cataclysm that destroys the old order and replaces it with something new. For the US, there have been three such upheavals: the founding revolutionary war that ended in 1783, the civil war of the 1860s and the second world war of the 1940s. According to the book, America is on the brink of another. ...

"We're at war" is a favourite Bannon slogan, whether it's the struggle against jihadism, which Bannon describes as "a global existential war" that may turn into "a major shooting war in the Middle East", or the looming clash with China.
Trump's threatened new world order is testing the very limits of liberal complacency. Freedland's admission in this column of his overriding conservatism and his nostalgia for the neoliberal, corporate world that brought forth the monstrous Trump reveals quite how circular his thinking is - and, for that matter, always was.

Comment: See also: Steve Bannon - The most powerful person in the Trump White House