Puppet MastersS


Pirates

EU agrees to "tap" Russian assets to arm Ukraine


RT
Fri, 10 May 2024 19:11 UTC
ursula
EU president and thief Ursula von der Leyen
The bloc wants to seize the revenue generated from $200 billion of the frozen funds


Comment: Translation: "We're so broke from supporting Ukraine, we're reduced to stealing Russia's money."


The EU has agreed on the expropriation of revenue generated from frozen Russian assets to continue funding and arming Kiev, Brussels announced on Wednesday. The bloc's ambassadors agreed on the course of action "in principle," but the legal text still must be ratified by the EU Council.

The proposal targets the proceeds from €191 billion ($205 billion) in Russian funds currently held in Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear. In total, Western states froze an estimated $300 billion of Moscow's sovereign capital abroad after the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

Comment: European banks, especially EuroClear, are freaking out about this hare-brained scheme. They know large-scale depositors from around the world, who viewed Europe as a stable, safe place to keep their funds, are going to take one look, say "If this could happen to RUSSIA, this could happen to me too", and pull their money. Bye, bye Western banks; bye, bye what's left of Western financial dominance.

From The Duran, March 2024: Legal experts green light Russian asset seizure.



Read More...
Cruise Missle

Yemen's Houthi rebels claim 2 attacks in Gulf of Aden as Iran official renews nuclear bomb threats

Jon Gambrell
Associated Press
Thu, 09 May 2024 18:38 UTC
yemen map
Yemen
Yemen's Houthi rebels on Thursday claimed responsibility for two missile attacks in the Gulf of Aden on two Panama-flagged container ships that caused no damage. Meanwhile, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader again threatened that Tehran could build a nuclear weapon if it chose to pursue atomic armaments.

The comments by Yemeni military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree and former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi come as the allies of Hamas continue to pressure Israel over its continuing war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis insist their assaults on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Suez Canal and onward to the Mediterranean Sea will continue as long as the war goes on. Meanwhile, Iran already has launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid the war, bringing a yearslong shadow conflict between the two nations out into the light.
Read More...
Георгиевская ленточка

UK ambassador summoned to Kremlin: Moscow threatens to strike British military facilities following Cameron's Ukraine remark

Pierre Emmanuel Ngendakumana
Politico
Mon, 06 May 2024 18:09 UTC
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron
© Kacper Pempel / ReutersFormer British Prime Minister David Cameron
U.K. foreign secretary's words confirm London's growing involvement in military operations on the side of Kyiv, according to the Kremlin.

"The ambassador was called upon to reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London and to immediately refute the belligerent provocative statements of the head of the Foreign Office in the most decisive and unequivocal way," the ministry said.

Cameron told Reuters last week that Ukraine has the "right" to use British-supplied weapons to strike Russia inside its own territory.

Comment: Sky News elaborates on Camaron's completely insane pronouncement:
Russia has warned that Ukrainian strikes on its territory with UK-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory attacks against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.

During a trip to Kyiv last week, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said Ukraine "absolutely has the right" to strike back at targets inside Russia using British-supplied weapons.

Russia's foreign ministry said the UK's ambassador to Moscow had been "summoned" to make him "reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London".

The UK's Foreign Office, however, contested the claim saying the ambassador had not been "summoned" but he had just taken part in a diplomatic meeting with ministry officials.

British ambassador Nigel Casey was called in for a formal protest, the Russian foreign ministry claimed, as it said Lord Cameron's remarks recognised that Britain - which has given Ukraine billions of pounds worth of weapons to defend itself in the war against Russia - was now de-facto a part of the conflict.

"Casey was warned that in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with British weapons, any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and abroad could be targeted," the foreign ministry said.

"The ambassador was called upon to reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London and immediately refute the belligerent provocative statements of the head of the Foreign Office in the most decisive and unambiguous way."


Read More...
Sheriff

UN General Assembly votes 143-9 in favor of Palestinian membership bid


Al Jazeera
Fri, 10 May 2024 18:13 UTC
palestine united nations Riyad Mansour
© Eduardo Munoz/ReutersPalestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour gestures to delegates. Resolution does not give Palestine full UN membership, but recognises them as qualified to join and extends rights.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council "reconsider the matter favourably".

The vote by the 193-member UNGA on Friday was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member - a move that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state - after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.

The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday with 143 votes in favour and nine against - including the US and Israel - while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognises them as qualified to join.

Comment: And an update from Israel's pathocrats and stooges:





Read More...
Red Flag

The FBI and CIA are enemies of the American people

Ryan McMaken
Mises Institute
Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00 UTC
fingers crossed
© Unknown/KJNThe CIA/FBI Puppetmaster
Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson sat down for a three-hour-plus discussion on the Joe Rogan Show last week, covering everything from UFOs, to religion and artificial intelligence. But perhaps the most important topic they covered was the insidious and dangerous role played by the US regime's intelligence agencies in America.

Specifically, Carlson suggested the CIA continues to lobby for keeping the JFK files secret, possibly because the CIA had a role in the assassination. Tucker also brought up how the FBI's second-in-command was responsible for taking down Richard Nixon. Carlson described how intelligence agencies hold immense power within Congress because members of Congress — who are generally disreputable people with many secrets — are terrified of being blackmailed. After all, in a post-Patriot Act world of nearly unrestrained spying by the US regime, there is no privacy in America.

I'll let you, dear readers, listen to the full interview and make up your mind for yourselves as to the details of the discussion. What I want to highlight here, however, is how remarkable it is that two major media figures — Rogan and Carlson — are announcing to their millions of listeners and readers that organizations like the CIA and the FBI are despicable agencies committed to undermining the legal and constitutional institutions of the United States.

This is long overdue.

Comment: 'Nothing is as it seems' would be a good reminder.

Read More...
Warning

Biden vows to withhold weapons from Israel if Netanyahu goes forward with Rafah invasion

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fox News
Wed, 08 May 2024 06:40 UTC
BidNeti
© APUS President Joe Biden • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
President Biden is vowing to withhold weapons from Israel if the Jewish State goes forward with its invasion of Rafah, Hamas' last stronghold in Gaza.

Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett in an interview released Wednesday:
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. I made it clear that if they go into Rafah - they haven't gone in Rafah yet - if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities - that deal with that problem."
Biden clarified that the U.S. will continue sending defensive weapons to Israel, like supplies for Israel's Iron Dome.
"We're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently. But it's, it's just wrong. We're not going to - we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells."
Israel has taken military action in Rafah but, according to Biden, they have yet to cross his red line in entering population centers.

Comment: Has anyone checked Joe's garage for the missing foreign aid package?

Read More...
Wall Street

Tackling California's budget crisis: Raise taxes, cut programs, or form a bank?

Ellen Brown
The Web of Debt Blog
Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00 UTC
BND building
In 2022, the state of California celebrated a record budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Two years later, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office, this surplus has plummeted to a record budget deficit of $73 billion. Balancing the budget will be challenging. Unlike the federal government, the state cannot just drive up debt and roll it over year after year. The California Balanced Budget Act, passed in 2004, requires the state legislature to pass a balanced budget every year.

The usual solutions are to cut programs or raise taxes, but both approaches are facing an uphill battle. Raising taxes would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature, which would be very challenging, and worthy public programs are in danger of getting axed, including homelessness prevention and funding for low-income housing.

A third possibility might be to increase the income tax base and state income by stimulating the economy with a state-owned depository bank. The state-owned Bank of North Dakota, which has raised record profits for its state, is a stellar example. In a review of states with the healthiest budgets based on data from the PEW Charitable Trusts, U.S. News & World Report puts North Dakota at No. 1 in Budget Balancing and #1 in Short-term Fiscal Stability.

California has an Infrastructure and Development Bank, which is already capitalized and has an established track record of prudent and productive lending, but it is not a depository bank and its reach is small. Transforming it into a depository bank would be fairly uncomplicated and could substantially increase its reach.

But first a look at what happened to the state's copious revenues.

Comment: All states should evaluate this option.

Read More...
Explosion

Best of the Web: King Bibi's Land Grab

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00 UTC
gaza building
https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1786727476116472298
If you've ever taken a lifesaving course, you know there's a real possibility that a drowning person will drag you under and you'll both die. It's a lesson that should be kept in mind when discussing America's relationship with Israel. (adapted from)@LarryBoorstein
On Monday, Israel intensified its airstrikes on Rafah, bombing more than 50 sites in the heart of the city. Video footage on Twitter showed plumes of smoke rising from the makeshift encampments and residential buildings where more than 1.4 million refugees are presently huddled in the most densely populated place on earth. Israel's air campaign was accompanied by a sizable ground-offensive that deployed tanks and armored vehicles to the southern border where Israeli troops quickly seized the Rafah Crossing without resistance.

The sudden uptick in violence has triggered widespread panic among the Palestinians many of who have already gathered their families and belongings onto carts and buses and fled northward to safety. The opening assault on the civilian enclave is reminiscent of earlier attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis both of which followed a similar pattern. The launching of random bombings is designed to amplify feelings of terror within the population while the humanitarian blockade tightens the stranglehold on critical food and medical supplies. The objective here is not to kill as many Palestinians as possible, but to force them into sprawling tent cities where they will languish amid the rubble until the international community finds a way to spirit them out of the country. For Israel, the endgame has always been ethnic cleansing, a comprehensive erasure of the native population. The ground invasion of Rafah represents the final phase of that maniacal strategy. This is from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:

Comment: The following speech, by a Jewish Holocaust survivor, is likely one of the most insightful we've heard on this subject and what a man of True conscience sounds like:



Read More...
Calendar

Trump trial postponed indefinitely


RT
Wed, 08 May 2024 15:08 UTC
Trump
© Chet Strange/Getty ImagesFormer US President Donald Trump
A US federal judge has indefinitely postponed the trial of former US president and Republican front runner Donald Trump over allegations of mishandling classified documents.

In the summer of 2022, FBI agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, recovering hundreds of classified documents. The Washington Post reported in September of the same year that some materials related to US nuclear secrets, Iran's missile program, and Washington's intelligence activities in China.

A year later, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami, Florida. The former president has pleaded not guilty.

The trial was initially set to begin on May 20, 2024. However, in a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Aileen Cannon reset the date, arguing that there were eight substantive pending motions on which she has yet to decide. The judge also said she believed the national security mishandling allegations to "present novel and difficult questions."

Cannon said that the finalization of a trial date at this point "would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court's duty to fully and fairly consider" numerous issues in the case, noting that "additional pretrial and trial preparations [are] necessary to present this case to a jury."
Read More...
Violin

'Israel is too cowardly': Houthis speak to RT about war, Zionism and Palestine

Abbas Juma
RT
Fri, 03 May 2024 15:43 UTC
Nasr
Houthi official Nasr Al-Din Amer
Exclusive interview with Nasr al-Din Amer, an official representative of Yemen's Ansar Allah movement

Yemen's Houthis (officially the Ansar Allah movement) have dismissed US peace proposals, The National writes, citing Yemeni sources.

Over the past week, Ansar Allah fighters have attacked US and Israeli ships in the Red Sea at least four times, following a brief pause in hostilities. These attacks have caused considerable economic damage and undermined the public image of the US and its allies. Unable to deal with the Yemenis by means of the "stick," the US resorted to the "carrot," promising to lift the blockade on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and the port of Hodeidah if the Houthis stopped the attacks. However, the Ansar Allah movement does not intend to stop its operations until Palestine is liberated.

Nasr al-Din Amer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yemen's Saba news agency, and deputy head of the press service of the Ansar Allah movement, spoke with RT about all this and more, in an exclusive interview.
Read More...