Puppet MastersS


Footprints

Tiptoeing into quicksand, China to build relations with Trump administration


Sputnik
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 18:51 UTC
Trunp chinese mag cover
© AFP 2016/Johannes Eisele
China is making its first steps to build relations with the new administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, cautiously probing his stance and his advisors after Trump's loud statements rejecting the "one China" policy. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said top diplomat Yang Jiechi, who outranks the foreign minister, had met with Trump advisers, including his pick for national security adviser, retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, in recent days. "Both sides exchanged views on China-U.S. ties and important issues both are concerned with," Geng said, without elaborating.

However this meeting speaks much for itself marking that China has started to build its relations with the new Trump administration, journalist Mikhail Korostikov wrote for Sputnik China.

Little is known about the place and the time of this meeting. Allegedly it was held during transit in New York on Yang's way to Latin America. It appears that the meeting was the first high-level contact between members of Trump's administration and Chinese officials. Previously, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping congratulated Donald Trump on the phone after his surprise victory at presidential elections.

Then Xi stressed that in 37 years since China and the United States established diplomatic relations, bilateral ties have been continuously growing and moving forward, which has brought about substantial benefits to the peoples of the two countries. Facts have shown that cooperation is the only correct choice for the two countries in dealing with their relations, Xi also said.

Comment: So much depends upon Trump's understanding of current geopolitical snaffus and hard-line positions versus a cooperative environment that has a chance to come to amicable solutions.

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Attention

US on task to ship 1,600 tanks to a Dutch arms depot, a clear message to Russia


RT
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 19:53 UTC
Tank firing
© Ints Kalnins / ReutersThe US 'tanks you very much.'
The US has started moving tanks to a storage facility in the Netherlands in a bid to "deter" Russia, amid the biggest NATO buildup in Europe since the Cold War. A total of 1,600 vehicles are due to be stored at a six-warehouse complex in the southeastern village of Eygelshoven, near the Belgian and German borders. The Eygelshoven facility was originally opened in 1985 during the Cold War, when it was used by US troops to practice drills in case of a possible Soviet attack.

Abrams Tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Paladin artillery have already started arriving in what is part of a $3.4 billion Congress-approved scheme to increase NATO military capability in Europe. Storage sites are also planned to be reopened in Poland, Belgium and Germany.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017, which was approved by Congress on December 8 but has yet to be signed by Barack Obama, approved a $3.4 billion spending plan to boost European defenses. The Baltic states, as well as Poland, have said they have been greatly alarmed by the crisis in Ukraine and fear "Russian aggression" on their territories.

Comment: Governance done poorly, with hubris and fear, creates its own circumstances for war. The West utilizes a political structure with short-sighted outcomes that embodies this default.

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MIB

Rare display of common sense from John Kerry: "Ignore what anonymous 'intel officials' say" on Russian hacking


Washington's Blog
Thu, 15 Dec 2016 18:59 UTC
State John Kerry
© Brendan Smialowski / ReutersJohn Kerry had good instincts, forced to make bad compromise.
While anonymous CIA officials have told the media that they know for sure that Russia hacked Democratic party emails and gave them to Wikileaks, the CIA and other American intelligence agencies are refusing to brief Congress in their official capacities at this time.

Even Secretary of State John Kerry today said that we should ignore such anonymous leaks by "intelligence officials" (his air quotes):


Comment: They're the source of most of the Fake News out there, after all! But Kerry should probably take his own advice, and ignore the so-called "intelligence" officials feeding him B.S., too.

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Pistol

Flashback Seth Rich: Inside the killing of the DNC staffer

Jeff Stein
Newsweek
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 18:40 UTC
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
© Mikhail Voskresenskiy/Sputnik/APWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fueled the conspiracy theories by offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the Seth Rich case.
It was closing time at Lou's City Bar when Seth Rich drained the last of his Bell's Two Hearted Ales and started walking into the muggy night in a trendy neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C. At 2:30 a.m. on July 10, the torrid heat that had gripped the city for weeks had eased slightly, with temperatures slipping into the low 70s. Maybe it was the relative cool that prompted him to walk through several dark, dicey blocks to his apartment in Bloomingdale, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood a mile away. Or maybe he thought the walk would do him some good after venting to his longtime bartender about his unsuccessful efforts to reconcile his love life with his 12-hour days at the Democratic National Committee.

Whatever the reason, Rich, 27, a normally upbeat computer-voting specialist at the DNC, would soon leave family and friends grieving. And his decision to walk that night would become part of a wild election-year conspiracy theory that once again portrays Hillary Clinton and the Democrats as murderous criminals.

Comment: More on Seth Rich's murder:

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Document

Documents found in Aleppo confirm terrorists taking 'sex drugs' to rape women


Sputnik
Sat, 17 Dec 2016 19:40 UTC
Syria. Terrorist-controlled eastern Aleppo district as seen from the city's Citadel
© Sputnik/ Mikhael AlaeddinTerrorist-controlled eastern Aleppo district as seen from the city's Citadel
Sputnik Arabic gained access to documents that were found in one of the Aleppo neighborhoods liberated from terrorists. Leaflets with logos of terrorist groups like Daesh, al-Nusra Front (currently renamed as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham) and other called on university students to join their ranks.

The ads promised a "good working environment" and both "financial" and "non-financial benefits."

According to the documents, the terrorist organizations isolated new recruits from the rest of the group to teach them Shariah. Newcomers were first supposed to learn the basics of Jihad and obedience as well as explore the internal structure of the organization before they were allowed to take part in military operations.

Aleppo. Documents
© SPUTNIK/Aleppo. Documents
The next stage of the initiation was a combat mission. After successfully passing it, young people were united with newcomers from other regions.
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Laptop

From the Media Matters Gestapo: Google Fake News ban has no legs - targeted sites still using Google ads - how dare they!

Brennan Suen, Jared Holt, Tyler Cherry
Media Matters
Wed, 14 Dec 2016 18:45 UTC
fake news
Websites circulating fake news were still using Google's online advertising service as of December 12, nearly one month after Google announced it would ban such sites from using its advertising platform as a revenue source.

Google Bans Websites Peddling Fake News From Using Its Advertising Service

Nov. 14: Google Bans "Websites That Peddle Fake News From Using Its Online Advertising Service."

According to The New York Times, on November 14, Google announced it would ban fake news websites from using its online advertising service in order to cut off their revenue sources. The ban was said to take effect "imminently":

Comment: First, fake news is evil. Some sites of dubious intent post deliberately false stories. But that's not really what the Clinton-lovers are Media Matters are worried about. They're probably more worried about "fake news", i.e., news and analysis they don't like. So now they're up in arms over the fact that Google doesn't seem to be enforcing their Orwellian policy.

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Attention

Propaganda alert! Telegraph compares Aleppo to Bosnia, Rwanda - Never again is happening again!

Julie Lenarz
The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 14 Dec 2016 18:32 UTC
aleppo
© STRINGER/AFP PHOTO/GETTY IMAGESJust look at this irrefutable evidence of Russians slaughtering Aleppans!

Comment: Brace yourselves for one of the most stunning pieces of propaganda of the century.


Every time a massacre happens, we say "never again". Now, "never again" is happening in Aleppo, as I write.


Comment: No, it's not. In fact, you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about, Ms. Lenarz.


The government's operation to recapture the rebel-held eastern part of the city is in its final stages and reports of atrocities are coming in.


Comment: Reports from terrorists, with absolutely no evidence to back them up. Does it make you proud to be a spokesperson for al-Qaeda, Ms. Lenarz?


The Syrian army is reportedly going from house to house and executing residents on the spot. At least 82 civilians, including women and children, were shot on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.


Comment: Reports from al-Qaeda. (Victory in Aleppo breeds onslaught of fake news in Western media)


Residents fear summary executions, forced disappearances, torture, and rape - a grim litany of war crimes. Meanwhile, the Syrian regime and the Russian government are ignoring calls for the safe passage of civilians from war-torn Aleppo, as more than 100,000 terrified people are still trapped inside the city.


Comment: Residents do not fear such things. Residents on the whole are jubilant. Al-Qaeda and their supporters are afraid they might not receive amnesty. But the vast majority of them will, because Assad is infinitely more humane than al-Qaeda.


Comment: Obama is just as bad:
"The world as we speak is united in horror at the savage assault by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies on the city of Aleppo," Obama told a yearend news conference on December 16. "This blood and these atrocities are on their hands."

"We have seen a deliberate strategy of surrounding, besieging, and starving innocent civilians. We've seen relentless targeting of humanitarian workers and medical personnel, entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble and dust. There are continuing reports of civilians being executed."

Obama in particular warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose civil war against armed opponents since 2011 has killed more than 250,000 people, that he will not be able to "slaughter his way to legitimacy."
...
"For years, we've worked to stop the civil war in Syria and alleviate human suffering [!!!].... It has been one of the hardest issues that I've faced as president," he said.
With any luck, Obomber will crawl into a hold on January 20th and never be seen again. The world would breathe a sigh of relief.

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Propaganda

Flashback Conflict of Interest: FakeNews WaPo's Bezos has a $600 mln Amazon-CIA contract

Greg Mitchell
The Nation
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 18:20 UTC
Washington Post offices
© Raedle / Getty
It's been a rough couple days for The Washington Post. Word emerged that hackers invaded its internal system—for a few days, no less—all of its staffers had to change their passwords as the company tried to figure out how much data had been compromised.

Meanwhile, a petition campaign was launched related to news that Amazon, under the Post's new owner, Jeff Bezos, recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That's at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company's Web-services business is building a "private cloud" for the CIA to use for its data needs.

Critics charge that, at a minimum, the Post needs to disclose its CIA link whenever it reports on the agency. Over 15,000 have signed the petition this week hosted by RootsAction.

Comment: We wouldn't expect anything less from WaPo: Washington Post admits article on 'Russian propaganda' and 'fake news' based on sham research. Just remember this connection the next time you read any political analysis, or "anonymously sourced" material in Bezos's rag, or others like it. It most likely means you're reading CIA-directed Fake News propaganda.

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Attention

Judge Napolitano exposes lies on-air: US intelligence was behind hacks, not Russia

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 18:10 UTC
Judge Andrew Napolitano
Judge Andrew Napolitano, currently being considered by Trump for the Supreme Court, dropped a bombshell in an interview with Fox & Friends Thursday, saying sources within the U.S. intelligence community — not Russia — had provided documents from the DNC and John Podesta for publication by Wikileaks.

"I hope that Josh Earnest was as much in jest with what he just said, as Donald Trump was when he said during the campaign, 'do all the hacking you want,'" Napolitano said of remarks the White House spokesman gave, suggesting Trump had been aware of Russia's putative meddling throughout the election cycle. "No one could have taken that seriously."
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Arrow Down

Obama blames talk radio and 'domestic propagandists' for the rise in fake news


Grabien News
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 18:02 UTC
obama
© Pete Souza/whitehouse.gov
President Obama blamed talk radio and other "domestic propagandists" for the rise of "fake news," including fictional news items published by state-sponsored actors.

"If fake news that's being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it's not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect," Obama said. "It doesn't seem that farfetched compared to some of the other stuff folks are hearing from domestic propagandists."

"To the extent that our political dialogue is such that everything is under suspicion, everybody's corrupt and everybody is doing things for partisan reasons and all of our institutions are, you know full of malevolent actors and if that's the story that is being put out there, then when a foreign government introduces that same argument, the facts are made up, voters who have been listening to that stuff for years, who have been getting that stuff every day from talk radio or other venues, they're going to believe it."

To remedy foreign influence in America's elections, Obama called for taking a stricter line with our internal political discourse.

Comment: Meanwhile, Michelle Obama suggested that the election outcome is leading to a time of hopelessness (but only the precious snowflakes seem to be feeling this way).
"We are feeling what not having hope feels like," Obama told Winfrey in response to a question about whether President Obama had achieved the "hope and change" he promised while campaigning in 2008. As she often did while campaigning for Hillary Clinton, she didn't mention President-elect Donald Trump by name. But she alluded to the contrast many in the country are feeling since he won the election last month. "We feel the difference now," she said, noting that her husband had succeeded in keeping his campaign promise of fostering hope. "Hope is necessary. It's a necessary concept," she elaborated. "And Barack didn't just talk about hope because he thought it was a nice slogan to get votes. He and I and so many believed that ... what else do you have if you don't have hope? What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?"
How about the truth, Michelle?

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