Puppet MastersS


Popcorn

Pepe Escobar: So Russia Won't Elect the Next POTUS

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 19:58 UTC
Trump and Clinton
© AP/Evan Vucci
Wallowing in the mire of a headline grabbing "suspense" in case "such a nasty woman" becomes the next President of the United States (POTUS), the fear-and-loathing Las Vegas cage-match between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton once again yielded a few stark facts that should be of the highest concern especially to the Global South.

You have all been warned.

Merely relying on Trump's notorious vocabulary impediment is not enough. His "suspense" tirade -- as in not endorsing the final result of the forthcoming presidential election until all votes have been counted -- reveals more than it seems, and is hardly an apocalyptic threat to 240 years of American democracy.

To pull off voter fraud in the US is quite a feat, as the electoral college system is decentralized, run by the states. Thirty-one of these happen to be ruled by Republican governors, including key swing states Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Nevada. A great deal of the electronic voting machines is not internet-connected; they would have to be tampered with in advance.

So even if vote-buying and/or tampering may be an all-around difficult proposition, what might actually happen, in a Trumpian sense, is a modified 2000 remix, when the election was actually stolen by active voter suppression in Florida, coupled with a dodgy recount and a Supreme Court decision largely engineered by the Bush family consigliere James Baker.
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Chess

U.S. backs down - 'supports' Philippines war on drugs, remains 'steady & trusted' partner


RT
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:10 UTC
Duterte war on drugs
© Romeo Ranoco / Reuters U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel
America supports the Philippines' controversial war on drugs and remains a "steady and trusted" partner of the island country, a senior US diplomat for Asia, Daniel Russel, assures.

Russel is the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Speaking to the press in Manila after a meeting with Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, the diplomat backtracked on Washington's previously-expressed stance over Manila's controversial crackdown on narcotics business, saying that the United States supports the Philippines government's "effort against the scourge of drugs," Reuters reported. He noted, however, that America is still concerned over the number of deaths this effort has caused, calling it "bad for business" and "not a positive trend."

Nearly 2,300 people have died in the Philippines during President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs since July 2016. US-Philippines relations have been in a death spiral ever since President Barack Obama's administration started voicing concern over Duterte's tactics in dealing with drug crime.

In August, US Department of State Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said Washington is "deeply concerned" over Duterte's "extrajudicial killings" and urged his government to ensure that law enforcement officers comply with the country's "human rights obligation."
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Propaganda

NATO's warmonger-in-chief warns 'nuclear war with Russia in Europe' is coming

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sun, 23 Oct 2016 15:26 UTC
NATO commander Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff
NATO commander Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff
Senior British army officer and former NATO commander Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff says that America is already at war with Russia.

NATO has a new reason to exist...war with Russia. Or so goes the bellicose rhetoric coming out of various factions of the western war machine.

Former deputy supreme allied commander Europe Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff penned, yet another, aggressive anti-Russian propaganda piece for CNN, that continues to push a self fulfilling prophecy that will plunge all of Europe, and the world, into assure annihilation.

The Senior British army officer's article is case in point of the stupidity and corruptness in play at the highest military positions of power...
"And don't think Russia would limit itself to the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. Any form of nuclear release by the Russians would almost certainly precipitate nuclear retaliation by the United States, and the dreadful reality of mutually assured destruction and the end of life as we know it would follow."

Comment: And more so the US is behind this anti-Russia propaganda:

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Eye 2

Killary's hysteric Russian 'puppet' rant

Michael Tracey
The American Conservative
Sat, 22 Oct 2016 15:17 UTC
hillary war syria
© The Duran
She accused a rival nominee of being a stealth agent of a foreign power.

For months she had only intimated it, or delegated the real dirty work to her surrogates and campaign staff, but at the final televised debate this week Hillary Clinton finally let loose: Donald Trump is "a puppet" of the Kremlin, she declared.

It's worth pausing to consider just how extreme and incendiary that allegation is. For Trump to be a "puppet" of a hostile foreign power—especially Russia, arguably America's oldest continuous adversary—would be an event of earth-shaking magnitude, unrivaled in all U.S. history. It would mean that by some nefarious combination of subterfuge and collusion, the sinister Russian leader Vladimir Putin had managed to infiltrate our political system at its very core, executing a Manchurian Candidate-style scheme that would've been dismissed as outlandish in even the most hyperbolic 1960s-era espionage movie script.


Comment: In other words, ridiculous.


Trump is often accused of violating the "norms" that typically govern the tenor of U.S. presidential campaigns. And these accusations very often have validity: at the same debate, he declined to preemptively endorse the legitimacy of the election outcome, which appears to be without precedent. As everyone is now keenly aware, he's unleashed a constant torrent of brash histrionics that defy discursive standards and violate "norms" of many kinds—You're rigged! I'm rigged! We're all rigged!

But Hillary too violated a long-standing norm this week with her "puppet" screed, which was the culmination of her campaign's months-long effort to tarnish Trump as a secret Russian lackey using the kind of retrograde nomenclature ("Puppet"? Really?) that would've made even the most hardened old-time Cold Warrior blush. Because of Hillary's barb, there will henceforth be a precedent for accusing a rival major-party nominee of being a stealth agent of a fearsome foreign power, based on only the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence.

Comment: Who's behind the campaign to blame Putin for everything?

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Bad Guys

Obama officials now say Russia can't hack US election, but will fake vote hacking to "undermine democracy"


RT
Fri, 21 Oct 2016 18:16 UTC
us elections
© Jim Young / Reuters
While agreeing with President Barack Obama that the US election system is too big to hack, officials in his administration are now suggested that any evidence of voting impropriety may be a plot by "Russian hackers" to undermine democracy in America.

Hackers supposedly tied to Russian intelligence could try to "undermine the credibility of the presidential election by posting documents online purporting to show evidence of voter fraud," Reuters reported Thursday, citing "intelligence and law enforcement officials" who requested anonymity.


Comment: The irony of the above statements is that there is no true democracy in the US to undermine, nor is the US presidential election credible in any way. The stolen election of 2000 by George W. Bush pretty much ended any semblance of credibility for anyone with two firing neurons, and the actions of the US government towards dozens of sovereign nations around the world destroy any claims of democracy in America. There is no democracy, the US controlled by corporations who direct foreign and domestic policy according whichever policy furthers their bottom line.


Echoing the comments made by President Barack Obama, the officials said the US system is so "large, diffuse and antiquated" that altering the November 8 vote would be practically impossible. However, hackers could post documents,"some of which might be falsified, designed to create public perceptions of widespread voter fraud," the officials said, according to Reuters.

The anonymous officials admitted they "did not have specific evidence of such a plan," but that state and local election authorities have been warned to be vigilant.


Comment: So without evidence, there is nothing but smoke in the above claims. The ironic thing is that it's the US government and their corporate overlords who are well-known to fix elections and create the illusion of choice. There is no choice, no true left-right paradigm anymore. It's either be a part of the War Party, or get left out.

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Star of David

Threat to sales dominance: Israel refuses to sign US document regulating export of killer drones


RT
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 15:16 UTC
Israel Aero Space Industries (IAI) Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicle
© Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters
Israel is reportedly refusing to sign a US document on the use and export guidelines of armed drones, fearing it would hurt its defense industries. The State Department paper aims to establish international standards in the production and selling of UAVs.

The one-page document, titled "Joint Declaration for the Export and Subsequent Use of Armed or Strike-Enable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)," covers a number of topics regarding the selling and usage of drone systems, according to Defense News.

Those topics include applying international law and human rights when using UAVs; following existing arms control laws in selling armed drone systems; considering the buyer country's history on "adherence to international obligations and commitments"; following "appropriate transparency measures"; and ensuring the sold unmanned system's capabilities are "transferred and used responsibly by all states."
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Chess

Amid waning Asian influence US unleashes relentless anti-China propaganda campaign

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 14:06 UTC
China Thailand military exercises
China & Thailand military exercises

It is becoming clear that US influence - despite its "pivot toward Asia" - is waning across the Asia Pacific region. Washington has suffered geopolitical setbacks in virtually every nation in Asia Pacific, including those now led by regimes it has meticulously organized, funded, and backed for decades. It is also waning, however, among those nations considered long-time and crucial US allies.

This includes Southeast Asia's Thailand, whom the US repeatedly reminds the world has been Washington's ally since the Cold War and America's war in Vietnam, and allegedly, even before that.

Washington's Waning Influence is Based on Floundering Fundamentals

However, in reality, Thailand has incrementally dismantled American influence over it, and has diversified its trade and cooperation with a large variety of nations - including China - as a means of depending on ties with no single nation in particular.

Thailand's economic trade is focused primarily within Asia, with the majority of its imports and exports divided equally between China, Japan, and ASEAN, with the West collectively representing a smaller - though not insignificant - market.

Comment: The likelihood of the Empire of Chaos' accepting Asia as an independent region seems rather remote, having become so accustomed to being the world's bully:

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Bad Guys

US backed militants shell civilians in Aleppo killing 3 with 28 injured


RT
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:43 UTC
Aleppo civilians injured in terror attack
© RT
Three people have been killed, including a seven-year-old girl, and 28 more injured after militants shelled residential areas of government-held West Aleppo, reports RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev, who is there and has spoken to those injured.

The attacks, which targeted West Aleppo's Hamdaniya district and Salah-Eddin neighborhood, lasted for hours, Gazdiev said, citing his sources on the ground.

"Today's barrage began in the early hours of the morning, at dawn. It lasted through to midday. And that is perhaps the worst possible time, as hundreds of thousands of children and adults go to school and to work," the RT reporter said. "The casualties at this time are always high," he stressed.

Comment: More on the Battle for Aleppo:

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Dollar

Keeping TPP alive: Kaine says Clinton open to 'exploring new trade deals'

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:32 UTC
tim kaine
Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Kaine tells Chuck Todd that Hillary Clinton would be open to exploring new trade deals, despite their opposition to the TPP.

Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Kaine went on NBC's "Meet The Press" and told host Chuck Todd that a Hillary Clinton administration may be "against the TPP" but "we aren't against trade."

"Public and private persona" Hillary Clinton, and her would be administration, is not against the TPP.

Publicly they say they are against the controversial trade deal, that would destroy millions of American jobs and give multi-national corporations power that supersede even government authority.

Privately Hillary Clinton is being thrust into power for the specific purpose of pushing through the TPP. It is why ALL the big business is behind her.

So when Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) says, "you never close the door" on trade deals, what he means is that if they enter office, TPP will move ahead, like it or not.

Comment: Clinton has repeatedly shifted her position on the TPP trade agreement, so despite what she currently says, it appears TPP is very much on the agenda. Interestingly, the State Department won't release Hillary Clinton TPP emails until after election.

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TV

Propaganda alert! Clinton campaign manager squirms through 'Russian hacker' interview

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:39 UTC
Robby Mook
Robby Mook
This is how the Clinton machine does propaganda.

It is beyond amazing that Hillary and her corrupt cronies, pulled a "Russia did it" card out of thin air in order to distract from all her foundation kick backs and email 'bleachbiting'.

Now the narrative is mainstream, actually believed by many journalists (who are coincidentally on Clinton's payroll), and even puts the world at risk for full scale global war.

Reckless Hillary, doing anything to cover up her criminal tracks.

Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, is pushing the "Russian hacker" line hard in this interview with Chris Wallace.

Watch Mook, from the 5 minute mark onwards, mention "Russia" seven times. He even falsely says that this is now confirmed by the intelligence community, which is an outright lie.
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