Puppet MastersS


Take 2

Flashback Scenario

James Howard Kunstler
kunstler.com
Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
Seth Rich
© UnknownSeth Rich, when he was alive at his leisure
"Witness list expanding in multi-conspiracy probe out of Fort Pierce. . . ."
- Paul Sperry, Real Clear investigations
The scene: February of 2027, a federal courtroom in Fort Pierce (St. Lucie County), Florida, the third day of trial in the RussiaGate matter. Defendants seated on the right (from the judge's vantage) are so numerous they require two tables, including John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Strzok & Page, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Monaco, Mary McCord, Christopher Wray, Marc Elias, and seven other former federal officials.

Former President Barack Obama and former Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton, named as "unindicted co-conspirators," are not present in the courtroom for the sake of decorum. Former MI6 agent, the slippery Christopher Steele, purveyor of the infamous "dossier," is on-the-lam, whereabouts unknown. The charges against the bunch are Seditious Conspiracy (18 U.S. Code § 2384), Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice (18 U.S.C. §§ 1503, 1512, 1519), Conspiracy Against Rights / Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law (18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242), Perjury (18 U.S.C. § 1621), Concealment (18 U.S.C. § 1001).

At 10:00 a.m., a "surprise" witness is ushered into the room. Gasps erupt from all angles. The witness is immediately identified by his snow-white hair and beard. Everybody sees it is Julian Assange. He is a surprise witness for security reasons. He has been flown from Sydney to New Delhi to Frankfurt, and finally to Miami in a US government airplane, the lone passenger.
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Sheriff

DOJ Warns State Election Officials Can Be Charged Over Noncitizen Voting

Zachary Stieber
The Epoch Times
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:31 UTC
Harmeet Dhillon
© Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesAssistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Sept. 29, 2025.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent letters to election officials across the country, warning them that they could be charged if they let noncitizens receive ballots or vote in elections.

"Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state's [voter list] or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability," Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in the letters, which were sent on July 7.

It is also a crime to prevent people who try to vote from voting, the officials were also told.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal: Horns of a Dilemma: Why Trump is Damned if he Does, Damned if he Doesn't ('Take Out Iran')


Sott.net
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 21:43 UTC
graham trump iran widdecombe newsreal
© Sott.net
Two high-profile deaths of politicians in three days - one in the US and one in the UK - has the internet guessing as to what happened to US Senator Lindsey Graham, along with former Tory and British Reform party member Ann Widdecombe. Graham dropped dead 'after returning from his 10th visit to Ukraine', and Widdecombe was brutally murdered in her home and the suspect(s) is at large. The latter was a rare voice of reason in British politics, but the former most certainly will not be missed (by normal people).

Meanwhile the US-Iran 'ceasefire' is definitely 'off again' and, while it remains to be seen if hostilities will explode to the levels they reached in March, the pressure Trump is under from the Israel First crowd means he's left with this choice: do nothing, get assassinated 'by Iran', then your successors 'finish the job anyway' while your legacy is left in tatters. Or, 'finish the job', tank the global economy, and your legacy will still be left in tatters.

A horrible 'trap', and one the deep state - with Iran as unwitting participants - laid for him, with no 'off ramp' available.


Running Time: 01:48:58

Download: MP3 — 99.8 MB

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USA

America's Doctrine of Unpredictability

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
compass and clock on map of Iran
© UnknownOut of time!
Great powers rarely decline because they lack military strength; they falter when the world loses confidence in their judgment. America's increasingly erratic approach to Iran suggests that unpredictability has evolved from a diplomatic tool into a dangerous doctrine with consequences extending far beyond the Middle East.

Washington's Shifting Signals

For decades, American foreign policy rested upon a foundation that transcended individual presidents, political parties, and election cycles. Allies occasionally disagreed with Washington, while adversaries frequently challenged its objectives, but few questioned the existence of a coherent strategic framework. American commitments were generally understood to extend beyond the latest headline, allowing governments, military planners, and global markets to anticipate Washington's likely course of action even amid periods of international crisis. That assumption has been crushed by an administration that seems intent on alienating the whole world.

The second Trump administration has transformed unpredictability from an occasional negotiating tactic into the defining feature of American diplomacy. What was once presented as calculated strategic ambiguity has descended into policymaking by impulse, leaving allies and adversaries alike struggling to distinguish deliberate signaling from political improvisation. Yet ambiguity and contradiction are not synonymous. Effective ambiguity leaves opponents uncertain about the timing or scale of a response while leaving little doubt about underlying strategic objectives. Contradiction, by contrast, creates uncertainty about the objectives themselves. It is this distinction that increasingly defines American foreign policy and raises difficult questions about its long-term consequences.
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Helm

Eight NATO allies to create new satellite mega-constellation

Theresa Hitchens
Breajking Defense
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 12:58 UTC
NATO banners in Turkey
© Omer Taha Cetin/Anadolu/Getty ImagesNATO banners are displayed ahead of the alliance's summit in Ankara, Turkey • July 6, 2026
The network will involve Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey.

Eight NATO countries plan to link their military satellites into a "mega-constellation" to enable "high-speed communications, intelligence and missile tracking," the alliance announced on Tuesday at its Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, in a move that joins a number of other a new initiatives aimed at improving NATO space capabilities.

Connecting multiple national satellites will "overcome the cost, time and coverage limitations of single-nation satellite fleets," a NATO press release said.

The new network, called the Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space (HALO), initially will involve Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey, a NATO official told Breaking Defense today.

A NATO official said:
"But we expect more to come. NATO is in the early stages of the initiative. HALO focuses on the procurement of both transport satellites and sensors, as well as the development of software and standards. It is primarily designed to address national needs; what the constellation architecture will be and how it will be funded will be determined as the project unfolds."
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Attention

When words undo reality

Olivier Roynard
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
BidenTrump
© UnknownUS Presidents Trump and Biden making points
For decades, American power rested not only on military strength, economic dominance, technological supremacy, or control of financial flows. It also rested on something less visible, yet just as decisive: the capacity to shape reality through narratives, institutions, and shared symbolic frameworks. Donald Trump did not create the crisis of these frameworks. He revealed it.

I. Austin: words that do things

To understand what is at stake, it helps to return briefly to the philosopher J. L. Austin and his celebrated distinction between statements that merely describe reality and statements that perform an action:

When a judge pronounces a couple married, the words do not simply describe a situation — under the right conditions, they bring it into being. Austin called such utterances performatives.

But performatives only work because they are underwritten by institutions, conventions, and a shared world of recognition. Their force depends on what Austin called felicity conditions: the speaker must be authorized, the procedure must be recognized, the context must be appropriate. Strip these away, and the utterance is not false. It simply fails. It becomes infelicitous.

This is why political language is never merely linguistic.
It presupposes a symbolic order.

Comment: Excellent distillation of the structure and evolution of political communications - the erosion of source, cause and understanding.

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Arrow Up

Egypt inaugurates sprawling 'Octagon' military headquarters complex

Agnes Helou
Breaking Defense
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:37 UTC
Octagon in Egypt
© Screengrab/YouTube channelAerial view of the Octagon in Egypt, as shown during a ceremony on July 4, 2026
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the strategic command represented a "significant leap" in Egypt's command and control and operations management systems.

BEIRUT — Flanked by gleaming Egyptian military equipment in an elaborate ceremony, on Saturday Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi inaugurated the nation's new, sprawling strategic command headquarters in what Cairo described as the largest complex of its kind in the Middle East. The country's state information service said in a statement:
"This massive facility transcends traditional military headquarters, serving as a miniature administrative and defense hub. It operates as an integrated center for crisis management and smart command."
The 22,000 acre (34 square mile) complex is located in Cairo's New Administrative capital, and includes eight buildings forming an Octagon shape, according to a government factsheet.

America's Pentagon, by contrast, is dominated by a single building that's about 29 acres, still known to be the world's "largest low-rise office building." The Octagon would cover just under half of the area of the entire city of Washington, DC.
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Bizarro Earth

Warmonger extraordinaire Lindsay Graham dead at 71

Scott Wong, Frank Thorp
NBC News
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:42 UTC
Graham /Netanyahu
© Matty Stern/US Embassy JerusalemUS Senator Lindsey Graham • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was elected to the Senate in 2002 and was a close political ally of President Donald Trump's, has died, his office confirmed early Sunday. He was 71.

Graham died Saturday night "from a brief and sudden illness," his office said in a statement.

"Senator Graham's family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period," the statement said.

President Donald Trump led tributes Sunday to "one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known," describing Graham as a "true American Patriot" in a Truth Social post.

At the White House, flags were lowered to half-staff.

Comment: Xitter is not so laudatory:




One less maniac in Congress. Lady Lindsay never met a war he didn't like:
lindsay graham ukraine drone
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham visiting a drone manufacturing facility in Ukraine on July 11, 2026, the last and most fitting picture of a dedicated warmonger


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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: The Men Who Own the War Now Run It

Thomas S. Karat
Anti-Antiwar.com
Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:02 UTC
military industrial complex mic graphic
© Antiwar.com
There was a time when the arms dealer waited in the corridor. He financed the campaign, endowed the think tank, took the general to dinner, and hoped the man inside the office would remember him when the contract came up. The wall between the money and the decision was thin, often corrupt, but it was there. Someone held the public trust, and someone else tried to buy it, and you could at least tell the two apart.

That wall is gone. The financier no longer waits in the corridor. He holds the office. He signs the checks. He is the buyer and the seller, the regulator and the regulated, the public interest and the private portfolio, fused into a single man in a single suit, and the arrangement is entirely legal, which is the whole problem.

One of these men may already be familiar from a previous article. His name is Friedrich Merz.
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Gavel

Clown world: Federal judge orders DHS not to obey order from another federal judge

Zachary Stieber
ZeroHedge
Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:49 UTC
dhs homeland security office washington
© Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch TimesThe Department of Homeland Security building in Washington on March 25, 2024.
A federal judge on July 8 said the Trump administration must not comply with an order from another federal judge and must continue to have key functions of an immigration database disabled.

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies shall keep disabled the ability to look up Social Security numbers and carry out mass uploads in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.

Sooknanan ordered the Trump administration in June to disable the features, finding that recent updates to the database violated privacy laws by disclosing Americans' Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.
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