Puppet MastersS


Cult

US government shamelessly defends DHS 'Ministry of Truth'


RT
Mon, 02 May 2022 18:12 UTC
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Homeland Security chief says the task force is the exact opposite of George Orwell's infamous brainchild

The newly unveiled 'Disinformation Governance Board', operating within the US Department of Homeland Security, has triggered a massive pushback, forcing DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas to make several appearances on national TV in an attempt to clarify how the unit will operate.

Many critics, including top Republicans, have blasted the initiative as a crackdown on free speech, akin to a 'Ministry of Truth' taken from the pages of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

Comment: Nina Jankowicz is a horror show unto herself. For starters, apparently she was at the forefront of plugging the (completely true) Hunter Biden laptop story as "Russian disinformation":




Folks just couldn't help themselves. It's too perfect:




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Chess

Solomon Islands PM suggests Australia's reaction to China security deal is hysterical and hypocritical

Daniel Hurst
The Guardian
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 06:22 UTC
Li Keqiang and Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare
© Mark Schiefelbein/APChinese premier Li Keqiang and Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare in Beijing in October 2019.
The prime minister of Solomon Islands has accused the Australian government of hypocrisy over his country's security deal with China, saying the Aukus pact was far from transparent but he "did not become theatrical and hysterical".

Manasseh Sogavare said Solomon Islands and other countries in the region "should have been consulted to ensure that this Aukus treaty is transparent since it will affect the Pacific family by allowing nuclear submarines in Pacific waters".

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, hit back on Friday afternoon, suggesting that Sogavare had changed his view based on "other influences" and that there was a "remarkable similarity between those statements and those of the Chinese government".

Comment: See also: Solomon Islands signed China security pact with 'eyes open' despite criticism and meddling from US, Australia

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Wolf

'Never let a crisis go to waste': USAID ghoul Samantha Power opines that food shortages 'will lead farmers toward green energy'

Nicole Silverio
The Daily Caller
Sun, 01 May 2022 17:58 UTC
samatha power
© ABCSamantha Power
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Chief Samantha Power claimed on This Week Sunday that food shortages will push farmers toward green energy.

Power said food prices have increased 34% globally, prompting her agency to ask Congress for assistance in easing the food shortage crisis on a global scale. She said the agency is working with farmers across the globe to transition to "natural solutions" that are, according to her, in their best interest.

"We're working with farmers to also increase their production so you actually have more supply brought on market. Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia's a big exporter of fertilizer, and even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia," she said. "As a result, we're working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste."

Comment: These clowns have no idea of the magnitude of the problem. Ice Age Farmer has been warning for years it was coming. No 'transition to natural solutions' is going to help, as if Power has any idea what that means in the first place, or she cynically realizes much is government created.

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Sheriff

Oregon gubernatorial candidate vows to end Antifa terror: 'The days of Antifa ruling the streets of Portland are about to end'


The Post Millennial
Mon, 02 May 2022 00:47 UTC
antifa Stan Pulliam
Oregon governor hopeful and city of Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam has a plan to end Antifa's terrorization of Portland, which includes tripling the size of the state's police force.

"The days of Antifa ruling the streets of Portland are about to end," Pulliam said in a statement.


Comment: Big words. We all know politicians can make big promises when trying to get into office. It remains to be seen, if he gets in, if Pulliam does, or is able to, make good on his promises. The situation in Oregon is so out-of-control that, for now, this comes across as just more "tough on crime" rhetoric.

See also:

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Wolf

UK female Labour MP accused of lying about 'desperate, perverted smears', another MP quits after watching porn in Parliament

Dan Hodges
Daily Mail
Wed, 30 Mar 2022 22:11 UTC
Angela Rayner
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner (pictured) has been at the centre of a sexism row involved claims she said would cross and uncross her legs to distract Boris Johnson
It's time for people to know the truth. On a chilly evening just after the turn of the year, in between the evening votes, about a dozen MPs gathered in the House of Commons for a cigarette break. Standing among them - positioned by the balustrade that sits opposite the large double doors leading out to Parliament's long Thameside terrace - was Angela Rayner.

Labour's Deputy Leader was engaging in the usual light-hearted banter that MPs of all parties indulge in when they feel the political spotlight is off them. Then she began to share a joke about how she tries to distract Boris Johnson when they sit opposite one another at Prime Minister's Questions.

According to one MP who was part of the group, 'she said, "I like to do my Sharon Stone trick. I cross and uncross my legs and give him a flash of my ginger g******" [a vulgar and offensive colloquialism].' A second MP, who was with the group, also recalled hearing her use the phrase.

Comment: The endless scandals that plague Britain's parliament, particularly in the last decade, expose that it is an institution riddled by the incompetent and the pathological; the question is how much longer and how much more damage can it sustain before it, and possibly the country, collapses under the weight of such corruption? Also check out SOTT radio's:


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Snakes in Suits

Hypocrites: 10 EU countries quietly buying gas with rubles, Hungary says


RT
Sun, 01 May 2022 17:42 UTC
engineers FGSZ gas pipeline
© AP / Bela SzandelszkyEngineers of FGSZ Ltd turn a valve of a gas pipeline at a receiving station in Vecses, Hungary, January 14, 2009.
European leaders won't admit they're going along with Russia's deal, government official Gergely Gulyas said.

While multiple European leaders have publicly proclaimed they won't buy Russian gas in rubles as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded, 10 EU countries are technically going along with Putin's plan, Hungarian official Gergely Gulyas told public radio on Sunday. According to Gulyas, these countries' leaders aren't admitting this in order to be seen as "being a good European."

Gulyas said that Hungary has opened a euro account with Russia's Gazprombank, which then converts payments into rubles before transferring them to suppliers in Russia. This system allows European buyers to comply with Putin's demand, made in late March, that "unfriendly" countries switch to Russia's national currency to buy its natural gas.

Comment: How completely unsurprising. The difference between a politician's public face and what he or she does behind the scenes is as different as night and day.

See also:

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Dollars

Russia makes bond payments in dollars, concedes on ruble mandate to avoid default

Peter Aitken
Fox News
Sun, 01 May 2022 20:19 UTC
putin security council
© Associated PressRussian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, April 29, 2022.
Russia previously insisted on completing payments in rubles

Russia appeared to narrowly avoid default on Friday as it paid off a number of overdue international debts in dollars, reversing its recent policy requiring transactions occur in rubles.

The finance ministry said it paid $564.8 million on a 2022 Eurobond and $84.4 million on a 2042 bond in dollars, as specified on the bonds, Reuters reported.

Russia has repeatedly faced the threat of default since the West announced crippling sanctions that Moscow and bank officials managed to combat through a number of strict and extreme measures, including capital controls and suspending trading on the Moscow exchange for almost a month.

Officials remained keen to avoid the country's first default since a financial crash in 1998.

Comment: Well, apparently no one has told the foreign currency markets the bad news. The ruble is performing well there.





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Satellite

Cutting more ties with the West: Russia has set space station exit timetable


RT
Sun, 01 May 2022 20:08 UTC
international space station
The International Space Station
Russia will use its remaining time on the ISS to demonstrate it's ready to proceed with its own orbital station, the Roscosmos chief says

Russia has decided when it will pull out of the International Space Station (ISS), and will give a year's notice to its partners, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Saturday.

In an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel, the head of the space agency said that although a timeframe has been set, the authorities "are not obliged to speak about it publicly."

Rogozin earlier said Western sanctions imposed over Russia's military offensive on Ukraine are preventing Roscosmos from proceeding with "business as usual" when it comes to joint work with the US and other Western countries on the ISS. He also said that if he could he would already have cased cooperation.
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Snakes in Suits

The real Zelensky: From celebrity populist to unpopular Pinochet-style neoliberal - Interview

Natylie Baldwin
The Grayzone
Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
Zelensky
© UnknownUkraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian academic Olga Baysha details Volodymyr Zelensky's embrace of widely loathed neoliberal policies, his repression of rivals, and how his actions fueled the current war with Russia.

A comedic actor who rose to the country's highest office in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was virtually unknown to the average American, except perhaps as a bit player in the Trump impeachment theater. But when Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Zelensky was suddenly transformed to an A-list celebrity in US media. American news consumers were bombarded with images of a man who appeared overcome by the tragic events, possibly in over his head, but ultimately sympathetic. It didn't take long for that image to evolve into the khaki-clad, tireless hero governing over a scrappy little democracy and single-handedly staving off the barbarians of autocracy from the east.

But beyond that carefully crafted Western media image is something much more complicated and less flattering. Zelensky was elected by 73 percent of the vote on a promise to pursue peace while the rest of his platform was vague. On the eve of the invasion, however, his approval rating had sunk to 31 percent due to the pursuit of deeply unpopular policies.

Ukrainian academic, Olga Baysha, author of Democracy, Populism, and Neoliberalism in Ukraine: On the Fringes of the Virtual and the Real, has studied Zelensky's rise to power and how he has wielded that power since becoming president. In the interview below, Baysha discusses:
Zelensky's embrace of neoliberalism and increasing authoritarianism, how his actions contributed to the current war; his counterproductive and self-absorbed leadership throughout the war, the complex cultural and political views and identities of Ukrainians, the partnership between neoliberals and the radical right during and after Maidan, and whether a Russian takeover of the entire Donbass region might be less popular among the local population than it would have been in 2014.

Comment: An enlightening interview discussing the myths, means and motives, of the real Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Arrow Down

Elon Musk, others respond to Biden administration's disinformation board

Carmine Sabia
Conservative Brief
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
MuskBid
© DeepState.news/Pool/KJNEntrepreneur Elon Musk • US President Joe Biden
President Joe Biden and his administration have made an announcement that has many free speech advocates frightened, and it happened just days after Elon Musk purchased the Twitter platform in an effort to bring back free speech.

On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified that the administration has created a Disinformation Governance Board to fight online disinformation and said that it will be led by Undersecretary for Policy Rob Silvers and principal deputy general counsel Jennifer Gaskill, Fox News reported. He quipped to members of Congress:
"The goal is to bring the resources of the department together to address this threat. I just read a very interesting study that underscores the importance of the point that you make, the spread of mis- and disinformation in minority communities specifically, and we are focused on that in the context of our CP3 and other efforts, and I'd be pleased to share more."
During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration supports the new board.

Comment: See also:

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