Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to three federal gun charges filed after plea deal collapses

Lindsay Whitehurst, Claudia Lauer and Randall Chase
KSTP
Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:27 UTC
hunter biden gun charges
© AP Photo/Matt RourkePresident Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden arrives for a court appearance, in Wilmington, Del, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three federal firearms charges filed after his earlier deal imploded, setting the case on a track toward a possible trial in 2024 while his father is campaigning for reelection.

President Joe Biden's son has been charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. When asked by Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke if he understood the charges against him, he said, "Yes, Your Honor."

His lawyer Abbe Lowell said in court he plans to file a motion to dismiss the charges, challenging their constitutionality.

"Mr. Biden pleads not guilty to the three counts that have been brought against him," Lowell said to the judge.
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Bad Guys

NATO member calls for 'security umbrella' to cover Ukraine


RT
Wed, 04 Oct 2023 18:50 UTC
German Lituanian soldiers
© Petras Malukas / AFPGerman and Lithuanian soldiers during an exercise in Pabrade, Lithuania, June 26, 2023.
Ukraine must be covered by NATO's security guarantees, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis insisted on Tuesday. He further urged the West, which has ploughed hundreds of billions of dollars into Ukraine, to take a firmer stance on helping Kiev achieve victory over Russia.

"Ukraine must become a NATO member. NATO's transatlantic security umbrella must also protect those countries that were left in the gray zone of geopolitics," Landsbergis said at a security conference in Warsaw, according to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

Kiev's backers in its conflict with Russia "must do everything to keep Ukraine within its 1991 borders on this side," He demanded, while lauding Germany for agreeing to permanently station 4,000 troops in Lithuania. "Efforts to strengthen the eastern flank depend on our will to defend ourselves," he said.
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Brick Wall

Hybrid war and hybrid peace

Ivan Timofeev
Valdai Club
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 00:00 UTC
marching
© Unknown
Over the past decade the concept of hybrid warfare has firmly established itself in political rhetoric in the West and in Russia. Russian experts have rightly pointed out the vagueness of the concept, its intersection with other concepts (such as irregular wars), as well as the weak scientific base. Nevertheless, the widespread use of the term can hardly be called accidental. There were clearly gaps in the conceptual apparatus of international analytics: the new realities of international relations were not adequately described by existing concepts. The rapid spread of the notion of hybrid warfare has been a spontaneous reaction to such gaps, while the concept really suffers from excessive blurring. It is more suitable for journalism than for science. However, the phenomena that are covered by the concept of hybrid war require reflection and a more rigorous study of this concept. It is also appropriate to ask about the opposite concept - hybrid peace. If there is a hybrid war, is it possible to transform it into a hybrid peace? Is modern diplomacy capable of negotiating a hybrid peace and reaching any sustainable agreements to end hybrid wars?

Comment: Excellent outline of today's diplomatic warfare and the insurmountable difficulties it presents.

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Briefcase

Trump handed gag order in fraud case after former president attacks judge's clerk online

Rachel Schilke
Washington Examiner
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 03:26 UTC
TrumpEngor
© Forbes/Brian Snyder/Reuters/KJNFormer US President Donald Trump • Judge Arthur Engoron
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's civil fraud case in New York has issued a gag order after Trump posted about the judge's clerk.

According to reports from within the courtroom, Judge Arthur Engoron said:
"Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any of my staff.

"Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances."
Engoron said failure to abide by the gag order would result in "serious sanctions."

In a now-deleted social media post, Trump extended his attacks to Allison Greenfield, Engoron's clerk, while in the courtroom with her. He posted a photograph of Greenfield with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), calling for the case to be dismissed, according to Newsweek.

Comment: Trump has never been, shall we say, 'self-contained'.

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Brick Wall

Tyrant Justin Trudeau moves to regulate podcasts, analyze and track content and subscribers

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Sun, 01 Oct 2023 15:53 UTC
justin trudeau angry speech
© Darren Calabrese / The Canadian PressCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
And Elon Musk weighs in

Canadian tyrant Justin Trudeau's government recently moved to its next phase of controlling the population. The Trudeau government will now regulate podcasts and track content and subscribers. This tyrannical order comes after Trudeau restricted access to news in Canada last August.

This should come as no surprise, Trudeau previously froze the bank accounts of protesting truckers in Canada. The Trudeau government announced that being "pro-Trump" was a factor they would use to freeze accounts.

Infamous international podcaster Jordan Peterson responded to the the recent move.

Comment:

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Eye 1

Joe Biden is the 'king of censorship'

Betsy McCaughey
The Daily Caller
Sun, 01 Oct 2023 15:16 UTC
joe biden angry
© T.J. Kirkpatrick-Pool/Getty ImagesJoe Biden
President Joe Biden is pitching himself as the savior of democracy. "I will always defend, protect, and fight for our democracy," he said at a campaign event last week in New York City. He's been saying it for four years. It's a blatant lie. He's the king of censorship, silencing his critics like a despot and even trying to defend his censorship regime before the Supreme Court.

At high-dollar fundraising events last week from Manhattan to Silicon Valley, Biden bragged the survival of democracy hinges on his reelection over the MAGA Republicans. He'll reiterate that theme again in Phoenix on Thursday.

But democracy depends on a free marketplace of ideas. Biden is busy destroying that marketplace. He and his staff have masterminded a vast censorship scheme, coercing media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to take down views that challenge the administration on everything from vaccine safety and gas prices to Biden family mischief.
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Bulb

UKHSA suddenly discovers there is no good evidence on lockdowns

Dr Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson
Daily Sceptic
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 12:01 UTC
Corona Lockdown Poster
In the early summer of 2020, masks were introduced in the U.K. Thereafter, there was a mishmash of weird and wonderful measures that didn't prevent further restrictive measures or lockdowns. According to Rishi Sunak's statement to the Spectator, not even Cabinet Ministers were aware of the rationale for this merry-go-round.

As most of the important people making decisions, or at least communicating them, flip-flopped at approximately the same time on both sides of the Atlantic, were we treated to (or should we say, were we victims of) some clockwork change of course?

But why did this take place? Perhaps the question for Trust the Evidence is: on the basis of what new convincing evidence did the flip become a flop? We are unaware of any new high-quality evidence apart from the feardemic the flip-floppers induced.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

No weapons left for Ukraine in Europe - Politico


RT
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:19 UTC
Rheinmetall production
© Swen Pfortner / picture alliance via Getty ImagesA Rheinmetall production hall in Kassel, Germany
EU countries have given Ukraine all the arms they can without compromising their own defense, Politico has reported, citing a European official. Kiev is facing cuts to both arms supplies and cash injections as "cracks appear" in Western support, according to the outlet.

"We cannot keep on giving from our own stockpiles," the European source said as quoted on Monday. There may still be robust political support, but "we've given everything that will not endanger our own security."

The comment was made to Politico as part of its coverage of last week's International Industries Defense Forum in Kiev, during which the hosts went on a "charm offensive directed at weapons-makers," as explained in the report.

In a separate story on Tuesday, the outlet said that support for funding the Ukrainian government was "showing more cracks than ever."
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Bad Guys

Germany preparing to send thousands of troops to Russian border state


RT
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:19 UTC
German soldiers
© Getty Images / Sean GallupSoldiers of the Bundeswehr prepare Panzerhaubitze PZH 2000 155mm self-propelled howitzers for transport to Lithuania
Germany and Lithuania are working on creating a road map for the deployment of a brigade of German soldiers to the Baltic state, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced in an interview with the news outlet ERR on Monday.

The minister announced several weeks ago that Berlin planned to send as many as 4,000 troops to Lithuania, which already houses around 1,500 German troops as part of a NATO battlegroup.

In the recent interview, he explained that the move was being done in order to show "solidarity and responsibility in the East Wing."

Pistorius said that there was still a lot to do before the soldiers could be deployed, but stated that Germany and Lithuania expect to have a road map and a clear picture on how to proceed by the end of November or early December.
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Bad Guys

Leaked US strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat

Nahal Toosi
Politico
Mon, 02 Oct 2023 05:00 UTC
BiZel
© Evan Vucci/APUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden
The Sniff Test • Oval Office • Sept. 21, 2023
Biden administration officials are far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit, a confidential U.S. strategy document obtained by POLITICO suggests.

The "sensitive but unclassified" version of the long-term U.S. plan lays out numerous steps Washington is taking to help Kyiv root out malfeasance and otherwise reform an array of Ukrainian sectors. It stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to abandon Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion, and that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft effort.

"Perceptions of high-level corruption" the confidential version of the document warns, could "undermine the Ukrainian public's and foreign leaders' confidence in the war-time government."


Comment: Corrupt US calls out corrupt Ukraine. This is going well.


That's starker than the analysis available in the little-noticed public version of the 22-page document, which the State Department appears to have posted on its website with no fanfare about a month ago.

The confidential version of the "Integrated Country Strategy" is about three times as long and contains many more details about U.S. objectives in Ukraine, from privatizing its banks to helping more schools teach English to encouraging its military to adopt NATO protocols. Many goals are designed to reduce the corruption that bedevils the country.
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