Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Ukraine committing war crimes - WaPo


RT
Thu, 20 Jul 2023 01:10 UTC
cluster bombs
© AFP / DVIDS
Kiev has begun using US-made cluster artillery shells, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials familiar with the matter. Specifically, the US-provided munitions are being used in "a push to break up" Moscow's defensive lines amid efforts to reinvigorate Kiev's stalled counteroffensive, according to the WP.

The US recently opted to provide the controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite them being banned in over 100 countries and widespread opposition from human rights groups. The so-called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICMs), namely in the form of 155mm artillery shells, arrived in Ukraine last week.

US President Joe Biden described the move as a stopgap measure, claiming that Washington and its allies were running short on regular munitions of the standard NATO caliber to prop up Kiev in the ongoing conflict with Moscow.

Comment: See also:

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Dollars

Foreign nationals gave Biden family and associates over $17M, IRS whistleblower claims

Victoria Nava
New York Post
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 01:10 UTC
Joseph Ziegler
© Rod Lamkey – CNP / MEGAZiegler says the Bidens and their associates have raked in more than $17 million from foreign business deals since 2014.
IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler told the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that Hunter Biden's overseas influence peddling operations have enriched the First Family and their business associates to the tune of more than $17 million.

The funds were raked in through various multimillion-dollar payments made by foreign nationals to Biden family-linked corporations between 2014 to 2019.

The Biden family's business dealings involved entities in Ukraine, Romania and China.

Roughly half of the $17 million in payments went to first son Hunter Biden, according to the IRS whistleblower, who was unmasked for the first time Wednesday during his congressional testimony.
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Snowman

10 absurdities the White House insists you believe about that cocaine

Elle Purnell
The Federalist
Thu, 20 Jul 2023 23:17 UTC
white house snow cocaine high
© FDRLST / Canva
The idiots running the asylum formerly known as Washington, D.C., aren't even trying anymore. Gone are the days when malfeasance and hoaxes were respectably cloaked in falsehoods that at least sounded plausible. Now, the emperor knows he has no clothes, he knows you know it, and he doesn't care — in fact, he might march down the street and gyrate in your face.

It's not a good development for lovers of self-governance, but there's a kind of camaraderie in knowing everyone else with half a brain cell can see through the act. Besides, it's obvious the clownish powers-that-be think you're utterly stupid, and there's a tactical advantage to being underestimated.

In their latest act of condescending foolery, they've flaunted what was either a shameless coverup or unbelievable incompetence in the Mysterious Case of the Teeny-Tiny Cocaine Baggie Someone Left Somewhere in the White House But That's All We Know, Folks. The messaging has fluctuated from "Must have been a tourist!" to "Kamala?" to "It's irresponsible to ask questions about this," but the bottom line is that there's no way, absolutely not, that it could possibly belong to admitted drug addict and apparent White House resident Hunter Biden — no doubt about it.
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Dollars

Best of the Web: A Decade of 'Deals': The definitive timeline of the Bidens' influence-peddling

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 20:39 UTC
Joe and Hunter Biden
© APJoe and Hunter Biden - grifting is all in the family
Ahead of Wednesday testimony from IRS whistleblowers, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability has released a comprehensive timeline of the Biden family influence peddling scheme in their quest to determine whether the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors, President Biden is compromised, or US national security has been compromised.

Four main themes emerge; Romania, the CCP-linked Chinese energy company CEFC, China-Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund (BHR) and dealings in Kazakhstan.
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Quenelle

'The era of hit and run is over': Iran warns against unloading oil tanker seized off coast of Texas


Almasirah
Thu, 20 Jul 2023 20:35 UTC
tanker
The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has warned that any oil company unloading hundreds of thousands of barrels of seized Iranian oil sitting in a Greek tanker off the coast of Texas would be held accountable.

"We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that sought to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible," Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said Thursday.

"The era of hit and run is over, and if they hit, they should expect to be struck back," he added.
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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Leaked files suggest hidden British hand in latest Kerch Bridge strike

Kit Klarenberg
The Grayzone
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 18:20 UTC
man telescop harbor
© pxfuelA man views the Kersch Bridge in Crimea
The Grayzone has exposed British intelligence freelancers for collaborating with Ukraine's Security Service to destroy Kerch Bridge. Leaked documents suggest they played a role in the latest attack on the bridge, and may be helping Kiev hunt down accused collaborators.

On July 16, a predawn assault on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia left two civilians dead and a 14-year-old injured. As advisors to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at Ukraine's culpability, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed his finger at Kiev and vowed revenge.

The attack was the second attempt at destroying the Kerch Bridge in less than a year. On October 8th 2022, a suicide attacker remotely detonated a truck bomb on the bridge, killing three and inflicting such severe damage the vehicular crossing remained closed until February this year, while railroad traffic resumed in May.
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Attention

Europe's black hole: How much of the more than $185 billion given by the West to Ukraine has been stolen?

George Trenin
RT
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:10 UTC
montage money
© RT
The fate of huge amounts of aid sent to the country is uncertain amid endemic corruption and a lack of accountability...

As a result of last week's NATO summit in Vilnius, the US-led military bloc promised Ukraine fresh tranches of financial and military aid. This was despite the fact that by the beginning of the summer, Kiev had already received a total of €165 billion ($185.6 billion) from Western countries. Meanwhile, as the spending increases, the number of US and EU citizens who are willing to sacrifice their own comfort for the sake of Kiev appears to be steadily decreasing.

One of the reasons for this is corruption in Ukraine, which - despite some lofty promises - seems to be as bad now as it was before the Western-backed 2014 'Maidan' coup. If not worse.

Moral compensation

The NATO summit, despite Ukraine's hopes, did not bring it a long-awaited timeframe for membership. Instead, Western leaders announced new military aid packages for Kiev.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to give Ukraine a "substantial number" of SCALP missiles that can hit targets at a distance of 250 kilometers. According to France24, each costs €850,000.

Berlin announced a package amounting to €700 million. Germany plans to supply Ukraine with launchers for the Patriot missile defense system, Marder-type infantry fighting vehicles, UAVs, Leopard 1 A5 tanks, and artillery shells. However, for Berlin, this is not even close to a record gift value. On May 21, the German Foreign Ministry announced the transfer of military aid to Ukraine worth €2.7 billion.

On July 7, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl spoke about a new package of aid from the US which includes cluster munitions - which are banned in 120 countries. The cost was $800 million.

This is the 42nd delivery of aid that Ukraine has received from the US in the past year and a half. Since the beginning of Russia's offensive, the US Congress has approved military and economic assistance to Ukraine amounting to over $70 billion - and that's only counting direct expenses.


Comment: ...and, it gets worse!


Comment: From one corrupt country to another, keep passing the buck.

Europe's black hole: How much of the more than $185 billion given by the West to Ukraine has been stolen?
19 July 2023

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Stop

FBI Lawyer Warns Agent: Don't Respond To GOP Questions About Hunter Biden Investigation

Hank Berrien
The Daily Wire
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:00 UTC
JoeHunter
© TwitterUS President Joe Biden • Hunter Biden
An FBI attorney warned an agent-turned-whistleblower who investigated Hunter Biden not to respond to certain questions from the GOP-run House Oversight Committee, which is looking into claims the bureau and the Department of Justice deliberately undermined their own case against the president's son.

FBI general counsel Jason Jones sent the letter Sunday to the unnamed agent, just hours before the agent was expected to testify. The committee is looking into claims that the investigation that led to what some say was a lenient plea deal being offered to Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges was fixed.

Per the New York Post, Jones wrote:
"Specifically, the Committee has stated an interest in what the Committee has described to you as certain events that took place in December 2020 as part of this investigation. Department officials, including those who have left the Department, are obligated to protect non-public information they learned in the course of their work. Such information could be subject to various privileges, including law enforcement, deliberative process, attorney work product, and attorney-client privileges, and privacy interests."
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Airplane

Fear and loathing on Air Force One

Seymour Hersh
seymourhersh.substack.com
Thu, 13 Jul 2023 00:00 UTC
Zel/Nauseda
© Paul Ellis/Pool/Getty ImagesUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda
NATO Summit • July 12, 2023 • Vilnius, Lithuania
Biden's anxieties over the Ukraine War and the election in 2024 come into view...

Let's start with a silly fear but one that does signal the Democratic Party's growing sense of panic about the 2024 Presidential election. It was expressed to me by someone with excellent party credentials: that Trump could be the Republican nominee and will select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate. The strange duo will then sweep to a huge victory over a stumbling Joe Biden, and also take down many of the party's House and Senate candidates.

As for real signs of acute Democratic anxiety: Joe Biden got what he needed before the NATO summit this week by somehow turning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inside out and getting him to rebuff Vladimir Putin by announcing that he would support NATO membership for Sweden. The public story for Biden's face-saving coup was talk about agreeing to sell American F-16 fighter bombers to Turkey.

I have been told a different, secret story about Erdogan's turnabout: Biden promised that a much-needed $11-13 billion line of credit would be extended to Turkey by the International Monetary Fund. "Biden had to have a victory and Turkey is in acute financial stress," an official with direct knowledge of the transaction told me. Turkey lost 100,000 people in the earthquake last February, and has four million buildings to rebuild. "What could be better than Erdogan" — under Biden's tutelage, the official asked, "finally having seen the light and realizing he is better off with NATO and Western Europe?"
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Stop

World is getting tired of Ukraine conflict - Brazil's Lula


RT
Wed, 19 Jul 2023 15:26 UTC
Lula
© Getty ImagesPresident of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva
Countries around the world are beginning to grow weary of the ongoing military conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters on Wednesday.

"The world is starting to get tired. Countries are starting to get tired," he said following a two-day meeting of EU and Latin American leaders in Brussels, as quoted by Bloomberg.

The Brazilian president predicted that there will eventually come a moment when there will be peace in Ukraine, and insisted that a group of countries will have to be able to talk to both Moscow and Kiev

Lula, who has been pushing for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, also objected to efforts to single out Moscow as the sole culprit behind the conflict. He insisted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, as well as US leader Joe Biden, were equally to blame for failing to negotiate with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to prevent the conflict.

Comment: Momentum: On 'Fizzle'.

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