Puppet Masters

Trump aims to reverse Rust Belt slide as polling indicates he is trailing Joe Biden

Alex Isenstadt
Politico
Mon, 20 May 2019 05:01 UTC

Donald Trump's aides and allies are moving aggressively to shore up his support in three Rust Belt states that propelled him to the presidency - but where his own polling shows him in trouble heading into 2020.

Trump will travel to Pennsylvania Monday for a rally that comes after recent visits to Wisconsin and Michigan, two other states at the center of his reelection strategy. Those appearances are just the most public display of his team's efforts to fortify his standing.

Behind the scenes, they've rushed to the aid of languishing state Republican Party machines and have raised concerns that a potential GOP Senate candidate in Michigan could hurt the president's prospects there. They are also scrutinizing the map for opportunities to fire up his base in the trio of states.

The moves come at a time of growing anxiety over the geographic linchpin of his 2020 hopes. The Trump campaign recently completed a 17-state polling project that concluded the president trails Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to two people briefed on the results. America First Action, the principal pro-Trump super PAC, is expected to conduct its own polling and focus groups in Pennsylvania and Michigan later this summer.

Qatari broadcaster reveals alleged satellite images of damaged Saudi oil facilities

Sputnik
Mon, 20 May 2019 18:16 UTC

Two Saudi oil facilities located along a major pipeline were hit in a drone attack on Tuesday, which prompted Riyadh to temporarily shut down the pipeline and carry out retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.

Qatar's Al Jazeera broadcaster has shared what it calls satellite imagery showing the damage dealt to a Saudi oil station in a Houthi drone attack.

According to Al Jazeera, the images were taken one day after the attack on Saudi Aramco's pumping station 8, located some 330 kilometres west of the kingdom's capital, Riyadh.

Satellite image analysis is said to have shown a four-metre fracture in the tube, which resulted in crude oil leaking over an estimated area of 1,000 square meters.

It is understood that the precision of the attack, which apparently hadn't affected the nearby administrative and residential buildings, rules out claims that the pipeline hit was coincidental.

While Riyadh is yet to comment on the images, Saudi officials confirmed last Tuesday that pumping station 9 was also targeted in the drone attacks. The two stations sit along the key East-West pipeline, which stretches across the entire peninsula from the Abqaiq oil field in the east to the Yanbu oil terminal on the Red Sea coast.

Comment: See also:

Trump on raging abortion law battle: 'Strongly pro-life' but supports certain exceptions

RT
Sun, 19 May 2019 12:40 UTC

US President Donald Trump has made his first public statement about a controversial new abortion ban in Alabama, describing himself as "strongly pro-life" but is also arguing that abortion is appropriate in some cases.

The US president tweeted on Sunday, stating that the procedure is only appropriate as a result of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake.

Describing his position as the same stance taken by former President Ronald Reagan, Trump touted his administration's "new & positive attitude about the Right to life," while accusing the "Radical Left" of "imploding" over abortion laws.

"We must stick together and Win for Life in 2020. If we are foolish and do not stay UNITED as one, all of our hard fought gains for Life can, and will, rapidly disappear!" he wrote.

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Chewed up and spit out: Venezuela's military traitors now abandoned by Guaido and Colombia

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Sat, 18 May 2019 00:00 UTC

More than 60 former Venezuelan soldiers who took refuge in Colombia after defecting from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) were expelled from their hotel in the city of Cúcuta along with their families.

There are about 160 people in total who said that Venezuela's self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó, does not give them any support. "We are adrift, nobody from our president, Juan Guaidó, who we support 100%, none of them came here," said a Venezuelan deserter, quoted by TeleSUR. The reason for the hotel eviction was the lack of payment and debt for accommodation and food services.

The Colombian government offered some options for deserters to continue to enjoy shelter in their country, but deserters claim that such measures would remove refugee status and lose political protection.

Now the former military personnel have been transferred to the facilities of the Colombian migration service to decide their future and what can be offered to them.

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IRGC Chief: Iran prefers peace but is not 'afraid' of war

RT
Sun, 19 May 2019 11:01 UTC

Iran does not want war with the United States, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards has claimed, adding that Washington lacks the "will" to fight Tehran.

"The difference between us and them is that they are afraid of war and don't have the will for it," Major General Hossein Salami said, according to the Fars news agency.

Salami has made a number of public statements about rising tensions with the United States, following Washington's declaration that a joint strike group was being deployed to the Persian Gulf to send Iran a "message."

The Iranian general described the move as part of a "psychological war," noting that Tehran has grown accustomed to a large US military presence in the region.

His comments echo similar remarks made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said on Saturday that Iran does not want war. The Iranian diplomat also boasted that no country on earth is under the "illusion" that it could "confront Iran" in the Middle East.

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Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard fends off 'fake news' accusations of Russian support

RT
Sun, 19 May 2019 17:36 UTC

Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard's anti-war stance has seen her slammed in the media for over-friendliness to Moscow. After this week's hit piece the Hawaiian Congresswoman called these accusations "fake news."

Speaking to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Gabbard repeated several of her core foreign policy messages: Regime change operations are "counterproductive and wasteful," and escalating military tension with Russia and China is a "dangerous" game for the US.

Comment: See also:

Swedish deputy prosecutor requests Assange be detained in absence

Veronica Ek
Bloomberg
Mon, 20 May 2019 15:03 UTC

Swedish prosecutors submitted an application to court to detain Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in his absence, according to a statement on Monday.

The request comes after Swedish prosecutors reopened a probe into rape allegations against Assange last week. There is already an extradition process in the U.K., which could lead to him being extradited to the U.S.

Comment: What are the Swedish authorities playing at here? They have more or less admitted the charges were trumped up, with one of the women stating that she was pressured into filing charges against Assange. Yet in the face of all these facts, Swedish officials have decided to pursue charges.

Austrian govt in the crosshairs as German media releases video of sting operation implicating Vice-Chancellor for 'meeting with Russians' - UPDATES

RT
Sat, 18 May 2019 09:44 UTC

Austria's ruling coalition party is under fire after a leaked video showed the vice chancellor discussing alleged quid pro quo arrangements with a "Russian oligarch niece" ... and some pundits quickly had their Russiagate meltdowns.

The scandal rocked the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) on Friday after two German publications, Spiegel and Suddeutscher Zeitung, released exposes of a video leaked to them by an unnamed party. The video shows a July 2017 meeting at an Ibiza villa, where Heinz-Christian Strache, the party leader and vice chancellor of Austria, and Johann Gudenus, Strache's protégé and senior figure in the FPO, discuss alleged shady deals with an unidentified woman.

The conversations reportedly lasted for hours. One of the options "discussed" there was that the mysterious woman "and her companion" would buy a majority share in Austria's major tabloid - Kronen Zeitung - and use it to prop up FPO's bid in the October 2017 national election.

The FPO narrowly came in third place and became a junior partner in the current ruling coalition. In exchange, the politicians said the woman's construction business could get government contracts once the party is in power. The politicians also discussed alleged circumventing of Austria's transparency laws for political donations by funneling money through a charity.

Comment:
After the leaked video scandal, Strache tendered his resignation

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Strache said he has submitted his resignation letter to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Strache also stepped down as leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), the junior member of the Austrian ruling coalition.

He insisted that he and his fellow party member Johann Gudenus were victims of a long-running smear campaign, which culminated in the release of the "illegally recorded" footage. "It was political assassination," the politician stated.

During the media conference, Strache insisted his party didn't benefit in any way from the meeting and that the nature of the conversations has been misrepresented by the German journalists.

He did stress those behind it were "waiting for two years" to release the footage. Notably, the publication comes days ahead of the European Parliament election in Austria. Transport Minister Norbert Hofer is to replace him as both party leader and vice chancellor, provided that the coalition survives the unfolding scandal.

The scandal has sparked a wave of public outrage leading to a spontaneous massive protest in Vienna, outside of the Chancellor's Office, which was joined by some 5,000 people.

Snap elections 'as soon as possible' says Chancellor Kurz:

President Alexander van der Bellen confirmed he and Kurz have already discussed snap elections, calling them "the only way to restore trust in public institutions."

Kurz criticized the leak that led to the scandal by saying that the methods used to expose Strache's misdeeds were "despicable". "What is really problematic and of great importance here is the ideas of power abuse and misuse of taxpayers' money as well as the approach to the media landscape in our country."

The scandal rocked the Austrian society with thousands of people taking to the streets to demand snap elections.

This was clearly a 'hit' against Austria. The recorded sting operation took place in 2017, and has clearly been 'on the books' since then for use 'when the time was right'.

That it was released by German media means it came via German intelligence, and thus with US-UK involvement. Chancellor Kurz is already onto them though, calling their bluff by calling snap election, likely to happen after the summer.

We'll see then whether Austrian voters are 'appalled' that its leadership even dared to consider doing business with Russia...

UPDATE: 5/19/2019, RT: So who wasn't this mystery woman?

Igor Makarov, a Russian oligarch whose supposed "niece" was filmed discussing alleged shady deals with the Austrian vice-chancellor, stated he has no family links to that woman as he was "an only child" in his family.

"It is widely known that I was the only child in my family, and I have no nieces whatsoever," Makarov's spokesperson told Forbes' Russian edition. "I have no family bonds with the woman who calls herself Alena Makarova and I don't know her at all," he added.

While Spiegel did not identify the woman in their initial article, Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote that she was introduced to the politicians as "a niece" of Igor Makarov, "a Russian oligarch close to [President Vladimir] Putin." As the story unfolds, Makarov's company is now "using all lawful means to establish who was behind the illegal use of [his] name."

Makarov is the founder of Itera (now Areti), Russia's first non-state gas company. In the late-1990s, the firm re-sold gas from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, where Makarov was born. He is ranked 48th in the list of Russia's wealthiest people with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion.

UPDATE: 5/19/2019, RT: Prosecutor won't launch probe into video scandal - 'No proof of crime'

Austrian prosecutors have examined the scandalous videotape which cost vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache his job and said they couldn't find any grounds to launch an investigation over its content.

"There's no specific proof of a crime being committed coming from this [the video]," Oesterreich 1 radio revealed, citing the statement from the prosecutors.

The Justice Ministry's General Secretary Christian Pilnacek earlier warned that there were only extracts of the footage available, which would make it impossible to assess the full context of what was going on.

Syrian army announces ceasefire in Idlib but terrorists continue to attack

Sputnik
Sun, 19 May 2019 12:57 UTC

The Russian Centre for Reconciliation in Syria reported on Sunday that militants had violated the ceasefire regime in Idlib de-escalation zone 13 times in one day, injuring 3 Syrian servicemen.

Besides Idlib, the militants continue shelling the government's forces in Hama, Latakia and Aleppo provinces, the statement issued by the centre reads.

The centre continued by saying that the Syrian Army unilaterally ceased fire in Idlib starting from May 18.

"Starting from midnight [21:00 GMT on Friday], the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic unilaterally ceased fire in the Idlib de-escalation zone. At the same time, the shelling of the government forces' positions and civilian population in the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Aleppo by militants continue", the center said in a statement.

Comment: As Lavrov said late last month, 'this cannot go on forever'.

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Arab nations begin 'enhanced security patrols' with US Navy in Persian Gulf

RT
Mon, 20 May 2019 12:26 UTC

The US and its allies began enhanced maritime security patrols in the international waters of the Persian Gulf , amid Washington's tensions with Iran.

The Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were "specifically increasing communication and coordination with each other in support of regional naval cooperation and maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf," Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said in a statement on Facebook.

The navies and coast guards of the Arab states "are working in tight coordination with each other and the United States Navy," it added.

The GCC, which has its headquarters in Riyadh, unites Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Tensions have been high in the Persian Gulf recently as the US has deployed an aircraft carrier group and sent B-52 bombers on patrol there in a move to intimidate Iran.

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Puppet Masters

Trump aims to reverse Rust Belt slide as polling indicates he is trailing Joe Biden

Qatari broadcaster reveals alleged satellite images of damaged Saudi oil facilities

Trump on raging abortion law battle: 'Strongly pro-life' but supports certain exceptions

Chewed up and spit out: Venezuela's military traitors now abandoned by Guaido and Colombia

IRGC Chief: Iran prefers peace but is not 'afraid' of war

Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard fends off 'fake news' accusations of Russian support

Swedish deputy prosecutor requests Assange be detained in absence

Austrian govt in the crosshairs as German media releases video of sting operation implicating Vice-Chancellor for 'meeting with Russians' - UPDATES

Syrian army announces ceasefire in Idlib but terrorists continue to attack

Arab nations begin 'enhanced security patrols' with US Navy in Persian Gulf

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