Puppet Masters

Profits and priorities: US heaps pressure on Venezuela, remains mute on Haiti's anti-government unrest

RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 11:38 UTC

There's a nation that saw violent unrest, looting and anti-government protests over the past days, but don't think of Venezuela. This is Haiti, a country that received no mention from the US except for a vague travel warning.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Haitian capital, demanding that President Jovenel Moise step down. Protesters, who engaged in bloody skirmishes with police in which at least four people were killed, also vented their anger at economic hardships, embezzlement and widespread corruption.

Just across the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela is facing an anti-government crisis as well, but this is where the similarities end. The Venezuelan government has been sanctioned by the US, its opposition is backed and recognized by the West and elected President Nicolas Maduro is portrayed as a politician with tyrannical traits.

RT's Ilya Petrenko weighed in on the striking differences between two 'similar' situations.

Comment: Exploitability. Haiti doesn't have the largest oil reserves on earth.

Trump administration reports it has finished its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

Sputnik
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:57 UTC

The administration reportedly has finished the plan and US President Donald Trump has been briefed on its contents, two senior administration officials told Fox News on Sunday.

The final draft of the administration's "Deal of the Century" is 175 to 200 pages long, with fewer than five people having access to the complete version of the document, sources told Fox News.

"The plan is done... [the president] is happy with the parameters of the deal," a senior administration official said.

The US President has also been briefed by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, his Senior Adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as special envoy for Mideast peace Jason Greenblatt multiple times on the specifics of the deal, according to the source.

Iran: "Enemy can't ask us to leave, they must leave' - calls for US to withdraw from Syria

RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 13:23 UTC

Tehran has brushed off US calls to pull its forces out of Middle East countries, saying that it is the 'enemy' Washington who should go back home. It comes as Iran marks 40 years since the Islamic Revolution.

As the US' own forces start to withdraw from Syria, Washington is increasingly worried that Tehran is getting too entrenched in the war-torn country. The US has repeatedly lambasted Iran for its presence in Syria, where Tehran maintains 'military advisers.'

On Monday, the deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired back at Washington: "The enemy cannot ask us to leave the region. They must leave the region. We will help any Muslim anywhere in the world," Brigadier General Hossein Salami added.

It's not the first time that Iran has rejected US demands to curb its 'influence.' Last week, a senior aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned: "Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria."

Comment: Iran has been walking a fine line but its rhetoric is escalating, rallies are are gaining in intensity and the reveal of its missile factories, legit or otherwise, are not dispelling accusations against it. But yes, they are right - the US must leave Syria.
See also:

Soros warns: The EU will dissolve like the Soviet Union unless Europeans 'wake up'

RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 12:47 UTC

© Olivier Hoslet/Reuters
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker • George Soros, Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations

The "sleeping pro-Europe majority" must "wake up" before the EU goes the way of the Soviet Union, billionaire George Soros has warned, adding that Europe's political parties must give the bloc's interests first priority.

Pro-EU political parties must rally support ahead of crucial European Parliament elections in May, the Hungarian-American businessman and controversial influencer wrote in an op-ed published by Project Syndicate.

The bloc is "sleepwalking into oblivion" and could soon meet the same end as the Soviet Union, Soros prophesized. In order to avoid catastrophe, he argued, right-minded political parties must resist the lure of EU skepticism sweeping across the continent and "put Europe's interests ahead of their own." He chastised Germany's ruling coalition for not being adequately pro-EU out of fear of losing votes to the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), while praising the German Greens for being "the only consistently pro-European party in the country."

The outspoken opponent of Brexit suggested that it wasn't too late for the UK to hold another referendum, "or, even better, for revoking Britain's Article 50 notification" - advocacy which appears to clash with Soros' self-declared affinity for democracy. In the UK, the billionaire has been sharply criticized for forking over £800,000 (US$1,062,000) to pro-EU campaigns, including £400,000 to Best for Britain, a campaign group that has been at the forefront of anti-Brexit activism.

Comment: Force comes in many disguises. Acquiesce or resist. There is no in-between.
See also: Soros to Europe: Please wake up

Ryabkov: Israel's security is paramount, however their strikes in Syria are unjustified

Sputnik
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:49 UTC

Earlier, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced that they had attacked alleged Iranian arms depots in the area of Damascus International Airport.

Israel's security is of paramount importance to Russia, but the Israeli Air Force's (IAF) airstrikes on Syrian territory are illegitimate and unjustified, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters.

"For us, the security of Israel is paramount. Having said that, I am not saying that Israel's unlawful attacks on targets in Syria, including targets that are in one way or another linked to Iran, are legitimate and can be justified. No, we condemn them, they are illegitimate. But this does not mean, again, that we should not care about the security of Israel," the deputy foreign minister stressed.

The statement comes after the IDF said that it attacked alleged Iranian arms depots in Syria and several air defence batteries. The attack, according to IDF, was a reaction to an attempted rocket attack on the Golan Heights, which was reported earlier.

In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel, in order to prevent Iran's military consolidation in Syria, was ready to intensify attacks on Iranian facilities in the Arab Republic.

Comment: Create a bogeyman. Propel, support and magnify the fear for decades - until it gains sufficient traction and becomes the legitimized excuse to further an agenda. Even Russia can't say Israel's obsession with Iran is justified. Ryabkov carefully separated Israel's actions from its security.

Catalan leaders on trial in a 'test of democracy' amid political turmoil for Spain's government

RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:31 UTC

The divisive issue of Catalan independence strikes again in Spain, where a trial of jailed provincial leaders started this week. The government is on the brink of collapse without the support of Catalan lawmakers in parliament.

Catalonia, Spain's autonomous northern region with a long history of pro-independence sentiment, attempted to secede in October 2017. Over 40 percent of Catalans turned out for the referendum and voted in a landslide in favour of independence, which Madrid refused to recognize and attempted to stop through police action. The provincial government then declared Catalonia an independent state. The Spanish government moved to quash the bid with force, arresting 12 officials and sending others fleeing.

Trial of separatists and test of democracy

The failed attempt is back in the public focus in Spain this month for two reasons. One is that the long-expected trial of the 12 arrested separatist leaders began on Tuesday. The charges against them vary from misappropriation of public funds (for printing ballots and holding the poll) to sedition and rebellion, and may result in up to 25 months [sic years] in jail.

Comment: See also:

Bigotry & xenophobia about 'the Russians' is the only kind PC culture allows

Danielle Ryan
RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:28 UTC

Corruption is in the Russian DNA. Sharing is not a Russian trait. The Russians are genetically driven to lie. In an increasingly politically-correct media landscape, "the Russians" are still fair game.

The three statements above have been made with various alterations by journalists, expert analysts, and US officials in recent years - and each time, the overt xenophobia within them flies almost completely under the radar, in a media culture which is otherwise hyper-vigilant of real or perceived slights against any one group of people. The Russians, however, are an exception. Their very existence offers a convenient outlet for pent-up hateful, racist, and xenophobic rage.

Go on, try it. I promise, you can say nearly anything you want about the Ruskies without any repercussions at all. Take journalist Josh Barro - always my favorite example. On Twitter - a veritable cesspit of anti-Russian sentiment - he mused a few years ago that Russia has been a "dystopic shithole since the dawn of history" and offered that Russian national pride was a peculiarity, "given how little they have to be proud of."

It's hardly necessary to ask readers to imagine the swift condemnation (and possible loss of a job) that would have followed those tweets, had Barro been spouting off about any other group of people. Say, "Jews," or "Asians," or "Hispanics."

China slams claims made by Turkey's foreign ministry on the alleged death of a Uyghur musician

Liu Caiyu
Global Times
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 18:05 UTC

China refuted claims made by Turkey's foreign ministry on the alleged death of a Uyghur musician, claiming the man is still alive and in good health.

The Chinese Embassy in Turkey also strongly opposed accusations from Turkey on Xinjiang's vocational education and training centers, saying the accusations are "contrary to the facts" and were made up "out of thin air."

In a statement Saturday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy alleged that Uyghur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit had died in custody. He also called the vocational training centers a "great shame for humanity."

A spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Turkey said in a statement on Sunday that Heyit, 57, who had performed with the Xinjiang Art Theater Song and Dance Troupe, is still alive and in good health. The embassy said Heyit was arrested on suspicion of endangering national security.

The adult in the room: Lavrov says US 'lost all sense of shame' in handling Venezuelan crisis

RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:25 UTC

Washington has no "sense of shame" in its response to the Venezuelan crisis, Russia's foreign minister has said. He also lambasted the US-backed opposition for derailing talks with president Nicolas Maduro.

The latter signaled he is ready to have a face-to-face with his opponents in case they needed to be heard by the government, but the opposition chose to neglect the offer, "probably because they are guided by the US," Sergey Lavrov commented on Tuesday.

American politicians "have lost all sense of shame when speaking of the way the situation in Venezuela should be dealt with," he argued.

Comment: Indeed, nearly every nation outside the Empire's Atlanticist hegemony is supporting Maduro.

'Real irony': Bezos complains about nude pics privacy invasion while building surveillance state

RT
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:37 UTC

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, who led the tech giant as it cozied up with US authorities to develop surveillance tools, is now complaining that his privacy has been violated.

Bezos revealed he was blackmailed by the National Enquirer, which threatened to leak his nudes. The threat came in retaliation for unfavorable coverage in the Bezos-owned Washington Post, according to the messages.

The affair prompted speculation that the alleged blackmail - and the whole ongoing spat between Bezos and the Enquirer - might have been "politically motivated" and that a certain "government entity" might have been involved.

Surely, leaking one's nudes - or merely threatening to do so - is disgraceful, yet Bezos who is moaning about invasion of his privacy has been at the forefront of developing surveillance technologies - from facial recognition to cloud-service databases for the US intelligence agencies.

"There's real irony in this if he's been caught hoisted on his petard as we say. Bezos and his organization have a very tight link with the NSA - the National Security Agency - and has been helping them with their surveillance techniques," RT has been told.

RT's Donald Courter looks at the whole Bezos nudes affair.

Great job guys! 'We're looking at impending utopia." Sure. Provided you're stoked to live in a one room pod eating bug juice, after being vaxed...

Rowan Cocoan

A Fox News host (Lisa Booth) asking some of the right questions (nothing new if you're not new to the ranks of SOTTypes though). Her spiel begins...

Animanarchy

I've got a LOT of rope. Just let me know.

DeliciousTears

Brand new JP Sears video. Spiritual People Then vs Now: [Link]

Animanarchy

Well, if anyone would know a 'rigger', it's Obomber. The democratic party is filled with riggers, as the last 'election' amply demonstrated.......

Winston Smith

Puppet Masters

Profits and priorities: US heaps pressure on Venezuela, remains mute on Haiti's anti-government unrest

Trump administration reports it has finished its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

Iran: "Enemy can't ask us to leave, they must leave' - calls for US to withdraw from Syria

Soros warns: The EU will dissolve like the Soviet Union unless Europeans 'wake up'

Ryabkov: Israel's security is paramount, however their strikes in Syria are unjustified

Catalan leaders on trial in a 'test of democracy' amid political turmoil for Spain's government

Bigotry & xenophobia about 'the Russians' is the only kind PC culture allows

China slams claims made by Turkey's foreign ministry on the alleged death of a Uyghur musician

The adult in the room: Lavrov says US 'lost all sense of shame' in handling Venezuelan crisis

'Real irony': Bezos complains about nude pics privacy invasion while building surveillance state

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