Puppet MastersS


Penis Pump

All talk: US govt announces it won't actually sanction countries trading with Russia because threat of sanctions alone is working

state dept building
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
The threat of sanctions is putting enough pressure on Russia for now, but new penalties may hit Moscow's arms trade partners abroad, the Trump administration says, adding there are more details in a classified report to Congress.

Monday was the date set for the administration to begin imposing sanctions under the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), adopted with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate last July.

"Today, we have informed Congress that this legislation and its implementation are deterring Russian defense sales," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Since the law was enacted "we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions," she added.


Members of Congress were informed in a classified briefing, according to a statement cited by Politico reporter Elana Schor.

Comment: In other words, "we will penalize anyone trading with Russia. Maybe. Which means we can't actually do it because we have no means to do so anyway, but y'all very bad for trading with the enemy."


Tornado1

RussiaGate hoax could remain until it's blown away by looming financial Cat 5 blowout

Rachel Maddow
Maddow - she owns RussiaGate and its a big lie - how will she ever live this one down?
For those of us who are not admirers of President Trump, it's even more painful to see the Democratic opposition descend into the stupendous dishonesty of the Russian Collusion story.

When the intelligentsia of the nation loses its ability to think - when it becomes a dis-intelligentsia - then there are no stewards of reality left. Trump is crazy enough, but the "resistance" is dragging the country into dangerous madness.

It's hard not to be impressed by the evidence in the public record that the FBI misbehaved pretty badly around the various election year events of 2016. And who, besides Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, and Dean Baquet of The New York Times, can pretend to be impressed by the so far complete lack of evidence of Russian "meddling" to defeat Hillary Clinton? I must repeat: so far. This story has been playing for a year and a half now, and as the days go by, it seems more and more unlikely that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is sitting on any conclusive evidence. During this time, everything and anything has already leaked out of the FBI and its parent agency the Department of Justice, including embarrassing hard evidence of the FBI's own procedural debauchery, and it's hard to believe that Mr. Mueller's office is anymore air-tight than the rest of the joint.

Sherlock

Adam Schiff: GOP House Intel Committee has opened probe into FBI and DOJ

Adam Schiff
Democratic deer in the investigative headlights?
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke with reporters on Monday evening after the House Intelligence Committee met to vote on the release of the secret FISA Memo.

Schiff said his motions to delay the release of the explosive memo were voted down.

Schiff also said the committee voted to release the Republican FISA memo to the public.

The Democrat memo WILL NOT be released at the same time as the GOP memo.


Comment: From The Hill:
[Rep. Mike] Conaway did not rule out the possibility that the Intelligence Committee may vote at a later date to release the Democratic memo.

"The House hasn't had a chance to look at the minority report, nor have we," he said, adding that he would support a vote to release it. "That'll come later, after the House has had a chance to look at it."



Propaganda

10 reasons why the Dutch-Russia hacking story is fake news

trump cnn fake news
It was breathlessly announced today by that pillar of independent news sources, US intelligence contractor Eric Garland, that the Dutch possess incontrovertible proof that Russia indeed hacked the US election.

Citing an article in a Dutch publication, Garland let fly with a series of narrative tweets with screenshots of a translation of the article, to make his case.

His original tweet had already clocked over 1800 retweets by the time I happened across it.
Dutch fake news 1
A quick Twitter search on "Dutch Russia election" returned hundreds of results, showing that indeed the story was being seeded across social media and replicated thousands of times by both sock puppets and well-meaning believers alike.

Comment: Hilarious. The Dutch story about their 'proof' of Russian hacking is so full of holes that it practically just falls apart all on its own. Just like all the other 'proof' of said 'hacking' or 'collusion' (they can't make up their mind). Hopefully this whole Russiagate thing will finally implode and all have a good chuckle while the mainstream media embarrasses itself. See also: Is 'Russia Collusion' Narrative About to Come Crashing Down?


Star of David

Israel gives demonstration of how to create a Palestinian heroine

Ahed Tamimi
Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli security personnel at Ofer Prison, Ramallah, West Bank, Jan. 15, 2018.
By arresting Ahed Tamimi for slapping an IDF soldier, Israel turned her into a symbol of Palestinian resistance to the occupation.

Thirty-nine days have passed since Nariman Tamimi uploaded a video documenting her daughter Ahed and a relative slapping Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Dec. 18. The footage went viral on social networks and was broadcast by TV stations around the world. The video's life span was expected to be short, like that of many other videos in the past. The soldiers who were hit did not allow themselves to be dragged into provocative countermeasures, so the event remained a small news item even though the incident was well-covered.

"If we would have arrested them, the results would have been worse, and who knows how it would have ended," explained one of the soldiers, whose name was not divulged, during an investigation of the episode. The soldiers didn't lose any sleep over the incident, and they didn't feel humiliated or ridiculed by the brief confrontation.

Book 2

Book review: "Orders to Kill" is just another evidence-free bash-Putin free-for-all

Putin Russian economy
In her latest book, Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder, Amy Knight wishes to convince us 'how scary and unpredictable Russia has become.' (p. 3) To this end, her book recounts multiples instances in which, she alleges, the 'Putin regime' has orchestrated the murder both of ordinary Russian citizens and of prominent political opponents. Knight is a respectable author whose 1993 biography of Beria I found quite informative. In Orders to Kill, however, she has abandoned academic neutrality in favour of political activism. The result is far from satisfactory.

Knight argues that 'Russia has become a huge threat to the United States and its allies.' (p. 7) The reason for this is the purportedly murderous nature of the Russian state and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Early on, though, Knight reveals a weakness in her argument. 'I do not claim to have definitive proof of the complicity of Putin and his allies,' she writes (p. 6) 'but these many crimes form a familiar pattern.' So, she doesn't actually have any strong evidence to support her thesis; she just thinks that there's a 'pattern'. But she never explores alternative explanations for the 'pattern', nor does she consider the possibility that there isn't really a pattern at all. Instead, Orders to Kill constitutes an extended attempt to squeeze all the cases studied into a predetermined system. This is a decidedly flawed methodology.

Cross

Israeli parliament applauds Pence speech, but misses his point: Abraham is father of us all, not just the Jews

pence israel
© THOMAS COEX/AFPU.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem, January 23, 2018.
When Mike Pence addressed Israel's parliament this week, his speech was liberally seasoned with scripture. His Bible was on his lips when he asked all present to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:6). He invoked Abraham and the promise that he would be the "father of many nations", (Genesis 17:4), and he said the establishment of Israel was the fulfilment of a messianic promise (Isaiah 66:8).

Two significant references, however, were lost on the majority of Jews who heard the speech.

Pence explained that, "It was here, in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, that Abraham offered up his son, Isaac, and was credited with righteousness for his faith in God." Rabbinic Jewish and Christian traditions place the binding of Isaac, on a mountain in the Land of Moriah, "the land that I will show you," in Jerusalem. Genesis 22, which tells the story of this "offering", has nothing to say about "faith."

So where did Pence's framing come from, that this was an act of faith?

In Genesis 15 Abraham is distressed that he still has no children in his old age. God takes him outside and says that he will have as many descendants as the stars in the night sky. Abraham then "had faith in the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

Joshua Blachorsky, a doctoral candidate at New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, has noted that this verse was central to the thought and work of the apostle Paul, who in his letter to the Romans, chapter 4, uses this verse to explain that Abraham was considered "righteous," worthy of salvation, not because of his observance of the commandments ("works") or his circumcision, the act by which he entered into a divine covenant, but because of his faith.

Info

US will resume accepting refugees from 11 high-risk countries - with extra vetting

Kirstjen Nielsen
The United States will resume admissions for refugees from 11 countries identified as presenting a high security risk, but with extra vetting for these mostly Middle Eastern and African nations, senior U.S. officials said on Monday.

The changes came after a 90-day review of refugee admissions from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen by the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies.

The new rules are the latest changes to the U.S. refugee program made by the administration of President Donald Trump to address what it sees as national security issues.

Some of the administration's actions, including an executive order to temporarily ban all refugees, have sparked lengthy court battles. Refugee advocates have said they see the administration's actions as intended to reduce the number of refugees, particularly those from Muslim countries.

During the review period, which lasted from late October to last week, admissions of refugees from those countries dropped sharply, according to a Reuters analysis of State Department data.

Info

McCabe resignation prompts media speculation split: CNN blames Trump, Fox cites memo revelations

us capitol
© Global Look Press
Political pundits are spinning the news of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's departure from the agency. Some sources claim he was forced out by Trump, others say it was a personal decision.

McCabe, 49, who has in the past been the source of acrimony for Trump, announced that he was going on "terminal leave" on Monday. The move has attracted heated speculation as the FBI top official was not expected to leave his post until spring.

There are conflicting versions regarding the surprise departure, with the Republicans and Democrats - both locked in a political fight over the ongoing 'Russiagate' investigation, as well as the possible release of a Republican memo that may reflect poorly on the FBI - attempting to spin the news to their favor.

Comment: Fox sounds more credible. Here's Tucker Carlson's segment on the news:


And more:


See also:


Dominoes

'Shocked to his core': FBI Director Wray blown away after viewing contents of FISA memo, source says

FBI symbol
© Yuri Gripas / AFP
FBI Director Christopher Wray was "shocked to his core" after viewing a four-page FISA memo, a source told Fox News' Sean Hannity. The next day, he reportedly asked Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to resign.

"A source of mine told me tonight that when Wray read this, it 'shocked him to his core,'" Hannity said during an on-air discussion with journalist Sara Carter on Monday. Wray reportedly reviewed the memo on Sunday, just one day before McCabe was asked to step down.

The four-page memo by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) reportedly accuses the FBI of abusing FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants to spy on Donald Trump's campaign. Reports have emerged that McCabe is guilty of asking FBI agents to tamper with witness interviews.

"There's indicators right now that McCabe may have asked FBI agents to actually change their 302s - those are the interviews with witness," Carter said, adding that such a move would be obstruction of justice.

Comment: See also: Ignoring DOJ warning, Trump tells Sessions he wants FISA memo released