Puppet Masters

Former Ukrainian President Yanukovich: Meddling in Orthodox Church sows 'division and hatred'

RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 19:43 UTC

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted in a West-backed coup in 2014, has slammed Kiev politicians for meddling in the Orthodox Church affairs, in a rare press appearance in Moscow.

"It was intolerable of the state, the politicians and the president to interfere in church affairs," Yanukovich told journalists, arguing that the creation of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine was aimed at sowing "division, enmity and hatred."

Throughout the history of Ukraine "none of the presidents have meddled in church business" and the church has always been separated from the state, he said.

Wikileaks doc reveals US military uses IMF, World Bank as "unconventional" weapons

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:59 UTC

© Natacha Pisarenko
A masked demonstrator wearing a detail of a 100 U.S. dollar bill protests the government's plans to make a deal with the IMF and increase the price of utilities such as gas and electricity in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 14, 2018.

In a leaked military manual on "unconventional warfare" recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions - such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - are used as unconventional, financial "weapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war," as well as in leveraging "the policies and cooperation of state governments."

The document, officially titled "Field Manual (FM) 3-05.130, Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare" and originally written in September 2008, was recently highlighted by WikiLeaks on Twitter in light of recent events in Venezuela as well as the years-long, U.S.-led economic siege of that country through sanctions and other means of economic warfare. Though the document has generated new interest in recent days, it had originally been released by WikiLeaks in December 2008 and has been described as the military's "regime change handbook."

Call the meme police: BuzzFeed wants to ban tweets that offend Democrats

RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 19:06 UTC

2019 hasn't started well for BuzzFeed, After false articles and staff layoffs, the clickbait-merchant-turned-liberal-news-outlet has now taken to trying to ban memes that offend America's Democratic party.

The controversy began at President Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Among the sea of suits in attendance, a group of female congresswomen stood out, wearing white to honor the suffragettes who fought for women's right to vote 100 years earlier.

Crafty meme-smiths had other things in mind. After Virginia's Democrat governor Ralph Northam was rumbled for appearing in a photo showing two men posing in Ku Klux Klan robes and a minstrel-style blackface, the internet got to work. A photo depicting the Congresswomen in Klan hoods did the rounds on Twitter, eliciting chuckles from the right and groans from the left.

"All they're missing are hoods and grand-wizard Northam to lead the way," read another iteration of the meme.

Comment: Has it ever been more clear that liberal media outlets operate essentially as the PR and propaganda arm of the Democrats?

Justin Fairfax, Vanessa Tyson and the Democrats' #MeToo debacle

Cathy Young
Arc
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:38 UTC

Justin Fairfax

The latest twist in the political drama in Virginia politics would probably be decried as too far-fetched as a House of Cards subplot. Just as Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax seemed poised to become the state's second-ever African-American governor in the wake of Gov. Ralph Northam's racist yearbook photo scandal, a sexual assault allegation first made over a year ago has resurfaced, threatening to derail his rise.

No matter how this bizarre saga ends, it shows one thing: Current feminist and liberal-left rules on issues of sexual misconduct, based on the "Believe women" dogma, create untenable, no-win situations.

Fairfax's accuser Vanessa Tyson, an associate professor of politics at Scripps College in California and a fellow at Stanford University, has said she met Fairfax at the Democratic National Convention in 2004; they struck up a friendly conversation, and ended up going to his hotel room where he said he had to pick up some papers. Once there, they started kissing. According to The Washington Post: "She said Fairfax guided her to the bed, where they continued kissing, and then at one point she realized she could not move her neck. She said Fairfax used his strength to force her to perform oral sex."

Corbyn lays out Labour's terms for backing May on her Brexit deal

Jessica Elgot
The Guardian
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 18:21 UTC

Jeremy Corbyn has written to the prime minister, offering to throw Labour's support behind her Brexit deal if she makes five legally binding commitments - including joining a customs union.

The Labour leader held private talks with Theresa May last week for the first time since her deal was rejected by a historic margin of 230 votes in January.

In a follow-up letter sent on Wednesday, he laid out in the clearest terms yet what commitments he is seeking in exchange for offering Labour support.

Comment: In other words, even Labour will ignore the results of the Brexit referendum, a clear mandate from the people to leave the EU. Who's really in charge of the UK anyway?

From 2016: Jonathan Pie: Brexit means Brexit!

And why the UK will never actually leave the EU:

NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

Ukraine 100 years behind economically according to World Bank figures

RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 10:57 UTC

It will take Ukraine between 50 and 100 years to get to the same level of economic development as its European partners, the World Bank has revealed, as it called on Kiev to boost reforms further.

In its assessment of the country's development, the World Bank said that under the current economic rate of merely 3 percent, Kiev will need at least 50 years to reach Poland's GDP per capita and half a century more to close the gap with Germany, according to TASS and Ukrainian media, citing the bank's findings.

The document was presented in Kiev on Wednesday. Ukraine is decades behind the necessary reforms and if it fails to adopt them, the growth rate will remain paltry, according to the World Bank's vice president for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller, who was presenting the report.

Comment: It's true that Ukraine is in a downward spiral with rampant corruption and falling living standards, especially since the US-backed coup, but following IMF or World Bank guidance will likely only lead to more suffering. Notably, while Ukraine has been receiving Western support and is only getting worse, Russia has been suffering financial attacks from the West for years and yet its economy is seeing continuous growth; it would appear the stooges in Ukraine could learn a thing or two:

Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: 'Revolution' in Ukraine: A history of manufactured chaos

Google finally cooperates with Russian law to censor search results

RT
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 18:07 UTC

Despite previously refusing to cooperate with Moscow, Google has now reportedly teamed up with Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor and has begun removing links to websites it has blacklisted.

The California-headquartered internet giant has already deleted around 70 percent of the websites containing information banned in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday, citing a source in Google. RT contacted Google's press office for more details, but it is yet to respond.

Roskomnadzor blacklists websites containing banned topics such as child pornography, drugs, and suicide. The watchdog has also come under fire for what many deemed an overreach, as it has a history of banning pages on popular websites from Wikipedia to PornHub.

Trump to nominate World Bank critic to lead World Bank

RFE/RL
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:24 UTC

© Reuters
David Malpass speaks at an event with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on February 6.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he will nominate a sharp critic of the World Bank to head the international organization, calling him the "right person to take on this incredibly important job."

Trump's nomination on February 6 of Treasury Department official David Malpass to head the World Bank is subject to a vote by the 189-nation lending institution's executive board and could draw challengers from some of the other member countries.

As the World Bank's largest shareholder, the United States has 16 percent of its voting power and has traditionally chosen the president, although Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down from the post on February 1, faced challengers from Colombia and Nigeria in 2012.

Malpass, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, was an economic adviser to Trump's 2016 election campaign.

In his current position, the 62-year-old Malpass oversees the U.S. role in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

He has criticized the organizations for growing ever larger, more "intrusive," and "entrenched."

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries for capital projects

Comment: The World Bank, along with the IMF and OECD, have traditionally been used as weapons of American economic warfare. It's unlikely Malpass objects to the World Bank's use for this purpose, but the fact that he's a critic is still interesting. See: US Gov't internal document outlines its program of 'economic warfare' on Venezuela

The 10 most insane requirements of the Far Left's Green New Deal

David Harsanyi
The Federalist
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:15 UTC

A number of Democratic Party presidential hopefuls - including Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julián Castro, and Beto O'Rourke, for starters - have already endorsed or expressed support for the "Green New Deal" (GND). Today, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward J. Markey dropped details about her plan.

It is not hyperbole to contend that GND is likely the most ridiculous and un-American plan that's ever been presented by an elected official to voters. Not merely because it would necessitate a communist strongman to institute, but also because the societal cost are unfathomable. The risible historic analogies Markey and Ocasio-Cortez rely on, the building of the interstate highway system or moon landing, are nothing are but trifling projects compared to a plan that overhauls modernity by voluntarily destroying massive amounts of wealth and technology. That is the GND.

Senate reportedly investigating Mueller FBI's prosecution of pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 07 Feb 2019 16:35 UTC

© Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein attendingLaunch of RADAR MAGAZINE at Hotel QT on May 18, 2005

Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced New York financier who served 13 months in prison for soliciting an underaged girl for prostitution, has served his time, and despite all of the negative press surrounding his "Lolita Express" and the many celebrities and politicians - including former President Bill Clinton and disgraced actor Kevin Spacey - who have reportedly traveled to his "orgy island", he will likely live out his life as a free man (unless new offenses are committed).

But a series published by the Miami Herald last year delved into how prosecutors worked with powerful defense attorneys to ensure Epstein received such a lenient sentence. The expose shed a light on the role played by Alex Acosta, who went on to become Trump's Secretary of Labour, in handing down the light sentence. Acosta was the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the time Epstein's sentence was handed down.

Now, thanks to those stories, the DOJ has reportedly opened an investigation into the conduct of DOJ attorneys in the case, and whether they committed "professional misconduct" in their working relationship with Epstein's attorneys.

The probe was opened in response to a request lodged by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who raised questions about the case after reading the Herald's stories about how Acosta and other DOJ attorneys worked with defense attorneys to cut a lenient plea deal for Epstein back in 2008, per the Herald.