Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 02 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

NPC

The Left will not let go of Russiagate, no matter what

James P. Pinkerton
The American Conservative
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:11 UTC
mueller save us
By now, anyone with a political pulse knows that special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry has reached its conclusion. On March 24, Axios headlined, "Mueller investigation finds no Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia." Later that night, CNN's Chris Cillizza dampened Democratic hopes by stating flatly, "Collusion is now off the board." And the inimitable President Donald Trump declared in a tweet, "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION."

To be sure, Mueller found plenty of wrongdoing by Trumpians and Russians. He did, after all, issue 34 indictments and secure seven convictions, with one trial (that of Roger Stone) still to come.

For its part, the loyal but hostile opposition is not giving up. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler tweeted, "Mueller did not exonerate the President." Nadler wants to haul in Attorney General Bill Barr for a little heart-to-heart on Capitol Hill-with 200 TV cameras watching.

Still, no sound and fury is going to change the headline atop The Washington Post on Monday morning: "Mueller finds no conspiracy."

Without a doubt, the mainstream media, which was so breathless in its pursuit of "Russiagate," has now had the wind knocked out of it. And in the meantime, other journalistic figures and outlets, further to the left and also to the right, have the wind at their backs. As The New York Times' lone conservative opinionator Ross Douthat observed, Sunday was a good day for such ideologically disparate critics of the media as The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald, the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross, and The Federalist in toto.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Megaphone

Erdogan blames US for triggering 2018 economic crisis in Turkey


Sputnik
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:15 UTC
turkish lira
© AP Photo / Lefteris Pitarakis
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Western countries - primarily the United States - of triggering the economic crisis that Turkey faced last year.

"Attempts by a range of Western countries, most importantly the United States, to put pressure on Ankara were behind the August 2018 manipulations in the Turkish currency market", Erdogan said at a meeting with media representatives, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

Relations between Turkey and the United States escalated last August after US President Donald Trump authorised the doubling of previously imposed import tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel to 20 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The US move resulted in the Turkish lira hitting a historic low. Turkey responded by increasing tariffs on 22 types of US goods worth $533 million.

Comment: Overt and covert economic attacks on countries that won't follow US diktats isn't without precedent. And there's also good reason to think that US players were behind the 2016 coup attempt: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins

      Read More...
X

Hawking the Russiagate hoax: A rogues' gallery of political and media hacks who should never be trusted again

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 19:27 UTC
cnn newscaster
© CNN
CNN commentator Manu Raju
Since 2016, some big names - both inside the government and out - have peddled the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy with such vigor you'd think they invested their life savings in Reynolds Metal Company. Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has closed the door on such hysteria, let's take a look back at the Most Mistaken Men and Women in America (and the world).


Comment: TL:DR? Just note the bolded names, and if you see an article, tweet or any other attempt to communicate information, best pass on it. Two years is a long time to be pushing a lie.

      Read More...
Arrow Up

Putin's Russia arrests another corrupt official - second this week


RT
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:43 UTC
Viktor Ishaev
© Sputnik / Alexey Kudenko
Viktor Ishaev
Veteran politician and ex-governor of Khabarovsk Region, Viktor Ishaev, has been detained by the Federal Security Service in Moscow on suspicion of involvement in the embezzlement of 10 billion rubles ($155 million).

According to police sources, Ishaev is a defendant in an investigation into massive fraud in the timber industry. Earlier this week, police in Khabarovsk Region detained the former high-ranking local official and timber mogul as a part of the case.

The alleged fraud involved illegal subsidies for forest exploitation projects that resulted in the loss of over 10 billion rubles ($155 million), the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed.

Comment: Not something you see in the West very often - and it's not because they're short of candidates: Former Russian minister detained over massive embezzlement, may face 20 years in prison - UPDATE

See also:

      Read More...
Arrow Down

UK Parliament rejects 8 Brexit options, agrees to delay withdrawal until at least April


RT
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:30 UTC
John Bercow
© Reuters / Reuters TV
Speaker of the House John Bercow announces the results of the vote on alternative Brexit options in Parliament in London
British MPs have voted against eight Brexit options introduced on Wednesday night, rejecting the opposition's plan and 'soft' Brexit scenarios. It comes after they agreed to delay the divorce until at least April.

In a series of indicative votes, MPs voted down eight separate Brexit proposals, ranging from an extreme no-deal option to the so-called Norway-plus scenario, one of the softest versions of what has turned into a bitter separation between the EU and UK.

Comment: And the chances are that they won't have 'narrowed down' an acceptable solution by April 22nd, which will mean a further delay. Brexit has exposed (most) UK parliamentarians for the jobsworths they are: Also check out SOTT radio's:

      Read More...
Bullseye

US lecturing Russia to 'keep out of Western Hemisphere' is hubris & hypocrisy on steroids

Robert Bridge
RT
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 20:09 UTC
venezuela protest
© AFP / Eric BARADAT
With US military assets scattered to the four corners of the planet, and entrenched on Russia's border, Washington believes the world is a playground that no other nation may enter. This is arrogance at its finest.

Imagine how less complicated life would be if American statesmen only took the time to consult a world map before speaking publicly on global events. Had John Bolton, for example, performed this simple exercise he would have avoided appearing like the representative of a nation that is hell bent on conquering every square inch of real estate on planet Earth, or at least the real estate with proven oil reserves.

"The United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere's shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law," the national security advisor *tweeted this week in an apparent early morning bout of Napoleon complex. "The Venezuelan military must stand with the people of Venezuela."
      Read More...
Handcuffs

Pardon me, can we lock up Rachel Maddow now?

Raúl Ilargi Meijer
The Automatic Earth
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 02:50 UTC
Leap into the void
© Yves Klein, 1960
Leap Into The Void
Message to Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard and the rest of the crew: you can stop asking for campaign donations, because you no longer stand a chance in the 2020 elections. Your own party, and the media who support you, made sure of that. Or rather, the only chance you would have is if you guys start another smear campaign against your president, and I wouldn't recommend that.

I don't want to start another Lock Her Up sequence, that's too ugly for my taste. But three parties in this No Collusion disaster must be held accountable: US intelligence, the Democratic party, and the media. You can't just let it go, too much water under the bridge. No can do. "The Democrats need to move on", a recent 'soft line', is not good enough. They must be held to account.

Bill Barr can investigate the FBI and DOJ, but the obstacles there are obvious: investigating the investigators. The Democratic party would mean going after individuals, but sure, let's see what Loretta Lynch, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Maxine Waters have to say for themselves and take it from there, before you get to Hillary. The media, though, is something else altogether.
      Read More...
Question

Trump's next moves will tell us if he's really the President or a figurehead

Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump WH
© Syracuse.com
What can we conclude from the utter and total failure of the Russiagate "investigation" to find any evidence of "Russian collusion"?

We can conclude that it was a hoax cooked up by an utterly corrupt and immoral military/security complex determined to protect its $1,000 billion annual budget and the power that goes with it from the loss of its Russian enemy to normalized relations.

We can conclude that Hillary's DNC was partner to this crime and that scum like Jarrold Nadler and Adam Schiff have destroyed the reputation and credibility of the Democratic Party.

We can conclude that the US media is devoid of all integrity, morality, and truthfulness and has forever discredited itself as a source of objective and accurate information.

We can conclude that a corrupt military/security complex and Democratic Party were so determined to serve their own narrow self-interests that they were willing to subject the entirety of the world to a higher risk of nuclear war.

We can conclude that the fact that such filth as Mueller, Brennan, Comey, Rosenstein, and Clapper were at the top of US intelligence and criminal investigation is conclusive proof that the US government is a criminal organization.

Keep in mind, as Tucker Carlson reminds us, that Mueller's "investigation" was not a well-intentioned investigation conducted by open-minded people who turned out to be wrong. It was an organized witch-hunting event determined to destroy the President of the United States.
      Read More...
Laptop

Palantir wins bid over Raytheon to build Army intel system

Shane Harris
Los Angeles Times
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 01:20 UTC
Soldiers/Computer
© id.linkedin.com
The Army has chosen Palantir Technologies to deploy a complex battlefield intelligence system for soldiers, according to Army documents - a significant boost for a company that has attracted a devoted following in national security circles but had struggled to win a major defense contract.

Industry experts said it marked the first time that the government had tapped a Silicon Valley software company, as opposed to a traditional military contractor, to lead a defense program of record, which has a dedicated line of funding from Congress. The contract is potentially worth more than $800 million.

The Army's decision to go with Palantir - which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and sometimes advisor to President Trump - ends the latest chapter in a fierce competition.

In March 2018, the Army chose Palantir and Raytheon to vie for the next phase of the Distributed Common Ground System, or DCGS-A, for Army, which lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real time. The system is designed to be used by soldiers fighting in remote, harsh environments.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Question

Up for debate: Mueller's done, is it time to investigate the FBI?


RT
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 17:58 UTC
Comey
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Former FBI Director James Comey
With the Mueller report finished and President Trump cleared of colluding with Russia, the spotlight is now on the FBI leadership that opened the investigation. RT's Crosstalk guests think the agency has a lot to answer for.

After a two year media circus, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report cleared President Trump of colluding with Russia to rig the 2016 election, a conclusion that Trump says brings him "complete and total exoneration."

However, constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued that Mueller should have never been appointed in the first place. "It was a mistake to appoint a special counsel because there was no evidence of a crime," Dershowitz said. Rather, he argued, Mueller's appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was a knee-jerk reaction to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.


Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts