Puppet Masters

How BoJo might play Brexit

Steve Brown
FRN
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC

"Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support reestablishing a border. Even if they do not admit it." -Donald Franciszek Tusk, President of the EU

Wrong! No UK leader has ever proposed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic since the Good Friday agreement - only the European Union has suggested and threatened to enforce it, in the event of a hard Brexit. Now it is time for Boris Johnson to call the EU's bluff.

For too long, the EU has driven the argument that it is in charge of how and under what circumstances the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. The situation must be reversed with Britain in charge — something that Theresa May could not see, or was politically forced to abandon. Now the only way for the new UK leadership to play this, is to accept that only by proactive initiative can Britain take charge and assume the driver's seat.

Comment: See also:

UK licensed £6.3bn worth of arms to Saudi-led forces encompassing four years of the Yemen conflict

Middle East Eye
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 08:54 UTC

© AFP
Yemeni girl stands amidst the rubble of a building that was destroyed at an unknown date, during reported strikes by Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen's Hajjah province.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade says the arms sales were 'immoral and illegal'

The UK government licensed £6.3bn ($7.6bn) worth of arms to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in the four years of the group's bombing campaign, according to a new report by Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

According to new government statistics, since March 2015 the UK has licensed £5.3bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, £657m to the United Arab Emirates, £85m to Egypt, £72m to Bahrain, and £40m worth to Kuwait. The UK also licensed £142m worth of arms to Qatar prior to its withdrawal from the coalition in 2017. The coalition has been targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The bombing campaign has resulted in what the UN has branded the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 20 million people across the country left food insecure and 3.2 million people suffering from acute malnutrition. Andrew Smith of CAAT said in a statement:

"Thousands of people have been killed in the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen, but that has done nothing to deter the arms dealers. The bombing has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and it wouldn't have been possible without the complicity and support of Downing Street. These arms sales are immoral and illegal."

The UK Court of Appeal ruled in June that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia were unlawful because the government had illegally approved the sales without properly assessing the risk to civilians. The government was ordered by the court not to approve any new licences and to retake decisions on current licences.

Comment: See also:

Russian envoy to UN: World is on the verge of 'uncontrolled arms race' due to US

RT
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 22:44 UTC

The US ambitions have put the world on the brink of a new arms race that can easily spiral out of control, warned the Russian envoy to the UN. Washington responded by blaming Moscow for the INF treaty's collapse.

"Are you aware of the fact that all of us have found ourselves just one step away from an uncontrolled arms race, because of the US geopolitical ambitions?" Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, said at the emergency session of the Security Council that Moscow and Beijing convened on Thursday, in the wake of the US missile tests. "This a source of great concern for us, but apparently not for the US."

Washington apparently planned to leave Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty long before announcing its withdrawal from the 1987 agreement back in February, Polyanskiy added, since this is the only way it could have tested a new ground-launched cruise missile that violated the accord mere weeks after it officially expired.

The launcher used in the test was the same one installed in Aegis Ashore missile defense batteries in Romania and Poland. When the first of those systems was placed in 2016, Moscow expressed its concerns over their capability to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in violation of the INF treaty. The US assured Russia at the time the Aegis systems did not have such features.

"Now these suspicions are confirmed," Polyanskiy said,

Comment: See also:

Tulsi Gabbard's campaign wants the DNC to change debate qualifying poll requirements

Beatrice Peterson and Justin Gomez
ABC News
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:28 UTC

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and former Maryland congressman John Delaney take part in the first night of the Democratic presidential debate on June 26, 2019 in Miami, Florida.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's presidential campaign is calling on the Democratic National Committee to revise its list of debate qualifying polls in an effort to help the Hawaii Congresswoman qualify for the upcoming third DNC debate hosted by ABC News.

According to the criteria that the DNC set forth, 2020 candidates must meet the donor threshold of 130,000 unique donors and 2 percent in 4 DNC qualified polls. Gabbard has exceeded the donor threshold but needs two polls to meet the debate criteria.

The Gabbard team is citing what they describe as several irregularities in the selection and timing of the DNC sponsored polls. The campaign points out "Gabbard has exceeded 2% support in 26 polls, but only two of them are on the DNC's "certified" list.

In a press release, the campaign says many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as TheEconomist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC "certified" polls."

Trumps parrots the Zionist talking points: US Jews must be loyal to Israel

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:48 UTC

Bari Weiss

The Jewish community has good reason to be disturbed by Trump's assertion that the Jews who vote Democratic and not for him (the vast majority) are "disloyal." We can only imagine how this statement will affect nationalist wingnuts who already think Jews are "replacing" them.

But the allegation by many Jewish organizations and individuals that Trump is echoing an antisemitic European trope of the disloyal, transnational Jew, rings hollow. Trump has no idea about that history. Trump has heard that Jews who criticize Israel are disloyal from rightwing Zionists, his own friends, everyone from Sheldon Adelson to David Friedman to Elliott Abrams to Alan Dershowitz. If there's a trope here, it's the Zionist claim that Jews must be loyal to Israel, no matter where they live.

Bari Weiss makes my point in the NY Times: "If you're pro-Trump or Trump-curious," she allows, "you'll generously hear an assertion that Jews should be loyal to Israel." She hastens to add, "If you're anything like me, you can't help but hear echoes of the sinister charge of dual loyalty."

But Weiss has stated the principle: It's a good thing to say that American Jews should be loyal to Israel.

President Bolsonaro tells world not to meddle in Brazil's affairs as Amazon rainforest burns

Aris Folley
The Hill
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 07:34 UTC

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is telling other nations not to meddle in its growing crisis in the Amazon rainforest as wildfires continue to spread across the region, shortly after he said Brazil didn't "have the resources" on its own to extinguish the blaze.

"These countries that send money here, they don't send it out of charity," the right-wing president said in a live broadcast on Thursday, Reuters reports.

"They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty," he added.

However, shortly before those comments on Thursday, Bolsonaro said his country could not fight the growing blaze alone.

"The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?" Bolsonaro reportedly asked local media. "We do not have the resources for that."

Bolsonaro has faced international criticism for the blaze, which critics say has been exacerbated by his administration's rollback of environmental protections for the rainforest.

South Korea signs free-trade agreement with Britain in preparation for Brexit

The Korea Herald
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:34 UTC

South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee

South Korea signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with Britain on Thursday, a step to help maintain the continuity of their trade and economic ties even after London's departure from the European Union (EU).

There have been concerns that South Korean exporters may no longer enjoy the benefits under the existing South Korea-EU FTA when Britain leaves the world's single largest economic bloc without agreeing on post-Brexit conditions.

In London, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee and her British counterpart Elizabeth Truss vowed to maintain mutual benefits under the Seoul-Brussels FTA that took effect in July 2011.

"South Korea will make thorough preparations and take actions to help local companies maintain their trade and investment free from the uncertainties, including Brexit," Yoo said.

Seoul plans to finalize the remaining procedures, including winning the parliament's ratification, before the end of October when Britain is scheduled to depart from the world's single largest economic bloc.

The two countries also agreed to revise the FTA within two years to update terms of the deal, according to the ministry.

Comment: See also:

Great Firewall of Westernia: YouTube (Google) follows Twitter and Facebook with mass censorship of Chinese accounts criticizing HK protests

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:28 UTC

YouTube has disabled 210 channels for posting content related to the Hong Kong protests "in a coordinated manner," following in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter in restricting its arbitrary censorship to pro-China accounts.

Comment: It's not that they're 'pro-China' necessarily; it's that they're reporting objectively on the manipulated situation in Hong Kong. The Empire won't allow it; there must be violent revolution in China.

"Channels in this network behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong," Google threat analyst Shane Huntley claimed in a blog post on Thursday, adding that the Google team's "discovery" was "consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter."

Translation? The channels were "sowing political discord" on behalf of the Chinese government, and had to be stopped. How did Google know it was the Chinese nefariously attempting to poison the minds against the protesters? The "use of VPNs" and "other methods of disguise" - widespread in the era of mass surveillance - was all the proof required to wipe the channels out of existence.

Twitter got the anti-China censorship ball rolling earlier this week, in perhaps the first-ever social media preemptive strike "proactively" deplatforming hundreds of thousands of accounts for the capital crime of "sowing discord." Their crimes included "undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground." One could argue that the protests themselves are a form of political discord, but resistance is futile when charged with such an inchoate offense.

None of the social media platforms have ever defined what exactly constitutes "attempting to sow discord," though a common thread running through the mass deplatformings of the past year suggests it involves posting in support of a government the US doesn't like - whether Russia, Iran, Venezuela, or China.

Comment: Throughout the internet era, petabytes have been written about China's evil firewall of censorship.

Who's totalitarian now?

See also:

Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne: "National Security State was weaponized"

Ian Schwartz
RealClearPolitics
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:27 UTC

Comey involved in conspiracy

Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne talks to CNN's Chris Cuomo about being approached by the FBI to have contact with Russian national Maria Butina and the involvement of higher-ups in the bureau. Byrne predicted more whistleblowers will come forward and that then-FBI Director James Comey knew what was happening.

Byrne continually referred to those involved with the conspiracy as "X, Y, and Z." Byrne revealed that Mr. Z is former FBI Director James Comey in his interview with Cuomo.

Comment: A more complete clip of Byrne's CNN interview was posted on Twitter:

And the second part of the CNN interview:

If even part of Byrne's story is true, it seems Butina fell into the lap of those looking to control the outcome of the 2016 election. Another piece to be manipulated, just as Carter Page and George Papadopoulos were targeted.

Patrick Byrne, as a libertarian, puts his money where his mouth is:

Overstock CEO holds 3 months of food, $10 million in gold for employees in preparation for the next collapse

DPRK Foreign Minister: Pompeo is the "diehard toxin" of US diplomacy

KCNA Watch
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 17:22 UTC

Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ri Yong Ho made public the following statement Friday:

U.S. State Secretary Pompeo, when interviewed by a U.S. newspaper Wednesday, said if north Korea does not set out to denuclearize itself, the U.S. will maintain the strongest sanctions in history to make it confirm that the denuclearization is the right way.

Just as a saying goes "A crow never becomes whiter for often washing", he is the diehard toxin of the U.S. diplomacy.

On April 24 he cited what he called a "lane change" in an interview with the U.S. media only to be snubbed.

Nothing decent can be expected from Pompeo, a man subject to strong censure from many countries for adopting the most wicked methods of the Central Intelligence Agency as diplomatic means in every part of the world. But what arouses concerns is a string of senseless remarks made by the man heading the U.S. negotiation team at a time when the DPRK-U.S. dialogue is high on the agenda.

There is a proverb saying "Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind". Now that he made rhetoric about the DPRK without elementary obligation as a human being, losing his face as the diplomatic boss of a country, I can not but respond to it in kind.

Comment: North Koreans come up with the best insults. It's doubtful anyone will be able to top John "Defective Human Product" Bolton anytime soon, for instance.

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Puppet Masters

How BoJo might play Brexit

UK licensed £6.3bn worth of arms to Saudi-led forces encompassing four years of the Yemen conflict

Russian envoy to UN: World is on the verge of 'uncontrolled arms race' due to US

Tulsi Gabbard's campaign wants the DNC to change debate qualifying poll requirements

Trumps parrots the Zionist talking points: US Jews must be loyal to Israel

President Bolsonaro tells world not to meddle in Brazil's affairs as Amazon rainforest burns

South Korea signs free-trade agreement with Britain in preparation for Brexit

Great Firewall of Westernia: YouTube (Google) follows Twitter and Facebook with mass censorship of Chinese accounts criticizing HK protests

Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne: "National Security State was weaponized"

DPRK Foreign Minister: Pompeo is the "diehard toxin" of US diplomacy

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