Puppet Masters

Putin: Trump is a thoughtful person, our dialogue may be constructive

RT
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 18:59 UTC

US President Donald Trump is a thoughtful person who listens to others, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing hope that the meeting between the two will be "constructive."

"He's a thoughtful person, he can listen to the person he's talking to and reacts to his arguments," Putin said of Trump in an interview with Russian journalist Sergey Brilyov that is to be aired on Saturday night.

Earlier on Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS that the ministry is conducting preliminary work for a meeting between Putin and Trump. It still remains unclear, however, where and when such a meeting might take place.

Such a meeting is greatly needed since it would facilitate the process of fixing relations between the two countries, the official added. "The American side realizes the scale of problems, which have piled up as well" and understands that they "have to be solved," according to Ryabkov.

Comment: There is always an undercurrent with Trump, but in talks with Putin there is a chance it will be positive and beneficial.

World leaders try but fail to get Donald Trump

Z. Byron Wolf
CNN
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

Imagine you're the leader of a major world power.

How do you deal with Donald Trump? None of them can figure it out.

They've tried flattery. They've sucked up to him. They've wined and dined him. They've golfed with him. Stayed at his private club and eaten his chocolate cake.

They've shaken his hand for as long as he wants. Over... and over... and over again.

They've thrown him military parades (which only makes him jealous).

They've tried to project strength against him, tried to play the alpha.

They've been extremely deferential.

They've taken his daughter out to dinner and championed her causes. They've pointed out the very long historical ties between their countries.

But none of it has worked.

Comment: In the current, stagnant, state of the nation and the world...it just might take an 'enigma' to shake things up enough to get people thinking and acting.

In lieu of collusion, Mueller adds obstruction to Manafort indictment, charges Kiev businessman

RT
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 21:17 UTC

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his Kiev colleague with obstruction of justice, but nothing related to the 2016 election. The probe itself is under scrutiny for its costs.

Mueller cooked a big Friday nothingburger for the mainstream media in the form of a third amended indictment filed before the US District Court in Washington, DC. It names Konstantin Kilimnik, a Kiev resident with Russian and Ukrainian citizenships, as a co-conspirator of Manafort's in attempts to tamper with two potential witnesses at the upcoming trial.

"Mueller's 'witch hunt' snags another witch," proclaimed a Washington Post headline. One of the leading Russiagate voice in Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), declared that the indictment shows Manafort "worked with a Russian with reported ties to Russian intelligence" to subvert US laws. Yet the indictment itself doesn't show any connections to Russia - or the 2016 election.

Kilimkin was previously identified only as "Person A," in the March sentencing memo for Manafort's business partner Rick Gates. The memo says the FBI agents assisting Mueller "assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016."

The claims are based on Kilimkin's studies at a Soviet foreign language institute in the 1980s. However, Kilimkin denied any connections to intelligence agencies in a 2017 interview with the US government outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He also revealed that before getting involved with Manafort and Gates in 2005, he worked for the International Republican Institute, a US-funded "democracy promotion" outfit led by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona).

Comment: Looks like Mueller is trying to light the fire by pressuring Manafort -- on any and all counts -- to make a deal and spill 'something'. A Mueller last gasp?

Giuliani tells Tel Aviv Mueller is trying to 'frame' Trump

Ashe Schow
The Daily Wire
Thu, 07 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

Is President Donald Trump getting framed? That's what former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani - now Trump's lawyer - told an audience in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday.

Speaking to a friendly audience at the Globes capital market conference, Giuliani insisted that Trump is "innocent" of whatever special counsel Robert Mueller's team is looking into. Further, he suggested the whole investigation has become a setup.

"There are a group of 13 highly partisan Democrats that make up the Mueller team, excluding him [and] are trying very, very hard to frame him, to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong," Giuliani said.

Mueller and his team have been investigating Trump and his campaign for nearly two years to see if there was any illegal collusion with the Russian government to rig the 2016 election in his favor. One year into the investigation, the FBI broadened their scope to include potential financial crimes unrelated to the election.

"They can't emotionally come to grips with the fact that this whole thing with Russian collusion didn't happen," Giuliani went on to say. "They are trying to invent theories of obstruction of justice."

Comment: Welcome to the 'love the spotlight, love to hear myself say whatever' Giuliani show. How long is Trump going to put up with this one?

Russian MoD spokesman: Daesh continues resistance in Syria only in US-controlled areas

Sputnik
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 20:57 UTC

© AP Photo / APTV
This Saturday, April 29, 2017 still taken from video, shows an American soldier standing on an armored vehicle in the northern village of Darbasiyah, Syria

Pockets of resistance of the Daesh* terrorist group in Syria are located only in areas controlled by the United States, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

The statement comes as US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that the Syrian President Bashar Assad had visited a "disaster" "upon his people in Syria" with the help of Russia and Iran, noting that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was the "the only organization at the time that was able to throw" Daesh* in Syria.

"As for the current situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, we recommend the Pentagon chief to examine the map showing the situation in this country. All remaining pockets of resistance of Daesh terrorists in Syria are located only in areas controlled by the United States," Konashenkov said.

Monsanto No More: Agri-Chemical giant's name dropped in Bayer acquisition

Camelia Domonoske
NPR.org
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 17:27 UTC

Originally, it was just a name - Olga Monsanto's name, to be precise.

Around the turn of the 20th century, she married a man named John Francis Queeny. He named his artificial sweetener company after her. And over decades, that company expanded from the sweetness business into agri-chemicals, where it began to dominate the industry.

These days Monsanto is shorthand for, as NPR's Dan Charles has put it, "lots of things that some people love to hate": Genetically modified crops, which Monsanto invented. Seed patents, which Monsanto has fought to defend. Herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup, which protesters have sharply criticized for its possible health risks. Big agriculture in general, of which Monsanto was the reviled figurehead.

And soon Monsanto will be no more.

Comment: By any name...the fruits will be the same:

Bayer's decision to drop the name means Monsanto products like Roundup will still be Roundup, but now they will be Bayer's Roundup, not Monsanto's Roundup. Roundup will still contain glyphosate.

"Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio," Bayer said in a statement to Reuters.

Andrew Kimbrell, the executive director of Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group which campaigns against GMO food, said in a statement on Tuesday (June 5) that Bayer "should not assume that just by dropping a name they have dropped the liability. The worldwide food and environmental movements know that Bayer is now the 'new Monsanto.'"

Monsanto: History of Contamination and Cover-up

Colombia: The paramilitary death squads & the US' human rights double standard

Dan Kovalik
RT
Thu, 07 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC

© Raul Arboleda / AFP
Doves fly over life-size images of killed and missing members of the Patriotic Union (UP), displayed during a tribute to the victims of Colombia's armed conflict at Bolivar Square in Bogota on October 19, 2017.

Nearly every day, we are bombarded with "news" about problems in Venezuela. And certainly, there are problems, such as food and medicine shortages and skyrocketing inflation. But there is something that is downplayed.

What the press downplays, if it mentions it at all, is the very real and significant ways that US sanctions have contributed to these problems facing Venezuela and how these sanctions are making it nearly impossible for Venezuela to solve these problems.

What the press also fails to mention is the even greater humanitarian issues confronting Venezuela's next-door neighbor, Colombia - the US' number one ally in the region and, quite bizarrely, the newest "global partner" of NATO from Latin America. And, the US is very much responsible for these issues as well, but in quite different ways.

Comment: See also:

Another indictment in Manafort case names Russia-linked defendant

Ian Mason
Breitbart
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 15:39 UTC

Special Counsel Robert Mueller secured yet another indictment against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Friday, adding obstruction of justice charges based on the same "witness tampering" Mueller's prosecutors alleged Monday in a motion to have Manafort's bail revoked.

The only new information that comes to light with Friday's indictment is the confirmation of the identity of the second person Mueller's prosecutors accuse of contacting the employees of a public relations firm "in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence." That man is Konstantin Kilimnik, an employee of Manafort's consulting firm who, together with Manafort, represented pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych.

An Atlantic profile earlier this week portrays Kilimnik as Manafort's long-time "aide-de-camp" in Eastern Europe. Moreover, several court documents filed by Mueller's prosecutors refer to Kilimnik as having "ties" to Russian intelligence organizations. "Or to put it even more bluntly than Mueller: Donald Trump's campaign chairman had a pawn of Russian intelligence as his indispensable alter ego," the Atlantic's Franklin Foer wrote Wednesday.

Comment: See also:

California federal judge rules ACLU lawsuit challenging constitutionality of immigrant family separation may proceed

Carlos Garcia
The Blaze
Thu, 07 Jun 2018 06:22 UTC

A federal judge has ruled on the motion from the Trump administration to dismiss the class action lawsuit from the ACLU against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy of separating children from parents when they enter the country illegally.

Here's what the judge ruled

U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw said that the lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the constitutionality of the child separation policy can go forward. The Department of Justice had been seeking that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Sabraw said in the ruling that the policy of separating children from parents in order to "deter others from coming to the United States" was "government conduct that arbitrarily tears at the sacred bond between parent and child."

She added that if the allegations are true, then the policy would be "brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency."

Comment: See also:

US Ambassador to Germany: Donald Trump's Berlin whipping boy

Matthew Karnitschnig
Politico
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:04 UTC

The German political establishment is horrified at almost everything US Ambassador Richard Grenell says or does.

If an American ambassador's primary duty is to act as his master's voice, Richard Grenell has gotten off to a roaring start.

At a private gathering a couple of days after he arrived last month that included members of Angela Merkel's Cabinet, Grenell said tensions between the U.S. and Germany could be easily resolved if Berlin were more flexible.

Citing Trump's dealmaking instincts, Grenell hinted that with a bit of creativity, some form of a grand bargain encompassing trade and energy could be struck to avoid tariffs.

The new ambassador's attempt to encourage the Germans to think outside the box fell flat, however. German officials were confused. It wasn't possible to combine talks over trade, which in any case is the purview of the EU, with talks about energy projects, one participant protested. The U.S. administration needed to be more realistic about what is politically viable in Germany.

Comment: Demented US foreign policy pushes Germany into mutually beneficial deals with China and Russia

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parzival

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Puppet Masters

Putin: Trump is a thoughtful person, our dialogue may be constructive

World leaders try but fail to get Donald Trump

In lieu of collusion, Mueller adds obstruction to Manafort indictment, charges Kiev businessman

Giuliani tells Tel Aviv Mueller is trying to 'frame' Trump

Russian MoD spokesman: Daesh continues resistance in Syria only in US-controlled areas

Monsanto No More: Agri-Chemical giant's name dropped in Bayer acquisition

Colombia: The paramilitary death squads & the US' human rights double standard

Another indictment in Manafort case names Russia-linked defendant

California federal judge rules ACLU lawsuit challenging constitutionality of immigrant family separation may proceed

US Ambassador to Germany: Donald Trump's Berlin whipping boy

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