Puppet Masters
"It's hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it isn't there," the President's spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the release of a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report.
He added that the Kremlin has seen only the released summary of the report "which, incidentally, does not say anything new, except for the recognition of the absence of collusion."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the "political motivation" of Mueller's investigation was obvious and called the report "a disgrace of American justice."
In a statement, the ministry expressed hope that Washington would have the "courage" to officially acknowledge that "any slurs about the 'Russian meddling' were groundless defamation."

Members of the Druze community in the Golan Heights protest the decision of President Donald Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the territory, Majdal Shams, March 23, 2019.
The vast majority of Israelis are still unaware that over 130,000 residents of the Golan Heights were expelled from their villages, towns, and cities during the 1967 war. In fact, over the past decades, the territory has become a "consensus" issue among most Israelis, with many seeing no reason to return it. So while President Trump stunned the world last week by recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan, in Israel almost everyone celebrated the move.
Like in the case of Palestinian refugees, for decades the official Israeli line was that the Golan's inhabitants simply fled of their own accord. According to Syrian estimates, however, only approximately 50,000 of them escaped Israeli bombardments and left alongside the surrendering Syrian army. Israeli soldiers admitted in interviews that many residents stayed behind and waited to return to their villages, while others attempted to re-cross the armistice lines.

President Trump (seated) signs the executive order on cybersecurity as he is joined (from left) by Josh Steinman, Rob Joyce and Tom Bossert, on May 11, 2017.
The White House dispatched its point man on cyber security to Berlin this week to drive home President Donald Trump's warnings over Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co.
Joshua Steinman, an adviser to Trump on cyber issues, met with German officials, a U.S. embassy spokesman said without commenting further on the visit. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Thursday that security officials tasked with protecting Germany's network infrastructure had spoken with a U.S. counterpart.
Steinman expressed encouragement over a number of security measures proposed by Germans officials to protect the country's future fifth-generation wireless network, according to a person familiar with the discussion who asked not to be identified. At the same time, he applied sharp pressure to make security a priority with Huawei.
Around $1 billion of the stolen funds from national assets in international banks was transferred to the personal accounts of opposition leaders, according to Communications and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez. The money is meant to finance "terrorist cells against the country," he added.
They have resorted to stealing the assets that Venezuela holds in different banks. This money is being confiscated at the request of the [US President Donald] Trump administration. Over $30 billion has been stolen in the past couple of months," Rodriguez said on Saturday as cited by VTV state television.
Comment: The US is currently doing absolutely everything in its power to make Venezuela fail and bring the government of President Nicholas Maduro to its knees. But like Syria, with Russia and other countries as its allies, Venezuela is unlikely to go the way of Libya.
See also:
- Ratcheting up the pressure, US hits Venezuela with new economic sanctions
- Deputy FM Ryabkov to war-hawk Abrams: Venezuela 'aid' op is unacceptable, Russia will protect its interests
- Burning aid trucks & a nationwide blackout: What's next for the US' coup in Venezuela?
- 'Lights out!' Did Trump and his neocons use a Bush-era plan to knock out Venezuela's power grid?
- Economist Ricardo Hausmann's 'morning after' for Venezuela: The neoliberal brain behind Juan Guaido's economic agenda
- Rubio's Gloating Betrays US Sabotage in Venezuela Power Blackout
But she gave no specifics. So there is not a lot of trust she would actually quit.
And the problem is that even if she persuades all Tory ERG MPs to vote for her unamended Withdrawal Agreement, which she won't (because although Mogg and his supporters may succumb to her call for loyalty, Baker and the Brexiter purists will resist her blandishments) and she also successfully woos Northern Ireland's 10 DUP, she still does not have the numbers.
Comment:
- May to give MPs free vote on delaying Brexit, and the four amendments - UPDATE: Surprise! MPs delay Brexit deadline till end June
- Impatient EU grants May two-week reprieve as the Brexit farce rolls on
- May warns Brexit 'may never happen at all' if MP's reject her deal for a second time
- Still Confused About Brexit? It's Actually Pretty Simple...

In mid April 2018, Giuliani joined President Trump's legal team
"I say this is complete and absolute victory," Giuliani told Fox News Sunday afternoon, calling the victory "way beyond anybody could have expected a year ago with all this crazy fake news that's going on." His comments came just following news that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election found that there was no collusion between Russians and Donald Trump or Trump campaign associates.
"Absolutely no collusion by anyone in the Trump campaign so you have to wonder why did this investigation start in the first place and why did we waste $40 billion," he questioned. "Second, no obstruction."
Comment: Trump couldn't resist taking a victory lap as the gist of Mueller's report came out:
President Trump has enthusiastically greeted Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, which found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, and called it a "Complete and Total EXONERATION."
Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on Friday, after almost two years of investigation. Barr released a summary of the report on Sunday, explaining that Mueller found no evidence of 'Russian collusion' and insufficient evidence of obstruction of justice.
"It's a shame that our country had to go through this," Trump told reporters after Barr's letter went public. "To be honest, it's a shame your president had to go through this."
"This was an illegal takedown that failed," he continued.
Trump had repeatedly criticized Mueller's probe, calling it a politically-motivated "witch hunt," and an "illegal and conflated investigation in search of a crime." Trump had also called Mueller "out of control" and referred to his legal team as a "band of angry Democrats."
With Mueller's report finished, Trump's opponents have shifted to pressuring Barr to release its underlying evidence. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that this evidence "may be even more important to the truth than the report itself."
For Trump's most ardent opponents, the report has seemingly done little to sate their desire to go after the President. California Rep. Adam Schiff (D), currently heading a House Intelligence Committee investigation into alleged 'Russian collusion,' told ABC News on Sunday that he believes "compelling" and "significant evidence of collusion" still exists.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump or members of his campaign conspired with Russia's efforts to sway the 2016 election, delivering a boost to the president in a case that has shadowed his administration since its first days.
But the special counsel's report leaves "unresolved whether the president's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction," Attorney General William Barr said in a letter to Congress delivered Sunday.
"While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him" on whether he obstructed justice, Mueller said in the report, according to Barr's four-page summary.
Comment: Despite the conclusions of the Mueller Report, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) among liberals shows no sign of abating:
With a summary of the long-awaited Mueller report published at last, the #Resistance's media-political axis are doing their best to spin it as proof that Trump is guilty of SOMETHING - and that the full report will vindicate them.
Attorney General William Barr's summary of the still-unpublished special counsel report poured cold water on most of the lingering Russiagate embers, stating that not only was there no evidence the Trump campaign conspired or collaborated with the Russian government, but that there was insufficient evidence the president obstructed justice - leaving a tiny window of possibility through which the #Resistance immediately began cramming itself.
And cram they did. The media was afire with desperate attempts to spin the unspinnable.
The AP subtly arranged its headline for maximum effect, while the BBC had passed on to the "acceptance" stage of grieving.
Most pundits clung to the gray area implied by "evidence not sufficient."
The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur lamented that Mueller had focused on the wrong things the whole time - it wasn't about the election, dummies, it was about before and after the election!
A dour-looking Rep. Maxine Waters suggested that Trump had actually hypnotized his "sycophants" by repeating the "no collusion" line. "This is not the end of anything!" the congresswoman defiantly told Joy Reid. "There's so much that needs to be - you know - taken a look at this point."
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wouldn't let go of his impeachment dreams, demanding the release of all the evidence Mueller collected. "We know that the special counsel was not permitted to indict a sitting president, and we ought to see what evidence he produced," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, threatening to sue the Justice Department if it didn't cough up the goods.
House Judicial Committee chair Jerry Nadler thought that was a great idea, announcing his committee would haul Barr in to testify to exactly what he meant with that "does not exonerate" line the media chose to latch onto.
Sen. Ron Wyden blamed Barr for letting Trump get away, suggesting Mueller had dropped the ball by not indicting the president for obstruction himself - evidence be damned.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer also released a statement demanding the release of the full report along with "underlying documentation." After a 19-month investigation, there was surely a needle in this haystack, and the American people deserved to have a look.
Perhaps the best response came from former FBI director James Comey, whose firing triggered the appointment of Mueller as special counsel in the first place. What did it all mean? Why are we here? When a manufactured conspiracy falls in the forest, does it make a sound?

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has acknowledged a relationship with the leadership of the National Corps and National Militia but says he does not support their ideology or activities.
G7 ambassadors are urging Arsen Avakov, the interior minister, to act against violent political extremist groups who might threaten to disrupt the upcoming vote and usurp the role of the Ukrainian National Police and to consider outlawing them down the road.
Comment: Extremist groups which form a significant portion of the police, military and have solid alliances with those in power.
They are both tricky requests, considering Avakov's personal ties to those same groups and authorities' approval for one of them to monitor the election.
But the ambassadors are being more cautious when it comes to concerns over perceived dirty politicking among Ukraine's 39 presidential hopefuls, reportedly rebuffing a U.S. proposal to raise that issue in writing due to a lack of consensus on how to do so without providing campaign ammunition to specific candidates.
Comment: The candidates may be considered hopefuls, but much of Ukraine doesn't share the same sentiment: 'World-Low': 9% of Ukrainians have confidence in Government - Gallup poll
Comment: See also:
- Even Ukraine's own newspapers report bribery problem worse now than in 2015
- Secrets of the 'dead souls' of Ukraine's population
- Faith, power, money: How Western meddling is corrupting Ukraine's Orthodox Church
- Why the Silk Road from Europe to China bypassed the 'dead-end' Ukraine
- Ukraine 100 years behind economically according to World Bank figures

At least five British Special Forces commandos from the Special Boat Service have been wounded in gun battles as part of a top-secret UK military campaign in Yemen
The elite Special Boat Service (SBS) troops, whose presence in the war-ravaged country is shrouded in secrecy, suffered gunshot injuries in fierce clashes with Iranian-backed rebel militia in recent months.
The SBS men were treated for leg and arm wounds following the battles in the Sa'dah area of northern Yemen, where up to 30 crack British troops are based. The casualties are understood to be now recovering in the UK.
The revelation that British forces are fighting in Yemen sparked angry criticism last night because the conflict, which has seen Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposing sides in a four-year civil war, has triggered the world's biggest humanitarian crisis.
Comment: While the UK has been helping the Saudi's wage their war on Yemen since the beginning, UK Parliament has never formally declared the country's participation nor are most citizens aware of the war crimes being committed in their name:
- Saudi Arabia and Western Allies Continue War on Poverty-Stricken Yemen; Yemen Fights Back
- UK secretly training Saudi troops for war on Yemen, 'against Geneva conventions'
- UK's billions in arms deals to Saudi Arabia make it "utterly complicit in the destruction of Yemen" (VIDEO)
- Shameless: UK sells 457% more arms to Saudi Arabia since it started bombing Yemen
- UK govt blasted over RAF training of 102 Saudi pilots who are now bombing civilians in Yemen
- UK military industrial cartel and Tory government profit handsomely from genocide in Yemen

A man is detained after trying to hit Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini at the Korson Maalaismarkkinat country fair in Vantaa, Finland March 24, 2019.
Shocked but unhurt, Timo Soini thanked police for quickly stopping the man, who was wearing a black shirt from the Soldiers of Odin group - named for a Viking god.
"Today, there was a terrible incident that nobody wanted or hoped for," Soini said on his blog after the events at the Korso market in the southern Finnish town of Vantaa.
"I thank security guards for their good work," he added.
Finland is due to hold parliamentary elections on April 14.
Comment: NewsNowFinland provides more detail of what happened:
The man, wearing a Soldiers of Odin jacket, attempted to punch Soini, who dodged the blow. However, he succeeded in hitting a security guard over the head with a bottle before being wrestled to the ground.See also:
The Soldiers of Odin are a far right activist group, opposed to immigration, and founded in response to the 2015 refugee crisis which saw more than 32,000 migrants arrive in Finland.
However, Soldiers of Odin members wearing their distinctive black bomber jackets have regularly taken part in far right protests, including on Independence Day last year where they paraded behind Nazi flags through the streets of Helsinki.
- Vigilantism and racism: Meet Finland's fascist thugs, the 'Soldiers of Odin'
- 'Clash of Civilizations' Arrives in New Zealand: 49 Massacred by Multiple Gunmen During Multi-Site Terror Attack in Christchurch
- The Christchurch Shooting and the Normalization of Anti-Muslim Terrorism
- UK Labour MP Corbyn assaulted while on constituency visit to mosque
- Aussie Senator gets EGGED after comments blaming Muslims for NZ mosque shooting
- The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis
- The Truth Perspective: Mafia Politics: How Political Movements and Ideologies Break Bad
- NewsReal #30: Christchurch Massacre - Don't Fall For The Manipulation










Comment: Peskov and Rob Slane must be operating on the same wavelength: