Puppet Masters

Trump threatens to ban TikTok in US, Pompeo confirms action will come this week - Microsoft may buy the Chinese company

David Nield
techradar
Sat, 01 Aug 2020 20:15 UTC

US President Donald Trump has told reporters that TikTok is going to be banned in the country as soon as today, as tensions rise over connections between the app's developer ByteDance and the Chinese authorities.

"As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States," Trump told the press pack on Friday, as reported by the BBC and others. An executive order was mentioned as one way of applying the ban.

The implications from the US side is that TikTok can be used to collect huge amounts of personal data on American users - and while this isn't much different from the practices of Facebook, Google and others, in this case it might potentially be funnelled back to the Chinese government. India has already banned TikTok for similar reasons.

TikTok itself says it is committed to user privacy and job creation in the US, telling NBC News that US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls over who can access it. ByteDance has denied handing over any data to the Chinese government.

Comment: This decision might not be popular with GenZ. TikTok's US manager says the app his here to stay. But talks between Microsoft and Bytedance are reportedly on hold after Trump's announcement. Pompeo says action will be taken in the coming days:

"President Trump has said, 'enough,' and we're going to fix it," Pompeo said on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures." "And so he will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party."

It is now the 'Israel-led' coalition that is destroying Yemen

Karin Brothers
Global Research
Tue, 28 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC

It wasn't supposed to take this long to eliminate the independence movement of the backward land of the living Bible. A coalition of the world's major military powers, led by the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and Israel, expected Yemen's Houthi movement to fall in a matter of weeks after their attacks started on March 25th, 2015.Five years later, it is only the hidden member of the Coalition leaders, Israel, that is motivated to continue the genocidal bombing and blockade that has created "the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe". It is arguably because of Israel's hidden role that the genocide is continuing despite the attempts of the other Coalition leaders to end their roles in the Yemeni slaughter.

Until 2015, Yemen, one of the poorest countries on earth, was a fabulous, unspoiled country of ancient cities, thousand-year-old buildings and pristine islands; some scholars believe that Yemen may have been the site of the Old Testament. Socotra island, called the Galapagos of the Gulf, was one of Yemen's four UNESCO World Heritage sites. The small, spectacular country had another ten tentative World Heritage sites.

Yemen has the misfortune to inhabit strategic real estate. Lying at the southern end of the Arabian peninsula, Yemen is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea down to the Bab el-Mandeb strait to its west, the Gulf of Aden to the south and Oman to its east. Its territory also includes islands in the Red Sea and around the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The strait, an 18-mile gap between the east coast of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, is a potential chokepoint for the heavily-used shipping route from the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Comment: The horrific war on Yemen is a catastrophic amalgamation of geopolitical targets, primary and secondary players and a fistful of overarching agendas - some known, some suspected, some barely apparent. A humanitarian sham: None of the participants have come to judgement nor has retribution been paid.

Amid escalating tensions, US warships sail mere miles off coast of China

Alan Macleod
MintPress News
Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC

© AP/US Navy Erica Bechard
Sea Hawk to disengage its rotors on the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan as USS Mustin steams alongside in South China Sea.

A U.S. warship and military aircraft were spotted traveling southwest from Japan towards China yesterday afternoon, in what some fear is a growing escalation of aggression towards Beijing. A Boeing P-8A Poseidon (hex code AE68A2), an anti-submarine aircraft appeared to be working in conjunction with the anti-submarine destroyer the U.S.S. Rafael Peralta, patrolling as close as 41 nautical miles from China's maritime boundary, almost in sight of the city of Shanghai.

Earlier in the day, an Air Force Northrop Grumman E-8C reconnaissance plane (hex code AE1492) and a Navy Lockheed Martin EP-3E (hex code AE1D8A) reconnaissance aircraft surveilled China's Fuijanese coast, the latter coming within 58 nautical miles of its boundaries before turning back. Today, the EP-3E was back, this time going west, following the coastline of China's most populous province, Guangdong. The moves are believed by Chinese experts to be information gathering operations, attempting to track the positions of Chinese submarines and to pinpoint Chinese coastal defenses as the United States increases the tension on Beijing.

Comment: The 4 D's of distraction: Deception, Disruption, Deterrence, Dominance

US-German relations beyond repair: Troop pullout merely a symptom of decades-long clash of views and ideas

Scott Ritter
RT
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 19:17 UTC

While the Trump administration sells the decision to withdraw US troops from Germany as a strengthening of NATO force alignment, the reality is it's merely the latest manifestation of a relationship on the decline for decades.

The announcement by Secretary of Defense Mike Esper that the US has finalized plans for the withdrawal of some 12,000 troops from Germany came as a surprise to no one. This decision, minus the details concerning implementation, was originally announced back on June 30. At that time, President Donald Trump linked it to the failure of Germany to meet its obligation regarding meeting NATO goals of defense spending matching 2% GDP (German levels for 2019 were around 1.4%). However, in announcing that, of the 36,000 forces permanently stationed in Germany, 24,000 would remain while 11,900 will deploy elsewhere or return home, Esper did not mention Germany's budgetary arrears, instead linking the decision to new US defense priorities driven by the need for better deterrence of Russia and China.

National security experts on both sides of the Atlantic will be debating the genesis of the US troop withdrawal for some time to come, trying to assign weight to the competing justifications offered by Trump and Esper. The reality, however, is that this decision was a long time in coming, with its roots not so founded in any personal animus on the part of President Trump or strategic force re-posturing by the US. The current crisis is derived from a larger US-German dysfunction that has been in place for decades, driven by inherently incompatible world visions and value systems, and the inevitable clash between American exceptionalism and German ideals based on the principle of European sovereignty.

Comment: See also:

House passes six-bill, $1.3T spending package for 2021

David Sherfinski
The Washington Times
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC

The House on Friday passed a six-bill, $1.3 trillion package that funds the vast majority of the federal government's discretionary spending programs for fiscal 2021 and covers big-ticket areas such as defense, health and education.

The House voted 217-197 to pass the bill. Democrats suffered about a dozen defections, and no Republicans voted for the measure.

Democrats touted billions of additional dollars for medical research and emergency spending in the measure to try to support recovery efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Think about who we need to benefit in this institution, what our responsibilities are," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat. "Our responsibilities are to the working families, the essential workers today who are on the frontlines trying to just ... get by."

The bill won't make it through the GOP-controlled Senate, and the White House threatened a veto.

Thousands demonstrate against Netanyahu as Israel protests gain strength

Oliver Holmes
The Guardian
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 18:00 UTC

© Reuters
A main protest took place in west Jerusalem outside Netanyahu's official residence as thousands flocked to the streets

Crowds protest against alleged corruption and PM's handling of coronavirus crisis

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets outside Benjamin Netanyahu's house over the weekend in what appeared to be the largest protest to date calling for the embattled Israeli prime minister to resign.

Rallies on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning were held in Jerusalem, home to the official residence of the 70-year-old leader, as well as his beach house in central Israel, near Tel Aviv, and at dozens of road intersections across the country.

Throughout the summer, Israelis have packed roads and squares calling for Netanyahu to resign, protesting against his government's handling of the country's coronavirus crisis and charges of alleged corruption.

Comment:

Again, the Palestinian people are the losers in the chaos:

Trump challenges Fauci over comments on coronavirus surges: 'Wrong!'

Justin Wise
The Hill
Sun, 02 Aug 2020 17:57 UTC

President Trump on Saturday publicly rejected Anthony Fauci's analysis of why the United States has experienced a surge in coronavirus cases, claiming that the nation's top infectious disease expert wasn't accounting for the country's testing capacity.

"Wrong!" Trump said in a tweet that linked to a video of Fauci's Friday testimony before Congress.

In a hearing focused on the federal response to the global health crisis, Fauci said the U.S. was experiencing a much more severe resurgence in coronavirus cases than countries in Europe because many states failed to completely shut down.

"If you look at what happened in Europe when they shut down or locked down or went into shelter in place ... they really did it to the tune of about 95-plus percent of the country did that," Fauci said.

Trump to accept GOP nomination without press, RNC official says

New York Post
Sat, 01 Aug 2020 17:43 UTC

The vote to renominate President Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, said a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention, citing the coronavirus.

While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the GOP standard-bearer once more.

Nominating conventions are traditionally meant to be media bonanzas, as political parties seek to leverage the attention the events draw to spread their message to as many voters as possible. If the GOP decision stands, it will mark the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.

Robin Hood Trump: 'Too much income disparity' after Covid-19 - 'needs to change'

Charlie Spiering
Breitbart
Sat, 01 Aug 2020 17:01 UTC

President Donald Trump criticized America's top billionaires on Saturday for massively increasing their net worth during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I actually agree with this," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Too much income disparity. Changes must be made, and soon!"

The president shared a Business Insider video showing the net worth of wealthy CEOs like Amazon's Jeff Bezos, whose net worth rose by an estimated $48 billion from March to June. The video lists billionaires such as Zoom founder Eric Yuan boosting his net worth of $2.5 billion, while former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer's net worth increased by $15.7 billion, Casino magnate Shelden Adelson's increased by $5 billion, and Elon Musk's increased by $17.2 billion.

This is the first time the president has indicated that a growing wealth disparity was a problem in the United States that needed to be fixed.

The nine-minute video focuses on how the wealthy typically receive big financial profits during times of economic crisis and experience big tax cuts and breaks and store their money in offshore accounts.

We gotta talk about Joe Biden's cognitive decline because his US media cheerleaders won't... it's so like the sad fate of Brezhnev

Chris Sweeney
RT
Mon, 31 Aug 2020 16:28 UTC

The examples and incidents illustrating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's failing faculties can no longer be ignored and it's inhumane for him to be allowed to campaign to be leader of the United States.

Mercy is rarely granted to high-profile politicians. They're either lauded or pilloried, there's no in-between - it comes with the territory. But someone has to make an exception for Joe Biden.

The Democratic nominee has served his country, whether you agree with his values and opinions or not, proudly and with distinction. He entered the Senate in 1973 to represent Delaware and went on to become vice president during Barack Obama's reign.

But this is a man who, at 78 years old in November, is close to the end of his road; he's not one who should be preparing for four or even eight years at the White House.

The reason why is quite simple: he is cognitively not there any longer.

This is no laughing matter, or a political point, or a vehicle to mock him with: mental decline is a sad, tortuous process to watch, particularly in someone of his standing.

Earlier this week, Biden staggered on stage in his home state saying: "Good Afternoon everyone. Welcome to Kingswood Community Center." The event was at William 'Hicks' Anderson Community Center.

After losing his focus for a few seconds and genuinely looking lost, he uttered: "I didn't know where we were."

Oh, and I thought he was f**king rhesus monkeys ... :O

codis

But now she is almost safe from Ze Virus ... Soon to be totally safe

codis

Every person I know fully supports the False-Flag narrative. Like everything else about our federal government deep state, they lie. It is all...

L. Wood

Wonder who created those vaccines and funded the research.

Searcher109

You can tell this is an MSM article, and on reading it, I could actually hear in my head the phony concern in the voice of a tv announcer, how...

ReRan

Puppet Masters

Trump threatens to ban TikTok in US, Pompeo confirms action will come this week - Microsoft may buy the Chinese company

It is now the 'Israel-led' coalition that is destroying Yemen

Amid escalating tensions, US warships sail mere miles off coast of China

US-German relations beyond repair: Troop pullout merely a symptom of decades-long clash of views and ideas

House passes six-bill, $1.3T spending package for 2021

Thousands demonstrate against Netanyahu as Israel protests gain strength

Trump challenges Fauci over comments on coronavirus surges: 'Wrong!'

Trump to accept GOP nomination without press, RNC official says

Robin Hood Trump: 'Too much income disparity' after Covid-19 - 'needs to change'

We gotta talk about Joe Biden's cognitive decline because his US media cheerleaders won't... it's so like the sad fate of Brezhnev

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