Puppet Masters

Pentagon quietly stopped training Afghan pilots after 40% of cadets deserted while in US

RT
Sat, 04 May 2019 08:48 UTC

The Pentagon had no choice but to shut down a US-based program to train Afghan Air Force pilots after it emerged that nearly half of the cadets seized the opportunity and went absent without leave.

More than 40 percent of the Afghan cadets sent to train on the AC-208 light reconnaissance aircraft deserted the training program, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported. The watchdog did not detail exactly how many trainees went missing, but said it resulted in only one graduating class.

Consequently, the entire program was disbanded, with the second and third classes sent back to Afghanistan - possibly to prevent further desertions. The Afghan Air Force (AAF) has five AC-208s in their inventory.

Comment: So these defectors are on the loose in the US but we have no idea where they are or what they're up to now:

Tehran vows response to threats from fellow OPEC producers - Iran's Petroleum Minister

Shana
Sat, 04 May 2019 00:02 UTC

Iran's petroleum minister said Thursday that his country will respond to any threats by fellow OPEC member states.

"Iran is an OPEC member just for its interests and if certain OPEC members want to threaten and endanger Iran, Iran will not refrain from responding to them," Bijan Zangeneh told Shana after a meeting with the visiting OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo in Tehran.

He said: "I told Mr Barkindo that OPEC is being threatened due to unilateralism by certain members and this organization is likely to collapse."

Comment: See also:

"Miscarriage of justice": Cuba slams lawsuits against state-owned firms - EU & Canada agree

RT
Sat, 04 May 2019 06:05 UTC

Cuba vowed to protect its property and international business ties just as ExxonMobil began suing two Cuban companies for $280 million over assets seized after the revolution.

"Cuba will protect Cubans and foreign entities operating in the country and will render void any claim filed under this law which is a miscarriage of justice," Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez tweeted after the American oil giant became the first US company to take legal action against Havana.

Cimex Corporation SA, a Cuban state-owned business group, and the Cuba-Petroleum Union (Cupet) are being sued over their use of an oil refinery, gasoline stations, and other properties that once belonged to the American multinational.

Comment: This appears to be yet another lame attempt by the US to impose its will over the planet:

Support the legal government in Venezuela not the US warmongers

Tommy Sheridan
Sputnik
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 22:34 UTC

You are mugged in the street by a gang of powerful and well organised thugs who rob you of your money and personal possessions. You are knocked to the ground and subjected to violent blows to your body and head that almost render you unconscious. You notice other citizens observe the assault but they appear too frightened to intervene.

The attackers are big and powerful. They also shout loudly that you deserve to be attacked as they aim further blows at you. There is a look of fear, confusion and apprehension in the faces of those that look on.

The innocent by-standers are consumed with fear of reprisals if they dare to help or raise their voices in protest but they are also confused by the loud claims that you are deserving of this assault and robbery. Some satisfy themselves that their cowardice in failing to intervene on your behalf is justified by the proclamations that you deserve this treatment. You lie in the street battered, bloodied and bruised. You are frightened and sore and your personal dignity has also been undermined. Then one of your attackers offers you a hand to raise you from the ground. He promises you medical assistance and now the people observing this episode are even more confused. The individuals responsible for this violent episode appear to be offering the targeted victim medical help. How can this add up?

Comment: See also:

Turkey's "Plan B": Russia ready to replace American F-35s with own Su-57s if Ankara's deal with US fails

RT
Fri, 03 May 2019 23:55 UTC

© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev
A Sukhoi Su-57 multi-role fighter during the rehearsal of the Victory Parade flyovers in Moscow.

Russia's fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jets could be sold to Turkey if Ankara's F-35 deal with the US fails, the chief of a Russian state tech corporation said as Washington halts plane deliveries following the S-400 standoff.

Sukhoi's "fifth-generation Russian fighter jets [Su-57s] have outstanding qualities, and show promise for export," Sergey Chemezov, head of a Russia's state-owned defense conglomerate, Rostec, told Anadolu on Thursday.

Moscow is "ready to cooperate" if Ankara shows interest in purchasing the Russian planes, he added.

Comment: Erdogan: 'Nothing to do with NATO or F-35', US pressure over S-400 is about Turkey's sovereignty

"It's the money." Rick Sanchez, John Huddy & Chris Hedges explain media decay

RT
Fri, 03 May 2019 18:05 UTC

In today's mass media, journalistic standards may be at a low, but at least profits are up. RT host Rick Sanchez together with journalists John Huddy and Chris Hedges look at how big moneyed interests took out a hit on the truth.

Whether we look at printed papers, TV news networks or talk radio, it is clear that a hand-full of "multi-billionaires" have by and large taken hold of the press, businessmen who "care little for the people they serve, let alone journalism," according to Sanchez, host of the nightly newscast on RT America.

News industry marketing strategies have pushed the major networks into following the highly profitable and hyper-partisan model set by Fox, even if it means leaving the facts to the wayside. Today, "it's all about the right or the left, rarely is about the news," Sanchez said, before spelling out these media moguls' only real motivation:

"If there's one single word that ties together all that media decay, its money."

However, this wasn't always the case, as RT America correspondent John Huddy reminds us. While news networks used to be held to certain standards of balanced reporting, today the airwaves have become polluted with unbridled competition between "massive media companies vying for control."

Biden's Ukrainian ties: Nepotism and corruption scandal or merely 'conservatives pounce'?

RT
Fri, 03 May 2019 00:07 UTC

As Joe Biden leads the pack of candidates for Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, the New York Times has decided to describe accusations about his son's shady dealings in Ukraine as a politically motivated Trump hit job.

"For Biden, a Ukraine Matter That Won't Go Away," proclaimed the cover page of the New York Times printed edition on Thursday. Online, however, the headline was much more pointed: "Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies."

Comment: What makes politicians in high places so bold to think that corruption, in all its various forms, holds no accountability? MSM helps make sure of it.

See also:

Palestinian Voices being silenced on Twitter

Bahaa Shammala
Youth From Palestine
Thu, 02 May 2019 22:33 UTC

Palestinian accounts get suspended on social media platforms all the time. Twitter suspensions and deletions are clearly noticeable.

Palestinian Voices is an upcoming news outlet run by young people, that gives children and other youngsters a free platform to publish their stories - factual, fictional or otherwise.

It's a new venture with a thousand learning curves yet to be swerved and dunams of space to hone unchartered skills in the search for professionalism and leadership. It's exciting to see it unfold.

Recently, not one, not two, but three members of the team have had their accounts destroyed. Abdulraheem Alfarra, Bahaa Shammala, and Saif Eldden Bitar: Twitter's waste disposal unit has been busy recently.

One by one, these young, ambitious journalists and reporters working to bring us the news from Palestine are being forcibly taken from us; metaphorically - erased in the night.

Twitter Policy claims that it respects the freedom of speech, but that is not true as it becomes clear that Twitter is completely biased to the Israeli side by silencing the Palestinian Voices.

China and Russia are beating Uncle Sam at his own game

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Thu, 02 May 2019 00:00 UTC

Your Geopolitical Quiz for the Day:

Two countries are embroiled in a ferocious rivalry. One country's meteoric growth has put it on a path to become the world's biggest economic superpower while the other country appears to be slipping into irreversible decline. Which country will lead the world into the future?

Country A builds factories and plants, it employees zillions of people who manufacture things, it launches massive infrastructure programs, paves millions of miles of highways and roads, opens new sea lanes, vastly expands its high-speed rail network, and pumps profits back into productive operations that turbo-charge its economy and bolster its stature among the nations of the world.

Country B has the finest military in the world, it has more than 800 bases scattered across the planet, and spends more on weapons systems and war-making than all the other nations combined. Country B has gutted its industrial core, hollowed out its factory base, allowed its vital infrastructure to crumble, outsourced millions of jobs, off-shored thousands of businesses, plunged the center of the country into permanent recession, delivered control of its economy to the Central Bank, and recycled 96 percent of its corporate and financial profits into a stock buyback scam that sucks critical capital out of the economy and into the pockets of corrupt Wall Street plutocrats whose voracious greed is pushing the world towards another catastrophic meltdown.

Which of these two countries is going to lead the world into the future? Which of these two countries offers a path to security and prosperity that doesn't involve black sites, extraordinary rendition, extrajudicial assassinations, color-coded revolutions, waterboarding, strategic disinformation, false-flag provocations, regime change and perennial war?

Comment: As referenced above, Pepe Escobar: New Silk Roads reach next level

FBI Sent Investigator Posing as Research Assistant to Meet with Trump Aide in 2016

Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti
The New York Times
Thu, 02 May 2019 00:00 UTC

The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign's links to Russia.

The American government's affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it Spygate.

Comment: Recommendation: Mueller Report Shows Depth of Connections Between Trump Campaign and Russians Check out Mueller's expanded chart (listed above) to peruse the shallow and unsubstantial connections to Russia for 28 suspected individuals.

Winternights3 There's probs a good connection! Just think about it.

sbc

Moving the goalposts. and people are too shit stupid to notice or care

sbc

Hang em... All the jab pushers. At this point they are trying very hard to continue blatant bullshit lies in a bid for total societal control

sbc

It was interesting when the brothers (their family owns the dealerships/service center that were vandalized - something of like 130+ cars burned...

Scoot Over

I ain't going to watch any more than I didn't watch the OJ trial, which ended exactly as I predicted. The thing is that the state should have...

Rowan Cocoan

Puppet Masters

Pentagon quietly stopped training Afghan pilots after 40% of cadets deserted while in US

Tehran vows response to threats from fellow OPEC producers - Iran's Petroleum Minister

"Miscarriage of justice": Cuba slams lawsuits against state-owned firms - EU & Canada agree

Support the legal government in Venezuela not the US warmongers

Turkey's "Plan B": Russia ready to replace American F-35s with own Su-57s if Ankara's deal with US fails

"It's the money." Rick Sanchez, John Huddy & Chris Hedges explain media decay

Biden's Ukrainian ties: Nepotism and corruption scandal or merely 'conservatives pounce'?

Palestinian Voices being silenced on Twitter

China and Russia are beating Uncle Sam at his own game

FBI Sent Investigator Posing as Research Assistant to Meet with Trump Aide in 2016

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