Puppet Masters

China: Former rising political star sentenced to life in prison for corruption

Lily Kuo
The Guardian
Tue, 08 May 2018 06:08 UTC

Sun Zhengcai is one of the most powerful officials to be toppled under President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign

A top Chinese official once seen as a potential successor to president Xi Jinping has been sentenced to life in prison for taking more than $26m in bribes, according to state media.

Sun Zhengcai, a former politburo member and party boss of the southwestern city of Chongqing, is one of the highest officials to be toppled by an anti-graft campaign that critics say is Xi's way to root out rivals rather than corruption.

Sun was given a "lenient" sentence in exchange for his cooperation, the court in the northern port city of Tianjin said on Tuesday. He was accused of taking advantage of his position to seek profits for himself and others. Sun pleaded guilty after a one-day trial in April.

Celebrate Loud, Long And Unapologetically When Psychopath McCain Finally Dies

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Tue, 08 May 2018 20:18 UTC

Arizona Senator and murderous psychopath John McCain is rumored to be at death's door, and already the world is being admonished by high-profile empire loyalists not to voice any criticism of his blood-saturated, obnoxiously long career.

"Anti-McCain twitter seems to have reached new heights (or depths) of repulsiveness," tweeted Iraq-raping PNAC founder Bill Kristol to thunderous applause from #Resistance Twitter. "In the hope that a few of the haters see this, let me say: I'm proud to have voted for John McCain for president three times (2000 & 2008 primaries & 2008 general), and for Donald Trump...never."

"John McCain reminds us that American greatness is made by those who understand that character is the sum of one's hardest choices; that reality is not a TV show; that fame is mist but honor granite; that heroes don't need fixers on retainer," the Washington Post's David Von Drehle preemptively eulogized in a nauseating article titled "John McCain isn't the ideal messenger. He's the ideal message."

Comment: Lest you think the author's opinion is extreme, here is a tiny sample of the havoc McCain has wrought over his blood-soaked too-long political career.

Should Israel be labeled a psychopath?

Laurent Guyénot
The Saker
Mon, 07 May 2018 19:21 UTC

Introduction

There is a lot of talk these days about the psychopaths ruling the world. A study among high executives of large companies, published under the title Snakes in Suits, shows that psychopathic traits are widespread among them.^[1] This naturally reflects into collective forms of psychopathy: in The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, Joel Bakan noted that "corporate behavior is very similar to that of a psychopath."^[2]

Some states also behave like psychopaths among nations. The USA is such a state, with a "pathology of power" (the title of Norman Cousins's 1987 book) probably related to the degree of psychopathy of the men in charge. Behind the mask of sanity and morality displayed by the US on the world's stage, there is a "deep state" moved by an insatiable thirst for power and uninhibited by any moral conscience or empathy; this pathological deep state is today in almost complete control of US foreign policy.

Comment: As Dr Kevin Barrett commented in a forward to this article:

According to one expert on political psychopathy, Andrzej Lobaczewski, author of Political Ponerology, the answer is yes. Whole nations, even international political movements, can exhibit behavior that parallels that of psychopathic individuals.

Lobaczewski, a Polish psychiatrist, diagnosed psychopathic symptoms among the Communist-era leadership. He argued that individuals with personality disorders, especially psychopathy, tend to gravitate to positions of power, which can set off a contagion in which the entire regime takes on psychopathic characteristics.

Trump Did NOT Convince Kim to Ditch His Nukes. China Did

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 20:07 UTC

© Ju Peng / Global Look Press
Beijing, 7 May 2018: Kim Jong-un & Xi Jinping meet for the second time in two months (...and no, they are not sitting on their interpreters!)

Donald Trump thinks his "maximum pressure" campaign persuaded North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. But it's a bunch of baloney. The reason Kim Jong-un is planning to denuclearize is because China adamantly opposes nuclear weapons on the peninsula. That's the whole deal in a nutshell. China, who is North Korea's biggest trading partner, gave Kim an ultimatum: Ditch the nukes or face long-term economic strangulation. Kim very wisely chose the former option, which is to say, he backed down.

The situation in North Korea is really quite bleak. Consider, for example, this recent piece in a United Nations periodical titled "The 5 most under-reported humanitarian crises that are happening right now". Heading the list is this blurb on North Korea:

"....what has been drastically underreported in the last year is that unprecedented number of people who are going hungry. The UN estimates that 70 percent of the population, or 18 million people, are food-insecure and reliant on government aid. To make things worse, last year North Korea experienced its worst drought in 16 years, exacerbating an already dire food shortage. With tight control of its borders keeping out aid organizations and journalists, it's almost impossible to capture how many are actually receiving the urgent food aid they need." (U.N. Dispatch)

Outrageous redactions to the House Intelligence Committee's Russia report reshape the message

Andrew McCarthy
National Review
Mon, 07 May 2018 06:30 UTC

The FBI and DOJ have been burying the investigators' questionable judgments and information helpful to Flynn.

Cute how this works: Kick off the week with some "the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted" bombast from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, by which he rationalizes that his defiance of subpoenas and slow-walking document production to Congress - which is probing investigative irregularities related to the 2016 campaign - is required by DOJ policy and "the rule of law." Then end the week with the Friday-night bad-news dump: the grudging removal of DOJ and FBI redactions from a House Intelligence Committee report on Russia's election meddling.

Now that we can see what they wanted to conceal, it is clear, yet again, that the Justice Department and the FBI cannot be trusted to decide what the public gets to learn about their decision-making.

Comment: What this tells us is that there are more purposes to redaction than protecting critical information on behalf of the innocent or in deference to the integrity of a legal case. It is also used to shape a case to meet a false requirement by blocking evidence to the contrary.

N. Korea to Donald Trump: 'Don't provoke us ahead of the Kim-Trump summit'

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 07 May 2018 22:05 UTC

A year ago the situation in the Korean Peninsula appeared to be sliding rapidly towards war, with North Korea pressing ahead with its ballistic missile and nuclear tests, with Donald Trump, the US's newly elected and highly inexperienced President tweeting threats of military action, with General H.R. McMaster, Donald Trump's hawkish National Security Adviser lobbying for military action, and US fleets moving backwards and forwards towards the Korean Peninsula alongside wild talk that they might be about to be used in action.

A year later the mood is transformed.

Kim Jong-un - North Korea's much demonised Great Leader - has now held successful summit meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and is negotiating the terms of a summit meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile North and South Korea have fielded a joint Olympic team at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, North Korea has announced a freeze of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programme, and the leaders of the two Koreas - Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in - have publicly committed themselves to negotiating a peace treaty between their two countries and to the total denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

What changed?

Comment: President Trump has just pulled the US out of the JCPOA. What is the take-away message for Kim-Jong-un?

Why all the secrecy around Russiagate? (Because it's a nothing-burger)

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Sat, 05 May 2018 06:00 UTC

It's time to level with the public about the basis for Mueller's investigation.

How do you know Trump's "not a suspect?"

I've been hearing that question a lot these days. News reports indicate that Special Counsel Robert Mueller may try to coerce President Trump's testimony by issuing a grand-jury subpoena if the president does not agree to a "voluntary" interview. That has sparked a public debate over the question of whether Mueller, an inferior executive officer, has such authority to strong-arm the chief executive - the official in whom the Constitution reposes all executive power, including the power that Mueller exercises only as long as the president permits it.

I don't think he does.

To be clear, there is no question that Mueller, as a special counsel, is a federal prosecutor who has the authority to issue grand-jury subpoenas. But everyone who works in the Justice Department has a boss, including the attorney general (who answers to the president). As special counsel, Mueller answers to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the so-called Russia investigation). That means Mueller has the authority to issue a subpoena to the president unless Rosenstein - or the president - tells him not to.

Before we come to whether the deputy AG should clip the special counsel's wings, let's address one point of confusion. Many people believe, as I do, that the president should not be subjected to questioning by a prosecutor on the facts as we presently know them. From that premise, however, they argue that Mueller may not subpoena the president, or that the president may ignore any subpoena. Neither of those things is true.

Comment: So far, there is no convincing reason for Trump to submit to a Mueller interview. If there was, it would have taken place by now. In that it hasn't, the president should leave well enough alone.

Putin's Russia plan: Halve poverty, join world's five largest economies, increase life expectancy

RT
Mon, 07 May 2018 16:07 UTC

Vladimir Putin unveiled an ambitious vision for Russia for his new six-year term - including rapid economic growth, a rise in life expectancy, and a drop in inequality - hours after his inauguration.

Titled "National ideas and strategic aims for the development of the Russian Federation by 2024" the 17-point decree, "in force as of today," touches on dozens of areas from mortgages, to road safety, and the creation of a national youth orchestra. Here are the highlights...

Joining the big five

According to the document, Russia is to become one of the world's five biggest economies, maintaining GDP growth above the global average, while retaining macroeconomic stability.

Measured by nominal GDP, Russia is outside the top 10 biggest economies, and would have to produce near double-digit growth to catch up in the next six years. However, using purchasing power parity GDP, which is a better measure of the real value of the economy, Russia sits in sixth place, just behind Germany, so the target is not unrealistic, and hitting it would help halve poverty, another stated aim in Putin's plan.

The lie that Comey's leaks were non-criminal is biting the dust

Robin Ridless
The Federalist
Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00 UTC

When former FBI director James Comey disclosed at a congressional hearing last June that he had disseminated memos to a friend, his defenders scrambled to make excuses for him. The mainstream media launched either fake news or a series of legal justifications to whitewash his violations of a litany of federal rules and laws protecting his private conversations with the president.

Now that the memos have been perused, the theories of a number of such legal commentators, which were based on sketchy information to begin with, have unsurprisingly proved to be full of errors, irrelevancies, and overstatements. Rather than walk back their defense of Comey's leaks, however, they have doubled down on heroizing him.

No, Comey's Memos Are Not His Personal Property

Last May, the Washington Post called White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders a liar for saying Comey leaked privileged information. At the time, legal professor Jonathan Turley wrote eloquently in her defense. Today, he confirms his position, arguing that the media continue to allow their bias to overwhelm their objectivity in reporting on Comey's culpability.

Comment: See also:

WH denies report on troop drawdown in S. Korea

John Bowden
The Hill
Fri, 04 May 2018 08:23 UTC

The White House on Friday strongly denied a New York Times story claiming the administration is talking to South Korea about reducing the number of U.S. troops stationed in that country.

"The New York Times story is utter nonsense," national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement. Bolton said the Pentagon has not discussed a troop drawdown with South Korea. "The President has not asked the Pentagon to provide options for reducing American forces stationed in South Korea," he added.

The Times reported late Thursday that President Trump had asked the Pentagon to consider reducing the number of troops on the Korean Peninsula. The request reportedly worried military officials who raised concerns that it could undercut U.S. ties with South Korea and alarm Japan.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White also dismissed the report at a briefing on Thursday. "This department has not gotten any word on that," White said about a possible withdrawal. "Our posture remains the same."

Comment: This is how 'not news' becomes 'news.' The source of the story isn't verified before MSM goes to print or the story is meant to alter the facts. Either way, the public is misinformed.

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Puppet Masters

China: Former rising political star sentenced to life in prison for corruption

Celebrate Loud, Long And Unapologetically When Psychopath McCain Finally Dies

Should Israel be labeled a psychopath?

Trump Did NOT Convince Kim to Ditch His Nukes. China Did

Outrageous redactions to the House Intelligence Committee's Russia report reshape the message

N. Korea to Donald Trump: 'Don't provoke us ahead of the Kim-Trump summit'

Why all the secrecy around Russiagate? (Because it's a nothing-burger)

Putin's Russia plan: Halve poverty, join world's five largest economies, increase life expectancy

The lie that Comey's leaks were non-criminal is biting the dust

WH denies report on troop drawdown in S. Korea

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