Puppet Masters

Fired: Trump's Veteran Affairs Secretary, David Shulkin

RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 21:42 UTC

US President Donald Trump has apparently fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, and says he is nominating the White House physician to replace him.

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump tweeted about nominating Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, the presidential physician, as Shulkin's replacement. He will need to be confirmed by the Senate. In the interim, the VA will be led by Robert Wilkie, currently the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

"I appreciate the work of Dr. David Shulkin and the many great things we did together at Veterans Affairs, including the VA Accountability Act that he was helpful in getting passed," Trump said in a statement, thanking Shulkin for his service at the VA.

Trump called Jackson a "highly trained and qualified" member of the military, who has a "deep appreciation" for the debt the US owes to its military veterans.

Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama administration, helped Trump reform the troubled agency in 2017. A February 2018 report by the VA inspector general, however, accused the secretary of improperly accepting Wimbledon tickets during his trip to Britain last year and other "serious derelictions."

The IG also accused Shulkin's chief of staff of making false statements and altering a document so the secretary's wife could accompany him on a trip to Britain and Denmark at the cost of $4,312 to the VA. Shulkin initially denied the charges, then offered to reimburse the agency for the costs. His chief of staff retired following the report's publication.

Comment: At least Trump demands straight shooting from his crew.

Another crazy collusion idea: Mueller memo says Trump aide contacted 'assessed' Russian spy

RT
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 21:19 UTC

A new memo by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which brought up a contact between former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates and a person in Ukraine accused of being a Russian spy, has added fuel to the waning fires of Russiagate.

The sentencing memo filed on Tuesday pertains to the case of Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer for Gates who pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal investigators and is facing a sentencing next month. Mueller charged Gates and his business partner Paul Manafort ‒ who managed Donald Trump's presidential campaign between June and August of 2016 ‒ with money laundering and conspiracy over their lobbying work for the government of Ukraine, which ended in 2014.

The "bombshell" revelation, according to Trump's critics and many US media outlets, is that Gates and van der Zwaan had contacts with a "Person A" residing in Ukraine in September and October of 2016.

"Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel's Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016," the memorandum says, adding that "van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU," the Russian military intelligence service.

Proponents of the accusation that Trump "colluded" with Russia during the 2016 presidential election jumped on the revelations.

Comment: GRU: (in the Soviet Union) the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff, a military intelligence organization founded in 1920 and functioning as a complement to the KGB. [This is, of course, 2018...]

Comment: Is John McCain now on Mueller's list of Russiagate connections since he is Chairman of the Board in the IRI where the 'Russian spy' worked?

Boris Johnson threatens Russia with lightsabers, or something

Totalpolitics.com
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 18:55 UTC

Boris Johnson may be delusional enough to pride himself on being erudite and witty, but he fell short in a keynote speech with a weird reference to lightsabers, the fictional weapon of Jedi knights in Star Wars films.

Lavrov announces Russia will expel 60 US diplomats and close US consulate in St. Petersburg

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 18:07 UTC

Russia will expel sixty US diplomats and close the US consulate in St. Petersburg, in a response mirroring the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats initiated by the US and UK, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

US ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry and told the news by deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov, Lavrov said at the press conference following a meeting with the special UN envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura.

On Monday, Washington expelled 48 Russian diplomats from the bilateral mission and 12 more from the UN mission, and shut down the Russian consulate in Seattle. Canada, Australia and a number of US allies in Europe have followed up by expelling over 90 Russian diplomats.

In addition to the mirror response to the US, Moscow will expel the equal number of diplomats from those countries, Lavrov said.

Russian FM Lavrov calls for meeting of OPCW on April 2 over ex-spy Skripal poisoning

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 20:19 UTC

© Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.N. special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura attend a news conference after a meeting in Moscow, Russia March 29, 2018

Moscow is calling for a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPWC) on April 2 to have "an honest conversation" on the Skripal case, Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, said.

Moscow suggested convening a meeting of the OPCW executive council on April 2, where it will bring up all questions, Lavrov said adding that if "our Western partners" dodge this, then it will be further "evidence" that everything that's happened is a "provocation."

The FM again refuted Britain's accusations against Russia over poisoning the former double agent, saying that "never before have we witnessed such mockery of international law."

'From a hundred rabbits you can't make a horse, a hundred suspicions don't make a proof': Moscow quotes Dostoyevsky in reply to Boris Johnson over Skripal

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 19:38 UTC

© Simon Dawson
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during a banquet with diplomats at Mansion House in London, Britain March 28, 2018

Chiding Boris Johnson, who quoted Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment in reference to the Skripal saga, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman recalled another line from the novel: "a hundred suspicions don't make a proof."

In a speech on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson added some Russian flavor to accusations that Moscow was behind the poisoning of former double agent Sergey Skripal.

Blasting what he called the "wearying barrage of Russian lies, the torrent of obfuscation," Johnson said Russia's complicity in the Salisbury incident was "rather like the beginning of 'Crime and Punishment' in the sense that we are all confident of the culprit, and the only question is whether he will confess or be caught."

Comment: 'Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.'

Macron and Putin will meet in Moscow despite Skripal row

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 17:25 UTC

President Emmanuel Macron still intends to meet Vladimir Putin despite France joining a London-backed campaign of diplomatic expulsions against Russia. The Kremlin supports the Elysee's idea of solving problems through dialogue.

Moscow praised the "constructive approach" of the French towards relations with Russia despite disagreements, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. "The French leadership does not abandon dialogue; on the contrary, it is determined to solve problems through dialogue. This completely matches the approach of our president," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed that the French president is due to visit Moscow. The trip comes despite Western countries severing their diplomatic ties with Russia after London accused Moscow of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal without providing evidence or waiting for the outcome of an investigation.

"For the time being, the trip is still indicated, yes, for the moment the trip is still scheduled," Le Drian told RTL radio. The "dialogue" between the leaders would be "frank," he added, without proving any further details.

Maria Zakharova says West is launching an all-out anti-Russian campaign

The Saker
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 19:19 UTC

Comment: See also: Maria Zakharova completely rubbishes Britain's anti-Russia campaign on national TV

Theresa May considering ban on selling Russian debt in London

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 17:15 UTC

© Benoit Tessier / Reuters
The 1964 Aston Martin DB5 driven by actor Sean Connery as James Bond in both Goldfinger and Thunderball films

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed to consider a possible ban on selling Russian sovereign debt in London, the Guardian reports. British law allows Russian state banks to broker such deals despite sanctions.

Last month, City of London clearing houses, working with Russian state-run VTB bank, issued $4 billion of Russian sovereign debt, according to data quoted by the media.

The idea is being pushed by Tom Tugendhat, the foreign affairs select committee chairman. "At present, Russia can borrow in EU and US capital markets despite western sanctions and then can support the sanctioned Kremlin-linked banks and energy companies that can no longer do so," he said.

Trump Effect: Amazon shares plummet after reports Trump plans to 'go after' them over paying little taxes and killing smaller retailers

RT
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 16:55 UTC

Shares in the US e-commerce behemoth Amazon continued to drop on Thursday, wiping over $30 billion from its market value, after reports that President Donald Trump wants to curb the firm's growing power.

According to a report by the US news and information website Axios, Trump is planning to "go after" the world's largest online retailer amid growing concerns that Amazon's business is killing physical shopping malls and mom-and-pop retailers. "He's obsessed with Amazon," the media reported, citing one of five sources familiar with the issue.

The US president is reportedly planning to change the tax treatment of the firm. The question was previously raised by Trump when he urged the government to impose an internet tax on online retailers.

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Puppet Masters

Fired: Trump's Veteran Affairs Secretary, David Shulkin

Another crazy collusion idea: Mueller memo says Trump aide contacted 'assessed' Russian spy

Boris Johnson threatens Russia with lightsabers, or something

Lavrov announces Russia will expel 60 US diplomats and close US consulate in St. Petersburg

Russian FM Lavrov calls for meeting of OPCW on April 2 over ex-spy Skripal poisoning

'From a hundred rabbits you can't make a horse, a hundred suspicions don't make a proof': Moscow quotes Dostoyevsky in reply to Boris Johnson over Skripal

Macron and Putin will meet in Moscow despite Skripal row

Maria Zakharova says West is launching an all-out anti-Russian campaign

Theresa May considering ban on selling Russian debt in London

Trump Effect: Amazon shares plummet after reports Trump plans to 'go after' them over paying little taxes and killing smaller retailers

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