Puppet Masters

Tehran condemns Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for supporting US decision to designate IRGC as terrorist org

Sputnik
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:34 UTC

Iran strongly condemns Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for supporting the United States' decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"Some countries in the region are accustomed to blindly agreeing with what their trans-regional bosses say. These countries themselves are the main propagators of the doctrines and ideas of terrorism in the region and the world, and have not missed any opportunity to help and support terrorist groups in recent decades," the spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, as quoted by the MEHR news agency, adding that the stances of the two countries were "awkward and unwise."

Qassemi also accused the two countries of promoting terrorism in the region, adding that their stance on Iran would not divert the world's attention from their own actions.

The statement comes after on Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would recognise IRGS as a foreign terrorist organisation, arguing that Iran was allegedly using it to spread terrorism. The move was welcomed by Saudi Arabia, which cut off its diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2016, and Bahrain, which has repeatedly accused the IRGC of destabilising situation in the region.

IRGC is a branch of Iran's Armed Forces that was founded in 1979 in order to struggle against left-wing opposition groups. Today IRGC has a wide range of responsibilities such as domestic security, overseeing the activities of political, social, and non-governmental organisations, private companies and firms; preventing foreign interference. In addition, it controls Islamic norms of life and morality.

Battlefield Libya: Fruits of US-NATO regime change

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:20 UTC

Libya is back in the news, as fighting escalates around the capital, Tripoli.

Forces under the control of Khalifa Haftar - a former Libyan general under the government of Muammar Qaddafi - turned opposition during the 2011 US-led NATO intervention - turned "opposition" again against the UN-backed "Government of National Accord" (GNA) seated in Tripoli - have most recently reached Tripoli's airport.

The confusing chaos that has continually engulfed Libya since 2011 should come as no surprise. It is the predictable outcome that follows any US-led political or military intervention. Other examples showcasing US-led regime change "success" include Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine.

And just like in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine - the Western corporate media has regularly omitted mention of Libya from headlines specifically to mask the very predictable consequences of US-led regime change as additional interventions against nations like Venezuela, Syria, and Iran are engineered and pursued.

Post-Mueller Putin Derangement Sydrome

Patrick Armstrong
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 17:14 UTC

The West - its governments and its governments' scribes - are obsessed with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Obsessed" is probably too weak a word to describe the years of impassioned coverage, airy speculation and downright nonsense. He is the world's leading cover boy: military hats, Lenin poses, imperial crowns, scary red eyes, strait-jackets, clown hats; anything and everything. He's the avatar of Stalin, he's the avatar of the Tsars, he's the Joker, he's Cthulhu, he's Voldemort, he's Satan. He's the palimpsest for the New World Order's nightmares. Putin is always messing with our minds. He weaponises information, misinformation and sexual assault accusations. Childrens' cartoons, fishsticks, Pokemon and Yellow Vests, "Putin's warships" are lurking when they aren't stalking; "Putin's warplanes" penetrate European airspace; "Putin's tanks", massing in 2016, massing in 2018, still massing. His empire of rogue states grows. All Putin, all the time.

In an especially imbecile display in 2015, Western reporters (unable to find his website) thinking he hadn't been seen for several days started a contest of speculation about coups, death, wars, plastic surgery, secret births and other nonsense; when he "re-appeared", the story went down the Memory Hole.

For some reason, Americans personalise everything. In meetings with US intelligence agencies I was always fascinated how they would reduce every complicated reality to a single individual. But it isn't Saddam, or Assad, or Qaddafi, or Osama, or Aidid, or Milosevic, or Maduro, or Castro or any of the other villains-of-the-day, it's a whole country: these people got to the top for good reasons. Removing the boss makes some difference but never all the difference. They go but they never leave a Washington-friendly country behind and Washington does it all over again somewhere else. This peculiar blindness drives Putin Derangement Syndrome and has infected everybody else.

Why media won't drop the obviously corrupt SPLC

Warren Henry
The Federalist
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 17:02 UTC

The Southern Poverty Law Center - America's wealthiest so-called civil rights group - is engulfed in scandal. Do not expect the establishment media to stop relying on them anytime soon.

In March, the SPLC ousted its co-founder and public face, Morris Dees, amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and mistreatment of nonwhite staffers. Two weeks later, SPLC president Richard Cohen stepped down to assist the group in implementing findings of an internal investigation.

That the SPLC has been a problematic organization for many years has been clear to anyone who cared to take a close look. Bob Moser, a former SPLC writer, recently summed up the prior findings of non-right-wing publications: "In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers' allegations of racial discrimination within the organization. In Harper's, Ken Silverstein had revealed that the center had accumulated an endowment topping a hundred and twenty million dollars while paying lavish salaries to its highest-ranking staffers and spending far less than most nonprofit groups on the work that it claimed to do. The great Southern journalist John Egerton, writing for The Progressive, had painted a damning portrait of Dees, the center's longtime mastermind, as a 'super-salesman and master fundraiser' who viewed civil-rights work mainly as a marketing tool for bilking gullible Northern liberals."

Nevertheless, Moser was shocked by what he found when he began working for the SPLC in 2001. A co-worker laughingly retorted: "And you call yourself a journalist! Clearly you didn't do your research." Moser was far from the only journalist who has not done his research. And why would they? After all, the SPLC were the Good Guys fighting right-wingers who were obviously the Bad Guys.

Turkey seeks early delivery for Russian S-400 air-defense systems

RFE/RL
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:24 UTC

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Russian air-defense missile systems could be delivered earlier than initially planned, standing by a purchase that has put the NATO member at odds with Washington.

"The delivery of the S-400 missile-defense system was to be in July, maybe it can be brought forward," Erdogan told journalists on his plane following a trip to Russia, Turkish media reported on April 10.

Meanwhile, four U.S. senators said that "it is time" for Erdogan to choose between the Russian S-400 systems and two U.S. products: Patriot missiles and F-35 fighter jets.

The United States has demanded that Ankara call off its deal with Russia, saying that the S-400 system is incompatible with NATO systems and seen as a threat to the U.S.-made F-35.

'Not partners, friends': Putin calls out his 'bandit' translator for making him sound less warm to Sweden

RT
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:35 UTC

© Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven speak through a translator at the International Arctic Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin branded his translator a "bandit" during a conversation with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, after noticing a not very accurate translation of his words.

The conversation Tuesday followed the international Arctic forum in St. Petersburg, where Russia is attempting to strengthen ties with other states in the region. Putin highlighted the $5 billion Swedish businessmen invested in Russia, referring to them as "druz'ya" (friends), not once, but twice, emphasizing the word.

Leaked Google 'news blacklist' documents show manual manipulation of special search results is policy

J. Arthur Bloom
The Daily Caller
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:09 UTC

Google does manipulate its search results manually, contrary to the company's official denials, documents obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller indicate.

Two official policies dubbed the "misrepresentation policy" and the "good neighbor policy" inform the company's "XPA news blacklist," which is maintained by Google's Trust & Safety team. "T&S will be in charge of updating the blacklist as when there is a demand," reads one of the documents shared with The Daily Caller.

"The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies," the policy document says.

Comment:

Democrats mull reparations for slavery as a political tool for attention in 2020 election

RT
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 21:36 UTC

With Democratic frontrunner Cory Booker mulling plans to compensate descendants of slaves, the controversial campaign issue has some hoping it could tackle racial inequality, and others saying we need to let sleeping dogs lie.

Conservative commentator Anthony Brian Logan says that while reparations for slavery may have made sense immediately after the fact, "150 years" have passed since then, making it a lot more tricky to know who should being paying whom. Moreover, today's politicians are not looking at the issue in earnest: "It's no more than a campaign promise from Democratic hopefuls trying to get some kind of attention."

Attorney and author Reese Everson calls that argument "ridiculous," saying that if she stole a large sum of money from someone, her death would not stop her victim from trying to get the money back.

Is it too late to repay the victims of this dark chapter in American history, or are we making things worse by passing the buck? Watch the full debate on RT.

'Buy US gas or else': Washington's attempt to impose its will on the EU stirs anti-American moods

Grete Mautner
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:43 UTC

The untamed desire of the Trump administration to impose all sorts of conditions and restrictions on the way that Europe operates is clearly leading to an abrupt increase in anti-American moods across various social layers of the European society. Practically speaking, there's an avid hatred visible all across the EU towards Trump's use of the 'Al Capone approach', which is typical for American businessmen who would try to brute force their way into foreign markets and influence them in any way possible.

Even before the European Union created a vehicle to bypass American sanctions against Iran last January, it was clear that Washington wasn't simply trying to inflict maximum damage to Tehran, as many EU companies found themselves staring down the barrel of American gun. However, there's no denying that the special purpose vehicle known as INSTEX (Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges) did come in handy, as German, French and even British companies can now do business with Iran while bypassing dollar completely or even without any direct transactions with Tehran. Before INSTEX was introduced, one had to remain mindful of the fact that the US State department was capable of tracing international transactions and blocking them, which meant that Europe had the challenge of dodging a curve ball every time it wanted to sell something to Tehran. But it seems that the EU has had enough of both the US-imposed dollar system along with Washington's attempts to champion European foreign policy agenda.

Comment: Self-interest will always win out in the end. The EU cannot afford to subsidize Washington's campaign against Russia, no matter how much the US bellows. Hence the institution of INSTEX. As the US share of world trade begins to fall, it will have no one to blame but itself.

Blackout strikes Venezuela again as earlier cases blamed on 'sabotage'

RT
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:53 UTC

Venezuela suffered another blackout, with Caracas and other areas around the country reporting a loss of power shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

The mayor of the Bolivarian Libertador Municipality, Érika Farías Peña, tweeted: "at this time a new impact on the electric service is reported, not only in Caracas, but also in various regions of the country. The first call to keep calm, STEEL NERVES."

However, within minutes reports came in that the power was starting to gradually return. A member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) said workers in the service areas were working on fixing the issue and that hospitals had alternative systems set up to provide power, Telesur reports.

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tekdude

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Solare

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Demore

Puppet Masters

Tehran condemns Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for supporting US decision to designate IRGC as terrorist org

Battlefield Libya: Fruits of US-NATO regime change

Post-Mueller Putin Derangement Sydrome

Why media won't drop the obviously corrupt SPLC

Turkey seeks early delivery for Russian S-400 air-defense systems

'Not partners, friends': Putin calls out his 'bandit' translator for making him sound less warm to Sweden

Leaked Google 'news blacklist' documents show manual manipulation of special search results is policy

Democrats mull reparations for slavery as a political tool for attention in 2020 election

'Buy US gas or else': Washington's attempt to impose its will on the EU stirs anti-American moods

Blackout strikes Venezuela again as earlier cases blamed on 'sabotage'

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