Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Let's get Syrious (it's a mess!)

rebels and banners
© www.ibtimes.comFighters from Ahrar al Sham, the Free Syrian Army, and Al Nusrah Front display their banners after a victory in Idlib province, Syria.
Let's get serious about the mess in Syria. Western media and DC think tanks are still muddying the waters in order to spin the Russian military intervention and air campaign as some nefarious plot to rule the world. They pose a false either/or binary choice in doing so. Take this statement from the often reliable Institute for the Understanding of War (IUW): "The Russian air campaign in Syria appears to be largely focused on supporting the Syrian regime and its fight against the Syrian opposition, rather than combatting ISIS". The problem with this claim is that it conflates the Syrian opposition into one conglomerate while excluding IS from the opposition. First, the word 'opposition' is itself misleading. We are dealing with Syrian revolutionary forces. Understanding this aspect of the revolutionary/civil war, IS is one of the Syrian opposition/revolutionary groups.

Second, the other revolutionary forces are almost solely jihadi groups — Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), Ahrar al-Sham (AS), the Islamic Front (JI), etc., etc. — which often fight side-by-side with that supposedly 'moderate' revolutionary force, the Free Syrian Army (FSA). In fact, the FSA is dominated by fighters tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Third, the non-IS jihadi groups and the FSA often conduct joint operations.

Comment: All eyes are on the Russian bear to bring us out of the woods. Syriously. It is obvious the Western coalition can't see the forest for the trees. As masters of hubris and perception, lies and deception, fear and insurrection, they become masters of none. So far, Russia has been true to its word and true to its friends, even true to its "not friends." An accomplishment, and hopefully, a global game changer.


Vader

Barrel bombs, partisan sources and war propaganda: Prosecuting the dirty war on Syria

syria destruction
War propaganda often demands the abandoning of ordinary reason and principle, and the Dirty War on Syria demonstrates this in abundance. A steady stream of atrocity stories - 'barrel bombs', chemical weapons, 'industrial scale' killings, dead babies - permeate the western news on Syria. They all have two things in common: they paint the Syrian President and the Syrian Army as monsters slaughtering civilians, including children; yet, when tracked back, all the stories come from utterly partisan sources. We are being deceived.

Normal ethical notions of avoiding conflicts of interest, searching for independent evidence and disqualifying self-serving claims from belligerent parties have been ignored in much of the western debate. This toxic atmosphere invites further fabrications, repeated to credulous audiences, even when the lies used to justify previous invasions (of Iraq in 2003) and dirty wars (in Libya, 2011) are still relatively fresh in our minds. As in previous wars, the aim is to demonise the enemy, by use of repeated atrocity claims, and so mobilise popular support behind the war (Knightley 2001).

Yet in circumstances of war adherence to some key principles is necessary when reading contentious evidence; at least if we wish to understand the truth of the matter. A belligerent party always has a vital interest in discrediting and de-legitimising its opponent. For that reason, we must always view belligerent party 'evidence' against an opponent with grave suspicion. It is not that a warring party is incapable of understanding its opponent, rather what they say will always be conditioned by their special interest. We must assume bias. If there is no way to check the origin of that evidence, and if it is partisan and 'self-serving', it should be rejected as forensically worthless. This exclusion of 'self-serving' evidence follows broad principles applied in civil and criminal law. Such evidence only has value when it goes against the interest of the warring party, as with admissions, or when it says something about the mentality of the party putting it forward.

Stock Down

China starts dumping U.S. government debt

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The foreign feast on U.S. debt is over. For years, the central banks of emerging market countries have devoured U.S. debt in order to bolster their foreign currency reserves. The trend intensified amid booming trade surpluses fueled largely by the sale of commodities, from soybeans to crude.

While our government's debt has been a hot topic for many years, it's the money that we owe China that has been frightening financial analysts, especially since the crash of 2008. The fact that we are indebted to one of our biggest competitors on the global stage, does not bode well for our future. The only question is, what happens if China decides to pull the rug out from under us by ditching these debts?

We may be about to find out, since lately, China has been dropping US government bonds like hot potatoes. After the Chinese government devalued the yuan in August, their currency experienced a massive sell-off by investors who feared that more devaluations were ahead. To contain the situation, China's central bank has been buying up their own currency while selling their dollar reserves.

And China isn't alone either. By July, Russia had sold $32.8 billion in US Treasury debt, and Brazil and Taiwan have been dumping the dollar as well. All of these countries used to be our biggest customers. India has actually increased its holdings, but it hasn't been nearly enough to offset what we've lost. Foreign purchases of US treasury notes and bonds have been in the red throughout 2015, and peaked to about $123 billion in loses last summer; the largest decline since we started keeping track in 1978. While the trend is still young, it appears that the global dollar sell-off has begun in earnest.

Comment: Washington's financial/currency war on China and the Yuan's eclipse of the US dollar


Chess

What does Russia want regarding Syria?

Putin posters wall
© www.nytimes.comSyrian tribute to Putin
The Western media has portrayed Russia's recent joint anti-terror security operations with the Syrian government as a means of expanding its influence beyond its borders. CNN in its article, "Petraeus accuses Putin of trying to re-establish Russian Empire," would go as far as claiming:
One of America's top former generals compared the situation in Syria Tuesday to a historic nuclear disaster, implicitly criticizing the U.S. for allowing it to worsen, and accused Russia's President of trying to re-establish an empire.

Russian moves in Syria are designed to bolster and hold on to their naval base and airstrip along the Mediterranean coast of Syria, and shore up the al-Assad regime in order to preserve Russian influence in the Middle East, Petraeus said. "I think that what Vladimir Putin would like to do is resurrect the Russian empire," he said.
Ironically, the United States maintains over 800 military bases around the world while occupying Afghanistan since 2001 and carrying out armed operations everywhere from Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria to the borders of Pakistan. Russia's only overseas base is in fact the naval facility mentioned by Petraeus. Petraeus never elaborates on how despite such obvious disparity between Russia and America regarding foreign policy, why Russia is suspected of pursuing "empire" while the US is not then completely guilty of already establishing and fighting desperately to maintain an immense one.

Comment: A definitive assessment and overview of the differences between the West and Russia becoming more observable and evidenced as time passes.
  • US/NATO Goal: Regime changes via terrorist organizations, to eventually include Iran, Russia, China.
  • Russia Goal: Stop Western conquest, seek partners, balance of power, respect of sovereignty, multipolar future.
If you were Syria, who would you want on your side? The choices and consequences are worlds apart.


Chess

The West is at a dangerous crossroads in the Middle East

Russia Syria
© AP Photo / Bilal Hussein
In between Russia's military intervention in Syria and Iran's challenging of Saudi Arabia's hegemonic power in the Middle East, the region is witnessing unprecedented political frictions.

Those growing pains will ultimately see manifest a new order - which one remains to be determined.

If the Middle East has long been a festering ground for political unrest, ethnic friction and sectarian tension, arguably the direct product of failed Western policies, both Russia and Iran's insistence on challenging the powers has set in motion a new dynamic, one which could yet see a rise of a new geo-political order - where American exceptionalism and Saudi hegemony will no longer hold any diktats over world nations.

Comment: The times are certainly changing, and quick too. The US is beginning to be held responsible for its crimes:

Doctor's Without Borders to formally launch investigation over Afghanistan hospital bombing with commission formed by Geneva Conventions

But of course the West has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's currently run by psychopaths. The world is at a dangerous crossroads because of that, and it can be expected that the West will not change and suddenly choose the 'sane' path:

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter 'You'll be sorry' : Russia will soon suffer 'casualties' for Syria involvement


Star of David

Escalating violence: 6 Israelis, including IDF soldier, injured in stabbings

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© Mussa Qawasma / ReutersIsraeli border policemen take position as they fire tear gas canisters during clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron October 8, 2015.
Israel was hit by a wave of six stabbings Thursday blamed mostly on Palestinian militants. The victims included a female Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier. It follows a week of violence which has already seen four Israelis killed.

Thursday attack on the IDF soldier took place near Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv when a Palestinian approached the woman with a screwdriver and stabbed her in the neck. He then stabbed three others before being chased. He was shot and killed by another soldier while attempting to flee, a police spokeswoman said.

Comment: The increasing violence by "lone wolf" assailants looks like it could be related to Israel not wanting a two-state solution and providing proof that the Palestinians are not "civilized" enough. The question is who benefits -- certainly not the Palestinians.


Eye 1

H is for Hypocrisy - Hillary's sordid past

hillary
As Hillary's poll numbers continue to slide, she is desperately trying to hold onto her supposed base: women. The foundation of her campaign is quickly eroding, as polls show that women are indeed much smarter than Hillary thinks.

On Monday, September 14, Hillary released a campaign video message to show her solidarity with women who have been sexually assaulted and Tweeted some of her quotes from it. She said, "Don't let anyone silence your voice. You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We're with you."

Hillary certainly is familiar with sexual assault, having spent decades trying to cover it up on behalf of her husband and others, often destroying women's lives in the process. It is Hillary who has demeaned, degraded and in many cases silenced those women unlucky enough to be sexually assaulted by her husband. As I reveal in detail in my upcoming book The Clintons' War on Women, it is Hillary who hired private detectives to track, intimidate, terrorize and silence those women unlucky enough to be sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton.

She has headed the cleanup crew of Bill's sexual assaults on Eileen Wellstone, Juanita Broaddrick, Carolyn Moffet, Liz Ward Gracen, Becky Brown, Helen Dowdy, Paula Jones, Kathy Fergusen, Christy Zercher and Kathleen Willey, among dozens of others.

Yoda

Putin - the incredible Abou Ali

putin poetin
In Syria, Putin is endearingly nicknamed Abou Ali; a term given to someone who is tough and, the world is learning that when he talks business, he means business.
As the news of the Russian military action in Syria intensifies and takes more rather affirmative steps, the rest of the world cannot help but to look with a mixed bag of emotions all the way from awe to gratitude, anxiety, disappointment, frustration or fear and many others in between. Diverse as they may be in their outlooks, all observers are united in their gasps of disbelief.

It may look daunting to ascertain what best represents the major point of view of each stakeholder concerned, let alone to bundle the whole lot together in a manner that makes a comprehensive sense. However, if the main punch lines are considered simultaneously, the picture becomes much clearer.

One can almost conclusively say that the Russian strikes of one single week have been at least much more effective than those of the US-led coalition conducted over the whole last year or so. The actual news of Russian missions are not very detailed. They come in dribs and drabs without the American Hollywood-style razzmatazz that we have got used to ever since the 1991 Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. However, the fact that enemies of the legitimate government of Syria are upset, to say the least, is a clear indication that the Russian strikes are achieving their objectives.

Bad Guys

The derivatives market is a matrix of fraud - here's how it works

banksters
© Illustration by Victor Juhasz
No one "understands" derivatives. How many times have readers heard that thought expressed (please round-off to the nearest thousand)? Why does no one understand derivatives? For many; the answer to that question is that they have simply been thinking too hard. For others; the answer is that they don't "think", at all.

Derivatives are bets. This is not a metaphor, or analogy, or generalization. Derivatives are bets. Period. That's all they ever were. That's all they ever can be. This can be easily illustrated by simply examining and defining some of the more well-known "derivatives", meaning those derivatives with whom everyone is familiar with their labels.

Let's start with the two largest and most-important forms of this gambling (and fraud): "interest rate swaps" and "credit default swaps". What is an interest rate swap? This is a bet between a banker (i.e. the people who control interest rates) and a Chump, on which direction an interest rate will move.

Comment: The derivatives market has been used to bring the world economy to its knees, and it looks like it's about to blow:

Global financial meltdown coming? Clear signs that the great derivatives crisis has now begun


Magnify

Doctors Without Borders to formally launch investigation over Afghanistan hospital bombing with commission formed by Geneva Conventions

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© AP Photo/Bebeto MatthewsJason Cone, U.S. executive director of Doctors Without Borders, pauses as he speaks during a press conference Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, in New York calling for an independent, international investigation into the U.S. air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people.
"Even war has rules," declared Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who announced Wednesday that the aid organization will take unprecedented action against the U.S. military by formally launching an international fact-finding inquiry into the bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, which was established by the Additional Protocols of the Geneva Conventions, is the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations of international humanitarian law. Though it was established in 1991, this investigation marks the first time the Commission has been requested.

"This was not just an attack on our hospital—it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated," Liu stated. "These Conventions govern the rules of war and were established to protect civilians in conflicts - including patients, medical workers and facilities. They bring some humanity into what is otherwise an inhumane situation."

MSF has asserted that Saturday's airstrike amounts to nothing less than a war crime. Twenty-two people died in the attack, including 12 MSF staff members and 10 patients, and an additional 37 were wounded.

Comment: The United States has literally been getting away with murder for far too long. Let's see if Doctors Without Borders can finally hold them accountable.