Puppet MastersS


Stock Down

Venezuela's oil production on the brink of collapse

Nick Cunningham
Oilprice
Wed, 17 May 2017 11:50 UTC
Oil worker in Venezuela
© Jorge Silva / Reuters
Desperation is spreading in Venezuela as violent protests continue to paralyze the country, further damaging the country's shattered economy. Venezuela's already-decrepit oil industry is deteriorating by the day, and an outright implosion is no longer out of the question.

The inflation rate, according to the IMF, will balloon to 720 percent this year. Food shortages have been common for quite some time, but are deepening and wearing down the population. Three out of four people surveyed by the WSJ reported involuntary weight loss last year. Hospitals have completely broken down.

Venezuela has been crippled by protests since late March, with more than three dozen people having been killed over the past two months, and there is no sign of improvement. This meltdown is taking a toll on Venezuela's oil production, the last thing keeping the country from becoming a failed state. Venezuela's oil production has been declining for more than a decade, mainly because oil revenues are used to finance the government, leaving little for state-owned PDVSA to reinvest in its operations.
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Stock Down

$35bn hit: Zuckerberg, Gates among those to suffer massive losses amid Trump-Russia claims


RT
Thu, 18 May 2017 11:26 UTC
Bill Gates
© Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates
Billionaires and millionaires the world over have become poorer to the tune of $35 billion, following the media scandal surrounding allegations of highly classified data being leaked by US President Donald Trump to Russia.

Stock markets suffered a meltdown on Wednesday after the alleged revelations, resulting in huge losses for almost every one of world's 500 richest people, according to Bloomberg.
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Snakes in Suits

Wait a sec... You mean James Comey wrote a memo to HIMSELF, then "leaked" it to the NYT?

Mike Adams
Natural News
Thu, 18 May 2017 04:10 UTC
james comey
© Natural News
Seriously, now: At what point does the idiocy of the corporate-run media finally become so utterly obvious to everyone that we all just laugh out loud at the idea that the NYT (or WashPost) has any credibility at all?

The latest "bombshell" news story from the New York Times — entitled Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation — is based entirely on a memo that James Comey wrote to himself, then "leaked" to the NYT.

Huh?

If you wrote it yourself, it's not exactly a "leak," is it? It's actually some words scribbled on a napkin, all of which may or may not be accurate about what was actually said at the meeting. For all we know, James Comey decided to scribble his silly memo the day after he got fired by Trump.
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Attention

'His name was #SethRich': Twitter rages while lamestream media tries to bury news of DNC murder

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00 UTC
seth rich
On Monday night a local Fox affiliate out of Washington D.C. dropped a bombshell from a private investigator, and former D.C. homicide detective, Rod Wheeler. The bombshell was in regard to the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Wheeler revealed that Rich had been in touch with WikiLeaks prior to his death, and had leaked thousands of internal emails to the transparency group.

"My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and Wikileaks," Wheeler said. "The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming. They haven't been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both."

When Wheeler was asked if his sources have told him whether there is information that links Rich to Wikileaks, he said, "Absolutely. Yeah. That's confirmed."

Additionally, Wheeler, who was hired by the family to investigate Rich's murder, has received information from his sources inside the D.C. police department that suggest powerful forces are working to cover up the truth about the killing.

Comment: More on the story behind the murder of Seth Rich:

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Handcuffs

Feds arrest dozens of MS-13 gang members in over 40 raids across Los Angeles


RT
Wed, 17 May 2017 21:18 UTC
person handcuffed
© West Coast Surfer / Global Look Press
Hundreds of federal and local law enforcement officers, in pre-dawn simultaneous raids, stormed homes and storefronts in Los Angeles, arresting dozens of people with alleged high-ranking leadership roles in the MS-13 gang.

The raids kicked off just before 4:00am Wednesday as roughly 1,000 officers from agencies including the FBI, DEA, LAPD, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and ICE hoped to catch suspects off guard as part of a years-long racketeering investigation, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Today we disrupted this gang's command and control," said Eric Harden, the special agent in charge of the ATF's Los Angeles field division, according to CNN. "We believe the most impact is made by targeting the mid-to-upper-level hierarchy of the gang and removing them."

"Once removed, it causes a disorganization of the gang, where it suppresses their activity for an extensive amount of time until another leader is developed or steps up."
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Laptop

First US, then EU, now Australia considers laptop ban on some international flights


RT
Wed, 17 May 2017 20:59 UTC
Qantas Airways Airbus A330-300 jet
© Jason Reed / Reuters
As US and EU officials discuss expanding Washington's ban on laptops and tablets to European flights, the Australian government is thinking about a similar prohibition.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday Canberra is considering banning electronic devices on flights from some West Asian countries.

Australia would "work very closely with our partners around the world" in regularly reviewing aviation security, he said.

The US ban on electronics was put in place in March and affects about 50 flights a day from ten cities, mostly in the Middle East.

Comment: How far will this ridiculousness go? Maybe a total ban on all flights in the world?

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Colosseum

Political schizophrenia: Congressman Al Green calls for Trump impeachment in US Senate


RT
Wed, 17 May 2017 20:51 UTC
senator al green
Al has a dream: total chaos in the USA
Representative Al Green (D-Texas) has called for impeachment proceedings to begin against President Donald Trump. His speech on the House Floor came as a group of Democrats distanced themselves from calls for impeachment.

"I rise today with a heavy heart," Green began. "I rise today with a sense of responsibility and duty to the people who have elected me, a sense of duty to this country, a sense of duty to the Constitution of the United States of America. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America for obstruction of justice."

His call for impeachment was "not for political purposes," Green said. "I do this because, Mr. Speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law, and that includes the president."
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Network

China Daily: NSA should 'shoulder some blame' for WannaCry ransomware attack


RT
Wed, 17 May 2017 20:48 UTC
NSA logo
© imago stock&people / Global Look Press
America's National Security Agency (NSA) should accept partial blame for the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack which has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries, according to Chinese state media.

A Wednesday editorial in the China Daily said that the NSA should "shoulder some of the blame, because the computer virus is based on one of the hacking tools that the agency created for its own use, which ended up in the hands of cyber criminals."

It notes the severity of the issue, stressing that even an agency "tasked with protecting citizens from cyberattacks" was left vulnerable to hackers.

Comment: NSA developed the code and didn't keep it secure so they should shoulder some of the blame. Now the world knows what the NSA is capable of:

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Megaphone

Best of the Web: Professor Steven Cohen: Assault on Trump presidency by intelligence agencies is greatest ever threat to national security

Dr. Fly
iBankCoin
Tue, 16 May 2017 17:27 UTC
cohen carlson fox
Steven Cohen, Professor of Russian studies at Princeton and NYU (an obvious Russian spy) was besides himself tonight, in sheer disbelief over the witch hunt of gigantic nothing-burgers that are being used to assault the Presidency of Donald Trump.

He declared, "today, I would say (the greatest threat to national security) is this assault on President Trump. Let's be clear what he's being accused of is treason. This has never happened in America, that we had a Russian agent in the White House. Cohen believes Flynn did nothing wrong by talking to the Russian ambassador, describing it as 'his job' to do so.

He then illuminated the indelible fact that there is a 4th branch of government, the intelligence community, who have been meddling in American foreign affairs, obstructing the other 3 branches of government.
"In 2016, President Obama worked out a deal with Russian President Putin for military cooperation in Syria. He said he was gonna share intelligence with Russia, just like Trump and the Russians were supposed to do the other day. Our department of defense said it wouldn't share intelligence. And a few days later, they killed Syrian soldiers, violating the agreement, and that was the end of that. So, we can ask, who is making our foreign policy in Washington today?"
Professor Cohen added, "you and I have to ask a subversive question, are there really three branches of government, or is there a 4th branch of government? These intel services. What we know, as a fact, is that Obama tried, not very hard but he tried for a military alliance with Putin, in Syria, against terrorism and it was sabotaged by the department of defense and its allies in the intelligence services."

Watch.

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Jet4

23 civilians, including six children "mistakenly" killed in suspected Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen


RT
Wed, 17 May 2017 20:46 UTC
Royal Saudi Air Force jets
© Fahad Shadeed / ReutersRoyal Saudi Air Force jets
At least 23 civilians, including six children, were "mistakenly" killed in Yemen in a suspected Saudi-led coalition airstrike, according to media reports.

A vehicle carrying civilians, including women and children, was struck in a suspected airstrike in the Yemeni town of Mawzaa, southwest of Taiz, on Wednesday, AFP reports.

An unnamed coalition military source confirmed the raid on the Houthi rebel-held area, claiming that the civilian casualties were the result of a "mistake."

At least six children were killed in the incident, while the bodies of six other victims were charred beyond recognition, the Houthi rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported.

There was no immediate response available from the Saudi-led coalition.
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