Puppet MastersS


Bug

Obama's claim that 7 million got 'access to health care for the first time' because of his Medicaid expansion earns Four Pinocchios

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© Unknown
"We've got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion."

The Fact Checker has written several times about the fuzziness of the Medicaid numbers issued by the Obama administration. But it is like playing whack-a-mole. Every time we rap someone for getting it wrong, the same problem pops up someplace else.

But here is the ultimate authority - the president of the United States - making the problematic claim that everyone counted under the administration's Medicaid math is getting "access to health care for the first time." Time for a refresher course!

The Facts

Medicaid is the health-care program for the poor, generally those at or below the federal poverty level. The Affordable Care Act expanded it to individuals with incomes of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (about $15,850), though the Supreme Court gave states the option of whether to participate.

So far, 25 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid, while four more are considering it. Under the ACA, the government will initially pay 100 percent of the cost of expansion, though it eventually drops to 90 percent. (Under the current formula, the cost is split at least 50-50 between the states and the federal government.)

Bad Guys

Anxious to not lose control of North Sea oil and gas, UK PM pleads with Scots to not vote for independence

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© Getty ImagesDavid Cameron will set out 'how the UK government can maximise the benefit of North Sea oil and gas to the UK economy for decades into the future'
Prime minister says UK government acting together is best guarantee for job prospects and economic benefits

David Cameron has opened a new front in the increasingly fraught battle to keep Scotland in the UK by warning that the future of the North Sea oil and gas industries depends on the combined strength of the union.

As the prime minister prepared to take almost his entire cabinet for a meeting in Aberdeen on Monday, he said it was the UK government acting together that could best guarantee the long-term job prospects and economic benefits of production and exploration.

Cameron, who is expected to make a series of announcements about the oil and gas industries on his visit, said that he would set out "how the UK government can maximise the benefit of North Sea oil and gas to the UK economy for decades into the future, giving a vital boost to local communities and families across Scotland".

He added: "It is the strength of the UK's broad-based economy which can make the difference and ensure we can invest in our energy for the long-term future. I promise we will continue to use the UK's broad shoulders to invest in this vital industry, so we can attract businesses, create jobs, develop new skills in our young people and ensure we can compete in the global race."

Pistol

Taliban kill 21 Afghan soldiers in night raid on Pakistan border

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© Jalil Rezayee/EPAAfghan army soldiers on guard duty at a beefed-up checkpoint following the Taliban attack.
Five other soldiers taken prisoner in show of strength against Afghan army just weeks ahead of critical election

The Taliban killed 21 Afghan soldiers on Sunday at a remote outpost near the border with Pakistan, and took at least five others prisoner, in a show of military strength just weeks before a critical election.

The night raid was one of the deadliest single attacks in recent years on the Afghan military, who are stronger and more disciplined than the police and less often targeted directly by insurgents.

President Hamid Karzai cancelled a planned trip to Sri Lanka to deal with the fallout from the deaths, and in a swipe at his neighbour condemned Islamabad for tolerating havens for the insurgents just inside its border.

The fighting came less than two months before a presidential election that, if it goes ahead smoothly, would give Afghanistan a first peaceful and democratic transfer of power.

Gear

Senators demand FBI head answer questions about indictment of Dinesh D'Souza

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© Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily NewsDinesh D'Souza
Four United States Senators have a written a letter to FBI director James Comey about the indictment of author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza. Senators Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Jeff Sessions, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee are the four senators, all Republicans, to have signed the letter.

The letter quotes Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz as saying, "I can't help but think that [D'Souza's] politics have something to do with it. ... It smacks of selective prosecution."

And, the senators write, "To dispel this sort of public perception that Mr. D'Souza may have been targeted because of his outspoken criticisms of the President, it is important for the FBI to be transparent regarding the precise origin of this investigation."

Comment:
Schindler's List producer states: "I never feared my government until now"


Snakes in Suits

The West selectively uses human rights issues to destroy North Korea

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Depopulation, murder, torture, starvation, slavery, sexual violence, political and religious repression - all these horrors were discovered by the UN Commission on Human Rights in a small North Korea. Experts interviewed by Pravda.Ru believe that the authors of the UN report were politically motivated, and the ultimate goal of these fake reports is the destruction of the DPRK.

The 372 pages long report was published online on February 17 by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The document is stated to be based on the testimony of defectors made during ​​80 public hearings in Seoul, Tokyo, London, Washington and Bangkok, as well as 240 confidential interviews with them. According to the press release, we are dealing with the extermination of the population, murder, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other forms of sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender-basis, forced relocation, kidnapping and inhumane food restriction during long periods of time.

In total, according to the UN, there are four large "labor camps" that contain anywhere from 80 to 120 thousand political prisoners. The report describes mothers feeding their malnourished children with snakes and rats, and families sent to prison because one of their relatives fled from North Korea.

Star of David

Flashback French Jewish Defence League terrorists patrolling illegal Israeli settlements

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© Jewish Defence LeagueArmed French citizens 'tanning under the sun' in a West Bank settlement.
The Jewish Defence League has dispatched French "militants" for a "show of solidarity" in illegal West Bank settlements

Two weeks ago, an announcement appeared on a French website, calling for "militants with military experience" to participate in a solidarity trip to Israel between September 19 and 25. "The aim of this expedition is to lend a hand to our brothers facing aggression from the Palestinian occupiers, and to enhance the security of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria," it explained. The dates of the trip coincide with the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.

As of yesterday, in response to this call, there were 55 French citizens, both men and women, with military experience, stationed inside the illegal Israeli settlements up and down the West Bank. Organised into five separate groups of 11, their mandate is to "defend the settlements against any attack from Palestinians", and to "aid" in areas where they feel there is a lack of Israeli army personnel or police forces.

The website belongs to the French chapter of the Jewish Defence League (JDL), a far-right Jewish group founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the United States in 1968. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has refered to the JDL as a "violent extremist organisation".

USA

American fits over Putin

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© Reuters/Alexander DemianchukRussian President Vladimir Putin watches from the stands during the Team Ladies Free Skating Program at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, February 9, 2014.
I have for a long time wanted to write about how the Western media, and especially the American media, portrays events happening in Russia and Russian foreign policy to Americans and American expert circles who do not read Russian...

...and unfortunately, there are many Americans considered experts on Russia who neither read nor speak Russian.

Now, as the Sochi Olympics turned the Western media's attention to Russian affairs one more time, the unlimited bias displayed in the US media has forced me to speak out on this topic again.

It is plainly obvious that the Western and especially the American mass media never aspired to give objective coverage to events unfolding in Russia after the fall of the USSR, and what's more, never aspired to give an unbiased account of the motives of Russia's domestic and foreign policy. There is therefore little surprise that they did not change their strategy for the Olympics. It is no coincidence that both before and after the openings of the games, the main themes one could read in the US media were not sports events or athletes, but rather the impending horror of potential terrorist attacks on both Sochi and all of Russia; looming criminal persecutions of Russian LGBT citizens, as well as of tourists and foreign LGBT athletes; the overblown disorganization of the Russian government in constructing the infrastructure for the Games; the endless talk of monstrous corruption and wastefulness of billions of dollars in the construction process; illusory Russian threats to its neighbors born in the minds of Western media and "experts"; and the alleged anti-Western démarches of Russia's diplomats.

War Whore

Russian General: "We are at war"

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In an interview published Feb. 5 by km.ru, Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former foreign relations head of the Russian Ministry of Defense and current president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, issued a sharp warning about the nature of the strategic crisis unfolding in Ukraine:
"Apparently they [officials of the European Union and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry] have dedicated themselves, and continue to do so, to deeply and thoroughly studying the doctrine of Dr. Goebbels. . . They present everything backwards from reality. It is one of the formulas which Nazi propaganda employed most successfully: . . . They accuse the party that is defending itself, of aggression. What is happening in Ukraine and Syria is is a project of the West, a new type of war: in both places you see a clear anti-Russian approach, and as is well known, wars today begin with psychological and information warfare operations. . . Kerry and Obama are encouraging in Kiev what they harshly repress in their country. European leaders break up unauthorized demonstrations with hoses, throwing demonstrators in jail, while in the Ukrainian case they do the exact opposite, and on top of that they threaten Russia. Logically, this is part of information warfare.

"Keep in mind that, under the cover of information commotion, U.S. ships are entering the Black Sea, that is, near Ukraine. They are sending marines, and they have also begun to deploy more tanks in Europe. . . We see that on the heels of the disinformation operation a land-sea, and possibly air operation is being prepared.

"They haven't even taught [opposition leaders] Klitchko, Yatsenyuk and Tyahnybok to run a government efficiently. The main thing is for them to take power, and destroy the Ukrainian state."
Currently in the Ukraine, there is a parliament in Kiev and a parliament in Kharkov. The parliament stripped Yanukovych of his powers and impeached him but he says they dont have the powers to do that and refuses to step down. The latest reports have the President in Donetsk. There is actually no single person in charge over there. It's chaos. Everything about the 'rebellion' reeks of western puppetry and fascism. Everything about the Yanukovych supporters of course reeks of Russia. The Crimea is having massive protests right now in the streets because they want to join in union with Russia. And Russia has stated it is prepared tosend in troops to protect ethnic Russiansof which there is 7-8 million of in Ukraine. Things are very fluid and changing hourly. Stay tuned..

Arrow Down

Convicted Goldman Sachs trader to teach economics

Fabrice
© Agence France-Presse
Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre is teaching economics at Chicago University as part of his PhD studies.
Just in case you thought for a second that the sorry discipline we call economics couldn't stoop any further into the gutter of academic idiocy and irrelevance, think again. It's now being reported that ex-Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre (recently convicted on six counts of securities fraud) will be teaching an honors economics class at the "prestigious" University of Chicago.

There's nothing like an esteemed University setting the already culturally accepted example that ethics are for suckers. Stealing, cheating and corruption are the values most exalted in today's world. It doesn't matter how you achieve your wealth, as long as you attain it. After all, it's not as if you'll ever get in trouble for it as long as you work for a "Too Big to Jail" bank.

From the UK's Independent:

HAL9000

Russian Lukoil halts oil supplies to Ukraine's Odessa refinery

Ukraine Odessa refinery
© Unknown
A few days ago we reported that the Ukraine decided to call Russia's "trump card" bluff - that would be everyone else's reliance on Russian gas supplies - when it drastically cut imports of Russian gas by 80% in February, seemingly to demonstrate its energy independence from Puting. Now Russia has decided to take the Ukraine to task, by announcing it has halted oil deliveries to the Ukraine Odessa refinery.

Hopefully the Ukraine, whose foreign currency reserves tumbled from $17.9 billion on February 1 to $15 billion currently, has alternative means of supplying itself with energy from benevolent sources, particularly those who are willing to provide the country with oil in exchange for goodwill.