Puppet MastersS


Gold Bar

What happened the last time we saw gold drop like this?

The rapidity of gold's drop is impressive, concerning, and disorderly. We have seen two other such instances of disorderly 'hurried' selling in the last five years. In July 2008, gold quickly dropped 21% - seemingly pre-empting the Lehman debacle and the collapse of the western banking system. In September 2011, gold fell 20% in a short period - as Europe's risks exploded and stocks slumped prompting a globally co-ordinated central bank intervention the likes of which we have not seen before. Given the almost-record-breaking drop in gold in the last few days, we wonder what is coming?

Gold_1
© Bloomberg

USA

San Diego police attack and arrest man video recording them, claiming phone could be a weapon

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San Diego police slapped a cell phone camera out of a man's hands Saturday, claiming it could be a weapon, before pouncing on him and handcuffing him, lacerating his chin in the process.

Adam Pringle ended up jailed overnight on charges of obstruction because he refused to hand the phone over when the cop ordered him to do so.

But it's already been established by numerous court cases as well as the U.S. Department of Justice that police do not have the right to take your camera unless it is being used in a commission of a crime.

In this case, Pringle's only crime was smoking a cigarette on a Mission Beach boardwalk, a violation for which he was already getting cited.

"It is against the law to smoke cigarettes on the boardwalk, so I admit I was breaking the law," Pringle said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Tuesday.

The incident took place at 7 p.m. Saturday evening as Pringle and two buddies were walking on the boardwalk and came across two cops on bicycles who stopped them and started writing Pringle a citation.

Eye 1

The Department of Defense has issued an instruction clarifying the rules for the involvement of military forces in civilian law enforcement

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Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, XVIII Fires Brigade train last December to “respond to an escalating civil-disturbance situation caused by unhappy simulated hurricane victims.” According to an article produced by the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, the training was designed to prepare the soldiers “for their upcoming assignment as a quick reaction and rapid response force for U.S. Army North Command in support of emergencies in the United States.”
The instruction establishes "DoD policy, assigns responsibilities, and provides procedures for DoD support to Federal, State, tribal, and local civilian law enforcement agencies, including responses to civil disturbances within the United States."

The new instruction titled "Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies" was released at the end of February, replacing several older directives on military assistance to civilian law enforcement and civil disturbances. The instruction requires that senior DoD officials develop "procedures and issue appropriate direction as necessary for defense support of civilian law enforcement agencies in coordination with the General Counsel of the Department of Defense, and in consultation with the Attorney General of the United States", including "tasking the DoD Components to plan for and to commit DoD resources in response to requests from civil authorities for [civil disturbance operations]."

Military officials are to coordinate with "civilian law enforcement agencies on policies to further DoD cooperation with civilian law enforcement agencies" and the heads of the combatant commands are instructed to issue procedures for "establishing local contact points in subordinate commands for purposes of coordination with Federal, State, tribal, and local civilian law enforcement officials."

Stock Down

100 years later: America was much better off before the income tax

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Dees Illustrations
Did you know that the greatest period of economic growth in American history was during a time when there was absolutely no federal income tax?

Between the end of the Civil War and 1913, there was an explosion of economic activity in the United States unlike anything ever seen before or since. Unfortunately, a federal income tax was instituted in 1913, and this year it turned 100 years old. But there was no fanfare, was there? There was no celebration because the federal income tax is universally hated. Sadly, most Americans just assume that there is no other option to an income tax. Most Americans just assume that it has always been with us and that it will always be with us. This year, the American people will shell out approximately $4.22 trillion in state and federal income taxes.

That amount is equivalent to approximately 29.4 percent of all income that Americans will bring in this year, and that does not even take into account the dozens of other taxes that Americans pay each year. At this point, the U.S. tax code is about 13 miles long, and those that are honest and pay their taxes every year are being absolutely shredded by this system. But wouldn't the federal government go broke if we didn't have a federal income tax? No, actually the truth is that the federal government did just fine before there was an income tax. In fact, the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger since the federal income tax and the Federal Reserve were created by Congress back in 1913.

As I have written about previously, the Federal Reserve system was actually designed to trap the United States in a debt spiral from which it could never possibly escape, and the federal income tax was needed to greatly expand the size of the federal government and to soak the American people of the funds necessary to service that debt. But it doesn't have to be this way. America was once much better off before the income tax and the Federal Reserve were created, and we could easily go to such a system again.

No Entry

Senate leaders block public database of Congressional financial disclosure

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Quietly and after many members had left for the weekend, the Senate voted Thursday night to approve a new bill, S. 716, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), that no one had read, and that was not publicly available on the Library of Congress website until after the vote.

The purpose of the bill was to gut key provisions in the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requiring broad disclosure of already public reports about the personal finances of public officials and employees. Responding to concerns that some provisions of the STOCK Act were overly broad and might put some government employees at risk, the Senate decided to exclude legislative and executive staffers from the online disclosure requirements entirely and to delay implementation of other mandates for themselves.

Bad Guys

France's media admits that the Syrian "opposition" is Al Qaida, then justifies French government support to the terrorists

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© Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
In a report published on the 11th of April French daily Le Monde admits that rebels fighting the government of the Syrian Arab Republic are dominated by Japhat Al Nosra, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaida. The admission comes after two years of non-stop disinformation trumpeted from all French mainstream media outlets from the official right to the official left, disinformation that has attempted to convince the French public that democratic revolutionaries are fighting a war for human rights and freedom against a brutal, tyrannical dictator, who is '' killing his own people''.

This puerile and deeply dishonest narrative has now been utterly discredited, as the facts about the terrorist nature of the Syrian rebels have become too obvious to ignore. In an article entitled 'The New Visage of French Jihadism' it is reported that French jihadists are leaving France in their hundreds to join the 'holy war' against the Syrian Arab Republic, with many more joining jihadist groups in Mali.

On the same page in an article entitled 'Al Qaida extends its territory and unites its forces in Iraq and Syria', Le Monde's Christophe Ayad reports:
'The head of Iraq's Islamic state, the Iraqi branch of Al Qaida, announced in a recorded message on April 9th, that his group would be fused with the Japhat AL Nosra( Support Front), the principal armed jihadist organization in Syria. The new group will be called Al-Qaida in Iraq and the Levant. This announcement comes two days after the call of Ayman Al-Zawarhiri, the successor of Osama Bin Laden in the leadership of Al-Qaida 'headquarters,' for the establishment of an Islamic state after the fall of the regime of Bachar-Al-Assad, afflicted since two years by an insurrection by the Sunni majority.'[1]

Dollars

How much "civilization" does your tax money buy?

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© Dees Illustrations
Tax Day, April 15, is traditionally the time of year when liberals trot out that old Oliver Wendell Holmes chestnut: "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."

But what kind of "civilization" are we paying for? At the federal level, if you include not only the nominal "Defense" [sic] budget, but Veterans' Affairs, the military aspects of NASA and the Department of Energy, interest on the national debt from past wars, etc., military spending is nearly half the total budget.

The Obama administration complains that sequestration has resulted in cuts to, among other things, law enforcement. But the US has the largest prison-industrial complex in the world, and militarized SWAT teams of black-uniformed Gestapo wannabes in virtually every town in the country, mainly because of government-declared "wars" on consensual activity like drug use and sex work.

But some government spending - infrastructure, education, welfare and so on - is "progressive," right?

We know progressives love infrastructure. You can't sit through an MSNBC commercial break without seeing Rachel Maddow equating the Hoover Dam with "big things" and national greatness.

V

Ben Swann announces break from mainstream media and new alternative platform

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News Anchor Ben Swann
Many people have been predicting that Ben Swann would not last long on Fox 19 with all of the truth that he was putting out over the airwaves. Now it looks like the time has come for him to join us in the alternative media once again, and from the looks of things it was actually his decision to leave. The following post was made to Benswann.com:
A new platform. A new beginning. Here, together, we will shatter the left vs. right paradigm and the news will never look the same.Sign up for the newsletter and receive weekly updates straight to your inbox. Do so knowing you will never have to worry about spam or your email being sold. #LibertyIsRising
Along with this video:


Eye 1

Military readiness center pops up in northern Kentucky on airport property

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Burlington Readiness Center during time of construction.
Are they planning on a war or for civil unrest in America?

A new military readiness center has po[p]ped up rather abruptly according to DAHBOO77 a Youtuber citizen reporter.

According to the report the activity is highly unusual for the area and the facility is constructed on airport property.

In fact, military equipment is even being stored there. Tons of it.


Cult

New photos have surfaced showing Colin Powell at the Bohemian Grove

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Hacked photos show former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell alongside two well known actors at the exclusive Bohemian Grove in northern California. Cryptome.org published the photos in a PDF file on April 9, Examiner learned yesterday.

Two of the men in the photos appear to be George Kennedy - from Dallas and The Naked Gun - and Malcolm McDowell - from A Clockwork Orange and numerous television shows. Presumably, the photos were attachments in Powell's AOL email account that was hacked by Guccifer, according to Russia Today.

Bohemian Grove is a "two-week, three-weekend encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world," according to the Sonoma County Free Press' (SCFP) website. The grove is split into "camps" and according to SCFP, Powell is a member of most exclusive one - Mandalay Camp. In one photo, Powell and the other men are sitting in chairs with Mandalay printed on the back.

Mary Moore, of SCFP, told Examiner today, " ... a lot of actors do go up there mostly as guests but some do belong. They're considered 'men of use' as are the musicians and others in show biz."