Puppet MastersS


Attention

Jim Rogers cautions "Be prepared, be worried, and be careful... this is going to end badly"

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"Eventually, the whole world is going to collapse," Jim Rogers chides a disquieted CBC anchor as he explains the reality that, "we in the West have staggering debts. The United States is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world," adding that "this is going to end badly."

However, the co-founder of Soros' Quantum fund is convinced that the commodity super-cycle is far from over, but driven by supply constraints (and cost increases) as opposed to demand from higher growth. The following interview provides more color on his commodity view as he re-iterates his bullish stance on Ag (with sugar a focus) and Natural Gas (some harsh natural realities coming), warning "don't get too excited about fracking," when he talks energy products.

Rogers, in his inimitable way, sums up the state of euphoria that many markets find themselves in thus, "we are all floating around on a sea of artificial liquidity right now. This is not going to last."

Propaganda

'Nothing is beyond our reach,' National Reconnaissance Office's new logo claims

NRO logo
© NROThe logo for the latest secret mission by the National Reconnaissance Office has raised a few eyebrows.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched a new spy satellite Thursday evening on mission NROL-39 -- and the new logo and tagline are quite an eye opener.

The new logo features a giant, world-dominating octopus, its sucker-covered tentacles encircling the planet while it looks on with determination, a steely glint in its enormous eye. The logo carries a five-word tagline: "Nothing is beyond our reach."

Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst with the ACLU, raised a quizzical eyebrow at the new slogan.

"Advice to @ODNIgov: You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now. This logo isn't helping," he wrote.

An agency spokeswoman told Forbes that there's a very good reason for the symbol: The octopus is intelligent, and therefore a good emblem for an intelligence agency.

"NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide," said Karen Furgerson, a spokeswoman for the NRO. "'Nothing is beyond our reach' defines this mission and the value it brings to our nation and the warfighters it supports, who serve valiantly all over the globe, protecting our nation."


Comment: Not likely. The The Dictionary of Symbols defines an Octopus like so: "This shapeless, tentacled creature stands significantly for the monsters who regularly symbolize the spirits of the Underground and even Hell itself."


Star of David

Israel gets Irish radio presenter suspended from broadcasting after he says on air what everybody already knows, that Gaza is an open-air prison

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Peter Kearney, presenter of the International Politics show on Dublin's Near FM, had ridiculed Ireland's Broadcasting Authority after a complaint from the Israeli embassy was upheld.

The Sunday Times reports that Kearney has been suspended and told by station management that his actions 'were not acceptable.' Kearney had interviewed a number of people last March about their experiences in Gaza in the aftermath of Israeli military action in 2008 and 2009.

The paper reports that during his program, he described Gaza as an 'open-air prison,' endorsing a term used by one interviewee. The presenter also said on air that Israel did not want to share the waters off the coast of Gaza with Palestinians because of their potential gas and oil reserves.

Comment: Israel is currently in violation of international law due to its illegal military occupation and blockade of the Gaza Strip. There exists an urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with raw sewage flowing in the streets, power outages, an economy choked by the occupation, closure of border crossings, and the destruction of the smuggling tunnels used to supply basic necessities for Palestinians.

So, Peter Kearney did tell the truth in this situation, but in the world in which we live, truth is not on the playlist.


Snakes in Suits

Guardian editor interrogated by UK Parliamentary Committee over Snowden leaks, the same Committee that gave UK Intelligence chiefs a free pass just weeks earlier

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Alan Rusbridger being interrogated by a UK Parliamentary committee
The top editor of the British newspaper The Guardian told Parliament on Tuesday that since it obtained documents on government surveillance from a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, it has met with government agencies in Britain and the United States more than 100 times and has been subjected to measures "designed to intimidate."

The testimony by the editor, Alan Rusbridger, gave a public airing to the debate over how to balance press freedom against national security concerns, an issue that became more acute once The Guardian began publishing material leaked by Mr. Snowden in June.

The American and British governments have said the disclosures, which detail how the National Security Agency and its equivalent in Britain, Government Communication Headquarters, gather vast amounts of data, damage national security and help hostile governments. Journalists and transparency advocates have countered that the leak spurred a vital debate on privacy and the role of spy agencies in the Internet age.

Comment: Unbelievable. After all that has been publicised since the leaks began in June, they don't even pretend to be upset that spying on citizens for purposes of intimidation, blackmail and social control has gotten completely out of hand... instead they publicly interrogate the whistleblowers while patting the criminals on the back:

Britain's spy chiefs make daylight debut like a trio of Draculas in winter sun


Bad Guys

How to stick it to the poor: A congressional strategy

Why choose between under-educating children and taking the food out of their tiny mouths?
snake in suit
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Congress is stickin' it to us all this Christmas, but especially, to the poor.
The 113th Congress has stuck it to the poor at pretty much every opportunity. In fact, if you take all their past and future plans into account, it looks like they have accomplished that rare feat: To close in on enacting an overarching, radical agenda without control of the Senate or the presidency.

How did they do it? Probably by escaping scrutiny through a piecemeal approach to legislation, a president who is willing to meet them halfway, and one diabolic word: Sequester.

Comment: It becomes more and more evident as the days pass that members of the U.S. Congress lack conscience and empathy. Is this the kind of legislative 'leadership' Americans really want to support?

Do they really 'serve' in the best interests of the majority of Americans?


Gear

CIA's anti-terrorism effort called 'colossal flop'

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CIA officers given 'non-official cover,' often posing as business executives, tried to collect intelligence on terrorists. The NOC program reportedly has had few successes.

Several years ago, a senior officer in the CIA clandestine service attended a closed-door conference for overseas operatives. Speakers included case officers who were working in the manner Hollywood usually portrays spies - out on their own.

Most CIA officers abroad pose as U.S. diplomats. But those given what's called non-official cover are known as NOCs, pronounced "knocks," and they typically pose as business executives. At the forum, the NOCs spoke of their cover jobs, their false identities and measures taken to protect them. Few said much about gathering intelligence.

A colleague passed a caustic note to the senior officer. "Lots of business," it read. "Little espionage."

Twelve years after the CIA began a major push to get its operatives out of embassy cubicles and into foreign universities, businesses and other local perches to collect intelligence on terrorists and rogue nations, the effort has been a disappointment, current and former U.S. officials say. Along with other parts of the CIA, the budget of the so-called Global Deployment Initiative, which covers the NOC program, is now being cut.

Comment: Oh but we beg to differ.

It's been an extraordinary success.

Americans in particular have fallen into line behind the War on Terror, and have been herded into ever finer orders of control.

The purpose of these programs is never their stated purpose. They know Iran isn't what they say it is. They know they have to create and maintain the phony 'Muslim terror threat' - even if that means torturing innocent people just to get their 'confessions' on record.

The true purpose lies behind the ideology and the outward structure.

The true purpose is to keep people believing in the myth that authorities have any control over reality, even as it comes apart at the seams.


Pistol

Sandy Hook: The Gun Range Myth and other media-created fantasies

Everything we were told is wrong

The Gun Range Myth


We've screened and edited over 100 hours of commentary on the Sandy Hook (Newtown) shooting. Our written commentary appears below after the videos. The key issues in this story are best covered in the videos that appear on these pages.

Comment:
Sandy Hook cover-up continues: Connecticut State Investigation ends with records sealed, crime scene destroyed, motive 'unknown'
SOTT Talk Radio: The Sandy Hook Massacre, What Really Happened?


HAL9000

Every text you make.... Snowden documents show NSA gathering 5bn cell phone records daily

nsa spying
© Alex Milan Tracy/NurPhoto/CorbisThe data can also be used to study patterns of behaviour to reveal personal information
The National Security Agency is reportedly collecting almost 5 billion cell phone records a day under a program that monitors and analyses highly personal data about the precise whereabouts of individuals, wherever they travel in the world.

Details of the giant database of location-tracking information, and the sophisticated ways in which the NSA uses the data to establish relationships between people, have been revealed by the Washington Post, which cited documents supplied by whistleblower Edward Snowden and intelligence officials.

Comment: There's no question that the American public should be outraged that their rights to privacy are being violated, but the question stands whether the NSA program has the capabilities to perform all that is alleged above. After all, if people are convinced that they are being monitored all the time, they will be more willing to accept the lines that the PTB have drawn against their freedoms.


Padlock

Muzzling the voice of people: Japan enacts strict state secrets law despite protests

state secret law
© Yuya Shino/ReutersNakagawa, chairman of the Upper House Special Committee on National Security, is surrounded by lawmakers during a vote on a state secrets act at the parliament in Tokyo
Japan enacted a state-secrets law toughening penalties for leaks on Friday, despite public protests and criticism that it will muzzle the media and help cover up official misdeeds.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, keen to beef up Japan's security amid rising concerns about China's military assertiveness, has said the law is needed to the smooth operation of a new National Securities Council and to persuade foreign countries such as close ally the United States to share intelligence.

Gold Coins

One BIG problem with Bitcoin...

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At this point, you'd pretty much have to be living under a rock to have not heard of Bitcoin.

I actually asked this question ('have you been living under a rock?) to someone recently who proudly proclaimed that he had never heard of Bitcoin, almost expressing gratification in his ignorance of a game-changing model.

Bitcoin is on fire. Mainstream media coverage is everywhere.

Comment: SOTT Talk Radio - Bitcoin, Gold and the Cashless Society