Puppet MastersS


Penis Pump

Pentagon spent $5.5bn only hours before govt shutdown

US army tank
© Reuters / Jo Yong-Hak

As clocks at the Pentagon approached midnight late Monday evening and inched America towards a government shutdown, the United States Department of Defense spent $5.5 billion dollars on an arsenal of items ordered at the last minute by Uncle Sam.

Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday that the Defense Department awarded 94 contracts totaling over $5.5 billion a day earlier, ensuring the mightiest military on Earth would stay significantly well-stocked throughout an indefinite shutdown that has sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay and polarized lawmakers in Washington.

Comparatively, Foreign Policy's John Reed noted that on September 3 - the first workday of the month - the Pentagon published news of only 14 contracts: practically one-seventh of what was signed off on as Monday's midnight deadline seemed increasingly more likely to come and go without a compromise.

The shutdown, now in its third day with no end in sight, is costing the US an estimated $300 million in lost economic output each day, according to research firm IHS Inc.

But as hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain furloughed and national parks and programs stay shuttered indefinitely, the Pentagon does not seem to have much to worry about.

"This goes to show that even when the federal government is shut down and the military has temporarily lost half its civilian workforce, the Pentagon can spend money like almost no one else," Reed wrote.

Megaphone

A freedom to live or a freedom to die?

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What is freedom really?

Is it the ability to do whatever you like without regard for anyone but yourself?

Some people think so. But more often than not there will eventually come the time of the great hang-over, when that ultimate freedom that had been sought after so diligently has somehow lost its meaning.
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Red Flag

Disrespecting the flag and not standing for the national anthem now illegal in...

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© Getty Images
The interim Egyptian government approved a draft law Wednesday which makes disrespecting the flag and not standing during the national anthem offenses punishable by prison time and a fine.

The Egyptian website Ahram Online reports that the measure states that "ridiculing the Egyptian flag and not standing in respect when the national anthem is played in public is a crime punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment and/or five thousand pounds fine (about $726)."

In recent days, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and more hardline Salafi groups have confronted their secular opponents over which songs are played to start the school day.

Those who support the military have been playing pro-army songs in schools, a move that has irritated Muslim Brotherhood members. This as army supporters accuse Muslim Brotherhood school administrators of failing to play Egypt's national anthem in their schools and instead playing pro-Brotherhood tunes, reports Ahram.

Snakes in Suits

Greek neo-Nazi leaders detained on criminal charges

Korydalos
© Reuters/John KolesidisRiot policemen walk outside the Korydallos prison in Athens October 3, 2013.
The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party was taken to a high-security prison Thursday pending his trial on criminal charges, as part of a major government crackdown on the neo-Nazi group.

Nikos Michaloliakos is the first Greek party leader to be put behind bars in at least three decades.

He was transferred to the Korydallos prison in west Athens on Thursday afternoon, hours after being charged with running a criminal organisation.

The 56-year-old faces at least 10 years in jail if convicted. No trial date has been set yet.

Comment: Golden Dawn has seen a rise in popularity when Greek economy hit rock bottom, taking advantage of the popular uprising for changes in governmental practices. But Golden Dawn, like the rise of the Nazi party in 1930's Germany, is obviously not the answer. To get an idea of their pathological ideologies and practices, read the following:

Fascist Golden Dawn Aiming High in Greek Elections
MPs from Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn
Greece: Fascists step up assaults on political opponents and migrants
Are Greek police 'colluding' with far-right Golden Dawn?
Far right fascists 'infiltrated Greek police', used as agents provocateurs
Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn goes global with political ambitions
Greek prime minister calls for calm after leftwing musician murdered by Golden Dawn fascist


Handcuffs

Golden Dawn leader charged with heading a criminal gang in Greece





The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party, widely viewed as Europe's most violent political force, appeared in court on Saturday night on charges of heading a criminal gang after police mounted an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-fascist party, arresting Nikos Michaloliakos and other key members of his organisation.

After a police operation in which anti-terrorism officers stormed the homes of Golden Dawn politicians across Athens, Michaloliakos and five of his MPs were seized. Fifteen other senior party activists, including a female police officer, were taken into custody accused of fomenting violence as members of a criminal organisation. Reading from a nine-page charge sheet, a public prosecutor accused the far-rightists of murder, extortion and money laundering.

The crackdown was hailed as "a historic day for Greece and Europe" by the public order minister, Nikos Dendias, who oversaw the operation, known only to three security officials before it was launched a little after dawn. "Golden Dawn tried to test the endurance of democracy," he said in a televised address, insisting that the inquiry into the party's illegal activities would continue apace. "Today it got an answer from state justice."

Heart - Black

Israeli forces destroy Palestinian village - for the fourth time


Israeli forces have attacked a Palestinian village north of the Jordan Valley for the fourth time since September, leaving some 100 residents without shelter, Press TV reports.

Israeli bulldozers backed by military jeeps entered the village of Makhool in the early hours of Thursday morning and evacuated the residents before destroying the village.

The Israeli soldiers further seized two tents and confiscated all materials that had been provided to them by European Humanitarian aid agencies.
"The army attacked us while we were sleeping and forced us to leave our tents before they destroyed everything. When they finished, they collected all the plastic and burned them before confiscating the iron structures," said a village resident.
"Every time we build anything, a tent or barracks, they demolish them. Even the presence of diplomats makes no difference," he added.

Chart Bar

'US economy is just one giant hedge fund'

Wall street hedgefund
© Unknown

American lawmakers have colluded with Wall Street executives to build an economy that no longer works in the best interest of, or even needs, the majority of the American public, according to RT financial host Max Keiser.

RT: There's a lot of hype and some would say overreaction around all of this but the tell-tale sign is the markets. They haven't reacted negatively. Is there really a crisis here?

Max Keiser: I think we should take the words of Warren Buffet to heart. He basically described the Federal Reserve Bank and the American economy as one giant hedge fund. And he is absolutely correct. The way that Wall Street, Washington, and these large funds approach America is as a trade that is backed by $120,000 or $130,000 of debt and that debt gets traded around every day. And the whole initiative here is to buy hedge funds and try to squeak out profits, and they don't really care who they hurt in the process. Remember America is run by what I call financial jihadists who are basically suicide bankers. Warren Buffett, of course, is one of these suicide bankers and America, from the outside of course, looks like they're trying to commit financial suicide. But that's what a financial jihadist does, or a suicide banker. They blow themselves up for their cause and in this case it's market fundamentalism, a belief in the profit - not the prophet.

RT: But other tell-tale signs of the economy improving are there, Max. Are we to believe the economic indicators which suggest the US economy is on the up?

Arrow Down

Countdown: How long do we have before seeing hyperinflation? One expert's answer may frighten you

David Buckner hyperinflation
© The BlazeTVDavid Buckner, founder and CEO of Bottom Line Training and Consulting
David Buckner, the founder and CEO of Bottom Line Training and Consulting, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, and the author of Permission to Think, explained on the Glenn Beck Program Wednesday why America hasn't yet seen hyperinflation - but why it could be just around the corner.

Buckner said that in discussing hyperinflation, people often refer to the Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, and Bolivia, but say "it could never happen here" because a "certain kind of layering has to occur" that America hasn't seen.

That layering, he said, or the "recipe" for hyperinflation, is:
1) Economic Implosion

2) Collapse in tax revenues

3) Raise taxes

4) Lenders unwilling

5) Austerity or print
Beck seemed shocked by the list, saying all five have occurred.

Hardhat

Amid shutdown's impact, test-driving Obamacare in Oregon

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© THOMAS PATTERSON/NYTProgrammers work at Oregon's new health insurance exchange offices outside Portland, Ore., Sept. 26, 2013. Officials are warning that despite fevered efforts, their new online markets where people can shop for health plans will not be fully operational at first.
Thanks to the health-care law that brought much of the U.S. government to a grinding halt this week, Alex Parkinson is no longer uninsurable.

The Portland, Ore. resident and chief technical officer at a local start-up had previously tried to buy health insurance but was denied coverage because he has Crohn's disease, a pre-existing condition that effectively forced him to join the ranks of America's roughly 48 million uninsured residents.

"They make you fill out a form and it includes questions about your medical history," Mr. Parkinson said. "That's just how it goes."

But since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - dubbed Obamacare - came into effect this week, pre-existing conditions can no longer be used to deny health-insurance coverage. The change represents part of a profound overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, long criticized as one of the least cost-efficient in the developed world. It has also become one of the most contentious issues in modern American politics, so unpalatable to its opponents that the Republican-controlled Congress this week opted not to agree on a new budget - effectively shutting down the federal government - unless the new health-care law is significantly changed, postponed or repealed altogether.

Stormtrooper

Are U.S. soldiers really this dumb?

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A U.S. soldier takes issue with a "false and cowardly article spreading foolish nonsense" that I wrote a few years ago.

I call him a soldier because he describes himself in these terms: "I have been on 3 deployments, am a Reservist, been on Active duty before."

The unnamed article of mine he describes as: "Your 2009 article on Christian Man Why they should NOT join the military."

His comments are in a word, dumb; and in two words, really dumb.

Yet, the soldier's comments surprised me. Most of the time that I receive dumb, rambling, grammatically challenged comments like his it is not from someone in the military. In spite of all the negative things I write about the military, most of the e-mails I receive from veterans and active-duty military personnel are favorable to my anti-war, anti-empire viewpoint. And especially from those men who were drafted and/or duped into going to Vietnam. It is usually armchair warriors, red-state fascists, warvangelicals, reich-wing nationalists, bloodthirsty conservatives, war-crazed Republicans, and God and country Christian bumpkins who have never been in the military themselves that write me the dumb, rambling, grammatically challenged e-mails, many of which are rambling, a number of which are filthy, many of which are incoherent, some of which are vile, and a few of which threaten to do me bodily harm. This soldier who just wrote to me is an embarrassment to everyone in the military. If these are the kind of people that are supposedly defending our freedoms, then we are in trouble.