Puppet MastersS


Family

43% of family wealth has vanished - study

Rick Newman
Survivalbackpack.us
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 14:22 UTC
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© Survivalbackpack
If you're a typical family, you're considerably poorer than you used to be. No wonder the "recovery" feels like a recession.

A new study published by the Russell Sage foundation helps explain why many families feel like they're falling behind: They actually are. The study, which measures the average wealth of U.S. households by income level, reveals a startling decline in wealth nationwide. The median household in 2013 had a net worth of just $56,335 - 43% lower than the median wealth level right before the recession began in 2007, and 36% lower than a decade ago. "There are very few signs of significant recovery from the losses in wealth suffered by American families during the Great Recession," the study concludes.

Not surprisingly, lower-income households have lost a larger portion of their wealth than those with higher incomes, as the following chart from the study shows:
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© Russell Sage Foundation
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Stormtrooper

Fox News psychiatrist: Hilary Clinton's entire reputation exists from sleeping with the President

David Edwards
Raw Story
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 13:48 UTC
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Fox News resident psychiatrist and Medical A-Team member Dr. Keith Ablow asserted on Thursday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could never win the White House without the help of Bill Clinton because her "entire reputation" was from "sleeping with the president."

Speaking to the hosts of Out Numbered on Fox News, Ablow said that Hillary Clinton's recent gaffes about her wealth - and, of course, Benghazi - meant that "she will tell you anything" to get elected.

Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers, however, took issue with pundits who criticized the former first lady because her husband had defended her during a recent book tour.

"I think that's unfair though," Powers said. "It is her husband, he's in the public life. And somebody is naturally going to ask him. What is he supposed to say?"
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Snakes in Suits

Republican Louie Gohmert objects to Obama immigration policies that 'lure' diseased children to the United States

David Edwards
Raw Story
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 12:32 UTC
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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Wednesday objected to President Barack Obama's immigration policies because he said that they were "luring" diseased children to the United States.

Speaking at a House Judiciary hearing titled "An Administration Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Alien Minors," Gohmert accused President Obama of giving undocumented children a "free pass" to stay in the country.

"And what is occurring by this administration luring these children into America by the promise of a free pass once they get here, there are children that are suffering and being hurt, being lured here to their detriment," the Texas Republican opined. "Now, if they get here successfully, that's a different story."

Gohmert said that he had visited a facility in Texas over the weekend where children were "lying on a concrete floor."
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War Whore

The things warmongers said about Iraq!

Neil Clark
RT
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:12 UTC
US marines preparing for Iraq invasion
© Reuters / Oleg PopovU.S. marines walk in full combat gears during a drill for infantry tactics in a stormy Kuwaiti desert on March 13, 2003
Iraq is in turmoil - with ISIS controlling large areas of the country - but the truth is that it's been in turmoil since the illegal 2003 invasion.

2013 was Iraq's bloodiest year since 2008, but as I wrote here members of the elite political class and warmongers in the West weren't interested.

Iraq post-invasion had become the greatest non-news story of the modern era. The people who could not stop talking about Iraq in 2002/3 and telling how much they cared about ordinary Iraqis were strangely silent. Instead they were devoting their energies into propagandizing for another Middle Eastern military 'intervention', this time against Syria.

Now that Iraq is back in the western news headlines again, with calls for 'intervention' to counter ISIS, it's worth bearing in mind what the architects of the Iraq war and the cheerleaders for it said in the lead up and during the invasion about the 'threat' from Saddam's WMDs and how toppling a secular dictator would help the so-called 'war on terror' and bring peace and security to the region.

Do we really want to take these people's advice on what 'we' should do now in Iraq? Up to a million people have been killed since the illegal invasion and as critics predicted at the time, the war led to enormous chaos and instability and boosted radical Islamic extremism. By their own words, let the warmongers be damned.
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Horse

Red Cross claims 'trade secret' as to how it used Hurricane Sandy funds


RT
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 08:37 UTC
Red Cross and hurricane Sandy
© Reuters / Tom MihalekARCHIVE PHOTO: Residents who returned to their homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy line up for a hot meal served from a red Cross vehicle on Samson Avenue in Seaside Heights, New Jersey November 12, 2012.
American Red Cross has been reluctant to make public details over how it raised and spent over $300 million in Hurricane Sandy relief funds. The charity's lawyers say the disclosure would inflict "competitive harm" on the group.

The Red Cross supplied some of the information concerning its Sandy activity to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office has been investigating the issue.

When a New-York based independent non-profit media outlet ProPublica filed a public records request for the same information, the charity's lawyers argued that journalists could only be given a redacted version, as some of the facts mentioned in the report constituted a "trade secret."

If such details were disclosed, "the American Red Cross would suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Cross's business model for an increased competitive advantage," Gabrielle Levin of the Gibson Dunn law firm wrote in a letter to the attorney general's office.

Disaster Accountability Project, a watchdog that monitors aid groups, found Red Cross' citing trade secret exemption was a strange thing to do.

"Invoking a 'trade secret' exemption is not something you would expect from an organization that purports to be 'transparent and accountable,'" said Ben Smilowitz the group's executive director.

Comment: It sounds like the Red Cross in the US has been ponerized too!

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Dollar

After Cyprus bail-in: Spain to create tax on bank deposits

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge.com
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 07:00 UTC
banks rob deposit holders
It was a little over a year ago, just as the Cyprus deposit confiscation aka "bail in" was taking place, when we asked, rhetorically, if "Spain is preparing for its own deposit levy" when an announcement by Spain's Finance Minister, Montoro, hinted at the imminent arrival of just that.

Specifically we said:
While Spain's economy minister Luis De Guindos proclaimed in the Senate today that bank deposits under EUR100,000 are "sacred"and that "Spanish savers should stay calm," Spain, it would appear, has changed constitutional rules to enable a so-called 'moderate' levy on deposits - as under previous Spanish law this was prohibited. For now, they claim the 'levy' will be "not much higher than 0%" and is mainly aimed at regions in Spain that have "made no effort to collect taxes" based on new revenue expectations.

As El Pais reports, the minister of finance and public administration, Cristobal Montoro, defends the need for such a 'levy' in their constitution on the basis of standardizing taxes across regions (and is preparing a proposal on the amounts to be paid) and although it would appear that while the European Commission could previously argue that such a 'tax' would violate the free movement of capital in Europe, it now leaves the door open to eventually effectively taxing the deposits.

Comment: See: Banks have almost zero cash: Be prepared to lose your savings

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Cow

Ukraine and EU sign free trade zone deal along with Georgia and Moldova


RT
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 05:42 UTC
Ukraine signs eu association agreement
© Georges Gobet/AFP
Ukraine has signed the economic part of the Association agreement with the EU, with Georgia and Moldova also joining the pact, even though big economic risks lie ahead.

The signing of the economic part of the agreement comes after 8 months of violent unrest in Ukraine, which broke out in Kiev and spread across the country in November after then-President Viktor Yanukovich decided to reject the trade agreement in favor of trilateral talks.

The document contains 31 signatures- Ukraine, all 28 EU member states, as well as that of the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The agreement will only come into force when it is ratified by every national parliament in the EU. It is expected that the ratification process will be complete by this fall.

Georgia and Moldova also signed both political and economic parts of the Association Agreement. Ukraine signed a political part of the agreement in March, shortly after Crimea rejoined Russia.

"By signing the association agreement, Ukraine, like European nation, which shares the same rules of law, stresses its sovereign choice to become a member of the EU Association Agreement in the future," Poroshenko before the signing ceremony. The Ukrainian President sees the trade document as a stepping stone to eventual EU statehood.



Comment: Given what is happening in Ukraine, one shudders at the thought that they share the same rules of law.


Comment: The EU technocrats are happy: Another country to plunder. This is very bad news for Ukraine.

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Piggy Bank

Banks have almost zero cash: Be prepared to lose your savings

Brett Redmayne-Titley
Govtslaves
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:58 UTC
Just like in 2007, the predictable upcoming financial crash will arrive suddenly overnight and the new day's world economy will be in chaos. At the starting gun of this "run on the banks," you had better be pretty quick.

Your bank has almost zero cash.
lineup at a teller station
© www.thisismoney.co.ukNew Bank Policy: Collapse the limits of withdrawal.
"I'm sorry, Sir. We are unable to cash this check," were the ominous words delivered to me by a fresh faced, none-too-friendly, Wells Fargo Bank manager. He had just kept me waiting ten minutes while in consultation about my transaction. Returning to his cubicle he sat down quickly, now looking at me intently through narrowed eyes.

Three feet away, between us and in front of him, were three forms of my personal identification face up. He gazed down glowering at two checks also before him, written to me by a client and drawn on his bank. Not being a "Well's" customer I expected a shake-down, hence the multiple forms of ID.

The two checks totaled a seemingly paltry sum of almost US$8,000.00. Not expecting this much difficulty I insisted on a reason, to which he replied, "I'm sorry, but the bank does not have sufficient funds on-hand to cash these checks."

Really? Naturally, like the majority of capitalist indoctrinated bank depositors, I assumed that, as is traditional with banks, this one would have lots of cash. Au Contraire.

Comment: As per Ellen Brown, the new rules for keeping the too-big-to-fail banks alive: use creditor funds, including uninsured deposits, to recapitalize failing banks. But isn't that theft? Perhaps, but it's legal theft. By law, when you put your money into a deposit account, your money becomes the property of the bank. You become an unsecured creditor with a claim against the bank. Also at risk are pension funds and public revenues. The FDIC has only about $25 billion in its deposit insurance fund, which is mandated by law to keep a balance equivalent to only 1.15 percent of insured deposits.

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Bomb

Obama seeks $US500m to equip Syrian rebels


MSN NZ
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:02 UTC
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© SANA News AgencyUS Plane Lands at al-Mafraq airport, Jordan delivering Weapons to Syrian Rebels.
US President Barack Obama has called on Congress to approve $US500 million ($A540 million) to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels battling the forces of strongman President Bashar al-Assad.

Following strong hints by Obama in recent weeks, the White House said it intends to "ramp up US support to the moderate Syrian opposition".


Comment: So, having already trained and armed Syrian rebels like ISIS, who are wreaking havoc in Iraq,Obama wants to send more money and weapons to Syrian rebels, only this time he wants to send it to "moderate" rebels. Which people does this sort of nonsense fool?


It proposed the funding for "vetted elements of the Syrian armed opposition, to help defend the Syrian people, stabilise areas under opposition control, facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement".


Comment: And whats more he wants to do it to "defend the Syrian people". He clearly is ignoring the fact that the Syrian people overwhelmingly re-elected President Bashar in an election a few short weeks ago. The Syrian people need protecting from Obama's Syrian rebels, not from their democratically elected president.


The proposal was part of the $US65.8 billion overseas contingency operations request to Congress for fiscal year 2015, which begins on October 1.
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Bomb

US Posturing - Russia gets 'hours' to ease Ukraine crisis


MSN NZ
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 05:18 UTC
Russian grief in Ukraine
© Maysun/ Maysun/CorbiRelatives mourn a medical worker shot dead by Ukranian troops at a checkpoint near Slavyansk.
The United States has warned Russia it has only "hours" to prove it is helping disarm Ukrainian insurgents, whose tenuous truce with Kiev is due to expire by the weekend.

US Secretary of State John Kerry's ultimatum was delivered a day before Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signs the final chapters of an historic EU accord that nudges his country toward eventual membership and pulls it firmly out of Russia's reach.

The West is scrambling to save a temporary ceasefire and nascent peace talks that pro-Russian separatists, who are now threatening the ex-Soviet state's survival, agreed to at the start of the week.


Comment: The "Pro Russian Separatists" that the western media keep talking about, are in fact Russians, who have only been a part of Ukraine since Khrushchev gave that region, including Crimea to Ukraine in 1954. It is bald propaganda and a blatant attempt to demonize them, to call them pro Russian Separatists.


Poroshenko on Thursday pushed back the expiry of the truce, broken on repeated occasions, but still having succeeded in tempering the worst of the violence in the Russified eastern rustbelt, for a few hours until Friday at 1900 GMT (0500 on Friday AEST).

Comment: The hypocrisy of John Kerry is amazing. He has the gall to call on Russia to force the Russian people living in eastern Ukraine to become "part of a legitimate process", while he supports a regime that seized power in a US backed coup - hardly a legitimate process.

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