Puppet MastersS

USA

U.S. supplying Syrian rebel militias with anti-tank weapons - reports

Image
© Screenshot from YouTube user Hazzm Movement
Rebels embattled against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad have reportedly come into possession of high-powered anti-tank weaponry, the likes of which may have been supplied by the United States.

Images of rebels equipped with heavy arms have begun to circulate in recent days, and at least one news site has claimed that the source responsible is the US government.

On Monday, Israel's Debkafile website reported that two moderate Syrian rebel militias - the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Revolutionary Front - have been supplied with advanced US weapons, including armor-piercing, optically-guided BGM-71 TOW missiles, thanks to the Pentagon.

Vader

Keiser Report: Psycho school of economics - greedy energy companies and corrupt banking families

Keiser
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert present "To frack or not to frack? That is the question you will NOT be asked!" They look at proposed changes to the trespass laws in the UK which will allow companies to frack under private property without seeking permission and in exchange for ยฃ100. In the second half, Max interviews Nomi Prins about her new book, All the Presidents' Bankers. In the book, she describes the long history of the Washington D.C. to Wall Street corridor of corruption and the six banking families who have long controlled, or have tried to control, the American financial and political establishment.

Shoe

Woman throws shoe at Hillary Clinton...and unfortunately misses

Hillary Clinton
© AFP Photo / Isaac BrekkenFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ducks after a woman threw an object toward her while she was delivering remarks at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries conference on April 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada

Former US Secretary of State was nearly hit by a shoe during a speech in Las Vegas Thursday, dodging the object at the last second as an usher escorted a young woman from the audience.

Clinton had only been on the stage at an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting near the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino for moments when an object flew toward her from the crowd. Clinton, also a former New York State senator and First Lady, stepped out of its path and joked, "good thing she didn't play softball like I did," as quoted by the Associated Press.

Stormtrooper

NATO commander says US troops may be deployed to Europe over Ukrainian crisis

Us troops
© AFP Photo
The United States Air Force commander in charge of the NATO alliance's military presence in Europe said on Wednesday this week that US troops may soon be deployed to the region as tensions continue to worsen near the border between Ukraine and Russia.

In an interview with the Associated Press, US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said that forthcoming plans intended to ensure stability in Europe for the NATO partners in the area could involve the mobilizing of American troops.

Representatives from the 28 countries involved in the multinational organization have asked Breedlove - a four-star general who has since last year served as the supreme allied commander of NATO's European operations - to have a plan ready by early next week, according to the AP's John-Thor Dahlburg, to reassure partners in the region "that other alliance countries have their back."

Breedlove told the newswire that he has every intention of unveiling his proposal ahead of next Tuesday's deadline, and that he wouldn't "write off involvement by any nation, to include the United States."

Take 2

Theatrics: House panel adopts resolution holding Lerner in contempt of Congress

Image
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A day after the House Ways and Means committee voted to refer former IRS official Lois Lerner to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution, another committee voted to adopt a resolution recommending the House find Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the panel.

In a strictly party-line vote, 21 Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to send the resolution to the floor for consideration by the full House. Twelve committee Democrats voted against the move.

"Today, the Oversight Committee upheld its obligation to pursue the truth about the IRS targeting of Americans because of their political beliefs," Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said. "Our investigation has found that former IRS Exempt Organizations division Director Lois Lerner played a central role in the targeting scandal and then failed to meet her legal obligations to answer questions after she waived her right not to testify. In demanding answers and holding a powerful government official accountable for her failure to meet her legal obligations, this Committee did its job."

Stock Down

Dr. Jim Wille: The entire eastern world is rebelling against the dollar

dollar
© unknown
Financial newsletter writer Dr. Jim Willie thinks 2014 will be a pivotal year for the U.S. Dr. Willie says, "We're going to end this year with no resemblance to the beginning. We spent a lot of years trying to hold this thing together. The whole system broke in 2007 and 2008 with the subprime mortgages. I was saying before that we've got the entire U.S. economy depending on the housing bubble and the mortgage finance bubble, and when that breaks, the system is going to break.

In the following couple of years, it continued to break. What did we do? We went to zero percent interest rates and made it pretty clear it's forever. What else did we do? We did bond monetization, QE. I love QE, it makes it sound like CPR. It's death. It's hyper-monetary inflation.

It's what Nazi Germany did . . . it wrecked everything. These are desperation measures to hold it together because the system is broken." Dr. Willie, who holds a PhD in statistics, contends, "Now all the QE and bond purchases are causing some major problems, breaking major economic structures. . . It's all breaking, it's all breaking, and they are having a tremendous problem holding it together. Now, the whole Eastern World is rebelling against the dollar."

Chess

Vladimir Putin has high hopes for Ukraine summit - don't hold your breath, buddy!

Vladimir Putin
© Itar-Tass/Barcroft Media Vladimir Putin: 'I hope that the initiative will have consequences, and that the outcome will be positive'
But diplomats predict little chance of breakthrough as four powers meet for first time since President Yanukovych fled

Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he hoped talks between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US due next week would have a "positive" outcome, but warned that Ukraine's interim government should not do anything that could not "be fixed later".

The four-way talks, the first since the crisis, were announced on Tuesday night.

"I hope that the initiative of Russian foreign ministry on adjusting the situation and changing it for the better will have consequences, and that the outcome will be positive," the Russian president told a televised government meeting. "At the very least, I hope that the acting [leaders] will not do anything that cannot be fixed later."

Dollars

Putin threatens to make Ukraine pay ahead for gas

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Wednesday to start charging Ukraine in advance for vital natural gas supplies - a move that could sharply hurt his neighbor, which is already on the verge of bankruptcy.


It was just the latest way Moscow is putting pressure on Ukraine since its pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power in February after months of street protests.

Snakes in Suits

Obama not concerned by Al Sharpton's history with the FBI and mafia


President Obama isn't worried about the Rev. Al Sharpton's history as an FBI informant with ties to the mafia, his spokesman said, and doesn't think that the news makes his impending visit to Sharpton's National Action Network awkward.

"Rev. Sharpton and the National Action Network have made significant contributions to civil rights efforts, and the President looks forward to appearing at the conference," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters during the Wednesday press gaggle.

Stock Down

Banker who helped crash housing market now helping craft mortgage 'reform'...

Image
Controversial housing finance reform legislation making its way through the Senate Banking Committee was co-written by a former mortgage trader for Countrywide Financial and Wachovia, two of the subprime mortgage behemoths at the center of the housing market crash in 2007.

Michael Bright, the senior financial adviser to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), worked as a trader and member of the loan-pricing desk at Countrywide Financial from 2002 to 2006, and as a senior trader for Wachovia from 2006 to 2008.

Bright joined Corker's office in 2010, and has been a key figure in crafting the Corker-Warner housing reform bill and the successive legislation spearheaded by Sens. Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) and Tim Johnson (D., S.D.).

"[Bright's] running the show," said Tim Pagliara, a top bundler for Corker who has taken an active stance against the bill. "And Corker listens to him."