Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

15-year anniversary of illegal NATO bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia

NATO bombing yugoslavia
© EPA
In March 1999, at the direction of the United States of America, NATO engaged in its first act of illegal aggressive war, beginning what can only be called the "dark age of intervention" in which we are living today. The fact that NATO was allowed to get away with the aggression on Serbia and Montenegro emboldened US/NATO and the US military industrial intelligence banking complex and since that day, under a doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, Humanitarian Interventionism, Preventive War and then the all encompassing "War on Terror", US/NATO have proceeded to destroy country after country and do away with leaders that they have not found to be submissive enough to their will.

The events of 9-11-2001 were a watershed moment for the geopolitical architects and served as a catalyst to allow them to expand their military machine to every corner of the world and invade countries at will and conduct operations with complete disregard for international law and accepted international norms.

In light of the 15th Anniversary of the NATO aggression the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals and other independent Civic associations in Serbia will hold an international conference from the 21st to the 24th of March 2014. The conference will gather 100 prominent intellectuals from all over the world, in addition to those from Serbia, Montenegro, the Republica Srpska and 10 to 15 guests from Russia, including Academician and retired Russian Army General Leonid Ivashov. The conference will also include the participation of the Veterans Alliance of Serbia and the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia.

Pirates

Regime Change in Ukraine and the IMF's Bitter "Economic Medicine"

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© White House PhotoInterim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk meets President Obama at White House, March 2014
In the days following the Ukraine coup d'Etat of February 23, leading to the ousting of a duly elected president, Wall Street and the IMF - in liaison with the US Treasury and the European Commission in Brussels - had already set the stage for the outright takeover of Ukraine's monetary system. The EuroMaidan protests leading up to "regime change" and the formation of an interim government were followed by purges within key ministries and government bodies.

The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Ihor Sorkin was fired on February 25th and replaced by a new governor: Stepan Kubiv.

Stepan Kubiv is a member of Parliament of the Rightist Batkivshchyna "Fatherland" faction in the Rada led by the acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (founded by Yulia Tymoshenko in March 1999). He previously headed Kredbank, a Ukrainian financial institution largely owned by EU capital, with some 130 branches throughout Ukraine. (Ukraine Central Bank Promises Liquidity To Local Banks, With One Condition, Zero Hedge, February 27, 2014).

Shoe

Ukraine orders its military out of Crimea

Bye bye
© Reuters/Baz RatnerCrew members of the Ukrainian naval landing vessel Konstantin Olshansky come ashore after leaving the ship in Donuzlav bay in Crimea, March 23, 2014.
Ukraine said it would pull its military out of Crimea and fortify its eastern border with Russia as European leaders struggled to come up with a unified response to punish Vladimir Putin for annexing the breakaway Black Sea region.

Demilitarization "is the best way to de-escalate the situation," Andriy Parubiy, head of Ukraine's National Security Council, told reporters in Kiev, while declining to say when the evacuation would take place. "Troops from both Ukraine and Russia" should be removed from Crimea, he said.

The withdrawal announcement comes as pro-Russian civilians in Crimea continued to detain Ukrainian military personnel, including its navy chief, after overrunning installations in the region, that's home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov set a deadline of 9 p.m. local time for their release.

Putin's move to annex Crimea following the ouster of the Moscow-backed Ukrainian president last month has plunged Russia and the West into their worst crisis since the end of the Cold War. The decision to reinforce troops patrolling its eastern regions highlights Ukraine's concerns that Russia may attempt to further destabilize the country by creating turmoil in areas with large pro-Russia populations.

Newspaper

Russia uses 1999 NATO bombing in media war over Crimea

Russian television blasted viewers with 15-year-old footage of NATO bombing raids, burning buildings and wounded people in Yugoslavia on Monday to step up a media campaign against the West over the Crimea crisis.

State television and newspapers used the anniversary of the start of the bombing campaign to depict the West as hypocritical for saying Crimea has no right to secede from Ukraine when NATO used force to help Kosovo escape Slobodan Milosevic's clutches.

A special program on state TV called "The Serbian Tragedy: 15 Years" hammered home Russia's message that the United States and NATO are to blame for redrawing global borders, encouraging separatism and flouting international law.

Snakes in Suits

Three psychopathic presidents and a riddle with a conscience named Putin

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© Sergei Chirikov/AFP - Getty ImagesPresident Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the Kremlin on Friday, where he signed legislation completing the annexation of Crimea.
Bill Clinton found him to be cold and worrisome, but predicted he would be a tough and able leader. George W. Bush wanted to make him a friend and partner in the war on terror, but grew disillusioned over time.

Barack Obama tried working around him by building up his protégé in the Kremlin, an approach that worked for a time but steadily deteriorated to the point that relations between Russia and the United States are now at their worst point since the end of the Cold War.

For 15 years, Vladimir V. Putin has confounded American presidents as they tried to figure him out, only to misjudge him time and again. He has defied their assumptions and rebuffed their efforts at friendship. He has argued with them, lectured them, misled them, accused them, kept them waiting, kept them guessing, betrayed them and felt betrayed by them.

Each of the three presidents tried in his own way to forge a historic if elusive new relationship with Russia, only to find their efforts torpedoed by the wiry martial arts master and former K.G.B. colonel. They imagined him to be something he was not or assumed they could manage a man who refuses to be managed. They saw him through their own lens, believing he viewed Russia's interests as they thought he should. And they underestimated his deep sense of grievance.

Comment: One of the characteristics of psychopaths is that they indulge in wishful thinking, thinking that bears no relationship to reality. We see clear signs of that here in the way they viewed Putin - they saw him the way they wanted to see him, not as he really is.


Arrow Down

Eric Holder and the DOJ have spent millions of taxpayer dollars on unreported personal travel

Eric
© Wikimedia Commons
As the Attorney General of these United States, Eric Holder is the top legal advisor for the entire nation.

As such, he has been in a position to help punish financial criminals and the mega-banks for the crimes they committed in the run-up to the financial crisis, and the egregious looting thereafter.

Despite his unique role, Eric Holder has spent the past five years taking absolutely zero action on any matter of national significance. In fact, his major claim to fame appears to be that he has solidified the creation of a group of untouchable criminals known as the "Too Big to Jail" class.

So what does Eric Holder do in his spare time, you know, when he isn't coddling financial oligarchs and running firearms into Mexico?

Apparently, according to a recent study from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, he likes to hop on government planes for personal trips at taxpayer expense. Serfs up suckers!

Telephone

Russia may have gotten a jump on West by evading U.S. eavesdropping

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© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesArmed men outside Simferopol airport
U.S. military satellites spied Russian troops amassing within striking distance of Crimea last month. But intelligence analysts were surprised because they hadn't intercepted any telltale communications where Russian leaders, military commanders or soldiers discussed plans to invade.

America's vaunted global surveillance is a vital tool for U.S. intelligence services, especially as an early-warning system and as a way to corroborate other evidence. In Crimea, though, U.S. intelligence officials are concluding that Russian planners might have gotten a jump on the West by evading U.S. eavesdropping.

"Even though there was a warning, we didn't have the information to be able to say exactly what was going to happen," a senior U.S. official says.

To close the information gap, U.S. spy agencies and the military are rushing to expand satellite coverage and communications-interception efforts across Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states. U.S. officials hope the "surge" in assets and analysts will improve tracking of the Russian military and tip off the U.S. to any possible intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin before he acts on them.

Yoda

Remembering Tony Benn and his five little democratic questions

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© Matthew Fearn/PA Wire
Take a moment, please, to note the passing of a distinguished spokesman for the left, a man both firebrand and gadfly, of whom many Americans have never even heard. Yet what he did and said are of importance to us all and especially to the cause of democracy.

Tony Benn died in London Friday morning, age 88. A diehard socialist once described by elements of the right wing in his country as the most dangerous man in Britain, The New York Times noted in its obituary that he was "the first peer to surrender an aristocratic title [in order] to remain in the House of Commons:
A rebellious scion of a political dynasty, Mr. Benn embraced a socialist position to the left of many of his colleagues in the Labour Party, particularly as it moved to the center under Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 1990s. While Britain's political elite resisted and diluted union power, Mr. Benn championed labor union rights. While many Britons embraced the European Common Market in the 1970s, Mr. Benn opposed continued membership. And while Mr. Blair led the country to war in Iraq and elsewhere, Mr. Benn, a prominent advocate of nuclear disarmament, campaigned for peace.
First as a Member of Parliament - he entered the House of Commons in 1950 at the age of 25 and served for half a century - and a cabinet minister, then as a public lecturer and writer, he was a perpetual thorn in the side of more establishment politicians. Prime Minster Harold Wilson said of Benn, "He immatures with age," but he served as an invaluable advocate for the poor and defenseless, fighting on their behalf and always struggling to keep his colleagues aware of their plight. If we can find the money to fight wars and kill people, he would remind them, we can find the money to help people.

Comment:
The greatest leader Britain never had: Tony Benn knew the rules, but would not play the game
Why I am a Bennite - A Eulogy to the Rt Hon Tony Benn by George Galloway MP


Safe

High earners leaving New Jersey in droves due to taxes

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© Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Report: New Jersey residents fleeing high tax burdens in the state

New Jersey's high taxes may be costing the state billions of dollars a year in lost revenue as high-earning residents flee, according to a recent study.

The study, Exodus on the Parkway, was completed by Regent Atlantic last year but held for publication until after the November 2013 elections. The study stated it "intentionally" held its results "as 2014 is not an election year for state legislators" and it will "hopefully encourage a serious and objective dialogue aimed at addressing and solving the challenges that New Jersey currently faces."

The study shows the state has been steadily losing high-net-worth residents since 2004, when Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey signed the millionaire's tax into law. The law raised the state income tax 41 percent on those earning $500,000 or more a year.

Gold Coins

Unintended consequences? Western sanctions will cause Russia to change its economic partners...for the better

BRICS leaders
© Agence France-Presse/Sergei KarpukhinBrazil's President Dilma Rousseff, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, China's President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma pose for a photo after the BRICS leader's meeting at the G20 summit on September 5, 2013 in Saint Petersburg.
Western sanctions might push Russia to deepen cooperation with BRICS states, in particular, to strengthen its ties with China, which will possibly turn out to be a big catastrophe for the US and the EU some time later.

On March 18, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, claimed in a BBC interview that Russia would switch to new partners in case of economic sanctions being imposed by the European Union and the United States. He highlighted that the modern world isn't unipolar and Russia has strong ties with other states as well, though Russia wants to remain in good relations with its Western partners, especially with the EU due to the volume of deals and joint projects.

Those "new partners" are not really new since Russia has been closely interconnected with them for almost 13 years. This is all about the so-called BRICS organization, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS represents 42 percent of the world's population and about a quarter of the world's economy, which means that this bloc of states is an important global actor.

The BRICS countries are like-minded in regard to supporting the principles of international law, the central role of the UN Security Council and the principles of the non-use of force in international relations; this is why they are so actively performing in the sphere of settling regional conflicts. However, the cooperation between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa goes beyond political aspects and is also demonstrated by dynamic trade and multiple projects in different areas. Today, in total, there are more than 20 formats of cooperation within the BRICS which are intensively developing. For example, in February the member-states came to an agreement about 11 prospective directions of scientific and technical cooperation, from aeronautics to bio- and nanotechnology. In order to modernize the global economic system, at the center of which stand the US and the EU, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have created the BRICS Stock Alliance and are creating their own development bank to finance large infrastructure projects. On the whole, despite fierce criticism of BRICS as an organization with no future, it is developing and increasing cooperation with its members and, in fact, BRICS is showing pretty good results.

With suspension of Russian participation in G8 and possible strengthening of economic sanctions, the experts expect some particular industries to be targeted, including limits on imported products. While the West seeks to hit Russia hard, it is important to notice that Russia is ready to switch to other markets, for instance BRICS, and increase trade volumes with countries from this bloc.