Puppet MastersS


Bullseye

Putin says U.S. guided by 'the rule of the gun' not international law in foreign policy

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© Gerasa News
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Monday of being guided in its foreign policy not by international law but by the "rule of the gun."

"Our Western partners headed by the United States prefer not to be guided by international law in their practical policies, but by the rule of the gun," he told a joint session of parliament.

"They have come to believe in their exceptionalism and their sense of being the chosen ones. That they can decide the destinies of the world, that it is only them who can be right."

Stock Down

Russia Dumping U.S. Treasuries got you worried? Forget it. Here's the REAL Economic Threat

Russia Could Crush the Petrodollar


Russia threatened to dump its U.S. treasuries if America imposed sanctions regarding Putin's action in the Crimea.

Zero Hedge argues that Russia has already done so.

But veteran investor Jim Sinclair argues that Russia has a much scarier financial attack which it can use against the U.S.

Specifically, Sinclair says that if Russia accepts payment for oil and gas in any currency other than the dollar - whether it's gold, the Euro, the Ruble, the Rupee, or anything else - then the U.S. petrodollar system will collapse:

Indeed, one of the main pillars for U.S. power is the petrodollar, and the U.S. is desperate for the dollar to maintain reserve status. Some wise commentators have argued that recent U.S. wars have really been about keeping the rest of the world on the petrodollar standard.

The theory is that - after Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard, which had made the dollar the world's reserve currency - America salvaged that role by adopting the petrodollar. Specifically, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia agreed that all oil and gas would be priced in dollars, so the rest of the world had to use dollars for most transactions.

But Reuters notes that Russia may be mere months away from signing a bilateral trade deal with China, where China would buy huge quantities of Russian oil and gas.

Comment: While Mr. Sinclair's characterization of Mr. Putin's character may be off, as Putin's actions thus far have been nothing but gentlemanly, his analysis of the economic weapon in Russia's hands is spot on. It's a mark of the blindspot of the 'reality-creating' neocons that they seem to not be taking this into account.

Creating Reality And The "War On Terror" - A 'How To' Guide


Propaganda

The dirty little secret about White House news conferences: The president almost always knows the questions in advance

The New York Times' Peter Baker posted a semi-defense Thursday of Barack Obama for pre-arranging a question from a blogger for the liberal Huffington Post website at his Tuesday White House press conference. The White House gave Nico Pitney, who has been monitoring Internet traffic from protestors in Iran, a heads-up the night before that he might be called upon.

Pitney, a reporter for Huffington Post, got the second question of the day from Obama, right after the Associated Press. Here's the exchange:
President Barack Obama: Since we're on Iran, I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post.

Nico Pitney, Huffington Post: Thank you Mr. President.

Obama: Nico, I know that you, and all across the Internet, we've been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran. I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?

Pitney: Yes, I did, I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian. We solicited questions last night from people who are still courageous enough to be communicating online, and one of them wanted to ask you this: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of what the demonstrators there are working towards?
Baker began his Thursday posting:
Here is the dirty little secret about White House news conferences: The president almost always knows the questions in advance.

But here is the rest of that secret: That is not because White House officials are planting questions or reporters are colluding with them.
But the Times has in the past implied the Bush White House was planting questions, during its coverage of the Jeff Gannon controversy in 2005. And while Baker didn't seem 100% comfortable with the ethics of the Pitney situation, he certainly did not call Pitney, who asked Obama a challenging question, "an administration plant."

Comment: Of course White House press conferences are staged. Those talking points don't create themselves on the fly. Gotta make sure the questions match the prepared answers.

WH Press Corps Goes Seven Weeks Without a Question
White House reporter: Obama administration 'most hostile' to journalists in US history
White House press corps angrily confronts Press Secretary over lack of access

Contrast the above with the intelligent conduct of Vladmir Putin, who in this hour-plus press meeting takes questions as they are asked (even writing them down), then answers in-depth, often including mini-lessons in history, economics or international law to amplify his point:

A true statesman: Vladimir Putin press conference, March 4, 2014 - video and transcript


Wine n Glass

Drunk with power: US government spent 1.3 million dollars on booze in 2013


Federal records show the government has racked up a seven-figure bar tab.

In fiscal 2013, the government spent nearly $1.3 million on alcohol, more than quadruple the $315,000 spent in 2005, according to The Washington Times. Spending on beer, wine, and liquor in 2013 was up more than $400,000 over the year before.

The spending has fiscal watchdogs up in arms.

"You could say that Washington's quite literally drunk on other people's money," Jonathan Bydlak, president of the Coalition to Reduce Spending, told the Times. "It's very symbolic of the kind of problem we have in a whole host of government areas."

Bad Guys

He'll fit right in! California GOP candidate is registered sex offender and was convicted of manslaughter

Glenn Champ
© Image: Champ for Governor websiteGlenn Champ
One of the four gubernatorial candidates introduced to at the California Republican state party's semi-annual convention last week spent a decade in prison for convictions for voluntary manslaughter and assault with intent to commit rape, according to the LA Times.

Speaking before hundreds of delegates and supporters, Glenn Champ, 48, did not directly address colorful history, choosing instead to explain, "In my life, I've been held accountable because of my stupidity. I do not want anyone else to be enslaved because of their lack of knowledge."

Champ was one of four candidates speaking at the convention - introduced by party chairman Jim Brulte - speaking between leading GOP gubernatorial candidates, former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari, and state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County.

Champ's criminal history is extensive. Court records show that he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed firearm in 1992. In 1993, he was convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and was placed on the state's sex-offender registry.

Apple Green

David Cameron's public school cronyism dominating Downing Street

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© David Jones/PALady Warsi's mock newspaper poster is unlikely to be happy reading in Downing Street.
A senior Conservative minister has held up a sign suggesting there needs to be an end to the "Eton mess" at the heart of Downing Street, in a reference to the public school backgrounds of David Cameron and many of his top advisers.

In a gift to Labour and Ukip, Lady Warsi, a former chairman of the Conservative party, appeared on ITV's Agenda programme holding up a mocked up newspaper headline reading "Number 10 takes Eton Mess off the agenda".

The fake front page is meant to be a light-hearted feature within the programme, but is likely to infuriate No 10 days after Michael Gove, the education secretary, attacked the "preposterous" number of Etonians in the prime minister's inner circle.

Warsi told the programme: "Michael was making an incredibly serious point that it can't be right that the 7% of kids who go to independent school end up at the top tables, not just of politics, but banking and law and every other profession, and that what Michael wants to create is a first class, world class state system which means that in future years you will have more pupils from state schools, people like me, around the cabinet table, and in that I fully support Michael Gove."

Alarm Clock

Fear mongering ramps up after Ukrainian officer killed in confrontation outside base in Simferopol

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© EPA/Jakub KaminskiA man shows his shirt with the Russian emblem as he celebrates the results of the Crimean referendum at the Lenin Square in Simferopol.
Fears were growing that widespread violence would erupt in the aftermath of Russia's annexation of Crimea, as former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of growing regional tensions.

Clinton called Russia's move to annex Crimea "illegal" and "a violation of international law" and said that other countries near Russia could also face aggression if President Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his actions in Ukraine.

"If he's allowed to get away with that, I think you'll see a lot of other countries either directly facing Russian aggression or suborned with their political systems so that they are so intimidated that in effect they are transformed into vassals, not sovereign democracies," Clinton said at an event hosted by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des Congres.

She argued for sanctions against Russia and increased financial and technical support for a democratic government in Kiev.

It came as a Ukrainian officer was killed in a confrontation in Simferopol, just hours after the Russian president delivered an incendiary speech justifying Moscow's reclamation of the former Ukrainian territory.

War Whore

Election time: Turkey shoots down Syrian jet

Syrian plane shot down
© AFP
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday congratulated the military for downing a Syrian warplane near its border and warned of a "heavy" response if its airspace was violated.

"Our response from now will be heavy if you violate our airspace," Erdogan said during an election rally, referring to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"I congratulate the chief of general staff, the armed forces and those honourable pilots... I congratulate our air forces," said the premier.

Syria on Sunday accused its northern neighbour of "flagrant aggression" after Turkish forces shot down the warplane as it bombarded rebels near the border.

Turkish media reported that the army warned two Syrian jets approaching the border to turn away, but scrambled its F-16 jets when one refused to abide by the warning.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane was striking the northern province of Latakia when it was hit, catching fire and crashing in Syrian territory.

Turkish warplanes last year downed a Syrian helicopter, which Ankara said was detected two kilometres inside Turkish airspace.

Turkey toughened its rules of engagement after the downing of one of its fighter jets by the Syrian air force in June 2012, to say that any military approach of the Turkish border from Syria would be considered a threat.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday his country's armed forces had shot down a Syrian jet after it violated Turkish airspace, confirming media reports.

"A Syrian plane violated our airspace. Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard," he told a rally of his supporters in northwest Turkey ahead of March 30 local elections.

Cardboard Box

Germans intercept condom-packaged cocaine headed to the Vatican

Vatican
© Fitsnews

The drug haul was unremarkable, but the destination raised eyebrows.

German weekly, Bild am Sonntag, reported Sunday that customs officials intercepted a cocaine shipment destined for the Vatican in January.

Officers at Leipzig airport found 12 ounces of the drug packed into 14 condoms inside a shipment of cushions coming from South America.

The paper says the package was simply addressed to the Vatican postal office, meaning any of the Catholic mini-state's 800 residents could have picked it up.

Citing a German customs report, the paper adds that a sting operation arranged with Vatican police didn't lure a possible recipient. The drugs would have a street value of several tens of thousands of euros (dollars).

Neither German customs nor the Vatican could be immediately reached for comment.

Megaphone

'Colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing': UN rapporteur on Palestine blasts Israel

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© Reuters / Ammar AwadA Palestinian man reacts as he sits atop rubble after his home was demolished in Jabel Mukaber, a village in the suburbs of East Jerusalem
The UN Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestine accused Israeli authorities of conducting colonialist policies that constitute forms of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Speaking at a news conference at the UN European headquarters in Geneva on Friday, the UN Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestine, Richard Falk, accused Israel of pushing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem and creating unbearable conditions for the minority to force them to immigrate.

Falk, an ethnic Jewish expert in international law and professor emeritus at Princeton University, told journalists that Israeli policies have "unacceptable characteristics of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

In the present situation where talks between Israel and Palestinian authority remain in deadlock, the acceleration of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories is causing Palestinians to lose their faith that a state of their own could ever be created.