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Dollar

Western elites met in Yalta, Crimea last September for annual 'Eastern Bilderberg' conference

Attending a conference about a country I had never visited was a somewhat surreal experience

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Hillary Clinton in Crimea last September.
Walking around the Italian garden in the Livadia Palace in Yalta last weekend, I could not help but feel the weight of history. It was here that Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill were photographed in February 1945 as they worked out who got what at the end of the second world war.

These days Yalta continues to make history, albeit with fewer far-reaching consequences. The annual Yalta European Strategy Meeting, a sort of mini Davos with better architecture, is hosted here by businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk. The Ukrainian billionaire founded the event in 2004, when he persuaded 30 people to come together to discuss and plan Ukraine's best approach to joining the EU. These days the meeting is quite a bit bigger.

Comment: Prescient observations from the author, but for all the wrong reasons, as we now know.

It's unlikely that the plot to overthrow Yanukovych was hatched at this specific conference - which had been running annually for 8 years by that point - but it's nevertheless revealing that this event in Crimea had turned into a kind of 'Eastern Bilderberg'. Incorporating Ukraine within the West's empire was clearly a big deal to these people.

Thankfully, at least, the people of Crimea have been spared from these snakes in suits. But the bloodshed in the rest of Ukraine is a direct consequence of the ruthless and alien mindset of this slew of pathological characters.


Heart - Black

Kiev's siege on Slavyansk in Eastern Ukraine taking its toll on local population

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People in Ukraine's eastern city of Slavyansk are facing a shortage of food and medicine as violence rages on in the restive region, Press TV reports.

The Ukrainian army is continuing its offensive against pro-Russia forces in Slavyansk as part of its ongoing military operation in the country's southeast.

Alexander Boroday, the prime minister of Donetsk People's Republic, has warned that locals have difficulty meeting their basic needs.

"As you know, there is a war going on here. This war is turning into genocide. There is severe fighting around Slavyansk. Heavy artilleries are being used. We are running out of medicine. We already don't have enough food. We have a lot of sick, old and retired people. There are sick children," he said.

The fighting, which broke out on Tuesday, has forced many civilians to seek refuge in makeshift underground shelters in Slavyansk.


Stock Down

Negative interest rate introduced in Eurozone for first time, European Central Bank cuts deposit rate below zero in historic move

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The European Central Bank lowered its benchmark interest rate to -0.10% as the continent battles deflation after many failed monetary policy attempts.

The European Central Bank cut its main refinancing rate to 0.15 percent from 0.25 percent, and the deposit rate from zero to -.10 percent, the first time the ECB has seen a negative rate.

The new interest rate will apply to all member states of the EU.

Lowering the bank's rate below zero would mean that banks will in a sense be 'punished' for keeping too much money on deposit and not giving out enough loans.

Previously Mario Draghi said the bank was considering a US-style quantitative easing stimulus, which would inject more than 240 billion euro into the slowly recovering economy.

The eurozone's 9.5 trillion euro economy is still emerging from the longest recession since the introduction of the single currency.

Inflation in the euro zone is dangerously low, and the Consumer Price Index only rose 0.5 percent in May, below the forecast 0.7 percent. Both numbers are far below the Bank's target of 2 percent inflation.

Comment: So what does this mean?

Some useful analysis from Neil Irwin at the New York Times:
Aren't there other ways the E.C.B. could try to get Europe out of its low-inflation trap? There are, but Mario Draghi, the bank's president, has resisted the preferred tool of the American, British, and Japanese central banks, which is "quantitative easing," or buying longer-term securities to pump money into the financial system.

It would be politically risky for the E.C.B. to buy bonds issued by European governments, a no-no in the founding mission of the common central bank. And private European debt markets are not as developed in the United States, so it would be hard for the E.C.B. to emulate, for example, the Fed's strategy of buying mortgage-backed securities that fund home loans in the United States.

That brings us back to NIRP. Now central bank watchers will get to watch yet another monetary policy experiment in an era that has been filled with them.
If European central bankers think Europe is protected because it doesn't stoop so low as to simply print money into existence, they have another thing coming. Being so completely enmeshed in the petrodollar system means Europe will burn along with the US when the dollar collapses and hyperinflation hits the Western world. It's going to take more than tweaking interest rates, albeit in innovative ways, to pull Europe out of this fire.


Attention

Obama's Europe doctrine: Too much stupid, not enough serious

POTUS
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueWith an F-16 fighter in the background, U.S. President Barack Obama makes remarks upon his arrival in Warsaw June 3, 2014.
What to make of the 'new' Obama foreign policy doctrine?

In a previous RT article I called it the "Take it to the Morgue - Quietly" doctrine - as it ostensibly privileges shadow wars instead of "Shock and Awe."

Then, in another article, I showed how much the still exceptionalist doctrine borrows from prime neo-con (and conceptualizer of the war on Iraq) Robert Kagan - husband of the notorious Victoria, Queen of Nulandistan.

But that was definitely too conceptual. In fact, as peddled off the record by the White House, the "doctrine" is nothing but a prosaic "Don't Do Stupid S**t," a denomination fully adopted by The New York Times.

Stupid s**t though, doesn't even begin to describe Obama's first act after announcing the doctrine last week at West Point. For those who don't get the message, one picture is enough to tell the whole story; Obama and the Polish president in front of an F-16 exhibition at a military airport near Warsaw.

Stupid s**t also irretrievably takes a backseat to serious s**t during Obama's current European tour. We just need to examine what's in store at the selected pit stops.

First is Warsaw - whose nervous poodle, US vassal government is absolutely hysterical over an imminent Russian "threat." Then it's the G7 in Brussels - the "ex-G8," from which Russia was expelled by the self-proclaimed "great powers." One of the items in the agenda is the possibility of slapping even more sanctions over Moscow's "threat" to the Ukraine.

Handcuffs

North Carolina GOP pushes unprecedented bill to jail anyone who discloses fracking chemicals

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© Chris Carlson/AP
As hydraulic fracturing ramps up around the country, so do concerns about its health impacts. These concerns have led 20 states to require the disclosure of industrial chemicals used in the fracking process.

North Carolina isn't on that list of states yet - and it may be hurtling in the opposite direction.

On Thursday, three Republican state senators introduced a bill that would slap a felony charge on individuals who disclosed confidential information about fracking chemicals. The bill, whose sponsors include a member of Republican party leadership, establishes procedures for fire chiefs and health care providers to obtain chemical information during emergencies. But as the trade publication Energywire noted Friday, individuals who leak information outside of emergency settings could be penalized with fines and several months in prison.

Display

Best of the Web: 'Russian troops in Ukraine? Got any proof?' Full Putin interview with French media (including transcript)

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Vladimir Putin faced a barrage of tricky questions from French media ahead of his meeting with world leaders at the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Here are his best replies on key issues: Ukraine, Crimea and relations with the US.

On Ukraine, its sovereignty and Russian troops:

The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has been occupying the center of international attention since the end of last year. While the coup-appointed government in Kiev is carrying out a military crackdown on the southeast of the country, the US said that Russian troops are allegedly involved in the crisis and they have proof of that.

"What about proof? Why don't they show it?" Putin told French media.

"The entire world remembers the US Secretary of State demonstrating the evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, waving around some test tube with washing powder in the UN Security Council. Eventually, the US troops invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein was hanged and later it turned out there had never been any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You know - it's one thing to say things and another to actually have evidence."

"After the anti-constitutional coup in Kiev in February, the first thing the new authorities tried to do was to deprive the ethnic minorities of the right to use their native language. This caused great concern among the people living in eastern Ukraine."


Whistle

New Jersey police officer files lawsuit over profiling quotas

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© Mendham Township Police Department
A cop who said he refuses to profile young drivers for tickets has filed a lawsuit saying he's been passed over for promotions and overtime because of his actions.

Patrolman Robert Wysokowski, 43, of the Mendham Township Police Department filed suit Wednesday in Superior Court here under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act, also known as the Whistleblower Law. He seeks promotion to sergeant, punitive and compensatory damages for "all lost benefits, wages and rights," and damages for emotional distress.

Wysokowski contends that he has consistently met department standards on enforcement of motor vehicle laws but beginning in 2005, under now-former Police Chief Thomas Costanza, he was told he had to "increase his numbers." The suit said that in 2005, Steven Crawford, who was then a sergeant but now is chief, advised Wysokowski to "seek out and target younger drivers for motor vehicle stops."

"Crawford told plaintiff that it was 'good police work,' or words to that effect," the lawsuit said. The complaint said superiors advised Wysokowski that he always could find an infraction when he stopped a vehicle.

Star

Federal Appeals court rules citizens can film police under First Amendment

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© AFP/Robyn Beck
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that American citizens have the right to film police officers in public.

The federal appeals court declared that Carla Gericke was exercising her First Amendment right when she attempted to film a late-night traffic stop. Gericke was driving behind Tyler Hanslin, because she did not know the way to his home. When she saw police lights flash behind her, she assumed she was being hailed and pulled over.

Sergeant Joseph Kelley approached her vehicle and told her that he had meant to pull Hanslin over, and she moved her vehicle to a nearby parking lot. Once there, she exited her vehicle and approached Hanslin's with her video camera, informing Sergeant Kelley that she was going to record the encounter. Sergeant Kelley ordered her back to her car, and she complied.

Shortly thereafter, Officer Brandon Montplaisir arrived at the scene, and he approached Gericke and demanded to know where her video camera was. When she refused to tell him, he arrested for her disobeying a police officer. At the station, officers also charged her with unlawful interception of oral communication.

Dollars

Monsanto goes to college - And buys the professor & the student center . . .

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© aaronfreiwald.com
If you need a science expert to support your cause and you have unlimited cash, what better way to find an expert you can trust than to buy the university where the scientist works?

When it comes to food and agricultural policy, it is hard to know which raging debate burns hotter. Ballot initiatives and grass-roots campaigns in several states, including California, would require labeling on food products containing genetically modified components. Food products falsely claiming to be "natural" or to have health benefits face challenges in court. Policymakers receive more intense scrutiny over the way millions and millions of dollars are spent in subsidies and tax breaks for industrial agribusinesses.

When the media or litigators or regulators tackle one of these issues, they will look for experts in the agricultural "field" of interest, so to speak. That is where the rights and interests of consumers are vulnerable.

Recently, Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit group advocating safe and sustainable food, water and fish, published a devastating report on the prominent role private industry now enjoys in agricultural programs at universities around the country. You can find the report, entitled, "Public Research, Private Gain: Corporate Influence Over University Agricultural Research".

Light Saber

Best of the Web: President Bashar al-Assad defies NeoCon democrazis with landslide Syria election victory

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Bashar Assad has won a landslide victory in the Syrian presidential poll with 88.7 percent of the vote. This will secure him a third seven-year term in office amidst a bloody civil war, which stemmed from protests against his rule.

"I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election," parliament speaker Mohammad Laham said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian parliament.

A total of 10.2 million people voted for Assad. The voter turnout stood at 73.42 percent. No violations have been reported, Syria's Higher Judicial Committee for Elections said as quoted by SANA news agency.

Syrian officials said the result was a vindication of Assad's three-year campaign against those fighting to get rid of him.

Comment: 120,000 dead people later, it has all come to nought.

Assad is more popular than ever and the U.S. empire is one step closer to its grave.

Stupid, bloody psychopaths.