Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Best of the Web: An Obituary for Ariel Sharon

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We mark with some regret the passing of Ariel Sharon in Israel who has been surviving in a vegetative state since 2005. The regrets are not because the world has lost a person of any value but because he died in a long-term care facility rather than the prison cell which he deserved.

Sharon was born in Palestine in 1928 to Belarusian Zionist Jews who fled the Russian Revolution. His parents were a contentious couple who, it appears, reared him in the psychopathic spirit. He came to young manhood embodying the highest ideals of Zionism, in particular its antisocial character. By the age of 14 he was already involved in Zionist paramilitary groups that used terror and massacres to drive Palestinians off their lands.

Sherlock

SOTT Focus: Were The Boston Marathon Bombers 'Mind Controlled'?

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Just your average dysfunctional immigrant American family...with "spontaneous, self-radicalized marathon bombers"
Were the 'Boston Bombers' mind controlled?

If it were possible to ask the elder of the two Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan, this question, it seems he would answer in the affirmative.

One of the stories that disappeared down the media memory hole late last year was a report about a five month-long Boston Globe investigation into the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and their alleged perpetrators.

A December 16th 2013 story on the investigation nonchalantly stated:
"Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev heard voices inside his head and had an alter-ego."

As part of a five-month investigation, the Globe spoke to a number of sources close to the elder Tsarnaev. One of them was Donald Larking. Larking said that Tamerlan believed the voices were part of a "majestic mind control", which was "a way of breaking down a person and creating an alternative personality with which they must coexist."
Alrighty then. Not much of interest there.

Mr. Potato

'Ho-Ho' Hollande threatens to sue French tabloid over report of affair with Socialist actress

hollande affair
French President Francois Hollande threatened on Friday to sue celebrity magazine Closer, complaining of breach of privacy after it alleged he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.

The weekly French tabloid, criticized in 2012 for publishing topless pictures of Kate Middleton, Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, printed seven pages of photos of comings and goings outside a Paris apartment block to support its allegation.

Comment: Carla Bruni redux? French president François Hollande's affair with actress Julie Gayet exposed


Snakes in Suits

The Clinton Years: The Cocaine Administration?

the clintons
Filling in the blanks


We're going to have eight years of Obama and we had eight years of Bush Jr.

Before that we had twelve years of George Bush Sr. (eight under a senile Ronald Reagan and four of his own administration.)

It's easy to forget who came in between.

Bill Clinton...

The economy was booming so few paid attention.

The Internet was still new and not the information powerhouse it is now.

Here's just part of the history you might have missed.

Comment: The Clinton Chronicles


Stormtrooper

Chomsky: U.S. domestic policy can be summed up in two words: 'Pure Savagery'

Chomsky
© Flickr / tr.robinson / Creative Commons License
Cuts to food stamps and jobless benefits predictable result of 'neoliberal assault' on American people.

As Congress decides this week whether to re-institute emergency jobless benefits for millions of Americans and closes in on negotiations for a Farm Bill that could see billions of dollars cut out of food stamp programs, renowned activist and intellectual Noam Chomsky summed up the state of American politics in an interview Thursday in two words: "pure savagery."

"The refusal to provide very minimal living standards to people who are caught in this monstrosity - that's just pure savagery," Chomsky said during an interview with HuffPost Live. "There's no other word for it."

Coffee

Study: Washington's polarization and gridlock 'helps the super-rich stay rich, and get richer'

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© Shutterstock
At the end of 2013, only 12 percent of Americans held a positive view of Congress - three points above the all-time low set earlier in the year, according to Gallup. Two out of three respondents to a CNN/ORC poll said this was the worst functioning Congress they'd seen in their lifetimes. And these dismal views weren't just the product of subjective impressions - in its first year, the 113th Congress managed to pass only 66 bills, the fewest in the 40 years for which reliable data exists.

But a study published last November in The Journal of Politics suggests that this sorry state of affairs is good news for a small group of Americans at the top of the economic pile. "Washington gridlock helps the super-rich stay rich, and get richer," says Thomas Volscho, a sociologist at the City University of New York and one of the authors of the study. "And the richer they get, the more the gridlock actually helps them."

The researchers looked back over 70 years of data, and found that the more dysfunctional Washington is, the bigger the share of the pie the top one percent tends to grab. And most importantly, they also found that when economic inequality is high, the kind of polarization and gridlock that have been the hallmark of Washington since Barack Obama's election make legislative efforts to change course all-but-impossible.

Sherlock

Investigation confirms evils of fracking

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© AP/Keith Srakocic, FileMarch against hydraulic fracturing and gas well drilling on the Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh on November 3, 2010.
Despite roadblocks by industry and state officials, well water contamination found in four states.

The Associated Press has confirmed what residents have long known and the oil and gas industries have sought to hide: the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, as well as conventional oil and gas drilling, is polluting and contaminating well drinking water supplies.

In an investigation published Sunday, AP reporter Kevin Begos - drawing upon hundreds of complaints made by residents, as well as admissions from state officials and even drilling companies - verifies well water contamination in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas.

Treasure Chest

Deep Pockets - Former Bank of Israel Head Gets Fed Vice Chair Nod

President Barack Obama intends to nominate Stanley Fischer, a former head of the Bank of Israel, to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Janet Yellen, who is ascending to the central bank's chairmanship.

Fischer, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, is considered a leading expert on monetary policy. He was a long-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Departing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was one of his students.

Obama also is nominating Lael Brainard as a Fed governor. Brainard served as the undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury during Obama's first term. She left the administration recently. He also is renominating Jerome Powell to the Fed for a second term.

"These three distinguished individuals have the proven experience, judgment and deep knowledge of the financial system to serve at the Federal Reserve during this important time for our economy," Obama said in a statement.

In selecting Fischer, Obama is tapping someone with extensive experience in global economics to serve on the Fed's seven-member board. Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He led the Bank of Israel from 2005 until 2013.

Document

'Burglars' revealed: Sixties activists who stole FBI COINTELPRO files

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© Mark Makela / New York TimesJohn and Bonnie Raines, two of the burglars, at home in Philadelphia with their grandchildren.
'On March 8, 1971, a group of eight Vietnam War protestors broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole hundreds of government documents that shocked a nation.' - Jon Queally, staff writer

In an exclusive with the New York Times on Tuesday, published to coincide with a new book about a fateful plan more than four decades ago that helped bring down J. Edgar Hoover and expose the dark nature of the FBI's obsessive targeting of the dissident and anti-war left, the original burglars who broke into a bureau field office in 1971 have now stepped forward to discuss the meticously planned theft that altered the course of modern history.

Comment: This practice of spying on and squashing dissent through infiltration of opposition has of course not stopped, but only expanded and refined. These methods of social control are bound to be applied in any pivotal organization, institution and social movement. Laura Knight-Jadzyck writes in 'Secret History of the World':
Usually, when we think of COINTELPRO, we think of the most well known and typical activities which include sending anonymous or fictitious letters designed to start rumors, among other things, publishing false defamatory or threatening information, forging signatures on fake documents, introducing disruptive and subversive members into organizations to destroy them from within, and so on. Blackmailing insiders in any group to force them to spread false rumors, or to foment factionalism was also common.

What a lot of people don't keep in mind is the fact that COINTELPRO also concentrated on creating bogus organizations. These bogus groups could serve many functions which might include attacking and/or disrupting bona fide groups, or even just simply creating a diversion with clever propaganda in order to attract members away so as to involve them with time-wasting activity designed to prevent them from doing anything useful. COINTELPRO was also famous for instigation of hostile actions through third parties. According to investigators, these FBI programs were noteworthy because all documents relating to them were stamped "do not file". This meant that they were never filed in the system, and for all intents and purposes, did not exist. This cover was blown after activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971. The possibility of finding evidence for any of it, after that event, is about zero.
See also:
COINTELPRO: Information Warfare
COINTELPRO, Provacateurs and Disinfo Agents: The U.S. Government's war on the American People
How COINTELPRO really works and destroys social movements: Open letter from former Tea Partier to Occupy Wall Street protesters


Eye 1

Inside TAO: Documents reveal top NSA hacking unit

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© Google Earth
The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting

In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn't budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410.

In the United States, a country of cars and commuters, the mysterious garage door problem quickly became an issue for local politicians. Ultimately, the municipal government solved the riddle. Fault for the error lay with the United States' foreign intelligence service, the National Security Agency, which has offices in San Antonio. Officials at the agency were forced to admit that one of the NSA's radio antennas was broadcasting at the same frequency as the garage door openers. Embarrassed officials at the intelligence agency promised to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and soon the doors began opening again.

It was thanks to the garage door opener episode that Texans learned just how far the NSA's work had encroached upon their daily lives. For quite some time now, the intelligence agency has maintained a branch with around 2,000 employees at Lackland Air Force Base, also in San Antonio. In 2005, the agency took over a former Sony computer chip plant in the western part of the city. A brisk pace of construction commenced inside this enormous compound. The acquisition of the former chip factory at Sony Place was part of a massive expansion the agency began after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.