Puppet MastersS


Piggy Bank

Operation Break Stuff: The Federal Reserve's interest rate hiking and the implosion of economic rot

Fed Chair Powell
Stagflation, sinking labor productivity, severe levels of public and private debt, a splintered real estate market... You name it. The economy's crashing and burning like an old Cutlass Supreme.

There's nothing the central planners can do to fix it. No plans or schemes will get the tired jalopy to fire on all cylinders. A blown head gasket is replaced and the very next day the spark plugs are fried. Replace those and a piston ring blows.

At some point, it's beyond salvage. The only sensible choice left is to scrap the old buggy at the junk yard.

Similarly, scrapping the central planners that are responsible for this economic mess is the right thing to do. They've created a very disagreeable situation. One that will take several generations - or more - to reconcile.

In this vein, the time has come to purge the rot. To reckon the mistakes of the past. To burn off the many distortions that have piled up like dead forest wood. We'll have more on this in just a moment. But first some context is in order.

Pistol

Canada's Trudeau announces ban on handgun sales, purchases, and transfers

Justin Trudeau
© David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesJustin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, speaks at a news conference in the nation's capital of Ottawa on Sept. 23, 2022.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced a freeze on handgun sales and transfers.

The handgun freeze, which went into effect Friday, outlaws sales, purchases and other transfers of handguns between individuals. Additionally, no foreign handguns may be brought into the country from abroad.

"Canadians have the right to feel safe in their homes, in their schools, and in their places of worship," Trudeau said in a statement on the freeze. "With handgun violence increasing across Canada, it is our duty to take urgent action to remove these deadly weapons from our communities. Today, we're keeping more guns out of our communities, and keeping our kids safe."

The Prime Minister's Office released a document explaining Trudeau's thought process and the additional safety they hope to propagate via the handgun freeze.

Comment: Trying to stop violence by removing the weapons available just shifts the violence towards different and more available means. So while this may have the effect of reducing handgun violence it doesn't mean it will reduce violence overall.

Also, considering the greater context of the shift of Western governments towards ever more totalitarian proclivities and policies it isn't at all obvious that this ban is about gun violence at all. It's possible that the ban is intended to further restrict the ability of Canadians to defend themselves and resist tyrannical encroachment.


Stormtrooper

Lebensraum? Russian should become extinct in Ukraine - security chief Danilov

Alexey Danilov
© Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesAlexey Danilov, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council
The language is part of Moscow's propaganda, Defence Council boss claims

The Russian language should be eradicated in Ukraine as it is allegedly being used as a tool by Moscow to wield influence on Ukrainians, one of the country's key security officials has claimed.

The Russian language is nothing but an "element of enemy propaganda and brainwashing of our people," Alexey Danilov, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on the 'Big Lviv Talks' show on Friday.

The official also spoke in favor of Ukrainians learning English instead.

According to Danilov, the very idea that Ukrainians have to understand the Russian tongue is a "dangerous narrative."

"Look, we don't want anything from them [Russians]. Why don't they leave us alone? Let them go to their swamps and croak in the Russian language," he stated.


Comment: Sounds very similar to Nazi Germany's genocidal wish for lebensraum. It fits into a narrative by the EU leadership of the EU being a special garden and that everything outside is a jungle. Could it be those shared values which are so often touted by the EU/NATO/US leadership?
EU's Borrell under fire for 'Europe is a garden, rest of the world is jungle' remarks


Comment: Is it any wonder that so many citizens in Ukraine wish to be with Russia, like the recent referenda in the southern Ukraine was a testimony to.

Here is a map of the use of the Russian language in Ukraine. Criminalising what for many is their mother tongue will have consequences.
Russian language in Ukraine



Mr. Potato

UK claims Russian jet 'released missile' near RAF aircraft flying over Black Sea

RAF jet uk
FILE PHOTO: A RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace describes the incident as a "potentially dangerous engagement" - with the Russians blaming it on a "technical malfunction".
A missile was released from a Russian aircraft near an unarmed RAF plane on a routine patrol over the Black Sea, the defence secretary has revealed.

In a statement updating MPs on the war in Ukraine, Ben Wallace said the incident happened on 29 September and that Russia has acknowledged it took place in international airspace.

The RAF RC-135 aircraft was on routine patrol over the Black Sea when it was "shadowed" by two Russian armed SU-27 fighter jets.

Comment: Without a response from Russia, which is demonstrably much more honest and reliable in these matters, it remains to be seen just what exactly happened. However, one thing is clear: Why is the UK involved in 'routine patrols' there in the first place?


Eye 2

It's been two years since 51 intelligence agents interfered with an election -- they still won't apologize, and all got cushy jobs

intelligences officers hunter biden laptop election intereference russia
© NY Post compositeThe 51 former intelligence officials who signed a dishonest letter in the hopes of hindering former President Donald Trump from securing a second term.
Exactly two years ago, on October 19, 2020, one of the dirtiest tricks in electoral history was played on the American people by 51 former intelligence officials, who used the false alarm of "Russian interference" to stop Donald Trump winning a second term as president.

Using the institutional weight of their former esteemed roles, they signed a dishonest letter to mislead voters 15 days before the election, claiming that material from Hunter Biden's laptop published by the New York Post "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

In their expert opinion, "the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue."

Comment:


Recycle

France is latest country to announce it will withdraw from EU energy cooperation treaty

Macron
© AP Photo/Olivier MatthysFILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.
France became the latest European country to pull out of a controversial energy treaty on Friday, stating it is not compatible with the Paris climate accord.

President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty on the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels.

"We have decided to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, first because it's in line with the positions we've taken, notably the Paris Accord and what it implies," he said at a press conference.

"The war on European soil must not make us forget our climatic requirements and our imperative to reduce CO2 emissions," he added.

Comment: See also: UK's National Grid warns of possible blackouts during 'deepest, darkest winter', BBC prepares secret scripts in event of outages


Bad Guys

EU wants to use the Russian assets it has stolen to finance proxy-war in Ukraine

european union eu
EU leaders have instructed the European Commission to prepare proposals on ways of using frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, TASS news agency reported on Friday, quoting president of the European Council Charles Michel.

"We must look into the frozen assets and their possible use for the reconstruction of Ukraine and to help Ukraine", Michel said, as quoted by TASS, after EU leaders wrapped up a two-day summit in Brussels.


Comment: They're scrambling for funds for the 'reconstruction' of Ukraine, whilst the conflict is still ongoing? Then again, the EU is hardly going to admit that they need to steal these assets because even after raiding and bankrupting themselves they're still losing their proxy-war, and fast.


This issue might come up for discussion at an international conference on Ukraine that will take place next week in Germany, Michel added.

Comment: TASS reports that Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer cautions against such a move, unless it's 'approved by a court of law':
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer believes that the decision to transfer frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine should be made in court, he said while talking to reporters after the EU summit in Brussels on Friday.

"Austria takes an unequivocal legal position. To confiscate assets is one thing and to use confiscated assets is another. This will require a court decision in some form. Europe has committed itself to the rule of law," the Chancellor said. He added that the Council of Ministers of Justice is discussing how to tackle the issue.

According to Nehammer, one should not abandon these principles "even when the aggressor violates the law."

"In order to use these assets for other purposes, a clear legal process is needed, best of all if a court decision allows this to be done," the politician said.

Nehammer noted that such a procedure would allow persons and entities whose assets were frozen to also participate in the process.

On Friday, head of the European Council Charles Michel said that the European Union should consider using Russia's frozen assets to help Ukraine. According to him, this issue may be raised at the international conference on assistance to Ukraine, which is to be held on October 25 in Germany.


Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Nuclear Armageddon?! Nah, But Likely Expansion of War Beyond Ukraine




Bad Guys

Soros and the Kiev regime... Supping with the Devil

soros
© Joshua Roberts/BloombergGeorge Soros
A Jewish-born billionaire funding a Nazi regime in Ukraine to do his bidding is not beyond cynical calculation. It's what capitalism is all about.

The NATO-backed Kiev regime is enacting new draconian laws that will banish all dissenting free speech. Any views not aligned with the regime are to be deemed treasonous and outlawed, even subject to persecution and violent repression.

The new legal powers enshrine a vicious campaign against independent media in Ukraine that has been raging over the past four years under President Vladimir Zelensky. Opposition political parties and news organizations have been shuttered, and dissenting journalists targeted with violence or forced into exile. The toxic trend against free speech can be traced back to the CIA-sponsored Maidan coup d'état which toppled the elected government in Ukraine in February 2014.

That coup brought to power a far-right regime in Kiev that glories in past collaboration with Nazi Germany. Over one million Jews were exterminated by Ukrainian fascists on behalf of the Third Reich.

Arrow Down

Biden risks 'failure' on beefing up IRS for one big reason, former chiefs say

BidenIrs
© Ocala PostUS President Joe Biden
Former IRS commissioners are urging President Joe Biden to nominate a replacement to lead the agency before the term of current chief Charles Rettig expires next month, warning that a void at the top risks harming the agency's performance at a sensitive time.

The delay could hamper Biden's controversial overhaul of the IRS, which promises sweeping technology improvements for taxpayers and new resources to target tax cheats as part of the president's plan to increase tax revenue over the next 10 years. It also poses a reputational risk to the agency as it prepares to deploy billions of dollars in new federal funding.

Charles Rossotti, IRS commissioner under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said:
"Not very long in the future, anybody, realistically, is going to be asking what are the improvements that are visible that the IRS is making now that we've provided funds. People think the IRS [is] like a machine that runs by itself. It doesn't. They'll do the same thing tomorrow that they did today. But that's not what's expected when you provide a large increase in funding, and the funding was put there to improve performance."
Republicans in Congress have already vowed to reverse the $80 billion budget infusion the IRS received from Democrats' reconciliation bill this summer, questioning the agency's promise to target "wealthy tax cheats" only.


Comment: How high up do the 'tax cheats' go? Top of the Washington pyramid?


Comment: Biden's administration's sound and fury 'signifies nothing'.


Footprints

Russia helped return of Syrian refugees: Mikdad

Mikdad
© ReutersSyrian FM Faysal Mikdad
Syrian Foreign Minister Faysal Mikdad said on 20 October that Russia has played an instrumental role in helping Damascus secure the appropriate conditions for the return of migrants and refugees to the war-torn nation.

"Russia's cooperation in this field has been a catalyst for the return of large numbers [of refugees]," Mikdad said during the joint meeting of the Syrian and Russian delegations in Damascus on Thursday.

He added that efforts made by Syria and friendly countries are still clashing with some parties using this humanitarian crisis to achieve political goals that have nothing to do with the interests of Syrians.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded the return of nearly 450,000 internally displaced persons in 2020 to areas controlled by the Syrian government.