Puppet MastersS


Dollar Gold

At $514 trillion, China overtakes US in terms of amassing the biggest net worth


Wion
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:40 UTC
national GDP balance sheet
Over the last two decades, global wealth tripled, with China leading the way and overtaking the US for the top spot globally.

In a new report, the research arm of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. examines the national balance sheets of ten countries which together account for more than 60 per cent of world income.

The world is now wealthier than it has ever been, says Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich.

The study says global wealth rose from $156 trillion in 2000 to $514 trillion in 2020. A third of the increase was accounted for by China. Its wealth increased from $7 trillion in 2000, when it joined the World Trade Organization, to $120 trillion in 2015, speeding its economic ascent.
Read More...
Attention

The road to fascism: Paved with vaccine mandates and corporate collusion

John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:06 UTC
"Man is born free but everywhere is in chains." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
March to Fascism
© A Government of Wolves.com
We are moving fast down the road to fascism.

This COVID-19 pandemic has shifted us into high gear.

The heavy-handed collusion between the Techno-Corporate State and the U.S. government over vaccine mandates is merely the latest manifestation of the extent to which fascist forces are working to overthrow our constitutional republic and nullify the rights of the individual.

In early November 2021, the Biden Administration drew its line in the sand for more than 100 million American workers: get vaccinated against COVID-19 (by Nov. 22 for federal workers, and Jan. 4 for federal contractors and companies with more than 100 employees) or else.

Or else what?

For many individuals with sincere objections to the vaccine, either based on their religious beliefs or some other medical or philosophical concern, non-compliance with workplace vaccine mandates will mean losing their jobs and the possibility of no unemployment benefits.

One survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management estimated that 28% of employed Americans wouldn't get a COVID vaccine even if it meant losing their jobs.

Although OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is requiring that employees be paid for the time it takes to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects, those who refuse to get vaccinated but keep their jobs will have to test negative for COVID weekly and could be made to shoulder the costs of those weekly tests. Healthcare workers are not being given an option for testing: it's the vaccine or nothing.

To give the government's arm-twisting some added strength, companies that violate the workplace mandate rules "can face fines of up to $13,653 per violation for serious violations and 10 times that for willful or repeated violations."

In other words, as Katrina Trinko writes for USA Today, "the government is turning employers — who are not paid by, nor work for, the government — into an army of vaccine enforcers."
Read More...
Control Panel

Biden's banking nominee calls to eliminate all 'private bank accounts'

Sean Moran
Breitbart
Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:00 UTC
Saule Omarova
Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden's nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), called during a March 2021 virtual conference to eliminate all private bank accounts and deposits.

Omarova spoke at the Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project's "Law & Political Economy: Democracy Beyond Neoliberalism" conference in March.

Omarova discussed one of her papers, "The People's Ledger How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy," which would help "redesign" the financial system and make the economy "more equitable for everyone."

She said it would change the "private-public power balance" and democratize finance to a more systemic level.

During her explanation of her paper, she said that the Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank, can only use "indirect levers" to "induce private banks to increase their lending."

Her paper calls for eliminating all banks and transferring all bank deposits to "FedAccounts" at the Federal Reserve.
Read More...
Satellite

Russia confirms testing anti-satellite missiles

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:05 UTC
Earth from Space
© dima zel
The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that it conducted a missile test that hit and destroyed an old, inoperable satellite one day after the US State Department accused Moscow of being "irresponsible" and "reckless."

According to the ministry, the test took place on Monday and hit a Soviet-era Celina-D type reconnaissance satellite, which has been in orbit since 1982. This information corresponds with assertions made by Western media that the target was Kosmos-1408, an Electronic and Signals Intelligence satellite.

Russia described the decision to conduct the test as a planned activity to strengthen its defense capabilities and a way to prevent "the possibility of sudden damage to the country's security in the space sphere and on the ground."

Following the statement, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu personally commented on the missile strike, noting the satellite had been hit with great precision. The announcement comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the missile strike:
"This test has so far generated over fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris. The long-lived debris created by this dangerous and irresponsible test will now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations' security, economic, and scientific interests for decades to come."
Read More...
Network

Cyber attacks on the UK hit new record - with COVID vaccine research prime target

Deborah Haynes
Sky News
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 06:25 UTC
GCHQ
© Sky NewsGCHQ
Britain's cyber security agency had to tackle a record 777 cyber incidents over the past year, with coronavirus vaccine research a prime target for attack. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, said a number of the incidents were linked to hostile states, including Russia and China.

This included a global hacking campaign, blamed on Russia's foreign intelligence service, which impacted the US government most significantly. The so-called SolarWinds breach is regarded as "one of the most serious cyber intrusions of recent times", the NCSC said in its annual review.

Another major incident, linked to a Chinese state-backed actor, involved an attack on Microsoft.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, described them both in the review as "two of the most serious global cyber incidents we've seen in recent years".
Read More...
Arrow Down

YouTube cofounder gives thumbs-down to hiding 'dislike' count


RT
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 19:55 UTC
Jawed Karim
© YouTube/Jawed Karim
Jawed Karim has joined the chorus of criticism against the YouTube platform that he helped create, blasting the company's "stupid idea" of blocking users from down-voting videos.

Karim made his feelings about the controversial move known by adding a comment in the description of the first video ever uploaded to YouTube, which he originally posted in April 2005:
"When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube."
The dig was accompanied by a facepalm emoji. It came after the platform last week said it would begin hiding the thumbs-down count on all videos from public view, citing unfair "dislike attacks" meant to harass creators. Critics accused the company of trying to hide public dissent, particularly on such posts as the deeply unpopular videos uploaded by the White House.

Comment: YT has done this, obviously, in an attempt to cover up the democratic fact that the vast majority of people detest the regime.

Read More...
Chess

Top EU court claims Poland broke rules with judge appointment system


RT
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 09:33 UTC
European Court
© Reuters / Francois LenoirThe towers of the European Court of Justice are seen in Luxembourg.
Poland's procedure for appointing senior judges by the executive branch violates EU rules, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has said.

Tuesday's ruling by the CJEU said the situation in Poland in which the justice minister, "who is also the Public Prosecutor General," can "second judges to higher criminal courts" and terminate them at any time "without stating reasons," infringes on the independence of the judicial branch.

The EU court's opinion was requested by a regional court in Warsaw, which was worried that the appointment and termination procedure compromised the presumption of innocence in cases adjudicated by minister-seconded judges.

Comment: It seems that Poland's moves to retain a semblance of sovereignty over certain issues have made it a target of the EU, with this complaint being just the latest attempt to scrutinize the country into submission:

Read More...
Eye 1

Smoking gun: Whistleblower documents reveal FBI using counterterrorism division to investigate parents

Hannah Nightingale
The Post Millennial
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:47 UTC
US Attorney General Merrick Garland
US Attorney General Merrick Garland
In a letter addressed to US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Jordan wrote that a whistleblower has revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is using its Counterterrorism Division to investigate parents.

"Last month, during your testimony before the Judiciary Committee, you testified that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not using federal counterterrorism tools to target concerned parents at local school board meetings," Jordan's letter began.


Comment: More from American Greatness:
FBI agents were asked to determine any "federal nexus" or "federal violations" related to potential threats, a clear indication the Justice Department would criminally prosecute school board threats under its counterterrorism authority. This is the same approach the Justice Department is using against hundreds of Americans charged with various offenses, including misdemeanors, related to the Capitol protest on January 6.

The email appears to contradict Attorney General Merrick Garland's sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last month; Garland denied that his department considers parents angrily protesting at school board meetings "domestic terrorists" and hedged on whether the National Security Division, the Justice Department office responsible for handling federal terrorist threats, would be involved in an effort to monitor and flag parents accused of threatening conduct toward educators.

His testimony was in response to questions about his October 4 memo that instructed the FBI and his U.S. attorneys to host meetings with state and local law enforcement authorities to combat an alleged "spike" in violence aimed at public school officials. "These meetings will facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response. The Department is steadfast in its commitment to protect all people in the United States," Garland wrote.

Garland's directive came just four days after the National School Board Association sent a letter to Joe Biden describing protesting parents as "domestic terrorists" and demanded the administration use terrorism statutes including the Patiot Act and hate crime laws to prosecute parents who got out of line. "Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula," the group wrote in a letter dated September 30.
See also:

Read More...
Cow Skull

CIA Director William Burns goes to Moscow to make a show of trying to normalize US-Russia relations

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 00:00 UTC
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns
It's easier to talk about repairing relationships than to actually do so

The recent unprecedented surprise two-day visit by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns to Moscow for talks with his counterparts has triggered considerable discussion within retired spook circles in and around Washington. Even among active CIA employees the preparations for the trip were tightly held with few advisers briefed on the agenda that had been prepared for the meetings, which were clearly initiated at Langley's request. Burns met with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev as well as Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin last Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the meetings on the following day. Concerning the discussions, a Kremlin spokesman said only that "Of course, dialogue at this level and dialogue on such sensitive issues is extremely important for bilateral relations and for the exchange of views on the problems that we have" elaborating only that various international issues were discussed. A US Embassy press release echoed the Russian comments.

There is a consensus that Burns, a former Ambassador to Russia and a Russian speaker, was on a mission ordered by the president to create a more stable and predictable relationship. The move comes in spite of US issuance of a new wave of sanctions for past presumed Russian offenses in April. Leaks regarding the visit, if verifiable, indicate that Burns was in Moscow to discuss specifically alleged Russian ransomware hacking and even the widely discredited view that Moscow has been continuing its interference in US elections. If all of that is so, the visit would be pointless as the Kremlin has denied any such involvement and dismissed claims that the alleged Russian hackers are in any was associated with the government.
Read More...
Syringe

Ping-pong ball bounce could determine the fate of Biden's vaccine mandate

Ariane de Vogue
CNN
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 21:51 UTC
Biden vaccine
© AP Photo/Susan WalshPresident Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations after touring a Clayco Corporation construction site for a Microsoft data center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021.
Challenges to the Biden administration's vaccine mandate targeting employers with more than 100 employees will be consolidated and heard by the Ohio-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals after it was chosen Tuesday by a ping-pong ball lottery.

The conservative-leaning appeals court could help determine the ultimate fate of President Joe Biden's most controversial push to date to ensure that as many Americans as possible are vaccinated against Covid-19, especially after the emergence of a new strain of the virus.

The selection of one appeals court to hear the challenge also highlights the ferocious battles that have played out in recent years after President Donald Trump confirmed a record number of appeals court judges during his four-year term, changing the faces of some of the courts. The Biden administration is now racing to fill remaining vacancies with judges that share President Biden's outlook on the law. The ideological gap between the 12 circuits is at times stark and Republican critics of the mandate were hoping that a strong conservative court, like the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals would be randomly selected, while liberals were pushing for an appeals court with a more liberal reputation such as the 9th Circuit.
Read More...