Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Kyoto failed. Paris failed. Will the Greta-starring Madrid UN climate conference be any different?

Rob Lyons
RT
Sun, 01 Dec 2019 07:41 UTC
Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
© Reuters / Mike BlakeSwedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The ill-fated COP25 has found a host location at the third time of asking but, just like its predecessors, the high-powered international summit looks to be big on gestures and small on reversing the direction of humankind.

Starting on Monday, COP25, or the 25th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to give the summit its full name, will bring together top officials from 197 countries with the aim of establishing a set of new national targets towards cutting emissions. The talks were originally due to be held in Brazil, but the government there pulled out 12 months ago. Chile offered to take over but, after weeks of street protests, the government there pulled out, too. Finally, the Spanish government stepped in four weeks ago to take over.


Comment: Wow. Whether the Powers That Be realize it or not, their 'agitation' of the masses - through global warming hysteria, terrorism and color revolutions - has overtaken them. In a sense, they're 'on the run' from a beast they can no longer control.


What are the talks about?

The talks will review the progress made since the much-ballyhooed Paris Agreement was signed at COP21 in December 2015. The Agreement aims to reduce emissions enough to keep global temperature rises 'well below' two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5 degrees. The world has already warmed by about one degree Celsius from that baseline, leaving nations with even less leeway.

Each country has promised to set a national goal for lowering emissions along with a plan for how that might be achieved.

Comment: Nice try by the author to 'take the middle ground', but he doesn't understand that the entire premise is wrong. You can't reason with this ultra-revolutionary movement. It is determined to destroy civilization and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

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Pistol

New Zealand shutters gun buyback website - fears massive leak of law-abiding firearm owners' data


RT
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:29 UTC
gun shop
© Reuters / Jorge Silva / FileA view of gunshop in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 19, 2019
New Zealand's online notification platform for the firearm buy-back program has been shut down after a local gun owners association found a vulnerability that allegedly exposed the data of some 37,000 law-abiding citizens.

"We have advised the office of the Privacy Commissioner of the potential issue," police said in a statement, sharing little additional detail and admitting they were informed of the problem by a "member of the public."

Comment: Once again, a government hysterically reacting to a perceived problem has only made matters worse.

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Eagle

Power-mad NATO's deep and pervading crisis is foisted upon the world

Jan Oberg
The Transnational
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
NATO HQ
Political

NATO's London Summit on December 3 and 4, 2019 displays the deep political crisis of the 70-year-old alliance: Only a dinner and a short meeting, no statement to be issued, quarrels among the leading military members, accusations, substantial differences on Syria and many other issues, the deepest-ever Transatlantic conflict and the usual issues of burden-sharing.

Legal

But the political dimension of NATO's crisis is only one. There is also a legal crisis. You'll recognize it if you care to read the NATO Treaty text - something academic and media people don't generally seem to have done. They would then have noticed that the Alliance of 2019 consistently operates outside - indeed in violation of - its own goals, purposes and values. For instance, the UN Charter which should be NATO's guideline has been violated on a permanent basis for decades - such as in its out-of-area bombings of Yugoslavia with no UN mandate.

The contempt shown for international law in general and the UN Charter in particular is an integral part of NATO's existential crisis.

Moral

And, third, there is a moral dimension to NATO's crisis. Of course, no one talks about it.

It's the simple fact that no war that individual NATO members states or NATO as NATO have engaged in can be termed anything but predictable fiascos when judged by the alliance's own stated goals and criteria - just think of Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria... all crystal clear moral catastrophes causing unspeakable suffering, death and destruction to millions upon millions while achieving none of the stated goals that were set to explain and legitimize these wars such as creating democracy, respecting human rights, liberating women or stopping alleged genocides.

Comment: See also:

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Wall Street

Icons of financial industry warn: "We will kill each other" if our broken economic system isn't fixed

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 05:55 UTC
Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones
Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones
Two hedge fund icons - Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones - joined Yahoo Finance for the 2nd annual Greenwich Investment Forum earlier this month. Speaking directly after Connecticut Gov. New Lamont, with whom Dalio is working to bolster Connecticut's schools via a $100 million gift - the largest charitable gift the state has ever received, PTJ and Dalio focused their "Fireside Chat" on the flaws of Fed policy, the dangers of America's ballooning budget deficit, and the steps that must be take to "stop us from killing each other" in a violent revolution, as Dalio warned.

PTJ spoke first, starting with a few words about President Trump, praising him as "the greatest salesman" to ever enter the American political arena. After all, didn't Trump convince the Republican Party - once the party of fiscal piety - that 5% budget deficits 10 years into an economic rebound are necessary to protect the economy. Similarly, didn't he also convince the Fed - "through great moral suasion" - that returning to real negative rates with unemployment at 50-year lows was a necessity?

Both Dalio and PTJ agree that, while clearly stimulative in the short-term (obviously just take a look at the S&P 500), these decisions will set up the US economy for one of the most punishing downturns in history, which is why PTJ always laughs when Jerome Powell is quizzed about financial conditions and whether he sees bubbles anywhere. Because at this point, the whole market is a bubble.
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Stock Up

World-changing event: Russia opens taps on new mega gas 'Power of Siberia' pipeline to China


RT
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 10:49 UTC

Comment: This is the game-changer Putin and Xi signed off in this memorable photo amidst mass freak-outs in Western capitals in early 2014...
Xi Jinping y Putin

Power of Siberia
© Reuters / Maxim ShemetovPower of Siberia
In a move to cement energy cooperation with the fast-growing economies in Asia, Russia officially launched delivery of natural gas supplies to China, via the Power of Siberia pipeline, on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping gave the green light at an official ceremony via teleconference.

Russia, the world's biggest gas exporter, is looking to one of the globe's top consumers, China, as Moscow's relations with the West deteriorate. The move gives Russia an enormous new market outside of Europe which has targeted Moscow with sanctions, over the conflict in Ukraine, since 2014.

The mega pipeline was built in record time. Initially, the launch was planned for December 20 but the construction was completed ahead of schedule.

The 3,000km-long (1864 miles) pipeline will ship gas from Russia's huge gas reserves in its eastern regions to the Chinese border. It will then link up with China's own network to deliver gas as far as the eastern seaboard and help satisfy the nation's vast and growing energy needs.

Comment: The economic and strategic powerhouse relationship between China and Russia just grows by the day and is motivated by at least two factors: 1.) good business sense, and 2.) the need to escape the yoke of egregious and short-sighted policies inflicted on these countries by the West, and the US in particular.

See also:

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Light Sabers

Best of the Web: Indispensable or obsolete? Reheated Cold War rhetoric can't patch fractured NATO that lacks sense of purpose & vision for future

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:39 UTC
νατο
© Sputnik / Alexey Vitvitsky
A war of words between prominent NATO members over its continued existence has revealed cracks in the 70-year-old alliance, which seems to be returning to its Cold War roots in desperate search for a new sense of purpose.

"The transatlantic relationship is in a very, very healthy place," insisted US officials briefing reporters on the eve of the NATO summit in London. Meanwhile, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been repeating that NATO is the "most successful alliance in history."

Behind this brave facade, however, the septuagenarian alliance is tearing itself apart. US President Donald Trump's insistence on everyone dedicating two percent of their GDP to military spending is a target only seven members have met so far. Most NATO countries are nothing but hangers-on to the US military, and can't conduct independent operations. Only a few, like Turkey, can - and the fact that Ankara just did, without bothering to consult the rest of the alliance, is the cause for the latest display of discord.

French President Emmanuel Macron set things off by complaining about Ankara's operation in Syria last month, pointing to "no coordination whatsoever" between either the US or Turkey with the rest of NATO and calling the alliance "brain dead."

That, ironically, brought otherwise feuding NATO members together - in condemnation of the French leader. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tore into Macron on Friday, suggesting he should have "his own brain death checked."

Comment: Marc Champion and Jonathan Stearns write for Bloomberg:
Were Johnson to lose to Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, that would give NATO yet another individual to worry about at its next summit, due in 2021.

Over his career the socialist firebrand has called NATO "a danger to world peace and a danger to world security". He has more recently fallen into line with party policy, which is for the U.K. to stay in the alliance, but he'd likely prove another awkward partner.

The last time Britain hosted NATO leaders, in 2014, he told an anti-NATO rally the end of the Cold War "should have been the time for NATO to shut up shop, give up, go home and go away."


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Sherlock

Airbus fires 16 employees linked to alleged industrial espionage on German military contracts


RT
Sun, 01 Dec 2019 21:38 UTC
airbus
© FILE PHOTO. Reuters / Regis Duvignau
Europe's aerospace giant Airbus has found itself at the center of a scandal after it was revealed that some of its employees, in a division handling German military projects, are suspected of involvement in industrial espionage.

The aviation and defense company has dismissed 16 employees, including a department manager, without notice, as all of them were suspected of spying on corporate secrets and of illegally obtaining confidential documents on future projects of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr).

Airbus is one of the major suppliers of the German Armed Forces; it regularly wins contracts to provide the Bundeswehr with new airplanes and helicopters, as well as for retrofitting existing equipment.

Comment: Considering this investigation was only prompted because of an employee sounding the alarm, isn't it likely that similar activity is occurring in other countries but, as yet, has gone undetected? It's also notable that Airbus had been recently considered a safer option following the deadly crashes caused by Boeing's MAX planes.

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Sherlock

Netanyahu behind Labour anti-Semitism scandals according to Dutch Daily newspaper's cartoonist


Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Sun, 01 Dec 2019 14:28 UTC
Netanyahu
© De VolkskrantA caricature suggesting Benjamin Netanyahu is behind British Labour's anti-Semitism scandals
A major Dutch daily ran a caricature whose critics say reinforces anti-Semitic tropes and suggests that Israel's prime minister is attacking Britain's Labour Party over anti-Semitism to distract from corruption charges against him.

In the caricature Thursday in De Volkskrant, Benjamin Netanyahu is depicted holding a stone labeled "anti-Semitism charges" in one hand and reading an indictment for corruption in the other.

Opposite the Israeli leader is Jeremy Corbyn, who heads Labour Party, which is under an investigation by the British government's Equality and Human Rights Commission over complaints that Corbyn's anti-Israel agenda and far-left politics have made it institutionally anti-Semitic.

Comment: While it's highly unlikely that Corbyn will become PM, what with an establishment campaign to keep him out of power, were he to do so, he would likely pose as a significant thorn in the side of the psychopaths controlling Israel: Labour party adds ban on selling arms to Israel and Saudi Arabia to election platform

See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Red Pill

Yes Virginia, it really did happen: Ukraine and election meddling in 2016

Yasha Levine
yasha.substack.com
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:29 UTC
Ukraine interfere US election cartoon hillary trump
I know I've written about this before, but I feel like I have to address it again — seeing how just about every impeachment witness has repeated the claim that meddling by Ukrainian government officials did not happen in 2016 and that anyone who says otherwise is spreading toxic Russian propaganda. I've been dipping into these hearings every now and again and've seen this said over and over. It reminds me of those new age quantum-mind-over-matter types in the The Secret: Repeat the mantra often enough and convince yourself it's true and...it is!

Let's start with a fact: Meddling in the 2016 election by Ukrainian politicians and government agencies happened.
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Bizarro Earth

Jeremy Clarkson mocks 'idiot' Greta Thunberg, but the cancel-culture 'snowflakes' are the ones out of touch with reality

Graham Dockery
RT
Sat, 30 Nov 2019 19:05 UTC
Jeremy Clarkson Thunberg
© Global Look Press / Planet Photos and Reuters / Carlo AllegriJeremy Clarkson and Greta Thunberg
Jeremy Clarkson is piggish, childish, and uncool. But people like him because, despite what woke puritans would have you believe, people still love cars and don't care about nonsense like "toxic masculinity."

An interview with Jeremy Clarkson by The Independent was never going to be a friendly exchange. Clarkson has built a career out of mocking the social justice proclamations of the liberal newspaper's bedfellows, and the Independent unloaded a woke broadside at the 'Grand Tour' host the moment he swaggered into the room.

Describing the show as "schoolboy sniggering from a trio who have drawn much criticism over the years for encouraging toxic masculinity and cracking colonial-style jokes," the Independent went on to suggest that "the public is finally tiring of his schtick," and noted that it's "tough to justify" a car show in 2019, when the European Parliament has declared a "climate and environment emergency."
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