Puppet MastersS


Cardboard Box

The richest man on earth, Jeff Bezos drops a token of his $160B fortune to charity

Isabel Vincent
New York Post
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 01:25 UTC
Bezos
© BFN NewsJeff Bezos
For the world's richest man, charity begins - and stays - at home.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has given only a tiny fraction of his $160 billion fortune to philanthropic causes, falling far behind fellow billionaires such as Bill and Melinda Gates and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, public records show.

Although Bezos, 55, and his estranged wife MacKenzie recently pledged $2 billion to a new charitable initiative, their previous giving amounts to a total of just over $145 million or .0906 percent - far less than one percent - of their net worth. Out of $100,000, that would be like spending $90.06 on charity.

"The record of both Amazon and Jeff Bezos reveals that they are takers, not givers," said Queens City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, whose district includes Long Island City, where Amazon plans to set up a corporate headquarters. "When they make promises of how generous they will be, I look at what they have done in the past to know what the truth really is."

Over nearly two decades, Jeff Bezos has given paltry donations to the Bezos Family Foundation, a charity that was started by his parents in Washington state in Sept. 2000, state incorporation filings show.

Comment: See also:

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Bomb

McCain is dead but 'bomb, bomb, bomb Iran' still resounds

Brian Cloughley
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Cartoon Bomb Iran
© CREDO action
In 2007, when making a speech during his bid for the presidency of the United States, the late Senator John McCain spoke about Iran's supposed nuclear weapons' programme and when questioned as to whether there might be US reaction to such allegations responded by singing that old Beach Boys song, "Bomb Iran... bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb."

This jovial retort about killing people by bombing them was not surprising to those who remembered that during the US war on Vietnam McCain was shot down on a mission to bomb a power generation plant in Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, in the course of the entrancingly-named Operation Rolling Thunder. If he hadn't been shot down before he released his bombs there would almost certainly have been civilian casualties and deaths. Power stations in cities are not manned by soldiers, after all, and around the Hanoi plant there were houses that would doubtless be struck by errant bombs.

But who cares about civilians who are killed or maimed in bombing or rocket attacks?

Comment: The fuse is all but lit...what are we going to do about it?

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Star of David

Israel: Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanon are older than UNSC Resolution 1701


Sputnik
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 20:01 UTC
Tunnel dig Israel
© AP/Hussein MallaIsraeli military equipment works on the Israeli border town of Metula.
Late last year, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched operation Northern Shield, aimed at exposing Hezbollah's attack tunnels dug into Israel, later announcing that the Israeli military had located a total of four tunnels.

One of the tunnels the IDF found was over 13 years old, making UN Security Resolution 1701 irrelevant in this case as it had been dug before the document was adopted, Al-Mayadeen broadcaster reported, citing the Hezbollah leader as saying.

In an interview with the TV channel, the leader stressed that the tunnels would be used to enter Israeli territory in a forthcoming war.

Earlier reports stated that Israel was constructing a wall along its frontier to prevent any Hezbollah's efforts to infiltrate.
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Brick Wall

Flashback New mayor Boris Johnson ends discounted Venezuelan oil deal - Scheme provided half-price travel for city's poorest

George Parker
Financial Times
Sun, 25 May 2008 16:59 UTC
chavez livingstone
Hugo Chavez with former London mayor Ken Livingstone
Boris Johnson, London's new rightwing mayor, is to axe the scheme under which Venezuela provided discounted oil to run the capital's red bus fleet, a deal that funded half-price bus travel for some of the city's poorest residents.

Mr Johnson, a member of the opposition Conservative party, denounced the deal struck by his predecessor with Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, as "completely Caracas [crackers]". He said it was an unfair subsidy to London by a country in which many people live in "extreme poverty".

The agreement was made last year by Ken Livingstone, the Labour former mayor ousted in elections on May 1, who had always professed his admiration for the leftwing Venezuelan leader.

On Sunday, Mr Livingstone attacked Mr Johnson for the "cowardly" decision to announce the end of the half-price bus and tram deal for poor Londoners on a public holiday weekend. "It shows he is more interested in pursuing his rightwing ideological agenda than improving the living standards of the most deprived people in the capital."
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Document

Defying God: Governor Cuomo declares abortion a constitutional right

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 18:00 UTC
Cuomo bill signing
The title of this piece is honestly not strong enough, but it does state the fact. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took a major step to promote the willful murder of the unborn by signing into law a measure that allows elective abortion at any stage of a woman's pregnancy, up to the instant before birth. And if the baby is "accidentally" born alive, it can be killed anyway.

And the Christian community at large, most notably the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, have taken zero action other than an open letter about the situation. Rather, the Greek Orthodox Church has said nothing at all to date about this measure, signed into law by one of the recipients of its own highest humanitarian award. The Roman Catholics were slightly more vocal (because anything is more vocal than silence), but their response was muted, when the most severe consequence, excommunication from the Holy Sacrament of Communion, should have been slapped on those that made this law in nothing flat.

So, what happened, exactly?

This measure was incorporated into the Constitution of New York State itself, making elective abortion a "right." It features several disturbing aspects which we have quoted radio host Rush Limbaugh on in order to elucidate:
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Laptop

Facebook to work with Ukrainian authorities to ensure 2019 'election security'

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ News
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 17:47 UTC
facebook ukraine
Representatives of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine intend to cooperate with Facebook to ensure information security during the presidential elections in the country. It is reported by the press service of the Ministry.

On Wednesday, January 23, Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine Yurii Stets, his deputy Dmitry Zolotukhin and Secretary of State Artem Bidenko met with head of Facebook's public policy in Central and Eastern Europe Gabriella Czech and head of the direction of public politics on Facebook election Anika Geisel.

According to Minister Yurii Stets, the security measures that the social network has implemented are verification of the pages of the Ukrainian authorities, opposition to fake news, and the removal of a large number of related fake profiles, groups and pages. According to the ministry, one of the two detected networks of bots was controlled from Russia and was used for information operations in Ukraine.


Comment: That is, banning anyone who doesn't agree with them.


'Fake news' is shorthand in the U.S for news stories or analysis which goes against U.S policy.
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Red Flag

Of suspected spies and cathedrals: Western media shows its hypocrisy

Finnian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Cathedral
It's hilarious to see the double standards of Western media applied in the case of alleged American spy Paul Whelan who is being detained in Russia and facing trial.

Whelan, a former US marine, was denied bail this week in a Moscow court after it emerged that he had been found in possession of state secrets while supposedly holidaying in Russia.

Western media widely aired the theory that the American man has been "set up" by Russian state security after he had received a USB computer stick from someone while staying in a Moscow hotel last month. The person whom he received the disk from has not been identified, but presumably he or she was known to the American, otherwise why would he have accepted the item?

Whelan claims he was in Russia as a tourist and that he didn't check the contents of the computer mini-disk at the time because he assumed it contained "images of a cathedral he had visited". He was reportedly arrested soon after receipt of the disk, on December 28, by Federal Security Service (FSB) officers.

This sounds eerily familiar. Remember the two Russian men who visited Salisbury in March last year at around the time of the alleged poisoning of former Kremlin spy Sergei Skripal? Months later, those two men were identified as "suspects" on British CCTV cameras whose images were broadcast by media. Both then promptly came forward to give an interview to Russian media in order to clear their names, which they confirmed as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

Petrov and Boshirov claimed they were in Salisbury around March 4 as tourists, not as Kremlin assassins as the British media were sensationally alleging. Asked why they were in Salisbury, the pair said it was to visit the medieval English town's "famous cathedral" and its 123-meter spire.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Regime change in Venezuela big business opportunity claims shameless Bolton

Julia Limitone
Fox News
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 14:44 UTC
John Bolton
© AP Foto / Alex BrandonJohn Bolton
White House national security adviser Amb. John Bolton on the unrest in Venezuela, President Trump recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the Venezuelan president and U.S. trade negotiations with China.

White House national security adviser John Bolton said it's in America's best interest to declare Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro illegitimate.

"We want to be sure that everyone on the political level around the world and at the business level, anybody who has interest in the Western Hemisphere, this is a potential major step forward to a lot of progress in our part of the world," Bolton told FOX Business' Stuart Varney on Thursday.

Comment: There you have it, following a few years of US-led chaos creation in Venezuela, its looking forward to finally being able to bleed the country dry:

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Map

Africa shifts to Putin, NOT the other way around

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 16:28 UTC
African policewoman
This afternoon I sat in dazed disbelief at a "news" story from Financial Times proclaiming Vladimir Putin's "shift" to Africa. With a couple of centuries of imperialist mayhem behind the Anglo-European cohort, any photo op with Vladimir Putin and a desperate leader ends up a headline. Here's the truth of the matter of Africa. With nowhere else to turn except to face ravaging tigers, Africa's leaders look to the best alternatives.

Authors Henry Foy and Nastassia Astrasheuskaya must have just emerged from imprisonment in the FT basement. This is the only explanation for reporters who are supposed to have an eye out for a real story to concoct one out of nothing. The lead of the story will astound some of you.

"As protests raged in Zimbabwe's cities last week, with police firing live ammunition at crowds who barricaded roads with burning tires, the target of their anger was 8,000km away."
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Snakes in Suits

Trudeau fires envoy to China after he embarrassed him with truth on Huawei case

David Ljunggren
Yahoo
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 12:00 UTC
John McCallum
John McCallum
In an unprecedented move, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who prompted a political furor with comments about Huawei's high-profile extradition case.

John McCallum had embarrassed Trudeau's Liberal government by saying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States.

Opposition legislators and former ambassadors accused McCallum of unacceptable political interference in an affair which has badly damaged relations between Canada and China.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in Vancouver last month over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Comment: McCallum embarrassed Canada because he basically admitted that there's no legitimate case against Huawei, that they're damaging their own relations with China, suffering for it, and all because they're subservient to US-UK whims:

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