Puppet Masters

Erdogan on the edge: Will Putin's economic sanctions bring him down?

Kerim Karakaya
Al Monitor
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 17:59 UTC

© Murad Sezer/Reuters
The Arasta Bazaar that sells leather and goods near the Blue Mosque is empty of people, Istanbul, Jan. 12, 2016.

The economic warfare declared by Russia damages the Turkish economy beyond expectations

The Russian plane shot down by the Turkish air force Nov. 24 has brought President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin into serious confrontation. The economic warfare that began shortly afterward has been inflicting heavy damage on Turkey ever since.

At the outset, Turkish politicians seemed unconcerned about possible effects of the political crisis on the economy. Back then, while Mehmet Simsek, the deputy prime minister responsible for Turkey's economic policies, stated that Russian economic sanctions would not have any — or at least only limited — effect on the economy. Erdogan was trying to ignore any such economic effects by saying that nothing would happen, even if natural gas were to be cut, because Turkish citizens are used to coping with difficulties.

The sanctions caused major problems and bankruptcy in the tourism, construction, food and textile industries, and a chain reaction in banking sectors on the day the sanctions became effective Jan. 1 — this despite the fact that Putin had not yet played his strongest trump card: energy.

Comment: It seems Erdogan's eagerness to please his western masters by attempting to provoke Russia is having long-range consequences he never considered.

Did RT founder Lesin die during an FBI interrogation?

Petri Krohn
Fort Russ
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 17:41 UTC

Comment: As the article below says, it took 4 months for U.S. officials to make public the details of Lesin's death. However, even now, details remain murky. After initially calling the investigation "criminal" in nature, State Dept. spokesman John Kirby corrected himself, simply stating the investigation is "ongoing". White House press secretary Josh Earnest vaguely said Friday that he believes the FBI might have been involved in the investigation, but didn't clarify his statement.

The Russian "media mogul", co-founder of RT, former minister, and a Putin ally Mikhail Lesin was found dead in his room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C. on the morning of November 5th last year. Emergency medical staff was alerted to the scene, but the D.C. Fire and EMS found no signs consistent with life. It was initially reported by "family members", most likely Lesin's son and daughter living in Los Angeles, that Lesin had died of a heart attack. The death caused wide scale speculation, both in Russia and the West, that the death had been murder.

The Russian foreign ministry says the US has not given it any substantive information on the death, even though they have repeatedly requested information through diplomatic channels. Yesterday it was confirmed by the medical examiner that Lesin had died of "blunt force injuries of the head," as well as "blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities, lower extremities."

There is reason to suspect Mikhail Lesin may have died while being interrogated by the FBI.

McGraw-Hill destroys poli-sci textbook, placates pro-Israel bloggers' censorship demands

Rania Khalek
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 11 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC

© elderofziyon.blogspot.com
An image published by Elder of Ziyon from the textbook "Global Politics," as part of the anti-Palestinian blogger’s successful campaign to pressure McGraw Hill over maps depicting land loss in Palestine.

The publisher McGraw-Hill Education is destroying all copies of a political science textbook after receiving complaints from hardline supporters of Israel that it features a series of "anti-Israel" maps.

The college textbook, titled Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World, was published in 2012. But it wasn't until early this month that the maps generated criticism from a pro-Israel blogger known as Elder of Ziyon.

Within a week of the initial outcry, McGraw-Hill began destroying all copies of the book, scrubbed the book from its website, promised to reimburse anyone who bought the book and apologized to the offended right-wing bigots behind the manufactured controversy.

According to the publisher's summary, the book fosters "critical thinking and theory" about global events and "offers students a number of lenses through which to view the world around them."

The maps, which appear in chronological succession on page 123, show Palestinian land loss from 1946, one year before Zionist militias initiated the displacement of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine, to the year 2000, by which point Palestinian land had been reduced to a handful of tiny non-contiguous enclaves in the occupied West Bank and a sliver of Gaza.

The caption reads, "A mix of diplomatic and military actions and expanded Jewish settlements since the founding of modern Israel has led to a gradual decline in Palestinian-held territory - which explains why the territory remains one of the central sticking points in the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The image is sourced to the Middle East Political Research Center.

Comment: MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, parent company Comcast. Having acquired 51% ownership of media conglomerate NBC Universal from General Electric in January 2011, Jewish-owned Comcast completed its purchase of the company in February 2013.

Comment: Just another historically incorrect rewrite? If so, what was the leverage to compel McGraw-Hill to even consider the problem, let alone completely capitulate to demands within a week's time? This short duration suggests "instantaneous" work by its 'academic experts' (think Zionists) or it was bypassed completely. And, what kind of fire was lit under McGraw-Hill to destroy ALL books within the week? How does a big publishing house even get this kind of financial and publishing ramifications through internal channels in less than seven days with the original authors onboard? Big power and big threats would be the guess.

And then there was puppet company MSNBC's mea culpa. Was it a "mistake?" Or did MSNBC "cave?" Or was it a set-up in order to make a public correction and plant purposefully-skewed Zionist propaganda. Israel has been coming under global scrutiny for its ethnic cleansing and expansion program into Palestinian-held territories. It has to continually maneuver the facts to match its narrative, absolving all guilt and blame. (...OK, you're right, they don't do guilt.)

Fresh Israeli airstrikes kill two more children in Gaza

PressTV
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 17:37 UTC

A six-year-old girl who was injured in Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip has succumbed to her wounds.

Isra', the sister to ten-year-old Yasin Abu Khussa, who was killed in the Saturday attack, died in hospital, Palestinian media reported.

Israelis attacked Gaza after claiming that rockets fired from the enclave hit areas in the occupied Palestinian territories late on Friday. No casualties were reported in the attack, which Israel blamed on Hamas.

Militants affiliated to the Daesh Takfiri group have claimed several such rocket attacks in recent months, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such incidents.

Obama wants to 'back-door' everything -- the iPhone is just the beginning

Andrew Emett
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 16:29 UTC

While visiting South By Southwest (SXSW) on Friday, President Barack Obama argued that the government should be given a backdoor to all encrypted smartphones and communications devices. Although Obama repeatedly played the child molester and terrorist cards, he never confronted the possibility of U.S. intelligence agencies abusing their power at a level far more technologically advanced than the KGB, Stasi, or SAVAK.

When asked where he stood on the privacy vs. security debate, Obama answered, "All of us value our privacy. And this is a society that is built on a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights, and a healthy skepticism about overreaching government power. Before smartphones were invented, and to this day, if there is probable cause to think that you have abducted a child or that you are engaging in a terrorist plot or you are guilty of some serious crime, law enforcement can appear at your doorstep and say, 'We have a warrant to search your home.' And they can go into your bedroom and into your bedroom drawers and rifle through your underwear to see if there's any evidence of wrongdoing. And we agree on that."

The big, fat, stinking lies of Hillary Clinton

Valerie Love
The Daily Sheeple
Fri, 11 Mar 2016 15:20 UTC

The Daily Sheeple's Editor's Note: P.S. Loretta Lynch has indicated that the DOJ "doesn't have to" charge Hillary. Yep.

Hillary Clinton leaves big stinking piles of lies wherever she goes. It frankly boggles the mind that people cheer her lies and boo anyone who questions her lies.

Just a few related recent stories posted on this website:

You can do a search for Hillary, Hillary lies or Hillary liar and come up with many more reports.

On the verge of victory: Russian coalition fight tooth & nail to free ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS

Paul Kaiser
Russia Insider
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:06 UTC

As we reported last week, the Syrian army is closing in on the ancient city of Palmyra. Aside from its symbolic importance, controlling Palmyra would also open a strategically vital road to the eastern province of Deir al-Zor. Here's a map from March 5 showing the advance:

According to Reuters, the Syrian army, backed by Russian air support, is now approximately 4 miles from the gates of Palmyra. Here's a map of the current situation:

Comment: Like all areas that have come under the control of Western-backed terror groups, Palmyra has experienced a wave of tragedies.As soon as ISIS captured the site in May, 2015 they began destroying ancient artifacts, temples, and gravesites. The custodian in charge of the area, Khaled al-Asaad, once head of Palmyra Antiquities Department and Museums and a man celebrated for his rich knowledge of the site's treasures, refused to assist them. By refusing he knew that he would be 'made an example of' but he stayed due to the great love he had for the area, the people, and their history. He was beheaded in broad daylight.

A victory for the Russian coalition here, as part of their multi-pronged offensive to take ISIS' capital in Raqqa, cannot come too soon.

Further reading:

"Taking advantage of the cease-fire, loyalist forces supported by Russia and Iran have launched two significant offensives, one aimed at the city of al-Qaryatayn and the other at the ancient city of Palmyra. At the same time, the Syrian Democratic Forces are pursuing their offensive against the Islamic State [Daesh] in northern Syria, advancing into Deir ez-Zor for the first time and making inroads closer to Raqqa, the extremist group's self-declared capital," Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor), global intelligence company, reported on March 7.

Daesh is 'buckling under the pressure' from Russian coalition's offensive

'We stand for unity': Syrian officials want nothing to do with Washington's 'Plan B'

Sputnik
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:39 UTC

Syria's leadership opposes the partition of the republic and does not support the idea of the country's federalization, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Saturday.

On Friday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that Syria's federalization could be one of the issues discussed at the upcoming peace talks in Geneva.

"I tell you as a Syrian citizen: we are against the idea of federalization. We stand for the unity of Syria's territory and its public," the minister said at a press conference in Damascus.

Obama wants access to all digital devices to prevent terrorism and tax cheats

RT
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:21 UTC

Without mentioning the government's case against Apple directly, President Barack Obama told a Texas audience that mobile devices should be built in such a way that the government can access them in order to prevent a terrorist attack or enforce tax laws.

"The question we now have to ask is: If technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there's no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer, how do we solve or disrupt a terrorist plot?" Obama said during a question and answer session at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas on Friday, according to Reuters.

Comment: Isn't the government terrorizing other countries and creating terrorists a much bigger threat than phone encryption? And don't forget about pedophiles in position of power, are you going to do anything about that much bigger issue?

"What mechanisms do we have available to even do simple things like tax enforcement because if in fact you can't crack that at all, government can't get in, then everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket," he added.

Comment: How about going after the top corporations that don't pay taxes?

Sick of needless war? Ukrainian naval officers deserting to Crimea

Sputnik
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:15 UTC

Ukrainian soldiers are leaving the army ranks en masse, while many officers keep visiting Crimea, according to a report prepared by a Defense Ministry working group in Kiev, Ukrainian media reported.

Eighty-seven naval officers have deserted to Crimea since January and a total of 559 went AWOL last year, Dumskaya.net news portal wrote.

Only 135 people have been returned, while the command did not look for the deserters, and even covered up the desertions, the report said.

"According to the Defense Ministry working group, the unit commanders are not looking for the deserters and even try to keep these cases under wraps. No information about 286 deserters could be found in the Navy files," Dumskaya.net added.

.. .. Ernesto Guido, you know much that his hidden! [Link]

Jibrish

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Steelj

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Puppet Masters

Erdogan on the edge: Will Putin's economic sanctions bring him down?

Did RT founder Lesin die during an FBI interrogation?

McGraw-Hill destroys poli-sci textbook, placates pro-Israel bloggers' censorship demands

Fresh Israeli airstrikes kill two more children in Gaza

Obama wants to 'back-door' everything -- the iPhone is just the beginning

The big, fat, stinking lies of Hillary Clinton

On the verge of victory: Russian coalition fight tooth & nail to free ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS

'We stand for unity': Syrian officials want nothing to do with Washington's 'Plan B'

Obama wants access to all digital devices to prevent terrorism and tax cheats

Sick of needless war? Ukrainian naval officers deserting to Crimea

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