Puppet MastersS


Bandaid

China scrapping 85 coal plants in pivot to green energy


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:16 UTC
Chinese man wearing a respiratory protection mask
© Jason Lee / ReutersA man wearing a respiratory protection mask walks toward an office building during the smog after a red alert was issued for heavy air pollution in Beijing's central business district, China, December 21, 2016.
The world's largest producer of emissions China has canceled several dozen planned and under construction coal power projects with a total capacity of over 100GW, Greenpeace reports.

Instead, Beijing will invest 2.5 trillion yuan (about $365 billion) into renewable energy.

However, the curb on coal power plants has only been implemented in 13 regions of the country, and Greenpeace expects more action from the Chinese authorities.

The decision will reportedly create over 13 million jobs in the sector, and renewable power capacity will include wind, hydro, solar and nuclear power, contributing to about 50 percent of new electricity generation by 2020.
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Attention

Theresa May wants to leave single market, protect rights of EU nationals post-Brexit, Pound has biggest intraday rally since 2008


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:03 UTC
One pound coins spilling out of clip purse with Union Jack design
© Getty Images
Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed the UK will leave the EU single market during the Brexit process in a major speech on Tuesday.

Other priorities include removing Britain from the jurisdiction of EU courts and imposing controls on immigration.

Single Market

May said that the UK would definitely be leaving the single market, telling the audience: "This agreement should allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between Britain and the EU's member states.

"It should give British companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate within European markets, and let European businesses do the same in Britain.

She said, citing the need for clarity, that her plans "cannot mean membership of the single market."
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Stock Up

Trump Effect: GM to invest $1 billion in US factories and create 1,000 jobs after critical Trump tweet


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 14:23 UTC
General Motors headquarters, Detroit, Michigan
© Rebecca Cook / ReutersGeneral Motors headquarters, Detroit, Michigan
General Motors plans to announce a billion dollar investment in its US factories. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized US automakers for taking American jobs abroad.

The move will add around 1,000 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter as quoted by Reuters.

The source added that the measure is part of the regular business process, not a political step. The corporation aims to reequip its factories to build new models. GM also wants to take some extra steps to boost US employment, including employing new engineers.

Any investment the company might disclose has been long planned and was not a response to Trump's criticism, said GM General Counsel Craig Glidden on Monday, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The automaker has over 40 manufacturing sites in the US and announced $2.9 billion in domestic investment last year. However, GM has recently said it would cut nearly 3,300 jobs at three factories.

The company also plans to cut some 2,000 jobs when it ends the third shift at its Lordstown, Ohio and Lansing, Michigan plants in January. About 1,300 jobs will be axed from its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in March.

Trump has campaigned hard on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. He has been attacking GM and other producers for assembling cars in Mexico. The President-elect promised to impose increased import taxes on GM for manufacturing some of its Chevrolet Cruze compact vehicles in Mexico.
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Chess

Is Obama out to start war with Russia before Trump takes office?

Justin Raimondo
AntiWar.com
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 14:29 UTC
obama
© Asahi Shimbun/Getty
Is the Obama administration out to provoke a military conflict with Russia in the days before Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office?

In July of 2014, the US announced the start of "Operation Atlantic Resolve" in response to the vote by Crimea - which took place nearly three years ago — to rejoin the Russian Federation. Now the Obama administration has announced that 6,000 more US troops will be deployed, initially in Germany and Poland, and eventually fanning out to Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia. Accompanying them will be 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, 87 M1A1 tanks, heavy artillery, and aircraft.

Europe hasn't seen such an increase in the US troop presence since the fall of the Soviet Union. Coming as it does with mere days left in Obama's term of office, this action invites all sorts of speculation: however, one need not speculate as to whether this is a political move. Clearly it is: the idea is to box in President-elect Trump, who has expressed his desire to improve relations with Russia.
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Stock Down

Cash crisis causes IMF to lower forecast for India's economic growth


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 14:28 UTC
Indian Rupees
© Wikimedia Commons
The International Monetary Fund said India's growth slowed last year, with the economy falling back behind China. The slowdown is attributed to the Indian government's demonetization which has caused a cash crisis in the country.

According to the IMF World Economic Outlook, India's economic growth stood at 6.6 percent in 2016 compared with China's 6.7 percent. In 2015, Indian growth was 7.6 percent.

The IMF said it had lowered forecasts for India growth in the current fiscal year due to "temporary negative consumption shock" of the currency invalidation.

"In India, the growth forecast for the current (2016-17) and next fiscal year were trimmed by one percentage point and 0.4 percentage point, respectively, primarily due to the temporary negative consumption shock induced by cash shortages and payment disruptions associated with the recent currency note withdrawal and exchange initiative," the IMF said.

Comment: Further reading:

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Eye 1

Twisted: FBI honors Martin Luther King Jr. in a tweet, 'forgetting' its role in his harrassment & death


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:57 UTC
martin luther king jr, MLK
Social media exploded as the FBI remembered the civil rights hero in a flattering #MLK Day tweet. Ironically, It's the same hero the FBI wiretapped and threatened with a sex scandal, while allegations remain that the FBI had a hand in his assassination.

"Today, the FBI honors the Rev. Martin L. King Jr. and his incredible career fighting for civil rights. #MLKDAY," the FBI tweet said. It included a photograph with the caption: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere/ We are caught in a an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Comment: It's easy to 'honor' a man after you've destroyed him and his movement. See:

Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated by US govt: King Family civil trial verdict
Let's summarize: Under US Civil Law, covert US government agencies were found guilty of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Dr. King was the leading figure of the Civil Rights Movement, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and widely recognized as one of the world's greatest speakers for what it means to be human. The family's conclusion as to motive was to prevent Dr. King from ending the Vietnam War because the government wanted to continue its ongoing covert and overt military operations to control foreign governments and their resources. It is therefore a factual statement that under US Civil Law, the US government assassinated Dr. King.


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Snakes in Suits

Trump adviser Scaramucci: Anti-Russian sanctions unsuccessful, united Russians around President Putin


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 10:11 UTC
Anthony Scaramucci
© Rick Wilking / ReutersAnthony Scaramucci
Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci says US sanctions against Russia have, in fact, united the nation around President Putin and his government, having the opposite effect to that desired by Washington, largely due to the toughness of "Russian culture."

"I think the sanctions had, in some ways, an opposite effect because of Russian culture," Anthony Scaramucci, the extravagant Wall Street hedge fund showman, told TASS news agency on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"I think the Russians would eat snow if they had to survive. And so, for me, the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nation's president," explained Scaramucci, who was a fundraiser in Donald Trump's election campaign and has just joined the president-elect's White House staff as senior advisor for communications with business, while also noting that he does not see sanctions as a generally effective measure under the current circumstances.

"Long-term sanctions could be painful had they been effective in other areas... They wouldn't be using them if they weren't effective, but what I think we have to do now is think outside the box. We have to make the world safer, we have to eliminate from the world the radical Islamic terrorism, and we have to figure out the ways to grow the wages for working-class families," Scaramucci said, adding that Russia and the United States share a lot of common objectives.

According to the advisor, despite the fact that some actions taken by the Russian government have been "met with some level of disapproval by the global community," and the US in particular, he hopes "there will be an opportunity to sit down again" and negotiate to solve the existing disagreements, given President-elect Donald Trump's declared respect for Russia.

Comment: See also:

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USA

Pentagon report: F-35 'unfit for combat' with 276 deficiencies requiring $1 billion to fix


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:58 UTC
fourth U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II
© Daniel Hughes / U.S. Air Force / Handout via Reuter
The F-35 stealth fighter jet suffers from hundreds of problems and won't be fully combat-capable before 2020, says a scathing report from the Pentagon's top evaluator. New issues keep cropping up, and fixing them all may cost over $1 billion.

Dr. Michael Gilmore's damning assessment is part of the massive annual report for fiscal year 2016, and his 62-page dossier devoted to the F-35 paints a grim picture of America's much touted,futuristic Joint Strike Fighter. The program, which began in 2001, was supposed to deliver a fifth-generation jet serving the needs of the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps, achieving savings through a modular design. Instead, it is 70 percent over initial cost estimates and years behind schedule.

Comment: The US Government has already spent $1.5 trillion in the taxpayer's money on this bucket of bolts. Check out:

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Bell

Best of the Web: Putin: 'Maidan' maybe coming to DC this week - Fake news makers 'worse than prostitutes'


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:55 UTC
putin
© ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has no grounds to attack or protect US President-elect Donald Trump, since he does not know him personally. He added though that those behind the recent allegations on Trump have "no moral scruples."

"I don't know Mr. Trump personally, I have never met him and don't know what he will do on the international arena. So I have no grounds to attack him or criticize him for anything, or protect him or whatever," Putin said.

Despite the fact that elections in the US are over and ended with a "solid win" for the Republican candidate, an intense political struggle continues in the US, the Russian president observed, adding that there are certain forces that aim "to undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect."

"I have an impression they practiced in Kiev and are ready to organize a Maidan in Washington, just to not let Trump take office," Putin said, apparently referring to anti-government protests in the Ukrainian capital in 2014, which resulted in the leadership being ousted.

Those anti-Trump forces in the US also want to "bind hand and foot" of the newly elected leader, Putin added, saying that this way they want to interfere with Trump's both domestic and international policies outlined in his presidential campaign.

By doing so, these forces "severely harm US' interests," Putin said.


Comment: Here's the full quote from TASS:
"What we see is the continuing sharp domestic political struggle although the presidential elections are over and they ended with a convincing victory of Mr. Trump," Putin told reporters after talks with Moldovan President Igor Dodon.

This struggle has several goals, Putin said, adding that the first of them is to "undermine legitimacy of the US president-elect."

"Whether the people who have been doing that really wish it or not, they do cause harm to the interests of the United States and that harm is enormous," Putin said. "One has the impression that upon gaining the required experience in Kiev they may go as far as staging Maidan type of protests in Washington in a bid to prevent Trump from taking office."

"Another aim they pursue is to bind the president-elect by hand and foot to not let him act on home and foreign policy election pledges," Putin said.

Comment: It's gonna be an interesting week!

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MIB

Project Veritas investigation claims far-left groups plotting shut-down of Trump inauguration ball. But counter-sting videos turn tables on O'Keefe


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 12:34 UTC
veritas sting op
© The Undercurrent / Reuters
A broad coalition of far-left groups is planning to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, after the right-leaning Project Veritas admitted it had infiltrated their meetings to record their plans. Now, it's a case of right/said, left/said.

On Monday, Project Veritas published its "hidden camera investigation" that "exposes groups plotting violence at Trump inauguration."In the video, DisruptJ20 members plan to "ruin" the DeploraBall, a pre-inauguration black-tie event at the National Press Club, with stink bombs made from butyric acid.


Comment: It smells like COINTELPRO alright (namely, aligning oneself very closely with the operatives and methods of a group, but only to later discredit it), but it's not exactly clear who's on first.

O'Keefe does apparently use dirty tricks - which he probably learned from Republican mentors like Karl Rove, Andrew Breitbart and other experienced operatives - but that doesn't mean that all his findings are rendered false. That Democrat-connected people organized the instigation of violence at Trump rallies, for example, is almost certainly legit.

At what point does O'Keefe's (and others') tactics stray into 'creating the reality they want to see'?

Project Veritas doesn't really need to catch people plotting disruption on tape: a lot of people have already publicly announced their intention to do so. They are not necessarily connected via groups and networks. Rather, they're basically liberal snowflakes connected by ideology and psychological make-up.

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