Puppet MastersS


War Whore

The great diversion: Sex scandals and conflict with Russia

Andre Damon
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 10:59 UTC
Wars
© inspiretochangeworld.com

Comment: The drive for wars and the threat of WWIII with Russia is, in many ways, profitable for the Powers that Be. An actual WWIII would not be. The shabby U.S. would likely lose the battle, as it already has in Syria. They'd lose their power and lots of money. That's not very appealing to the PTB.


With media coverage in America dominated by allegations of sexual assault against the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, one would never know that the United States is on the verge of a massive escalation of operations against Syria and is preparing for a military conflict with Russia.

Friday's wall-to-wall coverage of Trump's alleged sexual transgressions featured a speech full of moralistic outrage by First Lady Michelle Obama, a veteran of the cutthroat Chicago political machine. She melodramatically declared that a leaked tape of Trump making lewd remarks had "shaken me to my core."

The entire media spectacle serves as a smoke screen for far-reaching plans by the present administration, with the full support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, to implement deeply unpopular policies without public scrutiny. It serves as well to bury any discussion of substantive issues in the election campaign.

Behind a nearly total media blackout, the White House National Security Council held a closed-door meeting Friday to review the US military's campaign in Iraq and Syria. The only major media advance report on the meeting, carried by Reuters on Thursday and then quickly dropped, noted that US officials were weighing "air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases." Asked about the meeting at a press conference Friday afternoon, deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz refused to even acknowledge that it was taking place.
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Document

Assange's internet connection cut by 'state party' as Wikileaks releases more Podesta emails

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
assange wikileaks target hillary killary clinton
© The Free Thought Project
Wikileaks continues dropping bombshell revelations in its coordinated October Surprise of documents and emails hacked from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta — so many, in fact, it has been difficult to keep up. Damning best describes information released so far — damning not only for Clinton, but countless top U.S. politicians, officials, the FBI, the State Department, President Obama, corporate media, Big Banks, and nearly innumerable others.

For all intents and purposes, the sheer volume of damaging information should, theoretically, lay waste to Clinton's bid for the presidency — if not land her behind bars.

Nonetheless, the same corporate media — proven in the leak to have colluded with the Clinton camp to have actively crafted the narrative about her personal email server, among other things — has dismissed the significance of the leak, and CNN even hubristically and falsely scolded actual journalists with integrity for their 'illegal' perusal of the cache.

Comment: Update (Oct. 18): Wikileaks has now confirmed that Ecuador was the state party behind cutting off Assange's internet connection, which occurred shortly after the release of transcripts of Clinton's speeches given to Goldman Sachs.

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Stock Down

Founding architect of European Central Bank warns euro 'house of cards' to collapse

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 11:05 UTC
Otmar Issing
© AFP/GETTY IMAGESOtmar Issing was a towering figure at the euro's inception
The European Central Bank is becoming dangerously over-extended and the whole euro project is unworkable in its current form, the founding architect of the monetary union has warned.

"One day, the house of cards will collapse," said Professor Otmar Issing, the ECB's first chief economist and a towering figure in the construction of the single currency.

Prof Issing said the euro has been betrayed by politics, lamenting that the experiment went wrong from the beginning and has since degenerated into a fiscal free-for-all that once again masks the festering pathologies.

"Realistically, it will be a case of muddling through, struggling from one crisis to the next. It is difficult to forecast how long this will continue for, but it cannot go on endlessly," he told the journal Central Banking in a remarkable deconstruction of the project.
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Chess

Why the BRICS summit in Goa was a big deal

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:33 UTC
brics goa summit
© PTI PhotoPrime Minister Narendra Modi with, left to right, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma addressing the BRICS Business Council meeting during BRICS Summit in Benaulim, Goa.
The BRICS summit in Goa is an event that the Western mainstream media will doubtless ignore. In spite of this, it represents a halcyon moment in the ongoing realignment of geopolitical power and influence.

The fact that Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa may speak with a unified voice in respect of Syria is no small achievement.

Even if Brazil takes a neutral stance in light of her internal political coup against former President Rousseff, a statement on Syria from such large powers cannot be easily dismissed, much though failed politicians in some countries will try to dismiss it.

But the significance is even greater than a single statement on Syria.

In order to understand this, one needs to understand that during the Cold War things weren't simply a matter of 'East versus West', 'USSR vs USA'. There were not two factions in the Cold War but four.
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Yoda

Lavrov warns of "appropriate military and political decisions" if ISIS fighters flee Mosul for Syria


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 10:12 UTC
mosul fighting
© Azad Lashkari / ReutersPeshmerga forces advance in the east of Mosul to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, October 17, 2016
If Islamic State fighters are allowed to leave Mosul and go to Syria, Russia would take the appropriate military and political decisions, the Russian foreign minister warned.

"As far as I know, the city is not fully encircled. I hope it's because they simply couldn't do it, not because they wouldn't do it. But this corridor poses a risk that Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] fighters could flee from Mosul and go to Syria," Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, commenting the ongoing siege of the Iraqi city.

"We will be evaluating the situation and take decisions of both political and military nature if this happens," he added. "I hope the US-led coalition, which is actively engaged in the operation to take Mosul, will take it into account."

The coalition - which includes the air forces of several nations, primarily the US, and ground forces of the Iraqi government, Kurdish and Shiite militias and Turkish troops - is involved in the siege of Mosul, the Iraqi stronghold of IS. Lavrov pointed out that the coalition has internal rivalries, which may hurt the effort to liberate the city from IS, a goal that Moscow supports.

Comment: In addition to terrorists fleeing to Syria, an EU "security commissioner" has warned that the Mosul offensive could result in ISIS militants fleeing to Europe, which sounds like just the idea many EU politicians think up in their smoky backrooms when they are planning how to further control the masses with fear.

As for the Mosul offensive, reports on the first day indicate Iraqi-Kurdish forces gained ground against ISIS, clearing 9 villages over a 200 square kilometer area and hitting at least 17 Islamic State targets. Unfortunately, humanitarian organizations are warning that the Mosul offensive could displace as many as 700,000 civilians (which could be the objective of the offensive). The Empire revels in creating chaos and suffering, so it certainly could be part of their reasoning for the timing of the Mosul offensive, considering they have been checkmated in Syria by Russia.

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Megaphone

Today's attacks on RT and Wikileaks violate free speech

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 09:35 UTC
Wikileaks
Today's attacks on Wikileaks and RT bear every indication of orchestration. They violate the fundamental principle of free speech upon which Western civilization claims to be based.

When Hillary Clinton first said that Wikileaks and Russia were intertwined, the statement was a lie and a laughable one at that. Sadly the events of the last few hours have made her statement true but for very odd, sinister and mysterious reasons.

This morning after three highly cryptic Tweets, Wikileaks revealed that Julian Assange's highly sensitive internet connection had been cut off by a 'state party'. Hours later, all UK bank accounts associated with RT were suddenly shut down, assets were frozen. No explanation was offered and no inquiry was answered.

The timing is beyond suspicious. The implications are frightening. Prior to today the only thing linking RT with Wikileaks is that both have begged people to 'question more'. It is RT's motto and it is a de facto reality at Wikileaks. Both have come under attack.

Comment: See also: RT's bank accounts frozen, Assange's Internet cut in apparent move to silence West's critics Assange's internet connection cut by 'state party' as Wikileaks releases more Podesta emails

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Yoda

Churkin: Terrorists must either leave Aleppo or be wiped out


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 10:06 UTC
aleppo
© ReutersTV / ReutersA general view of the bomb damaged Old City area of Aleppo, Syria
If rebels in eastern Aleppo break from Al-Nusra Front militants, the latter must face leaving voluntarily or be annihilated, Russia's envoy to the UN said, adding that the 8-hour ceasefire on October 20 can be extended, but only if various sides agree.

Speaking in the wake of the UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Russia's permanent ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said that Russia is ready to grant Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat Al-Nusra, fighters in eastern Aleppo an opportunity to leave the city unharmed if the so-called moderate rebels agree to clearly distance themselves from the hardline Islamist group.

However, if they refuse to abandoned their positions in Aleppo, they should get ready to be wiped out, Churkin said.

"If they ['moderate' opposition] distance themselves, then we will offer Jabhat Al-Nusra two options to choose from: either they leave the city, and Steffan de Mistura, [UN special envoy for Syria], as you know, came out with a proposal regarding this some time ago, which has not been accepted by Jabhat Al-Nusra yet, or we will have to defeat them," Churkin said, as cited by TASS.
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Info

Russian, Syrian aircraft stop air strikes in Aleppo - Defense Minister Shoigu


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:44 UTC
Damaged building
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters
The Russian and Syrian air forces halted strikes in Aleppo on Tuesday for a 48-hour humanitarian pause, Russia's defense minister announced. The ceasefire comes ahead of schedule.

The Russian military said earlier that it would halt airstrikes on Thursday, but on Tuesday Sergey Shoigu announced that the ceasefire would be introduced two days early in order to pave the way for further humanitarian action in Aleppo.


Comment: Russian & Syrian military to begin 8-hour humanitarian pause in Aleppo on Oct. 20


The humanitarian pause to allow civilians to leave Aleppo and the delivery of aid to the city was to start on Thursday, according to the Russian plan.

"The goal of this work is to separate the terrorist from the 'moderate opposition' and get them out of eastern Aleppo," the minister said.
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Alarm Clock

Files from Clinton confidant found on Romanian server


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 06:31 UTC
Sidney Blumenthal (C)
© Jonathan Ernst/ReutersSidney Blumenthal (C), a longtime Hillary Clinton friend who was an unofficial adviser while she was secretary of state.
New records released from the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server offer more questions than answers. Documents show that files from longtime friend and adviser Sidney Blumenthal ended up on a Romanian server.

Included in the FBI's Monday release of another 100 pages from their investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email servers is the revelation that files from Sidney Blumenthal ended up on a Romanian server. This has some wondering if Clinton's servers were compromised.

According to the FBI, in February or March 2015, an unnamed company was given $32,000 to investigate whether Clinton's server had been hacked. They found files from Blumenthal's server in Romania.

The FBI investigation determined that around two-dozen emails exchanged between Blumenthal and Clinton contained classified materials.

This past July, FBI Director James Comey acknowledged that while there was no "direct evidence" of Clinton being "successfully hacked," the agency was also "unlikely to see such direct evidence."


Comment: Well this Comey certainly does feature in a lot of today's news, now doesn't he? Busy busy bee. You may remember him from such hits as these:



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Arrow Down

Evil Russia - The odor of desperation

James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 02:57 UTC
Evil Putin
© Peace of MindAnti-Russian hysteria may nauseate most, but not the authors of this article. It's clearly their meat and potatoes.
It must be obvious even to nine-year-old casual observers of the scene that the US national election is hacking itself. It doesn't require hacking assistance from any other entity. The two major parties could not have found worse candidates for president, and the struggle between them has turned into the most sordid public spectacle in US electoral history.

Of course, the Russian hacking blame-game story emanates from the security apparatus controlled by a Democratic Party executive establishment desperate to preserve its perks and privileges. (I write as a still-registered-but-disaffected Democrat). The reams of released emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, and other figures in HRC's employ, depict a record of tactical mendacity, a gleeful eagerness to lie to the public, and a disregard for the world's opinion that are plenty bad enough on their own. And Trump's own fantastic gift for blunder could hardly be improved on by a meddling foreign power. The US political system is blowing itself to pieces.

I say this with the understanding that political systems are emergent phenomena with the primary goal of maintaining their control on the agencies of power at all costs. That is, it's natural for a polity to fight for its own survival. But the fact that the US polity now so desperately has to fight for survival shows how frail its legitimacy is. It wouldn't take much to shove it off a precipice into a new kind of civil war much more confusing and irresolvable than the one we went through in the 1860s.

Events and circumstances are driving the US insane literally. We can't construct a coherent consensus about what is happening to us and therefore we can't form a set of coherent plans for doing anything about it. The main event is that our debt has far exceeded our ability to produce enough new wealth to service the debt, and our attempts to work around it with Federal Reserve accounting fraud only make the problem worse day by day and hour by hour. All of it tends to undermine both national morale and living standards, while it shoves us into the crisis I call the long emergency.
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