Puppet MastersS


Stormtrooper

US sailors slapped with full alcohol ban, confined to Okinawa base - all 18,600 of them


RT
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:28 UTC
sailors confined to base alcohol ban
© Mike Blake / Reuters
Three separate scandals involving American servicemen and contractors in a highly-controversial Navy base in Japan's Okinawa have finally resulted in an all-out alcohol ban on all the 18,600 sailors. The measure is the latest and comes after a Marine's drunk-driving stunt.

Adding to the two cases involving murder and rape of two young Japanese women, a third incident saw a US sailor with six times the legal alcohol limit go on a joyride, hitting two cars in the wrong lane. The officer, Aimee Mejia, who was assigned to Kadena Air base, is now being held by Japanese police.

This is all in the midst of now nationwide anger over the antics in Okinawa, not to mention earlier opposition to such a prominent American presence on the island.

The latest incident took place as US forces were observing a 30-day period of mourning for the earlier murder victim. Part of the gesture by the American military included imposing strict measures on its servicemen and women, such as curfews and a partial alcohol ban when off base.

Starting Monday, all American sailors in Japan are banned from consuming alcohol on and off the premises. More severe movement restrictions were also imposed - the soldiers can now only go to the store, the gym and the gas station, according to the Japan Times.
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Info

Out of the deep blue: US nuclear sub throws Norway into a panic


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 12:37 UTC
Tromso, Norway
© Flickr/ The Municipality of Tromso
In recent years, submarines and Scandinavia have become synonymous, to a large extent owing to a number of painfully unsuccessful witch-hunts against Russian subs by the Nordic countries. Last week, a US nuclear submarine emerged off Norway's coast in Tromsø supposedly for changing crews, which somehow added fuel to the fire.

Spokesperson Brynjar Stordal of the Joint Headquarters confirmed the submarine had the so-called administrative assignment of swapping crews and carrying out a number of tasks before going out to sea, yet refused to specify the type of the submarine. No further indication was given, except for the fact that it was American and had Norfolk as its homeport.

"I will not say exactly how common this is, but from time to time US submarines do come into Norwegian territorial waters with such calls, upon which they are granted permission from the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, Stordal told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
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Bad Guys

State Department won't release Hillary Clinton TPP emails until after election

David Sirota
International Business Times
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:07 UTC
clinton emails ttp
© Wikimedia
Trade is a hot issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But correspondence from Hillary Clinton and her top State Department aides about a controversial 12-nation trade deal will not be available for public review — at least not until after the election. The Obama administration abruptly blocked the release of Clinton's State Department correspondence about the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), after first saying it expected to produce the emails this spring.

The decision came in response to International Business Times' open records request for correspondence between Clinton's State Department office and the United States Trade Representative. The request, which was submitted in July 2015, specifically asked for all such correspondence that made reference to the TPP.

The State Department originally said it estimated the request would be completed by April 2016. Last week the agency said it had completed the search process for the correspondence but also said it was delaying the completion of the request until late November 2016 — weeks after the presidential election. The delay was issued in the same week the Obama administration filed a court motion to try to kill a lawsuit aimed at forcing the federal government to more quickly comply with open records requests for Clinton-era State Department documents.

Comment: More back room manoeuvrers to protect the failing Killary campaign.

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Info

Is the UK Parliament preparing to ignore public vote for Brexit?


RT
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 12:21 UTC
UK flag
© Francois Lenoir / Reuters
MPs who support remaining in the European Union may use their majority in Parliament to sidestep the public altogether and vote to keep Britain in the EU's single market, meaning free movement of people, goods and services would stay despite a 'Brexit'.

A number of pro-'Remain' MPs have suggested using their 257 person majority to vote to keep the UK within the European Economic Area (EEA), which mandates the free movement of people, goods and services, even in the event of a Brexit, the BBC reports.

"We would accept the mandate of the people to leave the EU," one unnamed minister told the broadcaster.

"But everything after that is negotiable and Parliament would have its say. The terms on which we leave are entirely within my remit as a parliamentarian and that is something for me to take a view on."
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Quenelle - Golden

Raqqa will be recaptured by the Syrian Army


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 10:54 UTC
Syrian army
© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), assisted by Russian warplanes and its local allies, will free the city of Raqqa, which Daesh turned into the capital of its terror caliphate, political analyst Catherine Shakdam told Radio Sputnik, pointing to the liberation of Palmyra as the moment when the tide of war changed in Damascus' favor.

The SAA and the Desert Hawks, Syria's special forces, are reported to be only 11 miles away from the al-Tabqa city, home to a major dam and a key military airbase, captured by Daesh in August 2014. The city is located some 34 miles southwest of Raqqa and the SAA is moving towards the embattled stronghold, a Syrian brigadier general told Sputnik.

It all started with Palmyra

This offensive would not be taking place if Russia had not offered its military assistance to Damascus in September 2015. In late March, Palmyra, home to the priceless ancient ruins that Daesh partially destroyed in the ten months it controlled the city, was liberated by Syrian forces.

Comment: Further reading: Syrian Army joins the race to liberate Raqqa from ISIS

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Bad Guys

NATO launches 'largest ever' military drills in Poland


Associated Press
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 11:11 UTC
nato russia
NATO is launching its biggest ever exercise in Poland as central and eastern European nations are seeking strong security guarantees among concerns about Russia's assertiveness and actions.

The Anaconda-16 exercise launched Monday in Warsaw will involve some 31,000 troops from Poland, the U.S. and 17 other NATO member nations and from five partner nations.

It is held just weeks before NATO holds a crucial summit in Warsaw expected to decide that significant numbers of NATO troops and equipment will be based in Poland and in the Baltic states. Those countries are particularly concerned about the armed conflict in Ukraine, where Moscow supports separatists.


Comment: Even if Russia is supporting 'separatists' in Ukraine, since when is it a crime to support people 'separating' from a stark-raving mad, neo-Nazi regime? But when NATO supports head chopping 'separatists' in Syria they're called moderate rebels and given a free pass.


Comment: Further reading:

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Propaganda

Hate-mongering?: Russians throw book at UK publisher's cheeky ad campaign


RT
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 00:52 UTC
Penguin Classics UK ad 1
© Тоня Самсонова / Facebook
An advertising campaign promoting a famed Russian novel with a quote on posters on the London Underground was not warmly received on social media back in its author's homeland, which met the ad with threats of lawsuits and diplomatic protests.

"Aristocracy, liberalism, progress, principles... Useless words! A Russian doesn't need them," reads the writing on a white rectangle, which has nothing underneath but the logo of the publisher Penguin Classics.

The unattributed line is actually said by the outspoken nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov, one of the characters in Ivan Turgenev's 19th-century novel Fathers and Sons, which is also a Penguin Classics title.

However, the choice of that particular line from a 336-page novel did not appear to be an accident to one of London's numerous Russian expats, who posted a screenshot for her domestic audience.
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Megaphone

International Monsanto Tribunal: Questions for the biotech industry heavyweight that poisons with impunity

Katherine Paul
Global Research
Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:37 UTC
Monsanto
© march-against-monsanto.comIt’s time for the citizens of the world to fight back against the destructive existence of this agro-chemical giant.
Monsanto may not be the largest company in the world. Or the worst. But the St. Louis, Mo. biotech giant has become the poster child for all that's wrong with our industrial food and farming system.

With 21,000 employees in 66 countries and $15 billion in revenue, Monsanto is a biotech industry heavyweight. The St. Louis, Mo.-based monopolizer of seeds is the poster child for an industry that is the source of at least one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and is largely responsible for the depletion of soil, water and biodiversity. Not to mention the company's marginalization—and sometimes terrorization—of millions of small farmers.

Comment: Read more about the Tribunal to be held in The Hague to evaluate environmental and health allegations against Monsanto

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Bad Guys

Ponerology: Psychopaths and their role in geopolitics

Sheri Heller
Dissident Voice
Sat, 04 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
psychopaths geopolitics
In the aftermath of the Paris massacre I found myself pondering the surreal state of the world and the myriad humanitarian disasters and violations of international law infiltrating the globe. War crimes in Iraq, Gaza, Syria and Libya accompanied by air strikes, bombing raids and regime changes have become routine. The genocide in Yemen, albeit a humanitarian catastrophe, receives little media attention. U.S. led propaganda and harsh sanctions have economically destabilized Venezuela, conceivably as a prelude to invasion. Governmental looting of pensions and savings has begun, devastating retirees and their surviving spouses while corporate moguls earn 380x more than the average wage earner. It has always been this way irrespective of ideology, theology, or philosophy. The brutality of war and suffering are historical realities.

In distress I turn to my chosen field of psychology for answers. I am led to realize that in this geopolitical landscape, driven by the quest for political domination and exploitation of world resources, it is increasingly imperative that the layperson acquires a basic psychological comprehension of human evil, in order for any of this to make a modicum of sense.

Physicist and psychoanalyst Ian Hughes wrote:
A small proportion of people who suffer from psychologically abnormal personalities have, throughout history, had an immeasurable detrimental impact on our societies, our politics and our world. Enabled by their ruthlessness to readily acquire positions of power, they have long dominated the psychologically normal majority of the world's population.

Comment: An excellent in-depth discussion of the book Political Ponerology may be read here:

Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

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Propaganda

Are you all high? New York Times latest hit piece on Russia has no connection to reality

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 05 Jun 2016 19:41 UTC
The New York Times
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
The Editorial Board of the New York Times is smoking dope. This is the only conclusion I can make, that makes sense. After reading the board's latest hallucination starring Vladimir Putin, I sat and pondered for minutes; just how the world's most legendary newspaper went crazy. Somehow reality is turned on end, every time these media people say their piece on Russia and Putin. Today is a good day to call them out, and to question the validity of the NYT overall.

The New York Times editorial board is supposed to be a beacon of enlightened opinion, a sort of oracle of thought for the readers of the most influential print news media ever drafted. 16 people inhabit those hallowed halls in New York City, 16 journalists from a wide swath of expertise. And "Vladimir Putin's Dangerous Obsession" is their latest and greatest contribution to astute thinking, the best and most intellectually stimulating editorial these brilliant journalists could come up with. The latest damnable Russophobic, anti-Putin rant, from well paid political trolls is a big-fat-lie. Sorry, but 16 pairs of pants are on fire right now, and here's why.

Everyone reading this by now knows, Vladimir Putin and Russia have not been the aggressor in the current West versus East circus. If Russia were the aggressor, all of Ukraine would be under the Russian flag, and there is nothing NATO or the United States could have done about it. Let's just be real, please. But for context today, read this quote from the piece in question:
"Syria is just one arena where Mr. Putin's obsessive quest to make Russia great again has fueled instability and reawakened political suspicions and animosities that faded after the fall of the Soviet Union."
As we've shown 5,000 times, after the Soviet Union fell Washington and London never let up trying to infuse hegemonic control over states surrounding Russia. These journalists at the NYT know this, but they never mention it. And this is known as being misleading, a deceiver, even a minion. You are deceivers, ladies and gentlemen. Or either I am. So let's see who is, and is not, shall we?
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