Puppet MastersS


USA

US media to prematurely announce democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton?

Seth Abraham
Huffington Post
Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Steve Marcus/Reuters
MSNBC's Chris Matthews has revealed that the major television networks plan to call the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton during the day on June 7th — hours prior to the close of polls in California — on the grounds that Clinton has "clinched" the nomination as soon as she crosses the 2,383-delegate threshold via both pledged delegates (who are already committed to her) and super-delegates (who cannot, by Democratic Party rules, commit themselves to her or be tallied until July 25th).

In other words, as recently indicated by Mark Murray, NBC's Senior Editor for Politics, the networks will make the news on June 7th rather than report it — as, per the Democratic National Committee, the final and indeed only authority on the tabulation of super-delegates, Clinton cannot clinch the nomination on June 7th unless she wins 78.3 percent of the pledged delegates on that date.

Which she won't.
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Wolf

Sultan Erdogan: 'Women are breeders, Muslims must go forth and multiply'


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 16:16 UTC
Erdogan
© Murad Sezer/ReutersTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan
Devout Muslim families ought to thrive without considering population planning and birth control, says Turkey's president. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is known for previously equating birth control to treason and harshly opposing gender equality.

"We will multiply our descendants. They talk about population planning, birth control. No Muslim family can have such an approach," Reuters cited Erdogan as saying in a live-broadcast speech in Istanbul on Monday. "Nobody can interfere in God's work. The first duty here belongs to mothers."

On the International Women's Day, March 8, the president said he believes that "a woman is above all else a mother," stressing that women cannot be freed "by destroying the notion of family," in a speech full of quotes from Koran on the virtues of motherhood.

A couple of days later, Turkey's first lady praised the often-criticized harem of the Ottoman Empire as "a school for preparing women for life."

Comment: More words of wisdom from Erdogan:

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USA

'Aggressors, killers and occupiers': Czech veteran moons US convoy in anti-Nato protest


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 16:41 UTC
Czech moons NATO
A Czech veteran soldier offers the sentiments of all right-thinking Europeans to NATO's occupation march through Eastern Europe
A Czech veteran opposed to the "aggressive missions" of the US in Europe has decided to take a stand against the major drills across central and Eastern Europe by launching a semi-naked protest.

Martin Zapletal, a member of a group of Czech and Slovakian soldiers opposed to Nato, described the US soldiers as "aggressors, killers and occupiers" as Dragoon Ride II paraded through the country over the weekend.

As the military tanks approached the town of Vyskov in the southeast of the country, they were halted by Zapletal after he walked onto the road, blocking the convoy.

He then removed his trousers and mooned the army while some of the crowd cheered him on.

Police are seen grabbing Zapletal before dragging him onto the sidewalk.
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Rocket

Why Chinese missile swarms could obliterate America in battle

Robert Beckhusen
The Week
Wed, 25 May 2016 00:00 UTC
US laser weapons
© U.S. Army
The U.S. Air Force relies on more than 5,000 aircraft to give it unmatched dominance over every other competitor on earth. The U.S. Navy, for its part, counts on more than 3,700 aircraft and 273 deployable battle force ships, which constitute the largest and most technologically advanced sailing branch in the world.

This much is true — no country can possibly hope to challenge the United States with military means on a global scale and win. But key to America's global strength are huge air and naval bases which are vulnerable to being overwhelmed and destroyed by swarms of precision-guided weapons in a limited, regional war.

The Navy also cannot expect its ships to survive if they come under attack by sufficiently large numbers of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles of the kind now fielded by China. While better protected from missiles than bases, the current breadth of U.S. technology and doctrine cannot compensate for this weakness.
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Dollars

Panama Papers: Incriminating the expendables while allowing the status quo to persist

Can Erimtan
Near Eastern Outlook
Sun, 29 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Panama Papers
Far from rocking the world to its foundations, the Panama Papers have so far been unable to create a popular movement that would bring about real change, real change in the world of finance or in the world of politics. Instead, the story is now merely doing the round across various media outlets and allowing the status quo across the world to persist.

The other day, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (or ICIJ) made public a vast database containing "information on almost 320,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations." This information dates back as long ago as 40 years and is up-to-date till the end of last year. And though the reach of the documents appears wide and far, the mainstream media focus so far has been primarily on the Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose name does not even feature in the Panama Papers, and on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose name is also conspicuous only in its absence. In all fairness, reading the account given by two German journalists Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier, responsible for the original publication and wider dissemination of the leak and now available in book form, one cannot but wonder about the motivations of the mainstream media.

Reading the text, one is struck by the journalists' apparent bias, as they immediately set out to look for any kinds of clues that would demonstrate that either Putin or Assad are implicated in financial wrongdoing. Apparently, the mainstream narrative that the Russian President as well as his Syrian counterpart are at present the West's main foes has not just been able to sway public opinion in the Free World subject to NATO dominance, but also the minds and hearts of prominent journalist, in other words, the minds and hearts of those arguably responsible for creating public opinion around the globe. After all, a critical voice like Pepe Escobar calls Obermayer and Obermaier's employer the "NATO-friendly Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper."

Comment:

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Vader

Family of driver killed in drone strike targeting Taliban leader sues US for murder


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 16:19 UTC
Pakistani local residents gathering around a destroyed vehicle hit by a drone strike in which Afghan Taliban Chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was believed to be travelling in on May 21, 2016
© AFPPakistani local residents gathering around a destroyed vehicle hit by a drone strike in which Afghan Taliban Chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was believed to be travelling in on May 21, 2016
The family of the driver killed in a US drone strike targeting Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Pakistan has lodged a criminal case against the US government, according to police. The family is seeking to press murder charges.

Mohammad Azam, the taxi driver who picked Mullah Mansoor up on the Iranian border to reportedly take him to the remote town of Ahmad Wal in Balochistan, some 160 kilometers west of Quetta, was killed along with the Taliban leader in the US airstrike on May 21.
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Info

From Albrecht to Monsanto: Agriculture driven by economics fails to provide for the health of the soil or the health of people

Colin Todhunter
Global Research
Sun, 29 May 2016 22:34 UTC
healthy soils
© www.theatlantic.com
The following extract is from the 2011 lecture 'Healthy Soils, Healthy People' by Professor John Ikerd. The lecture discussed the legacy of renowned agronomist William Albrecht, who died in 1974.
We have justified the demise of family farms, decay of rural communities, pollution of the rural environment, and degradation of soil health as being necessary to provide food security for the nation. These justifications are no longer valid or acceptable... an agriculture driven by economics failed to provide for the health of the soil or the health of people. The problems we are facing today are the consequence of too many people, including scientists, pursuing their narrow self-interests without considering the consequence of their actions on the rest of society and the future of humanity... the pursuit of individual, impersonal self-interests - not the long run interests of society or humanity. - Professor John Ikerd

Comment: Professor John Ikerd wrote an informative article about CAFO's: The facts about factory farms
A variety of controversies have seriously eroded public trust in American agriculture. Genetically modified crops (GMOs), agricultural chemicals, and concentrated animals feeding operations (CAFOs) or "factory farms" are among the most prominent on a growing list of public concerns. With respect to GMOs, more than 30 states are considering legislation requiring labeling of food products that contain genetically engineered ingredients.[1]Maine and Connecticut already have labeling laws that are pending implementation. The world's most popular weed-killer, Roundup, has just been identified by the World Health Organization as a "probable carcinogen."[2] The most commonly used herbicide on U.S. farms, Atrazine, has long been identified as a probably endocrine disruptor linked to a host of potential adverse health impacts.[3]


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Info

Russia's got a point: The U.S. broke a NATO promise

Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 30 May 2016 15:26 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Thanassis Stavrakis / Associated PressRussian President Vladimir Putin at the Athens international airport on May 27.
Moscow solidified its hold on Crimea in April, outlawing the Tatar legislature that had opposed Russia's annexation of the region since 2014. Together with Russian military provocations against NATO forces in and around the Baltic, this move seems to validate the observations of Western analysts who argue that under Vladimir Putin, an increasingly aggressive Russia is determined to dominate its neighbors and menace Europe.

Leaders in Moscow, however, tell a different story. For them, Russia is the aggrieved party. They claim the United States has failed to uphold a promise that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe, a deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification. In this view, Russia is being forced to forestall NATO's eastward march as a matter of self-defense.

The West has vigorously protested that no such deal was ever struck. However, hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise. Although what the documents reveal isn't enough to make Putin a saint, it suggests that the diagnosis of Russian predation isn't entirely fair. Europe's stability may depend just as much on the West's willingness to reassure Russia about NATO's limits as on deterring Moscow's adventurism.

Comment:
NATO Bases
© Small People Against Big Government


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Bomb

US cluster bomb deliveries to Saudi Arabia halted as civilian death toll rises in Yemen


RT
Sat, 28 May 2016 04:51 UTC
Cluster bomb
© www.telegraph.co.ukCluster bomb hits weapons depot in Yemen.
The US has reportedly frozen the deliveries of cluster bombs to Riyadh amid human rights groups' condemnation the use of indiscriminate weapons in the Yemeni conflict, over the course of which Saudi Arabia's airstrikes have been blamed for numerous civilian casualties.

According to a Foreign Policy report, based on the publication's own investigation, the hold on deliveries applies to CBU-105 cluster bombs made by Textron Systems. After Saudi Arabia joined the Yemeni conflict and started a massive air campaign against Houthi positions, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have on numerous occasions exposed the use of cluster bombs in the conflict.

Cluster munitions contain hundreds of smaller explosive submunitions that are spread over a wide area. This type of weapon is dangerous because some submunitions aren't immediately detonated and can lie dormant for decades before exploding. Civilians and particularly children have traditionally been the primary victims of such lethal traps.

In recent years, the United States has been selling multi-million dollar shipments of cluster bombs to Riyadh. Revealing the alleged freeze of cluster munitions deliveries, the publication however notes that is unclear whether the ban will affect the already agreed shipments, or whether the freeze will only apply to future contacts. Delivery of weapons is a process which can take years to complete. "Textron Systems does not comment on delivery dates with our customers," Matthew Colpitts, a spokesman for Textron Systems, replied to FP's request for clarification, while the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to the request for comment.

Comment: It is despicable that the US Congress has rubber stamped the supplying of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere for the sake of profit. Maybe 6200 Yemenis would be alive today had the president and congress obeyed international law, used oversight and made a conscientious decision to spare innocent lives more than a year ago. Even with this minimal new amendment protocol, don't expect much to change. Dollars count, people not so much.

See also:

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Wall Street

Mafia expert claims UK 'most corrupt country in the world'


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 14:23 UTC
UK fiat money
© Catherine Benson / Reuters
Journalist and world-renowned expert on the Italian mafia Roberto Saviano has called the UK "the most corrupt country in the world," and said that Brexit may make the situation even more disastrous.

"If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth, you might well tell me it's Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy, and I will tell you it's the UK," Saviano told the audience at Britain's Hay Literary Festival.

"It's not the bureaucracy, it's not the police, it's not the politics, but what is corrupt is the financial capital. Ninety percent of the owners of capital in London have their headquarters offshore," he added.

The UK is Europe's "criminal capital" when it comes to allowing corruption, the journalist thinks, with the trust funds in Jersey and British Overseas Territory the Cayman Islands being its "access gates."

"That is why it is important, why it is so crucial for me to be here today and to talk to you because I want to tell you, this is about you, this is about your life, this is about your government," the 36-year-old journalist told the audience.
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