Puppet MastersS


Yoda

Putin: Russia seeks international relations based on equality, has no interest in hegemony


Sputnik
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 17:30 UTC
Image
© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
"Russia does not claim some sort of hegemony, it does not claim some kind of ephemeral superpower status," Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

According to the president, Moscow has started to protect its interests in a determined way, but is not acting aggressively.

"We have begun to more persistently and consistently defend our interests," he stated. "We want relations based on equality with all members of the international community."

Moscow's relations with the US, the EU and NATO deteriorated since 2014 amid the Ukrainian crisis and Russia's reunification with Crimea. The West accused Russia of participating in the armed conflict in Ukraine and began boosting its military presence in Europe.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, expressing concern over NATO's expansion and increased military presence in Eastern Europe near Russia's western borders.
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Hardhat

Russia and Greece sign $2bn construction deal on Turkish Stream pipeline


RT
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 17:26 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Umit Bektas
Russia and Greece have signed a deal to create a joint enterprise for construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline across Greek territory, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said. The pipeline will have a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters a year.

The construction costs are about €2 billion and the parties will sign a roadmap Friday, Novak told RIA at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

The Greek extension of the Turkish Stream project is called the South European pipeline in the memorandum signed on Friday, Novak said, adding that the construction will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019.

The two countries will have equal shares in the company, Novak said.Construction of the pipeline in Greece will be financed by Russia, and Athens will return the money afterward.
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Heart - Black

UN Commission clears Israel of war crimes for bombing elementary schools

Sydney Barakat
AntiMedia
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:48 UTC
Gaza schools
The High Level International Military Group—a UN-commissioned group made up of 11 former chiefs of staff, generals, senior officers, and political leaders from the U.S., Germany, Spain, Holland, the U.K., Italy, Australia, and Colombia—dismissed all charges and allegations of Israel's war crimes after investigating last summer's attack on Gaza.

The report was issued on Saturday following the group's five-day trip to the region in March. It ultimately claims that Israel acted responsibly and with much restraint when the IDF bombarded Gaza last summer during what is known as "Operation Protective Edge." The report even refers to the attack as "legitimate."

An excerpt from the report states the following:
"We were well aware of the allegations made by some governments, the United Nations, human rights groups and the media, that Israel acted outside the laws of armed conflict in Gaza. Some have suggested that the IDF lacked restraint or even deliberately targeted innocent civilians."
Nevertheless, the investigators drew the following conclusion:
"We examined the circumstances that led to the tragic conflict last summer and are in no doubt that this was not a war that Israel wanted. In reality Israel sought to avoid the conflict and exercised great restraint over a period of months before the war when its citizens were targeted by sporadic rocket attacks from Gaza. Once the war had begun, Israel made repeated efforts to terminate the fighting. The war that Israel was eventually compelled to fight against Hamas and other Gaza extremists was a legitimate war, necessary to defend its citizens and its territory against sustained attack from beyond its borders."
The report appears to be nothing close to the results of a "fact-finding mission," as was claimed, but rather a written defense of the Israeli government.
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2 + 2 = 4

French and Belgian asset freezes are a grotesque violation of Russia's sovereignty

Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 13:25 UTC
lavrov
© REUTERS/ Sergei Karpukhin
News about the freezing of Russian assets in France and Belgium will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Khodorkovsky case.

The asset freezes will almost certainly be relaxed or lifted over the new few weeks because they are legally dubious.

To understand why, it is necessary to explain the nature of the case.

Comment: The pathological persistence of those 'pulling the strings' in the West is mind-boggling. Check out: Russia may counteract Belgian asset seizure with same

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Attention

Conflict of interest - not just about money

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
drmalcolmkendrick.org
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 21:09 UTC
NEJM
© Wikimedia Commons
There is a major spat going on at present around Conflict of Interest. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) appears to be backtracking on the issue, and they are talking about relaxing their rules.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is very 'heavy' on Conflict of Interest (COI) and has been somewhat critical of the NEJM approach - to say the least. See 13th June edition of BMJ.

To give you a flavour, one article in the BMJ has the title 'Backtracking on conflicts of interest: a very bad idea... A series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine has questioned whether the conflict of interest movement has gone too far in its campaign to stop the drug industry influencing the medical profession. Here three former NEJM editors respond with dismay.'

My sympathies are almost entirely with the three former editors: Robert Steinbrook, Jerome Kassirer and Marcia Angell. I think bias, and resultant distortion of medical research is a massive problem.

So massive that it has become difficult to believe most of the research that is published. I am not alone in my concerns. Here is what Richard Horton (Editor of the Lancet), has to say on the matter:
'The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.'
A half of medical scientific research may be untrue... think on the implications of that for a moment. However, before you focus all your efforts on trying to expose financial conflicts of interest as the solution to all problems, you need to take several steps back.
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Megaphone

Think tank: U.S. the primary instigator of tension with Russia


Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:45 UTC
Image
© Sputnik/ Sergey Pyatako
The United States is the primary instigator of the current tension with Russia, Pere Ortega, the head of the Barcelona-based Delas Center for Peace Studies, told Sputnik Wednesday.

"The only one who benefits from all this pressure is the United States, which is the one straining the situation because it weakens Western Europe... Russia shouldn't fall into this trap," Ortega said.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would reinforce its nuclear potential in 2015 by adding more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles. Following the announcement, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg vowed to respond to Russia's "assertive" rhetoric by building up a military presence in Eastern Europe.

"The escalation is verbal at the moment," but it is serious enough to "say that the leadership of both Russia and the United States especially and NATO, are in a very dangerous escalation [of the situation], which could put the threat of confrontation between Russia and Western Europe back on the table."

Russia's relations with NATO became strained after the start of the Ukrainian armed conflict in 2014. The bloc accused Russia or participating in the conflict, and froze contacts with Moscow. Russia, in turn, has denied any involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, calling it a purely internal affair.
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USA

U.S. does not lack for corruption: 10 political scandals since Watergate


Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:05 UTC
Image
© Flickr/ Maharepa
On the anniversary of one of the most explosive political scandals in American history, let Sputnik guide you through ten of the most shameful, shocking, deplorable embarrassments to ever rock Washington DC.

In its nearly 240-year history, America has seen its share of political sideshows. Some were minor: former US Representative Anthony Weiner's sexting habits, the cost of John Edwards' haircut, Aaron Schock redecorating his Congressional office to look like the set of Downton Abbey. Others have become part of the national zeitgeist. Stories of the Boston Tea Party, Alexander Hamilton's duel to the death with Aaron Burr, George Washington chopping down that cherry tree, all occupy a special place in a shared American story.

But none have become quite so grandiose as Nixon's great con on the American people, which occurred 43 years ago Wednesday.

1. Watergate

In 1972, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two reporters for the Washington Post, were contacted by an FBI informant known only as "Deep Throat." Later identified as the Bureau's associate director Mark Felt, he helped bring to light one of the most astonishing presidential scandals in US history, ultimately leading to the resignation of Republican President Richard Nixon.

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested after breaking into the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex. Deep Throat unveiled a high-level cover-up which, once unraveled, revealed that the five men were paid by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. Nixon's involvement in the affair was proven when the Supreme Court got its hands on the president's infamous tape recordings.

"...People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook," Nixon said during a press conference. "Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."
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War Whore

Where does ISIS get those 'wonderful toys'?

Dan Sanchez
Antiwar.com
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 17:30 UTC
Image
© Sott.net"Where does he get those wonderful toys?" Batman (1989)
In the 1989 film Batman, after the caped crusader rescues a damsel in distress from the Joker using a fancy zipline gun, the clown prince of crime, played by Jack Nicholson, asks in bewilderment:
"Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
Especially upon seeing Batman's nicest toys — his armored Batmobile and his military-grade Batwing fighter plane, etc — the Joker must have assumed his adversary was financed by some seriously deep pockets. And indeed, hidden behind the cowl was billionaire Bruce Wayne all along.

Similarly, upon seeing real-life fighters also garbed in black masks and jumpsuits, and running around the poverty-stricken Middle East with such "wonderful toys" as TOW anti-tank missiles, up-armored Humvees, M1A1 Abrams tanks, and fleets of gun-mounted Toyota pick-up trucks, any perceptive person must also assume that a wealthy patron lurked in the background.

Where do they get those wonderful Toyotas?

Indeed where do ISIS and al-Qaeda get those wonderful toys we so often see these days triumphantly bedecked with black flags? The ultimate source of virtually all of the jihadists' gear are the deep pockets of the United States government and its client states. Uncle Sam is the veritable Bruce Wayne of Jihad. This was basically admitted in a recently disclosed Defense Intelligence Agency report. But anyone who bothered looking into it could have known this long ago, even if restricting one's self to mainstream sources.

Most support for the jihadists has come by way of the aid the US offers, along with its allies, to the insurgency in Syria battling to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. Washington has given this support even though the Pentagon admitted internally as early as 2012 that extremists including al-Qaeda were, as the DIA report said, "the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria."

Comment:
Image
© Sott.netHeath Ledger as the Joker, The Dark Knight (2008)


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Snakes in Suits

As fake as the hair on his head: Trump hired actors for presidential bid announcement


Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 19:55 UTC
Image
© Flickr/ Gage Skidmore
If Donald Trump's presidential bid has left you asking "who in their right mind would vote for that man?" the answer could very well be: actors he's paid 50 bucks.

Donald Trump is rich. Really, really, really rich. We know because he told us. "I'm really rich. I'll show you that in a second," he said during his presidential announcement on Tuesday, before waving around a copy of his net worth summary like a 4-year-old who just found an extra quarter at ChuckECheese.

That summary is already being called into question. While Trump claims he's worth about $9 billion, Anand Chokkavelu, managing editor of investment site Motley Fool, told NPR, "I don't see any reason to take his self-reported net worth at face value."

Still, we do have some indications that the Donald is as wealthy as he claims: he can afford to fill Trump Tower with paid supporters.
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Snakes in Suits

Deadly combination: Poroshenko offers Tony Blair advisory position


Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 19:32 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Mykhailo Markiv
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko can't seem to get enough of foreign advisors telling his government how to carry out reforms, this time offering former British Prime Minister Tony Blair a job in his International Advisory Council for Reforms, a press release on the president's website reported.

The press release, issued Wednesday, noted that the former prime minister had been invited "to share his experience of public administration" within the council, headed by corruption-mired former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has since moved on to become governor of the Odessa Region.


Comment: Blair's experience of public administration amounts to hauling his country into a number of bloody conflicts that killed thousands of innocent civilians.


"I discussed with Tony Blair the experience of reforms and state management. Despite the war, we have the opportunity to conduct reforms!"

Poroshenko met with the former prime minister in Kiev. Blair, who served as prime minister between 1997 to 2007, called on the Ukrainian government to follow the values of "freedom, democracy and a desire to serve the people," adding that the country faces "great challenges" including corruption and "Russian aggression."


Comment: Looks like Blair was taking the opportunity to remind Porky of the BS rhetoric that is behind the whole Ukraine conflict.

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