Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Best of the Web: Bernaysian manipulation of the human psyche

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© Shutterstock, Johan Swanepoel
Edward Bernays was the master of influencing and shaping public opinion who developed upon the ideas of earlier social psychologists and the work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, in order to create techniques to manipulate the subconscious desires of the masses.

Throughout his 103-year lifespan, the "father of public relations" was at the pinnacle of his field advising US Presidents Coolidge, Eisenhower, Hoover and Wilson, as well as inventor Thomas Edison, US industrialist Henry Ford and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He also reportedly refused invitations by Hitler and Franco to work on fascist propaganda campaigns in Europe.

At the end of World War 1 Bernays served as a propagandist for America before going on to work with various government departments and corporations throughout his lifetime, including: the US Department of State, CBS, Procter and Gamble, and the American Tobacco Company, as well as designing the propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company which led to the CIA coup against the Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in 1954.

Comment: For a more in depth look at the 'Bernays thesis that humans are "rarely aware" of the true motivations and desires powering their actions...' Watch this excellent 4 part series called the "The Power of Nightmares/ The Century of Self"


Light Saber

Out of the area of responsibility: Was Malaysian Boeing shot down by Ukrainian Buk?

Buk-M1
© Vladimir Zinin / ITAR-TASSBuk-M1

Passenger Boeing 777 2H6ER of Malaysia Airlines crashed in Ukraine near the village Grabovo 50 kilometers from the Russian border. All 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed in the plane crash. Shortly after becoming aware of the accident, many sources suggested that B777 was hit by anti-aircraft missile system. Media also quoted eyewitnesses who said that Malaysian plane was shot down from the board of Su-25 by the Ukrainian Air Force.

The flight

Malaysian passenger plane, registration number 9M-MRD, KLM flight KL4103, took off from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at 02.14 pm Moscow time on July 17, 2014. At about 04:20 pm Moscow time, when the plane was already over the territory of Ukraine, the contact was lost with it. It is known that, approximately 50 kilometers away from the Russian border, the liner began to descend, but whether it was the cause of damage to the aircraft or change of scheduled tier before moving from one country's airspace to another, is not yet clear. Later, B777's wreckage and bodies of passengers have been found near the village of Grabovo in the Donetsk region.

According to the State Air Traffic Service Enterprise of Ukraine (the "UkSATSE") responsible for the maintenance of passenger vessels in Ukrainian airspace, the flight of Malaysian Boeing was performed in accordance with the flight rules, without any technical faults. According to the UkSATSE CEO Dmitry Babeychuk, pilots of the KLM flight KL4103 did not report any problems. The last maintenance of the liner was held on July 11, 2014. The plane was flying at an altitude of 10.6 thousand meters, which is 2.7 thousand meters higher than the height of the official curfew imposed by the Ukrainian authorities on July 8 this year.

Bad Guys

NYPD officer who strangled father of six put on desk duty

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© NewyorkpostEric Garner
A plainclothes NYPD cop violated department protocol by using a chokehold while handcuffing a Staten Island man who died following the arrest, Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Friday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left) and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton speak to the media at a news conference to address the recent death of Eric Garner.Photo: Getty Images

That officer and another cop who arrested Eric Garner, 43, were both placed on desk duty following the controversial Thursday arrest, Bratton said at a press conference.

"The two officers who were engaged in the arrest of the deceased - one is an eight year veteran and the other is a four-year veteran - both officers have been assigned to desk duty pending the investigation," Bratton said.

"There's a very high chance that the officer who put him in a chokehold would lose his job," said a law-enforcement source who is familiar with the investigation.


Comment: High chance? Don't hold your breath. NYPD officers love violence:
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© Huffingtonpost.com
What cop T-shirts tell us about police culture


"It violates protocol. It violates a direct rule which is never to put somebody in a chokehold."

Comment: Desk duty for murdering a man who was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes? Welcome to the police state.

Father of six dies after New York police place him in chokehold for selling untaxed cigarettes

See also:
  • Ramarley Graham's family sues NYPD on anniversary of teen's shooting death
  • (NYPD) Officers who shot Kimani Gray have been repeatedly sued for civil rights violations
  • Mass acceptance of (NYPD) police violence - rape victim may serve seven years while the NYPD rapist goes free
  • NYPD Twitter campaign backfires, flooded with photos of police abuse



Satellite

Space tech could have tracked missile that hit MH17 -- but will we hear the truth?

DSP
© fas.orgThe Defense Support Program can provide early warning for ICBM launches by detecting heat and plume signatures.
Advanced U.S. satellites played a key role in the determination by intelligence officials that a surface-to-air missile shot down a Malaysian jetliner over Ukraine on Thursday.

The assessment was almost certainly based on a technical branch of spycraft known as measurement and signature intelligence, or MASINT, analysts said. The method detects, tracks and identifies a variety of electronic signatures, including radar.

The U.S. operates fleets of listening satellites and early warning satellites that could have identified the location of a missile launch site and its trajectory as it shot up to the 33,000-foot cruising altitude of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.

The Pentagon would have detected the launch because of its heat signature, said Riki Ellison, founder and chairman of Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a group that lobbies for missile defense spending.

The U.S. Air Force has satellites in high-Earth orbit that use infrared sensors to detect heat from missile and booster plumes against Earth's background. Called the Defense Support Program, the system provides early warning for intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The satellites are sensitive enough to sense hot spots in forest fires, according to the Air Force.


Comment: In other words, the U.S. could conceivably know what really happened. Conceivably, so could Russia. Realistically, however, the fact that the U.S. "could" or "would" know these details does not in any way imply that their intelligence will be correct (WMDs, anyone?). It will be whatever is politically expedient. Then again, they have to factor in what Russia may know. See Pepe Escobar's recent analysis for more on the subject: MH17: Putin's missile? Nope


Telephone

UK wraps up 'farcical' hearing on mass surveillance - 'lightning strike on the privacy of everyone'

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© Reuters/Eddie Keogh
A week long hearing exploring the extent of illegal UK government surveillance operations has ended with Amnesty International lambasting the government for making it descend into "the realms of farce and fantasy."

"It is a lightning strike on the privacy of everyone within the government's ever extending reach," said Amnesty International's Senior Director for Law and Policy, Michael Bochenek, on Friday.

"This week's hearing descended at times into the realms of farce and fantasy - thanks to the government's insistence they would neither confirm nor deny any of their surveillance activities."

The hearing has been exploring the allegations that the UK has been illegally intercepting millions of communications.

A GCHQ tribunal started to hear the legal challenges from Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, Privacy International and Liberty among others on Monday.

"This week's hearing will be the first time that these UK government agencies, including the notoriously shady GCHQ, have appeared in a public hearing to answer direct allegations and state their position on the mass surveillance operations as a whole," said Amnesty International in a statement at the beginning of the week.

Propaganda

NYT propaganda alert: U.S. hallucinates 'evidence' of Russian links to jet crash

Alexander Hug
© Dominique Faget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAlexander Hug, second from left, a monitor with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, at the site of the crash in eastern Ukraine on Friday.
The United States government has concluded that the passenger jet felled over Ukraine was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched from rebel-held territory and most likely provided by Russia to pro-Moscow separatists, officials said on Friday.

While American officials are still investigating the chain of events leading to the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Thursday, they pointed to a series of indicators of Russian involvement. Among other things, military and intelligence officials said there was mounting evidence that a Ukrainian military plane shot down three days earlier had been fired upon from inside Russian territory by the same sort of missile battery used to bring down the civilian jet.


Comment: Secret evidence is not evidence. Show us the evidence. Honestly, you guys in the intelligence community don't exactly have a sterling reputation for the quality of your 'evidence'. You can probably therefore understand why most thinking people think you're full of crap.


The intelligence persuaded President Obama to publicly lay responsibility at least indirectly at the door of the Kremlin. Speaking at the White House, he tried to channel international indignation toward Russia for what he called an "outrage of unspeakable proportions." Mr. Obama said the episode should be "a wake-up call for Europe" and "should snap everybody's heads to attention" about what is going on in Ukraine, where a pro-Russia insurgency has become an international crisis.


Comment: Obama must have had some brain circuits crossed. Yes, it should be a wake-up call for Europe: that Kiev and the U.S. are madmen and need to be stopped.


Comment: Peter Baker, Michael R. Gordon and Mark Mazzetti, did it seriously take all three of you to write this garbage? Either you're really bad propagandists, or really bad journalists. Probably both. Just come out and say it: "We really don't know the facts yet, but we're sure it was Putin."


Card - VISA

Sanctions and airliners: Crisis in Ukraine

Paul Craig Roberts
© UnknownPaul Craig Roberts
The unilateral US sanctions announced by Obama on July 16 blocking Russian weapons and energy companies access to US bank loans demonstrate Washington's impotence.

The rest of the world, including America's two largest business organizations, turned their backs on Obama. The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers placed ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post protesting US sanctions.

NAM said that the manufacturer's association is "disappointed that the US is extending sanctions in increasingly unilateral ways that will undermine US commercial engagement."

Bloomberg reported that "meeting in Brussels, leaders of the European Union refused to match the US measures."

In attempting to isolate Russia, the White House Fool has isolated Washington.

The sanctions will have no effect on the Russian companies. The Russian companies can get more bank loans than they need from China, or from France and Germany.

The three traits that define Washington - arrogance, hubris, and corruption - make Washington a slow learner. Arrogant people wallowing in hubris are incapable of learning. When they encounter resistance they respond with bribes, threats, and coercion. Diplomacy requires learning ability, but Washington left diplomacy years ago and relies on force.

Consequently, with its sanctions, Washington is undermining its own power and influence. Sanctions are encouraging countries to withdraw from the dollar payments system that is the foundation of US power. Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France and a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, said that

Question

Best of the Web: MH17: Putin's missile? Nope

Putin
© AFP Photo / Alexei NikolskyRussia's President Vladimir Putin.
Here's the spin war verdict: the current Malaysian Airlines tragedy - the second in four months - is "terrorism" perpetrated by "pro-Russian separatists" armed by Russia and Putin is the main culprit. End of story. Anyone who believes otherwise, shut up.

Why? Because the CIA said so. Because Hillary 'We came, we saw, he died' Clinton said so. Because crazy Samantha 'R2P' Power said so - thundering at the UN, everything duly printed by the neo-con infested Washington Post.

Because Anglo-American corporate media - from CNN to Fox (who tried to buy Time Warner, which owns CNN) - said so. Because the President of the United States (POTUS) said so. And mostly because Kiev had vociferously said so in the first place.

Dollar Gold

Unanimous vote by U.S. Senate passes resolution supporting Israeli slaughter in Gaza

Ground troops in Gaza
© boltonbnp.blogspot.comNetanyahu sends in ground troops to Gaza, paid for by the USA.
Following a similar resolution passed last week by the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate voted Thursday night to support Israel's ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip. No dissenting vote was cast, and no mention was made of the hundreds of Palestinian civilians, most of whom are women and children, that have been killed by Israel in the past ten days.

Senate Resolution 498 was authored by Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), with additional support by Ben Cardin (D-MD) and son of former Republican party politician Ron Paul, Rand Paul (R-KY).

Paul is urging the Senate to pass his own bill, S. 2265, which would end all U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority until Hamas is barred from the new Palestinian unity government, among other stipulations.

The resolution was passed on the very same night Israel launched its current ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.

The United States and Israel, this past week, signed an agreement under which $429 million of American taxpayers' money "will be transferred immediately to Israel" to further fund the Iron Dome missile system, which has recently come under scrutiny by prize winning Israeli defense and aerospace engineering expert Dr. Moti Shefer.

Comment: You buy it...you own it.


Newspaper

Malaysian jet tragedy propagandized, politicians jumping to conclusions - Ron Paul

Ron Paul
© Reuters / Joel PageRon Paul
Referring to the tragic downing of a Malaysian Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine, former Texas congressman Ron Paul warned against jumping to conclusions over the culprits.

Drawing parallels between the potential for a Russian-made missile system's connection to the attack of the passenger jet on Thursday over the restive Donetsk region of Ukraine and the capture of US-made weapons by Islamist insurgents in Iraq, Paul pointed out that the missile's potential source of manufacture was largely immaterial.

"That may well be true, but guess what, ISIS has a lot of American weapons," said Paul. "We sent weapons into Syria to help the rebels and al-Qaida ends up getting it - it doesn't mean that our American government and Obama deliberately wanted ISIS to get American weapons."

"So who gets the weapons is a big difference between how they got them and what happened and what the motivations were," Paul added. "So even if it was a Russian weapon - doesn't mean a lot."

Speculation of direct involvement by the Kremlin, whether directly or through "proxies" in the form of pro-Russian militia in Ukraine, in particular seems propagandized, Paul told NewsMax on Friday.

Unverified video footage has been circulated as proof of involvement by Ukrainian militia members, though the aircraft's black boxes have yet to be retrieved, and there remain many questions unanswered as investigators have trickled into the crash site.

"Under these circumstances, it's very difficult to get the real information so everybody's angling to propagandize and make their position known," said Paul.

Comment: The same thing happened on 9/11. Then, the U.S. got its way and Al Qaeda was blamed. This time, it'll be interesting to see if the same dynamic plays out, or if the REAL culprits get exposed.