Puppet MastersS


Stock Down

Sales of Hillary Clinton memoir plummet in just 2nd week

Amy Chozick
New York Times
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:55 UTC
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© AP PHOTO/LENNY IGNELZI
Sales of Hillary Rodham Clinton's new memoir, "Hard Choices," declined 43.5 percent to 48,000 copies in its second week on the shelves, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The sales figures put pressure on the publisher, Simon & Schuster, which paid Mrs. Clinton a multimillion-dollar advance to write about her time at the State Department and has invested heavily in the book's rollout, one of the biggest of the year.

About 85,000 copies were sold in the week after the book's June 10 release, according to BookScan, a subscription service that tracks sales at over 80 percent of book vendors in the United States. Those figures do not include e-books, which increased sales by about 15 percent, to roughly 100,000 electronic and hardcover copies.

First-week sales typically account for about 30 percent of the total, thanks to the publicity blitzes that accompany publishers' biggest releases. That means "Hard Choices" could fall far short of the one million copies that Simon & Schuster shipped to bookstores, industry executives said. (Publishers sell books on consignment and must take back copies that do not sell in the stores.)
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Dollar

China continuing with plans to develop global financial rival to World Bank

Jamil Anderlini
Financial Times
Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:27 UTC
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China is expanding plans to establish a global financial institution to rival the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which Beijing fears are too influenced by the US and its allies.

In meetings with other countries, Beijing has proposed doubling the size of registered capital for the proposed bank to $100bn, according to two people familiar with the matter.

So far, 22 countries across the region, including several wealthy states in the Middle East, which China refers to as "West Asia", have shown interest in the multilateral lender, which would be known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It would initially focus on building a new version of the "silk road", the ancient trade route that once connected Europe to China.
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Eye 1

Jake Tapper's "Yellow Journalism" attack against Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth a perfect example of Orwellian Newspeak

Craig McKee
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
Sun, 22 Jun 2014 13:41 UTC
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It looked just like an infomercial, but with a lot more frowning.

In an example of Orwellian newspeak, the CNN show The Lead with Jake Tapper took on Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth over its decision to distribute information pamphlets outside the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero in New York City. The pamphlets mimic the design of the "official" ones, but instead of the official story, they contain key scientific forensic evidence indicating that the three World Trade Center towers were brought down with explosives and incendiaries. Unlike the official version, the photo on the cover of the AE pamphlet shows the Twin Towers and Building 7.

The Tapper report is a hysterical compendium of all the empty slogans and anti-conspiracy-theory talking points that make up the mainstream media's continuing attack on the 9/11 Truth Movement. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds into the report to see how Tapper was going to play the story.
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Jake Tapper doing a great job spreading lies on television
He tells us that "the conspiracy group" AE911Truth plans to stand outside the museum and hand out fake museum pamphlets that look exactly like the real ones. The volunteers handing them out are described as "so-called truthers," and the whole exercise is labeled an "affront to the victims' families."

"Can't these people give it a rest for one day out of respect for the families?" an exasperated Tapper queries, adding that the 9/11 memorial is "sacred." Indeed, since 9/11 itself, the grounds have been transformed from a place of truth-seeking to a pathologically sacred shrine to "not asking questions about 9/11."
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Eye 2

Going back to the well: Dick Cheney claims the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorists is the reason to go back into Iraq

David Edwards
Raw Story
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 13:29 UTC
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney showed up on Fox News on Wednesday to make a familiar case for going back to war in Iraq: Nuclear weapons are "spreading" to extremists across the globe.

In recent weeks the al Qaeda splinter group ISIS has taken advantage of a power vacuum left after the U.S. invaded Iraq to take over large parts of the country, giving Cheney and other architects of the 2003 invasion an opportunity to use some of their original talking points for military action.

Cheney's recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal stopped just short of accusing President Barack Obama of treason, saying that he had been determined to take the United States "down a notch" before leaving office.

"Defeating them will require a strategy - not a fantasy," Cheney wrote. "It will require sustained difficult military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts - not empty misleading rhetoric. It will require rebuilding America's military capacity - reversing the Obama policies that have weakened our armed forces and reduced our ability to influence events around the world."

After a campaign of television interviews failed to make his case against Obama, Cheney was back on Fox News on Wednesday to play the same nuclear weapons card that he used in 2003.

Comment: The man is a psychopathic liar, one of many responsible for genocide on an unspeakable scale who should be tried for war crimes. Anyone who lends credence to a single word that comes out of his lying mouth should question their sanity.

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Sheriff

Can the Secret Service really arrest a sheriff? Colorado Sheriff answers

Charley Barnes
K99.com
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 20:51 UTC
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© Sheriff Justin Smith, Facebook
I wrote a story earlier this week about the possibility of the Secret Service being authorized to arrest Sheriffs across the country if they fail to uphold new gun control laws. Just a few minutes ago, I received a very nice email from Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith who wants to clarify a few things.

It seems as though the story last night went viral and is now overwhelming his office with emails and calls, I assume in support. I was very worried when I read this story at the original source.

To the point, Sheriff Justin Smith wanted to clear the air while saying yes, there is a bill that would add the Secret Service to a "list of federal officers" but he says they would have "limited state authority" and the bill, he says, is not being portrayed correctly...
"In the last decade, CO started to grant limited authority to certain federal law enforcement agencies. The purpose is so that if they witness a citizen being victimized, they can act and turn the case over to a local police officer (because most crimes against our citizens are not federal crimes) and they have no other jurisdiction to intervene as federal officers. The law also allows them, in cases where they are investigating a crime that is against both state and federal law, to file the case with our local DA in situations where the damage amount doesn't meet a threshold where the federal prosecutors will file it in federal court. If you read the bill, you will see the limitations clearly in it. As Sheriffs, we are the beacon against over reach by federal authorities, but in this situation, it is not the case" - Sheriff Justin Smith
Read The Entire Bill Here

Comment: Federal framework being set up to arrest sheriffs

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Pistol

Chicago passes bill requiring businesses to videotape all gun purchases

Mary Wisniewski
Reuters
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 13:20 UTC
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© REUTERS/FRANK POLICH
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a law that would allow the resumption of gun sales in the city but with restrictions that require videotaping of purchases and limiting sales to one per month per buyer.

Forty-eight council members voted to approve the ordinance proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after a federal court invalidated the city's long-time ban on gun sales in January.

The law also requires a 72-hour waiting period to purchase handguns in the nation's third largest city and a 24-hour waiting period to purchase rifles and shotguns.

Chicago has been plagued by a gun-related homicide rate that is three times higher than New York's and twice that of Los Angeles.
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Cell Phone

Supreme Court rules that police need a warrant to search cellphones

Lawrence Hurley
Reuters
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 13:02 UTC
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© REUTERS/GARY CAMERONA woman uses her mobile phone at the plaza of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington June 25, 2014.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search the cellphone of an arrested suspect, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said there are some emergency situations in which a warrantless search would be permitted. But the unanimous 9-0 ruling goes against law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, which wanted more latitude to search without having to obtain a warrant.

"We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime," Roberts wrote, adding that the right to privacy "comes at a cost."

Roberts acknowledged the unique nature of cellphones in contemporary life, noting that "the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy."
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Cell Phone

Feds instructed police to lie about using Stingray mobile phone equipment

Mike Masnick
Techdirt.com
Fri, 20 Jun 2014 12:03 UTC
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© Unknown
We've been covering the increasingly widespread use of Stingray or similar mobile phone tower spoofing equipment by law enforcement. The stories have been getting increasingly bizarre lately, starting with the news that police were claiming that non-disclosure agreements prevented them from getting a warrant to use the technology. And then, there was the recent news that the federal government was regularly stepping in to claim ownership of documents related to the technology (even when it's used by local police) in order to block them from being obtained under Freedom of Information laws. Just this morning, we wrote about some new evidence that police are claiming they need these devices to stop "weapons of mass destruction," though they then just use them to spy on people suspected of everyday crimes instead.

Late last night, the ACLU came out with perhaps the most explosive information so far: a set of internal police emails showing that the US Marshals have been instructing police to lie to courts about the use of such devices. Specifically, rather than revealing the use of the tool, they're told to just tell the court they got the information from a "confidential source." While affidavits may initially note the use of such a device, the police are told to submit a new affidavit after the fact without mentioning the Stingray, and seal the old one, so that it never becomes public. The key parts of the email are highlighted below:
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Snakes in Suits

North Carolina Republican compares homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality in comments to gay colleague

David Edwards
Raw Story
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:54 UTC
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A Republican state representative in North Carolina distributed literature to a gay colleague on Tuesday that compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia.

During a debate over a bill to expand charter schools in North Carolina, Democratic state Rep. Susan Fisher offered an amendment that would have prohibited schools from "discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."

Republican Speaker Pro Tem "Skip" Stam - who is second in to command to House Speaker and GOP Senate candidate Thom Tillis - immediately objected to the amendment.

"Sexual orientation is not defined anywhere. I have here 30 different types of sexual orientation here," Stam said, while handing the Sergeant at Arms a stack of papers to distribute to fellow lawmakers.

"I offered to exclude two sexual orientations," he said. "I thought we should exclude pedophilia, masochism and sadism, which are sexual orientations. But the Speaker at the time, ruled it out of order to define the term."
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Eye 2

Virginia GOP lawmakers break into Governor's office in effort to block expanded medical aid for the poor

David Edwards
Raw Story
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:29 UTC
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© Virginia Republican Party
The Virginia Speaker of the House has recently used a series of gimmicks and unusual tricks - including having Capitol Police enter the governor's unoccupied office, and refusing to recognize line-item vetoes - to push through a budget that blocks expanded health care for the poor.

After being sworn into office earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe pledged to fight to use the funds provided by President Barack Obama's health care reform law to expand Medicaid. Virginia Republicans, however, eventually convinced a Democratic state senator to resign, giving them the ability to pass a budget that included two amendments that blocked federal dollars for expanding Medicaid, and required the governor to get express permission from the Legislature before attempting any type of expansion.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the House had told McAuliffe's administration to be prepared to receive the budget no sooner than the Monday after Father's Day. But the House pushed it through earlier than expected, and House Speaker William J. Howell ordered his clerk to have Capitol Police enter the governor's office to deliver it, even though the executive suite was unoccupied during the holiday.
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