Puppet MastersS


Light Saber

Lavrov: US coalition against ISIS a mistake


RT
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 19:00 UTC
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© Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
The US-led campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria is a "mistake," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"Unfortunately, when the Americans announced this crusade against ISIL in Iraq and Syria, they never came to the Security Council, they just announced the coalition and they announced that the Iraqi government gave its consent," Lavrov told Bloomberg TV in an interview.

"I believe it was a mistake. I think that just an obsession with the personality of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is not bringing any good to the common cause of fighting terrorism."

Russia is not against the actions of the international coalition against Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL), but bombardment of the militant-controlled areas of Syria without the approval of Damascus authorities is a mistake, Lavrov said.

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Airplane

You are the enemy: FBI is now operating its own surveillance air force

Jack Gillum, Eileen Sullivan, and Eric Tucker
Associated Press
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 14:18 UTC
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© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology - all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. The FBI said it uses front companies to protect the safety of the pilots and aircraft. It also shields the identity of the aircraft so that suspects on the ground don't know they're being watched by the FBI.

In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.

Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.

U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.

Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department's inspector general.

The FBI also has been careful not to reveal its surveillance flights in court documents.

Comment: Might this have something to do with the mysterious surveillance plane seen flying over Minnesota skies recently?

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Control Panel

Karl Marx was right - capitalism seeds its own destruction

Chris Hedges
Truth Dig
Sun, 31 May 2015 16:35 UTC
On Saturday at the Left Forum in New York City, Chris Hedges joined professors Richard Wolff and Gail Dines to discuss why Karl Marx is essential at a time when global capitalism is collapsing. These are the remarks Hedges made to open the discussion.
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© gravitat-OFF / CC BY 2.0A bust of Karl Marx.
Karl Marx exposed the peculiar dynamics of capitalism, or what he called "the bourgeois mode of production." He foresaw that capitalism had built within it the seeds of its own destruction. He knew that reigning ideologies—think neoliberalism—were created to serve the interests of the elites and in particular the economic elites, since "the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production" and "the ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships ... the relationships which make one class the ruling one." He saw that there would come a day when capitalism would exhaust its potential and collapse. He did not know when that day would come. Marx, as Meghnad Desai wrote, was "an astronomer of history, not an astrologer." Marx was keenly aware of capitalism's ability to innovate and adapt. But he also knew that capitalist expansion was not eternally sustainable. And as we witness the denouement of capitalism and the disintegration of globalism, Karl Marx is vindicated as capitalism's most prescient and important critic.

In a preface to "The Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" Marx wrote:
No social order ever disappears before all the productive forces for which there is room in it have been developed; and new higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society itself.

Therefore, mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since looking at the matter more closely, we always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist, or are at least in the process of formation.
Socialism, in other words, would not be possible until capitalism had exhausted its potential for further development. That the end is coming is hard now to dispute, although one would be foolish to predict when. We are called to study Marx to be ready.

Comment: See also:

Was Karl Marx a full-blown psychopath?

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Magnify

Holes in the neocons' dubious Syria narrative

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Sun, 31 May 2015 16:47 UTC
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Official Washington's narrative about Syria's civil war is that innocent "pro-democracy" protesters were driven to violence because the Syrian government cracked down harshly - and that if only President Barack Obama had armed the protesters and supported "regime change" at the beginning, the current crises in Syria and Iraq could have been averted.

But the storyline was never that black and white. Though there surely were many Syrian protesters in 2011 simply seeking the end of President Bashar al-Assad's rule and political reform, there were also extremist elements in their ranks from the start, including "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" terrorists, as a Defense Intelligence Agency report describes.
"AQI supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning, both ideologically and through the media," the DIA wrote in a partially redacted classified report from August 2012 that was released to Judicial Watch in response to a court case over the Benghazi controversy. "AQI declared its opposition of Assad's government because it considered it a sectarian regime targeting Sunnis."
In other words, Assad's early complaint about "terrorists" having infiltrated the opposition wasn't entirely false, although it was often treated that way by the mainstream U.S. news media. Even early in the disorders in 2011, there were cases of armed elements killing police and soldiers.


Comment: Those "armed extremist elements" are Western proxy armies that were trained, armed, and funded by Western governments. They exist to further the U.S. goal of regime change in Syria. The idea of innocent, peaceful protesters driven to violence by the Assad regime is purely Western propaganda.

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Yoda

Russian strategy behind placement of pro-Western figurehead to human rights council

Eric Draitser
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 16:08 UTC
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The news that Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head of the Russian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) the Moscow-Helsinki Group, will be returning to the Presidential Council for Human Rights, has been heralded by many in the liberal establishment in Russia as a victory for their cause. Indeed, as an adversary of President Putin on numerous occasions, Alekseyeva has been held as a symbol of the pro-Western, pro-US orientation of Russian liberals who see in Russia not a power seeking independence and sovereignty from the global hegemon in Washington, but rather a repressive and reactionary country bent on aggression and imperial revanchism.

While this view is not one shared by the vast majority of Russians - Putin's approval rating continues to hover somewhere in the mid 80s - it is most certainly in line with the political and foreign policy establishment of the US, and the West generally. And this is precisely the reason that Alekseyeva and her fellow liberal colleagues are so close to key figures in Washington whose overriding goal is the return of Western hegemony in Russia, and throughout the Eurasian space broadly. For them, the return of Alekseyeva is the return of a champion of Western interests into the halls of power in Moscow.
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Attention

Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects dim slightly as growing numbers see her as untrustworthy

Jennifer Agiesta
CNN
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 12:28 UTC
hillary polls
More people have an unfavorable view of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton now than at any time since 2001, according to a new CNN/ORC poll on the 2016 race.

While Clinton remains strikingly dominant in the Democratic field, the poll shows that her numbers have dropped significantly across several key indicators since she launched her campaign in April.

A growing number of people say she is not honest and trustworthy (57%, up from 49% in March), less than half feel she cares about people like them (47%, down from 53% last July) and more now feel she does not inspire confidence (50%, up from 42% last March).

In head-to-head match-ups against top Republicans, her margin is tighter than it has been at any point in CNN/ORC's polling on the contest.

On the Republican side, though, no candidate has successfully broken out of the pack.

Comment: For many years, the Clinton's have been quite adept at sidestepping scandals and managing to stay on top of the political game, however it appears that finally more people are becoming aware of Hillary's true nature.

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Che Guevara

Russian Elite Special Forces Commander shares his insights into Ukraine

The Saker
Russia Insider
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:29 UTC
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© UnknownEven Putin and Sergei Ivanov would not dare step on Spetsnaz GRU symbol

Comment: This is part 2 of a 2-part interview. Part 1 can be found here.


The Saker: The Ukrainian government is constantly claiming that Spetsnaz GRU units are operating in the Donbass. Purely in theory, would you say that that this is possible or do you completely exclude such a possiblity. Please explain the reasons for your reply. What do you make of this video:

Ramzes: As for there being Spetznas in Donbass - you can have it both ways. It is extremely unlikely, however, anything is possible.

Just as it is possible that GRU Spetsnaz can be in the USA, Canada, Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia at this moment. They might even be in China, Venezuela, or Iran etc...

But GRU will not be operating inside Russia.
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Eye 1

Saakashvili's appointment as governor of Odessa is a 'very serious mistake'


Reconsidering Russia
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:37 UTC
Saakashvili
© AP Photo/ Virginia Mayo
On 29 May 2015, the current Ukrainian government made a jaw-dropping move. As if Kiev's controversial de-communization laws were not enough, the new government decided to appoint Georgia's provocative ex-president Mikheil "Misha" Saakashvili to the post of governor of the Odessa Oblast. Immediately prior to this (literally within hours), Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship, thus making him eligible for the governorship. On Twitter and Facebook, future governor Saakashvili expressed his love for Odessa.

Needless to say, Saakashvili is no Prince Vorontsov. Unabashedly pro-Western and hawkishly anti-Russian, Saakashvili is regarded by many as one of the most unstable politicians in the entire former Soviet Union. It was he who recklessly launched the disastrous South Ossetian war in 2008. Currently, he is a wanted man in his native Georgia, charged with abuse of office. In fact, Prosecutors in Tbilisi are seeking an Interpol Red Notice for his arrest. Further, Russia, acting on behalf of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, is also seeking the arrest of Saakashvili in connection with war crimes from the 2008 war. This has not prevented Saakashvili from periodically threatening to return to Georgia via revolutionary means, despite the fact that he is widely unpopular in Georgia.

Comment: Saakashvili is just another in a huge network of psychopaths groomed and empowered by Washington to sew chaos around the world:
In any society in this world, psychopathic individuals often create an active network of common collusions, partially estranged from the community of normal people. They are aware of being different. Their world is forever divided into "us and them"; their world with its own laws and customs and that other "foreign world" of normal people that they consider to be full of presumptuous ideas and customs about truth and honor and decency in light of which they know they are condemned morally. Their own twisted sense of honor compels them to cheat and revile non-psychopaths and their values. In contradiction to the ideals of normal people, psychopaths feel non-fulfillment of their promises is customary behavior. Not only do they covet possessions and power, but they gain special pleasure in usurping and taking from others (a symbolic sibling, for example); what they can plagiarize, swindle, and extort are fruits far sweeter than those they can earn through honest labor. They also learn how their personalities can have traumatizing effects on the personalities of non-psychopaths, and how to take advantage of this root of terror for purposes of achieving their goals.
Also see: Gangster state: Fugitive Saakashvili nominated as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region

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Eye 1

Lunatics in Kiev's Rada call for complete blockade of Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics


Sputnik News
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:24 UTC
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© Sputnik/ Taras Litvinenko

An MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc has suggested to his fellow deputies that the territories under the control of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics should be subjected to a complete economic blockade, calling them a "cancerous tumor."

Speaking before colleagues in the Rada on Tuesday, Poroshenko Bloc leader Yuriy Lutsenko explained that Kiev's blockade against anti-Kiev forces in the Lugansk region should be expanded to Donetsk as well.

"The president believes that the cancerous tumor [referring to the territories not under Kiev's control] is subject to blockade. The practice of the head of the Lugansk military-civil administration Hennadiy Moskal, who has prohibited any movement of vehicles into and out of the occupied territory, is the correct policy."

Comment: Psychopathic imbeciles are quick to point out that normal, healthy people are "cancerous growths" while they themselves destroy everything generations of people worked to create. Giving credence to such bizarre attitudes results in ponerization, "the influence of pathological people on individuals and groups whereby they develop acceptance of pathological reasoning and values." We can see the effects all around us:
Any human group affected by the process described herein is characterized by its increasing regression from natural common sense and the ability to perceive psychological reality. Someone considering this in terms of traditional categories might consider it an instance of "turning into half-wits" or the development of intellectual deficiencies and moral failings. A ponerological analysis of this process, however, indicates that pressure is being applied to the more normal part of the association by pathological factors present in certain individuals who have been allowed to participate in the group because the lack of good psychological knowledge has not mandated their exclusion. [...]

Thus, whenever we observe some group member being treated with no critical distance, although he betrays one of the psychological anomalies familiar to us, and his opinions being treated as at least equal to those of normal people, although they are based on a characteristically different view of human matters, we must derive the conclusion that this human group is affected by a ponerogenic process and if measures are not taken the process shall continue to its logical conclusion. We shall treat this in accordance with the above described first criterion of ponerology, which retains its validity regardless of the qualitative and quantitative features of such a union: the atrophy of natural critical faculties with respect to pathological individuals becomes an opening to their activities, and, at the same time, a criterion for recognizing the association in concern as ponerogenic.

Such a state of affairs simultaneously consists as a liminal (watershed) situation, whereupon further damage to people's healthy common sense and critical moral faculties becomes ever easier. Once a group has inhaled a sufficient dose of pathological material to give birth to the conviction that these not-quite-normal people are unique geniuses, it starts subjecting its more normal members to pressure characterized by corresponding paralogical and paramoral elements.

For many people, such pressure of collective opinion takes on attributes of a moral criterion; for others, it represents a kind of psychological terror ever more difficult to endure. The phenomenon of counter-selection thus occurs in this phase of ponerization: individuals with a more normal sense of psychological reality leave after entering into conflict with the newly modified group; simultaneously, individuals with various psychological anomalies join the group and easily find a way of life there. The former feel "pushed into counter-revolutionary positions", and the latter can afford to remove their masks of sanity ever more often. [...]

When a ponerogenic process encompasses a society's entire ruling class, or nation, or when opposition from normal people is stifled -- as a result of the mass character of the phenomenon, or by using spellbinding means and physical compulsion, including censorship -- we are dealing with a macrosocial ponerologic phenomenon.

America's Nervous Breakdown


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Attention

US attack dog: Australian government 'actively considering' dangerous provocation in South China Sea

Peter Symonds
World Socialist Web Site
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:47 UTC
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© US Department of Defense
Amid escalating tensions between the US and China over the South China Sea, the Australian government is "actively considering conducting its own 'freedom of navigation' exercises near artificial islands built by China in disputed territory," according to a front-page article featured in today's Australian.

Written by the newspaper's foreign editor Greg Sheridan, who is well-connected in defence circles in Washington and Canberra, the article revealed that what is under discussion is far more provocative than recent US military operations close to Chinese-controlled atolls. "The Royal Australian Air Force aircraft would fly within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) of an artificial island build by the Chinese, with Beijing certain to react," Sheridan stated.

Comment: Another 'hot spot' in the world getting warmer with the potential of creating a false flag event.

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