Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Russia sets terms for Ukraine deal as 40,000 troops mass on border

Simon Tisdall and Rory Carroll
The Guardian
Sun, 30 Mar 2014 18:08 UTC
Image
© Rex FeaturesSergei Lavrov
Lavrov demands that Kiev have only limited powers as Kerry says military moves are obstructing peace deal

Russia on Sunday night repeated its demand that the US and its European partners accept its proposal that ethnic Russian regions of eastern and southern Ukraine be given extensive autonomous powers independent of Kiev as a condition for agreeing a diplomatic solution to the crisis over its annexation of Crimea.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told reporters Ukraine could not function as a "unified state" and should become a loose federation. He made the remarks after an inconclusive meeting with John Kerry, the US secretary of state, at the Russian ambassador's residence in Paris following a day in which tensions over Ukraine deepened appreciably. Lavrov called the talks "very, very constructive".

Kerry told reporters the US and Russia agreed on the need for a diplomatic solution but made clear there had been no breakthrough, saying the Russian troop build-up along the border was creating a climate of fear and intimidation in Ukraine and was not helpful.

He called for Russia to pull back its forces and said talks on the country's future must include Kiev's leaders. "We will not accept a path forward where the legitimate government of Ukraine is not at the table. This principle is clear. No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine."
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Arrow Down

Italian politicians 'wasted €2m' on fine wine and caviar


The Local, Italy
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:25 UTC
Caviar
© Shutterstock

Sixty-four politicians from the regional council of Lombardy, one of Italy's wealthiest regions, have been accused of squandering almost €2.14 million worth of public funds on everything from premium wine and caviar to jars of Nutella and placing bets.

In the latest expenses scandal to hit Italian politics, prosecutors in Milan discovered that between 2008 and 2011, the politicians, mainly from Silvio Berlusconi's former party, the People of Freedom (Pdl), claimed reimbursements worth 70 percent of their wining and dining costs.

The expenses included eating out in the priciest restaurants, hosting banquets for hundreds of people and quaffing wine worth €1,094 a bottle.

The investigation wrapped up in early March, with the politicians now accused of embezzlement. Among those accused, 31 are from the Pdl, 23 from the Northern League, five from the Democratic Party, two from the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Udc) and one each from Left Ecology Freedom (Sel), Italy of Values (Idv) and the Pensioners Party.

Prosecutors named and shamed some of the culprits, including Gianmarco Quadrini, the regional leader of the Udc, who allegedly splurged €2,190.29 on a Christmas feast of "caviar and a variety of fish" in 2008.
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Chess

The Kerry-Lavrov Eurasian chess match

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 14:43 UTC
Global Chess board
© Unknown
It's hardly a match between equals - as one is playing Monopoly while the other plays chess. It's as if Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been postponing his checkmate, while US Secretary of State John Kerry increasingly realizes he's facing the inevitable.

Lavrov has explained over and over again, a loose federation is the only possible solution for Ukraine, as part of a "deep constitutional reform". That would imply ethnic - and even sentimentally - Russian eastern and southern Ukraine would be largely autonomous. Kerry gave signs of agreeing around two weeks ago that Ukrainian regions need more decision power; but then the White House recharged its moral blitzkrieg - coinciding with President Barack Obama's trip to The Hague and Brussels. Still, even after an inconclusive four-hour Kerry-Lavrov chess match in Paris, there will be a checkmate.

The Russian solution is the same plan proposed by Moscow already a few weeks ago, and again discussed on the phone by Obama and President Vladimir Putin on Friday - which prompted Kerry to redirect his flight to Paris. Each Ukrainian region, according to Lavrov, would be able to control its economy, taxes, culture, language, education and "external economic and cultural connections with neighboring countries or regions". That's such a sound plan that even former - or perennial, depending on spin - cold warriors such as Henry Kissinger and Zbig Brzezinski reasonably agree.
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Arrow Down

Getting ready to microchip the entire Human Race

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:54 UTC

Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director and now Google Executive, Regina E. Duncan, has unveiled a super small, ingestible microchip that we can all be expected to swallow by 2017. "A means of authentication," she calls it, also called an electronic tattoo, which takes NSA spying to whole new levels. She talks of the 'mechanical mismatch problem between machines and humans,' and specifically targets 10 - 20 year olds in her rant about the wonderful qualities of this new technology that can stretch in the human body and still be functional.

Hailed as a 'critical shift for research and medicine, ' these biochips would not only allow full access to insurance companies and government agencies to our pharmaceutical med-taking compliancy (or lack thereof), but also a host of other aspects of our lives which are truly none of their business, and certainly an extension of the removal of our freedoms and rights.
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USA

'Just salute and follow orders': When secrecy and surveillance trump the rule of law

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:38 UTC
"The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies, mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives, operate outside the legitimate institutions of government.
Presidents have turned to them when they can't win the support of the Congress or the people, creating that unsupervised power so feared by the framers of our Constitution..." - Journalist Bill Moyers and White House press secretary under President Johnson (1988)
Question: How can you tell when a politician is lying? Answer: When he's moving his lips.

If that didn't generate a chuckle, how about:
Q: Why is honesty in politics like oxygen?

A: The higher you go, the scarcer it gets.
Secret Government
© Wawa Conspi
Then there's President Obama's gaffe on the Tonight Show: "We don't have a domestic spying program," which is downright laughable in light of this past year's revelations about domestic spying by the National Security Agency. But if that still doesn't push you over the edge into near hysterics, here's one guaranteed to get the biggest laugh of all, at least from those clear-sighted enough to grasp the irony of a politician talking about "trust":
"If people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust Congress, and don't trust federal judges, to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law," declared President Obama in June 2013, in response to questions about the government's domestic spying program, "then we're going to have some problems here."
What's not at all amusing, of course, is the fact that our nation is riddled with all manner of problems, and it's because we have government officials in the executive branch, Congress, and the courts incapable of abiding by the Constitution. These people have proven time and again that they cannot be trusted to do what they say, and they certainly can't be trusted to abide by their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Indeed, the American people have been cheated and lied to for so long that we've arrived at a stage of disbelief and skepticism. So when the Obama administration announces that it will be rolling out proposals to rein in the NSA bulk collection of data about Americans' private communications, you'd be perfectly justified in wondering what other far-fetched schemes they plan to sell you next.
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Arrow Down

Sebelius speechless after reporter tells her how unpopular Obamacare is in Oklahoma

Daniel Halper
The Weekly Standard
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:01 UTC
Image
© People Pundit Daily
An Oklahoma reporter told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius how unpopular Obamacare is, rendering the cabinet secretary speechless:

"At last check, 64 percent of Oklahomans aren't buying into the health care plan, they don't like Obamacare, and they've been pretty vocal about it," said the reporter. "Now that's going to be -- still continue to be -- a tough sell, but we'll see how that plays out over the coming months."

Then he waited for Sebelius to reply. And waited.
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Cards

Ecuador's Correa does not recognize Ukraine's illegitimate government


RT
Sun, 30 Mar 2014 10:04 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Guillermo GranjaEcuador's President Rafael Correa
Ecuador has said it will not deal with the coup-appointed government in Kiev and has called for fair elections. President Rafael Correa declared he would only negotiate with a "legitimate government" that represents the will of the Ukrainian people.

In his weekly address to the Ecuadorian people, Correa explained why Ecuador had abstained from the UN General Assembly vote Thursday that passed a resolution condemning Crimea's union with Russia.

"We will not fall for a farce, we will only deal with a legitimate government," said Correa, adding that Ecuador does not recognize the current government that is the product of a coup d'état. To win the support of Ecuador, Ukraine should hold democratic elections and establish a legitimate government chosen by the Ukrainian people, Correa said.

Moscow has also decried the coup-appointed government that came to power in Kiev at the end of February following weeks of bloody protests in the Ukrainian capital's Independence Square.
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Star of David

Kerry makes unscheduled trip to Israel after Paris talks with Russia's Sergei Lavrov


Yahoo! News
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 09:12 UTC
Image
© Voice of Russia
US Secretary of State John Kerry was en route to Israel from Paris on Monday in a bid to prevent the collapse of the crisis-hit peace talks ahead of an April 29 deadline.

Kerry will possibly hold meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah over Monday and Tuesday, a senior US official said in France, without elaborating.

The US peace efforts are teetering after Israel refused to free a group of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners under an agreement which brought the sides back to the negotiating table in July 2013.

Kerry's arrival in Tel Aviv is likely to coincide with a meeting of the Palestinian leadership called by president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah at 1600 GMT to discuss the latest standoff.

Furious Palestinian officials have warned that unless Israel changes its stance on the prisoner releases it could signal the end of the talks.
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Rocket

North and South Korea exchange fire near maritime border

Euan McKirdy and Stella Kim
CNN
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 08:35 UTC

A day after raising the possibility of further nuclear tests, North Korea has engaged in provocative live-fire exercises near the South Korean maritime border, leading to an exchange of fire between the neighbors.

The semiofficial South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Monday that the North had begun the drill just after noon. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that some North Korean ordnance landed in South Korean waters and that the South responded with fire.

The Joint Chiefs said the North Korean offshore military exercise began about 12:15 p.m. Monday and said that "a part of North Korea's shelling reached South Korean side of the NLL (Northern Limit Line) and we (South Korea) responded with K-9 self-propelled guns into the North Korean waters above NLL."

The statement is in line with Yonhap's report that the North fired "several" artillery shells, to which the South Korean military responded with self-propelled artillery fire. The South Korean K9 howitzers have a 24-mile (40-kilometer) range.

It is not clear how many of the shells fired by North Korea reached the Republic's territorial waters. Although there was a lull, North Korean offshore firing seems to have resumed, with Yonhap quoting a resident of Baekryong Island, which is in close proximity to the the Northern Limit Line.
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Star of David

Israel is neither friend nor ally to the United States

Philip Giraldi
Veterans News Now
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 08:45 UTC
israeli aggression
© unknown

I would like to go a bit beyond the comments that both of my colleagues have made and suggest not only that Israel is no ally, but also that it is not actually a friend, because it does actual damage to the United States through using its considerable access to Congress and the media to promote policies that are neither good for the United States nor for Israel. I'm sure you've all heard the expression that a friend does not let a friend drive drunk. Well, the United States has been driving drunk for quite some time, and that dangerous behavior has to some extent been caused by Israel and its many supporters in Washington.

Israel might or might not have been an actual enabler of the disastrous American invasion of Iraq but it is undeniably true that the American officials extremely close to the Israeli government were behind the rush to war and the forgery of phony intelligence that fed the process. If the Washington goes to war with Iran in the near future it will not be because Tehran actually threatens America, it will be because Israel and its powerful lobby in the U.S. have succeeded in creating an essentially false casus belli to mandate such action.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who once commented that 9/11 was good for Israel, has repeatedly sought to commit our government to draw red lines that would narrow options for the White House and de facto require it to take action with the military against Iran. Congress is meanwhile advancing legislation that would commit the United States to intervene militarily in support of a unilateral Israeli attack, meaning that Israel could easily be empowered to make the decision on whether or not the US goes to war.
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