Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Why is the Treasury Department seeking survival kits for bank employees

Elizabeth Harrington
Washington Free Beacon
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:51 UTC
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© Photo Courtesy Flickr User Rob Young
The Department of Treasury is seeking to order survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation.

The emergency supplies would be for every employee at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which conducts on-site reviews of banks throughout the country. The survival kit includes everything from water purification tablets to solar blankets.

The government is willing to spend up to $200,000 on the kits, according to the solicitation released on Dec. 4.

The survival kits must come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with "decongestant tablets," a variety of bandages, and medicines.

The kits must also include a "reusable solar blanket" 52 by 84 inches long, a 2,400-calorie food bar, "50 water purification tablets," a "dust mask," "one-size fits all poncho with hood," a rechargeable lantern with built-in radio, and an "Air-Aid emergency mask" for protection against airborne viruses.

Comment: Indeed this is curious. What does the government know or are they getting scared?

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Propaganda

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Propaganda alert! Kremlin manipulating Russell Brand

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:14 UTC
Russell Brand
© Getty
Yesterday, the Spectator published a piece online by Scottish anti-Muslim homosexual neoconservative Douglas Murray (wrap your mind around that one!) titled 'The Kremlin thinks Russell Brand is good news. Does that not worry him?' With reference to the recent launch of RT UK ("Putin's propaganda station in London", as Murray calls it), he launches into his own brand of propaganda (no pun intended), starting with this zinger:
Unlike the Kremlin, I am generally in favour of as diverse a media as possible.
Be honest, Murray, what you're really trying to say is that you're not in favour of as diverse media as possible. In fact, it looks like you have more in common with the Kremlin than you thought, Murray. Not living in Russia, I can't comment on the state of the media there. But from where I sit, I'd agree with both of you, Murray -- you and the Kremlin. Personally, I think some newspapers, like the one you write for -- the Spectator -- shouldn't be allowed to spew corporate-sponsored, MI5-directed, pro-war provocation and lies masquerading as 'diverse' media. But that's just me.
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Dollar

Giveaways to greedy Wall Street and nation's wealthiest in spending bill make 'Great Train Robbery look like a misdemeanor'

Lauren McCauley
Common Dreams
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:02 UTC
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© takomabibelotCampaign finance reform advocates protest outside the Capitol building in Washington D.C., 2011.
Watchdog groups are sounding the alarm as congressional lawmakers finalize an eleventh-hour omnibus bill, which observers say contains gifts to both big monied banks and donors.

Thanks to a provision slipped into the more than $1 trillion congressional funding bill, which lawmakers agreed to late Tuesday evening, wealthy donors will now be legally permitted to contribute even more funds to political parties.

The spending package (pdf), which is expected to be voted on by before the weekend, includes a provision (see page 1599) to create three separate accounts within the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, each for reportedly different purposes such as operating costs, legal proceedings, and each party's nominating convention.
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Attention

Ramzan Kadyrov: Dec. 4 terror attack in Chechnya funded by Western intelligence


Fort Russ
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 22:56 UTC
Kadyrov Putin
The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov named the suspect in the financing of the organizers of the terrorist attack in Grozny in his post on Instagram:
I know the names of almost each and every police officer serving in Chechnya. Especially those who are special forces soldiers. I know their marital status. All of them are like brothers to me. A few days ago during a liquidation of a terrorist gang 14 of my comrades have died. I treat it as deaths of very close people, deaths of my BROTHERS.

Earlier I stated that families should be responsible for criminal actions of their sons if they did not stop them or did not contact the police. Kalyapin stood up for the bandits and their relatives. In Chechnya I am in charge of human rights. Not Kalyapin or anyone else took a single step to help the families of the dead soldiers, never asked how many kids were left orphans, whether they have a roof over their head. The authorities have information that the money of Western intelligence agencies from Ahmad Umarov was transferred to the bandits by a man named Kalyapin. Need to check if indeed this is the same Kalyapin. And if confirmed, to hold him responsible.

I will not allow anyone, under any mask to support the bandits. I don't care what ID he's got in his pocket, and from what Embassy he receives compensation. I took on the responsibility of protecting the security of the people and I will do it, even if the whole West and all its minions turn upside down!
On December 4, 2014, a group of unknown men, driving three vehicles, attacked the post of traffic patrol in Grozny. The militants entered the Printing House and a school. During the operation of the elimination of the extremists, 14 security officers were killed, 28 were injured.

Comment: No surprise there.

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Airplane

The MH17 JIT reversal, and the alternative media

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:49 UTC
mh17
After weeks of protests and growing suspicion, Dutch authorities overseeing the investigation of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have finally included Malaysia as a member of its Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

Malaysia had made it clear it was immensely displeased with its inexplicable exclusion from JIT formed after the downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine. Including NATO members (Belgium and the Netherlands), a defacto NATO collaborator (Australia) and a potential culprit in the air disaster (Ukraine), Malaysia's exclusion looked to be a part of an ongoing cover-up amid a larger attempt to use the disaster to frame Russia and advance NATO's agenda in Eastern Europe.

The conflict amid which MH17 was shot down is perceived to be a proxy conflict between NATO and Russia. That the investigation includes exclusively pro-NATO members or NATO members themselves, both the conduct of the investigation and any conceivable outcome would be highly suspect. Malaysia, the only nation directly effected by the disaster and perceived of being beyond the direct influence of NATO, would have provided a much needed counterbalance.

Comment: It's probably too late for Malaysia's inclusion to have any real effect on the direction of the investigation. The past months have given plenty of time for the other JIT members to get their story straight and keep Malaysia in the dark about anything of any real importance. But we'll just have to wait and see. See also:

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Nuke

Feds say cleaning up most contaminated nuclear weapons site in US is too costly


RT
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
nuclear_waste
© Reuters/Yuriko Nakao
The United States government recently argued in court filings that the state of Washington's request of $18 billion over 14 years to address the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons production site should be rejected based on expense.


Comment: The United States spends 840 billion dollars every year (2.3 billion dollars a day) creating terror in Middle East and US, but it doesn't have money for the nuclear danger at home. How unsurprising.


The US Department of Justice said in a court filing on Friday that the cost of the state's proposal for a hastened cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation would cast into doubt other nuclear projects funded by the Department of Energy.

According to The Tri-City Herald, the filings in US District Court by the DOJ and the state of Washington were part of the state's lawsuit that seeks a more pressing timeline for Hanford's cleanup.

Friday was the deadline for the parties to comment on new cleanup timelines, as the DOE said many of the existing timelines were at risk of being missed.

Hanford, located along the Columbia River in south-central Washington, is the site of 177 massive underground nuclear waste storage tanks, making it the largest collection of nuclear waste in the US. For four decades, the site was home to plutonium development for use in the production of nuclear weapons.

Comment: Washington doesn't have any interest in protecting its citizens and yet will do everything to protect its corporate sponsors. It's good to know they've got their priorities straight!

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Star of David

Palestinian government minister Ziad Abu Ein dies following assault by IDF soldiers at West Bank protest


RT
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:10 UTC
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© AFP/Abbas MomaniPalestinian official Ziad Abu Ein, in charge of the issue of Israeli settlements for the Palestinian Authority, lies on the ground after a scuffle with Israeli forces during a demonstration in the village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah, on December 10, 2014.
The settlement minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), Ziad Abu Ein, died after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers during a West Bank protest, witnesses and medics said. President Mahmoud Abbas called Abu Ein's death a "brutal act".

There are conflicting reports on how Abu Ein, a leading member of Abbas' Fatah movement and cabinet minister, died.

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Several media outlets say he was reportedly struck in the chest with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops, after which he collapsed. Other reports say Israeli forces beat Abu Ein with the butts of their rifles and their helmets. Following the violent altercation, he was later rushed to the hospital in Ramallah by ambulance, but reportedly died en route.


Comment: Poll: 91% of Israelis love to kill

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Robot

New Facebook artificial intelligence will 'mediate' your online activity

Cade Metz
Wired.com
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 13:30 UTC
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© Getty Images
Let's say you're out drinking with your buddies, things get out of hand, you pull out your smartphone, you take a selfie in the middle of all this drunken revelry, then you take 30 or 40 more, and, without hesitation, you start uploading them to Facebook.

It's a common thing to do. But Yann LeCun aims to stop such unbridled behavior - or at least warn people when they're about to do something they might regret. He wants to build a kind of Facebook digital assistant that will, say, recognize when you're uploading an embarrassingly candid photo of your late-night antics. In a virtual way, he explains, this assistant would tap you on the shoulder and say: "Uh, this is being posted publicly. Are you sure you want your boss and your mother to see this?"

The idea is more than just an idle suggestion. LeCun is the New York University researcher and machine-learning guru who now oversees the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research lab, a team of AI researchers inside the internet giant that spans offices in both California and New York, and this rapidly expanding operation is now laying the basic groundwork for his digital assistant.

Fashioning such a tool is largely about building image recognition technology that can distinguish between your drunken self and your sober self, and using a red-hot form of artificial intelligence called "deep learning" - a technology bootstrapped by LeCun and other academics - Facebook has already reached a point where it can identify your face and your friends' faces in the photos you post to its social network, letting you more easily tag them with the right names.

Comment: More of the same indiscriminate invasion of privacy. High tech collection and retention of personal information under the guise of protecting you and controlling what you say. Big Brother is watching you! George Orwell would turn over in his grave.

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Ice Cube

Frack the EU! U.S. 'Frozen War' against Russia

Diana Johnstone
Counter Punch
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 09:39 UTC
empire, US hegemony
For over a year, the United States has played out a scenario designed to (1) reassert U.S. control over Europe by blocking E.U. trade with Russia, (2) bankrupt Russia, and (3) get rid of Vladimir Putin and replace him with an American puppet, like the late drunk, Boris Yeltsin.

The past few days have made crystal clear the perfidy of the economic side of this U.S. war against Russia.

It all began at the important high-level international meeting on Ukraine's future held in Yalta in September 2013, where a major topic was the shale gas revolution which the United States hoped to use to weaken Russia. Former U.S. energy secretary Bill Richardson was there to make the pitch, applauded by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Washington hoped to use its fracking techniques to provide substitute sources for natural gas, driving Russia out of the market. This amounts to selling Europe a pig in a poke.

But this trick could not be accomplished by relying on the sacrosanct "market", since fracking is more costly than Russian gas extraction. A major crisis was necessary in order to distort the market by political pressures. By the February 22 coup d'état, engineered by Victoria Nuland, the United States effectively took control of Ukraine, putting in power its agent "Yats" (Arseniy Yatsenyuk) who favors joining NATO. This direct threat to Russia's naval base in Crimea led to the referendum which peacefully returned the historically Russian peninsula to Russia. But the U.S.-led chorus condemned the orderly return of Crimea as "Russian military aggression". This defensive move is trumpeted by NATO as proof of Putin's intention to invade Russia's European neighbors for no reason at all.

Meanwhile, the United States' economic invasion has gone largely unnoticed.

Ukraine has some of the largest shale gas reserves in Europe. Like other Europeans, Ukrainians had demonstrated against the harmful environmental results of fracking on their lands, but unlike some other countries, Ukraine has no restrictive legislation. Chevron is already getting involved.

As of last May, R. Hunter Biden, son of the U.S. Vice President, is on the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest private gas producer. The young Biden will be in charge of the Holdings' legal unit and contribute to its "international expansion".

Comment: See also: Economic warfare: The U.S. Empire of "Frack" versus Russia

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Cloud Grey

Best of the Web: U.S. Congress's insane and untrue Russophobic rantings

Pat Buchanan
Information Clearinghouse
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
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An apt metaphor, the U.S. government is literally being swept up, and threatens to be drowned by, its own insanity.
Hopefully, Russians realize that our House of Representatives often passes thunderous resolutions to pander to special interests, which have no bearing on the thinking or actions of the U.S. government.

Last week, the House passed such a resolution 411-10.

As ex-Rep. Ron Paul writes, House Resolution 758 is so "full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from the chilliest era of the Cold War."

H. R. 758 is a Russophobic rant full of falsehoods and steeped in superpower hypocrisy.

Among the 43 particulars in the House indictment is this gem:

"The Russian Federation invaded the Republic of Georgia in August 2008."

Bullhockey. On Aug. 7-8, 2008, Georgia invaded South Ossetia, a tiny province that had won its independence in the 1990s. Georgian artillery killed Russian peacekeepers, and the Georgian army poured in.

Only then did the Russian army enter South Ossetia and chase the Georgians back into their own country.

The aggressor of the Russo-Georgia war was not Vladimir Putin but President Mikheil Saakashvili, brought to power in 2004 in one of those color-coded revolutions we engineered in the Bush II decade.

Comment: Incredible. The U.S. is guilty of everything - everything - it accuses Russia of. Shameless hypocrisy at its very worst. It goes way beyond hypocrisy, actually, and reaches the phantasmagoric realms of mass delusion. But how? How has it come to this in the United States? After all, the U.S. doesn't have a charismatic leader hypnotizing its citizens on the level of a Hitler. The U.S. hasn't been subject to war reparation debt that left it resentful of neighboring countries. The U.S. doesn't even have an enemy that it didn't literally create itself. Where did the incentive to be so evil, for lack of a better term, come from? Can the simple fact of it be that those who have a will to political power are more likely than not to be psychopaths and happen to have an inordinate amount of influence over suggestible individuals? Dr. Andrew Lobaczewski, the author of Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, seemed to think so. And so do we.

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