Puppet MastersS


Dollar

A new downturn in the global economy

Nick Beams
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 17:01 UTC


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There are increasing signs that the global economy is about to enter a new period of financial turbulence, coupled with deepening recession in a growing number of countries.

In the immediate aftermath of the global economic breakdown that began in 2008, set off by the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, governments around the world took on increased debt as they made available trillions of dollars to prevent a complete collapse of the financial system. Meetings of the Group of 20 were dominated by pledges there would be no return to the conditions of the 1930s and assurances that the lessons of history had been learned.

The writings of John Maynard Keynes, the British economist of the 1930s who advocated increased government spending to counter depressions, were suddenly back in vogue. But a sharp turn came in June 2010, when a meeting of the G20 initiated a turn to austerity, emphasising the necessity to impose "fiscal consolidation." The essence of this program was to claw back the money given to the banks through massive cutbacks to government spending, especially on social services.
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Stormtrooper

Police State: 'They brought in an army to take out a 16-year-old boy': Anguish of parents whose suicidal son was shot by SWAT sniper at his home

James Nye
The Daily Mail
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:35 UTC
Andrew Messina
© CBS AtlantaLisa Messina (left) has spoken of her devastation at the death of her boy Andrew (right) who was shot dead by police after pulling a gun on himself at his Atlanta home

A sensitive and peace-loving 16-year-old boy from an affluent Georgia suburb was fatally gunned down by a police sniper in his own house after he threatened to kill himself following a bad day at school.

Young Andrew Messina cracked after receiving a bad grade and upon returning home he grabbed his parents .357 Magnum and told his mother he wanted to end his life.

Panicked, she called the police to come and talk him down, but instead, an army of deputies, an armoured tank and a sniper arrived at their Towne Lake home who eventually shot the boy dead after he smashed a door window with the handgun.
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Question

Key witness in Polish presidential plane crash found hanged


RT
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:08 UTC
Lech Kaczynski Tu-154 aircraft wreckage
© RIA Novosti / Oleg MineevPolish President Lech Kaczynski's Tu-154 aircraft debris
A Polish parliamentary investigation into President's Lech Kaczynski plane crash in Smolensk in 2010 is considering witness protection: A flight engineer set to deliver critical testimony was found hanged in his house in Warsaw.

­The body of Remigiusz Muś, a 42-year-old aviation engineer, was found by his wife in the cellar of their house in the suburbs of the Polish capital at around 11:30pm local time on Saturday. She called an ambulance and attempted to resuscitate her husband, but medics pronounced him dead as soon as they arrived. An autopsy is set for Monday, October 29.

As news of Muś' death hit headlines, the head of the Polish parliamentary commission looking into the crash, Antoni Macierewicz, said that Muś was one of two key witnesses in the case. With Muś dead, key witness Artur Wosztyl should be put in protective custody, Macierewicz said.

Dariusz Slepokura, a spokesperson for the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, said on Monday that Muś likely committed suicide.
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Stormtrooper

Turkish police teargas thousands-strong pro-secular rally in Ankara


RT
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:58 UTC
Tear gas and water cannons met thousands of protesters in Ankara who had staged a pro-secular rally on Republic Day. The clashes mark a growing gap between the Islam-leaning government and the country's secular layers.


"Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" chanted protesters waving Turkish flags and banners.

The capital's governor last week banned a planned pro-secular rally citing fears that "some groups may seek to incite anarchy in the country." But Monday, over 30 civil society groups, led by the Youth Union of Turkey, still took to the streets.
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Rocket

Did Israel just bomb Sudan? Satellite pictures suggest Sudanese weapons factory hit by air strike


The Guardian
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 15:20 UTC
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© APThe Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, Sudan, seen in a satellite image made on 12 October, prior to the Israeli attack.
US monitoring group says images are consistent with attack from air as Khartoum accuses Israel over Yarmouk bombing

Satellite images of the aftermath of an explosion at a Sudanese weapons factory this past week suggest the site was hit in an air strike, a US monitoring group said Saturday.

The Sudanese government has accused Israel of bombing its Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, killing two people and leaving the factory in ruins.

The images released by the Satellite Sentinel Project to the Associated Press on Saturday showed six 52-foot wide craters near the epicenter of Wednesday's explosion at the compound.

Military experts consulted by the project found the craters to be "consistent with large impact craters created by air-delivered munitions", Satellite Sentinel Project spokesman Jonathan Hutson said.
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Cult

British MP: Powerful pedophile network linked to Westminster Parliament and 10 Downing Street

Vikram Dodd
The Guardian
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:23 UTC
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Two members of the British 'establishment' - psychopath meets pedophile! Jimmy Savile receiving more money from former British PM Margaret Thatcher, no doubt to 'help all the little children around the UK'.
Bernard Hogan-Howe say claims made by MP Tom Watson of paedophile network 'linked to No 10' are being taken seriously

Scotland Yard is to examine allegations that a child sex abuse ring was connected to a Downing Street aide.

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said on Monday that the claims would be treated seriously.

Last week the Labour MP Tom Watson used parliamentary privilege to make the allegations. It is understood they relate to a past prime ministerial aide, and not to anyone who has recently served in Downing Street.

Hogan-Howe said a senior officer would look at the claims and that police were in contact with Watson to see if he could provide detectives with more details.
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MIB

Is James Bond in fact a psycho?

Stephen Dalton
The National, UAE
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:38 UTC
Ian Fleming
© Express Newspapers / Getty ImagesThe British author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, might have been a psychopath.
You may have noticed that Daniel Craig is back, rebooting the battered Bond brand after the dismal Quantum of Solace. And not only is Skyfall one of the best 007 adventures for decades, it is also the most personal and psychologically revealing to date. Maybe too revealing.

Stare hard into the dead-eyed, chillingly expressionless face of Craig's suave British assassin and what do you see? A man of culture and high intelligence, yes, but also a cold-blooded killer. A weapon of mass seduction to women everywhere, but a merciless attack dog to his countless unnamed victims. Armed with irresistible charm and charisma, yet zero empathy for his fellow humans, Bond has no equal in movie folklore.

Well, perhaps one equal. The name's Lecter. Hannibal Lecter.

James Bond has been the world's favourite screen psychopath for 50 years now. He is cinema's original serial killer, the pathological narcissist who came in from the cold. On one level, his suave mix of vigilante justice and sophisticated savagery appeals to us as pure fantasy: a comforting throwback to the old certainties of the British Empire, the Cold War and prehistoric notions of masculinity. More disturbingly, deep down, Bond's psychotically unhinged nature may lie at the root of his enduring popularity.

Comment: The thing with psychopaths is that they do not have "unresolved childhood issues". It is certainly interesting that the latest Bond movie uses this to explain the character's psychopathic behaviour. Real psychopaths are born that way. No amount of love and empathy from their parents and environment can change them 'for the better.'

Can Psychopathy in Children be Cured?

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Handcuffs

Serfdom in the UK: Almost five million British workers paid less than the living wage

Matthew Weaver
The Guardian
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:27 UTC
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TUC describes new research that the standard of living in one of every five families is being hit as 'shocking'

One in five British workers and their families are likely to have inadequate standards of living because they are being paid less than the living wage, according to a study.

The research by the consultants KPMG found that 4.82 million workers have to survive on less than a living wage, currently £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 in the rest of the country. The TUC described the findings as "shocking".

The government has resisted campaigns to increase the current minimum wage of £6.19 to living wage levels, fearing that it would hit employment figures. It argues that it is a poorly targeted poverty measure.

But an increasing number of employers, notably the London mayor Boris Johnson, have introduced a living wage rate for their staff. According to KPMG's study, the voluntary measure has helped 10,000 employees, and redistributed £96m to the lowest paid.
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Heart - Black

Ted Turner apologizes after saying soldier suicides are 'good'


RT
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
Ted Turner
© Agence France-Presse/Nicholas Kamm
After saying on national TV that its "good" US troops have been committing suicide in record numbers, media mogul and billionaire Ted Turner has penned an apology to clarify his words.

Speaking to CNN's Piers Morgan this week, Turner said, "I think it's good" that American soldiers are turning their guns on themselves, insisting that it shows humans aren't meant to be put on the battlefield to bring death to others.

"It's so clear that we're programmed and we're born to love and help each other, not to kill each other, to destroy each other.That's an aberration. That's left over from hundreds of years ago. It's time for to us start acting enlightened," Turner told the talk show host after the topic of suicide was brought up during the broadcast.

Earlier in the interview, Turner said, "It's time to put war and conflict behind us and move on, and start acting like civilized, educated human beings." According to Morgan, his guest brought up suicide during a commercial break, prompting the host to ask on camera what he thought about more soldiers dying from suicide than in combat.

"That's shocking, isn't it?" asked Morgan.

"Well, what - no, I think it's - I think it's good," Turner told him before offering his explanation about the human condition.

After a backlash of negative press, Turner issued a statement to say he's sorry for anyone offended by his comment.
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Handcuffs

Suspected Basque terrorist leaders arrested in France

Bill Bond
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
The woman alleged to be the leader of the ETA Basque terrorist movement's killer squads was arrested along with her number two in France yesterday.
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© Laurent Cipriani/The Associated Press Izaskun Lesaka, center, surrounded by French Police officers, screams as she leaves the hotel where she was arrested
The couple were detained at a hotel in Mâcon, north of Lyon, in a joint operation by French counter-terrorist intelligence officers and Spain's paramilitary civil guard. Both Izaskun Lesaka and her boyfriend Joseba Iturbe were armed but put up no resistance when a police swat squad burst into their room.

The pair are considered to be at the top of the hierarchy of ETA, which has killed more than 800 people over the past four decades in its fight for independence for the northern Spanish region.

Five years ago, Lesaka escaped before a house in the Loire valley was raided. The premises were described by police as being "a chemical experimental laboratory for the intensive production of pentrita", the principle ingredient of explosives used in 11 bombings by ETA in 2007 and 2008.

Last January a Paris court sentenced her in her absence to seven years in prison for her part in the bomb factory. She was named as the head of ETA's "military" section by Spanish intelligence in 2010.
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