Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

America Is Fascist

bush salute
Five years ago, antiwar liberals calling the Bush administration fascist were labeled as kooks, marginalized by their own party leadership, accused by conservatives of treasonous thoughts worthy of federal punishment, even deportation. A few years pass, the policies hardly change, and the political dynamic turns upside down: T

Tea Party conservatives accusing the Obama regime of fascist impulses are compared to terrorists, accused of being racists, told that their hyperbole is a real threat to the country's security.

The establishment derides both groups for their fringe outlook on America, convinced that the United States is anything but a fascist country. After all, isn't America the nation that defeated fascism in the 1940s? Sensible conservatives and liberals agree with that.

The unappreciated reality is that when the patriot right and radical left refer to the U.S. system as fascistic, they have part of the truth but not the whole analysis. This is due to the blinders both sides wear as it concerns state power. Moreover, the criticisms sometimes fail to take account of America's very unique strain of fascism. This political program is distinct in every nation, always taking a different form but with some general themes in common. U.S. fascism is a most insidious mixture of the key ingredients while maintaining the necessary nuance to snooker the masses, the media, and the respectable folks across the spectrum.

Sherlock

Secret court approves three more months of NSA phone snooping

James Clapper
© AP Photo/ Evan Vucci In this Oct. 29,2013 file photo, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Obama administration will continue the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and cyber command operations under the direction of a single military commander, the first move in advance of what published reports described Friday as limited changes proposed by a task force that deliberated for months in secrecy.
The secret court that oversees the nation's intelligence activities renewed its approval of the National Security Agency's telephone-records program on Friday, granting the government a new three-month window to collect data on all Americans' phone calls.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's office announced the court's ruling in a statement, though officials didn't make the ruling itself public, saying it was going through declassification procedures.

The decision marks the 36th time the program has been approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.


Cult

Ressurected? Church attendance increase in Ireland and elsewhere attributed to 'Pope Francis effect'

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All forgiven now?
Francis' popularity reviving Catholic Church in both Ireland and the U.S.

The popularity of Pope Francis continues to grow within the Catholic Church in Ireland and in America.

A survey conducted by The Irish Catholic this week found that the overwhelming majority of dioceses reported huge increases in the numbers Mass-goers over Christmas as the faithful returned.

Similarly, CNN recently reported that the new Pope is hugely popular in the United States.

This increase in congregations in Ireland has been credited to the people-friendly new pope, who has connected and re-engaged Catholic communities worldwide.

The trend in Ireland this Christmas was a more united family front, with large numbers attending church services across the country.

Comment: Apparently, firing Benedict and hiring Francis was a smart move for the Vatican.

All those pedophile priest scandals?

Just a distant memory now...

Catholic church in new sex abuse row

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'

Irish Catholic Church 'Covered Up' Sickening Catalogue of Child Abuse by Paedophile Priests

Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry

Unholy Lies: Vatican says number of sex abuse cases in church is small

Catholic Church sex abuse scandals around the world

Arrogant, corrupt, secretive - the Catholic church failed to tackle evil

Another Irish Bishop admits swearing oath of secrecy to cover up sexual abuse

Letters place Pope at centre of child abuse scandal

Catholic Church crumbling: Pope hit by abuse claims in Italian school

Pope dismisses 'petty gossip' of sexual abuse allegations

French priest avoids sex charges over claims he abused choirboy as Vatican struggles to contain paedophile crisis

Vatican Confirms Report of Sexual Abuse and Rape of Nuns by Priests in 23 Countries

Vienna Boys' Choir caught up in sex abuse scandals

Irish bishop resigns over Dublin sex-abuse scandal

Pope's Brother: I Ignored Physical Abuse Reports

Pedophilia in the Catholic Church: Coverup Operation at the Vatican?

1963 letter indicates Vatican knew of endemic abuse in US going back to the 1950s

Propaganda Spin: Vatican says pope target of 'hate' campaign

Institutional Immorality: Latest Pedophelia Scandal Rocks the Vatican

Pedophiles and Popes: Doing the Vatican Shuffle

First Europe, then the US - now abuse claims sweep Latin America

Catholic church hotline in meltdown over paedophile priests

Church in Ireland 'has lost all its credibility', says Archbishop of Canterbury

Errant priests' secret children to sue church

Sex abuse victims hold demo at Vatican

Vatican Christmas Shocker! Pope says child rape isn't that bad, was normal back in his day

Let Him Prey: High-Ranking Jesuits Helped Keep Pedophile Priest Hidden

Special Report - Who knew what in U.S. priest child porn case?

Archbishop Covers for Archdiocese and Shredded List Reporting 35 Active Pedophile Priests

Victorian Catholic Church Reveals 620 Abuse Cases


Snakes in Suits

47 U.S. senators side with Israel lobby against Iran - bought, sold and controlled!

menendez
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has published the list of 47 US senators who have agreed to co-sponsor a bill to impose additional sanctions against Iran.

The sanctions bill, introduced by Sens. Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez on Dec. 19, initially had the backing of 24 other senators equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.

The White House was quick to condemn the measure at the time, saying President Barack Obama would veto the bill "if it were to pass" Congress.

Senator Cory Booker, newly elected Democrat from New Jersey, quickly added his name to the list and since then, 20 other senators - all Republicans - have added their names, according Lobelog.com.

Newspaper

Romanian ambassador mocks UK MPs and media waiting for immigrants

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© Jennifer Cockerell/PAHome affairs committee chair Keith Vaz was among the politicians who greeted arrivals at Luton airport on New Year's Day.
Romania's ambassador to Britain has mocked MPs and rightwing newspapers that gathered at airports on New Year's Day to interrogate an expected influx of his countrymen, comparing them to tragicomic characters from Samuel Beckett's masterpiece Waiting for Godot.

Ion Jinga said that politicians and journalists at Luton airport were desperately waiting for the arrival of millions of unemployed Romanians only to be greeted by two new entrants, both of whom already had jobs.

His intervention follows an intense debate in Britain over the expected migration of Romanians and Bulgarians after transitional controls were lifted on 1 January. Anti-immigration politicians, including Ukip's Nigel Farage and several Tories, have claimed that Britain cannot absorb a large number of new migrants from eastern Europe.

MigrationWatch, the pressure group, released a briefing paper on New Year's Eve claiming that 50,000 people from both countries would enter Britain every year for the next five years.

Writing for The Huffington Post, Jinga said: "It seems that a new version of Waiting for Godot is being reinvented by part of the British media and by some politicians who are desperately waiting for the arrival of millions of Romanians after 1 January 2014.

Eiffel Tower

New laws in store for France in 2014

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© The Connexion
January 1 brings a wide range of changes to areas of day-to-day French life, from tax and motoring to the cost of posting a letter.

The minimum wage, SMIC, goes up 1.1% to €1,113 net per month. Income support, RSA, is up 1.3%.

The top rate of VAT passes from 19.6% to 20% and the old 7% rate becomes 10%. VAT on cinema tickets drops from 7% to 5.5% with under-14s offered a new flat €4 rate to see a film.

An estimated 200,000 low-income households will cease to be taxed on their income as the minimum threshold increases.

However, the thresholds applied when calculating the quotient familial are being recalculated, increasing by €1,500 for each demi-part instead of €2,000. This means an estimated 1.3 million households will see their income tax bill rise by about €800.

Hourglass

Silenced: Saudi al-Qaeda leader dies in Lebanon hospital

Majed al-Majed
© UnknownMajed al-Majed, the Saudi leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group arrested in connection with recent bombings in Lebanon, has died in hospital, Lebanese sources say.

Majed al-Majed, the Saudi leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group arrested in connection with recent bombings in Lebanon, has died in hospital, Lebanese sources say.


"Majed al-Majed, who suffered from kidney disease and was in poor health, has died," the source said on condition of anonymity on Saturday.

A Lebanese army general also confirmed the death of the senior al-Qaeda commander.

Majed, who was arrested on Monday, was the ringleader of Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda offshoot that operates throughout the Middle East.

The group is responsible for the twin bomb attacks against the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital on November 19, 2013.

The back-to-back blasts killed at least 25 people, including Iran's Cultural Attaché to Beirut Hojjatoleslam Ebrahim Ansari, and left more than 160 injured.


Comment: A dead terrorist can not betray his handlers, thus this Saudi terrorist was quickly silenced before he could spill the beans and expose his Saudi handlers.


Target

Best of the Web: The Move to Muzzle Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala

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According to the French government, comedian Dieudonné has mobilized millions of citizens to make an anti-semitic gesture, a 'reverse Nazi salute'... but is that really what 'La Quenelle' means?
French mainstream media and politicians are starting off the New Year with a shared resolution for 2014: permanently muzzle a Franco-African comedian who is getting to be too popular among young people.

In between Christmas and New Year's Eve, no less than the President of the Republic, François Hollande, while visiting Saudi Arabia on (very big) business, said his government must find a way to ban performances by the comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, as called for by French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls.

The leader of the conservative opposition party, UMP, Jean-François Copé, immediately chimed in with his "total support" for silencing the unmanageable entertainer.

In the unanimous media chorus, the weekly Nouvel Observateur editorialized that Dieudonné is "already dead", washed up, finished. Editors publicly disputed whether it was a better tactic to try to jail him for "incitement to racial hatred", close his shows on grounds of a potential "threat to public order", or put pressure on municipalities by threatening cultural subsidies with cuts if they allow him to perform.

Airplane Paper

US military report predicts drone swarms, highly autonomous UAVs

Drone victim
© AFP / A MajeedA Pakistani victim of US drone attack rests on a bed after she arrived with her brothers and sisters from the North Waziristan area of Ghundai Village for treatment in Peshawar on November 3, 2012, after US missile hit near their house on October 24.
The US military hopes that drones will be capable of changing their own missions, altering course without a human command, and buzzing through the skies in coordinated groups within the next 25 years, according to a new Defense Department report.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) explained its hopes for the upcoming decades in its Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, released to the public last week. At nearly 150 pages, the report outlines a variety of goals for air, land, and sea vehicles - yet the unmanned aerial systems (as drones are called) are featured prominently throughout.

For all the science fiction fears drones have roused amongst the public, the technology that the military relies so heavily on is still in its relative infancy. The unmanned vehicles rely on GPS systems to determine their course and in some cases bombing routes, which explains in part why thousands of civilians across the Middle East have been killed without cause.


Comment: To understand what the Pentagon is referring to, see this article and the videos in that article. That research is also very much alive in the US. Unconventional research in USSR and Russia


Comment: The police force in the US has been heavily militarized so as to be able to quell this resistance that is spoken of.
Texas: Surplus armed forces equipment further militarizes local police


Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Caesar's Rome and today

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© UnknownSilver Denarius of Caesar (44BC)
In ancient Rome, money was gold, silver, and various other metals in ingot or struck form. The silver Denarius coin was one of the common currencies of the people for commercial trade. The gold Aureus coin was generally valued at 25 denarii (unequal weights), and was used for large payments and a stable store of value (savings).

By Caesar's time (b.100BC) it was well-understood that a growing empire required a growing economy, and thus, a growing money supply. Much of this money entered the empire in the form of booty through its conquests all around the Mediterranean. By mid-century, Caesar added Gaul (Western Europe) to the conquests, and consequently, more money to the Republic's treasury and economy.

The Populares and the Optimates

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© UnknownGold Aureus of Caesar
But there was also an artificial way to increase the money supply in the form of paper debt. The moneyed oligarchs (Optimates) of the Roman Republic often engaged in money lending to increase their wealth via interest (usury). The paper debts they created could also be traded for metal money and could act as a form of fiat currency. This debt-money creation works fine so long as economic growth provides the means to pay the interest on the debt. When the debt burden in Rome became excessive, the economy would slow, and the risk of mass default would climb. This is why debt cancellation/reduction was often a "hot" political topic among candidates for high office where the struggle would often manifest between leaders in the Populares (of the people) camp versus the Optimates camp in the Roman Senate. Caesar was solidly in the Populares camp from start to finish.

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© UnknownMurder of Caesar on the Senate floor
The Optimates in the Senate and the Roman oligarchs knew much about boom/bust economic cycles and how debt could be used to vastly increase their wealth at the expense of the people. A debt default would allow the capture of much property at low cost - and after the economy improved - net wealth increased dramatically and far beyond what would have been gained in interest on the debt. This is why the Optimates in the Senate very much hated any talk of legislation directed toward debt cancellation/reduction. Debt cancellation/reduction cut their legs out from under them in direct favor of the Populares. And this struggle between the Populares and the Optimates is what led to the murder of Caesar on the Senate floor [and apparently Brutus was particularly vile among the big moneylenders].

Does any of this sound familiar with respect to the situation we find our collective selves (the Populares) in today? Paper debt instruments are completely out of control and real money (gold and silver) have been relegated to the status of "barbaric relic". We are in the middle of a vast transfer of wealth from the Populares to the Optimates/oligarchs of today. Has there been any serious legislative talk of debt reduction/cancellation? No. Instead we have experienced the legislative groundwork for "bail-in" of the people's assets to service the debt. The Optimates of today want everything.