Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

John Rubino: Preparing for systemic collapse

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In what is quite possibly my favorite podcast so far this year, Chris speaks with John Rubino -- founder of DollarCollapse.com and recent author of The Money Bubble -- about the times in which we live.

The discussion waxes across the defining trends of our time, including market manipulation by central planners, monetary hijinks of the highest order, crony corporatism, clueless and complicit politicians, and the explosion of State control.

John sees us hurdling towards an increasingly certain future of banana-republic wealth disparity, currency failures, and civil strife. That is, unless we rise up to assume ownership of our own destiny. Doing so will not be easy, or pain-free.

USA

Favor for a favor: New Jersey governor awards $260 million tax break to company connected to political rival

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© Mel Evans/APGovernor Chris Christie in Keansburg, New Jersey, on Monday
Mayor's administration gave tax break to firm headed by Democratic rival with whom Christie signed non-aggression pact

New Jersey governor Chris Christie's administration has awarded a public subsidy worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars to a politically connected manufacturing firm.

Holtec International, which makes components for power plants, this week secured a $260m tax break from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) - the third-biggest corporate subsidy that the state has awarded.

George Norcross, a powerful Democratic Party "boss" in southern New Jersey, who reportedly struck an important non-aggression pact with Christie, a Republican, during Christie's re-election campaign, sits on the company's board of directors.

Holtec had been threatening to move 160 workers from New Jersey to South Carolina. As part of the subsidy deal, it must now keep the staff in the state and open a new plant, which is slated to employ 235 more people, in Camden, New Jersey's poorest city. It must commit to staying for 15 years.

Megaphone

No, Israel does not have the right to self-defense against Palestinians

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A young boy examines the remains of his house following an Israeli missile strike on the Gaza Strip
[In view of Israel's assertions that it's current attacks on the Gaza Strip are an exercise in legitimate self-defense, Jadaliyya re-posts an analysis of this claim by Co-Editor Noura Erakat initially published in 2012.]

On the fourth day of Israel's most recent onslaught against Gaza's Palestinian population, President Barack Obama declared, "No country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders." In an echo of Israeli officials, he sought to frame Israel's aerial missile strikes against the 360-square kilometer Strip as the just use of armed force against a foreign country. Israel's ability to frame its assault against territory it occupies as a right of self-defense turns international law on its head.

A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it is "foreign" and poses an exogenous national security threat. In doing precisely that, Israel is asserting rights that may be consistent with colonial domination but simply do not exist under international law.

Admittedly, the enforceability of international law largely depends on voluntary state consent and compliance. Absent the political will to make state behavior comport with the law, violations are the norm rather than the exception. Nevertheless, examining what international law says with regard to an occupant's right to use force is worthwhile in light of Israel's deliberate attempts since 1967 to reinterpret and transform the laws applicable to occupied territory. These efforts have expanded significantly since the eruption of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and if successful, Israel's reinterpretation would cast the law as an instrument that protects colonial authority at the expense of the rights of civilian non-combatants.

MIB

Over a dozen German officials are CIA-recruited spies, report sez

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© Reuters/Thomas Peter Security officers stand outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin July 10, 2014.
US secret services have recruited more than a dozen officials in various German government ministries to work as spies, with some of them working for the CIA for many years, a German tabloid reported on Sunday.

Following previous espionage scandals in Germany, with several suspected US agents exposed in July, a report of more spies infiltrating German ministries was published by Bild am Sonntag, Germany's largest-selling national Sunday paper.

The alleged spies work within the country's defense, development, economic, and interior ministries, reported the paper, referring to unnamed sources in the US intelligence community.

Due to the current diplomacy tensions between Washington and Berlin, caused by espionage concerns, the spies are reportedly not meeting with their US handlers at the moment, according to Bild.

Several inquiries into the activities of American embassies in Prague and Warsaw have been initiated, as US intelligence agencies are reportedly considering basing their recruitment activities there.

Eye 2

UK government ignored warnings about pedophiles: "There's too many of them"

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© Reuters / Andrew Winning
A former official from the UK's social services has said that an alleged pedophile network in Westminster and Whitehall was ignored because "there are too many of them over there."

David Tombs, a former official who ran Hereford and Worcester social services for 20 years, warned the government about the possible pedophile network after the arrest of notorious pedophile Peter Righton in 1992.

Tombs claims he became aware of the pedophile behavior through a police investigation.

"I had no particular names, but that was the impression I was getting," he told a BBC Radio current affairs program. "It was coming across to me at the time that there were names linked into the establishment, if you like,"he said.

But when he approached representatives from the Department of Health, he was told that he was"probably wasting his time" as there were "too many of them over there" in Westminster and Whitehall.

Colosseum

Obama's blundering foreign policy: Neocons still creating their own reality

"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions." President Barack Obama, May 29, 2014 commencement speech at West Point
"War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men." President Dwight Eisenhower, 1947 commencement speech at West Point
"Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people is surrounded by "a world of enemies", "one against all", that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man." Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
"...An empire is a despotism, and an emperor is a despot, bound by no law or limitation but his own will; it is a stretch of tyranny beyond absolute monarchy. For, although the will of an absolute monarch is law, yet his edicts must be registered by parliaments. Even this formality is not necessary in an empire." John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd American President
bush obama
Same foreign policy, same psychopathy
Am I alone in having the uneasy feeling, while listening to Barack Obama's speeches, that we are witnessing an actor playing the role of an American president and carefully reading the script he has been given? As time goes by, indeed, Barack Obama seems to be morphing more and more into a Democratic George W. Bush. Those who write his speeches seem to have the same warmongering mentality as those who wrote George W. Bush's or Dick Cheney's speeches, ten years ago.

That's probably no accident since Neocons occupy key positions in Barack Obama's administration as they did under George W. Bush when they pushed the United States into the war in Iraq, and as they have also tried to push the United States toward a military showdown with Iran and as they are now attempting to provoke Russia into a military conflict. How Neocons can infiltrate both Republican and Democratic administrations and be trouble-makers in both administrations is the daily wonder of American politics!

Comment: Not just a lack of vision and leadership; it's a symptom of psychopathy in power. Not only are psychopaths blind to the future consequences of their actions, they simply don't care if their policies are inconsistent and contradictory.


X

Call to end military aid to Israel

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© rt.comRelatives and friends of Mohammed Abu Khder, 16, carry his body to the mosque, a revenge killing by Israelis.
Petition by: James Harris - Berkeley, CA - Congressperson Barbara Lee, who calls herself a "renegade for peace and justice" is on this issue actually a "conformist for war and occupation", a vocal supporter of "robust" US military aid to Israel, as she has received campaign funding from an organization that requires this position before it supports any candidate. While giving lip-service to peace, she supports funding the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. It is time to end this hypocrisy. US law demands that no military aid be granted to governments that uses its weapons against civilians. It is time that Barbara Lee complies with that law and call for an end to this aid to Israel.

Three particular incidents are of great concern. On May 15th of this year the Israeli military shot and killed two youth, Muhammad Abu Thahr, 16, and Nadim Nuwara, 17, as they took part in a demonstration, using live ammunition. Human Rights Watch has called this a possible war crime.

Comment: Since 1967, Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have lived under Israeli military law and prosecuted in military courts. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically does this. Palestinian children, some as young as 12 years old, are detained, interrogated and imprisoned within the Israeli military detention system. They often suffer some form of physical violence that occurs during the arrest, transfer and interrogation by the Israeli military before they ever appear, unrepresented, in a military court.


Sheriff

Scotland Yard to acquire three second-hand water cannons from Germany

Scotland Yard will acquire three second-hand water cannon from Germany even though Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has yet to approve their use in mainland Britain
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© Dynapipe.co.uk
Police in mainland Britain are to acquire their first water cannon after Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, approved spending more than £200,000 on second-hand vehicles from the German federal police.

But Scotland Yard will be unable to use the controversial machines until Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has completed a lengthy authorisation process allowing the equipment to be used on the mainland for the first time.

The decision to go ahead with the purchase of three German water cannon at a cost of £30,000 each, plus refurbishment costs, fuelled speculation that Mrs May is poised to grant the necessary legal powers required to deploy the machines during riots and other violent incidents.

Papers posted on the Mayor's website this week revealed it was necessary to buy the three cannon now in order to have the vehicles in place in time for the summer, when statistically most riots take place.

Comment: Expecting civil unrest?
  • Rising food prices, climate change and global 'unrest'
  • UK police seeks arsenal of water cannons in preparation for mass social chaos



Star of David

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Israel massacres Palestinians (again) - Interview with Miko Peled

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This week on SOTT Talk Radio we interviewed Israeli peace activist and author Miko Peled, discussing the latest round of atrocities in Gaza, the circumstances surrounding 'Operation Protective Edge', and Peled's insights into the horror and tragedy of the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict - for Palestinians of course, but also, ultimately, for ordinary Israelis too.

Miko Peled was born in Jerusalem into a prominent Israeli Zionist family. His father was a famous General in the IDF, in which Miko also served his time. When Miko's niece was killed in a terrorist attack in 1997, you may have expected the family to blame the Palestinians, but surprisingly, they blamed the state of Israel.

Imbued with his father's deep knowledge of Israeli war practices, Peled authored The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, a book that lays bare the myths surrounding the situation in the Middle East. Peled now travels extensively, giving talks about his experiences to audiences across the world.

Running Time: 01:24:00

Download: MP3


Snakes in Suits

British Defense Ministry outlines new challenges by 2045: Environmental warfare, drone crime, mass surveillance

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© Erik Hildebrandt/U.S. Navy/DoD photo/Handout via Reuters
What challenges could we face by 2045? A UK military think tank predicts there may be significant climate change affects, intensified spying, corporate armies, sophisticated weapons allowing targeting by DNA, and terrorists synthesizing new fatal viruses.

"Widespread and challenging implications for defense and security will almost certainly be generated by this increasingly connected world, with its rapidly advancing technology and evolving societies," the document prepared for the British Defense Ministry says.

Within the next 30 years the world population may surpass 9 billion, which combined with technological progress and a range of other factors, will significantly change the world and result in new threats, according to the fifth edition of Global Strategic Trends by the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC).

Among possible future dangers, the study names "failed and failing cities" posing major security threats for nations, and an increase of flooding and droughts in some regions causing significant damage and loss of life.