Puppet MastersS


Sheriff

Top German court demands "effective protection" for Snowden to testify in Berlin case against NSA espionage


RT
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 21:33 UTC
Edward Snowden
© Marcos Brindicci / ReutersEdward Snowden
A top German appeals court has ruled that the government must "establish preconditions" for US whistleblower Edward Snowden to come to Berlin, in order for him to testify before a parliamentary committee investigating NSA surveillance in Germany.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruling, made on November 11 but only announced on Monday, came after the Greens and the Left Party requested that the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor be questioned by German MPs. Snowden is wanted by the US on espionage charges.

So far, the federal government has blocked calls by the opposition to bring Snowden to Berlin, saying it cannot guarantee his safety, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.

The chances of bringing Snowden to Berlin as a witness, so that he can detail what he knows about the NSA in Germany, have now increased, the newspaper reported.

The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the government needs, among other formalities, to provide "effective protection" for the witness and "immediately establish the preconditions for interrogation of the witness in Germany."

Comment: So, the German government fears diplomatic problems with the US, and doesn't want to reveal the details of their participation with the NSA in their spying operation of government officials, including three chancellors. Germany needs to grow a spine. It's pathetically obvious who is calling the shots in Germany.

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Bad Guys

Ukraine's Minister of Culture says Donbass residents are genetically unfit


RT
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 21:19 UTC
Evgeny Nishchuk
© ReutersEvgeny Nishchuk
Residents of Ukraine's east lack the genetics necessary to be part of Ukrainian culture, according to the country's Minister of Culture. The comment was quickly picked up by the opposition, who are now urging the minister to resign.

"Speaking about genetics, Zaporozhye and the Donbass [region]... they are imported cities. There is no genetics there," Evgeny Nishchuk said on Monday in an interview with local local TV channel ICTV when asked why Ukrainian culture is spreading so slowly.

The comment was quickly noticed both inside and outside Ukraine.

The Opposition Bloc party forwarded a plea to the Ukrainian parliament to make Nishchuk give up his office, saying that "societies based on ethnical segregation have long been outdated" and "he would be punished for this kind of comments in a civilized society."

"The minister points to ethnically unclean people who are, however, still providing for Ukraine's economics and national budget," the party's statement said.

Comment: Aren't Ministers of Culture supposed to promote cultural expression? Guess not.
Victims of ethnic cleansing in Donbass sue Kiev in European Court

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Gold Bar

Russia gold buying in October was biggest monthly allocation since 1998

Mark O'Byrne
GoldCore
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 21:00 UTC
Putin holding gold bar
© Reuters / Alexsey Druginyn
Russia gold buying accelerated in October with the Russian central bank buying a very large 48 metric tonnes or 1.3 million ounces of gold bullion.

This is the largest addition of gold to the Russian monetary reserves since 1998 and could be seen as a parting 'gift' by Prime Minister Putin to his rival ex-President Obama.

The Russian central bank gold purchase is the biggest monthly gold purchase of this millennium.

Concerns about systemic risk, currency wars and the devaluation of the dollar, euro and other major currencies has led to ongoing diversification into gold bullion purchases by large creditor nation central banks such as Russia and China.

Comment: Vladimir Putin certainly knows that the question about the financial house of cards is not 'is it going to collapse?' but 'when is it going to collapse?' Therefore, he wisely leads Russia to invest in one of the few assets that hold value throughout major crises. The cherry on the pie is that after a currency collapse, a gold-backed currency might emerge. If this happens, the largest gold holders will have decision power.

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Headphones

'Trump can be charming': NYT Trump audio interview exposes media contempt, hint of smugness

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 15:59 UTC
Trump meeting with NYT
© Hiroko Masuike/NYT
The NYT liberal elite sat down with Trump and his team. The audio tape can be found at the NYT web site here.

One NYT reporter comments on the interview, noting...
It did leave me worrying more about corruption than gross incompetence, and I would prefer corruption to gross incompetence.

Which explains why the liberal left and NYT had absolutely no problem with Hillary Clinton's extensive corruption. Via the NYT:
The interview with Donald J. Trump is on. Then, abruptly, it's off. What's that? Oh, it's back on again.

So here we are, in a boardroom at The New York Times, over a lunch of salmon and steak, sitting around a giant wooden table with the president elect, posing questions to a man who has mocked, maligned and threatened us for the past two years.

What actually happened in that room, when Mr. Trump sat down with the editors, reporters and columnists for The Times on Tuesday? How did it feel? What did we learn about him? And why, after all the taunts and outbursts, was Mr. Trump so civil toward us — nice, even?

Comment: Full transcript of the NYT interview available here.

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Arrow Down

Minsk meeting being held to determine status of Donetsk and Lugansk, don't expect much


Katehon
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 20:56 UTC
Ukraine Belarus
A meeting of the contact group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is going to be held today in Minsk.

Steinmeier's formula

The primary issue of this meeting is going to be the consideration of Steinmeier's formula, which determines a special status for Donetsk and Lugansk and, after the publication of the election results in these regions, potential transfer to self-government. Moreover, the officials of these republics say that, without agreement on this matter, it is impossible to solve any other problems.

Meanwhile, Kiev is delaying decision-making on this issue. The talks are going very slowly and unproductively.

Provocations

In addition, Kiev is continuing provocations against Russia. Despite the fact that Russia is not a party to the conflict and does not participate in these talks, Kiev's provocations negatively affect the credibility of Ukraine and do not help the course of the group's work.

Just recently, Kiev sent several groups of spies and saboteurs to Russia and kidnapped two Russian citizens. Now they are being detained with the possibility of ransom, which suggests that all of this was started for the sole purpose of at least slightly improving Ukraine's deplorable financial condition.
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Recycle

'Alt-right' movement is mainstream media myth

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:45 UTC
Alt-right Trump
© TheDuran
Far from Donald Trump being a member of the 'alt-rIght', the movement itself exists only in the minds of the mainstream media and a few pundits, who have taken the insult and turned it into a term of endearment

In his closed-door meeting with the New York Times, Donald Trump was repeatedly asked about any possible connections he may or may not have with the so-called 'Alt-Right'.

First of all, I do not acknowledge there is a movement called the 'Alt-Right'. There is no such party, no such manifesto to which the name is ascribed, no NGO, no lobbying group and it has no physical headquarters. When one types in www.altright.com, one finds a website under construction, weeks after Donald Trump's election.

'Alt-Right' is simply a new way for the old, dying liberal establishment to slander traditional conservatives who do not fit the neo-con/neo-lib mould of the Bushes, Obamas, Sarzozys, Camerons and Merkels of the world.

As I have said countless times, Donald Trump is an old fashioned conservative Republican in the model of Robert Taft. It is true that Trump's industrial and economic policies have a hint of socialism about them. Indeed, Taft himself was accused of having socialist sympathies by follow Republicans skeptical of funding public works programmes for the needy which Taft tended to support.
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Info

Putin on French presidential hopeful Fillon: 'Tough, but decent and real professional'


RT
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 20:31 UTC
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) and his French counterpart Francois Fillon
© Natalia Kolesnikova / Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented on the recent win of France's Francois Fillon in the first round of the center-right party's presidential primary, saying that his "personal relations" with Fillon have shown the politician to be a "decent man."

"We worked together with Francois when he headed the French government, and I chaired the [Russian] government ... we had a lot of meetings, and have developed certain personal relations, very kind ones," Putin told reporters on Wednesday.

The French presidential hopeful, whose convincing win in the Sunday primary took many by surprise, is "very much different" from world politicians, Putin said.
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2 + 2 = 4

Trump picks Michigan Republican Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education


RT
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 19:26 UTC
Trump and Betsy DeVos
© Mike Segar/ReutersDonald Trump and Betsy DeVos.
President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Michigan philanthropist and chair of the education organization American Federation of Children Elisabeth 'Betsy' DeVos to be his Secretary of Education.

Trump called his pick "a brilliant and passionate education advocate. Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families," the president-elect said in a statement.

DeVos is a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party who has never worked in public education. Her children attended private Christian schools. As the chairwoman of American Federation of Children, she is a proponent of the school choice movement, which calls for vouchers that allow families to use federal funds to cover the cost of education at private schools.

She is also in favor of charter schools, but not of state regulation of them. Michigan's charter schools are among the least regulated in the country, thanks to the DeVos family influence, Chalkbeat reported.

"There are a lot of schools that are doing poorly and charter authorizers do not seem to be taking the necessary actions to either improve performance or close those underperforming charters," current US Secretary of Education John King told Chalkbeat about Michigan in October. If confirmed, DeVos would replace King, who was confirmed in March 2016.
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Windsock

NYT interview: What does Trump think about climate change? He doesn't know either

Robinson Meyer
The Atlantic
Tue, 22 Nov 2016 20:15 UTC
Donald Trump
© Lucas Jackson / ReutersPresident-elect Donald Trump ascends the lobby stairs at the headquarters of The New York Times on Tuesday.
The president-elect appeared to consider its existence while speaking to The New York Times on Tuesday.

What does the president-elect think about climate change?

Who even knows anymore?

Speaking at the offices of The New York Timeson Tuesday, Donald J. Trump appeared to vacillate on, and sometimes even disagree with, previous statements about climate change made by Donald J. Trump. He even seemed ready to grant that climate change exists.

"I think there is some connectivity" between humans and the changing climate, he told the Times reporters and editors, according to Maggie Haberman.
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Chess

Europe Brands RT, Sputnik 'Dangerous Propaganda' As Merkel Declares War On 'Fake News'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 19:46 UTC
droopy eyed merkel
© Francois Lenoir/ReutersGermany's Chancellor Angela Merkel
Picking up the torch on the most hotly debated topic by the humiliated US mainstream media, namely the spread of so-called "fake news" (not to be confused with Brian Williams lying for years on prime time TV, and which until recently was branded far simply as "conspiracy theory"), German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday against the power of fake news on social media to roil the establishment and to spur the rise of populists, after launching her campaign for a fourth term.

Speaking in parliament for the first time since her announcement Sunday that she would seek re-election next year, Merkel cautioned that public opinion was being "manipulated" on the internet.

"Something has changed -- as globalisation has marched on, (political) debate is taking place in a completely new media environment. Opinions aren't formed the way they were 25 years ago," she said.

Quoted by France 24, she said that "Today we have fake sites, bots, trolls -- things that regenerate themselves, reinforcing opinions with certain algorithms and we have to learn to deal with them."


Comment: Trolls and bots are actually used BY Western governments to control thought and reinforce opinions that benefit the American Empire. The people and organizations that oppose such sockpuppetry are NOT fake, they are real and they are fighting against the propaganda that people like Merkel and her ilk are espousing and supporting. See:

The chancellor said the challenge for democrats was to "reach and inspire people. However, should that fail, Merkel essentially suggested the time for censorship has come: "we must confront this phenomenon and if necessary, regulate it."

Comment: See also:

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