Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

Russian investigator: Those who commit crimes in southeastern Ukraine will not avoid retribution

 Head of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin
© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhavakhadze Head of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin
Head of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said none of those who are committing crimes in southeastern Ukraine will be able to avoid retribution.

"We'll get them, as the allies said in their statement in 1943 (at the Tehran conference - eds ITAR-TASS) even at the bottom of the ocean, and they will bear - sooner or later - moral, political and criminal responsibility for the actions they are taking against the peoples of Ukraine today," Bastrykin said at a meeting of the Military Leaders and Naval Commanders forum on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Marshall Fyodor Tolbukhin's birthdate.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee has organised a specialised department on investigation of crimes against civilians in Ukraine and opened a criminal case on illegal methods of war used by as yet unidentified military of Ukraine's Armed Forces and members of the Ukrainian National Guard and Right Sector. The reasons to open the criminal case were the shelling of cities Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Donetsk, Mariupol and others.

Rocket

The Saker: Why the US-Russian nuclear balance is as solid as ever and why nuclear war is not on the cards

Mutual destruction
© Unknown
Ok. Today I am going to address the nuclear threat canard one last time. After that, I will just ignore this topic which, frankly, is a waste of time. Here are two comments which were recently posted on the blog:
"Security experts in the U.S. do not agree that Russia has a credible nuclear deterrent. The story is that the Russian nuclear force is in disrepair and that the U.S. can easily destroy most of what is left. They may be wrong--but that's what seems to be the thinking by at least some officials. "

"How exactly do YOU know that the US military knows that a successful nuclear first strike against Russia is impossible? So far, Saker, you have basically merely claimed this without providing any serious evidence whatsoever."
Both of these comments are typical of the kind of nonsense which have flooded in blogosphere in the recent times. The first one quotes "experts" who speak about the state of disrepair of the Russian nuclear forces. The second one hints at some secret capability which would make a first-strike possible. I will address both.

Black Magic

Paul Craig Roberts: 'US doesn't care about its allies if there is a chance to hurt Russia'

South Stream pipeline
© RIA Novosti / Ramil Sitdikov
The US is trying to halt the South Stream project aimed at supplying Europe with gas as it hopes this would have an adverse economic effect on Russia, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts told RT.

RT:Bulgaria and Serbia confirmed the South Stream project will continue, despite significant pressure from the EU. Why have they taken that decision do you think?

Paul Craig Roberts: I think what is going on here; it's the US, not the EU. Bulgarians themselves said that they are being pressured by Washington to stop the work on the pipeline. This is the pipeline that runs under the Black Sea from Russia into Bulgaria; it borders Ukraine and makes it possible for Russia to continue to supply energy to Eastern and Western Europe. The problem with the existing pipeline through Ukraine is that Ukraine is broke, it is not paying its bills, and Russia faces the prospect of trying to supply Europe through the pipeline through Ukraine which would result in theft of gas by Ukraine that can't pay its gas bill. This is giving an alternative way of supplying Europe, so Europe itself has no interest in blocking the construction of this pipeline. This is an America imposed decision.

RT: If all this is Washington's initiative, then why it is trying to stop the project aimed at supplying with energy its own ally?

PR: Washington doesn't care what happens to Eastern or Western Europe, it is trying to hurt Russia, and Washington thinks that if it can stop Russia's ability to sell gas to Europe, this will have an adverse economic effect on Russia. Of course it will also have an adverse economic effect on Europe, in fact, probably worse, because German industry is dependent on Russian energy supplies, and all Europe is dependent on Russia's energy supplies not to freeze to death in the winter time. What you see here is the Washington empire, the exceptional and indispensible people who are superior to all other life forms, completely willing to sacrifice their allies in order to hurt Russia. That's all it about. That is not about anything else.

Cult

Criminal! US pressures El Salvador to buy Monsanto's GMO seeds

Monsanto HQ
© AFP Photo / Juliette MicheleThe entrance sign is seen at the headquarters of Monsanto, at Creve Coeur (St. Louis), Missouri
As one of the preconditions to authorizing close to $300 million in aid, the United States is pressuring El Salvador to purchase genetically modified seeds from Monsanto instead of non-GM seeds from local farmers.

According to Sustainable Pulse, a website covering developments related to genetically modified organisms and sustainable agriculture, the US will reportedly withhold $277 million in aid through the Millennium Challenge Compact if El Salvador refuses to purchase GM seeds from the biotech company Monsanto.

The website states that the stalled aid package was originally put on hold in late 2013, when it was revealed that Millennium Challenge Corporation would not deliver funds to the country unless "specific" economic and environmental reforms were made. Apparently, one of those is related to the purchase of GMO seeds.

Speaking with Verdad Digital, however, the president of the El Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technologies (CESTA) criticized the US negotiating position and said the country should back away from its demand.

"I would like to tell the U.S. Ambassador to stop pressuring the Government (of El Salvador) to buy 'improved' GM seeds," CESTA president Ricardo Navarro said, adding that the move would hurt the local economy and only benefit US companies.

Bulb

Putin's diplomatic countermeasures: Austria invites Russian president for visit

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© The Presidential Press and Information OfficePutin with Austrian President Heinz Fischer showing real diplomacy still lives.
East of Vienna, that's where the military action and bloody confrontation in Ukraine is being played out on the ground. But the furtive diplomatic goings on in Vienna are no less intensive nor internationally important, from the standpoint of a small and neutral, (although EU member state). While the US is discreetly conducting "low - key" talks here with another "bad boy" or similarly sanctioned state namely Iran (which after decades of being demonized by the west, is finally coming out of its international isolation), the Austrian government, is attempting to play an instrumental intermediary role in breaching Russia's western imposed isolation. It's a delicate matter indeed. Especially as the threat of further western sanctions against Moscow are looming ominously over Russia.

G-7, US and EU: All Stick and no Carrot

For example, in an ultimatum which harkens back to the prewar period of June 1914, the "so-called" G-7" (now minus Russia) has warned Moscow, unless it recognizes the results of the recent Ukrainian elections, withdraw its troops from the Russian Ukrainian border, and stops supporting separatist elements fighting in Eastern Ukraine that new sanctions will be imposed. Obama has effectively given Putin "between two to four weeks" to comply with these demands. Tough talk for sure!

Bad Guys

Puppet Louisiana Gov. signs bill killing lawsuits against oil and gas companies

OIl sheen sits on the surface
© AFP Photo / Getty Images / Sean GardnerOIl sheen sits on the surface of Barataria Bay June 19, 2010 west of Port Sulpher, Louisiana.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has flouted the advice of his own attorney general and scores of legal scholars by signing a bill which blocks a levee board's lawsuit against oil and gas companies, who are accused of destroying the state's coast.

"This bill will help stop frivolous lawsuits and create a more fair and predictable legal environment, and I am proud to sign it into law," Jindal said in a written statement Friday.

Bobby Jindal
© AFP Photo / Justin SullivanLouisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
The law, SB 469, has thwarted a levee district in New Orleans' East Bank - the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E) - from pushing forward with a lawsuit introduced last July against 97 oil and gas companies for damage done to the state's wetlands. According to the suit, the firms exposed New Orleans to catastrophic damage from hurricanes Rita and Katrina by dredging and cutting thousands of miles of pipes and canals through barrier islands and wetlands which, left intact, would have protected the coastal city, The Times-Picayune Newspaper reports

"We are looking to the industry to fix the part of the problem that they created," SLFPA-E vice president John Barry told the tri-weekly last year. "We're not asking them to fix everything. We only want them to address the part of the problem that they created."

Local republicans and energy heavyweights, however, viewed the lawsuit as frivolous and "illegal."

"This bill keeps a rogue agency from misrepresenting this State and trying to raise money through illegal actions," said Senators Robert Adley and Bret Allain, who sponsored the legislation Jindal approved this week.

Video

Flashback Best of the Web: Who runs Hollywood? C'mon

Image
I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.

How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish). If either of the Weinstein brothers had signed, this group would have not only the power to shut down all film production but to form a minyan with enough Fiji water on hand to fill a mikvah.

The person they were yelling at in that ad was SAG President Alan Rosenberg (take a guess). The scathing rebuttal to the ad was written by entertainment super-agent Ari Emanuel (Jew with Israeli parents) on the Huffington Post, which is owned by Arianna Huffington (not Jewish and has never worked in Hollywood.)

Comment: See also:

Billionaire Hollywood producer behind Stone's 'JFK' movie, Aaron Milchan, was secret operative for Israel's illegal nukes program and Mossad arms dealer


Megaphone

Best of the Web: Russia turns its back on the petrodollar

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The Russians are actually making a move against the petrodollar. It appears that they are quite serious about their de-dollarization strategy. The largest natural gas producer on the planet, Gazprom, has signed agreements with some of their biggest customers to switch payments for natural gas from U.S. dollars to euros. And Gazprom would have never done this without the full approval of the Russian government, because the Russian government holds a majority stake in Gazprom. There hasn't been a word about this from the big mainstream news networks in the United States, but this is huge. When you are talking about Gazprom, you are talking about a company that is absolutely massive. It is one of the largest companies in the entire world and it makes up 8 percent of Russian GDP all by itself. It holds 18 percent of the natural gas reserves of the entire planet, and it is also a very large oil producer. So for Gazprom to make a move like this is extremely significant.

When Barack Obama decided to slap some meaningless economic sanctions on Russia a while back, he probably figured that the world would forget about them after a few news cycles.

But the Russians do not forget, and they certainly do not forgive.

Comment: See also:


War Whore

Global economic austerity: Essential to the US war agenda

In this stage of advanced globalization, banks earnings and corporate profits continue to soar even as real wages continue to plummet. This does not just lead to mass poverty and unrest, but it sows the seeds for geopolitical conflict and military confrontation.



Comment: Prof. Chossudovsky ends his report with a call to face the problem head on and 'dismantle the mainstream media' as the solution to altering the elites' global agenda. The likelihood of that succeeding is small. Much better to ignore the drivel put out by the MSM. Reading SOTT is a great step forward in doing just that. Help your fellow human beings by sharing SOTT as a source of objective analysis of MSM lies and spin. Dismantling the MSM may not be so feasible, but starving it of an audience is!


Dollar

Hands off! Australian pensioners lose savings in government cash grab

SECgrab
More than half of the $700 million seized from 'inactive' bank accounts since 1959 was taken in the past year.
The federal government has bagged an unprecedented $360 million from household bank accounts since a controversial change to unclaimed money laws, figures from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show.

Pensioners and others saving for a rainy day have reported trying to access their savings only to discover their money had been seized by the government because it had been dormant for three years or more.

The government has collected more money from inactive bank accounts under the three-year rule than the total amount captured in the past five decades combined.


The government takes away Kim Taylor's money from her bank account because she hadn't touched it in more than three years

Nearly $360 million from 80,000 accounts was funnelled into government coffers in the year to May after Labor lowered the threshold, eclipsing the $330 million netted between 1959 and 2012, during which time idle accounts could only be touched after seven years.

The Treasury now looks poised to raise the threshold in the face of fierce lobbying from the banking industry, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann releasing a discussion paper on changing the definition of inactivity from three years to five. Such a change would halve the number of inactive accounts taken by the government each year, he said.

Comment: Big Government just seizes your bank accounts after only three years of inactivity - and then YOU have to take the time, effort and money to get it back!

And that's assuming you'll get it back...

This is definitely another sign that CorpGov intends to just swipe everyone's money while the they can (and while money still has perceived value).