Puppet Masters

Russian 'weaponized default' could be the ultimate answer to Western aggression

Pepe Escobar
RT
Sat, 19 Sep 2015 14:03 UTC

Let's start with some classic Russian politics. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is drawing up Russia's economic strategy for 2016, including the government budget. Siluanov - essentially a liberal, in favor of foreign investment - will present his proposals to the Kremlin by the end of this month.

So far, nothing spectacular. But then, a few days ago, Kommersant leaked that Russia's Security Council asked presidential aide Sergei Glazyev to come up with a separate economic strategy, to be presented to the council this week. This is not exactly a novelty, as the Russian Security Council in the past has asked small strategy groups for their economic assessment.

The Security Council is led by Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of the Federal Security Service. He and Siluanov are not exactly on the same wavelength. And here's where the plot thickens. Glazyev, a brilliant economist, is a Russian nationalist - sanctioned personally by the US.

Gaddafi prophesied Europe's refugee crisis: 'The Mediterranean will become a sea of chaos'

Sputnik
Sat, 19 Sep 2015 10:06 UTC

Muammar Gaddafi, assassinated spiritual leader of the Libyan Jamahiriya

Millions of refugees storming European borders have definitely come as a surprise to Western politicians. They would not have, if the West only listened to what Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi said months before he was brutally executed.

In fact, some of these people would not be seeking shelter in Europe if their homes were not destroyed as a result of short-sighted aggressive Western policies.

In March 2011, Gaddafi warned that without unified and stable Libya there would be no one to control countless migrants from Africa and the Middle East from fleeing to Europe. Unlike Western leaders, he apparently understood that millions, not thousands will come, should Tripoli fall.

"There are millions of blacks who could come to the Mediterranean to cross to France and Italy, and Libya plays a role in security in the Mediterranean," he told the France 24 television station.

Comment: Indeed, Gaddafi said to Italian newspaper Il Giornale in March 2011:

He also repeated that his government had represented a bulwark against Islamic extremism, which could now be unleashed, triggering more serious unrest in the region.

"If, instead of a stable government which guarantees security, these bandits linked to Bin Laden take control, the Africans will move en masse towards Europe and the Mediterranean will become a sea of chaos," he said.

The spiritual leader of Libya had a habit of telling it like it is:

South Front Foreign Policy Diary: Deconstructing the 'Migration War' (plus Crisis News)

South Front
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 09:36 UTC

After the two World Wars of the 20th Century, the humanitarian and economic situation in the Middle East and North Africa, the former colonies of the West, became far worse than that that of the entire northern Eurasia, especially Europe. And after 1991, in other words, after USSR's defeat in the Cold War, the ranks of economically depressed countries were joined by the entire Eastern Europe which was sustained by the USSR at the expense of its own citizens' welfare.Such processes always cause people mass migration from their traditional habitats. Not surprising and not unexpected ...But due to some reasons of common knowledge the problem has resumed with renewed vigor today and we name it, - the immigration crisis. Indeed, current situation is in the zone between the acute state of crisis and, simply, the war.The most of illegal immigrants are in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece.

South Front Military Report: Poroshenko told UAF infiltrated by Russian agents

South Front
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 09:37 UTC

The biggest news of the week is Poroshenko's decision to not to implement the 7th wave of mobilization. Ukraine's Mussolini explained that the move was motivated by the relative calm on the Donbass. Instead, the funding originally earmarked for mobilization purposes will be used to...recruit career soldiers. While one can suspect an effort to deceive, Poroshenko also issued orders to demobilize some of the earlier waves, which will have the combined effect of greatly reducing the UAF's manpower levels. The refusal to implement the 7th wave is also a tacit admission the 6th wave was a dismal failure, which is suggested by a ton of circumstantial evidence.

Comment: Fort Russ is reporting that Ukraine has announced the resumption of military hostilities in the Donbass, contra the Minsk agreements, and breaking the shaky ceasefire that has been in effect for the past couple weeks:

Ukraine announced the resumption of hostilities. The operation involves thousands of soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles, said the advisor to the President of Ukraine, Yuriy Biryukov. "Officially: in the zone of military action army began an operation to search and destroy sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the enemy. Throughout the war zone, do not look for "holes" - he wrote on his page on Facebook. He stressed that this operation include "the best UAF force." We can only guess what more of Kiev's crimes this will justify, in the name of anti-seperatism, under the guise of beautiful words.

Summary execution from 'on high': California Cops Assassinate Fleeing Suspect From Helicopter after causing him to crash into second vehicle injuring three

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sat, 19 Sep 2015 08:36 UTC

The suspect's SUV was 'riddled with bullets'.

The U.S. police state is no longer 'burgeoning' but rather in full operation. Until now, cops in the USA have had a barely plausible explanation for their summary executions of citizens: they 'feared for their lives' and were in direct contact with the victim.

But a car chase yesterday in Northern San Bernardino marked the first time in decades that a citizen has been executed from the air, game hunting style, by a police sniper in a helicopter.

According to San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Deputy Olivia Bozek, the unnamed driver was a robbery suspect who police had attempted to take into custody during a traffic stop around 12:49 PM.

When the driver refused to stop, he was chased through Fontana on the 215 freeway until he reached northern San Bernardino. After a period of driving the wrong way down the freeway, the man got out of his Chevrolet Tahoe and "failed to park the vehicle properly", causing it to "crash head-on into another vehicle" injuring its three occupants.

This narrative, however, is contradicted by news reports that show the man's vehicle riddled with bullets, suggesting police shot at his car while he was still in it. It seems, therefore, that the injuries to the three people in the other vehicle were a direct result of police firing on the suspects vehicle while it was still moving, forcing him to abandon it.

Further, the body of the suspect is seen lying on the freeway covered with a yellow plastic sheet. This suggests that the man was shot and killed from the helicopter after he exited the vehicle, a point at which he presumably posed no direct threat to anyone.

Peace in Syria? It's Putin's fault

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 03:26 UTC

All one needs to know about the intellectual caliber of the Obama administration is that it is still pondering whether to persist in "ignoring" Russian President Vladimir Putin, or invest in a real partnership to solve the Syrian geopolitical/humanitarian drama. After all, when in doubt between diplomacy or chaos, the Beltway weapon of choice still veers towards the simplistic group think uniting neocons and neoliberalcons: regime change.

And then there's the non-stop The Russians Are Coming! hysteria — the Cold War 2.0 remix, now switching from the invasion/military occupation of Ukraine to the invasion/military occupation of Syria. The White House — which, same as the Pentagon, does not do irony — actually appealed to the Kremlin to behave in a "more constructive" way side-by-side with the spectacularly inefficient coalition of the dodgy opportunists which is in thesis fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest clarified that when Obama decides that the Sisyphean task of picking up the phone and dialing K for Kremlin is actually in America's interests, he will do it. The Shakespearean doubt may last days — even as Putin reaffirmed, via Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, he was always open to dialogue.

The White House at least is mulling an offer from Moscow to actually discuss the Russian buildup in Syria via direct military-to-military talks. The Pentagon will do the talking, seeking the "clarity" that so eludes the Obama administration.

US-Russia military talks resume as Pentagon freaks out over extent of Russian involvement in Syria

Phil Stewart, Yeganeh Torbati
Reuters
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 06:33 UTC

Russia has sent fighter jets to Syria, U.S. officials said, raising the stakes in a military buildup that has put Washington on edge and led Friday to the first talks between U.S. and Russian defense chiefs in over a year.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, eyeing the possibility of rival U.S. and Russian air operations in Syria's limited airspace, agreed in a call with his Russian counterpart to explore ways to avoid accidental military interactions. The coordination necessary to avoid such encounters is known in military parlance as "deconfliction."

"They agreed to further discuss mechanisms for deconfliction in Syria and the counter-ISIL campaign," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said after the call, referring to the campaign by the United States and its allies against Islamic State militants.

The former Cold War foes have a common adversary in Islamic State militants in Syria, even as Washington opposes Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, seeing him as a driver in the nation's devastating, four-and-a-half-year civil war.

A senior U.S. defense official, recounting details of the conversation, said Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had described Moscow's activities in Syria as defensive in nature. Shoigu said Russia's military moves "were designed to honor commitments made to the Syrian government," the U.S. official said.

It was unclear, however, what those commitments to Syria are or how Russia's military buildup was relevant to them.

Comment: Putin will address the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28th and his "trajectory was to come and be ignored." To ignore Putin would be a major Western mistake. He certainly is not ignoring the West. He is not ignoring Syria. He is not ignoring ISIS. He is not ignoring the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of food and shelter. If anyone thinks that Putin would come to New York (UNGA) to be ignored, think again.

Syria carries out air strikes on Islamic State

Tom Perry
Reuters
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 06:30 UTC

Syrian army jets carried out at least 25 air strikes on the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Friday, a group monitoring the war said, the second intense bombardment in two days of territory held by the militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was one of the most sustained government bombardments of Palmyra.

The air strikes killed at least 26 people, including 12 Islamic State fighters, the British-based Observatory said.

On Thursday, Syrian jets had carried out at least 12 air strikes on Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in the north.

Comment: More info:

Syrian refugees in Europe, regime change in Damascus, and the mass migrations still to come,

Vladimir Putin's realpolitik: Foreign policy objectives, desires for alliance with U.S. in opposing jihadists

Do you know which nation spends more on its military: Iran or Israel?

James North
Mondoweiss
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 23:19 UTC

Your average American who followed the debate over the Iran deal would have gotten the impression that Tehran is a military giant, with a Wehrmacht that even without nuclear weapons is capable of unleashing a blitzkrieg across the entire Middle East.

The hard facts are different. In a valuable recent article in Foreign Policy, Trita Parsi and Tyler Cullis point out:

* Iran spends $15 billion a year on its military.

* By contrast, Saudi Arabia spends $80 billion — five times as much — and the United Arab Emirates budgets another $23 billion.

Comment: It is easy to see that Iran's military budget is targeted for defense whereas Israel and other Middle East countries greater military expenditures are for offensive weapons. Bloody bazaar: Who's buying at the London Arms Fair?

Prolonging the collapse, Fed keeps rates near zero

Barry Grey
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 18 Sep 2015 12:59 UTC

The US Federal Reserve on Thursday again delayed its promised increase in the benchmark federal funds interest rate, which has remained at zero-to-0.25 percent since the height of the financial crisis in December of 2008. The US central bank has for months been signaling its intention to begin raising rates this year, but has repeatedly put off such action under intense pressure from Wall Street and global financial institutions.

Thursday's meeting of the Fed's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was the object of intense and nervous concern internationally, coming in the midst of a marked slowdown in global growth and extreme volatility on financial markets. The focus of international attention on the Fed meeting reflects the degree to which the entire world economy has become dependent on infusions of cash from the major central banks into the financial markets.

Trillions of dollars have been funneled to the banks and finance houses that dominate the markets—some $4 trillion from the Fed alone—to pay off the bad debts of the financial elite and facilitate its further enrichment on the basis of speculative and parasitic activities. These massive subsidies for the super-rich have done little to revive the real economy, which has never truly recovered from the September 2008 Wall Street crash. Instead, they have underwritten a nearly three-fold rise in stock prices and a further growth of financial activities such as mergers and acquisitions, stock buybacks and stock dividend increases that divert resources from productive investment. Investment levels in the major capitalist countries are at least 25 percent below pre-crisis levels.

There's probs a good connection! Just think about it.

sbc

Moving the goalposts. and people are too shit stupid to notice or care

sbc

Hang em... All the jab pushers. At this point they are trying very hard to continue blatant bullshit lies in a bid for total societal control

sbc

It was interesting when the brothers (their family owns the dealerships/service center that were vandalized - something of like 130+ cars burned...

Scoot Over

I ain't going to watch any more than I didn't watch the OJ trial, which ended exactly as I predicted. The thing is that the state should have...

Rowan Cocoan

Puppet Masters

Russian 'weaponized default' could be the ultimate answer to Western aggression

Gaddafi prophesied Europe's refugee crisis: 'The Mediterranean will become a sea of chaos'

South Front Foreign Policy Diary: Deconstructing the 'Migration War' (plus Crisis News)

South Front Military Report: Poroshenko told UAF infiltrated by Russian agents

Summary execution from 'on high': California Cops Assassinate Fleeing Suspect From Helicopter after causing him to crash into second vehicle injuring three

Peace in Syria? It's Putin's fault

US-Russia military talks resume as Pentagon freaks out over extent of Russian involvement in Syria

Syria carries out air strikes on Islamic State

Do you know which nation spends more on its military: Iran or Israel?

Prolonging the collapse, Fed keeps rates near zero

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