Puppet MastersS


Light Sabers

Documentary: Crimea: Unmasking Revolution

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© AFP PhotoPro-Russian activists wave a Russian flag during their rally in the western Crimean city of Yevpatoria on March 5, 2014.
From the late 18th century Crimea was a part of Russia; that was until 1954 when Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev issued a decree transferring the small Black Sea peninsular from Russia to Ukraine, which was still a part of the USSR. Crimea is, to this day, mostly populated by Russians, though there are also many Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. The current situation on the peninsula is tense and complicated; people are divided Some want Crimea to return to being a part of Russia, others support an undivided Ukraine, while self-determination is a dream for others still. A referendum on Crimea's future status will take place on March 16, 2014. RT sent a camera crew to Crimea to hear directly from some residents of this troubled part of the world.

Handcuffs

EU-ECB-IMF troika tells Greece: We're witholding the next loan tranche until you squeeze the people more

Greek bail-out
© EPA

The Greek government and the international creditors - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - have failed to agree on a bailout loan tranche ahead of the Eurogroup meeting on Monday, local media say.

The three inspectors are to return to Athens on Wednesday, and hopes are that the parties will be able to agree on the next tranche by March 16. The monitors will assess the extent of financial aid to the debt-stricken southern EU nation based on the state of its economy and its commitment to requirements that are sine qua non of the loan deal, but major issues still appear to be unresolved.

Greece hopes for a cash injection of $10.1 billion, something it will never get without the green light from inspectors.

Comment: The EU has money for Ukraine but no money for the countries in crises within the Union. Those in Ukraine who are dreaming of a standard of living like those of the countries in the EU should look at Greece and ask if that is what they are after. In any case that is what the EU and the IMF has in stall for Ukraine.


Popcorn

Ukraine crisis: Chinese president Xi Jinping tells Obama and Merkel that they must pursue a political solution

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© Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesPro-Russian supporters drive through the streets of Simferopol, Ukraine after a rally on Sunday. Photograph
Beijing leader tells Obama and Merkel that they must pursue a political solution to 'extremely complex' situation.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has urged a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine and for all parties to exercise calm and restraint, during separate telephone calls with US president Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The situation in Ukraine is extremely complex, and what is most urgent is for all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint to avoid an escalation in tensions," China's foreign ministry on Monday cited Xi as telling Obama.

"Political and diplomatic routes must be used to resolve the crisis," Xi added.

Mr. Potato

Obama comes out against self-determination when it is against the wishes of the elite

Knock knock Crimea
© Unknown
The White House Fool has repeatedly declared erroneously and foolishly that it is "against international law" for Crimea to exercise self-determination. Self-determination, as used by Washington, is a propaganda term that serves Washington's empire but is not permissible for real people to exercise. On March 6 Obama telephoned Putin to tell the Russian President again that only Washington has the right to interfere in Ukraine and to insist against all logic that only the
"government" in Kiev installed by the Washington-organized coup is "legitimate" and "democratic."
In other words, the elected government in Crimea pushed by the people in Crimea to give them a vote on their future is "undemocratic" and "illegitimate," but a non-elected government in Kiev imposed by Washington is the voice of self-determination and legitimacy.

Washington is so arrogant that it never occurs to the hubris-infected fools what the world thinks of Washington's blatant hypocrisy.

Since the Clinton regime, Washington has done nothing but violate international law - Serbia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia.

Does Russia have an Africa Command? No, but Washington does.

Cut

Qatar out in the cold: Muslim Brotherhood divides Gulf Cooperation Council

Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
© UnknownLeader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, March 5, 2014. They are also soon expected to ban Qatar Airways from overflying their territory, which will not fail to cause serious financial losses to the Emirate. In addition to closing the Saudi-Qatari border, which is the only land entry to the Emirate.

The three States slammed Qatar for backing a coup attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE in November 2013, and for continuing its subversive action via Al-Jazeera even though the Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani had made a written commitment in Kuwait not to interfere in the internal affairs of his neighbors. Indeed, on February 22, the Qatari channel broadcast an incendiary sermon by its spiritual counselor and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

USA

John Kerry laughs about illegal NSA Surveillance and his massive wealth

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John Kerry's 'humor': The conscienceless psychopath kind.
Like Obama and Bush before him, John Kerry used the opportunity of his appearance at the annual Gridiron dinner, a gathering of journalists and public figures, to crack jokes about serious, and often deadly, US government policies and the immense wealth of the political elite.

At the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton on May 1, 2010, Obama joked about military drones killing people.

At the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in 2004, George 'Dubya' Bush displayed slides on a giant screen with him "humorously" looking for Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction around the White House. At least 1.5 million Iraqi civilians died as a result of the US invasion of Iraq that was justified on the "trumped up charge" of Iraq having WMDs.

At the time, John Kerry. who would soon challenge Bush for the presidency, said that the joke displayed a "stunningly cavalier" attitude.
"If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought. Unfortunately for the president, this is not a joke."
Since then however, Mr. Kerry appears to have lost his ability to sense bad taste.

Kerry, a former senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, joked in his Gridiron Dinner speech two nights ago about revelations of government spying on people including journalists, saying it was "so nice to put faces to the metadata", referring to the illegal mass collection of data on US and world citizens by the NSA.

Light Saber

Hegemonial backlash: The axis of hope: Beijing to Beirut, via Moscow, Tehran and Damascus

Doku Umarov
© UnknownDoku Umarov, the Emir of Al- Qaeda in the North Caucasus, was responsible for crippling Russia during the Olympic Games in Sochi, while NATO changed the regime in Ukraine.
The U.S. strategy, devised by Zbigniew Brzezinski, using support for Islamist obscurantism to fight both progressive Muslim policies and against Russia, sparked an alliance to resist it. Now, China, Russia, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are forced to stick together to survive. Ultimately observed André Charny, the trap has sprung on those who set it.

Islam against Islam ...

Iran, Syria and Lebanon thanks to Hezbollah and its allies, considered by Westerners for years to be a source of evil because of their support for what they call "terrorism" have not finished being talked about. After individual treatment for each of them according to political divisions in the region, an axis has set itself up that starts at the gates of Russia and China to end at those of Tel Aviv.

This axis is rooted in Western politicies reserved for this region. The United States, followed by major Western countries, have declared how its economic interests must be preserved at all costs. This biased policy has generated tensions over the years, the source of armed conflicts and street fights that incessantly feed the televised news.

This policy, enshrined for some time, was implemented with the support of local stakeholders. However, an acceleration took place after the fall of the Berlin Wall, lived as an historical event, which it obviously was, but that marked the advent of an aggressive and contemptuous strategy toward the Middle East.

Cult

Al-Qaida 'rebels' transform Syrian city into nucleus of Islamic state it aspires to

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© AP Photo/militant website, File
This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014 shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria. Once a vibrant, mixed city considered a bastion of support for President Bashar Assad, the eastern city of Raqqa is now a shell of its former life, transformed by al-Qaida militants into the nucleus of the terror group's version of an Islamic caliphate they hope one day to establish in Syria and Iraq. In rare interviews with The Associated Press, residents and activists in Raqqa describe a city where fear prevails, music has been banned, Christians have to pay religious tax in return for protection and face-veiled women and pistol-wielding men in jihadi uniforms patrol the streets.

Once a vibrant, religiously mixed community, Syria's eastern city of Raqqa is now a shell of its former self, terrorized by hard-line militants who have turned it into the nucleus of their vision for the Islamic caliphate they hope one day to establish in Syria and Iraq.

Attention

The Wolves of Psycho Street: America's economic enslavement by the psychopathic corporate elite

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© SOTT.net

Today it is not so much that people believe our CEOs and politicians act without empathy or compassion regarding the well-being of average citizens, especially towards those in dire poverty, but rather whether or not our entire system is psychologically deranged. Psychopathology has become fully institutionalized as a legitimate way of doing business and making policy decisions. The Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, which ruled that corporations and banks are "persons," was a further step infecting our entire politics and society with a serious mental disorder that has steadily contributed to the US's widening inequality gap, class struggle, and Americans' loss of democracy and freedom of speech.

Joel Bakan is an internationally recognized legal scholar at the University of British Columbia specializing in Constitutional and economic law. The award-winning documentary film The Corporation was based upon his bestseller The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. When I last spoke with Professor Bakan, I asked him about the kind of corporate personality the Supreme Court ruled in favor of. "The corporation," he said, "is legally programmed to always serve its own interests. Its directors and managers have a legal obligation always to put the financial interests of shareholders above all other interests. It breaks the law with impunity if it can get away with it."

The problem lies less in the fact that Wall Street and multinational presidents and CEOs are psychopaths. Rather according to Bakan, "we've created an institution that attracts psychopaths and that incentivizes psychopathic behavior." If we can imagine putting JP Morgan or Monsanto on the shrink's couch, analyze the way these firms think and function, how they are programmed, they would be diagnosed as psychopathic. Bakan believes this is the current state of private industry. A bank's collective control and power is unfathomable to the average person. Executives believe they are untouchable and their astronomical wealth enables them to act with complete freedom and without regard for the consequences of their actions.

Dr. Bayer takes these firms' socio-political dominance further. "Corporations existentially are like feudal fiefdoms," he said. "They are countries with regulations and laws unto their selves. International corporations can commit crimes and do certain things, and then relocate their headquarters and be off the hook in terms of legality, extradition, and penalty."

Heart - Black

Sarah Palin's advice to Barack Obama: 'Stop Putin with nukes'

Sarah Palan
© Getty Images/AFP Source: AFPConservative pundit and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palinhas offered her solution to the instability in Russia and the Ukraine.
Sarah Palin has offered unsolicited advice to US President Barack Obama on containing Russian aggression, saying "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke".

The Republican former vice presidential candidate used a predominantly crass tone throughout her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

But she hit home by attacking what she called a feckless Obama foreign policy that she said has helped embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Failing to show peace through strength has allowed some "very, very, very bad dudes (to) gain ground", said Palin, who remains a darling of the far-right.

Obama "would gut our arsenal while he allows others - enemies - to enrich theirs", she said.

"Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke." The comments follow Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine last month, action which sent tensions soaring and US-Russia relations to perhaps their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.