Puppet Masters

Covid-19 has taken away bread and circuses, laying bare the true American empire

Michael McCaffrey
RT
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 20:01 UTC

Regular Americans can no longer numb themselves with sports and gluttony, freeing them to clearly see the malignantly craven ruling class that exploits and despises them. If only they would open their eyes to reality.

Anyone who has eyes to see can clearly make out that America is an addled empire in steep decline that is firmly entrenched in its bread-and-circuses stage. This has been brought into clear focus due to Covid-19. Since there is now a shortage of bread, as supermarket shelves are bare, and the distraction of the circus of sports has been indefinitely removed from the culture, Americans are left with little to distract them from cold, hard reality.

With no brawls or ballgames to watch, and the fear of potential hunger gnawing at their bloated bellies and brains, and with social distancing leaving them isolated with little but their thoughts as company, Americans will now find it harder and harder to ignore the truth about their country and its deplorably corrupt media, financial, government, education and health care systems, that is staring them in the face.

The Great Economic Depression of 2020 proves lessons not learned, central banks misfire

Mitchell Feierstein
RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:27 UTC

After 2008, we were promised that too-big-to-fail caused by too much debt, credit, and leverage was history. Covid-19 exposed Wall Street's culture of "Heads I win, tails you bail me out." That's not capitalism, it's extortion.

Are globalization's new record highs a minefield-filled Potemkin village? In 2020, financial markets have set numerous records. In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, famed Bridgewater boss and fund manager Ray Dalio told a CNBC audience that "cash is trash" and encouraged viewers to "buy the dip." Next, he went as far as to warn investors "not to sell stocks." In February, as if on cue, every stock index obediently and euphorically rocketed to new all-time highs. If ever alarm bells were ringing to warn how stratospheric valuations fueled by twelve years of reckless central bank "temporary emergency measures" could signal a market top, Dalio's Davos hubris certainly qualified. President Trump neatly summarized the market's frothy top in just twelve words.

Nine days after Trump's "raging bull market tweet," an unprecedented collapse began that swiftly and violently turned history's longest bull market (2009 -2020) into a bear market that sent indexes plummeting over 20 percent in less than a month - another record. The bull-to-bear collapse was quicker than both 1999 and 1929.

Pompeo meets with Ghani and Abdullah despite corona crisis

RFE/RL
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 17:16 UTC

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Afghanistan on a mission to try to jump-start a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Pompeo on March 23 met separately with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Ghani's archrival, former Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, before meeting together with both Afghan leaders.

His schedule also has Ghani and Abdullah coming together for a one-on-one meeting, presumably to discuss a possible compromise. Since the signing of the deal with the Taliban, the peace process has ground to a halt amid political turmoil, with the country's leaders squabbling over who was elected president.

Ghani and Abdullah both declared themselves the country's president in dueling inauguration ceremonies earlier this month following contested elections in September. Pompeo is expected to try to help end the political stalemate, which has put on hold the start of intra-Afghan peace talks that would include the Taliban.

Comment: See also: Afghanistan officials hold talks with Taliban leaders on prisoner swap deal

A year passed since the N. Korea-US Hanoi summit, any expectations for the next one?

Konstantin Asmolov
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC

Just over a year has gone by since US President Donald Trump met with Chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission Kim Jong-un in Hanoi. It was the second North Korean-American summit to be held, following on from the first 2018 North Korea-United States Singapore Summit. Many were surprised that the meeting ended without any concrete agreements being made, due to a variety of reasons. The primary disagreements between the two sides were made more difficult to resolve due to actions taken by American conservatives and domestic politics in the United States at the time, which prevented Trump from making any concessions.

The talks which followed between working groups and high-level officials also ended without any visible results. A brief meeting between the Supreme leader of the DPRK and the US President on the sidelines of Trump's visit to South Korea was little more than a media photo op, and the working-level talks in Stockholm got off to a bad start: North Korea demanded that Washington come up with a new plan by the end of 2019 if the US wants denuclearization talks.

Towards the end of 2019, the North Korean leader gave a clear delineation of relations between the two countries, yet Kim Jong-un did not keep his promise to deliver a "Christmas gift", by which he meant a demonstration of North Korea's new strategic weapons. As it was put at the time, "the door is closed, but not locked." There are several different explanations given for this. Pro-Pyongyang experts say Kim made a gesture of goodwill. Others believe that China used its leverage to make North Korea call off the demonstration and avoid exasperating the situation. We would like to add that given the increased attention the DPRK was receiving during this period (due to its satellites, constant use of reconnaissance aircraft, etc.), it would not have made sense for Pyongyang to "show its cards" at the time.

Predictions: How six countries will fare in coronavirus-induced economic chaos

Peter Andrews
RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 13:44 UTC

Time to buckle up: economists believe the looming Covid-19 crash will throw millions out of work and bankrupt thousands of businesses across the globe in a downturn that might even surpass the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Economics is the study of choices, and never more so than now. It's now clear that, with the coronavirus pandemic causing widespread chaos that economists believe will cause a prolonged economic depression, the choices that each person makes have the power to affect their country's and the world's economy over the coming weeks and months. With the caveat that much depends on those individual choices and the actions of governments, here is our current assessment of which places are likely to be worst-hit economically, as well as a few that might come out rosier than most.

Comment: Statistics indicate the coronavirus is neither the economic game-changer, nor the 'killer' it has been made out to be. It would be more accurate to call it a global distraction that serves a matrix of deceptive purposes that happen to include a massive financial reset.

Afghanistan officials hold talks with Taliban leaders on prisoner swap deal

RFE/RL
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:09 UTC

The Afghan government has held its first talks with the Taliban about a prisoner swap, the U.S. envoy to the war-torn country has said. "Prisoner releases by both sides is an important step in the peace process," Zalmay Khalilzad said in a March 22 statement on Twitter.

The talks -- held via Skype amid the coronavirus pandemic -- lasted more than two hours and were facilitated by the United States and Qatar, Khalilzad said. The spread of the novel coronavirus has made the release of prisoners "that much more urgent."

"All sides conveyed their strong commitment to a reduction of violence, intra-Afghan negotiations, and a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire," Khalilzad said.

Afghanistan announced the same day the first death in the country due to COVID-19, the new strain of the coronavirus. Afghanistan had 34 confirmed cases of the virus as of March 22.

Comment: See also:

Russian-Japanese relations continue warming despite dispute over Kuril Islands

Dmitry Bokarev
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 19:25 UTC

© Sakhalin Energy/Sovcomflot
The LNG tanker Grand Aniva carries the 500th delivery of LNG for Sakhalin-2 project, in 2012

Relations between Russia and Japan are not all blue skies: the dispute over the Kuril Islands has hung over them like a dark cloud for many decades now, which is why two countries never signed a peace treaty after World War II.

The most recent minor flare-up in tensions was in January 2020 in response to Japan's National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty Special Exhibition, which was reopened in Tokyo with the support from the authorities and displayed exhibits designed to prove that the disputed islands belong to Japan. At the time, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the exhibition is an obstacle to the creation of a working atmosphere around the issue of the Kuril Islands, and shows that Tokyo is unwilling to accept the results of World War II and maintain good relations with Moscow.

Apart from Russia and Japan's direct bilateral disagreements, Russia's relations with Japan's main ally the United States play a role, and make Japan-Russia relations more complicated.

Comment: Trade is always better than war. Here's to the multi-polar world!

US Army battles skepticism from Congress after Bradley replacement program's failure

Rod Renny
The Duran
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 17:22 UTC

M2 Bradley in the mud

Here's why the Army cancelled their Bradley replacement program

The U.S. Army has received praise for its innovative approach to modernizing the force through its new four-star command, which reached full operational capability earlier this year. But with the recent failure to launch its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement effort, lawmakers are calling into question the Army's new process for developing and acquiring future capabilities.

The service faced a barrage of questions from House lawmakers during fiscal 2021 budget hearings over its decision to walk back initial plans to hold a competition to replace the Bradley and start over with a new approach.

Army leadership took pains during testimony on Capitol Hill to stress that major acquisition mistakes are a thing of the past, citing the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program as an example of improvement.

Comment: The US could take a page from Russia, where the development process is not only much more stream-lined, but where the motivation is a patriotic one, pride in helping to defend one's county, not just to make profits. A far cry from the porkbarrel attitude of America's MIC.

Putin still extends a hand in friendship regardless:

Putin: Russia offered to sell Trump hypersonic weapons, balance everything

Triage starts in government bailouts: Who will get the money?

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC

Governments throughout the world are now facing heavy activity by lobbyists seeking a bailout by their government. The activity is ferocious, and ferociously competitive, because some lobbies have bigger money backing them than others do, and different politicians owe their careers to different types of lobbies; so, for example, if one politician is funded primarily by the oil industry, and another is funded primarily by the retail industry, those two politicians will probably be looking to save different special interests. Since there now will be an enormous number of bankruptcies, there will be an enormous need for governments to redirect wealth, no matter how opposed to socialism a given government might be.

In normal times, the total society's wealth is rising, and so any such governmental interventions, which result from the routine competitions between lobbyists, are usually for federal funds which are expected to come from the growth in governmental spending. However, at a time like the present, when we are at the beginning of a depression, which means a period of declining wealth, this competition between lobbies is vastly more intense, because the companies' own economic survival is actually at stake.

Two years after the Skripals were poisoned the mainstream media and governments are still lying

James ONeill
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC

A little over two years ago, on 3 March 2018, two persons were found in a distressed state on a park bench in the English provincial city of Salisbury. The two were identified as Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal. Both were taken to hospital where they eventually recovered and were discharged.

Sergei telephoned his mother, and elderly lady living in Moscow, on 26 June 2019, 15 months after his hospitalisation. Apart from that sole telephone calls, he has not been publicly seen or heard from since. Yulia was interviewed at an undisclosed venue on 18 July 2018. She has not been heard from since either.

Sergei was a resident of Salisbury where he moved in 2010 as part of a prisoner swap with Russia where he had been serving a prison term for betraying his country by spying on behalf of the British. The British government has never even tried to offer an explanation as to why the Russian government would do nothing to Sergei for eight years and then suddenly decide he needed to be eliminated. Yulia was a resident of Moscow, engaged to be married, and visiting her father. She had a return flight to Moscow booked.

What followed the finding of the Skripals in a distressed and unconscious state was an extraordinary series of statements by then British prime minister Theresa May. She accused Russia of attempting to murder Sergei and made a series of other allegations. The kindest thing that could be said about her allegations and those of others speaking on behalf of the British government, is that they were made before any proper inquiry has been completed; when the two Skripals were incapacitated in hospital; and any resemblance to facts or truth was at best coincidental.

Comment: See also:

Link to the video on YT: [Link]

Jean Michel

It was probably vaccine hesitancy that killed the mammoths!

sbc

Parts shortages been happening for generations. For example how many spineless and brainless people ya know?

sbc

So shouldnt the Garland order now be rescinded? They just said they were coached into writing the letter in such a way that it was disengenuous...

sbc

There are some interesting 'coincidences' with this murder case in Moab: [Link] Kylen Schulte, the younger lady, worked at the Moonflower cafe...

Jean Michel

Puppet Masters

Covid-19 has taken away bread and circuses, laying bare the true American empire

The Great Economic Depression of 2020 proves lessons not learned, central banks misfire

Pompeo meets with Ghani and Abdullah despite corona crisis

A year passed since the N. Korea-US Hanoi summit, any expectations for the next one?

Predictions: How six countries will fare in coronavirus-induced economic chaos

Afghanistan officials hold talks with Taliban leaders on prisoner swap deal

Russian-Japanese relations continue warming despite dispute over Kuril Islands

US Army battles skepticism from Congress after Bradley replacement program's failure

Triage starts in government bailouts: Who will get the money?

Two years after the Skripals were poisoned the mainstream media and governments are still lying

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us