Puppet MastersS


Gold Bar

Naked gold shorts: The inside story of gold price manipulation

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© Silverforecaster.com
The deregulation of the financial system during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes had the predictable result: financial concentration and reckless behavior. A handful of banks grew so large that financial authorities declared them "too big to fail." Removed from market discipline, the banks became wards of the government requiring massive creation of new money by the Federal Reserve in order to support through the policy of Quantitative Easing the prices of financial instruments on the banks' balance sheets and in order to finance at low interest rates trillion dollar federal budget deficits associated with the long recession caused by the financial crisis.

The Fed's policy of monetizing one trillion dollars of bonds annually put pressure on the US dollar, the value of which declined in terms of gold. When gold hit $1,900 per ounce in 2011, the Federal Reserve realized that $2,000 per ounce could have a psychological impact that would spread into the dollar's exchange rate with other currencies, resulting in a run on the dollar as both foreign and domestic holders sold dollars to avoid the fall in value. Once this realization hit, the manipulation of the gold price moved beyond central bank leasing of gold to bullion dealers in order to create an artificial market supply to absorb demand that otherwise would have pushed gold prices higher. The manipulation consists of the Fed using bullion banks as its agents to sell naked gold shorts in the New York Comex futures market. Short selling drives down the gold price, triggers stop-loss orders and margin calls, and scares participants out of the gold trusts. The bullion banks purchase the deserted shares and present them to the trusts for redemption in bullion. The bullion can then be sold in the London physical gold market, where the sales both ratify the lower price that short-selling achieved on the Comex floor and provide a supply of bullion to meet Asian demands for physical gold as opposed to paper claims on gold.

The evidence of gold price manipulation is clear. In this article we present evidence and describe the process. We conclude that ability to manipulate the gold price is disappearing as physical gold moves from New York and London to Asia, leaving the West with paper claims to gold that greatly exceed the available supply.

Bad Guys

Crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says city 'booming' despite record unemployment

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© HNGN.com
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford called a news conference last week in his ongoing quest to rehabilitate his tattered image as he heads into an election year. At the beginning of the year, Ford was the first off the mark to register his candidacy for next October's mayoralty election, declaring himself "the best mayor that this city has ever had."

Ford hopes that he will be able to use the intervening eight months to push to the background last year's sordid spectacle of drug and alcohol abuse, criminal associations, habitual lying and outright buffoonery that saw him stripped of much of his executive authority by city council and his outlandish antics splattered across the television screens and front pages of the world's media outlets.

At his recent press conference, the ever-mendacious Ford boasted that "I have made job creation and economic growth a key pillar of my administration, and I have fulfilled exactly what I said I was going to do...Toronto is booming today. We're a global powerhouse."

This news would certainly come as a surprise to the hundreds of thousands of city residents who languish in poverty and unemployment. At 10.1 percent, Toronto currently has the second highest jobless rate among the country's municipalities. Unemployment amongst the city's youth is at 20 percent and rising. Those who still have jobs have had to contend with major rent, electricity and food price increase, while wages have stagnated and public services have been cut.

Nearly a quarter of Toronto's 2,750,000 residents live below the poverty line. Ford's constituency in Etobicoke North - which he represented as a city councilor for ten years prior to his 2010 victory in the mayor's race - has the highest rate of both child and overall poverty in the city.

Ford's response has been to slash social spending, attack city workers and privatize garbage pick-up - all with the support of the city council.

Dollar

Now Obama gets on the pot-smoking bandwagon: 'It's no more dangerous than alcohol'

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© UPI/Landov/Barcroft MediaPresident Barack Obama acknowledged: 'As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid.'
President Barack Obama believes smoking marijuana is a "bad habit" but thinks legal penalties now fall disproportionately on minorities and that states legalising pot should go ahead with their plans, he said in a profile released on Sunday.

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life," he is quoted as saying in a New Yorker magazine article. "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."

The president said he has told his two daughters that smoking marijuana is "a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy".

However, he said he is concerned that marijuana-related arrests fall far more heavily on minorities than on others. Legalisation of pot should go forward in the states of Colorado and Washington because "it's important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished," he said.

Marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law, but 21 US states allow or are about to allow medical marijuana use, and Colorado and Washington have decriminalised use of pot entirely. Alaska and the District of Columbia are considering following suit.

The Obama administration said last year that federal law enforcement will not target users in Colorado and Washington, as long as they comply with their respective states' laws. The Department of Justice says it will not interfere with states' efforts to regulate and tax marijuana provided they are able to meet a set of requirements, including keeping it from children and restricting its flow into other states.

Stormtrooper

UK police seeks arsenal of water cannons in preparation for mass social chaos

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© Barcroft MediaLong since used in the north of Ireland, water cannons are now to be rolled out across the UK
Police chiefs say water cannon are needed because 'austerity measures are likely to lead to continued protest'

Chief constables are shortly to press the home secretary, Theresa May, to authorise the use of water cannon by any police force across England and Wales to deal with anticipated street protests.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says that the need to control continued protests "from ongoing and potential future austerity measures" justifies the introduction of water cannon across Britain for the first time.

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has already announced a consultation on the introduction of water cannon on to the streets of London ready for use by this summer.

A new Acpo/College of Policing briefing paper makes clear that chief constables across England and Wales have also been asked to discuss water cannon with their police and crime commissioners and "it is anticipated that the home secretary will be approached in early 2014 in respect of water cannon authorisation".

Star of David

John Kerry controlled like a puppet by Israel

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Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon articulated publicly what Israeli leaders say privately: Give us your tax money, weapons and your veto power but "leave us alone."

He called the US peace efforts "not worth the paper it is printed on," and accused US Secretary of State John Kerry of being a glory hound "messianic" and "inexplicably obsessive."

His statement - likely with the tacit approval of Israeli prime minister - was quintessential Israeli tactics to publicly influence American policy, and it did.

Receiving the message loud and clear, Kerry cancelled a visit scheduled this week to the region. Failing to commit the Israelis on a written framework agreement, his aides are already talking about extending the negotiation past the April deadline.

Each of Kerry's visits was greeted by an Israeli policy decision to undermine his efforts. Since last July it has authorised building 7,500 "Jewish only" homes on occupied West Bank and demolished 200 Palestinian residences. A ministerial committee led by the governing Likud party has overwhelmingly voted to annex the occupied Jordan valley.

Cut

America's bloody meddling: Pakistan jets bomb North Waziristan area

Pakistan families
A number of people have fled the area to take their families to safety
Pakistani military aircraft have bombed suspected Taliban positions in North Waziristan, following a wave of attacks against security forces.

A military official said 40 militants had been killed in the air strikes in the tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The figure cannot be confirmed.

On Sunday, at least 20 soldiers were killed in an ambush on an army convoy.

Pakistan's Taliban vowed to step up attacks after a drone strike last year killed their leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

Comment: And the Pakistan's Taliban are...!

CIA Agent Caught Red-Handed Aiding Pakistani Terrorism?

ISI and CIA Relations
Involvement of CIA with Raymond Davis is beyond any shadow of doubt. It has been learnt through western and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) sources that not only was Raymond Davis the acting CIA chief in Pakistan, but was part of the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region. SVR claims that Raymond Davis supplied Al-Qaeda terrorists "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents", which are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West's hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse."
US, Pakistan near open war, Chinese ultimatum warns Washington against attack
One way to provide the provocation needed to justify a US-Indian attack on Pakistan would be through an increase in terrorist actions attributable to the so-called Taliban. According to the mainstream Pakistani media, the CIA, the Israeli Mossad, and the Indian RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) have created their own version of the Taliban in the form of a terrorist countergang which they control and direct. According to one account, "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives have infiltrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks, and have created their own Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) force in order to destabilize Pakistan." The former Punjab Regional Commander of the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), retired Brigadier General Aslam Ghuman, commented: "During my visit to the US, I learned that the Israeli spy agency Mossad, in connivance with Indian agency RAW, under the direct supervision of CIA, planned to destabilize Pakistan at any cost."7 Was this countergang responsible for last week's double bombing in Waziristan, which killed 80 paramilitary police?
Washington's Terrorists: US 'diplomats' arrested for transporting weapons in Pakistan


Beer

'Remorseful' Toronto Mayor Rob "I quit drinking" Ford gets absolutely wasted (again) - Caught on video ranting Rasta-style in late-night takeaway

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A framegrab from video, which was posted to YouTube by "Toronto TheCity" on Tuesday, January 21, 2014, of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford slurring words while talking to people in a takeaway on Monday night, January 20, 2014. He later admitted that he had been drinking.
On Monday, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was videotaped in a bizarre exchange at a Toronto fast food restaurant that is notable not only for the mayor's drunkenness, but for his liberal use of Jamaican English.

Through careful analysis of the audio - and translation via sources in Jamaica - the National Post presents this approximate transcript of Mr. Ford's exchange with an unknown citizen, along with explanations.
FORD: C**ksuckers. Fuckin' Chief Blair and them all. Cha, man. They chase me around for five months, man. Bumbaclot man. I said, me and him, ya raasclat bumbaclot.
In this opening diatribe against Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, Mr. Ford uses no less than three expressions common to Jamaica, but virtually unknown among Canadian-born English speakers. The first, "cha," is a disdainful expletive, the Caribbean equivalent of "bah!"


Comment: Some of Rob Ford's greatest hits:




X

U.S. serial killing: airstrike kills woman, seven children in Afghanistan

Karzai
© Associated Press/Anja NiedringhausAfghan President Hamid Karzai demands end to U.S. airstrikes.
The government of Afghanistan has denounced a US airstrike on an Afghan village that took the lives of seven children and one woman on Wednesday morning.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai linked the incident to the continuing tensions with Washington over his postponement of signing a bilateral security agreement (BSA) that would allow some 12,000 US troops to remain in the country indefinitely after the formal deadline for withdrawing all foreign occupation forces at the end of this year.

According to both the Karzai government and the governor of Parwan province, where the massacre took place, the incident began when US special operations troops attempted to enter a home in the Ghorband district, about 25 miles north of the capital of Kabul.

Comment: The U.S. slaughters innocent civilians in a sovereign country for the sole purpose of keeping their military force in the region, and amass the profits of opium trade. How's that for psychopathic behavior?

Read also: U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan to 'protect women'? Really?


USA

U.S. plans to rescue Americans if terrorists strike Sochi Olympics

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© The Asahi Shimbun via Getty ImagesSochi lies on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains on the Black Sea in southern Russia.
Pentagon believes Russia's reluctance to allow foreign forces on its soil would seriously hamper any evacuation attempt

US military and intelligence officials have been studying contingency plans for evacuating Americans from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, south Russia, next month in the face of concerns about possible terror attacks by militants.

The officials believe there would be major obstacles to mounting a large-scale rescue effort as Russia has historically been reluctant to allow foreign military forces - especially those of the US - on Russian territory, according to a source familiar with Obama administration discussions.

The White House thinking was revealed as a video published on a Chechen extremist website on Sunday claimed to show two would-be suicide bombers warn of a "surprise package" for Russia and Olympic spectators in Sochi next month. The pair, dressed in ordinary clothing, said those attending the Games would not be safe while forces sent by President Vladimir Putin occupy the North Caucasus region. The US was reported by ABC News to be studying the video.

US officials say Russia unquestionably has primary responsibility for protecting everyone, including Americans, attending the Sochi Games, which start on 7 February.

"No matter what happens [the Russians] are not going to welcome with open arms" any intervention by outsiders, the source said.

Red Flag

Hacking expert David Kennedy says he cracked HealthCare.gov in 4 minutes

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© Jon Elswick
The man who appeared before Congress last week to explain the security pitfalls of HealthCare.gov took to Fox News on Sunday to explain just how easy it is to penetrate the website.

Hacking expert David Kennedy told Fox's Chris Wallace that he determined he could gain access to 70,000 personal records of Obamacare enrollees via HealthCare.gov within about 4 minutes - and it required nothing more than a standard browser, the Daily Caller reported.

"And 70,000 was just one of the numbers that I was able to go up to and I stopped after that," he said. "You know, I'm sure it's hundreds of thousands, if not more, and it was done within about a 4 minute timeframe. So, it's just wide open."

"You can literally just open up your browser, go to this, and extract all this information without actually having to hack the website itself," he said.