Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Kiev: Another Sarajevo?‏

Kiev protests
© RIA Novosti/Alexey KudenkoSupporters of Ukraine's EU integration in Kiev's Independence Square.
As violence and mayhem surge in Ukraine's capitol, Kiev, fear is growing that Europe, the United States and Russia may be on a collision course.

Ukraine's latest crisis began last November after Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an economic cooperation/integration pact with the European Union. Instead, near bankrupt Kiev accepted a Russian offer to supply heavily discounted natural gas and a pledge to buy billions worth of its shaky bonds.

Take 2

Snowden says 'I acted alone' and rubbishes Russian complicity claims

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© APFormer NSA analyst Edward Snowden told New Yorker magazine in an encrypted interview from Moscow that he was not a Russian spy.
Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said he acted alone in leaking US government secrets and that suggestions by some politicians he might have had help from Russia were "absurd'', the New Yorker magazine reported on Tuesday.

In an interview the magazine said was conducted by encrypted means from Moscow, Snowden was quoted as saying: "This 'Russian spy' push is absurd."

Snowden said he "clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no help from anyone, much less a government".

"It won't stick. ... Because it's clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are," the New Yorker quoted Snowden as saying.

The head of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee said on Sunday he was investigating whether Snowden had help from Russia in stealing and revealing US government secrets.

"I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands - the loving arms - of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence," Representative Mike Rogers told NBC's Meet the Press, referring to the Russian intelligence agency that is a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Rogers did not provide specific evidence to back his suggestions of Russian involvement in Snowden's activities, but said: "Some of the things we're finding we would call clues that certainly would indicate to me that he had some help."

Attention

Best of the Web: Bulgaria is on the verge of collapse, and right-wing extremism is on the rise

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On the evening of November 9, half a dozen heavily intoxicated Bulgarian skinheads set out for a house in the center of the capital, Sofia, where a group of Syrian refugees had found shelter. They broke its front door and windows, and when driven away by the frightened inhabitants they vented their rage on an ethnic Turkish Bulgarian who happened to be passing nearby - and whom they later said they mistook for a Syrian - sending him to the hospital with a badly fractured skull and multiple other injuries. A group of locals sitting at a nearby cafe called the police as they watched the victim's blood splash on the pavement, but according to local news only one bystander attempted, unsuccessfully, to intervene.

Xenophobic attacks such as this one have become an almost daily reality in Bulgaria, where political and economic turmoil have created a widespread crisis of confidence. With more than six months of continuous daily protests in front of the Parliament, students barricaded in Sofia's main university since October, and a rising tide of ultranationalism and intolerance, many fear that the European Union's poorest member will collapse.ary

Cards

Nigel Farage hailed as hero in Greece for telling their PM that his country is now under foreign control

nigel Farage
Nigel Farage
Ukip leader claims he received deluge of support after giving Antonis Samaras a dressing down in European parliament

As unlikely as it might once have seemed, the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, is being hailed as a hero in Greece after an extraordinary outburst against the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, in the European parliament last week.

In a departure from the contempt usually reserved for foreigners criticising their country, Greeks from across the political spectrum have welcomed the Briton's savage dressing down of Samaras - just as he was savouring the glory of crisis-plagued Athens assuming the rotating EU presidency.

Comment: The politicians in Greece have been playing the bail-me-and-you-own-me game with the controllers of the EU for far too long, yet not prioritizing to find solutions for the myriad socioeconomic problems that weight the already exhausted population. Instead, they gave up the fate of their country and people to foreign - and malevolent - hands, so as to save their own behinds and keep their standing and privileges.

Catastroika: How the Shock Doctrine came to Greece
Greece is governed by a corrupt clique, says Kostas Vaxevanis
The economic collapse of Greece explained (video animation)


Eye 1

Syria: Who are the Real War Criminals?

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NATOBLOOD
The Western media, Amnesty International and various other self proclaimed humanitarian organizations are running a war propaganda campaign against Syria following the release of thousands of photographs.

This slur of disinformation focusing on alleged atrocities committed by the Syrian government has coincided in a timely fashion with the Geneva 2 Peace Talks.


According to reports, an alleged "Syrian military police photographer" supplied "clear evidence showing the systematic torture and killing of about 11,000 detainees in circumstances that evoked Nazi death camps".(CBC, January 21, 2014)
"One of the prosecutors said the evidence documented "industrial scale killing" that was reminiscent of the Second World War concentration camps of Belsen and Auschwitz."Bearing signs of torture, some of the corpses had no eyes. Others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution. (Ibid)
According to Amnesty International the images are "conclusive":
Beaten, burned, bruised, strangled bodies lying on a dirty floor. Some show signs of starvation, others are missing their eyes. A number of them appear to have been electrocuted. The horror is nearly impossible to describe. (Ibid)
While the mainstream media points to "clear evidence", it nonetheless acknowledges that the identity of the alleged police informer codenamed Caesar is unknown and that the authenticity of the photos cannot be determined.

Stock Down

Shareholder resolution wants Monsanto to disclose financial risks from GMOs

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Shareholders and stakeholders of Monsanto should start wondering about where their money lies, where it's actually going, and if it will last. While the world is left largely in the dark about safety risks and labeling, some of Monsanto's shareholders are just as closed off from the reality of their investment risks from the company's damaging business practices and spending.

A resolution re-filed by Harrington Investments, Inc (HII) asked Monsanto's Board of Directors to prepare a report assessing the actual and potential financial risks posed to their shareholders by GMO operations. Everything from the cost of anti-GMO labeling campaigns to the devastating fallout from revelations of crop contamination hitting farmers across the globe and legal spending to aggressively pur"sue" small farmers for patent infringement.

HII is calculating the sum total of Monsanto's actions calling it a "corporate empire" financially committed to denial.

Rainbow

Western propaganda: Putin interviewed on anti-gay laws

George Stephanopoulos interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi about Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws.


Comment: Why do people keep missing the point that what Putin is saying is that gays may not agitate for, or propagandize their lifestyle in public. Otherwise, they are left alone. What is so weird about that? Our societies are being degraded and even destroyed - immense human suffering - thanks to sexually oriented promotions of all sorts, heterosexual, pedophiliac, S&M, and homosexual. It's time to call a halt. Human beings should aspire to more than to be mainly categorized by their sexual orientation.


X

Nigeria's new anti-gay law is just a smokescreen for widespread corruption and inequality

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan
© Akintunde AkinleyeNigerian President Goodluck Jonathan
At the beginning of this week, Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina made news around the world by coming out in an article first published by Africa is a Country and then by The Guardian. After the articles were spread, Wainaina became, in the words of the BBC, "one of the most high profile Africans" to disclose that he was gay.

The Kenyan's decision to write publicly about his sexuality was inspired, in part, by Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which was signed into law earlier this month. Wainaina has since tweeted: "private pains of so many africans jamming my inboxes. deaths, beatings, public shames, blackmails, overnight jail cells. betrayed love."

The law is a throwback to the days of the country's military dictatorship, and makes it illegal for gay people to even hold a meeting. It criminalises gay clubs, associations and organisations, and threatens those involved with them with 14 years in prison. And if you don't report "suspected homosexuals", you could receive up to five years in jail yourself. The law also states that anyone who "directly or indirectly makes [a] public show of [a] same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offence and shall each be liable on conviction to a term of ten years in prison".

Bad Guys

Former Goldman Sachs bailout bankster runs for governor of California

Neel Kashkari
© Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesNeel Kashkari
I want to apologize for this space being blank for quite some time. I actually spent the bulk of the last two days on a long blog post about the "Dr. V." story in Grantland. But then I got all the way to the end, and realized I was completely wrong about the entire thing.

So, I spiked my own piece. Now I've been in Talk Radio-style "This is totally dead air, Barry" territory for about two weeks. I could swear I saw a cobweb when I logged on this morning.

So thank God for Neel Kashkari, and the news that this goofball footnote caricature of the bailout era has decided to run for Governor of California. Never in history has there been an easier subject for a blog post.

If you don't remember Kashkari's name, you might be excused - he was actually better known, in his 15 minutes of fame five years ago, as "The 35 year-old dingbat from Goldman someone put in charge of handing out $700 billion bailout dollars."

Now you remember. That guy! Neel Kashkari when he first entered the world of politics was a line item, usually the last entry in a list of ex-Goldman employees handed prominent government and/or regulatory positions, as in, ". . . and, lastly, Neel Kashkari, the heretofore unknown Goldman banker put in charge of the TARP bailout program . . ."

Dollar

HSBC bank imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals

HSBC Bank
© BBCHSBC customers requiring large cash withdrawals may be asked what they want the money for

Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.

Listeners have told Radio 4's Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.

HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.

The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff.