SOTT Focus:


Chess

SOTT Focus: Entropy, Chaos and Power (Part 1)

Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:46 UTC
AIG Bonuses
© Brian Fairrington/caglecartoons.com
The Swiss, a nation long famous for their devotion to banking secrecy, have decided to do away with all that and open the books of UBS to the US government; AIG bonuses are in the spotlight while in fact there is much more to AIG than meets the eye, hence the focus on bonuses; Babcock & Brown went into receivership; GE had its credit rating downgraded; and the G20 Finance Ministers met in Horsham (UK).

What looks suspiciously like a renewal of the British war against the Irish, in a bid to develop a renewed domestic terrorism threat, began with three murders; the circulation of a highly doctrinaire policy document to Missouri State Highway Officers, which flies in the face of the US Constitution, was thankfully brought to public attention, while the French held a bio-terror exercise with the premise that "anti-capitalist = terrorist".

Meanwhile with the focus on bonuses, and the AIG Financial Products ones in particular, are we seeing the beginnings of a manipulated class war? There's nothing like a good distraction to keep people from looking for the real bad guys.
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Attention

SOTT Focus: "The Money Has Gotten Scarce ... but the Truth Is Getting Fierce"

Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:22 UTC
Image
© Jules Joseph LefebvreTruth standing naked and bold holding the mirror.
The 1975 lyrics of Murray Head from Say it ain't so Joe seem appropriate for this stage in the Obama presidency:-
they told us that our hero has played his trump card
he doesn't know how to go on
we're clinging to his charms and determined smile
but the good old days have gone
the image and the empire may be falling apart
the money has gotten scarce
one man's word held the country together
but the truth is getting fierce
The question in our minds is just how fierce does the truth have to get before people wake up and really start questioning how the world works.

Surveying the world economy, the past two weeks saw most non-reserve currencies fall in value, as emerging economies and export-oriented countries are suffering capital flight. In past downturns some regions would experience this and not others, some countries and not others, but now capital flight and, it seems, both real and induced social unrest are widespread.

The beneficiary has been the U.S. dollar, which is surprising given the fact that the Federal Reserve has been "printing" money like crazy and the US government has been borrowing like crazy. "There is nowhere else to go" is the justifying mantra of the times. But what seems to be happening is that those making the bets remain convinced of US global military and economic hegemony. As we have been pointing out, the signs are that military force will be used and the era of "free trade" may be coming to an end. Some are pointing to "currency protectionism."
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Eye 1

SOTT Focus: Big Brother Digest - The Fight for Liberty begins... is it too late?

Richard Sawyer
Sott.net
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:43 UTC
speed gun
© unknownSinister Surveillance
Rather belatedly, citizens of the UK are waking up to the fact that they are under constant surveillance, have lost their privacy, their civil liberties and are now beginning to voice their outrage. 1.1 million children are on a UK DNA database and schools are assisting in softening-up the next generation to accept biometric identity and zero privacy.

Drone aircraft are beginning to be used to monitor civilian populations in the USA and the UK. The USA and Australia attempt to catch up with the UK's dystopia by using the tried and tested 'terrorist' meme. Your Skype calls are likely to soon have someone listening in on them and the much criticized social networking sites are actually displaying some positive uses for once.

Has it been left too late to stop the Big Brother society that we are now a part of?
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Heart - Black

SOTT Focus: Israeli troops open fire on Palestinian women outside mosque

SOTT Focus
Sott.net
Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:00 UTC




The scene near a mosque in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun after Israeli troops opened fire on a group of Palestinian women, killing one of them (see here) and injuring 10 others. The mosque had been the scene of an Israeli siege after a group of men, presumed to be armed, took refuge there. Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters




This story should come as no surprise to anyone. Successive Israeli governments have given ample evidence over the past 60 years that, in their opinion, Palestinian life is worth little more than that of the animals that extreme orthodox Jews sacrifice to their destroyer god "Yahweh". Indeed, at least on a symbolic level, the murder of Palestinian men, women and children by Israeli soldiers is seen by Zionists as a similar type of blood offering to the all-too-human "god" that "promised them Palestine" 2,500 years ago.

With such callous disregard for the life of other human beings, what does anyone expect the end result of the manufactured "Middle East crisis" to be, other than the murder of probably millions of innocent people, Arabs and Jews alike, with only the Zionist leaders escaping unscathed, as always.
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Vader

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: The War on People, Obama's No-Change and the Hardening of Right-Wing Israel

SOTT Editors
Sott.net
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:30 UTC
Capitalism
© International Pub Co. 1911
In the context of the global economic crisis, we are witnessing an important shift in the rhetoric of the media and the elite. Their warnings of riots and social upheaval seem to be implying that harder measures of control will be required; this way, the 'War on Terror' has served its purpose as a template for a 'War on People'.

Contrary to the expectations of its population, the new government of the United States is not moving away from the path set by the Bush administration; the changes so far have only been a matter of appearance.

The right-wing climate is also growing even stronger in Israel with Netanyahu's electoral victory. There are signs that Israel's aggressions towards its neighbors in Palestine and/or Iran will continue after the pause required by the formation of the new government.

All the political and economic turmoil takes place on a planet already experiencing bizarre climatic and cosmic phenomena.
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Chess

SOTT Focus: The Unravelling Continues As More People Suffer

Donald Hunt & Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:27 UTC
World stock indexes fell sharply again the week ending 23rd February, down 6-7% on average.

Gold bumped up against the $1000 barrier on Friday as it became clear that all countries are prepared to go deeply in debt to stimulate their economies and to bail out their banks.

In the background of the economic news there have been some significant moves on the world chessboard. The United States is moving closer to Russia and Iran while escalating the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Russia will now formally allow the United States to resupply their forces in Afghanistan through Russian controlled territory. US diplomatic overtures to Iran continue although the UK Financial Times and other mainstream sources continued to bang the Zionist inspired nuclear weapons drum.

China and the United States are as close as can be economically and neither side seems to need to deny it. China has the productive capacity and the money and the United States has the borrowers, the consumers, and the international police force. The United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to China, has ended the hypocritical ritual of "denouncing" Chinese human rights violations. It looks like the world powers are joining forces to institute the next step of the plan. Meanwhile a new overtly fascist government has been formed in Israel by the right-wing schemer, Netanyahu; an event that does not bode well for humanity.
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Chess

SOTT Focus: Cutting through the illusion - The Grand Chessboard

Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:14 UTC
Image
The US and Israel - the Reality
It may seem blindingly obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway as we often seem to forget, that clear communication is essential to mutual understanding. Without a common understanding of what we say to each other we find ourselves adrift in Babel-land. The risks to us all from a lack of common understanding cannot be overstated.

In the midst of the deluge of bailouts, rescues and stimulus packages there is no clear communication as to just why these measures are being taken and how they are meant to improve the lives of ordinary people. It is abundantly clear that this is deliberate. If we, the normal people of the planet, were to gain a common understanding of what is really happening, we would decide that we don't approve, we would agree on exactly why we don't approve and we would likely agree on what we wish to see happen instead. Those that control our world know this so they ensure that no common understanding is reached; they need the confusion. In fact, they create the confusion.
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Coffee

SOTT Focus: Rescuing Capitalism or Grand Theft & Military Dictatorship?

Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:05 UTC
Image
© Matson

World stock indexes fell the week ending 16th February led by the Dow losing more than 5% while gold continued to inch its way towards the psychologically important $1,000/oz level, driven by the approach of what looks like another emerging market crisis in Eastern Europe which is driving the Euro and Sterling lower, sending - it would seem - mobile money towards gold. The big US news, however, was the passage of the almost $800 billion stimulus package in the United States and the decidedly lukewarm reception to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's much heralded $2 trillion bank rescue plan.

The G7 finance ministers met in Rome in an exercise in hot air generation, stating, as if we needed reminding, that the "downturn" will persist through 2009 and that the various "stimulus measures" won't have any noticeable effect for a while as they "build over time". The ministers did pledge to restore confidence to financial markets and growth to the world economy but didn't happen to mention how they plan to do it. Timothy Geithner demanded "exceptional measures" from his counterparts which we can only assume means "exceptionally large amounts of money" to prop up the international banking system so that it can continue to concentrate even greater wealth in even fewer hands.
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Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Netanyahu, Israel's Mussolini

SOTT Focus
SOTT.net
Mon, 19 May 2008 15:40 UTC


Image

Andrew Lobaczewski studied at close range a deviant category of humans who, when they manage to grab pivotal positions of power, hold a devastating potential for raining death and destruction down on humanity, simply to further their own interests. These individuals are known as psychopaths, and they move skillfully and purposely throughout the higher echelons of the global body politic. And like clockwork, they slot themselves into all the significant seats of power.

One such individual interests us today. It seems that dangerous moves are afoot which threaten the safety of the entire planet, and that he plays a key role.
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Eye 1

SOTT Focus: Big Brother Digest - Steady Creep into an Orwellian Nightmare

Richard Sawyer
Sott.net
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:44 UTC
Banksy CCTV
© Banksy
'There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment . . . It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." - George Orwell's 1984
Under the pretense of the 'War on Terror' the creep towards total control of every aspect of the lives of the World's Citizens continues. No change in America under Obama except greater support for private contractors and further use of wiretapping. The House of Lords speak out against the violation of civil liberties but seem powerless given the EU's role in determining UK legislation. You can't even escape Big Brother UK for a holiday with new travel spying laws. Google latitude causes a stir with it's latest product for stalkers. RFID technology looks poised to facilitate the imposition of a carbon footprint tax despite the flawed global warming science it is based on.
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