Cuban Tariffs: ‘Bad!’ American Tariffs: ‘Good!’

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Cuba is officially Communist. So, Americans know that the government’s regulations are bad for the people. They understand that Communist government regulations increase the poverty of families, who face much harder times. ‘Fidel Castro is a bad guy. So is his kid brother.’
So, when they read of import restrictions like these, they know for sure that it’s another mark of Communist tyranny.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Cuban-Americans fly to and from the island each year thanks to the easing of travel restrictions by the U. S. and Cuban governments over the last five years. Their Cuba-bound checked baggage has become a continuous airlift that moves nearly $2 billion of products ranging from razor blades to rice cookers. The baggage carousels at Cuba’s airports often look like they’re disgorging the contents of an entire Wal-Mart or Target store. Many families bring special trailers to carry the bags of their returning family, which often weigh many hundreds of pounds and include items such as bicycles and flat-screen TVs.
But the Cuban government on Monday is enacting new rules meant to take a big bite of that traffic, sharply limiting the amount of goods people can bring into Cuba in their luggage, and ship by boat from abroad. The Cuban government says the restrictions are meant to curb abuses that have turned air travel in particular into a way for professional ‘mules’ to illegally import supplies for both black-market businesses and legal private enterprises that are supposed to buy supplies from the state.
The government has imposed 41 pages of new rules on imports.

This post was published at Tea Party Economist on September 1, 2014.

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Germany delivers 16,000 assault rifles, 10,000 grenades to Kurds in Iraq

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10,000 hand grenades, 16,000 rifles, 240 rocket-propelled grenades: Germany sends military equipment for 4000 Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq. This was decided by the Federal Government on Sunday evening.
Berlin – The fight against the jihadists of the ‘ Islamic State ‘(IS) will theKurds in northern Iraq, among other anti-tank missiles ‘Milan’ and bazookas from Germany. The’ve Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said. It previously with a ministerial meeting headed by Chancellor had Merkel in Berlin agreed.
Germany sends 16,000 assault rifles, 40 machine guns, 240 rocket-propelled grenades, 500 anti-tank missiles and 10,000 hand grenades to the Kurds, as is evident from a statement by the Ministry of Defence. In addition, to SUVs and five armored patrol vehicles of the type ‘Dingo 1′ supplied (a complete list can be found below this article). The Federal Government had, moreover, because of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Iraq ‘started with the provision of auxiliary services at an altitude of 50 million euros so far.’

This post was published at Investment WatchBlog on September 1st, 2014.

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The Financial War Waging Underneath The Surface PART 2 – The Daily Coin

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(By The Daily Coin)
We cover three crucial topics – the economics of the new marijuana laws, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and we wrap up with Fukushima. Fukushima is a global problem that is getting zero coverage. There is so little information being transferred about this ongoing nightmare that it is appalling.
We quickly turn to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Dave explains that the SCO is the Eastern version of NATO, with one major exception. Eric picks up and details how the SCO will encompass somewhere around 50% to 65% of the global population and three-fourths of the global mineral wealth, including oil. To all you scum-sucking bottom feeders in New York, Washington DC and London – put that in your pipe and smoke it!! This plays a big part in the current events in Eastern Ukraine, Syria and Iran.
SOURCE


This post was published at SRSrocco Report on September 1, 2014.

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How Can You Tell Whether Russia Has Invaded Ukraine?

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‘If you think that Russia is sending its regular units here, then let me tell you something. If Russia was sending its regular troops, we wouldn’t be talking about the battle of Elenovka here. We’d be talking about a battle of Kiev or a possible capture of Lvov.’ Alexander V. Zakharchenko, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic. Lvov is in western Ukraine near the border with Poland. In other words, if Russia invades Ukraine, the fighting will move from the east side to the west side of the country.
As I observed in a recent column, the fantasy spread by Western governments and their media whores that 1,000 Russian troops have invaded Ukraine is the height of absurdity. Despite the absurdity of the claim, some of the Western tabloids, which is what all Western newspapers now are, have declared these 1,000 troops to be a ‘full-scale invasion.’ All of this nonsense is a buildup to the upcoming NATO conference in Wales.

This post was published at Paul Craig Roberts on September 1, 2014.

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What It’s All About: Russia, China Begin Construction Of World’s Largest Gas Pipeline

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If after months of Eurasian axis formation, one still hasn’t realized why in the grand game over Ukraine supremacy – not to mention superpower geopolitics – Europe, and the West, has zero leverage, while Russia has all the trump cards, then today’s latest development in Chinese-Russian cooperation should make it abundantly clear.
Overnight, following a grand ceremony in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, Russia and China officially began the construction of a new gas pipeline linking the countries. The bottom line to Russia – nearly half a trillion after China’s CNPC agreed to buy $400bn in gas from Russia’s Gazprom back in May. In return, Russia will ship 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually over a period of 30 years. The 3,968 km pipeline linking gas fields in eastern Siberia to China will be the world’s largest fuel network in the world.


This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/01/2014.

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Putin: If I Want, I take Kiev in Two Weeks

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The cover story from the German newspaper Bild says it all:
This morning the news which is rattling European capitols and the leadership in the Ukraine has been provided by the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica (translated via Google Translate):
Ukraine, Putin’s blackmail on the European summit: ‘If I want to take Kiev in two weeks ‘ The following excerpt, also translated, provides a background into the fear of retaliation being felt in European Union members and how Putin has elected to deal with the threats of the EU and NATO at this point in the conflict:

This post was published at John Galt Fla on September 1, 2014.

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Ukraine Defense Minister Warns Of “Worst Conflict Since WWII”, Shifts Forces To “Combat Full-Scale Russian Invasion”

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Unless they are tilting at windmills, the rhetoric this morning from Ukraine’s defense minister is the strongest and most actionable yet. Via his Facebook page, Valeriy Galetey accused Russia of “open aggression,” and explained that:
*RUSSIA SHIFTED TO ‘FULL-SCALE’ INVASION OF DONBAS, GELETEY SAYS *UKRAINE HALTS ATTEMPTS TO DISLODGE REBELS: DEFENSE MINISTER *UKRAINE SHIFTS FOCUS TO HALTING RUSSIAN INVASION, GELETEY SAYS Earlier in the morning, US Senator Bob Menendez said he has “no doubt Russia has invaded Ukraine,” and following Ukraine requests for assistance from Europe and US, NATO responded by noting a reaction force or 3-5,000 can be ready in 48 hours.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/01/2014.

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Putin to Barroso: ‘If I want, I’ll take Kiev in two weeks’

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Ukraine, Putin’s blackmail on the European summit: ‘If I want to take Kiev in two weeks ‘
He says that when he asked about the military boundless in Ukraine, the Russian leader went to the threats: ‘The problem is this – it’s the answer told by Tsar Barroso – but what if I want to take Kiev in two weeks.’ As if to say, do not provoke me to anger with new sanctions. Even the British Cameron – that in view of the NATO summit Thursday in Cardiff is working in a multinational force of 10 thousand men to send a signal to the Kremlin – is drastic: ‘This time we can not meet the demands of Putin, has already taken the Crimea and we can not allow that to take over the country, we risk repeating the mistakes made ??in Monaco in ’38, do not know what will happen next. ‘ Prophetic since yesterday Putin has suggested negotiations to crystallize the situation in Crimea and other areas controlled by the separatists. Several delegations confirm the dialogue between the leaders, but in many invite you to weigh carefully since during an exchange ‘frank’ behind closed doors often the concepts are forced to support their position. Renzi invites colleagues to calm, said to understand the but concerns that Russia remains a strategic from the point of view of economic, energy and theaters of crisis in Syria and Iraq

This post was published at Investment WatchBlog on September 1st, 2014.

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THOSE UKRAINIANS JOHN MCCAIN WANTS TO ARM INCLUDE NEO-NAZIS

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After vehemently pushing to arm extremist militants in Syria, Senator John McCain is now calling on Washington to give weapons to Ukrainian forces that include ultra right-wing neo-nazis.
During an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, McCain was asked if the introduction of more weapons to the region would improve or worsen the situation. The Senator responded, ‘For God’s sake can’t we help these people defend themselves, this is not an incursion this is an invasion,’ with McCain adding that Russia had committed an act of war.
‘It’s a conflict that requires our participation not through American ground troops but our participation and our help and our leadership and that is what seems to be missing,’ asserted McCain, adding, ‘Give them the weapons they need. Give them the wherewithal they need. Give them the ability to fight.’


This post was published at Info Wars on SEPTEMBER 1, 2014.

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More Sanctions: Europe Will Ban Purchase Of Russian Bonds; However Russian Gas Exports Remain Untouched

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Over the weekend, insolvent, debt-dependent Europe thought long and hard how to best punish Russia and moments ago reached yet another milestone in deep projective thought: as Reuters reports, Europeans could be barred from buying new Russian government bonds “under a package of extra sanctions over Moscow’s military role in Ukraine that European Union ambassadors were to start discussing on Monday, three EU sources said.” This will be in addition to the ban on the debt funding of most Russian corporations. So as Europe’s 7-day ultimatum for the Kremlin to “de-escalate” counts down, Putin has a choice: continue operating under a budget surplus and ignore Europe’s latest and most amusing hollow threat which is merely a projection of Europe’s biggest fears, or spend himself into oblivion as Europe has done over the past decade and become a vassal state of the Frankfurt central bank.. Somehow we doubt Putin will lose too much sleep over this latest “escalation”…
Some more details on today’s latest threat by Europe, which if nothing else has sent the ruble to a fresh record low against the dollar, leaving Europe green with envy at such currency debasement, and boosting Russian exports even more:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led the drive for a tougher EU response, said on Monday that Moscow’s behaviour in Ukraine must not go unanswered, even if sanctions hurt the German economy, heavily dependent on imported Russian gas. “I have said that (sanctions) can have an impact, also for German companies,” Merkel told a news conference in Berlin. “But I have to say there is also an impact when you are allowed to move borders in Europe and attack other countries with your troops,” she said. “Accepting Russia’s behaviour is not an option. And therefore it was necessary to prepare further sanctions.”

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/01/2014.

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These Clowns Are Dragging Us Into War

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These Clowns Are Dragging Us Into War
In 8 weeks, on October 26, there are – supposed to be – parliamentary elections in Ukraine. What’s that going to look like? Who’s going to vote? In the presidential elections a few months ago, most of east Ukraine did not vote. How many different ways are there to define democracy and still remain credible?
In an interview today on Russian Channel 1, Vladimir Putin commented on the upcoming elections: ‘All the participants in the electoral race will want to show how cool they are; Everyone will want to show they are strongmen or strongwomen, and as the political struggle sharpens it is hard to expect anyone to seek a peaceful resolution and not a military one.’ That would seem to be an accurate prediction.
The EU yesterday (in yet another definition of democracy) picked its new president. They chose Polish PM Donald Tusk, which may seem a bit strange since Tusk doesn’t speak a word of either English or French, and he comes from a nation that is not even in the Eurozone, yet he will now now get to chair meetings that concern the euro. But Tusk is a hawk on Russia, and therefore suspiciously convenient to the inner core of Washington and Brussels’ control apparatus. He’s said more bad and ugly things about Russia and Putin than just about anyone recently, and that’s saying something.
The US and EU have worked for years to see their desire to take over Ukraine come to fruition. They’ve come a long way, but they wanted Crimea and the Donbass region most of all, and those they still don’t have. Still, they’ve so far shown themselves more than willing to assist first in killing thousands of eastern Ukrainians to get what they want, and now they are prepared to start a war over it.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 08/31/2014.

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CDC whistleblower’s confession: his personal safety is still an issue

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On August 27, CDC whistleblower William Thompson came out of the shadows and admitted he had omitted vital data from a 2004 study on the MMR vaccine and its connection to autism.
Thompson’s official statement was released through his Cincinnati attorney, Rick Morgan.
The key piece in Thompson’s statement is:
‘I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.’
‘My concern has been the decision to omit relevant findings in a particular study for a particular sub group for a particular vaccine. There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines.’
Everything else in Thompson’s statement is backfill and back-pedaling and legal positioning and self-protection.
But this part, this is big. Within Thompson’s community of researchers and the general world of medical research and publishing, people know what it means.
It means major fraud.

This post was published at Jon Rappoport on August 31, 2014.

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Just Admit It: You (and your kids) Are State PROPERTY

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Still think you have “freedom” eh? Still think you’re the actual parents of your children, and that you should be the ones making decisions about their lifestyle and heatlh? Or are you simply where all the liabilities reside for the decision to have them, while the choices belong to someone else — you know, like a slave?
Police have rejected criticism of their search for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour removed from a UK hospital by his parents against medical advice.
Ashya King was found in Malaga on Saturday and his parents arrested, following an international search.
His father Brett King defended his actions in a video posted on YouTube, saying there had been a “ridiculous chase”.
Hampshire Police said medical advice was that Ashya was in “grave danger”.
The parents, it turns out, wanted their kid to be treated using a therapy not offered by the UK’s socialized medical services. Specifically, they wanted to use proton beam therapy rather than what the UK wanted to use (effectively gamma radiation.) The difference is that proton beam therapy is a more-targeted form of radiation than gamma. Both are of the same general type, and there is much dispute as to whether proton therapy is as effective in specific cancers. Then again there’s plenty of argument over whether radiation therapy actually “works” (that is, does less harm and good) in these cases to begin with.

This post was published at Market-Ticker on 2014-08-31.

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Labor’s Demise Is America’s Demise – Paul Craig Roberts

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Labor Day is a holiday that has outlived its time. Like Christmas, Labor Day has become a time-out period. As Christmas has become a shopping spree, Labor Day has become the last summer holiday.
The holiday originated in 1887 to celebrate the contribution made by American workers to the strength and prosperity of the United States. The first Monday in September was chosen by President Grover Cleveland to avoid a May date that would keep alive the memory of the previous year’s Haymarket Massacre in which workers striking for an eight-hour day suffered casualties from the Chicago police.
As time passed union leadership became a career rather than a movement in behalf of a cause, but the labor movement in its initial years was reformist. It brought safer working conditions into industry and manufacturing. Unions served as a countervailing power and constrained the exploitative power of capital. An industrial or manufacturing job was a ladder of upward mobility that made the US an opportunity society and stabilized the socio-political system with a large middle class. A large and thriving industrial and manufacturing sector provided many white collar middle class jobs for managers, engineers, researchers and designers, and American universities flourished as did their graduates.

This post was published at Paul Craig Roberts on August 31, 2014.

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Well Done Hillary, Islamists are Swimming in Our Pool!

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Images from Libya today speak more clearly about the folly of US interventionism, US “regime change” operations, US-led bombing campaigns to “promote democracy” than anything else. Arguing passionately in favor of a US attack on Libya, over the objections of then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, then-US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said:
I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.
Well she was partly right. Thanks to her successful demands for a US attack, it was Libya that went down in flames.

This post was published at Ron Paul Institute on sunday august 31, 2014.

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10 CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT CAME TRUE

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When questioning the official narrative proved crucial
Despite the fact that the term ‘conspiracy theory’ has been weaponized by the establishment as a perjorative slur against anyone who questions the official narrative of any government pronouncement, there are innumerable examples throughout history of conspiracies that were proven to be true.
Let’s take a look at ten examples;
1) Operation AJAX and false flag terror
The notion that governments and intelligence agencies carry out acts of false flag terrorism has long been derided by the establishment media as a conspiracy theory, despite there being a plethora of historically documented instances.
After decades of denial, in August 2013 the CIA finallyadmitted its role in staging the coup in Iran which led to the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 under the umbrella of Operation AJAX.
Under AJAX, the CIA oversaw covert operations which included acts of false flag terror which claimed the lives of some 300 people.
2) Gulf of Tonkin
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson went on national television and told the nation that North Vietnam had attacked U. S. ships.
‘Repeated acts of violence against the armed forces of the United States must be met not only with alert defense, but with a positive reply. That reply is being given as I speak tonight,’ Johnson declared.

This post was published at Info Wars by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON & ALEX JONES | AUGUST 31, 2014.

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Movement to Declassify 9/11 Information Gathers Momentum

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9/11 Commission Chairs, Congressmen and Intelligence Officers All Call for Declassification
The 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs – Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean – have called for the 28-page section of the 9/11 Commission Report which is classified to be declassified.
Kean said that 60-70% of what was classified shouldn’t have been classified in the first place:


This post was published at Washingtons Blog on August 31, 2014.

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Putin Calls for Eastern Ukraine Statehood

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Putin threw fat into the Ukrainian fire today by calling for Talks on Eastern Ukraine Statehood.
The question at hand is” What precisely does Putin mean by “statehood” ?
Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Sunday for immediate talks on the “statehood” of southern and eastern Ukraine, although his spokesman said this did not mean Moscow now endorsed rebel calls for independence for territory they have seized.
The Kremlin leader’s remarks, two days after a public appearance in which he compared the Kiev government with Nazis and warned the West not to “mess with us”, came as Europe and the United States prepared possible further sanctions to halt what they say is direct Russian military involvement in the war in Ukraine.

This post was published at Global Economic Analysis on Sunday, August 31, 2014.

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Libya May Be Focus Of Major Rift Between US And Regional Allies

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Submitted by Defense & Foreign Affairs via OilPrice.com,
It had become clear by late August 2014 that Libya could no longer be seen as a unified state; at best it was in two parts, even with the communal leaderships of both sides professing a desire to resume national unity. By late August 2014, the country had two parliaments: one elected by the Libyan people, and the other given legitimacy solely by foreign support.
The situation seemed so intractable by that point that it was possible that a full military intervention by regional states, perhaps spearheaded by Egypt, could be attempted, with the goal of stabilizing the country and eliminating the foreign-funded and foreign-armed jihadis who were using Libya as a springboard for a proposed pro-Islamist war against the current Egyptian Government.
The proxy forces of the 2011 unilateral intervention by Qatar, supporting jihadis and the Muslim Brothers (Ikhwan), and by Turkey and the US, into the Cyrenaican revolt against Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi, were still dominating the Libyan political scene, much to the frustration of Libyan tribal forces.
Qatar was creating a ‘Free Egyptian Army’ in the Cyrenaica desert, and patterned on the ‘Free Syrian Army’ which Qatar, Turkey, and the US had built to challenge Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Significantly, while the US and European Union (EU) continued in August 2014 to promote the concept of a unified Libya, they were basing their approach around what was essentially a modification of the mode of governance practiced by Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi, who seized power by a coup in 1969, and held it until 2011. Widespread Libyan calls for a return to the 1951 Constitution – drafted by the United Nations and the 140 or so Libyan tribes – have been consistently ignored by Washington and Brussels.
By August 2014, the foreign jihadist fighters – mainly linked to salafist groups and either directly or indirectly working with the Muslim Brothers (Ikhwan) – were still entrenched in Cyrenaica, in Eastern Libya (where the local moderate. anti-salafist Senussiyah sect of Islam predominates), supported by Qatar, Turkey, and the US Government. As well, they were entrenched around Tripoli.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 08/31/2014.

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