Worth a read: Comment from Fred Hayek on tfmetalsreport

It’s amazing sometimes how everyone can know something and then some time passes and if you say what everyone once knew you’re regarded as a crank.

You say that the U.S. government manipulates the price of gold?  What are you, a conspiracy theorist?!

Well, from page 86 of Dimitri Speck’s book The Gold Cartel, there’s this eye popping quote that was once common place knowledge about efforts to stem spiralling inflation in 1979:

As Time magazine explains:

Volcker . . . drafts plans for what could be the second massive dollar-rescue program the US has had t o mount in eleven months.  Among the steps under discussion:  LARGER GOLD SALES.  The 750,000 oz. of Fort Knox bullion the US now sells monthly might be doubled, in hopes that this might drive prices down.

Please read that a second time and note that the capitalization is in the original, not added by me for emphasis.  (Incidentally, 750,000 ounces is 25.7 tons . . . a month)It’s from a Time freaking magazine issue dated 15 October 1979. 

So, here you are in 2014 trying to get your family and friends to listen to you that gold and silver markets are rigged and they won’t go for it.  What’s with that conspiracy stuff?!

But back in 1979 people waiting in doctors’ offices and dentists’ office were yawning as they read about how the Fed was selling 750,000 ounces of gold from Fort Knox into the market every month to try to halt the rise of gold prices.

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Worth a read: Excerpt from PCR

“The ignorance, absence of integrity, and lack of independence of the US media greatly enhances the prospect for war. The picture being drawn for insouciant Americans is totally false. An informed people would have burst out laughing when US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Russia for “invading Ukraine” in “violation of international law.” Kerry is the foreign minister of a country that has illegally invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, organized the overthrow of the government in Libya, tried to overthrow the government in Syria, attacks the civilian populations of Pakistan and Yemen with drones and missiles, constantly threatens Iran with attack, unleashed the US and Israeli trained Georgian army on the Russian population of South Ossetia, and now threatens Russia with sanctions for standing up for Russians and Russian strategic interests. The Russian government noted that Kerry has raised hypocrisy to a new level.”

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Worth a look: Banker Money

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Worth a read: Why Is The Mainstream Media Ignoring The Rabid Anti-Semitism In The New Ukraine Government?

In World War II, the United States fought against rabidly anti-Semitic fascists.  In 2014, the United States helps them overthrow democratically-elected governments.  And the sick thing is that the mainstream media is acting an an accomplice because it is purposely ignoring or greatly playing down the rabid anti-Semitism in Ukraine.

The anti-Semitism of many of the “reformers” that have seized power in Kiev does not fit with the narrative that the U.S. government is trying to push, so the mainstream media conveniently turns a blind eye to the fact that the United States is essentially helping neo-Nazis take power.  In fact, leaders of the Svoboda Party have been appointed to numerous important positions throughout the new government.

As you will read about below, the head of the Svoboda Party has denounced the “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry”, another top Svoboda official regularly quotes Joseph Goebbels, and the Party itself was known as “the Social-National Party” (in reference to National Socialists) until 2004.  There is a long history of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, but our politicians in Washington D.C. don’t seem to care about that.  All they seem to care about is making sure that there is not a pro-Russian government in Ukraine no matter what the cost.

There is a reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin cited “ultranationalists” as one of the reasons why Russian troops had to intervene in Ukraine.  What we are seeing in Ukraine right now is eerily reminiscent of what we saw in Nazi Germany before World War II…

Full article here

Worth a read: The Backstory to the Russia-Ukraine Confrontation: The U.S. and NATO Encirclement of Russia

The American press portrays Putin as being the bad guy and the aggressor in the Ukraine crisis.

Putin is certainly no saint. A former KGB agent, Putin’s net worth is estimated at some $40 billion dollars … as he has squeezed money out of the Russian economy by treating the country as his own personal fiefdom. And all sides appear to have dirt on their hands in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

But we can only see the bigger picture if we take a step back and gain a little understanding of the history underlying the current tensions…

Full article here.

Worth a Read: Let’s You and Him Fight

Submitted by James H. Kunstler of Kunstler.com,

So, now we are threatening to start World War Three because Russia is trying to control the chaos in a failed state on its border — a state that our own government spooks provoked into failure? The last time I checked, there was a list of countries that the USA had sent troops, armed ships, and aircraft into recently, and for reasons similar to Russia’s in Crimea: the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, none of them even anywhere close to American soil. I don’t remember Russia threatening confrontations with the USA over these adventures.

The phones at the White House and the congressional offices ought to be ringing off the hook with angry US citizens objecting to the posturing of our elected officials. There ought to be crowds with bobbing placards in Farragut Square reminding the occupant of 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue how ridiculous this makes us look.

The saber-rattlers at The New York Times were sounding like the promoters of a World Wrestling Federation stunt Monday morning when they said in a Page One story:

“The Russian occupation of Crimea has challenged Mr. Obama as has no other international crisis, and at its heart, the advice seemed to pose the same question: Is Mr. Obama tough enough to take on the former K.G.B. colonel in the Kremlin?”

Are they out of their chicken-hawk minds over there? It sounds like a ploy out of the old Eric Berne playbook: Let’s You and Him Fight….

Full article here.

March 10th: The Ukraine

Main headlines regarding The Ukraine on Google News:

• Ukraine mobilizes after Russia’s ‘declaration of war’ (CNN)

As Ukraine’s new leaders accused Russia of declaring war, Russia’s Prime Minister warned Sunday that blood could be spilled amid growing instability in the neighboring nation.

Kiev mobilized troops and called up military reservists in a rapidly escalating crisis that has raised fears of a conflict. And world leaders pushed for a diplomatic solution.

In a post on his official Facebook page, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the recent ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych a “seizure of power.”

“Such a state of order will be extremely unstable,” Medvedev said. “It will end with the new revolution. With new blood.” (click on the link above for the whole article)

• Ukraine Crises: Russia tightens military grip on the Crimea (BBC)

Russia has tightened its military grip on Ukraine’s Crimea region, taking de facto control despite Western demands that it withdraw.

Thousands of Russian troops are securing the region. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they were defending Russian citizens and human rights.

The world’s seven major industrialised powers  have condemned Moscow’s “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty”(China was not amongst the seven but this fact was omitted).

Ukraine has ordered full mobilisation, urging more international support.

Russia says it is protecting its interests and those of Russian-speakers in Ukraine following the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych last month.

Mr Lavrov said in Geneva on Monday that Russian troops were needed in Ukraine “until the normalisation of the political situation”… (please click on the link above for the whole article)

Information that has been left largely unsaid by the Mainstream Press:

• Current power structure lies very much in Armed Ukrainian Nationalist (Far Right/Neo Nazi) hands
• Democracy in the country has largely broken down, with Nationalists hijacking the Ukrainian political process
• Strong anti Russian sentiments are held by these Nationalists, causing much angst for the large ethnic Russian population in the country
• Unknown armed men from Kiev have tried to seize the Crimean Interior Ministry overnight-Russia’s Foreign Ministry
• Russians are currently reinforcing areas in the Crimea, an Autonomous Republic.
• The Russian presence was sought after by the Crimean Prime Minister, Sergei Aksyonov, “for assistance in guaranteeing peace and calmness” on the peninsula. Ukraine’s recently deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych, insists he remains Ukraine’s lawful president, and has reportedly requested Russia’s assistance as well.
• There is an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to allow Russian military bases in the Crimea
• Rear admiral Denis Berezovsky, appointed as head of Ukraine’s Navy forces just two days ago, has sworn allegiance to the people of Crimea. (Why would he do this?)

References and other sources that need your attention:

• Paul Craig Roberts’ interview on KWN (He was an assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration)
• Wikipedia Article on the Crimea
• Memo to Obama: This was their red line!
• Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Declare that Power Comes Out of the Barrels of their Guns

Now, please go back and read those mainstream articles again. Notice anything important that was left unsaid?

Some points to ponder:

• During the long decades of the Cold War, the West did nothing to liberate the “captive nation” of the Ukraine—with or without the Crimean appendage bestowed upon it in 1954. Nor did it draw any red lines in the mid-1990’s when a financially desperate Ukraine rented back Sevastopol and the strategic redoubts of the Crimea to an equally pauperized Russia.
• Should it be called an ‘invasion’ if a region and its people have formally invited troops to their shores?
• If you were Crimean, would you want Russian soldiers guarding you against far right Ukrainian Nationalists, or would you rather take your chances?
• Paul Craig Roberts and other sources suggests social unrest was started and funded by Western Powers, hoping to neutralise Russian influence in the area.  How are the peoples of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria viewing the West’s meddling of their affairs?
• Do we really want our governments drawing more red lines in other peoples’ sand?
• Why the obvious obfuscation and spin of critical facts?

Other Facts on the Crimea (Source)

• The peninsula shooting out into Black Sea from mainland Ukraine was for centuries colonized and conquered by historic empires and nomadic tribes.
• Greeks, Scythians, Byzantians and the Genoese have all left traces of their presence in Crimean archeological sites and placenames.
• The majority of those living in Crimea today are ethnic Russians – almost 1,200,000 or around 58.3 percent of the population, according to the last national census conducted back in 2001. Some 24 percent are Ukrainians (around 500,000) and 12 percent are Crimean Tatars.
• An absolute majority of the Crimean population (97 percent) use Russian as their main language, according to a Kiev International Institute of Sociology poll.
• One of the first decisions of the interim Kiev government directly hit Crimea, as it revoked a law that allowed Russian and other minority languages to be recognized as official in multicultural regions.