Friday, December 30, 2016

Israel First or America First

And once U.S. pressure ends and settlement building in the West Bank proceeds, Netanyahu his hawkish Cabinet, the Israeli lobby, the neocons and the congressional Republicans will start beating the drums for Trump to terminate what he himself has called that "horrible Iran deal."

Calls are already coming for the cancellation of the sale of 80 Boeing jets to Iran. Yet, any U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, or reimposition of sanctions on Iran, will further split us off from our European allies. Not only did Britain and France vote for the Security Council resolution, both are party, as is Germany, to the Iran deal.

Having America publicly reassert herself as Israel’s best friend, with "no daylight" between us, could have us ending up as Israel’s only friend – and Israel as our only friend in the Middle East.

Bibi’s Israel First policy must one day collide with America First.

Read the entire article

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

What Israel Fears Most: An Encroachment to “Greater Israel”?

Israel has strong US-led Western support. Security Council Resolution 2334, affirming the illegality of its settlements, changed nothing on the ground – nor will it any time ahead as far as it’s reasonable to predict.

Eventual Palestinian self-determination based on pre-June 1967 borders is another matter entirely. The possibility of it happening any time ahead concerns Israel most of all.

Longstanding state policy calls for maximum land with minimum Arabs – dispossessing them extrajudicially for exclusive Jewish development, achieving the goal through one bulldozed Palestinian home at a time, eliminating entire communities longer term, settlement expansions continuing unabated on stolen land.

A near-century ago, the World Zionist Organization’s plan for a Jewish state included:

• historic Palestine;

• South Lebanon up to Sidon and the Litani River;

• Syria’s Golan Heights, Hauran Plain and Deraa; and

• control of the Hijaz Railway from Deraa to Amman, Jordan as well as the Gulf of Aqaba.

Some Zionists wanted more – land from the Nile in the West to the Euphrates in the East, comprising Palestine, Lebanon, Western Syria and Southern Turkey.

Read the entire article

Monday, December 26, 2016

There Are No Terrorists? Counterterrorism = Supporting Terrorism? Western Governments Are Supporting Terrorist Organizations Which They are Allegedly Combating

The Western media in chorus is accusing the Syrian government and its allies including Russia and Iran of “crimes against humanity” for having liberated Aleppo from the clutch of Al Qaeda terrorists. “Putin and Assad could face justice for war crimes in Syria” according to the Washington Post. 

In the media coverage of  Aleppo, the Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists are casually described as opposition “rebels” waging a “revolution” against the government of Bashar al Assad, who is portrayed as a “dictator”. 

The media propaganda campaign has gone into high gear. The words “Al Qaeda”, “Al Nusra” or “terrorists” are simply not mentioned in recent media reports.  It never happened. “Opposition rebels” committed to democracy have been crushed by the Russians, according to “authoritative” media sources.

According to reports, there were no terrorists in Aleppo. The “rebels” are now being portrayed as the victims of Russian aggression.  These are the same terrorists who are the object of Obama’s alleged “counterterrorism” campaign, which is largely intent upon protecting the terrorists. 

Read the entire article

Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Threat Against Trump Rises

The use of the presstitute media to deny Trump the Republican presidential nomination failed.

The use of the presstitute media to deny Trump victory in the presidential election failed.

The vote recount failed.

The effort to sway the Electoral College failed.

But the effort continues.

The CIA report on Russia’s alleged interference in the US presidential election ordered by Obama is in process. Faked evidence is a hallmark of CIA operations.

In their determination to seal Trump’s ears against environmental concerns, a group of environmentalists plan to disrupt the inauguration. This in itself is of little consequence, but chaos presents opportunity for assassination.

Trump himself seems to think he is in danger. According to MSNBC, Trump intends to supplement his Secret Service protection with private security. As there is evidence of CIA complicity in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (film shows Secret Service agents ordered away from JFK’s limo immediately prior to his assassination), Trump, who is clearly seen as a threat by the military/security complex, is not being paranoid. MSNBC implies that Trump’s private security is to suppress protesters, as if government security forces have shown any compunction about suppressing protesters. LINK

Read the entire article

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Russophobia and Sinophobia

It's by now crystal clear the coup-in-progress against Donald Trump is a made in USA regime change op using standard hybrid war techniques such as manipulation of public opinion by mainstream media.

The coup has been articulated by the usual suspects, from neocons to neoliberalcons, "humanitarian" imperialists included, with a special starring role for their pet agency, the CIA, which during the Bush-Obama continuum further specialized in fake "intelligence".

And yet the whole "Russia hacked our freedoms" narrative was thoroughly debunked by former UK diplomat and close WikiLeaks contributor Craig Murray; he even knows where the leak – not hack – came from. 

Adding (infantile) insult to (juvenile) injury, Queen of War cum sore loser Hillary Clinton, at a private donor event, blamed it all on a President Putin vendetta. She may have internalized too many Tarantino flicks – and her dialogue lines are far from quirky; but still she delivered a "He Came, He Saw, I Was Toast" narrative according to which "Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me."

Read the entire article

Friday, December 16, 2016

The Leak That Came in From the Cold

As the frantic attempts by die-hard Democrats, the media, and the CIA to prevent Donald Trump by being sworn into office reach a fever pitch, Hillary Clinton’s anguished cry seems like the only appropriate response. Trump won the election, he’s now announcing his Cabinet, and that’s the end of the matter.

Or is it only the beginning?

When the CIA targets a country for regime change, I wouldn’t bet the farm on the targeted government surviving. And while this isn’t quite Allende’s Chile, America’s increasing resemblance to a banana republic is augured in the CIA’s refusal to appear at a congressional oversight committee to explain leaks in the press charging that Russian intelligence actively worked to elect Trump. So who’s in charge here – the CIA or the people’s elected representatives?

The White House has joined the fray, implying that the PEOTUS is directly colluding with Moscow. White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated that Trump was “obviously” aware, “based on whatever sources were available to him,” that the Russians were behind the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta. Because, you see, Trump has a direct line to the Kremlin: after all, how else could the Russians issue their marching orders?

It’s unlikely, albeit possible, that this brouhaha is going to prevent Trump from taking office: the “Hamilton electors” campaign doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, in spite of the best efforts of  Christine Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter – gee, how did she become an elector, I wonder?

Read the entire article

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Why They Hate Rex Tillerson

While the Democrats morph into a neoconservative party of paranoiacs whose main issue is hating on Russia, and the John McCain-Lindsey Graham duo arises to make its last stand in a Trumpified GOP, Rex Tillerson is the perfect target of their ire. Seeking to delegitimize the President-elect as a Russian-controlled Manchurian candidate, the CIA-Clinton-Saudi axis of “resistance” is on the warpath, and Tillerson’s alleged ties to Vladimir Putin are taking center stage in what is bound to turn into a knock-down drag-out fight on the Senate floor.

What’s noteworthy about this gathering storm is that Trump seems to welcome it: despite the rising tide of cold war hysteria, the Trump team is determined to have this fight right out of the starting gate. Instead of waiting for the inevitable assault, they’re going on the offensive against  the War Party  – and that is a welcome development for those of us who support détente with Russia.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State is the CEO of Exxon, a company that has always opposed the American empire’s favorite ploy short of war: economic sanctions. Exxon is one of the principal supporters of USA Engage, a business lobby that has for years argued against Iranian and Iraqi sanctions, and that believes in “positively engaging other societies through diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, the presence of American organizations,” and that “the best practices of American companies and humanitarian exchanges better advances U.S. objectives than punitive unilateral economic sanctions.”

Contrary to the brainless leftist narrative that characterizes Big Oil as the driving force behind the War Party – remember “No Blood for Oil!”? – the reality is that the oil industry, including Exxon, opposed the Iraq war, just as they opposed the economic sanctions that preceded it. Iran sanctions are equally unpopular with the oil industry, and, as a New Yorker profile of Tillerson put it: “In general, Tillerson and ExxonMobil have argued against economic sanctions as an instrument of American foreign policy.”

Read the entire article

Monday, December 12, 2016

Stop the CIA Coup

The CIA is up to its old tricks: overthrowing a democratically elected government. Only this time it’s our government.

As they are now legally allowed to do ever since the law against covert CIA propaganda in the United States was repealed, the Agency has leaked to the Washington Post reports – via anonymous third parties – of its alleged assessment of a Russian campaign to hand Donald Trump the White House:

“The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.

“Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to US officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.

“’It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,’ said a senior US official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to US senators. “That’s the consensus view.”

Read the entire article

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Trump's Meeting With Kissinger; Internationalism and American Foreign Policy

On Tuesday, president-elect Donald Trump — who campaigned on an anti-establishment platform — sat down with the quintessential establishment insider, Henry Kissinger (shown). The meeting is cause for concern. Kissinger is well-known as a self-avowed globalist. He is also a long-time member of the Council of Foreign Relations and has been involved in the Trilateral Commission — both of which are pro-globalist organizations. Both as secretary of state and since, his foreign policy has always favored his internationalist bent. He is also a regular attendee of the highly secretive — and entirely globalist — annual Bilderberger Conference.

Kissinger favors everything Trump campaigned against (and against everything Trump campaigned for). For instance, Trump has promised to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and negotiate trade deals which favor American interests. TPP is the poisoned fruit that hangs from the branches of the poisoned tree of previous trade agreements, such as NAFTA. Kissinger famously said that NAFTA “represent[s] the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War” and that it “is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system.” Telegraphing the plans of the insiders to use NAFTA as a launching pad for bigger and broader agreements, such as TPP, Kissinger said at the time of the passage of NAFTA that it was the “first step toward an even larger vision of a free-trade zone for the entire western hemisphere.” Stopping TPP is necessary, but it is not enough. NAFTA must be dismantled, and the ground from which it sprang must be plowed under so that no root of that poisoned tree remains to spring up again later. That ground is internationalism, and Henry Kissinger is one of its chief gardeners.

Tuesday’s meeting between Trump and Kissinger is not the first between the two. In fact, it is at least the third such meeting since Trump began his bid for the White House. The two met in May, before Trump had even secured the GOP nomination. That meeting — requested by Trump — was held at Kissinger’s home and lasted about an hour. In that meeting, Trump appeared to be courting Kissinger’s approval or at least attempting to appear well-connected by being seen meeting with the granddaddy of foreign policy. The week before that, Trump met with another well-connected insider and former secretary of state, James Baker.

The week after winning the election, Trump again sat down with Kissinger. This time, the meeting was on Trump’s home court — Trump Tower. ABC News reported that Trump said he has “tremendous respect for Dr. Kissinger and appreciates him sharing his thoughts with me." In a statement after the meeting, the presidential transition team said, "President-elect Trump and Dr. Kissinger have known each other for years and had a great meeting. They discussed China, Russia, Iran, the EU and other events and issues around the world."

Read the entire article

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Chosen Leaders, Proven Failures and Political Debacles

With a few notable exceptions, political leaders are chosen by political leaders, and not by electorates or community-based organizations or popular assemblies.  Popular media figures and the so-called ‘pundits’, including academics and self-declared experts and ‘think-tank’ analysts reinforce and propagate these choices.

A collection of terms and pseudo concepts are essential in validating what is really an oligarchical process.  These concepts are tagged onto whoever is chosen by the elite for electoral candidates or for the seizure of political power.  With this framework in mind, we have to critically analyze the symbols and signs used by popular opinion-makers as they promote political elites.  We will conclude by posing an alternative to the ‘propaganda of choice’, which has so far resulted in broken pre-election promises and political debacles.

Language and Pseudo-Concepts:  Subterfuges for Manipulated Choices

The usual suspects in the business of mass-manipulation describe their political leaders in the same folksy or pseudo-serious terms that they attribute to themselves:  Experts/ intuitive improvisers/ trial and error ‘muddlers’.  The ‘experts’ often mean wrong-headed policymakers and advisers whose decisions usually reflect the demands of their current paymasters.  Their stated or unstated assumptions are rarely questioned and almost never placed in the context of the contemporary power structures.  The experts determine the future trajectory for their political choices.  In this way, the views expressed by ‘experts’ are primarily ideological and not some disembodied scholarly entity floating in an indeterminate space and time.

Pundits often promote ‘experience’ in describing the ‘experienced’ leader, adviser or cabinet member. They denigrate the opposition candidate adversary as ‘lacking experience’.  The obvious questions to this platitude should be: ‘What kind of experience?  What were the political results of this experience?  Who did this experience serve?

Read the entire article

Friday, December 2, 2016

Fake News and War Party Lies

"I have in my possession a secret map, made in Germany by Hitler’s government – by the planners of the New World Order," FDR told the nation in his Navy Day radio address of Oct. 27, 1941.

"It is a map of South America as Hitler proposes to reorganize it. The geographical experts of Berlin, however, have ruthlessly obliterated all the existing boundary lines … bringing the whole continent under their domination," said Roosevelt. "This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States as well."

Our leader had another terrifying secret document, "made in Germany by Hitler’s government. …

"It is a plan to abolish all existing religions – Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish alike. … In the place of the churches of our civilization, there is to be set up an international Nazi Church…

"In the place of the Bible, the words of ‘Mein Kampf’ will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ. And in place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols – the swastika and the naked sword. … A god of blood and iron will take the place of the God of love and mercy."

The source of these astounding secret Nazi plans?

Read the entire article

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Two Cultures, Two Americas — Post-Election 2016 Edition

The implications of the stark contrast between those who voted for Hillary Clinton and those who voted for Donald Trump are what I wish to discuss. Two cultures. Two Americas. Unequal, unyoked, mutually hostile, and — other things being equal — on collision course. A philosopher should have something to say about this situation, especially a philosopher with a sense of history and its relevance, as well as one aware of the existence of contrasting worldviews. That would be a philosopher such as myself, schooled in the work of Thomas S. Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, long aware of the incommensurability problem (it was my dissertation topic, after all!), and thus aware not just of the philosophical problems created by accounting for vast divides but the dicey practical problems involved in communicating across them.

These sorts of events are not limited to the U.S., obviously. The British voted for Brexit on June 23, which as I noted many pundits also thought would fail. Nigel Farage, one of the most visible Euro-skeptics, was one of the brains behind Brexit. The French might well put National Front president Marine Le Pen in charge of their country when the time comes. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me. What some call “populism” and others, “economic nationalism” (and still others, simply racism and xenophobia) is on the rise around the world. What it is, is a mass rejection of globalism / globalization. Many common people have figured out that what globalism / globalization has done is enrich a tiny elite, destroying middle classes in its wake in places like the U.S., and destabilizing their communities without bringing them tangible benefits. In Europe, much anti-globalism is in response to the flood of Middle Eastern migrants, primarily Muslims, from third world countries, and the rising tides of terrorist attacks, sexual assaults, and other violent crimes they’ve brought with them. Eurocrats, CEOs, and bankers may think open borders are a good idea, but they don’t have to wipe up the blood!

I’ve previously commented on the so-called “alt-right” in the U.S. which has little use for a “movement conservatism” it sees as impotent, and which clearly was already dead in the water: one of the most basic reasons Trump rose to the top despite attacks from within his own party. One wonders how much soul-searching will go on within the upper echelons of the GOP to figure out that Trump, with his media-savvy and ability to use even media hostility to his advantage, had very little to compete with. There wasn’t much in the way of ideas discussed in the GOP debates, because Trump’s competitors didn’t have any! Had Trump not run, however, issues such as globalism, immigration, trade agreements, and border controls wouldn’t have been on the table! Everyone with a functioning brain knows this!

Be this as it may, the open antagonism that developed over Trump’s candidacy, and now over his victory, are indicative of more going on. One could argue that the culture war has just gone to the next level. The left thought it had won hands down (largely because of the collapse of “movement conservatism”). But that was before Donald Trump, and now we are seeing a rising clash between the two cultures, two Americas, both pre- and post-election 2016?

Read the entire article

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Monday, November 28, 2016

The Witch-Hunters

Here’s a list of more Forbidden Topics we’re not supposed to discuss, except maybe in whispers in the privacy of our own homes: “Police brutality, racial tensions, protests, anti-government standoffs, online privacy concerns, and alleged government misconduct are all emphasized [by the Vast Russian Conspiracists – ed.] to magnify their scale and leveraged to undermine the fabric of society.” After all, Russia Today is “emphasizing” these issues – so mum’s the word!

Yes, these people are serious – but why should anyone take them seriously? Why is the Washington Post “reporting” this nonsense – and putting it on the front page, no less? In short, what’s the purpose of this virulent propaganda campaign? After all, Hillary Clinton has been defeated, along with her campaign theme of “A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin.” What does a continuation of this losing mantra hope to accomplish?

The folks at propornot are explicit about their goal: they want the government to step in. They want to close down these “agents of influence.” In their own words, they want the FBI and the Department of Justice to launch “formal investigations” of the sites on their blacklist on the grounds that “the kind of folks who make propaganda for brutal oligarchies are often involved in a wide range of bad business.” They accuse the proprietors of the listed web sites – including us, by the way – of having “violated the Espionage Act, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and other related laws.”

Oh, but they say they want to “avoid McCarthyism”! They just want to shut us down and shut us up.

These people are authoritarians, plain and simple: under the guise of fighting authoritarianism, they seek to ban dissenting views, jail the dissenters, and impose a narrow range of permissible debate on the public discourse. They are dangerous, and they need to be outed and publicly shamed.

Read the entire article

Thursday, November 24, 2016

When It Comes to Fake News, the U.S. Government Is the Biggest Culprit

There’s the garden variety fake news that is not really “news” so much as it is titillating, tabloid-worthy material peddled by anyone with a Twitter account, a Facebook page and an active imagination. These stories run the gamut from the ridiculous and the obviously click-baity to the satirical and politically manipulative.

Anyone with an ounce of sense and access to the Internet should be able to ferret out the truth and lies in these stories with some basic research. That these stories flourish is largely owing to the general gullibility, laziness and media illiteracy of the general public, which through its learned compliance rarely questions, challenges or confronts.

Then there’s the more devious kind of news stories circulated by one of the biggest propagators of fake news: the U.S. government.

In the midst of the media’s sudden headline-blaring apoplexy over fake news, you won’t hear much about the government’s role in producing, planting and peddling propaganda-driven fake news—often with the help of the corporate news media—because that’s not how the game works.

Why?

Because the powers-that-be don’t want us skeptical of the government’s message or its corporate accomplices in the mainstream media. They don’t want us to be more discerning when it comes to what information we digest online. They just want us to be leery of independent or alternative news sources while trusting them—and their corporate colleagues—to vet the news for us.

Read the entire article

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Alt Right Speech Is A Crime, Leftist Physical Attacks Are “Protests”

A point generally suppressed in the MSM reports: the relentless weekend-long attack on the NPI conference by an organized “Anti-Fascist” Leftist gang–always described euphemistically as “protestors.” They intimidated two restaurants into cancelling the Friday night dinner and, when a third was found, actually invaded it and sprayed participants, including Spencer, with some fecal-smelling liquid. They besieged the Reagan Center, which NPI is forced to use because as a federal facility it is compelled to honor the First Amendment, obscenely harassed conference attendees regardless of age or sex, and assaulted at least one of them, bloodying his face.

The D.C. police offered only perfunctory protection. I see no report that anyone has been arrested, or that the two briefly detained after the assault were charged, or even that the gang’s leadership is being questioned, despite flaunting its presence on the internet.

This has been going on for long time. A few years ago, I wrote about the Main Steam Media double standard–first noted by the late Edith Efron [1922-2001] in The News Twisters, [PDF] in 1971–in which the MSM reported conservative protests as if they were attacks, and physical attacks on conservatives as if they were protests.

Efron studied the news coverage of the 1968 campaign, and discovered a bias against Nixon and for Humphrey. (Nixon was elected anyway–Pat Buchanan was there with him.)

But the real bias was against George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, running on a Third Party ticket.

Read the entire article

Friday, November 18, 2016

Trump Supporters Must Not Go To Sleep!

Now that Donald Trump has won the presidential election, most of the people who voted for him (along with most of the rest of the world) are breathing a huge sigh of relief. As I wrote earlier, a Hillary Clinton presidency was not only a threat to whatever liberties the American people have left, it was a threat to the peace and stability of the entire planet. Except for the radical protesters (most of whom did not even vote in the election and many of whom were paid to riot) who are making royal jackasses out of themselves in Portland, Oregon, and California, the perverts in Hollywood, and the presstitutes in the mainstream media, most of the nation (and the world with maybe the exception of China and Saudi Arabia) is feeling REALLY GOOD about the election.

However, I want to caution Trump supporters that the last thing they can afford to do right now is what conservatives normally do after a Republican wins the White House: go into a deep state of complacency. With the exception of stopping another Clinton from obtaining the White House (yes, that is HUGE), a Trump election accomplishes nothing. It is not the candidate, Donald Trump, that is going to govern from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is the president, Donald Trump, that will govern. And what kind of president Trump will make is yet to be seen.

I well remember when George W. Bush was elected President. The entire conservative, Christian, and Republican worlds fell into a state of extended hibernation. And G.W. Bush went on to trample more of our constitutional liberties than Bill Clinton and Barack Obama combined. This could only happen because he faced no resistance from the Republican Party or Christians and conservatives in general. They were sound asleep.

If the people who supported Donald Trump go to sleep now, there will be no going back. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the course of a nation. Frankly, if this opportunity is squandered, there likely will not be another one in most of our lifetimes.

Read the entire article

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Establishment Media Declares War On Their Competition As “Fake News”

The establishment media is dying. This is not a biased view coming from “alternative media,” it is a fact borne out by metrics and opinion polls from within the establishment itself. It was true before the recent election, and is guaranteed to accelerate after their shameless defense of non-reality which refused to accept any discontent among the American population with standard politics.

Now, with egg on their face after the botched election coverage, and a wobbling uncertainty about how they can maintain multiple threads of a narrative so fundamentally disproven, they appear to be resorting to their nuclear option: a full shut down of dissent.

Voices within independent media have been chronicling the signposts toward full-on censorship as sites have encountered everything from excessive copyright infringement accusations, to de-monetization, to the open admission by advertising giants that certain images would not be tolerated.

However, until now these efforts have appeared random, haphazard, and rife with retractions and restorations of targeted sites and content. A massive backlash of reader outrage toward these restrictive measures has confirmed that most consumers don’t like the idea of being given boundaries to their intellectual freedom.

Read the entire article

Monday, November 14, 2016

Memo to the Next Administration: Defense Spending Must Be for Actual Defense

In a disturbing indication of how difficult it would be to bring military spending in line with actual threats overseas, House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R – TX) told President Obama last week that his war funding request of $11.6 billion for the rest of the year was far too low. That figure for the last two months of 2016 is larger than Spain’s budget for the entire year! And this is just a “war-fighting” supplemental, not actual “defense” spending! More US troops are being sent to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere and the supplemental request is a way to pay for them without falling afoul of the “sequestration” limits.

The question is whether this increase in US military activity and spending overseas actually keeps us safer, or whether it simply keeps the deep state and the military-industrial complex alive and well-funded.

Unfortunately many Americans confuse defense spending with military spending. The two terms are used almost interchangeably. But there is a huge difference. I have always said that I wouldn’t cut anything from the defense budget. We need a robust defense of the United States and it would be foolish to believe that we have no enemies or potential enemies.

The military budget is something very different from the defense budget. The military budget is the money spent each year not to defend the United States, but to enrich the military-industrial complex, benefit special interests, regime-change countries overseas, maintain a global US military empire, and provide defense to favored allies. The military budget for the United States is larger than the combined military spending budget of the next seven or so countries down the line.

Read the entire article

Friday, November 11, 2016

Warning! Elite Will Try To Kill Trump ( audio transmission )

KINGMAKER DRUDGE DEFEATS ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA WITH TRUMP WIN

By standing up for Donald Trump when the establishment media went against him, media pioneer Matt Drudge has reignited independent journalism in which everyday Americans are just as important as the New York Times.

Twenty years ago, Drudge correctly surmised the mainstream media would grow so attached to the establishment that it would soon become irrelevant.

That irrelevancy came into fruition during the 2016 election when tens of thousands of establishment reporters shed all objectivity to destroy Trump, but all they’ve done is destroy themselves.

“Any objective observer of the news media’s treatment of Trump can certainly conclude that reporters are taking a side in this election — and they don’t have to be wearing a button that says ‘I’m with her’ for this to be readily apparent,” LA Times contributor Justin Raimondo wrote. “The irony is that the media’s Trump bashing may wind up having the exact opposite of its intended effect.”

The establishment media relied on their “influence” to try to convince Americans to support Hillary Clinton without realizing their influence disappeared when they abandoned forgotten Americans to cozy up with DC insiders.

Read the entire article

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Trump Has Forever Changed American Politics

“If I don’t win, this will be the greatest waste of time, money and energy in my lifetime,” says Donald Trump.

Herewith, a dissent. Whatever happens Tuesday, Trump has made history and has forever changed American politics.

Though a novice in politics, he captured the Party of Lincoln with the largest turnout of primary voters ever, and he has inflicted wounds on the nation’s ruling class from which it may not soon recover.

Bush I and II, Mitt Romney, the neocons and the GOP commentariat all denounced Trump as morally and temperamentally unfit. Yet, seven of eight Republicans are voting for Trump, and he drew the largest and most enthusiastic crowds of any GOP nominee.

Not only did he rout the Republican elites, he ash-canned their agenda and repudiated the wars into which they plunged the country.

Trump did not create the forces that propelled his candidacy. But he recognized them, tapped into them, and unleashed a gusher of nationalism and populism that will not soon dissipate.

Read the entire article

Friday, November 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton: Wall Street’s Losing Horse? Constitutional Crisis? What’s the End Game?

Since the release of FBI Director Comey’s Second letter to the US Congress, the presidential elections process has gone haywire, out of control. The bipartisan political apparatus is in crisis.

“I FBI director [James Comey] am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” 

Two important questions:

WHO IS BEHIND WIKILEAKS WHICH RELEASED THE EMAILS?

WHO IS BEHIND FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY? 

In both cases, we are dealing with powerful interest groups.  CUI-BONO?

Read the entire article

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Hillary Clinton, FBI and the Real November Surprise

"As bad as it is the folks above the President make the decisions. They may have decided on Trump. These things do not happen by accident."

Thus spoke a high-level US business mover and shaker with secure transit in rarified Masters of the Universe-related circles, amidst the utter political chaos provoked by head of the FBI James Comey’s latest bombshell.

It’s virtually established by now that US Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Comey not to release his letter to Congress. But Comey did it anyway. If he had not, and a scandal would – inevitably – spring up after the US presidential election, Lynch would be perfectly positioned to deny she knew anything, and Comey would be on the firing line.

Lynch is a certified Clinton machine asset. In 1999 then-President Bill Clinton appointed her to run the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office. She left in 2002, taking the private practice revolving door. She was back to the Brooklyn office in 2010, urged by Obama. Five years later she became the 83rd US Attorney General, replacing the dodgy Eric Holder.

Read the entire article

Monday, October 31, 2016

The Failure of Democracy How The Oligarchs Plan To Steal The Election

I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.

Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this: 

https://youtu.be/EYozWHBIf8g

is not endeared to the oligarchs.

 Who are the oligarchs?

—Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put 5 banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks’ balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.

—The neoconservartives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China.

—The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.

—Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, hebicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.

—The extractive industries—energy, mining, fracking, and timber—that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.


—The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israell’s way.ars, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.

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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Russia Destroys Most ISIS Heavy Weaponry, U.S. Promptly Airdrops 50-Tons Of Weapons Into Syria

Reports this week indicated that Islamic State militants were decimated by recent Russian airstrikes, and have lost “most” of their ammunition, heavy vehicles and equipment in the precision strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

An array of Russian bombers and ground support aircrafts targeted Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) sites in the provinces of Raqqah, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The attacks reportedly destroyed command posts, heavy weapons, ammunition and armament depots, military vehicles, plants producing explosives, field camps and bases.

Russian anti-terror military operations in the Syrian theater were launched on September, 30, at the request of the Syrian government. The United States has since accused Russia of targeting moderate opposition in Syria, but Moscow says it is after terrorist groups such as IS and Al-Nusra Front.

To understand the U.S. position, one has to understand the rapidly evolving U.S. strategy in Syria.

The Obama Administration recently announced that its $500 million plan to train and equip vetted “moderate” rebels was a total failure. Incredibly, the U.S. came up with an even worse plan – remove the training and vetting requirement of the program, and start sending military equipment.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

The Path to Total Dictatorship: America's Shadow Government and Its Silent Coup

“Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system … a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state…. The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization… It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government…. This group … is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.”— Senator William Jenner, 1954 speech

Unaffected by-elections. Unaltered by populist movements. Beyond the reach of the law.

Say hello to America’s shadow government.

A corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country, this shadow government represents the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom of its citizenry.

No matter which candidate wins the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government—also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”—may well have played a part in who will win the White House this year.

To be precise, however, the future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.

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Friday, October 21, 2016

President Strangelove?

Is the Iraqi city of Mosul on the border with Syria, as Mrs. Clinton averred during the third presidential debate?

No way.

Exactly no one has called her out on this. I guess you have to be Gary Johnson, rather than a former Secretary of State, for the mainstream media to start mocking you over your lack of geographical knowledge. And this was no inconsequential error: it’s supposedly key to her strategy that after “we” take Mosul we’re going to “press into Syria.”

Did seventeen US intelligence agencies say that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee’s server and John Podesta’s inbox, as Hillary Clinton asserted Wednesday night?

Nope.

Mrs. Clinton’s claim here is worth going into in some depth. It came in the context of a question from Chris Wallace about her speech to a gaggle of bankers in which she said “My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.” She defended herself, not very convincingly, by saying that she was only talking about energy, but this seems disingenuous at best. In any case, what’s interesting about this is that in order to change the subject quickly she pivoted to one of the most disturbing diatribes ever uttered in the course of a presidential contest:

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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

We finally know what Hillary Clinton knew all along – US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding Isis

It is fortunate for Saudi Arabia and Qatar that the furore over the sexual antics of Donald Trump is preventing much attention being given to the latest batch of leaked emails to and from Hillary Clinton. Most fascinating of these is what reads like a US State Department memo, dated 17 August 2014, on the appropriate US response to the rapid advance of Isis forces, which were then sweeping through northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

At the time, the US government was not admitting that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies were supporting Isis and al-Qaeda-type movements. But in the leaked memo, which says that it draws on “western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region” there is no ambivalence about who is backing Isis, which at the time of writing was butchering and raping Yazidi villagers and slaughtering captured Iraqi and Syrian soldiers.

The memo says: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical groups in the region.” This was evidently received wisdom in the upper ranks of the US government, but never openly admitted because to it was held that to antagonise Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, Turkey and Pakistan would fatally undermine US power in the Middle East and South Asia.

For an extraordinarily long period after 9/11, the US refused to confront these traditional Sunni allies and thereby ensured that the “War on Terror” would fail decisively; 15 years later, al-Qaeda in its different guises is much stronger than it used to be because shadowy state sponsors, without whom it could not have survived, were given a free pass.

It is not as if Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and the US foreign policy establishment in general did not know what was happening. An earlier WikiLeaks release of a State Department cable sent under her name in December 2009 states that “Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan].” But Saudi complicity with these movements never became a central political issue in the US. Why not?

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Monday, October 17, 2016

The Warnings of a New World War

In an interview with the Bild newspaper on Oct. 8, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is known for his cautious rhetoric, described the present international situation in the following woeful terms: “unfortunately it is an illusion to believe this is the old Cold War. The new times are different; they are more dangerous. Previously, the world was divided, but Moscow and Washington knew each other’s red lines and respected them. In a world with many regional conflicts and dwindling influence of the great powers, the world becomes more unpredictable.”

For these reasons, said Steinmeier, “The USA and Russia must continue talking with each other.” He concluded his appeal with fairly balanced recommendations to resolve the humanitarian crisis in east Aleppo, urging both Russia and the other powers to apply their influence with their clients on the ground.

Sad to say, this call to reason fell on deaf ears. On the same day, a U.S. State Department spokesman explained to journalists Washington’s decision over the weekend to end the joint peace process with Moscow, saying that there was “nothing left to talk about with the Russians.”

Meanwhile, the Russian side took as the last straw this unilateral and trumpeted decision of the Americans to bury the deal signed on Sept. 9 between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that had taken 14 hours to negotiate and was seen as a triumph of cooperation versus confrontation.

De facto, from the Russian view, that deal was sabotaged on Sept. 17 by the Pentagon when U.S. and coalition aircraft bombed a Syrian government military outpost at Deir Ezzor killing more than 60 Syrian soldiers. And de facto, the Russians had suspended the implementation of the ceasefire on Sept. 23 when they renewed heavy bombing of east Aleppo in close collaboration with the Syrian air force and ground units. Now that the U.S. had formalized the end of cooperation over Syria, Russia set out its own full-blooded response which it called a “radical change in relations” between the two countries.

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Friday, October 14, 2016

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Obama Stepped Back From Brink, Will Hillary?

The American people need to understand what’s going on in Syria. Unfortunately, the major media only publish Washington-friendly propaganda which makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction.  The best way to cut through the lies and misinformation, is by using a simple analogy that will help readers to see that Syria is not in the throes of a confusing, sectarian civil war, but the victim of another regime change operation launched by Washington to topple the government of Bashar al Assad.

With that in mind, try to imagine if striking garment workers in New York City decided to arm themselves and take over parts of lower Manhattan. And, let’s say,  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided that he could increase his geopolitical influence by recruiting Islamic extremists and sending them to New York to join the striking workers. Let’s say, Trudeau’s plan succeeds and the rebel militias are able to seize a broad swathe of US territory including most of the east coast stretching all the way to the mid-west.  Then– over the course of the next five years– these same jihadist forces proceed to destroy most of the civilian infrastructure across the country, force millions of people from their homes and businesses, and demand that President Obama step down from office so they can replace him with an Islamic regime that would enforce strict Sharia law.

How would you advise Obama in a situation like this? Would you tell him to negotiate with the people who invaded and destroyed his country or would you tell him to do whatever he thought was necessary to defeat the enemy and restore security?

Reasonable people will agree that the president has the right to defend the state and maintain security. In fact, national sovereignty and security are the foundation upon which the international order rests. However, neither the US media nor the US congress nor the White House nor the entire US foreign policy establishment agree with this simple, straightforward principle, that governments have the right to defend themselves against foreign invasion. They all believe that the US has the unalienable right to intervene wherever it chooses using whatever means necessary to execute its regime change operations.

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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Nuclear Drone Warfare Could Be The Inevitable Consequence Of Global Arms Race: Report

To most observers of history, as well as the current state of geopolitics, the use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. in the past and the current increase in the use of automated warfare by countries all over the world top their list of concerns. Now, it is being reported that it’s only a matter of time before these two weapons form a frightening bond with the introduction of nuclear drone warfare.

There has been an ongoing global drone arms race, as nation after nation invests in autonomous technology to keep up with the latest developments from their rivals. The U.S. has announced that this path will lead toward a reality where ALL nations will have armed drones within 10 years.

This arms race has naturally spurred new technology to counter what is expected from adversaries such as laser-equipped autonomous drones, which are expected to arrive within two years. From there, anti-drone jamming technology has been introduced via the spectrum of electronic warfare. And even drone invisibility cloaks are rapidly approaching reality.

All of this development has been a boon for defense contractors who are excited by the prospect that the battlefield drone market is set to at least double by the year 2024. The U.S. is currently thought to be attempting to corner this massive market with the recent signing of the “Joint Declaration for the Export and Subsequent of Armed or Strike-Enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” where 40 nations are coming together under the guidance of the U.S. to establish standards of drone import, export and use.

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Friday, October 7, 2016

U.S. Admits Israel Is Building Permanent Apartheid Regime — Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion

IN 2010, ISRAEL’S then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Honest observers on both sides of the conflict have long acknowledged that the prospects for a two-state solution are virtually non-existent: another way of saying that Israel’s status as a permanent apartheid regime is inevitable. Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies as early as 45 years ago explicitly warned that Israeli occupation would become permanent if it did not end quickly.

All relevant evidence makes clear this is what has happened. There has been no progress toward a two-state solution for many years. The composition of Israel’s Jewish population — which has become far more belligerent and right-wing than previous generations — has increasingly moved the country further away from that goal. There are key ministers in Israel’s government, including its genuinely extremist justice minister, who are openly and expressly opposed to a two-state solution. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself repeatedly made clear he opposes such an agreement, both in words and in deeds. In sum, Israel intends to continue to rule over and occupy Palestinians and deny them self-governance, political liberties, and voting rights indefinitely.

Whether despite this aggression and oppression, or because of it, the Obama administration has continually protected Israel with unstinting loyalty and lavished it with arms and money. This rewarding of Israeli behavior culminated in the administration’s announcement just three weeks ago that it has signed a “memorandum of understanding” to significantly increase the amount of money the U.S. gives to Israel every year, even though Israel was already by far the biggest recipient of U.S. aid. Under this agreement, the U.S. will give Israel $38 billion over 10 years, by far a new record for U.S. aid commitments, even though Israeli citizens enjoy all sorts of state benefits that Americans (whose money is being given to Israel) are told are too costly for them, including universal health care coverage, and tout superior life expectancy and infant mortality rates.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

It’s Official: US Government Ends Fiscal Year with $1.4 Trillion Debt Increase

It’s official.

The United States government closed out the 2016 fiscal year that ended a few days ago on Friday September 30th with a debt level of $19,573,444,713,936.79.

That’s an increase of $1,422,827,047,452.46 over last year’s fiscal year close.

Incredible. By the way, that debt growth amounts to roughly 7.5% of the entire US economy.

By comparison, the Marshall Plan, which completely rebuilt Western Europe after World World II, cost $12 billion back in 1948, or roughly 4.3% of US GDP at the time.

The initial appropriation for the WPA, perhaps the largest of Roosevelt’s New Deal “make work” programs that employed millions of people, cost 6.7% of US GDP.

And, more recently, the US $700 billion bank bailout at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis was the equivalent of 4.8% of GDP.

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Monday, October 3, 2016

Russia-Baiting and Risks of Nuclear War

As U.S. and Russian officials trade barbed threats and as diplomacy on Syria is “on the verge” of extinction, it is tempting to view the ongoing propaganda exchange over who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014 as a sideshow. That would be a huge mistake – easily made by President Obama’s wet-behind-the-ears sophomoric advisers who seem to know very little of the history of U.S.-Russia relations and appear smug in their ignorance.

Adult input is sorely needed. There are advantages to having some hands-on experience, and having watched how propaganda wars can easily escalate to military confrontation. In a Sept. 28 interview with Sputnik Radio, I addressed some serious implications of the decision by the US and two of its European vassal states (the Netherlands and Ukraine) to stoke tensions with Russia still higher by blaming it for the downing of MH-17.

In short, there is considerable risk that the Russians may see this particular propaganda offensive (which “justified” the European Union’s economic sanctions in 2014), together with NATO’s saber rattling in central Europe, as steps toward war. In fact, there is troubling precedent for precisely that.

A very similar set of circumstances existed 33 years ago after the Soviets did shoot down Korean Airlines Flight 007 on Sept. 1, 1983, when it strayed over sensitive military targets inside the Soviet Union and the KAL-007 pilots failed to respond to repeated warnings. After the tragic reality became obvious, the Soviets acknowledged that they had downed the plane but said they did not know it was a passenger plane.

However, 1983 was another time of high tensions between the two superpowers and President Ronald Reagan wanted to paint the Soviets in the darkest of hues. So, his administration set out to sell the storyline that the Soviets had willfully murdered the 269 passengers and crew.

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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Israel's $38 Billion Scam

As an American it is difficult to imagine a more unseemly bit of political theater playing out than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance before his cabinet to claim that he had gotten every last dollar of military assistance out of the Obama Administration. Netanyahu argued that he had obtained all that was on the table, adding that his bad blood with President Barack Obama had not proven to be detrimental in the bilateral negotiations that had been ongoing for more than a year. The Prime Minister was on the defensive because some of his critics claimed that he might have gotten $100 million more per annum, admittedly chump change on top of the $38 billion over ten years that the Memorandum of Understand will provide Netanyahu from the U.S. Treasury.

The critics also argued that the “real money” obtained from Washington was less than it seemed because of inflation, but the gift of $38 billion to Israel was nevertheless a considerable increase over the roughly $3.3 billion per year that Israel is currently receiving. The protracted negotiations over the exact sum to be handed over were reportedly due to Netanyahu’s demanding much more money, possibly as much as $5 billion per year. The deal did come with a minor problem for the Israeli defense industries, which had become accustomed to skimming 26% off the top of the annual U.S. grant to build and market their own weapons. Someone in Washington finally figured out that the U.S. taxpayer was directly funding foreign competition for its own defense industries, costing thousands of American jobs. But not to worry, the Israeli companies are now setting up U.S. subsidiaries, so the gravy train will almost certainly continue to deliver.

Israel’s argument for more money, such as it was, was based on claims that Obama had weakened its security by coming to an agreement with Iran over that nation’s nuclear program. Israel objected that sharply limiting Tehran’s ability to develop a weapon was not in its own interest, an odd assertion but explicable in terms of Netanyahu’s real objective in dealing with the Mullah’s, which was to have the U.S. take the lead in bombing them into the stone age.

Missing in the discussions was any benefit obtained for the United States by giving Israel all that moolah. America’s largely invisible National Security Adviser Susan Rice spoke of an “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security” and commented that the agreement was good for the United States because “our security is linked” though she characteristically did not explain exactly why that was so. She called the deal a “win-win,” creating jobs in America and making our “ally and partner” Israel more secure.

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