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Monday, October 31, 2016

Cartoons






Turkey tracking ... for month of Oct, 2016


How long before this country erupts into the kind of hell it helped create for the Syrians?  I give it less than a year.  Either Erdogan will be killed (by the West's powers-that-be or by a Kurdish assailant or a member of the other cult whose leader is enjoying the protection of the USA) or there will be another coup and a civil war.  The writing's on the wall.
 
Turkey dismisses 540 soldiers from naval, air forces  over alleged links to failed coup
Turkey dismissed 540 soldiers from its naval and air forces command over suspected links with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his network, accused by Ankara of orchestrating a failed coup in July, the defense ministry said.

AKP official killed in suspected PKK attack in Turkey's southeast
Deryan Aktert is suspected to have been killed by PKK in second attack on officials in two days
A member of the ruling party in Turkey's restive southeast has been killed in an attack blamed on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a local official said Tuesday.

Deryan Aktert, head of a local office of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Diyarbakir province, was hit by gunfire at a gas station and later succumbed to his injuries, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity......

Turkey extends state of emergency for additional three months The Turkish government has extended the state of emergency, first implemented in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt, for an additional three-month period, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus announced on Oct. 3.

“One of the decisions taken by the cabinet is an extension of the 90-day state of emergency and its renewal from 1 a.m. on Oct. 19,” Kurtulmus told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The Turkish constitution authorizes parliament with the right to extend the duration of a state of emergency by a maximum period of four months, each time at the request of the cabinet.



Turkey's Erdogan Sued by Germans over War Crimes Against Kurds

The lawsuit highlights an incident in Sirnak, Turkey, where Kurdish residents were burned alive by the Turkish military.
Several German politicians and public figures have filed a lawsuit against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, alleging that he’s guilty of war crimes against his country's Kurdish minority, The Local reported.
Lawyers Britta Eder and Petra Dervishaj told German state broadcaster ARD that their clients see it as “a moral duty to bring a suit here in Germany against the systematic war crimes taking place in Turkey.” ....

Turkish F16 Fighter Jet Downed by PKK Fighters - Reports
A Turkish F16 fighter jet has been downed by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas according to reports.

Turkish fighter jets had been shelling the Qandil region in the Kurdistan Regional Government (Northern Iraq) since 18:51 Thursday evening.

Local sources have reported that one of the fighter jets was downed at around 21:30 local time, as the aerial aggression continued.

Truck bomb attack on soldiers kills 18 in Turkey
Ten Turkish soldiers and eight civilians were killed on Sunday when suspected Kurdish militants detonated a five-ton truck bomb that ripped through a checkpoint near a military outpost in the country’s southeast, the prime minister said.

Another 27 people, including 11 soldiers, were wounded in the blast which hit the Durak gendarmerie station, 20 km (12 miles) from the town of Semdinli, in one of the most deadly attacks in the region of recent times.

The mountainous Hakkari province, where the attack occurred, lies near the border with Iraq and Iran and is one of the main flashpoint areas in a conflict that has pitted Turkey’s army against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for 32 years.....

Iraqi prime minister disinvites Turkey from operation
 to liberate Mosul from ISIL
Turkey will have no role in the liberation of Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

“Turkish forces will not be allowed to participate in the liberation of Mosul under any circumstances,” Abadi said during a visit to the city of Karbala on Oct. 9, Al Sumaria news channel reported....

Two suicide bombers kill themselves after Turkish police call to surrender: TV
Two suicide bombers detonated explosives, killing themselves in an area near the Turkish capital Ankara on Saturday after police called on them to surrender

'Motorbike bomb' blast in Istanbul wounds 10: governor A bomb attached to a motorbike exploded near a police station in southwest Istanbul on Thursday wounding 10 people, the provincial governor said.

The blast occurred in the Yenibosna neighborhood, several kilometers from Istanbul Ataturk Airport, the country's largest. Television footage showed damaged vehicles, shattered glass and broken windows in the residential area.

Governor Vasip Sahin said all of the wounded were civilians and that investigations into who might be responsible were ongoing. There were no immediate claims of responsibility on Thursday.....

Turkish Police Kill 4 Kurdish Civilians in Yüksekova Four people have died in Kurdish district Yüksekova in Turkey's Kurdish region after police fired on civilians from an armoured vehicle.

Aydin Tümen, Serhat Buldan, Rahmi Sefali and Nejdet Isyözü lost their lives while two others, Semsettin Çakmakçi and Memet Ali Kaya, were wounded as a result of the armed attack.

Policemen patrolling the area in an armoured vehicle raked people in the district market with bullets in Hakkari's Yüksekova (Gever) district center.

Police soures have said the gun that was fired malfunctioned and the incident was an accident.

However witnesses have said they were fired on by police as they tried retrieving the bodies of those killed and wounded.

OSMANIYE, Turkey.Three people were injured Wednesday  in a PKK attack in Turkey's southern province of Osmaniye, according to the governor.

Kerem Al told reporters that five mortar shells were fired from Amanos Mountains into nearby Gebeli and Selimiye neighborhoods.

The wounded, including a mother and her 4-year-old son, were taken to the hospital following the attack, and were in good condition, Al said.

An operation is ongoing to catch the terrorists, he added.....

BINGOL, Turkey. Two police officers were martyred
 when they were caught in a PKK terrorist bomb attack in eastern Turkey, according to sources on Sunday.

One officer died immediately in the vehicle bomb attack in Genc, a southern district of Bingol province, a security source said on Sunday. A medical source later said one of the six officers wounded in the blast died in hospital. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The remaining five injured officers and four wounded civilians were treated for non-life-threatening wounds.

The explosives-packed vehicle exploded late Saturday as a police vehicle passed.

Two Turkish soldiers martyred in SE Turkish province
Explosives planted by PKK terrorists are detonated; two soldiers martyred, two others wounded
Two Turkish soldiers were martyred and two others were wounded in the town of Hani in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, as explosives, planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were detonated during the field search mission.
...

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Some of the News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media....week ending Oct 30


Justin Ling at VICE
The Liberal Party Has Scheduled More Than 100 Cash-For-Access Events in 2016 Alone

If you wanted an audience with Finance Minister Bill Morneau during his two-night engagement in Vancouver this past April, it would have cost you between $1,000 and $1,500.

If you were looking for facetime with the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister for Infrastructure and Communities, in Surrey in February, that would run a cool $500.

But for some quality time with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, at one of his 16 fundraising events held in 2016—which have been dubbed by the media 'cash-for-access' events—you'll likely be paying the maximum allowed: $1,525.

These details, which come from a breakdown of every Liberal Party fundraiser and "appreciation event" for deep-pocket donors held in 2016, shows that the governing party has been charging a hefty sum to be in the same room as a senior member of the Canadian government.

All-told, the Liberals have held 89 fundraisers so far this year, and have another 10 scheduled for October and November. The list includes all fundraisers with ministers and parliamentary secretaries, as well as the one event with the prime minister's senior advisor, Gerry Butts.

For quality time with Butts, Trudeau's right-hand man, in Charlottetown in August, it would be a steal at just $125.

Most events also have special pricing for youth members, or for those who are already donating large amounts to the party.....



Andre Akulov at Strategic-Culture.org
Djibouti Turns into Springboard for US Military Intervention

 The US is dramatically increasing the tempo of its military operations in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa), especially in the Horn of Africa.

Djibouti has an important role to play in the military planning. The small republic guards the entrance to the Red Sea and Suez Canal to make it a perfect springboard for launching military interventions in Africa and the Middle East.

Housing 4,000 military and civilian personnel, Camp Lemonnier, the US military base in the country, is the hub of a network of American drone bases in Africa. It is used for aerial strikes at insurgents in Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia, as well as exercising control over the Bab-el-Mandeb strait - a strategic maritime waterway linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. In 2014, America signed a new 20-year lease on the base with the Djiboutian government, and committed over $1.4 billion to modernize and expand the facility in the years to come.

According to Stars and Stripes, the US Air Force deployed F-16 fighters and KC-135 to Djibouti in July. Until the publication, the information had been kept secret. The aircraft remain on standby amid concerns over the situation in South Sudan, including threats to the lives of American citizens there. In July, about 50 combat-equipped troops were sent to protect US diplomatic personnel amid widespread violence and civil unrest in that country. The US has provided assistance in form of training and equipping of the elite presidential guard; employment of foreign instructors to teach army recruits; development of riverine forces; training of commandos. This aid is rendered despite the fact that South Sudan uses child soldiers.

Under Obama, this country receives waivers to the prohibition on US security assistance under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), despite recent reports by UNICEF that children in the country are forcefully recruited into the armed forces. ....


Prof Michel Chossudovsky at GlobalResearch
Clinton's no-fly zone over Syria will not save lives, it will lead to war with Russia

In a Senate Arms Services Committee hearing, Dunford said, responding to questions from Republican Senator Roger Whicker (Mississippi)

    “Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” (Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)

At the third presidential debate, Hillary Clinton reasserted her commitment that if elected president, she would implement a no-fly-zone, intimating that the objective was to “save lives”:

    “I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could hasten the end of the conflict. I am well aware of the really legitimate concerns you have expressed from both the president and the general,” Clinton said in response to a question from Fox News debate moderator Chris Wallace.

    “This would not be done just on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation and would also take making it clear to the Russians and Syrians that our purpose here was to provide safe zones on the ground … I think we could strike a deal and make it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that this was something that we believe was in the best interest of the people on the ground in Syria.” (Fox News, emphasis added)...

Mother Agnes and Vanessa Beeley speak to RT


Amb Craig Murray at his blog
Blanket Corporate Media Corruption

....I was in Washington last month to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to heroic former ex-CIA agent and whistleblower John Kiriakou. There were on the platform with me a dozen or so former very senior and distinguished officers of the CIA, NSA, FBI and US Army. All now identify with the whistleblower community. There were speeches of tremendous power and insight about state abuse, from those who really know. But as usual, not one mainstream media outlet turned up to report an award whose previous winners and still active participants include Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

Similarly my statement of definite knowledge that Russia is not behind the Clinton leaks has caused enormous interest in the internet. One article alone about my visit to Assange has 174,000 Facebook likes. Across all internet media we calculate over 30 million people have read my information that Russia was not responsible for these leaks. There is no doubt whatsoever that I have direct access to the correct information.

Yet not one single mainstream media journalist has attempted to contact me.

Why do you think that might be?....


Description at video post: Saudis are deliberately bombing farms in Yemen, which may lead to survivors starving when the war is over. 357 strikes in 20 provinces targeted farms, animals, water infrastructure, food stores, agricultural banks, markets and food trucks, with 60% of the population already dependent on food aid. Post-war Yemen may totally rely on food imports most probably coming from Gulf States. According to international law targeting infrastructure objects is a war crime.
Yet it’s not stopping Britain and the US from helping Saudi Arabia.


Archbishop of Aleppo Mgr. Jean-Clement Jeanbart (translation from Italian at GlobalResearch)
US Sponsored “Moderates” “Have Sown Terror Everywhere”:
 Testimony of the Archbishop of Aleppo

The whole world is terrified at the sight of the images from Aleppo that the mass media have been presenting in recent days. Many of our friends abroad are concerned and want to hear from us. We are living tragic moments in our history and what’s happening here continues to make Aleppo and its people suffer, people that for more than five years have been unable to have peace, so harassed and massacred by armed groups that have come from all over the world, to conduct a self-styled holy war, in a country governed (according to them) by atheists and infidels!

For five years now the terrorists here have been calling the shots, where the civil authorities of the country have not managed to be present. They have sown terror everywhere, killed tens of thousands of innocent people, destroyed thousands of factories, businesses and institutions of public services, looted houses and stolen, without any concern, assets of the country and the citizens. They have have made victims of many innocent people, kidnapping and brutally murdering countless peaceful people, including nuns, priests and even bishops.

This still going on today: this morning a dozen shells fell in two of our residential areas, causing further destruction and in one neighborhood, numerous deaths and injuries.

Battles are raging on the outskirts of the city: the rebels from the “Al-Nusra Front” are attempting to take positions in areas considered strategic, almost completely depopulated and almost entirely destroyed, that they seized and held until last June at the city’e edge. ...

...The hardest thing for Christians who are currently present in Aleppo would be the prospect of having to live, morning and evening, in anxiety in this situation of insecurity: destabilizing disconcerting uncertainty. They are afraid for the next day, and the future of their children troubles them greatly. Imagine that one day a Muslim fundamentalist state would be imposed on them — for them this is an unbearable nightmare.

This is why we turn to our brothers in France and throughout the West, and we beg you to help us ensure that this does not happen. We are not asking you to make war for us, but only to end the unjust claims of your allies that want to impose antiquated laws, laws that are unbearable for the people of the twenty-first century who want to be free to choose their culture, their style life and, finally, their faith. We call on our brothers in France to pray for us and all women and all men concerned about human dignity and love of freedom, to come to our rescue to save our dear country from the depth of the fundamentalist regime they are trying to put us in. Please help us to continue to live in dignity on this blessed land of our birth!........




Pepe Escobar
The Aleppo / Mosul Riddle

There’s no question Baghdad needs to take back Mosul from ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. It could not do it before. In theory, the time is now.

The real question is the conflicting motivations of the large “who’s who” doing it; the Iraqi Army’s 9th Division; the Kurdish Peshmerga, under the baton of wily, corrupt opportunist Barzani; Sunni tribal lords; tens of thousands of Shi’ite militias from southern Iraq; operational “support” from US Special Forces; “targeted” bombing by the US Air Force; and lurking in the background, Turkish Special Forces and air power.

Now that’s a certified recipe for trouble.

Much like Aleppo, Mosul is – literally – the stuff of legend. The successor of ancient Nineveh, settled 8000 years ago; former capital of the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib in the 7th century B.C.; conquered by Babylon in the 6th century B.C.; a thousand years later, annexed to the Muslim empire and ruled by the Umayyads and the Abbasids; the key hub, from the 11th to the 12th century, of the Atabegs medieval state; a key Ottoman hub in a 16th century post-Silk Road spanning the Indian Ocean all the way to the Persian Gulf, the Tigris valley, Aleppo and Tripoli in the Mediterranean.....




Mark Taliano at GlobalResearch
Life in Syria, as Recounted by a Syrian

Stories from Syrians are conspicuously absent from mainstream propaganda stories.

I asked Ammar about life in Syria, and this is what he wrote:

“As everyday morning my sister was going to the university when a bloody Takfiri Salafi Wahhabi suicide bomber blew up bomb car at the bus stop which led to the martyrdom and injury of many civilians and university students who were going to their exams , after 10 minutes another suicide bomber blew up himself at the same place taking advantage of the gathering of people and ambulance teams, usually when a terror attack happens we call all family members and friends to make sure they all are ok . but this time no one answered! Then we started looking for her in hospitals . . . the shock was in the bloody views there ; many burned bodies and human body parts were on the ground , there i saw my sister a body without soul . . .”

Almost every new story from the West demonizes Vladimir Putin.  Ammar, however, has direct contact with Russian agencies.  This is his assessment.

“about Russian aid , I see the biggest humanitarian aid provided by our Russian brothers is fighting the US NATO founded brutal terrorism and supporting Syrian armed forces against western backed barbarian terrorism as well standing with Syria in International forums furthermore the Russian aid for in need Syrian civilians represented in food like rice , sugar , tea , canned meat and fish and medical aid that includes medicines, emergency medical supplies, antibiotics and medical products for the treatment of a variety of diseases as well they brought a doctors who made physical check up to needy people. these aid were distributed directly by Russians to needy people thanks to American European sanctions against Syrian people and against Syrian economy , prices got so expensive , economical situation became harder, targeting Syrian infra structures by the illegal US-led coalition aircrafts also Looting and theft Syrian industrial plants and then Sold cheaply to Turkey by their mercenaries. All these reasons iincreased the suffering of Syrian people moreover targeting Syrian central bank and Syrian pound caused to lose a lot of Syrian pound purchasing value.”....

Tim Johnson at McClatchyDC
The strange tale of a dating site’s attacks on WikiLeaks founder Assange

....A company representative, identifying herself as Hannah Hammond, emailed Assange’s Swedish and British legal agents offering $1 million for him to appear in a five-minute tongue-in-cheek television advertisement. In a subsequent exchange Sept. 19, the representative wrote that “the source of the $1,000,000 is the Russian government.”

In a curious twist, she offered what she said were three facts about Assange’s London attorney that are “unknown to the public,” including details inside her home and an event in her son’s life, suggesting a capability to conduct surveillance.

Taylor, the Assange lawyer, said the details appeared “to create the impression that the members of his team were under close surveillance and/or to bolster the bona fides of the claim that the offer was linked to a State. Its inclusion does appear quite menacing.”

A lawyer identifying himself only as “James” responded the next day, slamming the offer as an “elaborate scam designed to entrap” Assange and embarrass him for ties to Russia.

The dating site representative sought to pull the veil off “James.”

“Julian: We know it’s you writing. The offer expires at midnight, October 31st 2016,” she wrote back on Sept. 21, according to copies of the emails posted by WikiLeaks on its website.

By early October, toddandclare.com went on the offensive. It filed a civil complaint in a British court against Assange, seeking 295 pounds sterling – about $359 – in damages because it said it could no longer use his services due to the “child sex offenses in Nassau.”

The suit, said Taylor, Assange’s lawyer, “seems to be designed to evade defamation law in the U.K. They’ve put highly noxious information knowing that it would be made public.”

The global tussle between the online dating company and WikiLeaks went public in mid-October when the anti-secrecy group voiced public doubt on whether toddandclare.com actually existed, or served only as a vehicle to attack Assange.....

From Catholic World Report at Off-Guardian

 
Syrian Catholics denounce Western media
 biased reporting on Aleppo



From Sott.Net
What's wrong with the planet? Saudi Arabia to be reelected to UN Human Rights Council

As the death toll in Yemen surpasses 10,000, Saudi Arabia, one of the principal parties in the conflict, is poised to be reelected to the UN human rights body. Saudi airstrikes are responsible for the majority of the nearly 4,000 civilian deaths in Yemen.

A secret ballot vote at the UN General Assembly on Friday will select the 14 members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), or a third of its 47 members. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, China, and Japan are running for the four seats from the Asia-Pacific region, and are all expected to secure seats.

Riyadh's term at the UNHRC would be the third in a row, and its presence at the body has been increasingly puzzling to human rights groups, given its record of twisting arms at the UN to hush up its rights abuses.




Ann Wright at ConsortiumNews

It’s like we are back to the 1800s when the U.S. Army rampaged against Native American tribes across the American West. The militarized police and the use of the National Guard this week in responding to the Standing Rock Sioux Native American challenge in North Dakota to big oil and its dangerous pipelines reminds one of Custer’s Last Stand against Sitting Bull.

In fact, the portrait of Sitting Bull is on one of the most popular t-shirts available to supporters of the “water protectors,” as those are known who protest yet one more oil pipeline that crosses sensitive watershed areas and major rivers of the United States.

Four days last week, I joined hundreds of Native Americans and social justice campaigners from around the United States and around the world, in challenging the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), the 1,172-mile, $3.7 billion dollar scar across the face of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

Last week, I photographed the area along Highway 6 south of Bismarck where the Energy Transfer Partnership contractors were busy digging the trench for the “Black Snake” as the pipeline is called.

I also counted 24 police cars returning to Bismarck at shift change around 3 p.m., a huge number of state law enforcement personnel and vehicles dedicated to protection of corporate business, instead of the rights of citizens.

Huge machines were chewing up the earth near water sources for all of North Dakota. The pipeline was rerouted from near Bismarck so if the pipeline breaks it would not endanger the water supply of the capital city of the state. But it was relocated to where it will cross the Missouri River and will jeopardize the water supply of the Native Americans and all Americans living in southern North Dakota and downstream of the Missouri River.....



 Max Blumenthal at Alternet
Inside the Shadowy PR Firm That’s Lobbying for Regime Change in Syria

Posing as a non-political solidarity organization, the Syria Campaign leverages local partners and media contacts to push the U.S. into toppling another Middle Eastern government.

......By partnering with local groups like the Syrian civil defense workers popularly known as the White Helmets, and through a vast network of connections in media and centers of political influence, The Syria Campaign has played a crucial role in disseminating images and stories of the horrors visited this month on eastern Aleppo. The group is able to operate within the halls of power in Washington and has the power to mobilize thousands of demonstrators into the streets. Despite its outsized role in shaping how the West sees Syria’s civil war, which is now in its sixth year and entering one of its grisliest phases, this outfit remains virtually unknown to the general public.

The Syria Campaign presents itself as an impartial, non-political voice for ordinary Syrian citizens that is dedicated to civilian protection. “We see ourselves as a solidarity organization,” The Syria Campaign strategy director James Sadri told me. “We’re not being paid by anybody to pursue a particular line. We feel like we’ve done a really good job about finding out who the frontline activists, doctors, humanitarians are and trying to get their word out to the international community.”

Yet behind the lofty rhetoric about solidarity and the images of heroic rescuers rushing in to save lives is an agenda that aligns closely with the forces from Riyadh to Washington clamoring for regime change. Indeed, The Syria Campaign has been pushing for a no-fly zone in Syria that would require at least “70,000 American servicemen” to enforce, according to a Pentagon assessment, along with the destruction of government infrastructure and military installations. There is no record of a no-fly zone being imposed without regime change following —which seems to be exactly what The Syria Campaign and its partners want......

From Xinhuanet
Saudi-led airstrikes kill 27 civilians across Yemen provinces

At least 27 civilians, mostly children and women, were killed on Saturday in three Yemeni provinces by airstrikes from a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, officials and residents said.

Early Saturday morning, the Saudi-led air strikes hit residents' homes in two villages of al-Sharaf and Mabaran in al-Salo district of the southwestern province of Taiz, killing 10 villagers on the spot and flattering several mud-brick houses to the ground, according to the local officials and the residents.....

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Cartoons on the Halloweenian US Presidential election - Scarrrry Booooo funnnie !




















Wannabe caliph Erdogan and the July 15 failed coup attempt


This is from a pro-Erdogan newspaper.... are there any other kind in the new Turkey? The article has used material from a Washington Post article which has divulged new info on the failed coup attempt. I have highlighted the part I found most intriguing - if it really happened.

From Yeni Safak:
July 15 coup attempt planned in Incirlik Airbase: report

A secret meeting organized by the US was held in Incirlik Airbase, involving pro-FETÖ Turkish generals, colonels, FETÖ Imams, YPG/PKK terrorists and NATO states' members, according to the report

Turkish Incirlik Airbase had been used as the main base for planning the July 15 coup attempt that targeted Turkey's democracy, government and president killing 241.

Weeks before the deadliest coup attempt, pro-FETÖ colonels had met with the YPG/PKK terrorists in Incirilik Airbase and planned against the interest of the state.

The secret meeting was organized by the United States and many NATO members states had joined in the talks.

“Before the Manbij offensive began in May, the United States brought to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey a delegation from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition that nominally oversees the YPG," said David Ignatius, the Washington Post's opinion writer.

The SDF was formed by YPG, which is the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is listed as a terrorist group to Turkey, EU and the U.S.

In his article in the U.S. newspaper, Ignatius confirmed that pro-FETÖ generals, who have met the terror groups secretly, are now in prison for their involvement in the deadliest coup attempt.

“Some of the Turkish generals who met the SDF are now said to be in prison as coup suspects," he writes.

Incirlik was chosen for the secret meeting because there was no proper supervision facilities due to military confidentiality.

Some civil FETÖ imams (leaders) had also joined the meeting that high-level military delegates from the U.S., UK, Italy, France and Norway had attended.

A recent report on the meeting said that a delegation from Germany was scheduled to join the talks, but could not because of Ankara's objection against a German parliamentary delegation's visit to the base.

Along with the FETÖ generals in the base, some pro-FETÖ generals from other military bases across the country were also invited to the meeting....

.....A week after the coup attempt, some Syrian opposition commanders told Yeni Safak that U.S. military officers urged them to “prepare for a Turkey without [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan".

The pentagon officials also threatened to hit opposition military headquarters and weapon depots, if they resist against U.S. decision. “Make your choice," the officials told them.

Moreover, coupist military officer Hasan Polcat, Commander of the 39th Mechanized Brigade, had met 12 times with Americans before the coup in the Incirlik airbase......

Friday, October 28, 2016

Does it matter who wins the US Presidential Election?


Our world as we knew it, is doomed.
 
David Dees artful is stunning.In a just world, and if he had the backing of the "right" people, he would be not only famous but a multi-millionaire.


Wanna know what Donald Trump will do in the first 100 days as Prez?


If he gets to be Prez and does even half the stuff he promises to do, the USA has a chance of survival and more importantly we will have escaped a nuclear war and an uncertain future. Plenty more info at original link.

From ZeroHedge
Trump Lays Out His Plan For First 100 Days In Office: Here Are The Highlights

In a keynote speech in Gettysburg, Pa., about his plans for his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump laid out what he sees as the the core priorities of a Trump presidency, while focusing in the early part of the speech on attacks against Hillary Clinton and Wall Street, and repeating his core message by telling his audience that Washington and Wall Street are “rigged” against him and that he is the candidate to bring “the change that has to come."

"I am not a politician,” Trump told the crowd. “But when I saw the trouble our country was in, I felt I had to act.” Then, moments after promising Americans that he represented a break from the status quo, he promised to sue a number of women who have come forward to accuse him of sexual assault, calling them liars.....

Trump also railed against the media for seeking to concentrate its power through mergers and for colluding with his accusers to align against his campaign.  He added a new threat to his repeated criticisms of U.S. media companies, when he vowed that in his administration such mega mergers as that between AT&T and Time Warner, which was just announced, would not pass as it leads to "too much concentration of power in the hands of too few."

    "As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few."

He would also break up the NBC-Comcast merger saying "deals like this destroy democracy," and slammed every trade deal the US has ever done as "horrible."

In terms of soundbites, the following quotes stood out.

On the economy:

    "Change has to come from outside our very broken system."
    "We've doubled our national debt to $20 trillion under President Obama."
    "Nearly 1 in 4 Americans in their prime earning years isn't even working."
    "I am asking the American people to dream big once again."
    "Will withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
    "Will cancel every un-Constitutional executive action, memorandum, and order issued by President Obama."
     "We will cancel all federal funding of sanctuary cities."
    "The veterans will finally be taken care of properly."
    "If we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by, and for the people."

On Obamacare:
    "Fully repeal ObamaCare and replace it with health savings accounts."

On education:
    "We are going to end Common Core."

On tax reform:
    "Tax forms will be greatly simplified."
     "When they know there are consequences, our companies will stop leaving the United States."

On voter fraud:
    "1.8 million dead people are registered to vote. And some of them are voting."
    "2.8 million people are registered in more than one state... 14% of non-citizens are registered to vote."
    "According to Pew, there are 24 million voter registrations in the United States that are either invalid or significantly inaccurate."
    "Just been learned on video that the violent protests at some of my rallies...were caused by paid DNC & Clinton campaign operatives."

On immigration:
    "We're going to suspect immigration from terror-prone regions."

On Hillary:
    "Hillary Clinton should have been precluded from running... but the FBI and the Justice Dept. covered up her crimes."
    "Hillary Clinton is not running against me. She's running against change."
    "HillaryClinton is... running against all of the American people and all of the American voters.

In terms of actual political measures that Trump would propose and/or enact, he listed the following six:

    "A Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress."
    "A hiring freeze on all federal employees."
    "A requirement that for every new federal regulation, 2 existing regulations must be eliminated."
    "A 5-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government."
    "A lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government."
    "A complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections."

Sunday, October 23, 2016

News, views and opinions from the Alternative Media .... week ending Oct 23




Joe Quinn at Sott.net   Very informative
Russian Actions in Syria Part of Radical Remaking of Global Order: A New World Awaits
While keeping up with the ongoing geopolitical shenanigans between the US and Russia in Syria, I repeatedly note a recurring and glaring omission in every mainstream media report on the situation: a sensible reason why either country is so interested in Syria. There are, of course, narratives, like that both countries are 'fighting terrorism', or that the US is supporting democracy in Syria by trying to overthrow the 'brutal dictator' Assad. But I assume that, at this stage, most people are highly skeptical of those explanations. After all, way back in 2003, in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, 15 million ordinary people saw right through the political narrative that the invasion was to protect Western populations from Saddam's (non-existent) WMDs and marched on Europe's streets chanting "no war for oil".

Many people knew the real reason for the scramble for Iraq, but do they know the reason for the scramble for Syria? And what about Russia? Is Putin fighting a purely ideological war against terrorists and helping Russia's long-term ally Assad to stay in power? Is that reason enough to launch modern Russia's first-ever large-scale military deployment abroad?

In an October 2015 essay, I outlined the realpolitik behind the war in Syria at that time. It was then, and still is, all about natural resources, specifically oil and especially natural gas. Intricately linked to the development of these two resources, and to the future configuration of the world economy, is Eurasian integration and the 'new Silk Road', i.e. a network of land links between Asia and Europe (more about that below).

Energy Phase Change

Since its beginnings in the 1930s, the extraction and supply of Saudi and Middle Eastern oil was controlled by the US, which in turn allowed the US to manipulate and control much of the developed and developing world throughout the 20th century. As the dominant natural energy resource for most of the last 100 years, most of the world's oil needs were provided by the Middle East, in particular Saudi Arabia, which is still the world's largest exporter of oil today. Oil accounts for about 75% of Saudi government revenues, with the other 25% coming from "oil tourism". So if any country in the world can be described as a petrol station masquerading as a country, it's Saudi 'head-chopper' Arabia.

Due to its promotion of a culture of personal wealth at home and the need for massive military strength to steal the wealth of other nations, the US became a massive energy hog, and today consumes more gasoline than the next three biggest oil consumers combined - China, India and Japan. These 3 countries have a total population of 2.7 billion, 9 times the population of the USA. While it consumes vast amounts of oil, America is also the world's largest oil producer, pumping out about 10 million barrels per day, slightly ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Yet due to its massive appetite, it consumes all of that and must secure the same amount again from other nations. .....

From PaulCraigRoberts
Rigged Elections Are An American Tradition 

...The current cause celebre against Trump is his conditional statement that he might not accept the election results if they appear to have been rigged. The presstitutes immediately jumped on him for “discrediting American democracy” and for “breaking American tradition of accepting the people’s will.”

What nonsense! Stolen elections are the American tradition. Elections are stolen at every level—state, local, and federal. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley’s theft of the Chicago and, thereby, Illinois vote for John F. Kennedy is legendary. The Republican US Supreme Court’s theft of the 2000 presidential election from Al Gore by preventing the Florida vote recount is another legendary example. The discrepancies between exit polls and the vote count of the secretly programmed electronic voting machines that have no paper trails are also legendary.

So what’s the big deal about Trump’s suspicion of election rigging?

The black civil rights movement has fought vote rigging for decades. The rigging takes place in a number of ways. Blacks simply can’t get registered to vote. If they do get registered, there are few polling places in their districts. And so on. After decades of struggle it is impossible that there are any blacks who are not aware of how hard it can be for them to vote. Yet, I heard on the presstitute radio network, NPR, Hillary’s Uncle Toms saying how awful it was that Trump had cast aspersion on the credibility of American election results. ....

Joseph Thomas at LandDestroyer
America's Ironic "Two-Faced" War on Terror 

Rarely ever does hypocrisy align so succinctly as it does within the pages of American policy and media coverage. US policy think tank, the Brookings Institution, recently provided an extreme example of this in a paper titled, "A convenient terrorism threat," penned by Daniel Byman.
The paper starts by claiming:

    Not all countries that suffer from terrorism are innocent victims doing their best to fight back. Many governments, including several important U.S. allies, simultaneously fight and encourage the terrorist groups on their soil. President George W. Bush famously asked governments world-wide after 9/11 whether they were with us or with the terrorists; these rulers answer, “Yes.”

    Some governments—including at times Russia, Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan among others—hope to have it both ways. They use the presence of terrorists to win sympathy abroad and discredit peaceful foes at home, even while fighting back vigorously enough to look plausible but not forcefully enough to solve the problem. This two-faced approach holds considerable appeal for some governments, but it hugely complicates U.S. counterterrorism efforts—and the U.S. shouldn’t just live with it.

Byman then begins labelling various nations; Somalia as a "basket-case," Iran as a "straightforward state sponsors of terrorism" and attempts to frame Russia's struggle against terrorism in Chechnya as somehow disingenuous or politically motivated.....



Shawn Helton at 21stCenturyWire
RESCUE REDUX: Are Syria’s White Helmets ‘Recycling’ its Child Victims?

Since bursting onto the global media scene, the US-UK backed ‘NGO’ known as the White Helmets have produced an unprecedented amount of western-oriented war propaganda. From the New York Times to the BBC, to Time Magazine, everywhere you look, you will see establishment western media outlets promoting the White Helmets. Upon closer examination, however, it seems that the group may be reusing its alleged victims as character subjects in its numerous staged rescue photo opportunities.

Since their inception in late 2013, the White Helmets have been financed to the tune of over $100 million from the UK and US alone, along with millions more from various other NATO, EU and GCC member states – all nations who are deeply invested in arming and backing rebel-terrorists vying for regime change in Syria.

The White Helmets have even pirated the moniker ‘Syria Civil Defence’ from the REAL Syrian Civil Defence.

The group also claims to have “saved 62,000 lives” since they began ‘search and rescue’ activities in early 2014. None of their incredible claims can be independently verified – and yet, these claims are accepted without question by the entirety of the US and European media and political establishment.....


Mark Taliano at GlobalResearch
Canada’s PM Trudeau’s Statement To U.N: 
Tacitly Endorses Illegal “Regime Change” under a Fake Humanitarian Mandate
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, recently stated at the UN General Assembly plenary meeting on Syria that

“Canada is taking a stand at the United Nations General Assembly today to protect vulnerable Syrians and help find a solution to the conflict engulfing that country.

With the support of 70 other UN countries, Canada is applying as much diplomatic pressure as possible on the UN Security Council to break their impasse on Syria.

On behalf of the government, Minister Dion called today for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the provision of unhindered humanitarian access to the victims of the conflict – including children and women – and the resumption of political talks.

I am very proud that our mission at the United Nations, spearheaded by Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, is leading the charge to protect the many victims of this tragic conflict.

I encourage other countries to help generate forward momentum on Syria, given UN members have a collective responsibility to protect the world’s vulnerable and weak when others cannot or will not.”

What Trudeau did not say is more important.

He did not say that the illegal regime change operation, sold under the guise of the “Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) doctrine, completely destroyed Libya and made it into a hotbed for terrorists, including ISIS.

He did not say that Canada necessarily advances the reach and scope of terrorism by publicly supporting illegal regime change, by implementing illegal sanctions, by bombing and/or supporting bombing missions in Syria; by supporting all of the terrorists in Syria; by supporting the Wahhabi ideology and terror financiers, and by supporting all other countries, including NATO, that are trying to destroy Syria.

The list of omissions demonstrates the lie of Trudeau’s statement.........

From RingOfFire
Documentary Filmmaker Faces Up to 45 Years in Prison for Covering Pipeline Protest

In the same week that activist and celebrity Shailene Woodley was arrested while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, a documentary producer was arrested at yet another pipeline protest and charged with conspiracy.

Deia Schlosberg, producer of the 2016 film “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change,” was following the actions of activists in North Dakota who were protesting against a pipeline. Both activists and documentarian Schlosberg were arrested by police and charged with conspiracy to commit theft of property and services.

Protesters were attempting to take matters into their own hands and planned to physically stop the flow of crude oil through valve stations at five locations on Tuesday. Schlosberg attended the event in order to document the protest – something a journalist often does.

The filmmaker continues to be held in jail and all three arrested appeared in court on Thursday for a bond hearing. None were bailed and they all remain in police custody.

According to fellow filmmaker Josh Fox, Schlosberg has been charged with three felony charges, carrying some serious penalties.....

From SouthFront
Russian Defense Ministry: Russian & Syrian Radars Prove Belgian Jets Struck Syrian Village
According to the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, Russian and Syrian radars can prove the fact that Belgian fighter jets struck the Syrian village of Hassajek in Aleppo province.
Russian and Syrian radars are able to prove the fact that Belgian fighter jets struck the Syrian village of Hassajek, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Details of the flight path of the Belgian Air Force fighter jets at the time of the deadly strike on a village, located near Aleppo in Syria, would be unveiled by the Russian Defense Ministry, spokesman for the Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov said on October 20....

Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
The Democrats’ Joe McCarthy Moment
My first book, Fooling America, examined Washington’s excited “conventional wisdom” around the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 when nearly the entire political-punditry elite was thrilled about bombing the heck out of Iraq, inflicting heavy civilian casualties in Baghdad and slaughtering tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers as they fled from Kuwait.

Ironically, one of the few dissenters from this war lust was right-wing commentator Robert Novak, who actually did some quality reporting on how President George H.W. Bush rejected repeated peace overtures because he wanted a successful ground war as a way to instill a new joy of war among the American people.

Bush recognized that a brief, victorious ground war would – in his words – “kick the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all,” i.e. get Americans to forget their revulsion about foreign wars, a hangover from the bloody defeat in Vietnam.

So Novak, the anti-communist hardliner who often had baited other pundits for their “softness” toward “commies,” became on this occasion a naysayer who wanted to give peace a chance. But that meant Novak was baited on “The Capital Gang” chat show for his war doubts.

To my surprise, one of the most aggressive enforcers of the pro-war “group think” was Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Al Hunt, who had often been one of the more thoughtful, less warmongering voices on the program. Hunt dubbed Novak “Neville Novak,” suggesting that Novak’s interest in avoiding war in the Middle East was on par with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler before World War II.

Months later when I interviewed Hunt about his mocking of Novak’s anti-war softness, Hunt justified his “Neville Novak” line as a fitting rejoinder for all the times Novak had baited opponents ........

From EkurdNet
  Syrian army accuses U.S.-led coalition 
of creating safe route for IS in Mosul to Syria
The Syrian army accused “backers of international terrorism” of plotting to secure “safe routes” for Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul to flee Iraq for the war-torn neighboring country during military operations by Iraqi forces to evict the terrorist group from the northern Iraqi city.

A statement from the General Command of the Army and the Armed Force on Tuesday read that the US and its allied countries, above all Saudi Arabia, are carrying out a “malicious scheme” to provide “safe routes for the groupings of IS terrorists who are reeling under the Iraqi army’s strikes in Mosul – Iraq’s second largest city – to cross the border into the Syrian territory.”

The army warned that any attempt to transgress Syria by the militants would be deemed as “an attack on the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
“The aim of providing such corridors, is to provide protection to the terrorists on the one hand and boost the terrorist presence inside the Syrian territory on the other hand in a bid to impose a new military reality in the eastern region in the direction of Deir Ezzor, Raqqa and Palmyra,” the statement added, as quoted by Syria’s official SANA news agency.....





Declan Hayes at Katehon
West Follows Hitler's Plan

....What is the overall plan?

The overall plan is to break all of these communities in Syria, In Southern Russia, in the Caucasus and everywhere else and turn them into markets, vassals and slaves of the West.

How do we jump to that conclusion?

Look – the whole talk is about the refugees, but not about what causes the refugees. What causes the refugee is not Assad or Putin. It is America going in and fighting and destroying countries like Syria. Look at all countries that have gone before – Palestine, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. What is going on in Yemen today is disgraceful, it is as bad as everything that happened  in 20th century. And we are supposed to say nothing and cheer these people as they test their new weapons against Yemen – the poorest Arab country.

Therefore, the overall plan of the West is to create a world, that the leaders of the United States and their allies want. Is this crazy? Yes it is, but so were the plans of Hitler.

Today in NATO we have these very dangerous people like Hillary Clinton, like Obama, following these insane policies and many sane people following them, just as they followed Hitler.

We see Tony Blair massacred millions of Iraqis and he got away with that. We see David Cameron massacred the Libyans – they get away with that.  Anywhere they go they destroy everything with the use of any weapon they like in a hot war and in a soft war. All they can do is to shout that Assad and Putin are to blame.

I don’t blame a crocodile for being a crocodile. I don’t blame NATO, because it's just a crocodile. I blame the media and the other people, who know what is going on, we all know. Everybody in Russia knows. But the media tells the lies that allow these people to get away with their massive war crimes.....

Ari Khalidi at Kurdistan24
Erdogan: Turkey did not 'willingly' accept its borders

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Saturday that his country's current borders were not redrawn of Turkish people's own accord.
Speaking to a public gathering in the western city of Bursa, Erdogan pointed out that Turkey's borders diminished from 20 million square kilometers to 780 thousand, reported private-owned Dogan news agency.

Erdogan was referring to Ottoman Empire's territorial evolution that is marked with losses particularly after the 17th century.

"Young people, look. The Republic [of Turkey] is not our first, but last state. Let me say that we have not accepted these borders willingly. Lest be forgotten, even some of the territories the founding cadres of the Republic were born in were left out of the borders of our new state," said the Turkish President.

Turkey's founder and first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in the Greek city of Thessaloniki which was then still under Ottoman rule.

"We might have had to say 'yes' to [the news borders] so as to compose ourselves and breath a little with the influence of long-lived wars and continuous losses, but we are against the design of the state and society based on the sacrifice given in the controversial circumstances of the time. It is time to leave this behind," continued Erdogan....

Darius Shahtahmasebi at AntiMedia
What You Aren’t Being Told About The Iraqi ISIS Offensive

Iraq has officially begun a U.S.-backed offensive to drive ISIS from the Iraqi city of Mosul, the terror group’s last major stronghold in the country. The operation will be likely be assisted and supported by Iranian-backed militias. Turkey has also expressed a strong interest in joining the fight despite the fact Iraq told Turkey directly they do not want their assistance.

In 2014, ISIS claimed Mosul, a city with a population of 1.5 million people, and has since used it to expand their caliphate. When the terror group seized this territory two years ago, the U.S. air force was nowhere to be seen, even when ISIS stole American-made military vehicles and flaunted their advances on social media.
This latest offensive is expected to spell a major defeat for ISIS in Iraq, and the implications of this could spell the end of the terror group’s reign, which would undoubtedly be of great benefit to the rest of the world.

However, as it transpires, the U.S. has no immediate plans whatsoever to end ISIS. The U.S., together with Saudi Arabia, is reported to have agreed to grant free passage to thousands of Islamic State militants before the Iraqi city is overrun by Iraqi militia. According to an anonymous “military-diplomatic source,” the ISIS militants will reportedly be re-deployed to Syria to fight against the Syrian government instead.

“More than 9,000 Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) militants will be redeployed from Mosul to the eastern regions of Syria to carry out a major offensive operation, which involves capturing Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra,” the source told .........

From MoonOfAlabama
Assad Says The "Boy In The Ambulance" Is Fake - This Proves It

From an interview with the Syrian President Bashar Assad by the Swiss SRF 1 TV Channel published October 19 2016:

    Journalist: This young boy has become the symbol of the war. I think that you know this picture.

    President Assad: Of course I saw it.

    Journalist: His name is Omran. Five years old.

    President Assad: Yeah.

    Journalist: Covered with blood, scared, traumatized. Is there anything you would like to say to Omran and his family?

    President Assad: There’s something I would like to say to you first of all, because I want you to go back after my interview, and go to the internet to see the same picture of the same child, with his sister, both were rescued by what they call them in the West “White Helmets” which is a facelift of al-Nusra in Aleppo. They were rescued twice, each one in a different incident, and just as part of the publicity of those White Helmets. None of these incidents were true. You can have it manipulated, and it is manipulated. I’m going to send you those two pictures, and they are on the internet, just to see that this is a forged picture, not a real one. We have real pictures of children being harmed, but this one in specific is a forged one.
...

Daniel McAdams at RonPaulInstitute
Former Hungarian Communist Party Paper Goes Bankrupt, Washington Panics

.....Yesterday the State Department took time out of its busy schedule condemning the Russians for fighting al-Qaeda in Syria to condemn the Hungarian government for the market failure of a newspaper opposed to it. It is up to the Hungarian government, according to the US State Department, to make sure that opposition newspapers and other publications opposed to it remain in business.

According to the US State Department:

    The United States shares the concerns of global press freedom advocates, international organizations, and Hungarian citizens, over the steady decline of media freedom in Hungary.

    We are following closely the reported ban of an independent website from the parliament building on October 19 and the sudden closure of Hungary’s largest independent newspaper, Nepszabadsag, on October 8. The loss of this paper – regardless of the reason – is a blow to media pluralism in Hungary.

    As a friend and ally, we encourage the Hungarian government to ensure an open media environment that exposes citizens to a diversity of viewpoints and opinions, a key component of our shared democratic values. We urge Hungary to work closely with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and other experts towards this end.

Yes, the Hungarian government according to Washington has an obligation to make sure private enterprises that happen to oppose it are flush with money and remain in operation.....



Jason Ditz at AntiWar
Pentagon Still Not Sure About Claim Ship Attacked Off Yemen Coast

Spokesman Insists Retaliatory Strikes Still 'Appropriate'
Reports on Saturday night that the USS Mason came under attack for the third time in less than a week off the coast of Yemen were quietly rolled back by the Pentagon, who have since noted they aren’t really sure about that, and reiterated today that they are still “assessing” the claim.

Reports following the “attack” and the warship’s “retaliation” indicated that the Pentagon believed there was a strong possibility that no missiles were fired at the ship at all, and the detection of the missiles was the result of a radar malfunction....

Interesting read.
Gary Galles  at Mises
Learning from the British Election of 1722

It has become commonplace to note that the 2016 election campaign is unlike any America has seen before. Whether it is the issues brought to the fore, the number of scandals, or the intensity of the personal invective, it is hard to believe we are now within the bounds of what our founders had in mind.

In fact, we can make that statement going back more than half a century before our founding. The reason is that one of the greatest influences on colonial American political thought was Cato’s Letters, in which John Trenchard and Robert Gordon echoed John Locke in the early 1720s....

Mark St.Cyr at his blog
Tinfoil: It’s Getting Harder To Leave Home Without It

It used to be when someone mentioned the term “tinfoil cap wearing,” “conspiracy theorist,” “lunatic fringe,” etc, etc. It was usually in reference to a subset of individuals or groups that resided in some dark corners or basements believing “mind control” went far beyond just propaganda. i.e., It was actually the government (or aliens!) sending out undetectable frequencies directly into the minds of the masses. And, the only protection was: tinfoil. With it’s best use fashioned and adorned as a cap. It’s been a running joke (as it should be) longer than most can remember....
......Back in May of this year I penned an article titled: “Was The Fed Just Given The Launch Codes?” In it I made some observations as it pertained to “the elites” or “Ivory Tower” type thinking. It was a follow-up from a previous in October where I hypothesized another perilous possibility: “Weaponizing The Fed.”

With all that was happening at that time, along with what has happened since, it’s getting harder to push these ideas away, more than it is to embrace the possibilities. And that, in-and-of itself, is causing me more concern with each passing day. Especially when combined with the realities taking place in real-time today.

So what type of “conspiracy” laden scenario can I hypothesize using what we know to be factual, and, what we can conceptualize happening based on what has happened previous? Warning: it might be time to check for any possible tears, or cracks in your metallic helmet, and repair or reapply as much “tinfoil” as one feels appropriate. With that said, let’s continue.

Have you noticed as of late that the more “serious” the Fed. is intoning hawkish tones – the more its Chair Janet Yellen is suggesting monetary lunacy? e.g., “Yellen Says Fed Buying Stocks Is “A Good Thing To Think About”............


1000s of jihadis out of Mosul and into EU and after that into North America within a few years.



Tony Cartalucci at TheNewAtlas
Why is the Passing of Thailand's King a Big Deal?

The passing of Thailand's head of state, the 88 year old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, marks a historically significant event in Thailand's history. For most Thais, they have known only one king their entire life - King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The significance of Thailand's monarchy to Thai people is difficult for Westerners to understand. Unlike Western monarchies who rule from above, Thailand's monarchy has historically ruled through service to the people. It is in recognition of this service that drives hundreds of thousands of Thais into the streets of Bangkok to participate in the beginning of funeral rites this week.

The depth and scope of this service includes not only the political boundaries and stability the monarchy provided when politicians and political parties clashed within the nation, but also service in driving long-term infrastructure projects regarding irrigation, energy, and agriculture shortsighted politicians refused to pursue.....




Justin Raimondo at RonPaulInstitute
Assange's Fate

The saga of Julian Assange seems to be drawing to a climax – one that will decide the fate of this historic whistleblower who, for years, has been a giant thorn in the side of governments everywhere.

His role in exposing the machinations of the US government over the years earned him the plaudits of liberals – until the Bush era ended, and he started exposing the crimes of the Obama administration and – most pointedly – the hypocrisy and venality of Hillary Clinton and her journalistic camarilla. Now we see right-wing figures like Sean Hannity and – yes! – Donald Trump praising and defending him, while the ostensible liberals take up the cry of the Clinton campaign that he’s a “pawn of the Kremlin” and a “rapist.” Even Glenn Greenwald, formerly a comrade-in-arms, who together with Assange helped Edward Snowden evade the not-so-loving arms of Uncle Sam, has lately sought to distance himself from the founder of WikiLeaks (over the value of “curation”). Nice timing, Glenn!

Funny how that works.

Now we see that the Ecuadorian government, which has provided sanctuary for Assange ever since the frame-up “rape” charges by the Swedes were brought, is succumbing to pressure from Washington to silence him. As Assange released the now famous Podesta emails, that – among other things – exposed the collusion of the media and the Clinton campaign in delicious detail, John Kerry demanded that the Ecuadorians cut off Assange’s Internet access – and they meekly complied. Of course, since leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has openly endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and openly abhors Trump, this is hardly surprising: this is how the left operates internationally, as well as in this country – if you stray from the party line it doesn’t take long before the knives come out, aimed directly at one’s back.

In any case, Correa’s betrayal seems to have been short-circuited by the ever-resourceful Assange, who is still releasing incriminating emails. This is someone with a Plan!...

from TeleSUR
Media Deliberately Omits Critical Info to Demonize Venezuela 
The announcement from Venezuela's electoral authority that it would not proceed with a recall referendum has unleashed yet another wave of critical articles and opinion pieces throughout the English-speaking media, labeling the socialist government in Venezuela as “authoritarian” or even a “dictatorship.”
It is a tired tune that people who follow political developments in the South American country have heard consistently throughout the 16-year process known as the Bolivarian Revolution.

Despite the fact that the Venezuelan government's democratic credentials have been affirmed repeatedly—including by groups that cannot be considered to be partial to the government, such as the Carter Center—private media outlets insist on labeling the Maduro administration “undemocratic.”

Media outlets are fully aware that if they were to be honest in their reporting about Venezuela, the narrative that the country is not a democracy would collapse under the weight of its own insincerity.

Thus private outlets have consistently and deliberately omitted critical information about recent developments in Venezuela.

Many outlets, such as ABC News, have completely failed to mention that the opposition-controlled national assembly is currently in noncompliance with a ruling from the country's supreme court, therefore its actions have no legal standing. ...

From ZeroHedge
Putin Cancels Trip To France After Hollande Accuses Russia Of War Crimes

In the latest confirmation of deteriorating relations between Moscow and the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled a visit to Paris next week after President Francois Hollande said he would see him only for talks on Syria.

Over the weekend, tensions emerged between Moscow and Paris after the Russian UN delegation vetoed a French-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria. French officials' growing anger over a Russian-backed Syrian offensive against rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo had led them to reconsider whether to host Putin on Oct. 19, Reuters reports.

"I made it known to Mr Putin that if he came to Paris, I would not accompany him to any ceremonies, but that I was ready to continue the dialogue on Syria. He decided to postpone the visit," a questuionably hospitable Francois Hollande said earlier at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

The Russian president had been scheduled to inaugurate a new Russian Orthodox cathedral and visit a Russian art exhibition in the French capital on Oct. 19, however that now will not happen as after the US and Russia broke off diplomatic relations regarding Syria, it now appears that France, or at least Hollande, has also joined.

The Kremlin confirmed Putin's decision, but made no mention of Syria and said he was ready to come to Paris at Hollande's convenience. ...

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

What Donald Trump said about the Iraq war and the returning war-wounded about a decade ago


Here's part of what Trump said when warmonger Bush was Prez.  He hasn't changed his position and from this interview with CNN it is clear that he has helped many of the soldiers whose lives have been ruined by the globalists.



Monday, October 17, 2016

On the US Election


Alec Baldwin's sagging career has been given a boost.  Watch the SNL skits below.
 
From CNN
Donald Trump suggested Saturday that his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, has been "getting pumped up" with performance-enhancing drugs and challenged Clinton to take a drug test before the final debate next week.
Trump argued that Clinton was more energetic during the beginning of their debate last Sunday, but lost her steam by the end of the debate. He offered no evidence to back up his wild claim.

"I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate," Trump said during a rally here. "Because I don't know what's going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, huff, take me down. She could barely reach her car.".....




Everything out there about Trump being sexually aggressive towards women, could be the truth and nothing but the truth.  But that won't stop his march to the WH because most Americans have had enough of everybody else. 
From Heavy
John Barry, Summer Zervos’ Cousin: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
The Donald Trump campaign has released a lengthy statement from former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos’ first cousin in an attempt to discredit her claims that Trump had unwanted sexual contact with her.

The statement by John Barry, identified as Zervos’ first cousin, who is from Mission Viejo, California, contends that Zervos “converted her friends and our family to become Trump supporters even though we’ve never been active in politics before.”

He alleges that Zervos’ attitude toward Trump changed when Trump declined an invite to Summer’s restaurant during the primary. The release comes as the Trump campaign reels from a string of allegations lodged by Zervos and others that Trump subjected them to unwanted physical advances and contact. Trump denies the allegations.

The Trump campaign also released an email purportedly from Zervos to a Trump official, Rhona Graff, in which Zervos allegedly said she would “greatly appreciate reconnecting” and insisting her intentions were “genuine.”

Here’s what you need to know:......





Sunday, October 16, 2016

News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media ... week ending Oct 16


Claire Bernish at FreeThoughtProject
Gulf of Tonkin 2.0?
US Using Unconfirmed Attack on Navy Ship to Quietly Start War With Iran & Russia
After reportedly coming under fire from missiles launched in Houthi rebel-held territory, the United States officially entered the war in Yemen today by firing back, knocking out strategic radar sites and other targets in the area believed to have fired first.

In response to the U.S. escalation, Iran deployed a fleet of military vessels to the same geostrategically-critical Gulf of Aden waters where American ships have been situated for months guarding the Bab el-Mandeb strait — the narrow passage through which much of the world’s oil is shipped through to the Suez Canal.

While that may be the crux of the narrative presented by the U.S. government and corporate media, far more ominous secondary developments must be considered, and — as has been the case in Syria and the East and South China Seas — everything points back to Russia.

And not in the vein of Russian aggression as the U.S. propaganda machine would have you believe.

Yemen’s Shi’a Houthis — who captured capital city, Sana’a, last year — have long been suspected by Washington to be receiving direct but surreptitious support from the Iranian government, which flatly denies the allegation.

Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval, air, and land blockade on the tiny country — leaving Yemenis one of the most food-insecure and impoverished nations on the planet — and leading to mass starvation. Without a guaranteed influx of supplies — including arms and other military items — haphazardly firing at a Navy ship seems a logical improbability....



Brandon Turbeville at GlobalResearch
Only In The World Of American Media Is Syria A Civil War
To the vast majority of Americans, the Syrian crisis (as well as the state of affairs in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, etc.) is merely a distant blip on a cluttered radar screen. Competing with issues affecting an individual’s daily life like wages, taxes, and free trade, that small portion of the American population who hasn’t completely zoned out of the political and current-events sphere is increasingly overtaken with the necessities of survival. Those who are able to devote enough time to the Syrian crisis are confronted with an unprecedented onslaught of propaganda demonizing the Syrian government and the Syrian president as “killing his own people,” “brutal,” and “genocidal.” The Syrian people are also victims of the propaganda war as being obsessed with religion, divided, and opposed to their government.

As they are presented by the U.S. media, the Syrian people, like most other people across the world are completely dehumanized. In American media, Syrians are not human. They are numbers. 100 died today. 86 died the day before. Syrians are not mothers or sons. They are not fathers or little children, grandparents. They are blips on a screen and data in a spreadsheet. At least, this is how they are presented to an increasingly hardened American public, a nation that is becoming more and more desensitized to death, destruction, and degradation both at home and abroad.

Having recently concluded a trip to the Middle East, I can safely say that the claims made by Western media are the opposite of the truth.

While my visit centered in Lebanon, we had frequent opportunities to talk with ordinary Syrian citizens either visiting Lebanon or fleeing the ravages of the war in their home country. Indeed, Syrians and Syrian refugees were plentiful in Beirut and many would openly speak about the horrors visited upon them by the West’s proxy war and their trials outside Syria.

What is so important about the fact that these Syrians were being interviewed in Lebanon is the unique benefit of talking with someone not living in their home country because one knows with relative certainty that the person speaking has nothing to lose or gain.......

Waleed Rikab at SyriaComment
Abdallah al-Muhaysini came to Syria in 2013 to partake in the
uprising against Bashar al-Assad. He presents a unique case of the outsized role a single person can play in the lawless world of the Syrian rebellion.  He has positioned himself at the center of radical jihadist politics, fund raising, and legal opinion.
Al-Muhaysini hails from the al-Qassim region in Saudi Arabia. Prior to his arrival to Syria, he completed his MA and PhD studies in Islamic Jurisprudence in the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, with a dissertation on “The Treatment of Prisoners of War in Islamic Jurisprudence.” A self-professed Salafi jihadist scholar, al-Muhaysini is often seen on the battlefields of northern Syria together with various Islamist factions, prominent among whom are Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), in addition to other factions affiliated with the Jaish al-Fateh coalition. He has set up institutions that provide military and financial aid to jihadist groups, and runs a proselytization (Dawah) center (named “The Jihad’s Callers Center“) in Idlib Province.

Al-Mushaysini holds the title General Judge of Jaish al-Fateh. He is highly revered in the jihadi-Salafi landscape (notwithstanding Islamic State adherents), embracing a leading role in the warfare – most recently in the Jabha al-Nusra takeover, together with the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) of the Abu al-Dhuhur Air Base and in the Jaish al-Fatah battles for control over al-Fuah this month (September 2015). During clashes in the last year, he was documented delivering inflammatory speeches to the troops and bestowing religious blessing upon suicide bombers before embarking on their missions.....



Neil Clark at RT
The deadly racism of the ‘anti-racist’ liberal imperialist 

When it comes to hypocrisy, the pro-war Western ‘liberal’ is in a class of his own. While professing opposition to racism, the pro-war liberal is cheerleader for the most dangerous and deadly form of racism in the world today - contemporary US/Western imperialism.

A racism that is scarcely reported, but which has laid waste to entire countries and killed millions - and which now threatens to drag us into potentially catastrophic military confrontation with Russia.

We can see this abhorrent racism on display again in the current debates in elite circles in the West over Syria. It’s taken as a given that ‘We’ i.e., the US and its allies, have a right to declare who is or is not the legitimate government of Syria. We can demand ‘Assad must go’ but of course no Syrian government official can demand one of OUR leaders must go. The very thought of it!

We have the right to impose ‘No Fly Zones’ which of course won’t apply to OUR aircraft - only to THEIRS. We have the right to bomb or illegally invade countries at any time we want to - for whatever fictitious reasons - but if the people of the targeted country dare to fight back, we’ll call them “genocidal” and accuse their leader (and his allies) of war crimes and push for them to be sent to The Hague. Our leaders meanwhile can break international law and kill hundreds of thousands with total impunity.

If you doubt the inherent racism of the current world order, and think I’m overstating the case; then consider what’s been going on at the International Criminal Court (ICC). During its 14 years of existence the only people indicted and tried by the ICC have been Africans..........

From Off-Guardian
Four days ago, after reports that Saudi Arabia had bombed a funeral in
Yemen killing 140 mourners, America announced it would “review its support” for the Saudi-led coalition.

Three days ago the USS Mason, an American destroyer patrolling the Red Sea, was apparently fired upon from Yemen. It has gone unquestioned in the Western MSM that the Houthis were behind this attack, despite strong denials from the Houthis themselves.

Yesterday, all thoughts of “reviewing support” put aside, the Americans bombed three “radar sites” that they claim were a threat to their assets in the Red Sea.

Just like that, America is now an active player in the war on Yemen, when before they were simply selling weapons to the Saudis et al.

You might consider it strange that the Houthis, who have not fired on American ships ever before in the nearly 2 years of warfare in Yemen, suddenly decided – just as American support for Saudi Arabia was in question – to launch missiles at an American destroyer.

You might be asking yourself, “Why would the Houthis, who struggle to get any coverage in the Western press at all, let alone sympathetic coverage, launch an attack on America?”

You might consider it strange that the Houthis, already fighting a losing battle against a richer and better equipped enemy, might try and drag America into the war.

It’s not strange. Not in the least. It fits so well with the history of American military entanglements that one might even call it predictable, at this point.....



From WarNewsToday
Update for Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Gunman attacks a Shiite shrine in Kabul as worshippers observe Ashura, killing 18. IS in Afghanistan claims responsibility.
Separately, an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Balkh kills 14.
While the center of Kunduz is now said to be secure, Taliban continue to occupy surrounding areas. This analysis in Der Spiegel discusses the generally deteriorating security situation in the country....



From RT
Scores dead and wounded after gunman attacks Shia festival in Kabul 
 At least 14 people have been killed and 36 wounded after a gunman burst into a Shia shrine in the Afghan capital, during the marking of the Ashura festival in what appears to have been a sectarian attack.

The worshipers were densely packed during an evening service at the Karte Sakhe shrine during one of the key weeks in the Shia calendar, when the attack occurred. In a blurry video taken from a distance posted to social media shortly after the incident, a staccato barrage of gunshots is followed by screams. Several unverified photos from the shrine showed the floors running red with blood.......

Ryan Devereaux at AnswerCoalition
Protest demands: Close Rikers Island!
...The very idea of a detention center devoted to locking up and terrorizing local youth, men and women who have not even been convicted of a crime is abominable. In a blatant violation of inmates’ basic rights, solitary confinement is used against inmates, even ones who later face no formal charges. Kalief Browder, a teenage inmate subjected to the torture of solitary confinement, took his own life after being released; no formal charges were ever pressed against him.

Daniel Dromm, a City Councilor representing District 25, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst stated, “Rikers Island is a hellhole. No man deserves to live in that hellhole.” Rikers Island is indicative of the United States’ approach to “criminal justice” as a whole: warehouse supposed criminals out of the public eye, throw them into a violent prison environment, punish them for the violence through terrorizing inmates with solitary confinements and other abuses meanwhile doing little to address the root causes of crime.

Whether it’s petty crimes such as shoplifting or drug misuse, the “justice” system seeks nothing but revenge. Instead of allocating roughly $200,000 to detain each inmate at Rikers, communities could use that money for expanding institutions that actually help the community: public schools, jobs and affordable housing to start. As always under capitalism, the government somehow has enough money to detain and terrorize poor people but never enough to make the communities in which they reside genuinely safe and livable....




Dady Chery at GlobalResearch
Haiti: Facts About Hurricane Matthew Versus The Media’s “Poetic Truth”
All of Haiti, however, suffered hurricane-force winds and floods that destroyed crops and swept away much of the livestock.

Furthermore, violent surges of seawater crashed into most of Haiti’s cities, which line the coasts. Even the Dominican Republic, on the eastern side of Hispaniola, well away from the hurricane’s center was so strongly affected by floods and winds that it lost four people.

...For example, the children from a collapsed orphanage are presumed to have died, but no evidence of their deaths has been offered. Such disappearances of children during disasters are often due to https://www.devex.com/news/human-trafficking-prevalent-in-post-typhoon-philippines-82576 human trafficking, and the irresponsible reporters who eagerly repeat these numbers should consider that they might be serving as the unwitting accomplices of criminals....

Afghanistan: 15 years of Invasion and Occupation


From RT
‘Cancer connected with nuclear disasters develops in Yemeni children’ 
The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, where people are dying of famine, lack of medical supplies and chemical weapons, may amount to genocide if the international community doesn’t act, says Kim Sharif of Human Rights for Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has blocked a UN request for an independent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen.
The UN claims the inquiry spearheaded by the Yemeni National Committee is not enough.
Yemen is running out of food, fuel and medicine; and the number of malnourished children is skyrocketing. UN figures claim more than half of Yemen's 28 million population is suffering from a lack of food, and vulnerable children end up being the hardest hit.

Up to 400,000 children suffer severe malnutrition leading to a number of diseases.

A study reported by UK’s Guardian newspaper reveals more than a third of all airstrikes hit civilian sites, including hospitals, schools and mosques....

...Sharif went on to say, “people are dying of chemical type of weapons, where children are developing very unusual cancers that are usually connected with a nuclear type holocaust.”

“This is very shocking and so frequent in the northern parts of the Yemen that there is a disproportionate development of rare types of cancers that are usually connected with nuclear types of disasters,” said Sharif.

She insists that an independent investigation into the situation in Yemen and the alleged war crimes committed by the Saudi coalition is necessary........




From TheIntercept
“Do Not Resist”:The Police Militarization Documentary Everyone Should See
On a sunny afternoon last summer, Craig Atkinson, a New York City-based filmmaker, stood in a front yard in South Carolina surrounded by several heavily armed police officers.

The officers, members of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department tactical team, were descending on a modest one-story house looking for drugs and guns. The team smashed through the windows of the home with iron pikes, then stormed the front door with rifles raised.

Inside, they found a terrified family of four, including an infant. As the family members were pulled outside, Atkinson’s camera captured a scene that plays out with startling regularity in cities and towns across the country, one of many included in his new documentary, “Do Not Resist,” an examination of police militarization in the United States.

The police begin rooting through the trash. “Where the fuck is the weed?” one officer asks, as the team ransacks a car parked in the driveway. “Boy that was sweet,” another says, commenting on the speed of the raid. One officer finds a backpack, which yields a bit of marijuana — it’s not enough to roll a joint, but it’s something.

The officer in charge questions the owner of the backpack, a young African-American man. In a conversation captured on Atkinson’s microphone, the young man, a local community college student, tells the officer he runs a small landscaping business.

Knowing he’s being taken into custody, with his hands cuffed in front of him, he asks the officer for a favor: Can he remove the $876 in his pocket set aside for new lawn-care equipment and give it to one of his employees to go to the hardware store?

Instead of handing the cash to the arrestee’s co-worker, the tactical team seizes the money.....


Andrew Korybko at OrientalReview
Hybrid Wars 7. How The US Could Manufacture A Mess In Myanmar (I)

The last ASEAN country to be studied within the book is Myanmar, which is by far the most susceptible of the entire bunch to Hybrid War. Truth be told, it’s been experiencing some form or another of Hybrid War since its independence in 1948, although this mostly took the form of Unconventional Warfare prior to 1988. From that point on, Color Revolutions were reversely integrated into the destabilization model there and offered as a “solution” to the world’s longest-running civil war, earning them the automatic support of the international (Western) community and lending them false normative “justification” in the eyes of the easily misled global masses.

Myanmar functions as the ideal case study for examining Hybrid War in practice, and it’s more relevant in the current geopolitical climate than ever before. All of the pieces are in place for a violent explosion and the country is rife with asymmetrical risks to its stability. The reason that Myanmar is such a powder keg is because foreign actors have been conspiring against its unity since independence, wanting to exploit one or another peripheral ethnic group for their own particular purposes. The decades-long military government can’t avoid shouldering some of the responsibility for the country’s present woes, as it was unsuccessful in crafting an inclusive and lasting sense of nationhood, though to be fair, the challenge that it was confronted with was immense....

 Part II 



From SuperStation95
Russian Television Tells Citizens NUCLEAR WAR IMMINENT
- Find location of nearest Bomb Shelter -- US Base at Diego Garcia so loaded with planes, parking them on roads!
Russian television has told its citizens that nuclear war may be "imminent." The terrifying Russian television broadcast explicitly told civilians to find out where their nearest bomb shelter is and repeatedly asked viewers if they were ready for nuclear war.

One apocalyptic broadcast told viewers on Moscow's state-owned TV channel NTV: "If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. It’s best to find out now."

The enraged host, Evgeny Kiselyov, blasted America's "impudent behaviour" and spent two hours warning that a conflict could take "nuclear dimensions".....

......According to information from a government contractor, the US has deployed "More planes than I have ever seen in nine years" to the Military Base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.  Specifically, this contractor wrote to say:

     I rotate thru Diego Garcia every 6 weeks to pull maintenance on uplink equipment as a private contractor.

    Something big is going on, the island has more aircraft than anytime in the last 9 years. They have blocked off some access roads and are now parking aircraft on the National Road. Barriers have been set up around the aircraft areas. Temporary barracks and hangers are popping up everywhere. A tent city full of AF and Navy maintenance personal has also been set up.

    I have never seen B1s and B2s there at the same time. Actually I have never seen more than 1 there at a time.  Now, there are very many.

    Security is nuts I had to show my id at least 8 times a day.

    My coworker is former AF and said they are like that when nukes are around.....