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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Some of my tweets from Dec 13 - 19














































Police State America ... not very much unlike where Jesus was born then and ...


come to think of it, nothing much has changed in the land of His birth.
Article below has plenty of links to confirm every statement made within.


 John Whitehead at LewRockwell:
Jesus Was Born in a Police State

    “Jesus is too much for us. The church’s later treatment of the gospels is one long effort to rescue Jesus from ‘extremism.’”—author Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant

The Christmas narrative of a baby born in a manger is a familiar one.

The Roman Empire, a police state in its own right, had ordered that a census be conducted. Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary traveled to the little town of Bethlehem so that they could be counted. There being no room for the couple at any of the inns, they stayed in a stable, where Mary gave birth to a baby boy, Jesus.

Unfortunately, Jesus was born into a police state not unlike the growing menace of the American police state. When he grew up, he had powerful, profound things to say—things that would change how we view people, alter government policies and change the world. “Blessed are the merciful,” “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and “Love your enemies” are just a few examples of his most profound and revolutionary teachings.

When confronted by those in authority, Jesus did not shy away from speaking truth to power. Indeed, his teachings undermined the political and religious establishment of his day. It cost him his life. He was eventually crucified as a warning to others not to challenge the powers-that-be.

Yet what if Jesus, the revered preacher, teacher, radical and prophet, had been born 2,000 years later? What if, instead of being born into the Roman police state, he had been born and raised in the American police state?
Consider the following if you will.

Had Jesus been born in the era of the America police state, rather than traveling to Bethlehem for a census, Jesus’ parents would have been mailed a 28-page American Community Survey, a mandatory government questionnaire documenting their habits, household inhabitants, work schedule, how many toilets were in their home, etc. The penalty for not responding to this invasive survey can go as high as $5,000....

Truth-telling Documentaries suppressed and unappreciated ....


because the sheeple would rather be comforted by lies than have to tackle with stark reality of the dying Empire's umpteen sins.
The documentary Pilger mentions in his article is posted at the very bottom.
 

John Pilger at ConsortiumNews
Silencing of Courageous Documentaries

I first understood the power of the documentary during the editing of my first film, The Quiet Mutiny. In the commentary, I make reference to a chicken, which my crew and I encountered while on patrol with American soldiers in Vietnam.
“It must be a Vietcong chicken – a communist chicken,” said the sergeant. He wrote in his report: “enemy sighted.” The chicken moment seemed to underline the farce of the war – so I included it in the film. That may have been unwise.

The regulator of commercial television in Britain – then the Independent Television Authority or ITA – had demanded to see my script. What was my source for the political affiliation of the chicken? I was asked. Was it really a communist chicken, or could it have been a pro-American chicken?

Of course, this nonsense had a serious purpose; when The Quiet Mutiny was broadcast by ITV in 1970, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Walter Annenberg, a personal friend of President Richard Nixon, complained to the ITA. He complained not about the chicken but about the whole film. “I intend to inform the White House,” the ambassador wrote. Gosh.

The Quiet Mutiny had revealed that the U.S. Army in Vietnam was tearing itself apart. There was open rebellion: drafted men were refusing orders and shooting their officers in the back or “fragging” them with grenades as they slept. None of this had been news. What it meant was that the war was lost; and the messenger was not appreciated.

The Director-General of the ITA was Sir Robert Fraser. He summoned Denis Foreman, then Director of Programmes at Granada TV, and went into a state of apoplexy. Spraying expletives, Sir Robert described me as a “dangerous subversive.”

What concerned the regulator and the ambassador was the power of a single documentary film: the power of its facts and witnesses: especially young soldiers speaking the truth and treated sympathetically by the film-maker.

I was a newspaper journalist. I had never made a film before and I was indebted to Charles Denton, a renegade producer from the BBC, who taught me that facts and evidence told straight to the camera and to the audience could indeed be subversive.

This subversion of official lies is the power of documentary. I have now made 60 films and I ......

 

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Some tweets of mine from Dec 7 -12







































"Whiteness" and the Jews


Racism in Judaism. 

Yoav Litvin at Telesur
The Contemporary Jewish Dilemma: Adopt or Reject Zionism and White Supremacy

With the rise of neo-fascism worldwide, Jews must make this choice.

"Whiteness" is a relatively novel concept, which continues to evolve. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it served to stratify Europe and its colonies into classes of privileged white people with full rights and ‘others’ to be disenfranchised, used as manual labor, or eliminated.

Societies that champion "whiteness" as the focal point of their identity scapegoat ‘out’ groups in order to mask systematic policies of privilege and prejudice.

Incitement against "out" groups serves to redirect public outrage that would otherwise be focused on the system and its ruling class. A study of 19th century Imperial Russia and its involvement in the brutal mass lynchings (aka “pogroms”) against its Jewish population is instructive in this manner.

As a historically consistent target of "whiteness," Jews have and will always be excluded from or remain in the periphery of white nationalist circles; but not for lack of trying. Many have attempted to assimilate into groups that champion the so-called superiority of "western values" for more than a century – only to be used, abused and/or rejected.

Collusion

The next best option to inclusion and integration is cooperation based on shared values.

Jewish Zionism was established on notions of western supremacy, imperialism, global apartheid and anti-Semitism, which have all been part and parcel of white supremacist societies. Realization of Zionism’s objective of a Jewish state, hailed by Theodore Herzl and other Zionist leaders as the solution to anti-Semitism, has been highly dependent on the persecution of Jews........

There was media blackout in the West about the USA+coalition-aided escape of headchoppers ....


from Raqqa, the city that had become the suicide-belt wearers' capital and where they were nesting like vipers.  Assad's army was readying itself to advance on Raqqa  but the good old USA along with their lapdogs decided that the vipers needed to be saved and spread over other landscapes of Syria where they could continue doing their evil on USA+lapdogs' behalf.

Thousands of terrorism-hardened terrorists managed to escape Raqqa in convoys which were several kilometers long. Will these terrorists make their way into EU, USA, Canada, Australia and UK now?  Was that the reason they were aided in their escape so they could "go forth and multiply" and the continuation of the mantra of "Muslim terrorism" be kept alive? That mantra helps the arms industry to sell more weapons, small and big.  Small weapons to individuals to help keep their own person as well as  their families safe from potential "Muslim terrorists" and big weapons to help countries make fresh or continue their ongoing wars to control or eradicate "radical Muslim terrorism".

From the BBC

How Headchoppers and Suicide Belt wearers were aided in their escape before Assad's army could get to them


Try not to give in to your anger while reading how these jihadis have been let loose in order to "fight Assad elsewhere" but will  now be sowing their seed and planting their bombs all over the world.
 
Tom O'Connor at Newsweek
U.S. Made Secret Deal With ISIS to Let Thousands of Fighters Flee
Raqqa to Battle Assad in Syria, Former Ally Says
The U.S. military allowed thousands of Islamic State militant group (ISIS) fighters to flee from their de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, in a secret deal that boosted the U.S. fight against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a Pentagon-backed Kurdish commander, who has since switched his allegiance to Turkey and who spoke to Reuters.

As the spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish coalition of Arabs and ethnic minorities, Brigadier General Talal Silo acted as the face and the voice of the U.S.’s leading partner against ISIS in Syria. The U.S.-backed group successfully ousted ISIS from Raqqa in October. Weeks later, in mid-November, Silo handed himself over to Turkey, an enemy of Kurdish efforts in northern Syria. For the first time since his switch, the senior commander has spoken out and claimed that the U.S.-led coalition let significantly more fighters out of the embattled city than it previously admitted to.

“[An] agreement was reached for the terrorists to leave, about 4,000 people, them and their families,” Silo told Reuters Friday, claiming that all but about 500 who fled were ISIS fighters.

News of a covert agreement between the Syrian Democratic Forces and ISIS was first leaked last month after a BBC News investigation. The U.S.-led coalition denied being a party to any agreements, telling Newsweek it does not “make deals with terrorists,” but acknowledging that its partner had let convoys depart the city allegedly on humanitarian grounds. The BBC investigation, citing an unnamed “Western officer” who claimed he or she was present during the discussions, said 250 ISIS fighters left along with 3,500 family members, some of whom may have fled the country into neighboring Turkey.

Silo, who has not given any reason for his defection, said that his forces blocked all travel to Raqqa for three days in October, claiming ongoing clashes made movement too dangerous. In reality, he said, they were covering up the exit of thousands of ISIS fighters and hundreds of their family members.

“It was all theater,” Silo told Reuters.

“The announcement was cover for those who left for Deir Ezzor,” he added.......

Christmas Cartoon ... Family Dinner



Where does "America First" send its $sss in bid to make "America Not First" ???


Yup !  All those places where the smart crooks of this world (almost all of them are Americans themselves or with US passports) know how to siphon off all that loot collected from the tax-paying American saps into their very own private accounts.

From ZeroHedge
America First (After All Of You...) - Mapping Billions Of Dollars In Foreign Aid

Donald Trump ran for President on the concept of “America First.” What does this mean in practice for his governing philosophy and foreign policy? Drastic cuts to foreign aid expenditures, namely, the money the U.S. sends to other countries for humanitarian, developmental and economic reasons. This made us wonder how much foreign aid the U.S. currently sends overseas and where the money is going, so we created a new viz. Per HowMuch:

We compiled data from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for 2016, the last year for which numbers are available. USAID keeps track of how much money U.S. taxpayers send overseas, what activities we spend it on, and why. We changed the proportions of a world map to represent the countries receiving the most money (the larger the country appears in the viz, the more money it receives). We also color-coded each one according to the purpose of the funds. Mapping USAID activities in this way shows you exactly how and why the U.S. sends money overseas.



First off, you can see a lot of large, red countries on the map from the Middle East, where the U.S. spends billions of dollars each year to reduce conflict, maintain peace and promote stability. This is because foreign aid tends to follow U.S. troop deployments. In fact, the number one and number two recipients of aid—Iraq and Afghanistan—remain major theaters of combat for hundreds of U.S. soldiers. Israel, the third highest recipient on our list, continues to be a strong U.S. ally. President Trump is considering whether to refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, so we suspect the $3.1B Israel receives is likely safe from cuts. In total, the U.S. spends more than $18.3B in conflict reduction.....

Here's what the know-it-alls in the USA and Canada have unleashed in the Ukraine


IMO, the Russia-hating majority of Ukrainians deserve this madcap from Georgia.  He compliments their unique madness so very beautifully.

Patrick J. Buchanan at his blog
The Nutball the Neocons Wanted in NATO

Even interventionists are regretting some of the wars into which they helped plunge the United States in this century.

Among those wars are Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest in our history; Libya, which was left without a stable government; Syria’s civil war, a six-year human rights disaster we helped kick off by arming rebels to overthrow Bashar Assad; and Yemen, where a U.S.-backed Saudi bombing campaign and starvation blockade is causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Yet, twice this century, the War Party was beaten back when seeking a clash with Putin’s Russia. And the “neo-isolationists” who won those arguments served America well.

What triggered this observation was an item on Page 1 of Wednesday’s New York Times that read in its entirety:

“Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, led marchers through Kiev after threatening to jump from a five-story building to evade arrest. Page A4”

Who is Saakashvili? The wunderkind elected in 2004 in Tbilisi after a “Rose Revolution” we backed during George W. Bush’s crusade for global democracy.

During the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, Saakashvili sent his army crashing into the tiny enclave of South Ossetia, which had broken free of Georgia when Georgia broke free of Russia.

In overrunning the enclave, however, Saakashvili’s troops killed Russian peacekeepers. Big mistake. Within 24 hours, Putin’s tanks and troops were pouring through Roki Tunnel, running Saakashvili’s army out of South Ossetia, and occupying parts of Georgia itself.....

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Some of my tweets from Dec 1 - 6


































Daniel Ellsberg reveals how the USA planned on killing 600 MILLION earthlings





Really worth watching.
Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg reveals he was a Nuclear War Planner, Warns of Nuclear Winter & Global Starvation

On the neverending conflict in Afghanistan


Once you get addicted to multiple invasions and wars the only way out is the total and complete demise of the aggressor.
Think how many uncontrolled drug addicts meet their end ... deliberate suicide, accidental suicide or death.  

Now for good old America, all roads lead to the burial site of empires.  Glory be!!!
 
From ConsortiumNews
Refusing to Learn Bloody Lessons
President Trump’s continued Afghan War pursues the same failed path as the prior 16 years, with the U.S. political/media elites learning no lessons, says former Marine officer Matthew Hoh in an interview with the American Herald Tribune.
Interviewer Mohsen Abdelmoumen: As an expert, how do you see the evolution of the political process in Afghanistan?

Matthew Hoh: Unfortunately, I have not seen any positive evolution or change in the political system or process in Afghanistan since 2009. What we have seen are three national elections that have been ruled to be grossly illegitimate and fraudulent by outside observers, but have been validated and supported by the American government through the presence of tens of thousands of soldiers and the spending of tens of billions of dollars.

We have seen the creation of extra-constitutional positions in the government, such as the Chief Executive Officer position occupied by Abdullah Abdullah, which was done at the behest of the American government. Additionally, bargains and compromises that were brokered by the American government in an attempt to create more a more inclusive government, reduce corruption and heal fractures among the political bloc that once supported Hamid Karzai and the American presence has failed to achieve those things. Corruption is still the dominant feature of the Afghan government, and the political support for the rule of Kabul has deteriorated and splintered by the corruption and the machinations of the Karzai and now Ghani governments.

Most importantly, the political process, by being so corrupt, by seating successive governments that won by fraud and by disenfranchising various political communities, has alienated many, many Afghans, and not just those Pashtuns who ally themselves with the Taliban, from the government in Kabul. This has allowed for greater support for militia commanders and warlords outside of Kabul, as well as the Taliban, and has allowed the war to progress with no real hopes for reconciliation, negotiations or a cease-fire anywhere in the near future. (By supporting and growing a kleptocracy, a system of have and have nots, that system has by its nature and necessity produced more people out of the system than people in the system every year. This causes resentment, grievances and a desire to share in the spoils and gifts of American occupation that leads to greater violence, more political chaos and a dearth of hope for the future).

Can you explain to us what was the disagreement that led you to resign?

I had been twice to Iraq prior to my time in Afghanistan, and I had been working on issues of the wars since 2002 when I was in the Pentagon as a Marine Corps officer. I could no longer go along with the killing of the war, and the lies that propped up that killing. I saw in the Afghan government the worst excesses that I had seen in the Iraqi government and I knew the Afghan government in Kabul had no real or true interest in coming to a peace with the Taliban and those in the Afghan insurgency.......

The Sacrifice Zones of Hurricane Harvey


Worth watching.

Part I


Part II

The Israel Lobby and the US Foreign Policy


Posted without comment.

From August 13, 2012
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt - The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy



Philip Weiss
After article was rejected and publishers yawned, 
Walt and Mearsheimer dropped ‘The Israel Lobby’ in 2005
The authors of The Israel Lobby went on Chicago radio station WBEZ last week to reflect on their achievement after ten years. No, not 60 Minutes. Not The New York Times. Not MSNBC. But WBEZ radio.

It is a great interview by Jerome McDonnell about a stupendous achievement. As I wrote ten years ago, this book is up there with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, as a bombshell that will help transform society.

Below are some choice bits from the interview.

Publication ruined both men’s chances to serve in government or in university administration. Mearsheimer:

    I had no interest whatsoever in a government position. But I did think that when we wrote the piece, that it would mean that we would never get a high level government position. Even medium level government position. It would also make it almost impossible for us to get any meaningful administrative job in the academic world.

Mearsheimer was then 59 years old and in Chicago. But Steve Walt was a sprightly 50 and on I-95, on the Harvard springboard to presidential elbows. The book forever changed his horizon:

    I was academic dean in the Kennedy School. I think it’s fair to say that both universities did stand by us in the sense that they didn’t put any formal censure on us. There were various ways of what you might call informal marginalization at least for a while, because the leaderships in both universities were very nervous about the fallout. Universities don’t really like controversy very much.

    I did understand that this was probably going to eliminate any possibility of government service in my case, which is  something I do regret, because it’s something I would have appreciated, had that opportunity presented itself at some point down the road.

Walt went on to say that they had to do it. “If we weren’t willing to do that, then hardly anybody else would be. We couldn’t lose our jobs. We didn’t necessarily need government employment to pay the mortgage.”.......

On the Bitcoin madness


At the time of posting this article, December 7, the price of  Bitcoin has shot upwards towards $17,000.  If this is not a bubble, show me what is. I won't pretend to understand Bitcoin .... I clearly don't and kudos to those who can understand what it's all about and what crypto mining and bitcoin mining machines,etc.etc. happens to be and makes a profit off them.  

Andre Damon  at WorldSocialistWebsite
Warnings of new financial bubble as bitcoin price hits $10,000

The price of the digital currency bitcoin reached $10,000 late Tuesday, an eleven-fold increase since the start of the year, when it was valued at $900.

The explosive surge of bitcoin, the first so-called “cryptocurrency,” or digital money, has eclipsed the run-up of any comparable asset in modern history. As the New York Times noted Tuesday, “The Dow Jones industrial average, in its biggest year, 1915, went up 82 percent, or one-tenth as much as Bitcoin has gone up this year. Amazon’s red-hot stock is up only one-fifteenth as much as Bitcoin this year.”

To find financial bubbles comparable in scale, commentators have reached back hundreds of years to compare the bitcoin mania with the Dutch Tulip bubble of the 17th century and the South Sea bubble of 1721.

But with the rally in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies showing no signs of stopping, Wall Street and major financial institutions around the world are pouring billions of dollars into a financial asset that is totally unregulated, has no clear rules for lending and exchange, and no consumer safeguards.

With major investors flush with cash from open central bank spigots and soaring stock prices, there is every indication that this dangerous asset class is assuming an ever-larger presence on the balance sheets of banks, hedge funds and other outposts of the financial system.

The odds are increasing of another global financial meltdown on the scale of 2008, this time centered on cryptocurrencies instead of subprime mortgages.

The origins of bitcoin are shrouded in mystery. First introduced in January of 2009 by an unknown individual or group claiming to be a Japanese man named Satoshi Nakamoto, its nameless creator is now sitting on a nominal fortune of some $7 billion.

The currency was initially proposed as an anonymous and secure method of payment that bypassed central banks and government regulations, leading to its early adoption by anarchist and libertarian-minded individuals. In the ensuing years, however, it became clear that, due to its wild price fluctuations and institutional restrictions, bitcoin was inconvenient as a method of payment.

While an array of other cryptocurrencies have been created in an attempt to fill bitcoin’s purported role as a cash substitute, bitcoin’s proponents now advocate it as a long-term store of value, similar to gold, and supposedly immune to geopolitical instability. They promote it as a safe haven for investors living in countries with unstable currencies.........

On the Palestinians and Israelis ... isn't the world fed-up with these two peoples ?


I surely am.   However, on the issue of  the US Embassy being moved to Jerusalem thus giving USA's confirmation that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, I concur.  Jews were there in Jerusalem long before anybody else.
Christians were the followers of Christ who rebelled against his Jewish brethren and set up his own ... call it a religious group or a political party or what you will... it's your choice.  Much later came the Mohammedans (was it 4 centuries later, more?) as the followers of Mohammad were known then.   So, yes .... by all rights and reason ... Jerusalem belongs to the Jews.  Hopefully, they will find it fit to keep it available to all three religions unless they want a shitload of trouble. 


In Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton creation of the Utopia of Libya ... Slave Trade flourishes



Unbelievable the harm being done by the United States of America on the human beings of this our planet. 
When will a divine intervention visit Earth and stop this rogue nation from destroying humankind????

Bethan McKernan at IndependentUK
The rest of the world has woken up, but migrants are still sleepwalking into Libya slave markets
The rest of the world has woken up, but migrants are still sleepwalking into Libya slave markets
While the West has reacted with outrage to video evidence of Libyan slave markets, potential victims themselves remain unaware of the dangers they face
“Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he’ll dig,” the auctioneer says in grainy mobile phone footage, gesturing to one of the two tall, silent young men next to him.

“What am I bid, what am I bid?”

The two men were sold together for a total of $400 (£296). ...



America trying to kill North Koreans by any and all means possible ...


and all because the leadership of North Korea is averse to the idea of being a  slave nation  of the USA and have a leash around its neck collared there by the IMF.
 
Dr Ron Paul at his website
Is North Korea Really a 'State Sponsor of Terrorism'?

President Trump announced last week that he was returning North Korea to the US list of “state sponsors of terrorism” after having been off the list for the past nine years. Americans may wonder what dramatic event led the US president to re-designate North Korea as a terrorism-sponsoring nation. Has Pyongyang been found guilty of some spectacular terrorist attack overseas or perhaps of plotting to overthrow another country by force? No, that is not the case. North Korea is back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism because President Trump thinks the move will convince the government to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. He believes that continuing down the path toward confrontation with North Korea will lead the country to capitulate to Washington’s demands. That will not happen.

President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that North Korea deserved to be back on the list because the North Korean government is reported to have assassinated a North Korean citizen – Kim Jong-Un’s own half-brother -- in February at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. But what does that say about Washington’s own program to assassinate US citizens like Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16 year old son under Obama, and later Awlaki’s six year old daughter under Trump? Like Kim’s half brother, Awlaki and his two children were never tried or convicted of a crime before being killed by their own government.

The neocons, who are pushing for a war with North Korea, are extremely pleased by Trump’s move. John Bolton called it “exactly the right thing to do.”

Designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism will allow President Trump to impose the “highest level of sanctions” on North Korea. Does anyone believe more sanctions – which hurt the suffering citizens of North Korea the most – will actually lead North Korea’s leadership to surrender to Washington’s demands? Sanctions never work. They hurt the weakest and most vulnerable members of society the hardest and affect the elites the least.

So North Korea is officially a terrorism-sponsoring nation according to the Trump Administration because Kim Jong-Un killed a family member. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is in the process of killing the entire country of Yemen and no one says a word. In fact, the US government has just announced it will sell Saudi Arabia $7 billion more weapons to help it finish the job........

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Cartoon ... Chief sleigh leader Rudolph fired for inappropriate reindeer games



The New York Times and its Lost Journalistic Standards ...

on the Russia-gate nonsense.

Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
The Lost Journalistic Standards of Russia-gate

A danger in both journalism and intelligence is to allow an unproven or seriously disputed fact to become part of the accepted narrative where it gets widely repeated and thus misleads policymakers and citizens alike, such as happened during the run-up to war with Iraq and is now recurring amid the frenzy over Russia-gate.
For instance, in a Russia-gate story on Saturday, The New York Times reported as flat fact that a Kremlin intermediary “told a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, that the Russians had ‘dirt’ on Mr. Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, in the form of ‘thousands of emails.’” The Times apparently feels that this claim no longer needs attribution even though it apparently comes solely from the 32-year-old Papadopoulos as part of his plea bargain over lying to the FBI.

Beyond the question of trusting an admitted liar like Papadopoulos, his supposed Kremlin contact, professor Joseph Mifsud, a little-known academic associated with the University of Stirling in Scotland, denied knowing anything about Democratic emails.

In an interview with the U.K. Daily Telegraph, Mifsud acknowledged meeting with Papadopoulos but disputed having close ties to the Kremlin and rejected how Papadopoulos recounted their conversations. Specifically, he denied the claim that he mentioned emails containing “dirt” on Clinton.

Even New York Times correspondent Scott Shane noted late last month – after the criminal complaint against Papadopoulos was unsealed – that “A crucial detail is still missing: Whether and when Mr. Papadopoulos told senior Trump campaign officials about Russia’s possession of hacked emails. And it appears that the young aide’s quest for a deeper connection with Russian officials, while he aggressively pursued it, led nowhere.”

Shane added, “the court documents describe in detail how Mr. Papadopoulos continued to report to senior campaign officials on his efforts to arrange meetings with Russian officials, … the documents do not say explicitly whether, and to whom, he passed on his most explosive discovery – that the Russians had what they considered compromising emails on Mr. Trump’s opponent.

“J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon official who worked for the Trump campaign as a national security adviser [and who dealt directly with Papadopoulos] said he had known nothing about Mr. Papadopoulos’ discovery that Russia had obtained Democratic emails or of his prolonged pursuit of meetings with Russians.”........

The Saudi Arabia hostage taking of the Lebanese Prime Minister


This is from over a week ago and a lot has happened since then, but it's still worth it to listen to and get somewhat of a grip on the madness prevailing in that part of the world.

 From RonPaulInstitute
Saudi Purges Explained, With Marwa Osman Live From Lebanon
To understand what's really going on in the Middle East, the worst place to turn is the US mainstream media. Geopolitical analyst and Ph.D. candidate Marwa Osman joins today's Liberty Report live from Beirut, Lebanon to tell us why the MSM refuses to explain what's really behind the tragedy in Yemen. What's behind the recent purges in Saudi Arabia? Is a new war between Israel and Lebanon about to break out? You might be surprised at some of her answers. Tune in...


The strange tale of two Semitic "princes"


Both are products of the British-made House of Saud and the British-made Israel for Jews and Jews only.
Patrick Cockburn  at InformationClearingHouse
The Greatest Dangers in the Middle East Today are Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Salman

The sort of Neo-con and right-wing think tankers, who in 2003 were saying that a war with Iraq would be a doddle, are back in business in Washington, pushing for war with Iran – and are stronger than ever
 

I was in my room in the Baghdad Hotel on al-Sadoun street last Sunday evening, writing about the chances for stability in Iraq taking hold, when the walls and floor began to shake. They jerked sideways and up and down several times as if my room was the cabin of boat in a rough sea.

My first confused thought was – this being Baghdad – that there must have been some huge bomb explosion, which would explain the rocking motion of everything around me. But almost simultaneously, I realised that I had not heard the sound of an explosion, so a better explanation was that there was an earthquake, though I had never thought of Baghdad as being in an earthquake zone.....

Cartoon ... Sing like Flynn


Keeping an eye on Turkey for the month of November 2017


Never forget Erdogan conspired with Syria's enemies to destroy Syria and its people. Until Erdogan gets his comeuppance,  I won't feel  satisfaction.

Turkey's first humanoid robotics factory opens in Konya province
Turkey's first factory which will produce human-like robots opened in central Konya province Saturday.

AkinRobotics, a humanoid robotics factory, was established by AkinSoft software company.

The factory has started mass production, said AkinSoft Board Chairman Özgür Akin, speaking at the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by employees and technology enthusiasts.

He added that none of the robot factories around the world have yet started mass production.

The new generation human-robots -- named "Ada GH5" -- will be programmed for use at malls, fairs, airports, hospitals, and even at homes, Akin said.........

Turkish PM warns US Muslims against FETÖ terrorism
Binali Yildirim warns US Muslims to steer clear of schools, cultural centers affiliated with FETÖ terrorist network
There is no difference between Daesh and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Thursday, adding that both terror groups flout the sacred values of Islam.

Both terrorist groups have threatened the peace in Muslim countries, Yildirim told a crowd in a speech at the Diyanet Center of America (DCA), also known as the Turkish-American Community Center and Mosque Complex in Lanham, Maryland....

Erdogan says those who see no military solution in Syria should pull troops out
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that those who do not believe in a military solution in Syria should pull their troops out, after Russia and the United States said no military solution was possible in Syria.

"I am having trouble understanding these comments. If a military solution is out of the question, then those who say this should pull their troops out," Erdogan told reporters before flying to Russia..........

Erdogan accuses US of financing ISIS, breaking promises in Syria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Washington of betraying Ankara and providing "a lot of dollars" to the Islamic State terrorists. The allegation comes just days after the US acknowledged that it allowed hundreds of armed ISIS militants to escape the besieged Syrian city of Raqqa....

Turks following Erdogan's call as they get rid of dollars and buy gold
One year ago, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the Turkish public to keep their savings in gold and avoid the US dollar. The latest World Gold Council report shows the Turkish public following Erdogan’s call. The report shows Turkey has ramped up gold buying with both the central bank and ordinary people doing so....

Rising oil prices add to Turkey’s economic woes
Atop an inflation rate stuck at 11%, an urban unemployment rate above 13%, a current account deficit close to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP), a growing budget deficit and a rapidly depreciating currency, Turkey is now being hit by an increase in global energy prices coupled with a rise in prices for metals and minerals.

Erdogan’s chief adviser calls for Turkey’s NATO membership to be reconsidered – local media

Simple apology’ is not enough: Insulted Erdogan on NATO ‘impudence’ over enemy-chart scandal
Tensions between the military bloc and Turkey escalated last week when Turkey’s founding leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan were depicted as “enemies” during NATO drills in Norway. Erdogan said the incident was an attack targeting “Turkey and the Turkish nation.”
“What [NATO] did is a scandal,” the Turkish leader told a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) provincial congress in the eastern province of Bayburt on Sunday, Hurriyet reported. “They know that they cannot stop our country, which is why they are putting us on a target board. I hope that those who welcomed attacks against us before now understand the real face of the matter, as Ataturk was also included.”

“The issue is not a personal or party issue. The target is Turkey and the Turkish nation,” he noted....

Erdogan denounces opposition party ‘lies’ about family’s offshore transfers 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced as “lies” claims that his family sent millions of dollars to a company in a tax haven, adding he would file a complaint. Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu alleged on Tuesday that members of the president’s family transferred around $15 million to Bellway Limited, based in the low-tax British Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man, AFP reported. “The five names absolutely did not send money to the company or place mentioned,” Erdogan said on Wednesday, adding: “Not one penny has been sent abroad.” The president called on the CHP leader to share the documents with the people and prosecutors. Erdogan also accused the CHP of no longer being the main opposition, but “the party of treason.”

Zarrab fingers Erdogan in NY trial bombshell
Turkey’s government kicked into full defensive gear today as Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, prepared to stand witness before a New York jury for a second day, continuing his account of a billion-dollar scam to smuggle gold for oil in violation of US sanctions on Iran and in collusion with top Turkish officials. The trial continued at the Federal District Court in Manhattan with allegations of further government malfeasance. The proceedings took a further sensational turn when Zarrab said Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Economy Minister Ali Babacan had signed off on the scheme. “The prime minister at that time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, … had given instructions, had given an order, for [Ziraat and Vakif banks] to start doing the trade,” Zarrab testified. He dropped this bombshell as allegations of further government corruption swirled at home.