EN-AG

After UAE ‘Murder Squad’ Revelations, How Many More Private US Hit Teams Are Under Gulf Regimes?

17-10-18 03:37:00,

“There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I was running it. We did it” — confessed Hungarian Israeli security contractor Abraham Golan who heads the Delaware-based military contractor Spear Operations Group to BuzzFeed News as part of a lengthy new tell-all exposing an outrageous story of US covert ops gone wild.

Except the bombshell report is not exactly about covert ops, but about the even less regulated underbelly and shady world of American special forces and intelligence operatives going “free agent” and contracted by uber-wealthy American Gulf allies who are building their own private armies to operate off the books assassination teams.

“The revelations that a Middle East monarchy hired Americans to carry out assassinations comes at a moment when the world is focused on the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia.” — BuzzFeed

Now that the world is finally waking up to the truly ruthless and murderous machinations of America’s favorite “oil and gas” Gulf autocratic sheikdoms, especially in light of the newly emerged grisly details of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death and dismemberment by a Saudi assassination squad, we must ask: are the new BuzzFeed UAE ‘kill team’ revelations but the tip of the iceberg? Surely there are more such ex-Special Forces groups flush with Gulf cash and patronage out there with a license to kill? The stunning details of the BuzzFeed investigation suggest so — this may not be an uncommon phenomenon.

EXCLUSIVE: The United Arab Emirates has hired US ex-special ops soldiers to carry out targeted killings in war-torn Yemen https://t.co/rb6o8coP6S

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 16, 2018

Green Beret, Navy SEAL, and CIA paramilitary veterans were hired under the aegis of Spear Operations Group to become what BuzzFeed describes as the private “murder squad” for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ).

Starting in 2015 the UAE sent a group of about a dozen mostly American private contractors to Yemen to conduct targeted killings of prominent clerics and political figures who had run afoul crown prince MBZ in the war-torn country,

» Lees verder

10 percent of American F-22 fighter jets damaged by Hurricane Michael

Posted by EN-AG in American, Percent

17-10-18 12:42:00,

The stunning CSU defeat in Bavaria means that the coalition partner in Angela Merkel’s government has lost an absolute majority in their worst election results in Bavaria since 1950.

In a preview analysis before the election, Deutsche Welle noted that a CSU collapse could lead to Seehofer’s resignation from Merkel’s government, and conceivably Söder’s exit from the Bavarian state premiership, which would remove two of the chancellor’s most outspoken critics from power, and give her room to govern in the calmer, crisis-free manner she is accustomed to.

On the other hand, a heavy loss and big resignations in the CSU might well push a desperate party in a more volatile, abrasive direction at the national level. That would further antagonize the SPD, the center-left junior partners in Merkel’s coalition, themselves desperate for a new direction and already impatient with Seehofer’s destabilizing antics, and precipitate a break-up of the age-old CDU/CSU alliance, and therefore a break-up of Merkel’s grand coalition. In short: Anything could happen after Sunday, up to and including Merkel’s fall.

The Financial Times reports that the campaign was dominated by the divisive issue of immigration, in a sign of how the shockwaves from Merkel’s disastrous decision to let in more than a million refugees in 2015-16 are continuing to reverberate through German politics and to reshape the party landscape.

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the stunning Bavarian election defeat of the CSU party, and the message voters sent to Angela Merkel, the last of the Obama ‘rat pack’ neo-liberal, globalist leaders whose tenure as German Chancellor appears to be coming to an end.

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Via Zerohedge…

Voters in Germany’s economically dominant southern state of Bavaria delivered a stunning rebuke to the ruling Christian Social Union, in an election that delivered another crushing blow for the parties in Angela Merkel’s grand coalition in Berlin.

With all eyes on Sunday’s Bavaria election, moments ago the first exit polls showed a historic collapse for the ruling CSU party, which has ruled Bavaria continuously since 1957, and which saw its share of the vote collapse from 47.7% in the 2013 election to just 35.5%,

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Trump’s Alliance with Body-Choppers, Death Squads and Child Killers: Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Israel – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Alliance, Trump

17-10-18 12:38:00,

Introduction

In recent weeks the White House has embraced the contemporary version of the world’s most murderous regimes. President Trump has embraced the Saudi Arabian “Prince of Death” Mohammad bin Salman who has graduated from chopping hands and heads in public plazas to dismembering bodies in overseas consulates – the case of Jamal Khashoggi.

The White House warmly greeted the electoral success of Brazilian Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, ardent champion of torturers, military dictators, death squads and free marketers.

President Trump grovels, grunts and glories before Israel, as his spiritual guide Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates the Sabbath with the weekly murders and maiming of hundreds of unarmed Palestinians, especially youngsters.

These are President Trump’s ‘natural allies’. They share his values and interests while each retains their particular method of disposing of the cadavers of adversaries and dissenters.

We will proceed to discuss the larger political-economic context in which the trio of monsters operate. We will analyze the benefits and advantages which lead President Trump to ignore and even praise, actions which violate America’s democratic values and sensibilities.

In conclusion, we will examine the consequences and risks which result from Trump’s embrace of the trio.

The Context for Trump’s Tripler Alliance

President Trump’s intimate ties with the world’s most unsavory regimes flows from several strategic interests. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it includes military bases; the financing of international mercenaries and terrorists; multi-billion-dollar arms sales; oil profits; and covert alliances with Israel against Iran, Syria and Yemen.

In order to secure these Saudi assets, the White House is more than willing to assume certain socio-political costs.

The US eagerly sells weapons and provides advisers to Saudi’s genocidal invasion, murder and starvation of millions of Yeminis. The White House alliance against Yemen has few monetary rewards or political advantages as well as negative propaganda value.

However, with few other client states in the region, Washington makes do with Prince Salman ‘the salami slicer’.

The US ignores Saudi financing of Islamic terrorists against US allies in Asia (the Philippines) and Afghanistan as well as rival thugs in Syria and Libya.

Alas when a pro-US collaborator like Washington Post journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated,

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No, Facebook Is NOT ‘Private’, Their Censorship Arm Is Government Funded

Posted by EN-AG in 'Private', Facebook

17-10-18 09:11:00,

Facebook is not private. They are partnered with a NATO backed think tank to censor their platform that is funded by the US government

“Facebook is a private company and can delete any pages they want,” has been repeated ad nauseam since Alex Jones was wiped from its platform. While it is certainly true that a private company can and should be able to choose who they associate with, the idea that Facebook is private is not accurate. For this reason, the recent purge of hundreds of alternative media sites, including the Free Thought Project, was not only questionable, but unconstitutional.

In May, after Americans were successfully whipped into a tizzy of Russian hacking and meddling, along with the fake news hysteria, the Americans begging for censorship craze came to a head when Facebook partnered with the Atlantic Council.

Facebook announced that it partnered with the arm of the council, known as the Digital Forensic Research Lab that was brought on to help the social media behemoth with “real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world.”

Apparently, Free Thought Project was one of those threats.

Facebook partnered with the Atlantic Council, so what, right? They can do whatever they want and hire outside third parties to help them police the platform they own, right? Yes, this is correct. However, the Atlantic Council is funded by government.

The Atlantic Council is the group that NATO uses to whitewash wars and foster hatred toward Russia, which in turn allows them to continue to justify themselves. It’s funded by arms manufacturers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. It is also funded by billionaire oligarchs like the Ukraine’s Victor Pinchuk and Saudi billionaire Bahaa Hariri.

The list goes on. The highly unethical HSBC group — who has been caught numerous times laundering money for cartels and terrorists — is listed as one of their top donors. They are also funded by the pharmaceutical industry, Google, the United States, the US Army, and the Airforce.

The “think tank” Facebook partnered with to make decisions on who they censor is directly funded by multiple state actors — including the United States — which voids any and all claims that Facebook is a wholly “private actor.”

It gets worse.

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Origins of the Islamic State (ISIS): Who is Behind “Al Qaeda in Iraq”? Pentagon Acknowledges Fabricating a “Zarqawi Legend” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Islamic, Origins

17-10-18 08:06:00,

Author’s note

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) confirmed in a leaked 2012 intelligence report that the US contemplated supporting the jihadists including ISIS-Daesh.

In the present context, an understanding of the historical origins of the ISIS is required.

Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was the alleged mastermind behind Al Qaeda in Iraq which was at the origin of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh).

Until 2014, the Islamic State was referred to as Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was a creation of US intelligence.

As outlined in my 2006 article (also published as a chapter in my book America’s “War on Terrorism”:

“The US military-intelligence has created it own terrorist organizations. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program “to go after” these terrorist organizations. To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism in the Iraqi war theater must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat”.

A leaked August 12, 2012 report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency confirms unequivocally that the US administration had contemplated supporting Al Qaeda affiliated rebels in Syria several years prior to the onslaught of the war in March 2011.

… there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime ….

Bear in mind, as mentioned by the report, the objective was also to install so to speak the Islamic State in Mosul and Ramadi.

Below are screen shots of the controversial leaked Pentagon report (highlights by GR).

From Day One (March 2011), the Islamist “freedom fighters” and “protesters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command. According to Israeli intelligence sources in a report published in August 2011:

NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent.

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The Staggering Numbers Behind America’s Opioid Epidemic

Posted by EN-AG in numbers, Staggering

17-10-18 07:57:00,

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, who are now more likely to die from a drug overdose than from car accidents or firearms. The United States has the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of drug-related deaths in the world.

However, while opioid abuse is a nationwide problem, Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley notes that there are specific areas that are being hit harder by this epidemic. Using the location data above, from NORC at the University of Chicago, we can see clusters of counties that have an extremely high rate of overdose deaths. Between 2012 and 2016, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio saw a combined 18,000 deaths related to opioid abuse.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

A sharp increase in prescribed opioid-based painkillers and the rise of illegal fentanyl – which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin – has unleashed the worst public health crisis in American history.

It’s a problem that can be tough to understand, but by delving into the data, some key observations emerge.

DOCTORS PRESCRIBED A LOT OF PAIN KILLERS

Beginning in the 1980s, prescription opioids like oxycodone and hydrocodone were heavily marketed as a treatment for pain, and at the time, the risk of addiction to these substances was downplayed. Opioid prescriptions nearly tripled between 1991 and 2011.

Sales of these powerful painkillers are beginning to drop, in part because the risk of addiction has now been widely publicized. Another decelerating factor is the crackdown on clinics and pharmacies that were over-dispensing painkillers, in some cases directly feeding the elicit drug market.

In 2015, nearly 100 million Americans were prescribed painkillers by their doctor. A recent survey showed one-third of people who abused prescription painkillers in the past year got pills directly from a physician.

This abundance of pills impacts the community at large when excess pills are sold, stolen, or simply given to others. In fact, receiving painkillers from a friend or family member was the most common gateway to abusing opioids.

FENTANYL IS KILLING A LOT OF PEOPLE

If doctors have been prescribing opioids for decades,

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While You Slept: The US Pentagon Declares “Russia is the Enemy” | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-AG in Slept, While

17-10-18 07:48:00,

American foreign policy is more and more resembling the NFL’s and broadcast networks’ pre-game football hype before the Super Bowl. For those of you who grimaced while watching former President Barack Obama touchdown dancing and pretending to be a sports hero, the current POTUS is even worse. To make matters worse for humanity, many of my countrymen fall for the whole act. Case in point, hyping America’s military might and bravado.

When I read the INSIDER headline,“F-22 stealth jets got 587 enemy aircraft to back off in their first ‘combat surge’ over Syria,” I immediately checked the newswires to see if Syria had exploded into World War III. Thank God, I voiced aloud on discovering the Military & Defense section (and the rest of the magazine) are owned by Insider Inc. and our old friend Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world. No, thank your lucky stars, we are not at war with Russia, Iran, and Syria. Yes, Bezos and company consider these nations our “enemies.”

While You Slept – WWIII Began

When you read the article in question, most of you won’t believe your what the texts are telling your brain. Amazingly, another Bezos “fake news” outlet is actually citing the Pentagon when author Alex Lockiebrazenly declares open war. Yes, you got it, the Trump Pentagon openly classifies the Russians as “the enemy.” Quoting from the report from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS):

“The 94th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron protected coalition ground forces operating within Syria by flying Defensive Counter Air missions against enemy air-to-ground capable fighter aircraft. The squadron also flew Offensive Counter Air missions deep into Syrian territory, facing both enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile systems, as the United States and Coalition forces launched deliberate attacks in response to the Syrian regime’s illegal use of chemical weapons.”

I’ll get into who these DVIDS people are in a minute, but first let me emphasize what it means for our government to brand an enemy. The Cambridge Dictionary definition:

“enemy–noun: a person who hates or opposes another person and tries to harm them or stop them from doing something”

The term can also be used to demonstrate “a country,

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American Mercenaries Were Hired To Assassinate Politicians In The Middle East

Posted by EN-AG in American, Mercenaries

16-10-18 09:16:00,

American Mercenaries Were Hired To Assassinate Politicians In The Middle East
“There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I was running it. We did it.”

Aram Roston
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on October 16, 2018, at 5:53 a.m. ET

Cradling an AK-47 and sucking a lollipop, the former American Green Beret bumped along in the back of an armored SUV as it wound through the darkened streets of Aden. Two other commandos on the mission were former Navy SEALs. As elite US special operations fighters, they had years of specialized training by the US military to protect America. But now they were working for a different master: a private US company that had been hired by the United Arab Emirates, a tiny desert monarchy on the Persian Gulf.
On that night, December 29, 2015, their job was to carry out an assassination.
Their armed attack, described to BuzzFeed News by two of its participants and corroborated by drone surveillance footage, was the first operation in a startling for-profit venture. For months in war-torn Yemen, some of America’s most highly trained soldiers worked on a mercenary mission of murky legality to kill prominent clerics and Islamist political figures.
Their target that night: Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist political party Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be the Yemeni branch of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE calls a terrorist organization. Many experts insist that Al-Islah, one of whose members won the Nobel Peace Prize, is no terror group. They say it’s a legitimate political party that threatens the UAE not through violence but by speaking out against its ambitions in Yemen.
The mercenaries’ plan was to attach a bomb laced with shrapnel to the door of Al-Islah’s headquarters, located near a soccer stadium in central Aden, a key Yemeni port city. The explosion, one of the leaders of the expedition explained, was supposed to “kill everybody in that office.”

When they arrived at 9:57 at night, all seemed quiet. The men crept out of the SUV, guns at the ready. One carried the explosive charge toward the building. » Lees verder

Ten Years After The Last Meltdown, Ron Paul Asks “Is Another One Around the Corner?”

Posted by EN-AG in After, Years

16-10-18 12:29:00,

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

September marked a decade since the bursting of the housing bubble, which was followed by the stock market meltdown and the government bailout of the big banks and Wall Street. Last week’s frantic stock market sell-off indicates the failure to learn the lesson of 2008 makes another meltdown inevitable.

In 2001-2002 the Federal Reserve responded to the economic downturn caused by the bursting of the technology bubble by pumping money into the economy. This new money ended up in the housing market. This was because the so-called conservative Bush administration, like the “liberal” Clinton administration before it, was using the Community Reinvestment Act and government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make mortgages available to anyone who wanted one — regardless of income or credit history.

Banks and other lenders eagerly embraced this “ownership society”’ agenda with a “lend first, ask questions when foreclosing” policy. The result was the growth of subprime mortgages, the rush to invest in housing, and millions of Americans finding themselves in homes they could not afford.

When the housing bubble burst, the government should have let the downturn run its course in order to correct the malinvestments made during the phony, Fed-created boom. This may have caused some short-term pain, but it would have ensured the recovery would be based on a solid foundation rather than a bubble of fiat currency.

Of course Congress did exactly the opposite, bailing out Wall Street and the big banks. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates to historic lows and embarked on a desperate attempt to inflate the economy via QE 1, 2, and 3.

Low interest rates and quantitative easing have left the Fed with a dilemma. In order to avoid a return to 1970s-era inflation — or worse, it must raise interest rates and draw down its balance sheet. However, raising rates too much risks popping what financial writer Graham Summers calls the “everything bubble.”

Today credit card debt is over a trillion dollars, student loan debt is at 1.5 trillion dollars, there is a bubble in auto loans, and there is even a new housing bubble.

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What is Wrong with Formal Education | Armstrong Economics

Posted by EN-AG in Formal, Wrong

16-10-18 09:40:00,

QUESTION: I too am French and nobody in school ever connected the weather to the defeat of Napoleon even with so many deaths on his failed invasion of Russia. History is interesting, but it seems to be taught based upon some political agenda. What would you recommend for students to study since the formal education system is such a failure?

ANSWER: Yes, when I was in Paris, I was asked if I would debate the top three economic students. I agreed. However, instead of a confrontation for TV viewers, it turned out to be a question session of how to fix the French economy conceding that what they were being taught was wrong.

From a historical viewpoint, I always refer to contemporary writers. However, you must keep in mind that history is very often written only by the victor. We all learn quite a lot about history in school, but it is typically slanted. Nevertheless, it is also true that who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. However, those of us who know history are also doomed to watch others repeat it. Ever since man has done anything, there has been someone nearby going “huh, maybe I should write this down.”

The way to understand the past REQUIRES a discipline that embraces all the fields of science. Back in the 1980s, I attended a lecture by a Scientist on the findings of the ice core samples from Greenland. When they disp[layed a graf of the energy output of the sun and documented from the ice core samples, I was stunned. I approached the presenter and informed them that their chart projected the rise and fall of empires which matched the Economic Confidence Model.

Back in the 1980s, I knew the model worked, but I could not explain why other than simply saying there were cycles. Suddenly, I saw history impacted by weather. I knew the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake set off the Panic of 1907 due to capital flows and that led to the creation of the Federal Reserves with all its branches that operated independently to manage the capital flows internally within the nation.

By keeping an open mind,

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GDPR Creates an Overwhelming Bureaucratic Nightmare in Europe | Armstrong Economics

Posted by EN-AG in Creates, Overwhelming

16-10-18 09:33:00,

The new data protection legislation in Europe known as GDPR. has resulted in simply overwhelming the government with complaints and inquiries from small businesses who do not understand the regs. In Germany, the various agencies are reporting a 500% increase in complaints. Even in Bavaria, 2,974 consultations took place in 2017, and so far this year it has reached 7,000 by October 1st. This legislation was really all about being able to prevent mass email campaigns that were political. They really did not care if people received junk emails. However, creating a law and pretending it is to protect consumers requires broad language to hide the fact it was to prevent political solicitation. They have created a nightmare all to prevent email campaigns that took place in the 2016 US presidential elections.

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Winston Churchill’s Perverse Place in the American Imagination

Posted by EN-AG in Churchill's, Winston

15-10-18 09:09:00,

One of the only nice things to ever result from America’s propensity for insane, seemingly pointless acts of defiance is that we wriggled free from the grasp of the British royal family. This glorious emancipation from the Commonwealth is perhaps more an aesthetic than a substantive concern. The American Revolution is surely the only revolt against British colonial rule in which the rebelling force comes across in any world history textbook as far more unreasonable and churlish than the redcoats ranged against them. And having gone to war to avoid paying taxes for the defense of their own nation, it is our founding fathers who are stained by the great shame of slaveholding, while the British were emancipating those black soldiers who joined them.

Nevertheless. For a people who have far outmatched John Bull’s capacity for unreasoning hostility and international violence, Americans should consider themselves lucky to be free from anything so humiliating as a lingering subservience to the Queen. After all, as any defender of American liberty would tell you, any such submission would be not merely uncharacteristic of the national spirit, but fatal. From the Alamo to the USS Maine to Vietnam, we thrive on a bloody, almost suicidal disregard for fellow countries, alternative political systems and basic facts. We are not a people meant to compete in the Commonwealth Games, or to pay homage to a Governor General; our leaders can barely attend the United Nations without foaming at the mouth, and that body is still situated in the continental U.S.

So what is the deal with Winston Churchill in the American imagination? Like the inexplicable popularity of royal weddings, the British bulldog’s portly frame casts a long shadow across the Atlantic. It’s hard to imagine another historical ally of the United States who’s earned a similar reverence in pop culture or cachet among tired political speechwriters hoping to bring an audience to its feet. And while I would never, ever disparage the efforts of Gary Oldman, who earned an Academy Award for his turn as the British prime minister in last year’s “Darkest Hour,” it is a bit mystifying as to why such a thoroughly English figure would be of such compelling interest to Americans in 2018.

Ridiculous crypto-fascist William F.

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Meet Ten Corporate Giants Helping Israel Massacre Gaza Protesters – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Corporate, Giants

15-10-18 09:18:00,

As Israeli soldiers gun down unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in the Great March of Return, their lethal operations depend on an array of contractors and suppliers, many of them companies based outside Israel.

“The Israeli military relies on a network of international companies, supplying everything from sniper rifles to tear gas, to carry out its massacres of protesters in Gaza,” Tom Anderson, a researcher for Corporate Occupation, told MintPress News. “These companies are knowingly supporting war crimes, and are complicit in state-orchestrated murder.”

Since the mobilization began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed 205 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported on October 4.

There have been 21,288 injured, including 5,345 from live ammunition, resulting in 11,180 hospitalizations. Thirty-eight of the dead and 4,250 of the wounded were children.

A press release accompanying a September 25 report by the World Bank warned, “The economy in Gaza is collapsing,” adding that “the decade-long blockade is the core issue.”

Corporate Occupation and the American Friends Service Committee, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, and Who Profitsmaintain comprehensive lists of corporations enabling Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

Here are a few of them:

Caterpillar, Inc.

Caterpillar is known internationally for Israel’s use of its bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and inside Israel itself, as well as for its role in the killing of Rachel Corrie, an International Solidarity Movement activist from the United States, who was crushed to death by one of the company’s Israel-operated machines in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003. In Gaza, Caterpillar is notorious for Israel’s deployment of its equipment to reinforce a military barrier around the Strip, as well as to level Palestinian farmland inside it. These levelingoperations both destroy Palestinian agriculture, keeping Gaza a captive market for Israeli producers, and maintain a clear line of fire for Israeli soldiers to shoot Palestinians.

Combined Systems, Inc.

Combined Systems — a Jamestown, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer owned by Point Lookout Capital and the Carlyle Group — supplies light weaponry and security equipment,

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Ecuador Restores Julian Assange’s Internet, Phone And Visitation Privileges

Posted by EN-AG in Ecuador, Restores

15-10-18 09:17:00,

Ecuador has partially restored Julian Assange’s communications in their London Embassy after UN officials met with Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno on Friday, reports the Belfast Telegraph.

Assange, who has lived in the embassy for over six years, had his phone and internet access taken away in March over political statements he made in violation of “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states.” His visitor access was also limited to members of his legal team.

Ecuador rolls back @JulianAssange isolation after UN meets with president

Background: https://t.co/Mb6gXlz7QS https://t.co/0UBIVYyKll pic.twitter.com/poFi6nBU4N

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 14, 2018

“Ecuador has told WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it will remove the isolation regime imposed on him following meetings between two senior UN officials and Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno on Friday,” WikiLeaks said in a statement.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, added: “It is positive that through UN intervention Ecuador has partly ended the isolation of Mr Assange although it is of grave concern that his freedom to express his opinions is still limited.

“The UN has already declared Mr Assange a victim of arbitrary detention. This unacceptable situation must end.

“The UK government must abide by the UN’s ruling and guarantee that he can leave the Ecuadorian embassy without the threat of extradition to the United States.” –Belfast Telegraph

Assange, having been granted political asylum by Ecuador, will not leave the embassy out of the belief that he will be arrested by UK authorities and extradited to the United States, where a Clinton-friendly DOJ awaits the arrival of the man Hillary once “joked” about murdering via drone strike.

WikiLeaks’ statement said that the meetings which resulted in the partial restoration of Assange’s communications were held between President Moreno, the UN high commission for refugees, Filippo Grandi and UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression, David Kaye.

“Concern over Mr Assange’s situation has also been raised by other UN bodies, as well as Human Rights Watch (who was refused access to him),

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EX-MARINE TELLS THE TRUTH

Posted by EN-AG in EX-MARINE, Tells

15-10-18 07:55:00,

EX-MARINE TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT ISIS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-sOnmsWivs&feature=youtu.be

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Facebook Censorship and the Atlantic Council – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Censorship, Facebook

15-10-18 07:52:00,

Yesterday we witnessed one of the greatest Facebook account and page purges since its formation over a decade ago. In total, 559 pages and 251 personal accounts were instantly removed from the platform, for having “consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior” according to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s Head of Cybersecurity and former White House National Security Council Director of Cybersecurity Policy under Obama. This is but one of similar yet smaller purges that have been unfolding in front of our eyes over the last year, all in the name of fighting “fake news” and so called “Russian propaganda”.

What very few people know though, is that about 5 months ago, Facebook announced that is was officially partnering with the Atlantic Council in the form of an “election partnership […] to prevent [their] service from being abused during elections.” Indeed, the US midterm elections are only a couple of weeks away, so the Atlantic Council and its Digital Forensic Research Lab are now going at it with full force, closing facebook accounts left and right that they personally deem could be fake accounts, or accounts spreading misinformation, based on very shady criterias.

One doesn’t need to look far to understand who the Atlantic Council are and what they stand for : it is a think tank essentially funded by NATO, weapons manufacturers, Middle-Eastern oil-state monarchies, billionaires and different branches of the US military. In short, it has been described as being nothing less than NATO’s unofficial propaganda wing. The Atlantic Council doesn’t shy away from its political intents across the world, which can be seen solely by looking at who sits on its directors board – the crème de la crème when it comes to US neocons & war criminals: Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, Frank Carlucci, James A. Baker, R. George P. Shultz, James Woolsey, Leon Panetta, Colin Powell, Robert Gates, and many more.

Needless to say, the Atlantic Council has been on the same side as every single war and conflict engendered by US and NATO imperialism over the last 50 years, and has itself played a role in abusing democratic elections around the world as well as spreading propaganda and misinformation both in home countries and abroad to achieve its political means.

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International relations: the calm before the storm?, by Thierry Meyssan

Posted by EN-AG in International, relations

14-10-18 08:36:00,

All international problems are currently suspended, awaiting the results of the US mid-term elections. The partisans of the old international order are gambling on a change of majority in Congress and a rapid destitution of President Trump. If the man in the White House holds fast, the protagonists of the war against Syria will have to admit defeat and move on to other battle fields. On the other hand, if Donald Trump should lose the elections, the war on Syria will immediately be revived by the United Kingdom.

The current situation – extending from the Russian response to the destruction of its Ilyuchin-20 to the US mid-term elections on 6 November – is uncertain. All the protagonists of the war in Syria are waiting to see whether the White House will be able to pursue its policy of breaking away from the current international order, or if Congress will become the opposition and immediately trigger the process for the destitution of President Trump.

The origins of the war

It has become clear that the initial project by the United States, the United Kingdom, Israël, Saudi Arabia and Qatar will not be realised. The same goes for France and Turkey, two powers that entered the war against Syria somewhat later.

What we need to remember is not the way in which we were informed about the start of the events, but what we have discovered about them since. The demonstrations in Deraa were presented as a « spontaneous revolt » against « dictatorial repression », but we now know that they had been in preparation for a long time [1].

We also need to free ourselves of the illusion that all the members of a Coalition, united in order to achieve the same goal, share the same strategy. Whatever the influence of one or the other, each State conserves its own history, its own interests and its own war objectives.

The United States pursued the strategy of Admiral Arthur Cebrowski, which was the destruction of the State structures in the Greater Middle East [2]. For this they relied upon the United Kingdom, which implemented Tony Blair’s strategy aimed at placing the Muslim Brotherhood in power throughout the region [3].

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Musical Healing (Heilung) for European Culture? | threeman.org

Posted by EN-AG in Healing, Musical

13-10-18 09:56:00,

This article was first published in the monthly magazine The Present Age Vol. 4 No. 6 Sept 2018

The events in the eastern German city of Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt during the Communist era) in late August this year, the brutal murder and assaults, the angry reaction of the citizens, the paranoid, exaggerated response of the mainstream media and the cynical attempts of political parties and factions of the Far Right and Far Left to exploit the situation to their own advantage were a symptom of the social sickness that prevails in Europe today: the arrogant efforts of those in the political Establishment in hock once again with the forces of global capitalism, and supported by deluded Far Left activists on the streets, to force a re-engineering of European societies by means of the European Union and mass migration, and the fearful, angry, resentful reactions by the populist Right to these efforts have created a steadily worsening storm of astral passions that is badly polarising western societies and undermining social solidarity. The anthroposophical movement is no exception, as we have seen this year with the pompous attack mounted by the self-appointed representatives of an “Open Anthroposophy” on others within the movement whom ‘the Open ones’ accuse of being dangerous “conspiracy theorists” who are “poisoning the social climate”.1There are those on both the Left and Right who fear the dissolution of what they see and like to call the “liberal rulesbased international order” built up in the West under American leadership since 1945. The transatlantic relationship between the USA and the EEC/EC/EU , they argue, has provided peace, prosperity, and the improvement of human rights. They point the finger at US President Trump and at Brexit and a resurgent ‘fascism’ across the West. This view is itself a conspiracy theory – a single man, the omnipotent, omniscient evil genius named ‘Putin’ is often claimed by the mainstream media to be behind Trump, Brexit and the resurgence of the Far Right across Europe. In fact, of course, the situation is far more complex. This article will point to a phenomenon that has been building and bubbling beneath the surface for some decades and which is now surfacing in various phenomena, one of them being the music scene. At issue is the question of what could be a real social ‘healing’ (Heilung in German) for Europe and the West.

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Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, October 13, 2018, #166

Posted by EN-AG in Geoengineering, Watch

13-10-18 05:57:00,

Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, October 13, 2018, #166

Dane Wigington
GeoengineeringWatch.org

How much of what we believe is actually nothing more than societal programming from the constant parade of propaganda? How many crimes and injustices does society accept because of being trained to never question the “experts”? Belief systems will not alter reality or the immense challenges that are closing in from every direction. The latest installment of Global Alert News is below.

Hurricane Michael is the latest manipulated hurricane to hit the US. Though much can be speculated on regarding the many agendas being carried out by the climate engineers, the fact that Hurricane Michael was steered is beyond debate. The less than one minute video below reveals Michael making landfall. The cyclone drifts in a direction in which the transmitters have been de-energized, and away from energized transmitters (easily visible on the video). The microwave transmissions have a repelling / dispersing effect on the low pressure circulation as it migrates through an ionized / seeded atmosphere (from climate engineering jet aircraft dispersions). This process is visible on the screen in the upper left of the video below which shows the path of Hurricane Florence. There is no longer any “natural” weather, none. All is tainted from the climate engineering / weather warfare insanity.

How can we maintain any sense of solace in a world gone mad? An unyielding resolve to make a difference for the better is a leap in the right direction. Each of us, all of us, are needed to take a stand for the greater good. This is most easily done by accepting what actually is and not what we wish was so. Waking others in our individual circles is imperative, sharing credible data is key. We must all make the most of every day.
DW

An important reminder of the upcoming climate engineering awareness event / forum in Northern California, October 20th, 2018, hope all who are able will attend. For more information click HERE: https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/geoengineering-watch-event-october-20th-2018/

This event is FREE

This week’s GeoengineeringWatch.org outreach booth is at the OC Fair &

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro channels MAGA message to sweep first round election results (Video)

Posted by EN-AG in Bolsonaro, Brazil

13-10-18 11:43:00,

Via Strategic Culture

On October 2nd, 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly killed inside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Turkey. The sequence of events seems to show that the murder was premeditated. Two days before his death, Khashoggi went to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul to obtain documents pertaining to his divorce in preparation to remarry in the United States.

The Saudi embassy instructed him to return on October 2nd to collect the documents, which he duly did. He entered the embassy around 1pm on October 2nd but never exited. Khashoggi’s fiancée, after waiting several hours, raised the alarm as Khashoggi had instructed her to do should he not reemerge after two hours.

It is from here that we should start to reconstruct this story that resembles a science-fiction novel even by Saudi standards, a country that does not hesitate to kidnap heads of state, as was the case with the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, about a year ago.

Jamal Khashoggi is a controversial figure, a representative of the shadowy world of collaboration that sometimes exists between journalism and the intelligence agencies, in this case involving the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the United States.

It has been virtually confirmed by official circles within the Al Saud family that Khashoggi was an agent in the employ of Riyadh and the CIA during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

From 1991 to 1999, he continued to serve in several countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Sudan, Kuwait and other parts of the Middle East, often maintaining an ambiguous role in the service of his friend Turki Faisal Al-Saud, the future Saudi ambassador to Washington and London and later supreme head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years.

Khashoggi was named editor of the leading English-language magazine in Saudi Arabia, Arab News, from 1999 to 2003. In late 2003, he transferred to Al Watan, one of the most liberal, Western and pro-reform newspapers in the country.

His job lasted only 52 days, with him being removed strongly criticizing the Wahhabi clerical extremist Ibn Taymiyyah. Khashoggi had turned into a critical voice of the Saudi regime following the internal struggles between King Abdullah and Turki Faisal Al-Saud.

One of the main criticisms of Khashoggi coming from factions loyal to Abdullah was that he had recruited and paid several journalists on behalf of the CIA during his time as an editor.

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Google Vs. Trump: “The Good Censor” On Collision Course With The Patriot President

Posted by EN-AG in Google, Trump

13-10-18 07:50:00,

Authored by ‘Washington Watcher’ via VDare.com,

The leaked internal Google briefing “The Good Censor” [PDF] has received suspiciously little attention from the Main Stream Media, but it represents the crassest statement yet of the Tech oligopolies’ intention to impose Silicon Valley Political Correctness on the U.S.

As American Thinker Editor Thomas Lifson puts it:

“I congratulate Breitbart.com for the scoop, and I urge everyone -I am looking at you, President Trump and Congress – to read and ponder the fate of the Republic unless this company is defanged, most likely by antitrust action, but possibly also via civil courts.” [Stunning 85-page Google memo ‘The Good Censor’ leaked to Breitbart, October 10, 2018]

What are Trump’s options? He’s certainly thinking about the issue.

The Washington Post reported recently that the White House was backing off a proposed executive order that would have required federal agencies to “investigate and/or prosecute” tech giants for bias. Administration officials told WaPo:

“Although the White House is concerned about the conduct of online platforms and their impact on society, this document is not the result of an official White House policymaking process.” [White House distances itself from reports that Trump could target Facebook, Google and Twitter with a new executive order, by Tony Romm and Josh Dawsey, September 22, 2018]

WaPo reported Trump has demanded an executive order on this matter for some time, but all of the drafts have been deemed “unworkable.” Sources tell the Watcher that the fallout from the leak deterred the President but he still considers the issue a top priority for his base and he wants it addressed.

Of course, first, we have to shoot down True Conservative notions that it’s not the government’s job to resolve tech censorship. Dogmatic Conservatism Incers insist the free market will magically fix the problem and government intervention would somehow be worse than suppression of right-wing views. Some—such as The Weekly Standard’sJonathan Last—have even celebrated this censorship as a necessary measure against “repugnant” voices.

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New Data Shows Federal Reserve Is Causing More Inequality

Posted by EN-AG in Federal, Shows

12-10-18 01:13:00,

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Back in August, Bloomberg interviewed Karen Petrou about her research on quantitative easing and the Fed’s policies since the 2008 financial crisis. What she has discovered has not been encouraging for people who aren’t already high-income, and in recent research presented to the New York Fed, she concluded “Post-crisis monetary and regulatory policy had an unintended but nonetheless dramatic impact on the income and wealth divides.”

This assessment is based on her own work, but also on a 2018 report released by the Minneapolis Fed. The report showed that both income and wealth growth in the US have been much better for higher-income households in recent decades

Notably, when indexed to 1971 (the year Nixon ended the last link between gold and the dollar) we can see the disparity between the top wealth groups and other groups:

Petrou continues:

What did we learn [from the Minneapolis Fed report]? This new dataset shows clearly that U.S. wealth inequality is the worst it has been throughout the entire U.S. post-war period. We also know now that the U.S. middle class is even more“hollowed out” than we thought in terms of income, with any gains made by the lower-middle class sharply reversed after 2007.

Indeed, the report concludes: “…half of all American households have less wealth today in real terms than the median household had in 1970.”

A closer look at income data also suggests that income growth has been especially anemic since 2007. Using data from the Census Bureau’s 2017 report on income and poverty, we find that incomes for the 90th percentile are increasingly pulling away from both the median (50th percentile) income and from the 20th-percentile income.

The household income for the 20th percentile increased 70 percent since 1971, while it has only increased 20 percent at the 20th percentile.

Of course, we might think, “we should be happy that the 20th-percentile income went up by 20 percent!”

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Trump Has Put America on Path to War with Iran While Nobody Is Paying Attention – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in America, Trump

12-10-18 10:57:00,

Sixteen years ago this week, 77 U.S. senators and 296 members of the House of Representatives gave President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq.

That monumental vote enabled what is arguably the biggest strategic foreign policy blunder in American history, needlessly killing hundreds of thousands and costing trillions of dollars. To this day, the United States is still militarily engaged in Iraq and Syria, dealing with the continued fallout of Bush’s decision to invade back in 2003. For decades to come, the United States will spend tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars caring for American service members wounded both mentally and physically in that conflict.

If you think the U.S. government learned its lesson from this tragedy, think again.

Former Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) was one of just 29 senators—all Democrats—who voted against the Iraq war authorization in October 2002. Last year, he issued a stark warning:

If an administration again pounds the drums for war and the media reacted as they did [during the run-up to the Iraq war], without serious thought, with just a visceral emotional response rather than thinking critically and seriously and responsibly, I don’t think what happened in Iraq will unfortunately matter very much. I wish I could say to you something else.

Well it just so happens that an administration is pounding the war drums again, and the media is playing right along.

Trump’s Approach to Iran

Team Trump showed its hand in the early days of the administration when then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn randomly stormed into the White House press room to put Iran “on notice” (for what, it was unclear, but in any event, Iran was on notice). Soon after, the Trump administration began its quest to dismantle the Obama administration’s legacy of working through differences with Iran diplomatically and to put the United States back on the path to war.

While Trump began signaling his desire to leave the historic nuclear deal, administration officials started dialing up the bellicose rhetoric. Later that year, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo pushed the baseless narrative that Iran is in cahoots with al-Qaeda.

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The Electric Revolution: Move Aside Lithium, Vanadium Is the New Super-Metal for Bigger Batteries – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Electric, Revolution

12-10-18 10:56:00,

The lithium ride was a great one. Cobalt, too. All they needed was their Elon Musk moment, which came in the form of the Nevada battery gigafactory. The next Elon Musk moment won’t be about lithium at all—or even cobalt. It will be for an element that takes everything electric to its revolutionary finish line: Vanadium.

The one moment that will change everything … and that moment may be near.

Vanadium is lithium on steroids—wildly bigger and the only way forward from here. We may have already reached the peak of our electric revolution through batteries with lithium.

We need bigger batteries, preferably the size of a football field—or 20.

That’s vanadium—Element 23. The answer to our issue of scale.

“It’s no longer a technological maybe,” says Matt Rhoades, president and CEO of United Battery Metals, a Colorado vanadium explorer sitting on one of the few known sources of the next big battery metal in the entire United States.

Rhoades should know … his company is behind the discovery that hopes to put America definitively on the vanadium map. UBM’s Wray Mesa Project in Colorado has a mineral resource base estimate indicating resource of around 2.7 million pounds of vanadium—not to mention all the uranium they already know is there for additional upside.

“Vanadium is here, and lithium is scared because the $13-billion energy storage market has already found its new poster boy,” Rhoades told Oilprice.com.

China, followed by Russia and South Africa, have the largest reserves of Vanadium, which has become a strategic raw material in electric energy technology

Screenshot of Investingnews.com

The Moment of Truth

Indeed, Rhoades is an expert at timing.

The worldwide battle for vanadium is ramping up …

The Chinese have already had their Elon Musk moment …

The U.S. has none …

And vanadium was the best-performing battery metal last year, beating out even lithium and cobalt.

The truth is that it’s been a long road for vanadium to not only break into the energy storage market, but to actually become the future of the energy storage market.

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Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight, A Quasi Review. “It’s All A Lie” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in America, Showtime

12-10-18 10:39:00,

“The making of a journalist: no ideas and the ability to express them.” – Karl Kraus, Half-Truths & One-and-a-Half Truths

“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain

“All cats die. Socrates is dead. Socrates is a cat.” – Eugene Ionesco, Rhinoceros

If believability is your gauge for discerning truth, you are living in a fantasy world. But that is the reality of life in the United States today. This is the land of make-believe in which actors and audiences are engaged in a vast folie à deux full of sound and fury signifying a nothingness that passes for intelligence. Assertions made convincingly enough are the new facts for a population hypnotized by a stage-managed reality show.

The recently closed Kavanaugh/Blasey Ford Show that mercifully had a short run at the National Comedic Congressional Theater is the latest case in point. The believability of the actors was said to be the key issue. In other words, who seemed to be telling the truth. Demeanor was determinative. Facial expressions evidence. The mass media, those paragons of truth-telling, entertained their audiences for a few weeks by marching out their puerile pundits to tell audiences who of the two primary actors was more believable, while the politicians, not willing to allow their media accomplices to outdo them in truthfulness, donned their masks and performed their usual public service of moral outrage and did the same in their unbiased ways.

There was no child to yell and tell the world that all the king’s sycophants, like the king, were naked – naked liars whose jobs depended on disinformation and deceptions meant to amuse an entertainment-besotted and bored public hungry for a bit of truth in a society drowning in agitprop and propaganda. A public watching the wrong show.

The words the real Frank Serpico, the honest and brave cop, not the actor, Al Pacino, who played him the movie Serpico, come to my mind. He told me that when he was lying in a pool of his own blood on the night of February 3, 1971, having been shot in the face in a set-up carried out by fellow cops,

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Ilargi Meijer: “Of Course The Fed Is Crazy”

Posted by EN-AG in Ilargi, Meijer

11-10-18 08:58:00,

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

Finally financial ‘markets’ go through a substantial dip, which Steve Mnuchin claims is just temporary and Donald Trump says is caused by the fact that the Fed is ‘loco’. Mnuchin may well be right, but it won’t be because he knows something you don’t.

And Trump is certainly right, but in reality the Fed has been loco for many years, so why be surprised if it acts crazy now? The reason Mnuchin and a million other ‘experts’ may be right without realizing it is that the Fed has been crazy enough to kill the financial markets.

Or at least killed what made the markets functional, and beneficial to society. And that may well be exactly what Jay Powell is trying to repair, but he may well not be aware of that either. Looked at from a ‘benign’ angle, Powell is perhaps raising rates so people can regain insight into what they’re buying.

The pre-Powell Fed pushed up asset prices (don’t let’s say ‘values’) to such heights nobody has any insight anymore into what anything is truly worth. And in what was formerly known as the financial markets that was not important, because what were formerly known as investors were making heaps of money regardless.

Surely they must all have known that this wouldn’t continue?! That it’s just a matter of timing, of knowing when it would end? Oh, but that’s not really possible, is it, without the very price discovery process the Fed successfully strangulated?

Still, there must also be tons of people left thinking the Fed can kick that can six times to the moon and back, or sixty. If only because they’ve never bothered to think about price discovery, and what role it plays in the very ‘markets’ they volunteer to spend their money in.

And along those same lines, many acknowledge housing bubbles in Sydney and Vancouver but think the US has learned its lesson a decade ago. And the loco Fed plays its role there too: mortgage rates have been ultra-low, enticing the last left batch of greater fools not mortally wounded by the last fire to jump in this time. Wolf Richter’s Case-Shiller graph says plenty in that regard:

But of course things tend back to normalcy,

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Deep State conspiracy to overthrow Trump involved many countries (Video)

Posted by EN-AG in Conspiracy, State

11-10-18 06:30:00,

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts:

One of the reasons that countries fail is that collective memory is continually destroyed as older generations pass away and are replaced by new ones who are disconnected from what came before.

Initially, the disconnect was handled by history and by discussions around family tables. For example, when I was a kid there were still grandparents whose fathers had fought for the Confederacy. They had no slaves and owned no plantations. They fought because their land was invaded by Lincoln’s armies. Today if Southern families still know the facts, they would protect their children by not telling them. Can you imagine what would happen to a child in a public school that took this position?

Frustrated by the inability of the Union Army to defeat the Army of Northern Virginia led by West Point graduate Robert E. Lee, Lincoln resorted to war criminals. Generals Sherman and Sherridan, operating under the drunken General Grant, were the first modern war criminals who conducted war against civilian women and children, their homes and food supply. Lincoln was so out of step with common morality that he had to arrest and detain 300 Northern newspaper editors and exile a US Congressman in order to conduct his War for Empire.

Today this history is largely erased. The court historians buried the truth with the fable that Lincoln went to war to free the slaves. This ignorant nonsense is today the official history of the “civil war,” which most certainly was not a civil war.

A civil war is when two sides fight for control of the government. The Confederacy was a new country consisting of those states that seceded. Most certainly, the Confederate soldiers were no more fighting for control over the government in Washington than they were fighting to protect the investment of plantation owners.

Memory is lost when historical facts are cast down the memory hole

So, what does this have to do with the lesson for today? More than history can be erased by the passage of time. Culture can be erased. Morality can be erased. Common sense can disappear with the diplomacy that depends on it.

The younger generation which experiences threats shouted all around it at Confederate war memorials and street names—Atlanta has just struck historic Confederate Avenue out of existence and replaced it with United Avenue—at white males who,

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U.S. Generated Terror

Posted by EN-AG in Generated, Terror

11-10-18 06:18:00,

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

UN Reports Over 8,000 Afghan Civilians Killed in 2018, Mostly Women and Children

October 10, 2018 at 11:24 pm

Written by Jason Ditz
(ANTIWAR.COM) — Adding to a growing list of UN reports released recently all showing a surge in Afghan civilian casualties in different manners, a Wednesday report was released showing that civilian deaths are surging from US and Afghan government airstrikes.

This has been ongoing through the year, with a decrease in US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria leading to more warplanes committed to bombings in Afghanistan. More US strikes means more civilians getting hit, meaning the casualty figures are at multi-year highs.
The UN figures show 649 civilian casualties in the US and Afghan airstrikes in 2018’s first nine months. This is 39% more than the same period in 2017, as well as more than the whole of last year. 60% of the casualties are women and children.
All these reports on all these different sorts of civilian casualties caused by the war show a general increase in violence against civilians on all fronts, with no signs of the violence slowing down any time soon.
https://theantimedia.com/8000-afghan-civilians-killed-2018/?utm_source=The+Anti-Media+Newsletter&utm_campaign=77c9d8d9ea-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_177e8c8195-77c9d8d9ea-25639777

Trump Says Blocking Saudi Arms Sales Would Be “Hurting Us” When Asked About Khashoggi

Posted by EN-AG in Blocking, Trump

11-10-18 03:19:00,

It’s not exactly a shocker, but does still serve to confirm just what interests actually drive American foreign policy – and no it has nothing to do with “sticking up for human rights” or “punishing rogue regimes”.

In fact a regime can literally lure a prominent journalist to its embassy, murder him and chop him up into pieces, and then cart the body out of a foreign country — as the fast mounting evidence increasingly confirms in the case of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — and the US may not so much as bat and eyelash.

President Trump told “Fox News Night” on Wednesday that he wants to know what happened to Khashoggi but expressed reluctance when it comes to blocking arms sales to the kingdom.

“I think that would be hurting us,” Trump said.

“We have jobs, we have a lot of things happening in this country. We have a country that’s doing probably better economically than it’s ever done before.”

Ironically this all comes a mere days after on Trump last Sunday said the Saudi king wouldn’t last “two weeks” without American support. The statements also come just as a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders are demanding a federal probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged murder that could lead to sanctions on the longtime close US ally.

The president continued: “Part of that is what we’re doing with our defense systems and everybody’s wanting them. And frankly I think that that would be a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country. I mean, you’re affecting us and, you know, they’re always quick to jump that way.”

Trump’s surprisingly frank assessment came after earlier on Wednesday Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee cited US intelligence on the case, saying “there was Saudi involvement” and “everything points to them.” Corker noted in statements that the killing likely happened the moment Khashoggi walked into the consulate.

President Donald Trump says he is “certainly concerned” that missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, but says he hopes he’s not.

“I have to find out who did it,”

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Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil – Global Research

Posted by EN-AG in Future, Western

11-10-18 09:42:00,

Nothing less than the future of politics across the West – and across the Global South – is being played out in Brazil.

Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century, neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism.

Geopolitical and global economic reverberations will be immense. The Brazilian dilemma illuminates all the contradictions surrounding the Right populist offensive across the West, juxtaposed to the inexorable collapse of the Left. The stakes could not be higher.

Jair Bolsonaro, an outright supporter of Brazilian military dictatorships of last century, who has been normalized as the “extreme-right candidate,” won the first round of the presidential elections on Sunday with more than 49 million votes. That was 46 percent of the total, just shy of a majority needed for an outright win. This in itself is a jaw-dropping development.

His opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party (PT), got only 31 million votes, or 29 percent of the total. He will now face Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 28. A Sisyphean task awaits Haddad: just to reach parity with Bolsonaro, he needs every single vote from those who supported the third and fourth-placed candidates, plus a substantial share of the almost 20 percent of votes considered null and void.

Meanwhile, no less than 69 percent of Brazilians, according to the latest polls, profess their support for democracy. That means 31 percent do not.

No Tropical Trump

Dystopia Central does not even begin to qualify it. Progressive Brazilians are terrified of facing a mutant “Brazil” (the movie) cum Mad Max wasteland ravaged by evangelical fanatics, rapacious neoliberal casino capitalists and a rabid military bent on recreating a Dictatorship 2.0.

Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, is being depicted by Western mainstream media essentially as the Tropical Trump. The facts are way more complex.

Bolsonaro, a mediocre member of Congress for 27 years with no highlights on his C.V., indiscriminately demonizes blacks, the LGBT community, the Left as a whole, the environment “scam” and most of all, the poor. He’s avowedly pro-torture. He markets himself as a Messiah – a fatalistic avatar coming to “save” Brazil from all those “sins” above.

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Nobel Prize is Not Handed Out For Accomplishment but for Politics | Armstrong Economics

Posted by EN-AG in Nobel, prize

11-10-18 09:41:00,

QUESTION: Hello Martin,

It would be very interesting to hear your thoughts about this year Nobel Prize winners in Economics and their work. I insist it should be you and your team that gets such prize, but will that ever happen?..

Much appreciation for your great contribution to humanity, best wishes from Scandinavia,

ANSWER: They gave Obama the Nobel Prize for just being the first Black president before he even did anything. The Yale economist William D. Nordhaus won the Nobel Prize in economics as always not for actually proving something, but for supporting something they just want to hear. Nordhaus has spent the better part of four decades trying to persuade governments to address climate change, preferably by imposing a tax on carbon emissions. Many countries had adopted his views and used it to justify imposing taxes such as Canada right down to every home.

Economics is a “SOCIAL SCIENCE” which means you do not have to actually produce anything and prove it is true as in physics. Every year we have disappointment after disappointment because there are no actual criteria to warrant a Nobel Prize in Economics. All you have to do is paint a pretty picture like Karl Marx that Utopia is just around the corner and all we have to do is surrender more if not all our rights to the government.

The fundamental idea upon which Nordhaus has based his proposition is that government can alter and manipulate society by punishing them with taxes. Nobody advocates smaller government and more freedom to the people. That is simply heresy in Economics. There is NEVER any study of the past. There is also just the assumption that we are sheep to be herded and slaughtered. There is no belief in the rights of the individual. It is always that the good of the whole (government) takes precedence over God, Family, or human rights.

I will NEVER win a Nobel Prize because I believe in human rights, free markets, non-governmental interference, and that the best of civilization has been created by individuals and not by governments. Handing power to governments to manipulate the economy opens the door to corruption for then special interests will bribe the politicians for favors – i.e.

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Lil’ Miss AIPAC Nikki Haley Ends Her Reign of Terror at the UN

Posted by EN-AG in AIPAC, Nikki

10-10-18 02:36:00,

“As a blogger and political analyst, I’m a little sad that Haley’s gone. She was the geopolitical gift that kept on giving”

The world is not shedding any tears now that Lil ‘Miss AIPAC, Nikki Haley, has finished her time puffing up her political resume at the U.N. To describe her performance as U.N. Ambassador over the last two years as strident and obnoxious would be a kindness.

Haley, simply put, was out of her depth as a diplomat, preferring to pre-run for President and shore up the support of the Israeli lobby in the U.S. rather than do her job with any modicum of honesty or integrity.

Her resigning quickly after the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is interesting, however.

While she has been, nominally, one of President Trump’s most public supporters she has also been instrumental in undermining Trump on foreign policy initiatives that do not comport with the wishes of her pay-masters at AIPAC.

While it is questionable how far Trump bows to the powerful Israeli lobby, no such questions should arise with Haley. She literally invites my nickname for her with every public pronouncement.

Neocons Never Die

So, what are the implications of this move by Haley less than thirty days before the mid-terms elections?

Well, the first part of this is obvious. The neoconservative/Never-Trump wing of the GOP, still smarting that their plan to hurt Trump by helping the Democrats scuttle the Kavanaugh appointment, are continuing to push the narrative that Trump has no control in the White House.

So, Haley, one of his best allies in the Administration, resigns suddenly to continue that appearance. It doesn’t matter that she apparently wanted out before year end. She could have held off until after the mid-terms to assist Trump in getting the GOP over the finish line with the House and Senate intact.

She didn’t do that. And if that doesn’t clarify for you just who she truly works for, then sadly nothing will.

Honestly, she has been such a caricature of a Neocon during her time miscast as a diplomat, anyone would be better than her short of Paul Wolfowitz or Dick Cheney,

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US-funded “Disinformation Oversight” of Bio Weapons Prevention Programmes in Georgia | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-AG in Disinformation, US-funded

09-10-18 10:24:00,

The Richard Lugar Lab is fast becoming a topic of household conversation in both Georgia and the Russian Federation, because increasing numbers of people care that it is not a public health facility, as claimed, but a threat to the population and humanity as we know it.

The Caucasus region is an ideal location for the United States to outsource its ‘grey zone’ research to. Many of the most ‘attractive’ viruses and bacteria for weaponisation occur naturally in this region, so they can be studied in their natural habitat. The region is also known for its thriving black market economy and trafficking, as the lack of democracy and a civil society makes it easier to hide things from the world.

But what is now concerning US officials is the attention Russia is paying to the topic of bio weapons and other related medical programmes. What has been uncovered so far demonstrates that the question is NOT whether the US is in violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Treaty BUT to what degree.

The US has long tried to deflect attention from these programmes. American journalist and Bureau Chief for Veterans Today in Georgia, Jeffrey Silverman, a long time resident of Georgia, is again the cross fire for his articles and series of recent TV interviews, having endured a long series of indignities, and downright illegal acts, at the hands of his own government and embassy.

But the new attacks on Silverman coincide with recent revelations in the Russian media. Igor Giorgadze, the former State Security Minister of Georgia, dropped a bombshell in mid September when he leaked documents containing information about “a laboratory located near Tbilisi named after US Senator Richard Lugar”, and how some experiments had turned deadly.

Various media groups describe such breaking stories as recurring disinformation, and further claim that there is no factual evidence that the US is building biological laboratories in the Caucasus region in order to use it as a testing site. The same media groups also denied that the US was losing the Vietnam War and declared the well documented CIA human rights abuses in places like Paraguay weren’t happening either.

But Giorgadze, a former Georgian State Security Minister,

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