"Once you realize your government’s sole purpose is to reserve murder of you and your family as its sacred task depending on your lack of fealty and obedience, everything sort of falls into place on why governments throughout the ages have been so murderous at home and abroad". William Buppert
By Egon VonGryerz The
transfer of wealth in coming years will be of a magnitude that few can
realize today. Most billionaires will disappear and not understand what
has happened. They all thought it was their own ability that created
their wealth. They will soon become aware that their wealth was based on
the central bank money printing bonanza that favored a few and
impoverished not just the poor but also the middle classes. But when
bubbles burst, debts implode and so do asset values. Many
ask how we can have hyperinflation when so many assets will implode
which is deflationary. As I have explained before, we will have
“FLATION” In coming years. This means both deflation, stagflation,
inflation and hyperinflation simultaneously. All bubble assets will
deflate and the economy will have deflation which is inflation with
economic stagnation. Consumer products, foods, raw materials and many
commodities will hyperinflate. Most
people don’t understand that we can have hyperinflation without high
demand. Just look at Venezuela and you will understand. Here we have an
economy which is totally collapsing with most people living in absolute
poverty and squalor. There is very little demand for products or even
food, since there is none, and people can’t afford it. Still, prices are
going up exponentially. This has nothing to do with demand but with the
currency. Hyperinflation is a currency event and when a country prints
unlimited amounts of money the currency collapses. And this is what
creates hyperinflation. Read the entire essay Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
If there is any justice, history is going to look kindly upon Moon
Jae-in of South Korea and Kim Jong-un of North Korea, plus all those who
participated in the negotiations.
Donald Trump has surely played a part too. He should get a deserved
boost from this. His position volatility, bobbing and weaving like a
boxer in order to unsettle the opposition and ready a knockout blow, is
such that we never quite know what he’s aiming for or where he stands.
In time all will be revealed. At the moment, we have to hope that he
uses the boost wisely and draws lessons from an appropriate
understanding of how this peace has come about. One lesson is that John
Bolton could not have been more wrong about North Korea.
The details of how and why this remarkable event has transpired are
unknown at present. It’s up to reporters to inform us and the Nobel
people. It appears that the man who took a very big step forward and
took the initiative was Moon Jae-in last July. See here.
We’ve had so few victories for peace to celebrate in a long time that
this one stands out as something that could turn the entire world
around, maybe even mitigating the existing fear and hostility in this
country toward Iran. Maybe the peace movement in Israel will make more
headway too.
Did you know that defensive gun use is happening more regularly in the United States than gun crimes?! Probably not!
Why? Because the Centers for Disease Control never publicized it.
The agency sat on this information for years. The unpublished CDC Study confirms there are nearly 2.5 million defensive gun use situations per year. A lot higher than 100,000, which is the low-ball number leftists have been throwing around recently.
This study was conducted on data collected from 1996, 1997 and 1998.
The question was part of the yearly Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System. Respondents were asked this question, “During the last 12
months, have you confronted another person with a firearm, even if you
did not fire it, to protect yourself, your property, or someone else?”
This study confirms what Florida State criminologist Gary Kleck
has been saying for many years based on his research. He estimated that
the number was around 2.2 million a year, so he wasn’t too far off.
The anti-gun lobby tried to write Kleck off as an unreliable
source. Another fact the anti-gun lobby glosses over is that the
majority of gun deaths are mostly suicide, around 60 percent. Guns don’t
kill people, psychotic lunatics do and the rest of us protect ourselves
legally — apparently at least 2.5 million times a year.
While it will likely take the Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons weeks or even months to issue their final report on the
alleged gas attack in Douma (an attack for which journalists and other independent parties
have failed to find any evidence), the organization's investigators
have apparently spoken with Russian military officials after visiting
the site of the Barzeh research center in Damascus - one of the three
facilities targeted by the strikes.
If this were true, would not a lethal cloud have been
released that would have taken the lives of far more people than claimed
in the alleged Syrian chemical attack on Douma?
Would not the US missile attack be identical to a chemical weapons
attack and thus place the US and its vassals in the same category as
Washington is attempting to place Assad and Putin?
And now, according to Sputnik, the investigators, who spoke with Russian General Staff Col. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, revealed that they had found no
evidence of chemical weapons in the remains of research facilities that
were supposedly integral to the Syrian Army's chemical weapons program.
Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise: After all, if the US,
France and the UK really did bomb a building filled with chemical
weapons, there would've been thousands - possibly tens of thousands - of bodies to show for it.
"Immediately after the attacks, many people who worked at these
destroyed facilities and just bystanders without any protective
equipment visited them. None of them got poisoned with toxic agents," Rudskoy said.
Rudskoy said there was similarly scant evidence of chemical weapons
exposure at the Han Shinshar facility, located in the province of Homs.
Russia registered only seven missiles had struck the facility, while the
Pentagon claimed that it had successfully fired 22 missiles. Russia has
previously claimed that only 71 of 103 missiles launched by the coalition made it past Syria's antiquated air defenses.
"According to the statements of the Pentagon’s representatives, 22 missiles hit the above-ground facilities.We registered no more than seven hits, which is shown in the space image," he told a briefing.
Furthermore, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said its
representatives had questioned local doctors and investigated the site
of the attacks. The doctors confirmed that they hadn't recently treated
any patients with signs of exposure to chemical agents, and
investigators searching the area found nothing suspicious. Moscow had
said the April 7 gas attack that purportedly took place in Douma, part
of the Eastern Ghouta region that was recently reclaimed following a military victory over the last rebel forces in the area, was in fact staged by the White Helmets,
an NGO that supports US interests in Syria under the guise of altruism.
While the US has refused to share the supposedly "slam dunk" evidence
that the Syrian government was behind the attack, US and French authorities have cited videos posted to YouTube by the White Helmets as sufficient proof of an attack.
But as Ron Paul argued in a recent column, even if the Syrian army did carry out the gas attack in Douma, evidence of this still wouldn't justify the US, UK and France bombing targets inside a foreign country.
The Syrian civil war has been a bloody one. Hundreds of thousands of
combatants (and tens of thousands of civilians) have been blown up by
airstrikes, ripped to pieces by shrapnel or mutilated and murdered in
some other grotesque fashion. The problem is, the US intervention wasn't
motivated by humanitarian instincts - rather, Washington's outrage is
very selective and politically motivated.
We are not the policemen of the world, Paul added. Bad leaders do
terrible things all the time - and this is true even in the US. The US
has neither the moral authority - or the money - to carry out overseas
bombings. Especially now that it has become clear the Trump
administration didn't have sound evidence of an attack, the hasty decision to resort to force was a foolish one.
A Broward County Sheriff Deputy who dared to question the
official narrative around the Parkland shooting has been found dead
under suspicious circumstances.
On April 1, Jason Fitzsimon was found dead on his sofa. According to
police, the 42-year-old had been in excellent health prior to his
untimely death. Memoryholeblog.org reports:
reports: Deputy Fitzsimons wasn’t just any law enforcement officer.
Unlike many of his peers, he took to social media to question the
potential agenda behind the February 14 Marjory Stoneman High School
mass shooting, suggesting that the event was being used to promote the
Democratic Party’s gun control platform in anticipation of the 2018
midterm elections. And recent personnel decisions involving public
officials indicate (e.g. here and here),
an unwritten law of taxpayer-funded institutions is that employees
disavow and steer clear of “conspiracy theories” that may call their
superiors motives into question.
One post found on Fitzsimon’s Facebook page depicts the Parkland
massacre’s main spokesperson, David Hogg, in National Socialist regalia,
with the caption, “We will March Until We Disarm Every American.”
Fitzsimons Facebook page has since been “scrubbed” of any 2018 posts,
which would of course include those that may be calling the the Parkland
shooting or its aftermath into question.
The circumstances surrounding Deputy Fitzsimon’s death are sketchy. The
official cause has been attributed to cancer, yet this is contradicted
by an obituary found
at obittree.com, stating that he “died unexpectedly.” The “died
unexpectedly” phrase is one morticians and/or loved ones sometimes
employ when for one reason or another they are reluctant to disclose the
true cause of death, as in the case of a suicide.
As is suggested in the aftermath of other recent mass shooting
events, Fitzsimons simply may have possessed too much information, was
at the wrong place at the wrong time, and/or asking sensitive questions
of his peers and superiors on the specifics of the Parkland shooting. It
is beyond dispute that the sheriff’s deputy had become uncomfortably
outspoken on the February 14 event.
The record reflects that
Deputy Fitzsimons was a wonderful individual and friend who cared about
“truth” and the US Constitution. Perhaps these concerns are no longer
desired by the management of certain policing agencies. There is indeed
ample room for suspicion.
On Sunday night, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen hit a wedding
party in Hajja province, killing up to 50 people. Strangely, no one in
the Western media is calling for sanctions or regime change in Riyadh.
In fact, it seems they’re
not that concerned at all. This is despite the fact that Saudi Arabia
has been repeatedly accused of indiscriminate bombing in Yemen during a
military campaign which has brought 8 million civilians to the brink of
famine.
By early evening on Monday, BBC News was displaying not
one, not two, but five stories about the birth of Prince William and
Kate Middleton’s new baby boy. At the time of checking, there was no
story at all about Yemen featured on the BBC’s front page.
Cynical
minds might suspect this is because the British government is party to
the slaughter in Yemen through its selling of massive amounts of weapons
to the Saudi government. In the BBC’s piece on
the attack, hidden seven stories down on the World News page, there was
no mention at all of this relationship between London and Riyadh.
The Guardian and the Independent gave more prominence to the Yemen
story than the BBC, both displaying reports on the front pages of their
websites – but the levels of outrage were seriously muted in comparison
with the reaction to alleged attacks on civilians by the Syrian
government.
Journalists in the United States seem to be suffering from the same kind of selective outrage. A CNN story on the deaths in
Yemen initially did not mention the words ‘Saudi Arabia’ until the
seventh paragraph. The story was later updated to include news of the
death of top Houthi leader Saleh al-Sammad, while the news about the
deaths of up to 50 people at the wedding was knocked down to the fourth
paragraph. This strange reluctance to be harsh on Riyadh or to give the
Yemen war the prominence it deserves in the media, is clearly an effort
to downplay atrocities which won't play as well in front of a Western
audience. It's harder to play the role of the outraged anchor when you
have to explain that the US signed an arms deal worth $110 billion with
Saudi Arabia last year – a deal which included $7 billion worth of “precision weapons” from Raytheon and Boeing.
Perhaps if the White Helmets had shown up with a video camera and
accusations of chemical weapons use, the story would have gotten more
traction. Alas, it appears a gentler kind of bomb was used to kill the
civilian victims. Reading the Western reports on Yemen, you get the
sense that it is being reported out of duty, only to be buried somewhere
and forgotten about the next day.
Syrian forces are massing west of the Euphrates near Kasham in Deir Ezzor. Their goal is to cross the river and retake more Syrian territory, including the major oil
fields now held by U.S. backed anti-Assad forces.
The Russians have
built a vital bridge across the river. Will the U.S. destroy this
bridge? Will the U.S. use its air power to attack the bridge and/or the
Syrian forces?
The U.S. has attacked Syrian forces from the air and ground before
when they have moved east of the Euphrates, such as the big attack on
Feb. 7-8 in which many Russian mercenaries were killed. At the same time, the U.S. apparently loosed flood waters to destroy a bridge over the Euphrates. In 2016, the U.S. destroyed several bridges across the river.
All of this U.S. activity is to conquer a portion of Syria. The goals
are to create a U.S.-dominated zone to block Syria’s border with Iraq,
to prevent Iranian access and to maintain a constant threat to the
Syrian regime.
Will the U.S. again attack Syrian forces that attack the anti-Assad
forces with whom the Americans are embedded? Almost surely, they will.
They will do so if these forces cross the bridge and establish a
beachhead. Will the U.S. bomb the bridge? Possibly, but that’s not as
certain because it confronts Russian handiwork. Probably the Americans
will bomb part of the bridge or shell it with artillery while bombing
Syrian forces that have crossed; they can claim shells went astray.
However, these answers depend on a wild card, what Putin does. The
West has been sticking it to Putin lately with sanctions, the Skripal
case and the Douma gas case, not to mention the loss of hundreds of
mercenaries. These may stiffen Putin’s resolve to respond in Syria.
The situation is very dangerous. What if Syrian and Russian airplanes
get involved? What if Syrians on the ground bring down American planes
with ground-to-air missiles?
Trump gave his Syrian commanders a free hand to make battle
decisions, and we have seen the results already in February. Likely a
similar result will now happen if Assad moves his forces east, unless
Putin ups the ante.
The U.S. entered an undeclared low-level war against Assad years ago.
The U.S. allies in this war are Israel and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has
thrown in with these two countries and against Syria and Iran, and now
Russia. We should be neutral because Syria (like Iraq, Yemen, Somalia
and Libya before them) has nothing to do with our security against
military attack. Neither are Israel and Saudi Arabia countries whose
security matters to our security.
The idea that America is a neutral anywhere on Earth has been
discarded. Neutrality was declared with respect to World War I on August
4, 1914. It was officially abandoned 3 years later. We now have a
complicated system of perpetual warfare that’s completely unjustified
and wrong. Is there something wrong with staying out of other countries,
minding our own business and staying neutral? If the neocons and
warmongers have arguments as to why we’re supposed to fight forever in
countries that don’t want us there and in which we gain no security,
what are these arguments? I’ve yet to hear any that made any sense.
On
April 14, a man set himself on fire in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. His
suicide was fired with fossil fuel, as was his stated intent in protest
of climate change. According to his suicide note, the man lamented, "My
early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves." What should society take from this man's messy and tragic death?
U.N.
officials who admit that so-called climate change is about ending
capitalism, not protecting the environment, will take nothing.
UN
IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer: "One has to free oneself from the
illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy, it
is not. [It is actually about how] we redistribute de facto the world's
wealth."
For
such global officials, the quest is revolution, for which anything and
anyone are dispensable. The earnest masses, among them those willing to
slander and persecute any climate change "denier," may pause for a
moment. But so convinced are they of human environmental perfidy that I
doubt that anything would move them off their pedestal.
But
what of the researchers who call themselves "climate scientists" and
who provide the scientific cover for globalist revolutionaries and
earnest zealots? What do the researchers say to the family and friends
of the self-immolated man? Would they consider the sacrificial lamb's
final action appropriate to their claims?
Let's
ask the computer modelers why they think any computer code can reflect
natural reality, even if it somehow incorporated every nonlinear
relationship and higher-order interaction in a system as complex as our
atmosphere. The models do not. Knowing, as they should, that contrary
evidence is cause for rejection of theory, why do the modelers cling to
theory when the most relevant data (from satellite and weather balloons)
fail to validate model predictions?
Let's
ask the government agencies about their repeated unexplained changes to
surface temperature data so that successive datasets come to resemble
an increasing warming trend. Such is not seen in the atmosphere
itself. Why are the agencies fudging the data?
The
suicidal man was extreme but not alone. If only skeptics could have
spoken directly to him. They might have reassured him that they
appreciate that climate does change. How else to explain the ice ages
long before man came on the scene? Nor, might they have offered, do
skeptics question that humans have some effect on our
atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. The problem with climate
alarm is that there seems to be no possibility of detecting the human
signal among the noise of natural climate change. And if one cannot
tell the difference between man-made and natural climate change,
skeptics can reasonably ask why society should destroy the energy
underpinnings of the industrial age that have so advanced the human
condition.
We
could have had this conversation, and it might have averted senseless
loss of life. Today I ask the "climate scientists" how they like their
work. Are they satisfied with their role in the greatest perversion of
the scientific method since Lysenko?
I watched the press conference with “Mad Dog” Mattis at the Pentagon
last night after the missile attacks on Syria. He was not his usual
cocky, swaggering, big-talking self, but seemed more like a frightened
little poodle. He read a statement off of a piece of paper, probably
written by John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz and edited by Douglas Feith.
It contradicted what he said just a day earlier about lobbing missiles
at Syria. When he was asked if he had proof of Syria being responsible
for a “gas attack” he had absolutely nothing to say except that “I am
confident” that such an event occurred. He alluded to no evidence of
any kind whatsoever because, of course, he has none. If he did, he
surely would be broadcasting it all over the world.
There is a vast industry in the United States that wants a hot war
with Syria and Iran as well as increased confrontation with Russia and
China. It is appropriate to refer to it as an industry because it has
many components and is largely driven by money, much of which itself
comes from Wall Street and major corporations that profit from war
related business. Some prefer to refer to this monster as the Military
Industrial Complex, but since that phrase was coined by President Dwight
D. Eisenhower in 1961, it has grown enormously, developing a political
dimension that includes a majority of congressmen who are addicted to
receiving a tithe from the profits from the war economy to finance their
own campaigns, permitting them to stay in office indefinitely and
retire comfortably to a lobbying position or corporate directorship.
The defense industry also has spawned hundreds of so-called
think-tanks whose sole business is promoting war. Some, like the
neoconservative Institute for the Study of War, have a clear agenda, but
the most powerful rely on euphemisms to conceal what they are doing.
They include the American Enterprise Institute and the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, both of which promote a hard-line foreign policy
directed against Iran and Russia, to include intensified confrontation
with both in Syria.
The national media, which also benefits from the same food chain, is
also complicit in the process, knowing that the public can easily be
deceived by pronouncements coming from alleged experts in Washington.
Leading politicians like Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain lead
the pack but there is no shortage of lesser known congressmen to also
raise the cry about foreign threats to national security. Regarding
developments in Syria, Graham advised last weekend that Trump must
attack and destroy the Syrian Air Force or “look weak” while McCain said
White House talk of pulling troops out of the country had “emboldened”
al-Assad.
Unenlightened self-interest prevails in the White House over the
formulation of policy, with the public interest completely lost from
sight as high officials jockey in support of the agendas being promoted
by those with money and access to those in power. There is no other
explanation for the astonishing performance last weekend, which pushed
the United States closer to a new war in spite of Trump’s earlier
expressed claims that he wants to exit from Syria, a comment that he
quickly backed away from under pressure from the Israelis and Congress.
But now we have a dubious narrative of a horrible new chemical weapon
attack in Syria and the Israelis, who have spent the past two weeks
shooting two thousand unarmed demonstrators, have attacked a Syrian
airbase, killing 14, pretending that they care about civilian casualties
when all they really want to do is jumpstart a seven-year war which has
been winding down.
Anyone could see there was something not quite right about this
latest “chemical attack,” supposedly implemented by Bashar al-Assad just
as his troops are about to finish off the last rebels near Damascus.
But Donald Trump apparently could not appreciate that the Syrian
government had no motive to use chemical weapons, while the rebels, who
control the space where the attack supposedly took place, have every
reason to motivate an international coalition to attack the Syrian Army.
At 8 a.m. on Sunday morning the President of the United States sent out this tweet:
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless
CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled
by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world.
President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal
Assad. Big price to pay…
Donald Trump could not have possibly known who staged the gas attack
so soon after it occurred, but he felt compelled to tweet something
anyway. And it was not as if other observers hadn’t suspected that a big
lie was coming. Days before the staged attack, the Russian Defense
Ministry warned that a false flag incident was being prepared.
One hour later, the Sunday morning talk shows in the US were full of
reports about the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons. No one
contradicted that narrative and the news was soon headlined in the late
editions of the Sunday newspapers. “Fake news” had won out again, in
spite of a complete lack or evidence or credibility. This is completely
crazy. There is something very wrong with what is going on currently in
the United States.
What happened in Douma? We do not know who perpetrated a chlorine gas
attack. Who had the motive? Who had the means? Who had the opportunity?
One of the possible suspects is the Syrian armed forces. Another is the
anti-Assad forces in Douma, with or without the assistance of external
state or non-state actors. It is also possible that uncontrolled or
rogue elements in either of these organizations is responsible. Until
there is clarification, we are in the position of a jury that awaits
hearing evidence. We withhold judgment.
The truth in Douma may be challenging to figure out, but at least some sort of efforts are underway.
Syria’s “…foreign ministry said it would help the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in a fact-finding mission…” A
thorough investigation would require finding out the Syrian military
movements, inspecting records and interviewing armed forces personnel.
It would require tracing the movements of chlorine before its release.
The anti-Assad forces in Douma have agreed to a deal in which they
are leaving Ghouta and going to a place near Aleppo. “As part of the
surrender deal, the Jaish al-Islam group that controlled the town
released scores of people it had been holding.”
Who were these hostages? According to Wikipedia
“On 1 November 2015, an opposition media outlet, Shaam News Network,
posted a video showing Jaysh al-Islam militants had locked people in
cages and spread out 100 cages containing about 7 captives each through
Eastern Ghouta, northeast of Damascus, to use them as human shields
against Syrian government air raids. According to the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, the caged people being used as human shields were
captured Alawite military officers and their families
who had been kidnapped by Jaysh al-Islam two years ago outside Adra
al-Ummaliyah, a government-held neighbourhood in Eastern Ghouta.”
[Emphasis added].
If Jaish al-Islam was on the ropes in Douma and facing defeat in
Syria, why would it not launch a false flag chemical attack, gambling,
even counting, on a response from the West that would set Assad back or
cripple his forces? If Assad was about to achieve the removal of
anti-Assad forces from Ghouta, a project successfully underway for
several weeks, why would he launch a chemical attack that would cause
the West to inflict great damage on his forces?
Trump happens to have used the word “mindless” to describe the
attack. In context of his other remarks, he meant this in personal terms
in accusing Assad of an atrocity. He meant that it is mindless to kill
innocent people including children, because they are not participants in
the fighting. This is correct, but he said more than he realized he was
saying, because while such an attack is senseless from Assad’s side, it
is sensible from the side of Jaish al-Islam.
Detailed information about Jaish al-Islam appears in a Stanford University source.
At one point, the leader of the group “… expressed a desire to cleanse
Damascus of all Shiites and Alawis.” This provides another possible
motive. In addition, this source states “The group also allegedly has
access to chemical weapons.”
We do not know what happened in Douma. If our government has
definitive information about this, it hasn’t released it. When
politicians and other government officials immediately reach the
conclusion that Assad did it, they are leaping to conclusions without
the benefit of publicly available evidence.
Even if Assad’s forces launched a chlorine attack, it doesn’t force
or require a response from U.S. military forces. Going into another war
should not hinge on incidents. War means the multiplication of death,
injury, displacement and destruction. It may not even achieve the
tactical objective of stopping chemical attacks. It may even amplify
them and other heinous crimes.
War should be entered into only to achieve strategic objectives that
benefit our side. In this case, there are those in Washington who want
to make war against Syria as a steppingstone to making war on Iran.
Regime change in Iran is their strategic objective. It’s the wrong
objective. Destruction of Iran’s government will create a new region
that’s fertile ground for new insurgencies that take direct aim at
mainland America. America’s debt bomb will explode along with the price
of oil. The resulting depression will be severe because of the huge
debt. Pakistan, adjacent to Iran, will be affected. The de-stabilization
of Pakistan, an Islamic nuclear power, is certainly not in the
strategic interest of the U.S.
We do not know the truth. There are other possibilities. It is
possible that Assad used chlorine as an alternative to bombing the
remaining rebel enclave relentlessly and killing even more people. It is
possible he used it to break the rebels’ will. It is possible that what
seems to be evidence of chlorine gassing has been staged. It is
possible that Jaish al-Islam is dead set against using chemical weapons
or last-minute ethnic cleansing. The truth is elusive.
But what is clear is that a Western attack led by the U.S.
contravenes international law and escalates the U.S. presence in the
war. This is true even if Trump manages to amass some international
support from allies. Two British ex-ambassadors have spoken up against
rash action. It’s also clear that such an attack will almost certainly
elicit a direct Russian military response.
“Moscow’s envoy to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, said that the Russian
military reserves the right to shoot down missiles and destroy launch
sites in the event of US aggression against Syria.”
VT has long covered the “aiding and abetting” of terrorists by the US
coalition, and by derivation NATO, for some time now. We view its going
on unchecked as a major national security threat to all countries.
Unfortunately Western corporate media, with financial resources far
beyond VT, has played Mickey the Dunce on this whole story, the case
usually being that the respective country intelligence agencies have
warned them to stay away from it all, or suffer the consequences.
VT has also followed closely the long series of false flag chemical
weapons attacks, both sarin and military-grade chlorine because we knew
the Syrians would never be so stupid as to hand their heads to the US
Coalition in a silver platter by doing something with no chance of any
gain, but exactly the opposite.
We
were also concerned that the longer “they” got away with doing this,
the more innocent people would be murdered by the alleged protectors of
freedom and democracy in the world, but who we know to be currently
among the worst enemies of mankind.
Unfortunately, despite our best labors, the citizens of these
countries have done almost nothing to hold those accountable in their
own countries.
The
SAA capturing this chemical weapons facility was a huge turn of events.
The guilty parties knew what the Syrians had on them now. We have been
waiting to see who would do what.
Now that might have changed, with our long pleadings for the Syrians
to give us photographic proof of the chemical weapons assets they have
been capturing – serial numbers and all – so we could cram it down the
throats of the guilty, thinking maybe someone inside the respective
countries might want to start asking some hard questions.
The flurry of military accidents also caught our attention, as we
know historically that this method is used by the military to hide
overseas combat deaths for which any public investigation would be
embarrassing.
In Vietnam, if a thousand of our troops were lost in one week, the
announcement would be spread out, the families lied to. Welcome to the
dark underside of America.
The impending attack on Damascus by the US was partially due to what
the SAA might uncover in East Ghouta; and because they were able to move
fast, they overran the US Coalition’s chemical weapons operations
faster than anyone thought possible.
Our pleading with Syria has been rewarded with these new photos. The
SAA has US Coalition chemical weapons officers in custody; and Russia
has told the US, Brits, Israelis, and Saudis that they will have to deal
with Damascus.
How
long US media and our own Congress can pretend they know nothing about
who some of the major terrorist elements are that most are afraid to
mention? Their house of cards is crumbling, and “they” will be more
dangerous in that situation, as we are talking about some serious crimes
here.
We are suspicious of why the Brits would throw together what appears
to us to have been a sloppy false flag, even to use against Russia, for
putting Russia’s feet in the fire to get the Brits people back from
Syria and keep this story out of major news distribution.
Is now the time for some of the really guilty to have to pay the
piper? We shall see. But for that to happen, what is left of
non-compromised public institutions has to step up to the plate, when
they have shown a hesitancy to do so when their countries really needed
them.
We hope they will get to see this and start asking the obvious questions… Jim W. Dean ] [table id=DonateDean /]
A chemical artillery shell
– First published … April 08, 2018 –
Today another chemical weapons stockpile was found in East
Ghouta, produced in Germany, fully weaponized and commercially produced
by Merck.
Merck was the primary producer of chemical weapons for Germany in
World War I and George Merck founded the War Research Service along with
Frank Olson in 1944, which using captured Germany and Japanese
scientists and research facilities, took control of America’s biological
and chemical warfare production which continues to this day in
facilities at Fort Meade, Maryland and at the Lugar Lab in Tibilisi,
Georgia in partnership with the current government of Ukraine.
Chlorine gas-filled shell from Porton Down, Salisbury, found in East Ghouta with al Qaeda
Last week, Russia and Syria announced the capture of British chemical
weapon stockpiles in East Ghouta along with the capture of a
“coalition” command and chemical weapons facility with all
personnel. Taken from the combined statement censored from the western
press, from March 25, 2018
“The Syrian Arab Army and
with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons
destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at
Porton Down in Salisbury. Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is
related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a
chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia
denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his
activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking.
Russia also confirms that
there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who
were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified
operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies
of the East Ghouta.”
VT asked the Syrian government for serial numbers and closeup photographs of chemical weapons used. Syria sent them to us today.
Today, the Syrian Army captured the following German made poison gas
shells, shipped into Syria though Ukraine and Turkey and delivered to
Jeish al Islam by a US CH53 helicopter, according to statements
“allegedly” gotten from POW interrogations.
American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria
have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East
Ghouta by their governments.
The Americans are still being held along with Israeli’s while British
prisoners are being negotiated for. Sources in Damascus told us that
representatives of Oman in Damascus approached the Russian Office of
Reconciliation on behalf of Britain for the return of British chemical
warfare personnel.
The shells in the above video are identified as VX gas from British stockpiles.
Russian officials in Syria informed Britain through Oman that they
would have to directly deal with Syria for the return of their
personnel. We have received no further information since, Damascus has
remained silent on how or if negotiations were proceeding.
We do know that US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a US Army
combat veteran of Iraq, met with both President Assad and Donald Trump,
in order to arrange for covert exchange, for substantial financial
consideration, of captured Americans.
Initial introductions for this meeting were done by VT.
Israel bought back a Brigadier General (they claimed he was a colonel) in 2015 that we know about.
The recent gas attack in Syria, timed as the last terrorists were
surrendering for relocation inside the Douma region of the Ghouta
pocket, was planned personally by nominated presidential advisor John
Bolton and President Donald Trump personally, according to highly placed
sources.
Our sources in Russia, highest level, told us the attack was coming
based on information they received from US and Israeli prisoners taken
in East Ghouta after an evacuation attempt failed.
US casualty announcements in this effort have been released over the
past few days as happening in other areas to cover US complicity in
terrorism. This dishonors families of the dead, not just in the misuse
of service members to support terrorism but in lying to families about
combat deaths. This shame goes directly to coward Trump!
“The loss of our Marines weighs heavy on our hearts,” Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in a statement. “Our priority is to provide support for our families and HMH-465 during this critical time.”
The four Marines killed in the
crash were Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, First Lt. Samuel D. Phillips,
Gunnery Sgt. Derik R. Holley and Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Conrad.”
Other US casualties were listed as a US Air Force F16 that allegedly
crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and up to 6 Americans who the
US claims were killed by “Kurdish forces” in the north of Syria.
All died in a failed combined US/Israel rescue operation to remove
not only communications and command personnel but also chemical weapons
operations teams as well.
Last week, VT Damascus received evidence that Americans, US Army
Special Forces along with Israeli chemical weapons officers had been
captured in East Ghouta. We were told that not only was a command
facility captured with modern weapons but a stockpile of British made
81mm poison gas mortar shells, numbering in the hundreds, was seized as
well.
Video’s were viewed by former MOD weapons specialists who identified
the green stripe on the shells seized in East Ghouta as VX gas from
British stockpiles.
The Obama administration investigated alleged chemical attacks in
2012 and 2013 and advised Syria to turn over chemical stockpiles as a
way of discouraging terrorists from continuing to stage chemical attacks
to blame on Damascus.
Most efforts had their roots in Britain’s MI6 and its affiliates, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets.
The US is currently facing combined military operations against its
occupied zone in Syria by Iraq, Syrian and Russian forces. The US has
been told to remove forces from Syria or face a wider conflict.
The US and Russia have been at war against one another inside Syria for about a month now.
More coming…
Another conveniently timed false flag gas attack. Assad who
is clearly winning the civil war against the American backed Al Qaeda
rebels would surely use gas and provoke a response from the U.S. What a
crock of shit. Trump does his usual twitter bloviating. Looks like the
neo-cons have found a way to keep Trump from moving troops out of Syria.
What a shocker. I’m sure Q predicted this. I wonder how provoking Putin even
more by attacking Assad is part of the master plan to save America. I’m
sure the strategy is too deep for me to comprehend. All hail Q, Trump
and the neo-cons.
Well, maybe you do, but the neocons back in charge of US war preparations
foreign policy – now that war hawk John Bolton is Trump’s National
Security Advisor – are so stuck with the age-old narrative that Assad is
desperate to be bombed at any cost, that none of this actually matters,
and instead the big story overnight is once again that, lo and
behold, Assad decided to gas some “rebels” again, despite now
overwhelmingly winning the war against US-backed insurgents, and despite
knowing very well that exactly one year ago an alleged “chemical attack” prompted Trump to launch dozens of Tomahawks at Syria.
This is what happened (if you’ve seen this script played out before, you are not alone).
On Saturday night, an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town in
eastern Ghouta reportedly killed dozens of people, according to
US-linked medical services with Washington immediately responding that
the reports – if confirmed – would demand an immediate international
response. Actually scratch the “if confirmed” part – after all, the last
time the US “intervened” in Syria, on April 7, 2017, the US did not
need confirmation; Trump just needed a geopolitical distraction.
It seems that he needs another one again, and ideally one that shows
just how angry he is with Putin now that an interview with Mueller is
reportedly imminent.
A joint statement by the medical relief organization Syrian American
Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defense service, which operates in
rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died in the attack late on
Saturday. Others put the toll at 150 or more.
The response from the Assad side was similarly predictable: the
Syrian regime, whose overthrow the US failed to achieve in the course of
the 6 year proxy war in order to facilitate the transport of Qatari
natural gas to Europe, denied its forces had launched any chemical
attack as the reports began circulating and said the rebels were
collapsing and fabricating news.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said Jaish al-Islam was making
“chemical attack fabrications in an exposed and failed attempt to
obstruct advances by the Syrian Arab army,” citing an official source.
Meanwhile, Reuters said it could not independently verify the reports. Others did the same: The Syrian Observatory said it could not confirm whether chemical weapons had been used in the attack on Saturday.
But, as we noted above, who needs confirmation: after all, if the
2013 “chemical attack” that started it all and was later proven to be a
hoax was sufficient, just do the same. And sure enough, a video uploaded
by “local media activists” allegedly showed bodies of victims –
including women and children – of the reported chemical attack in Douma.
Once again, nobody has actually confirmed if anyone has died.
Meanwhile, the US, itching for that military spending GDP boost was
ready with the outraged retort: the U.S. State Department said reports
of mass casualties from the attack were “horrifying” and would, if
confirmed, “demand an immediate response by the international
community”. At the same time, Britain’s Foreign Office also called the
reports, if confirmed, “very concerning” and said “an urgent
investigation is needed and the international community must respond. We
call on the Assad regime and its backers, Russia and Iran, to stop the
violence against innocent civilians.”
Note the “if confirmed” part, and keep an eye on how the narrative switches from that to “the attack was confirmed.” If the Skripal case is any indication, just repeating it often enough, should be sufficient.
Trump already did his part on Sunday morning, when he tweeted several statements on the alleged attack as if it was already confirmed, just as one would expect to accelerate the escalation:
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless
CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled
by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!
Then, for good measure, Trump decided to throw Obama under the bus
for not crossing his “red line in the sand”, once again assuming the
attack was confirmed.
If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The
Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would
have been history!
After the alleged attack, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauret
recalled a 2017 sarin gas attack in northwestern Syria that the West
and the United Nations blamed on Assad’s government. “The Assad regime
and its backers must be held accountable and any further attacks
prevented immediately,” she said adding that “The United States calls on
Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the
international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons
attacks.”
The US also said yet again that Russia is “ultimately bearing responsibility” for all chemical incidents in Syria, regardless of who carried them out, after
rebel sources accused Damascus of gassing dozens in Eastern Ghouta’s
Douma. In other words, even if the “chemical attack” was carried out by
US-backed “rebels”, or better yet “ISIS”, it’s Putin’s fault.
“The regime’s history of using chemical weapons against
its own people is not in dispute,” said the US State Department,
indicating, however, that it was relying on “reports,” being unable to
confirm the incident. “Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the
brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons.”
As for Russia, its Defense Ministry immediately denied and dismissed
as false reports that the Syrian government had carried out a chemical
attack in Eastern Ghouta’s Douma: “We strongly refute this information,”
Major General Yury Yevtushenko, head of the Reconciliation Center in
Syria, said in a statement on Sunday. “We declare our readiness,
after Douma is liberated from the militants, to immediately send
Russian radiation, chemical and biological protection specialists to
collect data that will confirm the fabricated nature of these
allegations,” he stated.
Yevtushenko said that “a number of Western countries” are trying to
prevent the resumption of an operation aimed at driving militants from
the city of Douma.
“For this purpose, the use of chemical weapons by Syrian
government forces – one of the most widespread claims in the West – is
being used,” he added.
And, knowing where this is all headed, Russia’s Foreign Ministry says
in statement on website that reports of chemical weapons attack in
rebel-held town of Douma are fabricated, and any military operations against Syria on false pretenses may lead to “gravest consequences,”
The Russians added that “The goal of such reports is to aid terrorists and justify possible military strikes from outside Syria.”
Russia is correct, and it is now just a matter of time before Trump
unveils his next grand diversion from the chaos at home and the trade
war with China, by launching another 50 or so Tomahawks at some venue
deep inside Syria, in a carbon copy repeat of what happened exactly one
year ago.
$2 billion just went POOF, from one second to the next.
This is just too funny. Longfin [LFIN], my favorite “blockchain company” and hero among scam stocks that I have lambasted since December, is at it again. But this time, it’s likely the last time.
On Friday, April 6, at 10:30 a.m., the Nasdaq halted trading in LFIN
after shares had tripled in three days, reaching a market cap of $2.1
billion. The tripling occurred after shares had crashed 89% in the prior
seven trading days.
Minutes after the trading halt, the SEC announced
that it had “obtained a court order freezing more than $27 million in
trading proceeds from allegedly illegal distributions and sales of
restricted shares of Longfin Corp. stock involving the company, its CEO,
and three other affiliated individuals.”
Take a look at the chart, depicting the last two weeks, including the
89% seven-day plunge and the 250% three-day surge, with the trading
halt Friday morning. In terms of dollars, shares went from $73 to $8 in
seven days, and then from $8 to $28.19 in three days, when trading was
halted:
The chart below shows the short and glamorous life of the stock from its IPO in December until its trading halt on Friday:
The blue circles with “P” inscribed in the chart appeared on April 4
and April 5. When you hover over them on the Investing.com website, a
box pops up with some technical analysis: “Bullish reversal.
Reliability: High,” just before the dream went POOF at 10:30 a.m. on April 6. Here’s the April 5 box:
And the SEC on Friday went on in its calmly brutal manner:
According to a complaint unsealed today in federal court
in Manhattan, shortly after Longfin began trading on NASDAQ and
announced the acquisition of a purported cryptocurrency business, its
stock price rose dramatically and its market capitalization exceeded $3
billion.
The SEC alleges that Amro Izzelden “Andy” Altahawi, Dorababu
Penumarthi, and Suresh Tammineedi then illegally sold large blocks of
their restricted Longfin shares to the public while the stock price was
highly elevated. Through their sales, Altahawi, Penumarthi, and
Tammineedi collectively reaped more than $27 million in profits.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Longfin’s founding CEO and
controlling shareholder, Venkata Meenavalli, caused the company to issue
more than two million unregistered, restricted shares to Altahawi, who
was the corporate secretary and a director of Longfin, and tens of
thousands of restricted shares to two other affiliated individuals,
Penumarthi and Tammineedi, who were allegedly acting as nominees for
Meenavalli. The subsequent sales of those restricted shares violated
federal securities laws that restrict trading in unregistered shares
distributed to company affiliates.
“We acted quickly to prevent more than $27 million in alleged illicit
trading profits from being transferred out of the country,” said Robert
Cohen, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit. “Preventing
defendants from transferring this money offshore will ensure that these
funds remain available as the case continues.”
The SEC’s complaint, which was filed under seal on April 4, charges
Longfin, Meenavalli, Altahawi, Penumarthi, and Tammineedi with violating
Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint seeks injunctive
relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and penalties, among other
relief.
The LFIN scam started on December 13, following its IPO. On December
15, LongFin announced that it had acquired a “blockchain-empowered
solutions provider,” as it called it, namely a website that belonged to a
Singapore corporation that is 95% owned by Longfin’s CEO. The SEC
called this website “a purported cryptocurrency business.” Nevertheless,
shares skyrocketed 2,700% to an intraday high of $142.55 on December
18, giving it a market cap of $7 billion, after which the insiders
started selling shares illegally, according to the SEC allegations.
The whole thing was a stock manipulation scheme from day one. And the shares collapsed.
But then on March 12, it started all over again, when index provider
FTSE Russell announced that LongFin would be added to some of its
indices, including the Russell 2000. That caused the huge surge in
March. But on March 26, Russell announced that Longfin would be removed
from the indices because it had misrepresented its free float of shares.
And shares re-collapsed.
On April 3, Longfin finally disclosed that the SEC had been
investigating it since March 5 and admitted that it has no accounting
controls because it “lacks qualified personnel who fully understand GAAP
reporting requirements,” and that therefore any financial disclosures
it does make are fabrication. That day, shares plunged another 31%.
But by April 4, the true believers, morons, and spaghetti-code algos
piled into the shares again and drove up the price 250% in three days.
Of course, this is only a theoretical value. In reality, they’re stuck
with the shares, now most likely worthless if they ever start trading
again, at a time when the company in the US, given the SEC’s actions,
will likely disappear.
Astonished at all the nonsense going on in the market, of which Lonfin is just one example, I wrote on April 2:
But what kind of hyper-enthusiastic market is this that
blindly keeps pursuing the latest scam, knowing all the things that are
wrong with it? How can the people and algos that make up this market
drive these shares so high as to give a nothing-company with the iffiest
disclosures a market capitalization at one point of $7 billion? And
after it crashes, how can these players in this market try to do this
all over again?
The irony, well the funny part, is that a few days after my words —
uttered in total disbelief about these morons, true believers, and
spaghetti-code algos that make all this possible — it happened all over
again, and with a vengeance. But this time will likely be the last time
for LFIN.
Your recent views on Syria, expressed here, are mistaken and confused.
“If we withdrew our troops anytime soon ISIS would come back…” This
prediction is mistaken. If ISIS reconstitutes, the Syrian coalition
(Syria, Syrian Kurds, Hezbollah, Iran and Russia) will defeat it again. Remember,
“ISIS has suffered consecutive defeats at the hands of separate but
simultaneous offensives in Iraq and Syria by the Russian-backed Syrian
forces and allied militias as well as U.S.-backed Iraqi and Syrian
fighters.”
“If we withdrew our troops anytime soon…the war between Turkey and
the Kurds would get out of hand…” You are confused and mistaken. You
appear to have forgotten that the U.S. supplied arms to Kurds, while irking Turkey. You forget about the border force:
“U.S.-led coalition helps to build new Syrian force, angering Turkey.”
The U.S. precipitated the Turkish invasion against the Kurds in Syria.
It is because U.S. troops are there aiding the Kurds that this facet of
their long-running war began. This conflict has been going on since 1978. The U.S. presence has only made matters worse.
“If we withdrew our troops anytime soon…you would be giving Damascus
to the Iranians without an American presence. Russia and Iran would
dominate Syria.” This is wild exaggeration. If Americans leave Syria,
then Assad can tone down the coalition, which means the Iranian presence
will recede. Russia and Iran didn’t dominate Syria before 2011, even if
they maintained friendly relations. Obama’s support for ending Assad’s
reign facilitated the rise of ISIS and motivated the closer support and
presence of both Russia and Iran. You have matters backwards, Senator
Graham. The American presence draws both Russia and Iran in to Syria.
“We got ISIS on the ropes. You want to let them off the ropes, remove
American soldiers.” It’s not true that “We [Americans] got ISIS on the
ropes.” It was not a single-handed affair. Assad’s coalition forces did
most of the vital heavy lifting. American soldiers can go home. If
Assad’s battle-hardened military can clean up Ghouta, it can clean up
remaining ISIS pockets.
Senator, you raise this concern: “There are over 3,000 ISIS fighters
still roaming around Syria.” Maybe so, but they are out in desert areas.
They are not currently strategic threats to the Assad regime or to the
region. Assad’s using his forces where they count the most right now.
ISIS is not such a big bad bogeyman that it calls for American forces to
intervene in Syria indefinitely.
Senator, the statement of yours that most genuinely reflects your
feelings is your allusion to Russia and Iran having a presence in Syria
but not the U.S. You can’t stand the idea of somehow “losing” Syria or
not “gaining” Syria or not breaking it up into pieces.
Senator, your attitude reflects a view that Syria is not a country of
the Syrians, by the Syrians and for the Syrians. You treat it as land
that’s up for grabs among other powers. You treat its peoples as pawns
in a big power game. Syria, however, has a history that goes back thousands of years.
“The Greek name appears to correspond to Phoenician ʾšr “Assur”, ʾšrym
“Assyrians”, recorded in the 8th century BC Çineköy inscription. Writing
in the 5th century BC, Herodotus stated that those called Syrians by
the Greeks were called Assyrians by themselves and in the East.”
Senator, the U.S. loses nothing by leaving Syria. If you are really
concerned about oil security, it doesn’t require invasions of Iraq,
Libya, Yemen and Syria to obtain that. It doesn’t require arming Saudi
Arabia or invading Iran. It doesn’t require utterly absurd amounts of money
($2 for each and every gallon of gasoline) spent supposedly to protect
foreign oil. All that oil security from Saudi Arabia requires is a clear
statement of U.S. protection of the oil-bearing territories and
sovereignty over them, even if their cash flows go to the Saudis.
Recently Mrs Leonidas and I acquired a small travel trailer we have named “Rocinante.” When school is out and we no longer need to transport the grandchildren to and from school, we will be doing our yearly transcontinental trip by camping along the route. Since we lived for many years aboard a 34’ sailboat there should be little problem adapting to the confined (and spartan) accommodations. As a result, we have been packing and performing minor modifications and upgrades on Rocinante.
During the course of these activities there was occasion to journey to the local Home Depot to obtain a replacement window shade. The shade is required to be an odd size therefore it was necessary to modify a standard sized one to fit. This should have been no problem for the personnel of Home Depot as they are equipped with a special but simple lathe-like machine in order to accomplish the task.
The Home Depot employee, a pleasant African American young woman advised that she lacked the training necessary to operate the machine but would summon a supervisor to assist us. While awaiting the arrival of the supervisor I examined the machine and found it to be in fact a very simple but specialized lathe which in a former life during my youth I had operated during the course of my employment in a machine shop.
After 15 minutes of awaiting the arrival of the African American supervisor she in fact arrived accompanied by 2 other women; another young black woman and a Hispanic girl. The supervisor stated that she “hoped to remember how to” operate the machine. The 4 women collectively proceeded to attempt to accomplish the task and after 25 minutes succeeded; in the process causing minor damage to the window shade.
During this entire operation I was tempted to instruct these ladies how to accomplish the task but was dissuaded from doing so by Mrs Leonidas. In retrospect I realize that the Mrs was correct. I, being a white male would have been perceived as exercising “white male patriarchy.”
We departed the Home Depot realizing that the incompetent staff would be almost impossible to fire and extremely difficult to train due to possessing virtually no mechanical aptitude.
Fortunately, being of an older generation and on an elastic schedule our only inconvenience was having to remain standing erect for the better part of an hour with somewhat painfully deteriorated spinal columns.
Heaven help a society having to suffer incompetence and affirmative action.
