tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193188802024-03-07T22:05:11.339-05:00Fighting in the Shade™"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 BuppertΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.comBlogger885125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-7660702652672223032020-02-09T09:26:00.000-05:002020-02-09T09:26:12.917-05:00"With Liberty and Justice for All??"<h1 class="dd b de dp dg dq di dr dk ds dm dt dc">
<strong class="az">Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange</strong></h1>
<h3 class="dd b de dp dg dq di dr dk ds dm dt dc">
<strong class="az">By Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</strong></h3>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="021e">
I
know, you may think I am deluded. How could life in an Embassy with a
cat and a skateboard ever amount to torture? That’s exactly what I
thought, too, when Assange first appealed to my office for protection.
Like most of the public, I had been subconsciously poisoned by the
relentless smear campaign, which had been disseminated over the years.
So it took a second knock on my door to get my reluctant attention. But
once I looked into the facts of this case, what I found filled me with
repulsion and disbelief.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="021e">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="68a3">
Surely,
I thought, Assange must be a rapist! But what I found is that he has
never been charged with a sexual offence. True, soon after the United
States had encouraged allies to find reasons to prosecute Assange,
Swedish prosecution informed the tabloid press that he was suspected of
having raped two women. Strangely, however, the women themselves never
claimed to have been raped, nor did they intend to report a criminal
offence. Go figure. Moreover, the forensic examination of a condom
submitted as evidence, supposedly worn and torn during intercourse with
Assange, revealed no DNA whatsoever — neither his, nor hers, nor anybody
else’s. Go figure again. One woman even texted that she only wanted
Assange to take an HIV test, but that the police were “keen on getting
their hands on him”. Go figure, once more. Ever since, both Sweden and
Britain have done everything to prevent Assange from confronting these
allegations without simultaneously having to expose himself to US
extradition and, thus, to a show-trial followed by life in jail. His
last refuge had been the Ecuadorian Embassy.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="68a3">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="badb">
Alright,
I thought, but surely Assange must be a hacker! But what I found is
that all his disclosures had been freely leaked to him, and that no one
accuses him of having hacked a single computer. In fact, the only
arguable hacking-charge against him relates to his alleged <em class="hr">unsuccessful attempt to help breaking a password which, had it been successful, might have helped his source to cover her tracks</em>.
In short: a rather isolated, speculative, and inconsequential chain of
events; a bit like trying to prosecute a driver who unsuccessfully
attempted to exceed the speed-limit, but failed because their car was
too weak.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="badb">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8326">
Well
then, I thought, at least we know for sure that Assange is a Russian
spy, has interfered with US elections, and negligently caused people’s
deaths! But all I found is that he consistently published true
information of inherent public interest without any breach of trust,
duty or allegiance. Yes, he exposed war crimes, corruption and abuse,
but let’s not confuse national security with governmental impunity. Yes,
the facts he disclosed empowered US voters to take more informed
decisions, but isn’t that simply democracy? Yes, there are ethical
discussions to be had regarding the legitimacy of unredacted
disclosures. But if actual harm had really been caused, how come neither
Assange nor Wikileaks ever faced related criminal charges or civil
lawsuits for just compensation?</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8326">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8216">
But
surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist,
skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the
walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable
inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with
mutual respect and consideration. This changed only after the election
of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears
against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The
President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip,
and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without
any due process of law.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8216">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ba7c">
<mark class="mz na ip">In
the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda,
and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention
from the crimes he exposed.</mark> Once he had been dehumanized through
isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at
the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights
without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent
is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the
future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The
Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ba7c">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5ab8">
Very
well, you may say, but what does slander have to do with torture? Well,
this is a slippery slope. What may look like mere «mudslinging» in
public debate, quickly becomes “mobbing” when used against the
defenseless, and even “persecution” once the State is involved. Now just
add purposefulness and severe suffering, and what you get is
full-fledged psychological torture.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5858">
Yes,
living in an Embassy with a cat and a skateboard may seem like a sweet
deal when you believe the rest of the lies. But when no one remembers
the reason for the hate you endure, when no one even wants to hear the
truth, when neither the courts nor the media hold the powerful to
account, then your refuge really is but a rubber boat in a shark-pool,
and neither your cat nor your skateboard will save your life.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5858">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4721">
Even
so, you may say, why spend so much breath on Assange, when countless
others are tortured worldwide? Because this is not only about protecting
Assange, but about preventing a precedent likely to seal the fate of
Western democracy. For once telling the truth has become a crime, while
the powerful enjoy impunity, it will be too late to correct the course.
We will have surrendered our voice to censorship and our fate to
unrestrained tyranny.</div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4721">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9959">
<em class="hr">This
Op-Ed has been offered for publication to the Guardian, The Times, the
Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Canberra
Times, the Telegraph, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Thomson
Reuters Foundation, and Newsweek.</em></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8dca">
<em class="hr">None responded positively.</em></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8dca">
<br /></div>
<div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8dca">
<span class="hr"><span style="font-size: small;">Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ</span></span><em class="hr"> </em></div>
<a class="at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi" href="https://medium.com/m/signin?operation=register&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40njmelzer%2Fdemasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768&source=post_sidebar--------------------------bookmark_sidebar-" rel="noopener"><svg height="25" viewbox="0 0 25 25" width="25"></svg></a><div class="fm fn dc bk fo b fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw fx fy fz cu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="badb">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="dd b de dp dg dq di dr dk ds dm dt dc">
<strong class="az"> </strong></h3>
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-48444773880221383992020-01-12T08:52:00.000-05:002020-01-12T09:03:20.435-05:00The Problem With TruthIt is almost a cliche that the aphorism "Lying propaganda travels half-way around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." No greater example of this exists than the heated rhetoric between the right and left extremes of the political spectrum. This sad situation is brilliantly discussed by Paul Craig Roberts:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1>
Remarks on Right-wing Talk Radio</h1>
<div class="single_page_entry_meta">
<div class="">
<a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/01/10/" rel="nofollow">January 10, 2020</a>
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Remarks on Right-wing Talk Radio<br />
Paul Craig Roberts<br />
Over the course of my life as a university professor, government
official, business consultant, president of a community water company
and editor and journalist for national and international publications, I
have learned that a majority of people cannot think outside the
indoctrination they received that formed their biases.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If
you provide them with a different view or explanation, instead of
thinking about it, they just get angry. This is true also of academics.
University professors resist their human capital being devalued and
placed in need of renewal by new discoveries and explanations. No
academic wants to have to redo all his lecture notes or see his own
scholarly contributions bypassed by new explanations. As Niccolo
Machiavelli truthfully said, “There is nothing more difficult, more
perilous or more uncertain of success, than to take the lead in
introducing a new order of things.”<br />
Conservatives with right-wing biases usually write me off as
left-wing, and leftists with left-wing biases write me off as
conservative, especially as I had a high appointment in the Reagan
administration.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The only way to write successfully for these people is to tell them what they want to hear.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Then they love you instead of hate you.<br />
It is pointless to write for such people, and I don’t.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ninety-nine
percent of my readers can think independently and look to me for
explanations that make more sense than the controlled explanations they
get from the print, TV, and NPR media.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That is the reason I write. As the IPE website states, we try to be accurate but are only human and can be mistaken on occasion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But the agenda is to discover and tell the truth, not to sell an agenda.<br />
Truth is not the purpose of the print, TV, and radio media or much, perhaps most, of the Internet and social media.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Just
as the ruling establishment has taken over the print and TV media, they
censure social media and are taking over the Internet.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Before
long, truth will have to rely on mimeograph machines and people to hand
out fliers in areas where there are no spying cameras if any such areas
will exist in the future.<br />
There is no doubt that truth is an endangered species.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It has always been endangered, but the technology today provides control powers even beyond George Orwell’s imagination.<br />
So what can we do with truth for the time that it remains available
to us? Clearly, we should at least make people aware that truth is
endangered and that they are brainwashed with explanations that advance
the agendas of the ruling elites.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But
unless a truth-teller has donors to make him independent, as this
site’s donors make me, he can’t tell the truth and also be successful.
This is especially true with anything that pertains to Israel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This brings me to right-wing talk radio.<br />
On the Russiagate and impeachment hoaxes, right-wing talk radio got it right.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>They could defend Trump on the facts.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But
when it comes to Russia and Iran right-wing talk radio cannot get it
right, because their patriotic conservative audience has swallowed the
neoconservative propaganda that Russia and Iran are our enemies and that
Russia interfered in the US election. Sean Hannity, for example,
repeatedly affirms that Russia interferred in our election despite the
fact that there is no evidence whatsoever that Russia interferred in the
election.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Why does he do this?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Because his conservative audience in its gullible patriotism wants to stand up for America against “them Russians.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Few
conservatives can admit that 9/11 was a false flag to launch America on
20 years of war in the Middle East for the sake of power and profit and
Israel’s territorial expansion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Their gullibility leads them to declare: “The American government would never kill its own people.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ha!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>All they need to do is to read the <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/operation-northwoods-the-1960s-government-plan-to-fake-5838778">Northwood Project</a>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But that would upset them, whereas denouncing Arabs and Muslims and calling for them to be nuked is emotionally very satisfying.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>By playing to the ignorant biases of its audience, right-wing talk radio decreases both the chance for peace and for truth.<br />
This is not a beat-up session on the right-wing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It is an explanation of why truth is so hard to establish.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The left-wing is just as guilty of deep-sixing truth.<br />
When I was on George W. Bush’s case, I was a hero for CounterPunch which even published one of my books.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Today I am persona non grata. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
The problem with truth is that it seldom supports establishment interests.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thus, truth is in the way of material and selfish interests of the powerful.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That is why it is hard to defend truth and why so few do so. To tell the truth is extremely costly.<br />
If a person gets too serious about truth, they end up in prison like
Julian Assange and Manning, both of whom are in solitary confinement
despite the fact that they have done nothing wrong except tell the
truth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And where are their defenders?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The
presstitute media doesn’t come to their aid, because their
truth-telling is an embarrassment to the presstitutes who lie for their
living. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Right-wing talk radio misrepresents these truth-tellers as “traitors to America.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Assange, of course, is not even an American, so how can he be a traitor to America?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A
question this simple is over the head of right-wing talk radio and over
the heads of the American and British populations that permit the
outrage of destroying those who bring us truth.</blockquote>
<br />
One is best served by the old 1960s leftist cliche regarding government and media pronouncements: "believe nothing and question everything."<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-5732054925031115652020-01-08T16:13:00.000-05:002020-01-08T16:17:45.270-05:00Worth 1000 Words?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2pHg0IjCXFZrAJtZ9_L9iBbrm-1Aos6iFn0girYtMBU4FbHHHvihZFytiRjwLMYlSg6reT0hTjJ12iTVzm_Fp-pInz_yTA3Vuwfk3vuxfiA6HILAQagTTlIW88zPpDFDM25x4/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="916" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2pHg0IjCXFZrAJtZ9_L9iBbrm-1Aos6iFn0girYtMBU4FbHHHvihZFytiRjwLMYlSg6reT0hTjJ12iTVzm_Fp-pInz_yTA3Vuwfk3vuxfiA6HILAQagTTlIW88zPpDFDM25x4/s320/0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
click on graphic to enlarge<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ<br />
<span id="goog_1341767282"></span><span id="goog_1341767283"></span><br />ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-13523483049187543962020-01-07T11:50:00.000-05:002020-01-07T11:50:23.099-05:00The Lies<span>Ron Paul:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span>At some point, when we’ve been lied to constantly and consistently
for decades about a “threat” that we must “take out” with a military
attack, there comes a time where we must assume they are lying until
they provide rock solid, irrefutable proof. Thus far they have provided
nothing. So I don’t believe them.</span></blockquote>
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-2829429319796542062020-01-05T13:37:00.002-05:002020-01-05T13:37:40.066-05:00Definitions: Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEyZa_cynD0iqTyT3WbJCBQjiWJbknI88LiZXmz8Wi6Oysxo_LmM16sjKilkHZTAQAT36Wana_vUgpYLu2JPDLdeuVlXPzckg6NRJSdiDINOIIZWbUvBBupnEAX_iBuNpL7pe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-01-05+at+1.31.29+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="299" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEyZa_cynD0iqTyT3WbJCBQjiWJbknI88LiZXmz8Wi6Oysxo_LmM16sjKilkHZTAQAT36Wana_vUgpYLu2JPDLdeuVlXPzckg6NRJSdiDINOIIZWbUvBBupnEAX_iBuNpL7pe/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-01-05+at+1.31.29+PM.png" width="289" /></a></div>
Posted by: ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ<br /><span id="goog_872212199"></span><span id="goog_872212200"></span><br />ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-84188122547100455162019-04-17T17:49:00.003-04:002019-04-17T17:49:29.804-04:00The Enemy<span style="font-size: medium;">by
Rudyard Kipling</span><br /><br />It was not part of their blood,<br />It came to
them very late,<br />With long arrears to make good,<br />When the Saxon began to
hate.<br /><br />They were not easily moved,<br />They were icy -- willing to
wait<br />Till every count should be proved,<br />Ere the Saxon began to
hate.<br /><br />Their voices were even and low.<br />Their eyes were level and
straight.<br />There was neither sign nor show<br />When the Saxon began to
hate.<br /><br />It was not preached to the crowd.<br />It was not taught by the
state.<br />No man spoke it aloud<br />When the Saxon began to hate.<br /><br />It was
not suddently bred.<br />It will not swiftly abate.<br />Through the chilled years
ahead,<br />When Time shall count from the date<br />That the Saxon began to
hate.ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-6899009938477994022019-04-15T20:46:00.001-04:002019-04-15T20:46:14.282-04:00Who Knew?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSavEMi0WOfWTrjd4SvK7i-6hrtViHfcBQ1UmIgnRnwwvU-Um3CUvA_d3FUawFcEjLC2Rio_BUb76cZP-OolbVVRc8jnt1qseo4n4Ow-g7yU-rYRf-2m3EOZmPjZClK7B-UqCW/s1600/D4BrhYvXkAAsL7y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSavEMi0WOfWTrjd4SvK7i-6hrtViHfcBQ1UmIgnRnwwvU-Um3CUvA_d3FUawFcEjLC2Rio_BUb76cZP-OolbVVRc8jnt1qseo4n4Ow-g7yU-rYRf-2m3EOZmPjZClK7B-UqCW/s320/D4BrhYvXkAAsL7y.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_1322990747"></span><span id="goog_1322990748"></span><br />ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-6745456198551700342018-11-29T13:50:00.001-05:002018-11-29T13:50:44.370-05:00Assange Never Met Manafort.By <a href="https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/11/assange-never-met-manafort-luke-harding-and-the-guardian-publish-still-more-blatant-mi6-lies/">Craig Murray</a><br />
<br />
The Ecuadorean government of President Moreno continues to churn out its production line of fake documents regarding Julian Assange, and channel them straight to MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding of the Guardian.<br /><br />Amazingly, more Ecuadorean Government documents have just been discovered for the Guardian, this time spy agency reports detailing visits of Paul Manafort and unspecified “Russians” to the Embassy. By a wonderful coincidence of timing, this is the day after Mueller announced that Manafort’s plea deal was over.<br /><br />The problem with this latest fabrication is that Moreno had already released the visitor logs to the Mueller inquiry. Neither Manafort nor these “Russians” are in the visitor logs.<br /><br />This is impossible. The visitor logs were not kept by Wikileaks, but by the very strict Ecuadorean security. Nobody was ever admitted without being entered in the logs. The procedure was very thorough. To go in, you had to submit your passport (no other type of document was accepted). A copy of your passport was taken and the passport details entered into the log. Your passport, along with your mobile phone and any other electronic equipment, was retained until you left, along with your bag and coat. I feature in the logs every time I visited.<br /><br />There were no exceptions. For an exception to be made for Manafort and the “Russians” would have had to be a decision of the Government of Ecuador, not of Wikileaks, and that would be so exceptional the reason for it would surely have been noted in the now leaked supposed Ecuadorean “intelligence report” of the visits. What possible motive would the Ecuadorean government have for facilitating secret unrecorded visits by Paul Manafort? Furthermore it is impossible that the intelligence agency – who were in charge of the security – would not know the identity of these alleged “Russians”.<br /><br />Previously Harding and the Guardian have published documents faked by the Moreno government regarding a diplomatic appointment to Russia for Assange of which he had no knowledge. Now they follow this up with more documents aimed to provide fictitious evidence to bolster Mueller’s pathetically failed attempt to substantiate the story that Russia deprived Hillary of the Presidency.<br /><br />My friend William Binney, probably the world’s greatest expert on electronic surveillance, former Technical Director of the NSA, has stated that it is impossible the DNC servers were hacked, the technical evidence shows it was a download to a directly connected memory stick. I knew the US security services were conducting a fake investigation the moment it became clear that the FBI did not even themselves look at the DNC servers, instead accepting a report from the Clinton linked DNC “security consultants” Crowdstrike. <br /><br />I would love to believe that the fact Julian has never met Manafort is bound to be established. But I fear that state control of propaganda may be such that this massive “Big Lie” will come to enter public consciousness in the same way as the non-existent Russian hack of the DNC servers.<br /><br />Assange never met Manafort. The DNC emails were downloaded by an insider. Assange never even considered fleeing to Russia. Those are the facts, and I am in a position to give you a personal assurance of them.<br /><br />I can also assure you that Luke Harding, the Guardian, Washington Post and New York Times have been publishing a stream of deliberate lies, in collusion with the security services.<br /><br />I am not a fan of Donald Trump. But to see the partisans of the defeated candidate (and a particularly obnoxious defeated candidate) manipulate the security services and the media to create an entirely false public perception, in order to attempt to overturn the result of the US Presidential election, is the most astonishing thing I have witnessed in my lifetime.<br /><br />Plainly the government of Ecuador is releasing lies about Assange to curry favour with the security establishment of the USA and UK, and to damage Assange’s support prior to expelling him from the Embassy. He will then be extradited from London to the USA on charges of espionage.<br /><br />Assange is not a whistleblower or a spy – he is the greatest publisher of his age, and has done more to bring the crimes of governments to light than the mainstream media will ever be motivated to achieve. That supposedly great newspaper titles like the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post are involved in the spreading of lies to damage Assange, and are seeking his imprisonment for publishing state secrets, is clear evidence that the idea of the “liberal media” no longer exists in the new plutocratic age. The press are not on the side of the people, they are an instrument of elite control.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-12717636049817330502018-10-13T10:13:00.000-04:002018-10-13T10:13:27.842-04:00Lookout Below!!<em>By</em> <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/james-howard-kunstler/?ptype=article">James Howard Kunstler</a><br />
<br />
Looks like somebody threw a dead cat onto Wall Street’s luge run
overnight to temporarily halt the rather ugly 2000 point slide in the
Dow Jones Industrial Average — and plenty of freefall in other indices,
including markets in other countries. A Friday pause in the financial
carnage will give the hedge funders a chance to plant “for sale” signs
along their Hamptons driveways, but who might the buyers be? Hedge
funders from another planet, perhaps? You can hope. And while you’re at
it, how do you spell liquidity problem?<br />
<br />
Welcome to the convergence zone of the long emergency, where Murphy’s
law meets the law of unintended consequences and the law of diminishing
returns, the Three Amigos of collapse. Here’s where being “woke”
finally starts to mean something. Namely, that there are more important
things in the world than sexual hysteria. Like, for instance, your
falling standard of living (and that of everyone else around you).<br />
<br />
The meet-up between Kanye West and President D.J. Trump was an even
richer metaphor for the situation: two self-styled “geniuses” preening
for the cameras in the Oval Office, like kids in a sandbox, without a
single intelligible idea emerging from the play-date, and embarrassed
grownups all standing ‘round pretending it was a Great Moment in
History. You had to wonder how much of Kanye’s bazillion dollar fortune
was stashed in the burning house of FAANG stocks. Maybe that flipped his
bipolar toggle. Or was he even paying attention to the market action
through all the mugging and hugging? (He did have his phone in hand.)
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump seemed to be squirming through the episode behind
his mighty <em>Resolute</em> desk as if he had “woke” to the realization
that ownership of a bursting epic global financial bubble was not
exactly “winning.”<br />
<br />
If I were President, I’d declare Oct 12 Greater Fool Day. (Nobody
likes Christopher Columbus anymore, that genocidal monster of dead white
male privilege.) The futures are zooming as I write, a last roundup for
suckers at the OD corral, begging the question: who will show up on
Monday. Nobody, I predict. And then what?<br />
<br />
The great false front of the financial markets resumes falling over
into the November election. The rubble from all that buries whatever is
left of the automobile business and the housing market. The smoldering
aftermath will be described as the start of a long-overdue recession —
but it will actually be something a lot worse, with no end in sight.<br />
<br />
The Democratic Party might not be nimble enough to capitalize on the
sudden disappearance of capital. Their only hope to date has been to
capture the vote of every female in America, to otherwise augment their
constituency of inflamed and aggrieved victims of unsubstantiated
injustices. It’s been fun playing those cards, and the Party might not
even know how to play a different game at this point. Democratic
politicians may also be among the one-percenters who watch their net
worth go up in a vapor in a market collapse, leaving them too numb to
act. The last time something like this happened, in the fall of 2008,
candidate Barack Obama barely knew what to say about the fall of Lehman
Brothers and the ensuing cascade of misery — though unbeknownst to the
voters, he was already a hostage of Wall Street.<br />
<br />
Complicating matters this time will be the chaos unleashed in
politics and governing when the long-running “Russia collusion”
melodrama boomerangs into a raft of indictments against the cast of
characters in the Intel Community and Department of Justice AND the
Democratic National Committee, and perhaps even including the Party’s
last standard bearer, HRC, for ginning up the Russia Collusion matter in
the first place as an exercise in sedition. The wheels of the law turn
slowly, but they’ll turn even while financial markets tumble. And the
threat to order might be so great that an unprecedented “emergency” has
to be declared, with soldiers in the streets of Washington, as was sadly
the case in 1861, the first time the country turned itself upside down.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ <br />
<em></em>ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-69880770101370465662018-09-16T10:57:00.001-04:002018-09-16T10:57:25.523-04:00Who Knew?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgWF0Lhin6o5yUZmzi96cF7XQc-Maeh3khTJQMlgw6xGQTm896XEVpJWq1Uc1ezi_7Y1SYNU1t2H_RV245AWe0WANcN-5tVzW_o3kYZRcTSj1RYGWi-AQ4UT2Ef8IWsHZjHjf/s1600/DnKN_37U4AAPAjj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgWF0Lhin6o5yUZmzi96cF7XQc-Maeh3khTJQMlgw6xGQTm896XEVpJWq1Uc1ezi_7Y1SYNU1t2H_RV245AWe0WANcN-5tVzW_o3kYZRcTSj1RYGWi-AQ4UT2Ef8IWsHZjHjf/s320/DnKN_37U4AAPAjj.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Posted by: ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ<br /><span id="goog_863990898"></span><span id="goog_863990899"></span><br />ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-76684356873608143252018-07-15T13:54:00.002-04:002018-07-15T13:54:19.760-04:00NATO Now Serves the Interests of the Transatlantic Ruling Class<span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="wpsdcp-drop-cap-default"></span>By <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/15/nato-now-serves-the-interests-of-the-transatlantic-ruling-class/">Angelo Codevilla</a></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If
we’re to believe the recent NATO summit’s communique and the mainstream
media’s commentaries about it, the alliance serves roughly the same
essential purpose today as it did in 1948, and Americans had better heed
European Council President Donald Tusk’s thinly veiled warning: rein in
President Trump’s criticisms of NATO, because its members are about the
only allies America has got.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span>
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">But although the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">people who run</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">
today’s European and American societies are perhaps closer to each
other than in 1948—which accounts for their dogged defense of “the
alliance”—in fact, they themselves have changed in ways that obviate the
purposes for which the alliance originally was formed.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="code-block code-block-4" style="float: left; margin: 8px 8px 8px 0;">
</div>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The point of departure for
understanding U.S.-European relations is that the relationship between
“the people who count” on both sides of the Atlantic are so good
precisely because they have become aliens to their own peoples. And,
since all are in the process of being rejected by their own peoples,
they are each others’ natural allies. But against whom are they allied?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">What is the purpose of this alliance and what does it mean to us Americans?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Herewith, a summary of these moral
and political changes, whose importance dwarfs the massive material
transformations that the world has undergone in the past 70 years.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="code-block code-block-5" style="float: right; margin: 8px 0 8px 8px;">
</div>
<b>Defense of the West</b><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1948, Europe faced the mighty Red
Army, prostrate, poor, and penetrated by Communist organizations. But
its principal figures—Konrad Adenauer, Charles De Gaulle, and Alcide De
Gasperi—were devout Christians leading peoples who, chastened by war,
were eager to safeguard and bolster what remained of their
civilizations. All were conscious of their dependence on the United
States of America for pretty much everything and grateful to us for it.
That moral-political strength made up for a lot of material weakness.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">It should be remembered, too, that
keeping fellow Christians from succumbing to godless Communism moved
that generation of Americans almost as much as the realization that the
Soviet conquest of Europe would be very dangerous for us. Most came to
believe that an alliance that reassured a weak-but-willing Europe was
the best way to prevent it. Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight
Eisenhower, in tune as they were with ordinary Americans as well as with
European leaders of their era, had no trouble forging a North Atlantic
alliance based on the axiomatic commitment to nuke the Soviets were they
to invade Europe.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="code-block code-block-6" style="float: left; margin: 8px 8px 8px 0;">
</div>
<b>Progressive Infection</b><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">NATO’s rot started in America. John
F. Kennedy’s 1960 election brought to power progressives, who
self-identified as “the best and the brightest.” Shaped intellectually
and morally by the doctrines of (eventual Nobel laureates) Henry
Kissinger and Thomas Schelling, they saw men like Adenauer and De Gaulle
as of a piece with the American conservative persons and ideas they
were displacing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">At the first NATO meeting after
Kennedy’s inauguration, they removed the U.S. commitment to nuke the
Soviets. They also removed the U.S. medium range missiles on the
necessity of which that generation of European leaders had staked their
legitimacy. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, these Americans did their best
to foster the rise of progressive Europeans, who would be partners in
the grand pursuit of “detente” with Moscow. They got what they wished,
and then some.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In retrospect the 1980s, dominated as they were by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Helmut Kohl, were a brief anomaly.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, on both sides of the Atlantic,
we have the opposite of 1948: political weakness born of the ruling
class’s civilizational renunciation undermines vastly increased economic
and (in the United States) military power. Russia’s army, backed by
scarcely a tenth of the European Union’s GDP, would have little trouble
making prisoners of NATO’s forward-deployed forces and reaching the
Atlantic.</span><br />
<br />
<b>An Alliance to Protect the Ruling Class’s Power and Prestige</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Today the transatlantic ruling class
has its own civilizational agenda, manifested by its subsidies for
constituencies both business and cultural, ranging from “renewable
energy resources,” to education, the arts, and lifestyle. Far from
allied to safeguard and promote Western civilization, this ruling class
treats its cornerstone, Christianity, as unmentionable at best and
usually as the main feature to be extirpated from people’s lives. This
class also regards self-rule, the capacity of people in towns, regions,
or nations to decide by vote how they shall live, as among the evils to
be done away with. It treats as enemy anything—thoughts, practices,
institutions—that limit its own its own power and prestige. For their
power and prestige, after all, are what it is allied to protect.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Since ordinary people in each and all
of NATO’s countries pose the clearest and most present danger to that
power and prestige, whenever any country’s people have challenged the
power or prestige of their local member of the club, the other
countries’ ruling classes have treated it as an attack on themselves.
Under this updated version of the famous Article 5, the allied
transatlantic rulers have warned, on pain of horrid consequences, the
people of Britain to stay in the EU, the peoples of France to elect
anybody but Le Pen, the peoples of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic,
and most recently of Italy, not to vote as they did.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Most of all, they warned Americans not to elect Donald Trump. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Nothing has equaled their fury
against him. This, of course, has little to do with Trump himself.
Rather, it is the transatlantic allies’ reaction to their inability to
bend the American people to their ways. The American people’s adherence
to Western civilization, our inflexible desire to rule ourselves, is the
negation of everything for which this class stands. And because America
is what it is, the election of an anti-ruling class candidate has
inspired European peoples to do likewise.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">As the transatlantic allies have lost
election after election, they have retreated to their bastions in the
supranational institutions, the banks, the corporations, the media, etc.
Their objective seems to be to punish voters—psychologically if in no
other way—to convince them to repent. Their hands will have to be pried
off the levers of power.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Because such things as Russia’s
power, the Third World’s physical occupation of Europe and the
United States, never mind the international military balance, do not
threaten what the transatlantic ruling class is allied to protect, they
cannot be bothered to take these questions seriously. Hence, for the
American people, NATO as it exists today is yet one more ruling class
institution to be overcome.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">What good—and it may be
considerable—that Americans might achieve by working with Europeans
would have to be pursued with such peoples as have freed themselves from
the transatlantic ruling class’s power.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ </span>ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-83179319794533075002018-06-14T07:43:00.001-04:002018-06-14T07:45:07.729-04:00The "Never Trump's" DilemmaBy <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/trumps-triumph/">Michael Rozeff</a><br />
<br />
Many headlines question Trump’s triumph in Singapore, unreasonably
so. Petty minds are at work who are paid to create stories, and stories
always have conflict as a central element. If there is no conflict, the
pundits imagine it. This is why fake news is not news but a form of
entertainment. Besides, the audience for anti-Trump material is large.<br />
<br />
The media belittle Trump’s accomplishment in countless petty ways,
but they’ll soon be forgotten as they go on to the next concocted story. Trump will be remembered when they are long forgotten.<br />
<br />
The big picture is that Trump outfoxed China. Trump broke the ice. He
broke a frozen situation in Korea that favored China and its erstwhile
ally, North Korea. China is trying to act as if it was critical in this
movement, because China wants to hold North Korea in its sphere of
economic and political influence. However, a united Korea stands like a
united Vietnam as a stopping point for Chinese pretensions to project
its power beyond its borders. Trump’s agreement with Kim signals the
blocking of China and a limit to Chinese hegemony over its neighbors,
and that is a major accomplishment for the U.S. strategy toward China.<br />
<br />
The big picture is that in Singapore Trump and Kim furthered a peace
process that began on May 10, 2017 when the newly-elected Moon made
peace with North Korea a priority. Other steps have been taken during
the past year, including meetings between Moon and Kim. The Singapore
Agreement is yet another step that keeps the momentum of this process
going. Hypercritical media comments and questions about the latest
summit ignore or miss the big picture, which is that it is part of a
stepwise process. This involves discovery by all sides of what can be
done and invention of ways to do it, all embedded in a complex situation
that involves neighbors like China and Japan who also have interests in
the region. Trump’s approach was to endorse a general framework, and
that’s sensible because the discovery-invention process takes a lot of
time and dickering. Both sides retained flexibility through this lean
approach.<br />
<br />
Cold War and post-Cold War warriors who remain outspoken and
influential in Washington did not succeed in getting their way with
North Korea, after decades of trying. The situation threatened to come
to open war. Trump has postponed that day and opened up the opportunity
to make sure that that day never arrives. This is a major accomplishment
and triumph.<br />
<br />
The deal is not done, and Trump knows it. His followup remarks have
been open and frank concerning how matters can change as time passes.
Trump unfroze the untenable situation created by his predecessors. Kim,
Moon and Trump will now have to keep doing that by concrete steps such
as Trump’s calling for a halt to joint war games with South Korea.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-58223866469659576822018-06-09T10:36:00.003-04:002018-06-09T10:36:42.932-04:00"Corporal" Hitler's FollyBy <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/06/eric-margolis/thank-the-red-army-for-d-day-victory/">Eric Margolis</a><br />
<br />
On my many walking visits to the vast Normandy battlefield in France,
I kept recalling the ever so wise dictum of Prussia’s great monarch,
Frederick the Great: ‘he who defends everything, defends nothing.’ On
this 74th anniversary of the D-Day landings, it’s well worth recalling
the old warrior-king.<br />
<br />
Adolf Hitler, a veteran of the infantry, should certainly have known
better. Defending the European coast from Brittany to Norway was an
impossibility given Germany’s military and economic weakness in 1944.
But he did not understand this. Having so brilliantly overcome France’s
Maginot Line fortifications in 1940, Hitler and his High Command
repeated the same strategic and tactical errors as the French only four
years later: not having enough reserves to effectively counter-attack
enemy breakthrough forces.<br />
<br />
Germany’s vaunted Atlantic Wall looked formidable on paper, but it
was too long, too thin, lacked defensive depth and was lacking in
adequate reserve forces. The linear Maginot Line suffered the same
failings. America’s fortifications protecting Manila and Britain’s
‘impregnable’ fortifications at Singapore also proved worthless. The
Japanese merely marched into their undefended rears.<br />
<br />
In 1940, the German Wehrmacht was modern history’s supreme fighting
machine. But only four years later, the Wehrmacht was broken. Most
Americans, British and Canadians believe that D-Day was the decisive
stroke that ended WWII in Europe. But this is not true.<br />
<br />
Germany’s mighty Wehrmacht, which included the Luftwaffe, was
destroyed by Stalin’s Soviet Union. The Red Army claims to have
destroyed 507 German divisions, 48,000 German tanks, 77,000 German
aircraft, and 100 divisions of Axis troops allied to Germany from Italy,
Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Finland.<br />
<br />
Few Americans have ever heard of the Soviet Far East offensive of
1945, a huge operation that extended from Central Asia to Manchuria and
the Pacific. At least 450,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, wounded or
captured by the Red Army, 32% of Japan’s total wartime military
losses. The Soviets were poised to invade Japan when the US struck it
with two nuclear weapons.<br />
<br />
Of Germany’s 10 million casualties in WWII, 75% were inflicted by the
Red Army. The once mighty Luftwaffe was decimated over Russia. Almost
all German military production went to supplying the 1,600 km Eastern
Front where Germany’s elite forces were ground up in titanic battles
like Kursk and Stalingrad that involved millions of soldiers.<br />
<br />
Soviet forces lost upwards of 20 million men. Total US losses,
including the Pacific, were one million. To Marshal Stalin, D-Day, the
North African and Italian campaign were merely diversionary side-shows
to tie down Axis forces while the Red Army pushed on to Berlin.<br />
<br />
D-Day was without doubt one of the greatest logistical feats of
modern military history. Think of General Motors versus the German
warrior Siegfried. For every US tank the Germans destroyed, ten more
arrived. Each German tank was almost irreplaceable. Transporting over
one million men and their heavy equipment across the Channel was a
triumph. But who remembers that Germany crossed the heavily defended
Rhine River into France in 1940?<br />
<br />
By June, 1944, German forces at Normandy and along the entire Channel
coast had almost no diesel fuel or gasoline. Their tanks and trucks
were immobilized. Allied air power shot up everything that moved,
including a staff car carrying Marshal Erwin Rommel strafed by Canada’s
own gallant future aviator general, Richard Rohmer. German units in
Normandy were below 40% combat effectiveness even without their
shortages in fuel.<br />
<br />
The Germans in France were also very short of ammunition, supplies
and communications. Units could only move by night, and then very
slowly. Hitler was reluctant to release armored forces from his
reserves. Massive Allied bombing of Normandy alone killed 15,000 to
20,000 French civilians and shattered many cities and towns.<br />
<br />
Churchill once said, ‘you will never know war until you fight
Germans.’ With no air cover or fuel and heavily outnumbered, German
forces in Normandy managed to mount a stout resistance, inflicting
209,000 casualties on US, Canadian, British, Free French and allied
forces. German losses were around 200,000.<br />
<br />
The most important point of the great invasion is that without it,
the Red Army would have reached Paris and the Channel Ports by the end
of 1944, making Stalin the master of all Europe except Spain. Of
course, the Allies could have reached a peace agreement with Germany in
1944, which Hitler was seeking and Gen. George Patton was rumored to be
advocating. But the German-hating Churchill and left-leaning Roosevelt
were too bloody-minded to consider a peace that would have kept Stain
out of at least some of Eastern Europe.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ <br />
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-65723506325228633942018-05-22T08:37:00.004-04:002018-05-22T08:39:48.490-04:00Roman Empire II?By <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/michael-s-rozeff/?ptype=lrc-blog">Mike Rozeff</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/05/282301.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Pompeo’s speech today</a>,
making 12 demands upon Iran while threatening new sanctions,
exemplifies an America trapped in the empire of its government’s making.
Americans are hostages who have acquiesced. We can only escape our
bonds by ending the empire.<br />
<br />
Once an empire expands to take in numerous lands beyond the borders
of its core country, its government (in this case, the U.S.) finds that
its defense requires removing threats and potential threats in a host of
places that are far from the core country, which is America, taking in
these 50 states.<br />
<br />
Pompeo says at the outset: “President Trump withdrew from the deal
for a simple reason: it failed to guarantee the safety of the American
people from the risk created by the leaders of the Islamic Republic of
Iran.”<br />
<br />
Pompeo misstates the reality. The American people or this country
consisting of the 50 states, faces no safety risk from Iran. It’s the
government, the U.S., that perceives the risk. America is not the U.S.;
the U.S. is the government of America.<br />
Although America, if it were shorn of its empire, and were reduced to
its 50 states, faces no safety risk or military threat whatsoever from
the IRI, when America is viewed as an empire with numerous overseas
allies and obligations, then its leaders sense all sorts of distant
threats and act against them. America is then trapped in the empire
created by its own government, the U.S.<br />
<br />
Pompeo and the rest of the foreign policy and defense establishment are men and women <b>of empire</b>.
The Congress is too. This means that they do not act on behalf of
America and Americans. They act on behalf of the empire. They are always
giving us Americans a song and dance that they’re acting for our own
good, our safety. <br />
Iran presents absolutely no threat to <i>America</i>. By the U.S.
empire, however, it’s conceived as a threat to its interests. America is
trapped by its acquiescence to the U.S., which is the government
controlling the empire.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-52222998597927373652018-05-20T16:23:00.000-04:002018-05-20T16:25:21.045-04:00Bravo Hungary!!By <a href="http://freewestmedia.com/2018/05/13/hungarys-unique-solution-to-the-soros-strategy/">Free West Media</a><br />
<br />
<div class="ingress">
It is well-known that Hungary put up a border fence,
but how does it really work to keep migrants out? It appears to be a
multiple-layer border fence stopping illegal migration to the country
almost totally. The legal framework is nothing short of astounding.</div>
<div class="mashsb-box">
<br /></div>
The main ruse of all Soros-funded NGOs is constant litigation. Today,
most illegal immigrants enter countries in the EU legally but overstay
or violate whatever visa they may have obtained.<br />
<br />
When the illegals get detained waiting for a deportation trial,
lawyers employed by NGOs funded by billionaire George Soros, have
unlimited funds to plead for their release.<br />
<br />
The litigation overcrowds detention centers, because the longer the
deportation legal process takes, the fewer deportations can be carried
out.<br />
<br />
If the detention center overflows, the authorities have no other
option but to let the low-risk migrants back into the population where
they disappear. This is called catch-and-release, done to prevent the
system from becoming overburdened.<br />
<br />
The genius solution of the Viktor Orbán government to this particular
problem, is that the border fence is not actually on the border. It is
situated a few meters from it. So there is a strip of land which is
legally Hungary, before the migrants hit the fence.<br />
<br />
In some zones, the border fence cuts deep into Hungarian territory,
creating large areas of Hungary outside of the fence. These are called
“transit zones”.<br />
When a migrant is caught inside Hungary, he is instantly transferred
to the transit zone, through one of the gates. This act is not
deportation, but detention as the migrant is still in Hungary.<br />
<br />
Lawyers from these NGOs can do nothing to intervene since there are
no legal remedies available to migrants inside Hungary, technically
speaking.<br />
The migrant is able is approach one of the barracks set up inside
these zones where he could present an asylum request, wait for its
processing and the subsequent court appeal if he is rejected.<br />
<br />
The point is that while the migrant is waiting, he is outside of the
fence, so he is not actually in Hungary, although legally he is.<br />
<br />
The zone has no fence on the border side, so migrants are free to
leave that way – back to where they came from. This measure obviously
prevents overcrowding. Most migrants do not wait around for their
trials, but go back to try to cross the border somewhere where it is
easier to get into the EU.<br />
<br />
But by not being present for a trial, the case is then dismissed.<br />
So it does not matter how long it takes before a migrant is legally
deported from Hungary, because he never entered Hungary and never
burdened the state, since most of them leave the zone.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-24780689718574898922018-05-17T19:21:00.002-04:002018-05-17T19:21:56.574-04:00Inequality!!By <a href="https://tomwoods.com/podcasts/">Thomas Woods</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: black;">I just finished reading an article on "the new American aristocracy" in <em>The Atlantic</em>. The subtitle included this predictable reproof: "You're probably part of the problem."<br />
<br />
It's the usual breast-beating about inequality, and -- of course -- the
out-of-hand rejection of the possibility that some folks may make better
decisions than others.<br />
<br />
No, no, citizen. Why, to think that way would be to "blame the victim"!<br />
<br />
(I've discussed the numbers and the details of inequality numerous times on the Tom Woods Show, incidentally.)<br />
<br />
We are instead to believe that tens of millions of Americans are the
passive victims of an impersonal "system" that keeps them down. All the
responsibility and good behavior in the world can't deliver them from
this wily trap, we are solemnly assured.<br />
<br />
Naturally there are plenty of cases of people who through no fault of
their own are in precarious situations, and in my personal life I've
been all too happy to help those people.<br />
<br />
But we are truly delusional if we do not recognize that some people hold
juvenile, even destructive ideas about money, wealth, and work, and
that this is why they do not make progress.<br />
<br />
Time after time I've tried to help people we've come across who have
struggled financially. And in all but one case, the money did no good. A
lack of money was only superficially their problem.<br />
<br />
The <em>Atlantic</em> complains about schools and their alleged lack of
resources. But the schools do not lack resources -- $12K per student per
year ought to be plenty to convey basic knowledge to students, yet
surveys of American adults reveal them to be woefully ignorant of even
the basics of science, history, or politics.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the student population has increased by about eight percent
since 1970, but nonteaching staff has increased by a mind-boggling 130
percent.<br />
<br />
That's not the one percent's fault.<br />
<br />
As for this being a uniquely difficult time to be alive, I've consistently dissented.<br />
<br />
On my podcast I advertise a service I deeply believe in: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://tomwoods.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D77713d21ff56f1c126607d2c5%26id%3D1527bb6b7b%26e%3Ddd56428c6a&source=gmail&ust=1526685039148000&usg=AFQjCNHR-7t5fjBOsGjmxjNqQKtC8YJULw" href="https://tomwoods.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77713d21ff56f1c126607d2c5&id=1527bb6b7b&e=dd56428c6a" style="color: #004c94; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Skillshare</a>,
which offers access to over 20,000 classes, each of which will make you
a more in-demand professional, or will teach you a skill you can use to
make a living. (The deal they're running now is two months' access for
99 cents.)<br />
<br />
They don't pay me anything for mentioning them in this email, of course.
But they're such a great example that I can't restrain myself.<br />
<br />
Likewise, Udemy lets you take top-notch courses on anything under the
sun. Here again you can learn a marketable skill in your spare time,
from the comfort of your home.<br />
<br />
This -- and a million other novelties like it -- is a veritable miracle.
Nobody had opportunities like this before today. We cannot let the
inequality hysteria distract us from these extraordinary advances.<br />
<br />
Oddly enough, the article admits the following:<br />
<br />
"In total population, average life expectancy, material wealth, artistic
expression, rates of violence, and almost every other measure that
matters for the quality of human life, the modern world is a
dramatically different place than anything that came before."<br />
<br />
So the moment you've decided to complain is the moment in history where
world economies can support more people than ever before, and where the
indicators of human well-being are at all-time highs?<br />
<br />
But then we get this:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">"Historians
offer many complicated explanations for this happy turn in human
events—the steam engine, microbes, the weather—but a simple answer
precedes them all: equality."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: black;">Wait, so you're
not even going to mention the historians who think economic freedom
might have had a teensy bit to do with this explosion of wealth? Not so
much as a word about that?<br />
<br />
Or there's Deirdre McCloskey, who argues that it was an ideological
change, a change in the way in which we view commerce and the people who
engage in it, that made this extraordinary world possible.<br />
<br />
Nope. "Microbes" and "the weather" are what we're told about.<br />
<br />
But the idea that <em>equality</em> yielded us all this is most preposterous of all.<br />
<br />
Equality in the sense that no artificial barrier prevents someone from
rising above his original station is certainly important, but this is
never the kind of equality the folks at <em>The Atlantic</em> have in mind.<br />
<br />
In fact, the explosion in wealth that is conceded in the article occurred in the face of tremendous <em>inequality</em>.<br />
<br />
Ludwig von Mises noted that in the old days, the rich man traveled in a
coach-and-four, while the poor man traveled on foot. Today, the rich man
travels in a fancy car while the poor man travels in a beat-up car.<br />
<br />
That represents a dramatic <em>decrease</em> in inequality.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: black;">Average people now enjoy amenities that the richest monarchs of Europe could scarcely have imagined.<br />
<br />
The world's greatest orchestras can be piped into our homes at the push
of a button. The great works of literature are a mouse click away. We
can take courses from the world's greatest universities without paying a
dime.<br />
<br />
Let that sink in. It's like science fiction.<br />
<br />
And our complaint is that some people are really rich?<br />
<br />
All of us are rich.<br />
<br />
All of us -- even our poorest -- enjoy living standards and
opportunities for enrichment that should make us full of joy and
gratitude to be alive.<br />
<br />
How dare we be ungrateful or envious.</span><br />
<br />
The things I do on my laptop to support my family would have been inconceivable even 20 years ago.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ<br />
</span>ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-26688820726577646772018-05-16T09:58:00.000-04:002018-05-16T09:59:12.147-04:00The New PolicingYour humble editor finds this posting more disturbing than usual for reasons related to nostalgia for "<a href="http://fightingintheshade.blogspot.com/search?q=militarization+of+police">the way we were</a>". <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
By <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/stop-resisting-arrest/">Charles Goyette</a><br />
<br />
We are all the beneficiaries of former CIA senior official Ray
McGovern’s participation in the public debate. The more visibility he
has, the more people that hear him, the better I like it.<br />
<br />
I still treasure the moment when Ray confronted then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about his Iraq war lies.<br />
<br />
In the opening days of the elective war on Iraq Rumsfeld had made the
outlandish claim the he knew where the non-existent WMDs were. When
McGovern confronted the Pentagon chief in 2006 at a public forum in
Atlanta, Rumsfeld pivoted to the brazen denial, insisting that he had
said no such a thing – never mind that this is the electronic media age,
and all anyone had to do was “roll the tape” to watch Rumsfeld’s
balderdash.<br />
<i> </i>Rumsfeld on ABC’s <i>This Week with George Stephanopoulos</i>, March 2003: “We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.”<br />
<br />
I was especially glad to see Rumsfeld held to account, because my
employer at the time, broadcast giant Clear Channel Communications, had
“suspended” me for a day from my prime time talk show for calling
Rumsfeld “the worst secretary of Defense since Robert Strange McNamara.”<br />
<br />
Rumsfeld was eventually squeezed out of office when a growing
number of admirals and generals, retired and with nothing to lose, began
to complain about his incompetence.<br />
<br />
Ray McGovern distinguished himself again last week at the Senate
confirmation hearing for Trump’s torturer, Bloody Gina Haspel, to head
the CIA.<br />
<br />
While the evidence-destroying Haspel was untouched during her
appearance before the Senate committee, Ray McGovern, who has actually
served his country with integrity, was wrestled to the floor and dragged
out. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE1hT0koseg">See it HERE.</a><br />
<br />
Take note of the way the thugs who took Ray down immediately began
shouting the mantra “Stop resisting arrest.” They are </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
trained like
performing seals to do this so that prosecutors can pile up phony
charges. Watch the 78-year old Ray being swarmed and see if there is
anything other than someone protecting himself from being dragged about
and roughed up. But if a defendant as much as raises his hands to
protect his face, or if his limbs don’t contort in the way the detaining
thugs demand, the petty authoritarian’s catch-all charge of resisting
arrest is waiting in the wings.<br />
<br />
My friend Marc Victor, the best known criminal defense attorney in
Arizona, is admired for his professional skill, tenacity, and
principles. Marc has represented more than 2,000 defendants, numerous
high-profile cases, federal and state alike. His law firm, <i>Attorneys for Freedom,</i>
is staffed with attorneys who share Marc’s pro-freedom views. And yet
for all his experience, Marc confesses that it wasn’t until he had his
own run in with goons shouting the obligatory “stop resisting arrest,”
that he really understood the depth of the criminal justice system’s
dark side.</blockquote>
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-15303323762815887282018-05-15T08:11:00.001-04:002018-05-15T08:11:21.103-04:00The Swiss Push BackFrom<strong> <a href="http://ammoland.com/">Ammoland.com</a></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Fairfax, VA – </strong>As <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20180427/gun-control-advocates-target-peaceful-switzerland">NRA-ILA reported on April 27</a>,
peaceful Switzerland is in the crosshairs of international and domestic
gun control advocates who are intent on abolishing the idyllic nation’s
tradition of an armed citizenry. Using the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2017/853/oj">2017 changes to the European Firearms Directive</a> as justification, these <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/04/25/control-acquisition-possession-weapons/">foreign</a> and <a href="https://www.tdg.ch/suisse/coalition-veut-limiter-acces-armes-feu/story/319">home-grown</a> forces
are attempting to burden the tranquil republic with gun controls the
Swiss people have continually rejected. However, as was pointed out in a
recent <a class="broken_link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/swiss-firearm-di">Bloomberg article</a>, many Swiss citizens are refusing to take this assault on their inalienable rights and national sovereignty lying down.<br />
<br />
In the Swiss tradition of neutrality, Switzerland is not a member of
the European Union. However, Switzerland is a member of the Schengen
Agreement, which created the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen_en">Schengen Area</a>.
Schengen Area states have abolished the international border checks
between them and permit the free movement of people throughout the area.<br />
<br />
As members of the Schengen Area, non-EU members Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Lichtenstein are <a class="broken_link" href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEM">obligated to comply</a> with
certain EU laws. In 2017, the EU imposed further firearms restrictions
on its Member States when it enacted a new version of the European
Firearms Directive. Under the European Firearms Directive, all Member
States, and those under the Schengen Agreement, are required to meet a
minimum threshold of gun restrictions. The 2017 update enacted more
stringent firearms registration and licensing requirements, and
re-categorized certain types of semi-automatic firearms and their
magazines in a way that nearly prohibits civilian possession.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.ejpd.admin.ch/ejpd/de/home/aktuell/news/2018/2018-03-020.html">Swiss Federal Council</a> has
put forward gun control legislation that would bring the country’s gun
laws in line with the new Firearms Directive, contending that the
onerous new rules would require “little effort” from gun owners.<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>As NRA-ILA previously noted and the Bloomberg piece reiterates, Swiss gun rights group <a href="https://www.protell.ch/de/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ProTell</a> and the <a href="https://www.svp.ch/partei/">Swiss People’s Party (SVP)</a> are leading the charge against the new legislation.</strong></blockquote>
Referencing a Firearms Directive provision that would make it harder
for Swiss citizens to possess semi-automatic firearms and the Swiss
tradition of permitting members of the militia to possess their military
rifle after service, Bloomberg quoted ProTell Secretary-General Robin
Udry as stating, “It would mean that the day you leave the army, you’re
no longer trusted with your SIG 550 and treated like a potential
terrorist or criminal.”Udry went on to explain, “In Switzerland, these
kind of guns are all very well-controlled, so why should we now accept
legislation from the EU when we don’t have this problem?”<br />
<br />
In a piece for the SVP website, <a href="https://www.svp.ch/partei/personen/detail/david-zuberbuehler/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">National Councilor David Zuberbühler</a> outlined the party’s position on the new EU gun law. <a class="broken_link" href="https://www.svp.ch/news/artikel/ed">Zuberbühler explained</a> that
complying with the new rules would result in more bureaucracy and less
security, by requiring the Swiss cantons to establish large and costly
administrative schemes. Noting that the new restrictions would do
nothing to combat terrorism, the councilor explained that violent
criminals would acquire their weapons on the black market. Zuberbühler
also pointed out that in 2011 Swiss citizens had the opportunity to
adopt strict gun controls through a referendum. These gun restrictions
were <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/13/swiss-vote-keep-their-guns-home/">rejected at the polls</a>.<br />
<br />
Further, there is increasing evidence that Swiss citizens are gearing
up for a fight. According to English-language Swiss news site <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/eu-pressure_membership-of-gun-lobby-soars-amid-arms-law-debate/44093456">Swissinfo.ch</a>,
ProTell membership rose 44 percent from June 2017 to April 2018, fueled
by opposition to the new EU gun restrictions. The site quoted interim
ProTell President Jean-Luc Addor, who said, “This increase shows that
more and more citizens are worried about their rights and freedoms in
this country.”Confident in the Swiss people’s respect for their right to
keep and bear arms, ProTell has warned politicians that it is prepared
to gather the 50,000 signatures necessary to hold a referendum to reject
the new EU gun laws.<br />
<br />
As with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Fear_(British_politics)">other attempts to exert national sovereignty in the face of the EU superstate</a>,
some have resorted to fear tactics to force the Swiss to comply with
the new Firearms Directive. According to the Bloomberg piece, <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/AssemblyList/MP-Details-EN.asp?MemberID=7531">Pierre-Alain Fridez of the Swiss Socialist party</a> has
warned that if the Swiss do not capitulate, they would be thrown “out
of Schengen” and would “lose the freedom of movement.” <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124993/BODIL_VALERO_home.html">Swedish Green Party Member of European Parliament Bodil Valero</a> had
a similar warning, stating that a failure to comply “would drive a
wedge between the EU and Switzerland and could lead to sanction
measures.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://unige.ch/sciences-societe/speri/membres/rene-schwok/">Director of the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva Rene Schwok</a> offered
a more measured take on the potential referendum. Schwok explained,
“The Federal Council and the parliaments will ultimately not
automatically abandon Schengen just because of this vote…They will try
to negotiate an arrangement with Brussels.”<br />
NRA-ILA will continue to monitor Swiss gun rights supporters’ battle
to preserve their republican heritage of an armed citizenry and will
apprise our members of the latest developments in this vital fight for
freedom.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-464271841350243442018-05-14T08:50:00.002-04:002018-05-14T08:50:16.320-04:00U.S. Spin Machine State DepartmentBy <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/pompeo-propaganda/">Michael Rozeff</a><br />
<br />
The new Secretion [sic] of State wants a new map of the Meddle East. To that end, he’s trumpeting <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/05/13/pompeo-iran-thought-act-impunity-nuke-deal/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">propaganda on Iran</a>, such as:<br />
“I think Rouhani and Zarif need to explain why it’s the case that
while this agreement was in place, Iran continued its march across the
Middle East.”<br />
What march? There hasn’t been any Iranian march! If Iran had invaded anyone, the noise at the U.N. would have been deafening.<br />
<br />
By contrast, the U.S. marched, flew, drove, rolled and sailed into Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen.<br />
<br />
If anyone is on the march in the Meddle East, it is the U.S.<br />
<br />
Besides, the Iran nuclear deal didn’t preclude either Iran or the
U.S. from altering their political, economic and military influence in
other countries. Pompeo’s rhetoric is totally fraudulent. The new
Secretion of State comes across as a man fond of deception.<br />
<br />
Pompeo lies. He claims Iran has “now fired missiles into an airport
where Americans travel each day in Riyadh.” Those responsible for firing
missiles at Riyadh’s airport haven’t been identified as Iranians. A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security/iran-aligned-houthis-in-yemen-fire-missiles-at-saudi-capital-idUSKBN1IA100" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Reuters report</a> says otherwise: “Yemen’s Houthis fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia’s capital on Wednesday.”<br />
<br />
Pompeo knows he’s exaggerating, misleading and lying. His purpose is
to create an image of Iran that’s so negative that Trump can have a free
hand in choosing Iranian targets to attack, and can place Iran on the
defensive, and can justify Israeli attacks, and can justify Saudi forces
in Syria.<br />
<br />
Iran definitely has advanced its influence in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq,
Yemen, and what’s left of Palestine ever since the U.S. lost its control
of Iran in 1979. So what? Let these countries deal with their own
affairs. U.S. meddling and missteps in the Meddle East going back for
70+ years have brought about its own loss of influence.<br />
<br />
There was never good reason, including oil security, for the U.S. to
have gotten so deeply involved in this region. The price of oil security
has been demonstrably exorbitant. There has never been good reason for
the U.S. to aim at controlling Meddle East governments, supplying vast
armaments, participating in wars, all the while choosing up allies and
making enemies. The entire project of empire and oil security has been
fruitless. To continue this posture now with the aim of controlling
Iran’s aspirations is equally irrational.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-6576244399963689732018-05-13T13:41:00.000-04:002018-05-13T13:41:14.351-04:00Another Lost War About to Begin?By <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/eric-margolis/">Eric Margolis</a><br />
<br />
Israel launched waves of air attacks and ground shelling on a score of
alleged Iranian military positions in Syria this week. Was this a big
step forward in the plan by Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his
ally Donald Trump to provoke a major war with Iran?<br />
<br />
It certainly looks so. The US, Saudi Arabia and Israel all recently
suffered a stinging defeat in Syria. Their campaign to overthrow the
Assad government in Damascus by using the rag-tag ISIS movement, then
Sunni Muslim jihadist wild men, was defeated by the Syrian Army, backed
by Russian air power, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and some Iranian militia
groups and army advisors.<br />
<br />
Israel now claims to have wiped out more than a score of Iranian
positions in Syria. As far as we can tell, these were minor logistics
or communications facilities, not the backbone of a supposed Iranian
offensive against Israel.<br />
<br />
In fact, the alleged Iranian rocket barrage was directed at the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that were illegally annexed and occupied
after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and are still held, legally, as part of
Syria. Israel is very nervous about having world attention drawn to its
continued occupation of the strategic Golan Heights from which Israeli
heavy artillery can reach Damascus.<br />
<br />
But now that the Trump administration has fallen fully under the
influence of the pro-war neocons, an attempt to overthrow the Iranian
government appears highly likely, using both military intervention and
intensified economic warfare.<br />
<br />
Iran has been under siege by the US since the American/British
installed shah was overthrown by a popular revolution in 1979. The CIA
and Britain’s MI6 have mounted numerous attempts to oust the Islamic
Republic and re-install a client ruler.<br />
<br />
Ironically, the ‘democratic’ western powers – the US, Britain and
France – rely on medieval monarchs and dictators to control the Mideast
while democratic politicians and movements are ignored. Iran, in spite
of its many rigidities and failings, remains one of the region’s more
democratic states. Ask our Saudi or Kuwaiti allies when was the last
time they held a real election?<br />
<br />
The failure of western intelligence services to provoke serious
uprisings in Iran (or Russia), means that the military option is
increasingly tempting. This probably means provoking military clashes
with Iran in the Gulf leading to full-scale attacks on its nuclear
infrastructure and industry. US warplanes and warships are actively
probing Iran’s borders. In addition, US forces are getting ever more
deeply involved in the Yemen War.<br />
<br />
When the US last considered a major attack on Iran during the Bush
years, the Pentagon (which opposed the idea) estimated it would need
2,800 air strikes against Iran on Day One alone.<br />
<br />
Many of the same war party crowd that engineered the 2003 US invasion
of Iraq are now running the Trump administration. Their goal is to
cripple Iran and leave the Mideast to joint Saudi-Egyptian-Israeli
control.<br />
<br />
Recall President George W. Bush’s assertion that once he had crushed
Iraq the next targets of US military intervention would be Lebanon,
Syria, Iran and then Pakistan.<br />
<br />
Invading Iran would not be easy. Iran has very little capability to
project power beyond its borders. Its air force, artillery and tanks
are decrepit. America controls the skies from Morocco to Afghanistan.
Iran is vulnerable to raids and small incursions but subjugating this
large, mountainous nation of 80 million would be very difficult.<br />
<br />
In fact, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander once told me,
‘let the Americans invade. They will break their teeth on Iran.’
Over-confidence, of course, but he had a point. Fighting on the
defensive in urban areas, Iran could offer fierce resistance.<br />
<br />
America’s imperial machine, like its British Imperial predecessor,
likes small, easy wars against small, backwards nations. Iran would be
very different.<br />
<br />
As we have just seen with North Korea, Iran’s best survival strategy,
short of security guarantees by Russia and China, would be to race to
produce a small number of nuclear weapons to deter attacks by the US and
Israel.<br />
<br />
Europe, which co-sponsored the Iran nuclear act and is now
humiliated by Trump reneging on the deal, is too weak and disorganized
to guarantee the pact and stand up to Washington. This is too bad. Now
would have been a fine time for the EU to assert its independence from
US hegemony and begin building its own independent European military
forces.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ <br />
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-81010192224080517962018-05-12T01:00:00.000-04:002018-05-12T08:37:02.868-04:00The End in SightBy <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/michael-s-rozeff/?ptype=lrc-blog" rel="author" title="Posts by Michael S. Rozeff">Michael S. Rozeff</a><br />
<br />
The welfare state is not a response to technological or economic
conditions that produce hardship and an underclass. The welfare state is
created by politicians who institute it. It is politically driven. They
could not accomplish this without the existence of a cash cow of
productivity growth, but the latter doesn’t fore-ordain that a welfare
state be brought into being. Productivity growth doesn’t produce
unemployment and people who cannot survive by their own work. There are
prices for all sorts of labor, if the labor markets are left to adjust
freely.<br />
<br />
Productivity growth, brought about via capitalism, brings down the
prices of goods needed to survive, but central bankers inflate. This
creates differential effects on people in different classes. Inflation
robs those most, the lower classes and less-educated, whose earning
power is marginal and who do not have the knowledge to cope with its
effects. It penalizes “thrift and hard work”, <a href="https://mises.org/wire/rothbard-essentials-money-and-inflation" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rothbard tells us</a>. It aids those most in a position to hold wealth in real assets, those who are well-connected and educated.<br />
<br />
“Spending and going into debt are encouraged; thrift and hard work
discouraged and penalized. Not only that: the groups that benefit are
the special interest groups who are politically close to the government
and can exert pressure to have the new money spent on them so that their
incomes can rise faster than the price inflation. Government
contractors, politically connected businesses, unions, and other
pressure groups will benefit at the expense of the unaware and
unorganized public.”<br />
<br />
The welfare state can only expand as long as the value of the
“nation’s assets” outpaces the value of the “nation’s liabilities”.
Wealth growth has to exceed debt growth in order to create a cash cow.
When and if this condition fails, then the welfare state halts its
growth. Demographics alone can cause this to occur. Wars can deplete the
assets. Over-expansion of benefits causes excessive debt growth. Poor
economic policies that stymie capitalistic policies cause decline in
productivity. These are the kinds of factors that place a strain on the
welfare state. <br />
Politicians are myopic, and they tend to their own self-interest.
They do not listen to the David Stockmans of this world until they run
headlong into a crisis.<br />
<br />
When the cash cow fund stops growing, benefits stabilize or decline.
Taxpayers feel the squeeze. The welfare state goes into reverse when the
nation’s liabilities exceed the nation’s assets. The producers of
wealth feel the pinch as taxes rise and the recipients find benefits
declining. The longevity of the welfare state depends on productivity
and the levels of financing of welfare payments by debt and taxes.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-47371476700229903442018-05-11T08:58:00.001-04:002018-05-11T08:58:28.499-04:00More War Drums?<span class="byline">by <span class="author vcard" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a class="url fn n" href="https://personalliberty.com/author/jaybakerpl/"><span itemprop="name">Jay Baker</span></a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="byline"><span class="author vcard" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name"> </span></span></span>President Donald Trump kept one of his campaign promises and
announced he was pulling out of the deal with Iran brokered by his
predecessor.<br />
<br />
“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/trump-withdraws-from-iran-deal-reimposes-sanctions" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Trump said in a White House press conference</a>.
He has long been critical of the deal because it contains a “sunset
clause, a provision that allows key limitations on Iran’s use and
development of new technologies for enrichment of uranium to end
beginning in 2025, and because he believed it was insufficient to check
Iran’s weapons development program.<br />
<br />
But Iran has not had a nuclear weapons program for at least 15 years. <a href="https://personalliberty.com/on-iran-government-and-doublethink/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2012</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran is actively trying to build an atomic bomb.<br />
A
highly classified U.S. intelligence assessment circulated to
policymakers early last year largely affirms that view, originally made
in 2007. Both reports, known as national intelligence estimates,
conclude that Tehran halted efforts to develop and build a nuclear
warhead in 2003.<br />
The most recent report, which represents the
consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is
pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but
that it has not sought to do so.</blockquote>
What’s more, Iran
is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That gives it a
right to develop nuclear energy. But it also puts inspectors from the
U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency on the ground in Iran to keep
tabs on the country’s nuclear activities.<br />
<br />
As Pat Buchanan notes,
Iran is making no demands on the U.S., its patrol boats have ceased
harassing U.S. warships patrolling the Persian Gulf (as if they could
cause a lot of damage with their navy), and their forces in Iraq and
Syria (countries into which they were invited) do not interfere with
U.S. operations against ISIS.<br />
Buchanan writes:<br />
<blockquote>
Iran
has never tested a nuclear device and never enriched uranium to weapons
grade. Under the deal, Iran has surrendered 95 percent of its uranium,
shut down most of its centrifuges and allowed cameras and inspectors
into all of its nuclear facilities.<br />
Why Iran is abiding by the deal is obvious. For Iran it is a great deal. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Having
decided in 2003 not to build a bomb, Iran terminated its program. Then
Tehran decided to negotiate with the U.S. for return of $100 billion in
frozen assets from the Shah’s era — by proving they were not doing what
every U.S. intelligence agency said they were not doing.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
Should
Iran rashly decide to go for a nuclear weapon, it would have to fire up
centrifuges to enrich uranium to a level that they have never done, and
then test a nuclear device, and then weaponize it.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
A crash bomb
program would be detected almost instantly and bring a U.S. ultimatum
which, if defied, could bring airstrikes. Why would Trump risk losing
the means to monitor Iran’s compliance with the deal?</blockquote>
Trump’s
decision to pull from the deal is a bad one for Americans. It gives the
U.S. less access to Iran’s nuclear intentions. It increases tensions in
the area. And it sets the stage for a more expansive war in the region.<br />
<br />
But
Trump’s war cabinet must be rubbing their hands together with glee.
They, and their neocon/globalist enablers, have been itching for war for
almost 30 years, as <a href="https://personalliberty.com/looks-like-war-party-finally-get-iran-war-2/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bob Livingston has told you</a> before.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-14062382726516485392018-05-09T11:06:00.001-04:002018-05-09T11:10:13.760-04:00Lying Bureaucrats; So What's New?<span class="by-author"><span class="sep">By</span> <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/author/sundancecracker/" rel="author" title="View all posts by sundance">sundance</a></span> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="by-author"> </span>The Broward County school and law enforcement officials have finally
admitted Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was
indeed a participant in the “Promise Program”; a <a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/23/broward-county-sheriffs-office-did-not-miss-warning-signs-or-make-mistakes/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">corrupt diversionary program</a> intended to keep students out of the legal system. Until today school and county officials had denied Cruz’s participation.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://wlrn.org/post/stoneman-douglas-shooter-was-assigned-controversial-broward-discipline-program-officials-now">Florida</a>: Broward school district officials admitted Sunday that
the confessed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gunman was assigned
to a controversial disciplinary program, after the superintendent
repeatedly claimed Nikolas Cruz had “no connection” to the alternative
punishment designed to limit on-campus arrests.<br />
<br />
[…] When asked for a response, a spokeswoman for Superintendent
Robert Runcie stated on Friday that district administrators were
aggressively analyzing Cruz’s records.<br />
<span id="more-148948"></span><br />
<blockquote>
[…] The Broward Sheriff’s Office has also said Cruz didn’t attend PROMISE.<br />
“The school board reports that there was no PROMISE program
participation,” BSO representative Jack Dale said during a recent
meeting of a new state commission tasked with investigating the
shooting. (<a href="http://wlrn.org/post/stoneman-douglas-shooter-was-assigned-controversial-broward-discipline-program-officials-now" rel="noopener" target="_blank">read more</a>)</blockquote>
Nothing good comes from this admission now. Heck, it’s not an
admission – they just got caught lying. Notice who was lying: “the
sheriff’s office and the school board.” Think about it. Nice display of
adult moral values for the students, no?<br />
<br />
Nothing will change. The program continues today. Illegal acts are still being covered up, and ever-increasing <a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/23/broward-county-sheriffs-office-did-not-miss-warning-signs-or-make-mistakes/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">unlawful behavior is still being hidden</a> in an effort to attain more favorable school statistics, and the subsequent money. Nothing will change there, nothing.<br />
<br />
It didn’t change when Trayvon Martin was involved; <a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/05/01/m-dspd-cover-up-the-curious-case-of-trayvon-martins-backpack-with-stolen-jewelry-and-burglary-tool/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">they covered-up for him</a>. It won’t change just because Nikolas Cruz was involved.<br />
<br />
Unfortunate, but the corruption runs too deep…. Way, way too deep.<br />
<br />
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-77094125247693085042018-05-08T16:47:00.000-04:002018-05-08T16:47:08.821-04:00The Civizilation Wreckers Next TargetBy <a href="https://tomwoods.com/podcasts/">Thomas E Woods</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 18px;">Connecticut just became the
tenth blue state to pledge to cast its electoral votes for whichever
presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationally.<br />
<br />
Why?<br />
<br />
Because according to the measure's proponents, the electoral college --
along with everything else that's more than 10 minutes old -- is
backward and stupid.<br />
<br />
Here's one more step toward making the United States into a giant,
undifferentiated blob, as opposed to the collection of distinct
societies it was originally intended to be. T</span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: black;">he Constitution refers to the United States in the plural every time, and t</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 18px;">he way the Constitution and the Union were originally understood, the "popular vote" was an irrelevancy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 18px;">During the World Series, for
example, we don’t add up the total number of runs scored by each team
over the course of the series, and decide who won on that basis. We
count up how many games each team won.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 18px;">Thus:</span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Game 1: Red Sox 10, Mets 0<br />
Game 2: Red Sox 15, Mets 1<br />
Game 3: Red Sox 5, Mets 2<br />
Game 4: Red Sox 1, Mets 2<br />
Game 5: Red Sox 0, Mets 1<br />
Game 6: Red Sox 2, Mets 3<br />
Game 7: Red Sox 3, Mets 4<br />
<br />
In this imaginary series the Red Sox scored 36 runs while the Mets
scored only 13, yet everyone would acknowledge that the Mets won the
series. Not a single sports fan would be running around demanding that
we count the total number of runs instead, or insisting that the way we
determine the World Series winner is sinister.<br />
<br />
But I think this is the correct analogy with the electoral college. How
many games — e.g., how many political societies, albeit weighted to some
degree by population — did you win?<br />
<br />
Also, the electoral college puts an upper bound on how much support you
can earn from any one state. Even if your whole campaign is geared
toward taxing the rest of the country and handing the money to
California, you still can’t get more than 55 electoral votes from that
state. So to some extent, the electoral college forces the candidate to
run a national race more than would be necessary otherwise.<br />
<br />
A group called National Popular Vote, which seeks to abolish the
electoral college, claims that "presidential candidates have no reason
to pay attention to the issues of concern to voters in states where the
statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion."<br />
<br />
But this problem becomes much worse without the electoral college. If
there is no limit to the support I can get from California and New York,
then I'll campaign in those states like a madman. At least the
electoral college puts something of a brake on this kind of strategy.<br />
<br />
A brief note about Trump's defeat in the popular vote: had the election
been decided on the basis of the popular vote, Trump would have
campaigned differently in the first place. Also, more people in, say,
California would have bothered to vote for him. So we can’t know that he
would have lost the popular vote had those been the rules.<br />
<br />
What we do know is that every step toward making the U.S. into a giant
blob instead of a decentralized collection of societies is a step toward
more centralized, bureaucratic management of society, and away from
liberty.<br />
<br />
We're not taught to think this way in school, of course.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ<br />
</span></span>ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19318880.post-77886892299445420442018-05-06T08:55:00.001-04:002018-05-06T08:55:10.682-04:00The Horsefly ComethBy <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/author/james-howard-kunstler/">James Howard Kunstler</a><br />
<br />
You can see where this Mueller thing is going: to the moment when the
Golden Golem of Greatness finally swats down the political horsefly
that has orbited his glittering brainpan for a whole year, and says,
“There! It’s done.”<br />
<br />
It suggests that Civil War Two will end up looking a whole lot more
like the French Revolution than Civil War One. The latter unfurled as a
solemn tragedy; the former as a Coen Brothers style <em>opéra bouffe</em> bloodbath. Having executed the presidential swat to said orbiting horsefly, Trump
will try to turn his attention to the affairs of the nation, only to
find that it is insolvent and teetering on the most destructive workout
of bad debt the world has ever seen. And then his enemies will really go
to work. In the process, they’ll probably wreck the institutional
infrastructure needed to run a republic in constitutional democracy
mode.<br />
<br />
They got a good start in politicizing the upper ranks of the FBI, a
fatal miscalculation based on the certainty of a Hillary win, which
would have enabled the various schemers in the J. Edgar Hoover building
to just fade back into the procedural woodwork of the agency and get on
with life. Instead, their shenanigans were exposed and so far one key
player, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, was hung out to dry by a
committee of his fellow agency execs for lying about his official
conduct. Long about now, you kind of wonder: is that where it ends for
him? Seems like everybody else (and his uncle) is getting indicted for
lying to the FBI. How about Mr. McCabe, since that is exactly why his
colleagues at the FBI fired him?<br />
<br />
Perhaps further resolution of this murky situation awaits Inspector
General Michael Horowitz’s forthcoming report, which the media seems to
have forgotten about lately. An awful lot of the mischief at the FBI and
its parent agency, the Department of Justice, is already on the public
record, for instance the conflicting statements of Andrew McCabe and his
former boss James Comey concerning who illegally leaked what to the
press. On the face of it, it looks pretty bad when at least one of these
Big Fish at the top of a supposedly incorruptible agency is lying.
There are at least a dozen other Big Fish in there who still have some
serious ‘splainin’ to do, and why not in the grand jury setting?<br />
<br />
Nobody knows where the current Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is in
all this — and “is” may be too strong a word to describe his
wraith-like tenure this past year. He seems less present than the
portraits of his dead predecessors lining the hallway outside his
office, considering the lively swirl of allegations all around him.
Well, he did appoint yet another special counsel, an obscure US Attorney
from Utah, John Huber, to evaluate several heaps of FBI dirty laundry,
most particularly the strange and baffling treatment that Hillary
Clinton has received in the matter of the Steele Dossier, the email
server inquiry dropped by Comey, and the 2012 Uranium One incident that
abracadabra’d about $150 million (from wealthy Russians!) into the
Clinton Foundation coffers while she was Secretary of State. Mr. Huber
is charged to follow up anything the Inspector General discovers to be a
possible breach of the law.<br />
<br />
But it’s finally back to Mr. Mueller, the zeppelin-sized horsefly
circling the head of state. There was that Russia thing that set off the
awful commotion in the FBI, which arose first in the charge that the
newly-appointed National Security Advisor had a couple of conversations
with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period.
The President-elect’s furious adversaries managed to put across the
story that American officials are not supposed to talk to ambassadors
from foreign countries, which is about the most absurd proposition
imaginable — except in a land where school kids are taught nothing about
government or history. Anyway, Mr. Flynn was not even indicted for
that, but rather for supposedly lying about it to a delegation of
interrogators from Mueller’s office. My guess is that Mr. Trump will
sack Mr. Mueller when the IG’s report comes out and the shady
machinations that brought Mueller onto the scene are revealed in full.
The #Resistance will lose its avatar and impeachment will become the
sole campaign issue for November 2018.<br />
<br />
<em>Reprinted with permission from <a href="http://kunstler.com/">Kunstler.com</a>.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ </em><br />
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04976785560712692275noreply@blogger.com1