Saturday, April 29, 2017

False Gods

Not Alone,

ABC News/Washington Post poll finds:
"Nearly half of Americans think there’s a “deep state” in this country, just more than half think the mainstream media regularly report false stories and six in 10 say the Trump administration regularly makes false claims." It's the most-held view.

War on a Lake of Death will Prove that Men Are Gods, Yoichi Shimatsu, a Hiroshima baby who investigates nuclear sites, and has a lot of detailed insight into all of the military and trip wires surrounding the Sea of Japan.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just made the formal case for war against North Korea to the UN , and for sanctions against any nation which supports them.

UN Special Reporter finds that the Russian economy has grown into the context of western sanctions, and is doing well, growing, despite them, "immune to western sanctions".

"If you take East Syria, I'll take that Yemeni port." 
Yes, actually, this is really a plausible scenario for Russia to have a naval station at the Port of Aden. It seems that all parties trust Russia to shephard peace negotiations, too, not our negotiator-in-chief...

Dr Ron Paul interviews Julian Assange about the War on Truth:

"Scribbles" is the latest Wikileaks release from Vault-7, the massive CIA file leaked to them. "Scribbles" is a Trojan-horse homing beacon attached to files which are expected to be stolen, and which then allows the files and thief to be found. Hacking is another program, also detailed on this page. All releases by Wikileaks from Vault-7 are detailed on this page.

Never Alone

Friday, April 28, 2017

Unhealthy Warfare

Next in Line,

Dr. Gus Abu-Sitta is the head of the Plastic Surgery Department at the AUB Medical Center in Lebanon. He specializes in: reconstructive surgery.
“The misery is war. The destruction of the strong state leads to conflict. A great number of people on our Planet actually live in some conflict or war, without even realizing it: in slums, in refugee camps, in thoroughly collapsed states, or in refugee camps.” 
“In most parts of the world “freedom” is synonymous with the independence struggle for our countries. In such places as the UK, it mainly means more individualism, selfishness and personal liberties.”
"Medicine and the provision of health were critical parts of the post-colonial state. And the post-colonial state built medical systems such as we had in Iraq, Egypt and in Syria as part of the social contract. They became an intrinsic part of the creation of those states. And it was a realization that the state has to exercise its power both coercively, (which we know the state is capable of exercising, by putting you in prison, and even exercising violence), but above all non-coercively: it needs to house you, educate you, and give you health, all of those things. And that non-coercive power that the states exercise is a critical part of the legitimizing process of the state. We saw it evolve in 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. So as a digression, if you want to look at how the state was dismantled: the aim of the sanctions against Iraq was not to weaken the Makhabarat or the army, the aim of the sanctions was to rob the Iraqi state of its non-coercive power; its ability to give life, to give education, and that’s why after 12 years, the state has totally collapsed internally – not because its coercive powers have weakened, but because it was robbed of all its non-coercive powers, of all its abilities to guarantee life to its citizens."  Thanks Dan.

At the Threshold of War: "The choice is not up to us anymore. It is being decided upon at this very moment." (North Korea is the designated target.)

General MacArthur, one of the foremost war criminals ever, covered up the war crimes of the Japanese and especially of Unit 731. He took care to integrate the Japanese biological weapon experience into the U.S. military resources. Under his command biological agents were then used against Korean and and Chinese civilians and military units. When his pilots confessed, he denied all such reports and alleged "brainwashing" through  torture by the Chinese. This again led to torture "simulations" in U.S. SERE training from which recent U.S. torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere derived.

Pat Buchanan thinks President Trump has "outsourced foreign policy to the generals", a total reversal of candidate Trump's non-interventionist approach.

Basher al-Assad, President of Syria, believes that President Trump has been captured by the deep-state and has no independent foreign policy. He's a puppet. (Hey, that's like what Pat Buchanan said.) Thanks Eleni.

The US is finalizing capacity for complete first-strike nuclear capability against Russia and China. The goal is to assure that very few enemy nukes succeed in reaching the US. After a decisive victory like this, freedom can never be threatened again,... right? Thanks Wayne.

Bernie Sanders was truant for the "dog-and-pony-show" meeting at that secure room by the White House, that the other senators got driven to in tour buses.

"The next Trade War. Trump threatens to terminate "terrible" deal with South Korea" (should it continue to exist)

California takes one-small-step toward single-payer health plan; wonders where the money will come from...
Some ask, "why not Medicare for all?"

Paul Craig Roberts: The Looting Machine Called Capitalism
"I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is successful primarily because it can impose the majority of the costs associated with its economic activities on outside parties and on the environment."

Duh, of course Barack Obama deserves $400,000 for talking to some really rich financial capitalists, our "betters". How else should he be compensated for his service to America?

Carfentanil, the new opioid on the streets, is 10,000 times as powerful as morphine, which is really hard to comprehend, and harder to cut evenly before using.
"I'm desperate to get some stuff but I don't know anyone that I could buy from," 21-year-old Kristina Lutz texted a drug dealer Aug. 29, according to Fairfax County court documents. "Any chance you'd be able to help me out haha." Hours later, Lutz stuck a needle in her arm with carfentanil-laced heroin and died at her family's home in Fairfax Station. Her parents described Lutz as suffering from anxiety and depression while growing up, but they said she seemed happy recently and was looking forward to running in a race... "We tried to bring her to a safe environment and give her a good life," said Kristina's father, Jeffrey Lutz, who with his wife adopted their daughter from a Russian orphanage when she was 16 months old. 

Pain Free

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Playing Dumb

Plausibly Incompetent,

Why Trump's Sloth and Incompetence just might Prevent a Catastrophic War with China (Sensationalist and snide title belies analysis of the values of strategic ambivalence in preventing commitment to aggressive policy by Chinese and American empires, for now. Parallels with the step down of the UK as global hegemon are well drawn.)

Candidate Trump: "I love Wikileaks"; President Trump: "Arrest Assange", by Ron Paul

(It's always heads-I-win-tails-you-lose) The Saker looks at 7 reasons that it was right to vote for Trump. Thanks Eleni (I voted Green)
"Trump betrayed his campaign promises, but those who voted for him could not simply assume that he would do that, especially not when there was no reason at all to believe that Hillary would betray hers: does anybody seriously believe that after being elected on a promise of war she would have turned into a dove of peace?"

Paul Craig Roberts: 9/11 Destroyed America
This was precisely the way the news anchors described what I was seeing. “It looks exactly like a controlled demolition,” the news anchors reported. And indeed it did. As a Georgia Tech student I had witnessed a controlled demolition, and that is what I saw on television, just as that was what the news anchors saw... Later that day Larry Silverstein who owned, or held the lease on, the World Trade Center, explained on TV that the free fall collapse in the late afternoon of the third WTC skyscraper, Building 7, into its own footprint was a conscious decision to “pull” the building. Pull is the term used by controlled demolition to describe a building wired with explosives to be destroyed. Building 7 had not been hit by an airliner, and suffered only minor and very limited office fires.

Turkish airstrikes kill some forces of the Iraqi Kurds, who are aligned with Turkey, and sell them oil, unlike all the other Kurds, who are actively suppressed and bombed by Turkey all the time. Iraqi Kurds are really unhappy with Turkey.This benefits ISIS.

US preparations to invade Syria along route of desired pipeline for Qatar and Saudi interests: 
"Deir Ezzor is a strategically-located city along the Euphrates that the Pentagon needs in order to tighten its grip on the eastern quadrant of the country. Once Deir Ezzor is taken, the US can launch its CIA-backed jihadist militias back into Syria at will putting more pressure on Damascus and eventually forcing regime change. That is the plan at least, whether it works or not is anyone’s guess. The deployment of troops on the Jordanian border suggests that Washington’s proxy-army, the mainly-Kurdish militia or SDF, is either unwilling to conduct operations as far south as Deir Ezzor or doesn’t have the military strength to beat ISIS on its own."

Pepe Escobar gives the most cooked-down analysis of the French election, over which "markets" were so exuberant.
"Sociologist Benjamin Lemoine is one of the few who’s publicly debating what’s really behind it — the interest of financiers to preserve the value of the debt they hold and their aversion to any negotiation. Because they control the narrative, they are able to equate “political risk” —  be it Marine or Mélenchon — with the risk to their own privileged positions. The real issue at stake in France — and across most of the West — revolves around the conflicting interests of financial masters and citizens attached to public service and social justice. The coming clash between Emmanuel Clinton and Marine LeTrump won’t even begin to scratch the surface."

What is the Macron political agenda? He introduced hard right policies as finance minister of a "Socialist" administration, but that's all behind us now. He's a fresh start.
Here is a line item breakdown of his stated policies (after the comment)
"Macron is more Obama than Obama. More Blair than Blair. A creation, groomed and glossed for this “spontaneous” bid for power by the banking class he unashamedly represents."

US openly prepares for aggressive war upon North Korea and calls all 100 Senators to the White House for a private briefing in a secure area to get them on board with something. The President makes opening remarks and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dunsford talks about something, maybe war...

Never an Even Break

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Last Night For Internet

Curiously Yellow,

Who is Emanuel Macron, the next president of France, and why is it so cool that he seduced his high school drama teacher away from her husband and kids, and got the sweet fast-track at Rothschild bank, then chuted into the top tier of French politics? 
He's young, intelligent, well spoken, fresh and charming, sort of like Barack Obama used to be...

Here are the results of the French election, first round, explained in maps, which really seems to work for me.

Is weather manipulation a weapon of trade warfare? (Wow, hadn't had that much on the radar!) CIA says plant wheat in Southern France this year for a good crop. Thanks JW.

Last Friday's bicoastal power outage looks likely to have been caused by solar storm.

"The North Koreans are supposed to test another nuclear device on or about the 25th of this month.  “Coincidentally,” that EMP “drill” named Operation Gotham Shield is supposed to run through April 25th, and possibly a little longer.  Coincidentally, there was a power outage in three different U.S. cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City on Thursday.  Coincidentally, Russian bomber and intelligence-gathering aircraft have been flying test runs along the coast of Alaska, for four days straight with the U.S. and even Canada scrambling fighters to intercept.  Coincidentally, the Russians claim to have electronic devices with an EMP-type effect, already used against the USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer with Tomahawk missiles back in November of 2014.  Coincidentally, the U.S. naval armada is set to arrive in the waters off the Korean coast on April 26th… right in line with the EMP drill “Operation Gotham Shield". All these factors point toward a false-flag attack.”

The US will test launch a North-Korea-ready ICBM tonight from southern California, "just to make sure all our stuff works right".

The US military is setting up the Anti-Ballistic-Missile system in South Korea. (Don't worry, this'll protect ya!)

Falsifying History is Uncle Sam's Way to War, Finian Cunningham (good essay)

The US refuses to take part in any investigation of whatever that chemical thing was in Syria earlier this month ("confident" as you may recall), but will go ahead and put financial sanctions on a bunch of Syrians, freeze their accounts and so on. It's easier this way...

If this is Freedom and Democracy, what is Tyranny? (OK then, what if it isn't freedom and democracy?) Paul Craig Roberts

Just Askin'

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Controlling Unruly Life

Choosing Your Poisons,

In the 1990s the Framingham (Mass.) Heart Study carried out a large and well structured longitudinal observational study of lifestyle, cardiac and stroke events. "Ten years later, scientists found that the adults who had one more diet drink a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and three times more at risk of strokes compared to those who consumed less than one a week." ASPARTAME!

From April 24 - 26 "Operation Gotham Shield" will tie together Homeland Security, Military, local police and fire departments in New York. http://www.dcclothesline.com/2017/04/21/operation-gotham-shield-u-s-govt-to-simulate-nuke-blast-over-manhattan-as-actual-war-nears/ This coordinated training exercise in the war-on-terror will simulate nuclear blasts over New York. It seems reminiscent of exercises that chanced to happen on 9/11/01. https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/war-games-911-exercises-offer-too-many-coincidences/ One is also reminded of terrorist drills active during the 7/7/05 London Bombings. http://www.globalresearch.ca/7-7-mock-terror-drill-what-relationship-to-the-real-time-terror-attacks/821 Hey, that's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Where are you gonna' be those days?

"The EU is coming apart at the seams" (yeah, well...)

Diana Johnstone raises the real question in this French Presidential Election, that of the National Sovereignty of France. (The French voted 55 to 45 against The EU Constitutional Referendum in May 2005, as did the Dutch, so it got decreed to them anyway as the "Lisbon Treaty", because they had been frightened, confused little people.)

Sputnik has the final countdown to the first round of the French election (The power-lizard-establishment must have their pretty, tongue-flicking lizard, Macron be a first round finalist. They can handle it from there...)

China is building the world's largest nuclear submarine production facility. (Who can blame them?)

The rigging of the Turkish voting for imperial presidency. It needed the final rigging, after the voting ended, of counting all the unverified/unverifiable ballots to give the win to Sultan Erdogan. Excluding 300,000 Kurds from the start was just not going to get it. Some precinct votes voted 100% Erdogan, and in excess of registered voters, and so on. There were irregularities... (President Trump called to congratulate Sultan-Elect Erdogan, but none of the stuffy Europeans did.)

Our State-Corporate Plantation Economy, by Charles Hugh Smith, who did live and work in a plantation economy, and who owes his soul to the company-store, like the rest of us, and is just pointing out exactly what is going on here. Only the elite class can own and control productive assets. The rest of us borrow from them and get paid wages, if we remain compliant and productive. It's global... Are you an asset, or a liability? How's your health?

Robert Parry asks, "Why not a probe of Israel-gate": 
The other day, I asked a longtime Democratic Party insider who is working on the Russia-gate investigation which country interfered more in U.S. politics, Russia or Israel. Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Israel, of course.”

Wikileaks Vault 7 release, "Weeping Angel", borrowed from MI-5 turns your Samsung smart TV into a listening device which can store your conversations, and/or send them on to the defenders-of-our-freedoms.

Asked whether it was a priority for the justice department to arrest Assange “once and for all”, Sessions told a press conference in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday: “We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks. This is a matter that’s gone beyond anything I’m aware of. We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious.” He added: “So yes, it is a priority. We’ve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.”

"Manhunt underway for traitor who leaked vault-7 to Wikileaks" (pssst, Cheney did it. It was former Vice President, Dick Cheney. No, no need to thank me...)

Vice President Dick Cheney, 8/27/2002
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors ...
Secretary of Defense James Mattis, 4/21/2017
"There can be no doubt in the international community's mind that Syria has retained chemical weapons in violation of its agreement and its statement that it had removed them all. There is no longer any doubt," Mattis told reporters.

Driven by a desire to improve the living conditions in his home, Huang Dafa, chief of Caowangba, a small village hidden deep in the mountains of Guizhou Province, China, spent 36 years digging a 10-kilometer-long water canal through three mountains. (And he did it, and now electricity and a road also go to his beloved town, and he may not have to live to see the natural progression of his dream march out through the years. He's the local hero, and he's made of the stuff of heroes, but look who's driving up now!) Thanks, Bill
http://www.odditycentral.com/news/chinese-man-spends-36-years-chiseling-at-three-mountains-to-bring-water-to-his-village.html

Water of Life

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Squeaking Empire

Crying Wolf,

The Nerve Gas Attack that Did Not Occur April 4, in Khan Shekhoun, Syria.
This is not just the initial refutation by MIT Professor Postol, this is the complete analysis of locations, sun angles for time of day, wind patterns, where a nerve agent could possibly have been blown that morning, in what concentration, and where those "bodies" and "rescuers" could possibly have been located, in relation to that. 
This whole scam was really not up to Hollywood movie continuity-standards. 
Maybe the crappiness of the false-flag staging, with all the politicians (except Tulsi) and NATO countries pretending it is real, is the main message. 
"The American Empire will do whatever we want, with whatever cover story we want, and everybody in the Empire will treat it as gospel-truth."

Secretary of Defense Mattis says that the war in Yemen needs to be settled as quickly as possible through a UN brokered negotiation process. (His nickname in the USMC was "Monk", not "Mad Dog". He is considered to be in the upper echelon of current western military intellectuals. The Saudis are running low on cash.)

David Stockman gives the uncomfortable modern history of the Korean Peninsula. Excellent! Thanks Eleni.
Washington is apparently protecting East Asia from the Red Suzerains of Beijing, who the Donald is now imploring to help reel in the Fat Boy of Pyongyang!  Yes, the pursuit of empire weaves a wretched plot, as it has on the Korean littoral for 67 years running.

The U.S. gave Israel about $234 billion in foreign aid since the passage of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976, despite a ban on support for secret nuclear weapons programs.​ Now there's a lawsuit. (Somebody is going to get badly hurt, I suspect. Accidents happen... 
This news has been maneuvered around by Israel's policy of "Nuclear Ambiguity", where everybody knows they have a bigger nuclear arsenal than England or France, and submarine launched ballistic missiles, but the US government doesn't say that openly, because it is politically captured and needs to send the new Nazis hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons. Thanks Eleni.)

Charles Hugh Smith looks at: "Our Intellectual Bankruptcy, The Religion of Economics, Unearned Basic Income, and Medicare for All". (You are running out of gas. Lets put a $4000 supercharger on your motor! Where's your credit card?) [Unearned Basic Income is another form of miserable slavery for TV watchers. Personally, I favor single payer health care, and it will need to make more sense and be less bureaucratic and pay less for drugs. Look at this graph from the article.]

Martin Armstrong discusses global financial reset, and that a "strong" US dollar will push emerging market debtors into default, as it did in the Asian Economic Crisis: (I don't like this site of Greg Hunter's. He's irritating, but Armstrong is worth our attention.)
If and when a global collapse comes, it will come from China or Europe. Armstrong says, “Yes, because you don’t collapse the core economy.  It’s always the peripheral coming in.  It was the same thing in the Great Depression.  It wasn’t the fact that the U.S. defaulted.  The problem was the first bank that went down was in Austria, and it happened to be owned in part by the Rothschilds.  When people hear a bank owned by the Rothschilds went down, people started to sell off all other banks.  Then all the countries defaulted.” Armstrong says there is going to be a major “monetary reform” in the not so distant future, and the U.S. will end up with a dollar for domestic use and a dollar used for international trade, sort of like a “domestic dollar” and an “international trade dollar.” Armstrong says, “Yes. All it is doing is replacing the dollar as the reserve currency.  That would satisfy China and Russia, and it would simply be maintained by an international board.  I strongly advise against the IMF.  It’s way, way too corrupt.”

Federal Government might shut-down next week. Odds are about 1:3 these days. Lots of questions-of-honor to fight about, lots...

We know that the Greek Debt Crisis was engineered with the help of (well paid up front) Goldman Sachs, which obscured Greek debt and made it blossom in the dark, and that all of the further unsupportable loans just go to propping up EU TBTF banks in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, but it looks like the IMF actually needs it's cut of the action to keep from defaulting on it's bills, too. Weird circus! Thanks Eleni.

French Presidential Election first round is this Sunday, with 4 top candidates all within margin of error, of each other. The two corporatist candidates are (scandalized) Fillon, Anointed-corporate-lizard-with-sweet-tongue, Macron, "Far Right" French Nationalist, Marine LePen, and now "Far Left" Communistical-nice-guy, Jean-Luc Melenchon. 
The corporate-lizard-nightmare-scenario is that neither Fillon or Macron makes the first cut and the runoff is between the two deplorables, LePen and Melenchon. (Facebook deleted something like 30,000 pro LePen accounts, but even that neutron-bomb may not be enough. Power-Lizards must have Macron in second round, at any cost!)

Fouled Nest-mates

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Armageddon Hypothetical

Mulling it Over,

"Brink of nuclear war" is a phrase that has lost it's effect on Americans, isn't it? It is still important to Koreans, Russians and Chinese. There is a lot of worry on the part of the three nations which directly border North Korea, real, rational worry about American hubris. The American analysis seems to be that all of the bad things will happen over there, and that the North Koreans probably don't have an effective way to go nuclear on anybody but South Koreans. The stakes are very high, but since the consequences are to be born by Koreans, Russians and Chinese, American policy treats them with cavalier disregard.

The US is actually sending three aircraft carrier task forces to the Sea of Japan, the Carl Vinson, we know about, but also the Nimitz and the Ronald Reagan are also headed there by late April. This is absolutely massive nuclear firepower, conventional firepower, electronic warfare capability, guided missile cruisers, everything. This "armada" is out of reach of North Korean defenses, can destroy the country upon one command, and only Koreans, Chinese and Russians will suffer (though Japanese are nervous).

Now consider this:
"In a situation like this, the strategy of Moscow and its allies is to produce weapons systems capable of inflicting considerable damage to the United States at low cost, given that Moscow cannot simply print more money and pour debt on the rest of the world in order to finance its wars. A great example of this can be seen with the anti-ship missiles Moscow possesses, which are capable of destroying American aircraft carriers, considered the backbone of the US war strategy. A missile that costs hundreds of thousand of euros can cause damage to an aircraft carrier worth tens of billions of dollars, inflicting a mortal blow to the credibility of American military posture."

I have no link for this next thought, which is that American actions are hubris in the classical sense, as this country creates false flag attacks with chemical weapons on civilians, which are sloppy and obviously staged, and brazenly declares them to be the fault of Syria, which has no chemical weapons, and launches a reprisal attack on Syria to make a demonstration to the world that truth matters not at all against this great power. 
This country is playing lying-hardball with China, Russia and Iran, three ancient and sophisticated civilizations.
This act of the play can be concluded with the great empire completely losing face after attacking North Korea. 
Russia, China and Iran can take a step back and just let North Korea fire some massed batteries of conventional missiles against the American Armada, to be shot down summarily, then appear to do the same thing in another round, but fire multiple hypersonic anti-ship missiles right afterward, to arrive at the same time, while the defenses of the "armada" are already fully engaged. 
North Korea would have defended itself only against the massive "armada", not risking civilians in South Korea.
Any escalation against civilians would be done by the US. Paradigm shift would occur.

Eleni sends this article about the American empire funding all the wars of conquest by use of money loaned by the rest of the world. US military spends about as much as the US collects in ALL personal income taxes each year. (This is possible because of global reserve currency status of the $US, and the fact that the whole world is completely cowed by the US military. What if those conditions suddenly change?)

Pravda says that Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb dropped on Afghanistan was dropped an a very, very well known target.
Meanwhile former CIA agent Edward Snowden revealed what the Americans bombed in Afghanistan in reality. According to him, they struck tunnels building of which was funded by the US. The New York Times has also written that construction of the base for Mujahideen had been funded by the CIA. 

Gordon Duff: "In 1968, Democratic Senator Robert Kennedy, an anti-war candidate, was the front-runner in the presidential race. The party had revolted against President Johnson, forcing him to drop out of contention, and America got behind an anti-war candidate who surged ahead in the polls. He was quickly murdered... One member of congress, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, stands alone against those crying for war with Syria, Russia and Iran. Only Gabbard, has openly criticized President Trump for attacking Syria without evidence."

Life on the Line

Monday, April 17, 2017

Naked Empire

Restless Subjects,

Medicare For All has been presented to Congress every year since 2003. It has more support than ever. Bernie Sanders will introduce companion-legislation in the Senate. It will be blocked, but until when?
"This bill establishes the Medicare for All Program to provide all individuals residing in the United States and U.S. territories with free health care that includes all medically necessary care," and "only public or nonprofit institutions may participate."

Human health is destroyed by our current neoliberal economic system, where we are all controlled from the top down, deprived of our group identities and relationships, which are the core of our nature, the foundation of all of our successes in the world. We need to be the animals we were born to be, or we will suffer in sickness, deprivation and addiction. This economy does not serve us. It enslaves us, dividing-and-conquering us...

"Back in the USSR"; Eleni sends this. It's about how supply and demand meet in command economies, like the USSR. 
Long waiting lines become the new mediator. We have that with Obamacare, and it is just beginning. Bureaucracies raise as many hurdles/obstacles to access of care and services, as are necessary to match pay-outs with income and still turn the right profit. 
Eventually, people have to find ways around a frozen system. What's the medical equivalent of buying turnips from somebody's garden?

Jean-Luc Melenchon is the "Communist" who is now in third place in French presidential election polling. He's really against neoliberal capitalism, and for independent French decision making. His social-left flavor distances him from the LePen support base, and likewise, his supporters might sooner abstain than vote for LePen in the second round. It's sad, and it's what the neoliberal elites are banking on.

Mike Pence warns North Korea (who never doubted the fact) "we're serious about bombing you if you don't do as we command". Seoul, South Korea, with millions of citizens, is a ready target for North Korean reprisals, and there is an urgent election next month to replace the president. (North Korea needs nukes and missiles to counter US threats. Only threat-reduction can change that. The US can easily reduce the threats, but that would go against habit. Perhaps the most important lesson of recent US attacks on Syria and Afghanistan is that they were based upon lies, and everybody accepts those lies without question.)

General HR McMaster says the same lies, that Russia is "destabilizing Europe" and supporting the "horrible" Assad regime, and it is time for tough negotiations with Russia. Russia, and the world know that this is threat-based-on-lies and upon evil false-flag attacks by American and Saudi backed mercenaries with chemical weapons. This is the head of the National Security Council, who tailors all the intelligence data from the various agencies for presentation to the President. (We are on our own in this world.)

Turkish President Erdogan really seemed to quiet down from my point of view over the past 10 days, yet I knew he was committed to becoming Sultan, and that the polls did not suggest any certainty that he would. I figured he needed some kind of "event" to get full support, or to rig the vote. Here's what he chose. His party unilaterally declared that paper ballots would not require the usual stamp of validation to be counted. 1.5 million "un-sealed" ballots have been counted, and Erdogan has a narrow "win", based on his party's count, but not on the other counts, which exclude those ballots.

No EU leader (not one) congratulates Erdogan on his "win", awaiting final word from the OECD, which will have to endorse or reject the vote count. 
(High stakes for the Empire, and for the aspiring Sultan! What are the back-room negotiations like today? What is the empire offering the Erdogan? What are Russia, China and Iran offering him? How long will this twist in the wind? It could twist for awhile.)

At his victory speech late on Sunday, supporters chanted that he should bring back the death penalty -- a move that would finish off Turkey’s bid to join the European Union -- and Erdogan warned opponents not to bother challenging the legitimacy of his win. He told them to prepare for the biggest overhaul of Turkey’s system of governance ever, one that will result in him having even fewer checks on his already considerable power. “Today, Turkey has made a historic decision,” he said. “We will change gears and continue along our course more quickly.”

China, Russia and Iran are all working on an alternative newer-world-order, with India and Turkey keeping their options open. US intransigence, unwillingness to deal, other than with threats, gives the world no other long term solution than to develop alternatives to the current neoliberal/neoconservative world order. They are all being patient and working steadily. WE can consider that the SWIFT banking system has been compromised by the NSA, and hackers have released those bugs and hacks. Russia and China have an alternative in early beta testing. The US is threatening more sanctions against Russia, which has already dealt quite well with that assault. Threats from the center of the empire are not being openly met with any open debate by client states, but nobody can be fooled anymore... The emperor is obviously naked. 
The fact that the empire is hardening all stances with military and financial threats, based upon lies, can really only end in the next reset, and it should come as a surprise to nobody. I predict a lot of surprise here in Texas, though...

China and Russia are watching the movements of the Carl Vinson carrier task force near Korea with great interest. Both have adjusted their border forces recently.

Russian submarines are to be layered with specialized 'masked' coatings, rendering them indistinguishable from whales and orcas. 
Thanks Bill. (Man, North Korea is who really needs this stuff, but what could they have to pay for it?)

Syria remains the active theater of war-for-gas-pipeline-to-Europe. US troops in Jordan are worth watching. (Tahnks Eleni
(There can be a big ramp up there, which would then burst into Syria on some pretext. Training all those Syrians to fight the government has been an expensive and dismal failure, but we have to get the Saudi/Qatari pipeline through to Europe, or lose to Russian/Iranian interests!)

Potato-chip-bomber in Aleppo kills about 120 - 150 people, who were part of a human-hostage swap between civilian in government controlled areas and rebel controlled areas. hese mainly-Shiite civilians and aid workers were killed when their convoy was held up by rebel forces, and starving children were lured by potato chips, before the truck bomb was detonated. Nobody is taking credit or effectively casting blame, so this may not be a false flag attack, but really represent discord in rebel factions. Many were against the terms of this arrangement. 

David Stockman presents the MOAD (mother of all debt) Crisis, on day 100 of the reign of Emperor Trump, April 28, 2017!

Sharp Dressed Man