Reader’s Links, January 3, 2018

Daily Links Post graphic

In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

150 Replies to “Reader’s Links, January 3, 2018”

  1. Katie Hopkins joins The Rebel Media!

    TheRebel.media proudly welcomes outspoken UK commentator Katie Hopkins to our international team!

    • the guardian – Katie Hopkins joins far-right Canadian website Rebel Media

      Former Mail Online columnist aims to ‘tell the stories not being told’ through new website called Hopkins World

      Katie Hopkins, the former Mail Online columnist, has joined far-right Canadian website the Rebel Media, where Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, is also a contributor.

      Hopkins will write a regular column through a new website called Hopkins World and will also contribute video commentaries and investigative reports.

      She parted ways with Mail Online, the sister website of the Daily Mail, last year after the website did not renew her contract.

      Hopkins rose to fame by appearing in the third series of the Apprentice and wrote for the Mail Online for two years after leaving the Sun. But her columns and tweets have led to her being accused of publishing deliberate provocation rather than legitimate commentary.

      One of her most controversial pieces involved comparing African migrants crossing the Mediterranean to “cockroaches” and calling for gunboats to stop migrants reaching their destination.

      The day after it emerged that Hopkins had left Mail Online the website apologised and said it had agreed to pay “substantial damages” to a teacher whom the columnist had falsely accused of taking her class to a Donald Trump protest in Westminster.

      Hopkins said the aim of Hopkins World is to “tell the stories not being told”.

      She said in her first column: “When so many platforms are under the control of the Saudis, tied to fickle commercial advertisers or beholden to special interests and religious lobbyists, it is a real thrill to find a place for us to speak without censorship.

      “If you hear yourself saying: ‘I’m not supposed to say this, but …’ then I am here to reassure you that you are. Your views matter. You matter.

      “With this platform provided by Rebel Media, and the kind support of my sponsors, subscribers, and adversaries, we will be heard.”

      Rebel Media was founded by Ezra Levant, a Canadian broadcaster and political activist.

      Robinson presents the Tommy Robinson Show on the Rebel Media. In December, articles promoting the show included the headlines “Tommy Robinson: Attack of the Muslim Social Justice Warriors” and “Tommy Robinson Show: Investigating the UK Muslim charity staging a ‘halal’ Christmas pantomime”.

      The lead story on the Rebel Media’s website on Wednesday evening was “New California textbooks turn historical figures gay, trans.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/03/katie-hopkins-joins-far-right-canadian-website-rebel-media

  2. FRANCE- Macron wants anti-‘fake news’ law in 2018

    PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he would overhaul French media legislation this year to fight the “fake news” spread on social media which he said threatened liberal democracies.

    Since he was elected last year, Macron has criticized Russian media in particular, openly accusing TV channel RT of sowing disinformation about him via its website and social media during the presidential election.

    “If we want to protect liberal democracies, we must have strong legislation,” Macron told a news conference.

    Macron said the legislation would concern social media platforms, especially during election periods, and deeply change the role of France’s media watchdog CSA.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-macron/macron-wants-anti-fake-news-law-in-2018-idUSKBN1ES1LJ
    ================================================
    euronews – Macron announces new law against “fake news”

    French President Emmanuel Macron says he will introduce a new law against the spread of “fake news” in the lead up to elections.

    French President Emmanuel Macron says he will introduce a new law against the spread of “fake news” in the lead up to elections.

    Macron made the announcement during a New Year’s address to the press corps at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

    “I have decided that we will change our legal system to protect democratic life from this fake news,” Macron said on Wednesday evening. “During the election period, on the internet, content will no longer have exactly the same rules,” he added.

    The proposed legislation will also change the role of French media watchdog CSA, Macron said.

    Macron has been highly critical of Russian media in particular, openly accusing TV channel RT of sowing disinformation about him via its website and social media during the 2017 French presidential election.

    http://www.euronews.com/2018/01/03/macron-announces-new-law-against-fake-news-

  3. How Trump Really Beat the Media
    By letting the media beat itself.
    January 3, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    President Trump’s end year remarks to the New York Times acerbically summed up his relationship with the media. “I’m going to win another four years… because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there.” The answering outburst of rage and contempt from the media burned all the hotter because the statement was not only intentionally provocative; it was also true.

    The media has never been able to quit Trump. Its conviction that it can destroy him through coverage has repeatedly proven false. But that hasn’t stopped the media from throwing more coverage at him. And its motive for the non-stop coverage has always been the selfish pursuit of ratings, clicks and sales.

    The New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN are all busy playing Trump-slayers when what they really want is four more years of rising subscriptions, ad sales and profits. Few politicians understand that conflict of interest better than Trump who has spent most of his adult life playing the media.

    These days the media needs Trump more than ever. Its old purpose, reporting the news, is as dead as the telegraph. Reporting is expensive. It requires infrastructure and personnel. And it isn’t very profitable. In the age of the internet, few people will sit around and watch the pointless reporting from the scene of an event that was once the staple of local news and cable news.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268884/how-trump-really-beat-media-daniel-greenfield

    • President Trump’s end year remarks to the New York Times acerbically summed up his relationship with the media. “I’m going to win another four years… because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there.” The answering outburst of rage and contempt from the media burned all the hotter because the statement was not only intentionally provocative; it was also true.

      What better possible example of the “Streisand Effect” could there be than a hysterical Propaganda Media that simply cannot contain itself when it comes to interminably shrieking and squealing about Trump’s administration?

      The louder they squawk, the more publicity Trump gets. Considering just how anti-American so many of these Mass Media outlets are, you’d think they might have the wits to sit down and STFU.

      [John Belushi]

      Buuuuut Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

      [/John Belushi]

      Instead these termites shine their brightest spotlights on Trump and his policies. What a great idea! Put your whipping boy on center stage whilst demanding that the audience ignore him. However much I detest the old maxim—”Whenever you point your finger at someone, there are three others pointing back at yourself“—in this particular case, it could not be more true.

  4. The US Doesn’t Have to Lose the Information War in Iran
    Why President Trump should immediately change the leadership of the Voice of America.
    January 3, 2018
    Kenneth R. Timmerman

    U.S. government broadcasting is a powerful tool that can be used to promote freedom and bolster anti-regime protestors in Iran. After all, that’s why Congress has appropriated some $740 million per year to finance it. Promoting freedom and waging an information war on America’s enemies is in our national interest.

    But led by a stable of Obama appointees, the Voice of America and the Persian language service at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Radio Farda) are being used to support the Iranian regime and denigrate the leadership of President Trump.

    While the Persian language services, after much public criticism, are now posting cellphone videos of the protests on their social media accounts, their on-air coverage has been tepid, with regular hosts “balancing” coverage of the protestors with coverage of the regime’s lies.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268904/us-doesnt-have-lose-information-war-iran-kenneth-r-timmerman

  5. Obama’s Minions Fight Hard To Betray Iranian Freedom Once Again
    The Left reserves its wrath for President Trump.
    January 3, 2018
    Lloyd Billingsley

    One would hardly know it from the establishment media but since December 28 Iranians have been taking it to the streets to protest Iran’s weak economy and high food prices. The Islamic regime reacted with violence and at this writing has killed more than 20 protesters. Mousa Ghazanfarabadi, head of the Revolutionary Court, warns that protesters will be charged with Moharebeh, “waging war against God,” which is punishable by death.

    “The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime,” President Trump tweeted. “All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. . . The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”

    Iranians took to the street in 2009 but POTUS 44 did nothing to support them and during his two terms essentially gave the oppressive Islamic regime everything it wanted. With Iranians protesting in greater numbers, the crew of POTUS 44 seems inclined to give the Islamic regime a pass and reserve their wrath for President Trump.

    POTUS 44 claimed he was “troubled” by violence against the protesters, but it was “up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be.” The former president was also wary of “the United States being the issue inside of Iran.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268912/obamas-minions-fight-hard-betray-iranian-freedom-lloyd-billingsley

  6. Twitter Suspends Ex-Muslim Cartoonist, Allows Hamas and Hezbollah
    January 3, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    Hamas has a Twitter account. It links directly to the website of a terrorist organization responsible for murdering thousands of people. And which advocates genocide. Al Aqsa TV, Hamas’ tv channel, also has its own Twitter account.

    Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV also has several Twitter accounts.

    Both of these are recognized terrorist organizations. Hamas is listed as a FTO terrorist group by the State Department. Providing services to it as Twitter does, may be illegal.

    But Hamas and Hezbollah are a few of the many Islamic terrorist organizations and supporters who are active on Twitter. But while Twitter has no problem with terrorists. It does have a problem with those who criticize them.

    Bosch Fawstin, an ex-Muslim critic who was targeted in the first ISIS attack in America, has been suspended by Twitter.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268905/twitter-suspends-ex-muslim-cartoonist-allows-hamas-daniel-greenfield

  7. Three Iranian intelligence agents killed in western city of Piranshahr – Mehr (reuters, Jan 3, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-security-death/three-iranian-intelligence-agents-killed-in-western-city-of-piranshahr-mehr-idUKKBN1ES1KX?rpc=401&

    “Three members of Iran’s intelligence forces were killed in clashes in the western city of Piranshahr on Wednesday, Mehr news agency reported, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards.

    The three died “in a fight with anti-revolutionary elements” the statement read.

    The statement did not say if the fight was related to the anti-government protests in Iran.”

  8. Illegal Immigration And Crime
    The stunning numbers the Left cannot refute.
    January 3, 2018
    Michael Cutler

    On December 21, 2017 the Department of Justice issued a press release, “Departments of Justice and Homeland Security Release Data on Incarcerated Aliens—94 Percent of All Confirmed Aliens in DOJ Custody Are Unlawfully Present.”

    The initial statistic cited in the title of that DOJ press release shows that there is a truly significant distinction to be drawn between aliens who are lawfully present in the United States and aliens who are illegally present in the United States, either because they have entered the United States illegally or they have violated the terms of admission after entering the United States via the inspections procedure at ports of entry.

    The press release begins with the following statement:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268903/illegal-immigration-and-crime-michael-cutler

  9. Mueller Grand Jury Looks Like Black Lives Matter/Bernie Sanders Rally
    January 3, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    Another data point for just how rigged the Mueller kangaroo court is.

    We already know that Clinton and Obama judges have allowed Mueller and his cronies to get away with grotesque abuses of authority. Including violating attorney-client privilege.

    Howell is an Obama appointee and a former Leahy adviser. Beryl and her husband are both Dem donors. She’s also a pal of Obama’s former DOJ boss, Lorretta Lynch. And of Andrew Weissmann.

    Weissmann, an Obama donor, is a key member of Mueller’s team.

    And Judge Howell gave Mueller his grand jury and decided that Manafort wasn’t entitled to attorney-client privilege. It was an extraordinary and troubling decision. And its legitimacy can’t help but be questioned when it comes from a partisan Dem figure.

    It was seemingly Weissman, Howell’s old friend, who decided to shred Manafort’s attorney-client privilege. And Weissman has been described as being very friendly with Loretta Lynch.

    Mueller’s team is loaded with Obama and Clinton people.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268913/mueller-grand-jury-looks-black-lives-matterbernie-daniel-greenfield

  10. Migrants Attack Female French Police Officer (VIDEO)
    January 3, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    Migrants Attack Female French Police Officer (VIDEO)

    It’s just another violent incident in the countless incidents that have terrorized French cops worse than anything Obama and Holder’s DOJ did.

    Horrifying video footage has emerged of a female police officer and her boss being beaten in a Paris suburb.

    The incident took place in the early hours of Monday following an emergency call in Champigny-sur-Marne, an area to the south-east of the city.
    The unnamed police officer was filmed by gang members as she was kicked around by the attackers. The footage was then uploaded onto the internet by the group.

    At one stage, her colleague appears so badly beaten up that he takes his gun out his holster, but does not let off a shot.

    Of course not. He knows the price he would pay. Not from the gang members, but from the authorities.

    The footage on social media has sparked outrage across France, with president Emmanuel Macron promising to bring the culprits to justice.

    Migration is the culprit.

    And the only reason Macron is doing his feigned outrage rumba is that the video went viral. Attacks on police officers in France have long ago become routine. It shouldn’t take a viral video to generate a show of outrage over them.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268911/migrants-attack-female-french-police-officer-video-daniel-greenfield

  11. Spain rescues 55 sub-Saharan migrants crossing Mediterranean (abcnews, Jan 3, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spain-rescues-55-saharan-migrants-crossing-mediterranean-52117647

    “Spain’s maritime rescue service says it has rescued 55 migrants from a boat in which they were trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

    The service says a non-governmental organization warned authorities on Tuesday about the boat with 53 men and two women on board.

    A rescue plane and a vessel were dispatched and the migrants were pulled from the boat 13 miles (20 kilometers) southwest of Alboran Island, which lies midway between the coasts of northern Africa and southern Spain.

    The service says the migrants, all from sub-Saharan countries, are in good health…”

  12. Kosovo court finds 4 opposition MPs guilty of using tear gas (abcnews, Jan 3, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kosovo-court-finds-opposition-mps-guilty-tear-gas-52118572

    “A Kosovo court has found four opposition lawmakers guilty of repeatedly disrupting parliament by using tear gas.

    The four members of the left-wing Self-Determination Party — Albin Kurti, Donika Kadaj Bujupi, Albulena Haxhiu and Faton Topalli — were sentenced Wednesday to up to 18 months in prison. They won’t be jailed, however, if they do not commit the same crime during a two-year probation period.

    The verdict said in four parliamentary sessions the defendants had used “tear gas without authorization” to block lawmakers from working…”

  13. Sabotage, you admit to, eh?

    With the rise of Donald Trump’s malignant right wing troll army and the extension of Toronto’s tentacles into every cavern of our cities, the anti-pipeline movement in Southern Ontario has been spread a little thin this year. We’ve pulled off a couple work-stoppages, some night-time sabotage, and made our best effort at storming the closed-door meetings of the NEB, but on the whole we’ve lacked a coordinated strategy. But we felt it appropriate that on the eve of 2017 and at the tail end of Enbridge’s Line 10 pipeline expansion plan, we deliver one more message to the shareholders, architects and cheerleaders of this cross-continent calamity.

    http://archive.is/NWCBT#selection-61.0-97.27

  14. Britain is being forced to turn to charities from the developing world amid a crisis in dentistry, dentists claim today.

    In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, dentists said they were being swamped by red tape and targets, without time or resources to prevent tooth disease, with poor so care that charities from abroad were stepping in to provide aid.

    The signatories warned of a “national health disaster” in dentistry, leaving prevention neglected and patients untreated.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/dental-crisis-leaves-britain-reliant-charity-developing-world/

  15. OK – so the attempted rape of a woman in labour happened in Italy

    An unreal situation in the Italian capital Rome, according to Libero; a Somalian man managed to get past the security of Sant’Eugenio Hospital and stormed a delivering room where he attempted to rape a woman in labour. Migrants have been found guilty of various terrible crimes but this is a first. Luckily the monster was stopped before he could harm the woman and her baby.

    https://www.defendevropa.org/2018/migrants/migrant-crime/italy-somalian-storms-delivery-room-attempts-rape-woman-labour/

    • attempted rape of a woman in labour

      Just as Islam has no upper limit to its barbarity, neither does it have a lower limit. … As this particular case serves to prove.

  16. Globalist French President Emmanuel Macron told citizens in European Union (EU) countries to resist “nationalists and sceptics” and support him as he pushes for greater integration of the bloc.
    Breaking from tradition by addressing “fellow citizens” in the EU rather than solely the citizens of the country he was elected to govern, President Macron told television viewers on Sunday evening: “2018 is a very special year and I will need you this year.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/03/frances-macron-tells-eu-fellow-citizens-resist-nationalists-eurosceptics-2018/

  17. Australian Islamic undertaker makes bizarre rant next to a body on a trolley – warning Muslims will end up dead in a fridge if they drink, have sex or even accept a party invite from non-believers
    Islamic undertaker Ahmad Hraichie made a video as he wheeled a dead body
    He bizarrely ranted against Muslims who drank and had sex outside of marriage
    Rockwood Cemetery undertaker from western Sydney slammed New Year’s Eve
    He argued other faiths also encouraged followers to abstain from premarital sex

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5230455/Islamic-undertaker-warns-Muslims-not-drink-sex.html

    • When smashing blackberries with hammers just does not do the work, just burn the evidence!

      Aw, shucks. And here I was … thinking that it’s just the gates of hell opening up beneath them. Silly me!

  18. Germany: ‘We must integrate’ – study links crime to ‘frustrated’ migrants

    Spokesperson for the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth Verena Herb commented on a recent study, which has linked the increased crime rate with the latest waves of migrants. She was speaking at the press conference in Berlin, Wednesday.

    • ISIS executioner ‘White Beard’ who threw gay men off buildings and stoned people to death is ‘captured in Iraq’

      Too bad we no longer have one of the World Trade Center towers to throw this maggot from. Allowing him the pleasure of all those other “falling people” on 9-11 would be the barest form of justice imaginable for this oxygen thief.

      In most instances, I rarely favor cruel and unusual punishment. However, in the case of Islamic rectal cavities like this one, I’m more than willing to make an exception (or twenty).

  19. Fire at home of Bill and Hillary Clinton in Chappaqua (express, Jan 3, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/899773/Hillary-Clinton-fire-Bill-home-Chappaqua-New-Castle-police-USA

    “FIRE crews have rushed to the home of Bill and Hillary Clinton after a blaze broke out.

    The fire started in a bedroom of the property in Chappaqua, New York.

    New Castle police confirmed the blaze started at the Clinton property.

    The pair bought the huge building for $1.7m back in 1999 and have lived there ever since.

    More to follow.”

    • FIRE crews have rushed to the home of Bill and Hillary Clinton after a blaze broke out.

      Let’s all hope for a finding of spontaneous human combustion. After all, it’s not like any of the Clintons aren’t sufficiently enriched with Grade A brimstone.

  20. Just to inform what German TV is showing.
    *******************************
    “Escape from Europe”

    The television movie “Departure into the unknown” (WDR / ARD Degeto), at 20:15 on Wednesday, 14 February 2018, describes the fate of a family fleeing the persecution of a totalitarian system in life-threatening circumstances

    In the near future: Europe is lost in chaos. Right-wing extremists have taken power in many countries. The democratic state that once was Germany has become a totalitarian system that persecutes dissenters, Muslims and homosexuals. Jan Schneider (Fabian Busch) has stood as a lawyer on the side of dispossessed victims. When he learns that the regime wants to jail him again, he decides to flee. His goal is the South African Union, which enjoys political and economic stability after an economic boom. A freighter is to bring him, his wife Sarah (Maria Simon) and two children Nora (Athena Strates) and Nick (Ben Gertz) together with other refugees to Cape Town, but the tugs put their passengers in much too small boats off the coast of Namibia.

    http://www.daserste.de/specials/ueber-uns/themenabend-flucht-aus-europa-100.html

    • HOLOCAUST WAS A MYTH AND A LIE

      Sure thing … and what Hitler left undone Islam has vowed to finish!

  21. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in public remarks at a cabinet meeting on the payment programme, called the migrants’ presence a threat to Israel’s social fabric and Jewish character, and one government minister has referred to them as ‘a cancer’.

    Some 60,000 have crossed into Israel from nations such as Eritrea and Sudan, many fleeing war and persecution as well as economic hardship.

    The plan launched this week offers African migrants a $3,500 payment from the Israeli government and a free air ticket to return home or go to ‘third countries’, which rights groups identified as Rwanda and Uganda.”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5231587/Israel-offers-pay-African-migrants-leave-threatens-jail.html

  22. Richard: Read the entire article, it is damning to the FBI.

    Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI’s handling of Clinton email case

    Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

    For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server, lawmakers and investigators told The Hill.

    That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the “sheer volume” of classified information that flowed through Clinton’s insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said.

    The name of the witness is redacted from the FBI documents but lawmakers said he was an employee of a computer firm that helped maintain her personal server after she left office as America’s top diplomat and who belatedly admitted he had permanently erased an archive of her messages in 2015 after they had been subpoenaed by Congress.

    The investigators also confirmed that the FBI began drafting a statement exonerating Clinton of any crimes while evidence responsive to subpoenas was still outstanding and before agents had interviewed more than a dozen key witnesses.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367141-congressional-investigators-find-irregularities-in-fbis-handling-of

  23. Four political parties in Kurdistan province in Iran have declared their support for the protests in the country, calling upon the international community to support what they have described as people’s “rightful demands”.

    In a joint statement, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and Society of Revolutionary Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan (SRTIK) have urged the international community to put pressure on the Islamic Republic to release people detained during recent protests.

    Meanwhile, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) has also declared its support for the “rightful demands” of Iranians, insisting that Iran’s problems can be addressed only through democracy.

    https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-potests-kurdish-parties-support/28953528.html

    • They have modified the derivatives market, they caused the 07 crash and looks like they will cause this next crash.

      • They have modified the derivatives market…

        Exactol, Richard.

        I will continue to unashamedly recommend that people please watch Ann Barnhardt’s, “Ann Barnhardt – The Economy Is Going To Implode Full Version“.

        Although a bit over two hours in length, watching Barnhardt’s video will totally explain both America’s insane “derivatives” obsession and Richard’s excellent reference to China’s “shadow banking” lunacy.

        Without an understanding of Barnhardt’s explanation, you (as investors or savers), are monumentally vulnerable to existing unethical practices that are rampant throughout America’s (or the global) financial model.

        It’s up to you.

        Again, thank you, Richard, for providing such a superb financial analysis of the Chinese (Shadow) banking insanity that has spread from supremely evil American (and European) investment institutions.

        • I have never understood how supposedly intelligent investors could do anything as stupid as invest large sums in the derivatives market. This was set up under the Clintons, went bust and then the Obama administration started working to rebuild the derivatives market. Now China is involved and about to implode because of this stupidity.

          • Yet another time, I will link to this one single image:

            All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization

            If this infographic isn’t enough to make you watch all two hours of Ann Barnhardt’s video, I don’t know what will.

            As in, it takes Barnhardt over half an hour to articulately explain the over-extension of American (and global) banks that the inforgraphic depicts in its very last segment.

            Remember (per Barnhardt), if your money is in bank accounts or even just stuffed under your mattress, it’s all just “ones and zeros” on some government computer.

            PS: Pay close attention to the right-hand sidebar when it comes to “China’s debt as a percentage of GDP”.

            Finally, look at the very bottom where Bitcoin’s entire worth is compared to all derivatives. Again, if this does not scare the everliving crap out of you … I’ll have what you’re having.

  24. US: We Won’t Abandon Iranian People

    According to a leaked report, Iran’s leaders are panicked about the burgeoning protest movement in the country. What started out as demonstrations against the dire economic situation has grown to full-out demonstrations against Islamist rule.

    The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a major opposition group, provided Fox News with a document from a meeting between Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, political leaders and heads of the country’s security forces discussing the increasingly unwieldy situation.

    Notes from the meeting read: “Religious leaders and the leadership must come to the scene as soon as possible and prevent the situation (from) deteriorating further. God help us, this is a very complex situation and is different from previous occasions.”

    By day three of the protests — which started December 28 in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city — the regime was blaming the protests on American, British and Israeli spies.

    At press time, 12 people have been killed in the demonstrations, the largest in Iran since the Green Revolution protests of 2009.

    https://clarionproject.org/iran-protests-world-leaders-tweet-infographic/

    • One of the expats that is helping run the protests was on Tucker Carlson tonight, he said that a lot of the Iranian military is on the side of the protesters and that a lot of the Revolutionary Guard as setting out the protests to see who wins.

      I hope what he says is true and not just some reports that aren’t based on reality. We are going to have to wait and see what happens. He also said that the Tweets by Trump were a big help to the protesters and that if we can find some way to get the social media turned back on it will help the protesters even more.

      • … a lot of the Revolutionary Guard is setting out the protests to see who wins.

        Bad move. The IRG has been such a negative force throughout modern Iranian history that hesitation on their part will only earn increased wrath from the nation’s Persian population.

        It’s time for these IRG turds to take sides and make a stand. Iran’s people have had enough and will not look kindly upon those who sat out the all-too-common Islamic “festivities” in order to determine which way to jump.

  25. Secret Document Reveals China Covertly Offering Missiles, Increased Aid to North Korea
    Party directive warns another nuclear test could lead to war and promises aid boost in exchange for testing ban

    China’s Communist Party adopted a secret plan in September to bolster the North Korean government with increased aid and military support, including new missiles, if Pyongyang halts further nuclear tests, according to an internal party document.

    The document, labeled “top secret” and dated Sept. 15—12 days after North Korea’s latest underground nuclear blast—outlines China’s plan for dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue. It states China will allow North Korea to keep its current arsenal of nuclear weapons, contrary to Beijing’s public stance that it seeks a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

    Chinese leaders also agreed to offer new assurances that the North Korean government will not be allowed to collapse, and that Beijing plans to apply sanctions “symbolically” to avoid punishing the regime of leader Kim Jong Un under a recent U.N. resolution requiring a halt to oil and gas shipments into North Korea.

    A copy of the four-page Chinese-language document was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon from a person who once had ties to the Chinese intelligence and security communitie

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/secret-document-reveals-china-covertly-offering-missiles-increased-aid-north-korea/

  26. 2017: Chicago Homicides Outnumber U.S. Military Casualties 18 to 1

    (CNSNews.com) — There were 664 homicides in Chicago in 2017 and, for comparison, 37 casualties in the U.S. military in its myriad operations around the globe. That’s according to data from the Chicago Tribune and from the Department of Defense’s press office.

    The Chicago deaths are for the period Jan. 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2017; the military deaths are from Jan. 1, 2017 through Dec. 22, 2017, which is the latest update on casualties by the DoD posted so far. (There may have been a few more military casualties in December.)

    From the data available, it shows that Chicago suffered 17.9 times more homicides than the U.S. military worldwide — combat and non-combat related deaths — last year.

    https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/2017-chicago-homicides-664-us-military-casualties-37

  27. Probe Uncovers “Laws Broken, False Statements” In FBI Handling of Clinton Emails

    n what could be a major black eye for the deep state and yet another nail in the Clinton legacy coffin, The Hill’s John Solomon reports that Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

    “This was an effort to pre-bake the cake, pre-bake the outcome,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a House Judiciary Committee member who attended the McCabe briefing before the holidays.

    “Hillary Clinton obviously benefited from people taking actions to ensure she wasn’t held accountable.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-02/congressional-probe-uncovers-irregularities-contradictions-fbis-handling-clinton

  28. Obama Betrayed Iranian People; Trump Stands with Them

    by Majid Rafizadeh
    January 3, 2018 at 4:30 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11664/iran-obama-trump

    Remember, just eight years ago, that the people of Iran rose up in their millions against their Islamist dictatorship. The US administration at the time stayed abhorrently silent. People on the streets chanted, “Obama, Obama, are you with them [mullahs] or with us?”

    Washington did not offer support. The administration’s dismissal not only enabled the mullahs brutally to crush the demonstrations with impunity; the mullahs were even rewarded with a deal that would enable them to have a legitimate nuclear weapons capability down the road, as well as billions of dollars.

    Obama and the Iranian regime sold the world the idea that the nuclear agreement, appeasement policies towards the mullahs, and the lifting of UN sanctions would supposedly help the Iranian people and make the Iranian government a constructive player. All facts show, then as now, that the opposite took place.

    People are suffering financially in oil-rich Iran (as they are in oil-rich Venezuela). Unemployment among the youth has reached a record-high of roughly 31%, while approximately 60% of the Iranian population is under 30 years of age. Many of the youth are highly educated and tech-savvy but they cannot find jobs. Those who are older cannot afford medicine, food or shelter. Inflation has been skyrocketing.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11664/iran-obama-trump

    • Obama Betrayed Iranian People; Trump Stands with Them

      This is going to be a political “trout in the milk pail”. There is no way in H-E-Double Toothpicks that Western Liberals will be able to excuse 0bama’s abject appeasement of Iran’s mullahocracy while continuing to criticize Trump’s outspoken and moral stance against Tehran’s hyper-corruption and abuse.

      This is where it comes down to fight-or-fü¢k fish or cut bait.

  29. Pay Attention to Latin America and Africa before Controversies Erupt

    by John R. Bolton
    January 3, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11661/latin-america-africa-controversies

    Latin America and Africa have rarely rated as top U.S. foreign policy priorities in recent years, but 2018 may change that. Political instability and the collapse of national governments, international terrorism and its associated financing, and great power competition for natural resources and political influence could all threaten significant American national security interests next year. If several simmering controversies erupt simultaneously, Washington could find itself facing these crises with little or no strategic thinking to guide our responses.

    In the Western Hemisphere, Cuba as of now is scheduled on April 19 to see the end of official leadership by the Castro brothers. Since seizing power from Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Fidel and Raul have embodied global revolutionary Marxism, defying U.S. opposition and repressing domestic dissent without compunction. But while loath to admit it, the Castros were always sustained by external assistance, by the Soviet Union until its 1991 collapse in turn prompted a near-terminal regime crisis in Cuba, and more recently by Venezuela’s dictatorship.

    Moreover, despite Barack Obama’s revealingly ideological effort to extend a lifeline by granting the Castro regime diplomatic recognition, economic conditions did not improve and domestic political repression only intensified. Even beyond Cuba’s open contempt for Obama’s concessions, however, 2017’s still unexplained sonic attacks on American diplomatic personnel crossed the line. Denied by Havana but hard to imagine without its connivance, these attacks concentrated the new Trump administration’s attention. In November, the White House rolled back many of Obama’s changes, serving notice that harming Americans was unacceptable.

    • When you read this article remember the video about the Chinese economy and the shadow banking/derivatives trade, if’/when this collapses it will be 07 times 5 or 10. This collapse stands a good chance of bringing down the Chinese Communist Government which in turn rewrites the entire international political dynamic.

  30. Turkish banker found guilty in Iran sanctions case allegedly tied to Erdo?an (theguardian, Jan 3, 2018)
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/03/turkey-banker-iran-sanctions-mehmet-hakan-atilla

    “A US jury has found a Turkish banker guilty of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, after a nearly four-week trial that has strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey.

    Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank, was convicted on five of six counts he faced, including bank fraud and conspiracy, in Manhattan federal court.

    Atilla was also found not guilty on a money laundering charge. Jurors issued their verdict on the fourth day of deliberations.

    Prosecutors had accused Atilla of conspiring with a gold trader, Reza Zarrab, and others to help Iran escape sanctions using fraudulent gold and food transactions. Zarrab pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecutors.

    In several days on the witness stand, Zarrab described a sprawling scheme that he said included bribes to Turkish government officials and was carried out with the blessing of the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

    Halkbank had no immediate comment. Attempts to reach Erdo?an’s spokesman for comment on the allegations at the trial have been unsuccessful. Erdo?an has publicly dismissed the case as a politically motivated attack on his government…”