theduran--2020-03-20--Australia Willing to Be the U.S.’ Policeman in The Pacific

Submitted by InfoBrics , authored by Paul Antonopoulos , Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies… The U.S. is ramping up pressure on Australia to support hostilities against China in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific .
Last week in Sydney , the U.S .
Ambassador to Australia , Arthur Culvahouse , said that “ We ’ ll be pushing Australia to expand its step-up from the Pacific islands region to south-east Asia and to look north as well.
” The U.S. , Australia and like-minded countries need to win in this strategic competition , the diplomat said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ American and Australian foreign and defense ministers , the two sides will focus their efforts to further strengthen the Pacific step-up strategy .
The US Ambassador told the gathering of business leaders last Tuesday that Australia “ sits on the frontline of the great strategic competition of our time.
” “ If the security and prosperity enjoyed by our countries and the region is to continue , this is a competition that we must win , ” he said in indirect reference to China being the competition that must lose .
Australia ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to assert Australia ’ s position as the policeman for the U.S. in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia .
The Pacific step-up strategy defines the Australian government ’ s approach to economic and strategic interaction with Pacific Island nations .
However , this is just the friendly face of the strategy and rather it is primarily aimed at maintaining regional balance to counter China ’ s growing influence in the region .
China signed an Action Program with eight Pacific Island nations at the October 2019 3rd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Islands held in Samoa .
These countries ’ support for China ’ s Belt and Road Initiative was confirmed .
As the U.S. is dealing with the growing influence of China and attempting to counter it all over the globe , Washington is relying on Australia to serve as a counterbalance to China in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia .
However , as the coronavirus continues to grow out of control in the U.S. , it is likely that Washington is going to take its focus off the South Pacific for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ autonomy to act on Washington ’ s behalf and it appears that U.S. President Donald Trump immensely trusts the Australians in this role , so-much-so that he honored the fellow Anglo-settler state by naming a new navy ship the USS Canberra , the only U.S. Navy warship named after a foreign city .
Australia wilfully wants to play a role that the U.S. assigned to them in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific so that it can more strongly assert its power on the region .
Australia considers the small island countries of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its sphere of influence .
Canberra has a need to expand its weight in Southeast Asia , but finds this challenging as the region includes countries of larger populations and economies , such as Thailand and Indonesia .
Although Canberra wants to serve Washington ’ s interests in the region , Australia is a completely deindustrialized neoliberal country that does not have the means or capacity to challenge rising Southeast Asian countries and rather serves as a raw resource marketplace for the world .
The U.S. is losing influence in Southeast Asia to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Australian support , hedging its bet on a common Anglo colonial-settler history to make Canberra receptive .
In this situation , Australia faces a very difficult choice as there is a clear divide between the economic community and the political class in regards to China policy .
China is Australia ’ s most important economic partner , while the U.S. is Canberra ’ s most important security partner , so-much-so that Australia followed the U.S. to adventurist wars of aggression in Korea , Vietnam , Afghanistan and Iraq .
China and Australia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agreement allows them to quickly increase the volume of bilateral trade .
Therefore , the political will of Canberra is certain to face resistance from capitalist interests in the country as it wholly relies on China and other Southeast Asian countries for trade .
However , Australia is bound by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy that aims to use American allies like Australia , Japan , India and others , to counter China ’ s increasing influence .
This is done by enhancing military cooperation between these countries and does not serve any economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As China finds the Indo-Pacific Strategy as an aggressive force aimed against it , it is likely that under economic pressure , Australia will try to balance relations , despite the political will and determination of Canberra to act as the U.S ’ policeman in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Paul Antonopoulos, Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies…
The U.S. is ramping up pressure on Australia to support hostilities against China in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Last week in Sydney, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse, said that “We’ll be pushing Australia to expand its step-up from the Pacific islands region to south-east Asia and to look north as well.” The U.S., Australia and like-minded countries need to win in this strategic competition, the diplomat said. The Ambassador emphasized that in consultations between American and Australian foreign and defense ministers, the two sides will focus their efforts to further strengthen the Pacific step-up strategy.
The US Ambassador told the gathering of business leaders last Tuesday that Australia “sits on the frontline of the great strategic competition of our time.” “If the security and prosperity enjoyed by our countries and the region is to continue, this is a competition that we must win,” he said in indirect reference to China being the competition that must lose.
Australia’s Pacific strategy was adopted in 2016 under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to assert Australia’s position as the policeman for the U.S. in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. The Pacific step-up strategy defines the Australian government’s approach to economic and strategic interaction with Pacific Island nations. However, this is just the friendly face of the strategy and rather it is primarily aimed at maintaining regional balance to counter China’s growing influence in the region. China signed an Action Program with eight Pacific Island nations at the October 2019 3rd China Economic Development Cooperation Forum and Pacific Islands held in Samoa. These countries’ support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative was confirmed.
As the U.S. is dealing with the growing influence of China and attempting to counter it all over the globe, Washington is relying on Australia to serve as a counterbalance to China in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. However, as the coronavirus continues to grow out of control in the U.S., it is likely that Washington is going to take its focus off the South Pacific for a long while. This will give Australia autonomy to act on Washington’s behalf and it appears that U.S. President Donald Trump immensely trusts the Australians in this role, so-much-so that he honored the fellow Anglo-settler state by naming a new navy ship the USS Canberra, the only U.S. Navy warship named after a foreign city.
Australia wilfully wants to play a role that the U.S. assigned to them in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific so that it can more strongly assert its power on the region. Australia considers the small island countries of the South Pacific as an area within its sphere of influence. Canberra has a need to expand its weight in Southeast Asia, but finds this challenging as the region includes countries of larger populations and economies, such as Thailand and Indonesia.
Although Canberra wants to serve Washington’s interests in the region, Australia is a completely deindustrialized neoliberal country that does not have the means or capacity to challenge rising Southeast Asian countries and rather serves as a raw resource marketplace for the world. The U.S. is losing influence in Southeast Asia to China, and therefore Washington is relying on Australian support, hedging its bet on a common Anglo colonial-settler history to make Canberra receptive.
In this situation, Australia faces a very difficult choice as there is a clear divide between the economic community and the political class in regards to China policy. China is Australia’s most important economic partner, while the U.S. is Canberra’s most important security partner, so-much-so that Australia followed the U.S. to adventurist wars of aggression in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. China and Australia have established free trade areas and this agreement allows them to quickly increase the volume of bilateral trade. Therefore, the political will of Canberra is certain to face resistance from capitalist interests in the country as it wholly relies on China and other Southeast Asian countries for trade.
However, Australia is bound by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy that aims to use American allies like Australia, Japan, India and others, to counter China’s increasing influence. This is done by enhancing military cooperation between these countries and does not serve any economic role like the Belt and Road Initiative. As China finds the Indo-Pacific Strategy as an aggressive force aimed against it, it is likely that under economic pressure, Australia will try to balance relations, despite the political will and determination of Canberra to act as the U.S’ policeman in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
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theduran--2020-03-20--Sturgeon presses ahead in Scotland to announce school closures due to Covid-19

Submitted by InfoBrics , authored by Johanna Ross , journalist based in Edinburgh , Scotland… And so we have it .
The much-awaited announcement regarding school closures in Scotland has taken place , and once again Nicola Sturgeon has beaten her Westminster counterpart by addressing the nation in relation to Covid-19 .
Schools are to be shut from Friday onwards , with no guarantee they will re-open prior to the summer break at the beginning of July .
Exams will be postponed as young people ’ s lives are put on hold .
There was huge outcry last week when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Johnson on the next steps to be taken after Thursday ’ s Cobra meeting .
Journalists and commentators were aghast – how could she have abandoned protocol by ‘ announcing Johnson ’ s plan for him ’ – it was said .
The reality was however that Sturgeon was addressing the Scottish nation , and outlining Scotland ’ s individual approach to the coronavirus pandemic .
She announced a ban on mass gatherings of more than 500 people – something which Johnson did not – much to the concern of some experts .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ buckled on this issue over the weekend , stating that mass gatherings would be banned .
There is political significance in Sturgeon not wanting to hang around waiting for Boris Johnson .
By being pro-active and making announcements first , it shows that she takes the public health crisis seriously , and wants to inform the public as soon as possible .
It sends a signal that the Scottish government is managing the crisis .
But more importantly , by Sturgeon announcing key measures ahead of Johnston , such as closing schools , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ahead of Westminster .
It ’ s a clever strategy ; if you want to become an independent country then the first stage is to start acting like one .
Sturgeon is sending a subtle message to the nation that her government is ahead of the game .
For Covid-19 has the potential to unite Britain in a way that we haven ’ t seen since the Second World War .
Independence for Scotland now will surely be put on the back burner .
With the death toll now standing at over 100 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least 20,000 deaths from the outbreak in the UK alone , the gravity of the situation is really starting to be felt here .
Life is already changing dramatically .
Streets are deserted in Scotland ’ s capital , Edinburgh , with only a handful of people travelling on public transport .
Many people are now working for home and keeping children off school .
The busiest places at the moment are supermarkets , as the panic buying continues and shelves lie empty .
Tesco has already announced it will have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each day to try to replenish stock and keep up with demand .
People will have to adapt to a totally new way of life .
It ’ s like someone has pressed the ‘ pause ’ button on the remote .
Social distancing means that normal routines and ways of life for the young and old alike will be completely interrupted .
Children will have to be amused and entertained at home , while the many elderly people who live on their own could feel increasingly isolated .
Thankfully , I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the initiative to offer home deliveries of groceries to the elderly or infirm forced to stay indoors .
Neighbours are also playing an important role , offering assistance to those less able .
On a positive note , we could see our communities pulling together over this crisis and people helping each other in a way not seen since the war .
And when it ’ s all over , when we can finally breathe again , we ’ re sure to start asking if anything could have been done differently .
Boris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ timing is crucial ’ as he has tentatively rolled out his plan .
However , criticism has already begun of his approach , with some medical professionals saying his strategy of aiming to generate ‘ herd immunity ’ is flawed , and will swamp the NHS .
Richard Horton , Editor of the Lancet journal , has written a scathing review of it , saying Johnson has taken far too long to react to the Covid-19 outbreak , given the warnings that came thick and fast from China and Italy earlier in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now ‘ too little , too late.
’ Indeed , with nothing short of a catastrophe unfolding in Italy , the prospects for the UK don ’ t look good .
NHS staff are already complaining that there is a lack of testing for coronavirus amongst health workers , leading to unnecessary staff shortages as some self-isolate at home if they display symptoms .
Current efforts to test around 4000 people a day are dwarfed by those in , for example , South Korea , where they manage around 10,000 tests daily .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ he is aiming for 25,000 tests carried out per day , it ’ s still not clear how soon Britain would be able to achieve this .
We are indeed in unprecedented territory , with each day bringing more questions and fewer answers as to how we can fight the coronavirus…

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Johanna Ross, journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland…
And so we have it. The much-awaited announcement regarding school closures in Scotland has taken place, and once again Nicola Sturgeon has beaten her Westminster counterpart by addressing the nation in relation to Covid-19. Schools are to be shut from Friday onwards, with no guarantee they will re-open prior to the summer break at the beginning of July. Exams will be postponed as young people’s lives are put on hold.
There was huge outcry last week when Sturgeon briefed the nation ahead of Boris Johnson on the next steps to be taken after Thursday’s Cobra meeting. Journalists and commentators were aghast – how could she have abandoned protocol by ‘announcing Johnson’s plan for him’ – it was said. The reality was however that Sturgeon was addressing the Scottish nation, and outlining Scotland’s individual approach to the coronavirus pandemic. She announced a ban on mass gatherings of more than 500 people – something which Johnson did not – much to the concern of some experts. The government later succumbed to pressure and buckled on this issue over the weekend, stating that mass gatherings would be banned.
There is political significance in Sturgeon not wanting to hang around waiting for Boris Johnson. By being pro-active and making announcements first, it shows that she takes the public health crisis seriously, and wants to inform the public as soon as possible. It sends a signal that the Scottish government is managing the crisis. But more importantly, by Sturgeon announcing key measures ahead of Johnston, such as closing schools, she implies that Scotland is one step ahead of Westminster. It’s a clever strategy; if you want to become an independent country then the first stage is to start acting like one. Sturgeon is sending a subtle message to the nation that her government is ahead of the game.
For Covid-19 has the potential to unite Britain in a way that we haven’t seen since the Second World War. Independence for Scotland now will surely be put on the back burner. With the death toll now standing at over 100, and predictions that we could see at least 20,000 deaths from the outbreak in the UK alone, the gravity of the situation is really starting to be felt here. Life is already changing dramatically. Streets are deserted in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, with only a handful of people travelling on public transport. Many people are now working for home and keeping children off school. The busiest places at the moment are supermarkets, as the panic buying continues and shelves lie empty. Tesco has already announced it will have to close 24-hour stores for a few hours each day to try to replenish stock and keep up with demand.
People will have to adapt to a totally new way of life. It’s like someone has pressed the ‘pause’ button on the remote. Social distancing means that normal routines and ways of life for the young and old alike will be completely interrupted. Children will have to be amused and entertained at home, while the many elderly people who live on their own could feel increasingly isolated. Thankfully, I’ve heard that local businesses are taking the initiative to offer home deliveries of groceries to the elderly or infirm forced to stay indoors. Neighbours are also playing an important role, offering assistance to those less able. On a positive note, we could see our communities pulling together over this crisis and people helping each other in a way not seen since the war.
And when it’s all over, when we can finally breathe again, we’re sure to start asking if anything could have been done differently. Boris Johnson has assured us that the ‘timing is crucial’ as he has tentatively rolled out his plan. However, criticism has already begun of his approach, with some medical professionals saying his strategy of aiming to generate ‘herd immunity’ is flawed, and will swamp the NHS. Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet journal, has written a scathing review of it, saying Johnson has taken far too long to react to the Covid-19 outbreak, given the warnings that came thick and fast from China and Italy earlier in the year. Ominously he believes it is now ‘too little, too late.’
Indeed, with nothing short of a catastrophe unfolding in Italy, the prospects for the UK don’t look good. NHS staff are already complaining that there is a lack of testing for coronavirus amongst health workers, leading to unnecessary staff shortages as some self-isolate at home if they display symptoms. Current efforts to test around 4000 people a day are dwarfed by those in, for example, South Korea, where they manage around 10,000 tests daily. And although the Prime Minister has said he is aiming for 25,000 tests carried out per day, it’s still not clear how soon Britain would be able to achieve this.
We are indeed in unprecedented territory, with each day bringing more questions and fewer answers as to how we can fight the coronavirus…
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theduran--2020-03-20--The crazy Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The crazy Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

By many measures Saudi Arabia is the most unfree country in the world .
The country is an absolute monarchy and the most oppressive theocracy of all .
People have no right to vote , no right to speak freely , no right to access information , no right to a fair trial .
In short , they have no rights .
Women have no right to leave the country without permission .
Women are always under the thumb of a male relative due to the pernicious guardian system .
The situation in Saudi Arabia is so horrid that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Saudi Arabia are notorious for their opacity .
They do not adhere to international standards .
Judges are selected for their obscurantism .
Alcohol is strictly prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA ) .
As the British ambassador in the 1970s noted wryly ‘ Saudi is a dry country in which it is possible to find a government minister drunk in his office at 8 o clock in the morning.
’ The last country in the world to allow women to drive was Saudi Arabia .
Why did Riyadh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because the Prophet Mohammed said that no woman should ever control a camel or horse .
She could sit on the beast but it must be controlled by a man .
The Wahabis updated this stricture to apply to vehicles which are the 20th century version of a quadruped .
Womenfolk are finally permitted to drive an automobile in Saudi .
This is progress !
Despite the appalling conduct of the Saudi Arabian regime it enjoys a cordial relationship with Washington and London .
In recent years a jaw dropping axis between Riyadh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the twain were at daggers drawn .
They sharply disagreed over Palestine , Iraq , Lebanon and over Israel ’ s very existence .
The Saudi Arabians have largely abandoned their downtrodden Palestinian cousins .
The Saudis have reluctantly accepted that their proxy in Syria ( ISIS and the Al Nusra Front ) has been mainly defeated .
The Saudis no longer care overmuch for the Sunni minority in Lebanon .
Far more salient is Iran .
The Israelis are also itching to attack Iran .
In Yemen a civil war is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on one side .
Their hereditary foe the Persians are assisting the Houthi insurgents .
Saudi Arabia perceives herself as the big daddy of the Sunni World .
In surveys KSA often lists its populace as 100 % Sunni .
This is a stinking lie .
There is a significant Shia minority .
The number is difficult to estimate but most educated guesses are about 10 % .
Besides that there are expatriates in Saudi who are Christians , Hindus and other faiths .
The Shia indigenous minority are heavily oppressed .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employment .
There are virtually no Shia in the police or the armed forces .
They have not received permission to construct another mosque or open a new graveyard for decades .
In Saudi Arabia the mildest and fairest criticism of a Saudi monarch – living or dead – is a crime .
Further , peaceful protests is officially called ‘ terrorism ’ .
The same goes for atheism .
Becoming an apostate is punishable by death .
This is no idle threat .
Trials in Saudi are notorious for their opacity .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been arrested on suspicion of possession of alcohol were often tortured .
If even a privileged Westerner from a pro-Saudi state is tortured for a minor crime then what happens to someone from an underprivileged country or a nation that has poor relations with KSA ?
I shudder to think .
Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty promiscuously .
KSA is unique in using the barbaric method of public decapitation .
If the swordsman has been chewing khat then he might haphazardly hack at the victim .
The blade could cut into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its mark .
Drug dealing is punishable by death in this country .
Oddly buying and selling the narcotic khat is entirely legal .
Witchcraft is illegal in Saudi Arabia and indeed attracts the death penalty .
Prosecuting an offence such as witchery indicates how farcical and manifestly unjust the Saudi judicial system is .
Do their witches fly on broomsticks like ours used to ?
Girls are married off at an age which is well below the age of consent in any civilized country .
Marital rape is permitted .
Slavery exists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
Bonded labourers from Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sudan the Philippines and so on are brought to KSA under false pretences .
Their passports are confiscated .
Trades unions are illegal .
Strikes are banned .
These luckless labourers find themselves toiling in the broiling heat without any days off for years .
They might not be paid their pittances of a salary for months .
Even then it might be decidedly less than they were promised in the contract .
They have no rights and no recourse to justice .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the employer .
Donald Trump prides himself on shooting from the lip .
His brusque style won him plaudits from many people in the USA .
He threw brickbats at Islam .
Trump was cheered to the rafters for plaining speaking on the villainy of Muslims .
Donald J takes no prisoners .
People said , ‘ ’ He told it like it is about radical Islamic extremism ’ ’ .
Yet when he became president he literally embraced the king of the most Islamic extremist country on earth .
The president vowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faith entering the US .
It was to be ‘ ’ a total and complete shutdown on Muslims entering the country ’ ’ .
Does that include American citizens ?
How would you know if someone is a Muslim ?
If someone was in Al Qa ’ eda he would lie about his religion .
It was an utterly asinine and unworkable policy .
Would foreign diplomats be banned ?
In the end Trump imposed a ban on certain Muslim countries with exceptions for some citizens of those countries .
Note that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A Pakistani Christian would be banned .
A Muslim from Kuwait would be allowed in .
It was as moronic as can be .
Saudi Arabia was not on the list of countries whose citizens were prohibited from entering the US .
Trump hates Muslims .
But business is business !
You Muslims can not kill Americans !
Unless you are rich in which case it is ok. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Al Qae ’ eda .
It has used its petrodollars to turn ordinary Muslims into zealots through Wahabist preaching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Enlightenment .
Saudi influence is baleful .
Why is it when it comes the epicenter of Islamist terrorism the US is purblind ?
Could it be the financial links to Saudi that Trump boasts about on television ?
He had Mohammad Bin Salman to visit him in Washington .
On camera Trump said how elated he was to sell property to MBS .
The US often preaches democracy whereas it has so often destroyed democracy around the world .
This false gospel sticks in the craw .
Saudi Arabia is one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the earth .
Iran has many faults .
But it has a semblance of democracy .
Every man and every woman is allowed to vote .
Even at the height of the Islamic Revolution women were allowed to be judges .
It has had women athletes for 20 years .
Women were always permitted to drive .
Religious minorities can worship freely .
Even the Jewish community is guaranteed a deputy in the Majilis .
There is no doubt who wins the beauty contest between Teheran and Riyadh .
Let us stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other Western countries are buying Saudi oil .
In that wise they bankroll oppression .
There are alternative sources of hydrocarbons such as Russia .
Green energy is also a solution .
Let no one imagine that I am in the least anti Saudi Arabian .
I lived in Saudi Arabia .
There are many Saudis who are fantastic .
But I do not want them to be deprived of freedom .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Submitted by George Callaghan…
By many measures Saudi Arabia is the most unfree country in the world. The country is an absolute monarchy and the most oppressive theocracy of all. People have no right to vote, no right to speak freely, no right to access information, no right to a fair trial. In short, they have no rights. Women have no right to leave the country without permission. Women are always under the thumb of a male relative due to the pernicious guardian system.
The situation in Saudi Arabia is so horrid that it makes even Islamic fundamentalists blanche.
Trials in Saudi Arabia are notorious for their opacity. They do not adhere to international standards. Judges are selected for their obscurantism.
Alcohol is strictly prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). As the British ambassador in the 1970s noted wryly ‘Saudi is a dry country in which it is possible to find a government minister drunk in his office at 8 o clock in the morning.’
The last country in the world to allow women to drive was Saudi Arabia. Why did Riyadh deny womankind this right? It is because the Prophet Mohammed said that no woman should ever control a camel or horse. She could sit on the beast but it must be controlled by a man. The Wahabis updated this stricture to apply to vehicles which are the 20th century version of a quadruped. Womenfolk are finally permitted to drive an automobile in Saudi. This is progress!
Despite the appalling conduct of the Saudi Arabian regime it enjoys a cordial relationship with Washington and London.
In recent years a jaw dropping axis between Riyadh and Tel Aviv has emerged. Time was the twain were at daggers drawn. They sharply disagreed over Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and over Israel’s very existence. The Saudi Arabians have largely abandoned their downtrodden Palestinian cousins. The Saudis have reluctantly accepted that their proxy in Syria (ISIS and the Al Nusra Front) has been mainly defeated. The Saudis no longer care overmuch for the Sunni minority in Lebanon. Far more salient is Iran. The Israelis are also itching to attack Iran. In Yemen a civil war is raging. The Saudi Arabians are fighting on one side. Their hereditary foe the Persians are assisting the Houthi insurgents.
Saudi Arabia perceives herself as the big daddy of the Sunni World. In surveys KSA often lists its populace as 100% Sunni. This is a stinking lie. There is a significant Shia minority. The number is difficult to estimate but most educated guesses are about 10%. Besides that there are expatriates in Saudi who are Christians, Hindus and other faiths. The Shia indigenous minority are heavily oppressed. They are severely discriminated against in education and employment. There are virtually no Shia in the police or the armed forces. They have not received permission to construct another mosque or open a new graveyard for decades.
In Saudi Arabia the mildest and fairest criticism of a Saudi monarch – living or dead – is a crime. Further, peaceful protests is officially called ‘terrorism’. The same goes for atheism. Becoming an apostate is punishable by death. This is no idle threat.
Trials in Saudi are notorious for their opacity. Torture is commonly used. Britons who have been arrested on suspicion of possession of alcohol were often tortured. If even a privileged Westerner from a pro-Saudi state is tortured for a minor crime then what happens to someone from an underprivileged country or a nation that has poor relations with KSA? I shudder to think.
Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty promiscuously. KSA is unique in using the barbaric method of public decapitation. If the swordsman has been chewing khat then he might haphazardly hack at the victim. The blade could cut into the shoulders several times before finally finding its mark. Drug dealing is punishable by death in this country. Oddly buying and selling the narcotic khat is entirely legal.
Witchcraft is illegal in Saudi Arabia and indeed attracts the death penalty. Prosecuting an offence such as witchery indicates how farcical and manifestly unjust the Saudi judicial system is. Do their witches fly on broomsticks like ours used to?
Girls are married off at an age which is well below the age of consent in any civilized country. Marital rape is permitted.
Slavery exists in Saudi Arabia despite the law against it. Bonded labourers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan the Philippines and so on are brought to KSA under false pretences. Their passports are confiscated. Trades unions are illegal. Strikes are banned. These luckless labourers find themselves toiling in the broiling heat without any days off for years. They might not be paid their pittances of a salary for months. Even then it might be decidedly less than they were promised in the contract. They have no rights and no recourse to justice. The courts are entirely on the side of the employer.
Donald Trump prides himself on shooting from the lip. His brusque style won him plaudits from many people in the USA. He threw brickbats at Islam. Trump was cheered to the rafters for plaining speaking on the villainy of Muslims. Donald J takes no prisoners. People said, ‘’He told it like it is about radical Islamic extremism’’. Yet when he became president he literally embraced the king of the most Islamic extremist country on earth.
The president vowed to prevent all people of the Islamic faith entering the US. It was to be ‘’a total and complete shutdown on Muslims entering the country’’. Does that include American citizens? How would you know if someone is a Muslim? If someone was in Al Qa’eda he would lie about his religion. It was an utterly asinine and unworkable policy. Would foreign diplomats be banned? In the end Trump imposed a ban on certain Muslim countries with exceptions for some citizens of those countries. Note that the ban took no account of religion! A Pakistani Christian would be banned. A Muslim from Kuwait would be allowed in. It was as moronic as can be.
Saudi Arabia was not on the list of countries whose citizens were prohibited from entering the US. Trump hates Muslims. But business is business! You Muslims cannot kill Americans! Unless you are rich in which case it is ok.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Al Qae’eda. It has used its petrodollars to turn ordinary Muslims into zealots through Wahabist preaching. It is against the values of the Enlightenment. Saudi influence is baleful.
Why is it when it comes the epicenter of Islamist terrorism the US is purblind? Could it be the financial links to Saudi that Trump boasts about on television? He had Mohammad Bin Salman to visit him in Washington. On camera Trump said how elated he was to sell property to MBS.
The US often preaches democracy whereas it has so often destroyed democracy around the world. This false gospel sticks in the craw. Saudi Arabia is one of the most anti-democratic states on the face of the earth.
Iran has many faults. But it has a semblance of democracy. Every man and every woman is allowed to vote. Even at the height of the Islamic Revolution women were allowed to be judges. It has had women athletes for 20 years. Women were always permitted to drive. Religious minorities can worship freely. Even the Jewish community is guaranteed a deputy in the Majilis. There is no doubt who wins the beauty contest between Teheran and Riyadh. Let us stop this pernicious persophobia.
The US and other Western countries are buying Saudi oil. In that wise they bankroll oppression. There are alternative sources of hydrocarbons such as Russia. Green energy is also a solution.
Let no one imagine that I am in the least anti Saudi Arabian. I lived in Saudi Arabia. There are many Saudis who are fantastic. But I do not want them to be deprived of freedom.
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theduran--2020-03-20--Coronavirus in The World

Coronavirus in The World

The statements , views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily @ @ @ @ @ .

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Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time.


theduran--2020-03-20--Orthodox Christianity versus Socialism, Part IV: Socialism endorses stealing

We return to our series on Orthodox Christianity versus Socialism with a look back at the three previous Articles .
In our first installment we examined the basic matter of materialism ( not to be punny ) , noting that Socialism is completely different in its worldview , treating matter itself as the only creative energy or force , and emphasizing a point of view that nothing exists beyond the material world .
Part II examined the Marxist statement “ From each according to his ability , to each according to his needs.
” Marx said this , but few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was justifying his own life as an utter failure , an angry man who never took responsibility for his own life , but preferred to blame others for what he didn ’ t have .
Part III examined some of the results of the glorification of the temper tantrum thrown in a very educated way – including the execution of perhaps 100 million people deemed by “ the State / the system ” to be unneeded by the socialists .
Socialism and its very close cousin , Communism , have together created the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face of this earth .
All because people mean nothing , because only matter means anything .
Now we further look at the destructive effects of Socialism , how it attacks us from the inside out through the attitudes it presents as justified or even noble , and in some cases , characterized wrongly as Christian !
This one is fairly simple , if you think about it .
First of all , of course , it can not be packaged as directly as what the above subheading says .
Here is how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this above argument is greatly relied upon by socialist-sympathetic Orthodox Christians .
You have abundance .
Your brother doesn ’ t .
So give him some of yours !
There is a very key element wrong in this sequence which we will return to , shortly .
First , back to Julie : However , Obama wasn ’ t endorsing people voluntarily sharing their wealth with others ; he was endorsing the government forcibly taking a piece of the pie from one person and giving it to someone else .
Put another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you have three cars and your neighbor has none , the government has a right to take your car and give it to your neighbor .
That ’ s not Christian ; that ’ s stealing !
But , socialists don ’ t believe in private property .
And , some Christian socialists actually assert that the Bible doesn ’ t either .
That ’ s preposterous .
Both the Old Testament and New Testament unequivocally affirm private property .
We can ’ t even obey the eighth commandment to not steal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ private ownership .
Nor , can we steward our money as the Bible commands if the state owns our money , not us .
So , for an economic and political system to be Christian , it must protect private ownership and allow individuals freedom to allocate their resources according to their conscience .
Julie hit it out of the park on this one , but we still have the key ingredient to add .
Look again at the sequence : You have abundance .
Your brother doesn ’ t .
So give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abundance ?
Who must give it away ?
It is always you , or people , or everybody… everyone but the only one who Christianity focuses on : In other words , the socialist liberal or communist talks about solving the problem in terms of making society ( everybody ) do some specific thing .
Christianity does not EVER do this .
In fact there is not a single teaching in the Gospels or anywhere else in Orthodox Christianity that proposes any sort of action to be taken on society as a whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faith is far more hardline than Protestantism .
I will go so far as to say that Protestantism is far more conducive to socialist ideas than Orthodoxy is .
Orthodox Christianity tells the believer basically , first and foremost , “ mind your OWN business.
” Consider the text of the Great Penitential Canon of St Andrew of Crete .
This is a four-day long sequence of services ( later repeated all at once , taking around four hours to do in Russia , longer in some other places ) .
These are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( with certain emphases added ) : On and on this goes , some 255 or more verses focused only on addressing “ what is wrong with me ?
” Not “ what is wrong with the world ?
” or “ what is wrong with society ?
” In case the reader is beginning to wonder what this has to do with stealing , just think : If I am working on what is wrong with me , then all the changes and alterations I make to my life are to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do anything like that to – myself .
When we start thinking about changing society , especially in terms of things like “ making everything fair by making everyone have the same , or by making the State control means of production… ” As soon as there is but one person who opposes these changes , the rest of us are stealing from that person .
Even more , the socialist liberal talks about what everybody else must do , but when is the last time that person decided to freely give of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help society ?
We are all free to do so if we wish , but the idea that I can tell anyone else what they must do with their money , especially when I am unwilling to do the same myself ( leading by example ) … what is that ?
It is stealing .
It is even worse , rising to the level of extortion , forcing other people to do what I will not do myself .
The socialist has backup for this though .
For the socialist , if someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants , it can be done to them anyway , because that person has no intrinsic value .
Remember the Marxist axiom that all reality springs from the material world ?
This takes us to the notion that there is nothing intrinsically valuable about any person .
Hence , abortion is merely a removal of an insignificant and unimportant growth of flesh ( and not a person ) , euthanasia is simply the removal of unproductive matter ( the aged and infirm ) , marriage is simply an agreement to mutually use someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) for pleasurable feelings and even for profit .
All of these things are in direct opposition to Christianity , which upholds each person as a unique , wildly beloved creation of a loving God , each given the gift of life , freedom , thought , movement , insight , intelligence – everything !
All these things are in direct opposition to Christianity , which upholds life itself as something only God can create .
Men and women do not create babies .
They help God do so , but as we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our help before .
To treat any person without the highest level of regard as a unique creation of God is stealing from them – not only their monetary wealth , but their very soul and dignity .
It should be becoming very clear how absolutely incompatible Christianity and Socialism are , and we still have two more reasons left .
Part V takes us into more of a side-by-side examination of the differences in Socialism and Christianity , but also with the advancing coronavirus epidemic , we will see how socialism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with some people returning to faith in God out of necessity .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
We return to our series on Orthodox Christianity versus Socialism with a look back at the three previous Articles. In our first installment we examined the basic matter of materialism (not to be punny), noting that Socialism is completely different in its worldview, treating matter itself as the only creative energy or force, and emphasizing a point of view that nothing exists beyond the material world. Part II examined the Marxist statement “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Marx said this, but few people remember or care that Marx himself was justifying his own life as an utter failure, an angry man who never took responsibility for his own life, but preferred to blame others for what he didn’t have. Part III examined some of the results of the glorification of the temper tantrum thrown in a very educated way – including the execution of perhaps 100 million people deemed by “the State / the system” to be unneeded by the socialists. Socialism and its very close cousin, Communism, have together created the deadliest regimes ever to be on the face of this earth. All because people mean nothing, because only matter means anything. Now we further look at the destructive effects of Socialism, how it attacks us from the inside out through the attitudes it presents as justified or even noble, and in some cases, characterized wrongly as Christian!
Socialism endorses stealing.
This one is fairly simple, if you think about it. First of all, of course, it cannot be packaged as directly as what the above subheading says. Here is how Julie Roys unpacked it:
Barack Obama once defended his socialist policies to a little girl by saying, “We’ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money. If you had a whole pizza, and your friend had no pizza, would you give him a slice?” That sounds pretty Christian, right? What Christian wouldn’t endorse sharing your abundance with someone who has nothing?
So far, this above argument is greatly relied upon by socialist-sympathetic Orthodox Christians. You have abundance. Your brother doesn’t. So give him some of yours!
There is a very key element wrong in this sequence which we will return to, shortly. First, back to Julie:
However, Obama wasn’t endorsing people voluntarily sharing their wealth with others; he was endorsing the government forcibly taking a piece of the pie from one person and giving it to someone else. Put another way, that’s saying that if you have three cars and your neighbor has none, the government has a right to take your car and give it to your neighbor. That’s not Christian; that’s stealing! But, socialists don’t believe in private property. And, some Christian socialists actually assert that the Bible doesn’t either. That’s preposterous. Both the Old Testament and New Testament unequivocally affirm private property. We can’t even obey the eighth commandment to not steal, unless we accept the notion of private ownership. Nor, can we steward our money as the Bible commands if the state owns our money, not us. So, for an economic and political system to be Christian, it must protect private ownership and allow individuals freedom to allocate their resources according to their conscience.
Julie hit it out of the park on this one, but we still have the key ingredient to add. Look again at the sequence:
You have abundance. Your brother doesn’t. So give him some of yours!
Who has abundance? Who must give it away?
Not me.
You.
It is always you, or people, or everybody… everyone but the only one who Christianity focuses on:
Me.
In other words, the socialist liberal or communist talks about solving the problem in terms of making society (everybody) do some specific thing.
Christianity does not EVER do this. In fact there is not a single teaching in the Gospels or anywhere else in Orthodox Christianity that proposes any sort of action to be taken on society as a whole.
This is where the Orthodox Christian faith is far more hardline than Protestantism. I will go so far as to say that Protestantism is far more conducive to socialist ideas than Orthodoxy is.
Orthodox Christianity tells the believer basically, first and foremost, “mind your OWN business.” Consider the text of the Great Penitential Canon of St Andrew of Crete. This is a four-day long sequence of services (later repeated all at once, taking around four hours to do in Russia, longer in some other places). These are examples of the texts of the service (with certain emphases added):
Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life? How shall I begin, O Christ, to relieve my present tears? But as Thou art deeply compassionate, grant me forgiveness of sins… Having rivaled the first-formed Adam by my transgressions, I have found myself stripped naked of God, of the everlasting kingdom and all of its delights, because of my sins. Woe is me, O wretched soul, for thou art become like the first Eve! For thou hast looked in wickedness and wast bitterly wounded; for thou hast touched the tree and rashly tasted the forbidden fruit… Adam was rightly banished from Eden, O Savior, because he disobeyed one of Thy commandments. What then shall I suffer, for constantly rejecting Thy words of life? Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. O Trinity, Who surpasses all creation and is adored in Unity, take from me the heavy yoke of sin, and in Thy compassion grant me tears of compunction. Now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. O Theotokos, the hope and protection of those who praise thee, take from me the heavy yoke of sin and as thou art our Most-pure Lady, accept me in repentance.
On and on this goes, some 255 or more verses focused only on addressing “what is wrong with me?” Not “what is wrong with the world?” or “what is wrong with society?”
In case the reader is beginning to wonder what this has to do with stealing, just think: If I am working on what is wrong with me, then all the changes and alterations I make to my life are to the only person I have the right to do anything like that to – myself.
When we start thinking about changing society, especially in terms of things like “making everything fair by making everyone have the same, or by making the State control means of production…” As soon as there is but one person who opposes these changes, the rest of us are stealing from that person.
Even more, the socialist liberal talks about what everybody else must do, but when is the last time that person decided to freely give of their own wealth to help the State help society? We are all free to do so if we wish, but the idea that I can tell anyone else what they must do with their money, especially when I am unwilling to do the same myself (leading by example)… what is that? It is stealing. It is even worse, rising to the level of extortion, forcing other people to do what I will not do myself.
The socialist has backup for this though. For the socialist, if someone is unwilling to do what the State wants, it can be done to them anyway, because that person has no intrinsic value. Remember the Marxist axiom that all reality springs from the material world? This takes us to the notion that there is nothing intrinsically valuable about any person. Hence, abortion is merely a removal of an insignificant and unimportant growth of flesh (and not a person), euthanasia is simply the removal of unproductive matter (the aged and infirm), marriage is simply an agreement to mutually use someone else (or even multiple someone elses) for pleasurable feelings and even for profit.
All of these things are in direct opposition to Christianity, which upholds each person as a unique, wildly beloved creation of a loving God, each given the gift of life, freedom, thought, movement, insight, intelligence – everything!
All these things are in direct opposition to Christianity, which upholds life itself as something only God can create. Men and women do not create babies. They help God do so, but as we know, God has done it without our help before. To treat any person without the highest level of regard as a unique creation of God is stealing from them – not only their monetary wealth, but their very soul and dignity.
It should be becoming very clear how absolutely incompatible Christianity and Socialism are, and we still have two more reasons left.
Part V takes us into more of a side-by-side examination of the differences in Socialism and Christianity, but also with the advancing coronavirus epidemic, we will see how socialism and its secular basis are being challenged, with some people returning to faith in God out of necessity.
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theduran--2020-03-20--Why Assume There Will Be a 2020 election? General Butler and the ‘Wall Street Putsch’ Revisited

The upcoming American elections are just around the corner and everyone is wondering if the new president will be named Trump , Biden , Sanders or none of the above .
I can hear the incredulous reader exclaim : Wait , what does “ none of the above ” mean ?
?
It ’ s certainly going to be one of those three isn ’ t it ?
?
It is often too easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees and in the opinion-packed world of endless talking head commentaries , every leaf and branch is scrutinized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forget that the entire forest is on fire .
As I ’ ve written extensively here and here and here , the reality is that the western financial system is careening towards a crash much worse than anything the world saw in 1929 , and the deep state trying to manage this wreck from above would love nothing more than to impose a fascist dictatorship onto a frightened population .
The only reason why so much effort has been expended on attempting to paint Trump , Sanders and Tulsi as “ Russian agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neither one of the three individuals would make very willing puppets who would play along with a fascist dictatorship in America under those foreseeable crisis conditions .
For all their problems and differences , right wing neocons and left wing Malthusian technocrats despise Trump , Sanders and Tulsi for the crime that they are actual patriotic human beings who genuinely care about their nation .
Unlike technocrats or neocons , actual human beings occupying political office may be inclined to spoil a good crisis in order to pass reforms that actually protect the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the shadow government .
So I ask again : What if the oncoming crisis results in a 2020 choice of “ none of the above ” ?
What if there is no 2020 choice “ offered ” democratically to the American public at all ?
It isn ’ t like this sort of thing has never happened in American history .
In order to best understand this danger and also gain insight into how it might be circumvented , I suggest revisiting the 1932-1934 efforts by the international deep state to impose a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the elected government of Franklin Roosevelt with a JP Morgan-funded military coup d ’ état .
1932-1934 was a period of history that saw the world torn down into a deep depression which the people of Europe and America were told by their media , could only be solved by the “ economic miracle solution ” of a new system of governance known as “ fascism ” .
This “ fascist economic solution ” took hold in Europe with the quick rise of Nazism , Franco and Mussolini ’ s Corporatism as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ English Canada , the League for Social Reconstruction was ready to take power in 1932 and French-speaking Canada was quickly embracing the Nazi-inspired political party of Adrien Arcand .
The British governing class , led by the royal family were fully backing Nazism , and Sir Oswald Mosley ’ s British Union of Fascists was rising faster than ever .
All of these movements came in different flavors but were united under a cold utilitarian philosophy of government , a devout love for eugenics ( the racist “ science ” of population control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street money .
In the United States however , things weren ’ t going as smoothly .
Even though the financial elite of Wall Street had pulled the plug on the system four years earlier , the population had still not been broken sufficiently to accept fascism as the solution which Time magazine told them it was .
Instead , the people voted for one of the few anti-fascist presidential candidates available in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected under the theme of taking the money lenders out of power and restoring the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 Days , an all-out war was declared on the “ economic royalists ” that had taken over the nation .
Audits and investigations were conducted on the banks in the form of the Pecora Commission , and the biggest financial houses which had spent billions on fascist parties of Europe were broken up while speculation was reined in under Glass-Steagall .
Meanwhile a new form of banking was unveiled more in alignment with America ’ s constitutional traditions in the form of productive credit and long term public works which created real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of labor .
Many people remain totally ignorant that even before his March 4 , 1933 inauguration , Franklin Roosevelt narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in Florida which saw 5 people struck by bullets and the mayor of Chicago dying of his wounds 3 weeks later .
Within days of the mayor ’ s death , the assassin Giuseppe Zingara was speedily labelled a “ lone gunman ” and executed without any serious investigation into his freemasonic connections .
This however was just a pre-cursor for an even greater battle which Wall Street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the presidency later that year .
This effort would only be stopped by the courageous intervention of a patriotic marine named Smedley Darlington Butler .
Born in 1881 to a family of patriotic Quakers , Smedley Butler quickly rose through the ranks of the military becoming the most decorated military figure of U.S. History- a record he holds to this day with multiple medals of honor , an Army distinguished service medal and Marine Corps Bruvet medal ( to name just a few ) .
By the end of the British-orchestrated meat grinder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become an activist patriot giving speeches across America in denunciation of the private financiers steering America ’ s war-driven economy .
Speaking to veterans in August 1933 , the general said : In spite of his outspoken criticism of crony capitalism , Wall Street ’ s elite simply presumed all men had their price , and Butler was probably just indignant because he was never given a big enough piece of pie .
These financiers needed someone like Butler to channel the rage of the striking veterans of WWI across America who had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them years earlier but which didn ’ t exist due to the 1929 collapse .
A force of hundreds of thousands of disgruntled seasoned soldiers was exactly what was needed to overthrow Roosevelt , but leadership was sorely lacking , and General Butler was their man for the job .
He was a war hero who was seen as honest and loved by the veterans .
He was perfect .
Under the guiding hand of JP Morgan ’ s Grayson Prevost Murphy , two representatives of the American Legion ( Commander Bill Doyle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Butler in July 1933 for the job of rallying the Legion ’ s veterans and began dropping hints of a larger coup plot .
Butler became suspicious , but continued playing along with the plan to see how far this went up the ladder of power ( 1 ) .
Over the course of the next several months , Butler discovered that America ’ s financial elite centered around John Pierpont Morgan Jr. , the Harrimans , the Melons , Warburgs , Rockefellers and Duponts were at the heart of the plot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gerald MacGuire a Morgan-affiliated bond salesman , Democratic Party controllers John W. Davis and Thomas Lamont ( both occupying directorships in the House of Morgan ) , Robert Sterling Clark ( heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune ) , Grayson Prevost Murphy and Harriman Family investment banker Prescott Bush .
All of these characters had become well known “ investors ” in European fascism , owned the biggest media platforms including Fortune and Time Magazine ( both of which promoted Mussolini extensively for years ) , and controlled the levers of industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exposed these forces publicly as the architects of the great depression , making their ability to acquire popular support and sympathy more than a little difficult .
When the time was right , Butler blew the whistle by approaching the Special Committee on Un-American Activities ( the McCormack-Dickstein Committee ) which began an investigation on November 20 , 1934 .
Unlike the Committee on Un-American Activities which made its reputation destroying patriotic lives under the communist witch hunt of McCarthyism , this earlier version was aligned to FDR and dedicated solely to identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sceptical of the general ’ s claims , the committee soon substantiated everything over the course of a month long investigation and made their findings public to FDR and congress on December 29 , 1934 .
An invaluable part of the hearings were the testimonies of journalist Paul Comly French whom Butler recruited to act as the general ’ s intermediary with the bankers .
Butler told the committee that MacGuire stated it “ wouldn ’ t take any constitutional change to authorize another cabinet official , somebody to take over the details @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President ’ s shoulders ” and that “ we ’ d do with him what Mussolini did to the King of Italy ” .
When French asked MacGuire how the coup would help solve unemployment , MacGuire responded : “ We need a fascist government to save the nation from the Communists… It was the plan that Hitler had used in putting all of the unemployed in labor camps or barracks—enforced labor .
That would solve it overnight.
” Although the full transcripts were not made public , Butler did get the message @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to as many journalists as possible and recorded a message to the people in 1935 which should be listened to in full .
The Aftermath of the Exposure This exposure , alongside the Pecora Commission findings , and earlier failed assassination attempt gave FDR the ammunition he needed to force America ’ s deep state into submission ( at least for a while ) .
As I outlined in my recent paper , FDR ’ s fight to stop a central bankers ’ dictatorship started from the earliest days of his presidency to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1945 .
Incredibly , after the sanitized and redacted 1934 report was published , the committee was disbanded ( to be reformed later under a fascist mandate ) , and the thousands of pages of transcripts were buried for years- only officially made public in the 21st century- the contents of which can be found here with censored testimony in red .
The coup plotters lost no time forming a new organization on August 22 , 1934 called the American Liberty League which spent the next decade sabotaging FDR ’ s New Deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promote an American alliance with Axis powers ( until 1941 ’ s Pearl Harbor attack ) , widely financed eugenics , and after FDR died , acted as the driving force behind the McCarthyite police state in America during the Cold War .
This organization also gave birth to such think tanks as the American Enterprise Association , Heritage Foundation and CATO institute which incrementally made Austrian school economics a part of the American right .
Anyone wishing to understand what created the Frankenstein Monster called “ neo-conservativism ” during the last 60 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understanding the role of the American Liberty League and its hell spawn .
Today , a new systemic meltdown of a $ 1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble has similarities to the 1929 crash and other similarities to the 1923 hyperinflation of Weimar .
While the coronavirus may or may not be used to trigger this new blowout , one thing is certain : a new fascist coup should be taken more seriously than ever .
So rather than stressing about who might be on the 2020 ballot , it is wiser to ask the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today ?
( 1 ) The Legion was a very different beast from the benign organization of old veterans it is known as today , as it was originally founded with Wall Street capital in 1919 and was run early on as a fascist machine .
Legion Commander Alvin Owsley made this explicit in 1921 when he said : “ If need be the American Legion is ready to protect the institutions of this country and its ideals , in the same way as the Fascists have treated the destructive forces threatening Italy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fascists are for today ’ s Italy what the American Legion is for the United States.
” Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , a BRI Expert on Tactical talk , and has authored 3 volumes of ‘ Untold History of Canada ’ book series .
In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation and can be reached at [ email protected ]

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
From the Strategic Culture Foundation
The upcoming American elections are just around the corner and everyone is wondering if the new president will be named Trump, Biden, Sanders or none of the above.
I can hear the incredulous reader exclaim: Wait, what does “none of the above” mean?? It’s certainly going to be one of those three isn’t it??
It is often too easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees and in the opinion-packed world of endless talking head commentaries, every leaf and branch is scrutinized by professional opinionators so closely that many forget that the entire forest is on fire. As I’ve written extensively here and here and here, the reality is that the western financial system is careening towards a crash much worse than anything the world saw in 1929, and the deep state trying to manage this wreck from above would love nothing more than to impose a fascist dictatorship onto a frightened population.
Trump, Sanders and Tulsi: Not Good Fascists
The only reason why so much effort has been expended on attempting to paint Trump, Sanders and Tulsi as “Russian agents” has been the simple fact that neither one of the three individuals would make very willing puppets who would play along with a fascist dictatorship in America under those foreseeable crisis conditions. For all their problems and differences, right wing neocons and left wing Malthusian technocrats despise Trump, Sanders and Tulsi for the crime that they are actual patriotic human beings who genuinely care about their nation. Unlike technocrats or neocons, actual human beings occupying political office may be inclined to spoil a good crisis in order to pass reforms that actually protect the people and revoke the power structures of the shadow government.
So I ask again: What if the oncoming crisis results in a 2020 choice of “none of the above”? What if there is no 2020 choice “offered” democratically to the American public at all? It isn’t like this sort of thing has never happened in American history.
In order to best understand this danger and also gain insight into how it might be circumvented, I suggest revisiting the 1932-1934 efforts by the international deep state to impose a fascist dictatorship upon Americans and even overthrow the elected government of Franklin Roosevelt with a JP Morgan-funded military coup d’état.
The Fascist Economic Miracle Solution of 1932
1932-1934 was a period of history that saw the world torn down into a deep depression which the people of Europe and America were told by their media, could only be solved by the “economic miracle solution” of a new system of governance known as “fascism”.
This “fascist economic solution” took hold in Europe with the quick rise of Nazism, Franco and Mussolini’s Corporatism as well what later became Vichy France. In English Canada, the League for Social Reconstruction was ready to take power in 1932 and French-speaking Canada was quickly embracing the Nazi-inspired political party of Adrien Arcand. The British governing class, led by the royal family were fully backing Nazism, and Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists was rising faster than ever. All of these movements came in different flavors but were united under a cold utilitarian philosophy of government, a devout love for eugenics (the racist “science” of population control) and addiction to City of London/Wall Street money.
In the United States however, things weren’t going as smoothly.
The Rise of Franklin Roosevelt
Even though the financial elite of Wall Street had pulled the plug on the system four years earlier, the population had still not been broken sufficiently to accept fascism as the solution which Time magazine told them it was. Instead, the people voted for one of the few anti-fascist presidential candidates available in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected under the theme of taking the money lenders out of power and restoring the constitution.
In his March 4, 1933 inaugural address FDR stated:
“Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.”
During FDR’s famous 100 Days, an all-out war was declared on the “economic royalists” that had taken over the nation. Audits and investigations were conducted on the banks in the form of the Pecora Commission, and the biggest financial houses which had spent billions on fascist parties of Europe were broken up while speculation was reined in under Glass-Steagall. Meanwhile a new form of banking was unveiled more in alignment with America’s constitutional traditions in the form of productive credit and long term public works which created real jobs and increased the national productive powers of labor.
Many people remain totally ignorant that even before his March 4, 1933 inauguration, Franklin Roosevelt narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in Florida which saw 5 people struck by bullets and the mayor of Chicago dying of his wounds 3 weeks later. Within days of the mayor’s death, the assassin Giuseppe Zingara was speedily labelled a “lone gunman” and executed without any serious investigation into his freemasonic connections. This however was just a pre-cursor for an even greater battle which Wall Street financiers would launch in order to overthrow the presidency later that year. This effort would only be stopped by the courageous intervention of a patriotic marine named Smedley Darlington Butler.
Who was General Butler?
Born in 1881 to a family of patriotic Quakers, Smedley Butler quickly rose through the ranks of the military becoming the most decorated military figure of U.S. History- a record he holds to this day with multiple medals of honor, an Army distinguished service medal and Marine Corps Bruvet medal (to name just a few).
By the end of the British-orchestrated meat grinder known as WWI, the General had become an activist patriot giving speeches across America in denunciation of the private financiers steering America’s war-driven economy. Speaking to veterans in August 1933, the general said:
“I have spent 33 years being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism… I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City [Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped rape half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street… In China, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested… I had a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotions. I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents…”
In spite of his outspoken criticism of crony capitalism, Wall Street’s elite simply presumed all men had their price, and Butler was probably just indignant because he was never given a big enough piece of pie.
The Wall Street Putsch is Launched
These financiers needed someone like Butler to channel the rage of the striking veterans of WWI across America who had been fighting for the bonus pay promised them years earlier but which didn’t exist due to the 1929 collapse. A force of hundreds of thousands of disgruntled seasoned soldiers was exactly what was needed to overthrow Roosevelt, but leadership was sorely lacking, and General Butler was their man for the job. He was a war hero who was seen as honest and loved by the veterans. He was perfect.
Under the guiding hand of JP Morgan’s Grayson Prevost Murphy, two representatives of the American Legion (Commander Bill Doyle and bond salesman Gerald MacGuire) approached Butler in July 1933 for the job of rallying the Legion’s veterans and began dropping hints of a larger coup plot. Butler became suspicious, but continued playing along with the plan to see how far this went up the ladder of power (1).
Over the course of the next several months, Butler discovered that America’s financial elite centered around John Pierpont Morgan Jr., the Harrimans, the Melons, Warburgs, Rockefellers and Duponts were at the heart of the plot. These men used their agents such as Gerald MacGuire a Morgan-affiliated bond salesman, Democratic Party controllers John W. Davis and Thomas Lamont (both occupying directorships in the House of Morgan), Robert Sterling Clark (heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune), Grayson Prevost Murphy and Harriman Family investment banker Prescott Bush. All of these characters had become well known “investors” in European fascism, owned the biggest media platforms including Fortune and Time Magazine (both of which promoted Mussolini extensively for years), and controlled the levers of industry.
Luckily, the 1932-1934 Pecora Commission exposed these forces publicly as the architects of the great depression, making their ability to acquire popular support and sympathy more than a little difficult.
Outlining his Committee’s findings Pecora had written publicly:
“Undoubtedly, this small group of highly placed financiers, controlling the very springs of economic activity, holds more real power than any similar group in the U.S.A.”
Butler Blows the Whistle
When the time was right, Butler blew the whistle by approaching the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the McCormack-Dickstein Committee) which began an investigation on November 20, 1934. Unlike the Committee on Un-American Activities which made its reputation destroying patriotic lives under the communist witch hunt of McCarthyism, this earlier version was aligned to FDR and dedicated solely to identifying Nazi activity in America.
At first sceptical of the general’s claims, the committee soon substantiated everything over the course of a month long investigation and made their findings public to FDR and congress on December 29, 1934. An invaluable part of the hearings were the testimonies of journalist Paul Comly French whom Butler recruited to act as the general’s intermediary with the bankers.
Butler told the committee that MacGuire stated it “wouldn’t take any constitutional change to authorize another cabinet official, somebody to take over the details of the office—to take them off the President’s shoulders” and that “we’d do with him what Mussolini did to the King of Italy”.
When French asked MacGuire how the coup would help solve unemployment, MacGuire responded: “We need a fascist government to save the nation from the Communists… It was the plan that Hitler had used in putting all of the unemployed in labor camps or barracks—enforced labor. That would solve it overnight.”
Although the full transcripts were not made public, Butler did get the message to the population by giving his story to as many journalists as possible and recorded a message to the people in 1935 which should be listened to in full.
The Aftermath of the Exposure
This exposure, alongside the Pecora Commission findings, and earlier failed assassination attempt gave FDR the ammunition he needed to force America’s deep state into submission (at least for a while). As I outlined in my recent paper, FDR’s fight to stop a central bankers’ dictatorship started from the earliest days of his presidency to his dying breath on April 14, 1945.
Incredibly, after the sanitized and redacted 1934 report was published, the committee was disbanded (to be reformed later under a fascist mandate), and the thousands of pages of transcripts were buried for years- only officially made public in the 21st century- the contents of which can be found here with censored testimony in red.
The coup plotters lost no time forming a new organization on August 22, 1934 called the American Liberty League which spent the next decade sabotaging FDR’s New Deal. This group made every effort to promote an American alliance with Axis powers (until 1941’s Pearl Harbor attack), widely financed eugenics, and after FDR died, acted as the driving force behind the McCarthyite police state in America during the Cold War. This organization also gave birth to such think tanks as the American Enterprise Association, Heritage Foundation and CATO institute which incrementally made Austrian school economics a part of the American right. Anyone wishing to understand what created the Frankenstein Monster called “neo-conservativism” during the last 60 years would not get very far without understanding the role of the American Liberty League and its hell spawn.
Today, a new systemic meltdown of a $1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble has similarities to the 1929 crash and other similarities to the 1923 hyperinflation of Weimar. While the coronavirus may or may not be used to trigger this new blowout, one thing is certain: a new fascist coup should be taken more seriously than ever.
So rather than stressing about who might be on the 2020 ballot, it is wiser to ask the question: Where are the General Butlers today?
Footnote
(1) The Legion was a very different beast from the benign organization of old veterans it is known as today, as it was originally founded with Wall Street capital in 1919 and was run early on as a fascist machine. Legion Commander Alvin Owsley made this explicit in 1921 when he said: “If need be the American Legion is ready to protect the institutions of this country and its ideals, in the same way as the Fascists have treated the destructive forces threatening Italy. Don’t forget that the Fascists are for today’s Italy what the American Legion is for the United States.”
Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , a BRI Expert on Tactical talk, and has authored 3 volumes of ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation and can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com
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theduran--2020-03-21--Two Executions Three Decades Apart

Two Executions Three Decades Apart

On March 20 at dawn , four men were hanged simultaneously in the Indian capital .
They had little in common with the man who was executed by the State of Florida on January 24 , 1989 , other than the nation and the world being united in hating them .
To crime buffs and anyone above a certain age , Ted Bundy needs no introduction ; the man who led to the coining of the phrase serial killer , and who became the poster boy for the pastime , was electrocuted at Florida State Prison while crowds cheered outside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were selling “ Burn Bundy ” t-shirts , and some diners sold “ Bundy fries ” .
There was none of that understandable vulgarity Friday when Akshay Thakur , Vinay Sharma , Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh went to meet their Maker , but the crowds cheered nonetheless .
Since the turn of the Millennium , well over a thousand people have been sentenced to death in India , but to date only eight have been executed .
The last one was the terrorist mass murderer Yakub Memon who was arrested in 1994 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only in 2015 .
Thakur , Sharma , Gupta and Singh were convicted only of one murder , but it was one that was so horrific it beggars belief .
In December 2012 , five men and a juvenile were aboard a bus that was apparently in service .
In reality all six , including the driver , were predators on the prowl .
The two hapless passengers who boarded it were physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh and her male companion .
Apparently they were friends rather than lovers .
The night ended with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the bus , and Jyoti being viciously raped , including with a metal implement , if you can imagine that .
She died thirteen days later after being flown to Singapore for specialist treatment .
Initially , Jyoti Singh was not named , and officially she still can not be named , so is known as Nirbhaya , meaning the fearless one .
While Ted Bundy has spawned books as well as numerous documentaries and dramatisations , the only in-depth treatment so far of the killers of the woman who became known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the BBC in 2015 .
The film was banned in India ; it caused outrage , no more so than the comments of the bus driver Mukesh Singh who was interviewed for it .
He claimed literally that the victim deserved it .
His comments have been widely and wilfully interpreted by feminist mischief-makers as being symptomatic of India ’ s deep seated misogyny rather than the self-serving justifications of a violent psychopath .
Only four of the killers were executed because one committed suicide in prison while the juvenile was released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being the maximum sentence he could receive under Indian law .
In the United States , he would have been tried as an adult and sentenced to decades in prison .
Likewise in Britain , on which India law is based , he would still be behind bars today .
While even monsters deserve due process , there was really no reason these four could not have been executed by 2015 or even sooner .
Once their crimes were proved beyond all reasonable doubt and had been reviewed by an appellate court , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sparing their lives ?
Likewise , Ted Bundy received the third of his death sentences in February 1980 .
Another notorious American serial killer , Lawrence Bittaker , was formally sentenced to death in March 1981 but died of old age in December last year .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
On March 20 at dawn, four men were hanged simultaneously in the Indian capital. They had little in common with the man who was executed by the State of Florida on January 24, 1989, other than the nation and the world being united in hating them.
To crime buffs and anyone above a certain age, Ted Bundy needs no introduction; the man who led to the coining of the phrase serial killer, and who became the poster boy for the pastime, was electrocuted at Florida State Prison while crowds cheered outside. In the run up, people were selling “Burn Bundy” t-shirts, and some diners sold “Bundy fries”.
There was none of that understandable vulgarity Friday when Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh went to meet their Maker, but the crowds cheered nonetheless. Since the turn of the Millennium, well over a thousand people have been sentenced to death in India, but to date only eight have been executed. The last one was the terrorist mass murderer Yakub Memon who was arrested in 1994, convicted in 2007, and executed only in 2015.
Thakur, Sharma, Gupta and Singh were convicted only of one murder, but it was one that was so horrific it beggars belief. In December 2012, five men and a juvenile were aboard a bus that was apparently in service. In reality all six, including the driver, were predators on the prowl. The two hapless passengers who boarded it were physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh and her male companion. Apparently they were friends rather than lovers. The night ended with Awindra Pratap Pandey being beaten then thrown from the bus, and Jyoti being viciously raped, including with a metal implement, if you can imagine that. She died thirteen days later after being flown to Singapore for specialist treatment. Initially, Jyoti Singh was not named, and officially she still cannot be named, so is known as Nirbhaya, meaning the fearless one.
While Ted Bundy has spawned books as well as numerous documentaries and dramatisations, the only in-depth treatment so far of the killers of the woman who became known as India’s Daughter was made by the BBC in 2015. The film was banned in India; it caused outrage, no more so than the comments of the bus driver Mukesh Singh who was interviewed for it. He claimed literally that the victim deserved it. His comments have been widely and wilfully interpreted by feminist mischief-makers as being symptomatic of India’s deep seated misogyny rather than the self-serving justifications of a violent psychopath.
Only four of the killers were executed because one committed suicide in prison while the juvenile was released after a mere three years, that being the maximum sentence he could receive under Indian law. In the United States, he would have been tried as an adult and sentenced to decades in prison. Likewise in Britain, on which Indian law is based, he would still be behind bars today.
While even monsters deserve due process, there was really no reason these four could not have been executed by 2015 or even sooner. Once their crimes were proven beyond all reasonable doubt and had been reviewed by an appellate court, what further grounds could there be for sparing their lives? Likewise, Ted Bundy received the third of his death sentences in February 1980. Another notorious American serial killer, Lawrence Bittaker, was formally sentenced to death in March 1981 but died of old age in December last year.
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theduran--2020-03-21--The First Ever World Economic Reset.

The First Ever World Economic Reset.

The First Ever World Economic Reset .
In the last 1,000 years the human race have been governed & ruled by elite Bankers who have used their power & influence to take complete control of the world economy & create a corrupt fraudulent system .
He is now in complete control of THE ECONOMIC RESET across the globe .
This is the most exciting & historic change to human society in 1,000 years .
It has the potential to change the world we live in from a cynical War & Fraud society into a planet which can reach out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are those in the Elite who want to “ own the world ” & control your every move .
And they will fight back with every weapon they have .
But the Alliance too have their armies & the weapons to fight back .
You are privileged to be alive & awake at this time of mortal combat , for we are fighting to save the planet & human society for our children .
If we lose our lives in this attempt we will be proud to have fought in this battle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stream Media , the United Nations , The World Health Organisation , NHS England , your local Sanctuary City Socialist Civil Servants & any other Globalist Socialist Parasites .
We may be attacked , we may be undefended , but we are not defeated .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The First Ever World Economic Reset.
In the last 1,000 years the human race have been governed & ruled by elite Bankers who have used their power & influence to take complete control of the world economy & create a corrupt fraudulent system.
Today US President Donald Trump signed “The War Powers Act.”
He is now in complete control of THE ECONOMIC RESET across the globe.
This is the most exciting & historic change to human society in 1,000 years.
It has the potential to change the world we live in from a cynical War & Fraud society into a planet which can reach out to others with faith & humility.
Obviously there are those in the Elite who want to “own the world” & control your every move.
And they will fight back with every weapon they have.
But the Alliance too have their armies & the weapons to fight back.
You are privileged to be alive & awake at this time of mortal combat, for we are fighting to save the planet & human society for our children.
If we lose our lives in this attempt we will be proud to have fought in this battle.
Be wary of the Fake Main Stream Media, the United Nations, The World Health Organisation, NHS England, your local Sanctuary City Socialist Civil Servants & any other Globalist Socialist Parasites.
We may be attacked, we may be undefended, but we are not defeated.
Take Care.
#bestrong.
Buy now
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