Friday, October 17, 2014

"...the next two years are going to be exceptionally ugly"

Cross-posted from Doug Ross Journal
Obama Survival Manual, Intl. Edition

Bret Stephens, writing at the Wall Street Journal, offers the definitive survival guide for the next 25 months or so. There's a subscription required to read the whole thing -- well worth it, by the way -- but the key graphs follow to offer you but a taste.
So Paul Krugman, who once called on Alan Greenspan “to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble”; who, a few months before the eurozone crisis erupted, praised Europe as “an economic success” that “shows that social democracy works”; who, as the U.S. fracking revolution was getting under way, opined that America was “just a bystander” in a global energy story defined by “peak oil”; and who, in 2012, hailed Argentina’s economy as a “remarkable success story”—this guy now tells us, in Rolling Stone magazine, that Barack Obama has been a terrific president.

Which can only mean that the next two years are going to be exceptionally ugly. How to get through them?

I ask the question not as an exhortation to subscribe to Survivalist magazine, stock up on tuna fish and Zithromax, and master the arts of homolactic fermentation. In fact, if you’re a resident of the U.S., you’ll probably be OK. What Americans call a recession is what the rest of the world considers affluence. What we call disaster is what others know as existence.
Stephens asks us to consider what the Caddy-In-Chief means for the President of Estonia (or any other territory in Putin's cross-hairs), or a student protester in Hong Kong, a Kurd guerilla fighter defending his village against ISIS, or any other number of putative allies abandoned by President Jarrett.

Leaders in Russia, Moldova and Saudi Arabia have all described U.S. foreign policy under Obama as "complete chaos".
A corollary point, surely not lost on Mr. Putin, Ayatollah Khamenei and other rogues is that they have a free hand at least until January 2017. The conclusion: If ever there was a time to revise their regional orders in ways more to their liking, better to do so now, when there’s a self-infatuated weakling in the White House.

Ukraine, Iraq, and Afghanistan all face existential threats with a president who would rather golf and fundraise than make hard decisions.
Meanwhile, not all of our allies will capitulate so readily. Do not expect the Saudis to sit still if Iran and the West sign a nuclear deal that only John Kerry thinks is credible. Do not expect Japan to stick indefinitely to its nonnuclear pledges as cuts to the U.S. military increasingly hollow out the promise of the pivot, and as China becomes increasingly aggressive. Do not expect the Egyptians to resist the blandishments of potential strategic alliances with China or Russia as Washington holds Cairo at arms length.

This is a world of rambunctious rogues and fretful freelancers. If you think 2014 has been a year of unraveling and disorder, just wait till next year. In a time when the U.S. remains a bystander the wreckage can be immense.

In fact, every decision made by this president is couched in political terms. The AWOL 12 hours during the Benghazi attacks; the three canceled raids against Bin Laden's compounds; the use of the pre-1967 "Holocaust Borders" to represent Israel; ... the list goes on and on and on

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Kissinger, The Duke of Edinburg and a killer virus... Hmmm, does Ebola ring a bell?

I find the following editorial quite interesting if for no other reason it substantiates most of the things that I have said about Kissinger in the past.  Certainly his connection to
Communism and the New World Order (NWO) should be no secret to most sophisticated readers without me having to rehash previous commentaries.  But what Mr. Kincaid omits is more than just controversial…he says nothing about Kissinger’s views on depopulation.  The depopulation view is shared by most, if not all, of the so-called politic elite; although it should be said that it is more rampant within the Democratic Party than that of Republicans; although elite republicans are part and parcel to the NWO.
Henry Kissinger
Back in 2004 Leuren Moret wrote the following (This is an excerpt from the editorial Kissinger, Eugenics And Depopulation):
Depopulation, also known as eugenics, is quite another thing and was proposed under the Nazis during World War II. It is the deliberate killing off of large segments of living populations and was proposed for Third World countries under President Carter's administration by the National Security Council's Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy.
National Security Memo 200, dated April 24, 1974, and titled "Implications of world wide population growth for U.S. security & overseas interests," says:
"Dr. Henry Kissinger proposed in his memorandum to the NSC that "depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World."  

Depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy.”  What did I say above, “…more than just controversial!) ~ Norman E. Hooben

PS, A not so casual observation: Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund is quoted in Moret’s editorial as saying, “If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels”  
Hmmm, does Ebola ring a bell?

 
Kissinger s record of failure and betrayal
By Cliff Kincaid

Former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger's new book World Order is getting lots of favorable press and publicity. Our media treat him as something approaching royalty, with CNN's Fareed Zakaria calling him "the elder statesman of American diplomacy." He certainly has been around a long time. But has Kissinger been right or wrong about the major foreign policy issues of our time?

You may remember that Kissinger in 2009 insisted that President Obama could create a New World Order and that he had a good foreign policy team. He made
these comments on CNBC during a "celebration" of 30 years of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.

Bill Gertz's book
The China Threat explained how Kissinger "played the key role" in the talks that led President Nixon in 1972 to establish informal ties with China that ultimately led to formal diplomatic relations in 1979. Kissinger insisted that China had abandoned communism, and was no longer a threat.

The threat from China is growing daily. The new book
The Russia-China Axis: The New Cold War and America's Crisis of Leadership, by Douglas E. Schoen and Melik Kaylan, examines some recent developments. As noted by analyst Toby Westerman, however, Russia and China actually declared their own version of a "New World Order" in 1997.

A recent
article in the Bejing Review, "An Evolving Partnership," goes back even further, noting that China and Russia signed a joint statement on "the foundation for bilateral ties" in 1992, and established a "partnership of strategic coordination" in 1996.

After that, the author notes:

In 2001, China and Russia signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.

In February 2013, China and Russia signed a joint statement to "deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination," thereby "bringing [their] bilateral relationship to an unprecedented level."

Emphasizing that Russia and China currently enjoy a "very high level of relations characterized as [a] strategic partnership," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says Russia and China are expected to sign more than 40 "very important bilateral documents" this week, on the occasion of the 19th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian prime ministers.

Today, Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, and India are members of the BRICS alliance of nations, which is designed to undermine U.S. economic, financial, and military dominance in the world.

A proposed Russia-South Africa nuclear deal has gotten the attention of South African Democracy Alliance leader Helen Zille,
who says, "President [Jacob] Zuma has been to Russia on numerous occasions over the past 18 months. What were the details of these visits? Why were they so secretive? And why has Zuma clearly given preferential access to himself for the Russians, in the absence of witnesses or experts in nuclear energy? What are the incentives attached?"

Zuma, like his predecessors, was (or still is) a member of the South African Communist Party, brought to power through the African National Congress (ANC) with the support of the Soviet Union and Communist China.

Henry Kissinger's speaking appearance on Wednesday at a meeting of the
U.S.-Russia Business Council in New York City is more evidence of how "the elder statesman" has been wrong about key developments.

Zakaria's CNN show has reported that Kissinger's firm, Kissinger Associates, Inc., does business in Russia, while Bill Gertz has said that Kissinger used "his extensive access to Chinese leaders to help his consulting business flourish."

The firm, however, has no website and its complete client list is secret. In 2002, as he was facing questions about potential conflicts of interest, Kissinger
resigned as chairman of the September 11th commission. His personal website notes affiliations with think tanks and some companies.

He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his work on the so-called Vietnam Peace Accords that ultimately resulted in a communist takeover of Vietnam and the genocide in neighboring Cambodia, after a liberal U.S. Congress voted to defund the anti-communist war effort. The communist North Vietnamese had been armed by China and the Soviet Union.

Kissinger wrote the foreword to the 2002 book
The New Russian Diplomacy, by Russian official Igor S. Ivanov, in which Kissinger discussed how Russia and the U.S. "have a rare opportunity to work together in building a new international system."

During one of several meetings they have held together, Russian President Vladimir Putin
said of Kissinger, "We have a very old, friendly relationship." Kissinger and former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov chaired a working group on U.S.-Russian relations in 2007. The following year, Russia invaded Georgia, a former Soviet republic.

Nevertheless, even after the invasion of Ukraine, Kissinger remains in Putin's camp,
telling Zakaria on CNN on September 14 that "one has to understand that for Russia, Ukraine can never be just another country. It is believed that Ukraine is an integral part of the Russian patrimony." In other words, under Russia's control.

There goes the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which were guaranteed by Moscow in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

Kissinger told Zakaria that he proposes "some initiative from the White House for a quiet dialogue with Putin about where we are both trying to go...." The word "quiet" means keeping the details of the sell-out from the American people.

But much is being done out in the open. The
corporate sponsors of the U.S.-Russia Business Council meeting are some of the biggest names, including ExxonMobil, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Ford, BP, Caterpillar, Chevron, Citi, Alcoa, Pfizer, Visa, and Coca-Cola.

Kissinger has been consistently wrong about world events, and his mistakes have already cost the United States dearly. Our enemies and adversaries are on the march.

Yet, The New York Times
notes that his new book contains "no direct criticism of the Obama administration...." Perhaps Kissinger is continuing to advise Obama's former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Washington Post asked Mrs. Clinton to review the book. She
wrote, "Kissinger is a friend, and I relied on his counsel when I served as secretary of state. He checked in with me regularly, sharing astute observations about foreign leaders and sending me written reports on his travels."

It's no wonder we are losing.

© Cliff Kincaid

 ______________________
 
Unrelated but alarming...
It may take a moment for video to load.
Commentary by Sarah Forest at FaceBook:
Muslims auctioning off women chained up like animals on the street in the U.K.-- While under the protection of British police... I count this as another sign of the apocalypse. Islam is the beast of the Bible...
One of them is 13 and the bidding starts at $200.

Question: How soon will we see this on American streets?

If you ever wondered why Obama supports the Muslims, it's because he can't wait for this

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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hillary Clinton ~ The only reason she hides documents is to stay in favor of the voters.



The following Cross-posted from The Daily Signal
To Sonya Gilliam, a recent account of improper sorting of Benghazi-related documents at the State Department brought back vivid memories of her own encounters with high-level government officials who withheld, deleted or destroyed public records.
And one name stood out for its familiarity: Cheryl Mills.
A former deputy assistant secretary of state had told The Daily Signal that Mills was present during an after-hours document operation in a basement room of the State Department in October 2012. Mills was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Cheryl Mills, left, was Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff and former White House counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. (Photo: Newscom)
Cheryl Mills, left, was Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff and former White House
counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial.
(Photo: Newscom)
The purpose of the session, former State Department official Raymond Maxwell said, was to “separate” documents damaging to Clinton before records were turned over to an independent review board probing the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Mills declined to comment on Maxwell’s account to The Daily Signal.
Ray Maxwell (Photo courtesy of Sharyl Attkisson)
The account of Cheryl Mills told by Raymond Maxwell, former assistant
deputy secretary of state, sounds familiar to Sonya Gilliam.
 (Photo: Sharyl Attkisson)
“My stomach dropped,” Gilliam says about hearing the allegation last month that Mills was involved in Benghazi document sorting:
I said to myself, oh my gosh, here we are, 14 or 15 years later, [and] Cheryl Mills is still in charge of document ‘production’—I’ll use that term loosely.

Gilliam, now retired, was responsible for Commerce Department responses to Freedom of Information Act requests during the Clinton administration.
Back then, Mills was deputy White House counsel to President Clinton. At the time, multiple probes sought to determine whether the administration was fundraising illegally by selling seats on Commerce Department trade missions.
‘Cheryl Says No’
Gilliam says she sat through countless task force meetings convened to respond to demands that began in 1994 for relevant records under FOIA requests and, later, from Congress, grand juries and news media.
Prying key documents from the Clinton administration’s political grip proved an often-impossible task, she says.
“Meantime, the clock is ticking and it’s illegal to not respond according to the law within the time frame,” Gilliam told The Daily Signal in an interview.

Gilliam says that supervising attorneys at the Commerce Department told her, “We’re waiting on Cheryl Mills.”
“I said, ‘Who is Cheryl Mills?’ ‘Oh, she is the deputy counsel to the president.’
“I about dropped my jaw. I said, ‘What are documents doing over with Cheryl Mills?’ ”
Gilliam says the answer was that the document release by Commerce had to be “coordinated” with the White House.
I found many, many references that I have highlighted in those meetings that we had that said ‘waiting on White House,’ ‘call Cheryl Mills,’ ‘Cheryl Mills has not responded yet,’ ‘Cheryl says no.’

Gilliam logged more than 30 years as an award-winning public servant working for Democratic and Republican administrations. Before the Clinton administration, Gilliam says, it had not been common practice to send non-White House documents to the White House for approval of their release.
“I was amazed and just really gobsmacked when I saw the White House involved to the extent it was,” Gilliam says.
‘Con Artists’ and ‘Hooligans’ at Commerce
Two years into the investigations, on April 3, 1996, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others were killed in a plane crash while on an official trade mission in Croatia. Brown recently had been served with a deposition notice regarding the alleged sale of trade mission seats.
Evidence revealed a “flurry of document shredding in the [Commerce] secretary’s office” following his death. The document obstruction, which continued for years, is detailed in a 1998 federal court ruling.
District Judge Royce C. Lamberth likened the behavior of Commerce Department officials to “con artists” and “hooligans.” He found that they “wrongfully withheld documents, destroyed documents, and removed or allowed the removal of others, all with the apparent intention of thwarting the FOIA and [court] orders.”

Gilliam says she was so disturbed by what she saw that she blew the whistle in 2000 on behalf of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which was suing Commerce for the documents.
In her affidavit dated July 7, 2000, Gilliam stated, in part:
I know that Ms. Mills, in her position as deputy counsel to the president, advised Commerce officials to withhold certain documents … these interactions with Ms. Mills, as well as other practices, delayed and corrupted the Commerce Department’s response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests.
>>> 19 Times the Government Withheld Documents It Didn’t Want You to See
Mills, now on the board of directors at the global investment firm BlackRock, declined comment for this report.
Lamberth’s opinion faulting the Commerce Department for obstruction did not name Mills as personally responsible for any misdeeds.
Judge Calls Mills’ Behavior ‘Loathsome’ in Other Case
In a separate case involving missing documents that was brought against the FBI in 1997, Lamberth found no obstruction or conspiracy but referred to Mills’ conduct as a White House official as “loathsome.”
Lamberth faulted Mills for making “the most critical error in this entire fiasco”: learning of missing White House emails but not taking proper steps to resolve the situation.
“Mills’ actions were totally inadequate to address the problem,” Lamberth concluded.
Photo: Newscom
Cheryl Mills (Undated Photo: Newscom)
Judging by the frequency of cases over the years, up to and including the IRS scandal, lost and missing federal records amount to an epidemic — one not isolated to one administration or party.
Typically, even when obstruction is discovered, the remedy is that an agency turns over any recovered documents. The agency may be ordered to pay a successful plaintiff’s litigation costs. The process provides little disincentive to repeating incompetent or willful behavior.
‘I Am Ray Maxwell’
In the case where Gilliam blew the whistle, the Commerce Department ultimately acknowledged wrongdoing and taxpayers paid the bill: The agency was ordered to pay Judicial Watch $897,000 in legal fees. Some documents never were recovered.
The outcome was little consolation, Gilliam says. She says she suffered recrimination and health issues as a result of stepping forward in 2000.
Gilliam Thumbnail 1
‘I lived Ray Maxwell’s story,’ Gilliam tells The Daily Signal.
(Photo: The Daily Signal)
And she gives Maxwell a great deal of credit for speaking up about what he saw in the State Department basement in October 2012.
“I never met Ray Maxwell,” Gilliam told The Daily Signal. “I don’t know Ray Maxwell. But I am Ray Maxwell because I lived Ray Maxwell’s story. And I felt compelled to say something.”

A Medley of Missing Documents Through the Years:
Missing: Hillary Clinton S&L Records. In 1988, according to congressional investigators, Hillary Clinton “ordered the destruction of records relating to her [legal] representation of [Jim] McDougal’s Madison S&L” when federal regulators were investigating the insolvency of the Arkansas savings and loan. Bill Clinton was Arkansas governor at the time.
The Clintons and McDougal were business partners in the failed Whitewater real estate venture. McDougal later was convicted of fraud for attempting to use S&L funds to cover Whitewater losses. His wife, Susan, served prison time for refusing to answer grand jury questions about whether Bill Clinton lied in his testimony during her Whitewater trial.
Missing: Clinton Counsel’s Foster Records. In 1993, according to a Secret Service official, first lady Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Maggie Williams, removed records from the office of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster the night of his suicide.
Other Clinton officials, including White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, later testified that they conducted an improper search of Foster’s office. At least one file was marked “Whitewater” and another was marked “taxes.”
Another White House counsel, Bob Barnett, later picked up a box of Foster’s documents. Associate counsel Clifford Sloan’s contemporaneous notes cite the Clintons’ initials: “get Maggie—go through office—get HRC, WJC stuff.”
Missing: Clinton Counsel’s Foster Suicide Note. Also in 1993, the White House released an official statement incorrectly saying that no Foster suicide note had been found. However, more than 24 hours after a note had been found, White House counsel Nussbaum turned it over to Attorney General Janet Reno.
Missing: Hillary Clinton Law Firm Records. In 1996, after nearly two years of searches and subpoenas, the White House reported it found copies of missing documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s law firm that described her work for Madison S&L in the 1980s. The White House previously said it did not have the records. The originals have not turned up.
Missing: Bush Administration Energy Emails. In 2002, the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch said more than 25,000 documents were missing from records released regarding deliberations between Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and industry executives, possibly including documents related to the Enron scandal.
Missing: Clinton Terrorism Documents. In 2003, former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger smuggled classified documents related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks from the National Archives. Berger said he removed handwritten notes by hiding them in his jacket, pants and socks, and also inadvertently took copies of classified documents.
Missing: Bush Administration ‘Torture’ Documents. In 2004, critics of the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” for suspected terrorists, which they regarded as torture, said key documents were missing from newly declassified White House materials regarding torture and other mistreatment of prisoners. These included memos to and from the FBI and CIA, and documents dated after April 2003.
Missing: Millions of Bush Administration Emails. In 2005, the White House discovered some emails were not properly archived. It later was revealed that missing emails from Jan. 3, 2003 to July 28, 2005 might total 5 million.
Lost and Found: Katrina Conference Call Transcript. Also in 2005, Bush administration officials told Congress that they could not locate a transcript of an Aug. 29 videoconference call about Hurricane Katrina. Officials produced a transcript in 2006.
Missing: Bush Administration’s Abramoff Emails. In 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald found that missing emails from the 2003 period could be relevant to the criminal probe into influence peddling by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who later was convicted of bribery and corruption.
Missing: Bush Administration Political Emails. In 2007, it was revealed that 88 White House officials used Republican National Committee email accounts — but that the RNC preserved no emails for 51 of the officials.
Missing: Bush Administration Interrogation Video. Also in 2007, it was discovered that the Pentagon had lost a crucial recording of an al-Qaeda operative being interrogated in a U.S. military brig.
Withheld: Obama Administration ‘Fast and Furious’ Documents. In 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder withheld emails regarding the “Fast and Furious “scandal. President Obama invoked executive privilege to prevent some emails from being turned over to Congress under subpoena.
Missing: Obama State Department Records. This year, it was revealed that the State Department may have lost some $6 billion because of incomplete or missing contract records over six years, mainly during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Missing: Obama Administration IRS Emails. Also this year, the Internal Revenue Service said it had lost key emails of Lois Lerner and other officials regarding improper IRS targeting of conservative nonprofit groups.
Missing: Obama HealthCare.gov Records. Also this year, the Obama administration revealed that records Congress is seeks in its investigation of the Obamacare website, HealthCare.gov, are missing.
Missing: Obama EPA Records. Also this year, the Environmental Protection Agency told Congress it was having trouble finding emails relevant to a probe into the environmental impact of a proposed gold and copper mine in the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. In a separate case, a federal judge found that the EPA willfully failed to keep emails and other records relevant to a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the delay of unpopular regulations until after the 2012 election.
Missing?: Hillary Clinton Benghazi Documents. Also this year, former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell said he witnessed a Benghazi document-sorting session in October 2012 in the State Department basement. He said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and her deputy, Jake Sullivan, were present.
Missing: Obama EPA Text Messages. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency said it didn’t save text messages at issue in a Freedom of Information case seeking records about the agency’s plans to crack down on coal power plants. An EPA spokesman contends that federal law doesn’t require the messages to be retained.
This is a Daily Signal special feature.

Added video from: Benghazi Bombshell: Clinton State Department Official Reveals Details of Alleged Document Review

Don't sweat the small stuff

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Sunday, October 12, 2014

NFL Football...Don't let it go to your head!

Source: The Smoking Gun
Click picture to enlarge.
Fan With Tom Brady Helmet Tattooed On His Head Is Jailed On Felony Narcotics Charge
A football fan with a Tom Brady helmet tattooed across his head is locked up in a Florida jail following his arrest on a narcotics charge.
St. Petersburg cops last month busted Victor Thompson, 46, for possession of Spice, the synthetic marijuana. Thompson allowed police to search his pockets after he was spotted trespassing outside a community center.
When questioned by police, Thompson said that he purchased the "Master Kush" Spice “from a black male for $15” at a downtown park, according to a police report. Thompson reportedly told cops that he did not know Spice was illegal in Florida, claiming that it was “still legal in New Hampshire,” his home state.
Thompson, who said that he moved to Florida three weeks prior to his September 10 arrest, was charged with felony drug possession and trespassing, a misdemeanor. He is being held in the Pinellas County jail in lieu of $1500 bond.

As noted in the “Scars, Marks, Tatoos or other distinguishing features” section of the report, Thompson has “Tattoo Head-Patriots Football Helmet.”
Tom Brady

As seen in the above images, Thompson had a series of tattoos inked on his head to make it appear that he is wearing a New England Patriots football helmet. Along with team logos on each side of his head, Thompson got Brady’s number 12 and the word “Patriots” inked on the back of his head. He added the name of the helmet maker (“Riddell”) on his forehead, as well as an American flag and an NFL logo.
Thompson even included the small green dot indicating that a helmet is equipped with an electronic device allowing its wearer to receive plays from the sideline.
Thompson also had a likeness of the Super Bowl trophy tattooed on the top of his head. Additionally, his noggin features inked replicas of the signatures of players Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, and Randy Moss. Somehow, Thompson forgot to add Aaron Hernandez’s John Hancock to his cranium.
Jailers took four separate booking photos of Thompson so that his tattoos could be memorialized for possible future identification purposes.

Blood Moon ~ 8 October 2014 ~ Is the Bible warning us?