Raleigh
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Just think of the moola the military/industrial complex is raking in with all of the mayhem going on. They’ve got to love that the Middle East is “mysteriously” exploding again. What a stroke of luck!
Meanwhile, while few are paying attention, TTIP and TPP are marching forward.
The noose is tightening. Call your representatives, get involved somehow, fight this!
Nassim – thanks for that fascinating link re Russian plane downing. Everybody needs to read that!
https://www.voltairenet.org/article189255.html
If that fellow is even close to being right, then…what the hell? As you said yesterday, there was probably no infrared flash detected at all by the U.S. And on MH17 in the Ukraine, where the U.S. had their satellite right overhead and there would have undoubtedly been some heat detected, we hear crickets from them. Russia has been upsetting the plans of the sociopaths, and the Russian plane going down was blow back. Staying ahead of a sociopath is not easy; I’ve had some experience with that. Exposure is what they fear most (they want to keep up the appearance of being the “good guy”), and Russia has been successful in exposing some of their lies (at least to those who will listen and who want to think) or foiling the West’s plans. That must be making the U.S. furious.
Didn’t that Malaysian plane (MH370) also ascend sharply when its troubles first began? I remember the experts saying that the plane ascended sharply (to where they thought most people would have become unconscious – up to around 45,000 feet) before it veered to the left and came back across the Malay Peninsula.
So we have Malaysian MH370 down (mainly Chinese on board); Malaysian MH17 (mainly Dutch on board); the Russian plane (Russians on board). All mysteries, no clear answers. It almost appears that the Malaysians, the Chinese, the Dutch and the Russians needed to be taught a lesson by someone.
Re Pepe’s article, one of the commenters said: “The movement of vast number of refugees into the EU and the recent attacks in Paris are a US/Turkey operation to create the blowback to put troops on the ground in Syria.”
And Seychelles made a great comment a few weeks ago: “Refugee crisis will be EU’s 9/11, with exactly parallel consequences: long-term justification for reduction in civil liberties, drain of taxpayer dollars to fund corporate private armies that can/will be used against them, further strengthening of democracy, inc.”
All of the above.
The media and Western leaders elicit the help of the dupes (the touchy-feely left, the immigration/refugee industry, the aid industry, the church industry) to get what they want. The left (although they don’t know it – or don’t care to know it) are being played for the suckers they are. They think they are putting band-aids on cuts when they are really helping to tighten the noose around all of our necks. Too bleeding-heart/ignorant to see the forest for the trees or perhaps too busy rubbing their hands together at the prospect of money coming their way (refugee, aid and church industries), they never ask any tough questions. They go right along with the narrative of what the media and Western leaders are saying.
I remember the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, and how the delusional head British officer helped the Japanese build the bridge, how he protected that bridge, and when there was a chance that it would be blown up, he did everything he could to stop it until it finally dawned on him what he was doing and he said something like, “What have I done?”
I feel for Assad, who never wanted to lead his country (trained as an ophthalmologist). He has tried to bring peace, ensured the minorities (the Alawites, Druze, Christians) were represented, and even though most of the Sunni majority are happy with what he’s doing, the West wants a gas pipeline put through Syria, wants to crush Russia’s pipelines, and they’ve built up ISIS in order to pull this off. The delusional or greedy left are aiding and abetting them.
But let’s not bother ourselves with the big questions; let’s instead help those migrants who are seeking better lives — I mean “poor, starving refugees fleeing with bullets at their backs”. Because that’s the narrative that’s been laid out. Let’s strip Syria of its wealth, its brightest. Let’s leave it with nothing. Total capture and Sunni rule, lots of Qatar gas flowing under its soil.
rapier – yes, but Islam is the cement that has glued the tribes together, just like exceptionalism, salt and peppered with copious amounts of propaganda, creative advertisers sucking idiot consumers into buying useless trinkets, Dancing with the Stars, church, the flag, the national anthem, motherhood and apple pie has held the U.S. together. A religion without the bending over and praying part, but lots of rah-rah on special holidays and state football games. Others use cocaine, bath salts or Las Vegas.
“Things fall apart. The center does not hold.” Yeah, no kidding, especially when there was no center to begin with! Strip any of the above of their various “religions,” and tell me what’s left. Zip, nada. At least for most people. They don’t have a friggin’ center. In fact, they have no friggin’ idea what that would even look like. There is no center. All held together with string, tape, force, or words in a book.
No, Islam is all about “control,” not unlike the U.S. machine, or the falconer.
Comment from Karl Denninger: “These are not stupid people, but the governments and people in these nations ARE stupid. They believe these are “refugees” for the most part. They are not. They are an invading army that requires no guns as they’ve been invited in, exactly as the Greeks were in Troy — except they don’t have to hide inside a wooden horse.”
Another shockingly good article someone posted is “What Islam Isn’t”, adapted from a book by Dr. Peter Hammond on Islam.
“Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components. Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called ‘religious rights.’
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to ‘the reasonable’ Muslim demands for their ‘religious rights,’ they also get the other components under the table. Here’s how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness. At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. (United States)
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world. When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris — car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam – Mohammed cartoons). After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning.”
Read on for what happens when their numbers keep increasing. This article was written in 2008 and has the Muslim populations of different countries (Europe, Middle East, North America, Asia, Africa). Eye-opening article.
https://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=30675
One of the terrorists in last night’s attack was carrying a Serbian passport which was stamped in Greece in October of this year (he came through as one of the so-called “refugees”. Another held an Egyptian passport (another one of the “refugees).
For all those who say, “Yes, but the average refugee wouldn’t do this,” just remember the article that John Day posted about a week ago from The Saker. Push back against Islam too much, and all of a sudden people who weren’t political start taking sides (almost like defending your sister who you can’t stand most of the time, but when someone else starts attacking her, you step in to take her side – blood is thicker than water). This is what happens. I’m not even religious, but if I had to choose between Christianity or Islam, and if someone was pushing my buttons, I know where I’d go, and it wouldn’t be to Islam.
Nassim – thanks for the info. We probably will never really know what happened, just like MH17 and MH370 over Malaysia. Just more disinformation, as always.
Nassim – when I first heard that the U.S. government detected an infrared flash, I was immediately suspicious. Why hadn’t they been as forthcoming with information re MH17, when their satellite was positioned right overhead? For days now I’ve been wondering, if the U.S. and British authorities were actually sure that a bomb took down the Russian plane, why they hadn’t found any bomb residue? Was it just Egypt not wanting to ruin their tourism industry? Surely the Russians would have found bomb residue, if there was any.
Where did you hear that it was a software problem? Do you have a link? Are you suspecting that a Western group brought down that Russian airliner, that ISIS had nothing to do with it? Sort of like Michael Hastings’ car-type thing? Is Russia upsetting Western plans too much? I mean, how are you going to overthrow a leader (Assad) when they keep getting in the way? And the Syrians are quickly being settled before peace can break out. Can’t have Russia bringing about any order when what is desired is chaos.
A wire fence should have gone up immediately. The waters where the economic migrants were crossing should have been patrolled. The boats could clearly be seen in the waters; not like they would have had to look very far. The boats should have been turned around immediately, and this practice kept up until they stopped coming.
I am tired of church organizations, immigration lawyers, the immigration/refugee industry (and a huge industry it is), left-wing, whining, no-mind-emotionally-driven idiots (and here I am being kind), a very small minority, forcing their opinions on the majority. You mustn’t protect YOUR culture, but oddly enough our governments bend our backwards to ensure that THEIR cultures are protected. I would say the same thing if we were to overrun a city in the Congo, for instance.
What is happening in Syria is a travesty, for the country and for its people, not unlike what happened in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, and on and on and on. Putin is crushing ISIS, he is calling for talks between the various factions, perhaps an election, but we can’t wait for that, can we? Why is there a “sudden” inviting in of these economic migrants (they are NOT refugees)? We need to call our respective politicians and tell them to get the hell out of the Middle East.
Take a look at what is currently unfolding in Paris. Expect more.
What do you expect from aid agencies? Most of the money goes to wages and big salaries for CEO’s. Walk into any major office of, for example, United Way. Wow! Huge, beautiful buildings, the best office equipment, carpets, lighting. Particle board desks? Nope, solid wood. Tons of suits being well paid. Huge money-making operations. Very little money goes to the particular causes.
Lies? Sure. It seems that’s what the world is full of. It used to be we revered the wise elder who embodied important values, but now we revere the athlete, the Jamie Dimon’s. It’s all a lie.
Eric Kempson no doubt has a good heart, but again I see him as another person putting a band-aid on a horrible situation and perpetuating the problem. He and his wife (and you can see her break down in the following video) mean well, but he’s aiding and abetting the migrants.
He says in the video at the 6:40 mark: “Anyone putting their baby in a boat coming across here, they’re desperate. They’re bloody desperate.” I don’t buy this at all. They were safe in Turkey. Where are the guns at their backs? They might be fleeing, but they are not fleeing certain death. They are looking for a better life, and Eric Kempson is helping them do it. They no doubt are the wealthier Syrians who have enough money to pay for the journey.
Aid agencies are helping? Lies. Syrians are refugees fleeing for their lives? Lies.
From 2009, six years ago – “700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently” – imagine what the number would be now!
https://www.gallup.com/poll/124028/700-million-worldwide-desire-migrate-permanently.aspx
The Syrian migrants are NOT refugees. Have you truly lost all objectivity? What part of that don’t you get? They were safe in Turkey; that was their safe harbor. At that point they are NOT refugees. They are looking for a better life, but they are not refugees. Just because you say so does not make it true.
The wealthy Syrians are choosing to pay smugglers to take them to Greece (while in many cases NOT providing their children with life jackets). Oh, they’re doing this because they are desperate? No, they were safe in Turkey. They have just sent their own children to their deaths.
You said that you can’t fix over-population. Tell that to nature. It does it every day. Much of the world has over-populated itself into a death sentence. Four, five, six children? Really? In the middle of a desert? In the middle of Africa/India?
You can’t save the whole world. If you try to, you will just end up destroying it all. Of course I feel for the Syrian people (they had nothing to do with this war). I also feel for the poor people from Kosovo (who also have nothing), but they aren’t being accepted by Germany. Somehow they’re economic migrants while apparently the Syrians (who are safe in Turkey) are not!
This whole thing stinks. If your articles slammed and damned the people who are causing the wars in this world, we might get somewhere. Our governments continue to destabilize the world, and yet hardly a word is said about that. We need to direct our efforts to getting rid of the warmongers, the people who continue to prop up corrupt leaders in Africa and the Middle East (that list could go on and on) who suck their own people dry. Instead of dropping bombs, we need to be dropping birth control pills, food, medicine. Instead of propping up corrupt leaders, we need to be taking them out, giving the land back to the people so they can grow their own crops, allowing the people to benefit from the sale of their countries’ resources, giving them a life.
But we’re not going to talk about that, are we? We’re going to just continue to put band-aids on things, continue to try to sort out the messes our sociopathic leaders create. All this might alleviate one problem, that is until the next one comes along. And come along it will. Until we get rid of the sociopaths, it will be rinse and repeat going forward.
Sure, we must think with our hearts, but it’s just plain foolishness to throw objectivity and reason out the window while doing so.
Greenpa – with no governmental oversight, it’s like printing money. The potential fraud could be through the roof! “We pay you to say what we want,” say the corporations. “I’m short, so it goes down.” Or, “I haven’t cashed out yet, so make it look good.” Whatever their hearts desire. You couldn’t write a screenplay like this and still have people believe you.
As the guy says at the end of this roulette table scam video, if they suspect you, the dealer runs to security, rewinds the tape, and it’s off to jail for you.
But in the case of ratings agencies, there’s no security. How wide open is that? You don’t have to guess what the ball is going to land on; you’ve already rigged it so that it lands on what you want. Manipulated? Yes, and that’s something I would bet money on.
“Still, under international law people fleeing war zones cannot be labeled ‘illegal’.”
They are not fleeing for their lives. They are leaving safe harbor in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon. They are NOT fleeing. They are making a deliberate decision. They are leaving a tent in Turkey for a tent in Sweden or Germany, and they are paying smugglers to get them there. They are taking buses, trains, ferries, walking, biking. They have money, cell phones. They are not starving or running away from sudden death.
If we’re going to be anything, let’s at least be factual. More and more are coming now because they are being invited to come. Merkel sent the word that Germany had its arms open, was laying down the red carpet. And they’re hurrying up because they’re afraid that this invitation will soon be closed and they want to get in before the gates close, and close they will.
And people are actually surprised that citizens are getting upset about this??? Really? They were not asked or consulted. They’re having this crisis shoved in their faces and being told to swallow it, called “racists” if they question what’s going on and why. The EU/U.S. have an agenda (and no, we don’t know what that is), but there is a reason this is being done. Turkey (a NATO friend) opened the doors. Why? Why now after four years?
The whole thing absolutely stinks. People are saying this is “pay back” for the U.S. taking out sovereign leaders. I agree. Gaddafi, Hussein, overthrow of Ukraine, and now Assad. But there’s much more to this. It’s not just the U.S. (although they are the worst villains). It’s also tribal, sectarian. The Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, and others, all jockeying for control. Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria as one coalition. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.S., Yemen, Israel, Turkey, NATO on the other side. Gas pipelines, oil. Control, control, control, and innocent victims on all sides caught in between.
But let’s all be surprised and horrified by citizens upset over towns being overrun by migrants? Let’s all say things like, “Oh, boy, where have we seen this before?” just because people express their frustration and anger?
A little more psychology 101. Most people have absolutely no idea what makes them tick, where their thoughts come from. Most of us here are now skeptical about whatever government officials say; we just don’t believe them. But we don’t question where our beliefs come from and whether we formed them ourselves. Most of us have been heavily indoctrinated by our own parents’ beliefs, church beliefs, by the school system, and yet we don’t recognize this fact. We simply take on whatever we learned, whether it’s right or not.
One of the worst things you can ever do to a child is tell them they’re “good” or “nice”, because they will live up to it. They want to please you. They grow up thinking what you think because that’s being “good”, never forming their own reasoned opinions. That’s one of the reasons why the NGO’s in the above article are able to get so many to help them out in their coups; they’re willing dupes who think only with emotion and not with reason.
If you don’t have a border, a common culture and language, you don’t have a country! And what’s wrong with that? To have anything other than that, you end up with a wishy-washy area of land with wishy-washy citizens who have no identity at all, nothing to hold them together. And then these people are actually surprised when a far-right group takes hold. It really should be no surprise at all.
John Day – yesterday you posted a very interesting Saker link, an interview with Andrew Korybko. What a great article. Thanks for posting it. Everybody should read this article in order to understand how coups are pulled off, how the game is upped when the coup is unsuccessful, how the unwitting left (bleeding hearts) are used as human shields, how the country currently being taken down is almost paralyzed at what to do. Chaos personified.
“To address your question, my book focuses on the most cutting-edge form of warfare, which I define as being the transformation of failed Color Revolutions into Unconventional Wars. Using the examples of Syria and Ukraine, I assert that the US’ new cost-saving strategy to regime change is to use embedded NGOs to orchestrate state destabilization, and if this doesn’t succeed in overthrowing the government or blackmailing it to the point of submission, then the next step is to turn the placard-holding protester into a gun-toting insurgent. What’s really astounding, I’ve learned, is that it’s actually not all that hard to do, since there are certain strategic and organizational commonalities between Color Revolutions and Unconventional Wars, both in terms of what motivates their participants and the role of the external forces guiding the campaign, for but only two such examples.
This is post-modern warfare, the evolution of what everyone had unfortunately grown accustomed to ever since the end of the Cold War. This type of conflict is waged indirectly and via proxy, and in some cases, many people don’t even realize they’re in the middle of a warzone until it’s too late. Taking advantage of new information platforms like social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), the organizers are capable of luring thousands of unaware civilians into their “protest marches” for use as human shields against the authorities, all with the eventual intent of having professional provocateurs instigate violence so that as many causalities are caused as possible.
The purpose behind this morbid manipulation of one’s countrymen is to engineer the conditions for a state crackdown against the “protest” movement, which will then have the ‘justifiable grounds’ to call for regime change and escalate their demands against the government. Filmed by cell phone cameras and immediately uploaded to YouTube, select scenes can be purposely presented out of context or outright edited in order to garner as much pro-“revolutionary” sympathy across the world as possible. Once the event has made global headlines (usually in preplanned cahoots between the organizers, their external patrons, and their affiliated friendly media entities like CNN), it can prompt foreign leaders to issue statements of condemnation or perhaps even sanctions against the affected country’s authorities. The point is to tactically initiate the conflict escalation ladder that foreign intelligence services had already prepared for in order to enact maximum pressure against the target state.
If this strategy doesn’t achieve its expected ends, then the US’ latest improvisation in warfare is to transition the ‘soft’ coup attempt into a ‘hard’ one, where the TV-presentable “protesters” morph into rugged guerrillas obsessed with regime change. It’s not to say that every Color Revolution will end in an Unconventional War or that every Unconventional War will begin as a Color Revolution from this point forward, but that for all their geographic and demographic differences, it’s this common thread of approach that most closely links the US’ Wars on Syria and Ukraine.”
Andrew Korybko’s Interview With Serbia’s “Geopolitica” Magazine (English Exclusive)
Thanks, John Day.
rapier – got a link? More student and subprime auto loans? More corporate borrowing for stock buybacks? That’ll work out well.
“HOMS: ISIS is being demolished in Syria. New Russian technology and even newer Syrian Army tactics have become the true game-changers in this battle between the people of Syria versus the Saudi-ape/Qatari-monkey/American terrorist/Turk-sociopathic coalition aided and abetted by the U.K.’s Cameron, France’s Hollande and NATO. We know ISIS is in retreat because their conversations are picked up by the SAA-MI people who monitor them 24 hours a day. The number of defections and escapes from the claws of ISIS are in the thousands. Sadly, many of these disgruntled rodents will wind up in Europe and the North American continent where they will remind us all that a bad foreign policy, or a policy based on inhuman principles, inevitably comes back to haunt the perpetrator. Some of these savages, unhappy with the way their jihad is going, will ply their trade elsewhere and kill innocent people.”
Maybe, just maybe, these refugees will be able to go back to their homeland, their lives. This guy describes a Saudi/American/Turkish/U.K./NATO coalition. Could be why, as Dr. Diablo said, Turkey let the refugees go when they did. If you can’t win, then just empty the country out of their brightest people, or at least the ones with money.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be cheering so loudly as the country of Syria gets emptied out. As well as assisting these refugees, we should all be loudly protesting the fact that our own governments are AGAIN going after a sovereign leader and trying to take him out.
The last video I posted is six minutes long. This new one is 9 minutes long.
“A startling look at how U.S. immigration will add 300 million people to the country this century if immigration policies are not changed. This dramatic presentation of the latest Census data raises serious immigration questions about the ability of the country to achieve environmental sustainability and to meet the quality-of-life infrastructure needs of the national community considering current immigration policy.”
By his figuring, U.S. to have 625 million by 2100. Well, that will make the country more liveable (not)!
Good video made in 2010 re the world’s poor (those living on $2.00 per day or less). The presenter uses gumballs to illustrate the fact that, even at current levels of 1 million immigrants a year (not including illegals) into the U.S., this figure does not even make a dent in the number of poor people in the world, as they are increasing by 80 million per year.
As well, the presenter says that we are not taking our immigrants from the really poor. We are taking the richer, more industrious people from these countries, people who, if they stayed in their home country, could make a real difference in the lives of the really poor. But we snatch them up, take them for our own, and drain these countries of the very people they need. Way to go, long-term thinkers!
This fellow says we cannot possibly ever help all of these people by bringing a few of them into our countries. He says the way to help these people is to provide help right where they live, right where they are.
But, hey, we mustn’t talk about the world population crisis because that can’t be solved, anyway. Birth control into every single city in the developing world might help. I remember one lady in the Philippines with five children (and who didn’t want any more) who couldn’t get birth control because the country is a good-old Catholic country and they don’t do that. Perhaps the Catholic Church could provide the food in the future, you know, empty out some of their gold and actually do some good.
Sounds like there’s trouble with Sweden’s immigration policy, but nothing that can’t be swept under the rug. Good video. Before you dismiss him (an immigrant himself), listen to the whole thing. Absolutely crazy stuff, but not unlike what’s happening everywhere. No one calls a spade a spade. In fact, you are not even allowed to look at the facts; for the mere mention of wanting to look at the facts you are called a racist or a bigot. What a complete joke. The loonies are running the asylum.
Professor – “When will the videos and photos of the carnage on the streets of Syria be uncensored…” I had a look on Russia Today (RT) and Al Jazeera (surely they would have pictures), but didn’t find much, except: ISIS bombed ancient Syrian temples, and Russia apparently hit 48 people from one family who were hiding in a bunker (if you can believe it was Russia, or if you can believe the family were innocents, or if you can believe there was a family at all – so many lies being told).
The refugees appear to be carrying lots of cell phones. Where are the pictures of their burned-out and demolished cities? Wouldn’t you think they’d have posted pictures by the thousands?
“A Useful Prep-Sheet on Syria for Media Propagandists:
Keep mentioning “200,000.” (The UN estimates that 220,000 have been killed in the conflict since 2011.) Declare like you really believe it that this is the number of civilians the Syrian government of Bashar Assad has killed during the war. (Do not be concerned about any need to back the figure up. No one is ever going to call you on it publicly.)
Do NOT mention that around half of the war dead (estimates range from 84,000 to 133,000) are Syrian government forces waging war against an overwhelmingly Islamist opposition, and an additional 73,000 to 114,000 are anti-government combatants.
Do not discuss these figures because they would call into question the claim that the Syrian government is targeting and killing tens of thousands of civilians willy-nilly. (If feeling any qualms of conscience, recall Karl Rove’s immortal dictum that “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”)
* Keep mentioning the “Arab Spring” and how in 2011 Syrians peacefully mobilized to challenge the regime were violently repressed. But don’t dwell on the Arab Spring too much. Realize that the State Department was actually shocked by it, particularly by its repercussions in Egypt, where democratization brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power before the U.S.-backed military drowned its opponents in blood.
And recall but do NOT mention how in Bahrain, peaceful demonstrations by the majority Shiites against the repressive Sunni monarchy were crushed by a Saudi-led invasion force tacitly supported by the U.S. And NEVER mention that the bulk of the peaceful protesters in the Syrian Arab Spring want nothing to do with the U.S.-supported armed opposition but are instead receptive to calls from Damascus, Moscow and Tehran for dialogue towards a power-sharing arrangement.”
seychelles – agree with you re another black President. There were a ton of white people who voted for him, believing in his “hope and change”. I was rooting for the guy. Talk about the biggest letdown ever! But when you stand back and think about it, who was this guy? He literally came from nowhere, skipped into the Bilderberg meeting, and voila – President. You don’t get to do that unless you’re willing to play serious ball with your handlers (something the American public does not yet see). He golfs, reads a good teleprompter, and follows through on what his handlers tell him to do. Nothing more than another puppet, this time dressed in black.
You don’t get to be President of the United States through the voting process. You get there by being one of the boys, a sociopath. They chose him well, and he has not let them down.
As you and I have both said, our world is being governed by sociopaths who are causing chaos and destruction. You and I are not doing any of this, nor would we even think of it. What is happening is an absolute travesty. But what I find interesting is when you even question what’s happening, you get called a racist, bigot, a lazy, fat Brit, a barbarian, or it’s suggested that the refugees would make better citizens than you would (Marseilles, anyone?) I guess that’s supposed to just shut people up, make them feel guilty and ashamed for even asking silly questions. I am tired of that shit.
In the case of the three year-old boy, yes, I hold his father responsible for his death. No, they were not fleeing bullets or tanks. There was no rush to get out. His family was safe until he refused to spend some of his $4,000.00 on life jackets or take a safer route, preferably one where his whole family is not drowned.
There are millions more back in the refugee camps (in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon) who do not have the money to get out. What about them? The ones who are getting out are getting money from somewhere, or they already have it. That’s what the article was saying. They are moving because they can. I have read articles stating that the refugees are coming by bus, train, cars. They are well fed and well dressed. That takes money. You can hardly walk from Turkey to Germany with no food, no money. You’d starve on the way.
The Syrians are not coming to get rich. They would not have come at all if the West wasn’t in there stirring up trouble. But now that they’re homeless, it is the ones with money who are coming. The camps are receiving money, but I agree it’s no life. I only hope Russia can save the day and let these people go home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War
And Merkel is now the big benevolent leader, full of heart for the refugees? It has nothing to do with her wanting cheap labor? I don’t buy it. I think they’d have boats out on the water and every border secured right tight if they didn’t want them. Her corporate handlers are telling her what to do. Heart? Yeah, right.
“Prepare yourselves: The Great Migration will be with us for decades. It is not war, but money, that drives people abroad. That is not going to change any time soon.
When the crew of HMS Bulwark first fished immigrants out of the Mediterranean, they were expecting to find the world’s hungry, wretched and destitute. Instead, they found them relatively healthy, well-dressed and carrying mobile phones and credit cards, which they intended to use upon arrival in Italy.
The military learnt then what politicians are only slowly beginning to work out – that this is not simply a refugee crisis. The world’s poor are on the move because they’re not quite so poor as they used to be, and can afford to travel. A great migration has begun, and it could be with us for decades. […] As more people have the money to move, more are doing so – and at extraordinary personal risk.”
A good proportion of those migrating are economic immigrants. As Mish says, if you continue to hand out benefits, they’ll continue to come. Ilargi, are you seriously advocating that anyone – anyone – who ends up anywhere in the waters of the Mediterranean should be admitted with open arms? And Europe is somehow to blame for people drowning? I do not understand this sort of reasoning.
Dmitry Orlov said the other day that the Middle East wars are tribal wars. Don’t know that that’s going to change unless nations get carved up along tribal lines and they keep whitey away from any of the carving up. In the Middle East and the rest of the world (Africa, Asia), overpopulation plays a huge part in their problems. Add in government corruption keeping a lot of people poor, one of the biggest reasons Africa has not progressed one iota.
And then the cherry on top: the U.S. and their NATO puppets destroying countries. This is what we should really be fighting against, at least to start with. I mean, if NATO was so worried about democracy and bringing peace to people, then why haven’t they been in Africa taking out the filthy-rich, corrupt leaders there?
And shouldn’t we be helping people stay in their own countries? With this current exodus, especially with the Syrians, the cream of the crop are leaving, the ones with education, money, the very people who would be instrumental in building the country back up again. I only hope they have a country left to go home to.
Hopefully Russia blasts the hell out of the U.S.-backed “moderate” terrorists, and sends ISIS fleeing for their lives. Then the people of Syria can go home.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to choose our parents. The three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned, along with his mother and older brother, off the coast of Turkey (while trying to flee to Greece) didn’t get to choose his. His family fled from Syria to Turkey. They were not living in a Turkish refugee camp; there were no guns chasing them. The father’s sister in Canada sent him $4,000.00 so that the family could travel to Europe to get the father’s teeth fixed.
So with all of that money on hand, the father loads his family (who could not swim) into a small boat WITH NO FRIGGIN LIFE JACKETS. He has $4,000.00, BUT HE CAN’T AFFORD TO SPEND ANY MONEY ON LIFE JACKETS? His teeth were apparently more important.
Apparently he was trying to live on $17.00/day in Turkey, but wasn’t getting ahead. Yeah, that’s what I would do (not!) Because he wasn’t “getting ahead,” he chooses to risk his family’s lives.
There is no way I would ever, EVER put my family at risk. If there were bombs going off behind me and there was no alternative, maybe, but not like this. He was looking for a better life and anxious to get his teeth fixed. Children and wife? Obviously not too worried about them.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/image-of-syrian-boy-washed-up-on-beach-hits-hard-1441282847
Charles – yes, it is most definitely “threatening a culture”, culture being the very glue that holds a country together. Without a culture you have nothing, which is what is being destroyed in Europe.
charlo49 – “A government program has offered those without legal papers the chance to return home with $3,500 in cash, the option of going to a third country, or spend an indefinite time in an Israeli prison.
Over the past two years, over 9,000 Africans have taken up Israel’s offer and left.”
https://www.rt.com/news/258893-israel-refugees-home-jail/
“Israel spent more than $350 million to build a 140-mile fence along its entire border with Egypt. Undocumented migrants to Israel are called “infiltrators” by the Israeli government.
The steel barrier, completed in 2013, stopped illegal entry cold: More than 10,000 Africans arrived in 2012; today almost no one attempts the trip.”
$350 million on the fence plus $31 million on the cash payments (never mind the plane tickets or feeding the ones who stay). Israel takes in immigrants, but Jewish ones. I can’t blame them for that. You could actually destroy a culture by doing that.
Did Israel cause 9/11? Probably had a good hand in it, along with others. From articles I’ve read, they had people actively watching the people who pulled it off (right up to the day it was pulled off); after it happened, these people abruptly left the U.S. A planned crisis.
Mish wrote a post entitled “Plotting the Number of Banks: Is the Goal One “TBTF” Bank?” Total number of U.S. banks in 1990 = 15,158. Total number of U.S. banks in 2015 = 6,315. Just over one-third left.
https://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.ca/2015/09/plotting-number-of-banks-is-goal-one.html
Very good interview. Scary re the thoughts about civil war in China (yikes), the Ogallala Aquifer depletion (just stupid), and derivatives taking priority position (bastards)!
Nicole, your intellect knows no bounds. But from the interview it was apparent you also wear another hat – that of a very effective mediator!
Job well done. RE, you know your stuff too!
“To escape the violence, more than three and a half million Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Turkey,[33][34] Lebanon, Jordan,[35] and Iraq [36] while thousands also ended up in more distant countries of the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf and North Africa. As of February 2015, Turkey has become the world’s biggest refugee hosting country with 1.7 million Syrian refugees and had spent more than US$6 billion on direct assistance to refugees.
On December 2013, UN announced an aid appeal for US$6.5 billion in order to assist the Syrian population – some US$2.3 billion are destined for civilians inside Syria, while US$4.2 billion would go to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.[43] This was the all-time high humanitarian appeal in UN history.[43] Associated press, in their report, dated 29 August, stated the following facts: One of every eight Syrian has fled, mostly to Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey. 6.5 million others have been displaced within Syria. 35,000 awaiting registration as refugees, hundreds of thousands who are not registered. Nearly half of all Syrians have now been displaced.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War
Looking at the right-hand side of the above link, most of the refugees are in Turkey (1,800,000), Lebanon (1,200,000), Jordan (600,000), Iraq (250,000), Egypt (130,000). Instead of crying for more aid (which just puts a band-aid on the situation), put pressure on your governments to get the hell out of other people’s business (like the Ukraine).
One of the links Ilargi posted says that the majority of the “refugees” are from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. One of the commenters said: “They are not refugees. They are young, overwhelmingly male, economic migrants.” Take a look at the picture of Calais at the link on the article by Patrick Kingsley of the Guardian (where are the families, the children?):
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/31/migrants-calais-resettlement-europe
I was reading about Eritrea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea
“The real GDP (2009 est.): $4.4 billion, and the annual growth rate (2011 est.):14%. However, worker remittances from abroad are estimated to account for 32 percent of gross domestic product. Eritrea has an extensive amount of resources such as copper, gold, granite, marble, and potash. The Eritrean economy has undergone extreme changes due to the War of Independence. In 2011, Eritrea’s GDP grew by 8.7 percent making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Eritrea’s population increased from 3.2 million to 6.4 million between 1990 and 2014.”
32% of Eritrea’s GDP is from worker remittances from abroad. In twenty-four years, the population has doubled! Approximately 50% of the population is Muslim/50% Christian.
“All Eritreans between the ages of 18–40 must complete a mandatory national service, which includes military service. This national service was implemented after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia, as a precautionary means to be protected against any threats on Eritrea’s sovereignty, to instill national pride, and to create a disciplined populace. Eritrea’s national service requires lengthy, indefinite conscription periods, which some Eritreans leave the country in order to avoid.” The country was at war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2001 over a border dispute, but that has since ended. In fact, the following article (“What’s Behind the Surge in Refugees Crossing the Mediterranean Sea”) says: “Eritreans overwhelmingly cite military conscription as their reason for leaving home.” In fact, during the first four months of 2015, 26,000 Africans (mainly young men) made the journey to Europe, and that is just the beginning.
There is no civil war in Eritrea. They are slightly larger than Iceland (population of 329,000) as far as square miles, and yet have a population of 6.4 million people. These are “economic” immigrants. The Syrians are predominantly staying in Turkey (2 million of them) and few are making the journey to Europe, perhaps because they lack the fees to pay the smugglers. These are the true refugees.
So Patrick Kingsley (at the top link) says that Europe, with a population of 740 million, should easily be able to handle a million people. Patrick, why would it ever just stop at a million? What are you going to do when the numbers increase to 10 million, 20, 30?
The West is trying to overthrow Syria’s government (and arming terrible people in order to carry out their wishes), and because of that innocent citizens are killed or forced from their homes. Pressure should be put squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government (and their NATO puppets) to stop their senseless wars. We should be on the phone to our government representatives, but instead we just put our hands in our pockets and say, “Gee, what’ll we do with the refugees?” Meanwhile, their country is destroyed, and for what?
One of the links Ilargi posted says that the majority of the “refugees” are from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. One of the commenters said: “They are not refugees. They are young, overwhelmingly male, economic migrants.” Take a look at the picture of Calais at the link on the article by Patrick Kingsley of the Guardian (where are the families, the children?):
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/31/migrants-calais-resettlement-europe
I was reading about Eritrea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea
“The real GDP (2009 est.): $4.4 billion, and the annual growth rate (2011 est.):14%. However, worker remittances from abroad are estimated to account for 32 percent of gross domestic product. Eritrea has an extensive amount of resources such as copper, gold, granite, marble, and potash. The Eritrean economy has undergone extreme changes due to the War of Independence. In 2011, Eritrea’s GDP grew by 8.7 percent making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Eritrea’s population increased from 3.2 million to 6.4 million between 1990 and 2014.”
32% of Eritrea’s GDP is from worker remittances from abroad. In twenty-four years, the population has doubled! Approximately 50% of the population is Muslim/50% Christian.
“All Eritreans between the ages of 18–40 must complete a mandatory national service, which includes military service. This national service was implemented after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia, as a precautionary means to be protected against any threats on Eritrea’s sovereignty, to instill national pride, and to create a disciplined populace. Eritrea’s national service requires lengthy, indefinite conscription periods, which some Eritreans leave the country in order to avoid.” The country was at war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2001 over a border dispute, but that has since ended. In fact, the following article (“What’s Behind the Surge in Refugees Crossing the Mediterranean Sea”) says: “Eritreans overwhelmingly cite military conscription as their reason for leaving home.” In fact, during the first four months of 2015, 26,000 Africans (mainly young men) made the journey to Europe, and that is just the beginning.
There is no civil war in Eritrea. They are slightly larger than Iceland (population of 329,000) as far as square miles, and yet have a population of 6.4 million people. These are “economic” immigrants. The Syrians are predominantly staying in Turkey (2 million of them) and few are making the journey to Europe, perhaps because they lack the fees to pay the smugglers. These are the true refugees.
So Patrick Kingsley (at the top link) says that Europe, with a population of 740 million, should easily be able to handle a million people. Patrick, why would it ever just stop at a million? What are you going to do when the numbers increase to 10 million, 20, 30?
The West is trying to overthrow Syria’s government (and arming terrible people in order to carry out their wishes), and because of that innocent citizens are killed or forced from their homes. Pressure should be put squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government (and their NATO puppets) to stop their senseless wars. We should be on the phone to our government representatives, but instead we just put our hands in our pockets and say, “Gee, what’ll we do with the refugees?” Meanwhile, their country is destroyed, and for what?
During the last few years, the United States has had an influx of illegal immigrants from Central America. With fewer and fewer jobs to go around, the U.S. population, including the Black population, were very upset about this, but nothing was done. Could the U.S. government have wanted this influx? It appears so, otherwise they could have stopped it, sending the illegals back the way they got there, by train. But they didn’t.
The media, the church, progressives rushed in to help out, saying it would be a travesty to return them. Whenever I hear the media chastising the public on their humanity, I start to wonder whose giving them orders to write what they do. Are we to believe that all of a sudden the media have compassion and heart, or are they being directed by the people who really run our countries?
How TPTB must laugh when their plans are aided and abetted by the above. Once the churches, progressives and media get going, the President simply throws his hands in the air and says, “Oh, well, there’s nothing to be done.” What he completely throws to the side are the millions of people who do not want this, but they hardly matter, do they? They have no compassion.
Paul Krugman says in an above link: “Start with the fundamentals. China is at the end of an era – the era of superfast growth, made possible in large part by a vast migration of underemployed peasants from the countryside to coastal cities. This reserve of surplus labor is now dwindling, which means that growth must slow.”
“Vast migration of underemployed peasants”. Low-skilled, low-wage labor – can anyone spell the word “profit”? Corporations in the U.S. have greatly benefited from illegal Mexican immigrants, pulling out the “compassion” card every time citizens begin to get really angry. In come the churches, progressives and media to assist the corporations, ensuring that the practice continues.
The West has been stirring up the hornet’s nest in the Middle East. They had to have known what the outcome would be – people fleeing. I mean, aren’t the West supplying the very weapons to the so-called enemy that is forcing the millions to flee their homelands? If the West was so worried about the refugees, they would have had a contingency plan in place, but again they didn’t. Why?
I just wonder, if TPTB are always constrained from bringing in cheap labor easily and legally, this is a sure-fire way to do it. I’m not saying it was their primary motivation, but it sure helps their friends (the ones who count – their campaign contributors) in the end. And the nice thing is, they don’t have to pay a penny for it, the taxpayers do. A great big “people QE”.
So the arms manufacturers (U.S. and European) are happy – they’re selling lots of weapons. The people who want cheap labor are happy – they almost get something for nothing. The taxpayers again take the brunt, and their wages are depressed greatly by the influx of cheap labor. Lost in the mix is the compassion for them.
The West could have planned to help these people out, without having them travel hundreds of miles. They could have provided safe areas within their own countries, food, temporary housing, medical care. I have to ask why they didn’t. It is almost as if they want this movement.
Go ahead and point out where I’m wrong.
Very interesting. That’s called thinking ahead. Any intelligent person is going to do this. Lawyers (which most politicians are) do it every single day. It’s what the central bankers have been doing on a daily basis for the last few decades, making things up as they go along, and they haven’t even been elected.
V. Arnold – I’ve only read about a third of Nicole’s post, but I second your “wow”. What the hell happened? When intelligence was handed out, I and the others around me got a few measly crumbs. They must have gotten distracted when they got to Nicole (called to the phone or something), and they dumped the whole lot on her; she got the mother lode.
Nicole, you inspire me. You make all of us women proud. And your interview that was posted a few days ago, that was so well done. Thank you.
John Day/Greenpa – I had some information given to me years ago. I didn’t agree with it, didn’t act on it, yet the information was there. It just took time for me to see that things fit with what I had been told. Now, had the information never been given, I would have been lost, but since it was there, things began to make sense. So I guess the best thing to do is kindly inform people what you believe, and it’s up to them to seize it when the time is right for them.
“The European Central Bank added state-backed company debt to the list of assets eligible for purchase under its 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) quantitative easing program, widening efforts to spur growth in the region. […] The ECB’s announcement Thursday has taken the market completely by surprise, said Van Den Broek. Purchases of company bonds will push investors into riskier assets, he said.”
Good observations, everyone. I was just thinking about JFK Jr. the other day, and I wondered again, as I had at the time of his death, whether he was assassinated too. I’m sure Congressmen and Senators are too told what they will be doing and saying, and of course all Presidents. They are merely puppets, highly-paid servants to the men behind the curtain. For keeping their mouths shut and playing along, they get highly rewarded. Just in case we start opening our mouths, we get increased surveillance. They’re not worried about terrorism from without, but from within.
Greenpa – I too have stood up several times against injustice, stupidity, ignorance, only to turn around and see absolute blank faces on those around me. Nothing. No help, no agreement, not even a look of assurance. I’m pretty sure if I tried to take their iPhone away, I’d get a response out of them, but in the above instances I felt I was surrounded by programmed robots, like they couldn’t think, even when they themselves were being screwed over. Only a very few ever step up and speak out. And after you step up a few times and get no response from anyone, you even begin to doubt yourself.
Good article, Ilargi. “Podemos, Syriza, M5S and others should present themselves, very publicly, as a front.” Yes, they are either united or they’re not. They can’t do it alone, even though the Troika would love to fight them one by one. I am certain that Greece would have had a different outcome had the others stood beside it.
The bankers/vested interests are desperately holding onto their power. Is the only way that real change can occur along the lines of what Dmitry Orlov sets out in “So You Say You Don’t Want a Revolution?”
https://cluborlov.blogspot.ca/2015/07/so-you-say-you-dont-want-revolution.html#more
Variable – I think that a lot of the rise in metal commodity prices was purely due to speculation/hoarding. Prices have to come down. As far as wages go, Karl Denninger had a piece re Seattle raising their minimum wage to $15.00/hour and how people are now asking for fewer hours because of it.
“Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan.
Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=230411
Workers no doubt have been getting squeezed, but instead of raising wages, how about corporations, CEO’s, stock holders taking a little less (or a lot). What’s the point of raising wages when the cost just gets passed along to the end consumer, who eventually stops buying because he can no longer afford it, and up and down we go on an endless roller coaster.
What I can’t wrap my mind around is Gail Tverberg’s site is called Our Finite World and yet she says, “If the economy is to grow again, demand for all commodities needs to rise to the point where it makes sense to extract more of them.” As Nicole said in her video, maybe we didn’t really ever need electric can openers or toothbrushes. People who want more and more growth are the problem, at least to me.
And under her heading “Declining interest rates stimulate the economy for many reasons,” nowhere does she mention that lower and lower interest rates have pulled forward demand, which caused prices to rise on everything in the first place: houses, cars, tuition, vacations, furniture, commodities, etc. I don’t have time to dissect the article, but even I could go on and on.
It’s a good article and it might be factual, but it is not deep. Workers wages don’t need to rise; everything else needs to go down because it’s all been built on air.
John – I’ve read several of Pepe Escobar’s articles re China, and to me they always seem very biased towards China. Like all journalists nowadays, I think they have to watch what they say or they might lose access or, worse, their jobs. The articles I’ve read by him are not investigative as far as China’s problems; they’re all rah-rah.
Fed “Accidentally” Released Dovish Confidential Market-Moving Forecasts, Blames “Glitch”:
“While superficially, and as expected, the Fed is assuming a 1.26% fed funds rate in one year, suggesting about 3-4 rate hikes until then, with the first one according to the leaked documents taking place in Q3. Note that the Fed expects a long-term 10Y rate of 4.25%, and potential GDP output to renormalize by 2020.”
Accidentally?
