The Syrian Army continues to make rapid gains against ISIS in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor since breaking the years long terrorist siege earlier this week which had 100,000+ Syrian civilians trapped. On Saturday the army reached its most important goal in the campaign to date – the liberation of Deir Ezzor military airport which had been completely surrounded by ISIS for nearly a year. The army's full control of the airport means that most of Deir Ezzor's western half is now under the control of the government as all regime neighborhoods are now linked up for the first time with ISIS lines cut.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the liberation of the military airport "foreshadowed the end of terrorism". Indeed control of the base has long been considered key to the city's fate. ISIS fighters reportedly began fleeing areas surrounding the base once the army got the momentum, especially as areas adjacent to the base are open fields with little natural cover. The turning point came after the army captured the strategic hilltop of Tal Rubiyat, which overlooks the Ta'meen Base located northwest of the sprawling airport.
Celebrations ensued among Syrian officers and troops the moment Deir Ezzor's most important strategic section was liberated from ISIS on Saturday.
For much of the past year the airport was besieged while over 5000 civilians along with Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters were trapped inside the base. According to various reports from correspondents on the ground, it was defended from near daily ISIS attacks by starving base residents, and supplied from government air drops. Many lost their lives just attempting to access some of the hard to reach airdrops on which the base's survival depended.
The weekend victory means we could see the entire liberation of Deir Ezzor City wrap up more quickly than anyone expected. As the military airport is now able to ramp up operations and become the army's most well fortified forward operating base in the country's east, it will serve as a "launching pad to expand military operations in the region," according to a statement issed last week by the Syrian Army.
Map source: South Front
Though ISIS lines are crumbling, US presence in the area threatens to complicate the Syrian military's forward momentum in the eastern provinces of Deir Ezzor and Hasakah. On the very day the Syrian government celebrated this key victory, US coalition 'Operation Inherent Resolve' announced its own advance on ISIS held territory in Deir Ezzor through its allied partners on the ground, including the Kurdish and Arab SDF ('Syrian Democratic Forces'). The SDF is the Pentagon's favored (largely Kurdish) proxy in the East. At times it has clashed with Syrian troops, while at others has displayed some level of tacit and loose coordination.
The US coalition/SDF force is calling its own operation – which is occurring simultaneous to regime advances – “Operation Jazeera Storm". A coalition statement issued the very day of the military airport's liberation reads as follows:
The Combined Joint Task Force Coalition welcomes the announcement by the Syrian Arab Coalition of the commencement of their offensive to defeat ISIS in the Khabur River valley, dubbed “Operation Jazeera Storm,” north of Dayr Az Zawr in eastern Syria, Sept. 9.
…Coalition forces will support the SAC during the Khabur River valley offensive as part of their ‘advise and assist’ mission, providing equipment, training, intelligence and logistics support, precision fires and battlefield advice.
The Khabur River valley lies north of Deir Ezzor. Reportedly the coalition statement at first designated Deir Ezzor city itself as the target of new operations (instead of the broader area of the "Khabur River valley") while also making reference to "anti-Syrian regime forces". But the statement was quickly altered on the coalition's press page to read the less overtly provocative sounding "Syrian Arab Coalition".
US coalition released statement Sat. saying SDF pushing into Deir Ezzur, then pulled it back, saying push was Khabur River valley 1/3
Meanwhile the SDF did make an advance in Deir Ezzor city from the north side of the Euphrates. It looks increasingly like US-backed SDF forces and the Syrian Army could be set to clash as both roll back ISIS lines from either side of the Euphrates. The SDF's surprisingly rapid advance Friday and Saturday was assisted by US and coalition airstrikes and was further made possible by the Syrian Army's weakening of ISIS defenses on the southeast side of the river.
Map source: Syrian Civil War Maps
The airspace over Deir Ezzor is potentially growing even more dangerous as there are substantial rumors that the US coalition has declared a no fly zone (NFZ) over the north side of the Euphrates. In the meantime, Syrian and Russian air operations in the area will only increase with Deir Ezzor military airport's returning to full service.
It was nearly one year ago that the US coalition launched a massive air attack on Syrian government troops in Deir Ezzor at the very moment they were fighting ISIS. The US characterized it as a case of mistaken identity while Syria accused the US coalition of directly aiding ISIS by the attack. The incident did allow ISIS to become entrenched around the contested air base. A report by military analysts John Dolan and Mark Ames (creators of "The War Nerd" podcast) summarizes the attack as follows:
"On September 17, 2016 (just about a year ago), the USAF led a huge air strike on Deir ez Zor, featuring USAF A-10s, Australian F/A-18s, Danish F-16s, and British Reaper drones.
They blasted SAA troops around Deir ez Zor, killing about 100 of them and wounding hundreds more. The attack lasted more than an hour. During that time, Russian liaison officers were screaming “Stop! Stop!” to their USAF counterparts. No response.
At first the US denied everything, dragging out well-known Humanitarian Interventionist Samantha Power to call the Russian accusations a “…stunt—a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding…” Well, folks, if there’s two things Samantha knows, it’s moralistic grandstanding. So you’d think she must’ve been right.
But no. The raid happened, just the way the Russians said it did. Eventually the USAF apologized, sort of.
Luckily, the media managed to be stoical about the actual death of SAA soldiers in a way it failed to maintain about fictional massacres and rapes in places like Aleppo — so the damage was easily contained, at least on the media front. As food ran short in the city, the same brave indifference characterized the response of all but a few media outlets.
On the actual battle front in Deir ez Zor, the damage was more real. After the USAF & co. softened up the enemy for them, IS attacked and took several strategic hills overlooking the town. Like most victories during the long siege, though, the advantage was brief. With Russian air power helping, the SAA retook most of the ground they’d lost.
This stalemate is the most remarkable thing about the war in Deir ez Zor. How do you explain it?"
As ISIS continues to rapidly collapse in its last two strongholds (Raqqa and Deir Ezzor cities), the competition for recovery of territory seems in full gear between the US-SDF and Syria-Russia alliances. Deir Ezzor province happens to be Syria's most oil-rich territory, which means the future of some of Syria's largest oil fields remains up for grabs.
(GLOBALINTELHUB.COM) — 9/9/2017 As Hurricane Irma approaches US borders, investors should note the forces of the ‘invisible hand’ in nature and not only in markets. As we explain in our groundbreaking work Splitting Pennies, the financial markets are not ‘as seen on TV’ and in fact, are the subject of constant manipulation, and this storm is no exception.
Weather Modification technology is simple and has been around for a long time, starting with the use of dry ice, evolving to use of ‘supersonic booms’ and finally aerosols. The Pentagon has technologies that are far, far, far more advanced than weather modification. See an extensive list of weather modification patents here.
Hurricane Harvey brought an abrupt and catastrophic end to the 12 year long major hurricane landfall drought in the US. Were climate engineering programs a factor in the Harvey disaster scenario? Available data has already made clear the answer is yes. How much decimation will the manipulation of Hurricane Irma inflict? The US government has been actively engaged in hurricane modification programs for a minimum of 70 years, historical documents prove this fact conclusively. Yet, the power structure controlled circles of academia (and corporate media) continue to fuel total denial of the climate engineering hurricane modification reality, this should not be a surprise. How much decimation have global geoengineering / weather warfare programs already caused? What are the primary objectives and agendas? How much worse will it get? The short video below provides verifiable data to confirm that climate engineering is a reality, and exposes some of the primary objectives.
Exposing and halting the ongoing climate engineering / weather warfare / biological warfare assault is the great imperative of our time. The best chance we have of accomplishing this monumental task is by raising an army of the awakened, by reaching a critical mass.
Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’. During the Vietnam war, cloud-seeding techniques were used, starting in 1967 under Project Popeye, the objective of which was to prolong the monsoon season and block enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The US military has developed advanced capabilities that enable it selectively to alter weather patterns. The technology, which is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), is an appendage of the Strategic Defense Initiative – ‘Star Wars’. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, operating from the outer atmosphere and capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems around the world.
The technology clearly exists, but as it is ‘classified’ having any smoking gun evidence without a Snowden whistleblower is impossible; it’s a paradox, as evidence by CIA’s FOIA request if they are investigating us:
This really is an intelligence agency, their logic is impeccable. They cannot confirm or deny if information does or does not exist. So let’s go with what we know.
NOAA is the official US Government agency that monitors the weather, and provides official information at nhc.noaa.gov – anyone from Florida knows this URL and has gone through the agonizing wait for the next update which can mean a big change of plans.
Like most of the US Government, it’s actually not ‘NOAA’ that provides us this valuable data it’s Raytheon, black ops corporate master – the largest defense contractor in the world, with 60,000 + employees and a market cap of 50 Billion. See their product info here, and their interesting note in bold:
Owned and operated by NOAA, JPSS is an “end-to-end” system that includes sensors; spacecraft; command, control and communications; data routing; ground based processing and dissemination of weather data to users around the globe, such as NOAA’s National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. The data provided by Suomi NPP and the JPSS satellites contribute to NASA’s study of earth climate trends.
JPSS polar orbiters carry a complement of advanced imaging and sounding sensors, which increase NOAA and DoD capabilities to monitor the entire planet and produce weather and climate predictions at a much higher fidelity and frequency. These advanced capabilities enable NOAA to better fulfill its mission to protect lives and property by increasing the timeliness and accuracy of public warnings and forecasts of weather and climate events.
JPSS CGS DELIVERS CRUCIAL DATA FOR NATIONAL WEATHER FORECASTS
Raytheon brings more than four decades of high-availability, reliable, precision-based, command-and-control systems experience to Suomi NPP and future JPSS missions. Suomi NPP is the bridge between existing polar-orbiting satellites and the launch of JPSS-1, scheduled for 2017. Providing critical data for Earth observation, Suomi NPP data is used to generate environmental data products, such as measurements of clouds, vegetation, ocean color and land and sea surface temperatures — all significant inputs to improve weather forecasting capabilities.
VALUE TO THE PUBLIC
While Suomi NPP and JPSS will not prevent severe weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards from occurring, Raytheon’s advanced technologies enable meteorologists and forecasters to make more timely and accurate weather predictions that support NOAA’s “Weather Ready Nation” campaign and help save lives, protect property and decrease the devastating economic impacts caused by severe weather.
Raytheon’s proven radars and sensors work together to help experts see further, track longer and prepare smarter.
Our Air and Missile Defense Radar stacks together like building blocks to increase detection ranges and accuracy on naval destroyers. Our VIIRS sensor — famously known for its ”Blue Marble” photo of Earth — orbits the planet to provide meteorologists with unparalleled environmental data. And our Multi-Spectral Targeting System combines lasers with infrared sensors to enable pinpoint military operations.
Raytheon Company is a technology company, which specializes in defense and other government markets. The Company develops integrated products, services and solutions in various markets, including sensing; effects; command, control, communications, computers, cyber and intelligence; mission support, and cybersecurity. The Company operates through five segments: Integrated Defense Systems (IDS); Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS); Missile Systems (MS); Space and Airborne Systems (SAS), and Forcepoint. The IDS segment develops and produces sensors and mission systems. The IIS segment provides a range of technical and professional services to intelligence, defense, federal and commercial customers. The MS segment is a developer, integrator and producer of missile and combat systems. The SAS segment is engaged in the design, development and manufacture of integrated sensor and communication systems for missions. The Forcepoint segment develops cybersecurity products.
Interestingly, a small uptick on Irma. For the uninformed, a hurricane is a military operation however you look at it, in the aftermath when there’s no power, only the military (and in partnership with FEMA) has the logistic resources to swoop in and restore order. During Hurricane Andrew strange rumors persisted about the quarantine and control of information that the Army imposed around the devastated areas. This is a great resource with photographic evidence, and they suggested that even it may have contributed to George Bush losing the election later that year. The government seemed helpless to do anything to battered Miami. And it was after Andrew that Hurricane manipulation efforts went into overdrive.
So why now, after so long with no major hit to Florida? Are they gunning for Trump? Or Trump ordered it, to distract the population from what’s really going on and as a means of control? (Remember that the one strong power Trump has is leader of the Military, the US President has almost no political power). We’ll never know.. but let’s look at the big picture.
After World War 2 the US “Military Industrial Complex” or “Iron Triangle” (Government, Defense Contractors, Wall St.) hasn’t really had an enemy. Hitler and Japan were real enemies, although funded and allowed to grow by US companies, the fact remains that if Hitler wasn’t stopped we’d all be speaking German and eating poor tasting frankfurters and drinking beer. WW2 was the peak of show of industrial power and how factories could make bombs that would destroy infrastructure. The “Marshall Plan” and other post WW2 economic plans led the intellectual Elite (who were hired by the now rich military contractors) to create several doctrines that would keep them in business with or without an enemy (with all the happiness of the 50’s they probably thought – what if there is no more Hitler? How will we make money? War is good for business… ) hence we have the Report from Iron Mountain MUST READ BOOK – to explain plainly, companies like RAND corporation have created enemies most notably “Russia” and most recently “Terrorists” but their plan is so deep, they are not to rely on a single artificial enemy, so they resort to the most basic Earth element, the weather. What does this mean? A group of scientists hired by these corporations post WW2 (you can call them pseudo economists) created studies and reports showing that investing $1 in the Military equalled $2 in economic output. This is the most ridiculous and twisted thinking, based on this logic if we firebomb Los Angeles we’ll be the richest economy in the world. But remember, twisted or not – this is their doctrine. A great example of this in practice was during the Ford days when the CIA was tasked with the job of collecting intelligence on Russia – did they pose a security threat to the United States? The CIA found no evidence of any capability sufficient of posing even a limited threat, nor any motive or evidence of irrational intent to attack the US or any other country (and Russia has a history of never invading any country- only defending themselves). This report was released and Donald Rumsfeld famously retorted that “Just because the CIA didn’t find any weapons doesn’t mean that they don’t exist” – Rumsfeld went on to make a fortune consulting for defense contractors. During this period one General really believed the Russians were hiding a missile base on the dark side of the moon. The US Military is big business, and business is good. But threats change and the battlefield changes. Contractors, planners, developers, and many others will make a fortune rebuilding South Florida. And it’s a lot closer than Iraq. And heck, is it really so bad? Raytheon (RTN) employs 60,000 people and the US Government itself is the largest employer in the world. People need to put food on their families (-George W Bush).
There’s a number of reasons humans would want to control the weather:
To make it rain
For military purposes
Pollution control
Terraforming (For example what they are doing in UAE)
Cloud seeding is the opposite of cloud busting. For one thing, it’s a real thing. The process has been replicated numerous times both in the lab and in the field and is backed up by years of peer-reviewed scientific research. For another, it impregnates clouds to instigate the precipitation process rather than magically gathering them using dark energies. Cloud seeding is currently used all over the world—including throughout the United States, China (where it is used to clear smog in Beijing), India, and Russia—to enhance precipitation, both rain and snow, while inhibiting hail and fog. And it actually works.
The UAE’s Ionizers: Tearing the Sky a New One
The United Arab Emirates is a land rich in wealth but poor in precipitation. That’s why president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has had the nation’s top scientific minds secretly toiling for years to create a new means of weather manipulation that would work more effectively in the region’s extreme temperatures. The result: The biggest Ionic Breeze on Earth.
Ionic Breeze devices are giant ionizers mounted atop tall steel poles and were built by the Swiss company, Metro Systems International. The devices generate massive ionic fields, positively charged ions ground back to the Earth while the negatively charged ions rise into the atmosphere. As they rise, the negative ions (electrons) collect particles of dust on the way up. These flecks act as seeds for ice crystal formation, much as silver iodide does except without the need for clouds. As long as the atmospheric humidity is at least 30 percent, the system supposedly works even in clear skies.
In the summer of 2010, 100 such emitters were spread over five sites in the Al Ain region. During July and August alone, when the area typically receives zero rainfall, it reportedly rained on 52 separate occasions, often with gusting winds and sometimes hail. The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology monitored the project and backed the study’s findings. This could be huge for the Middle East, where water is often in short supply and desalinization plants are nine-figure investments (and another eight-figures a year to run). The ionizers reportedly only cost $10.5 million to build and $8.9 million a year to operate.
$10 Million to make it rain, literally. So what does a multi-billion dollar black budget get us in USA? Think about the positive economic impact of Hurricanes for a moment, such as the obvious Billions in rebuilding and reconstruction projects. But there’s also a political benefit and military benefit, the military can test their logistics and new non-lethal crowd control weapons, as well as the general population control (those evacuating south Florida are not likely to participate in right wing anti-government protests, for example). Confuse, obfuscate, and conquer has been the mantra of the world’s leading Elite for centuries “Divide and Conquer” – and there’s no better Fog of War than a Hurricane most intelligently because 90% of the population will not believe that it’s controlled. It’s pure genius.
There’s not any proof that this is manufactured or controlled, but like many things with the government – if they have spent millions developing weather modification technology including Hurricane manipulation technology (both to create Hurricanes and divert Hurricanes or weaken them) – what are they doing with it if not using it? Clearly, there have been strange phenomenon at play in the region over the past 20 years that are not explainable as ‘Global Warming’ – which would mean more frequent stronger storms, not a 20 year + lull.
Traders from FL enjoyed the free money Lowes and Nov FCOJ pop that always comes with a slight delay after the announcement that a storm is headed for central FL where the majority of Orange Juice is grown. But this is really a perception trade, as OJ is grown in many places around the world and the increase in Lowes purchases are not really relevant. Also note that unlike other disasters, there are usually few human casualties in Hurricanes. Remember even during Katrina, it was only the people who refused to evacuate that were trapped on rooftops, and even they were mostly saved. It’s not as if the Military is ‘killing’ people – although that IS what they do during WAR (including US Citizens, not only the enemy).
What is the conclusion of this information, simply that:
The weather is controlled, USG owns the tech for years, this is likely organized by Raytheon (RTN) although there’s no public information to prove this (it’s classified)
There can be political motivations for storms, for hitting or not hitting populated rich areas like Miami or Tampa. There is a clear economic and military benefit to such operations as PsyOps and as logistic tests of population control, i.e. FEMA camps and other new systems to be tested
Finally, there’s an elephant in the room – the bubble of bubbles.. South FL real estate. There’s literally groups of investors waiting for the big crash to come, but no one is buying – there isn’t panic selling yet, but there is a glut of Miami real estate. Investors are so called ‘hot money’ from foreigners who have never been to Miami but think it’s a good solid investment because real estate ‘always goes up’ – but the city of Miami is spending $500 Million to build levees and dams Dutch style around low lying areas.
After this event no matter how small the damage, it will do much bigger damage to the perception of FL real estate. Many investors will now think twice about FL as the golden ticket to USA investing success. FL residents damaged by the storm, many of them will take their checks and move to higher, more defensible ground. Suddenly, with one storm, the argument of Preppers in the Cumberland Plateau all makes sense. Real Estate in the mountains just doubled in value.
All the development in South FL is based on one axiom – no Hurricanes. The same could be said about Los Angeles and Earthquakes. But there are thousands of places in USA with reasonable property values that have no natural disasters, but they aren’t good ‘locations’ in ‘trendy’ places. Of course if you work online or from home then it doesn’t matter where you live, so it would be logical to choose such a place vs. the over inflated FL which is a disaster zone. Although New York City is also on the ocean, NYC is mostly built on bedrock and has elevations as high as 33 feet, comparing with Miami’s 6 feet, that’s a big difference. FL is a big swamp mostly that was turned upside down by developers. Unlike cities that formed by natural geo-politics and economics, Miami and most of FL is an artificial construct like Las Vegas. The point is that it was poor investment decisions leading to a mass of capital flooding the development of FL but this will stop likely or slow down to a trickle after this storm. A giant wall could be erected around the state but at what cost? All of these hidden costs and risks are now exposed as realities, and we will see how the re-insurers handle failing insurers already suffering from Harvey.
The positive effect on the markets is that these storms will likely pop the first and possibly the biggest real estate bubble which is the most frothy, south FL. That’s because unlike other markets, FL doesn’t have such a robust ‘natural’ industry, as for example seen in Chicago or San Francisco. In fact real estate is an industry in itself in FL and something like 60% of home ownership is by vacationers. Money will flow elsewhere, into other projects, and investors will think different.
The reason is simple – it’s one thing to ‘tell’ someone that the market is going to crash, or Miami is sinking into the sea, but having a devastating event happen, going through the process whatever your involvement in FL (As Jimmy Buffett says, everyone has a cousin in Miami).. this event will change your thinking about FL investing and doing business. Miami was a happy sleepy beach town before this boom, alligators and old folks and flamingoes.
Markets are manipulated, storms are too. So what? We live in a fake world with fake people who stare into a Fake book. If you’ve read through this article you should congratulate yourself and take pride in knowing you are part of the real one percent, the one percent that understands how the world really works; the real global elite – the emergent intelligentcia.
With just hours left until landfall, sometime on Sunday morning, Hurricane Irma is edging ever closer to Florida and has started to batter the state with Hurricane force winds as millions brace for the impact of the most powerful Atlantic storm in a decade.
According to ABC and AP, the National Weather Service measured a 74-mph gust in the Florida Keys on Saturday night, marking the beginning of hurricane-force winds that forecasters say will steadily intensify in the coming hours.
As of about 10 p.m. Saturday, Irma was 100 miles southeast of Key West with sustained winds of 125 mph. It was moving west, and is expected to turn north and head up the western coast of Florida, making landfall on Sunday.
Hurricane Irma approached Florida, Sept. 9, 2017.
A live feed tracking the hurricane is shown below, courtesy of ABC:
The National Hurricane Center on Friday cautioned that Irma’s winds would likely be strong enough to uproot trees, bring down power poles and rip off the roofs and some exterior walls of well-built frame homes. “Obviously Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States,” Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said at a press conference Friday morning. “We’re going to have a couple rough days.”
Several counties and cities in south Florida have issued a curfew as the storm draws near. Broward County set a curfew for 4 p.m. Saturday and said no unauthorized vehicles will be allowed on the roads. Charlotte County and the City of Miami Beach will enter one later tonight. Palm Beach County has issued a curfew to prevent looting and other criminal activity as the storm approaches, according to a press release. The curfew goes into effect Saturday at 3 p.m. It is unclear when it will be lifted.
Some 10,000 flights have been cancelled in anticipation of Irma, about 7,000 of them in Florida alone.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott called the storm unprecedented. “This is a life-threatening situation,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday. “Our state has never seen anything like it.” The governor stressed the dangers of what he called a “deadly, deadly, deadly storm surge.”
President Trump tweeted a video from a Cabinet meeting Saturday, telling people to “get out of” Irma’s way. “Property is replaceable but lives are not. and safety has to come first. Don’t worry about it, get out of its way,” Trump said.
Meteorologists from ABC News are forecasting storm surges of 10 feet in Tampa and Sarasota, and 10 to 15 feet from Fort Myers to Naples. Somewhat lower storm surges of 3 to 6 feet may occur from Miami to Key Largo. Winds were already picking up in Florida early Saturday, with gusts between 40 and 60 mph, as the following clip shows:
Hurricane-force winds with gusts over 115 mph are possible in the Keys by daybreak Sunday. More tornadoes are also likely and a tornado watch was issued Saturday for southern Florida.
According to ABC, Florida state residents should anticipate days-long power outages, FEMA said. Ahead of Irma’s arrival in the Sunshine State, the last flights departed Friday night from Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Miami’s airport officially remains open, while Fort Lauderdale’s airport is closed for Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, many ATM machines across southwest Florida were out of cash by late Friday night after people stocked up in case Hurricane Irma causes power outages that make debit and credit card transactions impossible, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, as millions evacuate, Germain Arena, a large shelter between Naples and Fort Myers along Florida’s west coast, is already at capacity Saturday as hundreds of people were in line waiting to get in. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Giménez said Saturday morning about 25,000 residents are sheltered in Miami-Dade alone, a number he called “unprecedented in our history.”
Traffic streaming out of Florida creeps along northbound Interstate 75 after a vehicle accident in Lake Park, Ga., Sept. 6, 2017.
“We must remain vigilant,” Giménez said. “The storm will still strengthen … and we will be impacted.”
All day Saturday, South Korea braced for a possible new missile test by North Korea as the provocative northern neighbor marked its founding anniversary, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test rattled global financial markets and further escalated tensions in the region. Throughout the week, South Korean officials warned the North could launch another intercontinental ballistic missile, in defiance of U.N. sanctions and to further provoke the US. As Reuters reports, Pyongyang marks its founding anniversary each year with a big display of pageantry and military hardware. Last year, North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on the Sept. 9 anniversary.
Ultimately, September 9 came and went, and North Korea did nothing, perhaps signalling its eagerness to de-escalate. Or perhaps not, and Kim is simply looking to surprise his adversaries with the ICBM launch date. Experts have said the rogue, isolated regime is close to its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States, something Trump has vowed to prevent.
Celebrating its founding anniversary, a front-page editorial of the Saturday edition of North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun said the country should make “more high-tech Juche weapons to continuously bring about big historical events such as a miraculous victory of July 28.”. The July date refers to the intercontinental ballistic missile test (Juche is North Korea’s homegrown ideology of self-reliance that is a mix of Marxism and extreme nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather).
* * *
Meanwhile, South Korean nuclear experts, checking for contamination, said on Friday they had found minute traces of radioactive xenon gas but that it was too early to link it to Sunday’s explosion. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) said it had been conducting tests on land, air and water samples since shortly after the North Korean nuclear test on Sunday. There was no chance the xenon “will have an impact on South Korea’s territory or population”, the agency said.
What is more concerning, however, is a Friday report on NBC, according to which Trump is readying a package of diplomatic and military moves against North Korea, including cyberattacks and increased surveillance and intelligence operations, after the nation’s sixth and largest nuclear test.
Trump’s top national security advisers walked him through a range of options over lunch in the White House on Sunday, just hours after North Korea’s latest test, officials said.
According to NBC, Trump is also seriously considering adopting diplomatically risky sanctions on Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang and upgrading missile defense systems in the region, administration officials said. In addition, the administration is not ruling out moving tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea should Seoul request them, a White House official said, though many consider such a move a nonstarter. It would break with nearly three decades of U.S. policy of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
U.S. officials have also made the case to China that if Beijing doesn’t take stronger steps against North Korea, such as cutting off oil exports, South Korea and Japan are likely to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs and the U.S. won’t stop them, the official said. “It’s more a message for China than North Korea,” the official said.
The U.S. has adopted sanctions aimed at Chinese entities that conduct business with North Korea, but has so far held back on broadly targeting China’s banking system. China has told U.S. officials it would protest such a move diplomatically and retaliate, according to the senior administration official.
So what happened on Sunday? According to NBC, Trump’s national security advisers presented him with U.S. military options, including pre-emptive strikes, and nuclear capabilities should America be called on to abide by its treaty obligations in the region, White House and defense officials said.
The president’s advisers have made the case, however, that military strikes on North Korea could have serious repercussions, senior defense officials said, and the most glaring among these is that China has told administration officials that if the U.S. strikes North Korea first, Beijing would back Pyongyang, a senior military official told NBC.
This is not the first time China has warned the US not to escalate: on August 11, Beijing, through the state-owned media, cautioned the US president on Friday that it would intervene (militarily) on North Korea’s behalf if the US and South Korea launch a preemptive strike to “overthrow the North Korean regime,” according to a statement in the influential state-run newspaper Global Times.
“If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” it said.
At the same time, the Chinese regime made it clear that its preferred outcome would be a continuation of the status quo, warning Kim Jong Un, or perhaps Trump, that it would “remain neutral if North Korea were to strike first.”
As we said almost one month ago:
“not surprisingly, analysts have compared the standoff between the two nuclear powers (the North is a recent, if untested, member of this club) to a modern day Cuban Missile crisis. “This situation is beginning to develop into this generation’s Cuban Missile crisis moment,” ING’s chief Asia economist Robert Carnell said in a research note. “While the U.S. president insists on ramping up the war of words, there is a decreasing chance of any diplomatic solution.“
Since then, the potential risks, mutual threats and near-hostilities have grown exponentially. China – which is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 92% of two-way trade last year, and also provides hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime – has only dug in deeper, explaining repeatedly that it wants a peaceful de-escalation and that it would not side with the US in case of a military conflict.
* * *
What happens next? Well, on one hand, after today’s lack of launch, there is hope that things will indeed de-escalate. A headline that just hit from Yonhap may accelerate this:
SOUTH KOREA SEES NO SIGNS OF IMMINENT ADDITIONAL PROVOCATIONS BY NORTH KOREA THAT COULD LEAD TO ANOTHER MISSILE OR NUCLEAR TEST: YONHAP
On the other hand, what the US does next may be a sufficient provocation to force Kim to lob another ICBM. Earlier today, Reuters reported that the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier left its home port in Japan for a routine autumn patrol of the Western Pacific, a Navy spokeswoman said. That area included “waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula.” North Korea vehemently objects to military exercises on or near the peninsula, and China and Russia have suggested the United States and South Korea halt their exercises to lower tension.
Another imminent escalation is due on Monday.
That’s when the United States told the U.N. Security Council that it intends to call a meeting to vote on a draft resolution establishing additional sanctions. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said last Monday that she intended to call for a vote on Sept. 11 and then the United States circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member council on Wednesday.
The United States wants the Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and to subject Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how North Korean allies China and Russia would vote, but a senior U.S. official on Friday night expressed scepticism that either nation would accept anything more stringent than a ban on imports of North Korean textiles. Chinese officials have privately expressed fears that imposing an oil embargo could risk triggering massive instability in its neighbor.
Meanwhile, tensions are also growing between China and South Korea. The two countries have been at loggerheads over South Korea’s decision to deploy the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system, which has a powerful radar that can probe deep into China. Shares in South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor and key suppliers slid on Friday on worries over its position in China after highly critical Chinese state newspaper comments. Recently Hyundai auto sales in China have crashed as local suppliers and potential customers have shied away from the company due to nationalistic prerogatives. The military section of China’s Global Times newspaper on Thursday referred to THAAD as “a malignant tumor”.
The good news, for markets, is that this Saturday’s widely anticipated ICBM launch from North Korea did not take place; the bad news is that said launch was at best delayed, and if and when it comes, the US will have to choose: do nothing again, and appears increasingly weak on the global diplomatic arena, or retaliate, and risk dragging China into the conflict, potentially precipitating the appearance of mushroom clouds around the globe.
The United States shows the world such a ridiculous face that the world laughs at us.
The latest spin on “Russia stole the election” is that Russia used Facebook to influence the election. The NPR women yesterday were breathless about it.
We have been subjected to ten months of propaganda about Trump/Putin election interference and still not a scrap of evidence. It is past time to ask an unasked question:
If there were evidence, what is the big deal? All sorts of interest groups try to influence election outcomes including foreign governments.
Why is it OK for Israel to influence US elections but not for Russia to do so?
Why do you think the armament industry, the energy industry, agribusiness, Wall Street and the banks, pharmaceutical companies, etc., etc., supply the huge sum of money to finance election campaigns if their intent is not to influence the election?
Why do editorial boards write editorials endorsing one candidate and damning another if they are not influencing the election?
What is the difference between influencing the election and influencing the government?
Washington is full of lobbyists of all descriptions, including lobbyists for foreign governments, working round the clock to influence the US government. It is safe to say that the least represented in the government are the citizens themselves who don’t have any lobbyists working for them.
The orchestrated hysteria over “Russian influence” is even more absurd considering the reason Russia allegedly interfered in the election. Russia favored Trump because he was the peace candidate who promised to reduce the high tensions with Russia created by the Obama regime and its neocon nazis—Hillary Clinton, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power. What’s wrong with Russia preferring a peace candidate over a war candidate? The American people themselves preferred the peace candidate. So Russia agreed with the electorate.
Those who don’t agree with the electorate are the warmongers—the military/security complex and the neocon nazis. These are democracy’s enemies who are trying to overturn the choice of the American people. It is not Russia that disrespects the choice of the American people; it is the utterly corrupt Democratic National Committee and its divisive Identity Politics, the military/security complex, and the presstitute media who are undermining democracy.
I believe it is time to change the subject. The important question is who is it that is trying so hard to convince Americans that Russian influence prevails over us?
Do the idiots pushing this line realize how impotent this makes an alleged “superpower” look. How can we be the hegemonic power that the Zionist neocons say we are when Russia can decide who is the president of the United States?
The US has a massive spy state that even intercepts the private cell phone conversations of the Chancellor of Germany, but his massive spy organization is unable to produce one scrap of evidence that the Russians conspired with Trump to steal the presidential election from Hillary. When will the imbeciles realize that when they make charges for which no evidence can be produced they make the United States look silly, foolish, incompetent, stupid beyond all belief?
Countries are supposed to be scared of America’s threat that “we will bomb you into the stone age,” but the President of Russia laughs at us. Putin recently described the complete absence of any competence in Washington:
“It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among the American establishment.
As for the American people, America is truly a great nation if the Americans can put up with so many politically uncivilized people in their government.”
These words from Putin were devastating, because the world understands that they are accurate.
Consider the idiot Nikki Haley, appointed by Trump in a fit of mindlessness as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
This stupid person is forever shaking her fist at the Russians while mouthing yet another improbable accusation. She might want to read Mario Puzo’s book, The Godfather. Everyone knows the movie, but if memory serves somewhere in the book Puzo reflects on the practice of the irate American motorist who shakes a fist and gives the bird to other drivers. What if the driver receiving the insult is a Mafia capo? Does the idiot shaking his fist know who he is accosting? No. Does the moron know that the result might be a brutal beating or death? No.
Does the imbecile Nikki Haley understand what can be the result of her inability to control herself? No. Every knowledgeable person I know wonders if Trump appointed the imbecile Nikki Haley US ambassador to the world for the purpose of infuriating the Russians.
Ask Napoleon and the German Wehrmacht the consequence of infuriating the Russians.
After 16 years the US “superpower” has been unable to defeat a few thousand lightly armed Taliban, who have no air force, no Panzer divisions, no worldwide intelligence service, and the crazed US government in Washington is courting war with Russia and China and North Korea and Iran.
The American people are clearly out to lunch in their insouciance. Americans are fighting among themselves over “civil war” statues, while “their’ government invites nuclear armageddon.
The United States has an ambassador to the world who shows no signs of intelligence, who behaves as if she is Mike Tyson or Bruce Lee to the 5th power, and who is the total antithesis of a diplomat. What does this tell about the United States?
It reveals that the US is in the Roman collapse stage when the emperor appoints horses to the Senate.
The United States has a horse, an uncivilized horse, as its diplomat to the world. The Congress and executive branch are also full of horses and horse excrement. The US government is completely devoid of intelligence. There is no sign of intelligence anywhere in the U.S. government. Of or morality. As Hugo Chavez said: Satan is there; you can smell the sulphur.
America is a joke with nuclear weapons, the prime danger to life on earth.
How can this danger be corralled?
The American people would have to realize that they are being led to their deaths by the Zionist neocon nazis who, together with the military/security complex and Wall Street, control US foreign policy, by the complicity of Europe and Great Britain desperate to retain their CIA subsidies, and by the harlots that comprise the Western media.
Are Americans capable of comprehending this? Only a few have escaped The Matrix.
The consequence is that America is being locked into conflict with Russia and China. There is no possibility whatsoever of Washington invading either country, much less both, so war would be nuclear.
Do the American people want Washington to bring us this result? If not, why are the American people sitting there sucking their thumbs, doing nothing? Why are Europe and Great Britain sitting there permitting the unfolding of nuclear armageddon? Who murdered the peace movement?
The World and the American people need desperately to rein in the warmonger United States, or the world will cease to exist.
An International Court To Preserve Life On Earth needs to be assembled. The US government and the war interests it serves need to be indicted and prosecuted and disarmed before their evil destroys life on earth.
The U.S. housing market has now surpassed its pre-recession peak by 4.3%. This is great news for the economy, although there’s still an ongoing debate about the possibility of another housing crash.
Whatever you believe about real estate, there’s no doubt that prices depend on where you live. HowMuch.net created a new visualization to demonstrate what this looks like…
According to Zillow, the median price for a house is $200,400, up 7.4% over last year.
So, naturally, how big of a house can you afford with a mortgage of $200,400? Our visualization answers this question on a sliding color-coded scale. We broke each state into a grid with 25 boxes, representing 2,500 square feet—that’s a large home with at least 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Green boxes indicate affordability and orange and red boxes mean it’s expensive. We then graphed how much house you can purchase with exactly $200,400.
The results highlight the enormous differences between housing values in the U.S. It is all about location, location, location.
In the Hoosier State, your $200k mortgage can purchase 2,330-sq. ft., but in Washington D.C. only 497 sq. ft. That’s the difference between a large home and a cramped studio apartment.
The fact that Washington D.C. boasts the most expensive housing market in the coutry should come as no surprise to observers of the economy in the aftermath of the recession. While real estate market crashed in other metro areas, it kept rising in Washington D.C. The nation’s capital has actually started to come back down to Earth, but the area is still an outlier. If you can get a high-paying job in the government, chances are that you’ll need to find a roommate to make ends meet.
Except for Ohio, rural states without large cities dominate the list of affordability. The five most affordable states to purchase a home for a mortgage of $200,400:
1. Indiana – 2,330 sq. ft.
2. Arkansas – 2,227 sq. ft.
3. Mississippi – 2,277 sq. ft.
4. West Virginia – 2,252 sq. ft.
5. Ohio – 2,252 sq. ft.
The five most unaffordable states highlight pockets of high economic growth in the U.S. (like Colorado) or a restriction in housing availability (like Hawaii, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!).
1. Washington D.C. – 403 sq. ft.
2. Hawaii – 418 sq. ft.
3. California – 713 sq. ft.
4. Massachusetts – 887 sq. ft.
5. Colorado – 982 sq. ft.
Think about the inequality here:The fourth most unaffordable state in the country (Massachusetts) is still more than twice as affordable as Washington D.C. and Hawaii.
Whether you are buying a home or just renting, chances are you know that the price you pay can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. If you ever think you are paying too much, just know that someone else in Washington D.C. is paying a heck of lot more for a smaller home.
The Pentagon has just dispatched C-130H Sprayers from the Air Force Reserve’s 910th Airlift Wing residing in Youngstown, Ohio to Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey.
The aircraft are outfitted with spraying equipment tasked with ‘minimizing the impact of the brutal storm’s aftermath’.
According to the article, the specially outfitted C-130Hs can spray wide areas with various chemicals for ‘multiple applications, including dispersing oil spills, destroying invasive vegetation, and controlling insect populations’.
Because there is so much standing and heavily polluted water around Houston and other areas affected by the storm, insects populations are bound to explode, which poses a major health risk to the population of southeastern Texas and the first responders working to get the area back on its feet.
Mosquitoes that can carry and transmit malaria, west nile virus, zika, and multiple types of encephalitis will be the target of the operation.
Supposedly the C-130s will treat over six million acres of land while dispatched to the region, far more territory than in previous post-hurricane operations.
Houstonians and other surrounding areas are about to get their daily dose of chemtrails in large amounts. Each aircraft can spray 190,000 acres per day emitting chemicals into the atmosphere and ultimately ending up in living organisms.
Back in the Vietnam War, the Pentagon launched its herbicidal warfare coined Operation Ranch Hand, which sprayed Agent Orange for deforestation purposes.
According to the American Cancer Society, “there is now quite a bit of evidence about the health effects of Agent Orange” on the human body.
Some returning veterans from Vietnam began reporting skin rashes, cancer, psychological symptoms, birth defects in their children, and other health problems in the 1970’s. In 1979, a class action lawsuit was filed against major herbicide manufacturers and was settled in 1984 out of court forming Agent Orange Settlement Fund.
Watch the 910th Aerial Spray C-130H in action spraying insecticides into the atmosphere over Charleston..
The article ends by telling Texans don’t be alarmed if you see or hear a C-130H Sprayer flying at low altitude dumping chemicals behind it.
The lesson above dating back to Vietnam is heed the warning that the Pentagon is still willing to spray chemicals into the atmosphere with disregard to human life.
The California Department of Public Health just dropped some staggering statistics about the level of opioid abuse in America’s progressive paradise of the left coast. As the Sacramento Bee points out, there are a remarkable number of counties in California where annual prescriptions for pain killers actually exceed the population.
Trinity County is the state’s fourth-smallest, and ended last year with an estimated population of 13,628 people.
Its residents also filled prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone and other opioids 18,439 times, the highest per capita rate in California.
Besides Trinity, other counties with more prescriptions than people include Lake, Shasta, Tuolumne and Del Norte counties. In the Sacramento region, El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties had prescription rates above the statewide average, with Yolo County slightly below the state average.
A county’s prescription total represents all opioids dispensed via prescriptions filled at a pharmacy and tracked by the state. Statewide, 15 percent of Californians were prescribed opioids in 2016, ranging from 7.3 percent of residents in tiny Alpine County to almost 27 percent in Lake County.
As might be expected, the scripts per capita are highest in California’s more rural northern counties.
So who is participating most in this deadly epidemic? Well, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the biggest abusers of opioids are high-school educated, unemployed, white people living in small towns…
“The following characteristics were associated with higher amounts of opioids prescribed: a larger percentage of non-Hispanic whites; higher rates of uninsured and Medicaid enrollment; lower educational attainment; higher rates of unemployment; (small-town) status; more dentists and physicians per capita; a higher prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, arthritis, and disability; and higher suicide rates,” concluded the authors of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released in July.
“What you’re seeing in California is what you’re seeing in many parts of the country, including Oregon,” Korthuis said. “There are still a lot of rural counties around the U.S. that are awash in prescription opioids.”
…oh, and grandma and grandpa are getting high on the reg as well.
In California, residents aged 15 to 29 got 1.7 million prescriptions in 2016, representing 7.2 percent of the state total. That’s down from the 1.9 million prescriptions in 2015, which represented about 7.8 percent of the state total. The age range that featured the largest prescription rate increase were 70- to74-year-olds, whose prescriptions grew from almost 1,354 per 1,000 people in 2015 to 1,394 per 1,000 people in 2016.
Of course, growth in opioid addiction is hardly just a California phenomenon. According to the CDC’s Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes, addiction-related deaths are far more prevalent in the rural ‘rust-belt’ states of the Midwest.
Meanwhile, the epidemic is growing far more severe every year with overdose deaths up 167% across the country since 1999.
The rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 6.1 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 16.3 in 2015; for unintenttional drug overdose deaths, the rate increased from 4.0 per 100,000 in 1999 to 13.8 in 2015; for drug overdose deaths involving any opioid, the rate increased from 2.9 per 100,000 in 1999 to 10.4 in 2015 (p<0.05); for unintenttional drug overdose deaths involving any opioid, the rate increased from 2.1 per 100,000 in 1999 to 9.3 per 100,000 in 2015 (p<0.05). For all four categories of drug overdose deaths, increases in rates were largest from 2013 to 2015, with the rate increasing on average by 9% per year for overall drug overdose deaths (p<0.05), 11% per year for unintenttional drug overdose deaths (p<0.05), 15% per year for drug overdose deaths involving any opioid (p<0.05), and 16% for unintenttional drug overdose deaths involving any opioid (p<0.05).
But don’t worry too much because, as Princeton Economist Alan Krueger told us yesterday, there is a simple solution to the opioid epidemic in the U.S…apparently it can all be solved with just a little more Obamacare.
Over a million kids in America six years old and under are on psychiatric drugs – mostly to treat anxiety.
Let that sink in.
I have to ask. Is the U.S. really becoming this out of touch? And I mean that literally.
Author Ray Williams, a contributor to Psychology Today, offered an important question back in 2010: “In our desire to have a politically correct and safe social environment, or an environment of instant communication, have we lost sight of the most important aspect of human development and culture — physical touch?”
The science is in: After food, water and shelter, there’s little more important to kids, especially babies, than human contact. Without simple human contact, in fact, babies can die.
This is the case, actually, to varying degrees, for all mammals.
In many litters of puppies and kittens, for example, there are sometimes one or two animals that come out enfeebled — as the “runts.”
The weakness of the runts, felt by the mother during nursing, is a sign to the mother it likely won’t survive. To make sure her genes have the best chance for survival, she must use her limited resources wisely.
As a result, the mother doesn’t lick or nurture the runt. The mother still allows the runt to feed (other species don’t even go that far), but it refuses to show the runt affection.
It’s hard to understate how catastrophic this is for the runt. A certain amount of maternal licking and nuzzling is necessary. The affection, we now know, turns on the production of a certain growth hormone in the brain. Without it, food cannot be metabolized properly and healthy growth and development is impossible. If the runt continues to be ignored, even if it still gets plenty to eat, it will eventually shrivel up and die.
It’s the same for humans. Without human contact at the earliest of age, the immune system is essentially shot. The affected becomes vulnerable to all sorts of ailments and diseases.
But it’s not just babies…
Human contact, in kids and adults, has been shown to ease pain, lift depression and may even, oddly enough, increase the odds that a team will win a game.
And it’s the simplest thing. (Plus, it’s free!)
K.I.S.S.: When the Synthetic Gets in the Way
Indeed. In our headlong rush for “progress” in all forms, this is one aspect of our existence in which we need to “make great again,” rather than mindlessly perverting or opting for more synthetic versions. (Food and most medicine can also be added to this list, among other things.)
Progress, technological and otherwise, hold incredible potential to lift humanity to new heights — yet, if not done mindfully (which is the ideal role of conservatism, preserving that which is worthy of preservation), it can, without question, push us down to new lows.
The latter is precisely what both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley were warning us about.
Dystopia would come first with a smile and promises of a vast utopia. And, so enamored we would be, we wouldn’t even notice the glimmering of its fangs until, of course, it was too late.
Today, we invite Joe Jarvis of the Daily Bell to ask one unnerving question: Have we already reached dystopia?
Would you let a five-year-old smoke a joint? I certainly hope not. Yet that would probably be less harmful than loading kids up on pharmaceuticals.
Currently, over a million American children UNDER SIX YEARS OLD are taking psychiatric drugs. Babies are literally being doped up by the pharmaceutical industry. Over 274,000 babies UNDER ONE-YEAR-OLD are given drugs, mostly for anxiety.
Anxiety drugs for babies. Have they tried motherly love? Or is that just an old fashioned, outdated concept?
You know, I like to mention society’s similarity to Orwell’s 1984. And surely the growing police state, war on drugs, and endless military campaigns – where the enemy seems to change daily – are reminiscent of the fictional dictatorship of Big Brother.
But it seems the powers that be are working tirelessly to blend together the dystopia of 1984, with that of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
In that dystopia, there is no police state or war. Society has been perfectly designed by scientists, inspired by Ford’s assembly line. Babies are grown in the lab, cloned to all look alike, depending on their class. Parents are an embarrassing relic of the past. How silly to think a child needs family when they have the state!
The lower castes are deprived of oxygen as embryos to stunt their mental development. In America, they use fluoride in the drinking water instead.
In Brave New World, children listen to 24-hour propaganda in their cribs.
Betas hear:
Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse.
White pride, black pride, gay pride, national pride. Pride is not meant for accidents of birth. You should be proud of accomplishments and achievements, not genetics and geography.
Perhaps someone has been whispering in these radicalized children’s ears.
And how jealous the Department of Education must be of the incubators of Brave New World! They have to sometimes wait years to indoctrinate children. But at least the government gets to drug them up at a young age! And if the TV is left on, most of the programming is done for them.
Of course, the adults are drugged up in Brave New World as well, just like in America. If anyone feels the least bit anxious, nervous, sad–or any other troublesome emotion–they get “soma.” It’s the perfect mix of drugs with only pleasant feelings and no ill side effects.
The 50 million plus Americans on psychiatric medication sometimes kill themselves, or go mad and kill others. I guess the government is still working out the kinks. Or it’s just another creative blending of 1984 and Brave New World. In the former, the proles must be properly terrified.
And there is one more thing I can remember from Brave New World that strikes eerily similar to modern America.
At what age does the public education system start teaching sex ed? Kindergarteners in some states receive “age appropriate” – according to the government – sexual education. Some studies suggest teen pregnancies rise in areas where sex ed is taught at younger ages.
How young is too young for a sex change? Kids can now choose between 43 genders, or make up a new one! It’s like Mr. Potato head, but with their own bodies. And they will be given corresponding drugs to enhance the “natural” changes.
In the classrooms of Brave New World:
“We had Elementary Sex for the first forty minutes,” she answered. “But now it’s switched over to Elementary Class Consciousness.”
The Director walked slowly down the long line of cots. Rosy and relaxed with sleep, eighty little boys and girls lay softly breathing…
He let out the amazing truth. For a very long period before the time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal (there was a roar of laughter); and not only abnormal, actually immoral (no!): and had therefore been rigorously suppressed.
Drugging the population, programming citizens with propaganda, sexualizing children, creating class divisions.
These dystopian novels were meant to be warnings, not instruction manuals.
Comedian Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show on CBS, twice flashed a Nazi salute on live television during a rant about US President Donald Trump earlier this week. During his first show after a two-week vacation, Colbert criticized Trump and his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who resigned in mid-August.
At the end of the show's opening monologue, Colbert joked about a remark Bannon made during an interview with Charlie Rose after he left the White House. When pressed to explain his reasoning for defending President Donald Trump’s initial response to the car attack in Charlottesville last month, Bannon said Trump was taking things “up to a higher level.”
“Yeah, he’s definitely taking it to a higher level,” Colbert said.
“I’d say his support is about up there. Or right around here,” he said raising his arm in a Nazi salute. “Or over here,” he added, doing it again. “Or somewhere up there.”
While not the first celebrity to accuse Trump of being Hitler-lite, Colbert was the first to give a Nazi salute on national television. More importantly, it prompted conservative observers to wonder if CBS will apply the same standard as CNN did when it fired pro-Trump commentator Jeffrey Lord in early August.
Lord had tweeted “Sieg Heil!” – a Nazi slogan usually chanted with the salute – at a liberal critic in a manner that was obviously meant to be ironic. He first fired anyway.
“Nazi salutes are indefensible,” a CNN spokesperson told the network’s media writer Brian Stelter, at the time.
Of course, as Russia Today points out, the odds of Colbert getting fired are small, because what matters to the mainstream media is not the salute itself, but who does it.
This is not the first time Colbert has pushed the envelope of outrage in his coverage of Trump. In a tirade in May, he employed homophobic slurs to describe the relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite a torrent of complaints, the FCC declined to penalize the show.
