04/25/17

Will The Unthinkable Occur?

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

In the early 1980s, during an “Introduction to Political Science Class,” I was introduced to the concept that there are generational geopolitical/sociological changes every 35-40 years. I vividly recall discussing LBJ’s “Great Society” programs, the social angst of the Vietnam War, the nascent rise of globalism and the beginning of the close collusion between big government and big business and how such commenced a new era of activist and redistributionist government.

The professor stated these trends stay in place until there is some finale equivalent to the conclusion of a Fourth of July fireworks display where the current trend goes on steroids believing the status quo is all knowing and powerful. Radical change then occurs.

I believe I live in the congressional district that commenced the battle against the Establishment. David Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary, a primary that Cantor all but dismissed as meaningless and unthreatening.

This was first time that a major leader was defeated in a primary since the late 1800s. Brat won because Cantor’s constituents — one of which is me — believed that Cantor lost contact with the electorate. That Cantor was all about himself and the perpetuation of the Establishment.

The professor dogmatically stated these changes will occur, not questioning as to if, but rather as to when.

Fast forward to today. Brexit. Trump. Italy. And now France.

For the first time in many generations, a candidate from a major political party is not in contention for France’s presidency. This would be equivalent to neither a Republican or a Democratic candidate being a candidate for the US Presidency.

On May 7th, France’s citizenry is faced with a dichotomy. The choice is a far right populist, who espouses economic nationalism and “Frexit,” or a moderate who supports closer ties to the EU. Neither candidate is from a national party and the moderate is a political neophyte who most thought had little chance of succeeding to the “finals” as little as 60 days ago.

In other words, a strong argument can be made the survival of “The Federation” is at hand. There is a clear battle between a commitment to dramatically changing the current economic system or one to maintain the existing structure.

To write the obvious, the entire Establishment is supporting the moderate and at this juncture is projected to win by a considerable margin.

Will Le Penn do the unthinkable and win?

Why the attention on this election? Today’s financial system is predicated upon globalism. The top performing equity issues are mega capitalized global growth issues, a term that I find oxymoronic. According to Bespoke Investment Corporation, the concentration of wealth into a handful of mega sized global growth companies is unprecedented. What happens if globalism dies an inglorious death in 2 weeks?

Perhaps the only certainty to write is that regardless who is France’s next president, today is radically different than yesterday. The electorate is speaking very loudly and it is very anti-Establishment.

Equities advanced on the French election with many declaring that Le Penn will lose by a wide margin. I think I wrote these same words in late June 2016 referencing Brexit.

Last night the foreign markets were up. London was up 0.26%, Paris was up 0.38% and Frankfurt was up 0.03%. China was up 0.16%, Japan was up 1.08% and Hang Sang was up 1.31%.

The Dow should open nominally higher, perhaps the result of tax reform optimism. The 10-year is off 8/32 to yield 2.31%.

10/11/16

Coming soon? ‘At least 15 youths’ attempt to burn police officers alive in Paris ‘no-go zone’

By: Renee Nal | New Zeal

“Viry-Chatillon (Essonne) on Saturday. Around 15 hours, two police cars that were on duty in front of the sensitive city of Great Borne, were assaulted by fifteen hooded individuals.” Nicolas Goinard

“After throwing in the cockpits of incendiary devices, attackers tried to block the doors to prevent passengers vehicles that caught fire out.” – Victim of “targeted attack,” Police officer Sébastien, who likely saved the life of his colleague who is now in an “artificial coma.“

A gang of “youths” in La Grande Borne, “located in both the communes of Grigny and Viry-Châtillon,” considered to be a “no-go zone” in the southern suburbs of Paris, France, attacked four police officers with Molotov cocktails.

“No, this scene does not take place in Syria,” began the French news outlet Le Figaro (translated), who reported that the attack on police officers was “targeted violence.”

Read more here…

07/18/16

CNN Headline: Albanian Couple Arrested in France Attack

By: Julia Gorin | Republican Riot

Pamela Geller already has it. There are no details other than six are in custody for the crowd-mowing jihadi attack in Nice last week. The estranged wife of the Albanian man involved has been released and is not a suspect.

Pamela correctly interprets the media’s use of the word “Albanian” as planting doubt about the Muslimness of everyone involved. It was something that Jim Jatras and I mentioned on her radio show in 2007 — namely that the term “ethnic Albanian” became useful during the 1999 conflict, to not turn Westerners off from helping the Muslim side in the conflict against the Christian-Serbs we were setting up as the villain.

But recall that we witnessed the disappearance of the word “Albanian” from articles in the early 2000s, when the news coming out about them was less flattering than their plight as innocent victims of bloodthirsty Christians (e.g., drugs, prostitution, jihad, gangs). Instead, terms like “Yugoslavs” were used, and sometimes “Kosovars,” since no one would know what that was despite our having waged our last pre-9/11 war there, the war that closed the 20th century. The foreshadowing war (of what was to become commonplace in this century: pro-jihad NATO war).

In other words, after working so hard to prop up ethnic identity in multi-national Yugoslavia and dismantle that country into ethnically pure, Western-dependent statelets, our officials and media found themselves embarrassed by their clients, and started shrouding their ethnicity.

But now, with Muslims being undeniably out-of-control enough for even the world-in-denial to notice, the media and government goal is to shield the Islamic background of as many suspects as possible. And so “Albanian” has again become preferable, and media have gotten over their shyness in using it.

I’ll close with a sophomoric tangent, something that took me 17 years since the Kosovo war to notice. We all remember whose war it was. Hillary, Bill and Wesley aside, it was “Maddie’s War.” Namely, Madeleine Albright’s. It’s silly to even notice this, but look at the first three letters of her last name: Alb.

Then again, if Shakespeare had written the story, this might have been considered a telltale clue, a foreshadowing. It’s as if she were predestined to FTW ( “F–k The World”).

Ah, “if women ran the world…” indeed.

Get ready for the last female president.

04/17/16

MEDIA BLACKOUT: Socialists and Muslims turn Paris into a war zone (video)

By: Renee Nal | New Zeal

Migrant Battle at Stalingrad (YouTube Screenshot)

It all happened on April 14, just two days ago in Paris. Between the destructive force of socialists and migrants, the once-beautiful city appears to be doomed if nothing changes. A brutal battle among migrant groups was caught on film by terrified residents, while on the same day students and workers led by labor unions continued their ongoing battle against extremely limited labor reforms proposed by the socialist government, leading to violence and arrests (see below for video).

On the same day migrants war in Paris, violent socialists hurl chair at riot police. (YouTube screenshot)

THE MIGRANTS

Afghan, Somali, Eritrean and Sudanese gangs of migrants went to war with one another, attacked the riot police who were called on the scene, terrified residents and additionally trashed the Stalingrad Metro in Paris on Thursday.

The “running battles were filmed by horrified locals,” as reported at the UK-based Sun.

A drunk man “who is thought to have thrown the first missile” was arrested, as reported at the UK-based Daily Mail, who further reported that “almost 1,000 migrants” have come to this area in the past several weeks. When police have cleared out their camps, evidently the invaders return.

Police were “pelted with bottles and debris when the arrived at the scene” when they arrived.

Read more here…

12/9/15

Ex-Russian FSB spy exposes Kremlin’s operation of terror, help to Islamic State

Ukraine Today
Hat Tip: Nevin Gussack

The potentially explosive comments were made during a secret interview to a Ukrainian TV journalist

Revelations by a former Russian agent, implicating the Kremlin’s involvement in terrorist activities in Europe and the Middle East. The interview takes place far outside of Kyiv. The account about to be heard bears the hallmarks of a real spy scandal – undercover operations, fake documents and financial donations.

Ukraine Today’s partner news portal TSN. Weekly investigated the story. Such an interview is dangerous for any FSB personnel with high-level access.

The ex-spy codenamed Yevgeniy specialized in terrorist organizations and counter-terrorism activities. The man firstly claimed that radical Islamist groups are staffed with Russian agents – and that Moscow has a real impact on their activity. This is what he told journalist Andriy Tsaplienko.

‘Yevgeniy’, Former Russian Fsb Security Services Officer: “Being guided by good intentions, human rights activists from Europe would help the people being persecuted in their country to flee. Among them were infiltrators with ready documents and a made-up legend. They would actively infiltrate into Muslim communities. With the support of the security services, they made financial donations, thus acquiring prestige and moving up the hierarchy”.

According to Yevgeniy, Russian agents were a tool in attacks in Europe. Their task was to undermine the situation and create so-called multicultural conflict. This started in 2009 in London but according to his account, was most recently seen in Paris.

Andriy Tsaplienko, correspondent: “Is there any proof which suggests that the Russian special services were involved in the terrorist attacks on Paris, or at least they knew about them in advance?”

‘Yevgeniy’: “Given the connections they have in Muslim communities based in Europe, they could not but know that the terrorist acts were being prepared. They knew but did not share…”

Tsaplienko: “Is it complicity?”

‘Yevgeniy’: “It is complicity in acts of terrorism. And the complicity could be direct or indirect. By analyzing their connections, one, of course, will be able to see the ties leading to Russia. Primarily Russia could benefit from this, and the Russian security services had all the possibilities to organize this”.

The Kremlin’s influence also includes terror group Islamic State, also known as Daesh, according to Yevgeniy. After the split of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, former officers of the Iraqi army and members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party started creating the organisation. All of them graduated from Moscow-based educational institutions.

Tsaplienko: Can one claim that Russia, the Russian special services are involved in the creation of ISIS?

‘Yevgeniy’: “Definitely, and I know that exactly, the Russian special services believed that if a terrorist organization was set up as an alternative to Al-Qaeda and it created problems for the United States as Donbas does for Ukraine now, it would be quite good,”

The former FSB officer’s knowledge of how Russian agents work jointly with Islamic radicals and Donbas militants is invaluable for Ukraine. The anonymous man claims he fled Russia for personal not ideological reasons.

Ukrainian experts have checked his statements with the use of a polygraph twice, and the results appear to show the story was a truthful account.

11/23/15

Runestad: Give communities say on refugees resettlement

By: State Rep. Jim Runestad
The Detroit News

State Rep. Jim Runestad

The heinous attack in Paris by Islamic State terrorists is an example of how this group of extremists continues to infiltrate peaceful communities worldwide and wreak havoc.

As a result of the unprovoked attack by ISIS in France, many governors in America including Gov. Rick Snyder, suspended relocation of Syrian refugees to communities in their states. I commend Snyder for his decisive action to protect Michigan residents.

Several days prior to the attacks in Paris, I drafted two bills to protect Michigan residents by establishing regulations regarding refugee relocation and expanding the requirements to check the backgrounds of those who wish to move from unstable nations into our communities.

One of the bills suspends the use of state funds to assist the federal government in its voluntary Refugee Resettlement Program until the state Legislature and local communities are given a say in relocating refugees.

Between 2008 and 2014, the federal government has resettled more than 27,000 refugees from 60 different nations into 120 Michigan communities, without the approval of the state or the communities into which these exiles were moved. I believe, and my bill requires, that the Legislature and county governments should have the final say about immigrants making a home in Michigan. As a sovereign state, we should not and cannot be forced to comply with a voluntary federal program that could have a tremendous negative impact on our neighborhoods.

My other measure prevents resettlement of people from so-called failed states whose backgrounds cannot be checked because of a weak government that has no database on its citizens.

Failed states are nations that have a high degree of corruption and criminality and a government that does little to control that corruption. Since there is no avenue for finding out if a refugee has a past criminal record or is part of a corrupt organization, we must suspend the habit of allowing individuals from these failed states whose backgrounds have not been reviewed to enter our communities. My bill prevents the federal government from allowing this unchecked immigration from those rogue nations.

I believe America and Michigan are melting pots and have assimilated good citizens from diverse nations, many of whom have contributed greatly to our success. I believe that Michigan residents deserve to know that citizens from diverse nations seeking a new home have been fully vetted and pose no threat to their families. Until we can guarantee we are not allowing terrorists to relocate in Michigan communities, we should cease accepting immigrants whose intentions are not known.

State Rep. Jim Runestad is a Republican from White Lake.

11/20/15

UNDERCOVER: Syrians in Greece Using Fake Passports to get to Europe and US

11/20/15

Ted Cruz Weighs In On Refugee Security Concern – Hannity

‘We will utterly destroy them’ – Ted Cruz on defeating radical Islam

11/20/15

Politico Exonerates, Blames Snowden for Paris

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

Some of our media, including the publication Politico, seem totally confused about the role of NSA defector Edward Snowden in the crimes of the terrorists who murdered and maimed hundreds of people in the Paris attacks. The verdict is in: he has bloody hands.

In a November 16 story, “Blaming Snowden for Paris,” David Perera of Politico insisted that no evidence had surfaced that the “revelations” of NSA defector Edward Snowden had “made a difference” in the case of the Paris terrorist attacks, and there was no evidence the perpetrators had “used encrypted communications to conceal their activities.”

Once again, the publication had gotten ahead of the facts in this story, prejudging the case in order to get Snowden off the hook for facilitating the activities of the Islamic State, or ISIS.

Politico is the same publication that alleged that GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson had admitted fabricating an offer of a West Point scholarship, only to reverse course and drop the claim in a rewritten version of the same story.

Only 24 hours later, after exonerating Snowden, the publication again reversed itself, running an interview with Michael Morell, the former acting head of the CIA, who said the Snowden revelations not only helped the Islamic State but probably contributed to the Paris attacks.

Morell stated, “First, ISIS went to school on how we were collecting intelligence on terrorist organizations by using telecommunications technologies. And when they learned that from the Snowden disclosures, they were able to adapt to it and essentially go silent…And so, part of their rise was understanding what our capabilities were, adjusting to them so we couldn’t see them. No doubt in my mind. And the people who say otherwise are just trying to defend Edward Snowden.”

As embarrassing as this was, the original Politico story had referred to “journalist Glenn Greenwald” as “a Snowden ally” who was arguing “that U.S. officials had complained of difficulty tracking terrorist communications long before the NSA whistleblower emerged.”

It’s true that the terrorists had been evading the NSA before Snowden went to Russia, but that was beside the point. What Morell and others were pointing out is that Snowden had made it easier for the terrorists to plot to kill Europeans and Americans.

Rather than being a “journalist,” Greenwald is a political extremist who speaks before Islamist, Marxist and libertarian groups. He has, for example, been afeatured speaker at conferences sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Cato Institute and the International Socialist Organization. At one of these conferences he declared that al Qaeda’s 9/11 terrorist attacks on America were “very minimal in scope compared to the level of deaths that the United States has been bringing to the world for decades—from Vietnam to illegal wars in Central America…”

He is more than a “Snowden ally.” He is a mouthpiece for Snowden’s illegal disclosures and an accomplice in his alleged espionage activities.

A former gay pornography executive, Greenwald was the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award, named in honor of the left-wing journalist identified as an agent of influence for Soviet intelligence. At the awards ceremony, Greenwald said that Soviet agent Stone “pioneered what modern journalism ought to be.”

Snowden is supposedly a “whistleblower,” but that is a false designation considering that he illegally leaked classified information and fled to Russia rather than face up to the authorities and take his punishment. He is specifically charged with espionage.

Despite the claim about encrypted communications not playing a role in the attacks, Politico had itself reported on November 16 in a separate article that “Terrorists linked to the so-called Islamic State are employing encrypted Internet services—including a new generation of mobile messaging apps—that the authorities do not have the technological capability to break, according to intelligence sources, public comments by senior officials, and evidence disclosed in recent criminal trials.”

By November 18, Cory Bennett of The Hill newspaper had identified and cited a 34-page ISIS manual on how to conceal communications from the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Bennett noted that the Arabic document was translated and released by analysts at the Combating Terrorism Center, an independent research group at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“It includes warnings to avoid Instagram because it is owned by Facebook, and Dropbox because former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sits on its board of investors. Famous government leaker Edward Snowden has also criticized Dropbox over its privacy, the document notes,” added Bennett.

In other words, the Islamic State is taking Snowden’s advice and openly citing the NSA defector’s expertise on planning terrorism against the West. The reference to Snowden is clear in the translation.

This means that no honest journalist can claim that Snowden’s activities have not helped the terrorists who want to kill us.

Bennett wrote a separate story noting evidence first developed by NBC News that ISIS had set up a 24-hour “help desk” to advise terrorists about encrypting their communications in order to evade authorities.

In the NBC News story, Josh Meyer quoted counterterrorism analysts affiliated with the U.S. Army as saying that the ISIS help desk is “manned by a half-dozen senior operatives around the clock” for the specific purpose of “helping would-be jihadists use encryption and other secure communications in order to evade detection by law enforcement and intelligence authorities.”

Now that it has been definitively proven that Snowden’s disclosures have aided ISIS in planning acts of terror, it is time for the media to start examining the Snowden network that AIM has been exposing for several years now. All of his apologists, including such figures as Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano, should apologize to the world for rushing to the defense of this despicable character, who now clearly has blood on his hands.

It was Napolitano who had declared, “I would describe this man [Snowden] an American hero, as a person willing to risk life, limb and liberty in order to expose to the American people one of the most extraordinary violations of the American principles, value judgments and the Constitution itself in all of our history.”

The evil genius of Snowden’s collaborators was to frame his defection in terms of alleging that he was a “whistleblower.”

He didn’t risk his life or limb but has given up his liberty in return for KGB protection in Moscow.

Citizens of France and possibly the United States, however, will be giving up their lives and limbs so that Snowden can be honored as a hero by Napolitano and his ilk.

11/19/15

Obama Pushes France into Putin’s Arms

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

President Obama’s deliberately defeatist foreign policy has scored another major victory for Russia. He has pushed NATO member France and its weak socialist president into the arms of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. It may be that François Hollande felt that he had no alternative to deal with the international terrorist networks that have targeted his country and were begun decades ago by the old Soviet Union.

For those with short memories, in the 1980s the U.S. Congress examined in detail the origins, direction and support of international terrorist networks, which were then also based in the Middle East and Europe. A 1981 report by the Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism cited evidence that most of the terrorist groups at that time were Soviet-financed and Cuban-trained. A concrete example was “Carlos the Jackal,” the Marxist terrorist trained by the Cubans and controlled by the KGB who eventually converted to Islam. The roots of terrorism are in Russia. Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was murdered by Putin’s regime in London, most likely because he exposed KGB training of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. ISIS is a spin-off from al Qaeda.

President Reagan had rallied NATO governments in Europe against a Soviet nuclear threat and the international communist-backed terror networks operating during the 1980s. Today, under Obama, NATO is in disarray, and international terrorist groups are back on the march.

As the London Telegraph has noted, France has turned to the European Union, not NATO, for military resources to be used against ISIS. This move, writes Matthew Holehouse, is a “decisive shift” away from NATO.

There are also important shifts occurring domestically in France. Capitalizing on Hollande’s failure to deal with the Islamist invasion, the National Front is poised to make major gains in upcoming regional elections in France. But the term “far-right” does not apply to the National Front, since its leader Marine Le Pen is a Putin admirer. Putin’s use of “conservatives” in Europe and America has beenwell-documented by this columnist.

Obama’s deliberate failure to lead the Free World is so blatant that even members of the press who normally pay him deference have gotten testy. They actually asked some tough questions at his recent news conference. But Obama doesn’t want to be questioned about a foreign policy that gives strategic and tactical advantages to America’s enemies around the world.

Of these enemies, Russia is the most dangerous, since it has thousands of nuclear weapons, backs a nuclear Iran, and is still committing military aggression in Ukraine. In addition, Putin protects NSA defector Edward Snowden, who has made it easier for ISIS to escape surveillance and kill Europeans and Americans. The latest reports indicate that the terrorists in Paris used encrypted messaging apps.

If Putin is opposed to ISIS and terrorism, why does his regime continue to protect Edward Snowden?

In his new book, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, Russian dissident and activist Garry Kasparov writes about the “appeasers and cowards” who “talk ceaselessly of what might happen if the free world stands up to Putin or the consequences of taking direct military action against ISIS but what they do not want to address is what will happen if insufficient action is taken.”

The ISIS slaughter in France stands as the most recent evidence of what happens. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the deaths of 6,000 Ukrainians, and the downing of the Malaysian civilian airliner by Putin’s thugs, provide more examples.

Obama has pushed France into Russia’s hands in the fight against ISIS, which enables Putin to look like a savior of the world against the barbarians. Russia claims that a bomb downed a Russian airliner over Egypt on October 31, killing 224 people. Even if ISIS carried out this act of terrorism, it plays into Putin’s hands. As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) hasnoted, Putin had ignored the ISIS offensive in the Middle East until his allies in the murderous Assad regime in Syria started losing too much ground. At that point, Putin “stepped in to solidify the Syrian dictator,” Royce noted. Instead of attacking ISIS strongholds in the Middle East, Royce continued, “Russia has spent weeks bombing opposition forces in Syria backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Russian airstrikes have flattened markets, schools and villages—killing scores of innocents. And aided by those same Russian airstrikes, ISIS gained ground.”

Now, after the French attacks, and with Obama still refusing to commit sufficient force to get the job done, Putin fills the void, now pretends to turn on ISIS, and enlists France in a coalition led by Russia. The old KGB spy is playing a geopolitical game, outflanking the United States and our “allies,” who are now deserting us.

It’s getting monotonous to ask which side Obama is on. At every critical juncture, he defers to Vladimir Putin and his comrades. The pattern is clear. The next step is for Obama to follow Putin’s lead into a New World Order that ignores past Russian support for international terrorism and Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine.