Syria & Iran Prove There’s No Chance For North Korean Peace

This report was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com

There is a saying in geopolitics that peace summits are generally a perfect time to prepare for war. This thinking stems from the military philosophy of Sun Tzu, who believed that when a nation is weak it is important to appear strong, and when a nation is at its most dangerous it is important to appear weak or “diplomatic.” Sun Tzu also often praised the virtues of distraction and sleight of hand, not only in war, but in politics as well.

I would note that Sun Tzu and the Eastern “sleight of hand” methodology is not only a mainstay of Chinese as well as North Korean thought, but also required reading for Western covert intelligence agencies. It is important to fully understand this methodology when examining the East vs. West paradigm, because almost everything you see and hear when it comes to relations with countries like China and North Korea is theater. Their governments have hidden schemes, our governments have hidden schemes and the globalists manipulating both sides have plans that trump everything else.

Keep all of this in mind when you hear about the sudden and almost inexplicable announcements of peace summits with North Korea in May or June between Pyongyang and the Trump administration.

Looking at the scenario purely from the perspective of political motive, it’s difficult to discern why Trump has been so obsessed with North Korea since he first entered office. North Korea has always had nuclear capability as well as the ability to deploy those nukes in one form or another against the U.S. North Korea has also always been involved in further nuclear testing and missile testing. The idea that such testing today is somehow a “violation” of arbitrary international standards and etiquette is absurd. Almost every nation in the world is engaged in military expansion and development.

Then again, if one only looks at surface rhetoric and policy, it is difficult to discern why the Trump White House is equally obsessed with Syria and the Assad regime. One of the primary driving forces behind the Trump election campaign was the idea that this was a candidate that would break from establishment elites in the tradition of perpetual war. Trump’s criticisms of past presidents and their handling of Iraq and the Middle East was supposed to represent a sea change in American policies of aggression. Instead, his cabinet is now laced with the cancers of neo-conservative warhawks (fake conservatives) and globalist banking proponents.

The U.S. was supposedly mere months away from completely removing its military presence from Syria. Yet a well timed “chemical attack” on a Damascus suburb, blamed on Assad, gave Trump a perfect rationale for keeping troops in the region as well as escalating the use of force through missile bombardment. The original claim under President Obama was that we were in Syria because of the growing threat of ISIS (a terrorist movement supported by western covert intelligence). Now, the new enemy is the target globalists always intended — the Syrian government itself.

When I see news of North Korea abruptly embracing peace talks just after meetings with China and not long after wild threats were tossed around of impending nuclear conflict, I wonder about the true nature behind the abnormal shift in rhetoric. When I see Trump suddenly speaking of Kim Jong-un as “very honorable” after months of trading character attacks on social media, I have to wonder when the next false flag event similar to the Damascus farce will take place?

There are already clear signs that all is not as it seems when it comes to a potential North Korean peace agreement.

North Korea’s offer to halt nuclear testing in exchange for a truce with the U.S. rings a bit hollow when one realizes Pyongyang’s primary nuclear testing site has recently collapsed in on itself from overuse. Any halt on testing by North Korea is likely temporary as secondary sites are prepared.

It also should come as no surprise that North Korea is willing to enter into diplomatic talks only months after achieving successful tests on their first ICBMs capable of reaching the eastern seaboard of the US. Again, as Sun Tzu taught, when you are most dangerous it is important to appear weak to your enemies.

Trump’s newest National Security Adviser and neo-con warmonger, John Bolton, expressed “doubts” in interviews that North Korea will “give up” its nuclear armaments. Bolton and other globalists know full well that North Korea has no intention of disarming, and if this is going to be a prerequisite to any peace agreement then I would expect talks to fall apart before they ever begin.

During initial talks to engineer “peace” in Syria under the Obama administration, the establishment argument was that Assad would have to step down as president of Syria in order for diplomacy to move forward. Of course, as noted above, western covert agencies created ISIS out of thin air just as they created the Syrian civil war out of thin air. They caused an extreme civilian genocide through their ISIS proxies, blamed the Assad regime for the instability in the region and then, when their color revolution failed to unseat Assad, they ask him to relinquish power as a good will offering towards the peace process. See how that works?

Obviously, globalists knew Assad was never going to step down. Why would he when he knows that this was the goal behind the creation of ISIS from the very beginning? And so, Syria remains a useful point of chaos in the globalist arsenal as a larger war is an ever present possibility. It is a perpetual powder keg that could be set off anytime the globalists choose.

Iran is also an excellent example of the fraudulent nature of establishment peace agreements. The initial agreement arrived at in 2015, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), listed a drastic reduction in Iran’s Uranium stockpile and enrichment facilities. Iran seems to have complied with this request according to initial reports, and has complied with IAEA requests for inspections. However, globalist peace deals are never fixed – they can be changed at a moment’s notice to facilitate a breakdown in the agreement.

The US has recently made demands for the IAEA to inspect not only Iran’s nuclear facilities but also its military sites, which were not under the original IAEA purview.  Iran, of course, is not too happy about the idea of having its military bases subject to foreign inspections.  US officials have also claimed Iran is not following the “spirit of the agreement”; not because of any supposed nuclear development, but because of Iran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria.

On top of this, the US is seeking to change the original JCPOA while refusing to label the changes a “renegotiation”.  Officials have called for a “supplementary deal”, which to my mind is in fact a renegotiation of the original deal. This is clearly meant to cause a collapse in the JCPOA, as Iran is unlikely to ever accept a renegotiation.

Finally, Israel is now claiming that Iran has broken the JCPOA by secretly developing nuclear technology. Once again, like WMDs in Iraq and chemical weapons attacks in Syria, no hard evidence whatsoever has been produced to support this claim.  But, that might not matter at all as Israel has already initiated strikes against Iranian targets in Syria (Syria and Iran have a mutual defense pact), and they may very well attack Iran directly within the next year.

Globalists do not care about peace, they only care about timing their wars properly. The same reality applies to North Korea. Here is how this situation is probably going to play out…

The Trump administration will enter into peace talks with outlandish demands of complete nuclear disarmament. North Korea has so far offered a freeze on testing, but again, this is probably due to the collapse of their main testing site. A freeze on testing is not the same as total disarmament.

North Korea will of course refuse disarmament. The establishment will push harder, causing North Korea to pull back from the talks, to reschedule talks multiple time or to abandon talks altogether. Then, the establishment will say North Korea is not serious about peace, therefore, the force of action may be justified. They will say they gave North Korea a chance to do things the easy way, but now the hard way is necessary.

North Korea missile tests will continue, and new nuke facilities will open. Trump will call for the kinetic termination of such sites.

People who actually believe that globalists will abandon one of its best geopolitical Pandora’s boxes in North Korea have still not learned their lesson from the Syrian debacle, or from Iran. These regions represent a gold mine of potential international chaos which can be used as cover for all sorts of misdeeds as well as continued economic decline.

As I have noted in past articles, it is rather convenient for the banking elites at the Federal Reserve that every time they make an announcement of further cuts to their balance sheet as well as continued interest rate hikes a new geopolitical crisis involving Donald Trump simultaneously erupts. Is this mere coincidence, or should we view it as a discernible trend?

If it is a trend, then I would expect further crisis events involving Syria. Iran and North Korea in May and June as the Fed is set to increase the size of its balance sheet reductions thereby pulling the plug on its long time policy of artificially supporting markets. More strikes in Syria as well as destabilizing relations with Iran are likely. A collapse in talks with North Korea should be expected, followed by more plunges in stocks and other assets.

******

If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here. We greatly appreciate your patronage.

You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

With global tensions spiking, thousands of Americans are moving their IRA or 401(k) into an IRA backed by physical gold. Now, thanks to a little-known IRS Tax Law, you can too. Learn how with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals how physical precious metals can protect your savings, and how to open a Gold IRA. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.

White House Soap Operas Distract From Real Global Dangers

This report was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com

In the liberty movement, we often refer to the historical tactic of the Roman “bread and circuses” when describing the deliberate mass distraction of the public of today. In the era when Roman emperors supplanted the senate and dominated political and social life, it was deemed advantageous to create various forms of “entertainment,” often violent, in order to keep the citizenry preoccupied and thus less likely to physically act against the power structure as the empire suffered economic decline. The use of bread and circuses continues into our era, but the method has been refined and the manipulations have become in some ways more subtle.

For example, in ancient Rome the horrors of the Colosseum were meant to keep the public’s attention AWAY from the government. Today, the soap opera of government keeps people’s attention away from the true power brokers within global finance.

The White House itself has been molded into just another reality TV show, and mainstream media coverage has been relentless. With Donald Trump (no stranger to reality TV) at center stage, it is difficult for the citizenry to gauge what is politically legitimate and important. What we are bombarded with is an ever escalating drama between Trump, his staff, and the media, and instead of ignoring the theater many people are desperately seeking to interpret the meaning behind a show that is actually meaningless.

Every two weeks or so another episode develops in which Trump, playing the character of the brash and aggressive “populist,” fires one of his cabinet as if The Apprentice never ended, but was simply transferred to the Oval Office. Some people find this entertaining as it is Trump doing what he is most recently famous for doing. Those on the political left interpret this as reckless abandon and confirmation that their fears over Trump being ill suited to the presidency are justified. Still others in the liberty movement who originally supported Trump’s campaign are perhaps desperately looking for vindication. They wanted so badly to avoid the inevitable evils of a Clinton regime that they are now willing to give Trump a pass on almost anything, and they argue that the endless turnover in the Trump White House is Trump fulfilling his election promise of “draining the swamp.”

It is important to note that Trump is NOT draining the swamp of elitism in Washington D.C. The public is so focused on who Trump gives the boot they are forgetting to pay attention to the institutions that never leave. But what do I mean by this?

Let’s look at the some of the more widely publicized staff changes at the White House. Dina Powell, a Goldman Sachs alumni, was recently replaced as National Security Adviser, and so, the argument that Trump is “draining the swamp” persists. Yet, Powell was replaced by H.R. McMaster, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and hardly a stranger to elitist circles.

Gary Cohn, another Goldman Sachs agent, has left his post as Chief Economic Adviser and has been replaced by “conservative” Larry Kudlow, ostensibly as Trump is “cleaning house” and removing globalist influences in preparation for his war to balance the trade deficit. Yet, Kudlow is was a campaign coordinator who worked closely with the likes of Bill Clinton and John Podesta, as well as other major Democrat personalities. He began his career as a staff economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and oversaw the fall of Bear Stearns which was one of the sparks that launched the 2008 credit crisis. This guy is in no way a true conservative, nor is he some kind of anti-globalist replacement for Gary Cohn.

Rex Tillerson’s firing, one of the most recent dramas, has led to the position of Secretary of State being filled by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Pompeo is often portrayed as a former “Tea Party congressmen”, yet he is a rabid supporter of mass surveillance of the American people by the NSA through FISA related programs, and has referred to Wikileaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service.” First, this only proves further the “Tea Party” label has been so thoroughly co-opted by the establishment that it is laughable to refer to it in any relation to true conservatives and liberty champions. Second, it also shows that Trump has no intention of making any significant changes to the Beltway; only cosmetic changes are allowed.

And so it goes on and on. If one looks closely at the Trump administration, they will find that the people within the cabinet are changing constantly, but the elitist and globalist organizations and ideologies those people represent are always present within the White House. They never leave.

The swamp is not being “drained,” it is simply being shifted around so that the American people can’t keep up with the names of the swamp creatures and the positions they hold.

Ever since the days of Woodrow Wilson, a president purportedly controlled from within the White House by adviser Col. Mandel House (the founder of the Council On Foreign Relations), it has been common practice for globalists to use presidents as proxies. That is to say, the president is generally a mascot held up to the public as a target for political criticism or as a rallying tool to push the population in a particular direction. All the while, the true power brokers work from behind the curtain, dictating policy towards the paths of either globalization or disaster.

Trump is an interesting case as far as this 4^th generation warfare is concerned. Never in modern times has a president’s rhetoric been so openly hostile to the globalists, while at the same time harboring those very same globalists within his administration. Never before has a fabricated battle between the White House and globalization as an ideology been used as a distraction from globalism itself. This is something entirely new.

The issue is something I warned about consistently before Trump was even elected, and it is the reason I predicted that he would become president. Trump, in my view according to the evidence so far, is controlled opposition. He is a foil for the globalist battle against ideas of conservatism, sovereignty and nationalism. Instead of attacking these ideas outright (a losing battle), the elitists have presented a strawman in the form of Donald Trump. Trump’s actions seem to follow conservative guidelines but his policies are poorly executed, which sets the stage for future failures on an epic scale.

As I mentioned in my article Trump Trade Wars A Perfect Smokescreen For A Market Crash, the timing of Trump’s initiatives could not be more perfect…for international financiers and central banks, that is.

Currently, the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world are embarking on a process of tightening stimulus measures that have been artificially propping up stock markets and bond markets since the 2008 crash. In particular, the Fed’s move to continue hiking interest rates and cut its balance sheet as negative economic data rolls in has set light to the fuse of a fiscal explosion. Market dependency on cheap debt is total. Corporate debt levels are at all time highs as companies sink further and further into the red in a desperate attempt to inflate their own stock prices through stock buybacks. The Fed has been facilitating this market manipulation for quite some time, but now the party is over.

With each new rate hike and balance sheet reduction markets become more volatile and unstable. The Fed under new chairman Jerome Powell is well aware of what it is doing, considering Powell warned of the consequences of this as far back as 2012. It is highly unlikely though that when the economy crashes central bankers will get the blame.

As March rolls into April, it is also important to note that the Fed’s balance sheet reductions are slated to expand to $30 billion per month or more. So far, the Fed has shown a habit of cutting far beyond their publicly stated goals.  With markets dropping by thousands of points every time there is a balance sheet reduction, the instability is only going to increase exponentially.

Also, is it just a coincidence that every new Trump tariff and trade war announcement seems to take place at the same time as the Fed’s rate hikes and balance sheet cuts?  This sure does make it appear as though Trump is the cause of the subsequent stock market declines rather than the central bank, doesn’t it?

Trump’s continued soap opera theater is building up the narrative of a slapdash presidency run by a bumbling novice. Trump’s initiation of a trade war without necessary preparations, such as giving corporations incentives to move manufacturing back to the U.S. and creating production independence, is an excellent smokescreen for a collapse of stock markets and a dumping of U.S. Treasury bonds by foreign creditors.

For those wondering why globalist elements would deliberately crash the American economy, I suggest they read my article The Economic Endgame Explained. To summarize, in order to reach their openly stated goals of a one world currency system, as well as total centralization of global economic administration, certain appendages of the current system must be sacrificed. One of those appendages is the American economy as it exists now, along with the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency.

Such an attack on our country and our society would not go without notice or possible retaliation. Therefore, the banking elitists need a scapegoat. I have said it before and I’ll say it again — there is no better scapegoat that the Trump White House. Why? Because the Trump White House has been painted since the election as a symbol of stalwart conservatism, even though it is not. The demonization of conservative principles such as limited government, true free markets, personal liberty, etc. becomes much easier when globalists can attach them to an international catastrophe such as a financial collapse.

And, since Trump has been set up as the strawman for conservative ideals, attaching catastrophe to Trump also vicariously attaches catastrophe to the rest of us.

The only way to undermine this 4^th generation warfare tactic is for conservatives to ignore the White House soap opera and to question Donald Trump’s policies publicly when they do not meet logical or practical standards. Blindly supporting Trump because of his rhetoric only harms our cause in the long run, and refusing to acknowledge the fact that he has surrounded himself with the very globalists he is supposedly at war with only sets us up for tragedy. If we remain skeptical and maintain our principles, however, it becomes much harder for the mainstream media or anyone else to implicate us in any great calamity that Trump is blamed for.

If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here. We greatly appreciate your patronage.

You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

With global tensions spiking, thousands of Americans are moving their IRA or 401(k) into an IRA backed by physical gold. Now, thanks to a little-known IRS Tax Law, you can too. Learn how with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals how physical precious metals can protect your savings, and how to open a Gold IRA. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.

Global Crisis Events: The Weird Keeps Getting Weirder

This report was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com

While the mainstream media and general public tend to assume that every new day is bringing us closer to a better future, many alternative analysts focus on the underlying weirdness of our world and all of the crisis factors that average people don’t want to think about. I have to say, in my view the “weirdness” has been escalating rather swiftly lately, and I don’t think that very many analysts, alternative or mainstream, appreciate the potential consequences.

The most important issue of course has always been the global economy. With nearly every sector of our system resting on massively inflated financial bubbles driven by central bank fiat printing and artificially low interest rates, there is only one question that really needs to be asked: How long before a geopolitical or economic shock event takes down the entire house of cards?

The mainstream philosophy seems to be that the economy is now impervious to such events. As the media now argues often, stock markets in particular do not appear to care whenever international threats present themselves. I would argue that this is because nothing substantial has actually happened quite yet. We have had a steady build-up of domestic and global political tensions, but the markets have so far been presented with a world that is comfortably predictable. It is a dangerous world with numerous potential pitfalls, but still predictable nonetheless.

And this is the very odd position we find ourselves in. A system which grows progressively more unstable year by year, and a society that has grown ignorantly used to it. To wake people up to the threats ahead would require a surprise, a slap to the face, something entirely unexpected. Here are a few developing powder kegs around the world that may present such a shock.

U.S. Debt Ceiling And The Government Shutdown Battle

I think a lot of people are missing some major points on the government shutdown situation. First, consider this — every new deal to keep the federal government funded offers a shorter stopgap than the last. The latest deal would only keep funding in place for three more weeks, then the same conflict over budget and spending initiatives happens all over again. It is not outlandish to expect that one day soon we will be faced with weekly or bi-weekly funding battles in D.C., while the greater problem of the U.S. debt ceiling is generally ignored.

You see, the “fight” within the federal government is not so much over whether or not more debt is a “bad thing.” In fact, both sides support more debt and bigger government. Instead, the fight is over the allocation of funds (debt) to certain projects and away from others. Who gets the money? And how can a government shutdown be used as leverage to gain the upper hand politically?

The thing is, this is all theater. There are no “sides” to the debate in Washington, and there is no battle. This is all designed to condition the American public into believing that the two parties are separate and opposed when they are in fact not. Beyond that, the shutdown battle also achieves a certain stress factor for the economy that many people are not aware of.

Among alternative analysts, cynicism runs rampant over a government shutdown. “Who cares?!” many of them will say, “Let it shut down!” But there are some concerns here, primarily the concern of full faith in U.S. debt issuance.

While I am all for the notion of the federal government going the way of the Dodo bird, I do not think many alternative analysts are considering the trade-off required when the system does in fact “reset.” For example, while the U.S. Treasury is supposed to remain functional during a government shutdown and certainly remains functional during stop gaps and debates over funding, this internal conflict though theatrical in nature can still produce a lack of faith in Treasury bonds and the dollar internationally. And frankly, faith is all that our economy has left to sustain itself.

If the funding battle continues with ever shorter stop gaps or with an extended period of government shutdown, there is a possibility that the largest foreign investors in U.S. debt and the dollar will begin dumping their holdings. When this is done, it will be done quietly and will be fully denied if questions arise. If China, for example, begins decoupling from U.S. debt, we will not find out until it is far too late. The Chinese would seek to be the first to dump their holding in order to avoid a vast international rush for the exits. They would want to be the first to sell, not the last.

Again, if the funding fight continues to become more aggressive and more absurd, eventually we will see a foreign dump of U.S. debt, and with it an unprecedented crisis. Whether or not this “needs” to happen is not what I am debating here, only that when it does happen, there will be consequences for us all, and being prepared for them is essential.

Syria Back On The Table

So, if you thought the Syrian situation could not get any weirder, the past week might have been a surprise.

The last major development was Vladimir Putin’s orders to pull a large percentage of standing Russian troops from the region, leaving the Assad government particularly vulnerable. This move did not surprise me in the least. In fact, I predicted that Russia would step aside in Syria in interviews last year. I also wrote about the possible problems this would cause in my article ‘A Review Of The Most Disturbing Events Of 2017’. One of these problems would be Putin leaving the door wide open for a foreign force to invade Syria, drawing in other nations like Iran or Lebanon into the fight and expanding the war tenfold.

What did surprise me, though, was the brazen launch of forces into the region by Turkey in particular. Erdogen has been pecking away at Kurdish tribes in Syria for quite some time, but his latest measures are something entirely new. Keep in mind that Turkey is still technically a NATO member and an ally of the U.S., despite Erdogen’s anti-NATO rhetoric and threats to leave the multi-nation defense pact. Also keep in mind that the U.S. government is giving monetary and weapons support to the Kurds. So, to clarify, a U.S. ally is ignoring the tense situation in Syria and the possibility of triggering a wider regional war to hunt and destroy another U.S. ally, all while Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, etc., hover on the periphery waiting to jump into the fray.

This is not a recipe for diplomatic discourse. This is a recipe for disaster. Will Syria lead to WWIII as some people suggest? Probably not in the way most of them imagine. War takes many forms, including sporadic region by region conflicts, as well as economic conflicts. Global nuclear war is unlikely considering such an event would virtually vaporize decades of investment by the elitist establishment in control grids around the world. But, constant regional combat and financial disasters? THAT is a strategy that benefits them greatly.

North Korea And The Olympic-Sized Target

First let me say that the very fact that South Korea and the Olympic committee feels compelled to continue the games in the region at a time of such heightened tensions is extremely odd to me. The notion may simply be that the games will “heal” divisions in the Korean peninsula. I am not so sure about that…

I recently wrote about the North Korean war scenario and the potential false flag event during the Olympics in my article ‘Olympic Games In South Korea – Perfect Opportunity For A False Flag Attack?’. I would add to my analysis another interesting development; the negative response by South Koreans to the North’s participation in the Olympic games.

I have continually had to remind people that a war in North Korea would be the most effective trigger event for economic downturn and global distraction, though some skeptics seem to think the situation is going nowhere. Yet, all the elements are now present, including an array of naval forces ready for kinetic response, the escalation of North Korea’s missile technology to include ICBMs capable of striking the U.S. mainland, the war rhetoric grows on both sides, with the Department of Defense being the most aggressive, and now even the South Korean citizenry seems to be shunning diplomacy as they burn photos of Kim Jong Un during Olympic processions and demand a stop to cooperation with the North during the games.

This is a rather sharp break from the mainstream narrative in the U.S., which has told us that South Koreans are seeking generally passive and diplomatic relations with the North, and that the US involvement is universally unwanted. That is to say, the desire for conflict is not limited to U.S. warhawks and North Korean “fanatics,” it is also a large portion of the South Korean population that appears to prefer less-than peaceful solutions.

Add to this the latest CIA claims that North Korea’s nuclear weapons technology will be a full threat to the U.S. in a matter of months, and the news that North Korea’s armies are confiscating food stores from the citizenry at a greater rate than usual, and anyone with any sense can see what is developing here. CIA director Mike Pompeo has asserted that the Trump Administration will act to prevent North Korea from developing an arsenal of ICBMs capable of striking the U.S.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is going to end in war. There is no way around it.

The U.S. Dollar Continues Its Rapid Decline

I outlined this interesting development a couple weeks ago in my article ‘The Strange Case Of The Falling Dollar – And What It Means For Gold’, and so far it seems that the downward spiral of the dollar is continuing, now falling at a speed not seen since 2003.

This trend is very strange for a number of reasons – the most prominent being the fact that the dollar index is ignoring policy moves by the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates and reduce its balance sheet. Under normal economic conditions, this should trigger a dollar spike, not a dollar collapse. I predict that the Fed, under “new leadership” through Jerome Powell, will pursue highly aggressive fiscal tightening measures in 2018, including expanded interest rate hikes in the name of tempering the dollar’s decline.

If this takes place, the insane stock market bubble now in full steroid mode will feel a sudden swift kick to the nether regions. However, such a move may still not stop the dollar’s decline. This could be the first stage of the stagflationary crisis I and a few other alternative analysts have been warning about for years.

Growing Accustomed To The Weird

I think if you asked most people if they would have believed the developments of today were possible five to 10 years ago, they would say no. The danger is that when a society becomes too accustomed to instability and conflict, they become complacent in terms of their own security and their own freedoms. They might not even notice until it is too late that both necessities have been stolen away from them.

That great global slap in the face is coming, make no mistake, but the question is, can we prepare enough people for it in time to make a difference in the outcome? Reporting on these issues is often compared to “doom and gloom,” but really, it is an act of optimism. I and many other analysts are operating on the assumption that we can tip the balance by informing the public and creating a shield against calamity. Maybe this is a foolish assumption, maybe not. We shall see in due course.

***

If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here. We greatly appreciate your patronage.

You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

After 8 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.

BREAKING: Memos Reveal Comey Cleared Clinton BEFORE Interviewing Her & 17 Other Key Witnesses

Washington, DC – In what can be described as nothing less than a bombshell revelation, memos from former FBI director James Comey, obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating his firing by President Trump, reveal that the bureau chief began writing drafts of a statement clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal wrongdoing prior to at least key 17 witnesses being interviewed by the FBI – including Clinton herself.

These newly discovered facts raise the question; how can someone be exonerated of a crime before the investigation has been completed?

During a press conference, on July 5, 2016, former FBI director Comey stated that he would not recommend charges to the U.S. Department of Justice, and noted that despite her mishandling of classified information on a private email server, there was no intent to subvert the law.

The incriminating revelations, that Comey began drafting memos of an exoneration letter, come from transcripts of interviews given by two FBI official, according to the Daily Caller.

According to the Daily Caller:

Advertisment

James Rybicki, Comey’s chief of staff, and Trisha Anderson, the principal deputy general counsel of national security and cyberlaw at the FBI, gave the interviews as part of an investigation conducted by the Office of Special Counsel into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation.

While the transcripts of those interviews are heavily redacted, they indicate that Comey started working on an announcement clearing Clinton in April or May of last year, before the FBI interviewed 17 witnesses in the case, including Clinton and some of her top aides.

Let that sink in for a moment.

READ MORE:  Assange Destroys Liberals and Conservatives, Shows How They"re the Same in Epic Tweet Storm

Comey actually began penning a letter exonerating Clinton in April or May of 2016, but Clinton wasn’t even interviewed until July 2 – only three days prior to Comey’s public announcement.

It seems logical that the only way Comey could have decided that Clinton was innocent prior to her and numerous witnesses being interviewed is if the facts of the case were not connected to her exoneration – or more succinctly – the investigation was simply political theater for the masses, and more importantly, rigged from the start.

Two U.S. Senators, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, sent a letter to the FBI, which specifically noted that Comey’s draft was prepared well before two Clinton aides, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, were given what Republicans deemed a “highly unusual” immunity deal with the U.S. Justice Department.

The “highly unusual” limited immunity deal prohibited FBI agents and prosecutors from inquiring about conversations between Platte River Networks, the tech firm that managed Clinton’s private email server after she left the State Department, and Mills and Samuelson.

The Senators strongly questioned how Comey could have conducted a complete and impartial investigation if he had already drawn a conclusion about the outcome of the case prior to all of the interviews and evidence having been collected.

“Conclusion first, fact-gathering second — that’s no way to run an investigation,” Grassley and Graham wrote in the letter to the FBI. “The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy.”

“The outcome of an investigation should not be prejudged while FBI agents are still hard at work trying to gather the facts,” they added.

READ MORE:  FBI Discovers 30 Bengahazi Emails -- All Deleted by Clinton

The facts speak for themselves, and as many people already suspected, there was no real investigation into the criminal actions of Hillary Clinton.

Instead, the American public was treated to a dog and pony show meant to look as if Clinton was being held to the same standards as any other citizen. However, the same rules that would apply to any other American were summarily dismissed in an effort to bolster the presidential candidacy of an extremely powerful political operator.

As the legendary George Carlin so eloquently proclaimed, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!”

They ‘Deserved It’: Social Media Celebration of VA Shooting Proves Divide and Conquer is Working

On Wednesday, five people were injured when a gunman opened fire on multiple police officers, Senators, and US congressmen at a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. At first, social media reacted with shock over the news of a mass shooting. However, once the political affiliations were revealed about both the shooter and his victims, all that changed.

As soon as the establishment-conditioned left got word that it was Republicans who were attacked, they took to social media to praise the shooting.

Aside from the ‘Republicans’ being shot, there were also innocent police officers hit in the attack whose party affiliations were unknown. However, this was of no consequence to those blinded by their own hatred.

No sooner did the establishment-conditioned right find out about the shooter’s political label before taking to social media and grouping in all liberals with the mad man, James Hodgkinson, who cowardly took aim at unexpecting defenseless human targets.

James Hodgkinson does not represent liberals just like Dylann Roof does not represent conservatives. Don"t let them use this to divide us.

— Matt Agorist (@MattAgorist) June 14, 2017

This should come as no surprise as the left and right in this country frequently use tragedies to push their political agenda. However, the mass praising of the shooting on social media seems rather unprecedented and is indicative of the power wielded by the mainstream media over the minds of the masses.

Below are just a few of the screen grabs of Twitter users outright celebrating the shooting of their fellow humans. Some of these people are high-profile individuals who unapologetically took to their large audiences and praised attempted murder as ‘karma.’

Technology writer WaltIsFrozen said the attack has a “silver lining” because the shooter targeted people with different political views than his.

Much of the hate was directed right at Steve Scalise over claims that he met with the KKK leader and former gubernatorial candidate of Louisiana, David Duke. It is true that Scalise admitted to attending a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO — an organization founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

However, meeting with someone is hardly grounds for calling for their execution.

Others took this opportunity to claim gun rights advocates deserve this sort of thing because they want the right to defend themselves.

Sonia Gupta, a former prosecutor from Louisiana, noted that Scalia deserved to be shot because he went to the meeting mentioned above.

READ MORE:  VIDEO: Cop Assaults & Arrests Mom and Children Who Called 911 on Man Who Assaulted Her 7yo Son

Regardless of your political views, advocating for the extrajudicial assassination of your political foes is the tool of terrorists. It also serves further undermine any relevance of your ostensible political stance.

Humanity’s interests are not served by praising death and destruction. And, on a deeper note, most people get that notion. However, when divide and conquer techniques like the left right paradigm come into play, people shed their humanity and wrap their brains with the flag — leaving them mentally blind and unable to empathize.

For the majority Americans, the United States political system is seen as a football game. Any time their party is in power, it’s as if they are ‘winning’ and the other party or team is ‘losing.’ But what most Americans fail to see is that both ‘teams’ have the same owner. That owner cares not about which one of their teams is ‘winning,’ just so long as its one of their teams in the game.

Americans are constantly bombarded by the mainstream media telling them to hate each for their choice of political puppet they support in the white house. All the while, those same talking heads, spouting out the hate-filled rhetoric, are all part of the same team — the establishment.

While stoking divide through their puppet politicians and their Praetorian Gaurd in the corporate media over issues of gay marriage, abortions, transgender bathrooms, and gun rights, the masters in the establishment continue business as usual. That business is expanding war, enriching the elite, and growing the police state and empire.

The people come to blows over the scraps thrown to them from the table of the elite all the while ignoring the entire reason they came to hate each other in the first place. Their TVs told them to.

The controlled politicians, the rigged system, and the elite are not some vast conspiracy as much as they are a tendency of the state in general. As long as a system exists that allows government force to be bought and sold for the benefit and privilege of a few, these atrocities will continue.

The money shoved into the pockets of politicians on behalf of special interest groups, aka bribery, has become so mainstream and widely accepted that no one even bats an eye at the billions doled out to their elected officials on behalf of lobbyists.

Donald Trump just went to Saudi Arabia and approved a weapons deal with the country who was found to be complicit in the support of the 9/11 terror attacks. They also gave he and his family lots of money.

READ MORE:  VIDEO: Man Claiming to Be a Space Alien Hurls Himself into a Police Cruiser

If you are one of those people who sees Washington DC as the Don King boxing match that it is, then you are doing something right. You are likely a reader of the alternative media, you probably don’t watch massive amounts of television, and you likely have a thirst for a lesser ignorance. You also most likely know how futile violence is against the most well-armed army and police state in the history of the world.

As John Whitehead said, writing for the Rutherford Institute, there is no place in our nation for the kind of armed revolution our forefathers mounted against a tyrannical Great Britain. Such an act would be futile and tragic. We are no longer dealing with a distant, imperial king but with a tyrant of our own making: a militarized, technologized, heavily-financed bureaucratic machine that operates beyond the reach of the law.

Violently attacking the government creates victims out of the ones we are trying to expose as criminals.

Those who initiate and support such violence will be complicit in growing the hellish police state that will inevitably ensue as a consequence of their actions.

It will start a war in which the people are the enemy.

We can simply look back to 9-11 as an example of what is to come if this violence continues.

Prior to 9/11, the TSA did not exist, indefinite detention did not exist, the NSA did not spy on American citizens, the police weren’t given armored assault vehicles, and Americans could not be assassinated without trial.

If these acts of aggressive violence against the state continue, we can expect to see what little civil liberties are left to be whisked away in the name of protection from the ‘domestic terror threat.’

We can expect to see peaceful activists rounded up and detained indefinitely. We can expect to see homes raided of individuals who are speaking out against the state. We will see more and more checkpoints and less and less unmolested travel.

No, this battle will not be won with weaponry as the US spends more annually on defense than the next 13 largest militaries in the world, combined.

That is why we must win the hearts and minds of the people within the state. We must expose as much of their violence and corruption as we can, for that is what garners support — not murder.

READ MORE:  DOJ Probe Reveals St. Louis Justice System Purposely More Harsh on Black Children than White

We must show that those of us who stand against this state corruption are the good guys. We are not some violent group of terrorists who are quick to don the pitchforks and torches and beg for blood, like James Hodgkinson.

Removal of due process, the initiation of violence, and abuse of power — these are tools of the state, not of the peaceful revolution.

Those who would take an innocent life to incite change are no different than the mass murdering sociopaths within the government.

Our only means of changing this sick society is changing ourselves. We have to remove our dependency upon a group of people who use violent coercion to achieve what they refer to as “order.” When enough of us do this, the police state becomes irrelevant.

Taking an aspirin for a headache only masks the symptom of that headache, it does nothing to eliminate the cause.

One cannot eliminate future headaches by constantly taking aspirin, in the same manner that one cannot change a violent and corrupt state by acting within the rules of that state; violence will only be met with more violence and more support for the state.

We must show the world, through the creation of and implementation of solutions to the violent nature of the state, that there is an alternative to tyranny and violence. This new system is actually being built and is quickly showing the obsolescence of the old.

People have created their own money. Cryptocurrencies are freeing humanity from the shackles of central banks and government controlled inflation. We are beating back the drug war by showing the horrid nature of its enforcement. We are opening our fellow citizens’ eyes like never before through the free sharing of information on the internet.

There are organizations like LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) that are fighting the odds and standing up to their own peers and seeking peaceful change.

The list goes on.

We are winning and can beat these tyrants. But if people continue to stoop to the same level of senseless violence and removal of due process as them, we will not only lose, but guarantee that there will never be another opportunity to resist again.

Brain Study Reveals Why Society is So Easily Controlled by Politics — Differing Views Seen as ‘Threats’

We’ve all heard the phrase: “Let’s not talk about politics.”

A new scientific study shows why people readily abandon rationality for political beliefs. It also underscores how well Establishment forces have been able to push the populace into an ‘us vs. them’ mindset.

Researchers at the Brain and Creativity Institute used functional MRI – a revolutionary technique that maps the brain by coupling cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation – to find out what happens in the brain on politics.

“When people’s political beliefs are challenged, their brains become active in areas that govern personal identity and emotional responses to threats, neuroscientists have found.”

This would certainly explain how a hyper-partisan atmosphere breeds knee-jerk hostility, and agreement on anything becomes out of reach.

“During their brain imaging sessions, participants were presented with eight political statements that they had said they believe just as strongly as a set of eight nonpolitical statements. They were then shown five counter-claims that challenged each statement…

The study found that people who were most resistant to changing their beliefs had more activity in the amygdalae (a pair of almond-shaped areas near the center of the brain) and the insular cortex, compared with people who were more willing to change their minds.

“The activity in these areas, which are important for emotion and decision-making, may relate to how we feel when we encounter evidence against our beliefs,” said Kaplan, a co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center at USC.

“The amygdala in particular is known to be especially involved in perceiving threat and anxiety,” Kaplan added. “The insular cortex processes feelings from the body, and it is important for detecting the emotional salience of stimuli. That is consistent with the idea that when we feel threatened, anxious or emotional, then we are less likely to change our minds.”

Instead of treating a political subject like a normal debate topic – weighing factual evidence and its relation to other significant realities – it can quickly devolve into an irrational state. Enlightenment is sacrificed as the goal becomes defeating ‘the other.’

READ MORE:  How Fake News Spreads -- Corporate Media Spread Story of "Active Shooter" During a Knife Attack

As Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Sadly, this is becoming an endangered art.

The situation is ripe for exploitation by the propaganda machine to advance The Narrative. The corporatocracy and mainstream media thrive when people are distracted by meaningless argument and manufactured rage. Rational discussion is a threat to the establishment.

Now, what passes for the national discourse is nothing more than shouting matches by talking heads armed with the day’s talking points – as seen on cable TV ‘news’ channels. Amygdalas are running wild.

When someone actually tries to parse an issue outside of the ‘us vs. them’ scenario, it seems a foreign language to the audience.

Researchers involved in the study take a less pessimistic view, noting that the brain’s Default Mode Network also surges in activity when political beliefs are challenged.

“These areas of the brain have been linked to thinking about who we are, and with the kind of rumination or deep thinking that takes us away from the here and now,” said lead author Jonas Kaplan.

“The researchers said that this latest study, along with one conducted earlier this year, indicate the Default Mode Network is important for high-level thinking about important personal beliefs or values…

“We should acknowledge that emotion plays a role in cognition and in how we decide what is true and what is not true,” Kaplan said. “We should not expect to be dispassionate computers. We are biological organisms.”

Of course, he is correct that no argument is free of subjective experience, and this will play into how even the most rational person debates a topic. We can have a high degree of objectivity, but — just as science cannot achieve 100% certainty — we can never be 100% objective.

READ MORE:  The Five Biggest Immigration Myths Thrown Around in the Circus that is the GOP Debate

The functions of the amygdala and the Default Mode Network are indeed critical to our highly evolved state. There is certainly nothing ‘bad’ about them.

However, the fact that political debate is linked to these powerful forces — emotional responses to threats and personal identity — means political discussions have even less chance of reaching a logical conclusion free of bias.

Now, more than ever, the U.S. seems gripped by political division. Thanks to science, we have a little more understanding of how Washington politicians can throw rationality out the window and yet be so effective at influencing the masses.