Puppet Masters
Bolton expressed concerns over the growing nuclear potential of Beijing, telling AM 970 radio on Sunday that "if we're going to have another arms control negotiation, for example, with the Russians, it may make sense to include China that discussion as well."
"Washington is still planning to talk to China, Russia and North Korea arrogantly and on its own terms," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian Federal Council, responded.
George Soros was interviewed years ago on CBS's 60 Minutes where he admitted helping Nazi's during World War II steal from Jews during the war. Soros is Jewish. He was not apologetic.
Soros was also reportedly behind the airport protests in the US shortly after President Trump's inauguration. A week before that Soros was reportedly behind 50 Groups involved in the 'Women's March the day after the inauguration. Before that, Soros was connected to the groups demanding election recounts after the November 8th election and Soros money was funding more protests during these efforts.
One of the consistent themes of Trump's campaign was that foreign entanglements were not to the country's advantage and the wars were a waste of resources; bad for business, as it were. Now, I'm not so simple-minded as to believe campaigning politicians. Bush promised a quieter foreign policy and Obama was going to close Guantánamo; but what made me pay attention to Trump's statements was that they weren't just the disconnected laundry list of focus-groups handed out by most politicians, they had an internal consistency. (And consistent over quite some time: watch this interview from 1987.)
That consistency could be found in his slogan Make America Great Again. It was the "again" that was the clue. Shattered tells us that Bill Clinton tried to get his wife to perceive the dissatisfaction in the USA, Sanders tapped into some of it but Trump saw and understood it early and based his campaign on it; Clinton never understood. Again, that's the clue. I concluded that Trump saw a connection between the loss of "greatness" and the foreign entanglements: the "six trillion dollars" spent in the Middle East would have been better spent on infrastructure". Of course he was right: there is a direct connection. But to stop that drain, Trump, now President, has to break the entanglements and that will not be easy. Last year I formed the theory that he would try to get the allies to break these entanglements and updated the idea recently. (It was written just before we heard that Trump is considering to charging allies 150% for the cost of US bases - something that is sure to cause a lot of re-thinking and disentangling.)

Mikhail Lesin was the mass media expert credited with inspiring the creation of Russia Today (now RT)
The finding does not provide clear-cut evidence of foul play in Lesin's death; another statement in the documents suggests the bone could have been damaged "after death" -- possibly during the autopsy.
Who could forget the terrorist training camp discovered in New Mexico last year, where they had loads of guns and ammunition, along with a deceased child? The court dismissed three of the five, creating one hell of a stir in this country. Now, there is a superseding indictment charging all five with conspiracy to attack and kill officers and employees of the United States, along with multiple other charges.
While Congressman Jim Jordan was busy calling out Adam Schiff in a twitter frenzy this week, the Democrats, along with 12 Republicans voted to block the President's emergency at the southern border, which Trump immediately vetoed the following day, in his first veto as President.
But, "nothing's happening," right? Buckle up - this party is just getting started.
Macron goes SKIING as Paris burns (again) during EIGHTEENTH straight weekend of Yellow Vest uprising

Emmanuel Macron on the slopes of La Mongie ski resort in the Pyrenees this weekend
But according to BFMTV, the head of state will return sooner to face the crisis, as criticism mounts against Macron for insensitive to the ongoing protests.
The presidential couple has just returned from a trip to Kenya. But they were seen on Friday, March 15, by skiers, on the slopes and lifts. The press was kept away from the couple by the security services.
The president skied all morning, before stopping at l'Etape du Berger meeting one of his childhood friends, Eric Abadie. "I will spend two or three days here to recharge my batteries, to find landscapes and friendly faces," he told La Depeche. "You have to know where you come from. I am happy to see the Pyrenees like that, radiant, although I know it was difficult at Christmas. But there are people here, and Eric is an example, people who want to make things happen," he continued before returning to the slopes.

President Donald J. Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey at the United Nations General Assembly
Despite Iran sanctions, Tehran continues to show its strength in its sheer resilience and its brash cavalier attitude towards other countries in the region; barely days after if foreign minister resigns - but then withdraws it - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani takes a trip to Iraq, to remind the Americans that Tehran still wields considerable power and influence there, as well as Syria, Lebanon and also Qatar and Turkey.
Comment: War does indeed make strange and ever-shifting bedfellows.
- Turkey and Russia prepare to reopen M5 highway in northern Syria - connect Aleppo to Gaziantep, Turkey
- Iraq Kurdistan Official: Turkey-Syria Team-Work is Most Welcome in Afrin Crisis
- Next: A US-Turkish clash in Syria?
Army General Valeriy Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, spoke at the general assembly of the Academy of Military Sciences
The assembly had the format of a military science conference dealing with the development of military strategy in current conditions. The conference was opened by Army General Makhmut Gareev, the Academy's president. Participants included Academy members, leadership of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), representatives from the Presidential Administration, State Duma, and Federation Council, as well as the leading scientists from the Russian Academy of Science, universities, research institutes working for the MoD. They all discussed the nature of future wars, armed conflicts, and the most pressing defense problems.
The General Staff Chief and First Deputy Minister of Defense, Army General Gennadiy Gerasimov, presented a report on the main trends in the evolution of military strategy and the tasks facing military science. We are presenting this report for our readers.
We are currently seeing the development of the concept of conducting war through a coordinated application of military and non-military instruments, with the decisive role played by the Armed Forces.
The UK prime minister didn't sit idle this weekend, trying to win the hearts and minds of stubborn MPs who last week rejected the Brexit deal she agreed on with the EU. If her plan is backed before Thursday's EU summit, she would seek "a short technical extension" beyond the March 29 deadline to leave the bloc, May wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
Admitting that it will not be "an ideal outcome," May argued that "it is something the British people would accept if it led swiftly to delivering Brexit." Otherwise, "we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever."
That aside, the British people face the prospect of going to the polls to elect members of the European Parliament in May - an obligation which comes with the UK's extended membership in the EU.
"There could be no more potent symbol of Parliament's collective political failure," the Prime Minister wrote.
Comment: See also:
- 3 more months of Brexit: British MPs vote for delay
- May to give MPs free vote on delaying Brexit, and the four amendments - UPDATE: Surprise! MPs delay Brexit deadline till end June
- Theresa May to suggest delaying Brexit if her own deal and 'no-deal' gets rejected by MPs
- Ex-Brexit secretary urges Theresa May to delay Brexit vote for 2nd time
- May warns Brexit 'may never happen at all' if MP's reject her deal for a second time
- No deal, no money: UK minister warns EU won't get a cent for Brexit divorce bill
Imports from targeted countries declined 31.5 percent, while targeted US exports fell by 11 percent, the evaluation of the short-term impact of trade conflicts with partners across the globe has shown.
The findings were presented in a study titled 'The Return to Protectionism', written by researchers from Yale, Columbia, UCLA, and the University of California, Berkeley. The paper was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research earlier in March.
While $7.8 billion is a relatively small figure for the country's whole economy, amounting to 0.04 percent of GDP, the authors note that American "consumers bear the incidence of the tariff." Annual consumer and producer losses from the higher costs of imports totaled $68.8 billion, or 0.37 percent of GDP.
'Republican counties bore the largest cost of the full war'
While "all but 30 counties experience a reduction in tradeable real income," Trump's actions surprisingly brought the largest losses to GOP counties, according to the research.












Comment: It is a curious thing and remains to be seen if Trump is really simply 'enabling' them to be their own demise. Although, in order for that to be case, Trump would have to be willing to go down with the ship as well. See also: Trump's brilliant strategy: Dismember US dollar hegemony