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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Pension funds are tanking and the US government can't find $20 trillion!

MoneyPit
© Shutterstock
Alert to pension fund managers all over the planet-and to everyone else-
"If 1,000 US and global pension fund managers start asking questions it could change everything - like stopping a nuclear war."
That's a statement from former US Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and now president of Solari, Inc., Catherine Austin Fitts, who is a financial analyst like no other in our time.

Among other feats, she has identified a giant sucking black hole in the US government. And what has disappeared down that hole is money. Over the years, at least $20 trillion.

Unaccounted for.

Gone.

If you're a pension fund manager, stop reading this article and immediately switch over to these two articles from Fitts: "The State of Our Pension Funds" and "'FASAB [Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board] Statement 56′: Understanding New Government Financial Accounting Loopholes".

You could begin to see a blinding light that changes your mind and changes your approach to the staggering debt your fund is dealing with. And in the process, you could help lead the way to a peaceful revolution. A far-reaching revolution, in which wide-ranging prosperity, not doom, sits up the road.

Bad Guys

Kurdish YPG militia says it will disarm only after peace returns to Syria

flag kurds YPG
© Sputnik / Mikhail Alaeddin
Flag of the Kurdish YPG self-defense forces on the central street of the city of Afrin, Syria
The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) will lay down their arms only after peace returns to Syria, the militia's spokesman Nuri Mahmud said.

Mahmud argued that the weapons supplied by the United States were used to combat terrorists, according to a Jordanian news channel, Al-Hadath.

The YPG said it had handed over the northern city of Manbij to the Syrian army to focus on the fight against the Daesh* terror group east of the Euphrates River.

The surprise withdrawal of 2,000 US troops from Syria was announced after Trump said that the objective to defeat the Daesh terror group had been achieved.

*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State/IS), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a wide number of other countries.

Broom

Post-Syria, it's time for Trump to clean house at the National Security bureaucracy

Bolton
© The National Interest
US National Security Advisor John Bolton
They're undermining his positions and pursuing their own agendas. John Bolton should be the first to go.

President Donald Trump has at last rediscovered his core foreign policy beliefs and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Right on cue, official Washington had a collective mental breakdown. Neocons committed to war, progressives targeting Trump, and centrists determined to dominate the world unleashed an orgy of shrieking and caterwauling. The horrifying collective scream, a la artist Edvard Munch, continued for days.

Trump's decision should have surprised no one. As a candidate, he shocked the Republican Party establishment by criticizing George W. Bush's disastrous decision to invade Iraq and urging a quick exit from Afghanistan. As president, he inflamed the bipartisan War Party's fears by denouncing America's costly alliances with wealthy industrialized states. And to almost everyone's consternation, he said he wanted U.S. personnel out of Syria. Once the Islamic State was defeated, he explained, Americans should come home.

How shocking. How naïve. How outrageous.

Chess

South Front: Military and Political Trends of 2018 That Will Shape 2019

2019 trends and conflicts
2018 was marked by notable and sometimes alarming political, military and security developments around the world. The Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and East Asia once again became the scenes of global and intra-regional standoffs. A characteristic feature of the past year was the fact that almost all cross-border regions as well as regions which directly concern the economic and security interests of the USA, the EU, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation have been drawn into the confrontation between global forces. This leads to the conclusion that there are no more "safe havens" in today's world.

In the first half of the year, the world was balancing on the brink of a new and wider cycle of violence in the Middle East conflict. Many believed that exactly this could finally destroy the fragile world security order based on the Post Cold-War system of international relations. However, by the end of the year, the situation had changed and confrontation between the key powers has now shifted to Eastern Europe and Asia.

This development is the result of the following factors:
  • The situation in Syria has stabilized, as a result of a series of successful military operations by the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance and diplomatic measures undertaken in the framework of the Astana format.
  • The US and key EU states concentrated their main attention on different regions in various corners of the world. This was conditioned by the interests of the Euro-Atlantic elite and new economic and by the new diplomatic approach of the Trump administration.
  • The US changed the focus of its foreign policy towards the active deterrence of China, instead of a possible cooperation. For this reason, the US employed measures to contain the economic expansion of China in the US market as well as in those foreign regions where the interests of US and Chinese corporations competed.
  • Germany, the most powerful European economic center, sent strong signals that its interests did not correspond with Euro-Atlantic interests.
  • The regime of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and its backers employed active measures to fuel tensions in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region during the last two months of the year.

Pumpkin

Twitter overflows with comedy and sarcasm as Elizabeth Warren announces presidential run

elizabeth warren
© Reuters / Yuri Gripas
Elizabeth Warren
With a mere 673 days until the 2020 US presidential election, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has announced the formation of an "exploratory committee" to consider a run for the highest office in the land.

In American politics jargon, this means the Democratic senator is most definitely running for president. Warren had repeatedly been named as a possible 2020 candidate since 2016 and even earlier, so her candidacy has come as no surprise to pundits.

But as ever, Twitter was there to react to Warren's early announcement, which she made with an accompanying video laying out her 2020 vision.

Propaganda

Western media takes (evidence free) aim at China's Belt and Road Initiative

China OBOR Western disinfo campaign

The New York Times’ article claiming the OBOR initiative is a Trojan horse for Chinese military expansion is a clumsy smear.
In recent months, American, Commonwealth and European media have taken aim at China. From fabricated stories of interment camps with "1 million" Uyghir Muslims being detained in them to a more recent New York Times article claiming to have "secret plans" revealing the military dimension of its One Belt, One Road initiative (OBOR), the barrage has been heavy on innuendo and accusations but lacking concrete evidence.

Considering the scale of each accusation, it would be assumed a huge wealth of evidence existed to accompany them. After all, how would China hide a detention network detaining, torturing and executing a "million" people? Or develop complex defence systems with international partners in complete secret?

Yet these stories circulating the West's most prominent newspapers, television networks and online portals aren't simply lacking in a wealth of evidence, they lack any evidence at all.

Comment: The US, seething with resentment at Pakistan's closer alignment with China and Russia is using its NYT mouthpiece as a weapon in the information war against China's OBOR. See:


Snakes in Suits

UK Defense Sec. has delusions of Britain becoming 'true global player' after Brexit by opening military bases in South East Asia and Caribbean

Gavin Williamson
© JULIAN SIMMONDS
Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson at the Ministry of Defence on Whitehall
The UK could become a "true global player" after Brexit by opening new military bases in the Caribbean and Far East, the defence secretary has claimed.

Gavin Williamson said he was looking into new opportunities for the armed forces as he described leaving the EU as "our biggest moment as a nation since the end of the Second World War".

He did not identify any locations but a Sunday Telegraph report suggested the possibilities included Singapore or Brunei in the South China Sea and Montserrat or Guyana in the Caribbean.

The defence secretary also downplayed the significance of his announcement that 3.500 troops were being put on standby, describing it as "good sensible planning to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible".

Briefcase

Turkish TV shows purported transfer of Khashoggi remains in Istanbul

Khashoggi remains in suitcase
© A Haber/Reuters TV via REUTERS
A still image taken from CCTV video and obtained by A Haber, made available December 31, 2018, claims to show a man that carries suitcases purportedly containing the remains of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi into the residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul, Turkey.
A Turkish pro-government television channel has broadcast video showing men carrying suitcases purportedly containing the remains of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi into the residence of his country's consul general in Istanbul.

The footage broadcast by A Haber shows men carrying what it says were a total of five cases through the main entrance of the residence, a short distance from the consulate where Khashoggi, a leading critic of Saudi policies, was killed in early October.

A Turkish official said the media report, also carried by the pro-government Sabah newspaper on its website, appeared to be accurate, without giving further details.

There was no immediate reply from Saudi authorities to a Reuters request for comment on the footage.

Comment: See also: New information surfaces: Khashoggi was acting as a foreign influence agent on behalf of Qatar


Newspaper

NYT report on killing of Gaza paramedic Rouzan al-Najjar is a big step forward, though flawed

Rouzan al-Najjar
© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Rouzan al-Najjar, 20, was killed by an Israeli sniper on June 1 while she was treating the wounded at protests at the Gaza border.
The New York Times surprised us yesterday by running a long, front-page investigation into the Israeli army's killing last June 1 of a 20-year-old Gazan health worker, Rouzan al-Najjar. Before we criticize, let's state clearly that this article was inconceivable in the Times up until a year, or even 6 months ago. By contrast, when Israel killed four small boys who who playing soccer on the beach during its 2014 assault on Gaza, the paper swallowed the army's dishonest explanation, without challenge, even though the one of its own photographers had been an eyewitness to the killings.

This time, the Times came right out and said its inquiry showed that ". . . the shooting [of Rouzan al-Najjar] appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished." The paper waited until the 9th paragraph to say this, but better late than never.

This improved Times coverage is no accident. The paper understands that its reading public is growing steadily more informed about Israel/Palestine, partly due to alternative news sources like this site. Public comments sections that follow some Times reports show that readers will no longer accept one-sided pro-Israel coverage.

Question

Jim Webb for US Secretary of Defense ?

Jim Webb
© The American Conservative
Jim Webb speaks at The American Conservative foreign policy conference in November 2016.
The Democrat and scourge of foreign wars is drawing praise from many Trump supporters.

Jim Webb-the former Virginia senator, Ronald Reagan Navy secretary, and brief but memorable 2016 Democratic presidential candidate-addressed The American Conservative's foreign policy conference in November 2016, immediately following Donald Trump's shock White House victory.

He recalled what a friend and fellow Marine told him about Trump: "He said: 'This guy Donald Trump. The Republicans hate him. The Democrats hate him. The media hates him. I think I found my guy.'"

Webb, a Vietnam veteran, then graciously added: "I would like to salute Donald Trump for his tenacity, for the uniqueness of his campaign."