President Donald Trump made his pitch for repealing his predecessor's healthcare law by bringing a number of Americans who've had poor experiences with Obamacare to a "listening session" at the White House.

Sitting at the table with half a dozen visitors, Vice-President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Trump blasted Obamacare as "very failed and failing" system, under which "many Americans lost their plans and doctors altogether." The meeting was live-streamed on Facebook and White House's YouTube channel, but not shown live on any mainstream media.

"The fact is, Obamacare is a disaster," Trump said, promising that its replacement will lower cost, expand choices and offer access to everyone through more competition. It is "going to take a little while" for results to show, maybe even a year or two, but "once it does, it's going to be a thing of beauty," he said.

Scotland's main political figures are locked in open conflict after Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a second independence referendum and Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to block any vote until Britain has left the EU.

Salmond denies influence

Former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Alex Salmond has denied claims he pushed his successor Sturgeon into calling for a referendum, branding the suggestion "complete and utter piffle."

According to a Sky News tweet, Salmond incited the first minister to call for the vote on Monday, earlier than originally planned. The unnamed sources also told the broadcaster that Sturgeon "doesn't want and does not believe she can win" under scrutiny.

"Complete. Utter. Piffle. UK Gov caught flat footed. Obvious Downing Street briefing, Sky news silly enough to repeat it," Salmond quickly replied on Twitter.

Expansion of trade ties with both Russia and the European Union is on the agenda for Mexico, according to the country's Agriculture Ministry.

"We must diversify, we will return to Russia, they want to buy Mexican beef and pork, we will also intensify relations with the European Union which is interested in our honey, chickpeas, meat and tropical fruit," said Mexico's Agriculture Secretary Jose Calzada, as quoted by the ministry.

Mexican beef exports to Russia were restricted in December 2012 due to fears the meat could contain traces of the feed additive ractopamine. In 2011 Mexican meat exports to Russia were worth $251 million.

With the upcoming Turkish constitutional referendum on April 16th 2017 - which would enable more Presidential power for Erdogan and his successors if a majority of 'yes' votes is reached - Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, Turkish Minister of Family and Social Policies, and Mevlüt Cavusoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, planned to visit the Netherlands to gain support for the referendum among Dutch citizens with Turkish or dual nationality.

Far-right and anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders was one of the first to immediately ask for a political debate on the coming visits, in an effort to reach consensus to prevent them from taking place. Soon after, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte - with full support from the House of Representatives - decided to bar both Sayan Kaya and Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu from visiting, supposedly because of "a danger to public order and for security reasons". Interestingly, this decision actually triggered mayhem in the streets.

Also, a week earlier, Rutte wrote on his Facebook page that "the Dutch public space is not the place to conduct another country's political campaign". However, when Dutch politicians (including Han ten Broeke, a member of Rutte's own political party), 'conduct their country's political campaign' in the UK, it is apparently considered perfectly normal.

Regardless of the lack of Dutch hospitality, Sayan Kaya still decided to go to the Netherlands, and arrived in the city of Rotterdam in the evening on Saturday March 11th, but was 'escorted' by police officers to Germany, where she took a plane back to Turkey. Cavusoglu, on the other hand reached the French city of Metz, where he will give his talk, after his initial plan to speak in Rotterdam was thwarted due to his landing rights being revoked.

The Netherlands has now joined three other nations who have banned similar meetings by Turkish officials: Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. These actions clearly further the agenda to alienate Erdogan from EU nations, as a response to his efforts to strengthen Turkey's relationship with - the US Deep State's, and therefore EU's, worst enemy - Russia.

"The first and most important thing to understand about politics is this: forget Right, Left, Center, socialism, fascism, or democracy. Every government that exists — or ever existed, or ever will exist — is a kleptocracy, meaning 'rule by thieves.' Competing ideologies merely provide different excuses to separate the Productive Class from what they produce. If the taxpayer/voters won't willingly fork over to end poverty, then maybe they'll cough up to fight drugs or terrorism. Conflicting ideologies, as presently constituted, are nothing more than a cover for what's really going on, like the colors of competing gangs." — Author L. Neil Smith

The American kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) continues to suck the American people down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless, the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry is powerless to defend itself against government agents who steal, spy, lie, plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madness on everyone and everything in their sphere.

Case in point: in the same week that Wikileaks dropped its bombshell about the CIA's use of spy tools to subject law-abiding Americans to all manner of government surveillance and hacking—a revelation that caused barely a ripple of concern among the citizenry—the government quietly and with little fanfare continued to wage its devastating, stomach-churning, debilitating war on the American people.

Incredibly, hardly anyone noticed.

This begs the question: if the government is overstepping its authority, abusing its power, and disregarding the rule of law but no one seems to notice—and no one seems to care—does it matter if the government has become a tyrant?

Here's my short answer: when government wrongdoing ceases to matter, America will have ceased to be.

Just consider the devastation wrought in one week in the life of our American kleptocracy:

On Monday, March 6, police were given the go-ahead to keep stealing from Americans who were innocent of any wrongdoing.

In refusing to hear a challenge to Texas' asset forfeiture law, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas police to keep $201,000 in ill-gotten cash primarily on the basis that the seized cash—the proceeds of a home sale—was being transported on a highway associated with illegal drug trade, despite any proof of illegal activity by the owner. Asset forfeiture laws, which have come under intense scrutiny and criticism in recent years, allow the police to seize property "suspected" of being connected to criminal activity without having to prove the owner of the property is guilty of a criminal offense.

On April 1, 2013, James Leonard was driving with a companion, Nicosa Kane, on U.S. Highway 59 in Texas when the vehicle was stopped by a state police officer for allegedly speeding and following another vehicle too closely. A subsequent search of the vehicle disclosed a safe in the trunk, which Leonard explained belonged to his mother, Lisa Leonard, and contained cash. When the police officer contacted Lisa Leonard, she confirmed that the safe's contents belonged to her, that the contents constituted personal business, and that she would not consent to allowing the officer to open the safe. After police secured a search warrant, the safe was opened and found to contain $201,000 and a bill of sale for a home in Pennsylvania.

Neither the Leonards nor Kane were found to be in possession of illegal drugs. However, the state initiated civil forfeiture proceedings against the $201,100 on the ground that it was substantially connected to criminal activity because Highway 59 is reputed to be a drug corridor. At trial, Lisa Leonard testified that the money was being sent to Texas so that she could use it to purchase a home for her son and Kane. Both the trial and appeals courts affirmed the authority of state officials to seize and keep Leonard's funds under the state's asset forfeiture law, basing their ruling on wholly circumstantial evidence and the reputation of Highway 59. Leonard then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to compel Texas to return her money, given that she was innocent of any crime. In refusing to hear the case on a technicality, the Supreme Court turned its back on justice and allowed the practice of policing for profit to continue.

MPs have rejected the House of Lords' amendments to the Brexit bill, meaning Britain could be just a day away from officially launching talks to leave the European Union.

The House of Commons voted on the bill's proposed changes on Monday evening.

The Lords wanted the rights of EU citizens living and working in the UK after Brexit to be protected and for Parliament to have a vote on any deal Prime Minister Theresa May brings forward.

The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill was passed unamended despite a handful of Tory rebels demanding further verbal assurances that Parliament will have a greater role in determining the country's future.

Brexit secretary David Davis urged MPs to vote against the amendments. He insisted the government "will not do anything that will undermine the rights of EU citizens in Britain."

Police officers and private security contractors are getting hi-tech help with their surveillance efforts - and the CIA is picking up the tab.

It is run out of a quiet, unassuming office on a tree-lined avenue in Bethesda, Maryland. The rows of hip restaurants are offering young urban professionals all the grande-iced-sugar-free-vanilla-soy-lattes they could ever need. However, this serene suburban idyll belies the fact that serious work for the police state is taking place out of view.

Nestled in a suite just upstairs from the Asian fusion and seafood restaurants is a company that is transforming the way law enforcement, intelligence agencies and even giant corporations communicate within their organizations and with each other.

The company is called BlueLine Grid. It markets itself as "the nation's premier, trusted collaboration network for law enforcement, first responder and security teams." Indeed, BlueLine Grid boasts an impressive array of investors and customers, including the LAPD and General Electric, among others.

But perhaps their most interesting client - and the one that deserves the most scrutiny - is In-Q-Tel, the venture capital and investment arm of the CIA. It is no secret that In-Q-Tel invests in emerging technologies that the U.S. intelligence community, especially the CIA, views as potential tools in their covert trade.

As the "Vault 7" documents published by WikiLeaks have revealed, the CIA's Directorate for Digital Innovation is involved in hundreds of projects aimed at turning everything from smartphones and televisions to critical computer software into potent weapons for U.S. intelligence. Private companies operating outside of, but in partnership with, the CIA form a vital aspect of the agency's innovation industry. BlueLine Grid is a perfect example of the partnership that exists between the intelligence community and the private sector. This partnership raises significant concerns regarding potential breaches of privacy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, revealed that not only did Donald Trump's team meet with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but so too did Hillary Clinton staff hold meetings with the Russian diplomat.

There is nothing wrong with presidential candidates and their staff members meeting with Ambassadors, this is common practice, and part of the preparation for the job...but the hypocrisy emanating from the liberal left and mainstream media in their ongoing witch hunt to delegitimize President Trump over staff meetings with Russian officials, while their "chosen candidate" was also doing the same is very telling.

Peskov noted that Moscow was perplexed about the unfounded cloud of suspicion around the Trump administration and his imaginary ties to the Kremlin...

"The fact that Russia is being demonised in that sense comes very strange to us. And we are really sorry about that. Because the whole issue takes us away from getting the situation to a better position. Quite unexpectedly, we were in the position where Russia became, shall we say, a nightmare for the United States.

"You are self-humiliating yourself to say that a country can intervene. America, a huge country - the most powerful country in the world, with very, very stable political traditions - and you say that a country can easily intervene and easily influence your electoral process? This is simply impossible."

In all the political drama taking place in the US as a result of the attempted color revolution against Trump, the bigger picture sometimes gets forgotten. And yet, this bigger picture is quite amazing, because if we look at it we will see irrefutable signs that the Empire in engaged in some bizarre slow motion version of *seppuku and the only mystery left is who, or what, will serve as the Empire's **kaishakunin (assuming there will be one).

I would even argue that the Empire is pursuing a full-spectrum policy of self-destruction on several distinct levels, with each level contributing the overall sum total suicide. And when I refer to self-destructive behavior I don't mean long-term issues such as the non-sustainability of the capitalist economic model or the social consequences of a society which not only is unable to differentiate right from wrong, but which now decrees that deviant behavior is healthy and normal. These are what I call "long term walls" into which we will, inevitably, crash, but which are comparatively further away than some "immediate walls". Let me list a few of these:

Political suicide: the Neocons' refusal to accept the election of Donald Trump has resulted in a massive campaign to de-legitimize him. What the Neocons clearly fail to see, or don't care about, is that by de-legitimizing Trump they are also de-legitimizing the entire political process which brought Trump to power and upon which the United States is built as a society. As a direct result of this campaign, not only are millions of Americans becoming disgusted with the political system they were indoctrinated to believe in, but internationally the notion of "American democracy" is becoming a sad joke.

The dramatic impeachment of South Korean President Park Geun-hye creates an unexpected political opening to avert the foreboding cycle of confrontation in the region. The sudden change in political fortunes could see the return of an erstwhile Sunshine Policy, which was once a harbinger of peaceful relations between North and South Korea, and for the wider region.

Opponents of the pro-US and rightwing Park are riding high on the outpouring of public anger at the ruling conservative party (known as the Liberal party). For several months, public protests had demanded Park's ouster due to corruption scandals involving big business and influence-peddling by unelected family friends of the president.

The leftwing opposition, the Democratic party, is now propelled by this popular surge against the ruling administration. A return to political office for the Democrats would also entail a revival of the so-called Sunshine Policy of past South Korean presidents, which promoted a peaceful reunification between the former foes of North and South. This surprise development comes amid a renewed round of grim military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.