These mighty men labored by day and by night

Matching their strength 'gainst the river's wild flight

Through rapids and falls, they won the hard fight

So roll on, Columbia, roll on

- "Roll On, Columbia", Woody Guthrie

With an executive order, Roosevelt hired millions of Americans who had been laid off in the economic crisis of the 1930s. Their task was start building. One of the projects involved building the Grand Coulee Dam, a vast hydro-electrical facility on the Columbia River. The above lyrics were composed in celebration of the vast construction project.

With taxpayer funded paychecks, the millions of unemployed workers built not only the Grand Coulee Dam, but also New York City's LaGuardia Airport, the Overseas Highway that connects Key West to Florida's mainland, and the Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan. Hundreds of courthouses, schools, post offices, and public buildings were also constructed.

It didn't take long for deep state to unleash what is most likely a false flag amidst the still breaking pedo-Pizzagate scandal. In one fell swoop blaming Russia, Trump's appointed National Security Advisor retired General Michael Flynn and of course those "fake news" internet conspiracy theory websites guarantees to deliver a big payoff for deep state tyranny bent on silencing all truth from Americans. By bringing in another gun wielding stooge to execute Sunday's shooting at the Comet Ping Pong pizza joint, the epicenter of a child sex trafficking ring, all the mainstream media outlets are busily jumping on a ready-made bandwagon charging the alternative "fake newsmakers" for triggering an allegedly unstable violent wacko. For more than a month MSM has launched a witch hunt, blasting alternative news for being purveyors of only "fake news." With Sunday's gun toting incident, MSM has blamed alt-news for endangering patrons at the "much maligned" pizza parlor known as Comet Ping Pong.


Meanwhile, mainstream news has refused to report on the highly disturbing and incriminating photos and comments belonging to Comet's owner James Alefantis' Instagram account. Nor has MSM covered the sick art hanging on the walls of both Comet pizza and Tony Podesta's home. Or the encoded pedophile language used in hundreds of Hillary's campaign chairman John Podesta's emails that transparently refer to sex crimes involving underage children. Instead MSM has extensively rushed to Alefantis, the Podestas and Clintons' aid defending them as victims of alternative news' lies, reporting that Comet pizza and the rest of the businesses on the NW Washington city block that appear to work together in an international child sex trafficking ring have unfairly received hundreds of threats of violence, culminating in Sunday's attack as a direct result of alternative media's "fake news."

As three more previously Al-Qaeda held districts in eastern Aleppo fall to the Syrian army authoritative reports circulate that Jihadi commanders in the city are negotiating with the Syrian military to surrender.

Further reports from Aleppo - confirmed by the Russian Defence Ministry - show that the pace of the Jihadi collapse in eastern Aleppo is accelerating.

Over the course of the day the Syrian army has recaptured the formerly Jihadi held districts of Sheikh Lutfi, Mejah and al-Shair, whilst it seems that Al-Qaeda has ordered all Jihadi fighters to retreat from all areas north and east of the Aleppo citadel. This slices off another area in the northern part of the former Jihadi pocket in eastern Aleppo, and reduces the area of Jihadi control in eastern Aleppo to a few districts in the city's south east.

There are now more and more reports of Jihadi commanders in eastern Aleppo negotiating with the Syrian military for their surrender and for the surrender of their fighters.

Days after proposing withdrawal of all Jihadis in Aleppo, to Russian fury the US backtracks and withdraws its proposal, setting the stage for a fight in Aleppo to the finish. To the utter bemusement of the Russians, just four days after appearing to agree to withdraw all the Jihadis from Aleppo, the US has backtracked on its agreement.

Foreign Minister Lavrov's comments could not be more scathing:

"They have withdrawn their document and have a new one. Our initial impression is that this new document backtracks, and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply. The same thing happened with our agreement of September 9 (NB: Lavrov is here referring to the Kerry-Lavrov agreement - AM). The thing that the Americans offered on paper and what we backed is now somehow not OK for them. It's difficult to understand who makes decisions there, but apparently there are plenty of those who want to undermine the authority and practical steps by John Kerry."

In other words the divisions within the Obama administration - even now in the last weeks of its life - are unresolved. It still cannot decide between the realists led by US Secretary of State Kerry, who want to save the Jihadis in eastern Aleppo by withdrawing them from the city, and the hardliners of whom probably the most important is US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.

Following Prime Minister Renzi's defeat in the Italian referendum troubled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has been told to prepare for a state bailout. Despite the relatively calm market reaction, principal investor Qatar is reportedly reconsidering its participation in the five billion euro recapitalization of the world's oldest bank.

Financial experts are worried a failure to buoy Italy's third-largest lender may dent investor confidence in the country's banking sector that is drowning in €360 billion of bad debt.

Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and JPMorgan Chase and Mediobanca, advisers to Monte dei Paschi, have been working to persuade the Qatar Investment Authority to recapitalize the bank. But the deal is unlikely to be secured by this week's deadline. Qatar's billion euro investment is seen as crucial for Monte dei Paschi's five billion euro capital-raising plan. The current political upheaval made it difficult for financiers to step in.

There's still growing uncertainty over who will replace Matteo Renzi as prime minister and whether the new government will be interested in saving the bank. Renzi has agreed to delay his resignation until the state budget for 2017 is approved, mitigating the risks of early snap elections. "Everyone is in standby waiting for a new government," said a person directly involved in the plan, as quoted by the FT.

The source added that should a private sector solution prove impossible, Monte dei Paschi and its supervisors from the European Central Bank (ECB) will favor a "precautionary recapitalization" with an injection of state funds and the conversion of subordinated debt into equity.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has set out her vision for UK trade cooperation with the Gulf regimes ahead of her historic trip to a major regional summit. She insists that, given time, human rights will come to the region.

May rejected concerns over the litany of well-documented human rights abuses reportedly perpetrated by the theocratic, authoritarian states in favor of deepening economic ties. "No doubt there will be some people in the UK who say we shouldn't seek stronger trade and security ties with these countries because of their record on human rights," she told the BBC on Monday. She argued that better human rights records could only be achieved "by stepping up, engaging with these countries and working with them to encourage and support their plans for reform. "That is how Britain can be a force for good in the world as well as helping to keep our people safe and create new opportunities for business."

May will be the first woman to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council of regional monarchies. She says she will push hard to open up new trading relationships with states like Bahrain, where she is set to discuss political reforms in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.


The prime minister insisted the Gulf kingdom's business [Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar] would help improve British prosperity and even help the country in projects of social uplift. "That's why it is such an honor to be invited to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council where I will have the opportunity to talk to all six leaders about how we can develop our trade relationship, as well as cooperation on security and defense," she said in a statement.

Iran won't let the US tear up the agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. The comment comes less than a week after the US Senate voted to renew sanctions against Iran.

President-elect Donald Trump "wants to do many things, but none of his actions would affect us ... Do you think the United States can rip up the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal]? Do you think we and our nation will let him do that?" Rouhani said in a speech at the University of Tehran, translated by Reuters.

Iran has been fearing the renewal of international sanctions as well as possible restrictions imposed by the US towards its nuclear program since November. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has warned Washington there will be consequences if it renews sanctions over his country's nuclear scheme for another decade.

"The current government of the United States has breached the JCPOA on multiple occasions; the most recent being a 10-year extension of existing sanctions," he said in a speech reprinted on his official website. In December, the US Senate voted unanimously to renew the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another decade. It has been described as a symbolic move, but it allows the president to impose new restrictions on Tehran if it violates the 2015 nuclear accord.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday against the power of fake news on social media to spur the rise of populists, after launching her campaign for a fourth term.

Speaking in parliament for the first time since her announcement Sunday that she would seek re-election next year, Merkel cautioned that public opinion was being "manipulated" on the internet.


"Something has changed — as globalization has marched on, (political) debate is taking place in a completely new media environment. Opinions aren't formed the way they were 25 years ago," she said.

The scene is becoming familiar, even if the actors change from stage to stage: A political establishment is overturned by a wave of populist anger. Markets panic and a sell-off looks imminent. And then...things stabilize. The government changes, but things carry on.

The latest version of this performance is taking place in Italy where Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has just been unseated after Italians overwhelmingly voted "No" on a constitutional referendum upon which Renzi had staked his political career. The proposed law would have made a series of changes to the composition of Italy's government, but it was not the technicalities of the proposed changes themselves that motivated over 65% of registered Italian voters to the public, and it was not some great interest in the composition and role of the Italian senate that led 59% of those voters to reject the new rules. Instead, this was seen as a referendum on Renzi and the political status quo in Italy itself.

While experts predict that gold prices will continue to slide in 2017, Russia and China are increasing their holdings of the precious metal at a growing pace. What lies behind this gold-buying spree?

Gold is facing a back-to-back slump: the yellow metal's prices fell for the second time on Tuesday. "Gold prices have now erased 10 months of gains after posting their biggest monthly drop in more than three years, with Donald Trump's election to the US presidency only exacerbating a cocktail of negatives for the metal," Reuters reported Monday.

MarketWatch.com echoed the media outlet highlighting that "the likelihood of a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike next week" and a stronger dollar in 2017 may cut demand for the precious metal.