When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

I mentioned the news reports of fist-fights breaking out at traffic intersections in Denver. Then yesterday I hear two different news reports of random gun shots. One of shots fired into someone's house in a not so great part of Denver (Aurora). The second report of bullets flying across one of Denver's busiest highways and hitting cars. Then I learn last night that bullets flying into cars driving on highways in Arizona have become part of everyone's daily routine.

We're sliding into the "Mad Max" scenario which many of us for a long time have envisioned eventually hitting this country. I would have thought that this environment would have started engulfing this country in 2008. But the Government pulled what appeared to be a rabbit out of its hat which enabled it to kick "Mad Max" down the road for a bit. That "rabbit" by the way, while preventing an all out collapse and actually making life better for the people closest to the money spigot, was nothing more than a disguise designed to help the elitists confiscate even more wealth from the middle class.

The population's hatred for the Government grows stronger by the day. The popularity of Trump's candidacy for President is a reflection of this intensifying despise. A growing segment of the population cheers harder for Trump everyday as he lashes out with insults at the politicians everyone now hates. Let's be honest, Trump is at least as corrupt as the career politicians he's humorously defacing. He would be a horrible President. Of course, so would every other candidate on the roster for both Parties.

Following a plea from US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for Washington to increase cyber security measures against Beijing, Chinese officials have called for an end to the warrantless accusations.

After the massive data breach on the US Office of Personnel Management in June, intelligence officials in Washington were quick to blame the Chinese government. Without providing any evidence, James Clapper claimed that China is "the leading suspect."

Three months later, Clapper is still blaming Beijing, but still has failed to offer any evidence for his claims. Speaking before a House panel on Thursday, the spy chief urged for an increase in cyber security measures aimed at Beijing.

The government based its decision to execute by drone two British men in Syria on "Legal Opinion" from the Attorney-General for England and Wales, Jeremy Wright, a politician, MP and Cabinet Minister. But Wright's legal knowledge comes from an undistinguished first degree from Exeter and a short career as a criminal defence barrister in Birmingham. His knowledge of public international law is virtually nil.

I pause briefly to note that there is no pretence of consulting the Scottish legal system. The only legal opinion is from the Attorney General for England and Wales who is also Honorary Advocate General for Northern Ireland.

So Jeremy Wright's role is as a cypher. He performs a charade. The government employs in the FCO a dozen of the most distinguished public international lawyers in the world. When the Attorney-General's office needs an Opinion on public international law, they ask the FCO to provide it for him to sign.

President Barack Obama warned Russia Friday against doubling down on its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, casting a recent buildup of Russian military equipment and personnel in Syria as an effort to prop up the embattled leader.


"The strategy they're pursuing right now of doubling down on Assad is a mistake," Obama said during a town hall with U.S. military personnel.


Russia denies it's trying to bolster Assad and instead says its increased military activity is part of the international effort to defeat the Islamic State, the terror group that has wreaked havoc in both Syria and Iraq. Earlier Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on world powers to join his country in that pursuit, arguing that Syria's army is the most efficient force to fight the extremist network.

"You cannot defeat Islamic State with air strikes only," Lavrov said, a dig at Obama's strategy. "It's necessary to cooperate with ground troops and the Syrian army is the most efficient and powerful ground force to fight the IS."

Part 1

We bring to the consideration of our readers this incisive and carefully formulated analysis by Canada's renowned philosopher Professor John McMurtry.

The complete text published by the Journal of 9/11 Studies can be downloaded in pdf. Initially published by GR in February 2013

The Russian Federation can host a great number of refugees from Syria, just as it has accepted a record number of people who fled the war in Ukraine, claims the presidential advocate for children's rights, Pavel Astakhov.

"Our territory, our culture and our history, even our social situation are actually capable of withstanding this," the ombudsman told the RSN radio when asked if Russia could open the doors for refugees from Syria.

"After the beginning of the Donbass conflict we were ready to accept all Ukrainian orphans and there were about 90,500 of them at that moment," Astakhov added. "We were ready to accept them all, we have resources and potential for this."

By denying Russian aircraft heading to Syria the right to transit through Ukrainian airspace, Kiev authorities are helping the Islamic State terrorists, the head of the State Duma Committee for Eurasian Integration has said.

"Kiev's decision to close the airspace for Russian planes going to Syria has been certainly made on the United States' instructions. This makes Kiev an accomplice to Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] and the move was made with US prompting," MP Leonid Slutsky (LDPR) told reporters on Thursday.

"Russia has helped and will continue helping Syria in its fight with terrorists." "The closing of Ukrainian airspace will not become an obstacle - we will find a way around as it happened with Bulgaria," he added.

The conflict in Yemen has been exacerbated by the UK government's arms deals with Saudi Arabia, causing a terrible humanitarian catastrophe and potentially placing the government in breach of international law, Oxfam UK has said.

The ongoing war has seen Saudi Arabia, backed by US and UK arms, carry out airstrikes on Houthi rebels attempting to take control of Yemen.

International law states that arms deals should be prohibited if there is a risk they could be used to commit war crimes or human rights abuses, the charity said, adding the UK's response to the conflict has been a "paradox."

The British government insists it has not been directly involved in the bombings, but Oxfam says the UK has been replenishing Saudi weapons since the conflict began. Simultaneously, it has been donating money from the Department of International Development to aid the millions of civilians caught up in Saudi bombing raids, which have targeted factories, warehouses and markets.

The iconic image of 3-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi's lifeless body on a beach on the Turkish coast went 'viral' recently and brought the two-year-long European 'refugee crisis' to widespread public attention. EU nations are now facing an influx of potentially hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing their NATO-war-torn countries in search of safety and stability. Whether or not they'll find it is still an open question.

This 'refugee' problem is, of course, not new, and Aylan was not the first tragic death directly related to the problem. Consider the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Syria alone that have resulted from the U.S. government-manipulated 'revolution' in that country 4 years ago. Or think of the unprovoked attacks on and invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or the NATO bombardment of Libya and subsequent installation of a fundamentalist 'Jihadi' regime there. Then consider that 2,600 people, or more, have already died attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. The 'refugee crisis' has been brewing for over two years, but it took Aylan's body to make many people sit up and take notice.

The refugee crisis is very real, at least in the sense that Western-backed death squads have made life miserable for millions of Syrians in particular (almost half of the Syrian population is internally or externally displaced). Whereas the U.S. (along with its lackeys Canada, Australia, the Gulf States, and others) bear the most responsibility, they have been the least willing to accept refugees from the states they're destroying, and which they claim they wish to 'save'. Europe is forced to bear the brunt of dealing with the fallout: humans in need of food, shelter, and jobs. It's possible of course, if there is the will. Russia has willingly taken in close to a million Ukrainian refugees (again, the result of an American phony revolution in Ukraine last year). But so far, Germany is the only EU nation that appears willing to really open their doors to people in need, making allowances for 800,000 refugees this year alone.

The real story behind the refugee crisis in Europe is far stranger than fiction.

If you watch the news, you've probably heard about the refugee crisis in Europe (or the "migrant crisis" as some are referring to it).

Nearly a million asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa are flooding across the borders. According to the BBC, as of July, European countries had received over 437,000 Asylum applications for the year. In 2014 more than 840,000 applications were received.

So why is this happening? Where are migrants/refugees coming from? Why are there so many of them?

The corporate media and the political establishment on both the left and the right will answer those questions with a combination of half truths and outright lies. This shouldn't be surprising. It is in their interest to cover-up the role they played in creating the crisis.
Let's take a look at the top 7 countries origin for these refugees, Syria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Eritrea, Serbia, Pakistan, Iraq: