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Monkey Wrench

Hellacious Hillary and the 6 biggest reasons why the Iowa caucus turned into a voter fraud circus

Hillary

No sooner out the gate with the closest caucus vote in Iowa history already on the books, the very first state tally of delegate votes leading to the 2016 presidential election bears strong indication of voter fraud. It's been reported that Hillary Clinton instructed her staff in Iowa to rig the caucus voting by falsely standing in the O'Malley corner of the room when the final precinct hand counts are tallied. Since Martin O'Malley supporters fell drastically short with only about 1% of the required 15% "viability threshold" needed for his delegate votes in each precinct to be included in the final count, standard Iowa caucus protocol stipulates that any O'Malley voters would then be given the option to back either Clinton or Bernie Sanders in a final tally. But Hillary already cheated having dictated to her staff to go and falsely be counted as O'Malley supporters voting for Hillary in the final count when she knew O'Malley supporters would by default favor Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. That's the first major discrepancy coming out of Iowa earlier this week implicating voter fraud in the caucus. Ironically back in the 2008 Obama vs. Hillary campaign cycle, it was Hillary crying afoul when the Obama camp cut a deal with Bill Richardson supporters to use this very same unethical, deceitful tactic that the already untrustworthy, win-at-all-cost Hillary's now apparently pulled in Iowa.

The second even more blatant evidence that the Iowa state caucus and entire Democratic Party presidential election process has been rigged is that mega-giant corporation Microsoft founder Bill Gates is now in charge of counting both the Democratic and Republican votes in this year's state primary elections.

Tech savvy Betanews journalist Brian Fagioli recently had this to say about Microsoft counting votes:

Comment: You think the world getting bushwacked by W., was bad, or getting bomb, bomb, bombed by Obama worse? Look out for hellacious Hillary who is just hell on wheels when it comes to getting something she wants ie. the Presidency. (That is if the U.S. is even still standing in its present form when the next elections come around)

As was recently noted in reference to the governments prevention of releasing draft indictments made in the now infamous Whitewater scandal Clinton was involved in:
"She's one of the most well-known women in the world, seeking the office of the presidency and her privacy interests outweigh the public interest in knowing what's in that indictment? It's absurd and it's shameful that the administration is proposing this," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an interview. "This is a political decision to protect her candidacy—because it is laughable, legally."



Jet4

Done fooling around: Russian airstrikes pulverize 'moderate' rebels for 36 straight hours

russian su-34 syria

The Su-34 in Latakia
Russia conducts largest aerial campaign since the start of its participation in the Syrian conflict

It's a bad time to be a "moderate" in Syria: Even the Washington Post is now reporting that Al-Nusra and other freedom-loving moderate groups are losing the war. As the SAA closes in on Aleppo, Russia is paving the way for a new offensive in northern Homs. And by "paving the way", we really mean "36 hours of continuous airstrikes":
For 36 straight hours, the Russian Air Force has pulverized the Islamist rebel defenses in northern Homs, as the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade of the 11th Tank Division and the National Defense Forces (NDF) prepare to strike the imperative villages of Harbinifseh and Kisseen that are located along the Orontes River.

According to a senior officer from the Syrian Arab Army, the Russian Air Force's powerful airstrikes over northern Homs are part of the largest aerial campaign launched by the Russian Federation since the advent of their participation in the Syrian Conflict.
Trusted western media outlets are already crying foul, accusing Russia and Assad of derailing peace talks.

The reality is that the west and its Arab client states wanted terrorist groups to have a seat at the negotiating table, which was (rightfully) unacceptable to Moscow.

It looks like Russia has found a more effective way of negotiating with Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham: Surrender or be turned to dust.

Comment: The 'moderates' and their extremist brethren are decamping to their master's bases in Turkey post haste. They obviously aren't being paid enough to stick around for the ground offensive to come.


Arrow Down

Coming home to Roost: An explosive situation is brewing in Turkey

bullet holes
© Rebecca Harms / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Buildings are riddled with bullet holes, the sound of explosions can be heard day and night, and many residents have already packed up their belongings and fled. It sounds like war-torn Syria, but the actual location is a surprise: inside the supposedly secure borders of Turkey.

"There is constant fighting with tanks and heavy weapons in the center, and a lot of houses have been destroyed," said a teacher in Diyarbakir, the main Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. The man refused to have his name published for fear of losing his job. He told WhoWhatWhy: "It's become worse in the last three or four days."

The Turkish government claims to have "neutralized" over 3,100 Kurdish PKK militants since August. The Kurds dispute those numbers. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation says some 170 civilians have been killed, while Turkish media reports claim that over 100,000 have been displaced.

Turkey has been fighting Kurdish militants in the country's southeast for more than three decades; 40,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. But the danger of igniting a wider conflict has escalated since last summer. That's when a two-year ceasefire collapsed, partly as a spillover from the Syrian civil war next door.

Comment: See also:
Pepe Escobar: Why Erdogan, the Sultan of Chaos, is freaking out


Arrow Down

Abandoning a sinking ship: Mass exodus of western businesses from Ukraine

Ukrainian economy

Not much to show for it all...
Ukraine continues to reap the rewards of its "Revolution of Dignity" which, far from integrating the country with Europe, destroyed the authority of the state and ruined the country's economy

Western companies continue fleeing the Ukrainian market to cut their losses. Groupon Inc., the discount outlet, as well as the computer giant Asus have just shut down. Shopping malls, formerly filled with brand outlets, are now selling second-hand clothing. Large financial corporations and oil and gas companies are hurriedly following the small businesses retreat.

It's been nearly two years since the first Western companies started leaving the Ukraine. According to local media, flight is due to currency instability, decline in local purchasing power and in some cases, political pressure, as happened with the Russian brand Bosco.

Not only has the Ukrainian market failed to attract new participants in the last eighteen months, it has lost nearly thirty major-brands, a third in fashion chains.

Comment: The free-fall started almost immediately. Businesses hate instability and uncertainty. Most prescient:

Ukraine trade agreement with EU will mean economic suicide says Putin's aide


Info

US role in Europe: Seventy years of harassing political establishment and people

According to a "sensational" article by the Telegraph, the US director of National Intelligence was recently instructed by Congress to "conduct a major review into Russian clandestine funding of European parties over the last decade." This disclosure - a classic "controlled leak" - is intended to warn disobedient yet popular political entities across Europe to scale back their ambitions to rebalance the roles and weight of their nation states within the European Union. Hungary's Jobbik, Greece's Golden Dawn, Italy's Lega Nord, and France's Front National are explicitly included in the US "warning list," while other unnamed "parties" in Austria, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands are being advised that they are "under a US security probe." Even the new British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is suspected of flirting with the Russians. So, according to the sponsor of the Telegraph's story, any European politician who dares to question NATO's eastward expansion, the policy of anti-Russian sanctions, or the current European stance on the Ukrainian conflict is essentially a witting or unwitting tool of "Russia's hybrid warfare."

Play

South Front: EU could fall apart in period of months

south front
Foreign Policy Diary - EU future?


Comment: More context on the refugee crisis the EU is facing:


Telephone

Under the myth of terrorism, British negotiating with Washington to directly serve warrants in U.S.

Wiretap
British and U.S. officials have been negotiating a plan that could allow British authorities to directly serve wiretap orders on U.S. communications companies in criminal and national security inquiries, U.S. officials confirmed Thursday.

The talks are aimed at allowing British authorities access to a range of data, from interceptions of live communications to archived emails involving British suspects, according to the officials, who are not authorized to comment publicly.

The negotiations were first reported Thursday by the Washington Post. Under the proposed plan, British authorities would not have access to records of U.S. citizens if they emerged in the British investigations. Congressional approval would be required of any deal negotiated by the two countries.

One of the U.S. officials said the talks were necessary because of the increasing immediacy of developing criminal enterprises and potential terror plots that are playing out on various communications platforms around the globe.

The official said the talks have sought to preserve privacy protections that have been at the center of the recent U.S. debate over access to Americans' telephone records that were part of a formerly secret program disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

"These communications are happening with the speed of light, and law enforcement agencies need to keep pace with these communications,'' the official said.

A separate official said that any agreement also would be designed to provide equal benefits for U.S. law enforcement and national security authorities in U.S. investigations.

"Such an agreement would ensure U.S. access to data stored in the United Kingdom in support of law enforcement, terrorism, and other transnational threat investigations and support our partners' ability to investigate serious crime, as well as terrorism and other transnational threats on a reciprocal basis,'' that official said.

Comment:

Paradise Stolen: The Myth of Terrorism



Bad Guys

Why the US supports Arab dictatorships & crushes democracy in Middle East

Saudi Arabia beheading
A quick glance at a map of US military bases in the Middle East will immediately tell you that Washington's friends in the region are crowned heads. The Emirs of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. The Saudi king in Riyad and the Hashemite king of Jordan.

Meanwhile its historic chosen enemies in the Arab world have been secularist Arab nationalist regimes. Nasser in Egypt, Hussein in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, Assads in Syria.

That is seemingly counter-intuitive given the extreme contrast between American domestic system and those of Arab monarchies. Sectarian, clanish and highly ordered and hierarchical they couldn't be farther from the professed American ideal of opportunity, equality and liberty.

Comment: The Arab world asked for democracy and instead received ISIS, Saudi Arabia, and endless war. Also see:
With war raging on in the Middle East, millions of people were forced to flee before the advances of terror. Trapped in a conflict which was not of their making, and hunted by armies which have sought only their enslavement and/or annihilation, communities have chosen exile over death, chased out of their lands by the brutality of war. In the face of such human tragedy, Europe opened its borders, inviting in, those who lost everything ... or so we were told.

It is this 'humanitarian' narrative EU officials have volunteered to both their constituents and the media - this idea that Western nations hold a duty of care and protection over the millions displaced by war.

Indeed, Western powers are responsible. Actually no ... their role far exceeds the responsibility since the Mid-East has burnt under their fire. Let us remember which powers in fact engineered and purposely exported destabilization to the MENA over the past decade. From Iraq, to Syria, Libya and Yemen, military pyres have lit up many skies, engulfing all in their wake.

Migration as a weapon of war: 'Ethno-engineering' used by the elites to manipulate the masses



Jet2

The U.S. backed ceasefire plans for Syria were to protect their terrorist assets in Aleppo - plans scrapped after Syrian victory

aleppo
© SAA Reporter
The rebels in the south (green) are cut off from the rebels in the north (green), along with access to the Turkish border. The Syrian Army (red) and the Kurds (yellow) have them trapped.
"This is the beginning of the end of jihadi presence in Aleppo. After 4 years of war and terror, people can finally see the end in sight."

— Edward Dark, Twitter, Moon of Alabama
A last ditch effort to stop a Russian-led military offensive in northern Syria ended in failure on Wednesday when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and heavy Russian air cover broke a 40-month siege on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in northwestern Aleppo province. The Obama administration had hoped that it could forestall the onslaught by cobbling together an eleventh-hour ceasefire agreement at the Geneva peace talks. But when the news that Syrian armored units had crashed through al Nusra's defenses and forced the jihadists to retreat, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the negotiations tacitly acknowledging that the mission had failed.

"I have indicated from the first day that I won't talk for the sake of talking," the envoy told reporters, saying he needed immediate help from international backers led by the United States and Russia, which are supporting opposite sides of a war that has also drawn in regional powers." (Reuters) De Mistura then announced a "temporary pause" in the stillborn negotiations which had only formally begun just hours earlier. Developments on the battlefield had convinced the Italian-Swedish diplomat that it was pointless to continue while government forces were effecting a solution through military means.

Comment: Further reading (and watching) on the good news in Aleppo:


Bad Guys

Will Turkey really invade Syria, or are they just bluffing?

Turkey
© Unknown
Russia Accuses Turkey of Preparing to Invade Syria
The Russian military said Thursday that it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect that Turkey is making intensive preparations for a military invasion of neighboring Syria.

Images of a checkpoint on the border between the Turkish town of Reyhanli and the town of Sarmada in Syrian taken in late October and late January show a buildup of transportation infrastructure that could be used for moving in troops, ammunition and weapons, spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in an English-language written statement.

He said these were among growing signs of "hidden preparation of the Turkish armed forces for active actions on the territory of Syria.
...
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the ministry would have no immediate comment.
The Russian high command press briefing (vid with English subtitles) includes the pictures of the border post.

Turkey yesterday prohibited a Russian reconnaissance "Open Skies Treaty" flight over the Turkish-Syrian border zone. There are dozens such flights per year over Russia by NATO and over NATO countries by Russia. This is to my knowledge the first time such a flight, which had earlier been requested and accepted, is blocked by the guest country.