As a SOTT editor, I like to keep an eye on what's going on in the animal kingdom. The big news in recent years on that score has, of course, been the high number of mass animal deaths. But has anyone else noticed the extraordinary number of stories about snakes in the news lately? I first noticed a spate of snake stories at the beginning of the summer, and over the last couple of months snakes have been turning up in close proximity to people, and in some highly unusual settings, at an alarming rate. There have also been some particularly horrifying reports of attacks and resulting fatalities by escaped pet pythons - on both children and domesticated animals alike.

It seems appropriate that 2013, according to the Chinese zodiac tradition, is the Year of the Snake!

The following is a quick run-down of some incidents worth highlighting, starting in May, which initially show a slow build-up of such stories, leading fairly rapidly to 'spikes' in reports, some of which we've carried on SOTT.

As I glance through the headlines today, I feel a rock sinking to the pit of my stomach with the realization that the pathological minority ruling our world are truly taking all of us over the cliff. I am reminded of something Andrew Lobaczewski wrote in his seminal work, Political Ponerology:

"Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the ground along with the human body whose death they are causing."

Applied to the topic of this essay, the saying is not just a metaphor; it is deeply and frighteningly accurate. Imagine a world that believes in global warming that is hit by the sudden onset of an ice-age. Studies reveal that ice ages are probably preceded by periods of freak weather patterns (check) hot spots and cold spots (check) torrential, localized rains and flooding (check) increased comet dust in the atmosphere (check), increased volcanism (check) a series of particularly cold and harsh winters (check) interspersed with localized heatwaves and drought (check); and then, finally, the watershed winter comes when the increased heating from within the planet itself (evidenced by the increasing volcanism) and its concomitant increased evaporation of the seas, combines with the cooled and lowered upper atmosphere, and the snow begins to fall and fall... and fall... and fall. Convert the extraordinary rains that have fallen in parts of the upper northern hemisphere in the past few years to snow volumes, and you can easily see that entire regions could be quickly buried under many meters of snow that, assuming that the albedo effect does not rapidly take over and prevent the snow from melting, by the time it did melt, multiplied millions of living things - including people - would have perished, buried along with the pathological leaders they have erroneously believed had their best interests at heart.

"For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

- Some dude, somewhere, a long time ago.

Humor me for a moment and pretend that the biblical hell exists. The Global Warming proponents among the world's climate scientists are going there. It's a fitting place for people who prostitute their skills and energy to serve the despicable agenda of the global elite; people who use their positions of influence and authority to bamboozle the world and try to convince us that black is white, up is down and that humans are causing global warming on the planet when the Northern Hemisphere has experienced an unprecedented five successive bitterly cold winters. Perhaps if their transition to hell is sufficiently seamless, and, unaware that anything has changed, they'll be able to convince themselves that they were right all along.

Gifted with minds pre-disposed to scientific investigation and given access to data and instrumentation with which they are supposed to objectively explore our reality, these men and women are, more than anyone else, in a position to influence the course of human destiny towards positive or negative ends.

Sadly, many of them have chosen the road to hell.

Take, for example, the recent IPCC 'Climate Report', wherein many 'esteemed scientists' reaffirm the lie that "human impact [on climate change] is 'unequivocal':

Yet another apparently motiveless massacre has taken place in the U.S., this time in the nation's capital.

It's 16th mass shooting in the U.S. since Obama came to power.

Once again, the initial reports described 'multiple shooters'. Once again, those reports were replaced by 'the lone shooter' narrative, this time a former U.S. Navy reservist named Aaron Alexis.

So, did he just snap and 'go postal'? Given the increasingly stressful financial, social and environmental conditions most of us find ourselves living under, that may well be what happened here.

But it's also worth asking: was Alexis another mind-controlled dupe?

We know that mind control is not science fiction; it's fact. Techniques for manipulating people to undertake horrific acts they would not ordinarily do were perfected by the U.S. government decades ago.

But why would the U.S. government, or any government for that matter, carry out such macabre schemes?

Well, if you generate enough fear, you can get people to accept almost anything.

There's a slight problem with this strategy, however, a problem that could spoil all their best-laid plans.

Let me try to explain...

A few months ago a member of the SOTT Forum posted a link to the following article about investigations into climate change. I wasn't too sure what the contradictory term "Tropical Ice Cores" meant, but the article seemed to explain all that:

In the above snippet from a 2007 BBC Newsnight programme, we learn something that reveals the whole 'War on Terror' to be a complete sham and the destabilization of the Middle East by the U.S. and her allies to be intentional. In March 2003, the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom.

While Bush was prancing around the USS Lincoln in a codpiece declaring 'Mission Accomplished' in Iraq, something very interesting was taking place in the background. Realising that it was in its interest to prevent Iraq from being subjected to all-out civil war with the help of American occupation and death squads, the Iranian government sent a letter to the White House offering the following:

• Iran would use its influence to support stabilization in Iraq.

• Iran would open its civilian nuclear energy program to full international inspections.

• Most importantly, Iran would end its support of Hamas and Hezbollah.

In return, Iran requested the following:

• A halt to US hostile behavior.

• Abolition of all economic sanctions.

• The pursuit of MEK (an Iranian terrorist group in Iraq) leadership and the repatriation of their members.

Then U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney turned down the offer and chastised the Swiss for even passing it along.

It was all there; Iran was prepared to cooperate with the US in Iraq, cooperate with Israel and the US in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and allow full transparency of its nuclear program... if only the US would help them dismantle the MEK. The US State Department wanted to pursue it, but the Neocons torpedoed the deal.

There has been much ado in the press lately about the "alleged" use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces against the so-called "rebels". Not only are these rebels supported, trained and funded by western interests, they also include members of al-Qaeda, who, up until last year were the sworn enemy of these very same western interests. How bizarre is that?

Anyone who reads the Sott page regularly will have figured out by now that it was likely the western-backed rebels that were responsible for the attack we see portrayed in the media. But some readers may not be aware that there is also evidence to suggest that chemical weapons weren't even used in the attack.

Of course, none of these facts seem to bother the mainstream media, who remain content to parrot the administration lies calling for a U.S. attack on Syria.

Psycho war monger John Kerry has been trying to con the world, yet again, into supporting an attack on some dark-skinned people 'oceans away'. As I watched his speech a few days ago, I had lots of things I wanted to say in response. Sadly however, I wasn't invited to attend the event. So I've written my responses here, for the only people who actually matter in this world, i.e. not John Kerry or his coterie of psychopathic masters and servants. Of which there are many. Too many.

President Obama has spent many days now consulting with Congress and talking with leaders around the world about the situation in Syria.

And last night the president asked all of us on his national security team to consult with the leaders of Congress, as well, including the leadership of the congressional national security committees. And he asked us to consult about what we know regarding the horrific chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs last week.

I will tell you that as someone who spent nearly three decades in the United States Congress, I know that that consultation is the right way for a president to approach a decision of when and how and if to use military force. And it's important to ask the tough questions and get the tough answers before taking action, not just afterward.

Yeah good point Johnny boy, "fixing the facts around the policy" in 2002/3 didn't work out too well huh? And it's creating a bit of a problem for the effort to fool the rabble yet again with the same old unimaginative, emotionally-charged lies.

With the U.S. poised to lead yet another bombing campaign, this time against Syria, a sense of deja-vu is hanging in the air. President Obama tells us it will be a quick two-day airstrike to knock out Syrian defenses and end the country's 'reign of terror led by the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad'. The bad guys will be defeated and the good guys can award themselves peace prizes for making the world a safer place.

This grand narrative is, of course, all complete and utter horse-hockey. This week on SOTT Talk Radio we'll be taking a closer look at the alleged chemical weapons attack that precipitated the major recent upswing in bellicose war rhetoric. WMDs, evil dictators killing their own people, UN inspectors, quick little 'humanitarian' wars... we've heard it all before, we know what it led to and what was really behind it.

It's easy enough to see through the propaganda the American, British, French and Israeli governments 'catapult' out there to justify and reinforce the Big Lie that is the 'clash of civilizations'. We wonder though, with signs of major global climatological and environmental upheaval now manifesting daily, if there's a primary underlying reason for launching another major, and extremely risky, war that might easily become a regional or global war.

Do the Powers That Be know that 'something wicked this way comes'? And are they trying to deliberately embroil humanity in the chaos of war in an effort to distract us from the very real and present danger posed by incoming space rocks?

Running Time: 02:21:00

Download: MP3

In January this year, the web site of UK-based 'offense defense contractor', Britam Defense, were hacked by someone that 'authorities' claim (unsurprisingly) may have been of the Iranian persuasion (Iranians do everything bad these days don't ya know!). Part of the trove of documents that were uploaded to various websites included two emails.

One email had "Syrian Issue" in the subject field and the other has "Iranian Issue" in the subject field. Both emails appeared to be from David Goulding, the actual business development manager of Britam Defence, and appeared to have been sent to Phillip Doughty, the actual founder of Britam. Many alternative news web sites have used these emails as evidence that the recent alleged 'chemical weapon' attack in Syria was the work of the Western-backed Syrian rebels rather than the Syrian military. The problem however is that the emails appear to be have been faked.

The Iranian issue email stated:

"Please see attached details of preparatory measures concerning the Iranian issue. Participation of Britam in the operation is confirmed by the Saudis. http://mbf.cc/OTEH8″

Amongst the other documents that were hacked is a word document apparently detailing a training program for Saudi military personnel to defend against an attack by an unknown enemy.