Trump: NATO is Obsolete

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-idUSKCN0WT0MZhttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-idUSKCN0WT0MZ

Trump thinks NATO is obsolete. He's right, it should have been disbanded but instead since 1989 it has been the primary tool of imperial expansion. Trump apparently didn't get the memo. I don't know who is advising him, but they're not doing a very good job. NATO is anything but obsolete.

Smartphone: Thesis and Antithesis

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/01ba2970-9e70-11e5-8ce1-f6219b685d74.html?ftcamp=engage/ext_display/Tech/Dianomi_USActual/beacon_connection_q1q2/auddev&utm_source=Dianomi_USActual&utm_medium=ext_display&utm_term=Tech&connectionsus=y&utm_campaign=beacon_connection_q1q2&segid=0201001#axzz44APCVpXf

I hoping this is the beginning of a reaction in the other direction. Let the pendulum swing!

Beck and his Beast Worship

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/03/22/glenn-beck-at-cruz-rally-in-utah-southern-evangelicals-are-not-listening-to-their-god/

The linked video runs about 30mins and is painful to sit through but if you're not aware of the rhetoric, mindset and mood then it's a helpful summary. This is pretty much in keeping with the stuff I hear on the radio. I don't turn it on very often but when I turn on Beck it's pretty much the same material that he presents here.

Albright's Hypocrisy on Display

http://time.com/4272021/karadzic-conviction/

She is a vile creature and I don't feel like she even deserves common courtesy.

International Courts: Rigged Justice

All forms of Nationalism are hideous, all ultimately lead to war and death on a massive scale. Nationalism creates its own ethic and justifies behaviours that otherwise would be viewed as immoral. Essentially as an '–ism', it represents a worldview, a philosophical system with its own metaphysic, epistemology and ethic. It's a religion and thus idolatrous.

Obama in Argentina: Condor and Crocodile Tears

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-argentina-idUSKCN0WQ0I9

Obama is shedding crocodile tears. His language is completely farcical and disingenuous. The problem wasn't that America didn't 'speak out' for human rights. The United States has a long history in Latin America of installing fascist military dictatorships, working with ex-Nazis and aiding these governments in the brutal suppression of their peoples. This is a sordid history connected to the School of the Americas, death squads, secret prisons, torture and assassination.

False Moderation as a Tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRefP0N8Dy4

Media favourite and Establishment mouthpiece Michael Hayden is critical of Cruz's rhetoric regarding the patrolling of Muslim neighbourhoods.

Asian Alliances and Cold Wars: Past and Present Provocations

The United States continues to push into East Asia and is moving ever closer to the formation of a new Asian version of NATO. It must be remembered that though the USSR certainly occupied Eastern Europe and had attempted and eventually succeeded to establish new regimes in those countries, it was sabre rattlers like Churchill and the United States in forming NATO that really got the Cold War underway. While that narrative is unacceptable to Western convention it needs to be revisited.

Five theories, Apple, the FBI and the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-fbi-theories-20160321-snap-htmlstory.html

Or #6: This whole thing has just been a big show from the beginning.

Of course option #1, the so-called ACLU scenario hints at this... something Snowden has said all along.

The Snowden Comments and the Mainstream Media

Once again we are provided with a clear example of the mainstream media's true role. Its task is not to report the news and inform the public, but to protect the system and promote its official line.

Snowden, the most important whistleblower on these technical issues has unequivocally declared that the government's claims are false. They don't need Apple to develop anti-encryption software in order to access the iPhone. If anyone would know, it's Edward Snowden.

Decadence Comes to Cuba

I was watching a recent report about some American DJ's setting up a concert in Cuba. I don't know who they are but their music was that kind of grinding discotheque style... the very sort of thing that repressive governments would like to ban. I hate to agree with such governments but the music is culturally subversive and promotes individual gratification, hedonism and decadence. The concert looked like a pretty wicked scene.

The Broken Babel of the European Union

The proposed Brexit is but another signal the colossus that is the EU is beginning to crack and crumble. The US was less than keen on the project in the 1990s (let alone the EEC of the 1950s) but today they want the EU to stand. A divided Europe will likely degenerate and it could happen quickly. The US has bigger fish to fry and the EU represents a bulwark against Putin.

NATO is the real foundation of American power for Eurasia, but a collapsing EU could also rend NATO asunder.

Bloodsport, Profits and Social Ethics

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, a professing Christian made disparaging comments about homosexuals. While correct, I find these public declarations are sometimes less than helpful.

Blind Guides of the American Evangelical Apostasy

NPR's Morning Edition ran a recent story about Evangelical support for Donald Trump. Albert Mohler made a few comments in which he expressed shock and disappointment that so many Evangelicals would flock to a man like Trump who has led a life that is largely at odds with the values they hold.

The Strategy of Tension, Economic Espionage in Post-Cold War France and Why Stories Like This Matter

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/13/world/cia-confirms-blunders-during-economic-spying-on-france.html

While revisiting some of the economic changes afoot during the 1990s I was reminded of this episode with France. This took place while I was still stationed in Italy. There were many subsequent episodes after 9/11 and the 2003 Iraq Invasion.

The 1990s was a strange 'in-between' time. After 2001 the world of espionage entered a new 'Golden Age' akin to the 1950s, an age in which the restraints have been removed and its organisations and members have been allowed to drink deeply from the well of shadowy endeavours, dark deeds and murderous plots.

The Arms Industry and Empire

In Southeast Asia the role of Singapore continues to grow as a means to arm the new American formed and backed alliance meant to secure American hegemony and contain China.

ST Kinetics formerly Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS) was utilised by the Reagan administration to set up arms deals with Iran.