Dear friends,
I am facing somewhat of a perfect storm right now. Not only did Orthodox Great Lent just end with the Annunciation yesterday and the Entry of our Lord tomorrow, but Passion Week begins on Monday and next Sunday is Holy Paskha. Translated in plain English this means “lots of very long church services”. To make things words, Trump has just gone off the deep end in Syria, and this is very serious. There is also A LOT of misinformation out there. Finally, I have 118 unanswered emails in my main inbox. Yes, one hundred and eighteen (sigh).
So something had to be sacrificed.
I decided the the crisis around Syria is more important than emails. Sorry!!
So here is what I have decided:
I will only reply to urgent AND important emails during the next 8-10 days.
Therefore, if you want a reply, please email me again after Monday the 17th.
Sorry, but I only have one body, one brain, two hands and 24 hours in day. I would need about 3x that amount.
Next, (I eliminated this next section as somebody has offered to help me)
I have a video of Sheikh Imran Hosein interviewing me (yes, not the other way around, he actually asked me to be interviewed by him for his followers). The video is good quality, but the sound is not. I also have a separate sound recording of good quality. I need to find a volunteer with good computer video/sound capabilities and software to arrange it all one video file for upload to YouTube. There is a short interruption (a loud truck) which needs to be cut out.
If you are such a person, email me and I will send you the download links for the video and audio files.
That’s it for now. Sorry for the email situation, but the stuff with Syria is too serious and I need to focus on that right now.
God willing, I should have a full detailed analysis to submit you by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. There is A LOT to be said, you will see.
Hugs and cheers to all,
The Saker
Hey Saker…
I detect a sense of overwhelm.
This is not healthy or sustainable.
Can I send you blessings in the form of well-meaning advice.?
Be present.
Since your religion is important to you, and presumably a source of sustenance, allow it to replenish you. If you are going to be attending very long church services. Be there. Be present. As you are choosing to spend time in religious observance. Observe! Avoid “zoning out” and spending that time (physically present but mentally “away”) distracted with this blog and/all the rest.
Emails. They barely existed 20 years ago. Now we are subjected to incessant distractions- texts and emails from all,over the world, marketeers, spam, all junked in with important family and relationship missives. Your time is yours. You cannot possibly respond to the whole world. You’ll burn out, and we all will lose a very precious and important “resource”.
Prioritising what is important to you is not “selfish”, it’s essential!
Go replenish your soul in the way that is right for you. You can only “save the world” when you are strong, sustained and nourished spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally.
With love,
I needed some distraction and rest last night from it all and found
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDoPMwFGvoLQM&v=_xTVRnQEXKc
compilation of Voice Kids of Russia.
Fantastic, and this is only one compilation, but a good one. Some of the best music I’ve hear in ages.
We eagerly await your analysis, Saker.
Just goes to show how important this blog is in times of crisis.
That being said relax and enjoy yourself.
The Neocons will not succeed in Syria. And judging from the abysmal performance of the missile attack against Syria, I’m starting to think American military might not be all its cracked up to be.
Love,
Geoff
Geoff, I know you mean well, but the services during Holy Week are, to put it concisely, arduous. One does not sit back and relax, but indeed every part of one’s being enters in. So, physically it is an enormous commitment for Saker to take additional time to address this subject, and I know he would not be doing so except that it is a matter of such grave importance.
I also usually do not pay attention to the world’s comings and goings during this week – one functions fully within the religious context as a rule, that being considered the most important part of one’s reason for being – the time immediately before, during, and after Easter. The world recedes; the Gospel is all.
We should all do our best to help Saker at this time. And perhaps God wants this to happen, for by sharing himself at this time, something of the intensity of Pascha will inevitably permeate this blog.
And that is a good thing.
Fresh off Mike Cernovich’s twitter page: https://medium.com/@Cernovich/h-r-mcmaster-manipulating-intelligence-reports-to-trump-wants-150-000-ground-soldiers-in-syria-83346c433e99
Yep, and Cernovich’s newest report: https://medium.com/@Cernovich/petraeus-and-mcmaster-have-taken-over-the-nsc-want-massive-ground-war-with-syria-e67b71a9076a
BUT this, too, from Robert Parry is frightening. Doesn’t seem like one can hang it all on lies from McMaster. Looks like Trump decided to go with the lies even though he had other information.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/08/where-was-cias-pompeo-on-syria/
I look forward (euphemistically speaking) to The Saker’s report.
Yes, things are getting clearer now with Mike Cernovich’s, as well as others’ efforts. Trump possibly minimized the boom last week despite being cornered at the moment. However, as Mike emphasized, the bad personnel changes at the NSC is now in full steam and the danger increases as time goes.
Rex’s visit to Moscow will be critical as Trump’s remaining team is currently trapped in the warmonger’s home turf. I agree with L445 that Putin will be the key (I hope) to turn around this mess provided Rex himself is not actually part of the coup.
(Joke) Does anyone also thinks that Mcmaster head & face resembles a white xenomorph?
A US invasion of Syria has been planned for many months, long before Trump took office. Obama ordered a massive amount of desert camouflaged APCs, tanks, and other military hardware to Poland. Recently it all has been making way down south and is now off the coast of Lebanon, if not in Lebanon. Also, equipment and troops are being stationed in Jordan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pjEdHH0Jys
A very good resource for troop movement reports:
https://already-happened.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdQqAFD_rJ4 (Latest Report…very sobering)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0TsfSdI4HU (Most recent report)
Note: The guy who does this Israeli News Live YouTube channel is based out of Czechoslovakia. He is obviously an American and a Christian. I don’t know why he calls his channel “Israeli News Live”. He does inject his prophetic views at times, but overall I am finding that his reporting is quite good and reliable. He uses good sources. Oh, and he does believe that the “gas attack” is a false flag, or that Assad did not order it or carry it out.
Dear Saker
I shall set extra (virtual) places for you and your family at the Easter feasts (not often Orthodox and west style Easter fall on same Sunday) I am cooking – borsh, blini, smoked fish, pickled mushrooms and cucumbers, and of course pasha, and apple filled dumplings. Not all to eaten in one meal. I hope my virtual feast with nourish your body as you nourish your spirit.
Stay strong… we need you… I sense you are holding your breath too much (like we all are, waiting for the next trump dump). Inhale and but most importantly exhale.
Peace and blessings.
Hi Saker, have a wonderful holy-days – see you soon !!
Ann
btw, you don’t have to answer my email.
from the Gita
” abandon all Dharma and take refuge in Me alone . I will free thee from all sin and evil do not grieve”
updated per request – mod
Not much to say except “there will be wars and rumors of wars” until…
Mankind is a mess and he has made a mess out of the world as well. Things come to mind; as it was in the days of Noah and reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition … Meanwhile life goes on and can not be stopped. It is quite a comfort knowing that death has been conquered and our citizenship has been transferred.
Bless you and yours on this Palm Sunday,
if you don’t find a volunteer for the audio/video stuff, here are some good FOSS to do the job:
Yamb: for splitting and joining audio and video streams from an mp4 (http://yamb.unite-video.com/features.html)
HandBrake: for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs (https://handbrake.fr/)
Audacity® is free, open source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing. (http://www.audacityteam.org/)
Dear Saker,
These long services most likely are a call for you to respond at this particular time Spiritually. Go with a Big Heart and help people open their hearts to Christ, Holy Mother, Divine Source, to call forth and help pour cooling, healing water on those who would burn and destroy for the sake of it and who sow fear. For you, right now, this may be as important work as trying to “stay on top” informationally and intellectually. Christ with you, the love coming through is enormous, and in part it is that change which triggers the aggression of the fearful all over.
My very best wishes, hoping I don’t sound dictatorial. Just thought maybe this was a messenger you may’ve overlooked.
Blessings
A toutes fins utiles … Trump apparently in “deep shit” according to a former DIA Colonel Patrick Lang who says “This is Gulf of Tonkin 2” …
https://gosint.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/former-dia-colonel-us-strikes-on-a-syria-based-on-a-lie/
Former DIA Colonel: “US strikes on Syria based on a lie”
Posted on April 7, 2017 by L
“In the coming days the American people will learn that the [US]Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib.”
Patrick Lang — a former DIA Colonel — does not mince words about the US attacks on Syria. Lang claims that Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Patrick Lang is truly a top expert on the Middle-East. The former DIA Colonel is highly respected for his deep knowledge and absolute honesty.
[NOTE: Many years ago, Lang helped me to understand a very ‘murky’ dossier regarding Libya. I trust his analysis 100%. Last week — knowing full well that ‘the shit was going to hit the fan’ — I asked him permission to reproduce his posts on my blog. Colonel Lang kindly agreed.]
ANALYSIS by retired Col. Patrick LANG
Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. In the coming days the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened.
The Russians briefed the United States on the proposed target. This is a process that started more than two months ago. There is a dedicated phone line that is being used to coordinate and deconflict (i.e., prevent US and Russian air assets from shooting at each other) the upcoming operation.
The United States was fully briefed on the fact that there was a target in Idlib that the Russians believes was a weapons/explosives depot for Islamic rebels.
The Syrian Air Force hit the target with conventional weapons. All involved expected to see a massive secondary explosion. That did not happen. Instead, smoke, chemical smoke, began billowing from the site. It turns out that the Islamic rebels used that site to store chemicals, not sarin, that were deadly. The chemicals included organic phosphates and chlorine and they followed the wind and killed civilians.
There was a strong wind blowing that day and the cloud was driven to a nearby village and caused casualties.
We know it was not sarin. How? Very simple. The so-called “first responders” handled the victims without gloves. If this had been sarin they would have died. Sarin on the skin will kill you. How do I know? I went through “Live Agent” training at Fort McClellan in Alabama.
There are members of the U.S. military who were aware this strike would occur and it was recorded. There is a film record. At least the Defense Intelligence Agency knows that this was not a chemical weapon attack. In fact, Syrian military chemical weapons were destroyed with the help of Russia.
This is Gulf of Tonkin 2. How ironic. Donald Trump correctly castigated George W. Bush for launching an unprovoked, unjustified attack on Iraq in 2003. Now we have President Donald Trump doing the same damn thing. Worse in fact. Because the intelligence community had information showing that there was no chemical weapon launched by the Syrian Air Force.
Here’s the good news. The Russians and Syrians were informed, or at least were aware, that the attack was coming. They were able to remove a large number of their assets. The base the United States hit was something of a backwater. Donald Trump gets to pretend that he is a tough guy. He is not. He is a fool.
This attack was violation of international law. Donald Trump authorized an unjustified attack on a sovereign country. What is even more disturbing is that people like Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and NSA Director General McMaster went along with this charade. Front line troops know the truth. These facts will eventually come out. Donald Trump will most likely not finish his term as President. He will be impeached, I believe, once Congress is presented with irrefutable proof that he ignored and rejected intelligence that did not support the myth that Syria attacked with chemical weapons.
It should also alarm American taxpayers that we launched $100 million dollars of missiles to blow up sand and camel shit. The Russians were aware that a strike was coming. I’m hoping that they and the Syrians withdrew their forces and aircraft from the base. Whatever hope I had that Donald Trump would be a new kind of President, that hope is extinguished. He is a child and a moron. He committed an act of war without justification. But the fault is not his alone. Those who sit atop the NSC, the DOD, the CIA, the Department of State should have resigned in protest. They did not. They are complicit in a war crime.
About Patrick Lang
Walter Patrick “Pat” Lang, Jr. (born May 31, 1940) is a commentator on the Middle East, a retired US Army officer and private intelligence analyst, and an author. After leaving uniformed military service as a Colonel, he held high-level posts in military intelligence as a civilian. He led intelligence analysis of the Middle East and South Asia for the Defense Department and world-wide HUMINT activities in a high-level equivalent to the rank of a lieutenant general. [WIKIPEDIA]
REFERENCES
Donald Trump Is An International Law Breaker by Publius Tacitus — P. Lang FaceBook Page
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Former DIA Colonel: “US strikes on Syria based on a lie”
TMWNS:-
Your forgetting that the MSM will suppress the truth.
The truth is what they report it to be and that is that. They work on a % of believers, they can live with 20% being skeptical with the rest being brain washed, ignorant or cant be bothered.
I wrote on here a few months back more women are needed in these online communities to raise the %. I’m not sexist at all but find most women I know through family and work colleagues to be too ready to believe these official MSM lines. I guess like politics, its a male dominated field because it involves strategic power struggles that women (most but not all) don’t find interesting.
Until the % increases sadly nothing will change.
Please don’t give us the same old bunkum that defending Syria isn’t in Russia’s interest. If the US succeeds in overthrowing Assad, not only will that plunge Syria into permanent hellish chaos like Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine, but – maybe more importantly – it will definitively establish that the US has the right and the means to overthrow any government it wants any time it wants. By US I mean the deep state, the Hegemon. The people of the US don’t want this. But every time we elect a new misleader who promises no more mad interventionism he breaks his word usually first day in office. We need to keep trying to elect a righteous leader, but nations of the world who aren’t vassals of the Hegemon need to show real solidarity – and the one that has the muscle is Russia.
Russia needs to lead a new non-aligned group – for its own safety if for no other reason. Had such a group stood up to the Hegemon when it destroyed Libya, Syria might never have happened. The Hegemon faces passivity and splintered opposition. This is why it seems to feel more impunity all the time. Now is the time for Russia to gather those who are not committed vassals to the Hegemon and now is the time for Russia to show some resolve.
@ paul: You are not alone at the Saker Blog in having fallen for the 5th Columnist/Zionist scam of trying to convince Russian citizens/supporters that going to war *now* against the US/NATO in each provocation the Zionists concoct is a good idea. It’s not, it is an emotional, knee-jerk reaction that would swiftly deplete Russia’s resources. The attempted MSM “stampede” of the world population to demanding Russia respond in kind is simply not working. “Confronting” the US/NATO in the list of countries you name (and beyond) is international public relations suicide. No other country in the list you give actually formally requested Russia’s assistance prior or during the US/NATO/proxy attacks, military or otherwise, so to go there would be as illegal as US/NATO/proxy interference is. Syria asked for that assistance *from Russia, Iran And Hezbolla*. This makes a fine but very relevant distinction in what “fighting terror” legally means.
The old test, “cui bono” must be asked. How could Russia possibly benefit from an endless military “whack-a-mole”, chasing Zionist/US/NATO psychopathy all over the world?
I don’t think Saker ever said “defending Syria isn’t in Russia’s interest”, I think Saker was warning Russia not to get trapped in another Afghan-style quagmire (and Russia has not, and Syria is winning). Putin appears to have decided that inside Syria’s borders and within Russian territorial water/airspace is where Russia will take its military stand, other Zionist-instigated conflicts/provocations will not see large/overt Russian military intervention. Russian support outside Syria/Russia will be by other means. The other US-led provocations will stand as plain testament to the Zionist/Rothschild agenda to unilaterally, deliberately, illegally create bankster/corporate-friendly chaos, deprivation, death and destruction world wide. Not just by war, but by political/economic/financial/market manipulations.
Russia has China’s support (and vice versa) on all fronts, and the diplomatic support of virtually every non-US-vassal state in the UN. I doubt Gallop has the guts do do any more polls on which country is the biggest threat to world peace, as the US was listed as #1 world wide (except in India/Pakistan where British imperialist meddling set public attitudes in those countries against each other in perpetuity). That was in 2014, I’d bet the numbers are steeply increasing against the US, especially where the Zionist MSM doesn’t hold 100% sway.
Attempting to incite WW3 by talk of Russian “enough is enough, strike back” action (conventional or otherwise) against the US is a dead issue here at Saker. If the US is stupid enough to deliberately target and kill Russian military personnel in Syria or make active-fire military incursions on Russian territory, the Zionists can expect a a harsh, but possible asymmetric response. The Zionists *really* do not want to find out just how ruthless Russians can be when no other alternative exists. And Russia/Putin will walk the idiot, bully USicans through each level of sniping intensification with little increase in Russian military/covert action… until there is no alternative. 59 Tomahawks is pissing into the wind, and Putin knows it (more like another $100million US tax$$ kick-back to Ratheon). And I doubt the Rothschilds/Goldmans et. al. will be allowed to survive any such “alternative”.
In 1849, Guttle Schnapper, the wife of Mayer Amschel stated:
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.”
So, the world is still at war because it is very, very profitable to the Rothschilds and their parasite bankster bloodlines.
Not everyone who thinks Russia should strike back is necessarily a 5th columnist. Many people simply feel justifiably angry at what they see the US getting away with time after time after time and want it to get a taste of it’s own medicine.
That said your main point is absolutely correct. Russia must not make dangerous mistakes.
Rarely reported on but a key driver of US aggression is the coming end of the dollar as world reserve currency largely due to the initiatives of Russia and China and “de-dollarization”.
Add in unrepayable levels of debt and we can see the Anglo Zionist endless aggressions as acts of desperation to fend of the collapse of their monetary system.
I suspect that Russia and China and Iran are trying to deny the US the opportunity of nuclear war whilst watching the clock and praying for the US collapse to hurry up so humanity can get on with the rest of the 21st century.
@ marcus: Like it or not, the 5th Columnists/Atlanticists promote the “retaliation” platform in subtle ways, so “people” feel it is a reasonable approach. Just like the Zionists use the Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary to make the apartheid/genocide against Palestinians seem like necessary Israeli self-defense.
I say “feel” intentionally, because this call to immediate retaliation is always an appeal to emotion, not facts/logic. You said it yourself, “angry”, but the “justified” part of what is an appropriate/most-effective response is more difficult.
I doubt there are many “people” opining that Russian retaliation in kind at this point is the best response, who have a greater intellect or understanding of the geopolitical quagmire we face than Putin and Xi. Are Putin and Xi total moral angels? Of course not, and they deserve our constant inspection. But they are far more informed, reasonable and rational in their actions than any POTUS or other NATO/EU/etc. leader I’ve ever seen. Putin and Xi are in no hurry to crash the US/EU economically or attack it militarily, as the problems that would create world wide may be as bad or worse than what we face by proceeding as they are. A MAD-Catch-22… allowing the Rothschild/globalists to incrementally have their way is unacceptable, but simply destroying the entire world economy over a few ineffective sanctions or bombs dropped is not a smart plan either.
Syria, Russia and Iran issued a strong joint statement backing up the rescinding of airspace “coordination” with US/NATO/EU forces. Any flying trespassers in Syria will be shot on sight.
Tillerson has now gone back to his old script that “the Syrian people should decide about Assad”. Maybe the massive public backlash from former Trump supporters has pounded some sense (for now) into the psychopaths that decide such lunacy as the 59 Tomahawks. Trumpy’s public “base” is not happy about wasting $100million on such misadventures.
What a bunch of idiots. The US is playing economic/geopolitical tiddly-winks while Putin and Xi are playing 3D multi-level chess.
Where do you get the strange idea that Russia/Putin is not defending Syria (which is on the PNAC and Israeli lists)? It’s been there for some time, politically, militarily, and providing humanitarian aid.
From this and your post below it seems to that me you have almost no idea of what has happened or how and just like trying to beat up on Putin.
Unless this is all prearranged theatre, with both Trump and Putin aware of each others moves and Putin in step with the egregious insults and propaganda coming out of the US administration and its vassals, we live in very dangerous times. Very dangerous. Syria could be a flashpoint.
A good indication of where it’s going can be had from vassal propaganda outlets such as this swill from Canada’s state broadcaster:
Analysis:Missiles provoke bluster but Syria solution requires U.S. and Russia at the table: Nahlah Ayed
“How enraging it must have been for Russia to be rebuked for Syria’s latest murderous episode.”
“Last week’s chemical weapons attack proved the cynics right: despite the fanfare, the deal failed with unspeakable and tragic results. Syria clearly still possesses some of the world’s deadliest chemical weapons, and despite denials, is willing to use them on civilians”
And then there is the Tillerson false dilemma fallacy:
“As abruptly as those Tomahawk missiles were unleashed, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson bluntly put the blame on Russia.
“So either Russia has been complicit, or Russia has been simply incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement,” he said Thursday night.” ”
Nikki Haley: “You saw this terrible tragedy on innocent people, a lot of them children, and the first reaction from Russia wasn’t ‘how horrible,’ it wasn’t ‘how could they do this,’ it wasn’t ‘how did this happen,’ it was: ‘Assad didn’t do it.’ Why was that the reaction?” Haley said.”
Why was that the reaction? Have you considered, you ‘dumber than a sack of insulting hammers’ that Assad didn’t do it and anyone with a glimmer of crtical thought knows this.
You know it too, Harridan Part II.
Regrettably , everyone I have spoken too accepts that Assad ordered the chemical weapons attack.
They all believe it because the ‘Gas meme’ -Assad kills his own people with chemical weapons- was previously so firmly implanted.
This is how world wars are started.
I forgot the shabby CBC article link above:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syria-russia-civil-war-1.4052376?cmp=googleeditorspick&google_editors_picks=true
I also missed this March 07 article which is extremely relevant to the manipulation of the UN by Syrian White Helmets and their sponsors and the on-going push towards world war:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/swedish-doctors-for-human-rights-white-helmets-video-macabre-manipulation-of-dead-children-and-staged-chemical-weapons-attack-to-justify-a-no-fly-zone-in-syria/5578469
A thing I most strange is, aside for all the reasons concerning damage to geopolitical relations and reactions from the US, etc., what possible motivation could there be for Assad to gas civilians? What is to gain? What military or political motivation could exist? It would be like Merkel gassing people in some town such as Bad Nauheim — just kill a bunch of people. Or the leader of any country blowing up a shopping mall in his country. Why? There is no reason for such things.
Dropping gas to kill militants is not militarily, tactically, effective, in such situations, but was used to slow down troops on the move, forcing them to don protective gear, or limiting areas they could move into. The only other use of gas is to terrorize people, but why should Assad want to terrorize civilians — which would likely result in more people joining with the terrorists he is fighting or at least turn popular opinion against him. Why would he do that? Why would he shoot himself in the foot? Assad is not an idiot.
Why is there no such question asked or no such answers given? Now add the international political consequences and there is no sense in such an accusation at all. There is no motive.
Assad ddn’t survive 6 years of Hegemon&vassals war by being stupid. He’s an intelligent, eloquent eye doctor who, had his brother not die in a car crash, would be in practice in a hospital somewhere, possibly in London where he trained.
His miltary are not stupid either, proof of which is that they too have prevailed. In Syria, there is no strategic or even tactical advantage to using weapons as indiscriminate as chemical. Only opposition terrorists could – funded and propaganda protected by the USA, NATO vassals, Turkey, Saudi, Qatar etc. and with that enormous and wilfully blind eye of western media.
I am wondering if there is a defective gene in the deaf public that prevents them from even considering that the terrorists could have produced or even stored Sarin? Even when their own MSM has admitted this in the past? How can they not even consider any options beyond the binary blinkered media pap and US ‘intelligence’ proven false so many times? What happened to neutral analysis weighing all the data?
What happened to truth? Is it now a precious non-renewable resource to be used as sparingly as possible?
I have never seen anything as shameful as the yellow tripe that now passes as journalism.
“Idiocracy” -maybe people should stay away from Gatorade and the electrolytes that are craved?
Sanctuary One, the answers to your questions are fairly simple, IMHO.
About 1/4 of the voting age US public voted for Donald Trump and (they thought) against globalism and foreign imperial wars. They had one eye approximately 10% open and the other firmly shut. But pain was starting to motivate them to at least try to wake up, and they rightly associated MSM with the pain in their lives, and developed a very firm enough resistance to it to stop the mind control MSM juggernaut.
About 1/4 of the voting age US public voted for Hitlery Clinton. It doesn’t matter how open either eye was for them, because their entire heads were lodged in the lower portion of their gastrointestinal tract, where it is impossible to “see the light of day”……where the proverbial “sun don’t shine”.
The other half of the voting age public abstained from voting because just thinking about the above choices and all the unpleasant campaigning gave them headaches that they could not endure, so they fled to their sports and entertainment on the age old American belief that it’s smart to act stupid, and thereby avoid responsibility for either thinking or acting.
Most here like yourself follow events that will determine their society’s future and the world’s future quite closely, and trouble themselves to think as deeply and rigorously into such matters as they are able to, in the time they are able to devote to this noble pursuit, of getting informed, and informing others, to whatever degree they have so far managed to achieve.
Such an identity and attempt to form a coherent, rational, moral worldview by acting on such an identity is a far rarer, and more precious thing than you seem to give yourself credit for.
On the other hand, the only critique of your comment that I have is that you err in supposing that any more than about 5% of the population have one eye more than 10% open, or even think it would be a good idea to open either eye a little more.. By their actions so far, they disprove that supposition you seem to be expressing in your above comment…..
Sorry, SO, and I don’t really hate to say it, but they aren’t nearly that good….. yet!
I say “yet” because I am firmly of the belief that as the temperature focused on their posteriors increases dramatically, so will the possibilities of them correctly concluding that it is NEVER smart to act stupid and avoid knowing the factors that can eliminate all their possibilities of functioning as free, happy human beings, rather than mind-controlled slaves.
Right now, they think you and I are completely wasting our time even to concern ourselves with these matters discussed here,as they can’t even imagine that we, much less themselves could EVER do anything about anything beyond our own little private worlds.
While you and I may wish they weren’t so stupid and immoral, presently, they are, indeed, so stupid and immoral! And you can bring them facts and independent competent intelligence reports and analysis 24/7 and presently, the great majority of them won’t give you, me, or our stacks of good stuff the proverbial “time of day”.
So I advise to start with a realistic assessment of where they are, rather than projecting onto to them the interest and motivation you admirably have but that they presently, most sadly and pathetically, lack. Then we can dispense with the surprised dismay (get over it, and get cracking, as in “Suck it up, Buttercup!”) proceed without illusions as to what terrible psychological and moral shape the Empire’s residents are in, and then proceed realistically from there, knowing, that despite all of the above, they can change very suddenly in a crisis, the crisis is here, and heating up, and the crucial factor of human capacity and consciousness under pressure is the pure gold that has always been responsible for getting the world through these messes, or rebuilding and recovering if the destruction is not so total as to not allow such a rebuilding or recovery.
“About 1/4 of the voting age US public voted for Donald Trump and (they thought) against globalism and foreign imperial wars. They had one eye approximately 10% open and the other firmly shut. ”
I voted for Trump with both eyes open because it seemed certain that Clinton would quickly bring on nuclear war by starting a ‘no fly zone’ which would have meant shooting battles with Russian planes. So far that’s been avoided — Trump bought a little time.
It was simply a choice between very little hope to avoid nuclear holocaust and virtually no hope at all. I full expected Trump to destroy the US economy and what remained of civil liberties (with Clinton not far behind), and that is in progress.
Two analogies I used before the election was jumping off a train traveling at high speed towards a collapsed bridge, and throwing a handful of bullets into a campfire when captured by bandits (as in the old western movies).
I was not alone in my thinking. So why do say all those people who voted for Trump had their eyes closed? When you jump off a moving train you expect to be injured, but you don’t do it with you eyes closed, and hope you might survive.
Thanks Bro 93 (and Blue) for your colourful explanation; I am still laughing, although if I’m to agree with your depressing assessment of humanity -as it stands today- perhaps I should be weeping.
What do you think The Trumpster’s base is going to make of all this? The Alex Jones base will feel betrayed surely? ( I don’t have the time nor interest to filter the 1% of whatever Jones’s point is from all of his ranting, nor do I ‘resonate’ enough with nor know enough about his base to understand their philosophy, whatever that is)
Well, Blue, “All generalizations are false, including this one.”, and that is one of the limitations we expect when making statements that are trying to make a general point.
The fact that there are exceptions such as you and many others here like myself that voted for Trump with eyes wide open does not negate the fact that the greater part of his voters were NOT quite as informed as you (blue) or I, or Sanctuary One were informed either today or on Nov 8, 2016.
That’s the objective problem, multiplied by tens of millions of not so solid people that had the right instincts, but maybe tire quite quickly after the supreme effort (metaphorically speaking) of pulling the voting lever (“Now I’m DONE!”) once every 4 years…… NOT your political savvy, or internal corrrect struggle Nov 8, 2016.
I just posted something over in the Cafe, Sanctuary One, on Jones’ INFOWARS’ Paul Joseph Watson’s debate with a real creepy pro Syria bombing Bill Mitchell.
It’s interesting. Sure Alex’s gravel voice puts me off slightly and so forth, but see the bigger picture: It;s NOT about me, or you, and our sophistications and likes or dislikes of voices or hair styles.
It’s whether anything more is done on Infowars to get some nice moral yokels into the fight, and getting going on learning something and exercising their brains, or whether we can say we are being more effective. I think I can be more articulate than Alex Jones if I try a little bit, but can I reach as many people, in my “salt of the earth” experiments, while working?????
Of course not!!!
Gravelly voice and hair-pulling and vitamin hawking Alex has built the means to reach infinitely more people than any of us, I would wager, ever will. By many orders of magnitude. No one is perfect, including Saker, Jones, LaRouche or even Putin, and Jones falls short of biting Zionist ankles, like the pit bull we would like to see him be, but he did mobilize a few million votes against Hillary did he not?
How many did we mobilize???
Sure we are interested in ourselves, but this isn’t about shoring you or me up blue, or Sanctuary One. My point is that relatively speaking we are the bulwark, the strong point in the dike, as individual bricks or sand bags, preventing a flood of mass insanity and reinforcement is much more needed elsewhere than among us.
And understanding what their problems are is critical, because their problems are a lot more serious (in terms of clarity and steadfastness in this fight…) than ours are.
But NOT understanding that fact, becomes our problem. And lack of insight into their problems while primarily concerning ourselves just with ourselves leads us to kvetch and moan about their stupidity, as though they had our capacity already. They don’t. It has to be developed in them.
It’s very difficult to know what ‘people are thinking’ in some collective sense, and polls and stats are not really up to the job. It’s almost as hard to know what one person is thinking, and often they have mixed thoughts and have not sorted it all out themselves.
All of this is far more complicated and mysterious than it seems, or that we can even imagine.
An important issue is those who did not vote — for all sorts of reasons, including not finding anyone worthy of the effort to walk into the booth, or being able to overcome the revulsion in participating and endorsing any of the gangsters.
Voting is not much more than a gesture now, compared to getting and spreading information on the web. As far as that goes, I’ve ‘voted’ everyday on the web, usually for hours per day, for some 15 years or so. I think I notice it can be effective — but I can never tell for sure. When a large crowd of people work to bail out a lake, who knows if they really significantly helped or not, or if the water they moved out just flowed back in again?
But for all the people Jones reaches, how many times has he screwed up and set them off in the wrong direction, or discredited those who had a real solution?
Collective intelligence is complicated and mysterious too.
@ blue: As Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) said so long ago, “If voting changed anything, they wouldn’t let us do it”.
About “making a difference” posting comments on various blogs/news-sites… that can be measured by the reaction/infiltration by Zionist/US/NATO political operatives and agents provocateur. To say nothing of various, endless IT attacks which readers seldom see. Again, here at the Saker Blog the trolls must tread carefully, which is why we recently see very cleverly muted 5th Columnist positions disguised as “reasonable” or “outraged” emotional appeals to retaliate in kind.
The Saker Blog is obviously very effective, and our comments make up a large portion of the content readers come to see. The anti-freedom operatives know this, and come (are sent by the Deep State?) to fill the threads with deliberate confusion and noise. The mods do a good job, but tread the line between protecting the Blog and overt censorship. In the end, Saker readers and genuine posters must discern fact and honest opinion from propaganda.
There is another way, the spread of ‘memes’.
Say you find or come up with a phrase that expresses some idea, such as ‘HumptyTrumpty’ (I saw something like that recently), which can mean that words he says mean whatever Trump uses them to mean. If you say ‘Humpty Trumpty says We will run the government as a business’ {old meme from the 1%) and then reference Michael Hudson (as eimar did in comment /moveable-feast-cafe-2017-04-09/#comment-342455 ), then maybe some else will pick that up and use ‘Humpty Trumpty’, meaning his BS, that government will be run for business and the rich, instead of for the people, and also his falling off the wall, etc.
Now, if you see that phrase used in the months ahead, then you can guess that the message and phrase went around the web and was effective, and that regardless of what the political actors do, who may not even be able to tell where it originally came from.
It works because it hits the right chord at the time and spreads like a joke can go viral. Maybe it will mutate along the way, or if it just dies, so what — there’s a thousand other memes to try. But they all have a chance of connecting some dots, providing some useful tropes, and helping to raise people’s awareness. Sometime well known authors will pick up the phrase and use it or adapt it, maybe consciously or maybe not — it doesn’t matter.
‘Humpty Trumpty’ is not exactly the phrase I saw — but similar, and I like it because it expresses a lot in just a short phrase. Sometimes short explanations or assertions will also be picked up and spread around, or tidbits of information. The empire propagandists do this frequently with dysinformation, of course, a counter-meme might be spread against that. Maybe a significant question like, regarding Assad bombing civilians, asking ‘why would he do that? What would he gain?’. It’s a very good question, and it’s being asked more frequently.
Viva Le Pen. Viva Fillon.
Destroyers of NATO.
We’ll see… Trump said NATO was “obsolete”. And now?
How can you tell if politicians are lying? Their lips are moving.
Julian, Fillon will definitely not do anything against Nato. Wasn t he prime minister when Sarkozy launched the attack on Gaddafi on behalf of the axis of peace? nuff said to me; a french expat. And le pen is ambiguous on the matter, denunciation is one thing, taking steps is a whole another storyline
Hard to put a good light on the way Putin behaves. He’s never-endingly patient to the US, even though the US shows no respect for national sovereignty and national sovereignty appears to be the cornerstone of whatever passes for political theory in the ‘realpolitik’ addled mind of Putin. Meanwhile Putin treats Assad like a sick dog that craps on the carpet. But wait, Assad is Russia’s ally and the US is constantly threatening Russia. Why does Russia treat those threatening it real good and those who are supposedly its friends lousy? It’s not good to be Russia’s ally, is it?
No amount of judo or chess analogies can put Putin’s behavior in a good light. Remember, Assad wouldn’t even be in this war if he weren’t a stout ally to Russia and Iran. The US and its allies are trying get at Russia and Iran – Syria is just a stepping stone. So for Putin apologists to say that Syria’s disaster is really no business of Russia’s – well it’s the height of – I don’t even know how to put a description of such craven and blindly selfish thinking into words.
Good lord, Assad has been openly attacked by the Hegemon. Russia has been threatened indirectly. The Hegemon is noising about more attacks, possibly even an invasion force of 150,000 men, and Putin can’t throw Assad a gnawed bone?!
Yeah, and what was that report (after the false flag & before the Trump bombing) that Russia said its support for Syria was not unconditional? I thought it was fake news and even though I read the announcement it was in, I still don’t believe they said it.
@ paul: In case you hadn’t noticed, neither Syria nor Russia have declared war on the US/NATO/EU, nor the US on Syria or Russia. A lot of strident language from the US/Zionist media, but all in the “fighting terror” and R2P frame. I doubt the Zionist/Deep State wants to openly test the Constitutional provisions that clearly state only Congress can declare war. This has been side stepped by characterizing US/NATO war aggression as combating non-state-entities that do not respect national borders. The hidden catch is, it is the Zionist/Rothschild/US/Deep State that is funding, organizing, directing and arming the “terrorists”.
To strike directly at US/NATO/EU forces without explicit and preliminary warnings, particularly those launching Tomahawks from international waters, would be an illegal act and would give the US the legal “excuse” it needs (craves?) to openly invade Syria. And possibly also declare war against Russia and begin to move all those “protecting against Russian aggression” troops on Russia’s western border into Russian territory.
That said, Syria and its invited allies are well within international rights to attack and destroy any uninvited foreign troops/aircraft found inside its borders. The US/NATO/EU/Israeli/Saudi combine has now been duly, formally warned and probably will not try another idiocy like we have just seen.
Who knows, given the Russian military was given some warning may indicate this raid was intended to plainly show Trumpy how his “voter base” would react to the prospect of another Iraq or Afghanistan. Not well, is obvious. Perhaps the US professional military is as sick of know-nothing political tails wagging the armed forces dog. Trumpy’s warmonger/chickenhawk generals and civilian appointments are probably not well regarded in the functional command and rank/file.
The Zionist project is losing badly in Syria and Iraq. Russia would be well advised to force the US to be the ones seen escalating the conflict. That’s why the US is heavily playing the chemical-weapons/White Helmet propaganda trick one more time. And it failed, the true proof it was lies was in front of millions of eyeballs world wide before the 59 Tomahawk smoke cleared in Syria.
The Saudis and their Wahabbist terrorists are dupes, thinking they are equal partners and have some permanent control of the situation by virtue of their stranglehold on US oil-interests. The “ISIS” raid against a “US base” in Syria shows the Zionists will throw the Saudis minions under the bus at a moment’s notice.
Thank you! been following you for a few years now, always found your analysis to be spot on and also leveling up the common perception of things.
It is a surprise to have read the article from Sheik Hossein, whom I discovered via a quality french web site (ER), and their book company (reprint and resistane writings) when they printed in french “Jerusalem in the Quran ” and later “Gog and Maghog”, years ago.
All the best to you, from a French man living in Uk.
Dear Saker
Wish you a Holly Lent and Pascha… in todays world, PRAYING and Penance are THE THING.
These are the greetings from a reader in Brazil (and deep to the Heart Marian and Roman Catholic, by birth in Portugal).
Let me remind you that I expect many Blessings from heaven this Year (even if it is long due Divine Justice, which is a part of the Father’s Mercy) because it is both the centennial of Fatima and the Russian Revolution, both events are linked!
Xristos Anesti!!! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKDgQUaFhjQ
God help you, dear Saker If you read this. Otherwise delete it.
May our God guide you into Holy Pascha1
Rdr. james olympia wa usa
blessings to all Christians
and
pres trump did not go off deep end
a necessary move
God bless you and your family during this special season, Saker. Recently an Orthodox friend of mine introduced me to the absolutely profound “Canon of St. Andrew”, and it is on-line for those who would like to read / pray it……the fact that words such as these exist on this earth is a miracle available to all of us.
Dear Saker,
‘Brothers in arms’ – a great concept that you have used – i think in relation to the many alternative news sites – all those who walk together striving to spread words of truth!
And when one member goes away for a time, others fulfill their responsibilities, and however difficult and stumbling we may be, or the path may be, take heart, around the world is the Alternate Community of Communities to carry the good word and the good deed!
I have just bought your book, finally, a weighty tomb winging its way to me at last . . .
Peace an blessings