Unfortunately, there are religious nut cases. There are some who believe this Middle East turmoil will bring the coming of Christ, so all of this chaos gets them excited. They want a confrontation with Russia and Iran. They have convinced themselves that this is not just history repeating itself. They militantly stand by Israel, no matter what. But they avoid asking, if Israel is standing with God?
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/La...Mount-for-first-time-in-modern-history-547187 Hundreds of activists and supporters attended the annual exercise of the Passover sacrifice that was conducted for the first time next to the Southern Wall, at the foot of the Temple Mount. In the past years, the ceremony was conducted in various locations far from the Temple Mount itself, such as the Old City, Mount Olives and Kiryat Moshe at the entrance to Jerusalem. The fact that both Israel Police and the Jerusalem Municipality permitted them to conduct the ceremony in that located might indicate a warming of ties between officials and the Temple Mount activists, as well on the growing popularity of the movement. The ceremony on Monday, which included the slaughtering of two lambs, and a demonstration of the work of the Kohanim, was attended by senior National Religious rabbis including Yisrael Ariel and Dov Lior. MK Yehudah Glick (Likud), a former senior Temple Mount activist, attended the event as well. “I am happy that were are having it here at the foot of the Temple Mount,” Glick told The Jerusalem Post. “We started here over a decade and a half ago, with just a handful of people – and now we have hundreds of people coming.” Assaf Fried, a spokesman for the Temple Mount Activists Movement, said he was thrilled with the event, adding that “when 10,000 will attend, we will do it up on the Temple Mount itself.” Left-wing activists protested against the authorities who allowed the event to take place in such location. “The official police approval to allow the slaughtering ceremony in the Davidson Center – an official national and religious site – and at the foot of the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa mosque is outrageous,” said NGO Ir Amim in a statement. “It indicates an official state sponsoring of an extremists ceremony, and supporting the official intentions of the movements that are organizing it.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...trike-Golan-Heights-USA-UK-France-Iran-Russia 'EXPLOSION' at ISRAELI held area of Golan Heights near Syria border A LARGE explosion has been heard in the Israeli held area of Golan Heights near the Syrian border immediately after an airstrike hit several Syrian bases, it has been reported. By MATT DRAKE PUBLISHED: 03:30, Tue, Apr 17, 2018 | UPDATED: 05:10, Tue, Apr 17, 2018 GETTY Syria: Israel reportedly carried out an airstrike There have been reports of a significant explosion, according to local reports. It comes immediately after Syrian state TV confirmed an airstrike hit had hit several bases. Syria state television has confirmed its air defences are repelling attacks in the country’s Homs region. The military announced at around 1.10am local time (11.10pm GMT) that it had fired missiles towards the Shay’rat Airbase, to the south-east of Homs, and its surrounding area in the Homs Governorate. Several reporters in the area claim the airstrike was carried out by Israeli fighter jets flying at high altitude after crossing the borders through Lebanon. The Pentagon said there is "no US military activity near Homs at this time". It is unclear at this time what the explosion is or if anyone was hurt. Only days earlier on April 14 Israel had closed the airspace over Golan Heights after US-led strikes hit Syria. GETTY Syria: Israel targeted the T4 base on April 9 The strikes saw US, UK and France that saw over 100 missiles launched from US ships and UK Tornado fighter-bombers. It was intended to disable the country’s use of chemical weapons after it allegedly used chlorine against rebels in Douma, eastern Ghouta on April 7. There were also reports of covert airstrikes carried out by Israeli forces at Iranian bases in the Jabal Azzan region south of Aleppo last weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on April 15 over Iran’s presence in Syria. Referring to Iran, the Israeli PM called on Western powers to take the same approach toward preventing “terrorist states” acquiring nuclear weapons. GETTY Syria has denied the alleged chemical weapons attack. The premier said he spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May late on April 14 following the strikes. Describing the discussion with May, Mr Netanyahu said: "The important international message that came from the attack was zero tolerance for the use of non-conventional weapons.” On April 9 seven Iranian personnel killed among 14 deaths in an early-morning strike on the T4 base in Syria. Iran and Russia blamed Israel for the attack, but Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Where are the peacemakers? Where are the intercessors? Do any of our leaders think of anything other than war, revenge strikes, money, resources, power, taking sides, self-interest etc etc Shame, shame, shame...
This is probably the best analysis that I have seen so far regarding the situation in Syria. It appears that Rouhani/Iran has more problems than those most of us have heard about, The Real Next War in Syria: Iran vs. Israel By Thomas L. Friedman Opinion Columnist April 15, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/15/opinion/war-syria-iran-israel.html Israeli soldiers taking part in a training session last week in the Golan Heights.CreditJalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images SYRIA-ISRAEL BORDER, Golan Heights — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Syria is going to explode. I know, you have heard that one before, but this time I mean really explode. Because the U.S., British and French attack on Syria to punish its regime for its vile use of chemical weapons — and Russia’s vow to respond — is actually just the second-most dangerous confrontation unfolding in that country. Even more dangerous is that Israel and Iran, at the exact same time, seem to be heading for a High Noon shootout in Syria over Iran’s attempts to turn Syria into a forward air base against Israel, something Israel is vowing to never let happen. This is not mere speculation. In the past few weeks — for the first time ever — Israel and Iran have begun quietly trading blows directly, not through proxies, in Syria. And this quiet phase may be about to end. Israel and Iran are now a hair-trigger away from going to the next level — and if that happens, the U.S. and Russia may find it difficult to stay out. Let me try to explain what is unfolding from a lookout post on the Syrian-Israel border, where I stood a couple of days ago. To follow along at home, I highly recommend this website, which tracks the multiple interlocking Syrian conflicts in real time and is used by the U.N. observers here on the Golan Heights. Let’s start with the fact that the latest U.S., British and French cruise missile punishment attack appears to be a one-off operation and the impact will be contained. Russia and Syria have little interest in courting another Western raid and raising the level of involvement in Syria by the three big Western powers. And the three Western powers do not want to get more deeply involved in Syria. It is the potentially uncontained direct shooting war brewing between Israel and Iran that is much more likely and worrisome, because it may be about to enter round two. Round one occurred on Feb. 10, when an Iranian drone launched by a Revolutionary Guards Quds Force unit operating out of Syria’s T4 air base, east of Homs in central Syria, was shot down with a missile from an Israeli Apache helicopter that was following it after it penetrated Israeli airspace. Initial reports were that the Iranian drone was purely on a reconnaissance mission. But the official Israeli Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said Friday that the drone’s flight path and Israel’s “intelligence and operational analysis of the parts of the Iranian unmanned vehicle” indicated that “the aircraft was carrying explosives” and that its mission was “an act of sabotage in Israeli territory.” I have no ability to independently verify that claim. But the fact that the Israelis are putting it out should raise alarm bells. If it is true, it suggests that the Quds Force — commanded by Iran’s military mastermind Qassem Suleimani — may have been trying to launch an actual military strike on Israel from an air base in Syria, not just reconnaissance. “This is the first time we saw Iran do something against Israel — not by proxy,” a senior Israeli military source told me. “This opened a new period.” It certainly helps to explain why Israeli jets launched a predawn missile raid on the Iranian drone’s T4 home base last Monday. This would have been a huge story — Israel killed seven Iranian Quds Force members, including Col. Mehdi Dehghan, who led the drone unit — but it was largely lost in the global reaction to (and Trump tweets about) President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons two days earlier. “It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets — both facilities and people,” said the Israeli military source. (After the story appeared, the Israeli Army’s spokesman’s office disputed the characterization and accuracy of the raid by my Israeli source, and emphasized that Israel maintains its policy to avoid commenting on media reports regarding the raid on the T4 airfield and other events. He would not comment further.) Russian and Syrian military officials both attributed the attack to Israel and the Iranians not only openly announced their embarrassing losses through the semiofficial Fars news agency — they have played down previous indirect casualties from Israeli strikes in Syria — but then publicly vowed to take revenge. “The crimes will not remain unanswered,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said during a visit to Syria. Since then, senior Israeli defense officials have let it be known that if the Iranians were to strike back at Israeli targets, Israel may use the opportunity to make a massive counterstrike on Iran’s entire military infrastructure in Syria, where Iran is attempting to establish both a forward air base, as well as a factory for GPS-guided missiles that could hit targets inside Israel with much greater accuracy — inside a 50-meter radius — and deploy them from Syria and with Hezbollah in Lebanon. These defense officials say there is zero chance Israel will make the mistake it made in Lebanon — of letting Hezbollah establish a massive missile threat there — by letting Iran do the same directly in Syria. Now you can understand why it is such a dangerous situation — even without the U.S., French and British punishment for Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Iran claims it is setting up bases in Syria to protect it from Israel, but Israel has no designs on Syria; it actually prefers the devil it knows there — Assad — over chaos. And it has not intervened in the civil war there except to prevent the expansion of Iran’s military infrastructure there or to retaliate for rebel or Syrian shells that fell on Israel’s territory. I understand Iran’s security concerns in the Gulf; it faces a number of hostile, pro-American Sunni Arab powers trying to contain its influence and undermine its Islamic regime. From Iran’s perspective, these are a threat. But what is Iran doing in Syria? Tehran’s attempt to build a network of bases and missile factories in Syria — now that it has helped Assad largely crush the uprising against him — appears to be an ego-power play by Iran’s Quds Force leader Suleimani to extend Iran’s grip on key parts of the Sunni Arab world and advance his power struggle with President Hassan Rouhani. Suleimani’s Quds Force now more or less controls — through proxies — four Arab capitals: Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and Sana. Iran has actually become the biggest “occupying power” in the Arab world today. But Suleimani may be overplaying his hand, especially if he finds himself in a direct confrontation with Israel in Syria, far from Iran, without air cover. After all, even before this, many average Iranians were publicly asking what in the world is Iran doing spending billions of dollars — which were supposed to go to Iranians as a result of the lifting of sanctions from the Iran nuclear deal — fighting wars in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. That is surely one reason Iran has not retaliated — yet. Suleimani has to think twice about starting a full-scale, direct war with Israel, because of another big story many people have not noticed: Iran’s currency is collapsing back home. Consider this April 12 story on CNBC.com: The Iranian rial “has plummeted to a record low amid growing economic and political uncertainty, causing a rush to the banks as Iranians desperately try to acquire U.S. dollars with exchanges forced to shut their doors to prevent long and chaotic lines.” The rial has lost one-third of its value just this year, the story noted. Moreover, Israeli military officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin and Suleimani are no longer natural allies. Putin wants and needs a stable Syria where his puppet Bashar Assad can be in control and Russia can maintain a forward naval and air presence and look like a superpower again — on the cheap. Iran’s President Rouhani probably also prefers a stable Syria, where Assad has consolidated his power and that is not a drain on the Iranian budget. But Suleimani and the Quds Force seem to aspire to greater dominance of the Arab world and putting more pressure on Israel. Unless Suleimani backs down, you are about to see in Syria an unstoppable force — Iran’s Quds Force — meet an immovable object: Israel. Fasten your seatbelt. This column has been updated.
Here is one thing we should be able to agree on.... Iran, China, Venezuela, Algeria, Lebanon, Hamas... when it comes to governments who treat their people how they should be treated, these are not the models we want to look up to. These are among the worst of the worst. And what do they all have in common, these are the countries with Russia and Syria who oppose the strikes in Syria. These are not the people you want to be standing next to in human rights issues
'' Consider this from last year; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...th-iran-after-army-chiefs-visit-idUSKCN1AX1AK Turkey to boost military cooperation with Iran after army chief's visit Reuters Staff ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey and Iran have agreed to boost military cooperation after talks in Ankara this week between the Iranian armed forces chief of staff and Turkish leaders, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Thursday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Iran's Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri in Ankara, Turkey August 16, 2017. Kayhan Ozer/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS Iran’s military chief General Mohammad Baqeri met Erdogan on Wednesday on a visit Turkish media said was the first to Turkey by an Iranian military chief of staff since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin described the visit as “fruitful and successful”, adding that talks focused on counter-terrorism, the battle with Islamic State, and a joint effort by Iran, Turkey and Russia to stem the fighting in parts of Syria. “An agreement was reached to hold further high-level visits from now on,” Kalin told a news conference. “A series of activities will also be held to boost military cooperation.” Baqeri’s trip to Ankara came days ahead of a planned visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States have been strained by Washington’s support for Kurdish YPG fighters leading the assault on Islamic State in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Turkey says the YPG is indistinguishable from the outlawed Kurdish PKK which has been waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey for more than 30 years. Washington sees it as a vital ally in the fight to defeat Islamic State. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Baqeri as saying he had agreed with Turkey to hold joint training courses, and increase counter-terrorism intelligence sharing. He said Erdogan would visit Iran in the near future. Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by David Dolan
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/nor...edly-set-to-announce-official-end-to-war.html North and South Korea reportedly set to announce official end to war Ahead of a summit next week between North Korean premier Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, lawmakers from the neighboring states were thought to be negotiating the details of a joint statement that could outline an end to the military conflict between the two countries. Pyongyang and Seoul have technically been at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended with a truce — and not a peace treaty. Sam Meredith | @smeredith19 Published 5 Hours Ago Updated 28 Mins AgoCNBC.com North and South Korea reportedly set to announce an official end to war 1 Hour Ago | 00:46 North and South Korea are in talks to announce a permanent end to the officially declared military conflict between the two countries, daily newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed South Korean official. Ahead of a summit next week between North Korean premier Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, lawmakers from the neighboring states were thought to be negotiating the details of a joint statement that could outline an end to the confrontation. Kim and Moon could also discuss returning the heavily fortified demilitarized zone separating them to its original state, the newspaper said. Pyongyang and Seoul have technically been at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended with a truce — and not a peace treaty. Geopolitical tensions have occasionally flared up since the armistice, although to date both countries have managed to avoid another devastating conflict. A successful summit between the Koreas later this month could help pave the way for a meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump. The U.S. president and North Korean leader are poised to hold talks in late May or June, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
I have no doubt that a Big Confrontation in the Middle East will occur one day .... any believer of Scripture could figure that out and it could be sooner than later. Trump and The New Guy in Saudi Arabia (among other ME Players) has thrown a "Big Wrench in the Works" and have many Globalists reeling. The Global Muslim Lovin" Usual Suspects all figured Billary was a shoe-in and the Obama pro-Muslim Policies of $$$$ pay-offs, Israel Bashing and USA surrender would continue .... and that Joker in Arabia ... where did he come from!!!??? There is much truth in the Article above but remember!!! The NYT & Ol' TomBoy are the voice of the Radical Trump/Israel/Christian Bashers and lovers of the Left Agendas to include unlimited Abortion, Perversion and the dismantlement of The Bill of Rights. You can bet that all there articles will be slanted to support those Agendas .... just like ABCNNBCBS-NPR & BBC! I still wonder at the complete 180 that the Democrats, NYT and the likes of TomBoy have made in regards to the Jews/Israel. It was only 10 years ago that the above cherished the Jews as one of their favored Victim Groups and cheered for Israel. Now the 100% in de Bag for Muslims and Jews have been kicked to the curb. One day I'm going to research that subject! GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
CD, That NYT's article that I posted is mentioned in the following article. After Iran Threatens Israel With Attack the Israeli Air Force Has the Best Response Ever Posted at 4:00 pm on April 17, 2018 by streiff https://www.redstate.com/streiff/20...-attack-israeli-air-force-best-response-ever/ While most of our attention was focused on the airstrikes carried out by US and allied forces on targets associated with Syrian chemical weapons production last Friday night, tensions between Israel and Iran are escalating. Unlike our airstrikes, the Israel-Iran conflict could result in a rather nasty little war. For the most part, Israel had limited its military targets in Lebanon to those manned by Hezbollah. Even though it is well-known that Hezbollah is nothing more or less than an Iranian proxy, the fiction was maintained that Hezbollah was acting alone. In February, Israel shot down an Iranian drone over Israeli territory. Instead of being a reconnaissance vehicle, this one was armed with explosives. An attack was carried out against the Iranian drone facility at an airbase near Homs, Syria. No one claimed immediate responsibility, but they have now: Initial reports were that the Iranian drone was purely on a reconnaissance mission. But the official Israeli Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said Friday that the drone’s flight path and Israel’s “intelligence and operational analysis of the parts of the Iranian unmanned vehicle” indicated that “the aircraft was carrying explosives” and that its mission was “an act of sabotage in Israeli territory.” … “This is the first time we saw Iran do something against Israel — not by proxy,” a senior Israeli military source told me. “This opened a new period.” (Save this link. This may be the first Tom Friedman column in years that has contained news and hasn’t involved praising dictators, or their high-speed rail systems, or involved a colloquy with a foreign cab driver.) Iran has vowed to retaliate: Iran has threatened to punish Israel for its airstrikes in Syria, after reports emerged that an unnamed Israeli military official had confirmed his country was behind an attack on an Iranian drone base in Homs province. Bahram Ghassemi, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has now warned “Tel Aviv will be punished for its aggressive action. The occupying Zionist regime will, sooner or later, receive an appropriate response to its actions,” Haaretz reported. Earlier this month, at least seven Iranian military personnel were killed in the missile strike on the T4 airfield, including Colonel Mehdi Dehghan, who led the drone unit. Syria, Iran and Russia all blamed Israeli forces. Israel has said if that happens, it will return the favor: View attachment 7700 And Israel has released aerial images of Iranian facilities along with pictures of their commanders just to underscore the vulnerability of the Iranian command structure and facilities: View attachment 7699 Iran can’t afford to not retaliate and it may be at the point where it has to retaliate itself and not use a proxy actor. If that happens it is difficult to see how Netanyahu doesn’t carry through on his pledge. From Israel’s standpoint, if the US is looking at trying to disengage in Syria, then provoking an open fight with Iran in Syria and Lebanon has a lot to recommend it. They could extract a heavy price from Iran and Hezbollah and they could do it while the US still has a military presence in the region.
Nikki Haley: We’re Not Done With Russia Over the Gas Attack in Syria Posted at 2:19 pm on April 15, 2018 by streiff https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/04/15/nikki-haley-not-done-russia-gas-attack-Syria/ UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was on CBS’s Face the Nation today and she made a significant announcement. Margaret Brennan: We’re joined now by the US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, she is in New York this morning. Good morning to you Madam Ambassador. The White House said there have been reports that since April of last year there have been at least 30 chemical weapons attacks in Syria; some involving sarin. Why did this particular attack last week warrant military action but the others didn’t? Nikki Haley: Good morning, Margaret. Well I think that obviously this was cumulative. He, Assad, had been using chemical weapons multiple times, but, more so, this was about the Security Council resolutions. We had up until this point had six different resolutions that would have dealt with investigative mechanisms for chemical weapons and Russia had vetoed all of them. And so we felt like we had gone through every diplomatic measure of talking that we could and it was time for action and I think one thing that we hope Assad got the message on is the international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life and the fact that he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering it up. All that has to stop. Margaret Brennan: Are there any consequences for Assad’s patrons Russia and Iran who continue to protect him? Nikki Haley: Absolutely. So you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. Secretary Mnuchen will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn’t already. And they will go directly to any sort of companies that we’re dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons use. And so I think everyone is going to feel it. At this point I think everyone knows that we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it. There are several items that Haley hits here. First, there is a feeling that the horror of using chemical weapons may be going away. Syria has used them several times. Kim Jong Un had his half-brother whacked in Kuala Lumpur last year. The Russians tried to use a nerve agent to take out a couple of inconvenient Russians in Salisbury. In fact, Theresa May directly tied the Syria strike to the Russian attempted hit just before the Syria attack. So increasing the price for using chemical weapons is part of an attempt to “de-normalize” their use. We should all hope that works. What we do when someone other than Syria does this remains to be seen. A second and major point is that the US is trying to restore an international order that makes the UN Security Council worthwhile. In retrospect, that’s probably why we took the time to get the Brits and French on board for Syria (heaven knows the generated de minimis combat power). The message sent by three members of the Security Council telling Russia that using its veto to protect its ally wasn’t going to work anymore was much more significant than a unilateral US strike. The other major point is that the Russians aren’t going to be allowed to sell nerve agent production equipment and chemical precursors and not be held accountable for how they are used. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating, but this is a solid first step. Nikki Haley Reads Russia the Riot Act as Their UN Security Council Stunt Fails Posted at 7:49 pm on April 14, 2018 by streiff https://www.redstate.com/streiff/20...sia-riot-act-un-security-council-stunt-fails/ Full text of Trump’s address regarding airstrikes in Syria The US president's statement on strikes against the Assad regime, as provided by the White House By AP 14 April 2018, 5:14 am https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-trumps-address-regarding-airstrikes-on-syria/ ... "Looking around our very troubled world, Americans have no illusions. We cannot purge the world of evil, or act everywhere there is tyranny." ... "We pray that God will bring comfort to those suffering in Syria. We pray that God will guide the whole region toward a future of dignity and of peace. And we pray that God will continue to watch over and bless the United States of America." ...
https://theconservativetreehouse.co...mergency-deal-to-close-nafta-tariff-loophole/ This Reuters article is framed around Mexico making a surprise announcement they will support the U.S. steel tariff against China by shutting down the NAFTA back door on that specific trade segment…. However, the bigger story is Mexico’s admission/concession to the U.S. trade position that Canada and Mexico structure access to the U.S. market inside their trade deals with other nations. With a Marxist about to win the July 1st election; and with certain nationalization of private industry soon to follow; and with free capital markets anticipating and responding by shifting investment into the U.S.; Mexico proposes to close the fatal flaw in NAFTA. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The ministers leading the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could meet again on Thursday in Washington as they push for quick progress, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Monday. Guajardo said he had spoken to Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday and would talk to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday to see about agreeing a trilateral meeting in Washington on Thursday. Speaking after meeting with steel industry executives, Guajardo also said if that the United States imposed steel tariffs, Mexico might seek to mirror the move against some countries in order to prevent them from using Mexico to elude the duties. Teams of trade experts from the United States, Mexico and Canada have been meeting for weeks to try to narrow their differences on NAFTA, and Guajardo said a total of 10 chapters of a revised deal were now concluded or virtually settled. But he did not expect major announcements on Thursday. “Thursday is about starting to work through the list of issues pending. The truth is the horizon going forward is a horizon of a couple of weeks,” Guajardo told reporters. By shipping parts to Mexico and/or Canada; and by deploying satellite manufacturing and assembly facilities in Canada and/or Mexico; China, Asia and to a lesser extent EU corporations, exploited a loophole. Through a process of building, assembling or manufacturing their products in Mexico/Canada those foreign corporations can skirt U.S. trade tariffs and direct U.S. trade agreements. The finished foreign products entered the U.S. under NAFTA rules. Why deal with the U.S. when you can just deal with Mexico, and use NAFTA rules to ship your product directly into the U.S. market? This exploitative approach, a backdoor to the U.S. market, was the primary reason for massive foreign investment in Canada and Mexico; it was also the primary reason why candidate Donald Trump, now President Donald Trump, wanted to shut down that loophole and renegotiate NAFTA. This loophole was the primary reason for U.S. manufacturers to relocate operations to Mexico. Corporations within the U.S. Auto-Sector could enhance profits by building in Mexico or Canada using parts imported from Asia/China. The labor factor was not as big an aspect of the overall cost consideration as cheaper parts and imported raw materials. All nuanced trade-sector issues put aside, the larger issue was always how third-party nations will seek to gain access to the U.S. market through Canada and Mexico. [It is the NAFTA exploitation loophole which has severely damaged the U.S. manufacturing base.] That’s why this trade admission by Canada and Mexico is stunning. […] U.S. President Donald Trump has driven the renegotiation of NAFTA, arguing that the deal has hollowed out American manufacturing to the advantage of lower-cost Mexico. Trump has threatened to use other measures, such as slapping import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, to gain leverage over Mexico and Canada in the NAFTA talks. Both countries have been initially exempted from the tariffs. Guajardo said that if Mexico remained exempt, the government would consider mirroring any U.S. tariffs on countries with which Mexico did not have a free trade agreement. Otherwise Mexico could become a “back door” for Asian imports the United States wanted to discourage, Guajardo said. (read more) Oh SNAP. That is one heck of an admission. However, the qualifier: “on countries with which Mexico did not have a free trade agreement“… is sketchy. Yet even within that qualifier Mexico and Canada are admitting to their exploitation; that’s a big admission. We shall wait and see where this new development goes, because there’s no way that Trump and Lightizer are going to watch Mexico and Canada admit to what they do with Steel/Aluminum, and not demand they apply the same “mirror standard” to other aspects, industries, materials and sectors of the agreement. By admitting to the flaw on Asian imports, Mexico is opening the negotiation door to all product sectors. This is the FATAL FLAW we did not anticipate Mexico and Canada ever agreeing to close. Rest at the link...
PLAYING WITH NUCLEAR MATCHES 14 April 2018 Behind President Donald Trump’s bluster and threats over Syria, powerful forces are pushing the US towards war with Russia and Syria: the neocons and the military industrial complex. For a candidate who once proposed a normal relationship with Russia, just peace in the Mideast, and an end to America’s foreign wars Donald Trump is now hurtling towards a full-scale war with Russia and a new disaster in the Mideast. Not since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis has the danger of nuclear war seemed to close. While Trump fulminates about the alleged use of toxic gas in Syria, US B-1 and B-52 heavy bombers are flattening villages in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The bloodbath in Syria was ignited in 2011 by the US, Saudi Arabia and their allies in an effort to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who was failing to accept US tutelage and too friendly with Iran. By my count, this was the third attempt by Washington to overthrow a Syrian government since 1948. Believe very little of what we are told about Syria. Trump threatens to again attack Syria because it is alleged to have used chlorine gas on anti-government defenders and civilians in the Ghouta enclave near Damascus. This may be true – or a fabrication. Much of our information on Syria comes from ‘false flag’ outfits set up by western intelligence like the ‘White Helmets’ and ‘Syrian Observatory,’ Britain’s once independent BBC, now a major organ for government information warfare, and the majority of US government ‘guided’ mainstream media hankering for a Mideast war. Interestingly, the reliable Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz just reported that Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, donated $1.1 million to a rabid American anti-Muslim group during the 2016 elections. Lauder was joined by Robert Mercer, another leading far right Muslim-hater and Trump supporter. Such religious/racial hatred will likely blow up in their faces one day when the anti-Muslim far right turns on Jewish Americans. Israel’s government plans to fragment Syria, just as was done with Iraq. This would eliminate the only remaining credible Arab state opposing Israel’s domination of the region and, equally important, allow Israel to begin expropriating chunks of Syria, notably water sources and pipeline routes. Britain is trying to show the old lion still has some teeth. France used to be colonial ruler of today’s Syria and wants to reassert its influence there. The timing for Israel is ideal. Trump may have been a Trojan Horse for US neocons. He has named ardently pro-Israel figures to senior posts: the loathsome Nikki Haley to the UN; the well-known ‘crazy’ from Bush days, John Bolton, as National Security Advisor; the notorious torturer madame, Gina Haspel, as new CIA chief and so on and nominated tea-party Mike Pompeo from darkest Kansas as Secretary of State of all people. The State Dept. has been quietly purged of ‘Arabist’ experts who understood the Mideast. The Christian fundamentalist machine that provided Trump his support base is running white hot promoting modern-day Crusader passions and hatred of Muslims. Nice bedfellows for Ron Lauder. With this potent neocon amen chorus now singing at high volume, Trump, who evaded military service during the Vietnam War (when this writer was in US uniform), now thinks he can bully Russia into crying uncle and backing down in Syria, leaving it to the US and Israel. He has misread President Vladimir Putin who is hard as steel but also very clever and deft. Trump is violating the most important rule of US diplomacy: never, ever get into a confrontation with a nuclear-armed power. Russia, which lost 30 million dead in World War II will not be lightly bullied into retreat. The Russians know if they back down over Syria, the US will then proceed to its ultimate objective, dismantling the Russian Federation and turning it into a client state. This almost happened under the drunken Yeltsin and is why Putin came to power. Let’s hope Gen. Jim Mattis and the US military will deter Trump from more war-mongering. Trump is a child playing with nuclear matches. Putin may even help Trump find a way out of this game of nuclear chicken, as he did with President Obama. That is, provided the neocons clustered around him don’t manage to trigger a war with Russia. https://ericmargolis.com/2018/04/playing-with-nuclear-matches/
Mr. Trump takes a swim in the swamp. Can he get out? Does he want to get out? Posted on April 15, 2018 by mike The U.S.-led attack on Syria was reckless, unnecessary, and self-defeating, but most of all it is clear testimony to the fact that the republic and its Constitution are nearly dead. Simply put, President Trump acted in the same matter as his four immediate predecessors; that is, as an elected dictator defying the Constitution and knowing that the supine Congress will do nothing to recover its sole and non-delegable constitutional prerogative to authorize the United States to go to war. After eight years of war in Syria, not one genuine U.S. national interest – economic, military, or any other – has been damaged even slightly. The only American lives or limbs lost there were aid workers and journalists who knowingly put themselves in harm’s way, and several U.S. troops who were sent to Syria unconstitutionally and died there uselessly and wastefully. In other words, whether 35 of 3,500 Syrians were killed by gas at Douma, that attack — like all others in Syria over the since 2011 — was irrelevant to genuine U.S. national security concerns, not matter how severely they offend the sensibilities of some Americans. Indeed, genuine U.S. national interests have benefited from the Syrian war. Russian President Putin threw his geopolitical dice and lost. As a result, he has been steadily spending his military’s lives, equipment, and monetary resources on a secondary Islamist threat to Russia, while the priority Islamist threat to Russia and its Commonwealth of Independent States is emanating from Afghanistan. Geopolitical realities aside, Trump’s decision to join Britain and France to strike myriad targets in Syria is fundamentally a decision that would be made only by an Neocon or a hostage being threatened with death. Think about it, three nuclear powers attack a fourth and its ally because 35 Syrians were killed by poison gas that was dropped on them by what possibly was an Israel-run, false-flag operation. Under the morally indignant mantra “Assad gassed his own people!” Trump, Britain’s Theresa May, and France’s Emmanuel Macron launched missiles to chastise the foul Arab fiend and his Russian protector. Western morality and might again save the world. Well, wait a minute. Trump leads a nation that has killed more than 60-plus millions of its own children; abolished majority rule in favor of rule by a motley, violent, and badly educated mix of racial, sexually deviant, and fascist minority groups; and has made the rule of law and the Bill of Rights quaint things of the past. Might not these depravities merit attack and destruction by some other nation or nations under the banner of morality and saving innocent Americans? Turn-about, after all, is fair play. And what of Trump’s partners in this premeditated military intervention in Syria? Well, both May and Macron have been and are still attacking and killing their own people, and ruining their national economies, with the violent Muslim and African immigrants they have allowed to flood their countries. Their attacks are as bad or worse than Assad’s. He at least leads a sovereign government trying to save a moderate independent nation-state from Islamist forces. May and Macron, on the other hand, are deliberately trying to kill the sovereign states they were elected to protect, as well as the civil liberties of those who voted for them. In Britain and France, unwanted, unneeded, and dole-supported immigrants are shooting, raping, robbing, kidnapping, knifing, and acid-dousing native-born citizen. Police often take days to respond to such attacks, and then tend to arrest the victims, and those who defend them, for “hate speech” if they damn their attackers publicly or on social media. It would not be a surprise to learn that the governments of May and Macron are facilitating the murder-by-immigrant of twelve of their own citizens each day. May and Macron make Assad look like a commonsense Syrian patriot, and they merit ending up hanging from the gallows, and soon. Back to Trump. The president, in this attack, has made himself at least the temporary enemy of every man and woman who voted for him and against the continuation of their national government’s half-century of unconstitutional, interventionist, and unnecessary wars. In a single night, Trump forfeited his status as a symbol of hope and courage by knowingly descending into the swamp to attach himself to a long, stinking, and blood-stained line of lying U.S. presidents, a war-mongering brotherhood of average-American-hating men. Can he or, perhaps more accurately, does he want to get a grip and drag himself out of the sewer in which he decided to swim? We’ll see. Finally, the military interventionism of Trump and his generals, as well as those of his predecessors and their generals, must be seen for what it is; namely, proof that there is absolutely no such thing as “American Exceptionalism”. Since 1945, most U.S. presidents, both political parties, and the governing elite have hewed closely to history’s well-trodden path of war-making rulers who do not give a damn about the welfare or desires of their citizens. This kind of behavior is unbearable by itself. But it becomes shameful, deranged and murderous when it is gussied up in the silken robes and diadem of “American Exceptionalism” and claims to be seeking to make the world safe for democracy as the bayonet’s point is pressed hard against the bellies of foreign peoples. The interventionists, since V-J Day, have used America’s young as cannon fodder abroad, and treated citizens at home as simple-minded workers from whom every last dollar in taxes must be wrung to pay for more war and war-industries. America’s Founders, to their everlasting glory, knew that there was nothing exceptional about Americans. Those men believed that they and their fellow citizens were part of the common-run of mankind, fallen creatures of God who were capable of great good and despicable evil. The only exceptionalism the Founders saw in their countrymen and new republic was three-fold: (a) the citizens’ birthright to English liberties; (b) the republic’s location on the astoundingly well-watered, fertile, and natural resource-rich North American continent, and (c) the remoteness of that continent from the rest of the world, and especially those states and empires that wanted no republic to survive. To nurture English liberties, take advantage of America’s geographical exceptionalism, and avoid all but necessary wars, the Founders crafted a foreign policy based on commonsense, neutrality, and non-intervention. Though they did not call their handy-work an “America First” policy, that is what it was, and it guided the republic’s international conduct for most of the 140 years that preceded the 1912 election of Woodrow Wilson, the first high and sanctimonious priest of American Exceptionalism. Since Wilson intervened unnecessarily in Latin America, the European War of 1914-18, and the Russian revolution and its aftermath, U.S. presidents have sought to bury the successful record of Founders’ America First policy and replace it with gangsterish military interventionism, clad in faux moralistic rhetoric, we see and hear today. At least six notable men have stood up and defied the interventionists since 1917: Senator Robert M. La Follette, Brigadier-General Charles Lindbergh, Patrick J. Buchanan. Dr. Ron Paul, Dr. Rand Paul, and Donald Trump. –Senator Robert M. La Follette was a Republican from Wisconsin who supported Woodrow Wilson’s re-election in 1916 because that charlatan was still advocating American neutrality in the Great War. When Wilson showed his interventionist intentions, La Follette adamantly opposed America’s entry into World War I, and, after the war, he labored publicly and in the Senate — with other non-interventionists — to successfully stop the surrender of U.S. sovereignty and independence required by the Treaty of Versailles and U.S. membership in the League of Nations. –Building on La Follette’s work, and the anti-interventionism of his own father, Brigadier-General Lindbergh was the heart of the “America First” movement in the late 1930s. He was, as well, the greatest American hero of the 20th century. The price Lindbergh paid for trying to keep America out of a then-unnecessary war was to have his reputation permanently ruined by the label “anti-Semite”, which was indelibly attached to him by British government and Jewish-American leaders, media, and organizations. To this day, the latter U.S.-based groups have maintained and periodically refreshed this libeling of Lindbergh, even through the work of prominent novelists and biographers. –Mr. Buchanan and the two Dr. Pauls resuscitated the fading embers of Lindbergh’s America First blaze. They were consistently targeted and tarred in the same manner as Lindbergh, but courageously persevered and not only successfully kept the fire lit, but kept it slowly growing for decades. –Mr. Trump came onto the scene promising to out-Lindbergh Lindbergh on the issue of America First. So far that promise has been a black lie, which, for me, is a lie that not only seems to display a person’s mendacity but offends the commonsense of Americans, especially that of the parents who have lost sons and daughters in their presidents’ unnecessary and always lost interventionist wars. It is up to you, now, Mr. Trump. Did you come to praise and save the republic, or to finish it off and bury it? For now, at least, the sound of shovels digging a grave seems to be coming from the White House. http://non-intervention.com/3184/mr...swamp-can-he-get-out-does-he-want-to-get-out/
