News of the Times
Posted on January 4, 2016 by CH
Is anyone listening? Last week we wrote how resolutions are being proposed in Congress and cities across America effectively paving the way for the restriction of speech they find offensive or “hateful”. Well, here you go America, Twitter has unveiled a new rule, with overtones of sharia compliance written all over it.
Bye bye birdie..literally
Twitter’s new rule states they “will not tolerate behavior intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence another user’s voice. As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs — but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse.”
” Will not tolerate behavior intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence another user’s voice.” Exactly what the government and Islamists are doing to main stream Americans. While jihadi groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda continue to slip their warning to the west into Tweets and posts which the government says is too encrypted to catch, Americans most likely will be the target.
Alwaleed bin Talal, a senior member of the Saudi royal clan, has pledged $32 BILLION dollars of his own money to” foster cultural understanding” of Islam in America and the West, which has landed in the hands of Muslim Brotherhood front groups to continue pushing their agenda forward. Talal also just happens to have substantial stock in Twitter, to further assist in the door opening for Islamic supremacy.
This explains the arrogance and smugness of Islamists like Hamas member Nihad Awad, the executive director of the terror organization CAIR ( Council On American Islamic Relations ) as they march on to their goal, unfazed by the constant exposure. They receive millions from a bottomless pit to continue on.
It isn’t just the Islamists we need to worry about either. Hillary Clinton, who back in 2008 (then Sec of State) was part of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) draft proposal to create a “Defamation of Religion Law” otherwise known in the Muslim world as a Blasphemy Law. Its outline consists of the possibility of criminalizing speech that is offensive or sacrilegious to religions, with the major emphasis on Islam.
Unfortunately this is only just the beginning. Our freedom of speech is threatened like never before, then it will be our freedom of thought and expression. Our Constitution and way of life is under attack, and life goes on. Social media is the first to go, then websites that allow to write just as we have done here for 4 years. But what will you do? What if the end result is arrest for blasphemy? This is it folks, our freedoms are no longer free.
See you in jail
This Just Became The Most Important Map In Geopolitics
Earlier today, in “Mid-East Melee: Sectarian Showdown Looms As Bahrain Cuts Ties With Iran, UAE Recalls Ambassador,” we brought you the latest from the war-torn Mid-East where a worsening spat between Saudi Arabia and Iran threatens to plunge the region into chaos.
Make no mistake, things were already out of control. The conflict in Syria has mushroomed into a global proxy war, Iraq is struggling to drive Islamic State from key cities, and Yemen remains mired in war nine months after the Saudis entered the fray to drive back the Houthis and restore the Hadi government.
Against that backdrop, the region could have done without the events that unfolded over the weekend. By executing prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Riyadh has infuriated the Shiite community which took to the streets in protest, even going so far as to firebomb the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
In order to understand the upcoming sectarian strife and in order to fully grasp who belongs to Iran’s sphere of influence and who is loyal to the Saudis, one needs to have a working knowledge of what the Sunni-Shiite split looks like across the region. Because this is set to become the key geopolitical issue in the weeks and months ahead, we thought it an opportune time to present the following map from Goldman which does a nice job of delineating the sectarian split. Note the asterisks which indicate the affiliation of a country’s leadership.
From Goldman
Where are the main sectarian and ethnic divides in the Middle East today? Saudi Arabia and Iran, with their large respective Sunni and Shiite majorities, are generally viewed as two major opposing forces in the Middle East. They lie on opposite sides of an abstract and somewhat contentious demarcation known as the Shiite crescent, an area of Shiite influence stretching from Iran through southern Iraq and into parts of Syria and Lebanon.
The region’s geopolitical, religious, and sectarian relationships are in reality more dynamic and complex. The conflict in Syria continues to pit anti-government insurgents, including Sunni Islamists, against the Alawite (Shiite) government’s forces and Shiite militias supported by Iran. In Iraq, some Sunnis have felt increasingly disenfranchised under the Shiite-majority government in Baghdad (a relatively new development given Iraq’s long history of Sunni rule). The Islamic State (IS) militant group has exploited this sentiment, particularly in the Sunni-majority areas of northern Iraq.
How are the different branches of Islam represented in politics? In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the rulers adhere to the same branch of Islam as the majority of their citizens. However, this is not always the case. Despite being predominantly Shiite, Iraqis lived under Sunni rulers for much of history, including under the Ottoman Empire and the Ba’thist regime of Saddam Hussein. (Ba’thists are members of the Arab Socialist Ba’th Party, a political party founded in Syria in the 1940s on platforms of Arab nationalism and anti- colonialism. In Iraq, the Ba’thists governed from 1958 until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.) The Iraqi Ba’thist regime was secular in name but reserved political influence for the Sunni elite. In a break from its long history of Sunni political dominance, Iraq is currently ruled by a Shiite-majority government centered in Baghdad. Conversely, in Sunni-majority Syria, members of the Shiite Alawite sect have controlled the government since 1970.
What is the composition of Sunnis and Shiites in the Muslim world today? Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims worldwide – an estimated 85-90%. Sunnis comprise 85% or more of the Muslim populations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates, and 70-85% in Kuwait, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Shiites comprise the majority in Bahrain, Iraq, and Azerbaijan (all 60-65% Shiite), as well as in Iran (90-95%), home of the largest Shiite population. Although the Middle East and North Africa region is overwhelmingly Muslim (93%), it is home to only around 20% of Muslims worldwide. The majority – over 60% – lives in the Asia-Pacific region.
Is 2016 The Year Of The Dollar Collapse?
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
On September 4, 1993, President Bill Clinton spoke about the American Dream in a weekly radio address.
He told his audience that “in America, the idea is that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for your children.”
That’s what America used to stand for, and indeed much of the Western world. Freedom. Truth. Hard work and fair play. Building a better life.
But those ideals have all but faded now, displaced by a new normal of war, debt, government surveillance, freedom-killing bureaucracy, and a monetary policy that decimates responsible, hard-working people for the benefit of a tiny elite.
In his end-of-year commentary in the Washington Post, writer George Will summed up 2015 citing example after example of government overreach and excess–
The value of property seized by the US federal government through Civil Asset Forfeiture exceeded the value of property stolen by burglars and thieves
Florida police raided a Mahjong game played by four women aged 87 through 95 because they were *gasp* betting with their own money
New Jersey police arrested a 72-year old retired schoolteacher for illegally carrying a firearm– a 300-year old flintlock pistol he had purchased from an antique dealer
A 9-year old in Florida was threatened with sexual harassment charges for writing love notes to a girl saying that her eyes sparkled like diamonds
George Will’s list, of course, barely scratched the surface of the tip of the iceberg.
2015 was the year that the middle class was officially vanquished in the Land of the Free, with its share of the population falling to just 50%.
US federal debt reached nearly $19 trillion in 2015, an increase of almost $750 billion during the calendar year.
The US government published over 80,000 pages of new regulations, making it nearly impossible to understand ‘the rules’, let alone play by them.
2015 also saw the passing of incomprehensibly terrible laws, including the USA Freedom Act, which restored many of the worst parts of the PATRIOT Act that were set to expire.
Then there was the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, passed at the end of the year, which officially turns the Land of the Free into a gigantic information-sharing surveillance state.
And of course the 2015 spending bill, which as of 3 days ago, allows the US government to strip you of your passport if they believe in their sole discretion that you owe them money.
These are hardly the actions of a solvent, trustworthy government, or a nation that’s on the right track.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this story doesn’t have a happy ending.
We can pretend that this time is different, that this country is different, that there is some special sauce that allows this government to run massive imbalances forever.
But deep down we all know the truth… and where this is headed.
I’ve read no shortage of apocalyptic predictions suggesting that 2016 is the year of the dollar collapse. Or the global economic collapse.
Or something else that invariably ends in the word ‘collapse.’
I don’t believe that. First, no one can credibly answer the question “when?”
Governments have surprised us all with their uncanny ability to kick the can down the road and delay the repercussions of their folly.
But I don’t really think the question of ‘when’ is relevant.
Nearly every major western government is insolvent. Entire monetary and financial systems are insolvent.
Governments have destroyed their own middle classes, giving rise to the greatest wealth gap that has existed since the Great Depression.
The risks are obvious. And you either stick your head in the sand and ignore them, or you take steps to reduce their impact on your life.
It’s like anything else – if you live in a wildfire zone, you get fire insurance. And you’ll never be worse off for having good coverage on your home to protect your family.
Having a Plan B just makes sense, regardless of whether a major disaster occurs in 2016, next year, or never.
We can’t see the future, we can only see the risks today. Develop a Plan B that addresses those risks, and you’ll never have to worry about the future again.
Hizballah blows up “Mossad” patrol – first of more to come
Hizballah blows up “Mossad” patrol – first of more to come
Shortly after debkafile’s forecast of a Hizballah revenge strike for the Samir Quntar assassination, a Hizballah roadside bomb blew up against an IDF patrol at the Shebaa Farms on the Hermon slopes Monday afternoon, Jan. 4. No casualties were caused. debkafile’s intelligence sources report that this attack was just the first of a continuous offensive Hizballah is planning, that will spread from the Lebanise-Israeli ceasefire lines to the Golan.
Are you all getting ready to see Christ in the clouds?
Posts
