Russian president offers a lesson in belligerent media handling Trump could learn from
Vladimir Putin’s interview with Armin Wolf, a reporter with the Austrian state ORF TV channel, in advance of the Russian president’s today’s visit to Austria, was a work of art.
As if to justify his last name, the reporter attacked Putin like a wolf, rudely interrupting the Russian president before he could finish his answers. It is a tactic that other lamestream media reporters (i.e., Megyn Kelly of Fox News) also used when Donald Trump was running for president.
Unlike Trump, Putin never lost his cool. Instead, he slammed the Austrian media hound dog, the Wolf if you prefer :-), resorting to perfect German so that both the reporter and the Austrian audience would get the message.
Take a look at this excerpt from the interview.
Putin also took a swing at George Soros, the controversial American-Hungarian billionaire who has supported numerous NGOs in different countries, including in the Ukraine.
“There is such a person in the US, Mr Soros, who interferes in affairs all over the world. There are rumors circulating now that Mr Soros is planning to make the euro highly volatile. Experts are already discussing this.
Ask the [US] State Department why he is doing this,” Putin said. “The State Department will say that it has nothing to do with them – rather it is Mr Soros’ private affair.”
Putin also commented on the Korean crisis.
“If the North Korean leader is backing up his intentions with practical actions, for example, giving up new tests of ballistic missiles, new nuclear tests, the other side should reciprocate in a tangible manner,” he said, calling regular US military drills in the area “counterproductive.”
Meanwhile, the new “Drang Nach Osten” Continues as US pushes Georgia to join NATO
Mike Pence said Tuesday that President Donald Trump would soon sign into law a new package of sanctions against Russia.
So what’s he waiting for?
Of course, the obedient lapdog media who accompanies Pence on his drum-beating visit to Georgia, a former Soviet republic, not the US southern state, do not get jetted, wined and dined on international trips like this to ask challenging questions.
My guess?
Trump is now getting an earful from other powerful international leaders about how stupid and suicidal it would be for the US to start a trade war with the world. So maybe he’s having second thoughts? God willing… though I am not holding my breath.
NEW “DRANG NACH OSTEN,” NATO’S PUSH TOWARD RUSSIA CONTINUING
Meanwhile, Pence’s visit to the former Soviet state on Russia’s southern border reaffirmed the continuation of a Russophobic trend the Truth in Media first identified in April 1995 (see “New Drang Nach Osten” (Push toward East): Taming the Russian Bear” – https://www.truthinmedia.org/Columns/Drang.html).
The US VP used the opportunity to push for Georgia’s admittance to NATO during a visit to US troops who are stationed there (did you know we had troops there? I did not). They were participating in joint multinational military exercises “Noble Partner 2017” at an airbase outside Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.
Back in April 1995, I wrote:
“Napoleon tried it. It didn’t work. Bismarck eventually also gave up on the idea. The German Kaiser and the Hapsburg emperor, as well as later Adolf Hitler, provoked two world wars in this century pursuing the “Drang Nach Osten” (“Eastward Push”) goal. Having caused the suffering by millions of people, including their own, they also failed.rus-ring.gif (44632 bytes)
Yet, kicking Russia out of Europe is still the objective of the current U.S. developed, and Washington-Berlin executed strategy, thinly veiled under the “Partnership for Peace” slogan.”
At the time, we also called NATO the New “Iron Curtain” over Europe and painted it back on the map. The updated map shows the new members in olive-drab and the new target acquisitions in yellow.
The geopolitical maps you see here are part of that article. I have just updated them to the current time frame to show the NATO expansion that has taken place since I wrote that 22 years ago.
With Ukraine and Georgia in bag of NATO minions, Washington’s encirclement of Russia would be complete.
YELTSIN BLEW IT
Back in 1995, when I first published that “Drang Nach Osten” piece, I was working as a war correspondent and geopolitical commentator on the Balkans conflicts. During one of my earlier visits to Bosnia (in 1994), I had a chance to share this research and charts with General Ratko Mladic, the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army, and his HQ staff.
The general’s grasped the geopolitical significance of this analysis right away. Alas, his army was too weak by that stage of the war to take on an enemy as powerful as NATO by itself. And its one possible ally – Russia – was floundering.
At the time, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president, was on his knees (figuratively) begging the IMF for a loan. Here’s what I said about that:
“On April 12, 1995, the day the IMF finally approved his loan, Yeltsin set the price for “Mother Russia’s” sovereignty – a mere $7 billion! The amount seems like a bargain-basement price which may go down in history alongside some other major give-aways, such as the sale of Alaska by the Russians.”
When Vladimir Putin took over from Yeltsin in 2000, Russia was in shambles – robbed, plundered and pillaged of its assets by the local quislings of the New World Order and western bankers. For a few years, Putin acted in good faith, hoping that he can negotiate with the powers that be of the New World Order.
Alas, Putin eventually realized that was impossible. As Winston Churchill allegedly shouted at one of his ministers who wanted to negotiate a peace treaty with Hitler after Dunkirk, “you don’t sue for peace when your head is in the jaw of a tiger.” [paraphrasing]
And so here we are, the NATO tiger is trying to add another bite to its eastern meal – Georgia. The new Iron Curtain over Europe is spreading to the east.
PUTIN LASHES OUT AT WASHINGTON’S TREACHERY AS HE WELCOMES CRIMEA BACK INTO RUSSIA’S FOLD – March 2014 –http://wp.me/p3QU1S-dG and IS PUTIN NAIVE OR COY? – Nov 2014 –http://wp.me/p3QU1S-yl).
Donald Trump’s surrender to the forces of the New World Order is now complete. The last of the “Trump conservative Mohicans”, a lightning rod who infuriated the “liberals” like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other George Soros neo-commies, has left the White House. But Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist until yesterday, did not leave quietly.
“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon said Friday (Aug 18) to the Weekly Standard, a conservative newspaper, shortly after confirming his departure.
“We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.” (Steve Bannon: ‘The Trump Presidency That We Fought For, and Won, Is Over.’ http://tws.io/2vSOD2F)
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY DIED ON AUG 2, THE DAY HE SIGNED RUSSIA SANCTIONS BILL
Not to split hairs, but actually the Trump presidency died on Aug 2, the day the president signed the Russia sanctions bill, which he himself said was unconstitutional as he was signing it (see A SAD SURRENDER – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-2sR).
Here’s what the Truth in Media said on Aug 2:
TRUMP HAS NOW PROVEN HE IS ONE OF “THEM” AND, THEREFORE, AGAINST “US”
“We now have a lame duck president walking with a tail between his legs… a White House Eunuch” (Truth in Media, Aug 2, 2017)
Guess that was too much to hope for – that a New York multibillionaire would have the balls to take on his peers, and act as a true populist president in the interest of the American people. Trump has now proven that he is one of “them” and against “us,” the American people.
Shame on you, Donald Trump! The whole world can see now that you are just another impotent eunuch serving the New World Order’s interests.”
The New World Order “deep state” now have Trump in their grip like a python, slowly squeezing the (political) life out of his presidency. If he is not impeached, he’ll be used by the NWO from now on as a useful idiot. Or as an actor who will pontificate on their behalf, as Ronald Reagan had done.
It would appear that Steve Bannon also saw the light in the same way as we did. According to Fox News (see the video below), Trump’s chief strategist actually submitted his resignation on Aug 7, five days after Trump’s sad surrender to our sold out Congress. But the Trump’s war of words with North Korea and Charlottesville events cause the White House to hold back on making it public until yesterday.
Also see this Fox News report… (just the first 4 minutes should suffice).
Among the senior advisers competing with Bannon in trying to shape Trump’s agenda, and his tone, were the president’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared, and Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary (all Jews, by the way). Bannon pointedly voiced criticism of those in the president’s sphere whom he considered to be globalists, or liberals (or both), and the president himself plainly bristled over the early attention that Bannon got from the press (including a Time magazine cover, which is said to have particularly irked Trump).
Aug 2, 2017
TRUMP: A SAD SURRENDER
Trump signs the sanctions bill
We now have a lame duck president walking with a tail between his legs
Yes. Just minutes ago (11:20 AM PDT), I read a dispatch from Washington that indeed, Donald Trump signed this morning the new Russia sanctions legislation into law (see https://on.rt.com/8jcz). And like every lame duck president with a tail between his legs, he added a lament naively that the American people would not notice his betrayal, and how he buckled under to the pressure of the New World Order warmongers:
“Today, I have signed into law HR 3364, the ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.’ While I favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House.
In its haste to pass the legislation, Congress “included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions,” Trump said.
The biggest problem with the bill is that it “encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate,” which will make it harder for the US to strike good deals and will “drive China, Russia, and North Korea much closer together,” according to the president.
Well, whoopie-doo. If Trump really believes the sanctions are unconstitutional (as the Truth in Media also said last week), why did he sign them.
OUR PATHETIC EUNUCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE IS ALL BLUSTER, NO BALLS
TRUMP, WHO SWORE “TO PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION”, VIRTUALLY ENDS HIS PRESIDENCY BY SIGNING A BILL HE HIMSELF CALLS “UNCONSTITUTIONAL”
Russia’s Prime Minister: “New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power”
The US establishment has fully outwitted Donald Trump and used his administration’s weakness to declare a fully-fledged economic war on Russia, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote last night on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Dmitry.Medvedev/posts/10154587161801851),
The “Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way,”Medvedev wrote.
“This changes the power balance in US political circles,” Medvedev wrote, asserting that the US establishment’s end game is to remove Trump from office.
TRUMP SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
The first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency have established one fact beyond doubt. He was still an outsider in the corrupt Washington swamp that he had promised to “drain.” The Congress has been thwart him from achieving his promises to the American people by throwing obstacles in his way every step of the way.
So there was no question from Trump’s viewpoint who his ENEMIES are. It is not Russia. It is not China. It is not India. Not even Iran.It is our corrupt Congress.
Last week, this Congress who has been selling out the interests of the American people to their corporate sponsors for decades, passed a legislation that the Truth in Media immediately labeled as not only unconstitutional, but also destroys dozens of international laws. Yesterday, It is a declaration of GLOBAL DICTATORSHIP by the US.
Trump himself agreed with us and called the Russia sanctions bill unconstitutional. And yet he signed it nevertheless, surrendering to his enemies and abandoning his sworn duty “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
In its haste to pass the legislation, Congress “included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions,” Trump said after he had signed the bill.
Which means that in feeble attempt to stay in office a bit longer Trump has decided to sleep with the enemy.
That’s treason all around. Our country is becoming an unconstitutional dictatorship of the murderous New World Order elite.
MEDVEDEV’S PREDICTION: THEY WILL REMOVE HIM (TRUMP) FROM POWER
The American political elite, Medvedev said in his last night’s missive, is not interested in Trump’s pragmatic approach or the interests of US multinationals who spoke out against any new sanctions.
“New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power. A non-systemic player has to be removed,” Medvedev underlined.
“This legislation is going to be harsher than the Jackson-Vanik amendment as it is overarching and cannot be lifted by a special presidential order without Congress’ approval. Thus, relations between Russia and the United States are going to be extremely tense regardless of Congress’ makeup and regardless of who is president,” Medvedev outlined.
In short, we now have our own White House eunuch. Trump is all bluster no balls. And “the American political elite,” as the Russian PM called them, are once again running the show.
And what a grim show it will be – starting with a declaration of a global trade war and repudiation of normal international laws and codes of conduct.
It does bring back memories of British PM Neville Chamberlain returning from a meeting with Hitler in Munich September 1938 and holding up the agreement which he called “PEACE IN OUR TIME.” And we all know what followed.
So we now have our own Chamberlain. His name is Trump. Question is – will we find another Churchill?
—
JULY 29, 2017 [start of the thread of articles]
Trump intends to sign the Russia sanctions bill, the White House announced in a statement
TRUMP HAS NOW PROVEN HE IS ONE OF “THEM” AND, THEREFORE, AGAINST “US
And now, the betrayal of the American people is complete. And the world’s hopes of peace have been dashed.
Donald Trump is clearly one of “them” – the dogs of war in the Senate and the House who sold out the American people to the New World Order’s “death merchants” and bankers.
In one fell swoop, Donald Trump has been neutered, reduced to another NWO eunuch, having lost control of the US foreign policy. Just like all his predecessors in the last three decades.
“We did not give Congress presidential powers which include making foreign policy. So this legislation is not only invalid under international law, it is also UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
That’s why Trump needs to take on all the traitors in the House and Senate head on and veto this unprecedented legislation.
Of course, since most of the Congress has been bought by the warmongering Russophobic anti-Trump deep state, they can overturn the veto. Let them.
That’s when Trump should consider dissolving the Congress which violated our Constitution with this legislation, and then call for new congressional elections.
Trump should then take the case to the American people with a proposed new constitutional amendment or a new Constitution (the latter would be my preference).
THAT’S HOW ONE DRAINS THE DC SWAMP. So that all snakes and reptiles are gone forever.
If Trump were to do that, he would be fighting not only for the rights and freedom of the American people. He would be fighting for WORLD PEACE. So he would have the support of the entire planet in this noble endeavor.”
TRUMP HAS NOW PROVEN HE IS ONE OF “THEM” AND, THEREFORE, AGAINST “US”
Guess that was too much to hope for – that a New York multibillionaire would have the balls to take on his peers, and act as a true populist president in the interest of the American people. Trump has now proven that he is one of “them” and against “us,” the American people.
Shame on you, Donald Trump! The whole world can see now that you are just another impotent eunuch serving the New World Order’s interests.
RUSSIA TO RETALIATE – HARSHLY
Stand by for Russia’s retaliation. Of a harsh kind. Which is what the American warmongers have been pushing for. They want a Cold War II. But what if they get World War III?
Russia will likely retaliate in ways that go beyond the expulsion of US diplomats and the seizure of American diplomatic recreation areas that took place Friday, George Beebe, a former director of Russia analysis at the CIA, told CNN. Russia is likely to more actively work against US interests on the international stage.
“He is in a lose-lose situation here,” Beebe said. “There really are no good options for him on this.” Beebe added that Trump’s signature will confirm to the Russians “that he’s lost control of Russia policy.”
“He can’t not act,” said Angela Stent, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and Eastern European Studies, referring to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. “He has to show Russia can’t be pushed around by the US.”
As the danger of an escalatory tit-for-tat grows, mechanisms meant to prevent US-Russian confrontation have been breaking down.
WHAT WILL CHINA DO?
So it appears certain now that we are heading for Cold War II with Russia. But there is a wild card here in play that was not there when the first Cold War started in 1947.
That wild card is China, Russia’s close friend and partner in the anti-American BRICS organization. Thanks to the American globalists, China has now become the world’s greatest economic power. And its military might is not too shabby either.
And the new Russia sanctions legislation affects not only Russia, but all of its partners, including the EU and China and India and Brazil and South Africa (the BRICS countries).
If the US warmongers think they can control and overpower all of these nations, they have another think coming to them.
Over 500 years ago Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) had warned them about that, writing in “Prince:”
“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a NEW ORDER OF THINGS (emphasis added).
For, the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order; this lukewarmness arising partly from the incredulity of mankind who does not truly believe in anything new until they actually have experience of it.”
I used this quote in my March 1994 editorial CHINA FOLLIES (http://wp.me/p3QU1S-2oQ). It warned against feeding the Chinese tiger. It fell on deaf ears.
Two days ago, I also said in a Truth in Media editorial that “not learning from history is a terrible thing.” Trump and his cohorts in the Senate and the House are about to experience just how terrible it is. And so are we, the American people.
STARTING A GLOBAL TRADE WAR IS SUICIDAL, PSYCHOPATHIC, MEGALOMANIC BEHAVIOR OF U.S. POLITICIANS
When Donald Trump signs the Russia sanctions bill, he and the Congress will have effectively declared a trade war on the world.
In their hatred of Russia, they and their Wall Street masters, may soon find out that they have overplayed their hand. And that such sanctions can boomerang as quickly and potently as they can be launched. And that the American economy may end up the biggest victim of their suicidal, psychopathic and megalomanic behavior.
The U.S. politicians still seem to live the illusion that the U.S, is the most powerful economy in the world. It is not. And it has not been for about three years now. The US economy has been sliding down the top countries’ list for at least the last three years (see the Truth in Media report, CHINA HAS ALREADY SURPASSED U.S. AS WORLD’S BIGGEST ECONOMY – June 23, 2015 – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-Yf).
And that’s something you’re not hearing from our politicians or the lamestream media, are you?
The U.S. economy is only #3 in the world, behind China and the EU, in terms of the GDP’s purchasing power parity. All three of our sources agree – the IMF, World Bank, and the CIA (see the chart).
FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT
And there is our national debt. It is at record levels – nearly $20 trillion. That’s a number which an average person would find pretty hard to fathom. So let me bring it closer to home.
Our government has mortgaged us – yes, you and I – to the tune of $60,818 per each American. And we never signed or approved any loan applications, did we?
So to whom we owe all that money?
To many entities, both public and private. But the most important part in terms of this sanctions discussion are the foreign holders. They own about 45% of that enormous debt. And Japan and China are by far the biggest holders among them.
RETALIATION OPTIONS: “A VERY RICH TOOLBOX” AT RUSSIA’S DISPOSAL
And not just Russia’s…
So now that you know all these economic facts, perhaps you can better understand what Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov meant when he said yesterday that there is ‘a very rich toolbox’ at Russia’s disposal” (see http://wp.me/p3QU1S-2pn).
And not just Russia’s. Russia’s economy is closely linked with that of China, India, Brazil and South Africa- its BRIC partners. And it is both geographically and economically tied to Europe, the second largest economic block in the world, after China and the U.S.
When Trump signs this legislation into law, the economies of all of these countries will be hurt. And together, they are several times more powerful than the U.S.
That is why the new Russia sanctions are suicidal, psychopathic and megalomanic. And here’s why…
SOME RETALIATION OPTIONS
It may be some time before each country affected by the new sanctions reaches its decision about how to respond, but here are some possibilities.
SCENARIO 1 – TRADE TARIFFS AGAINST U.S. IMPORTS
Let’s suppose China, Russia, India and maybe even some European countries decide to impose heavy tariffs on all or select U.S. imports?
Boomerang! Suddenly the hurt the American politicians were hoping to inflict upon Russia would bounce back and hit the U.S. economy. The Wall Street bubble would burst. Layoffs, increased unemployment to follow across America.
Oops, didn’t think of that on Capitol Hill and the White House?
SCENARIO 2 – DUMP US TREASURIES, RETURN TO GOLD STANDARD
As you saw, China has been the biggest holder of US treasuries for most of the last two decades. It is still in a virtual tie with Japan. Both countries’ holdings are more than four times bigger than those of the #2 and #3 countries (Ireland and Brazil). Four of the five BRICS countries are among the top 13 foreign holders of US debt. And they would all suffer if Trump signs the new Russia sanctions into law.
So declaring a trade war against the biggest holders of US debt is both suicidal and psychopathic behavior. It’s like a mortgage holder threatening the bank that is holding his debt and has him by his “cojones.” (Sorry, ladies, I could not think of an equivalent feminine metaphor at the moment). 🙂
So what could these foreign lenders do, starting with China? They could sell their US treasuries. And the US dollar would drop like a rock.
Of course, everything comes at a price. That would make their exports to the U.S. more expensive and the U.S. imports cheaper in their domestic markets. That’s where the Scenario 1 comes in – slap the high tariffs on US products to even the scales.
Besides, the US is not China’s largest trading partner. That honor belongs to Europe. And China is Europe’s second largest export market.
So if these countries banded together, they could not only increase their bilateral trade, they do away with the US dollar as the world currency of trade and exchange altogether. After all, that’s what the BRICS countries are already starting to do.
The Russian central bank, for example, opened its first overseas office in Beijing on March 14 of this year, taking a step forward in forging a Beijing-Moscow alliance to bypass the US dollar in the global monetary system, and to phase-in a gold-backed standard of trade (see https://goo.gl/3qoYJf).
Under a gold bullion standard, paper notes are convertible at a preset, fixed rate with gold bullion.
Gold certificates were used as paper currency in the United States from 1882 to 1933. These certificates were freely convertible into gold coins.
So the world would evolve “back to the future” when gold, something the US bankers could not easily manipulate, would once again be king of world trade.
FDR TOOK DOLLAR OFF GOLD STANDARD IN 1933, NIXON FINISHED THE JOB IN 1971
By the way, that image of the US dollar $100 banknote is not a photoshop. Such Gold certificates were used as paper currency in the United States from 1882 to 1933. These certificates were freely convertible into gold coins.
That’s what made the US dollar the world’s currency of choice. But the greedy Wall Street bankers changed the rules, starting with FDR in 1933. so as to be able to better manipulate the dollar and use is as a weapon in their quest for global dominance.
In 1934, the government price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets by 69 percent. This increase in assets allowed the Federal Reserve to further inflate the money supply.
The government held the $35 per ounce price until August 15, 1971, when Richard Nixon announced that the US would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value,
Alas, one result is that the dollar is now worth only a tiny fraction of that it used to be (the last chart).
SCENARIO 3 – CONFISCATE AND NATIONALIZE U.S. CORPORATIONS’ ASSETS
This scenario is the darkest. Let us hope it never comes to that. But if the Scenarios 1 and 2 did not bring the U.S. politicians back to their senses, some countries may choose to do what the U.S. government has already done to Russia – unlawfully seize their property in America.
What if some of these countries seized the assets of U.S. corporations? And maybe even nationalized them?
Of course, all hell would break loose in New York and Washington. And maybe that would be a doomsday scenario for WW III. But it would certainly awaken everybody in corporate America from their smug, self-centered and arrogant attitude toward other countries.
So, there’s much to think about, right? And much that our president and lawmakers have not thought through.
May God have mercy on America, although I am not sure we deserve it.
UPDATE JULY 31, 2017
GERMANY CALLS FOR “COUNTERMEASURES” AGAINST US RUSSIA SANCTIONS
It has started… that trade war, that is, the retaliatory statements are pouring in. First from Austria, then Russia, and today from Germany, too.
“I consider the Russia sanctions imposed by the US absolutely unacceptable,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is expelling 755 American diplomats from its embassy in Moscow.
And today, Europe’s most powerful country called for the EU to retaliate against the US.
New sanctions against Moscow proposed by US lawmakers violate international law and officials in Brussels should consider countermeasures, the German economy minister said on Monday.
“We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple,” Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain.
“Of course we don’t want a trade war. But it is important the European Commission now looks into countermeasures,” she added.
According to the minister, “the Americans can not punish German companies because they operate economically in another country.”
China has still not said anything yet publicly about the sanctions. Yet when it speaks, it will be the most powerful voice in the world.
Lest we forget, the China and the EU are the world’s most powerful economies. The US is third. Once China decides to enact its own “countermeasures,” it could be game over for the Wall Street and Washington gang.
Sadly, it is the American people who will take it on the chin when unemployment lines start to stretch from New York to Los Angeles.
On the other hand, we did put those Washington traitors into office. So I can’t say we don’t deserve what’s coming our way from the rest of the world.
WHY HAS TRUMP NOT SIGNED THE BILL AS YET?
PS: The White House said last week that Trump would sign the sanctions bill. Why hasn’t he? It does not take long to take pen to paper. Is Trump having second thoughts after probably getting an earful over the weekend from powerful leaders around the world? Maybe starting with Putin and Xi Jinping and Angela Merkel?
The fight is on – not between the U.S. and Russia, but between our two houses – the House of Representatives and the White House
Also see, HOW TO DRAIN THE DC SWAMP – July 28 update at the end
Can you imagine what would happen in this country (and the world) if countries like, say, China or India, announced sanctions against the most successful U.S. industries. Such as information technology (computers), for example, or telecommunications, or military technology, or aerospace, or…?
And these sanctions would not be limited only to the Chinese or Indian companies. These sanctions would apply to all their trading partners around the world. Like the EU, or Japan, or Brazil, or Canada.
I’ll tell you what would happen: There would war. The lamestream media would go berserk. Wall Street would demand immediate retributions, and Washington would meekly and obligingly put our armed forces and military might at the Wall Street disposal as they have in all the wars in the last quarter century.
U.S. SANCTIONS SEEK TO PUNISH NOT ONLY RUSSIA BUT ALSO U.S. INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS, LIKE THE EU
Now imagine the shoe were on the other foot. The latest package of sanctions, passed by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, targets Russia’s major defense, mining, shipping and railway industries. In other words the country’s lifelines, the pride and joy of Russia’s creativity and industry, and its most advanced technologies, some more so than those in the U.S. (like aerospace, or various other military technologies).
As if that were not bad enough, the new sanctions also include penalties on European companies engaged in joint EU-Russia energy projects, with the Gazprom-run Nord Stream 2 flagship pipeline being the most probable targets.
Now, take a deep breath and put yourself in Vladimir Putin’s shoes. What would you do? This is an unprecedented attack, a virtual declaration of war, in which one GOVERNMENT uses all of its political might to help the business of its PRIVATE MULTINATIONAL companies. And in the process breaks many of the longstanding international laws and practices.
Now, here’s what Putin’s initial reaction has been…
PUTIN’S REACTION: New sanctions “extremely cynical.”
“It’s an obvious attempt [by the US] to use its geopolitical advantages in the competitive struggle with the goal of ensuring its economic interests at the expense of its other allies,” he added.
“As for the extraterritorial nature of the US legislation, I have been talking about this for a long time, starting from 2007… This practice is unacceptable, it destroys international relations and international law,” he said.
Russia’s president warned that Moscow is already running out of patience with Washington’s “impudence.”
“As you know, our behavior is very restrained, patient, but at some point we will have to come up with a response. It is impossible to endlessly endure impudence towards our country,” Putin said.
He said that Moscow “hasn’t yet seen the final version (of the US sanctions legislation), that’s why we don’t have a final opinion on the issue.”
“But we see that for a long period of time [there have been] constant attempts to provoke us,” the Russian leader added.
RIGHT ON CUE: U.S. CONGRESSIONAL WAR DOGS SEEKING TO DESTROY THE FRUIT OF BUDDING TRUMP-PUTIN FRIENDSHIP
Everything is happening right on cue. The day after the first and historic meeting between the American and Russian presidents at the G20 summit in Hamburg, (see https://www.facebook.com/ groups/truthinmedia.org/ permalink/1162310413915570/)
“Trump and Putin had “positive chemistry” during their first meeting, Tillerson said, adding that there was “so much to talk about” that neither leader “wanted to stop.” The two “connected very quickly,” said (Rex) Tillerson (US Secretary of State).
That’s great. Now let’s sit back and watch how the lamestream media and other warmongers among the New World Order crowd try to derail this rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia at presidential levels.
Now it remains to be seen who is in charge here – Trump or the NWO foreign policy masters.”
So the fight is on. Not between the U.S. and Russia, but between our two houses – the House of Representatives and the White House.
The former have sold their souls and votes to the U.S. death merchants and other bankers and industrials. It remains to be seen if our President is really for peace and prosperity, as he has said, or will cave in to the dogs of war.
CONSISTENCY OF HATRED OVER A QUARTER CENTURY
Meanwhile, as these Truth in Media cartoons show, originally published in 1994 and 1995 respectively, there has been an unquestionable consistency of US hatred and warmongering against Serbia and Russia during the last quarter century.
Is it a “coincidence” that both are predominantly Orthodox Christian countries? There is no such thing, of course, as a coincidence when it comes to the New World Order actions.
Any time the US, or its other New World Order minions, extended an olive branch with one hand to Russia or Serbia, they held deadly weapons behind their backs.
Like aligning themselves with all kinds of unsavory factions, characters and groups, including drug dealers and Islamic terrorists (in Kosovo and Chechnya, for example), whom they used as proxies in the fight against the Orthodox Christians.
MARXISM/COMMUNISM WAS A WESTERN IMPORT INTO RUSSIA
This is not new news. Here’s an excerpt from my Nov 1996 Washington Times column, “The Demo Farce and the American Century”, https://www.truthinmedia.org/ Columns/DEMO%20FARCE.html, also carried in Russian by Moscow’s ZAVTRA (“Tomorrow”) in Dec 1996:
“The Marxism/Communism ideology was a western invention which the West planted into Russia, and then used it as a cover for launching an all-out campaign against the Eastern Orthodox Christians,’ said Vladimir Bondarenko, a Russian writer and deputy editor of a Moscow opposition paper, ‘ZAVTRA’ (‘Tomorrow’), who spoke on Nov 3, 1996 at a meeting in Phoenix.
If Bondarenko is right, and if the Western industrials’ anti-Eastern Christian Orthodoxy policy has been one of the constants of the 20th century, then hundreds of millions of good people, the law-abiding, God-fearing Americans and other western Christians have been duped. They’ve been fooled (by one communist gang, such as NWO’s Brzezinski et. al.) into fighting ‘communism’ – a ‘bogus bogey,’ over the backs of their Eastern Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters. And on behalf of our real enemies – the Godless industrial globalists (a rival gang).”
MH17 MASS MURDER WAS ALSO ABOUT SANCTIONS’
Let us also not forget that, just like these new sanctions, the downing of the MH17 in July 2014 was supposed to shock and awe Washington’s European allied into submission. Just like now, they were starting to flaunt the US sanctions and continue the “business as usual” trading with Russia.
The mass murder of some 300 innocent civilians, mostly Dutch, aboard the MH17 did indeed shock the Europeans into falling in line behind the U.S.
“With friends like Washington,” the Europeans must have reasoned, “who needs enemies.” And caved in.
Three months earlier (in Apr 2014), this writer penned an editorial which pointed out that the US Russia policy is and has been entirely ANTI-EUROPEAN (see EUROPE: ALL PAIN, NO GAIN, Apr 26, 2014 – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-iF).
A month earlier, Putin also lashed out at the US treachery (see NATO: TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE, Truth in Media, March 2014 – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-dG). Little did he know back then what kinds of crimes with mass murderers are capable of.
What will Europe do now if these new sanctions are implemented? Will they cave in again? Or will it take an “MH18” disaster to bring them to heel?
Maybe not this time.
“I consider the Russia sanctions imposed by the US absolutely unacceptable,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “Confusing political interests with economic interests at the expense of European jobs is a no-go.”
“Energy supply of Europe is a matter for Europe!” Kern added (for more, see… https://on.rt.com/8ivr).
“These types of sanctions in position is economic suicide for America,” said Mx Kaiser, RT editor. :They are pushing Germany into the arms of Russia. Germany is the center piece of NATO, and NATO will disintegrate… ”
So if this were to come to pass, maybe some good come out of all this hatred and warmongering.
“This is stupid,” Kaiser continued.”It’s is the policy of morons. Why? Because the deep state in America wants to keep feathering their nests by warring all over the world, killing innocent civilians. Donald Trump hopefully will stand up to this.” (for more, see… https://on.rt.com/8ivq).
We will let Kaiser have the last word. After all, he is a Kaiser. 🙂
UPDATE JULY 27, 2017: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY… 1974
HOUSE BEGINS IMPEACHMENT OF NIXON
On this day in 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.
On August 8, Nixon announced his resignation, becoming the first president in U.S. history to voluntarily leave office.
That was 43 years ago when we had a “bad” president. Now the situation is reversed. We have a “bad” Congress (both the House and the Senate). These traitors have sold out the interests of the American people to their death merchant, bankers and industrial backers, including some foreign sponsors.
That’s treason. And yet we have no constitutional tools to deal with that kind of abuse of office. Our Founding Fathers, honorable men that they were, could conceive of such travesty.
As the Roman poet Juvenal wandered rhetorically in the first century AD, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (“who will guard the guards?”).
So how do we impeach the impeachers?
Donald Trump talked a lot about “draining the swamp” during the campaign. Here’s his chance.
LET’S DRAIN THE SWAMP, MR PRESIDENT. LET’S IMPEACH THE BASTARDS.
Flashback to Trump-Putin’s first summit on July 8, 2017 at the G20 meeting in Hamburg
July 9, 2017
EVEN MELANIA COULD NOT BREAK UP THE TRUMP-PUTIN BONDING
But will Nikki Haley do it?
The “historic” first Trump-Putin meeting on July 7, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, hijacked Angela Merkel’s carefully planned agenda for this summit of world leaders. Not only did the media focus only on that event, even Melania Trump could not pry her husband away from Putin.
The meeting was scheduled to last 30-40 minutes. It went on for 2:16 hours. Poor Japanese prime minister Abe, who had a meeting scheduled with Putin right after Trump’s, had to cool his heels like a valet until the two world leaders were finished bonding with each other.
Afterward, Putin apologized to Abe on behalf of both himself and Putin.
“I had a tremendous meeting yesterday with President Putin,” Trump said today (July 8) while speaking with UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
It must have been. Because even Melania could not pry her husband away from Putin.
First Lady Melania Trump was sent into the meeting at one point to see her husband and try to “get him out,” Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson said.
“Clearly, she failed,” the top US diplomat joked, adding that the meeting went on for another hour after that.
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who has been Putin’s spokesperson since 2000,, disagreed. He said that a “certain affection” had developed between the Russian leader and Trump’s wife, Melania, who sat next to the Russian president at the official G20 dinner, revealing that the two discussed several issues on the summit agenda, including gender equality and women’s economic participation.
Trump and Putin had “positive chemistry” during their first meeting, Tillerson said, adding that there was “so much to talk about” that neither leader “wanted to stop.” The two “connected very quickly,” said Tillerson.
That’s great. Now let’s sit back and watch how the lamestream media and other warmongers among the New World Order crowd try to derail this rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia at presidential levels. Including those whom Trump had appointed to their jobs, such as the UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
‘We cannot trust Russia & we won’t ever trust Russia’ – she has already squawked today in a CNN interview.
Right on cue. Now it remains to be seen who is in charge here – Trump or the NWO foreign policy masters.
If it is the former, Trump should fire Haley immediately for insubordination. It is the President, not the UN ambassador, who makes foreign policy.
And if Trump does not, then well… we’ll also have an answer as to who is in charge, won’t we?
NEW WORLD ORDER’S WAR DOGS IN THE SENATE, NATO AND THE UN ARE ALREADY BARKING THEIR HEADS OFF, TRYING TO DERAIL TRUMP-PUTIN DETENTE
Biggest threat to New World Order: If Reap Peace Were to Break Out between U.S. and Russia
They are so predictable. The uproar has already started. The New World Order war dogs are already barking their heads off. On orders, of course, of their warmongering masters.
I said yesterday in my piece about the friendly meeting between the Russian and American presidents on July 7 (see EVEN MELANIA COULD NOT BREAK UP THE TRUMP-PUTIN BONDING), that the new detente will come under attack by the mad war dogs of the New World Order. Because the later could not exist without Russia as a bogey and an enemy.
So the news that Putin and Trump hit it off so well must have rung alarm bells across the New World Order boardrooms. And immediately they sent their attack dogs to try to derail the deal.
First yesterday, the UN ambassador Nikki Haley had the nerve to attack her own president who appointed her to that job (see ‘We cannot trust Russia & we won’t ever trust Russia’ – she has already squawked July 9 in a CNN interview.).
Then today, three warmongering Republican senators – Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida – immediately criticized the Trump-Putin idea “to form an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe”, saying Moscow could not be trusted.
Just like Nikki Haley yesterday. Reading of the same warmongering New World Order page? Birds of a feather that flock together? You betcha.
And then also today, “NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg Called On Russia To Remove ‘Thousands Of Troops’ From Ukraine”.
Excuse me? Russian troops in Ukraine, while the US military are steadily building up their presence since 2015. Clearly another distraction and diversion attempt by the NATO and US military war dogs.
Because at the same time as Stoltenberg was mouthing off this nonsensical accusation against Russia, guess what the U.S. military were doing? Conducting massive war games just off Ukrainian coast (see Sea Breeze: US sends missile warships, Navy SEALs to massive war games off Ukraine coast).
As I said, they are so predictable. Because the biggest threat to the New World Order would be if real PEACE were to break out between the U.S. and Russia. So they are calling all their war dogs into action trying to prevent that from happening.
Gill Fisher, an FB reader from South Carolina, wrote this about my editorial on new Russia sanctions:
“The worst mistake America can make right now. In Trump we trust – so Congress ties his hands behind his back. WE did not elect Congress for president.”
Here’s my reply:
True. We did not give Congress presidential powers which include making foreign policy. So this legislation is not only invalid under international law, it is also UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
That’s why Trump needs to take on all the traitors in the House and Senate head on and veto this unprecedented legislation.
Of course, since most of the Congress has been bought by the warmongering Russophobic anti-Trump deep state, they can overturn the veto. Let them.
That’s when Trump should consider dissolving the Congress which violated our Constitution with this legislation, and then call for new congressional elections.
Trump should then take the case to the American people with a proposed new constitutional amendment or a new Constitution (the latter would be my preference).
THAT’S HOW ONE DRAINS THE DC SWAMP. So that all snakes and reptiles are gone forever.
If Trump were to do that, he would be fighting not only for the rights and freedom of the American people. He would be fighting for WORLD PEACE. So he would have the support of the entire planet in this noble endeavor.
(just like I predicted in my editorial NEW WORLD ORDER SNAKE TO BE EXPELLED FROM AMERICA – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-1TK – written 2 weeks BEFORE the election last year).
UPDATE JULY 29, 2017
RUSSIA AND US MUST “START ANEW OR EVERYTHING WILL BE IN TATTERS”, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Be sure to check out the ALTZAR comment at the end re. “DECISION MAKERS IN NEW YORK”
“It was the last drop that made all this happen,” the Russia’s No. 2 diplomat said referring to the “completely weird and unacceptable” bill approved by US lawmakers on Tuesday.
The deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov called on the US to put an end to the retaliation measures and turn over a new leaf in bilateral relations, which are currently in “a miserable state.”
“My hope is that this vicious circle of retaliation will not continue. Measures and counter measures shall stop by now,” Ryabkov said.
“Now we should start anew and my call to the counterparts in Washington and also to Ambassador Tefft is to stop now, we should start building a new house, a new construction or a very different type, otherwise everything will be in tatters.”
Elaborating on Moscow’s decision to downsize of the number of US diplomatic corps in Russia to the same number of Russian diplomats in the US, Ryabkov said Russia has waited seven months before resorting to the measure.
“We waited so long, we thought it was sufficient time for decision makers in New York to change their minds, it didn’t happen,” he said, adding that “now we are equals” in terms of diplomatic staff numbers.
However, if Washington turns a deaf ear to Moscow’s plea, there is “a very rich toolbox” in Russia’s disposal, according to the deputy minister. While Ryabkov refused to disclose any exact retaliation steps as it would be “unprofessional,” he assured that “different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things both symmetrical or asymmetrical.”
“Every child in the US knows what the words ‘no trespassing on private property’ means. Meanwhile, we saw the US law enforcers just taking completely unacceptable measure on private property that belongs to a foreign state. We can’t have more evidence of a very wrong direction in which political thinking in the US has taken in recent time.”
Ryabkov was referring to the action taken by the Obama administration in the waning days of their tenure (Dec 29, 2016) in which they unlawfully seized two Russian diplomatic compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats.
ALTZAR: And now, what do you think was the most important thing Russia’s No. 2 diplomat said here? To give you a clue, it is in the 6th paragraph.
“We waited so long“… “for decision makers in NEW YORK to change their minds.”
It was probably a slip of the tongue, but Ryabkov did speak the truth. The DECISION MAKERS in this country are in NEW YORK, not Washington. It is in New York where the head(s) of the New York Order serpent reside.
Also see… FDR OPENED WALL STREET-WASHINGTON REVOLVING DOOR IN 1934, KENNEDY WAS THE FIRST TO WALK THROUGH IT – An Explosion of Wall Street-Washington Collusion in the last Quarter Century – July 26, 2015 – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-15J
Austria deploys armored vehicle and troops on its border with Italy, takes steps to protect its cultural legacy
The Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Austrian ambassador July 4 over Vienna’s decision to re-introduce border controls. The move comes as Austria announced it was ready to deploy troops and armored vehicles to the Italian border over the growing migrant inflow.
“We need to prepare for the migration development in Italy, and I expect very promptly that border controls will have to be activated and assistance requested,” Hans Peter Doskozil told the online edition of the Krone daily.
By assistance the official means deploying 750 soldiers and four armored vehicles to the border, and the minister described the measure as “indispensable if the influx doesn’t diminish.” The forces can be fully operational within 72 hours, according to Doskozil. (for more, see… https://on.rt.com/8gym)
Editorial Comment
EUROPEAN BORDERS ARE A JOKE
European Union is supposed to be a borderless “country” using a single currency – the Euro. In theory. In practice, it is anything but. It’s a boiling cauldron of nationalities and cultures trying to be noticed and respected. Some are trying to protect themselves from being absorbed in the EU melting pot.
Like Austria, for example. once the seat of an empire, now just a tiny landlocked country of 8.6 million people.
During our recent month in Europe, Elizabeth and I have crossed the borders of 9 countries, some multiple times. And what we have experienced is a total inconsistency in both the border controls and the use of currency.
Britain, for example, which has voted to leave the EU, never actually changed its currency. The pound still king, or queen, if you prefer, that once also great empire.
In Spain, Austria and Slovakia we used the Euro. But once we crossed into Hungary, we had to change our money to forints. And again the next day when we crossed from Hungary into Croatia, where they use the kuna.
Yet all these countries are members of the EU. But not all of the “Eurozone.” Such fine distinctions were lost on us, American tourists. We thought the EU is the EU. Like the US. It is actually anything but.
We also had to go through border controls – passports, customs, just like in the old days, when we crossed from Hungary into Croatia, and when we crossed from Croatia into Slovenia.
The latter was particularly annoying. The Slovenians kept a long line of cars waiting for an hour and a half at the border just to take a perfunctory look at our passports, give us an unfriendly snarl, before waiving us through.
“I think I am going to have to write an editorial about this,” I told Elizabeth as we continued our drive. “To help other Americans who might make the same assumption as we did – that Europe is united.”
AUSTRIA DEFENDING HERSELF FROM ISLAMIC INVASION
We also witnessed other cracks in the EU “multicultural” armor during our stay in Austria. This predominantly Christian country, which suffered repeated military assaults by the marauding Ottoman Empire in the 17th century is now succumbing to a Muslim invasion.
Thanks to its EU membership and the lose immigration rules, Austria’s Roman Catholic share of the population has dropped from 89% in 1961, to 74% in 2001 to 58.8% as of 2016. The Muslim share, on the other hand, went from zero before the EU, to 4% in 2001 to 7% in 2016. And since the latter birth rates are much higher, such demographic invasion is threatening to achieve what the Ottoman Turks never accomplished.
So Austria is starting to defend herself, first legislatively, and now we see also at its borders with a fellow EU country – Italy.
While we were there, the Austrian Foreign Minister said the country would end Islamic kindergartens to boost integration. ‘We don’t need them’, Sebastian Kuz was quoted as saying (see https://on.rt.com/8fny). According to the foreign minister, proficiency in German must become a gateway to Austrian society.
In late May, Austria also passed law forbidding full-face Islamic veils in public. Starting in October, a €150 fine ($166) will be levied on women wearing burkas and niqabs.
The legislative package that was passed on Tuesday night also requires asylum seekers to take a one-year integration course, during which they must learn Austrian ethics and the German language, German newspaper Bild reported. (see https://on.rt.com/8bxf).
Norway, one of the most tolerant countries in Europe, has also proposed similar legislation this year. So is Switzerland, though the latter is not an EU member.
Bottom line?
Not only are the European borders a joke. The entire notion of European “unity” is a joke. This idea is actually a top-down imposed “Eurotopia,” as I put it in another editorial published 22 years ago (see below – http://www.truthinmedia.org/Columns/Drang.html).
“PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE” (April 1995)
And so the wars will continue. And so will NATO’s “Drang Nach Osten” (Eastward Push) against Russia, following in Hitler’s footsteps. And the “perpetual war for perpetual commerce” – New World Order’s slogan – to the tune of Beethoven’s 9th.
And the “Eurotopia” called the EU, will fester on, feeding like a leech on the wallets of European people – the New World Order sheeple. Just like the NWO leeches are doing in the U.S., Australia, Canada and elsewhere around the “developed” world. (see SELLNG FEAR TO BUY SUBSERVIENCE, MAY 12, 2015 – http://wp.me/p3QU1S-VB)/
Era of Peace?
What a joke! Sounds more like “Eurotopia.” Which was a subtitle of my 22-year old article about the New World Order’s conquest and enslavement of European nations, enroute to trying the same in Russia. As you will see, many of those opinions have now come true. Unfortunately – for the once “free Europe.”
“Partnership for Peace” – Modern-day Version of “Drang Nach Osten” Strategy – April 19, 1995
In 2011, the IRS Wasted $3.6 Billion on Fraudulent Refunds, Even Sending Thousands of Refunds to Foreign Countries
In One Account Alone, the IRS Deposited 590 Tax Refunds!
23,944 Tax Refunds Were Sent to Just One Address in Atlanta, Totaling $46,378,000!
In 2015, Americans will pay $3.3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total bill of more than $4.8 trillion, or 31 percent of the nation’s income, according to Tax Foundation. That’s more than this country of 319 million people spends on food, clothing, and housing – combined! (see TAX OPPRESSION IN AMERICA, Apr 2015).
Bad enough, right, when you consider how our money is being squandered on foreign wars that only benefit certain banks and corporations instead of building up our society. But what if I told you that the government’s collection agency – the IRS – is sending thousands of refunds to fraudulent recipients across the country, and even to foreign countries, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, China or Ireland?
In one account alone, the IRS deposited 590 tax refunds. A total of 23,944 tax refunds Were sent to just one address in Atlanta, totaling $46,378,000.
These are just some of the example of gross negligence the IRS exhibited in processing electronic filing of our income tax returns, according to a letter to the IRS commissioner signed by 39 House Representatives in Apr 2014 (Congressmen’s letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen).
United States Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen appears before a House Oversight and Government Reform Government Operations Subcommittee hearing on “Examining Solutions to Close the $106 Billion Improper Payment Gap” in Washington July 9, 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
So what has the IRS done to plug these leaks in over a year since that letter was sent? It appears not much. Because today, May 26, the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said that tax return information for about 100,000 U.S. taxpayers was illegally accessed by cyber criminals over the past four months (see Reuters story).
From February to May 2915, attackers sought to gain access to personal tax information 200,000 times through the agency’s “Get Transcript” online application, which calls up information from previous returns, he told a news conference. About half of those attempts were successful.
The data theft was largely intended to steal taxpayers’ information to submit fraudulent returns next year, Koskinen said.
The agency currently believes that fewer than 15,000 fraudulent returns were processed as a result of the breach, likely resulting in refunds of less than $50 million.
In response to this story, we received a letter from Rita Redmond, a Truth in Media reader in Phoenix, who said she was a victim of such an identity theft.
“In April 2014, I realized my SS# had been stolen and someone filed a Federal Return using my Tax ID#. How is it that mine (and I was certain others’ tax refunds) could have gone into someone else’s bank account? What kind of fire-walls does the IRS have in place? I felt they should have tighter IT security applications at the front end, rather than all the clean up at the other side and the loss of dollars.”
Indeed. Here’s what the Truth in Media editor wrote on that topic earlier today:
“Wonders of technology! Not !!!! This what happens when the government FORCES us to file electronically. First they spy on us electronically – and illegally. Then they let our private information slip through their fingers.”
“Perhaps the IRS should be charged with criminal negligence. For those not familiar with legal terms, “criminal negligence is a ‘misfeasance or ‘nonfeasance’, where the fault lies in the failure to foresee and so allow otherwise avoidable dangers to manifest.”
No wonder fraud victims like Ms Redmond are livid:
“I am so angry. This is shameful. Someone else received twice the amount of my legitimate return. I want to know that whoever store my Federal return is arrested and jailed but the IRS “call center” tells me the investigation takes 9 months and I will never know who it was. This tells me whoever has these millions of dollars has time to cover their trail and get away with it. “
Only if we, the taxpayers, say silent about it. Which is why we are publishing this story. If you think the IRS has been criminally negligent, call or write to your Congressmen and Senators and demand that the culprits be criminally prosecuted and jailed for failing to carry out their fiduciary duties.
And by all means, file your 2016 return on paper and by mail. The IRS has proven beyond a doubt that they are incapable of safeguarding our private information online.
Tax Freedom Day or Tax Slavery Parole Day, Will Be Friday Apr 24 This Year
“THE MORE THE WORLD CHANGES, THE MORE IT STAYS THE SAME” (J-B Alphonse Karr 1808-1890)
Over the last few evenings, Elizabeth and I have been watching on Netflix the TV series “TURN.” It is about the American Revolution and the brutality of the British rule. The main reason the people rose up was, of course, unfair taxation. Or “taxation without representation,” as it has become known in history.
Keeping that in mind, I said to Elizabeth last night, “and just think… all this struggle and sacrifice for freedom from tax oppression has only led to more tax oppression. It’s just that we are now enslaved by Wall Street and Washington instead of King George III.”
Some 250 years after the British “Stamp Act,” which sparked the American stampeded to freedom, a nation of 319 million grunts and toils under the thumbs of a corrupt Congress and its Wall Street masters.
In 2015, Americans will pay $3.3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total bill of more than $4.8 trillion, or 31 percent of the nation’s income, according to Tax Foundation. That’s more than this country of 319 million people spends on food, clothing, and housing – combined!
The Tax Foundation has come up with the term “Tax Freedom Day.” Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year. This year, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 24, or 114 days into the year.
So we spend the first four months of the year basically working for the government. Which means for Wall Street bankers and other industrialists who benefit from our huge government debt of $21.7 trillion.
In other words, we are once again being subjected to financial slavery. It’s just out money is now being siphoned off by corrupt domestic politicians and bankers instead of King George III.
Therefore, a more appropriate term for April 24 would be Tax Slavery Parole Day. On that day in 2015, we will be pardoned; released from bondage, having paid off the ransom to our slave masters. After that day, we can finally start working for ourselves. But only till Jan 1. That’s when Wall Street and Washington will place the yoke of tax slavery back on our necks.
No wonder many Americans are starting to hit the streets once again, protesting the heavy tax burdens of our plutocratic system of government.
* * *
There Were No Income Taxes in First 137 Years of the American Republic
“Ever since the 16th Amendment, the Wall Street’s “vulture capitalists” have been gradually tightening the noose around Americans’ collective necks. The income tax, for example, is NOT these plutocrats’ God-given entitlement, as some would have us believe. It was enacted only in 1913, after much debate and treachery, 137 years after this Republic declared its independence from the British crown.”
At the time, the entire U.S. income tax law was 17-pages long. Today, it has grown to over 30,000 pages. More business opportunities for the politicians, lawyers and accountants; more financial tyranny for the taxpayers – the New World Order’s “gladiators.”
For example, even as late as the 1930s, the beginning of the socialist (FDR) era in America, the individuals’ income taxes accounted for only 1.4% of the U.S. GDP. The corporations, on the other hand, bore a bigger 1.6% burden. No longer. In 1990, for example, the respective individual/corporate GDP shares were 8.8% and 2.0% respectively – a six-fold increase for individuals; only a 25% rise for the Princes.
But perhaps the greatest income tax scam was how the FDR (Roosevelt-Democratic) administration and Big Business used World War II to push through a “temporary” wartime emergency legislation. It was a law requiring employers to collect income tax at the source – thus becoming government agents without compensation.
This communist-style legislation turned on its head the American legal principle – “innocent until proven guilty.” It gave the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the rights which the U.S. Constitution accords a defendant, while putting the burden of proof on the taxpayer, the “plaintiff.” Half a century later, this FDR income tax ruse has given a whole new meaning to the term “temporary.”
By the way, the current federal tax code is 74,608-pages long. That makes it 187 times longer than it was a century ago, according to Wolters Kluwer, CCH, which has analyzed the federal tax code since 1913.
Amazingly, in the first 26 years of the federal income tax, the tax code only grew from 400 to 504 pages. Even through President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the tax code was well under 1,000 pages. Changes during World War II made the length of the tax code balloon to 8,200 pages. Most of the growth in the tax code came in the past 30 years, growing from 26,300 pages in 1984 to nearly three times that length today.
As this writer said 17 years ago, that’s “more business opportunities for the politicians, lawyers and accountants; more financial tyranny for the taxpayers – the New World Order’s ‘gladiators’.”
Want to guess which state was the worst? (i.e., with highest taxes).
New York – #50, or #1 on the infamy ladder. New Jersey was #49. Connecticut #48. California #47.
In general, the northeastern states had the highest overall tax rates. The southern states tended to have lower tax burdens. The most complicated one is Hawaii, #31 overall, but with 12 different rates for income in different brackets. Yikes!
But the best one was… guess what? Wyoming! Yes, the land of Grand Tetons and the bison. Alaska was #2. South Dakota #3.
Since freedom we still have the freedom to move to another state with lower taxes, perhaps you can use the above map as a guide.
All other things being equal, of course. Which they never are. There are many other considerations besides the taxes when one chooses where to live.
For example, if Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush were to become president in 2016, no state would be big enough to hole up in from increased government oppression.
So 250 years later, back to 1750 we go. “The more the world changes, the more it stays the same” (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1808-1890).
more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a NEW ORDER OF THINGS (emphasis added).
unacceptable,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “Confusing political interests with economic interests at the expense of European jobs is a no-go.”
For example, even as late as the 1930s, the beginning of the socialist (FDR) era in America, the individuals’ income taxes accounted for only 1.4% of the U.S. GDP. The corporations, on the other hand, bore a bigger 1.6% burden. No longer. In 1990, for example, the respective individual/corporate GDP shares were 8.8% and 2.0% respectively – a six-fold increase for individuals; only a 25% rise for the Princes.
