What was the first date Q said we had it all. We need to look at all the crumbs prior to that one to find it all?
I saw helicopter fly over house … strange … lit up like a X-mas tree. New for me.
This is not probably what you mean … but are you talking things like that? Stuff that is not natural to your surroundings, out of place?
Strange local or strange natl too? Strange WW. Right now Iran and now with the assassination attempt on Muduro … it's heating up everywhere and very little news stateside is reporting it. Why the blackout on Iran and all the riots happening day after day here in the states. It's a friggin blood bath over there.
Good idea
"I'm Totally Freaked Out": Brazil's Elite Fleeing Bloodshed And Chaos
Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
by Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/04/2018 - 18:35
Amid the economic, political, and social collapse, Brazil has been described by many as being in the midst of a “zombie apocalypse” as years of corruption and violence spectacularly implodes all at once.
Horrified by the out of control violence and pessimistic about the nation’s political and economic outlook, thousands of wealthy Brazilians are now fleeing the country.
Thiago Lacerda, a high-profile actor, is one of the thousands of celebrities, bankers, lawyers and affluent Brazilians considering emigration before the next round of turmoil.
“I’m totally freaked out by what’s been happening, especially here in Rio [Rio de Janeiro],” Mr. Lacerda told The Wall Street Journal.
The 40-year-old actor said he has considered moving his family to Europe for the safety of his three children. “In several years, they’re going to want to go out, to start dating, without worrying about getting shot.”
Naercio Menezes Filho, director of the center for public policy at Insper, a São Paulo business school, commented on the situation and pointed out — the elite fleeing the country is the newest trend amid the threat of gang violence and economic instability.
According to a study published in June by Brazilian polling agency Datafolh, about 52 percent of the wealthiest Brazilians — those with a monthly income of more than $2,500 — want to emigrate, while 56 percent of college graduates have plans on leaving the country.
“The hope that Brazilians once had in their country has gone out the window, and many people are now reaching the conclusion that things are unlikely to change in the next few years,” said Mr. Menezes Filho.
Government figures show the number of Brazilians filing emigration notices with the federal tax office reached 21,700 in 2017, that is nearly three times the number in 2011, when officials started recording the data. WSJ notes that many are moving to the Portuguese Riviera and to US cities such as Orlando and Miami.
Since the economic collapse, Brazil’s murder rate has been increasing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-03/im-totally-freaked-out-brazils-elite-fleeing-bloodshed-and-chaos
There Will Be No American-Russian Alliance Against China
, 08/04/2018 - 21:20
Since 1991 and the formal end of the first Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world has experienced an American “unipolar moment” as the bipartisan US policy establishment sought to consolidate and perpetuate its hegemonic control over the entire plant. Doomed to fail even before it received its fullest articulation in 1996 by neoconservative ideologists William Kristol and Robert Kagan (misleadingly billed as “Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy”), that misbegotten moment thankfully is coming to an end.
The main question today is whether the grinding to a halt of a quest so foolish and destructive can peacefully devolve into a tripolar entente among the US, Russia, and China – or whether the entrenched Washington establishment will, Sampson-like, crash everything down in a desperate but futile attempt to hang on to its power and privileges. We appear to be approaching the cusp at which that question will be resolved one way or the other. What the Trump Administration does next with respect to Iran will be a key, perhaps decisive, indicator
However, of late there has emerged an alternative concept that may be seen as a middle way between America’s stubbornly hanging onto our diminishing hegemony versus working out a new Concert of Powers with the two countries the Trump Administration has dubbed rivals in a new “great power competition.” This concept suggests that the United States should play odd-man-out, teaming up with one of the other two powers against the third. Such a triangulation conceivably could perpetuate and enhance America’s global dominance (it is assumed the other nation would be the junior partner) while limiting the influence of the designated adversary.
Strangely, given the unhinged levels of Russia-hatred that define the American political class, no one seems to have proposed trying to flip Beijing away from its quasi-alliance with Moscow in a repeat of President Nixon’s “playing the China card” against the USSR in the early 1970s. Rather, the hot talk is all the other way ‘round, that the US should woo Russia as an ally against China. As presented by Harry J. Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest (“The Coming American-Russian Alliance Against China”):
‘[T]here is a very real possibility that Washington and Moscow will collude for a very big reason—and soon.
‘Both nations have a reason to fear a coming change in the international order that will impact them both. And as history shows us time and again, a rising power that seeks to overturn the international system can make the most dedicated enemies join forces—and fast.
‘I can only be talking about one thing: a growing and more powerful China. [ … ]
‘While it might not happen right away, and an armed clash over, say, Ukraine or Syria could delay or even destroy any chance of a geopolitical realignment, there is the very real possibility that the stars could align for Russia and America to take on China in the future. Stranger parings have occurred in the past. While we might rightly see Moscow as a rogue nation today, tomorrow it could be a partner in containing a common foe. History and circumstance still stand for no one.’
Playing the Russia card against China is even presented by former Indian diplomat M. K. Bhadrakumar as part of a long term strategy (“Trump Has a Grand Strategy, He Wants to Do a 'Reverse Nixon' – Partner Russia for an Alliance vs China”) foreseen by the architect of Nixon’s long-ago outreach to communist China, Henry Kissinger (who reportedly is advising Trump to this end):
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-04/there-will-be-no-american-russian-alliance-against-china
Russia Slams Leak Of Secret Memo On US-Moscow Cooperation in Syria
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by Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/04/2018 - 15:15
There's been a number of hugely significant developments in Syria at the end of this week — all of which point to the war's end, with President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian Army ultimately emerging firmly victorious. Even Israel seems to have changed its tune, with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman telling reporters on Thursday, "From our perspective, the situation is returning to how it was before the civil war, meaning there is a real address, someone responsible, and central rule."
But now there's a diplomatic scramble underway and exchange of accusations related to potential Russia-United States cooperation on rebuilding Syria, repatriating refugees, and rooting out the remaining jihadist pockets.
On Friday Reuters published a bombshell report based on a leaked US government memo revealing a secret deal possibly in the works between top Russian and American generals initiated by the Russian side last month during the very week that President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki .
Russia has since slammed the leak, but has confirmed it confidentially extended the hand of cooperation on Syria.
According to the Reuters report, Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with America’s top general "to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a U.S. government memo."
The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, to U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the memo which was seen by Reuters.
The Russian plan, which has not been previously reported, has received an icy reception in Washington. The memo said the U.S. policy was only to support such efforts if there were a political solution to end Syria’s seven-year-old civil war, including steps like U.N.-supervised elections.
The US intelligence memo, while itself not published in full, is a summary and assessment of the confidential Russian proposal, offered within the context of the mutually agreed upon "military-to-military" communications hotline, set up at some point after 2015 to ensure US and Russian jets avoid aerial collision or direct confrontation of forces. The timing of the Russian proposal is significant, as it came a mere three days after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki on July 16.
Before and after the meeting there were substantial rumors, especially coming from the Russian side, that the US and Russia were working towards direct cooperation in Syria.
Both sides have reportedly agreed to keep the contents of what's communicated via this official back-channel confidential, something which has largely been adhered to until now.
Reuters continues, quoting parts of the leaked memo:
“The United States will only support refugee returns when they are safe, voluntary and dignified,” said the memo, which is specifically about the Russian plan for Syria.
…Some U.S. officials believe Syria’s dependence on the international community for reconstruction, along with the presence of U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in part of Syria, gives Washington leverage as diplomats push for a negotiated end to the war.
The United Nations has put the cost of rebuilding Syria after the seven year long conflict at a minimum figure of $250 billion. Though Damascus and its Russian partners have determined the war's outcome militarily, it appears Moscow is ready to cooperate with the US on establishing permanent stability in the war-torn country.
However, anti-Assad hawks in the administration and in Washington policy circles have consistently pushed for a settlement to the war which would result in Assad's political exit, which suggests the possibility and likelihood that the memo leak is but the latest ploy of administration insiders to prevent any level of cooperation with Russia and the Syrian government.
The memo reads further, according to Reuters:
“The proposal argues that the Syrian regime lacks the equipment, fuel, other material, and funding needed to rebuild the country in order to accept refugee returns,” according to the memo, which specified that the proposal related to Syrian government-held areas of the country.
The United States in 2011 adopted a policy that Assad must leave power but then watched as his forces, backed by Iran and then Russia, clawed back territory and secure Assad’s position.
The United States has drawn a line on reconstruction assistance, saying it should
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-04/russia-slams-leak-secret-memo-us-moscow-cooperation-syria