NB Commentary:

Okay, so somebody done pissed Putin off! Seriously, to say that the US should have known what was going on with the oil smuggling all the way across the water is a bit disingenuous to me. For surely them folks right there on that side of the world should have known about it as well.  With Russia spilling the beans on the corrupted enterprise called “War On Terror” he is showing the hand of all the perps.

So why is Putin all of a sudden being “Mr. Tattle Spill the Beans” on the whole European NATO BS terrorist, kill job that they ain’t really trying to kill?

Could it be that Putin’s Russia is sick and tired of being pushed around, bossed around, threatened with sanctions, blamed for shit they didn’t do and seriously played like a punk? How about the line that has been used over and over again, Protecting our National interests” for certainly the interests of Putin’s Russia is much more endangered by Turkey’s Terrorist than anyone else over here.

Is Putin sick and tired of being sick and tired? And have you seen his approval ratings lately?? Personally, to me Putin is a Mobster who has finally got his time to shine. And the walls will come tumbling down cause last I heard mobsters don’t play. They will give you an offer you CAN’T REFUSE.”

Just change the Name from “Bill” to “Putin” and sing along…

And the questions remain as stated in this Counter Punch article by  Vijay Prashad..

DECEMBER 3, 2015

ISIS Oil

by VIJAY PRASHAD

“The Europeans want to solve the refugee crisis. They believe that their bombing will advance their interests. It is likely to increase the displacement in Syria. The Turkish government’s demand for a “buffer zone” is of interest to the Europeans. They believe it is for refugees. But it could just as well be to protect the tankers from the Russian bombing raids. It is precisely what makes Corbyn’s demand so important – to hold a thorough investigation of the ISIS oil pipeline. Such an inquiry must ask the following questions:

1 Who is carting the oil from Mosul to the Turkish border? Who owns those trucks?

2 Who is carting the oil from the Turkish border to Ceylan? Who owns those trucks?

3 How does ISIS oil go through Ceylan, a port owned by the Turkish government?

4 Who owns the ships that cart the ISIS oil out of Turkey and to ports afield?

5 What banks handle the transaction between the sale of ISIS oil and the foreign buyers? Should they also be implicated in the smuggling of ISIS oil?

An investigation along these lines is overdue. It is not enough to accept or dismiss the Russian accusations. These should be used as an opportunity to clarify the actual pipelines for ISIS funding. Bombing the Omar fields in Syria – as the UK has done today – might not be sufficient. It might dust over the evidence of much greater complicity in ISIS oil.”

THE STORY

How Russia is Smashing the Turkish Game in Syria

DECEMBER 3, 2015by PEPE ESCOBAR

So why did Washington take virtually forever to not really acknowledge ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is selling stolen Syrian oil that will eventually find is way to Turkey?
Because the priority all along was to allow the CIA – in the shadows – to run a “rat line” weaponizing a gaggle of invisible “moderate rebels”.
As much as Daesh – at least up to now – the Barzani mob in Iraqi Kurdistan was never under Washington’s watch. The oil operation the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) runs to Turkey is virtually illegal; stolen state-owned oil as far as Baghdad is concerned.
Daesh stolen oil can’t flow through Damascus-controlled territory. Can’t flow though Shi’ite-dominated Iraq. Can’t go east to Iran. It’s Turkey or nothing. Turkey is the easternmost arm of NATO. The US and NATO “support” Turkey. So a case can be made that the US and NATO ultimately support Daesh.
What’s certain is that illegal Daesh oil and illegal KRG oil fit the same pattern; energy interests by the usual suspects playing a very long game.
What these interests are focused on is to control every possible oil asset in Iraqi Kurdistan and then in “liberated” Syria. It’s crucial to know that Tony “Deepwater Horizon” Hayward is running Ug Genel, whose top priority is to control oil fields that were first stolen from Baghdad, and will eventually be stolen from Iraqi Kurds.And then, there’s the Turkmen powder keg.
The key reason why Washington always solemnly ignored Ankara’s array of shady deals in Syria, through its fifth column Turkmen jihadis, is because a key CIA “rat line” runs exactly through the region known as Turkmen Mountain.
These Turkmen supplied by Ankara’s “humanitarian” convoys got American TOW-2As for their role in preserving prime weaponizing/ smuggling routes. Their advisers, predictably, are Xe/Academi types, formerly Blackwater. Russia happened to identify the whole scam and started bombing the Turkmen. Thus the downing of the Su-24.
The Turkmen fifth columnNow the CIA is on a mission from God – frantically trying to prevent the rat line from being definitely smashed by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the ground and Russia in the air.
The same desperation applies to the Aleppo-Azez-Killis route, which is also essential for Turkey for all kinds of smuggling.
The advanced arm of the “4+1” alliance – Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah – is taking no prisoners trying to re-conquer these two key corridors.
And that explains Ankara’s desperation – with a little help from His Masters’ Voice – to come up with an entirely new rat line/corridor through Afrin, currently under Syrian Kurd control, before Damascus forces and Russia air power get there.
Once again it’s important to remember that a gaggle of Turkmen outfits are Ankara’s fifth column in northern Syria.Most Turkmen live in Kurdish territories. And here’s the ultimate complicating factor; the majority happens to live in the Jarablus region, currently controlled by ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. It’s exactly this area that is cutting the geographic connection between the two Kurdish cantons, Kobani and Afrin.
So imagine a continuous Syrian Kurd control/autonomy/corridor all across the Turkish-Syrian border. For Ankara this is the ultimate nightmare. Ankara’s strategy is to move its Turkmen pawns, with added “moderate rebels”, all across the Jarablus region. The pretext: wipe Daesh off the map. The real reason: prevent the two Kurdish cantons – Afrin and Kobani – from merging.
And once again Ankara will be directly pitted against Moscow.The Russian strategy rests on very good relations with Syrian Kurds. Moscow not only supports the Syrian Kurd canton merger, but qualifies it as an important step on the way to a new Syria rid of takfiris. Russia will even officially recognize the PYD (Democratic Union Party) and allow them a representative office in Russia.Ankara regards the PYD and its paramilitary arm, the YPG (People’s Protection Units) as branches of the PKK. It gets curioser an curioser when we know that both Moscow and Washington are cooperating with the YPG against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.
The predictable All-Out Ankara Freak Out came in the form of Sultan Erdogan declaring the Euphrates a “red line” for the YPG. If they try to move westward to fight Daesh, sending them out of the Jarablus area, the Turkish Army will strike.
It’s absolutely key for Turkey to control this area between Jarablus and Afrin because here is the site of the would-be “safe zone”, actually a no-fly zone, which Ankara dreams of implementing using the 3 billion euros just extorted from the EU to house refugees but also control northern Syria. Turkmen would be in charge of the area – as well as the Azez-Aleppo line, assuming the SAA does not clear it for good.
The case for UEBASo Ankara is looking at two very unpleasant Turkmen-filled scenarios to say the least.Turkmen instrumentalized by Ankara to become gatekeepers against the Kurdish YPG; that means a nasty sectarian divide, orchestrated by Turkey, whose greatest loser is the unity of the Syrian nation.
Meanwhile, the SAA and Russian air power are on the verge of total control of Turkmen Mountain.This will allow the “4+1” to go much deeper fighting against the so-called Army of Conquest and its twin-headed reptile, Jabhat al-Nusra (a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria) and Ahrar al-Sham, the whole lot “supported” and weaponized by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The “4+1” inexorable advance comes with extra benefits; the end of all rat lines in the region, and no more possible threats to Russia’s air base in Hmeimim.
Make no mistake that Moscow will inflict as much pain on Sultan Erdogan as possible.As Turkish newspaper Radikal quoted him, Prof. Abbas Vali of Bogazici University confirmed, “The PYD was pleased about Russia’s intervention in Syria. An alliance between the PYD and Russia is inevitable. Russia’s bombardment of the radical Islamist groups on the ground will have a huge impact on the PYD operations.”So no matter which way we look, Turkey and Russia are on a serious collision course in Syria. Moscow will support Syrian Kurds no holds barred as they push to link the three major Kurdish cantons in northern Syria into a unified Rojava.
As for Washington’s “strategy”, it now boils down to the CIA need of a new rat line. That could imply sitting on the – weaponized – sidelines watching Turkmen and Kurds slug it out, thus creating an opening for the Turkish Army to intervene, and the Russian Air Force to prevent it, with all hell guaranteed to break loose.
The fact remains that Sultan Erdogan badly needs a new CIA-secured rat line to weaponize not only his fifth column Turkmen but also Chechens, Uzbeks and Uyghurs. And Bilal Erdogan, a.k.a. Erdogan Mini Me, desperately needs new oil smuggling routes and a couple of new tankers; Russia is watching their every move. The latest news from Russia’s Defense Ministry has struck like a volcanic eruption; the Erdogan family mob was branded as “criminals”, with Moscow presenting only an appetizer of all the evidence it has in store.
So we have the Afghan heroin rat line. The Libyan oil racket (now over). The Ukraine fascist rat line. The Libya to Syria weapon rat line. The stolen Syrian oil trade. The northern Syrian rat lines. Let’s call them UEBA: Unregulated Exceptionalist Business Activities. What’s not to like? There’s no business like war business.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).  His latest book is Empire of Chaos. He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
Source: 

Russia Presents Detailed Evidence Of ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade

NB Commentary:

Is it or is it not true that when the hired Assassins are deploy and the mainstream media picks up the story and runs with it. Over and over again, we hear about the story, all types of evidence seen and unseen, heard and unheard. Details on the very activities of everyone involved in the new BREAKING STORY.  Everyone bites and regurgitates the sound bites verbatim and the hype continues until some one completely exposes it as a False Flags. It is very evident that within the False Flag scenario that people “die” in fact, their deaths keep the story alive and well.

But, if  you take a moment and dig a little deeper you can find out why the propaganda arm and channel is directing your attention. So now let’s turn to the real news buried behind the hype. “ ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade”

If you believe that surveillance is at its height, then how did this little caravan of smuggled, black market oil get over looked.

I still have a question, after they blow up all of these oil refineries and tankers and trucks, what is left for Syria to use to take care of their own people who have not escaped to other countries? I wonder if Russia will help in the rebuilding of the infrastructure they are destroying?

THE STORY

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/02/2015 15:45 -0500

On Monday, Turkey’s sultan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said something funny. In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s contention that Russia has additional proof of Turkey’s participation in Islamic State’s illicit crude trade, Erdogan said he would resign if anyone could prove the accusations. 

Now obviously, conclusive evidence that Ankara is knowingly facilitating the sale of ISIS crude will probably be hard to come by, at least in the short-term, but the silly thing about Erdogan’s pronouncement is that we’re talking about a man who was willing to plunge his country into civil war over a few lost seats in Parliament. The idea that he would ever “step down” is patently absurd. 

But that’s not what’s important. What’s critical is that the world gets the truth about who’s financing and facilitating “Raqqa’s Rockefellers.” If a NATO member is supporting this, and if the US has refrained from bombing ISIS oil trucks for 14 months as part of an understanding with Erdogan, well then we have a problem. For those who need a review, see the following four pieces:

• The Most Important Question About ISIS That Nobody Is Asking

• Meet The Man Who Funds ISIS: Bilal Erdogan, The Son Of Turkey’s President

• How Turkey Exports ISIS Oil To The World: The Scientific Evidence

• ISIS Oil Trade Full Frontal: “Raqqa’s Rockefellers”, Bilal Erdogan, KRG Crude, And The Israel Connection

Unfortunately for Ankara, The Kremlin is on a mission to blow this story wide open now that Turkey has apparently decided it’s ok to shoot down Russian fighter jets. On Wednesday, we get the latest from Russia, where the Defense Ministry has just finished a briefing on the Islamic State oil trade. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Turkey may be in trouble.

First, here’s the bullet point summary via Reuters:

• RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS RUSSIA’S AIR STRIKES IN SYRIA HELPED TO ALMOST HALVE ILLEGAL OIL TURNOVER

• RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS TURKISH PRESIDENT AND FAMILY INVOLVED IN BUSINESS WITH ISLAMIC STATE OIL

• RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS WILL CONTINUE STRIKES IN SYRIA ON ISLAMIC STATE OIL INFRASTRUCTURE

• RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS KNOWS OF THREE ROUTES BY WHICH ISLAMIC STATE OIL IS DIRECTED TO TURKEY

• RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS TO PRESENT NEXT WEEK INFORMATION SHOWING TURKEY HELPING ISLAMIC STATE

That’s the Cliff’s Notes version and the full statement from Deputy Minister of Defence Anatoly Antonov is below. Let us be the first to tell you, Antonov did not hold back. 

In the opening address, the Deputy says the ISIS oil trade reaches the highest levels of Turkey’s government. He also says Erdogan wouldn’t resign if his face was smeared with stolen Syrian oil. Antonov then blasts Ankara for arresting journalists and mocks Erdogan’s “lovely family oil business.” Antonov even calls on the journalists of the world to “get involved” and help Russia “expose and destroy the sources of terrorist financing.” 

“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Antonov continues, setting up a lengthy presentation in which the MoD shows photos of oil trucks, videos of airstrikes and maps detailing the trafficking of stolen oil. The clip is presented here with an English voice-over. Enjoy.

truck convoy in east Syria

And here’s the latest video of Russia destroying Islamic State oil infrastructure:

Oh, and for good measure, Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy says the US is not bombing ISIS oil trucks.

*  *  *

Full statement from Anatoly Antonov (translated)

At a briefing for the media, “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the fight against international terrorism. The new data “

International terrorism – is the main threat of our time. This threat is not illusory but real, and many countries, primarily Russia, knows this firsthand. The notorious “Is Islamic state” – the absolute leader of the terrorist international. This is a rearing monster of international terrorism can be countered. And you can win. Over the past two months, Aerospace Russian forces is clearly demonstrated. 

We are firmly convinced that victory over LIH need to deliver a powerful and devastating blow to the sources of its funding, as repeatedly mentioned by President Vladimir Putin. Terrorism has no money – is a beast without teeth. Oil revenues are a major source of terrorist activity in Syria. They earn about $ 2 billion. Dollars annually, spending this money on hiring fighters around the world, providing them with weapons, equipment and weapons. That’s why so LIH protects thieves oil infrastructure in Syria and Iraq. 

The main consumer of stolen from legitimate owners – Syria and Iraq – the oil is Turkey. According to the data entered in this criminal business involved the highest political leadership of the country – President Erdogan and his family. 

We have repeatedly talked about the dangers of flirting with terrorists. It’s like that stokes. The fire from one country can spill over to others. This situation we are seeing in the Middle East. Today, we present only part of the facts, confirming that the region has a team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from the neighbors. 

This oil in large numbers on an industrial scale, for the living pipelines from thousands of oil tankers entering the territory of Turkey. We are absolutely convinced today present you the hard facts about what the final destination of the stolen oil – Turkey. There is a large number of media representatives, and Our briefing will see more of your colleagues. In this regard, I would like to say the following. We know and appreciate the work of journalists. We know that in the journalistic community, many courageous, fearless people honestly do its job.Today, we have clearly shown you how the illegal trade in oil, the result of which – the financing of terrorism. Provided concrete evidence that, in our opinion, may be the subject of investigative journalism. 

We are confident that the truth with your help will, will find its way. We know the price to Erdogan. He has already been caught in a lie again Turkish journalists who opened Turkey delivery of arms and ammunition to militants under the guise of humanitarian convoys. For this imprisoned journalists. 

Do not resign Turkish leaders, particularly Mr. Erdogan, and did not recognize, even if their faces will be smeared by oil thieves. I might be too harsh, but at the hands of the Turkish military killed our comrades. The cynicism of the Turkish leadership is unlimited. Look what they’re doing ?! Climbed to a foreign country, it shamelessly robbed. And if the owners interfere, then they have to be addressed. 

I stress that Erdogan’s resignation is not our goal. It is – it is the people of Turkey. Our goal and the goal to which we urge you, ladies and gentlemen, – joint action to block the sources of funding for terrorism. We will continue to provide evidence of robbery by Turkey of its neighbors. Maybe I’ll be too straightforward, but the control of these thieves in business can be entrusted only to the most close people. 

No one in the West, I wonder, does not cause the issue that the son of the President of Turkey is the leader of one of the largest energy companies, and son-in-appointed Minister of Energy? What a brilliant family business! 

This, in general, may elsewhere? Well, once again, of course, such cases can not be charging anyone, only the closest people. Votes this fact in the Western media we do not see much, but it sure can not hide the truth. Yes, of course, dirty petrodollars will work. I am sure that there are now discussions about the fact that everything you see here, – falsification. Well. If it did not – let be allowed in those places that we showed journalists. 

It is obvious that today the publicity was devoted only part of the information about the monstrous crimes of the Turkish elites who directly finance international terrorism. We believe that any sane journalist should fight this plague of the XXI century. The world experience has repeatedly argued that the objective journalism is able to be an effective and formidable tool in the fight against various financial corruption schemes. We invite colleagues to investigative journalism on the disclosure of financial schemes and supplies oil from the terrorists to the consumers. Especially since the oil produced in the controlled militants territories in transit through Turkish ports shipped to other regions. For its part, the Ministry of Defense of Russia will continue to disclose new evidence on the supply of terrorists oil to foreign countries and to talk about the conduct of aerospace forces of Russia operations in Syria. Let’s unite our efforts. We will destroy the sources of financing of terrorism in Syria, as you get involved in the kind of work abroad. “

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-02/russia-presents-detailed-evidence-isis-turkey-oil-trade

NB Commentary

What is the purpose of this? How is it that these cowards can get into buildings fully armed and kill people unabated, unobstructed,  and yet filled with keywords.

Get ready for all of your buttons to be pushed by these keywords,

1. Breaking News

2. Subject to Revision

3. Black SUV

4. Heavily armed

5. Bloodbath

6. Dec.

7. Sandy Hook

8. Human Tradegy

9. Targeted Attack

10. Worst since

11. Gun Control

12. The news as we have it coming in

13. Could it be International Terrorism?

14. Could it be domestic Terrorism?

15. Etc., etc., etc.

16. And let me not forget, there was a drill going on in the vicinity. Yes the infamous drill that went live, again.

17. Are you surprised? Are you startled? Are you frightened? Are you ready to give up more than you gave up yesterday? Just plain, ole, are you ready for this again?

18. Sometimes, I have to sit and wonder, what is the message they are trying to give Obama? For some reason all these breeches of security seem to be sending a deeper message. Like that dude that jumped the white house fence during their dinner party.  Can I get a witness? I mean how many of these events took place during Bush’s administration? I’m not counting but it surely does seem like more than I have ever seen before.

19. It’s purely conjecture on my part but it certainly seems strange to have all of these killings and mass murders and disruptions and breeches of security during the Obama Administration.

20. At Least 14 Dead in California Shooting, One Suspect Killed

21. by CORKY SIEMASZKO, PETE WILLIAMS and M. ALEX JOHNSON

22. At least 14 people were killed and a suspect was dead Wednesday after up to three gunmen on a “mission” barged into a holiday party in a California conference room and unleashed a bloodbath, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

23. The gunman or gunmen fled in a black SUV after the shooting about at 11 a.m. (2 p.m. ET), police said.

24. About 4½ hours later, multiple police cars were involved in a high-speed chase nearby with three people in a dark truck or SUV, law enforcement sources told NBC News. Two of the suspects were shot, the sources said – one was killed, and the other was unresponsive after having been wounded in the chest.

25.  One suspect killed, one in custody in CA 2:39

26. The location of the third person wasn’t immediately clear, but San Bernardino police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said a third subject was believed to be “outstanding.” NBC Los Angeles broadcast video of officers ringing a black vehicle after the shootout.

27. In addition to the 14 dead:

28. At least 10 of 17 wounded are in critical condition.

29. Police arrested at least one suspect after shootout hours later.

30. The shooting erupted during a holiday party in a conference room.

31. Federal agencies are assisting the investigation.

32. Cervantes said that one officer was shot in the confrontation but didn’t suffer a life-threatening wound and that one suspect possibly remained at large.

33. Seventeen other people were wounded when the shooting started inside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, about 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, police said.

34. Authorities said 10 of the 17 injured were taken to hospitals in critical condition. Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said three people were in serious condition.

35. It appeared to be the worst mass shooting since the December 2012 slaughter of 20 first-graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

36. “These people came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. “They were armed with long guns, not with handguns.”

37. Burguan added, “The suspects have fled.”

38. Gallery: Deadly Mass Shooting in San Bernardino, California

39. “We don’t yet have a motive,” the chief said, adding that the getaway vehicle was a black SUV of some kind.

40. Burguan warned that the death toll could climb as investigators continued to search the building. “This is a tragedy,” he said.

41. Read More: Click Here 

42. • President Barack Obama restated his call for more gun control reforms in the wake of the mass shooting. Speaking to CBS News, Obama said Congress should act in a bipartisan manner to close loopholes, including one that allows people on the TSA no-fly list to legally purchase firearms

43. Obama calls for gun reforms in wake of San Bernardino shooting

44. Breaking: mass shooting, San Bernardino, plus “training exercise”

45. by Jon Rappoport

46. December 2, 2015

47. (To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Power Outside The Matrix, click here.)

48. KTLA reports—here’s a key quote:

49. “The call first came in at 10:59 a.m. of multiple shots fired from the area of 1365 S. Waterman Ave., San Bernardino Police Department Lt. Richard Lawhead said. The department’s SWAT team was training nearby and was suited, ‘ready to roll’ and responded rapidly, Lawhead said.”

50. —Yet another mass shooting where, by chance, a training exercise was going on during or prior to the event.

51. San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.  Reports state several shooters in a cluster of three office buildings that employ 600 people, 20 victims down, and shooters apparently at large.

52. Here is a recent article I wrote about mass shootings paralleling training exercises:

53. Training exercises dovetail with mass shootings What are the odds?

54. Obama Calls for Gun Law Changes After Latest Mass Shooting inCalifornia

55. by PHIL HELSEL

56. 
     Watch Live: NBC Special Report on Shootings in San Bernardino, California.

57. President Barack Obama called for stricter firearms laws as after a mass shootingin California that left at least 14 people dead, calling the spate of gun violence in the U.S. “unparalleled” to other countries.

58. Obama spoke with CBS News Wednesday as the shooting at a center that serves the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino was still unfolding, and cautioned that much was still unknown.

59. “It does appear that there are going to be some casualties, and obviously our hearts go out to the victims and the families,” Obama said.

60. “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” Obama said. “And there are some steps that we could take — not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings — but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently.”

61. Read More click here.

• NB Commentary:

• Now this amazing fact came across my desk today. Who knew? I was just speaking to a friend of mind the other day whose son always cried out when served broccoli for dinner.

• “I don’t wanna eat trees for dinner!” LOL

• I can surely say it was the bane of his existence. But now some 30 years later, he is a strict vegetarian and has gotten his mother into better health because of his interest in changing his dietary habits and sharing the benefits of it with her. So Bravo to him for making such a transformation and finding out that “trees are absolutely okay to have for dinner!”

• http://letsbraw.blogspot.com/2012/09/hate-it-or-love-it-broccoli-is-super.html
  Did You Know That Broccoli is a Man-made Food?March 27, 2014 By WonderWeasel 
  There is No Such Thing as Wild BroccoliBroccoli is a human innovation, a man-made food, and a result of a mutation selected and cultivated by man throughout history. Known for its green hue and resemblance to a tiny tree, broccoli has been the bane of kid’s existence since it was first introduced in the Mediterranean almost 1,000 years ago. Broccoli is a result of the selective breeding of wild cabbage plants starting around the 6th century BC. Its name, from the Italian broccolo, relates to the flowering top of a cabbage – a tribute to its heritage. Since the Roman Empire, broccoli has been regarded a valuable man-made food and source of nutrition among the people of Italy and was eventually introduced to England and America in the 1700s. It took until the 1920s for broccoli to gain in popularity in the United States.
  
  

  

  How Broccoli was Bred

  Start with a wild cabbage. Wild cabbage has small flowering buds, but only flowers every other year. By controlling the environment, perhaps in a greenhouse of sorts, a horticulturist (or even a very patient veggie lover) can make the wild plant to reproduce itself many times, each time selecting the resulting plant that has the most desirable qualities and simply discarding the rest. For broccoli, the selected traits were likely larger, tastier buds. This selection process was a lengthy one that spanned over many years before the vegetable began to resemble our modern quintessential green vegetable.

  Further evidence of how far broccoli has come are vegetables like cauliflower, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, kale, even the modern form of cabbage available at grocery stores. Each of these seemingly distinct vegetables were also bred from wild cabbage and did not occur as wild plants before. They can each be considered a man-made food. Broccoli even has three varieties itself! Have you seen the fancier, more delicate broccolini?

  But Don’t Worry, Broccoli is not a GMO

  

  Broccoli may be a man-made food, but it is not considered a GMO. Genetically modified organisms (also known as GMOs) are food plants that have been produced from organisms in which specific changes were introduced into their DNA through genetic engineering. Such engineering has allowed for the introduction of new desired traits to crops such as resistance to pesticides, and has also allowed for better control over the plant’s genetic structure. While this modification process may sound like the one described above, the key to GMOs and their controversies is the genetic engineering – the meddling in the plant’s DNA. Broccoli and its other cabbage family relatives, on the other hand, were developed from selective breeding techniques in which the desired traits were naturally occurring, even if they were considered anomalies. So while broccoli is a man-made food, nature assisted in its creation. So go ahead, eat up. Just don’t expect to find some wild broccoli on your next camping trip!

  For more information on the roots of broccoli and other man-made food, see this article on Brassica oleracea.

  Source:   

  4 reasons why tricking your kids into eating healthy is a bad idea

  

• NB Commentary:

• Now for some good news. I wonder if Donald Trump thought about doing this for his campaign props. Imagine how many voters would vote him into office if he bought an island for all those immigrants that he says should not be coming into the country. In fact, he could create a nice prison refuge on this already prison refuge and hoard all the Syrian miscreants and Mexicans! Imagine that?

• Donald Trump plans to build a cemetery at Trump National Golf Course in New Jersey’s Bedminster Township
  Well he already bought himself a huge golf course in NJ to bury his old derrière in/on so why not follow in the footsteps of this great billionaire and do the same. In fact, why not let all the billionaires in the world get together and buy a few islands for those folks they feel need to be gotten out of the way of their advancement. I mean this guy is promising to take care of the infrastructure and housing, etc. he just needs some support. What is it better to kill us off and stuff us in mass graves than to give us our own island on this huge planet?? Seriously. You can certainly see how these folks talk out of both sides of their mouths. Their solution to real problems is simply to complain about them or have wars over them, but never to do anything of substance to eradicate the problem. The concept of sharing their wealth is preposterous unless they can gain in some way from it.
  

  Egyptian Billionaire Offers To Buy A Private Island to House And Feed War Refugees

  By Joseph Gibson on September 7, 2015 in Articles › Billionaire News

  Usually when a billionaire buys a private island, one gets the sense that it’s merely for personal pleasure. Frequently, billionaires buy private islands just so they can keep up with their rival billionaire peers who already own one (or several). But today we’re learning of an Egyptian billionaire who wants to buy an island for a very unique and incredible reason. Egyptian telecommunications tycoon Naguib Sawiris wants to use his hypothetical private island as a place whereinternational refugees and migrants can live in safety and humanity…

  

  GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images

  Naguib’s idea isn’t just a Twitter-fueled flight of fancy, he also talked about his idea during a recent television interview. During the interview, he reiterated his plans to approach the governments of Greece and Italy with his idea, going on to say the island would feature “temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals. And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back.” Naguib would front the costs for food, energy, infrastructure and more for as long as was necessary.

  He also said that the current situation for refugees and migrants is unacceptable, saying “The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle.”

   Sawiris’ outrage about the state of refugees throughout the world was reportedly stoked by a famous photo that recently made headlines. The photo shows the body of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy who drowned when a boat on its way to the Greek island Kos wrecked at sea. The photo showed a single individual who fell victim to poor conditions for immigrants, but it represents a much larger situation that affects many thousands of people every year. Naguib said the he plans to name his island Aylan.

  “My conscience has been awakened by the picture of this child. God put the image of this child in front of us for a reason. He could have been swallowed by the sea… I am serious with my intentions. I want to feel good about having done something good. Provide me with the island and I will do the rest.”

  An estimated 2000 refugees or more have been lost at sea on the way to Europe from places like Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in this year alone. Part of this is also because of a general increase in immigration into Europe – Germany in particular is one of the most welcoming countries in the European Union towards immigrants, expected to take in around 800,000 refugees before 2015 comes to a close. But Germany is somewhat of an exception. Other European nations are not nearly as open to accepting immigrants.

  Given these dire circumstances, hopefully Sawiris will make some progress on his plan for a private island specifically for displaced refugees. But it won’t be easy even if he manages to acquire a suitable island (something that would be easier for him than it would be for most other people, with his net worth of some$3 billion). During his aforementioned TV interview, he discussed some of these potential obstacles standing before his dream of an Independence island, like deciding on jurisdictional issues and complying with existing customs laws. But it seems clear that any attempt to improve things toward safer conditions for traveling immigrants and refugees would be a step in the right direction.

  Source:

NB Commentary: Is it Real Or Is It Memorex?

You just gotta wonder what all the saber rattling is really all about. Is it about peace? Is it about war? Is it about oil? is it about Israeli Secret Intelligence Service? Is it about Islam? Ironically, they want to have stronger gun laws in Western countries while selling high power weaponry and armored vehicles to the so-called moderate rebels who are trying to overthrow their government by any means necessary and they ain’t peaceful means, by the way! 

Think about that, what would be the US response if, say, Russia sold guns, munitions and armored trucks etc., to the anarchist enclave in the US, or maybe to the New Black Panther Party, or how about a few men who support the Bundy Ranch empire. Heck, sell some guns to the MOORS, or the Sovereignty movement. I quiver to think of the consequence of that kind of meddling in our movements on the ground against a corrupt government!

Then again, when there is buying, isn’t there some selling going on? So where are these rebels getting the money to purchase these munitions? Or is the US and the other 40 countries that are arming the so-called moderates, giving their millions of dollars in munitions away to these sorry fools who get a kick out of pretend cutting off heads while the other drugged up compatriots kill, rape women and children. Now how moderate is that? This is starting to sound like a big fat trumped up hoax to sell more weapons and kill and displace a few hundred thousand in the process.

One thing that is for certain, it has definitely fit into the depopulation agenda of the elite. Why not just get folks fighting each other and that will save us. We will have more space to stretch out and since we will have robotics to take care of our every whim, we won’t need humans at all after a while.

Maybe they are planning to come back like an Egyptian Pharaoh, and reap the benefits of today’s spoils, for surely it will not happen in their lifetime.

Or maybe they are trying to speed it up so it CAN happen in their life time. 
Whatever the case may be, the carnage and destruction is not a pretty picture at all, and somebody needs to rewind the tape back to before Eve gave the apple to Adam.

The Pretend War: Why Bombing Isil Won’t Solve The Problem

The deployment of our military might in Syria will exacerbate regional disorder – and it will solve nothing

By Andrew J. Bacevich

Nov. 28, 2015

Not so long ago, David Cameron declared that he was not some ‘naive neocon who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at 40,000 feet’. Just a few weeks after making that speech, Cameron authorised UK forces to join in the bombing of Libya — where the outcome reaffirmed this essential lesson.

Soon Cameron will ask parliament to share his ‘firm conviction’ that bombing Raqqa, the Syrian headquarters of the Islamic State, has become ‘imperative’. At first glance, the case for doing so appears compelling. The atrocities in Paris certainly warrant a response. With François Hollande having declared his intention to ‘lead a war which will be pitiless’, other western nations can hardly sit on their hands; as with 9/11 and 7/7, the moment calls for solidarity. And since the RAF is already targeting Isis in Iraq, why not extend the operation to the other side of the elided border? What could be easier?

But it’s harder to establish what expanding the existing bombing campaign further will actually accomplish. Is Britain engaged in what deserves to be called a war, a term that implies politically purposeful military action? Or is the Cameron government — and the Hollande government as well — merely venting its anger, and thereby concealing the absence of clear-eyed political purpose?

Britain and France each once claimed a place among the world’s great military powers. Whether either nation today retains the will (or the capacity) to undertake a ‘pitiless’ war — presumably suggesting a decisive outcome at the far end — is doubtful. The greater risk is that, by confusing war with punishment, they exacerbate the regional disorder to which previous western military interventions have contributed.

Even without Britain doing its bit, plenty of others are willing to drop bombs on Isis on either side of the Iraq-Syria frontier. With token assistance from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, US forces have thus far flown some 57,000 sorties while completing 8,300 air strikes. United States Central Command keeps a running scorecard: 129 Isis tanks destroyed, 670 staging areas and 5,000 fighting positions plastered, and (in a newish development) 260 oil infrastructure facilities struck, with the numbers updated from one day to the next. The campaign that the Americans call Operation Inherent Resolve has been under way now for 17 months. It seems unlikely to end anytime soon.

In Westminster or the Elysée, the Pentagon’s carefully tabulated statistics are unlikely to garner much official attention, and for good reason. All these numbers make a rather depressing point: with plenty of sorties flown, munitions expended and targets hit, the results achieved, even when supplemented with commando raids, training missions and the generous distribution of arms to local forces, amount in sum to little more than military piddling. In the United States, the evident ineffectiveness of the air campaign has triggered calls for outright invasion. Pundits of a bellicose stripe, most of whom got the Iraq war of 2003 wrong, insist that a mere 10,000 or 20,000 ground troops — 50,000 tops! — will make short work of the Islamic State as a fighting force. Victory guaranteed.

Fake Video Footage: The West’s Propaganda War on Syria Exposed Once Again

Indeed, the video was a complete hoax – a literal production filmed in Malta, not Syria, and consisting of actors, actresses, and special effects. The UK Mirror in its article, “Footage of Syrian ‘hero boy’ dodging sniper’s bullets to save girl revealed as FAKE,” would finally admit:

Lars Klevberg, 34, from Oslo, devised the hoax after watching news coverage of the troubles in Syria.

He told BBC Trending: “If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and react with hope.

“We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator.

“The little boy and girl are professional actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta.”

Not the First Time

Source

No sweat.

And who knows? Notwithstanding their record of dubious military prognostications, the proponents of invade-and-occupy just might be right — in the short term. The West can evict Isis from Raqqa if it really wants to. But as we have seen in other recent conflicts, the real problems are likely to present themselves the day after victory. What then? Once in, how will we get out? Competition rather than collaboration describes relations between many of the countries opposing Isis. As Barack Obama pointed out this week, there are now two coalitions converging over Syria: a US-led one, and a Russia-led one that includes Iran. Looking for complications? With Turkey this week having shot down a Russian fighter jet — the first time a Nato member has downed a Kremlin military aircraft for half a century — the subsequent war of words between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin gives the world a glimpse into how all this could spin out of control.

The threat posed by terrorism is merely symptomatic of larger underlying problems. Crush Isis, whether by bombing or employing boots on the ground, and those problems will still persist. A new Isis, under a different name but probably flying the same banner, will appear in its place, much as Isis itself emerged from the ashes of al-Qaeda in Iraq………….. 

Read More click here

Andrew J. Bacevich is a retired US colonel, and author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, due out in April.

‘ISIS managed to sell oil to Turkey on black market at less than 50% of global prices’ – Iraqi MP

NB Commentary:

A member of the Iraqi Parliament, Dr Mowaffak al Rubaie, tells RT how ISIS manages to earn millions of dollars selling oil on the black market in Turkey and reveals that wounded terrorists are being treated in Turkish hospitals.

Dr. Mowaffak al Rubaie appears to be exposing Turkish complicity but falls very short of exposing them completely.  It has been reported fairly widely that they are also giving military support as well.

This is turning out to be rather stinky. Folks are telling in each other.  The rats are being flooded out of their hiding places by the very ones who hid them. If only it could now be over. But, alas, human beings have war cells for brains so they will simply find something else to drop bombs on each other for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4KIdoKK9oM

Nana’s Commentary:

Of all the Western Holidays in full swing in American culture, Thanksgiving is one of the hardest ones for me to decline participation in. I thoroughly love the harvest foods that are part of the celebration, although lately, Turkey has become Murkey in that it does not have the same tastes as it once did while I was growing up. It’s mushy and has little or no flavor. Poor boogers probably never see the light of day. Makes you wonder how many Turkeys have to die in order to keep this Holiday going.

It was also one of the few times, that my Mother cooked a full delicious meal, with the sweet potato casserole covered with marshmallows. I remember stuffing myself till I could barely stand, and Mom would always say, “I cooked, you get to wash the dishes.” That only applied when it was her turn to cook.

Then one day, it was revealed to me, what really happened and that made a significant difference in my perspective of this beloved Holiday. I guess we could rationalize and say, well, it ain’t happening now, now we can re-invent it and make it stand for something good instead. But it always seemed a selective amnesia for certain things and for other things, and events, well, nobody forgets those.

So, for many, many years now, I decline to celebrate. I remain thankful all year round, hardly ever eat turkey and just wish we had a more peaceful world to live in.

For those of you who are out there, I wish you safe travels. be careful and remember that Thanksgiving is a very wonderful thing to do on a daily basis!

Celebrating Genocide – The Real Story of Thanksgiving

By WakingTimes November 26, 2015

Thanksgiving: Celebrating all that we have, and the genocide it took to get it.

Thanksgiving is one of the most paradoxical times of the year. We gather together with friends and family in celebration of all that we are thankful for and express our gratitude, at the same time we are encouraged to eat in excess. But the irony really starts the next day on Black Friday. On Thursday we appreciate all the simple things in life, such as having a meal, a roof over our head, and the connection with those close to us. But in less than 24 hours, we literally trample over others in a mad dash to accumulate as many material possessions as possible at bargain-prices.

So what is the true history of Thanksgiving? Well, just like we have stories of Easter in which a magical bunny hops around the world and hides baskets of goodies for us to find, or stories of Christmas where Santa Claus travels the globe in one night to leave presents under the tree for good boys and girls – Thanksgiving, too, has its traditional myth which we share with our children. We recount stories of the Indians and Pilgrims getting together for a magical feast of brotherly love and appreciation. The only problem is that, unlike the other holidays, we never reveal the truth about Thanksgiving to our children as they grow older. In fact, most of us don’t understand its bloody history ourselves…

The first actual proclaimed “Day of Thanksgiving” came in 1637 in a meeting between the Pequot Indians and English religious mercenaries. The Pequot were celebrating their annual Green Harvest Festival, which resembles modern-day Thanksgiving. On the eve of the festival, the English demanded that everyone comes out of their homes, puts their weapons on the ground, and surrenders by converting to Christianity.

Those who obliged with these terroristic demands were either shot dead or clubbed to death. Those who stayed inside their longhouses – including women and children – were burnt to death. In all, more than 700 Pequot men, women, and children were slaughtered that day.

The “victory” was celebrated by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony holding a feast and trumpeted this as a “Day of Thanksgiving.” During the celebration, they cut off heads of Natives and put them on display publicly; including beheading the Wampanoag Chief and impaling his head on a pole in Plymouth which stayed on display for the next 24 years.

New Family Values

I was in third grade and playing in my back yard, when I noticed a moving truck in the parking lot beyond the fence. We lived in a middle-class suburban community, but right beyond our fenced in yard, there was a Section 8 Housing Community.

As I stood and watched, a young boy around my age came running over to the fence to greet me.

“Hi, My Name is Doug,” he said, “We are moving in next door.”

It’s funny as kids, we are so free and we see someone our age and we just want to be friends. Someone we can spend time with. This shows the natural desire of human connection.

Doug and I became pretty good friends instantly. We spent time at each other’s house often, mostly playing Nintendo or throwing the ball around in the yard.

Until one day, one of my favorite video games was missing. No idea what happened, but the game was gone. We always had anywhere from three to 10 people over at our house and there is no way of knowing what happened to the game or if it was simply misplaced.

“No more going over to that Indian’s house,” my Dad told me, “He took your game.”

Indian? What’s an Indian? I remember thinking that to myself. To me, Doug was just my friend. Now, just like that, he was my Indian-friend. I knew very little about other races at that time. Sure, we saw that people looked different, but never attached a label like that.

The only thing I knew about Indians, I learned in school. And the things I learned in school, was just being passed down from what our teacher’s learned in school with no adjustments to the curriculum. We learned how to sit “Indian-Style,” we learned how to sing “Ten Little Indians,” learned what it meant to be called an “Indian-Giver,” and we learned to play “Cowboys and Indians.”

I can honestly remember in First or Second grade around Thanksgiving, we made headdresses and colored feathers to dress up like Indians. Then they told us how to do war-cries by putting your hand over your mouth and yelling, “Ahh-Ahh-Ooh-Ooh.”

They instructed the class that the Pilgrims came over from Europe to escape religious persecution. Upon arriving in America, they realized that there were already people living here. The brave Europeans encountered the Indians, who wore headdresses, make weird noises, and were uncivilized. So, the

Pilgrims decided to help them out and they had a giant feast together. Everyone got along and then for every year since then, we celebrate Thanksgiving.

But, Doug didn’t do any of those things. I never met an Indian, he was just a normal kid. But, I was told not to trust him. The irony of a white person not trusting an Indian is too much to even comprehend.

“Doug, do you have my video game?” I asked him, “And, I am not allowed to come over here anymore and you can’t come over to my house.”

“No, I don’t have it. Why would I take it? You always let me use it whenever I want,” he replied, “But I understand. I won’t come over anymore.”

As the next couple years went by, I start seeing more movies with Cowboys and Indians with the natives viewed as hostile savages and the cowboys save the country. I am now in fifth grade and have been trained and brainwashed to hate a race of people and believe that I am good and they are wrong. And, still no one has given me an answer as to what happened to all the Indians that lived here?

Then, I gained perspective from the oddest of sources – the comedy movie, “Addams Family Values.” In the movie, the children were at some type of summer camp in which they are putting on a play for their parents, reenacting the first Thanksgiving. All the rich-white privileged kids at the camp were playing the role of the wholesome pilgrims; whereas, the outcasts of the camp were stuck playing the part of the “uncivilized” Indians. As the pilgrims invited the Indians for a meal together, Wednesday Addams –playing the role of Pocahontas (although this is historically inaccurate as Pocahontas lived near the Jamestown Settlement) – decides to go off the script just prior to sitting down for the meal:

“Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims. And especially do not trust Sarah Miller. For all these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.” [view scene]

I remember watching this scene and my friends were laughing hysterically, but not me. I was more in shock and awe. It all made sense. I realized that everything I had been told about history was a lie. And I have been searching for the truth ever since.

A National Day of Mourning

We are very impressionable as children and take what elders, parents, and teachers tell us as fact. It gets very difficult to break these thoughts that shape our identity. However, the story of Thanksgiving described above has only a small semblance of truth. The Pilgrims and Indians got together for a giant feast – one time. And in all recorded history of that time, there are actually only two documents of record reporting this event, over the total of three paragraphs – indicating the very minor significant of this event.

Thanksgiving Day is also known as The National Day of Mourning among Native American Tribes. In 1970, there was a huge celebration in Massachussets to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. Today, there are still Wampanoags living in the area. On the day of the celebration, they asked one of them to speak:

“Today is a time of celebrating for you — a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people.

Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important.”

The National Day of Mourning plaque at Plymouth, Massachusetts

The Lies of Thanksgiving

To get started, the Pilgrims were not seeking religious persecution – they already had that in Holland by 1608. However, they did not like the work and demands of Holland and wanted to seek commercial ventures overseas. However the Pilgrims also had no money or resources, so they had to borrow a loan from the Virginia Company of London and Plymouth. The agreement stated that they were to take all the money earned over the first seven years and put it into a common stock – sounds like Communism.

So, the communist Pilgrims sailed across the sea in September of 1620. Yet, it is also important to note that they did not call themselves Pilgrims. They were originally referred to as Separatists as they no longer followed the Church of England. Yet, they referred to themselves as God’s Chosen People, in which they called themselves “Saints.”

The rest of England, considered them “religious dropouts.”

The Pilgrims were also not farmers, nor woodsmen; they were mostly city people and artisans that had no clue how to survive in the Wilderness. It would be like if a group of broke-hipsters decided to move to a remote jungle in South America to start their own civilization because they do not fit in with mainstream society. Yet, they don’t have money, so they take out a loan from the government to set up their little expedition.

They were not just being persecuted for religious beliefs either, they were revolutionaries who intended – and in fact, did in 1649 – overthrow the English Government.

On November 20, 1620, they landed at Cape Cod – not Plymouth Rock. A winter storm had sent them off-course and they were many miles north of their destination in Virginia. They landed in a desolated area in which the Patuxet used to live – but were completely wiped away by disease in 1617. The Pilgrims raided the land for corn, beans, and robbed the gravesites at Corn Hill to steal as much winter provisions as they could handle.

It wasn’t until another month later that they landed at Plymouth Rock. In which, the crew was decimated and the settlers were either dead or dying from starvation, malnutrition and disease. Only 53 of the remaining 102 members of this ship made it through the winter. In March, they were greeted by two English-Speaking Indians – Samoset and Squanto.

While this tale seems miraculous, in fact Plymouth Governor Bradford referred to Squanto as “a special instrument sent from God.” However, it was not that simple.

Squanto had been captured in 1605 and sold into slavery in England, in which he was forced to learn English. Then they sent him back to America, only to serve as a guide for the explorers to further ravage his land. In 1614, he was captured again and shipped to Spain. This time “rescued” by friars who tried to control the slaves and convert them to Christianity. He jump-shipped again and made his way back to his homeland in 1619, only to see that every member of his tribe had perished to disease. Hence, Squanto was the last living Patuxet and was forced to live with the nearby Wampanoag.

This is the man that helped the Pilgrims survive – enslaved twice, forced to learn English, attempted to be forced to convert to Christianity, then to return home and find everyone he loved was dead. If it were not for Squanto, all historians agree that the Pilgrims would have starved to death and had quite a different impact on American history.

As Governor Bradford explained:

“Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never let them till he died.”

The Pilgrims were living in dirt-covered shelters, had no food, and nearly half of them had died during the winter. They obviously needed help and the two men were a welcome sight. Squanto, who probably knew more English than any other Indian in North America at that time, decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few months and teach them how to survive in this new place.

Squanto had orchestrated a treaty between the Pilgrims and Indians to protect each other from neighboring tribes.

By Fall of 1621, things had greatly improved for the Pilgrims. They put together a feast to celebrate their harvest – a common custom of the day in all parts of the world. This was celebrated back in Europe for many years, as well as the local tribes had six different “Thanksgiving” feasts throughout the year.

As they Pilgrims were shooting their guns in the air – likely with a mixture of the hefty amounts of alcohol they consumed – they were met by ninety or more Wampanoags. As the story goes, they invited the Indians to join them. However, it is more likely that the Indians rushed over to see what all the gunfire was about and then were asked to join. They had a three-day feast, in which the Indians provided the majority of the food.

This was never called “Thanksgiving” and it was not the beginning of some beautiful friendship, in which they all lived happily ever after. In fact, it never happened again. This was the first, and only, time that they got together in peace. The true “First Thanksgiving” was a much bloodier hell on Earth which tells the tale of the next 400 years for the Native Americans.

The “First Thanksgiving”

It is hard to tell the true intention of the first Pilgrims at Plymouth as they were severely outnumbered and had no means of survival in the New World. Once word was spread about the Paradise out West, more and more religious zealots, known as Puritans, came sweeping across the shores of America.

Once they arrived, they noticed no fences around the land and considered it all to be public domain. They were not in as great need of help from the Natives, as the original Pilgrims, and the friendship between the two weakened rapidly. Soon, the Pilgrims were demeaning the Indians for their religious beliefs and the children of those who shared this majestic meal together were killing each other in the next generation’s King Phillip’s War.

That is the foundation of America’s idea of “freedom.” We want freedom for ourselves, but not for those who do not look, think, act, and believe as we do. In the Declaration of Independence it is stated that “All Men Are Created Equal” but each of the founding fathers were slave-owners who valued white supremacy and favored Indian genocide. They didn’t want equality, they just wanted equality from the British, but the oppression they did to African-Americans, Indians, and Women was completely acceptable.

The Pilgrims were religious bigots who saw themselves as the “chosen elect” and first planned to purify themselves and then anyone who did not accept their interpretation of scripture. They believed they were fighting a holy war against Satan. In a “Thanksgiving” sermon in 1623, Maher the Elder gave special thanks for destroying “chiefly young men and children, the very seeds of increase, thus cleaning the forests to make way for a better growth.” Yes, thanking the Lord for giving smallpox to the same Wampanoag that saved them from starvation two years prior.

In 1637, as stated in the opening paragraphs of this article, the first Thanksgiving was held to celebrate the systematic slaughtering of the “heathen savages.” These killings become more and more, as the settlers went from village to village wiping out generations of tribes. With each “victory” they would hold days of thanksgiving feasts for each successful massacre.

During the next century, the Tribes continued to get pushed further West. The likes of Lord Jeffrey Amherst intentionally gave smallpox-infested blankets to tribes in the early forms of biological warfare. Whereas, the 1756 Indian Scalp Act paid out bounties for the scalps of Indian men, women, and children.

This continued up through the French-Indian War in which the British defeated the Indian-French allies; but proclaimed that the settlers can not go West of the Appalachian Mountains – not because they grew a heart for the Indians –but because it would be too hard to manage the settlers which would soon revolt against the Kingdom.

Even during the Revolutionary War, there were Days of Thanksgiving honored after a victory against the British. Until George Washington suggested that there is only one day of Thanksgiving set aside per year, rather than after each massacre.

The “Most Free Country on Earth”

After being declared a “free country,” the savagery continued. President Andrew Jackson issued the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Natives west to Oklahoma. The Cherokee removal from Tennessee became known as the infamous “Trail of Tears” in which Cherokee were slain in front of family members if they did not oblige.

As the land continued to be stolen, the Native Americans set up reservations. This land was not GIVEN to the Native Americans, it is land that THEY reserved for themselves that could not be taken from them. However, as we find out that did not seem to matter as the United States has broken every treaty ever signed with a Native American tribe.

It’s also important to understand that the government does not just hand out money “because they are Indians.” They are given money that is owed to them due to the treaties signed by the United States to purchase their land, and they settlements due to breaking every single treaty ever signed. It is not just a charity hand-out, it is part of a guilty plea.

However, false propaganda and poor educational curriculum like to inform the mainstream that we “gave the Indians reservations” and “pay them money.” This ignorance is a direct result of America not teaching their children what a treaty actually entails, or why it was signed in the first place.

In 1851, the Sioux made two treaties in which they were to be compensated with cash, food, and goods to give up over one-million acres of land to the United States, while living on the reservation. However, there were corrupt leaders in the Bureau of Indian Affairs who refused payments and gave goods out to white settlers instead. Once Minnesota became a state, Chief Little Crow took his grievances to Washington – in return, the United States took half of the land back from the Sioux and opened it up for white expansion.

Each year the situation got worse, until the summer of 1862 in which the Sioux were literally starving in these unlivable situations. This is referred to in history as the “Sioux Uprising.” They were “uprising” because you were starving them to death because of lies and broken promises.

One day a group went off the reservation hunting and stole some eggs from white settlers and eventually murdered them. The authorities in Minnesota then rounded up 303 Sioux, many of which were not involved in the uprising, and sentenced them to be hung to death. The Great Emancipator, President Abraham Lincoln issued the largest mass-killing in American history with the hanging of 38 Santee Sioux in Mankato, Minnesota. He reduced the number to 38 in fear that European nations may take the side of the South in the Civil War and exchange he promised Minnesota to kill or remove any Indians from Minnesota and pay $2 million in settlement – he only owed the Sioux$1.4 million for the land.

One year later, Congress expunged all Sioux treaties from the records, took back their reserved land and ordered the entire tribe to be expelled from Minnesota. As an incentive, a bounty of $25 was offered for the scalp of any Sioux found living in the state. In the same year, President Lincoln decided that Thanksgiving should be a Federal Holiday.

During this time, the Wild-Wild West included the likes of Custer going from camp-to-camp killing Indian women, men, and children for sport. They would burn, rape, and mutilate entire villages and were celebrated in the news as heroes. This includes his raid of the sleeping Cheyenne and their peace Chief Black Kettle, despite his previous surrender to the military and willingness to live on the reservations.

In 1890, on the Pine Ridge Reservation the Natives were practicing ghost dances, in which the military was called in and turned a peaceful dance into a massacre with another 300 dead at the hands of their conquerors.

“The people who are citizens of the U.S., these are your treaties. They aren’t just the Indians’ treaties. No one gave us anything. No one was dragging any land behind them when they came here. This was our land… As native American peoples in this red corner of Mother Earth, we have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people, and is still causing destruction today.” ~ Suzan Shown Harjo, the Morning Star Institute, a national Native American rights organization.

Boarding Schools

As the Sioux Wars ended, and it wasn’t as easy to deliberately kill the Indians, the Americans needed a new way to carry out genocide. They introduced the Boarding School System in 1890. This was United States Government policy that they could show up at your doorstep, take away your infants and toddlers and ship them to boarding schools hundreds of miles away. Your children were no longer yours.

At these schools they were banned to speak native languages, mocked their traditions and cultures, cut their hair, made them look American, as well as physically, emotionally, and sexually abused on a daily basis. Some children would never see their parents again. Or if they did, they had become different people.

It was a systematic eradicating of a race of people, they looked Indian but they were Americanizing them. Every Indian today is a product of this boarding school system. It peaked in the 1970s and carried into the 21st century.

In the 1950s, the United States then wanted to “re-civilize” the Indians and invited them to live back in the city. The problem is they had no money, education, or skills, and could not find work. Most of them ended up homeless or in jail.

Primitive Savages

There are volumes and volumes of dissertations written on this information listed above and it is difficult to condense it to less than a couple thousand words. (I encourage you to do you own research.) But in reading through the horrors, atrocities, genocide, and institutionalized racism enacted against the indigenous people, what is quite clear is that the label of ‘savages’ is on the wrong end.

Our society’s practice of “might is right”, consumerism, competition, separation and judgment is the opposite of how humans were designed to live. We were meant to live in harmony with each other and respect our fellow man. These ideas and values had already been in place for many years, but have been since removed by an advanced military society, but a primitive spiritual one.

“When your people came to our land, it was not with open arms, but with Bibles and guns and disease. You took our land. You killed us with your guns and disease, then had the arrogance to call us godless savages. If there is a Heaven and it is filled with Christians, than Hell is the place for me.”

Primitive spirituality and genocidal practices over the past four-hundred years have resulted in nearly 100 million deaths of indigenous people – making the Europeans the true primitive savages. Before the European invasion of the Americas, there were believed to be as many as 80-100 million native people occupying what is now the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only 5.2 million people in the U.S. identified as American Indian and Alaskan Native, either wholly or in part, and out of this total only 2.9 million people identified as solely American Indian or Alaska Native. At the time of European invasion, at least 300 different languages were spoken in addition to numerous “trade languages”.

The natives of the Americas were not only “living lightly on the land”, as is so often claimed, but were engaged in landscaping, building and agriculture, trade and commerce, in addition to sustainable hunting and gathering, and of course, ancient cultural and earth-based spiritual practices — much of which has now been decimated.

When Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas, ho entered an occupied land with force to subjugate and exterminate the civilizations that had existed for at least 30,000 years (some estimates are as high as 200,000 years), a trend that continued for several hundred years. And although he and the colonists that arrived in the years to follow have become icons of our national mythology, the result has been mass assimilation, raping, slaughtering, enslaving, and intention to wipe out all evidence of a native population of between 50 and 100 million indigenous people from the land — the greatest genocide in recorded history.

But, one day out of the year, we are able to give thanks and show gratitude as part of the traditional celebration to honor a bloody massacre.

About the Author

An avid historian, Irwin Ozborne (a pen-name) is a survivor of childhood abuse and torture over a period of 13 years, and a recovered alcoholic. As a mental health practitioner, today Irwin practices holistic care and incorporates eastern philosophy into his work with clients. He is available for speaking engagements as well, and can be contacted via email: takingmaskoff@yahoo.com. Please visit www.takingthemaskoff.com.

Source:  

1. NOVEMBER 24, 2015

2. Turkey Downs Russian Fighter to Draw NATO and US Deeper into Syrian Quagmire

3. by MIKE WHITNEY

4. Email

5. On Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that was carrying out military operations against jihadi groups in Northern Syria. The downing of the Su-24 fighter jet is part of a broader plan by the administration of Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan to topple the secular government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and to establish “safe zones” on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border. Erdogan needs the safe zones to provide a sanctuary for the militant extremists who are the footsoldiers in his war against Syria. The downing of the Russian fighter is a desperate attempt by Erdogan to incite a reaction from Russia that will draw either NATO or the United States deeper into a conflict which has dragged on for 4 and a half years and killed 250,000 people.

6. Unlike the Obama administration, that has been willing to arm and train jihadi groups to conduct its proxy-war against Assad in Syria, Erdogan is a true believer, a committed Islamist who has done everything in his power to roll back democracy in Turkey, to establish one-man rule, to destroy the independent judiciary, to silence the free press, and to establish a conservative and intolerant Islamic state. Erdogan is what many would call a “Koolaid drinker”, a man who believes that his support for disparate and vicious terrorist groups that have decimated Syria, laid its civilian infrastructure to waste, and displaced more than half the population is “God’s work”. Make no mistake, the Turkish government is the modern-day Caliphate. The fact that its government officials dress in nicely-tailored suits rather than black pajamas, is merely a way to divert attention from their extreme fanaticism and their covert support for liver-eating fundamentalist savages.

7. In the seven weeks since Russia began military operations in Syria, nearly all of the gains of the US-Turkey-Saudi-Qatar jihadi coalition have been wiped out. The decisive battle took place more than a week ago at Kuweris airbase east of Aleppo. This was the tipping point for the war although the imminent fall of Aleppo is bound to attract more notoriety. It’s clear now that the Russian-led coalition is winning the war, has foiled US attempt to remove Assad, and that the bulk of the foreign mercenaries will either be killed or captured. The Obama administration realizes that the current phase of the war is hopeless and has started to implement a fallback plan to control territory in E Syria that is critical for future pipeline corridors. In contrast, the Turkish government is completely unwilling to accept the fact that its plan has failed which is why it has embarked on this risky strategy to draw either NATO or Washington deeper into the fray. Check this out from a Tuesday battlefield report from South Front:

8. “The Syrian forces backed up by the Russian warplanes, pushed back the militant groups from nearly 200 kilometers of land in the coastal province of Lattakia, military sources said Monday. On Sunday, the Syrian army and popular forces purged the terrorists and advanced to areas near the Turkish borders. The ground reports argue that the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) took control of Zahia heights, 2km from the joint borders with Turkey.”

9. Can you see what’s going on? The Russian-led coalition is closing in on the Syria-Turkish border which will put an end to Erdogan’s dream of toppling Assad or continuing to fuel the war with terrorists that are provided a safe haven on Syrian soil. This is why the Su-24 fighter was shot down on Tuesday. It is a desperate attempt to salvage the failed strategy of toppling a secular government and replacing it with friendly Islamic extremists who hew to Erdogan’s twisted worldview.

10. By the way, readers should take a minute and review the video of the “moderate” headchoppers that the US supports in Syria paying special attention to their moderate treatment of prisoners. The Russian pilot was captured by these “freedom fighters”, shot twice in the chest and then his clothes were ripped off so he could be moderately photographed. These are the fine fellows that Uncle Sam would like to see in Damascus heading the government because, as we all know, “Assad has lost legitimacy.” (See here.)

11. For the last three days, I have been following a fast-evolving plan by the Turkish Terrorist Government (TTG) to create a false flag operation that would draw either the US or NATO deeper into the war in Syria reversing Obama’s recent commitment NOT to deploy ground troops to the warzone. On Saturday, Turkish newspapers reported that 1,500 Syrian Turkmen had fled to the Turkish border for safety. The reasons that were given were that the Russian warplanes were bombing areas where ISIS was not located. True, ISIS is not located in these Turkmen villages by the border; rather the barbarians that you see in the video are located there. These men belong to the jihadi groups that that have been funded, armed and trained by Turkey and the US and who are fighting to topple Assad. Reasonable people who would like to see an end to terrorism, should feel supportive of Putin’s efforts to annihilate these monsters. Instead, the Turkish government has been trying to make the case that Russia is bombing innocent civilians. Now check out this story (from Monday) in Turkey’s leading newspaper Hurriyet:

12. “Turkey has called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in neighboring Syria, according to Prime Ministry sources, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu saying his government will “not hesitate” to take the required measures on Syrian soil to protect the Turkmen people…

13. Turkey is in discussions with the United States and Russia over the bombing of the villages and has sent a letter to Britain, the current holder of the U.N. Security Council’s presidency, asking for the subject to be taken up, sources from Davutoğlu’s office told Reuters on Nov. 23…

14. Speaking to reporters late on Nov. 22, Davutoğlu recalled that he was engaged in constant contact with both Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan over the weekend concerning alleged Russian air raids on Turkmen villages near the Syrian-Turkish border. Sources, meanwhile, told Reuters that Davutoğlu had consulted on the intelligence dimension of the issue with Akar and Fidan.

15. “Our security forces have been instructed to retaliate against any development that would threaten Turkey’s border security,” the prime minister said. “If there is an attack that would lead to an intense influx of refugees to Turkey, required measures would be taken both inside Syria and Turkey,” he added.

16. “Looking at background of these attacks, in a region where very clearly there is no element of Deash (ISIS), where there is no terrorist element, first Russian airplanes come and then with support from foreign fighters.

17. “We will also take the required measures diplomatically for the protection of our brothers and sisters in the place where they are located and for the protection of their human rights in the face of any threat,” he also stated.” (Turkey urges UN to act to protect Turkmens in Syria, Hurriyet)

18. So is the Turkish PM correct in saying the Russians are bombing the Turkmen civilians forcing them to flee from their homes. Not according to Turkmen leader Ali Türkmani. Here’s what he said:

19. “There is a perception operation that is being waged over the Turkmens. The regime will of course attempt to maintain its territorial integrity. As such, threats from al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army are being targeted [by Russian air strikes]. It’s not correct to say the Turkmens are being targeted.”

20. So civilians are not being targeted, but the Turkish government is supplying weapons and ammo to the terrorists as this article in the Turkish Daily Zaman proves:

21. “Several trucks bound for Syria were stopped at the beginning of last year by Turkish gendarmerie forces upon instructions by a prosecutor. It turned out they contained weapons.

22. The AK Party government claimed for months that the trucks only included humanitarian aid, but a report published by the Cumhuriyet daily in May last year revealed that the trucks contained weapons.

23. According to the daily’s report, a truck, which is thought to be one of many, contained 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells.

24. The government was accused of sending the weapons to radical Islamist groups in Syria, but Davutoğlu swore in June that the trucks were bound for Turkmens. In contrast, Turkmens had earlier denied receiving any weapons from Turkey.” (Turkey calls on UN Security Council to convene for Turkmens in Syria, Today’s Zaman)

25. So what is the game-plan here? What is Turkey really up to?

26. Well, first of all, they are trying to set up a safe zone on sovereign Syrian territory so they can continue to spread terror across Syria. Check out this clip from the Daily Sabah and you’ll see how these Turkmen radicals who are allies of Ankara are seizing villages to create the safe zone:

27. “Syrian opposition groups supported by Turkish and US warplanes took control of two Turkmen towns in Northern Syria early Saturday, Anadolu Agency reported….The operation was supported by six Turkish F-16s, four US F-15s and an AC-130 joined the offensive along with three drones.

28. Security sources added that this success in the fight against DAESH that can be defined as the first step for the creation of a DAESH-free zone in Northern Syria….

29. Speaking about Turkey’s stance on the recent developments in Northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a live broadcast on Wednesday that declaring no-fly and safe zones is crucial to resolve the Syrian Crisis….Erdoğan further stated that Turkey will continue to carry out anti-terror operations until concrete results are achieved and peace is restored.” (First step for the safe zone in N. Syria: opposition groups take two Turkmen towns from DAESH, Daily Sabah)

30. Whether you call it an ISIS-free zone or not is irrelevant. The fact is, the Turkish government (with US air support) is trying to annex Syrian territory for its own nefarious purposes. That much is clear.

31. The downing of the Russian Su-24 fighter fits perfectly with the way in which the Turkish government has been ratcheting up tensions on the border, using its jihadi allies to seize Syrian territory, and trying to incite a violent reaction that will force greater NATO or US involvement. I seriously doubt that Putin is gullible enough to take the bait and overreact to this obvious and pathetic provocation in Ankara. He will exact his pound of flesh at some other time, a time of his own choosing.

32. MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

33. More articles by:MIKE WHITNEY

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35. previous – An Invisible US Hand Leading to War? Turkey’s Downing of a Russian Jet was an Act of Madness,