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Persuasion and ISIS

Guest Post by Scott Adams

Experts say ISIS can’t be beaten by military means alone. You have to get to the “deep” causes. Here are two experts saying just that, including a former head of the CIA. The problem is that observers seem to have different ideas of what is at the root of it all.

According to the article, many people believe the underlying problem is “chaos, poor governance, and poverty.” But that framing does a poor job of explaining why – as the article claims – Arab countries are 5% of the population of the world but produce 50% of the terror acts. Why are the other places with the same poor conditions NOT becoming terrorists at the same rate?

Former CIA director Hayden says the fight has to be on “ideological” grounds, the way communism was eventually defeated. He refers to that as the “deep fight” and points out that Westerners have no credibility in the ideological framing of either Islamic beliefs or terrorist beliefs. We can’t influence them from the inside where it matters because we’re not on the inside.

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A LOCKED DOWN MERRY TRUMP CHRISTMAS IN NYC

We had a quick two day jaunt to NYC to see a concert this week. NYC at Christmas time is usually entertaining, with all the over the top decorations and throngs of shoppers in this mecca of materialism. We drove to the Hamilton Train Station, but by 10:00 am the parking garage was full. We had to go back to lovely Trenton and catch a NJT train there into Penn Station. Nothing like immediately being swarmed upon by a grifter selling a sob story about just being released from the hospital, blah, blah, blah. His well rehearsed show didn’t work on me. I told him to beat it and proceeded to position himself for the next sucker.

The train ride was uneventful and on time. We departed Penn Station and got a cab. The 15 block ride resulted in at least 5 near accidents, dozens of honked horns, and a feeling of relief when we arrived in one piece. After dropping our bags off at the hotel – no room ready, we proceeded to find a place for lunch and then see the usual Christmas sites. NYC survives strictly on tourism and Wall Street criminal banks. Every block has at least six restaurants or bars. How they survive, with what must be huge rents, is beyond me. The truth is, most don’t survive and are replaced every year or so.

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Putin Lashes Out At Obama: “Show Some Proof Or Shut Up”

Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Dec 16, 2016 9:09 AM

Putin has had enough of the relentless barrage of US accusations that he, personally, “hacked the US presidential election.”

The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that the US must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it. Peskov said it was “indecent” of the United States to “groundlessly” accuse Russia of intervention in its elections.

“You need to either stop talking about it, or finally show some kind of proof. Otherwise it just looks very indecent”, Peskov told Reporters in Tokyo where Putin is meeting with Japan PM Abe, responding to the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.

Peskov also warned that Obama’s threat to “retaliate” to the alleged Russian hack is “against both American and international law”, hinting at open-ended escalation should Obama take the podium today at 2:15pm to officially launch cyberwar against Russia.

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The Elite et al. vs. Trump et al

The Elite et al. vs. Trump et al

elitevstramp

December 13, 2016

I thought I’d never write about current events at Free-Man’s Perspective. My interests lie in human development, not in the daily crap-fights of politics. Recent events, however, have forced me to reconsider.

What finally changed my mind was a story that broke Friday evening in which the CIA claims Russia intervened in the US election, because Putin wanted Trump to win and Hillary to lose. The story was subsequently reported far and wide.

Continue reading “The Elite et al. vs. Trump et al”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Obama’s Birth Certificate is Forgery Press Conference

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio held a press conference in Phoenix on Thursday afternoon where he announced after a five year investigation his investigators have determined that the birth certificate presented by President Barack Obama was a fraudulently created document which has been represented as an official copy of the original certificate. The Sheriff’s office said they have been working this case since August 2011 after the Tea Party asked him to investigate.

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Lessons of Aleppo — for Trump

Guest Post by Patrick J Buchanan

Lessons of Aleppo — for Trump

In this world, it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, said Henry Kissinger in 1968, but to be a friend is fatal.

The South Vietnamese would come to appreciate the insight.

So it is today with Aleppo, where savage reprisals against U.S.-backed rebels are taking place in that hellhole of human rights.

Yet, again, the wrong lessons are being drawn from the disaster.

According to The Washington Post, the bloodbath is a result of a U.S. failure to intervene more decisively in Syria’s civil war: “Aleppo represents a meltdown of the West’s moral and political will — and … a collapse of U.S. leadership.

“By refusing to intervene against the Assad regime’s atrocities, or even to enforce the ‘red line’ he declared on the use of chemical weapons, President Obama created a vacuum that was filled by Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.”

But the blunder was not in staying out of Syria’s civil war, but in going in. Aleppo is a bloodbath born of interventionism.

Continue reading “Lessons of Aleppo — for Trump”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.

Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that our fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”

Neil Postman

Are Debt-Laden American Consumers About To Get Crushed By Higher Interest Rates?

Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Dec 16, 2016 2:45 AM

American consumers love debt, wall street loves securitizing that debt and collecting massive fees for selling it and pension funds, with no viable alternative investments courtesy of accommodative Fed policies, love buying that debt for the extra 25bps of yield it provides.  It’s a “win, win, win”, right?

Well, until it’s not.  While real median incomes in the U.S. have been stagnant for almost a
decade, real household personal consumption has continued its steady
rise as American’s have simply replaced lost income with new debt.  But,
with household leverage near all-time highs and interest rates on the
rise, we suspect this could all end very badly for the U.S. consumer and those pension funds that were forced to “stretch for yield.”

Per a Bloomberg article posted today, the average U.S. household is carrying roughly $133,000 worth of debt, spread between mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, student loans and the newly-popular, crowd-funded, personal loans.

Debt

Continue reading “Are Debt-Laden American Consumers About To Get Crushed By Higher Interest Rates?”

Nassim Taleb: The Syrian War Condensed (For Almost Dummies)

Submitted by Nassim Nicholas Taleb via Medium.com,

Juxtaposition. The way to analyze the situation is to look at the factions comparatively. You do not compare Assad’s regime to the Danish or Norwegian governments, but to the alternative. The question becomes if there is anything in the left column that is worse than the right column?

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The History of Climate Change — Empires Fall When Warming Turns to Cooling

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

global-warming-cyclicalHere is a chart of the real data for global cyclical trends in the energy output of the sun and CO2 levels. Look at this chart prior to the Minoan warming. There was a very cold period a bit longer than 8,000 years ago — the Ice Age. You see what I would call a slingshot move when the temperatures swung sharply to a record high over about 300 years, according to the ice core samples. Thereafter, we move into a bear market, oscillating trend to retest the low made 4700 years ago. Then there is the steady rise into what we call the Minoan high. Continue reading “The History of Climate Change — Empires Fall When Warming Turns to Cooling”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

In addition to the 4,524 dead soldiers, 31,952 soldiers were wounded, and a few hundred thousand Iraqis were killed or wounded. And it only cost $2 trillion, so far. The medical benefits to the soldiers and families will ultimately drive the total cost over $5 trillion. And what exactly did we accomplish?

Infographic: 5th Anniversary of America Withdrawing Troops from Iraq | Statista
You will find more statistics at Statista

Muslim Woman Reportedly Admits To Fabricating NYC Subway Attack

Via The Daily Caller

An 18-year-old Muslim woman has recanted her claim that she was harassed by a group of Donald Trump supporters on a New York City subway car earlier this month, DNA Info is reporting.

Sources tell the website that Yasmin Seweid, a student at Baruch College, said that she made up the story because she was having problems at home and wanted attention. Seweid will also be charged with filing a false police report, according to DNA Info.

Seweid claimed that on Dec. 1 she was harassed by three drunk white men who called her a “terrorist” and told her to “get the hell out of the country.” One of the men attempted to remove Seweid’s hijab, she claimed. Worse, she said that other passengers did not come to her aid.

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