German “Officials” Call to change Constitution

GERMAN “OFFICIALS” CALL TO CHANGE CONSTITUTION AFTER MUNICH SHOOTING; MILITARY ON STREETS, GUN CONTROL (Source blacklistednews.com)The bodies of the victims of Munich’s recent mass shooting barely cold, German “authorities” and politicians have wasted no time in calling for more police state measures and the further clamp down on access to gun ownership in Germany. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann is now pushing for going so far as to revise the German Constitution so that limits placed on using the military domestically can be removed, allowing the German military to be used inside Germany for “large-scale terrorist situations.” The limits on Germany’s military were put in place after World War II and in response to Germany’s experience with the Nazi regime with all its excesses, totalitarianism, violence, and genocide. Hermann stated that Germany is “an absolutely stable democracy” and, as such, Germans should be perfectly fine with having their military deployed on German streets. Baden-Wurttemberg’s Interior Minister also hinted at the possibility of changing the German Constitution in a manner similar to Hermann. There was, of course, little doubt that communo-fascist elements of the German government would immediately begin to seize upon the crisis – real or engineered by intelligence agencies – in order to push for greater totalitarian control over the German people. Regardless of the nature of the attacks, it is clear that the German government is not letting it go to waste.

Is Another European Banking Crisis Imminent?

Is Another European Banking Crisis Imminent? (Source thetrumpet.com)

Germany’s most important bank and Italy’s entire banking system seem on the brink of total meltdown. Europe’s banks are in huge trouble—sitting on the brink of triggering not just a European crisis, but a global one. Leading the way is Germany’s Deutsche Bank. Germany’s most prestigious and influential financial institution is on the brink of disaster. Its share price has gone from nearly €120 (US$133) a share before the 2008 financial crisis to nearly €12 a share today—a 90 percent drop. The bank has been fined $2.5 billion for manipulating the LIBOR rate. It was forced to spend $8 billion on litigation. It owns $46.5 trillion of derivatives. The bank lost $7.4 billion last year. Its chief financial officer has said he expects bank losses to continue until 2018 at the earliest. This year, it seems set to lose even more than in 2015. It’s no wonder, then, that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently declared Deutsche Bank the most dangerous bank in the world. Among globally systemically important banks, “Deutsche Bank appears to be the most important net contributor to systemic risks,” the IMF wrote in a report published on June 30. The United States Federal Reserve recently found that the American branch of Deutsche Bank and the U.S. arm of Spanish bank Santander were the only banks to fail its stress tests. The bank is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. It has $1.82 trillion in assets and $1.75 trillion in liabilities. With just a slight shift of a few percentage points, the bank is literally less than worthless. To make matters worse, Deutsche Bank is at the foundation of Germany’s entire economic system.

 

Answering the US and NATO: Experts Examine A Joint Missile System for China

Answering the US and NATO: Experts Examine A Joint Missile System for China, Russia, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Source sputniknews.com)

Russia and China may create a unified missile defense system for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. That’s the conclusion of experts speaking at a forum dedicated to the US deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea. What would the Russian-Chinese system look like? Sputnik investigates. On Monday, experts in Moscow and Beijing spoke via video conference on the implications for regional security of the US deployment of missile defense systems in South Korea. And while the forum focused mostly on political and military implications of the THAAD deployment, experts also intrigued observers by indicating that it was possible for Russia and China to join together to create a single missile defense shield over the entirety of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the political, economic and military organization involving much of eastern Eurasia.

 Regarding the THAAD deployment, Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it was categorically opposed to the move. THAAD, capable of monitoring ballistic and aerial targets at distances of up to 1,500 km, is expected to give the US military the capability to ‘see’ into the territory of the Russian Federation, and even further into that of China. Speaking at the video conference, Vladimir Petrovsky, a senior researcher at the Moscow-based Center for the Studies and Forecasting of Russia-China Relations at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, explained that the potential for a joint missile defense shield exists. Moreover, such a shield would be entirely appropriate given recent US moves, from its deployment of missile shield components in Eastern Europe to the deployment of THAAD in South Korea. “Russia and China could become the driving force in the area of missile defense. Special attention should be paid to the land-based interception systems which we have at our disposal,” the analyst said.

Sign of the times: Riot control gear sales are soaring

SIGN OF THE TIMES: RIOT CONTROL GEAR SALES ARE SOARING GLOBALLY (Source blacklistednews.com) If you pay attention to the news at all, it probably seems like the world has been fraying at the edges lately. In South America, Brazil’s economy is crumbling and Venezuela is on the verge of collapse. In the United States, riots are expected at political conventions. In Europe, the Brexit vote is threatening to tear apart the EU and the UK. And all over the world, people are becoming sick and tired of the status quo. In nearly every single country, people are losing their faith in major institutions and, in increasing numbers, they are losing their trust in the financial and political elitists who run those institutions. Obviously, this state of affairs can’t continue indefinitely. There is a flashpoint somewhere down the road, when the people of the world reach their breaking point, and the elitists who run their societies will do everything they can to hold onto their power. It’s going to be ugly, and it’s going to be global in scope. The governments of the world clearly know what’s coming. That’s why they’re stocking up on riot gear at an unprecedented rate. We know this because globally, sales of riot gear are rapidly growing. Currently, the market is dominated by North American companies, due to technological advancement and growing fears of terrorism and civil unrest. The report forecasts, however, that over the coming years, Asian-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets will grow at the highest rate. Current popular products for handling unrest without inflicting lethal harm include offensive and defensive weapons, electromagnetic and sonic weapons, kinetic impact weapons, chemical agents, and more. Of the weaponry available on the market, directed energy weapons (a subset of offensive weapons) is projected to grow at the highest rate, including what are termed active denial systems (ADS) or “pain rays.” And that’s not all. Wealthy Americans from Chicago to the Silicon Valley are buying rural compounds that they can escape to if civil unrest occurs. Companies that produce luxury bomb shelters are seeing widespread interest, and the wealthy who are still living in major cities are building panic rooms in their luxury apartments. Clearly, the people who are in the know are getting ready for something big. The elitists who run the governments of the world are hunkering down. They’re preparing their police forces to deal with widespread civil unrest, and they preparing to protect themselves as well.

 

Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Vladimir Putin

It’s Official: Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Vladimir Putin (Source theatlantic.com) The Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump, has

chosen this week to unmask himself as a de facto agent of Russian President

Vladimir Putin, a KGB-trained dictator who seeks to rebuild the Soviet empire by undermining the free nations of Europe, marginalizing NATO, and ending

America’s reign as the world’s sole superpower. I am not suggesting that Donald Trump is employed by Putin—though his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was for many years on the payroll of the Putin-backed former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. I am arguing that Trump’s understanding of America’s role in the world aligns with Russia’s geostrategic interests; that his critique of American democracy is in accord with the Kremlin’s critique of American democracy; and that he shares numerous ideological and dispositional proclivities with Putin—for one thing, an obsession with the sort of “strength” often associated with dictators. Trump is making it clear that, as president, he would allow Russia to advance its hegemonic interests across Europe and the Middle East. His election would immediately trigger a wave of global instability—much worse than anything we are seeing today—because America’s allies understand that Trump would likely dismantle the post-World War II U.S.-created international order. Many of these countries, feeling abandoned, would likely pursue nuclear weapons programs on their own, leading to a nightmare of proliferation. Trump’s sympathy for Putin has not been a secret. Trump said he would “get along very well” with Putin, and he has pleased Putin by expressing a comprehensive lack of interest in the future of Ukraine, the domination of which is a core Putinist principle. The Trump movement also agrees with Putin that U.S. democracy is fatally flawed. A Trump adviser, Carter Page, recently denounced—to a Moscow audience—America’s “often-hypocritical focus on democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.” Trump’s operatives watered down the Republican Party’s national-security platform position on Ukraine, removing a promise to help the Ukrainians receive lethal aid in their battle to remain free of Russian control. Donald Trump, should he be elected president, would bring an end to the postwar international order, and liberate dictators, first and foremost his ally Vladimir Putin, to advance their own interests. The moral arc of the universe is long, and, if Trump is elected, it will bend in the direction of despotism and darkness.

 

Americans Think Race Relations Are at Their Worst

Americans Think Race Relations Are at Their Worst Point in Years, Poll Finds Source time.com) Americans believe that racial discontent is at the highest point since the Obama presidency began, with 69 percent of respondents in a new poll saying race relations in the country right now are poor. The New York Times and CBS conducted the poll from Friday through Tuesday, the period directly after the killings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and five police officers in Dallas. The poll also found that 6 out of 10 respondents thought race relations in America are getting worse — a marked increase from 38 percent who said the same a year ago, the Times reports. The poll surveyed 1,600 people throughout the United States. The racial strife found in the poll matches the levels recorded during the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 over the Rodney King beating case.

FBI, Homeland Security chiefs preparing for violence at political conventions

FBI, Homeland Security chiefs preparing for violence at political conventions (Source Reuters)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that they were preparing their agencies for the possibility of violence, both from unruly demonstrators and terrorists, at the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.

Speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee, Johnson said he was concerned that demonstrations at the events could get out of hand. In an interview with Reuters following his testimony, Johnson said he knew of no specific or credible threat to either convention but that it was important to be prepared. Johnson said the Department of Homeland Security would be sending more than 3,000 personnel to each convention. Recent clashes between attendees and protesters at rallies for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have led to physical assaults and arrests. The Republican National Convention being held July 18-21 in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28 follow a string of high-profile shootings.

America Is Acting Locally, the Islamic State Is Thinking Globally

America Is Acting Locally, the Islamic State Is Thinking Globally (Source Yahoo.com)

U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk has called the Islamic State’s recent attacks a sign of weakness, spurred by its mounting losses in Iraq and Syria. “ISIL and its leaders have retreated to the shadows,” he testified recently, using another acronym for the jihadist group. In fact, the opposite is true. The Islamic State’s attacks prove that, despite its recent losses, it remains strong and capable of executing its global strategy to undermine modern states, expand as a caliphate, and spark an apocalyptic war with the West. The United States will fail to defeat the Islamic State and protect the homeland if it does not reframe its strategy to contend with the Islamic State globally, rather than focusing on tactical successes in Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State’s strategy is both local and global. The group pursues interlocking campaigns across multiple geographic areas: Its local strategy in Iraq and Syria is to remain in control of terrain as a caliphate, while its regional strategy is to expand that caliphate across the Middle East by incorporating more fighting groups, which will allow it to further destabilize states and gain control of more terrain. Its global strategy, meanwhile, is to set the conditions for an apocalyptic war with the West, first and foremost by polarizing societies to be for or against Islam.

The U.S. Missle defense system is a joke

The US missile defense system is a joke (Source nypost.com) The ground-based midcourse missile defense system, which has deployed 30 interceptors in Alaska and California, has been tested under highly scripted conditions only nine times since being deployed in 2004, and failed to destroy its target two-thirds of the time, the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report. “After nearly 15 years of effort to build the GMD homeland missile defense system, it still has no demonstrated real-world capability to defend the United States,” said Laura Grego, a UCS physicist who co-authored the report. The Missile Defense Agency said in a statement the rapid deployment requirement in the law that created the system was “a driving factor” in the delivery of a ground-based interceptor with “reliability challenges.” The agency said the problems had led to changes in the interceptor’s design and a program to improve reliability, including use of more mature technologies. The MDA said it was seeking ways to reduce the risks of deploying equipment still under development. The UCS report echoed criticisms the homeland missile defense system has faced from other quarters. A Pentagon assessment in 2015 found that flight testing of the system was still “insufficient to demonstrate that an operationally useful defense capability exists.”

 

Rise in transgender children puts British primary schools under pressure

Rise in transgender children puts British primary schools under pressure (Source RT)

UK primary schools are attempting to enforce “trans-inclusive environments and curricula” as the number of British children who want to change their gender is at an all-time high. England’s only center for trans children and adolescents, the Tavistock Clinic, says the number of British children who want to change their gender has doubled in six months. According to the Guardian, the clinic says it is under huge pressure, with many of the referrals involving children under the age of 10, including one three-year-old and 12 four-year-olds, the Guardian reports. Schools are responding to the increasing numbers by creating “new gender neutral environments” and holding “transgender days” to encourage pupils to think about gender fluidity. Others are getting rid of the distinctions between boys’ and girls’ uniforms. About 80 state schools, including 40 primaries, now have a gender-neutral stance towards uniforms. In time, British primary school students could expect to take part in non-gendered biology lessons, classes on creating unisex spaces, and physical education lessons mixing boys and girls together, the Guardian reports. Stories are emerging of boys at all-boys’ schools who are being asked to be identified as girls, and vice versa. Helen Porter, a science teacher at an all-girls’ school, told the newspaper that in one year 11 cohort, two pupils requested to stay on as young men. She says the fact it was a single-sex school made that more challenging, but the school offered them places.