The John James Newsletter 176

13 May 2017

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had ever happened

Winston Churchill

It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins 

Benjamin Franklin

There is almost no discussion of Israel’s nuclear cruise missiles on three submarines stationed off the coast of Iran. They patrol 24-7, and they can reach any target in Iran in a matter of minutes.

Jerry Kroth

Consider the consequences of the following three reports, three among many. A three-fold improvement in nuclear missile accuracy combined with newly-installed and effective US anti-missile batteries on the Russian and Chinese borders. With early warning satellites the US would have a 30 minute warning of a launch whereas  the others cannot do better than 15 minutes.

This poses an unparalleled threat to the integrity of Russia and China. It has given the US the capacity to annihilate them both with some expectation (as yet unproven) of minimal retaliation. 

Will the US make a first strike, or manage to keep the possibility just as a threat? If a threat, the most obvious demand backed by that threat would be “Get rid of your non-dollar currency or we will ….”. This is the one development in these countries that is most capable of undermining US hegemony.  

For the threat to work there would need to be a demonstration to prove that the threat was credible. I would expect the US to find a way to provoke the Russians or Chinese to fire a few missiles and then show they can knock them down. Once demonstrated beyond dispute, the US could then demand the submission of both countries from an unassailable position. 

The problem with this scenario is that the demonstration could easily escalate into war as both or either of the ‘enemy’ countries find they could not submit and still survive.

Why America’s New Nuke Upgrades Would Be An Endgame For Russia

A new “super-fuze” device incorporated into submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads are so deadly and accurate that they could possibly wipe out an entire fleet of Russian ICBMs in their silos, creating a preemptive strike-first capability that would give Russia little time to respond.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/why-americas-new-nuke-upgrades-would-be-an-endgame-for-1793260891 

America’s Top Scientists Confirm: US Goal Now Is to Conquer Russia

“Disarming Enemies with a Surprise Nuclear First Strike”. The key turning-point that led to the present crisis was the gradual and increasing acceptance, on the American side, of the concept of using nuclear weapons for conquest instead of only for deterrence. The US nuclear forces modernization program has been portrayed to the public as an effort to ensure the reliability and safety of warheads, rather than to enhance their military capabilities. In reality, however, that program has implemented revolutionary technologies that will vastly increase the targeting capability of the ballistic missile. This increase is astonishing — boosting the overall killing power of existing US ballistic missile forces by a factor of roughly three — and it creates exactly what one would expect to see, if a nuclear-armed state were planning the capacity to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-top-scientists-confirm-u-s-goal-now-is-to-conquer-russia-disarming-enemies-with-a-surprise-nuclear-first-strike/5588524 

THAAD, the missile defense system kicking off a new US-China fight,

According to data from the US Missile Defense Agency, which conducts regular tests of US ballistic missile defense systems, the THAAD system has had 13 successful intercepts out of 13 attempts stretching back to 2006.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/10/14882778/thaad-south-korea-missile-defense-system-china-explained 

And if that threat is not enough, what of methane?

Methane rising, and its not yet summer in the northern Hemisphere

The lower chart shows the inexorable increase in global atmospheric methane levels. The two diagrams in the upper chart show the consequences in which the increased RATE of methane discharge is obvious in the red line. On the left a normal linear scale has been applied that shows that now that the rate has accelerated a linear view of future growth cannot be maintained. On the right Sam Carara has connected the points with a polynomial curve that suggests that we are in for an acceleration of the rate of acceleration itself. The doomsday scenarios issued by scientific bodies that foretell 4C within the next 15 years to some extent reflect this interpretation.

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/the-methane-threat.html 

We will include ideas that you can do 

to reduce pollution and make yourself more comfortable

WHAT YOU CAN DO 

TO MITIGATE THE RISING HEAT

As temperatures rise it will be dangerous to be outside on many days and air conditioning will be essential to avoid heatstroke. Since everyone will be in the same situation power stations may not cope. Yet these exactly when the sun is out most of the time. ANSWER: Install solar air-conditioning with an economic heat exchange pump with panels on the roof. It’s a simple solution. Google “Solar aircon” to start looking.

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked 

A shadowy global operation involving big data and billionaire friends of Trump and May. There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future. The Brexit campaign was a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population. Us.  The documents throw light on a significant and under-reported aspect of the Trump administration. The company that helped Trump achieve power has now been awarded contracts in the Pentagon and the US state department. Its former vice-president Steve Bannon now sits in the White House.

http://tinyurl.com/lkhgkdk  

And yet another highjacking, where are you John Perkins?

Venezuela Govt Accuses US of Bankrolling Right-Wing Violence: 

“U.S. financing and logistical support for violent groups in Venezuela have facilitated an armed insurgence,” Caracas said.

http://tinyurl.com/n74vuxw  

China will rule tech

China’s plans to lead in science and innovation and to take over global technology leadership is relentless. It wants to lead in computing, semiconductors, research and development, and clean energy. It is accelerating science investment as the U.S. retreats. Even in quantum technologies and it wants to be first to build an exascale supercomputer.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3182792/it-industry/5-reasons-why-china-will-rule-tech-2017-edition.html 

Conservationists plan expedition to secret ‘Noah’s Ark’ in Sumatra

After photographing tigers and tapirs in one of Sumatra’s least known wildernesses, conservationists are hoping to discover a hidden population of orangutans in high altitude forests. Sumatra has changed remarkably in the last few decades, from an island of villages and wilderness to one of vast monoculture plantations of pulp and paper and palm oil. Since 1985 the island has lost more than half its lowland forest, and it continues to have one of the highest deforestation rates on the planet. Its large mammals – many of which are found nowhere else in the world – have undergone a severe contraction, leaving them at risk of total extinction.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2017/may/10/sumatra-tigers-orangutans-myths-legends-hadabaun-hills-munthe 

Medical studies are almost always bogus

Many medical studies are junk. It’s an open secret in the research community, and it even has a name: “the reproducibility crisis.” For any study to have legitimacy, it must be replicated, yet only half of medical studies celebrated in newspapers hold water under serious follow-up scrutiny — and about two-thirds of the “sexiest” cutting-edge reports, including the discovery of new genes linked to obesity or mental illness, are later “disconfirmed.”

http://nypost.com/2017/05/06/medical-studies-are-almost-always-bogus/ 

Iceland drills three miles into volcanoes to produce clean energy

Record-breaking project could produce 10 times more energy than gas or oil

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/iceland-drills-3-miles-volcano-reykjanes-geothermal-energy-a7722951.html 

Syria’s ‘de-escalation zones’ explained

A deal signed by Russia, Turkey and Iran to create ‘de-escalation zones’ went into effect on Saturday.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/syria-de-escalation-zones-explained-170506050208636.html 

Plan to Hack the Human Brain to Let Us “Upload” Skills

The ideal end benefit for this kind of breakthrough would be downloadable learning. Rather than needing to learn, for example, a new language through rigorous study and practice over a long period of time, we could basically “download” the knowledge after putting our minds into a highly receptive, neuroplastic state.

https://futurism.com/darpa-is-planning-to-hack-the-human-brain-to-let-us-upload-skills/ 

Big Pharma’s Pollution Is Creating Deadly Superbugs 

A major study published Saturday in the prestigious scientific journal Infection found “excessively high” levels of antibiotic and antifungal drug residue in water sources in and around a major drug production hub in Hyderabad, as well as high levels of bacteria and fungi resistant to those drugs. The presence of drug residues in the natural environment allows the microbes living there to build up resistance to the ingredients in the medicines that are supposed to kill them, turning them into superbugs. The resistant microbes travel easily and have multiplied in huge numbers all over the world, creating a grave public health emergency

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40499-big-pharma-s-pollution-is-creating-deadly-superbugs-while-the-world-looks-the-other-way 

Government spending explained in 10 charts; from Howard to Turnbull 

Fascinating, When you look at the mix of government spending over the the past fifteen years, you start to see some of the drivers of the growth.

https://theconversation.com/government-spending-explained-in-10-charts-from-howard-to-turnbull-77158 

Go Electric, Young Man! The Story of the Electric Fiat “500”

Some ten years ago, myself and my friend Pietro Cambi had the weird idea of “retrofitting” Pietro’s old Fiat 500, turning it into an electric car. So, we put this idea into practice in 2007 and it worked. It was, actually, rather easy. An electric car is so much simpler than a car powered by a combustion engine.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/09/go-electric-young-man-the-story-of-the-electric-fiat-500/ 

and

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3275 

Death spiral for cars. By 2030, you probably won’t own one

But you may get a free trip with your morning coffee. Transport-As-A-Service will use only electric vehicles and will upend two trillion-dollar industries. It’s the death spiral for cars. A major new report predicts that by 2030, the overwhelming majority of consumers will no longer own a car – instead they will use on-demand electric autonomous vehicles. And 95% of all passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand, autonomous, electric vehicles that will be owned by fleets rather than individuals.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/death-spiral-cars-2030-probably-wont-one-93626/ 

GM to Launch the World’s Largest Fleet of Self-Driving Cars

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/exclusive-gm-to-launch-the-worlds-largest-fleet-of-selfdriving-cars 

Israel Resorts To “Psychological Warfare” To Try To Break Strike

More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners entered their fourth week without food on Monday as Israel intensifies its efforts to break the hunger strike.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/09/israel-resorts-to-psychological-warfare-to-try-to-break-strike/ 

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

It also reveals a critical and gaping hole in the political debate in Britain. Because what is happening in America and what is happening in Britain are entwined. Brexit and Trump are entwined. The Trump administration’s links to Russia and Britain are entwined. And Cambridge Analytica is one point of focus through which we can see all these relationships in play; it also reveals the elephant in the room as we hurtle into a general election: Britain tying its future to an America that is being remade – in a radical and alarming way – by Trump.  There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy 

Future World Economic Growth In Big Trouble As Oil Discoveries Fall To Historic Lows

global oil discoveries have been much lower than production for quite some time.  The IEA also stated that the amount of world conventional oil discoveries averaged about 9 billion barrels for the past 15 years.  If we assume that the world was producing 65 mbd of “conventional oil” for the past 15 years (it was likely higher), the world was only replacing about 38% of its annual oil consumption.

https://srsroccoreport.com/future-world-economic-growth-in-big-trouble-as-oil-discoveries-fall-to-historic-lows/ 

The John James Newsletter 175

6 May 2017

Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars, now wars are manufactured to sell weapons

Arundhati Roy

Trump has committed no less than five acts of foreign aggression in his first 100 days, with a sixth pending: commandos in Yemen; the Syrian airfield; North Korea; a cave in Afghanistan; and more troops to Syria. Lets not forget Iran.

Alasdair Macleod

Most of what passes for “news” in the West is actually well-crafted talking points put out by self-interested people who have discovered a fantastic way to remain in power and accumulate wealth

Chris Martenson

The oceans are rising and so are we! 

Sign at People’s Climate March

Trumpcare will free healthy people from having to pay the cost of the sick

Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican

Donald Trump is the face of our collective idiocy. He is our version of the Roman emperor Nero

Chris Hedges

”Being President is more work than in my previous life; I thought it would be easier”

After Trump confessed to Reuters that he thought being president would be “easier” than it is, Twitter blew up with aghast responses from voters, people in politics and at least one former head of state, who pleaded with the president to please quit the White House and just stick to golf. Tweets from David Frum, George W. Bush’s speechwriter:

• All this information was cunningly concealed by being put in books and other forms of writing
• Nobody could have known that removing health coverage from tens of millions of people might have political consequences
• Nobody could have known that tax plans are supposed to come with numbers
• Nobody could have known that 2 year old tweets are retrievable
• Nobody could have known it was wrong for a former head of an intelligence agency to accept money from foreign governments
• Nobody could have known that a few dozen little white lies about things like wiretapping could cause so much trouble
• Nobody could have known that they tally and publish how much your weekend golf excursions cost the public
• Nobody could have known that the Indian and the Pacific are different oceans
• Nobody could have known that Congress would ask questions if you accepted $400 million from a state controlled Chinese bank
• Nobody could have known that his wife often looks unhappy when his back is turned

Climate Change Is Melting Antarctica From the Inside Out

Satellite and military aircraft photos documented hundreds of meltwater channels around the perimeter of Antarctica in the first study. Streams deep within the continent’s frozen interior were detected. Ponds of meltwater surpassing 4,000 feet above sea level, where no one expected to encounter liquid water.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Climate-Change-Is-Melting-Antarctica-From-the-Inside-Out-Study-20170428-0023.html 

How One African Refugee Is Feeding One of the Hungriest Places in the US

No need is more basic than food, and food insecurity and hunger impact immigrants and refugees more than other Americans, studies have shown. Though still modest, Rosata Hezumuryano’s Happiness Family Farms is now helping to meet that need at New Columbia in Portland, Oregon.

https://medium.com/@PoorforaMinute/an-african-refugees-success-with-mboga-buchungu-in-one-of-the-hungriest-places-in-the-u-s-3856256c80c0 

Climate Council – the promise

From Star Wars the promise of Off-grid power systems. Battery Storage. Solar Powered Vehicles – share with your friends.

https://www.facebook.com/climatecouncil/videos/1027569954046264/

THE IMPENDING THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR AND THE REASON

America’s Financial Strategy

The geopolitics and economics behind America’s war strategy from China’s perspective, concludes it is entering its final phase. China’s exit plan appears to tie the pricing of energy and then other major commodities to gold, returning to the pre-1971 status quo, when the dollar was just a settlement link between commodity prices and gold. Except this time, the dollar itself will be side-lined, so far as China is concerned.

Since the dollar’s peg to the gold price was abandoned, America has initiated a cycle of economic boom and bust among foreign users of the dollar for its own benefit. America’s wealth is sustained by a pump-and-dump operation facilitated by the dollar’s reserve status, replacing genuine industrial production.

The end game for the dollar and America’s harvesting of foreign countries is in sight, and it will likely end with a final dollar crisis. China could bring this about at a time of its own choosing, simply by introducing the planned oil futures yuan contract alongside the gold futures yuan contract. When liquid enough, oil producers will be able to sell oil for gold, effectively restoring the pre-1971 price relationships.

This explains the dynamics being played out at the highest levels, and America has the most to lose. Because China still owns large quantities of US Treasuries and dollar reserves she might prefer more time before executing the coup de grace. But execute it, she will. Her fundamental objective is to remove America’s ability to profit from having everything priced in dollars.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46961.htm 

Washington Plans to Nuke Russia and China

Both written documents and changes in US war doctrine that indicate that Washington is preparing a preemptive nuclear attack on Russia and China. Washington’s demonization of Russia and President Putin, the incessant lies about Russian deeds and intentions, and the refusal of Washington to cooperate with Russia on any issue have convinced the Russian government that Washington is preparing the Western populations for an attack on Russia. China has come to the same conclusion.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46958.htm 

US missile shield aims to cover sudden nuclear strike against Russia

American missile attack warning systems cover all possible trajectories of Russian ballistic missiles flying toward the US. These systems are not only creating an “illusion” of safety from a retaliatory strike but can themselves be used to launch a sneak nuclear attack.

https://www.rt.com/news/386276-us-missile-shield-russia-strike/ 

Is North Korea a Diversion for a US-Jordan Invasion of Syria?

The US is not going to launch a preemptive attack on North Korea.  The risks far outweigh the rewards and, besides, the US has no intention of getting bogged down in a conflict that doesn’t advance its geopolitical objectives. The saber-rattling is just an attempt to divert attention from the Syria-Jordan border where the US and Jordan are massing troops and equipment for an invasion of Syria.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46984.htm 

What the N. Korean “Crisis” Is Really About

The Chinese leadership understands that the reason for the North Korean “crisis” is to provide cover for Washington to put anti-ballistic missile sites near China’s border, to create a shield against nuclear retaliation from both Russia and China from a US nuclear strike against both countries. It is part of Washington’s preparations to nuke both Russia and China with minimal consequence to the US, although Europe would certainly be completely destroyed as anti-ABMs are useless against Russian nuclear cruise missiles and the Russian air force. But no Empire has ever cared about the fate of its vessels,

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46997.htm

War-Fighting Footprint in Africa

“Just as the US pursues strategic interests in Africa, international competitors, including China and Russia, are doing the same. We continue to see international competitors engage with African partners in a manner contrary to the international norms of transparency (sic).”

http://lobelog.com/americas-war-fighting-footprint-in-africa/

Empire of African Bases 

What has changed is Washington’s attitude toward the public record.  Its latest basing moves are taking place enveloped in a blanket of secrecy, which means that even if you want to know, it’s increasingly tough to find out.  Washington’s latest garrisoning strategy is based on a new premise: a “small footprint,” meaning a tiny-bases, rapid-deployment, special-ops and drone-heavy way of war that’s being put into place across Africa.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176070/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_america%27s_empire_of_african_basescentury 

Trashing 15 Million Tons of Clothing Every Year 

Fashion-lovers are buying more and more clothes; Global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014. People are also throwing out their high-fashion items increasingly quickly, many within a year of production. More than 15 million tons of textile waste is generated every year in the US, an amount that has doubled over the last 20 years. On average, each American throws out approximately 80 pounds of used clothing a year.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40369-americans-need-to-stop-trashing-15-million-tons-of-clothing-every-year

Heat Wave (from global heating) Scalds Orange Farmers

On account of extreme weather conditions, the extent of fruit drop is much higher and they dropped at just peanut-size stage. This is expected to result in 40-50% loss of yield. It is the hottest season in the past 13 years. The water table has also gone down steeply. Generally, this range of temperature is seen in May-end. Even now the temperature is over 45 C. I have not seen such a low water table in the last 25 years.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/04/30/heat-wave-scalds-orange-farmers/ 

Climate change can drive coastal food webs to collapse

Food webs are essentially networks of species that interact with each other. The connection between them can stabilise systems, for instance by preventing particular species from becoming too common, thereby encouraging the presence of a wide range of species. These pathways can be quite stable, but they are vulnerable to ocean warming and acidification.

https://theconversation.com/climate-change-could-drive-coastal-food-webs-to-collapse-76798 

Fracking Is Strongly Related to Increased Infant Mortality 

Results showed a statistically significant 29% excess risk of dying age 0-28 days in the ten heavily fracked counties of Pennsylvania during the four-year period following the development of fracking gas wells. Over the same period, the State rate declined by 2%.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40401-study-finds-fracking-is-strongly-related-to-increased-infant-mortality 

Fukushima Radiation Has Contaminated The Entire Pacific Ocean – and its not going to stop

Fukushima continues to leak an astounding 300 tons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean every day. It will continue do so indefinitely as the source of the leak cannot be sealed. It is inaccessible to both humans and robots due to extremely high temperatures.

http://theusualroutine.com/2016/10/23/fukushima-radiation-contaminated-entire-pacific-ocean-going-get-worse/ 

Groundwater may still be contaminated by radioactive material from nuclear testing in the 1950s

Groundwater is the largest freshwater reserve on Earth not counting the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. It supplies drinking water to billions of people and the reserves are vulnerable to contamination,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4443140/Water-drunk-BILLIONS-people-contaminated.html 

Washington climate march draws massive crowd amid sweltering heat

The demonstration coincided with Trump’s first 100 days in office, which have already seen multiple rollbacks of environmental protections and taking down a long-standing site devoted to the science of climate change. In the Nation’s Capital alone, it’s estimated that more than 200,000 took to the streets — doubling a projected attendance of 100,000.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/04/29/washington-climate-march-occurs-amid-sweltering-heat.html 

While preparing for war, dismantling diplomacy

The Trump administration’s steady stream of assaults on diplomacy has become a raging river. He berates not just the goals and institutions of diplomacy, but the people who carry it out. Trump’s reorganization order is an ideologically driven agenda for undermining the power and effectiveness of government institutions. Without a fair and inclusive process for identifying problems, analyzing causes, proposing remedies, approving changes, and implementing reforms, Secretary Tillerson will find himself presiding over the State Department’s destruction.

http://lobelog.com/disparaging-diplomacy/ 

Deforestation study results ‘disturbing’ 

Deforestation could eventually wipe out 40% of trees and animal groups as protected areas fail in the tropics,

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/05/02/deforestation-study-results-disturbing 

The Real Reasons Behind The Palestinian Hunger Strike

There are 6,500 prisoners in Israeli jails. This number includes hundreds of children, women, elected officials, journalists and administrative detainees, who are held with no charges, no due process. But these numbers hardly convey the reality that has transpired under Israeli occupation since 1967. According to prisoners’ rights group, ‘Addameer’, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned under military rule since Israel commenced its occupation. That is 40% of the entire male population of the Occupied Territories.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/02/the-prisoners-revolt-the-real-reasons-behind-the-palestinian-hunger-strike/ 

The Trump personal empire expands

Only100 days into Donald Trump’s presidency, he already looks like the authoritarian kleptocrats elsewhere on the planet who siphon state wealth into their own bank accounts and businesses.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/02/empire-expands-not-american-one-trumps 

How Solar Became the World’s Best Hope for a Post-Fossil-Fuel Energy System 

Solar prices are down 62% in the last eight years mainly down to Chinese government and investors funding bigger production lines and new supply chains. The cost of storage has been falling by 20-30% a year recently and is likely to keep going at that rate for the next few years.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40425-how-solar-became-the-world-s-best-hope-for-a-post-fossil-fuel-energy-system 

Aleppo Renaissance 

Documentary about the theft and destruction of the industrial cities of Aleppo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCOVHGLPtL4  

Alliance of Convenience: Why Israel Supports ISIS? 

Since the beginning of the war in Syria, Israel took the opportunity to pursue its strategic interests in the neighboring country, by tacitly and sometimes publicly allying itself with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–bSKC0ErUw 

The John James Newsletter 174

29 April 2017

Westpac has caved to public pressure and have ruled out funding Adani’s coal mine. Tell everyone 

Adam Brandt

Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be

St Augustine.

When you allow the government to call the shots, it rapidly becomes a bully.

John Wjitehead

Notice that eastern Australia has gained almost as much heat as anywhere else, some 3C. The attention has been on Siberia and Alaska, but we are getting it too. Hence the unusual weather along the east coast. Expect more of this in the years to come.

https://data.giss.nasa.gov/ 

Donald Trump has ‘dangerous mental illness’, say psychiatry experts at Yale conference

Trump is not fit to lead the US. The group of psychiatrists has claimed the President was “paranoid and delusional” and said it was their “ethical responsibility” to warn the American public about the dangers his psychological state poses to the country. “I’ve worked with murderers and rapists. I can recognise dangerousness from a mile away. You don’t have to be an expert on dangerousness or spend fifty years studying it like I have in order to know how dangerous this man is.” Dr Gartner has called for Trump to be removed from office as he is “psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President”. Duty to Warn, which consists of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, signed an open letter warning that his mental state “makes him incapable of serving safely as president” with his tendency to “distort reality” to fit his “personal myth of greatness” and attack those who challenge him. This tendency was likely to increase in a position of power.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-dangerous-mental-illness-yale-psychiatrist-conference-us-president-unfit-james-gartner-a7694316.html

Duration of Indian Hot Season Nearly Doubles as Crushing Drought and Heat Expand Across the Subcontinent

The early onset of heat comes after years of expanding drought, warming temperatures, melting glaciers and drying rivers, bringing with it a deepening hardship. Farmers across the country report a sense of deepening desperation as cries for help in the form of nationwide protests break out. Meanwhile, those working outdoors increasingly suffer from heat- and dehydration-related kidney failure. This year, conditions that threaten heat injury and loss of life have spurred schools across the country to close early.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/no-heat-relief-in-sight-for-india-until-monsoon-arrives-in-june-july/70001408 

Oil companies exploiting famine and financial ruin in South Sudan: 

South Sudan’s vulnerable financial state is making the civil-war-torn state easy prey for opportunistic oil and gas companies that could be offering Juba a fraction of the energy profits they would earn under stable circumstances.

https://www.rt.com/business/385581-oil-companies-south-sudan/  

Why Washington is Terrified of Russia, China

Russia and China already have established systems to do global trade bypassing the US dollar. So we’re already on our way, slowly but surely, towards a BRICS “gold marketplace.” A “new financial architecture” is being built. That will imply the eventual inability of the US Fed to export inflation to other nations.

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201704211052866086-washington-terrified-of-russia-china/ 

Gunslinging Robot

Russia’s FEDOR robot can shoot, leading critics of artificial intelligence to express concerns over the potential danger it poses. The government was quick to point out that the exercise isn’t meant to create a “Terminator.” (???)

https://futurism.com/fedor-is-a-gunslinging-robot-thats-just-a-skin-suit-away-from-westworld/ 

Uninsured Americans Are Just one Traumatic Injury Away From Financial Ruin: 

 “We’re getting better at trauma, and they’re going home financially ruined,”

 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-injury-bankruptcy-idUSKBN17M2SB.   

Trump Delegates Warmaking to Generals

Pentagon and intelligence community holds the Trump administration, Congress and the courts hostage. Diplomacy is inconsequential, for show only. Tillerson has no say over geopolitical policymaking. A nuclear war could start without Trump, civilian cabinet members, and congressional leaders’ knowledge and involvement until they’re told. With Pentagon commanders and intelligence community bosses in charge of war making and other key geopolitical issues, a potential nightmarish scenario could unfold.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46891.htm 

Are we truly ready for the consequences of a war with China?

Earlier this year US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he wanted to “send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/are-we-truly-ready-for-the-consequences-of-a-war-with-china-20170420-gvod4b.html. 

The Coming War with China

America has surrounded China and Russia with 400 military bases. Can we wonder they are concerned?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46889.htm 

Palestinian Prisoners’ Hunger Strike

One thousand five hundred Palestinian prisoners have been on a hunger strike for almost a week now. They are refusing sustenance in an effort to improve the deplorable conditions faced by the nearly 6,500 Palestinians who are currently imprisoned in Israel.

http://lobelog.com/palestinian-prisoners-hunger-strike/ 

C02 Crosses 410ppm threshold

These levels correspond with the Miocene Climate Epoch when seas were 120 to 190 feet higher and global temperatures ranged from 3 to 5C. At this rate we should expect 450ppm over the next decade.

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ 

Leaked NSA Malware Threatens Windows Users Around the World; 

ShadowBrokers has released another cache of what appears to be extremely potent (and previously unknown) software capable of breaking into systems running Windows. “This is as big as it gets. Nation-state attack tools are now in the hands of anyone who cares to download them…it’s literally a cyberweapon for hacking into computers…people will be using these attacks for years to come.”

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/14/leaked-nsa-malware-threatens-windows-users-around-the-world/   

Britain powered for 24 hours without coal for first time in 135 years

For the first time since the industrial revolution, the country fulfilled all of its energy needs without using coal for a full day.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/day-without-coal-uk-135-years-energy-mix-happen-more-frequently-national-grid-a7696611.html 

This Is What’s Really Behind North Korea’s Nuclear Provocations

It’s easy to dismiss Kim Jong-un as a madman. But there’s a long history of US aggression against the North, which we forget at our peril.

https://www.thenation.com/article/this-is-whats-really-behind-north-koreas-nuclear-provocations/ 

The US Role In Creating The North Korean Fortress-State

It was the terrible devastation of this bombing campaign, worse than anything seen during World War II short of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that to this day dominates North Korea’s relations with the US and drives its determination never to submit to any American diktat. General Curtis Lemay directed this onslaught. It was he who had firebombed Tokyo in March 1945 saying it was “about time we stopped swatting at flies and go after the manure pile.” It was he who later said that the US “ought to bomb North Vietnam back into the stone age.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/04/26/endless-atrocities-the-us-role-in-creating-the-north-korean-fortress-state/ 

Trump Takes Aim at Libraries

Trump’s “America First” budget puts working-class communities last, calling for the elimination of several federally supported, independent, cultural institutions, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services that helps fund literacy and technology programs in 123,000 libraries and about 35,000 museums across the US — all with a budget of just $230 million, which is about .05% of the entire federal budget.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40353-trump-takes-aim-at-libraries 

The American Police State Is Coming

The message being beaten, shot, tasered, probed and slammed into our collective consciousness is simply this: it doesn’t matter if you’re in the right, it doesn’t matter if a cop is in the wrong, it doesn’t matter if you’re being treated with less than the respect you deserve or the law demands. The only thing that matters to the American police state is that you comply, submit, respect authority and generally obey without question whatever a government official tells you to do.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46895.htm 

Governor Declares State of Emergency to Save Louisiana Coast 

More than half of Louisiana’s 4.65 million residents live on the coast. “Parts of our state remain unprotected from or vulnerable to future hurricane and flood events,” Edwards emphasized, and estimated that 2,250 square miles of coastal Louisiana will be lost in the next 50 years unless immediate action is taken.

http://www.ecowatch.com/louisiana-state-of-emergency-save-coast-2372032781.html 

The John James Newsletter 173

22 April 2017

As of 2015, Gulf Stream flow has decreased by 40% because of a massive pool of buoyant fresh water in the North Atlantic from Greenland where ice loss has increased 500% since the turn of the century

Bruce Melton

To destroy our planet with malice aforethought, with only the most immediate profits on the brain, with only your own comfort and wellbeing (and those of your shareholders) in mind: Isn’t that the ultimate crime? 

Tom Engelhardt

The overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists agree that any increase in average world temperatures that exceeds 2C above the pre-industrial era will alter the global climate system so drastically that societies will disintegrate in the fashion of South Sudan today, producing staggering chaos and misery

Michael Klare

Abrupt Climate Change Is Happening Faster Than Before 

In about the last 100,000 years, there have been 23 abrupt temperature changes in Greenland ice cores. In those moments, the temperature abruptly jumped or fell 9 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit across the planet and 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit in Greenland. The changes typically took decades to generations, but at their most extreme, they only took two to three years. Published consensus statements on climate change do not factor in abrupt change — an omission that seriously affects how climate policy is made. As recently as the 1990s, it took the mountain pine bark beetle two years to raise a family. But today, summer is two-thirds longer than it was; spring and fall come a month sooner and later. It is so warm that the beetle can go through two life cycles a year, radically increasing the number on the attack. These little beetles are about the size of a grain of rice; up to 10,000 beetles can attack a single tree. Since the turn of the century, the beetles have multiplied so quickly that they’ve killed 60 to 90% of 89 million acres of forest. This is 20% of western North American forests. That’s fast!

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40204-abrupt-climate-change-is-happening-faster-than-before 

The Permafrost is Thawing 20% Faster Than Previously Thought

Vast thawed lands are starting to release carbon dioxide and methane. Thermokarst lakes bubble with the stuff. And pingos are now starting to erupt as the ice relinquishes the soils of Siberia.

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/04/13/the-permafrost-is-thawing-20-percent-faster-than-previously-thought/ 

WikiLeaks: CIA used ‘Grasshopper’ framework to infect Windows users

The agency can use custom installers tailored to the version of Windows and antivirus software a user is running. The documents also detail persistence mechanisms, those tools that malware uses to evade detection.

https://www.scmagazine.com/wikileaks-cia-used-grasshopper-framework-to-infect-windows-users/article/649481/ 

How to get people to exercise

Well worth the effort to watch – then run!!

http://videos.videopress.com/YpRaDiVP/how-to-get-people-to-exercise_hd.mp4   

#PalestinianPrisonersDay

Ahmed Manasra has been imprisoned by Israel since he was 13, sentenced to 12 years.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/PalestinianPrisonersDay?src=hash 

Crimintern: How the Kremlin Uses Russia’s Criminal Networks in Europe

The Russian state is highly criminalised, and the interpenetration of the criminal ‘underworld’ and the political ‘upperworld’ has led the regime to use criminals from time to time as instruments of its rule.

http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR208_-_CRIMINTERM_-_HOW_RUSSIAN_ORGANISED_CRIME_OPERATES_IN_EUROPE02.pdf 

Trump Is Hiring Lobbyists: “There’s No Transparency” 

Trump has stocked his administration with a small army of former lobbyists and corporate consultants who are now in the vanguard of the effort to roll back government regulations at the agencies they once sought to influence. Only possibly by weakening ethics rules.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40251-trump-is-hiring-lobbyists-and-top-ethics-official-says-there-s-no-transparency  

Abrupt glacier melt causes Canadian river to vanish in four days

High average temperatures in the first three months of 2016 caused a dramatic spike in the amount of meltwater flowing from the Kaskawulsh glacier, carving a deep canyon in the ice and redirecting the flow toward the Alsek River in the south, rather than the north-flowing Slims River. That changed the Slims River from a three-metre-deep, raging torrent to a place where “massive afternoon dust storms occurred almost daily”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-18/canadian-river-vanishes-in-geological-instant/8449508 

Wilder Fires and Rising Waters, Climate Impacts America

Pair of new studies show how climate refugees will ‘reshape’ population landscape of the nation. The idea of a person becoming a climate change refugee seems too foreign for most people.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/18/wilder-fires-and-rising-waters-climate-impacts-coming-americas-door 

Saudis face $4.2b lawsuit over 9/11

More than two dozen US insurers affiliated with Travelers Cos have sued two Saudi banks, companies affiliated with Osama bin Laden’s family, and several charities for at least $4.2 billion over the September 11 attacks.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/saudis-face-us42b-lawsuit-over-911/news-story/507cdbe0f520a95a0658e30fe318e935 

Marine plastic pollution senate inquiry targets Australian ocean pollution 

Government sponsored studies have reported that between 8712 and 11,937 tonnes of litter enter Australia’s marine environment each year, in addition to 6000 tonnes of waste related to fishing and other types of maritime activities.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/marine-plastic-pollution-senate-inquiry-targets-australian-ocean-pollution-20160217-gmwge9.html 

Don’t Poison Yourself: A Warning

It kills the honey bees and other pollinators as it enters their bodies through their pollinating and gathering nectar. They get something comparable to Alzheimer’s and can’t make it back to the hive since their brains get confused from the toxin. Instead they just fly around aimlessly and, eventually, die while grounded, and while aimlessly kicking legs  and shaking across their bodies from nerve damage as their brains eventually shut-off from the chemical assault.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/04/17/dont-poison-yourself-a-warning-as-its-too-late-for-us/ 

EPA emerges as major target after Trump solicits policy advice from industry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-emerges-as-major-target-after-trump-solicits-policy-advice-from-industry/2017/04/16/87a8a55a-205d-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html 

UCSF Presentation Reveals Glyphosate Contamination in People across America

93% of the urine tested by the University of California San Francisco lab tested positive for glyphosate residues. No glyphosate was found in the tap water samples.

https://detoxproject.org/1321-2/ 

Journalism faces a crisis worldwide – we might be entering a new dark age 

Australia’s two largest legacy media organisations recently announced big cuts to their journalistic staff. Many editorial positions, perhaps up to 120, will disappear at Fairfax Media, and News Corporation announced the sacking of most of its photographers and editorial production staff.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/15/journalism-faces-a-crisis-worldwide-we-might-be-entering-a-new-dark-age 

Syria: Secret campaign of mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya Prison

A chilling new report by Amnesty International exposes the Syrian government’s calculated campaign of extrajudicial executions by mass hangings at Saydnaya Prison. Between 2011 and 2015, every week and often twice a week, groups of up to 50 people were taken out of their prison cells and hanged to death. In five years, as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilians believed to be opposed to the government,

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/02/syria-investigation-uncovers-governments-secret-campaign-of-mass-hangings-and-extermination-at-saydnaya-prison/ 

Trump: The Hunger President

Trump famously changed his policy on Syria after seeing photographs of a couple Syrian children killed by a chemical attack. In targeting the Assad regime, Trump was moved by the tragedy, not the statistic. When it comes to world hunger, Trump’s resistance to statistics is even more appalling. There are now 1.4 million children at risk of dying from famine. No one apparently has shown Donald Trump, or his daughter Ivanka, any photos of these at-risk children. So, the president is comfortably ignoring this statistic.

http://lobelog.com/trump-the-hunger-president/#more-38983 

10 Companies That Control Just about Everything You Eat

it might surprise you that the majority of items in supermarkets are owned by about 10 companies

http://bigthink.com/ned-dymoke/10-companies-own-you-and-what-you-eat 

The John James Newsletter 172

15 April 2017

The most pollies offer is more economic growth: the fairy dust supposed to make all the bad stuff disappear. Never mind that it drives ecological destruction, that it has failed to relieve structural unemployment or soaring inequality, that, in some recent years, almost all the increment in incomes has been harvested by the top 1%. As values, principles and moral purpose are lost, the promise of growth is all that’s left.

George Monbiot

Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence screams. Silence is a message. Just doing nothing is an act. There’s no sidestepping your own responsibility. You become your own message. You are the message. 

Leonard Peletier

The poison gas story would reverse the memory of the Trump announcement in March that it was no longer seeking the removal of President Assad

Robert Parry

Truth is such a precious commodity that it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies.

Winston Churchill

I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no — he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Ashad (sic) is doing. I mean, there was clearly, I understand your point, thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that. There was not in the, he brought them into the Holocaust center, I understand that. What I am saying in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent, into the middle of towns, it was brought — so the use of it. And I appreciate the clarification there. That was not the intent.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer

Bruny Island tests battery system that could help solve nation’s energy dilemma

“All of these (household) batteries across the island will be aggregated, They’ll appear to us as one big battery, so our control room operators will have the ability to use this battery at peak times.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-14/tasmanias-bruny-island-tests-battery-system-australia-energy/8444964 

Current Arctic warming is almost unheard of in past 2.5 million years

“The geological data is pretty clear that [the Barnes Ice Cap] almost never disappears in the interglacial times. The fact that it’s disappearing now says we’re really outside of what we’ve experienced in a two-and-a-half million-year interval and we’re entering a new climate state.”

http://news.agu.org/press-release/last-remnant-of-north-american-ice-sheet-likely-to-disappear-in-300-years/ 

An Armada of Icebergs Has Just Invaded The North Atlantic

“I have about a decade of experience with the Ice Patrol, and in my time here I’ve never seen anything like this or heard of anything like this before.” The number this week is nearly 6 times the annual average for this time of year at 83. More icebergs are calving from great masses of ice along the west-central coast of Greenland. Speed of ice discharge has about double. And new studies indicate that ice mass loss all around coastal Greenland is accelerating even as many glaciers have now reached a point of no return

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/04/08/an-armada-of-ice-bergs-has-just-invaded-the-north-atlantic/ 

Trump to Ax Amtrak for 220 Cities

In addition to slashing funding for the arts, education programs, climate change research, and worker protections (among many other things), another lesser known casualty of President Donald Trump’s “morally obscene” budget proposal: Amtrak. “It’s ironic that Trump’s first budget proposal undermines the very communities whose economic hardship and sense of isolation from the rest of the country helped propel him into office. These working class communities lose a vital service that connects these small town economies to the rest of the US.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/06/cutting-fly-over-states-trump-axe-amtrak-220-cities

The Sixth Great Extinction Is Underway—and We’re to Blame

Human-driven decline in the populations of all species by 25% over the past 500 years. Up to a third of all species of vertebrates are now considered threatened, as are 45% of most species of invertebrates. Among the vertebrates, amphibians are getting clobbered, with 41% of species in trouble, compared to just 17% of birds—at least so far. The various orders of insects suffer differently too: 35% of butterflies and nearly 100% of crickets, grasshoppers and katydids. Look your last.

http://time.com/3035872/sixth-great-extinction/

and

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data

The Australian Panel on Extreme Heat and Health

The challenges of climate change and extreme heat events for human health and the health sector, and what needs to be done to better prepare for the worsened conditions which will likely be experienced in coming decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wkMz0bzQK4 

It’s Groundhog Day On The Reef – Climate Council 

The reef can recover from bleaching events, providing it doesn’t get bleached over and over again. Tackling the root cause of the bleaching, climate change driven by pollution from fossil fuels is crucial to the long term survival of the reef. While the bleaching is unfolding, Prime Minister Turnbull has met with the Chairman of the Adani group in India to reiterate Australia’s support of the monster north Queensland Carmichael coal mine. This follows Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s visit to India in March.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou4PoKEeQr0&t=2s 

20 million at risk of starvation in world’s largest crisis since 1945, UN

More than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Many more will suffer and die from disease.” Drought, impending famine and the presence of terrorist group Al-Shabaab have left the country and its people in a desperate situation.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/11/africa/un-famine-starvation-aid/ 

SYRIA AND FALSE NEWS and with more military men in the US Administration than ever before we face the real possibility of nuclear war in the Middle East and Korea, all through provocation from the US.

The Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria – White House Intelligence Report Issued on April 11, 2017.

It can be shown  that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack. Read it in full.

http://www.unz.com/article/the-nerve-agent-attack-in-khan-shaykhun-syria/ 

Lies, Damned Lies, And The “Breaking News”

Why would the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, order such an attack with no strategic benefits, using banned chemical weapons against a handful of innocent civilians and risk international condemnation? There are two forces at work around the President, competing to steer his foreign policy in their desired direction. One group, perhaps masterminded by Steve Bannon, prefers to disengage from involvements in the spreading global conflicts as much and as soon as possible and, instead, to focus on the internal security and prosperity of the nation, regardless of what kind of mess is left behind. The opposing group is intent on pushing America’s foreign policies in directions that would perpetuate the division and unrest in that region. The scale seems to be tilting in favor of the latter group!

http://www.payvand.com/news/17/apr/1050.htmlm 

Russia vetoes West’s ‘misconceived’ Syria resolution at UN Security Council

The main objection to the resolution is that it apportioned blame prior to an objective outside investigation of the incident.

https://www.rt.com/news/384534-un-resulution-syria-chemical/ 

US sharply cuts air operations in Syria fearing Russian missiles

It seems clear that the strikes will complicate our efforts to pursue our counter-ISIS campaign in Syria. The ability to carry out US airstrikes against ISIS requires some degree of cooperation with Russia, which is now in serious jeopardy.

http://theduran.com/confirmed-us-sharply-cuts-air-operations-in-syria-moscow-missiles/ 

Trump Should Rethink Syria Escalation

There was no Syrian “chemical weapons attack.” Instead, a Syrian aircraft bombed an al-Qaeda-in-Syria ammunition depot that turned out to be full of noxious chemicals and a strong wind blew the chemical-laden cloud over a nearby village where many consequently died. This is what the Russians and Syrians have been saying and – more important –what they appear to believe happened.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/11/trump-should-rethink-syria-escalation/ 

US missile strike on Syria ‘a violation of international law’

An airstrike, like any other attack on a state, requires a mandate from the UN Security Council. According to the UN Charter, all five great international powers, must, as permanent members, approve of a military attack. Or in exceptional cases – if there is no UN mandate – a case must be made for self-defense.

http://www.dw.com/en/us-missile-strike-on-syria-a-violation-of-international-law/a-38389950 

Limited Strikes Risk Entrenching Assad’s Strategy

Trump was, whether he knew it or not, testing a theory that has long drawn skepticism among scholars of war. That theory: that the U can alter an adversary’s strategic calculus — at little cost and with little risk of American deaths or a tit-for-tat cycle of violence — with limited, symbolic and punitive strikes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/world/middleeast/syrias-conundrum-limited-strikes-risk-entrenching-assads-strategy.html 

US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime’

Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying ‘the idea is approved by Washington’. The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumés and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.

http://en.reseauinternational.net/u-s-backed-plan-to-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-on-syria-and-blame-it-on-assads-regime/ 

and

http://www.cyberwarnews.info/reports/a-look-into-the-britam-defence-data-leak-files/ 

The Syrian WMD Show Was Trump’s Production 

The “chemical attack” was fake. This video for example, of doctors and patients in emergence rooms was theater, taken over a longer time period. The main presenter was a well-known Takfiri but with links to British services. The whole show was perfected, by specialists one would think, to fit for US screens. The male “victims” were clean shaven, despite living in al-Qaeda land. They even had two blond “Syrian” kids in there to convince the racists that “revenge” was needed.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/trumps-khan-sheikoun-production.html#more 

US Attack Nearly Triggered Nuclear Holocaust 

If Syria had used Russian air defense systems in response to the US missile attack, it would have triggered a nuclear conflict. Yet, it was only the composure of the Russian Commander-in-Chief that made it possible to avoid a nuclear conflict.

http://en.reseauinternational.net/russia-us-attack-nearly-triggered-nuclear-holocaust/ 

Shows how much poison gas the US allies possess. Well worth a read.

US airstrike on Daesh poison gas depot leaves many civilians dead

The attack was evidence to the close coordination that exists between terrorist groups operating inside Syria and their sponsors to level accusations of chemical weapons use against the Syrian government forces, and also proved that the militants were in possession of chemical warfare.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/04/13/517879/USled-coalition-airstrike-Daesh-poison-gas-depot-Syria-civilians-killed 

President al-Assad Interview With AFP

He said what happened in Khan Shaikhoun is a fabricated story, stressing that Syria does not possess a chemical arsenal and that even if it has such an arsenal, it will not use it. He made it clear that Syria can only allow any investigation in the Khan Sheikhoun incident when it’s impartial.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46859.htm 

The John James Newsletter 171

10 April 2017

WITH WAR SO CLOSE I HAVE TO SEND THIS OUT URGENTLY

UN accuses Syrian rebels of carrying out sarin gas attacks which had been blamed on Assad’s troops

According to the United Nations mission led by Carla del Ponti:  “evidence from casualties and medical staff indicated that rebel forces in the civil war had used the deadly nerve agent sarin.  Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals, and there are strong, concrete suspicions, but not yet incontrovertible proof, of the use of sarin gas, that was used by the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.”

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320223/UN-accuses-Syrian-rebels-carrying-sarin-gas-attacks-blamed-Assads-troops.html#ixzz4dpLNax3G 

The Syria Chemical Weapons Saga: The Staging of a US-NATO Sponsored Humanitarian Disaster

In the light of recent developments and accusations directed against the Syrian government, it is important once more to set the record straight: the US supported rebels possess chemical weapons.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-syria-chemical-weapons-saga-the-staging-of-a-us-nato-sponsored-humanitarian-disaster/5315273 

Washington’s False Flag: United Nations Confirmed that US Supported Syrian “Rebels” Were Using Chemical Weapons

http://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-confirmed-that-us-supported-rebels-were-using-chemical-weapons/5583988